Henry Makori*
My friend and I call him the Africa Editor in Heaven’s newsroom. Peter, as I shall call him because I do not wish to reveal his real name, was in his late 30s when we first met. A very neat and calm gentleman with a wide smile and a boundless sense of humour, he looked every inch a Catholic priest. But Peter was a Catholic journalist. We easily became friends.
Not long afterwards, I heard in our office that Peter was a former priest. My ears flapped in disbelief. But though we spoke freely, I shied away from asking him about it because I had never met an ex-priest. I also feared I could hurt him by asking – in case he had not fully recovered from the trauma of his quitting. And, to be honest, I had concluded he had done a horrible thing abandoning his holy calling.
In 2006, Peter went on his annual leave but did not return. Soon after, he told us he had got a better job. We were very happy for him. (We all endured, not enjoyed, our salaries.) And then Peter was diagnosed with cancer and hospitalized. We visited him. At his bedside was a woman who Peter, not very much bothered with his terrible illness, introduced as his wife – of course with a joke or two.
It was around that time I learned that Peter had actually been a Catholic priest. Several years back he had decided to leave. He requested to be released from the clerical state, but the church authorities were still studying his file. Meanwhile, he moved on with his life. He got a job and a woman. They had a little daughter.
Peter recovered and returned to work, but for only a short time. He was back in hospital again, seriously ill. One day the bad news came. Peter had died. His funeral in his rural home was a dismal affair. The church authorities and the many priests, nuns and religious who knew him stayed away.
I remember my late friend Peter in this Year of the Priest because in Africa today there are priests who find themselves in a situation similar to his. Those who want to leave the clerical state find it very difficult. In his biography, the retired Archbishop of Nairobi Ndingi Mwana ‘a Nzeki recounts how he tried to stop a priest from quitting, including sending him away to another diocese and outside the country for studies. But still the priest married the nun he had had a child with.
And then there are priests who want to have a wife and continue serving. Because this is not possible in current church practice, they have to leave to form or join ‘splinter’ churches. There have been several such cases in Kenya and other countries. Perhaps the biggest ever exodus in Africa was the departure in Uganda of 20 priests in January.
The Catholic Church has its own valid reasons for insisting on clerical celibacy, although we know that this is not a doctrine but ecclesiastical discipline. (As my friend Peter would have joked, it is not necessary to the priesthood or for salvation.) But Catholics can not ignore the fact that celibacy has caused misery to some people and that it is causing division within the church.
Yes, it may be true that priests who have difficulties with celibacy are only a handful and that most priests live their celibacy joyfully. Yes, no one is forced into celibate priesthood. And indeed throughout history there have been Christians who found difficulties with a certain church practice, so this is nothing new. The mere fact that a practice makes demands on us is no good reason to reject it. Moreover, the church has withstood a lot of arguments and splits down the ages.
We must, however, admit that mandatory celibacy for priests is a really divisive issue. The priests who quit may be few but, as Jesus teaches, the Good Shepherd is never content because he has 99 sheep and only one has strayed. Instead, he leaves the 99 in the hills and does not return until he has found the one that strayed (Matt. 18: 12-14).
My friend ‘Peter’, Heaven’s Africa Editor, went to his grave without the church granting his request to be freed from mandatory clerical celibacy. Today, there are priests in a similar situation. Others do not really practice celibacy and quietly know that they would be happier serving the church while married. Is it not time the church, like the Good Shepherd, ventured out of its own disciplinary territory to search for the stray sheep? Isn’t the present crisis a call to the church to attempt new thinking about mandatory priestly celibacy?
*Henry Makori, Works for Media Institute in Kenya
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
OPINION: Life from Conception to Birth
Fr Pascal Mwambi*
Altering Definition of Beginning of Life from Conception to Birth is a Denial of the Entire Process of Generation
The parliamentary select committee, which I believe is composed of experts from various related areas, cannot affirm that life starts at birth unless motivated by other selfish motives and anti- life mentality ready to destroy many lives before birth. Biologists, scientists and doctors should not be ashamed to affirm empirical facts about the process of new human organism right away from fertilization leading to the time the pro nucleus come close to each other exchanging the genetic information, thereby the reading and activation of the DNA.
After seven weeks (embryo stage), the new organism has all the organs formed awaiting gradual development. That unborn baby is not in potency but already life in act. There is no single moment we can say that he or she isn’t a human person. Even in cases where there is splitting or monozygotic twins, there are two or more lives so long as there was already a cell neither of the male nor female but of the fusion of both the sperm and ova. There is an autonomous and continuous growth of the baby together with a cross dialogue with the mother who should be the first “Advocatus ventrus” (advocate of the womb) to the child.
There is more to do in the debate than just about legalizing abortion. Once they (pro choice) manage to delay the recognition of a living human being, who is a person entitled to rights and dignity just as any other adult living being; then doors are open for all manipulations, research and experiments on the embryo.
With the precocious (premature) diagnosis of the pregnant women, any indications of abnormalities, hereditary, genetic, chromosomal pathologies will lead to eugenic or selective abortion so long as the unborn baby is not a living person juridically recognized. The same denial will lead to medically assisted ways of fertilization which will ignore or replace the conjugal act, therefore separation between sexual union and procreation.
Reasons that do not allow completion of pregnancy may include pre-mature births (miscarriages), abortions and deaths. The argument that not all conceptions lead to birth will be a more vibrant reality when they allow discrimination of the unborn children. They (doctors) will be the ones to procure abortions or encourage women do so. When it comes to rape cases, we agree it’s a regrettable crime. Sincerely looking at it, who is the aggressor? The conceived child-no, but the man involved. Nature just takes its cause which the so called experts are trying to ignore or deny by saying life starts at birth. Sometimes the figures of these cases of rape or clandestine abortions are exaggerated for the purpose of influencing the public. There are options which the church allows in such cases of rape. In order to avoid that the sperm of the aggressor causes more harm to the woman’s body, she can immediately seek medical attention within the first few hours in order to have a virginal bath before the male gamete meets the female one. The other option could be to use a STRICTLY non abortive contraceptive which unfortunately could be difficult to get nowadays.
We are still at the right track so long as the draft is not yet approved. We have all the power now to make sure that no unjust law, against its own citizens will be approved. Legalization of abortion has not reduced abortion cases (even clandestine ones) in countries where it’s applied. The bishops are conscious of the divine mandate to defend life. Any society, (civil or not), which cannot defend life from its start, is against its own existence.
The state needs to acknowledge the right to life but has no mandate to create or abolish it since it exists in the natural moral law. Any law which does not respect the equal dignity of every single person regardless of their capabilities, age, gender, health, (….) has no reason at all of being recognized. The very fact that there is a human person in the play we should be cautious about it. None of the universal declarations (1948), conventions of rights of the child (1989) or charters denies that life begins at conception. That is an undeniable fact which when approved, puts all science and biology in a dilemma of their own lie. Science gives us the facts, which they themselves want to deny. We are called to go beyond the facts and arrive at the intelligence (truth) which only human beings are endowed with, to realise that truth about our existence cannot be hidden.
There word “rights” quoted often by lobby groups is misleading. We never have a right to possess or not to possess a child since she/he is not a property. The medical practitioners have no right too, despite their expertise to eliminate any life. Their conscience will never be at peace just like that of a mother who decides to abort for whatever reason. The post abortion trauma will be deeper than the crime of rape or its wound. The life of an unborn child is equally worthy of the same dignity to that of the born child, even in terms of medical health dangers. It’s a matter of fundamental rights (life) are highest goods (health) where none of the two lives (mother and child) can be foregone. A person is an end in him/herself and can’t be disposed of for the sake of the other for whatever reason. Thus, killing a baby to save the mother’s life is unthinkable.
The shortage of doctors (doctor-patient ration) is an issue of concern so long as they do what is expected of them. A medical act will be such when it’s geared towards the integral good of the person (to cure) or restore health. Abortion is not and will never be a medical act, since its objective is exclusively to eliminate life of an innocent human being. No doctor should be prohibited from assisting mothers in need of help even after a spontaneous abortion since this has nothing to do with voluntary or procured abortions, illegally called therapeutic.
The sanitary reforms going on in the US have spurred protests recently. The president of the priests for life, Fr Frank Pavone is actively involved. One of the issues in the just ended demonstrations was that rich countries should stop using tax payers’ money to kill unborn human beings in the poor and developing countries. Our leaders should be ready to lose economic support from these donors rather than be pressurized to legalize abortion as a condition for aid.
I pray and hope that we will put our efforts together in defending, protecting and promoting life of our innocent brothers and sisters. It’s not a matter of just changing the clause in the draft but a matter of saving lives of future generations.
*Fr Pascal Mwambi, Rome
Altering Definition of Beginning of Life from Conception to Birth is a Denial of the Entire Process of Generation
The parliamentary select committee, which I believe is composed of experts from various related areas, cannot affirm that life starts at birth unless motivated by other selfish motives and anti- life mentality ready to destroy many lives before birth. Biologists, scientists and doctors should not be ashamed to affirm empirical facts about the process of new human organism right away from fertilization leading to the time the pro nucleus come close to each other exchanging the genetic information, thereby the reading and activation of the DNA.
After seven weeks (embryo stage), the new organism has all the organs formed awaiting gradual development. That unborn baby is not in potency but already life in act. There is no single moment we can say that he or she isn’t a human person. Even in cases where there is splitting or monozygotic twins, there are two or more lives so long as there was already a cell neither of the male nor female but of the fusion of both the sperm and ova. There is an autonomous and continuous growth of the baby together with a cross dialogue with the mother who should be the first “Advocatus ventrus” (advocate of the womb) to the child.
There is more to do in the debate than just about legalizing abortion. Once they (pro choice) manage to delay the recognition of a living human being, who is a person entitled to rights and dignity just as any other adult living being; then doors are open for all manipulations, research and experiments on the embryo.
With the precocious (premature) diagnosis of the pregnant women, any indications of abnormalities, hereditary, genetic, chromosomal pathologies will lead to eugenic or selective abortion so long as the unborn baby is not a living person juridically recognized. The same denial will lead to medically assisted ways of fertilization which will ignore or replace the conjugal act, therefore separation between sexual union and procreation.
Reasons that do not allow completion of pregnancy may include pre-mature births (miscarriages), abortions and deaths. The argument that not all conceptions lead to birth will be a more vibrant reality when they allow discrimination of the unborn children. They (doctors) will be the ones to procure abortions or encourage women do so. When it comes to rape cases, we agree it’s a regrettable crime. Sincerely looking at it, who is the aggressor? The conceived child-no, but the man involved. Nature just takes its cause which the so called experts are trying to ignore or deny by saying life starts at birth. Sometimes the figures of these cases of rape or clandestine abortions are exaggerated for the purpose of influencing the public. There are options which the church allows in such cases of rape. In order to avoid that the sperm of the aggressor causes more harm to the woman’s body, she can immediately seek medical attention within the first few hours in order to have a virginal bath before the male gamete meets the female one. The other option could be to use a STRICTLY non abortive contraceptive which unfortunately could be difficult to get nowadays.
We are still at the right track so long as the draft is not yet approved. We have all the power now to make sure that no unjust law, against its own citizens will be approved. Legalization of abortion has not reduced abortion cases (even clandestine ones) in countries where it’s applied. The bishops are conscious of the divine mandate to defend life. Any society, (civil or not), which cannot defend life from its start, is against its own existence.
The state needs to acknowledge the right to life but has no mandate to create or abolish it since it exists in the natural moral law. Any law which does not respect the equal dignity of every single person regardless of their capabilities, age, gender, health, (….) has no reason at all of being recognized. The very fact that there is a human person in the play we should be cautious about it. None of the universal declarations (1948), conventions of rights of the child (1989) or charters denies that life begins at conception. That is an undeniable fact which when approved, puts all science and biology in a dilemma of their own lie. Science gives us the facts, which they themselves want to deny. We are called to go beyond the facts and arrive at the intelligence (truth) which only human beings are endowed with, to realise that truth about our existence cannot be hidden.
There word “rights” quoted often by lobby groups is misleading. We never have a right to possess or not to possess a child since she/he is not a property. The medical practitioners have no right too, despite their expertise to eliminate any life. Their conscience will never be at peace just like that of a mother who decides to abort for whatever reason. The post abortion trauma will be deeper than the crime of rape or its wound. The life of an unborn child is equally worthy of the same dignity to that of the born child, even in terms of medical health dangers. It’s a matter of fundamental rights (life) are highest goods (health) where none of the two lives (mother and child) can be foregone. A person is an end in him/herself and can’t be disposed of for the sake of the other for whatever reason. Thus, killing a baby to save the mother’s life is unthinkable.
The shortage of doctors (doctor-patient ration) is an issue of concern so long as they do what is expected of them. A medical act will be such when it’s geared towards the integral good of the person (to cure) or restore health. Abortion is not and will never be a medical act, since its objective is exclusively to eliminate life of an innocent human being. No doctor should be prohibited from assisting mothers in need of help even after a spontaneous abortion since this has nothing to do with voluntary or procured abortions, illegally called therapeutic.
The sanitary reforms going on in the US have spurred protests recently. The president of the priests for life, Fr Frank Pavone is actively involved. One of the issues in the just ended demonstrations was that rich countries should stop using tax payers’ money to kill unborn human beings in the poor and developing countries. Our leaders should be ready to lose economic support from these donors rather than be pressurized to legalize abortion as a condition for aid.
I pray and hope that we will put our efforts together in defending, protecting and promoting life of our innocent brothers and sisters. It’s not a matter of just changing the clause in the draft but a matter of saving lives of future generations.
*Fr Pascal Mwambi, Rome
YOUR SAY: Understanding the Silence of God in Haiti
Joseph Mwaniki, IMC*
Where was God when all these things happened? This is not only a Henry Makori question. There are very many Makoris who are asking themselves the same question. In these days, there are so many tragedies that are happening and leaving behind many unanswered questions. Some have even lost their faith amidst such terrifying situations, to the point of entering into ancient heresy of “deism” which considers God a watch maker whose work is only to make a watch and leave it to the buyer. In a word, some people today believe that God is the Creator but His work ends after creation, leaving man alone and unaided. Today, what is coming out more clearly is the silence of God amidst the many difficulties that humanity is facing.
Looking at what happened in Haiti on that dark night of 12th January, it is not only Makori whose first question is where God was. Haiti is a country whose history counts nothing else but suffering. The majority are descendants of millions of slaves who were carried off from Africa. The country is already poor enough even after many years of independence and the people are fed up with many sufferings and challenges. It is not that they don’t believe. They are Christians and pray every day like other believers.
Then comes this earthquake that turned centuries’ work to nothing. Thousands are dead and the poor now remain not only poorer but the poorest of the poor with no basic needs and a very dim future. Somebody then asks, “why is it that the poor are always the less privileged? I can understand this if it was done by man, but is this not a natural cause of which God knew and held power to prevent?”
Makori’s question is important to many. When Pope Benedict XVI visited Poland in 2006, during his second International journey, he visited Auschwitz Camp, a place that carries the memory of millions of human beings that were exterminated by the Nazis. The Pope opened his speech thus: “In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can only be a dead silence - a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?” And later on, he continued: “How many questions arise in this place! Constantly, the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”
These are really very difficult questions to answer. Some, in the confusion of these unanswerable questions have gone to the point of affirming that God is the author of all these sufferings while others have tried to burn the Bible in an attempt to eliminate this God who is the cause of suffering. And what is worse is that His silence remains for us a mere mystery. But what does this His silence tell us?
Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Laureate in 1986 and a Holocaust survivor at Auschwitz, is a writer of over 50 books and a professor at Boston University. When he was asked if we could force God to respond to the injustices of the world, he posed a question, “why do the innocent suffer and yet the Lord remains dumb?” Trying to answer his own question, Wiesel narrates, “I was brought up in an environment that would expect very little from men but all in God. Even today, God is still a deep thirst inside me.” Auschwitz did not quench this thirst; in fact, it gave him deep reasons to continue believing despite this silence of God’s while still holding this cry of protest. And he adds, “(in fact), most of my books try to express this faith in God, despite His silence”.
Wiesel’s argument can give us a point of departure: Faith in the providence of God, despite the darkness in our days and the silence of the All Powerful. God is God and we can’t understand Him fully. We can only try to raise our heart and mind to the level of His transcendence. Suffering in itself is not evil. We can even call it a blessing, though it is very difficult to accept. The earthquake of Haiti took only few minutes but its effects will remain with us for decades if not centuries. But what is more important is not to understand where God was, but what He wants to tell us with this incident.
For me, the Haiti incident makes me enter deep into myself, reflect on the deepest realities around me, the vanities in my life and above all, to think about my ultimate end of which I know not when, where or how. God does not want the suffering of His creatures. He is the giver and the sustainer of life, and always accompanies it against its different pains. God suffers with those who are suffering and the best assurance He gives us is that we are not alone. When the Haitians and the human world are suffering, God is neither in silence nor sleeping. He is always suffering with us and for us, sustaining us with His unseen love and transforming our pains into a joy of those who believe that alive or dead, they belong to Him. We can only conclude together with the pope and Auschwitz that despite all these, our hope remains in the Lord for He is our shepherd and there is nothing more that we shall want, even amidst the earthquake of Haiti and the many tragedies of our days.
*Joseph Mwaniki is a student at Urbaniana University in Rome
Where was God when all these things happened? This is not only a Henry Makori question. There are very many Makoris who are asking themselves the same question. In these days, there are so many tragedies that are happening and leaving behind many unanswered questions. Some have even lost their faith amidst such terrifying situations, to the point of entering into ancient heresy of “deism” which considers God a watch maker whose work is only to make a watch and leave it to the buyer. In a word, some people today believe that God is the Creator but His work ends after creation, leaving man alone and unaided. Today, what is coming out more clearly is the silence of God amidst the many difficulties that humanity is facing.
Looking at what happened in Haiti on that dark night of 12th January, it is not only Makori whose first question is where God was. Haiti is a country whose history counts nothing else but suffering. The majority are descendants of millions of slaves who were carried off from Africa. The country is already poor enough even after many years of independence and the people are fed up with many sufferings and challenges. It is not that they don’t believe. They are Christians and pray every day like other believers.
Then comes this earthquake that turned centuries’ work to nothing. Thousands are dead and the poor now remain not only poorer but the poorest of the poor with no basic needs and a very dim future. Somebody then asks, “why is it that the poor are always the less privileged? I can understand this if it was done by man, but is this not a natural cause of which God knew and held power to prevent?”
Makori’s question is important to many. When Pope Benedict XVI visited Poland in 2006, during his second International journey, he visited Auschwitz Camp, a place that carries the memory of millions of human beings that were exterminated by the Nazis. The Pope opened his speech thus: “In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can only be a dead silence - a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?” And later on, he continued: “How many questions arise in this place! Constantly, the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”
These are really very difficult questions to answer. Some, in the confusion of these unanswerable questions have gone to the point of affirming that God is the author of all these sufferings while others have tried to burn the Bible in an attempt to eliminate this God who is the cause of suffering. And what is worse is that His silence remains for us a mere mystery. But what does this His silence tell us?
Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Laureate in 1986 and a Holocaust survivor at Auschwitz, is a writer of over 50 books and a professor at Boston University. When he was asked if we could force God to respond to the injustices of the world, he posed a question, “why do the innocent suffer and yet the Lord remains dumb?” Trying to answer his own question, Wiesel narrates, “I was brought up in an environment that would expect very little from men but all in God. Even today, God is still a deep thirst inside me.” Auschwitz did not quench this thirst; in fact, it gave him deep reasons to continue believing despite this silence of God’s while still holding this cry of protest. And he adds, “(in fact), most of my books try to express this faith in God, despite His silence”.
Wiesel’s argument can give us a point of departure: Faith in the providence of God, despite the darkness in our days and the silence of the All Powerful. God is God and we can’t understand Him fully. We can only try to raise our heart and mind to the level of His transcendence. Suffering in itself is not evil. We can even call it a blessing, though it is very difficult to accept. The earthquake of Haiti took only few minutes but its effects will remain with us for decades if not centuries. But what is more important is not to understand where God was, but what He wants to tell us with this incident.
For me, the Haiti incident makes me enter deep into myself, reflect on the deepest realities around me, the vanities in my life and above all, to think about my ultimate end of which I know not when, where or how. God does not want the suffering of His creatures. He is the giver and the sustainer of life, and always accompanies it against its different pains. God suffers with those who are suffering and the best assurance He gives us is that we are not alone. When the Haitians and the human world are suffering, God is neither in silence nor sleeping. He is always suffering with us and for us, sustaining us with His unseen love and transforming our pains into a joy of those who believe that alive or dead, they belong to Him. We can only conclude together with the pope and Auschwitz that despite all these, our hope remains in the Lord for He is our shepherd and there is nothing more that we shall want, even amidst the earthquake of Haiti and the many tragedies of our days.
*Joseph Mwaniki is a student at Urbaniana University in Rome
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
OPINION: Nigeria: Not in Their Names*
Bunmi Aina-Craiq
The good people of Jos are once again being terrorized by a handful of their idle, disenfranchised and obviously ignorant brothers and sisters. They conveniently tag the mayhem and anarchy 'religious'. There is absolutely nothing religious about killing and maiming your own people.
They real problem is social injustice, lack of opportunities, corruption, lack of planning and total failure of government administration.
When you have a system that does not invest in education, health care, community centres, youth centres and other viable ventures for the proper development and sustainability of your people you are bound to have these kinds of sporadic violent outbursts of frustrations and hopelessness which are then conveniently labelled 'religious riots.'
|The truth is that the people are frustrated; no jobs, no food, no hope, nothing; they just exist one day at a time. In such situations, death is not feared; anything is better than everything and life is not worth living.
Before a budget is allocated for yet another panel (which most government sycophants will now be positioning themselves to be on) to be set up to 'investigate' this most recent unfortunate, though inevitable occurrence, let the people who hold the peoples resources on trust examine themselves, for they know why these so-called religious riots keep reccurring.
The peoples' trustees need to invest in good education for ALL our young people and ensure that nobody is left on the margins of life as they cruise around town in their tinted motorcades raising dust on the supposed beneficiaries of the trusts they hold.
Every Nigerian child must be guaranteed proper education from the age of five up to the age of eighteen; the schools and colleges must be properly equipped and staffed with teachers whose welfare must be guaranteed.
Money meant for schools should be spent to build decent structures, proper classrooms with windows and fans, well equipped science laboratories, sport facilities, arts and culture facilities; not the dilapidated aberrations and run down shacks as we currently have. Students should not have to provide their own chairs and tables which they often carry on their heads as they walk barefooted to and from school every day.
Books ought to be provided for all Nigerian students up to the age of eighteen. They must be taught how to read and write, the HISTORY of their country and civil responsibilities too. Our young people should be given proper education in a conducive environment by teachers who are adequately trained and empowered to do the job.
The welfare of our young people also demand that we invest in community centres where young people can go for leisure activities such as sport and social interactions, libraries and IT centres.
Even in the so-called developed societies such as Britain and America where these facilities are available, they still have incidents of sporadic violence such as stabbings among young people (often fuelled by the abuse of alcohol and drugs). The difference is that those young people are educated and enlightened enough not to be brainwashed into pretending that the violence they are engaging in is religiously motivated. Those young people are a very tiny minority, not enough to cause a riot of any kind.
The core message of the two main religions in Nigeria is PEACE. The other messages include love of one’s neighbour, generosity, tolerance, humility, kindness, forgiveness and truth. Neither the Bible nor the Koran prescribes hatred, violence, theft of public funds, corruption and strife.
Indeed, our young people have been so disenfranchised that they have become ready tools in the hands of sadistic elements who brainwash them and send them out to unleash violence and anarchy on the society.
Let the custodians of our common wealth have an urgent re-think and start investing our funds judiciously so that we will have educated, enlightened and empowered people with access to available standard infrastructure. Let them provide standard schools, roads, hospitals, jobs, security, houses, and other social amenities.
As a society, our problems are self inflicted, we allow people we have not voted for, people who are not qualified to be leaders, people who have no clue about what they are doing and who obviously do not give a damn about our welfare to govern us and loot our resources. Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon Him), never preached intolerance or violence, so this recent mayhem in Jos is not in their names.
Bunmi Aina-Craig Esq. Abuja FCT
*This opinion was first carried by the Vanguard on Jan 31 2010.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
The good people of Jos are once again being terrorized by a handful of their idle, disenfranchised and obviously ignorant brothers and sisters. They conveniently tag the mayhem and anarchy 'religious'. There is absolutely nothing religious about killing and maiming your own people.
They real problem is social injustice, lack of opportunities, corruption, lack of planning and total failure of government administration.
When you have a system that does not invest in education, health care, community centres, youth centres and other viable ventures for the proper development and sustainability of your people you are bound to have these kinds of sporadic violent outbursts of frustrations and hopelessness which are then conveniently labelled 'religious riots.'
|The truth is that the people are frustrated; no jobs, no food, no hope, nothing; they just exist one day at a time. In such situations, death is not feared; anything is better than everything and life is not worth living.
Before a budget is allocated for yet another panel (which most government sycophants will now be positioning themselves to be on) to be set up to 'investigate' this most recent unfortunate, though inevitable occurrence, let the people who hold the peoples resources on trust examine themselves, for they know why these so-called religious riots keep reccurring.
The peoples' trustees need to invest in good education for ALL our young people and ensure that nobody is left on the margins of life as they cruise around town in their tinted motorcades raising dust on the supposed beneficiaries of the trusts they hold.
Every Nigerian child must be guaranteed proper education from the age of five up to the age of eighteen; the schools and colleges must be properly equipped and staffed with teachers whose welfare must be guaranteed.
Money meant for schools should be spent to build decent structures, proper classrooms with windows and fans, well equipped science laboratories, sport facilities, arts and culture facilities; not the dilapidated aberrations and run down shacks as we currently have. Students should not have to provide their own chairs and tables which they often carry on their heads as they walk barefooted to and from school every day.
Books ought to be provided for all Nigerian students up to the age of eighteen. They must be taught how to read and write, the HISTORY of their country and civil responsibilities too. Our young people should be given proper education in a conducive environment by teachers who are adequately trained and empowered to do the job.
The welfare of our young people also demand that we invest in community centres where young people can go for leisure activities such as sport and social interactions, libraries and IT centres.
Even in the so-called developed societies such as Britain and America where these facilities are available, they still have incidents of sporadic violence such as stabbings among young people (often fuelled by the abuse of alcohol and drugs). The difference is that those young people are educated and enlightened enough not to be brainwashed into pretending that the violence they are engaging in is religiously motivated. Those young people are a very tiny minority, not enough to cause a riot of any kind.
The core message of the two main religions in Nigeria is PEACE. The other messages include love of one’s neighbour, generosity, tolerance, humility, kindness, forgiveness and truth. Neither the Bible nor the Koran prescribes hatred, violence, theft of public funds, corruption and strife.
Indeed, our young people have been so disenfranchised that they have become ready tools in the hands of sadistic elements who brainwash them and send them out to unleash violence and anarchy on the society.
Let the custodians of our common wealth have an urgent re-think and start investing our funds judiciously so that we will have educated, enlightened and empowered people with access to available standard infrastructure. Let them provide standard schools, roads, hospitals, jobs, security, houses, and other social amenities.
As a society, our problems are self inflicted, we allow people we have not voted for, people who are not qualified to be leaders, people who have no clue about what they are doing and who obviously do not give a damn about our welfare to govern us and loot our resources. Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon Him), never preached intolerance or violence, so this recent mayhem in Jos is not in their names.
Bunmi Aina-Craig Esq. Abuja FCT
*This opinion was first carried by the Vanguard on Jan 31 2010.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
Monday, February 1, 2010
OPINION: Mediating Compassion for Haiti?
Michael O’maera*
Facebook, Twitter, blogs, tv and radio news are full of the devastation. Our tears well unexpectedly as we watch heart rending scenes of the few pulled out from crumpled buildings. Anxiety builds when we realise some will use force to get whatever they want in the chaos. Governments promise, armies mobilise and crisis teams are activated.
Do we care about Haiti? If we do, how long will that feeling last given that it is one of the poorest countries on earth and any solution, if indeed there is one, will be a long time coming? And what if our level of interest is, more or less, fuelled by what is shown on the national news? How will we justify out disinterest if we wake on some distant night and realise that unbeknownst to us, we have forgotten that Haiti exists because we have not been reminded?
That was the reality for this beleaguered nation a few days ago, before the earthquake rumbled. No-one except the United Nations employees based there and a range of other aid agencies were the slightest bit interested in Haiti or its people. Yet now, because the media have brought vivid images into our living rooms, we feel compelled to act in the manner which seems to be demanded of us.
Tragedies come and go; indeed countless tragedies are unfolding around the globe but because we know nothing about them, we feel nothing and do nothing. Why then do we respond to calls for help in this situation? Is it just because we can't escape the image or the request? If we peel back the layers, perhaps we might see that the appeals are emotional blackmail. Give and you will instantly feel better yourself. It is, more or less, a self absorbed donation.
What if we recognised that these tragedies unfold within a web of complex interactions that are invisible to us at first glance? Haiti, like so many other small, poverty stricken nations, suffers from a load of impossible debt repayments. If we refused to give and instead demanded that wealthy lending countries forgo the debts owed to them and continued to give more, Haiti may have a chance. Without that kind of input, the existing level of poverty will increase, fuelled by the high levels of disability brought about by this disaster.
But more than that, what if we addressed our emotional need to 'do something' by focusing attention on changing our own way of living? What if we were prepared to stop buying endless stuff we do not need, lowered our standard of living and instructed our governments to give away substantial amounts of money to poorer nations like Haiti so they could build an infrastructure that at least gives a minimum standard of living to its people? No? I thought not.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, "I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights."
Compassion is about walking in the shoes of others, not biffing a few dollars at them when we are emotionally blackmailed. I suspect we do not care at all about Haiti, but a self preservation button has been activated by the media and aid agencies that are so practised at doing so. After all, targets are waiting to be met and audience numbers need to be maintained.
*[CISA Editor]
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
Facebook, Twitter, blogs, tv and radio news are full of the devastation. Our tears well unexpectedly as we watch heart rending scenes of the few pulled out from crumpled buildings. Anxiety builds when we realise some will use force to get whatever they want in the chaos. Governments promise, armies mobilise and crisis teams are activated.
Do we care about Haiti? If we do, how long will that feeling last given that it is one of the poorest countries on earth and any solution, if indeed there is one, will be a long time coming? And what if our level of interest is, more or less, fuelled by what is shown on the national news? How will we justify out disinterest if we wake on some distant night and realise that unbeknownst to us, we have forgotten that Haiti exists because we have not been reminded?
That was the reality for this beleaguered nation a few days ago, before the earthquake rumbled. No-one except the United Nations employees based there and a range of other aid agencies were the slightest bit interested in Haiti or its people. Yet now, because the media have brought vivid images into our living rooms, we feel compelled to act in the manner which seems to be demanded of us.
Tragedies come and go; indeed countless tragedies are unfolding around the globe but because we know nothing about them, we feel nothing and do nothing. Why then do we respond to calls for help in this situation? Is it just because we can't escape the image or the request? If we peel back the layers, perhaps we might see that the appeals are emotional blackmail. Give and you will instantly feel better yourself. It is, more or less, a self absorbed donation.
What if we recognised that these tragedies unfold within a web of complex interactions that are invisible to us at first glance? Haiti, like so many other small, poverty stricken nations, suffers from a load of impossible debt repayments. If we refused to give and instead demanded that wealthy lending countries forgo the debts owed to them and continued to give more, Haiti may have a chance. Without that kind of input, the existing level of poverty will increase, fuelled by the high levels of disability brought about by this disaster.
But more than that, what if we addressed our emotional need to 'do something' by focusing attention on changing our own way of living? What if we were prepared to stop buying endless stuff we do not need, lowered our standard of living and instructed our governments to give away substantial amounts of money to poorer nations like Haiti so they could build an infrastructure that at least gives a minimum standard of living to its people? No? I thought not.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, "I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights."
Compassion is about walking in the shoes of others, not biffing a few dollars at them when we are emotionally blackmailed. I suspect we do not care at all about Haiti, but a self preservation button has been activated by the media and aid agencies that are so practised at doing so. After all, targets are waiting to be met and audience numbers need to be maintained.
*[CISA Editor]
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
OPINION: Where was God when Haiti happened?
Henry Makori*
Is God good all the time? Is God all-loving, compassionate and always acting in the best interest of human beings, the cream of His creation? Is every human being valuable in the eyes of God? Then why did God allow tens of thousands of innocent people to perish in such a dreadful fashion in Haiti? Is God all-powerful and in control of everything than happens in the universe, including the dropping of a leaf from a tree branch? Does God know everything? Why then couldn’t He use such awesome knowledge and power to protect the people of Haiti?
Is everything that happens part of God’s plan? What is the divine purpose of the horrendous carnage? What was the divine purpose of the Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed a quarter of a million people in 2004? What divine purpose had God in mind in Rwanda in 1994 when He let nearly a million people die? And the Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed? And all the suffering that human beings undergo everyday? Where, really is God?
Believers in an all-powerful and all-loving God who created the universe and is always in control of it attribute problems/suffering to human beings who ruined God’s perfect creation by their own negligence or evil acts. God is always innocent. This is the reasoning of American evangelist Pat Robertson of The 700 Club television programme. He said that when Haiti was a French colony, freedom fighters "swore a pact to the devil," saying, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French. And so the devil said, ‘Okay, it's a deal.’” Ever since, Robertson continued, "they [Haitians] have been cursed by one thing after the other."
Of course most religious people cringed at this thesis. But, truth be told, every person who believes in an all-powerful and all-loving God accepts that God is always on the side of those who believe in Him. The corollary is that nonbelievers forfeit God’s protection, thereby exposing themselves to all manner of suffering. The problem with this view is that religious people suffer as well. Evil continues, prayers notwithstanding. Kenyans will recall that before the apocalypse of 2007 there were lots of prayers (some held nationally) for peaceful elections.
In the wake of the Haitian horror, the Anglican Church’s second highest ranking cleric, Ugandan-born Archbishop of York John Sentamu, chose silence. “I have nothing to say that makes sense of this horror - all I know is that the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is that he is with us,” he said. The simple question to Archbishop Sentamu is this: Jesus is with us doing what?
Catholic theologian and physicist Lorenzo Albacete tried to answer just that question. He did not hide his own frustration. “[Religious] officials keep coming out assuring the victims of the tragedy that their “hearts and prayers” go out to them. Prayers? To Whom? To a God who could have simply prevented this from happening?” Knowing that there is actually no adequate religious explanation for the Haiti tragedy or indeed any other human suffering, Fr Albacete nevertheless said: “I can only accept a God who “co-suffers” with me. Such is the God of the Christian faith.”
What exactly is the meaning of that, a God who “co-suffers” with humanity? I thought God was all-powerful, all-knowing, beyond suffering of any kind, the answer to every human question? How does he again “co-suffer” with wretched humanity that looks up to Him for salvation? Doesn’t that sound like an end-of-the-road theological speculation?
In a discussion forum on one web site, a student wrote: “In our school this week we have been asked to say prayers for the people of Haiti. Why? I truly, truly do not understand it. God must have known it was going to happen, mustn't he? And why, now, does he need to be asked to help before he will help the people of Haiti? If God exists, why did he allow that earthquake to happen? Was he powerless to stop it? Or could he have stopped it, but choose not to? I simply cannot understand how God could be real and let this happen. My faith is rapidly running out.”
What is religion’s answer to this student?
[*The writer is a journalist in Nairobi]
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
Is God good all the time? Is God all-loving, compassionate and always acting in the best interest of human beings, the cream of His creation? Is every human being valuable in the eyes of God? Then why did God allow tens of thousands of innocent people to perish in such a dreadful fashion in Haiti? Is God all-powerful and in control of everything than happens in the universe, including the dropping of a leaf from a tree branch? Does God know everything? Why then couldn’t He use such awesome knowledge and power to protect the people of Haiti?
Is everything that happens part of God’s plan? What is the divine purpose of the horrendous carnage? What was the divine purpose of the Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed a quarter of a million people in 2004? What divine purpose had God in mind in Rwanda in 1994 when He let nearly a million people die? And the Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed? And all the suffering that human beings undergo everyday? Where, really is God?
Believers in an all-powerful and all-loving God who created the universe and is always in control of it attribute problems/suffering to human beings who ruined God’s perfect creation by their own negligence or evil acts. God is always innocent. This is the reasoning of American evangelist Pat Robertson of The 700 Club television programme. He said that when Haiti was a French colony, freedom fighters "swore a pact to the devil," saying, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French. And so the devil said, ‘Okay, it's a deal.’” Ever since, Robertson continued, "they [Haitians] have been cursed by one thing after the other."
Of course most religious people cringed at this thesis. But, truth be told, every person who believes in an all-powerful and all-loving God accepts that God is always on the side of those who believe in Him. The corollary is that nonbelievers forfeit God’s protection, thereby exposing themselves to all manner of suffering. The problem with this view is that religious people suffer as well. Evil continues, prayers notwithstanding. Kenyans will recall that before the apocalypse of 2007 there were lots of prayers (some held nationally) for peaceful elections.
In the wake of the Haitian horror, the Anglican Church’s second highest ranking cleric, Ugandan-born Archbishop of York John Sentamu, chose silence. “I have nothing to say that makes sense of this horror - all I know is that the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is that he is with us,” he said. The simple question to Archbishop Sentamu is this: Jesus is with us doing what?
Catholic theologian and physicist Lorenzo Albacete tried to answer just that question. He did not hide his own frustration. “[Religious] officials keep coming out assuring the victims of the tragedy that their “hearts and prayers” go out to them. Prayers? To Whom? To a God who could have simply prevented this from happening?” Knowing that there is actually no adequate religious explanation for the Haiti tragedy or indeed any other human suffering, Fr Albacete nevertheless said: “I can only accept a God who “co-suffers” with me. Such is the God of the Christian faith.”
What exactly is the meaning of that, a God who “co-suffers” with humanity? I thought God was all-powerful, all-knowing, beyond suffering of any kind, the answer to every human question? How does he again “co-suffer” with wretched humanity that looks up to Him for salvation? Doesn’t that sound like an end-of-the-road theological speculation?
In a discussion forum on one web site, a student wrote: “In our school this week we have been asked to say prayers for the people of Haiti. Why? I truly, truly do not understand it. God must have known it was going to happen, mustn't he? And why, now, does he need to be asked to help before he will help the people of Haiti? If God exists, why did he allow that earthquake to happen? Was he powerless to stop it? Or could he have stopped it, but choose not to? I simply cannot understand how God could be real and let this happen. My faith is rapidly running out.”
What is religion’s answer to this student?
[*The writer is a journalist in Nairobi]
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
OPINION: Mobile continent: Africa’s Telecommunications Revolution*
Abigail Frymann
Africa has shrunk now that one person in three owns a mobile phone. Already the effect on families, business and even governance has been extraordinary, but the telecommunications revolution has only just begun.
Over the single piece of cloth that George Kamakei Olodopash, an illiterate Masai farmer in Narok, Kenya, wore wrapped around his torso and thighs, hung a mobile phone from a thin black belt. Through an interpreter I asked him what he used it for. He looked at me as though I was from a previous century.
“If I’m out in the fields and I’m going to be late home, I can phone my wife and tell her,” he spelt out. How did he charge it? “I have a solar panel on the roof of my hut,” he replied.
That was in 2003. Since then the number of Africans buying mobile phones has shot up by 550 per cent, according to the United Nations. The “Information Economy Report” published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development in October, found that mobile subscriptions rose from 54 million to 350 million between 2003 and 2008 – meaning more than a third of Africans now owns a mobile phone.
“Communities have gone from never having used a phone in their lives, or only using one in a kiosk, to where you see someone herding their cows pull a mobile phone out of their pocket,” says Maurice McPartlan, head of Cafod’s Africa programmes, who added that mobiles have made aid work easier and safer, saying: “For us, instead of being out of touch unless you went into a hotel or post office, one of the tools staff carry is a mobile, which is quite a good security measure.”
Two of the main uses of mobiles in Africa are for banking and accessing news. Earlier this year, AfricaNews.com, a news website funded by Western businesses and charities, announced the launch of its mobile news website. It sources and publishes content via mobile devices and says it has more than 400 reporters working – for free – in 35 countries, including Somalia, Algeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). And its coverage is far broader than the formula of coups, famines and safaris worn out in the Western press. One of today’s top stories: “Malawi: cell phone banking to begin.”
Mobile banking enables those with bank accounts to access and transfer money without having to trek to the nearest branch, and for those hundreds of millions of Africans without bank accounts to move money around without the high charges of the ubiquitous Western Union. Other businesses have benefited from mobiles too. Isolated farmers in East Africa access information about disease and weather patterns; they can also find out the going rates for their livestock or crops so the middleman can’t rip them off. Cloth weavers in rural Nigeria save days on wasted journeys by pre-arranging visits to their intermediaries by phone. Mobiles have had a psychological impact too.
“People feel less vulnerable; there’s a willingness to take risks,” says Nigerian-born Abi Jagun, a researcher on technology markets and society. He explained that anxious parents can phone a relative’s medically trained neighbour about their sick child in the middle of the night. People feel safer when they travel, adding: “Having mobiles creates an atmosphere where people think and see more clearly.”
At a grass-roots level, mobiles have provided a new line for entrepreneurs. In a village someone a little richer will own a mobile and sell airtime to his neighbours. Street vendors can add to their dusty roadside stalls “recharge cards” – scratch cards to top up credit. In Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, those who own a phone drop it off at a shop and pay 20 Kenyan shillings (15p) to get it charged. Some vendors use car batteries to charge phones.
Tariffs are high, so people on low incomes don’t make many calls. They may “flash” or “miss call” the person they are calling – ring them momentarily so he or she can phone them back. Chauffeurs, home helps and nannies “flash” their employees; Africans “flash” their relatives living in Britain, who call them back using cheap pre-paid phone-cards. The extraordinarily high level of demand, particularly from the poorest levels of society, caught many in the business off-guard. Other factors in the mobile phone industry’s runaway success, according to Richard Heeks, director of the Centre for Development Informatics at Manchester University, are that mobile firms were willing to take risks, cheap handsets and low-cost pre-payment models were made available, and governments liberalised ownership and policy of telecommunications. But the benefits have reached beyond that one industry.
“The success of mobile phones in garnering far more subscribers than companies initially expected has opened the eyes of investors to potential demand for other services in Africa, notably banking and insurance,” says William Wallis, Africa editor of the Financial Times. “They have shown there is a market out there even if the majority of Africans are poor. The advent of mobile phones has been a revolution in Africa this decade – they have empowered Africans and unleashed enormous potential simply by meeting demand.”
Poverty is not Africa’s only scourge to be addressed by mobile communications. Add to that corruption and poor governance. Professor Heeks notes: “One interesting thing to emerge is ‘sousveillance’ – the opposite of surveillance. This means not watching from above but watching from below. Mobile phones have been used by ordinary citizen groups to keep tabs on government – watching polling booths during elections, taking pictures of uncompleted public works that are supposed to have been paid for.”
On the other hand, mobiles have also been a gift to rebel movements, coup plotters and criminals, and in some countries governments have tapped conversations or turned signals off at will. In northern Uganda, which until recently was terrorised nightly by the Lord’s Resistance Army, the signal would disappear whenever a VIP moved in an insecure area, says Sr Fernanda Pellizzer, a Comboni nun who runs a local HIV project.
Back in 1997 in the DRC, residents and refugees in the eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu were left without a signal for a week after the Rwanda – and Uganda-aided installation of Laurent Kabila. Mobile coverage had already spread quickly there, partly because landline coverage is particularly scant. The mobile industry has proved resilient to the most common deterrent to investors – conflict.
“Mobiles aren’t a panacea,” says Dr Jagun. “Literacy matters, disposable income matters. No country is going to leapfrog any stage of development [just because of their proliferation]. Mobile telephony is now being viewed as an enabler of development rather than something that will directly bring it about. When you talk about food aid, mobile telephony facilitates the distribution of that aid.”
None the less, the mobile phone industry boosts infrastructure at many different levels. The same continent that struggles to make millions of its inhabitants food-secure is also home to a swelling urbanised population looking for office work, and a business culture that has long waited to embrace good communications networks.
Virgin Mobile South Africa, launched in 2006, says it has created around 1,000 jobs at different entry levels and now almost its entire staff is made up of locals. Many young people from previously disadvantaged backgrounds have the opportunity to take on their first “proper” job. Lower-level jobs include the call centre agents.
The pleasure of being able to hold a conversation any time anywhere is tempered by the frustration of lengthy delays when calling mobile phone call centres. Virgin Mobile South Africa has tried to address this: its hold messages – which they offer rather than hold music – include a thought for the day, quiz questions and a weather forecast.
Where next for the rapidly changing continent? “The next step is mobile internet,” says Dr Jason Whalley of the University of Strathclyde’s Business School. “If people are on mobile broadband, they have access to internet content.” This, he says, includes distance learning. “The amount of African-generated content has grown over the last few years. Ultimately it could lead to people not emigrating – a halt to the brain drain.”
*The article first appeared as a feature in the Tablet of January 19th 2010
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
Africa has shrunk now that one person in three owns a mobile phone. Already the effect on families, business and even governance has been extraordinary, but the telecommunications revolution has only just begun.
Over the single piece of cloth that George Kamakei Olodopash, an illiterate Masai farmer in Narok, Kenya, wore wrapped around his torso and thighs, hung a mobile phone from a thin black belt. Through an interpreter I asked him what he used it for. He looked at me as though I was from a previous century.
“If I’m out in the fields and I’m going to be late home, I can phone my wife and tell her,” he spelt out. How did he charge it? “I have a solar panel on the roof of my hut,” he replied.
That was in 2003. Since then the number of Africans buying mobile phones has shot up by 550 per cent, according to the United Nations. The “Information Economy Report” published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development in October, found that mobile subscriptions rose from 54 million to 350 million between 2003 and 2008 – meaning more than a third of Africans now owns a mobile phone.
“Communities have gone from never having used a phone in their lives, or only using one in a kiosk, to where you see someone herding their cows pull a mobile phone out of their pocket,” says Maurice McPartlan, head of Cafod’s Africa programmes, who added that mobiles have made aid work easier and safer, saying: “For us, instead of being out of touch unless you went into a hotel or post office, one of the tools staff carry is a mobile, which is quite a good security measure.”
Two of the main uses of mobiles in Africa are for banking and accessing news. Earlier this year, AfricaNews.com, a news website funded by Western businesses and charities, announced the launch of its mobile news website. It sources and publishes content via mobile devices and says it has more than 400 reporters working – for free – in 35 countries, including Somalia, Algeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). And its coverage is far broader than the formula of coups, famines and safaris worn out in the Western press. One of today’s top stories: “Malawi: cell phone banking to begin.”
Mobile banking enables those with bank accounts to access and transfer money without having to trek to the nearest branch, and for those hundreds of millions of Africans without bank accounts to move money around without the high charges of the ubiquitous Western Union. Other businesses have benefited from mobiles too. Isolated farmers in East Africa access information about disease and weather patterns; they can also find out the going rates for their livestock or crops so the middleman can’t rip them off. Cloth weavers in rural Nigeria save days on wasted journeys by pre-arranging visits to their intermediaries by phone. Mobiles have had a psychological impact too.
“People feel less vulnerable; there’s a willingness to take risks,” says Nigerian-born Abi Jagun, a researcher on technology markets and society. He explained that anxious parents can phone a relative’s medically trained neighbour about their sick child in the middle of the night. People feel safer when they travel, adding: “Having mobiles creates an atmosphere where people think and see more clearly.”
At a grass-roots level, mobiles have provided a new line for entrepreneurs. In a village someone a little richer will own a mobile and sell airtime to his neighbours. Street vendors can add to their dusty roadside stalls “recharge cards” – scratch cards to top up credit. In Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, those who own a phone drop it off at a shop and pay 20 Kenyan shillings (15p) to get it charged. Some vendors use car batteries to charge phones.
Tariffs are high, so people on low incomes don’t make many calls. They may “flash” or “miss call” the person they are calling – ring them momentarily so he or she can phone them back. Chauffeurs, home helps and nannies “flash” their employees; Africans “flash” their relatives living in Britain, who call them back using cheap pre-paid phone-cards. The extraordinarily high level of demand, particularly from the poorest levels of society, caught many in the business off-guard. Other factors in the mobile phone industry’s runaway success, according to Richard Heeks, director of the Centre for Development Informatics at Manchester University, are that mobile firms were willing to take risks, cheap handsets and low-cost pre-payment models were made available, and governments liberalised ownership and policy of telecommunications. But the benefits have reached beyond that one industry.
“The success of mobile phones in garnering far more subscribers than companies initially expected has opened the eyes of investors to potential demand for other services in Africa, notably banking and insurance,” says William Wallis, Africa editor of the Financial Times. “They have shown there is a market out there even if the majority of Africans are poor. The advent of mobile phones has been a revolution in Africa this decade – they have empowered Africans and unleashed enormous potential simply by meeting demand.”
Poverty is not Africa’s only scourge to be addressed by mobile communications. Add to that corruption and poor governance. Professor Heeks notes: “One interesting thing to emerge is ‘sousveillance’ – the opposite of surveillance. This means not watching from above but watching from below. Mobile phones have been used by ordinary citizen groups to keep tabs on government – watching polling booths during elections, taking pictures of uncompleted public works that are supposed to have been paid for.”
On the other hand, mobiles have also been a gift to rebel movements, coup plotters and criminals, and in some countries governments have tapped conversations or turned signals off at will. In northern Uganda, which until recently was terrorised nightly by the Lord’s Resistance Army, the signal would disappear whenever a VIP moved in an insecure area, says Sr Fernanda Pellizzer, a Comboni nun who runs a local HIV project.
Back in 1997 in the DRC, residents and refugees in the eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu were left without a signal for a week after the Rwanda – and Uganda-aided installation of Laurent Kabila. Mobile coverage had already spread quickly there, partly because landline coverage is particularly scant. The mobile industry has proved resilient to the most common deterrent to investors – conflict.
“Mobiles aren’t a panacea,” says Dr Jagun. “Literacy matters, disposable income matters. No country is going to leapfrog any stage of development [just because of their proliferation]. Mobile telephony is now being viewed as an enabler of development rather than something that will directly bring it about. When you talk about food aid, mobile telephony facilitates the distribution of that aid.”
None the less, the mobile phone industry boosts infrastructure at many different levels. The same continent that struggles to make millions of its inhabitants food-secure is also home to a swelling urbanised population looking for office work, and a business culture that has long waited to embrace good communications networks.
Virgin Mobile South Africa, launched in 2006, says it has created around 1,000 jobs at different entry levels and now almost its entire staff is made up of locals. Many young people from previously disadvantaged backgrounds have the opportunity to take on their first “proper” job. Lower-level jobs include the call centre agents.
The pleasure of being able to hold a conversation any time anywhere is tempered by the frustration of lengthy delays when calling mobile phone call centres. Virgin Mobile South Africa has tried to address this: its hold messages – which they offer rather than hold music – include a thought for the day, quiz questions and a weather forecast.
Where next for the rapidly changing continent? “The next step is mobile internet,” says Dr Jason Whalley of the University of Strathclyde’s Business School. “If people are on mobile broadband, they have access to internet content.” This, he says, includes distance learning. “The amount of African-generated content has grown over the last few years. Ultimately it could lead to people not emigrating – a halt to the brain drain.”
*The article first appeared as a feature in the Tablet of January 19th 2010
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this section do not necessarily represent the opinions of CISA.
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