South African charity refunds Dutch rhino poaching prevention cash

DutchNews.nl, Monday 15 September 2014

(NOS)

A South African charity has refunded €1.5m to the Dutch Postcode Lottery after admitting its campaign to inpregnate rhino horns with poison and dye to make them unpopular with poachers is not working.

Animal protection groups told the NRC earlier this year they had doubts about the effectiveness of the project.

'We were naive and too enthusiastic in our belief that horn infusion would help,' Peace Parks Foundation chairman and billionaire Johann Rupert told the Sunday Times. 'It was a mistake, not misrepresentation.'

The Postcode Lottery has confirmed the repayment and has placed the money in a different account until there is more clarity about what methods do work, the NRC says.

The Postcode Lottery gave €14.4m to the foundation in February. During a gala celebration, prime minister Mark Rutte described horn infusion as the 'key' to combating rhino poaching.

The bulk of the donation was earmarked for other anti-poaching methods.

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Black Pete is just a bit of fun for the Netherlands, right? Wrong

I grew up with negative Dutch stereotypes of black people. Amsterdam is right to phase out ‘blacked-up’ Christmas characters

theguardian.com, Samira bin Sharifu, Tuesday 19 August 2014

'Stereotypes contribute to low self-esteem in children of colour and perpetuates the
idea of white culture being superior to black culture.' Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

As all the children gathered, I remember the feeling of anticipation in the school hall. It was November and I had recently started primary school. All of a sudden, there was a loud banging on the door. I remember looking around and seeing the terror on the other children’s faces when the doors flew open and several grown men stormed into the hall with their faces completely “blacked up”. The terror soon made way for joy when the men starting throwing candy around, but I was left in total confusion. These grown men with blacked-up faces, afros and big red lips were talking to me in broken Dutch and trying to make me smile by prancing around like a clown.

I remember wondering why they were trying to look like my father, and why they were acting so silly. My father was a smart man, a grown-up. These grown men in blackface were acting like misbehaving children.

It became even more confusing when St Nicholas himself entered. The tall, old, white man dressed like the pope was treated with the utmost respect by my teachers, who had been laughing at the blacked-up men that they referred to as Zwarte Pieten – Black Petes.

As soon as St Nicholas entered, the Black Petes calmed down and silently followed his orders. I couldn’t understand the strange power that St Nicholas had over these grown men who had moments before seemed uncontrollable.

At that moment, I remember a creeping feeling that something about this was wrong. I knew that Black Pete’s behaviour was wrong and I knew the way St Nicholas was treating Black Pete was wrong, but I did not understand why. I looked around and saw the smiles of the other children and teachers, and thought the only explanation must be that I was the one who was wrong. From that moment onwards, I never thought to question Black Pete again. The acceptance and enjoyment of the tradition became a measure for how Dutch I was, and since Dutch culture was the only culture I knew, I was petrified to be excluded from it.

Last week, Amsterdam’s mayor made a statement that finally validated my creeping feeling by proposing a change of image for Black Pete. The proposed makeover follows a local court ruling that the depiction of Black Pete is, in fact, racist. The court determined that the character was “a negative stereotype of black people”. Soon after, the council of Amsterdam filed an appeal against the verdict arguing that the stereotype of Black Pete wasn’t negative.

I grew up in a middle-class environment in The Hague where I could count all the people of colour on one hand. Racism was never that overt; perhaps because there weren’t that many of us, so we were not considered a threat. If any negative stereotyping occurred in my presence, it was always quickly followed by “but you’re different”. As a child, I was never sure if I should speak out against the negative stereotypes of black people being lazy, dirty or dumb because I was still afraid of being excluded. My silence came hand in hand with a pang of guilt for not sticking up for my own.

And then there were the seemingly positive stereotypes about black people being better at singing, dancing or sports, the example often being the black players in our national football team. I remember feeling proud when such remarks were made by white folks because that meant we had worth. What I did not yet understand was that a positive or romanticised stereotype strips a person of their humanity by denying them individuality in the same way that a negative one does. As noted by policy officer Izalina Tavares, all the Black Petes have the same name, the same face and the same characteristics. They are interchangeable.

If I, as a person of colour, had to be taught that positive stereotypes are just as dehumanising as negative ones, and therefore racist, it is not surprising that a vast majority of Dutch people truly believe that there is nothing racist about Black Pete. He is loved by young and old, he’s funny, he’s giving, he’s athletic. Wouldn’t anyone want to be associated with these traits?

And yes, he can be childish, silly, and even a bit thick at times but we love him in spite of this, so no harm done, right? Wrong. As artist Bianca Berends has written, research shows that stereotypes contribute to low self-esteem in children of colour and perpetuates the idea of white culture being superior to black culture, which in a multicultural environment will undeniably affect society as a whole.

The main problem is a lack of education on Dutch slavery and colonialism. I was taught in great detail the atrocities that were committed in the British empire, how the Americans dehumanised their African slaves and how racism in Germany led to the Holocaust. Never did we have one history lesson teaching us about the severity of Dutch conduct in Surinam, the Dutch Caribbean, Indonesia or South Africa. Perhaps if this schooling was there, Dutch people would find it easier to connect Black Pete with our history of slavery and racism.

The legacy of slavery and colonialism has preserved structural racism, so for many people of colour it is impossible to disconnect Black Pete from this legacy. Black Pete is a symbol of this legacy and as long as a post-racial society is still a utopian idea, the opposition of Black Pete is completely legitimised.

The 'new look' Piet (right) was widely ridiculed. Photo: Nos

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A new-look Zwarte Piet: no curly hair, no red lips, but he's still black
Hundreds march in Netherlands to support 'racist Black Pete'

Dutch Santa faces ban in Suriname (+Video)

Kryon Q&A

Question: I’m a black woman who enjoys your teachings tremendously. It seems that there aren’t a lot of black people involved in these discussions. Is this true, and is there a reason for this? Is it cultural? Or am I wrong in this assumption?

Answer: Dear one, yes. If you’re speaking about black Americans, you’re right. It’s cultural. There are two basic reasons you won’t find many blacks in metaphysics in your culture: The first one is that in your land, your race is a minority with a history of oppression. This has created a very strong spiritual support base. Almost from birth, most of you have been exposed to very high church and spiritual support and a feeling of belonging and sticking together. There are few groups that have this kind of support and prayer base. So spiritually, you don’t look around much for answers other than what you have already learned about the love of God. This works for you and is honored.

The second reason is perhaps politically incorrect in your culture to speak of, but Kryon is not of your culture. Many of you are in survival mode due to sustained second-class citizenship you experience from birth. This causes despair, poverty, and a shift to crime among many due to despondency over life and a need to survive in a system that does not honor you. When a Human is consumed with survival in a difficult environment, they don’t have time or a desire for introspection or a search to better themselves spiritually. All their time is spent spinning within the challenges they have, many of which they assume to be their plight, many of which they have created themselves.

The sadness here is that if they did look within, they would find the tools to co-create a life outside of survival, and start processes that honors their endeavors and their lives. Blessed are those with life challenges, as so many of the minorities have, but who have decided to increase their spiritual knowledge as a solution, instead of trying to force-manipulate the reality of the cultural situation.

South African traditional leaders attack graphic male circumcision website

Dr Dingeman Rijken, who set up website with detailed images to reveal dangers of ritual, accused of breaking cultural taboo

theguardian.com, David Smith in Johannesburg, Wednesday 29 January 2014

The website aims to reveal the "dark secrets" of the circumcision ritual undergone
by teenage boys from the Xhosa group. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

A Dutch doctor in South Africa has published graphic images of penises mutilated during botched circumcision ceremonies, angering community leaders who accuse him of meddling in their culture.

Dr Dingeman Rijken said he had set up a website to reveal the "dark secrets of the ritual" because traditional leaders had shown "shocking" indifference and incompetence to the annual toll of death and injury.

The leaders have condemned Rijken for breaking a cultural taboo and reported his site to South Africa's Film and Publication Board, demanding it be shut down.

Every year thousands of teenage boys from the Xhosa group embark on a secretive rite of passage in Eastern Cape province, spending up to a month in the bush to study, undergo circumcision by a traditional surgeon and apply white clay to their bodies.

While many initiation schools are officially sanctioned, others are unregulated and allow bogus surgeons to operate with unsterilised blades. According to Rijken, who works in the region, 825 boys have died from complications since 1995 and many more have suffered from what he calls male genital mutilation.

Explaining his reasons for going public, Rijken writes: "Winter 2012. Groups of young boys with white faces were brought out of a secret dark world into glaring hospital lights. Sunken eyes from dehydration, flaky skin from malnourishment, bagged eyes from sleep deprivation.

"Frequently you would smell the rotting when they were walking past. I spend many hours cleaning their wounds, trying to insert urinary catheters in their botched penis, battling to explain 17-year-olds that they had lost their manhood."

He adds that, following another "catastrophic" winter season in 2013, and with traditional leaders unlikely to make a positive change, he chose to go to the media and set up the site "to inform prospective initiates and the broader community about the dark secrets of the ritual".

Graphic images show severely disfigured, infected or amputated genitals on the website, ulwaluko.co.za, named after the Xhosa language word for initiation into manhood. Visitors are told: "Please be warned that this website contains graphic medical images of penile disfigurement under 'complications' and 'photos'. You may only enter this website if you are 13 years of age or older."

But critics argue that Rijken has betrayed their culture and should have handled the matter differently. Nkululeko Nxesi, from the Community Development Foundation of South Africa, told the AFP news agency: "That website must be shut down with immediate effect. He should respect the cultural principles and processes of this nation."

Patekile Holomisa, a former leader of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, took a similar view. He told AFP: "We condemn the exposure of this ritual to people who do not practise it. Women should not see what happens at initiations."

The Film and Publications Board has restricted the website for under-13s but ruled that it is a "bona fide scientific publication with great educative value".

It added: "The website highlights the malice that bedevils this rich cultural practice. It does not condemn this rich cultural practice but makes a clear plea for it to be regulated so that deaths do not occur."

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear and beloved Kryon: What should we know about "Brit-Mila" (Jewish circumcision)?

Answer: All circumcision was based on commonsense health issues of the day, which manifested itself in religious-based teaching. That basically is what made people keep doing it. This eighth-day-from-birth ritual is no more religious today than trimming your fingernails (except that Brit-Mila is only done once, and it hurts a bit more).

It's time to start seeing these things for what they are. Common sense is not static. It's dynamic, and related to the culture of the time. Yesterday's common sense about health changed greatly with the discovery of germs. It changed again with practices of cleanliness due to the discovery of germs, and so on. Therefore, we would say that it really doesn't make a lot of difference in today's health practices. It's done almost totally for cultural historic and traditional purposes and holds no energy around it other than the obvious intent of the tradition.

This is also true for a great deal of the admonishments of the Old Testament regarding food and cleanliness, and even the rules of the neighborhood (such as taking your neighbor's life if he steals your goat, or selling your daughter in slavery if you really need the money... all found in scripture). The times are gone where these things matter anymore, yet they're still treated with reverence and even practiced religiously in some places. They're now only relics of tradition, and that's all. If you feel that you should honor a tradition, then do it. If not, then don't. It's not a spiritual or health issue any longer.

Be the boss of your own body and your own traditions. Follow what your spiritual intuition tells you is appropriate for your own spiritual path and health.

Nelson Mandela Addresses the World Following His Transition

Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow on December 13, 2013

In the middle of a channeled radio show about the new paradigm for Planet Earth, while remarks were being made about Nelson Mandela’s recent transition, Nelson Mandela himself began to speak through channel Linda Dillon.

InLight Radio producer Graham Dewyea has gathered those remarks together and produced a video from them.

The transcript of Nelson’s words can be found at “Nelson Mandela: I am Pleased to Have This Opportunity to Speak to You This Way” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/12/nelson-mandela-i-am-pleased-to-have-this-opportunity-to-speak-to-you-this-way/

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A sign language interpreter is seen while US President Barack Obama speaks

 during the memorial service at FNB Stadium December 10, 2013 in Johannesburg, 

South Africa (AFP/File, Brendan Smialowski)

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

King Willem-Alexander to attend Mandela memorial service

DutchNews.nl, Sunday 08 December 2013

King Willem-Alexander (Nos/ANP)

King Willem-Alexander and foreign minister Frans Timmermans will represent the Netherlands at the memorial service for former South African leader Nelson Mandela.

The memorial service will be held on Tuesday at at 95,000-seat football stadium in Johannesburg. Mandela died at his home on Thursday at the age of 95.

Mandela's funeral itself will take place on December 15.

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Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, dies aged 95

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, dies aged 95

Nelson Mandela led South Africa from apartheid to multi-racial democracy and will be mourned around the world

• Follow all the latest in our Nelson Mandela blog

theguardian.com, David Smith, Africa correspondent, in Johannesburg, 5 December 2013

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, has died. Photograph:
Mike Hutchings/Reuters

Nelson Mandela, the towering figure of Africa's struggle for freedom and a hero to millions around the world, has died at the age of 95.

South Africa's first black president died after years of declining health that had caused him to withdraw from public life.

The death of Mandela will send South Africa deep into mourning and self-reflection 18 years after he led the country from racial apartheid to inclusive democracy.

But his passing will also be keenly felt by people around the world who revered Mandela as one of history's last great statesmen, and a moral paragon comparable with Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

It was a transcendent act of forgiveness after spending 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, that will assure his place in history. With South Africa facing possible civil war, Mandela sought reconciliation with the white minority to build a new democracy.

He led the African National Congress (ANC) to victory in the country's first multiracial election in 1994. Unlike other African liberation leaders who cling to power, such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, he then voluntarily stepped down after one term.

Mandela – often affectionately known by his clan name, Madiba – was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1993.

At his inauguration a year later, the new president said: "Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another ... the sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement. Let freedom reign. God bless Africa!"

Born Rolihlahla Dalibhunga in a small village in the Eastern Cape on 18 July 1918, Mandela was given his English name, Nelson, by a teacher at his school.

Mandela joined the ANC in 1943 and became a co-founder of its youth league. In 1952, he started South Africa's first black law firm with his partner, Oliver Tambo. Mandela was a charming, charismatic figure with a passion for boxing – and an eye for women. He once said: "I can't help it if the ladies take note of me. I am not going to protest."

He married his first wife, Evelyn Mase, in 1944. They were divorced in 1957 after having three children. In 1958, he married Winnie Madikizela, who later campaigned to free her husband from jail and became a key figure in the struggle.

When the ANC was banned in 1960, Mandela went underground. After the Sharpeville massacre, in which 69 black protesters were shot dead by police, he took the difficult decision to launch an armed struggle.

He was arrested and eventually charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the government.

Conducting his own defence in the Rivonia Trial in 1964, he said: "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

"It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

He escaped the death penalty but was sentenced to life in prison, a huge blow to the ANC that had to regroup to continue the struggle. But unrest grew in townships and international pressure on the apartheid regime slowly tightened.

Finally, in 1990, then president FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and Mandela was released from prison amid scenes of jubilation witnessed around the world.

In 1992, Mandela divorced Winnie after she was convicted on charges of kidnapping and accessory to assault.

His presidency rode a wave of tremendous global goodwill but was not without its difficulties. After leaving frontline politics in 1999, he admitted he should have moved sooner against the spread of HIV/Aids.

His son died from an Aids-related illness. On his 80th birthday, Mandela married Graça Machel, the widow of the former president of Mozambique. It was his third marriage. In total, he had six children, of whom three daughters survive: Pumla Makaziwe (Maki), Zenani and Zindziswa (Zindzi). He has 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Mandela was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001 and retired from public life, aged 85, to be with his family and enjoy some "quiet reflection". But he remained a beloved and venerated figure with countless buildings, streets and squares named after him. His every move was scrutinised and his health was a constant source of media speculation.

Mandela continued to make occasional appearances at ANC events and attended the inauguration of the current president, Jacob Zuma. His 91st birthday was marked by the first annual "Mandela Day" in his honour.

He was last seen in public at the final of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg, a tournament he had helped bring to South Africa for the first time. Early in 2011, he was taken to hospital in a health scare but he recovered and was visited by Michelle Obama and her daughters a few months later.

In January 2012, he was notably missing from the ANC's centenary celebrations due to his frail condition. With other giants of the movement such as Tambo and Walter Sisulu having gone before Mandela, the defining chapter of Africa's oldest liberation movement is now closed.

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Archbishop Tutu 'would not worship a homophobic God'

BBC News, 26 July 2013

Archbishop Desmond Tutu compared homophobia to racism

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South Africa's Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says he will never worship a "homophobic God" and will rather go to hell.

The retired archbishop was speaking at the launch of a UN-backed campaign in South Africa to promote gay rights.

Despite sex-same relationships being legal in South Africa, it had some of the worst cases of homophobic violence, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said.

Archbishop Tutu, 81, is a long-standing campaigner for gay rights.

'Toilet brush attack'

He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996, but has remained the moral conscience of the nation, correspondents say.

Same-sex relationships are illegal in more than a third of countries around the world and punishable by death in five, Ms Pillay said.

In Africa, homosexual acts are still a crime in 38 countries, according to the rights group Amnesty International.

"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place," Archbishop Tutu said at the launch of the Free and Equal campaign in Cape Town.

"I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

Archbishop Tutu said the campaign against homophobia was similar to the campaign waged against racism in South Africa.

"I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level," he added.

Ms Pillay said gay and lesbian people in South Africa had some of the best legal safeguards since apartheid ended in 1994, but they still faced brutal attacks.

Last month, a lesbian was found dead, having been sexually assaulted with a toilet brush.

"People are literally paying for their love with their lives," she said, AFP news agency reports.

The UN would push for gay rights to be recognised in countries where they are illegal, Ms Pillay said.

"I constantly hear governments tell me, 'but this is our culture, our tradition and we can't change it'... So we have lots of work to do," she added.

Archbishop Tutu won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for campaigning against white minority rule in South Africa.

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?

BRICS Wrangle Over New Development Bank

Jakarta Globe - AFP, March 26, 2013

Image provided by the South African government shows President Jacob
Zuma speaking in Pretoria on March 24, 2013. (AFP Photo) 

    

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Durban, South Africa. BRICS emerging powers on Tuesday sought a deal on setting up a development bank that would rival Western-backed institutions, trying to iron out significant differences ahead of a leaders' summit in Durban.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa are racing to flesh out proposals for an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Just hours before leaders kick off the summit at 17:30 GMT, finance ministers were still working to agree key elements of the plan.

Disputes remain over what the bank will do, with each side trying to mold the institution to their foreign or domestic policy goals and with each looking for assurances of an equitable return on their initial investment of around $10 billion.

Failure to secure a deal would be a major embarrassment for many of the participants and would play into the hands of those who argue the BRICS have little to bind them together.

Xi Jinping, who has underscored the growing importance of the group by making Durban his first summit as China's president, earlier expressed hopes for "positive headway" in establishing the bank.

In a keynote speech in Tanzania on Monday Xi vowed Beijing's "sincere friendship" with the continent, and a relationship that respects Africa's "dignity and independence."

Meanwhile host President Jacob Zuma has lauded the summit as a means of addressing his country's chronic economic problems including high unemployment.

"BRICS provides an opportunity for South Africa to promote its competitiveness," Zuma said in a speech on the eve of the summit.

"It is an opportunity to move further in our drive to promote economic growth and confront the challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment that afflicts our country."

A failure to take concrete steps would raise questions about whether the BRICS grouping can survive.

"Ironically it may be the cleavages within the BRICS grouping that more accurately hint at the future of the global order: tensions between China and Brazil on trade, India on security, and Russia on status highlight the difficulty Beijing will have in staking its claim to global leadership," said Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund.

But if the leaders succeed it would be the first time since the inaugural BRICS summit four years ago that the group matches rhetorical demands for a more equitable global order with concrete steps.

That would send a loud message to the United States and European nations that the current global balance of power is unworkable.

Together the BRICS account for 25 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world's population.

But members say institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Security Council are not changing fast enough reflect their new-found clout.

Diplomats say it could start with $10 billion seed money from each country, but the exact role of the bank is up for debate.

Indian officials have pressed for a BRICS-led South-South development bank, recycling budget surpluses into investment in developing countries.

Many developing nations inside and outside BRICS will hope that is a way of tapping China's vast financial resources.

Meanwhile China would no doubt like the bank to invest in trade-multiplying projects.

Aside from the development bank, the group will also try to establish a foreign exchange reserve pool worth as much as $240 billion to be drawn on in financial crises.

China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, worth $3.31 trillion at the end of 2012, and establishing currency swap lines could help other BRICS tap that massive resource.

Later on Tuesday Brazil is to sign a bilateral accord with China to promote trade in their national currencies.

BRICS leaders will also establish business and think tank councils.

With Syria's two-year long civil war escalating through the suspected use of chemical weapons, BRICS leaders will also have to weigh a call from President Bashar al-Assad to intervene.

In a message to the summit leaders Assad asked "for intervention by the BRICS to stop the violence in his country and encourage the opening of a dialogue, which he wishes to start," said his senior adviser Bouthaina Shaaban after he delivered the message to Zuma.

Agence France-Presse

This handout photo on March 26, 2013 shows South African Finance Minister

 Pravin Gordhan (C) poses with his counterparts (L-R) Minister Chidambaram 

Palaniappan of India, Minister Xiaochuan Zhou of China, Minister Guido Mantega

 of Brazil and Minister Anto Siluanov of Russia on the margins of the 5th BRICS

 summit held at the Inkosi Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban,

on March 26, 2013. AFP PHOTO / GOVERNMENT HO/ ELMOND JIYANE

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"The U in Kundalini"- Oct 18, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Kundalini, Unification, EU, Nobel Peace Prize 2012, Middle East, South America, Only 5 Currencies on Earth, Old Souls, Duality will dismiss, 3D Humanity will melt with Multi dimensional higher self, Global Unity… etc.)

Shell accused of benefiting from South African apartheid-era land law

Campaigners say oil company is paying just 192 rand (£13.75) annual rent for two filling stations in impoverished KwaZulu-Natal

The Guardian, David Smith in Johannesburg, Thursday 21 March 2013

Shell says it paid a substantial sum upfront when it signed a 50-year
contract for the sites. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Remote and unspoiled, Umgababa is a small but aspirational South African beach resort washed by the warm Indian ocean. Tourists who veer off the beaten track to get there might feel somewhat isolated, but for the reassuring presence of two Shell service stations along the way.

The oil giant is not so welcome, however, to a community where land ownership remains a highly inflammatory subject. Shell stands accused of paying rent of just 192 rand (£13.75) a year for each of the two stations – barely enough to buy enough petrol for a 100km journey. The company strongly denies the claim.

The dispute comes against the backdrop of widespread poverty in KwaZulu-Natal province and the imminent centenary of the 1913 Natives' Land Act, which resulted in the systematic dispossession of black South Africans. Even under democracy, millions of hectares of state-owned land have still not been transferred to those who live on it.

The Shell anomaly is being investigated by South Africa's parliamentary oversight committee on rural development and land reform. Stone Sizani, its chairman, said: "It's a huge unfairness on the part of Shell to the community there. They're making huge sums of money from those filling stations and what they're paying is the equivalent of an indigent family for a piece of land."

He added: "Nobody can explain how Shell got such a piece of land. Even if it was done during apartheid, Shell should be feeling ashamed."

Shell obtained permission to occupy (PTO) during the apartheid era, when black people were not permitted to obtain title deeds to land. A PTO holder once paid a token rent to the government; now it pays it to the Ingonyama Trust Board, which administers about 2.8m hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal. The board says the agreement legally cannot be changed, despite the stations' profitability.

Shell denies the 192-rand claim, saying that when it signed a 50-year contract with a body called the Ithala Development Finance Corporation, it was required to pay a significant sum upfront. "Shell paid total costs of approximately 29m rand [£2m] by 2000," spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said on Wednesday.

"Umnini tribal land is now administered by the Ingonyama Trust, who are deemed to be the landlord of these sites. The PTO remains held by Ithala, who Shell signed the lease agreement with in 1988. All rentals have been paid in full for the duration of the 50-year lease."

She added: "We are aware that nominal amounts can be paid on an annual basis by individuals to local chiefs for permission to occupy land. This process does not apply to Shell, as we entered a prepaid rental agreement with Ithala."

Informed of Shell's response, Sizani stuck to his guns, saying he had asked the Ingonyama Trust board to check its records and "the outcome is still the same". His message to Shell was: "Are you aware that, in South Africa, old age pensioners get 1,000-plus rand per month individually? What can 192 rand per year for the whole community do?"

The way the land was assigned also highlights a tension between longstanding traditions in rural areas, where a local chief still wields power, and the letter of the law in a 21st century constitutional democracy.

Athol Trollip, shadow minister of rural development and land reform, who has visited one of the stations, said: "The problem with these Shell filling stations is that this land would have been granted through a traditional leader."

He added: "It is a crazy situation because they have this arbitrariness in the way they allocate land. There's no lease held, there's no formal transfer of ownership."

The South African government recently claimed it has completed an audit of state-owned land, but Trollip and others are sceptical.

Johan Kruger, director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, said: "One of the biggest concerns is that we just don't know what's out there. We don't know how much the government owns and how much has been redistributed or on a long lease.

"It is a responsibility the government has not fulfilled yet. There is a huge amount of land in government hands that could be transferred to black ownership."

An annual rental fee of 192 rand "can't be right", he added.

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S.Africa's richest man to give away half his fortune

Yahoo – AFP, Gianluigi Guercia, 30 January 2013

South African businessman Patrice Motsepe on May 07, 2008 in Sandton. 

Billionaire Motsepe announced Monday he would give half his family's fortune

to a charity, matching a pledge made by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe announced Monday he would give half his family's fortune to a charity, matching a pledge made by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

"This is to be used during his lifetime and beyond... to improve the lifestyles, and living conditions, of poor, disabled, unemployed, women, youth, workers and marginalised South Africans," his wife Precious Motsepe said.

The mining tycoon becomes the first African to join the Giving Pledge, which challenges the world's wealthiest to give 50 percent or more of their fortune to charity.

Since Microsoft mogul Gates and investment guru Buffett launched the Pledge in 2010, more than 70 billionaires have joined.

Motsepe owns mining company African Rainbow Minerals and is Africa's eighth richest person with a fortune of $2.65 billion (1.96 billion euros), according to Forbes magazine.

His announcement, two days after his 51st birthday, makes him part of an illustrious club that includes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore.

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Africa is becoming more peaceful, despite the war in Mali


"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

“…  Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit. …”