Bijlmer is beautiful but is it a dangerous place to live in Amsterdam?

The Bijlmer in the South-East of Amsterdam


In the southeast of Amsterdam lies a nice, lively neighborhood called Bijlmer. Bijlmer is always in the news, firstly due to the big firms and industries that have created thousands of jobs for the Dutch people and secondly due to the wave of crime that has soured the image of its inhabitants, mainly foreigners. 


Bijlmer has also situated the magnificent modern Ajax stadium, which has hosted thousands of international matches, conferences, and concerts.

The influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal, has made Bijlmer a dangerous place to live in Amsterdam. With diverse immigrants, mainly from Surinam, Antillean, and Curacao, former colonies of the Dutch and West African immigrants, Bijlmer is now a commercial center for drug trafficking and harbors the most hardened criminals.

How do we call this? Holland dream or Dutch dream? Like the American dream, inviting many Latin Americans and Mexicans into the country, Suriname came in their numbers to the Netherlands. 

Without any basic education, the majority of Suriname is stagnant, without any future. Feeling dejected and frustrated, the only means to survive the material world of Bijlmer is to resort to drug trafficking, crime, and violence.

With the desire to study the background of Africans living in the Bijlmer, I have never seen merciless, hostile, and aggressive people like Suriname before. 

They even think the police fear them and they would not like to come their way. But what makes these people so aggressive and violent? 

My opinion is that the free smoking of marijuana is. In public, the metros running Gaasperplas and Gein, from the Central Station and the lifts of apartments, are always choked with heavy smoke and the odor of marijuana.

Some of the drugs they smoke and use have taken their toll on them. Junkies are a common sight in the Bijlmer. The effects of drugs on users are disastrous. Horrible creatures like people acting in horror movies. 

An investigation conducted recently by two Dutch journalists, Jan-Willem Navis and Joris Polman, in the neighborhood of Bijlmer revealed that for between two and three hundred euros, someone could own a gun, and they fear that, within a short period, guns would overflow in the neighborhood of Bijlmer. Young boys move around everywhere with knives hidden on them.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Is the crime wave in Bijlmer too much for the police to handle, or bring the situation under control? Over the years, the police force has demonstrated how good they could be by catching many criminals, and those who wanted to resist arrest jumped to their deaths. 

They have tried everything to make Bijlmer a safe place to live, but from every angle, it seems the police are losing the battle.

Obama's historical visit to Ghana

Obama in Ghana


U.S President Barack Obama, like many heads of state, has Africa in his mind or on his agenda to work with. Africa, many times, is like a continent totally neglected, but the fact is, there is no head of state that could push the continent aside because of its vast mineral resources, which the developed and developing countries depend on.

Obama chose Ghana as his first country in Africa because of the country's peaceful political events on the path to democracy. Ghana, formerly called "Gold Coast," gained independence in 1957, and recently had its fifth successive civilian government elected since 1992.

It is Ghana's political success of peaceful democracy that caught the attention of Obama to choose the country as his first country to visit after his inauguration as the president of the United States of America, a couple of months ago. 

The American president was welcomed at the airport by President John Evans Atta Mills, also a newly elected president under the umbrella of the National Democratic Congress(NDC), amidst drumming and dancing at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, the capital.

"Akwaaba," welcome, says the Ghanaian president to Obama. Here, I can't explain in detail the happiness and the delight that accompanied the family of Obama family as they stepped on the Ghanaian soil for the first time.

In a speech at a fully packed convention center, Obama said, " I have come to Ghana for a simple reason. The 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but what happens in Accra as well."

Obama hit hard on corruption, which has been the only tool that has crippled and is still crippling the economy of Africa in general. He reminds African leaders of the task on their shoulders as heads of state, by taking the masses that brought them into power into consideration. 

He called on the Africans to build democracy, create employment, fight corruption, and end the conflicts in Africa, which he called 'a millstone around Africa's neck.'

After touring many interesting places, the president and his family were emotionally moved when they visited the slave dungeon at the Cape Coast Castle. The slave trade was long abolished, but the grim terror was still fresh in the minds of African-Americans who came on a visit to Cape Coast Castle. 

The shackles and the chains used to bind the slaves over three hundred years ago are still there to be seen. After his emotional tour, Obama described the slave trade as one of the evils committed against humanity.

He commended Ghana for preserving the castle and those who contributed to the abolition of slavery. He said the essence of the tour was to learn about the oppression that African Americans went through and to interact ancestral lineage. 

"As somebody whose father comes from Africa, I'm pleased this visit has been particularly meaningful for me." He concluded.

THE BITE OF THE MANGO - Mariatu Kamara's Book

Mariatu Kamara, author of 'The Bite Of The Mango'

Interviewed by Jim Clancy, CNN's Inside Africa, the Sierra Leonean-born victim of war and author of the book '' The Bite of the Mango,'' Mariatu Kamara, told her horrific ordeal during the ten-year-long brutal war that maimed thousands of civilians in her country.

Mariatu narrates her story. At 12, fleeing from the activities of the rebels, she finds herself in another village. She felt hungry and decided to go to her village to get some food to eat. On the way, she was captured by the rebels, and they amputated both of her wrists. 

For what reason? So that there wouldn't be any hands to vote for the government. But they were wrong ''I still have hands to do whatever I want to do said the courageous woman.

Asked by Jim Clancy why she named her book ''The bite of the mango,'' she explained that after her wrists were cut off, a man came to her aid and offered her a mango to eat. But she felt like a child being fed. Despite the pains and blood gushing out from her wounds, Mariatu held the mango to eat it herself.

At her book launch in the United States of America, the courageous war victim was awarded the ''Voices of Courage Award." She happily interacted and answered questions of people who wanted to know her story and spoke of the meaning of the award to her. 

Her message is ''Never give up in life, no matter the situation. She went on further to say that victims of war and other calamities to keep on pushing until success is achieved.

Mariatu is not only a courageous but strong woman who has brought to the awareness of the world the suffering of war victims globally.

Book available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bite-Mango-Mariatu-Kamara/dp/1554511585/