Archive for November, 2007

Edwards Stumped on the Stump

by AGavin on November 7th, 2007

Source: NYTimes

By Christine Hauser

DURHAM, N.H., Oct 30 – Like he does at almost all of his campaign events, John Edwards said today that he wanted to listen more than to talk. So after brief remarks about his education policy at Oyster River High School, he turned the floor over to hundreds of teenage students.

“You are welcome to ask anything you want,” he told them. It looked like Mr. Edwards got more than he expected. There were questions about North American currency consolidation, “conflict diamonds,” ending genocide in Darfur, and recycling nuclear waste. And there was the question from Max Harris, an 18-year old senior, whose girlfriend, Leah, asked him to pose it for her. He put up his hand, and Mr. Edwards called on him.

“If you were not running for president, who would you vote for and why?” Mr. Harris said. “Oh, good question!” Mr. Edwards said. It was a response the reporter cannot recall him ever saying in press briefings after these events.

“You know, I can honestly tell you, I hate to sound like a politician, but I have not spent a nano-second thinking about that,” Mr. Edwards said. “Because when you are running for president, you are so committed to what you want to do as president. It would require some thought. More thought than I have given it.” “I do obviously have opinions about other candidates because I spend a lot of time with them, including on debate stages,” Mr. Edwards said. “For those of you who are interested enough to watch, tonight at nine o’clock there will be debate in Philadelphia for the Democratic presidential candidates. So I do have opinions of them but I think I am going to use my privilege of keeping that to myself right now. It’s a perfectly fair question though.”

As Mr. Harris later walked out with his friends, he said he was satisfied with the reply. “I didn’t expect him to answer because of the slanted nature of the question. He is not going to tell us to vote for someone else.” Mr. Edwards, who is in the state for four days of campaigning, fit the school event in between helping his young son Jack with his homework at the hotel in the morning and jetting off in the afternoon for the debate in Philadelphia.

He told reporters outside of the school that tonight, he would make sure that voters know “they have choices, and that there are differences between me and Senator Clinton and what those differences are.” He reflected on the high school event, saying students usually ask him about conflicts and education. “And the third, how can I say this; is sort of cultural,” he said. “What’s happening in the minute, what’s on television, what’s on MTV kind of stuff.”

“Those were pretty impressive questions this morning,” he said. In the morning, while waiting for Mr. Edwards to arrive, the students drifted in to the auditorium to take seats, holding hands, drinking beverages they were told to put away, or clapping and nodding their heads in time to the Kool & the Gang song “Celebration” playing on the sound system.

The school’s principal, Laura Rogers, asked for their attention. She said Mr. Edwards was five minutes away. She said usually the high schools that are a lot bigger than Oyster River, which has 720 students, attract national candidates. This year, the school invited all the candidates to speak, but Mr. Edwards was so far the only one able to “free up” his schedule. “It’s been three or four years since we have had a national candidate who has been available,” Mrs. Rogers said. “Ask your best questions.”

Mr. Edwards was applauded for his thoughts on reducing greenhouse gases and calls for sacrifice to save the environment. There was also the question from Marie Collins, a 16-year old junior: “If you were to become president, what actions would you take to stem the flow of conflict diamonds into our country?”

Mr. Edwards asked her to repeat the question, which she did. Mr. Edwards still did not understand. “Conflict diamonds,” Ms. Collins said. “I don’t even know what that term is,” Mr. Edwards said.

A student sitting in front of me muttered: “And people think Bush is bad.” “Like blood diamonds, from Africa,” Ms. Collins said.

“Oh, oh, oh sorry,” Mr. Edwards said. “Boy you guys really do have your own things don’t you? Can I tell you I have had probably hundreds of town hall meetings, I have literally never been asked that question. Or had the issue raised.” “I don’t know, I don’t know the answer to that. It would require more thought than I have given it. But since you raised it I will do it. I know about the issue,” he said. “I certainly know about the movie. But I would have to give that more thought than I have to give you an honest answer to it. But thank you for raising it.”

When I asked a school administrator for Ms. Collins’s phone number, the administrator said she had no idea what conflict diamonds were either. Ms. Collins later told me on the phone: “Well, I thought that his response was good. I think it was good that he was honest when he didn’t understand it. But I feel like it is something he should have known about.”

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Angola: Endiama P&p Produces First Lot of Diamonds

by AGavin on November 5th, 2007

Source: All Africa

Angolan diamond prospecting and producing firm “Endiama P&P”, a subsidiary to the National Diamond Company (Endiama-EP), Thursday in Luanda produced the first lot of 15,000 carats mined from Camuanzanza mine, in northeastern Lunda Norte province. Speaking alongside the ceremony of presentation, attended by officials of the diamond sector, Endiama P&P managing board chairman, José Chimupi, said the lot will be appraised and sold to Angola’s Diamond Trading Society (Sodiam).

Comprising six areas, the Camuanzanza mine covers an extension of 535 square kilometres and a producing capacity of 12 to 15,000 carats a month, estimating a monthly production of 180,000 carats. According to José Chimupi, in order to expand the project’s lifespan, the company will continue prospecting in the remainder areas of deposit, through the implementation of new projects.

He said prospecting carried out in one of the areas of concession established 11 blocks with proven mining reserves estimated at over 2.6 million cubic metres of mineral, corresponding to 891,713 carats. He added that the monthly average carats for the current initial stage is estimated at 7,000, a figure expected to progressively rise to 12,000.

In addition to Camuanzanza, the source added, Endiama P&P has been working to expand its activity to other diamond areas throughout the national territory. Endiama P&P was set up under a Cabinet Council’s 39/03 decree of June 27, with 99 percent of the shares, while Sodiam holds one percent.

The company was set up to carry out prospecting, research and exploration of diamonds. It can also invest in other businesses that include industry and commerce.

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UN Renews Cote d’Ivoire Diamond Ban

by AGavin on November 3rd, 2007

Source: Diamonds.net

The United Nations Security Council has renewed its ban on rough diamonds from CÃ´te dâ€™Ivoire (Ivory Coast,) extending the embargo for another year until October 31, 2008.

The resolution also extended the ban on the trade of arms for a year, as well as targeted measures, such as travel restrictions and the freezing of funds, against certain individuals.

Earlier in October, a UN-appointed team of experts said that diamonds from Cote d’Ivoire were being smuggled to Mali, and called on all countries bordering Ivory Coast and Ivorian authorities, to tighten controls.

According to the World Diamond Congress (WDC,) Cote d’Ivoire is the only source of conflict diamonds in the market today, constituting less than one percent of the global total.

In Mondayâ€™s (October 29, 2007) vote, the council unanimously adopted the resolution, which it said would come under review once parties had fully implemented the Ouagadougou agreement. Signed on March 4, 2007, theÂ agreement marked the end of the 5-year conflict between the rebel-held north and the government-controlled south. The council set an April 30, 2008 deadline for these conditions to be met.

Under the Ouagadougou agreement, parties committed to forming a new transitional government in Ivory Coast, to hold free and fair presidential elections, merge the forces nouvelles and the national defense and security forces through the establishment of an integrated command center, and dismantling the militias and disarming ex-combatants, enrolling them in civil services programs.

The council stressed that it was ready to impose targeted measures against persons who are determined to be a threat to the peace and national reconciliation process in Ivory Coast as well as others undermining peace and threatening human rights there.

The move came despite an appeal by the country’sÂ PresidentÂ Laurent Gbagbo, who in September called for a partial lifting of the weapons embargo so that the country can â€œcarry out its task of protecting people and goods,â€ the UN News Service said.

He told the General Assembly onÂ September 26Â that sanctions remain on individuals who have â€œput heart and soul into seeking peace,â€ and asked the UN to lift those measures as they applied to three individuals: Charles GoudÃ© Ble, EugÃ¨ne Djue, and Kouakou Fofie.

Political unrest has been rife in Cote d’Ivoire since the mid-1990s, during which time two coup dâ€™Ã©tats have been staged. After a peace agreement was signed in 2003 between the government and rebels, forming a unity government, violence broke again in 2004 when rebels refused to disarm. The violence continued through to March 2007 when another peace deal was signed between the government and the rebels.

The UN said in the report that while tension abated after signing the agreement, â€œthe process of emerging from the crisis has not significantly progressed beyond symbolic acts.â€

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Angola: Representative of Russian Diamonds Company in Luanda

by AGavin on November 1st, 2007

Source: All Africa

The representative of the Russian diamonds company for the Angolan “Mualengue” project, Peirce Tomer, is since Sunday evening in the country, to discuss the financing of the project, ANGOP learnt.

Speaking to ANGOP, at Luanda’s 4 de Fevereiro Internatioal Airport, where he was received by the deputy director-general of the Mualengue association, Jose Sonhi, he said that the Russian group will invest over five million American dollars, demanded under the legislation.

The project is located in the eastern provinces of Lunda-Sul and Moxico, in Dala region and a prospecting work has not been yet done.

The society comprises the state-run diamond company Endiama and other Angolan associations.