₦airaland Forum

ZarZar:
Bleep you too.

ZarZar:
Cool. I still don't care about your opinion though.

ZarZar:
Quite frankly my dear, to me, your opinion means as much as fart in there wind. I'm sure someone cares about that essay up there, but that someone ain't me.

ZarZar:
I fought you? Sorry, I don't remember. But anyway, it's not about growth or any of that zen stuff. It's just that these kind of topics are boring sometimes & I don't feel the need to address every single one of them. We're savages, this or that, whatever, IDC. Whoever wrote the article, clearly wrote it because that is the subject matter she chose to focus on & write about. Her journalistic POV. Something that I could care less about, really. She's right about one thing though, the apathy, because that is exactly what I felt reading this write-up. We've heard it all before, both good & bad, it has ceased to have any emotional impact whatsoever. Any time you see me or any South African commenting on negative threads about South Africa, it's not because we care or are ashamed of what's being said. Our main gripe is when people act holier-than-thou & start keeping tabs of what goes down in our country, as if whatever crimes happening in South Africa, don't happen elsewhere. Now THAT is annoying. However, at the end of the day it's still all opinion & as people who've heard it all before, expect apathy, total disregard & disinterest on our part, unless we really feel like entertaining ourselves with you as a toy

GuntersChain:
Man shall not live by bread alone but need every word that God speaks, all you have mentioned, Judaism is an offshoot of the Old Testament pertaining to the law of Moses and which we can say were the word's of God given to Moses as a law which they must obey.

okonja:
We read it since last week na

Convicted Nigerian fraudster James Ibori wins £1 from UK
23 May 2017

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/12DF1/production/_90479277_hi032881499.jpg
Image caption

James Ibori was jailed in 2012 for money-laundering offences


Convicted fraudster and former Nigerian state governor James Ibori has been awarded £1 ($1.30) for being unlawfully detained for 42 hours in the UK.

Ibori was jailed in the UK for fraud totalling nearly £50m in 2012.
He was due to be released on 20 December but instead was held in immigration detention.
After he was released he launched his claim against the Home Secretary Amber Rudd for damages for false imprisonment and breach of his rights.

How a thief almost became Nigeria's president

On Monday Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the home secretary had been "wrong throughout her dealings with Mr Ibori over the weeks leading to his release" and that he had been unlawfully detained.
However, she rejected Ibori's claim for £4,000 in damages. Instead she awarded "nominal damages" of £1.
The judge also said that the decision to keep him in immigration detention was probably because of millions of pounds the authorities have still not recovered from him.

A Home Office email, published in the court judgement, recommended to keep him in immigration detention to buy time to work out how to recover at least £57m.

"The best course of action at present is to place him in immigration detention and review the position in February or when we know more about the confiscation process", it said.

On 21 December a High Court judge ordered his immediate release from prison. Ibori eventually left the UK in February.

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/38C9/production/_96173541_iborihousehi035695251.jpg
James Ibori's property in Westover Hill, Hampstead, London which was bought in 2001 for £2.2 million in cash


One of Obori's properties in London was bought for £2.2m in cash

Who is James Ibori?

James Ibori went from petty thief to Nigerian state governor to convicted money launderer. He came to the UK in the 1980s and worked as a cashier at a DIY store in London.

He was convicted in 1991 of stealing from the store but then returned to Nigeria and got involved in politics.
When he ran for Delta State governor he lied about his date of birth to hide his UK conviction - which would have prevented him standing for office.

He became governor in 1999 and soon began taking money from state coffers.

The British police began to take an interest in Ibori again in 2005 after they came across a purchase order for a private jet, made through his solicitor in London.

He evaded capture in Nigeria after a mob of supporters attacked police, but was arrested in Dubai in 2010 and was extradited to the UK.

https://issafrica.org/iss-today/fighting-rising-piracy-in-the-gulf-of-guinea

Strategies to combat piracy already exist, but countries must navigate the pitfalls that hinder implementation.
28 FEB 2017 / BY BARTHÉLEMY BLÉDÉ

‘The Gulf of Guinea, which has been Africa’s main maritime piracy hotspot since 2011, could become the world's most piracy-affected area.’ This was a key observation made by American and African experts at a workshop organised by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Abidjan from 14 to 17 February. This finding and others depicted a rather disheartening picture of maritime security in Africa.
Indeed, the Gulf saw a significant rise in violence at sea in 2016. In contrast, global figures of piracy and armed robbery had declined significantly to 191 cases, the lowest level since 1998 (which saw 203 incidents). In that year, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded 55 attacks or attempted attacks in West and Central Africa – including 36 for Nigeria. The Gulf of Guinea accounts for more than half of the kidnappings for ransom in 2016, with 34 seafarers kidnapped out of a total of 62 worldwide.
By comparison, huge progress has been observed in South-East Asia. In Indonesia, for example, piracy and armed robbery dropped significantly from 108 incidents in 2015 to 49 in 2016: a fall of 55%.
Moreover, 2017 is not off to a good start for maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea. In only two months, at least five piracy incidents have taken place: two in Sierra Leone and three in Nigeria – including the hijacking, on 5 February in the Niger Delta, of the cargo ship BBC Caribbean. The vessel belongs to the German company Briese Schiffahrts, and a crew of seven Russians and one Ukrainian were abducted in the hijacking. The eight seafarers are believed to be held hostage in Nigeria.
The Gulf of Guinea saw a rise in violence at sea in 2016 while global figures of piracy declined
This worrying rise in insecurity follows a period where the Gulf of Guinea was believed to be emerging from maritime risk, given a gradual decline in vessel attacks in the area from 2013 to 2015. According to the figures of the IMB, attacks in the region fell from an estimated 52 incidents in 2013 by 21% to 41 incidents the following year; and then by another 24% compared to 2015, when there were 31 incidents.
This was seen as the result of collective action undertaken by several countries in the area, among which Nigeria, the regional economic power, and also a country where maritime criminals are more active. When he assumed office in 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declared war on insecurity in general – and placed the Niger Delta and sea piracy among his priorities.
Despite criticism that amnesty incites violence, Buhari extended the amnesty programme granted to former pirates in August 2009 by the late president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, and which was also extended in 2010 by former president Goodluck Jonathan. Nigeria has also increased the might of its navy – which is known for using firepower to combat pirates.
In Indonesia piracy and armed robbery at sea dropped significantly
In their fight against crude oil theft from pipelines and tankers diverted in the Gulf of Guinea, the Nigerian armed forces destroy illegal oil refineries and track down those involved in operating them. Buhari appointed new leaders in the oil sector, and prosecuted the authorities suspected to be involved in the theft. This included former petroleum minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was arrested in London on 2 October 2015.
In addition, three regional maritime strategies had been adopted by the Economic Community of Central African States (on 29 October 2009); the Gulf of Guinea Commission (on 10 August 2013); and the Economic Community of West African States (on 29 March 2014).
The three organisations agreed on a memorandum of understanding in June 2013, through which they set up a maritime security interregional coordination centre in Yaoundé, Cameroon. This centre has to cooperate with the regional maritime security coordination centres established in Pointe Noire, Congo for Central Africa; and Abidjan for West Africa.
These efforts complement developments at the continental level. In addition to the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy, which has been in force since January 2014, the African Union adopted a treaty on maritime safety and security and development – known as The Lomé Charter – on 15 October 2016. It is intended to help overcome maritime crime in Africa and particularly in the Gulf of Guinea. To date, the treaty has been signed by 32 countries.
The Gulf of Guinea was thought to be emerging from maritime risk
Yet, despite these initiatives, the Gulf of Guinea recorded a high level of piracy incidents in 2016.
One solution proposed by the experts at the Abidjan workshop is to step up the implementation of integrated national maritime strategies, and to improve synergy between these strategies and those set up at regional and continental level.
According to the analysts, for maritime strategies to be effective, they should be designed with input from all stakeholders involved. This will ensure their different interests are better taken into account. The experts recommended that the three keywords of good maritime strategies in Africa should be ‘coordination, collaboration and cooperation’.
Dr Mathurin Houngnipko – an American-Beninese speaker – illustrated this recommendation by using the concept of a hand as an analogy. A hand operates optimally with all five fingers of different sizes, but each playing a specific role. When one finger is missing or indisposed, it affects the whole hand, and even the thumb which, despite its size – can’t make up for it.
The same holds true for stakeholders in a maritime strategy where the navy (the thumb) – notwithstanding its strength and prominence in the strategy – cannot alone manage maritime insecurity in a sustainable way. The contribution of other actors – such as maritime police, ports, fisheries and environmental players – should not be neglected.
Nigeria and its neighbours should urgently review the implementation of their strategies in the maritime sector, and importantly how these interact with one other. In addition, the relevant stakeholders should understand that they each play a unique and important role in removing the Gulf of Guinea from the list of the most dangerous maritime areas in Africa and the world.
Barthélemy Blédé, Senior Researcher, Peace Operations and Peacebuilding Division, ISS Dakar
In South Africa, Daily Maverick has exclusive rights to re-publish ISS Today articles. For media based outside South Africa and queries about our re-publishing policy, email us.

FEATURESHUMAN RIGHTS21 MAY 2017

Stories of child sex abuse in South Africa

Inspired by her own experience of sexual abuse, one photojournalist began documenting the victims and the perpetrators.

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byMariella Furrer

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/5fd47fa8f5144ac483be9d20c0a32134_18.jpg
A young girl attempts to flee from the examining room before a medical forensic examination. A nine-year-old relative who admitted to playing "sexual games" with her was later discovered to have been abused himself. Both children were sent for counselling. The Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children, Johannesburg, March 2003 [Mariella Furrer]
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
Maya Angelou

When I was about five years old, I was sexually abused by a stranger. I don't think at that age I really understood what it was that had happened to me. But, somehow, I knew it was wrong and I felt to blame for letting the man touch me.

Shortly after the incident, I told my parents about it. I cannot begin to imagine the weight my disclosure must have had on them - the grief and the rage; furious at themselves for failing to protect me, enraged at the man for doing this to me, and infuriated at the world for allowing this to happen to their young daughter.

The molestation could not have lasted more than a couple of minutes, but the incident affected my life in ways that are difficult to articulate.

I don't think as a five-year-old you really understand that you have lost something when you are abused, but you have - something does change.

You lose your childhood really, your innocence is snatched away, and what little is left of that once pure child is now transformed into a sexual being, a child with a knowledge of things way before her time.

From that moment on things were very different for me. I began covering myself up. Well into my teens I wore a t-shirt whenever I swam. I hated it when men stared at me; it made me uncomfortable. I went through a bulimic phase and hated my body and the attention it brought.

It took me a very long time after that to trust a man - or anyone - again.

My Piece of Sky is the result of a journey into the world of child sexual abuse.

It focuses on the crisis in South Africa, a country dealing with an epidemic of child sexual abuse, but it is not exclusively for South Africans.

Through photographs, journals, artwork and testimonies from the abused and abusers, it offers a glimpse into a world of utter depravity, of absolute horror, but of incredible resilience, too, as young survivors struggle to rebuild their lives.

My exploration began in November 2002, when I received an assignment from a US-based women's magazine to take photographs for an article on infant rape in South Africa.

I went to work with the South African Police Child Protection Unit in Port Shepstone, a town in the southeast of the country. I was only with them for a few days, but I was shocked by the numbers of children involved, and decided to continue working on the issue. The more I researched, the bigger the project became.

Most of my access came through the Johannesburg-based Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children and the South African Police Services. Other contacts were made through individuals working in the field of child protection and healing.

Young survivors are surrounded by child rights activists and child protection officers whose absolute priority is the wellbeing of the children. It took me a very long time to gain their trust, but once I had it, I was considered one of them.

Today, I believe that I am as much an activist for the rights and protection of these children as anyone else, and many police officers and child protection advocates remain my dear friends, as do many of the young survivors and their families.

All my photos and interviews with children were made with consent from the child's guardian or caretaker. Once I had this, I would always explain to the child (if they were old enough to understand) that I was working on a project about the bad things that people do to children, that it also happened to me, and that I really hoped that one day when people saw these photos and read these interviews they would want help to stop this happening to other children.

I also guaranteed that they would never be identifiable in photos or interviews.

When a child is molested or raped, they lose control over what is happening to them and their bodies, so while working with victims I was very sensitive about giving control back to them.

I would begin by sitting on the floor in a corner or somewhere out of the way. Once in my spot, I would move very little. I would take very few photos, watching to see how the children responded to the camera. I would interact with them often and become part of the team that worked to comfort them and make them feel safe. Throughout the process I would tell them that if at any time they felt uncomfortable with me or my camera, I would stop.

A few years into the project I decided I needed more than photography to tell this story. I was curious to know more about child sexual abuse; its impact on the survivors, their families, the police, the lawyers, and to try to understand what motivated the perpetrators. So I began doing in-depth interviews.

I used no particular set of questions during interviews. Instead, I formulated questions based on who I was working with, questions that would give me a better psychological and emotional understanding of their lives. I would always begin my interview by asking them to relay their story to me and as they talked I would jot down any questions that came to mind.

Once they finished their story, I would ask more in-depth, personal questions related to the psychology behind the trauma. What were they thinking when they were going through the attack? How did it impact them throughout their life - emotionally and sexually?

When I interviewed the perpetrators, it was with the understanding that My Piece of Sky would take some time to complete, and that they would not be identified, so as not to influence any pending court cases.

My interviews with them were really motivated by me wanting to understand their childhoods, when they were first attracted to children, whether they were abused or not, how they chose their victims, and how they went about abusing them.

My work with perpetrators threw me into a very deep depression - but not for the reasons you might think.

The truth is we all have multiple facets to our personalities and these perpetrators were no different. They were abusers of children, but some of them were funny, intelligent, creative and caring.

After attending their group sessions for several weeks, one of the perpetrators asked me in front of the group how I felt about them now.

"Do you think we are all monsters?" I didn't.

I could not at all condone what they had done, but I did not hate them. With this discovery, my black and white world of right and wrong, good and evil, caved in on top of me.

All these years later, I am not the same person. Not because I have aged, but because I have learned so much - too much really.

Meeting these people and hearing their stories has taken me to the limits of my psychological, emotional and spiritual existence. It has tested me in ways that I am not yet able to comprehend, and after many of the interviews I would lie on my floor for hours, in shock at what I had heard.

Many times I have wanted to lock these interviews and photos up and walk away from them; pretend I had never seen them or heard them.

Only a sense of obligation to those who shared their deepest, darkest secrets so that it does not happen again has prevented me from doing so.

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/14da03c180f34f31947c4ff4902d0044_18.jpg
A child's drawing at the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children in Johannesburg. April 2003 [Mariella Furrer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/d19b83cf534e450bbeeedfdb789a98bf_18.jpg
Tinka Labuschagne, a senior education specialist with the South African Ministry of Education, comforts a 10-year-old girl who had the previous day disclosed to her teacher that her brother and two of his friends forced her to perform MouthAction. She had severe problems with her eyes, a sore throat, vaginal discomfort, and was suspected to be suffering from gonorrhoea. Thembisa, January 2006 [Mariella Furrer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/cb220092226843919e33c78bf2a68ca3_18.jpg
The mutilated legs of Susanna. Initiated into a satanic cult at the age of eight, Susanna, 24, suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Having endured severe ritualistic sexual abuse for almost 18 years, she developed DID as a coping mechanism and has more than 200 different identities, many of whom are self-mutilators. The initiations involved many forms of sexual abuse, including bestiality, gang rapes and child pornography. December 2008 [Mariella Furrer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/aec6bb320f8140a883fa8a725e04eed7_18.jpg
Thirteen-year-old Jennifer sits in a police car after being rescued during a night raid. Abducted in Durban, she had been brought to Johannesburg and forced into the sex trade. She said that although she had not been made to work yet, the love-vendor and another man spiked her drink and raped her. Germistan, November, 2004 [Mariella Furrer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/29a655d4b7d34086a242c4e0557bf15f_18.jpg
Inspector 'Stroppie' Grobbelaar struggles to tell Anna Lesele, the aunt and adoptive mother of seven-year-old Kamo, that the search team hasn't found anything. Grobbelaar passed by her house every day to keep her posted. The search went on for a month. Kamo was never found. Johannesburg, December 2005 [Mariella Furrer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/45628df1a12a4a8192d69611fc8bc44d_18.jpg
The funeral for three-year-old Sibongile Mokoena, who was raped and murdered on November 8, 2003. A 23-year-old family acquaintance was arrested. Due to Mokoena's family's lack of funds, a local funeral home donated the casket and paid for the funeral. Johannesburg, 2003 [Mariella Furrer]

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2015/6/9/17f2e55e605747bf8bdfdb859b23de93_18.jpg
A schoolmate of Sheldean Human cries during her memorial service. Two weeks after her disappearance, Sheldean's body was found after a confession by a 25-year-old man. She had been sexually molested and murdered. Pretoria, March 2007 [Mariella Furrer]
The above is the foreword to Mariella Furrer's My Piece of Sky: Stories of Child Sexual Abuse. For more information on the book, visit www.mypieceofsky.com

orisa37:
They have something to say. Nairaland gives them freedom to say it. You must be an Atheist if you're jealous of that.

Kizyte:
JIHAD is a Term often misunderstood and associated with radical militants. The Arabic word is wrongly misinterpretated as “Holy War”, although there is no such thing in Islam. Holy war is something undertaken to forcibly subject others to certain religious doctrines, which is forbidden in Islam.

The Arabic word “Jihad” means a struggle or striving and applies to any great effort on the personal and social level. It is striving to do good and remove injustice and evil from oneself and the society. This exertion of effort can be spiritual, economic, social or political. For example, one of the highest level of Jihad is to stand before a tyrant and speak a word of truth. Restraining oneself from wrongdoing is also a form of Jihad. It is a broad concept that includes opposing evil inclinations within oneself, opposing injustice through peaceful means, efforts to improve the quality of life in a society as well as the striving by military forces on a battlefield in defence of the community or oppressed people. Jihad is not synonymus with war and it certainly does not involve terrorism. Armed Jihad is not an option for Muslim individuals or groups and can only be declared by the Muslim head of state. Moreover it must never be fought for worldly gain, conquest or revenge. Muslims may only engage in battle to protect people’s lives, properties and freedom.

Jihad has conditions of restraint that distinguishes it from any other kind of warfare. They can be summarised as follows:

** Muslims must not begin hostilities. They must strive for peace as much as possible.
** All treaties and agreements must be observed as long as the enemy observes them.
** Muslims must fight only those who fight against them; non-combatants are not to be harmed.
** Weapons of mass destruction must never be used and collective punishment is strictly prohibited.
** Self-defense is not considered jihad if muslims are striking back in revenge.
** Hostilities should be ended as soon as the other party is inclined to peace.

CyrusTheGreat:
Karl Marx once said "religion is the opiate of the masses". Well he was close but with regards to Islam he wasn't accurate.

Islam isn't an opiate of the masses. It's the crystal meth. The ice of the masses.


Extremely violent, primitive behavioural activity, completely unreasonable, paranoiac, delusional, surreal, and nearly unescapable. That is the human brain on Islam.

The rise of Islam, along with the rise of the far-right nazis, are the two greatest threats to modern democracy on earth and they MUST be STOPPED. Islam MUST be DESTROYED.

LAN ASTASLEM.