Election date is set, but ECOWAS says April 24 is too soon and doesn't leave enough time to prepare for "free and fair voting." And it's not just a matter of time for campaigning or revising electoral lists.
From allafrica.com:
"The opposition, which boycotted several earlier elections under Eyadema, has announced that it will contest the presidential vote.
But a coaliton of six opposition parties is still mulling whether to present a united front against Gnassingbe, who has already been chosen as the candidate of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party.
Gilchrist Olympio, the exiled leader of the main opposition party, the Union of Forces for Change (UFC), was prevented from standing against Eyadema in the 2003 presidential election. But Olympio said on Thursday that he intended to take on the dead leader's son.
"I am the candidate of my party," Olympio told IRIN by telephone from Paris where he has been living for several years.
"Of course the government we have and the constitutional court we have might not... let me stand," he said. "If they bar me, then... up to 74 percent of the Togolese electorate will be barred too."
BBC news has some other tidbits that explain a bit more:
"But under the constitution, candidates need to have lived in Togo for 12 months to stand as a presidential candidate, which bars Mr Olympio from standing.
Since a 1992 assassination attempt, Mr Olympio has lived in exile in Paris and was barred from taking part in the 2003 presidential elections because he did not live in Togo.
Leopold Messan Gnininvi, the spokesman for the six-party opposition alliance, described as regrettable the disqualification of Mr Olympio.
"We, his colleagues in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Togo, will continue to show solidarity with Mr Olympio until we find a way of removing that prohibitive clause from the statute books," he said.
On Wednesday, Mr Olympio told the BBC he would give his support to whoever his party nominated.
"My 40-year struggle for the restoration of democracy in Togo is not a personal one.
"I will give my support to a candidate to be nominated by the party," he told BBC Afrique."
Saturday, March 5, 2005
We are up and running. Yay!
Ian has his laptop, I have my desktop PC, all is well with the world :)
Nothing runs as smoothly as it says on the box, but after spending a good chunk of yesterday evening putting it all together, at least the new computer was running. But enough components were new that the Microsoft software didn't recognize the computer and insisted on being reinitiated or some other such thing. Ian hadn't brought all our master CDs, posing quite the problem. A call here, a call there, plenty of "You'll have to buy it all new" and "We can't help you" later, he gave up for the evening.
Today Katherine asked him to set up "her" laptop. He popped open the CD drive and... the Microsoft Office CD was inside. Why? No one knows. But there it was and 5 minutes later the PC was flying along.
The newest issue is that his laptop can't seem to find the wireless network. He'll figure it out. I told him yesterday that he'd missed his calling. He's really good at this technology computer stuff.
All this means that I've downloaded the pictures off the camera and can finally feel comfortable catching up on everything that's been slacking the past three weeks. Yay.
Nothing runs as smoothly as it says on the box, but after spending a good chunk of yesterday evening putting it all together, at least the new computer was running. But enough components were new that the Microsoft software didn't recognize the computer and insisted on being reinitiated or some other such thing. Ian hadn't brought all our master CDs, posing quite the problem. A call here, a call there, plenty of "You'll have to buy it all new" and "We can't help you" later, he gave up for the evening.
Today Katherine asked him to set up "her" laptop. He popped open the CD drive and... the Microsoft Office CD was inside. Why? No one knows. But there it was and 5 minutes later the PC was flying along.
The newest issue is that his laptop can't seem to find the wireless network. He'll figure it out. I told him yesterday that he'd missed his calling. He's really good at this technology computer stuff.
All this means that I've downloaded the pictures off the camera and can finally feel comfortable catching up on everything that's been slacking the past three weeks. Yay.
Thursday, March 3, 2005
School, reading, Rebecca
Today was parent-teacher conferences. Not that too much can be said after the girls have spent all of a single full day in school (the other days have been 2 late starts and 2 early releases, along with 2 snow days and 2 holidays)
Her old teacher did nothing but rave about Rebecca's classwork, but suffice to say I'm not convinced. In math she's fine, she enjoys science and I don't believe she'll have any difficulties with history and social studies. But Becca still has huge troubles with reading and I do nothing but get frustrated with her which brings us both to tears. Yesterday was a bad day as she and I fought for over an hour for her to read and understand a homework assignment. It was not my shining moment (later daddy came to the rescue and the homework was done without further tears. From either of us). She needs outside help and has needed it for a while, but as a parent there's always a hope that she'll just "get it". At today's conference almost immediately Ms. Riverson brought up a reading program at the school. I jumped on it and she was thrilled that I was interested in getting Becca involved. She'd only done a quick assessment but saw right away that Becca struggles. Becca -can- read. It's hard for her and she gets frustrated easily but I honestly believe that it's a matter of her brain clicking or perhaps being provided a new approach to reading. She sees the world very differently than I do, including the written word.
Today we went to the public library and there's an entire wall of audiobooks. I think we've struck a goldmine for her. She loves stories and being read to. If nothing else her vocabulary and comprehension will grow (she has an amazing memory and ability to pull out information from context) even while her reading abilities play catch-up.
On her homework notebook, it's written that children are expected to do their homework and parents are to check it over. I told Ms. Riverson about yesterday's fiasco and she clearly stated that she didn't want homework to become a battlefield. Until Rebecca's reading catches up, I can help her freely with the directions.
Now to separate out my own issues with her reading. If I can act like an adult during homework time, life for both of us will go a lot smoother. I really do hope she gets into the school program. She'll be so much more confident and thrive.
Her old teacher did nothing but rave about Rebecca's classwork, but suffice to say I'm not convinced. In math she's fine, she enjoys science and I don't believe she'll have any difficulties with history and social studies. But Becca still has huge troubles with reading and I do nothing but get frustrated with her which brings us both to tears. Yesterday was a bad day as she and I fought for over an hour for her to read and understand a homework assignment. It was not my shining moment (later daddy came to the rescue and the homework was done without further tears. From either of us). She needs outside help and has needed it for a while, but as a parent there's always a hope that she'll just "get it". At today's conference almost immediately Ms. Riverson brought up a reading program at the school. I jumped on it and she was thrilled that I was interested in getting Becca involved. She'd only done a quick assessment but saw right away that Becca struggles. Becca -can- read. It's hard for her and she gets frustrated easily but I honestly believe that it's a matter of her brain clicking or perhaps being provided a new approach to reading. She sees the world very differently than I do, including the written word.
Today we went to the public library and there's an entire wall of audiobooks. I think we've struck a goldmine for her. She loves stories and being read to. If nothing else her vocabulary and comprehension will grow (she has an amazing memory and ability to pull out information from context) even while her reading abilities play catch-up.
On her homework notebook, it's written that children are expected to do their homework and parents are to check it over. I told Ms. Riverson about yesterday's fiasco and she clearly stated that she didn't want homework to become a battlefield. Until Rebecca's reading catches up, I can help her freely with the directions.
Now to separate out my own issues with her reading. If I can act like an adult during homework time, life for both of us will go a lot smoother. I really do hope she gets into the school program. She'll be so much more confident and thrive.
Our computer is kaput.
We're getting a new, bare bones computer system. Something in the shipping process killed our computer. It's not too surprising, the UAB boxes had holes knocked into them (each box weighs 11 pounds empty), the wrapping was filthy, and the moisture absorbing packets inside were squishy (you know how they're supposed to feel like the insides of a beanie baby?). They were in transit for 3 weeks and exposed to high heats in Manila, rough handling at the airport and cold and wet temperatures here in VA. Computers like to sit alone in cool dry dust-proof room, they aren't good travelers.
Once the system arrives, new photos. Promise.
Once the system arrives, new photos. Promise.
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Amazing Race
Anyone want to do the next Amazing Race with us?
We're actually stateside (have to have a U.S. address) and will be here long enough since it's taping over June. But wouldn't you know, they mix it up and now it's four related people or sorta kinda related.
What's sad is that we have no one, not even a single other person (forget finding two people) who could do this with us. My mother has no desire to sleep on airport floors. While my father would jump on the chance, medical reasons could preclude him. And... that's it. We'd take Jeff in an instant but I'd have to become a bigamist or something equally odd. That still leaves spot #4 and... not a clue. We know enough couples we'd love to do the Race with. Oh look, there's the annoying "family" rule again.
Tapes and questionnaires have to be in by March 11th and we've been thinking about potential racemates for over a week and have come up with absolutely nothing. Wow. That is pathetic! At least there's no age limit for the game, but will it still exist in 2 years when we're back?? Will it?? I think we'd have a great angle once we had permission from State, it's sad to see the opportunity pass us by. Maybe some of our Foreign Service friends will jump on the Race bandwagon. We'd be green with envy.
We're actually stateside (have to have a U.S. address) and will be here long enough since it's taping over June. But wouldn't you know, they mix it up and now it's four related people or sorta kinda related.
What's sad is that we have no one, not even a single other person (forget finding two people) who could do this with us. My mother has no desire to sleep on airport floors. While my father would jump on the chance, medical reasons could preclude him. And... that's it. We'd take Jeff in an instant but I'd have to become a bigamist or something equally odd. That still leaves spot #4 and... not a clue. We know enough couples we'd love to do the Race with. Oh look, there's the annoying "family" rule again.
Tapes and questionnaires have to be in by March 11th and we've been thinking about potential racemates for over a week and have come up with absolutely nothing. Wow. That is pathetic! At least there's no age limit for the game, but will it still exist in 2 years when we're back?? Will it?? I think we'd have a great angle once we had permission from State, it's sad to see the opportunity pass us by. Maybe some of our Foreign Service friends will jump on the Race bandwagon. We'd be green with envy.
Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Congratulations!
Lisa back in Manila (ouramericanfamily) birthed her baby, Atticus Richard, in their home and unassisted (but for Matt). Congrats to the whole family and welcome Atticus! I'm sure big sister and big brothers are as thrilled as mom and dad.
I also had someone e-mail me asking how Walter is doing. Honestly, I don't know. His image site is still up at http://www.braunohler.net/walter/album/index.html but hasn't been updated since his return to Baghdad after Christmas. We pray that all is well and he's just been really busy with the election and all.
I also had someone e-mail me asking how Walter is doing. Honestly, I don't know. His image site is still up at http://www.braunohler.net/walter/album/index.html but hasn't been updated since his return to Baghdad after Christmas. We pray that all is well and he's just been really busy with the election and all.
UAB is HERE!
Another snow day today. The kids were all stuck in the apartment, Katherine isn't feeling well with a persistent headache and a low fever, housekeeping came through (one of the perks living in a fully furnished place), Ian had his first day for language classes and our air shipment arrived.
Of course we now have four twin quilts and no twin beds to use them on. The kids are all sharing beds which doesn't seem to be bothering them much at all. But really, what three bedroom place is stocked with two king beds and a double?
Having the kids home today worked out well for unpacking. Nicholas stuck with me to the end and earned himself a Twinkie for unpacking the very last items out of the very last box. The computer we put aside for Ian to deal with. As it happens, the computer is kaput. Honestly, Ian cannot get it to run. It seems to be a hardware issue, but he can't get it to turn on properly. I guess this will push our hand now to figure out what we really want to do. Get a second laptop and ditch the PC altogether? Get a new more compact computer? Ian will research and we'll talk and figure out what to do. Until I have something to do photos on there won't be anything new up. I know it's been a while and I apologize. Of course, we're also having troubles with our camera. The card is bad and periodically images are deemed corrupt.
Sometimes I really hate technology. It's not that it's inherently bad, but the dependency we have on it really makes life difficult when it breaks.
I'm glad I've taken up scrapbooking. Aside from the need to type up journals and print them (requiring in-house technology) and having photos (requiring in-house technology to take the photos and either to burn CDs or print the photos directly), it can all be done with scissors, ink and glue. OK, OK. I guess that's why I'm here and not on the floor with my books, at least until we get the camera and computers straightened out. Yesterday my mom, the girls and I went to A.C. Moore's scrapbook fest. The girls each got 6x6 books for their time in the States. They got to pick out letter stickers, some die cuts and paper and they chose plenty of patriotic items. Now all they need are photos to get started. I was looking for coluzzle templates to make letters but couldn't get over the $15 price tags for a single font.
You know what. Forget all that. Just wish me luck that I finish the New Zealand book before the one year anniversary of the trip, OK?
Of course we now have four twin quilts and no twin beds to use them on. The kids are all sharing beds which doesn't seem to be bothering them much at all. But really, what three bedroom place is stocked with two king beds and a double?
Having the kids home today worked out well for unpacking. Nicholas stuck with me to the end and earned himself a Twinkie for unpacking the very last items out of the very last box. The computer we put aside for Ian to deal with. As it happens, the computer is kaput. Honestly, Ian cannot get it to run. It seems to be a hardware issue, but he can't get it to turn on properly. I guess this will push our hand now to figure out what we really want to do. Get a second laptop and ditch the PC altogether? Get a new more compact computer? Ian will research and we'll talk and figure out what to do. Until I have something to do photos on there won't be anything new up. I know it's been a while and I apologize. Of course, we're also having troubles with our camera. The card is bad and periodically images are deemed corrupt.
Sometimes I really hate technology. It's not that it's inherently bad, but the dependency we have on it really makes life difficult when it breaks.
I'm glad I've taken up scrapbooking. Aside from the need to type up journals and print them (requiring in-house technology) and having photos (requiring in-house technology to take the photos and either to burn CDs or print the photos directly), it can all be done with scissors, ink and glue. OK, OK. I guess that's why I'm here and not on the floor with my books, at least until we get the camera and computers straightened out. Yesterday my mom, the girls and I went to A.C. Moore's scrapbook fest. The girls each got 6x6 books for their time in the States. They got to pick out letter stickers, some die cuts and paper and they chose plenty of patriotic items. Now all they need are photos to get started. I was looking for coluzzle templates to make letters but couldn't get over the $15 price tags for a single font.
You know what. Forget all that. Just wish me luck that I finish the New Zealand book before the one year anniversary of the trip, OK?
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