India student journalists hit the streets

…amidst wild protestation
Charles Takyi-Boadu reports from New-Delhi, India
The killing of a 25year old television journalist in India, Soumya Vishwanathan has sparked a demonstration in the capital, New Delhi.
Students of the premier journalism school, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) yesterday took to the street following her death to protest against the perpertrators of this dastardly act.
They also urged the state police and the authorities concerned to step-up their efforts in bringing to book the faceless people behind killing.
The protest, which started around 12:30pm, saw the students blocking access to the main Aruna Asaf Ali Marg road for close to 30minutes amidst the chanting of “we want justice.”
Their message was simple; the police must do everything possible to bring the perpetrators of this act to book.
Soumya who worked with ‘Headlines Today’, a television channel in the capital was shot dead in her car on her way home (Vasant Kunj) on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 after a late night shift around 3:00am at dawn.
She was rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre where she was pronounced dead. But police sources say that a post-mortem released on Tuesday morning revealed that “a bullet was lodged below her right earlobe,” said a senior police officer.
Local newspapers including the ‘Hindustan Times’ reports that Police said they got a call from an auto-rickshaw (Tuktuk) driver about the incident at 3:41 am.
“Her Maruti Zen had hit the divider of the road. The front wheel on the right side was punctured. The windowpane had shattered,” said a senior officer.
Forensic teams were called in to examine the car. A case of murder has been registered against unknown assailants at the Vasant Kunj Police Station.
DCP Southwest Shalini Singh said, “We have registered a case of murder and conducting further investigations into the matter.”
Initially the death looked like an accident, but further investigations led to the discovery of a piece of her scalp and hair which were found on the back seat of the car.
However, the police remain tightlipped on the motive behind the incident and say it is investigating every possible angle. Soumya had been working as a journalist for the last five years.
Her father M.K Vishwanathan is employed with a multinational company and mother Madhvi works with a public sector undertaking.

RAJASTAN NGO PUTS DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRE-STAGE

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
JAIPUR: For the people of Jaipur and its surrounding areas in the vastly populated state of Rajastan who have been struggling with multiple problems of acute water shortage, poverty, child labour and increasing spate of abortion for an extensive number of years, it is extremely difficult to underestimate the relevance of an organisation as the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society (CECOEDECON).
At a time when the activities and operations of many Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) has raised eyebrows over the effective utilisation of funds for their intended purposes, the organisation has risen to the occasion. In effect, it has been able to transform the lives of several individuals and group of persons who otherwise would have been languishing in quagmire.
With a core aim of facilitating the processes of empowerment of partner communities- indigenous people, the landless, small and marginal farmers, deprived women and children-through both direct and indirect interventions to enable them take action independently and effectively to secure their rights and long-term well-being, the organisation has lived up to its expectations. The testimonies of individuals and corporate entities which in a way or the other have had stint working relations with the NGO speaks volumes of the significant feat and the niche the organisation has carved for itself in the speck of time. Born in aftermath of the devastating flood that hit parts of India in 1982 under the Rajastan Societies Registration Act 1958, CECOEDECON as is affectionately called has made significant impact on the government and people of this area.
Within time, the organisation has managed to provide skilled/vocational training to lots of individuals in villages areas, working in partnership with various Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs to assist them to build their capacity to carry out grassroots and advocacy work more effectively through the provision of training and organisational development support.
The organisation does this by initiating and strengthening public advocacy efforts throughout the state, whilst building coalitions groups to work on common issues involving those related to livelihood rights, social security, in addition to natural resources. In recognition of the gravity of arguably the world’s most dreaded enemy, HIV/AIDS virus, it has outlined a number of strategies to mainstream the issue in order to reduce its spread, with an intensive campaign in toe. Considering the immense role-played by the youth in the progress of a nation, and cognisant of the fact that they are the agents of change, the organisation has also drawn a programme, which enables them to catalyse the development process and provide them with avenues for contemporary traditional change in society. At the community level, it has devoted itself to give higher concentration and preference to underprivileged and marginalized groups including children, women, and landless agricultural labourers whilst at the state, national and international level it engages various operational, organisational, public advocacy and networking activities with key institutions and groups to champion the course of the poor and the vulnerable in society.
Whilst admitting that it is totally impossible to eliminate the obviously high incidence of poverty in Jaipur, let alone the state of Rajastan and India in entirety, CECOEDECON has however managed to reduce its prevalence.
This, it does through community mobilisation, civil society groups, capacity building, advocacy for policy reforms etc. Presently, the organisation is working with various youth groups, ordinary peasant farmers, and unemployed to run health programmes, water-harvesting projects, and drought mitigation measures to help their communities as well as to enable these individuals to earn a living. For some who could afford three square meals a day, CECOEDECON is a ‘messiah’ in disguise, since it has lifted them from their woes.
In its resolve to increase assistance to especially the rural poor, it is currently making conscious efforts to move from its project-based approach to a more comprehensible and flexible approach with the view of achieving greater effectiveness and efficiency. This is intended to integrate various components of rural development and further build the process of community empowerment. Now operating in 10 districts and 855 villages for marginalized people in the areas of health, natural resource management, child development programmes, institutional development, capacity building among a host of other equally important areas, this Non Government Organisation (NGO) has adopted a multi-faceted approach to curb the basic challenges confronting humanity and life.
Like other NGOs in the developing world, CECOEDECON, largely depends on the support of multi-lateral donor organisations and institutions for funds to sustain its programmes and activities. Among the stream of donors that support its activities include the World Bank, Oxfam, UNDP, Indian government, DFID, UNICEF and a host of others.
Unlike most NGOs in developing countries who line their individual pockets with donor monies meant for intended projects, CECOEDECON has put in place an internal self-correctional mechanism to monitor and evaluate how these monies are utilised or to see if the funds are being used to help those they intended for. For the management and staff of the organisation, the issue of monitoring and evaluation is not a one-time activity but something that takes place on a continuous basis whilst keeping a close-eye on the financial expenditures of each and every intervention to be in line with provisions of budget allocations.
It therefore comes as no surprise that CECOEDECON brands itself as organisation “where action speaks louder than words.”

Ghanaians must ignore Rawlings

…he is a spent force
Charles Takyi-Boadu writes from New-Delhi, India
myjoyonline.com Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 2:26 GMT
Several years after handing over power, it appears former President Rawlings has still not come to terms with the basic tenets of the theory and practice of democracy.This is evident in some of the utterances he has been making in-time-between-time.Sometimes I cannot fathom the outrageous statements he has been making since he claimed to be to speaking for the masses.At other times, you see him venting his personal frustrations and presenting them as though they were those of the ordinary Ghanaian.But after analysing some of his utterances, I have come to appreciate and understand who the man Jerry John Rawlings really is-a spent force.Forget about the occasion or forum; Rawlings will launch an unprecedented and blistering attack on not only the personality of the incumbent President but also his government.As a man of his stature in society, one would have expected that he will back these claims with facts, but that happens not to be the case with Rawlings. In most or virtually all instances that I know of, he has traded in what can best be described as unsubstantiated allegations.Unfortunately for him, he happens to be the only person in Ghana who the media has never gotten right after all these years in government and out of power. It has now become a common practice for his spokesmen to clarify each and every statement he makes since they have always had double meanings. In not one, two or three but almost all instances, his spokesmen, from the days of Victor Smith to Kofi Adams have always sought to deny media reports on statements he makes in public, claiming that he has been quoted out of context.I recall with nostalgic memory the controversy Rawlings generated when he once said he was a passionate democrat but believed in ‘positive defiance’, seeking to incite members of the public on government.If my memory serves me right, I’m not too sure I have ever heard Rawlings making a speech befitting a statement. He has always treaded a treacherous path, which has the tendency of plunging the entire nation into chaos. What I have observed about Rawlings over years is that he either feels he is the only brave-heart in the country or has no sense of remorse after bequeathing Ghana with a bloody history.I have barely come to terms with how a former President like Rawlings, with all his record in coup will decide to hold a meeting at his private residence with none but former heads of the military under the pretext of discussing the level of insecurity in the country at a time when the country was less than three months away from elections, also not forgetting the fact that there was and is indeed a sitting government and security agencies tasked with this responsibility.Human as I am, I sometimes find it extremely difficult to understand his followers and praise-singers, most of who seek to justify his actions.This is a man I use to like and respect very much for his charisma but developed a strong aversion for him for his divisive tendencies.For me, Rawlings is none but a spent force in the Ghana’s politics, considering the fact that his opinions do not carry the weight befitting not just a statesman but a former President in that regard. This is a man who at a point in time wanted to super-impose his fleeting personal interest on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to select his choices as Presidential Candidate and Running Mate respectively because he considered himself to be the man who must be obeyed.Strong as the leadership of the party was, they did not bow to his whims and caprices, thereby making Rawlings become hesitant in joining the campaign of the very party he formed and nurtured.When he finally decided to join the campaign trail, whether by fault or default, the former President shifted the entire campaign machinery of the NDC out of gear, going contrary to the game plan not to trade in unnecessary attacks but issues.I was therefore not surprised that the leadership of the party had no option but to somewhat distance themselves from his utterances.Mills and Mahama should blame no other person than Rawlings if they don’t get to see the Flagstaff house because Rawlings is inflaming passions and scuttling their tireless efforts.Now that we are close to the elections, he has started making certain treacherous statements which smacks off fear of insecurity, thinking that Ghanaians will pay heed to his quest for chaos. I think one thing he has forgotten is that Ghanaians have learnt more than enough from the lessons he thought us during his days and will not allow our emotions and personal beliefs to override the interest of the nation. Therefore my advice to all Ghanaians is to ignore the Rawlings and let him live with his fate since we are fed up of his tantrums.

Lets pray against ‘Sometimes in April’

…as Ghana goes to the polls
Charles Takyi-Boadu writes from New Delhi-India
Posted: myjoyonline.com, Monday, October 6, 2008;
'The Chronicle, Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Come December 7, 2008, millions of Ghanaians will again go to the polls to choose among the candidates presented by the various political parties, whom they deem fit to serve and not to rule them as a people.
Under normal circumstance, one would expect this to be a simple task for any well-meaning Ghanaian to perform.
However, unfolding events in these few months to the elections raise a lot of questions as to whether or not Ghanaians will become more united or divided after the elections due to the uneasy calm hovering across the length and breadth of the country.
Various media reports of violent clashes among supporters of the various political parties and beating of war drums by some politicians seems to be giving some level of room for this speculation.
I am therefore writing this article of emotions to let all Ghanaians know how much we cherish with no mean our small country of diverse cultures and different people, with specific reference to the breath-taking HBO movie titled ‘Sometimes in April’.
The very day I watched that movie, I wept and prayed that ‘God forbid’ the ugly horrific scenes I saw should never find space and time in Ghana.
I therefore fervently pray that each and every Ghanaian, no matter one’s position should grab a copy of this movie to come to terms with the message I’m trying to send across.
It will thus not be too much of a demand to ask those beating war drums to be cautious of their activities since ‘God forbid’ they could plunge the entire nation into chaos.
Probably, they might have forgotten that we have only one Ghana and nothing else and for that matter we can’t risk our lives for ‘mere’ intellectual exercise.
No! That will obviously be a big shame for Ghana, a country that so-much pride itself as a beacon of democracy in not only the West-African sub-region but the entire Africa, a continent struggling to make amends with its past.
For me, the experience of Rwanda alone and not to even talk about the equally dreadful and sorrowful experience of neighbouring Ivory Coast, Somalia and the Darfur region of Sudan is enough for Ghanaians to learn from in order not to chart that tortuous course of grieve and pain.
That nerve-racking experience of Rwanda evokes passion and emotions considering the innocent lives it claimed and I do know for sure that the always peaceful and fun-loving Ghanaians will not want to go that way.
I even doubt how many Ghanaians have a passport, let alone can afford to purchase an airline ticket to travel outside the country ‘God forbid’ if there is an outbreak of violence after the declaration of the election results.
My piece of advice to every Ghanaian, especially followers of these political parties is that most or virtually all the politicians they claim to be fighting for can afford to fly their families outside the Ghana, leaving the rest of us to battle our fates out.
Therefore, as the Akans will say ‘se wonim owuo hwe nna’, literally meaning, if you have not seen a dead person before, just take a look at a man sleeping.
This should tell each and every Ghanaian on whose backs these politicians rise to power that when trouble is looming, it is never heralded by a flag, probably that of Ghana.
I take solace in a statement once made by Martin Luther King Jnr “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
In April 1994, one of the most heinous genocides in world history began in the African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of 100 days, close to one million people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen. This harrowing HBO Films drama focuses on the almost indescribable human atrocities that took place a decade ago through the story of two Hutu brothers - one in the military, one a radio personality - whose relationship and private lives were forever changed in the midst of the genocide. Written and directed by Raoul Peck (HBO Films’ “Lumumba”), the movie is the first large-scale film about the 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to be shot in Rwanda, in the locations where the real-life events transpired.
HBO describes the movie as both “an edge-of-the-seat thriller and a chilling reminder of man’s incomprehensible capacity for cruelty”.
‘Sometimes in April’ is an epic story of courage in the face of daunting odds, as well as an exposé of the West’s inaction as nearly a million Rwandans were being killed. The plot focuses on two brothers embroiled in the 1994 conflict between the Hutu majority (who had ruled Rwanda since 1959) and the Tutsi minority who had received favored treatment when the country was ruled by Belgium. The protagonists (both Hutus) are reluctant soldier Augustin Muganza (Idris Elba), married to a Tutsi and father to three, and his brother Honoré (Oris Erhuero), a popular public figure espousing Hutu propaganda from a powerful pulpit: Radio RTLM in Rwanda.
The drama is set in two periods, which unfold concurrently: In April 1994, after the Hutu Army begins a systematic slaughter of Tutsis and more moderate Hutus, Augustin and a fellow Army officer named Xavier, defying their leadership, attempt to get their wives and children to safety. Separated from his wife Jeanne and their two sons (whom he entrusts to the care of his reluctant brother), Augustin gets caught in a desperate struggle to survive. Barely escaping the purge, he’s haunted by questions about what happened to his wife, sons and daughter (who was a student at a local boarding school). In 2004, looking for closure and hoping to start a new life with his girlfriend Martine (who taught at his daughter’s school), Augustin visits the United Nations Tribunal in Arusha, where Honoré awaits trial for the incendiary role he and other journalists played in the genocide. In the end, through an emotional meeting with Honoré, Augustin learns the details of his family’s fate, giving him closure and, perhaps, hope for happiness in the future.
Below is a run-down of the turn of events at the time which has a lot of lessons in stock for Ghanaians to learn from: April 6, 1994 President Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira are killed when the Rwandan leader’s plane is shot down as it is about to land at Kigali Airport. Hutu extremists opposed to the Arusha Peace Accords are believed to be behind the attack.
Day 1-estimated death toll 8,000
April 7, 1994
The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and Hutu militia (the Interahamwe) set up roadblocks and go from house-to-house killing Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians. 10 Belgian UN peacekeepers are killed. UN forces, unwilling to breach their mandate, fail to intervene.
April 8, 1994 The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launches a major offensive to end the killings and rescue 600 of its troops based in Kigali under the Arusha Accords.
Day 4, estimated death toll, 32,000
April 9-10, 1994 French, Belgian and American civilians are rescued by their governments. No Rwandans are rescued.
April 11, 1994 At the Don Bosco school, protected by Belgian UNAMIR soldiers, the number of civilians seeking refuge reaches 2,000. That afternoon, the U.N. soldiers are ordered to withdraw to the airport. Most refugees are killed after their departure.
April 15, 1994 Belgium withdraws its troops from the U.N. force after ten Belgian soldiers are slain. Embarrassed to be withdrawing alone, Belgium asks the U.S. to support a full pullout. Secretary of State Christopher agrees and tells Madeleine Albright, America’s U.N. ambassador, to demand complete withdrawal. She is opposed, as are some African nations. She pushes for a compromise: a dramatic cutback that would leave a token force in place.
Day 8, estimated death toll: 64,000
April 16, 1994 The New York Times reports the shooting and hacking to death of some 1000 men, women and children in a church where they sought refuge.
April 19, 1994 Human Rights Watch estimates the number of dead at 100,000 and calls on the U.N. Security Council to use the word “genocide.” Belgian troops leave Rwanda; Gen. Dallaire leader of the ill-fated U.N. Security Council is down to a force of 2,100. He will soon lose communication lines to outlying areas and will have only a satellite link to the outside world.
April 21, 1994 The UN cuts the level of its forces in Rwanda by 90% to just 270 troops. Day 18, estimated death toll: 144,000
April 30, 1994 The U.N. Security Council passes a resolution condemning the killing, but omits the word “genocide.” Had the term been used, the U.N. would have been legally obliged to act to “prevent and punish” the perpetrators. In one day, 250,000 Rwandans, mainly Hutus fleeing the advance of the Tutsi RPF, cross the border into Tanzania.
Day 21, estimated death toll: 168,000
May 17, 1994 The UN Security Council issues a fresh resolution saying that ‘acts of genocide may have been committed’. It also agrees to send 5,500 troops with new powers to defend civilians, however deployment is delayed by disagreements between the US and UN over the financing of the operation.
Day 41, estimated death toll: 328,000
May 22, 1994 RPF forces gain control of Kigali airport and Kanombe barracks, and extend their control over the northern and eastern parts of Rwanda.
Day 49, estimated death toll: 392,000 June 22, 1994 With arguments over the deployment still continuing, the Security Council authorizes the deployment of French forces in southwest Rwanda—”Operation Turquoise.” They create a “safe area” in territory controlled by the government. However, killings of Tutsis continue in the safe area.
Day 77, estimated death toll: 616,000
July 4, 1994 The RPF takes control of Kigali and the southern town of Butare. Its leadership claims it will form a government on the basis of the Arusha Accords.
July 13-14, 1994 Refugees fleeing the RPF advance in northwestern Rwanda flood into Zaire. Approximately 10,000-12,000 refugees per hour cross the border into the town of Goma. The massive influx creates a severe humanitarian crisis, as there is an acute lack of shelter, food and water.
July 18, 1994 The RPF announces that the war is over, declares a cease-fire and names Pastor Bizimungu as president with Faustin Twagiramungu as prime minister.
Day 100, estimated death toll: 800,000