Russia shuts off gas to Ukraine..

Much of the EU’s gas from Russia arrives via Ukraine

BBC NEWS

01/01/09

Russia has stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine after the collapse of talks to end a row over unpaid bills and prices.

Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said it turned off the taps at 0700 GMT, when its contract to supply Ukraine ended.

Ukraine insists it has paid off its debts to Gazprom, but Russia contests this. The two countries have also failed to agree on a price for 2009.

Both Russia and Ukraine insist that gas supplies transported via Ukraine to the European Union will continue as normal.

There have been fears that the row could lead to energy shortages in Europe, as pipes across Ukraine carry about a fifth of the EU’s gas needs.

A similar row between Gazprom and Ukraine at the beginning of 2006 led to gas shortages in several EU countries.

The European Commission said Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had given her assurances that there would be “no disruption of gas supplies to clients in the European Union”.

Europe’s gas pipeline network Enlarge Map

An official at Gazprom’s headquarters in Moscow said: “We have fully cut off supplies to Ukraine as of 10am (0700 GMT) today.”

“Usually we supply 390 million cubic metres per day, of which 300 million is transit gas for Europe. Today supplies are running at 300 million cubic metres. We continue supplying Europe in full,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Ukraine’s state energy firm Naftogaz confirmed that supplies had dropped off steadily, and said it would start pumping gas from its reserves.

Ukraine says it has built up enough reserves to see it through the next few months.

‘Eager for conflict’

“The debt to Gazprom for gas supplied earlier was not paid. Despite verbal statements from Kiev, Gazprom did not see any money in its account,” said Gazprom’s chief executive Alexei Miller said.

He criticised Ukraine’s stance during the negotiations as “unconstructive”, and said Gazprom had no legal reason to continue supplying gas to Ukraine.

Mr Miller said the contract to supply gas depended on the full settlement of £2bn in gas bills and late-payment fines levied by Gazprom.

He also suggested that Kiev was seeking to provoke a wider dispute, saying he was “forming the impression that there are political forces in Ukraine which are very eager to see a gas conflict between our two countries”.

Gazprom’s Alexei Miller said he blamed Ukraine entirely for the situation

Naftogaz said it has paid $1.5bn (£1bn) in outstanding bills to RosUkrEnergo – a Switzerland-registered gas trading company which is acting as an intermediary – but not the fines imposed by Gazprom.

Gazprom is the world’s largest gas producer and supplies a quarter of the European Union’s gas needs – and 42% of its imports. Most of that is transported via Ukraine.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin had earlier warned Ukraine not to disrupt the transit of gas to Europe.

He warned of “very severe consequences” for Ukraine in terms of its relations with both Russia and European countries.

Mr Putin said Gazprom had been generous in offering Ukraine a price of $250 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas in 2009, given that the price in Europe was currently more than $500.

He said he understood that Ukraine was in “a difficult economic situation” which was worse than Russia’s, but put the dispute down to a “war of the clans” between the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, and President Viktor Yushchenko.

The school of mum and dad

By Ruth Walker for the Scotsman.com

Stimulate their senses in the right way and your child will be happier, healthier and possibly even more intelligent – and all without hothousing

 

REARING children seems to have been a lot less complicated a generation ago. We ate what was put in front of us, spent carefree, sunny days playing on abandoned railway lines and grew up to be, on the whole, healthy, rounded human beings.

These days, children are more rounded than they should be, with obesity a growing problem. But diet is just one aspect that helps babies develop into healthy, happy children and adults; all the senses need to be stimulated to help them grow. And it gives a whole new meaning to the five-a-day mantra. In fact, simple stimulation of all five senses in the first year can have a dramatic impact on their creativity, intellect and physical and mental health in later life. Research shows that children with early speech and language skills are likely to be more confident, have higher self-esteem and better academic careers. At the Cowgate Under-Five Centre in Edinburgh, which recently achieved top marks from HMI and Care Commission inspectors, Lynn McNair and her team believe in multi-sensory learning at as early an age as possible. “We’d go as far back as when the baby is in the womb, because babies know when you are calm and stress-free. In the nursery we have low lighting, music and only natural materials for exploring because we want to enrich the senses as early as we can – this allows children to develop confidence.”

“The most rapid phase of neural development occurs in the first year of a baby’s life,” says Margaret McAllister, an Edinburgh-based child psychologist, “so it’s important to let the baby interact with the world at its own pace – let them play with toys by themselves, give them books specifically for babies and let them turn the pages.”

And although books and stories were a part of everyday life for 79% of children in the Growing Up in Scotland survey, watching TV was also found to be the norm. By the time the children had reached their fourth birthday, 84% were watching the box every day, with just 3% not watching any.

“In our grandparents’ time there were no DVDs or TV,” says Eileen Carmichael, an early-years education officer for Learning and Teaching Scotland. “They had radio and Listen with Mother. As a result they had excellent listening skills. Nowadays the huge number of visual stimuli can have the effect of quashing the imagination.”

It comes as no surprise to find all this affects them in later life – and not just in terms of general health. A 2006 study of literacy in primary-age children in 45 countries found Scotland had fallen from 14th place in 2001 to 26th.

“One of the best ways to encourage a child’s hearing is by talking to them,” says Carmichael. “Tell them what you’re doing: ‘It’s raining today so we’re putting your coat on.’

“Books which show pictures and the names of objects are great, but playing I Spy is even better to stimulate their senses. They’ll see things differently to you at the start: they might identify a horse as a dog, as to them all four-legged animals seem the same. When you correct them, take care to be positive: instead of saying, ‘No, it’s a horse’, say: ‘It’s got four legs like a dog but it’s different.’”

However, she adds: “It’s important not to hothouse children or push them too quickly. If you try to teach them the alphabet too early you may put them off wanting to learn it. Observe your child and watch for signs that they’re interested in something, then delve deeper. Equally, when they’re not interested, don’t force it upon them.”

Touch, too, can make a remarkable difference to your child’s development. Iona Beaumont, a massage therapist from Edinburgh, says the benefits of infant massage range from stimulating the body’s circulation and digestion to promoting a healthy immune and nervous system. It can even help develop communication skills. “Touch through massage can help to stimulate mind-body awareness and sensory integration, improve muscular development and tone, encourage growth and the elimination of toxins,” she says.

“It has also been shown to improve sleep patterns, promote calmness and reduce stress levels in babies.”

Which seems as good a reason as any to get started.

Celebrating Families

Celebrating Families by Helen Sanderson and Maye TaylorA new parenting book takes the best ideas from person-centred planning and cleverly combines them with the current revival in crafting to help families improve positive communication with their children. And the authors promise there’ll be no mention of the naughty step.Celebrating Families by Helen Sanderson and Maye Taylor (HSA Press) presents parents with simple techniques for exploring their family relationships and then working together to explore and record their observations in creative and memorable ways.

Practical, crafty activities detailed in the book include making a family serving dish which records what the family loves about each other, creating a one-page profile with your child, making a memory quilt and filling a picture frame with Fimo images of your child’s favourite things.

Each of the nine chapters is based on stories told by real families and features children aged from three months to 16 years-old. The book introduces stories from real life families of all shapes and sizes, including single parent families, mixed-race couples and families with disabled children.

Author Helen Sanderson is a PhD psychologist and the government’s official advisor on person centred planning, but says she has written the book as a parent and a professional.

“In my professional life I have learned may techniques for exploring relationships and improving communication through person-centred planning,” she said.

“As a mother of three, I found myself introducing these into my own family life and realised that they could be useful for every family.”

Co-author Maye Taylor, also a PhD psychologist and parent added: “As a parent you have a definite place: in the wrong. Not only will your children tell you that, but so will the experts.

“This is a kind of warts-and-all book which celebrates the family without a single mention of the naughty step or time out!

“It is published in the spirit of ‘this worked for us, we hope it’ll work for you’”.

African parents: the dilemma of raising their children in Diaspora

by Victor E. Dike

For many African parents, raising their children in Diaspora (particularly the U.S) is a very daunting and challenging task. The reasons are many, including the culture of the society, which gives enormous powers to the child. Torn between two cultures, African parents are therefore in a dilemma as to where to raise their children. Those who have the infrastructure and courage to send their children back home to Africa (in the care of their relatives) to get familiarized with the African culture have many things to be thankful for. While completing their high school education, some of them seize the opportunity to know their uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and grandparents, and to grow up in an environment where morality and good character education are relatively regarded. But a few of the misinformed African parents in Diaspora who have argued that those who ?ship? their children home are ?callous? and ?selfish? seem to forget that there is no substitute for a good education anchored on progressive traditional African values. It is difficult, if not impossible, for an African child to acquire a good western education with a blend of African cultural and traditional values in Diaspora. Because the system lacks the tools to teach African culture and tradition and virtues such as obedience and respect for the elders/higher authorities, to care for parents at old age (not dumping them in old folks? home), community orientation, good moral character and behavior, among others. Common sense shows that if the culture and tradition of a people perishes, the group also perishes.

Culture is basically the way of life of a people. It is ?the social and religious structures and intellectual and artistic manifestations, etc that characterize a society.? Every group of people has values ? the DO?S and DON?T that are better learned by living with and observing the people of that particular society interacting with one another. Obviously, some behaviors that are acceptable in one society could be an abomination in another. If one may ask, are the African children raised in traditional African societies better behaved than the ones raised in Diaspora? The answer (s) to this question would vary from individuals, but the general consensus is that because of environmental factors African children raised in Diaspora often display behaviors that, under normal circumstances, would not be tolerated or accepted in a traditional African society. Many African parents in Diaspora are worried about that, because they want their children to acquire their traditional African cultural heritage ? that is, African children with African traditions!

How would one achieve this objective in a society where the court and child and family counselors (some of whom are not married) dictate for parents how to raise their children? In courts in the United States it is the child against their parents (or the wife against her husband). Such condition, which gives the child unlimited powers and freedom, undermine parental control and guidance. It is also detrimental to family cohesion and the mental growth and moral development of the child and makes parenting more challenging for the African parents? alien to the culture. Thus, for the culture of a people to flourish the people must posses the appropriate character and the moral foundations to cultivate and sustain it. Loyalty to that culture and tradition must be instilled in the people at an early age. Meanwhile, the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined good character as the life of right conduct -right conduct in relation to other persons and in relation to oneself (Palmer, 1986). Therefore, character counts! Therefore, good character consists of knowing the good, desiring the good, and doing the good (habits of the mind, habits of the heart, and habits of action); respect for the rights of others; regard for the law of the land and concern for the common good, among others. Convention dictates that these virtues are necessary for leading a moral life for the individuals and the nation. Any society in which the majority of its citizens exhibit behaviors antithetical to its fundamental values would be faced with constant ?moral crisis.?

Historically, three social institutions share the work of moral education in a society: the home, the church, and the school. The influence of western culture on these institutions and the African homes in Diaspora is myriad: divorce is rampant and single-parent African homes are springing up; and some African couples are just hanging on together without commitment and love for each other. This itchy condition, which is not conducive to raising good children, is causing an upsurge in dysfunctional African children in Diaspora. Consequently, some of them have joined the gangs, doing drugs, stealing and killing, sexual precocity, rising teenage pregnancy and prostitution, and cutting classes or dropping out of school and other self-destructive behaviors. The environment has also affected the schools – the many laws in the society have stripped schoolteachers the powers to discipline students and make them to do their class work. In some cases, the teacher becomes a passive on-looker in the classroom filling up forms and documenting students? misbehaviors, instead of teaching. But in a traditional African school system teachers have the authority to discipline and correct students? bad behavior. The churches are not spared either; with the rampant child molestation cases, they are no longer what they used to be. As Theodore Roosevelt was credited to have said ?to educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace in society.? Through discipline and teacher?s good example and school curriculum, schools should instruct children in the virtues of patriotism, hard work, honesty, altruism, and courage. Due to circumstances beyond their control (some are already mentioned above) many families are incapable of giving their children the necessary moral education at home, but common sense dictates that the family is the primary moral educator of the child and their most enduring influence. As Lickona (1991) has rightly noted, how well parents teach their children to respect their authorities would lay the foundation for their future moral growth. When these institutions fail to play their role well, forces hostile to good character rush in to fill the void. The question therefore becomes how could parents perform their important traditional functions if and when their powers are diluted or completed stripped?

Nevertheless, because of the importance of moral education to the moral health of the African children, neither the school nor the family should be a neutral bystander in good character education of the African youth. As Friedrich Nietzsche notes in On the Genealogy of Morals, ?if something is to stay in the memory it must be burned in.? It is appropriate to note that societies since the time of Plato have made moral education a deliberate aim of schooling. They educated for good character as well as intellect, decency as well as literacy, virtue as well as knowledge; they tried to form citizens who would use their intelligence to benefit others as well as themselves, so as to build a better world. However, as people began to worship money and material wealth (with less regard for good character) support for old-fashioned character education crumbled with morality taking a nosedive. However, despite the negative influences of the West on African schools, the environment back home in Africa is relatively better for ?good moral education? of the African children than what is obtainable in Diaspora. Sadly, many of the African youths raised in Diaspora know little or nothing about Africa other than the distorted and negative views the Western media house has about the continent. It is, therefore, imperative for African parents in Diaspora to give their children appropriate and realistic information about Africa to dispel the negative perceptions the developed world has about Africa. Towards this Opoku-Owusu (AFFORD, July 2003) has urged Africans in Diaspora to influence the media to change the negative perceptions the developed world has about Africa. But the big question is how would the African child get the appropriate information if he/she were not given the opportunity to live in an African society?

Experts in human development have noted that ?values education? enables a society to survive and thrive, and to keep intact and grow toward conditions that support full human development of all its members. As noted earlier, it seems an uphill task to conduct moral education in an individualistic and materialistic pop-culture of the Western world -a society that ?emphasizes materialism at the expense? of good moral behavior. And often times, some of the married African ladies in Diaspora that are imitating the negative part of the western culture are causing some friction and fracture in the African homes. The society gives ladies unlimited powers, thereby transforming some of them into super-ladies that dictate and often refuse to follow their husband?s advice. This type of behavior, which is common in the United States among those who erroneously think that they could do well financially without their husband, often leads to disunity and broken homes and makes the upbringing of their children more cumbersome. Families bedeviled by such problems have often ended up raising frustrated and dysfunctional children.

Nevertheless, because of heavy economic burden on parents many of them have multiple jobs that allow them little or no time for good parental care -disciplines, controlling who their children associate with, doing homework, cleaning the house, cooking and other house chores. But in a more relaxed and ?less materialistic/competitive? and community-oriented traditional African society, the wife is often at home with the children. More importantly, in African societies it ?takes a whole community to raise a child? – the neighbor, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew or ?even a stranger? assists in raising a child in the absence of the biological parents. Obviously, this is not possible in Diaspora! As William Kilpatrict noted in ?Why Johnny can?t Tell Right from Wrong? (Lickona 1991), ?the core problem facing our schools [and our homes] is a moral one. All the other problems derive from it.? These virtues could help the child to think and behave appropriately. As William Bennett noted in The Book of Virtues ?a person who is morally literate will [ceteris paribus] be immeasurably better equipped than a morally illiterate person to reach a reasoned and ethically defensible position on tough issues.?

The excursion to the land of ancient and modern philosophers? highlights the dilemma African parents are facing in raising their children in Diaspora. The society that does not subscribe to the African traditional values is not helping them to inculcate a good sense of African culture and tradition in their children. That is frustrating, to say the least! The African child needs a good quality Western education as well as a good training in progressive African culture to be a worthy ambassador of Africa in Diaspora. As the Diaspora News of Sunday of 22 Feb 2004 notes: ?there need to strike a balance between African traditional values and those of individualistic society of North America;? because ?when people learn to do good and love the good, they take delight in doing the good.? To fill the void created by the scarcity (or lack) of educational institutions that offer instructions in African culture, Africans in Diaspora should come together and establish such educational centers that could teach progressive African cultures to the children of African descent and others interested in African culture. To solve a problem of this magnitude African leaders in Diaspora must be proactive. Proactive problem solving, as experts have noted, includes designing the future we want and finding the most effective way to get there.

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Victor E. Dike, CEO, Center for Social Justice and Human Development (CSJHD) Sacramento, California, is the author of Nigeria and the Politics of Unreason: A Study of the Obasanjo Regime [London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers, Nov 20, 2003].

Eritrean diaspora parents have a common challenge to meet

Adal Voice of Eritreans has been working hard for the last half a decade or so to create a medium for diaspora Eritrean parents to communicate with each other and exchange ideas, experiences etc… This has been mostly achieved through our radio shows.

Here at Adal Voice of Eritrea, we believe that Eritrean diaspora parents can benefit greatly from having a cyber medium to share any thing that is pertaining to the well being and socio-cultural development of our children.

So, dear parent, we invite you to use this section to inform, enquire, educate and consult with your fellow Eritrean diaspora parents.

Also, remember to listen in for various children programings during our regular radio shows every sunday from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at 93.2 FM across sheffield or www.adalvoice.org via internet. You can always scroll down to previous shows if you have missed any particular show.

 Adal Voice of Eritrea