Wangari Maathai Dies

Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died late Sunday after a long battle with cancer. Maathai, 71, won the Nobel Prize in 2004 for combining environmentalism and social activism.

According to the Nobel committee, Maathai made significant contributions “to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”The Kenyan environmentalist founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977 – planting tens of millions of trees throughout her homeland.

Maathai served as an assistant minister in President Mwai Kibaki's government from 2003 to 2005.

Maathai is survived by her three children and a granddaughter. (Wiki,  Various News Sources)

AAEA Director Named Editor of Balozi Journal Magazine

A Journey Magazine into Science, Reason & Rationality [January 2012 Vol. 5.]

Boaz Adhengo has been named editor of the Balozi Journal, which will examine numerous issues within the broad categories of: 1) Science, 2) Reason, and 3) Rationality.  Mr. Adhengo is excited about the new assignment. 

Please feel free to donate to this new effort.

WRITERS WANTED

One of the first articles in the journal includes the tome below:

The Range of Religious Freedom

By Paul Marshall

Belief in the supernatural dimension is central to all world religions Religion by its nature defies precise definition. However, the central commonality to all world religions is the belief in the supernatural dimension. Thus, it can be said that the most significant element of a religious worldview is this belief in a divine being or power, which is greater than humankind and the natural world. This being or power is believed to be responsible for the creation of the world, for providing a moral framework for human life and being the ultimate destiny of a human person at the end of their mortal life.

Oil Pipeline Fire Kills Approximately 150 People

According to local officials, scores of people were burned to death and many more were injured when a fire from a pipeline explosion engulfed a thickly populated slum in Nairobi. The provincial commissioner said more than 60 were confirmed dead, with the number likely to rise. One local television station quoted an official at the scene declaring that he had counted more than 120 bodies, while a local radio station said the dead numbered more than 150.

The cause of the explosion was still unclear, but local officials said it was likely caused by a cigarette butt that ignited gasoline leaked from the pipeline. Local television broadcast images of smoldering bodies as firefighters battled the blaze, and showed badly burned slum residents emerging from the flames.

It is believed the fire started after a fuel tank spilled fuel into an open sewer that flows through the slum. As slum residents tried to scoop up the fuel, someone tossed a cigarette into the sewer. (Wash Post, 9/12/2011)