South Africa: Where injustice parts for justice continued

Many tongues and places

There are some many quirky things about South Africa that make such interesting reading. This is a country of 11 official languages and 3 capitals.

The 3 capitals part was one that really surprised me, because all the while I thought Pretoria was the only capital of South Africa. As it transpires, the administration consisting of the President and the cabinet, mainly the executive sits in Pretoria, the legislature sits in Cape Town and the judiciary sits in Bloemfontein.

Yet, the Constitutional Court of South Africa is based in Johannesburg and this is where the Chief Justice of South Africa sits, whilst this court only is superior to the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa based in Bloemfontein, the Constitutional Court only adjudicates on constitutional matters, the highest court for non-constitutional matters is the Supreme Court.

On a plain of old pains

The Constitutional Court is located at Constitution Hill built with bricks of a demolished awaiting trial wing of a former prison on the grounds of the Old Fort Prison complex that included a women’s goal, a white’s only prison that once admitted Nelson Mandela to its hospital wing and Number Four.

What happened there is best read in the words of those were inmates of Number Four. An eerie calmness settles on you as you climb up to walk the perimeter dyke fence wall of the fort which gives you views of a dangerous inner-city neighbourhood of Braamfontein and Hillbrow that my hostess said whites will rarely venture into and further afield are the richer suburbs of Johannesburg.

Looking towards a new future

The façade of the court has the name of court in the 11 official languages in colourful type and this overlooks the Eternal Flame of Democracy, which was lit on the commemoration of 15 years of the South African constitution.

Having left the Apartheid Museum and stopped off at Constitution Hill, this place merged history, the present and the future in one single of narrative of where injustice dehumanised and justice began to humanise giving hope to a greater and thriving unity of the good of humanity.

South Africa has a long journey ahead, I can see some strong foundations being laid, and some other structures need to be jettisoned, but process will never been stopped in its tracks, the future is coming, the future is upon us.

Thought Picnic: Keyed Off

Black Maria

As it rained behind the County Court, there was a man crouched at the door of a van, probably bigger depending on what your imagination allows to be the size of a van.

At a time, this type of van was known as a Black Maria and yet there is no clear etymology of this vehicle name, rather, it is slang that has become part of common usage, but let me take you on another ride with this Black Maria story.

The Black Maria nowadays is no more painted black, but white with tinted porthole windows at the standing height of whoever occupies the back of the van. Many times as the van leaves court, photographers raise their cameras to the windows to take pictures, I do not think I have ever seen one picture that shows the occupants of the Black Maria.

Broken key

Yet the story is stranger still because the man crouched at the driver's door was trying to get into the van, probably the driver and from what I could see him do, it appeared he was trying to tease or prise the key out of the keyhole.

I could only guess that some accident had resulted in the key to the van being broken in the lock, which made me wonder why Black Maria's were not equipped with wireless key fobs like you have for cars.

Then you realise that criminals might acquire the technology to control the locks of the Black Maria and in the process the State might lose the control they have over those they have decided to confine for the purposes of justice.

Locked in or locked out

Being locked out of your van gives you the freedom to walk away, then what if someone were locked in the back of the van and the keys happened to be broken in the lock, spare keys will be useless until a locksmith is asked to come and help out.

It might well be that those who were brought to court with the Black Maria will be going home if acquitted for using other means of transport to return to the comforts at Her Majesty's pleasure.

That is the dread of a key broken in the lock, with the keys you can keep people in prison and with the keys broken in the lock, perchance, you have kept people out of prison.

The US: The Maltreatment of Bradley Manning

The truth was how he stated it

I start this blog with a direct quote from a source because it just lays the ground for what I am about to write, this quote came from the Foreign Policy website and it says.

State Department Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley resigned on Sunday afternoon, only two days after he was reported to have called the treatment of alleged WikiLeaks source Private Bradley Manning “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” [Quoted source [1]]

However, P.J. Crowley’s concern, possibly humanity and dare I say his compassion for another human-being who he believed was being persecuted and maltreated has cost him his job. The position he held definitely must have made him privy to the conditions that Bradley Manning was being kept under and he probably had quietly tried to get something done about it before he made public record of what we along suspected was happening to the man.

The rebutter

Now, a Colonel David Lapan who has the impossibly convoluted non-substantive title of Pentagon Deputy Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations which is very much like two Deputies assisting an act has offered us the set prop or probability that Manning is not being humiliated [2].

Just in case we fail to understand what Colonel Lapan had to say, we are given short comprehensible paragraphs with clear indications of what conditions Private Manning or PFC Manning is being kept under.

It is pertinent that I reproduce here exactly what was published and I will intersperse each of those paragraphs with my comments placed in {}, just to ensure I am not adrift of the message being communicated.

A brig is a prison

Quantico is a military brig, not a prison, and it is not a maximum security facility. http://www.quantico.usmc.mil/activities/display.aspx?PID=588&Section=SECBN

{The link attached is quite enlightening, The Brig is a place of confinement that can house 120 prisoners spanning all custody classes from minimum to maximum security requirements – I suppose that means the Brig is a prison that can be used as a maximum security facility.

The layman’s definition of brig [3] when it is not a two-masted ship is jail or prison.}

Manning, however, is considered a maximum custody detainee. He is not "under isolation 23 hours a day." Here are the facts of his pre-trial confinement:

{So, if Manning is a maximum custody detainee, I suppose it implies he would a candidate for the maximum security facility and it is unlikely that he would be placed in a minimal custody setting if he had the designation as stated and corroborated by the spokesperson of the authorities.}

Semantics of deception

PFC Manning is not in solitary confinement. He has a single-occupancy cell, like all of the other detainees.

{It makes me wonder when solitary and single-occupancy meant different things and surely a cell is a place of confinement. The Brig webpage says “Confinement sharply limits the confinee's privileges, freedom of action, and opportunities for personal satisfaction. Therefore the member is confined as punishment and not for punishment.”}

PFC Manning is not in isolation.

{If I may refer again to The Brig webpage, “Confinement is punishment because it denies members their liberty and separates them from family, friends and most normal activities.” Now, how that means he is not in isolation escapes me. }

PFC Manning is a maximum custody detainee in a prevention of injury status.

{After the earlier consideration, we can now agree that he is a maximum custody detainee and once we have signed that off we can also see that being in a single-occupancy cell, the prevention of injury status can only pertain to the impression that he might harm himself.}

PFC Manning is not currently on suicide watch.

{It makes one wonder if there is no contradiction here, it does not need extrapolation that the prevention of injury status implies he might well be suicidal – the checks being made on him might not be too frequent but regular enough to ensure that he has come to no harm, part of which would involve disturbing his peace to arouse him to confirm he is still with us.}

To be thankful for

PFC Manning is being held in the same quarters section with other pre-trial detainees.

{How that changes his status from being in a single-occupancy cell where he cannot interact escapes me, but if he is a pre-trial detainee, why is he being punished already, as The Brig website infers.}

PFC Manning is allowed to watch television and read newspapers.

{We must be thankful for creature comforts.}

PFC Manning is allowed one-hour per day to exercise.

{The corollary of which infers he is kept confined for 23-hours, we are not told if he is allowed to see the sun, run around, get a sense of being human in that setting.}

PFC Manning is provided well-balanced, nutritious meals three times a day.

{Welcome to Brig Gourmet, I suppose it comes with 3 Michelin stars too.}

His amazing privileges

PFC Manning receives visitors and mail and can write letters.

{According to his lawyer [4], he did receive birthday greetings from his family in December but they could only visit him in the weekends, he has made requests for books and apparently received such.}

PFC Manning routinely meets with doctors and his attorney.

{According to The Brig website, they require 48-hours notice to coordinate these visitations.}

PFC Manning is allowed telephone calls.

PFC Manning is being treated just like every other detainee in the brig.

{Apart from the fact that The Brig span “all custody classes from minimum to maximum security requirements” and he is on the extreme end of this scale where “It means loss of status and disapproval of the individual offender by the military society.”

He was observed naked

Also, there is no 'daily disrobing and various other humiliations.' In recent days, as the result of concerns for PFC Manning's personal safety, his undergarments were taken from him during sleeping hours. PFC Manning at all times had a bed and a blanket to cover himself. He was not made to stand naked for morning count but, but on one day, he chose to do so. There were no female personnel present at the time. PFC Manning has since been issued a garment to sleep in at night. He is clothed in a standard jumpsuit during the day.

{Now, it would mean despite the disapproval of the individual officer by the military society and the punishment by confinement, the loss of status as a prisoner he suffers no humiliations. I however read that his undergarments were taken from him and it would appear all his apparel as contained in the Confinee Gear List [5 - PDF file] had been impounded that he did have to appear naked.

We have read that that PFC Manning had sexual identity issues [6] such that the presence of male personnel when he was inspected as nude would have just been as disconcerting as having female personnel present.

Either by commission or omission that event can be duly presented as a humiliation of PFC Manning and the reading shows that some corrective action was taken to give him a garment to sleep in at night.}

For months we have been regaled with tales of the harsh treatment of Bradley Manning, a simple Google search would provide a list of appalling acts of cruelty many of which I have read that makes my stomach churn.

Insulting our intelligence

One can only wonder what Colonel Lapan’s statement was to achieve apart from confirm what P.J. Crowley suggested and then attempt to obfuscate the by sleight and insult our intelligence with the premise that we cannot read and comprehend the very simple statements and bullet-points proffered.

Never has anyone been so brazen as to with impunity attempt to suborn due process to justify reprehensible activities in a country that purports to support and advocate the protection of human rights and offer the presumption of innocence until declared guilty.

Disgusted and appalled does not begin to describe that outrageous acts of inhumanity meted out to Bradley Manning and all those involved in this activity will never find exculpation in these despicably heinous acts ot travesty.

Sources

[1] Crowley resigns over Manning remarks | The Cable

[2] Pentagon: Manning not being humiliated | The Cable

[3] brig - definition of brig by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia

[4] Bradley Manning's Life Behind Bars - Yahoo! News

[5] Confinee Gear List PDF file

[6] Was Wikileaker Bradley Manning Betrayed By His Queer Identity?

Nigeria: Celebrating Honour Amongst Thieves

This blog was first published at Nigerians Talk under the same title.

A wrong comparison

They wore T-shirts proclaiming him the ‘Joseph of our time,' pretty much sums up the occasion to which I will provide a backstory. [News Story [1]]

Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Jacob in the bible who dreamt dreams of him being the leader of his brothers and created such envy amongst them that they sold him into slavery. In Egypt, he was a servant of high official whose wife fancied him and when he rejected her advances he was falsely accused of sexual harassment and dumped in prison.

A whole range of coincidences of fate occurred where he interpreted dreams of inmates and that reputation lead to him doing the same favour for the Pharaoh of Egypt, which culminated in his becoming the Prime Minister of Egypt and his dream coming true when famine in his homeland brought his siblings to Egypt and had them bowing to the authority of his office.

A thief of the lowest order

The said “Joseph of our time” has no such illustrious biography; as the Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, he along with many members of the board of directors were found to have grossly mismanaged public funds and were duly charged then justly convicted and jailed for their offences.

However, on release from prison this weekend, he made no speech expressing remorse apologising for his errors of judgement and the criminal acts that landed him in jail but was lauded, praised and feted as one of the wronged, in concert with many of the ruling and breaking bread with the presumed respectable of the country.

They are no role models

Indeed, one is surprised that the tide is changing in Nigeria where now there has been great revulsion at the fanfare that accompanied this event, we have had people who have long since gained respectability though having a provenance of criminality.

Lots of the moneyed who have unaudited sources of wealth, who cannot account for how they have become so rich having only held public office or worked in public service and are the brood of literally pauper parents and possibly poorer relations.

They have never been involved in industry and whatever qualifications and professions they might have could not have provided for the treasure troves they now dip into with reckless abandon, they have no scruples and with impunity they have milked and bilked the Nigerian Treasury, stolen and squandered, swindled and cajoled, creamed and scraped as they worshipped the god of corruption with body, soul, reputation, character and integrity.

The need for polite society

This was the modern-day Joseph that got thronged as he left prison hardly repentant but definitely defiant, beyond rehabilitation and perfected for the next possibility of corrupt enterprise that gives him honour amongst thieves of the same ilk.

Sadly, Nigeria has lost its polite society, the non-egalitarian reserve of snobbery that shunned people who were tainted with gossip of impropriety, talk less of allegation, indictment, conviction and the ultimate social death of imprisonment for crimes committed.

To crown the affront to all that is good and wholesome they congregated at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos – the cathedral of all that was once respectable, commendable, honourable and deserving of fawning obsequiousness by reason of breeding, pedigree, old money and social industry for a thanksgiving service which had in attendance a former president and some governors whose reputations should rank lower than the value you get out of manure.

However, the Nigerian narrative is changing, this event must be the one that opens our eyes to rejecting the celebrity of the criminal, those who find support amongst the powerful and are shielded from due opprobrium just because they have money and clout earned through their abuse of office to avert our gazes from the fact that they are criminals, thieves and are worthy of nothing but disgrace.

Thieves must not find honour in Nigeria anymore.

Sources

[1] 234Next | Bode George's triumphant return shocks Nigerians

Nigeria: Gulags of learning

Suspended for rightful protest

Some areas where educational institutions do not seem to have improved in Nigeria are those of situation analysis, student discipline, leadership and fostering an atmosphere where ideas and opinions flourish.

I write this as I read in the papers that 5 students were suspended indefinitely [1] from the Olabisi Onabanjo University having been recorded on television protesting against the raising of school fees - nothing in the story suggests they were up to anything else.

I would not go into details of that, but I would relay my own experiences of this failing.

Summer School gets hot

In the summer of 1980, I returned to school for Summer School in preparation for secondary school final examinations, we were to spend 4 weeks and for me some of those lectures were quite enlightening and instructive, I probably gained a lot in the first two weeks than I did in a whole half-term of regular school.

One weekend night, some of the more adventurous, if not the more idiotic boys in my class, who had their hormones running wilder than their brains could control them to remain human, went out to the girl’s hostels to meet up and do more with the girls.

When the girls refused to come out to play, the boys went on a rampage, destroying property and harming a few of the girls in the process, I think a few needed hospital treatment.

Judge and jury without justice

In the morning, the teaching staff and the Board of Governors met to review the situation and decide on what to do. Without interviewing any of the boys and on the emotive situation of observing the girls, they decided to close the Summer School with immediate effect.

They also decided none of the boys would return to the boarding house for the rest of their final year, having been a boarder for four years I spent my last and most important year in secondary school as a day student.

Now, the Board of Governors might have thought they were offering the best disciplinary action in excluding us from boarding school, but they never considered that without the regimen of supervision in a boarding house a good few of the boys would go off the rails.

The damage and the harshness

I believe the set of 1976-1981 could have been one of the highest achieving sets with regards to the final examinations but that unfair punishment of everyone without the investigation of who really was involved and culpable probably destroyed what could have been a solid foundation for the future of many.

Much as I did get into polytechnic the next academic year, in the end, I lost a good few years before I finally got my education back on track.

In what was a very striking observation, the vice-principal came round to supervise us packing our things in readiness for leaving Summer School, she saw two of us and said ruefully, “I am sure you were never involved in the fracas but a few unruly boys have spoilt it for everyone, even with this fate, I wish that you still encounter good fortune.”

It remains one of the things I hold against Remo Secondary School, Sagamu, I was only 14 and they never once admitted they did us wrong and it would always be a black mark on every other good thing that that school brought to helping mould the person I am now.

A letter to the hounds

Another instance was after a students’ unrest at Yaba College of Technology in 1984, we were sent home and then on re-entry we had to sign an undertaking of conformance to rules that registered us into some sort of slave camp.

One student had written a letter to the Nigerian Guardian questioning a number of unsettling activities in the school which for the sake of objectivity was critical, truthful and balanced.

However, the authorities would have none of this, so every lecturer was trying to find out who A. Joseph was, and because my first name begins with an A, I was asked at least thrice if I was the A. Joseph.

Where they should have been working together to resolve the issues raised, they were baying for blood like hounds, they wanted a scapegoat and thankfully, they never got that particular person.

A good number of us rather vocal student activists just never managed to make it out of the college with a result.

Manufacturing drones

Schools are stripping out individuality, independence and initiative; people pass through school but the school does not pass through them, we end up with drones that have excelled in regurgitating information rather than expressing knowledge, their intelligence is stifled and intellect is mediocre because they have been through the educational mangling machine that produces clones not thinkers.

You cannot express yourself, you should subsume self to the commonality of sameness or you would be punished severely – our schools are mortgaging our future because teachers, lecturers, principals, professors and chancellors would not be challenged, they would brook no questions and condemn every alternative thought.

Gulags of learning

Debate is for the outcasts, people on the road to rustication because they upset the peace equilibrium that dictates that your freedoms are only the ones you enslave yourself to and your rights are theirs to dictate – they are the benevolent masters who know what is best for you, you can never think through any problem.

Our schools have become worse than prisons, they have become gulags of learning; learning to conform, learning to obey, learning to submit and learning to be silent – they have become a malignant cancers that need to be excised from our society forthwith – the 21^st Century cannot afford to have drones, people schooled for military style obedience, people whose brains have become so idle they can no more think.

The power of the school

Forget the concept of freedom of expression, the school can make or break your life and almost always get away with it even if you win your case; you bare the mark like Cain and would never be forgiven.

How schools acquired this malevolence escapes me except for the explanation that many teachers are not in their jobs for the love of the impartation of knowledge and the development of minds but are frustrated failures that have no goodwill or inspiration.

I am still thankful that I have had teachers, lecturers and professors who have promoted the thinking culture all for selfless and noble reasons; I commend them and hope they can take hold of their schools and turn them around for the greater good of society.

Sources

[1] THISDAY ONLINE / Nigeria news / Keyamo Flays Suspension of Ogun Varsity Students

NB: I have used school in the broadest possible sense to encompass all institutions of learning.

Rescue our cities from these louts

The louts from England

One only has to walk into Amsterdam on a Thursday night, yes; you do not have to wait till the weekend to observe the spectacle and nuisance.

My countrymen from England have arrived for a stag weekend what is know as the Bachelor’s Eve party in more polite circles. The cacophony, the raucousness and drunken behaviour is just a complete turn-off, we residents would hardly be found in the centre apart from when we are tour guides.

Amsterdam however is not the only city to suffer from this loutish display everything antithetical to the English gentleman, Dublin at one time trying to ban these sullen troops from destroying the friendly atmosphere of their city.

Dope, booze and sex

These cities however offer different delights with Amsterdam leaving the many quite worse for wear. They dope up on cannabis which is considerably more potent that their local brands and try out the space cakes which leave them completely spaced-out, from Thursday night they might be too out of it to the point of missing their flights on Sunday afternoon.

Then the booze, drinking so much that it would be like fish drowning in water, excess is excess on these trips, the sights are too sorry to behold.

Cheap flights fallout

The advent of cheap, no-frills flights has helped allow the swarm of undesirable behaviour and probably undesirable characters to normally genteel locations. Now, I am not against people getting around the world or even just Europe by air, they should just leave their bad attitudes at home – there was a time that these people could not even afford to travel to the seaside in England – well, some flights are so dirt cheap you wonder if they are sat in church pews beside the fact that they almost have to pay for oxygen at high altitude.

Just about 2 weeks ago, a group jetted off to Bratislava, as the Eastern European cities have become some of the hot budget destinations and they must be wondering if they want that sort of crowd.

Caught and fraught

The groom stripped naked and jumped into the fountain in front of the American Embassy, something he probably would never do whatever his state of mind at Trafalgar Square in London.

In what I would call unusual Eastern European efficiency – now, I do not know much about them – he was picked up by the police, put in the slammer, fast-tracked through the courts and very well onto a two month prison sentence.

The parents have brayed and bawled about legal representation, access to phones and other exculpatory issues, well, I would hope this would serve as a serious deterrent for the chap was on the verge of missing his wedding on which his nouveau riche relations had expended close to £20,000 – as if I care an iota.

Anyway, the young man has been set free after his local Member of Parliament waded into the matter seeking mitigation and clemency. The father has also unreservedly apologised for his son’s behaviour – and rightly so.

Rescue our cities

I would hope that the police in my city, Amsterdam and those in other cities that get invaded by marauding nonentities would be a bit firm-handed on these miscreants such that a message is sent out that we would not condone these attitudes – there is no reason for our city centres to be abandoned because of the anti-social behaviour of visitors feeding on drugs, alcohol and sex.

The other fact is, being English does not confer automatic immunity from police action or harassment, neither does it allow for people to flout public order and decency laws with impunity - what you will not do in England is probably not allowed here too.

When you get caught, the police would most likely not speak English to you even if they can, you probably would not have that phone call to your solicitor, they might not have a number for the embassy or consulate and if you have really broken the law, being a foreigner is not a “Get out of jail free” card.

So, be warned!