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

Fare thee well `Man of the people`

By Charles Takyi-Boadu, New Delhi-India Posted: Friday, September 26, 2008
The Late Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Minister for Finance for Economic PlanningNot all men die and people shed tears, but there is one truth in life, which is, the fact that when all men die, good things are said about them.
The news and sudden death of Honourable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning is one that evokes emotions and passions.
With time, he proved to be a capable pair of hands in the financial goal post of Ghana, distinguishing himself as a humble servant of the people he served both in his constituency and the entire nation.
One thing Ghanaians will forever remember him for was his ability to cope with dissenting views, especially those from his political opponents.
Baah Wiredu has such a strong character that I find it extremely difficult to describe this efficient and noble son of Ghana in simpler terms than to borrow a tribute by Robert Green Inersoll, an American political leader and orator during the Golden Age of Freethoughts, noted for his broad-range of culture and his defense of agnosticism to Courtlandt Palmer, a fictional character on the long-running ABC soap opera ‘All My Chrildren’, when the later passed away.
A thinker of pure thoughts, a speaker of brave words, a doer of generous deeds has reached the silent haven that all the dead have reached, and where the voyage of every life must end; and we, his friends, who even now are hastening after him, are met to do the last kind acts that man may do for man — to tell his virtues and to lay with tenderness and tears his ashes in the sacred place of rest and peace.
Someone has said that in the open hands of death we find only what they gave away.
Let us believe that pure thoughts, brave words and generous deeds can never die. Let us believe that they bear fruit and add forever to the well-being of the human race. Let us believe that a noble, self-denying life increases the moral wealth of man, and gives assurance that the future will be grander than the past.
In the monotony of subservience, in the multitude of blind followers, nothing is more inspiring than a free and independent man — one who gives and asks reasons; one who demands freedom and gives what he demands; one who refuses to be slave or master. Such a man was Courtlandt Palmer, to whom we pay the tribute of respect and love.
He was an honest man — he gave the rights he claimed. This was the foundation on which he built. To think for himself – to give his thought to others; this was to him not only a privilege, not only a right, but a duty.
He believed in self-preservation — in personal independence — that is to say, in manhood.
He preserved the realm of mind from the invasion of brute force, and protected the children of the brain from the Herod of authority.
He investigated for himself the questions, the problems and the mysteries of life. Majorities were nothing to him. No error could be old enough — popular, plausible or profitable enough — to bribe his judgment or to keep his conscience still.
He knew that, next to finding truth, the greatest joy is honest search.
He was a believer in intellectual hospitality, in the fair exchange of thought, in good mental manners, in the amenities of the soul, in the chivalry of discussion.
He insisted that those who speak should hear; that those who question should answer; that each should strive not for a victory over others, but for the discovery of truth, and that truth when found should be welcomed by every human soul.
He knew that truth has no fear of investigation — of being understood. He knew that truth loves the day — that its enemies are ignorance, prejudice, egotism, bigotry, hypocrisy, fear and darkness, and that intelligence, candor, honesty, love and light are its eternal friends.
He believed in the morality of the useful — that the virtues are the friends of man — the seeds of joy.
He knew that consequences determine the quality of actions, and “that whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.”
In the positive philosophy of Augusts Comte he found the framework of his creed. In the conclusions of that great, sublime and tender soul he found the rest, the serenity and the certainty he sought.
The clouds had fallen from his life. He saw that the old faiths were but phases in the growth of man — that out from the darkness, up from the depths, the human race through countless ages and in every land had struggled toward the ever-growing light.
He felt that the living are indebted to the noble dead, and that each should pay his debt; that he should pay it by preserving to the extent of his power the good he has, by destroying the hurtful, by adding to the knowledge of the world, by giving better than he had received; and that each should be the bearer of a torch, a giver of light for all that is, for all to be.
This was the religion of duty perceived, of duty within the reach of man, within the circumference of the known — a religion without mystery, with experience for the foundation of belief – a religion understood by the head and approved by the heart – a religion that appealed to reason with a definite end in view – the civilization and development of the human race by legitimate, adequate and natural means — that is to say, by ascertaining the conditions of progress and by teaching each to be noble enough to live for all.

No Cocaine in Ghana

Posted to the web 21 September 2007
Charles Takyi-Boadu
Though Ghana has in recent times gained notoriety in the drug trade, it is not considered to be among the major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries in the world.
Latest reports from the Whitehouse, the seat of the United States government provides the list of countries noted to be leading in the transit and production of illicit drugs. Ghana's name did not however pop up in the list of 20 of the worlds major drug trafficking and production countries.
The report which was released on September 17, 2007 identified the likes of Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela as major drug trafficking and producing countries in the world.
This was contained in a memorandum signed by U.S. President, George W. Bush in which he has authorized and directed the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice to submit the report to Congress and publish it in the Federal Register.
A country's presence on the Majors List is not necessarily an adverse reflection of its government's counter narcotics efforts or level of cooperation with the United States.
Consistent with the statutory definition of a major drug transit or drug producing country set forth in section 481(e) (2) and (5) of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961, as amended, one of the reasons that major drug transit or illicit drug producing countries are placed on the list is a combination of geographical, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to be transited or produced despite the concerned government's most assiduous enforcement measures.
That notwithstanding, the U.S. government has designated Burma and Venezuela as countries that have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counter narcotics agreements and take the measures set forth in section 489(a)(1) of the FAA.
Attached to this report are justifications for the determinations on Burma and Venezuela, as required by section 706(2) (B).
In accordance with the provisions of section 706(3)(A) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act (FRAA), President Bush has also determined that support for programs to aid Venezuela's democratic institutions is vital to the national interests of the United States. Below is the unedited report on individual countries:-
NIGERIA
Nigeria has made progress on many narcotics control and anti-money laundering benchmarks. There is reason to be hopeful. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized millions in the proceeds of crime, anti-money laundering efforts have been successful, and Nigeria is cooperating with the international community to improve its efforts against money laundering even more. Still necessary are procedural reforms to streamline extradition procedures. For many narcotics criminals no sanction is more effective than the fear that they could face a court and jail time in the countries to which they have trafficked narcotics. Nigeria should also re-double its efforts to use its frequent apprehension of street criminals and couriers to identify and prosecute major drug traffickers.
AFGANISTAN
Although President Karzai has strongly attacked narcotic trafficking as the greatest threat to Afghanistan, one third of the Afghan economy remains opium-based, which contributes to widespread public corruption, damage to elicit economic growth, and the strengthening of the insurgency.
The government at all levels must be held accountable to deter and eradicate poppy cultivation, remove and prosecute corrupt officials, and investigate and prosecute or extradite narcotic traffickers and those financing their activities. We are concerned that failure to act decisively now could undermine security, compromise democratic legitimacy, and imperil international support for vital assistance.
In Afghanistan, one model for success can be drawn by comparing the marked differences in cultivation between the northern and southern provinces. Several Northern provinces contributed to a decline in poppy cultivation resulting from a mixture of political will and incentives and disincentives, such as public information, alternative development, and eradication. Furthermore, several Northern provinces with very low amounts of poppy are well on their way to becoming poppy free.Despite the significant progress made in Afghanistan since 2001, the country continues to face tremendous challenges. Our struggle to win hearts and minds, while confronting the insurgency, continues to directly hinge on our ability to help the Afghan government produce visible results. We need to encourage a firm belief among the Afghan people that their national government is capable of delivering an alternative to the preceding decades of conflict. Our reconstruction assistance is an essential instrument to achieve that goal.