A recent IAEA Advisory Mission to The Gambia advised the country to strengthen its radiation safety framework by creating a formal national policy and strategy for radiation safety and security.
The five-member team conducting the 9-12 July 2018 mission also advised the country to establish a dedicated nuclear law, an independent regulatory body and a national inventory of radiation sources.
Membership of The Gambia in the IAEA will take effect once it deposits the necessary legal instruments with the IAEA Secretariat. The country has no nuclear reactors but uses radiation sources in medicine, industry and research.
The team evaluated the country’s regulatory framework and processes for all facilities and activities using radiation. Team members reviewed laws that could be used to address radiation safety and nuclear security, and regulations that could be used to exercise regulatory control over radiation sources. They recommended that the country expedite its process to establish dedicated laws and regulations.
“Our advice aims to assist The Gambia as it formalizes its legal framework for radiation safety and security,” said Ahmad Al Khatibeh, an IAEA Advisor who led the mission. “By establishing a dedicated law and a clear framework, the country will improve its protection of people and the environment.”
The mission included meetings with Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, Environment Minister Lamin Dibba and officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The mission was part of a project to support African states in regulatory infrastructure development that includes 14 African countries. Benin, Mozambique and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), hosted advisory missions earlier this year.
Courtesy of www.iaea.org
The IAEA is one of those international bodies that I view with suspicion. Why?
Because:
1. It’s an extended arm of Western/US intelligence.
2. It’s failed to achieve nuclear disarmament since its creation and there’s no indication that it will ever achieve this.
3. It cannot guarantee the rights of Non-nuclear states to access nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, as enshrined in the NPT.
4. It has failed to hold Nuclear Weapons States to their commitments under the NPT.
5. It has compromised the National Security of some member states (ie Iran) by sharing data on their nuclear facilities with potential enemies.
6. It has become the policeman (with easy access to member states ) of those countries that possess nuclear technology but want to suppress its availability (peaceful or not) to anyone else.
7. It has woefully failed to exercise ANY supervision/control or even gain access to facilities of suspected nuclear weapons states that REFUSE to sign up to the NPT.
We in Africa, if we have any sense at all, should withdraw from the IAEA, renounce our membership to the NPT, pool our resources together and pursue a Continental Defence Policy with the possession of the ultimate weapons of deterrence and their delivery systems, as the main objective. Why we still continue the way we are going is simply incomprehensible? Do the leaders and African elites think that their assets and privileges in the West/US will be spared when that day comes? They (the aggressors) would only need a “law” passed in their parliament to dispossess them. Don’t we remember what happened to our lands when they arrived? Or what happened to the Jews when the Nazis took over? It’s that simple for them.
We are letting our children down by continuing the way we are. History is repeating itself, as it always does, and ALL those nasty ideologies that hold the African (Black race) in contempt are rearing their ugly heads and on the rise again. The African, unfortunately, is not alive to these dangers, as we seem to be unable to look beyond the present and seem to have a collective amnesia of the past.
God have mercy on our children and their children’s children.
I hope millions of Black People and the Billion we are in the world, will add their voices to that of Bax to amplify the call and pressure on our African leaders to arm our continent with the most modern powerful nuclear weapons to defend ourselves, deter our foes (whites, Arabs and Asians) and attack if necessary.
The IAEA is a neocolonial institution meant to prevent third world countries, especially Africans from ever reaching the full potential to defend themselves from the insatiable greed of the savages. The current world order as it is, benefits the West and keep us perpetually dependent on the whims and caprices of a people and their system that is meant to one day annihilate us from the surface of planet earth.
That the same standards does not apply to all is as clear as pure uncontaminated water. Washington, Berlin, London and Paris decides who dares to do what and when in the world. Racist to the bone, we stand by and watch as if we are not the original civilizers and sources of all they are today. Black man why do you fear? RIIIIISSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE
Mwalimu
I enjoy reading your posts…… As Dr.Nkrumah lamented the dire situations of our African leaders going around with hats in hand begging from those whose only interest is to exploit us and make us vassals to their interests. Over 50 years later and our continent’s leaders are still facing the same predicament of begging for grants, loans and recognition from white masters. Where is the end of tunnel with eternal lights for Africans? When is the promise of African independence be fulfilled?
Africa for Africans, at home and abroad.
Shortly before the end of white apartheid in South Africa, a nuclear war head was mysteriously removed from the arsenal of that country, with the pretext that:
1) Blacks are not capable of handling such a weapon.
2) If blacks have their hands on a nuclear device, that will be the end of the white race.
I think #2 will be highly justified. After all, they (the scumbags of the earth), enslaved over two hundred million Africans, decimating our populations to a point where we will not be able to economically, politically and socially recover for the next five hundred years to come. Add all that to the psychological trauma that was created and still continue to persist and will continue to haunt black generations to come, you will hav e a grasp of the true violent nature of these pink animals.
Folks, that’s not the position(s) to take in this conversation.
We should be in the business of educating Gambians and building local capacity to understand the risks associated with radiation exposure that could be caused by the poor management of emitters of radiation. Particularly in the medical and other scientific fields.
The Gambia must also build the capacity to register and regulate all sources of radiation within the country and at ports of entry. Emergency Management, the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), Public Health or the National Environment Agency (NEA) must also be trained and equipped to take on the task of detecting and documenting sources of radiation for the object of coming up with a national regulatory framework where there’s none. Technical staff that work with sources of radiation must also be certified to do a potentially hazardous job.
Radiation exposure above certain thresholds is a real threat to public and animal health and a silent killer. Here’s where I’m concerned with the local hospitals that may be operating without any regulatory oversight by a competent body.
I also have real concerns with the Bakoteh dumpsite that is poorly managed and doesn’t have any monitoring protocols in place to speak of. Who knows what else finds its way into that dumpsite from day to day?
The IAEA could certainly help to train and equip a national Radiation Protection and Safety Agency under the NEA or the NDMA.
Andy….
The issue is not whether we should have local capacity for the use, management, control and safe disposal of materials that emit radiation. Of course we should, and we shouldn’t wait for the IAEA to tell us so.
The fact that we still haven’t got the regulatory framework and processes in place, 5 decades after independence, says a lot about the type of leadership we’ve had during this period.
The issue for me, is not just whether we should rely on the IAEA for this local capacity building, but whether:
1. we in Africa are alive to the dangers that emerging political trends in Europe and the US pose to our existence as human beings worthy of living dignified lives on planet earth.
2. we can defend ourselves if and when the worst comes to the worst.
Individuals who wouldn’t dare express their nasty racist, homophobic views openly just ten years ago, are now doing so openly on political platforms and winning votes.
The president of the most powerful and most aggressive military in the world has just recently called us “shit hole countries.”
Mr Wilders, a popular “politician” in Holland, has called Moroccans, (Africans) “scum” who endanger his country. You can find similar sentiments being expressed by a wide range of people, from different backgrounds and works of life, in this part of the world. Even Sir Alan Sugar disparaged Senegalese players recently.
Doesn’t this worry you? Isn’t there enough reasons to say to Africa, “WAKE UP”, because dark clouds are gathering on the horizon and if they find us unprepared, only God will save our souls. Nothing else would; not if we learnt anything from history.
Very soon The Gambia will have certain improvement in its healthcare delivery system.
1. We will transition from a 2 slice CT scanner to 64 – 128.
2. We will be able to do Nuclear Stress Test and other studies.
3. We will be able to do fluoroscopic guided diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
4. We will be able to use radiation to treat cancer.
These are a few of the very real advances that are going to be available at ESFTH very soon.
As responsible member of a community of nations, we must develop an independent regulatory body to create a national policy for radiation safety and security.
God Bless The Gambia.
Nuclear radiation from natural and artificial processes are a genuine concern. Whether the IAEA is the right entity to be “helping“ us develop an institutional capacity to deal with with this emerging challenge is very questionable to me.
In my mind, what Gambia should be doing is to collaborate with other African countries that are far ahead in the field of nuclear medicine, applied physics, applied chemistry etc and send our own people to go and gain knowledge in those fields. The IAEA could bear these costs if it so desires. We can only be glad.
But remember, we are the most natural resources rich continent in the world and still continue to beg for menial stuff like preparing ourselves for radiation protection.
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The nuclear weapons politics of the IAEA is however a totally different ball game. And its part of the agenda in Africa.
Jack, smiles………
It’s nothing new to me, that Africans quickly rise to the defense of white people in order not to upset them. Talk about anything black in the midst of white people and they all get red and defensive. Do the same thing in the midst of black people and your life is at risk as a fellow black person. But i don’t waste my energy on white people or their black marionettes. There are millions of our fellows who are in great need of black solidarity and love. I share it with those.
I guess i know where you coming from by the way you diagnose our challenges in this country we are all living in and call home. But I disagree with many of your positions. Big time. But then, that’s the beauty of democracy.
Much black love
@Babu Solo: hool deey giiseh. I guess we share a love of our people; black people and Afrikka.
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Our prosperity cannot and will never come from anything deviced by the white man. What we should be drumming for is for the African youth to overcome the desire for naked consumption and strive to gain knowledge of the natural sciences, mathematics, literature and philosophy for us to colonize outer space and be the crown of creation as we truly are. But for sure the Afrikkan youth should be assisted through all necessary and possible means in the quest for supreme knowledge of self, the environment and those beyond.
Jack is a very passionate humanist and I wish him all the very best in uncovering the truth. I am a pan Afrikkanist, pure and simple, and I’ll remain so for the rest of my days.
With all the hallmark of comments about radiation deterrent, sceptism about the IAEA, forseeable sanitary improvement, the Osagyefo and Lumumba Pan-Africanist preaches, white supremacy, Black and African self-defeatism; you wish to keep a secondary school dropout, a British Argos watchman who cannot properly read written speech texts neither decipher their meanings, to rule our country for 10 years!!
You are kidding with your own intellect and efforts.
Hi guys am asking an opinion from all of you and I.e is it that only university products with degrees and fit to run the affairs of our country (gambia)?Am waiting to hear your views
Jamaican Patua is a beautiful language indeed. You know how it was born, Jack? I realize this topic is particularly interesting to you, so I’ll put in some more effort to share the little I know with you. I hope you will also share your knowledge with me. Let’s begin with Mandela whom you mentioned to be a pan Afrikkanist.
In my mind, Madiba is the devil incarnated in the South African revolutionary movement. He was choosen to lead the struggle because of his educational background and oratory skills. There were people in the ANC far more committed to the liberation of South Africa than him. Some, you have never heard about because they are not interested to be in the spotlight even for a single moment.
One of the most contentious issues during negotiations to end savage minority rule was the issue of land redistribution back to their indigenous and rightful owners, BLACKS. Let’s cut the long chase short. Your hero Mandela sold out to whites. Up to date, more than 75% of the land is controlled by less than 10% of the minority white population. Why? Because during the those negotiations and even after, powerful white nations like Britain, US, Canada, Australia, France, The Netherlands all insisted on a gradual process to hand back stolen land. Mandela consented. This was in 1992. Since then, black people have systematically been neglected by subsequent governments with regards to the land problem. Who started it? Mandela! The sellout.
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I am neither preaching no expressing personal views. Am stating facts as they are. The KKK and all White supremacist groups have learned the art of resistance from us. The first human being to commit suicide as a form of protest was a black slave. There are even accounts of mass suicide to force the hands of white slave owners into quitting the decadent practice of “trading“ in human flesh.
You think I go on rages and am brutish? Lol. What a pity than you are not raging more than me and saying it brutally so as it is than me.
You see white people police black dissent by weaponizing their fellow blacks against them to silence and or even kill them. Days gone by and even today. Take a cue from that.
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I have come into contact with thousands of Black people who tell me these things:
1) Slavery and colonialism are in the past, it’s time to move on now.
2) If we blame whites for all the things they have done, what about our own people who also sold us into slavery?
3) Radicalism will only make us isolated.
4) Let’s come with solutions not only talking.
5) bla bla bla
Theirs is out of total ignorance and a disease of self hate.
I won’t delve into analyzing those points here for a lack of space, but just for you to go figure out.
We will talk about Prof. Lumumba, after I hear from you.
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Yours in the service of The Gambia and the Black Nation, I remain.
Let’s stop fooling and telling lies to our people about any presumable improvement in our decadent health sector.
Please listen to the interview on:
Hot FM 104.3
With:
Mama Linguerr Sarr, Swedish based Gambian jounalist and social activist.
You’ll learn at first hand the following sad situations she disclosed at the EFSTH, our main teaching hospital;
-gloves are rationed
-there is no oxygen
-no diagnostic lab
-no microbiologic support
-a lot of contamination
– no drugs
-16 directors with the 2nd largest budget
-cannot store blood properly for frequent electric outages
-3.6 million dalasi per diem and personal emoluments at every retreat, conference and meeting
-ordering of new cars for personal use…….
Who is advocating improvement in our health sector with this CORRUPT, INEPT and SELFISH administration? Unless the present INEFFICIENT administration is flushed out, I bet, we will never progress!!
The new social activist, a previous Green Green Kanilai gangster /self proclaimed professor of Maths, AKA Babu Soli. Very simply, form your own party or try to revive the rump APRC and join the political fray.
Thats the only way we want our governments changed. Your idol, the moronic Jammeh, who only you call a great citizen, must face the music for the grand larceny he perpetrated in our country.
You never see that because you were part and parcel of the whole enterprise. We just don’t have time for your new found self righteousness. You had your time, and you messed up big time with your idol. You hypocrisy is astounding!!!
Babu if jammeh had made some improvements in the health sector before using the state fun to celebrate July 22 and dishing out money to the musicians and wrestlers he could have wise invest on our health sector to make it easier to this new government cus if he had done that then this new government would be engage on other important issues, and the half million dollar he has compensated the massacred Ghanaian families instead killing and compensation he could have wisely use that lots of money on health and agriculture. You stop kidding on yourself and come to the real issues and stop dreaming
Babu (nearly) everyone will agree with you on the above assessment of the precarious corrupt nature of this government. No qualms about the inability of Adama to lead and the sneaky manners of Ousainou.
[YET] you have failed a million times to condemn the day light killing of Gambians by Yaya and his plundering of poor peoples resources. Common that is hypocritical.
Let me say this again. I and many decent Gambians abhor the current administrations tactics in consolidating their grip on power whilst at the same time delivering more poverty, misery and death on Gambians. Adama and Ousainou cannot be role models for other officers of the regime. The one is like a lined dog acting on the commands of the last person he has spoken to and the other is just hungry for power and influence peddling. The latter happens to be a very divisive individual who claims ethnic neutrality in his politics and dealings, nonetheless, his rhetoric is loaded with ethnic innuendos and subtle entitlement utterances.
Our infrastructure is decaying at an unbelievable rate and this thieves are talking about building mosques.
Babu Soli, let’s flush them out! But don’t forget, the sins of this regime=that of Yaya. Can we agree on that?