Monday 30 January 2012

A TWIST IN THE TAIL OF THE S L P P-(Maada Bio- THE LIAR)

                                       
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Its Getting Worse by the DAy- BIO may be indicted for inciting violence after Bleeping another LIE

click link
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fapcworldwidenews.com%2F%3Fp%3D211&h=uAQGAvzGqAQHeb9LBkgK5R1bk3gLP6pO9CnHNEkVrGPz_cQ

Sierra Leone’s Ruling Party May Take Legal Action Against Main Opposition Candidate, Julius Maada Bio


Read Dr. Sylvia Byyden's update........(by kind permission)










Lansana Fadika, Abdul Lamin (aka AMERIKIN) and Brima Lewally have just finished their testimony against Aziz Carew and Abdul Quee in front of Hon. Justice Browne-Marke. They have been cross-examined by the defence team led by Lawyer Anthony Brewa. The matter was prosecuted by Director of Public Prosecutions Sulaiman Bah and the Attorney-General Frank Kargbo. The accused were again denied bail and ...sent back on remand. In the wake of the national shock at the MAMMY CUSS last week Friday, the Police AIG Operations, Al Shek Kamara had been over television on Tuesday morning to warn political party supporters to refrain from unruly conduct within the Law Courts or they would feel the full weight of the law on them. This morning, as early as 7am, heavily armed police officers were deployed inside and around the Law Courts yard also out on Siaka Stevens Street. There was absolutely no mammy cuss today. SLPP supporters quietly left the premises at the end of the proceedings. Tomorrow, the kidnap case involving SLPP Councillor comes up. The mayor's corruption case was also on today and that one has been adjourned to 13th February based on a plea from Defence Lawyer Yada Williams for sufficient time to study documents tendered by ACC investigator Maada Konneh.
ON A DIFFERENT BUT HIGHLY TOPICAL NOTE, THE SLPP AND JULIUS MAADA BIO ARE YET TO SHOW ONE SCRAP OF EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THE SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS CONTAINED IN BIO'S RECENT RELEASE AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT AND WHICH BIO HAD ASKED OUTGONE SCHULENBURG TO FORMALLY SEND TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL. IT IS BELIEVED THAT IS SCHULENBURG'S LAST DEED HE PERFORMED ON BEHALF OF THE SLPP, BEFORE SCHULENBURG ANGRILY STORMED OUT OF SIERRA LEONE ON MONDAY. POLICE BOSS FRANCIS MUNU HAS ASSURED THE NATION ON TV THIS MORNING THAT HE HAS COMMENCED A ROBUST INVESTIGATION INTO THE ALLEGATIONS. HE CONFIRMS THAT PRESIDENT KOROMA HAS ASKED HIM TO INVESTIGATE & INTERROGATE BOTH THE DEFENCE MINISTER AND THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER.


MY COMMENTS:
1)

... It seems that the Police are now awake. I woluld personally want to see a move from the Judiciary- Chief Justice and the Bar Association - for the breach of protocol and respect for the Courts by those SLPP Lawyers who showed disrespect and lack of order -that willfully denegrated the level of dignity for the Judiciary. The days indeed are no more when a Judge in the likes of Justice During would have ask Suliaman Banja -Tejansi and others wearing the SLPP badges to court to be sent out for not being 'apropriately dressed': refusal to move out would have led to a charge of contempt of court and sent tp Pdemba Road Prison. I cannot see even SLPP Jurist of those years tolarating such idiosincrcies- certainly not Justices of the Peace such as Chief (Hon) Tom KAMANDA -BONGAY (JP) in the BO Court. It smacks of total lack of morality on the part of the SLPP lawyers and I see their actions as encouragement to break the law- the Public Law to keep the Peace. SHAME ON THEM.

2)
As  regards Maada Bio's platitudes, it draws my memory to the days of Pa Bankole Bright when he made inflmatory statements in 1955 that caused a whole lot of riotous situations. He was charged for INCITEMENTS: if the investigations going on prove to show that  those claims made by Maada Bio were false, I think the Police must take serious action to uphold the law and avoid such incitements to go on, leading to more violence. There must be a limit to the level of tolerance in these matters.


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I find this article fro FREETOWN EXPRESS (November 2011) very amusing and want to share it with those who follow this blog. This is another TWIST in the tail for the SIERRA LEONE PLENTY PROBLEM (SLPP) group.
Please click on the Link and at list- smile (if you cant laugh)


http://www.freetownexpress.com/archives/1616


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And This was posted to my Face book page. Its Stunning.

CLICK BELOW LINK

http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/tag/julius-maada-bio

Newstime Africa
A mass murderer’s quest to become president – Julius Maada Bio should be put on trial for crimes against the people of Sierra LeoneSome people do have the audacity to challenge the resolve of a nation. Julius Maada Bio must believe deep within himself that the Sierra Leonean people are daft and can be taken for granted. This daring former junior army officer, who connived with others to overthrow a legitimate and democratically elected government, is seriously nursing [...]




 And -- THIS- Thanks to COCORIOKO- Now, even STRASSER, added a nail to Bio's Cof**** (since last September- ( SLPP DID NOT LISTEN)

 Clikk Link
http://www.cocorioko.net/?p=16765


Ex-NPRC Junta leader Valentine Strasser exposes Maada Bio as a liar, participant in Bambay’s murder and a coward

Filed under: Breaking News,Diaspora,Headlines |

EX-CAPT.STRASSER : GIVES MAADA BIO A MOUTHWASH FOR HIS COWARDICE
For Julius Maada Bio, the hinges are coming off so fast that if he has moral conscience, he would give up his “Pa O Pa ” (At all costs ) blind determination to aspire for the Presidency. Not only are key members of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) resigning because of the unwise decision to make him Presidential flagbearer of the party , but even his colleagues in the military junta have started expressing their revulsion for a man whose only lovers are the fanatics in the SLPP still living in denial that a terrible choice was made and who, like Bio, are depending on violence to change the political leadership in Sierra Leone (A goal they will achieve only over the dead bodies of true patriots of the land ) . From Freetown , the TORCHLIGHT newspaper reports :
Maada Bio

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What was the SLPP learership thinking when the chose excess baggagr carrier-MAADA BIO -  as Presidetial candidate?
 
Check out this link

Friday 27 January 2012

LEADERSHIP IS NOT WAR-- 2

MAADA BIO IS TALKING ABSOLUTE BUNKOMS -(NONSENSE). LET ME REMIND BIO THAT "NO AMNESTY OR (FLIMSY ARRANGEMENTS FOR THAT MATTER)  CAN STAND IN THE WAY OF INVESTIGATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY".
LIBERTY, FREEDOM & JUSTICE   (FOR ALL)

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MAADA BIO IS TALKING ABSOLUTE 'BUNKOMS'-(NONSENSE). LET ME REMIND BIO THAT "NO AMNESTY OR (FLIMSY ARRANGEMENTS FOR THAT MATTER) CAN STAND IN THE WAY OF INVESTIGATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY."
MAADA BIO WAS PART OF A CONSPIRATORIAL GROUP, WHO HAD INITIALLY COMMITTED A CRIME OF TREASON BY OVERTHROWING A LEGITIMATE AND LIVE EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT THROUGH AN AGREEMENT TO DO SO, AND LATER, AS PART OF THE GROUP OF PLANNERS, WHILST STAYING WITHIN THE INNER CIRCLE AS THE THIRD IN COMMAND, WILFULLY MURDERED 29 INNOCENT PEOPLE. 

TALKING ABOUT FINDINGS OF A COMMISSION THAT ABSOLVED HIM IS A SIMPLE JUVENILE THOUGHT BECAUSE THAT COMMISSION CANNOT AND DOES NOT HAVE THE POWER TO ABSOLVE OR GRANT ANY AMNESTY FOR THE CRIMES OF THAT GROUP OF WICKED YOUNG MEN WHO AUTHORISED, STOOD BY, HELD BACK INFORMATION, WHICH COULD HAVE STOPPED THE GRUESOME OF PAINFUL DEATH OF THOSE INNOCENT PEOPLE.

HE WANTS TO BE A PRESIDENT? THEN, HE MUST TURN HIS ATTENTION TO THE LAWS RELATING TO CONSPIRACY. HE DOES NOT HAVE TO HAVE BEEN A HEAD OF STATE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS PART AS A CONSPIRATOR. BY HIS, PRESENCE OR SILENCE, AND MEAR NEGLECT OF HIS RESPONSIBILITY AS A MEMBER OF A GROUP OF LEADERS WHO HAD TAKEN POWER (ILLEGALLY THOUGH), AND THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT THE CITIZENRY, MAADA BIO IS AS GUILTY AS HELL FOR THE DEATH OF THOSE 29 PEOPLE, AND I COULD NOT WAIT FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW WHEELS TO START GRINDING AND THE SOONER HE IS ARRESTED AND CHARGED, THE BETTER FOR SIERRA LEONE.  LUNTA! 
·  ·
  Click LINK to hear BIO denying responsibility

 



FODAY MORRIS SAYS-- (IN  FACE BOOK POST..).
A LIAR COULD NOT KEEP A STRAIGHT FACE. 

 
Note how the interviewer approached the suspect from the side. That was a deliberate move to prevent BIO from looking straight into the camera. I will share this video with some of my police and FBI friends for analysis and report to you later.


  FACELESS PAUL KARGBO Says.......
    • Paul Kargbo   - Israel don't let your heatred for Bio cloud your sense of reasoning. Your so called legitimate lost its ligimacy the moment it lost focus of how it can protect its citizens, and manage the affairs of state. The government of which Bio was part of, was widely and generally accepted by the people of Sierra Leone and the international community at that time. So please think wisely and reasonably.




    • Paul. That deceptive popularity - which was not so universal as you think - does not in any way exonerate him (or any of the group) from the crimes they committed: and he was fully implicated in the wicked enterprise. Let me remind you (and I have pointed this before) even the Amnesty at Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast , cooked up by Ecowas ( and Dr. Abbass Bundu knows this- being a one time Secretary General of that body) was NOT accepted by the United Nations. You claim the Junta was "popular" and accepted by the International Community"? Why then did the then Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Anan, expressed his objection and the August body refused to recognise or endorse the Yamoussoukro Amnesty?. I don't "hate" him or any one. I speak the truth and call for justice for the innocent victims. Examine your conscience and reflect, then you will see the "woods for the trees".
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 O! PAUL;  BY THE WAY, IF YOU ARE READING STILL, PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS NEW PIECE WHICH HAS JUST COME OUT. PLEASE READ IT.   COINCIDENCE? -

TITLE" War crimes immunity for ex-leaders under fire"

CLICK THE LINK.... (or cut & paste)

  http://www.freemalaysiakini.com/?p=13474


Maada and his friends must take a close look at this piece and NOTE THE FOLLOWING BITS:                                   





(Jose Luis Diaz, Head of the Amnesty International office at the United Nations)

 “……measures providing immunity from prosecution for political or military leaders, who may be responsible for human rights violations, war crimes and/or crimes against humanity, are not only a slap in the face of the victims, but they also eat away at the still fragile gains made to consolidate international justice and fight impunity.”

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(Navi Pillay  -UN High Commissioner for Human Rights)

“Amnesties are not permissible…”     “International law and the UN policy are clear on the matter, she said, pointing out that amnesties are not permissible if they prevent the prosecution of individuals who may be criminally responsible for international crimes including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and gross violations of human rights”.

“… a victim-centred approach to justice is essential to restore stability to a society emerging from a period of violent conflict…Victims have the right to justice, to the truth, to remedy and reparation. These are rights that are well-established internationally.”

“…“Every individual who commits a crime is accountable and should not be allowed to escape justice,”

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(Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University & former UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories.)

“…the International Criminal Court (ICC) should pursue those leaders in the Middle East and Africa for whom sufficient evidence exists of their responsibility for crimes against humanity and other international crimes,”

[BUT…for PEACE SAKE ?] Richard Falk also said…

“…a domestic amnesty law may be justified to obtain “societal peace” in the aftermath of a peaceful transition from dictatorship, and to avoid the dangers of chaos and civil strife.” 
[But things got worse in Sierra Leone for another six years with thousands of people killed and millions and millions of Leones /pounds/dollars property valves destroyed. This could have been avoided if these coup plotters and power hungry 'soja boys' had not neglected their duties, and kept to the job they were supposed to be doing - i.e. fighting the REBELS in 1991/2 instead of greedily wanting to rule Sierra Leone.]

  Richard Falk added,   “... the argument is different on an international level where there is no convincing rationale for respecting efforts to opt out of accountability for international crimes,”
 [Bio cannot escape. He compounded the situation by his  PALACE COUP on his 'BOSSMAN' STRASSER- at a time when the Junta was in negotiations to hand back power to Civilians an quit Martial Law; he saw his chance, plotted yet again, untrustworthly, increasing his criminal responsibility and hoping to hold on to power: but the pressures of the people and the international community, forced him to bow out (BAWOJE!) after only  one month and 13 days in charge of a country in panic (what a head of state?); then, hand over to his SLPP Leader - Ahmed Tejan KABBAH). And now, tries to HIDE under the banner of Flag bearer for President, thinking foolishly, that he may not be held accountable for his past crimes.???. . .DAI MAN NOR DE SLIP!!
 Maada bio and his cronnies must note that   ”…the court [ICC] can only take up cases in countries that are parties to the Rome Statute which created the ICC and so accept the court’s jurisdiction.”    [Note: Sierra Leone is a party to that Statute.]   
 [Even for States which are not signatories to the Rome Statute]
“…….the Security Council has the power to ask the [ICC] court’s prosecutor to take up situations in states that have not accepted the court’s jurisdiction.”   
 [There is no hiding place for such criminal killers & untrustworthy, tresonable, multiple plotting coup makers]
                                           OVER TO YOU - 'SIR' !!
                                                          Maada Bio March 1996
              Handing over illegitimate power to his then SLPP Leader, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah
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As for the distinction between   “amnesty” and “immunity”, Luis Diaz said, “… the former is granted after the fact (after persons have been convicted, for example), while the latter is tied to a person’s position, usually official.”

 [This opinion does not really reflect the situation in Sierra Leone – None of the perpetrators of the crimes of 29 December 1992-the brutal murder of 29 innocent victims-  have been convicted  nor investigated. Their position surely played a part and some them 9like Maada Bio, Nyuma, Strasser , SAJ Musa) -  ‘profited’ by being awarded scholarships to study abroad- in UK and USA.


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                     And a contributor has added his voice..
       Every coup maker must  READ,LISTEN & LEARN!!

Quote
It is a good thing in the todays politics; the era of military coups are being remembered with the right attitudes prosecutions and show of disapprovals. In Africa we are handicapped by the fear of their over lord powers that is still lurking. We hear from time to time how they want to come into mainstream politics by the back door. I feel once a coupist should never be allowed to enter the political arena.
Disgracefully in the tiny west African country of Sierra Leone we have a former junta leader now selected as the leading candidate to face the incumbent president (civilian). The exjunta man is going around saying he was not part of decisions at the time whereas he became head of the regime and this line is being sold to the international press. he has had articles published in the UK Guardian newspaper justifying why he should be taken seriously.
If the UN is looking at the big countries they should look at this as a global emergency these chaps have to be faced down – a leopard cannot get rid of its spots. If the likes of them cloak themselves in respectable suits and come back metamorphorsised the other behind them will copy the blue prints. Soldiers take an oath to guard the territories of the country not a quick road to political office. Affrifa of Ghana famously said “we are soldiers we like to remain soldiers politics is not our ambition”
If you want to be a politician do not do it in khaki do it by the ballot box but if you come out of khaki with a doubtful record nothing will ever absolve you to justify running for office
.

                                                                                                                                                         Unquote
                                                                                                              










Wednesday 18 January 2012

STERIO TYPICAL REPORTING ON SIERRA LEONE

MIKE  WARBURTON ( WATEMAN IN SALONE) FIGHTS BACK

Please follow the sequence of the e-mails  and read the provocative initial article below.

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From: Mike Warburton <mwarburton@live.co.uk>


To: simon.akam@gmail.com <simon.akam@gmail.com>


Sent: Fri Jan 13 13:30:02 2012


 Subject: Your article on Freetown


Dear Mr Akam,
I have seen your recent piece on Sierra Leone. As a British resident of Freetown (as opposed to a short-term contracted ex-pat worker) I can say that it comes across as a typically superficial piece by a Western journalist who has spent his time in bars listening to the complaints and rumours of non-residents. It contains so many howling inaccuracies (which are too numerous to list) that, despite its upbeat ending, it has caused considerable offence among those of the local community unlucky enough to read it.


To pick only one gross error at random, your description of St George's Cathedral as a "colonial relic" hardly fits a thriving church where attendances number hundreds of local people including senior public figures, and a dynamic clergy who are far from being slavishly subservient to Canterbury.  Your stylistic device of attempting to link the Victorian English of the cathedral memorials (which are the subject of great historical pride to the descendants) with aid agency jargon and Krio seems merely pretentious and serves no purpose.

In short, as a guide to current conditions in Sierra Leone, your article is about as valuable as Borat's pronouncements would be to a person seeking advice on modern-day Kazakhstan.

Despite this gratuitous affront to the population of Sierra Leone, many of whom have suffered hardship and danger that you could not imagine, I am very willing to meet you if you are still in country to give you accurate advice on the situation here so that you do not commit the same errors in future writings about this country.  Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,


Michael Warburton


e: mwarburton@live.co.uk







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From: Simon Akam

Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2012 9:17 AM


To: mwarburton@live.co.uk ; simon.akam@gmail.com


Cc: Ade.Daramy@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk


Subject: Re: Your article on Freetown


Dear Michael,


 Thanks for your email. Please can you tell me the inaccuracies in my article. St George's cathedral was built during the colonial period in Sierra Leone and is therefore a relic of the colonial period viz a colonial relic. That is not an inaccuracy.


 Kind regards,


 Simon

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From: Mike Warburton [mailto:mwarburton@live.co.uk]

Sent: 18 January 2012 11:40

 To: Simon Akam

 Cc: Ade.Daramy


 Subject: Re: Your article on Freetown


Dear Simon,


Thanks for getting back to me. Here are the inaccuracies, omissions, etc in your article.


The nearest match to your use of "relic" to describe Freetown Cathedral that I can find in my various dictionaries is in Collins, " an object or custom which has survived from an earlier age". I dare say that Stonehenge fits this description, but you would not describe Heathrow Airport as "a relic of the early fifties" unless you were being pejorative.


The problem with the article is that it is couched entirely in terms of your short-term perceptions, rather than taking account of what has actually taken place in the recent past. I stress that I have no party political allegiance in Sierra Leone (or elsewhere), but you make no mention at all of the strenuous and fairly successful efforts of the Koroma government to encourage international investment in the last four years.  Were you aware of, and did you attend the government's investment forum shortly after you arrived? I did, and it was well organised and well attended by potential investors from both in-country and abroad.  It was a good opportunity to get a broad perspective of the Koroma government's economic development programme, as well as hearing how it is "spun" for international and domestic consumption. In terms of the infrastructure alone, progress has been considerable in the last four years. In default of a properly thought out platform, the opposition SLPP are courting the international media to try to represent that Sierra Leone has retreated from the golden age of their last term in office, which is, of course, nonsense.


There are not "countless" NGOs in Sierra Leone. There is a list which can be obtained of all NGO-type agencies. There have been very substantial reductions in recent years from a peak in about 2004. At that time, I organised an informal traffic survey which tended to show that 13% of all vehicles on the roads were owned by the UN, NGOs, etc, which had a major adverse effect on traffic. Clearly there has been a great reduction in this area. There are no longer any UN troops in Sierra Leone. The most telling indicator is that the UN have downsized their headquarters here from the Mami Yoko Hotel at Aberdeen, a very large modern hotel, to the Cabenda, a fairly small family-owned hotel in Signal Hill which the UN now leases.


 Regarding your comments about NGO-speak infiltrating the local language, this is by no means a unique issue to Sierra Leone. All languages are subject to outside influences. English is particularly vulnerable to journalistic cliché, for example. "Capacity building", while a hackneyed expression, is the real issue here because of the tendency to hire in expatriates on short-term contracts who then do the project, trouser the money and go home. The real need is for people who can commit longer-term to ensure that the Sierra Leoneans who take their places can be mentored until they are fully up to speed in their roles.


Your description of sensitisation as white people telling black people not to do what they have always done is typical of the lazy, patronising attitude of many in journalism and academe where African matters are concerned. Your assertion that wife-beating is rife is not born out by the facts. It is a current issue which the government and police are taking measures to deal with. Certain areas of the country are historically more prone to this for cultural reasons, but it is certainly not endemic. One might as well say that wife-beating is rife in London or Glasgow. It undoubtedly takes place, but it's not a national sport as you imply.


I have met Aminata Forna and I have read some of her work. I have to say that, having had recent administrative dealings in both the UK and Sierra Leone, my experience is that bureaucratic processes here are usually easily accomplished, often with considerably courtesy.  It is Britain whose large institutions, both public and private, are creaking with staff cuts, arbitrary reductions of service, etc.


The Western diplomat who suggested to you that local people believe NGO jargon has near-mystical powers was either joking or else he should get out of his office more. There is a minority of expatriates who live in expatriate suburbs and never dare or deign to go into the centre of Freetown. If you know London, this is like living in Cockfosters without ever going to Whitehall or Piccadilly.  I have always found that most Sierra Leoneans are extremely politically aware.


There is a widespread acceptance of traditional healing and magic, but as in any business the practitioners are adept at making inflated claims of their own effectiveness to encourage clients to use their services (see internet). Where did you get the story about the "witch guns" being found at Freetown Airport? This was clearly cooked up for foreign consumption because a "witch gun" is not a piece of equipment. It is the actual spell that the practitioner will put on someone to do them harm, etc on behalf of a client, who will of course pay for the service.  What were the traditional healers doing at the airport? Using their magical powers to help Security and Customs detect prohibited items?


My personal opinion is that much traditional medicine/magic is a historical form of social control on the lines of "something nasty will happen if you steal/commit adultery/damage my crops" etc. I have seen a Baton man at work. He is the traditional thief catcher who will do a ritual to find out, say, which of your employees has stolen a missing item. When I saw this done, the body language of the test subjects made it fairly obvious which of the group were the likely suspects.  I have also met someone who claimed to be able to turn into a crocodile. I resisted the temptation to say "Go on, then!"


One could make a case either way regarding Krio's status as a "proper" language, but the point is that many people of small education only speak Krio, rather than speaking English and using Krio out of custom.  Krio is the day-to-day language for almost everyone in Freetown, and like speaking French in Paris it is regarded as good manners to have some grasp of it.  It is very useful as a bridge to the languages of other parts of the country like Mende, Temne and Limba.  It should be remembered that Krio has probably only been a written language since
World War 2 and wasn't taught in schools until at least the 1970s, so it's development can't be compared with that of English or French. It does have a certain global spread, being spoken in Jamaica, Mauritius, Cameroun and  the sea islands of South Carolina where it is called Gullah.
Personally I have never struggled with the orthography of Krio. Having once gone to a church service to find that it was all in Krio, I used the service sheet to identify a hymn with which I was familiar, and after about ten minutes I had understood the pronunciation of the additional characters, and I could take a full part in the service. The Krio word for "breast" is actually spelt "bohbi", pronounced "bobby", "mummy" is spelled "mami" and all my Krio-speaking contacts assert that the Krio word for "sex" is in fact "sex".
Despite the oppressive negativity of most of your article, your final paragraph approximates to an upbeat summary of the current situation. The offensive aspect of your piece is that it completely fails to deal with what has actually been achieved. The fortitude of the people in circumstances which would have many English people running to appear on therapy-based TV shows is a never-ending source of inspiration. A friend of mine was present when Robin Cook came to Sierra Leone as Foreign Secretary. He was taken to see a school where the headmaster, who had had both hands amputated, was energetically putting the school back together. My friend asked him "Don't you ever despair of the situation you're in?" To which the headmaster replied "Well, what do you expect me to do...give up?"

If your article had been written in about 2003 it would have been  very accurate, but we have come a very long way since then.

Please come back with any further queries, and my invitation to go for a  drink still stands,
Kind regards,

Mike







SEE THE PROVOCATIVE ARTICLE


BY SIMON AKAM of LITERARY REVIEW  BELOW



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QUOTE
"FOREIGN PARTS

LITERARY REVIEW July 2011   PAGE 43
IN ST GEORGE’S Cathedral, a colonial relic just up from the waterfront in Sierra Leone’s sultry capital, Freetown, a series of plaques lines the walls of the nave. The panels record the untimely deaths of British administrators, sailors and soldiers, and serve as a telling reminder of the lethal nature of Sierra Leone’s muggy climate in an age before yellow fever accination and chemoprophylaxis for malaria.

But the old stones also preserve another phenomenon.       Thelives are commemorated in distinctly Victorian language.
One, erected by the parents of a 21-year-old sailor who died in 1838, records ‘their untimely and irreparable loss from the effects of a season sickly beyond example in a climate  pre-eminently fatal to the health and life of Europeans’.
Seventeen decades on, and matters of language are rather different in Sierra Leone. The brutal eleven-year civil war came to an end in 2002, but the country remains a ward of Western donor nations, its paltry finances propped up by direct ‘budget support’. Freetown is home to countless international NGOs, and their lexicon – the terminology of the development industry – has seeped into common usage to an extraordinary degree.
I arrived in Sierra Leone last autumn to work as a correspondent for Reuters. I was rapidly struck by the hold that development jargon – notably the asinine phrase ‘capacity building’ – has on the local people. State radio announces capacity-building activities on a near-daily basis, while individuals take the phrase to grammatical locations rarely visited in the West. Recently I sat in the Government Gold and Diamond Office, where that fraction of Sierra Leone’s precious minerals not smuggled to Guinea and Liberia is sealed for export with pink ribbon and brown wax. The director there assured me that mines ministry staff are ‘well capacitated’.

Meanwhile local print journalists, who staff the dozen or so newspapers hawked alongside green coconuts and Nigerian DVDs on the streets of Freetown, tend to frame their stories in development jargon too. ‘Ministry of trade and industry has ended a one-day sensitisation workshop of stakeholders,’ reported one recent story. The national dialogue is framed in the vernacular of NGOs.

This osmosis would be simply amusing were it not for the uphimistic nature of the jargon itself. Sensitisation, more or less, means white people telling Africans to stop behaving the way they always have. But it is adopted in other contexts:
ex-combatants of the Revolutionary United Front, the civil war rebels who specialised in amputating hands, claim in their interviews with foreign academics that they ‘sensitised’ new recruits. ‘Gender-based violence’, meanwhile, is NGO-speak for wife-beating. Among the local people the phrase is as rife as the activity. And capacity building glosses an equally brutal truth: that, as Sierra Leonean author Aminatta Forna has written, the country’s institutions too often achieve ‘form without function’.
One Western diplomat even suggested to me recently that locals believe NGO jargon has near-mystical powers. Belief in the supernatural is widespread in Sierra Leone – illnesses are often attributed to devils, and traditional healers recently discovered what they claimed to be a cache of ‘witch guns’ at Freetown’s international airport. It is an open secret within the NGO world itself that grant proposals are unlikely to succeed unless they are studded with jargon. Given that sensitisation and capacity building hold the key to donor dollars, to regard them as spells is perhaps not unreasonable.
Complicating the Sierra Leonean language further is the nature of the local tongue that is absorbing the jargon.
Sierra Leone’s national language is English, but the lingua franca is Krio, a composite built on English foundations but thick with words from other sources. Anthropologists insist that Krio is a proper language, with its own distinct grammatical structures. The Lutheran translators of the Krio New Testament that sits by my desk in Freetown also used a complicated orthographic system (‘Gud Yus F 0lman’), as if to emphasise Krio’s removal from Standard English and therefore its legitimacy. Nonetheless, the Krio word for breast milk is still ‘boobywata’, while sex is ‘Mummy and Daddy bizness’. As a result, when development jargon is absorbed, the words do not have the softest of landings.

In some ways the transfusion of NGO language into local conversation is a symptom of a wider malaise.
What Sierra Leone needs is a functioning central government to deal with the allocation of resources, both domestic and those provided by aid. The issues at stake are too large to be dealt with by smaller institutions.
Instead, though, as in Haiti after the earthquake, numerous foreign NGOs – a surfeit of white people in white Landcruisers – surround a weak central bureaucracy.

None of them has the means to perform the grand functions that are needed; even if they did, concern about sovereignty would probably prevent them.

The UN is the obvious candidate to fill that gap. But UNIPSIL, the organisation’s residual mission in Sierra Leone, lacks the funding or the mandate – perhaps even the ‘capacity’ – to coordinate the aid effort truly.

That said, for all the curious flow of terminology and lack of coordination in the development industry, it is undeniable that there is much that is successful about contemporary Sierra Leone. Today Sierra Leone is at peace, and the peacekeepers themselves have left. The country may still lack gap-year girls, safari tourists, fibre-optic Internet and the other trappings of sub-Saharan stability.

But there are no more amputations. After a military coup in 1992 so much army jargon was broadcast that ‘logistics’ came to mean simply food. With that kind of language use in the past, the proliferation of capacity-building and  sensitisation could be the lesser of two evils. !
SIMON AKAM

LETTER FROM SIERRA LEONE

July 4-64 22/6/11 11:18 am Page 43"

UNQUOTE

Thanks to Ade.Daramy  for bringing this common shallow reporting about Sierra Leone to our attention.

Friday 13 January 2012

LEADERSHIP NOR TO WAH


LEADERSHIP IS NOT WAR !!  A WORD FOR THE WISE!!!

14/01/12-- I entered the post below yesterday evening; today we learn of the violence in Fourabay City Council bye- election, where SLPP supporters stabbed APC members. Shame on the SLPP.


Sylvia Blyden-onFacebook: Lansana Fadika is currently being rushed to Connaught Hospital profusely bleeding from stab wounds he just sustained at the hands of irate SLPP supporters during the ongoing Bye-Elections at Fourah Bay's Constituency 104 today. Elections are to replace an APC Local Councilor who passed away. UDM Leader who is on the ground told me the situation is really tense between APC and SLPP supporters. My reporters have gone to Connaught to await the arrival of the bleeding Fadika.



Sierra Express News:


Lansana Fadika stabbed and APC supporters butchered in Sierra Leone

Lansana Fadika stabbed and APC supporters butchered in Sierra Leone thumbnail
The opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) Chairman of Constituency 104 in the eastern part of Freetown, Aziz Carew has on Saturday January 14th 2012 been heavily accused for electoral anarchy that happened during the constituency’s by-elections that left Lansana Fadika- who recently crossed to the ruling All Peoples Congress(APC) party – seriously wounded and scores of APC diehards butchered.
Mr. Fadika whose crossover to the APC is causing serious political depreciation to the SLPP was sensitizing constituents along Canteen Street to exercise their franchise when Carew in a pretext of cultural prostrated before the newly APC convert (Fadika) till he was stabbed with a horn on his thigh.



LEADERSHIP IS NOT WAR !! A WORD FOR THE WISE!!!

Those who think they could get away with brutality must learn from the Liberia situation. Think of Sergent Samuel K Doe - The BEGINING; The MID POINT and the END. At the begining, he did what most Army coup makers do-dressed in FATIGGS, Dark glasses, toting his gun high above his head,- threatning phase. At the mid point, woed by the West- even President Regan of the USA. Meet. International big men. Crowned "Man of Africa". At the end, CAPTURED by Prince Johnson and his men, who CUT OFF his ears and his private parts publicly, bayoneted him whilst pleading for his life;   and Prince Johnson was commanding whilst drinking beer. Now he is a SENATOR? of sort. We cannot have that in Sierra Leone. No KILLER will be President of Sierra Leone- SLPP must come to their senses. 

ARE YOU MAADA? ARE YOU SERIOUSLY CRAZZY : NO BIO FOR PRESIDENT! OK?


View these clips

SAMUEL K DOE- A LESSON TO LEARN

SERGENT, SAMUEL K DOE - THE BEGINING!









 SERGENT SAMUEL K DOE: THE MID POINT!






PRESIDENT (SERGENT) SAMUEL K DOE: THE END!







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President Samuel K. Doe & the PRC