Through the course of the semester, I explored a wide range of topics starting with the gay marriage rights, Female Genital Mutilation, Underdevelopment in Ghana, the living of Liberian refugees in Ghana, Witchcraft accusation, and the war on terror among many other things. Apart from this independent research, I also responded to the various texts we have come across over the course of the semester. This includes the civil war in Sierra Leone, FGM in Sudan, the political unrest in Afghanistan and Iran, and the two books on torture.

I have gained so much through this blogging: first of all I have, for the first explored a wide range of issues that threatens the rights and freedoms of people. Also, I have been exposed to a variety of issues affecting our world as far as human’s rights are concerned, through the independent research of my colleagues as we saw them in class every week. Some of the crimes are unthinkable and mind blowing. The starving of babies to death in China, corporal punishment in America, womb for rentals and the demonstrations on the street of D C, all these information were useful in shaping the way I think of the world and also what change do we need more than the other. The energy in the class has been a great one and it is hard not to come to class even if I don’t feel like coming. the cources used are scholarly, and as far as i could tell, JSTOR, Boston Globe and Google Scholar were very good sites. this is because they gave me the exact information i wanted and the technicalities was less difficult.

As far as future blogging goes, I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Michelle Gonzalez and I have planned to continue doing this and in order to be energized doing it, we’ve planned on commenting on each other’s blogs regularly. That way, we will be assured that someone other than ourselves is actually reading it. This time around I would like to stick to specific topics or issues for quite a long time so I could explore deeply into the particular issue. For now I don’t know what I’m going to start with since I have lots of ideas in mind. But soon I will start with a readable, enjoyable, intriguing, current and important topic and I hope you continue to follow.

Mohammed Adawulai

Simon’s Rock

Several reasons have been attributed to domestic or household slavery, and one of which is the imbalance economic system between Southern and Northern Ghana. It all started with Colonialism when the British first settled in the Ghana which was the called the Gold Coat. Partly because of the climate and partly because of the transportation, the British settled in Southern Ghana while they manipulate the mineral market and also administer the state of affairs in the region. Settling and Administering also means building infrastructures, both public and private, and also constructing roads around this area and building schools as well. And so what happen was that Southern Ghana was introduced to such things as education and Christianity at the very early stage. The activity of the Europeans or the colonizers also provided jobs to the indigenous people who worked as laborers. This coupled with other things means infrastructural and economic development of the South while the North was completely left behind.

So in modern day Ghana, there is a huge gap between northern and southern Ghana stemming from the activities of the colonial masters. The government of Ghana today has also done a poor job of bridging this gap and the result is domestic enslavement of children especially girls from Northern Ghana to the South.  Northern Ghana is still considered “uncivilized”. Compared to Southern Ghana, less attention has been given to the Northern region of Ghana in terms of education, health services, construction of good roads, agricultural extension services and even the media. Worse of all, jobs are very hard to come by in Northern Ghana. Due to lack of education, the birth rate in Northern Ghana is very high. Most families give birth to more children than they could possibly take care of. And so what is happening today in Ghana is either the voluntary movement of people, mostly women from Northern Ghana to the South and particularly the city of Accra in search of jobs. Some of these women sleep on the streets of Accra, exposing them to predators such as rapists and serial killers. They mostly work in the markets as what most Ghanaians refer to as “Kayayo”, which is carrying heavy loads for travelers or heavy goods purchased in the market to the owner’s destination.

Other children, again mostly girls, are given away by their own parents to Southerners simply because they can’t take good care of them. Some Southerners promise to take the girls to school and provide for them adequately in order to convince the parents of these girls. But the reality is, most of this girls are made to work like slaves in the house, beaten anytime they fail to meet expectations, work all day and go t bed late and they are hardly fed adequately. They are also denied the education they were promised. Sometimes these girls are paid monthly, some of which might go to their parents directly from their “madams” or through them. Other children also engage in fishing activities which is very dangerous especially when the kid involve does not know how to swim. So many children die from drowning during fishing. In areas where service requires working on farms like Cocoa, boys and girls are forced to undertake hazardous task.

“Manual labor and material handling, the use of sharp tools, application of pesticides and lack of personal protective equipment and clothing characterized cocoa production in Western Ghana. Children of all ages participated in cocoa production, but usually adolescence aged 14 years and older who are migrant workers or members of the sharecropper families did the most intensive work”  ( L Dianne Mull and Steven Kirkhorn). This child labor has deny these unfortunate children the chance to go to school and to develop themselves and society in the future.

But kurnaz is a symbol of truth and freedom. Like he said in the YouTube interview we saw in class, the incident on 9/11 was a surprise to him and he felt for Americans and especially those who lost their lives. But he also believes like some of us do, that our greatness is defined by not what we do in times of prosperity and freedom, but rather what we do or must do even in the midst of crisis like 9/11. Our ability to tackle challenges when they prove to be the most difficult. Our ability to pursue, capture and crush Alkaeda while at the same time allow innocent men and women like Kurnaz to travel without any fear of illegitimate arrest. America’s Greatness is not defined by its ability to arrest so many people, mostly innocent, in its pursuit of those responsible for 9/11. But rather, America’s greatness is defined by its ability to live up to the true meaning of its creed, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. Its ability to live by its own laws like “no detention without trial”.

Nothing bothers me more than the fact that the Pakistani policemen are paid a huge amount of money for each person they turn in: “I’d been sold for a bounty of $3,000 to the Americans. That’s what the Americans themselves told me in one of the endless interrogations in Guantanamo Bay” (Kurnaz 47). I am troubled by this, mindful of the fact that reward may encourage hard work and cooperation.  The average monthly income of a Pakistani police is Rs 3500 to Rs 6000, which is approximately between 85 dollars to 150 US dollars. So $3,000 US dollars equals the amount of money earned by a Pakistani policeman in three years. I mean 3 years. And so it is very hard to believe that there could hardly be any motivation for turning a “terrorist” in other than for the sake of making money. The fight against terrorism in the 21^st century may be pioneered by America, but without a doubt, it is not America’s fight alone. Every nation must be part of the fight, because the activities of these terrorist affect every nation. The three thousand men and women who died on 9/11 were from thirty different countries across the globe: some were Muslims. And so what is required is to get every nation involved in the fight against a common danger. And even though I am not a war expert, I truly believe that there is a better way of getting other nations like Pakistan to cooperate without using money. Cooperation is necessary for Pakistan’s own safety reasons. That alone is enough. But paying them huge amount of money is just a way of providing jobs for the jobless, more salary to the poorly paid policemen and the result is very apparent: these policemen will try as much as they could to turn in as many people as possible ( some of them might be true suspects but mostly, those turned in are innocent foreigners like Kurnaz or people within the society that these policemen men hate or envy). This to me did not and will not make America and its allies and the world at large safe.

If anything must be done about be done to combat terrorism, it must be done well. The use of money will not motivate these policemen to do what is right. So we must gain the support of countries like Pakistan by convincing them that the war on terror may be led by America, but it cannot be America’s fight alone. This among other reasons might be better.

Mohammed Adawulai

Simon’s Rock.

George Bush led America to war with Afghanistan, the country believed to have provided safe haven for Bin laden and Alkaeda. In 2003, the wars attention was diverted to Iraq. Now, there are so many theories surrounding Bush’s decision to go to Iraq: like the interest Iraq’s natural resources such as the oil etc. but we can draw a conclusion based on what we know today. The very reason George Bush gave to the American people, the United Nations and to the rest of the world for going to Iraq was because Saddam Hussein has a weapon of mass destruction which, if unchecked, could be use unwisely. But After seven years of killing innocent men and women on the streets of Baghdad, after seven years of killing young American men and women, after seven years of huge government spending: we all know today, that there is no such thing as the Weapon of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Democracy is not restored and each and every day we see Iraq climb higher and higher the ladder of chaos, insecurity and revenge. So back to my question, why did we go to Iraq?

H.D.S Greenway of the Boston Globe answered my question in 2008. That “When all the various reasons for a preemptive war against Iraq are examined – the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, spreading democracy, helping Israel, etc., etc. – it all boiled down to the worst of all possible reasons: Bush invaded Iraq because he could” (Boston Globe). George Bush and America for this matter, has missed an opportunity to work with the majority of Muslims who believe, like America does, that there is no justification for killing innocent lives on the basis of Islam and perpetrators must be pursued, found and crushed. But instead the United States under George Bush responded to 9/11 not because it was the right thing to, or because the world including the islmaic nations stand by it, but just because it has the power to do so.

I’m writing this blog to remind readers and the class that, the concern is not with today, but tomorrow. Imagine a child on the street of Baghdad who lost all he has, his family, because of this war. Imagine a wife who lost her husband or a husband who lost his wife in the course of this war. Imagine a man who worked so hard, saved everything just to acquire a comfortable house for himself and his family, only to have his house brought down by bombs. Imagine a strong Iraq, thirty or forty years from now, but also an entire generation of Iraqis who will stop at nothing to avenge the death or loss of the very thing that meant everything to them: innocent mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and homes. This is what I want readers to think about. But unless we think about these things before going to war, there will be no lasting peace.



80% of HIV/AIDS is spread through unprotected sex

I was at a model UN conference last weekend and one of the challenges that hinders the efforts of sex educators was the resistance by nations such as Iran and Afghanistan. These two countries are undoubtedly dominated by Factions of Islam called Shi’a and Sunni. But the most challenging question is, do these countries frown upon sex education because of Islam, or is it because of their own Arab culture? The Koran, the Islamic holy book of guidance, says that “Muslims should seek for all kinds of knowledge”. While most scholars have agreed that this Quote excludes no form of knowledge as long as it is helpful to the Muslim seeking it, some express concern about the nature of sex education. So the problem is, is sex education a means of introducing “young and innocent” children to ways and means of having safe but enjoyable sex, or is it a medium of informing men and women about the importance of abstinence? In Islam, pre-marital chastity is expected of every man and woman, and so the most welcomed sex education is the preaching of Abstinence.

In other countries like the Philippines which have over 80% Catholic population, everyday contraceptives are not provided to the people, and the only form of education preached is abstinence from sex. But this has a tremendous loophole especially when Christianity is unable to prevent people from having sex but only able to deny them access to contraceptives. The result has been a tremendous rise in the population, spread of STD’s and increase in the poverty rate since most people, single mothers in most cases, give birth to more children than they could provide for. Philippines’ population is suppose to reach “ninety million this year” when most of the people in Philippines live on less than two dollars a day.

Another factor that I personally think is the name given to this particular form of education. As a representative of UNIFEM, which is the United Nations Global Fund for Women, I proposed a replacement for the term “Sex education”. I propose we call it “Women’s health education”. I said women because I believe that narrowing our scope of action will help identify the cause of the problems and solutions to them easier and faster. And also since women are the main victims of rape, STD’s and other sex related problems, it is not unreasonable to target women first before anything else.  The change in the name will also make sex education more appealing as it is intended to promote the health of men and women and prevent the spread of diseases.

planning. We cannot force countries to allow their people to have sex before marriage if one of our methods of curtailing the spread of STD’s and unwanted pregnancies is abstinence. In areas like the Philippines where religion has failed to prevent people from having pre-marital affairs, it is not unreasonable to change policies that will help provide contraceptives like condom to the people as a way of preventing the spread of In countries where pre-marital chastity is the only option, what we need to preach is family STD’s and checking the population.



Some of the popular known witch camps are kukuo and Gambaga. Gambaga camp had been such a host for over two hundred years to hundreds of women. The UNHCR defined witchcraft as, “harmful

actions carried out by persons presumed to have access to supernatural powers.” Like I said earlier on, some women accused of such spirit possession confess their sins publicly which attest to people’s beliefs. But at the times, when misfortune strikes young men and women, they blame their sufferings on old women in society. In the documentary “Witches in Exile”, one of the interviewed women was accused of killing her son’s son, which according to her, was untrue. “My grandson died and I was accused of killing him” she said, “they insisted that I confess, but I did not. They beat me so much that I passed out.”She escaped death through the help of her son, and her house was completely burnt the morning after she escaped. In the camp, she, like the many other accused women was completely neglected by her own husband, siblings, friends and even children. “I’m lonely” she said, washing her face with soap and water, “when I am sick, I’m alone until someone finds me.” She like her friends, unless otherwise, would live a life of hunger and depression till they die.

So the problem is, what is the role of government in ensuring that these women are not exiled to these witch camps? How is the government dealing with the public perceptions about witchcraft in country in which 100% of the people believe in witchcraft? An attempt by a group of women in parliament to close the camp did not succeed because of two reasons. One is that these women lawmakers did not have the money to back these exiled women once they return home. The other reason was that, even though the Gambaga camp was a place where witches are bewitched, people back home still see these women as they did before. They still see them as spiritual threat to society, hence their rejection, annihilation and potential beating to death.

But regardless, there is no excuse for denying women the right to live where they want and as they want to live. But this issue must be tackled with an open mindedness so that the best solution could be reached.

Shirin Ebadi’s Iran Awakening is by far, the most informative story that I have encountered on the living conditions in Iran Before, during and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Iran’s first democratically elected leader, according to Ebadi, “was tossed out of the government in a coup organized by the CIA and its puppet.” (Ebadi 13). The United States had helped organize the coup against Mohammed Mossadegh because he nationalized the Iranian oil, which gave the United States no window to manipulate the oil in Iran. Mossadegh represented a figure like Gandhi. He put his country first by nationalizing the oil resources, which until Mossadegh came to power, was exploited by Western firms at the expense of the Iranian people. To the Iranians, Mossadegh represented not just a political leader, but also a personal role model to commoners who saw him as “a beloved nationalist hero, a figure worthy of their zealous veneration, a leader fit to guide their great civilizations.” (Ebadi  4). And as Ebadi said, “Until the d’etat of 1953, it could be said that the Iranian people were effectively governed by their elected representatives.” (Ebadi 5).

The question I ask myself is, what would I say about Iran today, if the United States had simply “LEFT IT AND ITS PEOPLE ALONE?” There is absolutely every reason to believe that if Iran was left undisturbed by the Reagan Administration, Democracy would have flourished, freedom of speech, press and association will ring in every corner of Iran, and Iran with its nationalized oil industry would have become a richer, stronger and a more stable nation. Not only these, there would also be no room for any dictator to undermine democracy in the struggle for power. As we saw from Ebadi’s memoir, the problem started with the overthrow of the democratically elected leader. The shah, after assuming power, made very little effort to develop Iran and its people. Instead, the Shah fancied itself with entertaining the rest of the world. One of such was the spending of “$300 million on makeshift silk tent with marble bathrooms, and on food and wine for twenty-five thousand people flown in from Paris.” (Ebadi 23). This unnecessary spending, coupled with the inadequate attention paid to the Iranians by the Shah, ignited the Revolution in 1979. The new Regime of Hayatollah Khomeini betrayed the supporters of the revolution by failing to solve the problems they already faced, but instead, created new and complicated ones. so this goes back to my question of, what would become of Iran today if the Democratic Administration of Mossadegh was left undisturbed? Many good things would have come to pass but most of all, Democracy would have gained a ground firm enough to avoid any disturbance by a dictator.

But what do we hear about Iran today in America? Do we hear of Iran as a unfortunate victim of a greedy super power, or do we think of it as a nation that has no respect for human rights, no interest in the development of its own people, and a nation that knows no freedom or liberty. The world might soon forget what Ebadi’s memoir uncovers, but the Iranian people would never forget what happened on their soil in 1953, 1979, 1980 and 1984. We can’t change the world unless we changed ourselves. We can lead the world unless we lead ourselves. We can’t speak like saints but act like devils. This is what I call on the United States of America.

To be continued tomorrow.

Mohammed Adawulai,

Simon’s Rock.    

In my opinion, Afghanistan is being faced with three major challenges:  Poverty, the growth of drug addiction/opium cultivation and lack of education. As a child who was raised by a great yet struggling woman who sometimes could barely feed herself and her boy, I can understand what poverty feels like. What blows my mind is the fact that some families in Afghanistan agree for their children to marry rich but old and cruel warlords in exchange for money or food that could barely sustain them for three weeks. For example, one of the warlords in Malalai Jola was older than the grandfather of the young teenager he seeks to marry.An average person in Afghanistan makes less than $2,000, but here we are dealing with families who would never see this amount of money perhaps in their life time. Poverty has crippled families, rendering them dependent on dictators and warlords who would stop at nothing to killing their own people in the name of Islam.

The second challenge is the overuse of drugs by most men in the country. Opium has become like a candy for many people in Afghanistan. But unfortunately, as the saying goes, “When two lions fight, it is the ground that suffers”. The women are mostly the victims of these men who constantly abuse these drugs. Some men beat their wives and children for no other reason other than the fact that they are completely out of their minds. Malalai Jola tried to save a marriage that was breaking down because the husband constantly beats his wife and children. As a matter of fact, the last time they got into a fight, he hit his wife with a metallic rod, bruising all over her body.

And the third challenge, like I mentioned, is the lack of good education. “Good education” because education can be obtained in a variety of ways. But what we have in Afghanistan is ideology, not necessarily a good education. It is the idea that nature or God demands that the people, especially women and the poor or less powerful, should submit completely to the dictates of men and the warlords. Children are misinformed, brainwashed and deceived to violently serve the greedy  warlords in the name of religion.

These are some of the challenges Malalai Jola is confronted with in her country, and like any other person, man or woman, who believes in the promise of freedom, justice and equality, she rose up to the challenge and spoke for the women but also men who have been victimized by the activities of the warlords. She did what was supposed to be done by educating young women, mediating disputes between husbands and wives and even running for a political office in order to enable her do more in restoring freedom, justice and equality for all citizens of Afghanistan. As a woman whose own life was endangered because of what she stood for and also as a woman who have witnessed others, wives and children, severely brutalized by their husbands and the warlords, I can understand her pain, anger and aggression. She’s not fighting for the cause of freedom and equality just because she is able to fit herself in other people’s shoes, but because of her lived experienced as a daughter, woman and as a friend to many others who have been denied freedom, justice and equality. This could be the reason behind her aggressive campaign. But I also believe, like the man who took us to the mountain top that, “Violent movement brings no permanent peace, it solves no social problem but merely creates new and complicated ones.”  Jola must admit the hard truth that a permanent change cannot be created overnight. It took a long time to create the unjust system she wants to change; likewise it will take a long time to eradicate it and replace it with a democracy. She is fighting a fight that can never be won by her alone. She cannot walk alone, she needs the cooperation of other men as well. This is not to say Jola should try to compromise with the men in parliament on all issues. What is suggested here is that she should “walk slowly but carry a big stick” and she would go far. We saw this in the Suffrage Movement of the early 1900s and with Martin Luther king’s Civil Right movement in the 1960s. These are movements that believed in the shared destiny of both men and women, black and white. But Jola took it a bit too far to the extent of insulting the entire members of parliament because they disagreed with the truth. If you have your finger in the mouth of someone, you don’t slap them, or they would bite you. Jola’s approach in my opinion has failed to yielded the needed result.  Now, I know that there are some who would argue that what she did was effective enough since she created some awareness. Well first I respect and admire her effort, but a long and peaceful change would never come from elsewhere other than from the people of Afghanistan themselves, and Jola has missed an opportunity to bring parliamentarians together in order to fight for democracy in Afghanistan. Like any other reformer, she would meet some challenges on the road, but it is the end that would justify the means.

Over twenty thousand teenage boys were brought to the United States through a re-settlement program that seeks to provide these refugees the better life they were denied in their country. In the early 2000s, the Lost Boys were resettled in different towns and cities across the country. One group that I paid close attention to was a group of five to six teenagers resettled in Texas.

The Lost Boys were blessed with opportunities many of their friends back home would never see. They moved from sleeping on the floor to sleeping on a bunk bed. Some of them barely eat twice a day while they were living in Sudan and Kenya. No doubt their lives have been changed so they could change their families and country as well. But their lives were never changed without some disappointments or challenges. For example, the group of five to six teenagers resettled in Texas was constantly threatened by neighbors who would stop at nothing to steal from these poor and sympathetic teenagers. Another disappointment was the lack of Education; the Lost Boys were promised quality education long before they came to America. Their dream was to go to school because they believe that with good education, change in Sudan is very possible. But on their arrival, this promise was not fulfilled. Instead, they were left on their own after the first four months to work and feed themselves, pay the bills among other things. I still think that the lost boys have been very fortunate by courtesy of the Resettlement agency in the US, but if anything must be done, it must be done well: no false promise should be made. It is unnecessary to some extent, to promise them education when the re-settlement agency cannot provide. I think that bringing them to the US and assisting them with housing, food, health care and jobs alone is enough for these teenagers who previously can’t even afford two meals a day. This is not to say their education is not very important, but rather, they should not be promised something that cannot be fulfilled. But overall, it is good that a better meaning is given to the lives of these refugees and I’m optimistic about their future and their countries’.

Source: Lost Boys of Sudan, documentary

Mohammed Adawulai,

Simon’s Rock.

My first encounter with a refugee was in high school in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. Back in high school I was the president of the Muslim Students’ Association at my school and my predecessor, Mohammed Donzo, was a refugee from Liberia. Donzo came to Ghana when he was less than ten years old. In the midst of the war, he found himself separated from the rest of his family, and moving from one neighboring country to the other, he finally came to Ghana. Life outside home was very difficult for Donzo: sometimes he slept outside at the mercy of the adverse weather, with no one to feed him, Donzo did all kinds of jobs to feed himself. But one thing he priorities was education. He saved every penny just so he could enroll himself at school. And as a friend who has been inspired by Donzo, I could bear witness that Donzo has made it to high school.

But Donzo is “lucky” in some way compared to his colleagues who had no choice but to live in the camp provided by the government of Ghana called the Bujumbura camp. Established in 1990, the Bujumbura is the home for 15,800 refugees from Liberia. All refugees are protected under the laws of Ghana. The 1992 constitution in Ghana extends to the refugees its fundamental rights “including life, dignity, and the protection from torture and slavery, freedom of movement and the right to work” according to the UNHCR. But what the government of Ghana does not adequately provide are basic necessities like food, good shelter and health care. In order to meet the needs of their daily lives, many refugees are forced into unhealthy acts like prostitution. There are also, some reported cases of rape in the camp. In 2008 for instance, “there were 17 cases of rape, statutory rape, and sodomy in Bujumbura refugee camp” according to the UNHCR.

In the February of 2008, several women began a sit-in protest to “Either demand a resettlement to a developed country or an increase in the repatriation allowance given by the UNHCR.” The UNHCR offered $50 to every child and hundred dollars to every adult, but the refugee were asking for at least a $1,000. after a month of protest, the police arrested 800 refugees, mostly women, and 39 of them were sent back to their home country of Liberia.

These are some of the challenges faced by both refugees and the countries in which they reside around the world. In Ghana, the living conditions of refugees are far from better. Both the government and the UNHCR could certainly do better by providing good shelter, food and adequate health, but they simply can’t meet all the needs of the refugee. Everybody must lend a helping hand to help rewrite the dreams of these unfortunate victims of war.

By: Mohammed Adawulai

Souces:    United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, World Refugee Survey 2009 – Ghana, 17 June 2009, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4a40d2a675.html [accessed 14 March 20