Lagos slum demolitions draw ire, debate
Social and Economic Rights Action Center, Felix Morka
"This one is the only plates that I brought out of the demolition. After they demolished all our properties. This is the only possession I could possess after the demolition. So that is it." - Ogunyemi Fayawole, Badia Resident
Ogunyemi Fayawole holds the dinner plates he says are his only possessions after his home was demolished. He lived in a slum called Badia East in Lagos, Nigeria.
When the Lagos State Government sent in the bulldozers in February, it's estimated 10 thousand people were made homeless. It's all part of a multi-billion dollar project to turn one of the largest and most congested places in Africa, into a more beautiful city. The man behind that effort is Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola. Some say the city will be a playground for the rich at the expense of its poor.
With more on the impact on this latest demolition, we were joined by Felix Morka. He is a lawyer and The Executive Director of the Social and Economic Rights Action Center. He was in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Nation, one of Nigeria's largest daily paper, Sam Omatseye
Some see the demolition as a chance to redeem Lagos. Sam Omatseye is the Chair of the Editorial Board of The Nation, one of the most widely read newspapers in Nigeria. The Nation's editors support the government and its slum clearing. We reached Sam Omatseye in Lagos.
This segment was produced by The Current's Hassan Santur.
Mail: Right to Die
We received a lot of mail in response to our interview with Susan Griffiths on yesterday's show. She's the Winnipeg woman who is suffering from a fatal degenerative disease called Multiple Systems Atrophy. While she can still travel, she's going to Switzerland to end her life with the help of Dignitas, an assisted suicide organization.
Nancy Hansen from Winnipeg writes:
As a disabled academic teaching Disability Studies this subject is a highly personal one for me. I am filled with great unease.
One in seven people in Canada is disabled as are 1 billion people world-wide. Gains have been made in the human rights arena. However, disability is often feared and misunderstood as it is associated with incapacity and dependence.
When the assisted suicide debates come to the fore disabled people often feel vulnerable and at risk feeling the need to justify our existence and explain the serious issues posed for us by the thin edge of the wedge or the slippery slope that legislative change in this area may bring.
And Jeffrey Brooks from Montreal had this to say:
I propose that assisted suicide is not for everyone. There are those whose religious beliefs prohibit this. That should be their choice in the same way as some in our society are allowed to choose abortion, same sex marriage and so on.
On the other hand, assisted suicide should be allowed in strictly controlled circumstances for those who do willfully choose to advance the timing of their own death by minutes, hours or days. There are things worse than death!
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