The recruitment taking place in the Somali refugee camps in Dadaab, Northeastern Kenya has stirred some controversial outbursts by many in and outside the region. However what I am particularly bewildered with is the stand-point of the Kenyan government. I did an investigative report on this issue earlier on at work where the defense minister of Kenya firmly claimed Kenya had not given permission for this recruitment to take place.Meanwhile witnesses and human rights activists are recording and documenting evidence of these youngsters being put in Kenyan military trucks and driven to Kenyan military training bases.
Many of these youngsters are taken under false pretence and the promise of regular salary and a stable job with a UN/EU/AU backed military project.In reality they are being recruited to go and fight in the very war they fled from and had turned them into refugees. Many of these young refugees are reported to be underage and taken without their parents' consent. It also violated their international human right as refugees according to the recently released Human Rights Watch press release, because refugees are meant to be kept in civilian conditions.It seems that the stance of the Kenyan government is an elusive one to temporarily shed light away from the recruitment process itself and onto them and then follow it up when recruitment rush is finished with a stance indicating that they have indeed solved that problem and everything is back to normal and thus the region can go back to supporting Somalia in its rebuilding mission.
What I fear however is that the gross human rights violations taking place will not be addressed and if the history of the 2007 Kenyan elections teaches a lesson, these could be violations Kenya will take a greusome long time to address.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Oh Media, how useful art thou..
For giving the BNP a platform into the mainstream audience! This was the most controversial and hype creating move the BBC has made in a long time. Question Time has granted been watched by 50 times the average audience just by having Nick Griffins as part of the panel but it does make you wonder was it worth it? the mass protest had been going on on the streets of London, particularly West London where the BBC Television studios are based, for days at times blocking the movement of traffic and causing casualties!
People were appalled and disgusted by the mere thought that a far-right fascist racist party would get the opportunity to air their thoughts on prime time TV. Some have gone as far as accusing the BNP of poisoning politics.
But this is where I see beauty in the way the media works sometimes because whether people like it or not the BNP is a recognised political party in the UK that has a large following but more to the point their followers are largely misguided people or folks who are unhappy with the leading parties and the BNP tapped into their vulnerability. And when you put someone like Nick Griffins on a show like Question Time, not only will the BBC fulfil their responsibility to include minority as well as majority tax payers but they also expose the party for what they truly stand for which is solely based on hatred of immigrants and white supremacy, not the well-scripted promos that they show when they're on the campaign trail.
And that point was hit right on the head. Griffins was confronted with racists remarks and comments that he made on numerous different newspapers and radio shows and he couldn't put two words together stumbling all over his sentences. What makes the show that bit more delightful is the engagement that is allowed to the regular public, who get to ask their questions and make their comments directly to all the panelists, which this time included Jack Straw of Labour, David Huhne from Lib Dem and Baroness Warsi from the Tories amongst others (you should've seen the face she pulled when Nick Griffins was asked whether he thought Muslims were repulsive and he said yes! She is a Muslim by the way).
This then generates a heated debate across all the panelists because they're all vying to sell their parties' policies and justify whatever actions they took that they've been criticized for. This is where oratory skills come in handy. Nick Griffins couldn't get passed his shaky nerves and this was made worse by the public who couldn't hold themselves back hurling abuse at him from left, right and centre! I did wish they would allow him to speak more though just so that he could contribute to his own embarrassment rather than allowing him to sit back and sqeale out some nervous laughters whenever a difficult questions is raised. LOVED IT!! Brilliant telly.
Back on this side of the Atlantic I am working on full speed with a heavy workload and the side projects coming to realisation. I'm half-way through collecting interivews and audio for the English to Africa horn series which by the way I'm getting excited about as the series develop.
WEBR's training classes are also coming to an end this Saturday and we've already started the pre-planning and shaping of the radio show. It will be East Africa mayhem all over the airwaves and I can't wait!
People were appalled and disgusted by the mere thought that a far-right fascist racist party would get the opportunity to air their thoughts on prime time TV. Some have gone as far as accusing the BNP of poisoning politics.
But this is where I see beauty in the way the media works sometimes because whether people like it or not the BNP is a recognised political party in the UK that has a large following but more to the point their followers are largely misguided people or folks who are unhappy with the leading parties and the BNP tapped into their vulnerability. And when you put someone like Nick Griffins on a show like Question Time, not only will the BBC fulfil their responsibility to include minority as well as majority tax payers but they also expose the party for what they truly stand for which is solely based on hatred of immigrants and white supremacy, not the well-scripted promos that they show when they're on the campaign trail.
And that point was hit right on the head. Griffins was confronted with racists remarks and comments that he made on numerous different newspapers and radio shows and he couldn't put two words together stumbling all over his sentences. What makes the show that bit more delightful is the engagement that is allowed to the regular public, who get to ask their questions and make their comments directly to all the panelists, which this time included Jack Straw of Labour, David Huhne from Lib Dem and Baroness Warsi from the Tories amongst others (you should've seen the face she pulled when Nick Griffins was asked whether he thought Muslims were repulsive and he said yes! She is a Muslim by the way).
This then generates a heated debate across all the panelists because they're all vying to sell their parties' policies and justify whatever actions they took that they've been criticized for. This is where oratory skills come in handy. Nick Griffins couldn't get passed his shaky nerves and this was made worse by the public who couldn't hold themselves back hurling abuse at him from left, right and centre! I did wish they would allow him to speak more though just so that he could contribute to his own embarrassment rather than allowing him to sit back and sqeale out some nervous laughters whenever a difficult questions is raised. LOVED IT!! Brilliant telly.
Back on this side of the Atlantic I am working on full speed with a heavy workload and the side projects coming to realisation. I'm half-way through collecting interivews and audio for the English to Africa horn series which by the way I'm getting excited about as the series develop.
WEBR's training classes are also coming to an end this Saturday and we've already started the pre-planning and shaping of the radio show. It will be East Africa mayhem all over the airwaves and I can't wait!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Osman the American...
That is the name of the recent Al-Amriki wannabe who wanted to join Al-Shabab in Somalia. Osman, an American with apparently no last name was held up at the Kenya-Somalia border where Kenyan officials put him in custody. This is the joke that is dubbed the 'jihad war' in Somalia!
On a lighter note I enjoyed doing my Diaspora program today where I covered the lives and plights of the Somali refugees living in the Dadaab camps in Kenya. I was moved by the conditions those people lived in and how couragous they were to still engage in various activities and try to live somewhat of a normal life. I spoke with this lady, who has a mentally disturbed child and is surrounded by single mothers with different types of disabilities including blindness but still manage to raise their children without the fathers being around. She shared with me how they support each other through this women's organisation they set up where they get together and sow quilts and handmade fans to then sell to the public. They also support each other physically, the ones with sight helping those who are blind and the ones with limbs helping those without. This lady is also a profound poet and she gave me a few precious minutes of a poem she wrote detailing the harsh conditions of their lives in Kenya. I was so moved.
By the way why do Somalis butcher English names so horribly?!! And they insist on being experts on how to pronounce these names going to the extend of claiming 'they know so-and-so personally'. For heaven's sake; we're broadcasters, get the names right before going on air!!
On a lighter note I enjoyed doing my Diaspora program today where I covered the lives and plights of the Somali refugees living in the Dadaab camps in Kenya. I was moved by the conditions those people lived in and how couragous they were to still engage in various activities and try to live somewhat of a normal life. I spoke with this lady, who has a mentally disturbed child and is surrounded by single mothers with different types of disabilities including blindness but still manage to raise their children without the fathers being around. She shared with me how they support each other through this women's organisation they set up where they get together and sow quilts and handmade fans to then sell to the public. They also support each other physically, the ones with sight helping those who are blind and the ones with limbs helping those without. This lady is also a profound poet and she gave me a few precious minutes of a poem she wrote detailing the harsh conditions of their lives in Kenya. I was so moved.
By the way why do Somalis butcher English names so horribly?!! And they insist on being experts on how to pronounce these names going to the extend of claiming 'they know so-and-so personally'. For heaven's sake; we're broadcasters, get the names right before going on air!!
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