Back Issues

Obama: History, challenges and possibilities

Bill Fletcher Jr.

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/51786

cc. Delta NinerWith Barack Obama safely elected to his country’s highest seat of power, Bill Fletcher Jr. discusses the sense of fear and anticipation to have gripped him as the votes came in. As the wave of post-election excitement inspires the world, the author reviews the key issues revealed by the electoral process requiring attention in the immediate future, and argues that the tide of expectation around the Obama presidency will only be sustained by the regenerative role of grassroots organisational structures capable of educating and mobilising the millions of people seeking a new political direction.

I found myself facing a peculiar choice. Because I was taking election day off to do election work, I could have submitted an absentee ballot. In fact, that would probably have been the most logical thing to do. It would have saved me a lot of time. I kept procrastinating in filing for such a ballot until it was too late.

On election day I realised why I did not file the absentee ballot. Like millions of other voters, and particularly African-Americans, I had to physically touch the voting machine. In my case, it was a touch-screen computer, but it would not have mattered whether it was that or an old-style lever that I had to push. 4 November 2008 was a moment when I had to make physical contact with the voting machine and actually see my vote counted. I had to know that it was actually happening. And I needed to stand in line – in our case for two and a half hours – with hundreds of other African-Americans and wait patiently for a moment to influence history.

Irrespective of any reservations one might have regarding the proposed policies of President-Elect Obama (yeah, I get a kick out of writing and saying ‘President-Elect’) there is no question but that the election victory had a profound emotional impact on black America specifically, as well as this country generally. I can honestly say that I never expected to see a liberal black person elected president of the USA, and I was not sure that a conservative black person would be elected either. As the election returns were coming in my stomach was tied up in knots unlike anything that I have experienced since my daughter was born. I did not make predictions and I do not trust polls. More importantly, I did not trust the white electorate.

WHAT TO MAKE OF THE ELECTION?

In reviewing the stats from the election, the results are quite interesting. Obama won the popular vote by 52% compared with McCain's 46%. This is extremely significant and has not been replicated by a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson won the presidency in 1964. Nevertheless, what it also shows is that the USA is quite divided. That 46% of the vote that McCain won represented more than 55 million people. What is noteworthy is that while Obama won only 43% of the white vote, whites under the age of 30 backed him by a 66-32% margin. Latinos voted with Obama at a rate of 67% (an important increase over those who went with Kerry in 2004). Women voted with Obama at a rate of 55%, though he lost white women by 5% points (though this was better than Senator Kerry in 2004). It is also noteworthy that though Obama only received 45% of the veterans’ vote, compared with McCain's 54%, this remains significant in light of the red-baiting and terrorist-baiting that was being targeted at him. Additionally, union voters went with Obama at 60% compared with McCain’s 38%, a lower percentage than should have sided with Obama in light of the current economic crisis but which probably reflects racial divisions within the house of labour.

In my view, the election reflected several important concerns and tendencies:

- The economy: there is no question that the economic crisis had a significant impact on the electorate. 63% of voters indicated that the economy was a priority issue. McCain was never successful in crafting a message on the economy that resonated with the public
- Concern about the perception of the USA overseas: there was a sense among Obama supporters that there needed to be a change in the relationship of the USA to the rest of the world. This was, however, very unfocused
- A decline in the importance that voters attached to both the Iraq war and terrorism: with regard to Iraq this probably reflects a growing sense that the war is coming to an end and that the occupation is not a critical issue
- The next Supreme Court appointments: for 47% of the electorate this was a critical issue. This was a hot-button issue with liberals and progressives who have been watching the Supreme Court make increasingly indefensible decisions that reflect its right-wing course
- Race matters…sort of: particularly among younger voters, race was a less significant factor in influencing voter behaviour than among older voters. It is also apparently the case that the economic meltdown led many white voters to put racial concerns on the back burner. That said, the ‘racial neutrality’ of the Obama campaign took matters of racist oppression largely off the table for any significant discussion, a fact that may return to haunt the incoming administration.

Without question the Obama victory needs to be understood as a tribute to exceptionally good organisation, the initial positioning of Obama as, at least in the primaries, an anti-war candidate, the onset of the economic crisis, the candidate's continuous message of optimism, and Obama's ability to remain cool under fire.

ACT II: BEGINNING RIGHT NOW

The implications of the Obama victory will need to be unpacked over the coming weeks and months. That said, there are a few points worth noting because they will have strategic implications:

Obama's mandate is vague yet identifiable: the mandate he has received is to address the economic crisis immediately in a manner that favours regular working people. This is evident from the polls and from plenty of anecdotal information. In addition, the mandate involves changing the relationship of the USA to the rest of the world. This particular point is very unfocused but it is evident that the US voters are increasingly concerned about the perception of the USA overseas and what that means for matters of national security.

Most people were unfamiliar with the actual programmatic steps Obama is advocating on the economy, yet they were unwilling to be swayed by the red-baiting rhetoric of McCain and Palin. This may offer an opportunity for progressives to advance one or another variant of a redistributionist approach toward the crisis.

With regard to foreign policy, this is extremely complicated and quite troubling. While Obama has emphasised the need for negotiations as a first step in international relations, when confronted by forces to his right, he has tended to back down and often suggest highly questionable military and crypto-military options in handling crises, e.g., unilateral attacks on al-Qaeda bases in Pakistan. Some people around Obama seem to be advocating a get-tough approach towards Iran which itself could lead to hostilities. While the people of the USA, by and large, are not looking for more war, the ability of the political Right to manufacture the ever-present threat from right-wing Islamists (including but not limited to targeting Iran) has successfully promoted a climate of fear. This will, more than likely, be a weak point for the president-elect and a place where pressure must be placed by anti-war forces.

The world is expecting a great deal from an Obama administration: all corners of the earth erupted in glee upon news of the Obama victory. Obama will more than likely reach out to traditional US allies in order to repair the damage done by the eight years of the Bush administration. There will more than likely be outreach to Africa, though the character of that outreach is as yet to be determined. Obama, while Senator, expressed a great deal of interest and concern with Africa, and developed legislation focussing on the ongoing crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He will probably try to alter the relationship of the US to Africa, though it is not entirely clear how thorough such an alteration will be. One should expect outreach to the African Union to offer support in cases of humanitarian disasters and crises, but unless Obama is prepared to break with the whole ‘war against terrorism framework’ there may be continued militarisation of the continent (through vehicles such as AFRICOM and the Trans-Sahel Military Initiative).

Progressives will need to perfect an approach of ‘critical support’ towards the Obama administration: the corporate backers of President-Elect Obama have no interest in a transformative agenda. They are interested in stabilising capitalism generally, but especially stabilising the financial sector. They are open to selective nationalisations as long as such nationalisations do not bring with them significant popular accountability. In light of this, progressive forces will need to be organised in such a way to mount a challenge from the left side of the aisle. President Obama will need to be pushed on many areas, including foreign policy, healthcare, housing, jobs, and in general, the need for a pro-people approach to addressing the economic crisis. Taking this approach of critical support means, tactically, pointing out what has not been accomplished in the Obama agenda on the one hand, and, on the other, challenging the new administration when it advances policies that are regressive, e.g., threatening Iran or Cuba, or compromising with the insurance companies on healthcare.

Critical support also means raising issues that the Obama administration may tend to shy away from or avoid altogether, such as race and racism. Race is fused into the US system. Racist oppression and the differential in treatment between people of colour and whites remains a major part of the US reality. For that reason, progressives must push the Obama administration to address the continuing impact of racist oppression. This may lead to clashes that at one and the same time appear to be tactical, i.e., matters of timing, but are actually quite fundamental, that is, about whether there needs to be a systemic challenge to racist oppression.

None of this happens in the absence of organisation. Those who rallied to the Obama campaign came from various political tendencies and experiences, and many of them will seek to return to their ‘everyday life.’ At the same time, there are those who mobilised that are looking to be part of implementing the ‘dream’ and they will be unable to do this as individuals operating alone. If one really wants to advance an approach of critical support for the incoming administration, it will mean creating the grassroots organisational structures around the country that are capable of educating and mobilising the millions of people who are seeking a new direction. This approach, what I have described elsewhere as a neo-rainbow approach, can be used to exert pressure to ensure that the incoming Obama administration lives up to its full potential.

So many of us cried with joy and amazement on the evening of 4 November with this historic breakthrough. Our excitement cannot rest with the electoral success but must be fused with a genuine effort to create a new politics.

* Bill Fletcher Jr. is the executive editor of BlackCommentator.com and a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the immediate former president of the TransAfrica Forum and the co-author of ‘Solidarity Divided’ which analyses the crisis in organized labour in the USA.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Balkanisation and crisis in eastern Congo

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba speaks to Pambazuka News

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/51788

cc. Julien HarneisAugust saw a fresh outbreak of conflict in the DRC. Since then, approximately 250,000 have been displaced in the eastern part of the country. Following a brief cease-fire declared by the forces under the command of General Laurent Nkunda, fighting again erupted on the 4th of November. Ever since the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, and the subsequent wars that raged between 1996 and 2002, the country has hardly seen a moment's respite. The Kivu region has been the epicentre of the latest round of fighting. In an interview with Firoze Manji, Ernest Wamba Dia Wamba outlines the conditions necessary for a lasting peace in the DRC

Pambazuka News: After many years of silence about the killings in the DRC, the world's attention has suddenly turned to the current sweeping of Laurent Nkunda's forces around Goma. What's brought about this kind of attention?

Wamba dia Wamba: I think that the change of the balance of forces on the terrain is part of the reason. The scope of the humanitarian catastrophe forces many western people connected with media, with humanitarian organisations and also the rising interest in the situation of the DRC around the US elections. One hears that the incumbent regime would like to create hot situations either to help the Republican candidate or to create faits accomplis for the new regime to deal with. Around certain universities in the US, for example, for the first time a trend has developed to take up the issue of the silence on killings in the DRC. And, we have to add also the need for Western capitalists, after the Chinese contract with the DRC government, to re-assume their control over the Congolese resources. We hear that the idea of a Kosovo is being played, but, if it materialises it will be not for Congolese peoples’ interest but to have control over very important mineral and agriculture potential resources of the area.

Pambazuka News: The mass media in the West predictably seeks to portray the conflict as tribal. But what is this conflict about? What are the political and economic factors behind the conflict?

Wamba dia Wamba: Tribal differences have never been a cause of conflict; other conditions must prevail to transform differences into discriminations and these to lead to conflicts. There are of course many unresolved issues since the Rwandese genocide took place and many, including genocidaires, moved massively to the DRC as recommended by the international community. Nkunda, for example does use the presence of the FDLR [Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda], still committed to retake power in Rwanda and perhaps carry out genocide, as one reason for his war. The truth of the matter is that we have to distinguish between the main objective, access and control over the resources, and the conditions facilitating that objective, the existence of genocidaires creating havoc on innocent people, the sentiments of exclusion still felt by the Tutsi Congolese, the involvement of the DRC government with those genocidaires – used as the government's marines, according to some – and the possible alliances between business people aligned with government officials of states in the region. Most of our regional governments are actually led by security officers allied to businessmen. It is said that Rwandese businessmen, among others, have been financing Nkunda to keep control of the mines and continue exploit minerals – coltan, niobium, etc – very much sought by transnational enterprises producing or distributing mobile phones, satellites, etc.

The subsoil of the whole of the DRC has almost been sold out with contracts to so-called partners. Quite a few family members of people in power, from the summit on, find themselves on those contracts. One suspects that in zones where there is no firm control by any state, weapons decide everything. In a sense, Kivu is now the weakest link of the globalisation’s chain. We need to identify the different contradictions converging there. The absence of a real state authority, apparently willed by some who are in the State, facilitates the agents of the world economy of crime.

Pambazuka News: What are the roles of Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Angola in this conflict? What's in it for them?

Wamba dia Wamba: After having experienced the destabilisation of a Mobutist gendarme state, many neighbouring countries would rather prefer having a weak Congo around, especially if they can even benefit from that weakness by engaging also in the looting of resources of the Congo. The invisible alliances in business facilitate that kind of pursuit. Certain officials in Uganda and in Kinshasa at some point did have joint business going on. Rwanda has an interest it uses contradictorily: the presence of the genocidaires to claim that its security is threatened and to keep a situation of anarchy to have access to resources on which its businessmen have been enriching themselves. Their participation in the last two rebellions made them taste the resources available in Congo and in fact want to continue enjoying them in one way or another. The task of organised government in Kinshasa would have been to find ways of legalising participation in the common exploitation of resources. This process has been very slow and one feels that the anarchy is found more profitable in the short run.

Pambazuka News: The European Union and other countries are deeply engaged in exploitation of the DRC's resources. To what extent are they culpable in the current crisis?

Wamba dia Wamba: Certain transnational enterprises were identified by the UN panel some time back: Anglo-America, Standard Chartered Bank, De Beers, etc. The nature of the minerals being exploited in the area can only be used by advanced enterprises and Africans are just intermediaries. The campaign against the DRC-China contract by the West is an indication of their willingness to control the Congo resources. The sad part is that profitability through bloody coltan being higher, they do not really care about the life of the innocent Congolese, only to reduce the miseries through so-called humanitarian punctual aid and not to eradicate violence altogether.

Pambazuka News: Are we witnessing the 'Balkanisation' of the DRC?

Wamba dia Wamba: The rebels are occupying an area of about 3 territories. It is not clear whether in negotiations they will accept to give it up. If the DRC government does not succeed in getting that territory back and if external forces support the keeping of the territory by the rebels, a small but very rich country will be formed and the impact on the rest of the country may lead to a real balkanisation. The government is being asked not to give up to that demand if formulated. Congolese people are firm for their territorial integrity.

Pambazuka News: Does the Kinshasa government have any control of the situation?

Wamba dia Wamba: Not really, that is why it has being criticising the MONUC for its own failure to arrest the war. Because of the nature of leadership we have, mostly interested in looting resources and staying in power, condoning impunity, etc.; institutions hardly function. Most of what it promised to do is not being done, including national reconciliation and building of a real national army. Even the new government being sworn in does not seem to inspire confidence in the population. Many useless dead-woods have been but behaving as if the republic is their private propriety – the so-called the parallel government have been re-included.

Pambazuka News: What should be the response of pan-Africans to the present situation?

Wamba dia Wamba: Call for a regional African Peoples’ conference, if there is a way to make this happen. What is needed even for democracy to be built in the area is that people agitate to really build a post-neoliberalist developmentalist State. In the short run, we should agitate against any possible Balkanisation, for the application of the Nairobi agreements, for the exchange of embassies between the DRC and its neighbours, Rwanda and Uganda, and for an urgent humanitarian intervention.

* Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba is honorary senator and vice-president of the Organizing Power of the Kongo University.
* Firoze Manji is editor in chief of Pambazuka News and director of Fahamu – Networks for social justice.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Obama, US-Africa policy and AFRICOM

Beth Tuckey

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51787

Within the African community, both in the US and on the continent, many have speculated about what an Obama presidency will mean for Africa. As the son of a Kenyan man with family still in Kenya, expectations tend to run high. Still, some have cautioned against such optimism, reminding us that Barack Obama will be subject to the same political difficulties as any other president and that changing US policy toward Africa simply will not be a top priority.

The truth is probably somewhere in between. As he has said himself so many times, Obama will not be a perfect president; he will rely on advisors who do not see the same vision for Africa that we do, he will maintain a military presence in Africa through AFRICOM, and he will often relegate the African agenda to the end of his list of concerns. But that does not mean he lacks the will or desire to chart a new direction in America’s relationship with Africa. His deep concern for ‘the people’ and for seeing a world free of the tyranny of injustice means we may finally have a president who is willing to make policies that treat Africans with dignity and respect, as long as we pressure him to do it.

As concerned American citizens or as those on the continent who are directly affected by Obama’s Africa policies, we have a right to hold him to a higher standard. To be fair, we must also acknowledge that much of Obama’s initial work will be part of the same progressive movement that will eventually contribute to a shift in US Africa policy. Africa may not be number one on his agenda, but ending the war in Iraq, ensuring healthcare for all Americans, and conserving our global environment are all part of a broader agenda that puts the common good ahead of the good of a few.

Those of us fighting for social justice in Africa must tap into that broader agenda. We must make it clear to President Obama that an initiative like AFRICOM works against his laudable goals of ending foreign wars and protecting our environment. He needs to know that AFRICOM discounts his own endorsement of diplomacy as the first tool in the US foreign policy toolkit and that it jeopardises the stability of African societies.

Obama must be reminded throughout his presidency that a global system that delivers profits to some and robs others of their prosperity will not create the change he seeks. It is our job to ensure that when he says he wants to ‘strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)’, that it does not mean he will put more money in the coffers of the oil companies who have benefited from President Clinton’s paltry attempt at African development.

Perhaps most importantly, Obama must know that as long as Africa has vast, untapped reserves of oil and as long as the US economy depends so heavily on fossil fuel for its mere survival, Africa will not be stable. The exploitation of oil, natural gas, uranium, coltan, and other precious minerals by large US corporations has spurred violence in places like the Niger Delta, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Laws must be tightened to curb the power of those corporations and to hold them accountable for the crimes they have committed. (To add insult to injury, it is likely that many such corporations view AFRICOM as insurance on their investments, thereby contributing to the injustice of a military-led strategy for Africa.) Thus, as part of his Africa policy, President Obama must put forth green legislation that will reduce American dependence on African oil.

The US addiction to oil and other resources has also led the current administration to send military aid to governments that may be illegitimate, abusive, or corrupt. Today, the US sends weapons and military training to countries such as Chad and Equatorial Guinea whose governments have committed human rights abuses. Significant amounts of military and humanitarian aid are also sent to Rwanda in exchange for troops in Baghdad, support for the US position on Israel, and most importantly, the key to Congo’s mineral wealth. The recent violence in Congo can in many ways be attributed to Rwanda, where President Paul Kagame is actively supporting the rebel group CNDP (Congrès national pour la défense du people) in its invasion of eastern Congo.

One of AFRICOM’s primary tasks is to conduct such training and equipping of African soldiers. Sadly, one of the leaders of Obama’s Africa policy team has fully endorsed AFRICOM and its importance in ‘legitimising’ African militaries. Bush administration officials have not been shy about stating AFRICOM’s goals of counterterrorism and oil access, so it appears that the US is training African soldiers to do America’s dirty work on the continent, regardless of the level of accountability of those governments toward their people. We should expect Obama to be more responsible about which governments he chooses as partners and which he condemns for their unjust actions.

As part of the liberal movement, we must remind Obama that AFRICOM is completely antithetical to his broader progressive agenda. It puts military might ahead of diplomatic talk, it reinforces an ideological war against terrorism that can never be won by the Pentagon, and it proves that the US cares more about maintaining an open oil pipeline that it does about African peace and prosperity. Obama must know that it is not a policy that Africans endorse and that for a president who ran his campaign on ‘change,’ supporting AFRICOM is the absolute wrong way to go.

Like oil, Africa’s farmland is also precious resource, one that has the capacity to feed millions more but is compromised by violence, climate change, and unfair global trade laws, none of which are the fault of Africans alone. Obama’s ‘Add Value to Agriculture Initiative’ is a good-hearted attempt to boost Africa’s food production, but it will fall flat if it is not accompanied by a fair trade system, climate change legislation, and an insistence on good governance in Africa. America’s grossly inflated farm subsidies to agribusinesses may in fact negate some of the benefits of an agriculture initiative.

President Obama should also be aware of the influence of genetically modified seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides in maintaining a global system that is skewed toward large Western companies. Here again, the impact of oil dependence comes into play. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are created and shipped using fossil fuels and upheld by a system that merits not local ingenuity but increased global consumption. If individual food sovereignty is the goal, that is hardly the way to achieve it.

There will be many ways to achieve a fair and just US policy toward Africa during an Obama administration, and we cannot forget the power of the individual voice. He will make some good choices, and he will make some bad ones. He will likely choose mediocre advisors such as Susan Rice and Witney Schneidman from the Clinton years, but he will also rely on the wisdom of Africans to direct his policy.

There are many issues both in Africa and around the world that will demand Obama’s attention when he takes office in January. And while we cannot expect an immediate sea change in US-Africa policy, we can hold him to the promises he has made and should anticipate a positive shift. Obviously, on issues like AFRICOM, we have a long way to go, but Obama’s building blocks of diplomacy and green energy offer a good starting point. No, an Obama presidency will not correct all of America’s wrongs in Africa, but it will get us moving in the right direction – provided we, as civil society, make our voices heard.

* Beth Tuckey is the associate director of Program Development and Policy at Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) in Washington, DC.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Fear of emancipatory history in the DRC

From Kimpa Vita to Lumumba to the women of Panzi

Jacques Depelchin

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51790

As events unfold in the DRC the usual questions are being asked: who is responsible for the current war within the war which never really ended in 2003 and its ensuing humanitarian crisis?

In the pages of one of the most respected dailies of Kinshasa (Le Potentiel) well-known philosophers have offered conflicting ways of looking at, and analysing, the conflict. Who is General Nkunda, and why has he said that this time around that he will not stop in Goma (threatening to go all the way to Kinshasa)? What is the Rwandan government up to, besides pretending, disingenuously, that it has nothing to do with it? Why the Congolese army is unable (or is it unwillingness?) to defeat Nkunda’s army? Does Nkunda take his orders from Kigali? Or from Kinshasa? Why has the AU remained so silent? Who is this current crisis going to benefit? Is this the prelude of the final and complete return of Mobutism without Mobutu? What is the UN (and its acolytes in the EU and NATO) up to? Given the resignation of the military head of the peace-keeping mission in the DRC, one has to wonder whether he found himself in the same position as General Roméo Dallaire in Rwanda in 1994. Then the pressure on him from the UN bureaucrats to resign was only prevented (according to Dallaire himself)(1) by his second in command, a Ghanaian officer, who prevailed on his boss not to give up.

The connection between cheap resources like coltan, gold, cassiterite, the warring factions and the war must be factored in any attempt to make sense of the current carnage. Yet trying to answer all these questions could take volumes and will not help understand why and how the DRC has arrived at such a point of destruction and self-destruction. There is among most analysts deep-seated reluctance to look at the visible and invisible legacies of a history that has been, in the main, genocidal and predatory. And not just from 1994.(2)

Looking for the usual culprits at the highest levels of governments and/or multinational corporations should not ignore those of us who do consume the latters’ goods. Why don’t consumers of computers and cell phones feel compelled not to purchase items that are the result of a well-known criminal process traceable from the extraction of coltan from the eastern DRC? Is their attitude different from that of previous generations enjoying the comforts provided by the triangular Atlantic trade and then, later, by colonial occupations? The visible crimes against humanity today have their roots in the refusal to look at the current triumphant economic system as part of the problem. It is not enough to rant against the usual culprits, be they foreign regional leaders and their international supporters. The process that brought the current political leadership to power in the DRC can be traced to, at least, the conditions and circumstances under which independence was achieved in 1960.

As can be seen by the recent unfolding, so-called, financial crisis, the reluctance to go back in time to the root of the problem is deeply ingrained. It took a long time for pundits and experts alike to mention 1929, and it is still taboo to mention the word depression. Yet history, one should know now, is not unlike nature: it unfolds with warts and all, good and bad, regardless of what historians may wish to edit out. While it is fairly easy to rage and rant against the current cast of regional, national and international leaders for their unrelenting determination to ‘do away with the DR Congo’, and enrich themselves in the process, a mixture of fear and shame seems to stand in the way of going further back in time in our history. Shame of understanding that we should never have allowed Patrice Emery Lumumba to be overthrown, assassinated and disposed of in an acid bath. Lumumba’s elimination was meant to be exemplary in its terrorising effect on the Congolese people. In the subsequent decades, everything was done to ensure that no political leadership inspired by emancipatory politics emerge. And it seems to have worked far beyond the expectations of its sponsors.

In three years time, on 17 January 2011, it will be the 50th anniversary of the ‘success’ of doing away with Lumumba. The same mentality has been at work trying to balkanise the DRC. Like Lumumba’s body, they would like to dissolve it. As with Lumumba, as with colonial rule and slavery earlier, the process of doing away with persons, groups or even a country which refuses to conform, the recipe, in Africa and beyond has been the same: do away with it. How many Congolese know of Kimpa Vita being burnt at the stake on 2 June 1706, simply for having denounced the Kongo king for allowing slave raiding. In turn Capuchin missionaries denounced her for being a heretic. That was two centuries before Simon Kimbangu’s resistance against economic, political and religious colonialism. Imprisoned in 1921, he died in prison in 1951. Done away with.

The same dominant mentality led to the erasure of Yugoslavia from the map. Similar processes are going on in various parts of the planet. The targets may not necessarily be access to cheap resources, but at the core, the doing away with objective is to target people whose will to be free refuses to bend to the dogma of a fundamentalist ideology rooted in the notion that economic liberty must be defended at all cost and regardless of the genocidal sequences left in its path.

For those who might falter in the belief that capitalism is the ‘best economic system man has invented’, they should read the lead article of The Economist (18 October 2008) titled ‘Capitalism at bay’. Unsurprisingly, the subtitle is ‘What went wrong and, rather more importantly for the future, what did not.’ At the end of the very first paragraph, one reads ‘Ever since [one hundred and sixty five years ago] The Economist has been on the side of economic liberty.’ Economic liberty has obviously worked wonders for those who fashioned and benefited most from it, starting all the way from slavery. In all of its subsequent manifestations and so-called self-corrections, those who most benefited, have maintained their grip on how it should be run, while allowing a few more into the privileged circle.

The prizing of economic liberty over everything else has taken such a toll that it does keep at bay those who might wish to calculate its costs. Could it be that the fear might stem from what might be found? The calculation of human suffering is impossible. In the case of Africa, humanitarianism has been used to alleviate the conscience of those who swear and live by the fruits of economic liberty. As has been seen with the so-called financial crisis, the dominant mindset shall always find ways of extracting profits even where it might be thought impossible. The financial engineering acrobatics that has brought about the current crisis has been used before against segments of humanity that had been ruled out of humanity. How many Africans, for example, know that from 1685 to 1848 France applied Le Code Noir as the legal tool for how to treat Africans.(3) The abolition of slavery did not change the habits which had been ingrained in the populace which benefited from slavery. It would be more appropriate to speak of the modernisation of slavery. The financial engineers of those times, with the help of the steam engine, figured that more money could be made by abolition slavery and, to boot, give themselves moral accolades for putting an end to something that was not morally sustainable. It never entered the minds of most abolitionists that those they called slaves saw themselves as part of humanity.

France passed the Taubira law in 2001. The law stated that slavery was a crime against humanity. Given what happened at the UN Conference Against Racism and Intolerance in August and September 2001, France’s acceptance of naming slavery a crime against humanity was certainly a positive step, but, ever since, a backlash has been brewing and broke out in the open with historian Pierre Nora’s blunt reaction against the law.(4)

This detour may seem irrelevant to what is going on in eastern DRC. It is not, because it reveals how difficult it is to transform a mindset borne from genocidal sequences (wiping out of indigenous populations in the Caribbean and the Americans followed by hunting for slaves in Africa). Segments of humanity benefited immensely from slavery and the slave trade. In the case of Haiti, France and its allies went even further and insisted on payment of compensation to the slave owners and plantation owners. Such compensation was paid from 1825 through 1946. When President Aristide insisted that such payment should be given back, France, including some of its most well-known liberal voices, balked. They then did everything to do away with President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Luckily, unlike Toussaint L’Ouverture and Lumumba, he survived. But among those who kept calling for his return, like Lovinsky Jean-Pierre, the doing away machine went to work. He ‘disappeared’ in August 2007. His crime was fearlessness and fidelity to the truth process of bringing about a change in the situation.(5)

The lessons of what happens when trespassing (e.g. genocide) of humanity and its living principles are broken have still not been learned. The corrections, whether at Nüremberg or in South Africa, have always been far below what was being called for. The same happened with the Rwanda genocide of 1994. To this day, the unfolding of feminicide (destroying women at their most vulnerable and intimate) in the eastern DRC, the collateral maiming and killing of children, are the direct continuation of a refusal to attend to what happened, at all levels, inside and outside Africa. And, of course, this refusal is, in turn, connected to the wider and deeper refusal to face crimes against humanity where and when they happen. The result can be observed today, almost like a spectacle. The inventory of atrocities committed seems endless both in terms of numbers and intensity.

The pattern of ‘doing away with’ is not peculiar to the DRC. There continues to be a deliberate ‘doing away with’ people like the pygmies, immigrants, women, children, handicapped people, workers, poor, peasants. On a larger and deeper scale, the spectacle of ‘doing away with’ the planet is unfolding with impunity. By calling it a financial crisis, the leadership of the most advanced economies, defined, by the same token, those who must come to the table to discuss how to get out of it. According to the defenders of economic liberty über alles, those who have been at the receiving end of its ravages over the centuries must be kept out of the discussion.

In the conference that is being called in Nairobi, there will be nobody representing the women who were raped beyond description, and no one will represent the children. The NGOs present there will follow the protocol dictated by the modernisers of the Berlin Conference. Then it was about carving up the continent between those who made themselves count. The mindset at work in Berlin in 1884–85, with regard to Africa, has not changed. Some day it will, because it has to, if humanity is going to survive.

* Jacques Depelchin is a committed intellectual, academic, and activist for peace, democracy, transparency and pro-people politics in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

(1) See the documentary on the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, made by Frontline: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/
(2) See, for example, Adam Hochschild’s book King Leopold’s Ghost.
(3) See Louis Sala-Molins, Le code noir ou le calvaire de Canaan (Presses Universitaires de France. Paris, 2002). Obviously, we are not referring to academics, but even there, knowing and doing something about it are two different things.
(4) See the article by Pierre Nora ‘Liberté pour l’histoire’ and Christiane Taubira’s response ‘Mémoire, histoire et droit’, respectively in Le Monde of October 10 and 15, 2008.
(5) After Lumumba’s assassination, a process of what could be called ideological cleansing led to the doing away of anyone who was considered a Lumumbist. It included people who came from the same region as his birth place.

A UN agency for women?

Stephen Lewis

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51792

When I served at the United Nations in the 1980s, out of the then 159 Member States there were three represented by women ambassadors. One of them was the formidable feminist and quite wonderful human being, Dame Nita Barrow of Barbados. So highly did many of us think of Dame Nita, and so anxious was she to serve the world, that she was persuaded to run for the post of president of the General Assembly.

She lost. She lost to a male foreign minister, of one-tenth her competence and capacity. She lost, in part, because she was a mere ambassador and he was a foreign minister. But mostly – and everybody knew it – she lost because she was a woman.

At the time, incredibly enough, there had not yet been appointed, since the beginning of the United Nations – a span of forty years – a single permanent under-secretary general who was a woman.

Things have obviously improved. But we're still achingly far removed from gender parity in the senior positions of the United Nations system. We have failed internally, we have failed externally, and no one should derive any special solace from the incremental progress over the years.

So clear is the failure, especially in the lamentable record of the United Nations on women's rights around the world that, as you all know, a High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence recommended, in the fall of 2006, the creation of a new international agency for women. It's useful to recall the words of the panel: ‘The message is clear: while the UN remains a key actor in supporting countries to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment, there is a strong sense that the UN's contribution has been incoherent, under-resourced and fragmented.’

For a UN report, those are fighting words; scalding language. It's clear that the panellists wanted something entirely different. They went on to say: ‘We believe that the importance of achieving gender equality cannot be overstated.’

Some will bridle at my use of the word ‘agency’ because diplomacy, fearful as always of offending anyone's precious sensibilities, wanted to rely on abstractions like ‘entity’ so as not to cause apoplexy among the faint of heart.

But as things have evolved, it's clear that we're moving to the equivalent of an agency, whatever it's ultimately called, and we're moving with surprising rapidity.

Even now, the office of the secretary-general (more explicitly, the deputy secretary-general and her designees), responding to a request from member states, is fleshing out a model of what the new agency will look like, chosen from amongst four alternative possibilities, one of which is a self-contained separate new fund or programme; another of which is an as-yet-to-be-defined hybrid institutional arrangement. At the moment the hybrid seems to be favoured.

The organisation that I represent – AIDS-Free World – has no doubt whatsoever which is the best model, and that's the separate, independent fund. Nor do we have any hesitation about the three indispensable ingredients: first, an under secretary-general chosen, without prejudice, from amongst the women of the world… There are, as it happens, a number of remarkable women, in various countries, quietly thinking of vying for the job. Second, the agency should be funded initially at a level of $1 billion annually (a mere third of UNICEF's yearly budget), and it will be fascinating to see whether the current international financial turbulence is used as an excuse to prejudice the funding of a women's agency. It would be the ultimate irony if the hapless men, corporate and political, who orchestrated the sub-prime mortgage convulsion, and then found a trillion dollars in the western world to bail out Wall Street and the European banks, could not find one-tenth of one per cent of that amount to address the needs and rights of women world-wide.

If that should prove the case, you can forget about the Millennium Development Goal dealing with gender equality.

Third, the new agency must have operational capacity on the ground, sufficient to plan and implement programmes, influence governments and the UN family, and to support the activist women's groups who have been fighting the good fight both before the Beijing women's conference and after, almost entirely without a shred of assistance from the United Nations. And these same women, let it be said, must be at the table during the drafting and discussion of the new agency. This is no time for the exclusion of civil society.

There will undoubtedly be endless debates about governance and institutional relationships, not to mention the contentious absorption of UNIFEM, the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues, but however protracted and difficult the discussions, the convoluted process cannot be allowed to doom the agency.

Those of us on the outside looking in are working on the assumption that the agency will be proclaimed, by way of General Assembly resolution, before the end of the current session. Certainly an increasing number of countries have shown an appetite to have that happen, even if they have to separate the women's agency from the other issues that emanate from the System-Wide Coherence report.

As always, the need for the agency intensifies with every passing day. I can confidently say, as the former UN Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, that the catalogue of carnage amongst the women and girls of the continent would never have assumed such grotesque proportions if we'd had a women's agency to raise the alarm and to intercede. UNAIDS utterly and tragically failed to protect the women of Africa (an interesting commentary on the shortcomings of a hybrid agency, by the way), and the rest of the members of the UN family were, for the most part, equally abysmal.

And it matters not whether we're talking about sex trafficking, or female genital mutilation, or child brides, or honour killings, or the absence of property rights, or the absence of inheritance rights, or the absence of laws against rape and sexual violence, or the need to guarantee economic autonomy, or the dismal limits of political representation… in each and every case, and countless more, the world cries out for a women's agency to intervene.

And if anyone thinks that I'm engaging in self-indulgent rhetoric, just turn your mind to the DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is noteworthy that there's such a sudden international frenzy about the resumption of the fighting as the rebels advance on Goma, but no similar international agitation about the war on women that has been the most sickening dimension of the conflict for the last twelve years.

It is noteworthy that the foreign ministers of France and the United Kingdom are dramatically scrambling to seek a meeting among the government of the DRC, the rebel forces and the government of Rwanda, but it is surely painful to recognise that there has never been an equivalent urgent scramble to stop the unrelieved mass rape.

It is noteworthy that the Secretary-General's representative has just called for additional peacekeeping troops to halt the current rebel military advance, but you've never heard a similar call for additional troops to protect the women from the contagion of rape and sexual violence.

It is noteworthy that just last Thursday, October 29th, the Security Council engaged in its annual debate on resolution 1325 – the signal resolution to require the involvement of women at the table in all peacemaking negotiations – and the debate passed with only cursory international notice, and only a repetitive handful of obligatory speeches.

It is noteworthy that at the failed DRC peace agreement negotiated last January, not a single woman's voice representing the raped women was at the peace table.

It is equally noteworthy that in that self-same peace agreement, an amnesty was extended to significant numbers of the rapists. So much for the fight against impunity.

It is noteworthy that despite the Security Council resolution, passed unanimously on June 19th of this year, declaring rape and sexual violence in conflict a threat to international peace and security, nothing, but absolutely nothing has happened in the aftermath.

It is noteworthy that MONUC [Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo], the DRC's peacekeeping mission and at seventeen thousand strong, the largest in the world, has failed to protect the women of the Congo despite explicit provisions in its mandate requiring it to do so. Let me remind you of that mandate as expressed in the Security Council resolution of December, 2007, renewing the MONUC mission: Article 8: ‘Recalls MONUC's mandate to use all necessary means to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence, particularly in the Kivus; and Article 18: Requests MONUC, in view of the scale and severity of sexual violence committed especially by armed elements in the DRC, to undertake a thorough review of its efforts to prevent and respond to sexual violence, and to pursue a comprehensive, mission-wide strategy, in close cooperation with the UN Country Team and other partners, and to strengthen prevention, protection and response to sexual violence…’ Needless to say, for the women of the Congo, Articles 8 and 18 are dead letters.

It is noteworthy that the principle of ‘Responsibility to Protect’, embraced unanimously by all Member States of the United Nations in 2005, has never been invoked on behalf of the women of the Congo.

It is noteworthy that a consortium of twelve UN agencies, ostensibly united to end rape in the Congo, have never been mobilized or coordinated in effective fashion. Only UNICEF – far and away the most engaged – and UNFPA [United Nations Population Fund] and OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] have made any appreciable difference.

It is noteworthy that the raping of the Congo's resources is inextricably tied to the raping of the Congo's women. The major Western powers have known this to be true for more than a decade and have behaved with craven self-interest and appalling indifference. If crimes against humanity were a matter of omission rather than commission, certain industrial countries would be on trial.

It is noteworthy that this horrendous cauldron of sexual violence has finally ignited the attention of the world – not as a result of multilateral concern, but as a result of crusading journalists on the one hand and magnificent activists like Eve Ensler of V-Day on the other. In some ways what's happening is exactly like Darfur (though much, much bigger): the entire world knows, and we won't bring it to an end.

I must say that in my entire adult life, even recognising the massive scale of gender inequality, I never imagined that the world would stand by while women, in the hundreds of thousands, are mercilessly brutalised in a war that knows no end. At the little Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, an heroic group of doctors attempts to surgically repair the endless stream of women whose reproductive tracts have been impaled and shattered by violence. More and more of the women are HIV-positive. The rapists are in the ascendant. They have learned what all the sophistication of the international community seems to have overlooked: rape is no longer a weapon of war; rape is a strategy of war. Sexual violence is used, consciously, deliberately, wilfully, as a way of subduing entire communities through the madness of mass rape – in the most ghastly of ways – of the women.

And that's why AIDS-Free World, and many other activist and women's groups, will never cease in our determination to achieve a women's agency. That's why we hope, with all our collective hearts, that the women Ambassadors here assembled, and the countries they represent, will take up the cudgels for the women's agency.

Somewhere on this planet there must be a presence and a voice, of influence and power, fighting for gender equality. Where better, I ask you, than the United Nations? What better, I ask you, than a United Nations agency for women?

* Stephen Lewis is the co-director of AIDS-Free World and the former United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa (2001–2006).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Three men holding 12 million people hostage

Shereen Essof

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51789

Highlighting the chronic lack of representation for women within each of Zimbabwe’s main political parties, Shereen Essof asks how Zimbabwean feminism should proceed in its essential challenge to the oppressive dominance of the country’s political elites. In a nation suffering the world’s highest inflation rate and among the world’s lowest life expectancy, the author asks what these statistics mean in practical day-to-day terms for Zimbabwe’s women. With Mugabe, Tsvangirai, and Mutambara continuing to fail to settle their differences and articulate a worthwhile path for their country’s immediate future, those at the apex of political power effectively hold their entire population hostage to their decisions, a state maintained in no small part by the behind-closed-doors nature of negotiations and ultimate absence of democratic accountability.

What is life like for women in a country where inflation is 300 million percent and counting? What is life like for women in a country where their life expectancy is 34 years? What is life like for women in a country where three men hold a nation hostage?

It is difficult to answer these questions. In fact there are no easy answers. It is only once you visit a country that has been torn apart that you can fully understand the implications of this dismembering and subsequently what constitutes life. But the media has become very good at reporting the pulse of Zimbabwe via palatable sound bites and this reporting has been such a recurring blip on the so-called media electro-cardiogram that we no longer notice it, we no longer notice that it has flat-lined.

But despite this women are fighting to stay alive. They are fighting to survive. And in Zimbabwe right now the contradictions of this struggle run deep. I listen to stories of women who have nothing to eat, who forage for roots, wild fruit and rats. Stories of desperation, displacement and despair. But the magic of capital plays interesting games in a context of dire need and so the development of a highly sophisticated informal economy means the deprivation coexists with plenty. And everything and anything can be conjured up if you have the money, just not in the places you would expect to find it: petrol is available not at a garage, but under a tree on a quiet side road in Harare’s avenues, at an office on the ninth floor of an office block, or after a quick phone call to arrange a pick-up (if you can get through given the ever breaking down mobile networks and stolen fixed line cables). Sugar and rice can be purchased from a car boot, and chickens from the hardware store near the train station. Some fresh produce can be bought from women selling on the side of the road, a victory given that roadside vendors were ‘cleaned up and out’ after operation murambatsvina removed the filth, but then given that the country has ‘dollarised’ you have to have ‘maUSA’ – as its known locally – or US dollars to make your purchases even of a few tomatoes, sweet potatoes or greens.

So if you don’t have access to ‘forex’, you don’t have anything right now and basic commodities will remain an illusion. Depending on the formal sector for jobs or access to services means you just don’t survive. More so because there is no cash and the endless queues outside the banks are evidence of the difficulty that women have getting their, and you can take your pick of ‘re-valued’, ‘de-valued’, ‘under-valued’, but certainly hard-earned cash out of the banks. This means that everyone is trying to make a quick a buck, to wheel or deal to generate maUSA’s and remittances from diaspora workers abroad go a long way.

And while this may read like a comedy of errors, women, whether in the leafy suburbs or in the remote rural areas, are tired of the struggle for survival, of the inconveniences, of deprivation, of trying to figure out where to get the next meal to put on the table. Women are tired of the collapsed healthcare system, characterised by a lack of drugs, the shortage of personnel and the breakdown of equipment. They are tired of an ailing education system characterised by continued strikes by teachers due to poor remuneration, lack of supplies such as textbooks and stationery, delays in the writing of exams and in 2008, owing to elections and political instability, schools operating for only 65 days in the year. Women have had enough of the electricity and water cuts that sometimes last days and weeks, tired of the violence, the grave politically motivated and sexualised violence that women and women activists of all ages have suffered during the post-election period and which has continued to prevail due to impunity. Women are fatigued with having their roles dictated by the private sphere even when entering the public and are fed up of the months and of the retrospective years of waiting, waiting while the quality of women’s lives continues to decline.

AND THE 3 MEN AND THEIR TEAMS CONTINUE TO DELIBERATE

The election on 29 March 2008 was one in a series – eight in the last eight years – meant to break the stranglehold of the increasingly authoritarian Mugabe-led Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) regime. With the birth in 1999 of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), elections as an expression of democratic practise were meant to do just that: to reinstate a new and democratic dispensation. But as history records, the extreme politically motivated violence and accompanying post-election machinations have meant that elections have lost their integrity in Zimbabwe and the voting public are both traumatised and fatigued by the process.

The polarisation of Zimbabwean politics means that women only have two options (now three in truth, with the split in the MDC producing MDC Tsvangirai (T) and MDC Mutambara (M), along with the ruling ZANU-PF). If you take the time to examine the parties’ constitutions, election manifestos, and programmes, none adequately addresses or expresses a commitment to the priorities and needs as identified by women, thus none provides a really viable alternative for a new dispensation that seeks alternatives that allow for the freedom of all. For this freedom is not something to be decreed and protected by laws or states, it is something that we shape for ourselves and share.

So there are thoughts that knot my stomach in the wee hours of the morning: can we really say that a ‘new’ dispensation has arrived if over half of the population’s structurally subjugated position at best remains the same or at worst has regressed? If we call this a victory for a democratic movement, what does it say about our definitions? If we are serious about the so-called change that Zimbabwe needs, it is important to ask what is the kind of change we are hoping for. Should we not be concerned about the quality as well as the quantity of the change? What exactly is the prescription or framework that will resuscitate Zimbabwe? Are we going to be ushered into an age that is even more intolerable and dehumanising? We live in a pitiless era of neoliberal market dependence whose end is even more poverty and misery. It will require much more radical thinking of what is possible and much more imagination of what is desirable for a so-called ‘new’ Zimbabwe. And once the current impasse has been overcome and the ink has dried on the agreements and deals, what then? Will we, as we did in 1980, breathe a sigh of relief and put our feet up, basking in the glow of ‘victory’ for this ‘democratic movement’? Will women be co-opted in order to once again serve male agendas? How do feminist activists conceptualise the work ahead?

But let me not get carried away by critical questions for some uncertain future.

As I write in November 2008 it has been eight months since the harmonised elections, and subsequent South African Development Community (SADC) endorsed, Mbeki-facilitated negotiations that put in place the Global Political Agreement (GPA), a hybrid document that provides a framework for the formation of a new government and a plan for the subsequent reconstruction of Zimbabwe. But as I write the talks between the leaders of the political parties have deadlocked and are awaiting the deliberations of a full SADC heads of state meeting. The media tells us that they have deadlocked on the allocation of ‘key’ ministries and apparently even with this so called ‘new’ dispensation on the horizon the key ministries have been identified as: home affairs, finance, foreign affairs, information, and defence. Surely if this new Zimbabwe in the making was committed to rule not by manipulation and coercion, and was serious in putting the needs of the Zimbabwean people first, the key ministries would be identified as that of public works, health, education, women’s affairs and the how of the reconstruction programme would be uppermost in their minds.

But right now that is perhaps too much to hope for.

So while the talks deadlock and the weeks roll into months women are sacrificed, a country is sacrificed, a sacrifice made on the altar of power of male ego, political survival, posturing and self interest. The deliberation of three men is holding the country hostage, and right now it is not clear how the current round of talks are going to bring food back into the shops, teachers back into the schools and medicines back into the clinics. This seems to have fallen off the agenda.

As long as the male leaders maintain ‘ZANU’ political cultures and party specific agendas they are paying lip service to the principles of freedom and justice outlined in the GPA and a new Zimbabwe will be in a state of constant deadlock. As long as the talks continue to happen behind closed doors, holding our ‘new’ leaders accountable will always remain intangible.

IT IS TIME TO PUT THE ZIMBABWEAN PEOPLE FIRST

But while the men talk in the golden glow of the rainbow towers in Harare, women are saying enough! Kwete! On 16 October at the very same venue, Zimbabwean women met, deliberated, and had the militant foresight to engage in direct action by occupying public space in an extremely hostile and policed environment, not only to call attention to injustices in Zimbabwe but to catalyse action and demand that the talks end immediately. We are on the frontline of this war and for too long we have suffered. We want change now! We are worn down but not broken! We are here! Look at us, starving. All we want is a ‘normal’ country with ‘normal’ systems that work. And we want that to come now. We will continue to create community where the social fabric has been ripped apart, we will continue to share scarce resources in a context of extreme deprivation, and we will continue to fight and act, to make our voices heard in order to sustain and make ourselves strong so we can challenge sexism and realise the dreams and possibilities of a new Zimbabwe as full and equally participating citizens in all spheres. But right now we demand:
i. Availability of affordable and accessible food
ii. Provision of accessible clean water and electricity
iii. Provision of affordable and accessible health services including antiretrovirals (ARVs)
iv. Restoration of a functional education system
v. Easy access to our cash in the banks.

ZIMBABWE HAS SUFFERED ENOUGH – THE SUFFERING MUST STOP NOW!

These demands are bolstered by a range of interventions being carried out around the country by strategically placed formations that are prepared to engage in direct action, political lobbying and pressure. It is difficult to talk of a movement right now and I will not hazard to do that in the space afforded me. How organisation manifests itself in a time of crisis needs deeper, longer reflection and theorisation, but writing while doing and reflecting while talking, women’s organising in Zimbabwe has suffered the same fate as that of broader civil society.

In the last 20 years the civic landscape was taken over by donor-funded NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) who as the regime got increasingly more repressive attempted to speak out, only to soon lose their voice and power and thus become subsumed in the status quo or at the very least continue to engage in activities that did not overtly disturb the balances of power. Similarly there are civic groupings that have aligned with political parties and have thus lost their objectivity as they jostle to align with the balance of forces. There are many women’s organisations in Zimbabwe operating to meet the practical and strategic needs of women. This work is important work.

But interestingly there are also autonomous formations comprised of energetic, Zimbabwean feminists who are committed to breaking down boundaries and transforming social relations, to reduce economic and political inequality, in short, to turn the world upside down. These women are committed to mobilising women nationally, they work to create the spaces for women to come together to access information, to share, reflect and strategise in the formation of agendas, in order to more boldly act, demand and claim what is rightly theirs. This is the painstaking work, to use the language of the day, of movement building. It is this political education work, this very long-term work, that seeks to unpick centuries of socialisation, that deconstructs the forces of patriarchy and capital, which aims to build community and create alternatives that can be claimed now. This is the work that ensures whatever government Zimbabwe has, women will hold it accountable. These formations are also committed to engaging political leaders, creating spaces for them to ‘meet the women’ so they know that women are a constituency, that women are watching their every move, and that women are prepared to act.

THERE IS NO HAPPINESS WITHOUT JUSTICE

This is difficult and dangerous work in a context where the levels of repression and violence are high, where surveillance is everywhere, where the space for organising has shrunk, and the infrastructure eroded. Zimbabwe’s polarised landscape means partisan politics further complicates. Countless, countless women have been arrested, detained, tortured, displaced and on their bodies carry the literal and figurative scars to show for it. We know that no matter what the outcome it will take several generations to undo the damage on the national psyche.

It is important to turn our anger into action.

Women continue to envisage a ‘new’ Zimbabwe and are clear about what they want. In small and sometimes big ways women work to make the dream of feminist futures possible, even in the harshest of environments. We know that no matter what the outcome of this chapter of Zimbabwe’s history, the struggle against sexism requires us to be vigilant. We have to guard our gains and in doing this we have to continue to engage in feminist political education. We have to continue to build and strengthen the constituency. Women’s lives will not change overnight and the effects of patriarchy will continue to manifest through the range of violences that women live with and through and against which women will continue to organise and struggle.

This is what we must be prepared for.

3 MEN HOLDING 12 MILLION PEOPLE HOSTAGE

And to the men who are holding the people of Zimbabwe hostage, you are inaccessible to women, as you are to the 12 million who constitute the last census in Zimbabwe, some who have remained to face the daily grind, some who are in the diaspora, and who know that making the choice to leave is similar to having a baby and committing to have your heart walk outside of your body for the rest of your life, and the countless who in the intervening years have died. So to the men who are holding the people of Zimbabwe hostage: show the political leadership that the people of Zimbabwe need right now or ship out.

‘The eternal’, according to Spinoza, ‘is now’, and women in Zimbabwe are living history and taking it very personally. The worst cruelties of life are its killing injustices. Zimbabwean women’s acceptance of adversity is neither passive nor resigned. It’s an acceptance that peers behind the adversity and discovers there something nameless. Not a promise, for women know that (almost) all promises are broken; rather something like a hiatus, or parentheses, in the otherwise remorseless flow of history. And the sum total of these parentheses is eternity and in that the knowledge that ‘on this earth there is no happiness without justice’.

* Shereen Essof is a Zimbabwean feminist and revolutionary activist currently based in Cape Town, South Africa.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Understanding China’s strategy: Beyond ‘non-interference’

Stephen Marks

2008-11-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51762

With China’s ‘rise’ prompting new questions around the country’s strategy and the motivations behind how it conducts its international affairs and foreign policy, Stephen Marks considers the direction the country may take in light of new developments. Dispelling simplistic interpretations of Chinese indifference to human rights and environmental concerns in countries like Sudan and Zimbabwe, the author that the Asia giant has an essential interest in promoting peace, social stability, good governance and equitable development in its African partner countries.

The principle of ‘non-interference’ is often seen, especially in relation to Sudan and Zimbabwe, merely as a cynical cloak for the pursuit of China’s national self-interest regardless of human rights and good governance issues. If so, China would hardly be unique. Beijing’s approach is not significantly different in this respect from the way other countries pursue their interests. As Professor David Kang of Dartmouth College puts it: ‘The United States is highly selective about who we’re moral about. We support Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia-huge human-rights violators-because we have other strategic interests. China’s not unique in cutting deals with bad governments and providing them arms.’(1)

But the possibility should not be overlooked that it also represents a genuine assessment of China’s national self-interest as a rising power with no capacity for military force projection on a significant global scale, and therefore with a vested interest in preserving a rule-governed international system.

The thesis that these considerations were as weighty as oil-related considerations in China’s Sudan policy, and in its gradual shift, was outlined by Stephen Morrison and Bates Gill in their memorandum to the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in February 2007:

‘Sudan’s contributions to China’s total energy needs are very small: Sudan accounts for only 5 percent of China’s total oil imports, and less than 1 percent of China’s total energy consumption. While the relationship with Sudan is important on a microeconomic level to some of China’s oil firms, it does not represent a critical strategic relationship on a macro-economic scale. Sudan’s energy is important to China and its future, but China’s motivations for its policies in Sudan also have their roots elsewhere. An important, but often overlooked motivation is Beijing’s concern with protecting the principle of national sovereignty and non-interference. These have been cast as bedrock to China’s strategy for becoming a global power backed by robust alliances. But even on this issue, Beijing’s interests in Sudan are pulled in other directions: from within China itself, from Beijing’s interest in enhancing its standing in the UN, and in its interest in sustaining bilateral relations with Washington, European states, and African powers.’(2)

UNDERSTANDING CHINA’S STRATEGY

This view of China’s motives in no way depends on some rosy or indulgent view of China as inherently more pacific or altruistic than any other power. China does not have the physical or financial capacity for a military response on the scale of the already-established powers. One lesson the Chinese leadership is widely held to have learnt from the collapse of the Soviet Union is the folly of getting trapped in an arms race with the USA. There is also the related imperative to avoid being seen as a threat.(3)

This explanation is of course entirely compatible with the view that China’s stance could alter at a later date when its ‘rise’ has been successfully completed. But some at least of the advocates of the present policy justify it on universal rather than pragmatic and conjunctural grounds.

One of the foremost of these is Zheng Bijian, a former vice-chair of the Central Party School when President Hu Jintao was its chairman and a former propaganda minister, and originator of the phrase ‘peaceful rise.’ As he maintains:

‘Some emerging powers in modern history have plundered other countries’ resources through invasion, colonization, expansion, or even large-scale wars of aggression. China’s emergence thus far has been driven by capital, technology, and resources acquired through peaceful means... China will not follow the path of Germany leading up to World War I or those of Germany and Japan leading up to World War II, when these countries violently plundered resources and pursued hegemony. Neither will China follow the path of the great powers vying for global domination during the Cold War. Instead, China will transcend ideological differences to strive for peace, development, and cooperation with all countries of the world...’(4)

According to Mark Leonard, Zheng Bijian’s theory was backed up by a major research project sponsored by Hu Jintao and carried out mainly by PhD students from Shanghai, which looked at 40 case studies of rising powers and concluded that ‘rising powers “which chose the road of aggression and expansion” have ultimately failed.’ (5)

Nonetheless the ‘peaceful rise’ theory, while still implicit in Chinese public statements and policy stances, appears to have fallen out of favour in its more explicit forms as a result of inner leadership factional struggles, and also as a result of a counter-offensive by more nationalist academics, fearful in particular that it might be seen as a sign of weakness over the issue of Taiwan.

This may indicate an erratic movement between the second and third of the three possible foreign policy choices identified by Professor Qin Yaqing of China Foreign Afffairs University, namely aggressive nationalism, utilitarian realism, and cooperative internationalism. He maintains that China’s foreign policy decision-makers are currently between the second and third, and moving towards the third.(6)

THE OTHER MYTHOLOGY

At this point we have to consider the danger of falling into a different and older sort of Western mythologising about China. In avoiding the ‘yellow peril’ demonology often resorted to by lazy media pundits (might we not be falling into the earlier mythology of the enlightenment thinkers such as Leibnitz and Voltaire who took at face value the Confucian self-image of imperial China, and enthused over a pacific empire presided over by a rational and benevolent bureaucracy?(7)

Might its modern version not be the consoling myth of a benevolent superpower, convinced in its own rational self-interest of the need to leave behind the pursuit of military self-aggrandisement in favour of a pacific rule-governed world order?

If China’s intentions are pacific, why should she require a 17.6% increase in her defence budget for 2008(8), bringing the annual total to $58m and ranking her fourth in global defence spending?(9)

The official explanation includes the need to increase benefits for military personnel to reflect rising living standards, to cover increases in the cost of oil, and to increase education and training. But another stated aim is to enhance the ability to fight a defensive war based on information technologies.

According to Jane’s industrial quarterly: ‘The United States has the world’s biggest defense budget by far, at $696.30 billion. The rest of the top five is Britain, $79.27 billion; France, $65.74 billion; China, US$58.07 billion; and Japan, $48.1 billion.’

The announced Chinese defence budget has more than quadrupled since 1998, but some analysts put the real figure much higher. Informed defence analysts appear to agree that these increases have resulted in large pay and benefit increases in the form of new uniforms, better food and living quarters, an array of new, mostly Chinese-made equipment - especially computers and communications gear - and increased tempo and realism of training exercises.(10)

In considering how this fits with China’s claim to a purely defensive strategy it is certainly necessary to recall that the country’s definition of its national territory includes not only Taiwan but also the disputed islands in the South China Seas.

Thus the potential for offensive action to deter a Taiwanese move to independence would fit within China’s definition of ‘defensive’, although the purpose of such a stance would also be seen as an incentive to contain the conflict within non-military limits.

The recent electoral victory of the Kuomintang’s (KMT) Ma Ying-jeou in the Taiwan election has reduced cross-straits tension and increased the chances of longer-term agreement.

But despite this tensions have intensified as a result of Washington’s announcement of a $6bn arms deal with Taiwan.(11) Although the deal was originally negotiated long before the election in Taiwan, it shows the explosive potential of the Taiwan issue.

However there is no doubt that the expansion in China’s naval budget and building programme is intended to enable a key shift in China’s stance in the East Asia region. The aim is not only to achieve the hi-tech potential needed to maintain China’s defensive potential to deter a Taiwanese declaration of independence, but is also intended to ensure China’s wider access to the open waters of the Pacific, thus creating potential friction with Japan and other regional players.(12)

‘STRING OF PEARLS’?

There is no reason to believe that developments in the East and South Asian theatres could impact on Chinese strategy in Africa, even taking into account the reports that China, which currently has no aircraft carriers, is planning a three-carrier battle group.(13)

But a more assertive Chinese stance in East Asian waters would certainly impact on Indian attitudes and on India’s already active and extensive naval role in the Indian Ocean, including Africa’s east coast. India has already signed defence agreements with Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique. It conducts regular naval patrols, by agreement, in the waters of Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles. In Madagascar it has opened its first listening post on foreign soil, for radar surveillance of shipping movements, and is reported to be negotiating with Mauritius for a long-term lease of the Agalega islands. It has also conducted joint naval defence exercises with South Africa.(14)

‘Its fleet in the Indian Ocean is turning into one of the most powerful naval forces of the region, including new state-of-the-art aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and other surface combatants.’(15)

This has not prevented some scaremongering about an alleged Chinese ‘string of pearls’ strategy. One American strategic analyst has claimed that:

‘Each ‘pearl’ in the ‘String of Pearls’ is a nexus of Chinese geopolitical influence or military presence. Hainan Island, with recently upgraded military facilities, is a ‘pearl.’ An upgraded airstrip on Woody Island, located in the Paracel archipelago 300 nautical miles east of Vietnam, is a ‘pearl.’ A container shipping facility in Chittagong, Bangladesh, is a ‘pearl.’ Construction of a deep water port in Sittwe, Myanmar, is a ‘pearl,’ as is the construction of a navy base in Gwadar, Pakistan. Port and airfield construction projects, diplomatic ties, and force[d] modernization form the essence of China’s ‘String of Pearls.’ The ‘pearls’ extend from the coast of mainland China through the littorals of the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, and on to the littorals of the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. China is building strategic relationships and developing a capability to establish a forward presence along the sea lines of communication (SLOCs) that connect China to the Middle East.’(16)

Yet the same author is compelled to add:

‘China’s development of these strategic geopolitical ‘pearls’ has been nonconfrontational, with no evidence of imperial or neocolonial ambition. The development of the ‘String of Pearls’ may not, in fact, be a strategy explicitly guided by China’s central government. Rather, it may be a convenient label applied by some in the United States to describe an element of China’s foreign policy.’

The Gwadur deep-sea port is a case in point. The state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company, funded with a $198m Chinese loan, has helped Pakistan complete the first stage of this project for a major Pakistan port near the entrance to the Persian Gulf at the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz. It does indeed have a strategic significance as the possible terminus of a land route from western China and central Asia to the Indian Ocean, which would have considerable economic significance.

But there seems little or no evidence that a naval base facility is part of the package, or indeed that China has any current intention or capacity to maintain an Indian Ocean fleet for which Gwadur could be a base. The same applies to the other civil engineering and commercial projects in the region which are quoted as evidence for the ‘string of pearls’ thesis, from Cambodia to Sri Lanka. Certainly the evidence does not indicate any current Chinese intention to rival India’s comparative naval predominance in the region.

However there have been indications that one argument used in Washington to secure ratification of the controversial US-India civil nuclear agreement was the perspective of the US using India as a ‘hedge’ against China in much the same way as China was played as a card against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.(17)

If this argument were seriously to appeal to policymakers in Washington and Delhi, this could indeed strengthen the hand of military hardliners in Beijing, who are nervous for China’s sea lines of communication. However if China’s policy were to take a more militarist turn this would show itself first in the Taiwan straits and South China Sea.

On balance this must be seen as unlikely. The diversion of resources needed for China to present a significant naval presence or engage in a real naval arms race in the Indian Ocean as well as in the East Asian theatres would threaten the regime’s ability to deliver continued prosperity and growth domestically which is its main continuing source of legitimacy. So the only circumstance in which one can foresee China’s policy shifting would be if there was economic downturn at home and a section of the leadership was tempted to play the jingoist card abroad.

Nor is there any immediate sign of Sino-Indian tension developing to the level that would make this a remotely serious proposition.

Short of that the rational Chinese strategy would be to continue to push a multilateral approach to peacekeeping in the region including India and accepting US and Indian predominance so long as China has enough naval and military presence to qualify for a seat at the table.

So there seems little reason to dissent from Jonathan Holslag’s conclusion that:

‘[F]or the long haul, the geo-economics in question, specifically the vulnerability of its long supply lines, will prevent China from resorting to a kind of gunboat diplomacy that many powers pursued before. Despite changing interests, perceptions and means, China is and will remain to a large extent dependent on the good-will and collaboration of other players to safeguard its economic strongholds in Africa. As long as its social stability relies on the supply of Africa’s natural riches, China will thus have to stick to the path of security cooperation. In fact, it will be the main stakeholder in terms of peace, social stability, good governance and equitable development in its African partner countries… Like no other external power, it is in China’s interest to turn regional actors into flexible and widely supported organisations, claiming strategic ownership of conflict management by doing so.’(18)

A further motive for encouraging this approach is the emerging concern over security in key global shipping lanes, an issue heightened by recent incidents of piracy around the Horn of Africa. A UN Security Council resolution in June authorised nations to send warships into Somalia’s territorial waters to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea. A US-led naval force has been patrolling the area. NATO and the EU have expressed an interest in involvement, and the issue is a major factor in India’s regional naval presence.

There is a danger that the need for all would-be players to have a presence in the region, for reasons of prestige as well as security, will be seen to be having a share in protecting key global shipping lanes, and this could lead to a ‘leakage’ into African waters of great-power naval competition elsewhere.

But there is an alternative:

‘Several years ago, as international concern mounted over pirate attacks in and around the Malacca Straits, the governments of countries flanking the waterway Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia pre-empted any possibility of UN or foreign intervention by taking action to reduce piracy and safeguard shipping. They launched coordinated sea patrols in 2004, combined air patrols a year later, and improved intelligence exchange in 2006. Last month, Thailand became the fourth country to join the Malacca Straits patrols, which are backed by an anti-piracy agreement among regional governments and an associated information-sharing centre based in Singapore…the Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce, which runs a piracy reporting network for the shipping industry, acknowledges that the number of pirate attacks in the Malacca Straits has dropped because of increased patrolling by the littoral states.’(19) Alas there is little chance of an equivalent AU-coordinated African response to take control of the issue into African hands.

* Stephen Marks is the coordinator of the Fahamu China in Africa project.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

References

(1) Quoted in ‘China Africa and Oil’ Stephanie Hanson Council on Foreign relations June 2008 http://www.cfr.org/publication/9557

(2) The escalating crisis in Darfur: are there prospects for peace? http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/33109.pdf

(3) see Holslag op cit p16

(4) Zheng Bijian ‘China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ to Great-Power Status’ http://www.irchina.org/en/news/view.asp?id=397

(5) Mark Leonard ‘What does China think?’ Fourth Estate London 1998 p90

(6) Qin Yaqing ‘China’s Security Strategy with a Special Focus on East Asia’ http://www.spf.org/e/report/040707.html

(7) Thomas Fuchs ‘The European China - receptions from Leibniz to Kant’ translated by Martin Schoenfeld, Journal of Chinese Philosophy Vol 33 issue 1 http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118552434/abstract

(8) ‘China defense budget to grow 17.6% in 2008’ China Daily 4-3-08 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008npc/2008-03/04/content_6506320.htm

(9) Associated Press ‘China’s defense spending growing, but U.S. still top’ http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-03-China-defense_N.htm

(10) See for example Dennis J. Blasko ‘The Pentagon-PLA Disconnect: China’s Self Assessments of Its Military Capabilities’ http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2374285

(11) China warns U.S. on its arms deal with Taiwan International Herald Tribune 5 October 2008 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/05/asia/taiwan.php

(12) Olivier Zajiec ‘China’s naval ambitions’ Le Monde Diplomatique September 2008

(13) Russell Hsiao ‘Is the PLA Navy Making Plans for a Three Carrier Battle Group?’ http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2373875

(14) Alex Vines and Bereni Oruitemekai ‘India’s Engagement with the African Indian Ocean Rim States’ http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/11293_india_africa0408.pdf

(15) Holslag op cit

(16) Christopher J. Pehrson ‘String of Pearls: meeting the challenge of China’s rising power across the Asian littoral’ Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College July 2006 http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB721.pdf

(17) Jeff M Smith ‘India as a US hedge against China’ http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JH07Df01.html

(18) Holslag op.cit.

(19) Michael Richardson ‘Piracy off the Horn of Africa is becoming worse’ 8-10-2008 http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/piracy-off-the-horn-of-africa-is-becoming-worse/1328081.aspx#

Pambazuka News 76: Stop Killing and Stoning Women!

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/51785

Stop Killing and Stoning Women!
Codou Bop, 2008-11-06

Codou Bop, coordinator of the Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal, writes about the launch of the ‘Stop killing and Stoning Women!’ campaign by the Women Living under Muslim Law Network. She asserts the need to integrate campaign against gender violence within the broader struggle for basic human rights.


We are all French Obamas
Claude Ribbe, 2008-11-06

Claude Ribbe President of the l’Association des amis du general Dumas explores the French fascination with America’s presidential elections. The French media has deplored the lack of black leaders of Obama’s calibre while at the same time systematically ignoring potential black French leaders, in their midst. Ribbe attributes this to a long history of racism and hypocrisy.

Obama makes hope possible again!

We can hope again and be courageous enough to embrace change

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/51793

Barack Obama, 47 years old, son of an African from Kenya and a white American was on 5 November 2008 declared the 44th president-elect of the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America. When he was born in 1961 black people were still unable to vote effectively and if his Kenyan Dad had been an American he would have had little in the way of electoral representation. In the year when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the assassination another African-American icon, Martin Luther King Jr, how more just can it be that the first ever black president of the US was elected. Just imagine a black couple and their two girls in the White House, not mowing the lawns or as 'selected' advisers holding office through patronage but as elected president and family occupying the Oval Office, the West Wing and with the buck stopping at his table!

But the election of Obama has too many symbolisms not just for America, for Africa, but for the whole world. Across the world many people felt connected to him and able to claim him for their own dreams of a better world.

There are many angles to look at this victory and hopefully, barring the assassin's bullet, we will have four or even eight years to judge this captivating personality against performance. Today is for celebration of the possibilities and the ways in which the campaign and the candidate has touched so many people.

One, it is a victory for all mothers, especially those forced to raise their children alone. It is a victory for family, in the broader sense of the word, not the very narrow and increasingly narrower nuclearism of the West and the middle classes globally. Here was a man raised by his maternal grandparents and from all accounts with love, emotional security and extreme confidence to believe he could beat the best in a world that set limitations based on race and class on his ambitions. Can you imagine how challenging it must have been to raise a mixed-race kid in the 1960s? It is a shame that his grandmother was not able to hold out to see the promise come through. It must touch Obama most deeply too that neither his father nor mother whose 'forbidden love' that gave life to him were alive to see this great moment. It is prove that love across all kinds of divide is not wrong.

Two, in a world distinctly lacking in visionary and inspiring leaders Obama's message of hope and 'yes we can' resonates with the frustration of the young and all marginalised peoples, giving rise to the notion that they can do better for themselves and are not hopeless or powerless.

Three, American democracy has been described as 'the best democracy money can buy.' While this is true – and this election is by far the costliest ever in the US – the balance has shifted in favour of ordinary people. Money was traditionally seen as in the big corporations and financial houses, and in special interests more generally, but Obama's faith in the ordinary people who donated $5, $10, $100 forged a formidable movement and force buoyed by his vision, a vision eloquently carried across the length and breadth of the world and echoed thanks to the new information technology bringing 'unyielding hope' to many.

Four, in a cynical world, dominated by the 'me me' ideology of greed from which decades of neoliberalism decreed TINA (There Is No Alternative), Obama made ‘change’ relevant and inspired millions to believe that business should not and cannot continue as usual. So successful was he that even his opponent became a candidate for both of them effectively repudiating Bush's legacy of right-wing extremism. It is a triumph of Obama's possible change, and McCain not being seen as a credible agent of change, that won it for Obama.

Five, the pride that Kenyans and other Africans and peoples of the world take in Obama's candidacy and victory is not just the fact of his partial African ancestry, but the potential for it to inspire a new way of playing politics in our own countries where candidates may be judged ‘not by the colour of their skin’ or their ethnic, religious or social affiliations but – as Martin Luther King put it – ‘by the content of their character.’

Six, Obama becoming president of America does not mean that racism has ended in America or the poor will suddenly become rich, but they will be able to count on the listening ear of someone they trust and who understands their plight as a result of his own experience.

Finally Obama's presidency may not mean that the US will suddenly be at peace with the rest of the world, but there is hope that his administration will stop treating the rest of us as tenants and be able to listen to other peoples and take their interests and sensitivities seriously, ushering in a real multilateralism in sharp contrast to the unilateralism of the Bush years. It may be ‘good morning’ again not just for America but potentially for the whole world.

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is general secretary of the Global Pan-African Movement, based in Kampala, Uganda, and is also director of Justice Africa, based in London, UK.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Acting on the Congo violence

Ann Garrison

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/51782

I had the pleasure and honor of speaking with Kambale Musavuli on October 28, 2009, when I called Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, to tell him that the "San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper," had posted an essay and a video I'd recommended on Congo that week and planned to post Kambale's "What the World Owes Congo," plus my own piece on Congo, and the U.S. in Congo, as I perceive it from here.

"I know who you are," I said, as soon as Kambale answered Maurice's phone and told me that he was a civil engineering student at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College. "I just read your piece in Pambazuka and asked another editor to post it to her website."

Kambale said thanks and then riveted my attention with everything else he had to say about Congo, especially when he told me that he belonged to a tribe whose name is transliterated as Nandé, but that tribal membership is insignificant in Congo, and that the Congolese identify nationally, as Congolese. He thus quickly dismissed the usual propaganda about ethnic conflict, rather than Congo's vast mineral wealth, as cause of the horrific violence reported there.

However, even as Kambale and I spoke, renegade General Laurent Nkunda's was leading his highly disciplined, well-armed, and ruthless militia towards Goma, the capitol city of Congo's mineral rich North Kivu Province, causing the catastrophic displacement now growing worse hourly.

I had been writing a piece on what Barack Obama might mean to Africa and the Congo, from an American perspective, what former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the U.S. Green Party's dissident African-American presidential candidate, has meant, and about the terms in which both have addressed the Congo crisis.

However, by the 29th, all observers declared Laurent Nkunda and his militia firmly in control of North Kivu, with the help of the Rwandan Army bombing, shelling, and firing across the Rwandan border, very near Goma. Nkunda then agreed to a cease fire and demanded talks with President Joseph Kabila.

Not only Eastern Congolese, but also the Congolese Army, and UN Peacekeepers had been fleeing Nkunda's militia in every direction for several days.

So, I felt compelled to put the piece I was working on aside and write an account of the worsening catastrophe, as well as I could understand it, highlighting the U.S. role as provider of weapons and military training to Rwandan President, Paul Kagama, and thus to his ally, Laurent Nkunda, in Eastern Congo.

This evening I told Maurice Carney that I'd called the Rwandan Embassy, also in Washington D.C., and quoted fleeing Congolese refugees saying, "The Rwandans are hitting us so hard that we have to run." I also told the diplomat who answered how appalled I was, but he wanted to argue about how misinformed I was, and kept insisting that Rwanda had not invaded Congo.

I told him that very mainstream press like AP, the BBC, and Reuters had quoted fleeing Congolese, including children, saying exactly these words, but Rwanda's diplomat wanted to argue indefinitely, and accused me of spreading misinformation, (passed to me, of course by the insidious AP, the BBC, and Reuters), so I signed off.

I asked Maurice Carney to send me a photograph of a vigil he and allies had organized outside the Rwandan Embassy in Washington D.C., to go with my essay for the "San Francisco Bay View, National Black Newspaper." Maurice thanked me, enthusiastically, for calling the Rwandan Embassy, and urged me to share the number and the story with as many people as possible, so here it is: Rwandan Embassy, Washington D.C., (202) 232-2882.

There's one more thing I can do right now, which is to look up the telephone numbers for the Rwandan Embassy in London, 020 722 49 832, and Toronto, 613) 569-5420/22/24.

And, if we're going to call Rwandan Embassies, I we might as welll try calling President-Elect Barack Obama's office after November 4th, (202) 224-2854.

Sheltering killers!

Rebecca Witonsky

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/51780

In response to When reality contradicts rhetoric: Civilian protection in the DRC by Joseph Yav Katshung: I have been reading with great alarm for years about the massacres and genocide going on in the Congo (Zaire). Around 2003 I was outraged by the massacres of the Hema and Lendu tribes in Ituri province that killed 50,000 people and wrote poetry to protest it. The occasional articles about Congo in the New York Sun indicated that the information was heavily censored by the regime and the full extent of the atrocities wasn't known.

Recently I have read more in detail about the genocide in the Congo. The more I learn, the more alarmed I become. It seems that the primary driver of the genocide has been the fight over coltan and casserite mines which are used to produce cell phones and gold mines. In addition the other problem has been Congo's refusal to disarm the Hutu genocidal killers from Rwanda. Perhaps the most alarming thing I learned is that the leaders of the Hutu killers are being politically sheltered with asylum protection in Belgium, the U.S., France, and Germany. I sent letters to my friends asking them to support legislation in the U.S. Congress which would try to certify that coltan and casserite from the Congo is not being mined by any of the combatant parties.

I have been reading your articles and have been deeply moved by them. I read your article marking the 14th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide that touched and saddened me. I admire your efforts to support legal mechanisms both international as well as congo national to prosecute the killers and ensure justice for the victims. It seems obvious that the West is as indifferent to the genocide in Congo and Darfur as it was to the genocide in Rwanda. Tragically there is no political will at all for genuine action to stop genocide anywhere in Africa on the part of either Western or African leaders.

I am looking for the following information to continue my research and action on behalf of the Congo:

1. ethnic composition of North and South Kivu provinces before 1998 and after the recent war / genocide

2. books explaining the pre-colonial history of the Kongo Kingdom and other tribal groups that previously ruled in Congo such as Luba

3. ethnic composition of the victims of ongoing genocide in North and South Kivu provinces of Congo - including whether particular groups have suffered proportionately more deaths due to massacres as opposed to starvation and disease

4. your opinion on the efficacy of the U.S. trying to ensure that coltan and casserite in the Congo isn't produced by warlords

Weeping for Angola

Tafadzwa Muropa

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/51781

It is so ironic that being given such a context of human rights abuse in Angola, this year's global World Habitat Day under the theme'Harmonious Cities' was commemorated in Angola - Weeping for Angola and Angolans

What kind of a society are we creating if we continue to condone demolitions of people's markets? Surely, this year's World Urban Forum should address human rights violations where people's livelihoods and homes continue to be affected by demolitions , which affect negatively on women and children.

Chance to reflect on Africa's relationship with the rest of the world

Review of Francis B. Nyamnjoh’s The Travail of Dieudonne (East African Educational Publishers (Peak Library), 2008)

Tom Odhiambo

2008-11-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/51761

The Travail of Dieudonne is a modern version of Meja Mwangi's Going Down River Road.

The main narrative in the novel is a biography of Dieudonne, a houseboy (that colonial term that refuses to go away) to an expatriate white couple teaching at a university in Mimboland.

Mimboland is a typical African nation-state wracked with poverty due to bad governance. It is reliant on foreign aid and the unbalanced trade relationship with the West (Remember Giles Poor Story?).

Dieudonne is an exile in Mimboland. He not only ran away from his homeland because of civil war, but also to escape the horrifying reality of his father's misery.

Nyamnjoh uses Dieudonne's life story as a metaphor to capture the degrading and depressing social reality in the post-colonial Africa. His family's life is traced from the colonial era into the present. His father sacrifices his life in the service of colonial masters during the European wars — passed off as World Wars. He dies a poor man with nothing to show for his contribution, only a stump of a leg after losing one in the war.

REFLECTIONS

Dieudonne's father's mirrors that of many African foot soldiers during the so-called First and Second World Wars who came back without limbs and ended up as beggars in their homelands.

The characterisation of Dieudonne's life with his master and mistress is a replay of the colonial relationship between Africa and Europe, in some sense. He lives at the mercy of the couple. Indeed, by the time we meet him, he has worked for a number of white couples always willing to 'fire' and 'hand him over' to another white couple.

In the hands of these expatriates, he matters little. Just like his country, which grows cotton for export to Europe, he can only offer service to the foreigners.

Life collapses around him. He takes to heavy drinking that leads to a testy relationship with his employers. Eventually, he loses his wife, Tsanga.
After the departure of his wife, Dieudonne spends most of his non-working time in the 'Grand Canari', a drinking den in the neighbourhood of Swine Quarter. The latter stands as the antithesis of Beverly Hills, where the rich of Mimboland live. And it is this contrast that Nyamnjoh is challenging us to examine in his story.

INSPIRATION

However, like most postcolonial African writers, it is easy to see where his sympathy lies — with the poor. Out of the desire to speak for the poor, the author relocates the story to the 'Grand Canari.’
It is in this drinking hole where the downtrodden wash away their sorrows with whatever type of alcohol their pockets can afford. When the pocket is heavy, one can drink the most expensive spirits; when light, there are equally poverty-friendly brands.

Dieudonne's life-story and the context in which he tells it serve many purposes in the theme of the novel. On one hand, he offers the reader the opportunity to critique Africa's history, especially its neocolonialist tendencies which have led to local leaders abdicating their responsibilities to serve and instead becoming parasitic.

Also, in Dieudonne the author celebrates the resilience of the underprivileged by highlighting their enduring sense of hope or sheer desire to 'live another day.'

However, most significantly, the subtext of the novel is a call to rethink the transnational linkages and shared cultures as Africans in a world where Africans are 'junior brothers.’ Indeed, Nyamnjoh tries hard to stress the pan-African connections in this book. His references to languages, music, foods, names and cultures from across anglo- and francophone Africa are a challenge to Africans, especially students of comparative literature, to engage more with arts from beyond their localities. This stylistic tendency is evident in his earlier book, A Nose for Money (2006).

The call to engage with a broader postcolonial African reality, especially the plight of the poor, is weakened by the bilingual/multi-lingual nature of the book.

* Tom Odhiambo researches and teaches literature and communication.
* Francis B. Nyamnjoh is associate professor and head of publications and dissemination with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). Nyamnjoh’s Married But Available (Langaa Publishers, 2008) is available at the both African Books Collective and Michigan State University Press. The Travail of Dieudonne is available from East African Educational Publishers.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

The heartbreaking and hopeful story of Somali immigrants in America

Review of Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge’s The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away

2008-11-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/51763

The Somali Diaspora traces, through photographs and essays, the journey of a family from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to new lives in the United States. The work takes readers from civil war in Africa to the culture shock of arriving in the United States, growing roots in the Somali community, learning English, finding work, and–in a remarkably short time–participating fully in American life.

‘The Somali Diaspora is remarkable in its ambition; it is a necessary book, very much worth reading and buying, and an important addition to the work done on the Somali presence in North America.’ Nuruddin Farah

‘Having travelled many of the steps of the Somali Diaspora, Abdi Roble always photographs what he knows and cares deeply about, making these photographs as much autobiography as photojournalistic narrative. The Somali Diaspora deftly chronicles the almost irreconcilably odd collision of cultures that emerges out of relocation, but with hope and sympathy throughout. It also performs the important job of making Minnesotans, and Americans at large, look at and take stock of the society we've created that they seek as refuge.’ George Slade, artistic director, Minnesota Center for Photography

‘Opening The Somali Diaspora is like finding a hidden doorway into the lives and experiences of Somali immigrants to the United States. This book will serve to give us all a deeper sense of connection to anyone whom we may come to call 'neighbor' and 'fellow citizen.'‘ Omar Jamal, executive director, Somali Justice Advocacy Center

* For more information, including the book's table of contents, please visit the book's webpage.
* Abdi Roble was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. He emigrated to the USA in 1989, where he developed a passion for photography. Roble started the Somali Documentary Project in 2003, and won the Arts Freedom Award by the South Side Settlement House in 2006. Doug Rutledge is a poet, essayist and academic.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Audacious hope

Wangui wa Goro

2008-11-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/51765

Cast aside your fears
For once,
Nervously
As on the day you wed,
Have faith in the universe
that beauty can be borne
of hope,
your hope
and positive energy
which we must radiate
not on the hurts of the past
or fear of ourselves
but because
history breathes
this whispered hope
because if we cannot hope now
then when?

Africa Blogging Roundup, 4th November 2008

Sokari Ekine

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/51779

Three stories have dominated the African blogosphere in the past week. The US election and not surprisingly, African blogs are almost unanimous in their support of US presidential candidate, Barack Obama. The two more localised stories – the arrest of Nigerian blogger, Jonathan Elendu on the 19th October and the conflict crisis in the DRC.

Kenyan blogger Abantu is carried away with the moment by declaring he “feels like an American”. Nonetheless he recognises that whoever wins the election will determine our lives to a greater or lesser degree whether US citizens or not.
… but the unfortunate bit about it all is that, that US election, will unfortunately determine the worlds next four years and American voters better make the right choice. for me, as a citizen of the world, the iraq war has to end, gitmo closed, americans' safety restored, al qaeda vanquished and the world economy stabilized..... really.....


From the Cameroon, Dulce Camer uncovers some of the views of Cameroonians on the US elections and beyond - a mixture of hope and ambivalence.
“I don’t see Cameroon benefiting substantially from any American presidency until our government changes. Cameroon is self-sufficient and can provide for the immediate needs of its people. But what does our government do? Embezzle.”
“US foreign policy drives me crazy! Can't stand the way they bully everyone else and the "other people" just sit there and take it. Internally, their economy is a mess right now but that just shows you how different we are as humans. They have a failing economy but are still adamant on pumping billions on a "supposed" war against terrorism. Talk about misplaced priorities!”


Koluki points to the “emotional rollercoaster” experienced by many Black Americans in the hope of seeing the first Black president of their country...
“Only recently have many of us allowed ourselves to envision what once seemed impossible: A U.S. president who is a person of color. With Obama leading in national pre-election polls, the suspense has become nearly unbearable...................Even deeper at the centre of our current anxiety are at least two questions that carry all the complexity of black Americans' history in this country: What will it mean personally to us if he wins? And how will it affect the future of African Americans? Win or lose, how will we cope?”


From African Loft comes “Obama the Musical” which speaks about the challenges faced by Obama in first becoming a US senator and now possibly the next US president.
Watch an excerpt online at www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4566825n.



Nigerian bloggers outraged at the arrest and illegal dentention of blogger,
Jonathan Elendu declared October 31st “Jonathan Elendu” day and called upon Nigerian bloggers and their supporters to focus their posts on Elendu.




Nigerian Curiosity has the list of bloggers who participated in the day’s event.






Nigeria, What’s New - asks whether “this is the pattern of future Nigeria”
“Freedom from oppression and freedom to develop one's potential are reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it comes with responsibilities that includes virture, what it is to act well in relation to others. This JE saga was adopted to highlight the dangers of writing about Nigeria. Channels news employee Bashir Adigun, who also works for The Associated Press in the Nigerian capital, Abuja was released with others in September 2008 following his arrest by security agents. Jonathan Elendu was released yesterday after 11 days of in a jail.”

We have all watched with horror as yet another conflict crisis unfolds in front of our eyes. Only two years ago there was much hope in the DRC following the 2006 elections in which Joseph Kabila was elected. The various conservationist blogs covering the DRC have been providing regular updates on how the conflict has impacted on local communities around the national parks.

Gorilla CD has been especially vocal. Here he reports from the Ranger Refugee Camp”
“I saw Kalvanda, the Ranger who was so badly beaten by the military that he couldn’t walk last week. He is doing so much better and you only recognize him because he is still wearing the same shirt! You can see for yourself in the photo (his wife is in the background with one of their children) and the photos from yesterday’s blog post of when we finally were able to get him to a clinic.”



Black Looks points to an article in the Guardian by Johann Harris who writes that it is the “armies of business” who are ultimately responsible for fueling the violence in the DRC. Black Looks goes on to comment on the proposed EU troops deployment in the country which will operate under the guise of providing humanitarian aid but in reality is there to protect EU’s interest in Congo’s numerous resources.
“This helps to explain the EU proposal, lead by France, to send troops to Goma under the guise of humanitarian aid - the reality is the troops are being sent to protect their interests. In the post, “1906 - 2006 History Repeats Itself” I detail some of the multinationals created by King Leopold at the beginning of the 20th century, the early post independence period and Patrice Lumumba up till the present.
200 years of conflict minerals fueled by Western multinationals in the Great Lakes region. Harris ends his report by calling for the prosecution of multinational corporations buying the “blood-soaked natural resources” from rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda and Rwandan businessmen who then sell to Western businesses and corporations.”

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org/

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org/

China’s Maturing Foreign Policy

Chris Colley

2008-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/51739

For the past seven years China had been planning for an Olympic games that would both showcase the country’s extraordinary modernization drive while reassuring a skeptical world that China’s rise and development are “peaceful”. For the most part Beijing was successful in projecting this image during the games. While there were a few minor hiccups, Beijing’s normative power and standing in the international community will increase in ways that are beneficial to China’s long-term strategy.

While successful, the games will not alter the foundation of Chinese foreign policy. At its core this policy is about creating the necessary conditions for China to become a developed country in the first half of the 21st century. While President Hu Jintao has targeted 2020 as the year for China to become a “prosperous society” others such as Zheng Bijian (an architect of the “Peaceful Rise” slogan) believe this goal may not be reached until 2050. The concept of a “Peaceful Rise” may be doubted in parts of the West and in particular in Japan and the United States, but for many in the developing world China is now seen as more of an opportunity than a threat. Peace and stability are paramount to China’s grand strategy particularly since China still does not have the ability to project power far from home; it doesn’t even possess one aircraft carrier. Additionally, any potential instability on China’s periphery could endanger China’s modernization.

In the short term China’s “Soft Power” will increase. For the past month viewers all over the world saw an image of China that is exactly what the ruling elite in Beijing wanted to project - an up and coming super power that is both confident and well-behaved. There will likely be a spike in the number of students coming to China to study Mandarin (it rises every year Olympics or not) as well as an increase in foreign tourists visiting China’s famous sites. Resources like the Confucius Institute, which is designed to foster the study of Mandarin and Chinese culture overseas, have been able to get a lot of mileage out of relatively small investments, this at a time when perceptions of America have plummeted.

It is true that China’s has moderated its international behavior in the past few years, especially when it comes to issues like Darfur and Zimbabwe. China’s support on July 31, 2007 of a 20,000 strong UN-AU Darfur force as well as Hu Jintao skipping a visit to Zimbabwe on a 2007 Africa tour can be interpreted as a slow change in China’s policy towards these countries. This evolving shift coincides with the Olympics. The games and the attention they bring to China may accelerate this change, however it would be wrong to claim the Olympics as the sole or even the main catalyst for this turn in policy. This shift is related as much to China’s integration into the international order as it is about trying to take attention away from political liabilities such as support for dictatorships. China does have an interest in a peaceful outcome to the Darfur crisis as well as an acceptable political settlement to the mess in Zimbabwe. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoelick’s “Responsible Stakeholder” speech is in line with long-term Chinese goals: Beijing wants to been seen as a respectable member of the international community even though its view of what this means may differ from Washington’s.

It is important to note that in addition to the Olympics demonstrating China’s newfound place in the world, they also provided the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with a strong sense of legitimacy. The games were as much directed at the Chinese people as they were towards the outside world. One cannot turn on the television in China or pass a newsstand without hearing or reading about China’s new glory. The CCP must deliver to the people and success at the games in the form of a world leading 51 gold medals is proof to many Chinese that the CCP has helped heal the “sick man of Asia”. China’s “century of humiliation” which lasted from the 1840s until 1949 plays a critical role in China’s dealings with the outside world as well as with Chinese identity itself. The exploitation of China by foreign powers during this period has helped spawn a national inferiority complex amongst many Chinese.

China’s newfound sense of confidence may slowly influence China’s relations with foreign countries especially towards big powers like the U.S. and Japan. If a new self-assurance does emerge from the games, this will be the most important legacy of Beijing 2008. The China Youth Daily said of the nation’s Olympic achievements: “Her people have never been so optimistic and self-confident, so full of faith in their country's advancement.” The collective sense of exploitation and humiliation is just below the surface and before China can become a true great power it must overcome this psychological hurdle.

Toward a more practical foreign policy.

In line with a policy of “peaceful rise” Beijing has displayed a maturing and more astute foreign policy. In dealings with Japan and Taiwan, the Hu-Wen (Premier Wen Jiabao) administration has departed from a policy that was seen by many in the region as bellicose and is now openly courting the Kuomintang, its former archenemy. For the first time thousands of Mainland tourists visited Taiwan this summer and Hu Jintao, while still claiming Taiwan as an inseparable part of the Mainland, has displayed a much more pragmatic approach toward the island. Hu was certainly helped by the departure of Chen Shui-bian, who as Taiwan’s president from 2000 until this year, actively pushed for Taiwanese independence. Chen’s successor Ma Ying-jeou does not have a policy that pursues independence and his election came as a great relief to Beijing.

In regards to Tokyo, Beijing has actively sought to repair relations that were badly damaged in the spring of 2005, as Chinese students and activists carried out massive anti-Japanese protests, some of them violent, in Chinese cities. Relations with Japan are complicated and extend far beyond issues of Japanese history textbooks that gloss over Japan’s imperial past and visits by Japanese Prime Ministers to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where Japan honors its war dead as well as honoring 14 convicted class-A war criminals. While historical issues may dominate the headlines, friction between Tokyo and Beijing is as much about establishing a new Asian geopolitical hierarchy in the 21st century. In the 1980s Japan saw itself as reclaiming its place as the leader of Asia, but this dream was shattered with the crash of the Japanese economy in the early 1990s. Now Tokyo sees a reemerging China as challenging this role and China is pulling away in a race Japan cannot possibly win. With this in mind it is even more remarkable that Hu Jintao reached out to a new right-wing Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe in the fall of 2006 by inviting him to Beijing. Yasuo Fukuda who replaced Abe in September 2007 is openly pro-China and visited China in December 2007.

Beijing’s relations with Tokyo and Taiwan are directly linked to Beijing’s dealings with Washington. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the Americans are committed by law to selling arms to Taiwan. As for Japan there is a growing chorus in Washington and especially the Pentagon that Japan adopt a more assertive military strategy.

Beijing’s interactions with Taiwan and Japan are closely watched by China’s neighbors. If China is seen as flexing its growing military muscle vis -a-vie Taiwan or Japan it could be counter-productive for Chinese efforts elsewhere in the world. Many countries bordering China try to balance the Americans and the Chinese against each other. Few want an American military presence, but they also do not want to become over-dependant on Beijing. The greatest nightmare for many of these neighboring leaders is the thought of getting simultaneous phone calls from Beijing and Washington asking them to take sides in a military dispute. China would much prefer to have images of the Birds Nest (National stadium, where the Olympic flame was located) projected to a global audience than pictures of its new nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines. As some in the international community (most notably the U.S.) have begun to grow uneasy with China’s newfound influence, the Olympics have provided the Chinese with an international platform to reassure the world that their rise does not have to be viewed in relative terms, in other words this is not a zero-sum game and that China can be viewed as an opportunity. It should also be noted that China has resolved most of its border disputes, many of which saw China concede substantial portions of is claims.

China’s new pragmatism would be emerging even if the Olympics had not been held in China. In some ways the Olympics actually became a liability. The disastrous torch relay that followed the unrest in Tibetan areas in March could have cast a dark shadow over the games had it not been for the tragic events that unfolded in Sichuan province after the massive earthquake struck in May. The rage that was directed at Beijing over its Tibet policy was quickly transformed into an outpouring of sympathy for the victims of the quake. If there is one thing that Beijing should learn from the events in Tibetan areas in the spring is that an effective public relations campaign is essential to an aspiring superpower. Instead of attempting to explain to the world some of the positive developmental work Beijing is carrying out in Tibet, Chinese leaders fell back on Cultural Revolution rhetoric and started a smear campaign against the Dalai Lama. An effective PR campaign for Beijing, while likely to be propagandistic would also allow China to more clearly state its position on controversial policies such as its position on Darfur and Myanmar. Many Chinese foreign ministry officials rely too much on a policy of “non-interference” in other countries internal affairs. This policy only provides ammunition to China bashers who rightly or wrongly criticize Chinese actions across the globe. By not saying much, Beijing allows China bashers to frame the issues.



A model to export?

The world’s attention on China has also highlighted China’s incredible development over the past 30 years. This in itself is a role model for many developing countries. Many of these nations would like to emulate Beijing’s accomplishments. A recent World Bank report pointed out that China currently has 207 million people classified as living in poverty - those subsisting on less than 1.25 USD per day. While still high, this number must be compared with the 1981 figure of 835 million people. China’s growth has also contributed to a rising middle class that the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2004 estimated to number 247 million people. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics in contrast calculated the middle class in 2005 to include 75 million people. (The criteria used was family assets ranging from 18,000 to 36,000 USD) The point is that China has in many ways deviated from the Washington consensus and has created a “Beijing Consensus” - top down development directed by an authoritarian state that puts economic development above all else. For governments that have so far failed to see material benefits from the West’s programs, Beijing’s formula may offer hope. Some governments even see the prospect of limited to non-existent democracy as an added bonus of the Beijing Consensus. For China - still a developing country - to spend over 40 billion dollars on the Olympic games and have it account for less than 0.5 percent of fix asset spending over a six-year period is remarkable. Many in the developing world envy China’s progress over the reform era. In this way the Olympics add to China’s luster and provide it with a new form of normative power that other countries aspire to.

Those who wish to replicate China’s success must be careful, as the Beijing Consensus is not without its faults. China’s Gini index (where 0 represents complete equality and 1 indicates complete inequality) hovers around .50. Researchers from People’s University in Beijing have calculated it at .56, or the same as Brazil’s. Yes, the reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and are turning China into a global power, however China is experiencing the same kind inequality that has in living memory led to revolutions. The “Iron Rice Bowl” of the Mao era that guaranteed cradle to grave care for urban workers is a thing of the past and for many Chinese medical emergencies can result in bankruptcy and subsequent destitution. A 2006 report issued jointly by UNICEF and the Chinese Office of the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council, reported that 75 percent of rural residents who declined hospitalization did so because they could not afford it. The number was 56 percent for urban residents. If developing countries wish to emulate China’s success they must be wary of the inequalities that accompany China’s rise.

China’s economic success has coincided with enormous corruption. The lack of an effective opposition to the Communist Party is partly to blame for this. The absence of an independent judiciary as well as a free press has also exacerbated the problem, which the party views as a cancer. When Chinese talk of democracy many do not advocate one-person one-vote, but instead they pursue a more open society where officials are held accountable and transparency in areas like budget allocations and the legal system are a permanent fixtures. Countries wishing to follow in China’s footsteps would be wise not to duplicate these glaringly negative aspects of China’s modernization.

There has been constant talk of whether the Olympics constitute the emergence of a new super power. The Olympics were not as many said “China’s coming out party”; that party was the story of the 1990s. Perhaps a better way of perceiving the games is to see them as China’s coming of age party. Titanic shifts in the global order do not transpire over the course of 16 days, instead they take many years, decades and generations to evolve. China’s rise will be no different. Its 1.35 billion people have good reason to be proud of their recent achievements and the world, especially the developing world, can learn much from Beijing’s achievements. Talk of a “new Cold War” emerging between Beijing and Washington is overblown. The Soviet Union spent 45 years trying to destroy the global capitalist system, the Chinese have spent the past 30 years integrating into this system, in fact over this period the Chinese have arguably been globalization’s greatest beneficiary. While the Americans and Chinese will have their competitions on and off the pitch, they are ultimately rivals on the same team. Both have a vested economic and strategic interest in maintaining the status quo, which in turn leads to an interdependence that neither can afford to jeopardize.

The differences in Chinese foreign policy may not be discernable for many years if at all, however the games have helped China to turn a psychological corner as a nation. The streets of Beijing have recently been full of a more positive form of nationalism; this one differs greatly from the angry nationalism that has reared its face in recent years. This positive nationalism will strengthen the ruling elites’ legitimacy in the near future and will give Chinese a new sense of pride in the international community. One thing this new generation of Chinese must not do is to allow their nationalism to become chauvinistic. As Chinese power becomes more pronounced and more medals are won in future Olympics this may prove to be a difficult task. This is exactly what the world’s China bashers want and expect. It is up to the Chinese to prove them wrong.

* Chris Colley lectures on Chinese foreign policy at Renmin (People’s) University’s School of International Studies in Beijing. He has lived in China since 2002.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

China’s Maturing Foreign Policy: Implications for Africa

A response to Chris Colley

Ian Taylor

2008-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/51738

Beijing’s role in Africa—like that of all other foreign actors—is diverse, and its effect on the continent varies widely, depending on local economic and political circumstances. In this light, it is important to contextualize and discuss both Beijing’s foreign policy and the evolving political economy of the PRC. Relatedly, the diverse nature of both China and sub-Saharan Africa, warrants prompt consideration if we are to develop a coherent picture of what is going on.

For instance, it is commonplace in the literature on Sino-African ties thus far to refer to “China.” Yet “China” as an ontological item is increasingly problematic, as it is less and less plausible to speak of the area it ostensibly covers as some sort of monolithic entity. China’s foreign-economic policies are put into practice by an increasingly diverse set of actors under pressure from a wide variety of interest groups and constituency demands. Although we might agree that the nexus between economic growth and national security has gained prominence in China since the mid-1990s, the reality of contemporary China and the ways in which power is exercised there complicates the linkage. If we were to summarize what Chinese foreign policy is, we might connect it to the key domestic concern of the Communist Party of China (CPC), namely promoting China’s economic development while preserving political and social stability. This connection reflects a process whereby the CPC has changed from a revolutionary party grounded in class struggle and mass mobilization to a ruling party, with its attendant focus on order and security. Foreign policy that sustains an international environment supportive of economic growth and stability in China is central.

One way this policy is articulated is through the promotion of China as a responsible great power (fuzeren de daguo), a state that operates according to international norms and within multilateral institutions. This image is reinforced by the official concept of China’s “peaceful rise” or heping jueqi. Because some observers have focused on the inevitability of China’s “rise” rather than its “peaceful” character, the concept is now generally recast as “peaceful development” (heping fazhan) as a means to reassure other countries about Beijing’s intentions. In fact, Beijing’s policymakers go out of their way not to alarm the world about China’s rise, with Hu Jintao’s stated policy merely to build a “moderately prosperous society in all respects” (xiaokang shehui) along technocratic lines, according to the Scientific Outlook on Development or kexue fazhan guan.

Certainly, China’s current economic trajectory requires a peaceful international environment, a goal that fits with the strategy to “go global” (zouchuqu), encouraging Chinese corporations to invest overseas and play a role in international capital markets. In short, there is a growing awareness regarding the interconnectedness of the international and domestic settings, which is illustrated by the slogan yu guoji jiegui, or “linking up with the international track”.

The Myth of “China Inc.”

One way in which analyses of the Chinese presence in Africa has been woefully misunderstood is in the way in which some analysts seem to think that “China” is, as mentioned above, a monolithic entity, a super-corporation as it were, with power emanating from central Beijing. In fact, when it comes to policy-making, as well as policy implementation, central government ministries as well as provincial and municipal bureaucracies all have an input, while state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have to be sensitive both to general government policies and proclamations and to the profit motive. Although the central government may have a broad Africa policy, it has to be mediated via the economic interests of private corporations and the political motivations and aspirations of local state officials who, with growing autonomy, may not share the enunciated central vision.

Meanwhile, a new and still-changing combination of forces has been remaking Chinese foreign policy, a development intimately linked to the reform era. There now exists a pluralistic range of Chinese policymakers whose diverse interests are reflected in foreign policy and behaviour. Competition and compromise with respect to policy formulation is now the norm at all levels of government as the policy process has become more open, facilitating greater, more proactive input from various agencies rather than the former reactive version. Although the role of the paramount leader continues to be significant, in general, policy direction is increasingly open to advice from academics and business associations and as a result China’s policies toward Africa are becoming more nuanced. Crucially, a weak link between policy and implementation exists, For instance, the Ministry of Commerce and the SOEs have provincial and city as well as national offices, each with their own often divergent interests. Given that provincial SOEs make up nearly 90 percent of all Chinese companies investing overseas, center-provincial tensions—long a problem within the domestic polity—are regularly played out in Africa.

Even with regard to ostensibly strategic arms of government, policy coherence has its limitations. For instance, Beijing has as of this publication been incapable of enforcing a geographical division of labor on the main national oil companies, namely the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), and the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC). The result is overlap and competition among China’s national oil companies, even though they are all ostensibly central to Beijing’s energy-security policies. All three corporations possess subsidiary companies and have independent seats on their executive boards, meaning that various agendas are often pursued. There is arguably little in the way of a unified strategy to secure an entrée into specific oil and gas fields; in some instances, national oil companies have even bid against one another—as when CNPC and Sinopec vied against each other for a pipeline project in Sudan. This interfirm competition is normal in the capitalist West but sheds a somewhat unexpected light on the notion of “China Inc.”

In short, bureaucratic interests, domestic politics, corruption, and other pathologies of China’s capitalist development, as well as the increasing diversity in Beijing’s foreign-policy procedures, all coalesce to undermine the notion of a unitary Chinese state relentlessly pushing forward a single agenda, in Africa or elsewhere. Domestically, while state capacity to enforce policy continues to erode, competition among state agencies, even bureaus within single municipalities, is relentlessly increasing. Such difficulties are not restricted to the domestic sphere; they are often—and increasingly—reproduced abroad. The idea of the strategic use of economic relations by Beijing as a means of achieving power-politics objectives thus needs to be treated with caution. It is important not to overestimate the degree to which the Chinese state has been able to control and direct the evolution of its international economic relations. Indeed, economic liberalization has made it ever-more complicated for state authorities to identify exactly what Chinese firms and entrepreneurs are doing outside of China. The behavior of the three main national oil companies is one thing—although, as we have noted, they are not as monolithic as perhaps presumed—but the large number of small, often private, traders is something quite different. The notion that their actions are in some way representative of the Chinese state, or an element of some grand Chinese strategy, is far-fetched. Yet despite the ongoing liberalization process and the concomitant diversity of Chinese actors and interests overseas, studies are remarkably likely to refer to a unitary “China” with a single set of interests.

Particularly in Africa, the huge proliferation of small-scale Chinese traders, very often private individuals or families, is all but impossible to manage. Weak rule of law, endemic corruption, and bureaucratic tendencies at every level of the Chinese government means that the central leadership is in a perpetual and losing struggle to keep up with a surging economy, whether domestic or when it is projected overseas. Furthermore, contention over foreign-policy aims and their implementation now defines debates within Beijing. For instance, whilst the Chinese Foreign Ministry is generally the most supportive of China’s evolving diplomacy as outlined by Chris Colley, it is not always able to assert its position over the Ministry of Commerce or the military. Thus demands that “China Inc.” should do x, y, or z in “Africa” miss the subtleties and realities of contemporary Chinese foreign policy.

Which Africa?

Equally, many analysts refer to “Africa” as if it is a country. And when they discuss Chinese activities on the continent it is as if conditions on the continent have no bearing on Chinese behaviour—when things go wrong it is assumed to be the fault of “the Chinese”. This position is primarily because many analysts exhibit little knowledge about the realties of African political economy. In a good many African countries, power is a function of patrimonial power and not a representation of the sovereign will of the people. In other words, behind the façade of the modern state, power in many African polities progresses informally between patron and client along lines of political reciprocity; it is intensely personalized and is not exercised on behalf of the public. One of the fundamental problems in much of postcolonial Africa is that the ruling classes lack hegemony. The early years of nationalism saw an attempt to build a hegemonic project, but it quickly failed, collapsing into autocracy. Moral and political modes that transcend economic-corporate interests are generally absent; the ethicopolitical aspect that, in a hegemonic project, helps build economic configurations but also lends legitimacy, is lacking. As a result, the ruling classes express their domination and their modalities of governance via both the threat and the use of violence as well as the immediate disbursal of material benefits to supporters in neopatrimonial regimes.

Central to this scenario is the fact that, in most parts of Africa, class power is fundamentally dependent upon state power, and capturing the state—or at least being linked favorably to its leaders—is an essential precondition for acquisition and self-enrichment. Instead of a stable hegemonic project that binds different levels of society together, what we have in much of Africa is an intrinsically unstable, personalized system of domination. Absolutism reigns and power is maintained through patrimony, by means of the illegal commandeering of state resources. Corruption, not hegemonic rule, is the cement that keeps the system together, yoking the patrons to their predatory ruling class.

Problematically for the continent’s development, resources obtained from the state or the economy are deployed as the means to maintain support and legitimacy in this system, with the concomitant effect that control of the state is equivalent to control of resources, which, in turn, is crucial for maintaining power. Control of the state serves the twin purposes of lubricating the patronage networks and satisfying the selfish desire of elites to enrich themselves, often in quite spectacular fashion. Greed is what lies at the heart of the profound reluctance of most African presidents to hand over power voluntarily and what causes many African regimes to end messily, often in coups. In most cases the democratic option is either absent or is not respected by the loser—the stakes simply are too high. Once one is out of the loop vis-à-vis access to state resources, the continuation of one’s status as a Big Man and hence the ability to enrich oneself becomes virtually impossible. Politics in Africa thus tends to be a zero-sum game.

In simple terms, under a neopatrimonial system, the separation of the public from the private is recognized, at least nominally, and is certainly manifested in the symbols of the rational-bureaucratic state: there are flags, borders, governments, bureaucracies, and so on. These are what China’s leaders generally encounter when they invite delegations to Beijing or visit Africa. However, in practical terms, the private and public spheres are largely attached, and the outward manifestations of statehood are façades hiding the real workings of the system. This may prove a problem for Beijing as it attempts to craft coherent, long-term developmental relationships according to its stated foreign-policy goals in Africa, although short-term commercial exchanges of mutual benefit to African elites and Chinese corporations are evidently possible. In the critique of one informant, China’s “Africa” is really an assortment of regimes. This elision is a potential conundrum for Chinese actors in their engagements with the continent.

Implications for Africa

What does all the above mean to the African continent? Fundamentally, it is up to Africans to organize, connect, and ensure that their leaders enter into relationships with Chinese actors with open eyes. Repeatedly African governments have claimed that they cannot deliver development due either to a lack of capital and capacity or to interference from outsiders. Much of the Chinese engagement with Africa now comes with no strings attached (something for which Beijing has received much criticism for). But any failure to share growth and strengthen the whole economy utilizing receipts from Chinese engagement will not be the fault of “China” but that of the African elites. It is surely up to African states to regulate the activities of foreign (including Chinese) companies and ensure that extractive operations do not destroy the local environment or deny African workers their labor rights. Unfortunately, many of Africa’s elites post-independence have shown scant regard for their citizens’ constitutional rights in general; it is doubtful that they will suddenly spring into action where Chinese investment is concerned. Ordinary Africans can play a crucial role here by seeking to hold their leaders to account and critically examining the deals done in their name. This, rather than constructing “China” as die geel gevaar will most likely achieve results. It of course, will not be easy and the success rate will largely depend on both the objective conditions within each African polity and the ability of African civil society to build coherent transnational coalitions.

Having said the above, Chinese involvement in Africa offers up new opportunities for the continent, but only if African actors approach such openings prudently. How Sino-African relations will play out in the years to come, which Africans and which Chinese will benefit or lose, in which states and economic sectors, are questions for future studies on the multifarious nature of Chinese engagement with the continent.

* Ian Taylor is a Professor in International Relations based at St. Andrews University in Scotland

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Responses to the US election

Stephen Marks

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/51794

‘We wish US president-elect Obama well’ said the official English-language China Daily in a fulsome post-election tribute. ‘Like American people on the other side of the Pacific, we are excited, too, at the landslide win of Democrat Barack Obama.’

Earlier, Obama’s protectionist remarks condemning China as a ‘currency manipulator’ in a pre-election letter to a textile group was dismissed by some Chinese commentators as pre-election rhetoric.

Meanwhile opinion in Taiwan favoured McCain who was seen as more likely to favour US arms deals with the island.

CHINA IN AFRICA

Sudanese armed forces found a Chinese survivor of a group of nine colleagues kidnapped from an oil field nearly two weeks earlier.

But despite the kidnapping and killing, Chinese authorities made it clear that the incident would not deter China from continuing to invest.

Significantly, at the UN China signalled that it
would not introduce a resolution to defer the indictment of President al-Bashir at the International Criminal Court.

One US Darfur activist suggested that as Vice-President-Elect Jo Biden is known as a ‘hawk’ on the issue, ‘Now is the Time for Action on Darfur’

DRC rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was declaring his opposition to China’s £5bn mining and infrastructure deal with the Kinshasa government. But some commentators interpreted his position as a ploy to attract Western support.

As piracy worsens around the Horn of Africa, some shipping companies were even considering rerouting cargoes round the Cape, prompting the head of a UN agency to urge an international naval force to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

Meanwhile, away from the spotlight, China announced it was to increase its special cooperation zones in Africa to ten.

STAYING ON THE RAILS

Zambia and China marked the 30th anniversary of the TAZARA railway.

But Nigeria announced it was suspending an $8bn rail contract with China as contracts negotiated by President Obasanjo were reviewed by his successor.

However China’s domestic railway building industry looked set for a boost as the Chinese government seemed set to use a railway building programme as an economic stimulus.

DOWNTURN AND UNREST

As output surveys showed a record fall in the country’s manufacturing output, China’s premier Wen Jibao warned in an authoritative Communist Party journal that high growth was needed to maintain social stability.

In another article in the same issue of the journal ‘Seeking Truth’, Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu told China’s police to avoid inflaming riots and protests and to go easy on protesters. The minister admitted that economic forces and the internet had made citizens more sensitive to a wider range of ideas, sparking an increased number of ‘mass incidents’ as riots and protests are officially described.

‘This financial crisis in America is going to kill us. It's already taking food out of our mouths’, said one assembly line worker, suddenly out of a job when his Hong Kong-owned toy factory in Guangdong closed without warning leaving workers unpaid.

After angry workers protested outside the closed factory and local government offices, the local administration agreed to pay $3.5m of back pay to the workers in the failed toy maker. Other local administrations in the Pearl River Delta agreed similar payouts as it was announced that over half of China’s toymakers – most of them located in southern Guangdong province – had gone out of business in 2008.

The region is seeing an apparent epidemic of financially troubled plants abandoned by the boss, leaving behind unpaid workers and debts.

A local trade association predicts that by late January, Dongguan and its neighbours Shenzhen and Guangzhou will lose 9,000 of their 45,000 factories. This follows a possibly mistimed strategy by the provincial administration to encourage low-cost manufacturing to move elsewhere in order to move the province up the value chain - a policy described as ‘empty the cage for the new birds’.


There were signs that the downturn was affecting employment beyond the Pearl River Delta, and was affecting white-collar workers as well as rural migrant labour.

The Chinese Government responded with a programme of job support to the labour-intensive sector including:
- Increasing bank loans and raising export tariff rebates
- Working out favourable taxation, financing and other policies to encourage start-ups
- Providing more vocational training for laid-off workers to increase their chances of re-employment
- Establishing a pension system in rural areas and expanding the urban pension system to cover rural migrant workers.

There were also authoritative reports that senior officials, shocked by the scale of the downturn, were planning a radical economic stimulus package to include infrastructure and clean energy projects, a parallel with the programme of President-elect Obama.

South Africa toughens stance on crisis

2008-11-07

http://www.swradioafrica.com/NEWS061108/sa061108.htm

A South African government spokesman on Thursday said the country will take a hard line stance during a SADC summit set for Sunday in Johannesburg, to ensure that agreement is reached on Zimbabwe’s cabinet deadlock. Themba Maseko told reporters the impasse ‘is becoming a matter of extreme concern to us and we will be taking quite a hard stance.’ The tough talk is in stark contrast to mediator Thabo Mbeki’s softly soft approach.

Statement of the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe

Delay in the conclusion of the power sharing agreement

2008-11-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/zimbabwe/51804

We the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, on behalf of the women of Zimbabwe remain gravely concerned by the failure of the Political Principals to conclude the talks that will result in the resolution of the Zimbabwe’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis.
Statement of the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe on the Delay in the Conclusion of the Power Sharing Agreement.

We the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, on behalf of the women of Zimbabwe remain gravely concerned by the failure of the Political Principals to conclude the talks that will result in the resolution of the Zimbabwe’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis.

Cognizant that the political parties ( ZANU PF, and the two MDC formations) signed a political settlement for the establishment of an Inclusive Government at the Rainbow Towers on the 15th of September 2008, we note with deep regret that to date no Cabinet has been formed resulting in Zimbabwe operating without a Government since March 2008. This delay has been due to the disagreement by the Political Party Principals on the allocation of Government Ministries.

We note that this political impasse has resulted in continued and accelerated suffering of the people of Zimbabwe especially women and children. This is characterized by some of the factors outlined below-:

* Famine which impacts heavily on women and children with people resorting to wild fruit (hacha) and rats for survival
* A collapsed Health sector characterized by shortage of drugs, shortage of health personnel, breakdown of equipment
* A crumbling economy characterized by cash shortages resulting in unending queues, hyper inflation which is the highest in the world, high taxation for workers, dollarization of the economy with the majority of the workforce still earning their salaries in local currency.
* An ailing education system characterized by continued job action by teachers due to poor remuneration, lack of supplies including stationary and food , delays/ uncertainty in the writing of exams.
* Breakdown of social services such as electricity and water shortages the latter resulting in a health crisis that is causing cholera deaths.
* Women and girls suffered grave violence during the election period and this violence has continued to prevail extending to family and community levels due to impunity.

The continued delay in the conclusion of the talks has only served to exacerbate the suffering of women and children in the country.

Now therefore as the Women of Zimbabwe we demand as follows -;

1. That the political party principals put the interests and concerns of the people of Zimbabwe first.
2. That the Political Party Principals negotiate and conclude the talks in Good faith on Monday 27th October 2008.
3. That an Inclusive Government be in place shortly thereafter to begin tackling the urgent challenges that the country is facing in accordance with the Agreement.
4. That the Inclusive Government be constituted by a fair representation of women within the spirit of the Government of National Unity Deal, SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and other regional and international instruments.

* Conclude the Talks, We are dying of hunger.
* Pedzayi Hurukuro, Tafa nenzara
* Qedani inkulumo – sesilambile siyafa ngendlala

Zimbabwe attacks 'kill dialogue'

2008-11-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7712564.stm

Renewed violence has ended hopes of negotiating an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis, the country's main opposition party has said. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) blamed President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party for an "orgy of brutality" across Zimbabwe. The statement came ahead of regional talks in South Africa this weekend on Zimbabwe's political stalemate.

Zimbabwe: Activists granted bail

2008-11-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/zimbabwe/51800

Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu have been granted bail by Justice Ndou in the Bulawayo High Court this afternoon. The two were instructed to pay bail of $200,000 each (roughly USD 1.50). Other conditions include reporting to their closest police station twice a week and not travelling outside of a 40km radius of Bulawayo Post Office without written permission from a Magistrate.
News update
Wednesday 5th November – 8pm

Williams and Mahlangu granted bail by High Court – still in custody

Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu have been granted bail by Justice Ndou in the Bulawayo High Court this afternoon. The two were instructed to pay bail of $200,000 each (roughly USD 1.50). Other conditions include reporting to their closest police station twice a week and not travelling outside of a 40km radius of Bulawayo Post Office without written permission from a Magistrate.

In a hearing at which the two were not present, Justice Ndou ruled that the reasons Magistrate Charity Maphosa gave for denying bail were not sufficient.

Attempts to release the two were frustrated by administrative errors that meant the re-typing (twice) of their release documents. These delays meant that it was not possible to secure the release of the two this evening, although the support team did travel to Mlondolozi to try. The team will return to the prison first thing in the morning [Thursday 6th November] to collect them.

AU Responds to Financial Crisis

AU Monitor Weekly Roundup: Issue 157, 2008

2008-11-06

http://www.aumonitor.org

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, after failing to break the deadlock over the formation of a new Zimbabwean government at a meeting in Swaziland, referred the matter to a full emergency summit of SADC heads of state. The government of South Africa announced that it would host that 15 nation summit aimed at bringing together SADC leaders ‘to save the power-sharing deal, seen as the best hope for ending months of political turmoil and halting Zimbabwe’s stunning economic collapse’. Meanwhile, President Jakaya Kikwete and Chairperson Jean Ping, acknowledging that there was need for immediate action to prevent further escalation of the humanitarian crisis in the North Kivu Province, announced that the AU was ready to restore peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). An AU special envoy has been sent to DRC and to its neighbouring countries to promote ‘a holistic approach to the current crisis, building on existing instruments and mechanisms whose implementation already enjoys the strong support of the international community’.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the regional integration division of the Economic Commission for Africa has launched an Observatory to assist policy makers, member States, regional economic communities and all stakeholders with timely and relevant information on current progress, challenges and issues related to regional integration in Africa. Member States of the East Africa Community have asked experts to identify possible complications to free movement of services as negotiations for the region’s common market focus on transport policy, competition and consumer welfare, approximation of laws and various commercial policies. The first session of the AU conference of ministers in charge of social development held in Namibia was intended to develop a comprehensive social policy framework that reflects countries’ commitment towards the Millennium Development Goals.

In other news, South Africa minister of trade and industry, in his acceptance speech as incoming chairperson of the conference of African Ministers of Trade (CAMI) bureau, called for the full use African intellectual, human, historical and natural resources to realise Africa’s potential. The AU Commissioner for economic affairs announced that the commission, in collaboration with the African Development Bank, was organising a conference of ministers of finance and central bank governors to discuss the impact of the global crisis on African economies, its impact on the Bank and also examine its impact on aid to Africa. The secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) said that the proposed free trade area between COMESA, the East Africa Community and Southern African Development Community would reduce the costs of doing business and give way to an Africa-wide economic community. Finally, an analyst comments on the recently concluded extraordinary session of the African Peer Review Mechanism.

Africa: Rape survivor's words help jolt Congo into change

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/5gg6tr

Honorata Kizende looked out at the audience and began with a simple, declarative sentence. “There was no dinner,” she said. “It was me who was dinner. Me, because they kicked me roughly to the ground, and they ripped off all my clothes, and between the two of them, they held my feet. One took my left foot, one took my right, and the same with my arms, and between the two of them they proceeded to rape me. Then all five of them raped me.”

Egypt: Fatwas say wives may hit back in self-defence

2008-11-07

http://wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-562853

Sunni Islam's highest authority has approved a woman's right to fight back if her husband uses violence against her. The declaration by Sheikh Abdel Hamid al-Atrash, who heads Al-Azhar University's committee for fatwas or religious rulings, comes after similar rulings by clerics in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Global: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Data and Trends

2008-11-06

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2008/fgm2008.aspx

An estimated 100 million to 140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and more than 3 million girls are at risk for cutting each year on the African continent alone. FGM/C is generally performed on girls between ages 4 and 12, although it is practiced in some cultures as early as a few days after birth or as late as just prior to marriage.

Kenya: Sexual violence survivors await justice nine months on

2008-11-06

http://www.awcfs.org/content/view/527/1/

The report by Waki Commission is unprecedented in many ways, in that for the first time in Kenyan history; sexual crimes have not only been acknowledged but also given the prominence that they deserve. The report makes grave revelations regarding sexual crimes by indicating that they were “under-reported, under-investigated and insufficiently addressed.”

Somalia: UNICEF speaks out against stoning death of 13-year-old rape victim

2008-11-07

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28809

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has deplored last week’s stoning to death of a 13-year-old Somali girl who was a victim of rape. Aisha Duhulow was stoned to death in a stadium full of spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo on 27 October after authorities found her guilty of adultery.

Somalia: Women 'keep life going' in violent streets of Mogadishu

2008-11-07

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44542

On the fifth day of every month a group of women entrepreneurs gather to share their experiences and discuss matters of trade. What makes this exceptional is that the women are from south-central Somalia and they meet in Mogadishu, one of the world's most devastated and dangerous cities.

Burundi: Detentions of political opponents threaten rights

2008-11-07

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/11/04/burund20130.htm

The detention of political activist Alexis Sinduhije and 36 others by Burundian police on November 3, 2008, highlights the growing obstacles to the free exercise of civil and political rights in Burundi, Human Rights Watch said today. Sinduhije, well-known as a former radio journalist, has been trying since February to form an opposition political party, the Movement for Security and Democracy (MSD).

DRC: Mass stigma scars rape survivors

2008-11-07

http://www.otabenga.org/node/132

With regard to what is going on in Eastern DRCongo, it seems that most people, both inside and outside of the country, have come to accept the most horrendous crimes as part of normality. It is difficult not to ask the following question: if these rapes were occurring in G8 countries, wouldn't there be emergency measure to put an end to it? Questions must be addressed to the leadership in the DRC, the African Union leadership: why is everyone waiting for someone else to do something?

Egypt: Torture victim wins case against closure

2008-11-05

http://tinyurl.com/57mwwy

A Cairo Administrative Court rescinded the government’s decision to dissolve the Association for Human rights and Legal Aid (AHRLA) on 26 October 2008. This followed an appeal by the association. The court ruling found the government’s decision to be legally groundless and reinstated AHRLA.

Guinea: Require security forces to use restraint

2008-11-07

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/11/04/guinea20132.htm

Guinea should require its security forces to use restraint in responding to street protests, Human Rights Watch has said, after security forces opened fire on groups protesting to demand lower fuel prices. Protests on November 3 and 4, 2008 within the Guinean capital Conakry have left at least four people dead and some 20 wounded. According to witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, numerous casualties occurred after the security forces opened fire on groups of protesters apparently in an attempt to disperse them.

Niger: Court rules government failed by allowing girl’s slavery

2008-11-07

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/world/africa/28niger.html

A West African regional court ruled Monday that the government of Niger had failed to protect a young woman sold into slavery at the age of 12. The landmark ruling, the first of its kind by a regional tribunal now sitting in Niamey, Niger’s capital, ordered the government to pay about $19,000 in damages to the woman, Hadijatou Mani, who is now 24.

Africa: Human smuggling keeps rising

2008-11-07

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28808

The number of people illegally crossing the Gulf of Aden and the Mediterranean Sea is on the rise, the United Nations refugee agency reported today, as it confirmed that 12 people fleeing Somalia in the past week have been found dead on a beach in Yemen and 28 others remain missing.

Côte d’Ivoire: Road to national recovery and durable solutions still long

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/66kkon

Thanks to some progress in the implementation of the Ouagadougou Peace Accord, internally displaced people (IDPs) in Côte d’Ivoire have continued to return home throughout the second half of 2008. Of over 700,000 counted in just five government-controlled regions in 2005, some 70,000 had returned by the end of September 2008 in the western regions of Moyen Cavally and Dix-Huit Montagnes.

DRC: First food reaches displaced Congolese in camps around Goma

2008-11-07

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4911dd012.html

As a massive food distribution got under way Wednesday in six UNHCR-run camps for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese in North Kivu, the UN refugee agency prepared to hand out tonnes of shelter and household items. A four-truck UNHCR convoy carrying 33 tonnes of various aid items, including plastic sheeting, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans crossed Wednesday from Rwanda into Goma, the capital of the conflict-hit province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Global: New report calls for the protection of the human rights of migrants

2008-11-07

http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=1213

States, while exercising their sovereign right to determine who enters and remains in their territory, have an obligation to protect the human rights of migrants, according to a new report produced by the Global Migration Group, of which UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is a member. The report was produced to mark this year’s 60th anniversary of the affirmation of universal human rights.

Uganda: Focus shifts to securing durable solutions for IDPs

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/6ozd5y

Significant improvements in the security situation in northern Uganda have allowed about half of the more than 1.8 million people who had been internally displaced by the conflict to return to their villages, while another quarter have moved to transit sites nearer to their homes.

Kenya: Waki report: Join in the fight against the culture of impunity

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/6run3a

If the political class strategy of denial, disparage and diverting public attention manages to kill the implementation of Waki the report, this will heighten public distrust for Kenya's criminal justice system and reinforce the culture of political impunity. We must resist vigorously the grand impunity of the political class and our government. Support full implementation of Waki report by signing this petition and forwarding this petition link to your friends.

Request for solidarity and support by women of Zimbabwe

2008-11-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/51803

WCoZ has always advocated for peace and nonviolence in the country. However realizing the grave crisis that faces the country now WCoZ launched the “Conclude the Talks - We are Dying of Hunger Campaign”. On the 27th of October 2008, about 1000 women gathered near the venue of the SADC Troika Talks to demand a resolution of the crisis and send a message to the three political leaders and SADC Troika that the talks should be concluded urgently and efforts to restore Zimbabwe should begin henceforth.
REQUEST FOR SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT BY WOMEN OF ZIMBABWE

Background

Zimbabwe is going through an unprecedented political and humanitarian crisis which is deepening and accelerating by the day. The three leaders of political parties signed a deal to form an eighteen months transitional government on the 15th of September 2008. This agreement gives Zimbabwe its first chance in ten years to stop violence and restore socio-economic and political wellbeing. However the three political principals have failed to agree on the allocation of ministries. Zimbabwe continues to sink deeper and deeper into a humanitarian crisis with famine gripping the country. All sectors including health, judiciary, education and industries continue to crumble and collapse. The situation has become dire and there is need to put pressure on the negotiating parties to form a coalition government urgently.

Zimbabwe went to the polls twice this year, first in the March harmonized elections and then in June during a presidential run off. After the March elections Zimbabwe witnessed nationwide, massive, organized and calculated violence against perceived members of the opposition. This included abductions and murders, torching of houses and destructions of food stocks including livestock, intimidation, displacements, assaults, rape especially gang rape. The security of women and girls in both urban and rural areas is under serious threat in Zimbabwe. Between June and September 2008 WCoZ estimates that there were thousands of women who were sexually violated around the 2000 bases which were set up during the violence and terror campaign.

Conclude the Talks - We are Dying of Hunger Campaign

WCoZ has always advocated for peace and nonviolence in the country. However realizing the grave crisis that faces the country now WCoZ launched the “Conclude the Talks - We are Dying of Hunger Campaign”. On the 27th of October 2008, about 1000 women gathered near the venue of the SADC Troika Talks to demand a resolution of the crisis and send a message to the three political leaders and SADC Troika that the talks should be concluded urgently and efforts to restore Zimbabwe should begin henceforth. Zimbabwean women are demanding an end to the talks and emergency humanitarian assistance to save millions of Zimbabweans from imminent starvation. This was the message on the placards carried by the women, translated into both Shona and Ndebele which are the two main official languages.

How can you be in Solidarity with women and girls in Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwean women and girls are going through a grave crisis manifesting itself in a famine, collapse of health, judiciary and education systems. We urgently need solidarity from our sisters outside the country, either in the African regions or beyond, you can make a difference and your contribution can save lives. The women of Zimbabwe are appealing to their sisters around the world to take up the following causes as a means of showing solidarity.

A. Mobilize financial resources or provide Zimbabwean women with;

1. Non-violence strategies for conflict resolution trainings for women leaders around the country. So far only team leaders in Harare have received this training yet we need to build a critical mass of women who can begin to demand an end to the crisis at all levels across Zimbabwe through widespread nonviolent civic society protests.

2. Food has become the most expensive item in the country and there simply isn’t enough to go round. If you are our neighbour, WCOZ encourages that you unite as women and girls, collect food and send it across your borders to Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe or other humanitarian agencies that you are in touch with. We need cereals, cooking oil, porridge any type of food will save lives.

3. Our hospitals are closing down and there is a dire shortage of essential medication. Please collect, fundraise and send what you can from pain killers, gloves etc.

4. Sanitary ware has become a luxury for many Zimbabwean women and girls. When you buy for yourself buy a few extra and send to us across any border.

5. A full SADC meeting will be held to resolve the Zimbabwe deadlocked talks. Please fundraise for us to attend the talks and mobilize locally for other players to attend as well. We should send the message clearly to SADC that time is running out for Zimbabwe.

B. Women movements in the regions can pursue lobby and advocacy activities with their leaders so that they can in turn push for a resolution of the crisis. We are attaching our list of demands from our political leaders and SADC. Please forward these to the political leadership in your country.

C. Regional and international networks can also show solidarity to Zimbabwean women by sharing strategies and offering technical advice on issues of advocacy in crisis and conflict period. We would love to learn from other success stories in the region.

Africa: Family, ethnicity and religion as forces of accountability in Africa

2008-11-07

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=40502&type=Document

Following the disappointing results of the Good Governance agenda, this paper explores the idea of working "with the grain" of African societies. It identifies a core set of beliefs and values – concerning power, accountability and social morality – that are widely observed across sub-Saharan Africa, have proven extremely durable and remain powerful drivers of behaviour.

Egypt: Protestors torch opposition headquarters

2008-11-07

http://www.afrol.com/articles/31598

Egyptian protestors have torched headquarters of most prominent opposition politician in clashes between rival factions, eyewitnesses and police said. Police official said seven people sustained minor injuries as rival groups threw stones and bottles at each other at downtown Cairo headquarters of al-Ghad party.

Global: Peoples' agenda for parliamentarians

2008-11-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/51851

Over 500 women and men, citizens, representing people’s organisations from 41 countries across Asia and Europe joined together in Beijing between the 13th and 15th October 2008 at the 7th Asia Europe People’s Forum to work ‘For Social and Ecological Justice.’ We focussed on developing strategies and recommendations to our elected representatives, and to ourselves, as active citizens, for ‘Peace and Security,’ ‘Social and Economic Rights, and Environmental Justice’ and ‘Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.’
People’s Agenda for Parliamentarians

Over 500 women and men, citizens, representing people’s organisations from 41 countries across Asia and Europe joined together in Beijing between the 13th and 15th October 2008 at the 7th Asia Europe People’s Forum to work ‘For Social and Ecological Justice.’ We focussed on developing strategies and recommendations to our elected representatives, and to ourselves, as active citizens, for ‘Peace and Security,’ ‘Social and Economic Rights, and Environmental Justice’ and ‘Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.’

We met at a moment of major historical importance that has brought into sharp focus the drastic inequalities, injustice and poverty experienced by people across Asia and Europe. What is currently being presented as a ‘financial crisis’ is in reality the latest in a series of interlinked crises - food, energy, climate, human security and environmental degradation - that are already devastating the lives, and compounding the poverty and exclusion faced on a daily basis by millions of women, men and children.

There is a strong consensus across Asia and Europe that the dominant approach over the last decades - based around the deregulation of markets, increasing power of multinational corporations, unaccountable multilateral institutions and trade liberalisation - has failed to meet the needs and rights of all citizens. We need to go beyond an analysis and response that focuses solely on short-term measures benefiting a few financial institutions.

Our governments and the citizens of Asia and Europe have a unique and historic opportunity to transform our social, economic and political futures so that all can live in peace, security and dignity. We all need to take responsibilities to work together to create and implement the radical and creative solutions needed for people centred recovery, change and a harmonious world - we will not have this opportunity again.

We recognise that the crisis has illuminated the deep links, connections and inter-dependence between people across Asia and Europe.

As Asian and European social movements, organisations, networks and citizens committed to working for a just and equal world, we call on our Asian and European parliamentarians and our governments to join with us in taking forward a People’s Agenda founded on four fundamental principles:


i) the promotion of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights as agreed in international human rights and humanitarian law;

ii) the promotion of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable patterns of development;

iii) greater economic and social equity and justice, including equality between women and men;

iv) the active participation of civil society organisations in democratic life and decision-making process of their countries.

We therefore call upon our parliamentarians and our governments to implement people centered responses to the current financial crisis, in an effective and responsible manner.

Urgent need must be given to poor, excluded and marginalised people. Governments must work with citizens to develop and implement policies that will lead to a just, equal and sustainable world, and more accountable and democratic institutions – based on respect for gender equality, our environment and fundamental human rights.

To do this, as citizens, we call upon parliamentarians and our governments to develop legislation and mobilise the resources for the following:

Social and Economic Rights

* Use the opportunity of the current financial and political crisis to put in place an alternative financial architecture and infrastructure that will promote and enable a more equitable, carbon neutral and just global economic system, reclaiming national development policy rights and empowering working people. Financial institutions and financial decision-making must become truly accountable and transparent.
* Implement social protection policies (employment guarantee schemes, living pensions, disability benefit, carer support etc) that have been shown to be affordable and essential in alleviating poverty. Acknowledge that social security for all without discrimination is a universal right.
* Cancel or stop payment of all illegitimate debt and end the use of loans and debt relief to impose conditionalities.
* Respect and fulfil the right and obligation of all countries and peoples to reverse the harmful policies that have led to the debt, food, and climate crises, such as Structural Adjustment Programmes, unjust Trade Agreements, Investment Protection Treaties and Infrastructure Integration Initiatives.
* Renegotiate existing and end current negotiations on all unjust and unfair free trade agreements (bilateral and multilateral).
* Promote agricultural strategies aimed at achieving food security, food sovereignty and sustainable farming.
* Respect the right to food and healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods-protecting biodiversity. Food producers and fisherfolk should have access to and control over the means of production (e.g. land, seeds, water, appropriate technology). There must be full recognition of the rights and roles of women in food production.
* Implement agrarian reform programmes, strengthening local food production and consumption, diversification, controls on agribusiness and decreasing dependence on international markets and which support small holder agriculture and sustain peasant farmers and indigenous communities
* Implement a moratorium on grain and food based agro-fuel production.
* Ensure decent working conditions for all workers and respect for core labour standards. Develop and implement legislation to recognise, protect and promote informal workers, migrant, domestic and homeworkers.
* Guarantee equal pay for equal work for women – as a basic principle and to help counter the coming recession by increasing workers’ capacity to consume.
* Protect the rights of migrant workers in the event of job losses, ensuring their safe return to and reintegration into their home countries. For those who cannot return, there should be no forced return, their security should be guaranteed, and they should be provided with employment or a basic minimum income.
* Ratify the UN Convention on the Protection of Rights and Well Being of Migrant Workers and members of their families and other relevant conventions as a minimum requirement for protecting the rights, decent work and well being of migrant workers. Recognise and protect the rights of migrant domestic workers and provide for the protection of their labour and human rights – in consultation with civil society and trade unions. Develop one standard for all countries in relation to recognising the skills and training of workers.
* Reaffirm that access to safe water and sanitation is a fundamental human right and to implement this right for all citizens. Transparency, accountability, ensuring public participation and good governance of water management, are all key to effective and democratic water delivery. All forms of water service delivery must be based on principles of affordable access, provision of quality water and based on consultation and participation.
* Prevent the future privatisation of public resources such as water, health and education and, where possible, reverse current privatisation policies by ensuring greater democratic public control and public financing.

Finance

* Create people-based banking institutions and strengthen existing popular forms of lending based on mutuality and solidarity.
* Institutionalise full transparency within the financial system through the opening of the books to the public, to be facilitated by citizen and worker organisations.
* Introduce parliamentary and citizens’ oversight of the existing banking system
* Apply social ( including conditions of labour) and environmental criteria to all lending, including for business purposes
* Prioritise lending, at minimum rates of interest, to meet social and environmental needs and to expand the already growing social economy

Taxation

* Close all tax havens
* End tax breaks for fossil fuel and nuclear energy companies
* Apply stringent progressive tax systems
* Introduce a levy on nationalised bank profits with which to establish citizen investment funds
* Impose stringent progressive carbon taxes on those with the biggest carbon footprints
* Adopt controls, such as Tobin taxes, on the movements of speculative capital
* Work with other governments to prevent transfer pricing and tax evasion

Public Spending and Investment

* Redirect government spending from bailing out bankers to guaranteeing basic incomes and social security, and providing universally accessible basic social services such as housing, water, electricity, health, education and child care
* Improve the performance of public enterprises through democratizing management - encourage public service managers, staff, unions and consumer organisations to collaborate to this end
* Invest massively in improved energy efficiency, low carbon emitting public transport, renewable energy and environmental repair
* Introduce incentives for products produced for sale closest to the local market

Environment

* Develop decentralised, renewable energy sources to combat climate change and contribute to sustainable development. Implement legislation that will support all citizens in reducing their energy consumption.
* Whilst fulfilling the Kyoto Protocol work, work with other governments to ensure far reaching and binding agreements in Copenhagen in December 2009 including the firm and binding commitment by OECD countries to reduce emissions by at least 80% within an agreed time period.
* Substantially cut global emissions based on common yet differentiated responsibilities and support and finance adaptation and mitigation initiatives across the world.
* Introduce a global system of compensation for countries which do not exploit fossil fuel reserves in the global interests of limiting effects on the climate,
* Strictly implement the “precautionary principle” of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development as a condition for all developmental and environmental projects.
* Stop the development of carbon trading and other environmentally counter-productive techno-fixes, such as carbon capture and sequestration, agrofuels, nuclear power and ‘clean coal’ technology.
* Adopt strategies to radically reduce consumption in the rich countries, while promoting sustainable development in poorer countries
* Introduce democratic management of all international funding mechanisms for climate change mitigation, with strong participation from Southern countries and civil society.

Participatory Democracy and Human Rights

* Eliminate the stigma, discrimination and human rights violations experienced by millions of people due to their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, caste, HIV status and ethnicity.
* Ensure that existing consultations and mechanisms mandated by governments for consultation with their citizens are truly representative and inclusive.
* Recognise that people’s organizations, social movements, trade unions, NGOs and other citizens’ groups as independent development actors, contributing to democratic processes.
* Implement quotas for women candidates and elected representatives at all levels (including within political parties), with sanctions for non-adherence.
* Include indicators and strategies for increasing women’s political participation in all national economic and social development plans.
* Take concrete steps to tackle the violence that is a major barrier preventing women from participating in political life – enact legislation to make it illegal for men to hold office if they have been convicted of violence against women.
* Protect and ensure optimum expression and freedom to information and transparency.
* Support initiatives that promote local participatory democracy, in addition to strengthening accountability within local governance.
* Ratify and fully implement UN Conventions on the Rights of Disabled People. Realise that this will not happen without the meaningful participation of disabled people at all levels.
* Mainstream disability concerns into local and national economic and social development
* To empower people with disabilities and their organisations for their equal participation and full inclusion in all respects of life, through partnerships amongst stakeholders including civil society and government.
* Protect the rights of people living with HIV from stigma, exclusion, discrimination and human rights violations, and to ensure access to free treatment, care and support – exempting lifesaving medications from global trade agreements. To give special support to children who have lost their parents to HIV.
* Ensure those responsible and complicit are brought to justice for those missing and disappeared and that there is legally agreed compensation for their families.
* Release all political prisoners and asylum seekers
* Develop multi-pronged and adequately financed regional anti-human trafficking policies.
* People who are recipients of development aid should define what they need and participate in development of their projects.

Peace and Security

- Develop long term solutions to promote peace, human security and sustainable development that prioritise non-violent means of conflict resolution, people-to-people interactions, use of international conventions and regional co-operation.

- Abolish the anti-terrorist laws that have been developed as a response to the ‘war on terror’ and that are being used on a daily basis to impose restrictions on citizens, and to criminalise peaceful organisations and minorities. Ensure any additional security measures, whether national, regional or international, are subject to democratic scrutiny by citizens, parliaments and respect internationally agreed legislation.

- Enact national legislation to guarantee full and public disclosure of government defence, arms exports and security budgets.

- Cut military expenditure and transfer funds to health and education programmes.

- Work with other Governments to use the Non-Proliferation Treaty as the basis of regional co-operation and take steps to denuclearise Europe and Asia while striving for a nuclear free world.

- Take primary responsibility to control the trade and proliferation of arms. Work with other Governments to develop and agree transparent and binding mechanisms, overseen by the UN, to control arms imports and exports.

Beijing 19th October 2008

Kenya: Statement in response to commission of inquiry into post-election violence

KPTJ

2008-11-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/51759

We note the rare unity of the political class in dismissing the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence as inadequate and flawed. We also note the dismissive attitude of the police force towards the findings of the investigation, as well as the faultfinding by the Attorney General.
KPTJ

STATEMENT ON RESPONSE TO COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE POST ELECTION VIOLENCE

PRESS STATEMENT

Nairobi, October 30: We note the rare unity of the political class in dismissing the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence as inadequate and flawed. We also note the dismissive attitude of the police force towards the findings of the investigation, as well as the faultfinding by the Attorney General.



The commission chaired by Appeal Court Judge Philip Waki travelled around the country to visit the theatres of the violence, hear oral evidence on oath from 156 witnesses and take sworn (written) testimony from 144 people over four months. This is what the commission found:

1. The violence was initially a spontaneous reaction to the elections results and initially targeted government institutions, such as was the case in Nyanza. The initial intention was not to kill but to expel people and destroy property.

2. After that, the violence took on a more organised form. Politicians and businesspeople organised and planned attacks. The evidence of this was in the warnings people received, the numbers of attackers mobilised and moved, the weapons acquired and the secrecy involved in targeting people of given ethnic groups.

3. The failure by the police to act on intelligence, to be impartial and professional in their work, as well as to respond appropriately only made matters worse. Police used excessive force. There was a discernible breakdown in the chain of command.

Findings:-

a. Deaths

1. The violence claimed 1,133 lives. This contradicts the official police figure of 616.

2. Gunshots were the most frequent cause of death, accounting for nearly four in every 10 deaths (35.7 per cent of total deaths). Police were found to be responsible for all deaths by gunshot. The commission also found that police response was uneven, even where faced with similar situations. In Nyanza and Western provinces, for example, police response was more brutal and the use of force, excessive.

3. The highest number of deaths by ethnicity are recorded as Luo (278); Gikuyu (268); Kalenjin (158) and Luhya (163).



b. Rape and sexual violence

4. Individual and gang rapes, sometimes using objects, were committed in front of families. Men as well as women were targeted based on their ethnicity and political affiliation. Genital mutilation, including castration and forced male circumcision, were rampant.

5. The police told the commission that there were no incidents reported of sexual or gender-based violence. General Service Unit, regular and administration police were however found to have taken part in the rapes (including gang rape) and obstructed reporting and investigations.

c. Official response

1. The Government did nothing to ease the tensions before the elections. It posted 1,600 Administration Police officers to Nyanza because, in the testimony of the Head of the Public Service to the Commission, it was hostile territory.

2. The Commissioner of Police ordered the release of Chinkororo and SunguSungu gangs involved in violence before the elections. Police officers were posted to receive and relay election results in orders clearly outside their call of duty.

3. The National Security Intelligence Service acted suspiciously outside its mandate by seeking 50 accreditations for election observers and conducting opinion polls in order to provide information to the Head of Public Service.

4. The police in North Rift and the provincial administration were unprepared for the violence, raising questions about their coordination with intelligence services. Although the commission noted individual acts of personal courage among police officers in saving lives, the police in North Rift participated in the violence, or were just divided and overwhelmed.

5. The Cabinet security committee never met throughout the election period and after, and there were no joint preparations for what would possibly arise. There were no formal meetings at the national level, raising questions about who was in charge and who was in control of the security apparatus. Variations of this misnomer would be apparent at the provincial level.

6. The police ban on assembly and the ban on live broadcasting worsened the security situation in the country. Further investigations into police use of force and rape as well as records on the use of ammunition and supplies require independent investigators.

d. Impunity

The Attorney General is culpable for promoting impunity. He has been in charge of prosecutions for the entire time that the parliamentary select committee chaired by Kennedy Kiliku and the Judicial Commission of Inquiry chaired by Justice Akilano Akiwumi made recommendations about further investigations and prosecutions for ethnic-based violence. The AG's role in failing to follow up on the Kiliku and Akiwumi reports is stark. For their part, the police claimed they had not even read the reports.

The recommendations

The political class is distorting the Waki Report to appear as if it only recommends their own punishment. Fortunately, it does more than that. Kenya is much bigger than the 10 or so people on the list of perpetrators that the commission has handed to the Panel of Eminent African Personalities. Given a choice between the 10 suspects and the 38 million Kenyans, our choice is obvious. Let us review the recommendations of the Waki team again ...

1. The police have been severely indicted in this report. To quote, the criminal involvement of the police ranged from "murder to gang rape and looting". A GSU officer hacked off a man's hand. They stole and extorted bribes to protect people. The commission recommends that the administration police should be abolished and its officers integrated into the Kenya police Service. These changes are long overdue. From the mediation agreement, Kenya should have an independent police commission by January 2009, the AP review should be complete by now, and the legal and policy reforms to establish an independent complaints and civilian oversight authority should be in place already.

It is unbelievable that the leadership of the police force has not been overhauled in view of these findings. Pending actions include:

· Review of the Police Act and police standing orders;

· Establishing a representative police service commission;

· Launching a modern code of conduct;

· Setting up a statutory Directorate of Criminal Investigations

· Creating civilian oversight on the police.

2. Sexual and gender based violence were pervasive, yet there were no institutions to deal with it at police stations and public hospitals. The commission recommends that a Rapporteur on Sexual Violence (with appropriate powers and staff, reporting to staff) should be appointed to monitor the work of the Gender Commission and gender units in various ministries, and to provide an annual report to Parliament.

3. The partisan involvement of the Head of the Public Service and the provincial administration in the elections and the violence that followed it call for radical institutional reform that goes beyond changing faces.

4. The Attorney General told the commission that he was waiting for evidence to prosecute perpetrators of the violence. He is too closely linked to the culture of impunity and should be relieved of his duties. The commission recommends the creation of a special tribunal to go round the culture of impunity and the AG. The tribunal will try people first and offer them an opportunity to defend themselves. The constitutional amendment Bill has been withdrawn to insert provisions that accommodate the IREC recommendations. This is also the time to include the recommendations on the Special Tribunal.

5. The President and the Prime Minister must provide leadership with respect to speed and efficiency in implementation of commission reports, just as they did with regard to the rapid implementation of the National Accord Bill. Parliament must not shirk its responsibility to pass the following laws as recommended:

a. Special Tribunal

b. International Crimes Bill, 2008

c. Witness Protection Act to be operationalised (can government maintain safety of witnesses)

d. Freedom of Information Bill

6. The Government has the following policy tasks ahead:

a. National Security Policy

b. Conflict and disaster early warning and response systems

c. Joint operations preparedness arrangements

d. Broader participation in the National Security Advisory Council



Our conclusions



1. We are witnessing a situation where the politicians in government are satisfied that they are now sharing power and that it is business as usual. It is disturbing that they prefer to push all issues that contributed to the crisis under the carpet in order to turn such issues into an instrument to access power in 2012.

2. We as Kenyan civil society are certain that the crisis we witnessed is not over. These same politicians will certainly break this country if they go unpunished.

3. We demand the full implementation of the Waki recommendations and immediate disbandment of the ECK. A small team of no more than three people can be appointed by Kenyans to run ECK pending establishment of rules to compose another body.



5. We as civil society are calling on International Community to immediately begin the process of taking perpetrators to the International Criminal Court.

6. We request the International Community not to be complacent or to call this a Kenyan problem requiring a Kenyan solution. These are politicians punishing the rest of the society and refusing to implement these recommendations is not a Kenyan solution.

7. Civil society will soon be contacting the ICC to discuss how to have the perpetrators of violence brought to book.





Signed-
• Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG)
• Awaaz
• Bunge la Mwananchi
• Centre for the Development of Marginalised Communities (CEDMAC)
• Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
• Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
• Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women (CREAW)
• Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW)
• The Cradle-the Childrens Foundation
• Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO)
• East African Law Society (EALS)
• Fahamu
• Foster National Cohesion (FONACON)
• Gay And Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK)
• Haki Focus
• Hema la Katiba
• Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
• Innovative Lawyering
• Institute for Education in Democracy (IED)
• International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
• International Centre for Policy and Conflict
• Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
• Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI)
• Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)
• Kituo cha Sheria
• Mazingira Institute
• Muslim Human Rights Forum
• The National Civil Society Congress
• National Convention Executive Council (NCEC)
• RECESSPA
• Release Political Prisoners Trust
• Sankara Centre
• Society for International Development (SID)
• The 4 Cs
• Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)
• Urgent Action Fund (UAF)-Africa

And concerned citizens:



* Shailja Patel
* Mary Onyango
* Philo Ikonya

West Africa: Ghana Elections 2008: Who will tame the Rawlings?

2008-11-07

http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=3739

Nana Konadu Agyeman, the hawkish wife of ex-President Jerry Rawlings, has written to the diplomatic community and some international organizations that the impending December 7 general elections will descend into civil war (Daily Guide, 28 October, 2008).

Zambia: Call for vote recount

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/5k275s

Michael Sata, leader of Zambia's opposition Patriotic Front party, said he will launch legal proceedings challenging the result of the country's presidential election held last week. Sata alleges vote-rigging and voter intimidation and on Tuesday demanded a recount after losing to centrist politician Rupiah Banda, who was sworn in as president on Sunday.

Angola: "Angolagate" bribes in local banks

2008-11-07

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44566

Portuguese banks that received transfers of money to Angolan politicians implicated in illegal arms sales have kept mum after the Lisbon paper Público reported their involvement. The Banco de Portugal, the country’s central bank, has remained silent, and the banks mentioned by the newspaper declined to comment in response to queries from IPS Monday, invoking the law on bank secrecy.

Lesotho: British Police drop Lesotho bribery probe

2008-11-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7713433.stm

British police will not investigate a construction company accused of corruption in Lesotho, they have said. British firm Mott Macdonald were implicated in an audit of a dam project in the southern African kingdom. But the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has said it will not be looking into the accusations, two years after they received them.

Zimbabwe: Government blacklisted over missing millions

2008-11-07

http://www.swradioafrica.com/NEWS061108/blacklisted061108.htm

Robert Mugabe’s government has effectively been placed on the Global Fund blacklist, after the state’s central bank failed to account for more than US$7 million worth of Global Fund grant money. Global Fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine announced on Monday that the donor group had ordered that funds under its administration in Zimbabwe be placed under the Additional Safeguards Policy (ASP), which aims to ensure that funding is used for its intended purpose and not to benefit the government.

Africa: How formal and informal institutions interact in Africa

2008-11-07

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=40503&type=Document

In Africa, as elsewhere, the path or paths to development and modernity are dependent on historical institutional context, and cannot be imposed from outside. The paper first compares Africa with five alternative models of how development occurred elsewhere.It is argued that African states are ‘outliers’ in that the legacy of recent colonialism and the dominance of external forces have created a peculiar mixture of ‘informal’ values and behaviours with formal institutions, in which the informal are dominant in power relations but not recognised or understood. Hence development policies lack any real traction.

Ethiopia: $8 million for rural electrification

2008-11-07

http://www.gpoba.org/news/news.asp?id=111

The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), has signed a grant agreement for US$8 million with the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) to support increased access to electricity in rural towns and villages with grid access, within the context of the Universal Electricity Access Program (UEAP) in Ethiopia.

Global: NGOs and the victim industry

2008-11-07

http://mondediplo.com/2008/11/14ngos

The misadventures of the French charity Zoe’s Ark in Chad early last year (1) finally opened to question the motives and morality of aid agencies. For the first time an organisation was criticised in the media, rather than lauded for its good intentions. The humanitarian industry’s success made it inevitable its power would be abused. After the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, people had begun to question whether non-governmental organisations had the competence to administer the huge amounts of money they received.

Mozambique: Government to launch science parks for development

2008-11-06

http://tinyurl.com/6eg5ce

Mozambique's government will drive the development of four 'science parks' across the country to encourage scientists to find solutions for its social, health and infrastructural problems. António Leão, national director of Mozambique's Ministry of Science and Technology, says the initiative is aimed at taking science and technology to the people.

Southern Africa: Demand for export of arofuels threatens livelihoods

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/66hpnm

More than 80 percent of the population is still dependent on biomass for energy in the Southern African region, particularly, wood, cow dung and coal. It is mainly women and children in rural areas that bear the brunt of lack of access to modern, safe and affordable energy. They are the ones that collect wood and search for coal in and around operating and abandoned mines.

Africa: Towards affordable healthcare in Ghana, SA and Tanzania

2008-11-07

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/11/08-053413/en/index.html

In the latest edition of the World Health Organisation Bulletin health economists explore the extent of fragmentation within the health systems of three African countries. Fragmentation is when there are a large number of separate funding mechanisms (e.g. many small insurance schemes) and a wide range of health-care providers paid from different funding pools which leads to an inequitable system.

Kenya: Child deaths on the rise

2008-11-07

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81162

The number of children dying before their fifth birthday in Kenya has risen in the past 10 years, according to health specialists. One in nine children dies before the age of five. "For every 1,000 children born, 121 die, compared with 97 in 1990," Shahnaz Sharif, the senior deputy director of medical services in Kenya's health ministry, told IRIN.

Kenya: Selling beer and HIV education in Nairobi's slums

2008-11-07

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81310

In one of the many backyard taverns selling chang'aa (illicit brew) in the Korogocho informal settlement of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, two women desperately try to get patrons to listen to their lecture about HIV; many are too drunk to care, but others are more attentive.

Nigeria: Pre-paid health insurance scheme launched

2008-11-07

http://www.gpoba.org/news/news.asp?id=112

The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), has signed a grant agreement for US$6.02 million with the Health Insurance Fund (HIF), a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands, to establish a community health scheme for low-income families in Lagos, Nigeria. The scheme will provide affordable pre-paid health insurance plans for up to 22,500 beneficiaries.

Rwanda: Aggressive campaign to protect mums and babies

2008-11-07

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81269

While neighbouring countries struggle to get pregnant women to visit antenatal centres, women in Rwanda seem to be flocking to them. Rwanda manages to reach 72 percent of pregnant women with HIV testing and counselling and other prevention of mother-to-child services (PMTCT), but fewer than 20 percent of Burundi's health centres offer PMTCT services, while Kenya is reaching half its pregnant women.

South Africa: More delays in the fight against TB

2008-11-07

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/562B9031-0E9D-405A-9707-8260E5A83123.asp

With the failure of the South African National AIDS Committee (SANAC)’s 1.1-billion Rand (round 8) application to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) and the ongoing political uncertainty with a “caretaker” government until the 2009 elections, South African delegates attending the World Lung Health conference in Paris last week expressed fears that many long awaited activities to scale-up TB and TB/HIV services will be placed on hold for some time to come.

Southern Africa: MDR-TB Migrants being dumped off at borders without referrals to care

2008-11-07

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/F776AAFE-AB53-42B7-81BA-85C3E6426171.asp

Some migrant workers in southern Africa who have been diagnosed with MDR-TB are being deposited at the border of their home country without treatment or referral to care, according to reports at the World Lung Health Conference held in Paris from October 17th-20th. In some cases, it is the migrant’s employer that is sending ill patients back to their home country, usually a mining company .

Zimbabwe: Bureaucracy prevents importation of cholera drugs

2008-11-07

http://www.swradioafrica.com/NEWS061108/bureau061108.htm

Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization, has deployed its staff into Zimbabwe to help fight the cholera epidemic, an MDC MP disclosed on Thursday. Willas Madzimure, MDC MP for Kambuzuma in Harare, said the organization has brought in badly needed facilities, such as special beds for cholera victims and gloves for medical personnel.

Zimbabwe: Government misses Global Fund deadline

2008-11-07

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81337

The future of Zimbabwe's AIDS programmes hangs in the balance after the government failed to meet the deadline of Thursday 6 November to return over US$7 million to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Africa: Making literacy a priority

2008-11-07

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1325.html

How can we address the issue of the information and knowledge society without first dealing with the fact that almost a sixth of the world's population remains illiterate, and thus excluded from the possibility of effectively participating in a knowledge-driven society? What good are the advantages afforded by the new ICTs for the more than 860 million who cannot read and write?

Mauritius: Gay rights could see light

2008-11-07

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=mauritius&id=1986

The fight for rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in the Indian Ocean’s small island of Mauritius is finally bearing fruits. The country’s government has, for the first time, included sexual orientation in its discrimination bill.Employment Rights Bill, as it is known, states that nobody should be discriminated against based on sexual orientation while applying for a job.

Nigeria: Shell faces Dutch lawsuit over oil spills

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/6gmemj

In a case that looks set to again highlight the legal and reputational risks associated with environmental damage arising from alleged corporate negligence, oil giant Shell will this week be served with a summons compelling representatives from the company's Dutch HQ to respond to accusations that its operations have caused environmental damage in Nigeria. Four Nigerian citizens, together with campaigners from Friends of the Earth Netherlands and Nigeria will file the lawsuit in the The Hague on Friday.

Uganda: Has anything changed for women and land?

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/64xolc

In the 1995 constitution, the government of Uganda vests land in its citizens. This it sets out to strengthen by decentralizing land administration and management as per the Land Act 1998. It is almost 10 years now down the road, but to many the policy doesn't seem to exist. What has or has not changed for women and land: A case of Lira district.

DRC: Court frees Global TV studio manager after 41 days

2008-11-07

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=28540

Global TV studio manager Daudet Lukombo was acquitted by a local magistrate’s court in Kinshasa/Gombe and was released from Kinshasa penitentiary at around 4 p.m., ending 41 days in detention. He was arrested during a police raid on the privately-owned TV station on the night of 11 September, after it broadcast a news conference by opposition legislator Ne Muanda Semi, the head of the controversial Bundu dia Kongo movement.

Eritrea: Journalist secretly sentenced to 5 years

2008-11-07

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29140

Daniel Kibrom, a journalist employed by Eritrea’s state-owned Eri TV, has been held since October 2006 in a prison camp in the south of the country, where he is serving a sentence of five years of forced labour for trying to cross the border into Ethiopia, Reporters Without Borders has learned from a former prison interrogator who fled the country a year ago.

Ethiopia: Newspaper editor beaten

2008-11-07

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29164

Reporters Without Borders condemns a violent attack on leading journalist Amare Aregawi on 31 October in Addis Ababa, in which he sustained serious head injuries. Aregawi edits The Reporter, a big-circulation newspaper published in Amharic and English-language versions.

Nigeria: Second online journalist arrested in one week

2008-11-07

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29185

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of online journalist Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, a US national, at the Muritala Muhammed international airport on his arrival from the United States on 28 October to visit his sick mother and attend to family matters. He is currently being held at the headquarters of the internal intelligence service, the State Security Service (SSS) in the capital Aubuja. He is the second blogger to be arrested in Nigeria within a week.

Namibia: Child headed households: a guide

2008-11-07

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=40651&type=Document

It has become increasingly common in Namibian society for children to head their own households and take care of other relatives, due to the death or illness of their parents and guardians, or because their parents live far away. This handbook provides guidance on how to run a child headed household. It is intended for children and youth who shoulder the responsibility of managing a home and caring for others as well as community caregivers, volunteers and relatives who provide some form of support to these households.

Caribbean: Civil society demands Haiti debt cancellation

2008-11-07

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/7129.html

Organizations representing Caribbean civil society organizations and social movements have written to G8 finance ministers, the World Bank, and the IMF, to demand an immediate and unconditional cancellation of Haiti's external debt.

DRC: Government accuses UN over killings

2008-11-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7714791.stm

The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused UN peacekeepers of failing to stop rebel troops killing civilians in the east of the country. "People are being slaughtered and [UN peacekeepers] did nothing," a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said. The comments came as regional leaders met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in Kenya for crisis talks.

DRC: New attacks on civilians

2008-11-07

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/11/06/congo20150.htm

Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda’s forces and government-backed Mai Mai militias deliberately killed civilians in Kiwanja, North Kivu province, on November 4-5, 2008, Human Rights Watch has said. UN peacekeepers based in the area were apparently unable to protect civilians from attack. Nkunda’s forces battled pro-government Mai Mai militias on November 4 and 5 in Kiwanja, killing a number of civilians trapped in the zone of conflict.

DRC: UN peacekeepers' credibility is damaged

2008-11-06

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-588091,00.html

It is the UN's biggest and most expensive peacekeeping operation ever. But when things got serious in the Democratic Republic of Congo the blue helmets failed to defend the population from rebel troops and instead concentrated on protecting themselves.

Global: Congo crisis highlights EU's lack of coherence

2008-11-05

http://euobserver.com/9/27046/?rk=1

A short term military operation without a coherent EU approach combining security measures, humanitarian aid, policing and reforming efforts would not be able to address the Congo crisis in the long term, participants at a joint hearing in the European Parliament learned on Tuesday (4 November). "If we take a dispassionate look at the situation in Eastern Congo these days, it is not difficult for us to realise that a consistent and coherent EU approach would provide a different panorama than the one we face today," Joao Gomes Cravinho, Portugal's secretary of state for foreign affairs and co-operation told MEPs.

Africa: Is there still a need for telecentres now that there are mobile phones?

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/6hlele

Following the initial rush of Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects in rural Africa, many did not yield the anticipated outcomes, and interest has been dying down. People then began talking about “sustainable ICT” projects, in which it was understood that projects would become self-sufficient after their initial donor-led investment and set-up period.

Global: Mobile Internet devices and services for emerging markets

2008-11-07

http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1266167

In its ongoing effort to bridge the digital divide, Nokia has introduced a range of affordable mobile devices and innovative new services specifically for people in emerging markets. In addition to Nokia's lowest cost handset to date, as well as its first handset for emerging markets with an integrated digital music player,
Nokia unveiled a range of services that leverage the power of the Internet.

Global: Mobiles in-a-box: Tools and Tactics for Mobile Advocacy

2008-11-06

http://mobiles.tacticaltech.org/home

Mobiles in-a-box from the Tactical Technology Collective is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help advocacy and activist organisations use mobile technology in their work. Mobiles in-a-box is designed to inspire you, to present possibilities for the use of mobile telephony in your work and to introduce you to some tools which may help you. After reading the material in this toolkit you can expect to be able to design and implement a mobile advocacy strategy for your organisation.

Global: The E2: A green computer for everyone

2008-11-07

http://tinyurl.com/5mu7pa

Non-profit internet provider GreenNet has recently released a new ultra-low power computer. The tiny computer can run on a car battery for hours and uses a maximum of nine watts of electricity. Sustainable in almost every way – from its fabrication, to its distribution and consumption – the E2 also comes fully equipped with free and open source operating systems.

Global: Call for applications : The Info Activism Camp

2008-11-06

http://www.tacticaltech.org/iac_call

Struggling to make an impact on your target audience? Are issues unresolved despite your best efforts? Are you excited about the advocacy potential of the Internet, mobile phones or information design, but uncertain about how you can take advantage of them? The Info Activism camp, to be held in Bangalore, India from February 19th to 25th, helps rights advocates to make the best use of information, communication and digital technologies to achieve their objectives.

Global: 3rd European Conference on African Studies - Call for papers

Panel 62: Historical Roots of Poverty and Well-Being in African Countries

2008-11-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/51807

This panel responds to the recent efforts of tracing the historical roots of current divergence of incomes and occurrences of poverty in the world. It has been argued that the fundamental cause of current income levels is the lack of pro-growth institutions which originated under the colonial system. This session welcomes new research that suggests new evidence and methods to explain
long term economic and social change in African countries.
3rd European Conference on African Studies (ECAS 3),Leipzig, Germany, on 4-7 June 2009
Calling for Papers for a panel on:
The Historical Roots of Poverty and Well-Being in African Countries Panel Organizer: Dr. Morten Jerven (M.jerven@lse.ac.uk)
Referees:
Dr. Alexander Moradi
(A.Moradi@sussex.ac.uk)
Dr. Gareth Austin
(G.M.Austin@lse.ac.uk)
Abstract (50 words):

This panel responds to the recent efforts of tracing the historical roots of current divergence of incomes and occurrences of poverty in the world. It has been argued that the fundamental cause of current income levels is the lack of pro-growth institutions, which originated under the colonial system. This session welcomes new research that suggests new evidence and methods to explain long-term economic and social change in African countries.
Panel Description (250 words):

A recent development in the field of economic history, albeit with older antecedents, which has spurred a great scholarly interest, is the effort of tracing the historical roots of current divergence of incomes and occurrences of poverty in the world. It has recently famously been argued that the fundamental cause of current income levels is the lack of pro-growth institutions, which originated under the colonial system. However, tracing the cause of current economic success long back in history runs the risk of neglecting important developments which lie in between time t=0 and today.
Growth has been episodic in developing countries, and it is a major challenge to distinguish, which periods were important and which were perverse or unsustainable.

This session welcomes new research that suggests new evidence and methods to explain long-term economic and social change and by implication the current predicament of African countries.

Poverty and well-being are broadly defined, including indicators like education, health, and inequality, in addition to the conventional national income measures and its derivates. Important issues to be considered in the session are suggested as, but not exclusive to the origins and evolution of factors and policies which have had an influential and persistent impact on current well-being, the importance of the colonial impact, the importance of institutions and institutional continuity. Studies confronting the concept of legacy, pointing to changes of fortunes despite the persistence of underlying conditions, are also welcome.

Submit your abstract here: http://www.uni-
leipzig.de/ecas2009/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=74&Itemid=24
Panel 62: Historical Roots of Poverty and Well-Being in African Countries at ECAS 2009
3rd European Conference on African Studies (http://www.uni-leipzig.de/ecas2009/)
And/or email panel organizer: Morten Jerven (M.Jerven@lse.ac.uk)

Mozambique: 2nd Institute for Social and Economic Studies conference

Call for papers

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/51778

The Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IESE) will be holding its second conference, on the 22nd and 23rd of April 2009 in Maputo about "Dynamics of Poverty and Patterns of Economic Accumulation in Mozambique." IESE intends to contribute to challenge mainstream approaches to poverty and to develop the debate further by introducing new perspectives that are based upon the political economy analysis of poverty in relation with the patterns of economic and social accumulation and reproduction.
Call for Papers

The Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IESE) will be holding its second conference, on the 22nd and 23rd of April 2009 in Maputo about "Dynamics of Poverty and Patterns of Economic Accumulation in Mozambique."

IESE intends to contribute to challenge mainstream approaches to poverty and to develop the debate further by introducing new perspectives that are based upon the political economy analysis of poverty in relation with the patterns of economic and social accumulation and reproduction.

Interested researchers and scholars who wish to present papers at the conference are invited to send 1-2 page(s) summaries of their papers to
<mailto:conferencia.pobreza@iese.ac.mz> conferencia.pobreza@iese.ac.mz, by the 20th of December 2008. For more information about the conference and guidelines for your submissions, please follow this link to the text announcing the conference and calling for papers:
<http://www.iese.ac.mz/lib/call_for_Papers_Conf_Poverty.pdf>
http://www.iese.ac.mz/lib/call_for_Papers_Conf_Poverty.pdf For further queries, please contact IESE at the above mentioned e-mail.

Important final deadlines to be met by all:

· Submission of summaries (1-2 pages) of proposed papers to IESE:
20th December 2008.

· Information from IESE to those candidates whose proposals were
selected: 31sth January 2009.

· Submission of final version of selected papers to be presented at
the Conference: 22nd March 2009

Africa: Programmes Manager - FEMNET

2008-11-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/51801

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is looking for a suitable candidate to fill the position of Programs Manager. This position offers possibility of gaining experience working for a leading Africa women’s Regional organisations in a very stimulating, multicultural and dynamic environment. The position will involve considerable travel within Africa and other parts of the world.
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is looking for a suitable candidate to fill the position of Programs Manager. This position offers possibility of gaining experience working for a leading Africa women’s Regional organisations in a very stimulating, multicultural and dynamic environment. The position will involve considerable travel within Africa and other parts of the world.
Purpose of the Position
The Programme Manager is responsible for ensuring the coordination of the programmes and projects FEMNET and ensuring that the staff members take advantage of the synergies that enhance the effectiveness of the Network’s Programmes. The Programme Manager will contribute to the conceptualisation of the initiatives and projects to be undertaken under the two main program areas – Communication and Advocacy. The PM will oversee their implementation according to FEMNET’s contractual obligations and internal policies and ensure that all reporting is done in a timely manner meeting the set standards of the Regional Network. The position is also responsible to consult with the Executive Director on matters of staff and Executive Board development and ensure the implementation of the agreed plan and monitor progress.
The Programme Manager will work closely with the Executive Director and Financial Administrator to ensure that FEMNET has the resources required to meet the institutional and Programmes’ related obligations. The position holder will report to the Executive Director.
2. Responsibilities of the Position
2.1 Responsibilities relating to the Executive Board and Board of Trustees

• Assist the Executive Director and Financial Administrator with the preparation of half-yearly and annual narrative reports and quarterly financial reports for the Executive Board;
• Ensure the preparation of programme and all documentation for meetings of the Executive Board and those of the Board of Trustees;
•Assist the Executive Director with the process of resource mobilisation and implementation of the FEMNET Building Project and coordinate all follow up to decisions agreed upon by the Building Project Task Force and the Executive Board and/ or Board of Directors.
• Assist the Executive Director as may otherwise be required in implementing the strategic directions received from the Executive Board and Board of Trustees.

2.2 Responsibilities relating to the Executive Director and Programme Management
• Assist the Executive Director with the preparation of new programme/project proposals, including their budgetary aspects in collaboration with the Finance Administrator;
• Assist the Executive Director with resource mobilisation for new programmes/projects as may be required;
• Work with the Executive Director and Programs Staff to develop the annual work plan and the periodical strategic documents for the Network.
• Ensure forward planning and management of projects.
• Ensure that all Program staff members prepare their quarterly reports and then prepare a combined narrative report which enables the team to track progress and areas for improvement.
• Liaise with the Executive Director to organise regular staff meetings and the annual staff retreat and thereafter assist with the follow up of implementation of agreed plans.

• Supervise staff members responsible for on-going programme/project implementation to ensure that programmes/projects are executed in accordance with FEMNET’s contractual obligations and internal policies;
• Ensure the timely preparation of narrative and financial reports for on-going programmes/projects according to FEMNET’s contractual obligations in collaboration with the staff members responsible for on-going programmes/projects and the Finance Administrator;
• Assist the Executive Director with administrative functions as may be required;
• Support the development and maintenance of strategic linkages with key contacts with women’s rights organisations in Kenya.
• Deputise and represent the Executive Director in her absence/stead as may be required.
• Represent FEMNET in different for a as may be agreed upon with the Executive Director
Qualifications, Skills and Experience for the Position
• Demonstrated interest and experience in gender and development and/or women’s human rights in Africa;
• A degree in a relevant social science and a masters degree will be an added advantage;
• Demonstrated training and/or experience in programme/project management, including
programme/project
conceptualisation,
development,
resource
mobilisation,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
• Demonstrated training and/or experience in human resource and financial management;
• Knowledge of grant-making around gender and development and/or women’s human rights in Africa;
• Demonstrated ability to fundraise for gender and development and/or women’s human rights in Africa;
• Demonstrated capacity to communicate and work in both English and French.
Demonstrated analytical and strategic thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to work very well in teams

Remuneration
• This position is a regional position and compensation is competitive with attractive benefits depending on the qualifications and experience of the candidate and the FEMNET’s salary structure.
Please send in your application by email or fax by 4: 00 pm on the 30th of November
2008 to:

admin@femnet.or.ke or by post to:
P. O. Box 54562
Nairobi, Kenya
No applications should be sent by fax.

Global: Policy Officer - The Elders

2008-11-07

http://theelders-jobs.blogspot.com/

The Elders is a group of eminent global leaders, convened by Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel to bring their experience and independent voices to the resolution of conflict and to innovative, cooperative efforts to address the great global challenges of our time. We are looking for a Policy Officer and a Communications Assistant to join The Elders’ busy team in London. Applications for both positions close on Friday 21 November 2008.

South Africa: Coordinator - Engender

2008-11-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/51775

Engender is a registered NGO focused on strategic interventions in the intersecting areas of Genders & Sexualities, Human Rights, Justice & Peace. We are currently seeking to fill the contract position of Coordinator of an exciting project focused on Intersexuality. Please send CV with detailed covering letter, highlighting competencies in the required areas above, by Wednesday 19 November.
Engender is a registered NGO focused on strategic interventions in the intersecting areas of Genders & Sexualities, Human Rights, Justice & Peace.
We are currently seeking to fill the contract position of Coordinator of an exciting project focused on Intersexuality.

The project coordinator will need to:
Be familiar with intersex and allied issues (or learn fast);
Update intersex website with the existing website team;
Develop materials for pamphlets and posters aimed at the general public and key professions (e.g. health and legal professions), with a DTP professional;
Distribute materials (like posters and pamphlets) strategically;
Organise and facilitate workshops with key sectors (health & legal sectors, teachers, community & faith leaders);
Write appropriate reports;
Media and public liaison;
Develop and maintain a database of intersex individuals and supporters;
Fundraise for the project;
Perform other relevant tasks.

The successful candidate will need the following skills:
Advanced communication (especially writing);
Be able to work independently;
Passion for social justice and respect for diversities;
Knowledge of Human Rights, especially Genders, Sexual Rights, and LGBTQI issues;
Be a skilled networker, especially in the above fields;
Driver’s licence with own reliable transport;
Fluent in English and at least one other (South African) language;
Manage publications (website information, pamphlets, posters, media releases) from concept to final print;
Write funding proposals and reports, project and workshop reports, publicity and training materials, pamphlets and posters, research articles;
Employ participatory research and training methodologies;
Computer literate, incl. wordprocessing, spreadsheets, internet research, graphics, with a desire to learn basic web management;
Project management;
Administration: budgets and fundraising (required); basic bookkeeping (desirable).

For more information about Engender: www.engender.org.za .

For more information about Intersex South Africa (ISSA), currently an Engender project: www.intersex.org.za .

Please send CV with detailed covering letter, highlighting competencies in the required areas above, by Wednesday 19 November, to: info@engender.org.za .
Women of colour and LGBTQI individuals are encouraged to apply. The position is based in Cape Town.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you have not heard from us by the end of December, please assume that the position has been filled. This position is subject to the availability of funds. Engender reserves the right to not fill this position.

Fahamu