Animals' attitudes to risk are profoundly influenced by metabolic state (hunger and baseline energy stores). Specifically, animals often express a preference for risky (more variable) food sources when below a metabolic reference point (hungry), and safe (less variable) food sources when sated. Circulating hormones report the status of energy reserves and acute nutrient intake to widespread targets in the central nervous system that regulate feeding behaviour, including brain regions strongly implicated in risk and reward based decision-making in humans. Despite this, physiological influences per se have not been considered previously to influence economic decisions in humans. We hypothesised that baseline metabolic reserves and alterations in metabolic state would systematically modulate decision-making and financial risk-taking in humans.

CAPE TOWN -- The president of Equatorial Guinea, who has ruled the oil-rich West African nation for three decades, sought Monday to recast his reputation as a corrupt, repressive leader in a more progressive mold. Enlarge This Image Enrique De La Osa/Reuters Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Related * Times Topic: Equatorial Guinea Standing at his side to help him do that was the American lobbyist he has hired for $1 million a year: Lanny J. Davis, who served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton.

ABSTRACT: A NEUROLOGIST'S NOTEBOOK about a man suffering from alexia, an inability to recognize written language. In January of 2002, Canadian novelist Howard Engel sent the writer a letter about his experience with alexia sine agraphia, a form of visual agnosia which results in an inability to recognize written language. On the morning of July 31, 2001, Engel awoke and discovered that he could not read the newspaper. His room looked normal, and he could still read his clock, but his books were all unintelligible, all full of the same "Oriental"-looking script. At the hospital, it was determined that he had had a stroke which had affected a limited area of the visual parts of the brain, on the left side. He spent the next week in the neurology ward at Toronto's Mount Sina Hospital. He also had difficulties recognizing colors, faces, and everyday objects, yet he was surprised to find that he could still write. Describes the medical history of alexia. Mentions French neurologist Joseph Jules Dejerine, Stanislas Dehaene, and Charles Scribner, Jr. Two months after his stroke, Engel had moved to a milder form of alexia. He would slowly and laboriously puzzle out words, letter by letter. Whatever language a person is reading, the same area of inferotemporal cortex, the visual word form area, is activated. Why should all human beings have this built-in facility for reading when writing is a relatively recent cultural invention? We might call this the Wallace problem, for Alfred Russel Wallace, who discovered natural selection independent of Charles Darwin. Mark Changizi and his colleagues at Caltech examined more than a hundred ancient and modern writing systems. They have shown that all of them, while geometrically very different, share certain basic topological similarities. Writing, a cultural tool, has evolved to make use of the inferotemporal neurons' preference for certain shapes. The origin of writing and reading cannot be understood as a direct evolutionary adaptation. It is dependent on the plasticity of the brain, and on the fact that experience is as powerful an agent of change as natural selection. We are literate not by virtue of a divine intervention but through a cultural invention and a cultural selection that make a creative new use of a preëxisting neural proclivity. While Howard was still in the rehab hospital, he began keeping a "memory book," to record his thoughts. More than three months after his stroke, he returned home and decided to write a new novel, "Memory Book," which was published in 2005. It was followed by a memoir, "The Man Who Forgot How to Read," which came out in 2007.

Burkina Faso: A Mother's Devotion - starvedforattention.org from MSF Access Campaign on Vimeo.

An interesting fragment by Gisela Telis in ScienceNow:

When 15th-century Europeans first landed on the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola, they met with the "devil's grimace." That's what these foreigners dubbed the faces with bared teeth that adorned everything from necklaces to ceremonial bowls created by the native Taíno people. European chroniclers interpreted the motif as a ferocious animal's snarl or a skull's grimace, signs of the heathen islanders' aggression. But they were wrong, researchers report in the latest issue of Current Anthropology. By studying teeth-baring in humans, chimps, and rhesus macaques and comparing these to the Taíno depictions, scientists determined that open-lipped, closed-jaw displays show submission, benign intent, and even happiness--but not aggression. So the "fiendish" faces that so troubled Europeans were most likely just smiling, to signal--ironically enough--social cohesion and connection.

FAVL Réunion de Bibliothécaires :

10 juin 2010

Rapport d'activités

- La bonne grammaire et conjugaison sont très importantes dans les rapports d'activités. Prenez le temps de bien réviser et corriger pour que ça soit plus professionnel. Présentement il y a trop d'erreurs dans les rapports.

- Il faut inclure vos objectifs dans les rapports d'animation. Par exemple : l'activité est une sensibilisation sur le bon entretien des livres. Les objectifs pourraient être 1) Chaque enfant sais comment feuilleter un livre 2) Chaque enfant sait qu'il ne faut pas déposer un livre par terre 3) Chaque enfant sait qu'il faut se laver les mains avant d'utiliser un livre.

- Vous avez acceptés d'utiliser un formulaire qui sera créé pour les rapports. Ceci faciliterait votre travail mensuel est sera plus professionnelle. Le formulaire sera à votre disponibilité à la prochaine réunion.

Les activités

- Vous avez souligné le problème des animateurs invités (par exemple un infirmier pour aider avec une sensibilisation sur le VIH/SIDA) qui ne veulent pas venir sans per-diem. Le paiement de leur carburant pourrait être possible pour les motiver à venir. Il est bon d'avoir une bonne technique d'approche pour encourager les invites à venir parler. Il faut aussi les rappeler que ce n'est pas pour profit mais pour le bénéfice de toute la communauté. La séance n'a pas besoin de durée toute une journée, même 30 minute ou 1 heure serrait bon.    

- Les activités de danse et chant sont très bien, mais il faut aussi mettre le point sur les activités autour de la lecture. Si vous voyez un enfant qui lit avec difficulté, vous pouvez prendre le temps de l'aider.

- Quand vous faites une animation, il faut faire la publicité pour avoir une bonne participation, ne pas se contenter d'afficher seulement le programme d'activités sur le tableau d'affichage a la bibliothèque mais aussi informer les lectures qui viennent a la bibliothèque, en parler a des personnes rencontrer au marchée (séance de planification familiale) , a école, etc.     

Cahier de dépenses

- Vérifiez et révisez toutes vos dépenses avant de les envoyer à Donkoui. Il y a trop d'erreurs qui causent des dépenses en téléphones, carburant, des va et vient etc. qu'on aurait pu éviter. Soyez plus efficaces. Désormais, Halidou vérifiera aussi tous les comptes avant de les envoyer.

- Ecrivez droit et lisiblement.

 - Vous ne pouvez pas avoir des montants négatifs dans les comptes. Évitez d'utiliser votre argent pour les dépenses de la bibliothèque. Donc ayez une bonne gestion et informer à temps l'animateur si il y des dépenses urgentes.  

- Présentement FAVL n'a pas assez de fonds pour assurer les 25,000 cfa que on versait trimestriellement a chaque bibliothécaire pour les dépenses d'activés et projet. On va discuter avec Michael pour solutionner le problème.    

Divers

- Bienvenue à Emilie Crofton. Elle sera impliquée avec FAVL comme assistante des coordonnateurs en septembre pour un minimum de 6 mois.  

-Rappel que l'autoformation des bibliothécaires est nécessaire. Utiliser les livres dans la bibliothèque pour améliorer votre français, grammaire et écriture.  

- Les bibliothécaires ont échangés sur leurs expériences avec les retards de livres et les vols. Il est important de bien sensibiliser les enfants et la communauté sur le bon usage de la  bibliothèque mais aussi de rester bien vigilant pour éviter les vols.

- Rappelez-vous que les élèves de la Californie arriveront bientôt (en septembre). Préparez vous mentalement et physiquement pour leurs arrivées.

URLCODA is the acronym for Uganda Rural Literacy and Community Development Association. It is centered in the West Nile region, which is in the extreme northwest of Uganda, in the corner between the borders with Congo and Sudan. The region is quite remote, and its people are very poor, especially since communication with the rest of Uganda was difficult, and many people were displaced, during the long years when the Lord's Resistance Army was fighting the government.

URLCODA began at Makerere University in the late 1990s when students from the region got together to address the poverty. They were led by Willy Ngaka, who was studying  adult literacy in the Institute for Adult Education. Now it is a fully recognized NGO with an active Positive Group (comprised of people who are HIV positive), many affiliated adult literacy groups, and a fully developed practice of teaching intergenerational literacy (in which unschooled adults and primary school dropouts teach each other); and, since it is a member of UgCLA, it has, of course, a library.

When I first visited this library in January of this year it consisted only of 250 books, which were kept in a storeroom in Willy's house in the village of Lokotoro. The library coordinator, Jasindo Afebua, would take the books out as needed for the intergenerational classes, which were held in the garage; there was no dedicated library building. The books, as well as the plastic chairs that the library had, had been bought in 2008 with a grant of $1000 from the US Embassy, distributed through UgCLA.

This year, I am glad to say, UgCLA has been able to help URLCODA again. Late in 2009, the Hawk Children's Fund asked to identify appropriate sites for a Rural Solar Demonstration Project. The Fund would provide $15,000 in all to provide solar electricity and to do any necessary building work for it to be used. We recommended the URLCODA and Mpolyabigere Community Libraries to divide the grant between them. URLCODA thereupon completed a building that it had already begun in Willy's compound, roofing it with iron sheets that it had already secured for another purpose. The solar electricity was installed last week, and the new building was officially opened on Sunday. Almost immediately it was full of children busily reading.

But that is not all. I was there last week not only to see the new library building but also to deliver more books and another, smaller, sum of money, for URLCODA's Positive Group to use. The books are on health issues, and the group will translate a few of the easier ones into Lugbara and will also write about their own experiences with HIV in the same language. The grant for this work again came from the Hawk Children's Fund, to which we are all very grateful.

In addition, I visited no fewer than nine other libraries in the region, all of which are affiliated to URLCODA. Eight of them are already members of UgCLA, and one other will be joining soon. Most of these "libraries" are actually primary school classrooms where an adult literacy group is allowed to meet, and such books as they have may be used by the primary school children too. One of the most successful is the Queen of Heaven Community Library in Yumbe, near the Sudan border. Here there is an active women's group, which is engaging in a number of income generating activities and which was one of the winners of books in UgCLA's Children's Book Project that was funded by Pockets of Change (see my post of May 5, 2010). The books are now displayed on a bookshelf in the classroom, and there is a regular timetable for children to come in and read them. Others are less well off. One, at a village called Endru, was constrained to leave the primary school where it was started and now meets under a tree in a compound a mile or two down the road. It has virtually no books, but it displays with pride a computer keyboard that the women made out of clay; their leader learned her letters from this sort of keyboard, and she can now write her name on a real computer. Another, the Sida Community Library at Tuku village, used to have books, but they, and the shelf on which they were kept, got eaten by termites. So the women resolved to put up a building for their library. They made the bricks themselves and got the walls up four years ago; but they got stuck at the roof because they had no money for iron sheets. So  the walls still stand, while the women meet under a tree and learn their letters from a blackboard.

The needs in such a region are so great as to be overwhelming. The primary schools, however, are beginning to get books as the government finally gets round to providing them. At one school we saw a lovely set of Primary One readers in Lugbara, though we were distressed that the packets had not yet been opened; and in another the head teacher was actively promoting the use of the school's books and appreciated the adult group's commitment to reading. URLCODA is also producing little readers in Lugbara, and UgCLA has already contributed significantly through its support (thanks to the American Embassy and the Hawk Children's Fund) of the "mother library" at Lokotoro. I believe that we should continue to build up that library so that it can lend books to the other ones and, as Willy suggested, have the primary schools send their children to Lokotoro on a regular basis to spend a night and enjoy the electricity.

The URLCODA library and its affiliates are the kind of institution that UgCLA exists to support--and they, in turn, provide the dynamism that sustains UgCLA. It is a wonderfully productive partnership, so my question now is, are there such partnerships among libraries and library associations elsewhere in Africa? And if not, why not?

For more about URLCODA, click here.

UgCLA (the Uganda Community Libraries Association) will be three years old next month, so I'm writing to report on how this toddler is doing.

First, let me clarify UgCLA's relationship to FAVL. I myself am the chief link, being on the Board of both, and FAVL helps UgCLA significantly by acting as a channel for donations from the USA. UgCLA, for its part, promotes FAVL's aims in Uganda. It operates quite differently from FAVL, though, since it does not itself establish libraries. Rather, it seeks out existing ones, helps them to develop, and encourages the foundation of more. It does these things in five main ways:

·         A lot of travelling! I myself am trying to visit each one of UgCLA's member libraries so as to encourage them and give them advice. So far I've covered about three quarters of them.

·         Workshops. Since its foundation, UgCLA has organized two national workshops a year, to which every member library is invited to send a representative. These workshops are invaluable, not only because they provide training in running libraries but also because librarians can meet and share ideas. By now they've developed a strong sense of community and clear leaders have emerged among them. The only trouble is that the libraries are now too many (see below)--so from next year we will be organizing a single national conference instead in combination with regional workshops.

·         Distributions. We try to make partnerships each year that will enable us to distribute goodies among our member libraries, usually on a competitive basis, and to provide training for the competition through our workshops. The first such distribution, funded by the US Embassy in Kampala, was of six grants of $1000 each; the second was of four scholarships to attend the 6^th Pan African Conference on Reading for All in Dar es Salaam (to which we added a small conference on community libraries in Lushoto); the third, this year, was of ten packets of locally purchased children's books. Next year we are working towards a "Libraries for Health" project in which we hope to distribute books about health (especially HIV-AIDS) together with funds for organizing reading camps or workshops on the subject.

·         Links to funders for individual libraries. We are building up relationships with small-scale funders and advising them on which libraries they could work with for particular projects. A recent example is the work we've been doing with Hawk Children's Fund, of the University of Maryland's Eastern Shore Campus (see http://hawkchildrensfund.org/). HCF wanted to support a rural solar electricity project, so we identified two libraries that could make good use of solar electricity, and then administered the grant that the fund gave us. Now children at the URLCODA library in Arua District and the Mpolyabigere library in Namutumba District can read at night (see the posts on each of these two libraries).

·         Volunteers. UgCLA also hosts volunteers: that is, we identify appropriate placements for them, depending on their interests, and arrange with the host library for their accommodation. We have had four volunteers so far and are receiving two more this month.

UgCLA is definitely fulfilling a need, for its growth over three years has been extraordinary. When it was launched, in August 2007, it was joined by 14 libraries. The number rose slowly at first, to 16 by July 2008. But a year later it had reached 41, and now, in June 2010, UgCLA has 64 member libraries. All are local initiatives and most have no foreign support; and it has to be said that some are notional, having no buildings and few books. But there is the seed of a library in every place: a primary school, an adult literacy class, or a local organization devoted to literacy and development.  The idea of a library resonates with Ugandans' enthusiasm for education and their disenchantment with what the schools are offering. It is the kind of modest institution that local people feel they can support--though of course they always appreciate outside help--and if well led it can become a real centre for community development. UgCLA is dedicated to helping them to get the help that they need in order to flourish, but also, and more importantly, to helping them to help themselves.

For more, see UgCLA's own website: www.ugcla.org.

45 000 m2 de superficie, 9 278 m2 de zone construite, 40 milliards de F CFA, des centaines de personnes à labour pendant des mois, il faut être la première puissance mondiale pour investir pareillement dans le béton. C'est ce qu'ont fait les Etats-Unis d'Amérique, au sujet de leur nouvelle ambassade, qui a été inaugurée le 10 juin 2010, en présence du ban et de l'arrière-ban du Tout-Etat dont le Premier ministre, Tertius Zongo, le président de l'Assemblée nationale, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré et le conseiller économique du chef de l'Etat, François Compaoré. Une présence pour saluer ce qu'on a pu appeler le symbole d'un partenariat exemplaire, qui n'a jadis pas toujours été le cas.

Pour la circonstance, le Premier ministre, Tertius Zongo, a dispensé un peu d'histoire à l'aréopage de personnalités présentes dans cette immense enceinte : pour lui, le hasard accouche souvent de ces coincidences ! Ce sont deux chargés d'affaires des USA au Burkina Faso qui ont marqué quelques cailloux blancs dans la coopération entre les deux pays : en 1961, Roger Provencher hissait pour la première fois au vent le drapeau étoilé sur le sol voltaïque ; presque un demi-siècle plus tard, c'est un autre chargé d'affaires, Samuel Laeuchli, qui inaugure la nouvelle ambassade américaine au Burkina Faso.

Un cours qui s'est poursuivi avec une archéologie de la coopération Burkina-USA qui a connu des hauts et des bas, comme dans un banal couple. D'abord une période "d'incompréhension" caractérisée par les départs du Corps de la paix, de l'USAID ; ensuite une phase d'entente mutuelle qui se poursuit actuellement, marquée par le programme ACOTA (envoi de bataillons militaires au Darfour) ; la manœuvre militaire "FLINTLOCK 2010" ; la formation par les Américains de militaires burkinabè, l'AGOA ; le Millenium Challenge Account (MCA) a affirmé en substance Tertius.

Quant au chargé d'affaires des USA au Faso, Samuel Laeuchli, il s'est appesanti dans son discours inaugural sur les valeurs chevillées au Corps des Américains, valeurs, dira-t-il, que partage le Burkina : "Lorsque vous rendez visite à quelqu'un chez lui, vous pouvez comprendre beaucoup de choses de cette personne, ce qui est important pour elle, ses aspirations et ses valeurs".

Ces valeurs ont pour noms liberté, égalité de chance, justice, intégration (par exemple 90% du personnel de l'ambassade est burkinabè). Cette œuvre architecturale, fera remarquer Laeuchli, est "un mélange d'ancien et de nouveau", référence au fait que les USA ont été l'un des premiers à reconnaître la Haute-Volta indépendante et cette coopération dure depuis 1961.

Mais ces valeurs ont aussi pour autres noms, sécurité, hight technology et convivialité : "Notre souci est de nous assurer que toutes les personnes qui y travaillent sont dans un cadre confortable et sécurisé". Une sécurité non seulement locale, mais aussi qui vise à "promouvoir la stabilité dans la région et dans toute l'Afrique". En ce qui concerne la haute technologie dont cette ambassade est un concentré, le chargé d'affaires dira qu'il s'agit d'user du progrès pour travailler dans de bonnes conditions.

Enfin, John Finnegan Junior, le directeur adjoint des opérations pour le Bureau chargé des infrastructures d'outre-mer, arrivé de Washington pour l'occasion, a souligné ce que représente ce nouvel édifice en ces termes : "Cette ambassade est un symbole fort de l'engagement des USA à maintenir une période diplomatique permanente et positive à Ouagadougou".

Can a $50 stack of paperback books do as much for a child's academic fortunes as a $3,000 stint in summer school? An experimental program in seven states may help answer that question this summer as districts from Nevada to South Carolina give thousands of low-income students an armful of free books. Research has shown that simply giving children books may be as effective as summer school -- and a lot cheaper. The big question is whether the effect can be replicated on a larger scale and help reduce the USA's nagging achievement gap between low-income and middle-class students.

We never got to celebrate it, but the Kitengesa Community Library reached its tenth birthday last year. We started with a box of 154 books in 1999 and grew to a one-room building with 864 books in 2002. Then in 2009 we moved into a new three-roomed building, which will soon house a computer center and community hall as well as our present collection of over 3000 books.

But a library is not just a building and books - still more important are the programs that it supports. Since 2004 we have run a Library Scholarship scheme at Kitengesa, paying the fees of seven secondary school students who, in return, work for the library and acquire valuable skills in doing so. We host volunteers who teach computer skills to adult library users and English to children in the neighboring primary school. We invite children from more distant primary schools to regular Children's Days, when the children read, write, listen to stories, and play games. Last year we initiated a Family Literacy Project in which local women learn how to help their children do well in school.

The library has also inspired the growth of other projects: a forestry scheme that employs students on the model of the Library Scholarships; a women's micro-finance group whose initial capital was supplied by one of the library's visiting researchers; a tailoring project that employs local girls and uses the library's old building as a workshop. When we finish the library's community hall, we will provide a venue for many more community activities -some of which will generate an income for the library itself.

It is a long way to come in ten years - and we have not reached the end of the story.  Kitengesa has become a model for other libraries in Uganda, with many people visiting us to get ideas. There is now a national community libraries movement, with well over fifty libraries in the Uganda Community Libraries Association. The Kitengesa Community Library is proud to be one of this movement's leaders.

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Les pays de l'Afrique francophone, qui, pour la plupart, fêtent cette année les 50 ans de leur indépendance, ne sont pas réellement affranchis. C'est du moins ce que soutient la star ivoirienne du reggae, Tiken Jah Fakoly. « Afin d'obtenir une indépendance réelle pour les Etats africains, il va falloir que les jeunes se décident à prendre leur destin en main », préconise-t-il dans son prochain album qui sortira en septembre 2010. Dans l'interview qu'il a accordée à Fasozine.com, l'artiste évoque son futur projet musical et explique aussi qu'il compte organiser une marche de l'Afrique l'année prochaine en France, pour « montrer à la population française comment l'Afrique est exploitée. »

Et quel regard portez-vous sur ces commémorations en grande pompe des 50 ans des indépendances en Afrique ?

Nous n'avons pas à fêter parce que nous ne sommes pas libres. Les sommets Afrique-France et le choix des présidents africains par les Occidentaux démontrent bien que nous ne sommes pas indépendants économiquement et politiquement. Le constat est clair, celui qui n'a pas d'attaches au sein du milieu politique français ne peut pas devenir président en Afrique francophone. Et nous devons chercher à arracher l'indépendance parce que les Européens nous ont donné une copie des indépendances. Il revient à notre génération de nous battre pour obtenir l'original. Il est certain que personne ne viendra nous la donner si nous ne faisons rien.

Bolgatanga, Oct 29, GNA - Mr. John Ayeseya, Upper East Regional Librarian, has appealed to the government, philanthropists and non-governmental organizations, to provide the Regional Library with books that are relevant to the current educational programme in the country. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Bolgatanga on Tuesday, he said most of the books in the library did not meet the demand of students in the region. Mr Ayeseya said there were many institutions in the region including the Bolgatanga Polytechnic, health training institutions, teacher training colleges and the University of Development Studies (UDS) and there was the need to provide books that would be relevant to students. Mr. Ayeseya said another major problem confronting the Regional Library was the problem of lack of furniture and this compels library users had to be on their feet when reading. He said since the opening of the Regional Library in 1969, its furniture had not been replaced hence most of them had broken down, adding that the library had not also seen any major renovations making the place dilapidated. Mr. Ayeseya also appealed to the government, philanthropists and NGO's to furnish the library with computers for both the staff and the users of the library. He said there were four community libraries in the region and they are located at Sumbrungu, Vea, Sirigu and Gowrie-Koukua that were serving the communities well as a library van. Mr Ayeseya said due to low salaries and poor working conditions library staff in the country hardly remained in the profession and called for the improvement of the salaries and conditions of service for people working in that sector.

The two students who are helping to finance it arrived last week,  So with the money here now, we've been able to get things started.  The mason is doing the building repairs and they've started building the hanger.  Painting will begin on Monday.  the furniture will be ready on Thursday.  Electricity was installed in the village last month, so that is also in the process of being set up.  Yesterday, we went book shopping with Elisée and picked up around 75 books or so.  We are going to Ouahigouya on Monday to pick up some more and have also been looking at having some shipped from amazon.france.  Next week in village once the school exams are finished, we're going to do some theater skit sensibilizations for the kids on how to use the library.  And the librarian is going to start his training on  June 13th.   So things have started to move along fairly quickly. 
back in the states, I have an elementary school hosting a "dress down day" on June 8th where kids donate money and they get to wear regular clothes as opposed to their uniforms. Everything raised will go to the library.  And then on the 11th, my community is having a Chinese auction to raise money.  Also, my mom has been in touch with an AVON seller, who offered to donate a percentage of the sales to Bougounam's library.  So hopefully all of that will continue to bring in money!

McCartney was at the White House last week, performing a mini-concert in the East Room and being honored by President Barack Obama, who presented him with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He told the president that billions of people are rooting for his success and, after the TV cameras left, said that "after the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is."

Here on the continent, the few remembrances so far have at times been freighted with just as much ambiguity. In one of the rare, large-scale commemorative events, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal inaugurated a giant bronze statue meant to symbolize "African Renaissance" on a desolate hill near the airport here. Built by a North Korean company in pure Soviet-realism style, it is 13 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty and its three gigantic figures -- man, woman and child -- tower over their surroundings. But nearly everything about it has provoked controversy, rather than the outpouring of pan-African pride that Mr. Wade had hoped to generate: from the cost, in a country that ranks 166th on the United Nations' Human Development Index of 182 nations; to the scantily clothed figures, in an overwhelmingly Muslim country (local imams raised a vigorous protest); to the questionable aesthetics of a monument that recalls Stalinist Russia rather than the distinctive Afro-Islamic culture of the Sahel. Some Senegalese debate whether the figures even look African. Mr. Wade has said he simply traded state land, in exchange for building the statue, to the North Koreans, who then sold it at a profit; local and international media estimates have put the total cost at between $27 million and $70 million. For some analysts here, the statue's mixed signals symbolize this anniversary year's uncertain meanings, calling it a monumental construction project conceded to foreigners and inaugurated in an April ceremony attended by heads of state like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, both of whom have been the object of international scorn for their human rights records. "The monumentality is somewhat misplaced," said Ibrahima Thioub, a Senegalese historian who teaches at Cheikh Anta Diop University here. "Does Senegal have the resources to invest this kind of money?" Besides, he added, "Why concede the African Renaissance to Koreans? We've got some very good African sculptors right here."