What does freedom mean to you? Do you have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, free will or freedom from power, where you have to answer to no-one but yourself? Freedom is a powerful thing and millions throughout history have died attempting to achieve freedom. I believe freedom is when you are not physically, mentally or emotionally imprisoned, enslaved or otherwise constrained...how many of us are truly free?
In Europe this week, thousands of passengers have been physically constrained, unable to reach their final destination and stranded in various places all over the world. More than 95,000 flights had been cancelled since last Thursday, a day after the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southern Iceland erupted for the second time in a month. A flight ban was imposed because in the high temperatures of an engine turbine, ash produced from the volcano can turn to molten glass and cripple the engine of the plane.
As of yesterday some flights have been departing from Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, on the sixth day of disruption caused by the spread of Icelandic volcanic ash. But major flight restrictions remain in place across most of the UK, Ireland, Finland, Germany and Poland. The eruption appears to be waning, but there have been reports of a new ash cloud heading towards mainland Europe. The Europe-wide air traffic agency said it was optimistic the situation would be back to normal in a few days' time. The EU Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, has rejected criticism that the EU took too long to respond to the crisis. Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Kallas said the matter was not "in the hands of arbitrary decisions", as the lives of people were at stake. The airline industry says its losses have soared to over $1bn, since much of Europe's airspace was closed last week because of volcano ash.
For the thousands of stranded passengers, freedom to go home cannot be bought. Under normal circumstances one could perhaps bargain and plea but when it comes to the forces of nature…that is the end of discussion.
Meanwhile in Sudan, others are hoping for political freedom. Freedom to elect a fair government, freedom to have democracy but this is hardly the case. This week Sudan’s elections have been marred with claims of corruption and rigging. Sudanese opposition activists say a video which apparently shows election officials stuffing ballot boxes proves their claims of poll rigging. The clip, which has not been independently verified, has been posted on YouTube and is being circulated by a coalition of campaign groups. The National Elections Commission (NEC), however, dismissed it as a fake and is not even investigating it. The elections were held under a deal to end a 21-year north-south civil war. The polls - presidential, parliamentary and regional - were the first multi-party elections since 1986. Results are expected this week after the elections, which were extended by two days due to organisational problems. Several opposition parties withdrew in the north, saying President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party was trying to rig the voting.
In the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, two men who were physically imprisoned attempted to regain their freedom by escaping prison, unfortunately they were shot. Nigeria's controller general of prisons said inmates burned down the prison workshop and another building. This is the second attempted jail-break in Kaduna in the past few months. There were reports of shooting and a loud explosion, and security forces surrounded the jail in an attempt to restore order.
The controller general confirmed earlier reports of the two deaths and said 39 had been wounded. The controller general blamed the attempted jail-break on remand prisoners who were frustrated that their cases had not come to trial. However, the police commissioner said the riot had been caused by the transfer of a popular prisoner. He explained that when an inmate called Reverend King, who was awaiting a death sentence, was moved to another prison, inmates thought he had been executed and went on the rampage. Officials also said order had been restored at the prison, the inmates have been returned to their cells and that no-one escaped during the disturbance. At times, the price for freedom is often one’s life.
Kidnapping is directly inhibiting a person’s physical freedom, but for the family of the kidnapped it is often a mentally and emotionally unstable period. Gunmen in Nigeria have kidnapped two German men in the country's oil-producing south-east. The men, aged 45 and 55, were abducted while at a river beach in Abia State. The abduction is the second of foreign workers in Nigeria in the last 10 days. No group has said it carried out the latest kidnapping. One of the men works in Port Harcourt, the capital of the neighbouring Rivers State, while the other came from Lagos. The German foreign ministry said it was looking into the incident. Hundreds of kidnappings are reported in the oil-rich Niger Delta every year. Most victims are granted their freedom and often released unharmed, some only after a ransom is paid.
Everybody is fighting for some type of freedom, from financial freedom to emotional enslavement; I hope that like the Niger-Delta victims, we are all released to a free, fair and world, where the price of free will never has to be paid with death. These are my dreams for humanity: FREEDOM.
(This article was published in PM Newspaper on Wed 21st April, 2010. Page 5, written by Fade Ogunro)
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