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2010-08-11

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2010-08-11

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Time for sanity and healing

Horace Campbell

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66652

cc B NIt is 65 years this August since the US dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of unarmed Japanese civilians, writes Horace Campbell. Although US history books say that thousands of servicemen were saved as a result of those two bombings, the reality, says Campbell, was different.

On Friday 6 August 2010 the Syracuse Peace Council held a vigil in Syracuse, New York, to commemorate the loss of human life from the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. This vigil was one more activity by peace and justice forces in the USA to bring sanity to a society that is in desperate need to be healed from the crimes against humanity that were committed 65 years ago. The dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 were two of the greatest acts of barbarism that killed hundreds of thousands of persons, especially unarmed civilians. The Syracuse Peace Council and peace activists around the world believe that the mass slaughter that took place in 1945 should not be allowed to slip from the memory of humans who want another world. This protest was not only against the dropping of the bombs but also against the mindset of a society that will spend trillions of dollars preparing for nuclear war, a form of warfare that will exterminate humanity. E. P. Thompson properly called this form of warfare 'Exterminism'.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki laid the foundations for a period of militaristic expenditure and the suborning of the scientific community in a nuclear weapons system that consumed trillions of dollars. One of the continuing tragedies of the use of the atomic bomb is the existence of militarists who are now contemplating the use of nuclear weapons again. During the period of the George W. Bush administration, there was a lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were strategic actors from the militarist faction of US rulers that planned perpetual war, regardless of the human costs. As the capitalist depression deepens, the rulers will more and more seek to resolve the political and economic crisis through war. It is our view that while Hiroshima and Nagasaki technologically represented a quantum leap into a new dimension of mass annihilation, psychologically and morally, the forces of peace and justice need Ubuntu now more than ever to repair the planet earth and to retreat from the mindset that continues to justify the use of nuclear weapons. Old ideas about the organisation of peace and justice must be buttressed by new ideas about reparations and healing.

HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

On 6 August 1945, at 8:15 a.m. a US air force bomber plane dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, a Japanese city with an estimated population of 255,000. The atomic bomb that the plane was carrying, ‘Little Boy’, detonated above the city centre, killing 80,000 people – 30 per cent of the population – immediately or within hours of the explosion.

Three days later, on 9 August , a similar aircraft from the US air force carrying a more powerful weapon bombed another Japanese city, Nagasaki, a heavily industrialised city of about 270,000. An estimated 40,000 people were killed outright. This last outrage of the Second World War exposed the full brutality of war and although the US continues to justify the unleashing of this weapon, the barbarism of war continues to plague all of humanity. The people of Japan continue to be in the forefront of the international campaigns for peace and nuclear disarmament.

It is still not known how many persons have perished as a result of these two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945, but there are estimates as high as 500,000 victims. Apart from the physical killings, there are many cancers of the lung and thyroid that only became apparent ten to twenty years later during the 1950s and 60s. Even in 2010, 65 years later the effects of radiation still claim victims: Cases of leukaemia are ten times more frequent in Hiroshima than in the rest of Japan.

The Second World War is now known as one of the most barbaric wars in history. The carnage of this imperial war is now well known with the widespread knowledge of the Nazi Holocaust and the death camps. What is less well known is the reality of the experiences of the peoples of Japan and the mass killing of innocent persons. As the ‘victors’ of the war, the leaders of the USA claimed that the dropping of the bomb was necessary to save lives. The history books written by those in power in the USA say that thousands of servicemen were saved as a result of those two bombings. The reality was different.

By May 1945, Germany had surrendered and the Japanese were searching for ways to have a peace treaty. Japan, like Germany had been militarily defeated by June 1945 and almost nothing was left of the once mighty imperial navy, and Japan's air force had been all but totally destroyed. Against only token opposition, American warplanes ranged at will over the country, and US bombers rained down devastation on Japanese cities, steadily reducing them to rubble.

There were many in the US high command who were opposed to the dropping of the atomic weapons. We now know that General Dwight Eisenhower was among those who believed that it was not necessary to drop the bombs to save lives. It was Eisenhower who later condemned the growth of the military industrial complex in the USA. The decision by the Truman administration to use atomic weapons against Japan was motivated by the situation at the end of the Second World War where the Soviet army had played a decisive role in the defeat of fascism. Hence with the impending struggles, the political and strategic considerations that inspired the use of the atom bomb laid in the efforts of the political leaders of the USA to establish the undisputed hegemonic position of the United States in the post-war period. This brutal and inhumane act has been covered up by propaganda, disinformation, lies, and the myths of good deeds of the USA in Japan. In fact, the leaders of the USA are so clear about their role in these acts of inhumanity that 65 years after the Second World War, Japan is still an occupied country.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND EXTERMINISM

From the moment the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the more thoughtful understood that a great crime had been committed against humanity. This was because a new low had been reached for humans. Bertrand Russell, the British scientist and philosopher in an essay on ‘The Bomb and Civilization’, noted the new stage in human history. He wrote:

‘The prospect for the human race is sombre beyond all precedent. Mankind are faced with a clear-cut alternative: either we shall all perish, or we shall have to acquire some slight degree of common sense. A great deal of new political thinking will be necessary if utter disaster is to be averted.’

Humans are still trying to avert this disaster. Another British writer, E. P. Thompson also saw the full dangers of the nuclear weapons systems and came up with the term ‘Exterminism’ to designate ‘those characteristics of society – expressed in different degrees, within an economy, its policy and its ideology – which thrust it in a direction whose outcome must be the extermination of multitudes.’

The book ‘Exterminism and Cold War’ edited by E.P. Thompson and others is still worth reading twenty-five years after this book was written to oppose the whole scale investment in weapons to kill millions. Like Bertrand Russell, Thompson had argued that nuclear weapons were so destructive that their use had become irrational for all mankind, regardless of class interest. ‘Exterminism is not a “class issue”: it is a human issue.’ The task, therefore, was not to organise the class struggle so as to eliminate the system which gives rise to war, but to win over all sectors of society, top to bottom, to an ‘alternative logic.’

This mandate of conceiving of a society beyond capitalism is now even more urgent in the midst of this major capitalist depression. In 1998, there was an ‘Atomic Audit’ in the USA that spelt out how the USA had spent over US$5.5 trillion between 1940 and 1998 in the development of nuclear weapons.

In order to develop and maintain the lead in nuclear weapons technology, the US state mobilised all the resources of science and put them at the military’s disposal. Billions of dollars were poured into the university system and nearly every university in the USA was caught up in the funds disbursed by the various agencies spending the trillions of dollars. Directly or indirectly, most of the well-known physicists in the USA were caught in this net of destructive thinking and planning. This gigantic mobilisation of every scientific resource for war expresses a general characteristic of US university system and its integration into the military industrial complex.

What the authors of the ‘Atomic Audit’ did not underscore was the frame of mind that continued to pour billions – if not trillions – into the deployment of nuclear weapons. While the threat of nuclear war prevented the outbreak of full-scale confrontation between those with nuclear weapons (the USA and the USSR as the dominant nuclear powers), this threat did not prevent the expansion of numerous forms of warfare that consumed millions of lives in Africa, Asia and Latin America. During the Cold War, the world came very close to nuclear war in 1962 at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since the period of the Cold War there are now at least eight states with nuclear weapons (USA, Russia, China, India, Britain, France, Israel, and Pakistan).

In the USA, there is a section of the political and economic leadership who believe that it is possible to win a nuclear war. During the period of the Bush administration, there was a lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Reports in newspapers such as the Washington Post had brought out the new planning for the use of nuclear weapons by the Pentagon. One report noted:

‘Under Bush, however, Pentagon officials appear to have taken a step closer to the possible, limited use of nuclear weapons by pursuing new and more usable ones. A review of nuclear policy completed by defense officials a year ago put added emphasis on developing low-yield nuclear weapons that could be used to burrow deep into the earth and destroy underground complexes, including stores of chemical and biological arms. This has raised questions about whether the administration is lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons.’

This lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons was in the pipeline based on the thinking of the war planners in the USA. In the middle of the Cold War after the defeat of the US forces in Vietnam, those who advocated a more aggressive orientation and increased military build-up gained ascendancy in the political system. By the time Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, those who wanted to expand the missile and weapons capabilities of the USA gained ground and Reagan oversaw a renewed arms build-up. This was the period when the USA went all out to gain an offensive nuclear superiority by developing a defensive missile shield (the so-called ‘Star Wars’ programme), something that the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 had been designed to prevent. In their warped thinking, a successful defensive shield would allow the US to strike with nuclear weapons first, since it could shoot down any retaliatory action. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the American militarists decided that the USA would be the world’s superpower based upon pre-emptive war and the unilateral assertion of American interests through military force.

IMPULSE TO ATTACK IRAN

More than four years ago, the reporter Seymour Hersh exposed the plans of the United States to attack Iran. Writing in the New Yorker in April 2006 on ‘The Iran Plans’, Hersh noted:

‘The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups.’

This planning by sections of the military has been opposed by the peace movement globally and by other sections of the US military. It is now known that there are deep divisions within the US military and intelligence circles over the outcome of an attack on Iran. Since the election of Obama, these divisions have been exacerbated by the demand by the Israeli leadership for the US to support an Israeli strike against Iran. Nearly every week, there are now statements from sections of the military and intelligence saying that an attack on Iran was now more likely than any time previously. Towards the end of July, former CIA Director, Michael Hayden declared that it was necessary for the USA to attack Iran. This statement should not be taken lightly.

CASTRO’S WARNING

Only last week, Fidel Castro, the former prime minister of Cuba came out of retirement to warn that the world was very close to nuclear war. Castro, who survived many attempts on his life by the CIA, called on President Obama to intervene to stop the impending attack. He said in a speech before the Cuban parliament:

‘Leaders of the world's most powerful countries – allies or adversaries, with the exception of Israel – would agree with me and urge President Obama to avoid the aggression.’ If President Obama gives the order, ‘he would be ordering the immediate deaths of hundreds of millions of people, including an untold number of people in his homeland and the crews of all the U.S. fleet in the waters around Iran…Simultaneously the war would break out in the near and the far East and throughout Eurasia’. Castro also said that the present world order established on the planet would collapse.

These warnings on the new outbreak of nuclear war should not be taken lightly. The most militaristic faction of the US government has embarked on a strategy of perpetual warfare. This faction of the political leadership has embarked upon a trajectory that will, if not stopped, lead to a world historic catastrophe that will make Hiroshima and Nagasaki pale by comparison.

TIME FOR SANITY AND HEALING

The mindset that committed genocide in the Americas and enslaved millions continues to dominate the thinking of those in power in the West. Samir Amin, in his book ‘The Liberal Virus’ has warned that this mindset is laying the foundations for the genocide of billions of citizens. Capitalism has reached a point where the barbarism of the system is everyday becoming clearer.

It is this clarity that is inspiring a global movement for healing and truth telling about the real reasons for the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, the truth about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not a matter of mere historical accuracy. With the trillions invested in nuclear weapons and the lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, it is urgent that there must be truth about the real reasons for the dropping of the bomb. This truth is necessary to promote the dismantling of nuclear weapons in all parts of the world. It is here worth repeating the warning of Bertrand Russell in 1945:

‘One is tempted to feel that Man is being punished, through the agency of his own evil passions, for impiety in inquiring too closely into the hidden secrets of nature. But such a feeling is unduly defeatist. Science is capable of conferring enormous boons: it can lighten labour, abolish poverty, and enormously diminish disease. But if science is to bring benefits instead of death, we must bring to bear upon social, and especially international, organisation, intelligence of the same high order that has enabled us to discover the structure of the atom. To do this effectively we must free ourselves from the domination of ancient shibboleths, and think freely, fearlessly and rationally about the new and appalling problems with which the human race is confronted by its conquest of scientific power.’

The challenges of reparative justice dictate that we need a new social system. It is only a different mode of thinking and mode of economic organisation that can move our societies to healing and repair in order to create a society that instinctively and spontaneously recoils at the very notion of using an atom bomb on other human beings. This healing and repair is inscribed within the principles of Ubuntu.

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* Horace Campbell is a teacher and writer. His latest book is 'Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA', published by Pluto Press.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The threat and consequences of nuclear war

Message to the National Assembly: Year 52 of the Revolution

Fidel Castro

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66662

cc Carolonline‘Given the fact that Iran will not give an inch to the demands of the United States and Israel, which have already mobilised several of the means of warfare to their disposal, they will have to launch the attack as soon as the date agreed by the Security Council on June 9, 2010 – with the established rules and requirements – expires. There is a limit to all what man hopes to achieve, which he cannot surpass. In this critical case, President Barack Obama is the one who would give the order to start the so much announced and publicised attack, following the rules of the gigantic empire,' proclaims Fidel Castro.

At the beginning, only eight weeks ago, I thought there was no possible solution to the imminent danger of a war. The situation before my eyes was so tragic that I thought there was no other way out but the possibility to survive – quite likely perhaps – in the region of this hemisphere that for no reason could become a target of a direct attack, as well as some isolated regions of the planet.

It was very difficult to figure that out, knowing that human beings always cling to some sort of perspective, however remote.

Despite everything, I tried.

Fortunately, I did not take long to realise that there was one hope – as a matter of fact, a very profound one. However, if that possibility was missed, the disaster would lead to the worst consequences. Then there might be no possible salvation for the human species.

Nevertheless, I strongly believe this would not be the case. Quite on the contrary, the conditions for what seemed to be only until very recently an undreamed-of situation are right now in the making.

One man, the president of the United States, will have to take this decision on his own. Quite certainly, given his multiple occupations, he has not realised that as yet, but his advisors have started to get an understanding of the situation, judging by the simple actions that have been taken, such as the ceasing of the tortures imposed on Gerardo, something that had not been done during the last twelve years of implacable hatred by the system against Cuba and against him. Today one could predict that the next step would be the authorisation that would allow Adriana to visit him in prison or his immediate release or both. It was through Adriana that I learned that, after twelve years of unjust and cruel imprisonment, his morale is now higher than ever.

Given the fact that Iran will not give an inch to the demands of the United States and Israel, which have already mobilised several of the means of warfare to their disposal, they will have to launch the attack as soon as the date agreed by the Security Council on June 9, 2010 – with the established rules and requirements – expires.

There is a limit to all what man hopes to achieve, which he cannot surpass.

In this critical case, President Barack Obama is the one who would give the order to start the so much announced and publicised attack, following the rules of the gigantic empire.

However, just at the moment when he gives that order, which would be, besides, the only one he could give, taking into account the power, the speed and the uncountable number of nuclear missiles accumulated as a result of an absurd competition among powers, he would also be ordering the immediate death not only of hundreds of millions of persons, among them an incalculable number of citizens of his own country, but also the crew members of all the vessels of the US fleet deployed in the seas surrounding Iran. A war will break out simultaneously in the Near and Middle East as well as in all Eurasia.

Fate would have it that, on that precise moment, the US President would be a person of African and White, Mohammedan and Christian descent. HE WILL NOT GIVE SUCH ORDER!!!, unless we help him become aware of it. And this is what we are doing here.

The leaders of the most powerful countries in the world, whether allies or adversaries, with the exception of Israel, would encourage him not to do it.

After that the world will bestow upon him all the honours he might deserve.

The order that has been currently established in the planet shall not be able to last. Soon after, it will inevitably collapse.

The so-called hard currencies will lose their value as the instrument of the system that has exacted a contribution of wealth and unlimited sweat and sacrifice from the peoples.

New forms of distribution of goods and services, education and management of social processes will peacefully emerge, but if a war breaks out, the current social order will disappear abruptly at a much higher cost.

The population in the planet could be regulated; non-renewable resources could be preserved; climate change could be prevented; all human beings could be guaranteed a useful employment; the ill could be assisted; essential knowledge, culture and science to the service of man could be guaranteed. The children, adolescents and youth of the world will not perish in that nuclear holocaust.

This is the message I wanted to convey to you, dear comrades of our National Assembly.

I am now ready to account for my words, answer the questions you may want to ask me and listen to your opinions.

Thank you, very much.

* Speech to the FIRST SPECIAL SESSION OF THE SEVENTH LEGISLATURE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE’S POWER ASSEMBLY OF CUBA


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Pakistan’s flooding: A tragedy of failed humanity

Yash Tandon

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66645

cc OxfamAs the Pakistani people face up to the effects of terrible flooding, Yash Tandon expresses solidarity and stresses that if nature is cruel, a civilisation which puts ‘profits before humanity, and military security before food security’ is surely crueller.

This surely is the time for solidarity. This surely cannot be an occasion to moan and complain about the past. Pakistan is in the middle of its worst flood disaster ever. The sheer scale of it is mind-boggling. An area the size of England is under the surging Indus River and the monsoon rains. 14 million people, probably more – and increasing – are directly affected, while 72 million are in dire need of food, clean water and shelter. Thousands of villages have perished and hundreds of roads and bridges have been destroyed. This is not even the end of the calamity. Our hearts go out to the suffering survivors, their families destroyed, their livelihoods ruined. Whatever assistance is given to them would remain minuscule compared to the magnitude of what is needed now when people are dying every hour, and later when time comes for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the lives of those who must somehow live on.

And yet it is also times like this that one must question whether the human element made the natural disaster worse. Monsoons are a regular phenomenon in the region this time of the year. Admittedly the ferocity of this year’s monsoon was unpredictable. Global warming and climate change must take some of the blame. But this would not absolve human agencies from responsibility for the sheer magnitude of what is undoubtedly a catastrophe. It would have been bad, but need it have been catastrophic?

It is times like this that it is necessary to critically reassess the priorities of political leadership in Pakistan and its allies. Nobody minimises the complexity of the war in Afghanistan. But the whole war has been fraught from beginning to now. The militarisation of the war belittles any claim the contestants make that they are trying for a political solution. Their actions belie their words. Billions of dollars are spent in fighting the redoubtable Taliban in a war that looks increasingly hopeless. A mere fraction of this gargantuan military expenditure could have built ramparts and barrages and canals to contain surging rivers of Pakistan within their shores, or at least not far from the shores.

Our civilisation has got its values upside down – profits before humanity, and military security before food security.

The Pakistan tragedy, like the Haiti tragedy early this year, has brought to the fore another disturbing aspect of our civilisation. Why is it that only the poor should be the ones to suffer the most from natural calamities? Nature has its own mysteriously demonic power, but its effects appear, in our times, to have a recognisable class character. That Pakistani President Zardari should have gone to Europe in the middle of the calamity is not just a cruel joke. It is also symptomatic of the class aspect of natural disasters. As in the case of the earthquake that struck Haiti early this year, it is always the poor who take the brunt of nature’s wrath. Are natural disasters so class-conscious that they kill the poor and spare the rich?

Surely something is terribly wrong in the way human society organises itself. Surely there must be another way of organising our social and political lives, such that natural disasters are either contained or their effects are equitably shared by those who chance upon them. There is cruelty in nature, but there is inexcusable cruelty in the propensity of the upper classes to deceive and swindle the under classes.

Solidarity may help only a few thousand in Pakistan, and indeed it must not be scorned for that reason. But the ghosts of the multitude who have perished and will perish in days, months and years to come will no doubt haunt the living that have chalets in France, places from which to proclaim non-responsibility for this tragedy that has caught a nation so helpless and so unprepared through the sheer recklessness of its political leadership.

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* Yash Tandon is the author of ‘Ending Aid Dependence’ and ‘Development and Globalisation: Daring to Think Differently’.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

What now, after the referendum?

Yash Ghai

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66649

© S 1The referendum result ‘puts beyond doubt the wishes of Kenyans to bring about fundamental social and political changes’, writes Yash Ghai. Although the new constitution sets both a framework and a timetable for its implementation, Ghai says it’s crucial that Kenyans are not sidetracked by talk of ‘reconciliation through further negotiations on “contentious issues”’ from elites ‘determined to sabotage reform agendas’. ‘The whole point of a referendum is to see which side has greater support, and to bring the debate to closure,’ says Ghai.

The Proposed Constitution will soon become Kenya’s new constitution, with the massive endorsement of the people. The result of the referendum puts beyond doubt the wishes of Kenyans to bring about fundamental social and political changes – a new birth, no less. They are now anxious that the promises of constitution, for which they have struggled for so long and so painfully, should be implemented speedily. Fortunately the new constitution itself sets both a framework and a firm time-table for its implementation, and with some sanctions for failure to meet the legislative programme.

What is crucial is that we do not sidetrack the implementation in all this talk of forget and forgive, we are all Kenyans, let us build bridges, let us deal with ‘contentious issues’. If we are serious about reform, we have to ignore these siren calls. It is not that we are against reconciliation; the question is on what terms. It is true that we are all Kenyans but we are also a society in which a few exploit many, we are preached to about morality by pastors of dubious morality, there are growing class differences and animosities, there is discrimination against minorities, the elite are determined to sabotage the reform agenda of the constitution.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than the dilemma that Kenyans feel they are faced with on what to do with the NO leaders. They are unlikely to have the numbers or ability to obstruct the implementation; but what moral or other responsibilities do we owe them? We should of course not victimise them for their stand. They would have full rights to take part in the debates on new legislation and measures for implementation. Many points of detail need to be determined in which they will have a role. But the argument for reconciliation through further negotiations on ‘contentious issues’ is not sustainable. It is only through implementation that we can convince the doubters what a good constitution it really is.

Kenya is not the first country where there have been opposing sides in referendum. The whole point of a referendum is to see which side has greater support, and to bring the debate to closure. Secondly, we must respect the integrity of the process. Our process has been long drawn out, with ample opportunities to negotiate differences. When we reach agreement in accordance with the process, those who lose repudiate it and set out to sabotage it. Democracy requires that the decision by an overwhelming majority of Kenyans should be respected. Nor does the decision impose any great hardship on or discrimination against the NO people.

Another fundamental problem in the reconciliation approach is the difficulty of identifying what are the differences that need to be re-negotiated. It is clear that many those who voted NO did not understand the Proposed Draft (and would in all probability have voted YES if they had). They were fed unimaginable falsehoods: That foreign children will be dumped on us, peasants with small holdings will lose their land, President Kibaki would be tried in the ICC, land on which miraa is grown will be confiscated, men will marry men, abortion on request will be available, community land will be taken away and given to the Land Commission, Kenya will be subjected to Islamic rule, it would be possible to detain people without trial, teenage girls will be provided with contraceptives, God will punish those who vote YES. Since none of this is true, there is nothing to negotiate. It merely remains to tell the NO voters the truth.

There are other moral objections to re-negotiation (apart from the injustice it would do to those who voted on the draft as a package). Most important is the highly reprehensible conduct of most leaders of the NO campaign. They knew full well that what they were telling the people were lies, playing upon the trust that people, mostly unable to understand the Proposed Constitution, placed on pastors and senior politicians. They, including leaders of Churches, violated their sacred obligations to their ‘sheep’, as they call the faithful, and misled them in a most despicable to protect their own interests, against those of their sheep.

Finally, it would be dangerous if ‘contentious’ issues were re-opened for negotiation – the Church aimed to introduce religion into politics and state. If they had succeeded, it would have destroyed chances of national integration and opened the prospects of civil war. They denigrated Muslims and their culture which in other circumstances would have led to acute tensions, but for the wisdom and extreme restraint on the part of Muslim leaders. Few multi-religious and multi-cultural states have escaped horrible fighting and oppression when religion is introduced into the structures of state.

Kenyans must remember that our propensity to forgive and forget is the cause of massive impunities and our present situation from which the constitution aims to take us away.

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* Yash Ghai is a professor of constitutional law. He is the head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal and a special representative of the UN secretary general in Cambodia on human rights.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Kenya: Don't waste the new constitution

The safeguarding role of civil society

Jill Cottrell Ghai and Yash Pal Ghai

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66660

cc DemoshKenya is awakening with the realisation of a new constitution. Jill Cottrell Ghai and Yash Pal Ghai warn that Kenyan society must not now allow the silence of complacency to take hold and obstruct the path to democratic and transparent governance. The commitment of the nation’s civil society organisations and movements able to secure the universal implementation of the constitution will ensure its survival, and the upholding of the rights and responsibilities it enshrines for the benefit of Kenyans, write the authors.

The media are behaving as if Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga won and William Ruto and John Njue lost. The media’s obsession with politicians, as so clearly manifested in their coverage of the referendum campaign, has obscured the hard work of civil society. The ideas and the struggle for reform were initiated and sustained by civil society while politicians were making their deals to stop reform. In the recent review process, the media ignored civil society’s admirable efforts to educate the people on constitutional issues.

It is unlikely that the new constitution will be implemented meaningfully without the continued engagement of civil society. Quite understandably, attention has so far focussed on what we may call the official side of implementation: constitutional provisions for transition, the timetable for new legislation and the commission for implementation. However, the people must involve themselves in implementation, in accordance with the spirit of the constitution, to promote people’s participation in public affairs.

The constitution sets out people’s participation as an important national value. It seeks to promote participation in a variety of ways: through promoting the right to government information; encouraging engagement in the legislative process; increasing the number of representative legislatures; litigating in the public interest; promoting formal petitioning for change of constitution or legislation; enabling the recall of MPs and protecting the right to form associations, the right to demonstrate and picket and the freedom of the media. The constitution envisages Kenyans not as passive people, voting every five years and then going to sleep, but as active and engaged citizens, contributing to policies and holding governments at various levels accountable. Central to the implementation of the constitution is ensuring, through public pressure, that state bodies respect the constitution and follow the law scrupulously. In the great jurisprudential debates that we hope will take place in the new supreme court, with new procedural rules, and in the learned judgments of the court, the articles and values of the constitution will develop and be absorbed by the government and the people.

The constitution does not necessarily imagine a hostile relationship between the state and the people, but rather of co-operation in the pursuit of national values. Thus it facilitates public minded persons or organisations to challenge, before the courts, laws or policies that violate individual or community rights. The constitution itself is a sort of primer on civic education, explaining the purposes and responsibilities of the state and the need for integrity in public life. It also sets out the accountability of the government to the people. The constitution speaks directly not only to state institutions but also to the people, imposing obligations on them to build a nation united on the foundations of democracy and the rule of law, human rights and dignity, social justice, the sharing of power and the participation of the people.

Our history shows that these values and objectives cannot be achieved without the people taking responsibility for the functioning of a democratic and just society. It is in this regard that civil society organisations, of many kinds, can play a critical role. Civil society goes beyond the traditional human rights bodies, which former President Daniel arap Moi used to deride and tried to restrict. These bodies, undoubtedly, will now have an increased role as the scope of human rights has expanded, and now includes socio-economic rights. Some of them have specialised in the fulfillment and enforcement of socio-economic rights, some on freedom of information, some on rights of minorities, others on gender equality and equity, rights of children, persons with disability, and most have been concerned with forms of affirmative action, including representation for inclusion in the public sphere. The constitution targets all these matters for implementation – and here these civil society organisations can provide invaluable assistance, at a time when the capacity within the government is limited.

There are other groups in civil society. The Association of Professional Societies in East Africa (APSEA) played a useful role in inducting its numerous members into the challenges facing the new constitution, cutting across various disciplines and sectors, and assisting their members to play a constructive role. Associations of business organisations have studied and endorsed the constitution, and must now play their part in fulfilling its goals, including forcing an end to corruption, in which presumably some at least of their members have been complicit. In many countries trade unions play a critical role in upholding the constitution through their political and economic work – something missing in Kenya after independence. The Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) has done valuable work on land issues, which now require careful attention as the land chapter is brought into operation through new legislation. And there are several think tanks whose research will be needed as the government and parliament develop policies on devolution, decentralisation and equitable sharing of financial and other resources.

It is important that the embrace of state and society does not become so close and cosy that civil society loses its autonomy and becomes an ally of the state in suppressing the people’s aspirations and the values of the constitution. Hopefully both sides of the divide have learnt the negative lessons of the collaboration post 2002 elections. For their part, civil society organisations must abandon the comforts of five star hotels and venture out to where knowledge and help is most needed: small towns and rural areas where people have little access to constitutional debates and to the text itself. And financial and other assistance must be provided to local organisations, like Bunge la Mwananchi – and the harassment they have been subjected to brought to an immediate end. There is little prospect of democracy and accountability if the vast majority of the people do not understand the constitution, what rights it gives them or how they can enforce them or the mechanisms now given to them to hold their MPs accountable.

Civil society must also promote two major objectives of the constitution: the move towards national integration, transcending tribes and races, and the fight against corruption. Civil society did well on the whole on the first count, including the efforts of Kikuyus for Change and the Kenyan Asian Forum, which helped the communities they focused on to reassess their place in the larger scheme of things – that which the constitution calls Kenyan patriotism.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Jill Cottrell Ghai is the co-editor of Marginalized Communities and Access to Justice.
* Yash Pal Ghai is a professor of constitutional law. He is the head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nepal and a special representative of the UN secretary general in Cambodia on human rights.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Kenya says ‘Yes’ to the constitution

Sokari Ekine

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66653

cc E PResponses to the results of Kenya’s referendum, Haitian musician Wyclef Jean’s decision to run for president and the dangers of Bill Gates and his foundation dabbling in Africa’s development are among the topics discussed in this week’s roundup of the African blogosphere, brought to you by Sokari Ekine.

The two big news stories in Africa this week are the Kenyan constitution vote and the announcement by Haitian musician, Wyclef Jean that he will run for president in the November elections.

I had expected more blog posts from Kenya but maybe it’s just the slowness of August. What an African Woman Wants writes to the ‘New Constitution’ on the hopes and dreams Kenyans voted for:

‘You see, today, August 4th, 2010, was the day Kenyans voted on the proposed new constitution. And the new constitution is expected to play a pivotal role in not only articulating our hopes and aspirations as a people, but in providing the framework within which we can make those hopes and aspirations come true. So that one day we can truly become a nation that celebrates and harnesses the diversity of its people and that is built on the rule of law and the meaningful participation of each citizen in the shaping of its destiny.’

Its great to see the excellent blog, The Kenyan Democracy Project by Onyango Oloo is back. Onyango writes on the popularity of the colour ‘Green’ [the colour of the ‘Yes’ voters] on the streets of Nairobi, not just on people’s backs but on billboards and other advertising. Corporate advertising using green in this way raises questions around commercial influence on voting:

‘Is it a coincidence that at this time when the political atmosphere is sizzling with red/green battles the Kenyan corporate world has made green their colour of choice in their outdoor communications?

‘It needs to be borne in mind that the Kenya Private Sector Alliance and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers have all publicly and endorsed the new Constitution which was endorsed by almost 70% of the voters at the August 4th Referendum.’

Can We Save Africa? is overjoyed at being ‘Kenyan’ and feels that Kenya is starting afresh and on a new path with so many new opportunities. But still there is a need to be cautious:

‘But in my euphoric celebration I remember Muthoni Wanyeki’s words of cautious optimism:

“The impulse of those who have worked so hard for this, through several generations, will be to celebrate. But only for a moment. Because, to realize the potential of a Yes vote, we are all going to have to take a deep breath and dive in again. Against the political and economic interests that have always thwarted change. And don’t imagine those interests are sleeping on the job – they are always (always!) ahead of us all.”

Wyclef Jean’s announcement that he will be running for the Haitian presidency was not exactly a surprise. In retrospect, it’s my feeling that he made this decision as far back as late January or maybe even before with the start of his ‘humanitarian’ organisation Yele. The Haitian Blogger expresses great concern over Jean’s credentials, not least of all his failure to meet the Haitian constitutions ‘residency’ stipulations. Putting this next to the fact that the country’s largest party, Fanmi Lavalas (the party of Betrand Aristide) has been barred from running on a technical issue and Jean’s known opposition to the party, is very worrying:

‘Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) still has to validate Wyclef Jean's candidacy, so let's see what happens. Let's keep in mind that Haiti's majority party Fanmi Lavalas has been barred from running in the next elections because of a manufactured technical issue by the CEP. The CEP has said that Lavalas has not provided them with a proper signature from the party head (President Aristide). Not so, of course. It will be interesting to see how the CEP justifies inviting Wyclef Jean to take part in their electoral circus. There are currently 54 parties registered and the possibility of 54 presidential candidates from each. The U.S.-France-Canada cabal must be commissioning their "mission accomplished" sign right now.

‘Chris Matthews of MSNBC's prediction that Jean will easily win the Haitian presidency aside, Jean is being scrutinized closely for a number of serious matters such as: failing to pay his taxes, the fact that he paid his mistress withmoney from his charity, for personally banking money from the charity fund, and whatever else may crawl out of his closet.

‘This morning Wyclef Jean announced he is resigning from his charity. The move hardly puts a distance between Jean and the matter of alleged misappropriation of funds, as this occurred while he was at the helm of his scandal plagued charity, Yele.’

Method to the Madness points out some of the dangers of private foundations such as the Bill Gates Foundation, running ‘aid’ programmes in Africa. Unlike NGOs, the Bill Gates Foundation is not subject to any controls other than those it makes itself. Additionally the foundation often invests in industries and sectors that are detrimental to the poor as well as upsetting the ‘aid train’ if for example too much emphasis was placed on African countries as investment opportunities:

‘I don't think the Gates Foundation is completely unencumbered. It could potentially deal a blow to aid agencies, the calculus goes, for the word to get out that African countries also present economic opportunities. With the PR machine having done such a good job of telling people how messed up things are, it would now be hard to be seen as making money from a land where everyone is poor. It'll be hard to spin that, because it'll involve a counter-narrative, one that could potentially be harmful to all the efforts to generate aid for projects all over the continent. Too many images of happy, smiling, not-emaciated children eating cheeseburgers and playing basketball after schools not in clay huts, and next thing you know the Western audience breathes a sigh of relief and thinks, "Oh, good! They're not basket cases anymore! Now we don't have to care since they can take care of themselves!" Folks would stop buying baskets from Africa with proceeds to go to the One Campaign's efforts in some random village. And the US will then feel more comfortable relaxing its 0.7% of GDP aid commitment to African countries (which they already don't meet anyway), and reducing for PEPFAR (Which, even as good as the PR machine is, they're currently doing).’

Egyptian Chronicles comments about a group of Cairo University students who have been accused of defaming Islam after making a documentary on Sufism in Egypt. She comments that being accused of ‘defaming Islam’ is a very serious matter which could endanger the lives of the students:

‘The fact that the administration of the faculty accuses its students of that accusation shows that there is something wrong in that administration because they clearly they have missed or forgot the role of the media , the real role of journalism , to cover every aspect in the society with all its controversy and leave the judgment to the people , the public.

‘Of course the students did not sit still as they reached for the media because it is not a matter of degrees and projects but rather a freedom of expression matter.

‘Now regarding Sufism, well knowing its history and its beliefs I think it is very noble but unfortunately just like fundamentalism , it has been deviated , there are wrong practices for sure that should be stopped yet these practices do not give the right for anyone to consider them infidels that should be fought like in time of terrorist years. If you watch the documentary you can see that many of the modern Sufi practices are similar to other practices in other religions and nations.’

David Ajao’s Blog comments on the proposal by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to tackle the country’s kidnapping problem by subsidising service providers in installing special tracking equipment on every mobile mask in the country as well as other GPS tracking devices. David points out that the proposal raises serious issues around privacy and the use of telecoms companies as enforcers of the law but also it is not feasible as the GPS can be turned on or off by the subscriber:
‘Assuming NCC can really pull that off, what happens to the privacy of mobile phone users? Did they sign-up for their movements to be tactically monitored by telecom operators? Why does anything need to be installed anyway when existing cell masts can already be used to triangulate the estimated location of any mobile phone (GPS-capable or not)? Google Maps already uses cell mast triangulation for its Google Map for Mobile service. Is this “subsidy” another plot to squander tax payers’ money?

‘Telecom operators are now law enforcement agencies. Even if the NCC was allowed to implement this absurdity, how would they access the GPS coordinates of a mobile phone since the GPS feature needs to be explicitly activated by the phone user before the phone can be tracked? Do they plan to hack phones and turn on GPS on the phones remotely? Or, are they counting on phone users to voluntarily leave their GPS feature on all the time? By the way, GPS drains phone batteries. Tracking keeps the phone’s microprocessor very busy and so consumes a lot of energy.’

Black Looks has a series of posts celebrating black American writer and activist James Baldwin whose birthday was on 2 August. She also has a post on an exhibition celebrating South African Womyn by Zanele Muholi and Ellen Eisenman.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Banks, blood and chocolate

Khadija Sharife

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66650

Rudolf Elmer, whistleblower and former CEO of Swiss bank Julius Baer’s Cayman Island operations, reveals the secrets of the murky world of offshore banking to Khadija Sharife. ‘Mauritius is in many ways the Switzerland of Africa,’ says Elmer, but there is another African nation vying to be the ‘golden’ financial gateway: Ghana.

At one point during our conversation, the phone goes dead. Much later, Rudolf Elmer, one of the world's most infamous whistleblowers and the former chief executive officer of private Swiss bank Julius Baer's Cayman Islands operations, would rattle off to me a list of possible intelligence services that might have been involved.

In Elmer's native land – Switzerland – blowing the whistle on banking secrecy is a crime. Elmer was imprisoned, his family harassed by private detectives, his daughter stalked at school by men who waited in parking lots, and his wife almost driven off a highway.[1]

‘They offered her chocolate with one hand, and terrorised her with the other,’ he tells me. ‘My wife was followed. My secretary, scared to go to the post office. They put on so much pressure. And, as I discovered, the police, the media – they are all part of the systemic corruption,’ he said. ‘It is just like the mafia, only it’s respectable.’

Through Elmer’s attorney, Swiss bank Julius Baer allegedly offered to pay Elmer over a series of instalments (‘to silence me,’ Elmer says) after he was sacked in 2003 for attempting to change the system from within by demanding that clients cease their tax evasion activities. Julius Baer maintained he was acting out of revenge. Later, to protect his family, and after considering and canning suicide (‘these are the things you think about seriously when your life is falling apart, but it would not be good for my daughter, she needed me,’) Elmer publicly blew the whistle via Wikileaks.org, among other foreign sources of media. Elmer disclosed the names of accounts of companies, hedge funds, trusts and more than 1,300 individuals with whom he dealt between 1997-2002.

’As a compliance officer,’ he explained, ‘you’re on the frontline, you’re sitting on a barrel of powder and you’re not really sure when it’s going to go off.’ Because he revealed the inner workings of Julius Baer, Elmer has justification to be fearful. He knows, and was told, of some accountants and bankers in Panama, the Cayman Islands and other regions, who have mysteriously disappeared, were threatened or worse, such as Swiss banker Frederick Bise, who was killed and burnt in his car.’

‘The dirty boys, they’re not sitting in the Caymans where people don’t really get a great deal of information. They are “onshore” at the financial institutions, the accounting firms like KPMG, the banks.’ Julius Baer is not the only bank that Elmer has blown the whistle on. Between 2006-2008, Elmer set up the offshore business of one of Africa’s most important financial entities – Standard Bank – transferring 1,400 trusts and hundreds of companies to Mauritius in order to administer and prepare the accounts and services of these entities. ‘I was trained up for Mauritius in Jersey and the Isle of Man before being sent there,’ he stated. ‘There is a lot of British influence: The major banks like Barclays and HSBC have built up major operations and multi-storey buildings in Cyber City south of Port Louis (the capital.) Six years ago there were only five – today, I estimate about 40.’

‘Standard Bank Africa has an offshore group in Jersey which controls the Isle of Man and Mauritius [operations],’ Elmer continues. ‘In this offshore group only offshore business is performed. There were African, UK, Russian and other clients holding offshore entities as well as private accounts,’ he said. ‘Each large bank has offshore units... I call this ‘prostitution’ due to the fact that they do the kind of business which ordinary banks cannot perform. They have created a specific register accounting for the Politically Exposed People (PEP) who hold accounts. It is really strange that such well-known individuals have offshore accounts, for various reasons, including secrecy services which the Bank provides.’

Elmer explains in detail how PEPs are protected. Typical of the ‘notices’ remitted to the bank by clients instructing the bank on how to communicate with them include such statements as: ‘Very sensitive information, do not contact him. One fax line only. No correspondence to be sent to address directly. Do not send any doc by post without prior consent. When contacted, please mention the password ”xxxxxx”. Do not send anything through ”xxxxxxxx”. A password must be obtained from ”Name Surname” if he calls prior to any discussion. Do not contact ”Name Surname” via email unless you speak to him first. No correspondence to the principal beneficiary,’ etc.[2]

Some examples of the bank’s monthly PEPs disclosed for the month of October 2007 include a former political heavyweight in the Russian government; deputy chairman of Russia’s Policy and Tax Commission and family members; the current prime minister of a major economy and CEO of a major corporate chain; the latter’s special assistant; multiple members of the Gulf royal families; and other politically connected persons.[3] Reading through the assessments, it is clear that beyond the usual legal and financial services provided by the bank to PEPs, the secrecy vehicle – more than any form of tax evasion – was paramount.

Take a certain Jordanian-American described as a ‘long-time friend and business partner of Mr Ahmed Chalabi, member of the US-Iraqi Council with close ties to the Pentagon.’ This particular PEP, founder of several corporations in the information, finance, technology and private security sector, in the words of the document, ‘won lucrative Iraqi reconstruction contracts in exchange for kickbacks to Chalabi... The [company] employs members of Chalabi’s private militia for guarding oil. Chalabi’s nephew serves as the firm’s Counsel.’

The same PEP, the document goes on to reveal, ‘has ties to several companies backed or owned by Winston Partner,’ the private investment firm of Marvin Bush, brother of former US president George W Bush. The PEP’s company was incorporated in the secrecy jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands, with operating headquarters in Dubai and branches in London and other major hubs, and lists ‘oil and gas, mineral extraction and infrastructure development’ as major markets. In 2003, for instance, the company was granted a contract to train ‘Oil Protection Forces’ (OPF) for Iraq’s ministry of oil. Such secrecy vehicles are apparently rather popular, as the above-mentioned PEP’s wife and attorney were also listed and connected to many of the same entities.

As a typical offshore entity, Standard Bank’s Mauritius operations offer not only the usual services of ‘alternate directors, secretaries, and nominee shareholders,’ but also handles, among other services, ‘company correspondence and day to day work.’ Moreover, although the tax rate for companies is officially 15 per cent, Standard Bank touts the offer that this can be reduced to zero by opting for the Global Business Company Category II (GBCCII). Alternately, ‘it is possible for the company to claim foreign deemed foreign tax credits of 80% via Global Business (GBC Category I) of the Mauritius tax chargeable on the foreign source of income, which results in an effective tax rate of 3%.’ Naturally, senior officials of Standard Bank are ‘permitted to act as directors of the company (GBCC II)’.

’Mauritius is in many ways the Switzerland of Africa, isn’t it?,’ says Elmer. ‘It turned out to be more of the same.’

But there is another African nation vying to be the ‘golden’ financial gateway: Ghana.

Though Ghana is perceived as West Africa’s poster child of political stability after hosting five democratic elections, following a June 2005 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Barclays Bank – one of the world’s leading ‘wealth managers’ based in multiple secrecy jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Mauritius – the Ghanaian government has aggressively restructured Ghana’s capital Accra as an offshore centre via the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

‘The Barclays Offshore Banking Unit, the first of its kind in Ghana and indeed in Africa south of the Sahara, continues to offer world-class banking service to non-resident private clients and corporates,’ boasted Barclays, the architect behind the IFSCs design.[3] And yes, of course, as a Barclays official based in an African secrecy jurisdiction informed me, ‘We are bound by our confidentiality agreement with our clients. No other branches can access our client details.’

The Bank of Ghana, well aware of the implications of ‘supply-side’ corruption on a continent experiencing between US$200-$400 billion in illicit flight each year, nonetheless confirmed in a report that IFSCs ‘should operate with a minimum of regulation,’ but that the operation of IFSCs, ‘has implications for the Central bank’s work on good governance because it can reduce transparency including the exploitation of complex ownership structures.’

Concerned about the impact of Ghana’s offshore centre, Jeffrey Owens, head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) tax centre stated, ‘The last thing Africa needs is a tax haven in the centre of the African continent.’[4] But Ghana itself may soon be the victim of ‘demand-side’ corruption, facilitating revenue leakage via a consortium of oil corporations.

In June 2007, a consortium of oil corporations, including UK-based Tullow Oil and US-based Kosmos Energy, struck offshore oil in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field, which is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of 800 million barrels, and the potential for a further billion barrels. Regarded as one of Africa’s biggest offshore finds in the last decade, Ghana’s oil will catapult the country from one with an oil import bill of US$1.3 billion annually (2009) to that of Africa’s fifth largest oil-producing nation. An estimated 200 billion cubic feet of gas will allegedly be provided free of charge to Ghana’s state-owned petroleum company, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

But the Jubilee Ghana MV 21 BV – a special purpose company[5] comprised of energy corporations – is incorporated in the Netherlands, one of the world’s leading tax havens that provides specific loopholes for corporate activities. The consortium owns the Kwame Nkrumah MV 21 – the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility that will be used to exploit Ghana’s offshore oil during the first phase of development.

Commenting on the Jubilee Ghana special purpose vehicle (SPV), Elmer explains that the intent is manifold: Protecting secrecy and providing legal, tax and regulatory relaxation. ‘In this case,’ he says, ‘there is a strong suspicion that the SPV [will] charge certain services to the company, therefore reducing the profit and the taxable profit. Another option is that certain currency or derivative deals with the company [will be] made with the same effect that the taxable profit is reduced in Ghana.’

The use of the Netherland’s opaque legal and financial vehicles are likely to facilitate revenue leakage, diminishing Ghana’s projected oil revenue, estimated to inject US$800 million into the economy from 2011 and 2029 (beginning with US$20 per person in 2011 before increasing to US$75 per person by 2017, if revenues are directly remitted to citizens). The jurisdiction, host to more than 20,000 ‘mailbox companies’ (of which 43 per cent have a ‘parent’ in secrecy jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and Cyprus),[6] specialises as a ‘pass-through’ conduit for financial flows including ‘dividends, royalties and interest payments’ via ‘special financial institutions’ (SFIs).

The Dutch Central Bank, not entirely pleased with this situation, defines ring-fenced SFIs as ‘institutions (that) are subsidiaries of foreign parent companies used to channel capital through our country that has really nothing at all to do with the Dutch economy.’[7] The statistics are stark. In a report titled ‘The Netherlands: A tax haven?’ (2006), the Dutch-based Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations stated: ‘Gross SFI flows through the Netherlands amounted to €3,600 billion or over eight times Dutch GNP. Most SFIs are managed by one of the 132 specialised trust offices. However, the majority of SFI transactions can be attributed to a small group of multinationals that control about 100 to 125 SFIs, and have offices of their own.’ These offices, representing about 80 per cent of SFIs, provide ‘substance’ to profits laundered from, for instance, developing countries by supplying the components of ‘economic activity’ defined as an address and management. Like the Netherlands Antilles, the jurisdiction does not place details of trusts on public record, nor does it require that company accounts or beneficial ownership be made available for public record.[8]

But the Dutch – ranked by the Washington-based Centre for Global Development as the world’s third best donor country[9] – vehemently deny this. In 2009, for instance, the Netherlands, via the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, acted quickly to remove a bullet point contained in a White House briefing about tax havens, revealing the jurisdiction as a corporate favourite: ‘Nearly one-third of all foreign profits reported by US corporations in 2003 came from just three small, low-tax countries: Bermuda, the Netherlands, and Ireland.’

Ironically, though corporate mispricing accounts for 60 per cent of illicit flight from resource-rich developing nations, specifically those in oil and-mineral rich West Africa, Ghana vies to become the Netherlands of Africa. ‘Under the IFSC, Barclays Bank has been given the license to operate the first Offshore Bank in the sub region.’[10] Cumulatively, US$13 trillion in private wealth is stashed by tax evaders and avoiders in secrecy jurisdictions. If taxed at a moderate 7.5 per cent rate of return, these funds would yield US$865 billion dollars annually.

The Ghanaian government is eager to realise the World Bank’s predictions of Ghana graduating from being a low-income member, such as Chad, through increased GDP. But neither the government nor the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, headed by Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye, former country head for oil corporation Vanco Ghana Limited, appear to have a problem with the current state of arrangements, just six months shy of exploitation.

The paradox? Even as Ghana potentially stands to lose development revenue to ‘onshore’ tax havens like the Netherlands and multinationals, it is aggressively vying to become the Netherlands of Africa.’

Have you seen John Grisham’s The Firm? It’s just like that; except it’s not a few lawyers but the whole political system,’ Elmer warns before our conversation comes to an end.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This article first appeared in The Thinker (Volume 18/2010).
* Khadija Sharife is a journalist, visiting scholar at the Center for Civil Society (CCS) based in South Africa, and contributor to the Tax Justice Network.

NOTES

[1] All quotes attributed to Rudolf Elmer are based on a series of telephonic interviews with the author.
[2] Document on file with author.
[3] Barclays Bank (2010), ‘Ghana: Country Overview.’
[4] Guardian (19 January 2010), ‘Tax Havens Risks Corruption, OECD Warns Ghana.’
[5] World Bank/Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (2010), ‘FPSO Kwame Nkrumah MV 21.’
[6] Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (2006), ‘The Netherlands: A Tax Haven.’
[7] The Netherlands Bank (2010), ‘Balance of payments and international investment position.’
[8] Tax Justice Network (2009), ‘Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles Country Reports.’
[9] Centre for Global Development (2009), ‘Netherlands Score.’
[10] Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (2010), ‘Financial Services.’

Crying fowl: KFC and the World Food Programme

Alex Free

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66659

cc AnanthGiven the negative impact of the fast food industry on food sovereignty and security, isn't it a little odd that the World Food Programme has teamed up with KFC to fund its hunger relief efforts, asks Alex Free. Fast food's methods of production and perpetual drive to lower costs work to undermine ‘environments, biodiversity and local people’s access to land’, says Free, while tackling world hunger demands the exact opposite: ‘Working towards sustainable access to food; recognising local expertise; promoting biodiversity; and putting people before profits.’

You are the World Food Programme (WFP), the food aid arm of the United Nations and the biggest humanitarian organisation working on hunger worldwide. In your mission to tackle world hunger, you work to enable local populations to achieve greater food security and support sustainable solutions to help the approximately 1 billion people around the globe whose access to food remains at risk. How do you go about fulfilling this mission? You team up with fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

A subsidiary of parent Yum! (the world’s largest restaurant company and owner of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell), KFC seems a curious partner for the WFP. Fast food companies know little about providing nutritious, sensibly portioned products for their customers, as evidenced by a recent KFC incarnation dubbed the ‘Double Down’, ‘a bacon-and-cheese sandwich that features two pieces of fried chicken in place of the traditional bun … described by nutritionists as an affront to human health’.[1] What’s more, these companies have consistently demonstrated that they only make their products ‘healthier’ following market pressure and demands from food activists and nutritional authorities; such changes do not emerge organically. Fast food companies are also thought to eradicate countries’ culinary diversity, routinely undercutting local companies, suppliers and producers as part of an assault on national cuisines.

When it comes to access to food, a further serious point is the structure and logistical conditions behind fast food production, which are essentially anathema to working towards food sovereignty, food security and the right to food. The fast food model depends on encouraging the mass-production of a highly restricted range of crop, poultry and livestock varieties as part of a monoculture oriented towards the demands of predominantly Western consumer markets. This is in direct contrast to the ingenuity and crop biodiversity that has historically characterised farmers’ capacity to produce food worldwide. Indeed, tackling world hunger demands the exact opposite: Working towards sustainable access to food; recognising local expertise; promoting biodiversity; and putting people before profits. In short, what does KFC know about tackling world hunger?

CORPORATISING FAMINE

The specific details of the collaboration between KFC and the WFP are a bit hazy, but their relationship is essentially an exercise in raising money – principally in the form of financial donations and staff working hours through charitable activities – to fund food rations (in countries including Somalia, India, Rwanda, Colombia and Ethiopia).[2] As part of KFC’s ‘World Hunger Relief Week’ (‘the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, spanning 110 countries, 36,000 restaurants and over one million employees’),[3] a further aim is to ‘raise awareness’ of the issue of world hunger ‘and mobilise staff, franchisees and customers to help do something about it’.[4]

While the upsurge of goodwill around tackling hunger is a great example of people’s desire to improve our world (Yum!’s companies apparently raised a total of US$20 million in overall donations in 2009, with activities involving some 4 million volunteer hours),[5] the main thing being fed is KFC’s public relations (PR). It’s not clear whether these donations are always channelled through the WFP or to whom the company is ultimately accountable; details for example of KFC UK’s contributory funding of £365,000 to ‘a school food project in Africa’ are thin on the ground.[6] And while ‘raising awareness’ is on the face of it a positive aspect, you have to question the legitimacy of the source of information and the company’s ultimate ability to communicate the complex historical constellation of politics, climatic conditions and policy which determines people’s access to food worldwide.

In honour of the efforts behind World Hunger Relief, WFP executive director Josette Sheeran has been fulsome in her gratitude to the company: ‘WFP knows how to reach those most in need and will do what it takes to get a cup of food to any kid in the world … But without funding, we can’t reach these kids. It takes just 25 cents to fill a cup with food. The World Hunger Relief campaign helps fill the cup for tens of thousands of kids – and we’re so grateful for it.’[7]

While it is of course of the utmost importance that people around the world facing critically shortages of food supply are assisted and that the primary international institution charged with doing this is fully funded, the very premise that a fast food corporation would be able to bask in reflected glory leaves a bitter aftertaste. In the struggle to create sustainable food systems worldwide, the hyper-capitalist, unrelenting drive to lower supply margins no matter the side effects is part of the problem, not the solution. The notion that KFC can enhance its corporate image and profit through an association with the alleviation of hunger is deeply distasteful, but this, it goes without saying, is precisely its intention.

A BUMPER CORPORATE-IMAGE HARVEST

What does KFC get out of this association? Well, a simplistic feeding-the-world narrative does the company’s image and CSR (corporate social responsibility) a world of good among well-intentioned Western consumers. As the Genuine Kentucky blog puts it, 'This warms the heart, feeds the spirit, and makes you want to make haste to your nearest KFC.'[8] For fast food companies’ keen to rebuild the sector’s declining image among consumers, such words, even from a blatantly pro-KFC source, are music to the ears. Indeed, for a corporation formerly accused of negligence around suppliers’ treatment of poultry[9] and alleged purchasing of illegally exported, environmentally destructive Brazilian soy from US commodities giant Cargill,[10] the WFP charm offensive plays a central role in the drive to restore public credibility.

In the name of continuing this corporate-image harvest, a more sinister outcome is KFC’s capacity push this drive to the point of undermining the credibility of the very UN institutions it purports to support. Witness KFC CEO Roger Eaton’s efforts to convince UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the need to recognise the ‘Grilled Nation’ – KFC’s claim for international acknowledgement as a state – among UN member states:

‘As Secretary-General, you have pledged to build a “stronger United Nations for a better world.” We at KFC are confident that recognizing Grilled Nation will strengthen your organization and satisfy the stomachs of your many Member States.’[11]

This absurd UN time-wasting is of course a mere publicity stunt designed to achieve brand exposure. But the focus of such efforts further underlines, if it were even necessary to do so, that KFC is far more concerned with enhancing its own image than working towards sustainable solutions to world hunger, and is quite prepared to trivialise the issue of hunger in the process. As illustrated in an October 2007 press release, parent company Yum! will even go to the extent of claiming responsibility for saving lives: ‘With funds raised, the company hopes to save hundreds of thousands of people from starvation.’[12] You would think that if the company sincerely had that much faith in the WFP’s work and was that concerned with saving lives, it would donate all of its net profits to the programme each year.

FEEDING PEOPLE, NOT PROFITS

As a subsidiary of the United Nations, ostensibly the world’s leading external force working for equality, peace and justice, the World Food Programme should concentrate its efforts on working to promote and protect grassroots and domestic food producers and defend agricultural biodiversity, not team up with dubious, self-interested corporate forces. To do otherwise perpetuates an implicit discrediting of African and other Southern peoples’ historical ability to feed themselves and a tradition – of ingenuity and adaptability rather than of doing the same thing – of responding to changing climatic and environmental conditions with skill and intelligence.[13] It also neglects engaging in serious analysis of the problems surrounding food sovereignty in the global South.

In a time of an acute food crisis and pervasive food insecurity for much of the world’s population, the immediate and future challenges will remain to work towards food sovereignty. This is to be achieved through investment in agriculture (owned and organised to cater for the needs of people, rather than big business);[14] redressing the problems of speculative food-commodity trading; cushioning small- and medium-holder producers from low-cost, subsidised imports; and creating more secure returns on production. In some respects, if the UN – theoretically the international, external body with the greatest legitimacy and clout to defend people’s interests – is ill-positioned to halt the corporatisation of this space, why is anybody else going to be strong enough to do so?

Nonetheless, when it comes to advocacy and exploring the politics behind the right to food, we should look to the vibrant mobilisation of international farmer and peasant organisations like La Via Campesina and ROPPA (Network of Farmers’ and Agricultural Producers’ Organisations of West Africa), who stress their own solutions. And as some of the world’s most economically disadvantaged face up to the spectre of climate change (a problem which they did not create but which they will bear the brunt of), sustaining crop biodiversity likely remains a far more secure means of maintaining an adequate food supply than intensive, large-scale farming.[15] Crop biodiversity and diverse agricultural methods must be celebrated as the key to long-term food security, not symptomatic of rural producers’ supposed primitive backwardness. Suggesting that a fast food company represents a credible source of wisdom on long-term sustainable food production is plainly misplaced. The legitimacy afforded KFC is merely part of a broader fallacy that global hunger is predominantly a question of people’s own shortcomings, rather than a matter of politics, power and policy.

TAKING FAST FOOD OFF THE MENU

It goes without saying that funding global food aid programmes represents an enormous challenge for the WFP, but fast food companies remain part of the problem, not the solution. In the same way that the fast food industry knows little about serving up nutritious products, its methods of production and perpetual drive to lower costs work to undermine environments, biodiversity and local people’s access to land.

As the world’s leading food aid initiative, the World Food Programme would do well to avoid bolstering fast food giants’ public relations campaigns and privileging corporate interests. Just as you wouldn’t send in Ronald McDonald to lead Israel–Palestine negotiations or get Burger King to sponsor a truth and reconciliation commission, KFC’s Colonel Sanders should not be permitted a role in addressing world hunger.

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* Alex Free is assistant editor of Pambazuka News.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/05/12/to-the-brainstormery-my-friends/#more-124290
[2] http://www.wfp.org/how-to-help/companies/donors
[3] http://www.genuinekentucky.com/the-colonel-cares-about-more-than-just-chicken/
[4] http://www.kfc.co.uk/charity/
[5] http://www.kfc.co.uk/charity/
[6] http://www.kfc.co.uk/charity/
[7] http://www.wfp.org/content/yum-brands-kfc-pizza-hut-taco-bell-launch-world-hunger-relief-effort-raise-awareness-volunteerism-an
[8] http://www.genuinekentucky.com/the-colonel-cares-about-more-than-just-chicken/
[9] http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/kfc021605.cfm
[10] http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/kfc-exposed-for-trashing-the-a/
[11] http://media.kval.com/documents/UN+Letter+--+FINAL.pdf
[12] http://www.yum.com/news/pressreleases/100907.asp
[13] Mamadou Goïta, 'Souveraineté alimentaire en Afrique de l’Ouest : la résistance des peuples contre les agression', Pambazuka News, 28 June 2010, http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/65563
[14] Eric Holt-Giménez and Raj Patel (2009) 'Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice', Pambazuka Press, Oxford
[15] Deborah Fahy Bryceson, 'Sub-Saharan Africa’s vanishing peasantries and the specter of a global food crisis', Monthly Review, July–August 2009, http://monthlyreview.org/090720bryceson.php

Decolonising African feminism

Let us focus on African women’s agency, not just their oppression

Jenn Jagire

2010-08-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66637

cc J HThe fight to stop violence against women in Africa must diverge from the dominant Western feminism that implants alien perspectives and methods into an African struggle, writes Jenn Jagire. Jagire urges Africa’s feminists to regain agency and ‘deEuropeanise’ African feminism, avoiding perpetuating neo-colonial mentalities and development models that see Africa's women as victims rather than the drivers of their own destiny.

Much has been advocated about the violence meted out against women by their husbands or intimate relations. However, it must be appreciated that, somehow, women have always tried to speak out against violence, or helped each other to fight against spousal perpetrated violence. For example, in the past, there have been communal songs coined about violence against women and their efforts to overcome violence. Such songs praised women’s resistance to spousal violence.

Activism for women’s causes must be based on local people’s experiences, not foreign experiences that overlook the successes of local women. The much-loved over-emphasis on African women’s failure and disaster is done from a Eurocentric perspective which insults our dignity as Africans. It is worth noting that the present day type of patriarchy in Uganda was exported from Britain during the colonial era. Colonialism was violent in many ways.

On the other hand, in talking about African satirical communal songs, there are songs recorded about women fleeing wealthy but violent husbands and settling for more humble ones. For example, in present day Tororo District in Uganda, there is a song about Nola (which was not her real name) who left a rich man, Opondo (let’s suppose it was not his real name either), who owned much property to go to a man who had reeds for a bed. The communal song stresses that the woman’s decision was probably because of roasted meat or some potion from the humble man. The bottom line is that it was that woman’s initiative to take an appropriate action that enabled her to escape violence.

This is powerful evidence for the success of an individual woman from the community in fleeing a violent partner. She did not need empowerment made in London, though there is sometimes no harm in borrowing alien ideas. No one could persuade Nola to return to the wealthy and powerful, but negligent polygamist. Nola was free to choose her course of action and did not need to be taught about her liberation from a conventional feminist. Her unique experiences led her in making a decision in what to do with her life. She settled down with the poorer man who made her happy. We can argue that women’s capacity to think, plan and strategise their next move has always been salient. This brings us to the unacceptable concepts sometimes powerfully used by those determined to define African women as docile. African women are not docile, waiting to be liberated from the West.

Further, African women are not commodities, slaves or chattels, regardless of the marriage system involved. It is the demeaning of African marriage systems by activists with mistaken concepts who have thrown their culture out of the window, or seem to have undergone personality changes, that must be addressed. Activists, for whatever cause, need a lot of deEuropeanisation of their thinking. Europeanised Africans deny their African identity. If we do not deEuropeanise our minds, we remain mentally colonised; enslaved to serve foreign masters or foreign cultural interests. And if we are mentally colonised we perpetuate the recolonisation of Africa and Africans by the very people who had previously been kicked out. We might then do the work of the neo-colonialists even better, as they have really never let go of Africa and want to maintain some presence there with the aim of continuing to dominate. In fact, it is quite safe to say that colonialism is ongoing in many subtle ways. We could elaborate on this later, if there was room.

Lately, however, too much emphasis, from European perspectives, has been put on the oppression of African women as if they have never tried to do anything about it themselves. Too much focus on African women’s oppression sabotages the power of women’s agency. It is better to focus on what women can do for themselves, which is far more empowering.

African feminists should not behave like the ‘first or second wave’ of mainly Western or white feminists. You cannot empower women when you pose as some saviour coming from the outer space with some extraterrestrial powers, or a foreign vision. Such methods are geared towards encouraging a dependency syndrome among those being ‘emancipated’, in this case African women.

Wholly using only the law to sort out women’s problems is not enough. This is not to say that we don’t need laws or more legislation to protect women’s rights. These rights should be specific African women’s rights, not just Western women’s rights being universalised for all. Ugandan women parliamentarians could strive together with their male counterparts to make laws synonymous with African women’s values that reflect the Africanity of the women, their role in their culture, agency or their positive history, etc.

It is imperative that women’s organising starts from the grassroots, by grassroots women, and not necessarily Eurocentric middle class women organising African working-class or peasant women the way they want to. When middle class feminists intervene in the situation of rural African peasant women, for instance when they insist on using the law to separate families, the affected women may be ostracised in the community and their children may suffer rejection and gross emotional harm.

Grassroots organising should start with the grassroots women themselves. What about self-help projects, instead of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dominating whole procedures? The rural women may need a budget and social support from the authorities. I believe that African governments could still be relevant to their citizen women’s organising, and can discourage them from merely copying social movements from the West with alien values.

Not everything should come from donors. Donor funded projects are not independent; they have strings attached and benefit the grantees (those directly receiving the funds) who are exploitative, and/or the donors themselves more than the people being ‘helped’. The people being ‘helped’, in effect, become raw materials. Moreover, foreign funded projects propagate the agenda of the funders, with a power relationship being established. Altruism is forced dependence. Forced dependence enslaves.

Mediation then, rather than outright litigation, should work better for rural women when solving marital problems that sometimes end up in violence. This is not the only solution; there are others, but they might necessitate empowering the elders to intervene and advise the separating couples. Perchance they might realise better results. Among the elders are also women elders and parents whose advice to the younger women is still useful, though there is now a culture of ignoring elders’ advice.

On the other hand, hungry, poorly fed, tattered clothed or demoralised elders will have little interest in solving problems unless their own needs are taken care of by the society. Their advice may also be ignored.

Traditionally, after misunderstandings with spouses, women were allowed to return to their parents for sometime in order for the matter to be sorted out. A man whose wife has returned to her family (usually her extended family) will be forced to follow her there. When he follows her, there should be some sort of mediation and dialogue. Unfortunately, this tradition is being thwarted by over ambitious individuals who tend to ignore the traditional way of resolving disputes.

Moreover, women neighbours have sometimes helped or empowered one another during crises in the families. Some of this help has sometimes been informal and we can do more of that also, rather than engaging in measures which cannot bring about any healing, but rather will perpetuate divisions and confrontations with negative impacts on the society.

In the developed countries, where the law is supposed to protect women, it has often been found that, sometimes, over-dependence on the law, without room for flexibility, has led to further confrontations in families, with no hope for reconciliation and worse outcomes or consequences. With little or no community support, children from such families will themselves face serious challenges in life. Mediation should be tried. Professional mediators have sometimes succeeded in helping couples.

Again, in the developed world, it is not just the men who are violent towards women and children. Some violence can occur when mothers neglect their children. Some women who abuse alcohol or drugs are known to have collaborated with their equally abusive spouses to mistreat their children or step-children. This is especially common when the family is blended or reconstituted. The social welfare department has to intervene. Such neglect of children has sometimes been due to poverty or even the mental state of the parents. The welfare department or child protection unit would be mandated to take away the children to safer custody in an attempt to offer them protection from their abusive parents.

However, separating a child from parents also has some serious emotional consequences, as we have seen through adoptive methods. Adoptions do not always work well for the adopted, though they are legal and are sometimes necessary. That is why the larger society has to be involved in taking care of each other; women, children and men together. We should encourage community mothering, as it used to be or is still present in some areas, while teaching the children their culture and history in order to bring up the whole child who will be in control of their future destiny. Rigid laws borrowed from England that ignore African ways of life or of solving problems encourage individualism and Western-style patriarchy.

Imposing European or Western standards on a developing country might prove counterproductive because they will be met with a level of resistance due to cultural differences, the history of European oppression of Africa through colonialism and unsolicited ‘civilising’ missions from the West. This resistance should not just be wished away. It is in the people.

The West itself is not perfect. It has some unique social problems that must first be addressed at home before exporting solutions, especially to Africa. Nobody should deceive you to abandon your culture. You need it. Many of us might have to visit or live in the West before we appreciate our African cultures, languages, spirituality, etc. Western feminism, dominant as it is, should not be regarded as universal. There are many feminisms, including African feminisms.

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* Jenn Jagire is a Ugandan writer based in Canada.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Sexual equality and the NCC draft Zambian constitution

Mwila Agatha Zaza

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66657

cc L U SZambia’s new draft constitution, created by the National Constitution Conference, discriminates against members of the LGBT community, depriving them of their rights to live freely and equitably, writes Mwila Agatha Zaza. The inclusion of unspecified Christian values into the constitution, vaguely defined laws on family and a woman’s right to marital freedom, and a prohibition of abortion except under already defined circumstances means this new constitution does little to progress sexual equality in Zambia, Zaza argues.

The National Constitution Conference (NCC) has produced a draft constitution for Zambia. The NCC has been a long, political and highly contested process. The process attempts to merge the varying interests of a diverse society. However, as in any contest, the more powerful the player, the more likely she or he is to win. In a country where sexual equality – i.e. the rights women, girls and sexual minorities – is still far from reality the NCC draft constitution offered an opportunity to enshrine sexual equality into the Bill of Rights. A study of the draft finds that though women’s rights appear to be incorporated, the NCC has not gone far enough to empower women. Furthermore, not only has the NCC not decriminalised homosexuality but it has explicitly deprived lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgender persons (LGBT) of their rights.

This brief analysis looks specifically at the implications of the draft Bill of Rights on women and LGBT.

LGBT RIGHTS IN THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION

The draft constitution states in Article 49 (4), ‘Any law, culture, custom or tradition that undermines the dignity, welfare, interest or status of women or men is prohibited.’ The legislation that follows regarding same-sex relations is inconsistent with this principle.

To begin with, the freedom to choose a spouse and marry is only granted only to a choice of the opposite sexes, as written in article 52 (3), ‘a person who is eighteen years of age or older has the right to freely choose a spouse of the opposite sex and marry’ and furthermore in subsection (5) ‘marriage between persons of the same sex is prohibited.’ Article 49 is negated in relation to lesbians and gays, although according to article 38 (2) the Bill of Rights applies to all ‘natural or juristic persons.’

In Zambian law homosexuality is currently termed an ‘unnatural act’ and governed by sodomy laws which do not recognise consensual sex between adults of the same sex. The draft constitution permits discrimination due to sexuality by deliberate omission in article 48 (1): ‘Every person has the right not to be discriminated against, directly or indirectly, on the grounds of race, tribe, sex, pregnancy, origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, political opinion, culture, language, birth or health, marital, ethnic, social or economic status.’

The justification for reinforcing homosexuality as a crime and depriving LGBT of their rights is that homosexuality is an anathema to the country’s Christian beliefs and values and its culture. However, the constitution does specify which of the many variations of Christianity it will pursue. Christian denominations have varying viewpoints regarding homosexuality. Furthermore too little is known about pre-colonial (pre-Christian) attitudes regarding homosexuality in Zambia to know if tradition and religion reinforce or contradict. What is evident is that the general public is highly homophobic, and because LGBT advocacy is banned, LGBT communities were effectively left out of the constitution making process. In addition major political parties, several church leaders and non-governmental organisations (NGO) refused to support gay rights or the call to decriminalise homosexuality.

DEFINITIONS OF ‘FAMILY’ AND THE POTENTIAL FOR DISCRIMINATION

The NCC draft states that the family is the fundamental unit of society and the basis of social order and thus entitled to protection. According to the definition given by the Gender in Development Division (GIDD) - the government department coordinating gender equality - the family is composed of the nuclear family: husband, wife, children and the extended family, paternal and maternal grandparents, uncles, nieces, nephews, aunts and other relations. GIDD as a government department makes no mention of single parent families or co-habiting couples.

Though Article 52 restates the recognition of the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society, in article 52 (9) it leaves parliament to enact legislation on what constitutes a family. As the overarching law of the country, the constitution should define a family to include the various forms family can take including single parent households (female or male headed). Furthermore the constitution opts out of making a stance on customary and statutory laws regarding family despite the extensive consulting process.

Another dichotomy is that the draft constitution declares that ‘the family is the natural and fundamental unit,’ yet the same document acknowledges that Christian, secular (rights based and statutory) and customary influences and non-Christian religions exist in the country. Norms of ‘the family’ vary in these value systems, especially with regards to polygamy and the rights of women within a marriage. Current legislation leaves too much leeway to diverse and uncodified customary law among many ethnic groups and religions in this country.

Customary law permits human rights abuses in the name of polygamy and early or forced marriage. Though the draft sets a minimum age of marriage, it only allows women ‘the right to freely choose a spouse.’ It does not say that a person cannot be forced or coerced into marriage. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) text states women have the right ‘...freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent’ which would unequivocally prohibit forced marriage.

Furthermore, in a rights-based approach ‘the right to freely choose’ should not be derogated by ‘a spouse of the opposite sex’ as it repudiates the word ‘freely.’

GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

The NCC draft constitution states in Article 17 ‘The state shall direct the policies and laws towards securing and promoting gender equality.’ Furthermore, in Article 48 (4) the draft Bill of Rights says ‘Any law, culture, custom or tradition that undermines the dignity, welfare, interest or status of women or men is prohibited.’ This is in contrast to the current constitution of Zambia which permits the suspension of women’s rights under customary law.

Anchoring the constitution on Christian values and principles and the retention of customary law implies that the context in which these laws, cultures, customs or traditions shall be interpreted will be inherently inegalitarian and patriarchal and will not be radically progressive. The articles on abortion, family and homosexuality are an indication of how human rights can be rewritten to satisfy the limitations imposed by Christian values and principles and customary law

Finally, Article 40 (3), ‘a person shall not deprive an unborn child of life by termination of pregnancy except in accordance with the conditions laid down by an act of parliament for that purpose’ leaves an important right to complex and contradictory parliamentary legislation. Zambia’s current legislation provides for termination of pregnancies within defined spheres. A lack of knowledge and the conflation of abortion with unsafe abortion and prevailing sentiments (religious, and traditional) create a situation in which women and girls die in huge numbers of unsafe abortions, deal with unwanted pregnancies or may charged with a criminal offence for inducing an abortion. A constitutional statement on the right to abortion would send an unequivocal message to medical practitioners, courts of law and the general public on the right of a woman to her own body.

CONCLUSION

The bill of rights in the NCC draft constitution has the appearance of a document that has incorporate equality concerns. However it falls short of a real equality through the problematic inclusion of undefined Christian values and the retention of diverse uncodified and undocumented customary law. It also leaves essential rights to further legislation which may take years to complete. For instance, the Gender Based Violence Bill has been under formulation for three years and the NCC process for two. The pursuit of equality in the NCC has also been affected by the ability of those most affected to participate due to the ban on LGBT advocacy and a strong highly conservative political and NGO voice.

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* Mwila Agatha Zaza lives and works in Zambia as a mainstreaming specialist.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

African women’s rights: Mobilisation and implementation

Marie-Claire Faray speaks to Pambazuka News

Marie-Claire Faray

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66664

cc Javic‘Women should refuse to die or live in abject poverty or endure violence: They should be angry, mobilising and taking to the streets to demand concrete actions which will improve their lives and the wellbeing of their children.’ Marie-Claire Faray, vice president of UK WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) speaks to Pambazuka News about the African Women’s Decade and what women – and men – can do to help fulfil its promise to defend women's rights and reduce gender inequality.

‘Deaths caused by pregnancy in Africa are more than all the deaths from AIDS, TB and malaria combined,’ says Marie-Claire Faray. Faray, the vice president of UK WILPF (Women’s’ International League for Peace and Freedom), is speaking to a group of women from all over the diaspora who have gathered in London to mark the UK launch of African Women’s Decade. The decade is the African Union’s (AU) new 10-year campaign to deliver gender equality, women’s advancement and the respect of women’s rights in Africa. ‘Women have a right to survive, to be alive,’ says Faray. ‘It’s time to identify our right, claim it and take control of it.’

2010 is already a prominent year for gender issues in Africa. It marks 25 years since the UN World Conference on Women, 15 years since the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the 10th anniversary of the UN Millennium Development Goals and six years since the adoption of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. Uganda finally ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa at the African Union summit three weeks ago, five years after it entered into force. Despite the progress carved out over the past few decades, there is still room for improvement.

Initiated by the AU’s Women and Gender Development Directorate, African Women’s’ Decade was adopted in October 2009 by the African Union, giving member states up to 2020 to achieve 50/50 representation of women and men in politics and decision-making, in line with article 5 of the declaration and the protocol.

The decade’s objectives include the ratification and setting aside of resources for the implementation of existing instruments; raising awareness, capacity building and gender mainstreaming to promote and accelerate the implementation and attainment of the goals stated in the declarations, protocols and conventions the AU has adopted; preventing gender issues from being dropped from member states’ budget lines; and promoting the ability of African governments to generate funds to address gender from women’s economic empowerment and increased access to agricultural land, farm inputs, credit, technology, markets and water to improved women’s health to reduce maternal mortality and to address HIV/AIDS.

What is different about African Women’s Decade is that it ‘officially put[s] women at the centre of every initiative or work that will be undertaken in Africa by the African Union, its member states, the UN, the EU, international or local NGOs as well as all institutions, public and private companies,’ Faray tells Pambazuka, with a focus on using the rule of law and accountability for enhancing the respect and protection of women’s rights.

‘It is up to women now to own this decade by empowering themselves and each other to act and to request an end to impunity and to ask for accountability that will initiate change because nobody will bring it to them. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity,’ says Faray.

CHALLENGES ON THE GROUND

The 2009 African Women’s Report of the evaluation of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing +15) ‘paints a grim picture of African countries failing to meet their commitments on gender equality and particularly women’s rights’, says Faray.

Maternal mortality rates, for example, are disproportionately high: Deaths caused by pregnancy are more than all the deaths from AIDS, TB and malaria combined. ‘The shocking lack of readily available health services for women in Africa is endangering women’s wellbeing and resulting in tragically high numbers of women dying in childbirth,’ says Faray. In 2007, while 35 per cent of HIV infections and 38 per cent of AIDS deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, women accounted for nearly 60 per cent of HIV infections in the region. ‘There are serious gendered causes and impacts that governments need to address to save women’s lives in Africa,’ says Faray.

Harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) continue; the law to end FGM in Sudan has even been reversed and decriminalised, putting millions of lives of Sudanese young girls and women in danger. Despite the high representation of women and the various international and regional legal frameworks signed by Rwanda, the country’s parliament has introduced a bill for forced sterilisation of women. ‘It’s a crime against humanity’, says Faray, ‘undermining reproductive health goals and undoing decades of work by women around the world, to ensure respect for reproductive rights.’

‘In recent years, due to conflicts, oppressive regimes and poverty, there’s been a horrible increase in the rate of sexual violence,’ says Faray. In 2006, there were close to 55,000 reported rape cases in South Africa, while an estimated 450,000 cases went unreported.[1] In contrast, official statistics suggest annual rape figures of just 16,000 in the 1980s. Meanwhile, in the DR Congo, around 1 million women have been raped since armed conflict began in 1997. Faray cites other examples from across the continent: Eritrean women raped and condemned to die in prison for refusing to serve in the army, or killed trying to seek refuge out of the country; sexual violence against Sudanese women as a tool of war.

Moreover, the perpetrators of this violence often go unpunished. The thousands of women and girls who were sexually assaulted and raped during the post-election chaos that ravaged Kenya ‘have to look to the Hague for justice as their male-dominated government cannot even offer them justice or reparation,’ rails Faray. In some cases, the violence appears to be officially sanctioned: In 2008, Guinean women were raped ‘as a warning and tool of political intimidation’, while opposing political parties in Zimbabwe’s elections unleashed ‘sexual terror’ against women who supported the other political parties.

‘Millions of African women victims of rape are too fearful – or too sceptical of getting any redress against their attackers – to come forward, so many are dying in silence from diseases sexually transmitted by force; other are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies,’ Faray laments. ‘African women’s bodies continue to be a battleground for African men to wage their senseless wars over political power owned by many neocolonialist multinational corporations who are only too pleased to test their arms while illegally exploiting natural resources in Africa.’

UK WILPF AND THE ROLE FOR CSOS

What isn’t clear is what the strategy is for making the decade’s goals a reality. Certainly governments will not achieve the objectives on their own – past gains demonstrate the need for action by all sectors of society, at a local, national and international level. UK WILPF is one among many civil society organisations rallying behind the decade. Its involvement stems from its ‘Voices of African Women Campaign’ and is ‘an act of solidarity’ by British women with women in the diaspora.

The organisation will focus on tackling violence against women. ‘It’s an issue of peace and security,’ says Faray, ‘which needs a specific budget allocated to it.’ In addition to ‘working to raise awareness among grassroots women and empower them, UK WILPF will ask for greater accountability and urge the UK government, African and other governments’ leaders to act on its ‘Voices of African Women Declaration.’

OBSTACLES TO PROGRESS

Securing women’s rights in Africa, however, is no easy task. Lack of implementation is the central factor slowing the progress, Faray believes. ‘It stems from ‘a lack of respect for the rule of law’. She lays the blame for this failure squarely at the feet of the African men ‘in charge of leadership’, who dominate ‘the corridors and offices of power across the continent’.

‘By failing to serve women…they are failing their duty of being a servant of their nations and its citizens…African men should feel empathy and solidarity with their sisters, mothers and daughters and act because the scale of pain and suffering of African women is simply unacceptable,’ says Faray.

Yet ‘male-dominant attitudes’ and ‘so-called traditions’ prevail. ‘This position of power that they think they hold over women’s lives through retrograde patriarchal mentality and abusive violent masculinity is actually one that will destroy men in Africa,’ Faray warns. ‘By educating, instructing and protecting women, a whole nation will be preserved for future generations.’

Faray doesn’t blame this malaise entirely on African men; commerce too has played a role, she suggests. ‘There are various oppressive regimes in Africa that are supported by various external powers (countries or big multinational companies) for economic benefit that does not benefit Africa.’

Whatever the cause, however, Faray is clear: ‘Lack of respect for women’s or children rights is an absolute lack of respect of human rights, full stop. Lack of education, healthcare and adequate nutrition condemn women and men to poverty and death. Oppressive regimes and legitimisation of armed violence as a way to access power has led to a circle of impunity and violence which is a challenge to promoting and protecting the rights of women; due to their reproductive heath needs they fall in a category of vulnerable.’

A DUTY TO BE DEMANDING

Bringing about social transformation in the face of such obstacles is a daunting task. ‘Women have to know their rights, and take action to demand accountability,’ says Faray. ‘[E]lite educated and conscientious African women’ have a responsibility to enable grassroots women to access information, she adds, acknowledging that ‘many are kept in ignorance due to lack of education and instruction’ on ‘how the systems/institutions/laws that are supposed to run their nations should work.’

‘Grassroots women…should not be used as a propaganda tool, dancing, welcoming or voting for leaders who offer them a hat, a piece of wax wrapping material and drinks during elections but fail to deliver on the rights of women to human security to live. Women should not be jubilant for leaders who extend their stay in power living in luxury without delivering their promises to serve their nation.’

Women must ‘urge governments to publicly announce the decisions taken on advancing gender equality and women’s rights in the annual budget’ and ‘evaluate their government’s progress’, says Faray. ’Women should refuse to die or live in abject poverty or endure violence: They should be angry, mobilising and taking to the streets to demand concrete actions which will improve their lives and the wellbeing of their children. No more promises!’

‘The African Union and its member states have to walk the talk on women’s rights,’ says Faray. ‘The target for gender equality and women’s rights in Africa by 2020 is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound,’ says Faray, but it ‘requires a political will from decision makers who are often male…strong ownership by women and commitment by women to get results is pivotal.’

BREAKING THE SILENCE

‘Accountability for women’s rights is accountability for human rights in general,’ asserts Faray. ‘Gender equality and effective participation of women will lead to real participatory democracy and social justice for all, hence peace and sustainable development, food security and better healthcare for many Africans.’

But if the goal is social justice for all, isn’t there need for an African Men’s Decade too? ‘Indeed, we need one – however an African Men’s Decade of sharing, self-evaluation of their role and responsibility in the governance, protection of the environment and human security in Africa,’ Faray retorts. ‘We need several organisations of African men aiming to end all forms of violence and discrimination against women. Too many men are participating, standing and watching women dying or being abused in silence. It’s now time for this to change.’

KEEPING THE FAITH

It is a long road to guaranteeing the promotion and protection of women’s rights. Asked what motivates her to continue the struggle, Faray replies:

‘Women all over the world – particularly grassroots African women struggling for survival and always mobilising for peace, giving life and raising their children regardless of hardship – have always motivated my voluntary work. The lives and struggle of Congolese women, including my own mother, are dear to my heart, particularly when thinking of centuries of abuses from the 17th century heroine Kimpa Vita, to the raped and amputated women of the 18–19th century colonial era to this modern day of 21st century of high IT, women murdered and scarred for the exploitation of natural resources and gains by vicious capitalist multinational corporations.’

‘Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Wangari Maathai, Emily Pankhurst and Jane Adams and so many of my fellow women’s rights activist colleagues all over the world are amongst women that are a great source of inspiration and admiration,’ she adds.

‘Although it is a long road to guaranteeing the promotion and protection of women’s rights, it is one that we will walk to freedom, never unbowed no matter what as we are responsible for the future of young generations of African girls,’ says Faray.

All African women from the continent and the diaspora need to know and own their countries’ constitutions as well as the various legal frameworks signed or ratified by their countries, says Faray. ‘Women have to be together to ask to set the example in their own lives by not living any form of oppression, by good governance and accountability for their action during their work. I would also ask men to join our struggle, as it is that for future generations of African children and that of their own survival on the continent.’

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* Marie-Claire Faray is a research scientist and vice president of UK WILPF (Women’s’ International League for Peace and Freedom).
* Interview conducted by Z. Rodrigues.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Rape Statistics-South Africa and World Wide (2008)

Angola: Demolitions continue, but critical conscience growing

Sylvia Croese

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66663

As communities in Angola’s municipality of Matala and Quipungo face up to demolitions as part of the government’s ‘Operation Combat and Demolition of Shacks and Anarchic Constructions in the Municipality of Lubango’, civil society work by local groups has proven crucial in enabling families to prepare adequately and begin to organise, writes Sylvia Croese.

The first phase of ‘Operation Combat and Demolition of Shacks and Anarchic Constructions in the Municipality of Lubango’ was initiated in March of this year in the capital of the South-Western province of Huíla in Angola. 2,000 houses were demolished along the Moçâmedes Railway, which is being rehabilitated as part of the country’s Programme for National Reconstruction. The demolitions led to an outcry by national and international civil society about the way local authorities had failed to warn people in a timely manner and create the necessary conditions in Tchavola, an area 9km outside of Lubango city centre where plots of land had been allocated to the evicted families.

Over four months have passed since then and currently 3,081 families reside in the area of Tchavola. However, basic necessities such as water and sanitary conditions along with schools and police presence are still lacking. Few of the families have been able to make progress in the construction of new houses as the soil in the area is not considered to be adequate for the fabrication of adobe bricks and people lack the means to acquire construction materials in other ways. The Ministry of Social Assistance and Reintegration (MINARS) is present as a coordinator, but families have complained about corruption amongst the appointed people responsible for the distribution of goods in the area. Tensions are on the rise as rains are expected to be coming again in a month. Meanwhile, families living in tents distributed in the early days after the demolitions have been told that these should be returned to the authorities as in the first week of August the second phase of the demolitions operation has been concluded in the municipality of Matala and Quipungo.

According to a report on a field visit by the local NGO Action Constructing Communities (ACC), 1,351 families in Matala and an estimated 300 to 500 families in Quipungo have been affected by the demolitions.

The question is: Have lessons been learnt from the Tchavola case? According to ACC, in the case of Matala the role of media and local civil society has been crucial in influencing the course of the demolitions. There, a local human rights group set up by community members and with the assistance of Mosaiko, a Dominican NGO working for human rights in Angola, lobbied the local administration and the national ombudsman to conduct the displacement of families in a manner which respects their rights. Together with the administration of Matala, the group managed to mobilise affected communities and facilitate the allocation of plots of land in the adjacent area of Kahululu.

This allowed most of the families sufficient time to make basic preparations for their displacement and collect their personal belongings as well as re-usable construction material. In Kahululu, a plot of land of 900m2 was allocated to each family and water was provided to make adobe bricks. Volunteers were even mobilised to help the displaced families, especially the vulnerable like the elderly, single mothers, widows and people with disabilities.

Although the vulnerable in Matala still face difficult conditions, they are much better off than the people of the neighbouring municipality of Quipungo where civil society is less organised. This has resulted in major delays in terms of assistance to the families. Despite efforts by the municipal administration to get help on track, it too struggles with a lack of means and capacity to meet the most basic needs. For instance, although water is freely available, most of the families have gone without food for days.

Civil society is relatively weak in Angola, as a result of the war and the slow pace of democratisation. However, some say there are signs of change. In an article in the private newspaper Angolense this week by Guilherme Santos of the NGO Action for Rural Development and Environment (ADRA), there is a growing critical conscience among people, groups, organisations and communities in Angola on social problems and citizenship.

The article was written in the aftermath of the national conference on demolitions, held from 29 to 31 July in Benguela. In this conference, the first of its kind in Angola, about 150 people from the provinces of Luanda, Benguela, Kwanza Sul, Huíla and Lunda Sul participated to exchange stories, experiences and lessons learned in order to elaborate a national strategy to prevent forced demolitions before adequate legislation is in place and decent alternative conditions are created for displaced populations.

According to Santos, there is a growing notion and understanding among people about the causes of their problems and the need for them to get organised. Therefore, the conference was a step forwards in ‘cultivating an organizational conscience that requires articulation and collective action’. The success of the human rights group in Matala is a hopeful example of the positive impact collective action can have, but it is clear that there is still a long way to go before decent housing and quality of life (article 85 of Angola’s new constitution) become a reality for all people in Angola.

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* Sylvia Croese is an independent Dutch-Angolan researcher and consultant, based in Luanda.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

UN whistleblowers face perilous times

Rasna Warah

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66651

cc E W HThe UN is rapidly becoming a breeding ground for corruption and impunity, writes Rasna Warah. Warah, a former UN staff member, investigates how voices raised against wrongdoings in the organisation are hastily muted, and often met with severe reprisals.

I recently met a United Nations (UN) staff member who told me that he had come across incriminating evidence linking a top official with misuse of donor funding. In fact, he suspected that the money had not just been misused, but had been stolen.

I asked him if he could report this to an oversight body within the UN and he told me there would be no point in doing so because he would either be fired or there would be a massive cover-up on the part of the organisation's financial officers, who would find a way of cooking the books to legitimise irregular movement of funds.

He also told me that several UN staff members who had facilitated the alleged theft by the top official had been awarded accelerated promotions.

Now, if these allegations had been made by a government official they might have led to an investigation, or even a dismissal. At the very least, media hype about the case might have forced some people to resign or face a tribunal. But not so with the UN.

I worked for the UN for almost 12 years, and in all that time, I have only seen one case of someone being fired for misappropriation of funds.

In that particular case, the termination was prompted by powerful member states of the UN, who orchestrated a ‘name and shame’ campaign that led to the forced resignation of the official.

It would hardly surprise anyone who has worked within the UN system that the organisation is, as one watchdog website put it, ‘a unique and extreme case of organisational non-accountability’.

Many observers have noted the widening gap between rhetoric and reality within this international organisation.

Since 2005, when the UN Oil-for-Food Programme scandal in Iraq made headlines around the world, various journalists and watchdog organisations have been reporting cases of gross misconduct in the UN's agencies and by senior UN staff, but few of these reports have resulted in the perpetrator being brought to justice.

In one extreme case, a former UN peacekeeper based in Kosovo, who now serves as an anti-corruption officer at an American embassy, claimed that he was fired after reporting suspicions of corruption.

An article published in the New York Times last month claims that he suffered severe retaliation from his colleagues as a result of the reporting, including having his house searched and having posters bearing his picture hung around the UN headquarters to prevent him entering the compound.

Watchdog organisations believe that the UN's internal oversight mechanisms have been severely compromised by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who appears to be reluctant to make decisions regarding cases brought before him.

Last year, a special task force set up to investigate fraud and corruption in the UN was mysteriously closed. Since then, the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) has not completed a single case of fraud or corruption, whilst an average of 150 cases a year had been completed by the task force when it was operational.

A few weeks ago, independent judges appointed to review how the UN makes decisions regarding hiring, firing and promotions accused the UN Secretary General of ‘shielding an unhealthy culture of secrecy’.

Another report released by the UN Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) last month states that ‘recent high-profile cases that have been widely publicised have shown that executive heads can, and do, act with impunity in the absence of effective internal mechanisms to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against them’.

The report further states that since the UN's internal oversight bodies report directly to executive heads, their independence to carry out an investigation or a review of the alleged wrongdoing is seriously circumscribed.

Despite a 2005 policy that protects whistleblowers against retaliation, many UN whistleblowers have reported suffering severe reprisals, including being fired or being pushed into resigning.

Tom Devine, legal director of the Washington-based Government Accountability Project (GAP), a watchdog organisation, was once quoted saying: ‘The United Nations provides staff with fewer rights to defend themselves than any government agency I've encountered, either on the national or international level.’

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* Copyright © 2010 The Nation. All rights reserved.
* This article was originally published by The Nation.
* Rasna Warah is a writer and journalist based in Nairobi and can be contacted at rasna.warah@gmail.com.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

DRC: Two sides of the same ICT coin

Breaking the silence, breaking the laws

Francoise Mukuku, Sylvie Niombo and Mavic Cabrera-Balleza

2010-08-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66635

cc Gender ITIn an interview about ICT (information and communication technology) and its social effects on women, GenderIT.org writer Mavic Cabrera-Balleza speaks with Sylvie Niombo and Francoise Mukuku, activists from Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) respectively.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: Francoise and Sylvie, so nice to meet you. Please tell me and our readers something about yourselves.

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: I’m the national coordinator of a young feminist group called Si Jeunesse savait, and also involved in communication and research consultancy work on gender with various NGOs in the African Great Lakes sub-region.

SYLVIE NIOMBO: I am currently working as regional coordinator for the MDG3: Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women project in Congo-Brazzaville and the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] for the Women’s Networking Support Programme of the Association for Progressive Communications.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: Can you describe the ICT (information and communications technology) environment in the DRC?

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: Internet penetration is very low. We can’t afford to have personal PCs in our homes nor have a mobile connection even if we have laptops. Most of the time, people in big cities rely on cyber cafes where the connection is low and most of the computers are old. The internet service providers (ISPs) to population ratio is very low and the ISPs are concentrated in Kinshasa. The ISPs here all use satellite and expensive technology and the custom tariffs on electronics are very high.

Access to ICTs is a development issue that social movement actors in the DRC are promoting. Internet connectivity might improve now because mobile telephone companies are providing General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). But then, you need an expensive smart phone to access this service and you need to know how to use it. Language is another issue as most of this service is not in local language. And people in the villages would still not be able to access internet unless they come to town.

SYLVIE NIOMBO: I agree with Francoise. But I would like to add that the mobile phone is very popular and widely used by people from all walks of life including those who are not literate and those who live in rural areas. Media like radio are also popular in the DRC, and there are many community radio stations that broadcast in local languages. Many people also watch television.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: How important are ICTs in the lives of Congolese, of Congolese women in particular?

SYLVIE NIOMBO: The mobile phone is used to maintain contact with family of course, but also in business. Entrepreneurs and traders use it to stay in touch with their clients. With the arrival of the internet and the opening of internet cafes, students and women in small and medium enterprise use the internet for education, for office work, for their business and also to find information about opportunities abroad. The audiovisual media are also important for businesses because of the publicity and the big audience outreach. However, they are not very accessible because of the high cost of advertising. Creative media like theatre and short plays or sketches on the daily facts of life are also very popular even in the other Congo, in Brazzaville. Issues affecting women and the rest of the population are depicted in these sketches.

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: As Sylvie said, mobile phones are very important for Congolese people. They have replaced landline phones. People have separate mobile phones for their offices and their homes. Sometimes when you call an ‘office’, you get someone on the bus complete with all the background noise. More and more advertisers are using them to reach potential customers, which also results in a rise in spam… We have yet to use mobile phones for critical services like calling the police or emergency medical services. There is no special number for such use.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: How do you describe the links between ICTs and violence against women (VAW), including sexual violence?

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: There is a very concrete link between ICTs and VAW. Many harassments happen through the use of telephones. Men give a phone to their wives to monitor their wives' activities; men bribe telecom service employees to gain access to their wives’ or girlfriends’ call list. Other forms of violations of the right to privacy take place, such as the government tapping the lines of civil society organisations or political activists, or cutting activists' connections, as they did after the elections. They did this to prevent people from monitoring the results and sharing election-related information with each other.

More and more photo montages of famous people are being circulated, with the victims in compromising situations. It is difficult to explain to the public that those are not real pictures. I would add to this long list the fact that we have more than 300 radio and TV stations. Most of them are not run by professionals and they are just broadcasting hate speech, stigma and discrimination against women who don’t conform with what they call ‘African or Christian values’.

Some religious radio stations send out messages that if women are raped, it is because they provoked it. They also discourage women from speaking out. They tell women to remain silent because God is fighting for them. I have also come across some hate-speech broadcasts, but fortunately they are not too many. These kind of media practitioners compensate for the lack of relevant content by just giving the microphone to any caller who can say anything s/he wants to say without worrying whether they are violating other people’s dignity and right to privacy.

SYLVIE NIOMBO: Another dimension of the link between ICTs and VAW is due to mobile phones becoming status symbols. Mobile phones have become objects of desire and status symbols and it is no longer rare to hear about young women agreeing to provide sexual services in exchange for a cell phone. There are also reported cases of young women who use the internet to find partners in Western countries and are sometimes lured into prostitution.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: On the other side of the coin, can ICTs serve as a tool to reduce the incidence of violence?

SYLVIE NIOMBO: In order for ICTs to reduce the incidence of violence, they should be used to inform and educate the population. There is also a need to increase the production of content so that ICT tools are useful for girls and boys.

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: Yes, ICTs can also be used to reduce VAW. However, in most instances when the most cruel, most brutal forms of violence happen, there is no network or any radio programme that can provide useful information.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: The common perception of the international community about the DRC is that the country is in a very bleak situation. It’s been referred to as the ‘rape capital of the world’, ‘the worst place on earth to be a woman’ and many other depressing descriptions. How do you feel about this? How can ICTs be used to put these descriptions into a more accurate and realistic perspective?

SYLVIE NIOMBO: It is true that many atrocities have been committed against women and girls in the DRC, and that makes us sad, but we are awake to the fight to end these atrocities. This explains the strong mobilisation of women's and human rights organizations to end impunity against perpetrators of sexual violence in this country. Building the capacity of women and girls, civil society and the media in the use of ICTs is critical so we can tell the stories from the Congolese perspective and also raise the voices of courageous girls and women who fight for women's rights in the DRC. There are a number of campaigns initiated by international organisations in the DRC on Facebook, YouTube and on several blogs, but very few Congolese activists use ICT tools to speak, to share stories and ideas online. Congolese activists should take advantage of these tools.

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: I’m convinced that women are the only ones who can put an end to the violence because they live it in their flesh and in their souls. But you know what, when you present an ICT project to funders they ask: ‘How will you implement this in a country where there is no electricity, where there is a high level of illiteracy among women, where there are many people fighting to put food on their table?’ ICT projects are not part of their priorities. Our biggest challenge is to explain to them that ICT can be a solution to the problems they want to solve. We are still struggling to explain the importance of ICTs.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: What about privacy? Is this seen as an issue by Congolese women? How do you relate it to ICTs?

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: Privacy is a real problem, especially in a patriarchal society like ours, where the woman belongs to the husband, the girl to the father and the sister to the brother. You can’t have privacy; a married woman can’t even go and answer her phone in a place where she is alone. She will be accused of cheating on her husband. Boyfriends want to have the password to their girlfriends’ email when they are not sharing one email account. Most of the time it is the boy who has the password and he can change it or use the mailbox the way he wants.

Those of us who use aliases because we want to keep our privacy or sometimes because of security reasons, or both, are also put at risk when people reveal who we are or when they say what they know about us in public spaces. They think what they're doing is funny. They don’t care about what the law says or how it can hurt you or your family.

SYLVIE NIOMBO: Privacy is often violated with the use of ICT tools, such as when photos of nude young girls are circulated through cell phones or internet. There is often little awareness on the issues of violation of privacy and personal data protection.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: Is there a law that penalises the violation of right to privacy?

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: Yes, there is such a law, for all sorts of privacy violation but there is also another for délit de presse (defamation), when it is done through the media. You can sue the journalist or the newspaper and I know that some people have used these – especially politicians, but not common people. But my greatest concern is about suing someone who has violated your privacy from abroad. Our laws don’t have provisions for that. I once faced a similar problem. The authorities here in Congo asked me to call our embassy and also to contact the authorities in the country where I thought the perpetrator was from. It did not get me anywhere. I was not able to seek justice. Now imagine, if a techie like me can’t find redress, what about other women who don’t even have access to the internet?

SYLVIE NIOMBO: There are a few different legal texts provisions protecting privacy (such as residence, private correspondence, married life, etc). There is the Congolese Penal Code dated January 30, 1940, but there are many concepts that still need to be integrated into the penal code. The law condemns attacks on individual freedom, protects the inviolability of the home and condemns attacks on the sanctity of letters (arts. 69 to 79). While electronic correspondence may be part of private correspondence, this is not explicit.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) identify ICTs as a critical instrument in achieving education for all. What do you think of this? Do you see any other relationship between ICTs and the MDGs?

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: ICTs are a transversal tool to meet all the MDGs, especially in countries like ours that are many years behind meeting all the development goals. We need ICTs to boost all the sectors in society. We need technologies to fill all sorts of gaps including lack of professors and educational infrastructures, lack of access to good university education, lack of access to all sorts of knowledge and lack of access to information about markets for agricultural products.

We need ICTs to mobilise constituencies when the election comes or when there is a special need to advocate or lobby the policy-makers and decision-makers in line with good governance. We need e-medicine and many medical applications that can save lives. In a country as big as western Europe but with no infrastructure, ICTs can save lives… I can go on and on about letting people understand how critical ICT access is for the DRC.

SYLVIE NIOMBO: ICTs can also help in development sectors such as agriculture, with farmers' training, sharing of knowledge on agricultural technologies and networking among farmers and buyers. This would have a positive impact on rural women.

MAVIC CABRERA-BALLEZA: Thanks very much for your time and your thoughts.

SYLVIE NIOMBO: Thank you for this opportunity.

FRANCOISE MUKUKU: You are welcome. It was great talking to both of you.

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* A longer version of this interview appeared at genderIT.org.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

DRC: Supporting accountability, transparency and non-violence

Franck Kamunga interviewed by Pambazuka News

Franck Kamunga

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66661

cc J HIn conversation with Pambazuka News, Executive Director Franck Kamunga of the Kinshasa-based Droits Humains Sans Frontières discusses the struggle for justice for murdered civil society activists in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Hi Franck, thank you for taking the time to talk to Pambazuka. As spelt out on your website, Droits Humains Sans Frontières (DHSF) works for the protection, defence and promotion of human rights in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). What would you say are the key challenges activists in Congo face in seeking to defend human rights?

FRANCK KAMUNGA: Hi Pambazuka. It has been a great pleasure for me getting this opportunity to talk to Pambazuka News. As you might have heard before, human rights activists in most of the developing countries are facing serious threats, especially when they have to deal with massive violations from government officials and law enforcement agencies, including the police. The DR Congo is also part of these countries where human rights defenders are victims of all forms of torture, despite the tremendous efforts CSOs (civil society organisations) are making on the ground. The recent case of our colleague Floribert Tchebeya found dead in his car last June is still pending in court without a clear result. Up to five journalists have been murdered over the last year under strange circumstances and we've never got their murders prosecuted. I myself have spent three days in jail at the Inspection Provinciale de la Police in Kinshasa for having denounced police abuses of women. I had to seek support from the International Bridges to Justice in Geneva and Frontlines in Ireland and Brussels to be released. I do recognise the modest efforts from the Ministry of Justice to reduce this kind of situation. However, there is still a long way to go and a strong need of investing in support for human rights defenders in the DR Congo and other regions in Africa.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: With respect to organising on the ground, what are the main means of mobilising people when it comes to activism in the DRC? In which parts of the country do you have your strongest links?

FRANCK KAMUNGA: I believe civil society in the DRC is very strong, despite the threats they are always going through. They are very committed people and ready at any time we need to mobilise for a common cause, as we did to react against the murder of our colleague Floribert Tchebeya and during the last first free and democratic elections in 2006. Most of our activities are focused on human rights defence and education, democracy and governance, and peace and security in the DR Congo and progressively in the Great Lakes region. Our strongest links are in Kinshasa, in eastern Congo and Kasai Oriental province; however, we do have representations all over the country.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Droits Humains Sans Frontières has a civic education programme which focuses on, among other things, promoting a democratic political culture and encouraging political leadership among Congolese youth. How does this programme work?

FRANCK KAMUNGA: As we already mentioned previously, DHSF is working with young people within universities and other educational centres to build new generations of leaders respective of democratic values and tolerance, and leading strong policies for the better of the country out of ethnic fights and culture of personalities which characterises our political parties. We need to invest in human capacities if we want the country to have good leaders with the sense of accountability, transparency and non-violence.

On the ground we have developed a training curriculum from our previous training organised by the World Movement for Democracy and African Democracy Forum in 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya, on ‘youth democratic leadership and conflict resolution’. After this training, we got a modest follow-up grant that we used for the first training of trainers in 2005. Since then we've been able to develop a platform of young professionals in the DRC and regionally, sharing information, values and online discussion. With the support from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) in Washington D.C., we were able to also hold a training of trainers in 2008 for about 45 young people from different universities and institutions to develop a sense of civic resistance against oppression, peace and conflict resolution skills in their communities. We also encourage young people to take an active role in politics, learn from their leaders and how to hold them accountable. Young people are being used as child soldiers, manipulated to perpetrate violence and all forms troubles in the country, as experienced in the past. They are the future of the country; there is a need to invest more in them right now to prevent conflict and plan the future.

The main issue remains the limited resources for such a huge country as the DRC, as DHSF still depends on members’ contributions and little timely support from external donors. We strongly call for potential partners who might be interested in our work to join us for a more effective intervention.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Fellow Congolese human rights organisation Héritiers de la Justice recently marked the fifth anniversary of the assassination of its former secretary general, Pascal Kabungulu. This case has been notorious for the impunity afforded to those suspected of involvement in the assassination. What is your own view of the way in which 'impunity' operates with the DRC and the challenges it presents for activists seeking to establish the rule of law?

FRANCK KAMUNGA: I do regret very much the case of our colleague Pascal Kabungulu, as well as several other cases of assassination of human rights defenders in the DRC caused most of the time by the culture of impunity and lack of political will from political leaders who play a strong role in manipulating the judiciary. The cases of five journalists and recently Floribert Tchebeya, president of the Voix des Sans Voix, are still pending and we cannot expect much from the court since the potential perpetrators are the ones commanding the judiciary machine. We believe there is need of investing in strengthening the judicial system protection for the freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights in the country. Ensuring the independence of magistrates vis-à-vis politicians and corruption could play an important role in building credible justice and avoid the impunity. I think the ICC (International Criminal Court) implication in Congo is also playing an important preventive and persuasive role for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. We appeal to all stakeholders to get more involved in denouncing all cases of corruption, political interference in judicial procedures and capacity building for magistrates and advocates on human rights issues.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Indeed, when it comes to tackling impunity, debate rages in countries like Kenya about the rule of external institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC). Where human rights abuses are perpetrated, is justice something to be sought internally, or should Congolese also look outside their country?

FRANCK KAMUNGA: It’s a common problem in most African countries when it comes to judicial independence when political leaders are part of the perpetrators to be prosecuted. I was in Kenya as the coordinator of the African Democracy Forum, hosted by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, during the post-election violence in 2007. I know how political this issue is and I'm quite sure of the capacity of the internal judicial mechanism to address effectively and prosecute the perpetrators who have the game on behalf of strong political leaders who are actually enjoying the power-sharing deal in Kenya. Different commissions of hearings and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process are underway, but they haven't helped much in addressing the root causes of this violence – IDPs (internally displaced persons) are still laying in camps, while there are injustices and an inappropriate redistribution of national resources, making the poor poorer and the rich richer. However, I clearly see similarities in the scenarios happening in Kenya with the ICC. As for the DRC, we actually have about four cases pending at the ICC and the current arrest warrant against Bosco Ntanganda. Because of the large corruption and political interference in the judicial system, more and more Congolese have started looking at the ICC as an alternative solution to address massive human rights abuses in the country, especially in eastern Congo.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Do you have links with other civil society and activist organisations across the region facing similar struggles?

FRANCK KAMUNGA: As I mentioned previously, I had worked for two years as the coordinator of the African Democracy Forum, an African regional network of more then 400 NGOs (non-governmental organisations) around the continent sharing the same struggle for democracy, human rights and peace in Africa. We do have strong contacts with several other cross-regional organisations around the world working on these important issues, despite the difficulties and challenges they are facing on a daily basis. The World Movement for Democracy in Washington D.C., East African Law Society, Fahamu, Human Rights Council Advocacy Network and International Bridges to Justice in Geneva are some, among others, who share the same values for democracy and social justice.

In Congo, we have several strong organisations such as Voix des Sans Voix, les Amis de Nelson Mandela pour les Droits de l'Homme, Les Anges du Ciel pour les Droits des Enfants, ASADHO (Association for the Defense of Human Rights), Ligue Nationale pour les Elections Libres and Toges Noires.

Once again thank you very much for your invitation to this interview and best wishes for our long-term collaboration in the future.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Franck Kamunga Cibangu is the executive director of Droits Humains Sans Frontières, based in Kinshasa, DRC. He is also a Stanford fellow in democracy, development and the rule of law.
* Interview questions by Alex Free.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Africa’s kleptocrats: No more cash and KARI

Steel vices, clenched fists and closing walls (Part IV)

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2010-08-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66636

cc DavoAs ‘Africa’s top kleptocrats … gathered at their annual summit’ in Kampala, US Attorney General Eric Holder and US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson told those assembled that the US Justice Department has established the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI) to recover criminally acquired funds, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Corruption and the misappropriation of funds have a devastating impact, Mariam stresses, and in developing an initiative to combat elite impunity, it seems that ‘President Obama … has finally found the silver bullet to deal with Africa’s corrupt thugs.’

THE AFRICA KLEPTOCRACY PROJECT

In June 2008, when presidential candidate Barack Obama was a few months away from electoral victory, I warned those dictators who survive by pick-pocketing the American taxpayer of the arrival of a ‘new sheriff’ in town and advised them to clean up their acts and ‘shape up’: ‘A new sheriff is coming to town. He does not carry a six-shooter but carries a law book. And he’s laying down the law for all the tin-pot dictators of the world.’[1] In April 2009, I ‘read the tea leaves’[2] again and urged Africa’s panhandling dictators to ‘ride out before the big roundup’ because the ‘new sheriff and posse are in town’. I am glad to say I read the tea leaves just right.

Barack’s posse was a little late but finally showed up in Kampala, Uganda, last week to lay down the law to Africa’s top kleptocrats (thieves masquerading as ‘heads of state’) gathered at their annual summit. President Obama’s ‘undersheriffs’, Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder and Johnnie Carson, US assistant secretary for African affairs, told the huddled kleptocrats that a special Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI) has been established in the US Justice Department to recover the money they and their criminal cohorts have stolen from their citizens and restore it to its intended use:

‘I am pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Justice is launching a new Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative aimed at combating large-scale foreign official corruption and recovering public funds for their intended – and proper – use: for the people of our nations. We’re assembling a team of prosecutors who will focus exclusively on this work and build upon efforts already underway to deter corruption… I know that prosecution is not the only effective way to curb global corruption. We will continue to work with your governments to strengthen the entire judicial sector… We must also work with business leaders to encourage, ensure and enforce sound corporate governance. We should not, and must not settle for anything less… As many here have learned — often in painful and devastating ways — corruption imperils development, stability, competition and economic investment. It also undermines the promise of democracy… Like President Obama, I believe that the 21st century will be shaped by what happens here in Africa. Your security and prosperity, the health of your people and the strength of your civil society, will have a direct and profound impact on the world’s communities and on the advancement of human rights and human progress everywhere.’

A couple of months ago, A.G. Holder, addressing the 35-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, said:

‘Put simply, corruption undermines the promise of democracy. It imperils development, stability and faith in our markets. And it weakens the rule of law. Corruption erodes, even destroys, the faith of citizens in their governments. As I speak, a corrupt official somewhere is enjoying undeserved and illegal proceeds. He may be driving a brand-new luxury car. She may be filling her off-shore bank account with tainted cash. They may be traveling first-class on all-expenses-paid holidays. Bribery in international business, for example, may center on shell companies and wire transfers, but no matter where — or how — it happens, the corrosive result is the same: stymied development, lost confidence and distorted competition. The result is unfairness, not justice; the consequence is economic decay, not development.’

AFRICAN KLEPTOCRATS AS ORGANISED CRIMINALS (MAFIA)

In my commentary ‘Africorruption, Inc.’, I argued that the business of African governments is corruption.[3] In other words, the majority of African ‘leaders’ seize political power to operate sophisticated criminal enterprises to loot their national treasuries and resources. President Obama’s approach to dealing with corrupt African governments is consistent with the informed view that corruption is not only the lifeblood of African dictatorships but also the most important single factor that accounts for gross violations of human rights and the violent suppression of democratic institutions on the continent. Just like any organised criminal enterprise, be they street-level or Mafia-style gangsters, African kleptocrats have used threats, fear, intimidation and violence to maintain and perpetuate their corrupt financial empires. In that context, A.G. Holder’s announcement was nothing short of breathtaking. It was as though he was addressing the national convention of the ‘Commissione’ of all the Mafia families from New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, St Louis, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. In Kampala, he was talking directly to the African equivalents of the godfathers of the Bonnano, Columbo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime families in one place. It was almost surreal.

Though A.G. Holder told the African kleptocrats that he has a posse of special corruption prosecutors saddled up, he omitted telling them what tools he would be using to bring them to justice. They can rest assured that he will be coming after them armed with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as the RICO Act or RICO; 18 U.S.C. § 1961–1968). RICO was originally enacted to prosecute the Mafia and others actively engaged in organised criminal activity. Over the years its use has been expanded to cover corporate and other crimes, and now its application is likely to be expanded even further to go after the corrupt and thieving African dictators who launder hundreds of millions of dollars every year in the US buying businesses and homes and making ‘investments’ in legitimate commercial enterprises. Section 1962 of RICO provides in part:

‘(a) It shall be unlawful for any person who has received any income derived, directly or indirectly, from a pattern of racketeering activity… to use or invest, directly or indirectly, any part of such income, or the proceeds of such income, in acquisition of any interest in, or the establishment or operation of, any enterprise which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce. (b)… through a pattern of racketeering activity… to acquire or maintain, directly or indirectly, any interest in or control of any enterprise which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce… (c) It shall be unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity… (d) It shall be unlawful for any person to conspire to violate any of the provisions of subsection (a), (b), or (c) of this section.’

Simply stated, African kleptocrats who rob their nations blind and bring their stolen loot to the US to launder it will be tracked down and forced to disgorge and face jail time as well. What is potentially devastating to African kleptocrats is the fact that a RICO charge could be brought not only against them, but also their associates, business partners, investors and any others in the US or elsewhere who ‘directly or indirectly’ facilitate their criminal enterprises. The penalties are severe: up to US$25,000 and 20 years in prison per racketeering count. The racketeer must give up all of the gains from their criminal activity, including the hundreds of millions tucked away in US banks. RICO also allows private individuals damaged by the racketeer to file a civil suit and collect treble (three times) damages if they are successful. Proving a RICO charge in court is considered to be relatively easy as it focuses on patterns of behaviour as opposed to criminal acts. Since conspiracy is one of the charges that could be brought in a RICO case, the kleptocrats’ underlings, accountants, business associates, partners and collaborators could be prosecuted.

FIXING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY PROSECUTING KLEPTOCRATS

A.G. Holder says the Obama administration is committed to battling corruption as ‘one of the great struggles of our time’. Holder’s words, if translated into concrete action, could have a huge impact not only on governance in Africa but also in improving human rights protections. Corruption is fundamentally a human rights issue. As Peter Eigen, founder and chairman of Transparency International has argued, ‘[C]orruption leads to a violation of human rights in at least three respects: corruption perpetuates discrimination, corruption prevents the full realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights, and corruption leads to the infringement of numerous civil and political rights. Beyond that, corruption undermines the very essence of the rule of law and destroys citizens' trust in political leaders, public officials and political institutions.’

The fascinating thing about the Obama administration’s approach is its creative use of US criminal statutes to deal with African dictators as organised criminal enterprises. Simply stated, the administration has decided to deal with African dictators as Mafia bosses! If the US could effectively investigate, vigorously prosecute and aggressively seize the assets of Africa’s kleptocrats, the continent may finally begin to see significant improvements in human rights and governance, a dramatic reduction in corruption and generate significant resources from recovered assets for investment in infrastructure and other social programmes for the African population.

As I have previously documented,[3] Transparency International [TI] (the global coalition against corruption) in its 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) again bestowed upon Africa the dubious honour of being kleptocracy central, the continental home of the world’s most corrupt governments in the world. Leading the parade of kleptocracies are the regimes in Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya and the warlords of Somalia. These countries scored an atrocious 3.0 or less on the index. In certain countries, the corruption trend appears to be irreversible. For instance, in 2002, Ethiopia received a dismal score of 3.5 on the corruption index. In 2009, eight years after the ruling regime had established the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (FEAC) with great fanfare and after periodic reports of ‘major accomplishments’ in combating corruption, Ethiopia's score dropped to an abysmal 2.7.

Publicly owned assets are acquired in Ethiopia by regime supporters or officials through illegal transactions and fraud. Banks loan millions of dollars to front enterprises owned by regime officials or their supporters without sufficient or proper collateral. Businessmen must pay huge bribes or kickbacks to participate in public contracting and procurement. Those involved in the import–export business complain of shakedowns by corrupt customs officials. The judiciary is thoroughly corrupted through political interference and manipulation, as evidenced in the various high-profile political prosecutions. Ethiopians on holiday visits driving about town complain of shakedowns by police thugs on the streets. Even the US State Department spokesman Ian Kelley stated last year that the US is investigating allegations that ‘$850 million in food and anti-poverty aid from the U.S. is being distributed on the basis of political favoritism by the current prime minister's party.’

Over the past three years, high-profile corruption cases in Ethiopia have been reported in the media. In one case, it was established that ‘USD$16 million dollars’ worth of gold bars simply walked out of the bank in broad daylight. The official ‘anti-corruption’ agency described the heist as a ‘huge scandal that took place in the Country's National Bank and took many Ethiopians by surprise [in which] corruptors dared to steal lots of pure gold bars that belonged to the Ethiopian people replacing them with gilded irons... Some employees of the Bank, business people, managers and other government employees were allegedly involved in this disastrous and disgracing scandal.’ In another case involving a telecommunications deal with the Chinese, a high-level regime official was secretly tape-recorded trying to extort kickbacks for himself and other regime officials. The same ‘anti-corruption’ agency reported that ‘there was another big corruption case at the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation that took many Ethiopians by surprise’ which involved the ‘competitive tendering for the supply of telecommunication equipment’. After an investigation, FEAC ‘found out that nearly 200 million USD has been lost to corruption through the entire fraudulent and corrupt process’. No high-level official in good standing with the regime has ever been investigated or prosecuted for corruption.

The poor and powerless bear the brunt of corruption in Africa. The devastating impact of corruption on the continent's poor becomes self-evident as political leaders and public officials siphon off resources from critical school, hospital, road and other public works and community projects to line their pockets. As for President Obama, it seems that he has finally found the silver bullet to deal with Africa’s corrupt thugs. In a pun, no more cash and KARI for Africa’s kleptocrats.

To be continued…

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This article was originally published by The Huffington Post.
* Alemayehu G. Mariam is professor of political science at California State University (CSU), San Bernardino.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] http://www.ethiomedia.com/all/6070.html
[2] http://www.abugidainfo.com/?p=8693
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/africorruption-inc_b_367268.html

Theatre for change: Pillars of Kibera

Lucy Bamforth

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66665

Pillars of Kibera is a theatre-for-social-change group based in Kibera, Nairobi. Comprised of 25 passionate young people, this theatre group creates their own performance pieces using dance, drama, music and poetry to address the social issues faced by Kibera residents. This audio-slideshow is made up of photographs from the group’s rehearsals and performances, along with interviews from group members about Pillars of Kibera discussing how it brings change to the community and how it has changed themselves.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Lucy Bamforth is an intern with Fahamu's Kenya office.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

It’s a new day, the sun is shining, we’ve made it!

L. Muthoni Wanyeki

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/66658

This is it! Finally, after protracted struggles dating back at least two decades (if not more) Kenya has a new constitution.

Kenyans voted in high numbers with a turnout of just over 70 per cent of all registered voters to say yes to a new constitution

The statutory requirement of 50 per cent plus one and 25 per cent in at least five provinces was easily surpassed, with just under 70 per cent of Kenyans who voted endorsing and legitimising the new Constitution.

It is a new day for Kenya.

Polling, counting and tallying was, by and large, peaceful., but this being Kenya, they were not without their funny side as well.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) signaled its determination to get polling materials out by any and all means possible, including boats (one of which leaked and capsized and had to be followed by another) and via Kenya’s long-suffering donkeys!

The Provincial Administration ensured that Kenyans exercised their patriotic duty to vote soberly: in at least two areas, bars were ordered to stay closed until well after the 5 pm voting deadline. This did not stop one presiding officer from having to be replaced for being drunk, but such little blips aside, Kenyans showed up to polling stations early. Most polling station lines were long in the morning and fairly easy to manage by early afternoon.

The electronic transmission of results from individual polling stations also went smoothly.

The generally expectant celebratory mood at the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya was marred by only two things: An early accusation of rigging and a statement to the effect that the National Council of Churches of Kenya rejected the results. This statement was quickly refuted by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church.

Tension over the manner in which the polling station results were being released was eventually resolved in a mediation meeting between representatives of the Yes and No campaigns together with the IIEC.

All credit here goes to the IIEC, which handled both potential disruptions with calm and decorum, acutely aware of the possible effects of not doing so on the ground, particularly given reports coming in from Kericho of roadblocks being erected and, further north, threats against the Turkana from the Pokot for having voted ‘wrongly.’

Credit must also be given to the massive and visible security presence in those areas and, less visibly, in Nairobi), which enabled a quick response to both situations in a manner that did not escalate them. Even rangers from the Kenyan Wildlife Service had been deployed to join the security effort.

In short, the state took its obligations to assure Kenyans of their security seriously, and doing so paid off. Nothing is being taken for granted following the referendum - the deployment of security officials will extend until at least August 9.

that Kenya has shown, through the IIEC, state security agencies as well as the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, Peacenet’s national alert system and the mass of civil society organisations involved in monitoring the referendum process, that we can and will make sure that our electoral process is restored. Hongera to all.

But hongera too to the long legacy of struggle that has brought us to this place.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the academics and students associated with the left, the parliamentarians of that time who stood up to the then president, the lone voices among the Christian clergy like that of Reverend Timothy Njoya.

In the 1990s, this coalition of influences enabled the formation of the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy as well as the emerging human rights movement and the independent media, along with the parties to the National Convention Executive Council and the National Constitutional Assembly and the ordinary Kenyans citizens who joined the public demonstrations and protests, including those who lost their lives on the second Saba Saba. This coalition also included the Ufungamano Initiative, which eventually merged under the Prof Yash Pal Ghai-led Constitution Review Commission of Kenya.

These groups were all involved in the Bomas process and ensured Kenya’s mediation agreements under the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation included a commitment to finalise the constitutional review process.

The Committee of Experts and the supporting Parliamentary Select Committee, as well as the ordinary Kenyans and the more organised civil society groups it upon themselves to criss-cross the country with civic education on the Proposed Constitution of Kenya. They were joined by some Christian leaders and politicians who stood on the right side of history and campaigned for a Yes vote. Hongera. Hongera. Hongera.

It has been such a long time coming. It has been at such great cost to so many Kenyans. But we have crossed the Rubicon and we are standing on the other side.

Now the work really begins. In the short term assuring post-referendum security is the priority, as is continuing with civic education in areas that still need to be reached.

In the short term there is the immense amount of legislation that needs to be amended, repealed and included in the new Constitution. There must be clarification about the criteria for and the process of appointments to the overseeing implementation commission and its supporting parliamentary committee and the public offices most immediately affected.

The state cannot be transformed without those capable of and willing to transform it. Identifying the hallmarks of such people and insisting on no less than the same is critical.

In the longer term, we ourselves all need to transform too, to internalise the fundamental changes in the nature of governance that the new Constitution has ushered in and begin to seize the opportunities for participation and representation in governance that it provides.

It is a new day. We have to renew ourselves and our conception of ourselves as Kenyans to meet it.

The sun is shining (literally, after weeks of cold and gloom). It is a new day.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This story first appeared in The East African.
* L. Muthoni Wanyeki is executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Women’s Day 2010: Remembering struggles, continuing struggles

Lesbian and Gay Equality Project

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66646

This Women’s Day the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) would like to commemorate not only the women's march to the Union Buildings on the 9th of August but also the consistent and varied struggles that women in this country have fought. Women in South Africa have asserted their independence and challenged racism and patriarchy in many ways that are often forgotten or ignored. For example it was black women, often single, who fought against imposed municipal beer halls and led struggles in the locations. Between 1920 and 1950 it was women who formed the core of the most successful unions and often served as their leadership. This history for survival and independence in addition to the protests around passes being extended to black women are only snippets of consistent and varied struggles.

Thinking about women’s day requires acknowledging, asserting and remembering this history, however it is also about examining what women’s day means now. Women’s day has far too often become a depoliticised ‘holiday’ sometimes simply reinforcing women's position in society as the nurturers, and as gentle maternal creations. Other commemorations are more progressive and focus on women's empowerment and activity and the critical struggles facing women today.

What both of these fail to do however, is to talk about the broader issue of gender relations- we forget that men are part of society too: women's oppression happens partly because society allows men to behave in certain ways. Domestic violence, rape and other abuses of women’s bodies do not happen in a vacuum. The kind of society that does not address patriarchy and its relationship to capitalism with assertions of gender binaries, the sanctity of heterosexuality and heterosexual marriage, is a society where women will not ever be free. If structural inequalities, a consideration of masculinity and the context of what it means to be a “real” man are not addressed, then we cannot effectively and thoroughly address issues facing all women, in their diversity.

This Women’s Day, the LGEP commemorates our history by committing to advancing multiple struggles of today.

Do not condone domestic violence by doing nothing!

People Opposed to Women Abuse

2010-08-12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW30WslahMc&feature=player_embedded

This social experiment was carried out using hidden cameras in a townhouse complex in Johannesburg. Don't condone violence by doing nothing. If you or anyone around you is experiencing domestic abuse please call the POWA helpline on 083 765 1235 or visit www.powa.co.za Counseling services and support is available.

South Africa: Organisations condemn arrest of journalist

2010-08-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66530

We are organisations that campaign for social justice. The success of our work is dependent on respect for the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. The right to free expression and freedom of the press and other media are essential components of democracy. That is why they are contained in the Bill of Rights. They are one of the essential means by which all people in South Africa, especially the vulnerable, exploited and poor, can hold government and the powerful private business sector to account.

This week Mzilikazi wa Afrika, a Sunday Times journalist, was arrested in Rosebank Johannesburg. The circumstances, manner and cause of his arrest all seem to point to intimidation by the state and attempts to suppress freedom of expression.

The arrest follows the exposure by the Sunday Times of questionable dealings by the National Police Commissioner, Bheki Cele. It comes during a national debate over proposed legislation to curtail press freedom, i.e. proposals for a new Protection of Information Act, changes to the Criminal Procedure Act and the ANC's proposals to establish a media tribunal.

We therefore unequivocally condemn the arrest of wa Afrika.

The media in South Africa, as anywhere else in the world, is very powerful and influential. We are not blind to its many shortcomings. The quality of journalism in South Africa is often mediocre. Newspapers, magazines and television sometimes make serious errors, permit unethical advertising and sometimes make false or charges against individuals.

We are concerned that the main media houses are overly concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations and consequently primarily represent the interests of a relatively small affluent portion of the population, thereby paying insufficient attention to the interests of poor and working class people.

There is undoubtedly a need for a better, more equal and more socially responsible media. There is a need for an informed public debate about the media, which the media should listen to. There is a need to democratise the media. There is a need for civil society oversight of the SABC to ensure that it is truly a public and politically independent broadcaster. There is a need to re-examine the institutions that are meant to govern the media and protect people from it abusing its power. There is a need to strengthen and enforce media ethics and to examine how this can be done.

But having said all this we restate that the non-negotiable starting point for this discussion is agreement that a free press plays a critical role in holding government, the private sector and their media competitors to account. Draconian anti-media legislation will make this impossible.

Over recent years there have been many occasions when serious media investigation and publication has helped to root out corruption and, expose wrongdoing and unethical conduct. This is vital to the reconstruction of SA. Thus the exposure and ultimate conviction of corrupt former Police Commissioner,

Jackie Selebi, was a direct result of investigative work by the Mail & Guardian and others. Thabo Mbeki's deadly AIDS denialism was justifiably the source of media condemnation. The media's role in highlighting campaigns for social justice is also critical, for example the shortage of school libraries, the rollout of an unsafe circumcision device in Kwazulu-Natal, the failure to provide private toilets in parts of Khayelitsha, the harassment faced by sex workers and hate crimes against foreigners, womenand gays and lesbians.

Unfortunately, we believe the crackdown on the media being encouraged by parts of government, some in the ANC and probably influential ‘tenderpreneurs’ and predatory elites is not aimed at improving the quality and responsibility of the media, or making it more equal. Instead it is aimed at hiding corruption, frustrating accountability and covering up service delivery failure. These are problems that now permeate every level of government; at national level, in all nine provinces and in most districts.

The Constitution was won by the sweat and blood of people who opposed and defeated apartheid censorship and repression. A brave, even if unfree, media played a part in this. We therefore wish to issue a warning to
the Cabinet and all those groups and individuals that we will campaign against all attempts to undermine press freedom and the Constitution. We are committed to equality, social justice and honest government. We will
defend the Bill of Rights. We will not be intimidated and we will not stand by and let the erosion of our fundamental freedoms happen.

Released by (in alphabetical order):
AIDC, Anti Privatisation Forum, Equal Education, Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP), Social Justice Coalition, SECTION27, Students for Law and Social Justice, SWEAT, Treatment Action Campaign

Zimbabwe civil society demands action from SADC!

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66648

As African leaders prepare to meet at the SADC Summit in Windhoek this month from 15 to 17, they must draw concrete plans to prevent state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe’s elections planned for 2011. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition calls upon SADC and AU leaders, as guarantors of Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement (GPA), which created a transitional power-sharing government to, among other things, ensure that Zimbabwe fully complies with SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections – including impartiality of electoral institutions.
As African leaders prepare to meet at the SADC Summit in Windhoek this month from 15 to 17, they must draw concrete plans to prevent state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe’s elections planned for 2011. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition calls upon SADC and AU leaders, as guarantors of Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement (GPA), which created a transitional power-sharing government to:

- Ensure that Zimbabwe fully complies with SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections – including impartiality of electoral institutions.
- Urge Zimbabwe to recognize the right of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to vote and put in place necessary administrative mechanisms to facilitate that vote.
- Facilitate technical support to the newly appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission by more experienced regional electoral bodies such as the South African Electoral Commission.
- Bar Zimbabwe from taking up a position in the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security for the duration of the on-going mediation process in Zimbabwe to preserve the independence of the Organ. - - Even in Zimbabwe, a player for one side cannot pull on a referee jersey.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition reiterates the message from Zimbabwean civil society leaders who travelled to Kampala, Uganda for the AU Summit from July 19 to 27, 2010 and called upon African leaders to ensure that Zimbabwe is sufficiently prepared to hold credible, free and fair elections and that the AU stands ready for robust monitoring of those elections. The AU should actively promote democracy, peace and security in Zimbabwe and across Africa.
For more information please contact: coordinator@crisiszimbabwe.org; or visit our website: www.crisiszimbabwe.org
Mobile: +263 912 913 418 or +44 75 6403 4146

The true face of neoliberalism

Review of ‘Social Justice and Neoliberalism’

Jamie Pitman and Adzowa Kwabla Oklikah

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/66644

‘Social Justice and Neoliberalism’ is a welcome companion to the already extensive canon of work analysing neoliberalism. I have chosen the word ‘companion’ rather than, say, ‘addition’ as the book is an attempt to shift the focus from stock exchanges and politicians to the damage neoliberalism inflicts on real people and their communities. With this new lens the editors, Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning and Katie Willis, hope to redefine neoliberalism by inspiring an understanding of it that moves away from the monolithic, homogenised global steamroller approach of other writers and theorists.

The editors outline their intention to challenge our ‘existing perspectives of neoliberalism’ in the introduction. Indeed, this is the overarching aim of the book, which takes the form of eight essays bookended by an introduction and conclusion, both written by Smith, Stenning and Willis themselves. To add meat to the bones of this central premise, an impressive amount of longitudinal fieldwork has gone into the project, which uses case studies from the UK, Ghana, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Argentina and Peru. Aside from the main revisionist objective, each chapter also revisits four connecting themes: (1) resistance to neoliberalisation; (2) the role neoliberalism plays in atomising society (by prioritising entrepreneurship and individualisation); (3) alternatives to neoliberalism both inside and outside the market system and, as suggested by the title, (4) the space for equality and social justice within the new order.

From Smith, Stenning and Willis’ contention that much of the preceding work on neoliberalism has been too nomothetic (which means generalised), it follows that a lot of this previous work has concentrated on the more obvious figureheads of neoliberalism such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan or economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. Because the editors’ mission statement is to create a different understanding of neoliberalism, it similarly follows that they, and the other writers involved, have ignored those familiar names and focused on people living on the margins of the neoliberal consensus instead.

Essentially then, this is neoliberalism ‘from below’, grounded in local contexts and using marginalised people for a lens, all done with the intention of fleshing out the dichotomy that anthropology professor Aihwa Ong succinctly describes as big ‘N’ and little ‘n’ neoliberalism. Within the essays that have been compiled, there are both continuities and contradictions which are often used by the authors as proof of the ad hoc nature of neoliberalism – as compared to the ‘one size fits all’ model that the authors wish to contest. Therefore it is only superficially surprising to find that some aspects of neoliberalisation are actually praised, such as giving migratory workers from the global South the opportunity of previously unimaginable income generation, moving away from the exploitative drudgery of the Fordist Keynesian era and creating new space for entrepreneurs, as highlighted by Colin Marx in his chapter on Durban. However, this eulogising is rare and the chapters on Polish and Ghanaian migrant workers in London, the working poor in Manchester, Turkish clothing industry workers and out-of-work youngsters in post-socialist Germany are all starkly critical of what has been termed neoliberal ‘violence’.

To lay the foundations for the central plank of their argument, the first and second essays contained in the book are all about placing neoliberalism in unfamiliar surroundings. Chapter one discusses the barter or trueque networks set up in Argentina following the economic crash of 2001. Chapter two investigates neoliberalism’s relationship with the ‘non-economic’: in this case, religious social justice activists in the Peruvian Andes. Both essays are well written but academic in their prose (although some of the later chapters become more accessible). However, in terms of ‘challenging our existing perspectives of neoliberalism’, they are less successful. Chapter one details the resistance the Argentinians presented to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) restructuring in 2001. People expressed their rage at austerity by rioting, prompting the resignation of four presidents in a week. The fifth president, a Peronist named Eduardo Duhalde, removed the dollar-to-peso peg imposed by the IMF. Buoyed on by this success, millions of Argentinians joined the newly formed barter networks to cut all remaining ties to the poisoned peso.

Whilst the trueque networks were a magnificent achievement on their own terms, I would argue that the three days of rioting in Buenos Aires were more of a success in terms of rocking the neoliberal order – after all, forcing the resignation of four presidents does not lie easily with the neoliberal characteristic of consolidating and reproducing social elites. However, barter networks themselves actually conform to neoliberal philosophy. Even the intellectual father of neoliberalism, Friedrich Hayek, supported them in principal (as well as other forms of denationalised currency) because they represent a market-based solution that promotes entrepreneurship and reduces the role of the state.

I also found the arguments to be flimsy in the next chapter, which asks us to consider whether religion can act as a buffer to ‘soften’ neoliberalism. The first bone I would pick is in the assertion that religion and capitalism are entirely removed from one another. Major forks in two of the three major Abrahamic religions have their starting points in the tensions between labour and capital, whilst the third of the three was a precursor of, and shaped much of the modern banking industry. Therefore, the premise that neoliberalism and Catholicism (the religion featured here) are somehow juxtaposed is historically misleading. Similarly, the central question of whether or not ‘neoliberalism can be softened’ is flawed as well. If it cannot – at least superficially enough to convince voters – then the book’s entire premise of exposing a pluralism of neoliberalisms would fall at the first hurdle (or, to be accurate, the second chapter).

The following chapters are more in keeping with the intentions Smith, Stenning and Willis laid out in the introduction. The lived experiences of steel workers in Leipzig, cleaners from the Ghanaian diaspora and textile workers in Usak, amongst others, are finely etched and arouse empathy. There is a lovely irony in the fact that the sum of these atomised case studies (that is to say the stories of individual people) exposes the levels of alienation that neoliberalism embeds within people. The ironic part is that capitalist ideology praises atomisation and self-interest but these studies help to reveal the true consequences of following such a dogmatic path. Literary and media critics sometimes refer to attacking or exposing something by turning its own characteristics against it as ‘detournement’, but I think the expression ‘shot with its own bullet’ is much more pleasing.

The theme of alienation looms so largely across the remaining chapters that it represses some of the other themes that the editors had hoped to visit (such as resistance to neoliberalism and social justice). Chapter three for example, investigates Ghanaian and Polish migratory workers in London who, despite their shared predicaments, which include working long hours for little pay and living in squalid conditions, are suspicious and hostile towards one another and, perhaps surprisingly, even to their fellow countrymen (who they view as competition). Most sadly of all, many migratory workers are often qualified to much higher levels than the employment they take on reflects. Thus the editors show that the trade-off for financial reward entails a lessening of social status and self-worth.

The following chapter concentrates on the experiences of the working poor in Manchester. It also helps to shed more light on the alienation felt by the Polish and Ghanaian diaspora by providing the experiences of a sample of indigenous people as a comparator. Whilst the feelings between all three groups are almost identical, they all look upon any other groups, and even individuals, with distrust and dislike. The reader, from their dispassionate vantage point, is able to identify the problem as system failure rather than the diagnosis of personal failure that the people featured in the book have settled upon. Of course, we rarely get the opportunity to see this bigger picture in our own lives and, barring a team of critical geographers following us about to write a book, it is all too easy to slide into this sort of alienation. We see ourselves at fault and the system around us as being perfectly natural. Individuals are then compelled to make themselves the centre of all their life plans, a process of ‘making the neoliberal self’ that is explored in chapter six.

Drawing such interconnections and comparisons between the essays is a testament to how well compiled the book is. There are some omissions whose inclusion might have benefited the presentation of the bigger picture, such as an essay from one of the Eastern economies, given their importance on the world stage, and possibly a look at a less marginalised, more middle class group, to show that being more successful in the race for property and commodity accumulation can still be an empty and alienating experience when one shuts their own front door. But in a system where everything is being commodified, a system which Watts describes as the ‘privatisation of everything’,(p.231) it is probably unfair to start listing omissions.

In the conclusion, the editors cite the different ways in which the subjects of the essays, and indeed the particular governments of those subjects, experience and implement neoliberalism as proof of its varied nature. This leads me to my own conclusion, in which I would dispute this fundamental finding. The results were always going to be varied and scattershot, coming as they do from such geographically broad fieldwork. Even if you disregard the lack of proximity between the featured locations (which I feel is one of the book’s strengths), people themselves cannot be corralled into the same ways of thought, interpretations or reality, which means the results will always appear varied. Whilst I do not dispute that neoliberalism can appear to be different through different filters, that does not make it new, different or changed. For instance, there were many global variations of third way politics in the 1990s but their common denominator was neoliberalism. The political rhetoric that made them appear different was only smoke and mirrors – the more democratic a nation might be, then the more smoke and mirrors would be needed by the politicians to hoodwink the voters. Simply put, the capitalists’ and the workers’ personal experience of capitalism will always be different from one and another’s, just as the experience of a worker in Accra will be different from a worker in Istanbul or London. These facts do not alter the nature of neoliberalism itself. Therefore, I cannot say that the authors succeed in their goal of challenging our definition of neoliberalism. Enhancing it – yes, but redefining it – no. This assertion is nicely illustrated by the fact that 6 out of 10 essays cite David Harvey’s ‘A Brief History of Neoliberalism’ in their work, a seminal work of the ‘nomothetic’, big-picture kind the editors are trying to move away from.

Another miss might be said to be the examples of resistance to neoliberalism. The low-level entrepreneurship, migratory employment (which often means dealing with racialised immigration laws) and the barter networks might, in some cases, provide a bloody nose to the elites but do not pose a threat to the neoliberal consensus. Nor do any of these things help those who are marginalised climb out of their situation. However, this sad truth does help the reader realise that social justice and neoliberalism are impossible bedfellows.

There is still much to recommend ‘Social Justice and Neoliberalism’, although it seems regrettable to have made the revisionism angle such a central plank of the book. If we remove that aspect (which is easily done by taking the introduction and conclusion from the equation) then we are left with a reasonably accessible academic piece. Whilst not every reader will have encountered concepts such as ‘reification’ or theorists such as Michel Foucault before, we can all of us empathise with the human tales of neoliberalism’s failings on offer here. Therefore, I have no hesitation in recommending this book as a companion piece, but I would also recommend that you read David Harvey’s book or something similar first.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* ‘Social Justice and Neoliberalism’, edited by Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning and Katie Willis, is published by Zed Books (London/New York) and is priced £60 (hardback)/£18.99 (paperback). ISBN: 9781842779194 (Hardback)/ 9781842779200 (Paperback).
* Jamie Pitman is a politics and economics student at Ruskin College, Oxford. In what seems like a previous life he was a docker and then a carpenter.
* Adzowa Kwabla Oklikah, 31, was born and raised in London to a Ghanaian father and English mother. She works in the environment sector and lives and works in London.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Dudus is a familiar story

Response to ‘Gangsters, politicians, cocaine and bankers’

Raoul Pantin

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66654

The Dudus story is familiar to those of us in Trinidad who are becoming increasingly alarmed by the murders (500 a year average) and the flourishing trade in cocaine and guns.

The previous PNM government of Prime Minister Patrick Manning had open links with so-called ‘community leaders’, who were in fact gangsters with control over whole poor communities. Respectable business links to the cocaine trade are also suspect though so well covered it's almost impossible to expose.

One particular swanky residential area is known as Cocaine Alley because of suspicions of links between the high-profile businessmen who live there and the cocaine trade. The importation of guns is also a flourishing business linked to the cocaine trade.

Criminal activity here, often referred to as ‘gang wars’ by the police largely involves competition for territory and control of the trade in illegal drugs.

Kenya’s ‘Yes’ win is not about politicians

Ngunjiri Wambugu

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66655

I realize that what I will say might not be very popular, but I want to desperately plead with the media, & everyone else involved in discussing about what Kenya has just achieved through this Referendum Vote – to ensure that it does not become a story about how politicians fared: who delivered, who did not: who are winners & who are not: etc. Am I saying that politicians did not work – NO. They did. They delivered, and they did a good job. However, at some point they were playing their own games while ordinary Kenyans were sincerely looking for the truth, and this intense desire for the truth from the ordinary populace is what shifted a lot of water melon type politicians to go green, & it also motivated those politicians already green, to work even harder. Lets appreciate the politicians for stepping up their game, but lets give credit for the overwhelming decision for YES where it belongs-to ordinary Kenyans of all walks of life.

I say this because what we have achieved has been made possible through the sacrifice of ordinary Kenyans: ordinary people went out & spoke for the proposed constitution in public forums: ordinary people read the proposed constitution & compared it with the current one: ordinary people went against their own clergy-a difficult decision in the best of circumstances: ordinary people sacrificed over the years: ......& the list goes on. My main fear is that if we make this precious moment in Kenya's history about politicians, we risk loosing all these ordinary Kenyans, who stepped out of their comfort zones, at a most crucial part of the process: implementation of the new constitution. What I mean is that ordinary Kenyans who now own this process, will have it taken out of their hands again, and given over to a small elite who do not always do what is in the best interests of the masses. We also risk demotivating those who felt they were performing a national duty-which once again leaves the hard work to a small elite.

It happened in 1963, in 1992, in 2002. Let’s make sure it does not happen again in 2010.

Media, I hope you are listening.

Professor Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba: Appeal for solidarity

Jacques Depelchin

2010-08-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66656

Dear Friends of Professor Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba,

I urge you to read the following appeal for solidarity for and with Professor Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba currently residing in Kinshasa (DRC). I hope that you will read it closely and that together with others we can together find an answer worthy of Africa the cradle of humanity and the site of a civilisation in continuous construction. I thank you for your attention.

We are currently living at a crossroads never before encountered in the history of humanity. It is at this crossroads that I wish to make an appeal in order to draw attention to the work of political reconstruction of Congolese society currently undertaken by Professor Wamba-dia-Wamba in Kinshasa. This work is characterised by remarkable self-sacrifice and humility given the current context of a generalised frantic and often desperate search for personal advancement.

Since the end of the transitional government (2006) during which time he was a senator, Professor Wamba-dia-Wamba has continued with the work he has known best, namely teaching by sharing his knowledge and by learning from those who are too frequently forgotten despite their fundamental role in building an emancipatory political culture in the Democratic Republic of Congo. An initiator and leader of the Centre Ota Benga Pour La Dignite Humaine [Kinshasa, DRC] he has followed this objective in partnership the Ota Benga Alliance for Peace, Healing and Dignity [Berkely, USA]. Some of this work can be read on the following site: www.otabenga.org.

From this daily work was slowly born a site of affirming and undertaking a politics of fidelity to all the figures who have struggled for the total and universal emancipation of humanity. In a country which has been targeted for destruction by those who could not accept people such as Patrice Emery Lumumba as head of state, the evaluation of this continuous process can be read in the text ”What Can be Said of the Republic of Congo Today?” which was an outcome of the collective discussions of the Mbongi a Nsi (Palaver Cafe) articulated and presented by Professor Wamba-dia-Wamba on the 12th January, 2009 (see: http://otabenga.org/node/157). This text can also be read as a statement in progress regarding how to think, affirm and undertake an emancipatory politics from the point of people.

Many people have not understood Professor Wamba-dia-Wamba’s choice to continue the struggle when others advised him “to return to teaching” (that is to say inter alia to the University of Dar-es-Salaam where he used to teach until 1998). This advice had not taken into account the fact that his choice was based on a simple practice emanating from a fidelity to the emancipatory subject of Congolese and African history. One of the components of this subject, Patrice Emery Lumumba, had written in his testament letter to his wife Pauline that the History of Congo would be written from Congo itself and not from foreign capitals such as Brussels, Washington, London or Paris. This is only one of the roots among many of Wamba’s choice which is founded in a cultural, philosophical and historical knowledge profoundly anchored in the country of his birth. One could in fact recognise in this choice another fidelity to the subject which is central to Aime Cesaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal.

In such a context is his choice really surprising? Should we rather not be surprised at the loneliness in which he finds himself especially given the radical voices always keen to cite Lumumba, Nkrumah, Fanon and Cabral but which in practice like to maintain a safe distance from the place where the socio-economic and political climate would make the task of “feeding the family”, of “survival” or even of “functioning as a university lecturer or researcher” an impossible one. The multiple obstacles in the path of a fidelity to the subject of emancipatory politics are today too numerous to list. Without wishing to be too harsh, does it not seem that pharisaic intellectualism today practiced under all skies (not only under African skies) far too easily absolves itself of a lack of fidelity to an ethics of the principles of truth, thus transforming its declarations into a masquerade which would not be that serious if it only blinded its authors.

To sum up, even at the risk of repetition, at the place where Professor Wamba is acting, principles of fidelity to emancipatory politics are being stated and constructed on a daily basis, thought by and for people from all walks of life, at a distance from a politics conceived and practiced by the state. Together they are in the process of building a political practice in which people speak in their own name. Together they are bringing into being a site of the production and reproduction of knowledge founded on the conviction that people think, including and especially those who do not arrogate to themselves the right and the expertise to think on the grounds of possessing a diploma.

In order for this appeal to be heard should we recall the curriculum vitae of Professor Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba? According to what criteria should his singular path be evaluated? Which criteria other than the patent proof of his continued militancy for the most disadvantaged, the most exploited and the weakest should decide the response of the judges? The principal reasons for this appeal relate both to the urgency of the situation and to the necessity of avoiding the outcome that one of the most committed intellectuals for another Africa, for another humanity and for another world, end his life like a dog, hungry, ill and abandoned in the street. A few months ago it was practically in such conditions that he nearly left us, and the worst was only avoided because of the generous solidarity of parents, friends, brothers, sisters and comrades. What the present appeal seeks, is a solution which would enable Professor Wamba-dia-Wamba to give his all without having to worry if he is going to eat the next day or to afford a visit to the doctor to find out why he is not feeling well. This is not an appeal for charity but for a solidarity which could avoid what happened to Professor Archie Mafeje (not to mention others less well known) a few months ago, an end in destitution and isolation which recalls the fate reserved for those on death row.

I would like to leave to Professor Wamba-dia-Wamba’s peers the task of judging whether his career has been and continues to be up to the standards which the history of Africa today requires of its most committed intellectuals for the total and complete emancipation of humanity. I dare to hope that the response to this appeal will give the lie to the following observation (a working hypothesis in the process of being confirmed) that practically all the great resistors of the history of humanity, with a few rare exceptions, found themselves chained to distress and solitude in their last moments - with the assent of those with whom they thought they were the most in solidarity. This end was that of among others, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Patrice Emery Lumumba, Ota Benga, Simon Kimbangu, Kimpa Vita, Zumbi de Palmares, Anastasia, Nehanda, Geronimo, Che Guevara. This solitude and distress is also the lot of the women, tortured and raped to death in the DRC, especially but not uniquely in the East of the country, of children initiated by violence to sow destruction about them.

I would like to thank those who have read this appeal to the end for their patient generosity. From those who may have felt irritated by my remarks for one reason or another, I would request indulgence and forgiveness.

In solidarity and for the return of humanity to the cradle of its birth,

Jacques Depelchin,
Visiting Professor
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana
Feira de Santana,
Bahia
Brazil

Katiba mpya: Names for it

Shailja Patel

2010-08-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/66632

brightness of joy how it
drips off our fingers
pools in our navels
gulps up the sun

thirst of our joy how it
swallows the highways
matatus and weaverbirds
rocket our ribs

tidal of joy how it
carries this country
anthems that surf
the green dazzle of trees

gentle of joy how it
melts out of garbage heaps
laps at the flex
of ten million walking legs
unhinges the pincers
of history's heartbreaks
kisses them into the wind

here comes shadow here
comes shadow welcome
shadow sit with joy

i could cup all anger this moment
in the quiet of my joy
i could fold the world's dementia
in the quiet of my joy
i could still the planet's sirens
in the quiet
in the quiet
in the quiet of my.......

come to us like a thunderstorm
enter us like rain
sweep through us like a monsoon wind
then seed in us like flame
wake in us like an untold story
cry in us like a lone survivor
rip through us like a parturition
claw your way out of our bodies

pour and swallow what it takes
(and it takes everything)
surge and carry what it takes
(and it takes everything)
hold and cradle what it takes
every moment every breath
nothing less than everything
is what it takes
to dream

'Katiba mpya' = New constitution

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Award-winning poet Shailja Patel's personal website is www.shailja.com.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Two MDC activists hospitalized after ZANU PF attacks

2010-08-13

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news120810/twomdc120810.htm

While some senior politicians in the coalition government bury their heads in the sand, professing ignorance about incidents of violence, it is the ordinary villagers in remote areas who are facing the reality of ongoing ZANU PF sponsored political violence. After a recent attack by ZANU PF supporters in Chipinge two MDC activists, Perpetua Pedzisai and Tsvakai Muzhambi, were said to be battling for their lives at clinics in Murambi and Sasu. According to a statement released by the MDC the attacks were an attempt to bar the activists from participating in outreach meetings, taking place to try shape the content of a new constitution.

Zimbabwe nets around $71 million from diamond auction

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/aXrtch

Zimbabwe's government netted around $71 million from a major sell-off of rough diamonds from its controversial Chiadzwa diamond fields, the country's mining minister has said. On Wednesday, Zimbabwe resumed full-scale diamond exports by auctioning close to 1 million carats to international buyers at Harare airport.

Global: Networking for women's health care

2010-08-13

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/303198/347

This eight-page report details the outcomes of the Parliamentarians for Women's Health project, which was spearheaded by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, and Tanzania. The project sought to form networks between HIV-positive women, their communities, and members of parliament (MPs). Although the report states that results varied by country, researchers found that, overall, the project gave MPs a better understanding of women's barriers to HIV/AIDS treatment and care, and that networking strengthened women's ability to advocate on issues that affect them.

Global: Status of female farmers rises during food crisis

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/9yuvNI

The women who grow more than half the world's agricultural produce have gained international recognition and aid since the start of the global food crisis in 2007. Instead of being seen as a minor, vulnerable group, international aid agencies have begun keeping sex-specific data and reaching out to them as development partners, said Jeannette Gurung, director of the Washington-based Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and National Resource Management.

Kenya: New constitution a winner with women

2010-08-13

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52411

A day after Kenyans voted to accept a new constitution, women across the country speak about their hopes and expectations.

The case of Elizabeth Chazima could stand for the story of millions of women in Kenya who have been robbed of their financial contributions to matrimonial assets. Speaking from her modest grocery store in Jericho Estate, Nairobi, Chazima recounts how in the early 1990s, her husband sold the house they had bought together without her knowledge.

Mali: 400 villages stop female genital mutilation

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/c2P5Iw

Despite some resistance, the fight against female genital mutilations (FGM) has recorded significant progress in Mali, with over 400 villages putting a stop to the practice. According to the directorate of the National Programme of the Fight against Excision (PNLE), the good result arose from intense advocacy and sensitization programme across the country.

South Africa: This women’s month I’m learning to be me

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/9sf89c

Have you ever walked past a car window and checked your reflection to make sure your hair looks just right? Perhaps spent an hour perfecting your make-up before you head out? Have you looked at Halle Berry's body and thought, "Ah, I wish I had that body?" I'm sure most women can relate to this constant quest to look good, but what is beauty -- just what does looking good mean today? Considering this is Women's Month in South Africa, I decided now was a good time to find out exactly what kind of woman I want to be.

Tanzania: Kivulini women's rights organisation

2010-08-13

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/321508/38

Kivulini was established in 1999 by six women who felt compelled to respond to the needs of women experiencing domestic violence in the city of Mwanza in Tanzania. The organisation seeks to address the root causes of domestic violence by working closely with community members and leaders to change attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate violence against women. In Swahili, Kivulini means "in the shade/shelter" and is intended to imply a safe place where women, men, and children feel supported.

Africa: Seychelles ratifies ICC

2010-08-13

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35591

The Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles has become the latest country to ratify the pact establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is tasked with trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Seychelles ratified the 1998 Rome Statute yesterday, which means it will enter into force for that country on 1 November, according to a press release issued by the court in The Hague, the Dutch city where it is headquartered

DRC: International justice denied?

2010-08-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90140

On a typically busy morning in North Kivu’s capital city Goma, nobody at the bank paid much attention to Bosco Ntaganda and his bodyguards. It had been a hectic few days for the rebel commander-turned-army general, who had also attended meetings with the provincial governor and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila.

Global: Hydroelectric dams pose threat to tribal peoples, report warns

2010-08-13

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/6323

Giant hydroelectric dams being built or planned in remote areas of Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Peru and Guyana will devastate tribal communities by forcing people off their land or destroying hunting and fishing grounds, according to a report by Survival International. The first global assessment of the impact of the dams on tribes suggests more than 300,000 indigenous people could be pushed towards economic ruin and, in the case of some isolated Brazilian groups, to extinction.

Senegal: Children with disability – when stigma means abandonment

2010-08-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90139

In Senegal many women refuse to take mentally disabled children on public transport; families hide children with mental or neurological disorders, and some parents disown them outright. Such is the stigma of having a child with these widely misunderstood illnesses. "In Senegal people simply regard children with such conditions as 'abnormal', whatever the disability - mental or physical," said Ngor Ndour, a psychologist specializing in mental disorders in children.

Sierra Leone: Group wants Campbell diamonds returned

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/bXyhtf

Sierra Leone's human rights body has urged the government and the special court in The Hague to "retrieve the blood diamonds" that Naomi Campbell was given by war crimes accused Charles Taylor. "We have urged both parties to contact the South African government for the diamonds to be handed over to Sierra Leone," human rights commissioner Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff told journalists.

Sudan: Children too hungry to return to civilian life

2010-08-13

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52479

When Timothy was forced into the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) at age 11, the first thing they did was beat him. Then they took him to a military base where his tasks were to carry other soldiers’ bags, wash their clothes, collect firewood for them, and cook their food. Getting fed himself was tough for Timothy.

Tanzania: Life in a day at Hiari

2010-08-13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTQV8lWE5k

This video records a day in the life of Bibi Aminajati Kalema at Hiari Orphanage located in Chang'ombe, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Uganda: Uganda LRA rebels 'on massive forced recruitment drive'

2010-08-13

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10947791

Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been accused of going on a massive forced recruitment campaign in remote areas of central Africa. Human Rights Watch said the group had brutally abducted at least 697 adults and children over the past 18 months.

East Africa: 5,000 refugees enter Kenya monthly

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/cOigDP

An estimated 5,000 refugees troop into the country every month, according to the United Nations. Most of them find their way through the porous Kenya-Somalia border (4,000) to cap the number of foreigners seeking asylum in Kenya at 400,000. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that a contingency plan had already been put in place in case the situation in Somalia worsened.

Sudan: Referendum returnees "face food shortages"

2010-08-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90132

Months before Southern Sudan holds a referendum on possible secession from the north, officials have warned that feeding the influx of expected returnees will pose a problem. “A lot of people came just before the census, more came just before the elections,” said Matthew Abujin, Southern Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) secretary in charge of Central Equatoria. "With the referendum, we are expecting a very big number. Nobody wants to stay on the wrong side of the border.”

Sudan: Thousands struggle to survive as Kalma aid cut off

2010-08-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90149

Aid agencies are still barred from Kalma, the largest settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan’s Southern Darfur State, 10 days after the government blocked the UN and NGOs from distributing food and medical aid to an estimated 82,000 IDPs. Tensions in Kalma rose on 25 July, at the conclusion of the latest round of peace talks in Doha, Qatar, with some IDPs claiming they were not fully represented. Protests inside the camp pitted the detractors, mainly the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Abdul Wahid Mohamed el-Nur, against supporters of the negotiations.

Africa: Dakar launches a public consultation on the thematic axes for the 2011 edition

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/ac2SCQ

The International Council of the World Social Forum and the African Social Forum and the Senegalese Organizing Committee launch a public consultation until September 10th to finalize the thematic axes of the centralized edition of the WSF, to be held in Dakar, Senegal, on February 06-11 2011. This methodological proposal was defined after Mumbai (Maharashtra, India), five years ago.

South Africa: Another devastating shack fire in the Kennedy Road settlement

2010-08-13

http://www.abahlali.org/node/7251

The Kennedy Road shack settlement burnt once again at about 10 pm on Sunday, 08 August 2010 - two hours before women’s day. As of today thousands of residents in Kennedy are homeless in this cold winter weather. If the municipality had given them houses or provided them with basic services, such as electricity, refuse collection, road access and water they would have been safe from fire.

South Africa: Bodies found in gold mine after shooting

2010-08-13

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10965099

Four bodies have been found in an unused shaft of a mine run by relatives of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and ex-leader Nelson Mandela. Police said investigations were continuing into reports that up to 20 alleged illegal miners were shot dead by security at the mine.

Emerging Powers in Africa News Round-up

2010-08-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/66709

General

US goes high-end to boost export trade with Africa
The US is moving higher up the products advancement ladder to keep its share of trade with Africa where competition for the low-end market has intensified with availability of cheap goods from emerging economies such as China and India.
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China in Africa

The Gibe 3 Dam – A Test Case for China’s Role in Africa
The Gibe 3 Dam in Ethiopia is Africa’s most destructive dam project. So far, the Ethiopian government has not managed to attract any international finance for it. After several other funders pulled out, China’s biggest bank is expected to decide about a loan for Gibe 3 soon. The decision is an important test case for the environmental responsibility of China’s overseas lenders.
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China denies “exporting” convict labour for overseas projects
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday denied reports that Chinese firms were employing prison labour on overseas projects, describing the reports as “nonsense with no facts or evidence.” The government was responding to recent articles by New Delhi-based scholar Brahma Chellaney, a professor at the Centre for Policy Research, which described the use of forced convict labour on infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka and in building 4,000 houses in the Maldives.
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Hostility Toward Workers Cools Angola-China Relationship
Here, the love affair between China and Africa is on the wane. Oil-rich Angola, the recipient of at least $8.5 billion in infrastructure loan agreements from China, has become a symbol of the Asian nation's strategy in Africa. But cracks are showing in the relationship between the two countries, at a time when China is already showing a new interest in other regions—notably, ones where Western nations are reluctant to do business. Human-rights activists say Chinese workers and companies have been singled out for physical attacks. Meanwhile, staff and facilities have been targeted by antigovernment forces.
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China unveils proposals for agricultural cooperation with Africa
Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu Thursday put forward proposals to step up agricultural cooperation with Africa. Addressing the closing ceremony of a China-Africa agriculture forum, Hui proposed enhanced exchanges among agricultural departments, improved Sino-African agricultural cooperation mechanisms, and high-profile talks to set out the methods, key areas and plans for cooperation.
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VP woos China to modernise Kenya's agriculture
Mr Musyoka who paid a courtesy call to the Chinese Vice President Mr Xin Ping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing before attending the opening ceremony of the China-Africa Agricultural Forum, said there was need for Chinese firms to invest in the setting up of farm machinery manufacturing plants in Kenya that would serve both Kenya and the 120 million people in the East African Common Market.
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Zambia: Daka woos China to transfer its agro-tech
Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Peter Daka has called on China to consider transferring appropriate technologies in agro processing, aquaculture, irrigation and other areas that would help Zambia maximise its potential in the agriculture sector.Mr Daka has also called for private investment in supporting the production of various crops such as pineapple, mango, cashew nuts and groundnuts. The minister said technology transfer in other areas such as monitoring of environmental quality, animal vaccines, infrastructure development, equipment and research would benefit agriculture in the country.
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China, Africa forge farming ties
China's agricultural cooperation with Africa requires more strategy than passion, an executive from a leading Chinese agribusiness company has said, as the country plans to strengthen the China-Africa new strategic partnership with more focus on agricultural links. "The fragile political situation is still the biggest challenge for Chinese companies to invest in Africa," Xu Jun, deputy general manager of China State Farms Agribusiness Corporation (CSFAC), told China Daily on Tuesday.
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Chinese space centre to aid Namibian development efforts
Namibian science received a boost last month when China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, visited the country as part of a delegation to the China Space Tracking, Telemetry and Command Station, which Namibia hopes will lift its development effort.
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China’s Egypt, Africa investments
In the Middle East, no matter where you go, Chinese goods and products can be seen and bought everywhere: from the souq in Aleppo to the handbag stalls in Nablus; from Syrian taxis to the public buses roaming the streets of Tehran; even many religious garments such as Islamic headscarves and hats are now Chinese made – and a lot more are readily available at the Khan al-Khalili bazaar in Cairo. Likewise, in Africa, numerous Chinese firms are busy constructing public works and repairs with the blessing of many leaders from the Third World. For Egypt, its strategic location with immediate access to three continents means China not only regards it as an important trading partner in its own right and across the Arab World, but also as a stop-over and conduit for many more lucrative opportunities north in the Mediterranean, and also further south in deepest of Africa from mining, road construction to the continent’s fastest-growing sector: telecommunications.
Read More

BOC marks 10 years in South Africa
Bank of China (BOC) - the most internationalized bank in China - has long been committed to promoting foreign trade and international economic cooperation. Africa is an important strategic partner of China, and has received special attention from BOC. BOC sets the standard for all Chinese banks associated with foreign economic aid or bilateral trade and investment with Africa. The bank has yielded remarkable results by fully leveraging its business strengths to provide quality services and achieve mutually beneficial cooperation. Founded in 1912, China's oldest bank is celebrating 10 years in South Africa.
Read More

SA eyes economic ties with China: Ntuli
Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Maria Ntuli says South Africa is interested in partnerships that will support economic development with China. Speaking at a five-day World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China, Ntuli said South Africa beckons for Chinese companies that are interested in investing in the country.
Read More

India in Africa

India Show in Johannesburg to push trade with Africa
A four-day "India Show" in Johannesburg from Aug 29 will kick off a drive to push trade and economic ties with South Africa and use it to make a major foray into the African continent. India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Tata Group chief Ratan Tata will lead the government-corporate mission whose target is to have $12 billion two-way trade by 2012. Organised by the commerce and industry ministry, jointly with leading industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an exhibition at the MTN Expo Centre, the country's largest, is among the highlights of the "India Show".
Read More

Business forum launched to engage with Africa
To mark the increased engagement of India and Africa, a new forum has been launched to encourage more intense economic and business collaboration, powered by a shared interest in forging mutually advantageous ties. The first meeting of Indo-Africa Business Forum was held Tuesday night, with visiting Ugandan Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Minister Hope Mwesigye in attendance. Mwesigye, who is on a short visit to India, said that there was vast scope for Indian businesses to harness the opportunities in Africa, especially in her country, Uganda.
Read More

India signs $42 mln loan with Congo following debt relief
India has signed a deal with Democratic Republic of Congo to extend a $42 million credit line for building a hydroelectric plant, Congolese and Indian officials said on Thursday. The deal falls under a $263 million loan commitment from India that it agreed with Congo late last year.
Read More

Govt delegation in India on business mission
A GOVERNMENT delegation is in India on a business promotion mission intended to sell Zambia as an investment destination through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) concept.The team which will conduct a series of presentations on investment opportunities in agriculture, energy, education, health, hydro-power, construction, transport and communication and tourism in New Delhi and Mumbai, is led by Education Minister, Dora Siliya. Officially opening the Zambia Business Promotion seminar being attended by a cross section of Indian companies, Ms Siliya said Zambia was inspired by India whose commitment to developing the country through hard work, was an example to emulate.
Read More

Bharti Airtel expands into Seychelles, even as profits dip
Indian mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, said on Wednesday that its board had approved its acquisition of Telecom Seychelles in a deal valued at US$62 million, in its bid to increase its presence in Africa. The Seychelles operator has a 57 percent share of the market and offers 3G mobile and fixed telephone service, Bharti Airtel said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Read More

Rising India takes aim at Africa's resources
South Africans may have a penchant for importing cheap Asian goods, but Asians are relying more and more on African resources as a buttress to their own success. Total exports to Asia from SA have lifted 11.6 percent in the year to June 2010 to R90.9 billion and as the trend continues and more Asian countries join the queue, SA growth is likely benefit.
Read more

Africa has bigger potential than even India
Manoj Kohli, the head of Bharti Airtel Ltd’s international operations, is just back from his second visit to Africa, one in which he covered eight of the 15 countries in which the company is present in the continent (he covered all 15 on his first trip last month and is off again by the end of this week). In an interview with Mint, he spoke about Airtel’s Africa opportunity. He began the interaction by claiming that Shakira was indeed right: “It’s time for Africa,” he said.
Read more


In Other Emerging Powers News

Indian warships to exercise with Brazil, S Africa
India's warships will be on a two-month long deployment in African coast when they will hold a trilateral exercise with navies of Brazil and South Africa, apart from carrying out anti-piracy patrols in Mauritius and Seychelles beginning this weekend. Four warships including a destroyer and two frigates from the Navy's Western Fleet would be deployed in the Indian Ocean Region when they would also visit Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa, where the biennial IBSAMAR (India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime) exercise will be held.
Read More

Brazil's state bank, partners push into Africa
Brazil's biggest state-run bank and two other partners announced an expansion in Africa on Monday in the latest sign of growing financial links between emerging markets. Banco do Brasil, Latin America's largest bank by assets, said in a regulatory filing it will team with local private-sector giant Banco Bradesco and Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo (BES) to tap Africa's growing appetite for consumer loans, credit cards and other products.
Read More

Brazil's electronics sector eyes Africa
Brazil's electronic sector is keen to expand exports into Africa in a bid to drive revenue to what is the country's equivalent of the US's Silicon Valley.
Read More

Surge in Chinese investment reshapes Brazil ties
Surging Chinese investment in Brazil is reshaping ties between the countries as companies seek to secure resources and tap the rising consumer class in Latin America's largest economy. From virtually nowhere, China has rocketed to become the biggest foreign direct investor in Brazil this year with purchases ranging from iron ore mines to vast tracts of farmland and the electricity grid.
Read More
Succeeding a success
If India were a nation of gamblers, the betting on who will succeed Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, would be furious. Since Tata Sons, the holding company for India’s second-biggest conglomerate, announced last week that it was seeking Mr Tata’s replacement, there has been a whirl of speculation about whom it will appoint.
Read More

RITES: The torchbearer for India’s strategic interests
RITES is a key part of India’s ambitions to deepen relationships with countries in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia. RITES, which was set up in 1974 under Indian Railways, has amassed a wealth of knowledge on infrastructure development throughout the developing world. As China woos the same countries with massive aid and infrastructure investments, the 62-nation presence of RITES will give India a fighting chance to spread its own influence.
Read More

India seeks an exalted global profile
A characteristic of India's ruling elite is its insatiable appetite for symbols of grandeur and obsession with exclusivity. Witness the jubilation over India joining the global Nuclear Club, New Delhi's smug satisfaction at being invited into the Group of 20, and its tireless effort to get a permanent Security Council seat. Such craving for status comes naturally to our upper crust which spends millions of rupees on exhibitionist weddings and local gymkhana or golf course membership. Status fetishism drives it to buy its children's admissions to super-expensive schools. Of a piece with this is New Delhi's decision is to create a new sign for the Rupee.
Read More

Vietnam-Africa co-operation needs trust
Both Africa and Vietnam have their own strengths. Vietnamese and African goods are different, both sides find it easy to exchange with each other. The second Vietnam-Africa International Conference will open in Hanoi on August 17-19, providing opportunities for both sides to boost co-operation and make breakthroughs in the Vietnam-Africa trade relations.
Read More

Group Five prepares to scale up its African presence
South African construction company Group Five will scale up its activities in the rest of Africa over short to medium term, where it has identified an opportunity pipeline worth R46-billion between now and 2016 within an overall project portfolio worth R119-billion, covering South Africa, the Middle East and the rest of Africa. Speaking following the release of the company's results on Tuesday, CEO Mike Upton said that there would be a particular focus on over-border and international prospects as it sought to replenish its order book.
Read More

Murray & Roberts, Oger Bid to Build Airport in Saudi Arabia
Murray & Roberts Holdings Ltd. and Saudi Oger Ltd. have submitted a tender to design and build Jeddah’s airport, Murray’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Bruce said in the company’s magazine, Robust. “Apart from the recent nuclear bid, and, at a combined value of about 50 billion rand, this is the largest project we have tendered,” Bruce said. “We are also tendering for about 40 billion rand of work in Abu Dhabi.”
Read More

Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

Banking in Nigeria and Chinese Economic Diplomacy in Africa
The objective of this study is to take a panoramic view of the changes going on in the Nigerian banking sector and to situate the discussion in terms of the broader Chinese economic interests in Nigeria. This paper argues that the current changes in the Nigerian banking sector are likely to set the sector on a path that can win it respectability and respect from across the world and that the inclusion of banking in China’s economic interests in Nigeria can be mutually beneficial to both countries. While China may have justifiable grounds to be unhappy with aspects of its relationship with Nigeria, the paper concludes that the future of the economic relationship between the two countries is bright and potentially beneficial to both nations.
Read More

The Myth and Reality of Chinese Investors: A Case Study of Chinese Investment in Zambia's Copper Industry
In any attempt to analyse the implications of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) for African countries, Zambia is the example par excellence, its historical relationship with China and its ever-increasing economic ties with the emerging power being the main reasons for this. The activities of Chinese mining companies operating in the Zambian Copperbelt have roused much contention, particularly in the Western media, yet there is little understanding of the Chinese perspective on this issue. This paper aims to fill this gap.
Read More

He Wenping: How Far Can China Go in Africa?
While the Western countries know Africa well, they do not stand with or speak for Africa. China stands with Africa on many issues, but regrettably, China still does not know Africa well enough says He Wenping, Director of African Studies of Institute of Western Asian and African Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Read More

Can the “China Model” work in Africa?
You've probably heard about how China has managed, over the last twenty years or so, to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. According to the World Bank, between 1981 and 2005, around 600m Chinese vaulted over the poverty line, that is, raised their incomes above $2 a day. These are the best and most-rapid poverty-beating numbers in history, and China's success has attracted a lot of attention in development circles and from the leaders of poverty-stricken countries around the world. There's been a lot of debate about exactly how China managed to achieve its impressive results, and whether or not the Chinese example offers a model for other nations trying to get people out of poverty.
Read More

Why China won’t take over the world, Including Africa.
There are plenty of stories of a Chinese-sponsored infrastructure project or a Chinese company cutting a deal to feed its “insatiable thirst” for raw materials, while Western involvement of similar or greater magnitude is lucky to make a headline at all. Meanwhile, a close look at the key economic metrics and the subtler shades of power, such as cultural influence and humanitarian aid, reveals that while China is indeed one of the great powers in the world now (late last month it officially overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy), its influence is mixed, and often undercut by America’s.
Read More

Economist Debates: China model: Statements
Susan Shirk , Director, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California and Stefan Halper , Senior Fellow, Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge debate whether China has a better development model than the West.
Read More

Lesotho meets China
The Economist explores the Chinese presence in Lesotho and finds that the presence of Chinese entrepreneurs in growing.
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Podcasts, Reviews and Interviews
China in Africa podcast: Why CN will not dominate FDI in Gabon
Eric Olander interviews Johanna Jansson, researcher, Swedish Institute of International Affairs, on the presence and activities of Chinese companies in Gabon.
Read More


BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Compiled by Hayley Herman, programme officer based with the Emerging Powers in Africa programme.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Cote d'Ivoire: Gbagbo rejects pressure on African nations for elections

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/cw30F4

Pressure on African nations for elections - Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has lashed out at major world powers for putting pressure on African countries to organise elections. "On the issue of elections, I say to many of our friends that nobody can be more concerned than the Ivorians themselves." he said.

Malawi: Mutharika rules out life ministers

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/b8biVF

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has said Malawi cannot afford life ministers. Swearing in new ministers, some of them returnees into his cabinet, he said nobody should think ministerial posts are for life. He also defended his inclusion of his wife, First Lady, Callista Mutharika, on the cabinet list. "As President, I am in the saddle where I have the opportunity to look at the whole Malawi and the world to correct things. You need to understand that the posts are not your personal possessions," he said at Sanjika Palace in the commercial city of Blantyre.

Nigeria: President "can stand next elections"

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/b8M531

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has been told by his party chairman that he has the right to contest the upcoming January primaries. Okwesilieze Nwodo of the ruling People's Democratic Party however stopped short of giving the president his full backing

Rwanda: Kagame wins election by landslide

2010-08-13

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE67A0EP20100811

Rwandan President Paul Kagame won 93 percent of the vote in an election that opponents said was marred by repression and violence. The bush war veteran won 4,638,560 votes from a total of 5,178,492 registered voters in the central African country, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) said.

Southern Africa: Angola gets new electoral commission chairperson

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/c5lhDd

Angolan lawyer Suzana Antonio da Conceiçao Nicolau Ingles, was unanimously elected by the National Assembly as the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (CNE). She was elected during the third extraordinary session of the National Assembly, led by speaker Antonio Paulo Kassoma.

WEst Africa: Niger moves to get new constitution

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/db8uJs

Niger's National Advisory Council, a legislative organ overseeing the country's transition, is reviewing a draft Constitution aimed at returning the landlocked west African nation to democracy. The document, laid out in 14 titles and 190 articles, is based on the texts of a previous Constitution, in force until the military coup of 18 February that toppled the regime of President Mamadou Tandja.

Angola: Ruling party to look into graft allegations

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/chOlvJ

Angola's ruling party will meet this week to examine a private report accusing members of the president's inner circle of corruption, a spokesman has said. The report, "The Angolan Presidency -- The Epicentre of Corruption", describes how people close to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos have taken control of the economy by securing stakes in firms in sectors ranging from oil to banking.

Africa: Why monetary policy is irrelevant in Africa South of the Sahara

2010-08-13

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=55438&type=Document

This policy note argues that the effectiveness of monetary policy relies on a viable domestic market for trading public securities, and a commercial banking sector willing and able to lend to the private sector. However, the paper deems that with the exception of South Africa, no country in the sub-Saharan region has these necessary conditions.

Ethiopia: Government targets 5 years to end food aid dependence

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/ah59yp

By the end of a five-year 'Growth and Transformation Plan' (GTP)', Ethiopia will end its dependence on foreign food, Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi said. The Horn of African impoverished country has registered more that 10 percent annual growth over the past five years and expects to maintain accelerated rate of the trend in years to come.

Ghana: Conditionality in World Bank crisis-lending

2010-08-13

http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/reports.aspx?id=4211

This research reveals that Low Income Countries such as Ghana remain under the influence of the Bank, especially regarding the management of their primary industries and natural resources and in relation to the design of sensitive policy areas such as fiscal policy and public sector reform. August 2010.

Global: Giving young people the priority they deserved

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/92kAYb

August 12th marks the 25th International Youth Day, which is also the launch at the United Nations of the International Year of Youth. The year-long commemoration, whose theme is dialogue and mutual understanding, aims to encourage the full and effective participation of youth in all aspects of society. UNFPA is sponsoring activities throughout the year to ensure that young people's voices are heard at the highest levels, including at the September Millennium Development Goals Summit.

Global: Rich countries’ farm subsidies benefiting royals

2010-08-13

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52401

Subsidies for agriculture in the industrialised countries of the world grew again in 2009, benefiting the largest companies and land owners, such as Prince Albert of Monaco and Queen Elizabeth of Britain. The latest increase came despite repeated and consistent evidence that such subsidies contribute to the destruction of the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing countries, especially in Africa, and that they distort international trade.

Global: Youth unemployment hits record high - ILO

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/b0ua48

A new report by the UN International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Thursday said global youth unemployment in 2009 soared to a record high and is expected to climb even higher as the year progresses. The report, entitled: 'ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth 2010', said that, 'of the world's 620 million economically-active youth, between the ages of 15 and 24, 81 million were out of work at the end of 2009, the highest number ever'.

Global: Youth Zones: Dealing with the aftermath of conflict or natural disasters

2010-08-13

https://www.unfpa.org/public/home/news/pid/6443

In conflicts and natural disasters around the world, young people, at a crucial stage of their development, are faced with profound challenges. Emergencies often steal their adolescence and force them to undertake adult responsibilities. The structures and institutions that should guarantee their secure, peaceful development – schools, family, community and health centres – have often broken down, leaving them with little, if any, support. Access to basic sexual and reproductive health services, including information on sexually transmitted infections and HIV, is often impossible.

Kenya: Flower sector seeks new EU deal

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/90K1I5

Horticulture stakeholders are looking to negotiate a trade protocol with the European Union (EU) to graduate from the current Lome Convention. Kenya Flower Council Chief Executive Officer Jane Ngige says they want to amend the Lome Convention – under which the EU provides aid and extends trade and tariff preference to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries – in order to secure market access.

Malawi: A cellphone, a bicycle and sound agricultural advice

2010-08-13

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52476

It is 11 am and Mary Jusa seems unconcerned by the sun beating hard on her back. Humming a traditional tune, she carries on uprooting weeds in her maize field between two water canals. One of 24 members of this irrigation scheme in the rural district of Thyolo, Jusa’s plot measures just 50 by 20 metres. But she says it gives her enough income to meet the basic needs of her family of three children. She attributes her success to agricultural extension services.

Mauritania: World Bank offers US$ 25.5m for urban development

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/aLs2BY

The Board of Directors of the World Bank (WB) ap proved a loan of US$ 25.5 million for Mauritania for the additional financing of the programme of urban development (PDU), a source close to the bank announced. These funds will serve to support the efforts of the Mauritanian government to improve the access to basic infrastructures in urban areas, particularly for the disadvantaged zones.

Southern Africa: SADC limps towards a common market

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/cTDWpA

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) expects to bring down all trade tariffs under the Free Trade Area (FTA) by 2012, by which time all countries in the region are expected to have liberalised their trade regimes, SADC trade officials have said. The regional bloc says it has liberalised about 85 percent of trade and is now phasing down tariffs for trade in sensitive products, which are expected to be completely removed by 2012.

Cameroon: UN sends medical supplies for cholera outbreak

2010-08-13

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35586

Five United Nations humanitarian agencies are rushing medical supplies and other materials to northern Cameroon, where the country’s worst outbreak of cholera in six years has already claimed at least 155 lives. Cholera drugs, oral rehydration salts, hygiene kits, surgical gloves, family water kits and educational materials are among the items that have been dispatched, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today from Yaoundé, the capital.

Global: Malaria goals 'cannot be met' with existing weapons

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/9SJMec

Eliminating malaria, especially from its hotspots in Africa, will be impossible without new types of intervention, a newly published model has confirmed. To eliminate malaria in Africa, current interventions would need to reach far more people than health and transport infrastructures permit, according to Prof Azra Ghani, an infectious disease epidemiologist, and colleagues at Imperial College, London.

South Africa: Bolstering the search for HIV vaccine

2010-08-13

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032888

Intensifying their search for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection, scientists are planning to run an improved version of the successful Thai HIV vaccine trial in South Africa next year. News from Thailand late last year that a vaccine trial conducted among 16 000 Thais gave a 31% protection rate against HIV infection has given scientists hope that their quest to find a vaccine to prevent HIV infection is on the horizon. But further tests are needed and South Africa is an obvious place for these to be run, given our high HIV rate.

South Africa: Children are dying needlessly

2010-08-13

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52460

By the time Thandi Khumalo* brought her seven-month-old daughter to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, help came too late. The infant had developed acute diarrhoea and kwashiorkor, a condition caused by severe protein and calorie deficiency, and died a few days after being admitted.

South Africa: Emerging biosensor technology for rapid TB diagnosis

2010-08-13

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2010/may/tbtest.htm

Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem. Approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide are infected with TB, with 8 million new cases and 3 million deaths per year. It is estimated that 35 million people will have died of TB by the year 2020. In 2004, it was estimated that more than 4% of the world’s infected people living with active TB were in South Africa. During this period, South Africa accounted for about 2% of the world’s new TB cases and approximately 3% of the total TB deaths.

South Africa: The DDT debacle

2010-08-13

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2010/may/ddt_final.htm

While an estimated 880 000 people – most of them young children – die each year of malaria in the developing world, we may underestimate the potential effects of continued DDT use on future generations. In South Africa, as in several other developing countries, the use of the powerful insecticide DDT is allowed for malaria control in high-risk areas such as KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.

West Africa: WAHO - Research capacity strengthening for 14 countries

COHRED Briefing 16

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/cO3XEl

In April 2008, the African Ministers of Health – in preparation for the Bamako Ministerial Forum on Research for Health – adopted the Algiers Declaration that expressed their commitment to reinforce national research systems for health. During the Bamako conference, health research leaders of western African countries, representatives of the West African Health Organization (WAHO) and international organisations discussed the status of research for health in West Africa.

Somalia: Getting an education against all odds

2010-08-13

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90110

Five years after a local charity opened a university to offer this bullet-scarred city’s youth an alternative to militia life and emigration, the first degrees have been awarded. "I want our people to know that education is the ladder of life and that every step of development that a community makes depends on the level of the community's education," one of the 27 new graduates, Qoole Qowden*, recounted.

Global: XXV ILGA World Conference

2010-08-13

http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/myDYfec13F

On behalf of the Board of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), and our local partners Coletivo de Feministas Lésbicas, Grupo Dignidade, Grupo Arco-Íris, and Instituto Edson Néris, it is our pleasure to invite you to attend the XXV ILGA World Conference to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between the 4 and 9 December 2010. As you may remember, Rio de Janeiro was the city voted for hosting the 2010 conference at the last world conference held in Vienna in 2008. However due to logistical problems the Executive Board of ILGA and the Brazilian organizers agreed on moving the conference location from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo.

Swaziland: Lesbian murder case - partner still in custody

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/bGLYhS

The future of Thulani Rudd, a Swaziland lesbian arrested in 2009 following a mysterious death of her girlfriend Pitseng Vilakati, looks bleak since she has been in custody for more than a year now, has no legal representation and it is still unclear when her case will resume. It is alleged that some gay rights groups that earlier assisted Rudd with legal representation have had to withdraw since when she was arrested she made a voluntary statement that implicated her to the murder.

Africa: Ailing climate negotiations and the future of coal

2010-08-13

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/529.1

Following last year’s Copenhagen Climate Summit, the five days of negotiations in Bonn last week in preparation for the big climate change meeting in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year, has been met by a profound display of disinterest.

Nigeria: Shell’s water borehole poisons community

2010-08-13

http://www.eraction.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Umuorie Isimiri Community is located in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State. Umuorie Isimiri is an hour and 20 minutes drive from Umuahia, capital of Abia State. It is a community of about 5,000 people, made up of mostly farmers. Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Isimiri Flow Station in Umuorie Isimiri Community is by the Imo River at the boundary between Abia and Rivers State. ERA monitors visited the community on 3 August 2010 to ascertain SPDC level of compliance with a court judgement delivered by Court of Appeal Owerri, Imo State ordering it to pay special damages of N1.49 billion to the community for oil spill and environmental degradation.

Africa: This time for Africa: Africa calling Indian farmers

2010-08-13

http://farmlandgrab.org/14776

ASSOCHAM, India’s apex industry body, has sent a proposal to the external affairs ministry to consider tapping the emerging agricultural opportunities in Africa and offering to act as a facilitator to help Indian farmers reap the benefits of the huge potential that lie in Africa. “Hoping to address the huge issue of food shortage, these countries have begun inviting overseas farmers to come and cultivate their lands. These governments are willing to lease land free of cost for 99 years”, ASSOCHAM secretary general DS Rawat said.

DRC: Congo offers investment for Indian entrepreneurs

2010-08-13

http://farmlandgrab.org/14769

Apeda has received an intimation from the Embassy of India in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), about investment opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs. DRC has 80 million hectares of rich arable soil with water resources and 1000 mm of annual rainfall. Maniac, maize, rice, groundnut, sugarcane, corn, sweet potatoes, bananas, yams, pineapples are the principal crops produced.

Africa: Free to Air - World debate - Will the real Africa stand up?

2010-08-13

http://a24media.com/africa_stand_up/

2010 marks an important period in the annals of Africa: it’s the year when a 10-year follow-up on the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) will be made, 5 year post the Gleneagles G8 Summit commitments, 26th anniversary of the Ethiopian famine that claimed the lives of millions, and a year when 17 African countries are marking their 50th anniversary since independence.

And in spite of making tremendous progress in economic, social and political spheres, Africa is still regarded by the international world as a failing, if not a failed continent.

As part of the Annual Meeting of the Africa Progress Panel (APP) held in Geneva, the APP organized a debate in front of an informed audience where answers were sought for the following questions:

Is Africa it’s own worst enemy?
Does Africa deserve special treatment?
Does the world need Africa more than Africa needs the world?

To view the trailer, please click [url=http://a24media.com/africa_stand_up/]here[/url

Delivery will be by FTP!
Please contact Farah Chaudhry on farah@a24media.com
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should you require the debate for broadcast purposes

Burundi: IFJ calls for release of journalist

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/agpxDp

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for immediate and unconditional release of Thierry Ndayishimiye, Director and Publisher of the private weekly magazine Arc-en-ciel, who was arrested on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 and detained at the central prison of Mpimba in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi. “It is unacceptable to imprison a journalist for slander which in this case is not even proven”, said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office. “After the cas of Kavumbagu who is awaiting life imprisonment, this arrest manifestly shows the authorities are determined to muzzle the media in Burundi”.

Liberia: Freedom of information law comes to life

2010-08-13

http://www.ifex.org/liberia/2010/07/28/information_free/

Offering a bold example for the possibilities for press freedom, the Liberian government has passed a freedom of information law, report the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). The House of Representatives of Liberia unanimously voted to pass the Liberia Freedom of Information Law on 22 July, thereby making information accessible to all Liberians. The law has been forwarded to the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf by the end of August.

Senegal: IFJ urges removal of concealment charge against journalist

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/cRI0FF

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Senegalese authorities to put an end to the legal proceedings against Abdou Latif Coulibaly, investigative journalist and Director of Publication of the weekly magazine, La Gazette, who was charged on July 10, 2010 for “concealment of administrative and private documents pertaining to the Senegalese National Lottery (LONASE)” following a complaint of its Managing Director Mr. Baila Wane.

South Africa: Defend and advance the freedom of expression for all!

AIDC statement on the threats to press freedom

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/9Ys41V

Press Freedom is a right enjoyed by a privileged minority of South Africans. Our print media is controlled by a cartel of four corporations. Broadcast Media is dominated by the SABC. The profiteering of private media and commercialization of the SABC have seen the mass media catering to the expression and information needs of lucrative markets (LSM 8- 10) representing under 15% of South Africans.

South Africa: The ANC's media double-speak

2010-08-13

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/524.1

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has just released a document on the media for its National General Council (NGC) meeting, scheduled for September. The document, entitled 'Media transformation, ownership and diversity', claims to build on a resolution adopted at the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference, as well as a me

Togo: France condemns conduct of officer after dispute

2010-08-13

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10961042

French officials have condemned a senior soldier who was filmed threatening a Togolese journalist. In a video released on YouTube, Lt Col Romuald Letondot is shown ordering the journalist to delete images from his camera during a protest in Lome.

Uganda: Journalists under siege by sedition law

2010-08-13

http://www.ifex.org/uganda/2010/08/11/legal_repression/

A Ugandan journalist has been accused of sedition after writing two articles that speculated whether the Ugandan government was involved in July bomb attacks in Kampala, report the Human Rights Network of Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The sedition law is routinely used against dissident journalists. More than a dozen Ugandan journalists are currently being prosecuted under the law.

Global: Afro-Colombian women fight prejudice by embracing technology

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/bb3XNd

On an improvised stage “Bombón de chocolate” (Chocolate Candy) is being performed. The play, which narrates the story of an African-Colombian girl who feels rejected because of the colour of her skin, is one of the events at a special day on drug addiction and violence organised in the city of Villa Paz, in South-West Colombia. Villa Paz has a population of 4000 inhabitants, of which 54% are are women and most of whom are African descendants and whose agricultural activities are mainly related to the sugar cane.

Madagascar: Farms threatened by locust plague, UN agency caution

2010-08-13

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35601

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that Madagascar is at risk of a crop-eating locust plague, potentially jeopardizing the livelihoods of 460,000 rural families. An unknown number of immature swarms of Malagasy Migratory Locust have moved out of the country’s south-western corner, where they are usually contained, and have spread to the east and north.

Mozambique: 250 000 people in need of food assistance despite improvements

2010-08-13

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MDCS-889J3B?OpenDocument

Following reports of poor harvest expectations in central and southern provinces due to a prolonged dry spell, an FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) visited the country from 6 to 29 May 2010. The Mission evaluated food crop production in the 2009/10 agricultural season, assessed the overall food supply situation, forecast cereal import requirements and possible exports in marketing year 2010/11 (April/March) and determined the eventual food aid needs.

Niger: UN launches massive feeding drive for children

2010-08-13

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35589

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun a major round of feeding for 670,000 children under the age of two and their families in drought-stricken Niger, where as many as eight million people need assistance. People in the West African nation are experiencing severe food shortages as a result of a prolonged drought that has caused crop failure and livestock deaths.

Uganda: 'Masterminds' of World Cup bombings arrested

2010-08-13

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10953207

Investigators in Uganda have arrested four men who they say masterminded twin bomb attacks that killed more than 70 people last month. The men, all of them Ugandan, admitted their involvement in the Kampala attacks during a news conference. They all spoke of their role in the attacks that struck a restaurant and a rugby club - the venues hosting fans watching the World Cup football final.

East Africa: Google Uganda launches two new local language domains

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/c2LJ0f

Google Uganda has launched two local language operations enabling about five million people access services in native languages. The launch of the Runyakitara and Luo languages at Makerere University in Kampala brings to five the number of local languages available on the Google Uganda domain.

Egypt: Youth using social media to close the gap

2010-08-13

http://bit.ly/b6KFgV

Thirty Egyptians, aged 18 to 28, joined hands to produce 10 social advertisements, aimed at social reform.
The project, aptly named Closing The Gap, consisted of three phases held in partnership between The Egyptian Life Center for Creativity and Culture jointly with Freedom House.

Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship

National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

2010-08-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/66676

The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program is an international exchange program that offers practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world the opportunity to spend five months at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in Washington DC, in order to undertake independent research on democracy in a particular country or region. While in residence, fellows reflect on their experiences; engage with counterparts; conduct research and writing; consider best practices and lessons learned; and develop professional relationships within a global network of democracy advocates.
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program is an international exchange program that offers practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world the opportunity to spend five months at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in Washington DC, in order to undertake independent research on democracy in a particular country or region. While in residence, fellows reflect on their experiences; engage with counterparts; conduct research and writing; consider best practices and lessons learned; and develop professional relationships within a global network of democracy advocates.

Located within NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies, the program provides a rich intellectual setting for educational exchange and professional development. The Forum also publishes the Journal of Democracy, holds conferences, and provides access to NED's library. The program offers research support and facilitates fellows' outreach to Washington's advocacy, media, academic, and policy communities. All fellowships include a monthly stipend, health insurance, and roundtrip travel reimbursement. The program does not provide financial assistance for accompanying family or other dependents.
The program runs two five-month fellowship sessions per year, during which fellows work full time on their projects. Practitioners focus on strategies and best practices for developing democracy in their country of interest; scholars conduct original research for publication. Projects may address the economic, political, social, legal, or cultural aspects of democratic development and include a range of methodologies and approaches. The program hosts an active calendar of events for fellows, including an introduction to NED and its partner institutions, seminars, roundtables, and other activities. Fellows are expected to present their work and prepare a written product during their stay.
Fall Session: October 2011–February 2012; Spring Session: March–July 2012.
For more information, visit www.ned.org or email fellowships@ned.org

Eligibility:

While the program is intended primarily for individuals from developing and aspiring democracies, distinguished scholars from the United States and other established democracies are eligible to apply. Practitioners and journalists are expected to have substantial work experience in their fields, while scholars are expected to have a Ph.D., or academic equivalent, at the time of application. The program does not fund professional training, fieldwork, or students working toward a degree. A working knowledge of English is required.

For more information, visit http://www.ned.org/fellowships/reagan-fascell-democracy-fellows-program To apply, visit http://fellowships.ned.org The application deadline is Monday, November 1, 2010. Applicants will be notified of the outcome in April 2011.

Tanzania: Sustainable Microenterprise and Development Program (SMDP)

October 11–October 23, 2010, Zanzibar

2010-07-30

http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/smdp/Tanzania-main.html

The Carsey Institute is very pleased to announce the SMDP-Tanzania, which will be held in Stonetown, Zanzibar, at the Zanzibar Ocean View Resort. The Institute will use the island environment as our classroom, where students will see sustainable development in action. This is an intensive and highly relevant training program for senior management professionals from microfinance institutions, environmental NGOS, enterprise development organizations, government ministries, private donor organizations, religious and faith-based development organizations, and academic institutions.

Africa: The African Women's Journal

Call for papers

FEMNET

2010-08-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/66706

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) has started a new Journal called The Africa Women’s journal. The Journal is bi-annual publication with current issues and statistics on women’s development issues in Africa. We invite contributors to send well researched and analytical articles on the theme: The African Women’s Decade (2010-2020): A Decade of Triumph for African Women. The article must have current statistics with clear referencing.
THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S JOURNAL
JULY-DECEMBER 2010


THEME: The African Women’s Decade (2010-2020):
A Decade of Triumph for African Women

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) has started a new Journal called The Africa Women’s journal. The Journal is bi-annual publication with current issues and statistics on women’s development issues in Africa.

We invite contributors to send well researched and analytical articles on the theme: The African Women’s Decade (2010-2020): A Decade of Triumph for African Women. The article must have current statistics with clear referencing.

The Journal will focus on:
The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) 12 critical areas of concern,– poverty, education and training, health, the economy, power and decision-making, human rights, armed conflict, institutional mechanisms, the environment, violence against women and the girl child. The article can focus on any of the critical areas of concern and showcase what works, Success stories and new innovations by women’s organizations in address gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa.

Guidelines:
For those interested to submit articles, kindly send us an ABSTRACT of your article on or before 20 August, 2010. The abstract should be written in English or French and must not be more than 100 words.

You will be notified if your abstract has been approved. Full article must be written in English or French and should be between 800 to 2000 words. If you have pictures relating to the article please send us as well. (NB: The picture must be in Jpeg format).Deadline for submission of FULL ARTICLE is on 10th September 2010.

Also send us your biographical note, contact information with a JPEG mug shot picture of your self in high resolution.

All articles should be submitted to admin@femnet.or.ke or communication@femnet.or.ke by 10th September, 2010.

ICT usage and application by women farmers - Northern Uganda

Call for consultants

2010-08-13

http://www.wougnet.org/cms/content/view/558/1/

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) seeks a consultant to conduct an external evaluation of its Project “Promoting and Improving Access to Agricultural Information using ICTs in Northern Uganda.” The duration of the assignment is 20 days including travel to the project area and desk review. The consultant should have strong skills in both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, good practice of participatory methodologies and experience in working with/in diverse cultural settings. In addition, he/she should have a proven track record in conducting evaluations of ICTs for development projects and in assessing gender concerns.

Uganda: 2 Volunteers - Refugee Law Project

2010-08-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/66761

The Refugee Law Project (RLP), Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda is working with Northern Uganda Transitional Initiative (NUTI) to create a war archive and museum in Kitgum District. This archive will serve as a resource centre for studies in extremism, violence and displacement can be studied. The RLP is currently gathering materials for the museum-like archive and is looking for two volunteers to work alongside the Programme Manager.
Background

The Refugee Law Project (RLP), Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda is working with Northern Uganda Transitional Initiative (NUTI) to create a war archive and museum in Kitgum District. This archive will serve as a resource centre for studies in extremism, violence and displacement can be studied. The objective of this project is to ensure that experiences of those who suffered from conflicts are not forgotten, while at the same time providing space for the continuing education of the public and particularly of the young generation. The war museum and archive will retain and document artefacts, videos, studies, pictures and documents of the war, particularly the conflict in northern Uganda. As memory and remembrance plays a fundamental role in post-conflict healing, this project aims to assist in the reconciliation process underway in northern Uganda. The RLP is currently gathering materials for the museum-like archive and is looking for two volunteers to work alongside the Programme Manager.

Position: Volunteer Research Assistant (2 Positions)
Duration: 6 Months
Location: Gulu with frequent travels to Kitgum and Kampala.
Deadline: Thursday 19th August 2010, at 1pm.
Duties:
- In collaboration with the Programme Manager, the Volunteer Research Assistant will conduct consultations with stakeholders (Victims, NGO’s, Researchers, Journalists, Scholars, etc) in order to locate materials relevant to the Museum-like archive.
- Participate in gathering materials (published and unpublished materials, reports, video, pictures, photographs, memorabilia, paraphernalia) from NGO’s, Researchers, Journalists, Scholars, United Nations, Foreign Missions etc).
- Participate in recording, photocopying, digitalization, and storage of the materials gathered.
- In collaboration with the Programme Manager, the Volunteer Research Assistant will help raise awareness about the archive with relevant communities and individuals.
- And any other duties that may be assigned by the Programme Manager from time to time

Qualifications:
- At least a University degree in any of the following disciplines: Peace and Conflict Studies, Law, Political Science, any other relevant social. Science.
- Good knowledge of conflict and peace, forced migration, transitional justice, and particularly the conflict in northern Uganda.
- Experience in community consultations, awareness raising, researching documents, and archiving.
- The person should have excellent skills in communication, presentation, reporting, and documenting.
- Knowledge of library science and archives will be added advantage.
- Excellent language skills in English and Luo. Knowledge of Kiswahili will be added advantage.

Remuneration;
A competitive monthly stipend will be offered for the successful candidates. A flat rate for transport, accommodation and per diem will be offered while on official duty only.

Application procedure
Interested applicants should submit ONLY a motivation letter and curriculum vitae electronically to: recruitment@refugeelawproject.org

Copies of academic certificates will be required from short listed applicants on the interview date. The deadline for receipt of all applications is Thursday 19 August 2010, at 1pm and the interview for shortlisted candidates will take place at the Refugee Law Project Offices in Gulu, on Monday 23rd August 2010. Please note that only shortlist candidates will be contacted for interviews.

Fahamu