By Okechukwu Okugo A boy rejected in his community as a result of losing his pair of lips to a Chimpanzee attack is now breathing fresh air of relief in America by the activities of the Smile Rescue Fund for Kids. According to abc7ny.com, the 8-year-old boy, whose 4-year-old younger brother died when the African chimps bounced on them, has been brought to U.S. for a life-changing facial surgery at Long Island, New York. Heartmenders Magazine, USA say "Thank you" to Dr. Leon Klempner, founder of the organization, Smile Rescue Fund for Kids. We also thank the Congo Park Rangers for contacting Dr. Klempner who arranged for Dunia Sibomana to come to Stony Brook Children's Hospital for a facial reconstructive surgery. Dr. Klempner who had noted the plight of this boy, said for the past 2 years he had suffered the attack, even daily tasks like eating could be a nightmare for Dunia; since without lips food cannot be held on in the mouth. But it was reported that D...

By Okechukwu Okugo Are you ready to travel? Looking for a last minute place to go for a new year holiday rest? A place where you can run far, far away from the hustles and bustles, the pollution and noise of mega cities in America, Europe, Australia. Asia, South America etc? Do you want to give your spouse or your family a treat they would never forget all the days of their life? Then think Africa. Think Saint Helena, a tropical island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Crossing the Atlantic, half way to Brazil, at the border between Namibia and Angola, there you will find this Island. It has a small population of very beautiful and friendly people, about 4,250. This African "country" is a unique place; being one of the few territories of this world where there has never been a single recorded HIV case; thus an AIDS free place. It is used by the British as a place of exile. The capital is Jamestown and their currency is the Saint Helenian pound. The officia...

By Mr. Aleele Paago Several years back (1988/89) a roadside radio repairer invented a transmitter and could broadcast radio signals to radio sets within a range. He was taken to one of the universities in Eastern Nigeria, where the lecturers in Electrical and Electronics department asked to see his calculations and an explanation how his device works. The young man who never attended school beyond primary school could not talk at their level and even with the evidence right before them, they threw out his invention. He broke out of a box, but "learned men" quickly caged him. They could not understand how he took components from a broken down radio receiver and turned it into a transmitter. They were boxed by knowledge, he was freed by ignorance. In 1600 the learned scientists believed a theory put forward by Aristotle for over 2000 years that the sun and stars revolved around the earth. One scientist, Galileo Galilei had a different view. He posited that the Sun...

Twitter LinkedIn Google+ Email BOOKS Why Africa Isn't Rising 157   DEC 28, 2015 8:00 AM EST By  James Gibney In one of Africa's most celebrated surprises this year, Nigerian voters unseated President Goodluck Jonathan. The election of Muhammadu Buhari defied expectations of electoral fraud and violence, and his anticorruption platform sparked  hopes  for reform and economic growth. Into Africa Yet progress on both fronts has been slow and uneven. To understand why, pick up Tom Burgis's " The Looting Machine ," a bracing look at why a continent blessed with one-third of the world's hydrocarbon and mineral wealth remains mired in poverty and dysfunction. A former Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, Burgis goes beyond the tales of spectacular venality among Africa's "Big Men" -- the world's four longest-serving rulers are in African countries bursting with oil or minerals -- to explain how the conti...

By Okechukwu Okugo Hoverboard, which can best be described as a self-balancing 2-wheel scooter, became a craze in America as a result of spotting many celebrities riding them in public. Ebay  sold more than 5000 units on Black Friday; and also on Cyber Monday, claimed to had sold one hoverboard every 12 seconds, according to www.popsci.com. Thus it is not surprising how it became a must-have 2015 Xmas gift. But if you just received this self-propelled vehicle as a gift, there are 2 main reasons to be genuinely concerned. 1. U.K.'s Trading Standards seized 15,000 unsafe hoverboards after the London Fire Brigade reported that the three house fires within 10 days, were all traced to those trendy wheels according to Yahoo! News. Also it's reported that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission was investigating 10 incidents of hoverboard fires in nine States, according to www.popsci.com Airlines had banned boarding airplanes with them as a precautionary measure, t...

By  HAROLD HECKLE December 25, 2015 12:20 PM MADRID (AP) — Two people drowned and at least 12 others were injured when they tried to get to a small patch of Spanish territory in North Africa by swimming from Morocco and scaling a barbed-wire fence that juts into the sea, Spanish and Moroccan news agencies reported Friday. The dead and hurt were among more than 200 people trying to reach the enclave of Ceuta, which borders Morocco and is across the Strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain. More than a million people hoping to escape war and poverty have made their way into Europe this year, according to migration monitors, but attention has been focused on two more common routes — across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece or across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. Thousands of African migrants also try to enter the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla each year hoping to get to Europe. Fifteen drowned trying to reach Ceuta last year; the two deaths Frid...

By Okechukwu Okugo Africans, from primordial times, were never lazy people. Each day surrounding the hub of activities in the home, were jobs which required physical strength to actualize. Both men and women needed to accomplish a lot of physical tasks lest their families would die of hunger or starvation. For example considering a typical African man in those days, either he's in one of his large acres of farmland with his family cultivating food crop/cash crop; or he would be seen climbing the palm tree to tap the wine or harvest the ripe palm fruits. The palm tree's one of the most important food/cash crops, considering the role its products played in the society. Palm oil is harvested from it. The distinctive red color of African food comes from the use of palm oil in cooking. Almost all African food is cooked with it. The African man also relied on the palm tree to produce some of his building materials. Example was the use of palm leaves for roofing, the pa...

From the Management/Editorial team & Staff Writers of Heartmenders Magazine, USA www.heartmendersmagazineusa.org Heartmenders Magazine, USA sympathize with President Jimmy Carter and the entire Carter family in Georgia on the death of his grandson Jeremy Carter who died at the age of 28. President Carter did announce his death Sunday, 20th of December, 2015 in front of the parishioners in his hometown church in Plains. He had told that Jeremy wasn't feeling well on Saturday when he had gone to "take a nap" at his family home in Peachtree City before he died, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Our special condolence also goes to his parents Jeff and Annette Carter. Jeff is President Carter's youngest son. President Jimmy Carter                                           Photo credit: www.nytimes.com We also wish President Carter more vitality and str...

By Okechukwu Okugo Truly Americans love eatery a lot, most especially fast food. And that is why it can be said that America runs on doughnuts and hamburgers, making companies like McDonald's, Burger King, White Castle, Checkers, Trueburger etc. always have a heyday in business. But in Africa, especially West Africa, in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali and Gambia, for many centuries ago, had been enjoying their own version of hamburgers called Akara. Akara is also eaten in Brazil where it is known as Acaraje. Akara or bean cake is made from peeled beans which is ground, then molded into balls and deep fried in palm oil. It is a sort of fast food usually sold by street vendors who fry it by the roadside. Frying this fast food has played a very significant economic role especially for women many centuries ago and even today. It has helped families survive, as many village and town women relied on frying and selling akara to feed their family. Mainly...

By Okechukwu Okugo Israeli Vice Premier, Silvan Shalom, one of the high-profile members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, following many complaints from several women that he had harassed them sexually, resigned yesterday, Sunday. In recent days, Israeli media have flooded their reporting beam on the issue prompting the country's attorney general to instruct the police to investigate the allegations. The three basic lessons to learn from this development are: 1. It shows the disparity between a third world mentality and first world mentality. Some countries the more their officials are criticized the more the shamelessly consolidate in their office with a thousand and one excuses and defense. A third world country is known by how their officials treat matters of criticism and complaints. Though it is prevalent in Africa, but in many countries in other continents, the more there are complaints surrounding the officials, the more they...

Female CFOs gain in pay, prevalence and prominence at US companies and they now out-earn men By  Sarah Skidmore Sell, AP Business Writer December 18, 2015 7:10 AM Women may be badly outnumbered in the top ranks of corporate America, but at least they aren't underpaid. Compensation for female chief financial officers at S&P 500 companies last year outpaced that of their male counterparts, according to an analysis by executive compensation firm Equilar and the Associated Press. It follows a similar trend seen with female CEOs in recent years. The median pay for female CFOs last year rose nearly 11 percent to $3.32 million. Male CFO pay rose 7 percent, to $3.3 million. This follows several years of steady gains for both sexes. The gains, for both men and women, are in part a result of the expansion of the CFO role to include far more responsibility and visibility. "The CFO is no longer a bean counter," said Josh Crist, managing dire...