Blink Four

News and articles from last week's West Africa:

Thoughts on Post-War Liberia.

Does this sound familiar? Getting heard in Sierra Leone.

Wikileaks highlights concerns over West African cocaine routes.

A brief look in to the part of Liberia known as The United States of Firestone.

News of the latest drive to get a mosquito net in to every Sierra Leonean home.

As the UN reports up to 4,000 refugees having left, most of which have moved in to Liberia, all eyes remain warily on the Ivory Coast.

And finally...

A Social Network Christmas.

Tribute

Whenever I first went to America in 2006 my brother showed me the original Invisible Children film and we got involved in their Global Night Commute. Since then I have followed the work of the organisation with interest, impressed by their ability to inspire others to support their work. This summer one of my interns had been quite involved in some of their campaigns and had initially hoped to journey to Uganda with Children of the Nations but found herself in a Sierra Leone that stole her heart instead. It was to her then that I naturally turned whenever I heard the news that someone from Invisible Children was among the 74 people killed by the World Cup bombs in Uganda. We were shocked by it, talked a little about it and then I all but forgot about it. Until today when I came across this video about Nate Henn.

Whenever I first went to Sierra Leone I had a couple of dreams in which the violence of its past returned and caught up to me and the children of my newly found family. These were devastating visions which I woke up from with a pounding heart. But they were just dreams. I cannot imagine the mixture of sadness, inspiration, pain, pride, love, loss and sorrow felt by the family and friends of Nate Henn as they reflect on the way he lived and the way he died.

Nate Henn // 1985 - 2010 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Blink Three

And so we're back to the Blink - things from this week's internet worth sharing.

Really interesting article about the fraught issue of mining in Sierra Leone - After Diamonds.

An article about Sierra Leone’s Bush Wives.

Wikileaks reaches Freetown. Information about the 2008 drug bust which resulted in my team and I being summoned to the police station has been revealed in one of the infamous leaked cables.

Since about twenty dangerous prisoners escaped from Pademba Road prison in Freetown a few days ago the Director of the Sierra Leone Prisons Department has been sacked...and most of the offenders have been caught and find themselves right back where they started. Pademba Road prison is said to have been made to house 324 prisoners but had 1,292 locked up on the day of this jail break.

This gives hope to the idea that in the not too distant future I could maybe...just maybe...be able to Skype you from Banta!

As refugees start to cross into Liberia from a tense Ivory Coast there have been concerns that a certain group of people may think about travelling in the other direction - Liberian Warlords.

The symptoms mentioned in this piece about bacterial meningitis in Africa make me wonder how often it is misdiagnosed as malaria. This report details a vaccination drive hoping to tame this ravaging illness.

Video telling the story of a Christian woman on death row in Pakistan. Her name is Aasiya Bibi.

And finally...

Anyone else tired of being a Christian?

I believe...

Since Seattle is about to loosen its iron-like grip on the American wing of the family, Christmas can now come in out of the cold and be wholeheartedly embraced. In that vein then let me suggest a little Bono. Highlighted by Stockman, I missed this first time around...

May all your Christmases be light.

Blink Two

Another week in internetry summed up in a single Blink.

Sierra Leone's Ministry of Agriculture has been an important partner for Children of the Nations of late (have a look at our website to see why) and now the UN has awarded the country for it's efforts in the area of food security.

These guys are locally known as ‘champion ants’. Note to self – blow don’t bash.

A documentary made by the Norwegian Refugee Council with the help of a Liberian student - "Another War: Violence Against Women in Liberia"

Some thoughts on the problems posed by Liberia’s infrastructure.

Really concerning news coming out of Ivory Coast.

World Aids Day was this week. Here is an article looking at some of the progress that is being made in different parts of the world - The State We're In.

The controversial information keeps spilling out from wikileaks and is being dissected all over the world. Here are this week's revelations.

Some thoughts on the whole thing from the editor of The Guardian.

I was interested by this response to some of the wikileaks from Saad Mohseni, the chairman of Moby Group, the largest media company in Afghanistan - "Afghan corruption is not just an Afghan domestic issue, it is also a U.S. domestic issue because it’s your money. Your tolerance of corruption in our country will raise questions back home in the United States public, the media and even Congress." The same comment could have been made by Nigerian officials this week as they point fingers at everyone’s favourite duck hunter, Dick Cheney.

Donald Miller makes sense on the trouble of the extreme.

Stocki on Arcade Fire, church and community.

And finally...

Christmas is coming so have a look here and here for some world changing ideas.

Blink

As I try to work out the best way of indulging my desire to share the stories that fascinate, educate and amuse me, without annoying every body else, I am going to try to consolidate things in to a weekly blog post I will be calling ‘Blink’...a beyond cunning combination of blog and link that has probably only been used 767 times before...

So, here goes:

Witchcraft and superstition in Africa continues to challenge and trouble me, as I imagine it will do for quite some time. Check out this video about 'The Witches of Gambaga'.

You don't do much on-line research about Liberia before you come across the story of Pastor Joshua Blahyi. His story is used by numerous journalists and film-makers to pose the huge questions of forgiveness, redemption, evil, justice and reconciliation which strike anyone looking at post-war Liberia. The reason this pastor's story is so fascinating is because he wasn't always called 'Pastor Joshua' - during the war he was fearfully known as General Butt Naked.

A piece on the impact the global economic crisis has had on efforts to reduce carbon emissions with some comment on President Sirleaf's position in Liberia - The Green Cage.

A UN video clip about Liberia's women.

People visiting Sierra Leone are often surprised by the number of mobile phones they see in people's hands. Africa generally is a huge market for mobile communications technology and this, coupled with how few people take part in any form of traditional banking, is a situation that has been jumped on by some perceptive business types. The result is a rapidly growing system of mobile banking.

I enjoyed this look at the paradoxical nature of what Americans want. And it all begins with Seattle's love of candy...

And finally...

Who doesn't love Harry Hill?

The Shadow of the Sun

I am currently cobbling together a little home-made postgraduate course in African Studies and have been trawling through Amazon's used books to see what I can get on a budget. Already arrived is Ryszard Kapuscinski's 'The Shadow of the Sun' and I am excited to get stuck in to it...I think it might be number 3 or 4 on my ever changing list of what to read.

A Polish journalist, author and historian, Kapuscinski writes this little note before launching in to his book:

I lived in Africa for several years. I first went there in 1957. Then, over the next forty years, I returned whenever the opportunity arose. I travelled extensively, avoiding official routes, palaces, important personages, and high-level politics. Instead, I opted to hitch rides on passing trucks, wander with nomads through the desert, be the guest of peasants of the tropical savannah. Their life is endless toil, a torment they endure with astonishing patience and good humour.

This is therefore not a book about Africa, but rather about some people from there - about encounters with them, and time spent together. The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist.

All suggestions of titles to be added to the reading list will be gratefully received!

Saving the Children

Risking the possibility of being considered a constant misery guts I am throwing up five stories of poverty told in the words of people from the west african countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia. The videos were made by Save the Children as part of two different campaigns to highlight the kinds of problems people are encountering on a daily basis in these places.

I am trying to learn about both of these places, what they share and what is unique to them in terms of development, culture, religion and so on. At the moment I am loving listening to Liberian's talk - contrasting their Liberian English with Sierra Leonean Krio. They are really distinctive. Whenever I first went to Sierra Leone I shared a house with two Liberians and hearing the rhythm and accent of Liberian speech gives me warm memories of good friends.

Liberia is actually now deemed to have a lower level of human development than Sierra Leone. Talking to a friend in Liberia today he shared the difficulty of getting access to electricity in Monrovia, Liberia's Capital. "It's not like Sierra Leone", he commented and believe me when I tell you that Sierra Leone is not exactly aglow with electric light.

The most random, fun thing I learned today while watching one of Save the Children's other videos from Liberia is that kids there play 'Noughty' just like our kids in Sierra Leone...so that'll be fun to go and make a fool of myself with some day! It's a game which requires strategy, quick thinking and...this part being my downfall...rhythm.

These are desperately sad stories. But this is part of life as it currently is in Sierra Leone and Liberia. To hide from it is to lie to ourselves. To pity those who share these stories is to patronise them. To feel compassion and to allow that compassion to move you to action...now that can lead to special things.

So pick at least one story from each country, have a look and a think and a pray. It'll take you just 5 minutes.

Stories from Sierra Leone

Stories from Liberia

Take Ten

Take a ten minute break and enjoy the magnificent Mumford and Sons playing with the french.

I was treated to a front row centre view at Seattle's Paramount Theatre recently and was suitably impressed by the power and passion of their live performance. If you ever get a chance to see them grab it with both hands...even if it means delaying your flights home by a few weeks...

Mumford & Sons - The Banjolin Song / Awake my soul - A Take Away Show #105 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Could geography matter?

I remember the first time my father showed me what the world actually looked like. I was standing on the soft blue carpet of his book lined study and asked why the map pinned up on his door looked so funny. He looked up from his desk at my childhood self and explained that everything I thought I knew was wrong.

This is what I thought the world looked like:

But in actual fact, my father explained, this is how the world really was:

My american sister (because in-law sounds like a government is forcing me to care about her) came across a map detailing the actual size of africa in relation to other countries and areas of our planet. Because that sneaking suspicion you could never shake is in actual fact terrifyingly true.

Geography teachers lie.

(Click here for a more detailed version of this)

In an episode of The West Wing some lobbyists came for a meeting with staff in the White House to argue that the traditional world map's distortions subconsciously help feed a northern hemisphere bias. Their solution was not just to do a better job of getting the sizes right, but to turn the way we represent the world on its current head. There is, after all, no 'up' in space and why should long dead Europeans get to decide everything? While their solution was not taken seriously, in the sense that it is unrealistic, the writers of the show clearly believed that their general argument should be.

The question then is what impact have our various ways of seeing and representing the world had on us and had on it?

Looking Back

It’s hard to go back. It’s hard to stop and find the space for emotions and imagination and memory to all pause together on the same image. That’s one of the things which Sierra Leone is great for – space. Space to think and to feel. It’s like your soul has been given elbow room for the first time in forever, space to stretch and warm itself in the sun. It’s hard to go back but I know I have to. It wasn’t until I wrote about her that I finally cried for Mary. When I am in those situations I suppress my emotions a little, striving for a control which will allow me to do whatever it is that looks like it needs done. You can feel the sorrow and the panic swilling around somewhere but you know that to acknowledge them, to sit with them, would risk being overcome. So you keep moving.

It often surprises me how well this emotional compression works. How you can keep going. It is certainly different when things are closer to home. Holding it together as I watched my dear sister Christo suffer one horrible day in May took pretty much all I had. As others encouraged me to call out to her I knew that it was beyond me. I marvelled at her brother, cradling her in his arms and calling her back to him, his display of love and affection pushing me that much closer to the tearful abyss. But whenever the wails are less familiar I can remain more detached. It makes me question my compassion from time to time but I know that to respond differently would be to cease to function.

The wails themselves all but sound the same. There is a certain pitch and intensity. A death wail. I heard one in May as I rounded our malnutrition clinic building about to jump in a van with a team of interns. We were due in a COTN school for a morning of updating records. I felt my body tense up as I heard the sound and then a lady with tears beginning to flow down her cheeks came around the corner and passed me. She moved quickly and was talking to herself. It was clear that the sound had come from her. I quickly found Mr Phillip and he told me that the lady had just arrived at the clinic with her daughter. He told me that the child was about to die.

Stepping in to our clinic I look for our Head Nurse in the little crowd that has gathered, some with their own complaints, others there to see what was happening. I asked about the child.

“We’ve done all we can for her but she’s just passing off.”

I went over to the bed where the tiny child lay. What was her name? “She’s called Zainab.” What had happened? The answer is so often the same in Sierra Leone. “We don’t know.” It seems that Zainab had not been ill for very long but had just suddenly deteriorated. I have often been amazed while in Sierra Leone by how resilient the human body can be. How desperate a situation we can find our bodies in only to see them slowly claw their way back. It’s maybe because in Sierra Leone people like the little boy pictured are dying of the kinds of things that have no right to end anybody’s life. But there is a point beyond which return takes the especially miraculous. It seemed that Zainab had passed that point. I sat with her and remembered how Alice had slipped away. One tiny breath after another. That was when I realised that Zainab wasn’t breathing at all. I looked at her eyes and saw a glassy, fixed gaze. I called our Head Nurse over and she handed me a stethoscope and placed the other end where a heart had once beat. No sound. “She has passed off.” She listened through the ear pieces to confirm it for herself. Zainab had died.

This would be a threshold moment for my intern team. Up until this point Sierra Leone had held back a little from showing them the truly crushing part of poverty. It whipped through them like a whirlwind. As it must do. Death is much more a part of life in Africa. Children die here. Often. In fact one out of every four children born this year in Sierra Leone will die as Zainab did. So many lives, so much potential. Gone. The wails will sound all but the same. They are the desperate, exasperated, angry, shrieks of mothers who have lost a part of themselves. In years to come they will be asked how many children they have. They will say four or six or eight. But three have passed off. They will say it in a matter of fact way which will make the questioner ponder whether African women have the same connection to their children as Western women do. After all, so many of them die, perhaps the tragedy is less, the impact watered down.

But they never heard the wail.

Asteroid Belts and Mushroom Clouds

‘Asteroid’ and ‘Nuke’. These were the two best answers given by elementary school kids in Kitsap County for what might cause a disaster situation in their area. The people asking the questions were two Americorps interns working with a program called ‘Ready Relief’ which is partnered with Children of the Nations. Through the Ready Relief program these kids package up food that they will keep at their school for use in the event of some kind of emergency/natural disaster/nuclear holocaust. If however Halley’s Comet fails to enter earth’s atmosphere and threaten mass murder the food is handed over to kids in any of the six countries in which Children of the Nations works.

Throughout the day the interns and their little army of child labour were joined by a locally famous dog puppet, Harry the Hunger Hound, who inspires great debate everywhere he goes. The Ready Relief staff love to tell a story of how a previous intern was, let’s call it ‘assisting’, Harry in his interaction with the kids when one of them sat up and threatened to burst the make believe bubble by pointing at the intern and shouting, “That’s not the dog, that’s him!” Harry and his intern assistant tried to move along like nothing happened and in the next part of their presentation they gave their cynical friend something to think about. “Hold on”, the boy called out with a thoughtful look on his face, “Okay, that time it was the dog.”

There are two moments in this presentation which inspire. There is the innocent clarity which all these little kids share about what is the right thing to do when you have too much food or food you no longer need. “Should we throw the food away?” With one voice they cry “No!” It is an incredible suggestion, foolish, shocking. “Well, what should we do with it?” “We should give it to other people who don’t have enough food to eat.” Simple. Clear. Obvious. If you’ve got too much, just give the rest away. Then these kids are given an opportunity to watch kids in Sierra Leone eat food which was packaged for them in a previous year. They watch Maseray shy away from the camera. They see Tejan pat Harry the Hunger Hound’s snout. They see Pastor do a little dance in an oversized jumper, laughing and breaking out in to little seated dances of their own. Suddenly I am sitting on a gymnasium floor in Washington State and the world is shrinking all around me and showing off its interconnectedness and I am close to tears at the thought that these little munchkins seated crossed legged in front of me, eyes wide and staring at the screen, are about to make my children, our children, lunch. Children with extra food on their plate feeding children with extra emptiness on theirs. Simple. Clear. Obvious.

Feed a child. Change a life. from Children of the Nations on Vimeo.

Whispers

I switch on my laptop and the fan wakes and whirs. The burst of slightly creaky sound suggests a machine that’s trying too hard, like a young man straining to impress. My desktop flashes up and Christiana looks up at me shyly, her right hand self consciously raised behind her head scratching some little itch, the perfect of smiles stretched across her face. A tipping of the balance in her continuing journey from pretty to beautiful can be seen in this now two year old pose. She is surrounded by a sunset glow casting a long shadow behind her.

This is our little daily moment and I feel a rush of sweet emotion, not so much reliving the times I have shared with little Christiana or her family but the feelings that have surrounded those events. I feel. Love. Joy. Pain. Hope. I wish her a good morning. She keeps smiling, scratching, shying away from this now frozen moment of attention.

I look over the top of my screen and see my brother relaxing across the room from me, his leather seat gently reclined, socked feet stretched out on a matching futon. Backlit by floor to ceiling windows behind, his silhouette is engrossed in a magazine. However, his submersion remains incomplete and from time to time he throws out contributions and corrections to a conversation his wife and a friend are enjoying. The two girls are stretched out on a bed in an adjoining room, their chattering voices audible over the morning’s soft Bon Ivor soundtrack.

A flicker of movement catches the eye, pulling an instinctive focus out those large windows which so dutifully stand to attention in front of us all. A Great Northern Diver flies low and straight over the gentle laps of the Hood Canal. It comes to a splashing stop by a lazily bobbing buoy under the bright but grey sky. The morning is preparing to stretch its way into afternoon but the Olympic mountains have yet to cast off their cloudy blankets and meet the new day. A sleepy peace flows in and through me, those surrounding me and the creation which lounges around me. I feel massaged, serenaded and smiled into Sabbath. I feel. Blessed.

You make beautiful things...

One of the thoughts that my last few months in Sierra Leone has left floating in my mind is that beauty can be brought out of the ugly. That God can work all things together for the good of those that love him. That where we see dirt now we could see a garden tomorrow. That within that dirt itself is the stuff of fertility. I have seen it over and over again in the lives of the kids I work for. Because that is true, there is hope. And that hope abides.

I just can't get enough of this song right now...

Olive's Story

While having a look through COTN's website today I made his wonderful little discovery - a story written by Esther Walker about her coming across a desperately ill Olive at the Shepherd's Hospice in Freetown. Olive now lives with us in Banta and she is doing really well. She's a wonderfully precocious little thing and starts Primary School next week. You will see the article Esther wrote below or you could read it at the COTN website here.

Fatu Hannah and Olive as they 'graduate' from Nursery School :)

---

RESCUING AN ORPHAN IN SIERRA LEONE

POSTED ON Oct 01, 2007

Since leaving my home in the UK and joining my husband Ian in Sierra Leone, I have been working at the Shepherd’s Hospice in the capital city of Freetown. The hospice is situated on the east side of the city, a poverty-stricken area which was badly affected by the terrible civil war of the late 1990s. The hospice was established to try and provide palliative care services for people dying from life-threatening illnesses, such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and cancer. Since Sierra Leoneans have little access to healthcare services, many living their entire life without ever seeing a doctor, the hospice also functions to provide primary healthcare services free of charge to the local community.

In January 2007, one of the hospice community volunteers brought in a little girl. As soon as we saw her we knew that she was seriously ill, malnourished, and in need of urgent medical care. Olive, we learned she was named, was seriously ill with tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. She was so anemic her heart was failing. Although we were told she was five years of age, her malnourished body gave the impression of a child no older than three. The doctor seeing her wanted to admit her urgently for a life-saving blood transfusion. I left Olive at the hospital, fearing that her frail body would not be able to recover. To my delight she responded well to the blood transfusion and commenced treatment for TB.

Over the following weeks we regularly visited Olive to monitor her condition and ensure that she received all the care necessary for a chance of survival. During this time I learned more of the details about Olive’s short life. At three days old she had been abandoned by her mother. A couple had taken Olive in but subsequently had both died of AIDS. Up until the time she was brought to the hospice, another daughter living in an area known for its sex workers was trying, unsuccessfully, to take care of Olive. I began to wonder what would happen to Olive once she was well enough to leave the hospital. I feared that if she returned to this environment, she would become yet another statistic—one of the many children in Sierra Leone that fail to survive into adulthood.

I had previously visited an orphanage run by Children of the Nations (COTN) and I knew that the children in their home were genuinely loved and cared for, receiving food, clothing, medical care and an education—things that in the UK we take for granted but are often sadly missing in the lives of many Sierra Leonean children. After hearing of Olive’s plight, a social worker was asked to investigate further and establish whether Olive was truly destitute. During this time, Olive was moved into a nutritional unit to treat her malnutrition. Two months after I first met Olive and after social services completed their investigation, she was fit enough to leave the hospital and begin her new life at COTN’s Children’s Home.

Upon arrival she was met by the manager and her new “aunty.” I left Olive with a bewildered look on her face, sitting on her pink bed which was covered in toys chosen by her new roommates as welcoming presents. Olive now had a hope for the future and a chance to fully recover from TB. Olive’s story is unique to me, but in many ways her story is a tale all too familiar to so many children here.

I was later approached by COTN–SL’s Country Director, Rev. Angie Myles and asked to help raise funds for the furnishing of the new children’s homes at Banta Mokelleh, COTN’s new ministry site where the children in Freetown are to be relocated later this year. By telling Olive’s story to friends and family back home in the UK and through an American friend here in Freetown, who also told people about COTN, we have found that people have spontaneously wanted to donate. To date, through various fundraising efforts my sister Nina helped organize in the UK and with the support of St. Matthew’s Church in Redhill, Surrey we have raised over £3,000 (with funds still coming in), plus over $2,200 from our American friends.

As I write this, I have just come back from spending a morning at the orphanage in Olive’s class at school. It was wonderful to spend time with her and to see her fit and well again, happily playing with her friends. I reflect upon the images in my mind—when I first met Olive and while she lay helpless in the hospital, comparing them to my visit today. The contrast is amazing.

I am now one of Olive’s sponsors and will continue to support her and the work of COTN in Sierra Leone for as long as she is there. I look forward to watching Olive grow and feel blessed to have the opportunity to do so. I am excited to see what the future holds for her, especially given the realization of what fate might have been.

by Esther Walker (COTN supporter and partner)

War Don Don

"War Don Don" means, as you have probably worked out, "War is Over" in Krio. It is the title of a documentary film made by Rebecca Richmond Cohen about justice, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the particular story of Issa Sesay. Cohen actually interned on the defence team of the AFRC's Alex Tamba Brima before making the film but found herself drawn to Sesay and his story. She says, "I was fascinated by the range of roles that one man could assume amidst the intensity of such a brutal conflict. I became convinced that the story of his trial needed to reach a larger audience."

Below is a trailer for the film...

I am reminded of travelling between Lungi and Freetown on the ferry and watching some of Charles Taylor's trial played on the television in the lounge area upstairs. I was fascinated by the defence lawyer's forceful, even angry, claims of injustice. Taylor was the misunderstood victim of an international conspiracy. Though Taylor did have an established relationship with Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leaders he was not in any way responsible for the horror which befell Sierra Leone. No, no, no - he was trying to play the role of peacemaker. He was trying to talk these men back from a brink they had long since pushed beyond. I was again struck by the difficulty of getting at truth through trial and the deals we make with the devil in the name of peace. (You can watch much of the proceedings at the Special Court's website here.)

Sierra Leone suffered through the amputation of maybe 20,000 people, the often brutal death of 120,000 people and the displacement of at the very least 2 million and all those numbers have been put on the heads of twelve men.

Twelve.

20,000 + 120,000 + 2,000,000= 12

I hesitate to insert a clip illustrating these figures from the war in Sierra Leone as those available on-line can be stomach churningly horrible. Instead you will see below a second trailer for a movie about child soldiers in the Liberian war, which saw some of the same kinds of atrocities which took place in Sierra Leone, Johnny Mad Dog. The film stars former child solders and perhaps as a result has a sense of the authentic about it, particularly in the depiction of an atmosphere of brutal chaos.

So, how do you choose your 12 villains? What a contentious decision to have to make. In Sierra Leone they indicted leaders from all sides of the conflict EXCEPT the national armed forces. They DID indict members of the Civil Defence Forces (More commonly called the Kamajors). This was quite controversial because Hinga Norman seemed to quite clearly have the support of the government as he sought to direct this rabble of fighters who in many places protected people from the rebels. However, they were involved in many atrocities themselves because, as one of the lawyers for the prosecution put it, their leadership had chosen "to win the war at all costs".

But what do you do if you do not choose 12 villains? Given the vast numbers of people 'guilty' of participating in horror, and with maybe 10,000 of them being children, what is the best way forward? In Sierra Leone they coupled the Special Court up with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For the Sierra Leoneans I have spoken to the TRC is seen in a positive light but a major criticism is that although the Act of Government which formed the Commission stated that its recommendations would be enshrined in law that has not been the case. Another problem people talk about is one not unfamiliar for those from Northern Ireland - they are left with a situation where many with blood on their hands have been free to continue in their government offices and/or campaign for such positions in the future. Last but not least is the issue of money. Such a huge amount of money has been spent on the Court and the Commission people wonder whether that would not have been better used to provide more physical rehabilitation for the nation - schools and hospitals and infrastructure.

Rebecca Richmond Cohen writes that, "In 2010 the Special Court for Sierra Leone prepares to be the first major war crimes tribunal to conclude its cases since the Trials at Nuremberg more than sixty years ago. This landmark moment in international criminal justice is a timely call for introspection, dialogue, and critical analysis. I hope WAR DON DON offers an insider's view about the complex moral, political, and legal questions that issue from rebuilding lawless and war torn nations - and will inspire thoughtful debate about the future of international criminal justice." That some of the most major players in the war, Foday Sankoh, Sam Bokarie, Johnny Paul Koroma and Sam Hinga Norman all avoided the imperfect justice of sentencing due to death or evasion of capture is a major problem when discussing the success of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. It also perhaps puts added pressure on the institutions’ trial of Taylor, allegedly one of the remaining major string pullers. One of my best friends in Sierra Leone simply says, "We will never know what really happened in this country during the war. We will never know." He's probably right. But how much do people NEED to know and how much punishment MUST be meted out to sufficiently satisfy people's yearning for truth and justice and so make sufficient levels of peace possible?

Special Court of Sierra Leone

Let's have a look at what the Special Court has been able to do with the twelve it actually indicted. There have been four trials: One for the RUF (the 'rebels'), one for the AFRC (the group of soldiers who overthrew the government and later effectively joined forces with the RUF), one for the CDF and one for Charles Taylor. Outlined below are the results of each of these trials.

Revolutionary United Front (RUF)

Foday Saybana Sankoh, Sam Bockarie, Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon, Augustine Gbao.

What were they charged with?

Eighteen counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law.

What does that mean?

They were accused of unlawful killings, causing physical violence and mental suffering, extermination, looting and burning, terrorizing the civilian population, enacting collective punishments, mutilations, rape, forced ‘marriages’, attacking UN peacekeepers and using child soldiers

What were they found guilty of?

Foday Saybana Sankoh, the leader of the RUF, died in custody before his trial could begin.

Sam Bockarie, the former Battlefield Commander of the RUF, was killed in Liberia two months after his indictment.

Issa Hassan Sesay was found guilty on 16 counts. He was not found guilty of killing or kidnapping UN personnel.

Morris Kallon was also found guilty on 16 counts. He was not found guilty of killing or kidnapping UN personnel.

Augustine Gbao was found guilty on 12 count. He was not found guilty of killing or kidnapping UN personnel, of enacting collective punishments or of enlisting child soldiers.

What sentences were they given?

Issa Hassan Sesay was sentenced to 52 years in prison.

Morris Kallon was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Augustine Gbao was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Armed Forces Revolutionary Council

Johnny Paul Koroma, Alex Tamba Brima AKA Gullit, Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara, Santigie Borbor Kanu AKA Five-Five.

What were they charged with?

Fourteen counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law.

What does that mean?

They were accused of acts of terrorism, collective punishments, murder, extermination, rape, sexual slavery, outrages against human dignity, mutilation, looting, enslavement and the enlistment of child soldiers.

What were the found guilty of?

Johnny Paul Koroma, the former leader of the AFRC, has never been caught. Some believe him to be dead, others that he is alive and well and living overseas.

Alex Tamba Brima, Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were each found guilty on 11 counts. They were not found guilty of sexual slavery.

What sentences were they given?

Alex Tamba Brima was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Santigie Borbor Kanu was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Civil Defence Force (CDF)

Sam Hinga Norman, Moinana Fofana, Allieu Kondewa.

What were they charged with?

Eight counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law.

What does that mean?

They were accused of unlawful killings, causing physical violence and mental suffering, looting and burning, terrorizing the civilian population, imposing collective punishments and using child soldiers.

What were they found guilty of?

Sam Hinga Norman, the head of the CDF, died before the end of his trial.

Moinana Fofana and Allieu Kondewa, after appeal, were found guilty on 5 counts. They were not found guilty terrorizing the civilian population, imposing collective punishments or using child soldiers.

What sentences were they given?

Moinana Fofana was given 15 years in prison.

Allieu Kondewa was given 20 years in prison.

Charles Taylor

What was he charged with?

Eleven counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law.

What does that mean?

He stands accused of unlawful killings, causing physical violence, looting, terrorizing the civilian population, imposing collective punishments, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abductions, forced labour and the enlistment of child soldiers.

What was he found guilty of?

Taylor’s trial continues.

Find out more about War Don Don by clicking here.

The Big Picture

I have mentioned this site before but having spent some time looking at it's pictures from a flooded Pakistan I thought it due another plug. With amazing photography and interesting subjects time and time again, it is boston.com's Big Picture. Click on the above photograph and you'll be taken to the site for some more!

The Economy of Love

Shane Claiborne getting it as right and as succinct as usual.

Short and sweet it may be but grasp it and it'll explode!

Economy of Love: Trailer from The House Studio on Vimeo.

Back Blog

Much has happened since I last spun together something blog-like for this little nook in the internet. I am hoping that over the next few weeks I will be returning with a little more frequency to this little sanctuary for forming thoughts and endeavour to start to put words to the vivid pictures of life and death another five months in Sierra Leone painted for me. Along with bits and pieces of whatever else is going on around me that should keep my typing fingers busy for a while...

Why I Love 'The West Wing': Thoughts on Life and Vocation

It’s something my friend Leech and I have commented on many times. We COULD mention lots of things about characters and plotlines and humour and intelligence. But we don’t. Not often anyway. What we find ourselves commenting on is a really quite specific feeling that we get while watching Sam write, CJ brief, Josh quip, Toby rant, Leo advise and Bartlett be Bartlett, all while walking down a corridor and talking impossibly quickly and intelligently.

Leech will lie back on the sofa with a blanket wrapped around him and say, as if noticing it for the first time, “It just makes you WANT to be really busy! It makes being busy and working ALL the time seem...cool!”

Now, let’s be real here. We don’t exactly sit with Josh while he reads through that hefty briefing document or that tome-like bill. We just swing by when he is given it and then a bit later when he has an opinion to share. So The West Wing is kind of cheating here by showing busyness without the actual work. But, that being said, it still makes you think about what things you would be excited about sleeping at the office for. What matters enough for you to embrace West Wing levels of busyness?

Questions of vocation float around when you are at school but it’s not really until graduation ushers in what people like to call ‘the real world’ that those questions really discover their bite. When you watch an episode of The West Wing you spend time with characters that were clearly born to do what they are sleeping at the office for. Lots of people more gifted with words than I have come up with pithy notions of what vocation looks like – “when your greatest gift meets the worlds greatest need” or “the thing you absolutely HAVE to do”. There’s a lot of self-awareness needed and as you think through who you were born to be it can be pretty hard to come to terms with who you actually became instead. But, slowly, maybe very slowly, perhaps you also get to feel out what it is you should spend your working day doing.

On a recent trip to the mountainous wonder and thin air of Colorado I was encouraged to head off by myself for a bit one afternoon and spend a little time listening to what my Father might have to say. I sat on a grassy slope for a while breathing in the beauty, smiled at the strangeness of a single yellow flower which had somehow managed to grow strong and bright out of a parking lot’s asphalt and marvelled at a hummingbird which hovered beside me as I made my way through some brush. A thought that slipped in to my mind and allowed me to poke it around for little bit was that these creations of God – the mountains, the flowers, the birds, the breeze – none of these things spent their time complaining about the difficulties of finding their place in the world. Each knew its place exactly. And that surety suggested bliss to me. And yet there was something else, because while each of us in that scene - the mountains, the little yellow flower, the hummingbird and myself – were created by the same God, only one of us was created with the capacity of knowing him. Me. So, borrowing from the old words of the catechism, the hummingbird’s existence glorified God but it could not enjoy him forever.

Where there is love there is free will. Where there is free will there are options. And wherever options exist so does confusion and doubt and risk and mistakes. But before that starts to look depressing walk back through it again and find yourselves with love. A neat little package, useless unless you open it but messy the moment you do. I would like to conclude that after a few more walks and some careful pondering I discovered the confidence of a hummingbird about who I was and what I should be doing. I am not there yet, if that is even a place that exists outside of fictions like The West Wing. Where I am is trying to live in the light of the realisation that there are things that I love doing and that I should be doing them more. It’s not about dream chasing and doesn’t have to be about employment. It’s about being a little bit more like...well...me. And that’s the only place I can think to start.

What would you be prepared to sleep at the office for? And, even if no-one’s about to give you the office space, what stops you from doing it?

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“What’s next?”

(Originally posted on the Upside Down Motive site - somewhere you should think about checking out...)