1. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka
Fifty years ago, Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected, becoming the first female head of government the world had ever known. Her victory was so groundbreaking; no one knew what to call her. "There will be need for a new word," London's Evening News wrote the day after she was elected as Prime Minister in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). "Presumably, we shall have to call her a stateswoman." Bandaranaike assumed the role of party leader after her husband was assassinated by a Buddhist monk in 1959. When her party won the July 1960 election, she took the country's reins and held them until 1965. She would serve as Prime Minister again from 1970 to 1977 and from 1994 to 2000. It was her daughter, who had become the country's first female President in 1994, who appointed her to her final term, though the position had become largely ceremonial at that point. She stepped down in April 2000 and died later that year — on the very day she cast her ballot in the country's elections.
2. Indira Gandhi, India
She was the nation's daughter, brought up under the close watch of both her father, who was India's first Prime Minister after decades of British rule, and her country. The TIME magazine cover not long after her election in January 1966 read, "Troubled India in a Woman's Hands." Those hands led India for much of the next two decades, through recession, famine, the detonation of the nation's first atomic bomb and a civil war in neighboring Pakistan that, under her guidance, saw the creation of a new state, Bangladesh.
3. Golda Meir, Israel
Once called "the only man in the Cabinet," Golda Meir was a formidable figure in Israeli politics. Tall, gaunt, blunt and determined, to the world she embodied the steely stubbornness of the Israeli spirit. "There is a type of woman," she once said, "who does not let her husband narrow her horizon." After an illustrious political career, including service as Israel's Labor Minister and Foreign Minister, among other high-level positions, she was called out of retirement at age 70 to lead her country as Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974.
4. Golda Meir, Israel
Once called "the only man in the Cabinet," Golda Meir was a formidable figure in Israeli politics. Tall, gaunt, blunt and determined, to the world she embodied the steely stubbornness of the Israeli spirit. "There is a type of woman," she once said, "who does not let her husband narrow her horizon." After an illustrious political career, including service as Israel's Labor Minister and Foreign Minister, among other high-level positions, she was called out of retirement at age 70 to lead her country as Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974.
5. Corazon Aquino, Philippines
After the assassination of her charismatic husband, the pious Catholic widow Corazon Aquino won over the public and overthrew the dictatorial regime widely blamed for his murder. In a spectacle that added the phrase people power to the global lexicon, millions of supporters took to the streets to ensure Aquino's eventual rise to the office of the President in February 1986. Though tested by several attempted military coups and other setbacks, she managed to preserve the democracy her husband had died for. She was named TIME's Person of the Year in 1986 — the first woman to receive the designation since Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.
6. Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
A daughter of the Pakistan dynasty, Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics and died because of it. Young and glamorous, she was a refreshing contrast to the male-dominated political establishment. She led her country as Prime Minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996 — both times, she was dismissed from office by the President for alleged corruption, charges she steadfastly denied and called politically motivated. She was assassinated in 2007 while campaigning to bring back democracy to the then military-ruled country; her husband, also tarnished with allegations of graft, is now President.
7. Angela Merkel, Germany
Angela Merkel is a rarity in German politics: she's the first Chancellor to have grown up in communist East Germany, the first female to lead and the youngest-ever incumbent. She spent decades being underrated but never took it to heart. "You could say I've never underestimated myself," Merkel told TIME in January 2010. "There's nothing wrong with being ambitious." One hundred days after taking office in late 2005, a poll named her the most popular Chancellor in German history.
8. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia
In April 2006, First Lady Laura Bush described Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as a woman who has never stopped working for her country. "[Her] courage and commitment to her country are an inspiration to me and women around the world," Bush wrote in TIME. Johnson-Sirleaf started her political career as a Liberian Cabinet Minister in the 1970s, went on to become a senior United Nations administrator in the 1990s and, when elected President of Liberia in 2006, became the first African woman to be elected head of state. Since taking the helm, she has pushed to reclaim what her nation lost during years of civil war. With strong will and determination, she has vowed to fight against corruption and move "forward into a future that is filled with hope and promise." To honor her triumphs, then U.S. President George W. Bush awarded her a 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom. As Laura Bush wrote, "Johnson-Sirleaf is an example of what can happen when girls are educated."
Friday, July 23, 2010
A Brief History of Women in Power-This is what happen when girls are educated!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Liberian TRC: Reconciliation before the Truth - hummmm?
Question – What if we (Liberians) were to find out the names and countries of all those who had their hands in the “cookie jar” of the Liberian war, is Liberia in the position to take those involve to court? Or will we only reconcile with them as well? Personally, I don’t think Liberians can handle the truth regarding the war because no two sides will agree on whose to blame.
Sometimes I think the reasons we are getting help from the outside countries in rebuilding Liberia is their way of saying “we are sorry for what we started in your country and to your people” nothing more. I don’t think they really care, do you? All of the assistances we are getting from the USA are only a mere “we should not have let Charles Taylor out of jail, we made a mistake” gesture. Then again, one can only wonder what was in it for them, the diamonds or to reduce the population of an African country or both.
Some of the things I see and hear happening in various African countries I think are all plans to hopefully reduce the African populations. The sad part is we (Africans) know this all too well but still take the bribe for our own selfishness and greed. Africans are known to sell their own for a buck dating back to the biblic al days. As much as we are reconciling, it will take only one person to sell us back to 1979 or 1989. We always claim to want help with our day to day and long term lives in Liberia but the minutes someone comes along and present us with a dollar, we will sell whatever and whoever for that buck no matter what the short or long term consequences are.
To reconcile is to be willing to forgive and acknowledging that no one groups or tribes is to be blamed. We also need to acknowledge that we deserve a second chance. We need to know that we are valuable to the world. We need to start by showing respect for ourselves and our countrymen and women. One can not love their country and steal from it and break it down to nothing. It is impossible to love someone you do NOT respect; we have to learn to respect each other and take pride in our country first. We have to stop wearing our emotional on our sleeves and genuinely work on our feelings for one another.
We need to de-program ourselves to connect the dots, meaning we need to use what we learned in school in our personal everyday lives. We have psychologist using and abusing women emotionally and don’t see sleeping around as a sign of uselessness towards one self; we have medical doctors sleeping around without protections but go to work everyday and give advice on protections. We have RNs sending for over the counter drugs (street drug) from Liberia to use when they are sick, by the time they realized the Liberia street drug is not working, it’s too late. We have accountants who can not count but know how to steal but at the same time never want to be accountable for their actions; and lawyers who are more of a criminal then the guys on the streets but yet practice the law everyday. We have educated, well rounded Liberians still believe when they are sick someone must have witched them. We have PhD holders acting like third grade dropouts but know how to present themselves at work. We have food specialist that are over weight and eating large amount of fufu and soup at 11pm at night; shouldn’t they all know better or was their schooling only for “name sake” to say I have a degree. Why are Liberians not connecting the dots, education and life should go hand in hand, why can’t we use our education to live better lives?
By the time we Liberians are 45 – 50 years old, we have multiple kids by multiple women/men; multiple marriages; many illnesses; and no real family connections; no dependable friends around to lean on and we looked 20 years older then our peers from another country…..and then we died before our 55th birthday, why, only two reasons…
1. We wear our feelings on our sleeves meaning our feeling do not go beyond the present moment, when you are out of sight, you are out of our minds, we don’t care what we do or say to or about you.
2. We do not apply our education in our personal life, we spent 4 – 12 years reading for a good job but when we get home from work, our minds and behaviors are as if we were never in school!!!
All the reconciliations in the world will not get Liberians to:
Respect each other
Make real peace with one another
Love the land call Liberia
Stop the hate
Stop the envy
Stop the unnecessary greed
Think of what they can “do for” Liberia and not what they can “steal from” Liberia
Seek counseling for ourselves and our love ones
Mentally change our mindset of what we consider the word LOVE to be.
We have a long way to go my friend!!
Roberta Williams
Friday, March 26, 2010
Rituals Killing in Liberia
Make up your mind, one minute you want culture rituals to continue in Liberia the next minutes you want culture rituals (killings) to stop. Isn’t this the culture rituals that you, Nat G. and others want to continue in Liberia? Live with it!!!!
You can’t have both my friend!
Thank you,
Roberta Williams
"What other people think of you is none of your business."
________________________________
From: ULIBSAAforum@yahoogroups.com [mailto:ULIBSAAforum@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Morris
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:58 PM
To: EveryLiberian@yahoogroups.com; OnLiberianMedium@yahoogroups.com; Every Liberian; NEKTAA; olm_04adm@yahoogroups.com; olm_adm04@yahoogroups.com; olm_admo4@yahoogroups.com; progressinunity@yahoo.com; robertsfieldreunion@yahoo.com; ulibsaabforum@yahoogroups.com; ulibsaaforum@ahoogroups.com; ulibsaaforum@yahoo.com; ulibsaaforum@yahoogroups.com; University ofLiberia; University of Liberia
Subject: [ULIBSAAforum] Fw: LIB govt. ignores ritual killings
--- On Wed, 3/10/10, Joe Morris
From: Joe Morris
Subject: LIB govt. ignores ritual killings
To: EveryLiberian@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 12:54 PM
Fellow Liberians,
Please do not be surprise if the government of Liberia decides to investigate the recent conflict in Lofa without pursuing the perpetrators of the ritualistic killing of the young girl that ignited the violence.
When did it become legal in Liberia to kill people especially those belonging to low economic class?
There have been series of death reported around the country with ritual intend and the very good government has never been moved or the nation stopped to pursue the perpetrators and bring justice to one more forgotten soul that leaves the living few.
For the sake of common sense, you will think that after losing 250,000 of your citizens, you will be distraught when one more of the living is gone.
Most frustrating of all; The family of the slain young girl will now be heard only because it sparked tribal and religious conflict.
What a sad nation!
God bless our nation.
Joseph Kalapele Morris
Connecticut - The Constitution State
--- On Sun, 2/28/10, George Kpator
From: George Kpator
Subject: [EveryLiberian] FrontPageAfrica's ACCOUNTS OF WHAT HAPPENED IN LOFA COUNTY
To: "Every Liberian"
Date: Sunday, February 28, 2010, 1:30 AM
L
iberia’s northernmost county of Lofa is unarguably one of Liberia’s counties that continues to heed to the effects of the evils of a post-conflict environment which continues to see the residents of the county challenged with the task of co-existence and religious tolerance in the midst of all its Christian-Muslim domination in addition to its many tribal arrangements, begetting a recent violence in two of its major towns that have led to deaths and destruction of properties that occurred in less than 24 hours.
What began as a student protest against the death of one of their colleagues named Korpu Kamara later turned into a somewhat religious violence that reportedly left four persons dead and over 50 injured that left some churches and schools burnt down.
The violence coincided as the Liberian National Bar Association was holding its first quarterly-session of 2010 in Voinjama which left one of its councilors’ vehicle burnt down in the aftermath of the violence after an entrapped Vice President Joseph Boakai had to be airlifted to Monrovia following hours of his convoy being held hostage by the angry protesters.
Sen. Kupee & other Lofa lawmakers a town hall meeting Saturday to discuss the religious tension in Northern Liberia.
Reports emanating from the county said the students’ protest was sparked by the discovery of student Korpu’s corpse, an eleventh grade student, who had gone missing for days but was found dead later reportedly lying next to a mosque in Zorzor, thereby leading to some of the students suspecting that their colleague’s death was tied to the Muslims of the mosque.
Lofa County Superintendent, Galakpai Kortimai, told a local radio station Friday night that misinformation from Zorzor of a mosque being burnt down rapidly spread to Voinjama which led angry Muslims to go on the rampage, reportedly burning down churches and Christian-run schools with the Catholic and Lutheran schools in the provincial capital being reportedly burnt down.
Further reports speak of shootings from single barrel guns in the provincial capital leading to the deaths of four men as confirmed by Representative Moses Kollie who told FrontPageAfrica that the bodies of the four killed so far were all men and were found with bullet wounds, a situation that has caused more attention to be drawn to the fragility of not just the county but Liberia in its entirety.
Representative Kollie said the bodies are deposited at a local hospital in Voinjama.
The late Korpu was also reported to have been found dead with bullet wound, though yet to be fully established.
Late Friday evening, troops from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) of the Liberian National Police (LNP) were seen being airlifted from the Springfield Airport in Sinkor, Monrovia, to the troubled zone to help calm the situation along with stationed troops of the United Nations Mission In Liberia (UNMIL) who have come under strong criticism of biasingly protecting only mosques and ignoring the protection of churches, something that again surfaced during Saturday’s mass meeting.UNMIL, in a press release issued late Friday afternoon stated it was aware of the situation and that UNMIL Formed Police Unit and military components were sent on the ground in assistance to the LNP in Voinjama where the incident took place.
Saturday's meeting came a day after violence erupted in the county; beginning from a town named Konia and later spreading to other parts of the county including the provincial capital of Voinjama.
The UN Mission said that the troops will work in close coordination with the local county authorities and the security apparatus on the ground to keep the situation under control and UNMIL will contribute the necessary specialists to assist in the investigation of the incident.
In the midst of the recent violence in the county that has seen scores of damages taking place in Zorzor and Voinjama, a mass meeting of Lofa citizens residing in Monrovia and its environs was held Saturday at the Capitol Building upon the invitation of the Lofa County Legislative Caucus.
The meeting came a day after violence erupted in the county; beginning from a town named Konia and later spreading to other parts of the county including the provincial capital of Voinjama.
Saturday’s meeting that was organized by the county’s legislative caucus saw several views and suggestions made by citizens of the county which resulted into the formation of two committees with the responsibilities of investigating what really transpired and soliciting funds to aid with the repairs of the damages caused respectively.
The meeting was headed by the Caucus’ Chairman, the county’s Senior Senator Sumo Kupee (Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia-COTOL) while Senator Fomba Kanneh (All Liberian Coalition Party-ALCOP) , Representatives Moses Kollie (COTOL), Malliam Jallabah (ALCOP) and Varflay Kamara (ALCOP) were present as Representative Eugene Fallah Kparkar’s absence (Liberty Party) was noticeable.
Lofa citizens during the meeting who were drawn from all tribal and religious sectors of the county agreed on ensuring that the committees comprise of three representatives from each of the county’s seven administrative districts with one female and two males comprising of each set of the three representatives: namely, Foya , Kolahun
‘A Shame To All Lofaians’
“What is happening in Lofa County is a shame to us all”, noted one of the citizens before adding his recommendation during the meeting.
The county in recent time has been engulfed with several mysterious deaths, most of which are ritualistic and the students had thought that it was time for such to be halted with immediacy.
The death of little Vawuu Kesselley whose death has linked Senator Kupee and that of another police man have been reasons why the students thought to demand justice that unfortunately turned out to be violent than they had thought.
Representative Kollie told FrontPageAfrica after Saturday’s meeting that the citizens of the county need to go back on the drawing-board in identifying and acknowledging that there are still problems in the county.
“The death of this little girl tells us that there are still problems in our county”, Representative Kollie said.
I’m Bitter More Than You”: Deceased’s Uncle Laments
PAINFUL LOSS
Jefferson Nyandibo, an uncle of the late Korpu Kamara whose death sparked the violence, in an attempt to restore quietude to the meeting that was being disturbed by some of the citizens said he was bitter more than any of them in attendance and that there was need for any disturbance as they sought to find the solution to the problem of their troubled county.
Jefferson Nyandibo, an uncle of the late Korpu Kamara whose death sparked the violence, in an attempt to restore quietude to the meeting that was being disturbed by some of the citizens said, he was bitter more than any of them in attendance and that there was no need for any further disturbance as they sought to find the solution to the problem of their troubled county.
“No one, as I stand before you is so more grieved than me, but again, with your presence, my sorrow has gone away” Jefferson said.
Jefferson told the gathering that the deceased was actually the child of the late Paramount Chief, Joseph Nyandibo. Jefferson narrated that his elder brother married Korpu’s mother, Viamah Nyandibo Kamara, who has gone to Konia, Lofa County to bury their daughter.
“What we have come to say to all of us is this: there’ll be situation that will always create forum for another situation”, he said or otherwise he would have gone to the Capitol Building and stop Senator Kupee not to speak until they provide circumstances leading to the death of his niece who he referred to as daughter, Korpu.
Jefferson urged his fellow citizens to stop asking who is going to keep peace for them in their county.
“No one order than you can keep peace in Lofa”, he said as he made reference to a remark from one of the citizens who suggested that UNMIL be drawn into whatever investigation that would take place amid claims that the UN Mission was biased in protecting mosques and not churches.
“Dangerously, for all us of is to ever live with pretense. I was in Voinjama, when we did the traditional cleansing, funded by USAID. Elders that ever went to that traditional cleansing can attest”, he continued as he lamented the fact that there exists some differences among citizens of the county that need to be settled and instead of pretending that all is well.
He reflected that during the “traditional cleansing”, people from every segment of the area were present.
“We killed cows, we put libations, we went to the mountains, we did all. But this action, I’m convinced that was done was under pretense”, Jefferson further observed.
Lofa’s On Time Bomb
He told his fellow Lofa citizens that it was fortunate for them to realize that they are sitting on a time bomb in the county.
He further asserted it was unfortunate that his niece, Korpu died in the way and manner in which she died and left the podium weeping deeply. Jefferson frowned on his compatriots that they pretend so much, which will do them no good.
Joke of the day
GIRLS OF THREE COUNTIES IN LIBERIA!
Three friends married women from different parts of the Liberia.....
The first man married a woman from Bong County. He told her that she was to do the dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple of days, but on the third day, he came home to see a clean house and dishes washed and put away.
The second man married a woman from Lofa County. He gave his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge bowl of fufu and soup on the table.
The third man married a girl from Sinoe County. He ordered her to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, cooked, clothes washed, and soup with every meals on the table every day. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything but by the third day, some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, and his arm was healed enough that he could fix himself smoke fish and rice and wash his own bowl. He still has some difficulty when he pees!!
