#Why is SDA funding different?

[premiumdisability]

Supported Independent Living Victoria

Supported Independent Living (SIL) is a NDIS funding option that provides full-time support to people with disability.

Supported independent living Victoria is available in a number of different settings including shared accommodation, supported living homes and specialist disability accommodation.

The NDIS has been designed to help people with disabilities live a life they love and have control over their own lives. The NDIS supports people to access the supports they need to improve their physical, emotional and social well-being, and increase their independence.

Home Share providers are a great option for a person with a disability who needs assistance with everyday living activities such as cooking, cleaning, toileting, shopping and personal care. They are open to anyone with a disability and offer services based on the individual's unique needs.

Residential care services are a good choice for older people who need assistance with daily living and may not be able to live independently. These are properties that have Australian Government approval to provide a range of support services and are monitored to ensure they meet certain standards.

They can be located in a residential area and are available on a permanent or short-term basis, with fees varying based on the type of service provided.

A SIL house is like a regular house in that there are between two and seven people living together. Each person has their own bedroom and there are support workers that come to the house to help with daily living tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and transporting.

It can be difficult for people with a disability to find the right place to live. This is especially true when they are looking for a SIL house that will support their disability needs.

The NDIS helps to make this process easier for everyone by providing them with funding to support people in their lives. They also have a dedicated team of experts that can provide help and advice on finding a suitable home and living situation.

Getting NDIS funding for a house can be tricky, and it often involves lots of legwork on the part of the person receiving the support. This is why it is best to have a Support Coordinator to help with the process.

The NDIA will determine whether a participant is eligible for SDA or SIL funding and how much funding they should receive. This will be done after an assessment is carried out.

Premium Disability Support Services is an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) Service Provider based in Melbourne. We provide disability support services all across Melbourne. We support all individuals with disabilities to develop the skills and capabilities that they require to achieve independence and participate in society.

[sciencespies]

Space Development Agency to deploy hypersonic missile defense satellites by 2022

https://sciencespies.com/space/space-development-agency-to-deploy-hypersonic-missile-defense-satellites-by-2022/

Space Development Agency to deploy hypersonic missile defense satellites by 2022

A June 5 solicitation for a “tracking phenomenology experiment” is a step in the development of a sensor network in space to track hypersonic missiles.

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency is soliciting bids to integrate a missile-warning sensor with a satellite bus and launch it to low Earth orbit by late 2021.

The June 5 solicitation is for a “tracking phenomenology experiment” to develop sensor algorithms for a future missile detection network in space. Proposals are due July 6.

The experiment is an initial step in the SDA’s plan to deploy a large constellation of low orbiting satellites in 2022 to detect and track maneuvering hypersonic missiles that the Pentagon predicts China and Russia will field in the near future.

The tracking experiment is central to the development of sensors that can accurately identify missile signals in background noise and clutter, according to SDA. “It will characterize scene backgrounds for a range of satellite viewing conditions to optimize algorithms, concepts of operations and wavebands for advanced missile detection and tracking,” said the June 5 request for proposals.

The contractor in this project will be responsible for taking a sensor payload provided by SDA, integrating it with a satellite bus and putting in on a launch vehicle.

Derek Tournear, the director of the SDA, said the missile defense phenomenology experiment will supplement two other satellites being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under the Blackjack program.

“There will be at least three LEO OPIR [overhead persistent infrared] satellites flown,” Tournear said June 4 during a Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance webcast.

These experiments will collect data “so that we can really justify that we’ve chosen the correct bands, that we understand some of the phenomenology,” Tournear said.

In parallel to the experiment, SDA will start soliciting proposals from contractors to build the first eight satellites of the missile tracking constellation. A final request for proposals will be out by June 15, Tournear said.

Tournear said satellites in different orbits will be needed to detect and track fast-flying hypersonic missiles. SDA’s eight satellites will provide a “wide field of view” from orbit but more detailed tracking data will be provided by another “medium field of view” layer of satellites that is being designed by the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency but has not yet been funded. The MDA program, known as the Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensors, or HBTSS, would provide the so-called “fire control” data needed to be able to target an interceptor weapon to shoot down the hypersonic missile.

By 2022 or 2023, SDA plans to field an early version of a missile warning network with about 70 wide-field-of-view and medium-field-of-view satellites. “That will give us enough coverage in LEO so that we can have essentially regional persistence,” said Tournear. ‘We’ll have to determine which areas of the globe we want to focus on. That’s the first time we’ll have enough satellites up there to where we could actually fight a war with those satellites.” By 2025, “we’ll have more satellites up to where it we’ll be able to have full global coverage.”

Congress has questions

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), of the House Armed Services Committee, said DoD’s missile defense programs are likely to be a topic of discussion in the upcoming markup of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. Subcommittee debate is scheduled for June 22 and the full committee markup on July 1.

During the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance webcast, Lamborn asked Tournear and MDA officials on the panel to explain why the HBTSS space sensor layer was not funded in the Pentagon’s 2021 budget.

Tournear said there were “funding constraints” in the 2021 budget. If Congress decided to add money to the program, he said, that would help close the gap between the deployment of the wide-field-of-view and the medium-field-of-view systems.

Some lawmakers have questioned why SDA is moving forward with a tracking sensor layer if there is still no plan to deploy the HBTSS system that would be needed to shoot down an enemy missile.

“You start to get into this chicken and the egg issue that we want to head off at the pass,” said Tournear. “We want to move both of them at the same time. And I would contend that one of them is not more difficult than the other, both are necessary.”

Tournear also pushed back on criticism that SDA and MDA are doing overlapping work. “We’re doing a hybrid architecture together.,” he said. Tournear noted that both agencies are under the office of undersecretary of defense for research and engineering Mike Griffin. “As far as making sure that that SDA and MDA are tied closely together, well, for one thing, we’ve got the same boss. That’s a start that helps a lot.”

#Space

[marthashlyn]

Morning Meditation 🧘🏾‍♀️ - 💊

The world has to keep moving. There should be a constant, steady flow of money. That’s how the economy works worldwide.

Tithes : Dîme

Tithes are how your spiritual leaders earn their pay. Church is THEIR job so YOU understand & learn on YOUR spiritual journey.

That is 10% of your earnings every pay check. Calculate gross pay by 0.1 to see that amount. That’s every week you get paid.

10% of $100 = $10

100 x 0.1 (tenths place) = 10

There are different ways to pay your tithes if you are part of our flock. (They say it every week right before they collect) Yes, we have digital handles.

If you do happen to fill out the envelope available for your tithes? There are different options available. You decide what amount you would like for each option. (note: I will provide a photo later of said envelope)

WHEN you do happen to pay your tithes, you can specify whomever you would like to have it sent to.

If you do specify? There is a protocol in place. Don’t ask what it is because I don’t know, but there is one.

To our flock: The SENIOR Pastor receives your money period. He thanks you ✨🦉✨

Note: That means jocelin dumbass does NOT. (The associate “pastor”) If he did? He too, is a thief. He already robbed the Trinity, so that could be a possibility. He WAS NOT called.

Offering : Offrande : Ofrann

“Gifts”

Tips

An “act of kindness.” A “Love Gift.”

Extra money.

Free will money.

Money you would like to GIFT for whatever reason. (The extra options available on the tithing envelope)

Extra options:

Budget for church - “economy🇭🇹”

Funding for construction

Expansion for federation (conference)

Funds for education

Funds for conference camp ground improvement

World budget (For mission, divisions. So, mission work)

Money collected annually solicited

Money collected annually for offering

Prayer money. Gratitude money. = Tithing 2.0 (Quantity doesn’t matter)

Personal handles = Offering 2.0

To give freely during Personal Time.

If you have a spiritual leader you would like to send money for their personal ministry? That would NOT be considered tithes.

There you would send your “offering” to/for their ministry to their personal handles.

Basically a gift or tip. An “act of kindness.” A “Love Gift.”

Personal handles are Zelle, Cashapp, or whatever they have available.

Massive SN:

Your spiritual leaders should be CALLED.

Schooling, an education on the matter, is also IMPORTANT!

There is a protocol in place when they are called, to the point they become ORDAINED.

Schooling, an education on the matter, is also IMPORTANT!

In the SDA church, each pastor has their OWN personal ministry, while they also lead a flock. - J.C.

There is a protocol in the church for your tithes. The money goes to the conference, THEN, the conference PAYS the Pastors. -J.C. (3/26/22) - Spritual Brother & Father’s creativity. (4/30/22). 💢. [📍✨ - 💡🌈 ]

Also keep in mind, not every flock is part of the conference they are in the zone for. Most churches ARE connected though. You just have to figure it out.

You either belong to a flock and tithe there or pick one of your choice, if you don’t belong to one. I’d say it would be best to give offering instead if you are transitioning or visiting, but if you would like to tithe anyway? God thanks you ✨🦉✨

Tithing envelope: No one really uses it anymore. It’s a little out of date. That’s why the digital options for tithes & offering are available. They also have it in different languages. Everything collected is for church operations locally and worldwide, depending on the options you choose.

[sitesbumble82]

Farmers Only Women

While FSA is committed to serving all farmers and ranchers, by statute, FSA targets a portion of all Guaranteed loan funds, Direct Operating and Direct Farm Ownership loan funds, Microloan funding, and Youth loans, to historically underserved farmers and ranchers, which include:

Women

African-Americans

Alaskan Natives

American Indians

Hispanic

Asian

Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Resources

Farmers's best 100% FREE online dating site. Meet loads of available single women in Farmers with Mingle2's Farmers dating services! Find a girlfriend or lover in Farmers, or just have fun flirting online with Farmers single girls. Mingle2 is full of hot Farmers girls waiting to hear from you. This week we've put together a fail compilation dedicated to all of the farmers out there! From horses to llamas and beyond, this isn't for f. A farmer dating service only for farmer seeking other farmers. When you are a farmer, the opportunities to meet other singles are limited. That is why farmer dating online makes sense. Meet another single farmer in your area today., Farmer Dating Service.

Fact Sheet: Loans for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (PDF, 547 KB)

Direct Loanmaking Handbook 3-FLP (PDF, 2.40 MB)

Application Forms*

*Loan application forms for Beginning Farmers are the same as those used by non-beginning farmer applicants. Please select the applicable loan type for applicable Farm Loan application forms.

Simultaneous requests for a direct farm ownership loan and a direct operating loan should be combined on a single application form.

When you meet with your FSA county Farm Loan Program staff, you may be asked to complete additional forms based on applicable loan program requirements for the loan type.

Loan Types

Loans to historically underserved and women farmers and ranchers are not a special type of loan program or loan type. Rather, this designation refers to a specific funding source known as Socially Disadvantaged Applicant (SDA) funding. To be considered for targeted funding, loan applicants must voluntarily provide race, ethnicity, and gender information.

You do not have to choose between identifying as an historically underserved individual or a beginning farmer, nor is there a 'benefit' of deciding between one designation over the other. Identifying yourself as an historically underserved beginning farmer loan applicant is completely acceptable.

Loan Application Process

To be considered for targeted 'SDA' loan funding, loan applicants must voluntarily provide his or her ethnicity, race and/or gender on the loan application. Otherwise, the Agency's loan process and loan requirements are identical for all loan applicants. There is no difference between historically underserved and women applicants and those who do not fall under this funding allocation other than the availability of targeted funding.

Down Payment Loan

The Direct Farm Ownership Down Payment loan is the only loan program specifically for historically underserved and women farmers and beginning farmers. Down Payment loan funds may be used only to partially finance the purchase of a family farm. Loan applicants must contribute a minimum downpayment of 5 percent of the purchase price of the farm and the Agency will finance 45 percent to a maximum loan amount of $300,000. The balance of the purchase price not covered by the down payment loan and the loan applicant's down payment may be financed by a commercial lender (pdf, 563KB), private lender, a cooperative, or the seller.

Additional Information

We encourage you to contact your local office or USDA Service Center to learn more about our programs. You should also be able to locate a listing in the telephone directory in the section set aside for governmental/public organizations under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency. Our local FSA office staffs are happy to help you and discuss our loan programs with you in more detail.

In 2013, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report on female farmers that contained what appeared to be some very good news: the share of farms operated by women had nearly tripled in the thirty years between 1978 and 2007.

Understandably, the media covered this development as a sign of real progress. Headlines from Grist and USA Today gushed that women were 'breaking the grass ceiling,' while NPR, The New York Times, and other national publications ran similarly upbeat stories. In 2014, USDA released data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture showing that there had been a small drop in the number of female farmers between 2007 and 2012, but that still hasn't slowed the celebratoryarticles about the growing number of women in agriculture.

A closer look at the data, however, presents a much more troubling story. Instead of ushering in the era of the female farmer, the last 40 years have seen little progress in female farm ownership--and potentially some serious backsliding.

These data are incomplete--as I'll discuss shortly--but what we can glean from the available data is discouraging. Since 1978:

the number of young female farmers has likely fallen;(1)

fewer women appear to be making a living from farming;(2) and

there's evidence that the income disparity between male and female farmers has grown.(3)

And while we don't know how many female farmers were able to support themselves solely through farming in 1978, we do know that only an exceptionally small number of them can today. Fewer than 3% of our country's almost 200,000 'commercial' farmers--those farmers most likely to operate stable, financially successful businesses--are female.(4)

This is in part why the average female farmer only makes $2,560 each year, while the average male farmers makes $42,731--nearly 17 times as much.(5)

And to add to this list of discouraging facts, the average female farmer is just over 60 years old--two years older than the average farmer, and about 15 years older than the average physician.(6)

If things have gotten worse for female farmers, then why is the Agricultural Census reporting such a large increase in their number?

He can expect to earn 17 times as much as his female colleagues.

Prior to 2002, the Agricultural Census massively undercounted small and mid-sized farms, which make up the bulk of female-owned farms. In 1997, for example, USDA calculated that they were almost twice as likely to miss a female farmer when conducting the Census than a male one.(7) While only 9% of the farmers counted in the Census were female, USDA estimated that the actual percentage of female farmers in the United States was likely closer to 15%.(8)

This alone may explain most of the 'increase' in female farmers we've seen in recent census counts. In the last two censuses, female farmers made up about 14% of the total farmer count--slightly under the USDA's 1997 estimate.

Our conception of what constitutes 'farming' has also changed considerably since 1978. Forty years ago, rural women that raised horses or sold agricultural products to their friends and neighbors generally weren't considered farmers.

That's no longer true. About 60% of the women farmers in the 2012 Agricultural Census sold fewer than $5,000 of agricultural goods in the previous year.(9) These women are much more likely to call themselves farmers today then they would have been in 1978, as are their neighbors and the US government.

This is a positive development--many of them are providing significant benefits to their families and regional food systems--but this change in norms also makes it much more difficult to compare older census data sets to contemporary ones. We just don't have any way of knowing how many women in 1978 were 'farmers' by today's standards. As a result, it's difficult to know whether the number of female farmers has actually increased, and if so, by how much.

As women have won additional rights over the last 40 years, farm policy has ironically made it increasingly difficult for them to achieve financial independence through farming. If we continue our current policy trajectory--in which only the largest farms provide a decent income--then we're unlikely to ever see a significant increase in the number of truly independent female farmers.

The grass ceiling remains safe for now.

(1) The number of women operators under 25 counted in the census has fallen since 1978, while the number of women operators under 35 has stayed about the same. As discussed below, however, the 1978 census significantly undercounted female farmers, meaning that the actual number of female farmers under 35 has almost certainly fallen. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Dep't of Commerce, 1978 Census of Agriculture 38 tbl. 31; Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., USDA, 2012 Census of Agriculture tbl. 57 (2014).

(2) The number of women selling over approximately $10,000 (in 2015 dollars) in agricultural goods has declined. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Dep't of Commerce, 1978 Census of Agriculture 210 tbl. 44; Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., USDA, 2012 Census of Agriculture tbl. 57 (2014).

(3) There are no publicly available data on farm income by gender from 1978, however the disparity in the annual average value of agricultural products sold by individual male and female farmers has increased significantly. In 1978, the percentage of female farmers selling more than roughly $10,000 (in 2012 dollars) in agricultural products was only 9% below the national average. By 2012, this gap had almost doubled, reaching 17%.

(4) Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., USDA, 2012 Census of Agriculture: Farm Typology 8 tbl.1 (2015); see also Econ. Research Serv., USDA, America's Diverse Family Farms 7 (2015) (discussing the financial performance of various farm types).

(5) Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., USDA, Special Tabulation 23287 (Dec. 10, 2015) (on file with author).

Farmers Only Women Images

(6) Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., USDA, 2012 Census of Agriculture: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Profiles 2 (2014).

(7) Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., USDA, 1997 Census of Agriculture: History 95 tbl.7-4 (2002).

Farmers Only Browse Women

(9) Nat'l Agric. Statistics Serv., supra note 6.

[adventisttoday]

Shutdown Of Adventist Operations Ordered In West-Central Burundi 24 October 2019 The governor of the Muramvya province of west-central Burundi has ordered the suspension of operations of the Adventist denomination in his province. Region Week reported this week that Laurent Nicimbeshe made the decision after meeting twice with warring Adventist entities in his region and failing to find a resolution to their conflict. Region Week reported that this latest tension stems from the attempted placement of new pastor in the Muramvya district, who was entry on October 5 refused into the district by Adventists at the Muramvya regional headquarters of the church The new pastor, Elie Manirambona, was rejected because Adventists at the Muramvya headquarters considered him to be appointed outside of denominational policy by deposed union president Joseph Ndikubwayo. The General Conference-approved leader of the denomination in the country is Lamec Barishinga. During last week’s Annual Council 2019 meetings in Silver Spring, Maryland, General Conference President, Ted Wilson stressed that Barishinga had not been allowed to take office in Burundi. He framed this as persecution of the denomination. Will you give a donation to Adventist Today? In May of this year, Wilson appealed to Adventists around the world to pray for the church in the central African nation of Burundi. “I call on all Seventh-day Adventists to pray for our church members in Burundi, for religious liberty in that country, and for the release of all those improperly imprisoned Adventists,” he was quoted in the online Adventist Review on May 14. A later commentary by Dr. Ganoune Diop, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the GC, stated that the issue was “the right of religious organizations to conduct their affairs without government interference,” and specifically the choice of denominational leaders. “A government can appropriately object to the appointment of any citizen” as a denominational leader, Diop wrote, “if it proves beyond reasonable doubt that such leader has broken the law. But without the basic core principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ … the law sinks into arbitrariness.” Specifically, Diop stated that the Burundi Union Mission president had been removed from office by the East Central Africa Division (ECD) committee, but the Burundi government decided to maintain him in office despite the fact that he “has been deprived of his pastoral credentials by the church.” Diop also stated a recent visit he made to Burundi was “certainly not an investigation” and “the expectation of some that we should be listening to all parties in this crisis was beyond our purview or responsibility. We were not mandated either to judge East Central Africa Division and evaluate the decision of a committee of representatives from 11 nations.” But Adventist Today’s investigation shows that this is not just religious persecution or a breakdown of religious liberty, as Elder Wilson first claimed. There are many complications here, including evidence of theft, open violence among church members, political infighting, and ethnic tensions. Steps to Crisis A 15 May article in the Business Standard newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, described the conflict in detail. Since that time Adventist Today has received even more information from a number of sources among the 186,000 church members in Burundi. We have also obtained copies of a significant number of documents related to this story. Pastor Joseph Ndikubwayo was fired as union president in November. It is important to keep in mind that a union mission, unlike a union conference, is governed by the Division committee. It does not have a constituency from its territory as a union conference does. In other words, it is not self-governing. And in this case, it means the decision was made outside of Burundi in a neighboring country by a group largely made up of citizens from other nations. Ndikubwayo was fired due to accusations of embezzling church funds and accepting a role with the government, according to the Business Standard article. Here, evidence differs. Adventist Today has a copy of the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS) report of an audit conducted in October 2018. Ndikubwayo is not mentioned in the report, though union executive secretary, Pastor Paul Irakoze, was accused. Also, the former union treasurer confirmed verbally and in writing that he had given money to Irakoze. Church members in Burundi expected the Division to take action against Irakoze. However, it appears that internal politics among the Division officers may have resulted in a different outcome. Church members filed a case in the Anti-corruption Court in Burundi. Irakoze and the former union treasurer were arrested. Then, an office of the Division wrote to the Court admitting that money was embezzled but stating they had not asked anyone to file a case. The fact that Ndikubwayo had a role with the government of Burundi does not appear to have anything to do with this case. He was asked by the Head of State to serve as a member of the National Security Council in 2015 and he accepted. The Division officers were aware of this and church members in Burundi cannot understand why this could be a reason to remove him from office in 2018, three years later. The Adventist Church in Burundi is among the top five Christian denominations in the country and it is common practice for the government to request Adventist leaders to serve on various committees. For example, Pastor Uzziel Habingabwa, who was union president from 1994 to 2005 served as a member of the Elders’ Council of Burundi. These positions are never full-time positions. They are advisory positions, voluntary positions with no salaries or financial benefits. Pastor Lamec Barishinga was appointed to be union president in Burundi at the 6 November meeting of the Division committee in Nairobi. Barishinga was the executive secretary of the local field in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. His field president was Pastor Lambert Ntiguma, whom sources have told Adventist Today was behind the removal of Ndikubwayo. Church members told us that they have heard that days prior to the 6 November meeting, Ntiguma told Ndikubwayo in front of other field officers, that he would never finish his term in office. Ganoune Diop Intervention The Adventist Church has been present in Burundi since 1925. A church member told Adventist Today, “We have never had a crisis of this magnitude, except the persecution of 1984-1987 when the church was outlawed.” Many church members in Burundi have rejected the Division’s decision because it appeared to be largely influenced by internal politics among the Division officers. Dr. Diop traveled to Burundi in March and met with government officials because the government did not recognize the appointment of Barishinga as legal. Civil law in Burundi prohibits the removal of the chief executive of a non-profit organization before the end of the term of office specified in the organization’s bylaws. Diop met twice with the Interior Minister and the chair of the body which is responsible for mediation of internal conflicts in denominations. Sources have told Adventist Today that the officials showed him all the details related to this case, including the absence of an offense that could justify the removal of Ndikubwayo as union president before the end of his term. The officials also presented to Diop how the conflict in the church was a threat to public order because police had to intervene on Sabbaths when church members got into fights. Gihosha SDA Church was closed twice because of fighting on Sabbath. At Kamenge SDA Church the Lord’s Supper was disrupted. Sources told Adventist Today that Diop and the officials agreed that the best solution would be to remove both Ndikubwayo and Barishinga and appoint a new person who could unite the church. The understanding of church members in Burundi is that Diop promised to present his report to the GC President for action. Adventist Today has been told that Diop announced this to church members on Sabbath during a sermon. However, after returning to the GC office in the U.S., Diop wrote to the Minister informing him that they had decided to keep Barishinga as union president, but appoint Daniel Bavugubusa, the union treasurer, as the legal representative of the denomination to the government. Many church members have rejected this proposal as a violation of the union mission bylaws. Before the Minister could reply, Diop sent another letter on 26 March threatening the government of Burundi that if it did not accept the decision of the GC, they would launch a campaign against the government in international forums such as the United Nations, European Union, African Union, etc., and in social media. The Church Meets with Government Leaders On 15 April, Barishinga and his team met with the government Ombudsman. They accused the Interior Minister of imposing a leader on the Adventist Church. They also met with journalists from local and international media, including the Voice of America and British Broadcasting Company (BBC). This action was interpreted by the government officials as implementation of Diop’s plan. The ombudsman gave them an appointment for another hearing on 18 April. A letter dated 17 April from the Minister of Interior of Burundi, Pascal Barandagiye, addressed to Pastor Ted Wilson, the GC president, states that Ndikubwayo is to continue to be the leader of the Burundi Union Mission until church leaders can elect a new leader that everyone consents to. It says Barishinga is “a disputed person” as leader of the church and that insisting that he continue as union president is “a contradiction to the discussions we had with your delegation” (the one led by Diop). The Interior Minister also invited all the Adventist leaders in Burundi to meet with him at Hotel Source du Nil in Bujumbura on 18 April in an apparent attempt to mediate a settlement in the dispute. Ndikubwayo and his supporters went, but Barishinga and his team went to the Ombudsman’s office. The Ombudsman told them to go and meet with the Interior Minister, but they refused. In this meeting, the Interior Minister repeated that Diop and his delegation had decided to go against everything they had agreed on when he met with them. He instructed administrative authorities and security forces to ensure the law is respected and to stop all fighting in churches. He stated that those who disagree with his decision can take legal action through the Administrative Courts which have the power to overturn his decision; that this is the peaceful way to disagree with his decision. He emphasized that the government wants the Church to be united and it is for that reason that he was calling for the Church to conduct elections and put in place a leader everyone can agree on. Arrests and Congregational Tensions The Business Standard article reported that on 10 May, Barishinga and Ntiguma were arrested. These arrests were the result of violence that occurred on Sabbath, 4 May at Jabe SDA Church in Bujumbura, sources have told Adventist Today. A group organized four busloads of people to go to Jabe Church and disrupt the service because the pastor was supporting Ndikubwayo as union president. As the pastor was about to address the congregation, he was attacked, beaten and his nose was bleeding. Church members called the police, who came immediately. Church members have told Adventist Today that the police are now alert on Sabbaths because of how often they need to intervene in open conflicts in Adventist congregations. The Inspector General of Police has instructed local commanders to ensure Adventist properties are secure and protected by using passive and dissuasive security in order to enable members to worship freely. A number of other Adventists have been arrested. Recently all of them, including Barishinga and Ntiguma, have been released, according to Adventist News Network. It appears that the purpose of the arrests is simply to keep the peace and prevent violence, not to force a government decision about who should be the leader of the denomination in the country. Japhet Legentil Ndayishimiye posted a comment on the Adventist Review online in response to the article about Ted Wilson’s appeal for worldwide prayer in which Ndayishimiye wrote, “The General Conference … failed to listen to both sides. …. The problem is that one of staff members of East Central Africa Division in Kenya is also involved in the missing 200 million Burundi francs, [and] that is why the delegation from that Division could not do [its] job as mediators.” He also wrote, “The Conflict is on a high risk of ethnic problems …” Ndayishimiye is a Burundian Adventist who lives in Norway. He follows closely what is taking place in Burundi because he is president of the Burundian Diaspora network. Clearly a real solution has yet to be put in place among Adventists in Burundi. Is the issue really about religious rights or is it about politics within the organization? Will leaders emerge in the Division and the GC who will listen to the church members in the country and move beyond guarding their own organizational turf? To what extent are these matters of ethnic tension? (Burundi has the same tribal divisions—Hutu and Tutsi—as neighboring Rwanda.) These questions should provide a basis for prayer for the church in this region. The problem is far from solved, and new information keeps coming to light. But what appears to be clear is that this is more than, as Elder Wilson initially said, simply a religious liberty violation because of interference in church affairs by the Burundi government. Claims of financial irregularities in the union mission and the ECD do not appear to have been fully resolved. Church relationships are complicated by ethnic factionalism. At least some of those imprisoned were not being persecuted: they were arrested because they were perpetrating violence against one another. Nor is the answer as simple as returning the GC’s selected leaders to power. Diop confirms in the Adventist News article of 14 May, “The situation in Burundi is both complex and sensitive and is being driven by many different forces—some of which we are aware of, and some of which we have yet to fully understand.” https://ift.tt/2N9Xvd3 https://ift.tt/2JgFNmT

[delicatelysublimeforester]

“Depaving while rebuilding”~Richard Register

That’s crazy, have you ever heard of such a concept?  Would that be like greenscape or greyscape?

The planning studies of the P4G includes Corman Park, Saskatoon, Warman, Martensville and Osler, includes the area around Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

The planning studies of the P4G includes Corman Park, Saskatoon, Warman, Martensville and Osler, includes the area around Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

American Red Squirrel Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Bohemian Waxwing Bombycilla Garrulus Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada

So technically, Richard Register, goes on to say, “The inescapable conclusion about access and transportation is that we have built an immensely destructive transportation infrastructure and need to create access in a different way. ”

A different way?  Hmmm?  Have you ever heard of such a thing before?

“That this implies is tearing up the asphalt and rolling back sprawl; organizing the community, buying the seedlings, breaking out the sledge hammers, warming up the muscles, and firing up the bulldozers – on our side this time.”~ Richard Register

We are close to 8 billion persons on the world right now, and by 2055 the earth will feature 10 billion persons and 11 billion in the year 2088.  Saskatoon, well this city is at 246,376, and is the largest city in the province of Saskatchewan and features a Census Metropolitan Area of 295,095.  Well, by 2032, this number for the city should change to 450,000 around 2032 and one million by 2063.  “The Blairmore Suburban Development Area (SDA) currently has land sufficient for eight future neighbourhoods and approximately 50,000 to 70,000 people within its boundaries”~Blairmore Sector Plan Report Richard St. Barbe Baker AFforestation Area, and the George Genereux Urban Regional Park are both included in the Blairmore Sector Report according to city long range planners.

“Nature depaves.” ~Richard Register

Isn’t that a unique sentence. Short, just like that, “nature depaves.”

“

The planning studies of the P4G includes Corman Park, Saskatoon, Warman, Martensville and Osler, includes the area around Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

The planning studies of the P4G includes Corman Park, Saskatoon, Warman, Martensville and Osler, includes the area around Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

American Red Squirrel Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Bohemian Waxwing Bombycilla Garrulus Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada

” ~Richard Register

That is an interesting question.

“We need not only to stop new paving, but to being depaving what should never have been paved in the first place.”~Richard Register.

Isn’t that a unique statement. Register goes on to relate that “A major roadway was recently removed from the side of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, and replaced with a riverside walk and park….In the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota, in an area called Phalen Village, a failed shopping center and its enormous parking lot have been bulldozed to restore a lake filled forty years aso…Says Torstenson [ St. Paul City staff planner ], ‘It always wanted to be a lake, even after it was paved. Water collected in the parking lot during rains and stayed for days, and by the end a few cattails were pushing through the asphalt even before the bulldozers came back. One day last fall I saw ducks floating in the rain puddle in the middle of the parking lot near those reeds. The lake was insisting on coming back.’ One old timer in Phalen village told him, ‘I was there fishing when the first dump truck arrived. Never should have filled that lake in the first place.'”

“Depaving while rebuilding”~Richard Register

Bibliography:

Register, Richard. Ecocities.  Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature.  ISBN-10:0-86571-552-1. ISBN-13: 978-0-96571-552-3.  New Society Publishers.  2006

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′ Addresses: Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Contact the Meewasin Valley Authority at 402 Third Avenue South Saskatoon, SK S7K 3G5 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The MVA has begun a Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund. If you wish to support the afforestation area with your donation, write a cheque to the “Meewasin Valley Authority Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund (MVA RSBBAA trust fund)”. Please and thank you! Twitter: StBarbeBaker Please contemplate joining the SOS Elms coalition or make a donation to SOS Elms ~ leave a message to support the afforestation area 😉

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

“I believed that God has lent us the Earth. It belongs as much to those who come after us as to us, and it ill behooves us by anything we do or neglect, to deprive them of benefits which are in our power to bequeath.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

Nature depaves. Why don’t we? "Depaving while rebuilding"~Richard Register That's crazy, have you ever heard of such a concept?  Would that be like greenscape or greyscape?

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Parents of killed Santa Safari tour worker travel to Lapland

The mother and father of a Santa tour manual who become stabbed to demise in Lapland have traveled to Finland, it is understood. The sufferer has been named regionally as Rebecca Johnson, from Burntisland in Fife.bing travel

Her frame changed into discovered in the Finnish village of Kuttanen on Saturday.

The 26-year-old was a member of the Santa Safari team which matches with Oxford-based totally tour operator Trans Tour to organize Christmas-themed tours to Lapland.

Her 36-12 months-antique Czech boyfriend is in police custody. Ms. Johnson turned into a member of the Sled Dog Affiliation of Scotland (SDAS), who said she became a “shiny and bubbly younger lady” who “lived for her puppies”.

In a declaration on the SDAS website, the Affiliation stated: “Our mind exit to her buddies and own family at this tough time, mainly so close to Christmas, a time to be with your family.

Rebecca became an eager musher who turned into a notable supporter for SDAS,

Generously giving many ManMat prizes for our race competitors.” A minute’s silence could be held for Ms. Johnson at this weekend’s Darnaway race, observed with the aid of a group for certainly one of her favorite Dog charities, SDAS added.

Speaking to the Courier newspaper, Ms. Johnson’s remarkable-aunt Val Laing, who lives in Burntisland, stated her terrific-niece would be greatly overlooked. She stated: “Rebecca turned into a beautiful lady. “I had come home from Edinburgh whilst her granddad was on the telephone to tell me what had happened. I could not take it in at the beginning. “For her parents and grandparents to lose her just before Christmas is devastating. I will be there for them but I don’t know how they’re going to manage.”

Desperation to Relieve Insomnia – What Really Killed Michael Jackson

I bear in mind the day I heard about Michael Jackson’s dying. It becomes on June 27, 2009, days after it happened. I used to be flying home from an in-depth week-lengthy path where I hadn’t had access to information of any kind. What I don’t forget maximum as I watched the tale unfold on an airport T.V., is not the grief at losing this gifted performer nicely earlier than his time, or anger at his doctor for irresponsibly offering a deadly aggregate of drugs, however compassion and information toward the King of dad.

On the time, Michael Jackson and I shared an illness

We had each spent decades suffering from falling asleep at night time. Notwithstanding unlimited funds for medical care, Michael couldn’t discover a treatment due to the fact conventional medication does now not have healthy answers for insomnia. The standard route of remedy — pharmaceuticals — was given out of hand. Michael died of an overdose of Propofol combined with different sedatives. Propofol is an effective anesthetic administered intravenously in hospitals to set off and maintain anesthesia all through surgical treatment. It isn’t always designed or authorized for person use at domestic. Michael’s private physician, however, had been administering the drug to him frequently so that he should doze off at night time.

I had simply spent a week averaging handiest 2-3 hours of sleep each night time, which was a normal, even anticipated reaction for me on every occasion I hung out away from domestic gaining knowledge of something new. I was exhausted and achy from my week of insufficient sleep. After I discovered the details of Michael’s demise, I absolutely understood why a person might be desperate sufficient to show to such powerful sleep inducing drugs.

I once had my personal four-yr stint with sound asleep drugs

Ending most effective once they stopped working. The rebound insomnia changed into some of the worst I had ever killed and it took almost a full year to stabilize after it. Any other alternative might have been to keep taking increasingly more powerful drugs until locating something as sturdy and threatening as Propofol

I imagine this is how Michael ended up needing this sort of strong drug to do what our bodies were intended to do evidently each night time. I had become one manner and he had turned the other, yet nevertheless, I understood all too nicely the desperation of needing sleep extra than something and certainly not being capable of getting it.killed it meaning

Subsequently, a couple years after Michael’s loss of life, I found what I was searching for over the direction of just about thirty years — something that reliably and obviously enables me to sleep every night time. That something is EFT,

The Convenience Of Concierge Services During Holiday Travel

While touring, you need to have the most enjoyable time possible. But with such a lot of activities, it can be in reality difficult to live comfortable and to have the whole thing so as. Concierge offerings come into the image to take the burden off your shoulders so that you have lots of time to do what you want to do maximum now not traumatic approximately non-public things that want to be finished. Concierge services can be residential, corporate or private; the non-public offerings are what you’ll need Whilst getting ready for a vacation travel.

Travel packages

Typically talking, you may have a manager to attend to your each day responsibilities consisting of making smartphone calls, making hotel reservations, arranging spa services, reserving delivery and even coordinating bags help. A number of the service providers will essentially be open to provide you any kind of assistance you could need consisting of pet care, dining bookings and buying tickets to activities that you want to enjoy throughout your holiday. The offerings you can revel in can be as personalized as possible and they may:

Save some time

That is due to the fact you may not spare your precious excursion time looking to get the entirety in order. You absolutely want to make your request and your concierge could be at the duties right away. you’ll have all your errands run for you as you spend valuable time doing what you want in your journey destination. you will have more time to relax, explore, revel in and analyze if you have a trustworthy supervisor coping with all your personal obligations.

Shop your cash – It may appear ironical because the greater services will truly fee you something.

However, the truth is while you select to have a concierge you stand to experience offerings from different service vendors and carriers working together with your company. This will increase the chances of taking part in discounts from the partners, consisting of unfastened upgrades, special perks and treatments and complimentary blessings for various services and products. you can get the rare danger of playing loose trials, improvements, and discounts at top spas, eating places, transportation, and leisure companies.

When seeking out the fine service issue in your travel needs, you ought to test out

Lapland For Children – A Lifetime Experience

Each time we take our youngsters on holidays to any place, we continually marvel whether or not they’ll enjoy this escapade or no. whether the vacation spot may have something so as to preserve them engrossed. You will usually want each trip along with your family and kids to be the most memorable one. Nicely, with Lapland, You’ll have no such problems, be relaxation assured that your kids may have a ball of a time!! Study directly to discover how you could make Lapland for youngsters an entire life enjoy!Lapland Europe

All of us realize how youngsters love Santa and anticipate them eagerly in Christmas

What in the case did you instruct them that they could meet him here in Lapland? you may take them to peer Santa’s house, his toy manufacturing unit, his reindeer, and sleigh, meet elves and talk to real Santa Claus. This dream of your infant can come properly only in Lapland. The Santa’s residence in Arctic is in Lapland. you can fly to Santa Claus airport and walk immediately to Santa’s residence. Lapland for children is a completely unique way to rejoice white Christmas with Father Christmas himself. There are many applications available for a visit to Santa Claus. Costs range depending on the time you pick out to visit.swedish Lapland

Assembly Santa Claus is not the simplest element in Lapland for kids.

There are various adventurous sports for youngsters in Lapland. you could take your kids for canine sledding or reindeer sledding. It is a brilliant adventure for youngsters mainly in the event that they have passed the age of going loopy over Santa Claus. In reality, There are many excursions from January to entertain youngsters that do not consist of a trip to Santa Claus.lapland map

Then there’s Ice resort for children for an awesome enjoy. Seeing a hotel made of ice and snoozing a night on an ice mattress is positive to amaze the youngsters. They simply might not get to see this or revel in this, anywhere else. With motel Fees as little as $300 it makes it pretty low cost. Then there’s the arena’s largest ice fort for youngsters to see. Also many sports like skiing can entice them to stay and revel in this new vicinity.

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Government ministries

The year 2016 was bad for Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government, while the ruling Zanu PF’s factional fights spilled into government operations as seen by sharp differences of policy issues among cabinet ministers. Most ministries were under-funded resulting in them failing to meet targets, while corruption remained a problem. Below the Independent assesses the performance of some ministries. Higher and Tertiary Education

The year 2016 started on a high note for the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, which offered free education for all students in public schools who registered for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects.

Stem was popular and an initiative welcomed by parents, whose burden of paying school fees was lifted in a tough economic environment. However, there were others who thought government should have also focused on other subjects, with some pointing out that there was not enough research done before introducing the initiative.

To date the Ministry has managed to fulfil its obligation and promise to pay full school and boarding fees for the Stem students.

However, just when the ministry appeared to have hit a purple patch, the Stem story became obscured when Moyo and his deputy Godfrey Gandawa made headlines over allegations of abusing the Zimbabwe Development Fund (Zimdef) funds administered by the ministry.

Zimdef funds are contributions from tax payers and the fund was created to benefit students from tertiary institutions across the country. The fund is also being used to pay school fees for STEM.

Moyo is accused of misusing US$430 000 of the funds in a case that has been marred by accusations and counter-accusations. He said he used the money, among other purposes, for the development of Tsholotsho constituency. He also said some of the money was used to fund Zanu PF activities. The allegations against Moyo and his deputy came to the fore when the anti-corruption body attempted to arrest the minister over the saga.

However, President Robert Mugabe blocked the arrest. Moyo has said the allegations against him are a smear campaign driven by factionalism and tribalism, adding that some of his colleagues are guilty of abusing funds but had not been apprehended. Overall the ministry performed well in terms of fulfilling its , but seemingly prejudiced the beneficiaries of the Zimdef fund through misuse and in this regard it has done poorly. Psychomotor

This year just like the year before there has not been much news on Josiah Hungwe’s largely unknown Psychomotor ministry, which was formed in 2013. The only headlines we saw this year related to that ministry were in February when Hungwe was upgraded to a full cabinet minister by Mugabe. After being sworn in, nothing came out of his ministry.

Ever since the portfolio was announced many Zimbabweans have expressed ignorance about the existence and functions of the Psychomotor ministry. Psychomotor education refers to learning demonstrated through physical skills. Behavioural examples include driving a vehicle or playing a musical instrument.

The new arrangement is supposed to see schoolchildren receive vocational, technical and entrepreneurial lessons on top of academic learning. In 2014, Hungwe announced that his ministry had completed consultations with stakeholders especially from vocational training centres, ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education on how to introduce vocational skills to school children as early as possible. However, since then there has not been any update on the introduction of vocational skills.

ICT

The Ministry of ICT this year tightened its grip on cyberspace through various legislation while facilitating spying on its citizens. The drafting of Zimbabwe’s new ICT Policy was concluded, wrapping up a process that had dragged for over four years and the policy was adopted by cabinet. The policy proposed amongst other things establishment of a quasi-government entity to monitor internet traffic. It states that all internet gateways and infrastructure will be controlled by a single company, while a National Data Centre “to support both public and high security services and information” will be set up.

The data centre will also allow government “to centralise information storage, management and protection”. The policy, alongside the Data Protection Bill, Computer and Cybercrime Bill, which will allow government to install a remote forensic tool (spying tool) onto citizens’ communication devices such as phones, will enable government to effectively spy on citizens.

Other than facilitating spying of citizens the Ministry of ICT Ministry on a positive note has this year been sending engineers from their telecommunications parastatals to different countries to have them equipped with the latest technologies to help the organisations in countering the latest technological trends in the market. The Ministry has sent hundreds of engineers to India, China and Belgium to get technical training and this has been seen as a positive move. The ICT Ministry fairly fulfilled its mandate although it still has to be more vigorous in engaging the public to give their views on the ICT bills and explain the complex ICT language.

During the same year, the ICT ministry also commissioned a forensic audit at the state-owned mobile phone operator, NetOne, which unearthed corporate rot that prejudiced taxpayers millions of dollars. It must be commended for trying to root out corruption.

Macro-Economic Planning

THE Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Ministry was part of the ministerial delegation which visited China in July this year and managed to source a US$5 billion financial rescue package for Zimbabwe to fund agriculture and housing projects. That begging bowl remains empty as our so-called all-weather friends, the Chinese demand bankable projects.

The ministry managed to implement the Zimbabwe diaspora policy ever since its launch by engaging the diaspora formally for the first time.

The ministry met with the diaspora representatives in South Africa in September to initiate dialogue with a view to enhance their participation in the national development process. It was also to hear diaspora needs and expectations to enable them to play an effective role in Zimbabwe’s economic and social development. At the meeting, the diasporans raised their concerns, including the need to come up with bankable projects tailor-made specifically for them.

It also has to attract investment, which the country desperately needs.

To do that government needs to create a conducive environment for investors. This requires it to deal with its toxic policies, including the indigenisation policy, which compels all foreign owned companies to give away 51% of their shares to locals.

This Ministry fairly performed its duties although it needs to be more hands on to ensure that the business delegations which visit the country invest significantly in the country. It also needs to plan on how to improve the economy and map a strategic way forward.

Environment and Climate

This has been a bad year for most Zimbabweans in terms of water supply. Many Zimbabweans in urban areas, for example Chitungwiza, went for months without clean drinking water. This forced them to drink water from unprotected sources.

Muchinguri did not push enough to have the water crisis declared a national disaster despite promising the nation after most major dams nationwide recorded low storage levels due to below normal rainfall during the 2015/16 season.

While efforts have been made to minimise poaching of wildlife, the year saw many animals dying due to cyanide poisoning in Matabeleland North. A number of wild animals in particular elephants, were destined for China at however little or no benefit to locals. However, it was later revealed that the wild animals were being exported to China in inhabitable conditions.

Muchinguri announced recently Zimbabwe will get US$300 000 from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help the country cope with climate change by funding projects that cut emissions, improve access to renewable energies, food security and others.

We just hope that the money will be put to good use and not end up funding Zanu PF projects.

Muchinguri said she was going to deal effectively with the pollution and dirtiness in the once sunshine city, Harare, and also deal with illegal settlements that were being built on wetlands destroying the country’s flora. Though Muchinguri established a six-member inter-ministerial taskforce to investigate the construction of properties on wetlands and take possible action, a lot of wetlands continue to be destroyed.

The ministry fairly did well in pushing for policies to protect and preserve the country’s environment.

Primary and Secondary Education

The ministry of Education made the headlines for the wrong reasons this year. It caused mayhem among parents and even primary and secondary schools — from the proposed dissolution of the School Development Association system after an audit revealed some headmasters, bursars and other SDA officials were dipping into development levies to the Ministry Application Platform.

Questions have been raised on how government was going to introduce the school services fund when the Zimstat 2013 Education report showed that 76% of primary schools and 72% of secondary schools are owned by rural district councils, 13% by churches/missions, and just 9% by government.

A debate arose as to why government with only 9% school ownership would want to interfere or meddle in SDA funds where parents are major stakeholders and contributors.

However, the biggest confusion that angered most parents as 2016 closed was the introduction of a Ministry Application Platform (eMAP) as a “last minute measure” for parents to use for Form 1 enrolment. Parents described the system as complex and inaccessible to most parents, particularly those in rural areas.

On the upside, the ministry received a major boost after the Global Partnership for Education approved a US$20,6 million grant for primary and secondary education that is expected to improve access to quality education.

However, the ministry needs to ensure that every child accesses education as it is a constitutional right, rather than spend time bickering on less important issues. Industry and Commerce

This ministry was a mixed bag.

In June this year, Industry and Commerce minister Mike Bimha promulgated Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016, which has drawn criticism from South Africa saying it is a protectionist policy.

This policy reversed the deflationary trend resulting in hard-pressed consumers bearing the brunt of this decision. While the policy was meant to improve local production, its aftermath has not stimulated economic growth. In fact consumers now have to tighten their belts.

Public resistance of this policy led to violent protests at the Beitbridge border post with traders saying the import restrictions would destroy their livelihoods.

Besides the bilateral engagements going on between Zimbabwe and South Africa, it is understood that South Africa has approached Sadc structures claiming that SI 64 is against regional trade protocols.

The gazetting of SI 64 of 2016 in June saw the removal of 43 products from the Open General Import Licence.

Besides the backlash, Bimha said SI 64 has recorded considerable success in the cooking oil industry, dairy sector, yeast, biscuit, cement, and battery manufacturing industries. While the SI has been credited for the increase in capacity utilisation from 34% to 47%, the survey did not take into account the number of companies that has shut done during the year.

Ease of doing business, Zimbabwe has slipped four places to 161 on the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking despite the country undertaking a number of reforms, a new report has shown. Last year, the country was ranked 157 out of 190 countries. With such a badge of shame, prospects for Zimbabwe to meet its reform agenda and increase investment opportunities in industry remain elusive. Energy and Power Development

A litany of scandals that turned convicts into millionaires remain the highlights of this ministry. The awarding of multi-million dollar tenders to shady and incompetent businessmen prejudiced shareholders and also mirrored government’s lethargy and lack of political will to deal with corruption.

The ministry was marred with allegations of massive corruption and underhand dealings.

In June the Zimbabwe Independent reported that Undenge and his wife Letina received substantial suspicious cash payments of about US$200 000 from a shadowy depositor at a time the minister is entangled in energy scandals involving hundreds of millions of dollars, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.

A senior commercial banking executive told the Independent that on January 15 this year, Letina received a US$136 000 payment, while US$50 000 was deposited into Undenge’s Standard Chartered Bank account on February 3. The US$136 000 to his wife was deposited into her Standard Chartered Bank account, although it ended up in an Old Mutual unit trust.

Bank executives said after the suspicious payments to Undenge and his wife in January and February the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which combats illicit financial flows, money-laundering and financing of terrorism, moved in to investigate the minister. The investigation came after an official report was made to the RBZ.

Undenge made headlines for wrong reasons this year when he was accused of ordering Zesa to hire Fruitful Communications, a firm linked to Zanu PF Highfield West MP Psychology Maziwisa and former ZBC anchorman Oscar Pambuka, to carry out a media campaign despite the company having an internal public relations department.

As reported by the Independent Undenge neglected or ignored technical expert advice that the US$194 million-a-year Dema diesel power plant deal would leave the struggling ZPC and Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), another Zesa subsidiary, in deeper dire straits.

President Robert Mugabe’s in-law, Derrick Chikore, brother to Simba who is married to the president’s daughter Bona, has an interest in the dodgy deal which was initially pegged at US$194 million-a-year.

The cost of the corrupt Dema Power Plant project — which has raised controversy — has escalated to US$250 million over three years as the country faces power cuts over a US$734 million debt to electricity suppliers.

This comes as government has waived duty on fuel in a bid to contain costs of the extortionist deal pushed by Zanu PF cronies under Sakunda Holdings’ rubric.

Electricity generated at Kariba costs US4,11c/kWh, while that from Hwange Thermal Station costs US6,97c/kWh. Engineers at ZPC have argued that it would have been cheaper to expand capacity at existing power stations rather than setting up the costly Dema Power Plant.

The corrupt deal, given to President Robert Mugabe’s in-law Derick Chikore, elder brother to Simba who is married to the president’s daughter Bona, and Sakunda Energy boss Kuda Tagwirei, was later revised down by about 50% to US$83 million due to pressure. Monthly payments have gone down from US$16 million to nearly US$8 million. The minister also inherited dubious deals in which the country’s energy projects were given to shady businessmen with criminal records, ranging from fraud to drug trafficking.

Undenge irregularly authorised a US$5 million advance payment to convicted fraudster Wicknell Chivayo’s Intratek for the US$200 million 100-megawatt Gwanda Solar Power Project, shortly before receiving the suspicious payments. State power utility company — Zesa Holdings (Zesa) — is struggling to attract funding owing to unsustainably high gearing levels and antiquated equipment that have made operations inefficient, the company’s 2015 annual report shows.

Total foreign loans owed by Zesa to institutions such as the Commonwealth Development Corporation, Lloyds Bank plc, Barclays plc, Afreximbank, ZTE, Huawei, India Exim Bank, China Exim Bank, Standard Bank and the European Investment Bank amounted to US$583,6 million while interest accrued on all loans stood at US$253,7 million, bringing the total foreign and local loans to a figure of US$1,1 billion.

Zimbabwe remains with a power deficit and it remains to be known whether the power shortages will ease in 2017.

Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment

Despite several calls by investors scoping for opportunities demanding clarity indigenisation or amending the Act, his ministry has done little to deal with the contentious indigenisation law so as to attract the much needed investment in the country. Many have called it the elephant in the living room but movement to reform has been slow.

Reforms on this law attracted fierce clashes between Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and line minister Patrick Zhuwao. Chinamasa who clearly has the economic dashboard wanted the law to be toned down to attract investment but Zhuwao was hawkish.

Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment minister Patrick Zhuwao announced cabinet had resolved to enforce the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act Chapter 14:33 which provides for the cancellation of non-compliant companies, operating licences across all sectors of the economy.

He gave April 1 deadline.

Zhuwao said President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet had ordered that ministers from next month invoke section 5 of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act against all non-compliant businesses.

“On Tuesday 22 March 2016 cabinet unanimously passed a resolution directing that from 1 April 2016 all line ministries proceed to issues orders to licensing authority to cancel licences of non-compliant business within their respective sectors of the economy,” Zhuwao said

Ministry of Small-to-Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Development (Smes)

The proliferation of the informal sector and running battles between authorities and traders in most cities and towns was one of the highlights of this ministry. But the line minister was conspicuous by her silence The ministry did nothing to address smes and informal plight as they continue fail to access as lack of capital , market continue to affect them.

Small-to-Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Development minister Sithembiso Nyoni in September said Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) should give SMEs a grace period before taxing their businesses after registering new companies.

Nyoni in September said Zimra should conduct a study to be able to know what they are dealing with and avoid squeezing SMEs.

Instead, she said, the revenue collector should encourage SMEs to formalise their businesses.

“Zimra really needs to do a study so that they don’t squeeze the SMEs. The study will enable them to know what they are dealing with and not chase away the goose that lays the golden egg,” she said.

Nyoni said the number of SMEs in the country were now more than 3,8 million and a lot needed to be done to formalise the sector. Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare

FOR the ministry superintended by Priscah Mupfumira, the year 2016 has been a mixed bag. The agreement with social partners business and labour over the wholesale amendments to the Labour Act was a major positive for the ministry.

Another plus was the significant steps taken to make the decisions taken at the Tripartite Negotiating Forum legally binding, a move which was long overdue. However the failure by the ministry to resolve the impasse with business over the clause that mandates employers to compensate workers they dismissed legally as a result of the July 17 Supreme Court ruling last year is a major blot on the ministry’s copybook. Employers took government to court last year over the retrospective application of the law with the case yet to be heard. Although a civil service audit was carried out by the ministry in a bid to rationalise the civil service, the situation has worsened. The civil servants’ wage bill has increased substantially from gobbling just over 80% last year to taking 97% of revenue this year. Despite all the talk about ghost workers, there has been no significant movement over the issue as the spooks continue to be huge drain on the fiscus. Another negative is the passing of the principles of the National Health Service scheme by cabinet and sponsored by the ministry which will be administered by the National Social Security Authority without agreeing with business and labour.

Social security nets remained elusive during the year but the ministry has been aggressive in its scheme to feed those affected by drought. However the food distribution exercise has been marred by allegations of partial food distribution based on party lines, an allegation Mupfumira strongly denied during a recent question and answer session in Parliament. Although the ministry managed to execute part of its mandate, it has a long way to go in fully fulfilling its objectives.

The Ministry of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs

The ministry of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs superintended by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has had a year to forget given the delays and boobs that have characterised the ministry in 2016. The alignment of the country’s laws to the new constitution which was promulgated in 2013 remains uncompleted as the year draws to a close. The glacial pace at which the process is moving has caused national anxiety and concern.

The failure by the ministry to demiltarise the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) remains a major concern.

Military officials constitute 75% of the staff complement at the NPA. Despite the comments by the ministry’s permanent secretary Virginia Mabiza that they will demilitarise the NPA eventually, it fails to explain why the authority has been stuffed by soldiers to such an extent in the first place. The appointment of acting prosecutor general Ray Goba despite being convicted in a court of law for trying to defeat the course of justice has raised a stink within legal circles.

This is evidenced by the impending court challenge to his appointment by a private citizen Majoni Mdudzi Utete. The NPA has been rocked by scandals with the suspension of PG Johannes Tomana for criminal abuse of office after he allegedly dropped charges against suspects accused of bombing President Robert Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy, among other charges brought against him. The NPA is grossly underfunded as evidenced by its failure to pay rentals and the deluge of resignations from the authority with low staff morale. He has been indicted to appear at the High Court in February next year. The revelation by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that they are registering voters due to lack of funds has also reflected negatively on the ministry. Probably the most controversial move by the ministry was the move to amend the Constitution to allow President Robert Mugabe to appoint the chief justice and deputy chief justice and discard the procedure where interviews for the positions are held by the Judicial Services Commission. It was a move that has caused national outrage. All in all, the year 2016 has been a monumental disaster for the ministry.

Ministry Of Welfare Services For War Veterans Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees

FOR the War Veterans ministry, 2016 has been a year of squabbles, arrests and dismissals. The year was marked by the dismissal of the first minister to be appointed to the post, Chris Mutsvangwa after organizing what President Robert Mugabe called an unsanctioned meeting. The meeting which was scheduled to take place at the City Sports Centre in Harare never took place after elderly war veterans were teargassed by police on the way to the meeting. Such was the furore that Mugabe took the unusual step of addressing the nation on national television and radio over the issue where he castigated Mutsvangwa. The nonagenarian leader then appointed current minister Tshinga Dube to replace Mutsvangwa. This was however just the tip of the iceberg.

The war veterans under the leadership of Mutsvangwa unleashed a scathing communique that called for Mugabe to step down accusing him of failed leadership causing panic within Zanu PF. The communique led to the arrest of war veteran leaders Victor Matemadanda, Headman Moyo, Douglas Mahiya, Hoyini Samuel Bhila and Francis Nhando. Attempts by a To B5

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http://zimbabwe-consolidated-news.com/2017/01/04/government-ministries/

[adventisttoday]

29 October 2019 | Lamec Barishinga, the head of the Adventist Church in Burundi, was arrested by authorities in the country as he attempted to make travel arrangements to attend denominational meetings in Nairobi, Kenya last week. The October 24 arrest prompted a letter by General Conference President, Ted Wilson, to Adventists in Burundi. In it, Wilson criticised what he framed as persecution of Adventists in the country while writing in support of members and God’s “legitimate church in Burundi.” Last week, the governor of the Muramvya province of west-central Burundi ordered the suspension of operations of the Adventist denomination in his province. Region Week reported that Laurent Nicimbeshe made the decision after meeting twice with warring Adventist entities in his region and failing to find a resolution to their conflict. Region Week reported that this tension stems from the attempted placement of a new pastor in the Muramvya district, who was refused entry into the district on October 5 by Adventists at the Muramvya regional headquarters of the church. The new pastor, Elie Manirambona, was rejected because Adventists at the Muramvya headquarters considered him to be appointed outside of denominational policy by deposed union president Joseph Ndikubwayo. The General Conference-approved leader of the denomination in the country is Lamec Barishinga. During the October Annual Council 2019 meetings in Silver Spring, Maryland, General Conference (GC) President Ted Wilson stressed that Barishinga had not been allowed to take office in Burundi. He framed this as persecution of the denomination. In May of this year, Wilson appealed to Adventists around the world to pray for the church in Burundi. “I call on all Seventh-day Adventists to pray for our church members in Burundi, for religious liberty in that country, and for the release of all those improperly imprisoned Adventists,” he was quoted in the online Adventist Review on May 14. A later commentary by Dr. Ganoune Diop, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the GC, stated that the issue was “the right of religious organizations to conduct their affairs without government interference,” and specifically the choice of denominational leaders. “A government can appropriately object to the appointment of any citizen” as a denominational leader, Diop wrote, “if it proves beyond reasonable doubt that such leader has broken the law. But without the basic core principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ … the law sinks into arbitrariness.” Specifically, Diop stated that the Burundi Union Mission president had been removed from office by the East Central Africa Division (ECD) committee, but the Burundi government decided to maintain him in office despite the fact that he “has been deprived of his pastoral credentials by the church.” Diop also stated a recent visit he made to Burundi was “certainly not an investigation” and “the expectation of some that we should be listening to all parties in this crisis was beyond our purview or responsibility. We were not mandated either to judge East Central Africa Division and evaluate the decision of a committee of representatives from 11 nations.” But Adventist Today’s investigation shows that this is not just religious persecution or a breakdown of religious liberty, as Elder Wilson first claimed. There are many complications here, including evidence of theft, open violence among church members, political infighting, and ethnic tensions. Steps to Crisis A 15 May article in the Business Standard newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, described the conflict in detail. Since that time Adventist Today has received even more information from a number of sources among the 186,000 church members in Burundi. We have also obtained copies of a significant number of documents related to this story. Pastor Joseph Ndikubwayo was fired as union president in November. It is important to keep in mind that a union mission, unlike a union conference, is governed by the Division committee. It does not have a constituency from its territory as a union conference does. In other words, it is not self-governing. And in this case, it means the decision was made outside of Burundi in a neighboring country by a group largely made up of citizens from other nations. Ndikubwayo was fired due to accusations of embezzling church funds and accepting a role with the government, according to the Business Standard article. Here, evidence differs. Adventist Today has a copy of the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS) report of an audit conducted in October 2018. Ndikubwayo is not mentioned in the report, though union executive secretary, Pastor Paul Irakoze, was accused. Also, the former union treasurer confirmed verbally and in writing that he had given money to Irakoze. Church members in Burundi expected the Division to take action against Irakoze. However, it appears that internal politics among the Division officers may have resulted in a different outcome. Church members filed a case in the Anti-corruption Court in Burundi. Irakoze and the former union treasurer were arrested. Then, an office of the Division wrote to the Court admitting that money was embezzled but stating they had not asked anyone to file a case. The fact that Ndikubwayo had a role with the government of Burundi does not appear to have anything to do with this case. He was asked by the Head of State to serve as a member of the National Security Council in 2015 and he accepted. The Division officers were aware of this and church members in Burundi cannot understand why this could be a reason to remove him from office in 2018, three years later. The Adventist Church in Burundi is among the top five Christian denominations in the country and it is common practice for the government to request Adventist leaders to serve on various committees. For example, Pastor Uzziel Habingabwa, who was union president from 1994 to 2005 served as a member of the Elders’ Council of Burundi. These positions are never full-time positions. They are advisory positions, voluntary positions with no salaries or financial benefits. Pastor Lamec Barishinga was appointed to be union president in Burundi at the 6 November meeting of the Division committee in Nairobi. Barishinga was the executive secretary of the local field in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. His field president was Pastor Lambert Ntiguma, whom sources have told Adventist Today was behind the removal of Ndikubwayo. Church members told us that they have heard that days prior to the 6 November meeting, Ntiguma told Ndikubwayo in front of other field officers that he would never finish his term in office. Ganoune Diop Intervention The Adventist Church has been present in Burundi since 1925. A church member told Adventist Today, “We have never had a crisis of this magnitude, except the persecution of 1984-1987 when the church was outlawed.” Many church members in Burundi have rejected the Division’s decision because it appeared to be largely influenced by internal politics among the Division officers. Dr. Diop traveled to Burundi in March and met with government officials because the government did not recognize the appointment of Barishinga as legal. Civil law in Burundi prohibits the removal of the chief executive of a non-profit organization before the end of the term of office specified in the organization’s bylaws. Diop met twice with the Interior Minister and the chair of the body which is responsible for mediation of internal conflicts in denominations. Sources have told Adventist Today that the officials showed him all the details related to this case, including the absence of an offense that could justify the removal of Ndikubwayo as union president before the end of his term. The officials also presented to Diop how the conflict in the church was a threat to public order because police had to intervene on Sabbaths when church members got into fights. Gihosha SDA Church was closed twice because of fighting on Sabbath. At Kamenge SDA Church the Lord’s Supper was disrupted. Sources told Adventist Today that Diop and the officials agreed that the best solution would be to remove both Ndikubwayo and Barishinga and appoint a new person who could unite the church. The understanding of church members in Burundi is that Diop promised to present his report to the GC President for action. Adventist Today has been told that Diop announced this to church members on Sabbath during a sermon. However, after returning to the GC office in the U.S., Diop wrote to the Minister informing him that they had decided to keep Barishinga as union president, but appoint Daniel Bavugubusa, the union treasurer, as the legal representative of the denomination to the government. Many church members have rejected this proposal as a violation of the union mission bylaws. Before the Minister could reply, Diop sent another letter on 26 March threatening the government of Burundi that if it did not accept the decision of the GC, they would launch a campaign against the government in international forums such as the United Nations, European Union, African Union, etc., and in social media. The Church Meets with Government Leaders On 15 April, Barishinga and his team met with the government Ombudsman. They accused the Interior Minister of imposing a leader on the Adventist Church. They also met with journalists from local and international media, including the Voice of America and British Broadcasting Company (BBC). This action was interpreted by the government officials as implementation of Diop’s plan. The ombudsman gave them an appointment for another hearing on 18 April. A letter dated 17 April from the Minister of Interior of Burundi, Pascal Barandagiye, addressed to Pastor Ted Wilson, the GC president, states that Ndikubwayo is to continue to be the leader of the Burundi Union Mission until church leaders can elect a new leader that everyone consents to. It says Barishinga is “a disputed person” as leader of the church and that insisting that he continue as union president is “a contradiction to the discussions we had with your delegation” (the one led by Diop). The Interior Minister also invited all the Adventist leaders in Burundi to meet with him at Hotel Source du Nil in Bujumbura on 18 April in an apparent attempt to mediate a settlement in the dispute. Ndikubwayo and his supporters went, but Barishinga and his team went to the Ombudsman’s office. The Ombudsman told them to go and meet with the Interior Minister, but they refused. In this meeting, the Interior Minister repeated that Diop and his delegation had decided to go against everything they had agreed on when he met with them. He instructed administrative authorities and security forces to ensure the law is respected and to stop all fighting in churches. He stated that those who disagree with his decision can take legal action through the Administrative Courts which have the power to overturn his decision; that this is the peaceful way to disagree with his decision. He emphasized that the government wants the Church to be united and it is for that reason that he was calling for the Church to conduct elections and put in place a leader everyone can agree on. Arrests and Congregational Tensions The Business Standard article reported that on 10 May, Barishinga and Ntiguma were arrested. These arrests were the result of violence that occurred on Sabbath, 4 May, at Jabe SDA Church in Bujumbura, sources have told Adventist Today. A group organized four busloads of people to go to Jabe Church and disrupt the service because the pastor was supporting Ndikubwayo as union president. As the pastor was about to address the congregation, he was attacked, beaten and his nose was bleeding. Church members called the police, who came immediately. Church members have told Adventist Today that the police are now alert on Sabbaths because of how often they need to intervene in open conflicts in Adventist congregations. The Inspector General of Police has instructed local commanders to ensure Adventist properties are secure and protected by using passive and dissuasive security in order to enable members to worship freely. A number of other Adventists have been arrested. Recently all of them, including Barishinga and Ntiguma, have been released, according to Adventist News Network. It appears that the purpose of the arrests is simply to keep the peace and prevent violence, not to force a government decision about who should be the leader of the denomination in the country. Japhet Legentil Ndayishimiye posted a comment on the Adventist Review online in response to the article about Ted Wilson’s appeal for worldwide prayer in which Ndayishimiye wrote, “The General Conference … failed to listen to both sides. …. The problem is that one of the staff members of East Central Africa Division in Kenya is also involved in the missing 200 million Burundi francs, [and] that is why the delegation from that Division could not do [its] job as mediators.” He also wrote, “The Conflict is on a high risk of ethnic problems …” Ndayishimiye is a Burundian Adventist who lives in Norway. He follows closely what is taking place in Burundi because he is president of the Burundian Diaspora network. Clearly a real solution has yet to be put in place among Adventists in Burundi. Is the issue really about religious rights or is it about politics within the organization? Will leaders emerge in the Division and the GC who will listen to the church members in the country and move beyond guarding their own organizational turf? To what extent are these matters of ethnic tension? (Burundi has the same tribal divisions—Hutu and Tutsi—as neighboring Rwanda.) These questions should provide a basis for prayer for the church in this region. The problem is far from solved, and new information keeps coming to light. But what appears to be clear is that this is more than, as Elder Wilson initially said, simply a religious liberty violation because of interference in church affairs by the Burundi government. Claims of financial irregularities in the union mission and the ECD do not appear to have been fully resolved. Church relationships are complicated by ethnic factionalism. At least some of those imprisoned were not being persecuted; they were arrested because they were perpetrating violence against one another. Nor is the answer as simple as returning the GC’s selected leaders to power. Diop confirms in the Adventist News article of 14 May, “The situation in Burundi is both complex and sensitive and is being driven by many different forces—some of which we are aware of, and some of which we have yet to fully understand.” https://ift.tt/36bpqSJ

[adventisttoday]

24 October 2019 | The governor of the Muramvya province of west-central Burundi has ordered the suspension of operations of the Adventist denomination in his province. Region Week reported this week that Laurent Nicimbeshe made the decision after meeting twice with warring Adventist entities in his region and failing to find a resolution to their conflict. Region Week reported that this latest tension stems from the attempted placement of a new pastor in the Muramvya district, who was refused entry into the district on October 5 by Adventists at the Muramvya regional headquarters of the church. The new pastor, Elie Manirambona, was rejected because Adventists at the Muramvya headquarters considered him to be appointed outside of denominational policy by deposed union president Joseph Ndikubwayo. The General Conference-approved leader of the denomination in the country is Lamec Barishinga. During last week’s Annual Council 2019 meetings in Silver Spring, Maryland, General Conference President, Ted Wilson, stressed that Barishinga had not been allowed to take office in Burundi. He framed this as persecution of the denomination. In May of this year, Wilson appealed to Adventists around the world to pray for the church in the central African nation of Burundi. “I call on all Seventh-day Adventists to pray for our church members in Burundi, for religious liberty in that country, and for the release of all those improperly imprisoned Adventists,” he was quoted in the online Adventist Review on May 14. A later commentary by Dr. Ganoune Diop, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the GC, stated that the issue was “the right of religious organizations to conduct their affairs without government interference,” and specifically the choice of denominational leaders. “A government can appropriately object to the appointment of any citizen” as a denominational leader, Diop wrote, “if it proves beyond reasonable doubt that such leader has broken the law. But without the basic core principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ … the law sinks into arbitrariness.” Specifically, Diop stated that the Burundi Union Mission president had been removed from office by the East Central Africa Division (ECD) committee, but the Burundi government decided to maintain him in office despite the fact that he “has been deprived of his pastoral credentials by the church.” Diop also stated a recent visit he made to Burundi was “certainly not an investigation” and “the expectation of some that we should be listening to all parties in this crisis was beyond our purview or responsibility. We were not mandated either to judge East Central Africa Division and evaluate the decision of a committee of representatives from 11 nations.” But Adventist Today’s investigation shows that this is not just religious persecution or a breakdown of religious liberty, as Elder Wilson first claimed. There are many complications here, including evidence of theft, open violence among church members, political infighting, and ethnic tensions. Steps to Crisis A 15 May article in the Business Standard newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, described the conflict in detail. Since that time Adventist Today has received even more information from a number of sources among the 186,000 church members in Burundi. We have also obtained copies of a significant number of documents related to this story. Pastor Joseph Ndikubwayo was fired as union president in November. It is important to keep in mind that a union mission, unlike a union conference, is governed by the Division committee. It does not have a constituency from its territory as a union conference does. In other words, it is not self-governing. And in this case, it means the decision was made outside of Burundi in a neighboring country by a group largely made up of citizens from other nations. Ndikubwayo was fired due to accusations of embezzling church funds and accepting a role with the government, according to the Business Standard article. Here, evidence differs. Adventist Today has a copy of the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS) report of an audit conducted in October 2018. Ndikubwayo is not mentioned in the report, though union executive secretary, Pastor Paul Irakoze, was accused. Also, the former union treasurer confirmed verbally and in writing that he had given money to Irakoze. Church members in Burundi expected the Division to take action against Irakoze. However, it appears that internal politics among the Division officers may have resulted in a different outcome. Church members filed a case in the Anti-corruption Court in Burundi. Irakoze and the former union treasurer were arrested. Then, an office of the Division wrote to the Court admitting that money was embezzled but stating they had not asked anyone to file a case. The fact that Ndikubwayo had a role with the government of Burundi does not appear to have anything to do with this case. He was asked by the Head of State to serve as a member of the National Security Council in 2015 and he accepted. The Division officers were aware of this and church members in Burundi cannot understand why this could be a reason to remove him from office in 2018, three years later. The Adventist Church in Burundi is among the top five Christian denominations in the country and it is common practice for the government to request Adventist leaders to serve on various committees. For example, Pastor Uzziel Habingabwa, who was union president from 1994 to 2005 served as a member of the Elders’ Council of Burundi. These positions are never full-time positions. They are advisory positions, voluntary positions with no salaries or financial benefits. Pastor Lamec Barishinga was appointed to be union president in Burundi at the 6 November meeting of the Division committee in Nairobi. Barishinga was the executive secretary of the local field in Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. His field president was Pastor Lambert Ntiguma, whom sources have told Adventist Today was behind the removal of Ndikubwayo. Church members told us that they have heard that days prior to the 6 November meeting, Ntiguma told Ndikubwayo in front of other field officers, that he would never finish his term in office. Ganoune Diop Intervention The Adventist Church has been present in Burundi since 1925. A church member told Adventist Today, “We have never had a crisis of this magnitude, except the persecution of 1984-1987 when the church was outlawed.” Many church members in Burundi have rejected the Division’s decision because it appeared to be largely influenced by internal politics among the Division officers. Dr. Diop traveled to Burundi in March and met with government officials because the government did not recognize the appointment of Barishinga as legal. Civil law in Burundi prohibits the removal of the chief executive of a non-profit organization before the end of the term of office specified in the organization’s bylaws. Diop met twice with the Interior Minister and the chair of the body which is responsible for mediation of internal conflicts in denominations. Sources have told Adventist Today that the officials showed him all the details related to this case, including the absence of an offense that could justify the removal of Ndikubwayo as union president before the end of his term. The officials also presented to Diop how the conflict in the church was a threat to public order because police had to intervene on Sabbaths when church members got into fights. Gihosha SDA Church was closed twice because of fighting on Sabbath. At Kamenge SDA Church the Lord’s Supper was disrupted. Sources told Adventist Today that Diop and the officials agreed that the best solution would be to remove both Ndikubwayo and Barishinga and appoint a new person who could unite the church. The understanding of church members in Burundi is that Diop promised to present his report to the GC President for action. Adventist Today has been told that Diop announced this to church members on Sabbath during a sermon. However, after returning to the GC office in the U.S., Diop wrote to the Minister informing him that they had decided to keep Barishinga as union president, but appoint Daniel Bavugubusa, the union treasurer, as the legal representative of the denomination to the government. Many church members have rejected this proposal as a violation of the union mission bylaws. Before the Minister could reply, Diop sent another letter on 26 March threatening the government of Burundi that if it did not accept the decision of the GC, they would launch a campaign against the government in international forums such as the United Nations, European Union, African Union, etc., and in social media. The Church Meets with Government Leaders On 15 April, Barishinga and his team met with the government Ombudsman. They accused the Interior Minister of imposing a leader on the Adventist Church. They also met with journalists from local and international media, including the Voice of America and British Broadcasting Company (BBC). This action was interpreted by the government officials as implementation of Diop’s plan. The ombudsman gave them an appointment for another hearing on 18 April. A letter dated 17 April from the Minister of Interior of Burundi, Pascal Barandagiye, addressed to Pastor Ted Wilson, the GC president, states that Ndikubwayo is to continue to be the leader of the Burundi Union Mission until church leaders can elect a new leader that everyone consents to. It says Barishinga is “a disputed person” as leader of the church and that insisting that he continue as union president is “a contradiction to the discussions we had with your delegation” (the one led by Diop). The Interior Minister also invited all the Adventist leaders in Burundi to meet with him at Hotel Source du Nil in Bujumbura on 18 April in an apparent attempt to mediate a settlement in the dispute. Ndikubwayo and his supporters went, but Barishinga and his team went to the Ombudsman’s office. The Ombudsman told them to go and meet with the Interior Minister, but they refused. In this meeting, the Interior Minister repeated that Diop and his delegation had decided to go against everything they had agreed on when he met with them. He instructed administrative authorities and security forces to ensure the law is respected and to stop all fighting in churches. He stated that those who disagree with his decision can take legal action through the Administrative Courts which have the power to overturn his decision; that this is the peaceful way to disagree with his decision. He emphasized that the government wants the Church to be united and it is for that reason that he was calling for the Church to conduct elections and put in place a leader everyone can agree on. Arrests and Congregational Tensions The Business Standard article reported that on 10 May, Barishinga and Ntiguma were arrested. These arrests were the result of violence that occurred on Sabbath, 4 May at Jabe SDA Church in Bujumbura, sources have told Adventist Today. A group organized four busloads of people to go to Jabe Church and disrupt the service because the pastor was supporting Ndikubwayo as union president. As the pastor was about to address the congregation, he was attacked, beaten and his nose was bleeding. Church members called the police, who came immediately. Church members have told Adventist Today that the police are now alert on Sabbaths because of how often they need to intervene in open conflicts in Adventist congregations. The Inspector General of Police has instructed local commanders to ensure Adventist properties are secure and protected by using passive and dissuasive security in order to enable members to worship freely. A number of other Adventists have been arrested. Recently all of them, including Barishinga and Ntiguma, have been released, according to Adventist News Network. It appears that the purpose of the arrests is simply to keep the peace and prevent violence, not to force a government decision about who should be the leader of the denomination in the country. Japhet Legentil Ndayishimiye posted a comment on the Adventist Review online in response to the article about Ted Wilson’s appeal for worldwide prayer in which Ndayishimiye wrote, “The General Conference … failed to listen to both sides. …. The problem is that one of staff members of East Central Africa Division in Kenya is also involved in the missing 200 million Burundi francs, [and] that is why the delegation from that Division could not do [its] job as mediators.” He also wrote, “The Conflict is on a high risk of ethnic problems …” Ndayishimiye is a Burundian Adventist who lives in Norway. He follows closely what is taking place in Burundi because he is president of the Burundian Diaspora network. Clearly a real solution has yet to be put in place among Adventists in Burundi. Is the issue really about religious rights or is it about politics within the organization? Will leaders emerge in the Division and the GC who will listen to the church members in the country and move beyond guarding their own organizational turf? To what extent are these matters of ethnic tension? (Burundi has the same tribal divisions—Hutu and Tutsi—as neighboring Rwanda.) These questions should provide a basis for prayer for the church in this region. The problem is far from solved, and new information keeps coming to light. But what appears to be clear is that this is more than, as Elder Wilson initially said, simply a religious liberty violation because of interference in church affairs by the Burundi government. Claims of financial irregularities in the union mission and the ECD do not appear to have been fully resolved. Church relationships are complicated by ethnic factionalism. At least some of those imprisoned were not being persecuted: they were arrested because they were perpetrating violence against one another. Nor is the answer as simple as returning the GC’s selected leaders to power. Diop confirms in the Adventist News article of 14 May, “The situation in Burundi is both complex and sensitive and is being driven by many different forces—some of which we are aware of, and some of which we have yet to fully understand.”

[sciencespies]

Former SDA boss Fred Kennedy answers the questions we’ve waited months to ask

https://sciencespies.com/space/former-sda-boss-fred-kennedy-answers-the-questions-weve-waited-months-to-ask/

Former SDA boss Fred Kennedy answers the questions we’ve waited months to ask

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — It came as a shock when Fred Kennedy resigned as director of the Space Development Agency less than five months into his tenure. Kennedy, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who led the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Tactical Technology Office, helped draft the memo establishing SDA before Mike Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, tapped him to lead the organization.

SDA also seemed like a natural extension of Kennedy’s work at DARPA to spur the Pentagon and defense industry to dramatically speed up adoption of advanced technology and space architectures. At DARPA, Kennedy led Blackjack, a DARPA campaign to figure out how the Pentagon could profit from the commercial wave developing small-satellite megaconstellations.

In fact, leading SDA was his dream job, Kennedy said at the Satellite Innovation 2019 conference in Mountain View, California, earlier this month where he was interviewed onstage by Chris Stott, CEO of ManSat, a firm focused on international spectrum regulation. Kennedy told Stott if he were king for a day he would phase out many export regulations. Secondly, Kennedy would like to see sunset clauses to dismantle all new government organizations after 20 years. That way, organizations would know they did not have “an infinite lease on life,” Kennedy said. It also would force people to devise new organizations to tackle future challenges. “The problem is if you ask a legacy organization to do the new, they typically push back and say, ‘We’ve got it covered.’”

After the onstage interview, Kennedy spoke with SpaceNews about leaving SDA, his public clash with Air Force leaders at the 2019 Space Symposium and his future plans.

Why did you leave SDA?

When Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan signed the establishment memo for the Space Development Agency, it was very explicit in terms of the authorities it was granting. It was a wonderful memo. I helped write it. We went to the wall to make sure that agency would be sufficiently autonomous, have sufficient authorities and sufficient resources. We were taking as sort of our template [Air Force Brig. Gen. Bernard] Schriever going out to El Segundo in 1954 and basically being given carte blanche to go solve a problem.

I said, “If you provide that level of autonomy and resource base then anything is possible. But if you don’t, you’re kidding yourself. If you pull back on the autonomy and you short the agency on resources, then it’s all just a joke.”

I’ll poke at Operationally Responsive Space. What does it do? Now it’s the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, apparently. But for years it struggled with not enough money and no clear sense of vision. Back in the 2003-2004 time frame, I used to think that ORS was going to go off and build a rapid launch service. That never occurred. That would have been transformative in order to do the kinds of things ORS wanted to do.

Early on, ORS showed a picture of the U2 and all the various payloads. I ran the U2 program for a while. I totally got that picture. U2 is not quite plug and play, but it’s as close as a 1960s-era airplane can get. If you need to change out hardware to do a new mission on U2, you can do it very quickly in a day. I saw similar potential in the ORS story. But it never had the resources and it never nailed down that theme. It kind of floundered.

ORS threatened the status quo.

It did and it was congressionally mandated. There was little constituency for it. Even though they were fighting a good fight, they had to continually back away from their principles to stay alive. In the end, they had nothing. In some sense, what I’m trying to tell you here is I was not going to back away from the authorities. I needed those authorities that were invested in me as a director to get the job done. I needed to be able to hire my own people. I needed to be able to develop and devise my own acquisition strategy. I need to be able to release a [Request for Information] or a solicitation without too much additional help.

Did you and Mike Griffin have different views on running SDA?

Yes. Mike is a brilliant man. He’s one of the smartest people I know. His logic is impeccable. We ended up having disagreements over how to run the organization and what the outcome should look like. There were some fundamental disagreements that I had with where I was being asked to go. We just had to call it a day. It’s too bad. Because like I said, it was my dream job. I would have liked to see it through the end. I don’t like stopping at the very beginning.

Is the SDA that Congress is now being asked to fund different from what was outlined in the Shanahan memo?

It’s hard to tell but I don’t think so. Based on the number I heard and the things that [SDA Director Derek Tournear] has said, I don’t think it’s morphed much. To be honest, Derek’s going to need the money. Without it, he’s not going to move the culture or the community at all. He’ll end up being a national security space architect. That’s not interesting. That job was fraught with peril. No money but you’re trying to tell everybody what to do. How long does that last? Not long. The idea here is you’ve got to give Derek and his folks real money. Is it $10.6 billion over five years? It’s somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion a year. To put that in context, DARPA is $3 billion a year. It is essentially a DARPA-sized activity, maybe even with less people.

During your onstage interview, you mentioned commercial leveraging. Did you say that some people thought SDA should take commercial ideas and turn them over to the Pentagon’s “trusted industrial partners?”

Here is a thought experiment:Company A has really good ideas about how to mass produce satellites and user equipment. They’ve got some trade secrets. How is that going to be translated over to a trusted industrial partner? That sounds difficult. I can’t imagine Company A is going to be too excited about that. I see that becoming a very interesting struggle. Not to say it can’t be done. It can. There are ways to do that. But I can’t see anybody being happy about it. Whereas if you could go straight to Company A and say, “You look like you know what you’re doing. We should probably work with you directly.”

In this example, is SDA working with Company A directly to build its own constellation, or to place 100 SDA satellites within their 3,000-satellite constellation?

Yes. I don’t care. Some people are going to say, “We don’t want you to buy our satellites and take them somewhere else and fiddle with them.” OK. I understand that. Those people might be more comfortable if I purchase services from them or if I give them 50 payloads. I like the idea of being able to go in and purchase the product on the showroom floor and then take it elsewhere and modify it. It’s kind of the Model T concept. I buy one but if I want it to be a tractor, I can turn into a tractor when I get home.

Some people don’t want you to turn their Model T into a tractor. They want to turn it into tractor on site and under their supervision. They don’t want you tinkering with it. They certainly don’t want a third party coming in to tinker with it. I’m OK with that.

I’m also OK with pure service purchases. They are all good options. It’s a matter of what company is willing to offer what. But if we came out of it with drastically shortened schedules, drastically lower cost, then it was a win. I’m not sure I really cared about how I got to that win. I did throw the skepticism flag on translating all of that over to the defense industrial base in a timely or inexpensive fashion. I just don’t see how that works. Someone might; I don’t.

One of the knocks we heard against SDA was that it would make acquisitions based on threats not formal requirements. Some critics saw that as too much leeway for such a small office.

There is a pile of requirements laying around that need to be addressed. They’re holy writ and you’re supposed to address them. But the bottom line is the threat is migrating and evolving while you’re trying to address your legacy requirement. So what do you do about that? The answer is, you have to have somebody that stands up and says, “I’m working the threat. I’m working ahead of the requirement because no one has that requirement yet. But I know that somebody bad is developing high-speed weapons that we’re not going to be able to track appropriately.” One answer may be, “We’ll just wait until the [Joint Requirements Oversight Council] validates that requirement in 2028.”

No. Let’s get ahead of it and start putting capability up against the threat. Now some people will say, “Wait a minute. That sounds like you’re getting a little out of control because you’ll just define your threat to be whatever you want it to be.”

That’s a little disingenuous. You’re not going to randomly define the threat. We have intelligence that suggest what people are up to. That is actually the threat. We haven’t defined the requirement to go work that threat, but the threat is out there. What do you want to do about it? The answer is, “We’ve got some bright people who can do agile hardware in combination with some commercial folks, and we think we could actually nail that in a year.”

Why wouldn’t we try? We kept saying, “This is a hedge bet. Make the hedge bet. We’re not asking you to spend $14 billion a year on it. We’re just asking for a little bit of money, maybe a billion or two a year. If it doesn’t work, just kill it.”

You said if you were king for a day, you would impose a sunset clause on agencies and organizations to dismantle them after 20 years.

I think that’s important. You’ll never get it [passed] for the reasons you understand. But there would be nothing more valuable than being able to renew our organizations. The only one I’ve ever worked for that I felt renews itself properly is DARPA and even DARPA has accreted bureaucracy.

When ORS had its brush with death a while back, the Air Force argued ORS was no longer needed because the service had adopted its“operationally responsive” credo. Similar arguments were made against SDA by people who pointed to SMC 2.0. Can SDA and the Space and Missile Systems Center coexist?

The answer is yes, of course. I mean the coexistence thing isn’t a problem, but there will have to be some maneuvering to determine who does what. There will always be some overlap. The stuff [the National Reconnaissance Office] does somewhat overlaps what SMC does, what the Army and Navy do. But so what? A little overlap is OK. Nobody’s going to have perfect seam-fitting. The worst thing is to have massive holes, which I feel is where we’re going. We’re not quite there yet. We’re getting close. The holes are opening up and we’re all acting like it’s no big deal because we’ve been on top for so long. We’ve got to stop that. We’re not on top and we’re not that fast. We are complacent. We are requirements-based.

We handed the British their hat back in the Suez [Crisis]. I do not want to be here when we get handed our hat by the Chinese. We’ve got to stop this. We’re an innovative nation. We can make this work. I know we can.

You laid out an aggressive schedule when you were running SDA. Looking ahead to 2020, do you have any thoughts about how far they will get?

We had hoped to get solicitations on the street by about now. We intended to have an industry day back in June. They managed to do it in July. That was good. I don’t know when that solicitation is going to happen. Of course, you can’t solicit without some cash behind it and they’re sitting on a continuing resolution. My guess is they’re going to be waiting until they get a budget.

Industry still seems pretty interested in everything SDA does.

They should be.

What business opportunities is industry waiting for? You were talking about buying satellites off constellation assembly lines. Is that still SDA’s big opportunity, or has it evolved?

It depends on who you are. For megaconstellation providers, part of it might be public-private partnerships, nursing some of the technology along that they need but don’t want to spend as much as they would have to clear the hurdle. Government is in a great place to do things like that. That’s what DARPA is for — to say, “Heck, we’d love to have that optical terminal or we’d love that GPS capability but better user terminals that fit where they need to fit so we have the mobility and everything else.”

Right now that stuff doesn’t exist or if it does, it’s very nascent. It would be great to be able to push selective dollars like SDA money or DARPA or other ones into those key things. Otherwise people don’t want to go do the work because they can’t close their business case with the current technology. We ask, “What if the technology improved to X?” They say, “Then we would definitely do it.” Well, then let’s go work on that. They might say, “We’ll work on it if you work on it.” OK, we can figure that out. Things like that are most interesting from the New Space standpoint.

Legacy providers have to think about what they want to do. If you’re a Northrop or a Boeing or Lockheed, what is your contribution here? Are you going to build payloads? Would you build payloads in onesies and twosies and then have somebody else build the rest? Or are you going to figure out how to do your own mass production? Raytheon knows how to mass produce seekers for missiles; why can’t the industrial base get on that track?

The Air Force touted the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared program as aggressive for compressing a nine-year development schedule down to five. Once SDA started talking about deploying a space sensor layer well before the first Next Gen OPIR satellite is launched, do you think you stirred opposition among incumbent providers?

I don’t doubt people were threatened. We were addressing a unique problem set that is not addressed currently, namely, hypersonic tracking. We didn’t want to wait until 2025 or 2026 to figure out how to do it. The thought was we’d get out there by 2022. If that’s true, then we might actually be able to catch up.

But waiting until 2026 or worse, waiting for whatever follows next-generation OPIR, didn’t make any sense. To me, that didn’t mean, though, that a Northrop or a Lockheed or whoever couldn’t come back in and say, we’re willing to support it. We’ll try to figure out how to help you in 2022. We weren’t saying, “Shut down Next Gen OPIR.” That’s an argument for 2026. For now, we need to put something up in an agile way that may not be perfect but let’s get it up, see how it operates and then refine it quickly. That was the thought. How do we do this better every year? That’s not how we do space. The Space Based Infrared System is living off focal planes from the late 1980s, early 1990s. Come on. That’s awful. We shouldn’t be doing that.

Did you know ahead of the Space Symposium that the infighting over SDA was going to spill out as publicly as it did?

No, we were surprised. We’d been talking with the Acting Secretary Shanahan in advance of that. We explained how we would tell everybody how SDA would be done. Shanahan got up and said his peace. Then, the feedback was a bit of a shock. But at the same time, I understood it. I still understand it.

Did you recalibrate your message after Heather Wilson, the Air Force secretary at the time, criticized SDA in her speech?

No. We had the same message. I understand Secretary Wilson’s argument. I think we probably just differed on how you get to real disruptive innovation. I think it’s very hard to make legacy organizations do that. Look, if you can make a legacy organization do that then show me the recipe because we all need to go figure that out. But it’s very hard. Culture is so hard to overcome. There’s nobody to blame for culture.

‘Air Force versus SDA’ became one of the big storylines coming out of Space Symposium.

I wish that hadn’t happened. That wasn’t helpful. It was entertaining for people watching from the outside, but that wasn’t particularly helpful. And the truth is that [Gen. John “JT” Thompson] of SMC and I are colleagues. We’ve been working together to try to figure out how to do business. So having that overlay was not particularly useful.

Once the line is drawn in public like that, both sides tend to double down, don’t they?

To JT’s credit, he actually stood up later that week and said, “We know Fred. We like Fred. We can work with Fred.” Great. That’s fantastic because I feel the same way. Have you guys read Loonshots? Great book. It’s worth your while. It talks about franchises and innovators and how you can’t ignore either one. You’re always going to have the franchise, the operational part, what’s in place. And you can’t tell those people to go away while you innovate. These things are always running in parallel. It’s important to understand that.

But the problem is we got to a point where we had no innovators anymore. We had nobody assigned to that task. That’s a bad scenario, too. We need to have a disruptive influence. Was SDA the right way to do it? I don’t know. But I would ask people, “How would you do it?” Generally in the commercial world, you do it by running away from your old company and setting up a new company and then challenging the old company to their market or setting up a new market. In some sense, that’s what we are doing here.

You are challenging the status quo and saying, “You guys can’t get there from here. But we think that we could come up with a new way of doing business that may rival the old, may supplant it at some point. We don’t know yet, which is why we don’t expect you to hand us all the cash lock, stock and barrel.”

Some people said we hadn’t proven the case. Of course we hadn’t proven the case. The only way I could prove the case, was if I actually went to orbit and demonstrated my metrics. Then we’d come back and have the discussion. Why don’t you let us do that on small scale? We don’t want to pull everything else down. That never would have made any sense. There had to be some sort of logical transition. But the first step was always going to be demonstrations, experiments in the next couple of years to prove that it would work. Don’t shut those down. Don’t rail against them. Support them. Then we’ll see if it works. If it doesn’t work, fold tent, go home. Absolutely. But if it does work, then we have to have a real conversation about what the next five or 10 years looks like. We would need to talk about what we do in terms of funding distribution.

That threatens entrenched organizations.

Absolutely. And that’s real. I get it. But the alternative is, “I hate to threaten the entrenched organizations. Let’s not do that. That’s so unfriendly. We’ll, just keep doing this because it makes you all feel better and you’ll keep getting your money.” No, we’re not going to do that.

I think SDA was a solid initiative and it still is. It just has to be funded properly and the agency has to be provided the appropriate authorities and autonomy to get its job done. Otherwise it won’t be fast, it will be slow. And it won’t be inexpensive, it will be costly. Then people will point to it and say it’s just like every other organization. That’s the last thing you’d want.

You raised some eyebrows when you talked up the importance of the military keeping an eye on what’s happening in cislunar space. What’s the threat you see there?

In a generic sense, I can’t speak to specifics, the concern was folks will start using the space beyond GEO for all sorts of things. As that starts to happen, it presents a threat. It’s a threat we don’t watch very well. Some people argue because it’s not there.

Your cislunar statements fueled the argument that the threat-based approach you espoused amounted to giving SDA free rein to chase hunches.

That’s not true. We were very grounded in terms of the threats. That was very important.

Have you decided what you’ll do now that you’ve retired from government service?

Not yet.

Are you doing any consulting right now?

Yes. But I don’t want to just consult.

What do you want to do?

I want to build things. It has got to be meaningful and it has got to be, if not revolutionary, a little crazy. I’d rather be David than Goliath any day of the week. And building stuff is just fun. What I’d really like to do is tie all the great piece parts together. There are opportunities to do some amazing things if you can just knit all that into one fabric and provide those products and services, whether it’s for DoD or commercial use. We’re just on the edge. Folks like [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos and others get it. They’re going to be successful. I would like to think that we will be successful across the board, not just in the commercial arena; that some sectors like civil and defense don’t get left behind.

When you left SDA did you return to DARPA?

On the books, but I never returned to an office. I just went on leave. I retired from DARPA Aug. 9. I was retired out of the military in 2016.

To be honest, it was interesting. It was good to take the time off, get perspective, hang out with the kids. I’ve been able to talk to all sorts of people since then. It’s been really enlightening to see all the great work that’s going on. I actually feel better now because I’ve been made privy to so many cool things going on. I just hope it continues. I am worried that some of the [venture capitalists] and others are getting a little weary.

I’m worried that at some point they are going to turn off the [funding] spigot. We need a few more years of this to get over the hump. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will get over the hump without that. But some won’t. It would be bad to have any more high-profile failures. I definitely believe that if we have a couple more years of runway, we’ll start to see some pretty amazing stuff. At that point, it will be more self-sustaining. I don’t think we’re quite there yet.

This article originally appeared in the Oct. 22, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine as “King for a day.”

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Parents of killed Santa Safari tour worker travel to Lapland

The mother and father of a Santa tour manual who become stabbed to demise in Lapland have traveled to Finland, it is understood. The sufferer has been named regionally as Rebecca Johnson, from Burntisland in Fife.bing travel

Her frame changed into discovered in the Finnish village of Kuttanen on Saturday.

The 26-year-old was a member of the Santa Safari team which matches with Oxford-based totally tour operator Trans Tour to organize Christmas-themed tours to Lapland.

Her 36-12 months-antique Czech boyfriend is in police custody. Ms. Johnson turned into a member of the Sled Dog Affiliation of Scotland (SDAS), who said she became a “shiny and bubbly younger lady” who “lived for her puppies”.

In a declaration on the SDAS website, the Affiliation stated: “Our mind exit to her buddies and own family at this tough time, mainly so close to Christmas, a time to be with your family.

Rebecca became an eager musher who turned into a notable supporter for SDAS,

Generously giving many ManMat prizes for our race competitors.” A minute’s silence could be held for Ms. Johnson at this weekend’s Darnaway race, observed with the aid of a group for certainly one of her favorite Dog charities, SDAS added.

Speaking to the Courier newspaper, Ms. Johnson’s remarkable-aunt Val Laing, who lives in Burntisland, stated her terrific-niece would be greatly overlooked. She stated: “Rebecca turned into a beautiful lady. “I had come home from Edinburgh whilst her granddad was on the telephone to tell me what had happened. I could not take it in at the beginning. “For her parents and grandparents to lose her just before Christmas is devastating. I will be there for them but I don’t know how they’re going to manage.”

Desperation to Relieve Insomnia – What Really Killed Michael Jackson

I bear in mind the day I heard about Michael Jackson’s dying. It becomes on June 27, 2009, days after it happened. I used to be flying home from an in-depth week-lengthy path where I hadn’t had access to information of any kind. What I don’t forget maximum as I watched the tale unfold on an airport T.V., is not the grief at losing this gifted performer nicely earlier than his time, or anger at his doctor for irresponsibly offering a deadly aggregate of drugs, however compassion and information toward the King of dad.

On the time, Michael Jackson and I shared an illness

We had each spent decades suffering from falling asleep at night time. Notwithstanding unlimited funds for medical care, Michael couldn’t discover a treatment due to the fact conventional medication does now not have healthy answers for insomnia. The standard route of remedy — pharmaceuticals — was given out of hand. Michael died of an overdose of Propofol combined with different sedatives. Propofol is an effective anesthetic administered intravenously in hospitals to set off and maintain anesthesia all through surgical treatment. It isn’t always designed or authorized for person use at domestic. Michael’s private physician, however, had been administering the drug to him frequently so that he should doze off at night time.

I had simply spent a week averaging handiest 2-3 hours of sleep each night time, which was a normal, even anticipated reaction for me on every occasion I hung out away from domestic gaining knowledge of something new. I was exhausted and achy from my week of insufficient sleep. After I discovered the details of Michael’s demise, I absolutely understood why a person might be desperate sufficient to show to such powerful sleep inducing drugs.

I once had my personal four-yr stint with sound asleep drugs

Ending most effective once they stopped working. The rebound insomnia changed into some of the worst I had ever killed and it took almost a full year to stabilize after it. Any other alternative might have been to keep taking increasingly more powerful drugs until locating something as sturdy and threatening as Propofol

I imagine this is how Michael ended up needing this sort of strong drug to do what our bodies were intended to do evidently each night time. I had become one manner and he had turned the other, yet nevertheless, I understood all too nicely the desperation of needing sleep extra than something and certainly not being capable of getting it.killed it meaning

Subsequently, a couple years after Michael’s loss of life, I found what I was searching for over the direction of just about thirty years — something that reliably and obviously enables me to sleep every night time. That something is EFT,

The Convenience Of Concierge Services During Holiday Travel

While touring, you need to have the most enjoyable time possible. But with such a lot of activities, it can be in reality difficult to live comfortable and to have the whole thing so as. Concierge offerings come into the image to take the burden off your shoulders so that you have lots of time to do what you want to do maximum now not traumatic approximately non-public things that want to be finished. Concierge services can be residential, corporate or private; the non-public offerings are what you’ll need Whilst getting ready for a vacation travel.

Travel packages

Typically talking, you may have a manager to attend to your each day responsibilities consisting of making smartphone calls, making hotel reservations, arranging spa services, reserving delivery and even coordinating bags help. A number of the service providers will essentially be open to provide you any kind of assistance you could need consisting of pet care, dining bookings and buying tickets to activities that you want to enjoy throughout your holiday. The offerings you can revel in can be as personalized as possible and they may:

Save some time

That is due to the fact you may not spare your precious excursion time looking to get the entirety in order. You absolutely want to make your request and your concierge could be at the duties right away. you’ll have all your errands run for you as you spend valuable time doing what you want in your journey destination. you will have more time to relax, explore, revel in and analyze if you have a trustworthy supervisor coping with all your personal obligations.

Shop your cash – It may appear ironical because the greater services will truly fee you something.

However, the truth is while you select to have a concierge you stand to experience offerings from different service vendors and carriers working together with your company. This will increase the chances of taking part in discounts from the partners, consisting of unfastened upgrades, special perks and treatments and complimentary blessings for various services and products. you can get the rare danger of playing loose trials, improvements, and discounts at top spas, eating places, transportation, and leisure companies.

When seeking out the fine service issue in your travel needs, you ought to test out

Lapland For Children – A Lifetime Experience

Each time we take our youngsters on holidays to any place, we continually marvel whether or not they’ll enjoy this escapade or no. whether the vacation spot may have something so as to preserve them engrossed. You will usually want each trip along with your family and kids to be the most memorable one. Nicely, with Lapland, You’ll have no such problems, be relaxation assured that your kids may have a ball of a time!! Study directly to discover how you could make Lapland for youngsters an entire life enjoy!Lapland Europe

All of us realize how youngsters love Santa and anticipate them eagerly in Christmas

What in the case did you instruct them that they could meet him here in Lapland? you may take them to peer Santa’s house, his toy manufacturing unit, his reindeer, and sleigh, meet elves and talk to real Santa Claus. This dream of your infant can come properly only in Lapland. The Santa’s residence in Arctic is in Lapland. you can fly to Santa Claus airport and walk immediately to Santa’s residence. Lapland for children is a completely unique way to rejoice white Christmas with Father Christmas himself. There are many applications available for a visit to Santa Claus. Costs range depending on the time you pick out to visit.swedish Lapland

Assembly Santa Claus is not the simplest element in Lapland for kids.

There are various adventurous sports for youngsters in Lapland. you could take your kids for canine sledding or reindeer sledding. It is a brilliant adventure for youngsters mainly in the event that they have passed the age of going loopy over Santa Claus. In reality, There are many excursions from January to entertain youngsters that do not consist of a trip to Santa Claus.lapland map

Then there’s Ice resort for children for an awesome enjoy. Seeing a hotel made of ice and snoozing a night on an ice mattress is positive to amaze the youngsters. They simply might not get to see this or revel in this, anywhere else. With motel Fees as little as $300 it makes it pretty low cost. Then there’s the arena’s largest ice fort for youngsters to see. Also many sports like skiing can entice them to stay and revel in this new vicinity.