Senegal's N'dour to stop singing, enter politics (Reuters)

DAKAR (Reuters) ? Senegalese world music star Youssou N'dour declared Saturday he would cancel concert dates to enter politics from January 2 next year, a month before a tense presidential election in his West African country.

The singer did not explicitly say whether he would stand for president himself, as some supporters have urged. He also did not make clear whether he intended a definitive or merely temporary halt to his musical career.

February's poll has been dominated by a noisy constitutional row over whether incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade, 85, has the right to stand for a third term in a country which prides itself on its record of peaceful leadership changes.

"From January 2 onwards, I am freeing myself from all artistic engagements to enter the political arena," N'dour, 52, said in a live broadcast on his television station TFM at the launch of his movement, one of several formed to oppose Wade.

N'dour has strongly criticised what he calls the profligate spending of the Wade leadership in a country where formal employment is rare and average income per head is $3 a day.

The revised Senegalese constitution limits presidential terms to two, but Wade argues that this should not apply to his first term starting in 2000, as this pre-dated the amendment.

Wade backed down on further proposed changes to electoral rules in June after they sparked violent clashes between riot police and protesters in the capital Dakar.

(Reporting by Diadie Ba; writing by Mark John; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/people_nm/us_senegal_election_ndour

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Communcation with schools in Japan

By Ken Y-N ( November 26, 2011 at 01:28) ? Filed under Polls, Society

A recent survey from goo Research into communication with school in times of disasters was conducted in conjunction with http://wdsd.net/, another company in the same NTT Resonant group as goo Research that provides mailing list services to schools for communicating with parents and guardians in times of disaster and other occasions.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 30th of October 2011 350 parents or guardians of middle school or high school children who lived in the Eastern or Northern areas of Japan (one of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Yamanashi, Nagano, Niigata, Aomori, Yamagata, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, or Fukushima Prefectures) completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 8.0% in their thirties, 64.0% in their forties, 27.7% in their fifties, and 0.3% in their sixties.

Note that the areas surveyed were those that were affected the most by the March 11th earthquake, which is a focus of many of the questions below.

Research results

Q1: What IT tools are used for communication between the school and you? (Sample size=350, multiple answer)

Computer-targeted school public-facing web site	67.4%
Mass-mailing mailing list	21.4%
Private one-way web email site provided by school	17.7%
Mobile phone-targeted school public-facing web site	8.9%
Private two-way web email site provided by school	4.5%
Other	0.6%
Don?t use any IT system	11.1%
Don?t know	8.0%

Q2: What do you worry about regarding email-based communication? (Sample size=350, multiple answer)

Bothersome to notify the school when I change email addresses	44.3%
As only one email address can be registered, worry about it being undeliverable	34.0%
Don?t want to let the school, other guardians know my personal email address	30.6%
Making a mistake entering the email address	18.3%
Don?t have an email address	0.9%
Other	8.6%

Q3: How did the school inform you of the situation after the March 11th earthquake? (Sample size=350)

Was informed by my child that they were awaiting orders in school (to SQ)	9.7%
Was informed by the school that my child was safe (to SQ)	4.0%
Couldn?t get informed (no mobile signal, etc)	15.4%
Didn?t get informed	56.2%
Don?t know	8.3%
Other	5.7%

Q3SQ: How did you get informed? (Sample size=48, multiple answer)

Email	52.1%
Telephone call to home from teacher	37.5%
Relay telephone call	18.8%
Telephone call to mobile from teacher	18.8%
Post to school web site	14.5%
Twitter, facebook, other SNS	0.0%
Other	2.1%

Q4: Do you allow your child to have a mobile phone? (Sample size=350)

Yes, since before earthquake	74.9%
Yes, since after earthquake	4.9%
No, still doesn?t have one	19.7%
Other	0.6%

Q5: Does you child?s school allow children to have a mobile phone? (Sample size=350)

Allowed since before earthquake	50.6%
Allowed since after earthquake	3.1%
Still not allowed	39.1%
Don?t know	5.4%
Other	1.7%

Q6: Since the earthquake, has the school changed how they inform guardians? (Sample size=350)

Changed	8.9%
Investigating changing	4.9%
Not changed	69.7%
Don?t know	16.3%
Other	0.3%

Q7: Since the earthquake, have you discussed within your family how you will keep in touch in the event of a disaster? (Sample size=350)

Discussed in family and changed how to keep in touch	22.0%
Discussed in family but not changed how to keep in touch	42.3%
Not discussed in family	34.0%
Other	1.7%

Read more on: communication,goo research,school,wdsd

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WhatJapanThinks/~3/g6mWNfTfwY4/

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