t is over twenty years since my last publication in a newspaper. I was a very active member of writers for the student press at Njala University College from 1978 – 1982 and some national newspapers for a couple or so years after I graduated. Since I started my scientific career in the late eighties, I have been preoccupied with scientific articles being a prerequisite for advancement in our field. My motive for writing this article is not because I personally know Dr Monty Jones or because of our mutual relationship with agriculture. It is mainly because of the rather nonchalant disposition of Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans towards such a remarkable achievement by a fellow Sierra Leonean that I believe should have been widely publicised.

Monty Jones: Holding a jar of Nerica Rice

Alas, this achievement seems to have passed unnoticed by the nation. I am afraid that the growing negative attitude of many Sierra Leoneans not to praise their fellow citizens when they deserve praise is undermining our desired concerted effort to transform our dear Sierra Leone into a more progressive and prosperous nation. We seem to be happier and more willing to decry our own kind at the slightest opportunity.

I first heard of Dr Jones’ recognition on the BBC’s early morning breakfast show – Network Africa, on May 12, 2007 with the headline A Sierra Leone Scientist has been voted among the world’s most influential people by the US Time magazine. I felt very proud as a Sierra Leonean to hear Sierra Leone being mentioned positively after quite some time. Unsavoury news items relating to the war and its ramifications, blood diamonds, sportsmen melting away in Australia and other places and later surfacing to give every possible reason that will enable them to be granted asylum even at the detriment of the nation’s reputation are more familiar news items. How I cringe with embarrassment when I hear predictable tales of fear of being forcefully initiated into one secret society or the other as the case may be.

I have no doubt that many other Sierra Leoneans who heard that announcement and/or read the publication in the Times magazine also felt the same way as I did. I am, however, very surprised that not as many people as I would wish have heard about the recognition of our compatriot and our country Sierra Leone. I do not remem

ber any of our newspapers or radio stations re-echoing such wonderful news for Sierra Leoneans and informing us about the background for such acclaim. Certainly, if any did, it must have been on a scale reflective of the widespread unawareness of the county’s achievement on the global arena. Is it becoming a fact that Sierra Leoneans don’t like one another? And that baaad heearrrt is taking the better part of us? This is a formidable justification for Dr Bell’s campaign of Sierra Leoneans love one another to be given a national boost.

Time magazine, one of the world’s leading weekly magazines has put together a panel, which chooses the most influential people in the world every year. Dr Jones is one of only five Africans on this year’s list of 100 names. The others are President Omar al Bashir of Sudan, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, and Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour. On the list from other parts of the world are German Chancellor Agela Merkel, the UK’s Queen Elizabeth, Pope Benedict XVI, and American chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

Dr Monty Jones, a plant breeder by profession was the key scientist involved in developing a new type of rice now dubbed New Rice for Africa (NERICA). After his graduation from Njala University College in the early seventies, Monty worked at the Rokupr Rice Research Station where he faced the reality of the native African Rice (O. glaberrima) being adapted to local conditions with high tolerance to low soil fertility, diseases, pests and the ability to compete with weeds, but with low yields compared to the Asian rice (O. sativa). On the other hand, the Asian rice, though higher yielding, lacks the robustness of its African counterpart to resist the pests, diseases and low soil fertility conditions prevalent in the rice growing environments of the sub-Saharan region.

To further prepare him for such challenge, Monty enrolled at Birmingham University in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a masters degree in 1979 and a doctorate in plant biology in 1983. He then returned to Sierra Leone and continued working for the Mangrove Swamp Rice Project under the West Africa Rice development Agency. In 1988, Dr Monty Jones joined the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Cameroon where he worked as a breeder until he moved over to a sister International Agricultural Research Institution of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) in 1991.

As Head of the Upland Rice Breeding Programme at the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) in the Ivory Coast, Dr Jones had the opportunity to fulfil his life-long dream to improve the productivity of rice under the harsh conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Jones effectively led his research team to successfully combine the desirable characteristics of both the Asian and African rices to produce distinctly different rice types possessing the high yielding characteristics of the Asian rice and the toughness of the African rice to the harsh growing environments in sub Saharan Africa.

Combining the two species had been attempted before, but with no success. Crossing different species is notoriously difficult because of the high probability of sterility in the offsprings. In his quest to combine the two different rice species, Dr Jones ventured in a field where few scientists had gone before and succeeded in crossing the two species to produce offsprings that overcome the genetic barrier. Eventually the team produced new rice varieties with the ability to resist weeds, survive droughts, and thrive on poor soils with reasonable yields under limited external inputs characteristic of our resource poor farmers. In addition, many of the NERICA varieties mature much earlier (about 3 months) than the traditional varieties requiring from 5 – 6 months to mature. This breakthrough has provided the opportunity for African rice farmers to obtain yields of 4 – 6 tons per hectare (compared to yields of 1 – 3 t/ha produced by existing varieties) potentially benefiting 20 million rice farmers and 250 million consumers in Africa.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations declared 2004 the International Year of Rice, and to honour the FAO’s celebration of the crop, the world food prize was given to two rice scientists who, working independently, made significant breakthroughs that bettered the lives of countless human beings throughout the world. Dr Monty Jones, now dubbed the Rice Man of Africa was the deserved co-laureate of the 2004 World Food Prize, the first ever won by an African in recognition of his breakthrough achievements in creating the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) with immense potential for food security and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Yuan Longpin of China was the other scientist for his breakthrough achievement in developing the genetic materials and technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties. The World Food Prize, known as the Nobel prize for Food and Agriculture honours outstanding individuals who have made vital contribution to improving the quality, quantity or availability of food throughout the world.

It is definitely now little wonder, if any, why and how the celebrated Dr Monty Jones and by association Sierra Leone, appeared on the list and citation of Time magazine’s 100 most influential personalities in the world.

Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute noted that When Africa breaks free from the grip of poverty and famine – as it now looks poised to do – Monty Jones, 56, will have played a pivotal role, adding that Jones’ effort in creating NERICA is legendary. In his supporting letter to the World Food Prize Committee, Sir Gordon Conway, Chief Scientific Adviser for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development wrote Dr Jones’ ability to combine cutting-edge science with on-farm work has yielded significant benefits for the many poor rice farmers in Africa who were by-passed by the Green Revolution. Receiving high tributes from world leaders at the Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s Development (TICAD) III in September 2003, NERICA emerged as a byword for successful Asia-Africa cooperation. To honour Dr Jones, WARDA recently launched an annual Dr Monty Jones Lecture and presented him with a plaque recognizing his outstanding achievement in rice research and exemplary dedicated service to Africa.

The announcement of the co-winners of the 2004 World Food Prize took place during the US State Department ceremony with US Secretary of State Collin Powell, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf, Chairman of the World Food Prize Dr Norman E. Borlaug, Chairman of the World Food Prize Foundation John Ruan III, President of the World Food Prize and former US Ambassador Kenneth Quinn. The Director of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Dr Francisco Reifschneider and the Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the UN, Professor Joe Pemagbi attended the announcement ceremony.

At the National Awards on Independence Day in 2005, H.E. Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah conferred the Order of the Rokel on Dr Jones for his achievement. Dr Monty Jones is currently the Executive Secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) located in Accra, Ghana; a position he has held since 2002. At FARA, he oversees advocacy coordination efforts in support of regional research, with the goal of increasing agricultural growth by at least 6 percent by 2020, as well as fostering ongoing economic growth, alleviating poverty, and improving food security for Africa’s people.

The New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) Steering Committee has identified NERICA as one of Africa’s best practices worth scaling up and has endorsed its expansion across the continent. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided more than US$ 30 million to support national programmes in the dissemination of NERICA over a 5-year period in seven West African countries (Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone)

Unfortunately, the recognition brought to Sierra Leone through the naming of Dr Monty Jones among the world’s 100 most influential people has not been adequately publicised to indicate how much we cherish such achievement by one of our kind particularly being on the world stage. I was expecting all the newspapers and the radio stations in the country to carry this story as much and as far as possible. In my view, such an accolade deserves a place on the national news and front pages of all our newspapers. Dr Jones’ achievement and recognition should assure all Sierra Leoneans that we have the potential to make a positive contribution to Sierra Leone and the world. We should be developing confidence and strive to rediscover in our selves the fire of love for our fellow brothers and sisters and indeed Sierra Leone.

It is highly likely that there are many more Montys out there with their achievements begging to be shared by fellow Sierra Leoneans to further paint a more positive picture of mother Sierra Leone. I will therefore implore all Sierra Leoneans to make conscious effort in recognizing and promoting individual and collective positive efforts of our compatriots so that many more will be encouraged to strive towards this direction, which will surely help in moving our country in the right direction. I believe the exemplary virtues of SIERRA LEONESS will be the envy of other nations.

How Sierra Leonean Monty Jones became one of the 100 most influential personalities in the world: Sierra Leone News

A step away from the crowds at Canary Wharf, Museum in Docklands is offering visitors the chance to discover a different kind of commuting experience with Rush Hour, a powerful video installation which runs from 6 July to 1 November 2007.

Across three huge screens, the work, by artists David Matthews and Paul Howard, uses a montage of real time/still time photography, and a bustling soundtrack centred around a phone-in radio show, to capture a rush hour moment in Sierra Leone. 

Rush Hour Artists David Matthews  Paul Howard

 A multi-sensory experience, Rush Hour deconstructs stylistic clichés of news reportage, documentary and fictional dramas and draws the viewer into disarming questions about African and Western identities; about poverty, peace, and the complex legacies of slavery.

The video opens upon a curious stillness. A camera moves down an African city street during rush hour, but something is amiss. Whilst a radio crackles with music, jingles, news and debate, everyone here is rooted to the spot, caught in mid-stride, mid-gesture. We are in Freetown, Sierra Leone, looking at a snapshot moment from everyday life.

But this is no simple photograph. With a voyeur’s license we travel around the frozen urban scene, wandering amidst a population caught in stasis.  Then, suddenly, an unexpected blink disrupts this petrified landscape. An involuntary glance meets our eyes and turns hastily away. An arm moves slightly.  Small movements betray life within this unmoving terrain. The people of Freetown are not the still subjects of a photographic record, but subjects standing still for a carefully choreographed freeze frame performance.

Rush Hour is a beautifully orchestrated visual fiction, using the streets of Freetown as a stage and its residents as players. The radio phone-in which soundtracks the piece is a scripted dialogue, spliced with soundscapes from the city.  But within the fiction lies a very real politics of cultural exchange. The artists have worked in conjunction with the Freetong Players, Sierra Leone’s leading theatre company, to create a compelling narrative that places the daily routines of Freetown life within the context of a troubled history.

A former British Colony, Sierra Leone was founded in 1787 as a safe haven for Africans emancipated from slavery. Following a brutal ten year conflict which ended in 2001 and cost anywhere between 50,000 and 200,000 lives, it is now the world’s second poorest country. Yet despite the nation’s poverty, volatile history and collective trauma, Sierra Leoneans have a remarkable sense of optimism, combined with stoicism, energy and spirit.

This indomitable spirit runs throughout Rush Hour, but Matthews and Howard also address their own artistic and economic license in stopping a rush hour in its tracks.  In capturing the daily hustle for survival in a country where many live on a dollar a day, the artists must put a temporary stop to the creative industry of its residents.

Alongside the screened video, film posters, adverts and everyday objects from Freetown will be displayed across the Museum gallery.
David Matthews says “I’ve worked in print and broadcast journalism for many years, both in the UK and abroad. But to work on a non-linear art film in such a challenging environment as Sierra Leone, where cultural capital is so restricted was extraordinary.

So much of the visual imagery we see of Africa is represented through traditional and stereotypical images, so it was a refreshing change to co-create Rush Hour. It’s an artwork that is contemporary and abstract, but also authentic and true to the environment in which it was made. In many ways I feel privileged to have contributed to a growing movement that finds new ways of exploring archetypal African narratives.”

David Spence, Director of Museum in Docklands says “We are excited to be displaying such a powerful and original piece of art.  Rush Hour confirms our commitment to innovative exhibitions at the Museum in Docklands.  It also retraces a direct link between Freetown and London’s East End.  When Sierra Leone was founded in 1787 as a haven for formally enslaved Africans, the first ship to set sail for Freetown, left from Blackwell stairs, Docklands.”

 On 10 November 2007, Museum in Docklands will open the only permanent gallery in London that examines the city’s involvement in transatlantic slavery and its legacy on the capital. Marking the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade by Britain, the new gallery is part of a series of events and projects planned by the Museum for 2007 and 2008. The new gallery, called London, Sugar and Slavery, will reveal how London’s involvement in slaving has shaped the capital since the 17th century, and will challenge what people think they know about the transatlantic slave trade.  It will debunk the myth that London was a minor player in the trade by showing that it funded much of the city’s industrial and financial success.  From Jamaica Road to the Bank of England, from the merchant houses of Blackheath to the nation’s art collections, profits from this most lucrative trade shaped the metropolis.  The new gallery will be a dynamic and evolving space reflecting the continuing resonance of the slave trade for all Londoners.

Museum of London Group Portal – Rush Hour

Sierra Leone native Samuel “Sam” Kambo looks like a snapshot of the model citizen: Honors college student. Exemplary employee. Family man. A leader.

But to the U.S. government, the Texas transplant’s presence in the United States has suddenly become a matter of concern — 14 years after it first let him into the country.

Kambo — who settled in Austin with his Sierra Leonean wife and has four U.S.-born children — is in a jail in San Antonio fighting an attempt to deport him. This comes years after he informed the U.S. government that he was part of a group that overthrew a corrupt dictatorial regime in his native country in the early 1990s.

The government accuses him of participating in war crimes, which Kambo, 38, vehemently denies.

His unusual case, scheduled for trial today in San Antonio’s immigration court, has pitted his supporters against an immigration system they accuse of unjustly punishing a man with good moral fiber.

“I don’t understand Sierra Leone politics,” said Robert Cullick, one of Kambo’s co-workers at the Lower Colorado River Authority in Austin. “All I know is there’s a man in front of me of integrity.”

For years, the government opened the door for Kambo.

The State Department granted him visas to come to Texas to study and work after the 1992 coup. His previous employer applied on his behalf for his permanent residency. But when he showed up for his green card interview last October, immigration officials in San Antonio denied his petition, jailed him and put him in “removal” proceedings.

They cited as a reason his membership in the National Provisional Ruling Council, a military junta that ousted Sierra Leone President Joseph Momoh.

The government’s immigration lawyers in San Antonio claim in their court pleadings that Kambo’s presence in the United States is “an affront to civilized society.”

The NPRC ruled Sierra Leone from April 1992 to 1996. In immigration court filings, Kambo maintains he quit the group in 1994 because of disagreements over how it was running Sierra Leone. He also argues that he wanted to make peace with rebel forces, but the majority in the NPRC wanted to fight.

In a 2005 letter to the government lawyers, the State Department said Kambo was one of eight soldiers in the inner circle of the NPRC.

“The ruling NPRC government took severe actions against rebels. Public humiliation, summary execution of prisoners and displays of rebel heads (and other body parts) were not uncommon,” the letter said.

Kambo is not linked directly to any of the war crimes.

Kambo’s attorney, Simon Azar-Farr of San Antonio, said Kambo readily admits he was part of the coup.

“He also agrees that a government makes mistakes in that maybe the proper attention is not paid to infrastructure or all of those matters, but in terms of the accusation that he was involved in genocide, torture or extrajudicial killings, he has always categorically denied any such claim,” Azar-Farr said.

Kambo’s wife of 14 years, Hanaan, said her husband did not have leadership roles while in the NPRC.

“He was disillusioned with the group. Things were not working out,” she said of his reasons for quitting.

To those familiar with Sierra Leone politics, Kambo was the cool head trying to make his country better.

“Kambo was the only guy in the group who had the courage to quit,” said Carl Schieren, who was a consultant to the United Nations in the 1990s and an expert on Africa. “That’s something no one wants to recognize. He was on a much higher moral plane than the others.”

Schieren helped administer a U.N. diplomatic program that gave scholarships to NPRC members to study abroad. Kambo was one of the scholarship recipients, enabling him to help pay for his engineering education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with honors. He later obtained a master’s degree in business administration from UT.

At his job, Kambo excelled, was chosen for a leadership program and gained the respect of his fellow employees, who have been supporting his family financially and morally.

Hanaan Kambo hopes all the good her husband has shown convinces the immigration judge hearing his case that he should be allowed to stay.

“We don’t know if justice will prevail. We’re hoping. We’re praying.” Hanaan Kambo said. “We just want to be together as a family.”

It was a rare experience for George W. Bush: A major Presidential decision was greeted with bipartisan praise and international congratulations.

By picking former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on May 30 to replace Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, Bush made a symbolic and substantive statement that he hoped to unify the controversy-wracked institution and put Wolfowitz’s divisive, two-year tenure quickly behind him.

Wolfowitz resigned his position, effective June 30, amid ethics questions raised by his role in securing a generous compensation package for his girlfriend (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/17/07, “More Problems After Wolfowitz”).

An Expert in Diplomacy

Zoellick, like Wolfowitz, is known as an accomplished academic and a demanding bo, pss. But unlike the combative Wolfowitz, the prospective bank president has a reputation as an expert in diplomacy and international banking. Zoellick, 53, served as a top State Dept. official under President Bush, and the top Treasury Department official on international economic matters.

He was also President George H.W. Bush’s top adviser for two Group of Seven international economic summits, as well as a managing director at Goldman Sachs (GS) and chairman of the company’s international advisers department. His global economic expertise includes work on issues from Latin American debt relief and German reunification to Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization and restructuring U.S. aid programs for Africa.

Democratic Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, lauded Zoellick as “the right person for this job.” Said Baucus: “It’s hard to imagine a more intelligent, hard-working, and capable person to assume the bank’s leadership at this difficult point in its history. Bob has the skills and the integrity to put the bank back on the right path.”

Not Much of a Honeymoon

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised Zoellick’s efforts to bring peace to war-torn Darfur, calling him a sensitive and caring person. Even Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Bush’s vanquished 2004 Presidential rival, says Zoellick “brings a diverse range of skills and international experience to the position” and hopes he “can regain the confidence of employees and donor nations that was lost under the previous leader.”

Kind words aside, Zoellick can’t expect much of a honeymoon in his new job as the bank’s 11th president in its 60-year history. Bank-watchers say he has a lot of work to do to soothe the hard feelings generated by Wolfowitz, whose role as an architect of the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy rankled European allies and bank staffers. “His major initial challenge is to rebuild the morale of the organization and to bring someone with a strong management background in to put things back together again in a better way than before,” says Edwin “Ted” Truman, senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Center for International Economics.

During the White House announcement ceremony, Bush and Zoellick both alluded to the recent divisions and the challenges ahead. Zoellick, said Bush, “has earned the trust and support of leaders from every region of the world.” Zoellick declared that “we need to approach this task with humility and creative minds.” He praised the World Bank staff that warred with Wolfowitz as “many fine professionals from all over the world.”

“The World Bank has passed through a difficult time for all involved,” Zoellick said during the nine-minute event in the Roosevelt Room. “There are frustrations, anxieties, and tensions about the past that could inhibit the future. This is understandable, but not without remedy. We need to put yesterday’s discord behind us and to focus on the future together.”

Major Stylistic Shift

That might be easier said that done. The bank’s staff was in open revolt against Wolfowitz’s top-down management style and had demanded his resignation. Many of its clients had chafed at Wolfowitz’s efforts to combat corruption among recipient governments, arguing that the bank president had different standards for African nations than for Middle Eastern allies of the U.S.

And European governments had been alienated by what they considered Wolfowitz’s lack of consultation. Members of the European parliament have speculated that the European Union and individual European governments might increase their own bilateral aid efforts to combat global poverty rather than continue their current levels of support of the World Bank.

Meanwhile, some international aid groups say the World Bank has been ineffective in its core mission of reducing global poverty. They say its organizational structure is too slow and bureaucratic to respond quickly in an era of cross-border economic threats including climate change, AIDS, malaria, cyberterrorism, and identity theft.

And while Zoellick’s nomination represents a major stylistic shift from the Wolfowitz era, the incoming bank president has not signaled any policy changes, at least not yet. Indeed, Zoellick on May 30 indicated that he would continue Wolfowitz’s efforts to combat endemic corruption among recipient governments, particularly in Africa.

Liberals Remain Skeptical

Zoellick did signal an effort to mend fences. He immediately announced plans for a series of meetings with bank employees, donor countries, and aid recipients to examine ways in which the bank could better fulfill his mission. Atop his agenda is rebuilding the confidence of wealthy nations he needs to donate $30 billion in coming years to replenish the bank’s signature program, which gives interest-free loans to impoverished countries.

While senior Democrats and veteran European diplomats were pleased, some liberal groups were skeptical that much of substance would change. Jessica Walker Beaumont, trade and debt specialist for the American Friends Service Committee, said Zoellick has a history of “protecting multinational corporate interests.”

And Asia Russell, director of international advocacy for the liberal group Health GAP, said Zoellick has in the past “carried water for Big Pharma” in trade talks. “We are very concerned that Zoellick will apply the same flawed, market-fundamentalist thinking to the major health policy issues that have made the bank so ineffective in fighting poverty.”

Still, the author of an acclaimed 2004 book on the bank’s history thinks that the damage of the Wolfowitz era can be overcome through skillful diplomacy and management. “This is a supertanker, not a small boat, and it takes a lot to sink it,” says Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Sierra Leone today on his farewell African tour – to be made a Paramount Chief.

His wife Cherie will look on as the villagers of Mahera garland him in honour of Britain’s role in helping free the country from years of bloody civil war.

The 6,000-strong villagers elect their own Paramount Chief and are also allowed to choose honorary chiefs who deserve special recognition. As well as his garland Mr Blair will be presented during the colourful ceremony with a big stick, denoting his status.

Mr Blair’s official spokesman joked: “But what he can’t do is raise taxes or make people labour unpaid in the fields.”

Blair arrives in Sierra Leone, where he will be ‘crowned’

Mr Blair touched down at Lungi airport near the capital Freetown for talks with Sierra Leone President Ahmad Kabbah and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of neighbouring Liberia to discuss how to boost African peacekeeping capacity, and deliver on aid and trade promises for the continent.

Sierra Leone is officially the second poorest country in the world, according to United Nations’ figures.

During his visit Mr Blair will announce he is keen to push for an international fund to support the rapid deployment of African Union peacekeepers within their region, the aim being they should reach troubled spots within the first 60 days of trouble erupting.

After his trip to Libya where he and Cherie met Colonel Gadaffi, Blair plans to fly to Sierra Leone, where he will be hailed a “hero”.

The wartorn country’s rulers plan to make the British Prime Minister a ‘paramount ruler’ – the highest honour that can be bestowed – for sending troops for sending troops to help end civil war in May 2000.

A grateful British public – who are paying for the trip – will doubtless be pleased to hear that no detail of the Premier’s style and grooming is apparently to be lost to posterity.

For it emerged that among his entourage are a writer and two photographers from the glossy American fashion magazine Men’s Vogue.

And if they aren’t enough to capture every fascinating moment of the Blair progress, there are also documentary television crews from Bob Geldof’s Ten Alps TV and production company Jupiter.

Two weeks ago, the novelist Martin Amis was invited to accompany the Prime Minister on his final trip to Washington as Premier.

He is understood to be writing an essay on the handover of power to Gordon Brown for the Guardian newspaper.

The Tories said it was increasingly clear that Mr Blair’s last few weeks in power are being used to boost his profile on the world stage in preparation for his retirement career – which is expected to be rather lucrative.

Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: “Tony Blair seems to have abandoned being Prime Minister and the hard-pressed taxpayer is having to fund his vanity tour of the world, which is aimed at the next stage of his career.

“He seems more concerned about how he looks in Vogue than tackling real issues at home. It’s time we brought an end to this farce.”

Tory leader David Cameron has accused Mr Blair of behaving like a “pop star” on a farewell tour and demanded he quits immediately in favour of Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron says Mr Brown has been left “wandering the country with nothing to do” while Mr Blair is jetting around the world “indulging his vanity”.

The attacks are designed to maximise Labour’s increasing discomfort over Mr Blair’s protracted farewell from Downing Street.

He landed in Libya yesterday on the first leg of a whirlwind five-day tour of Africa which will also take in Sierra Leone and South Africa.

His valedictory wanderings have already taken him to the United States, France and Iraq, as well as a number of visits around Britain by helicopter.

In Libya, the Premier met the country’s bloodstained dictator Colonel Muammar

Gaddafi in a Bedouin tent at a military compound in the desert at Sirte, about 150 miles south east of Tripoli.

The PM travelled there aboard Gaddafi’s luxurious private plane. As he descended the steps of the aircraft on to a red carpet, he was mobbed by photographers and a military band played an out-of-tune rendition of God Save the Queen.

Mr Blair’s 20-car convoy then snaked across scrubland to the site of the makeshift rendezvous, where the two men sat on ornate gilded chairs and chatted on first-name terms.

Mr Blair praised Gaddafi for becoming a crucial ally in the fight against terrorism – and urged Iran to follow his lead and come in from the cold.

He said Libya, a former pariah state, has provided “extremely valuable” information to help track down extremists plotting carnage in the UK.

Mr Blair also applauded Gaddafi – who gave the order that condemned 270 innocent people to death in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing – for dismantling his weapons of mass destruction.

It is the first time he has met the dictator since a meeting in 2004, arranged after the former godfather of world terrorism had finally accepted blame for the airline bombing and paid £2.7billion compensation to victims.

Mr Blair said: “The relationship with Libya has been completely transformed.”

Representatives of Sierra Leone’s 149 paramount chiefs, local traditional rulers in the former British colony, will name Blair one of their own at a ceremony in the township of Mahera.

“We have nothing, no money to give him but it is a way of recognising him as a chief of our nation,” said Ibrahim Kamara, a local official in the village of tin-roofed shacks, spread among mango and coconut trees across the river from Freetown.

“All the paramount chiefs together with the head of state agreed on the gesture. It’s the highest traditional honour,” he said, as schoolchildren practised a welcome dance behind him.

YOU might just be looking at the most inspiring sports story of the year. That’s 11-year-old Andrew Jalloh, born and raised in Sierra Leone and having just recovered from stomach cancer, carrying the Paul Kelly Cup – the symbol of Sydney schools AFL supremacy.

Andrew and his twin brother Alex, the boy throwing the ball in the air in the playground of Belmore North Public School, left the African nation four years ago to live with their uncle - their father having been killed at war before they were born.

They arrived as refugees in Australia and settled in Belmore, and as boys do they made friends and played. Soon their athletic skills became obvious to everyone - these boys can run like the wind. Put a footy in their hands and it’s “catch me if you can”.

And so Andrew and Alex became two of the most important members of Belmore North’s Aussie rules team. A team that now just happens to be the best school AFL team in Sydney.

“They are incredible athletes,” says coach David Unicomb. “They are very dominant within the team, and the other kids look up to them that way. You never have to ask them to get involved, they’ll be into it and running around without being told to.”

Andrew is now in recovery from the cancer, but is still monitored closely. His frame is slight compared to that of his twin as a result of his treatment, but he is still tipped to be selected by one of Sydney’s top sports high schools when he starts Year Seven next year.

So taken are the twins with the sport, they have started playing with Western Suburbs in the Sydney league, the club having covered their registration costs so they could play.

But AFL will have to fight hard to keep these freakish young sportsmen. Alex has also been chosen at state level in primary school teams in rugby league, rugby union and soccer.

For good measure, he also set two sprint records at last year’s Australian Primary Schools Athletics Championships.

Not that he’s about to boast about it.

“I play all sports _ soccer, rugby league, union, athletics too,” said Alex. “You broke some records on the track Alex, didn’t you?” asked coach David Unicomb. “Yeah a couple.”

Belmore North has only played in the Paul Kelly Cup twice, and their record in the competition is flawless - two from two.

The school’s team has a range of cultures and backgrounds scattered through its players, with students of African, Arabic and Samoan backgrounds.

Belmore North is now eyeing the state final of the Paul Kelly Cup, and Alex and Andrew will lead the team onto the SCG on June 18for the finale.

As they kicked a ball around at Belmore this week under blue skies, you couldn’t help but wonder at the opportunity the boys now have.

Sierre Leone, where the life expectancy of the average male is 38, will forever be part of their lives - and now so will Sydney and a football.

Link to From Sierra Leone to AFL | The Daily Telegraph

Melron C. Nicol-Wilson, Director of the Lawyers Centre for Legal Assistance (LAWCLA) would be honoured at a UNESCO Award Ceremony at the University of Pretoria in in South Africa on the 25th May 2007.The award to him on Africa Day is for “His Academic Achievements in South Africa and subsequent to leaving South Africa, his courageous and unwavering commitment to improving the lives of people in Africa; his dynamism, originality and courageous pioneering spirit and for his outstanding professional achievement which makes him epitomizes the true African Human Rights Lawyer”.

Nicol-Wilson holds a Masters Degree in Human Rights Law from the University of Pretoria in South Africa; a Masters Degree in Law with specialization in International Criminal Justice and Armed Conflict from the University of Nottingham in the UK, a postgraduate Diploma in Equal Status and Human Rights of Women from the University of Lund in Sweden and a certificate in Human Rights Teaching and Research from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strassbourg, France. He did undergraduate legal studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone and professional Law Studies at the Sierra Leone Law School.

The African Human Rights Lawyer is a former Human Rights Law Teaching fellow at Columbia Law School in New York; former Legal Adviser of the Anti-Corruption Commission and former Human Rights Trainer of the Namibian Police. Presently, in addition to running LAWCLA, he is also a Defence Counsel at the U.N. backed Special Court and Lecturer at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.

It could be recalled that Nicol-Wilson established the first Legal Aid Centre in Sierra Leone in 2001 and under his Directorship the Centre has provided free legal services to thousands of Sierra Leoneans. The Centre has also published a number of research documents such as Juvenile Justice in Sierra Leone – Law and Practice; Death Penalty in Sierra Leone – Time for Change; Unequal Rights: Discriminatory Laws against Women in Sierra Leone; A Handbook for Paralegals in Sierra Leone and Children in the Criminal Justice System in Sierra Leone.

In 2003 he was awarded Lawyer of the Year by AWOL and in 2005 he was awarded Child Friendly Lawyer of the Year by the National Youth Coalition and Children Forum Network.

Link to STANDARD TIMES PRESS SIERRA LEONE Sierra Leonean Named African Human Rights Lawyer PAGE

BERLIN (Map, News) – The world’s biggest industrial countries are failing to keep up with financial promises they made to Africa, rocker-activist Bono said Tuesday, calling a new progress report “a cold shower” for the Group of Eight.

G-8 members in 2004-2006 contributed less than half the amount needed to make good on promises to double Africa aid to $50 billion by 2010, according to a report released by DATA – Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa – an advocacy group founded by Bono, the 47-year-old frontman for Irish band U2.

“The G-8 are sleepwalking into a crisis of credibility. I know the DATA report will feel like a cold shower, but I hope it will wake us all up,” he said.

Bono is urging German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chairs a G-8 summit in Germany next month, to ensure that members contribute what they said they would.

The report shows the G-8 increased aid by $2.3 billion but says they need to increase aid by an additional $3.1 billion to substantially help the people of Africa.

“These statistics are not just numbers on a page,” Bono said. “They are people begging for their lives, for two pills a day, a mother begging to immunize her children, a child begging not to become a mother at the age of 12.”

The DATA report said aid money that does arrive has an effect. “Every day 1,450 Africans living with AIDS are put on lifesaving drugs,” the organization said, and 20 million African children are going to school for the first time, thanks in part to debt cancellations and aid increases.

Still, Bono warns that insufficient increases in aid could reverse progress already made. DATA says the G-8 must contribute $7.4 billion this year alone to reach its goal. If Germany makes good on its promises to help Africa, he said, the other G-8 members will do the same.

Britain and Japan have contributed most of the aid increase so far, it said.

Link to Bono Says G-8 Behind on Aid to Africa – Examiner.com

When Africa breaks free from the grip of poverty and famine—as it now looks poised to do—Monty Jones, 56, will have played a pivotal role. A native of Sierra Leone, Jones is the revered plant breeder who developed NERICA, the New Rices for Africa, a set of high-productivity rices adapted to West Africa’s growing conditions. Jones’ efforts in creating NERICA are legendary. He and his team painstakingly crossed varieties of Asian and African rices to find stable and fertile breeds that would combine the yields of Asia’s plants and the toughness of Africa’s. NERICA is now being taken up by farmers across West Africa, boosting food security and incomes. Jones’ work has also helped inspire other groups to support an African Green Revolution. The payoff will be a healthy, well-nourished continent on a path to economic development.

Link to Monty Jones – The TIME 100 | TIME

TIME magazine has released it’s annual picks of the 100 most influential men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world. The list is broken up into groups of Artists & Entertainers, Scientists & Thinkers, Leaders & Revolutionaries, Builders & Titans, Heroes & Pioneers. Here are the Africans who made TIME 100 most influential people list. The African country represented and the categories they appear in are in parentheses.

• Youssou N’Dour (Senegal, Artists & Entertainers)
• Peter Akinola(Nigeria, Leaders & Revolutionaries)
• Barack Obama (Kenya/USA, Leaders & Revolutionaries)
• Amr Khaled (Egypt, Heroes & Pioneers)
• Monty Jones (Sierra Leone, Scientists & Thinkers)
• Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa, Builders & Titans)

Link to Time