Friday, March 16, 2007

Here We Go Again

The only time you hear in the media about a black kid with good grades and school attendance is when his poor mother's asked to come and identify the body. Stephen, Damilola, Kieran. - this blog, 2004. Add Isiah Young-Sam and Anthony Walker.

Mr O'Shea said: "Kodjo Yenga joined St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College in September 2005. He had an excellent record from a school in Hammersmith and was progressing successfully through a four A-level programme in business, IT, French and design.

"He was an able student. More importantly, he was a friendly, gentle and peaceful young man who was regarded with great affection by his fellow students and his teachers.


Like the late Kylee Dibble, he left a presence on the Web, giving feedback to an education website in 2003. He'd have been about 12.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

from that guardian story you linked to:

Schoolchildren gathered and chanted "kill him" as the teenager was attacked in Hammersmith Grove on Wednesday afternoon, witnesses said.


my god - its like something out of
A Clockwork Orange. and it begs the question - if fast and swift capital punishment was brought back for murderers, do you think that schoolchildren chant "kill him"?

Anonymous said...

Lord of the Flies?

Ten years ago I lived in a part of Sydney (Australia) where there are a lot of Vietnamese. Things we saw were not always understandable to us.

For example, once we went to an annual multicultural street fair and passed a fully costumed clown who was obviously still learning his entertaining skills, but trying very hard. Ten minutes later I saw the same clown come running past chasing some small Vietnamese girls, 10-12 years of age. He seemed very disturbed and was flailing at them with his now broken 'magic wand'. As I watched he grabbed one small girl. Suddenly a teenage Vietnamese boy, maybe 17 years old, appeared as if from nowhere. He had his hands in his pockets, walkman earplugs in his ears and his face remained blank and indifferent, but walked purposefully between the clown and the little girl till the clown let the girl go and she disappeared like the rest.

I walked back to where the clown had been performing, there was a pool of blood. Bystanders told me the little Vietnamese girls had been standing in a circle when one produced a broken bottle and shoved it in the face of another. An ambulance had taken her away.

That was ten years ago when I began to doubt multiculturalism.

Anonymous said...

Multiculturalism is a nightmareish concept and goes against the way humans have developed for tens of thousands of years.

Anonymous said...

This absolutely hideous murder reminds me of a news report durng the later years of apartheid where a group of youths chased some poor sod around some shacks and stabbed him to death for being a collaborator or somesuch. It was actually filmed on TV news with voice over. I always remember that one. Anyone else remember it? Circa 1988. Some humans are pretty awful, and without strong restraint and a culture of non-violence that's what happens.

Anonymous said...

Talking of South Africa I remember back when necklacing was so popular there during the 'liberation struggle' the BBC news showed a filmed report of a young girl/woman being murdered by a mob in a very unpleasant way which I will not defile Laban's blog by describing.

The fate of that poor young girl has always stuck in my mind. Who was she? What had she done in the eyes of the mob to be murdered in such a terrible way? And why does the BBC never seem to include deaths like hers when it has one of it's anniversary specials about South Africa.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me that the BBC has lost interest in South Africa these days. It doesnt seem to feature as much.

Martin said...

Anon 11:37 PM,

The Beeb correspondent is SA is Orla Guerin, Doom and Catastrophe's answer to Dana, Fergal Keane with two X chromosomomes.

She did a report on Friday evening about the incidence of child kidnappings in the ranbow state. If memory serves, the word 'lawlessness' was actiually used.

Anonymous said...

When the joys of Multiculturalism are being extolled the word "vibrant" is nearly always used. "Vibrant" conceals a more sinister truth.

Anonymous said...

On the same day that Kodjo Yenga was murdered this person was also stabbed to death. One is worthy of the six o'clock news the other isn't. One features an African immigrant the other presumably does not. Funny that.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6463831.stm