THE TRIAL of Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, by the International Court of Criminal Justice at the Hague in the Netherlands, that has been going for three years, seemed to have attracted very little media attention.
Recently, however, there was a sudden frenzy by the international media when supermodel Naomi Campbell appeared in that court as a witness for the prosecution.
When a self-confessed airhead (she admitted to not knowing of the existence of Liberia prior to receiving a summons to appear) attracts more media attention than a crucial test of the global justice system, it says to me that we are generally more interested in the shallow glitz, and glamour of the catwalk of fashion than in the solemnity and integrity of due process on a global scale.
How sad!
CECIL L. FIELDS
