Opin Yu Yi Human Rights Film Festival begins in Sierra Leone

Come join us for our opening ceremony at Thomsonia Hall on Syke Street near the National Stadium from 6pm.
The wonderful Fatou Wurie (photographer, blogger, activist!) will be our MC for the evening.
We have fantastic musical performances from pianist Panos Karan of Keys of Change and The Walpolians - an inspiring group of disabled musicians.
If you missed Opin Yu Yi last year, we'll be showing a short film with highlights from 2012.
Our films for the evening are 30% - a beautiful short film about women's political participation in Sierra Leone which was recently selected for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. This will be followed by a short question and answer with Miss Salumatu Kamara, a political candidate and one of the inspiring women in the film, along with the President of 50/50 Sierra Leone.
Our opening film will be - An African Election - a political documentary that shows the behind the scenes world of Ghanian politics during the 2008 elections and examines governance in Africa.
Susan Senessie will be hosting a "Pop Up Bar" and serving delicious drinks, cocktails and Sierra Leonean snacks before, during the interval and after the opening.
ENTRANCE IS FREE!
Please come and invite your colleagues and friends to OPEN THEIR EYES!!
Sunday - we'll be at Globe Cinema on Syke Street from 2pm showing more wonderful films including iTemba (a film about a disabled music group in Zimbabwe), the Sierra Leone premiere of Salay (a film about a young girl in the provinces who longs for education and a better life) and the premiere of Nairobi Half Life - a fantastic film that has been screened widely across the world and was Kenya's entry for Best Foreign Language film to the Oscars.
www.opinyuyi.orgwww.facebook.com/opinyuyi

Sierra Leone goes fibre optic! But will prices come down?

Yeaah!! I know there are a few people who have that reaction in relation to the launch of the fibre optic ACE cable which happened yesterday in Freetown. This is great not only it will greatly ease the frustrations of those who have needed it for so long, but it will also create a wealth of internet driven solutions and opportunities. We can also watch those fantastic internet clips on youtube. There have been studies which indicate that there is some link between high bandwidth and poverty reduction. We surely hope that can be replicated in Sierra Leone.

Hopefully, after the technical side has been implemented we can enjoy the second promise of fibre optic technology which is the reduction of cost of bandwidth. We hope that there will be competition among the providers which will offer the best for consumers and force prices down. My fear however, based on talking to a few people who are involved in the business in some way is that we will not see any significant fall in prices.

An announcement today that Airtel will be cutting the cost of the bandwidth by 50% sounds like good news. But it's a bit like having a salary increase. When your salary increases so does your expenditure. In other words we will be using the internet more now that it's quicker. We will open those attachments and watch those video clips. So, with the Airtel "pay for bandwidth" model, you'll still end up paying more because you're downloading more. If they're serious about reducing the price, they should reduce the cost of their unlimited plan but this has stayed the same.

Nevertheless, we will watch this space and await communication from the other ISPs.

Sand mining scourge - Is Tourism ever going to be taken serious in beautiful Sierra Leone?

Political rhetoric and action are quite often miles apart. In almost any speech by politicians about Sierra Leone, there talk of the beautiful coastline and how much potential tourism holds of for this beautiful corner in West Africa. However, to allow the practice of sand mining to continue along Sierra Leone’s pristine coastline is irresponsible and demonstrates a complete lack of commitment to developing the tourism industry. It shows that consciously or not, there is no thought or desire to protect the livelihood of future generations. We seem intent on killing off the tourism industry before it even has a chance to blossom. Our obsession with immediate and ill thought out fixes for issues facing this country will surely come back to haunt us and the consequences of the sand mining currently going on is no exception.

According to TribeWanted, a few weeks ago the government in Sierra Leone endorsed the practice of sand-mining on John Obey's neighboring beaches for a full 6 days a week during all daylight hours. I doubt that sand mining is about creating employment. It is definitely no sustainable way to maintain employment when in fact you are destroying the communities around where this activity is going on at the expense of mansions in the hills (for which trees and vegetation have already made way) and the punters who are simply cashing in on this act.

So no, tourism is not a priority and is not an important part the national agenda for “prosperity”, if it was we’d be trying to find a workable way forward.

Have a look through the BBC’s “In pictures"documentation of what is going on and also read this blog for more information.

Sign the petition to Stop Sand Mining and Protect the Beautiful Beaches of Sierra Leone

Annie Walsh Memorial School relocation and transformation into market proposal

As it turns out, there is a floating proposal about relocating THE Annie Walsh Memorial School and turning the existing grounds into a market (to ease congestion on that side of town). Not a mall or supermarket mind you. Rightly so, the alumni worldwide are not best pleased, whilst it sounds like the government is saying “well you planned to move anyway as the atmosphere is no longer conducive for education”. The govt is saying it’s merely trying to “kill two birds with one stone” (read the release), whilst the alumni would rather see the school turned into some sort of museum in order to respect and preserve the history that has flowed through those gates. There is an online petition going on to save the school so if you are interested in saving such a valuable monument, you can have your say too. The govt is keen to stress that no decision has been taken on this issue.

The Annie Walsh Memorial School established in 1849 is one of the oldest Schools in Africa and has educated women from all over the continent and beyond.

Bumbuna is broken

Bumbuna is broken… and has been since November 2012 but the full scale of the problem only became apparent after the elections. The regular supply of electricity which seemed to shining example of the President’s commitment to solving the country’s chronic power shortfall seems a distant memory. As it turns out there are two turbines up at the dam. One of them is completely down due to a crack and the other is running at about a quarter of its capacity, I suspect to save it from being damaged as well. This means that if output is going to be increased, emergency power solutions will have to be sourced – similar to what happened immediately after the ruling party’s first term. As these emergency solutions run on fuel (unlike the more efficient dams) and there has been an increase in fuel prices means in short that electricity rates are going to increase. Not the ideal start to the “Agenda for Prosperity” then.

Respected Lawyer Blyden Jenkins-Johnston wrote an open letter to the President talking about this issues.