Ivory Coast Sit-tight Laurent Gbagbo Captured

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo grabbed

UN News Center

11 April 2011 – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire today confirmed that the country’s former president Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to forces loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody.
“ONUCI [UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire] is providing protection and security in accordance with its Security Council mandate,” the spokesperson of the Secretary-General told reporters at UN Headquarters.

Côte d’Ivoire has been engulfed by violence since last November, when Mr. Gbagbo refused to step down from power, despite losing a UN-certified and internationally recognized presidential election to Mr. Ouattara.

The Security Council, meanwhile, went into urgent consultations during which it will hear a briefing on the unfolding situation in Côte d’Ivoire from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy.

From The BBC

Besieged Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo has been detained in the main city Abidjan and delivered to the headquarters of his elected successor.

He reportedly surrendered to Alassane Ouattara’s forces after French tanks advanced on his residence.

Mr Gbagbo had been refusing to cede power to Mr Ouattara after losing November’s presidential election.

France said pro-Ouattara troops had detained him, but an aide to Mr Gbagbo said it was French special forces.

Mr Gbagbo was then taken to the city’s Golf Hotel, where Mr Ouattara has his headquarters.

UN peacekeepers accused pro-Gbagbo forces of endangering the civilian population and had asked French troops in Ivory Coast to act against the defiant leader’s heavy weapons.

Ivory Coast’s permanent representative to the UN, Youssoufou Bamba, said Mr Gbagbo would stand trial.

In London, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that if charges were brought, Mr Gbagbo should be tried in an orderly manner.

‘Gbagbo has surrendered’

Forces loyal to Mr Ouattara launched an offensive from their stronghold in the north at the end of March, after months of political deadlock during which Mr Gbagbo refused to recognise his rival’s election victory (continue at BBC)

From the Wall Street Journal

Forces loyal to Ivory Coast’s elected president Alassane Ouattara have seized strongman Laurent Gbagbo from his residence, bringing to a head a protracted conflict between two presidential rivals that had tilted the world’s largest cocoa producer toward civil war.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Ouattara said Monday that Mr. Gbagbo was captured during a flurry of fighting earlier in the day. “There [was] heavy fighting involving French soldiers, the United Nations and our forces against Mr. Gbagbo’s forces,” spokeswoman Sogona Bamba-Arnault said from Paris. “Once all heavy weapons were destroyed, Mr. Gbagbo was there and we arrested him.”

An aide to Mr. Gbagbo said the incumbent ruler was first arrested by French special forces, and only later handed to forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara.

In Paris, French officials had no immediate comment.

Ms. Bamba-Arnault, the president-elect’s spokeswoman, said Mr. Gbagbo was taken to the Golf Hotel, where Mr. Ouattara has set up his office.

Mr. Gbagbo lost a November presidential runoff certified by the U.N. but refused to recognize the result, citing voting irregularities.

When attempts by African leaders to mediate the conflict failed, Mr. Ouattara’s rebel forces launched an offensive, sweeping south and capturing key towns and ports that Mr. Gbagbo’s army once held.

That advance stalled outside the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, a stronghold for Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters. It was only when the U.N. and Licorne, or Unicorn—the French battalion stationed in Abidjan—launched a series of aerial attacks that the rebels were able to encircle the former Ivory Coast president in his residence.

The U.N. and the French said the air assaults were intended to protect civilians by destroying Mr. Gbagbo’s artillery and weapons stockpiles. Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters said the military intervention was the work of a former colonial power pushing a political rival into the presidency.

Mr. Gbagbo resisted surrender, and a core of a couple of hundred supporters rebuffed initial efforts to capture his residence. Mr. Gbagbo’s supporters continued to attack French and U.N. targets, prompting a retaliation that appeared to pave the way for the former president’s capture on Monday.

Recent controversies associated with his rebel forces have complicated Mr. Ouattara’s struggle to oust the Ivory Coast strongman from his residence, and also point to the challenges of reconciliation after the conflict. The Ivory Coast fought a two-year civil war after Mr. Gbagbo came to power, and although the conflict officially ended in 2002, the country has remained sharply divided.

In a report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch over the weekend, Mr. Ouattara’s forces were said to have “killed hundreds of civilians, raped more than 20 alleged supporters of his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, and burned at least 10 villages” in the country’s western region during their advance south. The report said Mr. Gbagbo’s backers also killed supporters of the president-elect, but it called on Mr. Ouattara to investigate abuses on both sides.

That report followed a separate account from the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimating that 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in the town of Duekoue, after troops loyal to Mr. Ouattara moved through the area.

The International Criminal Court also has said it was considering opening an investigation into reports of atrocities during the conflict.

Mr. Ouattara has pledged to launch an investigation into the allegations, and vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice in domestic or international courts.

April 10, 2011April 11, 2011

The Legon Sexual Violence: What We Did With Your Signatures

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to all you for making the Legon Sexual Violence Petition a success. We got over 400 readers add their voice to the outcry. In response, we have sent a letter to the Vice Chancellor of the Univeristy of Ghana, The Dean of Students, The President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), and the Presidents of the Legon Student Representative Council (SRC) and Sarbah Hall. Below is the letter we sent on your behalf. (Only 20 signatories were added to the letter for the sake of space and time)

Until the University responds, the petition is still open, and so if you could not sign last week, please take the opportunity to sign the Petition NOW.

Once again, thank you for your participation. KAM

Open Letter to The University of Ghana Petitioning a Response to Recent Sexual Violence on Campus

The Vice Chancellor

University of Ghana

Legon, Accra

cc. The Dean of Students, UG, Legon

The President, NUGS

The President of the SRC, Legon

The President of John Mensah Sarbah Hall, Legon

Dear Sir/Madam,

We the undersigned write to petition the University of Ghana, Legon, to

Speed up investigation into the sexual violence carried out by some residents of Sarbah Hall against a suspected campus thief, Amina
Report on the findings to the public as soon as possible
Announce appropriate punishment for the responsible students.
Institute measures that will prevent such incidence from happening on such a respected academic environment. We believe that unless the definitional and substantive aspects of the rape law and associated set of laws which deal with sexual harassment, molestation, unnatural offences, are clearly spelt out with appropriate potential punitive measures, any response given to this incident will remain historically a hollow gesture.

We believe that because the students smartly video-taped their crime, it should not take months for the University Authorities and the Law enforcement personnel to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

An online petition that was launched on the website talkafrique.com has so far generated nearly 500 signatures from concerned Ghanaians home and abroad and the list continues to grow. Much as some signatories have insisted on sending this petition to some of the national media here in the US to give a global perspective to the pervasiveness of sexual violence in our society, we believe that if the University authorities and the law enforcement can handle this locally, it will help to minimize the damage that will be done to the reputation of the University which has already suffered a huge blow.

We trust that your prompt response to this petition would convince us to end our reaction at this level and prevent further damage to Legon’s reputation.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned (representative signatories for the online petition for the sake of space. To request the complete list of signatories, please contact legon.sexual.violence@talkafrique.com

April 10, 2011April 10, 2011

Students Aim to Combat Malaria With Smartphone Software

By Barbara Liston (Reuters)

A team of graduate students has created a new smartphone application they say will allow healthcare workers in remote locations to diagnose malaria cases on the spot.

But first, the students hope their application wins this weekend’s Imagine Cup 2011 national finals in Seattle.

The 9th-annual Imagine Cup, sponsored by Microsoft, asks student entrants to “imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems.”

Tristan Gibeau, 25, a graduate computer engineering student at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, said his team’s application fits the bill.

“It’s going to make a difference in trying to contain the outbreak of malaria,” said Gibeau, the project’s software designer.

“In the big picture, it’ll hopefully help in the fight against most diseases out there and make everybody’s life a little easier.”

His team’s prototype is a Windows 7-equipped Samsung Focus smart phone modified with a microscopic camera lens.

Gibeau said the software application can take a picture of a blood sample, process the data to detect malaria parasites, quantify how much malaria is in the sample and point the parasites out to the phone user.

“It actually draws a red box around the clusters of malaria, and it actually notifies you how many it found,” Gibeau said.

Although microscopic lenses are already available for smart phones, Gibeau said the software takes the concept’s usefulness to another level.

It would enable a doctor or nurse working, for example, in an African village lacking Internet access to make a diagnosis without having to upload data for processing elsewhere.

However, once the data stored in the phone is uploaded, it can be used to spot disease trends, Gibeau said.

He said he is working on smart phone applications to detect sickle cell and other diseases and also plans to make the software easily adaptable to lab-based microscopes.

The smart phone application was the idea of team member Wilson To, a 25-year-old graduate student in comparative pathology at the University of California at Davis.

It builds upon a mobile microscope concept that To and a different team created to win last year’s Imagine Cup national finals.

Gibeau said the team is working toward patenting and marketing the new application.

“From different conversations we’ve had with investors, we feel that this definitely is a money-maker,” he said.

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April 8, 2011April 8, 2011

Booze it and risC it

A new research establishes that ‘excessive’ drinking raises the risk of some cancers.

The study which is reported in the British Medical Journal looked at 363,988 people and found that 10% all cancers in men and 3% in women were caused by alcohol consumption, either present or in the past.

The study found that men who drank more than two (standard-sized) drinks a day and women who drank more than one drink a day were particularly at risk of alcohol-related cancers.

booze alcohol cancers — Excessive alcohol consumption raises the risk of some cancers

When alcohol is metabolized in the body it produces a chemical which can damage DNA, and consequently increase the chance of developing some cancers.

Past research has already established a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the esophagus, liver, bowel and female breast.

Of the cancers known to be linked to alcohol, the researchers suggest that 40% to 98% occurred in people who drank more than the recommended maximum.

The effect of smoking and healthy body weight on cancers are well known but now including scaled-down alcohol consumption would reduce the risk even further.

April 7, 2011

Genetically Modified Fungus Could Fight Malaria

Britain Mutant Malaria Fungus — Bacteria use for producing anti-body against malaria are seen through a microscope at Westminster University in London, Tuesday, March 15, 2011. In a cramped London laboratory filled with test tubes, bacteria and mosquitoes, scientists are trying to engineer a new weapon in the battle against malaria: a mutant fungus. For years, Angray Kang at Westminster University and colleagues have been testing whether they could genetically tweak a fungus to kill the malaria parasite carried by mosquitoes.

NPR

In a cramped London laboratory filled with test tubes, bacteria and mosquitoes, scientists are trying to engineer a new weapon in the battle against malaria: a mutant fungus.

For years, Angray Kang at Westminster University and colleagues have been testing whether they could genetically tweak a fungus to kill the malaria parasite carried by mosquitoes.

Now they’ve found that in lab experiments, mosquitoes exposed to the fungus show a sharp drop in levels of the parasite. If it works that way in the wild, that should make it harder for the disease to infect people.

Kang said the mutant fungus could be sprayed onto walls and bednets like insecticides and could be made for a comparable cost.

He said the same process of genetic modification could also be used to target other insect-spread diseases like dengue and West Nile virus. The research was done together with scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Early results were published recently in the journal Science.

“This is very exciting research,” said Andrew Read, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University. He has worked on similar projects but was not involved with the fungus research. “It tells us that if you can’t find something in nature to do what you want, you can just make it.”

Read said using the souped-up fungus might be less environmentally invasive than other genetic approaches. Some critics have warned that competing biological approaches, like scientists creating mutant mosquitoes, could wreak havoc to ecosystems if billions of the insects are released into the wild.

With the fungus, “you just spray it on the wall and it does its job,” Read said. “You don’t have to worry about generation after generation of the stuff.”

He also said the fungus technology could be a new way of dealing with insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, an increasing problem that has meant the return of effective but controversial sprays like DDT. “With the (mutant) fungi, you wouldn’t have chemical residues hanging around,” he said. “It would just be a fungus very similar to what is already found in nature.”

In laboratory tests, Kang and colleagues found mosquitoes exposed to the mutated fungus had malaria parasite levels about 85 percent lower than normal. When they added a scorpion toxin to the mix, levels dropped by 97 percent. No tests have shown whether using the fungus would curb human malaria cases, but experts think fewer malaria parasites should translate into fewer cases.

“If the strategy works and there are fewer parasites, this could change how malaria is spread and reduce transmission to humans,” said George Christophides, an infection expert at Imperial College London who was not associated with the research.

Kang’s experiment involved inserting a human antibody against malaria into a fungus commonly found in soil and plants worldwide. Spores made by the fungus burrow into the mosquito, invading its circulatory system. When the malaria-causing parasite multiplies inside the insect, the antibody keeps the parasites from reaching the mosquito’s salivary glands. That theoretically stops the disease’s spread.

“The mosquito can be infected by malaria, but it can’t pass it onto humans,” Kang said. The mutated fungus then eats away at the mosquito from the inside, killing the insect after a couple of weeks. That’s long enough for the mosquito to reproduce, which should lessen its incentive to evolve resistance to it.

The same fungus — minus the genetic modifications — is already produced in industrial quantities to squash locust outbreaks in Australia. The fungus is naturally lethal to locusts, so no genetic modification is needed.

If Kang and colleagues can get enough funding, they hope to test the mutant fungus in malaria-endemic countries like Burkina Faso, Kenya or Tanzania.

Other experts doubted whether the laboratory experiment could be replicated in the wild. “It’s a neat scientific idea, but there are questions about (the mutated fungus’s) stability and formulation,” said Janet Hemingway, director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She said the mutant fungus would have to survive being shipped to Africa and then be viable for another three to six months in stifling heat once it’s sprayed onto walls or bednets.

One group that campaigns against genetically modified organisms warned the mutant fungus could skew behaviors of other wildlife.

“The release of any genetically modified organism into the environment runs the risk that it may have wider impacts than just its target,” said Pete Riley, campaign director of GM Freeze, a U.K.-based advocacy group. He said the modified fungus could have unintended consequences which might be impossible to reverse. “Nature has a pretty cunning way of getting around everything we throw at it,” he said.

Kang acknowledged that simply having a new mutant fungus would not stop malaria. “We still need better drugs and other interventions,” he said. “But malaria kills about a million people every year so we have to try whatever may work.”

April 6, 2011April 13, 2011

Conquering Your Fear of FEAR, FAILURE and The FUTURE

AFRICAN YOUTHS AND THE 3F ENEMIES…..GAINING VICTORY FOR SELF DEVELOPMENT.

“Know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated; when you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal; if you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be defeated” – Sun Tzu (The Art of War).

The quote above is unequivocally food for thought for all ages but especially the youth. I mean the African youth who appear ‘trapped’ by these conquerable enemies identified above as 3Fs….. FEAR, FAILURE AND THE FUTURE.

Take a moment to reflect on these popular quotes on the enemy of fear:

” I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fear to do”….Eleanor Roosevelt.

”Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear”… Ambrose Redmoon. ”

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear”…Edmund Burke. ”

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom”….Bertrand Russell..

No human is immune to this ‘abstract feeling’, regardless of age, social status, and skin color. Fear in this context is not the feeling manifested by an individual when exposed to life threatening situations such as a robbery attack, natural disasters, or the fear associated with the death of a loved one. Rather, the Fear under examination is one that is absolutely within the control of its host. I’ll like to share a personal experience along this line as a youth. I remember growing up in the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria with so many attractions around. As a youth while in High school (secondary education), I had a deep interest in sciences wanting to become a Medical doctor or a Pilot. My Dad used to have a health book as big as an encyclopedia. I usually pick up the book from his library at my leisure to read even though most of what I was reading made little or no academic sense to me. Moreover, growing up in an environment that was not ‘science friendly’ so to say, I started nurturing the fear of pessimism. Added to this was the issue of finance. In school, most of those in the sciences were mates from affluent or wealthy homes. So I had this mindset like, which may be true of most young people that success in the sciences depends on the pay-book of our parents. Hence, I had to settle for the major that accommodates students from all walks of life, the Business Department.

Closely associated with ‘fear’, is the enemy of Failure. In my view, the fear of failure is largely responsible for the stagnant and under-developed psyche of an average person especially youths. In this part of the world (Africa) where superstitions and the fear of the Unknown permeates, many individuals out of lack of motivation and willpower submit themselves to the dictates of their environment thereby giving up after few encounters with failure. Interestingly though, most of the world acclaimed and celebrated personalities from time immemorial, in Africa and in the Diaspora, were beset by this ‘enemy’ on a constant basis and yet are known for success today. Bill Gates, Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Wole Soyinka and most recently, Barrack Obama were all ‘victimized’ at one point or the other in their quest towards success by failure. However, due to determination to succeed at all cost, these individuals are known for who they are today. The same can be your experience too. Failure in my opinion, no matter how often it besets its recipient, is only a natural manifestation, to some extent the frailty of the human species, which is inevitable before success can be realized. Ponder over this: What does it take an infant to become a toddler and grow into childhood? It takes days, weeks and months of repeated crawling, stooping and falling (failure) as a natural experience. In the same vein, failure in whatever form, be it in your academics, business, relationships and other areas of life should not be a deterrent to your progress and success in life. As a very good friend puts it in an article; ‘MAKING IT SLOWLY BUR SURELY‘, Tunde Oseni fervently addressed issues on success in life as a gradual process that takes time to materialize. Therein, he advised youths, especially those in the developing economies, never to be ‘too ambitious to succeed’. Rather, with the right ‘tools’ such as education, commitment, perseverance amongst others, success is guaranteed even though it may come slowly. Therefore, never allow the failure of today to becloud the success of tomorrow. No matter, how many times failure comes your way, realize that what matters most is your unrelenting determination to turn it into success.

The last ‘enemy’ identified above is the Future. Erroneously, many usually see the Future as being into the distant days ahead. However, the future starts today! Future in this context is the unnecessary worries, concerns and anxieties about tomorrow. Needless to state, it is vital to think or plan ahead of time. Many though have allowed themselves to be entrapped by the uncertainties of life thereby giving up effort towards a bright future. Most African youths grow up in an environment that barely impact positively on their lives. Environments where values which define us a people have been thrown into the air, environment where leaders lack integrity and national interest, environment were the youths hardly have a voice especially in government. Despite these limitations, a good number of African youths have made the best for themselves. It is important that as youths, we start positioning ourselves now in terms of empowerment for the future. Obama positioned himself years ago through academic and intellectual empowerment, emerging as the President of the United States of America in 2009. Certainly, a ‘mystery in disguise!! The same can be your experience too. A positive mindset coupled with optimism is needed to successfully wage the battle for a bright Future.

Hence, a call goes to everyone out there, especially African youths who before reading this piece may have been ‘enslaved’ as it were to FEAR, FAILURE and FUTURE. These three ‘enemies’ are within your capacity not only to control, but to conquer. May your Fear turn to be your Freedom, your Failure turn to Fortune and your Future turn to Fame.

April 6, 2011October 11, 2011

The Legon Lawlessness Hall of Shame- Watch and Support

Brian Laung Aoaeh

“I promise on my honour to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my motherland.

I pledge myself to the service of Ghana with all my strength and with all my heart.

I promise to hold in high esteem our heritage, won for us through the blood and toil of our fathers;

and I pledge myself in all things to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. So help me God.”

“God Bless our homeland Ghana,

And make our nation great and strong,

Bold to defend for ever the cause of Freedom and of Right.

Fill our hearts with true humility

Make us cherish fearless honesty,

And help us to resist oppressor’s rule

With all our will and might for evermore.”

As a teenager in secondary school at St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary in Wa, and Presec, Legon respectively, I recited and sang those words on many occasions. I learned to take them seriously, and I learned to take my duty to our Motherland seriously.

It is my abiding belief in Ghana that has driven my outrage over the incident that occurred at Mensah Sarbah Hall, on the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon on March 31. If you have not yet heard, a young lady was brutally attacked and sexually molested by a mob of men on the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon, in Accra. They alleged that she stole some cell phones and a laptop. As I write this we do not yet know if her attackers have been apprehended. Her attackers filmed their actions, and distributed it. One of the radio stations in Accra got a hold of the video, and other media outlets in Ghana picked up the story and reported on it immediately after the incident.

Thanks to a childhood friend, I watched the video in shock and horror on Friday while I was at work. What I saw first brought tears to my eyes, and then filled me with outrage. What I saw can only be described as despicable. That such violence was directed against a woman makes the crime all the more monstrous. No Ghanaian, man or woman, should have to endure what the victim went through. No, not in the face of allegations of any kind.

My first opinion piece on this matter, titled We Must Hold Ourselves To A Higher Standard, has been greeted with many different reactions. Obviously, I have no quarrel with those that feel as outraged as I over this incident.

I will address some of the rebuttals I have encountered and let you judge if Ghana in which incidents like this seem acceptable is the Ghana whose pledge you recite, and whose anthem you sing.

When the video was posted, many protested on the grounds that sharing it widely violated the dignity of the victim and infringed upon her privacy. I understand that sentiment. If it were obvious that her attackers would be brought to justice no matter what, I would agree with that argument. However, it is not until you feel the horror I felt, or experience the anger that welled in me when I saw the incident in video, not till then will you realize that you can no longer simply sit there and do nothing. You can not just stand idly by and wait for someone else to do something. While I understand the position of those who protested the sharing of the video, I do not know that we had much choice. Seeing the video is what prompted my outrage, an oral or written narrative would have been far less effective.

Another group has suggested that the victim brought this upon herself. What did she expect? It serves her right. It is unfair that these poor students lost cell phones and a laptop through her theft. What about their project work for school that was saved on the laptop? To this group I have one question. Is it their intention to suggest that human life, the dignity of another human being and the sanctity of womanhood is no more significant to our Ghanaian society than the value of some cell phones and a laptop? Do we know that she is in fact guilty of the allegations leveled against her? I vigorously reject the notion that unprovoked and wanton violence that is not in self-defense and dehumanizes any one is ever justifiable, under any circumstance.

Yet another group argues that this has been going on for ages. Mob justice, they say, is nothing new in Ghana, but now that it is a woman people want to make this bigger than it is. Why do we care now? To that I have this response. When I was a boy, I heard stories about mob justice. I could do nothing. I felt powerless and filled with fear. Now I am a man. I can do something. I am not afraid. The point is, mob violence against any person is wrong. I would have felt the same sense of outrage, had the video been one in which a man was attacked and molested by residents of Volta Hall. I hope we can agree that wanton violence against a woman is wrong. Wanton violence against a man is wrong. Wanton violence against any of us is wanton violence against all of us. That cannot be allowed to stand. Shall we stop trying to solve our current and future problems merely because we failed to solve similar problems in the past?

There’s that group that wishes to make this about political affiliation. There is not one notion that could be more wrong. I reject with absolute contempt the idea that we should let our response be governed by our political affiliation. This is about all of us. This is about all Ghanaians. This is about the nature of the society we wish to leave behind for our sons and daughters. This is about the reverence with which we should treat our mothers and our fathers. This is about the respect we should have for one another as children of our Motherland, Ghana. This is about seeking to make our country a more just and equitable one because of our difficult history. This is about revering the sacrifices that others have made on our behalf. This is not about ideology. It is not about ethnicity. It is not about religion. It is not about gender, and it most certainly is not about the current state of our political dialogue. This is about us, all of us, all Ghanaians.

Still another group accuses the police, other law enforcement entities, and those in power of never doing anything to right the ills of Ghanaian society. They seem to assert that nothing should be done about this because many in authority go unpunished for crimes and offenses that far outweigh this. Why they ask should these “small boys” be punished when “big men” get away with far worse? To them I say, we have to start somewhere. Let this mark the day when we stood up as one people, and said we will hold one another accountable. Let us channel President Mills’ outrage at the rampant corruption in sections of Ghana’s Customs Department. Let us say with one voice, in unequivocal terms, that we wish all Ghanaians to be held accountable for their actions. Let us promise ourselves a future in which we are answerable to the constitution and all the other laws of our dear nation.

It is easy to find excuses. It is easy to do nothing. After all the victim is merely an anonymous individual that most of us will never cross paths with. Who cares? We should all care. Rwanda. Liberia. Sierra Leone. Zaire. Uganda. Zimbabwe. La Cote d’Ivoire. Societies slip into sustained, protracted and violent conflict when small injustices are overlooked. Every one looks the other way. People in authority renege on their responsibility to insist that the right thing is done. Society collectively turns a blind eye when wrongs go unpunished, and victims are denied justice. Eventually small injustices become big injustices. Society erupts, and violence upends the idyllic lives that the privileged sought to protect by doing nothing. We must not let that happen. We must start somewhere. We must start today. We can start with this incident.

I am a son of privilege. My parents are not rich, not by any stretch. But I am a son of privilege because others in Ghana were denied something so that I could go to school. Others were denied something so that I could receive an education. Others were denied hospitals, roads, schools, electricity and many other social amenities so people like me would receive an education and one day make a contribution towards the improvement of our collective future as Ghanaians. That is not a privilege I take for granted. Nor is it a privilege that I should abuse. If you are reading this you are a son or daughter of privilege too. I implore you do not waste that privilege.

We may have our differences on many issues. I am hopeful that we can agree on this. If Amina is guilty of theft, then she must be held to account for her actions. That she is guilty of the allegations against her does not acquit her attackers. I do not accept the notion that our society cannot ensure that justice is served on both sides of this incident. The mob that attacked the victim too must be held to account. In attacking her they attacked all of us. They brought shame to our beloved Motherland. That can not be allowed to stand. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard. Ghana demands that of all of us.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

Warning: Parts of the Video may be disturbing and may not be suitable for all audience. Please use your personal judgement in proceeding.

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April 6, 2011April 6, 2011

Suspected Woman Witch Beaten to Death by Pastor: What People Think About it-Watch the Video

In November of 2010, we reported the atrocious murder of a 72-year-old woman, Ama Hemmah, who was suspected of witchcraft in Ghana. She was beaten, tripped naked and doused with kerosene and then set aflame by her accusers who were also self-professed spiritual healers. The Foreman for the crusade, Pastor Samuel Fletcher Sagoe, asserted Ms. Hemmah was a witch who wished to do him and his family harm.

Please watch the entire video, what individuals think about it, and how much work needs to be done

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