A Long Hiatus

GOSH in deed, new year came and 8 months have passed by. It is truly something to strive for completing a full PhD with enormous amount of empirical data in 2.5 years. Uh Huh! I know I am crazy. But there is nothing for nothing. You have to give something to have something. Please accept my sincere apologies for the long silence. Thanks for continuous reading and viewing...almost 16,000 hits now. I'm humbled.

No doubt that "the writing hiatus" is filled with bouts of highs and lows. Albeit, the most important thing is to keep the pace, reduce distractions and aim for the end-point. Speaking of "lows", two days ago I was embroiled with the former Deputy of the Executive Protection Service, Mr Darlington George brutal violence against a young woman in Liberia. Whilst I wholeheartedly welcome President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's immediate response; four issues/questions are disturbingly concerning:

1. Why do men (generally) in Liberia (specifically) have a sense of entitlement to control women's bodies? Where do they get the audacity and authority to physically inflict harm, pain, and suffering on women and girls? I think I know the foundation of patriarchy and male dominance but why must it be so? Aren't we human beings?

2. Is the President of Liberia (the Executive) interfering with the due process of law (Judiciary) when she says Mr George should report to the Ministry of Justice for further investigation? What other investigation would there be apart from a police one?

3. Why did Front Page Africa go out of their way to reveal the true identity of the survivor? Isn't there survivor protection law in Liberia (save Liberia's ratification of the ICCPR) that prevent media houses from revealing survivor's identity in certain sensitive circumstances?

4. Considering the supposedly high-profile nature of this case (i.e., the case involves a presidential guard), will the police and courts deliver fairly and justly in adjudicating for the survivor? In the candid words of Mamensie Kabba, a Female Activist: 

If it was an ordinary person who did what Darlington George did, that person would have been arrested by government, since it is someone who is around the President that's why he still passing around here and the girl is in pain.

It saddens me each day to see unfairness and injustice against women and children, yet the "Rule of Law Illusion" prevails.

Yesterday morning I woke up to Ahmed Mohamed's news. The first thought that ran through my mind was how simplistic, dismissive and condescending some ignorant people can be when they make comments like, "Black people are lazy" or "Africans are not intelligent". Without realizing the full impact of their actions, some are very good at Drawing the Global Colour Line to segregate and disenfranchise Black people. And if your name is Ahmed Mohamed and you live in America, then the stakes are even higher. You might think I am making a mole hill out of an ant hill. But I always think complex picture. Think about a bunch of 10-14 year olds watching Ahmed arrested, handcuffs, and interrogated by police without his parents or lawyers (partly why the United States of America would not sign on to the CRC) because his ENGINEERING TEACHER thinks he's created a bomb rather than a clock. How distasteful and offensive! The very teacher(s) who is supposed to inspire, support and be a mentor, is the very one who behaves as if s/he never went to school. Though troubling, I am so glad it all turned out well. Not only is Ahmed a positive force to be reckoned with, he gets to hangout with the President of the United States and the Founder of Facebook, Google and the list goes on. I do look forward to seeing Ahmed at MIT in readiness for his great inventions to revolutionise the world! Kudos my young friend.

(REBLOGGED) Omar Khadr – the Child Soldier Turned Adult Prisoner: Abuse and Neglect by the US and Canada

On 27 July 2002, 15-year old Khadr became the youngest prisoner since the Second World War to be prosecuted for war crimes by a military tribunal. Detained and tortured at Guantanamo Bay,  Fynn argues Khadr was abandoned by Canada, contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Supreme and Federal Courts Rulings, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Khadr was returned to Canada on 29 September 2012 to serve the reminder of his sentence after pleading guilty. Fynn examines the Khadr case as an illustration of the uneven and ad hoc nature of law in the so-called “War on Terror,” where one child (Khadr, born into what has been frequently characterised as a “Muslim terrorist family”) is underserving of state protection while another (e.g. former Sierra Leonean child soldier Ishmael Beah) warrants sympathy and compassion. In such cases, Fynn asks, is the phrase “all are equal under the law” a myth or fact? CONTINUE READING

SILENCE? IGNORANCE? - INDEED A KILLER: PERSPECTIVES OF KONY 2012

When a video goes viral it becomes the talk of the "Internet town". Critical minds and ignorant people alike flood in to watch, comment and "spread the disease". I had the opportunity to watch the video two days ago. My initial instincts were very different. Before you start "hating", put on your thinking cap, reflect for a bit and allow yourself to be rational just for the moment and space in time. OK, here we go...

I would like to start off with a comment I scooped from Yahoo News: "Kony 2012 backlash begins with Acadia student's blog" in response to Grant Oyston's critique of Kony 2012. I first must acknowledge Grant's bravery and insight - we actually need more 19 year olds of this sort gracing our planets. The comment reads: 

So what he is saying basically is there are more problems in Uganda than just Kony? Go figure. Argue, Debate, Discredit but get Kony's name out there

Well, I'm sorry, unless we accept that our minds are robotic (vis-a-vis controlled by others), gone are the days when we (especially Africans) can only passively ingest Western media garbage. This is high time the world wakes up to the dawn of critical self-learning at no cost by virtue of the so-called Internet technology revolution.

Regarding the above comments, it baffles me how, despite access to rich knowledge and information in this part of the world, we can still somehow manage to allow ourselves to be ignorant. Or we are just good at being selective in deciding which and who rights should be advocated for. The last time I checked, Article 3 (1) and (2) of the Optional Protocol to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states:

States Parties shall raise the minimum age for the voluntary recruitment of persons into their national armed forces from that set out article 38, paragraph 3, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, taking account of the principles contained in the article and recognizing that under the Convention persona under the age of 18 years are entitled to special protection.

Each State Party shall deposit a binding declaration upon ratification of or accession to the present Protocol that sets forth the minimum age at which it will permit voluntary recruitment into its national armed forces and a description of the safeguards it has adopted to ensure that such recruitment is not forced or coerced

Evidently, the United States is conveniently not a State Party (including not being State Party to Conventions on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) a great advocacy that could go VIRAL) but certainly Canada is. Where am I going with this argument? Well, I'm thinking about double standards and hypocrisy. Take a look at these three examples: Kony 2012; Omar Khadr and Ishmeal Beah - do you see what I see? How can we claim to be in a civilized era of human rights yet we can still manage to peck rights in order of what lies the media tell us? How is justice and equality for Omar Khadr any different from justice for Ishmeal Beah and Jacob in Kony 2012? It is obvious to me that a child's right as enshrined in the CRC (and any other legal instruments) means a child's right - irrespective of whether he or she was born in Africa or raised by parents who support terrorism. The fact here remains, they are all at-risk children needing the same amount of "VIRAL" advocacy such as seen in Kony 2012.

OR

When it comes to Africa, it has to be romanticized, sympathetic and sensationalized by those who claim privilege to power, control and authority? How about if we changed the so-called International Criminal Court (yet again, the US is not a signed member to the Rome Statute - another excellent advocacy strategy for American world changers) list filled with "African monsters" (the irony) to something more realistic as in those complicit of war crimes (George Bush, Tony Blair, Stephen Harper, Benjamin Netanyahu and their cronies)? At this juncture, my only frustration is not only with the complete lack of positive leadership amongst African leaders, it is also with the positive correlation between continuous and selective ignorance and increase in information technology which leads to over dominance of one group yet persistent human rights violations of another group. 

All the best with Kony 2012, but I refused to allow my person including my brains to be manipulated when I can think critically to foster my ability to be a better advocate for children's rights.

SHALOM

EDUCATING LIBERIAN CHILDREN ABOUT THEIR RIGHTS

If you are an extremely hard working person you will feel my excitement! You know the feeling you get when you have spent sleepless nights completing your "side jobs" because daylight wouldn't permit you? YES! The picture on the right hand side of this post explains it all.

It started two years ago when the Good Citizen Project (GCP) was started with my fellow Liberians McAnthony Keah and Dan Brown. I was asked how and what can I contribute? I instantly thought about writing children's books to educate them about human rights. GCP loved the idea and we instantly dubbed the Volume - Human Rights Series. Soon after, I happened to make my first trip to Liberia - 18 years after I left. And though I have no experience with writing children's books, there was no shortage of stories in Liberia. From the Ministry of Education to small villages across the counties, I watched, observed, and wept - not just for my poverty stricken past but that even after some three decades plus children are still in such impoverished situation in Liberia. I keep asking why and what can be done to ameliorate this concern?

I returned to Canada and instantly put pen to paper. Miatta & Kiazulu Wants to Have a School in their Village was the result. Yesterday, I held for the first time, the 21 page colourful glossy print. Published by First Choice Books, it begins with Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Everyone has the right to education" and Article 28 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child "...governments should make primary education compulsory and available free to all". This story highlights Miatta and Kiazulu's conversation as they journey to school miles away from their village. 

As this is the first of GCP's Human Rights Series, we look forward to ensuring that every child in Liberia has a copy to the book. It is our long-term goal that through GCP, children in Liberia/Africa will become good citizens, leaders and human rights advocates. Watch this space for more information on how to obtain a copy of Miatta and Kiazulu Wants to Have a School in their Village.

This post will be incomplete without saying thanks to the person behind the beautiful coloring - Frederic Jacques Carrasca, the Illustrator. Merci beaucoup mon ami - nous l'ai fait!
Paix!!!