Calling Agricultural Researchers: Win Funding to put Research into use

PRESS RELEASE

11 January 2010

In the dragon’s den – win funding to put research into use

A new approach to boost agricultural production is coming to West Africa. In 2009, the Research into Use Best Bets initiative, funded by the UK Government, awarded start‐up grants worth US$2.5 million to four business ventures in East, Central and Southern Africa. Now West African researchers and entrepreneurs have their chance to compete for cash.

The first call for West African RIU Best Bet submissions came in early December 2009. Applicants have until January 29th 2010 to submit a concept note, outlining their plan for getting a piece of agricultural research into use. In the previous round, over 100 proposals were submitted, covering the production, processing and marketing of crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture.

Shortlisted applications will receive financial support to develop simple business plans. Applicants will then be invited to go into the ‘dragon’s den’, presenting their plan in person to an independent panel of experts from the African business, finance, research and development communities. The winners can expect to receive funding worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The initiative is driven by the sad fact that while agricultural research has made incredible advances in the last decade, much that has been achieved sits unused on the shelf. New and improved varieties of crops remain in research stations and appropriate technologies that could boost yields, food security and incomes have yet to reach the people who most need them – farmers.

But getting that technology from the shelf to the field can’t be done by researchers alone. One key lesson of recent years is that successfully and sustainably introducing new farming technologies depends on private sector involvement. Whether developing a piece of farm machinery or a new variety of rice, bringing that technology to the millions who need it only happens when there is profit to be made. Hence RIU Best Bet applications need to come from partnerships – researchers and business people working together to present a viable business plan, that will bring a proven technology to those who need it.

For more information, the following links will direct you to the Research into Use website ‐ http://bit.ly/RIUBestBetsWA
http://researchintouse.com/index.php?section=5&subsection=86

Word hath Charles wrought, among other ‘things from thought’

Adeleke Adeyemi

“Programming is very complicated…but we can make it possible for domain experts [fussy computer users] to provide…information in their own terms [that] directly contributes to the production of the software [they need].” --Charles Simonyi

What’s the worth of the one who wrote (or, wrought) the software that made my writing of and your reading of this possible? It’s a mere US$1 billion, according to Forbes magazine. In my book that number, compared to the difference Charles Simonyi has made to human life and work, for you and me, is a mere token of our appreciation of the contribution to our lives of the father of WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get; the acronym is pronounced WIZ-e-wig) application software.

Charles Simonyi, former chief architect at Microsoft, is a computer software guru who as head of Microsoft’s application software group oversaw the creation of Microsoft’s inimitable and most successful applications: Word and Excel. Now head of his own company, Intentional Software, his aim is to develop and market the radical concept of ‘intentional programming’.

Mr. Simonyi is reckoned the most successful ‘pure’ programmer in the world. Richer ones like Bill Gates of Microsoft and Google’s Larry Page are so because they founded and manage techno-leviathan business ventures. Mr. Simonyi’s wealth accrued solely from writing codes. He devised the programming method that Microsoft’s software developers have used for the last quarter-century.

But Dr. Simonyi, 58, was important even before he joined Microsoft. He ranks among the fabled supergeeks who invented personal computing at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, where he wrote the first modern application, a word processor called Bravo. The word before “Word,” it displayed text on a computer screen as it would appear when printed on page. Indeed, WYSIWYG!

Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary to Károly Simonyi, a professor of electrical engineering at Technical University of Budapest. While in secondary school, he got work part-time as a night watchman at a computer laboratory with a large Soviet Ural II mainframe computer under its watch. Here it was that he became strongly attracted to computing and learned programming from one of the laboratory’s engineers.

By the time he left school he had learned to develop compilers, computer programs for translating high-level programming language into machine code. He sold one of them to a government department. In 1966, Simonyi went to work in Denmark for A/S Regnecentralen, from where he moved to the United States in 1968 to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering Mathematics, specialising in Mathematics and Statistics, in 1972.

Next, Simonyi proceeded to Stanford University for graduate studies, where he was hired by Xerox PARC in its heyday. He worked alongside programming leading lights like Alan Kay and Robert Metcalfe. It was with another Xerox alumnus Butler Lampson that he developed Bravo. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford in 1977. His dissertation was on a software project management technique called “metaprogramming”. This is the theoretical framework for Simony’s whatever-you-can-do-I-can-do-it-meta approach to life and work.

At Metcalfe’s suggestion, in 1981, Simonyi applied—directly—to Bill Gates for a job. His coming would lead to the development of what became Microsoft’s most profitable products. At Microsoft, Simonyi introduced the techniques of object-oriented programming that he had learned at Xerox. A patriot to the core, he developed the Hungarian notation convention for naming variables that has been widely used inside Microsoft and is today one technique among many that helps programmers produce better code faster. Simonyi stayed on at Microsoft throughout its meteoric rise and became one of its highest-ranking developers, only to leave abruptly in 2002 to co-found a new company that markets concepts he had developed at Microsoft Research.

An active philanthropist, he endowed the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science chair at Oxford University in 1995. It was first held by now retired rave-making scientist, Richard Dawkins. He also endowed a Charles Simonyi Professor for Innovation in Teaching Chair at Stanford University. In January 2004, Simonyi created the USD $50 million Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences through which he support arts, science, and education.

Simonyi received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award in 2004 for his “innovative work in information technology that has impacted the industry greatly”. His hobbies range from classical music to outer space; he became, in 2007, the fifth space tourist ever.

Opening Address at 1st Youth Media Summit Organised by Talk Village International

Ayodeji Jeremiah


The role of the media in nation building, and as one of the mainstays of modern civilisation cannot be overemphasised. Democracy, despite its faults or weaknesses remains the best tool of governance in modern society and the media, one of its main arms. The Media along with the Judiciary and an educated society are some of the institutions that enable democracy to thrive.

As has been demonstrated in recent times (The Iranian elections for example,) the role of the media as a watchdog, as a catalyst for change, as a tool for new ideas is becoming increasingly relevant especially as the lines becomes blurred between old and new media. Citizens can now fight their governments on Facebook and Twitter. (The Chinese government recently overturned the conviction of a traffic offender after protests online.) Blogs are beginning to replace columns in newspapers and bloggers are gaining increasing notoriety for influencing decision making across industries. (Example, fashion bloggers are now invited to sit with Anna Wintour, the legendary Vogue Editor at fashion shows.)

I want to emphasise that increasingly in recent times, there will be no such thing as being a print, online, or broadcast journalist. Those who will practise journalism now and in the years to come must broaden their horizons and engage themselves such that they can move seamlessly between one form and the other. I also want to say that so called citizen journalism will not erode the importance of old traditional journalism. Rather, it will enhance it. As long as humans remain humans, there will always be the need for informed news, analysis, opinion, discussions and professional journalists will continue to act as moderators setting the pace of the discussions.

Last year saw the closure of print newspapers in Europe and the US, even as readers move increasingly online for their news and advert revenues decline in face of the global economic crisis and with more advertisers moving online. As Internet penetration increases in Nigeria, it’s only a matter of time before this trend catches up with us here.

This raises some issues for print newspapers and what they must do to ensure continued survival:

• Print newspapers/magazines must now concern themselves more with news analysis rather than reporting the news. (E.g. Timeless, Newsweek, Time)

• Print newspapers/magazines must focus more on young people who love reading about themselves (how come Facebook and Twitter are so popular?)

• Print newspapers/magazines should start focusing on better design, more headlines, more graphics and less text (reflecting the gimmicks of online media)

• Rather than pandering to the whims of ‘the customer knows best’, newspapers must resist the lure of society journalism (like what’s happening on TV with reality television) and focus on what’s happening in society. Reports and articles must resonate with people and force them to react. Newspapers must set the agenda for the society, which demands that every newspaper must have an ideology

Our own belief is that there is no competition between old and new media. Print books, newspapers and magazines are not going to die anytime soon; (more so in Africa, where literacy levels and Internet penetration are still low.) The challenge rather is how print media can take advantage of the opportunities inherent in online media to increase revenue, increase subscription and stay relevant and engaged.

http://www.ayodejijeremiah.wordpress.com/; http://www.timelesscourage.blogspot.com/

The 1st National Youth Media Summit was held at the British Council on Thursday 7th of January and Friday 8th of January, 2010.

Malaria, the West and the Rest of Us

Adeleke Adeyemi

With advances in the science of medicine rising by leaps and bounds, we are truly at a unique point in human history. Diseases and other medical issues that have run rampant now wait in line to be dealt the deathblow they rightly deserve. This is thanks to breathtaking breakthroughs in scientific research, carried on by a few dedicated people thinking outside geographical bounds, in the true tradition of the scientist and fellow intellectual entrepreneurs who have, over time, changed the course of our world, mostly for good.

As Science takes on the menace of malaria with a resolve that promises to yield a final solution, there is a take we must note on the state of research infrastructure and scientific undertakings on our shores. It is significant that the twin breakthroughs about to be celebrated by the world at large also serve to underscore the glaring entrenched dearth of research and scientific enterprise here.

This state of affairs, in the final analysis, simply means that our education, especially at the critical university level, has ceased to be universal and functional; the system is no longer amenable to problem-solving. Instead, it has become stuck in a rut of rote learning, one from which students (as much clueless as their handlers) simply strive to scamper off ‘certificated’, not necessarily the same state of affairs as ‘educated’.

Thankfully, there is now in place an initiative for bringing about a culture of relevant scientific inquiry into all things boggling in the land. It’s the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas NLNG-endowed Nigeria Prize for Science (there’s a second award for Literature). Regretfully, even this glimmer of hope for catalysing a badly needed revolution has had cause to blink in perturbation as the Prize has not been awarded half of the time since its inception. Undaunted, the organisers went on to put the unclaimed cumulative prize money - $20, 000 the first time; $ 30, 000 the second – into a fund for upgrading laboratory facilities in select institutions across the country.

Mercifully, the North (better known as the West) is still up and about on tackling this downside of the South. Whether for gain or fame, there is no gainsaying the fact that once again, well before we can hope to catch up on the act, the Northern hemisphere, with its well established culture of scientific research that exists largely for its own sake, is reaching down to our half of the world with sorely needed help: a line of attack to eradicate – completely – the scourge of malaria. Most common in tropical and subtropical regions, malaria is a universal curse that leaves in the trail of its strike 350 to 500 million (reported) new cases annually. According to UNICEF, an African child is lost to it every 30 seconds.

While preventative measures such as sleeping under a mosquito net, flitting sleeping quarters or the use of preventive medication, have proven to reduce the risk of coming down with malaria, it has however been difficult to discover a truly long-lasting solution to the spread of the disease.

Though not a new idea gene modification is what scientists believe will be the hero to millions of individuals who remain at risk of the debilitating disease. The science has been in use in plants to eliminate certain characteristics from strains of some species in order to help farmers end up with better crops. Now, the focus of the technology has shifted to one of Man’s giants that would not be so easily slain: the mosquito.

The idea is to create a genetically altered mosquito with a resistant gene that kills the parasite causing malaria (plasmodium, extant as many strains) without harming the mosquito. This bug would then be introduced into the population of mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite. When the mosquito produces offspring, the resistant gene would be passed on to the new generation of mosquitoes, which would then pass it on to the next generation, and so on. Eventually, the parasites causing the disease would be weeded out of their vector organism – the mosquito – completely. The theory is robust.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States are toying with the idea of creating such a mosquito. It’s looking more and more a possibility. It remains one of the more promising ideas out there for bidding very good riddance to a really bad nonsense.

Meanwhile, while we keep our fingers crossed, waiting for this final solution, from farther up in the Northern hemisphere is an optical laser technique that will soon eliminate the need for slides, staining and microscopes, the standard laboratory set-up in testing people for the disease.

A research team led by Dr. Paul Wiseman of the Departments of Physics and Chemistry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, has developed a radically new technique that uses lasers and non-linear optical effects to detect malaria infection in human blood. The researchers say the new technique holds the promise of simpler, faster and far less labour-intensive detection of the malaria parasite in blood samples. This rapid malaria detection breakthrough is set to glide out from the Northern Hemisphere, to take on the world of Plasmodium in the South, where the parasite holds patent sway. The resources and trained personnel required to accurately diagnose the disease are spread the thinnest in sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the fatalities remain concentrated.

Current detection techniques require trained technicians to stain slides, look for the parasite’s DNA signature under the microscope, and then manually count all the visible infected cells, a laborious process dependent on the skill and availability of trained analysts. In contrast, the proposed new technique relies on a known optical effect called third harmonic generation (THG), which causes hemozoin – a crystalline substance secreted by the parasite – to glow blue when irradiated by an infrared laser.

“People who are familiar with music know about acoustic harmonics,” explains Dr. Wiseman. “Everybody has a fundamental sound frequency and then multiples of that frequency. Non-linear optical effects are similar: if you shine an intense laser beam of a specific frequency on certain types of materials, you generate multiples of [their] frequency. Hemozoin has a huge, non-linear optical response for the third harmonic, which causes the blue glow.”

According to Mark Shainblum of the Media Relations Office at McGill, Dr. Wiseman and his colleagues hope to co-opt existing well-established technologies like fibre-optic communications lasers and fluorescent cell sorters into their groundbreaking technique to quickly move it out of the laboratory and into the field. “We’re imagining a self-contained unit that could be used in clinics in endemic countries,” says Dr. Wiseman. “The operator could inject the cell sample directly into the device, and then it would come up with a count of the total number of existing infected cells without manual intervention.”

Hopefully, relevant authorities in Africa and the other regions of the world where the disease is endemic will rise to lend moral support toward accelerating dividends from these researches to get home to the grassroots, thereby achieving the shortest possible lab-to-town transit. Malaria has maligned efforts at development in these places so much and for far too long; it shall not be spared any moment longer.

Plasmodium-free female mosquitoes can, like their male counterparts have done all along, simply make their music – in full acoustic harmonics – and whine themselves hoarse and out; that would be peace and no gripe for the human species. Shall we move on to clear the next stench on the block, please?

Did You Know?
‘Malaria’ is a Latin word. It was coined to describe the condition based on the thinking, then prevalent, that the disease was caused by inhaling or being exposed to bad (‘mal’) air (‘aria’).

Oral Roberts - A Tribute

By Tayo Obe

Not a few people were saddened after it was publicly disclosed that popular Tele-Evangelist Granville Oral Roberts had died. He was 91 years old. Born in Oklahoman on January 24, 1918 , Oral was the fifth and youngest child of the Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudia Priscilla Irwin.

After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University and Phillips University. In 1938, he married a preacher's daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock. Roberts became a traveling faith healer after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs".

He pioneered televangelism when he began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1955 and attracted a vast viewership. In 1947, Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He began conducting evangelistic and faith healing crusades, mainly in the U.S. He appeared as a guest speaker for hundreds of national and international meetings and conventions. Thousands of sick people would wait in line to stand before Oral Roberts so he could pray for them.

He founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963, stating he was obeying a command from God. The university was chartered in 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honour code pledging not to drink, smoke, or engage in premarital sexual activities. In 1977 Roberts had a vision from Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center, the hospital would be a success.

City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, opened in 1981. At the time, it was among the largest health facilities of its kind in the world and was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises.

Roberts' fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home." Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide, given the impassioned pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million.

His life was not without challenges, Roberts' daughter Rebecca Nash died in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977 with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash. Roberts' eldest son Ronald committed suicide in June 1982, five months after receiving a court order to undergo counselling at a drug treatment centre. But the other two Roberts children are still living — Son Richard, a well-known evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, an attorney. On May 4, 2005 Evelyn, Roberts' wife of 66 years, died in a Southern California hospital at the age of 88.

In addition, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at 17 and sunk into such dire straits, coughing and spitting up blood, that survival was in question. When an intense prayer session became a prelude to healing, the world lost a basketball player (he used to be a Sport Fan) and gained an evangelist. Inspired by his recovery, Oral Roberts vowed to go out and spread the Gospel, which he did until he died at age 91.

Oral Roberts wrote more than 130 books, several personal commentaries on the Bible, and other inspirational material. One of his most substantive works is a 74-CD set titled Oral Roberts Reading the New Testament with His Personal Commentary that includes his life’s teachings on God’s Word. Perhaps best known is his book The Miracle of Seed Faith, which revolutionised the lives of millions of people who learned how to get their needs met through God’s eternal plan of giving and receiving.

Since his death, Christian leaders round the world have been paying tribute to a Man of God that stood out and did his best to fulfill his purpose. Evangelist Billy Graham, founder of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said “Oral Roberts was a man of God and a great friend in ministry. I loved him as a brother. We had many quiet conversations over the years. I invited Oral to speak at one of our early international conferences on evangelism held in Berlin in the 1960s. … Just three weeks ago, I was privileged to talk to Oral over the telephone. During the short conversation, he said to me that he was near the end of his life's journey. I look forward to the day that I will see Oral and Evelyn Roberts again in heaven--our eternal home.”

In remembering his father, son Richard said, “He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Oral Roberts was not only my earthly father; he was also my spiritual father and mentor. He was the greatest man of God I’ve ever known. An innovator and a modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, he was one of the first men of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical and research center. He had a passion to bring healing to the sick. He came along when many in Christendom did not believe in God’s power and goodness, yet his name became synonymous with miracles.”

For healing evangelist, Benny Hinn, he said that we should rejoice even as we grieve Dr. Roberts’ passing from this earth because he is in Heaven. According to him “we rejoice that he is now in heaven. What an amazing life! He was a giant in so many ways, and I was privileged to have him as a dear, dear friend for many years. Every time I was with him, I saw firsthand a heart consumed with the love of Jesus Christ…Only heaven will reveal how many hearts he has pointed toward heaven, how many homes have been revolutionised through his seed-faith teaching, and how many ears have heard his faith-filled phrase, "Expect a miracle!" God has used him to open doors that were once considered closed to the miracle-working power of the gospel, and wherever I travel, I have been ever thankful for the trail he blazed.’’

He then urged all his partners to be in prayer for his family during these days of bereavement, “and while we join his loved ones in mourning the loss of this great trailblazer of the faith, we also celebrate his reunion in heaven with his beloved wife, Evelyn, other family members, the hosts who accepted our Lord Jesus as Saviour, and most importantly, with the Lord Himself, whom our brother in Christ served so faithfully during his memorable lifetime!

Bishop T.D Jakes of The Potters’ House stated that through “his vision and commitment to Christian education, his legacy will continue in the hearts and minds of young believers. The world has lost a treasured gift from God embodied in the man Oral Roberts. Our sympathy goes out to his family and the many churches that were under his oversight.”

Also, Nigerian Pastor T.B. Joshua has joined those paying tribute to the life and legacy of the late American evangelist, Oral Roberts, describing him as one of ‘God’s Generals’. Dr. Oral Roberts died Tuesday December 15 in Newport Beach, California, of complications from pneumonia, with son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, at his side after having spent the last 74 years spreading God’s word (60 of them under the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association).

Living Above Yourself by Ituah Ighodalo Now Available

Using the examples of Abraham and David from the Bible, this book takes a look at the foundation for and principles behind living a great life. Contrary to most peoples' expectations, living a great life is not about amassing wealth or achieving personal successes; rather it is about focusing on what we can give out of ourselves in this world.

The book reminds us that notwithstanding whatever riches we amass or successes we achieve, our lives when we die will be summarised in very brief sentences. Living a great life is about discovering our purpose here on earth and emptying ourselves of everything God has blessed us with.

Living a great life is a personal decision we make and not something that happens to us by accident. Why should we live great lives? How do we live great lives? What are the steps to living a great life? Why can't some people live great lives and what are the benefits of living a great life? Join Pastor Ituah on a journey of self discovery as he answers these questions and more

N500 per copy. Limited Copies Available. Minimum Order of 5 Copies = N2,500. Pay into Oceanic Bank Account Name: Timeless Courage Publishing Limited, Account No: 0351101005381 and send you name, address, phone no and teller no to timelesscourage@yahoo.co.uk and receive your orders within 48 hours. Offer valid within Lagos Only. Pls include postage for deliveries outside Lagos 

Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Draws Evangelical Opposition

A Ugandan legislator who proposed the highly contested Anti-Homosexuality Bill insists the measure is being misconstrued. "There has been a distortion in the media that we are providing death for gays. That is not true," ruling party MP David Bahati said on BBC. "When a homosexual defiles a kid of less than 18 years old, we are providing a penalty for this."
The bill, which is currently being debated by a parliamentary committee, has drawn global attention from gay rights advocates and religious leaders alike, many of whom are condemning the legislation for promoting hatred and handing down severe penalties against homosexuals and their family, friends, and even pastors. Punishments range from a fine and a three-year imprisonment to life imprisonment and the death penalty.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda and can be punished with life imprisonment. But the anti-homosexuality legislation was designed to "fill the gaps" in the provisions of existing laws and "strengthen the nation's capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family."
Bahati told BBC that homosexuality is neither a human right nor is it in-born. "It is a behaviour learned and it can be unlearned," he said on BBC. Some religious leaders in Uganda are backing the legislation, but many more within and outside the country are gravely concerned.
"Regardless of the diverse theological views of our religious traditions regarding the morality of homosexuality, in our churches, communities and families, we seek to embrace our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as God's children worthy of respect and love," said a group of U.S. Catholic, evangelical and mainline Protestant leaders, in a statement.
Most recently, evangelical Pastor Rick Warren released a video to Ugandan pastors detailing his opposition to the bill and correcting media reports that state otherwise. As a pastor, he said it is not his role to interfere with the politics of other nations, he said it is his role to speak out on moral issues. Warren called the Anti-Homosexuality bill "unjust, extreme and un-Christian" toward homosexuals. "ALL life, no matter how humble or broken, whether unborn or dying, is precious to God," said Warren, who works with pastors in Uganda on the "Purpose Driven" campaign and P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Passing the bill would have "a chilling effect" on the HIV/AIDS ministry of churches in Uganda, the southern California pastor added. With the proposed legislation threatening to penalise those who provide counselling to someone struggling with their sexuality and work with people infected with HIV/AIDS and who do not report the homosexual within 24 hours of knowledge, fewer people who are HIV positive will seek care from the churches out of fear of being reported.
"You and I know that the churches of Uganda are the truly caring communities where people receive hope and help, not condemnation," the megachurch pastor said in his video message. While affirming that marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman and that all sex outside of marriage is not what God intends, Warren also stressed, "Jesus also taught us that the greatest commandment is to love our neighbours as ourselves. Since God created all, and Jesus suffered and died for all, then we are to treat all with respect.
"The Great Commandment has been the centrepiece of my life and ministry for over 35 years." According to Bloomberg, a refined version of the bill is expected to be presented to Parliament in two weeks. Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, minister of Uganda for Ethics and Integrity, told Bloomberg that the draft bill will drop the death penalty and life imprisonment for gays.
Before the changes, which have not yet been made, the measure stated that persons who commit the offense of "aggravated homosexuality" – where the offense is committed against those below the age of 18 and where the offender is living with HIV – shall be liable on conviction to suffer death and to imprisonment for life. Another provision nullifies international treaties, protocols, and declarations that are "contradictory to the spirit and provisions enshrined in this act."