The News Review:

- Sierra Leone faces a fight for literacy
- In Sierra Leone Japanese Envoy Raps the Press
- Awareness Times News Briefs from Sierra Leone
- Milton Margai Students Schooled on Death Penalty in Sierra Leone
- Continent of Hope

Sierra Leone faces a fight for literacy
Times Online, UK 
I can see no booksbut these children are the lucky ones, able to learn indoors. Next door arethe worn stone benches where they used to have lessons in the open air,despite living in a West African country that has two rainy seasons a year. This is Sierra Leone, a former British colony desperately trying to reco-verfrom 11 years of civil war. That conflict, infamous for the recruitment ofthousands of child soldiers and the rebels’ practice of chopping off handsand feet, has left Sierra Leone one of the poorest countries in the world. It needs electricity, hospitals, sanitation, vaccination programmes – butabove all it needs books. When my friend Claire Curtis-Thomas, the Labour MPfor Crosby, visited Sierra Leone for the first time five years ago, sheasked people what they most wanted. Curtis-Thomas is an engineer and theanswer she expected was a health clinic or a water-treatment plant; theyasked for a library.

In Sierra Leone Japanese Envoy Raps the Press
Awareness Times, Sierra Leone 
Keiichi Katakami on Wednesday 12th November 2008 engaged member of the press in an interactive discussion held at the Conference Room of the Sierra Leone News Agency, Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown. Ambassador Katakami told pressmen that this is the first time of visiting Sierra Leone, while confessing that he is very much impressed by what he described as the vitality of the people and the beauty of unspoiled nature of the country. “The peaceful transfer of power that the citizens of Sierra Leone have achieved last year through the credible presidential and parliamentary elections has become a well known fact and a source of admiration in Africa and in the world,” he stated. He pointed out that post conflict recovery and progress made so far in key areas of national reconstruction, such as security and justice, have been truly remarkable.

Awareness Times News Briefs from Sierra Leone
Awareness Times, Sierra Leone 
Reports say the US$16M grant is for the upgrading of the Kingtom Power Station, including the installation of 10 Mega Watts (MW) diesel engine generators under Japan’s Grant Scheme. The Ambassador of Japan to Sierra Leone, Keiichi Katakami is reported as saying that the aim of the project is to create a stable power supply system with a view of revitalizing socio economic activities in the capital city and to improve the living standards of the people. Juvenile Delinquency Blamed On PovertyThe Coordinator of the Justice Sector Development Programme (JSDP), Madam Sarah Lewis has reportedly attributed the prevalence of juvenile delinquency in Sierra Leone to poverty. “The problem of underage children is of serious concern to my organization, as juvenile delinquency is common among unemployed youths including teenagers who idle their time in ghettoes and ataya caf? she is quoted as saying, while noting that most children have dropped out of school as a result of inadequate parental care due to poverty. “With the enactment of the Child Rights Acts, we have developed a pilot project for Bombali and Moyamba Districts, where task forces have been formed with logistic supports to identify some of the areas of juvenile delinquencies in order to address them. Government on National Security ExerciseChief of Staff of the Office of National Security, Mr.

Milton Margai Students Schooled on Death Penalty in Sierra Leone
Awareness Times, Sierra Leone 
The programme was held at the college’s Goderich Campus in Freetown. In his statement, Director of Amnesty International-Sierra Leone, Mr. Brima Sheriff told the students that the organization was founded in 1961, as a result of a death sentence slammed on six students in Europe because they were fighting for their freedom. He intimated the students of the need for the abolition of the death penalty, as in his words “slamming a death sentence on someone who have committed murder or other related offences, does not bring the deceased back to life,” while pointing out that those convicts are potentials leaders of tomorrow.
Related from Cannabisfanclub: Question 2 Decriminalization of marijuana

Continent of Hope
MorungExpress, India 
If she had ever heard of Sierra Leone before, it might have been while watching the movie Blood Diamond, which graphically depicted some of the worst depredations of the conflict there, such as the rebel group RUF’s amputation of limbs, the drug-crazed child soldiers, and the links between criminal diamond-dealing mafias and the war economy. Given that context, she certainly would have been quite astounded to have joined me on my visit to Tongo Fields in eastern Sierra Leone, the heart of the diamond-producing area and the site of some of the most intense fighting and horrific atrocities in the last century in Africa. What she would have seen in fact defied all expectations—the kind of low expectations that have come to mark international attitudes toward Africa in general.