http://www.baystatebanner.com/natl18-2012-06-21

Community Voices: The black immigrant and the 21st century black struggle

Dedrick Muhammad

The term "African American" has become a catchall to describe black Americans in the United States. But it obscures the more nuanced realities of black immigration to the United States.

Black immigrants, whether they hail from Latin America, the Caribbean or the African mainland, often come to the United States to escape poor conditions and find economic opportunity. As this nation struggles with immigration reform, the black immigrant community will play a prominent role in developing a socially just immigration policy.

About eight percent of black immigrants are Afro-Latino. Many Spanish-speaking countries have massive Afro-Latino populations, including Brazil, Columbia, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba. These Latinos are diverse not only in their history and background but also in their struggles, and their reasons for migrating to the United States vary. However, the majority of them make the move to seek better economic opportunities for themselves and for their families.

Afro-Caribbeans also immigrate to the United States to seek expanded opportunity. The term applies to people with African ancestry whose native countries are located in the Caribbean. The first wave of Afro-Caribbean voluntary migration to the United States began in the 1930s and has continued to this day. According to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, this growth can be attributed to "the increasing economic hardship and disenchantment in the British West Indies and the simultaneous expansion of the U.S. economy with its relatively high wages and growing employment opportunities."

Finally, the rate of African immigration to the United States has steadily increased. According to figures from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the number of African immigrants to the United States more than quadrupled in recent years, from just over 100,000 in the 1960s and 1970s to more than 500,000 in the 1980s and 1990s.

Today's African migrants are increasingly interested in establishing permanent residency in the United States, a stark contrast to immigrants from the 1960s and 1970s who often intended to return home and contribute to nation-building efforts after acquiring an American education.

It is no coincidence that black immigration to the United States greatly increased after the 1960s, whether from the Caribbean, Latin America or Africa. Just as blatant racially discriminatory laws in the United States limited the progress of African Americans throughout the history of the United States, blatant racially discriminatory immigration policies limited the numbers of people of color who could legally immigrate to the United States.

The great influx of black immigrants in the latter half of the 20th century is largely attributed to the liberalizing of immigration policies that occurred during the height of the civil rights movement. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, one of the lesser-known civil rights bills from that era, ended the national origins quota system and opened the door for large-scale Asian, African and Latin American immigration.

Over the last 50 years, the children of black immigrants have become a growing part of the African American population. This can be seen in the election of the first African American president, himself the son of an African immigrant.

The diversity of the black community will continue to grow in 21st century America. As we continue to make advances against racial inequality in the United States, the connection between today's black freedom struggles will necessarily be connected to immigration and immigration policy.

Dedrick Muhammad is the senior director of the NAACP Economic Department.

In pictures: Tel Aviv's African migrants

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2012/06/2012617235121526442.html

In pictures: Tel Aviv's African migrants - In Pictures - Al Jazeera English

Fresh uncertainties face thousands seeking a better life, as Israel launches a crackdown with a view to deport them.

The Israeli government has in recent weeks started rounding up hundreds of migrants for eventual deportation. A first batch of 127 people from South Sudan (out of some 1,500) were flown home last Sunday after they had agreed to return for a free plane ticket and 1,000 euros ($1,250).

But in a hectic political climate, the Binyamin Netanyahu-led coalition government is tasked with processing some 10,000 other Africans from countries that would accept deportees under legal agreements, like Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. Some migrants from these countries have already been arrested in the current sweep.

Yet the biggest challenge by far is dealing with the estimated 50,000 "infiltrators" from Eritrea (around 40,000) and Sudan (mostly from Darfur) - who cannot under international law be sent home due to the risk of persecution. Those from Sudan could face the long arm of the law for fleeing a war-torn region for Israel, an enemy state.

And the Eritreans, though their government has relations with Israel, would reportedly face jail time for having evaded military service - despite the fact that most of them are economic migrants. Some contend that they deserve political asylum for having escaped a repressive regime in Asmara.

The Israeli government is about halfway through construction of a long fence along the Egyptian border in Sinai to prevent the migrants from entering at the tail end of the Bedouin smuggling routes. With several thousand streaming in each month, the government has even suggested the possibility of another fence along the Jordanian border to keep out those who cross the Gulf of Aqaba.

The current plan is to host tens of thousands of migrants in tent cities at several detention facilities, mostly in the desert near Eilat, where many migrants enter the country and where many currently reside. The bulk of African migrants live around South Tel Aviv, in poor areas of the coastal city near the central bus station - neighbourhoods like Hatikva, Shapira and Yad Eliyahu.

Migrants typically are registered with three-month permits which do not legally allow them to work, even though most are involved through a tacit loophole in low-skilled labour - construction, food sector and domestic work.

Political opposition to the migrants has been most vocal from the Israeli right, from figures such as Eli Yishai, Danny Danon and Miri Regev, who notoriously labelled the Africans a "cancer". The threat has been framed in terms of a perceived increase in criminal acts such as rape, public health concerns and the demographic risk posed by foreigners who are not of Jewish background.

The migrants are mostly impoverished and have put a significant strain on resources in certain urban areas of Israel. But many have opened up thriving small businesses that cater largely to members of their communities - internet cafes, ethnic eateries and hair salons.

While the diverse black African immigrant population is lumped together by political rhetoric, the predominantly Christian and Tigriniya-speaking Eritreans do not always get along with the Arabic-speaking and Muslim Sudanese from Darfur. But Israel is geopolitically aligned with Darfur, since there is common cause against Khartoum.

Generally, while Israel is not interested in providing for this population in the long term, especially given rising racial tensions, there are vocal migrant advocacy groups such as Hotline for Migrant Workers and African Refugee Development Center.

http://www.imemc.org/article/63588

African Immigrants in Tel Aviv Attacked by Racist Israeli Mobs

According to an eyewitness report by a volunteer with the Hotline for Migrant Workers in Israel, "After a dose of racial incitement from the Members of Knesset who addressed them, Miri Regev, Danny Danon, Yariv Levin and Michael Ben-Ari, a handful of the protesters went on to attack Africans and stores owned by them in the Hatikva neighborhood. I arrived in the neighborhood with a camera to document what had happened."

The eyewitness, identified as Elisabeth Tsurkov, said, "I saw a policeman protecting a group of Eritrean refugees after one of the family members was attacked with a glass bottle while carrying his son, who as a result was dropped to the ground...I saw the blood of a Sudanese refugee on the pavement after he was stoned by a group of Israelis chasing him. I saw a shop owned by an Eritrean refugee, which was looted after its storefront was broken."

The string of attacks comes in the midst of increasing incitement against the non-white Israeli population, including indigenous Palestinian citizens of Israel and African immigrants into the country, by Israeli politicians and party leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently stated that the African immigrants, many of whom are refugees from war-torn regions, "threaten Israel's social fabric", and called for the implementation of policies that would refuse them services, deny them entry, and force the deportation of many who are living in Israel already.

In Tsurkov's account of the events of the last few days, she wrote, "Some [of the Israeli attackers] called the refugees "cockroaches", a woman said they should be killed and exterminated because non-Jews should not exist in the land of Israel, another of the residents said the refugees' heads need to be cut like chickens, others simply thought "they should be deported back to Sudan." The hatred was also directed at the "leftists" whom the residents blamed for the encroachment of refugees in their neighborhood."

The Hotline for Migrant Workers called on the Israeli government to take responsibility for the situation of migrant workers in Israel, and allow for a legal process for refugees to be allowed to seek asylum in the Jewish state – a status which is currently denied to non-Jews.

http://www.thegrio.com/money/kenya-is-becoming-a-geothermal-powerhouse.php

Kenya becoming a geothermal powerhouse

Kenya has become one of the world's leading countries in the exploration of geothermal energy. The country is now one of the world's top ten geothermal producers and plans to significantly increase output over the next five years.

The primary source of energy will be harnessed from hot steam in East Africa's Rift Valley, and could power Kenya many times over. Drilling for wells that run deep into the earth's surface in remote regions has attracted serious investment to the area.

Managing Director George Percy at Cluff Geothermal, a UK start-up, says that prospects in Kenya are promising. "The resource, by all indications, is fantastic and we certainly believe that in time, East Africa really could become a global leader in geothermal output."

This new source of energy is forecast to meet 30 percent of the country's electricity needs in the next 15 years. With a population of 38.4 million, Kenya's demand for electricity is growing. Access to energy is critical to the reduction of poverty, economic growth, industrialization and the country's agricultural development.

Kenya's geothermal production could push the African nation to a mid-economy country, pulling the nation out of an economic situation that has kept it from critical development and access to global economic development.

Follow Caryn Freeman on Twitter at @CarynFreemanDC

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/africa-to-get-its-own-web-domain-2012-05-21

Africa to get its own web domain

A project to establish a continental top-level domain for Africa is gaining momentum, with UniForum South Africa set to know by July whether its application has been successful.

UniForum, South Africa's .za central registry, was appointed to establish and operate the domain on behalf of Africa, said director Neil Dundas.

The dotAfrica project was promoted and led by the African Union Commission (AUC) and supported by over 40 African governments.

UniForum said registration cost $185 000 for each domain and held a $25 000-a-year maintenance fee. The company had earmarked about $1.3-million for the project.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers received over 2 000 applications for generic top-level domains since opening the first wave of applications three months ago. Applications for further registrations were closed.

A steering committee, which comprised a number of individuals and organisations, was leading and developing the dotAfrica application and launch.

The steering committee was established as a precursor to the dotAfrica Foundation, which would be launched as soon as the domain went live.

The foundation would, besides other beneficiation functions, use surplus funds from the sales of domain names under dotAfrica to further build the continent's registrar market and oversee a number of projects and initiatives relating to the African Internet and domain name industries.

Currently, all countries in Africa, with the exception of Kenya and South Africa, held less 10 000 country domain websites, while Kenya, with the .ke domain, had about 20 000 subscribers. South Africa, with domains such as .org.za and .co.za, had over 800 000 subscribers.

With the implementation of .Africa, Uniforum aimed to attract over 100 000 new subscribers over the next three years.

Further, UniForum applied for .joburg, .durban, and .capetown domains in light of increasing competition between international cities to brand themselves. The city domains would be operated under the current, established .za domain.

The company was currently in consultation with the three cities, and, while the Durban and Cape Town governments were still deciding whether they would apply for a domain name, Johannesburg was already on board.

UniForum said a domain name would be charged at $18 a year for a .Africa domain, and between R100 and R150 a year for a city domain name.

The company hoped to launch the domains for public registration in February or March next year.

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/content/tncms/live/

Report: Little progress in racial health disparities

Health disparities between blacks and whites in categories including maternal deaths and advanced-stage breast cancer diagnoses are worsening, while only a handful of disparities related to race, ethnicity or income showed significant improvement between 2002 and 2008, a new federal report shows.

Among the few bright spots in the 2011 National Healthcare Disparities Report by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is cardiac care, with data showing that blacks received better quality care than whites for more than half of cardiovascular measures.

For example, blacks had a lower rate of hospital deaths from heart attacks than whites. And blacks with congestive heart failure were more likely than whites to receive an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, a medication to help heart function, when they left the hospital.

For other conditions, such as cancer and diabetes, blacks typically had worse outcomes than whites.

Overall, the report shows that blacks received worse quality care than whites on 41 percent of 182 quality measures, while Hispanics received worse care than whites on 39 percent of 171 quality measures.

Still, small gains are giving federal officials some hope that progress will be made in years ahead with implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"For the first time, we are starting to see that — while most disparities are persistent and aren't going away — we are seeing some improvement in a tiny minority of measures," said Ernest Moy, medical officer for AHRQ's Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. "There is a little bit of good news embedded in that."

Carolyn M. Clancy, director of AHRQ, said she was hopeful that the health care law's provisions would "reduce health disparities identified in the report and help achieve health equity."

The congressionally mandated disparities and quality reports, which AHRQ has produced annually since 2003, are based on over 40 different national sources that collect data regularly. The 2011 reports include about 250 health care measures.

Among the findings in the new disparities report:

- Between 2000 and 2007, the overall rate of breast cancer deaths significantly decreased, from 27 to 23 per 100,000 women. Improvements were observed among all racial and ethnic groups except American Indians and Alaska Natives. But in all years, black women had higher breast cancer death rates than white women. Hispanic women had lower rates than non-Hispanic white women.

- Among adults ages 40-64 with diagnosed diabetes, non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics were less likely than whites to receive the recommended services for diabetes. Blacks and Hispanics also had higher rates of end-stage renal disease due to diabetes than whites.

- Black and Hispanic children had higher rates of emergency department visits for asthma than non-Hispanic whites, an indicator of a lack of preventative care.

- Among nursing home residents, blacks and Hispanics were more likely to suffer from pressure ulcers or bed sores. Nursing homes can help to prevent or heal pressure sores by keeping residents clean and dry and by changing their position frequently or helping them move around.

- In 2008, blacks and Asians were less likely than whites to have a usual primary care provider. The percentage of people with a usual primary care provider also was significantly lower for Hispanics than for non-Hispanic whites. Low-income and middle-income people were significantly less likely than high-income people to have a usual primary care provider.

The full report is available here: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr11/nhdr11.pdf.

This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (www.c-hit.org).

NationalJournal.com - Study: Children From Black Immigrant Families on Rise - Tuesday, May 15, 2012

http://mobile.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/demographics/study-children-from-black-immigrant-families-on-rise-20120515

Study: Children From Black Immigrant Families on Rise

By Doris Nhan | Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 6:05 a.m.

Children of immigrant families from Africa and the Caribbean made up about 12 percent of the black population in the U.S. in 2009, according to a report released in April.

The growing population of children from black immigrant families represents an overall rise of immigration by African and Caribbean families to the U.S., increasing by 92 percent between 2000 and 2009.

As children from African and Caribbean immigrant families gain a larger share, the black youth population also becomes increasingly diverse, according to the report, which was conducted by the Migration Policy Institute.

Proportionally, immigrants from the sub-Saharan are one of the largest-growing immigrant groups, says Michael Fix, the vice president and director of studies at MPI.

In general, black immigrant parents had higher levels of education and English proficiency and were more likely to be employed.

Children in these families were similarly well educated from the start: They had the second-highest rate of prekindergarten enrollment, second only to children from Asian families.

"The stereotypes that people hold both about immigrants and about blacks are not easily supported upon close analysis of the data," Fix said.

He said that children of black immigrant families tended to fare better than children from Hispanic families or children of black families, but that drilling down to country of origin helps to better understand how well—or worse off—they are.

For example, families from countries that had a longer immigration history with the U.S., such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Jamaica, tended to have higher advantages. Families from countries with a high number of refugees, such as Haiti, Somalia, and Sudan, tended to inherit more risks.

Close to 47 percent of black children from immigrant families are from the Caribbean; African immigrants make up about 39 percent.

The majority are concentrated on the East Coast—22 percent in New York and 18 percent in Florida. The percentage drops steeply from there—New Jersey, Maryland, and Georgia round out the top five states with about 5 to 6 percent each.

Brazil's census offers recognition at last to descendants of runaway slaves

When Jorge Moreira de Oliveira's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather arrived in Brazil in the 18th century he was counted off the slave-ship, branded and dispatched to a goldmine deep in the country's arid mid-west. After years of scrambling for gold that was shipped to Europe, he fled and became one of the founding fathers of the Kalunga quilombo, a remote mountain-top community of runaway slaves.

On Wednesday last week, more than 200 years later, it was Moreira's turn to be counted – this time not by slavemasters but by Cleber, a chubby census taker who appeared at his home clutching a blue personal digital assistant (PDA).

"I'm Kalunga. A Brazilian Kalunga," Moreira told his visitor from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, who diligently noted down details about the interviewee's eight children, monthly income and toilet arrangements.

Such is Brazil's 2010 census – a gigantic logistical operation that aims to count and analyse the lives of more than 190 million people in one of the most geographically and racially diverse nations on earth.

The scale of the mobilisation is staggering. With a budget of around 1.677bn Brazilian reais (£600m) the census, which began on 1 August, will peer into approximately 58m homes in 5,565 municipalities across 8,514,876 sq km (3.3m sq miles). Between now and the end of October around 190,000 census takers will venture into illegal goldmines, sprawling slums, high-security prisons, indigenous reserves and quilombola communities such as Engenho II, travelling by motorbike, donkey, canoe and plane.

But for people such as Moreira, the census is about more than number-crunching. For the Kalunga, descendants of slaves shipped to Brazil from places such as Angola, Mozambique and Ivory Coast, it is a chance, finally, to be counted, heard and helped by a government that has long ignored them.

"The federal government has to know that we exist – what we do, what we have," said Moreira, a 42-year-old subsistence farmer, who attributes recent improvements in his community, including the arrival of roads, electricity and a school, to Brazil's last head-count, in 2000. "Before, we were totally forgotten. Now equality is coming through the census and the interviews."

Identity

"It is a question of identity," said Ivonete Carvalho, the government's programme director for traditional communities. "When you assert your identity you are saying you want [government] action and access to public policies. [The census] is a fantastic x-ray."

The Kalungas' fight for recognition is part of a wider movement for racial equality in Brazil, a country with deep roots in Africa but where Afro-Brazilian politicians and business leaders remain few and far between. According to Carvalho, only one of Brazil's 81 senators is black, despite the fact that Afro-Brazilians represent at least 53% of the population. The last census found that fewer than 40% of Afro-Brazilians had access to sanitation compared with nearly 63% of whites.

Just as descendents of Brazil's runaway slaves are finding their voice – and telling the census takers about it – so too are Brazil's officially black and indigenous communities swelling as a growing number of Brazilians label themselves "black" or "indigenous" rather than "mulatto" when the census takers come knocking.

"People are no longer scared of identifying themselves or insecure about saying: 'I'm black, and black is beautiful,' " Brazil's minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, told the Guardian.

For the first time in Brazilian history, this year's census will map out the different indigenous languages spoken in Brazil and register the number of same-sex relationships. It will also ask people their "ethnicity" – a thorny issue in a country that has long regarded itself as a racial melting pot and the rainbow nation of the Americas.

Since president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came to power in 2003, increasing steps have been taken to bridge the social chasm between Afro-Brazilians and their white counterparts. A ministry for racial equality has been created and university quotas introduced. The Brasil Quilombola programme, which aims to provide basic social services to thousands of slave descendants, has been rolled out across the country.

Engenho II, a village that is home to around 4,500 "Brazilian Kalungas" and was officially recognised by the government in 2009, has been one of the communities to benefit from the cause's new visibility.

Calamitous

"It was pretty calamitous here before," said Cerilo dos Santos Rosa, the territory's 56-year-old leader. "We didn't have roads, or energy. We'd have to take our produce to town on donkeys or on our backs."

The Kalungas also hope that their land will soon be formally demarcated by the government, with plans to offer compensation to landowners who leave the area, around 320km from Brazil's capital, Brasilia.

Not everybody is enthusiastic about the government's sudden engagement with quilombola communities. Some claim the arrival of brick houses, cash-transfer programmes and roads will irreparably damage their culture and create divisions between them and other communities. Others speculate that the government simply wants access to the abundant mineral resources buried under this sparsely populated savannah region.

Local people, however, are united in their praise for Lula's attempts to create what he calls a Brasil para todos – "Brazil for all".

"Lula has been a great example. He was the first president to visit our community," said Rosa, a father of 11 and grandfather of 29 who credits the president with building 40 brick homes and 93 toilets in the territory.

Government officials defend their attempts to offer "contemporary" life to some of the country's poorest, most isolated citizens.

"Cultural preservation has to be our objective … but giving quality of life to families that live in such remote places is also part of the mission," said Ferreira, the racial equality minister. "We have to value their culture but also the economic support that will give them social benefits."

Carvalho, herself born into a quilombola community in southern Brazil, said the government had finally started paying "an historical debt" to those whose forefathers were "wrenched from their motherland".

Brazil's excluded, she said, were increasingly willing to stand up and be counted. "I'm here. I'm me. I'm not ashamed of my history."

"The progress is slow but it is progress," said Moreira, sat beside his shack's rickety wooden door, bearing the chalked words: "God in first place."

"Before, the government didn't care if we existed or not. Today things are different. Today we all have to be registered. We have to appear. That's the only way things will get better."
Census facts

• In 1872, when the first Brazilian census was conducted on the orders of Emperor Dom Pedro II, the population was divided into free people and slaves, who represented 15% of the population.

• Just 1.8% of the 1872 population were considered "rich" – 23,400 families. In 2000 that figure had risen only slightly to about 2.4%.

• The following census, in 1890, found that 83% of over-fives were illiterate. By 2000 this had fallen to 17%.

• Brazil's population has more than doubled in 50 years, from 71 million in 1960 to more than 190 million today.

• 734,000 Brazilians identified themselves as "indigenous" in the 2000 census.

• This year, more than 7,000 data centres will compile information from about 225,000 PDAs.

The Challenges of Recruiting Africans for Graduate Programs

April 4, 2012, 3:29 pm

By Guest Writer

The following is a guest post by John D. Holm, the former director of the Office of International Education and Partnerships at the University of Botswana and director of international programs at Cleveland State University.

Universities in the United States appear eager to enroll more Africans in their graduate programs. Last month a group of administrators from American institutions, including Ohio University and University of Cincinnati, visited Botswana to explore partnerships, which could bring students from the sub-Saharan country to their campuses. In general, universities see African students as a way to diversify their classrooms and, at the same time, help fix Africa’s massive shortage of locals with graduate degrees.

While most Africans are too financially strapped to study abroad, a number of African economies are starting to take off. As a result, an increasing number of families in countries such as Botswana, the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and South Africa can afford an education in the United States, without the need of scholarships.

However, according to the latest figures from the Council of Graduate Schools, applications to American graduate programs from African students for the fall of 2012 declined 5 percent. While Africans consider an American education one of the best in the world, there are several obstacles that keep them from applying.

In particular, two policies are part of the problem–using GRE scores for admission evaluation and that American institutions require much more classroom time than universities elsewhere. Thus, Africans heading to graduate school often see Australia, Britain, Canada, and France as more attractive.

As director of international education for four years at the University of Botswana, I was keenly aware of these two concerns. The university paid for staff development fellows to go overseas for their advanced degrees, but they frequently avoided going to America–and that trend continues today.

One barrier is the mandatory use of Graduate Record Exam for admission evaluation. Most of the rest of the world evaluates students for graduate school on their undergraduate academic record (usually transcripts). The GRE by contrast is a one-time test of a student’s overall verbal, mathematical, and analytical reasoning. Africans perceive quite rightly that they will need considerable coaching and study to do well on this type of exam since it is foreign to their previous academic experiences. Those who already have a good record, not surprisingly, are reluctant to take on the extra effort required to do well on the GRE.

Further compounding the problem is that in parts of Africa the math section of the GRE is intimidating. Some African cultures do not value the mathematical thinking found on the test (i.e. algebra and geometry) and many school systems have not rigorously countered this problem. As a result, a considerable number of Africans score low on the math section.

A second deterrent to African interest in American graduate programs is that our degrees take longer to complete than ones in Europe and elsewhere. Many more classes are required, and then students must pass comprehensive exams, some sections of which may have to be retaken in case of failure. Thus, a master’s degree with thesis can end up being two years rather than the one year as is the case in the rest of the world. The doctorate can be even longer.

American graduate schools wanting to recruit Africans need to confront both of these concerns. For one, they should find alternative assessments to the GRE. Two options are likely to be helpful, especially in combination. One is to require that applicants who have not taken the GRE submit a scholarly paper which demonstrates verbal and analytical skills and, where appropriate, mathematical abilities. The applicant’s instructor would need to certify that the paper was his or her work.

The other option is for a university to encourage their faculty members doing research or teaching in Africa to be on the lookout for potential graduate students. Faculty members can solicit recommendations from their African colleagues, enlist potential African graduate students on research projects, and explore the possibility that a local university’s staff development fellows might have an interest in furthering their education in the United States. In short, American universities need to become proactive in recruiting African students.

American universities must also confront the length of time required for graduate degrees. Probably the most significant step would be to allow African graduate students to return to their home countries for thesis research and writing after finishing their comprehensive exams. With Skype and e-mail now widely available in African countries, adequate communication with thesis advisers is feasible—and with some special training before they return home, doable. Such an approach would also insure that African graduate students are working on problems relevant to their countries.

African universities themselves could advertise their graduates by publishing a list of a small number who are the best prepared for advanced work. They could send these lists of potential graduate students to institutions that have a special interest in recruiting Africans.

Such efforts, of course, will not reduce all the barriers facing Africans who want to earn an American degree. But a better understanding by American university officials of the two obstacles discussed here can help increase the number of Africans studying on their campuses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/world/africa/mali-rebels-to-impose-islamic-law.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Mali: Rebels to Impose Islamic Law

The Islamist rebel faction that seized control of the northern city of Timbuktu over the weekend has said it will impose Islamic law there, local officials said Wednesday. The Ansar Dine rebels, who took advantage of a power vacuum after a coup last month to seize the town, made the announcement at a meeting of the city's imams on Tuesday. The group's leader, Iyad Ag Ghali, said that women would be required to wear veils, thieves would be punished by having their hands cut off and adulterers would be stoned to death, according to local officials and a radio journalist. Ansar Dine is one faction of the Tuareg rebels, who also have a secular faction.

Off-Duty NYPD Auxiliary Cop Shot to Death in Brooklyn - DNAinfo.com

http://www.dnainfo.com/20120404/canarsie-mill-basin/man-shot-death-brooklyn

Off-Duty NYPD Auxiliary Cop Shot To Death In Brooklyn Updated 2 Hrs Ago

By Trevor Kapp and Wil Cruz

DNAinfo Staff

BROOKLYN — A churchgoing off-duty NYPD auxiliary cop who had two young sons was shot to death on a Canarsie street Wednesday morning just blocks from his home, police sources and a relative said.

Francky Aleger, 39, a Haitian immigrant who worked at Mount Sinai Hospital, was found by a passerby lying on the street at East 95th Street and Glenwood Road, about 10 blocks from his home, shortly after 6 a.m., police said.

He suffered a gunshot wound to his back and was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where he died, police said.

"He was the best brother," said Alan S., 25, who identified himself as Aleger's brother. "He did everything for me, took care of me.

"He took me in," added the man, who asked not to be identified. "He was even a father figure."

Police sources said Aleger was an auxiliary police officer with a Manhattan precinct, though they would not say which one.

But Alan said his brother worked in the 13th Precinct, which covers Murray Hill and the Flatiron District.

Aleger was married and had two young sons, who are 6- and 8-years-old, Alan said.

"They know, but they don't understand the magnitude of what happened," he said. "They're young. There's not much you can really tell them."

Aleger worked at Mount Sinai Hospital as a support associate in the maternity ward, said a co-worker.

"Anything you need, he's the man to ask," said Abigail Caesar, 36, a business associate at the hospital who worked with Aleger.

"This is a man that didn't deserve this," she added. "I can't believe it."

Friends and relatives said Aleger, who worked a 7 a.m. shift and walked along Glenwood Road to the Canarsie Parkway train station, was likely on his way to the hospital when he was shot.

No one has been arrested and the motive was not immediately clear.

Aleger, who emigrated from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1994, was a parishioner at nearby Our Lady of Miracles, Alan said.

"Anytime the church would be open, he'd be there. That was his thing," he said.

Neighbor Emile Auguste said attending church was a family affair for Aleger.

"He would always go to church with his wife and children," she said. "They were always together."

The victim's brother said Aleger wasn't a troublemaker and didn't live the type of lifestyle that would end in such a violent death.

"He wasn't a violent person," the man said. "He didn't have beef with nobody.

"He was soft-spoken," he added.

http://m.voanews.com/english/Chinese-President-to-Inaugurate-New-African-Union-Headquarters-137374063.html

Chinese President to Inaugurate New African Union Headquarters

Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to visit Addis Ababa this month to inaugurate a new African Union headquarters financed by China and built largely with Chinese labor.  The project was launched when Moammar Gadhafi was maneuvering to move Africa's diplomatic capital to Libya.

Official African Union and Ethiopian sources confirm that President Hu will be in Addis Ababa January 28 to open what is being called "China's gift to Africa."  The inauguration ceremony will be held the day before African heads of state hold their January meeting at AU headquarters for the first time.

According to custom, African heads of state meet every January in Addis Ababa. But the summit previously has been held at the city's United Nations conference center because the AU headquarters building was too small.

Construction of new facility began in June 2009, when Addis Ababa's position as Africa's diplomatic capital was in doubt.  The city has been home to the continental body since its founding, largely due to the influence of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, who was one of the driving forces behind creation of the Organization of African Unity in 1963.

Africa Review - African Union finally launches Pan-African university

http://www.africareview.com/News/African+Union+finally+launches+Pan+African+university/-/979180/1290060/-/uexjcrz/-/

African Union finally launches Pan-African university

The African Union Thursday launched a Pan-African University as part of its strategy to speed up regional integration.

At a ceremony in Addis Ababa, the organisation announced five regional universities that will host the different fields of studies of the continental institution.

In the arrangement, South Africa will host the space science component of the university with oil rich Algeria hosting the college of water and energy sciences.

Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is expected to take in the study of basic sciences, technology and innovation.

Nigeria's University of Ibadan will host the college for life and earth sciences.

Representing the Central Africa region is the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, that has been offered the school for governance, humanities and social sciences.

To ensure coordination and smooth operation of the different components will be the AU Commission for Human Resources, Science and Technology.

Mooted in 2005, the Pan-African University is designed to boost education standards, science and technological innovations across African to facilitate faster regional integration and development.

----

Mosi Ifatunji, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Department of Sociology and

Carolina Population Center

155 Hamilton Hall, CB#3210

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210

Office: (919) 843-6466

Fax: (919) 962-7568

Cell/text: (312) 607-2825

Email: ifatunji@unc.edu

Twitter: @ifatunji

Web: http://sociology.unc.edu/

          http://www.cpc.unc.edu/

          http://www.ifatunji.com/

"Power concedes nothing without a demand."

                         - Frederick Douglass, 1857

http://bikyamasr.com/50659/israel-okays-funding-to-block-african-migrants/

Israel okays funding to block African migrants

 

Israel-Egypt border in the Sinai Peninsula.

CAIRO: The Israeli government on Sunday voted unanimously to launch a $160 million program to curtail illegal African migrants ability to enter the country from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The program will boost the country's ability to build a large border fence and will also expand a detention center able to hold thousands of new illegal arrivals.

The move comes after many in Israel have expressed anger at the large number of Africans, mainly from Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, entering the country through the Sinai. Since 2006, the Israeli government estimates that approximately 50,000 Africans have entered southern Israel.

Those in opposition to the migrants claims of asylum argue they are not Jewish and have left an economic and social burden on Israel.

However, others believe the government is moving toward a Nazi-style policy that would turn people away who are facing persecution or genocide, but this community remains in the minority in Israel.

Addressing the Cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the increasing number of migrants is "a national scourge."

Netanyahu, like other officials, said the overwhelming majority of infiltrators are not refugees escaping persecution, but instead "have come to Israel seeking better economic opportunities."

"If we don't take action to stanch this illegal flow, then we will simply be inundated," he said.

The prime minister said he would look into repatriating a number of the eonomic migrants during visits to Africa in the coming year.

The program also comes in response to what Israeli officials say is poor border security by Egyptian police, which often result in the shooting of Africans. In early December, one African was shot dead by Egyptian police and two others wounded when they attempted to enter Israel.

Many African migrants try to cross to Israel every year through Egypt's Sinai Peninsula seeking a better life.

Egypt's border security has been repeatedly criticized for its "shoot first" strategy in dealing with migrants attempting to cross into the Jewish state, as they often do not issue verbal warnings first and fire at the Africans.

Africans in Egypt complain of poor living conditions and bad treatment at the hands of their host nation. Many see Israel as the next best solution for their troubles and are willing to risk death to reach the Jewish state, refugees in Egypt have repeatedly said.

Ali, a Somali refugee in Cairo, told Bikyamasr.com that living in Egypt is "one of the worst things I have experienced in my life." He points to racism and lack of opportunities as the main hardships.

He was the victim of police's heavy hand in Egypt a few years ago when he and two roommates were held in connection with the murder of an elderly man in their building. According to Ali, the two Somali men and one woman were detained for 9 months without charge and were "tortured on a regular basis." He says life is hard.

"I know a lot of people who would rather risk being killed on the border than continue to sit around Cairo and be faced with all these troubles because of our status. We can't even work," he said.

Dozens of Africans have been shot dead by Egyptian police in recent years, as refugees and migrants continue to complain of poor treatment and conditions inside Egypt.

BM

Tags: Africans, Border, featured, Israel, Migrants

Section: Egypt, Features, Human Rights, Latest News, Palestine

http://peoplesworld.org/

Obama administration reverses Bush policy on affirmative action

Affirmative action, the policy designed to assist historically under-represented minority groups and women with access to university admissions, has received an important boost from the Obama administration.

On Friday, the Department of Education jointly with the Department of Justice issued a new Guidance on the Voluntary use of Race to Achieve Diversity in Post-secondary Education.

The new guidelines reverse anti-affirmative action policies adopted by the Bush administration that forbad any use of "quotas"  emphasizing instead so called "race neutral solutions."

"Post-secondary institutions can voluntarily consider race to further the compelling interest of achieving diversity," says the guidelines.

Bush's rule stressed limitations on the use of affirmative action. By way of contrast the Obama policy opens the door of possibility again to achieving diversity by considering race and ethnicity as one of several considerations in admissions. In this regard the New York Times writes, "The guidelines focus on the wiggle room in the court decisions."

In place of the Bush measures, which resulted in a steep drop in minority admissions in top universities, with the new framework "the Obama administration has aligned itself strongly with the right of colleges to consider race and ethnicity in admissions decisions," writes Inside Higher Education.

Dr. Gerald Horne, author of Reversing Discrimination: The Case for Affirmative Action,  said the Obama policy "is a step back from the precipice to which Bush (and the high court) led us. It is a significant step forward, particularly given the political constraints."

In 2003, the Supreme Court in rulings involving the University of Michigan, rolled back the use of race and ethnicity.

Now, the Department of Education and the Justice Department say that universities seeking diversity may include consideration of high schools attended, including cases in which the class population is mostly minority, mentoring programs aimed at minority students, and high schools who partner with historically black colleges, among other factors.

While acknowledging the use of some race neutral admissions programs, the new policy  says schools need not be bound by them. "Institutions are not required to implement race-neutral approaches if, in their judgment, the approaches would be unworkable," the guidelines argue. The document continues, "In some cases, race-neutral approaches will be unworkable because they will be ineffective to achieve the diversity the institution seeks. Institutions may also reject approaches that would require them to sacrifice a component of their educational mission or priorities (e.g., academic selectivity)."

The Supreme Court may hear a new challenge to affirmative action at the University of Texas in the spring, placing it in the middle of the presidential election campaign.

Photo: Creative Commons 2.0

Al-Qaida offshoot hopes to turn Africa's Sahel region into a 'new Somalia'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/08/al-qaida-maghreb-sahel-new-somalia

Al-Qaida offshoot hopes to turn Africa's Sahel region into a 'new Somalia' | World news | The Guardian

An offshoot of al-Qaida is working to turn the whole of Africa's Sahel region into a "new Somalia" and terrorist bases there pose a growing threat to European and pan-African security, a panel of experts has warned.

Jerome Spinoza, head of the Africa bureau in the French ministry of defence, said the sub-Saharan Sahel area, up to 1,000km wide and stretching from the Atlantic in the west to the Red Sea in the east, presented challenges that western policymakers ignored at their peril.

"Instability is on the rise," Spinoza told the Chatham House thinktank in London on Thursday. "Without a meaningful policy, the area could constitute a lasting safe haven for jihadists."

Robert Fowler, a former UN special envoy to Niger and Canadian diplomat who was kidnapped and held hostage for four months in 2008-9 by al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), said the 31-strong group of captors was well-disciplined and wholly concentrated on its aim of creating an Islamic caliphate embracing the Muslim lands of Africa and the Middle East.

"These men are highly motivated and totally ascetic," Fowler said. "These guys have no needs. They are dressed in rags. They have a bag of rice and a belt of ammunition and that's it. I was held in 23 different locations in about 70 days. They are organised. They can break camp in under four minutes."

Fowler continued: "This was the most focused group of young men I have ever encountered in my life. They are totally committed to jihad. They said to me, 'We fight to die, you fight to go home to your wife and kids. Guess who will win?' Even if it takes 200 years … They want to turn the Sahel into a new Somalia."

Fowler said the terrorist threat to Europe's southern flank had risen after advanced weapons were plundered during the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. "They (AQIM) are now equipped with enormous amounts of Libyan weapons and I mean sophisticated weapons such as 20,000 [shoulder-mounted] SA-24 missiles, heavy mortars, heavy artillery and thousands of anti-tank mines … The UN has demanded they be handed over. Well, good luck with that."

The Sahel region embraces southern Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, southern Algeria, Niger, northern Nigeria, Chad, South Sudan and Darfur in western Sudan, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Spinoza said a host of critical issues faced the region going beyond terrorism. They included recurring rebellions by nomadic Tuareg tribesmen, some of whom were armed by and fought as mercenaries for Gaddafi in this year's Libya conflict, cocaine trafficking to Europe from the west African coast, and people and arms smuggling.

The region was also confronted by rapid population growth, weak and ineffective governance, inter-state tensions, poor access to education and employment, and increasingly acute food supply problems exacerbated by climate change and the southward advance of the Sahara desert, he said.

AQIM was exploiting the resulting instability, he suggested, spreading its influence south from Algeria and raising the prospect of transcontinental link-ups with Boko Haram militant Islamists in Nigeria and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Spinoza called for a joined-up approach by the international community, suggesting interested countries including France, the Netherlands and the US needed to coordinate their policies with regional and local players. "The EU's strategy for security involves development, rule of law and (non-military) security but the EU needs to be more concrete," he said.

Speaking this week, Kristalina Georgieva, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid crisis response, said the Sahel was likely to experience severe food shortages next year because of erratic rainfall and localised dry spells.

Seven million people were already facing shortages in Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, she said. Current trends pointed to a massive problem of food availability next year.

The European commission last month increased humanitarian funding to the Sahel by €10m (£8.5m) to a total of €55m this year. Niger and Mauritania have already declared a crisis, prepared national action plans, and appealed for international help.

At the eastern end of the Sahel arc, 13 million people remained in need of emergency help and the crisis there was expected to last until the spring and perhaps the summer of 2012, Georgieva said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h8havjXTiK43TjdWSUSm4taWZCQw?docId=e5fddd7e67b64309b8b1bc598bf6720d

Death penalty dropped against Mumia Abu-Jamal

By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press – 2 hours ago 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Prosecutors have called off their 30-year battle to execute former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal for murdering a white police officer, putting to an end the racially charged case that became a major battleground in the fight over the death penalty.

Flanked by the police Officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision Wednesday, just two days short of the 30th anniversary of the killing. He said continuing to seek death penalty would open the case to "an unknowable number of years" of appeals.

"There's never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982," said Williams, the city's first black district attorney. "While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs."

Abu-Jamal was convicted of fatally shooting Faulkner on Dec. 9, 1981. He was sentenced to death after his trial the following year.

Abu-Jamal, who has been incarcerated in a Pennsylvania prison, has garnered worldwide support from those who believe he was the victim of a racially biased justice system.

His writings and radio broadcasts from death row made him a cause celebre and the subject of numerous books and movies. His own 1995 book, "Live From Death Row," describes prison life and calls the justice system racist and ruled by political expediency.

Abu-Jamal, a one-time journalist, garnered worldwide support from the "Free Mumia" movement. Hundreds of vocal supporters and death-penalty opponents regularly turn out for court hearings in his case, even though Abu-Jamal is rarely entitled to attend.

The conviction was upheld through years of legal appeals. But a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing after ruling the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in on the case in October. That forced prosecutors to decide if they wanted to again pursue the death penalty through a new sentencing hearing or accept a life sentence.

Williams said he reached the decision to drop the death penalty bid with the blessing of Maureen Faulkner, who said another sentencing hearing would undoubtedly be just the beginning of another long, arduous appeals process.

"Another penalty proceeding would open the case to the repetition of the state appeals process and an unknowable number of years of federal review again, even if we were successful," Williams said. He also said that after nearly three decades, some witnesses have died or are otherwise unreliable.

Widener University law professor Judith Ritter, who represented Abu-Jamal in recent appeals, applauded the decision.

"There is no question that justice is served when a death sentence from a misinformed jury is overturned," Ritter said. "Thirty years later, the district attorney's decision not to seek a new death sentence also furthers the interests of justice."

According to trial testimony, Abu-Jamal saw his brother scuffle with the young patrolman during a 4 a.m. traffic stop in 1981 and ran toward the scene. Police found Abu-Jamal wounded by a round from Faulkner's gun. Faulkner, shot several times, was killed. A .38-caliber revolver registered to Abu-Jamal was found at the scene with five spent shell casings.

The officer's widow, Maureen Faulkner, has tried to remain visible over the years to ensure that her husband is not forgotten. They were 25-year-old newlyweds when he died.

"My family and I have endured a three-decade ordeal at the hands of Mumia Abu-Jamal, his attorneys and his supporters, who in many cases never even took the time to educate themselves about the case before lending their names, giving their support and advocating for his freedom," Maureen Faulkner said Wednesday. "All of this has taken an unimaginable physical, emotional and financial toll on each of us."

Abu-Jamal, born Wesley Cook, turned 58 earlier this year.

His message resonated particularly on college campuses and in the movie and music industries — actors Mike Farrell and Tim Robbins were among dozens of luminaries who used a New York Times ad to advocate for a new trial, and the Beastie Boys played a concert to raise money for Abu-Jamal's defense fund.

Over the years, Abu-Jamal has challenged the predominantly white makeup of the jury, instructions given to jurors and the statements of eyewitnesses. He has also alleged ineffective counsel, racism by the trial judge and that another man confessed to the crime.

Maureen Faulkner railed against what she called the justice system's "dirty little secret" — the difficulty of putting condemned killers to death. Pennsylvania has put to death three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, and all three had willingly given up on their appeals.

Faulkner lashed out at the judges who overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence, calling them "dishonest cowards" who, she said, oppose the death penalty.

"The disgusting reality with the death penalty in Pennsylvania is that the fix is in before the hearing even begins," she said.

Faulkner also vowed to fight anyone who tries to extract special treatment for Abu-Jamal, advocating instead that he be moved to the general population after being taken off death row.

"I will not stand by and see him coddled, as he has been in the past," Faulkner said. "And I am heartened that he will be taken from the protective cloister he has been living in all these years and begin living among his own kind — the thugs and common criminals that infest our prisons."

Both sides have events planned to mark the anniversary of Faulkner's death and Abu-Jamal's subsequent arrest.

Supporters of Abu-Jamal, including Princeton professor Cornel West, have a symposium planned Friday at the National Constitution Center for the man they call an "innocent revolutionary and celebrated journalist."

Maureen Faulkner, Williams and others involved in the prosecution will gather in suburban Philadelphia to mark the anniversary this week for a screening of the anti-Mumia documentary by Philadelphia filmmaker Tigre Hill.

Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15766840

Brazil 2010 census shows changing race balance

16 November 2011 Last updated at 20:48 ET

Despite a decade of progress, poverty is still widespread in Brazil

For the first time, non-white people make up the majority of Brazil's population, according to preliminary results of the 2010 census.

Out of around 191m Brazilians, 91 million identified themselves as white, 82m as mixed race and 15m as black.

Whites fell from 53.7% of the population in 2000 to 47.7% last year.

The once-a-decade census showed rising social indicators across Brazil as a result of economic growth, but also highlighted enduring inequalities.

The census was conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

"It is the first time a demographic census has found the white population to be below 50%" it said in its report.

The number of people identifying as black rose from 6.2% to 7.6%, while the number saying they were of mixed race rose from 38.5% to 43.1%.

Among minority groups, 2m Brazilians identified themselves as Asian, and 817,000 as indigenous.

Advances

Much of the census data released reflects the progress Brazil during a decade of sustained economic growth and government policies aimed at reducing poverty.

Between 2000 and 2010:

• Adult illiteracy fell from 13.6% to 9.6%. Among children aged 10-14, illiteracy fell from 7.3% to 3.9%
• The proportion of children not attending school fell from 5.1% to 3.1%
• The fertility rate fell from 2.38 children for each woman to 1.86
• Access to mains drinking water, electricity and sanitation increased nationwide

However, in almost all fields of human development the census revealed enduring inequalities between north and south Brazil, between urban and rural areas, and between rich and poor.

The IBGE highlighted "acute income disparity" in Brazil, with the richest 10% of the population gaining 44.5% of total income compared to just 1.1% for the poorest 10%.

It said more than half of the population earned less than the minimum wage and, on average, white and Asian Brazilians earned twice as much as black or mixed-race Brazilians.

Brazil is one of the most ethnically-diverse countries in the world and many Brazilians regard their nation as a "racial democracy" where there is little overt racism.

Nonetheless black Brazilians - the descendants of African slaves brought over during Portuguese colonial rule - are much more likely to be poor and rarely reach the top levels of business or politics. 

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/nov/14/brain-scans-measure-racial-bias/

Brain scans measure racial bias

Researchers at Yale Law School have discovered that brain scans may better predict jurors' racial bias than previously established methods of testing.

In a new study published in the journal Social Neuroscience last week, Yale researchers studied the correlation between compensation in employment discrimination cases and brain activity during tests for racial bias. The study concluded that functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans may better predict verdict size than the traditional tests. The results may be significant to the developing field of neurolaw in providing a way to ensure an unbiased jury — a Constitutional requirement — but outside psychologists said the study's significance is limited by its small sample size.

"This is a novel result, obtained with novel methods," Tony Greenwald '59, professor of psychology at University of Washington, wrote in an email to the News. He added that the researchers established a new method to analyze the fMRI results which looked at the entire brain instead of just specific "regions of interest."

Researchers asked study participants to match images of black and white faces with positive, negative, and neutral adjectives, according to varying sets of rules. For example, they might be told to match all "black faces and positive adjectives" as quickly as possible.

In the Implicit Association test (IAT), which has been used since the 1990s to reveal subconscious biases, researchers measure the reaction speed with which participants match the faces and adjectives such as "good" or "bad", with a longer reaction time signifying a bias against associating the two terms. For example, a subject biased against blacks might take longer to match a black face with a positive adjective.

The fMRI measured the neural activity of participants while taking the test, tracking changes in blood flow across brain regions. Researchers then correlated these results with the money subjects awarded victims of employment discrimination in theoretical cases.

The study found that the variation in fMRI brain imaging results had a higher correlation with the verdict sizes than the IAT test result variation did.

"Our study demonstrates that fMRI measures might have more predictive value than commonly used behavioral measures such as the implicit association test." Marvin Chun, professor of psychology and co-author of the study, said in an email to the News.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on racial grounds and provides discrimination victims a judicial means of redress through the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, which can file lawsuits on behalf of employees. The monetary compensation is often determined by a jury, and the verdict size may be influenced by the conscious and subconscious biases of the jurors, said Harrison Korn '11 LAW '14, a co-author of the study. Korn is a former associate managing editor for presentation at the News.

"We are not suggesting that people go out and start scanning jurors, but it does raise the issue that unconscious bias is a problem and we should be looking for ways to counteract it," Korn said.

He added that the high cost of fMRIs — almost $1,000 per participant in this study ­— and the perception of neural scans as invasive make it impractical to scan each potential juror in the jury selection process.

The study emphasizes, however, that the American legal system must provide unbiased juries in order to ensure due process of law. In an email to the News, Director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, Owen Jones LAW '91 said that the while the results of the study will not revolutionize juror selection, they may help researchers to develop better understandings of human bias. For example, in a 2007 New York Times article, Jones suggested that lawyers could use brain scans of potential jurors to exclude those who were unlikely to be sympathetic to their argument.

"Anything that helps us to understand the mechanisms of racial bias might help us to develop better systems for identifying it, combatting it, and minimizing its effects," Jones wrote in the email.

Brian Nosek GRD '02, associate professor of psychology at University of Virginia, said he questioned the "predictive validity" of fMRI studies due to their limited sample sizes, which are often a result of the high cost of brain imaging. After eliminating six subjects because of technical difficulties, the Yale study was comprised of 19 white, non-Hispanic subjects between 18 and 26 years of age.

Other scientists were similarly wary of extrapolating from the results before they were confirmed by larger studies.

"It's a result that needs corroboration by further research before one should venture any confident interpretations." Greenwald wrote.

In fiscal year 2010, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received almost 100,000 reports of employment discrimination.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/nov/10/uganda-electric-car-education

Uganda's first electric car proves the potential of Africa's universities

In an age of technological marvels, it may not be earth-stopping news that young engineers at Uganda's Makerere University have made an electric car. But, as a university professor reminded me, this is big news for Uganda.

Last week, the College of Engineering Design, Art and Technology at Makerere conducted a 4km test-drive on its Kiira EV, a two-seater vehicle that runs on rechargeable lithium batteries instead of petrol. Its makers say that in motorway conditions, the Kiira EV can attain a speed of 100km/h and cover 80km (50 miles) before it needs recharging.

Although the technology has been around for decades, this is the first time anyone in Uganda has been able to part-assemble and part-manufacture a purely electric car, conspicuously green in colour to symbolise its environmental credentials.

However, despite this achievement emanating from one of the world's poorest countries – Uganda ranked 161 out of 187 countries in the 2011 human development index – it has not been without its sceptics and critics. Questions have been raised about priorities, viability and the possibility of prestige projects that have little impact on the lives of the majority.

Nevertheless, at a time when academics and the World Bank continue to urge states to put research at the heart of the African university, Kiira may be a reminder that given the right conditions, great things can flow out of Africa, just like the river Nile, after which the car is named.

"Our training in institutions of higher learning has not brought out a lot of research products. I think this vehicle is a manifestation of a changed paradigm of training in our institutions, to go beyond just lectures and laboratory experiments," said Sande Stevens Togboa, an electrical engineering professor who is overall head of the Kiira project.

Togboa, a deputy vice-chancellor of the university, said the idea for Kiira EV came out of Makerere's participation in the Vehicle Design Summit, an inter-university initiative to build the car of the future. Led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the summit culminated with the building, in 2008, of the prototype Vision 200, a hybrid fuel-electricity car, in Turin, Italy.

"The performance of our students [at the summit] was good," Togboa told me from Kampala. "So we announced that we would come home and build our own car."

But, now that the car has been built –at a cost of $35,000 – what happens next? One of the obstacles to Africa's universities churning out solutions to the continent's many problems is lack of funding, which has stifled ambition. In the case of Kiira EV, it took a combination of that "paradigm shift", and a visit to the university by President Yoweri Museveni two years ago. At a follow-up meeting, Museveni announced a grant of around $10m for the college's research projects over five years. If it had not been for that grant, Togboa said, Uganda's green car might have stalled at the design stage.

"Our funding situation is very poor; funding is the largest part of the problem," Togboa said of the university as a whole. "Another problem is the generations that have gone through university without active research; the younger generation needed to be reoriented."

With nearly 40,000 students, Makerere university's official research budget is about UShs 1.4bn ($540,000) a year, half of which goes to running the school of postgraduate studies, the professor said. However, specific projects in areas such as health sciences, food science and technology, and agriculture are currently benefiting from $3.1m research grants from donor countries such as Norway and Sweden.

According to a 2010 World Bank report, financing for research in Africa has plummeted over the decades. As enrolment in universities has surged, priority has shifted to bottom-line teaching, enough to see one cohort through the gates so another can come in.

"The inadequacy of funding has limited institutions' ability to offer adequate remuneration or to invest in infrastructure, research facilities and equipment, thereby hindering overall research capacity," the report says, pointing out that many universities are steadily losing senior research-oriented staff like Togboa to the private sector.

Some countries, among them South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Ghana, have supplemented conventional state funding for universities with competitive grants earmarked for research.

For Uganda's ambitions to be sustainable, however, it will require a well thought-out policy, rather than the personal curiosity of a leader, as happened with the electric car.

Some critics have questioned the rationale for spending research money on an electric car in a poor agrarian country with an ailing public healthcare system, and where electricity outages are the norm. One cartoon showed the Kiira being pushed by two men apparently because there was no electricity to charge it.

One commentator wrote in the Sunday Monitor newspaper of "white elephants", suggesting the car may be just another prestige project. Makerere will be out to disprove that. It is reportedly already planning to produce a 37-seater electric van.

Another charge is that the Makerere team may simply have got parts and assembled them, which would raise questions of how much of the car was actually made in Uganda.

Togboa admitted that "standard components" like the headlights, wheel, motor and batteries were imported, but, he explained, the chassis was designed and produced locally, as were other parts, such as the firmware, which controls the computerised vehicle's operations. As Makerere's vice-chancellor said at its launch, the Kiira EV is a sign of the university's great potential – making the case for long-term research funding.

• This article was amended on 11 November 2011. In the original, a sentence in the last paragraph read: "Togboa admitted that 'standard components' like the headlights, wheel, mortar and batteries were imported". This should have read "motor". This has now been changed.