Prejudice and Discrimination (Part1)

             Have you ever experienced the indignity of unfair discrimination, which tends to based on prejudice? Perhaps it was because of your skin, colour, your religon, your economic status, your gender, or even your age. Those who are regularly treated prejudicially often live in fear of further ill-treatment. When they walk by a group of people, go into a store, move to a new school, or attend a social gathering, they become sick with anxiety.

In addition, victims of prejudice and discrimation may have trouble getting a job, or they may receive second-rate medical care, an inferior education, and fewer social previleges and legal rights. When officially sanctioned, discrimintion can lead to such evils as ethnic cleansing and genocid. An ancient example of an attempted genocide is found in the book of Esther (BIBLE),-Esther 3:5,6.

Bigotry and intolerance may persist even where there are laws against discrimination. Says a former united nations high comminissionerof human rights: "Six decade after the adoption of the universal declaration of human right... the principles of equality and non-discrimination are still far from a universal reality." That is disturbing because immigration and the flux of refugees have significantly altered the demographics of many lands.

So , is an equitable society just a dream? Or can prejudice and discrimination be overcome? The following article will address these questions.

Rwanda, what's next for the young.

IWAWA ISLAND, Rwanda — A few months ago, Gasigwa Gakunzi was hanging around a ramshackle house where poor children pay to watch television when the Rwandan police arrested him for loitering. The next thing he knew, he said, he was taken away from his family and carted off to this remote island in the middle of Lake Kivu.

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Gasigwa, 14, now spends his days learning patriotic songs and how to march like a soldier. At night, he sleeps in a huge sheet-metal shed with hundreds of men and boys packed mattress to mattress.
“Please call my father,” he whispered. “He has no idea where I am.”
Nearly 900 beggars, homeless people and suspected petty thieves, including dozens of children, have recently been rounded up from the nation’s neatly swept streets and sent — without trial or a court appearance — to this little-known outpost. They will spend up to three years here being “rehabilitated,” learning skills like bricklaying, hairdressing and motorcycle maintenance.
It is one of the country’s newest self-improvement projects, and it seems a fitting symbol for what many political analysts and human rights groups say Rwanda has become: orderly but repressive.
Under President Paul Kagame, this country, which exploded in ethnic bloodshed 16 years ago, is now one of the safest, cleanest and least corrupt nations on the continent. The capital, Kigali, is not ringed by sprawling slums, and carjackings — a deadly problem in many African cities — are virtually unheard of here. The roads are smoothly paved; there is national health insurance; neighborhoods hold monthly cleanups; the computer network is among the best in the region; and the public fountains are full of water, not weeds. All of this has been accomplished in one of the world’s poorest countries.
But while the nation continues to be praised as a darling of the foreign aid world and something of a central African utopia, it is increasingly intolerant of political dissent, or sometimes even dialogue, and bubbling with bottled-up tensions. Recent grenade attacks in Kigali and a shake-up in the army showed that even one of the cornerstones of the new Rwandan state — personal security — might be in danger.
“Kagame’s strategy for stability is a dangerous, long-term gamble,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “By stymieing a political opposition, an independent press or a critical civil society — in short, by not allowing democratic institutions to form — Kagame is leaving people little to identify with but their ethnic group.”
With less than four months to go before national elections, few of the major opposition parties have been allowed to register. Some opposition supporters have been attacked inside government offices; others have been jailed. Several prominent government officials who recently broke ranks with Mr. Kagame defected to other African nations, saying they feared for their lives. The BBC local-language radio service was shut down for a time because the Rwandan government did not like the way it was talking about the genocide of 1994.
That dark period, when death squads from the Hutu majority massacred hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis, as well as moderate Hutus, remains the touchiest subject of all. In the past three years, Rwandan officials have prosecuted more than 2,000 people, including political rivals, teachers and students, for espousing “genocide ideology” or “divisionism.”
Mr. Kagame and his disciplined military quickly restored order after the genocide, and this stability has been the foundation for Rwanda’s remarkable comeback. The foreign minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, says that after all Rwanda has been through, the government has to remain vigilant about ethnic divisions.
“Rwanda will not allow any politician, political party, any individual, to tamper with the reconciliation and unity in Rwanda,” she said in an interview.
Instigators of violence have been prosecuted for divisionism, but so have people trying to discuss the country’s past or its current direction. Critics contend that the government wields Orwellian-sounding laws that are intentionally vague to stifle any inkling of opposition.
Even programs like the one on Iwawa Island, which the government says will give street people a second chance, are not exactly what they seem.
As a boatload of officials recently glided onto shore, one police commissioner gestured to the birds, the trees and the young men with uniformly shaved heads fetching water and said, “Welcome to our Hawaii.”
But on the mainland, people describe it as an Alcatraz.
“We call it the island of no return,” said Esperance Uwizeyimana, a homeless mother of four.
None of the vocational training programs had started by mid-March. Protais Mitali, the youth minister, insisted there were no street children here, just adults. Yet squeezed in with the men were many adolescents like Gasigwa, and employees confided that several dozen boys were incarcerated here.
“This isn’t a good place for children,” one employee said in hushed tones because the minister was nearby. “They could get abused.”
Rwandan officials are prickly about complaints. President Kagame lashed out at foreign critics this month, saying, “Who should be giving lessons to Rwanda’s 11 million people about what is good for them?”
He called opposition leaders “hooligans” and said Rwandans were “as free, as happy, as proud of themselves, as they have never been in their lives.”
Several leading opposition figures, like Victoire Ingabire, say it is impossible to challenge the government, arguing that it is controlled by a cabal of Tutsis who were refugees in Uganda before the genocide and now unfairly dominate the economy.
Mrs. Ingabire, a Hutu, was an accountant living in the Netherlands until she returned in January to run for president. Today, she lives in a new housing development called Vision 2020 Estate; her sturdy, two-story brick town house is indistinguishable from dozens of others, except for the guards out front.
“There’s no space to talk about what happened in our country,” said Mrs. Ingabire, who has been charged with genocide ideology, being a “divisionist” and collaborating with rebels. It is not just Hutu politicians who feel persecuted. Charles Kabanda used to be a leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi-dominated ruling party, but split with it in the late 1990s, he said, because “they were ruthless.”
He recently worked with the Green Party, but said it had been repeatedly blocked from competing in the elections. Government officials said the Green Party failed to meet requirements like getting 200 valid signatures from all over Rwanda. Mr. Kabanda simply shook his head.
“ ‘Enemy, enemy, enemy’ — that’s what they call anyone who thinks differently,” he said. “This government’s record is dreadful. It’s only you, the international community, who is showering them with flowering praise.”

Joel

The social norms of bribery

Aid Watch had a good post a while back about why “failed state” is a failed concept, which sums to the recognition that current use of the phrase A) offers no coherent definition of state failure and B) offers no analytical insight into the political trajectories of states considered failed.  Unsurprisingly, this contributes to a lot of confused thought about the Congo, which often gets termed something like “the world’s largest failed state.”  The sloppiest reporting & analysis end up portraying the country as an economic free-for-all, with chaos envisioned as the inevitable consequence of the absence of Western standards of legitimate taxation & property rights, among other things.  (Texas in Africa recently did a great take-down of Jeffrey Gettleman on a variant of this mode of thought, with specific regard to the war in eastern Congo.)

This is a very two-dimensional way of looking at a place as fascinatingly complex as the DRC.  Case in point: the social norms that have developed around the endemic corruption of the Kinshasa traffic police.  Bribe-seeking is technically illegal & unregulated behavior, and can look rather chaotic to the first-time observer.  If you’re wealthy enough to be traveling by car in downtown Kin, you may rest assured that the roulage will be looking for any pretext to stop you and ask for payment of an imagined fine.  (In the situation leading up to the photo above, a friend had parked quite legally in a designated parking spot outside my apartment – after which we were surrounded by police & escorted to the station on claims that we were blocking the road.)  Interestingly, though, the key word here is pretext. I never saw any interaction between the police & drivers that did not involve some sort of legalistic claim to the driver’s money, even if both parties knew that the accusation was false.  

By contrast, white foreigners probably look just as wealthy walking down the street as they do when in cars, but the same police officer who stopped us morning after morning whilst we were driving to work scrupulously ignored me when I walked past him on my way to lunch.  Imagined moving violations are presumably easier to justify than imagined walking violations, and the group norm specified that bribery in this particular location had to have a legal pretext.  (This is likely not representative of all corrupt Congolese police all the time – but it was always the case in my personal experiences with them.)

All of which is to say that it’s a blinding misconception to think that the opposite of a strong state is chaos.  Order (organic if not judicial) can be found everywhere, if you take the time to look.

www.thenewvisions.webs.com

IS THERE ANY CREATOR?

DO you agree with the logic of this bible writer? Mankind has experienced some 2,000 years of scientific advancement since that verse was penned. Does anyone still think that the design evident in nature require belief in a Designer, a Creator, GOD.
You can let others tell you what you are allowed to think and believed. Or you may wish to investigate some of the evidence yourself and reach your own conclusion. As you read about recent discoveries, ask yourself, 'Is it logical to conclude that there is a Creator?'
In recent years scientist and engineers have, in a very literal way, allowed plants and animals to instructs them. They are studying and mimicking the design features of  various creatures. A field known as Bomimetics. In an effort to create new products and improve the perfomance of existing machines. As you consider the following example, ask yourself, 'who really deserves the credit for these designs?'
MIMICKING SEAUGULLS' WINGS
Of course, aircraft wings already mimic the shape of birds wings. However, engineers have recently taken this mimicry to new heights. "Research at the university of Florida." reports NEW SCIENTIST, "have built a prototype remot-controlled drone with a seagull's ability to hover, dive and climd rapidly."
Seagulls perform their remarkable aerobatic maneuvers by flexing their wings at the elbow and shoulders joints. Copying this flexible wing design, "the [60-centimeter] prototype drone uses a small motor to control a series of metal rods that move the wings," says the magzine. These cleverly engineered wings enable the small aircraft to hover and dive between tall buildings. The US Air Force is keen to develop such a highly maneuvrable craft for use in searching for chemical or biological weapons in big cities.
WHO DESERVE THE CREDIT
How did nature come up with all these brillant ideas? Many researchers would attribute the seemingly ingenious designs evident in nature to millions of years of evolutionary trial and error. Other researchers, though, arrive t a different conclusion. Microbiologisst Michael Behe wrote in the Thew York Times in 2005: "The strong appearance of design in nature allows disarmingly simple argument: if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck then,absent compelling evidence to the contrary, we have warrant to connclude it's a duck." His conclusion? " Design should not be overlooked simply because it's so obvious."
Surely, the engineer who designs a safer, more efficient aircraft wing would deserve to receive credit for the design. likewise, the inventor who devises a more versatile bandage-or a more comfortable clothing material or a more efficient efficient motor vehicle-deserves credit for his or her design. In fact a manufacturer who copies someone else's design but fails to acknowlegde or credit the designer may be viewed as criminal.

Does it seem logical to you, then, for highly trained researchers who crudely mimic systems nature to solve difficult engeneering problems to attibute the engeneering problems to attribute the genius of divising the original idea to unintelligent evolution? If the cop requires an intelligent designer, what about the original? Really, who deserves more credit, the master artist or the student who imitate his technique?
After reviewing evidence of design in nature, Paul the apostle writes " For [GOD's] invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world's creation onward, because they perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship." -Romain 1:19,20

Joel Anani(http://africanpolitiques.blogspot.com)

Our Life In Africa

Africa, as it has been made known for so long, is a continent of wars and famines and disasters and many other  things that's has been added as a credential to it and for so long nothing has been done to change that state. Neither by the authority nor by the amazing African citizen.

We should now look at the problems that faces us and properly diagnose them in other to solve them once and for all. 

First, we elect presidents that only care about gathering as much money as they can before the next election comes, instead of generating wealth to accomplish the program we voted them for. Our countries continue to  suffer because of the ambiguity of the political parties that lead us, most of them are bribed and are no longer threat to the party in power and those that are being resistant, are being intimidated and sometimes receive death threat to their doors, phone and many more.

We clearly have some example right now. We all saw how the government of Rwanda has intimidated his political adversaries and how some were being detained and killed. This spirit that our leader have do not, in any case, help Africa. Because we need constant change and different ideology to proper build a developed continent.

The state at which our people have been subjected to, during this whole time has made us depend abundantly on the European and American countries. And for that, we can only be paying debts over debts. Meanwhile we have resources that if well managed can benefit us in many way. Resources such as diamond, gold, oil and many more can easily generate money for us. Let us take oil for instance, with the bribes and the conditions being given to our leaders when business proposition are subjected to them, they don't care about the good of the country when signing them but only their greediness. In countries such as USA, China, where the government percentage over production goes around 40 to 50 percent, we negotiate and sometime beg for 15% to 25%.

We need to rise up and make the changes now. We can do it now not with these old fashion politicians, they have already been corrupted, but with the young leaders rising up, seminar upon seminar, and public relation on how to help your country grow through effort of leadership. And i have come out with an idea that will gear up any generation of  our time.

Let us organize a TV reality show all over Africa that will let young people from Senior High School to University contest with speech over different issues from religion to politic to social welfare. This will make them know what is at stake and that is awaiting them in the near future.

Joel

Africans text message to check if drugs are real

For Africans wondering whether the malaria drugs they've bought are real, there may soon be a quick way of finding out: sending a text message.

Across the continent, more than 30 percent of malaria medicines are estimated to be fake, and many look identical to the real thing.

4X4 music video star Shaka Zulu arrested for robbery

A 31-year-oldman, Richard Cobbina, alias Shaka Zulu, has been arrested by the police for alleged robbery.

The suspect, also known as Custodia, was arrested at a popular drinking spot at Adabraka last Monday night after he had been identified by another robbery suspect. Shaka Zulu allegedly confessed taking part in robbing with some Nigerians on the Spintex Road.

Briefing the Daily Graphic in Accra on Tuesday, the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, ACP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, said Shaka Zulu and his accomplices allegedly raided the residence of the Nigerians and robbed them of their laptops and personal effects after a friend of the suspect had complained that the Nigerians had defrauded him.

He said Shaka Zulu and his two friends recruited another person, identified as Wise Grey, alias Biggy, to take part in the robbery. He said Biggy allegedly provided the weapons for the operation during which they took away five laptops and other personal effects of their victims.

ACP Yohuno said the victims of the robbery mustered courage to pursue the suspected robbers in a car while the robbers were walking.

According to him, the Nigerians tried to hit the suspects with their car but only one of them, identified only as Old School, who was carrying two of the laptops, was hit.

He said Shaka Zulu and the others escaped upon realizing that it was the Nigerians pursuing them with the car.

ACP Yohuno said the Nigerian victims then handed over Old School to the Sakumono Police to investigate the matter. He added that Old School was currently on remand at the Nsawam Prisons while the police are searching for the two other suspects, identified as Abass and Stone.

He said intelligence led to the arrest Shaka Zulu last Monday, and he allegedly admitted to taking part in the robbery with the explanation that he took part because he needed money to take care of a lady he had impregnated.

ACP Yohuno said the arrest of Shaka Zulu should motivate Ghanaians to trust the police to deal with perpetrators of crime no matter how long it would take.


Source: Daily Graphic