The Itasca Project, a group of about 40 Twin Cities business leaders, academics and public officials in late October released a report called, "Mind the Gap," that it had commissioned. The report showed the seriousness top business leaders in the area attach to the influx of new immigrants that have come to the area. The report noted that Minnesota has the largest Hmong, Somali, and Liberian communities in the , a fact well known by recent census numbers. Immigrants from 160 countries came to
Minnesota
in 2002, the report noted.
Upcoming African immigrant professionals and entrepreneurs under the banner of Channel Afrique in Minnesota meet every last Friday of the month to network and co-ordinate their activities for greater shared gains. On Friday October 28, they met at the Double Tree Hotel where Tom Gitaa, Editor and Publisher of Mshale – The African Community Newspaper, gave an invigorating talk on how he has worked his way in reaching out to the reading public and now his paper is regarded by many as a leader in the Minnesota African community media circles.
Former President Bill Clinton told of an experience he had in to illustrate the strategies the can take to combat terrorism. He talked of a Ghanaian woman who ran after him to hand him a shirt as a present to thank the former president for his African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that provided economic opportunities for her. Mr. Clinton signed into law the AGOA Act in his final year of office.
Liberian voters have become the first Africans to elect a female head of state. Liberians on November 8 elected Harvard-educated economist and former World Bank official, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to be president of that country.
Some financial maneuvering before year-end can save you considerable money. Here are a few year-end tax avoidance tactics:
East African Traveler
It’s near midnight, and the calabash of honey beer keeps being filled up and passed around the circle of elders in a grass hall, illuminated by firelight, somewhere out in the Great Rift Valley of central .
Scholarships provide $15,000 to support college education
Six college students are the recipients of scholarships totaling $15,000
from the Muslim youth Leadership Awards (MYLA) for the 2005-2006
academic year. All winners this academic year are from the University of
Minnesota .
Movie Review
You would never have imagined that there are talented Tanzanian actors and actresses in Minnesota who can advance the production of Swahili movies until Josiah Kibira burst into the scene with Bongoland. If you liked his first movie, you will be mesmerized by his second motion picture Tusamehe, literally meaning Forgive Us - as he raises the bar of Swahili movies to a new level – the digital age.