Friday, July 20, 2012

Downtown Chicago townhouses for sale - Chicago Metro Area Real ...

The 4 Skyhomes at 55 E Erie

The 4 Skyhomes at 55 E Erie

Approximately 2% of downtown Chicago condos are townhouses or townhomes. Most are in the Old Town Neighborhood. A few are in the Gold Coast. A very few are in River North, Streeterville and the Loop.

Most downtown Chicago townhouses are in traditional townhouse developments. However, a few are a part of condo buildings such as 55 E Erie, The Fordham, and Riverview West. These townhouses have the advantage of access to the condo development?s common amenities.

As shown on the left, some downtown Chicago townhouses are well above ground level. At 55 E Erie the 4 townhouses are even called ?skyhomes?.

Want a downtown home with just 2 levels? Click here to read about downtown Chicago duplex condos.

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Here are some of the downtown Chicago townhouse developments and their neighborhoods:

Beekman Place - Gold CoastParkside - Old Town
City Club - River NorthParkview Condominiums - Streeterville
Cleveland Court - Old TownRiver City - Loop
Dearborn Park - LoopRiver Village - Old Town
East Water Place - StreetervilleSandburg Village - Old Town
Oak Club Condos - Gold CoastSchiller Place - Old Town
Old Town Square - Old TownSutton Place - Gold Coast
Old Town Village East - Old TownTuxedo Park - River North
Riverview West Townhouses

Riverview West Townhouses

Email Fran for more information on downtown Chicago townhouses for sale.

DOWNTOWN CHICAGO TOWNHOUSES FOR SALE

Click here to see all listed downtown Chicago townhouses for sale. Pending sales are excluded.

Source: http://www.chicagometroarearealestate.com/downtown-chicago-townhouses-for-sale/

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Friday Illusion: Brain builds swinging tower of Pisa

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV

Luckily, if you see a swinging tower of Pisa, it's likely to be all in your mind. A new animation created by Sebastiaan Mathot from VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, exploits a classic brain trick to design a series of columns that seem to sway back and forth. In reality, the towers are always perfectly straight.

The effect is a nice illustration of the way our visual system tends to perceive whole objects rather than their components. Although Mathot's design is actually a bunch of carefully-positioned lines, we initially see the larger bands. "If we see a chair, for example, we don't consider the parts of the chair separately, one at a time," writes Mathot. "In other words, we automatically group objects together into a single, coherent percept."

The tilting column is a result of the way our brain forms groupings based on proximity and similar colour. The misaligned dashes in this video appear as black pairs and white pairs rather than as individual strokes. Then, since the positioning within each grouping is skewed, our brain notices the jagged edge, but simplifies it into a smoother tilt.? By switching the black and white areas in the design, the tilt of the pairs changes direction and the overall columns seem to swing.

Previously, we have shown you other versions of this effect, including: a slanted chessboard and a balance beam that seems to tilt.

Were you able to see this illusion? Let us know in the comments section below.

Subscribe to New Scientist Magazine

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/218cf9cb/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A120C0A70Cfriday0Eillusion0Ebrain0Ebuilds0Eswinging0Etower0Eof0Episa0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Syria uprising puts Hezbollah on defensive

In this Sunday, July 15, 2012 photo, Sheik Ahmad Assir, a hardline Sunni cleric, speaks in an interview with The Associated Press at his protest camp in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Assir has set up the camp in the middle of a key road in Sidon, declaring it an uprising against Hezbollah's weapons. Assir is taking aim at Hezbollah at a vulnerable time for the group when it faces the possible downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria. Assir may not be a direct threat to Hezbollah, but the willingness to publicly confront it underlines the dangers the group faces as it tries to retain the power and influence it has built up over the past 30 years in the face of the Syria crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Sunday, July 15, 2012 photo, Sheik Ahmad Assir, a hardline Sunni cleric, speaks in an interview with The Associated Press at his protest camp in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Assir has set up the camp in the middle of a key road in Sidon, declaring it an uprising against Hezbollah's weapons. Assir is taking aim at Hezbollah at a vulnerable time for the group when it faces the possible downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria. Assir may not be a direct threat to Hezbollah, but the willingness to publicly confront it underlines the dangers the group faces as it tries to retain the power and influence it has built up over the past 30 years in the face of the Syria crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Sunday, July 15, 2012 photo, Lebanese women sit at a protest camp set up by Sheik Ahmad Assir, a harline Sunni cleric, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Assir has set up the camp in the middle of a key road in Sidon, declaring it an uprising against Hezbollah's weapons. Assir is taking aim at Hezbollah at a vulnerable time for the group when it faces the possible downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria. Assir may not be a direct threat to Hezbollah, but the willingness to publicly confront it underlines the dangers the group faces as it tries to retain the power and influence it has built up over the past 30 years in the face of the Syria crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Sunday, July 15, 2012 photo, Sheik Ahmad Assir, left, receives a group of supporters who came from the northern city of Tripoli to a protest camp he set in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Assir has set up the camp in the middle of a key road in Sidon, declaring it an uprising against Hezbollah's weapons. Assir is taking aim at Hezbollah at a vulnerable time for the group when it faces the possible downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria. Assir may not be a direct threat to Hezbollah, but the willingness to publicly confront it underlines the dangers the group faces as it tries to retain the power and influence it has built up over the past 30 years in the face of the Syria crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Sunday, July 15, 2012 photo, Sheik Ahmad Assir, left, receives a group of supporters who came from the northern city of Tripoli to a protest camp he set in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Assir has set up the camp in the middle of a key road in Sidon, declaring it an uprising against Hezbollah's weapons. Assir is taking aim at Hezbollah at a vulnerable time for the group when it faces the possible downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria. Assir may not be a direct threat to Hezbollah, but the willingness to publicly confront it underlines the dangers the group faces as it tries to retain the power and influence it has built up over the past 30 years in the face of the Syria crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

(AP) ? On a main road connecting the Lebanese capital with the south, Sheik Ahmad Assir kneels under a blazing sun to pray and then sits down with supporters at his anti-Hezbollah protest camp and launches into a new tirade against Lebanon's most powerful and well-armed force.

"By God, Nasrallah, I will not let you sleep at night," he vows in a fiery speech, addressing Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

Few in Lebanon have dared take on the Shiite militant group in such a public way, but Assir, a hardline Sunni cleric, senses weakness. He sees a chance to push back against Hezbollah's domination of the country's politics.

The growing popularity among some Sunnis of the previously little known local cleric is a sign of how vulnerable Hezbollah has become as it faces the possibility of the downfall of its crucial ally, President Bashar Assad in Syria. Its reputation as a popular resistance movement has already taken a severe beating for siding with Syria against the anti-Assad uprising even after it supported Arab revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain.

"This is the start of what will become Lebanon's Tahrir Square," Assir, wearing a long robe and white skullcap, told The Associated Press at his protest site, where some 150 Sunni conservative supporters have been camped out for some three weeks. "They have humiliated us for long enough. It's about our dignity now. I can't live like this, it's enough."

"May you triumph over the Party of the Devil!" came a shout of support to Assir from one bearded protester, who traveled from the northern, Sunni-dominated city of Tripoli to join in. He used a play on Hezbollah's name, Arabic for Party of God.

Assad's fall would be a nightmare scenario for Hezbollah. Any Sunni-led new regime would likely be far less friendly to the group, or even outright hostile. Regime change in Syria could heavily damage its ally's political clout in Lebanon and knock out a third of the "Iran-Syria-Hezbollah" axis of "resistance" to Israel.

Iran remains Hezbollah's most important patron, but Syria is a crucial supply route. Without it, Hezbollah will struggle to get money and weapons as easily.

Nasrallah admitted how crucial the alliance with Damascus is in a speech Wednesday night after Assad's regime suffered its hardest blow yet in the conflict ? a bomb blast that killed three major regime figures, including the defense minister and Assad's brother-in-law.

Nasrallah called the Syrian regime a "bridge" and a "critical support" for Hezbollah's "resistance" against Israel.

"The most important weapons with which we fought Israel in the July war came from Syria," he said, in reference to Hezbollah's monthlong 2006 war with Israel.

In the face of the Syria crisis, Hezbollah is treading carefully to retain the power it has built up over the past 30 years in Lebanon, a deeply divided country where its strength is resented by Sunnis and some in the Christian community.

The group's main strategy for doing so appears to be to lay low and avoid aggravating the volatile fault line between the Sunni and Shiite communities, which each make up about a third of Lebanon's population of 4 million.

Lebanon's sectarian tensions have already been worsened by the crisis in Syria, where the overwhelmingly Sunni opposition is struggling to oust a regime dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Regional shifts also weigh on Hezbollah. The so-called Arab Spring sweeping the Middle East has so far led to the rise of conservative Sunni Islamists deeply resentful of Shiite powerhouse Iran and its allies Syria and Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah has accepted that this is going to be a protracted crisis in Syria and by virtue of that, the group has been much readier to calibrate and reduce its footprint," said Aram Nerguizian, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Over the course of Syria's 16-month-old uprising, he and other analysts have noted a subtle shift in Hezbollah's public position. Early on, Nasrallah embraced Assad, casting him as a reformer in speeches that infuriated Syrian protesters. He has since then somewhat modified his stance, calling on both sides to cease the violence and engage in dialogue.

Assir's rapid rise and growing following are symptoms of the deep frustration among Lebanon's Sunnis who resent the Hezbollah-led Shiite ascendancy to power in Lebanon.

The 44-year-old, bespectacled, skinny cleric with a long bushy beard was previously little known, a preacher at the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque in Sidon. Now he is openly challenging and taunting Hezbollah like few have dared before, even taking aim at Nasrallah, a revered figure usually considered a red line in Lebanon.

Assir calls his protest camp an "uprising" against Hezbollah's weapons, aimed at bringing the powerful arsenal of the group's guerrilla force under the control of the government. Hezbollah, the country's strongest armed force, has resisted pressure to do so for years.

Assir set up the camp blocking a main road in the southern coastal city of Sidon. The city is the gateway to Hezbollah's traditional stronghold in the south and links the group's command center in Beirut's southern suburbs with front line villages in the south.

Sunni bitterness still runs deep over clashes in May 2008, when Hezbollah gunmen swept through Sunni neighborhoods in Beirut after the pro-Western government of that time tried to dismantle the group's crucial telecommunications network. More than 80 people were killed in those clashes.

Moreover, a U.N.-backed special tribunal has accused four Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's most powerful Sunni leader. Hezbollah says the tribunal is a tool of Israel and the West.

Hezbollah still is Lebanon's single most influential player with considerable support among Shiites and unprecedented political clout. It holds a dominant role in Beirut's government and the prime minister is an ally, after the fall of the previous government sidelined Hezbollah's opponents, the U.S.- and Western-backed factions led by Hariri's son Saad. As a result, its extensive arsenal of weapons and rockets is virtually untouchable for the moment.

Hezbollah has not directly commented on Assir's tirades and has gone into great lengths to rein in members who might clash with his supporters.

Their reaction has also been muted to the abduction of 11 Shiite pilgrims in May by rebels in Syria who demanded Nasrallah apologize for pro-Assad comments. The kidnapping is seen as an attempt to draw Hezbollah retaliation,

"Hezbollah knows it's absolutely not in its interest to have a civil war in Lebanon," said political analyst Abdelwahab Badrakhan, writing in the Lebanese daily An-Nahar. Hezbollah and Iran's main goal is to preserve the political cover to ensure the group's hold on its weapons and freedom to operate.

Nerguizian said a new conflict in Lebanon could erupt if Hezbollah doesn't agree to a new formula to share power with its rivals. "The Shiites have to deal with the reality of what happens to a minority group when it takes on too much and doesn't share enough," he said.

At the camp in Sidon, Assir has a hero status among the protesters.

Maysa Sabbagh ? a 27-year-old who like other women at the camp was covered from head to toe in black, only a small slit revealing her brown eyes ? said she was once an admirer of Hezbollah for its fight against Israel but grew disillusioned when the party when it turned its guns on other Lebanese in 2008.

"Sheik Assir is speaking for all of us," she said, a Blackberry in her hand and an iPad perched on her lap. Assir "says what others do not dare say."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-19-ML-Lebanon-Challenging-Hezbollah/id-7bf7d2ab5c454b5dafdd1d64c71bf50c

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The Batpod and Other Memorable Movie Motorcycles - Movieline

Movie Motorcycles

The Dark Knight Rises finally arrives this weekend, and curiously, amid the hype attending Christopher Nolan and his top-flight cast, two other performers have been strongly covered in the media: The behemoth tank that is The Tumbler, and the exciting off-shoot vehicle known as The Batpod. Considering the latter is one of the most arresting two-wheelers ever featured on-screen, we celebrate its revival by highlighting nine other curiosities Hollywood has offered up in the motorcycle category.

Captain America Chopper - Easy Rider
At first it might seem a pedestrian selection, but upon release in 1969 this was in fact a striking departure for motorcycle design. Following World War II, returning veterans kicked off a wave of automotive redesign with self-created modifications; garage-built hot rods rose in popularity, and similar to that were the emergence of "bobbers," motorcycles mechanically altered by their owners. This involved taking a showroom motorcycle and trimming away parts deemed superfluous, such as fenders and foot boards, in an effort to make a streamlined and lighter bike. By the 1960s bobbing gave way to more extreme experimentation. Owners began making changes to the basic structure of the motorcycle itself, cutting and welding the frames into new shapes in a practice called "chopping." This produced wholesale alterations to the appearance, and Easy Rider opened America's eyes to the new practice. Features such as the lowered rider position, extended forks, and raised sissy-bar seat backs were stark visions at the time, and soon the term "chopper" entered the national lexicon to describe the lengthened cruising style motorcycle.

Dentists ? An Intro | xyzGardening

Dental remedy is considered the different ways and procedures applied with regard to straightening some sort of a dental dilemma. Dentist fault may be an ailment that may transform anyone single grow more mature. Nobody is supplied start to by using destructive or perhaps harmful pearly whites, in spite of this as a result of the junk selected standard of living also as other taking in routines that your lady / male cultivates and thus develops into the main result in of well-being care weaknesses. Dental therapy The large apple has improved an dreadful good deal for the most part since the early times since the development made in the enjoyment of science and technologies. If you ever before without a doubt be going into Manhattan, then you will likely be really victorious seeing that you should have quite a few alternatives to make a decision from if you are struggling due to the variety of health care ( dental ) anomalies.

There are lots of diverse certified professionals who are used in Manhattan. To make certain that, very powerful but subtle exercise your grip is to always discover a powerful dental practitioner which will conduct the make you. Dental treatment flaw might be of any kind. It?ll be hassle-free important things like ridding oneself of discoloured yellow your teeth too that could be quite a bit much more difficult this kind of as updating a missing enamel or perhaps wide range dental care. Any dental practice situation is remedied with the dental practitioner who can have skilled standards. Is dependent in opposition to your possibility to too as other advantageous dentistry to execute almost any dental care development by having an guy or girl.

Marked yellow-colored enamel are perhaps the most common oral flaws impacting the net local community. There are various things to consider which may stains your existing dental. Sizeable consumption of liquids as an illustration their tea, coffee beans, food plan pepsi and likewise burgandy or merlot wine can without a doubt grime your whole mouth. The actual relies on taking care of the intake of these elements, a few other following limiting the using tobacco likewise as building nearly every cigarettes platform. Simplicity can be described as without doubt important social resource, and thus a lot of people bakes an time to obtain their the tooth colourful as well as glowing constantly.

Enamel deprivation is usually a dentistry all round disorder which regularly impact practically just about anyone. Reduction of teeth can take put stemming from car or truck incident coupled with mishaps could very well come to pass to anyone at any time. For everyone influenced by decline of tooth attributable to each individual legitimate reason, dental apply enhancement is often a feasible approach to keep clear of it using this place. Self-assured excellent teeth will probably be entitled to encountering the project involving health and fitness care dental implants. When considering tooth implant, a steel screw is place at a jawbone, designed to develop web site most recent your smile in place of the actual absent dental or just tooth. The price of good results involving dental embed is close to 95%, so most people can carry out this treatment devoid of the anxiety and fear.

That wonderful results or maybe fiasco linked to a dental experienced practice rrs decided by the talents also as connection with the exact dentist. It?s important for everybody who is absolutely really wants to undertake carrying out this youngster ought to be believe in your boyfriend?s dental. You could be passing onto generally the dentist to deal with ones have pleasure or one other overall health care trouble that becoming explained right away that you simply just rent the products and services of any ultra powerful competent dental office environment. Browse the ability for these dentist from these who been theme to the field of dentistry class of motion available at their business grade.

Talk to your present-day dental practitioner try to uncover what exactly structure it?s important to endure. You will have to know all with regards to the procedure that you might be presently within the practice seeing that this is an merchandise extremely critical pertaining to your general health. Query a dental apply all-around all that is required to recognize, which implies you ?t be instantly observed sleeping virtually ailment.

dentistry

Source: http://xyzgardening.com/dentists-an-intro/

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Four dead in attack on Israelis in Bulgaria, Iran blamed

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-confirms-attack-citizens-bulgaria-160726840.html

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SkyWest pilot takes jarring ride in stolen plane

This undated image provided by the Colorado Springs Police Department on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 shows Brian Joseph Hedglin. The SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a Colorado murder attempted to steal a passenger plane from a small southern Utah airport then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday by police doing a welfare check at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide. (AP Photo/Colorado Springs Police Department)

This undated image provided by the Colorado Springs Police Department on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 shows Brian Joseph Hedglin. The SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a Colorado murder attempted to steal a passenger plane from a small southern Utah airport then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday by police doing a welfare check at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide. (AP Photo/Colorado Springs Police Department)

Colorado Army National Guard 2nd Lt. Christina Cornejo, ex-girlfriend of Brian Heglin, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Colorado National Guard. Heglin, a SkyWest Airlines pilot suspected of killing Cornejo, stole an empty 50-passenger jet Tuesday, July 17, 2012 from a small Utah airport, crashed it as he drove near a terminal, then was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. Police found the body of Cornejo, 39, on July 13 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Authorities say she had been stabbed multiple times. (AP Photo/Colorado National Guard )

A SkyWest regional jet sits on the tarmac on the opposite end of the St. George Municipal Airport Tuesday, July 17, 2012. A SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a murder case attempted to steal a passenger plane, then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Brian Hedglin, 40, scaled a razor wire fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday, then boarded the 50-passenger SkyWest jet while the airport was closed, St. George city spokesman Marc Mortenson said. (AP Photo/The Spectrum, Jud Burkett) NO SALES

A front-end loader, dump truck and a street sweeper are used to clean up the parking lot at the St. George Airport Tuesday, July 17, 2012. A SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a murder case attempted to steal a passenger plane, then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Brian Hedglin, 40, scaled a razor wire fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday, then boarded the 50-passenger SkyWest jet while the airport was closed, St. George city spokesman Marc Mortenson said. (AP Photo/The Spectrum, Jud Burkett) NO SALES

St. George police block the entrance to the St. George Municipal Airport Tuesday, July 17, 2012. A SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a murder case attempted to steal a passenger plane, then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Brian Hedglin, 40, scaled a razor wire fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday, then boarded the 50-passenger SkyWest jet while the airport was closed, St. George city spokesman Marc Mortenson said. (AP Photo/The Spectrum, Samantha Clemens) NO SALES

(AP) ? A SkyWest Airlines pilot and murder suspect who stole an empty 50-passenger jet and crashed it as he drove it at a small Utah airport was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head about halfway down the aircraft aisle, police said Wednesday.

Brian Hedglin was wanted in the murder of his girlfriend in Colorado when he used a rug to scale the razor wire-topped fence at the St. George Municipal Airport early Tuesday. The plane crashed in an airport parking lot before it got off the ground.

Authorities were trying Wednesday to determine just how Hedglin gained access to the plane while the airport was closed, among other details.

St. George police Capt. James Van Fleet said investigators were still awaiting toxicology reports to determine whether drugs or alcohol were a factor. He said they were also awaiting data from the cockpit recorder.

"Right now, we just don't know when he was shot," Van Fleet said. "Did he shoot himself at the beginning and the plane went on a ride on its own? We don't know."

The short ride was jarring enough to collapse the plane's front landing gear as it careened over landscaping, crossed a road and hit a curb before crashing into cars in the parking lot, he said.

"He might have been standing in the cockpit and was thrown back," Van Fleet said.

Meanwhile, SkyWest officials said the company deactivated Hedglin's access cards and put him on administrative leave after Colorado authorities named him a murder suspect, but declined to explain how he was able to steal one of their planes.

Van Fleet said he didn't know if the plane was locked, and SkyWest declined to discuss it.

Van Fleet also said that once his officers had finished processing evidence on the plane, it was released to SkyWest, which painted over its logo and moved the aircraft back onto secure airport property.

The incident has raised concerns that the nation's airports may not be as safe as they should be.

SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow said the jet was scheduled for a flight later Tuesday morning, but noted it was empty and sitting on the tarmac when Hedglin stole it.

The CRJ200 aircraft is made by Bombardier and is capable of flying up to 534 mph with a range of 1,700 miles. Normally it has a two-person flight crew and one flight attendant.

Hedglin had been a pilot for the airline since 2005, and has flown these specific planes numerous times, Snow said.

Snow declined to say whether the plane was secured at the time of the incident, noting only that "there are numerous federally mandated procedures for securing an aircraft."

"This access was unauthorized," she said, declining to provide specific details about how Hedglin was able to board the plane. She also declined to say whether the plane was fueled up, noting it was all part of an ongoing investigation by local authorities in Utah, federal agencies and the airline.

The Transportation Security Administration doesn't require airports to maintain full-time surveillance of their perimeter fences, leaving airport security largely in the hands of individual facilities. St. George airport officials have said the small facility about 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas meets all federal security guidelines.

Van Fleet said just one officer provides security for the airport as it is closed through the night until 6 a.m. the next morning when TSA officials and others return. He said his agency would be discussing whether additional security measures need to be added but noted "this was a very determined person."

TSA spokesman Dave Castelveter said the agency was involved in the investigation, but declined to discuss specific security protocols, including how a plane is supposed to be secured when it is out of service, emphasizing that each airport has different security needs.

"Aviation security is not a one size fits all process," Castelveter said.

One aviation security expert said it might be time to revisit protocols aimed at securing airport perimeters.

"Maybe we need to implement some more levels of perimeter security because any type of security incident like this is a lesson to both the good guys and the bad guys. They read the papers just as much as we do," said Jeff Price, an aviation security expert and aviation professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Hedglin was wanted in the death of his of his girlfriend and fellow Colorado National Guard member, Christina Cornejo, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Her body was found July 13. Authorities said she had been stabbed multiple times. Hedglin was the key suspect but had not been charged.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs, citing court records, reported Hedglin dated Cornejo for four years and was arrested in March after he was accused of harassing her.

The records show that a restraining order was issued against Hedglin, and he was set for trial in August. He was released on $10,000 bond.

Attorney Steven Rodemer, who represented Hedglin in that case, said he was facing misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, theft and harassment.

Hedglin was a part-time soldier who worked as a cook in the Colorado National Guard.

Cornejo was a full-time soldier who served in the Colorado Army National Guard's 100th Missile Defense Brigade in Colorado Springs. She enlisted in June 2006, became a second lieutenant last year and was named a distinguished honor graduate in two training programs. She had recently begun training as a current operations officer.

___

Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., and Colleen Slevin and Dan Elliott in Denver contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-07-18-Utah-Airport%20Investigation/id-68c915c7203c47848481b867768c88ca

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Security Tips for Your Hospitality Business

Security in the Hospitality IndustryThe hospitality industry is one of the biggest in the world, with millions of hotels, bars, pubs, restaurants and catering businesses operating in all areas around the globe. These places are an integral part of our everyday lives, whether it?s a place to relax, watch sports or visit for work purposes. Without the hospitality industry, our lives would seem a whole lot longer! These businesses are part of the lifeblood of our society, so it is essential that business owners take care of the security of their premises so that they can keep operating and keep us in food, drink and comfy beds for decades to come!

Alarms and Cameras

Regardless of how much we love a good pub or restaurant, unfortunately there are still some people out there who will ruin it for everyone by engaging in criminal activities like burglary and criminal damage. Any High Street in any city or town will have been a victim to mindless vandalism at some point, and unfortunately a number of businesses are damaged every year due to this. By adding security equipment like alarms and cameras to your business you can better protect yourself against these types of situations.

Windows, Doors and Shutters

When it comes to adding security to your hotel, bar or restaurant, one of the best ways to protect yourself against intruders and criminal damage is to install double glazed windows and heavy duty doors to the front and back of your premises. There are also a number of security shutters and grilles available that are made from steel and aluminium and are superb at keeping out intruders and protecting you from criminal damage. These shutters come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and can be designed to fit any specifications so that your business can still have visibility as well as safety and security.

Adding these to your property will better protect you and make an intruders life a lot more difficult if they do decide to target your business. During the UK riots, a number of bars, restaurants and retail stores were targeted and looted, and a number of them did not have adequate quality windows and doors. Although this is an extreme case, it highlights the importance of having the best security you can afford, as you never know when it will be needed.

Keep Things Locked Away

Every hospitality business will have expensive and attractive items on site, so it is very important that these items are kept out of the eye of potential intruders when you are closed. If your hospitality business has a bar on site, one of the best ways to protect your liquor is to install a wooden shutter system. This will keep your bottles secure behind a heavy wooden panel, out of sight from potential intruders. It is also very important that all kitchen appliances are kept locked at the end of every working day.

Daley works with All in One and enjoys writing about security measures that homes and businesses can take to protect themselves against every kind of security problem.

Source: http://fordifferent.com/security-tips-for-your-hospitality-business

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Lifeguard's ordeal is parable about outsourcing ? Business ...

By now you?ve probably heard the story of the young Florida lifeguard, Tomas Lopez, who was fired earlier this month because he left his station unmanned to help with a rescue in an unguarded section of the beach, in violation of his company?s standard operating procedures.

Over the Fourth of July holiday, this story played out in the national media as a parable about the foolish rigidity of business managers. Lopez, along with six other guards who were fired or quit as part of the imbroglio, were all offered their jobs back by an apologetic owner of the lifeguard management firm (they declined). And last week, Lopez was awarded the key to the city by Hallandale Beach?s elected leaders who vowed to not renew the contract with Jeff Ellis Management, the lifeguard firm that had brought such unwelcome attention.

From another angle, this is also a parable about outsourcing and how it is reshaping large swaths of the economy.

Jeff Ellis, it turns out, is something of a pioneer in the lifeguard business. He started out as a consultant to water parks, clubs and municipalities, training lifeguards and performing annual audits of equipment and procedures that include simulated drownings to test the guards and the equipment. Today that business has nearly 700 clients in 50 states and 14 countries. Insurers have been known to give discounts on liability policies to operators who use Ellis?s services.

About a decade ago, Ellis moved to extend his franchise by offering to hire, train and manage lifeguards for water parks, municipalities and pool owners that wanted to outsource that function. One of his first customers was Hallandale, which had up to that time put beach protection operations under its fire department. In the first year, Ellis says, his company cut the city?s annual $700,000 tab for lifeguards in half. In the nine years since, Ellis says there have been no drownings and his contract has been routinely renewed.

Hallandale is like many public and private enterprises that decided to outsource to contractors work that is not part of their core missions or competencies.

Because they are generally free from union contracts and the unwritten norms of pay equality that exist within any enterprise, contractors are able to pay lower wages and benefits ? in many cases, a lot lower. That was certainly the case with Ellis and the Hallandale lifeguards.

The second big advantage that outsourcing firms enjoy is the economies of scale. A firm that specializes in one function and does a lot of it can generally do it at a lower cost simply by spreading fixed costs over a much larger base of business.

Simply by having more experience, a specialty contractor is also more likely to hit upon the most efficient and effective ways of doing things and can quickly adopt those improvements throughout its operations. Unlike in-house operations, outside contractors are also subject to the discipline of competition when contracts are up for renewal.

There is, however, an important trade-off that is made by outsourcing that contractors reflexively deny but is inherent in any firm that derives its competitive advantage from having carefully constructed systems for doing just about everything.

It is these systems ? the rules, the procedures, in effect the operational software ? that allow companies to take relatively low-skilled, low-paid workers with relatively little experience and have them do tasks that were once done by people with higher skills, higher pay and more experience. And it is the very nature of these systems that workers are discouraged, if not prohibited, from exercising their own discretion. Their only job is to follow rules, stick to the script and leverage the experience and expertise that are embedded in the system.

That?s why the person in the airline call center in Bangalore can?t do what is necessary to help you catch your honeymoon cruise after your flight has been canceled because a co-pilot failed to show up on time. Her computer simply won?t allow her.

It?s why the person from the credit card company can?t speak to you about your account until you put the cardholder ? your recently deceased husband ? on the line to give the authorization.

It?s why your company cafeteria won?t serve an Ethiopian option even if half the staff is Ethiopian.

It?s why the security guard won?t let you into the building you?ve worked in for 25 years because your identification card has expired ? not even to go to the security office to renew your card.

It?s why, when you call the utility company to tell them your service is down for the third time that week, the person at the call center is completely uninterested in what you learned from the last two repairmen, assuring you that somebody will be out to check the problem and asking if there is anything else he can do for you today.

It?s why, when you call the 800 number for tech services while working at home over the weekend on a crucial project, they tell you they don?t support the application you are using and can?t find somebody who does.

And, yes, it?s why Tomas Lopez was initially fired by a supervisor who had ordered him to remain at his post until another guard arrived before responding to calls for help from a distant, unpatrolled part of the beach. (As it turned out, by the time Lopez arrived, the rescue had largely been made by another swimmer with a boogie board).

The reason these various systems can deliver reliable service at lower cost most of the time is precisely because front-line workers are willing and able to act like cogs in a machine. So when two of Lopez?s colleagues later told supervisors they would have done the same thing, they were fired as well.

If you want discretion and judgment, if you want workers who really understand and relate to customers, if you want the flexibility necessary to respond to individual needs or unforeseen circumstances, then you can go back to paying twice as much to have your own, longtime employees doing the work. That?s the outsourcing trade-off. It may be a good trade-off ? most of the time I suspect it is. But it is an unavoidable trade-off, no matter how good the contractors or their systems.

You can see how this process bifurcates labor markets and increases income inequality. At the low end are the low-cost expendable cogs. At the high end are those whose experience and intelligence and training allow them to demand very good salaries for designing, creating and managing these systems. There?s not much in between ? or even much of a ladder for getting from one to the other.

The manufacturing sector has already gone through this process, and most of the work that can be outsourced has been. Now a new phase is beginning. It turns out that if jobs are so routinized that they can be done by someone without deep skills and experience, then those jobs are also ripe for being done by robots or computer-run production processes. And that makes it possible to bring work back in house, or at least closer to home, by a fewer number of experienced workers who are higher-skilled and higher-paid. The revival of the U.S. steel and auto industry is predicated on this model, and I think we could eventually see it in parts of high tech and even consumer goods. In the service sector, the drivers will be the Internet, user-friendly interfaces and intelligent, interactive software.

Of course, there will always be work that can?t be easily automated or upgraded, and being a lifeguard may be one of those. But Tomas Lopez probably made the right decision to spend the rest of the summer focused on his studies at nearby Broward College. For all its faults, that?s still the best way to ensure that he won?t end up as a discretion-less cog in a low-wage machine.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/07/16/business/lifeguards-ordeal-is-parable-about-outsourcing/

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Writers International Network Zimbabwe: WIN Newsletter, Issue No 53


I welcome you in the name of writing. We are every month moving from one writers' event to another and it is always good to be with others who share the same interest. Check the dates and places and make sure you are there. The value of meeting other writers lies in the information exchanged, networks created and opportunities shared. We welcome Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya who will be doing our Ndebele column Khasibhaleni. Please enjoy!
?

WRITERS URGED TO DO THINGS THAT BUY? TIME TO WRITE

By Beaven Tapureta

Shimmer Chinodya (above) and Chiedza Musengezi (below) were the main presenters at the ZWA Writers' Meeting on July 7, 2012

Chiedza Musengezi



Renowned and prolific novelist, poet, textbook and script writer Shimmer Chinodya has urged fellow writers to engage in writing activities that buy them time to write.

Speaking last week at a writers? meeting held at the British Council, Chinodya said he would not have made it had he concentrated on fiction only.

The award winning author stressed the importance of educational writing as another route to a successful writing life because it has power to shape the minds of students across the world.

Chinodya said textbook writing, which demands discipline and which he has successfully tackled over the past years, has helped him connect non-fiction and fiction and it paid off.

?I enjoy doing this. I feel I am educating millions of children,? he said.

Chinodya?s textbooks such as the Step Ahead: New Secondary School English Course English series in which he said he employs a literature-based approach are being studied by thousands of students across the SADC region.

The textbooks have been in schools since 1992.

?When you write textbooks, you are still a teacher, the supreme teacher and this is how I feel today,? the veteran educationist said.

Narrating how he became a writer, he said he was already writing poems when he was in Grade Five although he knew he was going to be a teacher and writer.

Chinodya said writing, during his teenage years, was like an act of self-empowerment or making up for a certain inferiority complex.

?I was small, skinny and shy,? he said.

In 1971, while doing Form One, he published his first work. From then onwards, he said he was drawn towards teaching although he was artistic.

The Two Tone magazine which published poetry by young writers at the then University of Rhodesia introduced him and other writers such as Dambudzo Marechera, Kizito Muchemwa and Stanley Nyamfukudza to the world of literature which he pursued through and through.

And still, the teacher inside him pushed him to take up a post-graduate teaching course.

Chinodya, who to date has written about 40 textbooks, said it is only these days that people look down upon the teaching profession.

?During our days we used to read around the world and this strengthened our literary background,? said Chinodya who however acknowledged that textbook writing in his time was easy as compared to today as there is now educational ideology has bee wiped away by turmoil in the last few years.

A clear educational ideology is important in every country, said Chinodya, as it guides textbook writers in understanding the culture and vision of the country they are writing for.

Chinodya said yes he has been hurt and disappointed but professionally he has led a happy life. No doubt this happy life has been an inspiration to other writers in Zimbabwe as well. He challenged writers to give themselves totally to writing.

Asked by fellow writer Aaron Chiundura Moyo how he has coped with drinking as a writer, Chinodya said now it?s better and he?s sobering up.

?At fifty, I am sobering up. But there?s a natural drunkenness in me. I love people, I love to talk,? he said.

Another well known writer and editor, Chiedza Musengezi, concurred with Chinodya on the need for writers to explore different kinds of writing.

?Explore and expand writing skills to cover several things such as places. Give ordinary things some value through writing,? she said.

Musengezi told writers that there are lots of writing genres apart from poems and stories, such as nature writing which involves writing about places.

?If we do not recognize places in our country no one will do it for us. Nature writing links us to our land. This genre is gaining importance in Europe,? said Musengezi.

As a woman writer, she said she is driven by the need to restore women?s voices in the public spheres.

She said for women to be taken seriously, they have to be discussed at the highest level and this is what she wants women voices to be because their experiences contribute to the nation?s history.

Musengezi, whose has published poems in Shona and stories in English, has been an editor for a long time and she said editing, which entails choosing a manuscript and editing it, is a huge responsibility and it is not a one-man show.

She said an editor bridges the gap when crucial texts are absent and this, she said, means that an editor has to ?create? a manuscript.

A founding member of Zimbabwe Women Writers, Musengezi showed writers publications which she co-edited such as Women Writing Africa The Southern Region (Feminist Press, New York, 2003), a project which dug up African female voices which had lain long in the archives dating back to 1904. 'A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe' (2003), another book she co-edited and published by Weaver Press, exposed experiences of women in the prisons of Zimbabwe. Musengezi also co-edited Women of Resilience: The Voices of Women Ex-Combatants (Zimbabwe Women Writers, Harare, 2000).

She also worked for the now defunct Baobab Books as editorial manager. Baobab Books published children's and young adults' literature and school textbooks.

In as much as local writing has developed over the years, she however condemned the unavailability of textbooks at tertiary level written by Zimbabweans.

?We must develop our own material for our students,? she said.

To refresh, writers took a short break of poetry with David Mungoshi rendering his favourite called An Old Song which he said is originally in Hebrew. Ndebele writer and poet Jerry Zondo did a closing poem that suited the purpose of the meeting called ?Vabhali?.

The meeting was the fourth of ZWA?s interactive bimonthly meetings which it is organizing under a common theme ?How I create?. The meetings are a platform for different artists to discuss how their creative processes work. However, the July 7 meeting was held under the topic ?Balancing Creative Writing and Textbook Writing? as it focused on writers who double as fiction and non-fiction authors.

ZWA Board Chair, Musaemura Zimunya, said apart from these meetings, his association is preparing for the Bulawayo and Mutare outreaches. ZWA?s Gweru outreach held few months ago went very well.

On another note, Zimunya encouraged writers to attend this year?s ZIBF Writers Workshop which will be held under the topic ?Beyond the Script?, saying this is an occasion for writers to engage publishers, editors, book reviewers, for they influence the way writers? products are received by the public.

IT IS THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN
ZIBF 2012

MAIN? BOOK FAIR? 2012

THEME : ?African Literature In The Global & Digital Era?

ZIBFA invites all interested parties to participate in the special six-day event as follows:

?EXHIBITION? Venue: Harare Gardens, Julius Nyerere Way

ADMISSION FREE!!! to the Exhibition

Dates: 01 August 2012: Open to Traders Only

02 August ? 04 August 2012: Open to Students and The Public

Time: 1000 ? 1700hrs

?INDABA CONFERENCE? Venue:? Crowne Plaza Hotel : By Registration

Day 1: ?30 July 2012? 0815 - 1700hrs

?? African Literature and Criticism?????????.???????..

?? African Literature and Digitisation..???????????????..

Day 2: ?31 July 2012? 0830 - 1700hrs

?? Identity and Literature In Africa.?????????............................... ?? Copyright, Access To Books and Piracy In Africa??................................

?? The Threat of Globalisation To African Culture and Languages..???.

?Young Persons Indaba?!! ?Creativity In The Digital Era

Date: ?01 August 2012 By Registration

0830 - 1630hrs at Crowne Plaza Hotel

?Writers Workshop?!! Beyond the Script: The Writer, The Publisher and the Critics

Date: ?04 August 2012?

By Invitation

If you wish to participate please register for the workshops by 19 July to avoid???????? disappointment!!

LIVE LITERATURE, MEET THE AUTHOR & CHILDREN?S READING TENT

1000 - 1600hrs 02 August ? 04 August 2012 ADMISSION FREE!!!

IT?S SOMETHING WORTH YOUR WHILE!? DON?T MISS OUT!

For further details contact us at ZIBFA on: 04 702104, 704112, 702108, 702129


SCRIPTWRITING: PART ONE

Just like molding pottery or carving a stone, scriptwriting is so much fun because you get to create a world of your own and add flesh to your own words. It involves hard work because you have to research on the subject matter you would have picked and it also requires your own thinking which reminds me that ?unless you say something of your own, you are not an artist!?. Basically, there are two types of scriptwriting, that is, one for the stage and another for the camera however, in this issue I will just look at the basics in scriptwriting.

Firstly, a script writer does not deal with a storyline or characters, but handles conflict. It can be defined as the fundamental struggle or imbalances involving ideologies, actions, personalities to mention but a few. Without conflict a story operates without structure and characters exist without purpose and dialogue is spoken without effect. So conflict addresses the ?what? of the story. For example, a writer must ask him/herself what the characters are fighting over in order to engage in story exploration. Thus conflict is very vital.

Characters are the people that live in the world of the story and they happen to be your creations. Although they are your own creations, they have to be realistic. A person?s character is made up of the three-dimensionality, that is, the physical, psychological and sociological attributes. These three affect and influence each other in such a way that a person?s character is made up. Hence in your creations these are some of the things that should be included.

It should be pointed out that the driving force in any given work or fiction is the dark shades which the script contains. These dark shades resemble the underlying story points that any given script works to reveal truth to an audience. Therefore, the art of writing is possessed within the art of withholding information. A writer must be able to manage the information that they give out in order to sustain the interests within the audience.

Moreover, the plot of the story is also vital in scriptwriting. The plot of the story is basically the arrangement of action designed to tell a story. A good plot is filled with dozens of actions, performed by characters with needs and wants and this creates the ?cause and effect? as the other characters will create further actions in their endeavors to overcome obstacles or create obstacles.

Dialogue is also crucial because this is what gets the characters going. So neat dialogue where characters wait for each other to finish speaking and exhaust a certain topic before moving to another is a no-no because in reality that is not what happens. Language also contains the rules of thinking so you have to be very cautious about your language/diction. Moreso, setting should not be forgotten as this prepares the mood for the action so one has to bear in mind the place of action.

Let?s meet in the next issue for the second part of this discussion. Should you have comments or contributions, do not hesitate to send them.

THE REGULAR WRITER

With

Tinashe ?Mutumwapavi? Muchuri

Exclusive Interview with Botswana's Leshie Lovesong

LESEGO NSWAHU NCHUNGA

aka ?LESHIE LOVESONG?

Lesego Nchunga (LN) is a 23 year old Motswana poet, born and raised in the city of Gaborone, but her clan is from Kavimba, a village in the Northern District of Chobe. Performance art has always been her passion, especially spoken word poetry. Below is an exclusive interview she had with The Regular Writer (TM).

TM:???? In 2007 you were regarded as the youngest talented poet to watch out for in the near future in Botswana, do you think you have kept that momentum?

LNN: ? I am no longer the ?youngest poet?. However I believe that my progress in the way I write and perform my poetry is reason enough to keep your eye on me. It is safe to say I have grown, and change comes daily. The most exciting thing about being a growing artist, and perhaps generally is the liberty or freedom to try out new things as often as possible.

TM: ??? ?In 2010, you took part in the SADC Poetry Festival, do you think these platforms are beneficial?

LNN:?? The SADC Poetry Festival introduced me to people within the region who have made their passion a movement. People who do not just perform, or create and display their artwork, but most who make a livelihood out of it. I was encouraged to believe that there is life in the art after all. In fact, the greatest gift I got from the Festival was the eye opener that collaborations in art don?t necessarily have to be limited to the groups from which the art forms fare. That a form of vocal art can be paired with a form of visual art to produce an extraordinary artful fusion was an experience I wish to share with other artists. It?s like a meeting of two senses. What you hear reflecting what you see!!!

TM: ??? What's the latest that has happened to you afetr the SADC Poetry Festival that you want to share with reader?

LNN:?? Since 2010, besides corporate performances, I have traveled to Luanda,? Angola and Rundu, Namibia, primarily as an actress, but I got the opportunity to enhance the scripts from which we were acting by incorporating poetry in them. In both places, I performed the poetry accompanied by theatrics enacted by other performances. I have since explored the magnificence of collaboration of different art forms.

TM:???? Have you produced anything so far like an album?

LNN:?? I have not yet produced any albums on my own. I have however taken part in production of two audio anthologies called Dreaming Is A Gift For Me and Awakening. The first is a non-musical poetry anthology produced under SAUTI Arts and Performance Management, and it showcases twelve Batswana poets. The latter is a collection of six feel good poems, which can also be called ?Affirmations?, the main idea being to heighten the perceptions we have of ourselves and our actions daily, in an effort to send out positivity, under the themes of Relationships, Health, Wealth, and others.

TM:???? How is poetry appreciated in Botswana?

LNN:?? The appreciation for poetry is growing and changing in Botswana. Initially, it was more for the individual art lovers. However with the emergence of more poetry groups around, organizations have been forced to pay attention and this has elevated the poetry industry to a level, almost close to that of the music industry.

TM:???? What do you think makes you different from other poets?

LNN: ? We all have very different stories to tell. And even where our stories overlap, the way we tell them are different. I am an abstract speaker, in my narrations. Others are storytellers. You will know my performance by not just my voice, but my use of grammar, intonation and phrasing, which is different from most other poets in Botswana. Also, and most distinctly, you will very rarely see me on stage without hearing me heavily accessorize my poetry with singing. I am both a singer, and poet, and I feel together, the combination sets me apart.

TM:???????????????? What do you think about poetry in Botswana and Africa as the whole?

LNN:?? I think there is a continued uprising in poetry as an art form. We are becoming aggressive in taking our stage. That will definitely immortalize poetry. We are distinguishing ourselves from other forms of performance arts. Eventually, more poets will be able to live off the craft.

TM:???? Who is your inspiration?

LNN:?? Internationally, I love the work of Sarah Kay. The complaint people usually have about poetry is that it sounds complicated, and it?s not easy enough to understand. Her work is simple, humourous and tells stories which are fun. She is young, and she speaks of things close to her heart. For that reason, I am drawn to her. Also, I love Ezekiel from the PFCM group! His work is intense and challenging, spiritually. Locally, Mandisa Mabuthoe?s work reminds me of Laura Beuke?s book Zoo City. Abstract work pushes the mental boundaries and inclines you to think out of the box! In fact to throw the box away! The work of TJ Dema also appeals to me. She is a story teller, and she has carved out a path for not only herself but many others who will come after her. The young poets in the industry in Botswana are also inspiring. Their tireless pursuit of ?the word? even if it means sitting out in the rain on an Tuesday evening, at a local caf?, just so they hear what the mic has for them is moving, to say the least.

Outside the poetry industry, I read a lot of African literature, which also plays a big part in my artwork. The works of Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie, Kopano Matlwa, Wame Molefhe, and Pentina Gappah are some of those which have inspired my work in many ways.

TM:???? What issues do you discuss in your poetry?

LNN:?? For the longest time, I did what I call entertainment poetry. I wasn?t really addressing any issues directly or intentionally. Occasionally, I would write about social ills and degradation or of women in society. Recently however, I encountered nature as a person, and she stole my heart. I was struck by the realization that as human beings, we have become so consumed in ourselves, and bettering our own interests, that we ignore our surroundings, and the other species which exists around us, in so far as it is convenient for us. For as long as we do this, our lives will continue to depreciate in substance and in value. If we don?t respect nature and the other beings which co-exist with us on earth, they too will rebel against us. There?s enough space for each of us to be, without further deteriorating the little that is left. Being selfish is what has ended us up with a tattered ozone layer, and a handful of rhinos left. How much more do we honestly want to destroy until we finally wake up to the reality that what is important is a compromise, and quite frankly, for too long, humans have been taking, taking, taking and not giving back a fraction of what we have taken. So this has become a prominent theme in my poetry lately. The appreciation of other beings.

TM:???? Does your family appreciate your performing career?

LNN:?? My family is VERY supportive of my career as a performer. Although I am a lawyer by profession, it is obvious that art is my first love. My parents have never discouraged me from anything performance art related. Their guidance has always been in the direction of my treasures. I was raised to harness, hone and explore my talents, especially in the arts. In fact, if you ask my mother, she will tell you that she believes I should have already published my first book by now. She knew I was an artist before even I did. So it is easier for me to be an artist with their support.

?

TM:???? What else would you want to tell the readers and all your followers out there??
LNN:?? I would like everyone to keep the art alive. It?s up to each of us support this industry. Your support is truly meaningful; whether it is buying a CD instead of writing it, funding, or even being an audience member and admirer, you make the difference. Eventually, with our combined efforts, we will make the performance industry a prominent industry.

As far as Leshie Lovesong is concerned, before the lapse of 18months, I will certainly deliver an offering. Thank you very much for the encouragement and keep believing in us poets.

KHASIBHALENI

Umhlangano Wababhali

Zazimhlaka? 7 Ntulikazi 2012 mhla ababhali bebuthene? emahofisini eBritish Council eHarare. Lo wawungumhlangano wababhali abangamalunga eZimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) ababhala besesigodlweni eHarare. Inhloso yalomhlangano wawuyikulinganisa ukubhalwa kwezi ndatshana lokubhala amabhuku asetshenziswa ngabantwana bezikolo. Owayephethe lumhlangano nguTshalimana, umphathintambo uMusa B Zimunya wase University yeZimbabwe. Ngemva kokwethula abalobi wanika owayezakhokhela lumhlangano uMemory Chirere owathi ngemva kokwethula lokuhlonipha abahlonitshwa wanikeza isikhathi kumlobi olodumo uMnumzana Shimmer Chinodya. Umnuzana Chinodya awakhuthaza kakhulu abalobi ukubana ekubhaleni kwabo bananzelele ukuthi babhalela ukufundisa uzulu kanye labasakhulayo konke okukhangelelwa kuqakathekile empilweni yomuntu. Wakhumbuza njalo ababhali ukuqakatheka kwamabhuku abawabhalayo. Umbalisi endlini yokufundela usebenzisa ingwalo? kanye labafundisa emakolitshini kanye lemaUniversity basebenzisa njalo ingwalo ezibhalwe ngumlobi. Wathi ekubhaleni kwethu singakhohlwa njalo ezamasiko lomdabuko kanye lembali yaleyondawo oyikhethileyo. Walaya ababhali ukubana babhale izindaba ezihambelana lokuhlala kanye lomumo waleyondawo ukuze abafundayo bebone ukuphila kwendawo zabo. Wakhuthaza abalobi ukuba babale kakhulu ingwalo zabalobi abazingcitshi ukuze sifinyelele ekubhaleni kwethu. Kulabo abalobi abafisa ukubhala ingwalo zesikolo basebenzise kakhulu imidlalo,imifanekiso yabopopayi abatshela indaba ezihlekisayo ukuze bakhuthaze obalayo. Wakhuthaza abalobi? ukubhala indaba ezisegudwini, ezaleso sikhathi ukuze? singatshiyani lesikhathi. Yena lo umlobi uShimmer Chinodya useleminyaka engamatshumi amane ebhala ingwalo zakhe inengi lazo eseli setshenziswa ezikolo ekuhlungweni kolimi lwesingisi(Literature). Usebhale njalo ingwalo ezingamaytshumi amane ezisetshenziswa ezikolweni emazweni eSADC wonke jikelele. Wagcizelela kakhulu ukubana okuqakathekileyo njalo okumele? sikunanzelele njengabalobi yikubana kumele sibhale indaba esizaziyo. Sibhale ngempilo esiyaziyo singasebenzisi ukunakana kakhulu. Emva kwenkuthazo yakhe waqhubela isikhathi kuNkosikazi Chiedza Musengezi owasikhumbuza njalo ukubana? ukuze ubone okukatshana kumele ume emahlombe womuntu omude. Wathi yena kumele sifunde ingwalo? njalo sidinge ulwazi kulabo abakwaziyo asebelesikhathi bewenza njalo bewazi lomsebenzi. Watshengisa ukukhathazeka kakhulu ngempilo yabomama endaweni ezitshiyeneyo. Wathi njengabalobi kumele sikhiphe amazwi kanye lezifiso zabesifazana. Wabalisa? ngokukhohlakala kwabo mama emajele,abahlala emaHositela singalibali njalo ngenhlupho zalabo abasemabhizimisini. Wathi ababhali kumele njalo bebhale ngempilo yabomama labo bonke abesifazana jikelele. Wathi kumele siphakamisane ababazayo,ababumbayo sizame ukubaphakamisa? ngokubhala ngimisebenzi yabo.

Lolu daba luyethulwe ngu Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya laye ongumlobi wamabhuku lendatshana kanye lenkondlo ngolimi lwesindebele lesingisi. Elilunga njalo le Zimbabwe Writers Association.

(Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya was born in 1977 at St Joseph?s Mission Hospital in Matobo, where she did her primary education. She did her secondary education at Minda Mission also in Maphisa. She is currently a businesswoman based in Harare and a founder of a community project called?? Ezweni Garden Produce which aims at empowering rural women in her community. She has written a poetry anthology? ?Silent? Drumbeat From? Matojeni?, two novels ?Beyond The? Barrel Of A? Gun? and? ?To Depth Unknown? ,which are in the process of? publication. She is currently writing an anthology of short stories titled ?The Fifty Rand Note And Other Stories?, and a Ndebele novel titled ?Unyawo Lwejuba Lami?. This piece of poetry is extracted from her Ndebele poetry anthology ?Ingungu? yeMatojeni?, which is yet to be published.)

NGATINYOREI

Na Clever S Kavenga

Rwendo Rwangu Mukunyora Shona

Kana wafunga zvokunyora rwendo rwunotoda kusunga dzichisimba nokuti vazhinji vanongogumira munzira. Handiti rwendo rwemunyori unototi wasvika wavemo kana zvinyorwa zvadhindwa mumabhuku kana mumapepanhau kana ma ?magazine?. Zvino kana uri munyori anonyora ne Shona zvinotoda kutowana. Chokutanga vazhinji vakanzwa kuti uri munyori vanongofunga kuti unoyora neChirungu sezvo Chirungu chiricho chinonyanyotariswa nevakawanda nevanoda kana kuti vane chipo chekunyora. Neniwo wacho ndakatanga nekunyorawo nechirungu mazuva angu ndiri pachikoro. Idzi inhetembo dzakabudiswa neParade Magazine dzakaita sa No Peace, No Hope, na Tell Me My Dear Africa. Kwaive kufamba murwendo rwangu rwekunyora. Nhetembo dzeChishona ndaive nadzo asi hapana kwekudziendesa kwandaiziva. Ma ?magazine? ose aiburitswa panguva iyi akaita se Moto, Parade ne Horizon aingoburitsa zvinyorwa zvavo neChirungu.

Pandakazoonana navamwe vanyori tichipanana mazano ndipowo pakatanga kuona zvinyorwa zvangu zveShona mukana. Zvinyorwa zvangu zvakazoonekwawo zvichibuda muTsotso, ka magazine kaiburitsa zvinyorwa zvevachiri kusimukira. VaIgnatius Mabasa, anova munyori mukuru nhasi, vakaonawo zvinyorwa zvangu vakazondipawo mukana wokuti ndinyorewo mu ?column? yavo mupepa reKwayedza yainzi, ?Tamba mwana Tamba?. Zvinyorwa zvangu zvakatanga kudzika midzi mumutauro we Chishona. Hongu ndaibhadharwa asi mari handiyo yakandikwezva kuti ndive Munyori. Chakatanga chipo icho ndinogara ndichipa kutenda kunamai vangu vakashaya. Takakura vachititaurira ngano munguva apo vaive vapedza kupupura. Izvi zvakapa kuti ndive noudaka hwokunyora zvinyorwa zvangu.

Hongu zvinyorwa zvangu zvaive zvoburitswawo muma magazine asi ndaive ndisati ndasvika. Shungu dzaive dzekuti ndiburitsewo zvinyorwa zvangu mumabhuku. Ma Publishing Houses aitoita sevanhu vemunhu mumwe. Pamwe vaidzorera zvinyorwa vachiti zvinoda kugadzirwa kana kuti zvinyorwa zvakanaka chose asi havana hurongwa hwekuburitsa mabhuku ezvinyorwa zvengano kana nhetembo mukati memakore anotevera. Apa ndaitomboti zvekunyora izvi regai ndisiyane navo. Asi hazvaitora mazuva ndaierekana ndabatazve zvinyoreso nemapepa. Chinhu chaiitika kuti ndirambe ndichinyora kusangana kwandaigaroita nevamwewo vanyori tichikurudzirana. Hongu panoitwa chiro pose panoda vanookera nokuti ndiwo vanopa manyukunyuku kune vanenge vari mudariro.

Mugore ra1997 ndakazoitawo mhanza nhetembo dzangu pfumbamwe dzikasarudzwawo kupinda mubhuku rinonzi ?Ngoma Yokwedu? iro rakatsikiswa nemusangano wevanyori vachirikusimukira wainzi BWAZ. Apa kana neniwo ndakabva ndaziva kuti murwendo rwangu rwokunyora ndavakusvika. Zvino watombova nezvinyorwa zvakaburitswa mubhuku unenge wofunga kuti nezvinyorwa zvauchazonyora inenge yangove nyore. Zvino munyaya dzokunyora hazvidaro. Apa ndipo unosangana nezvigutswa zvakatiwandei munzira, uchigumburwa nematombo zvakanyanya. Vamwe vanoziva vanoti kana uchida kuva munyori verengawo mabasa anonyorwa nevamwewo vanyori. Ndakazosangana nerimwe bhuku renyaya dzevana vadiki. Ndakafarira musoro wenyaya yacho ndokutenga bhuru iri. Ndakazoonawo kuti vakaburitsa bhuku iri vaive vatsva ndikati neniwo regai ndiedzewo mhanza. Semunhu aive nengano dzevechidiki dzakati wandei ndakadziunganidza ndokutumira kukambani yemabhuku iyi. Nekufamba kwenguva vakazondiudza kuti vaive vafarira imwe yengano dzandaive ndatumira. Mashiripiti Edehwe raRungano rakazova bhuku rakaburitswa mugore ra2007. Muna 2008 bhuku iri rakasarudzwa kuva rimwe raikwikwidza mumakwikwi e NAMA (National Arts Merit Awards). Mugore iri zvakare rakazosarudzwazve kuva ndiro ?The Best Childrens? Book? neve Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association.

Semunhu aingogara achinyora zvinyorwa nguva nenguva ndakazoendawo kune rimwe ramapepa anobuda muguta reMutare. Pandakazoudza Editor wacho kuti ndirikutsvagawo basa rokuva ?columnist? mupepa ravo akati ndimupe zvinyorwa zvacho. Paakazviona zviri zveChishona akandidzora achiti aifunga kuti zvaive zveChirungu. Mukuru uyu akati kare vaimbova nepeji raive rakamirira zvinyorwa zveShona asi vakaribvisa nokuti hapana vanyori vaifarira kunyora neShona.

Ndavakubuda muhofisi umu imwe pfungwa yakandishanyira ndokudzokazve kuna Editor vaye ndichitambidza mapepa aye aive netwunyaya twangu. Ndakati vanoverenga zvavo vari kumba kwavo. Vakaatambira vachibvuma chikumbiro changu . Mushure memazuva mashomanana vakazondifonera vachiti vaida kundiona. Ndakaendako ndokusvikogamuchirwa nemashoko aifadza ekuti ndaive ndawana mukana wokuva ?columnist? wavo; ?peji riya reChishona rakabva radzokazve? mupepa nhau iri. Muna 2010 column iyoyi yakazosarudzwazve kupinda muma NAMA. Gore rinotevera yakava inodomwazve pama ?special mention e NAMA? zvakare.

Urwu rwendo harusati rwapera. Ndinoziva kuti zviripo zvizhinji zvandinofanira kunyora.



ZWA BULAWAYO BOUND

The Zimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) is having an outreach meeting in Bulawayo on Saturday 21July, 2012 at the Bulawayo Art Gallery at 09:00 - 12:00. Leaders of writers associations and individual writers who may or may not necessarily belong to literary associations around Bulawayo are all invited to this get-together.

Our outreach would take the shape of introductions of associations and individual writers,?followed by an open exchange of problems, challenges, ideas etc as the basis of consultation. On our part, we shall introduce the idea of ZWA and its constitution to Bulawayo and what we have managed to achieve thus far and how beneficial it has been to writers. In other words, it is really an open ended occasion.
?
The Zimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) is the newest writers Organization whose formation started in July 2010 leading to the AGM of June 4, 2011. Zimbabwean writers have taken the initiative to coordinate themselves to form an organisation to represent them and defend their interests. ZWA was registered with the National Arts Council in January 2011. The birth of ZWA was a culmination of self initiated efforts and activities taken by Zimbabwean writers of diverse backgrounds.

Our contact person in Bulawayo is Raisedon Baya.

Inserted by Musaemura Zimunya
Chair, Executive Committee, The Zimbabwe Writers Association

MEMBERS: M B Zimunya(Chair) E Hwede(Deputy Chair) T Muchuri(Secretary)
B Sithole(Treasuer) K Ratsauka(Resource Mobilizer) D Mashava(Ordinary
Member) M Chirere(Ordinary Member)

POETRY

Ngilithole phi?

By Jerry Zondo

Ngibhudule emadirowini, kalikho.

Ngizame phezulu kwewadirophu, kalikho.

Angilidobhi emgwaqweni

Angiliholi emsebenzini

Angikaboni lapho lidindwa khona.

Angikamuzwa olibumbayo.

Kakho ongiphayo loba sengicela ngelizwi lofayo.

Yonke into isithengiswa ngalo.

Ngithenge kanjani ngingelalo?

Umntwana ufuna izitshubo.

Imilomo yezingane zami idabukile ngendlala.

Izisu zabantwabami zibuze njalo nje ukuba

Imiphimbo seyaqunya yini kungasadluli ukudla.

Angilalo idola.

Bengizalithola nini ngaphi nanku bengiyivalelwe

Yonke indledlana izolo yokulithola.

Bengijeziswa kuthiwe akumelanga ngibe lalo.

Bengiyazi lemithetho engiyephulayo ngalo.

Ibe iminengi ingibopha uma ngike ngalinuka nje.

Namuhla kumele ngithenge ngalo.

Ngolithatha phi?

Angilalo.

Angilalo idola.

Ungangibuzi ngeranti,

Ungangibuzi ngephawundi sitelingi,

Ungengibuzi ngeyeni,

Ungangibuzi ngepula,

Ungangibuzi nguyuro,

Ungangibuzi ngedutshimaki,

Ungangibuzi nge-esikudo,

Kumbe yisitulita, kumbe yidilitshibi, kumbe lilongeni,

Angilalo, angilayo, angilawo, angilakho, angilaso, angila?

Ngilithole phi!

KEEP WRITING! KEEP WRITING! KEEP WRITING!


Source: http://win-zimbabwe.blogspot.com/2012/07/win-newsletter-issue-no-53.html

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