Thanks Burama,
I have forwarded your last email to others more equipped to answer you but I will still throw in my fifty kroners. The victims indeed suffers years of trauma not only from the memories but also the fact that in some cases the sewings are often removed when the victim marries or at childbirth and then re-sewn in some cultures. Recently a medical doctor was arraigned before the courts in UK for this practice. I do not agree to some notion that the sex life is any different, though, at least not in type 3 cases, the practice found in our part of the world, but in type 3 cases, sex may be traumatic, especially when the sewing has not been fully removed, hence the reason they sew it in the first place.
KR.
Kejau
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 08:46:56 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Can Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) be reversed?
To: [log in to unmask]
Kejau
Yeah! You may be right am wrong.
For the most part I like to stay far away from cultures.
The processes you mentioned could be very painful to perform especially under some of those conditions. What You didn't point out is how the quality/quantity of life of those people/societies affected - say reproductively, sexually, physically, psychologically, longevity, etc?
I choose not to circumcise my daughter amid fierce opposition of my sisters - not because is harmful to her but is not religiously sanctioned and is socially is a choice. I worked in the NGO world for good 10 years with a component of this particular program - not sure of it impact. The message wasn't very compelling on why is bad considering some of those cultures has that practice for centuries without a visible harm.
I'm not against the campaign to stop or reduce it but I think could be address better by overall improving the standard of living of our people. The message also needs better formulation than the seemly anti-cultural tone. I thought Family Planning (reduce number of kids) campaign suffered similar fate. Now am vying into my favorite place - political education. I resist!
Regardless thanks for enlightment!
Burama
On Wednesday, September 3, 2014, Kejau Touray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Burama,
You are indeed very wrong as there is not only cutting involved especially in other countries like Somalia, where 99% of women are forced to sew up their female reproductive parts until they are betrothed. Even in The Gambia, you will find various degrees of FGM with type 3 most common, the mildest of the three, which involves cutting off the clitoris, an active living organ, unlike the male foreskin, which is for all intent and purpose, dead. Therefore the two cannot be compared. Tune into Freedom Newspaper's weekly women's hour with Neneh Bojang and Seedy Ceesay for a more intensive discussion on this and other feminism issues.
KR.
Kejau
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2014 22:44:56 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Can Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) be reversed?
To: [log in to unmask]
Kejau
This topic is a hard one for me.
My first concern is the name. I wonder why they never come with Male GM? I don't know if only cutting is involve warrant that naming.
The science behind the arguments are as unsettled as Global warming/climate change. I mean what are the physical, genetical and physchological effects of the practice in hundreds of years of say Mandinkas?
I could be wrong!
Regards.
Burama
On Tuesday, September 2, 2014, Kejau Touray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
By Neneh Bojang - Neneh's Feminist Journal
As the the President of The European Network for the Prevention of Harmful Traditional Practices (EuroNet-FGM) and the Founder/Executive Director of IAC Norway, I am presently honoured to be in Paris together with the Secretary of the Euronet –FGM/President of FORWARD Germany Dr. Tobe Levin regarding the establishment of the Clitoris Restoration Fund.The Fund serves the purpose of reversing the damage of female genital mutilation through funding a clitoris restoration operation conducted by the French surgeon Dr. Pierre Foldes.
In the last few years there has been a growing impetus to address female genital mutilation at national, regional and international levels. The adoption of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution, to ban female genital mutilation which the EuronetFGM along with its partners played a central role has for example contributed to this momentum. The decision reiterates the importance of enhancing efforts at the global level to effectively address the practice.The creation of the fund is also an important step in adding to this momentum and hopefully become instrumental in reversing the harmful effects of FGM.
The full article can be found here:
http://gambiadaily.co.uk/15-can-female-genital-mutilation-fgm-be-reversed
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 00:11:44 +0200
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Jammeh's Assault on Freedom of Religion in the Calipha Muhideen Hydara case
To: [log in to unmask]
Jammeh's Assault on Freedom of Religion in the Calipha Muhideen Hydara case
The Caliph Muhideen Hydara and the Alkalo of Darsilame Sangharjor, Buyah Touray have been arraigned before the Magistrate Court presided over by Seranding Sanneh, charged with 'Disobedience to a Lawful Command', in that on they were lawfully ordered by the President of the republic of The Gambia to not pray Idl Fitr on Tuesday the 29 July 2014 as they happened to reside between Kalagie and Banjul, and not beyond Kalagie. This order was given in a television broadcast whenthe Banjul Elders and other Muslim leaders came to the State House to meet with the president, which meeting was broadcast live.
S25(1)(c) of the 1997 Constitution guarantees a right to religion and right to practice that religion. So did the International Convention on the Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 18(3):
Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
Furthermore as forwarded by the learned senior counsel Antouman Gaye, the president has no power to legislate on his own, certainly not by television broadcast, as envisaged under s7 of the 1997 Constitution and certainly contrary to s25(1) of the same constitution. The counsellor then submitted to the magistrate to refer the matter to the supreme court, as the competent authority to adjudicate on this matter. The matter was to be decided on Monday 01 September 2014.
This submission was made under s127 of the constitution, which gave the Supreme Court exclusive rights to interpret the constitution except under provisions relating to the fundamental rights and freedom, especially on issues on purported law making rights, such as those assume erroneously by the head of state.
Read more here:
http://gambiadaily.co.uk/14-caliph-muhideen-hydara-case
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2014 14:43:11 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ebola response 'lethally inadequate '
To: [log in to unmask]
Ebola response 'lethally inadequate'Last updated 3 hours ago
By James Gallagher
Health editor, BBC News website
Nurses helping man with Ebola
A global military intervention is needed to curb the largest ever Ebola outbreak, according to the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
In a damning criticism of world leaders, it says the global response has so far been "lethally inadequate".
The charity said countries were turning their back on West Africa and merely reducing the risk of Ebola arriving on their shores.
More than 1,550 people have died in the outbreak which started in Guinea.
At least 3,000 people have been infected with the virus, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that more than 20,000 people are likely to be infected.
'Coalition of inaction'In a speech to the United Nations, the international president of MSF, Dr Joanne Liu, said repeated calls for help had been ignored.
She said: "Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it.
"Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat.
"The WHO announcement on August 8 that the epidemic constituted a 'public health emergency of international concern' has not led to decisive action, and states have essentially joined a global coalition of inaction."
MSF said military and civilian teams capable of dealing with a biological disaster were needed immediately as the spread of Ebola "will not be prevented without a massive deployment".
It is calling for more field hospitals with isolation wards to be set up, trained healthcare workers to be sent to the region and air support to move patients and medics across West Africa.
Dr Liu added: "States with the required capacity have a political and humanitarian responsibility to come forward and offer a desperately needed, concrete response to the disaster unfolding in front of the world's eyes.
"Rather than limit their response to the potential arrival of an infected patient in their countries, they should take the unique opportunity to actually save lives where immediately needed, in West Africa."
The charity said that at one site in Monrovia, in Liberia, it had been able to set up an isolation facility with 160 beds, but said they were "overwhelmed" with growing queues and needed an additional 800 beds.
In other developments:
• 31 people have now died from a separate Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, says the World Health Organization (WHO)
• The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has warned outbreak is putting food harvests in West Africa "at serious risk".
• Nurses in Liberia's largest hospital are on strike, refusing to return to work until they are issued with protective equipment
• After a Guinean student with Ebola escaped from a clinic in his homeland and took Ebola to Dakar, Senegal's president said if the student were not sick "he would be before the courts"
• Ivory Coast's government allows Sierra Leone's football team to play an Africa Nations Cup qualifier in Abidjan despite the travel ban imposed over the Ebola outbreak
The MSF criticism echoes earlier remarks from the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim.
In a newspaper column he said the outbreak would have been easily contained if it had hit a major Western city.
He said the crisis in West Africa was down to a "disastrously inadequate response" from countries with the resources to help.
"We need international organisations and wealthy countries that possess the required resources and knowledge to step forward and partner with West African governments to mount a serious, co-ordinated response," he said.
Also speaking the the United Nations, the director-general of the World Health Organisation Dr Margaret Chan said: "Ebola has become a global threat which requires urgent global efforts in solidarity with the affected countries.
"The outbreak will get worse before it gets better and it requires a well-coordinated big surge and huge scale-up of outbreak response urgently."
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
• Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55%
• Incubation period is two to 21 days
• There is no vaccine or cure
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤