Al-Shabaab Behead A Teacher In Central Somalia

A Quran teacher in central Somalia was the fifth beheading victim in one week at the hands of Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia.

"The Quran teacher was snatched from his house in Qandho by Al-Shabaab militants on Friday and they dumped his headless, beheaded body near his home town on Saturday morning," local town spokesman Abdiaziz Durow told CNN.

The teacher was identified as Mohamed Hussein, 45, a resident of the Qandho near the besieged town of Bulo Burde, 217 miles north of Mogadishu in central Somalia.

"The reason the Quran teacher was murdered is that he was one of the few residents that refused orders from Al-Shabaab to leave his village that was recently seized by Somali and AU troops," Durow said.

Al-Shabaab had warned local residents to leave their houses in the towns they have seized, according to Durow.

Last week, the militant group abducted and beheaded two Somali policewomen in the city of Teyeglow, located in the southwest region. The beheadings prompted a government soldier whose wife was among the victims to kill five Al-Shabaab wives in retaliation.

Al-Shabaab also beheaded two government soldiers near the town of Bur Hakaba in the Bay region in south Somalia.

Al-Shabaab is a Somali group that was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008. It is seeking to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state.

The group is believed to be responsible for attacks in Somalia that have killed international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and African Union peacekeepers.

Terrorist kidnaps 185 Women, kills 32 People In Nigeria

No fewer than 185 women have been reported kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents in Gumsuri, North of Chibok in Borno State.

The insurgents, who killed about 32 men, set fire on the village with petrol bombs before herding the women and children in their pickup trucks.

The Sunday incident   is coming less than nine months after over 200 schoolchildren were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen from their hostel in Chibok.

The fate of most of the girls remains unknown even though military authorities openly declared that they knew where they are being held.

News of the attack took four days to emerge because of a lack of communication.

Telecommunications towers in the area had been disabled in previous attacks.

A local government official confirm the abduction. “They gathered the women and children and took them away in trucks after burning most of the village with petrol bombs,” the   official whose name was not given said.

He added that he   learned of the attack from residents who fled to Maiduguri, the   Borno State capital.

The Boko Haram militants stormed the village from two directions, overwhelming local vigilantes who had repelled them   over the course of the year.

A resident of Gumsuri,   Umar Ari, who trekked for four days to Maiduguri, said,

‘‘They destroyed almost half the village and took away 185 women, girls and boys.”

Another resident, Modu Kalli, said the militants fired heavy machine guns on the village and poured canisters of petrol on houses before setting them on fire.

“We lost everything in the attack. I escaped with nothing, save the clothes I have on me,” Kalli said.

Meanwhile, Cameroon army killed 116 Boko Haram militants who attacked a base in the far north of the country on Wednesday.

Another Black Boy Gunned Down By Police

 We will never learn of the names, lives and deaths of countless Black men and boys murdered by police -- and slavery enforcers, hate groups, vigilantes, and a host of others -- dating back to the earliest days of this country's history. The names and stories of a slew of recent victims of extrajudicial executions, such as Eric Garner and Michael Brown, and the exoneration of their killers, have become widely known through the blowback of public fury.
This is a tale of another Black boy whose name and wrongful death were never reported in any official document or national media. The policeman responsible was not charged, indicted, or prosecuted. This child's prematurely snuffed life was not spent in the U.S. but in the Black nation of Haiti, though the U.S. government subsidized his murderer.
In Port-au-Prince on a sweltering day last spring, the collective taxicab I was traveling in turned onto Bicentennaire Street, barely avoiding the prone body of a young teen. Arms thrown out like a startled baby's, he lay in a pool of blood. I spun around in the seat to look. A Haitian passenger, more accustomed to gritty daily reality, looked at me strangely. "What's wrong with you?" she asked.
One truck of Haitian police and two more of UN occupation troops next to the body raised my suspicion, as both parties have been responsible for incalculable harm.
I extricated myself from the crowded cab and ran to the scene. The boy had been shot in his skull and eye. The part of his T-shirt that was not yet covered with blood, which was still flowing from the holes, gleamed white. His mother or sister had surely recently hand-scrubbed that shirt with care.
A policeman told me he had been shot by a "bandit." A bandit robbing and shooting this boy was implausible: emaciated children from that destitute neighborhood do not circulate with riches. That he himself might have been involved in banditry was equally incredible: plastic flip-flops do not make good getaway shoes.
I began asking onlookers and street merchants if they knew what had happened. But two policemen followed me, and so no one had observed anything. As I continued my investigation up a dirt alleyway, one of the cops asked, "Where are you going?" "Just walking," I said. "Don't you need company?" he replied. They laughed.
At a bend in the alley, I ducked behind a tin fence before the police caught up with me and asked a man welding what he had seen. He said the police had driven up and then the shots had rung out.
Police brutality is a time-honored tradition in Haiti. Today, under fraudulently elected President Michel Martelly, the force's killings and abuses -- especially of demonstrators, activists, and journalists - are growing. Just this past Sunday, December 14, police attacked anti-government demonstrators in the capital city, killing one.
The U.S. has had a hand in taking down these Black lives. In the three years since Martelly was imposed, the U.S. has underwritten his unaccountable "security" forces to the tune of $73 million, courtesy of our tax dollars. The US has also sold the Haitian government weapons that make the assaults possible. (This same support has gone to many a Haitian autocrat, notably François and Jean-Claude Duvalier.)
Likewise, UN troops - globo-cops - have assassinated, raped, arbitrarily arrested, and committed other human rights violations during their ten-year occupation of Haiti. Moreover, the force is responsible for the deaths of more than 9,000 through cholera, after troops infected with the disease dumped their raw sewage in a river. When families of the victims filed a lawsuit for compensation, the UN claimed legal immunity. (The cholera lawsuit continues nevertheless.)
Haitian and UN forces are Daniel Panteleo, the NYPD officer who strangled Eric Garner to death as he placidly vended cigarettes on a sidewalk. They are Darren Wilson, the St. Louis cop who shot the unarmed teenager Michael Brown seven or eight times. These badge-wearers, and so many more like them, stand above the law.
The continual malfeasance, and exemption from accountability and punishment, of the Haitian police and the UN occupation force would be unthinkable, unacceptable, in a high-income white nation. However, those who control power and those with white skin typically respond to state-sanctioned lawlessness in low-income Black neighborhoods and countries by choosing to remain uninformed; ignoring the matter; or rewriting the narrative as gang activity, Black-on-Black violence, or common crime.
In the global division of capital and human value, a dead Black Haitian like the one lying on Bicentennaire Street was IS? one more worthless body in a worthless life in a worthless piece of real estate.
Both the street-beat cops and the blue helmets are themselves predominantly low-income and Black or brown. They are pawns in a globalized system of political and physical violence, underpaid proxies helping to maintain dominance of the world's elite nations and classes. On the streets, they mirror on a micro-scale the unjust global relations, endowed as they are with personal power that allows them to be protected perpetrators of crimes on those more vulnerable than they.
Two ambulances joined the police and UN trucks. The officials sauntered between the vehicles, talking to each other. No one paid any attention to the blood-drenched body. The men wrote nothing, photographed nothing. Finally, gloved corpse-slingers approached and searched the pockets of the child's nylon shorts; they found them entirely empty. They tossed the cadaver into a litter and into the back of the ambulance. I suspected they would dump him in a potter's field, perhaps after a quick stop at the morgue, and that that would be the end of the story. I would have wagered a large bet that there would be no time spent preparing documentation for headquarters or for possible later identification by his desperate mother. I would have bet everything I owned that a forthcoming lunch mattered a lot more to those men than due process. Likely, this had been just another stop in a routine day.
Still, more public resources were being spent on the boy at that moment than throughout his entire life. Now, however, they were too late to be of any use to him.
Walking back home, I got caught in a wave of little children leaving kindergarten with their parents. They were a sea of blue shorts, blue pinafores, and blue hair ribbons. Which of them would be blown away by their government?
And which would grow up to be protesters in marches, and advocates in campaigns, like those going on all over the US now? Which would commit him or herself to a country in which everyone's husband, father, son, and brother - and wife, mother, daughter, and sister - have worth? And what country would they create?
As I penned this article under the drone of police helicopters that circulate every night from sunset until well past midnight above the interlocked towns of Oakland and Berkeley - both of them in full rebellion -- an email came in from a workers' rights group in Haiti. It read, "We are made nauseous by seeing assassination after assassination by the US police, with impunity, on any citizen - as long as they happen to be Black... and also by the complete protection of the corrupt justice system... We salute the mobilization of people in that country."
May the resistance and protest grow in strength. May they flourish into strategic organizing and sustained movement-building for physical security, economic and social equality, democratic rights, and government accountability vis-à-vis Blacks and other people of color. May this be so in the US and Haiti and everywhere that is sickened by the poison of structural racism.
By Beverly Bell (Black lives matter)
 

A Tragic, Tragic Event In Australia

Eight children, ranging in age from 18 months to 15 years, were found dead inside a home in the northern Australian city of Cairns on Friday.

 Police said they were called to the property in the Manoora area of Cairns on Friday morning after reports of an injured woman.

"During an examination of the residence, police located the bodies of the children, all aged between 18 months and 15 years," the Queensland Police Service said in a statement.

A 34-year-old woman, believed to be the mother of seven of the children, is currently being treated for her injuries, according to authorities. But Queensland Ambulance Service says the woman had a wound to her chest, and is currently in stable condition after being taken to he hospital.
Cairns detective inspector Bruno Asnicar, speaking to reporters at around 4.30 p.m. local time, said the identification of the children is an ongoing process and more details on that front might emerge on Saturday. Asnicar also said that there were no formal suspects as yet. “Everybody who’s had any involvement in the past two or three days is a person of interest, but we’re not identifying particular suspects at this stage.”
The top police official said it was “right up there” with the most serious cases he had dealt with in his career.
“These are trying days for our country,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement released Friday afternoon. “All parents would feel a gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened.”
Friday’s incident comes four days after a gunman took more than a dozen people hostage at a café in Sydney, resulting in three deaths including his own.

Pakistan School Attack: What Do They Hope To Achieve?

New images from the school show the brutality of the attack, with pools of blood on the ground and walls covered in pockmarks from hundreds of bullets.
The Taliban massacre that killed 148 people — mostly children — at a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan left a scene of devastation and carnage as the nation mourned and mass funerals for the victims got underway Wednesday.

The attack at the Army Public School and College in the city of Peshawar on Tuesday was the deadliest slaughter of innocents in the country and horrified a nation already weary of unending terrorist assaults.

Blood was still pooled on the floor and the stairs as media were allowed inside the school a day after the attack. Torn notebooks, pieces of clothing and children's shoes were scattered about amid broken window glass, door frames and upturned chairs. A pair of child's eyeglasses lay broken on the ground.

The scene was horrifying. Gunmen stalked through the school, shooting children as they cowered under benches and booby-trapping buildings with homemade explosives.

When the siege finally ended, Pakistan was left reeling and the world wondering: Who would do such a thing? And what do they hope to achieve?

The attack began when seven Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, scaled a back wall using a ladder to get into the school on Tuesday morning. Once inside, they made their way into the main auditorium where many students had gathered for an event, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa told reporters during the tour Wednesday.

The militants then made their way to the hall's stage and started shooting at random. As students tried to flee for the doors, they were shot and killed. The military recovered about 100 bodies from the auditorium alone, Bajwa said.

The Pakistan Taliban are also against Western-style education for children and the employment of women. Most famously, their militants shot schoolgirl education activist Malala Yousafzai in the head in 2012 as she traveled on a school bus. She survived to receive a Nobel Peace Prize last week.

The school attacked Tuesday, which educates both boys and girls in separate classes, is the main school for the children of army personnel in Peshawar and employs both male and female teachers -- making it a desirable target for the terrorists.

Are They Too Young? Ferguso Protest.

The 20-odd people chanting “Honk if you want justice,” on a New Bedford, Massachusetts sidewalk Dec. 12 got a lot of attention. They were second graders, rallying against police for the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While the rest of their class enjoyed 11:30 recess that morning, these 7 and 8-year-old protesters stood by the side of the road in front of the Alma Del Mar Charter School holding signs including one that read, “Please don’t shoot me, Ferguson.”

 While the students were eager to get involved in the cause, not all of their parents were so thrilled. 

Will Gardner, the school’s founder and executive director, stands by the school’s decision to let the kids protest, saying it was allowed as part of lesson in civics. Gardner told The Boston Globe that the class’s teacher had sent a note home with her students Dec. 10 alerting parents that the class would be discussing diversity and “issues covered by the media,” and offering kids an opt-out of the talks if parents so chose. The protest “wasn’t something the teacher planned,” he said. “It was something the kids did.”

10 things the U.S military won’t tell you

Members of the U.S. military head to an area to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel during his visit to Forward Operating Base Gamberi December 7, 2014. Hagel on Sunday met with troops in Afghanistan on what is likely his last visit there before stepping down from his post. Hagel's visit comes one day after he announced that the U.S. will keep up to 1,000 more soldiers in Afghanistan into next year than previously planned, saying the additional forces were needed because delays in signing security pacts had impacted plans to raise troops from other countries. REUTERS/Mark Wilson/Pool (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY)

1. We’re losing manpower and buying power

After fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. government faces a new threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (more commonly known as ISIS). This comes at a time when the military’s annual budget is not expected to grow. Reductions to planned defense spending under the Budget Control Act of 2011 would exceed $1 trillion from spending plans from 2012 to 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Defense estimates.
“In 10 years, we’d only be able to afford a smaller force at the same [budget] level as today,” says Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, a think-tank in Washington, D.C. That said, total national security spending topped $967 billion in 2014, up roughly 50% since 2000, according to Lindsay Koshgarian research director at the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization in Northampton, Mass. which provides analysis of the federal budget. But this figure also includes $151.3 billion from Veterans Affairs and $51 billion in homeland security, and other non-Department of Defense costs.
Speaking of the Pentagon’s ongoing spending cuts and uncertainty over the Department of Defense budgets, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work last month told a defense conference that the Pentagon should “stop the madness.” The National Defense Panel, a bipartisan commission chartered by Congress, found that they constitute a “serious strategic misstep on the part of the United States.” What’s more, “near-term gaps in training and maintenance diminish readiness,” according to this report published in March 2014 by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Budget Brief for 2015.

Manpower is shrinking, too. The number of active service members has fallen by 17% to 1,373,249 (excluding the Coast Guard) at the end of October 2014 from 1,610,490 two decades ago, according to the U.S. Department of the Defense data, and could be further reduced over the next five years. (That figure has moved up and down over the years, and peaked at over 12 million during World War II.) The Army has the largest number of active duty members (505,982) followed by the Navy (325,818), the Air Force (314,789) and the Marine Corps (186,402), according to the latest figures for October 2014. “Reductions to end strength [the size of the force] will occur regardless of whether or not sequestration returns,” a DoD spokesman says.

Although military pay is exempted from sequestration — the 2011 deal struck between the White House and Congress to reduce the budget deficit to what economists regard as sustainable levels — under President Obama’s sequestration exemption, the military health care system and future pay raises are not and 80% of military households earning at least $50,000 a year (versus just 36% in the general population) still feel anxious about sequestration according to a survey released in October by First Command Financial Services; that’s up 18 percentage points since the end of the first quarter. Some 79% of military families expect to be at least somewhat financially impacted by potential cuts.

2. The military is a middle-class institution

Just about all enlisted members of the U.S. military — 99%, an all-time high — have a high school diploma and/or some college experience, according to the most recent report by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. Education also improves with rank: The percentage of active officers who have a Bachelor’s and/or an advanced degree was 82.4% in 2012; although that’s down from 89.6% in 1995. This compares favorably to non-military personnel: Just over 30% of civilian adults 25 and under have a B.A., according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The B.A. rate for enlisted personnel — while much lower — rose to 5.9% from 3.4% over the same period. “The military is a way to get out and get an education,” says Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “It’s perceived as a very meritocratic organization.”

“The military in 2014 is distinctly middle class,” Brooks says, or at least headed that way. There’s still a post-Vietnam “hangover or perception” among the American public that the military is predominantly composed of poor kids from rural areas, she adds. “That’s definitely no longer true. It’s more of a small town military than extremely rural or extremely urban military.” Although there was some relaxing of recruiting standards in the mid-2000s during the Iraq War, she says the military today requires a high school diploma or GED, and has relatively tough physical fitness requirements.

The percentage of military personnel recruited from areas with the lowest and highest average incomes is about the same (7%) and represents the lowest rates of recruitment, according to a 2010 report by the National Priorities Project. The highest percentage of recruits (12%) comes from areas closest to the median household income in the U.S. (These percentages have changed little over the last five years. (The military doesn’t offer data on household income of recruits, so this report based its findings on the household income of each recruit’s zip code.)
3. Service members are more likely to have money troubles

When U.S. service members return from active duty, studies show that they’re more likely to face serious financial problems than civilians. They’re almost twice as likely to carry some month-to-month credit card debt (58%) than civilians (34%), according to a survey released last May and carried out by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and Pioneer Services, a division of MidCountry Bank in Bloomington, Minn. Twice as many service members as civilians have paid less than the minimum required payment on credit cards in the last 12 months (6% versus 3%), the study concluded.

While health issues like PTSD or depression and physical disabilities can play a part, the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan came at a bad time for job seekers. More than two-thirds of veterans (69%) consider “finding a job” the No. 1 challenge after leaving active service, according to a 2012 survey of 2,453 service members, 1,845 of whom were veterans of the second Gulf War. The survey was carried out by Prudential Financial Inc. for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The No. 2 challenge is navigating the complex benefit and support system for veterans.
In an effort to address this, the Obama administration and Department of Defense want to introduce stricter rules to help protect military service personnel from unsavory lenders. Included in the proposals, for example, is a new rule that says creditors may not charge an annual percentage rate of more than 36% on all consumer credit; this previously only applied to payday loans, vehicle title loans, and tax refund anticipation loans. The proposed legislation is designed to “help ensure that our service members and their families are as far beyond the reach of financial exploitation as possible.”
4. Sexual-assault allegations far outnumber reports

There was an 8% increase in sexual assault allegations from fiscal year 2013 to 2014 (a total of 5,983) after a 50% increase the previous year. The military now receives a report from an estimated 1 in 4 victims up from 1 in 10 in 2012. However, the estimated number of service members experiencing sexual assault was 19,000 to 20,000 in 2014, down from 26,000 in 2012, according the DoD report released last week. The DoD provides an anonymous “safe helpline” for 24/7 support for those who have not yet decided to file a report. “For those victims who are considering making a report, it’s our goal to give them options that respect their privacy, their rights, and their desire to participate in the military justice process,” a DoD spokeswoman says.

The DoD established a Joint Task Force for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response in 2004, and this year introduced more measures to make it easier for victims of sexual assault to come forward, a department spokeswoman says. This includes special victims counsel attorneys, improved training on the program for military members and elevating prosecution decisions out of the units where the victim and suspect serve to a “senior, impartial commander.” It’s not a problem unique to the military: College fraternity members who signed up to rape prevention programs were less likely to commit sexually coercive acts than a control group of men who joined fraternities, studies have found.

But some lawmakers say changes in how the military addresses such cases don’t go far enough, especially when prosecuting cases. Among them is Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, who says the military faces an “epidemic” of rape and sexual assault. In 2011 and 2013, she introduced the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act, which proposed taking the reporting, oversight, investigation and victim care of sexual assaults out of the hands of the military’s normal chain of command and, instead, passing those responsibilities to non-military prosecutors. The legislation was never enacted. But there were other sweeping reforms in 2012: DoD policy prohibits commanders from investigating or evaluating the validity of a sexual assault report themselves and sexual assaults joins rape as an offense with no statute of limitations.

5. Our R&D is trailing the private sector

Once upon a time — about half-a-century ago — the U.S. military was at the forefront of the technological revolution, and played a role in developing nuclear power, jet propulsion, communication satellites and even the early development of computers and the Internet. But the Department of Defense has since been upstaged by the private sector. “The U.S. relies on technology to be an effective fighting force, but with relatively smaller budgets and a cumbersome process it’s difficult for them to get access to the best technology,” says Ben FitzGerald, senior fellow and director at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan, nonprofit think-tank in Washington, D.C.

U.S. corporations have an estimated budget of $307.5 billion for research and development projects in 2014, according to Battelle Memorial Institute, a private nonprofit science and technology development firm. U.S. federal spending on R&D is in “turmoil,” the report noted, “because of enormous pressures to pare federal spending, especially defense and aerospace budgets.” The Pentagon is still the largest contributor to federal research and development projects and enacted $62.8 billion in federal research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funding in 2014 versus $63.3 billion in 2013. Half-a-dozen companies in the private sector have more than three quarters of the DoD’s budget this year ($54 billion), according to management consulting firm Strategy&, Samsung alone had R&D spending of $13.4 billion in 2014, followed by Intel ($10.6 billion). (At current cap levels, RDT&E would decline by 1.3% per year from 2015 to 2019.)

The White House was criticized for failing to anticipate the invasion of Crimea by Russian-backed rebels and the push into Iraq by ISIS. FitzGerald says existing military technologies allow the U.S. to respond quickly, but warns that “the U.S. military advantage is predicated on technological superiority. Declining budgets, lower purchasing power and outdated business models are putting that superiority at significant risk.” Last month, the White House requested that Congress boost the budget for Overseas Contingency Operations, not covered by sequestration, including for satellites and other data technology. And, according to a 2012 report by the Council on Foreign Relations Competition, the civilian market may spur a higher pace of innovation than the military demands: “The rapid growth of the videogame industry sped the development of virtual reality training systems for soldiers. Notably, no other developed nation allocates more than 30% of government R&D support to defense.”

6. Veterans are vulnerable to becoming homeless.

Veterans with minor financial problems, like bouncing a check or exceeding their credit limit, are four times more likely to become homeless within the next year than veterans without such problems, according to a survey of 1,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the American Journal of Public Health. In January 2014, there were 578,424 homeless people in the U.S. on a single night and among them 49,933 were veterans, according to a separate U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report released last October. “There is still a tremendous amount of work ahead of us but the strategy is working to end homelessness as we’ve come to know it,” U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro said at the launch of the report.

While still a problem, homelessness among the nation’s 22.2 million veterans fell by 10% drop since 2010 among all homeless people and 33% fall in homelessness among veterans. “Huge progress has been made,” says Jake Maguire, spokesman for Community Solutions, a New York-based non-profit focusing on homelessness and neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. But he still worries about the newest generation of veterans. “There’s a huge generation of vets coming back home right now. Things are a lot better than when folks came home from Vietnam, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

So what’s changed? In 2008, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs created Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) which has awarded 10,000 vouchers each year to homeless veterans and those at risk. The VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program also gives rental subsidy vouchers for those considered vulnerable. “They’re still a population that’s vulnerable to being homeless, especially those with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress,” Maguire says, “but the military has gotten better at how it screens for these things.” The VA also provides guaranteed home loans and offers help to avoid mortgage deficiency/foreclosure to veterans who have hit a rough patch.

7. People may grill you about what you’ve seen

Some military veterans have fielded inappropriate questions after returning from active duty. Rudy Uribe, 47, is president and CEO of commercial staffing firm Recruit Veterans in Cedar Park, Texas, and served 11 years in the U.S. Marines, leaving as a captain. These, he says, are just some questions veterans who have returned from active duty deal with: “Have you ever been in combat? What did you see? What did you do?” Uribe says, “These are inappropriate questions and a lot of veterans don’t feel the need to talk about that.” Uribe was once asked by an interviewer — who himself was a U.S. Navy veteran — if his management style would be draconian. “Had I been a civilian, I would not have had to overcome that question.” Uribe — who participated in the recent National Veterans Small Business Engagement conference — has advice for veterans in such situations: Remain professional and don’t feel obliged to answer.

Indeed, interviews can be fraught with odd questions. Nick Lopez, 32, served in the U.S. Army for 14 years. He was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. He later got a Bachelor’s Degree in computer science from DeVry University. But on his return home not everyone thanked him for his service. “I sometimes felt that people were afraid of hiring someone from the military,” Lopez, a Bronx native, says. During one interview with a cable company, he says, the interviewers were impressed with him, “but they kept asking weird questions like, ‘Have you ever seen action overseas?’ I knew then that it was a no-go.’” He suspects why the interview soured: “Some veterans suffer from PTSD and some employers think they have a problem adjusting to civilian life,” he says.

Lopez says he never knows how people are going to react. “You should never ask questions like, ‘Did you ever kill anybody?’” Lopez did suffer from mild PTSD after a rocket attack during his service. His symptoms included shortness of breath when he was in large groups. “I couldn’t be in a movie theater because it was too dark and I couldn’t see the exits,” he says. With treatment, he got better and he now works as a quality assurance engineer for Sharp Decisions, a technology services company with 400 employees that’s hired 50 veterans. He currently works on a project with EmblemHealth, a New York health maintenance and health insurance firm.

8. Gulf War vets have higher rates of unemployment

The unemployment rate for those who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed forces since September 2001 and discharged before 2014 — a 2.8 million-strong “Gulf War II” vets — had a 9% unemployment rate last year (versus 9.9% in 2012) compared with a national average last year of 7.3%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. It was better for all veterans: 6.6% (versus 7% in 2012), and has presumably fallen since then along with the overall average (the national unemployment rate is now 5.8%). Among the 722,000 unemployed veterans in 2013, 60% were age 45 and over and 35% were age 25 to 44.

In recent years, many companies have pledged to make an effort to hire veterans as part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s “Hiring Our Heroes” program, which aims to have 500,000 commitments by next year. Last month, the program confirmed that it will exceed that goal by 85,000 jobs. Nearly 204,000 veterans have started careers in franchising between 2011 and 2013, according to the International Franchise Association. Big-box retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) pledged to hire 100,000 veterans by 2018 and Amazon Inc. (AMZN) hired 1,900 veterans last year.

The VA says it’s provided more than $47 billion to send nearly 1.3 million veterans and dependents to school under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. There are also military and academic support networks for the 250,000 veterans who transition to the civilian life annually. The University of Phoenix “Military Skills Calculator” takes the military occupational specialty (MOS) code and suggests a list of occupations. The Department of Labor’s “Transitional Assistance Program” provides workshops on job hunting, resume and cover letter writing, and interviewing techniques. The Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University has “internship-to-employment programs” and online seminars in association with Google Inc. (GOOG) 

9. Lower your expectations after military service

Even after a long, decorated career, many vets find it hard to find jobs that match their skills and education. Less than one-third (29%) of former military personnel say they are using their military skills in the civilian workplace and 61% say their jobs are below their skill sets, according to a survey of 1,000 veterans conducted in October by Harris Poll on behalf of the University of Phoenix. As this 2013 White House report points out, many veterans have difficulty transferring their military skills to civilian life due to complex licensing requirements.

“We don’t have a lot of call for military men in corporate America,” says Garland Williams, 55, vice. president of military relations at the University of Phoenix; he moved to civilian life five years ago after 28 years in the army. He says it’s difficult to find employment with similar levels of responsibility. At 25 years of age, he led a company of 165 soldiers and at 48 he was commander of a garrison with 23,000 soldiers. He has a Ph.D. in international relations from Duke University, and has taught at West Point. Even with that background, he feels “lucky” that his résumé was found on the jobs forum Civilianjobs.com.

Many people leave the military without the same network as those who attended college, and may not know how to showcase their personality or skills in interviews. When Ernie Lombardi, 57, left the military three decades ago, he drove a Coca-Cola delivery truck. He went through more than one layoff, two recessions, sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door and lived out of his car for a few months in the 1990s. “I took any job I could get my hands on,” he says. But he says he got his “personal power” back. “I stepped up,” Lombardi says. “I had trained men. I was responsible for getting in and out of combat situations alive.” He went to college and became a middle school teacher and, in 2012, became a senior event planner at Hiring Our Heroes, helping other vets find jobs.

10. Public esteem for the military has fallen

Most Americans hold the U.S. military in high esteem, but the number of those who do has declined in recent years. Some 78% of American adults say members of the armed services contribute “a lot” to society’s well-being, according to a 2013 survey of 4,000 adults by Pew Research’s “Religion and Public Life Project.” That’s down from 84% four years ago, the last time it asked the question. That said, the military still tops the list of 10 occupational groups, followed closely by teachers (72%), medical doctors (66%), scientists (65%) and engineers (63%), all of which saw their support decline since 2009.

Republicans were more likely to hold the military in public esteem than Democrats (86% versus 75%) and, in a separate study released earlier this year, more Republicans than Democrats regard military service as a top asset for presidential candidates (58% versus 31%). But other than that, most groups seem to hold the military with similar levels of regard: Men and women (76% versus 80%), people ages 18 to 49 and those 50 years and older (77% versus 81%), white versus African-American and Hispanic (81% versus 72%) and college graduates and those with high school diplomas or less education (76% versus 78%).

Uribe, the U.S. Marine captain, says there are still many common public misconceptions about those who serve in the military, particularly in relation to people who suffer from PTSD. “Some are hesitant to self-identify as veterans because of the negative perceptions,” he says. Others are even hesitant about putting their military experience on their résumé and were told by career counselors not put down their military service, he adds. “For anyone who has any misconceptions about the capabilities of military veterans, there’s plenty of examples of how successful they can be.” He cites Republican senator John McCain, businessman Peter Holt, owner of the San Antonio Spurs NBA team, and Bob Parsons, founder of web-hosting company GoDaddy, as three veterans who rose to the top of their professions. “They just don’t give up,” he adds, “that’s what makes them successful at what they do.”

The change in Pew’s public opinion poll may not be such a bad thing. “There is greater awareness that the military is neither an institution that we should be worshiping or vilifying,” says Brooks, the Georgetown law professor. She says politicians and the media often take extreme views on the role of military in society, and tend to use highly verbose or very inflammatory language. “They’re either perceived as brave and self-sacrificing heroes or brutalized and as overly macho. Neither is true. Members of the military are like any collection of people. They’re a lot more like the rest of America than we think.”

By Quentin Fottrell December 15, 2014 9:10 AM

WHO WEARS THE CROWN?...

                                           

Who is the best candidate in your Local, State and Federal Government come 2015?

Where is he/she from 

what are his/her vision and mission 

will the Crown fit him/her

why him/her                                           

                               WHO WEARS THE CROWN?...

Nigerian Youth Corper Constructs a Drone

A youth corp member, Olaolu Ayoola, who is currently serving in Osun state has constructed a drone with features such as Surveillance camera, 20mins Fly Time and BB Monitor. Olaolu, a  graduate of Computer Science/Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Oyo state, had a test run of the drone on Monday December 15th during the closing ceremony of the orientation exercise for Batch C youth Corp members at the state's NYSC Orientation camp.

Thierry Henry has called time on his football career

After 20 years, over 300 goals and a host of major honors, Thierry Henry has called time on his football career.

The Frenchman, who won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with his country, is hanging up his boots to pursue a broadcasting career.

Although he made his breakthrough with French team Monaco, and spent time with Juventus, Barcelona and latterly New York Red Bulls, Henry is best remembered for a glittering eight-year spell with Arsenal in the English Premier League.

 Henry's move to Arsenal in 1999, after a troubled year in Turin with Juventus, saw him reunited with former Monaco coach Arsene Wenger and became the London club's all-time leading goalscorer and helped the Gunners win two league titles and the FA Cup on three occasions.

"It has been an incredible journey and I would like to thank all the fans, team mates and individuals involved with AS Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal FC, FC Barcelona, the New York Red Bulls and of course the French National Team that have made my time in the game so special," he said on his official Facebook page.

"I have had some amazing memories (mostly good!) and a wonderful experience. I hope you have enjoyed watching as much as I have enjoyed taking part. See you on the other side..."

Search for man suspected of killing ex-wife, 5 former in-laws

A woman who told neighbors she feared her ex-husband would kill her was among six people found fatally shot in three suburban Philadelphia homes, and her Marine veteran former husband was on the run.

Suspect Bradley Michael Stone, 35, remained at large early Tuesday, causing one local school district to close schools as a precaution. Residents of nearby communities had been asked to shelter in place temporarily late Monday as an intense manhunt spread to their areas.

His former wife, 33-year-old Nicole Stone, was found dead after a neighbor saw Brad Stone fleeing just before 5 a.m. Monday with their two young daughters.

Police then made the grim discovery of five people killed in two other houses: Nicole Stone's sister, brother-in-law and 14-year-old niece were dead. A 17-year-old nephew was left clinging to life. And her mother and grandmother had been fatally shot.

Brad Stone and his ex-wife had been locked in a court fight over their children's custody since she filed for divorce in 2009. He filed an emergency motion early this month, although the resulting Dec. 9 ruling remains sealed in court files.

"She would tell anybody who would listen that he was going to kill her and that she was really afraid for her life," said Evan Weron, a neighbor at the Pheasant Run Apartments in Harleysville.

 

This undated photo provided by the Montgomery County Office of the District Attorney in Norristown,  …

He said Nicole Stone would talk frequently about the custody dispute.
"(Nicole) came into the house a few times, a few separate occasions, crying about how it was very upsetting to her," Weron said.
Neighbors woke to the sounds of breaking glass and gunshots coming from Nicole Stone's apartment early Monday. They alerted authorities after seeing her ex-husband racing away with the children. The girls later were found safe with his neighbors, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.

She declined to discuss the weapon or weapons involved in the slayings, and said authorities did not know if Stone was traveling on foot.

The killings broke the calm in several small towns in Montgomery County, the second wealthiest county in Pennsylvania and the 51st wealthiest in the United States, according to the county government web page.

Stone served as a reservist in the U.S. Marines until 2011, mainly as a meteorologist, according to the Marines. He spent a few months in Iraq in 2008.

Slaughtered as Taliban storm Pakistan School

The Taliban stormed a military-run school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday and gunned down at least 126 people, most of them children, in one of the country's deadliest attacks in recent weeks.

Hours after the attack, the Pakistani military was still exchanging gunfire with the militants inside the Army Public School and Degree College, in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad.

The information minister for the province, Mushtaq Ghani, says most of the dead in Tuesday's attack were students, children and teenagers, from the school.

The still-unfolding violence began in the morning hours, with about half a dozen gunmen entering the school. Two loud booms of unknown origin were heard coming from the scene in the early afternoon, as Pakistani troops exchanged fire with the attackers.

 The Pakistani military said it had pushed the attackers to four blocks of the school, and killed four.

The death toll has steadily risen, and officials fear it will climb higher. The number of injured was upwards of 100.

Most of those who died were between the ages of 12 and 16, said Pervez Khattak, chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is located.

Two out of the many trained female suicide bombers of Boko Haram, 4 others killed in Kano market blast — Police

Two out of the many trained female suicide bombers of Boko Haram, 4 others killed in Kano market blast — Police

Six persons, including two suicide bombers, have died in a bomb attack at a textile market in Kano, Wednesday, police have said.
Seven others injured in the attack, are being treated at Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital.
Kano Police Commissioner, Aderele Shinaba, told journalists at the scene of the bomb attack, that two female suicide bombers arrived at the market pretending to be buyers of textile materials.
He said soon as they entered the market they went to behind Access Bank, and requested water they could ease themselves with in one of the market latrines.
When denied water, Mr. Shinaba said the two women engaged the sellers in an argument, drawing a crowd before the two bombers detonated their explosives.
The police spokesman said after the bomb exploded, there was pandemonium with people running for safety.
The blast occurred at a place known as “fillin parking” along Ibrahim Taiwo Way, a major intersection leading to the popular Kano Kantin Kwari Market.
Kantin Kwari textile market is rated the largest market in northern Nigeria, with several thousands of traders from all over Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries doing business there on daily basis.
The incident is coming less than two weeks after multiple explosions rocked the Kano Central Mosque, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds of others.
An explosion had rocked the same market on December 12, 2012, injuring three people.
The state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and other top political office holders are in Lagos for the national convention of the All Progressives Congress.
Governor Kwankwaso is seeking the presidential ticket of the party at the convention.

The Scandalous Book

Looks like Obasanjo's book is really scandalous. He exposed a lot of people and a lot of things in it. Below is an excerpt from the book...as posted on Facebook. Y'all need to read this

"By the Constitution, I had to inaugurate or prorogue the National Assembly on June 4, 1999. The most important officer in the National Assembly is the senate president and that office had been zoned to the South-east. And here was where Atiku Abubakar, my vice-president,first showed his hand and his character.

“Without seeking my view or approval, he started planning the installation of Chuba Okadigbo as the senate president. I did a background check on Chuba including his past as a student and made enquiries about him in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) under (President Shehu) Shagari and no one would recommend him for the post of senate president.

“I left Atiku to go on his chase while I carried out a meticulous and detailed investigation and background check on each senator from the South-east. The one that appeared most appointable was Evan Enwerem. I canvassed the senate across the board for his election and he was elected. Atiku did not expect it and he felt sore.

“He began to strategise for Enwerem to be removed and Chuba Okadigbo to be installed. His strategy worked because I was at Abuja airport to receive a visiting head of state when the news reached me that the Senate had impeached Enwerem and elected Okadigbo. I was not perturbed. I came to understand from some senators including Florence Ita-Giwa, who later became my Special Adviser/ Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, that Atiku distributed US$5,000 each to some senators to carry out the ‘coup’.
“That was the beginning of bribing the legislature to carry out a particular line of action to suit or satisfy the purpose or desire of an individual or a group. The National Assembly had tasted blood and they would continue to want more. From the day I nominated Atiku to be my vice, he set his mind not for any good, benefit or service of the country, but on furiously planning to upstage, supplant or remove me at all cost and to take my place.

“That was what I brought him for, but he was impatient and over-ambitious.He was not ready to learn and to wait. His marabout, who predicted that despite being elected as governor, he would not be sworn in as a governor, which happened, also assured him that he would take over from me in a matter of months rather than years.

“All his plans, appointments of people and his actions were towards the actualisation of his marabout’s prediction. Once I realised his intention and programme, I watched him like a hawk without giving any indication of what I knew and letting down my guard. I could not succumb to the distraction, diversion and malevolence of an ambitious but unwise deputy.

“The work in hand was more important than a confrontationalrelationship with my deputy, a man over whom I knew I had far more experience and outreach in all matters. To alert him of what I knew he was up to, would only lead to lying, denial, more mischievous plans and more duplicity on his part.
“He was better managed that way. What was important was not allowing myself to be surprised or outmanoeuvred by him. I must always seize the initiative and know what was going on if not in his mind, but at least in his camp. That I did very effectively.

“Sometime in the fourth quarter of 2004, an associate of Atiku came to my residence at the Aso Villa from Atiku’s official residence. He felt uncomfortable and I tried to make him feel at ease. Then, he settled to tell me the story of what had just transpired in Atiku’s residence. I listened with rapt attention.
“He went on to say that Atiku told him that for him to become the President of Nigeria, the 2007 elections were only a formality.

“The seven ingredients he needed for his enthronement were already in his hands. He controlled the National Assembly because both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representativeswere in his pocket. He controlled twenty-eight out of thirty-six governors. He had control of the media. His influence over the judiciary was overwhelming.

“What he needed was foreign endorsement and for that he had employed two lobby groups in the US and one in the UK. And finally, the money for the elections was in his purse.
“When the man finished, I thanked him without passing any comment. The man was surprised at my reaction and asked, ‘You have nothing to say to these?’ I said that I had nothing to say and I immediately called my ADC, Chris Jemitola, to play a game of squash with me.

“On our way to the squash court with my ADC, I said, ‘People at times make plans and leave God out of their plans.’ My casual remark struck Chris and he said, ‘Sir, that was a profound statement.’ I said that I made the statement because of what I had just heard of Atiku’s plan. I was not convinced he had put God in his plans.

“Atiku was confident and God was laughing. Most of Atiku’s ingredients soon started to fall out of place one by one. The first was the party, PDP.
“He thought I was powerless and had no clue about the execution of his plan with his group; part of his attack on me was for national chairman of the party to give the first salvo, then other things would follow as his grip on the party would be firm and consolidated.

“That salvo came in the form of a letter to me from the chairman of the party, Audu Ogbeh, who had fully defected with (Iyorchia) Ayu to Atiku.
“The letter, which was not the product of any issue or matter discussed with or at any party meeting, came suddenly. When I received it, I could read the sinister intention behind it.
“I spent that night writing my reply and I sent it in the morning. My reply was clear. I wondered why Atiku and his group did not realise that with my reply, the battle line was clear or maybe they thought that the seven ingredients would remain intact to the end.
“My assistants had moles within the Atiku group. Anything that they planned would be reported. That was the case after Ogbeh’s letter. They decided that Ogbeh should appear remorseful and come with the National Working Committee to apologise to me. It was not from their hearts, but to lure me to a ‘killing ground’.

“All pieces of information that were reported were verified because it would not come from only one informant. Timely information is a very important principle of war and also of politics. In politics, just as in war, what matters is not just your plan, but knowledge of your opponent’s plan. Knowing their plan, I had the choice of playing along with them or being firm, I chose the latter.
“I told Ogbeh that my relationship with him as national chairman and me as national leader of the party was based on mutual confidence and trust. But with his letter, my reply and what I knew of him then, I could no longer work with him in confidence and trust.

“There were only two choices left for both of us in our best interest and that of the party – he, leaves as chairman or I leave as leader of the party.
“The following Sunday, I called at his house, which I had done on several occasions in the past when there was an important party matter to discuss. This time, I asked him to give me an undated letter of resignation as the national chairman.

“I waited, he gave me but it was wrongly addressed to me rather than to the national secretary of the party as stipulated in the party’s constitution.
“Ogbeh reported to his group and it was decided by them to play on and to wait for my disgrace whenever I presented a letter of resignation not addressed to the national secretary.
“The informants did their job and I, once again, paid another visit to Ogbeh at his residence. He entertained me to a meal and drink, and changed the addressee on his letter of resignation.
“It would appear he never reported the change to his group. When I considered it opportune and appropriate, the letter was dated and presented to National Executive Committee of the party, which regrettably accepted the resignation.

“With that, whatever control Atiku claimed to have over the party began to crumble. But he did not think so and went on to boast that if I made my daughter the national chairman, it would be a matter of weeks not months before he would put her in his pocket.

“I therefore had to look for a successor chairman, who would be too big, uncompromising and inflexible to be lured and controlled by Atiku. I found such a man in Senator (Dr.) Amadu Ali, whom I had known many years earlier as a medical doctor in the army…”

 

9 Best Foods to Eat for Healthy Eyes

With many millions of people suffering from macular degeneration and cataracts, it’s well worth incorporating some of the foods that are good for your eyes into your daily diet. Since the eyes are vascular, it’s vital to stick to a healthy diet that is low in saturated and trans fat to maintain your eyes’ blood vessels healthy. Numerous studies show that protecting the eyes begins with the foods on a plate. Foods rich in lutein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, and antioxidants help ward off most age-related vision problems including cataracts and macular degeneration. A few years ago I had problems with my eyes and I was unable to work in front of a computer screen or watch TV more than 20 minutes since my eyes became red and sore. My doctor helped me, and then he advised me to include these foods for healthy eyes in my everyday diet so that I could keep my eyes healthy on a daily basis. One of the best things about these foods is that they also improve digestion, boost my mood and energy, keep my skin healthy, and improve overall health. Enjoy learning about 9 best foods to eat to keep your eyes healthy and feel free to add to this list your favorite foods after reading through.

1. Carrots

Sure, carrots top this list of the best foods to eat for healthy eyes. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A and beta-carotene that promote overall eye health. Vitamin A is crucial for the surface of the eyes and lids and beta-carotene is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect the cells of the eyes from free radical damage. Carrots don’t give you night vision, of course, but the beta-carotene will help lower your risk of both cataracts and macular degeneration.
Rich in fiber and potassium, carrots are also great for your overall health. Potassium helps to maintain a proper fluid balance in the body and fiber helps keep your digestive system functioning efficiently. Carrots are also high in falcarinol, a substance that can slow the cancer cell growth.
If you are trying to lose weight, load up your diet with carrots since they are extremely low in calories and they are almost fat-free. Plus, they are high in fiber that will keep you full longer and can even prevent you from overeating. Munch on carrots when you are hungry. Serve carrot sticks with hummus or a low-calorie vegetable dip. I always add carrots to my healthy smoothies, salads, soups, stir-fry, and I make healthy carrots chips that my family, especially kids, enjoys eating instead of potato chips.

2. Salmon

Like any other oily fish, such as sardines, herring, mackerel and halibut, salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for a good eye health. Eating salmon regularly reduces the risk of macular degeneration by 38% and helps treat dry eye disease. Salmon is also one of the best sources of vitamin D that helps improve your eye health, cardiovascular health and it plays a vital role in healthy bone growth. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a higher risk of cancer, heart disease, type-1 diabetes, sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Incorporate salmon into your eating plan to improve your vision as well as to prevent vitamin D deficiency. A can of salmon contains your day’s worth of this essential vitamin.
Omega-3 fatty acids in salmon also help reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol and slow and prevent the Alzheimer’s disease. It’s recommended to eat salmon at least twice a week. You can bake salmon for dinner, add salmon chunks to your salads, grill salmon, use raw salmon for sushi and sashimi, or eat smoked salmon with crackers. If you have trouble falling asleep, try eating salmon for dinner. Salmon is high in tryptophan, a natural sedative that will help you sleep better.

3. Leafy greens

Photo: joyosity

Kale, spinach, chard, collards, and other dark leafy greens are packed with two potent antioxidants, zeaxanthin and lutein, which are stored in the macula. The macula is a small part of the retina that acts as an absolutely natural sunblock, protecting your eyes from harmful light. The antioxidants found in leafy greens absorb blue light that is especially dangerous to the retina. Moreover, they can help you get better contrast detection and improve your eyesight. Many researches have found that zeaxanthin and lutein lower the risk of chronic eye diseases, such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.
In fact, leafy greens are good for your overall health and they boast a plethora of amazing benefits. For instance, spinach is high in potassium, magnesium, folate, vitamins E and K, and antioxidants that protect your brain cells and may help prevent dementia. Kale is a wonderful source of vitamins A, C and K, magnesium, and calcium. Eating kale regularly promotes healthy eyes and skin, helps reduce the bad cholesterol levels, and improves liver and kidney functions. Add your favorite leafy greens to your green smoothies, use them in your salads, or make homemade kale chips. If you are brave enough to eat leafy greens raw, it’s even better.

4. Corn

One of the most delicious and versatile vegetables, a yellow corn is rich in zeaxanthin and lutein, powerful antioxidants that are good for your eyes. ½ cup of cooked corn provides you with 1,8 grams of these pigments. Consuming corn on a regular basis lowers the risks of cataracts and helps prevent the loss of yellow pigments in the eyes.
Corn is also fortified with Vitamin C, Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), Vitamin B1 (thiamin) and folate. Moreover, it’s a fantastic source of magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, and antioxidants that help your body combat cancer-causing free radicals. Due to its high fiber content, corn helps prevent hemorrhoids, lower the risk of colon cancer, diabetes and heart problems, as well as aids weight loss.
You can add corn to your salads and soups, grill or boil fresh corn on the cob, use it in your pizza, salsa and risotto. I also love adding corn to my vegetable smoothie. If you don’t like the taste of the corn, a healthy vegetable smoothie is a great option for you. You will enjoy a tasty drink while reaping all its health benefits. To increase the absorption of the eye-friendly pigments found in a yellow corn, consider eating corn with some dietary fat such as salmon, olive oil, or walnuts.

5. Ostrich

Perhaps, you have never even considered eating ostrich for healthy eyes, but it’s rich in zinc that helps the eyes stay healthy and lowers the risk of macular degeneration. Ostrich is a great substitute for red meat. It contains less than a third of the amount of fat in a lean beef, and it’s much lower in cholesterol than chicken and other red meats. Ostrich meat is rich in zinc that plays an important role in maintaining eye health. Zinc is also vital for many enzyme systems and proper functioning of your digestion and immune system. Moreover, it helps reduce stress levels, boost metabolism and fight acne. People who suffer from macular degeneration should definitely incorporate ostrich meat into their eating plan. During macular degeneration, the low zinc levels in the retina can be leveled up by eating ostrich meat on a regular basis.
Apart from improving your eye health, ostrich meat boasts numerous benefits. If you want to build or maintain muscle, add some ostrich meat to your daily diet. This meat is an awesome source of potassium, protein, iron, phosphorous, and natural creatine.
Thanks to its ideal pH balance, ostrich meat doesn’t attract or harbor harmful bacteria such as salmonella and E-coli, unlike chicken and some other meats. This makes ostrich meat perfect for carpaccio and sushi.

6. Olive oil

The major reason why olive oil is so beneficial to your eyes is that it helps your body absorb nutrients from the other foods that can help keep your eyes healthy. So, drizzle olive oil over your mixed salad to absorb all of the nutrients from the tomatoes and leafy greens, and cook your sweet potatoes and meat in olive oil to get the most nutrients.
Studies show that a diet that’s low in saturated and trans fat can help prevent retina diseases. Olive oil is low in saturated fat and contains no trans fats. When purchasing olive oil, opt for extra virgin olive oil that provides a great antioxidant boost to protect your eyes. Olive oil is naturally free of cholesterol, carbohydrate and sodium, but it’s high in vitamin E – 100 gram of fresh extra virgin olive oil provides approximately 96% of recommended daily amount of alpha-tocopherol. Moreover, olive oil is rich in vitamin K – 100 gram of extra virgin olive oil provides around 50% of recommended daily intake. Vitamin K is crucial for preventing heart disease, building strong bones, and keeping your eyes healthy. Due to its high antioxidant content, olive oil helps prevent cancer, coronary artery disease, inflammation, diabetes, and degenerative nerve diseases.

7. Turkey

One of the best and tasty foods to eat for healthy eyes is turkey. It is rich in both the B-vitamin niacin and zinc and it is incredibly versatile. You can use it as a substitute for both beef and chicken. Plus, turkey is often more reasonably priced. Eating turkey regularly keeps the eyes healthy and can even ward off cataract.
Apart from being rich in zinc, turkey is also fortified with B vitamins, tryptophan, phosphorus, protein and selenium. It’s low in cholesterol and saturated fat, and can be a part of a healthy diet due to its high protein content. A serving of turkey has 65 percent of recommended daily protein intake. Have a turkey sandwich with your favorite veggies for lunch and you will almost cover your daily protein intake.
Turkey is believed to help prevent cancer and boost mood thanks to its incredibly high tryptophan content. It’s a great source of selenium, which is crucial for the healthy function of the immune system and thyroid and which plays a vital role in the antioxidant defense system, helping to prevent the growth of cancer-friendly free radicals in your body. Since turkey is lower in cholesterol and fat than beef, pork and chicken, consuming it also helps to reduce cholesterol levels. If you can’t afford eating ostrich meat, turkey may be the best choice for you.

8. Tomatoes

Tomatoes are an excellent source of carotenoids, including lycopene, a great antioxidant compound that gives tomatoes their perfect red color. A study shows that the lycopene helps protect the retina and other areas of the eye from the light-induced damage. Lycopene may also help protect your cells from damage and it helps prevent prostate, stomach, and lung cancers. Tomatoes are also plentiful in vitamin C that helps protect your eyes and vision. Moreover, vitamin C promotes wound healing, protects your body from free radical damage, and improves the absorption of iron from most plant foods.
Fresh or cooked tomatoes consumed with a little bit of olive oil will help improve lycopene absorption. Not only do tomatoes help protect your eyes, they can also improve your skin health and boost your brain power and immune system. You can add tomatoes to your morning smoothies, vegetable salads, soups, omelets, or better, eat them raw. Consider grilling tomatoes and drinking tomato juice that is packed with essential vitamins and minerals. Slice a few tomatoes for your homemade pizza or make your own tomato pasta sauce. Many researchers say that consuming foods high in powerful antioxidants is much better than taking a supplement. Tomatoes are rich in antioxidants, so why not eat them more?

9. Sweet potatoes

Finally, the last great food to eat for healthy eyes is sweet potatoes. It’s the beta-carotene you have to thank for helping to keep your eyes healthy when you eat sweet potatoes. Just like carrots, sweet potatoes are plentiful in beta carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber, manganese and potassium, which are all good for eye health. A medium sweet potato provides over 200 percent of recommended daily intake of beta carotene, 28 percent of recommended daily manganese intake, and 40 percent of the daily requirement of vitamin C. Sweet potatoes are also a good source of vitamin D that is crucial for your immune system, energy levels, eye health and bone growth. Not only are sweet potatoes great for your eye health, they are also good for your heart health. Due to its high content of potassium and vitamin B6, sweet potatoes help to prevent high blood pressure and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
I like sweet potatoes since they are very versatile. You can mash them, roast them, or even make them into chips and fries. You can also serve baked sweet potatoes with extra virgin olive oil to boost your eye health. Sweet potatoes also blend well with nuts and onions.
These amazing and tasty foods are good for your eyes since they all contain antioxidants, fats or minerals that are so good for your eyes. Add foods rich in lutein, beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, vitamin E, vitamin C, omega-3 fats and zinc to your everyday diet to improve your eye health and prevent eye diseases. Do you eat these foods for healthy eyes? Please comment below.