WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY WEDNESDAY APRIL 2,2008

Many people have been searching for World Autism Awareness day for 2009. The day is April 2 every year. This year, 2009 , it is Thursday. The link for the information on World Autism Awareness Day is as follows:

http://www.worldautismawarenessday.org/site/c.egLMI2ODKpF/b.3917065/k.BE58/Home.htm

Or click HERE to be connected directly to the site.

To those that have interest in this day I thank you for visiting.

The following including my personal story, was posted for 2008:

Wednesday the 2nd of April 2008 is World Autism Awareness Day. CNN will be having specials on Autism , it’s prevalence and more for that whole day.

For CNN Home Page Click here or go to:

http://www.CNN.com

For CNN Autisim Info click here or go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/25/ep.autism.advocacy/index.html

Autism is a special interest of mine as I have a child who is Autistic. She is higher functioning than many Autistic Children but it has taken it’s toll on her and on me during the last 5 years.

My child suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome as well as PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorders – not otherwise specified) BOTH of which are listed under the Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) Classifications. It took years to have the correct diagnosis. WHy? Because she was 14 weeks pre-mature and under 2 pounds when she was born and was very early on diagnosed with ADHD… we just believed she would eventually grow out of it. However, even today she is barley 9 years old emotionally with many other problems from hearing loss to Vision problems and Abstract reasoning and Spacial skills and the most noticeable is her poor social skills and balance problems.

The prognosis is that she will never be completely self-sufficient and will need some care for the rest of her life. Sadly I am the sole care giver. Worse, many in our “family” do not believe she has these problems and expect her to act her age (17 years) without regard to her actual condition. The end result is she has be abandoned by those members of her family and even ostracized by others. She remains a child with little support structure.

This is common, where some parents and siblings regard the child a intentionally not doing what is expected of them and blame the child behavior on things other than the medical. The earlier the diagnosis and acceptance of this diagnosis, the more help can be given to the child and the more you can preserve their self-esteem.

If your child is not living up to expectations and is lagging behind in social skills and in school, please find out more about Autism this Wednesday … it may be the best thing you have ever done for your child.

Wishing those of you with Children that have “Special Needs” the best of luck and happiness. Never give up being an advocate for your child, for without you they would have little to nothing going for them.

Infrastructure Development Tops AfDB Projects in Africa

I have read the article below and am in awe of the lack of strategic planning and the failure of appropriate methodology to bring to Africa this much needed Infrastructure. This lack of this basic “backbone” infrastructure is what hold Africa back more than any other issue that faces Africa today. Trying to develop Africa in the same way as North America or Europe is NOT feasible. There has to be a unique and special plan such as the one developed by Trans-African Development  Strategies and the sister Company Trans African Development Company to bring this “backbone” Infrastructure to fruition. The current approach will hold Africa back for at least 50 years. When I read articles like this I can honestly say I am furious at the lack of true understanding… but then I remember that organizations like AfDB are NOT inclined to think “outside the box” …. As those who know me will tell you I subscribe to the basic philosophy “If you cannot solve the problem you are facing…. then you are facing the wrong problem” If AfDB and others would redefine the problem as I have then the realistic and implementable solutions would be obvious!!! But I have tried to discuss this with AfDB and others… and to my dismay they are not interested in even considering anything but the “Status Quo” thus dooming Africa and it’s people to decades of unnecessary poverty and suffering. My offer to AfDB and others interested in truly and honestly solving these and other issues that face Africa remains open but I am NOT optimistic that closed minded individuals will ever consider other pragmatic approaches.

Infrastructure development tops AfDB projects in Africa

 

 

The announcement was made during a recent conference on African infrastructure held in Senegal, which brought together donors, government ministers, and representatives of regional bodies such as the African Union and its intergovernmental development initiative, NEPAD.
An AfDB press release notes that the promised funds will come from the bank’s low-interest lending window, the African Development Fund (ADF). In December, the Bank secured commitments from donors to contribute a record $8.9 billion to replenish the ADF for the next three years.
It has earlier been reported that the loans will finance regional infrastructure projects, including the construction of “a number of major road and rail projects aimed at crisscrossing the continent with transport corridors.”
Proposed projects would include transcontinental transportation corridors that would require a huge outpouring of money. They would serve to benefit exporters and, by extension, transnational companies that profit the most from Africa’s commodities.Some of the more ambitious proposed projects include the construction of “Trans-African highway projects to connect Beira in Mozambique to Lobito in Angola, Dakar in Senegal to Lagos in Nigeria, and Lagos to Mombassa in Kenya.”
While Africa suffers from an acute lack of infrastructure, it is important to consider what type of infrastructure is most needed to help alleviate poverty on the continent. By and large, transcontinental highways and railroads will require a huge outpouring of money and serve to benefit exporters and, by extension, transnational companies that profit the most from Africa’s commodities. Roads and high-quality railroads are indeed necessary to move goods to and from land-locked countries such as Uganda.
The sheer scale of transcontinental projects, however, could distract effort and funds from these more manageable projects, and in the end the more grandiose projects have a higher likelihood of being abandoned because of unmet expectations.
At the same time, Africa’s poor will likely remain cut off by the lack of basic local road networks and adversely affected by the intense footprint that such large-scale physical infrastructure projects often entail.
A recent study by International Rivers and Environmental Defense also shows that large, capital-intensive infrastructure projects such as these tend to be the most prone to corruption. Questions also remain as to whether the AfDB has the requisite experience to identify and mitigate the serious potential impacts of these projects, and whether it wields sufficient leverage to ensure that its social and environmental safeguards, which are strong on paper, are enforced.
Since it resumed regular operations after facing a financial crisis in the early 1990’s, the AfDB has sought to define itself as a lender with special expertise on infrastructure in Africa. It has consistently allocated a significant portion of its lending to the sector, and was chosen to coordinate regional infrastructure initiatives, such as NEPAD’s Infrastructure Action Plan and the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA). However, the AfDB has made limited progress in its convening role, and few of its ambitious plans to create regional energy, transportation, and water initiatives under NEPAD have come to fruition.
While African governments appear keen to benefit from this and other regional infrastructure schemes, it remains unclear the extent to which this latest initiative is demand-driven or being pursued at the behest of donors. The lion’s share of new donor commitments at the AfDB have been earmarked for infrastructure, while a new high-level panel (see “High-level panel issues report on prospects for African Development Bank”) on the Bank recognizes that the board of the ADF is disproportionately influenced by its donors. A recent Financial Times article suggests that AfDB President Donald Kaberuka “is facing dissent from some African staff concerned that efforts to carve out an independent role for the AfDB are being undermined by some western donors.”