Commentary by Andre!

Andre Says:
December 11th, 2006 at 2:01 pm e

This story is all too common, it is also an old story of exploitation. For years, centuries even, the dominant man has controlled his woman with money and power.

I admire this woman for wanting to wait and get her residency and then leaving this cruel man. She is right that no one will help her also. People will act all pious and concerned, but she will for sure be stabbed in the back for reporting, and returned home, both humiliated and having to start over again.

Right now she just has to accept the abuse and look for a brighter day in the future when she has her papers. Lets hope that he and others do not treat these women too badly, with the whippings and sexual violence (rapes). Lets face it, the police and others often are concern, but are able to do little to prevent/stop it.

Again, this is nothing new, it has been going on for perhaps since the beginning of time. The old saying, “The sun never sets on British soil” lays testament to the fact that money, people and things are were just taken and taken advantage of for a long time. None of these relationships were truly consensual, but were primarily for survival, so these women have always been whipped, raped and humiliated, by the dominant group of men with power. In this case, its the power to immigrate.

I wish this woman well, and the thousands others like her. I admire that she wants to start a group to address this issue also. Perhaps if enough information becomes public, the immigration requirements may change where a woman does not have to be debased and abused to obtain residency in another country.

Andre is reacting to the story below:

• Norway: “I have a new African boyfriend,” says Kenyan woman married to a Norwegian man!

Anyone with a similar story, please e-mail to redbottom4y@yahoo.com. and copy to africanpress@chello.no

Desmond Tutu!   

South Africa’s Tutu has been denied visa to visit Israel on a  fact finding mission for UN.

The UN wanted Tutu and his group to travel to Gaza on a fact finding mission and the Israelis would not hear of something like that.

According to BBC, “Mr Tutu’s team would have investigated last month’s killings of 19 civilians in an Israeli artillery barrage in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. But Israel had not granted the former Archbishop of Cape Town the necessary travel clearance, a UN official said.”

But the Israelis are diplomatic in answering. They have told the media that the government had not denied the visa, but that it was under processing, and might take long  to finalize.

“Mr Tutu’s team was supposed to report its findings to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council by Friday.”

Now Tutu says he cannot wait for the visa any longer, because he has other engagements. This will definitely please the Israelis who could not see reason why Tutu and his group were being send to Gaza.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

source.bbc

Rita Moe is  happy now that the judicial system has finally believed her, and sentenced a prisons officer to 9 months in jail.

She was in Jail in Skien prison when the prison warden misused her sexually in many occasions. It is reported that the officer had his own keys that he could use whenever he wanted to go into Rita’s cell for sex.

She could not refuse, because the man supplied her with the light drugs she needed.

The 34 year old prison warden will have to pay her a compensation amounting to 50 000 kroner. The same officer is also ordered by the court to pay 40 000 kroner to another woman who he also misused while was in prison.

The man abused his position by forcing the women to accept his advances. The court has ordered that he should never be given a job in any prison in Norway.

Rita has all along, through the process fighting for her right to be believed, got assistance and guidance from advocate Steinar Thomassen who believed her story from day one.

This incident calls for review of prison rules and regulations. The same thing may be happening in other prisons, where prisoners are unable to report the abuse, because they are dependent on them.

People who abuse their positions should get more years in jail, when they are discovered to have committed the offence.

The problem is that the victims may be so dependent on the person, that it makes it so difficult to report the matter.

Imagine a situation in jail where you report the matter, and if the directors of the prisons do not believe your story, you will be left alone with the same person to continue abusing you, even more badly than before reporting.

This makes it hard to report and some in prison will wait until after they have been released in order to report the case. It might be too late to get help, so many may choose to keep silent but suffering psychologically.

 By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no

Source.se og her

API was recently approached by a Kenyan woman married to a Norwegian man. She wanted to tell her story and to warn other women married to some cruel Norwegian men or men in general who treat them as less human.

The woman who does not want to make her name public, before she has qualified for permanent residence permit says, the man started beating her from day one.

Asked whether she is still being beaten by the man, she says the beating has become normal to her because as she puts it, “I know nothing better in this country, but I keep praying that God helps me through my ordeal, until I get my permanent residence stamp from the Norwegian Immigration – UDI,” she says with tears in her eyes.

While API interviewed her in one Oslo restaurant recently, she became less concentrated in the middle of the interview, kept looking around as if she was waiting for someone to come.

One could see fear in her eyes. When asked what was wrong, she told API that she is scared talking to any man anywhere, because if discovered by the husband, she gets thoroughly beaten and humiliated.

Saying she has got used to the beating, for a number of years now, she told API that the worst humiliation she faces, now and then, is when the husband thinks the food she has made does not taste to his standard. As punishment, the husband forces her to wash him all over the body with warm water mixed with oil.

She is later told to bathe in the same water as a punishment and reminded that Africa does not have clean water.

On sex, the woman says, that is nothing to talk about. Because for her, sex she has with him is disgusting. According to her, she has had sex  5 times in two years, sex that she enjoyed. The other sexual contact she says amounts to rape, because it happens anytime and anywhere when he decides it is time to have it. I accept to do it, but immediately after that I feel dirty and cry inside me the whole day.

“If I complain, he tells me that he will ask for separation, and I will be sent back to Kenya. I live a painful life in this country. I thought I had found a man. When he met me, he made me feel I was everything for him, but after we got married  things changed dramatically. In fact, I am not allowed to greet any African men in Norway. If he discovers that, he makes me suffer without food for 2 to 3 days. It is a nightmare,” she says.

Q: Why do you not report him to the police?

A: “That will be like committing suicide. If the police fail to do something then I will suffer. He is cruel when we are alone, but he acts like a super man when we are out having a drink in public. He will make a fool of me if the police were to question him. He know how to smooth talk his way on almost everything. One day I decided to tell my mother when we were together in Kenya on holidays, but she just told me to treat him well. I know why. He likes playing the good guy in front of my mother, giving her money, and manages to win her to his side. When I get my permanent permit, I will sit my mother down and make her understand how much I have suffered in this marriage, a marriage that I now call slave-marriage.”

Q: Can we help you to take it up with the UDI (Immigration authorities) so that you may get the help that you need and live a decent life?

A: No! And I hope you will not do that secretly, because things will be worse than it is now. Please do not do it. My new African boyfriend makes me feel great and that makes me to forget the suffering at times.”

We do not have words to express the fear we saw in her eyes. It is like somebody who is waiting to be executed for a crime not committed.

After having a beer and a cocktail drink offered to her by API, she looked out to the street and said listen, “there are two Norwegian men I want you to know about. One of them was married to a Kenyan woman years ago, while the other one lived with a Kenyan woman without getting married to her. The two men were cruel to the women and lost them eventually. Now the women are very happy in Norway. They can do what they want with their lives. The problem is that one of them got a child, and that makes it difficult to cut off the man completely.”

She continues to narrate her story. “The two men boast a lot that African women are cheap, and that they can get as many as they want on a daily basis. They promise them dinners, and free trips abroad for holidays. The strange thing with them is that when they were left by the two women who came from Kenya, they decided to get women from the neighbouring countries, Uganda and Tanzania. I have no contact with the two women so I cannot tell you how they were treated before they left the men too,” says with anger in her voice.

This is a sad story. API has used five days to research the facts, and we can now reveal that her story is true. She has been seen with a new African man out dancing, and having lunch. The two Norwegian men she talks about are reported to be constantly  seen within the African community still fooling the women and mistreating them.

She tells API that she does not understand why women continue to allow these kind of men in their lives.

The interesting thing with this story is that the men she is talking about have not been seen dating Norwegian woman after they started getting involved with African women. It is probably because they are not able to dictate a Norwegian women to do things against their will. The Norwegian women will simply leave them because they do not need to wait in a dangerous marriage. They do not require 3 years to get any permit!

Problems like this must be addressed by the Norwegian authorities. The laws and regulations that govern marriage should be looked into in order to save African woman from being treated like less human beings, by their Norwegian spouses, or any other men no matter where they come from.

Our interview object is now in a process of forming an action group that she calls “Stop battering African woman.” She tell API that immediately she gets her permanent stamp, she will go public and lead the action group that now comprises of 15 African women as members.

She says their aim is fight for the rights of African women who live under torture and fear to be sent out of the country for breaking up with their men. She calls upon the Norwegian women to help their fellow African sisters, to get out of the mental torture they undergo.

By API, Oslo-Norway

To African Press in Norway

During a recent ODM-Kenya rally in Mombasa, a witchdoctor was produced to the gathering.

He was given a place in the main dais to curse the President Kibaki for failing to honour some MoU, (Memorandum of Understanding that was said to have been signed between LDP and Narc in 2002).

He was also asked to curse front runner, Mvita Parliamentary Aspirant (Who was present).

A resolution was passed that all ODM-Kenya aspirants led by a North Coast MP (who was present) shall have to go to the said witchdoctor for blessings.

To all believers, this is satanic and all aspirants pursuing evil and black powers to help them achieve their political ambitions should and must be rejected.

Let us be “True Kenyans” and God Loving Nation.

By Lima Kilo, National Coordinator – Kenya, True Kenya.

 To African Press in Norway!

Iam introducing to you our movement called TRUE KENYA.

We are basically a political machine principally campaigning for incumbent President for re-election.

We realised that he has done a great job, but there is a clique of power-hungry selfseekers who are preaching alot of lies and propaganda in order to tarnish President Kibaki’s good name.

Their approach is weird and well calculated to win them sympathy votes.

We are coming into the political arena in order to inform Kenyans of the truth as it is. Iam sure our Secretary, Mr Rop Kipkemei will be able to give more details on our operations.

Our structure is Nation-wide, with a National Secretariat, Provincial Coordinators, District Coordinators, Constituency Coordinators, Ward Coordinators and Precint Coordinators.

I officially welcome you and your readers to join us in our crusade in order to save Kenya from being destroyed by the power hungry few!

We shall be really proud to be associated with you and your readers.

Best Regards,

Lawrence Kamau, National Coordinator.
(Kenya)

The General elections in Kenya will be postponed to December 2009, according to an official at the Kenyan embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.

APN has been told that the aim is to give the government enough time to enact a new constitution, and give the President time to serve Kenyans, because he has unfinished business. The years he worked with LDP leaders was noisy and the Kenyan people were deprived of services because ministers used most of their time to quarrel, the official has said.

This now means President Kibaki will rule for 3 years from now.

The elections was to be held on December 2007 but the official says the government needs time to finish work that it has started on the new constitution.

If the election is postponed to 2009, President Kibaki will most likely not seek re-election, but will be able to support any candidate he may like to see succeeding him.

Observers now think that the government has felt ODM-Kenya’s strength and does not want to make a mistake by calling the elections next year, because that would likely amount to suicide for Narc-Kenya which is yet to organise itself at the grassroots.

Our reliable source from the Embassy has told APN that, “ODM-K leaders will definitely stage demonstrations, but the government now knows their strategies.”

Speaking on telephone from Stockholm, the official who does not want the name to be made public says, “ODM-K is a tribal entity that must be discarded at all costs,” adding that, “the Embassy is now tired of noise makers who just want to grab power at all costs”.

Asked what problems ODM Scandinavia has caused the embassy after the official complained of ODM in Sweden, the official told APN that, “ODM-K Scandinavia group is causing unnecessary problems because they hate President Kibaki’s administration,” adding that, “what ODM in Sweden is doing is a smear campaign against the government and the embassy, because they are trying to force the embassy to give them money to celebrate Jamhuri day in Stockholm on the 12th of December.”

The Officer says, “the embassy has decided to exclude ODM noise makers, who live a failed life in Sweden, from attending the jamhuri function this year.”

This is a very serious matter coming from appointed government official who is supposed to serve all Kenyans equally, no matter what political affiliation.

It now remains to be seen how ODM-K will tackle the whole situation if confirmed by State House that elections will be postponed.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN

africanpress@chello.no.

Many missionaries who have stations in other countries, and especially in the continent of Africa are treated by the citizens of those countries as the saviours from Europe to the African continent because of the projects they take to those countries.

There is nothing bad in that.

But how many Norwegians who contribute money in churches to these missionaries really know what they are supporting?

How many missionaries commit crimes by abusing children under their care in developing countries without being punished, simply because the molested children do not dare come forward and talk about because they will lose the mission’s support.

Some Norwegian missionaries from “Pinsevenner” while in Africa committed such atrocities and got away with.

Power in the church, power and influence by the mission was used by a group of missionaries to molest young school children.

Christian missionaries who have molested children should face the law.

A group of Africans, who were molested by missionaries who have retired back to Norway, have tried to follow up on their cases for many years now, with the intention to get an apology for what was done to them, and to expose the missionaries in question so that such a thing does not happen again to African poor children in future!

The christian top machinery approached for help in Norway seems to have simply ignored the pain inflicted on those who got molested.

The molesters were both male and female missionaries!

Those who suffered in the hands of the missionaries are looking for an apology from the headquarters of the mission group, or the churches that send out the missionaries.

After a number of meetings in Oslo attended by the head of Norwegian Priests Organisation and the General Secretary, Christian Council of Norway, the group gave up their struggle, because they felt as the two religious leaders did not want anything of this kind to come out in the open.

Africans have been molested for along time by some missionaries because of poverty. Those molested, abused and beaten by missionaries dare not talk at the time of the abuse, because the missionaries can simply withdraw the help they are giving to them.

The victims suffered a great deal, but could not be whistle-blowers at the time when they depended on the missionaries for everything from pocket money to used clothes. Missionaries in small villages and small towns in Africa wield a lot of power over the poor population.

Mr Trond Giske,  Minister in charge of Church matters in Norway.

The complainants are now planning to take up the matter with the minister in charge of church activities, Mr Trond Giske in order to seek for a political solution to the problem, because the church seems to have put the case under the carpet fearing embarrassment the revelations might cause to missionary crusades in developing countries.

The problem must be addressed. There may be others suffering under the hands of other missionaries in this day and age.

The complainants had been promised that Bishop Bondevik was to be informed about the case, because he  was a leading figure in the religious Norway, and would be able to give advice on the way forward.

So far nothing has been heard from the Bishop if at all he was informed.

By Korir, African Press in Norway, APN.

africanpress@chello.no