 in Mobile helped lead the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office to a "trove of stolen equipment" in Baldwin County last week. The Mobile Police Department had called the Sheriff's Office on Friday and reported several vehicles had been stolen from a Mobile business and a GPS signal from one of the trucks - a 2013 Chevrolet - that had actually been tracked to a location on Freddie Sellers Road in the Bay Minette area. When they arrived at the scene, authorities also discovered a Kubota excavator, a Caterpillar skid steer loader and a gooseneck trailer. As the deputies were investigating the scene, two men drove up and soon fled, but were soon caught and identified as Freddie Sellers and Greg Holder Jr. aka "Pooh Bear" (who had the key to the stolen Caterpillar in his pocket). Holder was charged with receiving stolen property, and Sellers was charged with possession of a controlled substance, attempt to elude and receiving stolen property.Head Office56 Campbell Park AvenueBelfastBT4 3FJNorthern Ireland
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Church Resources will take place on 10th + 11th October 2014 at The Seven Towers Leisure Centre, Ballymena. CLICK HERE to view the schedule of Conference Presentations and Seminars, to order Tickets for these and to see a list of exhibitors attending the event.
CLICK HERE to download The Community Transport Association's Guidance Notes for Faith and Cultural Groups Providing Transport. (For further info contact their NI Regional Office: 028 9094 1661
CLICK HERE to download Mark Mason's presentation, delivered at CR 2013 in Belfast, on Recruiting and Managing Staff - Mark can be contacted on 028 9084 8899Everywhere you look, the story of decay is the story of our lack of capacity. Severely hit is our educational system in which you see supposed graduates who are struggling to write a complete sentence without making a mistake. And with porous brains, they want to work in the best organisations in the land!
It is very easy to point fingers at everybody else, except ourselves, on what or who are the problems of Nigeria. And we are very generous in doing this. The bulk of the blames, we assign to our leaders. And that is rightfully so. However, we forget that we are all leaders in our own little ways.
 The lack of ability to internalise this fact makes many of us see the problems confronting us as that of others to solve.
Yes, some of the problems are domiciled in certain entities, so they become the ones who should lead the struggle for solutions in such matters. However, the bottom line is that we all have roles to play in our various spheres of influence.
This is where the issue of capacity or the lack of it comes in. Let’s begin with security. It is true that security is of utmost importance in any society. That is why the security of lives and property is the primary responsibility of governments all over the civilised world. Governments have collapsed in different parts of the world when they are unable to secure the lives of their citizens.
As a nation, we have failed abysmally in this regard. All it takes is for you to conceive a crime in Nigeria, plan it and execute it. The chances of your being caught are minimal. It is this lack of holding people accountable for the crimes they commit that has encouraged much of the crime we witness in this country. Be it 419, fraud in government or private corporations, kidnapping, murder, and so on.
The law enforcement agencies, especially the Police, have disappointed us with their lack of capacity. You are left to wonder whether they still gather intelligence. If they still do, we are not seeing much in terms of results. I remember when we were in the university years back, we had among the student population security agents who were also students. As such, there was hardly anything the students were planning which the security agencies were not aware of.
Is it not the lack of capacity on the part of the security agencies that enabled the growth of the kidnap “industry” in Nigeria? Many young men and women now believe that the shortest cut to making a fortune is for them to form a ring of kidnappers and go into business. The higher the net worth of their victims, the better for them. We have also been regaled with stories of collaboration between some law enforcement officers and kidnappers. This is not just a case of the lack of capacity, but a betrayal of trust reposed in them by the society.
The continuous sad story we hear from Southern Kaduna exposes the lack of capacity of security agencies. Let’s be clear with one fact: There will always be conflicts in all societies. Managing such conflicts is the responsibility of government and the security forces. In this case, there is failure on the part of all concerned, including community leaders. No society can achieve its full potentials when it is perpetually at war. That is what we are having in Southern Kaduna and it is a tragedy and a big shame.
A situation in which human lives are no longer valued, where people are butchered like chickens cannot be acceptable in any decent society. When security agencies are clearly failing in their duties and there is a reluctance to revamp and reorganise them, then there is something that is clearly more than meets the eyes. And it cannot be in the national interest.
Without the security of lives and property, how do you promote your tourism? If the truth must be told, this is a country that is blessed with amazing tourism potentials. From the Argungu Fishing Festival to the Durban in Kano to Yankari Games Reserve, to the beauty of the Plateau to Osun Oshogbo to the Enugu Coal mines to Obudu cattle ranch, etc., the nation is adequately blessed. But we lack capacity to develop and maintain what we have. We also lack capacity to assure visitors that their lives are safe if they come to Nigeria. We cannot even assure our own citizens that travelling by road to different parts of the country is a safe thing to do. So what we have in Nigeria are business tourists and not tourists in the real sense of the word. We surely can do better.
One thing that is sure is that we cannot continue on this path. Otherwise, the rest of the world will leave us behind and we will no longer be a viable country.
Our scandalous infrastructure – be it electricity, roads, railways, etc – is also a sad reflection of our lack of capacity to put in place things that we make life comfortable for us as a people. Almost 60 years after independence, our roads are far worse than they were 40 years ago, the railway system is just being revived. Electricity supply remains a disgrace. How we expect to develop without adequate power supply beats my imagination.
Sports which has brought joy to us as a people also suffer from this malaise. Remember the first and last time we won Olympics gold medals? That was in 1996. Chioma Ajunwa gave us the first gold before the Under-23 Soccer Team gave us another. Since then, we have gone to the global sports fiesta and returned with empty hands. Our fire brigade approach to preparing for competitions is still very much with us. Long term plans are consigned to the shelves, rather than being brought to the tracks and fields.
Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) President, Michael Malin, was a member of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission which explored the asteroid, 433 Eros, in detail in 2000 and early 2001. Michael Malin was also a science team member on NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) mission; the CONTOUR spacecraft was lost during its interplanetary cruise phase in 2002. MSSS has been involved with multiple proposals for future opportunities to explore asteroids and comets, including proposals in 1996 and 2000 to explore the Jovian Trojan asteroid, 624 Hektor. In addition, MSSS cameras on Mars Global Surveyor (the Mars Orbiter Camera, MOC) and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (the Context Camera, CTX) acquired images of two small bodies in our Solar System: the martian satellites Phobos and Deimos.Intergen well and truly stood out amongst the crowd in this year’s Business Games. A large number of Wellington staff members put on their yellow jerseys to participate in various events, competing against other businesses in the region.
We didn’t beat our competitors in every single event – but we are very proud of winning first prize for the “Best Team Attitude” in the corporate challenge, as well as the overall “Best Team Attitude” for the 2011 Business Games! Intergenites showed once more that teamwork is part of our company culture. We are successful if we all work together, have fun with what we are doing – and just give it that yellow touch!
“We came 13th equal out of 36 teams. Everyone had a fantastic time and there was even talk of starting up an Intergen Shooting Team – watch out for us next year!
“As the darkness swiftly approached, a group of dedicated individuals checked their provisions before going into battle in the brutal competition known as ‘Business Games – Corporate Challenge’. The field was tough and complicated by the fact that the enemy had spiked our drinking water with an amber substance they called ‘beer’ – hilarity ensued.
“Both runners were a bit injured but highly motivated and – of course – dressed up in yellow. Starting very early morning in Island Bay we took the challenge on the tough track. Pretty much 22km up and downhill with a lot of muddy sections - although we’ve been rewarded with stunning views from some of Wellington’s high peaks.
Everyone had