Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to reach hurricane status by Wednesday.
CNN is reporting that residents of the Gulf Coast are preparing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Isaac on the anniversary of the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, which decimated the area in 2005. Although Tropical Storm Isaac is supposed to be much calmer than Hurricane Katrina, weather forecasters are projecting that Isaac will reach hurricane strength by Wednesday. Hurricane Katrina was a category 3, killing 1,800 people in the process and causing much of the region to be evacuated and relocated. Isaac is projected to be category 1 with top winds nearing 90 mph. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is not evacuating the city, but has suggested that approximately 900 people living just outside of the levees leave the area.
Tropical Storm Isaac claimed 21 people in the regional area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti and is linked to the death of one person in Puerto Rico.
For more information on Tropical Storm Isaac, please visit the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Do you need to know what to do to prepare for a hurricane? Click here.
Nassali Kiggundu, the new face of Fashion Fair’s “True Finish” mineral make-up line. (Johnson Publishing Co.)
Nsenga K. Burton (Editor-in-Chief of TheBurtonWire.com), editor-at-large for TheRoot.com, had the opportunity to chat with Nassali Kiggundu, Fashion Fair Cosmetics’ new face for their first mineral line, “True Finish.” Kiggundu, who is of Ugandan descent and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA was discovered while working at Starbucks by Johnson Publishing Co. CEO and former White House social secretary Desirée Rogers. “Her natural beauty was mesmerizing, effortless and individual,” said Rogers of Kiggundu, who sports a clean-shaven head. “She is the epitome of the True Finish woman — who celebrates their natural and independent beauty in their own way.”
With this opportunity, Kiggundu joins Cover Girl’s new pitchwoman, Grammy-nominated singer Janelle Monáe, and Solange Knowles, the current face of Carol’s Daughter and Rimmel London, as new spokesmodels representing black beauty and fashion across the globe. In the interview, Kiggundu discusses everything from wanting to become a model in spite of having few role models in magazines that looked like her, how she decided to go for the “big chop,” why black hair is such a sensitive topic in the black community and what’s next for the statuesque beauty. Check out an excerpt from the interview:
TR (Nsenga): When did you decide to sport a bald head?
NK: I cut my hair two Christmas Eves ago because I wanted to change my look. It was part of me wanting a greater change in my life because I had been changing other things, like not having a television. I just wanted to know that I could do things on my own and have my own influences and that it would be OK.
It took me a while to cut my hair because I never thought that I would want or feel comfortable with short hair because of the convention that with hair you’re more beautiful. I have cousins in Uganda who look beautiful with short hair, who were also influences on my style. The less I started caring about conventions, the more I wanted to do something dramatic. It has been liberating. This is me.
Read the interview in its entirety at TheRoot.com.
Nassali Kiggundu, the new face of Fashion Fair’s “True Finish” mineral make-up line. (Johnson Publishing Co.)
Nsenga K. Burton (Editor-in-Chief of TheBurtonWire.com), editor-at-large for TheRoot.com, had the opportunity to chat with Nassali Kiggundu, Fashion Fair Cosmetics’ new face for their first mineral line, “True Finish.” Kiggundu, who is of Ugandan descent and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA was discovered while working at Starbucks by Johnson Publishing Co. CEO and former White House social secretary Desirée Rogers. “Her natural beauty was mesmerizing, effortless and individual,” said Rogers of Kiggundu, who sports a clean-shaven head. “She is the epitome of the True Finish woman — who celebrates their natural and independent beauty in their own way.”
With this opportunity, Kiggundu joins Cover Girl’s new pitchwoman, Grammy-nominated singer Janelle Monáe, and Solange Knowles, the current face of Carol’s Daughter and Rimmel London, as new spokesmodels representing black beauty and fashion across the globe. In the interview, Kiggundu discusses everything from wanting to become a model in spite of having few role models in magazines that looked like her, how she decided to go for the “big chop,” why black hair is such a sensitive topic in the black community and what’s next for the statuesque beauty. Check out an excerpt from the interview:
TR (Nsenga): When did you decide to sport a bald head?
NK: I cut my hair two Christmas Eves ago because I wanted to change my look. It was part of me wanting a greater change in my life because I had been changing other things, like not having a television. I just wanted to know that I could do things on my own and have my own influences and that it would be OK.
It took me a while to cut my hair because I never thought that I would want or feel comfortable with short hair because of the convention that with hair you’re more beautiful. I have cousins in Uganda who look beautiful with short hair, who were also influences on my style. The less I started caring about conventions, the more I wanted to do something dramatic. It has been liberating. This is me.
Read the interview in its entirety at TheRoot.com.
Cynthia Udoka Osokogu was allegedly murdered by a duo she met on Facebook. (Google Images)
Chiemelie Ezeobi of AllAfrica.com is reporting that Cynthia Udoka Osokogu, 24, the daughter of retired Major General Frank Osokogu, was one of a at least six victims who was lured, drugged, raped and robbed by the criminal duo of Okwuoma Echezona Nwabufo and Ezekiel Odera Olisa. According to BellaNaija.com, Osokugu was a post-graduate student at Nasarawa State University. Osokugu had developed a friendship with Nwabufo and Olisa, both university students in Lagos, whom she met online through Facebook. In July, the duo allegedly lured Osokogu from Keffi to Lagos. Once there, the duo allegedly picked her up from the airport, took her to a hotel, drugged, raped, robbed and strangled her.
Osokogu was found dead in the hotel room and her unidentified body was taken to the morgue. Osokogu’s family and friends had reported her missing and had no idea what happened to her as she was last seen July 14. One of the suspects allegedly recently used Osokogu’s cell phone to make a phone call. Authorities were able to trace the call back to FESTAC Town (federal housing estate located along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway in Lagos), which allowed local authorities to find the missing person’s report, identify Osokogu at the morgue and trace it back to the hotel, where they identified the suspects by closed-captioned television film provided by the hotel. The pharmacist who supplied the drugs used on Osokugu and the hotel staff have been arrested.
Subsequently, the suspects have admitted to drugging, raping and robbing other young women at a number of FESTAC hotels. Police paraded the suspects through FESTAC and two other women have subsequently come forward to report being victims of the duo. AllAfrica.com is reporting that the suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Panti, Yaba. Ezeobi reports, “The suspects however maintained that they were not in the criminal act to murder anyone, rather to drug, rape and then disposess them of their belongings.”
Rosa Hernandez, the mother of the pregnant teen who died of cancer speaks to the media. (Google Images)
Rafael Romo of CNN is reporting that the pregnant 16-year-old leukemia patient in the Dominican Republic, who was initially denied medical treatment because of the possible impact on her unborn child, has died. Doctors delayed chemotherapy treatment some 20 days after the teen was admitted to the hospital because doctors worried that treatment might terminate the pregnancy, which is a violation of the Dominican Republic’s anti-abortion laws. Eventually, the girl began receiving treatment but her body did not respond. She later suffered a miscarriage and died from cardiac arrest. The case has become a focal point in the abortion debate because critics maintained that the teen’s life was put at risk for a pregnancy in its 13th week. The girl’s mother Rosa Hernandez believes that the teen’s life should have been spared. Rafael Romo writes:
“At the time the treatment started, Rosa Hernandez, the girl’s mother, said she tried to convince doctors and the Dominican government to make an exception so that her daughter’s life could be saved.” Romo reports that Hernandez said, “My daughter’s life is first. I know that (abortion) is a sin and that it goes against the law … but my daughter’s health is first.”
Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to become Hurricane Isaac later today.
Caribbean 360 is reporting that at 11 a.m., the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has said that Tropical Storm Isaac is moving west at 21 mph with maximum winds of 45 mph. The latest advisory indicated that Isaac was expected to become a hurricane later today. Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the US and British Virgin Islands could also experience heavy flooding, mudslides and rainfall. At 11 a.m., the center of the storm was located near Guadeloupe.
The NHC report said that hurricane watches are in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic. Isaac is the ninth tropical storm of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane season.
Federal University of Rio De Janeiro will have to make more room for mixed-race and black students. (Google Images)
Lucy Jordan of The Rio Times is reporting that the senate in Brazil has passed a bill that will require prestigious federal universities to reserve 50 percent of their admission spots for public school students, and increase the number of spots allotted to black, mixed-race and indigenous students. Jordan writes:
“The law states half of the places reserved will be allocated to students with family income equal to or less than 1.5 times minimum wage, and of these students, priority will be given to blacks, mixed-race and indigenous students, depending on the racial make-up of each Brazilian state, a document from the senate explained. Globo calculated that the law would result in a 128 percent increase in the number of places in Rio de Janeiro’s four federal universities set aside for students of African or indigenous descent.”
The law, which is based on the U.S. model of affirmative action, has been put into place because of the lack of representation of mixed race and Black Brazilians at the country’s public universities and in well-paying professions in society, which is highly problematic in a country where more than 50 percent of its residents identify themselves as being of African origins. Opponents of the plan believe that the law is unnecessary because there was never insitutionalized racism in Brazil and that admisssion should be based on merit, not race.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is expected to sign the bill into law this week. Read more at The Rio Times.
In a piece for The Atlantic entitled, “Fear of a Black President,” Ta-Nehisis Coates waxes poetic about the historical fear and loathing of blacks in America that makes it necessary for President Obama to be “twice as good but half as black,” in order to have some semblance of acceptance in this society. He critiques President Obama’s inability to discuss race although race and racism are impacting many events in society, including Hurricane Katrina, Trayvon Martin and his presidency. Coates’ analysis of President Obama and race is thoughtful, provocative and quite brilliant. Check out an excerpt from Coates’ piece below:
“Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others. Black America ever lives under that skeptical eye. Hence the old admonishments to be “twice as good.” Hence the need for a special “talk” administered to black boys about how to be extra careful when relating to the police. And hence Barack Obama’s insisting that there was no racial component to Katrina’s effects; that name-calling among children somehow has the same import as one of the oldest guiding principles of American policy—white supremacy. The election of an African American to our highest political office was alleged to demonstrate a triumph of integration. But when President Obama addressed the tragedy of Trayvon Martin, he demonstrated integration’s great limitation—that acceptance depends not just on being twice as good but on being half as black. And even then, full acceptance is still withheld. The larger effects of this withholding constrict Obama’s presidential potential in areas affected tangentially—or seemingly not at all—by race. Meanwhile, across the country, the community in which Obama is rooted sees this fraudulent equality, and quietly seethes.”
South Africa’s International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane solidifies business dealings with Eritrea.
IOL News is reporting that South Africa and Eritrea are moving ahead with solidifying ties between the two countries. South Africa’s International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane met with Osman Salih Mohammed, Eritrea’s International Relations Minister in Cape Town on Tuesday to discuss working together to develop business interests, which include mining, railway and tourism infrastructure, agro-processing and solar energy. According to the news item, Nkoana-Mashabane said, “We have signed a declaration of intent, which records our mutual intention to work towards enhancing bilateral relations.” This move is important because of the recent death of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the recent massacre of 34 striking miners by police near Rustenburg. Zenawi’s death may mean that already strained relations with Eritrea will become more difficult ensuring the continued need to seek out business development with other countries. The fallout from the massacre, coupled with the historically low wages and poor working conditions for miners, may mean public opposition to the proposed deals.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died at 57.
Jenée Desmond-Harris of TheRoot.com is reporting on reactions to the death of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi by dignitaries from other African countries. Zenawi, 57, a former rebel fighter, served as Prime Minister for 21 years. He had been suffering from poor health and reportedly had not been seen in public for two months. His death raises many questions about leadership in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia’s tenuous relationship with Eritrea, maintaining peace between Sudan and newly independent South Sudan in which Zenawi played a major role, and the harsh treatment of journalists in Ethiopia. Desmond-Harris, who is attending the ninth annual Sullivan Summit, a conference being held this week in Equatorial Guinea to create conversations about and solutions for Africa’s future, had the opportunity to discuss Zenawi’s death with various attendees, one of whom is conference delegate and Liberian Ambassador to Nigeria (with accreditation to Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Equatorial Guinea and Ecowas), Al-Hassan Conteh, Ph.D. Desmond-Harris reports that Conteh stated:
“[Zenawi] was someone who took the development of his country very seriously. He had participated in African development and was very active in the African Union. And he was relatively young, trying to do things for his country. So it is a very sad event. We had some indication of this when he didn’t participate in the last African Summit. He’s the second African head of state to pass away in a short time, so this is a very sad moment.”
Desmond-Harris also spoke with Yohannes Assefa, an Ethiopian-American who lives in Ethiopia and manages a legal consulting firm. Assefa shared that there are concerns about the Deputy Prime Minister and the impact on businesses. Desmond-Harris writes, “There’s a lot of concern that wealthy business people are taking their money out of Chexsystems. I’m not sure if it’s true. But the world is rife with all sorts of speculation right now …we just don’t know. It’s quite a transition. We’ll have to wait and see,” says Assefa.
