Who among the seven longest serving African leaders will be deposed next?
By Isaac Esipisu
Several African leaders watching news of the death of Africa s longest serving leader are wondering who among them is next and how they will leave office.
Three of the ten longest serving leaders have fallen this year  Ben Ali of Tunisia ruled for 23 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt ruled for 30 years and the longest, the Brother Leader of Libya ruled for 42 years  all gone in the last six months.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (32), Jose Santos of Angola (32), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (31), Paul Biya of Cameroon (29) and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (25), King Mswati III of Swaziland (24), Blaise Campore of Burkina Fasso (24) and still going strong, and must be wondering whose turn is next.
Teodoro and Jose Santos take the number one spot as the longest serving Presidents with 32 years of ruling Equatorial Guinea and Angola respectively and from what has happened in Africa this year and to Gaddafi this week, it is a post neither of them would be proud off right now.
Although the revolts have so far been limited to North Africa, increasingly there are protests against regimes in other African countries. Whether triggered by economic conditionsÂfood and fuel prices, poor job opportunities or service delivery failures, the mass protests are becoming important and have forced policy changes. Slowly but surely, these revolutions are heading south and, unless Africa Âs long-serving leaders pave the way for inclusive governance and relinquish their power, they are increasingly likely to face the same fate as the North African ones.
Despite the reign of democratic governance in Africa , some leaders have clutched to political power for decades, using state instruments to prolong their regimes against constitution provisions.
Unfortunately, when the leaders manipulate and abuse their positions to stay in power, they still find support from Western governments even though democratic governance is supposed to be the core of their engagement with African nations. This is not only hypocritical but is also sends the wrong signal to Africans across the region.
However, the recent events in Egypt , Tunisia and Libya should show sub-Saharan African leaders that Western government support will not insulate autocratic regimes from the demands of their people. For the long-serving leaders in Africa , clinging to power is no longer wise. They would be well-advised to announce their intention to step down before they are forced out of leadership by their citizens. Likewise, treating leadership as a Âright or as family property is no longer a viable strategy. It will no longer be acceptable to the African people.
Voluntary exit from power is a great contribution to a country and goes a long way to avert the fate that has befallen leaders in North Africa. Rupiah Banda of Zambia is a good example of such a leader who gracefully accepted defeat this year.
Who among the seven will be deposed next and how will they go?
Who among the seven longest serving African leaders will be deposed next?
By Isaac Esipisu
Several African leaders watching news of the death of Africa s longest serving leader are wondering who among them is next and how they will leave office.
Three of the ten longest serving leaders have fallen this year  Ben Ali of Tunisia ruled for 23 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt ruled for 30 years and the longest, the Brother Leader of Libya ruled for 42 years  all gone in the last six months.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (32), Jose Santos of Angola (32), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (31), Paul Biya of Cameroon (29) and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (25), King Mswati III of Swaziland (24), Blaise Campore of Burkina Fasso (24) and still going strong, and must be wondering whose turn is next.
Teodoro and Jose Santos take the number one spot as the longest serving Presidents with 32 years of ruling Equatorial Guinea and Angola respectively and from what has happened in Africa this year and to Gaddafi this week, it is a post neither of them would be proud off right now.
Although the revolts have so far been limited to North Africa, increasingly there are protests against regimes in other African countries. Whether triggered by economic conditionsÂfood and fuel prices, poor job opportunities or service delivery failures, the mass protests are becoming important and have forced policy changes. Slowly but surely, these revolutions are heading south and, unless Africa Âs long-serving leaders pave the way for inclusive governance and relinquish their power, they are increasingly likely to face the same fate as the North African ones.
Despite the reign of democratic governance in Africa , some leaders have clutched to political power for decades, using state instruments to prolong their regimes against constitution provisions.
Unfortunately, when the leaders manipulate and abuse their positions to stay in power, they still find support from Western governments even though democratic governance is supposed to be the core of their engagement with African nations. This is not only hypocritical but is also sends the wrong signal to Africans across the region.
However, the recent events in Egypt , Tunisia and Libya should show sub-Saharan African leaders that Western government support will not insulate autocratic regimes from the demands of their people. For the long-serving leaders in Africa , clinging to power is no longer wise. They would be well-advised to announce their intention to step down before they are forced out of leadership by their citizens. Likewise, treating leadership as a Âright or as family property is no longer a viable strategy. It will no longer be acceptable to the African people.
Voluntary exit from power is a great contribution to a country and goes a long way to avert the fate that has befallen leaders in North Africa. Rupiah Banda of Zambia is a good example of such a leader who gracefully accepted defeat this year.
Who among the seven will be deposed next and how will they go?
Scientists crack Black Death’s genetic code
The work, which involved extracting and purifying DNA from the remains of Black death victims buried in London’s “plague pits,” is the first time scientists have been able to draft a reconstructed genome of any ancient pathogen.Their result — a full draft of the entire Black Death genome — should allow researchers to track changes in the disease’s evolution and virulence, and lead to better understanding of modern-day infectious diseases.Building on previous research which showed that a specific variant of the Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) bacterium was responsible for the plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, a team of German, Canadian and American scientists went on to “capture” and sequence the entire genome of the disease.”The genomic data show that this bacterial strain, or variant, is the ancestor of all modern plagues we have today worldwide. Every outbreak across the globe today stems from a descendant of the medieval plague,” said Hendrik Poinar, of Canada’s McMaster University, who worked with the team.”With a better understanding of the evolution of this deadly pathogen, we are entering a new era of research into infectious disease.”Major technical advances in DNA recovery and sequencing have dramatically expanded the scope of genetic analysis of ancient specimens, opening up new ways of trying to understand emerging and re-emerging infections.Experts say the direct descendants of the same bubonic plague still exist today, killing around 2,000 people a year.A virulent strain of E. coli bacteria which caused a deadly outbreak of infections in Germany and France earlier this year was also found to contain DNA sequences from plague bacteria.For this study Poinar’s team analysed skeletal remains from Black Death victims buried in London’s East Smithfield “plague pits,” which are located under what is now the Royal Mint.By focusing on promising specimens from the dental pulp of five bodies, which had already been pre-screened for the presence of Y. pestis, they were able to extract, purify and enrich the disease’s DNA and at the same time reduce the amount of background non-plague DNA which might interfere.Linking the 1349 to 1350 dates of the skeletal remains to the genetic data allowed the researchers to calculate the age of the ancestor of Y. pestis that caused the mediaeval plague.Poinar, whose work was published in the journal Nature, said the team found that in 660 years of evolution, the genetic map of the ancient organism had only barely changed. “The next step is to determine why this was so deadly,” he said.Johannes Krause Of Germany’s University of Tubingen, who also worked on the study, said the same approach could now be used to study the genomes of all sorts of historic pathogens.”This will provide us with direct insights into the evolution of human pathogens and historical pandemics,” he said in a statement.
HK student says Jobs tribute logo not copied
But Mak added that he was unaware of the design by Raid71 when he posted his tribute on the Internet, which spread like wildfire in cyberspace on Thursday after Jobs died.It drew hundreds of thousands of posts, and commemorative caps and T-shirts peddled on eBay featured his design. The logo was even used by Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher as his Twitter profile picture.Mak, a student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University School of Design, acknowledged he was not the original creator of the design.”I didn’t rip off his work,” Mak told Reuters. “I still arrived at the solution on my own, and my conscience is still clear, but I’m more than happy to acknowledge the fact that somebody did it before me.”Like Mak’s design, the UK-based designer fits Jobs’s silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo. But the dimensions and proportions of that design differ from Mak’s logo.Jobs, who created revolutionary products and reshaped the way the world approaches computing and personal communications, died on Wednesday at the age of 56.
