South African becomes the first woman of Africa to command a navy vessel.

Lieutenant Commander Zimasa Mabela became the first African woman to take command of a navy vessel this week, taking the helm of the SAS Umhloti. “She will be taking over from Commander Brian Shor, who is currently the officer in commanding Sas Umhloti,” Lieutenant Obed Medupe told Eyewitness News, adding, “We are looking up at more women taking over commanding vessels.” Mabela got her start in the navy in 1999, when she joined as a telecommunications radio official. She told The South African that she hopes to be judged only on her ability to command, and not her gender.

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/08/28/south-african-becomes-first-woman-in-all-of-africa-to-command-a-navy-vessel/

My Finnish experience, (by Behdad Salemi - August 30, 2015).

I’m a non-muslim Persian student in Finland and this is my story. I was born in Iran but due to the strict islamic rules and the islamic belief I couldn’t fit in from the early ages. I moved to Cyprus as a young teenager and after a while I came to north. I moved here 3 years ago for studying in the university (liiketalous) but shortly  after I started working part time as well. Finland is a beautiful country. I like all the snow and the sauna and stuff. During winters it gets a bit on the nerves because of the dark but in general it’s fine… I’m more comfy with the cold than sun. My main goal at first was to study and work hard and try to integrate and be part of this society but later Finns have showed me that they are not really accepting the idea of foreigners in Finland.

I have made many Finnish friends, Spent time with Finnish families and learned the language as much as I could. Even though I never took any courses but I still have better understanding in Finnish than the foreigners around me. Also I had a chance to get a basic knowledge of Swedish. To be honest I liked Swedish language way more and I believe it sounds better and makes more sense. The point is, even if you are in Finland for 20 years and you have kids people still call you and your kids the “mamu” word behind you or in your face. But in countries like UK, Denmark or Sweden if you have lived in the nation for long enough and integrated successfully, you will be call British, Dansk or Svensk but hey, never in Finland! In here instead it is more likely a joke if someone considers a foreign background person a “Finn”. I have had a lot of good and bad experiences. But you always forget the stuff that you should remember and you remember the things that you should forget…That’s just the way it is and when I think about Finland and Finns I just remember the bad experiences. Like when I got attacked by THREE drunk person after a night of clubbing. They abused me and when the Police arrived they didn’t do or asked anything… They just took me in the car and made me sleep in the police station for the whole night. Those guys simply just walked away!!! I have a nervous condition and I take 1000mg of some pill at nights in order to function. I asked the police many times that let me at least get my medication from my wallet but they just ignored me in that cold cell for the whole night. The next morning I told them I WILL SUE YOU AND YOU WILL SUFFER. The guy said “You can’t prove anything”. That is only one of the very few experiences that I had… In the eyes of Finnish police if you are not Finnish looking person a possible suspect unless the opposite is proven.

Since the True Finns party came to the parliament people have been really more hostile towards foreigners… I started to get anxiety when I go out in public. Feeling that I am not wanted here… I just read hate comments on uusisuomi, youtube and facebook and get more and more anxious. I am studying hard and at the same job I work 20 to 25 hours per week to support myself (that’s right, I don’t have any support from the state) I only managed to get kela card so my medical treatment will be free and that was after 2 years of work and paying taxes But still every once in a while people are shouting to my face in the metro or tram that ohhh you foreigners you don’t work at all and you take our money and blah blah blah. The problem in this country is XENOPHOBIA meaning fear and hate towards any other ethnicity than the “True Finns”. They give you this excuses about islam and stuff. Yeah Islam or any other religion is based on something from thousand years ago and of course it doesn’t fit in the current society but that is just an excuse for their evil racist intentions. I am not muslim myself and I hate religion more than anyone because once upon a time I lived in somewhere like Iran but still I get the same nicknames and treatment from finns as the muslim refugees. It was just a while ago that african fella was drowned in a river in Turku and you should have just read the comments on the news agency websites! Some lady was complaining that why only one nigger have drowned and someone else have wrote “yksi neekeri vähemman” like seriously Finland? you still talk like that in year 2015? I moved here because I thought you guys are open minded. Or there was this Chinese girl saying that how one Finnish lady didn’t like asians on the tram in Helsinki and threw her groceries at her or My french friend that he was told in a taxi line by some drunk dude that “Finns go first”. 

Now I’m graduating in a month and happily leaving this place. I finally found love and a hometown. Somewhere that they are welcoming me with open arms and smile and not so far from Finland! I am a skilled immigrant who could have a positive effect in the country but they made me run away. I mean I wasn’t actually missing anything because the only job I could get was cleaning at metro. Here if you don’t have Finnish or Swedish sounding name they rarely will open your job application and CV. Just please, wake up Finland. Stop with all of that valkoinen valta shit.

http://www.migranttales.net/behad-salemi-my-finnish-experience/

                                               Men are really stupids...

Palestinian President Constructing $13 Million Palace. (By Conor Gaffey).

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas chairs a Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, August 22, 2015.Majdi Mohammed/Pool/Reuters

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is constructing a $13 million palace in the West Bank, despite the country being crippled by financial woes.

The project, titled the Presidential Guest Palace in Surda, Ramallah, is listed as an ongoing project on the official website of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development & Reconstruction (PECDAR). It is due to take two years to complete, though the project's start date is not clear from the website.

The complex will include a 4,700-square-metre guest palace and two helipads, as well as a 4,000-square-metre administrative building. It will be constructed over a total land area of 27,000 square metres. PECDAR said on the website that the project will be financed by the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.

The objectives of PECDAR, as listed on its website, include "coordinating the flow of international assistance for the benefit of the Palestinian people" and "identifying investment projects and other activities to be financed by the donor countries." It is accountable to a Board of Trustees, headed up by President Abbas. Most of the other ongoing projects listed on PECDAR's website are being funded by foreign donors, including a $4.5 million drug warehouse in Nablus being funded by the French government and a $7.2 million judicial court complex in Hebron, funded by the Government of Canada.

PECDAR was not immediately available to comment on the purpose of the palace and how it would benefit Palestinian people.

An artist's impression of what the new palace will look like. PECDAR.

Palestine has been beset by financial crises throughout 2015. The Palestinian government adopted an emergency budget in March after donor countries failed to transfer $5.4 billion in aid that had been pledged in October, following the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. Palestine was also hit by Israel's decision to freeze monthly Palestinian tax revenues of $127 million in protest of Palestine's decision to apply for membership of the International Criminal Court and seek war crime charges against Israel. In April, Israel agreed to release the tax revenues, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) uses to pay civil servants' salaries.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which works with Palestinian refugees, is also facing what is has described as its "most severe financial crisis ever." UNRWA is appealing for $100 million to begin the 2015-2016 academic year—if this amount is not raised, some 500,000 Palestinian children may not be able to attend school. According to the CIA World Factbook, the West Bank's GDP per capita stands at $4,900, compared to $33,400 in Israel and $54,800 in the United States.

Israeli news site Arutz Sheva, which reported the project, said the fact that the palace was considered a national priority "throws into further relief the massive corruption in the PA." However, the cost of the palace is dwarfed by that being spent on the construction of a new combined residence and office in Jerusalem for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The project, approved by the Israeli government in May 2014, is estimated to cost $188 million.

http://europe.newsweek.com/palestinian-president-constructing-13m-palace-332061