Most of the day I was busy translating Agbessi’s recent posts, but here is some miscellaneous stuff I recently discovered and found interesting: KONONO No1 – wow, these guys rock! L’Ambience! Technorati Watch Lists as RSS feed in Mozilla Thunderbird! The Google Toolbar 3 Beta (IE-only) has a spellcheck feature that checks web forms for […]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a troublemaker, but torching a Goethe Institute goes too far: A German cultural centre has been gutted in an arson attack in the Togo capital, Lome, in the latest outbreak of violence after disputed elections. The early morning attack by masked men wearing black comes after Togo’s interior minister accused […]

This AP photo illustrates the RPT-style democracy in Togo of the last 38 years. Agbessi, over at Au Village has a first hand account of what it was like to be at the receiving end of the soldier’s boots. What this picture does not show clearly is that the two men are most likely from […]

With the glaciers melting and the barrel of crude headed to new heights (in April!) the idea of using renewable, lower-emissions fuels has even penetrated the Lifestyles section of our local “paper of record:” With the average price for a gallon of gas hovering around $2.22 — you could indulge in a vanilla chai for […]

Looks like the opposition in Togo has decided to seek a showdown with the ruling RPT. The unity candidate Bob Akitani announced that, in fact, he won Sunday’s election. Based on information from opposition observers at the polling stations, the opposition claims that it won all districts, except Kara, the home and stronghold of Eyadema’s […]

Reuters spoke to Olympio: “Lome is burning,” main opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio told Reuters by telephone from Ghana, where he lives in exile. “But the only solution is to come to a political settlement … otherwise we are going right into the abyss.” Reuters – Apr 26, 2005 Shortly after the RPT announced its victory, […]

The ruling RPT announces what it calls “provisional election results” declaring victory for its candidate, Faure Gnassingbé, a son of Gnassingbé Eyadema, who ran Togo for 38 years. The candidate of Togo’s ruling RPT party and son of the former leader has provisionally won Sunday’s presidential election, an election official says. Faure Gnassingbe got 60% […]

A bit late, but hopefully not too late: Leaders of Togo’s two main parties have agreed to form a government of national unity following presidential elections marred by violence and claims of fraud. BBC NEWS – Togo leaders ‘to form coalition’ Presuming that Faure Gnassingbé will assume power, based on yesterday’s tainted election, he will […]

Plasmodium Falciparum is an ancient, accomplished killer on a global scale. It is one of the parasites that cause malaria, the disease that brought the Roman Empire to its knees, killed peasants and popes, and continues to ravage the population of many tropical regions of the world. Only massive use of DDT in the 1950s […]

This looks like a last-ditch effort of the African Union to pull Togo away from the abyss of civil war: The Nigerian president and AU president Olusegun Obasanjo met individually with Faure Gnasignbé and Togolese opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio in Abuja today, reports republicoftogo.com (offical Togolese government site). [UPDATE: the BBC also mentions the meetings […]

Not good: Armed men have raided the headquarters of Togo’s opposition, shortly before presidential election polls closed. The attackers, some in military uniform, took computers which the opposition was planning to use to collate results from the day’s polling. Raid overshadows Togo elections, BBC, 24 April, 2005 I guess the RPT is worried about the […]

Voters in Togo are flocking to the polling stations today for a stark choice under difficult conditions. The unity candidate for the opposition, Bob Akitani, is facing off against the frontman of the ruling RPT, Faure Gnassingbé, the son of the late strongman of Togo, Gnassingbe Eyadema. After weeks of turmoil and violent clashes between […]

Togo closed its borders Friday in preparation for the elections on Sunday. Hours before, the Interior minister François Esso Boko called for a postponement of the “suicidal electoral process” during a 2 AM meeting with foreign diplomats and the press. While the RPT is deriding Boko as having gone crazy, the opposition has put on […]

Diesel-electric hybrid is a total no-brainer. They should just run those trucks on biodiesel! That would cut emissions even further. The FedEx Express E700 hybrid electric vehicle decreases particulate emissions by 96 percent and travels 57 percent farther on a gallon of fuel than a conventional FedEx truck, reducing fuel costs by more than one […]

Togo’s Interior Minister, Esso Boko, last night called for a suspension of the “suicidal electoral process” of his country – and was promptly sacked by his boss, Interim President Abass Bonfoh. The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Togo says Mr Boko is a former military man and a political heavyweight, whose ministry is responsible for conducting […]

Defender of the dogma, chief inquisitor and the Vatican’s official heresy hunter: John Nichols at the Nation has a brief story on Pope Panzerfaust I. So does Majikthise. Halleluja!

So the Catholic Church selected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope today. Oh well, that’ll ensure one more world power broker will remain stuck in the dark ages. Congratulations!

Carrying on his fathers legacy of intimidation and violence, Faure Gnassingbe arrived in Lomé Sunday after his RPT thugs had “prepared” the capital of Togo using tear gas, nail-studded clubs and guns the day before. IRIN reported six deaths and AFP reported seven deaths and 150 injured. Saturday’s clashes occurred as opposition supporters spilled into […]

Sunday was a gorgeous spring day, but Laura had to work, and so I took the gang out on little road trip to the Biofuels Coop in Chatham County. When we got there, Lyle was just showing a group of people around the farm and the biodiesel production. While the kids were chasing a goat […]

The Battle of Seelow Heights at the end of WWII is remembered as one of the bloodiest battles of a horrible war. Today, people from Russia, Poland and Germany joined in a solemn ceremony in Seelow, Brandenburg State. The speakers at the ceremony admonished their contemporaries to make every effort to instill in today’s youth […]