Lately there has been some controversy swirling around the decisions of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, relative to proposed school closings all over the city. If memory serves me right some players in this brouhaha have even gone to court to stop some (or all) of the proposed closings. I am told that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has opposed some (if not all) of these closings -at least in principle. But then the teachers union is usually an adversary of the chancellor’s office in an almost perfunctory manner, so this isn’t surprising. Now, let me preface this column by stating this: there are surely schools which should be closed -given years upon years of delivering poor quality education to its students; so I am not one trying to look over the shoulders of Department of Education (DOE) officials on the ground. Let’s be clear about that from Jump Street.  read more »

I missed this earlier. One more blow against the Wall Street and Corruption candidate Harold Ford, jr:

One of Culture Kitchen's regular bloggers is Leo Igwe, a Humanist living in Nigeria and fighting against religious extremism. Most recently he has been campaigning against child abuse by an extremist Christian sect in Nigeria and this has gotten him attacked by a mob and harassed by police. The extremist Christian sect sued Leo and several other child rights activists in Nigeria.

Today we hear from Leo that a judge has dropped all of the fictitious charges against him. Here's a press release from Leo:

February 4 2010

Helen Ukpbabio: Court Strikes out Case against Child Rights Campaigners

Today the Federal High Court in Calabar struck out the case brought against me and other child rights campaigners including the government of Akwa Ibom state by Helen Ukpabio and other members of the Liberty Gospel Church. In November Helen and some of her church members went to court seeking to enforce their rights to believe in God, Satan and witchcraft. They claimed that the seminars and conferences organised in Nigeria by the Nigerian Humanist Movement and other child rights groups to tackle witchcraft related abuses infringed on their rights to spread the gospel. They asked the court to order us to pay them two hundred billion naira(I.3 billion dollars) as damages for unlawful and unconstitutional infringement of their rights.

For the second time, Helen and her lawyers were not in court. So the lawyer leading the defence team, Barrister Madaki asked the court to strike out the case due lack of diligent prosecution. And the court granted his request.

The striking out of this case is a welcome development. It is a victory for justice, human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria. This decision by the court is a vindication of the child rights campaigners and the great work they are doing rescuing and saving the lives of children abused and abandoned in the name of witchcraft in Nigeria. It is a clear evidence that Helen Ukpabio and her church members have no case.

They instituted this court action to stop their arrest and prosecution for the attack of July 29 in Calabar.

Nigerian Humanist Movement and its partner groups will continue to work and campaign to eradicate all forms of human rights abuses in the name of witchcraft.

Leo Igwe, Ibadan, Nigeria  read more »

In response to my previous article on the pros and cons of expelling Hiram Monserrate from the State Senate due to his misdemeanor conviction for reckless assault (basically abusing his girlfriend on camera), I got a response from someone closely associated with the State Senate which contradicts what I presented State Senators Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Joan Millman as believing. Adams, Montgomery and Millman basically argued variations on three themes. 1.) the State Senate rules allows expulsion for felonies but is silent on misdemeanors, and thus it sets a possibly unwelcome precedent to expel Monserrate 2.) the voters should decide whether Monserrate should represent them in the senate or not, and 3.) if Monserrate is thrown out, the Republicans will likely re-paralyze the legislature and prevent anything from getting done.

In response to this, someone well-connected to the State Senate, but who wishes to stay anonymous, wrote the following in response: (altered slightly to mask style)  read more »

Harold Ford's intrusion into New York politics initially sparked some reactions from some black politicians I talked to that basically indicated to me that Ford would not be doing well among black politicians in NYC. Even the Caribbean community, who might to some degree side with Ford's more conservative social views, seems wary of him (see, for example, Rock Hackshaw's piece). So far Harold Ford's main supporters have been Michael Bloomberg and Vito Lopez, two people I particularly do not respect.

Now NY State's LGBT politicians are officially siding with Senator Kirstin Gillibrand of New York over failed Senate candidate from Tennessee, Harold Ford. From their press release:  read more »