IN THIS ISSUE
1.
Business: China trade is booming
2. Business: Computer Software for Free
3. Business: Farming in Kenya
4. Business: Gold is now in a clear bull run
5. Business: Hot money in China? Yes Sir!
6. Business: Online course helping understand Black
Economic Empowerment (BEE) in South Africa
7. Education: African Burial Ground
8. Education: Brad Pitt is in Africa to check out Aids
problems
9. Education: Computer literacy and e-Learning
10. Education: Maps & Mapping
11. Education: Museum of Advertising & Design
12. Education: Problems in Africa
13. Education: Remembering the World Wars
14. Education: The rain forest in Madagascar
15. Immigration: Illegal immigrants in the USA to receive
work visas?
16. Immigration: Working in New Zealand
17. Internet: Swahili search engine
18. Travel: Is Nairobi going to the dogs?
19. Special Item: Request to pipe organ lovers everywhere
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1. Business: China trade is booming
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China's
trade value with Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) countries is forecast to hit a record 100 billion
dollars this year, up 28 per cent year-on-year from
2003, state media said on Thursday. To read the full
report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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2. Business: Computer Software for Free
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Johannesburg
- Mark Shuttleworth, the man who sold a software business
he had built on the back of the open source software
(OSS) movement for billions, has taken the wraps off
his own Linux distribution. Ubuntu ("be humane")
is based on the Debian distribution. Like Debian, it
is freely downloadable and customisable.
Shuttleworth's
OSS development outfit, undertook to distribute the
software to early adopters via 340 000 CDs, free of
charge, at a personal cost of $10 million. Ubuntu can
also be downloaded via global mirror sites. To read
the full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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3. Business: Farming in Kenya
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HYDERABAD:
Unable to stop a spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers,
Andhra Pradesh plans to relocate hundreds of them to
east Africa where they will be employed to cultivate
arid land, officials said on Thursday.
The
government of Andhra Pradesh was in talks with Kenya
to get 50,000 acres of land on lease to farmers' cooperatives
and, to start with, send about 1,000 farmers to work
there in the coming months. To read this full report,
go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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4. Business: Gold is now in a clear bull run
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JOHANNESBURG:
John Hathaway, of Tocqueville Asset Management says
gold's bull run is only in its early stages and until
many more people catch on it still has a long way to
go. To read this edifying report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
Editor's Note: Visit our web page on Investing
in Gold.
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5. Business: Hot money in China? Yes Sir!
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Shanghai
- Chinese regulators have uncovered billions of dollars
in illicit foreign currency holdings, much of it brought
in by speculators betting on a rise in the value of
the Chinese currency, state media said on Tuesday. To
read this report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
Editor's Note: Visit our web page on China.
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6. Business: Online course helping understand
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in South Africa
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This
online course is tailored for owners and CEOs of small
to medium-sized businesses who will lead their empowerment
strategy development and implementation.
Black
economic empowerment is a little-understood phenomenon
facing small and medium-sized South African businesses.
For the majority of South Africans not actively involved
in the debates about policy, it can be difficult to
understand just how your business might be affected.
Partly that's because the rules are still being written
and change daily. For more details, visit
this site on BEE.
Editor's
Note: Visit our page on Doing
Business in South Africa.
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7. Education: African Burial Ground
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As
the city of New York has grown up, out, and over an
increasingly vast area of land during the past few centuries,
various sites of human activity and habitation have
become one of the many layers that continue to interest
urbanologists, sociologists, planners, and anthropologists.
One
such layer is the African burial ground that was found
in lower Manhattan in 1991, and which has been celebrated
by a diverse group of individuals ever since. Visitors
will want to start by looking at the "Rites of
Ancestral Return" section. Here they may elect
to view video clips from past celebrations and view
an interactive map that highlights the various ways
in which the colonial African experience has been relived
and commemorated along the Eastern seaboard.
The
other section on the site is also quite engaging, as
it allows visitors to explore the African burial ground
through educational features about the artifacts and
graves found within the context of the bustling city,
which had grown up around the site through the ensuing
centuries. Visit
this site.
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8. Education: Brad Pitt is in Africa to check
out Aids problems
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Brad
Pitt spent four days in Ethiopia to learn more about
AIDS in Africa as part of a fund-raising campaign to
combat the disease on the world's poorest continent.
To read this full report, and see photos, go to our
NEWS
DESK link.
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9. Education: Computer literacy and e-Learning
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Computer literacy and e-Learning in the Western Cape
has received a boost with the donation of 1050 computers
to the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
The computers were donated by a Belgian organisation
called 'Close the Gap' and shipped door-to-door, from
Rotterdam to Cape Town, courtesy of Safmarine. To read
this report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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10. Education: Maps & Mapping
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Created
in 1995 by Roelof Oddens, a curator of the map library
at Utrecht University, the Oddens Bookmark database
now contains over 22,000 links about maps, cartography
and GIS data.
Users
can search the resources by keyword, country, category,
or by browsing through subject headings. Besides the
abundance of maps and map data, visitors can find links
to cartography departments, libraries, literature, and
societies. Because the links span the entire world,
this website is a great starting point for anyone interested
in maps and mapping. Visit
this site.
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11. Education: Museum of Advertising & Design
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The
British novelist George Norman Douglas once remarked,
"You can tell the ideals of a nation through its
advertisements". With that spirit in mind, the
Scout Report turns its pointer to the website for the
William F. Eisner Museum of Advertising & Design
in Milwaukee. The late Mr. Eisner had a long and distinguished
career in the world of advertising, and his widow, Elaine
Eisner, was compelled to create this museum after his
death in 1990.
Visitors
can find basic information about the museum here of
course, but the real treat for online users will be
the well-designed online exhibits. One fine exhibit
is "The Art of the Album Cover", where visitors
can roam through a gallery of some rather fine LP covers
from the early days of that particular medium and still
another chestnut that hones in on the legendary roadway
billboards for Burma Shave. Visit
this site.
From
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2004
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12. Education: Problems in Africa
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We
must all do something to end the terrible situation
in Africa. See this picture by an affiliate at the UN,
go to this link, but be prepared for a shocking image.
Visit our NEWS
DESK link.
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13. Education: Remembering the World Wars
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The
BBC's People's War campaign is aiming to capture stories
from anybody associated with World War Two, creating
a valuable resource which future generations will be
able to use to learn about how this event impacted everyday
life.
By
using the resources available, you can record and publish
your stories within a BBC website and add to the collective
knowledge of the nation. Visit
their site and submit your story.
Editor's
Note: This item is dedicated to the memory of Samuel
Hebdon and his son Eric Hebdon of High Crompton, Lancashire,
England, who were both involved in the World Wars.
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14. Education: The rain forest in Madagascar
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Efforts
to save the rain forest now seem to be paying off. Read
this full report and see our collection of photos, go
to our NEWS
DESK link.
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15. Immigration: Illegal immigrants in the USA
to receive work visas?
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MEXICO
CITY -- President Bush will make a renewed push
during his second term for a temporary worker program
to give legal status to some of the millions of migrants
currently living illegally in the United States, Secretary
of State Colin L. Powell said Monday evening. To read
the full report, go to our NEWS
DESK link.
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16. Immigration: Working in New Zealand
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The
Government was working on ways to bring more skilled
immigrants into the country but did not want a flood
of cheap labour, Immigration Minister Paul Swain said
today.
Figures
released yesterday showed the unemployment rate at its
lowest in nearly a generation at 3.8 per cent for the
September quarter. To read this full report, go to our
NEWS
DESK link.
Editor's Note: Visit our web page on Working
in New Zealand.
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17. Internet: Swahili search engine
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Internet search engine Google has launched a Kiswahili
language service to be accessed through the .ke domain
name.
The service was launched on October 2004, according
to the Google web logs commonly referred to as blogs.
The hyperlink http://google.co.ke
became the 103rd country-specific domain name to be
acquired by Google Inc. To read the full report, go
to our NEWS
DESK link.
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18. Travel: Is Nairobi going to the dogs?
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Comments
from our reporter in Kenya: "Nairobi has distinguished
itself as just about the filthiest place under the sun
anyone could have the misfortune of finding themselves
in. The one thing I can state without fear of contradiction
is that Nairobi stands out as a place that has gone
to the dogs." Read the full report by going to
our NEWS
DESK link.
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19. Special Item: Request to pipe organ lovers
everywhere
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The
Delamere
Group is promoting a campaign to assist in the renovation
and restoration of the old Lord Egerton Castle, Ngata,
Nakuru District, Kenya, and the old organ still currently
abandoned in the Castle.
The
old castle in now in the hands of the Kenyan Museum
Service who want to turn it into a tourist site, the
property of the late Lord Maurice Egerton of Tatton
having been handed on to the Kenyan Government for use
by the Egerton University (EU) and for the benefit of
tourists from all over of the world. The project to
gather funds and undertake the restoration of the old
organ is being spearheaded by the Lancastrian Theatre
Organ Trust, visit
their site.
For
some background to this old castle of Lord Egerton and
the recent project to renovate and rescue this fine
building from further deterioration, visit
this site.
We
also invite you to visit Organs
and Organists Online. The purpose of this website
is to provide a friendly and useful home on the Web
for our members to discuss their interests in the Organ
and its music. Whether you are a professional Organist,
Church Musician, Organ Builder or Technician, Organ
Enthusiast or Student, you will find many items of interest.
If
you could pass on this information to any individual
or organization that you feel might be interested in
assisting in the collection of funds to assist in the
philanthropic campaign to renovate the old pipe organ
in the Lord Egerton Castle, in Kenya, we would greatly
appreciate this gesture. Please supply our email address,
for the attention of the Lord Egerton Organ Fund.
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This month's quote
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It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything
but
the very best you will very often get it. ~ W. Somerset
Maugham
