By Alhassan Fouard Kanu, UK. Sierra Leone is renowned as a country where children and women (due to childbirth) are dying more than any other country in the world. This has, in the past, shamefully contributed to our bottom position in the Human Development Index. Anecdotal evidence has it that, most of the deaths in our vulnerable women and children are as a result of physical and economic barriers to quality healthcare services. In April 2010, the country’s political elites, (...)

By Binneh S. Minteh, USA. From its traditional notions of national security, that has the nation-state as the soul guardian of security around realist motivations of appropriating both military and economic power over the pursuit of ethics and ideals, a paradigmatic shift to new dimensions of security emerged in the last three decades. These new dimensions are defined under parameters of human security, “symbolizing security from the threat of disease, hunger, unemployment, crime, (...)

By Roland Bankole Marke, Deputy Editor, Florida, USA. Madonna, world famed 52 year-old pop superstar, has broken her promise to fund a Girls Academy in Malawi to the tune of $15 million. This bombshell came after local villagers had been forced by the Malawian government to give up their ancestral land to provide enough space for the construction of an ultra modern Academy that would provide the facilities to educate 500 girls: Projected to become young women leaders in the poverty (...)

By Sewanu Kponou, Atlanta, GA. In the beginning there was satellite and that was how there was (tele)communications between nations. In the last twenty (20) or so years, technology has transitioned to using more of optical fibers for transmission of large amounts of data, voice, tv. The advantages of fiber over satellite is mostly associated with speed and quantity, bundled with lower operating costs. The speed of transmission in optical fibers has basically doubled every year for the (...)

By Sullay Adekullay, London, UK. The ruthless spate of persecution of journalists during the reign of the now democratically deposed SLPP government forced me to resolve that for the life of me, I will never engage in full blown journalism again. Most Sierra Leoneans will recall how the SLPP coined the devilish phrase ‘junta journalists’ to eliminate their media critics in the aftermath of the AFRC coup d’etat of 1997. Other dissenting professionals were similarly (...)

Editor’s Note: The writer, Dylan Sogie-Thomas, is calling for recovery of billions of Leones identified in the Auditors General’s Audit report. By Dylan Sogie-Thomas, London, UK. Sierra Leoneans continue to suffer in poverty due to error, fraud, embezzlement and lack of committed staff in our Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Audit service in Sierra Leone has been neglected even though our constitution gave mandate for the Auditor General’s department to audit (...)

By Teddy Foday-Musa, The Netherlands. E-mail: tfodaymusa@yahoo.ca. The plight of people with disabilities has become a post-conflict reconstruction challenge for the Government of Sierra Leone. People with disabilities in the country are entirely excluded and relegated to the backyard of community and national development. Bentry Kalanga, Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) Senior Program Manager for Africa, said: “The disabled community’s voice is generally a voice that is not (...)

If the armed forces of Guinea are not reformed thoroughly, they will continue to pose a threat to democratic civilian rule and risk plunging the country and the region into chaos. The latest report (on Guinea) from the International Crisis Group, comes out against the backdrop of heightened tensions around the last-minute postponement of the second round of presidential elections that were to have been held on 19 September. The army has remained admirably neutral so far but must support (...)

By M Alieu Iscandari, USA. In this piece, I will argue that it is unconstitutional to deprive an indigent citizen of Sierra leone of his liberty without the Assistance of Counsel and if a defendant in a criminal Felony matter cannot afford counsel, the government is constitutionally mandated to provide that person with counsel. My conclusions thus would be that every person who was convicted and is serving a jail term in Sierra Leone, and whose was conviction was obtained without the (...)

Former Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police Force, Brima Acha Kamara is out of the police headquarters at George street after heading that force for seven (7) unbreakable years, the second longest serving IG after the late James Bambay Kamara. Ever since the Press Release from the Office of the President was released last Friday relieving Brima Acha Kamara as Inspector General, operatives of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) had a field day in lampooning and vilifying Brima (...)