So here at Salone Online we have decided to share some of our old time sweet Sierra Leone comedy videos just for laughs.
Sunday, 2 July 2017
PRESISDENT KOROMA LEAVES FOR THE AFRICAN UNION (AU) SUMMIT IN ADDIS ABABA
The general public is hereby informed that His Excellency the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has left Freetown this morning to attend the 29th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union Summit scheduled to take place from 3rd July to 4th July, 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
His Excellency the President will effectively participate in deliberations on this year’s theme, “harnessing the demographic dividend through investments in youth”.
His Excellency the President will also update his colleagues Heads of State and Government, in his capacity as Chairperson of the Committee of Ten (C-10), on the reform of the United Nations in which Africa is demanding Two Permanent Seats in the Security Council of the United Nations with all the prerogatives and privileges.
The President will also address the Sierra Leonean community in Ethiopia on governance issues and the country’s preparedness for the general elections slated for March, 2018.
President Koroma and his entourage are expected back in Freetown on Wednesday, July 5th, 2017.
Saturday, 1 July 2017
Meet Micheala Deprince Sierra Leonean Ballerina Dancer
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| Micheala Deprince |
Michaela DePrince was born in Sierra Leone in 1995 during the civil war. At age three, she lost both her parents and was sent to an orphanage where she was mistreated by staff who believed she was the “devil’s child” due to her pigmented skin (caused by vitiligo). She and her best friend were adopted by an American couple when they were four. In 2011 DePrince starred in the ballet documentary First Position, and she is now a professional ballerina with the Dutch National Ballet. She has just published her memoir.
You co-wrote your memoir with your mother [Elaine DePrince], who kept notes of all the traumatic memories you told her of Sierra Leone when you were growing up. How did you find reliving those experiences?
The first time I ever talked about my story, it was very difficult to recover… I’m so happy my mum was involved – she was smart to write it all down when I was little. If I’d had to relive everything for the book it would have been a lot harder.
Why did you write your memoir?
It was a therapeutic outlet and a way for me to reach out to other people. When I went to South Africa [to perform with the South African Ballet Theatre], I shared my story with a few high-school kids and realised it could really have an impact. It inspired me to think differently about myself – I always wanted to be a role model and to let people know that it’s OK to dream and to live for something.
You must be thrilled with the response the book has had.
I’ve had adults emailing me, kids emailing me… It means so much that my book helped them in some way. Laverne Cox, the actress in Orange Is the New Black, tweeted me saying how inspirational I was to her. Of course, you have to act really casual, even though I was thinking ‘Oh my God I love you so much!’ She’s a transgender person, and some people don’t support that, so she’s the inspiration – I feel like I haven’t really done anything.
Are you a fan of Orange Is the New Black?
I love that show. I love TV and movies – anything that can help me stop thinking about dancing for a bit, because it can really take over your mind. It’s mentally and physically exhausting.
You moved to Amsterdam in 2013 to join the Dutch National Ballet. I read that you’re learning Dutch…
Kind of – it’s very hard. I can count to 10, I know the alphabet, how to say hello and order coffee, and that’s about it. Right now I’m focusing more on dancing.
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now we’re working on Jewels. After that we’re going to be doing Swan Lake, Back to Bach, Cinderella, and travelling to St Petersburg, London, Hong Kong, and touring Holland – it’s a busy year. They’re giving me amazing opportunities hereWhat is the main difference between living in Europe and the US?
Europe is great, especially for dance. It’s a lot more accepting than the US – there I struggled with the fact that I was black and there weren’t a lot of black dancers at the studio with me. Although in the US, at least I could look up to [other black ballerinas] Misty Copeland or Lauren Anderson.
Is there any sign of the racial bias in ballet changing?
I’m hoping it is, but I don’t see it happening. There’s a dancer [Precious Adams] who was at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow – they told her to bleach her skin. She’s now doing very well at the English National Ballet, but often you look around, and there are no black dancers. Classical ballet is beautiful, but it’s very old..
What, in your opinion, needs to be done to change that?
When I was a child, I overheard one of my directors saying ‘we don’t put a lot of effort into the black girls, because they end up getting fat’. I want people [in ballet] to realise that not everybody is the same – you don’t know how our bodies are going to turn out.
Do you ever get bored answering questions about being a black ballerina?
No. There are practically no black people in ballet, so I need to speak out.
In your memoir, you and your sister Mia [DePrince’s best friend from the orphanage] talk about not feeling ready to return to Sierra Leone. Do you still feel like that?
There are little scars still, and those need to heal before I can go, so that I don’t have to worry that when I go back to the US or to Amsterdam I’ll have nightmares. You have to make sure that you’re 100% ready to deal with something that you’ve always been terrified of.
You wrote in the book ‘when I’m older I’d like to start a free arts school in Sierra Leone, and teach ballet there’.
That would be amazing – I’d like to use the money we earn from this book to open the school. It’ll have to be when I retire from dancing. The arts can change you as a person. Dancing helped me share my emotions and connect to my family, it helped me feel like I was special and not the “devil’s child”. Those kids won’t have the same opportunities I had, and I don’t think they deserve that.
Your parents have had 11 children, nine of whom they adopted. Would you ever consider adoption?
I’d love kids of my own, but if that’s not possible I’d definitely adopt. The fact that it’s becoming so hard to adopt kids from all over the world is so sad. I wouldn’t be alive today if I hadn’t been adopted. I met Angelina Jolie at Women in the World in 2013; she’s adopted so many kids and I think that’s wonderful – it’s horrible that people were so negative about it.
You’ve become a poster girl for many things: international adoption, black women in classical ballet, the American dream… Is that a lot of responsibility?
It is. Sometimes I think, what happens if I never become the dancer I’ve always wanted to be, and people are disappointed? But at the same time I like being a role model, and when I see that I’ve inspired young people to dance, especially young black dancers, that’s amazing for me.
Sierra Leone deputy foreign affairs minister II Speaks on the role of international cooperation
Minister of State II, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hon. Isata Kabia on Friday, 30th June, 2017, said strengthening of capacity is crucial in the actualization of the 2030 Agenda as “there is a real opportunity for all of us to do thorough needs assessment so that capacity building through International Cooperation is demand and not supply driven.”
Speaking in Beijing, whilst delivering a paper on the ‘Role of International Cooperation in Strengthening Partnership and Capacity in implementing the 2030 Development Agenda’ at an ongoing Ministerial Workshop on International Cooperation in Capacity Development, Hon. Kabia said, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets forth a global vision and what should now be ensured is, frameworks “which are country specific, established for the implementation, monitoring and following up of the Agenda based on country specific realities.”
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development she said, is to serve as a universal, integrated and formative road map for achieving ambitious targets such as eradicating extreme poverty and building a sustainable world over the period of 15 years.
On the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the minister said, strengthening synergies between international cooperation and development enhances the results of employment, migration management and development policies, “and should therefore be integrated into poverty reduction strategies.”
The SDGs, she said, have ushered in increased public awareness on the priorities of global goals and that in the case of Sierra Leone, “simplified messages of the SDGs and targets have created increased awareness in the local population about the correlation between Social, economic and environmental links and development.”
Sierra Leone’s efforts in adapting the SDGs, she said, are captured in Pillar 2 of her development roadmap, the Agenda for Prosperity, which deals with the management of natural resources and “is in direct harmony with the objectives of SDGs 12, 13, 14 &15 which speak about issues of inclusive human settlement, safe resilient communities and climate change and its impacts.”
The country, she added, is currently implementing the SDGs against a backdrop of multiple recovery strategies, including the National Ebola Recovery Strategy. The essence of rebuilding, madam Kabia said, is critical and the way in which Sierra Leone is rebuilding herself has been emphasized in the country’s post Ebola Recovery Plan titled: Building Back Better.
Using the ebola outbreak as a case study that provides an opportunity for a more collaborative approach to development, minister Kabia said, the post ebola recovery plan for the three most affected countries “cannot be that dissimilar to the SDGs” and that the cross border nature of the ebola epidemic gives evidence to the view that “regional and global development affects the sustainable development of individual countries. It emphasizes the need for regional integration as a priority agenda.”
“The lessons must serve as the foundation for sustainable development. An aggressive agenda inclusive of all targets, a comprehensive plan with aid workers, international agencies feed into should be country owned to create the kinds of partnerships outlined in the SDGs.”
On capacity building areas for developing countries, minister Kabia highlighted monitoring and the evaluation of implementation; data collection; and financial management systems as being crucial. “Without the right baseline data, priorities would be skewed; without the monitoring tools, progress cannot be measured; and without sustainable financing, development would not be realized”, she said.
There should be a targeted focus on several aspects of development, she said, including strengthening capacity in a bid to strengthen institutions and improve on technical assistance provided to public sector institutions responsible for the formulation, designing and implementation of development plans, and public policies including Civil Society Organizations.
At the bilateral level, madam Kabia said, since 1971, both Sierra Leone and China “have carved out strong diplomatic relations out of mutual respect and understanding, solidified by an uncommon political trust,” further paying glowing tribute to China for the “unparalleled early steps they took in the recent battle against Ebola”
Undeniably, she said, China has played an unprecedented role in Sierra Leone, “but the role we have played for each other at the most critical times in our two nations is the yard stick by which we measure the strength of our diplomatic ties.”
The trial of Teodoro Obiang: son of the president of Equatorial Guinea
The trial of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, is being heard in France for allegedly siphoning off more than $225 million of public money for personal purposes.
“This trial is a strong signal to corrupt leaders around the world that they are no longer immune from prosecution anywhere. The impunity they enjoyed is getting weaker every day.” Marc-André Feffer, Chair of TI France.
Transparency International France and Association Sherpa, two civil society organisations, started a legal battle to get an answer to the question, how was it possible for Teodoro Obiang to live such a luxurious lifestyle in France – own a multi-million dollar car collection and a fancy apartment – on the salary of a government official. As many as three quarters of the population of Equatorial Guinea live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.
“This is a milestone in the history of the anti-corruption movement. Civil society has taken legal action to question a powerful figure and present the evidence of his corruption. The trial will show the levels of scandalous enrichment in a country where more than 70 per cent of the people live in extreme poverty. The poor citizens of Equatorial Guinea, a country rich in minerals, have a voice to help them win justice in the face of corruption”, said José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International.
On 19 June, the opening day of the trial, Obiang’s lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed, citing that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity, that there were procedural errors, and that a French court had no jurisdiction in the case. The judge, however, allowed proceedings to begin.
William Bourdon, the lawyer for the prosecution, described the vast wealth amassed by Obiang, who he likened to a “spoilt child” in his spending habits: the luxury apartment with 20 rooms, a Hamman bath, a discotheque, a cinema, and a hair salon. Testimony from former employees described the suitcases of cash that Obiang is suspected to have regularly brought into the flat, wardrobes full of designer clothes and the garage filled with prestige cars including a Rolls Royce, a Bentley and a Porsche.
A MUST READ: Former CDF Spokesman Alfred Sam Foray breaks his silence…Calls on Kandeh Yumkella to quit SLPP and “let the dead bury their dead”
A man never short of colorful expressions, the former Spokesman of the Sierra Leone Civil Defence Force ( CDF ) and one-time outspoken stalwart of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party , Rev. Alfred Sam Foray, has broken his long silence . He is speaking once again.
In telling words replete with Mende proverbs , biblical quotations and idiomatic expressions , characteristic of him, Mr. Foray has written an open letter to embattled SLPP Presidential Flagbearer aspirant , Dr. Foday Yumkella , advising him “to seize the day and the moment” , bid farewell to the SLPP and “Let the dead bury their dead”.
SamForay broke ranks with the SLPP when heavily-armed Police officers representing the Special Court of Sierra Leone stormed the office of the Internal Affairs Minister cum- Commander of the CDF , the late Chief Hinga Norman, sealed off his office and the whole Liverpool Street, handcuffed him and indicted him for war crimes on March 7, 2003 under the watchful eyes of the SLPP Government (led by the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah), which the CDF had protected and defended with extraordinary zeal and valor during the apocalyptic war with the murderous and limb-hacking Revolutionary United Front ( RUF ).
Foray fought a long and sustained battle of words and wits with the Kabbah Government and the Special Court and Chief Norman died a prisoner while seeking treatment in Senegal on February 22, 2007.Even after the SLPP lost power in the same year, Rev. Samforay remained very vocal but in recent years he seemed to have lost his fervor and he went silent. However, his letter to Kandeh Yumkella shows where Mr. Samforay stands in the unending SLPP fiasco . The letter also shows that even die-hard SLPP fanatics have lost patience with the ugly mess going on in the SLPP , characterized by deadly infighting and court cases .
READ :
Open Letter to Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella
by Rev. Alfred Munda SamForay
My Dearest Brother,
As you well know a letter such as this would have been relayed to you in private with the full assurance of confidentiality, but time and circumstance have a way of dictating matters outside our normal channels. As the Wise King Solomon well observed in his much recited treatise in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
As you well know a letter such as this would have been relayed to you in private with the full assurance of confidentiality, but time and circumstance have a way of dictating matters outside our normal channels. As the Wise King Solomon well observed in his much recited treatise in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak.”
And if I may humbly add to King Solomon’s wisdom, there is time to ponder thoughts – to borrow from our dear Pastor Andrew Keili – and a time to decide. This is the time to refrain, to give up, to throw away, to tear apart and to speak. The time for embracing imaginary friends is over. The time to search for non-existent unity within the Sierra Leone Peoples Party is over. The time to keep what Milton Margai, Albert Margai, Kandeh Bureh, Ella Koblo Gulama and Bai Shebro Yumkella sought to have and to hold, to love and to cherish until death do us part is over. It is time for a new beginning; the dawn of a new era. “The night is long that never finds the day”. In short, it is time to move on. To seize the day and the moment – or as you CKC boys would say, Carpe Diem. And if I may be as bold (and cold) as Jesus Christ Himself, “Let the dead bury their dead”.
There is a Mende proverb that says Nimi nimi a lo kalei maloh bi kula. Roughly translated, you must quit sucking on the bone while there is still some sweetness left in it rather than wait for the bitterness that follows. This has been a long journey on what we call in America a cul-de-sac. Literally, the bottom of the sack. A dead end street with only one way in one way out meant primarily to keep outsiders (those foreign to the area, call them kenyemui sia), those who do not belong there from driving through the neighborhood. It is the city version of the Trump wall.
We are all painfully aware of several instances where you would have crashed face first into this Trump wall, but for the grace of Almighty God. There was the much ado about nothing concerning you not being a registered member of the SLPP. Or not having ever voted in Sierra Leone. Then there was that dreadful day when an honorable woman, Hadja Bintu Yumkella (your mother), was physically assaulted at the party office in Freetown, spat upon and her hijab rudely removed from her head by thugs later identified as belonging to Brig.-Gen. (Retd) Julius Maada Bio. And then lately, there were, as we later found out, plans under way to expel you and your supporters from the party had the recent Appeals Court ruling gone against you. And speaking of the court ruling itself, the Sierra Leone Court of Appeals only asked that votes in 39 disputed constituencies be recounted. The court never said anything about lower level elections. But true to their calling (mis-calling), the illegally constituted National Executive Council comprising of the former Deputy Chairman of the party, Dr. Prince Harding, decided to begin the re-count at sectional, chiefdom and District levels contrary to the court’s instructions.
It is such flagrant and reckless disregard for the judiciary of our country and the blatant violations of the SLPP constitution that has brought the once noble and admirable party of Sir Milton Margai and others to a marginal Opposition party and a laughing stock of our national body-politic. That’s why so many of us are saying, enough is enough. Quit while you are still ahead of the game. Even Jesus saw fit to warn His disciples:
“I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you…But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and remove even the dust off your feet as a warning to them that treacherous days are ahead..”
It is time to bid fare well Unity House with malice towards no one. It is time to seek peace elsewhere with people of like mind for the betterment of the nation. Much work needs to be done between now and the proposed elections time in March 2018. In the past few days, we have heard about serious physical confrontations between supporters of the two main contenders for the chairmanship of the SLPP, Mr. Manyeh and Dr. Harding. There is very little precious time left to be wasted on such intra-party squabbles that seem to have no end. The energy of those who have invested in your “Hope, Opportunity and Transformation” – in your plans to transform Sierra Leone from a beggar nation to a more prosperous one – cannot be squandered on endless battles within the SLPP.
Again, King Solomon and Andrew Keili:
There is a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time build and a time to tear down,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
There is a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time build and a time to tear down,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
Please “ponder my thoughts”.
Your Brother,
Munda
Munda
Freetown Amusement Park Official Test Run of its Facilities
On Monday 26th June 2017, the Management of the Freetown Amusement Park did its first official test run on its facilities to the general public.
The ultra-modern state of the earth Amusement park will serve as sport and recreational center for the general public.
After its grand opening which is scheduled for November 2017, the Freetown Amusement Park will be open daily to the general public and it will operate 24 Hours Round the clock.
The Freetown Amusement Park is expected to employ over 300 Sierra Leoneans, and will cater for all your recreational needs.
The symbolic event was witnessed by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Hon. Capt (Rtd). Allieu Momodu Pat-Sowe, Dr. Francis Horace Tipes Dove-Edwin, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr from the President’s Delivery Team for Transition and Recovery* and a host of other distinguished personalities.
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