datakiss

Israeli Firm confirmed that you can Recharge your phone in 30 seconds

Israeli Firm confirmed that you can Recharge your phone in 30 seconds

An Israeli company says it has developed #technology that can charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and an electric car in minutes, a...

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Nigeria's parliament says Shell should pay $4 billion for 2011 oil spill

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Nigeria's National Assembly said on Wednesday oil major #Shell should pay $3.96 billion for a 2011 spill at its offshore Bonga oilfield in the latest assessment of damage to the environment. 
 
The non-binding decision comes after years of analysis by various Nigerian state agencies, which have proposed a range of fines as high as $11.5 billion. 
 
The parliament finally reached a decision based on the report of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), which previously recommended a fine of $5 billion. 
 
Shell declined to comment. The company has previously said it took responsibility for the spill and had cleaned the area. 
 
The parliament's decision is non-binding as it only has the power to recommend fines to the government and cannot enforce them. 
 
NOSDRA estimated that around 40,000 barrels were spilled when a tanker was loading crude at the offshore platform operated by Shell's subsidiary SNEPCO. The Bonga field was producing 200,000 barrels per day at the time. 
 
NOSDRA has previously said the spill had hurt locals in the area who rely on fishing for their livelihoods as the slick covered an area of around 950 square km. 
 
"Since all efforts by this committee were tactfully rebuffed by SNEPCO, (it) has decided to adopt the damage assessment report submitted by NOSDRA as the lead agency in all oil spill management," Uche Ekwunife, chairman of the environmental committee told the assembly. 
 
Shell is also being pursued in a class action case for two other spills in the Niger Delta in 2008. In June, it offered 30 million pounds ($51 million) in compensation to 15,000 residents in the Bodo Community but this was rejected. 
 
The United Nations Environment Programme has criticised Shell in the past for not doing enough to clean up spills and maintain infrastructure. 
 
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil exporter and an OPEC member but the environmental toll has been huge. The mangrove creeks of the delta region are heavily polluted mainly due to leaks from illegal pipeline tapping and sabotage. 
 
Foreign companies have been selling their stakes in onshore oilfields after becoming frustrated with industrial scale theft and resulting spills, which show no signs of abating. 
 
On Monday, Shell had to shut down a pipeline as a result of a new leak close to where it was removing oil taps. 
 
(This story has been refiled to add NOSDRA attribution for spill size in paragraph 6)</div>

Nigeria's parliament says Shell should pay $4 billion for 2011 oil spill

Nigeria's National Assembly said on Wednesday oil major #Shell should pay $3.96 billion for a 2011 spill at its offshore Bonga oilfiel...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

Neocons stay in contact with ISIL: Analyst

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Some neoconservative senators in the United States remain in direct contact with the #ISIL terrorist group, says a journalist. 
 
Yuram Abdullah Weiler, a columnist with the Tehran Times Daily from Denver, told DanglingReport that the neoconservatives and the Israeli spy agencies have maintained direct contacts with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the so-called leader of ISIL. 
 
“We also have evidence that John McCain was in direct contact with al Baghdadi and possibly he is involved with [Israeli spy agency] Mossad. 
 
This appears it is very much US creation,” he said, referring to hawkish US Senator McCain. 
The analyst said the United States has found a replacement for the red armies of the Communist era in the form of ISIL. 
Commenting on the ongoing unrest in Syria, he said that the United States and its regional allies were pursuing a vicious agenda of “regime change” through fueling militancy. 
The commentator went on to say that the Americans are preventing “a unified Iraq” by unleashing militant groups and spreading divisions. 
 
He also said the United States and its allies such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and the Israeli regime are deeply involved in financing and training these militant groups. 
The remarks come as ISIL terrorists control some parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions, against all communities in the two countries, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians. 
The group has reportedly links with the Saudi intelligence and it is believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.</div>

Neocons stay in contact with ISIL: Analyst

Some neoconservative senators in the United States remain in direct contact with the #ISIL terrorist group, says a journalist. Yuram A...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

Chimamanda, the Genius of our Time

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In praise of the novel Half of a Yellow Sun, Chinua Achebe wrote; “We do not usually associate #wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers… Adichie came almost fully made.” Looking back to what has happened after this famous declaration, it is remarkable how prescient Achebe’s comment was. 
No storyteller on the continent in the last ten years has gripped the imagination of Africa like Chimamanda Adichie. Her Nigerian reading tours are major events with fans swarming the venues as if at a musical concert. During one of her recent readings in Lagos, a young woman broke down in tears at meeting her for the first time. Adichie’s striking personality, speeches and media interviews have enthralled audiences across the world. Her books are prescribed texts for secondary schools all over Africa. Scores of African PhD students anchor their thesis on her work. 
 
 
Her multiple prize-winning novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, has now been turned into a motion picture in a  
path-breaking  
collaboration  
between  
Nigerian  
and  
British  
filmmakers.  
 
Scholars have written books on her. Children who were born after her infiltration of our national consciousness were named after her. Even Hollywood stars are fans; Will Smith recently called her to tell her so. 
As is the case with some gifted people, Adichie’s talent was quick to announce itself. From writing plays that were acted by her classmates in elementary school to her first nibble at the intimidating narrative of the Biafran War with an early published work, For Love of Biafra, written when she was just a teenager, Adichie showed early signs of a girl who had the head of an old woman on her shoulders. 
I recall my first interview with her in September 2003 in Lagos after Zoetrope had published her short story, Half of a Yellow Sun (which would later become the title of her second novel). Adichie had talked intensely about her dream of setting up a writers’ colony in Nigeria. It had all sounded wishful and quixotic. Today, although she has not fully achieved the dream of setting up the physical structures of a colony, Adichie has established a virtual one – a community of writers, weaned from the nest of her annual creative writing workshop in Lagos. This may well be her most astounding legacy. 
In a recent conversation, an influential second generation Nigerian poet argued that Adichie represented a rupture on the Nigerian literary scene.  
 
He just might be right. Viewed against the backdrop of the literary famine that preceded her emergence, there are many people for whom Adichie represents the bold new voice of Nigerian writing. Personally, before her emergence, I had long decided that Nigeria’s rich tradition of storytelling ended with the Chinua Achebe generation. My impression came from the prolonged period of near-arid literary production caused by the long years of military dictatorship. For a considerable period, the Nigerian literary scene was an overcast rainy morning. There were occasional peeps of the sun, such as when Helon Habila won the Caine Prize in 2001, but many writers were locked up in guerilla journalism and human rights campaigns against the military regime of the time and had very little time to sustain Habila’s great effort by creating serious literature. Much of what was published during the period lacked the literary merit to produce more than a muffled echo within the Lagos arts community. 
I began to take writing more seriously after reading Adichie’s short story Half of a Yellow Sun. I was gripped by her narrative power and stricken by the character of the bespectacled 13-year-old boy, Obi, whose scholarly thirst and uncanny wit I found so inspiring that when he died, I felt a sinking sense of loss. His character was fully realized. It was astonishing how, in such a short piece, Adichie powerfully dramatized this truth: war swallows the brightest amongst us. The story won her the David T. K Wong Prize for Fiction and turned literary ears in her direction. 
 
The early promise of that story was fulfilled in her debut offering, Purple Hibiscus; a path-breaking novel that won a number of important prizes. It became wildly popular among Nigerian readers and non-readers alike. More than that, it inspired the emerging generation of writers to re-possess the Nigerian narrative. Said Tolu Ogunlesi, a writer and journalist, on Adichie’s enormous influence on new African writers –  “Her success has given a lot of us the confidence that our stories are worth writing. And her workshop, which is now in its seventh year, has kick started many literary careers and friendships.” 
Ogunlesi, a member of the inaugural edition of Adichie’s workshop, was the winner of the 2009 CNN African Journalist of the Year in the Arts and Culture category.  
 
Adeleke Adeyemi, winner of the Nigerian Prize for Literature (2011) who writes under the pen name Mai Nasara is also an alumnus of Adichie’s workshop. 
 
Close observers see a degree of similarity in Chinua Achebe’s “opening of doors” to writers on the continent in his role as the pioneer editor of Heinemann African Writer’s series – and Adichie’s hugely successful workshop, which has sired a new generation of writers. In much the same way, the online writers’ community that emerged from Adichie’s workshop series compares quite favourably to the writer’s body, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) founded by Achebe. The similarities have continued to grow with the bold interrogation of racism in Adichie’s latest work, AMERICANAH, which stridently plumbs the deep silences of the world’s uncomfortable truths and echoes Achebe’s pointed confrontation of racism in his lecture ‘An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” Even Adichie’s rumored rejection of an attempt by the Nigerian government to confer a national honour on her is reminiscent of Achebe’s famous rejection of national honours by the Nigerian government. 
Eghosa Imasuen, author of Fine Boys, says that because of Adichie, a generation of writers have met and formed a community. “I remember my workshop set, the inaugural edition. It has been the simmering of talent, talent that has found a community of others. That has been due to her. I think that is her place, not the books, which are important by themselves, but that she brought a new generation of writers together.” Poet and novelist, Uche Peter Umez agrees. 
 
 “Chimamanda’s impact on the literary scene has been nothing short of phenomenal. Her biggest contribution so far, beside her annual creative workshop, is in helping young writers discover their voices and use these voices to unflinchingly tell stories that are distinctively and diversely African.” Echoes journalist Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, who attended the workshop two years ago, “Within my experience and what I observe with members of my class, the workshop is immensely beneficial and has helped many in discovering their voices.” 
 
Purple Hibiscus  was a success, but what truly launched Adichie into the global literary orbit was her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun, now widely considered to be a modern classic. “She is one contemporary writer you’re certain people everywhere from Australia to Scandinavia will have heard about or read,” Tolu Ogunlesi surmised. He may well be right. Adichie is Africa’s most read novelist among her generation. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages across the world and has received awards in Africa, Europe and the United States. It was hardly surprising when she won the MacArthur Genius Grant, worth thousands of dollars, awarded to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality in their creative pursuits. Adichie achieved the status of an orator when she gave a talk at the TED Global conference in Oxford in 2009 titled “The Danger of a Single Story.” Her performance was the stuff of myth-making. The talk is now one of ten most watched TED talks. It wasn’t long before scholars began to look at the similarities between that talk and Achebe’s Image of Africa Lecture in the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, in 1975.  
 
Both speeches show an astonishing resonance and topicality, further growing Adichie’s legend. 
For taking on the intimidating horror of the Biafran war, Chinua Achebe described Adichie as ‘fearless.’ Many who know her well agree, pointing to her willingness to take on heavy subjects. Her seemingly fragile frame and striking beauty may not prepare an observer for her forthrightness. Those who know her well say that Adichie has no falseness or guile, two things many Nigerians arm themselves with to enable them negotiate their ways through our complex of overarching sensitivities. She says exactly what she thinks.  
 
She holds strong views and never flinches from voicing them. But this is always done in a spirit of honesty and integrity. “She always talks about the importance of being truthful to yourself and your writing,” a participant from this year’s workshop said. Eghosa Imasuen simply interprets that as sensitivity. “The Chimamanda I know is a sensitive soul. The empathy displayed in her books is not forced; it is effortless.” 
For one who has given so much to writing and writers, it is interesting to see that there are pockets of resentment for Adichie even among her kindred of writers.  
 
The storm that trailed her recent interview in the Boston Review offered an insight into this resentment. I read the interview when it was first published and thought it displayed a witty playfulness, quite common for Adichie who often combines honesty with humour. In the interview, she jokes about feeling like a ‘proud mama’ on recounting the successes of her workshop participants, about starting a secret society of African writers in a basement, about Nigerian chauvinism, and even about her own possible failed attempt at humour. 
But two parts of that interview offered her critics her open flanks to cast a spear in. 
The first in which she opined that the Caine Prize was not the best barometer to gauge African writing. The second was her referring to one of the Caine Prize nominees, Elnathan John (an emerging writer who applied to, was accepted, and attended her 2011 workshop) as ‘one of my boys at the workshop.’ John then wrote an insulting blogpost that spread like flu on the Internet, chiding Adichie for her comment and making her out as arrogant. Other insults and personal attacks on her followed. American academic, Aaron Bady, who conducted the Boston Review interview, is puzzled by the response.  
 
He speculates that it might partly be due to bruised male egos. “When a woman becomes very famous, men in her field often resent that success, much more than they would resent a man, and jump at the chance to attack her. I feel like Ms. Adichie just said what a lot of people have said: that the Caine Prize is fine but also massively overhyped. I basically agree, and it’s not a slap at the shortlisted writers to say so. In the interview, I mentioned Igoni Barrett to her because I think he wrote the best book of short stories I’ve read this year so it was strange to see four Nigerian names on the shortlist, but not his. It doesn’t take anything away from the shortlisted writers to say that!” 
Adichie, a winner of many prizes – the most recent of which was the Chicago Tribune Heartland prize for AMERICANAH – has consistently said that prizes, in general, are good but are never the final arbiters of good writing.  
 
“It’s lovely to win,” she said in a recent CNN interview, when asked about her awards. “But that isn’t why I write. If I hadn’t won anything I would still be somewhere today probably unemployed but writing. What matters the most for a writer, I think, is to be read.” 
Her ambivalence about the Caine Prize in particular may have been further shaped by her own personal experience. She was shortlisted for the prize ten years ago and later wrote a short story titled ‘Jumping Monkey Hill’ presumed to be about her experience. In the story, the administrator of a prize for African writers, an old Englishman, dismisses the stories by young African writers most of which are based on their lives and instead dictates to them what a ‘real African story’ should be. Some of the young writers resist but others are in an uncomfortable position because while they may not agree with him, they toe the line as they hope the Englishman will help them find international publishers. Adichie was lucky not to have to toe the line because, according to her manager, by the time she was shortlisted for the prize,  
she  
already  
had  
an  
American  
literary  
agent  
and  
publisher. 
 
Zimbabwean writer Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, in a nuanced piece titled, “Adichie and the Great Brouhaha” argues that the outrage following Adichie’s comments is in fact an impressive demonstration of Adichie’s power. Tshuma also suggests that those who interpret the interview negatively say more about their own prejudices than about what was actually said in the interview. 
To be fair, an unbiased reader may well find Adichie’s comments offputting, especially since print interviews do not always capture the tone of voice or other nuances. Bady was kind enough to show me the full transcript of the interview. It makes clear, for example, that Adichie’s question “why this overprivileging of the Caine Prize?” was in response to Bady saying that he and a group of academics were following and blogging about the prize. Adichie also adds that the Caine Prize is a good thing that brings attention but is not the final arbiter of African writing. 
 
Yet even without these missed subtleties – understandable for an interview of limited space – the rabid negativity from certain writers to Adichie’s interview was so overblown as to suggest a deliberate attempt to manufacture controversy. Perhaps it is the lot of Chimamanda Adichie that anything she undertakes acquires a new and urgent weight. 
Bady himself, who is in the best position to parse the interview’s tone, says that Adichie was never condescending. “From my perspective, in the interview, I would never have expected someone like Elnathan to get that upset at being called “my boy.” At the time, it seemed purely collegial, friendly. Maybe there’s some kind of history between those two, and if so, that’s their business; I don’t know anything about it. But even if there’s some kind of buried back-story, it seems like a person should either tell the whole story or keep it to yourself.” 
 
 
While Adichie has chosen not to comment, close friends say there is no buried back story. A fellow participant at the workshop attended by John says, “Some of us thought he was an irritant, he thought he knew better than others and he thought his own writing was better than it was. Chimamanda always tried to strike a balance. She also cracked jokes with him, she joked with all of us. He called Chimamanda his mentor and his teacher. I remember she once told him that his problem is that he is a provocateur, that he should write more truthfully and not just to provoke. She liked his writing about gay themes because she encouraged writing about issues that people keep silent about. She also liked the fact that he was a Northerner because she said the Northern perspective is often not heard. I think that was the main reason she encouraged him and introduced him to her own literary agent in New York, which -by the way- many writers of her standing simply do not do.” This may well be true of many writers, especially in today’s publishing world where it is near impossible to be published by a mainstream publisher without an agent. But it is nothing strange for Adichie, who is also known to have helped other African writers, including Teju Cole, author of the critically acclaimed Open City.  
 
 
 
 
 
She not only recommended Cole to her literary agency, but also hosted a pre-publication luncheon in New York that introduced editors to his new novel. The only thing close to a back story with John, say friends, happened some months ago. Adichie had given an interview in which she said that ‘for most Nigerian women, wearing their natural hair is unbearable.’ She was then deliberately misquoted as saying that Nigerian women with Brazilian hair had low self-esteem. John joined an online bandwagon that referenced the misquote. Adichie wrote him to say that she expected better from him, that he should have read the actual interview first to see what she actually said. He wrote to apologise. She later wrote to congratulate him on the Caine Prize shortlist. Said John’s fellow workshop participant, “We just didn’t understand where his blog was coming from. It makes no sense that he is now claiming ‘manhood-shrinking’ emails. He himself knows she meant ‘one of my boys’ in an affectionate way. She was claiming him which is a compliment. Many of us from the workshop told him point blank that he was seeking cheap publicity. People who had never heard of him before now know of him. Even if he truly believed she was denigrating him, why make it so public? After all the last communication between them was a private email she sent him congratulating him on the Caine Prize, so why wouldn’t he write her privately? How can you start a negative campaign against somebody who has done nothing but help you? He even complained that it took her time to reply his emails. Does he know how many emails she gets? How many other writers in her position even take time to read the work of upcoming writers? The truth is that he is entitled and has an inflated sense of himself. He felt bad that he didn’t win the Caine Prize and decided to lash out at somebody.  
 
 
 
 
 
Chimamanda is an easy target because she is so prominent. Some others joined in, because some people like tearing successful people down, especially someone like Chimamanda who is a strong and confident woman. The sad truth is that Chimamanda is now going to be more careful and wary about how she opens herself up to upcoming writers.” Adichie may indeed have to become more wary. Either way, she has made deep impressions on the attentive world. Even her most vitriolic critic cannot dispute that. In doing what many writers have not done, Adichie has earned a place in the hearts of many who love and adore her. She has also earned the respect of those who are either undecided about her or do not have a friendly disposition towards her.  
 
 
 
In a prophetic comment, after Adichie’s win of the David T. K Wong’s Prize for Fiction in 2003, Obi Iwuanyanwu, a Professor at Central State University, Dayton, Ohio, said, “Given my knowledge of similar astounding young writers in history – I would make bold to describe her as a genius. I believe that Chimamanda, who was born seven years after Biafra, is destined to write the Great Biafran Novel.” It is serendipitous that ten years after Iwuanyanwu’s prophecy, a similar conclusion has been drawn by Kathryn Schulz, an American journalist writing in New York Magazine. Adichie’s recent novel AMERICANAH is, according to Schulz, “one of the better novels I’ve read about contemporary America, but I’m not tempted to call it a Great American Novel. Instead, it strikes me as an early, imperfect, admirable stab at something new: a Great Global Novel.” Adichie seems to be always drawn to “stabbing at something new.” With the impending release of the film adaptation of her groundbreaking Half of a Yellow Sun in October this year, this prodigious talent has more substance to keep the mythmakers busy for a very long time.</div>

Chimamanda, the Genius of our Time

In praise of the novel Half of a Yellow Sun, Chinua Achebe wrote; “We do not usually associate #wisdom with beginners, but here is a new w...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

Revolution is possible in Nigeria – Justice Akanbi

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The former #Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi (rtd), has said there is likely to be a revolution in the country because of disregard and neglect of the masses. 
He said that Nigeria was not different from other countries of the world that had moved forward through revolution by its oppressed citizens. 
 
Justice Akanbi made this known on Tuesday while briefing the press on the upcoming launching of his autobiography which will take place on Wednesday in Abuja. 
He said: “If you watch, the AU and the world frowns at violent revolution, when someone gets there with that, it’s not recognized and pressure is mounted to make sure you go through the democratic rule. 
“But if you see what happened at Ouagadougou recently when they had to go and burn some places, it’s not a coup as such but it’s a demonstration to show that the people are not going to take it. If you look at Hong Kong, before it became a less corruption free country, it was the people who rose up as a body to challenge the police. 
 
“When you push the people and they have their back against the wall, they are bound to react. Revolution means no more than a change, it can be violent and it can be peaceful, but what happened in Ouagadougou most recently is an object lesson for those who care to learn.” 
When asked if revolution is possible in Nigeria, he said,”it’s possible, if we go on without thinking about the ordinary people. 
 
“Let’s create an environment where the children of the weak and poor can have a place in the society, where they can compete very well with the children of the rich.” 
On the book launch, Justice Akanbi said the event which will take place on November 26 will have former President Olusegun Obasanjo as chairman. 
 
Other personalities that will grace the occasion are the Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Ilorin, Oba of Lagos, the chairman People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and All Progressive Congress (APC). 
Revolution is possible in Nigeria – Justice Akanbi 
 
The former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi (rtd), has said there is likely to be a revolution in the country because of disregard and neglect of the masses. 
He said that Nigeria was not different from other countries of the world that had moved forward through revolution by its oppressed citizens. 
 
Justice Akanbi made this known on Tuesday while briefing the press on the upcoming launching of his autobiography which will take place on Wednesday in Abuja. 
He said: “If you watch, the AU and the world frowns at violent revolution, when someone gets there with that, it’s not recognized and pressure is mounted to make sure you go through the democratic rule. 
“But if you see what happened at Ouagadougou recently when they had to go and burn some places, it’s not a coup as such but it’s a demonstration to show that the people are not going to take it. If you look at Hong Kong, before it became a less corruption free country, it was the people who rose up as a body to challenge the police. 
 
“When you push the people and they have their back against the wall, they are bound to react. Revolution means no more than a change, it can be violent and it can be peaceful, but what happened in Ouagadougou most recently is an object lesson for those who care to learn.” 
When asked if revolution is possible in Nigeria, he said,”it’s possible, if we go on without thinking about the ordinary people. 
 
“Let’s create an environment where the children of the weak and poor can have a place in the society, where they can compete very well with the children of the rich.” 
On the book launch, Justice Akanbi said the event which will take place on November 26 will have former President Olusegun Obasanjo as chairman. 
 
Other personalities that will grace the occasion are the Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Ilorin, Oba of Lagos, the chairman People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and All Progressive Congress (APC).Revolution is possible in Nigeria – Justice Akanbi 
 
The former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi (rtd), has said there is likely to be a revolution in the country because of disregard and neglect of the masses. 
He said that Nigeria was not different from other countries of the world that had moved forward through revolution by its oppressed citizens. 
 
Justice Akanbi made this known on Tuesday while briefing the press on the upcoming launching of his autobiography which will take place on Wednesday in Abuja. 
He said: “If you watch, the AU and the world frowns at violent revolution, when someone gets there with that, it’s not recognized and pressure is mounted to make sure you go through the democratic rule. 
“But if you see what happened at Ouagadougou recently when they had to go and burn some places, it’s not a coup as such but it’s a demonstration to show that the people are not going to take it. If you look at Hong Kong, before it became a less corruption free country, it was the people who rose up as a body to challenge the police. 
 
“When you push the people and they have their back against the wall, they are bound to react. Revolution means no more than a change, it can be violent and it can be peaceful, but what happened in Ouagadougou most recently is an object lesson for those who care to learn.” 
When asked if revolution is possible in Nigeria, he said,”it’s possible, if we go on without thinking about the ordinary people. 
 
“Let’s create an environment where the children of the weak and poor can have a place in the society, where they can compete very well with the children of the rich.” 
On the book launch, Justice Akanbi said the event which will take place on November 26 will have former President Olusegun Obasanjo as chairman. 
 
Other personalities that will grace the occasion are the Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Ilorin, Oba of Lagos, the chairman People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and All Progressive Congress (APC). 
 
</div>

Revolution is possible in Nigeria – Justice Akanbi

Justice Akambi The former #Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha...

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A fretting president as Commander-In-Chief

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President #Jonathan’s last minute change of mind on EPZ trip bad for his status as C-in-C 
 
President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure to commission the groundbreaking of the $16 billion export Free Zone facility in Ogidigben has further raised questions about his administration’s commitment to development, fairness and justice. The project, billed to position gas as an alternative to over-reliance on oil as source of revenue for the country, is expected to generate jobs for the youths and sharpen the skills of indigenous professionals to wean the nation off dependence on expatriates to run the oil and gas industry. 
 
Unfortunately, the project is now mired in the local Ijaw-Itsekiri conflict. The Ijaw have raised query over the location of the project, claiming that the land acquired includes a large portion of Ijaw territory, especially the Gbaramatu Kingdom of Warri South West, while the Itsekiri insist that it is wholly sited on Itsekiri land. 
We find it disheartening that President Jonathan allowed militants long used to threatening the peace of the country to frighten him away from performing a statutory function to which he had committed himself. 
 
Government Tompolo, one of the Ijaw militants who received pardon during the presidency of the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua was breathing fire and brimstone if the President dared step down from his jet to perform the task. And, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and symbol of the state lent credence to the suggestion that 
the 
                                 Nigerian 
                                 state 
                                 is 
                                      now 
                                        too 
                                        weak 
                                    to 
                                          show 
it as more powerful than any rabble-rouser or ragtag army. 
 
We find it difficult to appreciate the recent decline in the honour and power of the state. In the battle field of the North East, the Boko Haram scourge keeps raging. Territory after territory keeps falling to the insurgents and strange flags are being hoisted as if to show that our armed forces cannot rein in the terrorists. In the Second Republic when a similar sect, the Maitatsine, attempted to confront the nation, the fire was quickly quenched. The might of state was demonstrated and honour restored. 
 
No other sect attempted to test its strength against the Nigerian military. And, when forces from Chad made a move to annex Nigerian territory, the Third Armoured Division rose to the occasion by pushing them back far into Chad. It was reassuring. 
Nigeria has invested so much into resolving the Niger Delta crisis than to have this latest challenge of state power and authority. The project itself would have helped to assure the Niger Delta people that the course of reconciliation had not been abandoned. One of the grounds of the unrest in the region was that money being made there was being invested elsewhere; that the oil companies merely despoil the land of the South South, pollute the rivers and then build up Lagos and Abuja. 
 
 
In coming up with a project the size of the proposed EPZ, the Nigerian state was taking steps to correct the impression. But then, the likes of Tompolo and Ijaw irredentists have chosen to throw spanner in the works. 
We accept the submission of the Niger Delta that the region desires closer attention from the state and thus, investment in oil and gas should impact positively on the land. But, steps by men like Tompolo would not advance this cause. 
 
Tompolo who had earlier been touted as contractor handling the security of the waterways in Lagos, without the needed competence and experience ought to have been called to order by Dr. Jonathan who should have shown that no Nigerian President could be deterred from pursuing the just cause. It is high time Tompolo, who is fast becoming a Frankenstein monster was cut to size. Unless this is done, other militants would rise against the state in pursuing sectarian interests. Tompolo himself could begin to imagine that he is a Commander-in-Chief of the same stature as the Nigerian Head of State. 
 
We also call on Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders and governors of the zone to call their men to order. They should conserve the energy being exerted in this war of attrition for the war against poverty. The Nigerian state deserves honour from all for so long as we all belong to it. The symbols of state must be preserved and whoever challenges the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty or stands in the way of development is a common enemy and should be treated as such.</div>

A fretting president as Commander-In-Chief

President #Jonathan’s last minute change of mind on EPZ trip bad for his status as C-in-C President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure to co...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

The new CDC studies shows how vast majority of Americans who drink excessively are not alcoholics

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                                                                   AMERICA 
Drinking excessively can cause serious #health risks and is responsible for an average of 88,000 deaths every year. But the vast majority of such excessive drinkers are not alcoholics, according to new government data. 
 
Nine out of 10 excessive drinkers are actually not dependent on alcohol, revealed findings within a study released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The study is one of the first national, multi-year looks at alcoholism among excessive drinkers, and debunks the assumption that most excessive drinkers are dependent upon alcohol. 
 
About 
10 
percent 
of 
people 
who 
drank 
excessively 
also 
met 
the 
clinical 
definition for alcohol dependence. 
 
The vast majority of excessive drinking is binge drinking, a pattern of behavior where men consume roughly five or more drinks and women consume four or more within a short period of time. 
But the big takeaway here isn't that people who drink too much don't need to worry about their habits, said study author Bob Brewer, who heads the CDC's Alcohol Program in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 
 
 
Rather, the study shows that combating excessive drinking as a public health problem needs to go beyond focusing only on alcoholism, a chronic medical condition. 
"Knowing that nine out of 10 people who drink too much are not alcohol dependent in no way diminishes the impact of alcohol dependence as a problem. It just says the problem we're dealing with is bigger than that," Brewer said. "We need to look at this problem with a wider-angle lens and consider not just treatment for those who need it." 
Alcohol dependence here is a "medical problem" and "based on the consequences and the science and symptoms of someone's drinking behavior," Brewer said. 
 
People with alcohol dependence report symptoms such as withdrawal, unsuccessful attempts to cut down or stop drinking and continuing despite problems arising from drinking. 
 
While about one in three adults drinks excessively, only one in 30 (or 3.5 percent) meets the clinical definition for alcohol dependence. 
The study also found that excessive and binge drinking, as well as alcoholism, was most common among 18- to 24 year-old men, with binge drinking most prevalent among people coming from households with an annual income of $75,000 or more. 
But 
alcoholism 
was 
most 
common 
among 
people 
who had family incomes of less than $25,000 and people who reported binge drinking 10 or more times in the past 30 days. 
The data comes from three years of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in which 138,100 people from around the country answered questions about their drinking habits. 
 
That means all of the information was self-reported, and that kind of data is usually considered under-reported, the study authors noted. 
 
Brewer said there are certain strategies that help reduce excessive drinking, such as increasing the price of alcohol and considering the geographic concentration of liquor licenses. The study 
"really gives us some further insight about what we need to be doing about dealing with this critical public health problem,"</div>

The new CDC studies shows how vast majority of Americans who drink excessively are not alcoholics

AMERICA Drinking excessively can cause serious #health risks and is res...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

Beyond alcohol, benefits of drinking beer

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Let me commence this contribution to this historical conference on #Beer and the Healthy Lifestyle by expressing my gratitude to organisers of this symposium, for the invitation to chair and speak at this occasion. I am particularly gratified that that at last the Nigerian beer drinkard (as the Nigerian writer would have put it) is being served by a Nigerian conference. Beer has been an important component of a healthy life style in human history for over four thousand years. It continues to be. 
My particular interest in beer and other beverages such as palm wine and grape wine began long ago, as a boy sent by my grandfather to harvest the juice of the palm tree which had been cut down and laid horizontal for easy collection. 
 
 Later travels and further immersion in lifestyles led to particular passion for the ultimate relationship between alcohol and beer. 
Each area of human manipulation and invention contains an abiding puzzles. With car making it is always to invent a car that would, like the horse that inspired the automobile, move itself without a rider. The invention of automatic transmission brought that day forward. Today self-driving cars are being tested and we might have soon self-driving cars competing with life horses on the race course! 
In the field of aeroplanes, it would be the one that would fly without a pilot. 
 
Today, drones fly past birds to do what they need to do. What then is the abiding puzzle in the case of beer brewing? Before I go into this I want to quote some of the major ways that Beer and Beer Brewing has enriched the languages and cultures of the world. 
“It was the accepted practice in ancient Babylonia 4000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, the period was called the ‘honey moon’ – or what we know today as the honey moon.” 
 
“Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thump or finger into the mix to find the right temperature for adding yeast. Too cold, and the yeast would not grow. Too hot, and the yeast would die. This thumb in the beer is where we get the phrase ‘rule of thumb’.” 
“In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So, in Old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settled down. It’s where we get the phrase mind your p’s and q’s!” 
 
“Beer, we are told, was the reason the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. It’s clear from the Mayflower’s log that the crew did not want to waste beer looking for a better site. The log goes on to state that the passengers were hasted ashore and made to drink water so that the seamen might have the more beer.” 
“After consuming a bucket or even two of a vibrant brew they called ‘aul’ or ‘ale’, the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle often without armour or even shirts. In fact, the term ‘berserk’ means ‘bare shirt’ in Norse, and eventually took on the meaning of their wild battles.” 
 
“In 1740 Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water-down the navy’s rum. Needless to say, the sailors were not too pleased and called Admiral Vernon Old Grog, after the stiff wool grogram coats he wore. The term ‘grog’ soon began to mean watered down drink itself. When you were drunk on this grog, you were ‘groggy’, a word still in use today.” 
I remember that one particular brand of beer Becks had been so domesticated that when my Uncle called for his Abeke I knew where to go and bring her! 
Now to go back to that abiding puzzle mentioned in the case of the automobile and aeroplane industries, which is still to be resolved in the industry of brewing of beer. What is the correct alcoholic content to make beer the best beer can be? Whoever can discover that formula would have done in beer brewing what the automobile and aeroplane industries have done for the pleasure car and the aircraft? Brewers have reduced the alcohol content drastically to create Beer Lite. At other times brewers have increased the alcohol content to hasten intake and effective inebriation! And there has been non-alcoholic beer as well. 
 
In the rest of this presentation I wish to look at the health benefits of each one of these versions of beer: the non-alcoholic, the lite and the high alcoholic content. But let me sound a note of warning. All cultures preach one particular central virtue over and above every other virtue. 
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In terms of drink, “to drink moderately is to drink within the limits set by your health, the society in which you live and your obligations towards your family and friends: this means 1 – 3 drinks a day for most men. </div>
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Women are more sensitive to alcohols, so they are advised to drink less than men: 1 – 2 drinks a day.” This amounts to a quarter litre glass having between 4 and 5 per cent alcohol 10g by volume. This approximates to beer lite.</div>
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Alcohol and the natural raw materials from which beer is brewed are good to drink and are also good for the health. They are not health risks when taken moderately. Foods and drinks consumed by human beings contain both bad fat and good fat. When alcohol is consumed there is an increase of good fat. This is the fat that the body can easily convert to energy. Bad fat has a habit of sitting at the neck or at the guts or anywhere else that would give it space. Alcohol does not contain this bad type of fat.</div>
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There is also medical evidence that alcohol consumption has a blood thinning effect and this leads to the reduction of the tendency of blood to form clots. As we know now blood clots prevent the flow of blood to the heart and the brain thus causing massive heart attacks. It is also true that moderate alcohol consumption reduces the inflammation of the inner linings of the nerves as well as a lower level of insulin resistance. Any alcohol, whether sourced from beer or wine or any other beverage, protects the heart. How much and how often must be governed by the rules of moderation spelt out earlier. </div>
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The consumption of beer with a meal is considered a better way rather than drinking on an empty stomach.</div>
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Specifically, there are some illnesses and diseases which can be prevented, minimised or completely prevented by the consumption of alcohol. Some of these are Diabetes Mellitus, weakening of the bones (osteoporosis) as a result of the increase in blood of oestrogen associated with alcohol consumption in women. Others are Dementias which is the decline of cognitive ability with the advance of age. Parkinson’s disease, Gallstones and Kidney stones are other illnesses.</div>
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These illnesses and diseases are helped by the presence of flaveroid and silicon, minerals present in beer. Moderate consumption of alcohol creates a feeling of well-being, reducing stress and tension.</div>
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Moderate consumption of beer for health effects:</div>
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Beer drinking can make a positive contribution to a healthy diet because of its wholesome raw materials used in brewing beer. These natural raw materials are cereals, hops, yeast and water. </div>
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There are soluble fibres derivable from the cell walls of barley which are good for human health. All these natural materials contain antioxidants, vitamins especially of the B variation, silicon and fibre. Beer generally on the average is 93% water. As a result beer is a thirst quencher of the first order with low alcohol. Research on alcohol-free beer has shown that these benefits are also present as well. This would mean that it is not only beer that has alcohol content that gives these benefits. So, beyond alcohol, the potential beneficial effects of the natural ingredients of beer are likely to apply to non-alcoholic beer.</div>
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Going further on barley’s soluble fibre, two glasses of beer contains in average 10% of the recommended daily intake of soluble fibre. Some beers can provide up to 30% of this food item. Fibre slows down digestion and absorption of food and reduces cholesterol levels.</div>
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Cholesterol as we all know or should know helps the risks of heart disease.</div>
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People who drink beer have protection from bacterium helicobacter pylori, a bacterium known to cause the majority of stomach ulcers and may be a risk of stomach cancer.</div>
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Depending on style and process of brewing antioxidants present in beer from malt (barley) and hops as ingredients can be high or low. It is generally believed that antioxidants may play a role in the protection against cancer through their action against free radicals. Antioxidants also inhibit blood clotting.</div>
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Vitamins and Minerals:</div>
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Present in beer and various forms of vitamin B: macin, riboflavin (vitamin B2) pyroduxine (vitamin B6) folate (vitamin B9) and cabolamin (vitamin B12).</div>
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Some of the minerals present in beer are high potassium, low sodium, low calcium and rich magnesium which protects against gall stones and kidney stones formation. Silicon intake is associated with healthy bones.</div>
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Hops:</div>
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Small quantities of the flower from hops are used to preserve beer as well as to flavour it. Beer is the only dietary source of hops and flavonoids found in hops helps to fight cancer.</div>
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Beer does not contain fat or cholesterol and it is low in free sugar. Any calories which beer contain, comes from the alcohol content. And as mentioned earlier research into non-alcoholic beer shows that the benefits derivable from beer with alcohol are also found in beer without alcohol.</div>
</div>

Beyond alcohol, benefits of drinking beer

Let me commence this contribution to this historical conference on #Beer and the Healthy Lifestyle by expressing my gratitude to organisers...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

National Health Service And The English Reformation

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                                                                BRITAIN 
As #politicians squabble over England’s ailing health service, the bureaucrats have offered some promising medicine. 
<img src="https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1506652_669786183135272_687468939484660627_n.jpg?oh=1b3b2594b8bc01b0dbcd8c12c7c53bb3&oe=551EFECD" /> 
 
A SENIOR Conservative politician once described England’s beloved National Health Service (NHS) as “the closest thing the English have to a religion” (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own services). Yet, as with many religions, passionate devotion can often stand in the way of serious analysis. Public discussion is too often reduced to an absurd competition about who can express support for the institutions of the NHS in the most unqualified terms, says Stephen Dorrell, a former Conservative health secretary. Anyone who tries to introduce nuance “quickly finds out what it must have felt like to be regarded as a heretic in a more religious age”. 
 
With a general election looming, all parties want to look righteous, and are not thinking critically. The Labour Party, most trusted by voters to run the NHS, wants to make it the primary issue. The Tories, though supportive of the service, don’t want to talk about it. Whichever party succeeds stands a better chance of winning in May. But the result is an unholy mess. 
Advertisement 
Tight budgets and increasing demand from Britain’s greying population have put the NHS under huge strain. 
 
But unlike other departments, forced to cut and reform, it lacks a clear consensus and firm direction on how it should adjust to straitened times. National targets for waiting times and length of stay in hospital do not necessarily lead to better care. Emergency wards are clogged and the money is about to run out. 
Yet 
the 
NHS 
wastes 
over 
£2 
billion 
($3.3 billion) 
a year on expensive or unnecessary treatments, like overprescribed drugs and pointless X-rays, according to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. 
 
While politicians, afraid of being accused of heresy, make timid suggestions, Simon Stevens, the NHS’s innovative new boss, has offered his own ideas for reform. 
NHS spending is up 3.6% in real terms since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government came to power in 2010, according to the King’s Fund, a think-tank. Even so, the service is struggling to hold itself together. 
 
Occasional cash injections have helped it cope with an increase in patients. But with 3m people still waiting for care, the highest total in six years, more is needed. Even if spending keeps up with inflation, the NHS claims its budget may fall short by £30 billion a year by 2021. 
 
The Conservatives’ main move has been to back away from their own reforms, passed in 2012, which increased competition, gave health officials more autonomy and handed control over the purchase of care to groups of local doctors. Never understood by voters, these are now seen as a political disaster. But some aspects—like experiments in integrating services and moving care out of hospitals—deserve support. Labour, meanwhile, wants to merge the NHS with “social care”—looking after the elderly, disabled and mentally ill—which is run by local authorities and is also cash-strapped. That is a laudable goal, but it would probably involve another reorganisation and huge cost. So would a plan by Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, to take the service back in time by favouring NHS providers over private competitors for contracts. 
 
Spending on non-NHS services ticked up slightly, to 9.5% of net NHS expenditure in the last financial year, according to Reform, a think-tank. 
Otherwise, the parties have simply promised to throw more money at the problem. 
 
<img src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10394814_669786189801938_1464098608433129609_n.jpg?oh=a4e342618ba6a0f09a8590875ff3992b&oe=55139252&__gda__=1428098916_5689cba02f94379c37ba28b3a2a09184" /> 
 
Labour says it would boost the NHS’s budget, which sits at £110 billion, by £2.5 billion a year if it wins the election. 
 
The Conservatives say they would continue with real-term increases, which have averaged £1 billion a year under this government. The trouble is neither of these pledges would come near to closing the funding gap, nor would they maintain the current rate of spending when accounting for the ageing population (see chart). The longer-term trend is yet more worrying. England spends just over 6% of national income on the NHS. If this continues the share would rise to 20% and account for half of government spending by 2061. 
 
Defenders of the NHS have had suspicions about Mr Stevens ever since he started work in April. He arrived from UnitedHealth, a private American health-care firm. Before that, he worked on Tony Blair’s pro-market health reforms. 
 
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Recognising that advocating change to the NHS is inevitably political, he has stepped carefully. Nevertheless the five-year plan he published last month looks to change the service in a big way.</div>
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Mr Stevens reckons he can save £22 billion a year by 2021 through curbing hospital admissions and limiting demand for services. This would involve better public-health efforts, but also a major restructuring of existing institutions to break down barriers between family doctors and hospitals, physical and mental health, and health and social care.</div>
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For this he will rely on local efforts, but he has given officials a menu of models from which they could choose. These include allowing hospitals more freedom to provide primary care and helping them to support care homes to prevent emergency admissions. Others involve allowing local doctors to provide some services normally done in hospital and getting smaller hospitals to team up and share administrative costs.</div>
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The plan is politically astute. It does not mention competition or privatisation, which raise hackles. But many of its ambitions can be achieved only through greater use of the private sector, says Thomas Cawston of Policy Exchange, a centre-right think-tank.</div>
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Mr Stevens also calls for consolidating services, pointing to how 32 stroke units in London were reduced to eight, with positive results. He does not suggest closing facilities, though officials may have to. Nor does he propose ending favourable contracts for staff, or consider controversial user charges and higher taxes to make up the remaining £8 billion gap.</div>
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Mr Stevens has so far avoided any big fights, but he will face resistance from entrenched interests.</div>
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 <img src="https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10421570_669786186468605_4559747395126718732_n.jpg?efg=eyJvbGF0IjoxNjB9&oh=35059bdb72061aae27d696510a2d40b8&oe=54D7351F" style="background-color: transparent;" /></div>
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Take the situation in Bedfordshire, where the group responsible for purchasing services has bundled 20 contracts for musculoskeletal care into one that was won by Circle, a commercial health group. Mr Stevens is supportive of such agreements to integrate services. But the local NHS hospital has so far refused to work with Circle, lest it lose customers (ie, patients) and upset its balance-sheet, on which hospitals are, in part, judged.</div>
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For now, though, it is perhaps enough that Mr Stevens has pleased the politicians. Labour and the Tories continue to spar over the NHS, but both parties have expressed support for his plan. He will need it. </div>
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Past </div>
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attempts </div>
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to </div>
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reform </div>
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the </div>
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system </div>
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have </div>
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failed. </div>
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The difference this time, says Mr Stevens, is that the NHS has little choice.</div>
</div>

National Health Service And The English Reformation

BRITAIN As #politicians squabble over England’s ailing health service, th...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com

MARRIAGE

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A bad #marriage can literally break your heart, especially if you’re a woman 
<img src="https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/63954_669874669793090_388642207810552670_n.jpg?oh=761b653c71bba263d904485a98082241&oe=551C2604" /> 
 
Yes, love is grand and can heal all wounds, as they say. But bad marriages can do just the opposite. People in unhappy marriages are at a much higher risk for heart disease than people in more joyous unions, according to a first-of-its kind study released this week. 
"Married people seem healthier because marriage may promote health," said lead study investigator Hui Liu, a Michigan State University sociologist. "But it's not that every marriage is better than none. The quality of marriage is really important." 
 
That negative effect on cardiovascular health was even more pronounced for women and older adults, as found in the National Institutes of Health-funded study published this week in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 
 
It's one of the first to take a nationally-representative sample of adults and examine the impact of marriage quality on heart health over time. 
Liu and researchers combed through five years of data taken from 1,200 adults in their late 50s to 80s, and determined respondents' heart health, measured by factors such as heart attacks, strokes and cholesterol levels. 
 
They then compared heart health to how these adults said they felt about their marriages. Wives and husbands (who were not married to each other) answered questions about how close they felt to their spouses, 
how 
happy 
their 
marriages 
were, 
 and how demanding and critical they felt their spouses were. 
 
Both negative and positive marital qualities were taken into account as "some people really love each other and have a lot of happiness, but at other times they may have a lot of arguments," Liu said. But the bad was more powerful than the good; Liu found that negative martial qualities hurt a spouse's heart health more than positive qualities helped. 
Being in an unhappy marriage can cause stress, which has a direct link with cardiovascular health. And those effects accumulate. "It's not like you have contact with your spouse and the next day you have heart disease," Liu said. "It really takes time. That may explain why it's stronger for older people. Your body will remember the effect." 
 
Such marriages can also push you toward unhealthy and harmful habits, like drinking a lot or smoking. 
But why is it that women were hurt even more by unhappiness in a marriage? Liu said it's possible that women are more likely to internalize their feelings, feel depressed and be more sensitive than the men in their relationships. They also found that when women were sick with heart disease, it lowered the quality of a marriage, but not when men were sick. Liu said women are more likely to serve in a care giver role for their sick husbands and be more sensitive to not exacerbating stress, but husbands may not be as sensitive about the relationship when their wives are sick. 
 
Heart health isn't only thing Liu and her team are interested in exploring; next they'll look at the impact of marriage quality as it relates to diabetes, and the health dynamics within couples themselves. 
So while a lot of marriage counseling may focus on younger couples, the study authors emphasize that older couples would be wise to pay attention to the qualities of their marriages, too. Their hearts may very well depend upon doing so.</div>

MARRIAGE

A bad #marriage can literally break your heart, especially if you’re a woman Yes, love is grand and can heal all wounds, as they say. B...

francisjohnsonofficial@Gmail.com