Iranian rapper faces death threats and fatwa for blasphemous song

An Iranian rapper has become "the Salman Rushdie of music" after clerics in the Islamic republic issued fatwas calling him an apostate, which is considered punishable by death under the countrys sharia law.

Shahin Najafi, a Germany-based Iranian singer, recently released a song with references to Ali al-Hadi al-Naqi, the tenth of the 12 Shia Muslim Imams, a religious figure highly respected by millions in Iran.

The controversial clip posted on Youtube, watched by hundreds of thousands online, has divided opinions in the country with many finding it offensive and insulting to their beliefs and others defending the song, saying it broke taboos especially in regards to expressing views about religious personalities.

When asked for a religious ruling on the fate of Najafi and his "blasphemous music", clerics unanimously declared that such a person must be considered an apostate.

According to the semi-official Mehr news agency, Ayatollah Naser Makareme Shirazi, a pro-Iranian regime cleric based in the holy city of Qom with a great deal of influence among Muslims in the country, was the latest person to issue a fatwa in regards to Najafi.

"Any outrage against the infallible imams ... and obvious insult against them would make a Muslim an apostate," he said. Makareme Shirazi has in the past issued other controversial rulings, including those against women attending football matches, keeping pets and the Holocaust.

Najafis song, called Naqi, is a chronology of events in the past year. Najafi, 31, has rejected claims that he meant to insult peoples religious beliefs, though the song criticises Iranian society. Source: theguardian

Dominique Strauss-Kahn files $1m countersuit against New York maid

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is filing a $1m countersuit against the New York City hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

The disgraced French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund said in court papers filed Monday that Nafissatou Diallo made a "malicious and wanton false accusation" when she said he assaulted her at the Sofitel in New York a year ago.

The criminal case against Strauss-Kahn was dismissed after prosecutors lost faith in Diallos credibility. She then filed a civil lawsuit accusing him of assault.

A judge this month rejected Strauss-Kahns claim that he had diplomatic immunity.

Diallo says Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she arrived to clean his hotel suite. Strauss-Kahn has denied doing anything violent. Diallos lawyer calls the countersuit a "desperate ploy."

Strauss-Kahn may have to return to New York to face the civil case after the rejection of his immunity claim.

After the allegations were made, Strauss-Kahn was arrested, resigned from the IMF and spent several days behind bars and three months on house arrest before prosecutors dropped the criminal case, saying Diallo had lied about her background and changed her account of what she did after leaving Strauss-Kahns hotel room.

Diallos lawyers called Strauss-Kahns defamation claim an example of the "misogynistic attitude" of a man who now faces preliminary charges of being involved in a hotel prostitution ring in France. Source: theguardian

Kenya economic model needs rethink

As the leading economy in the region, Kenya is expected to be first in just about every matter. Its companies operate across the region and in some cases globally.

You may think the countrys economy is a good example of a capitalist state, one of a perfect competition. Think Again. Kenya has a lopsided economy and its actually an oligarchy.

While we hear ‘Customer is King’ and such adages, the reality is Kenya is a seller’s market and not a buyer’s market. The person or the entity selling the good or service has an unfair advantage as the customer does not really have a choice. Think Kenya Power- who are more concerned about re branding budgets and shiny logos than supplying uninterrupted power to the country.

Nowhere in the world does a single telecom operator have a 60 per cent plus market share. To add to that a premium package for satellite television costs 100 USD per month! The market forces are such that new entrants are sniffed out by a coterie of politicians and industrialists. It’s a sad state of affairs as it is the ordinary Kenyans who have to pay high costs for mediocre services and commodities.

In the name of competition, existing players further cement their positions at the top and almost have a tight grip over what services to offer and pricing levels. This reminds me of Henry Ford- who said ‘You can have any colour as long as its black’

Also about 300 old Kenyan men control most of the senior positions in these organisations and it is such a tight circle that no one can enter it with the aim of serving the consumer!

The banking industry works as a cartel. There are not many countries in the world where you get paid two per cent for the money you deposit and the same money is loaned back to you at 25-30pc.

Its such a simple business model that it hardly requires any number crunching, yet the banks complain about regulations harming their businesses, yet they buy Sh50,000 a -plate-dinner for MP’s to postpone interest rate reviews.

It is appalling that they restrict the money supply in the market, which otherwise would mean young companies can have access to cheap capital to build new services and products and compete against the existing players.

Economists who argue for high interest rates claiming cheap capital will lead to inflation are mistaken as that is valid in economies in different maturity cycles (much larger GDP’s and more mature debt instruments). The same banks were borrowing from ‘discount windows’ and then reselling at market rates leading to the volatility of the shilling and losses of billions to the exchequer and ordinary citizens.

The government needs to understand that unemployment can only be reduced if there are enough companies creating jobs as giant monopolies are not going to create enough jobs to employ the hundreds of thousands looking for jobs. It is the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) that will form the backbone of the country and create purchasing power.

Kenya is one of the very few countries in Africa where the service industry forms a high percent of GDP and by nipping entrepreneurs in the bud by not providing credit we are killing their ideas and ambitions. Source: Daily Nation

Do Black Women Really Want to Be Fat?

Are 4 out of 5 black women obese simply because they want to be? According to an opinion piece by novelist Alice Randall that recently appeared in the New York Times, the answer is yes. Randall says that in addition to fatty foods and poor eating habits, the music and poetry in black culture lionizes a larger body type, which can lead to obesity. She recounts tales of black women with black husbands who worry about their wives dieting and losing their voluptuous shape. Randall even discloses that her own mate is one such man. Nonetheless, she ends by vowing to buck the trends and become the “last fat black woman in my family.” She also calls upon every black woman to commit to getting under 200 lb.

While I certainly wish Randall luck in her quest and fully understand how difficult it is to lose weight, it is important to put her characterizations and generalizations about black women and obesity in a context larger than her own personal health journey. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly one-third of all Americans are currently obese, and another third are seriously overweight. This phenomenon cuts across race, class and gender. Obesity is not just an issue for black women, nor is it only found in black culture.
Source: TIME

Oil curses work in mysterious ways; just ask the Nigerians

Now that every deep hole in East Africa seems to yield oil or gas at the bottom, there is a growing smell of money in the air in the years ahead.

There are also those who say we could be consumed by the “oil curse,” where we all become lazy bums and resort to queuing to get easy petrodollars. At the level of politics, we could see a return to military coups in countries like Uganda and Ethiopia, which have had soldier dictators in the past. Or in those nations that didn’t, like Kenya and Tanzania, the generals could finally come knocking on the doors of State House.

However, recently I met a dry-eyed Nigerian journalist who told me that there is a “new” politics of oil, which is playing out in his country. His story started with his explanation of Boko Haram, the hardline Islamic militant group that has killed hundreds of people in Nigeria with terrorist bombs in the past year.

Boko Haram, he said, is a child of both the Nigerian political establishment, and its military elite. That puzzled me.

The military in alliance with some state governors, he explained, allow Boko Haram to operate, because then a larger slice of Nigeria’s budget — most of it from oil revenues — will be allocated to security (i.e. to combat Boko Haram), and the military elite will have more to cream off.

That is an old trick through which the securitariat extracts more money for itself all over the world, so nothing new there. However, it is the attitude of the Nigerian civilian government — an elected one — that is intriguing.

It knows that Boko Haram is partly channelled by the military, but it will not do anything drastic about it, because it is happy to pay more money to security that the officers will pocket, as it considers it a reasonable price for bribing the military not to re-enter politics. It is difficult for the media and parliament to question rising allocations to the military, or even to investigate closely whether the money is being well used, when Boko Haram bombs are killing people all over the place. Source: The East African