{"id":16521,"date":"2010-11-19T22:06:13","date_gmt":"2010-11-20T03:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=16521"},"modified":"2010-11-19T22:06:13","modified_gmt":"2010-11-20T03:06:13","slug":"salone-citizenship-compare-and-contrast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=16521","title":{"rendered":"Salone Citizenship – Compare and Contrast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost two years to the day, a man whose father studied in the United States for a few years, and left, was voted in as the President.\u00a0 His name, Barack Obama.\u00a0 The fact that he was born in the US gave him an immediate claim to citizenship, and an entitlement to run for the highest office of the land. (Photo:\u00a0 Sewanu Kponou)<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition, there are quite a handful of Judges, City Councilors, and other elected officials, of African descent, not born in the US, that are serving elected terms of office all over the United States.\u00a0 In the State of Texas, City of Rowlett, the Deputy Mayor Pro Tem is a Sierra Leone born gentleman by the name of\u00a0 Patrick Jackson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to present day.\u00a0 In Slovenia, on or about Oct. 24, 2010 a Ghanaian of\u00a0 Negro-African descent (read very dark skin and wide nose), was elected\u00a0\u00a0 Mayor<\/a> in one of their cities. There are numerous such examples in Europe.<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone Calgary, Canada just swore in a Muslim Mayor<\/a>, first of it’s kind in a major Canadian city.<\/p>\n

The author has a question to be asked in this situation:\u00a0 What are the benefits, or adverse effect, of having such people of backgrounds that are most definitely in the minority, become elected officials of their communities?<\/p>\n

From scanning the news I have yet to see the situation in which these new citizens have negatively impacted their communities, after their ascent to power.\u00a0 When these communities created their laws eons ago, a lot had histories of co-mingling with other groups, thru wars or migration.\u00a0 The result is that evidence abounds that good rulers can come from any given group.\u00a0 In many situations the lives of the “indigenous” groups were made better by the arrival of the new groups.\u00a0 New thought processes were introduced into the societies, the best parts assimilated, and everyone benefited.\u00a0 The indigenous learned from the immigrants and vice versa, and with time more efficient methods were developed.<\/p>\n

We will now focus our attention on Sierra Leone, since the article is directed to a mainly Sierra Leonean audience.\u00a0 Sometime in 1991, the Sierra Leone govt. put into effect a law which, summarily, states that anyone not of Negro-African descent cannot hold office in the country.\u00a0 Regardless of what the aim of the law was, when it was enacted, this law\/statute etc. needs to be reviewed, and the reference to race (Negro-African) deleted in it’s entirety.\u00a0 The reason being that when the wheels of discrimination\/exclusivity start turning they are difficult to stop.<\/p>\n

The world is evolving and such a statement in the constitution gives a poor image of the country.\u00a0 It is bad enough to practice discrimination, but to have it enshrined in a country’s constitution is alarming.\u00a0 In 1991 when the then constitution carried this new enactment, there was hardly any internet, globally, and the only views shared were those of the powerful news agencies, like Reuters and Associated Press (AP).\u00a0 In today’s world we have a\u00a0global list<\/a> of news agencies that is exponentially bigger. \u00a0Bottom line is that word spreads in ways many may not imagine.<\/p>\n

Change <\/strong>– Fifty years ago it was easy to see adult males of negro descent who were members of some of Sierra Leones\u00a0 “powerful secret societies”, prance around bare chested, displaying all kind of designed “markings” on their bodies.\u00a0 In the year 2010 one is hard pressed to find members of these “societies”, much more young people with those scars.\u00a0 The rebel wars gave a different outlook on the value of these “societies”, as guardians of the populace, when “society” members were the first to flee the rebels, leaving wives and children behind to be raped and slaughtered.\u00a0 The bottom line is that in this one instance we have seen change.<\/p>\n

Another instance of change is the introduction of cell phones.\u00a0 This has been very profound, in that you no longer wait for someone going to your village to carry news of a birth, death and all in between. \u00a0It is difficult to quantify a change such as this.<\/p>\n

We presently have a campaign for attitudinal change going on, and I do believe that the government can make a change in our present law, regarding elected officials, a part of the campaign for change.<\/p>\n

Young generation<\/strong> –\u00a0 If a petition is anything to go by we may be seeing how our youth are going to forge their version of news propagation, in ways they feel comfortable with, and not easily controlled by government propaganda organs. \u00a0On the Salonenetwork.com website<\/a> there is a\u00a0\u00a0petition<\/a> underway in which the authors are asking for signatures supporting the change.\u00a0 You may want to sign the petition.\u00a0 Maybe we are seeing how the younger folks are going to channel their voices within their communities.\u00a0 It will be nice to listen to them.<\/p>\n

By Sewanu Kponou\u00a0 Atlanta, GA.<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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