Arts & Books

Violence is integral to our current world. The global war on terrorism, vicious wars in Latin America, in Africa, Asia and Europe have prevailed in much of the 20th century.

This week the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is meeting in Paris and is again considering the implementation of a highly controversial international prize that would lend credibility to one of the world’s most ruthless leaders.

This month, in the Parisian offices of UNESCO, a small group of African diplomats – following orders from their governments – are gambling that Africans have short memories. They gamble that we can be easily duped.

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Deputy editor of The Patriotic Vanguard, Roland Bankole Marke, had a chat with Dr Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Professor of English and Creative Writing, Penn State University, a prize-winning poet and a vocal survivor of the inglorious Liberian civil war.