The Nursing Scholarship Program is accepting applications until June 1.
The Nursing Scholarship pays tuition, fees, other education costs and a living stipend to students in accredited RN training programs. In exchange, upon graduation, scholars work for at least 2 years at a facility, such as a health center, rural health clinic, nursing home or hospital, that has a critical shortage of nurses.
The Nursing Scholarship Program is a selective program of the U.S. Government that helps alleviate the critical shortage of registered nurses currently experienced by certain types of health care facilities by helping needy students complete their registered nurse training. In exchange for the scholarship, upon graduation, the newly minted nurses work at these types of facilities for at least 2 years.
Nursing Scholars fulfilling their service commitment receive a competitive salary and benefits package, which they negotiate directly with the employing facility.
Applications are accepted once each year. Applicants selected to receive the scholarship are notified by email no later than August 31. For Nursing scholarship application: http://answers.hrsa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/119
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
April 18, 2011 at 3:41 PM
These 5 best Ethiopian drama films come up as a flower that struggles to blossom under concrete. The film industry in Ethiopia is seriously underfunded, unequipped and rarely trained. However, the driving need to create art, to question and examine tough issues still shines through in the Ethiopian film industry. Ethiopia has still managed to put out award winning films by visionary directors as you will see with these five best Ethiopian drama films.
- “Teza” is one of the best Ethiopian drama films directed by Haile Gerima. The film takes place in the 1970′s while Ethiopia is under a Marxist regime. A young post graduate is returning from W. Germany. He stumbles across a murder, and ends up the enemy of some revolutionaries. He eventually manages an escape back to W. Germany where he spends the rest of his life until the fall of Communism. It was an award winner at the PanAfrican Film and Television Festival.
- “The Father” has won awards throughout Africa by showing the “Red Terror” that took place in Ethiopia more than 30 years ago. It is directed by Ermias Woldeamlack, and it deals with the horror of a time that most Ethiopians have not addressed.
- “Tumult” was entirely funded by grants from the American Film Institute and The National Endowment for the Arts. It takes place in the 1960′s, and follows a failed coup d’etat against Emperor Haile Selassie. Yoseph is the main character, and is going to try to bring Western style government to Ethiopia by overthrowing Selassie.
- “Blood is not Fresh Water” is directed by Theo Eshetu. It is told from the perspective of the director’s grandfather, a noted historian. It examines Ethiopia’s origins while the story timeline travels backwards. It goes from present day Ethiopia, to its colonial times, and even further to “Lucy”.
- “Dead Weight” deals with the diaspora of the “Red Terror” after Emperor Selassie was deposed. It’s directed by Yemane Demissie. It covers the aspect of these times from the viewpoint of the Ethiopian diaspora. The ones who fled, mostly to America, to escape the horrors. What is interesting is the way these characters are still confronted with their past. Several characters run into their previous jailors and torturers now living in the U.S.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
April 16, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Ethiopia’s government has begun selling some basic food items directly to consumers after imposing price controls that created shortages in the marketplace. Long lines are becoming a regular sight in Addis Ababa as people queue at government shops for sugar and edible oil.
Tesfanesh Zewde stood in line for more than an hour in the hot sun this week to buy a liter of cooking oil and two kilograms of sugar for her family.
Tesfanesh says she was forced to leave her office during work hours and queue at a government-operated fruit stand for items that until recently had been easily available in neighborhood shops.
Sugar, cooking oil and other items disappeared from store shelves in January, after Ethiopia imposed price ceilings on 18 basic commodities. The controls were ordered about the time food riots in Tunisia triggered the political unrest that spread across North Africa and the Middle East.
Local media hailed state intervention in the market as a bold move to help cash-strapped consumers cope with soaring global food prices.
But shop owners rebelled. They complained the ceilings were too low to allow them a fair profit, and refused to sell at what they said was a loss.
When price-controlled items became scarce, the government accused suppliers of creating artificial shortages. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last month announced that the market had effectively failed. He said the government would bypass retailers and sell directly to consumers until the business community accepted the lower prices.
“We plan to flood the market to overcome artificial shortages that have been created through inefficiencies in the market system. This includes artificial shortages in edible oil and sugar. We intend to import lots of edible oil and sugar and flood the market to ensure it is stabilized,” Zenawi said.
Ethiopia’s Trade and Industry Ministry was assigned the job of setting fair prices and profits for controlled items.
Efrem Woldesellassie, head of the ministry’s regulatory affairs department, says a government survey determined that the market failure was due to excessive profits charged by wholesalers and retailers. He said the ministry decided to limit profits to 4-6 percent on sugar and cooking oil.
“These people. They used to get big profits, even without paying any tax to the government, but this time they got a profit [of] 6 percent for sugar, 4 percent for palm oil. To my understanding, covering all costs, this profit margin is sufficient for them to survive,” Woldesellassie said.
Efrem says price controls and government sales outlets are a temporary measure until the market stabilizes. But market economists and business people argue any state interference in the buyer-seller relationship is ultimately counterproductive.
Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce President Eyessus Work Zafu says the price ceilings are another step in a long-term trend in Ethiopia toward greater state control over the economy.
“The government is becoming more and more preponderant in the economy in recent years, more than even 10 years ago. The long-term solution is not working on the assumption that government alone could bring about the balanced and rapid sustainable econ growth and development. It cannot. That paradigm has been tried for many years and failed.” Eyessus said.
Eyessus says he sees great danger in the state’s increasing tendency, when economic policies don’t work, to demonize the private sector.
“When the first price control measures were announced, we started reading in the paper a very serious malignant hate campaign, letters, articles in the papers, and many have been engaged in widening the split between consumers and merchants or business people. [The] government will have to take the initiative to normalize things, because if the government does not, the differences will widen, and the ultimate consequences could be serious,” Eyessus said.
Economists also question whether the price caps are helping to keep down rising costs. The government statistics agency reports an inflation rate of 14 percent in February, the first full month the caps were in effect.
And when the controls are inevitably removed, experts say prices are bound to jump to where they would have been anyway.
People waiting to purchase cooking oil and sugar this week wondered whether, given the rapid rise of global prices, Ethiopia might again see the day when local governments distribute food, as they did during the Communist era.
Source: VOA
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
April 14, 2011 at 5:30 PM
By Alina Dizik
The wrath of a bullying boss is something many workers will face during their career. In a 2010 survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an organization devoted to raising awareness about bullying in the workplace, 35 percent of workers say they’ve experience bullying firsthand and an additional 15 percent have witnessed it. Most of the time it’s same-gender harassment.
Bing: Know your workplace rights
“A manager who is overly watchful, aggressive and unreasonable in his or her demands can be a workplace bully,” explains Stacy Harris, director of human resources at Bersin & Associates, a research and advisory services firm.
Is your boss the bullying kind? Here how to deal:
Acknowledge the problem
Making excuses for your boss or blaming yourself for the problem can prevent you from taking steps to solve the problem. Acknowledging that there’s a problem and that it’s not your fault are important first steps. Understanding that you did not invite the problem is crucial, says Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute.
Don’t let go of your self-esteem
“People who bully feel weak and vulnerable. Making other people feel small makes them feel bigger,” says workplace consultant Esther Derby, president of Esther Derby Associates in Minneapolis. With constant pressure from your boss, it can be easy to forget how difficult bullying can be on your psyche. Spend time with friends and family, volunteering or participating in projects at work away from your boss and department. Seeing your value outside of your bullying boss will give you more strength to address the problem.
Have a measured response
Before speaking up, it’s important to build your case. Take notes to catalog the specific incidents and find out if others have complained about this person. Get a well-rounded picture. Additionally, be sure to manage your own aggression or hostility. While it can be easy to act unprofessionally toward a bullying boss, having a measured response will help you build a stronger case. “Meeting aggression with aggression can cause the situation to spiral out of control. You don’t want to turn into a jerk to tame a jerk,” Derby explains. “Accept that you can’t change the person and change your response.”
Present your problems to the right person
Knowing whom to turn to in the case of a bullying boss can be tricky. Unless your relationship with your boss is completely strained, it’s better to build your case and first let your boss know that you are unhappy with the way you’re being treated. Remember to document the response in the form of an e-mail or your own notes.
If the conversation did not have the results you hoped for, it may be time to turn to someone higher up at the company. Don’t start with your boss’s superior, who has likely seen another side of your boss, Derby says. “Many bullies behave very differently when they aren’t in a position of power, so their manager may see a very different sort of behavior from that person,” she says. A human resources representative can be another wrong turn and may simply tiptoe around the problem. “HR’s job is to protect the company’s interests, not the individual employee’s interests,” Derby says. “The higher in the management chain the abuser is, the less likely that HR will take action.”
Instead, opt for the highest-ranking official who would be able to hear you out in a respectful manner. It can be difficult to find the right person, but starting with a vice president or senior manager who can have an impact on personnel issues may be your best bet.
Consider switching gears
If there’s no way to work out a solution, it may be up to you to leave the company, which is common for those dealing with bullying bosses. “People who have options usually leave rather than put up with a bully boss,” Derby says. “Often the people who stay are the ones who are too beaten down to see other options for themselves.”
Alina Dizik researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues for CareerBuilder.com. Follow @CareerBuilder on Twitter.
Copyright 2011 CareerBuilder.com. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authority.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
March 21, 2011 at 4:05 PM
By William Davison
March 14 (Bloomberg) — Church burnings in southwestern Ethiopia that left at least one person dead were incited by an extremist Islamic group, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.
Evangelical churches in Assendabo, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa, and other towns in the Jimma region were torched earlier this month. At least 46 of the churches belonged to the Kale Heywot faith and 23 more to other groups, according to Kale Heywot Church General Secretary Tesfaye Abadura. A Kale Heywot bible school and office have been destroyed and as many as 7,000 people have been displaced, Tesfaye said in a phone interview on March 12.
Those responsible for inciting the attacks are believed to be preachers from the Islamist Kawarja group, Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa on March 12.
“We believe there are elements of the Kawarja sect and other extremists who have been preaching religious intolerance in the area,” Meles said. “In previous times, we have cracked down on Kawarja because they were involved in violence. Since then they have changed their tactics and they have been able to camouflage their activities through legal channels.”
The attacks began when Christians were arrested after an unidentified Muslim individual accusing them of flushing a Koran down a church toilet, Tesfaye said.
“After that Muslims came together and burned the churches, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” he said.
Seid Asmare, spokesman for the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, said he couldn’t immediately comment because he was in a meeting when called on his mobile phone today.
Incidents of religious strife in Ethiopia are rare, though there have been fatal sectarian clashes in the southwest in recent years. Ethiopia’s population includes 34 percent Muslims and 63 percent Christians, according to the CIA World Factbook.
A report on the church burnings by the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia will be delivered on March 16, Zerihun Degu, general secretary of the council, said by phone today.
–Editors: Paul Richardson, Karl Maier.
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
March 14, 2011 at 4:55 PM
Violence in Libya and Bahrain has claimed scores of lives and left many more injured as the two Arab countries were united by popular protests that continue to shake the status quo and sound alarm bells across the region and the world.
A week after Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, was forced to stand down, dozens of Libyans were reported killed by Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces. Meanwhile, Bahraini troops shot dead at least one protester and wounded 50 others after mourners buried four people who were killed on Thursday in the worst mass unrest the western-backed Gulf state has ever seen.
“We don’t care if they kill 5,000 of us,” a protester screamed inside Salmaniya hospital, which has become a staging point for Bahrain’s raging youth. “The regime must fall and we will make sure it does.”
Last night footage was posted on YouTube apparently showing Bahraini security forces shooting protesters.
Western nations have been struggling to adjust their policies in response to the security crackdowns in Arab countries.
But Britain announced that it was revoking 44 licences for the export of arms to Bahrain amid concern over the violent suppression of protests in the Gulf state. The Foreign Office also said that eight arms export licences to Libya had been withdrawn, while a review of arms exports to the wider region continues.
Bahrain’s crown prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa went on television to promise a national dialogue once calm has returned. But the country’s most senior Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, condemned attacks on protesters as a “massacre” and said the government had shut the door to such dialogue.
While the unrest in Bahrain was broadcast instantly around the world, the unprecedented bloodshed in the remote towns of eastern Libya was far harder for global media to cover.
Amid an official news blackout in Libya, there were opposition claims of 60 dead as diplomats reported the use of heavy weapons in Benghazi, the country’s second city, and “a rapidly deteriorating situation” in the latest – and the most repressive – Arab country to be hit by serious unrest.
Libyans said a “massacre” had been perpetrated in Benghazi, al-Bayda and elsewhere in the region. Crowds in the port city of Tobruk were shown destroying a statue of Gaddafi’s Green Book and chanting, “We want the regime to fall,” echoing the slogan of the uprising in Egypt.
Umm Muhammad, a political activist in Benghazi, told the Guardian that 38 people had died in the city. “They [security forces] were using live fire here, not just teargas. This is a bloody massacre – in Benghazi, in al-Bayda, all over Libya. They are releasing prisoners from the jails to attack the demonstrators.” Benghazi’s al-Jala hospital was appealing for emergency blood supplies to help treat the injured.
News and rumours spread rapidly via social media websites including Twitter and Facebook, but information remained fragmentary and difficult to confirm.
In Yemen at least five people were reported killed when security forces and anti-government protesters clashed for a seventh consecutive day in the capital, Sana’a, Aden and other cities, with crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule.
Barack Obama said he was “deeply concerned” about the reports of violence from Bahrain, a close ally and the base of the US fifth fleet, as well as those from Libya and Yemen, and he urged their rulers to show restraint with protesters.
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, also condemned the killings of protesters in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. “The Middle East and North Africa region is boiling with anger,” he said. “At the root of this anger is decades of neglect of people’s aspirations to realise not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights.”
In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the influential Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi said the Arab world had changed and said Egypt’s new military leaders should listen to their people “to liberate us from the government that Mubarak formed”.
It has also emerged that the Ministry of Defence has helped train more than 100 Bahraini army officers in the past five years at Sandhurst and other top UK colleges.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
February 25, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Now that Egyptian protesters have pushed Hosni Mubarak into relinquishing power, they want him to return the fortune he and his family allegedly amassed during his 30-year reign. “If we can get back some of the billions stolen, I will be satisfied with our revolution,” one 29-year-old Egyptian told The Washington Post. How much money does Mubarak have — and do the Egyptian people really have a shot at getting it back? Here, a quick guide to the fight over Mubarak’s money:
How much money are we talking about?
Nobody knows for sure. Estimates of the Mubarak family’s wealth go as high as $70 billion — more than Microsoft founder Bill Gates is worth. The breakdown, according to ABC News, includes $17 billion for Mubarak, $10 billion for his second son, Gamal, and $40 billion for the rest of the family. (Watch a Bloomberg report about Mubarak’s great wealth)
Where’s the loot?
Some of it’s tied up in real estate. Mubarak and his sons own property not only in Egypt, but also London, Los Angeles and New York, according to reports cited in The Washington Post. In London, Gamal Mubarak, 47, owns a house in a neighborhood where homes sell for as much as $20 million. As for the rest of the fortune, the family reportedly has billions stashed in foreign banks and offshore accounts.
How did Mubarak get so rich?
He didn’t do it by squirreling away his salary. As president, Mubarak made just $808 per month in 2007 and 2008, according to a Cairo think tank. Mubarak reportedly made his first millions through military contracts during his earlier career as an air force officer. Later his sons allegedly took huge cuts from businesses investing in Egypt, giving favored entrepreneurs virtual monopolies in return, according to The Sunday Telegraph. Other possible sources of wealth: Government corruption and the sale of state companies and land.
Will Egypt be able to get the money back?
Maybe. Switzerland has frozen whatever assets the Mubaraks and their associates still have there, and other countries are under pressure to do the same. Anti-corruption watchdogs are calling for criminal charges against the Mubaraks. A conviction would help banks return the cash. But, according to Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, Mubarak scrambled in his last days in office to hide his assets. “We think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around,” a senior Western intelligence source told the Telegraph. “If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now.”
Sources: Washington Post, Sunday Telegraph, AOL News, ABC News
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
February 15, 2011 at 8:58 PM
Mubarak is out — but he may take unimaginable wealth out with him. Estimates of his stolen fortune range as high as $70 billion, more than a third of the entire Egyptian economy.
Time is running out for world governments to freeze Mubarak’s assets before they disappear into a maze of obscure bank accounts — like so many other dictator’s stolen fortunes. Switzerland has already frozen his finances, and some EU ministers have offered help — but without an immediate global outcry, action may come too slowly to stop the Mubarak billions from vanishing.
Let’s call on leaders of all nations to ensure that Egypt’s money is returned to the people.
Millions of Egyptians live on less than $2 per day — yet experts say that corruption costs Egypt more than $6 billion in public money per year. The Mubaraks themselves have benefited massively from a web of business deals, crony-capitalist privatization schemes, and state-guaranteed investments throughout Mubarak’s 30 years as president. Estimates of their wealth run from a “mere” $2-3 billion to the staggering $70 billion figure, which would make Hosni Mubarak the world’s richest man. And 25 senior government officials are already under investigation for amassing fortunes above $1 billion while serving under him.
But the days may finally be over when corrupt rulers can escape with their fortunes intact. The new United Nations Convention Against Corruption explicitly calls for the return of corruptly gained assets to the countries of origin, and Egypt’s military government has already asked European Union governments to freeze Mubarak’s fortune. The key question now is whether action will come fast enough: all the laws in the world won’t help if the Mubarak billions are shuffled out of sight before authorities can seize them.
Our voices as citizens can help the people of Egypt make good on the promise of their revolution. Join the call for Egyptian wealth to go back to the people of Egypt:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/mubaraks_fortune/?vl
As millions of Egyptians risked — and even gave — their lives for democracy, there was little that we around the world could do beyond send our hopes and solidarity. But now we have a special responsibility: to do our utmost to restore the national property stolen by a dictatorship that our own governments tolerated for far too long.
The people of Egypt are ready now to build a new nation. Let’s ensure that they regain the resources that were taken from them, as they create the future that few dared to dream possible.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
February 15, 2011 at 8:51 PM
The Child Tax Credit is an important tax credit that may be worth as much as $1,000 per qualifying child depending upon your income. Here are 10 important facts from the IRS about this credit and how it may benefit your family.
- Amount - With the Child Tax Credit, you may be able to reduce your federal income tax by up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under the age of 17.
- Qualification – A qualifying child for this credit is someone who meets the qualifying criteria of six tests: age, relationship, support, dependent, citizenship, and residence.
- Age Test – To qualify, a child must have been under age 17 – age 16 or younger – at the end of 2010.
- Relationship Test – To claim a child for purposes of the Child Tax Credit, they must either be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister or a descendant of any of these individuals, which includes your grandchild, niece or nephew. An adopted child is always treated as your own child. An adopted child includes a child lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.
- Support Test – In order to claim a child for this credit, the child must not have provided more than half of its own support.
- Dependent Test – You must claim the child as a dependent on your federal tax return.
- Citizenship Test – To meet the citizenship test, the child must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien.
- Residence Test – The child must have lived with you for more than half of 2010. There are some exceptions to the residence test, which can be found in IRS Publication 972, Child Tax Credit.
- Limitations – The credit is limited if your modified adjusted gross income is above a certain amount. The amount at which this phase-out begins varies depending on your filing status. For married taxpayers filing a joint return, the phase-out begins at $110,000. For married taxpayers filing a separate return, it begins at $55,000. For all other taxpayers, the phase-out begins at $75,000. In addition, the Child Tax Credit is generally limited by the amount of the income tax you owe as well as any alternative minimum tax you owe.
- Additional Child Tax Credit – If the amount of your Child Tax Credit is greater than the amount of income tax you owe, you may be able to claim the Additional Child Tax Credit.
Source: IRS
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
February 14, 2011 at 9:41 PM
To file your 2010 individual tax return, you’ll have to decide which form to use…unless you e-file. This year, choosing which form to file will be even more important since the IRS will no longer be mailing paper tax packages. The IRS is taking this step because of the continued growth in electronic filing, the availability of free options to taxpayers and to help reduce costs. Taxpayers can still get forms and instructions online at http://www.irs.gov, at local IRS offices or from participating community outlets like many libraries and post offices.
If you file your return using IRS e-file, the system will automatically decide which form you need.
Here are some general rules to consider when deciding which paper tax form to file.
Use the 1040EZ if:
- Your taxable income is below $100,000
- Your filing status is Single or Married Filing Jointly
- You and your spouse – if married — are under age 65 and not blind
- You are not claiming any dependents
- Your interest income is $1,500 or less
Use the 1040A if:
- Your taxable income is below $100,000
- You have capital gain distributions
- You claim certain tax credits
- You claim adjustments to income for IRA contributions and student loan interest
If you cannot use the 1040EZ or the 1040A, you’ll probably need to file using the 1040. Among the reasons you must use the 1040 are:
- Your taxable income is $100,000 or more
- You claim itemized deductions
- You are reporting self-employment income
- You are reporting income from sale of property
You can gain quick and easy access to IRS forms and instructions or find out more about e-file by visiting http://www.irs.gov. Tax products are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and often appear online well before they are available on paper. To view and download tax products, visit the IRS website and select Forms and Publications.
Source: IRS
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
February 14, 2011 at 9:28 PM
Older Posts
Newer Posts
