Sunday 30 November 2008

Mariam's Moving Story

Help Mariam
This is Mariam Stanford who is an albino being admitted at Murgwanza Hospital in Ngara District where she is under treatment after her both arms were cut because of superstition that albino’s bones are useful in local mineral mining and fishing. She was admitted on October 17, 2008 in Ward 4 (Surgical Ward) in private room.

Mariam (28) is the third child of the family of nine children of Mr. Stanford Bandaba, the resident of Mkatoke Hamlet, Ntobeye village, Ngara District in Kagera Region.

Mariam is the first among three albinism daughters of Mr. Bandaba’s family. Others are Jane and Odetha. She was born in 1980; she was educated for only four years at Ntobeye Primary School reaching class IV. She did not complete primary education. Later she became a peasant, digging for her daily needs by selling ripe bananas at small market at Ntobeye.

She was married in 2004 to a non-albinism husband. In 2005 they had their first son who was normal/non-albinism. Life continued until June last year when her husband’s relatives including father and mother-in-law told her that she was a curse to their family and rejected her out-rightly because they were afraid that her children would also be albino.

Mariam did not want to leave because her husband loved her so much and kept comforting her. But she soon lost her patience and returned to her parents with her son. However, she did not know that she was pregnant, something she knew a month later.

When she was four months pregnant, her husband asked her to come back. This was after Mariam had informed him about the pregnancy. She agreed to go back on the condition that they would both stay away from her husband’s relatives. Her husband promised to do so by October 28, the time he will have found a new place to stay peacefully.

The worst day in her life came on October 17. It was 1am (0100hours) Friday when she felt that she was dreaming after something happened. She was excited to see a light in her room where she was sleeping alone.

Without knowing what was happening, she heard the sound of her young ones crying “Open for us”. She heard the sound aside telling her to’ wake up and go outside because there is something for her to be told. She refused, but later she identified the sound of the one who was calling her. She asked him (the caller) what he wanted to tell her in the midnight that couldn't tell her when they met during the day when she was back from shop. And so she refused. At the same time she heard some people walking around their house while her young ones were crying for a help.

Mariam said that a young boy who is a resident of that village (Ntobeye) put down the torch and held her right arm which he cut. While she was screaming and asking for help, her right arm was thrown outside to others. Before the second arm was completely cut; her parents, brothers and sisters had heard the noise and ran to Mariam’s room. The bandit who was cutting the second arm decided to run away. On the way out, he collided with Mariam’s father. This enabled Mariam’s brother (who was coming from inside) to catch him while other bandits ran away with the right arm.

Mariam was taken outside with blood gushing from all parts of her body. Nobody believed she was alive. Her mother, Gaudensia, called her twice without reply. Later Mariam replied saying that she heard her calling but she was unable to reply due to the great pain she had. Neighbours also offered assistance, while the bandit who was caught by Mariam's brother was thoroughly beating.

She was taken to hospital but unfortunately doctors failed to replace the second arm (left) and so they decided to cut it too. Now Mariam has lost her left and right arms.
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Please read the following e-mail (unedited) and decide if you want to help Mariam or not. But you should exercise caution in doing so.
Dear
Congratulation for Christmas and New Year 2009

This is the true incidence. This story was first broadcasted in Kiswahili by REDIO KWIZERA which is based in Ngara District working under JESUIT REFUGEES SERVICE. I just translated it. I invite you to read it.

I have visited Mariam several times in last and this year. On behalf’ of Mariam and her relatives, I ask your aid/assistance to her due to the fact that currently when she is admitted in hospital and after her discharge she will no longer have ability to work herself and her son. Currently is cared by her mother. Unluckily few days ago she aborted.

Mariam told me that when she will get discharge she is not willing to go back home (Ntobeye) for fear of her security. She said she want to remain in Ngara town (District HQ). With others she was asking for artificial arms and a house for her residence in Ngara. Fortunately she has already got a donor to go to Referral Hospital named Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) to get artificial arms. Ngara District Council promised to offer her freely a plot for building her residence in Ngara town.

Please send your support through her personal account No.3211601173 with National Microfinance Bank Ltd, Ngara Branch named Mariam Stanford. Support of materials or anything which is not money needs communication for some arrangements on how to reach to her.

Kindly, (for your willing) I ask you when you do so; inform me and a copy to the coordinator of the aids in REDIO KWIZERA, Mr. Emmanuel Buhohela with the mail: ebuhohela@yahoo.com

The RADIO KWIZERA announces who supports Mariam. Please, if you do not want to be announced let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Charles Mbeikya

Saturday 29 November 2008

Ghanaians should vote for a real change

By Archie Bonka
Ghana Election

As Ghana elections draw nearer, Archie Bonker looks beyond and warns his nation the danger in "playing tribalism card" which he passionately believes underscores Ghana's development. Bonka pleads with the leading parties to avoid teetering on the edge of the abyss of war mongering that would make the masses suffer read more

The Crook Game

By Hakeem Babalola
Nigerian Affairs


It seems certain influential Nigerians simply derive pleasure in making fun of their country and its people. They are obsessed with their country even though they often claim love, and certainly they can't stop the jokes on their motherland (or is it fatherland?). The master of them being Olusegun Obasanjo, the man who has it all: women, money, ego, cars, houses, titles, children, wives, concubines, dysfunctional family and many more. He is a ducky son of the land and despite the fact that his ethics or decency is below standard, many Nigerians still hold him in high esteem. After all, he has what millions will never have in their lifetime. Even it could be said that this man has acquired Nigeria .

Those very close to him say that he is a man who doesn't forgive or forget. And he has demonstrated this mental attitude several times like when he took on his former second in command up. Obasanjo blatantly blocked Atiku's chance to become the Nigerian president because the latter had scuttled his third term bid. The Owu chief was reportedly said, "Over my dead body." And so Yar'Adua was given the post. It was this same man who had proclaimed in 1978 when he was the military Head of state that the best candidate may not win. Nigerians did not have to crack their brains, for they knew whom he was referring to. Chief Obafemi Awolowo lost the presidential election. And so Shagari was given the post. Part of the consequences is what Nigerians are facing now.

In both instances it was and still clear that Obasanjo was not necessarily acting in the interest of the nation. Obasanjo bore both men a grudge and so he justified his retaliation. It didn't matter whether his lousy decision was good for the country and its people. And yet this man and his supporters violently believe he is the number one patriot. Even now, things seem to be going in his way. Although he lost the third term bid, and although he may have miscalculated that Yar'Adua would be his stooge, the man still holds the ace. And he has started playing the game - the crook game. It was the same game he played that made him a "civil war hero"; the same game he played that helped him escape Dimka's bullet; the same game he played that made him both the military Head of State and civilian Head of State, the first Nigerian to win such game; the same game he played that helped him survive Abacha's gulag; the same game he played to destroy Afenifere, a Yoruba Social Cultural Group. And it is this game he is now playing on his comrade in crookedness, Atiku. By meeting Obasanjo in his Ota zoo, Atiku has become a roasted chicken to be eaten. It is not that I care, for both of them are two worms in my book.

The man's exaggerated opinion of his own importance is always awake. He wants to preserve his crookedness until his last moment on this earth, and he will do it by all means possible, including shedding blood. Obasanjo wants to remain the first and the last to achieve the "feat" of being both military and civilian president. Unknown to Nigerians, this single ambition matters most to their former president. Obasanjo is aware of history but it seems he doesn't care much. This is because he knows that when the history of Nigeria is eventually written, his actions and deeds will top the crook list. This is perhaps the particular psychological disorder that defines his fake sumptuous living. He simply wants to live; he neither cares about life after death nor how he will be remembered. That is for Gani Fawehinmi of this world.

Of course he is alert to the problems at hand. And that is why he needs Atiku, a man he had called thief and rouge in public. Obasanjo needs Atiku again in order to maintain this psychological disorder of self-importance. In order to defeat other juntas in their bid to overtake him in this crook game, Obasanjo must reconcile with Atiku. Obasanjo has always had game plan. He wants to remain one and only Nigerian ducky boy. He can't stand the situation whereby a Nigerian would surpass his record. But what record? That is why he brought Shehu Shagari, the least qualified candidate during 1979 presidential election to the scene ahead of people like Nnamidi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Aminu Kano. The same reason he searched for another least qualified candidate in 2007 elections.

Obasanjo is marked by ill will; deliberately harmful than imagined. He definitely knows the problem with Nigeria but he derives delectation from Nigeria 's plight. He won't solve it and he’d dabaru any efforts to make Nigeria great. Nigeria 's quandary is Obasanjo's tonic for long life. Do you expect him to love any other person more than himself? It is for this reason there may never be Sovereign National Conference or whatever where Nigerians can get started. As long as Obasanjo lives, Nigeria progress is remote. He has joked about it several times; he has said it in body language. What do you think he meant when he declared, "Do or die affairs?" When the current PDP (Papa Deceiving Pikin) chairman announced publicly that his party will rule Nigeria for sixty years, what do you think he was saying? But history tells us about someone with the same innate ambition who eventually committed suicide. I am talking about Adolf Hitler of West Germany who thought he had absolute power like Obasanjo.

Obasanjo harassed and chased away his comrade from being their party presidential candidate shortly before the last elections. Instead he anointed Yar'Adua, the current "Mr. Go Slow President" whom he thought he could influence shrewdly or deviously. After Yar'Adua got his mandate back from the Supreme Court, he started neglecting Obasanjo. Even when the Ota zoo keeper lobbied for Ribadu's AIG position to be restored, Yar'Adua declined, a response that be-little Obasanjo's swelled-head. Then Yar'Adua audaciously invited Obasanjo's main rival in this game and sent him on ambassadorial mission to Guinea . Such unpleasantly loud and harsh behaviour was too much for a political godfather to overlook. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Yar'Adua had opened a can of worms. Forget about the fact that Obasanjo was at Yar'Adua's daughter's wedding. The fact that Yar'Adua's errand boy, Segun Adeniyi, said that “the President is not losing any sleep over the new romance between Obasanjo and Atiku”, is even an indication that trouble looms.

So it is easy for a man with little or no integrity to align himself - again - with the man he had had a roforofo fight with. Obasanjo is also reported to be meeting with Dariye, ex Plateau State governor whom he solely impeached for corruption. As I said somewhere else, the two men could reconcile if they so wish, but to connect their reconciliation to national interest is part of the crook game. And this is my concern. I am however happy that Nigerians are not buying it. Of course, the main reason is for personal interest. Telling us that their meeting was unconnected with 2011 is part of the plan game. What else could bring Obasanjo and Atiku together other than the crook game? Obasanjo needs Atiku to neutralise Babangida's power; he also wants to teach Yar'Adua a lesson. It is Ibrahim Babangida and Musa Yar'Adua vs Olusegun Obasanjo and Abubakar Atiku. Watch out for this entertaining dramatic movie titled, ‘The Crook Game.’

Obasanjo knows that Babangida may not be all that bright, but he is certainly cunning. Babangida also knows that Obasanjo is a man of diabolical cunning. Both men have helped each other at a point in time. But Babangida made a wrong move by saving Obasanjo from being killed when the latter was in Abacha's gulag. Babangida supported Obasanjo during 1999 elections because the Minna soldier had thought that Obasanjo would handover power back to him after he was disgraced (step aside) out of power. I am glad that Obasanjo came alive from the Abacha's dungeon. If he had been killed, he would have become a national hero. I mean, Nigerians would not have known the real Obasanjo. But now that he lives, the man may die a pauper; a villain. And if his death is peaceful upon the atrocities he had committed against Nigerians, then I will renounce God. No, I've changed my mind because hypocrite and perpetual liar like Obasanjo can never be the reason for any right thinking person to forsake God. But it is sad that people like him will rule Nigeria for the next sixty years. It is sad...

Copyright 2009 mysmallvoice@yahoo.com

Sunday 23 November 2008

Hakeem's Pictures







Thursday 20 November 2008

"Police Impregnate us in Prison"

By Hakeem Babalola
Abuse of Female Prisoners

Oroburuku t'oun t'erin… One should better laugh off these things unless one is ready for early grave. Policemen are fathers of more than 80 percent of pregnancies at the prison. How did it happen and how could it happen - in a country that has kings and chiefs? Yes, how did it happen since the police "are not authorised to have access to prison inmates to the extent of having sexual relationship with them"? read more

Friday 14 November 2008

UZOMA OKERE: demoCRAZY in action! A Rejoinder to Hakeem Babalola's Article

By Ronks
A Rejoinder
I watched the video with distaste and anger in my veins. Arguing with my own eyes, (this cannot be true, it must be a movie location, they cannot be humans, and maybe they are aliens from the 13th planet.)read more

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Project against Discrimination in Hungary

MENEDÉK
Press Release


The goal of this project is to find, sanction and ultimately reduce incidents of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, economic status, religion and ideology faced by migrants living in Hungary in order to further their integration.

To map discrimination against migrants and better understand the discriminatory situations they face, Menedék will establish a monitoring network with the participation of NGOs, authorities and organisations that come into contact with migrants on a regular basis. To ensure the efficiency of the monitoring network, Menedék will hold a training where the network's participants can better understand the definition of discrimination, its legal background and the means to reveal and prove discriminatory practices.

The participants of the monitoring network will forward the incidents that appear to be discriminatory to Menedék, who will then conduct fact finding visits and contact the relevant authorities if necessary. During the project Menedék will provide legal representation to the victims of discrimination in a few important cases before the Equal Treatment Authority or in court.

Just as importantly, in a few cases where the suspicion of discrimination arises Menedék will use testing to prove the discriminatory practices. Based on the signals arriving through the monitoring network, Menedék will send an African and a white Hungarian tester to the employer, bar, restaurant or landlord suspected of discrimination.

The testers will receive a thorough training on discrimination and how to conduct the testing in a manner that is the most useful for the purposes of the project. After the training they will visit the selected bars etc. and write a report together with the coordinators of the project on their findings.

In principle one tester would only have to conduct a single visit for which Menedék can pay a small fee. The testers will be invited for training towards the end of January and later to be available during the year for a single visit.

For the purposes of the project the testers need to speak Hungarian well and be willing to conduct the visit and write a short report afterward. Their help will provide invaluable hard evidence in cases against bars, restaurants and others using discriminatory practices.

Contact János Lastofka, Menedék Association for Migrants +36 20 41 42 962

Admiral Arogundade & his Mad Puppies

By Hakeem Babalola
Official Brutality





I am compelled to ask, did Ms Okere's father who is now the Sergeant-At Arms of the National Assembly, also displaced such coarse manner during his time in the military? If so, although it doesn't justify the assault on Ms Okere, it would have been the case of a stone thrown in the market. Even then Ms Okere's case only represents the symbol of official brutality, dangerous arrogance, and disrespect for the land's constitution we are fighting against read more

Thursday 6 November 2008

Obama Saga: A Challenge to Nigerian Americans to Build Own Nation

By Hakeem Babalola
International Politics

Nigerian Americans mustn't sleep until they help build a nation in their land of birth. Obama's phenomenon should have opened their eyes that nothing is impossible which is what this historical victory stands for. Let them help us battle the fear that has rendered their people useless in their own land. Let them fight and flood their land of birth with everlasting energy... read more