Study finds that reading enhances the likelihood teenagers will go on to study for a degree, writes <b>Jeevan Vasagar</b>.
Frequent playing of computer games appears to reduce teenagers’ chances of going to university.
The bombings in Uganda were cruelly targeted to cause maximum casualties and publicity, most likely for the al-Shabaab group,
Like many children in northern Uganda, Omony has witnessed boys and girls committing terrible crimes. But he can talk about his experiences in a way others cannot. The reason: because 15-year-old Omony is a character in a radio soap called Ngom Wa, which is allowing northern Ugandans to confront the horrors of an 18-year civil war in which children have been both victims and aggressors. Jeevan Vasagar in Gulu reports.
Western aid agencies ”brushed aside” the work of local community groups in a rush to spend the record-breaking donations raised after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, according to a report published last week. A failure to consult local people meant a quarter of the fishing boats that were donated were unseaworthy.
It must count as one of Britain’s trickier public relations jobs. Europe’s biggest Muslim cultural event opens in London and it will coincide with the anniversary of the July 7 attacks on the British capital. The festival, Islam Expo, will feature a recreation of an Arab souk and a timeline tracing 1 400 years of Islamic history.
Dirt-cheap, straight-to-video voodoo horror flicks have made Nigeria the world’s third-largest film industry, writes Jeevan Vasagar.
Kenya’s attorney general recently signalled his willingness to tackle the country’s biggest corruption scandal by charging five men, including the former governor of the central bank, with fraud. The ”Goldenberg” scandal was made public 14 years ago and cost Kenyan taxpayers the equivalent of -million.
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/ 22 February 2006
Britons spend more than £1,5-billion a year on cut flowers, and Kenya has nearly a quarter of the market, which peaks around February 14 as millions of Britons give flowers to loved ones on Valentine’s Day. As many as 50 000 people now work in Kenya’s flower industry, and for the past few weeks they have been working flat out to meet orders.
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/ 20 February 2006
Mary has spent the day gathering sheaves of grass to feed the cattle, weeding the vegetable patch and helping her mother cook dinner over a charcoal fire: the life of any African girl in any African village. But as daylight begins to fade, Mary slips away from the family’s mud hut and strides down a sandy track into the nearest town.