Out of Control – NYTimes.com
March 18, 2014
Aviation Aviation, Flight 370, peter singhateh, Transponders Leave a comment
“WASHINGTON — WHEN mass murderers took over the cockpits of four American airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, one of the first things they did was turn off the transponders, so the planes would not register properly on civilian radar.
A few months later, the Council on Foreign Relations published a book, “How Did This Happen?” about the mistakes leading to that awful day. I wrote the aviation security chapter, which highlighted vulnerabilities in the way airliner transponders operate.
If the transponders had not gone silent on 9/11, air traffic controllers would have quickly realized that two jetliners en route to Los Angeles had made dramatic course changes and were bound straight for Manhattan. Instead, controllers lost precious time trying to figure out where the aircraft were.
At the time, I would have bet my life’s savings that the transponder, which broadcasts an aircraft’s location and identity, would be re-engineered to prevent hijackers from turning such units off. But nothing was done. Almost 13 years later, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 sparked a lengthy worldwide search when, it appears, another transponder was turned off.
The issue today is exactly as it was on 9/11…”
Why corruption remains a way of life in the public service in Africa – Opinion – nation.co.ke
March 17, 2014
African Center for Strategic Studies Africa, corruption, Gambia, People & Society, peter singhateh 2 Comments
Why corruption remains a way of life in the public service in Africa – Opinion – nation.co.ke.
When colonialism ended, Africans made no attempt to establish a link between the people and the government.
Government remained a hostile entity that has no real attachment to the mwananchi.
Growing up in the village, the other boys and I would run away when we spotted policemen at a distance for absolutely no reason.
That’s because to society, the government, i.e. the public service, is a threat to be feared, not a legitimate entity concerned with the public interest.
This is the mind-set of public servants and elected officials who see ‘public money’ as nobody’s money that is therefore fair game.
It belongs to the ‘government’ not to the people. In Sweden or Japan, on the other hand, every single coin in the hands of a public official is seen as belonging to the society at large and something to be treasured and put to the right use.
To eliminate corruption in Africa, we must rethink the African state. We must ask ourselves how to re-establish its legitimacy and get everyone to understand the link between taxation and delivery of public goods and why stealing public funds is the same as robbing a grandmother in Kangemi who pays a huge amount of tax on her jerrycan of paraffin…”
Why Black Women Die of Cancer – NYTimes.com
March 17, 2014
Medical, Research Black Americans, Cancer, Education, People & Society, peter singhateh Leave a comment
Why Black Women Die of Cancer – NYTimes.com.
“SINCE the early 1970s, studies have shown that black Americans have a higher death rate from cancer than any other racial or ethnic group. This is especially true when it comes to breast cancer. A study published last week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology found that, in a survey of 41 of America’s largest cities, black women with breast cancer are on average 40 percent more likely to die than their white counterparts.
The principal reason for this disparity is the disconnect between the nation’s discovery and delivery enterprises — between what we know and what we do about sick Americans…”
ISS Africa | The post-2015 Development Agenda: new goals, no goals – or own goals?
February 24, 2014
Reports Africa, Development, Gambia, MDGs, People & Society Leave a comment
ISS Africa | The post-2015 Development Agenda: new goals, no goals – or own goals?.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for all their doubtless faults, had this one great virtue: they encapsulated the whole, sprawling and often rather arcane development issue into eight universal, simple, concrete, comprehensible and measurable development targets, to be reached mainly by 2015.
From halving absolute poverty and hunger to reducing infant mortality by two-thirds, the goals were clear and tangible, which made them relatively easy to brand and market. Being measurable, they would, of course, quite clearly show success or failure. And as the deadline looms, it is apparent that in sub-Saharan Africa especially, failure will be far more common than success…
Calculating Coups: Can Data Stop Disasters? | Think Africa Press
February 22, 2014
International Security Africa, Conflict, Coups, Gambia, Peace & Security, peter singhateh, West Africa Leave a comment
Calculating Coups: Can Data Stop Disasters? | Think Africa Press.
In March 2012, junior officers stage a coup in Mali, throwing the country into disarray. A year later, rebels oust the government of the Central African Republic (CAR), paving the way for widespread violence that has made refugees out of a quarter of the country’s population. And at the end of the year in December, an internal political conflict in South Sudan’s governing party and army escalates into a full-scale civil war, killing ten thousand or more.
These conflicts differ widely in almost every aspect, apart from the sense of surprise and helplessness that they instilled in the international community. Mali was lauded as a democratic role model before some soldiers took power almost by accident. The French government, for decades the kingmaker of the Central African Republic, confessed to being taken blindsided by the speed and viciousness with which the conflict escalated. And in South Sudan, the regional organisation IGAD struggled to respond to the conflict, finding themselves unprepared and at odds over how exactly to proceed.
In all three cases the surprise greatly limited the influence of the international community, which if better prepared could not only have intervened earlier and more effectively but could perhaps even have taken pre-emptive measures. This unpreparedness was even more of a shame because in all three cases, the outbreak of conflict had been predicted by statistical models…
Sex and Candy – NYTimes.com
February 14, 2014
“NOTHING is more symbolic of the romance of Valentine’s Day than a box of chocolates, traditionally a gift from Him to Her. Chocolate, with its luxurious texture and pleasurable taste, has become the edible correlate to love and desire. And although scientists haven’t discovered any definitive difference in the way men and women respond to chocolate, conventional wisdom is that women naturally crave the stuff…”
Peter "Just Loves Flying" 
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