At last News from Nigeria!

We have been waiting so long for news of those school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and today 21 were released, the parents were there and there! The name of the town was Chibok from where the girls  were taken. There are 190 girls still kept. The girls are among thousands of adults and children who had been abducted by Boko Haram.
Negotiation with the Nigerian government had been complicated by the splits within Boko Haram.
Isis with which this group is affiliated  with, they too have removed a couple of activists.
Since they have, they were an armed group and controlled a swath of land the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria's army has recaptured most of the territory, so what will happen next?

Who are those poaching the world's most endangered species?

I am horrified that so many animals are being poached

There is no telling that the Ivory from Elephants and the Tusks from the Rhino which are being decimated by the poachers. The general public are still buying merchandise from these animals not realising that this is just promoting the slaughter. Money speaks with Poaching, creatures that might be wiped out and the thought of losing these beautiful creatures, such as tigers although most of these creatures may never be seen by any of us.
These creatures are here at the moment and we are the stewards of the planet but if we let these animals disappear so that our grandchildren will not be able to see these wonderful animals and will we able to tell them that we were to greedy as a race that we have lost all these special part of this earth.   

Sad Sudan

What is going on in South Sudan? It is never talked about and hardly ever reported from. How do we know what is happening there? One brave lady came to talk to us about it at a meeting in the house. I kept asking her why did she go to South Sudan. She said that she was a teacher and with a friend who was HIV positive set up a school in Nimule near Juba. The two of them had started a school, they had encouraged the diaspora to stay and join the school. They had got 60 on the school role.
Rebecca is a very self effacing young lady and there were a great many people who had come out to see both of them and Rebecca was moved as she says "moved by the spirit" and talked to all the people and told them how they had been guided to start the school.
She had never spoken in public before but as I say she felt that they should know how it had all come about. A remarkable lady that moved us as we listen to her.

We were with a prayer on our lips of to keep her safe!

An MS weekend

On Saturday 17th of September I went with a friend to the MS weekend which they held at the Excelcentre in East London, We went to the first talk. I had felt as I had lived on a farm in Wales and had treated the sheep with Sheep dip and was using Organophosphates and felt that this had been the thing that triggered the MS.
I spoke to a Professor that was speaking at the conference that I felt was the start of the condition. He felt that it wasn't proven that there was no proof that there was a link, Many people suffering from this would strongly disagree. There are many farmers who have committed suicide because their means of living had gone.
I was invited by Andy Burnham and another lady member of Parliament who were very concerned for the farmers and felt the Government should recognise there is a link. What has to happen before someone starts to eat away the government's insistence that all these symptoms are in our mind?
Thirty years ago this started, how can those few farmers get recognition this has happened to them.
It has ruined so many lives why hasn't this been proved?

Now we hear that Boko Haram released a Video of the 276 that were kidnapped on the night of April 14th, 57 managed to escape.
Al Jaz era Ahmed Idris states the girls are still in their hands, and were releasing them as they neared the border one at a time. One had had a baby with the man that had taken her the kidnapping, so what happens now. Who are we going to believe the government or this brutal group. It came as quite a shock to see these girls after such a long time can you imagine what they had been through after all those days in the forest and being paired off to all those kidnappers. Will they ever be released?

Visiting Caux

So my husband and I went to the conference on Good Governance in the really peaceful atmosphere of Caux in Switzerland at the head of Lake Geneva. We went from 11th of July until the 16th, It was a very full conference with lots of people there from different countries.

My godson was Armenian and there were several talks about the Armenian situation and the songs that they were singing were a lament, and we were told by the guy running the session to move on, but how do you move on when members of your family could have been massacred by the Turks?

The day started with a Quiet Time at 7.30 am for half an hour and then cutting up vegetables for an hour. This was done by every one at the conference even ambassadors, everyone then chose a plenary session. Then in the evening at 10 pm there was a Taizé service taken by two dedicated members of the group. Also there was someone playing the Oud in the basement, a really magical instrument with a very haunting refrain.
A really interesting cross of cultures as Moslems and Christians and Catholics & Greek Orthodox and all things spiritual have something in common, maybe God.

Trip to Devon & Cornwall to try for The Police Commissioner

We both were away for about six weeks as Will was contesting the Role of Police Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, He made 22,000 votes but lost the election! He had some revolutionary schemes for the electorate. We travelled hundreds of miles in and out of the thousands of villages in Cornwall and Devon. Devon is such a vast County. Will had Mark Hambley as his Agent! Will asked both his sisters his brother in laws, but they weren't interested. So he asked the Returning Officer whether the agent could come from the US, and he said as long as he had a British address so they could deliver a summons if things had gone horribly wrong!
I was a Student in Exeter so it felt like coming home and I still have a lot of friends in the area.
Will had the idea of those in area where crime was rising there should be zero tolerance this would be in Bideford and surprisingly Hayle in Cornwall. Zero Tolerance means that a Police Officer can arrest someone and then tell the offender that if he or she does some community work for Child line in PZ or something of that kind then he or she wouldn't go through the courts and wouldn't be charged.
Then because the lady who won was being investigated by ITV for messing up with the charges of the Battle Bus and Will felt we should look at Corruption and how it effects everyone going around their own lives.

Medical Justice is a small charity, advertising for Doctors or health visitors at this moment, this very small but influential harity is becoming more welknown. and works with Asylum seekers, these have travelled many miles and are kept in shocking conditions. When you think how far they have travelled and live in fear of their lives, in case they are sent back the countries they came from.
These are interesting positions and I would highly recommend this group, they are a very supportive lot of people unfortunately I am not medically trained otherwise I would love to volunteer!

The Boko Haram girls

The families of those girls kidnapped by Boko Haram two years ago were so distraught, and there was a huge outcry in protest although nothing was done about it. What can be done? The girls must be married now or spoken for with members of the gang,
One leader of Boko Haram who had survived in a splinter group named Ansaru, was called Khalid Al Barnawi. It seems that he was a transnational terrorist and the backbone of Al Qaeda and affiliated with the splinter groups - he is very influential.
He is only one part of a desperate organisation. But he has been arrested. His arrest is a milestone for all the different parties The At Oim and those further afield. It seems that this arrest will unify the move against Boko Haram.

Standing for Election

We are in Cornwall at the moment. William is standing for Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon & Cornwall the Isles of Scilly and I really believe that he will do an excellent job. He is from Cornwall and spent some of his School days in North Devon! I was a student at Exeter University and have a number of friends there,
We have a meeting in Exeter on Tuesday seeing the other candidates and being briefed by the Chief Constable and his staff.

See William's website on www.williammorris.org and watch one of his videos:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiZ-i3ioolB9h7jf9MAbzPA

I did my run !

Me with One Show presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones at the start of the race

I managed to struggle round and with my husband Will and a great friend Penelope to do the "Sport Relief" mile. Penelope asked if I had done my exercises, and I gave "a little white lie" and said "Of course I did." Well that backfired on me because that one thinks one doesn't change that physically from year to year, but unfortunately, that is not true, and for my Valiant helpers I have started doing my exercises already.
I usually do Pilates three times a week, but these classes are under threat, it seems amazing as the powers that be want us "Golden Oldies" to take care of ourselves not to get all these diseases that are about. I think the younger generation will die of stress before they got to middle age, I feel for them!
I do believe that we can push ourselves further than we think we can. I am lucky I am able to try at these things!
I really want to thank all those wonderful people who sponsored me for SportRelief and the MS society. Thank you. Veronica. 

What happened to those girls?

A week ago on the World Service Ludovica Laccino from The International Business Times wrote that the Nigerian president would take a fresh look at the kidnapping of those 219 girls from that evening class in Chibok in April 2014. There had been a demonstration in Abuja by the parents who said Bring Back our Girls! Boko Haram have been reduced to an area around Lake Chad; he now says that securing these girls will be his priority!
We wait with bated breath to see what happens!
Now we see new developments as a single girl was found from that same group, she had just had a baby. Why did Boko Haram release this girl for what purpose? The other parents must have hope that their own daughters will be found.
Again we wait with bated breath.
Veronica Morris.