Excursion – by inlingua international

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Via: Psychology Degree

Diana’s memory lingers over royal engagement

By Melissa Gray, CNN

London, England (CNN) — News of Britain’s next royal wedding was on the front page of every British paper Wednesday, but so were mentions of the late Princess Diana.

The day after Prince William announced he had proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Kate Middleton, tabloids carried full-page pictures of the couple and broadsheets ran large, above-the-fold headlines.

“We got there in the end, darling!” was the headline on the Daily Mail. “(And it’s sealed with Diana’s ring!)”

“Something borrowed, something blue,” wrote The Times, referring to the large sapphire-and-diamond ring William used to propose to Middleton last month.

“With this ring, Di thee wed,” wrote the Daily Mirror.

William said in the couple’s first joint interview Tuesday that he chose to use the ring because he wanted his mother to “be with us at such a happy time.” Diana died in a Paris, France, car crash in 1997, when William was 15.

Attention on the ring and the link to Princess Diana showed how much her memory is already hovering over the upcoming wedding.

“The presence of Diana, it has always been there throughout William and Harry’s life, and it will now become even greater, because Kate is going to be compared at every turn,” said Mark Saunders, the author of several books on the royals, also making reference to William’s brother and Diana’s youngest son. His remarks were made on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “We’re supposed to call her Catherine now — Catherine will be compared to Diana constantly. It will never go away.”

Richard Fitzwilliams, a public relations consultant and royal commentator, said the comparisons with Diana can only go so far.

“I assure you that Kate Middleton is not being looked at as another Princess Diana,” he told CNN. “I think Prince William was emphasizing in the interview it’s time to move on.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron passed on the congratulations of the whole House of Commons during his weekly question time on Wednesday.

“This is wonderful news,” he said. “We look forward to the wedding itself with excitement and anticipation.”

That same sentiment will also draw huge numbers of tourists to Britain over the next few years and boost the British economy by 620 million pounds ($985 million), a retail research firm said Wednesday.

Wedding-related merchandise sales alone could top 26 million pounds ($41.3 million), according to Neil Saunders, a consulting director at Verdict. Food and grocery retailers could also benefit as people buy extra food, treats, champagne, and wine to celebrate the occasion, he said.

Tourism and travel could bring in an additional 216 million pounds ($343 million), he said.

“Although times have changed since the last big royal engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, many people will still be keen to buy some form or keepsake or memento and retailers will rush to capitalize on the merchandising opportunities,” Saunders said.

20-year-old woman becomes top cop in violent Mexican municipality

(CNN) — Some headlines are hailing her as the bravest woman in Mexico. Marisol Valles Garcia, all of 20 years old, says she’s just tired of everyone being afraid.

Valles Garcia, a criminology student, became the police chief this week of Praxedis G. Guerrero, one of the most violent municipalities in the border state of Chihuahua. She was the only person who accepted the top job in a police force whose officers have been abducted and even killed.

“Yes, there is fear,” Valles Garcia said Wednesday in an interview with CNN en Español. “It’s like all human beings. There will always be fear, but what we want to achieve in our municipality is tranquility and security.”

There’s good reason for the fear. Just this past weekend, a 59-year-old local mayor, Rito Grado Serrano, and his 37-year-old son, Rogoberto Grado Villa, were killed in a house in which they they were hiding in nearby Ciudad Juarez. Another area mayor was killed in June.

Juarez is the bloodiest city in Mexico, with a reported 2,500 people killed in drug violence this year. Praxedis G. Guerrero is located about 35 miles southeast of Ciudad Juarez. Both are in the state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas.

Nationwide, the federal government says, more than 28,000 people have lost their lives since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels after taking office in December 2006.

Valles Garcia sees a non-violent role for her 13-member force, which will be mostly female and unarmed.

“The weapons we have are principles and values, which are the best weapons for prevention,” she told CNN en Español. “Our work will be pure prevention. We are not going to be doing anything else other than prevention.”

Valles Garcia said she aims to establish programs in neighborhoods and schools, to win back security in public spaces and to foster greater cooperation among neighbors so they can form watch committees.

She has recruited three other women to join the force in the small municipality of 8,500 people, the government-run Notimex news agency said this week.

Valles Garcia said Wednesday she gladly accepted when Mayor Jose Luis Guerrero offered her the job. The first couple of days have gone smoothly, she said.
Yes, there is fear. It’s like all human beings. There will always be fear, but what we want to achieve in our municipality is tranquility and security.
–Marisol Valles Garcia

“Truthfully, we have been very tranquil,” she said. “The people have received us very well. They have even supported us. They say it’s a great project and they will be with us 100 percent.”

Still, the notion of a largely female police force being helmed by a woman — and a young one at that — does not seem to sit well with some people in a country that still retains vestiges of machismo.

“Are there no men in Chihuahua?” read a headline on a blog on the Periodista Digital website.

But Valles Garcia believes what the job may need is a woman’s touch.

“We are simply going to talk with them, with the people, with the families, giving them confidence so they will quit being afraid, so they can leave their houses,” she told CNN en Español.

“We have hope that we are going to exchange fear for tranquility and security.”

Trapped miners in Chile begin receiving cigarettes
September 13, 2010 | 12:39 pm

Fuerza mineros chile miners

The 33 miners trapped 2,300 feet underground in a mine in Chile have persuaded officials to meet one of their most ardent requests since making contact with the surface: cigarettes. The regional governor in Atacama, where the San Jose mine is located, told reporters this weekend that the miners will now receive two cigarette packs a day, or 40 smokes, to ration among them.

“We’re ready to do what we can to lift the miners’ spirits,” said Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich. A doctor in the rescue operation told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the miners were “responsible people” who could administer the cigarettes on their own.

The decision to send down smokes came after ventilation was improved in the shelter where the miners await their rescue. Previous measures to alleviate the miners’ craving for cigarettes, nicotine patches and gum, were not effective, reports said.

The men are still not being allowed alcohol, however, another request they’ve insisted on.

“For tobacco companies chafing at advertising restrictions it could be a promotional dream, though it was not immediately known which brand was delivered, nor how many of the miners smoke,” reported the Guardian.

The miners have been trapped underground since Aug. 5. Three holes are now being dug concurrently to reach them, but that’s not expected to occur until November or even Christmas. As reported previously on La Plaza, the Chile mine rescue effort is now considered one of the most complex and difficult rescue efforts in history. Experts from NASA have been brought in to assess and advise on the effort. (The NASA people had recommended against cigarettes for the men.)

The miners are also expected to begin receiving electricity to improve lighting in the shelter and help the miners’ sleeping patterns. They are also beginning an exercise regimen.

Signori e signore vi presentiamo “Book”

Every week CNN’s African Voices highlights Africa’s most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera. This week we profile Henry Olonga, the Zimbabwean cricketer who made international headlines in 2003 after protesting against the Mugabe regime.

London, England (CNN) — He’s the youngest ever cricketer to represent Zimbabwe at international level. He’s also the first black cricketer to play for his country. But Henry Olonga’s place in history does not rest solely on the brilliance of his bowling.

In 2003, Olonga and team mate Andy Flower donned black armbands during a Cricket World Cup match in protest at Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s regime.

The gesture was designed to “mourn the death of democracy” in Zimbabwe and it made headlines across the world, turning the international focus on the African country and the plight of its people.

“There were mass graves that were found. There was evidence of abuse; testimony after testimony of the most evil and awful things that can ever be done [by] one human being to another,” Olonga told CNN about the deaths in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland in the early 1980s.
Video: Henry Olonga on playing for Lashings
Video: Defying the Mugabe regime

Soon after Mugabe came to power in 1980, his government launched a campaign to crush opposition in Matabeleland. The massacre and beatings of thousands of civilians was little reported at the time.

“My conscience was just …what kind of country had I grown up in? What kind of country have I represented? Because I’d played for my country, I was an ambassador. I started to become uncomfortable that I was constantly, if you will, protecting, supporting or endorsing the government,” Olonga said of the motives behind his protest.

The Zimbabwean government has rejected frequent charges of human rights abuses by Western states. President Mugabe has described the deaths Olonga refers to as a “moment of madness.”

Olonga’s public show of dissent against Mugabe’s regime caused him to be accused of treason –which carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe.

Olonga was forced into temporary hiding before finally fleeing Africa and relocating to England. He hasn’t returned to Zimbabwe since. It also brought his international cricket career to an end.

“There was a sacrifice that I had to make, to stand up for what I truly believed in,” Olonga told CNN in London, where he now lives permanently.
There was a sacrifice that I had to make, to stand up for what I truly believed in Olonga has no regrets, though.

“For one second in time we brought the world’s attention to the serious problems that had befallen the country I loved, grew up in, played for and represented at the highest level in my chosen sport and I think that counts for something,” he said.

Born to a Kenyan father and Zimbabwean mother, Olonga was born in Zambia. At an early age, he moved to Zimbabwe and soon stood out as a teenage sports prodigy, excelling in athletics.

He ultimately chose cricket, making his Test debut at the age of 18 against Pakistan in January 1995. During his shortened international career Olonga went on to take almost 70 test wickets.

Nowadays, the exiled cricketer plies his trade for Lashings — an All-Star team made up of retired professionals from around the cricket world that raises funds for a series of charities.

Far from the demanding lifestyle of a professional athlete, Olonga has now more time to indulge his other passions, including singing — the multi-talented star boasts a rich tenor voice.

He is also pursuing a career as a cricket commentator and has recently released an autobiography, “Blood, Sweat and Treason,” in which he explains the black armband incident and the controversy that followed.

When asked whether now, seven years after his gesture of protest, he would do it again, Olonga is adamant.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” he told CNN with a smile.

“I’m so grateful for a lot of things that have happened in my life. I’ve changed as a person, I look myself in the mirror and I have a clean conscience. I know I had the opportunity to stand [up] for people who didn’t have a voice for themselves and that gives you a tremendous amount of satisfaction.

“To be able to get up in the morning and say, ‘I didn’t back down, I stuck through it, through thick and thin, in the name of freedom.’”