#Top 20 most famous celebrities in Uganda

[kampalaedgetimes]

20 Most Famous Celebrities In Uganda

Meet the most famous celebrities in Uganda who broke through Uganda’s entertainment and cultural scene. These are thriving with a new generation of stars dominating social media and the global stage. As of 2025, these celebrities have amassed millions of followers, showcasing their talent, charisma, and influence. Here’s a deep dive into the top 20 most famous Ugandan celebrities, ranked by their…

[gaymusicchart]

GAY MUSIC CHART - 2018 week 19

 Welcome to the Gay Music Chart, the LGBTQA related music videos TOP 50 actuality and most request.

Vote for your favourite LGBTQA related music videos by leaving a comment for this post on :

YOUTUBE (in the comment section of the video of the week) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz7yfp-xq-b08tD6mAWwclA

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TWITTER : https://twitter.com/GayMusicChart with #GayMusicChart  

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 Here is the recap for this week :

 OUT : MADOX - QRVA (LW: 17 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 17)

OUT : Matilda - Naked (LW: 19 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 19)

OUT : J. Balvin - Ambiente (LW: 25 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 25)

OUT : Danielle Alexa  - Spin In Circles (LW: 27 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 27)

OUT : Allie X feat. VÉRITÉ - Casanova (LW: 28 / WO: 18 / PEAK: 03)

OUT : Charlie Puth feat. Kehlani - Done For Me (LW: 29 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 29)

OUT : Missy Higgins - Cemetery (LW: 33 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 33)

OUT : Hayley Kiyoko - Curious (LW: 34 / WO: 16 / PEAK: 08)

OUT : Scott Matthew - End of Days (LW: 35 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 35)

OUT : Yaysh - Light Up This Room (LW: 37 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 37)

OUT : Baby Yors - Bad Influence (LW: 38 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 12)

OUT : Matt Palmer - Inevitably (LW: 41 / WO: 12 / PEAK: 03)

OUT : Jussie Smollett - Hurt People (LW: 43 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 25)

OUT : MARUV & BOOSIN - Drunk Groove (LW: 44 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 37)

OUT : Todrick Hall feat. Shangela - Doll Hairs (LW: 47 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 47)

OUT : Bender & Schillinger - Lovelesson (LW: 48 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 15)

OUT : Sem&Stènn feat. Manuel Agnelli - Baby Run (LW: 49 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 49)

OUT : Bebe Huxley - Elaine (LW: 50 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 50)

  01 (+ 3) : Calum Scott - What I Miss Most (1 Mic 1 Take/Live From Abbey Road Studios) (LW: 04 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 01 (x1))

UK - 2018 / from the album "Only Human"

 02 (+ 7) : Kodaline - Follow Your Fire (LW: 09 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 02)

Ireland - 2018

There is a gay couple in this music video.

 03 (+ 5) : Namuel - Poder (LW: 08 / WO: 11 / PEAK: 03)

Chile - 2018

 04 (- 3) : Years & Years - Sanctify (LW: 01 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 01 (x3))

UK - 2018

Years & Years singer Olly Alexander says the band’s new single Sanctify is about straight men who experiment with gay sex.

 05 (- 3) : Saara Aalto - Monsters (LW: 02 / WO: 13 / PEAK: 02)

Finland - 2018

YES ! Saara Alto has passed the semi-final 1 and is qualified to the final : don’t forget to vote for her next Saturday at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 !

 06 (- 1) : Jackson Krecioch - Little Things (LW: 05 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 05)

USA - 2018

Jackson Krecioch is a 19 years old Musical.ly star and YouTuber. He came out publicly in 2016.

 07 (- 4) : Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together (LW: 03 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 01 (x4))

Ireland - 2018

YES ! Ryan has passed the semi-final 1 and is qualified to the final : don’t forget to vote for him next Saturday at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 !

 08 (- 2) : Openside - I Feel Nothing (LW: 06 / WO: 13 / PEAK: 06)

New Zealand - 2017

Lead singer Possum Plows, who is gender non-binary, raises the transgender flag in this music video.

 09 (+ 4) : Francisco Victoria - Todo lo que tengo (LW: 13 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 09)

Chile - 2018

 10 (- 3) : Netta - Toy (LW: 07 / WO: 7 / PEAK: 04)

Israel - 2018

YES ! Netta has passed the semi-final 1 and is qualified to the final : don’t forget to vote for her next Saturday at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 !

 11 (- 1) : Michael Blume - Blunder (LW: 10 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 02)

USA - 2018

 12 (+ 18) : Lostchild - Blacklist (LW: 30 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 12)

UK - 2018

The official music video is now released, and will replace the acoustic cover in the chart.

 13 (- 2) : Trevor Moran - Sinner (LW: 11 / WO: 22 / PEAK: 01 (x2))

USA - 2017

 14 (+ 2) : Todrick Hall - Type (LW: 16 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 14)

USA - 2018 /  from the album "Forbidden"

 15 (+ 6) : Keiynan Lonsdale - Kiss The Boy (Official Lyric Video) (LW: 21 / WO: 6 / PEAK: 15)

Australia - 2018

 16 (- 4) : SAKIMA - Daddy (LW: 12 / WO: 21 / PEAK: 05)

UK - 2017

 17 (+ 15) : Troye Sivan - Strawberries & Cigarettes ("Love, Simon" OST) (LW: 32 / WO: 8 / PEAK: 12)

Australia - 2018 / from the album "Love, Simon" OST

 18 (NEW) : Troye Sivan - Bloom (Lyric Video) (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 18)

Australia - 2018

The Australian singer deleted a tweet where he said that the song was talking about bottoming. Now, he answer that it only talks about flowers. If the first explanation is real, the brilliant metaphore makes this song an enjoyable gay sex anthem.

 19 (NEW) : AURORA - Queendom (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 19)

Norway - 2018

 20 (- 5) : Garek - Silhouettes & Ghosts (LW: 15 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 15)

USA - 2018  

Champion in 2017 of the Gay Music Chart with his song "Stray", the singer is back with a new original track.

 21 (RE-ENTRY) : Janelle Monáe - Pynk (LW: - / WO: 2 / PEAK: 21)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Dirty Computer"

 22 (NEW) : Domo Wilson - I Wanna Be Me (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 22)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Hear Me Now"

An inspired LGBT anthem.

 23 (NEW) : Tuure Boelius - Lätkäjätkä-Ville (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 23)

Finland - 2018

The 17 years old Finnish YouTuber decided to release this music video just before the debut of the Ice Hockey World Championship 2018, hoping changing mentalities for more acceptance and diversity in this sport. It caused a mediatic storm in Finland.

 24 (- 10) : Openside - No Going Back (LW: 14 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 14)

New Zealand - 2018

 25 (+ 15) : Francisco Victoria - Marinos (LW: 40 / WO: 19 / PEAK: 03)

Chile - 2017                            

This is the first single of the Chilean singer, produced by Alex Anwandter. A revelation.

 26 (+ 10) : Todrick Hall feat. RuPaul - Dem Beats (LW: 36 / WO: 7 / PEAK: 26)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 27 (NEW) : Rainbow Riots feat. Brayo Music - We Need Love (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 27)

Sweden / Uganda - 2018 / from the album "Rainbow Riots"

It's the final single from the album Rainbow Riots featuring queer voices from some of the world’s most dangerous countries for LGBTQ people. All proceeds go towards fighting inequalities towards LGBTQ people in Uganda.

 28 (NEW) : Don Diablo feat. Calum Scott - Give Me Love (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 28)

The Netherlands / UK - 2018 / from the album "FUTURE"

 29 (NEW) : Lexy & K-Paul feat. Enda Gallery - peilSCHNARTE (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 29)

Germany - 2018 / from the album "Peilschnarten"

The music video follows a young man who struggles with his sexual orientation.

 30 (+ 15) : Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To Cry (LW: 45 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 30)

USA - 2018

This is a tribute to the victims of her concert last year in Manchester. It conviced Kevin McHale (from TV show "Glee"), to came out.

 31 (NEW) : Reigen - Smoke Drink Party (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 31)

USA - 2018

 32 (+ 14) : Conchita Wurst - Rock Me Amadeus (Falco Cover) (LW: 46 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 32)

Austria - 2018

The famous drag queen came out as HIV-positive to destroy an attempted blackmail.

 33 (NEW) : serpentwithfeet - cherubim (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 33)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Soil"

 34 (NEW) : Todrick Hall - Wanted (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 34)

USA  - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 35 (- 11) : Kevin Chomat - Petite Fée (LW: 24 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 08)

France - 2018

The French singer has made a song to support Lana, a young girl who has a rare genetic disease called neurofibromatosis.

 36 (NEW) : Ben Davidson - Fallin In (Official Lyric Video) (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 36)

UK - 2018

 37 (NEW) : Blair St. Clair - Now or Never (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 37)

USA - 2018

This is the first music video of the drag queen who was a contestant on the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

 38 (NEW) : Thunderpussy - Badlands (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 38)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Thunderpussy"

 39 (NEW) : Samuel Hope - Lead Me On (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 39)

USA / Germany - 2018

 40 (- 9) : Not.Your.Regular.Boy. - Crazyland (LW: 31 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 31)

The Netherlands - 2018

Revealed on X-Factor and the Voice, this is his debut single.

 41 (- 21) : Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers (Old Love) (LW: 20 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 20)

USA - 2017 / from the album "Pluto"

This fantastic animated music video tells the story of two samurais of opposite clans who fall in love.

 42 (NEW) : Zolita - New You (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 42)

USA - 2018

 43 (- 4) : Kim Petras - Heart to Break (LW: 39 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 15)

Germany - 2018

This is the new music video of the transgender teen.

 44 (- 21) : MACO -「Sweet Memory」(LW: 23 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 23)

Japan - 2017 / from the album「メトロノーム」/ "metronome"

The music video tells the story of a sad love triangle which breaks a friendship.

 45 (- 27) : MNEK - Tongue (LW: 18 / WO: 10 / PEAK: 13)

UK - 2018

 46 (- 20) : DJ Aron & Beth Anne Sacks - Imagine (LW: 26 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 16)

USA - 2018

 47 (- 5) : Sean Lionadh - Time For Love (Homophobia In 2018) (LW: 42 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 42)

UK - 2018

Two men hold hands in a public place, but even in 2018, something’s not quite right. "Time For Love" is a poem that explores homophobia in modern society, and also the concept of normality.

 48 (- 26) : U2 - Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way (LW: 22 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 22)

Ireland - 2018 / from the album "Sound of Experience"

The music video celebrates Dublin’s youth and LGBTQ community.

 49 (RE-ENTRY) : Les Funambules feat. Maximilien Philippe - Pardon (LW: - / WO: 6 / PEAK: 15)

This song is the confession of a man who's quitting his wife because he realised he was gay.

 50 (RE-ENTRY) : Amber Liu - Lifeline (LW: - / WO: 2 / PEAK: 31)

South Korea - 2018 / from the EP "Rogue Rouge"

It's the first time there is a same-sex couple of dancers in a South Korean music video. Amber is a member of the famous kpop band f(x).

  ALSO NEW THIS WEEK

 Céline Dion - Ashes

Canada - 2018 / from the album "Deadpool 2 OST"

This is Yanis Marshall (and not Ryan Reynolds) who plays Deadpool dancing in high heels in this music video.

 Jessie Standafer feat. Alsace Carcione - High

USA - 2018

 Ängie - Here For My Habits / Venus in Furs

Sweden - 2018 / from the album "Suicidal Since 1995"

 Anne-Marie - 2002

UK - 2018 / from the album "Speak Your Mind"

 DJ Inox feat. Adam Joseph - Size Queen

Poland / USA - 2018

 LSD - Genius ft. Sia, Diplo, Labrinth

UK / Australia - 2018

 Violet Chachki - A Lot More Me

USA - 2018

 Sasha Velour - Pirate Jenny

USA - 2018

This is the first installment of One Dollar Drags, a six-part anthology of short films that celebrates drag in its many forms, with each standalone short filmed in a different genre.

 Aja feat. DJ Mitch Ferrino - Brujería

USA - 2018

 Kacey Musgraves - Butterflies

USA - 2018

 Katsbarnea - O Mundo Agora é Gay (MAG)

Brazil - 2018

 Sailorfag - Inventadas y Modernas

Mexico - 2018

 Virginia Ernst - Lay Down

Austria - 2018

 Ivri Lider עברי לידר - My Princess נסיכה שלי

Israel - 2018

 CoCo Giselle - Queen

USA - 2018 / from the album "C.H.A.M.P"

 Todrick Hall - Changed My Mind

USA - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 Todrick Hall - Ka-Ching

USA  - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 Todrick Hall - Silver Spoon

USA  - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 Madblush - Cheguei ( Cover Ludmilla )

Brazil - 2018

 Nathan Brake - Jealous (Live @ The Voice Australia 2018)

Australia - 2018

The contestant made his proposal to his boyfriend on stage.

 Ada Vox - Circle of Life (live @ American Idol 2018)

USA - 2018

 Paula Abdul - Cold Hearted - Choreography by Blake McGrath - #TMillyTV

USA - 2018

  See you next week and don’t forget to vote for your best LGBTQA music videos ! Here are the rules :

1 ) You can vote for many videos as you want under the videos on YouTube in the comment section. It could be recent or past music videos, which must provide at least one among the following conditions:

- the music video has LGBTQA related content, in the lyrics or the music video

- the artist is LGBTQA, an LGBTQA icon or eventually ally

- LGBTQA medias talked about it.

2 ) You can’t vote more than 3 songs of a same artist per week.

3 ) In case of an artist who receive votes mostly by a fan base, we will count only one song, in a limited time of 10 weeks of presence in the top.

4 ) You can vote with only one account.

5 ) If you make 5 votes or less, your first vote will represent 5 points, your second vote 4 points, etc… until your last vote and following 1 point. If you make 6 to 10 votes, your first vote will represent 10 points, your second vote 9 points, etc… If you make more than 10 votes, your first vote will represent 20 points, your second vote 19 points, etc…

6 ) People who make 1 to 5 votes form the amateur ranking, those who make 6 to 10 votes form the fan ranking, those who make more than 10 votes form the expert ranking. We form the jury ranking. And we count now the ranking of minutes of views of our weekly playlist of the previous week. The Gay Music Chart is the addition of the five charts. In case of equality, the number of votes and the dates of votes will count.

7 ) The votes will close on Thursday, 8 PM, European time.

[bigyack-com]

I-League: As new season begins, old realities remain - football

The nineteenth century French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once famously wrote, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”The adage perhaps aptly sums up the current situation of the I-League as it begins life in the 2019/20 season under new circumstances. Rebranded in 2007 from the old National Football League, the I-League finds itself, for the first time in its history, relegated from its top-flight status in India’s football structure, after the Indian Super League’s (ISL) coup d’état earlier this year.But how significantly does it change things for the I-League? Having already played second fiddle to the ISL since the latter came into being in 2014, the I-League losing its top-tier status is simply putting an official stamp to old reality.“As far as we’re concerned, it’s the same league as last year. So, for us, nothing has changed,” said Real Kashmir FC coach David Robertson at the club’s jersey launch earlier this month. His thoughts were echoed by most of the players present at I-League’s season launch in New Delhi last week. “It makes no difference to us or our fans. All we want is the I-League title. The club is the same as last season, our fans are the same as last season,” said East Bengal captain Lalrindika Ralte.Like Ralte, players at some of the other I-League clubs exuded confidence about a possible title charge this season. That confidence has been bolstered by long pre-season campaigns, which was further prolonged by I-League’s delayed start—the league was supposed to start in late-October but uncertainty over its status saw it being pushed back by a month. “We began our preparations four months back. This should be the longest pre-season in history,” joked Robertson.However, there have been a few positive changes for the clubs, most notably, a change in the broadcaster. D Sport will take over TV duties from Star India, who are stakeholders in Football Sports Development Limited, which runs the ISL. This has led to more TV friendly kickoff timings—many games are scheduled to start at 5 pm and 7 pm—compared to last season, when the I-League took a backseat to ISL’s broadcast plans.GOKULAM FAVOURITESKozhikode-based Gokulam Kerala have emerged as early favourites for the title. The club brought back Santiago Varela as head coach in the summer, with the Spaniard having left Gokulam just before the start of the previous campaign.With the formidable duo of Henry Kisekka of Uganda an Trinidad & Tobago’s Marcus Joseph leading the team’s attack, they shouldn’t have a problem converting chances.When asked if Gokulam are among the title contenders, experienced defender Dharmaraj Ravanan made no secret of what the club is aiming for this season. “Yes of course, why not. We have a good understanding in the team. We have won the (2019) Durand Cup, so we are well prepared,” he said.“(But) the last three seasons have shown that anything can happen (in the I-League). All the teams are strong and many are good enough to compete for the title.”Defending champions Chennai City lost one of the key members of their victorious 2018-19 campaign, Nestor Gordillo, to Hyderabad FC and have brought in an experienced I-League player in Japanese midfielder Katsumi Yusa. How they cope with Gordillo’s loss will be seen over the course of the season but Chennai remain one of the main title contenders.Pedro Manzi, last season’s joint top-scorer in the league, said defending the title will be easier said than done. “I think we should all forget about the last season and only think about this new one. We will try to win the title but first we need to forget that we are champions,” Manzi said.“We continue playing the same way we did last season, even though we have new players. But I think more teams will be competing for the title this time. Winning I-League will be more difficult than last season.”Robertson’s Real Kashmir too have featured in the pre-season title talk after their impressive third-place finish in what was their debut season in 2018-19. The Snow Leopards’ robust backline leaked the least number of goals last season. Despite the communication lockdown in Kashmir and early snowfall that temporarily impeded the team’s training, they have played games across the country in preparation for the I-League.KOLKATA EXPECTS MOREAmong the two Kolkata clubs—East Bengal and Mohun Bagan— expectations will be somewhat toned down after last three seasons’ failed title bids. The same may not hold true for their fans.“Every year we lose the championship towards the end,” Ralte said. “Last season we had the title till the 75th minute of the last matchday and lost it from there. This time we are celebrating our club’s 100th anniversary, so it would be great if we can win it for our fans,” he said.Bagan’s Spanish midfielder Joseba Beitia, one of the new recruits under head coach Kibu Vicuna, said the fans will expect nothing less than the title, something he and his teammates will try to deliver.Neither of the Kolkata giants managed to even win the Calcutta Football League (CFL) this season, so they will need to step up a few gears in order to bring the I-League title to Kolkata.Aizawl FC and Punjab FC – the latter rebranded from Minerva Punjab ahead of this season – had won the title in 2017 and 2018, respectively. They, however, finished in the bottom half of the table last season. With many young players being promoted from their academy teams, they are not expected to be title contenders but could serve up a few surprises during the season.Imphal-based Neroca and TRAU, the latter making their I-League debut, will bring added spice to the league with their local derby. Gift Raikhan is back as head coach at Neroca, whom he had led to a second-place finish in 2018. Their city rivals too will hope to impress under new coach Dimitris Dimitriou.The All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) developmental team, Indian Arrows, will be under a new coach this season – former India international S Venkatesh. He will look improve upon the impressive eighth place finish the team achieved under predecessor Floyd Pinto last season.Former champions Churchill Brothers have been forced into a late coaching change over regulatory restrictions on Edward Ansah’s African coaching licence. New appointee Bernardo Tavares has previously worked with famous Portuguese coaches like Jose Mourinho, Carlos Queiroz, among others. The club has a few notable names in the squad, including last season’s joint-top scorer Willis Plaza, and will look to better last campaign’s fourth-place finish. Source link Read the full article

[newstfionline]

Ghana Embraced Fast Food. Then Came KFC.

By Dionne Searcey and Matt Richtel, NY Times, Oct. 2, 2017

ACCRA, Ghana--After finishing high school a decade ago, Daniel Awaitey enrolled in computer courses, dropped out to work in a hotel, then settled into a well-paying job in the booming oil sector here.

He has an apartment, a car, a smartphone and a long-distance girlfriend he met on a dating website. So he had reasons and the means to celebrate his 27th birthday in late July. His boss and co-workers joined him for an evening of laughter and selfies, lingering over dinner at his favorite restaurant: KFC.

Mr. Awaitey first learned about the fried chicken chain on Facebook. The “finger lickin’ good” slogan caught his attention and it has lived up to expectations. “The food is just ----” he said, raising his fingertips to his mouth and smacking his lips. “When you taste it you feel good.”

Ghana, a coastal African country of more than 28 million still etched with pockets of extreme poverty, has enjoyed unprecedented national prosperity in the last decade, buoyed by offshore oil. Though the economy slowed abruptly not long ago, it is rebounding and the signs of new fortune are evident: millions moving to cities for jobs, shopping malls popping up and fast food roaring in to greet people hungry for a contemporary lifestyle.

Chief among the corporate players is KFC, and its parent company, YUM!, which have muscled northward from South Africa--where KFC has about 850 outlets and a powerful brand name--throughout sub-Saharan Africa: to Angola, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and beyond. The company brings the flavors that have made it popular in the West, seasoned with an intangible: the symbolic association of fast food with rich nations.

But KFC’s expansion here comes as obesity and related health problems have been surging. Public health officials see fried chicken, french fries and pizza as spurring and intensifying a global obesity epidemic that has hit hard in Ghana--one of 73 countries where obesity has at least doubled since 1980. In that period, Ghana’s obesity rates have surged more than 650 percent, from less than 2 percent of the population to 13.6 percent, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent research center at the University of Washington.

The causes of obesity are widely acknowledged as complex--involving changing lifestyles, genetics, and, in particular, consumption of processed foods high in salt, sugar and fat.

KFC’s presence in Ghana so far is relatively modest but rapidly growing, and it underscores the way fast food can shape palates, habits and waistlines.

Research shows that people who eat more fast food are more likely to gain weight and become obese, and nutrition experts here express deep concern at the prospect of an increasingly heavy and diabetic population, without the medical resources to address a looming health crisis that some say could rival AIDS.

“You are what you eat,” said Charles Agyemang, a Ghanaian who is now an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he studies obesity and chronic disease. KFC alone, he said, is only one factor in the country’s obesity epidemic, but it represents the embrace of western foods. In Ghana, he said, “eating local foods in some places is frowned upon. People see the European type as civilized.”

“This is having a major impact on obesity and heart disease.”

KFC executives see a major opportunity here to be part of people’s regular routines, a goal they are advancing through a creative marketing campaign and use of social media. When asked if it is unhealthy for people to eat fried chicken often, Kimberly Morgan, a KFC spokeswoman in Plano, Texas, said, “At KFC, we’re proud of our world famous, freshly in-store prepared fried chicken and believe it can be enjoyed as a part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.”

Company representatives said they take health seriously in the region, noting their sponsorship of a youth cricket league in South Africa. The company, they said, has worked to make their menu more diverse and healthier.

“That’s why we provide consumers choice,” said Andrew Havinga, who runs the supply chain for KFC’s Africa division. “We do believe in a healthy, balanced lifestyle.”

For now, though, KFC customers in Ghana have fewer healthy options than in Western countries. Grilled chicken, salads and sides like green beans and corn, standard at KFC in the United States, aren’t available here. Mr. Havinga said KFC hoped to offer Ghanaians more options eventually. “That’s part of our journey,” he said.

KFC emphasizes its focus on food sanitation and cleanliness. Ghanaian customers interviewed spoke appreciatively of the tidy containers used for takeout and the hairnets worn by workers.

“We wouldn’t go into a market unless we are comfortable that we can deliver the same food safety standards that we deliver around the world and people see that,” Greg Creed, the chief executive of YUM!, said in an interview last year on CNN. “They actually trust us that it’s so much safer to eat at a KFC in Ghana, than it is to eat obviously, you know, pretty much anywhere else.”

Some nutrition experts bristle at the implication.

“To say it’s the safest food is a bit like saying my hand grenade is the safest hand grenade,” said Mike Gibney, an emeritus professor of food and health at University College Dublin. “Ghanaians would be better off eating less KFC. But that is the way of the world I’m afraid.”

In Ghana, a place that suffered severe food shortages as recently as the early 1980s, attempts at curbing obesity have butted up against long held societal views: girth can be a welcome sight here. To many, weight gain is an acceptable side effect of a shift from hunger to joyful consumption.

“People march their sons and daughters to buy KFC and buy pizza and they like to show them what we can afford,” said Matilda Laar, who lectures about family and consumer sciences at the University of Ghana. KFC isn’t just food, she said. “It’s social status.”

From 2011 to 2016, fast food sales grew 21.5 percent in the United States, according to Euromonitor, a market-research firm, while they swelled 30 percent worldwide. The industry has had remarkable success in finding new mouths to feed, with 254 percent growth in Argentina, 83 percent in Vietnam, 64 percent in Egypt.

From around the globe come snapshots of fast-food’s spread. Carl’s Jr. opened Cambodia’s first drive-through fast-food restaurant in 2016, bringing Phnom Penh staples like the Western Bacon Cheeseburger; McDonald’s, with 600 Russian outlets, recently opened in Siberia and the Urals; India, which, according to Euromonitor, saw fast-food sales rise 113.6 between 2011 and 2016, now has more than 1,100 Domino’s Pizza outlets and is home to an experiment--a “Dessert Pizza,” topped with brownies, cookies, coconut nougat, cheesecake and fudge sauce.

While McDonald’s remains the emblem of fast food worldwide, YUM! is number two and grew 22.9 percent from 2011 to 2016, considerably faster than the burger giant’s 12.2 percent growth, according to Euromonitor. YUM!, which includes Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, has nearly 44,000 restaurants worldwide, about 17,000 of them in emerging markets as of 2016, the company said. KFC and its franchisees operate nearly 21,000 KFC restaurants in 129 countries and territories around the globe.

The health effects of fast food are challenging to study, particularly in the United States. One large-scale study, done in Singapore as it grew economically and attracted Western fast food chains, offers evidence that the arrival of McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, among others, posed a serious health risk.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in 2012 in the journal Circulation, followed tens of thousands of Chinese Singaporeans, ages 45 to 74, from the mid-1990s to 2009. Those who ate Western fast food twice a week or more were 27 percent more likely to get type 2 diabetes, and 56 percent more likely to die from heart disease, than subjects who didn’t regularly eat such food. And the more times they ate fast food, the higher the risk of death from heart disease.

Studies like these can be challenging to interpret, nutrition experts said, because people who eat fast food can have poor dietary habits, but this study sought to isolate fast food by factoring out many other issues, like sleep, exercise and even consumption of local fried foods. It also caught Singapore as its economy matured and fast food came to town.

“It’s a parable, or microcosm, of what’s occurring in other parts of the globe,” said Andrew Odegaard, a co-author on the study.

In Ghana, data suggest the changing diet to heavier fare--including fast food but also processed foods--has led to soaring health risks.

The death rate associated with high body mass index more than doubled in Ghana from roughly 14 per 100,000 in 1990 to 40 per 100,000, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation--and is fast approaching the global average of 54 deaths per 100,000.

The data also suggest that the changing diet has led to health risks in Ghana that are getting worse at a rate faster than in the United States. From 1990 to 2015, deaths related to high body mass increased 179 percent in Ghana, compared to an increase of 20 percent in the United States.

Further complicating the situation in Ghana, medication for high blood pressure is expensive and patients often ration it to save money. National health insurance lags in its coverage of other diet-related diseases such as diabetes; it doesn’t cover devices to monitor blood sugar or some of the medicine to treat the side effects of diabetes.

The presidential palace is not far from the country’s most popular KFC, just a short trip after crossing Liberation Road. A part-time pastor, Joshua Edwards, stopped at the KFC to buy chicken for five boys living in an orphanage. “It’s just a wonderful taste for them,” he said.

The pastor’s round belly strained his shirt buttons and hung far over the red stool where he waited for his order. “My health is my life, so I have to be cautious about my life,” he said. “God needs my body to do things to his glory.”

Still, Mr. Edwards said he comes to KFC almost every day, beckoned by a giant red billboard outside the store with a huge photo of crispy fried chicken and shimmering golden fries.

“You become addicted to the spices,” he said. “That’s why everybody wants to have it.”

“They don’t force us to eat here,” he added, “But it’s as if we’ve become mentally enslaved. It tantalizes us by even saying it, pulling you to where you don’t want to be.”

[dstinternational]

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[afrikanza]

10 African Masterpieces of Literature & Song

The following is our list of the most famous pieces of work about Africa, cutting across:

literature

politics

poetry

painting

and sculpture.

Africa has great pieces of creative work that surprisingly even many Africans have never seen or heard of; this is due to Africa’s wide geographical spread, multilingual barrier, and very few Afro-focused media.

With that said, let’s jump right into it, shall we?

10. Things Fall Apart

Novel, By Chinua Achebe – Nigeria

This is a literary piece of work written by one of the best African writers of all time – Chinua Achebe[i]. Chinua Achebe hails from Nigeria[ii].

Things Fall Apart[iii] is a piece of work that focuses on a clash of traditions during Africa’s transition period from the colonial rule. It is at this period that Africa’s traditional values were in a violent clash with those values of their colonial subjugators.

Even though the Western culture brought profound positive effects on Africa – including modern industrialization and infrastructure, it nonetheless caused tremendous destruction in terms of Africa’s authentic traditional values that held families together and defined the gender roles.

Things Fall Apart is a theme about characterization and demonstration of Africa’s torn socio-cultural fabric as different forces fight for their own domain.

9. An African Thunderstorm

Poem, By David Rubadiri – Malawi

David Rubadiri[iv] is a great poet, writer, novelist, diplomat, and playwright from Malawi[v].

Like most early African writers, he ran afoul with his country’s government under dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda and ran into exile in Uganda[vi]. While in Uganda, Obote’s government was overthrown, forcing him again to run into exile in Kenya[vii].

He served twice as his country’s diplomat, first has Malawi’s first ambassador to the US. After Kamuzu Banda ceased to be president, he returned to the country and later became his country’s Ambassador to the UN.

The following poetry extract is one of his great pieces of work, An African Thunderstorm[viii]:

Pregnant clouds

Ride stately on its back,

Gathering to perch on hills

Like sinister dark wings;

The wind whistles by

And trees bend to let it pass.

And like most writers of his time, he was critical of poor governance and leadership in Africa. Some of his work was critical of Africa’s despotic regimes.

8. Burger’s Daughter

Novel, By Nadine Gordimer – South Africa

This is a historical and political novel by Nadine Gordimer[ix], one of Africa’s earliest literary Nobel Laureates.

This piece of work focuses on the criticism of the era of the draconian Apartheid regime of South Africa. Burger’s Daughter[x] was billed by the New York Times as Gordimer ’s most political and most moving novel.

7. Bahora Girl

Painting, by Irma Stern – South Africa

This is a great painting that fetched one of the highest auction bids for such a piece of art in Africa.

Bohari Girl[xi] was painted by Irma Stern[xii], one of South Africa’s [xiii] most renowned personalities and a leading figure in the art scene. Apart from this masterpiece, Stern has painted many other pieces of art that have etched their place in the international art scene.

6. Daily Mirror

Sculpture, by Ben Enwonwu – Nigeria

Billed as Africa’s most influential artist of the 20th Century, Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu, popularly knowns as Ben Enwonwu[xiv], is an artist and sculptor.

One of his most famous piece of work is the ‘Daily Mirror’[xv] sculpture, which he created in May 2013.

5. Senufo Female

Sculpture, by Master of Sinasso – Ivory Coast

Senufo Female[xvi] is a sculpture created by one of the most celebrated Ivory Coast[xvii] artists by the name Master of Sinasso[xviii].

It is a sculpture representing a traditional female body of the Senufo people of Ivory Coast. This piece of work fetched $12 million at its auction, bought by Sothebys.

4. Construction of the Suez Canal

Painting, by Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar – Egypt

Construction of the Suez Canal[xix] is one of the best modern masterpieces from Egypt[xx] that depicts its topic.

It is a painting drawn by Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar[xxi], one of Egypt’s most celebrated artists of modern times.

Egypt is a famous ancient civilization characterized by great artwork, science, engineering, and construction. Pyramids, paintings, sculptures, and religious edicts define this great land of the Pharaohs.

This masterpiece was able to fetch $1 million at an auction in Dubai in 2014.

3. Les Chadoufs

Painting, by Mahmoud Said – Egypt

Les Chadoufs[xxii] painting depicts the ancient Shaduf Screw method of irrigation which was invented by the ancient Egyptians over two millenniums ago as a way of irrigating farms along the River Nile.

The painting was drawn by Mahmoud Siad[xxiii], a famous painter from Egypt. It was auctioned at Christie’s for a whopping $2 million.

2. Aye Africa

Song, by Franklin Boukaka – DRC

This is a great song that many people brand it as “Africa’s Anthem”.

It is a deep moving song with that moves any listener who understands the plight of Africa, especially after the mirage of the so-called ‘Independence’.

In the song, Franklin Boukaka[xxiv] questions whether this war, poverty and misery that Africa faces is the independence and freedom that was promised by the Independence heroes.

From his background as a Congolese from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)[xxv], the song is painfully relevant when you realize that DRC is in deep turmoil that has so far claimed over 10 million lives, not forgetting that over 6 million of them that were massacred by King Leopold of Belgium prior to independence.

This is a painful song. Its lyrics can move any patriot to tears. A song from the deep heart of a martyr who was killed trying to fight for a better country through words and deeds.

The song was sung in French. The following are some parts of the translated lyrics:

Ahe Africa he

Eh he Africa

Where is your freedom?

Where is your liberty?

Oh, it is hard labor to cut wood fire!

With such sufferings with our kids!

I don’t know how to fix that.

I gave my confidence

To people only focused on luxury stuffs and cars

But when elections comes, they remind me as an important person for them

The colonizer left already

But what do we do with this freedom now?

You can listen to this great piece of work and its lyrics from this video:

Rest In Peace, Franklin Boukaka.

1. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika

Song, by Enoch Sontonga – South Africa

Translated as ‘God Bless Africa’, this is another emotionally moving son by a great son of Africa – Enoch Sontonga. It’s greatness is evidenced by the fact that it has been adapted by several countries in Southern Africa as their national anthem.

These includes South Africa itself, Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania (in Swahili version), and Zimbwabwe (Shona version).

Enoch Sontonga[xxvi] was a teacher and Choirmaster at the Methodist Mission School in South Africa.  He composed and sung the song as part of religious service and as a special dedication to his continent – Africa.

Enoch Sontonga died in obscurity during his youth at a prime age of only 33 years. But, his giant legacy lives on in this great masterpiece that has been adopted as a National Anthem for 5 African countries.

His spirit guided and blessed most of Southern Africa’s liberation heroes as it was the song of choice during their liberation struggle. A simple man whose hearty song invigorated the liberation spirit of a people of 5 countries of Africa.

The song has been adapted in many languages across Africa. In South Africa alone, it has been adapted in Xhosa (its original language), Zulu, Afrikaans, and English.

Here are some of the English extracts:

Lord bless Africa

May her glory be lifted high

Hear our petitions Lord bless us, your children

Lord we ask You to protect our nation

Intervene and end all conflicts

Protect us, protect our nation

Protect South Africa, South

Out of the blue of our heavens

Out of the depths of our seas

Over our everlasting mountains

Where the echoing crags resound

Sounds the call to come together

And united we shall stand

Let us live and strive for freedom

In South Africa our land

May Sontoga’s spirit be blessed.

Parting words

Africa is the source of the world’s most ancient civilizations. Every source of civilization has its culture which is described through different pieces of work. The top 10 most famous pieces of work about Africa provided herein helps to reignite memories of Africa’s rich cultural heritage.

Resources:

[i] Chinua Achebe

[ii]  Facts About Nigeria

[iii] Things Fall Apart

[iv] David Rubadiri

[v] Facts About Malawi

[vi] Facts About Uganda

[vii] Facts About Kenya

[viii] An African Thunderstorm

[ix] Nadine Gordimer

[x] Burger’s Daughter

[xi] Bohari Girl

[xii] Irma Stern

[xiii] Facts About South Africa

[xiv] Ben Enwonwu

[xv] Daily Mirror

[xvi] Senufo Female

[xvii] Facts About Ivory Coast

[xviii] Master of Sinasso

[xix] Construction of the Suez Canal

[xx] Facts About Egypt

[xxi] Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar

[xxii] Les Chadoufs

[xxiii] Mahmoud Said

[xxiv] Franklin Boukaka

[xxv] Facts About Democratic Republic of Congo

[xxvi] Enoch Sontonga

The post 10 African Masterpieces of Literature & Song appeared first on Afrikanza.

[kidsviral-blog]

Two Years After KONY 2012, Has Invisible Children Grown Up?

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/two-years-after-kony-2012-has-invisible-children-grown-up/

Two Years After KONY 2012, Has Invisible Children Grown Up?

In March 2012, a human rights organization’s documentary about a central African despot became the most viral video of all time, and the ensuing furor resulted in its leader’s bizarre public meltdown. On the second anniversary of the phenomenon, everyone involved is still figuring out what it all means.

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Jason Russell in his office in September. Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

Jason Russell is tan. Genuinely and exotically tan, even for a lifelong Southern Californian. He almost immediately apologizes for it, explaining that he’s just come from a wedding in Turks and Caicos. Later that afternoon, he’ll walk through the Barrio Logan, San Diego, headquarters of his nonprofit Invisible Children, burnt and barefoot in a neon orange tank top and shorts, rain whipping the office’s industrial windows. The interns will giggle, fondly: “That’s a guy who takes his workout seriously.”

This is Jason Russell today — 35, training for an Ironman, home every night by 6 p.m., never away from his family for longer than five days a month. This is not the raving man of two years ago, stomping down a San Diego sidewalk, slapping the cement with his bare ass to the sky. But part of him is here too.

“Every day for two minutes, I will think, Oh my god, I had a naked meltdown,” Russell says, stretching and snapping a rubber band between his fingers on his glass desk. “I will think that and be like, how did that happen? How in the world is that a part of my story and history forever?”

Russell today is healthy, or says he is. He went to therapy. He was on Oprah’s Next Chapter. He’s still theatrical and jovial, still prone to hyperbole, still enthusiastically earnest in a way that’s completely inspiring to half the world and nails on a chalkboard to the other. But after Russell’s psychotic episode, he spent six months figuring out who he was going to be, how and when and whether he would return to the nonprofit he founded in 2004 and nearly brought down in 2012 with the release of “KONY 2012,” the most viral video of all time — an impassioned, idealistic call for American youth to make Joseph Kony, the leader of central Africa’s militant child-kidnapping group Lord’s Resistance Army, in Russell’s words, “famous.”

For a majority of the 100 million who viewed “KONY 2012,” it was the first time they’d heard of Invisible Children, then an eight-year-old organization with a website that couldn’t handle its new traffic. Information gathering was a free-for-all; here was Jason Russell, the video’s narrator, describing Invisible Children as “the Pixar of human rights stories” to the New York Times. There he was telling CNN, “We are not these other organizations that do amazing work on the ground. If you want to fund a cow or you want to help someone in a village in that component, you can do that. That’s a third of what we do.” Here was a fairly embarrassing musical promotional video for a 2006 event called the Global Night Commute. There was Russell describing his personality: “If Oprah, Steven Spielberg and Bono had a baby, I would be that baby.” Here was an appearance on The 700 Club, an interview at Liberty University, and an audio clip of Russell at a Christian conference describing Invisible Children as a “Trojan Horse in a sense, going into a secular realm.” And everywhere was the photo of Invisible Children’s founders posing with tough faces, guns, and members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The ammunition was boundless and critics ruthless. Counterprogramming was one thing, but character assassination was another, prompting Time magazine’s Alex Perry to describe much of the backlash as “malicious online ‘takedown,’ most of whose participants were utterly uninterested in truth but focused instead on a point-scoring, trashing and hurting, the digital pogrom of the unaccountable, anonymous Invisible Mob.”

“I think that’s what really made me lose it,” Russell says. “They were attacking me personally: my voice, my hair, my face, my family, my friends … I didn’t realize what 15 minutes of white-hot fame looks like. And I got to see it. And it is not pretty.

“It’s” — he knocks on his desk — “not” — knock — “good” — knock. “It’s so dark. I was obviously not sleeping and definitely kind of losing my mind, for sure, but I would seriously start crying when I thought about, like, Lindsay Lohan, or even Sarah Palin, or these people who’ve been in the spotlight and been ridiculed by everyone in the world. Most people will say out of their mouths, ‘Lindsay Lohan should die.’ And then I was reading that about myself.”

After 10 days, it was reportedly “extreme exhaustion, stress and dehydration” that drove Russell to that San Diego sidewalk, and later a hospital on a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold order. A week later, his wife Danica announced the early diagnosis was “brief reactive psychosis.”

And then the conversation stopped — and with it, all the debate, conspiracy theories, and think pieces about Invisible Children’s methods and motivations. Some threads continued, of course, but it was as if the media saw Russell’s breakdown and slowly backed out of the room, switching off the lights before comically bolting away.

Russell was marked, even after his recovery tour. The organization was marked too. And yet they both have endured, largely off the millions KONY 2012 brought in, but also because of significant changes made in response to KONY 2012, and a desperately sustained belief that the LRA’s end is near — a belief motivated by the fear that if it’s not, theirs may come first.

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David Ocitti, a former child soldier from Uganda. Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

Eight years before KONY 2012, there was Invisible Children: Rough Cut, the documentary Russell made after graduating from film school. Russell and his friends Laren Poole, then 19, and Bobby Bailey, then 20, spent months saving money and petitioning family and friends, and their floppy-haired origin story has been told and told again: “All we really wanted, more than anything, was a compelling story,” Russell says. They found one — plus a few bouts of malaria.

Rough Cut focuses on “night walkers,” or rural Northern Uganda children who used to walk into town each night to sleep in public and avoid capture by the LRA. It largely follows one former child soldier, Jacob Acaye, who watched his brother die after the boy tried to escape.

“We wanted to go to Sundance and be the documentary darlings. And Sundance shut us down,” Russell says. “In a way, we were like, ‘We don’t need no stinkin’ Sundance.’ I’ve been [there] enough times to know that even if there are great movies there, they often do not get seen by more than a couple thousand people. And we felt our story was powerful and important enough that we were going to, in a way, force people to watch it.”

And so they held screenings on the West Coast, forming a charity with a mission statement to “raise awareness and [educate] the U.S. about the atrocities, exploitation and abuse of invisible children throughout the world.” According to financial documents, Invisible Children brought in $331,783 in 2004, its first year. In 2005, as screenings ramped up, the organization made more than $3 million. The founders hired a CFO, Ben Keesey, a UCLA graduate who turned down a finance job at Deloitte & Touche after a post-finals trip to Africa. The money helped take Rough Cut on a national tour in 2006 and produce Global Night Commute, a concurrent rally in 130 cities, where an estimated 80,000 Americans walked to their city centers and slept outside.

As a newly IRS-certified nonprofit in 2006, Invisible Children continued to stage dramatic events, produce short films, and host thousands of screenings, raising money through donations and selling Ugandan-made goods. Celebrities began lending support; in 2007, Invisible Children had a storyline on The CW’s Veronica Mars, starring longtime supporter Kristen Bell (and Russell’s brother-in-law Ryan Hansen). In 2007, Fall Out Boy filmed a music video in Uganda, and Invisible Children joined Warped Tour.

On paper, business was good; revenue climbed from $7 million in mid-2007 to $8.25 million in mid-2010. Program expenses were divided into essentially two pots: one for U.S.-based events, film production, lobbying, and awareness tours, and another for programs in Uganda, including scholarships, teacher exchanges, and a seamstress program for former LRA abductees. (Generally, the U.S. pot was more full than the Uganda pot, by anywhere from $50,000 to $1.7 million.)

But internally, there were growing pains. “I remember going through a couple painful periods and having to let go of friends,” co-founder Bobby Bailey says. “During the summer months, we thought, There’s no way we were going to make payroll. We were never good at reaching out to high-level donors to pay for our overhead. Most of our money came from kids buying products.”

Bailey left Invisible Children in 2009 — an emotional, messy exit that began with The Rescue, a 100-city event during which participants “abducted themselves” in an attempt to get high-profile figures to voice public support for helping child soldiers. Bailey pushed for it and raised the money, and the event got Invisible Children on Oprah’s radar. But Bailey says he was overwhelmed by the planning and implementation of the event.

“These massive events that brought out 80,000 people almost crushed us and killed us, financially but also because we worked people so hard,” he says. “To be honest, I couldn’t do it. I was tired, I felt frustrated, I was just burnt, and I couldn’t figure out how to make the event happen. It was just a big blow to me and my ego.”

“It was difficult,” goes Russell’s version. “I mean, it was just a power struggle. That’s all. He’s an amazing filmmaker and so creative. But because we’re very entrepreneurial, a lot of his ideas wouldn’t get traction. And so he was super frustrated with feeling like people wouldn’t listen to him.”

The Rescue was a turning point for Invisible Children, not only because of Bailey’s exit. The organization received substantial media attention for the first time, but also attracted its first major wave of criticism.

“My initial reaction was that it was goofy and self-serving and a disturbing over-simplification of the issues,” says Kate Cronin-Furman of the international issues blog Wronging Rights. At the time of The Rescue, she wrote (with co-blogger Amanda Taub) that “choosing to simplistically define … Ugandan children as ‘The Abducted’ constrains our ability to think creatively about the problems they face, and work with them to combat these problems.”

“The cavalier first film did the trick,” wrote Chris Blattman, then an assistant professor in political science and economics at Yale. “Maybe now it’s time to start acting like grownups.”

To Blattman, the “idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa” was “inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous … The savior attitude pervades too many aid failures, not to mention military interventions.”

Ben Keesey, who became Invisible Children’s CEO in 2007, calls this kind of criticism “low-hanging fruit.”

“Like, of course it’s detailed, nuanced, and complicated how you actually contribute responsibly to seeing an end to a conflict like the LRA,” he says. “But the statement that wherever you are in the world, however old you are, you have the ability to help end a war in Africa? I stand by that. And I think it’s the necessary statement to actually get a lot of people to do something.”

Invisible Children’s first legislative victory came in 2010, when President Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, leading to the deployment of 100 U.S. advisers in LRA-affected areas in 2011. That year, Laren Poole left Invisible Children to move to Uganda, fundraising and strategizing for the Bridgeway Foundation, which hires private military contractors to train Uganda’s army.

“We left the Oval Office after the bill was signed, and we stayed out much too late and were drinking dirty martinis and having the best time,” Russell says. “I brought up the question, ‘What’s the dream for your life?’ It’s something I always ask people, and Laren said, ‘I want to be a Navy SEAL.’ And then I started laughing, because we were like, ‘Dude, you’re always so sick. You’re already 29 years old. You’re not going to be a Navy SEAL.’ And Laren is the type of person that will say, ‘Watch me.’”

The move left Russell in full control of the organization’s creative direction, which he had always fought with Bailey and Poole over. And as 2011 ended, he was bringing together a campaign that would become bigger than he — a “lifelong dreamer,” disciple of Oprah, and permanent summer camp counselor — could have anticipated.

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Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

“KONY 2012” went live on Monday, March 5, 2012. Noelle West, Invisible Children’s director of communications, switched the YouTube video from private to public — a fairly insignificant moment she may actually remember for the rest of her life.

“I don’t know if you’ve been in a media shitstorm, but I’ve never been, none of us had ever been, and it was the most traumatic and overwhelming crisis-bringing thing that ever happened to any of us,” says West, a fast-talking, sporty 31-year-old with long waves of brown hair.

The KONY 2012 campaign wanted a youth uprising — through tweets, rallies, and late-night poster blitzes — that would encourage the U.S. government to increase efforts to help Ugandan forces find and capture Kony. The video was told from Russell’s perspective, as he explained Kony and the LRA’s tens of thousands child abductions to his wide-eyed blond son, Gavin Danger, then 5.

Between the versions of “KONY 2012” on Vimeo and YouTube, the 30-minute film received 100 million views in six days — surpassing Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent performance (which took nine days to reach 100 million) and Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance video (18 days), according to audience data service Visible Measures.

And for a minute there, it seemed to be incredibly well received, particularly if you had any Facebook friends in the 16–24 demographic. Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Ryan Seacrest, Nicole Richie, Diddy, and the Kardashian sisters all tweeted their support. In San Diego, one intern in Invisible Children’s fulfillment department had 500,000 orders of $30 “action kits” to process. One intern in public relations had 4,000 emails and counting incoming from media outlets. Russell flew across the country for TV interviews twice in 48 hours.

But as millions clicked beyond the video, Invisible Children’s website crashed. And the lack of information left an incredibly open opportunity for critics to offer counter narratives.

The controversy wasn’t a surprise, West says. “But it got too big for us to talk to people who were upset. We’ve always simplified the issue down to a very understandable, non-academic, non-complex issue, which is offensive to some academics because they think you’re trivializing it. But for us, that is just the entry point. We’re trying to attract people into this issue but make it accessible for them. ‘KONY 2012’ was not trying to be a very P.C., well rounded, in-depth piece.”

To academics, this simplification was still deceiving, relying more on emotion than facts. Wronging Rights’ three-year-old criticism of Invisible Children received nearly 500,000 views in one day. By Friday, a Tumblr called Visible Children had nearly 2.2 million views. The blog’s creator, Grant Oyston, wasn’t a qualified expert on African issues; he was a 19-year-old Canadian political science student who offered some commentary, but mostly linked out to others’ criticism of “KONY 2012.” His influence, however, warranted comment from Invisible Children’s newly hired New York PR firm Sunshine, Sachs & Associates, who told The Canadian Press that the “things he’s written are important but are a little misinformed and naive.”

“I thought that was strange. It had this air of, ‘You young people don’t understand,’ but their whole target was young people,” says Oyston, who eventually got a call from an “emotional” Russell, offering to fly him to California or even Uganda to see Invisible Children’s programs in person. (He declined.) But Oyston still takes issue with being labeled anti-Invisible Children, admitting the charity has done some good work, and finds himself criticizing the entire cycle of KONY 2012 — praise, backlash, and all.

“I found it troubling how quickly people read my criticism and other more informed critiques and responded by giving up and not caring,” Oyston says. “This video made them excited about helping victims and then they read something on a blog and they said, ‘Never mind.’ I found that disheartening. “

No one denied that Kony was a criminal who should be brought to justice, but many were critical of the call — from young, white Americans — to help Uganda address a problem already generally thought to be resolved in that country. Uganda’s government spokesman even issued a statement: “Misinterpretations of media content may lead some people to believe that the LRA is currently active in Uganda. It must be clarified that at present the LRA is not active in any part of Uganda. Successfully expelled by the Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces in mid-2006, the LRA has retreated to dense terrain within bordering countries in the Central Africa area. They are a diminished and weakened group with numbers not exceeding 300.”

Michael Wilkerson, a freelance writer and one of KONY 2012’s earliest critics, encouraged KONY 2012 supporters to consider the “potential collateral damage.”

“In previous offensives by the Ugandan military that didn’t quite catch Kony, what [happened] was the LRA ransacked and massacred vengefully as it fled, killing hundreds of civilians in the Congo in the winter of 2009,” he told NPR.

Others were offended by the portrayal of Uganda, down to the word “invisible,” including writer Dinaw Mengestu: “To claim [the children] were invisible because a group of college students traveling through Uganda happened to stumble upon a war they were too ignorant to have known of before going to the region is, to put it mildly, patronizing. By the time the organizers arrived in Uganda and created Invisible Children, northern villages such as Gulu were crowded with NGOs and aid workers and the largest humanitarian concern, by far, was the housing conditions of the more than one million people living in camps for the internally displaced.”

“That’s a tough one to talk about,” Keesey says today. “Of all the critiques that we got, it was the one that I never saw coming. Is Joseph Kony, who’s the world’s most prolific child abductor, worthy of a campaign to stop him? Is that a worthy pursuit? To see the LRA disarmed and to see these communities free from fear? That one took me off guard.”

Two weeks after “KONY 2012”’s release, Teju Cole wrote in The Atlantic about the “white savior” who “supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening,” and those who financially support him — without considering U.S. foreign policy’s role in the conflicts that yield large aid movements, or the wishes of those receiving the aid.

“I disagree with the approach taken by Invisible Children in particular, and by the White Savior Industrial Complex in general, because there is much more to doing good work than ‘making a difference,’” Cole wrote. “There is the principle of first do no harm. There is the idea that those who are being helped ought to be consulted over the matters that concern them.”

Cole’s analysis was smart and personal without overt hostility — something other critics couldn’t resist, particularly when it came to Russell’s role in the film. It resonated, and when talking about the backlash today, Invisible Children staff still cite the phrase “white savior industrial complex.”

“Our biggest mistake,” West says, “was we should have had supplementary materials that showed how much we really know. We should have had that secondary video that has all of our regional staff who are in fact from the regions in which we operate. It’s not a bunch of white California kids out in the region. These are professionals who have lived through this conflict their whole lives. We should have had that stuff in front when people came looking, but we were just too underwater to even figure that out.”

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Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

Russell says he still hasn’t grasped how many people saw the clip of his naked rant. (Somewhere around 4.5 million, only counting the most popular versions on YouTube.) But he’s distinctly aware of the mark it left on Invisible Children’s internal culture. On his office bookshelf, next to thick, beat-up journals from his first Africa trip, Russell has a blue binder, where dozens of cards and press clippings and notes from friends and strangers and co-workers are collaged together. On the cover of the binder is a cut-out headline from Entertainment Weekly: “This was the year that… EVERYONE GOT NAKED.” The article didn’t include Russell, but he thought it was funny anyway.

“Coming back to work,” Russell says, “I think it was strange to hear a lot of people be like, ‘I was gonna move on, I was gonna get another job, I was gonna stop the internship, but I’m here for you to make sure you’re OK. I’ve stayed here for a year to make sure you’re OK.’”

On his first day back, one of Invisible Children’s writers wrote him a letter, which he picked out of all of the notes to show me:

“Welcome home. I’ve literally had dreams about this day when I would see you for the first time in Noelle and Heather’s office — slow motion hug and tears — and now my literal dreams are literally coming true. A couple things I didn’t realize about you ‘til you weren’t in the office anymore: Your ideas and designs push the envelope, yet you have the key skill of getting people on the same page in spite of your ideas’ extremity. You break convention but somehow make peace and bring everybody together over it. I miss that.”

“She’s saying, ‘I dreamt of you coming back,’ and I’m not even like that good friends with her!” Russell laughs. “I just … Yeah. I feel most at home here, so I always felt like I would come back if they would have me.”

Was that a question?

“Obviously if someone does what I did, they’re getting advice from a lot of people saying distance yourself as much as you can, ‘cause he’s really the thing that took the campaign off the rails. So I think they had to really think about what my position would be like, get a lot of advice, and figure out if it could work.”

Russell and I spoke for an hour before he made any reference to his faith, and only when I asked. In the past, he’s talked openly about his evangelical upbringing and its influence on his life and work — Russell’s parents are the founders of the national chain Christian Youth Theater; he and Poole and Bailey are definitive Christian bros. But after several critics accused Invisible Children of being a secretly religious and even anti-gay organization — including an Atlantic story accusing Russell of “secretly pulling our consciences towards Jesus” — he has notably scaled back the God talk. In October, when he was at Catalyst, the annual church leadership conference, Russell says he turned away questions from a Christian Science Monitor reporter who approached him.

“I feel so manipulated by people who think, I’m gonna get the scoop because I think he’s secretly trying to do this spiritual thing. Like if we really were the illuminati, how much more exciting would your article be? If we’re working with Jay Z? We’re in a homeless neighborhood — give me a break, we’re not illuminati.”

Russell says he watches service on TV and goes to church once in a while, but not on a consistent basis.

“Maybe this is a cop-out, but if you want to know about my spirituality, I’ll totally tell you. I can talk about my faith. I’m not afraid of it. But Invisible Children is not a faith-based religious organization at all. People forget that something like 80% of Americans call themselves a believer in God … So to have like 30% or even half of our staff have some kind of faith is just a demographic. No one’s trying to push an agenda.”

Russell believes — of course — that everything happens for a reason. On his bulletin board is a printed-out email from Oprah (her email address blacked out, much to certain visitors’ chagrin). Russell wrote her last year after reading that she recognized the symptoms of her own nervous breakdown after interviewing him.

“Hi Jason, I received your beautiful letter,” he says, more performing her email than reading it out loud. “Isn’t it beautiful how we’re all angels for each other and messages to heal come in all forms? Thank you for taking such fine care and reaching out to me. I hold you in the light — exclamation point!”

“So you saved Oprah?” I ask.

“For me, it’s like, OK, my breakdown was a shitshow. We all know that. But I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, ‘I’ve had a breakdown. I’m on this medicine.’ It’s this dark secret that we’re all struggling with our mental health, and I think we should be vulnerable and honest and tell the truth. If my next 10 years ends with having to do with mental health or encouraging a generation to be real and honest — it’s the only way you’re gonna get free — then the breakdown was probably necessary for me to become something of an expert.”

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Russell speaks to roadies and staff, kicking off a tour at San Diego’s Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial on Sept. 17, 2013. Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

Ben Keesey, a towering 30-year-old with slicked-back hair, likes conversation; he wants to know about your day, where you grew up, and what your job is like. But he bounces, sometimes ungracefully, between youthful energy and political pragmatism, stuck between a world of San Diego interns who end every sentence with “awesome,” and D.C. lawmakers who don’t. He is relentlessly idealistic, a trait he embraces despite how often it’s been used against him and Invisible Children.

After KONY 2012, Keesey would say during interviews, “How do I show you my sincerity? How do I just show people my actual heart? Can they just tap into it for 10 minutes, so they can see we really do care about the people we work for?”

“There are times when I get sad,” Keesey says. “Because a lot of the concerns or skepticisms that we weren’t able to overcome put a lot of people on the sidelines that I believe want to be involved. At times, I actually personally process it as feeling very responsible and saying, ‘What more could I have done? Did I fail? Did I fail this organization and this cause by not being able to properly justify our actions or our integrity?’ It’s a very heavy burden on my heart.”

In the controversy’s aftermath, Invisible Children had difficulty booking school tours for the first time in years. The money wasn’t there like it used to be, with young fundraisers experiencing resistance — “from their families, their friends, people spitting on them, people calling them liars, people calling them stupid, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Russell says. “Before KONY 2012, our organization was predominantly seen as, Good job! You guys are inspiring, keep going, we believe in you. And all the sudden it flipped on its head — You guys are liars, you’re a scam factory, you’re fake, you’re embezzling the money, or whatever.”

By mid-2012, Invisible Children had nearly $26.5 million in revenue and $17 million in net assets. By mid-2013, the organization had $4.9 million in revenue (their lowest since 2005) and less than $6.6 million in assets. Sixty-five employees in the San Diego office became 29. Two floors of a building became one. About 130 staffers in Africa — 95% of them from the region — became 108.

And yet, KONY 2012 was objectively the organization’s most successful campaign ever, both in its mission — making Kony famous, even if on the other end of punch lines — and in policy.

On April 20, 2012, when KONY 2012 supporters were supposed to “cover the night,” a directive from the film to blanket city centers in posters and other anti-Kony propaganda, turnout was abysmal. But that month, President Obama announced the extension of a military advise-and-assist mission to central Africa. The European Union, as part of a declaration of support, established a Joint Operations Centre to assist central Africa’s counter-LRA regional task force. On Capitol Hill, Invisible Children’s reputation went from “very young film students” to issue experts invited to White House roundtables, according to The Enough Project, a policy-focused group that says it helped Invisible Children overcome “stumbling blocks” in its early lack of expertise. In January 2013, Congress passed the Rewards for Justice Bill, authorizing $5 million for information leading to Kony’s capture. It was at the bill’s signing in the Oval Office that Keesey asked Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to speak at the 2013 Fourth Estate Summit, Invisible Children’s second-ever conference of more than 1,000 supporters. She accepted, starting the speech — her first since being appointed ambassador — with “O.M.G.”

“KONY 2012 created the most opportunity and movement around this issue more than all the eight years before it combined,” says Noelle West, who spent a not insignificant amount of her time immediately after KONY 2012 responding to critical comments on charity database GuideStar, Reddit, and social media networks. “To know that’s what happened and still feel punished for it is strange.”

“It was game changer for the profile of the issue and for the movement at the international level,” Keesey says. “It’s absolutely caused us gigantic organizational challenges, personal challenges, ones that we’re still working through. But I think on balance, net net net to the mission, it was helpful. And from that standpoint, I would do it again.”

There are regrets, of course, in how the backlash was handled. From all vantage points, Invisible Children didn’t know how to talk about itself. The messages — and messengers — weren’t consistent.

Grant Oyston (and many others) cited his fundamental problem with Invisible Children as “their relentless focus on advocacy over action,” a criticism heightened by Invisible Children’s director of ideology Jedediah Jenkins’ post-KONY 2012 comment that “we are not an aid organization, and we don’t intend to be. I think people think we’re over there delivering shoes or food. But we are an advocacy and awareness organization.” (Later in March, a video of Jenkins joking around and drinking — or pretending to drink — while celebrating Invisible Children’s $1 million grant from Chase Community Giving made it to TMZ. Jenkins has since taken a break from the organization to go on a bike trip from Oregon to Patagonia.)

“That comment is a bit of a half-representation of even who we were in 2012,” Keesey says. “But at the same time, this conversation in itself illuminates the challenge that we have describing who we are, because who we are has changed, and changes and will change.”

Still, accusations surrounding the organization’s financial integrity remain the stickiest: that so much of its money is spent on travel and film production, that so little is spent on overseas programs, that it kept money from the KONY 2012 action kits.

“We were very much accused of financial impropriety,” Keesey says. “The feeling of potentially being scammed is one of the worst feelings in the world. And it’s not possible to reach back out to the amount of people that heard that message in the wake of KONY 2012 for them to feel rock-solid confident that we do get our finances audited every year, and 100% of our audits have come back with an unqualified opinion. We’ve had no legitimate cases or even accusations of actual fraud. That doesn’t exist.”

COO Chris Carver says when Invisible Children tried to explain its finances, he wishes he had “put out not just the literal components, but how much we felt this strategy was important, this allocation of funds to domestic education versus international operations — how much we believe in that.”

And yet Invisible Children substantially reallocated funds last year, spending about $4 million in the U.S. on media and mobilization efforts and nearly $7.8 million on Uganda recovery and protection programs, according to its annual IRS filings. The only other year Invisible Children gave more money to Uganda than the U.S. was in fiscal year 2009, but the difference was just under $750,000. This reversal was Keesey’s direction, made with consultation from the staff in Africa.

According to independent evaluator Charity Navigator, Invisible Children has spent at least 80% on programs since 2009, contradicting a widely circulated 32% figure that one interpretation of their finances (which discounted U.S. educational programs) yielded during KONY 2012. But Charity Navigator’s accountability rating of Invisible Children in 2011 — two of four stars — was another reason the organization’s finances were called into question, and largely a result of Invisible Children not having enough independent voting board members at the time. The rating was restored to four stars in 2012, after more members were added. (Invisible Children was also questioned for not filing with the Better Business Bureau, another voluntary measure of nonprofit transparency. Carver says the “Better Business Bureau stamp was just something that we haven’t gotten around to doing, because it takes a lot of time.”)

Carver estimates this year’s revenue will continue to be lower than Invisible Children’s past highs. There can never be another surprise Susan Boyle performance, and there can never be another KONY 2012, which cost in total $2.8 million. The organization very simply doesn’t have the resources, financially or emotionally: “To fool ourselves into thinking that we’re gonna convince the world that this is different is not the best use of our time,” Carver says.

Invisible Children’s only fundraising campaign in 2013 was ZeroLRA, which Russell calls “the least inspired I have been and everyone around here has been, even though we worked our butt off to make it happen and inspire our fundraisers and supporters.”

The problem comes down to originality, Russell says. Invisible Children has been telling stories about the LRA’s abductions for 10 years, over 12 documentaries. “How many different ways can you cut the cake? How many different ways can you actually approach the conflict and keep it fresh and exciting?”

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Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

The most important question, two years on: How did Invisible Children spend its KONY 2012 millions?

The answer: mostly on what it considers attack-prevention programs in known LRA activity regions, including one that uses helicopters to drop defection fliers — “truth campaigns to psychologically woo them,” as Keesey says, out of the jungle and to safe-reporting sites. Of last year’s 83 known defectors, 79% referenced the fliers, Invisible Children says. (In December, 19 LRA members defected together, the largest mass defection since 2008.)

Invisible Children has also been investing in data-gathering since 2010, when it launched the LRA Crisis Tracker, broadcasting LRA movements and attacks based on information relayed via 71 high-frequency radios. The community reports are vetted through regional experts and updated to the tracker twice daily. The tracker provides an email subscription service, which Invisible Children says is used by state and military officials in the U.S. and central Africa, local communities, and other NGOs, including those providing health services to rural communities.

Invisible Children’s community-improvement programs in Uganda — the “recovery” piece of the organization’s four-part model — have expanded and matured, too; there are now 401 students enrolled in its legacy scholarship program, up from the 135 in its inaugural class, and 4,025 adults enrolled in the village loans and adult literacy programs, up from 400 in its inception. (When asked for their opinions on these recent developments, many critics of “KONY 2012” told BuzzFeed they haven’t kept up with Invisible Children since the controversy two years ago.)

This year, Invisible Children will go after grants from government and philanthropy groups, like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the LRA Fund, a small group of foundations supporting projects in LRA-affected communities. Keesey says the organization needs about $6.2 million this year to continue its programs and keep the lights on. Some of that will come from Invisible Children’s 10,230 monthly donors (with help from interns who make hundreds of calls a week) but not enough. The staff has come to accept that.

“We don’t need the masses, the gigantic grassroots movement, as much as we have in the past,” says West. That may change from time to time — Invisible Children is pushing an upcoming Senate resolution encouraging Obama to “finish the job and not reduce the amount of resources or commitment until we see a full dismantling of the LRA,” and will ask supporters in key districts to call or write to their senators.

But the reality is that Invisible Children can’t survive off the masses anymore. There will be no films or campaigns or tours this year — no 10-week trips led by interns (or “roadies”) screening films and spreading the word of Invisible Children around the U.S. There will be no large-scale Fourth Estate Summit, either — the conference Russell once described as “a TED talk, mixed with a music festival and a film festival, all mixed in a Justin Bieber concert,” with an average attendee age of 16. That means no 1,315 kids in T-shirts and bracelets spending $325–495 each, and no “spectacular wink and a nod to showmanship,” as Bobby Bailey, who attended the summits in 2011 and 2013, puts it. (There will be a smaller version of the event this year, an Invisible Children spokeswoman told BuzzFeed after this article’s publication.) Maybe Invisible Children will never return to that kind of showmanship; maybe it will never be able to afford to.

This scaling back has brought a certain restlessness to San Diego. Russell hasn’t been to Africa in two years; “There hasn’t been a real need for me to go out,” he says, with dozens of workers already on the ground. His next trip will likely be when Kony is caught or killed and the LRA is disbanded. Then, Invisible Children will either close its doors or change into something else entirely, with a different mission and different players.

“We all want to go do other amazing things at some point in our life, and we don’t want to hold ourselves back from that,” Carver says.

In “Move,” Invisible Children’s first film after “KONY 2012,” West says she was afraid that the backlash and Russell’s breakdown was the “beginning of the end … What if all this time we spent, all these things we built, are just, done?” It was certainly an option in 2012, but despite all its losses, Invisible Children wants to “work to put itself out of a job,” or so goes its spin line.

“I would love to shut the doors,” says West, who’s transitioning from communications director to an in-house consultant for companies seeking advice on viral campaigns. “I would love for there to be a big black screen when you come to IC.com after Kony is caught and there’s a process in place for rehabilitating the region so the LRA can’t come back. I would love for IC to be turned off. Why do you need us anymore? That’s just me, though.”

West wants to build furniture. Keesey is mulling over going back to school for sociology or psychology. Russell’s future may lie in some form of mental health advocacy — a field that may be a little more sympathetic to his intuition to put himself in his stories.

The 10 years they’ve spent on this single issue, maintaining all that swaggering idealism, has left the staff in a state of constant anticipation. They firmly believe the LRA’s demise is within sight and that they get closer every day to someone, somewhere, spotting Kony. And with that expectation comes an even stronger hope for vindication.

“It would be such a big deal. And people would come back to the cause and say, ‘Yeah I’ve been supporting you all along. I wanted Kony to be captured too,’” Russell says. “We definitely know that we need that win, and that the future of Invisible Children and the cause and the work that we do is completely reliant on believing that the win will happen soon. If he’s captured or killed in 2024, I would have a hard time believing we could sustain the narrative for much longer.”

Russell says there’s only one film he’s working on, currently plotted out on his big office whiteboard: the one he’ll release when Kony is gone. Whenever that is.

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Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

Corrections: An earlier version of this article misrepresented Invisible Children’s office layout. The article has also been updated to clarify the LRA Crisis Tracker was launched in 2010, and that according to an Invisible Children spokeswoman, there will be a Fourth Estate Summit this year, contrary to earlier comments made by the staff. (3/10/14)

Update: On Dec. 15, Invisible Children announced it will put in place a strategy to close by the end of 2015.

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/two-years-after-kony-2012-has-invisible-children-grown-up

[clusterassets]

New world news from Time: Fireworks, Crystal Ball Help Usher in 2018 Around the World

From spectacular fireworks in Hong Kong and Australia to a huge LED lightshow at the world’s tallest building in Dubai, a look at how revelers around the world rang in 2018:

CALIFORNIA

The Golden State went green when the calendar turned to 2018.

Starting at midnight, California joined the growing list of states to legalize recreational marijuana. The moment is significant but will not be met with a non-stop pot party.

California has allowed medical marijuana for two decades, and the state is generally tolerant of the drug, so major changes are not expected as the laws are further eased. At least not on New Year’s Day.

More than 90 outlets received licenses to sell in time for Jan. 1. None of those outlets is holding a midnight opening, but some in San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area will be open for business starting at 6 a.m. Monday.

Some cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, will have to wait at least until later in the week before licensed outlets start selling there.

Still, some Californians ushered in the new year with marijuana.

Johnny Hernandez was celebrating legalization — which he described as “something we’ve all been waiting for” — by smoking “Happy New Year blunts” with his cousins in Modesto.

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LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas police officers surrounded hundreds of thousands of tourists gathered to welcome the new year on the Strip, where just three months earlier 58 people died in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Police cruisers, dump trucks and other large vehicles blocked key intersections to try to prevent anyone from plowing into crowds filled with people wearing glittery hats, tiaras and other 2018-themed paraphernalia.

The Nevada National Guard activated about 350 soldiers and airmen, while federal authorities also deployed additional personnel.

A roughly eight-minute fireworks display at the top of seven of the city’s world-famous casino-hotels started ten seconds before midnight Monday. Sprays of gold, red and green lightened the sky on time for 2018.

Tourism officials expected 330,000 people to come to Sin City for the festivities on the Las Vegas Strip and downtown’s Fremont Street.

Rosy-cheeked visitors took selfies and livestreamed the celebration amid temperatures in the mid-40s (4 Celsius), much warmer than most of the U.S.

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NEW YORK

With a burst of confetti and fireworks, throngs of revelers ushered in 2018 in a frigid Times Square as the glittering crystal ball dropped.

It was the second-coldest on record, with the temperature only 10 degrees (minus 12 degrees Celsius) in New York at midnight.

Partygoers bundled up in extra layers, wearing warm hats and face masks, dancing and jogging in place to ward off the cold.

There was also tighter security than ever after two terrorist attacks and a rampaging SUV driver who plowed into a crowd on the very spot where the party takes place. The party went off with no major problems.

“Auld Lang Syne” and “New York, New York” played as the crowds cheered.

The coldest ball drop celebration was in 1917, when it was only 1 degree (minus 17 Celsius).

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BRAZIL

Rio de Janeiro’s main party was celebrated with fireworks erupting on Copacabana beach after the clock struck midnight to usher in the new year.

After 17 minutes of a multicolored show in the skies, singer Anitta led the party on stage with her single “Vai Malandra,” a song that scored 84 million views on YouTube in two weeks. Some of the city’s most traditional Carnival samba schools performed later.

New Mayor Marcelo Crivella said he believed the celebrations would bring 3 million people to the iconic beach, which would mean nearly half of Rio’s population. But locals said Brazil’s economic crisis is still impacting one of the city’s biggest parties. In 2017, 2 million people showed up at Copacabana beach, a number that hasn’t changed much over the years.

Almost 2,000 policemen patrolled the Copacabana region after yet another violent year on the streets. Rio’s hotel association said occupation is nearly total, but mostly by Brazilian tourists.

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GERMANY

Germans rang in 2018 under tight security from police mindful of widespread sexual abuse of women in Cologne two years ago and of a terrorist attack on a Christmas market about a year ago.

Police in Berlin added 1,600 officers on duty and said that large bags and knapsacks would not be allowed on the Party Mile leading from Brandenburg Gate, where thousands of people celebrated at midnight. Police in Frankfurt imposed similar restrictions in the celebration area along the Main River in the country’s financial capital.

Two people died from fireworks injuries, but the country avoided a repeat of the mass groping in Cologne from 2016.

Two years ago, New Year’s in Cologne was marred by groping and theft committed against hundreds of women, in most cases by migrants. On Dec. 19, 2016, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.

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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, has again served as the focal point of New Year’s Eve celebrations — though this year authorities decided against fireworks and chose a massive LED lightshow on it.

That was in part due to safety in the city-state in the United Arab Emirates, which saw a massive skyscraper fire on New Year’s Eve in 2015.

The display, running down the east side of the 828-meter-tall (2,716-foot-tall) tower, showed Arabic calligraphy, geometric designs and a portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s first president.

But a display of neighboring nations’ flags didn’t show Qatar’s flag. The UAE joined Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in boycotting the tiny energy-rich nation in June over allegations Doha supports extremists and has too close ties to Iran. Qatar, which will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, denies supporting extremists and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.

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VATICAN

Bidding 2017 farewell, Pope Francis has decried wars, injustices and environmental decay which he says have “ruined” the year.

Francis on Sunday presided at a New Year’s Eve prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica, a traditional occasion to say thanks in each year’s last hours.

He says God gave to us a 2017 “whole and sound,” but that “we humans in many ways ruined and hurt it with works of death, lies and injustices.”

But, he added, “gratitude prevails” thanks to those “cooperating silently for the common good.”

In keeping with past practice, the pope on New Year’s Day will celebrate Mass dedicated to the theme of world peace.

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AUSTRALIA

Fireworks lit up the sky above Sydney Harbor, highlighting the city’s New Year’s celebrations.

The massive fireworks display included a rainbow waterfall cascade of lights and color flowing off the harbor’s bridge to celebrate recently passed legislation legalizing gay marriage in Australia.

More than 1 million people were expected to gather to watch the festivities. Security was tight, but officials said there was no particular alert.

Sydney officials said the event would generate about $170 million for the city and “priceless publicity.” Nearly half the revelers were tourists.

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NEW ZEALAND

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to streets and beaches, becoming among the first in the world to usher in 2018.

As the new year dawned in this southern hemisphere nation, fireworks boomed and crackled above city centers and harbors, and party-goers sang, hugged, danced and kissed.

In Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, tens of thousands gathered around Sky Tower as five minutes of nonstop pyrotechnics exploded from the top of the structure.

But on nearby Waiheke Island, 30 kilometers (20 miles) away, authorities canceled the planned fireworks display because of drought conditions and low water supplies for firefighters.

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UGANDA

Thousands of Ugandans gathered at churches across the country to mark the end of 2017.

The raucous events, during which some preachers are known to make dubious predictions, have become such a staple of New Year’s Eve festivities that the country’s longtime president, Yoweri Museveni, sometimes makes time to make an appearance at a church.

Still, many in this East African country prefer to celebrate at crowded beaches on the shores of Lake Victoria or in darkened halls listening to the music of pop stars who take turns offering crowd pleasers until midnight.

Police warned revelers not to burn car tires in celebration, citing safety reasons, to discourage a favorite activity of those, especially in the countryside, who cannot afford fireworks.

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RUSSIA

As Russians counted down the last moments before 2018 ticked over into each of the country’s 11 time zones, President Vladimir Putin called on them to be considerate and conciliatory with each other in the new year.

“Say the most cherished words to each other, forgive mistakes and resentment, admit love, warm up with care and attention,” Putin said in a televised message broadcast on Sunday just before midnight.

Moscow had fireworks and outdoor gatherings despite weather that was less than festive. Usually festooned with snow at New Year’s Eve, the Russian capital slogged through a long spell of intermittent rain and constant gray skies.

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JAPAN

Many Japanese celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Dog in the traditional way of praying for peace and good fortune at neighborhood Shinto shrines and eating New Year’s food such as noodles, shrimp and sweet black beans.

Barbecued beef and octopus dumpling stalls were out at Tokyo’s Zojoji Temple, where people took turns striking the giant bell 108 times at midnight, an annual practice repeated at other Buddhist temples throughout Japan.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs cast a shadow over Japan’s hopes for peace, said cab driver Masaru Eguchi, who was ready to be busy all night shuttling shrine visitors.

“The world situation has grown so complex,” Eguchi said, adding that he also worried about possible terrorism targeting Japan. “I feel this very abstracted sense of uncertainty, although I really have no idea what might happen.”

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INDIA

Security was tight in the southern Indian city of Bangalore to prevent a repeat of incidents of groping and molestation of several women during New Year’s Eve celebrations a year ago.

Police Commissioner Sunil Kumar said at least 15,000 police officers were on duty and were being aided by drones and closed-circuit television cameras.

A year ago, police first denied that any sexual harassment had taken place during the celebrations in Bangalore, India’s information technology hub. But later, police detained at least six men after several video clips of women being attacked by groups of men spread on social media.

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PHILIPPINES

Scores of people were injured by celebratory firecrackers in the Philippines, which has some of the most raucous New Year’s celebrations in Asia.

Although the number of injuries has tapered off in recent years, largely due to hard economic times and government scare campaigns, the figures remain alarming. President Rodrigo Duterte signed an order confining the use of firecrackers to community-designated areas, such as near shopping malls and parks.

Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year’s celebrations drive away evil and misfortune. But they have carried that superstition to extremes, exploding dangerously large firecrackers and firing guns to welcome the new year despite threats of arrest.

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TURKEY

Security measures were ramped up across Turkey, which a year ago was hit by a New Year’s attack that killed dozens of people.

In Istanbul, 37,000 officers were on duty, with multiple streets closed to traffic and large vehicles barred from entering certain districts. Several New Year’s Eve street parties were canceled for security reasons.

Early on Jan. 1, 2017, an assailant shot his way into Istanbul’s Reina nightclub, where hundreds of people were celebrating New Year’s. Thirty-nine people, mostly foreigners, were killed, and 79 were wounded. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

On Sunday, about 100 people gathered outside the nightclub to remember the victims of the attack.

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LAS VEGAS

Tens of thousands of revelers will ring in the new year in Las Vegas under the close eye of law enforcement just three months after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Tourism officials expect about 330,000 people to visit Las Vegas for the festivities, which are anchored by a roughly eight-minute fireworks display at the top of seven casino-hotels.

Acts including Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, Celine Dion and the Foo Fighters will keep partiers entertained before and after midnight at properties across Sin City.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had every officer working Sunday, while the Nevada National Guard activated about 350 soldiers and airmen.

The federal government sent dozens of personnel to assist with intelligence and other efforts.

January 01, 2018 at 01:23AM ClusterAssets Inc., https://ClusterAssets.wordpress.com

[dstinternational]

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