Subject: THE CHINESE IN AFRICA; BUSINESS PARTNERS OR NEW COLONIZERS
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 11:57:27 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ad05.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.100.199

Message:
After the obscenities heaped on Mr. Ernest Koroma's family by Saidu Bangura, I considered it thoughtful to veer off the bitter exchanges by introducing a generic African topic.

The People's Republic of China has entered the African continent, and Beijing is strutting its economic muscle with a range of contracts and business transactions with any African country that cares to ratify a commercial deal. As a continent that continues to suffer from Western Neo-colonialism in particular, Africa cannot be accused of paranoia whenever she questions the intentions of an economic suitor. Western multilateral companies take more out of the continent than they bring in. The IMF has been casting out chains of indebtedness to Africa for so long that even debt cancellations are not enough to economically put the continent on an even keel. After all, one wonders what the Europeans and the United States will say in response to the fact that post-war Europe without the Marshall Plan could have been as chaotic as post-colonial Africa. In short, Africa has expereinced so many raw deals from external powers that new "friends" should be watched for {probable} skulduggery.

China is slowly becoming Africa's new "investor", an investor looking for resources from dictatorships and nascent democracies alike. What is so far certain is that in its thirst for resources, Beijing makes no distinction between African respecters of human rights and repressive tyrants. Beijing has consistently protected Sudan against the UN Security Council over the tragedy in Darfur. Historians will readily tell you that every roving, Neo-colonial power is interested in getting resources, not the moral rectitude of his business partner.
In geopolitical terms, is China a better business partner than the West?

Subject: Re: THE CHINESE IN AFRICA; BUSINESS PARTNERS OR NEW COLONI
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 14:14:27 02/04/07 ()
Email Address: futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-19-135-246.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.19.135.246

Message:
jBra Enviable,
Please state 10 steps/actions Africa needs to replace its
Neo-colonila status/condition.
Yaya Fanusie

Subject: Re: THE CHINESE IN AFRICA; BUSINESS PARTNERS OR NEW COLONIZERS
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 14:05:04 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:
The Chinese are Business Partners operating from a position of strenght.They have the funds and expertise to execute programs.

Notice that most of their interests are with Individual African Nations,and not with the regional bodies like ECOWAS and the SADC.

China has become a low cost manufacturer to the World,
with a huge need for Natural resources found in Africa. Some Africans are questioning the true intent and hidden Agenda of China. It may even be too late to realize that giving up your resources now, only results in depleted Resources for future generations of Africans.

Red Capitalism, Chinese style may be out of touch with
sensitive African Human rights issues as in the Sudan.
This may be a short term concern, as the Global Human rights Community will definitely raise their collective voices in Concert with the Embryonic democratic movements of Africa.

The lack of a strong, progressive United Afrikan Continent, creates opportunities for seekers of Wealth and fortune. Afrkans must be able to compete at all levels of the Global Economy, using her abundant Resources. AFRIKANS must be able to sell AFRIKA to the rest of the World!!

Tstm
xx

Subject: Re: THE CHINESE IN AFRICA; BUSINESS PARTNERS OR NEW COLONIZERS
From: Sengbe Big Axe
To: All
Date Posted: 14:40:14 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: nc-71-55-71-103.dyn.embarqhsd.net at 71.55.71.103

Message:
"...Afrkans must be able to compete at all levels of the Global Economy, using her abundant Resources. AFRIKANS must be able to sell AFRIKA to the rest of the World!!..." KLA

True dat!!!

But how are we going to do this when most of the enlightened ones are working "oberyaso", as opposed to working "oberyanda"? Helping to develop the so-called West.

Do we have the manpower / womanpower in Africa to compete effectively at the global level?

I think that we need help in this regard, until we can stand on our own, many moons from now. And if that help comes from China, then so be it.

About a year or so ago, I pondered this very same question about the intentions of China - business partners or neo-economic-colonialists?

I am of the opinion that since the Chinese are COMMUNISTS / SOCIALISTS, and they put no pre-conditionalities on their business dealings in Africa, our fears in this regard must be assuaged.

They have "money to burn", due to their present status as the world's most advanced economy that is still growing. Heck, even Uncle Sam borrows money from China to fight wars, simultaneously, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and wherever George wants us to wage war.

If China's vast resources are good for my Uncle Sam, who is very wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, who are we to worry about neo-colonialism in the economic sense from the Chinese?

Let us be cautiously optimistic that this Communist country is up to some good in comparison to our former colonizers.

Does China have a colonizing history that is truly overwhelming?

I know for a fact that they are interested in displacing some of their 2-3 billion population. This is not such a bad idea considering the fact that a large majority of this displaced Chinese population comprises of professionals who would make a very tangible contribution in helping Africa to develop.

As with any business venture, they are there to make a profit, but as communists, not to the detriment of our developmental goals.

I hope I am NOT wrong in submitting this assertion.

Subject: Re: THE CHINESE IN AFRICA; BUSINESS PARTNERS OR NEW COLONIZERS
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 15:47:27 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:
"...Afrkans must be able to compete at all levels of the Global Economy, using her abundant Resources. AFRIKANS must be able to sell AFRIKA to the rest of the World!!..." KLA

"True dat!!!

But how are we going to do this when most of the enlightened ones are working "oberyaso", as opposed to working "oberyanda"? Helping to develop the so-called West"........SENGBE.

Indeed, the lures of the Rest of the Globe, has resulted in a "Brain drain" that IS not always in Afrika's Favour.

Any organized effort to tap into the vast pools of talent outside the Continent, must be Welcomed by the
respective Afrikan leaders on the Continent, with open arms.

Take chaotic Nigeria, for example. Her Diasporan Citizens are organizing themselves into major players
in her development initiatives. Salone folks could easily do the Same, with Lead from the GOSL.

At some point Africa may have to share the Continent with Asians, who constitute 60 percent of the Global populus.It must be done in a Win Win Situation. AFRIKANS MUST learn to use China as a player against Westerners, and others who have exploited her for centuries. If di John Bull en di Mullah dem nor able for hep we , we go go to peking or Mumbai!!

Eee look lek we get for learn for use chopstick without di DAS KAPITAl.

TSTM
XX

Subject: Re: THE CHINESE IN AFRICA; BUSINESS PARTNERS OR NEW COLONIZERS
From: Sengbe
To: All
Date Posted: 16:08:14 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: nc-71-55-71-103.dyn.embarqhsd.net at 71.55.71.103

Message:
"...Eee look lek we get for learn for use chopstick without di DAS KAPITAl..." KLA

Bra nar we normor?

Even Mighty George, and our Uncle Sam have learned to use chopsticks in consuming their portions of General Tso's chicken and fried rice.

Bra anytime u fet three wars without raising taxes on u populace mean say u dae get dar money day from somewhere else.

Without the trillions of dollars borrowed from the Chinese, George would not be talking about a surge, let alone fighting in a sectarian and other wars.

The brain drain hurts Africa more so in terms of development than any other nation of peoples.

Chinaman cam America, learn ee book, ehn allow ee yone contri for benefit befoe ee yone host contri. Norto dis we for do? Dem go allow we?

Well, Nagoman always geh some trick up dem sleeve. Ar nor habhope pan dem organization however good ee look pan paper.

Ar appreciate dem hep during we war though.

Subject: Bob Jusu is a bootlicker
From: Orkama
To: All
Date Posted: 07:56:19 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
Bob Jusu is a bootlicker.

Subject: saidu nar udat fini say bon you
From: kololo
To: All
Date Posted: 07:09:40 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
saidu nar udat fini say fork born you because you nor feba dee man wae den say nar you papa.

Subject: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: Albert Moinina
To: All
Date Posted: 01:34:43 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 59.160.62.6

Message:
SAIDU,

Your posting on Ernest Koroma is despicable and very offensive to the Koroma family I know very well and all civilized Sierra Leoneans. I cannot agree more with Olu, Leigh, Kabs and others.

FROM NOW ON I WILL NOT READ YOUR POSTINGS ANYMORE UNTIL YOU APOLOGIZE TO MR. KOROMA AND HIS FAMILY AND FORUMITES. IF SAIDU FAILS TO APOLOGIZE, I appeal to all forumites to give Saidu a blackout by refusing to read his postings.

I

This is gone too far.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: ALPHA SAIDU BANGURA
To: All
Date Posted: 08:15:19 02/04/07 ()
Email Address: SAIDUBANGSO@AOL.COM
Entered From: pool-71-178-145-70.washdc.east.verizon.net at 71.178.145.70

Message:
Albert,it is not my intention to disrespect the Koroma family.If it is interpreted as such,from the bottom of my heart I apologize.
As I stated in my posting,it is a rumor,I got from members of the APC(who were born and raised in Makeni,with Hon.Ernest Koroma).But,I now thanked Mr.Olu Beckley for letting me know that the rumor is false and baseless.
With respect I appeal to everybody in this forum to understand that when people are aspiring for a public office,they must be willing to give themselves up to the public for a critical examination of their characters and their past performances.
I know that we are use to treating our leaders like semi Gods but it is now time for us to let our leaders know that they are servants and not masters.
We must respect them but they too must respect our views and be ready to answer to our questions.
Finally,I want everybody to know that my postings on this forum are my personal views and not statements from the SLPP,Georgia branch.I ALPHA SAIDU BANGURA, takes full responsibility for my actions.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: SAIDU BANGURASS CLOT
To: All
Date Posted: 10:31:04 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 87.114.67.178

Message:
from the bottom of my heart I apologize. Saidu BANGURASS CLOT.

YOU CAN SHOVE YOUR APOLOGY UP YOUR MOTHERS PUSSY HOL COS THATS WHERE YOUR ILLEGETIMATE BROTHER CAME FROM AND YOU CAN DO YOUR CRITICAL EXAMINITION ON YOUR MUMS RASS CLOT COS THATS WHERE YOU DROPPED FROM.NOW WE KNOW WHY FLY DEN DAE ALWAYS FALLAH YOU MAMIE ANY SAI WAE EE GO COS SHE IS JUST AS ROTTEN INSIDE AS THE BASTARD MONGRELS THAT SHE BROUGHT ON TO THIS WORLD.

THE KOROMA FAMILY AND THE APC PARTY SHOULD TAKE YOUR BOMBO CLOT ASS TO COURT FOR YOU TO PROVE YOU ROMOUR YOU WRETCH.

Alieu,Nabe and Pa Santhiki am sory to bring your names into this mess but its about time you teach this nasty piece of shit a fuckin good lesson. You can start by leading a mass demo to which ever RASS HOL he is hinding and ask the US GORVERNMENT to investigate him for crimes he commited during the JUNTA DAYS. Am sure there are enough Sierra Leoneans over there who will be willing to testify against this bastard. They are still arresting people in europe for crimes they commited in ROWANDA.The west beleives in demo try it it may just be the perfect dose that this mongrel needs.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: Joe Higgs
To: All
Date Posted: 10:47:41 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Ah dae laf ar dae laf oh. Sop me befoe ar fordom nar junction. you don pull you mama sara. you bastar pekin

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: Albert Moinina
To: All
Date Posted: 10:13:03 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 59.160.62.6

Message:
I appreciate your response. Take care.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: Prince of Wales school
To: All
Date Posted: 11:49:58 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Albert do you think that apology was genuine? hell no thats not saidu. he is going through the motions. Saidu will kill his mother for food. He is a gutter trash. Saidu was an AFRC rebel collaborator who is now staunchly slpp and as soon as he gets to know the secrets of the slpp cabal that he is with, guess what he is going to expose them. Saidu has no allegiances, he is always looking for the next meal and thats what he is all about.

Saidus actions are calculated by the Slpp cabal in georgia. When Charles margai was in the atlanta area, saidu was the guy who was asking all of these ignorant questions to the point where he was almost put out by security. Saidu was the guy who was saying all these mean things about Bamidele Thompson who is a member of the PMDC inner circle. Saidu said very mean things about the person who was responsible for bring him to america and whose family nurtured him and paid his school fees eeven when his own parents disowned him. These acts are not by chance. he is being used by the slpp georgia chapter as a stool pidgeon to attack people and personalities.

You would not believe the things that saidu has said even about Thaimu bangura his former bag handling job. The man is ungrateful, greedy and is on prozac. The latter means that he has MENTAL and PSYCHIATRIC problems.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: AA Williams
To: All
Date Posted: 08:47:34 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"they must be willing to give themselves up to the public for a critical examination of their characters and their past performances"

Of course they must but attacks against their families and their personalities is UNACCEPTABLE. You have a habit of making Prsonal attacks forgetting that the circumstances of your birth which is also doubtful as to your paternity. To the extent that you are an executive member of the slpp georgia branch, any utterances you make in public regarding aany issue of politics is construed to be one authorised by the slpp georgia chapter. Your lame excuse and apologies are clearly irrelevant to that fact. We will continue to believe that all of your utterances have the force and effect of the slpp georgia unless and until it is made clear by that body, that you do not speak for them. further we all know that you tae your instructions from the brewah family and we will interprete this tirade as one orchestrated by the brewah family, with the sole intent to sully the name and reputation of ernest koroma, his mother and father. You are indeed a very nasty man.

On another note, you frequest quotations from the quoran and the bible are in accurate. You present yourself as man of God but you are infact a hypocrite and that is against Gods word in all of the testaments of the abrahamic religions. ext time please spare us the hot air from your halitosis riden breath. You stink man and every time you open your big wide mouth with your lipstick red lips you stink even more so.

we in the atlanta area have become sick and tired of your bellicose and rude character and your tendency to engage in personal attacks against persons who are in more better positions than you and whose life conditions cannot be compared with you.

you are a lowlife and a cheap charlattan. If I were you I will keep my mouth shut between now and the elections because many diasporans can influence the outcome of the elections and you may or have become a liability to the slpp cause.

sometimes I wonder with the plethora of decent slpp members in this area, why on earth were you made or selected to be publicity secretary for the slpp.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: UH OH
To: All
Date Posted: 08:59:05 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"that the circumstances of your birth which is also doubtful as to your paternity"

Mr. Willie, is there something that we need to know about this saidus paterniy? Is his father not his father? Have they done a paternity test? So who is his real father? Maybe he can help us with that information. Saidu please come here to defend yourself. Kinnie willie seems to know some things about you from the way he is talking. Only you can defend yourself now bra.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: Sylvanus Fynncountry
To: All
Date Posted: 07:43:53 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
There is no reason to attack a man's method of coming to this world. I hope Saidu aplogises to Ernest.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: You Are Too Generous
To: All
Date Posted: 06:47:17 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 204.84.81.39

Message:
He should be banned, not blackout. He is a despicable human being for having gone so low in his thinking.

Subject: Re: Saidu Speaks for the SLPP georgia chapter
From: slpp georgia chapter
To: All
Date Posted: 07:02:21 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
he has gone that low before and that should have given the forum the inclination that he is a low life who should be banned. Saidu speaks for the SLPP georgia Chapter of which he is an executive member. Saidus comments should be interpreted as those of the SLPP Georgia Chapter. If you notice, other than John Leigh, NO ONE in the SLpp georgia chapter has OFFICIALLY disavowed the illeterate comments made by saidu (the mont boy of the Berewah family in atlanta)

That the slpp georgia chapter has not distanced itself from such a nefarious statement made by a member of their executive is chillingly telling that they are actually behind all of this nonsense.

This is the slpp that we as sierra leoneans would have to contend with IF they win in 2007

Subject: Re: Saidu Speaks for the SLPP georgia chapter
From: COCORIOKO BETTER THAN AWARENESS FORUM
To: All
Date Posted: 09:07:03 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
You nor lie wan bra nar dem day put am up to dis nonsense y so. You nor see nar awareness times e post im nonsense fos. all man no say awarenss times forum nar bollor. omos people dem u see day post day so so dem bicful slpp people dem lek cadmus john phd mannah (aka i have a phd my rass) en dandogo saidu (prozac chopper) bankucrook.

WACH EN SEE slpp georgia bin for don cam en deny say norto dem put dem PUBLICITY secretary for say dat en dat dem nor believe in dis kine politics bot dem nor do dat en nar becos nar dem dae behen all dis. nar par berewah im borbor dem day behen all dis.

cocorioko all de way nar day we dae post

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: Justice
To: All
Date Posted: 05:52:59 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 84-67-ftth.onsneteindhoven.nl at 88.159.67.84

Message:
Saidu is a very dangerous man. His ties with the SLPP is purely based on personal gratification. He is born to boot lick and tells lies. This is the man who uses juju to achieve what he wants. Saidu has no business to sit with decenmt people. Frankly, he is broad and despicable.The saidu I know does no deserve attention. If, he can be ungrateful to those who nurtured him, then who he will not abuse/
He knows that he is a liability to the eyes of many people in Sierra Leone. e went as a juju man with Leone Stars to South Africa.
Saidu will pay a heavy price for being a Man who kill and destroy others reputation.
Ernest oroma's success is based on his Parents genuine efforts to bring him up as aresponsible citizen. Those who reach a higher heigh are rewarded because of their Parents blessings and selfless sacrifice to others.
For Ernest Koroma to be reckoned as the future President of Sierra leone, clearly demonstrates his parental virtues and blessings.
Saidu, even an illegitimate kid is entitled to live a life and being able to reach the pinnacle of society.
Saidu Bangura, who are you to question the consanguinity of one of Sierra Leone's sucess story.

Subject: Re: SAIDU YOU MUST APOLOGIZE.
From: BLACK OUT
To: All
Date Posted: 06:15:48 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Most of you laughed when saidu personally insulted the Iscandari family and in particular Alieu Iscandari who made it possible that he would be in america. You laughed then, but you may not be laughing much more when you see the TRUE color of who saidu bangura is. He is a man who only knew his father as an adult. all of his life he had been nutured by the iscandari family. he showed maximum disrespect to that family on this forum and to alieu iscandari the atorney. he is being chaperoned by the likes of edmund koker, the Berewah family, some of the fadika's and the slpp georgia chapter. sooner or later saidu wil become expendable and then he will realise that old wise saying "NEVER burn your bridges after you cross them because ONE DAY SOME DAY you may need to cross over on the other side.

saidu is gutter trash

Subject: UNFPA/EU enhances training of Nurse Anesthetists
From: HEALTH MINISTRY
To: All
Date Posted: 00:10:25 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
UNFPA/EU enhances training of Nurse Anesthetists
Feb 1, 2007, 15:00

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UNFPA/EU enhances training of Nurse Anesthetists

Freetown, Jan. 31, 07 (Sierra News)- The United Nations Fund for Population Activity (UNFPA) and the European Union (EU) on Monday handed over office and classroom furniture, equipments and vehicles to the National Training of Nurse Anesthetists Project of the Reproductive Health Division in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.

Subject: World Bank Supports Health Ministry with Drugs Worth $ 1,000
From: HEALTH MINISTRY
To: All
Date Posted: 00:08:24 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
World Bank Supports Health Ministry with Drugs Worth $ 1,000,000 US Dollars
Jan 27, 2007, 14:43

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World Bank Supports Health Ministry with Drugs Worth $ 1,000,000 US Dollars

Freetown, Jan. 24, 07 (MOHS) – Essential drugs worth One Million United States dollars procured under the World Bank funded Health Sector Reconstruction and Development project through the International Dispensary Association (IDA), a Holland based supplier of Pharmaceuticals have been presented to the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Mrs. Abator Thomas at a ceremony held at the Datsun Garage Warehouse in Freetown.

Subject: Sierra Leoneans to Monitor Government's Use of Debt Relief F
From: Kari Barber
To: All
Date Posted: 00:04:34 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Sierra Leoneans to Monitor Government's Use of Debt Relief Funds
By Kari Barber
Dakar
03 February 2007

Barber report - Download 394k
Listen to Barber report

Sierra Leone, which was recently forgiven more than $1.5 billion in debt, is now looking at how to spend the extra funds. Some in the impoverished nation say they worry the government will mishandle money set aside to repay the debt and that little benefit will reach those who need it. Kari Barber reports from our West Africa bureau in Dakar.

The announcement in January that the last of Sierra Leone's debt to major world lenders, including the World Bank, was forgiven was met with excitement as many Sierra Leoneans saw it as a step toward improved international standing.

This represents 90 percent of the debt owed, with a much smaller portion still owed to private lenders.

However, many are concerned that with pressure off from lenders and a new windfall of cash available, the government will not adopt good economic practices. The government is widely perceived as corrupt by Sierra Leoneans.

Abu Brima of the National Movement for Justice and Development, a Freetown-based civil society organization, said people are waiting to hear the government's plan. "So people are now like, 'So what, the debt has been canceled," he said. What steps are now being taken to make sure the resources are to be used for the real development of the country.'"

Brima says he would like to see the money go toward paving roads, paying teachers and making electricity and clean water available.

Activist Morlai Kamara is organizing a campaign to monitor the spending of the newly freed funds. He said he is asking international organizations and Sierra Leone's civil society to work together to keep the government accountable. "We have to make sure that we continue to keep our eyes on our government and on even international financial institutions to insure that we do not go back to reckless lending and illegitimate contraction of laws," he said.

Timothy Armitate, an economic consultant with the London-based group Global Insight, says the fact that the Sierra Leone government earned debt relief proves it has some commitment to transparency and reform. Armitate says the government is likely to continue many of the practices the lenders required because the country still needs international approval to get much needed aid. "What this does is it puts pressure on the government to comply with deficit targets and local revenue generating targets," he explained. "Also it leads to more prudent fiscal policies as they risk losing the backing of the international community if they do go on renegade spending."

Sierra Leone's debt relief is a result of programs, such as the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative, which allow impoverished nations to be forgiven debt so that money can be used, instead, to fight poverty. Sierra Leone's government was granted the relief based on efforts to fight corruption and increase economic growth

Subject: Titi, you nor go blow ?
From: Sylvanus Fyncountry
To: All
Date Posted: 20:51:59 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
Discredited Journalists' Executive attempt damage control for discredited representative of Ban Ki-Moon in Sierra Leone
By Awareness Times

Feb 3, 2007, 23:59 Email this article

The discredited executive of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) who are yet to give an account of the United Nations funds they have received from Victor Angelo in the name of electoral code of conduct sensitisation for journalists, have in a desperate attempt to do some damage control for the now-discredited representative of Ban Ki-Moon in Sierra Leone, Victor Angelo, issued a Press Release in support of Angelo. The release follows below. However, we urge all not to miss our upcoming Monday expose on Victor Angelo's role in Zimbabwe during an elections year in that country and an analysis of his current dubious role in Sierra Leone during an elections year. We repeat, his DUBIOUS role here in Sierra Leone.

Subject: Interview with Eku Roberts Esq, President of the Sierra Leon
From: SLCMP
To: All
Date Posted: 18:20:31 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Interview with Eku Roberts Esq, President of the Sierra Leone Bar Association
By SLCMP
Nov 29, 2006 - 4:34:59 PM

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On Thursday 26th October instant, a team from the Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme (SLCMP) comprising the Programme Director, Mr. Mohamed Suma and the Monitor in charge of high profile cases, Mr. Allieu Vandi Koroma, conducted an interview with the President of the Sierra Leone Bar Association, Mr. Eku Roberts. The interview focused mainly on his plans for the Bar and what he makes of the on-going reforms in the judicial system in Sierra Leone. Below are excerpts from the interview.

SLCMP: Mr. Roberts, I believe leading an Association like the Bar is no doubt a colossal challenge. How has it been like since you took over about three months ago?

ER: I must admit that although I was a bit prepared for it as I was Vice President a year before, nonetheless it has actually been a challenge; planning for the year, responding to questions about what we made last year and trying to get members into becoming interested in the activities of the Association. It’s not been easy but we are forging ahead.

SLCMP: Your predecessor, Mr. Tejan Cole, said that the next executive, which is your executive, will have to finalize the first phase of the “You and the Law” project. How far have you gone in actualizing what he said?

ER: Yes, I was part of the old executive that commenced the project of “You and the Law” and the same groups that were working in different committees under the “You and the Law” project continue to work. In other words there has been no break in their activities and their work. In fact they are working on a radio programme, as there was a book version of “You and the Law,” to get senior members of the Bar to discuss important legal topics on radio which is more accessible to a lot of people.

SLCMP: Law reporting has been a problem over the years; there has not been much reporting. Does this present executive have plans to be publishing reports say monthly, quarterly, or annually?

ER: Law reporting is very important as it provides for continuity and consistency because if you give a judgment and you know it is going to be reported, you will make sure you do your homework well before writing it. However, it has to do with a lot of funding because it is very expensive. When you talk about law reporting, you have to train the people very well in versed skills and techniques specifically dealing with the manner of reporting. But there are initiatives that we are working on with the Law Reform Initiative and they have a law report committee, which is putting together these things.

SLCMP: There have been many complaints from the general public against practitioners with regards dealing with their clients. What’s the Bar doing in order to help rebuild the confidence of the general public with their lawyers?

ER: I like the question because I am passionate about it. I feel very strongly about the kind of service that people get. The thrust of this question is in the Code of Conduct and Ethics for lawyers, which we are working on and is almost completed. In fact we are thinking of launching it either this December or sometime early next year and there is also the disciplinary committee where you can report your lawyer if the lawyer behaves unprofessionally. In my view, the profession is such that you should not allow yourself to be reported for not doing what you are supposed to do. It is a moral duty as well as a contractual duty for you to do the work you are paid to do. I want to give the assurance that I will not cease my work in pushing for lawyers to service their clients even when I leave office as president of the Bar.

SLCMP: Some people are of the opinion that lack of courage on the part of members of the Bar paved the way for the desecration of the Constitution, abuse of human rights and the rule of law; all of which contributed to the war. Do you agree?

ER : No, I will not agree that the Bar has been complacent; issues have been challenged. For example, the Bar made an application in the Supreme Court challenging the question of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice not having gone to Parliament and not have gone through the appointment procedure like others. Also, people are pushing this idea of probono, its new in our own era of practice, in our jurisdiction, but you have one or two private institutions like LAWCLA that have been assisting, giving legal aid to poor people

SLCMP: In addition to individual legal aid we have what we call Public Interest Law Initiative in certain countries wherein some legal firm will take a particular issue especially where it runs contrary to the provisions of the constitution. Does the Bar have any intention in taking up such issues?

ER : Well yes, we have a public interest group. In fact we have internally identified certain lawyers who will look at the law in matters of public interest and come up with an opinion for the executive to publish like the position of the Bar on that particular issue. For example, not too long ago we received an invitation from Amnesty International to make a statement on the war between Lebanon and Israel. We cooperated by calling on all parties to stop the hostilities and other stakeholders to bring the warring factions to stop the hostilities.

SLCMP: The Bar, in a letter to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, complained about Statutory Instrument No.13 of 2005 (establishing an Anti-Corruption Prosecution Committee with a Law Officer empowered to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to prosecute) and called on him to take immediate steps to repeal it. What has been the response of Attorney General so far?

ER : I am not in the position now to comment on what is being done at the present moment but I promise I’ll furnish you maybe in time for your next edition so you know exactly.

SLCMP: What is the Bar doing in sensitizing the public on how to initiate an action in the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice?

ER : Well it was also new to even members of the Bar I must admit. Not too long ago, we organized a workshop to which the general public was invited where people came from the court itself and colleagues from other jurisdictions in the sub region where we sensitized people about what the court was all about, how you can access the court etc. It was also publicized in the media. It was the first time we ever did that and I’m proud to have identified myself as one of the organizers.

SLCMP: What do you make of the ongoing reforms in the judiciary?

ER: Well, they are welcoming because we see for example the infrastructure of the courts in the provinces and immediate plans are underway for judges to be resident in the Provincial District Headquarter towns so that the people there will have easy access to justice rather than cases waiting on and on. Every few months we hear that judges are going abroad for training etc. That gives confidence to them as they are being exposed to contemporary writings and methods of using equipment. There is this view that the Bar has always been stronger than the bench. But with such trainings, the bench can now adequately contend with the Bar.

SLCMP: The Law Reform Commission is charged with the responsibility of modernizing the law. Which specific area(s) in your view do you think should be modernized?

ER : Well, I will not want to just pick one or two. There are quite a few. After the Law Reform made an announcement in the media that people should come up with their suggestions, I called my executive together to ask the lawyers to come up with issues they’ve been challenging in court; issues they’ve been aggrieved about, which were inconsistent or against the constitution to send their recommendations for reform to the Law Reform Commission. There are a lot of matters like female inheritance; land ownership, which I believe assiduous work is being done on.

SLCMP: What about issues like the death penalty and criminal libel law?

ER : With the criminal libel law, especially the seditious aspect, we do not have a view about whether the present laws are adequate or ought to be amended as well, but I say I am toying with the idea that we have a symposium. With regards the death penalty, it will surprise you to know that the Bar as an association doesn’t have a position on it. My executive is in the process of sending a memo to each barrister to state his position on the issue of the death penalty. I will compile it and in the not too distant future, we would be giving the public the position of the Bar.

SLCMP: What do you hope to achieve during your term as President of the Bar?

ER: Well my dream is that by the time I leave office my work will speak for itself. But actually my dream is to see a continued and increased cooperation between the Bar and the populace. I want to see people feeling more reliant on the judicial system because we are also very important stakeholders in the justice sector. Also, I don’t want us to invoke provisions of Code of Ethics by sending lawyers to the disciplinary committee. That is my dream and I pray that God would help me achieve it.

SLCMP: What are some of the post-conflict judicial challenges?

ER: There are a lot of challenges as you’ve said it all, the infrastructure, personnel, the human resource and all that. Structures are being rebuilt and we say thanks to the Justice Sector Development Programme, Dfid, British Government, Commonwealth for helping us in that direction. We also need more law journals, reports, trainings and access to internet facilities so that we can access judgments from around the world. For instance, human rights cut across international law, so with those things to update ourselves, we can do justice to morality and humanity. But all of these cost money.

SLCMP: How about your family?

ER: I am a Christian, married with a daughter. There is not much to say about myself.

SLCMP: How long have you been in practice?

ER: Sixteen years (16)

Subject: SLCMP Director’s End of Year Message
From: MOHAMED SUMA
To: All
Date Posted: 18:15:17 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Director’s End of Year Message
By Mohamed Suma, Programme Director and Editor-in-Chief
Jan 19, 2007 - 4:18:34 PM

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Mohamed Suma-Programme Director, SLCMP

Introduction

It has been an eventful year for us as an institution. During the course of the year, we established two regional offices; one in Bo covering the South and the East and the other in Makeni for the North. Monitors in these regions were assigned to monitor both general law as well as customary law cases. We also assigned outreach officers to raise awareness on the outcome of issues being monitored. Furthermore, we have continued to monitor cases at different levels of the courts in Freetown, the Special Court and also the Anti Corruption Commission. Recently when President Kabbah inaugurated the Commissioners of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), we made a commitment to monitor it once it starts operations which we hope will commence early in 2007. The NHRC is the Government’s primary human rights protection body. Given the fact that human rights are primarily claimed against governments, we have decided to monitor how the Commission will maintain equilibrium by being both a government institution on the one hand and a right protection body on the other. We were also engaged in other activities such as the training of monitors in both Freetown and the provinces, conducted regular radio phone-in programmes, held town hall meetings, organised debates/symposiums in the constituent colleges of the universities and published our monthly magazine, The Monitor.

Essence of Effective Monitoring

There is no doubt that the two judicial systems (national courts and the Special Court) concurrently being practised in Sierra Leone are central to the post-conflict reconstruction efforts in the country. Owing to their indispensability, the SLCMP firmly believes that it is fundamental to provide feedback on the work of both systems in order to help promote a better social understanding of each institution, enhance their capabilities and maximize their impact on the people of Sierra Leone, especially those in the rural communities who are most affected. Furthermore, the shortcomings of these institutions may be easily ignored where the public is unaware of its operations. Conversely, public awareness will not only help promote public discourse but will also engender reform, especially at the national level. Premised on the fact that lack of access to justice was one of the primary causes of the decade long conflict, the SLCMP is of the conviction that ensuring accountability will enhance the integrity of the judiciary. In effect, this will bolster the people’s confidence in using the judiciary to settle disputes instead of using extra-judicial means as was the case during the decade long civil war.

Furthermore, it is also important that “someone/organisation watches the watchmen”. The Anti Corruption Commission in Sierra Leone is a Government institution charged with the statutory mandate to curb corruption in post-conflict Sierra Leone. However, like the courts, there may be the tendency for it to become ineffective if no group exists that monitors its activities.

The National Court

The Sierra Leone Judiciary has initiated reforms in the last twelve months to enhance its effectiveness and integrity. For instance, all the districts in the provinces now have resident magistrates. There are also resident High Court Judges, at least in the regional headquarters who pay regular visits to the other districts within their region of operation. When the SLCMP visited Makeni early in 2006, the team met with the resident Magistrate who was just concluding cases before going to another judicial district. This meant that he had been assigned to cover more than one district. In January 2007, more Judges will be assigned to the High Court in Freetown and in the provinces. In spite of all these developments, the judiciary continues to be swamped with the usual problems of undue delay in the proceedings. Moreover, the processing of court files from one court to the other is unnecessarily delayed. Some lawyers have also continued to renege on contractual agreement with their clients. Often they have more than one case to appear for at a time and, as a result, may not show up for the other. The court houses are operated without proper facilities. The court rooms are not only small but also have poor ventilation, lightening facilities, electricity, running water, and sufficient sitting accommodation. Sometimes people have to scramble for seats. For instance, in Magistrate court No. 1a and No. 3, there are often more people standing than sitting. Members of the Bench also lack proper facilities such as up-to-date resource materials, internet facilities for the purposes of up-to-date research. Worse still, there is currently no law reporting process. It is far easier to obtain a United States Supreme Court decision than to obtain a Magistrate court decision in Sierra Leone. It is sometimes very frustrating, especially when one expects to analyse such decisions to determine whether justice was dispensed fairly.

Furthermore, case management processes have been very poor. As mentioned earlier, case files often delay and sometimes get missing. The Judiciary still lacks an office of a public defender and witness protection system. As a result, some indigent accused charged with serious criminal offence may go without a representation. Additionally, some witnesses do not show up in court since there is no unit that coordinate their affairs.

Consequently, popular confidence in the Judiciary continues to be at the nadir. As a court monitoring programme, the SLCMP urges the Government and its partners such as the Justice Sector Development Programme and the United Nations Development Programme to look into the issues highlighted above.

Law Reform

Reforming the laws and bringing them inline with international standards is one of the areas that need urgent attention. This is because our laws are not only old but also bad. Given that bad laws cannot be applied impartially, it is important that their reform is given priority. The Law Reform Commission (LRC) has been charged with the responsibility to draft such laws whilst Parliament retains its constitutional mandate to pass bills into laws. In its Annual Report 2005, the LRC expressed its intention to work on laws concerning the following: Child, young persons and juvenile justice; landlord and tenants, customary law; media law; employment protection; town planning; conservation and bush fire prevention; public health and sanitation; and reviewing of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991. The Commission is yet to start work on most of these Bills because of lack of funds.

However, by virtue of LRC Act, 1994, the Commission has submitted the following Acts to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice: Commercial Use of Land Act; Consumer Protection Act; Sexual Offences Act; Prevention of Cruelty to Children (amendment) Act; The Sierra Leone Citizenship (amendment) Act; The family Law Act; The Devolution of Estate Act; The Muslim Marriage (amendment) Act; The Civil Marriage (amendment) Act; The Christian Marriage (amendment) Act; The Registration of Customary Marriages and Divorces Act; Partnership Act; The Domestic Violence Act; Diamond Cutting and Polishing Act; and the Import and Export of Rough Diamonds Act. From the above list, it is clear that very few of these bills have been tabled in Parliament. The process of passing some of them has been painfully slow. Furthermore, the Law Officers Department has very few lawyers currently serving. Specifically, there are less than four people in the drafting section. Virtually, all these bills have laid fallow with little or no actions taken. It is important that more Sierra Leoneans are trained to draft laws in order to salvage the current stalemate.

The Sierra Leone Bar Association

In a recent interview with the SLCMP, the President of the Bar Association, Emmanuel Eku Roberts Esq. stated that the Association is currently working on a Code of Conduct for members of the Bar which he promised will be published by January 2007. As Sierra Leoneans look forward to its publication, let me also encourage them to make it accessible to the general public through a variety of media, including the internet. We hope it will also entail both procedures to be taken complaint one’s lawyer and retributions for lawyers who fail to fulfil their contractual obligations. Furthermore, the SLCMP would like to see members of the Bar taking up cases on pro bono basis to help indigent accused persons. It is also the observation of the SLCMP that Sierra Leonean lawyers hardly litigate issues of public interest. Legal issues of public interest engender reform and it is one of the ways members of the Bar can contribute to reforming Sierra Leonean laws.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone

The year 2006, has been, if not, the most eventful year for the Special Court in its four years of operations. Its most wanted indictee, former President of Liberia Charles Taylor was finally arrested and taken into the custody of the Special Court. His arrest rekindled Sierra Leoneans’, the sub-region’s and the international community’s interest in its work, including its donors. Prior to the arrest of Charles Taylor, the only people that visited the trials were journalists, researchers, civil society groups working on justice related issues and relatives and supporters of the indictees. Ordinary Sierra Leoneans did not attend because, (inter alia) most of the prime indictees had either died or not within the jurisdiction of the Court. The Court saw many Sierra Leoneans and people from the sub-region when Charles Taylor was arrested. However, just within few days of his first appearance, Charles Taylor was whisked away to The Hague despite opposition from civil society within and without Sierra Leone. Let me not bore you with the arguments the SLCMP and other groups put forward in support of the trial taking place here in Sierra Leone, for these have been in previous publications. However, I must emphasize that the decision to transfer Mr. Taylor’s trial to The Hague was political and not judicial. All that Sierra Leoneans asked for was that they be included in the making of a non-judicial decision of the Court since the end results will affect them the most. The Government of Sierra Leone was supposed to be part of such decision making. However, it appeared during that period that it had abdicated its responsibility.

Furthermore, the conduct of the Court during this period is indicative of its enthusiasm in seeing only a few individuals convicted. As a transitional justice institution, Sierra Leoneans are also concerned about the legacy the Court will leave for them. This is premised on the fact that, transitional justice institutions should leave a society better than it was before they came into being, or at least with a foundation that will engender reform thereafter. In Sierra Leone’s case, however, the way Sierra Leoneans were treated regarding the Charles Taylor issue is suggestive of the level of attention given to issues of legacy.

Recently, the Trial Chambers of the Court heard the closing arguments of both the CDF and AFRC accused persons. During these sessions, both the Prosecution and the Defence summarised arguments made since the commencement of the trials in 2003. The verdicts are expected in 2007, before the elections in Sierra Leone. The SLCMP is very much concerned about the impact of the verdicts on the electioneering process.

The SLCMP in 2007

In 2007, we plan to continue monitoring the courts and other institutions at the current levels. We also intend to intensify our monitoring of customary courts, since majority of Sierra Leoneans prefer to use that system. We are also going to intensify our monitoring of the passing into law of the numerous draft bills currently in the Office of the Attorney General and in Parliament. We will also continue to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and the decriminalizing of libel.

Conclusions

In pursuit of ensuring accountability and consequently the integrity of the institutions we monitor, we have enjoyed a good relationship with some of these institutions, and support from a host of organizations and individuals. The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), United States Embassy in Freetown, Fund for Global Human Rights and the Justice Sector Development Programme (JSDP) among others have made generous contributions to the SLCMP in the year currently under review. We have not only enjoyed generous financial support from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), but also more importantly from the technical support. This support has tremendously helped us to improve our technical excellence on programmatic issues and in general administration. On behalf of my colleagues, I wish to thank you all for your support. We hope that the coming year will bring with it new changes that will not only strengthen our relationship further but also bring practical changes that will benefit the people of Sierra Leone.

While also wanting to thank our readers, especially those who have been sending in useful comments, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2007

Subject: SUPER BOWL'S LOSER CHAMPS IN SALONE?
From: KING LOGGY
To: All
Date Posted: 17:28:14 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 144.226.173.69

Message:
.

Subject: The New Film Blood Diamond Entertains & Educates
From: Ba
To: All
Date Posted: 16:18:21 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 202-64-ftth.onsneteindhoven.nl at 88.159.64.202

Message:
The New Film Blood Diamond Entertains & Educates
Through the power of film, Blood Diamond attempts to address the ongoing conflict and corruption that result from Africa's diamond trade.

Photo Credit: Stock.xchng
New Hollywood blockbuster seeks to educate as well as entertain.
In the early days of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe's 1980 coup in Liberia, I was entering a hotel in Monrovia with my five-year-old son when soldiers lounging in the lobby started shouting and indiscriminately shooting. Flight seemed the wrong option, especially when one of the shooters challenged me, "Lady, wheh you goin' wi'dat bag?"

"Looking for you," I improvised. "My son wanted his picture taken with a brave soldier. Would that be you? My camera's in the bag. Do you want to see?" Within seconds, half a dozen menacing youth, brandishing assault rifles, were good-naturedly jostling to be in front of the lens, asking my "small boy" how he liked Liberia, would he like to stay with them, would he show their pictures to everybody in America.

That long-forgotten moment lurched into my mind during a pre-release screening of Edward Zwick's new film, Blood Diamond, starring Djimon Hounsou, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly. During a tense encounter with young rebels in Sierra Leone, U.S. journalist Maddy Bowen, played by Connelly, defuses the threat by taking their pictures.
The global diamond trade continues to instigate terrorism, violent conflict and corruption, despite efforts to curb the purchase of stones from countries at war.

The scene has been cited in at least one pre-release review as an example of moments in the film that rang false. Not to me.

Anyone who has traveled in Africa's war zones, encountered child soldiers and seen the pathos on every side of the continent's tragic conflicts will recognize the complicated realities the movie captures. The time is January 1999, when rebels in Sierra Leone, funded by sales of illicitly mined and smuggled diamonds, take the capital, Freetown. In the countryside, an alliance-of-convenience between a soldier of fortune and a father searching for his family advances the risky search for a rose-coloured stone of rare value.

Comments on blogs and movie websites, by viewers who saw sneak previews, suggest Blood Diamond may be a popular hit. The combination of charismatic stars, an engrossing storyline and action-film elements - machete-made atrocities, chase scenes, spectacular explosions, helicopters spewing fiery rounds - may overcome quibbles about uninspired lines of dialogue and a romantic subplot that breaks no new ground. Numerous postings name the movie one of the year's best.

Director Zwick told film critic that the graphic violence has a purpose. "I don't think movies can ever be too intense, but people have to understand why you're showing them the things you are showing them. In the case of Blood Diamond, there are brutal truths, but there is also great beauty and emotion to be found in the lives of those caught up in those situations." Co-producer Paula Weinstein, whose credits include over two-dozen films, including the anti-apartheid "A Dry White Season," has said she was drawn to the project because of its larger message.
Anyone who has traveled in Africa's war zones, encountered child soldiers and seen the pathos on every side of the continent's tragic conflicts will recognize the complicated realities the movie captures.

As for any movie based on real events, knowledgeable audiences will find elements to fault. At a pre-release screening in Washington DC by the Council on Foreign Relations, viewers questioned locat1ons recognizable as Mozambique or South Africa; characterizations seen as two-dimensional; historical context slighted; and DiCaprio's South African accent (though many praised its non-distracting professionalism, if not its complete authenticity).

Such critiques can obscure essential truths. No fictional rendering of reality can encompass the messiness of real life. Dramatic contrivances designed to attract broad audiences are necessary in a commercial release.

But if you think DiCaprio's character evinces too much evolving conscience for a soldier of fortune, let me tell you about the U.S. mercenary I knew before he was captured, and eventually executed, in Angola. Is Hounsou's character, the father who would risk anything to save his son, too good to be true? Countless friends of Africa can name men and women like him. Are the brutalized and brutal child soldiers capable of redemption? Visit one of the underfunded projects that seeks to reclaim them, and often, against the odds, succeeds.

Scenes in Blood Diamond echo the real images in Sorious Samura's prize-winning documentary Cry Freetown - much of which was considered too violent to broadcast while the events were taking place. Evidence that Zwick sought to get the story right is that he sought out Samura's work, and the Sierra Leonean journalist, who risked his life over and over to portray the carnage to a largely oblivious world, became engaged in the project.
Scenes in Blood Diamond echo the real images in Sorious Samura's prize-winning documentary "Cry Freetown" - much of which was considered too violent to broadcast while the events were taking place.

Zwick told Levy: "Sorious was a Godsend…He became much more than a technical advisor…He was a friend, a consultant, an authority. He was the soul of the production."

The filmmakers say that the issue of child soldiers and forced labor, which became a central theme, emerged from the need to reflect those realities, and the portrayal is wrenchingly affecting. An aspect of the region's wars that remains seriously under-explored, however, is the pervasive sexual violence against women and girls. Blood Diamond spares us the stories of young girls, made sex slaves as well as killers, bearing children while still children themselves. We should not forget that they are often conflict's first victims.

Sierra Leone's worst torment is now over. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, blamed for fueling the rebellion from his power base across the border, is imprisoned in The Hague, awaiting trial for war crimes. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, ably led by United Methodist Bishop Joseph Humpers, began the process of healing Sierra Leone's yawning societal rifts. Refugees have been flowing home.

Liberia, where competing factions profited from sales of timber and rubber, as well as diamonds, is also on the mend. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government is committed to transparency, to accountability and to sustainable economic development that gives particular consideration to traumatized women and children.
The filmmakers say that the issue of child soldiers and forced labor, which became a central theme, emerged from the need to reflect those realities.

Survivors in both countries are trying to honor the half million dead by rebuilding. But before breathing a sigh of relief that consigns the death and destruction to the past, viewers should remember that similarly harrowing events are being played out in such places as Sudan's Darfur region, in Chad and in eastern Congo (DRC), where - incredibly and largely without notice - some four million have already died in the violence and disorder of another natural-resource-fueled conflict.

Both the diamond industry and peaceful diamond-producing countries worry that viewers will take the film so seriously that diamond sales will decline this holiday season. The World Diamond Council, representing the governments and the industries that mine, cut and sell the stones, has launched a costly public relations campaign and a website, diamondfacts.org. The Council calls attention to the Kimberly Process, a four-year-old system to certify the origin of gems and block the entry of conflict diamonds to the market. More than seventy countries endorse and participate in the effort.

After the Council on Foreign Relations screening, representatives of diamond sellers cautioned that misinterpretation of the film could hurt African development. Although Council events are typically off the record, World Diamond Council General Counsel Cecilia Gardner and Kago Moshashane of Botswana, who chairs the Kimberly Process, agreed that AllAfrica could cite their views.

Gardner complimented fellow panelists from Global Witness and Amnesty International with having helped develop the Kimberly Process, through the work of their organizations. She said more than 99 percent of diamonds sold are now certified as conflict free. African nations reap more than U.S.$8 billion from diamonds, money that supports education, health care and infrastructure development.
Both the diamond industry and peaceful diamond-producing countries worry that viewers will take the film so seriously that diamond sales will decline this holiday season.

In Botswana, said Moshashane, diamonds account for more than 45 percent of government revenue and three-quarters of the country's export earnings. Because of diamonds, a country that was one of the world's poorest at its independence in 1966 is today an upper-middle income country that has been the world's fastest growing economy for most of the past quarter century. Over 40 percent of government revenues in Namibia come from diamonds, and last year a peaceful Sierra Leone exported over U.S.$142 million worth.

But campaigners against conflict diamonds aren't satisfied. Global Witness and Amnesty International maintain blooddiamondaction.org, supported in part by the Blood Diamond film, urging continued vigilance. The groups estimate that 3.7 million Africans have died in diamond-fueled wars.

Consumers in the United States buy more than half the world's annual diamond exports. Advocates of stricter controls cite a September report by the U.S. Government Accounting Office, which says uncertified stones can enter the U.S. market through a poorly policed Kimberly Process and major weaknesses in the implementation of the Clean Diamond Trade Act, the U.S. law implementing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. A United Nations report the same month expressed similar concern about flaws in international controls and alleges that rebels in northern Cote d'Ivoire are currently earning millions of dollars in illegal diamond sales, a charge the rebels deny. The European Union and a group of 46 governments have warned Ghana, which borders Cote d'Ivoire, that it risks expulsion from the Kimberly Process for becoming a conduit for conflict diamonds. Ghana, a democracy generally lauded for good governance and effective economic policies, has been given three months to tighten controls on diamond smuggling or be barred from the international diamond trade.

While pledging to continue to refine the international controls, diamond producers and marketers say they want people who see the film to understand that they can buy diamonds without guilt. DeBeers, which controls most of the international diamond trade, has gone on the offensive, hoping potential purchasers won't identify the company with the film's greedy international cartel, whose executives knowingly buy conflict diamonds while participating in the Kimberly Process.
Consumers in the United States buy more than half the world's annual diamond exports.

Hip hop entrepreneur-turned-jewelry-designer Russell Simmons spent nine days in southern Africa last month, touring diamond mines and social projects that mining revenues help finance. While in the region, he announced a Diamond Empowerment Fund that will use earnings from his firm's diamond sales to support education and training in South Africa and Botswana.

Liberia's government hopes that it, like Sierra Leone, will soon be able to benefit from the gems that funded so much misery. United Nations sanctions against Liberian diamond exports remain in place, out of concern that the country's enforcement capacity is too limited to guarantee compliance with the Kimberly Process. But the ravaged country is desperately short of resources to rebuild, and fulsome compliments for the new president and her plans have failed to yield needed support. For example, $50 million in urgent aid voted by the U.S. Congress last May, after President Sirleaf addressed a joint sitting in Washington, has yet to be disbursed. A Security Council vote on lifting the Liberian sanctions is expected.

All participants in the continuing debate say the film, if properly interpreted, can educate the public about both the perils and the possibilities that diamonds represent. Blogger Nancy Reyes, who lives in the rural Philippines, worked as a physician in Liberia over twenty years ago. "If the film familiarizes Americans with what is going on in Africa, including the work of the UN in stopping such murderous civil wars, it will be money well spent by Hollywood," she says.

Princeton Lyman, a former U.S. ambassador to two resource-rich countries, South Africa and Nigeria, who now heads the Africa program at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued at the screening that dealing with diamonds - which, can't, by themselves, kill anyone - is not enough. Noting that a central point of Blood Diamond is that Sierra Leone rebels traded gems for weapons, he announced that the Council is launching a study group on the thorny issue of the international arms trade.
All participants in the continuing debate say the film, if properly interpreted, can educate the public about both the perils and the possibilities that diamonds represent.

There are numerous ways to help the people of west Africa reclaim their countries from chaos and conflict. Two recently launched foundations targeted at grass-roots development accept contributions (tax exempt to U.S. donors).

Greys's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington started the Gondobay Manga Foundation, which supports village-level initiatives, including road, water and electricity projects.

Deborah Harding, a longtime friend of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, spearheaded the Liberian Education Trust to build 50 schools, train 500 teachers and fund 5,000 scholarships, primarily for girls, as well as to promote literacy for marketwomen.

Subject: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Alpha Saidu Bangura
To: All
Date Posted: 15:22:44 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
Rumor has it that Pa Sylvanus Koroma of Makeni fame,is not the biological father of Hon.Ernest Koroma.If this rumor is true,let us do a proper background check on Ernest Koroma.We must keep in our minds that he is looking for a job from the people of Sierra Leone,therefore,we need a background check.
It is clearly stated in both the Quran and the Bible that God will be displeased with any group that has a leader who can not be properly identified.
May that is why there is always a leadership struggle in the A.P.C.?

Follow Ups:

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: SAIDU THE SCUMBAG
To: All
Date Posted: 06:32:59 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-87-74-46-177.bulldogdsl.com at 87.74.46.177

Message:
Siadu, are you as nasty as this? What is in there for you? Money, jobs or to protect you when ever you return to Sa. Lone? Boy you've realLy lost the plot you PLONKER.

I am not an APC supporter but i will support any move to sue you for this nastiness.The APC party which should have a legal chapter in the United States should treat this matter very seriouslly by taking you to court because this is their Leader you have tried and failed to bring to that GUTTER that you belong.This is not about dirty politices, You are JUST A NASTY PIECE OF DIRT.

You are nothing but a toerag,a scum and a SLPP SEAWAGE.

U MEK CRAISE GAINSE JARO

Let see and hear what the SLPP is going to do about YOUR SO CALLED TIFF EN LIE DENSAY.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: baker ose crew
To: All
Date Posted: 07:07:26 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
what would you expect from a man who wet the bed until he was done with school. a man who cannot even afford to wear clean dross. the pitiful girl he is with called ajua keeps him at home because he is controlling her with juju. he does not work, cannot hold down a job and is too nasty to be in good company.

worse than sewage. saidu bangura and his whole family including his broke ose mama and his con artist father who does not live in england like he always says, are all kaka.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: ADVISE FOR AJUA SAIDU RASS CLOT EE GYAL
To: All
Date Posted: 10:54:18 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 87.114.67.178

Message:
NAR KAJU DIS GYAL NOR ABLE DAE KARJU SO?BOY SHE MOST BE REALLY FUCKING DESPERATE. AJUA PLEASE USE YOUR FINGERS AND HAVE A WANK. WAE U ALLOW CRAISE MAN FOR POUND YOU TRUS ME DE PIKIN WAE YOU GO BORN IF NAR FOR AM EE GO BE MALADE LEK AM. SO USE YOUR HAND A GET A WANK.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: tit4tat
To: All
Date Posted: 04:49:14 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: s200-masq.iptelsl.net at 83.229.112.41

Message:
Are you sure about your own biological father????

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: True Sierraleonean
To: All
Date Posted: 04:46:26 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: s200-masq.iptelsl.net at 83.229.112.41

Message:
Who is contesting for Presidency, Ernest koroma or his father????
Shame on you, to raise such subjects.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: SENGBE WATCHER
To: All
Date Posted: 06:07:57 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
THIS "boy" IS BEING PUT UP BY THE LIKES OF EDMUND KOKER THE PREFECT OF TRIBALISM AND MENDE HEDGEMONY TO INSULT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT SUPPORT THE SLPP MUCH LIKE HIS CANNIBAL KAMAJORS DID TO INNOCENT LIVES

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Sengbe
To: All
Date Posted: 14:03:00 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: nc-71-55-71-103.dyn.embarqhsd.net at 71.55.71.103

Message:
Mr. Watcher, I have NEVER met Mr. Alpha Saidu Bangura in my life, so how can I be party to "THIS "boy" is being put up by the likes of ..."?

Please leave my name out of where it does not blend.

The only time I became a prefect in the context you have used that word was at the Bo School, but you are entitled to your opinion, and so is Alpha Saidu, even though I do not care to verify the validity of what the apc gossip-mongers told him, as he has claimed.

I was told by Victor Foh that Ernest stays with my brother whenever he is in Bo. I would NOT begrudge him to such an extent.

I could care less about the identity of Ernest's father. Afterall, it was one of the staunchest members of your apc on this forum that tried to sully the name / reputation of my late mother sometime ago, by claiming that she was the first S/Leonean to die of HIV-AIDS, when in fact she died in a gruesome car crash that instantly killed all four passengers in the car including the driver. And that was in 1970, before the discovery of the HIV pandemic. So you see, mr. watcher, I have experienced disparaging remarks about one's parent, that are totally false. I do not condone it.

I hope I have made my case.

Would you please refrain from mentioning my name in such an erroneous manner in the future?

Thank you.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: John E. Leigh
To: All
Date Posted: 17:48:23 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: johnernestleigh@yahoo.com
Entered From: cache-rtc-ad05.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.100.199

Message:
I agree with Mr. Beckley 100%. Mr. Ernest Koroma has absolutely nothing to do with his own coming into existence. No one should drag him into something so unnecessary or cast aspersion on his family or relatives. Such is going much too far and is absolutely unnecessary.

We should be focusing on his capabilities and achievements as well as his plans for the future. Mr. Koroma is a full-fledged citizen of Sierra Leone. Therefore, his biological antecedents is of no one's concern. There got to be limits place on such on political filth. Its shameful. - JL

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: WAA
To: All
Date Posted: 23:21:05 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
WAA is that this broher is on DRUGS. But not only that, he is being put up to this by the children of Solomon Berewah and the SLPP leadership in Atlanta Georgia. Its a crying shame that a man whose mother is known as a whore who sleeps with other peoples husbands and even has children for them, would dare question the paternity of someone who is by far superior to all of his dreams and aspirations. Alfa saidu Bangura is a man that has gone bonkers. He has lost it and sooner or later you will hear the news that he has been admitted to an insane asylum (crase yard). What do you expect from a man on Prozac.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Bob Jusu
To: All
Date Posted: 20:08:19 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: philizbeth@hotmail.com
Entered From: prox-a.its.waikato.ac.nz at 130.217.76.77

Message:
There got to be limits place on such on political filth.

Look who's talking?

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: WOW
To: All
Date Posted: 20:17:03 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
MUNKU TRASH CAN,

Here you go again. As soon as you see the name John Leigh, you become very uneasy. The man is not responsible for your munkuness. You are a dishonest chap. Did you not swear to God that Norman will never come back to salone and that he has been sentenced in Senegal?

You are a dangerous idiot, and until fools like you are wiped out of this planet, salone will still be in danger. Get a life in your munku village and lef the man alone. You are a sorry excuse for a human waste.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Bob Jusu
To: All
Date Posted: 04:26:54 02/04/07 ()
Email Address: philizbeth@hotmail.com
Entered From: 210-54-67-69.dialup.xtra.co.nz at 210.54.67.69

Message:
Mr. Owl or Wow,

Until you get out of your shell and front up to your self....I will surely have no business with you.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Olu Beckley
To: All
Date Posted: 18:42:06 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: mariamab@aol.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.206

Message:
Kabs, you're right. I am a proud Franciscan, and my dad made Bombali District his home.

Happy to see Ambassador Leigh also offended by Alpha Saidu's disgusting posting.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Olu Beckley
To: All
Date Posted: 16:02:44 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: mariamab@aol.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.206

Message:
Alpha Saidu, your posting on the Hon. Ernest Koroma's parentage is distasteful, misleading and at best not worthy of one who claims to be a true believer. This is vicious politicking and I must say you have really crossed the line. I am shocked that you have gone to the extent of attacking a very respectable family in the Makeni community.

Criticising an opponent rather than boasting about your own merits maybe a good way to go, but being insultive is absolutely unacceptable and misguided.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 16:51:52 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
Olu, I think I am beginning to remember you. Your family once lived in Makeni and there was an Olu or Josie Beckley with us at FBC ( from that family).I could be wrong, though.

I think Mr. Alpha Saidu Bangura went too far. We knew only of President Clinton's stepfather. He died recently. No mention has been made much about his real father. I think we should attack candidates on the basis of what they are capable of doing for the country not whether they were illegitimate (Something they had no control over ).

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Olu Beckley
To: All
Date Posted: 19:16:41 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: mariamab@aol.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.206

Message:
You are right Kabs, I am a proud Franciscan, and my dad made Bombali District his home. Dr. Josie Beckley, my uncle was at FBC probably the same time as you. He is still there.

It is so nice to see decent people like HE Leigh weigh in on this issue and cry down Alpha Saidu's unpardonable inuendoes. This is slander at its worst.

Saidu mind your language.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: Pissabade
To: All
Date Posted: 15:58:58 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ca07-ch01-bl02.va-ashburn0.sa.earthlink.net at 207.69.138.134

Message:
Are you sure abnout your own father since your mom was an area girl.

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: YU DON CRASE?
To: All
Date Posted: 15:31:06 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 204.84.81.39

Message:
Cocorioko is not your thrash, Saidu. You already posted this thrash in the awareness times forum and somebody told you that it is of no consequence even if Ernest dont know his father. Watin na yu problem, ba? You don Crase? This is a serious forum

Subject: Re: Let us properly check Ernest Bai Koroma out
From: News Carrier
To: All
Date Posted: 15:54:47 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
I posted it for him here. I thought people would be interested in discussing it here .

Subject: JOURNALISM 101
From: SAYOH KAMARA
To: All
Date Posted: 14:53:06 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
CONCORD TIMES

Big fat lies!
Sarh Musa Yamba 9/8/2006

When perusing the local tabloids, as I normally do, Friday August 4 th Edition of Standard Times was one of the newspapers that caught my eyes.There was this screaming headline captioned “Nigeria recovers Abacha's US$ 700 million loot,” and another front page story captioned “Presidential Spokesman fails ‘Communication test' in Parliament…Allieu Kamara ‘Territorial Integrity' may replace Kanji Daramy.”Of course there was another story, which had to do with the just announced 2007 election date by President Kabbah, but it was no news to me. What was newsy was the Presidential Spokesman failing a “Parliamentary Communication test.”

Reading through the first paragraph of the story about the Presidential Spokesman, I sensed something very sinister, the source of the story was highly questionable to me with a journalistic eye.The story read and I quote verbatim: “Reports has implicated the Presidential Spokesman Alhaji Kanji Daramy that he has failed a communication test in Parliament. The report went further to state that the Presidential Spokesman appeared before the appointment Committee in Parliament for the Chairmanship of the Communication Commission instituted by the President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.However, the failure of the Presidential Spokesman to get the assembly accept his appointment has been viewed by so many political analysts as something appropriate since he is not knowledgeable in such a capacity. In addition, it is the assumption of some members of the Parliament that he would rape the commission as he did at SALPOST that led to the crumbling of the nation's courier service…”As I finished reading the story I knew from my heart of hearts that it was aiming at something mischievous. I was convinced it was nothing but a big fat lie by Phillip Neville, Executive Editor of Standard Times newspaper. The key things that I asked my self were, when did the Presidential Spokesman appear in Parliament before the Appointments Committee? Was it a closed-door sitting that did not attract other journalists for it not to have the necessary coverage by the Press? If it was a Parliamentary sitting, why was no one quoted to lend credence to the story? Did the Committee sit in space? Because that would have been a story that would have spread like bush fire in the dry season. Interestingly, it was only Standard Times newspaper that carried the story. Were they (Standard Times) the only ones present in Parliament at the time of the purported appearance of Kanji Daramy? Another very critical look at the newspaper revealed there was no by-line. Mischief! I thought to my self. Another hard look brought out the unprofessional manner in which the story was written. There was no mention of the Presidential Spokesman's side of the story. Nothing! Just sources. Which source?

The issue became a subject of discussion in our newsroom. One of my senior editorial staff members, Ibrahim Seibure, immediately dialled the Minority Member of Parliament of the Opposition All Peoples Congress, Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma to substantiate the Standard Times Publication by virtue of the fact that he is a key member of the Appointments Committee in Parliament. His response, “I am not aware that the Presidential Spokesman appeared before the Appointments Committee.”I still could not accept what I heard, so I used the opportunity to call the Chairman of the Appointment Committee Hon. Fofanah who also doubles as Leader of the House, as the Presidential Spokesman's phone earlier rang incessantly without him picking it up.“Good day sir, my name is Sahr Musa Yamba, Editor of Concord Times. I want to enquire whether the Presidential Spokesman, Kanji Daramy has appeared before the Appointment Committee in Parliament and was rejected,” I asked with my ears glued to my mobile phone's earpiece itching for an answer.“Mr. Yamba,” Hon Fofanah responded, “Mr. Kanji Daramy has never appeared before us at the Parliamentary Appointment Committee.” I could not believe my ears. “Say that again sir, are you saying the Presidential Spokesman, Kanji Daramy has never appeared before your Committee for approval to the Telecommunications Commission?” I responded thinking my ears had deceived me. “Yes you heard me right. Mr. Kanji Daramy has never appeared before us.”

To say I was stunned is an understatement.

I still wanted to dig up some more about the story. So I called the Presidential Spokesman again for further confirmation. “Sir, is it true that you appeared before the Parliamentary Committee and you were rejected to become Chairman of the Telecommunications Commission?” I asked.“Standard Times' story was a blatant lie, grossly unprofessional and fallacious. Phillip Neville is a liar,” Kanji Daramy retorted. He added, “how can Parliament reject me when I have never been before them?”

So having all these facts, and as a journalist's guide, in Joe Hills' words ‘two sides to my story… Your side and my side,” I published the reaction of the Presidential Spokesman in our Monday 7 th August edition: “Presidential Spokesman calls Phillip Neville a “liar,”but not without Neville's side of the story. I had called him, as a colleague and classmate in college, to inform him the Presidential Spokesman had branded him a “liar,” and wanted his reaction before going to press. Neville's reaction was he has his “source” and started talking about Allieu Kamara going to the Presidential Lodge. He continued, “I know Kanji Daramy is your man.” I replied Phillip in the affirmative but stressed that Daramy being my “man” does not in any way influence my editorial policy. We hung up and I went to press.But much to my consternation, I saw Neville publish in his Tuesday 8 th May edition under the column One Thing and Another by Phillip Neville an article captioned “Kanji: The cat of SALPOST” some things I regard as greatly personal and not the issue under the spotlight.He wrote: “…whether he (Kanji Daramy) has special arrangements with the editor of that paper (not Kingsley Lington the owner) but Sahr Musa Yamba, an employee of the paper is really not the issue…”If it is not the issue, why does Phillip Neville mention it? If I may ask. Is this style not typical of attack journalism schemes; attack-collect, threaten-collect and blackmail-collect vampire journalism?

Neville went further to bring me in the picture, but I am afraid he missed the boat.Neville wrote: “…At any time he (Kanji Daramy) opens his mouth to speak on behalf of the President, the result is always very disastrous. But he is there in the office, surfing the Internet in search of articles on telecommunication, and would reproduce them verbatim in the pages of the Concord Times, sometimes bearing his by-line and in most cases would use fake names…”I must stress that I am no defender of Kanji Daramy and will never be as insinuated by Neville in his attack journalism piece he wrote. I only intend to put the facts straight as the age-old cliché states, facts are sacred, and opinions are free. Period! As that is the quest of journalists, not attack, blackmail and collect. It has never been my style and will never ever be.As I insist I am not a defender of Kanji Daramy, going back to the wrong insinuation Kanji Daramy writes articles published in Concord Times under fake names is not only misleading the public into a malicious gimmick, but a calculated attempt to drag my name into the mud. And it is only because of mention of me in his article that I am compelled to react. Neville did it with Pious Foray of the Democrat press, he smeared Sayo Kamara of Awareness Times, now, because I have lay bare the falsehoods in his publication, he has turned his threat-arsenal on me.

The telecommunications articles published in Concord Times have nothing to do with Kanji Daramy, the earlier Phillip Neville gets that up his head, the better. I had told him that over the phone, but why he went on to publish falsehoods is any body's guess. The telecommunication articles published in Concord Times are written by no less a person than a guru, Maxwell Massaquoi, whom I am sure Neville is referring to as a ‘fake' name. We (Concord Times) have even got emails from overseas trying to contact Maxwell Massaquoi for the brilliant telecommunications articles he writes. If Neville wants his number for confirmation, Concord Times will readily make it available. So please, please Phillip, Kanji Daramy does NOT write the said articles. Yes, Kanji Daramy is my friend. I cannot shy away from that fact. But to suggest he is using Concord Times to project his image and “using” me is farfetched. We (Concord Times) have on many occasions damned Kanji Daramy and will continue to do so when the need arises. You just need to reflect on the ‘Pa Kabbah: Man den nor gladdy oh' publication of Concord Times early this year wherein the Presidential Spokesman was given a pen-lashing for his rebuttal of that publication in Concord Times; You don't need to go beyond yesterday Tuesday 8 th August publication to read our lead story “PDL calls on Kabbah to resign” and realise that Kanji Daramy's friendship with, me Sahr Musa Yamba, does not in any way what so ever influence our publications. But that is not to say we don't give them (Kanji Daramy and his cronies) the opportunity to say their bit. We (Concord Times) do not run a hate campaign. We do not blackmail or attack to collect as suggested by the Standard Times publication of 8 th August 2006 “Kanji: The SALPOST cat,” which was highlighted as a warning at the tail end: “Caution- Kanji Dramy! Be prepared for a long and sweet battle.” Does that suggest threat? Hate? Attack and Collect later? Food for thought!

Hon. Fofanah and Hon Ernest Bai Koroma of the Parliamentary Appointment Committee have said it all; let me not waste my precious time. Phillip Neville's publication ‘Presidential Spokesman fails Parliamentary test' is nothing but a big fat lie!

Subject: Re: JOURNALISM 101
From: MAHDO WHO?
To: All
Date Posted: 16:37:32 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
, “I know Kanji Daramy is your man.” I replied Phillip in the affirmative but stressed that Daramy being my “man” does not in any way influence my editorial policy. We hung up and I went to press.But much to my consternation, I saw Neville publish in his Tuesday 8 th May edition under the column One Thing and Another by Phillip Neville an article captioned “Kanji: The cat of SALPOST” some things I regard as greatly personal and not the issue under the spotlight.He wrote: “…whether he (Kanji Daramy) has special arrangements with the editor of that paper (not Kingsley Lington the owner) but Sahr Musa Yamba, an employee of the paper is really not the issue…”If it is not the issue, why does Phillip Neville mention it? If I may ask. Is this style not typical of attack journalism schemes; attack-collect, threaten-collect and blackmail-collect vampire journalism?

Neville went further to bring me in the picture, but I am afraid he missed the boat.Neville wrote: “…At any time he (Kanji Daramy) opens his mouth to speak on behalf of the President, the result is always very disastrous. But he is there in the office, surfing the Internet in search of articles on telecommunication, and would reproduce them verbatim in the pages of the Concord Times, sometimes bearing his by-line and in most cases would use fake names…”I must stress that I am no defender of Kanji Daramy and will never be as insinuated by Neville in his attack journalism piece he wrote. I only intend to put the facts straight as the age-old cliché states, facts are sacred, and opinions are free. Period! As that is the quest of journalists, not attack, blackmail and collect. It has never been my style and will never ever be.As I insist I am not a defender of Kanji Daramy, going back to the wrong insinuation Kanji Daramy writes articles published in Concord Times under fake names is not only misleading the public into a malicious gimmick, but a calculated attempt to drag my name into the mud. And it is only because of mention of me in his article that I am compelled to react. Neville did it with Pious Foray of the Democrat press, he smeared Sayo Kamara of Awareness Times, now, because I have lay bare the falsehoods in his publication, he has turned his threat-arsenal on me.

The telecommunications articles published in Concord Times have nothing to do with Kanji Daramy, the earlier Phillip Neville gets that up his head, the better. I had told him that over the phone, but why he went on to publish falsehoods is any body's guess. The telecommunication articles published in Concord Times are written by no less a person than a guru, Maxwell Massaquoi, whom I am sure Neville is referring to as a ‘fake' name. We (Concord Times) have even got emails from overseas trying to contact Maxwell Massaquoi for the brilliant telecommunications articles he writes. If Neville wants his number for confirmation, Concord Times will readily make it available. So please, please Phillip, Kanji Daramy does NOT write the said articles. Yes, Kanji Daramy is my friend. I cannot shy away from that fact. But to suggest he is using Concord Times to project his image and “using” me is farfetched. We (Concord Times) have on many occasions damned Kanji Daramy and will continue to do so when the need arises. You just need to reflect on the ‘Pa Kabbah: Man den nor gladdy oh' publication of Concord Times early this year wherein the Presidential Spokesman was given a pen-lashing for his rebuttal of that publication in Concord Times; You don't need to go beyond yesterday Tuesday 8 th August publication to read our lead story “PDL calls on Kabbah to resign” and realise that Kanji Daramy's friendship with, me Sahr Musa Yamba, does not in any way what so ever influence our publications. But that is not to say we don't give them (Kanji Daramy and his cronies) the opportunity to say their bit. We (Concord Times) do not run a hate campaign. We do not blackmail or attack to collect as suggested by the Standard Times publication of 8 th August 2006 “Kanji: The SALPOST cat,” which was highlighted as a warning at the tail end: “Caution- Kanji Dramy! Be prepared for a long and sweet battle.” Does that suggest threat? Hate? Attack and Collect later? Food for thought!

Hon. Fofanah and Hon Ernest Bai Koroma of the Parliamentary Appointment Committee have said it all; let me not waste my precious time. Phillip Neville's publication ‘Presidential Spokesman fails Parliamentary test' is nothing but a big fat lie! "

Subject: JEL RESPONDS TO MUNKU BOB JUSUS
From: FAN OF JOHN LEIGH
To: All
Date Posted: 11:24:57 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Posted by John E. Leigh on February 03, 2007 at 11:12:09:

In Reply to: John Leigh and SLPP posted by Bob Jusu on February 02, 2007 at 07:45:24:

Dear Mr. Bob Jusu:

I have seen your trash. You do not seem to know a thing about me.

I care little about cheap public esteem anywhere, certainly not from practitioners of family politics and tribal affinity politrickers like you and your kind. If I was looking for cheap esteem, you would want me to be with your flunky political grouping.

The fact is I am in search of what I truly think is best for my country, not what you think is good for me. I am out to please myself and no one else, certainly not you! By the way, who are you for me to please?

Whomsoever told you s/he is scared of me, is most likely merely scared of the facts and afraid of genuine democratic politics - just as you are scared of the exposure of PMDC's childish pranks of using bogus documentation to prove it is making gains in a race in which it is fastly loosing ground and is still even unkown in large sections of the country.

Next, an essential element of democracy is public discussion - back and forth, again and again until the issue in debate is fully understood. You therefore have no right to tell me or any other individual to merely lie down and observe while your foolish kabudu loudly promote their bogus document by fooling newspapers and lying to the public in the hope of political gain.

WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME TO LIE DOWN? All the many months you were hyper-busy - day-in, day-out - in this forum writing trash for Mr. Margai & Co., I never once advised you to keep quiet even though I was offended by some of your suggestions regarding the role you wanted me to play in your remedial PMDC. Why can't you extend the same courtesy's to others?

For your information, I intend to continue to stand up and spread the truth to whomsoever will listen in our country whether you and your PMDC jokers like it or not. In doing so, I am pleasing myself and no one else.

If I was interested in currying favor from those you've mentioned there are far more effective ways to do so than by researching facts and telling the truth publicly about politricks in your country without fear or favor.

Let it be remembered that I do not need your free advice as to how I should conduct my politics in my country or in any other matter. If in my advocacy I make political enemies, that is none of your business.

If Berewa and Kabbah are my enemies as you ignorantly claimed, I can deal with that situation without your interjection. Nor do I need the type of friends you prefer to tarry with. Our outlooks in life are vastly diffent. UNDERSTAND?

Even so, I have noticed some improvements. You are no longer hiding under chicken monikers such as Mathew Williams, Bob Mathew Frank Williams or whatever and lying repeatedly and shamefully again and again when you were exposed.

Thank you for your attention. - JL

Subject: Re: JEL RESPONDS TO MUNKU BOB JUSUS
From: Bob Jusu
To: All
Date Posted: 04:28:36 02/04/07 ()
Email Address: philizbeth@hotmail.com
Entered From: 210-54-67-69.dialup.xtra.co.nz at 210.54.67.69

Message:
I am out to please myself and no one else....John Leigh

Subject: Re: JEL RESPONDS TO MUNKU BOB JUSUS
From: Bob Jusu
To: All
Date Posted: 20:05:48 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: philizbeth@hotmail.com
Entered From: prox-a.its.waikato.ac.nz at 130.217.76.77

Message:
I am out to please myself and no one else............

Subject: THERE IS NO REASON FOR US TO KILL CHARLES MARGAI.
From: ALPHA SAIDU BANGURA
To: All
Date Posted: 09:16:05 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: SAIDUBANGSO@AOL.COM
Entered From: pool-72-83-112-156.washdc.fios.verizon.net at 72.83.112.156

Message:
I want to assure the entire membership of the PROLONGED MOVEMENT FOR DISGRUNTLED CITIZENS(Popularly known as the P.M.D.C.)that we in the SLPP do not have any reason to wish to kill Mr.Charles Margai.As far as we know Mr.Margai is nothing but "A LITTLE MAN OF NO SIGNIFICANCE".We believe in democratic principles therefore we bear no hated for Mr.Margai because he left our SLPP.
Since Mr.Margai has not yet been able to win the leadership of his party,we do not consider him as a candidate for the next elections.It is my understanding that a fine gentleman of a very high moral standing will contest against Mr.Margai for the position of leader and presidential candidate,I have been assured by all right thinking members of the PMDC, that this man will win the elections at the PMDC convention.
Knowing Mr.Margai well as I do ,I know that he will onces again walk away from the PMDC to go form another new political party.
My friends in the PMDC,unlawfully killing people is not part of the SLPP make up, there is what makes us different from the APC and NPRC.

Subject: Re: THERE IS NO REASON FOR US TO KILL CHARLES MARGAI.
From: Take Medication
To: All
Date Posted: 02:29:54 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 59.160.62.6

Message:
SAIDU GO TAKE YOUR MEDICATION.

SORIE WAKA QUICK QUICK, SAIDU NEED IN MEDICINE. PLEASE QUICK.

Subject: Re: THERE IS NO REASON FOR US TO KILL CHARLES MARGAI.
From: MOIJUE
To: All
Date Posted: 11:48:21 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-84-9-60-151.bulldogdsl.com at 84.9.60.151

Message:
SAY THAT TO THE FAMILY OF Harry Yasaneh

Subject: Re: THERE IS NO REASON FOR US TO KILL CHARLES MARGAI.
From: MUSA
To: All
Date Posted: 10:27:00 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: mpkamara@hotmail.com
Entered From: luna.hypair.net at 194.50.180.4

Message:
You are accusing the APC and the NPRC as murderers what about your kamajors affiliated slpp killers and cannibals

Subject: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: Ojumiri Cole
To: All
Date Posted: 07:31:00 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:
I think all Sierra leoneans should DEMAND from the IMF and the World Bank an answer to the charge against them by Mohamed Jalloh. If what Jalloh said is true, that means the IMF deliberately made us suffer in salone.

THIS IS WHAT MOHAMED JALLOH SAYS:

"All of the above factors clearly make devaluation inappropriate as a cure for Sierra Leone's balance of trade problems.

Therefore, instead of reducing Sierra Leone's demand for imports and increasing its supply of exports -- as devaluation is supposed to do (and as it has done in industrialized countries, including Great Britain in the early 1970s) -- the devaluation in Sierra Leone in 1979, as well as the floatation of the Leone in 1986, and the resultant deterioration of the Leone to its present cumulative decline of 375,000%, merely produced astronomical inflation, particularly in the cost of imported goods. This caused the idling of factories hampered by the escalating cost of imported raw materials, leading, in turn, to constantly reduced demand for workers -- in other words, massive unemployment, and lowered incomes.

Thereby, it severely reduced the standard of living of millions of Sierra Leoneans, due to their inability to afford the highly-inflated prices of imported items and other goods and services. It also failed to increase the country's exports.

The result has been a total failure of devaluation to cure Sierra Leone's balance of trade problems. Worse still, the stratospheric inflation it unleashed, accompanied by pervasive unemployment, has left millions of Sierra Leoneans no longer able to afford the basic necessities of life -- propelling them into searing poverty that, according to the United Nations, is unmatched anywhere in the world."

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: Economist
To: All
Date Posted: 09:10:08 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ool-44c29146.dyn.optonline.net at 68.194.145.70

Message:
"I think all Sierra leoneans should DEMAND from the IMF and the World Bank an answer to the charge against them by Mohamed Jalloh. If what Jalloh said is true, that means the IMF deliberately made us suffer in salone."

I think you should started your above request as follows:

"I think those Sierra Leoneans who believe what Jalloh writes should DEMAND from the IMF and World Bank..."

As previous debates on this forum and elsewhere have proven, there are many Sierra Leoneans who do not agree with Jalloh's logic.

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: Ojumiri Cole
To: All
Date Posted: 09:36:26 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:
"As previous debates on this forum and elsewhere have proven, there are many Sierra Leoneans who do not agree with Jalloh's logic"

Your point is well taken. Because I am new to this place, if what you claim is true, can you tell me why anyone would not agree with Jalloh's very logical and factual argument?

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: FED UP
To: All
Date Posted: 09:38:31 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
If you are new, then I am God. And you are not a Cole, either, you fake son of a gun. Go get a life. Fake piece of shit.

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: Ojumiri Cole
To: All
Date Posted: 09:40:30 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:
If you can not engage in a civilized debate, please go away. I do not engage rude people.

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: FED UP
To: All
Date Posted: 09:45:46 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
I do not engage fake people, so please get the hell out of here. You fake trash can. Why can't you get a life, and stop lying to yourself?

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: DEBATE NOR TO CUSS
To: All
Date Posted: 10:09:30 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:

Ojumiri, ignore this faceless coward. Can't you see he is beneath contempt?

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 17:54:47 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
Greetings my brothers and sisters. Though this piece I am presenting my be long yet, it is imperative to read through to understand our situation.
I responded to Mr. Mohamed A Jalloh yesterday, giving some of the areas we need to address so as to help our economy grow instead of devaluing our currency to correct the present plight. I am in no position to argue Mr. Mohamed A. Jalloh's reasoning as he is an MBA in the field we are discussing, however, I have had the opportunity to read extensively, had the opportunity to view the Sierra Leonean problem as a Sierra Leonean with interest to seeing the problem for what they are, uninhibited by any form sentimentalized favoritism to any political wing, individual, section nor party; but the people of Sierra Leone who bear the brunt of the problems. When I speak of the people of Sierra Leone bearing the brunt of the problems, this is inclusive of the very bras who have been grappling with the problem for decades to no avail, as evident in the persistence of the problems that has leveraged the reasons for devaluation.
To know the solution to our problems, we should be inposition to, and be prepared to ask the following questions and answer them truthfully, if we can honestly do that, uninhibited by favoritism of any such or the urge and effort to conceal the truth. Knowing that we have all acknowledged the prevalence of the problems, as that is the first step, acknowledging that a problem do exist yet, hardest part of it all is accepting responsibility for the problems. Can we, in answering the questions, accept responsibility for any minute (small) role we played in causing or creating the problems without shifting blames to some one else, some party or leader?
Firstly, what is our Human Right record?
Secondly, how is the Rule of Law practiced in Sierra Leone?
Thirdly, how much investment do we put in knowledge acquisition and dispensation?
Thirdly, how is freedom of association or contribution towards a cause for national development not misconstrued as a desire for political gain and why should efforts in contribution towards the aforementioned drive be construed as a drive towards political desires?
What are our views of contributing towards national development entail?
When we do this, let us try to view our answers in comparison to the way it is practiced in countries with strong economies or thriving economies, if you will.
Now let us look at the way this specific debate is handled. Let us look at the caption:
The caption is "AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK."
Here we have digressed from the core of the matter to personalized attack. What is causing such sentiment when the discussion should circumvent education, an informative endeavor in sensitizing many who are not informed about what devaluation is and how it impacts a nation. Here, we have demonstrated as usual, what transpires in socio-political atmosphere, where, we care about our personal issues more that the national issues. Ten chances to one, even leadership are unaware what goes on in the International political and economic stage. I should know that.
Nonetheless, it is imperative that we focus our attention on what people say, give them the opportunity to address issues especially, when it concerns them, as the one we are discussing at the moment.
Haven said that, let me move on to addressing the question, in continuation to what I started with yesterday.
To understanding devaluation, and in response to some of the questions above, let me present few notes on the subject.
Let us see what is and are the factors of Production.

In economics, factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services.

" The classical approach
Classical economics distinguishes between three factors:
Land or natural resource – naturally-occurring goods such as soil and minerals that are used in the creation of products. The payment for land is rent.
Labor – human effort used in production which also includes technical and marketing expertise. The payment for labor is a wage.
Capital goods – human-made goods (or means of production) which are used in the production of other goods. These include machinery, tools and buildings. In a general sense, the payment for capital is called interest.
The income received by the owners of these factors equals the amount of aggregate supply. These were codified originally in the analyzes of Adam Smith, 1776, David Ricardo, 1817, and the later contributions of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill as part of one of the first coherent theories of production in political economy. Marx refers in Das Kapital to the three factors of production as the "holy trinity" of political economy.
Free trade laissez faire theory argues that economic efficiency is achieved in cases where free movement (laissez passer) of the "factors of production" is permitted. Karl Polanyi in "The Great Transformation", however, demonstrated that historically whenever laissez faire policies are adopted, legal moves to prevent the free movement of one of the factors of production always occur (for example current neo-liberal attempts to free the movement of capital and resources are today increasingly tied to immigration controls).
In the classical analysis, working capital was generally viewed as being a stock of physical items such as tools, buildings and machinery. This view was explicitly rejected by Marx. Modern economics has become increasingly uncertain about how to define and theorise capital (see capital controversy).

[edit] Evolution: the fourth factor
With the emergence of the knowledge economy, more modern analysis often distinguishes this physical capital from other forms of capital such as "human capital" and intellectual capital which require intangible management orientated techniques to manage such as Balanced Scorecard, Risk Management, Business Process Reengineering, Knowledge Management, and Intellectual Capital Management
In 1966, in a lecture at Medway College, Kent, UK, Len Rogers suggested a fourth factor - information. He argued that it was possible to possess land, labour and capital but "know how", especially in the exponentially increasing technologic environment, was an essential factor. He gave as a current example, the production of nuclear devices.
Prior to the Information Age the land, labour, and capital were used to create substantial wealth due to their scarcity. Following the Information Age (circa 1971-1991), and the Knowledge Age (circa 1991 to 2002) and the current Intangible Economy (circa 2002+) the primary factors of production today are intangible. These factors of production are knowledge, collaboration, process-engagement, and time quality. According to economic theory, a "factor of production" is used to create value and economic performance. As the four factors of production today are all intangible, the current economic age is called the Intangible Economy. Intangible factors of production are subject to network effects and the contrary economic laws such as the law of increasing returns. It is therefore important to differentiate between conventional (tangible) economics and intangible economics when discussing issues related to factors of production which change according to the economic era that society is experiencing. For example, land was a key factor of production in the Agricultural Age.

[edit] Combination of factors
Some economists mention enterprise, entrepreneurship, individual capital or just "leadership" as a fourth factor. However, this seems to be a form of labor or "human capital." When differentiated, the payment for this factor of production is called profit. This is when entrepreneurs think of ideas, organise the other three factors of production, and take risks with their own money and the financial capital of others.
In a market economy, entrepreneurs combine land, labor, and capital to make a profit. In a planned economy, central planners decide how land, labor, and capital should be used to provide for maximum benefit for all citizens.
The classical theory, further developed, remains useful to the present day as a basis of microeconomics. Some more means that deal with factors of production are as follows:
Entrepreneurs are people who organize other productive resources to make goods and services. The economists regard entrepreneurs as a specialist form of labor input. The success and/or failure of a business often depends on the quality of entrepreneurship.
Capital has many meanings including the finance raised to operate a business. Normally though, capital means investment in goods that can produce other goods in the future. It can also be referred to as machines, roads, factories, schools, and office buildings in which humans produced in order to produce other goods and services. Investment is important if the economy is to achieve economic growth in the future.
Human Capital is the quality of labor resources which can be improved through investments, education, and training.
Fixed Capital this includes machinery, work plants, equipment, new technology, factories, buildings, and goods that are designed to increase the productive potential of the economy for future years.
Working Capital this includes the stocks of finished and semi-finished goods that will be economically consumed in the near future or will be made into a finished consumer good in the near future. It includes also the liquid assets needed for immediate expenses linked to the production process (salaries, invoices, taxes, interests...).
[edit] Developments and Alternative views
[edit] Classical view as the base of microeconomic theory
Although it did not deal substantially with complex issues of a sophisticated modern economy, the classical theory is useful as the basis of microeconomics, however many distinctions one cares to make or macro-theory or political economy one chooses to apply to trade them off or set their valuations in society at large.
Land has become natural capital, imitative aspects of Labor have become instructional capital, creative or inspirational aspects or "Enterprise" have become individual capital (in some analyses), and social capital has become increasingly important. The classical relationship of financial capital and infrastructural capital is still recognized as central, but there is a wider debate on means of production and various means of protection, or " rights", to secure their reliable use.


[edit] In Real Estate
The factors in the production of wealth, income, or services which can be sold for money. The factors are: (1) labor, (2)entrpeneuership
Mexico
The shocking peso devaluation of 1994 occurred after delay by the Mexican Central Bank. The main cause of the bank’s slow decision was that it was politically inconvenient for the ruling political party in the federal government, PRI, to have the currency devalued, as the presidential election was approaching. We can see the close link between the federal government and the Mexican central bank in the Mexican central bank’s constitution: “the President of the Republic will appoint the Governor of the Bank, who shall preside over the Board of Governors” (Constitution of Bank of Mexico, 2002)[3]. Since the president does not need his appointments to be ratified, he can choose puppets who always do what he requests, turning the bank into little more than a political tool.
In 1988 newly elected President Carlos Salinas and his cabinet adopted a “crawling peg” to the dollar in order to fight inflation (Wise, p.44, 2000)[4]. In the beginning everything seemed good. During the first four years, the strong peso attracted much foreign investment (Wise, p.45, 2000). Because of this, the Mexican currency became stronger and most Mexicans were requesting loans and buying imports. However, the high levels of capital inflow were decreasing and it was difficult to keep the peso at a high value. To worsen matters, starting in 1993 there was an increase in political instability —especially the uprising of the Chiapas revolutionary group EZLN, and the assassination of the PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. This, combined with clumsy government financial announcements unfavorable to investors led to speculative pressure and began an outflow of currency (Murder, Money, & Mexico 2000[5] and Wise 2000).
In late 1993, the central bank was aware that its pegged currency was declining heavily in comparison to the dollar (“Why Did the Peso Collapse”, 1995).[6]
Because of the apparent lack of rule of law and fragile currency and the attractive interest rates in the established United States financial market, investors made a “flight to quality” with their money (Wise, p.45, 2000). However, the central bank continued with its peg by spending their savings, increasing the interest rates, and asking for loans. Nevertheless, the final straw was drawn in December of 1994 when the bank devalued its currency by 15% (Wise, p.44, 2000). Eventually, the central bank had to simply float the currency resulting in a drop from approximately 3 pesos to 1 dollar to 6 pesos to 1 dollar (Wise, p.53-55, 2000). When Zedillo, the PRI candidate, won the presidential elections, the bank devalued because it could no longer uphold the peg but had achieved its political goal.
Asia
The lead up to the devaluation of the Thai baht on July 2, 1997 reveals dramatic structural problems and a central bank doggedly opposed to following intenational advice to abandon its unrealisticly strong peg to the dollar. Thailand’s economy was hampered by the effects of a burst real estate bubble, namely an exceedingly large amount of bad debt within its domestic banking infrastructure (Blustein 1997)[7]. It was also facing declining exports, coinciding with the dramatic appreciation of the baht caused by rising American interest rates.
Its domestic financial situation was by far the worst anywhere in Southeast Asia (“Unpegged” 1997)[8], drawing the attention of the IMF as early at 1996 with private warnings to loosen the dollar peg and control domestic spending. The baht was overvalued, as it had appreciated far more than was justified by its economic fundamentals (Delhaise 1998)[9]. Concerns about the overvaluation were reflected in the financial industry and the monetary authorities of neighboring countries. Regrettably, officials in Thailand did not share these worries and stubbornly wasted international reserves to maintain the artificially high value of the baht (Delhaise 1998). Thailand’s exchange rate rigidity was greater than any other country’s in the region; most of the other pegs involved a basket of currencies placing a great deal more weight on the yen than on the dollar, better reflecting trade patterns within the region. However, the Thai monetary authorities refused to give up the dollar peg. A great deal of the responsibility for this can be placed elective government officials, as they were determined to maintain the peg (“Bailing and Failing” 1997)[10] even as the economic conditions justifying its existence ceased to exist.
This led to quiet discord among the central bankers of Southeast Asia as the baht came under speculative attack on May 15th and 16th 1997. They had entered into agreements during the proceeding two years to aid each other in the case of speculative attack on their currencies. Even though the level of agreed-upon support was relatively small, the other countries’ monetary authorities resented expending any of their value hard currency reserves to help defend a currency whose domestic monetary authorities had so dramatically mismanaged (“The Baht Spills Over” 1997)[11].
Thailand managed to survive the speculative attack in the middle of May by expending its currency reserves, taking advantage of the aid coming from the other central banks in the region, and forcing its banks to agree not to grant any loans in baht to foreign speculative forces. While this strategy proved successful and in fact generated substantial losses for a number of large-scale speculators, it also brought an even higher degree of exchange inflexibility, a phenomenon obviously not sustainable in the long term.
Argentina
Argentina has a history of having constant currency devaluations and high inflation. In 1988 the Argentinean peso was one of the worst currencies in Latin America. However, in 1991 President Carlos Menem and his staff tried to change all this by adopting a one to one peg to the US dollar. The immediate results of this action were zero inflation, a strong currency, and capital inflow. However, this market was highly volatile as Argentina had renounced its monetary policy and exchange-rate policy to outside events (“A Decline Without Parallel” 2002).[12] Martin Feldstein claims that the main causes of the devaluation were an overvalued fixed exchange rate and an excessive amount of foreign debt (Feldstein 2002)[13]. Furthermore,
because the exchange rate was fixed at too high a level, Argentina exported too little and imported too much. This trade imbalance made it impossible for the country to earn the foreign exchange it needed to pay the interest on its foreign debt. Instead, Argentina had to borrow to meet those interest payments, causing the debt to grow ever larger. The country's foreign debt, most of which was owed by the central and provincial governments, eventually reached 50 percent of GDP by late 2001 and included $30 billion due in 2002. Once it finally became clear that Argentina could no longer borrow to roll over those debts and pay the interest, Buenos Aires was forced to default and to devalue the peso (Feldstein 2002).
Although at many points in the mid 1990s it seemed that the Argentinean economy was flourishing, it experienced four shocks effecting the currency: In 1998 “prices for Argentina's commodities stopped rising; the cost of capital for emerging economies began to go up; the dollar appreciated against other currencies; and Brazil, Argentina's main trading partner, devalued” (“A Decline Without Parallel” 2002). At this point, it seemed inevitable that devaluation had to occur. However, the central bank still held off devaluation. At least part of the reason for this delay comes from the government’s “rigid institutional fixed-rate commitment,” in the terminology of Frankel (1999).[14] This commitment had been the centerpiece of a successful Argentinean economic policy throughout the 1990s, and officials were naturally hesitant to part with it. As a last attempt to neutralize its currency uncertainty, the Argentinean government asked for a 22 billion dollar loan in 2001 as well as extracting 15 billion from local banks (“A Decline Without Parallel” 2002). However, this was not enough to battle the effects of the currency and they had to devalue, floating their currency on January 6, 2002.
Analytical Background
The determination of the time at which monetary authorities choose to devalue their nation’s currency is a complex process. First, there must be devaluation pressure, and the historical background of the four crises being investigated clearly reveals the presence of such pressure in each case. Stemming from imbalances in the economic fundamentals in the respective economies, global investors and financial interests sensed that the currencies’ fixed exchange rates might become unsustainable.
When the presence of pressure to devalue manifests itself, any central bank faces a critical choice: whether or not to attempt a defense of its currency in order to retain its fixed exchange structure. The central banks in the four situations under investigation here all chose to attempt defenses of their currencies.
This fact should indicate that they believed it was in the best interests of their economies to try to avoid devaluation; however, this need not be the case. For example, an export-driven economy could profit handsomely by devaluing its currency as exports would increase substantially. However, any individual or entity within a country that has loans denominated in a foreign currency inherently opposes devaluation as it will make the debts they carry much more difficult to retire as the purchasing power of their money will decrease. In the evaluation of the central banks, harming such borrowers within their borders would expose their economies to more harm than the good that could be achieved through export growth should a devaluation take place. This is part of the reason they chose to defend their currencies.
However, there were other factors at work; political authorities were predisposed to keeping the fixed exchange rate structure in place. The reasons for this were diverse: affinity to monetary union in Britain, political advantage in Mexico, an extremely difficult or impossible to justify affection to the current peg structure in Thailand, and a similar, albeit easier to justify, desire to maintain an exchange rate system that had greatly helped the economy of Argentina. These views fit together with the desire to maintain the political support of the large segments of the population with interests vested against devaluation. The government understands that the people will politically support those who deliver economic performance beneficial to them.
Analysis
In all four crises in the scope of this study, the central bank only devalued its currency when it had no ability to defend it further. This happened because the monetary authorities gave in to the short term economic considerations of the government and the people instead of acting for the greater long run economic good. With perfect hindsight, the decision to defend the currency would not have been made in any of the cases because a possibly smaller devaluation at the very beginning would have conserved the country’s financial reserves. This conclusion applies even with the government’s close connection to monetary policy since the government would have to accept the reality of devaluation. However, in the real world the end result cannot be known in advance, so the interests of politics resulted in policies of currency defense given the political interests in remaining within the pegged system and preventing devaluation.
If devaluation persists for a period of time, an independent monetary authority would come to realize that prospects for successfully defending the currency are very unfavorable, so it would accept devaluation to avoid the massive expenditure that is likely if the attempt at defense is to continue. However, the political and popular influences come into play here, forcing monetary policy to continue opposing devaluation, even at the expense of the greater long run loss of major devaluation and depletion of the country’s financial resources. The government, willing to do anything to prevent the devaluation that will undoubtedly weaken its basis of political support, acts in this way because accepting the long run optimal solution of early devaluation is simply untenable, as even a small devaluation will too significantly erode its political support The government maintains this path because of the possibility that at any time the devaluation pressure may subside, allowing the country to avoid the unfavorable outcome of devaluation all together.
For an example of this, consider a country Ù with a pegged currency which begins to face devaluation pressure. To overcome this pressure, it could devalue on day 1. However, it can also wait until day 2, receiving a possibility that the pressure will subside on its own in return for expending some of its foreign exchange reserve and the possibility of greater devaluation in the end should the pressure continue. The only way to avoid devaluation is to take the second option. Assuming that devaluation pressure does not then subside, a similar choice is presented: devalue now or wait until day 3, receiving another possibility, slightly smaller than the first because of incremental decay in economic fundamentals, that the pressure may terminate on its own while accepting more reserve expenditure and the possibility of greater devaluation. The only way to prevent devaluation if the devaluation pressure does not subside on its own is to accept the option of continuing until the next day. If the pressure never subsides, the result will be the complete depletion of foreign reserves and the largest possible devaluation. These are the consequences of the short term outlook maintained by political authorities to further their constant interest of maintaining political support. The optimal outcome that would have been implemented by a long run economic minded monetary authority is lost in favor of the vastly inferior outcome of a political outlook.
Conclusion
Political control of monetary policy in Britain, Mexico, Thailand, and Argentina led to a dramatically worse end economic outcome than the one that would have occurred had an independent central bank been in control of monetary policy. Its long run outlook would have caused it to accept the inevitability of devaluation at a point before the complete exhaustion of currency reserves, resulting in the economically optimal outcome. However, political pressures intervened bringing the least economically desirable outcome to the devaluation pressure each country faced.
This finding leads to an obvious suggestion for future monetary policy in countries in fixed exchange rate systems. It is essential to have monetary authorities who can work without the influence of political forces. This requires restraining any tradition of political involvement in monetary policy and establishing independent central bankers. Ways to achieve this independence include appointing professional economists based on their economic skills, not political affiliation, to govern the central bank. These governors should have long terms in office and be limited to one term each to free them from the pressure to obey political whim to maintain their post.
Independent monetary authorities would implement the policies that are in the best interest of the economy over the long term, rather than being sidetracked by the shortsighted demands of daily politics. This will ensure that the negative outcomes of delayed devaluation can be avoided in the future.

Works Cited
“Bailing and Failing.” The Economist. 26 June 1997.

“The Baht Spills Over.” The Economist. 22 May 1997.


Blustein, Paul. “Thais’ Reluctance to Act Added to Currency Crisis.” Washington Post.
2 August 1997. srv/business/longterm/asiaecon/stories/thai080297.htm>

Constitution of Bank of Mexico.


“A Decline Without Parallel.” The Economist. 28 February 2002.
.

Delhaise, Philippe. Asia in Crisis. John Wiley & Sons: Singapore, 1998.

Feldstein, Martin. Argentina's Fall: Lessons from the Latest Financial Crisis.
.

Frankel, Albert. Devalue Early Enough: Ten Lessons Learned from the Korean
Crisis. .

Lupsha, Peter. Money Murder & Mexico: A Chronology. PBS. 1999.
.

Millman, Gregory. The Vandal’s Crown. Free Press, New York 1995.

Tempterton, Paul. The European Currency Crisis. Probus, Cambridge. 1993.

Thompson, Helen. The British Conservative Governmetn and the Exchange
Rate Mechanism, 1979-1994. Wellington House, NY. 1996.

“Unpegged.” The Economist. 17 July 1997.


Wise, Carol. Exchange Rate Politics in Latin America. Brookings Institution
Press: Washington, 2000.

Zietz, Joachmin. “Why Did the Peso Collapse? Implications for American
Trade.” Global Commerce. Volume 1 Number 1. Summer1995.
Bellow is a piece from the National Association for self-esteem. "Educators, parents, business and government leaders agree that we need to develop individuals with healthy or high self-esteem characterized by tolerance and respect for others, individuals who accept responsibility for their actions, have integrity, take pride in their accomplishments, who are self-motivated, willing to take risks, capable of handling criticism, loving and lovable, seek the challenge and stimulation of worthwhile and demanding goals, and take command and control of their lives. In other words, we need to help foster the development of people who have healthy or authentic self-esteem because they trust their own being to be life affirming, constructive, responsible and trustworthy.

Unfortunately, efforts to convey the significance and critical nature of self-esteem have been hampered by misconceptions and confusion over what is meant by the term “self-esteem.” Some have referred to self-esteem as merely “feeling good” or having positive feelings about oneself. Others have gone so far as to equate self-esteem with egotism, arrogance, conceit, narcissism, a sense of superiority, a trait leading to violence. Such characteristics cannot be attributed to authentic, healthy self-esteem, because they are actually defensive reactions to the lack of authentic self-esteem, which is sometimes referred to as “pseudo self-esteem.”

Individuals with defensive or low self-esteem typically focus on trying to prove themselves or impress others. They tend to use others for their own gain. Some act with arrogance and contempt towards others. They generally lack confidence in themselves ,often have doubts about their worth and acceptability, and hence are reluctant to take risks or expose themselves to failure. They frequently blame others for their shortcomings rather than take responsibility for their actions."

In conclusion let me We can all agree that corruption has been rampant in Sierra Leone and most politicians have taken into lying as convincing mechanism to elect or re-elect them to office. They go at length in promising what they cannot deliver while the situation remain deplorable. An eleven-years nonsensical brutal war has just been fought but it has been painful for them to say the truth about the reasons for war, corruption is still high, Freedom of Speech has not been free, the Rule of Law is sliding to none-existence fast, unemployment is high, encouragement and opportunity for education and the educated is high, the brains of the nation keep fleeing the country for safe havens and yet, we keep blaming the afflicted rather than the perpetrators, crime rate is high, national pride is gliding to self-absorption or the law of the jungle phenomena and so forth.
Therefore, my recommendation is that we first of all address the reasons for the problems that stem into the reasons for devaluation by educating the nation on the subject of self-esteem, starting with the leadership. Educating all about how other nations such as Uganda, Senegal, Sought Africa to name a few became success stories, to give reasons to investors to want to invest in Sierra Leone. The filth within the city will not help our Tourist Industry, the lack of electricity will not help productivity because only when there is energy can a force move or help the motility and mobility of a certain molecule.

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: Ojumiri Cole
To: All
Date Posted: 08:27:00 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:
"Now let us look at the way this specific debate is handled. Let us look at the caption:
The caption is "AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK."
Here we have digressed from the core of the matter to personalized attack."

I am sorry, Mr. bambay kamara, but I disagree. A challenge is not a personal attack if it it is directed at the VIEWS -- and not the person -- of the challengee.

I said Siera leoneans must challenge the IMF and the World bank to respond to Jalloh's VIEW that the devalauation the IMF got Bandele Stevens' APC to bring to salone is bad. That is not a personal attack, bra, so the mistake is yours.

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: FED UP
To: All
Date Posted: 08:28:05 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Bo clear out, you liar. I am new to this forum my foot. Hopeless man. Bootlicker number one. Go get a life.

Subject: Re: AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK
From: DEBATE NOR TO CUSS
To: All
Date Posted: 12:47:37 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:
If you think (I am asuming that you CAN think, LOL)the man is a "liar" then, for perhaps the first time in your vulgar life, tell the forum WHY you think (again making perhaps a wild assumption) so.

It not, vulgar man/woman, leave our forum in peace so people who can think can debate issues without vulgar intejections by a man like you without reason or rhyme. Bra, dat mean say, go find your level elsewhere. Did nor to topic for ruda. Lonta

Subject: HE HAS IMPLODED LIKE THE SLPP
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 05:56:31 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Geneticist Sentenced for Molesting Girl
By ROBERT JABLON, AP

AP
William French Anderson has been called the "father of gene therapy" for his work on a treatment that involves injecting healthy genes into sick patients.

Talk About It: Post Thoughts


LOS ANGELES (Feb. 2) - A world-renowned geneticist was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for molesting an employee's daughter who took martial arts classes at his home.

Many people, including a Nobel Prize winner, wrote letters in support of William French Anderson, Time magazine's runner-up for Man of the Year in 1995. But Judge Michael E. Pastor said he caused "incalculable" emotional damage to a victim he described as an insecure and trusting immigrant.

"Because of intellectual arrogance, he persisted and he got away with as much as he could," the judge said.

Anderson, 70, was convicted in July child molestation. He could have gotten 18 years behind bars.

Anderson has been called the "father of gene therapy" for his work on a promising but controversial experimental medical treatment that involves injecting healthy genes into sick patients.

He claimed to be the first person to successfully treat a patient with the therapy in 1990, though the claim has been disputed.

Prosecutors said Anderson molested the girl from 1997 to 2001, starting when she was 10.

Anderson watched intently as his victim, now 19, read a statement before he was sentenced.

"Roughly three years ago, I wanted to kill myself," she said. "I couldn't live with all the pain. ... He maliciously destroyed my world to fulfill his own sick pleasures."

The judge also ordered Anderson to pay her family about $52,000 in restitution for past therapy and cover the cost of any future treatment. He also imposed fines and fees of about $16,000.

Defense attorneys argued that Anderson was a friendly mentor to the girl and was being smeared by her mother, who wanted to assume Anderson's position as director of the Gene Therapies Laboratories at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.

In e-mails and a tape-recorded conversation played for jurors during the trial, the girl angrily confronted Anderson, who told the girl, "I just did it, just something in me was just evil."

In court, Anderson said he thought the confrontation was about the emotional abuse he had inflicted on her as he pressured her to do well in school.

"If you cause somebody to crash, flunk out, that's just evil," he said.

Anderson resigned from USC in September.

Subject: Too many lies
From: Freetown
To: All
Date Posted: 17:29:11 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ad05.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.100.199

Message:
I was at Sweizzy when Philip was arrested.Nobody abused his mother. Just that everybody was mad with the kind of arrest whereupon the police got blamed for receiving bribes to arrest the man. There are conflicting versions ,allthe same Philip was not treated badly, hence he agreed to be arrested. When they went to court, judge Fischer found out that the arrest warrant was illegal and freed the accused. I think Dr.Blyden, to me, is lying .

Subject: Re: Too many lies
From: BOTH PATHECTIC
To: All
Date Posted: 18:09:38 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Both Neville and Blyden are both pathectic people. They are both liars, and it is a pity that they are Sierra-Leoneans.

Subject: Re: Too many lies
From: NOT SWEISY
To: All
Date Posted: 17:52:11 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
How come you are posting from the US?mY ip DETECTOR SAYS YOU ARE POSTING FROM THE UNITED STATE.

Subject: Re: Too many lies
From: IP locator pass IP locator
To: All
Date Posted: 18:23:46 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
what if your IP locator needs a capenter? IP locators can be wrong depending on the site or software use. My IP locator tells me you are in New Jersey. Is that correct?

I agree that both nevelle and sylvia are corrupt and crazy "journalists".

Subject: Re: Too many lies
From: not Sweisy.
To: All
Date Posted: 18:25:59 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Yes, I am in New Jersey. Your software is working.

Subject: Re: Too many lies
From: Freetown
To: All
Date Posted: 19:40:05 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ad05.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.100.199

Message:
I am right in Freetown . Neville and Dr.Blyden are liars , you say , but so are some of you.Show my IP and prove me .

Subject: Re: Too many lies
From: IP Master
To: All
Date Posted: 20:02:27 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ad05.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.100.199

Message:
I tried to get your IP but this forum does not show it , except if the owners want . I tried to paste my result but was told do not paste spam here.

!

Subject: (1983-85) Served as Area Peace Corps in Sierra Leone.
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 17:17:38 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
Jemison, who received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from

Stanford and a doctorate in medicine from Cornell, was a general practitioner in Los

Angeles, Calif., before spending two-and-a-half years (1983-85) as Area Peace Corps

medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa.

Jemison served as a NASA astronaut for six years. On Sept. 12, 1992, Jemison blasted

into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, becoming the first woman of color to go

into space. As the science specialist on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a U.S./Japan joint

mission, she conducted experiments in life sciences, material sciences, and was a coinvestigator

of the Bone Cell research experiment.

Subject: Mr. Bockari's Almamata
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 16:59:18 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
Did you go to this school

Subject: Regentonians S.L.G.S.
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 16:56:31 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
I taught at this school in 1986.

Subject: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: ALPHA SAIDU BANGURA
To: All
Date Posted: 16:40:00 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: SAIDUBANGSO@AOL.COM
Entered From: c-68-84-136-128.hsd1.md.comcast.net at 68.84.136.128

Message:
In recent times the leadership of the APC has been going around Sierra Leone and out of Sierra Leone telling people that the SLPP intends to rig the next elections.That sounds very ridiculous to me because,
I dont know when the words"FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS" became part of the APC vocabulary.
With respect I ask my friends in the APC to go check the following public records:
(1)The SLPP conducted presidential and parliamentary
elections in 2002,and the SLPP also conducted local government elections all over the country(the APC won majority seats in Freetown and Makeni).In all of these elections,the SLPP,invited both foreign and local observers.After the elections the obsevers presented the international community with their reports and it stated that the elections were FREE AND FAIR.
My friends in the APC,That is who we are in the SLPP.Our party is the party of Sir Milton Margai,a man of integrity.
The APC conducted general elections in 1982 and 1986.Both elections were characterized by thruggry and violence.The candidates of the people were locked up in prison cells,while the candidates of the APC leadership (Pa Siaka and S.I.Koroma)were returned unopposed.The APC never encouraged observers (nation or international).
My friends in the APC,your party is the party of Pa Siaki,who is now the principal assistant to Satan(the enemy of mankind)in Hell fire.

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: Independent Man
To: All
Date Posted: 16:54:12 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: new-5000.cadence.com at 158.140.1.25

Message:
But the APC say they have changed. They say that all the people who wreaked the country and stole money are now in the SLPP camp. They say that the new SLPP is the old APC. What do you say to all this???

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: Papa Salone
To: All
Date Posted: 17:24:04 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ca07-ch01-bl09.va-ashburn0.sa.earthlink.net at 207.69.138.141

Message:
hmmmmmmmm.....do you mean people like:

Sama Banya
J B Dauda
Amara Bangali
Alusine Fofana
M K Suma
Lloyd During
Abdulai Timbo
Abdul Karim Koroma
Fillie Faboe
Sylbana Blameden(Former RUF now SLPP Press Oficer)
S B Marah
Victor Reider....just to name a few.

Did I hear you say ...oh Salone,God go hep we.

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: ALPHA SAIDU BANGURA
To: All
Date Posted: 10:41:39 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: SAIDUBANGSO@AOL.COM
Entered From: pool-72-83-112-156.washdc.fios.verizon.net at 72.83.112.156

Message:
Papa Salone,Please,permit me to once again point out that changing sides is not a crime.In the APC,corruption is the order of the day,before these people were accepted into the SLPP,they were all properly screened and rehabilitated because the SLPP has a zero tolerance for corruption.
Dont forget that when you are in Rome you must do as the Romans do.

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: Jarrett
To: All
Date Posted: 15:55:56 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cpe-024-211-143-096.nc.res.rr.com at 24.211.143.96

Message:
Dude,
The party is ruled by people.....we are not idiots for you to infer that just because this so-called thieves move to another party, that's a reason for them to stop something they have done for years.

Saida .....se dom bo...u nor know wetin u de talk

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: John E. Leigh
To: All
Date Posted: 09:52:49 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: johnernestleigh@yahoo.com
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Dear Papa Salone and others, please note that serving under the APC is quite defferent from serving under the SLPP. In our country, appointees tend to follow the leadership provided by their top party and government officials.

If a party's leaders were megalomaniac tribalistic marginalizers, kleptocratic poverty spreaders; practised wholesale corruption, favoritism and nepotism and were rubbishly Ekutayish, their followers will immitate them and do likewise - to the extreme deteriment of our country.

The above sort of behaviour cannot long endure within the SLPP. Hence APC transplants into SLPP have either modified their behaviour or they have been sidelined or merely quietly exist within the SLPP.

Subject: Re: For John Leigh
From: Your friends in High Places
To: All
Date Posted: 11:55:57 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
John
There are some posts that you need not involve yourself with particularly posts that emanate from this odious fellw called alpha saidu bangura. You may belong to the same party, but are light years apart in dignity and integrity. Stay away from his rah rah lest your rah rah becomes muted in the cacophony of his nonsensical "megalomaniac tribalistic marginalizers, kleptocratic poverty spreaders; practised wholesale corruption, favoritism and nepotism and were rubbishly Ekutayish (Teglomaism)

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 14:35:15 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.206

Message:
JL, I applaud your honesty and modesty for accepting that ".....APC transplants into SLPP have either modified their behaviour or they have been sidelined or merely quietly exist within the SLPP".

Would it be true then to say in your words that the SLPP is now full of reformed "megalomaniac tribalistic marginalizers, kleptocratic poverty spreaders; practised wholesale corruption, favoritism and nepotism and were rubbishly Ekutayish" members?

What type of counselling did they go through? Monkey nor dey lef im black han!! They could not stand Ernest's probity, and found soft landing in the SLPP. Birds of the same feather flock together. We are happy you've sidelined them but if you want the votes in 2007, you need to get rid of them.

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: John E. Leigh
To: All
Date Posted: 17:25:47 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: johnernestleigh@yahoo.com
Entered From: cache-rtc-ad05.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.100.199

Message:
No, no, no Mr. Brokeoseminister. That characterization refers to the culture which their APC former leaders (Stevens, S.I. Koroma, Momoh, etc.) bequeathed to underlings. The political culture they implanted in the APC graduates remains within that party.

And contrary to your claim, Mr. Ernest Koroma’s leadership has not yet conquered that culture. And based on what we are experiencing with the APC Mayor and City Council in Freetown, Mr. Koroma’s overall effectiveness is very low.

Some of the APC underlings who crossed over to the SLPP may still retain elements of the bad APC culture inculcated into them over the 24 years of APC incumbency. But these crossovers can't give effect to such culture much longer after re-admitted into the SLPP because most SLPPers won’t stand for it.

Moreover, some of the names you listed earlier as crossovers are in fact genuine original SLPP members who had no choice but to be in the APC because of the APC-imposed One-party system. Additionally, these original SLPPers had to partake of APC political culture if they were to politically survive. Otherwise, they would have been fired, jailed or even executed.

But let's face it your key point is a very good one: bad culture that is personally profitable but nationally destructive is very difficult to get rid off and some of the APC crossovers tried their luck to continue business as usual but were eventually caught and removed.

Take a case I was involved with beginning in 2002. Some SLPP returnees who apparently must have retained elements of APC culture including "megalomaniac tribalistic marginalizers, kleptocratic poverty spreaders; practised wholesale corruption, favoritism and nepotism and were rubbishly Ekutayish", were elected to SLPP's national executive committee in 1996 & 2002. But in 2005, some were voted out in anger. Why?

I had run into one of them in 2002 when I publicly complained at the Bo Convention that someone purporting to represent the USA branch in Bo was NOT the legitimate delegate of that branch. I was told to "sit down, shut up and go back to America" by an APC returnee. The bogus delegate was then unfairly - in my view - given the party symbol and went on to win a seat in parliament at a safe constituency on a proportional representation vote. SLPP rank and file members complained and complained but the APC transplant couldn’t care less.

Not only was he voted out in Makeni last year – and he was not the only returnee cast out of office - the rules have changed for the award of the party’s symbol. No more is this symbol dished out at party headquarters on the basis of favoritism or nepotism or corrupt practices. Every contestant must henceforth go to his/her constituency and explain to the local membership the reasons why s/he must be awarded the party’s symbol. APC returnees are adjusting nicely to such standard SLPP management practices. But it is not easy. Thank you. - JL

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: MOI KIBAKI
To: All
Date Posted: 14:47:26 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
MOI KIBAKI, a one time vice president to Arap Moi in Kenya was hailed as a reformer and democrat when he won the elections in 2002. His most vocal critic, Raila Odinga who is a front runner in the coming elections, also served as a minister in Moi's discredited gov't.

He is now one of the most popular politicians in Kenya. Although Kibaki has come under a lot of criticisms, his style of running a gov't is completely different from Moi. He does not arrest his opponenents, and Kenya is now more democratic than before. Remember that this man was Moi's vice for a long time. People adapt to the behaviour of the parties they join.

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: LIVE FOREVER
To: All
Date Posted: 14:43:15 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
"They could not stand Ernest's probity, and found soft landing in the SLPP. Birds of the same feather flock together"

Indeed, you are so right. I heard that Victor Foh passed Ernest's test with flying colours. What about Abu bakarr Jalloh, forner running mate to Ernest. The idiot was not a registered voter, but because of the crookedness 0of ernest and the APc, they wanted to make him his running mate. What an honest individual.Thank God for APC. LIVE FOREVER.

Subject: Re: LOOK WHO IS TALKING?
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 15:38:01 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.206

Message:
Thanks for agreeing with me that the SLPP has been infiltrated by turn coat politicians, who are enjoying the perks & privileges. Remeber, when Humpty Dumpty falls, all the king's men who licked their fingers from his droppings could not help Humpty Dumpty up again.

If your defence for the mass infusion by the SLPP of all these recycled politicians is to single out Victor Foh, are there any real ideological differences between the APC and the SLPP?

How can we trust politicians who change sides when the gravy boat swings from left to right? Are they party supporters on the basis of their political beliefs or are they simply there to line their pockets?

Every turn coat is motivated by higher perks, and the SLPP has scored well in rewarding them- do not ask me to name them.

Subject: It feels gooooood! Nacked Celebrities.
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 16:39:16 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
The Peace Corps is an independent United States federal agency. The Peace Corps was established by executive order on March 1, 1961 as a non-military response to the perceived threat of Chinese and Soviet communism in the Third World. The Peace Corps was authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961 with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Public Law 87-293). The Peace Corps Act declares the purpose of the Peace Corps to be: “to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.” More than 187,000 people have served as Peace Corps Volunteers in 139 countries.

The current director is Ron Tschetter, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in India during the 1960s.[1][2

Subject: Kabbah's Legacy: A peaceful and democratic Sierra Leone
From: SULAIMAN BANJA TEJAN-SIE II
To: All
Date Posted: 16:34:08 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Kabbah's Legacy: A peaceful and democratic Sierra Leone
By SULAIMAN BANJA TEJAN-SIE II
Feb 2, 2007, 18:45 Email this article
Printer friendly page
You May Click Here To Read or Discuss Views About This Article

INTRODUCTION

History will indubitably hold President Kabba as both the architect of peace in modern day Sierra Leone and the national leader who spearheaded the reforms necessary to strengthen and enhance our fledgling democracy. In achieving both feats he has demonstrated calm and patience often deemed as weakness and indecisiveness by his detractors. But Kabba needed to administer with caution, for he ruled in an era of war and sublime peace when the bulk of Sierra Leoneans were at their weakest and poorest, as a result of a decade of war and the combined effects of years of dictatorship and decadence. In this regard therefore his challenges, failings and triumphs should be analyzed against that hideous setting.

When Ahmad Tejan Kabba a retired senior international and national civil servant and a former diplomat with the United Nations took over power in 1996; our nation was in the heat of war with the economic machinery of state at a standstill, social injustice the norm, and blatant abuse of the basic rights of the citizenry a daily occurrence. For these poignant reasons, at the dawn of democracy the expectations of our people were very high and still remain high; because of our immediate horrible experiences both with the war and the bad leadership of the past. We therefore became impatient and very critical of our leaders and rightly so. In the event a lot was achieved for which together we have failed to credit ourselves both as governors and the governed.

PEACE AND NATIONAL SECURITY

In achieving peace there were the usual impediments, some for which the President was profoundly criticized and others for which he was heartily hailed. His persistence in seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis and exposing the vaulting ambition of Foday Sankoh to achieve power solely by the gun isolated the latter and created the opportunity to negotiate peace with his successor. His shortcomings during the period, according to his critics will include: the coup which was preventable according to intelligence divulged by him retrospectively, his signing the death warrants for the 1997 coupists and their military collaborators, forming an inclusive government with members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and marginalizing the military at the dawn of his tenure. Some of these condemnations were adequately considered and remedied in his second term as he builds a new modern democratic army capable and willing to defend our territorial integrity and a security apparatus that now guarantees the continued serenity of our burgeoning democratic state. The present moratorium on the death penalty and the ongoing debate on the subject will surely dissuade future governments from signing death warrants which will consequently lead to its eventual abolition. Therefore as future Sierra Leone reflects on the war, she will always remember the Kabba era that spearheaded the vanguard for peace and the engineer of a more secured and democratic Sierra Leone.

DEMOCRACY

The contributions of the Kabba administration towards the building of democratic Sierra Leone are immense. The two elections so far conducted by the regime – The 2002 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections and The 2004 Local Government Elections were all declared free and fair by both national and international observers. President Kabba himself has constitutionally stood down from contesting the next elections by vacating the leadership of his party a major plus in strengthening our budding democracy. The President’s commitment to the democratic process is further buttressed by the fact that he did not even attempt to meddle with our constitution to make way for a third term Presidency as has become the vogue in contemporary Africa.

Today freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of expression are at their best since independence, despite the challenges that subsist and the shortcomings of the administration. Today, we debate everything freely and healthily without recourse to violence. The democratic culture of agreeing to disagree has taken roots in the Kabba era, and the growing size of civil society groups especially human rights organizations is a living testimony to the fact. We are today debating the repeal of the draconian laws of yesteryears which includes the Criminal Libel Laws, the Death Penalty, and novelties like the Freedom of Information Act as a direct benefit of our democratic freedoms which were to a great extent upheld, promoted and respected during the Kabba era. The Kabba Government is not only partaking in the ongoing series of debates but has been the leading light in some.

POST WAR RECONSTRUCTION

For democracy to thrive our nation needed to urgently consolidate its new found peace starting with its post war reconstruction; as the end of our nation’s ten years onslaught made more visible the complete destruction of our nation’s infrastructure, which the Kabba government was commendably quick to respond to with the assistance of our development partners especially the EC and DFID in collaboration with the Breton Wood institutions.

The Kabba Government will be remembered for making significant strides in consolidating our five year old peace, for with the help of the international community they made considerable contribution to economic growth and stability through a programme of rehabilitation and maintenance of main roads; rehabilitation of school buildings, health facilities, and water and sanitation facilities destroyed during the war.

So far, 1,774 km of roads have been improved and resurfaced since 2003, 153 primary and secondary schools built or rehabilitated, and 76 health units and hospitals rehabilitated or constructed. The Tejan Kabba Government will also be revered for focusing on good governance and institutional support for the decentralization process; strengthening accountability mechanisms and public finance management systems and elections.

ANTI-CORRUPTION

The Kabba Government, most aware that corruption weakens investor and donor confidence and worsens the well-being of the population; in the post-conflict era took measures to address this threat through the creation of an Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) and also the introduction of a number of provocative reforms meant to reduce the opportunities for corruption.

Kabba’s anti corruption agenda in the medium term promotes accountability and transparency with greater emphasis on public institutions. So far five hundred (500) corruption related reports were made to the Anti – Corruption Commission, of which, forty two (42) cases were forwarded to the investigations Department. In 2005, a total of fifty (50) cases were investigated, and twenty – two of these referred to Court. Of this twenty –two seven convictions were secured. To ensure further transparency in the prosecution of corruption cases, a three- person committee was set up comprising two Special Prosecutors attached to the ACC and a State Counsel. The decision to prosecute is now been determined by this committee.

Serious challenges regarding the Commission’s independence and efficacy continues to linger, with the opposition seizing at every moment to lash out at the government’s efforts which they often criticize as selective and ineffectual. Despite these criticisms and shortcomings which are the normal teething problems of audacious initiatives like the ACC; this scheme and its future success or otherwise will always be credited to the Kabba Administration.

PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

The Tejan Kabba government realizing that the future success of our nation lies in a restructured and effective public financial management system; made significant progress in implementing its Public Financial Management reform programme by adopting the following strategies:-

· Improving the legal framework for the budget process.

· Improving policy making and budget planning.

· Strengthening budget execution.

· Improving capacity for accounting and reporting

· Improving the effectiveness of monitoring and control systems.

· Designing and supporting financial management systems for local governments and

· Reforming the public procurement system.

To accomplish these several gains the Kabba government significantly strengthened the legal and regulatory framework for public financial management through the enactment of the Government Budgeting and Accountability Act 2005, the Public Procurement Act 2006 and the ongoing preparation of regulations for the implementation of these Acts.

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE TRACKING SURVEYS (PETS)

The Tejan Kabba government now regularly conducts public expenditure tracking surveys as a key instrument in monitoring the flow of public resources from the Central Ministry to districts and service delivery facilities at the community level. In August 2006 President Kabba’s government approved the PETS Report on the Financial Year 2004 selected expenditures in Health, Education and Agriculture.

Effective since 2006, it is his government’s policy that PETS is conducted twice every year.

POVERTY REDUCTION

In its quest to reduce the prevalent poverty in post-war Sierra Leone, the Tejan Kabba administration established the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper which analyzed poverty to underpin policy design in that area. The paper confirmed that poverty is widespread and profound. About 26 percent of the population is food poor, and cannot afford a basic diet; 70 percent live in poverty. There is wide disparity in poverty’s geographical distribution: although about 66 percent of the 4.8 million population live in rural areas, three quarters of the poor are rural. In the poorest districts, where war destroyed tree crops or which relied solely on poor subsistence farming and artisanal mining, more than 8 out of every 10 people live in poverty. Sierra Leone’s poverty profile proves that the main poverty indicators are insufficient food, poor housing, poor health, and high infant and maternal mortality rate, high illiteracy, limited access to clean water, and lack of money.

President Kabba, in this regard believes that pro-poor economy-wide growth is central to achieving food security and job creating opportunities, particularly for the teeming number of unemployed youth in the urban and rural areas.

PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

Recognizing the centrality of the private sector to its poverty reduction efforts in post conflict Sierra Leone, the President’s focus in recent times is to support the private sector to become a central pillar for growth, job creation, increasing incomes and consequently reducing poverty on a sustainable basis. His overall objective of intervention in the private sector is to create an enabling environment for private sector development.

To promote a conducive atmosphere for greater investment, the administration will be fondly remembered for taking the following initiatives:

· Enacted an investment code in 2004 based on international best practices.

· Worked on developing a new Company’s Act, a Bankruptcy Act,

A Securities Act and a venture capital scheme.

. Developing a competition policy.

. Implementing recommendations relating to business registration, regulatory costs of operations, investment and export promotions made to make investing in Sierra Leone more attractive, and undertaken by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

. Reducing the cost of importation and promoting exports, the highest tariff band was removed in 2004 and in January 2005, Sierra Leone became the first ECOWAS member state to adopt the Common External Tariff (CET) which will be fully implemented by the end of

2007.

. Establishing the National Coordinating Committee on Trade in May 2004 to brainstorm on trade policy issues and hold regular meetings with the private sector as a means of information sharing and sensitization on those issues.

· Holding the first annual investment forum with a very good participation from local and international business community.

· Improving the coordination of trade policy formulation and implementation, a policy planning and research division was established at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2004 to provide expert advise on trade issues and facilitate inter- ministerial coordination.

AGRICULTURE

The fundamental objective of President Kabba’s agriculture policy is to improve on food availability and increase agricultural export earning. In support of this objective, his government provided agricultural inputs which included 3168 metric tones of seed rice, 115 tractors, 8 combine harvesters and 6 mobile threshers to farm families nationwide.

As a result of this initiative rice paddy production increased by 4.82% between 2004 (526,619 metric tones) and 2005 (552,000 metric tones) with self sufficiency in rice increasing from 60% in 2004 to 69% in 2005. The production of other food crops (cassava, sweet potato, and maize) has also been increasing. In terms of progress towards meeting the PRSP targets set for 2005, the actual production of the four monitored crops exceeded the targets. These support efforts continued in 2006.

FISHERIES

The short and medium term objective of Kabba’ism in this area is increase supply of fish to the domestic market and for export. This strategy involved support for fishermen and women engaged in both the artisanal and aquaculture sub-sectors with essential inputs and skills training in processing.

In this regard, the Kabba Government in collaboration with donors trained 2,500 fish processors in fishing communities nationwide. In addition, 12 smoke fish houses were constructed. A Comprehensive Fish Policy was also developed and adopted. This led to increases in both Industrial and Artisanal fish production levels.

MINING

The Tejan Kabba led government’s wide-ranging aim in the mining sector primarily involved the restoration of the significance of this sector in the economy through increased output, employment, fiscal revenues and foreign exchange earnings.

In this regard the Kabba government embarked on:

· Reactivating existing rutile, bauxite, iron ore and diamond mines.

· Promoting the development of an existing pipeline of identified promising deposits, and

· Promoting exploration of favourable geological target areas to develop and maintain adequate pipelines of promising prospects that can be proposed to potential investors.

For the small scale and artisanal mining sub sector, the goal is to improve the overall standard of living of miners – who are among the poorest people in society.

President Kabba’s Government succeeded in facilitating the re-opening of the Sierra Rutile Mines in 2005, by securing an EU grant of €25 million and then lending it to the Company. Since then production has started and export of rutile is ongoing. Government also provided the necessary support for the reopening of Bauxite mining at Mokanji. The restart of the mining of Rutile and Bauxite directly created an estimated 1400 (one thousand and four hundred) new jobs in the mining areas.

In the case of diamonds, official diamond exports increased from $126 million in 2004 to $141 million in 2005, with Kimberlite accounting for $113 million while alluvial mining accounted for the rest. The increase in official diamond exports in recent years was facilitated by the Kabba government’s participation in the Certificate of Origin and Kimberly Certification processes.

President Kabba approved a Core Mineral Policy, whose main objective is to create an internationally competitive and investor-friendly business environment in this sector. In its bid to attract investment through a transparent and conducive environment a review of the Mining Laws is ongoing and will be completed before his term ends. In addition a national cadastre installed in 2004 is now been piloted in the Kono District with a view of replicating it nationwide. This new system will facilitate revenue generation within the sector, especially for license fees and surface rents. It will also introduce more transparency in production, exports and revenues.

The mining sector remains a primary source of foreign exchange, fiscal revenue and employment. However, this sector is still beset with a number of challenges including the development of effective strategies to expand existing mining operations and to further diversify mineral production, putting in place measures to maximize fiscal revenues from the sector and how to integrate the informal mining activities into the formal sector.

To address these challenges future governments should seek to improve sectoral governance and the institutional capacity to deliver effective public services in the mining sector.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Kabba’s chief priority in the medium term is the rehabilitation and expansion of the road network and providing energy for the expanding population. In 2004, 1350 km of gravel feeder roads were constructed and maintained. This increased to 1,874 km by mid 2006. Also, the number of all weather trunk roads constructed and maintained increased from 581 km in 2004 to 1,774 km by mid-2006. 375 km of primary roads and 2,722 km of secondary roads were maintained nationwide. Within the same period, the percentage of feeder roads in good condition increased by ten percent.

In 2006, the Masiaka-Makeni road was upgraded, the Pendembu- Kailahun-Koindu road received spot regravelling. In fact the Pamlap-Kamakwie and Koidu-Kurubola roads are in effective user conditions. Work has commenced in earnest on the Masiaka-Bo road. Work will soon commence on the Lumley-Tokeh axis of the Peninsula road and the Hillside road.

In the energy sector, to increase power generation in the Western Area, a six Megawatts generating plant has been installed and commissioned. This has increased the installed capacity in Freetown to 31.33 megawatts from 26.5 megawatts in 2004. A twenty five man Moroccan technical maintenance team is presently in Freetown to rehabilitate the generating capacity of the Kingtom Power plant. This team has also rehabilitated the Sulzer 5 and the Mitsubishi generating plants. In addition, this team is also in the process of rehabilitating and repairing the distribution lines and street lights in the capital, Freetown. The Moroccan government and BADEA are providing the capital city with an additional 20 Megawatts by the first quarter of 2007 to finally put to rest the vexed question of electricity supply to the people of Freetown.

With work on the Bumbuna hydro electric dam almost completed and test runs expected in June/July this year and with government expected to sign a management contract with the Moroccans for the efficient management of the National Power Authority; Sierra Leoneans would hardly forget Kabba’s contribution towards generating electricity for the people of this tiny nation.

The Kabba Government has also entered agreement as far back as 2004 with a British energy firm Alternative Use Plc that will generate electricity using waste. This project when fully implemented will provide employment for at least 1500 people. In addition they are ready to provide wind assisted power as supplementary lighting immediately.

At the regional level, the Bo-Kenema Power Station (BKPS) is been rehabilitated to extend electricity to towns and villages in and around the Bo/Kenema vicinity. Also, a 500 KVA generating plant with associated transmission and distribution network has been installed and commissioned in Pujehun district.

Furthermore, an IMW generating plant to provide electricity for residents in Makeni has been installed while the associated transmission and distribution network is been rehabilitated.

CHALLENGES

Despite the significant gains made by the Kabba administration in the area of infrastructural development major challenges subsist: POWER: The poor performance of the National Power Authority (NPA) is one such major challenge which is attributed to a number of factors including poor maintenance, lack of investment, theft, and excess workforce. There are also fundamental weaknesses in their accounting procedures particularly for revenue collection. The Kabba led government, also encouraged Private sector investment in the power sector. To this end President Kabba enacted the National Electricity Act. This new enactment is expected to promote public and private investment in the power sector. Government will shortly adopt a medium term power sector strategy based on public and private investments, regional integration and supporting policy reforms. ROADS: The continued poor conditions of the road network are a constraint on growth and poverty reduction. To ensure periodic and sustainable road maintenance, government established a Road Maintenance Fund financed by a fuel levy. However, the sustainability and effectiveness of the maintenance program is being undermined by requests for unprogrammed maintenance, and weak capacity at the Sierra Leone Roads Authority. To overcome these problems future governments should remain committed to restructuring the SLRA. Also, the agreed draft Road

Maintenance Institutional Action Plan should be implemented.

PORTS: The Sierra Leone Ports Authority suffered from severe operational inefficiencies resulting in low productivity and poor financial performance in past years. To resolve this foible government took appropriate steps to improve the operational efficiency of the Ports by seeking technical assistant support from the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority. Efforts are also underway for transforming the Ports into a landlord Ports Authority.

To further improve the efficiency of the SLPA operations, the Kabba government embarked on privatizing some of the non-core activities of the Sierra Leone Ports Authority. Government in this regard is presently implementing the following actions with technical assistance support from the World Bank:

· Divesting the ownership and control of the slipway and the ferry under a management contract.

.Privatization of the Container Technical Concession and Break Bulk Operations through concessions and

enses.

· Restructuring the Sierra Leone Ports Authority as a landlord Ports Authority.

EDUCATION

President Kabba’s priority area of concern in the education sector is to expand access and to improve the quality of basic education with a focus on the girl child.

In this regard, government made great strides in the construction of new schools and the rehabilitation of those damaged during the war.

In 2005 alone, government constructed 200 primary schools, 30 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and 30 Technical Vocational institutes. It provided fee subsidies to all female pupils in the Eastern and Northern Provinces. Also, government provided 100,000 sets of teaching and learning materials and trained 1,000 unqualified and untrained teachers. Government continues to pay fees for students taking national examinations (NPSE, BECE, and WASCE) and fees subsidy for those in primary schools.

Consequently, net primary enrolment increased to 87 percent. The number of pupils passing the NPSE exams also increased. Correspondingly, the number of girls passing NPSE also increased from 15,176 in 2004 to 20,062 in 2005 (an increase of about 33%). JSS net enrollment rate increased from 13% in 2004 to 44% in 2005. Primary completion rate increased from 60% in 2004 to 73% in 2005 (calculated 6 year interval).

In 2005 a new University’s Act was passed which allows for more than one public university and the opportunity for creating private tertiary institutions. Courses in these institutions vary from the humanities, law, medicine, technical and vocational options resulting in 200 % increase enrollment in three years.

Also, the establishment of polytechnics has strengthened the middle manpower deficiencies whilst standardizing the exams and output. The Kabba administration has included health education in the portfolio of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) which allows for diplomas and degree options in Nursing and other para - medical options. This initiative further ensures that every student is able to achieve the best of his or her ability and in future contribute to nation building.

With technical and financial support from DfID in 2002 and again in 2005, management and functional reviews of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) was conducted. An Education Management Information System is being established to meet information needs in planning, monitoring and evaluation of the education system. The MEST would have prepared a ten year sector plan by the end of the Kabba era.

HEALTH

President Kabba’s objective in this sector is to reduce Under Five and Maternal mortality rates by expanding access to and quality health services with focus on the following:

· Construction and rehabilitation of health facilities nationwide;

· Training of health workers and traditional birth attendants;

· Expanding immunization coverage and

· Providing Insecticide Treated Bed Nets (ITB)

These measures have resulted in reductions in infant, under five and maternal mortality rates. Efforts have also been made to control the spread of HIV/AIDS by intensifying preventive measures and providing support to those affected by the disease.

CHALLENGES

The health sector in Sierra Leone was adversely affected by the country’s 11 years civil conflict. As a result, Sierra Leone has some of the worst health indicators in the world. Maternal Mortality rate (2,000 deaths per 100,000) live births) and Under Five Mortality rate (284 per 1,000 births), malnutrition among under five children with 23% underweight.

The Tejan Kabba government in line with its Poverty Reduction Strategy remained committed to increasing the population’s access to a comprehensive package of affordable essential health care.

Public Service delivery included the following:

· Pre-natal care and delivery care,

· Management of high risk pregnancies,

· Well-baby services

· Vaccinations

· Family Planning,

· Control of priority communicable diseases; including malaria, tuberculosis, onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasi as well as HIV and other transmitted infections

· treatment for such common affliction as diarrhea and respiratory infections,

· prevention of nutrition deficiencies particularly among infants, young children and pregnant and lactating women.

Kabba’s government’s ongoing decentralization process is ensuring that these services are in the near future offered by decentralized entities through their primary and secondary level health facilities in line with President Kabba’s over arching objective of decentralizing the provision of basic services to the population.

PUBLIC ENTERPRISE REFORM

The weak performance and management of key public enterprise account for the poor delivery of utility services and this has been a major obstacle to private sector development and hence economic growth and job creation. The key public enterprises includes the utility companies i.e. The National Power Authority, Guma Valley Water Company and the Sierra Leone Telecommunications Company (SIERRATEL). Others include the Sierra Leone Ports Authority (SLPA) and the Sierra Leone Roads Authority.

In recognition of these problems, President Kabba set up a National Commission for Privatization (NCP) in 2002 with the mandate to divest government ownership and control over these and other public enterprises. The Commission completed its divestiture plan in September 2003 and issued a revised plan in December 2004.

ACCESS TO FINANCE

Difficulties in accessing bank credit and the rudimentary state of the capital market are major constraints to private sector investment and hence job creation during the Kabba era. These are due mainly to high lending interest rates, requirements for collateral, incomplete property rights and weak judicial system.

Even though interest rates are determined by market forces, the spread between lending and deposit rates remains high. Future governments should therefore continue with the reforms of the financial sector with a view to addressing the above mentioned challenges and enhancing domestic savings mobilization and investment. In particular, key legislations should be brought to Parliament including the Payment Systems Act, the Companies Act, the Bankruptcy Act and the Law on the Commercial Use of land before the end of the Kabba era, the first in the second republic.

CONCLUSION

The account enumerated so far shows the remarkable progress made by the Kabba regime. President Kabba has indeed mapped out the strategic path for managing the Sierra Leone Government and delivering the urgently needed development. A host of programmes have been negotiated with available resources, institutions set up to support the programmes while implementation of these programmes is urgently awaited. With the country’s external debt almost wiped off, there are freed up financial resources secured under the HIPC Initiative for the next 15 years. Several projects have been signed up for roads, energy and power, health and sanitation improvement to list a few. This country is very impatient with any further delays in ensuring prudent and genuine implementation and use of these resources.

The challenge going forward therefore is not direction. We have strategic direction. The challenge is approach to implementation of the strategic direction. This country, all will agree, has the ugly reputation for weak implementation of programmes. We have taken three decades to complete the Bumbuna project, for example. Certainly, we are tired of this approach.

We cannot wait any longer. The watch word going forward should be "effectiveness and efficiency" in delivering the strategic direction for Sierra Leone’s development. Anything short of this should receive "zero tolerance".

Concluding therefore, from a Kabba led "peaceful and democratic Sierra Leone with strategic direction for development", Sierra Leone under the next government should move to a "Zero tolerance for effectiveness and efficiency in delivering the strategic development agenda of the country".

Subject: Re: Kabbah's Legacy: A peaceful and democratic Sierra Leone
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 05:48:09 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"Sierra Leone under the next government should move to a "Zero tolerance for effectiveness and efficiency in delivering the strategic development agenda of the country".

Maybe it should be Zero tolerance for INEFFECTIVENESS and INEFFICIENCY

Subject: ULAA Denounces Pres. Sirleaf For Role In Constitutional Saga
From: FPA Staff Report
To: All
Date Posted: 15:27:27 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
ULAA Denounces Pres. Sirleaf For Role In Constitutional Saga
02/02/07 - FPA Staff Report

ULAA president Emmanuel Wettee

The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) expresses its profound disappointment in, and condemnation of, President Johnson-Sirleaf for throwing herself into the fray, first by affixing her signature to a document produced in contempt of the Supreme Court, and then second, by proceeding to implement the stipulations of that “joint resolution.”

Supporting Documents:

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

ULAA says it views with interest recent developments in Liberia relative to the attempt to remove from office, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edwin Melvin Snowe by the majority of the members who had assembled at the Unity Conference Center in Virginia, Montserrado County, Liberia.

In a position statement signed by ULAA secretary general Isaac Saye Zawolo and approved by its National President Emmanuel Wettee, the Diaspora organization says it notes with serious disappointment the unfolding of the process that led the majority of the members of the House to continue in their proceedings in clear defiance of a Supreme Court Writ of Prohibition which had commanded them to “stay all further proceedings until otherwise ordered.”

“Even more disappointing is the fact, as clear as it was, that the aggrieved House majority members acted in defiance of a standing Supreme Court order, the President of the Republic of Liberia, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, chose to ignore the fact of this defiance and affixed her signature to a document dubbed “joint resolution” which was a product of the defiant sessions carried on by the legislators meeting in Virginia, thus drawing the presidency into the unfortunate saga.”

ULAA says though it has always maintained the concept of the rule of the majority, making the removal of the Speaker to be within the domain of the members of the House, it has persistently advanced that such rights cannot be exercised in lieu of a breach of our organic law and the standing rules of the House.

The Diaspora umbrella union for several Liberian organizations strongly denounces as a blatant miscalculation, an affront to the rule of law, and a travesty of democracy, the decision of the majority members of the House to ignore a Supreme Court stay order and persist in their proceedings unperturbed.

“In equal measure, ULAA expresses its profound disappointment in, and condemnation of, President Johnson-Sirleaf for throwing herself into the fray, first by affixing her signature to a document produced in contempt of the Supreme Court, and then second, by proceeding to implement the stipulations of that “joint resolution.”

ULAA notes that by signing the Virginia-produced resolution and then proceeding to Virginia to deliver her State of the National Address in full view of a standing Court order, the President willfully compromised herself by making herself an accomplice in the act of defiance to the Supreme Court.

The Union is of the considered view that this reckless act of defiance and disrespect, on the part of the President and the Virginia-based legislators, is pregnant with an invitation to anarchy which could potentially wreck the fragile hopes of ordinary Liberians. Furthermore, the Union finds it inconceivable that the President and the Virginia-based legislators, who all take pride in their commitment to upholding the rule of law, would elect to undermine one of the cardinal tenets of our system of democracy, the independence of the Judiciary.

The Union finds it unfathomable the rationale for the President’s decision and wonders as to the message her Government intends to convey by such willful disregard for the organic laws of the Liberian nation. ULAA finds it arduous to perceive that, at a time when the respect of law is crucial to the ability of the government to combat crimes and stamp out such vices as corruption, the President would elect to overtly dismiss the ruling of the Supreme Court. ULAA believes that this act of government can function only to embolden the forces of chaos to destroy the dreams of a new Nation dedicated to justice.

“In consideration of all of the above, ULAA offers the following calculated suggestions as the way forward to restoring constitutional order and the rule of law, all being essential requirements for our onward march to institutionalizing a just and democratic society:

That the President immediately reverses her recognition of, and cease all official interactions with, the Virginia based members of the House of Representatives,

That all acts performed by the President and the Virginia based legislators be immediately declared illegal and unconstitutional,

That the President, as the nation’s Chief Executive, takes immediate steps to enforce the rulings of the Supreme Court in the Snowe removal case as required by Law,

That the Virginia based members of the House Representative accept the invitation by Speaker Edwin M. Snowe for consultation and discussion with the Senate, in determining an agreeable place for the sitting of the 52nd National Legislature, and

That the President immediately addresses the nation in a nationwide broadcast about the current state of affairs and its consequences on the country’s young democracy, highlighting the themes of national healing, reconciliation, reconstruction and peace.”

ULAA says in order to facilitate the achievement of these suggestions, it is making a special plea to the Interfaith Religious organization in Liberia to intervene in the hope of bringing the sides together so that reasoning can prevail and the interest of the nation can be safeguarded. “The leadership of the Senate is also urged to partake in this mediation process.”

The Union draws the attention of all stakeholders to the fragile peace now prevailing in our country and implores all well-meaning Liberians and friends of Liberia to put the interest of the nation above all other considerations and make the utmost effort to ensure the rule of law and harmony and mutual respect among the separate but equal branches of government.

Subject: Ernest believes in equal opportunities. JJ Blood over to you
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 14:05:52 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
Address the opening of Parliament in 2003, Ernest shares the hopes of the youth and the unemployed. Read on.

"Employment is a strong indicator of economic growth. As you go around the city, you will see (for those not suffering from power blindness), many youths with vacant looks on their faces sitting around wondering where the next loaf of bread will come from. It is not that they are lazy; the fact is that the state does not create the opportunity for them to go to work. There is no coherent policy for creating policy for creating employment. The tragic thing is Mr. Speaker is that even the few jobs that are available are blocked for members of the SLPP. Yes Mr. Speaker, one has to be a member of the ruling party to be considered for a job – that is the sad discriminatory situation in our much-vaunted democracy today, An example will demonstrate this job apartheid. Since the last elections, for example, a total of 146 people have been appointed to Boards of various parastatals and ALL of them are members of SLPP – not one, yes Mr. Speaker, not one Director has been appointed outside the SLPP. All contractors that have won government contracts are SLPP. In this climate of general unemployment it is unfair, indeed wicked and above all, unconstitutional to exclude Sierra Leoneans from jobs for which they may be highly qualified purely because they are not members of the ruling party. Do you wonder why every Tom, Dick And Harry rushes to join SLPP wutehteh? Mr. Speaker, this is not the Sierra Leone we are looking for. We in APC look forward to build a non-discriminatory Sierra a Leone where there is equal opportunity for all regardless of religion, ethnic origin or political affiliation. That is the democracy we believe in. The attempt of the SLPP to dress nepotism in democratic clothing has failed woefully. Everyone is seeing through them like King’s New Clothes."

Subject: Margai’s wish .. Supreme Court disqualifies Berewa
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 12:23:10 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
Margai’s wish .. Supreme Court disqualifies Berewa
News - National
Written by Edward Kargbo
Friday, 02 February 2007
Presidential flag bearer for People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) Charles Margai says that the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone may disqualify vice president Solomon Berewa from contesting the forthcoming election.

Addressing students at Fourah Bay College Thursday 2nd February, Margai said that his PMDC party has filed a legal suit to the Supreme Court challenging the eligibility of Berewa to lead the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in the July polls while occupying office as vice president of the republic.

He noted that Berewa’s presidential aspirations contravened the provisions of Section 76 sub-section 1(h) of the national constitution and also Section 14 sub-section 1 of the Political Parties Registration Act.

Margai said that the matter which was filed to the Supreme Court for interpretation has got a first hearing and added that if the kind of spirit he saw in court continues, Berewa will definitely be ruled out of the July presidential election.

A big leap in faith in our judiciary on the part of someone like Margai who understands fully well the politicisation of that body and its history of judgments handed down over the years, commented a political observer.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled against Special Court indictee Sam Hingha Norman that he had no Locus Standi to challenge the convening of the SLPP party convention that oversaw the coronation of Berewa as leader of the party.

The PMDC filed a similar petition to the Political Parties Registration Commission last year, it was thrown out. Margai called that decision ‘stupid’.

Subject: Re: Margai’s wish .. Supreme Court disqualifies Berewa
From: FRAUD MARGAI
To: All
Date Posted: 12:40:47 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
A dying man indeed. Instead of discussing issues, he is wasting time filing frivolous law suits. Thwe guy is sick .

Subject: Re: Margai’s wish .. Supreme Court disqualifies Berewa
From: Nar we yone dem see
To: All
Date Posted: 13:05:47 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
He is not that sick as you may soon come to realise. He is exercising his XNAL rights as a citizen of sierra leone to challenge what he deems to be violations of the XN.

Have you been one of those who was qick to point out that the APC was incourt and in disarray? Is your name J LAMIN ISCANDARI

Subject: Press Release: BBC to take biggest ever interactive roadshow
From: BBC
To: All
Date Posted: 11:50:13 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Press Release: BBC to take biggest ever interactive roadshow across Sierra Leone

Radio listeners in Sierra Leone will be treated to a week of engaging live programming when the BBC World Service brings its interactive English for Africa programmes on the biggest ever roadshow to Bo, Freetown and Kenema starting Monday, 5 February. The roadshow celebrates the launch of two new BBC frequencies; 94.5 FM in Bo and 95.3 FM in Kenema.

BBC Presenter, Farayi Mungazi, will discuss the sporting headlines with Sierra Leoneans and listeners across the continent on the popular BBC sports programme Fast Track on Monday, 5 February and Friday 9 February. BBC presenter, Frederick Dove, will debate topical issues on the BBC’s innovative talk show Africa Have Your Say broadcasting live over three days starting Tuesday 6 February. Each programme airs at 16.00 GMT daily and listeners can participate by sending an SMS text message to 00 44 77 86 20 20 08.

Martin Davies, Business Development Manager for West Africa, BBC World Service said: “We are all very excited by this roadshow - the BBC’s biggest ever on-air presence in Sierra Leone. It is a great opportunity to really get to know our audiences through programmes designed with them in mind.

“Sierra Leone has emerged from a long civil war so we really want to give people an opportunity to discuss what matters in their lives. It will hold elections this year and we expect people to discuss political and social issues that matter to them as voters. But we will also encourage Africans across the continent to engage in this global conversation.

“During the roadshow the BBC is also celebrating the talents of local journalists from our partner stations who will participate in a three day workshop lead by renowned BBC correspondent, Elizabeth Blunt. In return they will provide content and support for Fast Track and Africa Have Your Say adding further depth and richness to our broadcasts.”

The BBC can also be heard on its relay station in Sierra Leone, BBC 94.3 and on the following partner stations: Democracy 98.1 FM, Capital 104.9 FM and Voice of the Handicapped 96.2 FM.

Ends

For more information contact:

Christine George, Assistant International Publicist, BBC World Service
+44(0)207557 1142;

Subject: John Leigh says it all
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 10:50:09 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
John Leigh in his article "NEITHER THE PMDC NOR THE APC IS THE 2007 ANSWER", He states "True, some people have crossed into SLPP because of the likelihood that SLPP will win again in July 2007 and some of the benefits of this victory may rub off on them personally.

"Some are SLPPers possibly for tribal, family and regional reasons".

He goes on to talk about "APC EKUTAY HEGEMONISTIC MARGINALIZERS; APC tribalistic marginalizers, poverty-spreaders and Ekutay nation-wreckers of yore". Could John Leigh the Hon. Ambassador be referring to:

1. Dr. Sama Banya
2. Dr. A.K. Turay
3. Dr. Sheku Sesay
4. Ibrahim Mbaba Kamara
5. J. B. Dauda
6. F.M. Carew
7. S.Y. Gbujama
8. Eya Mbayo
9. Sahr Fillie Faboe
10. Sannah B. Marah
11. Joe C. Blell
12. Hon. S. B. Marah (deceased)
13. Hon. Alusine A. Fofana
14. Hon. P. C. Charles B. Caulker
15. Hon. Ibrahim B. Kanu (MP)
16. Hon. Husman Kanu (Brother of the late Dr. Kanu)
17. Hon. Marray Conteh
18. Hon. Manso Dumbuya
19. Hon. Rtd Col. A. O. Kamara
20. Alhaji Daramy Rogers
21. M.K. Suma
22. Dr. Abdul Karim Koroma

and many more

What he forgot to mention is that these are the same recycled politicians responsible for where our country is today.

Subject: Re: John Leigh says it all
From: John E. Leigh
To: All
Date Posted: 13:17:41 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: johnernestleigh@yahoo.com
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
In response to an earlier posting of mine, Mr. Brokeoseminister wrote, in part, as follows:

"What he forgot to mention is that these are the same recycled politicians responsible for where our country is today."

Mr. Brokeoseminister, with all due respect, I forgot to mention nothing. What you should have realized is that party leadership standards control.

In this regards, my response to Mr. Salone in an above posting on the same topic you've raised applies equally to your argument and is herebby reproduced below as follows:

"Dear Papa Salone and others, please note that serving under the APC is quite deferent from serving under the SLPP. In our country, appointees tend to follow the leadership provided by their top party and government officials.

If a party's leaders were megalomaniac tribalistic marginalizers, kleptocratic poverty spreaders; practised wholesale corruption, favoritism and nepotism and were rubbishly Ekutayish, their followers will imitate them and do likewise - to the extreme detriment of our country.

The above sort of behavior cannot long endure within the SLPP. Hence APC transplants into SLPP have either modified their behavior or they have been sidelined or merely quietly exist within the SLPP." Thanks. - JL

Subject: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 10:19:30 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 82.118.101.235

Message:

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW......

It was recently decided by English Courts that it is possible to LIBEL a person on the internet chat rooms or forums.

A Final decision is due soon from the International Court of Human Rights on this matter.

careless talk will soon be punished...

Soon there will be no where to hide for careless and irresponsible writings.

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 06:00:21 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Cadmus my friend you and your slpp buddies have to look inward on this one. I welcome the idea and as amatter of fact may even consider bringing suit in an english court.

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 16:29:25 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-142-156-53.range86-142.btcentralplus.com at 86.142.156.53

Message:
Alieu

Thank you my friend.Even when we disagree, we do it in a civilise manner.
As they say in football 'Form is temporal, but class is permanent'

I will no longer bother to reply to idiots on this forum.

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: Sidonluk
To: All
Date Posted: 12:01:28 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
Ignoramus, you're another of the fake professionals out there equal only to lie-lie doctor, Worwor Blyden.

Is this a human rights issue Mr fake lawyer/lieyer? You stand a better chance debating with goats on your worworliwor forum than coming to expose your ignorass out here.

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 16:34:08 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-142-156-53.range86-142.btcentralplus.com at 86.142.156.53

Message:
I do not know you, you seems like someone who needs education and class, I am therefore not interested in talking to idiots like you,if you cannot contribute to a debate cogently, then maybe you do not belong to this or any public forum that is discuissing the problems of SA LONE.

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: BECAREFUL
To: All
Date Posted: 16:35:57 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
CADMUS,

Becareful with Alieu. He is the same individual using handles to attack you. The guy is pathetic, and he is a loser. He is the one abusing you, and then uses his real name to say otherwise. Dangerous son of a thief

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: BO CLEAROUT
To: All
Date Posted: 09:10:12 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
ALIEU ISCANDARI DOES NOT USE HANDLES. HE DOESNT NEED TO HE SAY IT LIKE IT IS. GO BACK AND READ HIS OSTS AND YOU WIL FIND OUT THAT HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH ONLY

Subject: Re: LIBEL ON THE INTERNET
From: FOR CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 11:37:36 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ca07-ch01-bl05.va-ashburn0.sa.earthlink.net at 207.69.138.137

Message:
Just go back from the hole from which you crawl out from.You are no longer required on this forum,go back to your SLPP Youth Awareness Forum.

How many times have you defamed people on this forum who you consider as opponents of the SLPP.You are a tribalistic wretch,go ahead and take me to court for Libel,you b@st*rd.

Subject: I call this objective reporting
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 09:02:54 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
I read this article and I was amazed at the very organised manner that it was presented. It was a beautifully written article and I comment the Journalist who did that piece of reporting.

Subject: Re: I call this objective reporting
From: Moijue
To: All
Date Posted: 10:10:56 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-135-67-77.range86-135.btcentralplus.com at 86.135.67.77

Message:
It is from the SC website

Subject: Snetter Suspends Journalist for Airing Interview of Oppositi
From: JOINDALIST
To: All
Date Posted: 07:54:32 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Snetter Suspends Journalist for Airing Interview of Opposition Parliamentarian
02/02/07 -

Liberian Broadcasting Managing Director, Charles SnetterMonrovia - Reporter Othello Guzean of the government-controlled radio network, Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS), has been suspended indefinitely by the network's director general, Charles Snetter Jr.

According to a 16 January 2006 letter from Snetter to the reporter, Guzean was suspended for allegedly violating the editorial policy of the station.

However, Guzean indicated to CEMESP that he was suspended because he conducted and aired an interview of Montserrado County District Seven parliamentarian Thomas Fallah.

In the interview, representative Fallah, an opposition parliamentarian from the Congress for Democratic Change party, accused President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of manipulating some members of the House of Representatives to remove Edwin Snowe as Speaker of the National Legislature of Liberia.

The LBS director general, according to Guzean, described the airing of such an interview as unacceptable and in contravention of the station's editorial policy.

The director general reportedly described Representative Fallah's reference to President Sirleaf as "Madam Sirleaf" during the interview as an insult to the Presidency of Liberia.

Snetter also seized the cassette containing the interview, Guzean said.

Guzean is meanwhile calling on the Press Union of Liberia and other media rights organizations to intervene to ensure that the LBS management pays his salary and all other benefits due him in accordance with Liberian labour laws

Subject: Re: Snetter Suspends Journalist for Airing Interview of Oppositi
From: true
To: All
Date Posted: 17:11:56 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: d206-116-229-52.bchsia.telus.net at 206.116.229.52

Message:
That Snetter guy is a sierra leonean. ar lie kabs?

Subject: Re: Snetter Suspends Journalist for Airing Interview of Oppo
From: Waraba
To: All
Date Posted: 13:07:38 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: Saigobe@lanset.com
Entered From: adsl-75-20-216-42.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.20.216.42

Message:
Netters:
Just doing an historical investigation and results show that Augustine Fallay is a Liberian and he is related to
this Thomas Fallah of Liberia.
our historical research uncovered primary document that clearly supports the view that Augustine Fallay is Liberian. The document we have indicates that Augustine Fallay's great grandfather who came to Pujehun from Liberia and being semi-iliterate wrote down on his Sierra Leone registration papers the name Amadu Fallay. He confused the the "h" for a "y".
Now you know the rest of the story.
Waraba.

Subject: John Leigh and SLPP
From: Bob Jusu
To: All
Date Posted: 07:45:24 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: philizbeth@hotmail.com
Entered From: 210-54-69-118.dialup.xtra.co.nz at 210.54.69.118

Message:
No amount of rough words on PMDC will get you to the esteem you once enjoyed in Sierra Leone and SLPP. Everyone is scared of you, including Berewa. The best thing for you would have been to lie down and observe the political situation. But to come out barking against other parties all in the name of pleasing Kabbah and Berewa will do you no good. Your name is a nightmare to Kabbah, and remember that Berewa is Kabbah. Therefore, stop making enemies if you can't make friends. You already have enough enemies, Berewa and Kabbah inclusive.

Subject: Re: John Leigh and SLPP
From: John E. Leigh
To: All
Date Posted: 11:12:09 02/03/07 ()
Email Address: johnernestleigh@yahoo.com
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Dear Mr. Bob Jusu:

I have seen your trash. You do not seem to know a thing about me.

I care little about cheap public esteem anywhere, certainly not from practitioners of family politics and tribal affinity politrickers like you and your kind. If I was looking for cheap esteem, you would want me to be with your flunky political grouping.

The fact is I am in search of what I truly think is best for my country, not what you think is good for me. I am out to please myself and no one else, certainly not you! By the way, who are you for me to please?

Whomsoever told you s/he is scared of me, is most likely merely scared of the facts and afraid of genuine democratic politics - just as you are scared of the exposure of PMDC's childish pranks of using bogus documentation to prove it is making gains in a race in which it is fastly loosing ground and is still even unkown in large sections of the country.

Next, an essential element of democracy is public discussion - back and forth, again and again until the issue in debate is fully understood. You therefore have no right to tell me or any other individual to merely lie down and observe while your foolish kabudu loudly promote their bogus document by fooling newspapers and lying to the public in the hope of political gain.

WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME TO LIE DOWN? All the many months you were hyper-busy - day-in, day-out - in this forum writing trash for Mr. Margai & Co., I never once advised you to keep quiet even though I was offended by some of your suggestions regarding the role you wanted me to play in your remedial PMDC. Why can't you extend the same courtesy's to others?

For your information, I intend to continue to stand up and spread the truth to whomsoever will listen in our country whether you and your PMDC jokers like it or not. In doing so, I am pleasing myself and no one else.

If I was interested in currying favor from those you've mentioned there are far more effective ways to do so than by researching facts and telling the truth publicly about politricks in your country without fear or favor.

Let it be remembered that I do not need your free advice as to how I should conduct my politics in my country or in any other matter. If in my advocacy I make political enemies, that is none of your business.

If Berewa and Kabbah are my enemies as you ignorantly claimed, I can deal with that situation without your interjection. Nor do I need the type of friends you prefer to tarry with. Our outlooks in life are vastly diffent. UNDERSTAND?

Even so, I have noticed some improvements. You are no longer hiding under chicken monikers such as Mathew Williams, Bob Mathew Frank Williams or whatever and lying repeatedly and shamefully again and again when you were exposed.

Thank you for your attention. - JL

Subject: Re: John Leigh and SLPP
From: WOW
To: All
Date Posted: 07:50:22 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Bob,

Yoy are one dishonest trash can. If I were you, I will shut my loud munku mouth, and flush my munku face in your pit latrine in matru-jong. You big dummy. You are a ppathectic liar, and you claimed that Norman will never return to Freetown , and that he has been sentenced in Senegal.

Fools like you are dangerous, and until your likes are wiped out, salone nor go go before. Alaki idiot lek you should be ashamed of your munku and lying self. Live John Leigh alone. Mind your own bizness. The man is an adult, and can make his own decisions. Because he refused to join your cult leader does not mean that you should abuse him. You are a shameless lying pig, and you deserve to be burried at krrobay. ALAKI LIELONDO MUNKU.

Subject: Re: John Leigh and SLPP
From: Bob Jusu
To: All
Date Posted: 19:14:58 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: philizbeth@hotmail.com
Entered From: prox-a.its.waikato.ac.nz at 130.217.76.77

Message:
To engage you is to dignify a coward.

Subject: Re: John Leigh and SLPP
From: enti you sabi ehn
To: All
Date Posted: 05:58:24 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
and you are so right Bob. These faceless guys on this forum are a bunch of freaking cowards

Subject: Re: John Leigh and SLPP
From: WOW
To: All
Date Posted: 20:36:18 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Nope, you are the coward and a big fat ugly liar. Shame on you. Lie tin.

Subject: Re: John Leigh and SLPP
From: Adeyomie
To: All
Date Posted: 08:52:02 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
Wodie wow! They finished you Bob. How do you respond to that?

Subject: For Failure of Hajj Programmes…Parliament to Probe Supreme I
From: BUFFORD LWY
To: All
Date Posted: 06:37:42 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
STANDARD TIMES

For Failure of Hajj Programmes…Parliament to Probe Supreme Islamic Council
Posted by Edward Marah on Feb 2, 2007, 02:16

Honourable Members of Parliament yesterday endorsed a motion for a committee to be set up to investigate the Supreme Islamic Council and other Muslim agencies such as the Sierra Leone Muslim Congress that for the past years have been responsible for organizing of hajj programmes in Sierra Leone.

The motion came following the invitation of the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Mrs. Shirley Gbujama by the House to explain to parliament the reasons for the failure of hajj programmes in Sierra Leone for the past three years.
The Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs informed parliament that her ministry is not responsible for the failure of the programmes but the Muslim agencies in the country.

She stated that her ministry was involved in organizing hajj programmes before, and there have not been many problems as now, until when a group of Muslim organizations among which, the Supreme Islamic Council decided to run the affairs of the hajj programme for themselves, adding that some even accused her of being a Christians and as such can’t decide on Muslim matters effectively.
She said since then her ministry has not been involved in organizing hajj programmes which, she stressed have been organized only by a committee appointed by the Supreme Islamic Council, noting that the hajj committee this year did not even contact her or update her on the arrangements.

Hon. Haja Hafsatu Kabbah of the All People’s Congress (APC) expressed her dismay over what she called “negligence of duty” and responsibility by the Ministry of Social Welfare and called for a speedy investigation into the matter in the interest of the state.

Hon. Barnadette Lahai of the SLPP said that Sierra Leoneans should appreciate the good work of the Minister as she has been handling the hajj programmes in the past very well until it was hijacked by a few people who came with a hidden agenda geared towards creating problems for the government.

She urged parliament to investigate the issue so as to bring those responsible to book.
Other members from both the ruling party and the opposition also expressed their concern over the issue and hoped that those responsible will be brought to book by the committee.

Subject: WHY DEVALUATION WOULD NOT WORK IN SIERRA LEONE
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 06:29:13 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
[Recently, the British government's international development agency, DFID, invited Sierra Leoneans resident abroad to comment on its proposed strategy for our country's development for the next five years.

The following essay is based on the response of two Sierra Leonean professionals based in the USA. It constitutes the third chapter of a three-chapter comprehensive proposal urging a change in the strategy underlying foreign aid policies by Britain and other members of the international community that was recently submitted to DFID by one of the premier S/Leonean Internet discussion forums, SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com].

THE REVALUATION OF SIERRA LEONE'S CURRENCY

By Mohamed A. Jalloh and Jonathan M. Rose

CHAPTER 3: Why Devaluation Would not Work in Sierra Leone

The first devaluation of the Sierra Leone currency was executed by the Sierra Leone government in 1979 at the behest of the IMF. It was intended to solve Sierra Leone's balance of trade problem (not enough exports to pay for imports) by increasing the country's exports while reducing its imports -- the classic case for devaluation as a cure for balance of trade problems in industrialized countries. Specifically, by cheapening its currency in relation to others, the devaluing country makes imports more expensive for its own citizens (thereby reducing demand for them) while making its exports less expensive to foreigners (thereby increasing demand for them).

However, in order for devaluation to work successfully, the devaluing country must have the capacity to replace suddenly expensive imported goods with local substitutes -- otherwise its citizens would either have to keep buying more expensive imports, if they can still afford to do so, or, forgo consuming imports (if they can not afford the now more expensive imports), with a resulting drop in their standard of living. In addition, the devaluing country must be able to supply the increased demand by foreigners for its suddenly cheaper exports.

An industrialized country typically would experience little difficulty meeting both of those conditions because of the presence of adequate local industries. Moreover, because the prices of the exports of industrialized countries are set competitively by market forces, a devaluation that makes a country's currency cheaper directly translates into cheaper exports. That, in turn, results in greater demand for those exports by foreigners. The resulting combination of higher exports and lower imports then brings the devaluing country's balance of trade disequilibrium into equilibrium.

Yet, because Sierra Leone has never been an industrialized country (being instead a mainly agricultural country exporting primary crops like cocoa and coffee, and raw minerals such as diamonds and gold), it has never had the capacity to replace (mostly manufactured) imported goods with local substitutes. Moreover, it does not have the capacity to instantly increase the supply of its mainly agricultural exports.

Furthermore, the producer prices of SL's major exports are set non-competitively primarily by consuming countries (not by independent market forces), those prices are not directly affected by a devaluation of the Leone. Therefore, the demand for Sierra Leone's mineral exports is not necessarily increased by devaluing the Leone, unlike the exports of a devaluing industrialized country whose export prices (for cars and computers, for example) are competitively set by independent market forces.

All of the above factors clearly make devaluation inappropriate as a cure for Sierra Leone's balance of trade problems.

Therefore, instead of reducing Sierra Leone's demand for imports and increasing its supply of exports -- as devaluation is supposed to do (and as it has done in industrialized countries, including Great Britain in the early 1970s) -- the devaluation in Sierra Leone in 1979, as well as the floatation of the Leone in 1986, and the resultant deterioration of the Leone to its present cumulative decline of 375,000%, merely produced astronomical inflation, particularly in the cost of imported goods. This caused the idling of factories hampered by the escalating cost of imported raw materials, leading, in turn, to constantly reduced demand for workers -- in other words, massive unemployment, and lowered incomes.

Thereby, it severely reduced the standard of living of millions of Sierra Leoneans, due to their inability to afford the highly-inflated prices of imported items and other goods and services. It also failed to increase the country's exports.

The result has been a total failure of devaluation to cure Sierra Leone's balance of trade problems. Worse still, the stratospheric inflation it unleashed, accompanied by pervasive unemployment, has left millions of Sierra Leoneans no longer able to afford the basic necessities of life -- propelling them into searing poverty that, according to the United Nations, is unmatched anywhere in the world.

There are obviously other factors -- corruption and other acts of mismanagement -- which contributed to the impoverishment of millions of Sierra Leoneans. However, none of them comes close to matching in virulence what the great 20th century British economist, Lord John Maynard Keynes, described as the debauchery of the currency in his seminal 1919 treatise, "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," as noted above.

© 2007 Mohamed A. Jalloh and Jonathan M. Rose

About the Authors

Mohamed Jalloh is the founding Managing Director of a financial services company based in suburban Washington, D.C., USA, that manages investments for corporations, partnerships and high net worth individuals. His internationally published writings on the effects of foreign aid and devaluation on Sierra Leone's development span the last twenty-eight years.

Jonathan Rose is a research and development engineer and organizational management specialist based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. He has been studying currency economics for the past twenty years.

Subject: Re: WHY DEVALUATION WOULD NOT WORK IN SIERRA LEONE
From: Ojumiri Cole
To: All
Date Posted: 07:41:06 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: slip-proxy2.safepages.com at 205.208.227.28

Message:
Mr/ jalloh, when I read the article yuou posted, tears came to my eyes. I ammold enough to remember when we used to ride a poda-poda for 5 cents! Now, I don't know how much that ride costs, but I would not be surprised if it costs Le 1,000. WHY?

At first, i used to think it is because things go up in price as time goes on. But now, I know that is not true. I know now that it is the IMF which caused us to suffer. I think we should DEMAND answers from them. If our govt. will not do so, we sierra leoneans should DEMAND answers directly from the IMF.

Subject: Re: WHY DEVALUATION WOULD NOT WORK IN SIERRA LEONE
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 17:47:36 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
Greetings my brothers and sisters. Mr. Mohamed A Jaloh thanks once again for this contribution. My concern, in consonant with the following "Specifically, by cheapening its currency in relation to others, the devaluing country makes imports more expensive for its own citizens (thereby reducing demand for them) while making its exports less expensive to foreigners (thereby increasing demand for them,)" has always been the same, that until Sierra Leone heads towards partnership rather than being constant recipient, nothing can change in our developmental roller coaster. Rather than further devalue our currency, which will hamper the potential for us to compete with valued currencies, the goal must be first, to tackling the causative agents responsible for the cause for devaluation. The question of devaluation stems from the fact that our productivity does not reach the consumption potentials nor is it meaningful for favorable competition in the International market. Therefore, all Sierra Leoneans who feel that corruption is the only way-out must be re-educated and it must start from the top. We have to start studying the various African economies, what they did, we already know why, how they did it, that led them to be considered progress indicators. Ghana, Uganda, Senegal, Sought Africa are countries we have to study to see what they have been doing to make their economies grow. If one is to study the various Inter-State economies of the various U.S.States, we find out that California is thriving more than other states. There has to be reasons besides being a large state.
This brings me to the "Psychology" book I recommended sometime ago. That book will help us understand that "Self-esteem" be it an individual, a group or nation is the precursor for development, achievement, understanding the ways and means of a situation because it helps one to not be ashamed of acknowledge wrongdoing, which helps to correct such wrong-doing. Why are we not investing in technology and other indust
Do not have time to read over.

Subject: Commentary: Are Liberians Lives Worth a Few Generators/Tract
From: James W. Harris
To: All
Date Posted: 00:56:18 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Commentary: Are Liberians Lives Worth a Few Generators/Tractors
02/02/07 - James W. Harris, Contributing Writer


Our people’s lives should never be taken for granted

When I first read the news story of late, “Libya to the Rescue: Liberia’s Electrification Generators Arrive” [FrontPageAfrica.com, 01/25/07], that Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi had donated a few generators and tractors to the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, no one can imagine how terrible and offended I felt.

Libya's Moamar Ghadafi
Honestly, not only did I feel terrible and also offended, but I felt really sad for our seemingly helpless people. Further, I’m greatly disappointed too in the Unity Party (UP) government for accepting these tainted gifts from someone whose regime allegedly contributed to the carnage in our country in no small way, resulting in the needless deaths of so many unfortunate Liberians.

I mean, seriously, is the UP government telling us by accepting these highly symbolic gifts from Libya’s self-imposed dictator that the lives of our fallen compatriots are worth just a few generators and tractors? I certainly think not!

Or, are the Liberian people so desperate for aid or handouts that they would accept gifts from a person like Qaddafi who is widely believed to have trained, armed and financed the now disgraced Liberian tyrant, Charles Ghankay Taylor, who in turn unleashed his merciless child soldiers on the masses? Have they forgotten so quickly the role Libya is suspected to have played in our country’s abrupt demise? I sincerely hope not!

Unholy Alliance

But as I now look back in hindsight and try to understand the logic behind our government’s acceptance of what actually amounts to meager assistance from the Colonel, it becomes crystal clear to me that there still exist a kind of unholy alliance or strong bonds between the well-known repressive Libyan ruler and certain members of the Johnson Sirleaf administration on a personal level.

Now, taking the above observation into account, I think that it would be appropriate to ask one simple question here. That is, who’s interests are the gifts serving in this particular case – Libya’s or Liberia’s? I’ll let you make the call on this one.

But in the main time, I’m certain that some people will insist that it’s mostly in Liberia’s interests since it is the one that badly needs help of any kind, especially so, to fulfill President Johnson Sirleaf’s earlier campaign promises to the severely impoverished Liberian people that she would provide electricity and improve their standard of living in a relatively short period of time. My other question then is – at what cost?

Recalling Qaddafi-Taylor Ties

If you can recall, Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former ‘strongman’, who is currently locked up tightly behind bars in the Hague awaiting trial for his alleged role in creating mayhem in neighboring Sierra Leone in recent years, was reported to have fled to Libya almost immediately after he broke out of prison in the United States (US) – something that is highly unlikely if the US really wants you in custody. But that is a completely different story for yet another day.

It was there in Libya that Taylor and his group of bandits, including, the late Sierra Leonean rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, of the heartless Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fame, were trained in guerilla warfare as well as other methods of terrorism which they later used to wreck havoc on the population in their quest for greed and to grab raw power by force. All of this was said to have been done with the blessing of the Colonel.

I Just Don’t Get It

With the little bit of background notes that I’ve laboriously provided above, how then can the Libyan Ambassador to Liberia, Mr. Mohammed Talbi, shamelessly praise President Johnson Sirleaf with a straight face “for her efforts to improve the wellbeing of Liberians and expressed the hope that relations between [the two countries] could be enhanced?” I just don’t get it!

So, are Liberians supposed to instantly forget and forgive Libya now for its alleged criminal role in contributing to the complete destruction of our homeland by way of supporting Taylor and his band of notorious child-soldiers [killers]? .

Again, I’m quite sure that some Liberians would want us to do just that, but not so fast. If we did, frankly, I don’t think that our fallen countrymen [figuratively speaking] would ever forgive us for not seeking justice on their collective behalf.

Taking Cue from Pan Am and UTA

Like in the case of two separate incidents which involved the bombing by Libya or its agents of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and a French-owned airliner, UTA DC-10, respectively, in 1988 and 1989, it is morally compelling that our government demands full compensation from Libya for the many Liberian lives that were destroyed as the direct result of that country being an accomplice to Taylor’s ruthless killing machine which it allegedly helped to create.

Hopefully, whenever the now much despised Liberian tyrant, Charles Taylor, is finally put on trial in the not too distant future, he’ll tell us the exact roles Qaddafi as well as a few other high profile Liberians may have played in terrorizing Sierra Leone and bringing down our nation which was in fact already on a shaky foundation from the very start.

When the verdicts were delivered in the two cases that I’ve just mentioned above, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), “the court awarded a paltry $33 million [in the UTA incident], compared to [a whopping] $2.7 billion [yes, that’s with a capital “B”] won for the Pan Am attack in direct negotiations with Libya by the US and Britain.” And mind you, both incidents involved the lives of not more than 530 persons, compared to the over 200,000 Liberians slaughtered by Taylor and other so-called warlords in the rage of the 1990s.

The most significant lesson that we could learn from these two cases is that France, the US and Britain made sure that Libya paid the maximum penalty for killing their citizens, while Liberia is receiving a few generators and tractors apparently as compensation in disguise for the murder of its citizens. Again, please don’t tell me that it is like comparing apples and oranges; because it is not as one human life is just as important as the other regardless of circumstances.

UP Government Not Up To the Task

Unfortunately, I don’t think that the present government is up to the task of holding Libya and its ruler accountable for contributing to the merciless killings of Liberian citizens due to the simple fact that some members of this administration may still be loyal to Qaddafi for obvious reasons – their self interests or perseverance.

It could be said that the self interests of these individuals, who I’m really not prepared to name at this particular time, may be dangerously conflicting with Liberia’s national interest, which is, to rebuild the country on the solid twin principles of justice and the thorough Rule of Law.

Putting on our Thinking Caps

Folks, let’s put on our thinking caps just for a moment and consider the following scenario. Let’s say that we now had an otherwise “clean” government – one that didn’t have a single person in it who may have actively contributed to Taylor’s or anyone else’s brutal war efforts against our country for the past 15 years.

And let’s say that said government had the guts as well as courage and moral responsibility to take Libya and/or its ruler, Qaddafi, to court for their alleged crimes committed in Liberia as chief sponsors of Taylor or other known warlords. Don’t you think that Liberia would have a chance [even though slim] of winning more than, say, a minimum of about $33 million as in the case of France for the UTA incident? Well, we’d never know if we don’t try!

As the matter of fact, Liberia could get all the generators and tractors it needs if it won even that minimum amount without kissing up to Qaddafi as our present government appears to be doing. That’s exactly my point here! Besides, we could surely do without Libya if [and only if] we could get our financial house in order and were not continually squandering the valuable resources which the good Lord has given us in abundance.

Seeking Justice not Aid

Most importantly, though, we clearly would be seeking justice for all our people who were slaughtered during our nation’s grossly senseless wars if our government were to take Libya to court instead of trying to suck up to the Colonel just for personal favors.

If our government was courageous enough to get at least one indictment against Qaddafi, we could then say finally that our fallen compatriots can now rest in perfect peace, knowing fully well that their precious lives were not lost in vain.

But until then, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration’s continuous flirtation with the Libyan ruler is no laughing matter regardless of the positive spin that some people may want to put on it. The lives of Liberians should never be taken for granted for whatever reason (s)...

Subject: Worworliwor
From: Researcher
To: All
Date Posted: 00:18:11 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
A shameless and ugly lady in her mid 30s, parading the length and breadth of Freetown sleeping with any suitor, whether you are a rebel, politician, banker, minister or capable of awarding her a government contract, she can be your babe for a night. The Americans used to say, ‘spend a night stand with you’.
Foday Sankoh's "worworliwor"

The former rebel leader, Foday Sankoh took a routine march in the family, from one sister to another and finally ended up with the ugly lady. But being a shameless coquettish being, she cares less whom she spends a night with. Even Charles Taylor was her romantic customer, who engaged her at anytime he thought he should examine her woman’s pride.
This analogy brings to focus another lady that many prominent men in the country have described as the “HOT PANTS LADY.” Her behaviour is the same with the lady described above. HOT PANTS LADY, as she is fondly called, is carrying a professional title to deceive innocent people who may not have an iota of knowledge about her true identity.

Sylvia Olayinkah Blyden: She is neither a medical doctor nor a doctor of education, but she parades the streets of Freetown embroidering herself in such academic garment. She went to a Medical School in Freetown –Sierra Leone, and after several academic tragedies, she took an exit from the institution without anything concrete to show the world. She never went for medical house-manship, nor even practiced the profession that she is always boastful about, yet she calls herself Dr. Sylvia Blyden. The question is where or from which university did she obtain her doctorate degree?

That besides, the name Sylvia Blyden is not new to Sierra Leoneans, especially those that were around during the eleven years old rebel war. Those who refused to join Sankoh’s crooked bandwagon of assassins and robbers became the target of the people.

Her ambition, even prior to the rebel war, was to become a government minister. Having failed to become a minister in the first SLPP government she threw her support to Foday Sakoh and eventually became one of his palour wives. That is, after she had craftily removed her sister who was providing Foday with all kinds of services, administrative and social inclusive.

Sylvia Blyden has always been like that; she can even tour the west coast of Africa in search of men that she can suck like a vampire. In Banjul, Yayah Jammeh knew the attributes of this ugly monster of a lady. In Monrovia, Libera Taylor before his incarceration pounded her heavily. In fact, even in Sierra Leone, she is the “unwanted cake” of the hungry politicians, bankers, you name it, who just wanted to reduce and release natural tension and impulses. Because she has no reputation to protect and nothing to hide, she would ask you, “If I slept with Sankoh, Jon Ben, the late Col. Sesay, Sam Yayah, Alpha Timbo and others, what is bad about that”? To her she sees nothing immoral in misusing her organ for monetary benefit that can’t take her anywhere.

The other day, a disarmed RUF member walked into the office of Standard Times to protest. “Why are you writing about our Popay’s wife? She was very kind to us when we were in the jungle and would provide us with relevant information about the Kabbah government which we successfully overthrew with the help of the disgruntled soldiers?” The former RUF fighter queried.
Perhaps that was all he knew about Sylvia Blyden, providing information and servicing Foday Sankoh. But what about the Ninja operation and how she traversed the east, west, north and south, rubbing shoulders with “Superman”, Omrie Golley, Sam Bockarie alias Mosquito and the rest?
What has however become crystal clear in Sylvia’s behaviour is that she is a shameless being, though created by God, but the materials used for her creation were extremely different, hence the mix-bag of negative elements in her make-up.
The adage, like father like son is very applicable in the case of Sylvia Blyden. Her behaviour clearly demonstrates a typical trait of her family. He mother, Mrs. Blyden was an employee of the Ministry of Marine Resources after she had gone through other ministries and ministers with so many spots. She had a brush with the then APC government of ex-President Momoh, with the latter deluding himself that she could be reformed by transferring her to the Marine Ministry where she rose to the rank of almost permanent secretary.

How she disgracefully left those ministries, only employees of those ministries can give detailed explanation. At the Ministry of Finance she wanted to involve the late Thaimu Bangura under the SLPP government of Tejan Kabbah in a fraudulent syndicate. But being a smarter man, the late Thaimu Bangura discovered her latest trick and had to put an end to it until when the AFRC overthrew the SLPP government and got the Treasury building burnt.
The burning of the treasury building has an interesting history. Prior to its being set aflame, there was an investigation mounted by the police regarding the disappearance of millions of Leones. By then Mrs. Blyden was an employee of that building. In order to put the matter into permanent rest arrangements were made to set fire on the building and destroy evidence that could be used to incriminate the state fraudsters.
Since the departure of Mrs. Blyden to London, she would only return at intervals and then back to London.

Regarding Mr. Blyden, he was one of those individuals during the turbulent period of the Kabbah led SLPP government that sat in a TV discussion program telling the people of Sierra Leone how President Kabbah was a bad ruler and would never return to Sierra Leone. Mr. Blyden was very certain that the SLPP would never return to take the seat of governance. Shamefully, when the government was restored, he sneaked out of this country to join his wife in London and only came few months back to take part in the burial ceremony of his mother; that is, Sylvia’s grandmother.

The history of the Blydens is not palatable to read or even keep in the library for children to read.
It is one that is meant for the dustbin. Her desperate and futile attempts to discredit the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and its entire membership is borne out of personal grudge that she had nurtured long time ago. She holds the view that it was the press in Sierra Leone that caused the demise of the RUF which should have afforded her the opportunity of becoming a secretary of state in the RUF/AFRC illegal government.

In addition she harbors the grudge that it was the journalists, especially Standard Times’ Philip Neville, who facilitated the demise of her mother at the Ministry of Finance. Also she believes that it was the press in Sierra Leone that caused her father, Mr. Blyden to escape to London when the press started calling names of RUF collaborators. Many other things she felt were caused by the press, so in her desperation she wanted to hit back hard on the press and some journalists. But how can she succeed when her cupboard is one loaded with stinking records?
Also the amputees at the various camps are not happy with her, knowing about the clandestine role she played in the RUF destruction exercise of Sierra Leone.

One would now reference her defence of Suliaman Tejan Jalloh and mention the flimsy reasons for taking up the defence of this “wheeler dealer” Ambassador.
Firstly, she is not genuine in all her undertakings. That is why she would never succeed. Did she succeed with the Ninja propaganda against the SLPP government? No! She failed and she is going to fail again because her motive is not nationalistic but romantic.

Indeed Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh is someone that cannot spare a girl let alone a woman who has no pride for her womanhood. It could either be that Tejan Jalloh had made use of her “natural cake” or is about to make use of it in Freetown or in the United States of America at anytime Sylvia Blyden travels to that part of the world. It would have been better for Slyvia Blyden, the shameless monster, to distance herself from any form of war with the Sierra Leone Press or advise herself properly. Or better leave the shores of this country for a while as the press is equally determined to expose every bit of her past and present activities which are not in the interest of this country.

However I would pity her “Peppeh docta” editor or call him the 2 by 2 editor whose admission into the Mass Communication Department at Fourah Bay College is subjected to a lot of scrutiny. In fact, so many questions keep coming from journalists as to how Sayoh Kamara gained admission into Fourah Bay College Mass Communication Department.

One would want to know from the Principal of the University, Professor Kpakima whether the admission standards of the institution have fallen below expectation or still intact. Sayoh Kamara almost failed the pre-entry examination conduced by the Mass Communication Department. Apart from that, the diploma requirement stipulates that a candidate must get four G.C.E. O’Level passes with a unit of three or better.

Considerations that bother on the experience of the candidate in some cases take into account senior adults who have been in the teaching profession for a considerable period of time and who are recommended by very important figures in society. Therefore one could want to know from Professor Kpakima how Sayoh Kamara was admitted. Was his admission done on the basis of “connectocracy”?

Did Mrs. Bernadette Cole, Head of the Mass Communication Department conceal the truth about Sayoh Kamara’s academic requirement from the panel just for him to be admitted into her department? If that is so, one would describe her action as deceitful and deceptive with the strong potential of destroying standards of the university.

It is not known whether this was the method
(connectocracy) used to admit the “Peppeh docta” with his 2 by 1 G.C.E ‘O’ Levels.
However documentary evidence of Sayoh Kamara’s educational requirements is published somewhere in this edition, despite he did not indicate the units bearing his result. This again is deception to members of the Independent Media Commission to allow somebody without his ‘O’ levels to practice as editor of a newspaper. This accounts for his unprofessional and unethical behaviour. That is why he even went to the extent of chastising members of the commission when invited to defend an article he published. I should not describe the article as libelous as his immature and shameless proprietor usually does when attacking Philip Neville and Standard Times.

Subject: SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
From: Dr. Michel Sho- Sawyer
To: All
Date Posted: 23:07:09 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: michel_sawyer@yahoo.com
Entered From: c-24-99-17-147.hsd1.ga.comcast.net at 24.99.17.147

Message:
Youthforsierraleone.com/ Email:YSLI@Youthforsierraleone.com

http://www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/article.php3?id_article=979

http://standardtimespress.net/cgi-bin/artman/publish/article_703.shtml

http://www.cocorioko.net/PRESIDENTIALDEBATE.html

Salone News
YSLI Plans More Presidential Debates
- Wednesday 31 January 2007.

Youth for Sierra Leone Improvement (YSLI) is hereby informing the general public/electorate, the government of Sierra Leone, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC), all political parties, the Sierra Leone Association Of Journalists (SLAJ ), UNIOSIL, the UN Special Representative to Sierra Leone, the European Union, the US Embassy, the British High Commission in Sierra Leone, the Chinese Consulate, Amnesty International, the National Democratic Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy, of its plan to organize two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate before July 28, 2007 general elections in Sierra Leone to promote public awareness on political parties' stance on the issues that affect the lives of the people.

YSLI members are honored to provide the citizen of Sierra Leone such opportunity which will provide awareness and answer questions to important issues that need to be addressed. Our activities in encouraging politicians to explain their political manifestos across the Sierra Leone political spectrum must also be protected as our civic responsibility and duty to participate in the activities, which justly constitute democratic principles and practice. Our neutrality and detachment from political affiliation, together with our charter to observe free and fair election standards are the touchstone of our civic activities.

The promise of democracy and political pluralism must be encouraged through YSLI activities, lest the provisions in our constitution to promote democracy and political pluralism will be a hollow if our young democracy is left to be tethered to the wishes of politicians whose main aim in every election campaign remains business as usual.

Accordingly, YSLI views this upcoming presidential debate with the popular wisdom that the youth are the next torchbearers. Unless the youths are involved in the process of democracy and political pluralism, they will become only spectators in the manifest destiny of their future.

YSLI members expect the safety of their members would be ensured in carrying out their civic responsibilities.

Meanwhile, YSLI intends to participate in the election campaign to inform the public of and promote democracy and advocate for human rights, good public policies, especially the ripe issues of proper youth education, adequate medical care, unemployment and the place of the youth in our up-and-coming democracy.

Thus, we appeal not only to our government, but to all human rights organizations, our patrons in the international community, that we serve this public notice in anticipation that YSLI members are accorded their constitutional rights and protection in carrying out this civic responsibility of educating the electorate on the 2007 election issues.

YSLI is non-partisan and will act within the meaning of the constitution and its kindred statutes relating to election laws and the conduct of political parties.

Youth for Sierra Leone Improvement (YSLI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan and non-governmental organization of Sierra Leoneans based in Sierra Leone, with representation in the United States of America.

YSLI is dedicated to the mission of establishing a platform for Sierra Leoneans at home and in the diaspora and for the youths of Sierra Leone to articulate on the various youth policies enacted and to be enacted. Our belief is in dialogue between the various stakeholders involved in youth policy issues, development, education, and awareness exercised through unity, nationalism and democracy.

Photo: Dr. Michel Sho-Sawyerr of YSLI.

" If Great is Possible, Then Good Is not Enough"

Subject: Re: SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
From: FED UP
To: All
Date Posted: 23:18:42 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
WHO THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Subject: Re: SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
From: seydouba
To: All
Date Posted: 00:18:00 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: gateway.cyberstar.com at 209.239.66.36

Message:
Sho-Sawyer,what language will the debate be using as a communication medium i.e English,Krio,Temne Mende,Limba etc.It is imperative that the populace must be informed on this issue so as to have more input.I will suggest Krio be use as this is the lingua Franca or common language in Sierra leone.
Your feedback please...

Subject: Re: SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
From: Dr. Michel Sho- Sawyer
To: All
Date Posted: 05:41:17 02/02/07 ()
Email Address: michel_sawyer@yahoo.com
Entered From: c-24-99-17-147.hsd1.ga.comcast.net at 24.99.17.147

Message:
seydouba

We are in negotiation stage and your input as important as it is will be taken up during these negotiations. I thank you for your support. We are honored for such an opportunity to serve the citizens of Sierra Leone.please feel free to make any other suggestion, We want all Sierra Leoneans to be able to participate in this process. It is our birth right.
Thank you.

"If Great Is Possible Then Good Is Not Enough"

Subject: Re: Sho Sawyer and Sadu Bah contacts
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 08:29:40 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Please contact Alieu Iscandari at aiscandari@aol.com

Subject: Re: Sho Sawyer and Sadu Bah contacts
From: Independent Man
To: All
Date Posted: 11:30:25 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: new-5000.cadence.com at 158.140.1.25

Message:
APC Alieu,
You want to influence the "debate"????
Why should the guy contact you?
Why can't you say what you want to say in the public forum????

Subject: Re: Sho Sawyer and Sadu Bah contacts
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 13:01:49 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
The purpose for which I initiated the contact is none of your business. In the event that I form the opinion that it may become your business, I will duly inform you of that fact or disseminate such fct on a public forum so that you may be receive constructive notice of such.

On the issue of influencing the debate, I believe that EVERY should influence the debate in a positive manner to the extent that whatever the outcome of the 2007 elections, we as sierra leoneans will have to deal with. Go ahead and initiate contact with the gentlemen I contacted and make your own sugestions and it would still be none of my business untill you chose to divulge such contents in the public diaspora.

any other questions I may dutifully supply answers to?

Subject: Re: Sho Sawyer and Sadu Bah contacts
From: Independent Man
To: All
Date Posted: 16:48:09 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: new-5000.cadence.com at 158.140.1.25

Message:
APC folks influencing something positively and putting Sa. Lone first is news to me. This is not the APC I know. Please stop pretending and giving us hot air --- an APC charateristic.
But then again ....it is your right

Have a good day APCist!

Subject: Re: Sho Sawyer and Sadu Bah contacts
From: SENGBE WATCHER
To: All
Date Posted: 04:32:46 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Alieu this person posting as Independent man is neither Independent. He is Edmund Koker aka Sengbe the rasahola

Subject: Re: Sho Sawyer and Sadu Bah contacts
From: seydouba
To: All
Date Posted: 12:14:25 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: c-68-34-23-220.hsd1.va.comcast.net at 68.34.23.220

Message:
Sho Sawyerr,
Thanks for your feedback.
Has your organization decided on the locat1on of the debate?
For my prefer three presidential debates and two vice presidential debates so the masses will have ample time to grasp the nature of our new found openness.
In terms of locat1on I propose the following:
1)Bomaru- this is the village were the first shot was fire...this will bring realty to the people that there is a new dispensation.
2)Yellie- this another area that has been affect politically and socially and it is the center of sierra leone.
3)Waterloo-this is the gateway to freetown and they too have exeprienced heavy fighting during NPRC reign.
4)Makeni town...this was the strong hold of RUF/AFRC.This "to take politics to the people who were once foe of the present govermnent".
5)Bonthe district.
From my proposal I have left out Freetown,Bo,Kenema and Kono.reason been tohave to people have that feeling of participation.
I am looking forward to your feedback as always

Subject: Greetings
From: KNICE
To: All
Date Posted: 22:15:41 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ool-457836a6.dyn.optonline.net at 69.120.54.166

Message:
Well, it is that time again. Election time, when spirits soar, and fantasy promise and bombastic lingo pervade the humid, rainy season air.

It is also a time to pause and to think. Our people faithfully stand in the hot burning sun for hours on end, not to just indulge in a six year ritual of adorning Sierra Leone in democratic garb, but to also hope that perhaps this time, Allah, Muhammed, and Jesus will turn up on our side, and things will really start looking up. The EU, the UN, the USA, me too, and sundry fanciers of democracy will watch all this with quiet glee, then run home to indulge in our usual euphoric post mortems. But for Sierra Leonean folk nothing seems to change, and I have my own ideas as to why this is so.

It is evident in the juxtapositioning that is already under way. Old nihilists are beating their breasts with hope that we will again not remember. Against such gathering hoax can a son of the soil stay on the side line? I didn't think so. And so I humly seek to rejoin the fray to perhaps not change a thing. But to contribute my ten cents worth to the cacophony. For I believe firmly that we must make every sheep in the herd become aware that we are on to what they are up to.

Subject: Re: Greetings
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 04:42:39 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-mtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 64.12.117.8

Message:
KNICE, welcome back. The more brains on any public forum, the better.
If anything, opposing views make discourse interesting. If you can bring Jeppeh Londoh with you, the merriment will become even more heart-warming. Indeed, welcome back.

Subject: Re: Greetings
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 15:25:26 02/03/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
KNICE,
Welcome back. The forum is all your's.

Subject: QUESTION
From: QUESTION
To: All
Date Posted: 19:19:30 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
"It was also understood that some journalists blamed both Mr. Neville and Miss Sylvia Blyden for the extremes they went with each other .They said that both people published articles against each other that crosssed the threshhold of Sierra Leone's libel laws and therefore wondered how only one of them was arrested yesterday"--Kabs-Kanu

I thought it was Blyden who sued Neville for defamation libel, and he was arrested/invited to CID to answer questions relating to the complains of Blyden?Why should the complainant be arrested when Neville did not file any suit against her? Is this Ninja Journalism again?

Subject: Re: QUESTION
From: Dumb Bell
To: All
Date Posted: 20:00:32 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac90676f.ipt.aol.com at 172.144.103.111

Message:
YOU ARE A REAL DUMB BELL. You chose to misunderstand the question. Can somebody help this moron understand the question ?

Subject: Re: QUESTION
From: DUMB DUMB BELL
To: All
Date Posted: 20:32:41 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
This issue has to deal with two individuals, and not the state, for God's sake. Why should the state arrest two individuals for defaming each other? Seditios libel is different from defamatory libel, my friend. Do you understand our libel laws?

Subject: Conspiracy And False Charges...Philip Neville Is Back To Wor
From: NINJA Journalist Observer
To: All
Date Posted: 18:40:00 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
A conspiracy ochestrated by Sylvia Blyden this afternoon in Freetown to put the Managing Editor Philip Neville and General Editor Augustine Beecher of this press behind bars at Pademba Road prisons because of thier stance against corruption failed to materialized after court officials threw out the charges.

Philip Neville who is now back at his editorial desk putting finishing touches to the Friday edition of Standard Times said the fight against corruption will continue "They think they can stop us from exposing their corrupt doings...the notorious RUF/AFRC junta tried so many times but with God Almighty and the people on our side they failed" Standard Times will bring you the latest about this conspiracy and how it was ochestrated.

Subject: Re: Conspiracy And False Charges...Philip Neville Is Back To Wor
From: MAHDI WHO?
To: All
Date Posted: 18:45:53 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
HEY MAHDI,

YOU CHANGE HANDLE? hAHAHAHAHAHA. The king of Ninja journalism is right here on cocorioco.His name is Kabs -Kanu. Hehehehehehee.How can they throw out the charges, and then tell you to appear in court on Monday? When will Neville ever speak the truth?

Subject: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: Standard Times Fan
To: All
Date Posted: 16:51:20 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac90676f.ipt.aol.com at 172.144.103.111

Message:
NEVILLE , BEECHER RELEASED : STANDARD TIMES PLANS COUNTER LIBEL CASE AGAINST AWARENESS TIMES

The General Editor of Sierra Leone's 'Standard Times' newspaper , Mr.Augustine Beecher , told COCORIOKO this evening that he and the Managing Editor of the newspaper, Mr. Philip Neville were arrested briefly today and taken to the Criminal Investigations Department ( CID ) by the Sierra Leone Police Force , following a Criminal libel complaint against them by the Publisher of the Awareness Times newspaper, Sylvia Blyden.

Mr. Beecher , who spoke to this paper with a triumphant voice from a noisy Poda Poda in which he was riding, said that Police effected the arrests this morning and the plan was to have both of them incarcerated at the Pademba Road Prisons for the whole weekend, because lawyers were on strike. But the journalist stated that thankfully they were not jailed and were released later , with a court appearance slated for him and his editorial boss on Monday. The General Editor however intimated to this newspaper that Standard Times too plans to bring a criminal libel case against the Awareness Times Newspaper

Mr.Beecher said that the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists was fully supporting him and Mr .Neville , who , he said, was unpertubed by today's events.

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: NINJA Journalist Observer
To: All
Date Posted: 18:27:39 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
Now, if I were Neville, I would countersue worworliwor,
and have her butt face not only arrested, but sent to banish in Banana Island.

By the way, there are plenty of witnesses that are ready to testify on Neville's behalf that they met Worwor Blyden and Omrie Golley in Sankoh's parlour in Liberia, if at all this whole thing is to be taken seriously.

Damn rarray akatta gyal! After decieving the diaspora with her fraud Ninja site site, she has now sneaked into town to wreck havoc.

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: ANTI JOINDALIST
To: All
Date Posted: 17:00:33 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
So Kabs Kanu is a fan of Standard Times? Hehehehehe. You support alaki journalism? Forget about Blyden for a second(oops, you supported this lady too in the past anyway, what a guy), and think about journalism. De man nah disgusting wretch.

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: Standard Times Fan
To: All
Date Posted: 17:13:57 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac90676f.ipt.aol.com at 172.144.103.111

Message:
Why pick on Kabs Kanu, you son of a bitch ?

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: ANTI JOINDALIST
To: All
Date Posted: 17:17:04 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
I rest my case. You see the fools parading as journalists in that country.? Salone sorry. I will ot go own your path, you are a low class, half-baked human waste.

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: Standard Times Fan
To: All
Date Posted: 17:48:09 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac90676f.ipt.aol.com at 172.144.103.111

Message:
And you are a poopoo man.How dare you rejoice for something that could happen to you ? Don't you see that Blyden is victimising whoever disagrees with her ?

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: ANTI-JOINDALIST
To: All
Date Posted: 18:22:09 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
I am praying that individuals like you, Blyden, Neville, Becher and others are kicked out of the journalism profession. Just like how Bamidele Thompson was disbarred, I pray that you fools are kicked out of that profession. Disgusting trash.

Subject: Re: Neville, Beecher released, plan counter libel case
From: FED UP
To: All
Date Posted: 16:55:44 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Birds of the same feather flock together. Neville, Blyden, Beecher and many others are one and the same. I only wish that they are completely wiped out from the face of this planet. Salone does not deserve such disgusting personalities parading as journalists. These people are terrible.

Subject: IRAQ: Insecurity and corruption hinder reconstruction, audit
From: BEIRUT HANJAT
To: All
Date Posted: 14:42:40 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
IRAQ: Insecurity and corruption hinder reconstruction, audit says

© Mike White/IRIN

A Baghdad telecommunications building destroyed in the US-led invasion of Iraq.

BAGHDAD, 1 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - Insecurity, corruption among Iraqi officials and weak US contract management have led to tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid going missing, a new audit report said on Wednesday.

The quarterly audit prepared by the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), Stuart Bowen Jr, is the latest to paint a grim picture of the deteriorated security situation, waste, fraud and frustration in the Iraqi reconstruction effort.

"The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort," said an extract from the 579-page report.

Corruption, in particular, has been singled out by specialists as one of the factors that have contributed to the worsening security situation.

The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort.
“There are concerns that corruption among Iraqi officials has diverted much of these funds to fuel internal conflicts between Iraqi rivals or insurgent attacks against US and Iraqi forces. It’s like what's going on with smuggling oil," Rigal Hama Jalil, a Baghdad-based economist, said.

"There should be a real surveillance on how these funds are used and also there should be real surveillance on how the reconstruction projects are being implemented. Wrongdoers should be punished," Jalil added.

With US $21 billion allocated to it, the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) is the largest US foreign aid project since the Marshall Plan was launched to rebuild Europe after World War II. Some 80 percent of the money has already been paid out, the report said.

Shifting priorities

Since 2003, US officials shifted their priorities several times on how to use the reconstruction aid. They have spent more on implementing security programmes, supporting elections and developing an Iraqi government, than on reconstruction, according to the report.

"We got nothing out of elections. Our lives just got more miserable as none of those we elected is serving us," said Ahmed Jabouri, a 39-year-old taxi driver.

"We need security and good services. We want to be treated like human beings who have access to good health care, potable water and electricity all day," Jabouri added.

At present, Iraqis get about three hours of electricity a day, in contrast to a pre-war level of about 20 hours a day. This has forced many citizens, as well as large private and governmental factories, to rely on their own generators for power.

In many cases, the residents of the capital, Baghdad, suffer acute fuel shortages because lack of electricity has forced refineries to stop functioning.

According to the audit report, money that was originally earmarked for electricity, water, oil projects and transportation and communications has been diverted to fund health care, elections and democracy programmes as well as the training of Iraqi security forces. The largest single expense, the report said without mentioning a figure, was on security.

We got nothing out of elections. Our lives just got more miserable as none of those we elected is serving us.
The audit report said that 34 percent of the IRRF’s funds were spent on security and justice, 23 percent on trying to generate and distribute electricity, 12 percent on water, 12 percent on economic and societal development, 9 percent on oil and gas, 4 percent on transportation and communications and 4 percent on health care.

But despite the high figure allocated for security, Iraq’s capital Baghdad and some other provinces are still witnessing high levels of violence which claim the lives of tens of civilians on a daily basis.

Insurgents are relentlessly attacking the country's public servants and infrastructure in a bid to make the Iraq ungovernable.

The SIGIR is a temporary US federal agency serving as a watchdog for fraud, waste, and abuse of funds intended for Iraq’s reconstruction programmes. It was created by the US Congress to provide oversight of the IRRF. This is done by independent audits, field inspections and criminal investigations into potential fraud, waste and abuse of funds.

Tough measures are needed

"The Iraqi government must be more aware of the danger of corruption and lack of security. It has to adopt meaningful plans on the ground to ensure security in the country and then put reconstruction efforts on track," Hamid Ali al-Azawi, a Baghdad-based political analyst, said.

"Corruption and insecurity are like moths eating the body of the government. The quicker the government annihilates these insects, the sooner prosperity and security will prevail," al-Azawi added.

The report cited an incident in which $43.8 million was paid by the US State Department to DynCorp International to build a residential camp for trainee police in one of former president Saddam Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad.

About $4.2 million of this money was spent improperly on 20 trailers for important visitors and an Olympic-sized swimming pool - all ordered by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior but never authorised by the US.

Corruption and insecurity are like moths eating the body of the government. The quicker the government annihilates these insects, the sooner prosperity and security will prevail.
The report added that the auditors had "significant concern" about the way ahead, partly because of the Iraqi government's bad track record on budgeting for such projects.

The report also warned that soaring unemployment was contributing to the insurgency and, therefore, was hampering reconstruction efforts.

However, the report concluded that the Iraqi government's most significant challenge “continues to be strengthening rule-of-law institutions - the judiciary, prisons and the police. The United States has spent billions of dollars in this area, with limited success to date."

Iraqi government officials have declined to comment on the report, saying that they have yet to read it.

For ordinary Iraqis, reports and new initiatives come and go while the conditions they live in continue to deteriorate.

"We prefer Saddam's days. There was not as much corruption then as we see now," said Fawaz Ahmed Ajil, a 44-year-old Baghdad owner of a supermarket. "We are subjected to death every single moment and have no basic services like potable water and sewage networks.”

Subject: Bbc To Take Biggest Ever Interactive Roadshow Across Sierra-
From: BBC MAN
To: All
Date Posted: 13:14:42 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Bbc To Take Biggest Ever Interactive Roadshow Across Sierra-Leone

Radio listeners in Sierra Leone will be treated to a week of engaging programming when the BBC World Service brings its interactive English for Africa programmes on the biggest ever road show to Bo,Freetown and Kenema starting Monday,5th Febuary.The road show celebrates the launch of two new frequencies;95.5 FM in Bo and 93.5 in Kenema.

This disclosure was made today at the British Council Auditorium at a press briefing organised by The BBC world service.

More Details soon.

Subject: APC top brass: Ernest Koroma cannot win elections... calls f
From: J. LAMIN ISCANDRI
To: All
Date Posted: 11:47:13 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
CONCORD TIMES

APC top brass: Ernest Koroma cannot win elections... calls for new leadership

By Rachel Horner 1/2/2007

Erstwhile Member of Parliament and aspirant for the All Peoples Congress Party (APC) leadership, Amara Alkalie Kamara Wednesday called on party members to dissolve the current National Executive Committee, withdraw court cases and fix a date for a delegate conference.

He made this call during a press conference organized at Kingharman Road .“The APC should set up an effective leadership that would include the party's political actors who are currently sidelined by the present executive. Only a strong leadership can face and counter the heat of other political parties” Kamara said, adding that Hon. Ernest Koroma was not telling the membership of the party the facts about the court cases.

“Since I came back in November 2006 I have been holding meetings in many areas in Freetown and in the provinces explaining to party supporters the legal and constitutional problems facing the party and how the division in the party will lead us to a dead-end come 2007 elections,” he stated.

He said it is timely for the party to sit and resolve its differences.Kamara claims that the resignation of Councillor Alieu Badara Mansaray from the party, the investigation of the Mayor by the government, the court cases, the arrest of Ernest Koroma's and the dissolution of the women's wing of party are all indications that the APC needs a central authority.The APC, he said, could only win the 2007 elections when the people have confidence in it.

Subject: Re: APC top brass: Ernest Koroma cannot win elections... calls f
From: PA LIDO
To: All
Date Posted: 15:48:38 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
E BUTU FINE THREE PNG TEN EE NOR BUTU FINE WAN PLATE RS EN KEBE.
YALLA GEE AM LAMIN WAN PLATE RES EN KEBE DAY

Subject: Re: APC top brass: Ernest Koroma cannot win elections... calls f
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 16:49:08 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
NOR FORGET SAY POTO DON CATCH FIRE- PMDC DON CAPPU JOR-JOR (NORMAN AND OTHERS). DEM DON LAY THE RED CARPET FOR ERNEST FOR SWEEP THE ELECTIONS. BRA ERNEST KNOW WATIN EE DAY PAN.DEM SAY WEY YOU YAMS WHITE COBER AM FOR DEM BELLA AND CONGOSA.

Subject: Big fat lies! YAMBA ON NEVILLE
From: Sarh Musa Yamba
To: All
Date Posted: 11:21:39 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
CONCORD TIMES

Big fat lies!
Sarh Musa Yamba 9/8/2006

When perusing the local tabloids, as I normally do, Friday August 4 th Edition of Standard Times was one of the newspapers that caught my eyes.There was this screaming headline captioned “Nigeria recovers Abacha's US$ 700 million loot,” and another front page story captioned “Presidential Spokesman fails ‘Communication test' in Parliament…Allieu Kamara ‘Territorial Integrity' may replace Kanji Daramy.”Of course there was another story, which had to do with the just announced 2007 election date by President Kabbah, but it was no news to me. What was newsy was the Presidential Spokesman failing a “Parliamentary Communication test.”

Reading through the first paragraph of the story about the Presidential Spokesman, I sensed something very sinister, the source of the story was highly questionable to me with a journalistic eye.The story read and I quote verbatim: “Reports has implicated the Presidential Spokesman Alhaji Kanji Daramy that he has failed a communication test in Parliament. The report went further to state that the Presidential Spokesman appeared before the appointment Committee in Parliament for the Chairmanship of the Communication Commission instituted by the President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.However, the failure of the Presidential Spokesman to get the assembly accept his appointment has been viewed by so many political analysts as something appropriate since he is not knowledgeable in such a capacity. In addition, it is the assumption of some members of the Parliament that he would rape the commission as he did at SALPOST that led to the crumbling of the nation's courier service…”As I finished reading the story I knew from my heart of hearts that it was aiming at something mischievous. I was convinced it was nothing but a big fat lie by Phillip Neville, Executive Editor of Standard Times newspaper. The key things that I asked my self were, when did the Presidential Spokesman appear in Parliament before the Appointments Committee? Was it a closed-door sitting that did not attract other journalists for it not to have the necessary coverage by the Press? If it was a Parliamentary sitting, why was no one quoted to lend credence to the story? Did the Committee sit in space? Because that would have been a story that would have spread like bush fire in the dry season. Interestingly, it was only Standard Times newspaper that carried the story. Were they (Standard Times) the only ones present in Parliament at the time of the purported appearance of Kanji Daramy? Another very critical look at the newspaper revealed there was no by-line. Mischief! I thought to my self. Another hard look brought out the unprofessional manner in which the story was written. There was no mention of the Presidential Spokesman's side of the story. Nothing! Just sources. Which source?

The issue became a subject of discussion in our newsroom. One of my senior editorial staff members, Ibrahim Seibure, immediately dialled the Minority Member of Parliament of the Opposition All Peoples Congress, Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma to substantiate the Standard Times Publication by virtue of the fact that he is a key member of the Appointments Committee in Parliament. His response, “I am not aware that the Presidential Spokesman appeared before the Appointments Committee.”I still could not accept what I heard, so I used the opportunity to call the Chairman of the Appointment Committee Hon. Fofanah who also doubles as Leader of the House, as the Presidential Spokesman's phone earlier rang incessantly without him picking it up.“Good day sir, my name is Sahr Musa Yamba, Editor of Concord Times. I want to enquire whether the Presidential Spokesman, Kanji Daramy has appeared before the Appointment Committee in Parliament and was rejected,” I asked with my ears glued to my mobile phone's earpiece itching for an answer.“Mr. Yamba,” Hon Fofanah responded, “Mr. Kanji Daramy has never appeared before us at the Parliamentary Appointment Committee.” I could not believe my ears. “Say that again sir, are you saying the Presidential Spokesman, Kanji Daramy has never appeared before your Committee for approval to the Telecommunications Commission?” I responded thinking my ears had deceived me. “Yes you heard me right. Mr. Kanji Daramy has never appeared before us.”

To say I was stunned is an understatement.

I still wanted to dig up some more about the story. So I called the Presidential Spokesman again for further confirmation. “Sir, is it true that you appeared before the Parliamentary Committee and you were rejected to become Chairman of the Telecommunications Commission?” I asked.“Standard Times' story was a blatant lie, grossly unprofessional and fallacious. Phillip Neville is a liar,” Kanji Daramy retorted. He added, “how can Parliament reject me when I have never been before them?”

So having all these facts, and as a journalist's guide, in Joe Hills' words ‘two sides to my story… Your side and my side,” I published the reaction of the Presidential Spokesman in our Monday 7 th August edition: “Presidential Spokesman calls Phillip Neville a “liar,”but not without Neville's side of the story. I had called him, as a colleague and classmate in college, to inform him the Presidential Spokesman had branded him a “liar,” and wanted his reaction before going to press. Neville's reaction was he has his “source” and started talking about Allieu Kamara going to the Presidential Lodge. He continued, “I know Kanji Daramy is your man.” I replied Phillip in the affirmative but stressed that Daramy being my “man” does not in any way influence my editorial policy. We hung up and I went to press.But much to my consternation, I saw Neville publish in his Tuesday 8 th May edition under the column One Thing and Another by Phillip Neville an article captioned “Kanji: The cat of SALPOST” some things I regard as greatly personal and not the issue under the spotlight.He wrote: “…whether he (Kanji Daramy) has special arrangements with the editor of that paper (not Kingsley Lington the owner) but Sahr Musa Yamba, an employee of the paper is really not the issue…”If it is not the issue, why does Phillip Neville mention it? If I may ask. Is this style not typical of attack journalism schemes; attack-collect, threaten-collect and blackmail-collect vampire journalism?

Neville went further to bring me in the picture, but I am afraid he missed the boat.Neville wrote: “…At any time he (Kanji Daramy) opens his mouth to speak on behalf of the President, the result is always very disastrous. But he is there in the office, surfing the Internet in search of articles on telecommunication, and would reproduce them verbatim in the pages of the Concord Times, sometimes bearing his by-line and in most cases would use fake names…”I must stress that I am no defender of Kanji Daramy and will never be as insinuated by Neville in his attack journalism piece he wrote. I only intend to put the facts straight as the age-old cliché states, facts are sacred, and opinions are free. Period! As that is the quest of journalists, not attack, blackmail and collect. It has never been my style and will never ever be.As I insist I am not a defender of Kanji Daramy, going back to the wrong insinuation Kanji Daramy writes articles published in Concord Times under fake names is not only misleading the public into a malicious gimmick, but a calculated attempt to drag my name into the mud. And it is only because of mention of me in his article that I am compelled to react. Neville did it with Pious Foray of the Democrat press, he smeared Sayo Kamara of Awareness Times, now, because I have lay bare the falsehoods in his publication, he has turned his threat-arsenal on me.

The telecommunications articles published in Concord Times have nothing to do with Kanji Daramy, the earlier Phillip Neville gets that up his head, the better. I had told him that over the phone, but why he went on to publish falsehoods is any body's guess. The telecommunication articles published in Concord Times are written by no less a person than a guru, Maxwell Massaquoi, whom I am sure Neville is referring to as a ‘fake' name. We (Concord Times) have even got emails from overseas trying to contact Maxwell Massaquoi for the brilliant telecommunications articles he writes. If Neville wants his number for confirmation, Concord Times will readily make it available. So please, please Phillip, Kanji Daramy does NOT write the said articles. Yes, Kanji Daramy is my friend. I cannot shy away from that fact. But to suggest he is using Concord Times to project his image and “using” me is farfetched. We (Concord Times) have on many occasions damned Kanji Daramy and will continue to do so when the need arises. You just need to reflect on the ‘Pa Kabbah: Man den nor gladdy oh' publication of Concord Times early this year wherein the Presidential Spokesman was given a pen-lashing for his rebuttal of that publication in Concord Times; You don't need to go beyond yesterday Tuesday 8 th August publication to read our lead story “PDL calls on Kabbah to resign” and realise that Kanji Daramy's friendship with, me Sahr Musa Yamba, does not in any way what so ever influence our publications. But that is not to say we don't give them (Kanji Daramy and his cronies) the opportunity to say their bit. We (Concord Times) do not run a hate campaign. We do not blackmail or attack to collect as suggested by the Standard Times publication of 8 th August 2006 “Kanji: The SALPOST cat,” which was highlighted as a warning at the tail end: “Caution- Kanji Dramy! Be prepared for a long and sweet battle.” Does that suggest threat? Hate? Attack and Collect later? Food for thought!

Hon. Fofanah and Hon Ernest Bai Koroma of the Parliamentary Appointment Committee have said it all; let me not waste my precious time. Phillip Neville's publication ‘Presidential Spokesman fails Parliamentary test' is nothing but a big fat lie!

Subject: Re: Big fat lies! YAMBA ON NEVILLE
From: Mahdi
To: All
Date Posted: 13:32:22 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-155.robertsoncollege.com at 66.46.23.155

Message:
Whats your point Mister...gloating on his arrest because he is not a system man.Do you need to be posting this 50 times...if it happens to Neville it can happened to any journalistin Sierra Leone.

Subject: Re: Big fat lies! YAMBA ON NEVILLE
From: mahdi who?
To: All
Date Posted: 13:35:31 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Bo go shove it. Neville is not a journalist. Way you worwor lek babboo. Hopeless man.De boy too passmark.

Subject: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Maada
To: All
Date Posted: 11:06:19 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: swooshman@blackplanet.com
Entered From: at 199.192.2.70

Message:
Philip Neville, the shameless Vice President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) has been finally apprehended this afternoon along the streets of Freetown in front of a huge crowd of citizens who all cheered loudly as he was dragged away.

"I hope they lock up that vermin for a very long time to come" and "Lock him up and throw the keys away" were a few of the comments made as he was led away to the Law Courts where he faces an eight count indictment for criminal defamatory libel.

Stay tuned for the full report with even more pictures of the sensational arrest made in front of Sweissy along Lightfoot Boston Road. In this picture ahown above, Philip Neville is telling the Police that as Vice President of SLAJ, he was not to be arrested in such a "disgraceful" manner. Ha ha ha.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Justice
To: All
Date Posted: 06:58:07 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 203-66-ftth.onsneteindhoven.nl at 88.159.66.203

Message:
Shame on you. Let me tell you about Philip Neville. He first found economic independent before he started his journey into Journalism. What I am saying is that Neville uses his self acquired money to enhance the status iof Standard Times. He is one of the luckiest Sierra Leonean Journalists. I remember seeing him in the States after he won DV lotery in 1995.
He won it immediately he finished Colege. This helped him not to be bought by Sierra Leonean despicable politicians and businessman. The ordinary people will give full support to Neville because he is their voice.
The so-called awareness times is elitist. Its proprotress is unwittingly has connections to the elites and we the ordinary will not jump in their vehicle.
Sylvia type of journalism is "I concur-I support"
Inorder to thrive, pne must be morally uplifted.This is not about disrespectin womanhood. It is about fair play and morality. Sierra Leone does not deserve boot licking journalism as has been demeonstrated by Saio Kamara and the awareness times. What is patriotism and courage, when a vast numenr of Sierra Leoneans are going to bed without a meal.The international Community has given hundreds of millions of dollars to allevaite the sufferings of our people. Guess what, the SLPP decision makers are busy lining their pockets. Selfish awarenesstimes propritress istalking about patriotism -to show Sierra Leone in a good light.
Philip Neville of Standard Times desreves a honour for bringing out corruption and political theivery in the public domain. Go Standard Times. You are the voice of the voiceless.
Let no threat and intimidation, thwart your aim to recovera hopeful life for all Sierra Leoneans. Some of us will be giving you our moral and physicalsupport.
Continue the good work, Standard Times.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Independent Man
To: All
Date Posted: 19:08:31 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: new-5000.cadence.com at 158.140.1.25

Message:
Both Awareness Times and Standard Times do not represent the people - or as you put it the voiceless They are all outlets for trash! You are insulting journalists around the world when you call these two rag-tag folks journalists.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Moijue
To: All
Date Posted: 14:26:10 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-135-67-77.range86-135.btcentralplus.com at 86.135.67.77

Message:
NAlie de man de na en office

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: BUFORD HWY
To: All
Date Posted: 13:01:48 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: adsl-074-228-219-218.sip.asm.bellsouth.net at 74.228.219.218

Message:
Maada,wrote"In this picture shown above,Philip Neville is telling the Police that as Vice President of SLAJ,he was not to be arrested in such a "disgraceful"manner.Ha ha ha."

WHERE IS THE PICTURE THAT YOU ARE REFERING TO?
WHERE YOU AT THE SCENE OF ARREST?
IF NO,THEN HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT HE OUTTER THOSE WORDS?
DID N1P1 ASKED YOU TO POST THIS MESSAGE ON THIS FORUM,BECAUSE HER FORUM IS NOT GETTING THE SUCCEES THAT THIS FORUM IS GETTING?

I HAVE READ YOUR POSTING ON HER FORUM,AND YOU ARE ALWAYS ON HER DEFENSE.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Onliner
To: All
Date Posted: 11:47:09 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
What's all the fuss about? In a democratic system, Philip Neville should have the right to counter sue Worworliwor for her articles about Neville and have her Ninja baboon ass locked up at Pademba Road as well.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: DOUBLE TROUBLE
To: All
Date Posted: 08:46:10 02/04/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-87-74-1-168.bulldogdsl.com at 87.74.1.168

Message:
To be honest with you this is not the kind of picture i was expecting to see here. This forum is very sophisticated to display a picture like this. But now that its here i may as well give my own take on it. I think that standard times should have done it with a bit of style and class. Even the Papay isn't looking at her so why should I? Put it this way, this is not the kind of bird that i will see in a TURN AROUND DANCE and go PHOWER she is a bit of a (CORKER) The tits aren't real, well she is a doctor she may have done some BOOB JOB. There are CELLULITE all over the leg and the hair cut is a typical LOCAL BIKE style.Why put her on top of a Table with a pair of slippers? I think that Rev. Kabs should take this picture off from this site.

This is what Philip should have done. He should have put her underneath the table in a pair of COME FUCK ME BOOTS not slippers giving the Papay a PROFESSIONAL with a GRENADE OR A BULLET in his mouth in place of a CIGAR. Sleek Willie and Lewinsky style. That would have really killed it for Philip and the punters. But look at what we've got? Pure FUCKRY.

My advise to Philip is next time please tone it dawn a bit. With all the poverty i still believe that our country is a country of morals especially in the sex department. IF DEN MAMIE DEN SEE DIS, DEN GO LAY HAN NAR HEAID EN HALAR LOR DER MAH, OOSE KIN NARBA TROUBLE DIS. And in the fog of this kind of war, your message will be lost.

DEN SAY IF YOU SAY YOU DAE BEAT BARBOO FOR EE WORWOR NAR KILL NOR MOR YOU GO KILL AM.

However, Sylvia should know that there is no clean fight. Someone said here the last time that the men are picking on her because of her Sexaulity. I don't think that that is the problem. From what i have seen so far, apart from this Libel debate which is a national debate, her battles with men are mostly personal.

IF E NOR DAE PAN FET WIT OLU GORDEN TEDAY BY CALLING HIM A USELESS JAMBA SMOKER WAE NOR GEH MAMIE BLESSING THROUGH A POEM, EE GO DAE PAN FET Rev KABS OVER NEWSPAPER ARTICLE NO NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.

IF EE NOR DAE PAN PRINT DISGRACEFUL PICTURE OF AMBASSADOR JOHN E LEIGH WIT RED NEK TIE DAE CRY, EE GO SHOW WE ODER PICTURE OF AM DAE SWEAT WITH OLL EE SHIRT SOK LEK SAE DE MAN NOR KNOW WAETIN NAR DEODORANT.

IF EE NOR DAE PAN CALL AMBASSADOR LEIGH AGAIN CRAISMAN. EE GO DAE PAN CALL PHILIP A RECKLESS FOOL WAE NOR SABI SPELL BOLLORCUS STANDING.

IF EE NOR TREATEN FOR SUE TOTSY BOY, EE GO DAE PAN BLACKMAIL JOHN BEN ABOUT COMPUTER CONTRACT.

IF E NOR CALL USA AMBASSADOR HALL CONGOSA BOX, NAR COMMISSIONER DE ANGELO EE GO CALL PORN STAR LARY FLINT. And these are all heavyweights in Sa.Lone.

Boy, she most have a lot on her plate. I must admit i do admire her for her FRONT though. But there are a lot of women in higher places in Sa.lone who are not in the limelight like her.Why? BECOS DEN SABI FET.

Mind you Sylvia there is no clean fight. IF YOU CUSS ME MAMIE, ME SEF GO TRY FOR EMBARRASS YOU BIG TIME. And if the allegation against you are true that you were the IT person for the RUF, THEN U FOR KNO SAE REBEL NOR BIN DAE SELECT HOW FOR FET. DEN BIN DAE CUT TWO MONT OLL PIKIN EE HAN OLL.LET ALONE CUT BELLEH WOMAN OFF. BURN HOS EN RAPE OLL BIN MIX PAN DEN FET. SO IF YOU CALL MAN RECKLESS FOOL, DEN EXPECT A VICIOUS ATTACK.

I will therefor finish off by saying this to Philip, go easy on the Sister no need for that king of picture. And what about this for a truce? Show us a picture of Sylvia looking professional in a suit teaching Sankoh how to WIPE SA.LONE OFF THE MAP on the computer by hitting the DELETE key.

Show us a picture of the Papay teaching Sylvia in her full RUF RAG TAG military uniform how to throw a GRENADE OR FIRE AN AK on those new RUF Recruits WAE JUS COMOT PAN BANDA NAR BURKINA FASSO WAE DAE TELL WE SAY BULLET NOR DAE GO THROUGH DEN BODY?

Why not try and up the tempo a bit by showing us a picture of Sylvia in a pair of COME FUCK ME BOOTS, a band less miniskirt, tong or bikini, a see through top, a bandanna and a pair of Gucci glasses walking on the BEACH with the old man? That's more like it Bruv.

NOR TO DEN KIN PHOTO YER AR WAN FOR SEE NAR DIS SITE. And please next time print it in coloured.

Rev. Kabs PLEASE TAKE IT OFF NOW COS AVE GOT A BETTER ONE ON PAGE THREE OF MY SUN newspaper.

Thanks

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Onliner
To: All
Date Posted: 11:35:27 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
What's all the fuss about? In a democratic system, Philip Neville should have the right to counter sue Worworliwor for what she had publish about Neville and have her baboon ass locked up as well.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Joseph Swarray
To: All
Date Posted: 11:16:20 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: imtu71@hotmail.com
Entered From: at 199.192.2.70

Message:
Let him have a taste of Justice!!! I.B. Kargbo is next.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Mahdi
To: All
Date Posted: 13:42:34 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-155.robertsoncollege.com at 66.46.23.155

Message:
Justice in Sierra Leone.....far from it....Neville is enemey number one for the corrupt and crooked politicians who continue to milk the country dry...now they are happy he has been arrested but the mistake they are making is that the pen is mightier than the sword.Standard Times will never succumb to their will.We will never relent and will continue to exposed them unabated.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Onliner
To: All
Date Posted: 14:02:39 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ppp-70-248-104-102.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net at 70.248.104.102

Message:
He can countersue, and I hope he does so that bitter face Blyden can get a taste of justice.

By the way, the picture in the ragtag online paper only shows Mr Neville in front of two police officers. So what? And that means that he is under arrest?

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: HOPELESS
To: All
Date Posted: 13:46:27 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Nobody is against fighting corruption. But please stop the lies. We fedup with lies. You guys are a pathectic bunch of hopeless idiots.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Mahdi
To: All
Date Posted: 14:05:02 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-155.robertsoncollege.com at 66.46.23.155

Message:
Call it whatever you like....but I'm no coward like you hiding behind different handles.It is because you don't believe in yourself and what you preach thats why you are hiding.Come out of the cloak coward.

Subject: Re: Philip Neville Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: HOPELESS
To: All
Date Posted: 14:08:02 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Nope, you are a loser. You are a hopeless fool. Damn bloody idiot. You guys are pathectic. Una mek journalism gainse people dem. Ay bo, Unu blow, baster alaki mortal man dem.

Subject: Philip Neville Is Not Locked up at Pademba Prison
From: Mahdi
To: All
Date Posted: 15:41:52 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-155.robertsoncollege.com at 66.46.23.155

Message:
Philip Neville in not at Pademba Road Prisons as was posted here.As I'm posting this.... he is at his office in Freetown getting the Standard Times Friday edition ready for publication.Shame on you mister

Subject: Philip Neville has finally come home to roost
From: John Kanu
To: All
Date Posted: 10:58:17 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: swooshman@blackplanet.com
Entered From: at 199.192.2.70

Message:
http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20054650.shtml

Subject: Re: Philip Neville has finally come home to roost
From: Maada
To: All
Date Posted: 11:03:04 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: swooshman@blackplanet.com
Entered From: at 199.192.2.70

Message:
http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20054650.shtml

Subject: RESPONSE FROM BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO SIERRA LEONEANS
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 07:50:11 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
[The following E-mail was sent today by the British government's international development agency, DFID, via its office in Freetown, DFID-Sierra Leone, to SALONEDiscussion Group and Jonathan M. Rose and I, among others, in response to the submission by SALONEDiscussion Group of a proposal for a fundamental change in the strategy of Britain's and other European Community countries' aid efforts in Sierra Leone.

It is presented here as a continuation of the effort to empower fellow Sierra Leoneans by sharing with them information relevant to the development of our country].

[START EXCERPT]

In a message dated 2/1/2007 5:08:08 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, SierraLeonJCSP@dfid.gov.uk writes:

Dear All,

Thank you for your comments and contributions to the draft of the new JCSP. This will be reviewed and where possible reflected in the final document.

Regards

Emerica E. Adams

Executive Assistant
DFID Sierra Leone
5 Off Spur Road
Freetown

-------------------------------------------------------
From: MohmJ@aol.com [mailto:MohmJ@aol.com]
Sent: 30 January 2007 16:10
To: SierraLeone JCSP
Cc: SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com; jrose1@mmm.com; MohmJ@aol.com

Subject: Response to DFID/EC Strategy for Sierra Leone's Development

Robert Watt

Deputy Head

DFID Sierra Leone

Spur Road

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Dear Mr. Watt:

Please find attached herewith our response to DFID's invitation to Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora to comment on the DFID-EC proposed 2007-12 strategy for Sierra Leone's development.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any question or need clarification about the attached document.

Thank you for extending this invitation to us.

For and on behalf of SALONEDiscussion Group,

Mohamed A. Jalloh

Coordinator

_______________________________________________________
This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The
service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive
anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit:
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________________________________________________________________________

DFID, the Department for International Development: leading the British government's fight against world poverty. For more information subscribe to our e-bulletin at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/feedback/
______________________________________________________________________

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Subject: Re: RESPONSE FROM BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO SIERRA LEONEANS
From: Moa Wharf
To: All
Date Posted: 08:04:06 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 203-66-ftth.onsneteindhoven.nl at 88.159.66.203

Message:
Jalloh, I like your stance. Even though those who think Sierra Leone is for their family try to cast you down, you refuse. That so-called dr of economics has not done anything to develop his village in Tongo.
He is busy arranging with Americans that they have big plot of land to mine diamonds.
John annah, the official spokesman of awarenesstimes is living in a dream world. Too old to study economics and he cannot make any economic forecasts .He hides behind the SLPP hoping to become a Minister, if Berewa succeeds in his drive to rig the elctions. But, all het will get loose if Berewa attempts.
What is so insulting of the spurious economist, is to say publicly that he can influence Berewa to appoint Hinga Norman in government. this unashamed vilagers think Sierra Leone belongs to them.
Jalloh, you are up there in your field. John Mannah sits in the same category with thieves who aredevouring Sierra Leone.
Your detractors will point at SLPMB, when you have cornered them. Do not mind them. we know vividly who destroyed SLPMB. Because MK SUma is hiding behind the green colour, they will not attack him.
Jallh you are doing the right thing now. Working with an acclaimed economist like Rose will do youa favour than wasting time with a partisan economist.

Subject: Re: RESPONSE FROM BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO SIERRA LEONEANS
From: Saloneman
To: All
Date Posted: 12:45:53 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:
Mr. jalloh, thank you and also thank Mr. Rose for this selfless effort. If you succeeed in changing the minds of the Britisg donors, that could benefit many sierra leoneans who may never know about your contribution to their improved life.

You two guys are leading the best way -- by example. Once again, thank you.

Subject: Re: RESPONSE FROM BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO SIERRA LEONEANS
From: I Agree
To: All
Date Posted: 13:20:16 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:
Bra, mesef dae join you for tell den two man den dae tenki. One day ar nor see salone forum take ACTION wae go benefit we people dem. Nar soso labo den kin dae pan.

So, bra, we for tell tenki for salonediscussion group oosai Jalloh en Rose den write from.

Subject: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 18:37:03 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-mtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 64.12.117.8

Message:
The African Union did a symbolically good job by rejecting Sudan's Chairmanship of the All-African organization. Omar Hassan El-Bashir of Sudan is a quintessential Arab racist that has supervised the deaths of tens of thousands of Africans in Africa's largest country. The African Union's rejection of his unashamed bid for chairmanship of the organization, amounts to a small but symbolic boost for human rights in Africa. This, of course, is the continent where leaders have always hushed-up each other's human rights violations.

The A.U.'s organizational predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, sullied the name of the African continent some decades ago by letting the blood-drenched Idi Amin become its chairman. African leaders at the time must have been bereft of common sense when a murderous tyrant like Amin was made Chairman of an organization that represented the black race in post-colonial Africa. This African callousness continued even after Mwalimu Nyerere kicked Amin out of power with a column of Tanzanian tanks. Nyerere was diplomatically put in the firing line, with some African leaders threatening to sever diplomatic relations with Tanzania if an explanation was not offered for the overthrow of a "sovereign" President. Some African idiots!

What was the significance of Ugandan sovereignty when Amin was reducing the "Pearl of Africa" {Uganda} to an abattoir? This time, Africa has shown that the continent is slowly but surely coming of age. Sudan was given a diplomatic snub, a gesture that spoke sonorously loud about the need for Africa to clean its ugly image. As if to crown it all, the A.U's chairmanship went to peaceful and democratic Ghana, the home of my only African hero, Osagyefo Nkrumah. Even more jolly, Ghana is celebrating its independence from British colonial rule in March. Happy birthday day, Ghana. Well done, AU!

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 01:54:40 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"my only African hero, Osagyefo Nkrumah."

Your ONLY african Hero? What about Nelson Mandela, leopold sedar senghor, mzee jomo kenyatta, mualimu julius nyrere, Bai Bureh, Kai Londo, Honoria Bailor Caulker, Ella Koblo Gulama, Sundiata Keita, Alimamy Samory Toure, Your father, your mother.

Bra there are quite a few AFRIKAN HEROES in my book, and Osagyefo is but one of them. I am a student of his and do not intend by this post to belittle his significance but we do have more heroes.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 17:01:36 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-21-42-148.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.21.42.148

Message:
Alieu,
Sometimes it is good to let go the urge comment.
No one is downgrading others. The arena in which Nkrumah was was different from the others you mentioned. Everyone
contribution is valuable. But not everyone has the same impact if you know what I mean. We must stop comparing oranges and apples.
Kwame Nkrumah said to African Leaders in 1963 in Addis Ababa" We must unite now or Perish!"
You guys keep on treading the same road of "mini cloned" states and the delayed predict will come true in thirty years. You Africans would be extinct.
Yaya Fanusie
PS: many Senegalese do not see Senghor as hero but as a stooge of France. The French preferred him over my relative Lamine Gueye. you did not know that eh?

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: Kwame Toure
To: All
Date Posted: 11:00:24 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
Bo Alieu yu pasmak. What part of MY only African Hero don't you understand? Everyone has the right to choose HIS own African hero(es). The emphasis should be on MY not ONLY.

MY own Afrikan heroes: Lumumba, Mohammed Alie (yes, Mohammed Allie), Malcolm X and Bob Marley.

Well, didn't Tosh say no matter where you came from, if you are black you are an Afrikan? I rest my case.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq.
To: All
Date Posted: 15:47:27 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"The emphasis should be on MY not ONLY"
well actually "My" and "Only" should be read together if it is to make any sense. But I do see your point and it made me laugh. Tryes Dat Robert Nesta Marley, and Lumumba could easily come into the fold.

Thanks for a good laugh

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: DR. MOHAMED SORIE FORNAH
To: All
Date Posted: 05:48:25 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: usr501-wit.cableinet.co.uk at 213.48.201.29

Message:
What about Nelson Mandela, leopold sedar senghor, mzee jomo kenyatta, mualimu julius nyrere, Bai Bureh, Kai Londo, Honoria Bailor Caulker, Ella Koblo Gulama, Sundiata Keita, Alimamy Samory Toure, Your father, your mother.Alieu

Ah but Alieu u nor menshon u man ee name BANDELAY the first President of the republic of osai den tie cow. Ar min u bin dae blow ee horn all den days yer? or u forget [Laugh]

Me man, please allow me for add the name DR. MOHAMED SORIE FORNAH to dis list.Becos if honest and decent politician lek dis bin dae alive teday nar Salone, BETTEH for don fallah we KONTRY.GREAT MAN.

LIKKLE MORE

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: babybob
To: All
Date Posted: 15:52:43 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
That is because I do not know who "Bandelay" is neither am I familiar with a "republic of oosai den tie cow" Maybe you can enlighten me on these issues and names new to me.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 14:42:14 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Thers also Ibrahim Bash Taqui, Alimamy Khazali and the list goes on

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 17:06:35 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: Futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-21-42-148.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.21.42.148

Message:
Alieu,
Here you go again. Alimamy Khazali? You are out of your mind?
Yaya Fanusie

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 18:21:24 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Yaya for good or bad, everyone has their hero. Alimamy Kazali may not be a hero to you but forme as a 13 year old when I met hm and soon thereafter he faced the galows for crime I still believe that he did not commit and that he was framed.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: COMEDIAN
To: All
Date Posted: 17:12:52 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Bra Yaya,

Na di jamba.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 04:32:34 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-mtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 64.12.117.8

Message:
Bra Alieu, Kabor. Some of the people named above are indeed heroes to me, too. Nar so you sabi talk?

I was speaking in the context of Pan-Africanism. When it comes to looking at Africa in the context of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah remains the only man I admire. He was brilliant, and certainly far-sighted enough to have foreseen the consequences of disunity. Even the powerful, colonial powers who are by no means vulnerable to imperialism, have merged in the name of the European Union. Imagine how powerfless we are, standing individually to do international transactions with Western countries so powerful that Coco-cola alone do have enough cash than the economies of Liberia, S/Leone and Mauritania combined.
You can hardly get out of poverty when your trading partner determines the value of your currency and the goods you sell to him. That, of course, is the most dangerous aspect of imperialism.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 17:12:31 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: Futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-21-42-148.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.21.42.148

Message:
Bra Enviable,
It is sad to note that the Aliues are many in Africa.
They are proud for the "national" identity europe created for them. And most of them will kill you if you try to create a "New National Identity" which can function for the interests of Africa.
Yaya Fanusie

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 18:23:26 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Again you are showing your usual manifest misunderstanding of this person you call your nephew. I can undersatnd its the retirement and youve got a lot of IDLE time on your hands to talk trash about people you call family

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 18:56:26 02/01/07 ()
Email Address: Futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-21-42-148.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.21.42.148

Message:
Alieu;
Although I have close cultural affiliation to Mende Culture, I do not wish to exhibit what you would perceive to be tribalism. Therefore, I can publicly rebuke family
members when they are wrong. I see you want me to behave like Sengbe. You make an ass of yourself I will tell you that. Family or not.
Long live the Mendes.
Yaya Fanusie

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 08:19:09 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"Long live the Mendes."

I am 100% behind you on that statement and I dare add Long live ALL the peoples of Sierra Leone. The mendes are only a fraction of all the peoples of sierra leone. But Yaya how did the issue of the mendes come into a debate on who Bra Enviables heroes are. Man you going OFF BEAT these days arent you? Is that how it gets when one gets closer to 70 years old or are you just buls&%tting?. Get some rest bra and get your thinking faculties reaaranged again. Yours is a non issue.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: How About Jon Rose Moh'm Jalloh?
To: All
Date Posted: 12:52:33 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:
"You can hardly get out of poverty when your trading partner determines the value of your currency and the goods you sell to him. That, of course, is the most dangerous aspect of imperialism."

Bra, is that not what I just read in Moh'm Jalloh's and Jonathan Rose's article on cureency revaluation in salone? These guys are saying exactly what you just said. In fact, I read that Jalloh even said it to Bandele Stevens in 1979 in his We Yone article on devaluation. I think you should hail Rose and Jalloh as true Salone heroes of the modern times, don't you think?

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: SENIOR
To: All
Date Posted: 21:17:30 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Are you saying that Idi Amin was more terrible than Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who also killed lot of people?
A dictator is a dictator and no one should be judged better than the other.

Subject: Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHANA. WELL DONE, AFRICAN UNION
From: Kwame Toure
To: All
Date Posted: 11:04:55 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"A dictator is a dictator and no one should be judged better than the other."

Therein lies your fallacy, sir. There are dictators, and there are dictators. Some are worse than others as in some killed hundreds of thousands and some ruled with heavy handedness but yet still didn't order killings. They are dictators nonetheless.

I don't think either one should be judged BETTER than the other but I believe one should be judged WORSE than the other. Thank you very much

Subject: Col. Ghaddafi helping to maintain a Kabbah hegemony
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 17:01:33 01/31/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
As I write, there is a high powered Sierra Leonean delegation in Tripoli comprising of the Vice President and the Foreign Minister, the most likely Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates of the SLPP in the forthcoming Presidential elections. Visiting Tripoli at the eve of the 2007 elections sends signals about trying to maintain a Kabbah hegemony in Sierra Leone. What is Ghaddafi’s agenda in Sierra Leone? What promises has President Kabbah made to Ghaddafi?

During the 1980s, Libya's revolutionary influence in Sierra Leone was channeled through students (like Victor Reider of the SLPP,etc) and discussion groups focusing on Ghaddafi's Green Book. Later, some of those student radicals and other dissidents, including Sankoh, went to Libya to receive guerrilla training. In 1996, Ghaddafi welcomed the RUF leader to Tripoli after the signing of the Abidjan Accord. When the RUF re-entered negotiations in 1999, Ghaddafi dispatched his former foreign minister to the talks and Libya became one of the guarantors of the Lomé Agreement.

With the demise of Foday Sankoh, and the election of President Kabbah, Libya has been wooing the government of Sierra Leone; attempting once again to achieve Ghaddafi’s agenda as contained in his Green Book. Very recently, we have seen a visit by Col Ghaddafi to Freetown, several visits to Tripoli by President Kabbah; the Colonel’s jet has ferried Sierra Leone’s President on several occasions; the donation of buses, skip trucks to the Government of the SLPP, and during the 2002 elections, it is reported that Gaddafi spent millions of dollars to re-elect President Kabbah.

President Gadaffi formerly accused of bankrolling, equipping and providing training for rebels in Sierra Leone and Liberia now serves as the chief adviser to the Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, a tolerant moslem.
Former Chief prosecutor at the UN's David Crane believes that Ghaddafi’s plan is to back surrogate leaders that are beholden to him. Many Sierra Leoneans are apprehensive of this Libyan connection, particularly in view of Libya's role in supporting those who launched and propagated the decade of brutality through the RUF and Taylor.

Beyond Libya it is reported that the Colonel supports and pays for campaigns to spread fundamental Islam.“A hospital here, a few mosques buy leaders off, not to mention a series 500 Mercedes for their personal collection,” said a Cameroonian professor of politics who preferred to remain anonymous. “All across Africa there are Libyan joint venture companies in unlikely places.”

Can someone at State House tell us what is going on? is Kabbah mortgaging our country's future for political hegemony?

Subject: Kabba, Manifest his stubborness at the Biriwa Chieftancy.
From: GBANGBANI
To: All
Date Posted: 16:20:56 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: adsl-69-230-223-51.dsl.irvnca.pacbell.net at 69.230.223.51

Message:
My fellow Sierra Leonean, Our country is small to a point that one will be thinking silly if his/her intentions are to marginalize any other tribe of our nation.
Kabba, being very adamant and reluctant to adhere to the complaint of the people of Biriwa Limba Chiefdom, still went ahead with his stubborn driven attitude and his quest to find a (base) origin for his Mandingo elites to finally refer to Biriwa as a source of their origin.
Remember, Saddam Hussein was once a stubborn leader; guess where he is today.
Kabba you are trying to insight chaos in the nation of Sierra Leone so as to avoid justice that you may eventually face with the special court.
Upon you arrival at Kamabai, you are greeted with nothing but a ghost town. Remember, on your handing over of the chiefdom (symbol) staff, how many section chiefs were present in the chiefdom you expect the so-call fake issa sheriff to work with? The answer is none of them were present. Dr. Issa Sheriff is nothing but a thief whose aim is nothing but to use you Power (Kabba) as the Head of State of the Republic of Sierra Leone to help him acquire his objectives before you leave power this year.
Remember, the same way you impose him on the Limba People of Biriwa, the same will also apply when he will be depose.
You fail to understand that in Biriwa Chiefdom, The question of who would be successor does not come from that of the Mother's rout of line but instead that of Father's inheritance line.
However, who even told you that Dr. Issa Sheriff is even connected to the woman (TiTi Nonkoh) whose source help create this sparking controversial Chieftaincy? Issa Sheriff is nothing to that woman but a step-son of the mention woman above. That in-fact clearly classifies him as nothing but crocked individual.

Subject: Famous trials. Is it the Rule of Law or the rule of lust!
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 16:17:35 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ws-lib235.lib.csus.edu at 130.86.14.79

Message:
The trial and execution of of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. puzzles historians. Why, in a society enjoying more freedom and democracy than any the world had ever seen, would a seventy-year-old philosopher be put to death for what he was teaching? The puzzle is all the greater because Socrates had taught--without molestation--all of his adult life. What could Socrates have said or done than prompted a jury of 500 Athenians to send him to his death just a few years before he would have died naturally?
Finding an answer to the mystery of the trial of Socrates is complicated by the fact that the two surviving accounts of the defense (or apology) of Socrates both come from disciples of his, Plato and Xenophon. Historians suspect that Plato and Xenophon, intent on showing their master in a favorable light, failed to present in their accounts the most damning evidence against Socrates.
The Trial of Galileo
by Douglas Linder (c) 2002
"My dear Kepler, what would you say of the learned here, who, replete with the pertinacity of the asp, have steadfastly refused to cast a glance through the telescope? What shall we make of this? Shall we laugh, or shall we cry?"
--Letter from Galileo Galilei to Johannes Kepler
"Mr. and Mrs. America--you are wrong. I am not the King of the Jews nor am I a hippie cult leader. I am what you have made me and the mad dog devil killer fiend leper is a reflection of your society. . .Whatever the outcome of this madness that you call a fair trial or Christian justice, you can know this: In my mind's eye my thoughts light fires in your cities."

Subject: Re: Famous trials. Is it the Rule of Law or the rule of lust!
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 02:27:47 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Thanks Bambay I have learned lot from this link

Subject: Re: Famous trials. Is it the Rule of Law or the rule of lust!
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 15:57:03 02/02/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.151

Message:
Greetings my brothers and sisters. M. Alieu Iscandari Esq no, thank you. It will not surprise me that you are interested in reading as an Attorney whose life depends on reading and finding out the truth of things. I am glad I was able to find this information. This is the essence of a forum to furnish information to enlighten ourselves. It is sad that the forum has been bombarded by hateful political insults rather than a civil discuss of issues that are affecting Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, failing to realize that until there is the organisation of our ressources or affairs if you will, towards a constructive cohession amongst and bwteen all factions of Sierra Leonean political aboardages we shall find it difficult to advance as a nation. Rather than collission it should be cooperation for a nation to move forward. Once again, thanks for letting me know that I have a reasonable contribution.
I do not have time to read over.

Subject: VICE CHANCELLOR & PRINCIPAL’S REPORT TO THE
From: PROFESSOR
To: All
Date Posted: 14:16:37 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
VICE CHANCELLOR & PRINCIPAL’S REPORT TO THE
COURT OF NJALA UNIVERSITY
YEAR ENDING – 2005 – 2006 ACADEMIC SESSION
THEME: VISION FOR OUR NEW UNIVESITY

Subject: SLPP'S RECONSTRUCTION FAILURES IN SALONE
From: COMEDIAN
To: All
Date Posted: 14:03:45 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
check it out.

Subject: Six Hundred Youths Get Jobs In Freetown
From: STANDARD TIMES
To: All
Date Posted: 09:38:24 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
NEWS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Six Hundred Youths Get Jobs In Freetown
Posted by Mohamed Konneh on Jan 31, 2007, 00:51

STANDARD TIMES

Six hundred youths in the western area have been gainfully employed under the Youth Employment Scheme (YES) of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Each of the employed youth will receive the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand Leones (Le 180,000) at the end of the month. They will start work effective 1st February this year.

Speaking at the ceremony held at the Atlantic hall, national stadium in Freetown, the Minister of Youth and Sport, Dr. Denis Bright told the youth that, this has been his dream since the inception of the Ministry. “The gathering here today gives me hope that this country will move forward and that youths play a vital role in the development of a country”, Dr. Bright said.

“In 2002, when this ministry was created, we had a vision of creating a youth policy. Thank God it was successfully launched in 2003. Besides, because it was factor in the PRSP it was able to attract donors to support the youths of this country. Dr. Bright thanked the UNDP for supporting the ministry with the creation of a youth secretariat within the ministry.

The secretariat was created in order to look at the problems of youths in the country and coordinate their activities. The youth scheme, which has provided jobs today, was set up with the aim of creating various jobs for the youths of this country. Explaining further Dr. Bright noted that agriculture, public works, youth enterprises are the priority areas and that this particular employment is focused on public works.

He appealed to the newly employed youths to be sober minded and work towards the development of the country.
The chairman of the occasion, Mr. Anthony Koroma, who is also the director of youth, said the scheme that was launched last year has today yielded fruits. “The training of youths today to take up jobs is a step in the right direction”, Mr. Koroma said, adding that the program trains youths for the implementation of youth action community.

Mr. Al-Sankoh Conteh, western area youth leader in his brief statement said “before now the youths of this country were looked upon as bad boys, drop-outs who had no future. These youths, over the years, had wanted to work but there was no work to do”. The launching of the youth scheme has again brought life to youth activities and that the youths of today will no more be looked down upon.

“This program”, Mr. Sankoh continued, “is specially designed to clean our country and that these youths are ready to clean Freetown and its environs. He advised that all other youth need to come on board and help develop themselves. All youth programs according to him should be channeled through the youth ministry as this will help the youths greatly.

Subject: Information Minister Talks About Makeni TV Station
From: TV IN FREETOWN, BO, KENEMA AND NOW MAKENI
To: All
Date Posted: 09:10:01 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Information Minister Talks About Makeni TV Station
Posted by Mohamed Konneh on Jan 31, 2007, 01:57

The much talked about Makeni Television Station is now in the finalization stage of work according to the Minister of Information, contrary to earlier assertions that the ministry has cancelled the project, which should have reached completion since last year.

The allegations had also accused the minister of siphoning the funds for the project onto another project, thereby depriving the people of the North.
Speaking to the Minister of Information Professor Septimus Kaikai at his Youyi building office in Freetown, he said government’s priority is taking information to the most remote parts in this country, adding that people who are taking all sorts of negative comments about the country do not love their country.

Makeni, the professor said, is among the government’s priority areas for any developmental program, noting that this government cannot think of depriving people in any area of the country with regards development.
Final work for the completion of the Makeni Television station will soon commence, he disclosed, noting that the consultant, Mr. Alusine Sesay has almost completed the works.

The bidding process, he said, has been completed and those who won the bids have started importing equipment for the commencement and completion of the project.
The work was delayed, he said, due to the unavailability of electricity in that part of the country, but now that the problem has been solved the work will recommence soon.
The technicians are presently working in Makeni for the completion of the first phase.

Subject: VP BEREWA AND MOMODU KOROMA VISIT KABBAH'S GODFATHER IN TRI
From: BUFORD HWY
To: All
Date Posted: 09:09:41 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: adsl-074-228-219-218.sip.asm.bellsouth.net at 74.228.219.218

Message:
check

Subject: VP Berewa and Momodu Koroma visit Kabbah's Godfather in Trip
From: BUFORD HWY
To: All
Date Posted: 08:49:58 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: adsl-074-228-219-218.sip.asm.bellsouth.net at 74.228.219.218

Message:
Standardtimespress.net

Subject: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 08:22:43 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
[The following posting is presented here, courtesy of SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, in the continuing effort to empower our fellow S/Leoneans by sharing with them ideas which, if implemented, would improve the lives of millions of our compatriots. Specifically, it constitutes the introduction to a three-chapter proposal that was sent yesterday, on behalf of the SALONEDiscussion Group, to the British government's agency for international development, DFID, in response to its invitation to S/Leoneans in the Diaspora to comment on its 2007-12 proposed strategy for SL's development].

WHY FOREIGN AID DONORS SHOULD CHANGE THEIR STRATEGY IN SIERRA LEONE

INTRODUCTION

By Mohamed A. Jalloh and Jonathan M. Rose

We start with a fundamental question: Why is Sierra Leone consistently ranked among the poorest countries in the world despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars on economic aid to the country by the international community over the past three decades?

We do not believe the answer to that question to be that not enough money has been on foreign assistance to SL. If, therefore, enough money has been spent by international agencies to assist SL, the problem must lie not in the amount of money that has been spent, but on what it has been spent on. Which leads to a key question: Have the efforts of international aid entities in Sierra Leone over the past thirty years been directed to the wrong priorities?

The fact that those efforts have not yielded the desired outcome of the alleviation of poverty over the past thirty years suggests that either their focus has been on the wrong priorities and/or that the execution of programs based on those strategies has been flawed. In fact, we believe that both of the above factors lie at the root of the difficulties in transforming hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid spent in Sierra Leone in the past three decades into the desired outcome of poverty alleviation for millions of Sierra Leoneans over the same period. However, of the two factors, we believe that it is the emphasis on the wrong priorities that is far more important than the failure to effectively execute programs based on those flawed strategies.

Unfortunately, the DFID-EC strategy proposed for Sierra Leone continues this twin problem. In the joint EC/DFID document, it is stated unequivocally that:

"The root causes of Sierra Leone’s fragility and instability are political and relate to the poor quality of governance which will remain key to future development interventions" (p. 20).

We do not believe the above-quoted statement, upon which the entire DFID-EC proposed strategy for Sierra Leone is based, to be accurate. We believe that the root cause of Sierra Leone's problems is economic, not political -- specifically, pervasive poverty. It is that poverty and the resulting hopelessness which cause the people, and thus the country, to be unstable. That, in turn, renders the state fragile. The poor quality of governance is a symptom of poverty -- therefore, it can not be the cause of the instability and fragility in Sierra Leone that results only from poverty. In an effort to avoid the repetition of the experience of the earlier efforts to develop Sierra Leone -- which were based on a similarly erroneous assumption about the root cause of Sierra Leone's fragility -- we would like to suggest an alternative basis upon which the 2007 DFID-EU strategy should be based.

That alternative strategy is outlined in chapter 1 of this document. We address in chapter 2 the conclusion in the DFID_EU document that the Sierra Leone currency is overvalued. In chapter 3, we lay out the case why we believe that devaluation, a potent cure for balance of trade problems in industrialized countries, would not work to cure Sierra Leone’s balance of trade problem.

In preparing this document, we conducted a careful review of the DFID document and benefited from forum discussions, mailing lists, essay responses to questions placed and web polls. The consensus is that, while the EC/DFID strategy strives to give greater priority to the delivery of basic services and the promotion of economic growth, better governance and security, nevertheless, it leaves room for improvement. Our proposals aimed at such improvement are described below.

Finally, we recognize that, at this initial stage, this document contains only an outline of our proposals in response to DFID’s proposed strategy. We are hopeful that, in the near future, we would be accorded an opportunity to present in much greater detail the ideas outlined in this document. Accordingly, all the collaborating authors have agreed to provide, upon request, complete documents related to the proposals outlined in this document. We hope to do so within the context of a continuation of this nascent dialogue with DFID, pursuant to the interest of all parties concerned with improving the welfare of the millions of our fellow Sierra Leoneans who now live in poverty.

© 2007 Mohamed A. Jalloh and Jonathan M. Rose

About the Authors and SALONEDiscussion Group

Mohamed A. Jalloh is the founding Managing Director of a financial services company based in suburban Washington, D.C., USA, that manages investments for corporations, partnerships and high net worth individuals. His internationally published writings on the effects of foreign aid and devaluation on Sierra Leone's development span the last twenty-eight years. E-mail: MohmJ@aol.com

Jonathan M. Rose is a research and development engineer and organizational management specialist based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. He has been studying currency economics for the past twenty years E-mail: jrose1@mmm.com

SALONEDiscussion Group is a non-partisan group of Sierra Leoneans formed in 2005 as a serious Internet forum dedicated exclusively to discussing issues relating to Sierra Leone, with the goal of advancing the development of the country. Its more than 320 members are Sierra Leoneans resident in Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America.

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Albert Moinina
To: All
Date Posted: 22:13:50 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 218.248.0.180

Message:
Jalloh and Rose, I commend you for your good works. Great contribution to SL.

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 02:51:57 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Albert:

Thank you for your commendation of Jonathan and me. We firmly believe that each and every S/Leonean should be empowered to think first and foremost as a S/Leonean, the better to put the interest of our country above any other party's interest, be it a local political party or a foreign entity. That is why we wish to circulate our views regarding this matter, in particular, and similar others, in general, to as many of our fellow S/Leoneans as possible.

Hopefully, by our example in openly, firmly, but respectfully telling those foreign countries and other entities who say they wish to help our people, what we believe they have been doing wrong in our country over the past 30 years, we would finally succeed in imbuing our compatriots with self-confidence. That, in turn, would hopefully, help our country avoid the shameful spectacle of a leader proudly telling the world that our SL government has handed over its constitutional authority to promote the interest of our people to a foreign entity.

As you may recall, sadly for the future of millions of long suffering S/Leoneans, that is what SL's Vice President, Solomon Berewa, told the world on October 12, 2006, in his speech to the UN Peace Building Commission in New York, when he proudly announced that the SLPP government, in which he is second in command, had handed over to the IMF its authority for negotiating contracts with foreign and other entities regarding SL's diamonds, gold and other valuable minerals that belong to the people of SL.

That's the same IMF which instigated the only slightly less clueless APC government of president Siaka Stevens to devalue our country's currency in 1979, with a predictable -- and predicted -- resultant massive escalation of widespread poverty in SL. It is that nearly 30-year old mistake (which has impoverished each and every S/Leonean who hold their assets in Leones by more than 375,000%) that our proposal to the British government two days ago seeks to correct.

We hope all patriotic S/Leoneans and patriotic political parties in SL would join us in our non-partisan quest for the alleviation of searing poverty affecting millions of our fellow S/Leoneans, that has escalated under a succession of clueless governments, starting from the APC regime of Stevens, to the current SLPP government of President Tejan Kabbah and Vice President Berewa.

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Patriot
To: All
Date Posted: 09:10:24 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 64.26.98.90

Message:
Moh'm:

This is an excellent piece by you and Mr. Rose. Is this the same Rose of Leonenet? I have always admired both of your writings about economics when I was on Leonenet in the late 1990s. It is good to see two Sa Lon economic experts who were heads and shoulders above the competition join together to produce this very good piece. I do not know if your proposal will change the minds of the British donors. As you yourself alwways say, Moh'm, these Westrners are out to defraud our people. But, still, it is good to answer their invitation. Now we will see if they mean good for Sa Lon.

One last thing, Moh'm. Can you post the other chapters?I would appreciate reading the rest of your proposal. to author a proposal to change the minds of foreigners whoyourn writhink you two

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 02:12:34 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Patriot:

On behalf of my good friend, Jonathan Rose, I would like to thank you for your compliments regarding our proposal to the British government for a change in the strategy underlying its foreign aid efforts and those of others in our own country.

In answer to your question, Jonathan is indeed the same person you remember from your days on Leonenet, where he and I used to have mutually enriching exchanges on the economics of devaluation, and the role of foreign aid in impoverishing our country since 1979. Jonathan and I have since continued our collaboration on SALONEDiscussion, a forum dedicated to serious discussions of S/Leonean issues, following my decision to unsubscribe from Leonenet nearly two years ago.

Finally, regarding your request for the remaining chapters of our proposal, the link below should lead you to what is substantially the first chapter. I hope to find time to post the remaining two chapters later, if that is acceptable to you. Thank you for your interest in our goal of a brighter future for our needlessly pillaged and plundered country.

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: MORE
To: All
Date Posted: 09:45:32 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 64.26.98.90

Message:
Bra Jalloh, I second Patriot's motion (as Iscandri would say in court) for you to please give us the rest of Bra Rose's and your proposal. We can learn a lot from you two alagbas, you know.

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 02:15:51 02/01/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Please accept my appreciation, on behalf of Jonathan and I, for your compliment. Kindly refer to my answer above to Patriot for an answer to your similar request.

Subject: Re: Why Foreign Aid Donors Should Change Their Strategy in SL
From: Advice
To: All
Date Posted: 10:00:47 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 64.26.98.90

Message:
Check out the salonediscussion, it may be there. If not, maybe you should join that forum. I hear it is full of real economists.

Subject: CHECK OUR NEW NEC WEBSITE
From: DR. THORPE
To: All
Date Posted: 07:57:25 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Hello my fellow citizens,

Please check the new website of the National Electoral Commission(NEC).

Subject: Re: CHECK OUR NEW NEC WEBSITE
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 13:10:52 01/31/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
How can Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora vote in the coming elections. Can they register, if so how?

Subject: FC Kallon writes off Ocean Boys
From: FOOTBALLER
To: All
Date Posted: 07:48:15 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
FC Kallon writes off Ocean Boys
• Wednesday, Jan 31, 2007
One of Nigeria’s flag bearers in this year’s CAF Champions League, Ocean Boys of Brass, Bayelsa State, may have come to the end of the road in the championship if the statements of their first round opponent, FC Kallon of Sierra Leone, are something to go by.

After holding the Nigerian champions to a goalless draw in Yenagoa last Sunday in the first leg encounter of the first round elimination, Chief Coach of the Sierra Leonians, Abu Sankoh advised Ocean Boys to forget about surviving the second leg.

According to him, “we came here for a draw and got it, so, I don’t see how they can surprise us at home.

“As far as I am concerned, they will see hell in Freetown.”

Team manager of FC Kallon, Tunde Scott, also re-echoed the coach’s confidence, “for sure, we’ll beat Ocean Boys hands down at home, they cannot withstand us.”

He stated that Kallon is currently on a run and possesses the depth to overrun the Nigerian side in the return leg.

Scott disclosed to Tidesports that his club had played 28 matches and won all before the draw.

So far, we have played 29 matches this season without a single defeat. This is our first draw in 29 matches,” he said.

“There's nothing Ocean Boys will play against us in Freetown. In fact, we did not play our best today.

“For now, we are focused on beating Ocean Boys, so, they might as well forget about coming to Freetown,” the team manager said as they boarded their bus on Sunday.

Subject: Is SLPP anti Sierra Leone?
From: My View
To: All
Date Posted: 07:40:18 01/31/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 102-67-ftth.onsneteindhoven.nl at 88.159.67.102

Message:
This is a question for the uninitiated who have never tasted or involved in politics must answer.
I will attempt to give my personal vies about the SLPP government.As a whole, its existence as a party was centered on the British penchant for divide and rule. A fasle alrm was raised by the British urging the people inthe colony that their folks in the protectorate want to control the Country at the expense of the majoritry.
Paramount Chiefs in the North quickly came together and called others not to allow it to happen. What started as a fight to give political power to the people in the colony, turned out to be a devised set up by the British to thwart the power of enlightened Africans who were armed with knwledge and economic wealth.
Because, Siaka Stevens spent his early years in Freetown, he resisted the call for an outright independent for Sierra Leone.He came to realise that Freetown residents after all, are nice and accomodating and they do not have any hidden secre up their sleeve. However, there were l;eaders from the Protectorate who were dangerously jealous and needed time to avenge.
Although Milton Margai strived for national unity but, there were politicians and Paramount Chiefs in his administration, who wanted Margai to ostracise many of the enlightened Sierra leoneans.
Culture at that time did not allow some people to send their children to school especially in the North of the Country and becasue of it, that region failed to perpetuate their strong influence in the SLPP.Bo School ahs been established by the British to accomodate the sons of Paramount Chiefs and nature allowedfor a bond between the alumnis and therefore, they set up a journey of unity to get power. In otehr words, he SLPP started elitism in the early pary of Sierra Leone's politics.
Because of its mission, Bo School attracted children of Paramount Chiefs from different parts ofthe Country.It was there they cultivated a strong friendship and when the time came for the British to relinquish power, it was a natural call for bondness among the Bo School alumnis.
Siaka Stevens was a peasant. He was nurtured by a kind and generous resident in Freetown. Because of this, Pa Siaka Stevens developed a natural love for Freetown and its environs. He made it a duty to safeguard the rights of every Sierra Leonean and he did not abandon his plan to rid Sierra leone from tribalism.
Even though, the SLPP showed a high level of tribalism, Siaka Stevens did not relent. He worked in unsion with people, they all shared the same desire to see Sierra Leone prosper.
In summary, the SLPP has not helped Sierra leone. Looking back at its rule, one will conclude that the SLPP is a divisive party. Its support base is still resisting political opponents. Unlike, the North, where every jack and Jill can win a seat, the SLPP is still crying that the APC killed its sons and daughtersin the 60's. If any region should still keep anger and want to retaliate, it has to be the people from the North.
Both the APC and SLPPP including the NPRC have killed many Northerners.Infact, there is not a single town in the North with a 24 electricity, unlike Kenema and Bo. But these people do allow the SLPP to campain in its turf.
The SLPP politicians who joined the APC in 1977 commited terrible crimes against the people of Sierra Leone. It was during francis Margai's tenure as Finace Minister that Sierra Leon's economy took a nose- dive.Ibrahim Kamara, SLPP current ambassador in Ethiopia spent many years as minister. Sulaiman banja Tejan Sie, although he was beaten many times by Chernor Maju, did play a role in the APC thievery. Abbas Bund time as Agriculture Minister turned the green revolution project into a white elephant. Dr Sheku sesay made freetown the darkest city in the whole World when he was minister of Energ and Power. Puawi who is gradually losing his moral virtue, was a blue eyed boy of Siaka Stevens.
JB Dauda managed to sing the Trade Ministry. Joe Amara Bangali as a Minister house in Bo has four living rooms, ranging from London, paris to New York.
The SLPP is stink.Civil society groups duty is to inform the people to make the right choice in 2007.
To be continued

Subject: Ocean Boys’ draw hurts fans’ expectations
From: FOOTBALLER
To: All
Date Posted: 21:17:01 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Ocean Boys’ draw hurts fans’ expectations
• Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007

The Yenagoa Sports Complex, renue of the first continental football match in Bayelsa State was filled with despair and disappointment last Sunday after Ocean Boys FC played out a barren draw in their CAF Champions League game with FC Kallon of Sierra Leone.

Fans of the Nigeria’s flag bearer more long faces at the sound of the referee’s final whistle and left them to imagine what the return leg and future in the competition would be like.

Apparently, home fans, who thronged the newly refurbished stadium did not expect the country’s league champions to came unstuck against a rookie side equally making their debut in the champions league.

Most of the fans who spoke to Tidesports did not entertain hopes of scaling the Fc Kallon hardle in the return leg in Freet own.

But few others were clinging to the unpredictable nature of football and the maxim that it is never over until it is over.

Indeed, FC Kallon proved a hand nut to crack for Ocean Boys and showed glimpse, of what they can do.

But the homers, especially, attackers, Ebitimi Agogu and Ogbonna Onuoha, must be kicking themselves for not taking the couple of chances that came their way.

Ocean Boys actually had the enthusiasm to win but could not produce the finishing and cutting edge to break down a well organised FC Kallon defence.

The visitors, who clearly adopted a defensive approach in the match soaked up Ocean Boys’ pressure either side of the match’s two halves.

As the match wound down, Kallon’s substitute, Umaru Mustafa could have made the situation worse for Ocean Boys but his leader crashed off the cross bar in the 88th minute.

The Sierra Leonans compact game, cohesion and individual performaces are part of the reasons people are apprehensive for the outcome of the return leg in two weeks time in Freetown.

Subject: GBANGBANI IN ACTION
From: MUNKU GBANGBANI
To: All
Date Posted: 19:12:06 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:

SLPP MP escapes mob justice

Report indicate that a Member of Parliament for western, Hon. Manso Dumbuya, on Thursday 18th January 2007, barely escaped mob justices in the Kambia District from irate youths in Sella kaffar village. According to report, Hon.

Manso Dumbuya was on his way to Bayande village to sensitize people about the voter registration exercise when he ran into a group of society member known as the "gbangbani" apparently on night parade at Sillakaffa. Report further indicate that, Dubuya was prevented from passing through that village that night which ensued argument as irate youths of the APC were therefore reportedly hired to attack Dumbuya, who has already declared his intention to contest for the Parliamentary Elections.

Subject: Nigeria faces blackout as power generation drops
From: PANAPRESS
To: All
Date Posted: 18:30:03 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Nigeria faces blackout as power generation drops

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Power generation in Nigeria has dropped by 2,100 megawatts, representing a 60-percent drop that has triggered a massive power rationing across the country, according to the state- run Power Holding of Nigeria Plc.

PHCN spokesperson Efuru Igbo said in a statement Sunday that the reduction in power generation was on the advice of the Nigeria Gas Company that communicated to it (PHCN) the plan by the Shell Petroleum Development Company to shut down its facility for routine maintenance.

The drop came amid reports that Nigeria has agreed to supply 80 megawatts of electricity to Ghana to help the country deal with its current energy crisis.

In addition, Nigeria will also take over the supply of power to Benin and Togo to lift the burden of supplying the two nations off Ghana.

Nigeria needs to generate at least 10,000 megawatts of electricity to achieve a semblance of stable power supply, but the country currently generates only 3,500 megawatts.

Lagos - 30/01/2007

Subject: Part of the story has never been told
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 16:48:11 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.152

Message:
Yes, Indeed!

Subject: Fatal Attraction
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 16:07:28 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.152

Message:
A believes she is love with J.Z. and persistently writes 200 e-mails to get his attention. Well, watch the video. It is call stocking!
So what was the fuss about!

Subject: Kallon FC arrive today from Nigeria
From: FOOTBALLER
To: All
Date Posted: 16:00:27 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
AWOKO SPORTS

Kallon FC arrive today from Nigeria

Kallon FC will jet in today after playing to a goalless draw with Ocean Boys of Nigeria on Sunday in the first leg of the competition in which both teams are debutants.

The team comprised Habib Sesay, John Sama, Abdual Rahman Kamara, Kemokai Kallon and host of others.
The Ocean boys were formed about three years ago and clinched the Nigerian title last year, while Kallon FC which have been in existence for about five years now clinched the doubles last year.

Subject: Ports Authority restore pride
From: FOOTBALLER
To: All
Date Posted: 15:57:32 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
AWOKO SPORTS

Ports Authority restore pride

Ports Authority on Saturday restored pride to Sierra Leonean football when they defeated A.S Bamako of Mali by two goals to zero at the National Stadium in Freetown
Accounting for both goals were Muhaid Sesay and Daniel Foday (Ado).

Muhaid Sesay got the opener from a defensive blunder in the first minute of play. Ports Authority maintained their lone goal until the interval and even beyond despite the visitors bounced back like wounded lions; they could not threaten their hosts.
With the visitors mounting pressure to reduce the deficit, then came the golden opportunity for Ports to increase the scoreline. The goal came from Daniel Foday whose long drive sent the stadium into wide jubilation.

With confidence after that second goal they went on the rampage and striker Buba Kamara Kamara could have rapped the day of glory for Ports Authority, but he fumbled.

A.S Bamako in their desperation to reduce the scoreline watched with dismay as defender Ahmed Musa thwarted their effort with a remarkable save.
In a post match interview, Coach Diamond Toes said, “the victory was not a surprise because we planned well and we should have scored at least four goals to be more comfortable for the second leg”.
He emphasized further that, “with this result we are poised to eliminate them on their own tuff in two weeks’ time though it’s not going to be an easy ride.”

Similarly too, the team manager of A.S Bamako Kader Kamara indicated that they were going to defeat Ports Authority by at least three goals to nil.

Subject: Is This The Same APC-Momoh Chief Dura?
From: Awoko Tok-Tok
To: All
Date Posted: 15:31:13 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
AWOKO NEWSPAPER

Awoko Tok-Tok

Is This The Same APC-Momoh Chief Dura?
Those Christians who have read the scr1ptures through and through or those who attended Sunday Schools in their childhood might have come across or have been taught the story of Saul. This man was once a persecutor of Christians until he saw the light on his way to Damascus. He became Paul and is credited for having written the highest number of books in the Holy Bible.

Or those who went to nursery schools might have been taught the story of the fabled fox. This animal, while on a stroll one day, chances upon a grape tree. It tries to reach the grapes but is unable. After several tries, it gives up its struggles and concludes that the grapes may be sour after all.

We do not know between the above two where Paramount Chief Alimamy Dura II of Sofroko Limba Chiefdom in the Bombali District fits in. His exclusive interview with the Standard Times of Monday January 29, 2007 made interesting reading and made us grasped for breath to think whether it was the same Chief Dura during the Joseph Saidu Momoh era that granted that interview in which he admonished traditional rulers to eschew from politics.

If there was any single Paramount Chief that bastardized the institution of chieftaincy and fused it with State, Chief Dura should be a case study. This was the man who in the mid 1980s to early 1990s was one of the shakers and movers of the politics of Sierra Leone. He engaged himself in national politics so much so that his name became the forename of “Binkolo” which at the time was synonymous with corruption, tribalism, cronyism and all the negative “isms” that the All People’s Congress (APC) was infested with. In fact, he was one of the personifications of all what was wrong with the then APC government.

So we are lost when we read this man saying that, “Any chief who meddles in party politics is inviting trouble for his people and himself…As chiefs, we have to be neutral. The lack of education about their role in society had resulted into the problem we are experiencing in this country…” This is a practical example of the “practice what I teach not what I do” philosophy.

We want to ask some few questions here. Is this the same Paramount Chief Alimamy Dura II of Sofroko Limba Chiefdom in the Bombali District that is giving this advice to his colleagues? Is this man now asking his contemporaries to disdain national politics because of his experience during and after the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) rule? Has he recently seen the light and now believes that what he was doing during the APC era was outrightly wrong? Or is he now giving this recommendation because he is unable to penetrate the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP)?

We are particularly interested in the last question because in that interview, he tells the newspaper that, “…they (Chief Dura and others) formed the SLPP and that he is the only surviving founding member of the SLPP.” The inference we get here is that, like others who were the shakers and movers in the then APC government but now stalwarts and advisors in the SLPP, he wants to make a comeback through a chameleonic antic. If this man was one of the founding members of the SLPP, then why was he so vociferous and determined for the APC to be in power at all cost?

Though we believe that traditional rulers should have nothing to do with national politics, such a counsel should not come from Chief Dura because while he had the energy to put it into practice he did not. Or is he now wise through age and knows better? Does he think he would be listened to when he never ruled by example?

We have nothing against Chief Dura personally. What we are against is his double standards.

Subject: America on Trial (A book worth reading.)
From: Bambay Lans Kamara
To: All
Date Posted: 15:24:07 01/30/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 216.190.22.152

Message:
Greetings my brothers and sisters. Happy to recommend a bok: "America on Tiral" by Alan M. Dershowitz.

Originally entitled The Kangaroo Court, and not truly a critique of American government, America On Trial is a tour-de-force of political philosophy, containing shocking advances in the theories of separated powers, mixed government, the rule of law, and the scientific underpinnings of justice. Proceeding upon the work of Aristotle, Plato, Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau, Williams takes the next step in the evolution of political thought, positing such breathtaking theories as the Harmonic Constitution, the cubic separation of powers, Constitutional Dialecticalism, and Fractal Micro-federalism. With one book, Williams has wrought a new era of political thought. Cleverly written as a fictitious court case, the novel begins with Sophocles' character Antigone being prosecuted by the United States, as if her ancient situation had occurred today. Williams thrusts Antigone into American courts to contend with American law. When she loses on appeal to the Supreme Court, she appeals to a mysterious higher court, which hears and dissects her claim that America is unjust. As America fights back, a furious debate of political philosophy ensues, weaving together 2,500 years of history and philosophy. A new political theory is forged, based on the great political doctrines of the classical and enlightenment eras. The histories of England, Rome and Sparta, chaos theory, fractal geometry, Caesar's politics, special relativity, and serial endo-symbiogenesis are all but parts of this integrated new political theory. With this important book, Williams has launched a new era in political philosophy. His Fractal Politics and Harmonic Constitution will set the world on its ear.

About the Author

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: Born in Boulder, Colorado, Williams studied Philosophy and Political Theory at Boston University, earned his J.D. at Denver University School of Law, and pursued post-graduate work at Cambridge’s Downing campus. He is currently managing partner at the Denver-based law firm he founded.
Discover… Williams’ exciting new political theories: · The fractal nature of political stability · The algebraic formula of constitutional justice · The six-part, or “harmonic” separation of powers · The geometric tendencies of national growth · The ideal ratios of electoral cycles · The anti-Darwinian or ‘cooperative’ evolu tion of political structures And use these theories to see with new eyes… · The secrets of Rome’s success and fall · The flaws and anomalies in the American Constitution · The geometric principles which create and guaranty American power · The weaknesses of British parliamentary democracy · The theoretical causes of Athenian and Spartan rivalry and destruction · The military elements of justice and the relation between justice and war · The constitutional roles of freedoms of thought and speech · The maxims at work in the disintegration of modern British power

Bellow is the Tria of Socrates, which is mentioned in the book as a pillar for the why America legal system. Please take your time to read it. You will be glad you did.