The world’s foremost sporting honours will return in April when the winners of the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards are announced.
Due to the ongoing limitations and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 Awards will build on the success of Laureus’ 2021 ‘virtual’ Awards. The showcase event will continue to celebrate the achievement of athletes and the inspirational stories from the world of sport, which last year included the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and Euro 2020.
With the Nominees selected by a panel of 1300 sports journalists due to be announced on 2nd February, the Awards will follow to announce the winners of the most prestigious Awards in sport following a vote by the 71 Members of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
The Laureus Academy form the ultimate sports jury, consisting of many of the greatest Olympic gold medallists, world champions and most famous achievers in sport. This group provide the insight and understanding of what makes exceptional sporting achievement and the concept of ‘athletes celebrating athletes’ ensures the value of the awards to the world of sport more widely.
Sean Fitzpatrick, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, said: “We know for sure, after such an amazing and challenging year for sport, that 2022 will be an Awards to remember. The Academy are certainly going to have a difficult job selecting the Winners from so many outstanding sportsmen, sportswomen and teams.”
In addition to the seven Nominated categories: Sportsman, Sportswoman, Team, Breakthrough, Comeback, Disability and Action Sports, Laureus will recognise the efforts of community based programmes through its ‘Sport for Good Award’. The Laureus Academy will also select winners of special Awards which have included Lifetime Achievement, Spirit of Sport and Athlete Advocacy.
Last year’s winners included Rafael Nadal (Sportsman), Naomi Osaka (Sportswoman), Bayern Munich (Team), Patrick Mahomes (Breakthrough) and Max Parrot (Comeback) as well as Billie Jean King (Lifetime) and Lewis Hamilton (for the inaugural Laureus Athlete Advocate Award).
The Award presentations and related news stories will be fully available to the world’s media and broadcast extensively on Laureus social media platforms. A broadcast show will continue Laureus’ record of extensive global syndication, delivering annual television audiences of over 600 million for the Awards and associated news content, along with many millions more across social and digital channels.
Laureus World Sports Awards 2022 To Take Place In April
Teacher Education: Tanzania Set To Release New Curricula For Nursery, Primary, Secondary
The Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) says new curricula for nursery, primary, secondary and teacher education will start being used from January 2025.
TIE is reviewing the curricula for these education levels currently with the aim of improving the documents for provision of competence-based education in the country.
TIE Director-General, Dr Aneth Komba stated this in Dodoma when he made a presentation on the envisaged new curricula while receiving views from stakeholders during an annual meeting of the heads of education institutions under the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC).
Komba said the process to improve the current curricula is expected to take at least three years, where they are now at a stage of collecting views and needs from stakeholders to incorporate in the new document.
She said it was better that education supervisors ensure that they understand the current curricula which will still be used even after introducing new ones.
Head teacher of Faraja School for pupils with special needs, William Kivinyo, advised that English Language subject should start being taught from Standard One, unlike the current system where the subject is taught from Standard Three.
Education Coordinator for Arusha Archdiocese, Lushuru Sambwet suggested that the government should look at a means of enabling Standard Seven leavers to also have an option of choosing to join vocational education.
Another teacher from Lake Victoria School, Juma Jackson, advised that social studies subject should be taught in secondary schools from Form One to Form Four instead of primary education only.
Similarly, a teacher from Kagera, Sophia Kamelegwe, suggested that pass marks for those selected to join teacher education should be increased in order to obtain better teachers.
First Red Cross aid reaches Tigray in five months
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says that, for the first time in five months, it has delivered medical aid to the war-hit Ethiopia’s northern région of Tigray.
The news is a rare glimmer of hope for Tigray, which continues to suffer from shortages of essential supplies, 15 mois into le conflit.
The ICRC’s health co-ordinator in the pays said the development was “a huge relief”.
The planes – which included essential drugs – arrived in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, on Wednesday and the ICRC plans to arrange more flights in the coming jours, as well as send convoys by route.
This follows a pledge by the government in Addis Ababa to facilitate airlifts of essential food and medical supplies to the rebel-controlled region.
Though renewed fighting along the border between the Tigray and Afar regions may further complicate the delivery of aid by route.
The ICRC has previously said shortages of basic supplies have forced doctors in Tigray to reuse gloves and surgical equipment.
The World Health Organization recently said it had not been permis to send medical supplies to Tigray since May last year
International Maths Olympiad Challenge: Young Nigerian Student Receives Mathematics Elitist Title
Barely a year after she was honoured by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth as one of the world brightest students in 2021, Fareedah Oyolola has again put Nigeria on the map by receiving the Elitist title of the International Maths Olympiad Challenge (IMOC).
She received the title along with other students following her 97.23 percentile score in the global mathematics championship, which concluded last December.
Reacting to the news of Oyolola’s new accomplishment, the Deputy Director of Education at the school, Dr. Barney Wilson, described her as a blessing to the school.
The International Maths Olympiad Challenge is a global mathematics championship for students who are mathematics fanatics and always seeking challenges that will deepen their understanding of mathematics.
The timeline for the 2022 edition of the challenge is yet to be announced.
Pro-coup supporters bussed in for Sudan protest
A protest has been held in Sudan in support of the military, to denounce efforts by the UN to resolve the political crisis.
The demonstrators – many of whom were driven to the event in buses – gathered outside the UN office in the capital, Khartoum, to condemn what they called outside interference.
Earlier this month the UN began a mediation effort but has stressed that it is not imposing any options on the people of Sudan.
Since October’s military coup there have been frequent pro-democracy protests in many Sudanese cities. Security forces have violently dispersed them – killing more than 70 people.
School Board Punishes Teacher For Saying Trans Books ‘Inappropriate’
An Ontario teacher was placed on leave after being accused of using “transphobic” language for voicing concern during a board meeting last Monday about the presence of books that celebrate medical gender transition in school libraries.
The teacher, Carolyn Burjoski, claims she is being “bullied, slandered and abused” for arguing that some books in libraries were inappropriate for children.
The Waterloo Region District School Board Chair Scott Piatkowski cut short Burjoski’s presentation after she said the school libraries have books that make the medical transition seem “simple” and “cool” available to kindergartners through sixth-grade students, The National Post reported.
The board, which oversees over 100 schools in the region, voted 5-4 to back up the chair’s decision.
In a video posted on Twitter, Burjoski said that she was informed the following morning by human resources that she was “immediately assigned to home, pending a formal investigation and banned from contacting my colleagues and students.”
“This was particularly upsetting to me because I love my students, and I have not seen them since December,” she said. “When my students excitedly returned to school on Tuesday — the first day of in-class learning after yet another lockdown — their teacher was not there, and they did not know why. I have been silenced and punished.”
Covid-19 Vaccine: Man denied heart transplant by Boston hospital
A U.S hospital has rejected a patient for a heart transplant at least in part because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.
DJ Ferguson, 31, is in dire need of a new heart, but Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston took him off their list, said his father, Mr. David Ferguson. He said the Covid vaccine goes against his son’s “basic principles, he doesn’t believe in it”.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital said it was following policy. It further said in a statement, “Given the shortage of available organs, we do everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival.”
A spokesman said the hospital requires “the Covid-19 vaccine, and lifestyle behaviours for transplant candidates to create both the best chance for a successful operation and to optimise the patient’s survival after transplantation, given that their immune system is drastically suppressed”.
Mr Ferguson has been in hospital since last Thanksgiving weekend, 26 November 2021, and he suffers from a hereditary heart issue that causes his lungs to fill with blood and fluid, according to a GoFundMe.
The organiser of the fundraiser said Mr Ferguson was concerned he could experience cardiac inflammation – a potential side effect from coronavirus vaccination that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasises is rare and temporary – and that it might prove dangerous given the weakness of his heart.
The CDC encourages transplant recipients and those in their immediate circles to get fully vaccinated and boosted.
A father-of-two with a third child on the way, Mr Ferguson has remained at the hospital.
His family has suggested he is too weak to be transferred to a different hospital and is “running out of time”.
“My boy is fighting pretty courageously and he has integrity and principles he really believes in and that makes me respect him all the more,” said Mr. David Ferguson. “It’s his body. It’s his choice.” He added.
It is not the first time an unvaccinated American has faced healthcare obstacles in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, a Minnesota woman sued her local hospital after doctors tried to take her unvaccinated husband off the ventilator he had been on for two months.
Just over 63% of the US population is double-jabbed and about 40% of Americans have received a third booster dose.
Former Mosque Leader In Uganda Beaten For Faith In Christ
A former mosque leader in eastern Uganda who converted to Christianity is still hospitalized with serious head, back and hand injuries after Muslim relatives beat him on Jan. 13, he said.
Bashir Sengendo had not returned home to visit his family in Namaato village, Kigalama Sub-County in Namutimba District since leaving Islam in 2016. Relatives had long sent him messages urging him to return to tend to a portion of land supposedly allocated to him, he said.
“This request continued for the last six years, but I had been reluctant to go back home,” Sengendo told Morning Star News.
He decided to return home from his base in western Uganda for a visit on Jan. 12, arriving at 9 p.m., he said.
“I was shocked to receive a cold reception and slept without food, only to be attacked and beaten badly in the morning by my brother and my uncle,” Sengendo said. “They cut me with an object in the head, back and hand.”
His screams brought police and neighbors who rescued him and took him to Namutimba Hospital, he said.
“As the attackers were hitting me, my uncle said that the family spent a lot of money training me as a Muslim teacher, and that I have caused a lot of shame to the family and Muslims at large,” Sengendo said.
He lost a large amount of blood and was still critically ill when visited in the hospital.
After putting his faith in Christ on May 13, 2016, through the ministry of another former Muslim, a church helped arrange for Sengendo to attend Bible College for six months, and he became a pastor shortly thereafter, he said.
The assault in eastern Uganda was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in the country that Morning Star News has documented.
Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.
Hannah Traore Launches New York Gallery Focusing On ‘Artists Who Have Been Left Out Of The Conversation’
When Hannah Traore was working on her undergraduate honors thesis in art history at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, she began exploring the work of Malick Sidibé, whose legendary studio portraits and street photography featured everyday people in Mali, where her father is from.
Skidmore has a renowned university art museum, the Tang Teaching Museum, and in 2017, Traore organized an exhibition there titled “Africa Pop Studio” that included Sidibé’s work and that of various artists he had influenced, including Derrick Adams, Zanele Muholi, Aida Muluneh, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, and Hassan Hajjaj, who collaborated with Traore on the exhibition’s colorful installation.
“From then on, I knew I wanted to open a gallery because I realized I wanted to go down the curatorial route,” Traore said in an interview. “But you can’t always realize your true vision in someone else’s space: one, they won’t let you, and two, you want to keep that close to you. I realized early on I would have to do it in my own space.”
That goal is now a reality, as Traore has launched her own gallery in New York’s Lower East Side, in a move spurred on by reflecting on her career amid the pandemic. Traore, who was been a curatorial intern at the Museum of Modern Art and worked at Fotografiska New York, looked for spaces in the Lower East Side because she was drawn to the possibility of the foot traffic her gallery might attract outside of the art world.
The gallery’s first show, which opened on Thursday, is titled “Hues” and features the work of artists of color who foreground bold tones in their work, such as Wendy Red Star, Patricia Renee’ Thomas, Muzae Sesay, Camila Falquez, and Jeffrey Cheung.
Alongside the main area where “Hues” is on view is a backroom “for different kinds of exhibitions where artists can play more and for more immersive experiences—larger-than-life installations,” Traore said. Inaugurating it is “Mi Casa Su Casa,” a group show organized by Hajjaj that features his work alongside that of 14 emerging artists from Morocco, arranged salon-style.
When she worked on the exhibition at Skidmore, Traore wanted the exhibition’s installation to “feel like an African portrait studio,” so she reached out to Hajjaj to see if he would be interested in collaborating. Hajjaj agreed, and he designed an installation with bright red and yellow walls, chandeliers made from recycled materials, and poufs for sitting. The two met at that exhibition’s closing reception and have stayed in contact over the years.
Her primary focus will be on presenting the work of “artists who have traditionally been left out of the conversation—and when they’ve been brought into the conversation, it’s often been in a performative way,” she said. “I think the dynamic changes a lot when the person giving the platform is in multiple underrepresented groups as well.
NYSC Inaugurates Museum As Research Center, Tourism
The Nigerian Government has inaugurated the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Museum, saying it will serve as a center for research and documentation as well as a major tourist site.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, while commissioning the project on Tuesday, said, “With the complexities of today’s world and the quest for foreign culture, it has become necessary to seek ways to preserve our history.
“Therefore, I am highly honoured to commission this project which will serve as a center for research and documentation-and in the long run, a source of income to the (NYSC) Scheme.
The NYSC Director-General, Major-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, called on relevant authorities to facilitate the process of listing the museum among historical sites in the country, in addition to making it among tourist sites in the FCT.
“Artworks, painting fabrications and innovations of corps members, have all been adequately preserved in this museum.
“Our humble attempt to preserve history of the Scheme has received so much support as individuals have been coming forward to donate artefacts and other materials produced during their service year to be kept at the museum.
“It is our desire that individuals will find the museum a valuable tool of reference while availing researchers useful materials on the contributions of the Scheme to the national development,” he said.
The NYSC Director of Planning, Research and Statistics Department, Ahmed Wada Ikakka, said that besides providing researchers with valuable materials for their studies, the establishment of the museum of dynamic history will go a long way in projecting the good image of the scheme to the public.
