Watin de Apin (February 1 2015)

Hello lovely people, congratulations on making it to the second month of 2015!  I can’t believe it is February already, January practically flew by like someone or something was chasing it. I am sure a lot of you are glad February is here.

A bit of  personal update before heading diving into Watin de Apin. In my two weeks  away from the blog I was pleasantly surprised to receive emails and messages with inquires from people who were concerned and wanted to know how I was doing and why I  hadn't posted in weeks. To you all I say a heartfelt thank you, I really appreciate the love. And to answer your questions, I haven’t given up on my blogging resolution, I just had to take some time away to deal with health issues.  In my very first post I came out about my ongoing struggle with depression and anxiety and admitted to seeking help.  Though  I am handling it much better these days compared to prior to seeking help, I still experience bad days.  The past two weeks has been one of those times, during which I just want to be alone and do absolutely nothing. I can’t afford to do that right now  because I have a lot on my plate at the moment. It is my final semester of graduate school, I am juggling my course work,  writing of my (mini) thesis and my current job along with preparing for a possible relocation to Sierra Leone after graduation, job hunting and trying to stay healthy and sane. My solitude has been my space of comfort these day. I look forward to my “me time” more than anything and have I been listening to my favorite artist and girl India Arie (yup in my head we are bffs) to soothe my soul :-) This is my current jam of the week.

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Okay now that I have updated you about myself. Let’s move on to Watin de Apin. A lot has happened during my weeks of hiatus giving me numerous options for this week’s list of the good, bad and ridiculous.   

The Good

AU Summit

Women Empowerment: This week’s good list will be entirely focused on the recently conclude 24^th African Union (AU) Summit held in Addis Abba, Ethiopia under the theme of Women's Empowerment Year and Africa Development for the concretisation of Agenda 2063.  The AU has been on my failure list for a while now, following their compliancy and ill response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, nonetheless they redeemed themselves to some extent when I became aware of his year’s theme. I mean it is high time Africa puts women empowerment on the fore front of its agenda. Great start AU, I just hope the summit will be followed through with concrete changes in this direction.

 Boko Haram: I was further gladdened to hear that the AU has agreed to send 7,500 troops to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. This is a good move on AU’s part albeit its lateness, given that Boko Haram has vowed to increase it attacks as Nigeria prepares for elections in less than two weeks ( Feb 14).  With thousands dead and million displaced for the past five years, it is imperative that the African continent do everything it can to help  Nigeria out. As a Sierra Leonean whose has experienced civil war and whose country was rescued from the claws of rebels by Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force (ECOMOG) I am very much in support of this move.

 South Sudan: Another decision made during this year’s AU summit was the threat to sanction warring factions of South Sudan.  The civil war in the republic of South Sudan which gained its independent from Sudan in 2011 started in December 2013 following fights between President Salva Kiir's troops and those loyal to former vice president Riek Machar.   Prior to this threat from AU, the two sides had signed several peace deals brokered by neighboring governments, none of which stopped the warfare. After the treats of sanctions, both sides have decided to sign another cease fire deal, hopefully this will be last.

Robert Mugabe: So the AU decided to appoint Zimbabwe’s 90 year old president its chairman. This came as a shock to me given that both European Union and United States have an ongoing travel and financial sanction on him. I mean when did the AU start making decisions that might displease their big brothers” in the west.  Personally I am not sure whether this is a good thing or bad thing. When it comes to Mugabe there are instances where I agree with his stances and there are others I just don’t agree with.  In his acceptance speech, he spoke of the need to guard Africa against foreigners who want to exploit its mineral wealth and further called for more assistance for African farmers. AT this moment I completely with him on these two things and I have my fingers crossed in anticipation of the direction the AU will go under his leadership.

Bad

Pakistan Attack 

 59 people were killed and dozens injured in  Pakistani following the bombing of a Shiite mosque with about 250 worshipers on Friday January 30^th 2015. This attack was carried out by the Sunni militant group Jundallah. They are among many Sunni Muslim extremist who do not consider minority Shiite Muslims to be true Muslims.  I wish the world could broadcast this more so that more people will be aware of the fact that extremists kill people regardless of their religion and as such shouldn’t attach terrorism to one religion. Where is the outrage for this senseless massacre and why isn’t there a #JesuisShiite ?

Muslim Ethnic Cleansing by Christians in CAR

 On January 13^th  2015, the UN commission of inquiry disclosed that Christian militias in Central African Republic have been carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population during the country's ongoing civil war.  This militia took up arms in 2013 in response to months of looting and killing by mostly Muslim Seleka rebels who had toppled President Francois Bozize and seized power in March the same year. Since then up to 6,000 Muslims have been killed with many becoming displaced as they flee for their lives. While the UN admits this is an ethnic cleansing it claims it cannot conclude whether it was a genocide.  Say what now? I bet if it was the other way round, that is Muslims killing Christians it would have been labelled everything heinous under the sun. As a devoted Christian, I sometimes wonder if religion has caused more harm than good considering the bloodshed and destructions humans have done in the name of religion.

The ridiculous

Sierra Leone delegate to AU summit 

On this week’s list of ridiculous is my home country Sierra Leone. I was disappointed and appalled when I saw the picture of the Sierra Leonean delegate to the “Women Empowerment” themed AU summit shared by a Sierra Leonean blogger. Shame on government of Sierra for choosing to send an eleven men and one woman delegate to such a summit. I personally know of many capable, qualified female Sierra Leoneans who are fighting daily for women’s empowerment and would have been right for such a summit but I guess the government felt men were better candidates (>_<).

Zimbabwe renames Victoria Fall 

About a week ago Robert Mugabe decided to officially rename Victoria Falls, which is one of the seven wonders of its world as Mosi Oa Tunya - 'the smoke that thunders'. Mind you this is the name locals have referred to this magnificent falls for centuries until it was “discovered” by Scottish explorer David Livingstone who named it after Queen Victoria.  I for one, thought this was a great move, why shouldn’t African land marks have African names? I mean I don’t see any American or European landmarks named after African royalty.  Surprisingly, a lot of commenters on the British daily mail had negative things to say about this, some of them claiming it will always be Victoria Falls just as Zimbabwe will continue to be Rhodesia. I don’t understand the entitlement of some Europeans to Africa and all things African. People with such entitlement should take a plethora of seats because gone are the days when you owned Africa. Whether you approve or not Africa is moving forward by every means.

Well that’s it for this week’s Watin de Apin, ladies and gentlemen. Stay tuned and watch this space as I will be featuring  inspiring and interesting young Sierra Leoneans in the following days.