Hawk

• On Saturday, May 4, from noon to 5:00 p.m., the Medina Raptor Center will host its Second Annual Baby Bird Shower at the Chatham Memorial Hall, located at 6299 Avon Lake Road, in Spencer, Ohio.
• This is Medina Raptor Center’s largest fundraiser of the year, created to bring awareness to the perils of baby bird season and raise funds to help the baby birds.
• Medina Raptor Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization licensed by both state and federal agencies.
• We can bring our Educational Ambassador birds to your TV station as we talk about the event and what the Medina Raptor Center does.

• The Avangrid Foundation, the primary philanthropic arm of leading sustainable energy company Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), today announced a record total of $140,000 in grants to 15 wildlife rehabilitation centers as part of its Wildlife Rehabilitation Program.
• Now in its eighth year, Avangrid Foundation’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Program has given a total of more than $650,000 in grants to centers nationwide.
• “We are very proud to help combat these risks through the Avangrid Foundation’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Program.
• A big thank you to everyone at Avangrid and the Avangrid Foundation.”
  For more information on the Avangrid Foundation, click here .

• Join the Atlanta Jewish community for a day of Jewish music, food, and more at the fifth annual Atlanta Jewish Life Festival - 5th Annual Atlanta Jewish Life Festival, Sunday, March 3, 2024, 11 am - 3 pm, Georgia Aquarium™.
• ATLANTA, Feb. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Atlanta Jewish Life Festival is returning for a fifth year to the world-famous Georgia Aquarium.
• Gold sponsors are the Northside Hospital, Kroger, Arthur Blank Foundation, Atlanta Jewish Connector, Balloons Over Atlanta, and AMP'D Entertainment.
• The mission of the Atlanta Jewish Times is to create a sense of community throughout the geographically dispersed Jewish people of greater Atlanta.

• The South African National Defence Force marks 30 years this year, having been established on 27 April 1994.
• It’s as old as the country’s constitutional democracy, the result of a negotiated political settlement that ended apartheid.
• The defence force consists of the army, air force, navy, and military health service.
• It has been in decline for some time, especially since 2000, as its budgetary allocation from treasury has shrunk.

Figuring out its primary role

• The purchasing of new military equipment was based on the South African Defence Review of 1998.
• The equipment included nine Gripen fighter aircraft, 12 Hawk aircraft, 30 light utility helicopters, four patrol corvettes and three submarines.
• It was eventually decided that the defence force should be designed primarily to protect the country from external enemies.
• But it has received no additional armour and personnel for this additional role.
• It also plays a pivotal role in the Southern African Development Community mission in conflict-ridden northern Mozambique.

Lesotho, 1998: restoring democracy and political stability, supported by the Botswana military
Burundi, 2003: peacekeeping alongside Mozambique and Ethiopia as part of the African Union Mission in Burundi
Sudan, 2005: as part of the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur.

Constraints

• Budgetary constraints have posed a growing challenge.
• In 2015, the defence force was 24% underfunded in terms of its size and shape.
• Defence spending in 2022/23 was 8.4% lower than in 2021, and 21% lower than in 2013.
• Because of the budgetary constraints, the serviceability and functionality of high-tech equipment – especially the Gripens, frigates and submarines – couldn’t be sustained.

Problems at home

• These include internal or domestic operations such as helping the police in combating gang warfare, fighting illegal mining syndicates, preventing the torching of commercial trucks, guarding power plants, and combating cash-in-transit heists.
• These responsibilities can now even be regarded as among the military’s primary functions.

Theo Neethling receives funding from the National Research Foundation.