Counting the Cost of Corruption: Somalia are the worst

Abimbola Akosile examines the impact of corruption on the economic and social progress of Nigeria, and the attendant cost on her development process

EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde

The analogy was startling but very apt. Nigeria has been called many names, both flattering and uncomplimentary in nature; but this was the first time this reporter would hear it being called a mango tree.

A friend of this reporter recently described Nigeria as a tall mango tree with ripe, juicy fruits dangling at its topmost levels.

To his imaginative mind, the corrupt and the rich climb regularly on the heads of the poor masses at the bottom to get to the lofty, juicy fruits, which symbolise the country’s commonwealth. Correspondingly, the hopeful, hungry masses who surround the tree’s base only get to lick the skins and seeds (if any) thrown down by the corrupt elite climbers.

His clincher was simple: the privileged climbers who get to the top find the few available branches and perch there to perpetually feast on the country’s proceeds (ripe mangoes), while the poor get hungrier and angrier right at the bottom of the tree.

Nigeria’s economic and development process does not appear any better than that graphic mango tree illustration. While the juicy mangoes portray a healthy fruit-bearing tree or country, the actual enjoyment of those fruits or the country’s resources are kept for only a few privileged citizens and the persistent corrupt individuals who trawl the corridors of power.

Although this nation has amassed billions and billions of dollars since crude oil was first discovered in Oloibiri, Bayelsa State in 1958, the majority of the country’s 160 million citizens have not really benefitted from such huge resources and generated revenue.

One word that keeps running through the whole depressing equation is corruption and its negative effect on the economy and development process of this potentially-great nation.

Though Nigeria can ironically proudly point to countries like Brazil, India and Malaysia as her contemporaries, she cannot claim to be at par with the now obviously more advanced nations; and experts and analysts have identified persistent and pervasive corruption as the major cause of this worrying trend. In this report, that is the crux of the matter.

Woeful PerceptionNigeria remains one of the most corrupt nations in the world, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2013 released by Transparency International, a global watchdog. 

In the last survey released on December 2, 2013, Nigeria ranked 144th out of 177 nations in the world, scoring 25 points out of a possible 100 points. Her corruption performance in 2013 was worse than 2012, when it scored 27 points. The regional giant was ranked alongside crisis-torn Central African Republic and Cameroon.

In December, 2012, Nigeria was ranked 139 out of the 176 countries surveyed on public sector corruption perception by Transparency International (TI), the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption.

From that ranking, Nigeria scored 27 marks out of a possible 100, where zero (0) denotes the worst form of corruption perception in the public sector, and 100 signifies the highest form of cleanliness.

From past survey results, the West African giant was ranked 143rd in 2011 out of the 183 nations surveyed by TI. She was ranked 134th out of 178 surveyed nations in 2010; 130th out of 180 nations in 2009; 121 out of 180 in 2008; 147 out of 180 countries in 2007, and 153 globally out of 180 surveyed nations in 2006.

Denmark and New Zealand were the cleanest countries in the world in 2013, sharing the first spot in the index, with scores of 91. Afghanistan, North Korea and strife torn, Somalia was the worst, with scores of 8 points. Finland, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia and Canada emerged in the top ten of least corrupt nations in the world.

Transparency International said the 2013 report underscored the global reality that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery have continued to ravage societies around the world as more than two thirds of the 177 countries in the 2013 index score below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).

“The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 demonstrates that all countries still face the threat of corruption at all levels of government, from the issuing of local permits to the enforcement of laws and regulations,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International.

“The top performers clearly reveal how transparency supports accountability and can stop corruption,” said Labelle. “Still, the better performers face issues like state capture, campaign finance and the oversight of big public contracts which remain major corruption risks.” The Corruption Perceptions Index is based on experts’ opinions of public sector corruption.
Corruption within the public sector remains one of the world’s biggest challenges, Transparency International said, particularly in areas such as political parties, police, and justice systems. According to the global watchdog, public institutions need to be more open about their work and officials must be more transparent in their decision-making.
Corruption remains notoriously difficult to investigate and prosecute. Future efforts to respond to climate change, economic crisis and extreme poverty will face a massive roadblock in the shape of corruption, Transparency International warned.

Unresolved CasesDespite the seeming efforts of anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), several cases of high-profile corruption in the public sector are still unresolved.

A recent report in a national daily disclosed unresolved high-profile cases of corruption in which prosecution had gone on for several years without any conclusion. Some of those affected include former governors such as Senator Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Alhaji Aminu Turaki (Jigawa), as well as former ministers such as Prof. Fabian Osuji.

There are also pending cases involving the Police Pension scam where billions of naira were allegedly diverted into private pockets with the culprits still walking freely. The oil subsidy scam cases are also pending and the interest of the masses has waned due to government’s painfully slow pace of prosecution, with accusing fingers being pointed at the judiciary.

Also, not much has been heard recently about the final outcome of a bribery scandal involving a renowned member of the House of Representatives, who allegedly collected a lump sum of dollars from one of those allegedly involved in the oil subsidy mess, in return for a soft landing.

Many Nigerians believe that several elite citizens, who currently bestride the country’s political, economic and governance landscape, have no business being in such privileged positions, had the outcomes of corruption allegations against them being positively concluded.

In his inaugural address on May 29, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan had pledged, in his words, to “Fight corruption regardless of the position of the person involved.”

However, critics of the president have expressed concern at so many inconclusive cases of prosecution involving high-ranking former political office holders, and also wondered if the anti-corruption programme pledged at the outset of the administration, is still being pursued at all.

Many citizens now view the anti-corruption campaign in the country as a flagging fight, due to the seeming inability of the country’s anti-graft agencies to prosecute and conclude several longstanding cases against high-profile former public officeholders in the books of the EFCC.

A recent disclosure by the EFCC that it has budgeted N284 million this year to prosecute 17 former governors for alleged corruption appears encouraging but different meanings could be read into that submission, especially given the country’s tense situation in a pre-election year.

Analysing the CruxFrom a cross-section of analysts and experts who spoke on the issue of corruption, THISDAY gathered that the cost of corruption on the economy and development and livelihood of the people appear incalculable and enormous.

In his reaction, the Chairman of Transparency International, Nigerian Chapter, Major-General Ishola Williams (rtd.), said it is near impossible to estimate the cost of corruption in this country.

General Williams, who is also working to address conflicts in Africa with the African Strategic and Peace Research Group (AFSTRAG) as their Executive Secretary, said “corruption is on because majority of the society know that it is very bad but do not care; thus breeding tolerance for illicit acquisition of wealth.

“We are in the era of primitive accumulation, therefore impunity reigns and there is no time limit for cases and no special courts. There is a strong Federal Centre and weak states. We must de-federalise corruption to State up to community level. Scrap Local Governments and replace them with Metropolitan (Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano e.t.c.) City, Town, and District Councils, through innovative resource control”, the anti-corruption crusader stated.

According to him, “Huge funds are needed for campaign into elected offices, and business and wealthy individuals are taking over political selection and primary elections. There is also bad social services delivery with ‘un-living wage’, leading to gross inequality.”

Ishola, who urged Nigerians to look at the Scandinavian political system for its welfare system and low corruption, suggested a few vital tips to check corruption in Nigeria.

“We must name and shame corrupt individuals; publish Impunity Index quarterly; encourage, protect and reward whistleblowers; enact Anti-Corruption Civil/Administrative laws  for an empowered Code of Conduct Tribunal and Public Complaints Commission.

“Establish a Private Foundation (e.g. Danjuma Foundation) to support incorruptible candidates and parties with actionable manifestoes; publish annual Performance Index of all Anti -corruption Agencies including Code of Conduct Bureau and Public Complaints Commission but first merge ICPC and EFCC with separation of the Executive from the Board and eradicate the prevailing Police culture. We must also establish Special Courts to conclude cases of official corruption within six months”, the former general added.

In his own response, the Executive Director of the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group (NDEBUMOG), Mr. George-Hill Anthony, described the fight against corruption as nothing but hypocrisy, which is why the scourge persists despite all efforts.

According to him, “It is corrupt people that are fighting corruption in Nigeria, where everybody pretends to be saints. It’s all about hypocrisy. Other countries have been able to tackle corruption, countries like China and Singapore applied capital punishment against corruption, but in Nigeria even the mildest penalties have not been effected.

“Presently the country is heading into chaos because politicians are gambling with corruption and the governance process. If these are not addressed immediately, we are heading towards revolution. The impact of corruption on development is huge. The cost cannot be estimated or quantified, right from when oil was discovered in Oloibiri. Nigeria has earned hundreds of billions of dollars and there is nothing to show for it”, Anthony added.

Commenting on the issue, Chairman, Partners for Electoral Reform and Convener, Say No Campaign Nigeria, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu, said grand corruption is not unique to Nigeria but it is pervasive essentially because of absence of law and order, which “in simple word is impunity”.

“People are emboldened knowing there are no sanctions. Take for instance, the plethora of reports on alleged sleaze and dodgy transactions in the oil, aviation, pension e.t.c gathering dust for sheer lack of political will to act on them. The cost of corruption is huge, enormous, apart from the fact that the people are short-changed, the economic loss has a spiral effect on our lives and sectors”, Nwagwu added. According to a Lagos-based analyst and author, Mr. Odey Ochicha, “corruption is persistent because of poor, visionless, passionless and selfish leadership that lacks the will and conscience to punish corrupt officials.

To him, “Institutions are weak and the rule of law does not apply. The cost in terms of development is enormous: mass poverty, brain drain, capital flight, insecurity, mass illiteracy, unemployment, epileptic sectors, poor infrastructure e.t.c.”

Ochicha’s suggested remedies include leadership by example, prudent management, application of the rule of law, minimum of 25-year jail term for offenders, confiscation of all assets bought with stolen wealth by public officers, their wives and children e.t.c.

To a legal practitioner and Notary Public, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, corruption is so pervasive because government has been selective in the war against corruption.

Mumuni, who is also the Executive Director of the Socio Economic Rights Advocacy Project (SERAP), said, “We have not punished acts of corruption, which breeds impunity. Most corrupt offenders are highly-connected and they escape punishment.

“We promote corruption by honouring the corrupt by giving them social recognition. The cost of corruption is unquantifiable and it reflects in every facet of our lives, especially in provision of infrastructure and impact of poverty.

To the lawyer-activist, the best remedy is consistency in enforcement of the various laws against corrupt acts. “We need to re-order our value system. It never used to be so. We should not praise the corrupt rich”, he added.

A don in the Department of Business Administration, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Mr. Ik Muo, looked at the issue of corruption from a similar angle to Mumuni.

According to Muo, “Because people are not being punished for corruption, this encourages others to follow suit”. The lecturer likened corruption to the act of one person driving against the traffic (one-way) and his escape tempting others to pull out of the normal lane to follow the offender.

“People see corrupt people and are tempted to follow. Overseas, they are corrupt, but they practice naming and shaming there, unlike in Nigeria. The cost of corruption has been monumental. Nigeria is not working. If roads and schools are in bad shape, it is down to corruption. People are dying in accidents and governance is poor.

“We need a wholistic view of corruption, from the economic and social viewpoints. We must punish corrupt people and make a statement. The oil subsidy scam is very clear and they ought to make examples of the scapegoats. Once that is done, all other things will fall into place”, he added.

In his own remarks, the Director, Centre for Transparency and Advocacy in Abuja, Mr. Babatunde Oluajo, declared that Nigeria has failed to go to the very root of corruption. To him, corruption was synonymous with the formation of the modern state where undermining the colonial state through corruption was regarded as a form of resistance.

Oluajo, who is also a Member, representing sub-Saharan Africa on the Coordinating Committee of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) coalition, said corruption in Nigeria and Africa is an evolution of the colonial state.
“Those who took over after the exit of the colonialists only differed in skin colour. We don’t see Nigeria as our own and the apparatus of state conduct themselves as aliens and instruments of domination. That resistance was carried over by those in power and those elite who stole from the state were applauded.

“The mindset is that one cannot steal from your community because of the implications, but against the state it is allowed because it is nobody’s business,” he added.

According to Oluajo, “the cost of corruption is unquantifiable from lives lost to lack of proper equipment or bad roads or even basic knowledge or infrastructural development; in terms of ridicule from lesser neighbouring countries and even bad leadership”.

The best remedy, to him, is the people themselves. “The only people who can stop corruption are the people themselves, not the Police or EFCC. By the time people start stopping looters, through citizens’ action, from enjoying the proceeds of corruption, nobody will tell them when to stop. We know them but the citizens must deny them the enjoyment of the proceeds,” Oluajo added.

Nip in the BudAt the certification ceremony of Corruption Risk Assessors (CRA) in Calabar, Cross River State on February20, 2013, the Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, said, “There is no denying the fact that corruption remains a big challenge to our national aspirations, therefore all legitimate means within the bounds of the law must be used to fight it.

“With corruption as with most other undesirable conditions, it is much better and wiser to prevent occurrence than to expend huge resources after the damage has been done. Even though the law eventually catches up with corrupt persons, a lot of time and resources can be saved if we flag corruption risks in systems and plug loopholes to prevent the incidence of corruption”, Nta added.

To this end, through the efforts of the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the ICPC, 96 trainees comprising public officers at Federal and State levels, media and civil society members enrolled for a ten-week long training programme.
The training involved two weeks of intensive “face to face” and eight weeks online interactions. However, only 69 qualified to receive full certification as Corruption Risk Assessors (CRAs).

To Nta, “a Corruption Risk Assessor is not a criminal investigator, neither is the conduct of a CRA a witch-hunting exercise. It is common to hear that corruption is endemic in Nigeria because of the system. The purpose of CRA is to minimise systemic vulnerabilities and strengthen organisational processes and procedures against corruption.”

Enough for All

Although analysts believe the cost of corruption is monumental and has had adverse effects on the livelihoods and wellbeing of majority of Nigerians, fortunately Nigeria’s wealth appears inexhaustible, to corroborate the comments of a bemused military ruler in the 80s.

With the huge reserves in gas and the federal government’s economic diversification moves, the expectation is that, beyond the seemingly cosmetic figures of hollow economic growth, the huge commonwealth would be equitably applied for the benefit of every deserving citizen.

The mango tree is still there and the fruits are still ripe for the picking. The focus now should be on plucking the juicy mangoes into one huge basket and sharing them equitably among the waiting, hungry and angry Nigerians. Any other corrupt formula may trigger dire consequences, and the cost of that is better imagined than experienced.

TaxPayers' Alliance warns of £120billion government 'waste'

David Cameron could wipe out the Budget deficit at a stroke if he cut government waste, TaxPayers' Alliance warns in report to mark 10 years of the campaign

By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent

Britain’s £111 billion budget deficit could be eliminated if the Government curbed “excessive” pay for GPs, stopped “waste” in the NHS and cut spending on “unnecessary” projects, according to an analysis to be published this week.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance, which will publish the figures, claims that cutting excessive pay for state employees, particularly in the health service, and tackling Government waste would save £120 billion annually - the equivalent of £4,553 for every household in the UK.

The study is based on Whitehall accounts, research papers and audit reports and it comes as all three main parties prepare to unveil their plans for managing the public finances after next year’s election.

It suggests that doctors’ pay in particular is an area where Government “waste” could be targeted and more than £1 billion saved for the public purse.

British doctors are among the best paid in the world, the group says, earning 3.4 times the average wage.

Their pay has increased dramatically since the 2004 GP contract was agreed with Labour ministers and hundreds of doctors now earn more than £200,000 a year.

In France, which the World Health Organisation regards as having the best healthcare system in the world, GPs are paid 2.1 times the average wage.

If this were the case in the UK, £1.38 billion would have been saved in 2012-13 in England alone, the TPA said.

The study also identified missed NHS appointments as an example of Government “waste”. Each time a patient misses a hospital appointment in England and Scotland they waste over £100 in NHS resources, costing taxpayers £769,679,700 in total last year, the group’s report said.

The fact that appointments are free means that too many unnecessary bookings are made and there is little sanction for those who do not turn up. Ministers should consider charging patients who fail to attend their appointments, the TPA said.

The study also suggested that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport could be effectively scrapped, and its functions transferred elsewhere, at a saving to the taxpayers £1,063,696,000.

Funding could be maintained for free entry to galleries and museums but thereafter the DCMS should be closed down, the report suggested. “Culture, media and sport existed in Britain long before we had a department for them,” the alliance said.

Its report also identified smaller exmaples of what it claimed was Government “waste”, including more than £520,000 from the loss of a spare part for an anti-aircraft missile system at the Ministry of Defence, and £480,000 theft of humanitarian supplies from the Department for International Development by Al Shabaab militia in Somalia.

The Home Office lost £1,000,000 in legal fees for a case at the Immigration Appeals Tribunal while the Forestry Commission spent £70 on a bunny outfit bought with a taxpayer-funded procurement card.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TPA, said all the major political parties heading into next year’s general election “would have to find those spending cuts”.

“You couldn’t make the case for lower taxes without showing where you would make the spending cuts,” he said.

He also suggested that the Government should scrap HS2, what he described as the “barmy” £50 billion high speed rail project linking London to Birmingham and the north.

“The government haven’t made the case for HS2,” he said. “To be frank, trying to speed up trains is just very 1970s. The government should be positioning us for the future. What we will see for the next decade is driverless cars. How are we preparing for that?

“The idea that shaving 20 minutes off journey times is worth billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is just completely barmy.”

The TPA’s report, named the Bumper Book of Government Waste, will be published in full on Monday.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, has promised to run a Budget surplus by the end of the next parliament, a pledge matched recently by his Labour counterpart, Ed Balls.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, meanwhile, will set out the key priorities for the Liberal Democrats in a speech at the Mansion House in London tomorrow (Monday). He is expected to confirm his commitment to a new “mansion tax” on expensive homes and to raising the tax-free personal income allowance to help the lowest paid workers. Wealthy pensioners should also be targeted for any future benefit cuts, before further curbs are placed on payments to the working-age poor, the Lib Dem leader believes.

Anti-drone activists sent to jail in US

Photo: EPA

A US court has sentenced 12 Americans to jail for an anti-drone protest staged at the Hancock Air National Guard Base at Syracuse, NY, in October 2012. DeWitt Town judge David Gideon found the defendants guilty of disorderly conduct and gave them a $250 fine and 15 days in jail each but cleared them of trespass charges because of the conflicting testimony given over the location of the base's boundaries, according to the National Catholic Reporter online newspaper.

After the verdict was delivered, the twelve, all of them members of the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars organization, were immediately taken to the Jamesville Penitentiary.

Dozens of supporter were rallying outside the court, chanting: "Courage, brother, you do not walk alone. We shall walk with you and sing your spirit home."

Speaking ahead of Friday's hearing, the defendants said they were willing to go to jail if ordered to do so.

The Hancock base is home to the 174th Attack Wing of the New York Air National Guard that pilots the MQ-9 "Reaper" drones used in combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

Earlier this week, four anti-drone protesters stood trial in Sacramento, California. They were arrested in April 2013 on charges of trespassing after attempting to deliver a letter to the Beale Air Force Base's commander, in which they accused President Barack Obama and the US military involved in the drone program of crimes against humanity and multiple violations of the law.

Magistrate Allison Claire refused the defendants a jury trial. They got 90 days of unsupervised probation and 10 hours of community service each after being found guilty of trespassing.

The Beale base is home to Global Hawks reconnaissance drones.

"We, the people, charge the US President, Barack Obama and the full military chain of command, to Beale Air Force Base Colonel Phil Stewart, 9th Reconnaissance Wing Commander, every drone crew and service member at Beale Air Force Base, and every other U.S. base involved directly or indirectly with the U.S. drone program, with crimes against humanity, with violations of part of the Supreme Law of the Land, extrajudicial killings, violation of due process, wars of aggression, violation of national sovereignty, and killing of innocent civilians. US military and CIA Drone attacks have killed thousands of innocent civilians, including women and children, in the Middle East, Somalia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In the name of combating terrorism against the US, we are terrorizing innocent people and creating many more enemies and potential terrorists in the process. Our government has become a lawless power, acting as judge, jury, and executioner, just because it can…By most independent studies, the vast majority of those killed are civilians," the activists said in an open letter to the Beale base personnel last April.

Meanwhile, five other activists, who were convicted of trespass during their June protest at the Central Intelligence Agency, are planning to appeal the verdict. The five had sought to meet with CIA Director John Brennan over the agency's involvement in US drone killings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

In October 2012, Catholic Worker Brian Terrell of Maloy, Iowa, was sentenced to six months in jail for his protest against drone warfare at Whitehead Air Force Base in Missouri.

Who's next? 

Voice of Russia, National Catholic Reporter, Church & Society, War Is A Crime.org

From California to the Middle East, water shortages pose threat of terror and war

By Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian

Huge areas of the world are drying up and a billion people have no access to safe drinking water. US intelligence is warning of the dangers of shrinking resources and experts say the world is ‘standing on a precipice’

On 17 January, scientists downloaded fresh data from a pair of Nasa satellites and distributed the findings among the small group of researchers who track the world’s water reserves. At the University of California, Irvine, hydrologist James Famiglietti looked over the data from the gravity-sensing Grace satellites with a rising sense of dread.

The data, released last week, showed California on the verge of an epic drought, with its backup systems of groundwater reserves so run down that the losses could be picked up by satellites orbiting 400km above the Earth’s surface.

“It was definitely an ‘oh my gosh moment’,” Famiglietti said. “The groundwater is our strategic reserve. It’s our backup, and so where do you go when the backup is gone?”

That same day, the state governor, Jerry Brown, declared a drought emergency and appealed to Californians to cut their water use by 20%. “Every day this drought goes on we are going to have to tighten the screws on what people are doing,” he said.

Seventeen rural communities are in danger of running out of water within 60 days and that number is expected to rise, after the main municipal water distribution system announced it did not have enough supplies and would have to turn off the taps to local agencies.

There are other shock moments ahead – and not just for California – in a world where water is increasingly in short supply because of growing demands from agriculture, an expanding population, energy production and climate change.

Already a billion people, or one in seven people on the planet, lack access to safe drinking water. Britain, of course, is currently at the other extreme. Great swaths of the country are drowning in misery, after a series of Atlantic storms off the south-western coast. But that too is part of the picture that has been coming into sharper focus over 12 years of the Grace satellite record. Countries at northern latitudes and in the tropics are getting wetter. But those countries at mid-latitude are running increasingly low on water.

“What we see is very much a picture of the wet areas of the Earth getting wetter,” Famiglietti said. “Those would be the high latitudes like the Arctic and the lower latitudes like the tropics. The middle latitudes in between, those are already the arid and semi-arid parts of the world and they are getting drier.”

On the satellite images the biggest losses were denoted by red hotspots, he said. And those red spots largely matched the locations of groundwater reserves.

“Almost all of those red hotspots correspond to major aquifers of the world. What Grace shows us is that groundwater depletion is happening at a very rapid rate in almost all of the major aquifers in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world.”

The Middle East, north Africa and south Asia are all projected to experience water shortages over the coming years because of decades of bad management and overuse.

Watering crops, slaking thirst in expanding cities, cooling power plants, fracking oil and gas wells – all take water from the same diminishing supply. Add to that climate change – which is projected to intensify dry spells in the coming years – and the world is going to be forced to think a lot more about water than it ever did before.

The losses of water reserves are staggering. In seven years, beginning in 2003, parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers lost 144 cubic kilometres of stored freshwater – or about the same amount of water in the Dead Sea, according to data compiled by the Grace mission and released last year.

A small portion of the water loss was due to soil drying up because of a 2007 drought and to a poor snowpack. Another share was lost to evaporation from lakes and reservoirs. But the majority of the water lost, 90km3, or about 60%, was due to reductions in groundwater.

Farmers, facing drought, resorted to pumping out groundwater – at times on a massive scale. The Iraqi government drilled about 1,000 wells to weather the 2007 drought, all drawing from the same stressed supply.

In south Asia, the losses of groundwater over the last decade were even higher. About 600 million people live on the 2,000km swath that extends from eastern Pakistan, across the hot dry plains of northern India and into Bangladesh, and the land is the most intensely irrigated in the world. Up to 75% of farmers rely on pumped groundwater to water their crops, and water use is intensifying.

Over the last decade, groundwater was pumped out 70% faster than in the 1990s. Satellite measurements showed a staggering loss of 54km3 of groundwater a year. Indian farmers were pumping their way into a water crisis.

The US security establishment is already warning of potential conflicts – including terror attacks – over water. In a 2012 report, the US director of national intelligence warned that overuse of water – as in India and other countries – was a source of conflict that could potentially compromise US national security.

The report focused on water basins critical to the US security regime – the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Mekong, Jordan, Indus, Brahmaputra and Amu Darya. It concluded: “During the next 10 years, many countries important to the United States will experience water problems – shortages, poor water quality, or floods – that will risk instability and state failure, increase regional tensions, and distract them from working with the United States.”

Water, on its own, was unlikely to bring down governments. But the report warned that shortages could threaten food production and energy supply and put additional stress on governments struggling with poverty and social tensions.

Some of those tensions are already apparent on the ground. The Pacific Institute, which studies issues of water and global security, found a fourfold increase in violent confrontations over water over the last decade. “I think the risk of conflicts over water is growing – not shrinking – because of increased competition, because of bad management and, ultimately, because of the impacts of climate change,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute.

There are dozens of potential flashpoints, spanning the globe. In the Middle East, Iranian officials are making contingency plans for water rationing in the greater Tehran area, home to 22 million people.

Egypt has demanded Ethiopia stop construction of a mega-dam on the Nile, vowing to protect its historical rights to the river at “any cost”. The Egyptian authorities have called for a study into whether the project would reduce the river’s flow.

Jordan, which has the third lowest reserves in the region, is struggling with an influx of Syrian refugees. The country is undergoing power cuts because of water shortages. Last week, Prince Hassan, the uncle of King Abdullah, warned that a war over water and energy could be even bloodier than the Arab spring.

The United Arab Emirates, faced with a growing population, has invested in desalination projects and is harvesting rainwater. At an international water conference in Abu Dhabi last year, Crown Prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said: “For us, water is [now] more important than oil.”

The chances of countries going to war over water were slim – at least over the next decade, the national intelligence report said. But it warned ominously: “As water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives will become more likely beyond 10 years.”

Gleick predicted such conflicts would take other trajectories. He expected water tensions would erupt on a more local scale.

“I think the biggest worry today is sub-national conflicts – conflicts between farmers and cities, between ethnic groups, between pastoralists and farmers in Africa, between upstream users and downstream users on the same river,” said Gleick.

“We have more tools at the international level to resolve disputes between nations. We have diplomats. We have treaties. We have international organisations that reduce the risk that India and Pakistan will go to war over water but we have far fewer tools at the sub-national level.”

And new fault lines are emerging with energy production. America’s oil and gas rush is putting growing demands on a water supply already under pressure from drought and growing populations.

More than half the nearly 40,000 wells drilled since 2011 were in drought-stricken areas, a report from the Ceres green investment network found last week. About 36% of those wells were in areas already experiencing groundwater depletion.

How governments manage those water problems – and protect their groundwater reserves – will be critical. When California emerged from its last prolonged dry spell, in 2010, the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins were badly depleted. The two river basins lost 10km3 of freshwater each year in 2012 and 2013, dropping the total volume of snow, surface water, soil moisture and groundwater to the lowest levels in nearly a decade.

Without rain, those reservoirs are projected to drop even further during this drought. State officials are already preparing to drill additional wells to draw on groundwater. Famiglietti said that would be a mistake.

“We are standing on a cliff looking over the edge and we have to decide what we are going to do,” he said.

“Are we just going to plunge into this next epic drought and tremendous, never-before-seen rates of groundwater depletion, or are we going to buckle down and start thinking of managing critical reserve for the long term? We are standing on a precipice here.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2014

Source: rawstory.com

DHAGEYSO:-Nabadoono Falanqeeyay Qorshaha ka danbeeya Shaatiga Amisom Ee ...

Nabadoon Warsame oo Muqdisho jooga iyo Nabadoon Cabdikariin Muuse Casir ayaa waxay si wada jir ah usheegay in Itoobiya aysan isbadaleyn shaati kasta hadii loo galiyo islamarkaana ay Soomaaliya u tahay Cadow soo Jireen ah.



Nabadoon Warsame ayaa sheegay Shacabka Soomaaliyeed kuwooda damiirka usaaxiibka ah inay diyaar uyihiin sidii ay isaga dhicin lahaayeen Ciidanka Itoobiya.

 

Isaias Afeworki Seeking Reconciliation With Ethiopia; a terrible blow to Ginbot 7

Sudan’s president,Omar Al-Bashir, is the closest and, probably, the only friend that the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, has. The leaders of the neighboring states, both shunned by regional and international governments, find solace in each other’s company. Now, according to our diplomatic sources in Sudan, Al-Bashir’s long-standing proposal to normalize relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia is being received favorably by the Eritrean strongman.

The relationship between Isaias Afwerki and Omar Al-Bashir intensified since Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani handed the reins of power to his son, Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, in June of last year, and the Gulf state ceased being the lifeline of the two isolated regimes.

After Isaias’ visit to Sudan from November 23-27, 2013, Al Bashir publicly stated his goals of reconciling Eritrea with Ethiopia. Now, according to our sources, Isaias Afwerki is pursuing this goal with a sense of urgency: in Al-Bashir’s visit to Eritrea from January 16 to 18, 2014, Isaias Afwerki asked him to push for normalization of relations between the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments.

A Sudanese diplomatic source informed Gedab News that “Isaias Afwerki looked desperate and needed normalization immediately.”

During his visit, Al-Bashir accompanied Isaias on a road trip from Asmara to Massawa through the picturesque Filfil-Solomuna road.

From Massawa, Isaias accompanied Al-Bashir on a boat trip to some Islands in the Dahlak Archipelago. A trustworthy source indicated that, several times during the journey, Isaias Afwerki asked Al Bashir, “do you see any Israeli bases here?”

The question is in reference to Arab countries’ long-standing allegations that there are Israeli bases in the Red Sea, particularly in the Dahlak Islands. Isaias wanted Al-Bashir to bear witness that there are no Israeli bases in Eritrea, a sign that he needed Al-Bashir to convince others of the fact. But since the diplomatic standing of Al-Bashir is not tenable in the Arab world, and he has little leverage to mediate or convince any government, it is doubtful that his personal testimony would change any minds.

According to one source, Isaias Afwerki’s apparent about-face is based on an assessment that “our calculations were wrong and we need to end this abnormal situation with Ethiopia immediately,” as he allegedly admitted to Al-Bashir. For over a decade, the Eritrean regime had predicted that the Ethiopian government was on the verge of collapse and it used to publicize defection even by low ranking Ethiopian soldiers as front page news.

Al-Bashir carried Isaias’s message to Addis Ababa on January 29 when he met with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Al-Bashir was in the Ethiopian capital to attend The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

According to our sources, the Ethiopians didn’t have a positive response to Al-Bashir, telling him that Eritrea’s problems are with regional and international entities, not with Ethiopia, and that Isaias should address it with them first.

The Ethiopians passed a threat to Isaias, “We don’t want the enmity of the Eritrean people by invading their country; otherwise, we can push Isaias to Dahlak.”

A usually-reliable Gedab source in Asmara dismissed talks of reconciliation as a head-fake by Isaias Afwerki whose “ascent to and grip of power is based on being unpredictable!”  Asked for clues, he said that who Isaias Afwerki names as Eritrea’s ambassador to the African Union and IGAD, to replace the outgoing Ambassador Girma Asmerom (now appointed as Eritrea’s Ambassador to the UN) may reveal his intentions.

Source: awate.com

The lust for 'white gold' and ceaseless slaughter

The Telegraph was last week given unprecedented access to Ethiopia’s stockpile of so-called “white gold” - or poached ivory

Elephant numbers in one major African reserve have fallen from 50,000 to 13,000 in six years.  Photograph: Frans Lanting/Corbis

By Martin Fletcher, in Addis Ababa

The strongroom is in an underground car park below the well-guarded headquarters of Ethiopia’s Wildlife Conservation Authority in Addis Ababa.

To admit visitors Teressa Bayeta, the sole keyholder, has to open five separate locks on a heavy metal shutter and the steel door behind it.

The reason for such security is instantly apparent: the windowless vault — the size of a double garage — is stacked from floor to ceiling with poached ivory.

Teressa Bayeta inside the Ivory vault of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (Geoff Pugh)

Ahead of Wednesday’s London summit on ways to combat the illegal wildlife trade, The Telegraph was last week given unprecedented access to Ethiopia’s stockpile of so-called “white gold” — and it served as a shocking reminder of the wholesale slaughter of elephants that is sweeping across Africa.

The dimly-lit strongroom contains more than 28,000 separate items ranging from several hundred tusks to row upon row of sealed plastic bags filled with chopsticks, bangles, necklaces, figurines, combs, cigarette holders and trinkets. Those items have a combined weight of 6.3 tons, the equivalent of the tusks of at least 600 elephants, and would be worth a much as $18 million (£11 million) on the streets of Beijing or Shanghai, where ivory is considered the ultimate status symbol.

Almost all the ivory was poached elsewhere in Africa, and seized from Chinese nationals smuggling it home through Addis Ababa’s international airport, a hub with direct flights to the Far East.

The strongroom is, in short, a shrine to the avarice that has reduced an African elephant population once measured in the millions to barely 400,000. Roughly 100 of those primordial creatures are being shot, speared or poisoned each day, and some of the tusks bear the marks of the axes with which poachers hacked them from the skulls of dead or dying elephants.

The largest tusk is taller than a grown man, weighs 116lb and came from one of the very few grand old “tuskers” left on the continent (it was found in a wooden crate marked “Medicine”). The smallest, just inches long, came from baby elephants, showing how utterly indiscriminate the poachers have become in their lust for ivory.

As he surveyed the laden shelves, Mr Bayeta, 41, a former national park ranger with a passion for wildlife, said the seized ivory was a measure of failure, not success. “It makes me sad and very angry because Africa’s elephants are being destroyed,” he added.

Ivory in the vault of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (Geoff Pugh)

Ethiopia’s stockpile, large as it is, represents only a tiny percentage of the ivory flowing out of Africa. Fetene Hailu Buta, head of the anti-trafficking directorate at the Ethiopia Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), said the law-enforcement agencies can seize only a fraction of the ivory smuggled through the airport as they lack sniffer dogs and scanning machines required to check transit baggage.

A Nigerian was caught with 230lb of ivory only because a tusk pierced the side of his suitcase as it was being transferred between flights.

Moreover, Ethiopia’s stockpile is small by international standards. Tanzania alone has more than 100 tons of ivory recovered from poached or naturally deceased elephants. Worldwide, at least 550 tons — the equivalent of 55,000 elephants — are thought to be held in national stockpiles, and experts reckon only about a tenth of all ivory smuggled out of Africa is intercepted.

What to do with those steadily growing collections of confiscated contraband has been one of the most contentious issues in the war against an illegal trade in animal parts — a trade worth $10 billion a year to the criminal gangs running it. It is an issue that has divided Africa, and will resurface at this week’s conference.

Southern African states with large elephant populations have previously sought to sell their stockpiles, arguing that to do so would undercut the black market and raise funds for protecting wildlife.

Most of the rest of Africa says that “regulated trade” has been tried before and proved disastrous. In 1989, at the height of a previous poaching frenzy, the 103 parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted overwhelmingly to prohibit worldwide trade in African ivory. The ban worked. Ivory prices collapsed. Poaching all but stopped.

But in 2008, CITES approved a one-off sale by Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa of 108 tons of stockpiled ivory to China and Japan. Environmentalists maintain that far from satisfying China’s demand for ivory, the sale fuelled it. It suggested to Chinese consumers that buying ivory was acceptable. It allowed illegal ivory to be laundered as legal ivory, and poaching resumed in earnest.

In London, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopia’s foreign minister, will say that his government is willing in principle to join the growing list of countries that have destroyed their stockpiles, and would do so as part of a three-pronged plan that is attracting interest from both sides of the debate.

Stop Ivory, a UK-registered charity founded by several leading conservationists who arranged for this newspaper’s access to the stockpile, is helping to promote that plan. It calls for the voluntary destruction of all national stockpiles — a move that would send a dramatic message to the world that trading in ivory is unacceptable, end confusion by removing most legal ivory from the markets, and stop those stockpiles leaking.

Two previous custodians of Ethiopia’s stockpile were jailed for theft, and Mr Bayeta insists he would not entrust the strongroom keys even to his wife.

There would be a moratorium on international trade in ivory. The international community would use that breathing space to fund the so-called African Elephant Action Plan, which was agreed by Africa’s “range states” in 2010 and contains detailed steps for tackling poachers and disrupting trading networks.

As a first step Ethiopia has engaged Stop Ivory to help compile a detailed inventory of its stockpile — measuring, marking and photographing every item.

“We’re on the way to facilitating the destruction of our stockpile even though the when and how is not yet decided,” Dawid Mume Ali, EWCA’s director general, said.

But Mr Mume made it clear that Ethiopia expects financial and logistical support from the international community, and it urgently needs such help not just to intercept more smuggled ivory but to save its elephants from extinction.

EWCA is making strenuous efforts, but its annual budget is less than $2 million. Around 90 per cent of its elephants have been killed in what Shelley Waterland, programme manager of the Born Free Foundation, described as a “devastating” onslaught. Barely a thousand are left.

The remote Babile Elephant Sanctuary in eastern Ethiopia has around 300 of those, but lost 42 last year alone to armed poachers from neighbouring Somalia who operate with virtual impunity.

To protect Babile’s 2,700 square miles EWCA has not a single aircraft, 29 ill-equipped rangers, and just one working vehicle. 

Ethiopia’s dams: The risks

Egypt has voiced objections to only some — not all — of the dam projects in Ethiopia. But the objections it has voiced are valid, 

by Maghawry Shehata Diab

The focus on Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam project, which has stirred widespread controversy among the Egyptian public in view of its direct detrimental impact on Egypt, may have distracted us from the question of dams and energy generation in Ethiopia in general. However, Egypt objected to some of the dam projects in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia’s energy plans are almost entirely based on capitalising on its many rivers, that flow with varying speeds in various directions, by generating electricity from the dam system that currently exists or that is envisioned for the future. According to studies on Ethiopia’s groundwater resources, there are nine “wet” and three “dry” (subject to draught) water basins. The surveys highlight the potential of the “wet” basins, in particular. The most important of these are: Wabi Shebele, Abbay (the Blue Nile), Genale Dawa, Awash, Tekeze (Atbara River), Omo Gibe, Baro Akobo, Mereb.

In addition, the country has numerous subterranean water basins as well as a relatively large annual rainfall: 590 billion cubic metres on the Ethiopian plateau.

The surface area of the water basins varies considerably. The largest are Wabi Shebele (202,220 kilometres squared) and Abbay (199,912 kilometres squared) and the smallest is Mereb (5,900 kilometres squared). At 53 billion cubic metres per year, the Abbay (Blue Nile) River has the highest annual runoff. Its waters flow across the border into Sudan where they meet up with the White Nile and then continue into Egypt. The Abbay (Blue Nile) contributes about 75 per cent of the waters emanating from the Ethiopian plateau (72 billion cubic metres per year), which is why this river is so important to Egypt and Sudan. It is their chief source of water, which underscores the magnitude of the risks inherent in any hydraulic project that could obstruct the flow of these waters into Sudan and Egypt. This explains why these two countries need to be fully reassured that any projects on the Blue Nile are thoroughly studied in terms of their impact on downriver nations, why they should require a consensus, and why Addis Ababa must notify Cairo and Khartoum in advance of any hydraulic works entailing the construction of dams and the diversion of the river course for this purpose, in keeping with the risk aversion principle established in the convention on international watercourses adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997.

As the Blue Nile is Ethiopia’s most important river, in addition to being vital to both Egypt and Sudan, it has become a strategic target for every power interested in throwing a spanner into the mechanisms of cooperation between these three countries. It is therefore no coincidence that the UN Reclamation Bureau took 1956 as its starting point for an eight-year study of the Blue Nile basin that, in 1964, concluded with recommendations for 33 hydraulic projects on this river. The most important are the following dams: Fincha Amerti Nesse (FAN), Beles, the Renaissance Dam, Mendaia, Beko Abo and Kara Dodi.

Of these, FAN and Beles have been completed, construction of the highly controversial Renaissance Dam has begun and, of course, planning for the Beko Abo and Kara Dodi dams are in progress. Other dams have been constructed or are envisioned for the Tekeze, Omo Gibe and other river basins. In short, a vast Ethiopian dam network threatens to obstruct the current river flow and regulate it through an array of gateways and turbines in a manner that suits Ethiopia’s purposes at the expense of its neighbours and partners in the Nile River Basin.

As mentioned in a previous article (“Of dams and droughts,” Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue 1181), the Renaissance Dam is the most ambitious project. With a projected reservoir capacity that climbed from 11 billion cubic metres when the plan was originally conceived to 74 billion cubic metres, it is slated to become the largest dam in Africa and the tenth largest in the world. When it goes into operation, it will furnish Ethiopians with seven gigawatts per hour of electricity, enabling Ethiopia to become an energy exporter to its neighbours. They expect their status in this capacity to increase. According to the publicised plans, when the various dams are completed within the next two decades, Ethiopia will be able to produce 15,000 gigawatts per hour, or three times the country’s electricity needs.

Yet, a number of geo-engineering, legal and funding problems may hamper the completion of this complex of dams, and the Renaissance Dam in particular. The geo-engineering challenges posed by the Ethiopian plateau are formidable, in view of the precipitous slopes and the solid rock (predominantly basalt) consistency of the upper and middle ranges of the plateau. The site of the Renaissance Dam is located at a relatively low altitude (around 500 metres) and the terrain there and in the vicinity consists of fractured granite rock. Because of the fractures, fissures and faults in this area (Beni Meshgul-Jomez), numerous geo-technical and engineering studies must be undertaken so as to ensure that the proper precautions are taken to ensure the prolonged safety of the dam with its huge mass and with the enormous pressure of 75 billion tons of water behind it. Such studies have not been performed, as has been made explicit in the report of the tripartite technical committee that, in addition to representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, consists of four impartial international experts. This report states that the feasibility studies on which the current plan for the dam is based are insufficient and that the current design is not appropriate for a dam of this size. The report also warns that the dam will suffer from silting problems due to the accumulation of sediment in the reservoir, which will gradually reduce its efficiency and overall life expectancy.

The construction of a dam of this size will create an ecological nightmare for Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Seismological studies on the area in which the dam is being constructed speak of repeated tremors and quakes, sometimes reaching six points on the Richter scale. When we add this to the pressures of the mass of the dam structure, the weight of 75 billion tons of water, and the mechanical and chemical effects of the water stored in the reservoir, and the possibility of seepage from the auxiliary dam, we can begin to appreciate the extent of the dangers inherent in constructing a dam of the current specifications.

Failure to address all the negative observations that appear in the tripartite committee’s technical report could lead to the partial or even total collapse of the dam, adding unfathomable calamity to the damage that the dam, itself, will cause to the water security of both Sudan and Egypt.

There is no denying that the dam has some advantages for Sudan as well as Ethiopia. In addition to a share in some of the power generating projects, Sudan will be able to put large tracts of land under permanent irrigated cultivation. In addition, areas along the Sudanese portion of the Blue Nile will be safeguarded from the hazards of Nile flooding and the silt accumulation in the reservoirs behind Sudanese dams on that river will be significantly reduced.

However, the risks remain great. Nor have we begun to discuss the material and legal problems entailed in the construction of the Renaissance Dam, which will be the subject of future articles.

The writer is former president of Menoufiya University and an expert on Egyptian water issues.

Ruben Rosario: St. Paul nun says backlash against Coca-Cola ad is rooted in ignorance

Spry Sister Rosemary Schuneman, 75, has been teaching English for 54 years, first to grammar-school kids, now mostly to new immigrants and refugees. She currently heads an ESL class for adults at the Ronald M. Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning in St Paul. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

The nerve of Coca-Cola. They aired a commercial during last week's Super Bowl depicting Americans of different cultures singing "America the Beautiful" in seven languages. Xenophobic social-media trolls criticized it, as was expected.

"Who in their right mind celebrates people singing one of our patriotic songs in a foreign language? It is a disgrace and an affront to our heritage and culture," wrote one yahoo in the comments section of the YouTube version that so far has had more than 8.3 million hits.

If completely clueless about the message behind the ad, many also confused the song with the national anthem. Ignorance is a you-know-what.

Given I'm trilingual -- I speak English, Spanish and New York City Spanglish -- I liked the ad. So did Sister Rosemary Schuneman.

"It's beautiful," the 75-year-old educator and two-time cancer survivor said after I showed it to her.

Schuneman has been teaching English for 54 years, first to grammar-school kids, now mostly to new immigrants and refugees. She's the embodiment of that statue that sits in New York Harbor, the one whose plaque still implores the world: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..."

She doesn't understand the hate or the backlash.

"People need more education about the reason different people come here and the hurdles that they have to go through just to learn English, and it's not easy," said Schuneman, the longest-serving educator at the Ronald M. Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning in St. Paul. Part of the public school system, the center offers adult courses in English, GED instruction and commercial license, carpentry and a host of other occupational prep courses.

"I tell my students that your language is precious," she added. "You don't stop speaking your own language and teaching it to your children. But I also tell them that in order to get ahead and do your job and help people, they have to learn English."

A CALLING TO TEACH

The current students in Schuneman's English Level 3 classes are a mix of adult refugees and immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia, the Karen community, Congo, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Two are Da Bu and Mui Kpu Lu, husband and wife and Karen refugees who lived in separate Thailand refugee camps and met while serving as nursing assistants at a clinic. They arrived here three months ago.

She asked the class recently how many languages they spoke. "I had people who said they could speak four languages -- that's incredible."

A member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Schuneman grew up in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood and attended St. Agnes grammar and high school and was taught by nuns of the same religious order.

Sister Rosemary Schuneman taught English as a Secondary Language class to adults at the Hubbs Center in St. Paul Thursday afternoon February 6, 2014. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

She wanted to become a singer and dancer, but chose education after she felt a calling and became a nun in 1958. She taught first- and second-graders throughout Minnesota and Iowa and changed course in the 1970s, when she accepted an offer to teach English to African sisters in Kenya.

She came back with a passion to open a school for adults after she watched news reports of Vietnamese "boat" people and other Southeast Asian refugees undergoing resettlement here and elsewhere. St. Paul Cos. offered her a conference room at their headquarters, where she began teaching new Hmong refugees and others for 11 years.

THE REWARD

Schuneman was diagnosed with breast cancer a week after she was hired at the center 19 years ago.

The young and spry (for her seventy five years), Sister Rosemary teaching English as a second language to eager learners from various different nations of the world. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

She underwent a mastectomy and a debilitating chemotherapy session that landed her in the hospital.

She began teaching the day after she was discharged and has not stopped. Not even a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 14 years ago has kept her from the hundreds of students who have benefited from her lessons throughout the years.

"She's a terrific person and a well-respected teacher here," said Scott Hall, the center's director.

It's not all work for Sister Schuneman. She's an avid square dancer and was once named Queen of the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington. She also performs prison and jail ministry.

But teaching gets her up in the mornings. One of her students of Korean heritage achieved a doctorate and is working in New York City. Other students are scattered throughout the Twin Cities; she occasionally bumps into them at stores and other locales.

"I love working with these adults," she said before class began last week. "When you teach someone, particularly a woman, you are empowering the whole family. She is transferring those skills to them."

Schuneman dismisses the perception that today's immigrants don't want to learn English. Her life experiences, crowded classrooms and long waiting lists to attend adult-literacy classes across the country pretty much deflate that view.

"These people understand the need (to learn English)," she said. "They want to get a job, they want to help their children do their homework and they want to be able to talk to their boss or co-worker."

Hall added that research shows that it takes seven years or longer for adult students to master a second language.

"I have found that many people who make this criticism have never attempted to learn another language themselves," he said.

So, those doubting this perhaps should visit one of Schuneman's classes. Perhaps a little enlightenment is not so bad.

"It's just a wonderful feeling that you know you have helped future citizens of America," she said. "I have received more than I have given -- the respect, the love, the trust -- it's incredible."

I'll drink to that. Make it a Coke this time, por favor.

Ruben Rosario can be reached at 651-228-5454 or rrosario@pioneerpress.com. Follow him attwitter.com/nycrican.