Sunday, June 25, 2006

June25 Sd2006

EQUAL RIGHTS AND JUSTICE

There are two English daily newspapers in Swaziland, Swazi
Times
and Swazi Observer. The latter, having royal interests,
is not much more than a cheerleader for the monarchy. There
is never any authentic journalism, simply a retelling of
events. The Times is slightly better but seems to prefer
stories of a sensational rather than analytical nature. These
papers continually describe the current situation yet rarely
indicate how this state of being has come to exist.

To look at either paper on-line go to www.swazi.com

Last week newspapers reported that the king had returned
to Swaziland from his two week trip to Taiwan and Thailand.
They also noted he was surprised to learn about the nurses
overtime-pay issue. Nurses in the country have been waiting
for their overtime-payments for more than 3 years! Seems
Mswati doesn't even read his own paper.

What both papers failed to report was that a Danish delegation
which recently visited the Kingdom to assess the country's
political climate has urged the international community
to impose sanctions on Swaziland!

Thankfully African News Dimension
covered the story.
www.andnetwork.com




Please write a letter to Mr Peter MacKay requesting that
Canada and the Commonwealth recognize this crisis in
Swaziland and impose sanctions. Additionally, these
letters could be copied to "Letters to the Editor" of any
local papers. Thanks.

Mr Peter MacKay
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

(postage unnecessary)

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