Jerusalem News 893. Views, Jews, Ten Tribes News
31 December 2009, 14 Tevet 5770
Contents:
1. New Hebrew Names for Old Stars
2. Tanzania: Who is Defending Albino Killers?
3. PA, Abbas Bless Rabbi's Murderers as "Martyrs"
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1. New Hebrew Names for Old Stars
From the Jerusalem Post
Dec 30, 2009 23:58
Welcome 'Oron' and 'Rahav' to the solar system
By SHARI LIEBLER
The Israeli public, tasked with naming the last two unnamed planets in the solar system - Uranus and Neptune - have risen to the celestial occasion.
At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Wednesday, Uranus (associated with enlightenment) was branded Oron - which ironically means "small light." Neptune (the planet cosmically connected to Pisces) was coined Rahav, meaning "ruler of the seas."
Out of over 100 options, only four names were selected for final consideration by astronomers together with representatives of the Hebrew Language Academy.
Harel Ben Ami, among those responsible for the project, said this selection process was by no means easy and that it took the committee hours to decide from the names nominated.
Some 1,000 people then participated in the online vote to decide which two names, of the four, would be chosen.
Although the public chose Oron and Rahav, Uranus could have also been called Shahak, a name for the skies. So too, Neptune could have been called Tarshish which is identified with sea-going vessels in Jewish literature. As the planets already have Greek mythological names, Israel will have now completed its mission in finishing the job of our ancestors who named the other planets. The six planets closest to the sun have Hebrew appellations: Mercury is known as Hama; Venus is Noga; Earth is Eretz; Mars, Ma'adim; Jupiter, Tzedek; and Saturn is Shabtai.
The remaining two planets, which were discovered only later, have been referred to by their Greek titles until now.
Ben Ami said he had felt it was time "to give basic names to the stars not seen by our forefathers." After his friend Lev Tal Or agreed that it was "a good idea," Ben Ami said he "started moving the wheels of this huge wagon."
The naming was attended by Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson, president of the Hebrew University as well as Prof. Moshe Ben Asher, president of the Hebrew Language Academy. With other esteemed guests present, the event concluded with a viewing of the planets through the telescope of the legendary Albert Einstein. The university maintains the Albert Einstein Archives.
After the final stars were named, Ben Ami said, "We succeeded and it's amazing."
2. Tanzania: Who is Defending Albino Killers?
http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=64605&
Tanzania: Who is Defending Albino Killers?
Date Posted: Monday 23-Nov-2009
By Amri Lugungulo
Dar Es Salaam - THE good relationship between albinos and human rights activists has been strained in recent days. Some albinos complain bitterly saying that some human rights activists ignore their rights and instead defend their arch enemies -- killers who hunt for albino limbs.
The disgruntled albinos allege that the human rights activists defend their foes on the pretext of human rights. What baffled albinos is the logic behind this 'anomaly.' They do not understand why people who do not appear to harbor stone-hard insensitivity for human suffering are defended.
Dozens of witchcraft-related murders of albinos in Tanzania have left the albino living in fear. A recent report in the killings, "Through Albino Eyes," by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), found that around 300 children were hiding in schools for the disabled or emergency shelters in Tanzania.
The children are afraid that hunters employed by witchdoctors could murder them for their body parts. "It has been a crisis for over two years, 56 albinos have lost their lives as a result of killings done by hunters," Matthias Schmale, IFRC Under Secretary General for Development, told journalists at the report launch.
There are 7,000 registered albinos in Tanzania although officials believe actual numbers are higher. According to the IFRC, these albinos are unable to live normal lives due to the threat of murder. The attacks kicked off in 2007 and quickly spread across Tanzania - where the majority of the murders have occurred - and into Burundi.
A lull in the matter led to hopes that the attacks were over, but in late October, hunters beheaded 10-year-old albino boy Gasper Elikana in front of his family in Tanzania, then made off with his leg.
Police in Tanzania, estimate that a complete set of albino body parts - including all four limbs, genitals, ears, nose and tongue - are worth as much as 75 thousand dollars to witch doctors, who use them to concoct portions believed to bring wealth and good luck.
The witch doctors commission people to look for these body parts, according to the police.Tanzania sentenced four men to hang for killing an albino in November.
Albinos lack melanin pigment in their skin, eyes and hair. The condition comes with a host of attendant health factors, poor eyesight and susceptibility to skin cancer among them.
Many albinos living in poverty cannot afford life-saving suntan lotion and the IFRC report found that 98 per cent of Albinos living in Dar es Salaam die by their 40th birthday. Albinos also face discrimination and segregation and are often shunned by their families and communities.
The Tanzanian government has demonstrated its desire to end albino killings. In March, this year, President Jakaya Kikwere urged the public to come forward with any information that might help the government to deal incisively with the problem.
The presidents also called for a ban on witchcraft activities but, so far, many witch doctors are believed to be carrying on with their activities. It is these superstitious activities that triggered albino killings.
Ngeme Luhagula has not had a peaceful night's sleep since she saw her daughter hacked to death before her eyes two years ago. "I have endured the torture of living with that pain ever since. The images come and haunt me every night," she told a journalist at her village home on the shores of Lake Victoria.
Eventually, she could not suppress a smile when she was informed that four men had been sentenced to hang for killing a 50-year-old man - an albino who had the same condition as her 18-year-old daughter, Vumilia.
The men were found guilty of murdering Lyaku Willy and cutting off his head and legs. The verdicts brought to seven the number of people sentenced for killing albinos after the first such convictions last September.
"I want these killers to be hanged in public so that the punishment would act as a lesson and deter other killings," Ms Luhagula said quietly.
Demand for the body parts comes from people looking for magical assistance, from illegal miners looking for help in their search for gold and gems or fishermen who believe that by tying body parts in their nets they will have increased catches.
The murder of more than 50 albinos, some of them as young as six, has spoilt the Tanzania's image as one of the most liberal and stable countries in Africa. The recent rulings have been widely welcomed, although critics say that criminal gangs and the main players behind the trade have not been brought to justice.
"These prosecutions will be useless if the government does not provide security, good housing and help albino children to get access to education," said Ms Luhagula, whose daughter sold peanuts in Mwanza.
"Prosecutions alone will not stop the killings."
Although Tanzania still has the death penalty, no executions have been carried out since 1995. "Albino killings will not come to an end until we are all dead," Zaida Nsembo, a 50-year-old albino woman, said.
"Our bodies have become a business - they will pay as much as five million shillings for our right leg and arm alone. It is a secret who buys our bodies but it is here in Tanzania. I cannot call this place home now."
Albinos have complained that human rights activists defend killers when they are brought before courts of law and tend to condemn the courts when the culprits are sentenced to death.
The albino complaints were made recently at a four-day training seminar on human rights and the rights of persons with disabilities held at Mkuranga in Coast region. The seminar was prepared by a non-governmental organization, the Action on Disability and Development Tanzania (ADD).
A participant at the seminar, Ms Aichi Ngure, said that the activists were ignoring the rights of the albinos for no apparent reasons.
Ms Ngure who is an Albino and an activist defending persons with disabilities, condemned the activists saying that they did not appear to realize that albino killers were moral outcasts, who deserved the maximum legal penalty for murder - the death sentence.
She said that killing an albino for his or her body parts was an atrocious crime committed with stone-hard insensitivity against the hapless. Witchdoctors, 'prescribe' the slaughter of albinos in order for greedy wealth seekers to succeed in their quests.
Accusing fingers, in this respect, have mostly been pointed at gold and tanzanite miners, fishermen and business people. "Albino killing is nefarious murder in cold blood. This can only happen in a rabid world where morons have no qualms about killing socially disadvantaged people.
Participants at the seminar were of the general view that albino killers lacked all the good senses of a kind heart and the normal faculties of what makes a normal mind. A normal human being in the moral sense must possess all the characteristic feelings of regret, remorse, fear, anxiety, guilt and righteous indignation.
Killing is an atrocity whose commission makes one realize that human compassion and sanity have already departed one's soul. Killing merely serves to confirm this atrocious departure from compassion to callous disregard for life to hate for humanity and sanity to rabid insanity.
A private lawyer, Mr Frederick Mkatambo, said that the rights for the people with disabilities will be more conspicuous after the government ratifies the United Nations Human Rights Convention on Persons with Disabilities.
Mr Mkatambo was a facilitator at the training which brought together about 30 participants including Albinos, disabled persons, visually impaired persons, deaf persons and mentally retarded persons.
Original date published: 21 November 2009
Source Url: http://allafrica.com/stories/
200911231608.html?viewall=1
3. PA, Abbas Bless Rabbi's Murderers as "Martyrs".
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/
News/News.aspx/135277
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas publicly proclaimed three terrorists who murdered a Jewish father of seven children to be "shaheeds", holy martyrs, according to a report by the PA media watchdog, Palestinian Media Watch.
Abbas declared the killers, all members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- to be shaheeds and sent his personal emissary to visit their families following last Thursday's attack. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is part of the Fatah faction, which is headed by Abbas. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad personally visited the families, along with a number of top PA officials, and condemned the IDF operation.
Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai, a 40-year-old Israeli resident of the Samaria Jewish community of Shavei Shomron, was murdered in a hail of bullets fired by four terrorists in car that overtook him as he drove home from a nearby community. On Friday night, IDF soldiers tracked down three of the terrorists and killed them after they opened fire during an attempt to arrest them. The fourth surrendered to PA police, who have not turned him over to Israeli authorities.
The response of the PA government has been one of unequivocal support for the terror attack, with statements by its leadership and that of the Fatah faction referring to the terrorists as Palestinian heroes and shahids. One member of the faction's central committee described the terrorists as "[military] commanders, brave heroes, and fighters," according to a news report in the daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida translated by PMW.
PA government-controlled media, meanwhile, has described Israel?s killing of the rabbi's murderers as an "assassination" and "murder in cold blood."
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