“Jasmine Revolution”
Symbol of peace: Flowers placed on the barrel of a tank
in very much calmer protests than in recent days in Tunisia

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011
Mannoubia Bouazizi, the mother of Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi. "Mohammed suffered a lot. He worked hard. but when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity." (Peter Hapak for TIME)

1 - TUNISIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


How eyepatches became a symbol of Egypt's revolution - Graffiti depicting a high ranking army officer with an eye patch Photograph: Nasser Nasser/ASSOCIATED PRESS

2 - EGYPT Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


''17 February Revolution"

3 - LIBYA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

5 - SYRIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

"25 January Youth Revolution"
Muslim and Christian shoulder-to-shoulder in Tahrir Square
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
(Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)
"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."


“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."



African Union (AU)

African Union (AU)
African Heads of State pose for a group photo ahead of the start of the 28th African Union summit in Addis Ababa on January 30, 2017 (AFP Photo/ Zacharias ABUBEKER)

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Few words can describe Nelson Mandela, so we let him speak for himself. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

AU leaders agree on Boko Haram, fail on South Sudan

The threat of Boko Haram and the South Sudan peace process dominated the agenda of the AU summit this year. With more of conflicts plaguing Africa, the AU's ability to act is being put to the test yet again.

Deutsche Welle, 1 Feb 2015


As every year, African leaders descended upon Ethiopia's capital for the African Union Summit, and as every year, doubts surfaced about the organization's ability to put words into actions.

The Chairwoman of the AU Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, thanked former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for chairing the commission of inquiry on South Sudan, but the report was then tabled, for fear of alienating South Sudan's warring leaders, prompting an evidently frustrated Obasanjo to depart early.

Flagship infrastructure projects, including a high-speed train to connect all African capitals, were discussed, yet a clear strategy on how to fund and implement such ambitious plans seemed absent.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma tabled
the inquiry into South Sudan
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called upon Africa's leaders "to observe legal limits" on their terms and "to listen to their people," just as Robert Mugabe was inaugurated as the new chair of the AU. The 90-year-old long-time ruler of Zimbabwe then delivered what appeared to be a closing speech in which he asked African leaders to "walk the talk" to implement the decisions made at the summit.

Underfunded and understaffed

Perhaps the most important of these decisions was the AU's resolve to jointly tackle Boko Haram. After months of resistance and pressure by the international community, Nigeria was finally cajoled into agreeing to an AU-mandated, multilateral force. The 7,500-strong mission will be comprised of troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin, largely the same group of countries already engaged in the battle against the terrorist group that has wreaked havoc in northern Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon. But considering the size of AU's 22,000-strong mission fighting the terrorist group al-Shabab in Somalia, it is questionable whether the proposed force could get the job done.

Leaders of the participating countries have strongly rejected the idea that non-African troops could be needed. The primary purpose of seeking a UN mandate is to raise much-needed funds. "We are not asking for more troops, we want material and financial support for this operation," Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat told DW. In light of Nigeria's widespread corruption, which has significantly weakened the military in its fight against Boko Haram, the AU plans to set up an international trust fund to assuage donors' concerns over the effective use of funds.

But such a trust fund could also prove to be a bottleneck. A similar mechanism set up to sponsor the African-led mission in Mali didn't see a single dollar disbursed due to complicated UN procedures, an official from the AU's peace and security department told DW. The AU mission in Mali was eventually replaced by a UN-mandated force.

South Sudan's leaders evade incriminating report

The South Sudan peace process, coordinated on the sidelines of the summit by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), is another test for the AU. The recently completed inquiry in South Sudan is believed to deeply implicate both President Salva Kiir and former vice-president and rebel leader Riek Machar in atrocities. Yet the discussion of the report was tabled at the session of the Peace and Security Council last Thursday. "We are not hiding the report, we have it now, but we are giving the priority to silencing the guns in that country," Smail Chergui, Commissioner for Peace and Security, told reporters following the meeting.

The military's fight against al-Shabab
has been hampered by corruption
Leaders hoped that by delaying the discussion of the report, Kiir and Machar would be given a final chance to sign a power-sharing deal. Such a deal is deemed critical to building a transitional government and to put an end to the power-struggle that has so far thwarted a sustainable peace treaty.

But on Saturday evening, observers said an agreement seemed distant in what is considered the final push of a largely failed peace process. With the threat of the potentially incriminating AU inquiry suspended and with the possibility of sanctions undermined by the lack of support from regional players, it appears that South Sudan's leaders have the upper hand in the negotiations.

Successes despite the AU?

Despite abundant challenges, the summit's attendees could boast of some success stories. In Somalia, the African-led force is claiming is winning the war against al-Shabab. Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of elections are being held on the continent. In Liberia, Ebola infection rates have dropped from 70 new cases per day in September to only three, and elsewhere the spread of the epidemic has slowed.

Although many African nations will not achieve their Millennium Development Goals this year, Africa is expected to be the second fastest growing continent after Asia in 2015. But just how much credit the AU can take for these successes is unclear.

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