Back Issues

Synthetic biology: The next assault on biodiversity and livelihoods

ETC Group

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/68397

'The New Biomassters - Synthetic Biology and the Next Assault on Biodiversity and Livelihoods' is a critique of what OECD countries are calling 'the new bioeconomy.' Concerted attempts are already underway to shift industrial production feedstocks from fossil fuels to the 230 billion tones of 'biomass' (living stuff) that the Earth produces every year – not just for liquid fuels but also for production of power, chemicals, plastics and more.

Sold as an ecological switch from a ‘black carbon’ (ie fossil) economy to a ‘green carbon’ (plant-based) economy, this emerging bioeconomy is in fact a red-hot resource grab of the lands, livelihoods, knowledge and resources of peoples in the global South, where most of that biomass is located.

Enabling the next stage of this new grab is the adoption of synthetic biology techniques (extreme genetic engineering) by a wave of high-tech companies partnering with the world’s largest energy, chemical, forestry and agribusiness corporations.

The New Biomassters report:

- Provides an overview of the bio-based economy being envisioned by many OECD countries and Fortune 500 corporations and being sold to the global South as “clean development,” as well as a comprehensive consideration of its wider implications – a first from civil society.

- Analyzes the impact of next-generation biofuels, the production of bio-based chemicals and plastics and the industrial burning of biomass for electricity, arguing that civil society needs to critique and confront the combined threats arising from these developments.

- Unmasks the industrial players intent on commodifying the 76% of terrestrial living material that is not yet incorporated into the global economy. Sectors with an interest in the new bioeconomy (energy, chemical, plastics, food, textiles, pharmaceuticals, carbon trade and forestry industries) flex a combined economic muscle of over US$17 trillion a year. Visible players in the new bioeconomy include BP, Shell, Total, Exxon, Cargill, ADM, DuPont, BASF, Weyerhaeuser and Syngenta.

- Explores the safety concerns and threats to livelihoods inherent in the high-risk, game-changing field of synthetic biology. Relying on synthetic biology to provide higher yields and transform sugars could open a Pandora’s box of consequences. See pages 36-41.

- Surveys the industrial landscape of next generation biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, algal biofuels, sugarcane, jatropha and synthetic hydrocarbon, and sets out the case for why this next generation is as ecologically and socially dangerous as the first. See pages 43- 50.

- Poses challenging questions about the ‘green’ credentials of bio-based plastics and chemicals and their future impact on food supplies and world hunger. See pages 50-56.

- Raises important political questions about land grabbing: 86% of global biomass is located in the tropics and subtropics, a simple fact driving an industrial grab that threatens to accelerate the pace of forest destruction and land acquisition in the South in order to feed the economies of the North. See pages 15-18.

- Tallies the investments, subsidies and financial promises being made for the biomass economy. Predictions for the market value of biomass-based goods and services total 500 billion dollars by 2020, with the biggest turnover expected in biofuels and biomass electricity. See pages 13-14.

- Challenges common myths of industrial biomass use, including the claims that switching to biomass is carbon-neutral, renewable and green. In fact, burning biomass can often produce more CO2 per energy unit than burning coal. See pages 19-20.

- Details how a key error in the UN climate convention is driving destructive policies. By considering biomass energy as ‘carbon neutral,’ the UN has enabled destructive national renewables policies, carbon trading, and technology transfer activities. This report also examines the new REDD+ provisions in the context of the biomass economy. See pages 20- 24.

- Sets out why we cannot afford any increase in the amount of biomass taken from already overstressed ecosystems. Indeed, industrial civilization may already be taking too much biomass from the systems we depend upon. See pages 24-26.

- Explores the new suite of technological strategies being proposed by biomass advocates to boost global stocks of biomass, including the genetic engineering of crops, trees and algae. Meanwhile, the geoengineering agenda is increasingly converging on biomass. See pages 27-30.

- Exposes the switch to algae, purported to be the next ‘clean green’ feedstock and argues the case against industrial algal production. See pages 47-50.

Report available online at: http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/5232
Information: Jim Thomas: jim@etcgroup.org (Mobile: +1-514-516-5759)
Neth Dano: neth@etcgroup.org (Mobile: + 63-917-532-9369)
Kathyjo Wetter: kjo@etcgroup.org (Tel: 1 919 688 7302)

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Kenya: Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat’s resignation from the TJRC

Change Associates

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/68440

*CHANGE ASSOCIATES PRESS STATEMENT *

*on*

*Amb. Bethuel Kiplagat’s resignation from the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC)*

*Issued in Nairobi on Tuesday 2nd November 2010 at 2.30 pm*

We hereby recognize the resignation of Amb. Bethuel Kiplagat from the Chairmanship of the Truth Justice & Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). On behalf of all those Kenyans who wish to see a successful truth, justice and reconciliation process in Kenya, we applaud the former Chairman for taking what has certainly being a difficult option for him.

The pressure exerted on Ambassador Kiplagat by the public should be taken as evidence by the other Commissioners, as well as the entire TJRC staff, that Kenyans are watching this process very closely. As per our Press statements issued on 30th October 2010, we remind the Commission that our experience in inter-ethnic discussions across the country clearly shows that only a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation process will provide Kenyans with a structure through which they can confront the demons that keep plaguing our beloved country, slay them, & move forward.

We also warn our political leaders, (both current and former) that Kenyans will not accept to have this crucial Commission manipulated by anyone. This process is about the_ greatest good, for the greatest number._ The post-independence generations that comprise the majority of Kenyans, need to know the truth about Kenya’s past, if we are to confidently face the future promised by the new Constitution. We need to learn the truth about the Mau Mau, Post-Independence Land Allocations, Political Assassinations, Post Election Violence of 1992, 1997 and 2007, Wagalla Massacre, Mt Elgon Operations, Extra-judicial Killings, etc, and then move on.

We also call upon our two principals, H.E. the President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Raila Odinga, to ensure the re-appointment of Commissioners Betty Murungi and Ronald Slye who had resigned on matters of principle related to the Chairman’s position. We believe that the value they add onto the Commission would take too long to get from a new set of Commissioners, even were the new people to be of a similar or higher quality. This is especially important as the Commission tries to beat the deadlines set for it under the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Agenda Item 4. Finally, we now expect that now both the government and the development partners will urgently put into place the necessary funds required for the Commission to immediately operate at its full potential.

*Signed for Change Associates Trust*

*NGUNJIRI WAMBUGU*
*Executive Director (0724958331)*

Volunteer copy editors wanted

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/68451

Seize the time: Daring to invent the future

Hakima Abbas

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68376

cc PardeshiFahamu is pleased to announce the appointment of Hakima Abbas as its new executive director (ED). Hakima began with Fahamu as the coordinator of the AU Monitor initiative and subsequently served as deputy director over the last two years. The founding director, Firoze Manji, stepped down as ED in January 2010 to enable him to lead on Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press, a position he will continue with. Hakima takes up the post as executive director of Fahamu in November 2010. Here she maps out her perspectives for the future direction of the organisation.

We stand at a critical juncture in the movement for social justice in Africa and the global South. Important gains have been achieved but few consolidated. And despite these gains, the world – both mother earth and the people that inhabit it – is buckling under the contradictions of patriarchal super-capitalism and the reign of democratic ‘unfreedom’.[1]

As the people of Africa, we continue to stand on land and natural resources, including biodiversity, that global powers stake out with envious greed. But, we also continue to be divided by the manipulation of false consciousness, be it based on ethnicity, race, gender (and its variances), religion and sexuality, or other differences that we fail to embrace. A self-serving elite continues to reign, repressing resistance, be it through the fist and the barrel of the gun of a so-called state ‘security’ apparatus or through the violence of the daily indignities of economic oppression. Indeed, even development has become a militarised endeavour enabling colonialism to merge its two guises of missionary and general, playing good and bad cop simultaneously, as armed Western soldiers dig wells in our villages.

Within this, the people are on a move, seeking new just, sustainable and equitable potentials. While we have been fed development ‘alternatives’ that, at their highest attainment, aspire to make inequality and oppression only more bearable, a number of movements demanding and asserting the rights of peoples and mother earth to fulfil their full potential and redress power are capturing the imagination of the oppressed globally. These transformative social movements are organised in various forms, from community-based institutions, citizens’ assemblies and organic peoples’ movements to trade unions, non-governmental organisations and solidarity movements. Each one provides an important platform for the voices of the most marginalised to express their interests, provide services and create people-centred alternatives, and together they create the movement for social justice that is daily building new perspectives, knowledge and action.

This movement is reigniting the understanding of power and oppression on the basis of the frames, tactics and instruments that we use for change and inspiring the necessity of genuine solidarity between peoples of the globe. These networks will challenge us to address our own internal contradictions and hold each other accountable to the values that we are creating. While we have rested on the frameworks inherited by great progressive thinkers (understanding that the voices of the greatest are most probably missing from our books), the movement is itself creating knowledge generated by our organic intellectuals and our actions, reclaiming learning from the institutions long drained by structural adjustment. It is this knowledge that will create definitions and institutions of democracy that go beyond mimicry for the sake of appeasing market interest, and which create mechanisms for self-determined and mutual leadership for our diverse communities. Together these movements have the power to create people-centred unity across Africa, challenging and setting the agenda for our policy makers so that we might cease to be pawns and begin to hold our peoples’ interests at every global interaction.

Unfortunately today, our movements are often deliberately marginalised from policy fora, lack the resources, information and platforms to effectively drive processes of change, face state repression – often violently, are disparate geographically and/or by the issues they seek to address, and are unable to create networks across these lines, thus lacking peer support and access to learning. Notably, movements and activists have also been deliberately removed from the history and theory of social justice in Africa.

I believe that Fahamu is uniquely placed to support the movement for social justice at this critical juncture and, as someone who has been active in several movements, I am committed to seizing the time, nurturing and consolidating further gains on the journey for change through Fahamu’s work. Because we don’t impose generic solutions, Fahamu’s interventions are relevant, timely and significant to the movements we serve. Our approach respects the collective leadership, self-determination and self-sustainability of our partners. Further, we always look for diverse and innovative approaches, tactics and resources. In particular, our use of new media and technologies, to amplify voices and strengthen advocacy for meaningful change, is critical. With our expertise, access to information and networks, we enhance the access of social movements to each other as well as to the processes, knowledge, skills, experience and platforms to strengthen their work.

Fahamu is seeking to create an open, democratic and transparent space for dialogue, learning, the germination of ideas, debate and discussion. We seek to support the movement for progressive and transformative change working with workers’, mass-based human rights, feminist, queer and sex worker, refugee and land-based (including landless) peoples’ movements. I believe that our imprint to date has given activists comfort, confidence and solidarity, while our unique position, networks and reputation have enabled us to support movements by providing platforms for advocacy, communication, learning and access to research. Indeed, Fahamu’s programmes and projects are interrelated at various levels. For instance, as we work on creating platforms for Africa-centred advocacy, we continue to generate analysis through Pambazuka, spurring in-depth thinking and knowledge generation that further contributes to the learning we develop by and for the movements we work with. We are bound by our commitment to respond to the needs and articulated goals of the progressive movements for social justice that we seek to serve. It is this cycle and synergy that makes Fahamu uniquely placed to continue to grow networks for social justice and to support change.

I have a vision of Fahamu as an organisation providing progressive peoples’ movements solidarity, support and networks. I believe that we can create a unique space, physical and virtual, in which movements are inter-connected, have access to resources – particularly knowledge – and forge common trajectories. Fahamu seeks to shift language and liberal paradigms of debate, creating the nexus between theory and practice. I hope that Fahamu itself can support a shift in the NGO world as we dare to invent a future where the work that we do becomes obsolete, sincerely creating space without sustaining power relations that keep us in business, and challenging our own contradictions as part of the NGO world and the aid architecture. I have witnessed the fruits of this vision in much of our work in the last two years and value the opportunity to further this vision as executive director with the skilled, visionary and inspiring team that make up Fahamu from the staff to the board.

I look forward to building with many others a common vision, just and equitable institutions, and popular consolidation of progressive norms. And particularly, I look forward to working myself out of a job.

Pamoja,

Hakima

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Hakima Abbas is Fahamu’s executive director.
* The phrase 'seize the time' comes from Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party.
* The phrase 'daring to invent the future' comes from a Thomas Sankara quote: 'You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. [...] We must dare to invent the future.'
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTE

[1] Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man

What would Chris Hani say today?

Zwelinzima Vavi

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68423

© abhlali.org‘Without mass power, we must all forget about liberating ourselves from the shackles of capitalism and apartheid,’ writes Zwelinzima Vavi, in a memorial lecture for Chris Hani, the South African activist assassinated in 1993.

CHRIS HANI MEMORIAL LECTURE BY ZWELINZIMA VAVI, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) general secretary, delivered in Queenstown, 23 October 2010.

I am extremely honoured by your invitation to deliver the Chris Hani memorial lecture here in Queenstown today. It was over fifteen years ago, on April 10, 1993, when ‘Chris’ Martin Thembisile Hani was cruelly taken from us by an assassin's bullet. We remember too all the other heroes and heroines of our liberation struggle whom we lost in the month of April, including Solomon Mahlangu and Oliver Tambo.

Chris Hani's story and my own interaction with him after his return from exile have inspired me and millions of others. He remains a shining example of what we mean when we talk about an authentic, genuine, true revolutionary leader. He is the best embodiment of the finest traditions and principles of our liberation movement.

He practised selflessness until he was cruelly assassinated by the forces of reaction. To those who planned and executed this cruel deed, that literally killed our future, we can only say to you – we won't allow Chris Hani to die. We all aspire to be like him – we will follow his teachings! He lives on within each one of us!

It is also befitting for me that I return to my home, where it all started, to speak about what I consider to be the true legacy of Chris Hani.

There are indeed many ways to remember and honour comrade Chris Hani. We could simply recount the exemplary character that he was, and urge all of us to live by his teachings, as well as his courage. We could also simply quote Chris Hani and some of the powerful words he uttered, only to forget the message contained therein the minute we walk out of this hall.

‘Chris’ Thembisile Martin Hani's whole history symbolises the trials and tribulations of the black majority and the working class. He was born into grinding poverty in Sabalele village in the Cofimvaba district, by a migrant labourer Gilbert and his mother Mary. His life from the beginning was to be a reminder of the battles that lay ahead. The first three children of his parents did not survive high infant mortality. He was among the last three that just survived.

Chris Hani was a natural genius! He matriculated at 16 and graduated in law from Fort Hare University at only 19. He then moved to work as an articled clerk in Cape Town. Soon, he joined umKhonto weSizwe and went into exile to pursue the revolutionary program of the African National Congress (ANC).

In exile he got frustrated by a movement that was not active in the military front. He wrote, together with a group of comrades, the popular ‘Hani memorandum’, decrying the lack of accountability of the leadership, draconian discipline, nepotism, corruption, favouritism, etc. For this he was detained by his own movement. Many older and physically stronger comrades had chosen to shrug their shoulders or worse simply joined in the activities, which, if they had been allowed to fester, would have destroyed the movement from within. Not Tshonyane!

He was the voice of ordinary people. He used his advantage of being a law graduate to represent those who shared the trenches with him – the workers and the poor. For him, the popular saying of the South African Communist Party (SACP), ‘For the workers and the poor’, was not just a slogan. He was not one who was excited by, to quote Amilcar Cabral, shouting hurrahs and proclaiming solidarity with the working class and the poor. Instead, Chris Hani demonstrated, through his practical action, his class position.

We speak here not of a troublemaker but of a brave and courageous commissar who led the joint MK-Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army group in the 1967 Wankie campaign, an incursion into northern Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). After nearly two months of skirmishes, Hani successfully led the survivors of his group into Botswana. In the 1970s and 1980s, Hani infiltrated South Africa many times. He became the first member of the ANC national executive committee to cross a border into South Africa from exile in the course of struggle. He became a key target of the apartheid security forces and survived several assassination attempts.

When he returned into South Africa following the unbanning of the ANC, the SACP and others in 1990, he literally criss-crossed the country addressing multitudes of rallies that inspired millions to continue with the finest traditions of our struggle. He was a natural orator and one of the best articulators of the aspirations of the working class. He was loved and admired by all freedom-loving South Africans, in particular the working class. He was second only to Nelson Mandela in popularity.

At the time when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall was destroyed, many with whom he served in the central committee and politburo of the SACP argued that their names must not be mentioned in public that they were communists. He disagreed. His hatred of the exploitation of the majority by a small but powerful class of property owners was genuine and not a tactical matter to gain influence at the time when only the Soviet Union was prepared to help our people gain their freedom. He was proud to be known as a communist! He wanted the whole world to know this.

At the time when many were buying suits anticipating to be appointed as future government ministers, Chris Hani agreed to be elected general secretary of the SACP, a position that ruled him out of a cushy job. This is what we must celebrate today – a leader who, gun in hand commanded revolutionary forces in the battlefield. Whilst others were theorising he infiltrated South Africa and led from the front, exposing himself to danger. When he faced the prospect of luxury, which others think they are entitled to as a reward of their personal suffering, he chose to build the party. All this demonstrates the long-held political practice and principle of the ANC: Selflessness. I-ANC iyasetyenzelwa akungenwa ngetender!

For Chris Hani it was never about himself – he was not self-centred, big headed and elitist. He was not preoccupied with material things.

Reacting to the dismay expressed by others who were shocked at his decision to accept the position of general secretary of the SACP instead of angling to be a minister, he had this to say:

‘The perks of a new government are not really appealing to me. Everybody would like to have a good job, a good salary... but for me that is not the all of struggle. What is important is the continuation of the struggle... the real problems of the country are not whether one is in cabinet ... but what we do for social upliftment of the working masses of our country.’

How I wish that those who carry knives and guns to fight for leadership positions in all our organisations could have learnt something from Chris Hani's exemplary modesty, honesty and integrity. After reading his letter to the leadership I really wonder how he would react to the ANC infighting in Mpumalanga and elsewhere, which killed at least 10 comrades in the past two years. He would not be shocked though; this is after all what he fought against all his life in the movement. We know of some cases of disappearances where the prime suspects are not the regime but others we continue to call comrades today.

But he will be concerned at the scale of careerism. During his lifetime he did not have to witness, as we do every day, the reality that some regard access to political office as a means to be super-rich, without making any effort to be an entrepreneur.

I suspect that Chris Hani would been worried that the party leaders have left SACP offices to be MPs, provincial MPLs (members of the provincial legislature) and ministers. He would mobilise workers to provide resources that will ensure that the SACP has a capacity to play its vanguard role.

I doubt very much, if he were around, we would have experienced the full-scale crises we witnessed in the run up of the ANC 52nd National Congress. I honestly believe that he would have managed to pull the plug on the ‘1996 class project’.

The 1996 class project continues to seek to impose the Washington consensus on the democratic movement. The strategy of the counter-revolution is now to create multiple centres from which anti-working class policy positions emerge. The working class, so to speak, has to quickly awaken to the fact that it may be politically out-manoeuvred, surrounded by enemy forces and being vulnerable, to quote Mao Zedong, to the strategy of ‘encirclement and suppression’. As we speak, no qualitative shift in policy has taken place, particularly economic policy.

As the [ANC-SACP-COSATU] Alliance battles a state of paralysis and attempts to marginalise others from policy discourse even after Polokwane, reactionary pre-Polokwane policies continue being imposed, simply because some people occupy positions of power to do so. Even when ANC branches articulate clearly and succinctly the direction that must be taken on key policy questions, underhand sophistry takes root and resolutions are crafted in ways that make a mockery of branch interventions.

What would Chris Hani have done in this situation? His response would be our profound slogan: ‘All power to the people!’ He would castigate the practice that places all power with the government bureaucrats! After saying this, Chris Hani would have criss-crossed the country, mobilising branches of the ANC, SACP and COSATU locals, alerting them to the looming strategy of ‘encirclement and suppression’, and the cultural transformation that has solidified – of neglect of ANC resolutions and patent resistance to account to the Alliance.

He would have resisted with all his might attempts to use the state apparatus to advance factional interests in the movement. He would have been at the forefront of the battles against those using the media to assassinate the character of other comrades. He would have not allowed corruption to run so deep that today it threatens to be the primary means of capital accumulation, threatening the very fabric of our national democratic revolution.

He would have told those running around demanding to be elected at the next congress because they are young, that Walter Sisulu became the youngest ever secretary general not because he was young but because he was the finest leader of our movement.

He would be impressed that we have a constitution that guarantees to all the right to food, water, electricity, shelter, education and health.

Being a person who was never shy to give credit where it is due, Hani would be proud of the achievements made by the state in building 1,600 clinics and refurbishing 400 public hospitals. He would be humbled by the changed attitude of our government regarding the provision of HIV/AIDS treatment to the infected. As a true believer that the masses are their own liberators, Hani would attribute the government's move from denialism to pragmatism regarding HIV/AIDS to the relentless struggles conducted by those who are infected and affected by the virus.

Having grown up in the harsh conditions of Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape, Hani would however be unimpressed by the state of education in this province and nationally. He would perhaps wonder if the matric pass rate in this province and many others would improve this year. Almost astonishingly, Hani would ask: Why is it that black children are still the victims of dysfunctional, unsafe and under-resourced schools? It would never be acceptable to Hani that 42 per cent of our schools depend on boreholes, rainwater or have no access to water on or near site, 88 per cent of schools have no laboratories, 21 per cent of schools have no toilets on site, and 62 per cent of schools have a learner/educator ratio that exceeds 30.

He would be thrilled to know that we have not wasted time in ensuring that we embark in campaigns to liberate South Africans from want and hunger. He would be happy that 74 per cent of South African households live in brick structures, flats and townhouses. But he would be marching in the streets, as he used to do, decrying that 1.875 million households still live in shacks. He would be angry at the quality of houses we have built. He would be angry that we have entrenched the apartheid spatial development planning and that houses built are far away from places of work.

Chris Hani would celebrate with us that in such a short period of time we have improved access to water from just 66 per cent in 1994 to 96 per cent in 2009. He would be happy to be told that access to sanitation also improved from 50 per cent to 77 per cent and today 73 per cent of our people have electricity, up from 51 per cent in 1994.

He would feel vindicated from his ideological standpoint to know that there is overwhelming evidence on the need to build an active developmental state that intervenes in the economy. He would be amazed at the level of intransigence of bureaucrats and their political principals, who refuse to build state capacity, and continue to make the state an issuer of tenders and an administrator of regulations – leaving the actual delivery of basic needs to market forces, which are dominated by monopolies.

There is truth in what Karl Marx said in a letter to his father that:
‘At such moments of transition we feel compelled to view the past and the present with the eagle eye of thought in order to become conscious of our real position. Indeed, world history itself likes to look back in this way and take stock, which often gives it the appearance of retrogression or stagnation, whereas it is merely, as it were, sitting back in an armchair in order to understand itself and mentally grasp its own activity, that of the mind.’

Chris Hani would have been in the front row of protests against the commodification of basic services. He would argue that we are allowing the markets to snatch victories from the jaws of defeat. We deliver on one hand, only to allow market rules such as cost recovery to steal these victories. In South Africa 1.3 million households, which account for almost 5 million people, are experiencing water cut-offs due to non-payment. The democratic government gives on the one hand, capital takes on the other.

Chris Hani would have been very disappointed to note that many have forgotten about the ANC 1969 Morogoro Conference warnings today. We recall that, through the ‘Hani memorandum’, he ensured that the ANC holds that conference. The Morogoro Conference said the following ever-lasting words that we must repeat over and over again:

‘Our nationalism must not be confused with chauvinism or narrow nationalism of a previous epoch. It must not be confused with the classical drive by an elitist group among the oppressed people to gain ascendancy so that they can replace the oppressor in the exploitation of the mass... In our country -- more than in any other part of the oppressed world -- it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation...

‘[Our struggle] is also happening in a new kind of South Africa; a South Africa in which there is a large and well-developed working class...and in which the independent expressions of the working people -- their political organs and trade unions - are very much part of the liberation front.’ (ANC Strategy and Tactics document, 1969)

Tshonyane would be scathing in his criticism of us – that we, the new rulers of South Africa, have been joining the masses in complaining ‘we have political freedom but must still gain our economic liberation’. He would agree with what COSATU has said that we have political medals without economic jewellery. He would ask a question why when we had so many possibilities to change this situation around, we join the masses who are crying out for leadership that would inspire them to liberate themselves from bondage. Chris Hani would recognise that some of the failures to deal with the legacy of colonial capitalism are as a result of our own making.

In particular he would have been very angry that instead of us uncompromisingly taking forward all the 10 demands of the Freedom Charter, we chose in the face of global pressure, to beat ourselves before the bully arrived. We simply capitulated and uncritically embraced neoliberalism through the adoption of the dictates of the Washington consensus in 1996.

We simply changed the white driver with a black driver but the train did not change the direction that was predetermined by the white driver. This route we are still travelling is going towards more inequalities, structural unemployment and poverty and is politically unsustainable.

Indeed today, after just a short period of 16 years of our political freedom, we have become number one country in the world with deepest levels of inequalities. In 1995, the Gini coefficient stood at 0.64 but it increased to 0.68 in 2008. Income inequalities in particular are much more pronounced signified by the fact that 20 top-paid directors in Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies earned 1728 times the average income of a South African worker in 2008, while state-owned enterprises paid 194 times average workers' income.

One of the reasons why he did not proceed to be a lawyer was his hatred of apartheid in the workplace. Regrettably this workplace and economic apartheid is worsening. Between 1963 and 1964, the manufacturing sector paid whites five times more than Africans, whites earned an average of ZAR2,169, while Africans earned ZAR414. However, by 2007, whites were earning eight times more than Africans. These inequalities also find expression in access to quality health care, housing and education facilities.

These patterns of income distribution determine the future evolution of chances of having better life. He would be shocked to know that unemployment among Africans, which was estimated to be 38 per cent in 1995, increased to 45 per cent in 2005, and that a staggering 48 per cent of South Africans live below ZAR322 a month, with 25 per cent of the population depending on state grants to survive.

He would ask us: What was the point of passing the Employment Equity Act if we cannot use it to enforce the transformation of the workplace? He would be surprised to learn that the top managers continue to be predominantly drawn from the white population and that 62 per cent of all promotions and recruitments were drawn from 12 per cent of the South African population. Almost all the top 20 paid directors in JSE-listed companies remain white males.

He would ask why after 16 years the country has no overarching comprehensive development strategy which is underpinned by an industrial policy that will transform our economy while meeting the basic needs of our people. Chris Hani would have found it scandalous that our country has no growth path 16 years after democracy and that it only recently produced an industrial policy.

He would have been angry that our government leaders, right from the beginning, signed away our right to develop by agreeing to reduce the tariffs, which haemorrhaged our industries, to the amusement of even the multinational corporations, who demand free movement of their goods and money.

Today crucial sectors in the economy continue to be dominated by a few large conglomerates. Past policies have failed to break the dominance of the core minerals/energy complex sectors, and imports continue to be made up of sophisticated manufactured items such as machinery and equipment, watches, clocks and even door handles!

Faced by this unfolding disaster, our leaders are increasingly making calls on the working class to sign a social accord and enter into ‘a chicken and a pig partnership’. In this infamous partnership the chicken and the pig agree to equally contribute so that they have a breakfast. But the chicken quickly volunteers to contribute eggs produced after some pleasurable activity, while asking the pig to donate with bacon, which can only happen after the pig has been slaughtered.

Socialism is not about big concepts and heavy theory. Socialism is about decent shelter for those who are homeless. It is about water for those who have no safe drinking water. It is about health care, it is about a life of dignity for the old. It is about overcoming the huge divide between urban and rural areas. It is about a decent education for all our people. Socialism is about rolling back the tyranny of the market. As long as the economy is dominated by an unelected, privileged few, the case for socialism will exist.

Chris Hani was a simple person, yet a sophisticated organic intellectual who could cut through the jargon and put himself in the place where ordinary people would understand Marxist/Leninist literature.

Comrades and friends, we have no doubt that Chris Hani would have been at the forefront of the campaign against corruption. He would challenge vociferously those who have grown accustomed to the notion that holding public office is about getting the ‘perks’, driving expensive cars and stealing public resources. He would concur with COSATU that relegating the arms deal investigation to the dustbin of history is an aberration to what we stand for as a movement. Hani would share our astonishment at the fact that billions were wasted in procuring arms instead of investing in more quality houses, education and clinics for the poor, increasing the percentage of people who can access clean water as well as electricity.

COSATU knows that it would have the full support of comrades such as Chris Hani in arguing that no more should the working class give blank cheques to those in power, that no more will the poor be used as voting cattle. No more will the working class be emotionally and ideologically blackmailed into becoming voting cattle and lapdogs, while no economic benefit accrues to it. He would agree with us that we need to ensure that the most committed, honest and hard-working servants of the people are elected as ANC public representatives in the upcoming local government elections.

We are certain that Chris Hani would share our interpretation of the recent ANC NGC (national general council) as a success. He would be jubilant that this gathering defended the Polokwane resolutions with vigour and made serious inroads into reversing the tendencies that he referred to in the 1969 memorandum. He would also be very happy that the ANC branches in no uncertain terms warned that ill discipline should no longer be tolerated. But this should not be interpreted to mean that the ANC has a right to discipline leaders of other organisations when they speak on mandated policy directives of the organisations they lead.

As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of COSATU this December, we need to ask what Hani would think of the workers' movement today.

We can all learn from Hani's passion to ensure the maximum unity of the progressive forces. This is the thinking that lies behind the upcoming Civil Society Conference on 27-28 October. This conference is inspired by Hani's words to civil society organisations during the CODESA (Convention for a Democratic South Africa) negotiations, that:

‘This is not the time to emphasise our differences. It is our job to build on the highest level of unity we can develop to take ourselves forward, not to narrow sectarian goals but the broad democratic system that is in all of our interests.’

The struggle against social injustice, poverty and deprivation can only be won through a united front, dedicated to putting an end to the capitalist honeymoon that we have been experiencing since 1994.

Being a staunch believer in the dictum that the masses are the makers of history, Chris Hani would urge all of us to push the workers' wagon forward. He would warn that without mass power, we must all forget about liberating ourselves from the shackles of capitalism and apartheid.

I want to be like Chris Hani! Let all of us be inspired by his examples and deeds that need to be emulated.

Thank you!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This speech was first published by COSATU.
* The Chris Hani Memorial Lecture by Zwelinzima Vavi was delivered in Queenstown on 23 October 2010.
* Zwelinzima Vavi is general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

US revolution and counterrevolution: Turns, twists and zigzags

Horace Campbell

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68454

cc White HouseAs the US rounds up its mid-term elections, Horace Campbell stresses that there must be renewed efforts to organise in response to the country’s right-wing oligarchy and educate people that ‘fighting wars overseas cannot be the basis for economic reconstruction’.

Revolution is not an overnight event. In revolutionary moments, political institutions and the law are all caught in the tumult. This tumult comes from the fact that there are earthquakes and seismic shifts in economic relations, gender relations, military relations and class or power shifts. Institutions such as the legislature or the banking institutions may be thrown into topsy-turvy.

In my book, ‘Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA’, I drew the attention of readers to the revolutionary moment during which Barack Obama emerged as president of the USA. This revolutionary moment came to a head on 15 September 2008, when the big banks of Wall Street collapsed. It is here important to underline some of the elements of the revolutionary moment:

1) The failure of the US global war on terror and the delegitimisation of US military might
2) The technological energy which unleashed new capabilities for politics and economics, especially as manifest in social networking tools
3) The cultural revolution and engagement of new forces in politics
4) The heightened consciousness of the environmental justice movement
5) The potential power of a grassroots anti-racist and anti-sexist movement that believes in Ubuntu and
6) The financial implosion which exposed the dead-end of neoliberal ideas.

These elements of the revolution came to a head at the same time the people were called upon to make a statement in the US elections of 2008.

REVOLUTION AND COUNTERREVOLUTION

When the financial crisis exploded on the world in September 2008, the US financial oligarchs were wounded but not defeated. For 30 years previously, these oligarchs and their allies in the media and academia had been building up counterrevolutionary power in the USA. This counterrevolution was manifest in many ways, and we want to itemise them in order to get to the essential conjuncture of the revolution and counterrevolution as witnessed in the mid-term elections:

1) The armaments culture and imperial overreach with the heightening of fear in the name of Homeland Security, as well as the explosion of private military contractors to protect the interests of the financial oligarchs and the ruling class
2) Media disinformation, mind control, psychological warfare and the brainwashing of US citizens
3) 21st century eugenics and new forms of bioterrorism and biological warfare
4) Economic polarisation and concentration of wealth to prop up the Wall Street–Treasury–IMF (International Monetary Fund) cabal that is defended by the US military.
5) Environmental decay, pollution and environmental racism
6) Support for big pharmaceutical companies with differential access to healthcare
7) Support and subsidies for agribusiness and corporations at the forefront of producing genetically modified seeds and the championing of the rights to patent life forms (with the TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) regime of the WTO (World Trade Organisation))
8) Prison–industrial complex
9) Racism, sexism and homophobia
10) Anti-immigrant and Islamophobic hysteria
11) The Wall Street–IMF infrastructure manifest in the bail-out of bankers and the growth of speculative capital at the expense of productive investment for human beings
12) Privatisation of education, the propping-up of the Ritalin/cocaine pipeline and war against the poor.

These elements of counterrevolution are all interrelated and have been refined over the past 30 years. It was the coming together of the youth in 2008 that provided an opening for the challenge to counterrevolution forces. Barack Obama rode on the back of the wave against counterrevolution and was swept into power along with the Democratic Party in 2008. Once in power, Obama, as a liberal, dithered and was caught up in the business of saving capitalism; in effect, supporting those social forces that were at the forefront of counterrevolution. This is evident in his appointment of advisers from the old order, including Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Rahm Emanuel, Tom Donilon, General James Jones, Robert Gates and Ken Salazar. One of the manifestations of the power of counterrevolution’s stronghold on the Obama administration was the handling of the massive environmental destruction in the Gulf of Mexico when some people from the administration tried to cover up the depth of the crimes of the oil companies and their contractors. Throughout this massive oil spill, the administration worked to protect the British Petroleum company with the same enthusiasm that it protected the barons of Wall Street.

MID-TERM ELECTIONS

The foregoing is to put some context to the mid-term elections that were held in the USA on 2 November 2010. Mid-term elections are called such because they are usually in the middle of the four-year term of the president. It is a moment when there are elections for 435 members of the House of Representatives (which is every two years). It is also a time for the election of some governors, senators and legislative officers in the 50 states of the USA.

In the 2010 mid-term elections, the wounded financial oligarchs and counterrevolutionary forces went all out to beat back the popular alliance that brought Obama to power. This all-out campaign was itself a reflection of the nervousness of these oligarchs. For the first time in the history of the USA over US$4 billion was spent in the mid-term election campaign. Over US$3 billion was spent on advertising. In this way, the media was suborned into supporting the ‘forces of organised money’. The US Chamber of Commerce dropped all pretences of neutrality and poured money into the coffers of Republican candidates. In fact, individual capitalists came forward to fight, targeting lawmakers who were against militarism and those who stood for the well-being and rights of workers and ordinary citizens. This was the case in Wisconsin, where Ron Johnson was the front for the defeat of Senator Russ Feingold. Senator Feingold was specifically targeted because of his principled stand against militarism. He was the only senator from this upper house to vote against the Homeland Security legislation and he was the only senator to vote against the unleashing of the US military machine against the people of Afghanistan. Johnson had inherited his money, and other capitalists from across the US poured millions into this campaign to ensure that Feingold was defeated. Similar tales abound in Congress where progressive representatives were targeted.

In fact, in one race in California, one politician spent US$170 million of her own money. In another race, one candidate spent US$150 million of her own money and then spent US$3 million for a party. Both of these capitalists lost. Indeed, big capitalists did not disguise their anxiety over the direction of the country. After studying the networks of grassroots forces of the 2008 popular upsurge, the same capitalists pumped millions of dollars into varying formations that had right-wing populist messages. In the US, there is a new movement called the Tea Party movement. This movement consists of various factions such as the Tea Party Nation, the Tea Party Express, Freedom Works Tea Party and the Tea Party Patriots, among others. Some of the faces of this movement were Caucasian women such as Christine O’Donnell, Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina and Sharron Angle.

Sarah Palin emerged in this period of counterrevolution, leading the opposition to reproductive rights for women. Many of the male purveyors of this movement uttered such homophobic and racist verbiage that they even embarrassed the racist ruling class. With the emergence of the Tea Party, Karl Rove and George W. Bush sounded like moderates. Militarism of the Carlyle group vintage was too tame for these counterrevolutionary forces, so in this election cycle the forces of the Republican Party were far to the right of George W. Bush. It must be underlined that these so-called grassroots forces were financed by billionaires and given maximum exposure through the corporate conservative media. Members of this counterrevolutionary force unequivocally said that it was their job to roll back the civil rights gain of the 1960s. In fact, Rand Paul and Tom Tancredo were two spokespersons who were very explicit on this call to roll back civil rights. Sharron Angle of Nevada displayed some of the most racist and anti-immigrant ads in US politics.

RESULT OF THE MID-TERM ELECTIONS

On Wednesday morning (3 November), it became clear that many white workers in the heartland of America fell prey to the deception and mind control of the corporate conservative media. From Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to Wisconsin and Michigan, what was once the industrial heartland of the US, the conservative Republicans swept the board. The conservatives captured the US House of Representatives, with Democrats barely holding on to the Senate. The Republicans won the governorship races in key states such as Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. The Republicans also captured over 600 legislative bodies at the state and county levels across the country. The Republican ruling class celebrated while the liberals wrung their hands about the future.

There was no shortage of advice to Barack Obama on what he should do. For those who perceived of Obama as a messiah, there were different suggestions on the ways forward. The New York Times stated that: ‘Mr. Obama has a lot of difficult work ahead of him. The politics in Washington will likely get even nastier. Before he can hope to build the minimal bipartisan consensus needed to move ahead, Mr. Obama will have to rally more Americans to the logic of his policies.’ But the liberal ruling class cannot have their cake and eat it. It is not just up to Obama to decide the future. It is up to an organised progressive force that will determine the direction of the politics of the US.

LESSONS FROM THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

In the book ‘Lords of Finance: The Bankers who Broke the World’, Liaquat Ahamed spelt out the recursive processes that emanated from the rapacious activities of the bankers in the 1920s. The author quoted John Maynard Keynes, who said at that time: ‘[W]e have been involved in a colossal model, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand.’ What the author did not properly connect was how this blundering was also manipulated by fascist forces that brought fascist leaders to power in Germany and Italy with the strengthening of fascist parties all across the world of white supremacy.

It should be remembered at this present time that the financial entanglement of the Wall Street speculators are far more profound than that of the 1930s. It was only last week that we spelt out the interconnection between finance capital, fraud and foreclosure. We highlighted the fact that what is called the foreclosure crisis might be throwing a section of the legal structure in the US in disarray. The insolvency of the banking system means that the capitalists will need another bail-out. One day after the elections (on 3 November), the Federal Reserve poured another US$600 billion into the banking system through what was called ‘quantitative easing’. Quantitative easing is another fancy word for the devaluation of the dollar. Many citizens of the USA forgot that it was the same competitive devaluations of the 1930s that plunged the world into the quagmire of misery and unemployment. Some sections of the Republicans are saying that the only way to get out of this depression is through war. Hence there will be more drumbeats for war against Iran. During the elections, the same conservative forces were calling for steps against China.

It is this reality of the massive bail-out of the banks with this new injection from the Federal Reserve that ensured that although Obama did everything to save the capitalists, they are still insecure in relation to the potential mobilisation of the working people. We must restate the fact that in this revolutionary moment, the future direction of peace and social reconstruction is not up to Obama.

The peace movement should be self-critical to ask itself why is it that the war that has gone on for years was not one of the issues in the mid-term elections. It is here important to remember that at the height of the crisis in Germany before Adolf Hitler came to power, the Communists, Socialists and Social Democrats were bickering amongst themselves as to the direction to take. The left in the US cannot afford the luxury of bickering at this time. The left must be clear and focused on how to secure a progressive front to stand up, reorganise and to develop a strategy to beat back the wave of counterrevolution. We must remember the words of Karl Max: ‘[M]en and women make their own history, but they do not make it as they please, they do not make it under self selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.’

Marx wrote these words in the context of the farce of the second Napoleon. The mid-term and the results was a re-enactment of the nightmare of the past history when representatives such as Benjamin Tillman and Jesse Helms could proudly display overt racism in order to win elections. Jim Crow, sexism, homophobia and militarism dominated this election cycle. It is like history is threatening to repeat itself in the second major depression in the USA. We agree with Marx that ‘history of great importance in the world occurs as it were, twice. The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.’ In this counterrevolution, we are witnessing the farce of a ruling class and financial oligarchs who have not yet been reconciled to their newly diminished standing in the world. Hence, they continue to promise a recovery of the US economy based on the 20th-century model of accumulation. The working peoples of the Midwest who have seen their jobs disappear are angry and anxious. It is the task of the progressive forces to work harder to organise these workers to educate them to the reality that fighting wars overseas cannot be the basis for economic reconstruction.

The revolutionary moment requires that the progressive forces sharpen their understanding of revolutionary ideas, revolutionary organisation and revolutionary leadership. And I would like to restate what I stated in my book, ‘Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA’, that the future does not depend on Obama being perceived as a messiah. It is up to us.

There will be many more turns, twists and sigzags in the revolutionary moment in the USA.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* ’Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA’ by Horace Campbell is published by Pluto Press, New York, 2010.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Pan-Africanism and the challenge of East African Community integration

Issa G. Shivji

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68395

© AWAAZAs the East African Community seeks further integration, Issa G. Shivji explores the historical beginnings and vision behind such regional changes from a pan-Africanist perspective. Rather than debate specific forms of ‘economic integration’ or ‘political association’, Shivji seeks to discuss ‘whether we are asking the right questions’.

The purpose of this short paper is to assess the challenge of regional unity like the East African Community (EAC) from the standpoint of pan-Africanism. We use the term ‘regional unity’, or regionalism, to refer to include both economic integration and political association. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the second-generation East African Community, it is opportune to stand back from the dominant debates on forms of integration – common market, monetary union, fast-tracking or snail-walking of the East African Federation etc. – and ask certain core questions: What exactly is the vision, the lodestar, so to speak, of the regional project? What is its historical genesis? What are the driving forces of the project, in whose interest and for what purpose? How does the project relate to the larger global forces, and in particular, to the changing world hegemonies? It is only by asking these bigger questions that we can critically assess where we are going and chart the possible way forward. It is not my intention to enter into a debate on the merits or demerits of the forms of economic integration or the speed of political association. Rather I wish to pose the question as to whether we are asking the right questions.

In the first section the paper will examine in broad strokes the historical pan-Africanist project as a progenitor of African nationalism leading to the independence movement. The central argument of this section is that the discourse and contentions on the East African Federation (EAF) among the first generation nationalists was located in Pan-Africanism. The second section is broadly divided into two parts. The first part will address the contentions surrounding the first generation regionalism located in the first 25 years of post-colonial, territorial nationalism. The second part will touch on the defeat of the national project, the rise of neo-liberalism and locate the second generation regionalism – or regional integration, as it is called in the dominant EAC-speak- within the neo-liberal project.

The final section suggests that new Pan-Africanism is back on the historical agenda with even greater relevance than it was fifty years ago. I conclude with the question: what are the social and political forces that will drive the new Pan-Africanism.

I. THE PAN-AFRICANIST VISION

The vision and ideology of Pan-Africanism was the dominant ideology of the African people for almost the whole of 20th century, although somewhat eclipsed by territorial nationalism in the last quarter. It was born of five centuries of oppression, exploitation, domination, and more particularly, humiliation and indignity, visited on the African people by European imperialist powers. Understandably, it was the ‘diaspora’ which first gave birth to the idea of pan-Africanism. The first Pan-African Congress was convened by that great African mind, W. E. B. Du Bois in 1919 on the heel of the first imperialist war. The demand of the first Congress revolved around equality of races, for the black people to be treated like any other human race. It was attended largely by diasporans.

The next most historic Congress was the fifth held in 1945 in Manchester on the heel of the second imperialist war. It was attended by some two hundred delegates, majority of whom being from the continent. George Padmore, a great pan-Africanist himself, introduced Du Bois as the ‘father of Pan-Africanism’ and invited him to take the chair as the president of the Congress. Kwame Nkrumah, as the rapporteur of the session, gave a wide-ranging address on the state of colonial Africa. He promised the delegates that they would soon see ‘strong and vigorous action to eradicate [imperialism]’, which he identified as ‘one of the major causes of war’ (quoted in Lewis 2000: 514).

Many more Africans from Africa addressed the Congress. Jomo Kenyatta talked about six East African countries ranging from Nyasaland to East Africa. The manifesto titled ‘Challenge to Colonial Powers’ issued at the end took colonialism head-on. It demanded freedom. Its rallying cry was ‘Africa for Africans’. It condemned and discarded imperialism while advocating a kind of social democracy. One of its resolutions said:

We condemn the monopoly of capital and the rule of private wealth and industry for private profit alone. We welcome economic democracy as the only real democracy. (quoted in Shivji 2005 reprinted in Shivji 2009: 198)

Within twenty five years, the Pan-African discourse had evolved from demanding racial and cultural equality, even pleading for assimilation in European society, to an unambiguous anti-imperialism and demand for freedom and independence. Armed with the ideology of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah and Kenyatta and others returned to their respective areas to spearhead the struggle for independence. Thus was born African nationalism. It is Pan-Africanism that gave birth to nationalism and not the other way round. No sooner had Ghana achieved independence then Nkrumah organised the famous All Africa People’s Conferences in the pursuit of his pan-Africanist vision.

We should underline two features of the first generation Pan-Africanism which, as I will argue later, are still relevant. First, Pan-Africanism was a political project. Just as Nkrumah argued in the case of Ghana ‘Seek ye the political Kingdom first …’; he similarly advocated political unity of the continent first. Secondly, the Pan-Africanist project was anti-imperialist. True, anti-imperialism was not understood in the same way by all African nationalists but the leading among them, including Nkrumah and Nyerere, already had the notion of neo-colonialism. They constantly argued that without unity independent African countries would become a pawn on the imperialist chessboard.

The first generation African nationalists, from Hastings Banda to Houphouet-Boigny and from Ben Bella to Babu were all Pan-Africanists. The two paragons of Pan-Africanism were no doubt Nyerere and Nkrumah. Although they differed sharply on the road to Pan-Africanism, they did not differ on the destination. Nkrumah’s passionate advocacy for a United States of Africa and Nyerere’s fervent drive for East African Federation were both cast within the pan-Africanist vision. The majority of the political and educated elite in East Africa in the early 1960s considered themselves pan-Africanists. In a poll of Makerere students in 1962, two-thirds of African students described themselves as pan-Africanists (Nye 1966: 31-2). Most cabinet ministers in all three East African countries thought of themselves as pan-Africanists (ibid.). Describing his colleagues, one non-African minister said that ‘their Pan-Africanism is explicit, not just an unspoken assumption – very explicit.’ (quoted ibid.: 29).

The drive for EA Federation was again Pan-Africanism. As one Makerere student put it, ‘Pan-Africanism will be an important point in the creation of this federation for the simple reason that the prime movers of [the federation] at present are Pan-Africanist to the core.’ (quoted ibid.: 32). Only when the political project for the EA federation failed, for reasons that we need not go into here, that the East African leaders settled for the second best, that is, East African Common Services Organisation (EACSO). It is interesting that the argument for common services and against a federation were also cast in the pan-Africanist discourse. For example, leading trade unionists in Tanganyika, particularly Kassanga Tumbo, opposed an EA High Commission. He was finally persuaded to accept it in terms of Pan-Africanism (ibid.: 178 et seq.). At the other end, Ugandans at the last moment withdrew from federation talks, although they had earlier accepted the declaration to form the federation by the end of 1963. They also used Nkrumah’s argument that a regional unity would make African unity more difficult. As two UPC parliament secretaries put it:

We are committed to the idea of Pan-African unity and we are afraid that our economic interest in federation will clash with our ideological interest in African unity.

There will be no federation because it would prevent African unity. We must come together all at once. (quoted ibid: 196).

II. NKRUMAH-NYERERE DEBATE

Unlike the Ugandans, who were opportunistically using the pan-Africanist argument to paper over their opposition to federation for internal political reasons, Nkrumah’s opposition to regional blocs was based on his legitimate fear that this would make African unity more difficult. It is in this regard that there was a now well-known debate and difference between Nkrumah and Nyerere. As is known, Nkrumah argued that African union government should be formed immediately after independence before individual countries settled in their sovereignties. He argued that imperial powers would use individual countries to pursue their neo-colonial tactics of divide and rule. Nyerere too was conscious of this possibility, or, what he called the ‘second scramble for Africa’ (Nyerere 1966: 204-8), but argued on pragmatic grounds that the process of African unity would be prolonged and that it would be based on regional building blocs. Whereas Nyerere’s argument was based on logic that it would be easier to unite a dozen or so regional blocs then four dozen individual countries, Nkrumah considered regional unity as ‘balkanization on a larger scale’. He severely argued against the East African federation just as he had earlier criticised PAFMECA. Ironically, Nyerere’s arguments for an EA federation before or immediately the countries became independent were the same that Nkrumah used to argue his case for immediate African unity. With the hindsight of history, we can now see that both Nkrumah and Nyerere have been proved right. We are still struggling with the idea of EA federation after fifty years just as we are with the idea of a United States of Africa. Nonetheless, after fifty years of experience with territorial nationalism and two experiments in the so-called regional economic integration, we should be in a better position to revisit the pan-African vision as well as the quest for an EA federation.

III. TERRITORIAL NATIONALISM, REGIONALISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM

The post-independence period for our purpose may be divided into two: some twenty five years of (territorial) nationalism and another twenty five years of neo-liberalism or globalisation. Both Nkrumah and Nyerere had argued forcefully that on their own African countries would not be able to defend their independence or even bring about meaningful development for their people. Nonetheless, as heads of states they had to come to terms with consolidating their state power in their own countries. Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 but Nyerere was left to agonise over what he called the ‘dilemma of a Pan-Africanist’. He argued that each independent African country was busy building nation-states and therefore consolidating nationalism which conflicts with Pan-Africanism. Addressing students on the inauguration of Kenneth Kaunda as the Chancellor of the University of Zambia in 1966, he said:

Pan-Africanism demands an African consciousness and an African loyalty; on the other hand is the fact that each Pan-Africanist must also concern himself with the freedom and development of one of the nations of Africa. These things can conflict. Let us be honest and admit that they have already conflicted. (Nyerere 1966 in Nyerere 1968: 208)

Although Nyerere returned to this theme occasionally, it became rarer until after he retired from the presidency. To an extent, during the immediate post-colonial period as nationalism battled against neo-colonialism, with some leaders succumbing, others adapting and still more falling prey to imperial machinations; Pan-Africanism receded to the background. The East African Community formed in 1967, which attempted to address one of the deep-rooted scourges of colonialism and uneven development, also fell victim to the forces of compradorialism and imperialism. It is not necessary to go into details. Suffice it to say that the limited economic unity could not be sustained in the absence of a durable political framework. And a durable political framework could not be developed in the absence of political unity.

The limits of territorial nationalism which both Nyerere and Nkrumah had predicted and feared were unambiguously driven home by the neo-liberal onslaught beginning in the eighties with the ‘Washington consensus’. Neo-liberalism proved to be the worst form of neo-colonialism and utterly subversive of African unity. The three generations of conditionalities dictated by the unholy trio of IMF-World Bank-WTO backed by imperialist powers was a direct and blatant attack on both the political and economic sovereignty of African states. Beginning with the first generation of economic conditionalities in the so-called structural adjustment programmes, followed by the ruthless privatisation and dictates on financial and fiscal policies to political conditionalities thinly veiled in the so-called ‘good governance, human rights and accountability’ were nothing less than an open attack on the very notion of independence. Independence was constituted by reclaiming state sovereignty which is precisely what was undermined by these conditionalities. Even African parliaments were given set timetables within which to enact laws desired by the IFIs regardless of what parliamentarians thought as ‘representatives’ of the people. During the heyday of neo-liberalism in Tanzania, our third phase president, Mkapa, often retorted to internal critiques by saying that even the World Bank praised his policies. Thus African governments sought political legitimacy outside rather than with their people. Nkrumah could not have dreamt in his wildest dream that African states would be reduced to such spinelessness.

Imperialism which had been defensive during the nationalist period tried to rehabilitate itself morally and ideologically. One after another, African leaders fell in line while others even enthusiastically offered themselves to be what Nabudere calls Sherpas of imperialism (Nabudere in Nyong’o et al 2002: 61). To the credit of African scholars, a critical mass of them in such organisations as CODESRIA, consistently criticised this ‘new’ imperialism in its new incarnation called globalization. Nonetheless, the new breed of leaders, as they were christened by the Blairs and the Clintons of this world, uncritically embraced neo-liberal policies of marketisation, commodification and privatisation. It is in this context that the continental ‘integration’ project NEPAD was born.

It is within the same context that at the regional level was born the second generation EA cooperation (EAC). I dare say that what NEPAD is to AU (African Union), EAC is to EAF. Both are predicated on an ‘integrationist’ economistic approach, integration here meaning integration in the global capitalist circuits as subordinates. Unlike the first generation EAF or OAU, for that matter, which were cast within the pan-African project, the EAC/EAF (fast-track or otherwise) does not have a pan-African vision. The author of NEPAD, president Mbeki, had to borrow ‘African renaissance’ from European history, with little relevance to Africa or to the ideologies of NEPAD. Unlike Pan-Africanism, the so-called African renaissance has little resonance in African history. Similarly, EAF lacks a truly Pan-Africanist vision. It is cast in an integrationist and developmentalist mode. ‘The visionary purpose for the establishment of an East African Federation’, says the Wako report on fast tracking EAF, ‘is the accelerated economic development for all, to enable the region to move away from a Least Developed Region to a Developed Region, in the shortest possible time.’ (Wako Report 2004: 9). This is not to say that ‘accelerated development’ is not important. The point is that development cannot be understood outside the history of five centuries of underdevelopment in which imperialism has played a central role. History teaches us that deepening of integration in the global imperialist dominated economy only results in further deepening of underdevelopment.

Fortunately, but unfortunately with devastating results, the collapse of neo-liberalism last year has once again shown that it is futile to expect that Africa can develop politically in alliance with imperialism and economically by integrating in global capitalism. Africa has to develop its own alternative agenda and path of development. And of necessity this will be in opposition to imperialism as Nkrumah argued.

One of the central elements in Nkrumah’s seminal work Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism is the concept of an integrated African economy. He argued that there could be no sustainable development in Africa in the interest of the African people unless there was a continent-wide integration of the production system as a whole, in particular the use of resources – oil, forest products, minerals etc. – to build an ‘integrated industrial complex’ (Nkrumah 1965: 234). In the same vein, he emphasised that the initial capital for constructing such a complex was being lost through siphoning off of surplus from Africa by the multinationals (ibid. 238). He further underlined the importance of common markets within and of Africa.

Nkrumah was a great believer in economic synergies and economies of scale on the African level. Two decades later Nkrumah’s vision was concretised in the Lagos Plan of Action, 1980, drawn up by the Economic Commission for Africa. But as Adebayo Adedeji puts it ‘these [plans] were opposed, undermined and jettisoned by the Bretton Woods institutions and Africans were thus impeded from exercising the basic and fundamental right to make decisions about their future.’ (Adedeji 2002: 35-36)

In sum, our argument is that both regional and continental unity – whether economic or political – has to be cast in a Pan-African vision which by definition is anti-imperialist.

IV. Resurrecting Pan-Africanism

The defeat of the (territorial) national project at the hands of neo-liberalism on the one hand, and the collapse of neo-liberalism, which was predicated on extreme financialization, on the other, has squarely placed Pan-Africanism on the historical agenda. In broad terms, Pan-Africanist agenda entails continental political unity and economic integration. Does this mean that regional unity like the one implied in EAC/EAF is worthless and should not be pursued? With Mwalimu Nyerere, my answer would be that it should be pursued provided it is guided by a Pan-Africanist vision. What does this mean in practice if these are not only to be words or, as Mwalimu said, ‘matters of form – motions which have to be gone through while the serious business of building up states is continued.’ (Nyerere 1966 op. cit. 215).

Let me illustrate concretely the implication of saying that our regional unity should be guided by a pan-Africanist vision. When EA cooperation was being considered anew, there was a suggestion that in the new circumstances, the EA cooperation should include Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC, besides the three traditional EA countries.[1] Fortunately, Rwanda and Burundi were considered but no thought was given to the inclusion of the DRC. No doubt many practical obstacles and hurdles would be posed to show that the suggestion is not feasible, or, even absurd. But the point is that it was not even raised for debate in which case the hurdles would be raised and a debate generated as to how these could be addressed in a Pan-African context. The other suggestion that was made was that the question of Zanzibar within the Tanzanian union and its place within a larger unity ought to be discussed and a suitable resolution found. Yet, as has continued to be the political praxis in this regard, it was thought best to shove it under the carpet. Yet the issue has refused to go away and is being constantly raised by the Zanzibaris. If this matter were seen from a pan-African perspective, new initiatives could be taken – such as exploring different levels of association within the larger framework of federation, say, for example, Zanzibar having the status of an autonomous region within a federation. It will be recalled that within the former Soviet Union/federation different states had different status, including two states which even had seats in the United Nations, and some smaller states being given the status of autonomous regions.

Both these issues can make sense only if the regional unity is contextualised, situated and led by Pan-Africanism. (In fact, the first generation of EAF policy-makers seriously considered the possibility of including Ethiopia and Somalia in the federation. In November 1962, Ethiopia, Somalia and Zanzibar sent observers to the East African Central Legislative Assembly in Kampala and expressed interest in joining the federation. But given the problems of the three East African countries themselves, this initiative did not go very far.) In the current context in which world hegemonies are shifting and there is a distinct trend on the part of the United States to militarise its relation with Africa to protect its sources of natural resources, energy, and minerals; Pan-Africanist anti-imperialism and non-alignment would dictate that neither Zanzibar at one end and the DRC at the other ought to be left at the mercy of US penetration. Tanzania provides the most important geo-strategic land mass linking the Indian Ocean with resource rich Central Africa while Zanzibar is a strategic island on the Western Indian Ocean rim. With the rise of China/India, the perceived threat of Iran and instability in the Gulf, the Indian Ocean becomes an important field of interest to the US/Israel military strategy. AFRICOM and its thrust into Africa is likely to be focused on the weak link in the Indian Ocean rim which is the eastern seaboard of Africa from Djibouti to Durban. Instead of such considerations, we find that in fact the EA states involved in the prospective EAF, actually cooperate with the US militarily, as recent exercises in the north of Uganda show.

***

But the other question is: what will be the driving forces of new anti-imperialist Pan-Africanism? This is a difficult question to answer in the abstract beyond generalities such as civil society or working people. It is posed here only for debate and thought. However, the immediate question at this stage is ‘where to begin’ rather than ‘what is to be done’. It is suggested that the place to begin is to resurrect a pan-Africanist discourse, to turn Pan-Africanism into a category of intellectual thought. I can best conclude by once again quoting Mwalimu’s speech on ‘the dilemma of a Pan-Africanist’. After arguing that political leaders at the helm of the state would not have the time to think seriously about the way forward for Pan-Africanism, he opines:

Who is to keep us active in the struggle to convert nationalism to Pan-Africanism if it is not the staffs and students of our universities? Who is it who will have the time and ability to think out the practical problems of achieving this goal of unification if it is not those who have an opportunity to think and learn without direct responsibility for day-to-day affairs?

And cannot the universities themselves move in this direction? Each of them has to serve the needs of its own nation, its own area. But has it not also to serve Africa? Why cannot we exchange students – have Tanzanians getting their degrees in Zambia and Zambians get theirs in Tanzania? Why cannot we do other things which link our intellectual life together indissolubly? [Nyerere 1966, reprinted in 1968: 216-7]

Linking our intellectual life together indissolubly to generate a pan-Africanist discourse is the task of the post neo-liberal generation of African intellectuals.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Issa G. Shivji is Mwalimu Nyerere Professor of Pan-African Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam.
* This article was first published by AWAAZ.
* ‘Building a struggle-based, people-centred Pan-African movement’ by Firoze Manji is also published by AWAAZ.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

REFERENCES

Adedeji, Adebayo, 2002, ‘From the Lagos Plan of Action to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and From Final Act of Lagos to the Constituent Act: Whither Africa?’, in Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o et al, 2002, NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) A New Path? Nairobi: Heinrich Boll Foundation, pp 35-48.

Lewis, David Levering, 2000, W.E.B. Du Bois: The fight for equality and the American Century, 1919-1963, New York: Henry Holt.

Nabudere, Dani W, 2002, ‘NEPAD: Historical background and its prospects’, in Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o et al, 2002, NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) A New Path? Nairobi: Heinrich Boll Foundation, pp 49-71.

Nkrumah, K, 1965, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, London: Heinemann.

Nye, Joseph S, 1966, Pan-Africanism and East African Integration, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Nyerere, J K 1966, ‘The Second Scramble’, in J. K. Nyerere 1966, Freedom and Unity, Oxford: OUP, pp 204-208.

Nyerere, J K 1968, ‘The Dilemma of the Pan-Africanist’, address to the University of Zambia Congregation, 13 July 1966, in J K Nyerere 1968, Freedom and Socialism, Oxford; OUP, pp 207-217.

Shivji, Issa G, 2006, Pan-Africanism or Pragmatism: Lessons of Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union, Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota.

Shivji, Issa G, 2005, ‘Pan-Africanism or imperialism? Unity and Struggle towards a new democratic Africa’, in Issa G. Shivji 2009, Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa, London & Nairobi: fahamu, pp 196-208.

Shivji, Issa G, 2006, Let the People Speak: Tanzania down the road to neo-liberalism, Dakar: CODESRIA.

Wako Report, 2004, East African Community: Report of the Committee on Fast Tracking East African Federation, Arusha, Tanzania, 26th November 2004.

[1] See essays in Shivji, ‘Let the People Speak’.

The queer community in Nairobi

Inward versus outward existence

J. Blessol Jr

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68415

cc P G ‘Being queer in Nairobi means you have to man-up - or be a woman and a half - to admit, embrace, and live your life with no regrets,’ writes J. Blessol Jr, in an exploration of both the positive and the many negative aspects of queer life in the city.

‘What your mother hasn’t taught you, the world will.’

What does it mean to be queer in Nairobi?

It means you get to be the odd ones out, outcasts, a minority - prone to so many things - where the community, the media, the state, and everyone around you tries to be in your business. Does this in return make us the recipients of hateful or scornful glances from the ‘righteous’ society, or pure ‘admiration and respect’ from the rest of the population? We don’t care.

We have become a society within a society, and one that dreams big - one that has its own culture, defines its own gender roles, spirituality, and religion. We have organisations that work in solidarity, voluntarism, and that dream our revolution will one day yield the fruits of gay games and parades similar to the ones we see on TV in South Africa. We dream of a new society that can include our brothers and sisters from Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and probably the whole of Africa, if they are interested.

In our society, we know there are things like human rights, and we know that ours are being grossly violated; but we still manage to live our lives to the fullest. Our activists and volunteers dedicate their lives to fighting ignorance, hate-motivated violence, and inequality by seeking recognition before the law, empowerment, and positive advocacy.

Our happiness comes from the fact that we are being ourselves and not living a lie. We create our own safe spaces, we have queer parties, and we establish queer-friendly joints where we get to relieve our stress, be rowdy, free our minds, and be treated as normal beings. We get to dress as drag-queens and kings, dancing in our own sensual way while we happily watch ‘straight’ people dance to Lady Gaga’s songs, and hum Rihanna’s ‘Te Amo’ without reasoning the meaning behind it. Then we go home to be male-wives and female-husbands, partaking of our roles wholeheartedly, without caring what the other society thinks of us.

That is our outside. Inwardly, being queer in Nairobi means you get to be unique in a different way. Our lives, our livelihoods, and problems are different. From the sub-standard medical treatment we receive when we disclose our sexuality to practitioners, to the way law enforcement treats us, such that unions within the queer community are not entitled to basic rights such as National Social Security Funds and rights to a founded family.

This society’s perception of us is usually negative, and tends to be worse for queer communities from lower socio-economic backgrounds. You would think it would be enough that life punishes them for being financially crippled, but they are often stigmatised, discriminated against, and bashed (even by the police) simply because of their sexuality. The majority believe it is a lifestyle, a choice, a vice that can be changed with proper medical care, divine intervention, and exorcism prayers. They can’t believe that people are queer just because they are. The things the majority does to ‘reform’ queer people usually leave one to wonder whatever happened to the values of humanity.

Being queer has defied the gender roles imposed on us by families and societal expectations - where a man should marry a woman, or several women, or vice-versa. And as a result, many have experienced heinous injustices within broader society.

Most of the time, a verdict is reached on the spot. If you are caught in the act, or even just suspected of being queer, there is no telling what might be done to you. In school cases, students get expelled. If the punishment is minor, and a person promises not to be queer again, he or she may just be suspended.

If you are a diva or a butch lesbian minding your own business on the street, and you find people in a bad mood, you get beaten into a pulp, or raped to rid you of your ‘behaviour’. The excuse is usually, ‘What are you trying to show them?’ or ‘Behave like the gender assigned to you.’. Most of us have been forced to live double lives, hoping that our families don’t find out. Once they find out, you are lucky if they accept you. Then you live hoping that this ‘phase’ will go away, or pretending you are not what you know you are.

In worse cases you get thrown out. They believe what your mother hasn’t taught you, the world will.

For instance, take the case of a 23-year-old gay man. He is proud to be gay, yes, but the suffering and humiliation he has undergone at the hands of society has left him damaged. He would need more than counselling and divine intervention to heal and be himself again.

He grew up in one of the slums in Nairobi. His mother died when he was eight years old. At 17 he was denied education and kicked out of their home after his teachers and family discovered he was gay. They told him he was the child of a whore, and unfit to be part of the family. He was nearly cursed by his then-ailing uncle (who is now dead) - but he went back home, apologised for being gay, said he was no longer doing it, and professed that he had been ‘saved’. All of this so that his uncle could die in peace – whatever that means. As to his family, ever since there has been hear-say. He has never gone back.

He hustles in the streets of Nairobi, normally earning less than 100 Kenyan shillings (about US$1.25) per day. That is what he eats, drinks, and sleeps on. He has been sexually abused by a man at gun point; he submitted to it and never reported the incident. He sleeps in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park when things are out of hand. When things are cool, he can be found in shady downtown joints drinking Keg with other queer friends.

In another case, a 26-year-old gay man was stripped of his dignity by society. He was a sex worker back in the day when the word ‘gay’ was not even uttered in public, let alone now, when the media features it as frequently as TV advertisements, or at least every other week.

This man would stand on the roads waiting for clients alongside the rest of the female sex workers. He would be caught, beaten, sexually harassed, and had his rectum permanently damaged. But on the better days, when he got genuine clients, he made good use of his money. He built his own house in what was at that time his ancestral home, and lived well helping his siblings and relatives, until the day they discovered he was gay. He was frog-marched, beaten, and told never to set foot on that land again.

He is a sex worker. He is HIV-positive. He sleeps in the downtown drinking joints, and sometimes you will find him crying because he feels people use him and pay peanuts in return. Sometimes he earns as little as 30 Kenyan shillings (US$0.37) for the services offered. He is bitter and enraged. He keeps recalling he has a beautiful home he built with his own money and sweat, only he can’t go back to it.

Consider this incident involving a lesbian who was indeed ‘taught by the world.’ She was gang-raped by eight men she had grown up with, trusted, and whose second names and families she knew. Men she considered to be like brothers. She sacrificed herself on this fateful night to protect her girlfriend from being raped by the same guys. The men believed that by doing so, they would ‘rid her’ of her ‘behaviour’ or ‘stop’ her from being a lesbian.

Now she has turned to alcohol for solace. She believes it is the only thing that loves her earnestly, without prejudice. You will find her in the same shady Keg-drinking joints as the others.

This is where I get my insights on where the challenges of being queer in Nairobi come from. And it is a hard existence - especially if you are not well-off and don’t know your way around the system.

First, out of ignorance or personal convictions, society gets to decide what is African or un-African, cultural or un-cultural, natural (with the help of the constitution) or unnatural for us.

Second, politicians, and the gabble they call politics (votes and statistics necessary to secure power), believe that we are the damned minorities of these country. If the majority of society does not ‘condone’ us, then they shove our issues aside. Unless there is a pandemic of course.

Third, African and religious leaders believe queer lives are un-African, Western, un-cultural, unnatural and ungodly, and that anyone who ‘practices’ these ‘heinous’, ‘unnatural’ and ‘beastly’ acts should be cast out. It is sad that in some cases, this has been used to justify why a life should be lost.

These three parties somehow get to decide our fate. And if you don’t know your rights or where you can find assistance…

And even if you do know your rights, will they be applied in cases of mob justice?

As to how to liberate ourselves here and around Africa, my insights are to hope, educate, and fight ignorance within and beyond our communities. These processes are ongoing as queer organisations in Kenya reach out to law enforcement, policy-makers, religious leaders, and African leaders more generally.

I believe the dominant society justifies what it does about us because of its ignorance. After all, that which any human being does not understand, he or she fears. Hence the marginalisation, discrimination, stigma, violence, and hate-motivated speeches we see in the public sphere today. It is very similar to the time when it was wrong to be a black African. Not long ago, Africans were a marginalised group within their own society and on their own lands, an unacceptable situation that led to the beginnings of black liberation movements and later Pan-Africanism.

Being queer in Nairobi means you have to man-up - or be a woman and a half - to admit, embrace, and live your life with no regrets. And when there are regrets (for example because of your jealous partner, or the never-ending sexual endeavours that always land you in trouble or threats from your ex), you have to be ready to bear the consequences.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* J. Blessol Jr. is an activist with the Gay Kenya Trust and works as a graphic designer.
* This article was originally published by Liberation Magazine.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

My life as a security guard

Oppressors gain at expense of the oppressed

Mashumi ‘Lindela’ Figlan

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68424

cc WikimediaFaced by high unemployment South Africans are ‘queuing up to be exploited’, writes Mashumi ‘Lindela’ Figlan. But there’s no reason why ‘each and every person cannot have their dignity.’

Maybe it is good to remind the people that where there is capitalism, the capitalists exploit the workers more than anything you can think of. These days with unemployment being so high the people are queuing up to be exploited. But we must remember that this is not a natural system. There is no reason why each and every person cannot have their dignity.

I have been working as a security guard for many years now. I used to think that the security industry is such a good industry because we always see the guards always smiling. Later I noticed that somebody told them to be always smiling. There is a real need for the government officials to do something about the security industry. One of our leaders said that the government is supposed to sort out the problem facing the security guards. The government should make sure that the industry must be regulated under the government and then they must make sure that that regulation is in the interests of the workers. Of course when ever regulation of an industry is proposed all the petty capitalists and also the venture capitalists complain because they are afraid to lose much by moneys and so in the end no one decides to support the government. Even the government gazette allows the security companies to exploit the security guards. This is how the system works. The people elect a government and instead of obeying the people the government listens to the capitalists. This is why in many countries the people are organising themselves to be able to put more pressure on the government that the capitalists.

It is bad to be a security guard because each and everyone learns how to jump using a guard. We are working with a very low remuneration. Nightshift and dayshift we always here waiting for somebody and we don’t even know when he is coming or what kind of a gun is he going to come with. We are poor people and most of us are risking our lives every day to guard the property and lives of rich people. Most of the places where we are working there is no shelter (guard house) Where I’m writing this article now I’m sitting in the sun. It’s okay but when it’s windy and raining I am sitting in the same place. When I get sick they don’t contribute even one cent. I’m the one responsible. In some sites there is even an Occurrence Book and when you read what is in that book it looks like somebody can come and kill me and no-one will know anything about me.

If we as security guards are on stake for an increase we’ll notice that the increase is less than R1.00 an hour. Even if we are asking our ministers to intervene they say we must go back to school. But is working as a security supposed to be a kind of punishment for a lack of education or is it supposed to be a job? Anyway, who said that all the security guards are not educated? Who said that those of us that couldn’t finish school or who couldn’t study after school are responsible for that? There is such a thing in this country as a history of oppression that made some people to be very poor. Abahlali baseMjondolo has always taught that the rich and the poor were made as they are by the very same system. Sometimes if you are complaining about something you hear those who are always repressing the guards saying ‘It’s not me who said you must not go to school’. One thing I think of a lot is that we must talk about life and about education because a human being is not a human being because of education. Educated or not, a human being is always a human being. When we are told to vote for these same people they don’t ask for our level of education before we cast our votes. On election day we suddenly all count the same. The next day it is back to normal and we, as the poor, we count for nothing.

If you don’t have political connections then you need education to get a good job. Some people become desperate. That is why people sometimes associate themselves with some university whereas they’ve not been there. So sometimes you see a university saying that so and so never registered with them. If we need education to be able to do good work then why is there not free education for everyone? Why does the government not invest in the people? Imagine how many people could have learnt a trade or a skill for the cost of one football stadium. I am failing to understand why, if education is so important, people are left uneducated.

There are good clients and also bad clients. If a client is good on securities’ side, that particular client is not good on the side of employees. If a security guard has got a good relationship with the client, make no mistake that particular guard won’t last on that particular site. The reason is that maybe a client will ask you how much are you getting paid, then that is a threat to our company. If the client is on the company’s side and the company thinks that you are a troublemaker then comes the client with a lot of stories that have been created just to get rid of you.

There is a style which mostly all the companies are adopting. On each and every site there is a guard who is a company spy. Those people are being paid by the companies to spy on other workers. If you are thinking about trying to organise the bosses will know about it the same day as you have your first meeting.

All the conformed companies are the same with bad management style where if the company has been established by a white man, also all the management is white. If the company has been established by a black man the whole management is also black. It’s the same with coloureds, Indians etc. But in some cases you see a black man owning a company and you think that company belongs to him but then you find that no there is someone else and he is doing that job for him (fronting).

The security guards are not treated the same according to their race or let me put it this way; the blacks are not treated the same way. There are those who are treated better because of the colour of their skin. But mostly those of my blood and soul come the last. One of the best known comrades in Abahlali baseMjondolo was fired from his security job by white bosses after they saw that he was dropped off for his shift by a white woman.

The security guards sometimes find that the companies we work for suggest which union they need all the guards to join. That is against our constitution. Each and everyone is allowed by our constitution to join the union of his or her choice without being threatened by the employer. But in reality there are many companies that just tell the workers which union to join.

Freely speaking there are good companies and also good unions but the system of exploitation is still their tradition. If you were born to be Izizi Ijama then what so ever you are doing it will be in favour of your belief as Usijadu. Under this system the only way for us to make some reforms in the companies is by building the strength of the unions. But even the good unions are part of the system. The unions really need to change. The unions must make sure that the people who are supposed to deal with the people’s problems must be those who are willing to help the people. They must be the slaves of the people and revolutionaries, real revolutionaries, and those that just talks revolution on TV. They must be somebody who takes the people’s feelings as theirs.

The reason why I say this is because one day I visited one of the unions which thousands of my colleagues need to join. This is a very well recognised security union. I met a guy who was really willing to help but due to protocol he decided to send me to another lady. I greeted her but she decided not to respond. As an African it is not good to talk first with somebody when you don’t know if you are welcomed or not. I thought let me greet her again. She said ‘Are you here to greet me or for your problem?’ And I decided to tell her our problem. But then I decided to go because before I could finish our story she acted like she knew about our problem more than me. As a poor person you expect to meet people all the time who are treating the poor and the workers like criminals. In fact you meet people all the time who treat us worse than criminals but even like, if I can say, like animals. The SPCA is there to make sure that the animals are treated like human beings and not as animals anymore like before. For us it is only our organisations that can protect us and ensure that we are treated as human beings and not as animals. You don’t expect to meet people who are treating workers like they are stupid in a union office.

Most of the unions are so terrible. I don’t want to say a lot but only they become fat cats by taking our monies from our accounts for nothing. Unions have become a kind of business. They have become a joint venture with the bosses and not a tool in the hands of the workers. We are being fired for nothing if we try to stand up for our rights but most unions are not doing their job. Some unions get just as scared as the bosses if they see that the workers are trying to organise themselves on the site. Sometimes you notice that it seems as if you joined a union only to make it easy for the company to get rid of you. It is much bad when the people get fired at the direction of the union and later the company noticed that it was a mistake to fire you and ask you to come back.

In some cases as a guard, if you approach the CCMA[1] your problems are treated with good care. But in some companies your boss just tells you straight that ‘go to CCMA and my connection is there, you won’t get anything’. You don’t know how relevant that statement is until you get to the CCMA. But once you can tell the person that you are going to put him in a bind he can run away. That is why sometimes some people they don’t even worry themselves to visit the CCMA. There is corruption and collusion with the bosses there too.

So now how can the government fully support and make sure that the security guards, farm workers and also the domestic workers really feel part and parcel of our democracy? They could regulate all these industries in the interests of the workers and they could enforce those regulations. They could give us free legal support. Maybe all law students should do a year of community service. They could give us education, adult education. But mostly our government is just good at talking to the people while they make all their deals with the bosses and the land owners. They promise a lot like ‘together we can do more’. Together we can do more what? They never answer this question in detail. We are just expected to be quiet and to keep on voting. Well the people have decided not be just be quiet and keep on voting. People are rebelling everywhere. People are marching, burning tires, blocking roads and going to court everywhere. People are forming organisations everywhere.

To all the guards let us be united and form a working body for the security by the security. This body can be organised but not professionalised on each site. There we can discuss all the problems that are facing us and that discussion will start from us and the decision that we take their will be by us and for us. From that body we can our problems to the unions and from the union to the CCMA. But that working body will be there all the time. We will not hand our problems over the unions. We will organise outside of the unions to control the unions from the ground. Corrupt union leaders will be no more and all the workers will be respected by our employers and the clients.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Thanks to Jama, Stadu and Zizi.
* Lindela ‘Mashumi’ Figlan is the former chairperson of the Kennedy Road Development Committee and served two terms as deputy president of Abahlali baseMjondolo. He has been subject to constant public death threats since the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement in September 2009. He now lives in the Cato Crest shack settlement and works as a security guard in Claremont.

NOTES

[1] Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitratio

Can South Africans imagine an ‘us’?

Andries du Toit

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68425

© abahlali.orgThe country's economy is ‘a poverty machine’ perpetuating and deepening inequalities that ‘threaten the basis of social stability and growth’, writes Andries du Toit. But in re-imagining South Africa’s future, we need to focus on 'the quality of social relations' and not just ‘material issues’.

The most thought-provoking words spoken at the Boksburg Inequality Conference that we and our partners hosted in Gauteng last month were uttered right at the end, almost as an aside, by the conference’s closing speaker, Neva Makgetla. Reminiscing about her days studying philosophy in East Germany (as it then was), she said that what had struck her was that that the original motivation of those who had tried to create a socialist society – the promise that they had struggled to fulfil – was that socialism would enable a change in the quality of human relationships. But in practice, trying to make a society work, they decided to focus on material things. Money, social services, schools. Perhaps here in South Africa, she said, something similar had happened. The struggle against Apartheid was linked to a dream of what could be possible in the new society, the possibility of something qualitatively different from the fear-filled disconnections constituted by Apartheid. But a country had to be run, programmes designed. And this is what we’re left with, she implied: BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) and social grants.

It was a sobering comment, for it made me think that perhaps we, the organisers of the conference, had somewhat lost sight of our topic. The conference had been organised in order to try to put the issue of inequality more squarely on the South African policy agenda. All too often, discussions about social issues in South Africa proceed as if poverty is a residual matter, the result of some people somehow being left out of economic growth: As if all that is required is to provide them with the assistance and opportunities that are needed to raise their incomes (the current reach-for-my-revolver term is to ‘graduate’ them) above some (usually unspecified) poverty line.

We wanted to challenge those assumptions. We wanted to argue that the central and most urgent issue facing South Africa is not poverty but inequality; and that in South Africa, poverty and inequality were structural. That our economy, while generating wealth for a few, is also a poverty machine, perpetuating and exacerbating steep and deeply rooted inequalities that threaten the basis of social stability and growth. We wanted to use the conference to cast a spotlight on this trend: To ask what kind of society was emerging, and to invite participants to explore what alternatives were possible. Could we imagine a different society, with different values? What would such a society look like?

I was reminded of that aim on the first morning of the conference, when the organising committee met in the Birchwood’s faux-Italian coffee shop to discuss the start of the proceedings. The conference would be opened by Deputy President Kgalema Mothlante (on DVD, the man himself being required at the ANC national general council in Durban) – after which there would be a recital by performance poet Flo. Flo was there, a shy, burly man with a ready smile. We chatted with him about his plans for his performance, and asked him what he thought he would recite. What would his poems be about? He thought for a moment and said, oh, social issues. And love. There was a moment’s embarrassed silence. Love? Well, I thought, perhaps that was precisely what we were here to talk about. All my relations, and the world they exist in.

In the event, Flo’s poems were moving, thought-provoking and disarming, and did their part to break the ice and get things moving. But pretty soon his words were forgotten, and the participants went ahead, doing what people do at poverty and inequality conferences: Considering Lorentz curves, analysing political systems, discussing job creation and rural development. The important things, the technical things, the facts and dynamics of how power and resources flow in society. And at that level the conference was, as conferences go, successful. Makgetla’s presentation showed clearly how considering poverty on its own, in isolation, leads to narrow policies focusing merely on particular marginalised groups, while a focus on inequality leads to much more searching questions on the need for social transformation. Other presentations illuminated various aspects of the structural roots of inequality – the legacy of Apartheid, the failure to embark on an employment-intensive growth path, the continued dominance of capital- and energy intensive sectors, and the enormous levels of concentration and centralised corporate power in the formal economy. And there were searching discussions about particular policies and instruments – social protection, small farmer development, community work programmes – that could address these problems.

But in the end, listening to Makgetla’s closing words, I realised that we too, by concentrating mostly on the material, monetary aspects of inequality and poverty, had missed the opportunity to think about the quality of social relations. Sure, there were some good analyses on gender and power relations in labour markets, and on the politics of pro-poor development. But most of our discussions had focused on material resources, on institutions, on money and social goods. Granted, this was not a poetry conference. We were social scientists, government policymakers, development practitioners, community organisers; not philosophers or novelists. We talked about the things we knew. But what about the more elusive issues? What about thinking about the kind of society that was emerging at more moral, existential or ethical level? What about the cordoned heart? What about the structures of feeling, non-feeling and disconnection created by how power, money and fear move in this harsh land? In my own presentation at the conference, I had closed by asking what the scope was for a different project – not technical poverty management, or adversarial populist struggle, but on civic solidarity. Stirring words. But how does one even start thinking about how such a politics might look? Somehow, it is hard to thinking about this issue without getting lost in clichés and in potted thinking.

Hence this essay. My concern today is utopia; or rather, how to find a space for utopian thinking that can have grip or traction in this world. This blog is in the first place concerned with the myths we live by: The lenses through which we look; the resources at our disposal when we try to see what is found there, to imagine what it means, and to dream what’s possible. And in the case of thinking about ‘equality,’ about social relations, it’s hard to find a way of speaking that does not cause us immediately to get lost in prefabricated stories. Analyses of monetary inequality are all very well, but they are mistaken when they confuse the smooth curves that map the distribution of resources in society for social inequality which, as Charles Tilly has pointed out, is a thing of sharp distinctions, pregnant hierarchies, small differences with huge consequences: The difference between black and white, between master and slave, boss and employee. (Or to cite an example close to home for me, permanent university staff and talented researchers still on short-time contracts after 10 years of hard work.) The economists’ conception of perfect equality (everyone has the same income) is useful as a mathematical hypothesis, but it kind of misses the point. Utopian dreams of brother/sisterhood and inequality are deeply compelling (I still get choked up by that Lennon song…) but they’re closed, dislocated fantasies, shaped more by infantile longings for things not to be real than by a gritty assessment of what’s possible. And don’t talk to me about the South African variant: The way talk about racial relations shades so soon into sentimental fantasies about reconciliation, colour-blindness, impossible projects of reparation or essentialist lamentations about how terrible it is to be white. It can be fun for those who do it, but it does not offer much help for those who have to learn to get along, accomplish tasks, feed kids and run businesses in a world in which difference and antagonism are irreducible, real, and maybe even valuable.

So what can we imagine? What can and should we want? I don’t think I have answers. What I have is some disconnected dots; and my guess is that thinking about them may not give me a route, but at least it may help us get a sense of how the map looks, and the lie of the land.

So bear with my meandering argument here. A good place is to start with where we are. Specifically, the Rosmead shopping centre, in Rosmead Road, Kenilworth, where academic Gubela Mji, head of the Centre for Rehabilitation Studies in the Faculty of Health at the University of Stellenbosch Health, was brutally assaulted in September of this year. No one knows what happened: Ms Mji was stabbed and had received blows to her head severe enough to leave her concussed, disoriented, and without a memory of the incident. A security guard had found her: He thought at first she was a homeless woman, barefoot and bloody, vomiting blood and asking for an ambulance. He sought help from what the newspaper article coyly calls ‘a national private health care chain’ with offices nearby. But in the eyes of staff there, Ms Mji, barefoot, dishevelled, incoherent and black, did not look like someone who could pay. They assumed she was a vagrant, and vagrants don’t get care. Only because the security guard who had found her persisted in his efforts did an ambulance service finally respond. The news story itself soon faded from view, with no follow-up after the first indignant headlines.

Consider what is at play here – both in the incident itself, and what makes it newsworthy. Firstly, the story shows how stark the divide is between the existence of those of us who belong within the institutional grid of power and wealth at the centre of our economy, and those of us who don’t; and how harsh the consequences are. It highlights the fragility even of privilege, and how easy it is to end up on the outside. Critically, it illustrates with depressing force the continued reality of race in this country (had Ms Mji been white, would she have been so easily consigned to the streets, with only a security guard to fend for her?). But the most shameful and perverse reality is this: The fact that this story is told at all only because Ms Mji is one of ‘us’, a member of the middle class; that we can identify with her and feel the fearful thrill of thinking, that could have been me. That’s why it’s a story. Homeless people are assaulted every day, and denied care. Everyday normality does not make the news.

This is the society we are creating, post-Apartheid. Not only are we one of the most income-unequal societies on the planet. Not only is this inequality increasing. Not only have we created a society bisected by deeply unequal relations of power and privilege, in which the marginalised have, in truth, no rights at all. Worst of all, we live here heedlessly, comfortably. Our hearts and imaginations have been numbed.

And you can see how this kind of setup perpetuates itself, how it feeds the desire to build the walls higher, and how it drives the hungry ghosts of self-enrichment and pointless, conspicuous consumption.

So much for the obvious aspects of the story. Gubela Mji’s assault is in this respect like any story of shocking crime, an event which can function as an example to illustrate some troubling aspects of our society. But there is more to say.

For Ms Mji is not merely the subject of a story, a mute exemplar. She has a voice of her own. And by an irony rich and strange it turns out that in the past she has spoken eloquently and powerfully about these very issues. In a recent book about disability and social change, she is the author of a powerful and personal account on the exclusion and marginalisation of the homeless disabled. Entitled with eerie precision ‘Disability and homelessness: a personal journey from the margins to the centre and back’ she recounts a journey of self-discovery that began when, as part of an investigation into the conditions of disabled homeless people, she lived for a week in a homeless people’s shelter. Here she had to confront her own feelings of discomfort at being in the presence of people who she had been accustomed to experience as ‘rude violent and drunk.’ Her subsequent reflections go right to the centre of the issue:

‘…when I listened to someone’s life story, their problems, fantasies and struggles, something began to change. I was faced with the dilemma of wanting to hold on to something to distinguish “this kind of person” from the kind of person I am. At the same time I found myself recognizing myself in their problems, fantasies and struggles…. I felt a deep concern at how far I had travelled from my rural childhood into the abstract violence of Cape Town’s urbanity, a social violence underpinning and underpinned by the abstract violence of my professional training and its attendant medical-scientific categorizations, codifications and pathologies. I was discovering in conversations with others a capacity that had been slowly eroded by the rationality and instrumentalism of my medical training and the bureaucracy and alienation of urban living…’

This is the centre from which I think we can approach our question. For the power of Mji’s story is not only that by an awful irony she eventually experienced the enactment on her own body, on her own person, of the abstract institutional violence of an unequal society. It is also the precision with which she fingers her own personal complicity in that institutional violence. Wanting something to distinguish ‘this kind of person’ from the kind of person I am: Write that in letters of fire on the Union Building. Write that on every coin and Rand note in the country. This is how the divisions of an unequal society are mirrored and perpetuated in the very capacity to relate, to engage with others. And at the same time, Mji insists that there is something that can be undone; something that can be reversed. We can recover our ability to identify.

I find these reflections helpful when I consider the debates and dilemmas that shaped the conference. In my experience, I was particularly struck by what seemed to be a polarisation or a disconnect between two very different ways of thinking about inequality and what could be done about it. Superficially, this disjuncture seemed to revolve around the hoary old sociological distinction between structure and agency. On the one hand, there were the researchers and analysts who emphasised the structural nature of inequality: The ways in which the domination of the economy by a highly concentrated, capital intensive corporate core undermined the basis for economic agency on the part of the poor. On the other hand there were the voluntarist accounts of community response and self-help: Presentations that seemed to suggest that all that was required to resolve the problem was optimism and self-belief on the part of the poor, with a little bit of help from the State. Obviously both views had value, and spoke to part of the truth. But they seemed to exist in parallel universes, dead to the truth of each other’s arguments, and unable to see their own blind spots.

Seeraj Mohammed’s presentation of labour market trends in South Africa was a very good example of the former. Mohammed’s account of the distorted development of the South African core economy, the continued domination by the minerals and energy complex, the failure of the middle class to invest in productive capacity, the centrality of credit-fuelled spending and the disastrous impact of these trends on employment intensity was lucid and compelling. At the same time, what struck me most of all was the dispirited tone, and the disabling import, of this analysis. Nowhere in Mohammed’s presentation was there any sense of where the policy leverage was; of where things could have happened differently. In fact, the analysis seemed to involve a certain weary, knowing cynicism. South African corporates and capitalists, Mohammed seemed to suggest, had acted selfishly to enrich themselves. Would one expect anything different? Apparently not. This was simply the way things worked in late modern capitalism. As an analysis oriented at action, it did not seem particularly helpful.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was a presentation by Lebo Ramafoko about Kwanda, a project initiated by Soul City, South Africa’s public interest messaging television programme. Charismatic and magnetic, exuding enthusiasm and confidence, Ms Ramafoko comes on like a South African version of Oprah, an impression strengthened by Soul City and Kwanda’s underlying message of emancipation through self-belief and media attention. Poor local communities accessing funds for community works programmes are selected to participate in a national competition. Kwanda makes short documentaries about each community, showing their problems, highlighting the heroic efforts of local residents to address these issues; visits six months later assessing the extent of progress made – and then invites viewers to share their advice and opinions, and to vote for their favourite projects.

It is, in other words, social development through reality television, and pretty well done television too. The clip shown at the conference portrayed, with the upbeat urgency and streetwise funky vibeyness that characterises youth television, the problems of a community called Peffertown, a peri-urban slum somewhere in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth. Dreadlocked bergies puffed at white piles, depressed community members recounted awful stories of random violence. The heroine of the story was a determined local girl called Denise, who worked to bring together community members to try to make things better. Stocky and uncompromising, with a handsome, clear-eyed gaze, she was a member of the local women’s rugby team, and she brought to her community engagement the same commitment and fierce passion she showed on the field. It was compelling viewing; a kind of strange hybrid of Andy Warhol and Che Guevara: everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes – but as a community activist.

But how realistic is all this? Lebo’s enthusiasm tempted one to believe that this is how inequality could be combated in South Africa – simply by using the connective capability of social media to create a virtual community founded on optimism and self-help. But virtual communities are evanescent, community works programmes are temporary measures that can only ameliorate the worst effects of neglect and under-investment. If the core economy fails to generate jobs, can Kwanda do more but create hype and excitement around what is, after all, band-aid?

Those are important questions. But at the same time, much would be lost if we simply dismissed Kwanda and the voices it gave space for. This is where Mji’s thoughts help us see something of value that we might miss. For Mji does not treat the loss of community feeling, the abstract violence of the withdrawal of social solidarity, as inevitable. She reminds us that capacity for it still exists. She links this capacity very much to her own cultural resources as an African woman from a rural area. But the capacity exists in us all. It is nothing more than psychological projection; The ability and the willingness to recognise something of oneself in another.

Kwanda thus highlights two key points. Firstly, it gives an indication of how close to the surface our South African utopian imagination still lives; how real the underlying inclination of goodwill, fellow feeling and solidarity still is. And secondly, it has found a way of mobilising this energy: It has used the power of television and media to allow parts of South Africa to have a kind of love affair with itself.

Love affairs are interesting things. The one we thought we saw is never there. Projection is, after all, illusory. But it’s a productive illusion. It can start a journey of fruitful disillusionment, a process of discovery and change. Much can be given and gained. For all its naivety and cheesy optimisim, in other words, Kwanda does something the leftist critique of structure often fails to do: It constructs a subject position from which action is still possible.

So despite its limits, Kwanda suggests the possibility of a different way of proceeding. In a way, it’s like the World Cup, where the dream of welcoming ‘the world’ allowed us to feel, for a few weeks, that the country where we would like to live really existed. Not Singapore, not Switzerland, not Sweden, but a warm hearted, vibey, ordinary country in the South. But the World Cup as an ideological project pivoted, really, on our deeply charged, troubled, relation with the North; our desire to be recognised and seen by something we call the World. It was, in other words narcissistic in the strict sense of the word; a desire to appear in a certain way in the eyes of an authoritative Other. The moment that Other disappeared, the moment we were no longer on the TV screens, the moment we could no longer see ourselves reflected in the distorting mirror of the World’s gaze, the warm glow disappeared.

My question is really about the space, in South Africa, for a discourse of civic solidarity. Can we define ourselves not in relation to the world’s gaze, not in relation to a feared interloper, but to each other? Can we find a way to meet ourselves, ‘at our own door, in our own mirror’? Can we act as if in some way – divided by antagonisms, to be sure, riven by hurts, burdened by memory there is, in the end, an ‘us’? Can we imagine that?

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This article was first published on A Subtle Knife.
* Andries du Toit is director of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

On youth and young people in Africa

Eyob Balcha

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68416

cc Frerieke‘In order to go beyond age as a defining feature, there needs to be a framework which accommodates other associated elements that cannot be taken for granted and vary across different situations,’ writes Eyob Balcha. In this piece, Balcha explores how youth is conceptualised, with a focus on the African Youth Charter.

This piece is inspired by the undying spirit of passion for youth activism that the writer shares with many African youth activists. It is an attempt to question youth activists themselves, the bureaucrats, the ‘experts’ and everyone who is engaged in any endeavor related to young people and youth in Africa. It is also an attempt to link what the literature argues about young people, youth and a generation, with the practical efforts of youth activists and the discourse of bureaucrats, experts, as well as the policy frameworks that inform their programs and decisions.

One can mention a number of policies, programs, high-level decisions, recommendations and declarations either at global level, continental or national level addressing the issues of youth and young people, or influencing, facilitating or informing their lifestyle, participation and involvement in their society. On the other hand, there are also a number of youth initiatives; organisations, networks or associations at different levels, mainly aimed at ensuring ‘youth participation’ at various levels through their actions and missions.

The bizarre thing is, in spite of all these efforts at different levels with many ‘concerned’ actors, the issue of youth and mainly ‘youth participation’ is yet to be realised at the optimum level by any of the actors or their programmes. Rather, what is witnessed is the duplication of policies and programs, decisions and recommendations by actors affirming the need to ensure meaningful youth participation. Hence, it is imperative to ask why we have not yet reached at a certain level where we can at least say we are halfway to what we envisioned. Why do we have all these actors and the different programs and policies with very strong decisions and recommendations by high-level bureaucrats, but we are not able to see the practical impact or results? This short piece will try to shed light on the above mentioned questions.

YOUNG PEOPLE AND YOUTH: INTERCHANGEABLE?!

The way we understand and conceptualise issues of young people and youth has a significant impact on the nature and kinds of actions we take. Indeed, it is taken for granted that whatever we may say, age and the related challenges or opportunities, are the main framework of analysis.

Perhaps it may not be a problem to consider this in understanding and conceptualising young people and youth. The problem becomes apparent when we take age as the only element to be considered. It is simply because the role, experience, opportunities, challenges, exposure and aspiration of people differ significantly regardless of their age similarity. It is unfolding this simultaneous reality of differences and similarities that has been the main challenge and somehow ignored and forgotten.

As the dominant discourse asserts, young people constitute the majority of the population in Africa. In addition to interpreting them in terms of their numerical value to the society, it extends their impact and belongingness in the society into the future. In this case, understanding young peoples’ life in terms of a developmental stage as well as a rite of passage which needs further attention from society informs the way they are treated. The role of some societal institutions like schools, family as well as religion is paramount in ensuring the smooth and harmonious journey of young people through this stage of life. The extensive and multi-level programs and actions that target the sexual and reproductive health issues of young people by many international institutions and national governments is also one of the manifestations of this understanding. Such an understanding upholds the role of age above any other possible factors or as a prime perspective in informing the knowledge towards young people and youth.

Indeed the concept ‘young people’ is mainly an age-based category which implies that it is also a developmental stage. The assertion that they are in the growing process or yet-to-be ‘adults’ implicitly suggests that the future belongs to the young people and they are ‘tomorrow’s leaders.’ It is not uncommon to hear this rhetoric at different levels. But, the academic literature with regard to youth argues that; though there is some degree of fact that age plays a role in peoples’ lives, it is an analytical limitation to take it as the only lens of analysis.

In order to go beyond age as a defining feature, there needs to be a framework which accommodates other associated elements that cannot be taken for granted and vary across different situations. These social, contextual, historical and generational elements can give us a better methodical perspective to maneuver so that other basic issues beyond the age based category are not overlooked or undermined. Here comes the concept ‘youth’ with its unique feature from the other, arguably, interchangeable concept ‘young people’. Youth is more of a social position within the mindset of a given society where the perception towards youth varies according to the context they are found in, hence contextual position as well.

This contextual social position is best illustrated in the attributes that society identifies with its youth and the words associated with them. Energetic, naïve, immature, strong, devoted, ‘childish’, visionary, inexperienced, independent, dependent, hopeful are few of the connotations that most youth are associated with. These attributes have their own role in determining how the youth and their issues are taken in the societal agenda. There are certain social circumstances where youth become an influential social category, a marginal group or an obsolete social status.[1]

Moreover this, the historical process that a particular society passes through has also a vital impact in creating a certain kind of knowledge towards its youth. Historical incidents inform how the youth needs to be either included or excluded, within the ‘societal imagination’ and thereby determining the kind of role they will assume and the extent of agency they exercise. In this case, some people argue that youth is a ‘historically constructed social category’[2]. This argument can be also expanded into the other sphere of understanding youth in terms of generations.

In understanding what a generation constitutes, one needs to give a critical look to how history and its unique socio-historical and political features impact the way that a certain social group thinks, functions and participates. In our case, people of the same age category, young people, may pass through an exceptional historical process which may become a point of reference in informing their worldview and attitude. And this shared world view and attitude will become a crucial element in making them significant segment of their society, not only in terms of their numerical/demographic value but through their ‘youthful’ thinking framework and character. One can mention the generation that has played a significant role during the anti-colonisation period where the shared conviction and attitude has had an extended impact beyond that specific period of time.

Conceptualising youth in terms of generations has also a central role in understanding another vital issue i.e. the relationship between generations, or ‘inter-generational dialogue’; as most people would love to call it. In this case, we need to understand that a generation, either young or old, is mainly defined in terms of its shared outlook which is a result of the common socio-historical process its members have passed through. In its extreme case, a ‘generational unit’ constitutes people that are of the same age category and have build up a strong sense of belongingness amongst themselves mainly through the decisions and the actions they took to play their role in that specific societal process.[3]

Hence, when we talk about two generations and their interaction, we need to be aware of the fact that we are talking about not only people of different ages, but also the associated thinking framework, the shared mentality and character among members and the like. Moreover, the fact that the younger generation builds its ‘generational consciousness’ within the societal system and structure constructed by the older generation is also an important factor to consider. Taking the different role they assume and exercise as well as the associated expectations into consideration is a crucial juncture where we find power and power relations as another point of entry to critically analyse the relationship between generations.

In general, the core argument of this section is to go beyond the mainstream understanding of youth and to give a critical perspective from different, but not mutually exclusive, angles. It is only when we go beyond age based understanding and categorisation of youth that we will be able to consider the complexities within it as well as its intersectionality i.e. gender, socio-economic status, rural/urban differences, ethnicity, race etc. In the following section, an attempt will be made to critically reflect on the conceptualisation and understanding of youth in the African Youth Charter.

THE AFRICAN YOUTH CHARTER IN PERSPECTIVE

There might be various entry points to analyse the situation of African youth in the last two to three decades, and among this, one can mention the impact of the mainstream political and economic framework (the neoliberal oriented structural adjustment programs) and the demise of the welfare state with a direct influence on the basic services of society. This worsening situation at the societal level has a direct impact in the lifestyle and role of youth within their society as well as the impact of society on its young population. Some people argue that the situation has ‘compromised the role of society to positively impact the lives of its youngster’.[4]

Moreover, the protracted civil wars, the coup d’états, the political instabilities and the like gave rise to different theoretical explanations with regard to youth, either taking them as an advantage in terms of a demographic bonus or as a threat through the youth bulge theory. The civil conflicts associated with high rate of unemployment and particularly the rapid rate of urbanisation in the continent mainly in the post-independence period was seen as one of the manifestations of the danger that the youth bulge has in Africa. On the other hand, the current dominant discourse of achieving sustainable growth and development is also highly linked with the role that young people would play; ‘ … young people perceived as the central actors with their creativity, energy, flexibility, adaptability to the changing features of the ‘globalised’ world’.[5]

This general overview of the changing socio-economic and political situation with in the continent gives a crucial viewpoint to understand the changing perception and understanding of youth and young people across the time span. The understanding oscillates from being victims of societal failure to the extent of being a threat and danger for societal peace and stability as well as to be taken as vital players for growth and development in a different context.[6] Within this changing perspective of society towards youth and young people, it is also important to give the necessary attention to the agency of youth in positioning and repositioning themselves and the negotiated role they assume in the changing societal structure, political and economic systems.

Coming to the African Youth Charter (AYC), it was formulated through two continental youth consultation forums (January and May, 2006) and supposedly national consultations in-between the two continental consultation, it was adopted at the Banjul Summit, in the Gambia in July 2006. It was officially launched during the fifth African Development Forum of the same year in November. Despite the relentless effort of popularisation and lobbying by various youth initiatives and other concerned actors, it took three years for the Charter to come into force on 8 August, 2009. The AYC is expected to be a binding legal document informing policies and programs across the continent concerning youth. Indeed, it can be also taken as an effort for the institutionalisation of youth issues in the continental governance system as well as achieving the vision of the African Union ; ‘… to accelerate socio-economic integration of the continent, to build a united and strong Africa by promoting partnerships between governments and civil society including women, youth and the private sector.’[7]

Within the context of the arguments forwarded in the previous section, analysing the AYC would give multiple points of reflection. To start with, the conceptualisation of ‘youth’ and ‘young people’ in the Charter; there is an effort to have an exhaustive coverage of issues related to the understanding of youth. Particularly the preamble of the Charter gives the range of contextual situations that are considered in formulating the document; historical, political and social realities that had and still have a significant impact in the roles, expectations and responsibilities of youth in Africa.

In general, there is a three-fold discourse of youth in the conceptualisation and understanding of youth in the preamble of the Charter. The first one is a Discourse of Protection; where youth are seen as victims and people who need protection from the society. This assertion is promoted by associating a segment of youth with ‘minors’ mainly in the context of the African Charter for the Rights and Welfare of Children (ACRWC) where the age group between 15-17 overlaps with the definition of children in Africa. This discourse of protection intends to address the marginalisation of youth in terms of inequalities of income, wealth, power as well as un(der)employment, and on the other hand the victimhood of youth from HIV/AIDS, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, violence (gender and armed) and discrimination. This discourse has an implicit assumption that the failure to protect the youth from being victims of various socio-economic and politically malicious situations can result in a cycle of challenges and problems.

The Charter tackles this challenge in its Discourse of Responsibility. This discourse mainly aims at addressing the converse of the discourse of protection. It recognises and calls for the role of States and civil societies in supporting, advancing and ensuring the fulfillment of the various needs of youth (economic, social, educational, cultural and spiritual). The rhetoric of youth empowerment and development also falls within this discourse of responsibility that there are actors and duty bearers identified with the associated legal and policy frameworks.

The other major discursive element that one may find within the preamble of the Charter about the conceptualisation of youth is the Discourse of Being and Becoming. This discourse has an indispensable contribution in demystifying the concept of youth. Youth are taken as a ‘resource for the future’, as ‘partners, assets and prerequisite for sustainable development, peace, prosperity, and promotion of democratic processes, cultural development’ of the present and the future. Such conceptualisation recognises both the actual and potential role of youth. It is only when we recognise the fact that youth constitutes a social and relational position of not only the future but also of the present that we will be able to consider the rights and agency of youth. The efforts of youth initiatives in Africa in empowering themselves and exercising their agency to effect change and realise their vision is also addressed within this discourse.

The Charter has the above briefly discussed strengths that can be used as guiding frameworks for the enhancement of youth participation across the continent if appropriate policies and implementation strategies are formulated or reviewed accordingly. Indeed, the Charter is not without limitations. One of the major limitations identified by the writer is the failure to have a generational point of view to address the issues of youth across the continent. In our African context, youth members and leaders of the most influential and successful generation that participated during the anti-colonisation period are now members of the government establishments, business and religious institutions, and constitute the political and economic elite group that determines the dominant discourses of the continent.[8]

This says a lot in identifying and analysing the power relation that exists between generations and thereby setting the parameters for the ideal ‘intergenerational dialogue’. The broad conceptualisation of youth as identified in the above mentioned discourses would have a better insight in addressing the existing unbalanced power relation between the young and the older generations if it had included a generational perspective.

In addition to this, the attempt to define youth mainly based on age (between 15-35) and conflating ‘youth’ and ‘young people’ in the ‘Definitions’ section of the Charter is also another major limitation. To whatever extent the preamble section of the Charter attempts to illuminate on the complexities of being youth in African context, it is the definition given in this section that informs and governs most policy level decisions and actions. Hence, the Charter needs to redefine youth in such a way that can accommodate the identified multiple realities about youth in African context. Otherwise, all the strong elements of the Charter will remain on paper without being operationalised at the practical level. Unless there is a link between the discursive level commitment and the actual work on the ground there will always be a half achieved success in passing decisions without making them effective in the real context.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Eyob Balcha is a member of Afroflag Youth Vision.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Christiansen, C., M. Utas and H. Vigh (2006) ‘Navigating youth, generating adulthood :
social becoming in an African context.’ Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
[2] Durham, D. (2000) ‘Youth and the Social Imagination in Africa, Introduction to
Parts 1 and 2’, ‘Anthropology Quarterly’ 73(3): 113-129
[3] Mannheim, K. (1952). ‘The Problem of Generations. ‘In Karl Mannheim ,Essays in
the Sociology of Knowledge.’ New York: Oxford University
[4] Jan Abbink and Ineke van Kessel (eds) (2004) ‘Vanguard Or Vandals: Youth, Politics
And Conflict In Africa.’ Brill.
[5] AU, ‘The Status of Youth in Africa’, 2006
[6] Honwana and DeBoek, 2005; ‘Makers and Breakers: children and youth in postcolonial Africa,’ James Currey
[7] AU, ‘The Status of Youth in Africa’, 2006
[8] Balcha (2009), ‘Youth and Politics in Post 1974 Ethiopia: Intergenerational Analysis’, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, Herrera and Bayat (2010), Being Young and Muslim, Oxford University Press

Biosafety Protocol: Ten years on and lagging far behind

Mariam Mayet

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68338

cc CIATFollowing a meeting in Japan between members of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Mariam Mayet says there ‘is a huge disconnect between the rather timid, insipid and potentially dated work of the Protocol and the huge biosafety challenges presented on the domestic level in many countries’.

Ten years after the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Biosafety Protocol) was adopted, the Parties to the Protocol met in Nagoya Japan between 11 - 15 October 2010 to adopt a new treaty, the ‘Nagoya - Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety’ (Supplementary Protocol).

This new treaty will need to be ratified by at least 40 parties to the Biosafety Protocol before it can come into effect. Its consequent implementation will take place within the overall framework of the Biosafety Protocol in an integrated manner.

The Supplementary Protocol is very different from the campaign fought for by developing countries, concerned scientists, small-holder farmers and NGOs. Instead of an international civil liability regime that establishes rules and procedures for redress on the part of third parties for damage arising from GMOs, the Supplementary Protocol comprises of a set of administrative measures that parties to such a protocol would need to legislate for and implement.

An international civil liability regime would have provided recourse for damage caused by GMOs by establishing rules that would have: Identified the persons liable for the damage caused; provided redress for the harm caused; defined the scope of damage; provided for strict liability; addressed issues concerning access to justice; jurisdiction of the courts and so forth.

In sharp contrast, the Supplementary Protocol merely creates a set of international administrative rules, which places the responsibility on the parties to take measures to clean up the environment in the case of damage to biodiversity arising, and seek redress from the person causing the damage. Similar administrative measures already exist in South Africa’s Genetically Modified Organisms Act. If South Africa were to ratify the Supplementary Protocol, only minor amendments may be necessary, but no new legislation will have to be passed to implement the Supplementary Protocol.

Nevertheless, the existence of the Supplementary Protocol does signal the willingness of the international community to acknowledge that GMOs cause harm to biodiversity and that measures have to be taken to clean up. Third parties who suffer damage as a result of GMOs will have to continue to rely on domestic ‘tort’ or ‘delict’ law for redress.

The Biosafety Protocol is young and poorly evolved. It lags, in many respects, far behind national biosafety discourses and the reality in several developing countries. For instance, one of the key issues the parties addressed during the Nagoya meeting concerned risk assessment and risk management. At a previous meeting in Bonn during 2008, the parties established an ad hoc technical expert group (AHTEG) on risk assessment and risk management in an open, transparent and equalitarian manner. This group produced three guidance documents for conducting risk assessments of different types of GMOs: GM mosquitoes; GM crops with stacked traits and GM crops engineered for abiotic stress tolerance.

At the Nagoya meeting, these documents were heavily contested by several parties, including its ‘guidance’ value. Subsequently, the parties decided to further subject these guidance documents to scientific review and require new documents to be produced for consideration at the next meeting of the parties to be held in India in 2012. Conflicts in the scientific community are indeed foreseeable concerning such guidance documents, with pro biotechnology scientists surely packing the future work of the AHTEG with a view to watering down precautionary recommendations.

In the interim, Malaysia is set on releasing GM mosquitoes into the environment later this year. Stacked genes proliferate agricultural fields in several countries including South Africa. Monsanto’s GM drought tolerant maize is awaiting approval in the US and the same variety is being field tested in South Africa and is about to be rolled out in four further African countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. The commercialisation in the US of the first ever GM animal, namely GM salmon, is a significant development - but remained outside of the Nagoya talks. The issue was instead, relegated to a side-event hosted by Greenpeace.

Article 26 of the Biosafety Protocol deals with the right of a Party to the Protocol to take into account socio-economic considerations arising from the impact of GMOs on biodiversity, especially with regard to the value of biodiversity to indigenous and local communities. The work under the Biosafety Protocol on socio-economic considerations have, to date, been restricted mainly to capacity building of developing countries to assess socio-economic risks to biodiversity. A co-ordination meeting recommended to the Nagoya meeting that an expert group on socio-economic considerations be established with a view to developing criteria and guidance to assist parties in taking socio-economic considerations into account. The European Union and several other countries opposed this rather constructive recommendation.

Despite a valiant struggle by the Africa group, the parties, in a compromise move, decided to merely establish online forums and hold a workshop on socio-economic considerations.

The contentious issue of the documentation that should accompany bulk shipments of GMOs transported around the globe for the purposes of food, feed and processing, was postponed until the COP Members of the Party meeting to be held in 2014.

Further decisions were also taken on issues concerning public awareness, education and participation, capacity building, the roster of experts, monitoring and reporting and so forth. None of these are forward looking or ground breaking. A strategic plan for the furtherance of the implementation of the Biosafety Protocol was also adopted. This work is concentrated in five key areas: capacity building, compliance and review, information sharing and outreach and cooperation.

The Biosafety Protocol has certainly been useful in providing parties with an international reference point in crafting national biosafety regimes. However, to a large extent, this value at least in Africa is being superseded by regional initiatives to harmonise biosafety laws, an issue that the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has long since opposed. Parties certainly do have access to an international space for information exchange and the constructing of further rules and procedures to elaborate the Protocol in an attempt to ensure its effective implementation.

However, there is a huge disconnect between the rather timid, insipid and potentially dated work of the Protocol and the huge biosafety challenges presented on the domestic level in many countries, like South Africa. Certainly, for NGOs like the ACB who work tirelessly on the immediacy of biosafety, the Biosafety Protocol, unfortunately, does not offer us much. Indeed, we are currently far more effective in shaping our own national and regional biosafety agendas than we are in lobbying governments at the international level.

- Decisions taken by the Parties in Nagoya can be downloaded at www.cbd.int

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Mariam Mayet is the director of the African Center for Biosafety
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Geoengineering moratorium at UN ministerial in Japan

Risky climate techno-fixes blocked

ETC Group

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68339

cc NASAThe ETC Group, an international civil society organisation dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity, hails a decision by the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to agree to a moratorium on geoengineering.

News Release
29 October 2010
www.etcgroup.org

Nagoya, Japan - In a landmark consensus decision, the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments. ‘Any private or public experimentation or adventurism intended to manipulate the planetary thermostat will be in violation of this carefully crafted UN consensus,’ stated Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American director of ETC Group, an international civil society organisation dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity

The agreement, reached during the ministerial portion of the two-week meeting which included 110 environment ministers, asks governments to ensure that no geoengineering activities take place until risks to the environment and biodiversity and associated social, cultural and economic impacts have been appropriately considered. The CBD secretariat was also instructed to report back on various geoengineering proposals and potential intergovernmental regulatory measures.

The unusually strong consensus decision builds on the 2008 moratorium on ocean fertilisation. That agreement, negotiated at COP 9 in Bonn, put the brakes on a litany of failed ‘experiments’ - both public and private - to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide in the oceans’ depths by spreading nutrients on the sea surface. Since then, attention has turned to a range of futuristic proposals to block a percentage of solar radiation via large-scale interventions in the atmosphere, stratosphere and outer space that would alter global temperatures and precipitation patterns.

‘This decision clearly places the governance of geoengineering in the United Nations where it belongs,’ said ETC Group Executive Director Pat Mooney. ‘This decision is a victory for common sense, and for precaution. It will not inhibit legitimate scientific research. Decisions on geoengineering cannot be made by small groups of scientists from a small group of countries that establish self-serving “voluntary guidelines” on climate hacking. What little credibility such efforts may have had in some policy circles in the global North has been shattered by this decision. The UK Royal Society and its partners should cancel their Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative and respect that the world’s governments have collectively decided that future deliberations on geoengineering should take place in the UN, where all countries have a seat at the table and where civil society can watch and influence what they are doing.’

Delegates in Nagoya have now clearly understood the potential threat that deployment - or even field testing - of geoengineering technologies poses to the protection of biodiversity. The decision was hammered out in long and difficult late night sessions of a ‘friends of the chair’ group, attended by ETC Group, and adopted by the Working Group 1 Plenary on 27 October 2010. The Chair of the climate and biodiversity negotiations called the final text ‘a highly delicate compromise’. All that remains to do now is gavel it through in the final plenary.

‘The decision is not perfect,’ said Neth Dano of ETC Group Philippines. ‘Some delegations are understandably concerned that the interim definition of geoengineering is too narrow because it does not include Carbon Capture and Storage technologies. Before the next CBD meeting, there will be ample opportunity to consider these questions in more detail. But climate techno-fixes are now firmly on the UN agenda and will lead to important debates as the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit approaches. A change of course is essential, and geoengineering is clearly not the way forward.’

ETC Group contacts:

Pat Mooney: mooney@etcgroup.org
Silvia Ribeiro: silvia@etcgroup.org
Neth Dano: neth@etcgroup.org
Diana Bronson: diana@etcgroup.org
Jim Thomas: jim@etcgroup.org

Note to Editors:

The full texts of the relevant decisions on geoengineering are copied below:

Under Climate Change and Biodiversity (UNEP/CBD/COP/10/L.36)

8. Invites Parties and other Governments, according to national circumstance and priorities, as well as relevant organizations and processes, to consider the guidance below on ways to conserve, sustainably use and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services while contributing to climate‐change mitigation and adaptation:
....
(w) Ensure, in line and consistent with decision IX/16 C, on ocean fertilization and biodiversity and climate change, in the absence of science based, global, transparent and effective control and regulatory mechanisms for geoengineering, and in accordance with the precautionary approach and Article 14 of the Convention, that no climate-related geo-engineering activities [1] that may affect biodiversity take place, until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities and appropriate consideration of the associated risks for the environment and biodiversity and associated social, economic and cultural impacts, with the exception of small scale scientific research studies that would be conducted in a controlled setting in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention, and only if they are justified by the need to gather specific scientific data and are subject to a thorough prior assessment of the potential impacts on the environment; [1] Without prejudice to future deliberations on the definition of geo-engineering activities, understanding that any technologies that deliberately reduce solar insolation or increase carbon sequestration from the atmosphere on a large scale that may affect biodiversity (excluding carbon capture and storage from fossil fuels when it captures carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere) should be considered as forms of geo-engineering which are relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity until a more precise definition can be developed. Noting that solar insolation is defined as a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given hour and that carbon sequestration is defined as the process of increasing the carbon content of a reservoir/pool other than the atmosphere.

AND

9 9. Requests the Executive Secretary to:
....
(o) Compile and synthesize available scientific information, and views and
experiences of indigenous and local communities and other stakeholders, on the possible impacts of geo‐engineering techniques on biodiversity and associated social, economic and cultural considerations, and options on definitions and understandings of climate-related geo-engineering relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity and make it available for consideration at a meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice prior to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
(p) Taking into account the possible need for science based global, transparent and effective control and regulatory mechanisms, subject to the availability of financial resources, undertake a study on gaps in such existing mechanisms for climate-related geo-engineering relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity, bearing in mind that such mechanisms may not be best placed under the Convention on Biological Diversity, for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice prior to a future meeting of the Conference of the Parties and to communicate the results to relevant organizations;

Under New and Emerging Issues UNEP/CBD/COP/10/L.2:

4. Invites Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to submit information on synthetic biology and geo-engineering, for the consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, in accordance with the procedures of decision IX/29, while applying the precautionary approach to the field release of synthetic life,
cell or genome into the environment;

Under Marine and Coastal Biodiversity UNEP/CBD/COP/10/L.42

13. Reaffirming that the programme of work still corresponds to the global priorities, has been further strengthened through decisions VIII/21, VIII/22, VIII/24, and IX/20, but is not fully implemented, and therefore encourages Parties to continue to implement these programme elements, and endorses the following guidance, where applicable and in accordance with national capacity and circumstances, for enhanced implementation:

(e) Ensuring that no ocean fertilization takes place unless in accordance with
decision IX/16 C and taking note of the report (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/INF/7) and development noted para 57 – 62;

Impacts of ocean fertilization on marine and coastal biodiversity

57. Welcomes the report on compilation and synthesis of available scientific information on potential impacts of direct human-induced ocean fertilization on marine biodiversity (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/INF/7), which was prepared in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Maritime Organization in pursuance of paragraph 3 of decision IX/20;
58. Recalling the important decision IX/16 C on ocean fertilization, reaffirming the precautionary approach, recognizes that given the scientific uncertainty that exists, significant concern surrounds the potential intended and unintended impacts of large-scale ocean fertilization on marine ecosystem structure and function, including the sensitivity of species and habitats and the physiological changes induced by micro-nutrient and macro-nutrient additions to surface waters as well as the possibility of persistent alteration of an ecosystem, and requests Parties to implement decision IX/16 C;
59. Notes that the governing bodies under the London Convention and Protocol adopted in 2008 resolution LC-LP.1 (2008) on the regulation of ocean fertilization, in which Contracting Parties declared, inter alia, that given the present state of knowledge, ocean fertilization activities other than legitimate scientific research should not be allowed;
60. Recognizes the work under way within the context of the London Convention and London Protocol to contribute to the development of a regulatory mechanism referred to in decision IX/16 C, and invites Parties and other Governments to act in accordance with the Resolution LC-LP.2(2010) of the London Convention and Protocol ;
61. Notes that in order to provide reliable predictions on the potential adverse impacts on marine biodiversity of activities involving ocean fertilization, further work to enhance our knowledge and modelling of ocean biogeochemical processes is required, in accordance with decision IX/16 (c) and taking into account decision IX/20 and LC-LP.2
(2010);
62. Notes also that there is a pressing need for research to advance our understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics and the role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle.

* Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering is a new publication by ETC Group that provides an overview of the issues involved.

Why Ghana gave in to the cocoa baron

A bad example from Britain

Cameron Duodu

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68436

cc Flickr.comGhana has lifted its ban on a business caught smuggling cocoa out of the country, after lobbying by Britain at the request of the company’s owner. As long as African countries are dependent on aid, they will find it hard to refuse the demands of potential donors, muses Cameron Duodu.

I read ‘British Constitution’ for my A-levels in the University of London General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination. I studied part-time, because I was in full-time employment at the Ghana Broadcasting System (as it was then).

But help was at hand – the University of Ghana’s Extra-Mural Studies Department, headed by a very nice Englishman called David Kimble, had assembled an excellent group of lecturers who lectured us free of charge, at 5pm Monday to Friday, depending on the subject one chose. Bishop’s Girls’ School, at High Street, in Accra, was where my particular set of lectures were organised, under the auspices of an excellent adult education body called ‘The People’s Educational Association’ (PEA).

There, I was introduced to such mysteries as the difference between ‘written law’ and ‘convention’. Some of it seemed rather abstruse: I mean how was a ‘convention’ expected to hold so strong in any society that the convention would be enforced, through the magic of sheer self-regulation, by the rulers and the opposition alike? Yet we were assured it did work, one of the best examples being the position of the Speaker of the House of Commons, who is elected by the whole House from the ranks of the majority party, and yet, once elected, becomes an ‘impartial’ chairman of the debating process. Convention, embodied in a book called ‘Erskine May’ for short (after its author) obliged the Speaker to be scrupulous in allowing equal time for government and opposition to speak and take part, generally, in the business of ‘The House’, on as equal a basis as was practicable.

Another ‘convention’ that we were taught was that ministers of the crown, although legally the nominal ‘masters’ of the (unelected) civil servants, were yet expected to restrain themselves from asking civil servants to do anything that was ‘not proper’. Some sort of ‘ministerial code’ existed, we were told, which governed ‘proper’ relations between ministers and civil servants.

In Ghana, which was expected to follow British democratic practices after independence, these rules were written down in a huge guide called ‘General Orders’, and the more curious of us often looked at it, but to very little effect. At Broadcasting House, for instance, the ‘General Orders’ resided on the desk of a guy called ‘Mr Crabbe’, who had been at Broadcasting House ‘forever’, and would tell you that you could not go on leave twice in a year, if you dared ask for time off. If you protested, he would just mumble ‘General Orders!’ to you and off you would trot to sulk in private.

What a minister – in charge of the Broadcasting budget – could or could not do was hardly ever our problem: The minister would phone the director of broadcasting, the director would phone the head of news, and an offending item would mysteriously disappear from the news bulletins. Or be modified. No questions asked. And so it went on.

But then, the BBC men who were director-general of broadcasting and head of news in my time, soon left. And some ministers began to phone in to the news desk directly, with any complaints they might have. Very soon – in 1960, to be exact – we had men from the ruling Convention People’s Party (CPP) installed everywhere. In the newsroom, we had no less a personage than Kodwo Addison (who was later to become director of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, Winneba) installed as an ultra-establishment ‘news and current affairs executive’. Censor, if you cut out the euphemisms.

Addison had to append his signature to every news item we were to broadcast before it went on the air. Often, he came late to the newsroom and we would be twiddling our fingers as the news bulletins we had assiduously assembled, lay there waiting for him, while the clock ticked towards news time.

If we had known the reality that lay behind British politics, perhaps we would not have grieved too much. For the British appear to have effectively jettisoned some of those very nice, unwritten rules that guide the relationships between politicians and civil servants. If you read the memoirs of top politicians and civil servants, you will find that some civil servants carry out, or even initiate, actions meant to benefit the political careers of the ministers they serve.

The British newspaper, the Sunday Times, has just given the world an insight into what is currently happening to some of these relationships. The paper revealed, in its issue of 31 October 2010, that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, at the instance of the minister of international development, got the British high commissioner in Accra, a civil servant, to lobby the Ghana government over a case in which an employee of a private British cocoa-buying firm called Armajaro, was caught smuggling cocoa from the Western region of Ghana to the Ivory Coast. The smuggling operation was uncovered by a very brave Ghanaian investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who has won several international awards for solid investigative journalism.

The Sunday Times reports that in early July 2010, Andrew Mitchell, British secretary of state for international development, was passed a three-page letter from a donor who had given money to Mitchell’s Conservative Party. The letter was from Anthony Ward, a commodities trader known in British business circles as ‘Chocfinger’ (an allusion to the James Bond movie villain, Goldfinger) for his audacious deals in the cocoa market. (Instead of gold, his specialty was in the commodity used for chocolate, hence ‘Chocfinger’).

Ward was aggrieved. His company had been banned from the Western Region of Ghana, after one of its contractors was caught in a smuggling sting. There had been efforts by local British diplomats to end the ban, but Ward wanted the clout of a government minister. ‘We therefore would like to ask you to intervene on our behalf at presidential level [in Ghana] to request the ban be lifted with immediate effect,’ Ward’s letter to the minister said.

‘With immediate effect!’ As if Ghana was still a British colony which would dance to the tune of a British minister, like African civilians taking orders from military rulers, after one of our numerous and nefarious coups d‘etat!

Ward’s letter suggested that one potential lobbying opportunity would be a UK-Ghana investment forum in London which the Ghanaian vice-president, Mr John Mahama, was due to attend.

Ward’s name was familiar to Mitchell (the Sunday Times reveals). His company had donated £40,000 to Mr Mitchell’s office. It had also donated £50,000 to the Conservative party separately.

The Sunday Times adds: ‘Just days after Mitchell read the letter, the Ghanaian vice-president was indeed lobbied on behalf of Ward’s company by a Foreign Office minister at a dinner on the eve of the trade forum. Mitchell now faces questions about his exact role in the fast-tracked decision to put a government minister into battle for the company, Armajaro Holdings.

‘Mitchell’s intervention is the first apparent conflict of interest for a [David Cameron-headed] coalition government minister. Ward, 50, is a co-founder of Armajaro, one of the world’s largest cocoa commodity traders. With estimated wealth of £36m, he was reported to have cornered a chunk of the [international cocoa] market, buying 240,100 tons of cocoa beans for £658m. He is believed to have taken delivery of the cocoa at the start of July, at about the time he sought Mitchell’s aid.

‘The matter raised by Ward involved British business interests overseas, which meant it was outside Mitchell’s remit. But after considering the contents of the letter, he called Nicholas Westcott, the British high commissioner to Ghana.

‘Armajaro’s problems can be traced back to last April when an undercover reporter [Anas Aremeyaw Anas] exposed a smuggling epidemic from Ghana to Ivory Coast involving security officials and cocoa companies.

A contractor for Armajaro Ghana offered to buy cocoa to be smuggled to Ivory Coast, where prices can be significantly higher. The Ghanaian government sets a fixed cocoa price for its farmers.

‘In his conversation with Westcott on July 6, Mitchell immediately declared his interest in the donations from Ward. Westcott assured him he had already raised the matter with Ghanaian officials.

‘Westcott confirmed the details in Ward’s letter about a forthcoming UK-Ghana trade forum in London. He said the matter could possibly be raised by Henry Bellingham, [the British minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.]’

Despite some initial misgivings about lobbying for Armajaro, officials eventually concluded that Mr Bellingham should raise the matter. He dined with Mr Mahama on the eve of the trade forum and, after briefings from officials, lobbied him on Armajaro’s behalf. Westcott too attended the UK-Ghana trade forum at Drapers’ Hall in the City of London, and also took the opportunity to lobby on Armajaro’s behalf.

According to the Sunday Times, ‘the campaign paid dividends. On July 12 Westcott reported in an internal memo [obtained by the Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act] that the Ghanaian vice-president was going to look into the ban ‘immediately’. In August, Westcott, knowing Mitchell’s interest, wrote to Mitchell’s department: ‘I raised the urgent need to (and advantages of) raising the ban on Armajaro purchasing cocoa in Ghana’s border region.’ He said a draft decision made by the [Ghana] Cocoa [Marketing] Board lifting the ban meant the matter should soon be ‘sorted’.

And indeed, writes the Sunday Times, ‘The ban was finally lifted in September [2010], except in the district where the smuggling originated.’

Of course, consciences, such as existed, were salved all round by regarding ‘the employee, a contractor who was exposed offering to help to buy cocoa for the undercover reporter in western Ghana, as a rogue operator’. Yes, they are always ‘one bad apple’, aren’t they? But even it was one bad apple, did convention allow that the company that should be held responsible for his actions – for failing to put adequate measures in place to ensure that cocoa its agents bought in Ghana was not smuggled into the Ivory Coast to increase that country’s exports as against those of Ghana, and undoubtedly, the export duty arising out of the smuggled cocoa exports?

A DFID spokesman told the Sunday Times that ‘The letter from Armajaro was dealt with in accordance with normal ministerial procedures’.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for its part. insisted to the paper that ‘it had not fast- tracked Ward’s request for help.’

If Mr Mahama is reading this, he ought to ask himself whether the Ghana high commissioner in London could equally intervene with the British government on behalf of a Ghanaian company involved in denying Britain of potential export receipts. Then he should also ask to be briefed on the activities of hedge funds, such as Armajaro. If Mr Mahama doesn’t know, such hedge funds are among the companies whose activities ensure that Ghana’s earnings from cocoa fluctuate on the world market. They can be so harmful to any economy that after the great banking collapse of 2008-9, even the free trade adherents in the West sought to impose controls on their activities.

Armajaro, in particular, is of great relevance to us in Ghana, for it is so expert at manipulating the cocoa market that it could even be accused of industrial espionage, no less. According to reports by authoritative British publications, its CEO, Mr Ward, sends experts into cocoa farms in West Africa ‘to count the pods’ on cocoa trees, so as to aggregate the yield and thereby be able to forecast the eventual size of each country’s crop accurately. Such an accurate forecast enables the company to ‘take positions’ on the international market for cocoa, that reap huge profits for the company.

Most patriotic governments would ban such companies from their countries as doing harm to their exports (in the final analysis) if they could. But in the name of ‘liberalised trade’, and in order not to ruffle the feathers of potential aid donors, they tolerate them. I mean, Ghana will be dealing with Britain’s DFID on a regular basis, probably with Mr Mitchell still at the head of DFID, and what would be the attitude of Mr Mitchell to aid requests from Ghana if Ghana’s vice-president had told him to go and jump when he asked for intervention on behalf of Armajaro, ‘with immediate effect’?

So Ghana’s arm was twisted – terribly – to positively assist a hedge fund company, when the company’s agent had been caught with his hand in the till. It is beyond belief. And there are reports that the matter will be raised by concerned MPs, in the House of Commons. But don’t lose much sleep over it. It will be papered over in the same way Britain always protects its erring companies, the best example of such practices being the unceremonious manner in which former prime minister Tony Blair stopped the attempt by the British Serious Fraud Office to prosecute the arms company, BAE Systems, for setting up a ‘sleaze fund’ amounting to billions of dollars, for the private use of Saudi royals, in respect of an arms contract called ‘al-Yamamah’.

Poor Anas Aremeyaw Anas! Did he realise what he was getting into? All that dangerous investigative journalism – and its results thrown away at a dinner table in London! If he had been suspected whilst unravelling the smuggling enterprise, he could have been seriously harmed. And what would it have been in aid of? To prove the point that the independence of African countries is meaningless, so long as their arms can be twisted by foreign governments on behalf of their erring companies, and – ‘with immediate effect’, too on top?

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Cameron Duodu is a journalist, writer and commentator.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ekiti State: Elections and the power of civil society

Uche Igwe

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68418

cc WikimediaIn the aftermath of elections in Ekiti State, Uche Igwe looks at what the rest of Nigeria can learn from the experience. Noting civil society and the judiciary's key role in enabling the restoration of John Olukayode Fayemi as executive governor, Igwe argues that a ‘transparent political space’ and a ‘vibrant and mobilised civil society' is all the people need to 'gird their loins’ and vote.

‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world.’ -Margaret Mead

Many lovers of democracy worldwide are fascinated by the news coming from Ekiti State and the judicial action that restored Dr John Olukayode Fayemi as the executive governor. For many of us, this is a victory of the power of the silent majority against the predatory political class. ‘We the people’ have spoken again.

There are many reasons that make the victory of Fayemi in Ekiti very symbolic and significant at this time in our national life. There are also many lessons we must learn as citizens from it. It is a model that can be quickly replicated in other parts of the country where directionless leadership still hold siege. We must commend and celebrate the courageous role that the judiciary played as a dependable island of integrity and the last hope of the common man. As we periscope these events, we must applaud the core role of civil society groups who provided the raw material that was turned to a finished product by the judiciary.

Civil society remains the only segment of the Nigerian society that still possesses that declining quality of good conscience. In ‘modern day Nigeria’ these values are fast eroding, as centrifugal forces of religious fundamentalism; tribal hegemony and political parasitism continue to threaten competence and transformational leadership in our national life.

For those who do not know, Fayemi cut his teeth first as a rights-cum-development activist and founder of Center for Democracy and Development (CDD). He is a well-respected and admired member of the civil society community from where he threw his hat into gubernatorial politics. When it was time for the re-run in Ekiti State therefore, many civil society activists all over the country abandoned their duty posts and literally relocated to Ekiti. And I must say that the presence of civil society groups in their scores as observers during the elections spread across most polling booths became the ‘game changer’. It was very difficult for the other side to steal the votes of citizens before these ‘invasive trouble makers’. The end product is what we today celebrate. This is not the first time that civil society groups in an implicit alliance with the judiciary have dethroned the will of the few to enthrone the popular wish of the majority. We cannot forget the case of Edo state or even Rivers State. We must therefore pause and identity this symbolism pregnant with significance.

SCALING UP CIVIL SOCIETY IMPACT?

Until some time in the 1990s, civil society groups occupied a very tiny spot in the global policy. But these days, it is impossible to have a conversation about politics or public policy without mentioning the word civil society. And yet as you mention the word civil society it continues to conjure different things to different people. Some say it is a part of society. Others say it is a kind of society. While others insist that it a public arena defines the so called ‘ecology of associational life’. Others have hidden under it to carry out acts that are increasingly ‘uncivil’. Conceptual consensus therefore remains a pipe dream as prominent scholars like Michael Edwards propose that a fog is threatening to envelope this terminology. But this fog never beclouds civil society’s relevance any where, anyhow.

While many suggest that anyone who is involved in any form of associational life that is ‘civil’ qualifies to appropriate this space, others conclude that non-governmental organisations have a monopoly of this arena. Don’t they?

A few others resist any form of association with that world of ‘trouble makers’ and regard them intruders in the governance space. Regardless of where you belong in this debate, you can neither deny the relevance of civil society in the arena of development and public policy, nor wish away its dynamism, complexity and heterogeneity. How can we tap into this ever vibrant arena? How can we amplify this power and convert it to democratic advantage as was done in Ekiti recently. A change, that Nigeria our dear country needs very badly at this time. The answers to these questions may as the magic touch that will provide our nation that launching pad to credible elections and sanitise our democratic space.

Democracy is about numbers and so one route towards scaling up the influence of civil society will be to deepen our collective understanding of the concept. And so who are the current occupants of this arena in Nigeria? Are they sufficient (in numbers) to galvanise the level of civic action, contagious enough to infect the Ekiti model across the country? Is it not time to broaden this arena to welcome new but relevant actors?

For so long, the civil society arena have been appropriated by non-governmental and not-for- profit organisations. While these are legitimate occupants of this arena, it will be more tactical to admit other groups into this space in order to form a formidable coalition for change and democratic relevance. And as we cogitate on it, one cross cutting feature may be that of civility. This can be a positive binding force and an umbrella under which civil society can be assembled. And so any person or group of persons who associate for things that are ‘civil’ can be said to constitute civil society. And so anyone associated with any activity classified as ‘uncivil’ cannot be admitted into the civil arena and cannot appropriate the word civil society. Whether they are governmental, non-governmental or quasi- governmental, any entity within the civil society must profess ‘civil’ values and hold them sacrosanct. But that is by the way. Civil society actors must also as a necessity insist on distinct code of conduct for association and lawful expression. It can no longer be an all comer’s affairs.

The above hypothesis can form a preliminary basis for expansion of the civil society arena to include women groups, youth groups, professional associations, religious associations, community based associations, social clubs, individuals, foundations etc. All can be said to be part of civil society whether they meet virtually or physically. And it is important to underscore that the information age has made it possible that many persons or groups can collaborate in catalysing change even when they may not be physically present with one another. The volume of suggestions and discussions online are increasing daily and these constitute an important resource that can energise the civil society space and indeed our democracy. What of religious organisations? Many of them command sizeable population of potential voters that can be quickly converted to a democratic resource. Experience has shown that a lot can happen when these change voices are amplified through creative alliances in a religiously diverse country like Nigeria.

This critical cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the democratic process. The umbrella of civil society can be used to rally around many non state actors and can give civil society democratic velocity beyond monitoring of elections. At a time like this when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the midst of time constraints in the conduct of 2011, civil society can offer helping hands in numerous ways.

MANY SUCCESS STORIES …

The lessons of Ekiti are here with us. Clearly civil society groups in alliance with the judiciary are becoming important apostles for change that can no longer be ignored. We should not forget that it took a marriage of prominent civil society minds in the Save Nigeria Group to spread the fragrance of freedom that emancipated Nigeria from the shackles of oppression. Who else could have foiled the coup of those disgruntled and selfish political viruses that constituted themselves to a cabal and attempted to hold Nigeria to ransom while our late former President was sick abroad? What about the infamous tenure elongation campaign that former President Obasanjo and his apologists thought was the best way for Nigeria? How can we forget that whatever we see today as electoral reforms is a product of a vigilant and insistent civil society who demanded the implementation of recommendations of the Electoral reform panel? Who says it cannot happen again … and soon.

Indeed the democracy we enjoy today is as a result of the price paid by civil society. Non-state actors can and will be able to do more: especially in areas like the Niger Delta where that has been insufficient ‘civil’ progress. Many have attributed these failures to an infiltration of genuine 'civil' struggle in the delta by an amorphous mass of cacophonous voices with mundane intensions masquerading as civil society, contaminating the arena with faulty and fragmented strategies that utilised predominantly ‘uncivil’ approaches often to selfish ends. However genuine civil society mobilisation remains the pathway for sustainable progress in the Niger Delta especially in the area of good governance at the state level.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

A culture of naivety, in my view, had infected the Nigerian civil society arena for so long and is still prevalent today. It is the ‘do-gooder syndrome’ and the us-and-them dichotomy. Many activists see themselves as do-gooders in the society who can only sit on the sidelines and criticise policies and polities. They have continued to remain in that spot long after that approach has become outdated and anachronistic. They desire a new result yet they use an old method!

This syndrome has robbed the Nigerian political space very many capable hands. Men and women who are reservoirs of sound policy intelligence that could re-position government but whom deliberately embraced political anomie absent mindedness. It has given an opportunity for many people who would never have come close to public office to hijack the political space and appropriate it to themselves. And so these miscreants now constitute that political obscenity that has invaded our various political parties, parliaments, government houses etc. While capable and competent civil society actors battle them helplessly and fruitlessly on the pages of newspapers. Granted, over dependence of donors by civil society groups remain a huge challenge that have often distorted civil society priorities, however Ekiti and Edo have proven that organised civil society can wrestle leadership for the sake of the oppressed and the marginalised. Many spots in the Nigerian political space are currently been infested by elite-inflicted governance decay, infrastructural deficit, corruption, mindless profligacy and palpable poverty. Those intruders parading our governance space cannot vacate willingly. They will attempt again to manipulate elections with resources siphoned from public purse but organised civil society must resist them this time around. As in Ekiti, civil society must force them out.

A transparent political space as promised by the President and a vibrant and mobilised civil society is all the people need to gird their loins and force them out. The power to make it happen lies within. Nigerian civil society arise!

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* Uche Igwe is an Africa public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and visiting scholar at the Africa Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University, USA.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

‘You vote, we decide’

Dibussi Tande

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68419

cc VOAAs election fever sweeps across the continent, Dibussi Tande presents a selection of blog posts on the situation in Cote D’Ivoire, Tanzania and Cameroon, along with a view from Africa on Obama’s US presidency.

Ivory Hotel looks at the role of ethnicity in the Presidential elections in Cote d’Ivoire:

‘A few thoughts on the results from the first few regions. Seems that people haven’t really taken in the message of Alpha Blondy’s hit song Multipartisme, and voted very much along ethnic lines.

‘That is maybe not very surprising given a high rate of illiteracy and a far too small middle class.

‘It’s tough creating a functioning democracy where issues and not ethnicity is at the key to voting preferences in a multiethnic country without a sizeable middle class. I think the votes from abroad are an indication of how it would look if the Ivory Coast had a large middle class.

‘Also, after a civil war with an ethnic component to it, ethnic voting is to be expected. Image the UN stepping in and stopping the war in Juguslavia in 1991, and then there being an election in a united Juguslavia. I wouldn’t expect many Bosnian Muslims to vote for Milosevic, or Serbs voting for Croat etc.’

West Africa Always Wins takes a diametrically-opposed view by pointing out that many voters who were not from President Laurent Gbgabo still voted for him:

‘Ivory Coast is in limbo. People are staying at home to wait for the results from Sunday’s vote. Last night the results from ten provinces were finally read out on state television, in between monotonous music videos and endless repeats of the evening news. By the time the electoral commission called it a day, at 3 in the morning, Laurent Gbagbo was slightly ahead of his main rival Alassane Ouattara. It remains a mystery why we had to sit through the night to hear the first results, but that’s the impenetrable logic of Ivorian officialdom.

‘Another thing I find difficult to understand is why people would vote for Gbagbo. Ivorians tend to choose someone of their own tribe, but the first results indicate that thousands of Ivorians have set tribal and religious loyalties aside to keep Gbagbo in power. His self-congratulatory speeches make my hair stand on end, and I would think that his indifference to corruption, police extortion and army brutality is enough to disqualify him as a leader. But that’s the point of view of the white man, said my friend F., arguing Gbagbo is not as unpopular as westerners think. “The question people ask themselves is: who can give us peace and stability? Put yourself in the shoes of a villager who has lost everything in the war. All he wants is peace. Remember how Liberians voted for Charles Taylor in the 1997 elections? Same thing: they wanted peace. Gbagbo did not start the civil war, even though he used the situation to his own benefit. He agreed to organize elections, he allowed his rivals to campaign nationwide, and he has adopted a conciliatory tone. This has struck a chord with many people. They think Ivory Coast will never have peace if Alassane Ouattara wins. He once famously said he would set the country on fire, and the Ivorians have never forgotten that.’

Africa on a Blog’s Jimmy Kainja points to the same phenomenon during the October 31 legislative and Presidential elections in Tanzania which were relatively free of any significant ethnic tensions:

‘The East African country’s elections have passed relatively unnoticed, this is untypical of many African elections... the elections lacked the ‘usual’ tribal and ethnic tensions that make most African elections ‘newsworthy’ for the most international media.... the tribal harmony that exists in Tanzania today is the legacy of the country’s founding president, Julius Nyerere.

‘Indeed. Nyerere’s emphasised on national building over personal interests, “UJAMAA”, which can loosely be translated as familyhood (Swahili speakers may translate this better) – one person for another. This formed what has come to be known as African Socialism; an ideology that has never been popular with most westerners, whose idealism and economic model(s) Nyerere objected...

‘They say “bad news is good news.” This rings true on how African affairs are covered in the western mainstream media. This cliché may well explain the lack of coverage for Tanzania elections. The elections are devoid of tribalism and ethnic tensions, which would qualify it as “newsworthy.” Given that tribalism has been a constant feature in the region’s (east African) elections, Kenya and Rwanda, in particular, the lack of ethnic tensions in Tanzania is an interesting development – a development that would interest not only media organisations but historians and social scientists alike. Therefore this is a genuine story, a newsworthy material. Kudos to the BBC for their attempted coverage.’

Voice of the Oppressed looks at the implications of the announcement by Kah Walla, a prominent Cameroonian civil society activist, that she will contest the 2011 presidential elections as an independent:

‘At 45, Kah Walla embodies a younger breed of the older generation and at the same time, an older breed of the younger generation. Though she is relatively a newcomer into the political arena and virtually unknown to the larger Cameroonian populace, especially those in the Diaspora, it would be simplistic to discount her impact in a desperate political case like the Cameroons where one is tempted to believe that any alternative leadership will be better than these 28 years of Biya's muddled leadership...

‘By exercising her rights to run for president, Kah Walla has submitted herself to the scrutiny of the Cameroonian people. It is only through this scrutiny that her ambition will have a ripple effect on the political landscape.

‘She will definitely appeal to the greater proportion of the Cameroonian populace- women- who greatly influence political course consciously or unconsciously; and the desperate unemployed youth, whose future is opaque. Therefore, she will need to form a strategy and build a following that will not only participate in the electoral process, but will also participate in its aftermath.

‘It will be a blissful dream for anyone to imagine that someone other than Biya will be declared: “President(e) de la Republique du Cameroun” in late 2011, taking into consideration the egoistic distortion of the constitution to enable him to rule for life.

‘I strongly believe that Kah Walla's slogan: “THE TIME IS NOW” is not limited to any conviction that through the ballot box she could become president , but more to do with how she could galvanize international pressure on the Biya regime as a post-election strategy ,in case of any popular revolt due to electoral fraud.’

Africommons uses the backdrop of the just concluded midterm elections in the United States to challenge the notion in Africa that President Obama is not paying enough attention to the continent:

‘It seems to me that African expectations for Obama were always misplaced and failed to account for both Obama’s main focus as a politician and the realities of the American political system and the American electorate.

‘In particular, in Kenya, I never thought that Obama’s decision to make a quick visit to Ghana rather than to Kenya should be seen so much as a criticism of Kenya’s political failings as a reflection of Obama’s needs as President of the US. Obama has been under vigorous, and quite effective, attack since the early part of his campaign from the right in the US for being too “Kenyan” and too much associated with Islam–and of course as actually both Kenyan and Muslim rather than American and Christian. This has only gotten worse as it has crawled out of the e-mail networks and blogosphere and into open discussion by current and former elected officials, the cover of Forbes and Glenn Beck. A state visit to Kenya with a riotous outpouring of welcome from Kenyans has always been the last thing he has needed in America, and has become more and more politically untenable as his popularity has slipped...

‘If over the next two years he regains more confidence among white independents, primarily presumably on the basis of economic issues, and he is re-elected, then Obama, having completed his career as a candidate, might find the opportunity and motivation to deploy the advantages of his unique background to offer specific focused leadership on policy toward Africa that would appeal to both liberals and conservatives in Congress who will remain the primary consistent advocates in the meantime.’

Method to the Madness carries an excerpt of Johann Harris’s argument, while reviewing VS Naipaul’s, ‘The Masque of Africa’, that non-Africans have a right to speak about African religions:

‘I have stood in a blood-splattered house in Tanzania where an old woman had just been beaten to death for being a "witch" who cast spells on her neighbors. I have stood in battlefields in the Congo where the troops insist with absolute certainty they cannot be killed because they have carried out a magical spell that guarantees, if they are shot, they will turn briefly into a tree, then charge on unharmed. I have been cursed in Ethiopia by a witch-doctor with "impotence, obesity, and then leprosy" for asking insistently why he charged so much to "cure" his patients. (I'm still waiting for the leprosy.)

‘Where do these beliefs come from? What do so many Africans get out of them? Can they be changed? These are questions that are asked in Africa all the time, but we are deaf to the conversation. It's not hard to see why. The imperial rape and pillage of Africa was "justified" by claiming Africans were "primitive" and "backward" people sunk in a morass of voodoo, who had to be "civilized" in blood and Christianity. Just as there are legitimate and necessary criticisms of Israel but nobody wants to hear them from Germany, any legitimate and necessary criticism of the problems with Africa's indigenous beliefs will never be welcome from Europeans or their descendants. And yet there they are, ongoing and alive, waiting to be discussed. Must we ignore it?’

Scribbles from the Den publishes an investigative report on corruption by officials in charge of football in Cameroon:

‘In 2007, one of the private mobile telephone operators in the country (MTN) signed a convention with Fecafoot [Cameroon Football Federation] for the renovation of a number of stadiums in the country for a total sum of 400 million FCFA (about US $800 000). The telephone company was to provide 300 million FCFA (US $600 000) and FECAFOOT 100 million (US $200 000). While MTN disbursed part of its own share of the money for work to start on the stadiums, Fecafoot would not come up with its own money. At one time the company threatened to stop financing the project unless Fecafoot would pay its share. But instead of football management paying up in order to ensure that the renovation work continued, it gave 73 million FCFA (about US $146 000) to the then Minister of Youth and Sports Thierry Augustin Edzoa so that he could “breathe better” – as he said after receiving the money.

‘At one time, staff at the Fecafoot headquarters almost brought football activities to a standstill because they were owed 44 months’ salary. FIFA sent money to Fecafoot to pay the arrears. However, officials only paid 16 months’ arrears and pocketed the money for the remaining 28 months.

‘Parliament appropriated a total of 12 035 585 000 FCFA (about US $24.1 million) for the renovation of existing infrastructure and the preparation of players for international competitions within three years. There is nothing to show for this money. In fact, the two soccer stadiums in Yaoundé and Douala that were constructed in 1971 are in an advanced state of disrepair.

‘During the 1998 World Cup, the then Minister of Communication, Prof. Augustin Kontchou Kuoumegni, who was in charge of allowances intended for players, simply pocketed the money and announced that he had ‘forgotten’ the bag containing the money in the aircraft.

Another minister, Prof. Bipoum Woum, collected eight million FCFA (US $16 000) for an air ticket saying that the ticket bought for him had gone missing. He eventually boarded the plane using the ticket which was supposedly missing.’

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Dibussi Tande blogs at Scribbles from the Den.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Truth, myth and Malawi’s reading culture

Steve Sharra

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68362

cc N BInstituting a reading and book writing culture is key to encouraging intellectual renewal, writes Steve Sharra.

You have probably heard a friend say it, or at least seen it forwarded in emails: ‘If you want to hide important information from an African, put it in a book.’ Another less insulting but blunt expression says when you see a white person riding in a bus or on a train, or waiting to catch a flight at an airport, they are always reading something. When you see a black person, they are mostly scratching their ankles and staring blankly, not reading anything. Both statements are made as proof that as Africans, we don’t have a reading culture.

Generalisations are always dangerous because they are mostly untrue, lumping entire groups into crude and inaccurate stereotypes. Most of the people I find myself in the company of, going back to my school days, have been voracious readers. I grew up in a healthy reading culture, surrounded by books, right here in Malawi. One English teacher in secondary school not only encouraged reading, he also gave me books to read that were not on the examination syllabus.

Conversely, I have also seen white people staring into space and yawning, waiting in line, while in the same space black Africans read books, newspapers, magazines, and other materials. All of this is to say neither of the above stereotypical statements is an accurate description of entire groups of people, whether white, black, yellow, turquoise or magenta.

Britain and the United States are also expressing similar worries about their reading culture. Consider these recent developments:

- The British newspaper The Telegraph recently carried a story that said a whopping two thirds of British people did not visit a library in 2009.

- In the United States, New York Times columnist Timothy Egan on 25 August expressed concern over the percentages of Americans who are misinformed about President Obama’s religion, his birth and citizenship; the bailout of banks; and the scientific evidence on climate change. The title of Egan’s column was telling: ‘Building a Nation of Know-Nothings.’

Not long ago retired secretary of state and army general Colin Powell countered the ‘Obama is a Muslim’ myth by pointing out that there would be nothing wrong if Obama were indeed a Muslim. Many American Muslims were decent, peace loving people who contributed to America’s economy, culture and democracy. But that belief, together with much other misinformation, persists and grows in a society that sees itself as a model of high literacy.

In his 7 August column in the New York Times, titled ‘Putting Our Brains on Hold’, Bob Hebert wrote about a report released by the College Board that showed how America’s educational standards were declining. Not long ago America led the world in the numbers of 25 - 34 year olds with first degrees. Today, America is at number 12. Hebert said America was a society that held ‘intellectual achievement in contempt’ and paid more attention to Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga and Snooki than to important matters of the day. The blame, he said, lay with parents, students, the educational system, government, and the news media. ‘What is the matter with us,’ he asked. ‘What have we been drinking?’ he pleaded, stopping just short of accusing Americans of having been imbibing at Bwandilo and missing important national debates in the media (Malawi’s president has recently accused his critics of spending too much time at a famous drinking joint called Bwandilo, in the capital city Lilongwe, and missing out on important matters). Hebert implied that America’s reading culture was being affected by these problems, saying, ‘We read less and less and write like barbarians.’

In the United States booksellers are closing stores, and libraries are shutting down. A sidewalk book vendor told a New York Times reporter recently, ‘It is apparent that we have a real serious issue, that the life of the mind has been in decline for some time now.’ As if that is not worrying enough, several newspapers have folded over the past few years.

But dismissing and getting rid of unfair stereotypes and generalisations should not lull us into a false sense of satisfaction that we have a thriving reading culture. A lot of Malawians hardly read anything and the number of those that do not know how to read at all is said to be at 37 per cent of the population.

The other day I crossed the wobbly bridge that vendors have constructed along Lilongwe River. At the end of the bridge I asked the young man collecting the K10 fee (approximately US$0.06) how many hours he spent at that bridge. Morning till sunset, he told me. I observed that he was not carrying any reading material. A little further away I stopped and asked a similar question to a woman selling airtime. Her answer was the same - morning till sunset. Did she have anything to read when there were no customers? She couldn’t afford newspapers, she said. Had she thought of visiting the library and borrowing a book? Nope, she had not thought of that.

The Malawian ‘Jua Kali’ sector - Jua Kali being what Kenyans call vendors who sell wares in the scorching sun - has lots of people who spend hours sitting and waiting for customers. In my next life I would like to come back as a driver. Or a security guard. I envy the hours these and others in similar types of jobs spend mostly sitting and just waiting. Drivers spend hours waiting on their bosses attending workshops and meetings. Many of them do not have anything to read in between. Next time you are waiting in line at the bank, count how many people are carrying and reading a book, magazine or a newspaper.

Then there is the price of books. The other day I walked into Nyabufu Bookshop in Sunbird Capital Hotel in Lilongwe and saw Professor Brown Chimphamba’s autobiography, ‘Born in Ntengela: The Story of My Early Life’. Price? K4,000 (approximately US$27). I know Malawians for whom that is their entire monthly earnings. The problem of the prohibitive cost of books is a chicken and egg one. Without a huge market for books, the cost is going to be high, and publishers will produce just a few copies. And the cycle repeats itself, with implications for literacy rates and a society’s reading culture.

It is common for us in Malawi to have a national conversation on events that grip the nation, such as worshippers committing suicide by jumping into a raging fire, or two men conducting an engagement ceremony and planning to marry each other. But when is the last time we had a national conversation based on an important book published by a Malawian scholar or novelist? How often do Malawian columnists cite books and other informed sources?

Apart from former president Dr Bakili Muluzi and the current president Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, most of our politicians and other leaders never write books about their time in office, or about their lives. Our journalists write volumes and volumes about current events and trends over long periods of time, but never think of developing these topics into book-length projects.

Recently Dr Pascal Mwale, lecturer in philosophy at Chancellor College and Dr Linje Manyozo, lecturer in media studies at the London School of Economics, wrote a lengthy and charged article in the online newspaper NyasaTimes Online about how most lecturers in the University of Malawi get promotions without having to publish a book.

We cannot expect an abundance of books from a society that does not read as many books. The self-perpetuating cycle has to break at some point if we are to learn from our best practices and embark on a process of intellectual renewal. The teacher training colleges are the best place to start, together with classroom teachers and their advisers. The National Library Service is setting up libraries and training librarians in Malawian schools. The Malawi Writers Union has recently been on a nationwide tour visiting schools and encouraging young Malawians to take writing seriously. The Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) this week launched the Read Malawi project, a project being piloted by MIE and the University of Texas at San Antonio aimed at providing supplementary and complementary books for children in primary schools.

These and other efforts by government and civil society ought to be integrated into the teacher education and professional development system, if we are to rebuild the much-lamented reading culture. The United Nations designated the decade from 2003 to 2012 as the Literacy Decade, but obviously the importance of the idea continues from generation to generation. Not only should we be encouraging reading, we should go a step further and encourage book writing as well, giving the world a much-needed progressive African perspective on local and global issues.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Steve Sharra holds a Ph.D. in Teacher Education from Michigan State University. He blogs at Afrika Aphukira; The Zeleza Post ; and the Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy. He moderates Bwalo la Aphunzitsi, an online forum for Malawian teachers and educators. For more details email bwalolaaphunzitsi@gmail.com
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ethiopia: Education unbanned

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/68378

cc ILRIThe Ethiopian government has gone back on their decision to ban distance learning programmes. Alemayehu G. Mariam says the lessons that should be learnt include a respect for the rule of law and the need for rational policy-making.

Last week, it was quietly announced that the official wholesale ban on distance learning educational programs in Ethiopia has been lifted. In August 2010, the ban was imposed out of the blue ‘because of quality concerns’. According to one report [1], following six-weeks of ‘negotiations’ between education officials and distance learning service providers a settlement was reached in which providers reportedly agreed to create a curriculum that places more emphasis on science and technology and establishes a trade association to oversee quality assurance. Education officials are expected to undertake stricter supervision and monitoring of distance learning institutions. The training of teachers and health care workers, and apparently legal education, will be reserved exclusively for public higher education institutions under the political control of the regime.

DOING THE RIGHT THING

When I wrote my commentary ‘Ethiopia: Indoctri-Nation’ this past September [2], I argued that the wholesale ban of private distance learning programs by ‘directive’, or more accurately by bureaucratic fiat, was a flagrant violation of the governing law known as the ‘Higher Education Proclamation No. 650/2009’ ['Proclamation'] and the constitutional property rights of the providers. I demonstrated that the responsible regulatory agency known as the ‘Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency’ (HERQA) could only ‘revoke accreditation’ of private distance learning institutions which fail to meet ‘minimum standards’ on a case-by-case basis following a fact-finding and appeals process. It does not have the legal authority to impose a wholesale ban.

The reasons reported publicly for the ‘negotiated agreement’ lifting the ban are not convincing in light of the provisions of the Proclamation. HERQA has broad regulatory authority to ‘ensure the minimum curricula quality standards’. It does not need to ‘negotiate’ its own legal authority to demand accountability and observance of standards from substandard providers; it could simply commence de-accreditation procedures against them. Instead of imposing a wholesale ban, the prudent and sensible thing for HERQA would have been to notify distance learning stakeholders of deficiencies, consulted with them on remedies and instituted stricter accountability and quality control measures with increased oversight and monitoring. Those who fail to cure deficiencies within a reasonable time could be set for a ‘de-accreditation’ hearing. Inexplicably, HERQA officials and the political bosses in charge of education acted rashly and arbitrarily in August; now they have been forced to turn back the clock because the total ban has proven to be impractical and irrational to implement and has made the ruling regime in Ethiopia the laughing stock of higher education throughout the world.

As I have demonstrated in my commentary referenced above, the blanket ban on distance learning was wrong because it imposed collective punishment on all members of a group without an opportunity to be heard and a fair determination of the facts. The ban also unfairly smeared all distance program providers in the country as sub-standard, and maligned the leaders of these institutions as scammers in light of comments by officials which insinuated that the ‘purpose [of the providers] was to collect money’ and not provide legitimate educational services. It is impossible to imagine that all distance learning providers in the country are so deficient in quality that they needed to be shut down at once. If that were true, it would be a sad commentary on those officials responsible for education in the country for allowing such institutions to function as they have for so many years. Imposing the ban in August was wrong; righting that wrong by lifting the ban now (assuming that it is actually lifted and is not merely a public relations gimmick) is a testament to education itself: ‘All humans make mistakes, but only the wise ones learn from them.’

LESSONS LEARNED

Educational bureaucrats and their political bosses in Ethiopia could learn a few lessons from the blanket ban fiasco. First, it is important for them to incorporate the principle of the rule of law in their official actions. Simply stated, they could act only to the extent that they have constitutional and statutory authority. They cannot act arbitrarily or abuse their power because they occupy a political position. The ban was manifestly the result of lack of knowledge or willful ignorance of the applicable law by officials in charge of educational policy-making and implementation. Had these officials familiarised themselves with their governing Proclamation, it would have been self-evident to them that they have to follow the prescribed de-accreditations procedures and could not impose a total ban. They need to institutionalise and practice the principle of the rule of law as part of their bureaucratic culture which will help them perform their duties with a high degree of accountability, transparency and efficiency.

The second lesson to be learned is that to avoid the type of mindless and irrational policymaking, the political bosses in charge of education should establish a standardised notice-and-comment process before proposed regulations are implemented. By publicly announcing a proposed rule change in advance, impacted institutions, groups, communities and members of the general public would be given an opportunity to provide input and share their views on their special circumstances. They could also provide policymakers data and analysis to help in the formulation of policies that are balanced, efficacious and likely to be implemented successfully. Such a process avoids hasty consideration of issues, premature and uninformed judgments, embarrassing decisions and obviates the need for the futile pursuit of impractical policies as evidenced in this ban.

To be sure, if the education officials had followed a notice-and-comment process, not only would distance learning service providers, teachers, students and their parents and others have had the opportunity to contribute positively to the policy process, the officials themselves could have spared themselves public embarrassment, avoided wasting time negotiating something that needed no negotiation and quite possibly avoid legal challenges to the ban. A notice-and-comment process also promotes accountability, transparency and public engagement in the policy process consistent with the prescription in Article 12 of the Ethiopian Constitution (Functions and Accountability of Government) which provides: ‘The activities of government shall be undertaken in a manner which is open and transparent to the public.’ What better way to practically implement Article 12 than instituting an open notice-and-comment process?

A third lesson to be learned is that in higher education it is vital to maintain ongoing consultations with the stakeholders. Higher education is not the military high command where random and arbitrary orders are given - to be followed unquestioningly. Having served in a leadership position in higher education strategic planning and implementation and overseen the development of a specialised distance learning program, I know it is counter-productive to even consider imposing bureaucratic control on curriculum, faculty, staff, students and administrators. Systematic and ongoing consultations with stakeholders are essential for a successful distance learning program design, planning, implementation, evaluation, maintenance and improvement.

Quality concerns in distance learning are not limited to ‘ensuring minimum standards’ as it seems to be the concern of educational officials in Ethiopia; there is the whole other area of student achievement and learning outcomes which can be tackled only by identifying student needs, problems and barriers students encounter in obtaining educational services. Without a comprehensive approach, the efforts to ensure minimum standards in the long run will amount to nothing more than window dressing. The need for ongoing consultations with stakeholders needs emphasis.

When HERQA suddenly announced the ban, distance learning providers, teachers and students at these institutions were shocked to find out that such a catastrophic policy had been made without even the courtesy of notice, let alone consultations with them as stakeholders. Molla Tsegaye, president of Admas University College, expressed shock and dismay when he learned about the ban: ‘We did not expect this. As stakeholders in the sector, we should have been consulted before all this.’ Consultation is a process in which the concerned parties confer to share views, exchange ideas and give advice. Negotiation is a process in which the parties have issues which they seek to settle in a formal agreement. Both the providers and the educational bureaucrats and their political bosses are presumably on the same side. They are both manifestly interested and committed to educational quality and student learning. Consultations, not negotiations, are more appropriate and efficacious to increase program quality and student achievement. If Ethiopia's distance education providers are collectively failing in providing quality instruction, they should be presented with the data of sub-par performance and engaged as stakeholders to develop guidelines for best practices.

The fourth lesson to be learned is the need to de-politicise education. Education bureaucrats and their political bosses should respect principles of academic freedom in higher education and let students, faculty members, scholars and researchers have the freedom to teach, learn or communicate ideas without being targeted for repression, job loss and other retribution. Higher educational institutions, and schools in general, should not be places of indoctrination for the ruling party's true believers. The legal, teaching and health professions should not be the exclusive domain of public institutions that are funded and completely controlled by the regime and its top leaders. Academic merit and freedom, and excellence in instructional quality should be the governing principles for higher education in Ethiopia, not party membership, party loyalty or party influence.

The fifth and most important lesson for the political bosses that orchestrated this fiasco is to publicly come out and say, ‘We made a mistake. We messed up. We acted rashly and without forethought when we imposed a wholesale ban. We will consult stakeholders in the future and solicit input from the public to ensure a transparent process; and we will act only to the extent that we have authority under the law.’ There is nothing more important for the public than to have officials taking ownership of their mistakes. No reasonable person would disagree with efforts aimed at weeding out diploma mills and fly-by-night operations. No one would protest efforts aimed at protecting the public from educational fraud. The solution to these problems is not to throw out the baby with the bath water by imposing a total ban on distance learning, but to remove the rotten apples from the barrel. With the un-banning of distance learning, stakeholders, bureaucrats and their political bosses could begin a new chapter and go beyond setting ‘minimum standards’ to setting a ‘gold standard’ of best practices in distance learning not only for Ethiopia but also the African continent.

REFLECTIONS OF AN EDUCATION ‘NEO-LIBERAL’

In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess my own predilections and preferences in higher education, having spent much of my professional life in the university environment. I proudly advocate a laissez faire approach to higher education. That makes me an educational ‘neoliberal’ (a word often used pejoratively by some benighted dogmatists, which I simply define as one who believes in a totally free marketplace of ideas undefiled by bureaucratic and regulatory vulgarity) who upholds the individual's right to choose his/her own educational program and professional career. Well, get a load of this: ‘Hell, yeah! I am an educational neo-liberal and damn proud of it!’ As a ‘neo-liberal’, I believe in freedom of inquiry and thought. I am always willing to entertain new ideas with inquisitiveness and fascination, not fear and anxiety.

There are those destined to the dustbin of history who have argued that ‘the neo-liberal paradigm is a dead end, is incapable of bringing about the African renaissance, and that a fundamental shift in paradigm is required to bring about the African renaissance.’ I say the only paradigm shift self-serving, pretentious, narcissistic and megalomaniacal dictators could bring is to march the ‘Dark Continent’ backwards to the Dark Ages. It was the Renaissance European universities that led the scientific revolution and became the incubators of new ideas in science, literature, philosophy, art, politics, science and religion. Closing institutions of higher learning and banning fields of scientific and philosophical inquiry were the hallmarks of the Dark Ages, not the Renaissance.

My belief is that government regulation of education rarely results in quality improvement or student achievement. The maze of bureaucratic rules and regulations imposed by governments often stifle creativity, learning and the expansion of knowledge. Africa's ‘renaissance’ or rebirth is in the hands of its young people yearning to breathe free and struggling to exert their creative impulses to lift the continent out of poverty and dictatorship. There can be no renaissance when an official orthodoxy is forced upon citizens and the state mindlessly meddles in the marketplace of ideas and knowledge with a heavy hand. Suffice it to say that I believe in a free marketplace of ideas (universities) where students, teachers, researchers and scholars do not have to seek knowledge under the long shadow of official censors or look over their shoulders for the thought police lurking behind every bush on campus. As to the cultural role played by private higher educational institutions, could anyone doubt the enormous contributions of private universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and dozens more in America's ‘renaissance’?

In the marketplace of ideas and knowledge, I say keep government out. Let individuals decide what they want and need. If students feel a private distance education program meets their needs, it should be their choice and not the decision of faceless, nameless and capricious bureaucrats. It is all about freedom of choice. In a free society, every citizen can choose his/her educational destiny. If one chooses to become an educator, a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a chemist or train to join any other profession, it is their right to pursue it particularly when they are paying for it out of their own pockets. Only totalitarian states mandate what each citizen will learn and become.

The whole idea of state monopoly in teacher education, health and the law is deeply offensive to anyone who believes in freedom of learning and education. In my September commentary referenced above, I noted: ‘State-certified teachers who are ruling party members could be used to play a decisive role in legitimising the regime and in indoctrinating the youth in the regime's ideology.’ Human Rights Watch two weeks ago supported my observation with evidence that the ruling regime in Ethiopia had misused state educational facilities for political purposes and engaged in systematic political indoctrination of students and repression of teachers.[3]

As a lawyer and educator, I am particularly concerned about state monopoly over legal education. By monopolising the law discipline, the ruling regime manifestly intends to regulate the admission of law students and the training of lawyers and judges who will administer ‘justice’ in the country. Such a monopoly will produce not lawyers and legal professionals who are committed to the Constitution, the rule of law, principles of universal justice and ethical standards, but robotic legal cadres committed to the ruling regime and its policies. In other words, justice will be administered by party hacks, hirelings, flunkies and lackeys with ultimate loyalty to the dictator-in-chief. I am a proud ‘neoliberal’ in education because I believe ‘education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army’; better yet, the best defense against an army of ignoramuses.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA

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* This article was first published by the Huffington Post.

* Alemayehu G. Mariam is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino. Follow him on twitter @pal4thedefense.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES:

[1] Ban on distance education lifted
[2] Ethiopia: Indoctri-Nation
[3] Development without freedom

Barack Obama: A contradiction between the messenger and the message

Book Review

Wazir Mohamed

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/68398

cc White HouseHow are we to understand Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to power? What does the movement which propelled him to power represent? And why has he not fulfilled the promises of his election campaign? Wazir Mohamed reviews a new book by Horace Campbell that seeks to answer these questions.

Horace Campbell’s latest book, Barack Obama and Twenty First Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA tells the story of the political struggles that shaped the ascendance of the first non-white person to the Presidency.

In Horace Campbell’s view, while Barack Obama is not a revolutionary, his ascendance to the Oval Office is reflective of the contemporary mood and everyday expectation of most Americans today that their elected leaders would bring about changed conditions of life and of living for: the poor of all ethnic backgrounds, African Americans, Hispanics and other new immigrants, young people, women, white workers, and workers in general.

The election of Barack Obama is related to the message of change which took on a momentum and a life of its own in the election campaign. Campbell relates this momentum as a sign that we are in the midst of the beginning of a new revolutionary moment. A moment which is not centered strictly on electoral change, but is multi-faceted and involves many different manifestations, such as massive technological change, the sharpening of environmental justice issues, the implosion of the new liberal way, heightened anti-racist consciousness, the de-legitimisation of militarism and occupation, and opposition to all forms of religious persecution.

Throughout the book the author expands on these questions, but this review concentrates on how people of all shades came together to decide on the need for change - not just for change in leader, but change in the historically divisive structure of top-down decision making. This, he argues, can ultimately lead to change in the old order.

Horace Campbell’s conception of the revolutionary moment is related to two specific factors. Firstly, as the book argues, historically the revolutionary moment has been defined by the convergence of forces at that point ‘when the ideas supporting or propping up the old order had become unsustainable.’[1] His argument is that the signs that this moment is fast approaching can be gleaned from the bottom-up mobilisation and decision making processes which emerged in the campaign without which Obama may not have been propelled to the Presidency. Secondly, is the election of the first non-white President in the United States of America. Hence, while Obama is not a revolutionary in Campbell’s view, the mere fact that he was propelled to this office through the coalescing of the people’s consciousness for change through bottom-up mobilisation and decision making processes, the expectation is that he is required to answer the call of the people for structural change.

The expectation in the USA and around the world, especially in the post-colonial world, is that being the first non-white person to reach the mountain top, Barack Obama will give leadership towards a new dispensation of rights not only for the most down pressed in his country of birth, but for peoples of colour everywhere. While the book does not say this, it is important at the outset to point out that Barack Obama is the first non-white person to be elected to the highest office in the so-called developed and imperial world. This in itself could represent a democratic opening. It must be remembered that not so long ago, at least up to the 14th amendment of the US constitution after the Civil War, a person of colour was lawfully designated ‘three fifths’ of a human.[2] For one of these children to emerge and become President is indeed a breakthrough - it is time for other parts of the developed world to follow and is high time for this kind of forward step in Western Europe.

While this book holds this up as a revolutionary moment, the author makes no pretence that it by any stretch of imagination means that racism and racial inequality in every area of life in the USA came to an end with the election of Obama.

The book is well researched. It gives the reader cause to pause, to reflect, to analyse, and when we do that we are enabled through the evolutionary path of Barack and Michelle Obama’s life history to be able to connect them to the history of the struggle for equality and social justice, and not just for ‘freedom’. Having established the connection through the life path of the Obamas, Horace Campbell enables the reader to desist from the temptation of plucking them, the Obamas out as a black couple disconnected from history and from community.

This work traces and establishes the connection between Obama’s rise and the long struggle of non-white peoples in the USA for the freedoms enshrined in the rising of struggles of African slaves against slavery; in the rising against the British Imperial domination which culminated in the unfinished American Revolution of 1776 for full freedoms; in the values of ‘Equalite, Liberte, Fraternite’ espoused by the French Revolution of 1789; in the values of racial, economic, political and social justice demanded by the Jacobins in the still unfinished Haitian Revolution of 1804; in the rising of African Americans against Jim Crow and the Klu Klux Klan; in the unfinished task of deconstruction of structural racism and white privilege; and in the unfinished Civil Rights struggle to end segregation and restore common humanity to the American landscape. Although the book identifies all these struggles as having influenced the direction of Barack Obama, it nevertheless presents him as a ‘pragmatic’ liberal who continues to operate in a world view that expects the capitalist free market system to offer up solutions out of which will emerge equality.

OBAMA CAMPAIGNED AS A HUMAN BEING RATHER THAN AS A BLACK PERSON

This work traces the complexity of the history of the United States wherein every roadblock imaginable was created to prevent people of colour from achieving the full dignity for all human beings. We cannot forget that the foundation of this society has been built on the atrocities committed against Native Americans, and native peoples especially in the Americas. A history intertwined with the rise of racism as a concept and scientific racism as a methodology of labour control; that is the dehumanisation of blackness and anything non-white as inferior.[3]

It is from this backdrop that Horace Campbell delineates the rise of Obama and the ideology of change as a signifier of a revolutionary moment. His usage of the terminology revolutionary is deliberate. He argues that although Obama in his view is not a revolutionary perse; Obama is caught up and is required by circumstance to respond to the demands for change in this moment, a moment Campbell identifies as a revolutionary moment in world history. ‘The revolutionary moment…in the US,’ he outlines ‘is underscored by the convergence of forces that brought the country’s politics to an inflection point at the wake of the election season of 2007-2008.’ An inflection point which in Campbell’s view represents cracks in the walls of the politics of hate which ‘Obama…a student of black liberation,’ took advantage of and successfully ‘tapped into the humanist philosophy of Ubuntu and the optimism embedded in the message of hope’ in order to help create and lead an election movement that enabled him and the ideology of change to force a pathway through the cracks in the walls of the politics of hate which has consumed the national psyche.[4]

REVOLUTIONARY MOMENT – NEW MOMENT IN HISTORY

Obama’s ascendancy through people centered political mobilisation (bottom-up), though not altering the balance of forces at the top echelons of the society represents a revolutionary moment. This is a new moment in the history of political mobilisation; a revolutionary moment created by the masses who organised and voted for change in the status quo; change that Obama so far has been unable to deliver because of his failure to take the organising principles of the change campaign of respect and bottom-up organisation and problem solving into the White House.

Horace Campbell does not mince words in this book, he is clear and deliberate in his analysis that this work is not only a contribution to the exhaustive critique of capitalism, but more importantly seeks to identify paths to new modes of economic and social organisation. While his boldness is likely to open the space for unending criticism from those who are unwilling to engage the future critically, he carefully and through painstaking observation of the Obama Change campaign is able to identify the emergence of the germ of the new social organisation. The maturation of the ‘principles of self-emancipation and self- organisation’, that is the bottom-up principle of organisation that was used by the campaign to replace liberalist ideas of top down electoral democracy - which in the past have served to shut ordinary people out from the corridors of power.[5]

The theme of the revolutionary moment is supported by the use of as he argues, ‘the self organisation and self mobilisation…in the 2008 election campaign’. This in his view ‘raised new directions for the understanding of revolutionary organisation’ for the future.[6] This book is thus a call for students, academics and activists alike who may be interested in changing the direction of politics wherever they are to examine the processes, the organisation and methodologies used in the campaign to defeat, derail, and silence the protagonists of the old politics: the vanguardist politics of the Democratic and Republican establishment.

OLD POLITICS DEFEATED

The defeat of the tested machinations of the old politics is captured in chapters four and five of the book, appropriately titled: ‘Grassroots Organising Confronts the Machine’ (chapter four), and ‘Fractal Wisdom and Optimism in the Primary Campaign of 2008’ (chapter five). In these chapters Horace Campbell gives readers a birdseye view of how Obama - a black person from Chicago, a little known community organiser and a political outsider - was propelled by the campaign for change to defeat the old Democratic Party machinery in the Primaries. The defeat of the Democratic Party machine was related to the transformation of the nature of the presentation of the candidate not as black, but as a human being. Because ‘Obama ran as a human being and not as a black candidate’, he was unlike his black predecessors whose candidacy historically was about creating ‘leverage’, a space for themselves ‘to bargain with the top officials of the party for positions and handouts’.[7]

Horace Campbell argues that this resulted from patient and disciplined political organisation imbued with the philosophy of Ubuntu. ‘The new ideas of Ubuntu - shared humanity -inspired a transcendence of the hierarchical idea of whiteness and blackness, firing up the young in the process’.[8] It was the young of all colours who carried Obama over the finish line in the primaries and in the general election. As such, though as he argues Obama is himself not a revolutionary, his upbringing and exposure to the struggle against racism for equality places him at the conjuncture of history, what Campbell calls the inflection point. And it is this conjuncture, the moment at which the old liberalist ideas of rule became crisis ridden as demonstrated by the near collapse of Wall Street, which signaled the beginning of the end of US hegemony and the dollar as the currency of world trade. As we are now seeing from the foreclosure crisis, the crisis of liberalism is tied to the concept of private property. It is here where the link between whiteness and property compounds the ideological crisis for the international capitalist system.

Barack Obama’s signal that he was willing to transcend ‘blackness’ and to run as a human being interested in change fired up the imagination of the country and this helped to propel him to victory. It also exposes leaders throughout the world who want to call themselves revolutionary but embrace principles of private property and capital accumulation.

POLITICS OF CHANGE AND THE PRESIDENCY

While the book calls on organisers and conscious people to continue to support the network of networks that made the election of Obama possible, it is very critical of the fact that he has surrounded himself with the very people from the status quo who are the authors, benefactors and supporters of unequal political, social and economic relations which has kept the mass of working people in subjection. This book reminds us of the forces that change confronts: the overpowering presence of the military and financial industrial complex which works to keep things stacked up against ordinary folk. It represents a grim reminder that though the mass of ordinary people require change in their daily lives, such change will not happen quickly. It is a reminder that change is a slow process. In arguing that the election represents a revolutionary moment, Campbell is outlining that this was a major step forward, that it represented a dent in the armour of the powers that be.

The book is a call to action. For Campbell the revolutionary moment represents the possibility of opening up spaces for new engagements for change and transformation to stalk and change the discourse in the corridors of power. For Campbell the combination of a non-white President who emerged out of the inner recesses of the people’s struggle to be human, with the self organised and self emancipated bottom-up decision making processes that emerged in the campaign is a winning combination for the struggles against the machine politics of the past. It is a call to action from this backdrop: He is saying that progressive groups, community organisations, the women’s movements, the new social movements (gay and lesbian rights, civil rights, human rights, workers in defence of the minimum wage and benefits, etc) need to learn from the Ubuntu principles used in the campaign in order to change the debate on the national plane.

NEW POLITICS OF CHANGE AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

The final three chapters of this book speak directly to the need for a new politics, a new style of activism, and indeed a new sense of humanity. The Democratic Party has lost the debate on the new direction for the society because the movement for change stopped at the margins of the corridors of power. Change as a concept for the new century is not reflected in the workings of the Democratic Party, the Congress, nor the White House. Since the end of the campaign, the behaviour of operatives in these places reflects the attitude that change was a political ploy. This has turned off a lot of people who want to work for structural change. In the 2008 electoral cycle it was a way of joining and energising a process that said ‘enough is enough’. Obama, the Congress, the Democratic Party, and the White House must be forced to demonstrate in a forthright manner that the change message of the campaign was not a political ploy.

The validity of the change message was measured because it was pregnant with the practical things that needed to be done to change the role of government locally as well as globally. The message resonated at home and abroad because ordinary people and the youth believe in the gut that the US must change the way it deals with politics, economics, the environment, with peace and war, and more especially with the use of technology to reshape and close the inequality gap between the multitude at the bottom and the few at the top in all areas of human activity and life.

One example of the change message which resonated with workers at home and abroad was the signal that if elected Obama would be willing to engage and possibly reshape the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to include a labour and environment clause. In the new economy, where jobs are outsourced to global satellites, a labour clause in free trade agreements such as NAFTA is important for workers in Ohio and other parts of the US; it is also important for workers in Mexico, China, India, Brazil, Jamaica, Nigeria, and in all other areas of the world. The change message of hope and renewal recognised that workers everywhere deserve and require a level playing field, where their trade union rights to form organisations and to engage in collective bargaining for decent wages and conditions of work, including long term benefits such as pensions and health care should be the hallmark and requirement for any company to do business in any part of the world.[9]

This was an important signal that the new tenant in the White House was going to be willing to address the ways in which globalisation is threatening global survival on all fronts. It was a signal that if given the chance he was going to bring the message to the forefront that the current race to the bottom, ‘the madness must be stopped’. It was a signal that if elected, Obama - to quote Vandana Shiva’s words - was going to join the forces who believe that if we act together, ‘with our collective will and our courageous interventions we must cure not the symptoms of insecurity but the root causes’ of insecurity which today threatens to increase the perils faced by the most vulnerable.[10] He is yet to do this.

The Obama administration is yet to address in a comprehensive and methodological manner the problems of the most vulnerable in US society and in the world. Rather than find new solutions to the structural problem of inequality, they have adopted old approaches which helped to construct such inequalities in the society. Chapter eight of the book titled ‘Networks for Peace and Transformation’ critiques the wrong headedness of the policies adopted by the Obama economic team, the half hearted Keynesian economic approach to solving the problems that came to a head in September 2008 in the collapse of Wall Street. This was indeed the collapse of neo-liberal politics and economics which Alan Greenspan describes as a ‘flaw’.

The result of such wrong-headedness and half-heartedness is that after almost two years and the expenditure of almost one trillion dollars in stimulus packages, unemployment has increased. Rather than spend money to address the historical structural problem which has given the rich undue advantage over the most vulnerable, the middle classes and the poor, the Obama team decided to prop up the Wall Street tycoons who created the problems in the first place. The wrong-headedness of these policies has increased the economic woes for the middle classes, the bottom part of which has slipped into what sociologists are now calling ‘the new poor’. The wrong-headedness of these policies has also increased the impoverishment of the poor and those who were already living below the poverty line.

When Obama went to the White House he surrounded himself with persons such as Tim Geithner, Cass Sunstein, Larry Summers, and Arne Duncan, persons who did not understand that it is better to spend money on public education rather than on prisons. The US continues to spend an average of US$22,000 per year on each inmate in prison, while the disparity in what it spends on public education per child ranges from US$5,500 (New York City) to US$15,000 (Manhasset and Great Neck, high spending suburbs of New York).[11] Rather than engage the structural issues which have made the public school system in most poor communities dysfunctional, they are engaged in the clamour to create new entities, ‘charter schools’. Having paid careful attention to the grassroots mobilisation which affected both the tone of the message and the decisions that arose from the Democratic Convention, Horace Campbell recognised the reasons why the people were fired up. He tries to capture the ‘fired up’ mood of different sections of ordinary people who are organised for bottom-up change. Thus in presenting the argument of a ‘revolutionary moment’ this chapter recognises the growth of new mobilisation points, such as the New Abolishment Movement which has arisen to fight against the excesses and to reform the mentality which guides the workings of the prison industrial complex (2,304,115 inmates were living in prison in the US in 2008, the largest jail population in the developed world); and the military industrial complex.

Movements such as the New Abolishment, the New Environmental Justice Movements, the Peace Movement, the Women’s Movement, the Anti-Racist Movements and so forth represents in Campbell’s view the wave of the future. These new peoples and community organised and supported groups have a single aim, they aim to open up spaces for the repair of the human spirit. The idea of change won in the Primaries and at the Democratic Convention and will win so long as the people remain mobilised.

Horace Campbell argues in this book that the human spirit cannot be repaired unless the people step into and take over the arena of politics. Political change has to move beyond the ballot box and the right to vote. He says that ‘the challenge for women and men is to ask how the open source campaign and the tools that were mobilised and harnessed can shape a new understanding of politics and political engagement’. He calls on humanity to ponder the question, how can the movement develop, independently of the political formations that were business enterprises? Questions like these have arisen in the light of the abandonment by Obama in the White House of the mobilised networks of the campaign which brought him to power. The book argues that Obama seems to be trapped as a President because he abandoned the mobilised networks of the campaign. He takes the position that Obama can be released from this stranglehold, if the networks remain mobilised and active. Mobilisation and activity is required to unlock the deadlock reflected in the beleaguered Presidency.[12]

CONCLUSION

As a means of closing the discourse on this book for the moment I restate some of the core points of this book. One of the main points of departure in this book is the contradiction between the messenger and the message. The message of change, which is in effect revolution or transformation sought by the mass of ordinary people, is on target, but because the messenger is not a ‘revolutionary’ transformation/revolution is yet to become a realisable goal. Two main examples of this contradiction at work are the failures of Barack Obama to firmly establish his support for a single payer system in health care, or to dismantle ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ in the military. Both of these were campaign promises which continue to attract popular support from a wide cross section of the population.

A second point of departure in this book is the unease which has emerged between the message of change and the status quo; that is between the haves and have-nots in the society; and between those with privilege and those without. This tension was best expressed in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Here the society was being forced to choose between a future of fossil fuels and the transformation to new and sustainable sources of energy production. The debate is no longer between Republicans and Democrats (none of these enjoyed popular support on any given day over the past year); it is now about the failure of the politics of these two branches of a similar political ideology which seeks to continuously transfer wealth from the poor to the rich (the only difference between them is how much); it is about methodologies of social transformation to bring about equal access to health care, to education, to economic rewards between men and women and between white and coloured and between straight and gay. This contradiction is being felt in the corridors of the Democratic Party.

The third point of departure in this book is the growth and rise of new social movements which are arising to fill the political vacuum as the old politics recedes; movements whose organising principles are shaped in the spirit of Ubuntu - the need for a shared humanity; a shared humanity that begins to reject the divisions erected through patriarchy, racism, and individualism; a shared humanity based on the ideas of communalist use of resources; a shared humanity that recognises and respects the need to protect the environment; and a shared humanity that attempts to repair the damage the prison and military industrial complex have done to the human spirit - a shared humanity that in the final analysis will organise life and community to create peace and reject violence and war.

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* Barack Obama and Twenty First Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA by Horace Campbell is published by Pluto Press, New York, 2010.
* Wazir Mohamed is assistant professor of Sociology, Indiana University East.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.






NOTES:
[1] Campbell 2010: 3
[2] These acts enacted by the United States Congress represented enabling legislation which afforded the opportunity for people of color in the United States to begin the long march towards full equality.
[3] Note must be made that it was in the USA that concepts such as scientific racism and eugenics took root and were used as mechanisms to legally degrade the humanity of people of colour.
[4]Campbell 2010: xiii
[5]Campbell 2010: 2-11.
[6]Campbell 2010: 15
[7] Campbell 2010: 121.
[8]Ibid.
[9] ‘With a NAFTA agreement that has labor provisions and environmental provisions as side agreements, it strikes me, if those side agreements mean anything, then they might as well be incorporated into the main body of the agreements so that they can be effectively enforced. And I think it is important, whether we’re talking about our relationships with Canada or our relationships with Mexico that all countries concerned are thinking about how workers are being treated.’ See transcript of President Obama’s interview on his first trip to Canada (Democracy Now.org – February 20, 2009.) Also see President Obama’s letter of December 26, 2007 to the IOWA Fair Trade Campaign, ‘One of the first things I’ll do as President will be to call the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico and work with them to fix NAFTA. We’ll add binding obligations to protect the right to collective bargaining and other core labor standards recognised by the International Labor Organisation. And I will add enforceable measures to NAFTA, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), CAFTA [Central America Free Trade Agreement] and other Free Trade Agreements (FTA’s) currently in effect. Similarly, we should add binding environmental standards so that companies from one country cannot gain an economic advantage by destroying the environment. And we should amend NAFTA to make clear that fair laws and regulations written to protect citizens in any of the three countries cannot be overridden simply at the request of foreign investors.’
(http://www.citizen.org/documents/ObamaTradeCampaignStatementsFINAL.pdf).
[10] Campbell 2010: 234 – Quote from Vandana Shiva.
[11] Campbell 2010: 238; Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities, 1991: 83-84.
[12] Campbell 2010: 269.

Can people follow their money?

Budget transparency in East Africa

Uwazi-Twaweza

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/68367

Without information about budget allocations and execution, citizens are left clueless on how their tax money is spent. Public scrutiny of the budget process is an important element of any system of checks and balances. How do countries in East Africa fare in this regard?

To assess how accessible or ‘open’ budget processes are to citizens, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) has implemented the Open Budget Survey (OBS) for several years now. This survey follows a rigorous methodology of measuring budget practices and presents the only available independent and comparative measure of government budget processes. The survey comprises two sets of questions, totalling 123 altogether. The first set (92 questions) assesses the transparency of a country’s budget to citizens and collects information about the availability, timeliness and comprehensiveness of budget reports. The remaining set of questions assesses the strength and effectiveness of institutions that oversee the budget process, the Legislatures (Parliaments) and the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).

Using data from three OBS survey rounds (2006, 2008 and 2010), this brief presents eight facts on budget openness in East Africa, covering Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda (information for Burundi is not available). The brief reveals a trend towards more openness, but also shows that the level of budget transparency remains poor and that oversight institutions are weak. It is further found that governments fail to publish key budget documents and that the documents that are published provide only limited information.

It is clear that countries of East Africa could significantly improve their budget transparency. Doing so does not have to be difficult. Some measures are as simple as making public documents that are already produced for internal government use or for donor agencies. Other measures, such as strengthening the role of oversight institutions, Parliaments and the Supreme Audit Institutions may be more challenging, but successful East African examples can provide guidance on how to go about it.

EIGHT FACTS ABOUT BUDGET TRANSPARENCY IN EAST AFRICA

FACT 1: BUDGET TRANSPARENCY IN EAST AFRICA IS POOR

The Open Budget Survey (OBS) scores budget transparency in five bands ranging from 0 to 100 in steps of 20 points. Depending on the score from 92 questions asking about availability, timeliness and the comprehensiveness of budget reports, a country could be rated as providing:

a. Scant information: score 0-20
b. Minimal information: score 21-40
c. Some information: score 41-60
d. Significant information: score 61-80, and
e. Extensive Information: score 81-100.

The average score for all 94 countries surveyed in 2010 was 42, indicating that countries typically provide the public with only some budget information. Some countries perform notably better: India’s score is 67 (significant information) and the United States achieved a score of 82 (extensive information). At the top of the Open Budget Index ranks South Africa, with a close to perfect score of 92.

Countries in the East African region lag behind these high performers. In fact they even lag behind the global average. In both 2008 and 2010 (years for which comparable data was obtained for the five countries under consideration), the regional average is less than 40 (Figure 1). In other words, due to the limited budget information that is made available, it is virtually impossible for citizens in East Africa to hold their governments accountable for the way public money is managed.



FACT 2: PERFORMANCE IN BUDGET OPENNESS VARIES CONSIDERABLY

Budget transparency varies considerably between countries in East Africa, with scores as low as 8 (scant information) to as high as 55 (some information), (Figure 2). With 55 points, Uganda achieved the highest Open Budget Index score in the region in part because the country produces and publishes all eight core budget reports identified by the OBS (see table 1) including in-year reports, mid-year reviews and year-end reports.

With scores of 8 and 11 respectively, Sudan and Rwanda are at the bottom of the scale, not only in East Africa, but globally. These countries provide only scant budget information to their citizens.



FACT 3: COUNTRIES OF EAST AFRICA OFTEN FAIL TO PUBLISH KEY BUDGET DOCUMENTS

For the public to engage with the budget process, people need timely access to key budget documents. The OBS identifies eight such documents (Table 1) and shows that countries of East Africa typically fail to publish a mid-year review (only Uganda publishes it) or a Citizen’s Budget (only Uganda and Rwanda publish it). Tanzania and Sudan are the worst performers failing to make 5 out of the 8 key budget documents publicly available. Uganda is the only country that produces and releases all key budget documents to the public.



Interestingly, there are numerous instances in which documents are produced, but not made publicly available. Tanzania, for example, produces an Enacted Budget but unlike other countries in East Africa, fails to release it to the public. Similarly Rwanda and Sudan produce the Executive’s Budget proposal, but restrict its release to the Government.

FACT 4: THERE IS A TREND TOWARDS GREATER OPENNESS, BUT SOME MOVE BACKWARD

Between 2008 and 2010 the regional OBI score increased from 29 to 34, signalling a trend towards more budget transparency. Between countries however, there are markedly different degrees of improvement. Uganda made the most significant strides in enhancing budget transparency, improving its score from 32 to 55 between 2006 and 2010 (Figure 3). Similarly, Rwanda and Sudan managed to raise their scores considerable from very low levels in 2008.

Not all countries show improvements, however. Kenya and Tanzania even moved backward. Tanzania’s score in 2010 is higher than it was in 2008 but it is still below what was achieved in 2006. For Kenya, the score in 2010 (48) is much lower than the score achieved in 2008 when it was 57.



FACT 5: THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN BUDGET DOCUMENTS REMAINS MINIMAL

Table 1 already indicated that most countries in East Africa (except Uganda) do not produce and release all key budget documents. Table 2 below demonstrates that the comprehensiveness of the information provided in the documents that are released leaves much to be desired.

The score for completeness of the budget information in the available budget documents is calculated from a subset of questions from the Open Budget Survey, using a grading system that is indicated below:

a. Scant or no information: score 0-20, graded E
b. Minimal information: score 21-40, graded D
c. Some information: score 41-60, graded C
d. Significant information: score 61-80, graded B, and
e. Extensive Information: score 81-100, graded A.

The OBI shows that the East African countries need to make improvements in comprehensiveness of information provided in almost all the budget documents they produce and release. Uganda provides the most comprehensive information compared to the rest of the countries in East Africa, but even this country provides scant to minimal information in its mid-year and year-end reports and provides at best only some information in its in year and audit reports.



Among the eight key budget documents, the Executive’s Budget Proposal is arguably a country’s most important policy and planning document. Rwanda and Sudan stand out for failing to release this document altogether, whereas although Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania publish it, they provide three fifths or less of the information called for by the OBS, with scores of 62, 55 and 56 respectively.

FACT 6: NATIONAL LEGISLATURES ENGAGE LITTLE IN THE BUDGET PROCESS

The Executive has traditionally dominated the budget processes. However, an effective budget process requires both giving citizens access to budget documents and facilitating strong budget oversight agencies that are capable of scrutinizing budget proposals and their execution. Weak oversight bodies are a recipe for waste, misplaced priorities, and, sometimes, outright corruption. Strong oversight bodies on the other hand, require adequate resources, independence and authority for them to do their job.

The key budget oversight institutions are the Parliament and the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI). The score for strength of these oversight institutions is calculated from the Open Budget Survey with a grading as follows:

• Weak: score between 0-33
• Moderate: score between 34-66
• Strong: score between 67-100

For East Africa, the OBS finds that legislatures play only a limited role in the budget process. The average score for the role played by legislatures is 39, barely a moderate score. Sudan’s and Tanzania’s parliaments play the weakest role in the budget process with scores of 19 and 25 respectively.
Reasons for weaknesses vary, but typically parliaments are given too little time to adequately scrutinize budget proposals before their approval is due, and lack the powers needed to amend the executive’s budget proposals (including changes made to the budget over the course of the fiscal year). It is also found that parliaments do too little to adequately scrutinize and discuss audit reports from the country’s supreme audit institution.



FACT 7: BUDGET ENGAGEMENT BY SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS IS WEAK

A strong Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) is another oversight agency that an effective budget process requires. SAIs check whether revenues are being collected and expenditures effected in a manner that is consistent with the Enacted Budget and with applicable financial management regulations.

The scoring for strength of audit institutions in the OBS is like that for legislatures. The global average is 49 out of 100 indicating moderate strength. Countries of East Africa score just below the global average: 45. Uganda and Sudan have the weakest SAIs in the region, scoring 33 out of 100. Kenya and Rwanda, on the other hand have the strongest with scores of 57 and 53 respectively.



Lack of independence from the executive, an inability to select what should be audited, inadequacy of resources as well as an inability to report on time, to communicate findings effectively to the public and to follow up on findings are the main reasons why East Africa’s supreme audit institutions are ranked low in the global OBI score.

FACT 8: THE VOICE OF THE PUBLIC IS LARGELY IGNORED

To promote effective public discussion and participation, the legislature would do well to convene public hearings at each stage of the budget process. Similarly, the public should be provided with opportunities to engage directly with the audit institutions in the evaluation phase of the budget process. Mechanisms such as ‘fraud hotlines’ could be used to provide an essential feedback loop between them and the public.

The OBS shows that countries in East Africa fall short when it comes to engaging the public in the budget process. This can be concluded from questions related to legislative hearings and mechanisms used by audit institutions to communicate with the public. Only Kenya has a score above 50 on questions related to public hearings. Uganda is the only country in which the SAI has established a mechanism to receive complaints and suggestions from the public.



CONCLUSION

The Open Budget Survey demonstrates that there have been modest improvements in budget transparency in East Africa over time. It also shows that overall budget transparency remains low. Key documents are not produced or are produced and not released. Documents that are released contain too little information to adequately inform citizens about the budget.

Sudan and Rwanda perform poorly in their overall scores, rated as providing only ‘scant’ information and falling in the bottom fifth of global rankings. Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania fall in the middle fifth, rated as providing only ‘some’ information. Relative to other countries in East Africa, Uganda has made the greatest strides towards budget transparency over the past four years. Uganda’s improvements in enhancing transparency provide persuasive evidence that progress is achievable, while South Africa’s ranking at the top of the global budget transparency chart demonstrates that one does not have to be an OECD country to do well in making budgets open to its citizens.

Differences in performance between the various East African countries suggest scope for regional learning. Countries interested in quick progress may want to emulate steps taken by Uganda. Uganda and other countries have much to learn from Kenya and Rwanda in particular in how to strengthen the role of the Legislature and the Supreme Audit Institution in the budget process.

Some steps can be implemented immediately, for example, publishing budget documents that are already being produced and opening corruption hot lines for the public to engage with the SAIs. In addition, the countries should take steps to:

• Enhance comprehensiveness of information provided in the budget documents;
• Strengthen the oversight institutions through stepping up their resource base, authority and independence; and
• Create space for public hearings so that the public can engage directly with the legislature in the budget process.

Governments spend public money on behalf of citizens, and citizens have a right to follow how their money is being used. Greater public transparency could enhance the conditions for greater accountability and effectiveness, as well as strengthen the legitimacy of governments in the eyes of their people.

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* This brief was produced by Uwazi-Twaweza in association with the International Budget Partnership (IBP).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

REFERENCE

IBP (2006, 2008 and 2010), The Open Budget Index. Accessed on 21st October, 2010 from http://www.internationalbudget.org/what-we-do/open-budget-survey/?fa=full-report

(Annex: Open Budget Scores, 2010 [image])

NOTES

[1] The OBS considers the following key budget reports:

1. A pre-budget statement: This document sets forth the broad parameters that will define the government’s forthcoming budget.
2. An Executive’s Budget Proposal: The government’s most important policy instrument. It presents how the government plans to raise revenues and where these funds are allocated, thus transforming policy goals into action.
3. An Enacted Budget which becomes a country’s law and provides the baseline information for all budget analyses conducted during the budget year. In general terms, the Enacted Budget should provide the public with the data it can use to assess the government’s stated policy priorities and hold it to account.
4. A Citizens Budget: A nontechnical presentation of a government’s budget that is intended to enable the public — including those who are not familiar with public finance — to understand a government’s plans.
5. In-Year Reports: These provide a snapshot of the budget’s effects during the budget year. They allow for comparisons with the Enacted Budget figures and thus can facilitate adjustments.
6. A Mid-Year Review: This provides a comprehensive overview of the budget’s effects at the midpoint of a budget year and discusses any changes in economic assumptions that affect approved budget policies. Information in this report allows the government, legislature, and the public to identify whether or not adjustments related to revenues, expenditures, or borrowing should be made for the remainder of the budget year. While a Mid-Year Review is produced for internal.
7. A Year-End Report: This compares the actual budget execution to the Enacted Budget. A Year-end Report can inform policymakers on tax policies, debt requirements, and major expenditure priorities, thus facilitating adjustments for upcoming budget years. And,
8. An Audit Report: This is an evaluation of the government’s accounts by the country’s Supreme Audit Institution (SAI). It reports whether the government has raised revenues and spent national revenue in line with the authorized budget, whether the government’s bookkeeping is balanced and accurate, and whether there were problems in the management of public funds.

[2] The Legislature (Parliament) is required to approve the budget presented to it and is expected to hold the Government to account for its performance in executing the budget.
[3] The Supreme Audit Institution assists the Legislature in conducting oversight of the budget. SAIs may assume names such as Controller and Auditor General (CAG), National Audit Office (NAO), Office of the Auditor General, Board of Audit, or Court of Accounts.
[4] The Executive typically represents the finance ministry or treasury. It is the agency that is primarily responsible for producing budget data.

Unintended consequences, deadly results

Pretrial detention and public health

Kersty McCourt

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/68427

cc SokwaneleThe excessive use of pretrial detention leads to overcrowded environments where unconvicted detainees are at risk of contracting disease, writes Kersty McCourt. But as disease outbreaks quickly spread to the general public, pretrial detention is not just a human rights problem but also a looming public health crisis.

The excessive use of pretrial detention leads to overcrowded, unhygienic, chaotic, and violent environments where pretrial detainees – who have not been convicted – are at risk of contracting disease.

But they are not the only people whose health is threatened by overreliance on pretrial detention: From tuberculosis in Russia to Hepatitis C in California and HIV/AIDS in South Africa, outbreaks of disease that begin in pretrial detention centres quickly spread to the general public. The global overuse of pretrial detention is not just a human rights problem, but also a looming public health crisis.

Pretrial holding facilities, which include police lock-ups not designed for large numbers or extended stays, often force detainees to live in filthy, overcrowded conditions without access to fresh air, minimal sanitation facilities, health services, or adequate food. In the worst cases, detainees die from the conditions and associated disease, and surviving detainees sleep with the corpses. In some cases, pretrial detention centres are so bad that innocent people plead guilty just to be transferred to prisons where the conditions might be better.

In prisons and other post-conviction detention centres, incoming prisoners may be screened for disease, get health care, and/or have access to methadone therapy and condom distribution. But with rare exceptions, none of this is available in pretrial detention. Instead, arrestees are brought in, locked up in a pretrial detention centre where they are exposed to disease, and then in many cases released into society to spread the illnesses they have contracted. This is also a danger for prison guards and other employees. In 2001 in Tomsk, Russia, the local detention centre had a shocking TB infection rate of 7,000 cases per 100,000 inmates. Outside the prison gates, the rate was not much better: 4,000 cases per 100,000 residents.[1]

HEALTH RIGHTS OF PRETRIAL DETAINEES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

People in detention have the right to ‘the health services available in the country without discrimination on the grounds of their legal situation.’[2]

Health and medical provisions of the Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of prisoners[3] are wide-ranging and include:
> A medical officer should examine every prisoner ‘as soon as possible after his admission and thereafter as necessary’
> The prison medical officer should ‘daily’ see prisoners who are ill or complain of illness and should report to the prison director any cases where a prisoner’s health is ‘injuriously affected by continued imprisonment or by any condition of imprisonment’
> Prisoners awaiting trial are to be kept separate from convicted prisoners, and should be held in single occupancy rooms
> Prisoners awaiting trial have the right to all services, including medical care, accorded to all prisoners and in addition should be allowed to be visited by their own doctor or dentist if there is ‘reasonable ground’ for such a visit.

WHY EXCESSIVE PRETRIAL DETENTION THREATENS PUBLIC HEALTH

While both convicted prisoners and pretrial detainees face disease and other threats to their health, the risks are often more severe for pretrial detainees.

OVERCROWDING: In many countries overcrowding is more likely in remand than in prison. Overcrowding has dire health consequences. It is a principal determinant of the extensive tuberculosis epidemic in pretrial detention and prisons in Eastern and Central Europe, and contributes to the spread of HIV, especially in Africa.

INADEQUACY OF HEALTH SERVICES: Health services are frequently limited, inadequate or even nonexistent in remand facilities. The absence of qualified medical personnel to conduct intake screenings leads to failures of detection and management of tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, and other conditions.[4]

Pretrial detention facilities are also less likely than prisons to involve ministries of health in the design, implementation or evaluation of health services. Health authorities are thus unable to provide care, act as a check on detainee abuse, or advocate for the health of people in pretrial detention.

LACK OF ACCESS TO LONGER-DURATION TREATMENT AND CARE: Even when health services are present in remand facilities, there is often a reluctance to start treatment for infectious diseases that requires a sustained period of therapy, such as for tuberculosis, HIV or Hepatitis C, or for methadone maintenance. This means that detainees may be convicted and transferred to prison, or released into the community at large, in worse health than when they entered pretrial detention.

POPULATION LESS LIKELY TO BE UNDER MEDICAL CARE: Pretrial detainees who are not granted bail tend to be low-income and many belong to marginalised communities. As such, they are likely to enter detention with more serious health conditions but without being diagnosed or having received treatment.

Similarly, drug users are more likely to be arrested, more likely to be infected with disease, and less likely to be receiving medical care.

INELIGIBILITY OF PRETRIAL DETAINEES FOR EDUCATIONAL AND OTHER PROGRAMMES: Pretrial detainees seldom have access to exercise, sports, educational, vocational, and other programs that may be available to convicted prisoners – services that could enhance physical and mental health. This absence undermines the effectiveness of whatever health services may exist for pretrial detainees.

SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS AND TUBERCULOSIS: Pretrial detention plays a crucial
role in what has been termed the ‘mixing bowl effect’ of putting HIV-positive and HIV-negative people together where sex and drug use are prevalent and where condoms and sterile injection equipment are rarely to be found. Moreover, pretrial detainees are often held long enough to contract tuberculosis but not long enough to ensure the disease is detected and treated. Management of tuberculosis is particularly difficult in pretrial detention due to detainee turnover, movement of detainees within remand institutions, and movements to other institutions within the criminal justice system. A study from Brazil concluded that the early weeks of incarceration were the riskiest for tuberculosis (TB) transmission.[5]

A study based on longitudinal TB data from 26 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia concluded that the rate of growth of prison populations was the most important determinant of differences in the TB infection rates in these countries.[6]

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

FEMALE DETAINEES

Women in remand are more likely than men to face violations of international standards for the treatment of unconvicted detainees because special facilities for remanded women rarely exist.[7]

Furthermore, because women constitute a minority of the detainee population, specialised health services for women are seldom available. Pretrial detention puts women at extremely high risk of sexual abuse and violence, particularly where women detainees are housed along with convicted offenders and/or men. Sexual violence, heinous in itself, also exacerbates mental disorders and increases the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Finally, because women are often detained for crimes that by definition heighten their need for health care, such as attempting an illegal abortion, the circumstances of women in detention can be particularly catastrophic in terms of health.

PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

As an entry point to correctional systems, pretrial detention facilities receive people with mental illness who are not yet diagnosed or treated, including those who should be remanded to a psychiatric hospital or institution. For people with mental illness, the factors most likely to contribute to improved mental health are those least likely to be present in pretrial detention – namely, maintaining an atmosphere of protection from violence, access to educational and physical activity, and access to specialized care and support.

A recent study found that women in pretrial detention in Moscow, of whom 79 per cent were sex workers, had higher HIV rates than juvenile prisoners and homeless women tested at the same time. Other sexually transmitted infections were also highly prevalent among these women.

Another study estimated that between 30 and 50 per cent of women
entering prison in Russia from 2000 to 2002 had sexually transmitted
diseases.[8]

RECOMMENDATIONS

> Reduce the excessive and arbitrary use of pretrial detention to ensure that pretrial detention is used as an exceptional measure, in accordance with international law. A smaller number of people in pretrial detention is the first line of defense against disease in remand facilities. Such reduction also helps alleviate the overall problem of prison overcrowding.
> Provide early access to medical assistance to ensure the medical needs of suspects are addressed upon arrest. Early identification of contagious diseases minimizes their spread and provides a check against instances of torture. The presence of external professionals also contributes to increased openness and transparency of the system.
> Promote the participation of health professionals in monitoring pretrial detention centres.
> Develop training on pretrial detention in the curricula of health professionals.

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* This is a summary of the forthcoming report, ‘Pretrial Detention and Public Health’, by Joanne Csete (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health) with contributions from Dirk van Zyl Smit (School of Law, University of Nottingham), which will be published by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Open Society Institute Public Health program in 2010.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

REFERENCES

[1] M. Goozner, “Prisons in Post-Soviet Russia Incubate a Plague,” Scientific American, Aug. 25, 2008, available at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=prison-plague-post-soviet-russia
[2] Basic principles for the Treatment of Prisoners (1990).
[3] Articles 24, 25, 85(1), 86, and 91.
[4] H. Reyes, ‘Pitfalls of TB Management in Prisons, Revisited,’ International Journal of Prisoner Health 2007; 3(1): 43-67.
[5] Ferreira, et al., ‘Tuberculosis and HIV infection among female inmates in São Paulo, Brazil: A prospective cohort study.’ Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Human Retrovirology 1996; 13(2): 177-83.
[6] D. Stuckler, S. Basu, M. McKee, and l. King, ‘Mass incarceration can explain population increases in TB and multidrug-resistant TB in European and Central Asian countries’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(36): 13280-285.
[7] United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Handbook for prison managers and policymakers on women and imprisonment, Vienna, 2008.
[8] A. Shakarishvili, l.K. Dubovskaya, l.S. Zohrabyan, et al., “Sex work, drug use, HIV infection and spread of sexually transmitted infections in Moscow, Russian Federation,’ Lancet 2005; 366: 57-60.

Pink washing in Beirut?

A of Arabia

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/68414

cc ZilupeWhen a place in the Middle East is labelled as ‘gay friendly’, does this simply open it up to a new host of demands from the West, asks blogger A of Arabia.

I was at my favourite gay bar in Beirut last night. This bar is very frequented by tourists. The music was pumping, the Halloween decorations were hanging down from the ceiling. I sat with my friend who is the owner of the bar and drank my favourite late night drink, Arraq.

All of a sudden a big and noisy man who had maybe a little bit too much to drink entered the bar. He was happy and loud and wanted Arraq like me. He kept on asking if I and my friend were a couple, so we started to play along. He wanted us to kiss and touch each other in front of him, and asked if all of us could have a threesome. I was amused by his way of consuming me and my friend as an object of his desire, so I started to talk about Beirut and sex. The man was a chancellor from the Australian embassy in Cairo and was visiting Beirut to let off some steam.

He praised Lebanon for being so much more liberal than Egypt when it came to sex, and bragged about how he went down to the Corniche of Beirut and had sex with five Syrian workers. Here in Lebanon the term ‘Syrian worker’ means a poor man from Syria with no legal papers that is doing all the shit jobs for the Lebanese people. In Cairo the poor people that he had sex with had to be bought in a much more discreet manner.

It’s somehow through these gay men from the embassies that we started to have a little liberty to be able to open bar and clubs oriented towards the gay crowd, my friend said.

Now, when the rainbow flag is the new black for the neo-liberals, what does gay liberation mean in a neo-liberal world with demands for open markets? Now when gay is THE measuring tool for the west, to stamp a country in the global south ‘Western approved’, what are the demands?

Israel is getting the trend and is now promoting itself as ‘the only safe place for gay people in the Middle East’. With this approved stamp from the West, Israel is pink washing the not only the crimes and the occupation towards Palestinians but hides the fact that it is a very religious, homophobic and patriarchal society. Benjamin Peim wrote an article in ‘The Jerusalem Post’ saying that the hunt for pink dollars has positioned Beirut and Tel-Aviv in a battle to become THE hotspot for gays in the Middle East.

If this is accurate, what happens to the people actually living here when the white man once again is demanding an open market and to have access to this region? What happens when gay life becomes a gated society for a white man to indulge himself with sex from the hot, horny and desperate Arabs? Is liberation meant for the poor Syrian worker or the Palestinian refugee kid that is working extra to let white men, on holiday, blow their cocks at the Corniche?

I’m willing to get rid of all symbols, if a rainbow flag is going from being a symbol for protection to be a symbol for a state to hide the crimes done to its population.

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* This article was originally published by A of Arabia Uncut.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Must all of Angola’s journalists feel threatened?

Reporters Without Borders

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/68450

“We are concerned by the fact that the victims all work for critical or opposition news media,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said in the letter, sent on 28 October. “The level of violence is very disturbing. The physical safety of journalists is in danger. We are alarmed by the gravity of these attacks.”

The letter continued: “Must all of Angola’s journalists feel threatened? Must they all live in fear of an imminent and potentially fatal attack? Is fear in the process of becoming a permanent part of their existence?

“These crimes must not go unpunished. Those responsible must be arrested and tried. We hope that the security forces under your authority will carry out thorough investigations in an independent manner. The credibility and reputation of Angola’s authorities are at stake (...) We urge you to give the police all the resources they need in order to arrest the perpetrators without delay.”

The latest incident was the ambushing of journalist Rafael Marques on a road leading to Luanda on the night of 23 October. An armed man in a traffic policeman’s uniform stopped him and said: “It is because of your work. I was waiting for you. I respect Luanda’s orders.” He finally released Marques after receiving telephone instructions.

Radio Despertar journalist Antonio Manuel Da Silva, better known by his radio name of Jojo, was stabbed on the night of 22 October by a man who, according to witnesses, mentioned Silva’s very popular programme, which recently made fun of President Eduardo Dos Santos.

A month before that, TV Zimbo reporter Norberto Abias Sateko was shot and wounded on 22 September, while another Radio Despertar journalist, Alberto Graves Chakussanga, was fatally shot in the back in his home on 5 September. More information

Angola is ranked 104th out of 178 countries in the 2010 Reporters Without Borders world press freedom index, but the events that have taken place since early September are likely to result in a lower ranking next year. The government must react and demonstrate a commitment to the media freedom by making every possible effort to arrest those responsible for these attacks.

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

An open letter from besieged Gaza to Cape Town Opera

Remember South African liberation and boycott apartheid Israel

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/68426

We are writing to you from the Bantustan of the Gaza Strip, from under a ‘medieval’ siege where our land, air and sea borders are controlled and blockaded by the fourth most powerful military in the world - that of the Israeli state. We are shocked at your decision to perform the Cape Town Opera in the Sun City of the Middle East.

We are Palestinian artists, students and teachers in Gaza who experienced first-hand Israel’s genocidal onslaught of Gaza for three weeks during the winter of 2009 that killed over 1,400 people, including over 430 of our children - war crimes outlined in the United Nations Goldstone Report. We are asking you to cancel the Cape Town Opera performance in the state-sponsored Tel Aviv Opera House on 12 November and join the 2005 call by 171 Palestinian civil society organisations calling for ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)’ against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. 


Five months before the Israeli slaughter of July 2008 which left a further 5,300 injured, a South African delegation, including ANC members, visited Israel and Occupied Palestine. They unanimously concluded that Israel’s 60-year treatment of Palestinians was far worse than South African apartheid. Politician and former deputy minister of health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge said, ‘What I see here is worse than what we experienced - the absolute control of people’s lives, the lack of freedom of movement, the army presence everywhere, the total separation and the extensive destruction we saw….racist ideology is also reinforced by religion, which was not the case in South Africa.’ Sunday Times editor, Mondli Makhanya added: ‘It is worse, worse, worse than everything we endured. The level of apartheid, the racism and the brutality are worse than the worst period of apartheid.’

Your appearance there would not only be turning your backs on us the Palestinians who have endured over 60 years of Israel’s horrific apartheid and ethnic-cleansing policies. It would also be a tragic example of the short memories of people wronged in the past by racial oppression.

We remind you of the British Musicians Union who joined the BDS campaign in 1961 and the British Screenwriters Guild that banned the distribution of British films in South Africa in 1965. In 1981 the Associated Actors and Artists of America unions banned any performance in South Africa and the Black Caucus successfully pressured the US administration to divest from and impose sanctions on the South African apartheid government. We will also never forget the impact of Artists United Against Apartheid and the song, ‘Sun City’.

What has happened to this spirit of resistance now? What could be a more peaceful way to fight injustice than to boycott a settler colonial state, described by United Nations Special Rapporteur John Dugard as the only remaining case after South Africa, ‘of a Western-affiliated regime that denies self-determination and human rights to a developing people and that has done so for so long’. As Angelo Gobbato recounted, we have come a long way in South Africa since 1971 when the Nico Malan performing arts complex and opera house was opened as a ‘whites only’ building. This time if you perform in Tel Aviv Opera House it will be us who have no right to come and see you, with the Israeli army surrounding us, occupying us and controlling our every move.

And why?

Because we are Palestinians, the undesired ‘ethnic group’ for apartheid Israel, victims of what the Israeli academic and historian Ilan Pappe describes as Israel’s, ‘slow-motion genocide’. Those remaining in the tiny Bantustans of land from where Israel has not yet expelled us face military occupation and attacks, continuous settler harassment and racial discrimination that echoes the worst traits of apartheid. Most of the eight million Palestinian refugees worldwide remain in squalid refugee camp ghettos, reminiscent of black and coloured townships, deprived of the right to return to their land in complete violation of United Nations Resolution 194.

Do the Cape Town Opera members completely ignore the fact that instead of showing solidarity with us the voiceless and imprisoned, they will instead be performing to war-makers and Israeli soldiers and reservists? Those who have humiliated our Palestinian mothers at West Bank checkpoints, dropped bombs and white phosphorous on our civilian populations, bulldozed our villages, olive groves and farmland? Since its founding on the ruins of Palestinian refugees in 1948, Israel has violated more United Nations resolutions than any other member state. As was successfully directed at the South African regime, the cultural boycott is a vital mechanism to hold Israel to account for crimes that have for so long been granted immunity by the international community.

We call on the Cape Town Opera to join the global BDS initiative and build on the South African initiatives with COSATU and the historic first step from the University of Johannesburg to reduce ties with Ben Gurion University. We ask you to unite with the Irish, Scottish and British trade unions, Hampshire College, Sussex University, UC, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and Dearborn. To follow the example of courageous writers such as Arundhati Roy, John Berger and Henning Mankell as well as musicians Elvis Costello, Gil Scot-Heron, Carlos Santana, the Klaxons, Gorillaz Sound System, the Pixies, David Banhart, Massive Attack and Brian Eno who all refuse to perform in Israel.

As BDS advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said earlier this year, ‘I never tire of speaking about the very deep distress in my visits to the Holy Land; they remind me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like we did when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. My heart aches. I say, "Why are our memories so short?"’

We the besieged Palestinians of the Gaza Strip urge the Cape Town Opera to stand on the right side of history and remember how many died for South Africa when it was not fashionable to do so. Please reconsider your decision to perform in Israel, and oppose apartheid once again.

Besieged Gaza,
Palestine

- Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)
- University Teachers’ Association in Palestine
- Association of Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Information
- Arab Cultural Forum

LINKS TO NEWS AND OPINION ON THE CAPE TOWN OPERA CONTROVERSY:

- Yes, Cape Town Opera should boycott Israel!

- Opera tour on despite Tutu’s objection

- Tutu’s call for Israel boycott gets strong reaction

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

UNESCO suspends dictator prize after global protest

EG Justice

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/68379

“Teodoro Obiang’s regime undermines everything UNESCO stands for,” said Tutu Alicante, executive director of the organization EG Justice. “We are pleased the Executive Board has acted to protect the organization’s integrity but will continue working for the prize’s cancellation.”

The $3 million UNESCO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences was set up in 2008 but suspended pending further discussion in June 2010. The decision to postpone the prize indefinitely came through an agreement brokered at UNESCO’s executive board meeting this month. According to these terms, the prize cannot be awarded unless supported by all member states.

Prominent African leaders, Latin American literary figures, Nobel laureates, scientists and public health professionals, press freedom groups, Cano prize winners, and rights organizations from around the world came together in an unprecedented effort to challenge the prize, citing serious concerns about President Obiang’s record of corruption and abuse. Public figures involved in the campaign included: Nobel laureates Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Wole Soyinka, Mario Vargas Llosa, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, and John Polanyi; author Chinua Achebe; human rights advocate Graça Machel; and over sixty professionals from Equatorial Guinea.

“The Obiang family is facing ongoing allegations of corruption with cases in Europe, Africa, and North America. Why weren’t red flags triggered when UNESCO first agreed to accept Obiang’s millions?” said Ken Hurwitz, senior legal officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative. “Now that the prize has been suspended, UNESCO should implement proper safeguards to address the systemic gaps in oversight revealed by this controversy.”

Equatorial Guinea’s vast oil wealth gives it the highest per-capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa, yet its health and development indicators are on par with the poorest countries in the world. UNESCO currently has no procedures in place to screen private donations and prevent money laundering.

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

NEPAD: Good investment for the future?

Okello Oculi

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/68438

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, came to Abuja (to arouse talk and promote inter-African trade) from 23-30 October 2010. The talking part was at a ‘NEPAD Forum’ held in Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel. The NEPAD Trade Fair ran on its own momentum inside cubicles under one rectangular plastic tent erected on a corner of the vast Eagle Square that often hosts hordes of either enchanted Pentecostal worshipers or rowdy political rallies.

The presence of former president Olusegun Obasanjo (as the only one of NEPAD’s founding quartet consisting of presidents Abdulazeez Bouteflika of Algeria; Thabo Mbeki of South Africa; Abdullayi Wade of Senegal and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt), gave the talk shop a sense of historical legitimacy. The active participation of John Kuffo, former president of Ghana, added to Obasanjo’s weight, while interventions by ministers for commerce and industry from Zimbabwe and Rwanda added a vital Pan-African flavour.

I came away with three gems from what panel speakers had to say. The young woman minister from Rwanda reported on a policy initiative in agriculture that re-echoed a refined version of Mwalimu Nyerere’s ‘ujamaa villages’ of the late 1960s in socialist Tanzania as the anchor of development. The government of Rwanda is set on encouraging peasant farmers to work their farms together in voluntary communal labour on congruous land holdings; sharing in costs of fertilisers and extension services, as well as harvests and investment decisions. Small farmers would not lose their land to big landowners as a core strategy for agricultural growth and making Rwanda a food exporter after achieving internal food sufficiency. They would be the engine of Rwanda’s policy of getting growth with full employment for the vast majority of the people outside of information technology, tourism and mining. Unfortunately the policy was not picked up for discussion by participants in the forum, probably because it was not in tune with Obasanjo’s bias for large-scale farmers, as chairman of the panel discussion.

Rwanda’s minister also said that her government wants to upturn the notion that Rwanda is not rich in mineral deposits. She was rushed out of the meeting and onto a flight out of Abuja before we could ask if the oil deposits in Lake Albert that Uganda and DR Congo are huffing and puffing at each other over runs under the earth down to Rwanda. The bad blood over Abbiyye oil fields between Sudan’s Southern and Northern leaders may well be a forerunner to boxing matches over oil in the Great Lakes region.

Mike Bimha (deputy minister of industry and commerce and member of parliament from Zimbabwe) and Rwanda’s minister (who stood in for her President Paul Kagame), each focused on the need for political will by Africa’s rulers to launch an African common market. Bimha recalled a meeting by the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union (EU) in Burkina Faso at which the ACP countries were rebuked by the EU delegation about the habit of expecting to benefit from benevolent neocolonial exploitation and face the new reality of a lonesome era of self-dependence among them. This issue too was not taken up for deeper debate.

Former president of Ghana, John Kuffo, insisted on Africa’s rulers abandoning the habit of preferring policies dictated from Euro-America. A concrete illustration was given by Abba Kyari, a former boss of United Bank for Africa, who challenged the focus on information technology and banking and stock exchanges, whose growth enriches only a small sector of the population without creating employment and incomes for the majority of the population.

The trade fair at Eagle Square was a success by the mere fact of its taking place. According to acting director of programmes and development in the NEPAD agency of the presidency, Olayinka Olagunju, there had been two postponements of the fair which raised doubts in many African countries about this one taking place at all. Empty stalls for Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Morocco, Egypt, DR Congo, Rwanda and Burkina Faso were attributable to growing scepticism. Kenya’s cubicle was gladly taken up by textile traders from Gambia, while a marketer of cassava flour, plantain flour and ‘acha’ (a small grain grown in Nigeria’s savannah zone) from Plateau State of Nigeria, cheerfully took over the shop spot allocated to Angola.

South Africa’s embassy official in charge of economic affairs, Nicholas Coleman, mounted stands for DSTV and Stanbic IBTC Bank, which dominated the South African stand. He wished that they had been given a notice of ‘at least eight months’ to enable small and medium enterprises to bring their products to the NEPAD trade fair. The government of South Africa, he said, has a policy of subsidising small and medium businesses with costs for air freight, air travel and accommodation. To process those subsidies, however, it would ‘take three months’ of processing by bureaucrats. At the Sierra Leone cubicle, there were also complaints about the short notice from fair organisers of only about five weeks. Under the banner of ‘DISCOVER AFRICA’, they displayed posters proclaiming rich endowments in gold bars, iron ore, platinum, gemstones, palm oil, cocoa, sugar cane grown on land in valleys of their mountainous country, and coffee.

Although in his closing speech the secretary to the government of the federation announced that the fair is a ‘biennial event on a rotational basis among African countries’, Olayinka Olagunji insisted in an interview after that speech that Nigeria will ‘repeat it in March 2012’. There had been a rush to hold this edition so that other African countries would ‘know we can do it’. To give adequate notice, the organising committee will send out letters and ‘put it on the Internet in January 2011’. Both the local organisers and other African countries would ‘have enough time’ towards 2012.

The special assistant to President Jonathan Goodluck on NEPAD affairs, Ambassador Tunji Olagunju, had brought to bear all the creativity and diplomatic skills he developed while conducting behind-the-scenes negotiations as Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa during shuttle diplomacy for building support for setting up NEPAD between 1999 and 2003. He pulled in top executives of multinational companies with African roots – like AfriIInvest, Zinox Computers (described as ‘Nigeria’s first certified branded computers’), and BHI Holdings. The enthusiasm among small business groups and of mutual discovery between sellers from different African countries and predominantly Nigerian customers was clearly good investment for the future.

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* Okello Oculi is executive director of the Africa Vision 525 Initiative.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Time to unite against EPAs

Carol Kayira-Kulemeka

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/68384

Excellent article, paradox is... how can we (Africans) get training on trade negotiations from the very people we expect to negotiate trade deals with? That is just so wrong, we need to develop our own indigenous skills; develop strategies to protect our resources not just from the Europeans, but from the Chinese, Americans and Indians as well.

Interesting to note that another strategy that seems to be emerging is the breaking of our resolve to say No to EPAs through manipulation of the African blocs, with so called development Aid offers.

We need to approach the trade deals from a continental level, because in the light of emerging issues in trade negotiations, the new scramble for Africa, we have no choice but become a strong force and resist the neo colonization of our people and our continent...

A people united can never be defeated.

Let's grow our own way

Owen Sichone

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/68385

It is true that the issues being negotiated in the EPAs are complex and many of us do not understand them but that is no reason for any African government to exclude its own citizens from the discussion. Lest we forget, the struggle for independence was NOT too complicated for African peasants to understand, support and take part in. Only the Lancaster House Constitutional negotiations (or whatever their various equivalents were) were hi-jacked by the educated elites.

President Mkapa is right that it is shame on us for being recolonized twice but what baffles me is why we need an EPA in the first place given what neoliberal ideology says about free market. In a free market competition between Europe and China for Angolan and Nigerian oil, is it not the African producers that stand to benefit from higher prices and more respectable inducements? Does the same not apply to copper, coal or even organic tea and coffee?



Yash Tandon gives many reasons for not signing the EPAs in their current unequal form and lists preconditions for African RECs like SACU, SADC, ECOWAS or the EAC to consolidate and negotiate with Europe on an equal basis. But even with 100 per cent reciprocity and equality - why would Africa need EPAs with Europe? China has flooded African markets with all manner of manufactured goods - without the aid of EPAs. Indian firms run European steel industries and Zambian copper (for example) is mainly consumed in the Asian economies. Let’s face it: we were colonized by a young, dynamic Europe four hundred years ago, it would be a crime against humanity for an aging, de-industrialized and virtually bankrupt Europe to ride roughshod over Africa again. If we like being colonized then at least let us give the Chinese and Indians a chance to humiliate us also. 



When America offered African textile manufacturers preferential access to US markets through AGOA certain Asian firms relocated to Africa to take advantage of this. Why did African firms fail to take advantage of the opening? The answer is very complex but one main reason is that our leaders just do not know how it is done. So the problem is not with European neocolonialism or American imperialism but African rulers’ failure to make strategic plans. (Do you remember what happened to the Lagos Plan of Action?). 



Why for example should Kenyan agriculture be exporting flowers in the first place? Many African children are malnourished - should Kenya not be exporting the milk they poured down the drain recently to Sudan, Chad or Angola? Should Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire continue exporting raw cocoa beans instead of cocoa butter products and chocolates? 



Neither Europe nor America are as economically powerful as they were in the 1970s and Africa's slight recovery from the debt and poverty of the lost decades of the Lomé Convention has NOT been driven by EU aid or EPAs. Producing for local markets still works for Europe, America and Asia despite the joys of globalization so why is it that only Africa ignores local public opinion and continues to give preference to foreign tourists, foreign investors, foreign donors and foreign trade? Why should Southern African countries import dirty Middle Eastern oil (no offence meant the sulphur levels are high) instead of the cleaner Angolan crude? Rejecting the EPAs and consolidating the regional economic communities may well be the first step in Africa’s move towards regaining independence.

Why would our governments sign up to this?

T. Mohammed Yusuf and Utamaduni w'Afrika

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/68383

Yes Prof, it is true the majority of the population (especially rural peasant/ farmers) in East Africa lack information and awareness on EPAs; Our agricultural produce which constitutes more than 50% of GDP will be threatened due to lack of protection from cheap subsidized imports; This will siphon our market as well as increase our unemployment rate, which is alarming, etc.

With all these facts in addition to the pressure inflicted on our negotiators, why are our governments willing to go by and sign this agreement? Do they really understand its implications on local production and industrialization? Why can't they do some evaluation studies to understand and analyse (SWOT) EPAs in the national and regional boundaries? I think, this form of colonialism will not be allowed neither accepted in Africa!

We need to open our eyes and sharpen our ears against anything that is try to promote exploitation and violation of our rights for free development.

Thank you for all you have done in this field.

What the Caribbean could have learned from Africa

Anthony DeTrilaan

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/68386

Thank you for this piece. I only wish we in the Caribbean were as wise as our African brothers and sisters in holding off on signing an EPA with the EU. Our EPA, much as described in this article will almost certainly recreate the colonial structures that will lock our economies into a system that will serve Europe's interests high above anything else.

Kindred spirits in the fight for freedom

Gerry German

Communities Empowerment Network (UK)

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/68381

Many thanks for keeping us up-to-date with developments - on the one hand, exposing political and economic contaminations, and on the other, featuring dreams and aspirations based on true memories and daring kindred spirits striving to restore freedom, equality and justice worldwide.

We struggle in the same way over here.

Peace and love.

Communiqué of the patriotic artists and writers

Mphutlane wa Bofelo

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/68348

people of the motherland!
from now on
for the sake
of balancing
our patriotism
with our loyalty
to our art
we will ask
you to be patient
with us your writers and artists
and grant us
to request you to
allow us to
at some point
speak to you
through alter-egos

in case that some
of the true comments
about certain characters
that are purely figment
of our innovative imagination
may be mistaken
for a snide on
very important people
in the high echelons
of our noble society
we flatly deny any relationship
with these personas that speak
what we out of knowing
what is good for us
and our country
will not be heard drunk
voicing out

to avoid
some cases
of mistaken identity
we will make sure that
troublesome characters
in our plays and poems and so forth
present and articulate
themselves in absences
or rather speak
their chants in silences

people of the fatherland!
when you get this communiqué
(if it does reach you)
don’t even for a second
think we are abdicating
our responsibility
to mirror society
as we see it with our eyes
all we ask for the sake
of us all is for you
to fill in the missing words
in our poems & plays
and fables & stories
sure you can apply a bit
of imagination
to play in your mind
the omitted scenes
& picture the skipped episodes
in our soapies & sitcoms

as patriotic artists
knowing you too are
responsible & law-abiding citizens
we do recommend in sincerity
when you read in our scripts
state tenders going to cronies
and the big man’s family
becoming instant billionaires
doing business only with the state
don’t go around looking
for any relationship
with real characters:
when you see in our films
scenes of mysterious
disappearance of dossiers & witnesses
and trump up charges
of some or other common crime
against some journalists
or litigation against humor & cartoons
or hear in our poems
the melodramatic voice
of some narcissistic despot
passing a decree demanding
caressing his goatee\belly
& kissing his arse to be declared
a national sport
just do not even for a moment
think there’s anyone
in this great nation
fitting that description
or at least
keep it to yourself
this homeland can do
without rubble-rousers

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* Mphutlane wa Bofelo is a cultural worker and social critic.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Pambazuka News 165: Leçons chinoises pour l'Afrique

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/68344

Pambazuka News 30: Violência e habitação em Angola

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summarypt/68345

Pambazuka News 31: Revoltas populares em Moçambique

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summarypt/68346

Pambazuka News 32: Pambazuka News marcando seu lugar no debate sobre África Contemporânea

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summarypt/68347

Obama and the US mid-terms

Gado

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/68341

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

Swearing in Kikwete

Gado

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/68342

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

Calm elections in Tanzania: An anti-climax?

Gado

2010-11-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/68343

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

Civil society statement on referendum and elections

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/zimbabwe/68404

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the leading independent network on elections in Zimbabwe, convened a conference in Vumba – Leopard Rock Hotel which brought together various organisations and partners working on elections to deliberate on electoral issues in light of the possible referendum on the new constitution and elections in 2011. The conference was held under the theme: 'Enhancing Mutual Cooperation and Interaction on election Related activities amongst CSOs.'
ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK

Civic Society Statement on the Impending Referendum and Elections

Vumba - 29 October 2010 – The Zimbabwe Election Support Network the leading
independent network on elections in Zimbabwe convened a conference in Vumba
– Leopard Rock Hotel which brought together various organisations and
partners working on elections to deliberate on electoral issues in light of
the possible referendum on the new constitution and elections in 2011.

The conference was held under the theme: 'Enhancing Mutual Cooperation and
Interaction on election Related activities amongst CSOs.'

Ninety participants attended the conference and deliberated on Zimbabwe’s
preparedness for a referendum and elections in which they noted that the
environment was not conducive for holding democratic elections particularly
considering the following:

- The political environment remains highly volatile, uncertain, and tense.
The polarized environment-does not favor holding of elections as violence
would most likely erupt.
- The GNU has not repealed repressive legislation such as the Public Order
Security Act (POSA), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act.
- These Acts have restricted people’s civil liberties and freedoms of
expression and association and they are inimical to the holding of free and
fair elections.
- Institutions and infrastructure that support violence such as the Youth
militia, war veterans and a partisan security force remain unreformed and
therefore a threat to democratic elections.
- The safety of human rights defenders and activists remains an issue of
concern as this curtails the oversight function of civic society.

Civic society organisations represented therefore demanded the following:

- A total end and denunciation of politically related violence and
prosecution of the perpetrators of all forms of political violence.
- That SADC ensures a non violent, free and fair election that respects the
will of the people of Zimbabwe.
- That, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) be capacitated and
resourced to improve its ability to manage elections efficiently and
effectively.
- That there is need for complete overhaul and restructuring of ZEC
secretariat with a view to reform the institution into a professional body
that is non-partisan.
- That ZEC be in charge of all electoral processes including voter
registration and control, compile and update of voters’ rolls.
- That the ZEC be a truly independent electoral body that is accountable.
- That there is need to do an overhaul review of the voters’ roll before
the next elections
- That media freedoms be restored and guaranteed particularly the
liberalization of the state media and licensing of independent radio and
television stations.
- That police presence should be limited to outside the polling station
where incidences of violence are most likely to occur.
- That the Presidential powers and temporary measures Act be made of no
effect during election time as it gives unfair advantage to one particular
political party.
- That, the right of assembly be restored and guaranteed.
- That, the legislative framework for the elections be clarified as quickly
as possible, while ensuring the greatest possible degree of consensus
between election stakeholders and participation of relevant local and
international organizations.
- The elections be administered at every level in an impartial and
professional manner.
- Parties in the inclusive government look at the interests and fears of
the security chiefs and open negotiations with them with a view of making
sure that they do not interfere with the electoral process.
- That the inclusive government ensures that a national election
communication centre is set up and accessible to all political players and
stakeholders and that results be announced as they come from the various
centres before there is any possibility for manipulation by those with
access to the process.
- Civic society also demanded reforms that provide for early accreditation
and the safety of local and international observers.
- The role of inviting and accrediting of all observers should fall under
the election management body. Adequate numbers of observers need to be
accredited early (as soon as proclamation is done) and deployed to all areas
of the country.
- The election should be monitored and supervised by regional and
international bodies such as SADC, the African Union and United Nations who
are present well in advance of the polls, and post-polling day.
- Emphasis was on the need for transparency in all processes of the
elections which include; results management and announcement, transparency
in the production of ballot materials and processing of special and postal
votes.
- Participation of diaspora in the electoral process.
- Guarantee of peace and mechanisms that ensure flawless installation of
winners into government.

With a view of improving future elections, CSOs proposed that reforms are a
matter of urgency and imperative before elections are held. The present
environment does not provide a conducive environment for the holding of
democratic elections. Nevertheless, if need be, ZESN and CSOs are ready and
remain committed to monitor the process and advocate for minimum conditions
before the Referendum and next elections through effective coordinated
interventions.

ORGANISATIONS IN ATTENDANCE

1. Achieve Your Goal Trust
2. Bulawayo Agenda
3. Bulawayo People Residents Association
4. Civic Education Trust Network
5. Christian Alliance
6. Combined Harare Residents Association
7. Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe
8. Centre for Research and Development
9. Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe
10. Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa
11. Counseling Services Unit
12. Elections Resource Centre
13. Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe
14. Habakkuk Trust
15. Heal Zimbabwe
16. Human Rights Development Trust in Southern Africa
17. Law Society of Zimbabwe
18. Kubatana
19. Matabeleland Constitution Reform Agenda
20. National Association of Non – Governmental Organisations
21. Media Centre
22. Media Institute for Southern Africa
23. Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
24. National Association for the Care of the Handicapped
25. National Constitutional Assembly
26. Public Affairs Parliamentary Support Trust
27. Progressive Teachers Association Zimbabwe
28. Research and Advocacy Unit
29. Restoration of Human Rights
30. Radio Dialogue
31. Rooftop Promotions
32. SAYWHAT
33. Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust
34. Transparency International – Zimbabwe
35. VERITAS
36. Women’s Coalition – Zimbabwe
37. Women of Zimbabwe Arise
38. Women’s Trust
39. Youth Agenda
40. Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe
41. Youth Empowerment and Transformation
42. Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights
43. Zimbabwe Association of Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the
Offender
44. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
45. Zimbabwe Council of Churches
46. Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development
47. Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust
48. Zimbabwe Election Support Network
49. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Right Association
50. Zimbabwe Peace Project
51. Zimbabwe Students Christian Movement
52. Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association
53. Zimbabwe Youth Network
54. Members of the Academia (University of Zimbabwe)
55. Resource persons from Kenya

Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe
For Comments and further details contact:
Zimbabwe Election Support Network
zesn@africaonline.co.zw or info@zesn.org.zw
+263 250736/791443/798193
+263 712 415902 or 263 773 220370

Diamond watchdog debates Zim mine 'abuses'

2010-11-02

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-01-diamond-watchdog-debates-zim-mine-abuses

Members of the Kimberley Process diamond watchdog began talks in Jerusalem on Monday over whether to allow Zimbabwe to resume exports of the gemstone from its controversial Marange fields. The organisation, which is meant to ensure diamonds are 'conflict free', suspended its certification of the Marange fields last year, over claims of forced labour and torture at the gem mines.

Exiles’ roadmap to a better Zimbabwe

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/dczh4h

Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa and the United Kingdom have called for devolution of powers and the slashing of provinces by more than half in submissions to the Constitutional Select Committee that is leading the drafting of a new charter for Zimbabwe. The proposals by the exiles - some which echo the views of the opposition ZAPU party and the two MDC formations - appear tilted towards whittling down the powers of central government.

IMF unhappy about policy slippages

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/c4wehj

Zimbabwe’s economic recovery programme is unlikely to get full marks from a visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) team amid allegations that the Bretton Woods institution is unhappy about policy slippages by Harare’s fragile coalition regime. A six-member IMF team, which arrived in Zimbabwe last weekend, has been meeting government officials, bankers and business leaders and is expected to issue a statement on its findings at the end of this week.

African Union chief calls Ivorian polls 'historical breakthrough'

2010-11-03

http://bit.ly/auC8dr

The African Union (AU) Tuesday called Sunday's presidential election in Cote d'Ivoire a historical breakthrough, and urged the country's leading politicians to stay calm and accept the poll results without resorting to violence. 'This is certainly a historic vote, which marks a crucial step in the process for a way out of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire,' said Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping. Nearly six million Ivorians went to the polls for the first time in several years to elect a president to run their country.

Quarterly gender publication on AU available

2010-11-01

http://www.pamoya.com/sites/default/files/gender_equality.pdf

The October issue of 'Walking the Talk', a quarterly publication of the African Union and the United Nations Development Fund for Women, is out. Headlines include:
- Grassroots approach to gender equality and women’s empowerment
- Kenya’s Vision for African Women’s Decade
- Women’s rights advocates seek to influence the human rights strategy for Africa
- Gender related decisions taken during the July 2010 summit in Kampala.

Kenya: Gender gap widens in labour market

2010-11-03

http://www.ansa-africa.net/index.php/views/news_view/gender_gap_widens_in_labour_market/

Scarcity of jobs is worsening gender inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa, locking more women out of formal government and private sector appointments, a new World Bank survey shows. The report shows that women in employment is at under 40 per cent in Kenya, behind countries like Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone where women engagement is over 80 per cent. Experts said the widening gender gap at the workplace in Kenya put policy makers in a dilemma as it threatens to shutter economic gains made over the past few years as women are locked out of income generating activities.

Malawi: Time to take up the fight against fistula

Helene Christense

2010-11-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/68267

'I fell asleep at night on wet bedding. During the day my family and the community made me a laughing stock as I was leaking urine and spreading a bad smell. I stopped leaving the house. I felt alone and abandoned and humiliated, not least when my husband left to stay with his second wife.’ This is the sad testimony of Elisabeth Makhalichi, who developed a hole, called a fistula, after a difficult birth.
Time to take up the fight against fistula
Helene Christensen
Lilongwe, Malawi / 26 October 2010

‘I fell asleep at night on wet bedding. During the day my family and the community made me a laughing stock as I was leaking urine and spreading a bad smell. I stopped leaving the house. I felt alone and abandoned and humiliated, not least when my husband left to stay with his second wife.’
This is the sad testimony of Elisabeth Makhalichi, who developed a hole, called a fistula, after a difficult birth.

Fistula is a gap that develops between the bladder and the vagina, or between the bladder and the rectum, after obstructed labour or intense sexual violence. Women who survive such traumatic experiences will go on to continuously leak urine or stool unless the damage is repaired.

When Makhalichi’s labour started, the young Malawian woman walked the long distance from her home to the nearest health facility in a remote rural area. ‘The health workers told me a caesarean had to be performed at a different hospital due to obstructed labour,’ she said.

In a weak condition and on bad roads she was transferred to a district hospital, and miraculously survived the struggle, along with her baby. However, it wasn’t until she got home that she realised she had obstetric fistula.

Mozambique’s Felicia Chafika was not as lucky as Makhalichi.

‘I walked hours and hours to reach the nearest health facility,’ she remembered. ‘My husband was very supportive and accompanied me. We thought I would deliver and stopped in a neighbouring village for 12 hours, I was too weak to walk at this point. My husband made a stretcher out of branches and they carried me the remaining distance to the hospital. I delivered a stillborn baby.’

When Chafika began leaking bodily fluids, the health workers gave her pills to take, which did nothing to stop the leaking or repair the fistula. However, she later came into contact with a clinical officer trained in fistula repair and eventually underwent surgery.

Without timely medical intervention, such long, obstructed labour causes the hole and often results, such as in Chafika’s case, in the birth of a stillborn baby. Either way, the woman is left incontinent and, if untreated, like Makhalichi, is usually ostracised or abandoned by her family and community.
Tarek Meguid, a gynaecologist with experiences across sub-Saharan Africa, calls fistula ‘slow social death.’

Hundreds of thousands of African women suffer fistula in solitude and shame, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that more than two million women live with it in the developing world, with more than 50,000 new cases each year. Fistula is common in communities where women are married at a young age and give birth before their bodies are ready.

Yet the birth injury is preventable and treatable.

The cure rate is 90 per cent for less-complex cases, and the average cost of a fistula treatment is $300, yet women continue to suffer.

‘They are female, powerless and poor’ said Meguid. ‘The root causes for maternal deaths and fistula are exactly the same: poverty, malnutrition, poor health systems, detrimental traditional practices, lack of financial resources and gender inequalities continuing to rule the societies in sub-Saharan Africa.’

Despite these problems, he also noted that the problem of fistula can be easily solved.

‘The solution is simply that obstetric care must be made available to women and we need to educate more midwives,’ he said.

Edwin Gondwe, a senior clinical officer and maternal health expert blames governments for the poor response to fistula, especially in Malawi: ‘the situation we face with fistula is simply due to poor political will of the government of the day.

‘If countries are serious about reducing the cases of fistula they need to accelerate programmes on family planning with a focus on providing the services in the rural communities. Women’s empowerment is another part of the solution because we must motivate women to travel earlier to the nearest health facility when labour starts and make them use the long-term family planning methods.’

In the meantime, some African women will benefit from fistula repair programmes paid for by international organisations such as UNFPA and Medecins Sans Frontieres, while many others will continue to suffer.

At Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, Malawi, Makhalichi’s nightmare is finally coming to an end after a painful surgery to repair the fistula at a Fistula Repair Camp funded by UNFPA.

‘I can now sleep on dry beddings and the pain from the operation is bearable because I can dream of a happy life again,’ she said, smiling.

* Helene Christensen is a freelance journalist based in Malawi. This article is part of the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service which offers fresh news on every day news.

Morocco: Gender-based violence persists

2010-11-04

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/10/31/feature-01

Despite efforts by civil society and the government, violence against women remains an ever-present problem in Morocco, a women's rights NGO announced on 27 October. To reach its conclusions, the Chama Centre for Refuge, Counselling and Legal Advice documented 302 cases of gender abuse over the period 2009-2010.

South Africa: Ending violence against women in South African townships

2010-11-03

http://www.apc.org/en/news/ending-violence-against-women-south-african-townsh

US$5,000 has been awarded from the Take Back the Tech! Fund to four outstanding South African Women’s organisations that are set to make an impact on the high levels of violence against women in the country. The four different projects will work with young black women in townships, black lesbians, rural para-legals and survivors of violence to increase awareness, reporting of incidents, and help survivors of violence on their healing journey.

Southern Africa: Young Women's Festival concludes

2010-11-03

http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/sexual/101027kub.asp?sector=SEXUAL

The Southern African Young Women’s Festival ran between 25 and 28 October. Young women were brought together to share experiences, energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities. The Festival was a platform to equip young women with the practical skills they need for effective advocacy for women’s rights and included many exciting activities including the launching of the 16 Days national campaigns of activism.

Uganda: The gap between policy and practice in land rights

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/atHQyj

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a Geneva-based international housing rights watchdog, has released a 'report card' examining Uganda’s national land policy and land reform processes and their impact on women. The report, 'The Impact of National Land Policy and Land Reform on Women in Uganda', was released together with the Women's Land Link Africa (WLLA), a joint initiative of organisations dedicated to improving women's land and housing rights in Africa. One of the main findings of the study was that while there have been many advances in land reform in Uganda that grant women legal rights, custom and practice are still lagging behind the law, leading to a regular violation of women’s land rights.

Zimbabwe: Women make themselves heard on draft constitution

2010-11-03

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53442

A parliamentary select committee has begun compiling comments on a new constitution, gathered at 4,000 meetings held across Zimbabwe over the past three months. Gender activists are confident that women's views have been expressed; it will be up to the eventual drafters of the new constitution to ensure they are reflected. Over 700,000 people attended public meetings on Zimbabwe's draft constitution.

Africa: FIFA moves against trafficking of young footballers

2010-11-04

http://www.ips.org/africa/2010/11/africa-fifa-moves-against-trafficking-of-young-footballers/

For more than a decade, a host of young footballers, overwhelmingly under the age of 18 (more than 3,000 since 2000), have left the African continent to try their luck in Europe and Asia, according to the website of Association foot solidaire, a non-governmental organisation based in Paris, which fights against mistreatment of young African footballers. The mafia-type characters who extract money from parents, most of them poor, take young Africans to Asia or Europe with the promise of a trial at a big club. In the end, many of them are abandoned in the street, with no means to support themselves.

Morocco: Counter-terror law under fire

2010-11-04

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/11/02/feature-02

Morocco exercises secret detention and ill-treatment of detainees under counter-terrorism laws, Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleged in a provocative new report titled 'Stop looking for your son: Illegal detentions under the counterterrorism law in Morocco'. 'While Morocco has demonstrated the political will to adopt enlightened human rights legislation, it lacks the political will to enforce it when it comes to terrorism suspects,' said Leah Whitson, head of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.

Mozambique: Chinese work permits withdrawn

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/aQFGGs

The Mozambican Labour Ministry has withdrawn the work permits of three Chinese citizens. A Labour Ministry press release, issued last Thursday, said that the three men all belonged to the Chinese building company Nantong Constructions, and had been working in Sanga district, in the northern province of Niassa. All three were accused of brutal assaults against Mozambican workers.

Namibia: UN adopts legal opinion on disappearances

2010-11-04

http://www.nshr.org.na/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=1462

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (WGEID) has adopted two new General Comments on the crime of enforced disappearance. Phil ya Nangoloh, the Executive Director of NAMRIGHTS, states that in Namibia this effectively means, for example, that the perpetrators of the enforced disappearances of thousands of Namibians should be held responsible for the said disappearances starting before June 25 2002 when Namibia ratified the Rome Statute (RS) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and continuing after such ratification.

Rwanda: Businessman jailed for church massacre

2010-11-03

http://www.panos.org.uk/?lid=33528

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced a Rwandan businessman to 30 years in jail for his part in the bulldozing of a church which killed around 2,000 ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. The tribunal, backed by the United Nations, found Gaspard Kanyarukiga guilty of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.

Sudan: Call for end to continuing repression of Darfur activists

2010-11-03

http://www.ifex.org/sudan/2010/11/02/darfuri_activists_arrested/

The Sudanese government should charge or release Darfuri activists arrested between 30 October and 1 November 2010 by national security agents in Khartoum, Human Rights Watch has said. The arrests underscore the government's continued use of repressive laws to target human rights defenders from Darfur and to restrict information about the ongoing abuses there, Human Rights Watch said.

Africa: Israel considers deporting African migrants

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/aPhJjT

Israel is trying to find ways of repatriating or relocating African migrant workers whose illegal influx via Egypt is alarming authorities, a senior government official has said. Thousands of Africans, many of them from conflict zones such as Sudan and Eritrea, have slipped in across Egypt's Sinai desert in recent years to seek work or claim asylum as refugees.

Angola: Expulsions mark rising tensions over resources

2010-11-02

http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/20019.html

Angola's 'very violent' expulsion of about 200 Democratic Republic of Congo nationals from its territory this month is a sign of the increasing 'bad blood' between the neighbours that analysts believe revolves around border demarcations and conflicting claims to resources, particularly oil. In 2009, 18,000 DRC nationals were expelled from Angola and 39,000 Angolan nationals from the DRC.

Egypt: For refugees, escape is deadly

2010-11-04

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/egypt/101028/hope-fades-refugees-egypt

As Egypt assumed its year-long chairmanship of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees executive committee in Geneva last month, its policy of shooting unarmed migrants along its 'death zone' border with Israel has come into stark relief. Last week a Sudanese man was shot and killed by Egyptian security guards as he attempted to sneak through a portion of the 160-mile barbed wire fence running through the barren Sinai desert. At least 25 African migrants have been killed this year alone, adding to the scores since 2007.

Haiti: Refugee camps model future society

2010-11-03

http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/americas/2166-haiti-refugee-camps-may-model-future-society

While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps ten months after the earthquake, camp residents have managed to create in a few of those camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. Their camps have achieved democratic participation by community members, autonomy from foreign authority, a focus on meeting the needs of all, dignified living conditions, respect for rights, creativity, and a commitment to gender equity.

Kenya: Kenya illegally forcing refugees back to Somalia, says UNHCR

2010-11-03

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6A213J.htm

Kenya is forcing Somalis fleeing conflict back across the border in violation of international law, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Wednesday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said some of the 8,300 Somalis stranded at a border post in north eastern Kenya had already begun crossing the frontier into no-man's land. It said most were women, children and elderly people.

Kenya: Mau Forest evictees struggle in camps

2010-11-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90950

Delays in resettling hundreds of people evicted from the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya’s Rift Valley region have forced the displaced to endure harsh camp conditions without proper health and sanitation facilities, sources said. 'I used to comfortably live in a three-bedroom house before I was evicted; now I share a small tent with my large family. I worked hard on my 2ha piece of land and made sure my family was well-fed and clothed,' Joseph Tuwei told IRIN at Keringet camp in Molo District.

South Africa: Court orders home affairs to renew asylum documents

2010-11-04

http://westcapenews.com/?p=2391

The Home Affairs office in Cape Town is facing a court interdict for refusing to renew asylum seeker permits and refugee status documents for foreign nationals who originally obtained their documentation in another province. As many of these foreign nationals whose documentation has expired cannot afford to travel back to the province where they originally received documents, they face the possibility of arrest and deportation, or, if they have a job, may lose it.

South Africa: Irregularities in the detention and deportation of non-nationals

2010-11-04

http://www.eldis.org/go/what-s-new&id=56596&type=Document

The Lindela Detention Centre in South Africa is a holding facility for the temporary detention of 'illegal foreigners' while they await deportation. This report from The Forced Migration Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand argues that despite the authority's efforts to improve operations at the facility, there continue to be systematic violations of the law at Lindela. The paper uncovers several lapses in correct procedures for detention in the center.

South Africa: Somalian shot dead

2010-11-04

http://westcapenews.com/?p=2398

Somalians in Khayelitsha say they are wondering which one of their countrymen in the township will be killed next after Somalian shopkeeper Cyrix Man was shot on Tuesday night. Man, 23, was shot twice in the head outside his shop on Endlovini Street, in Khayelitsha C-Section at about 11pm last Tuesday, and died in hospital at about 3.30am on Wednesday morning. Khayelitsha’s Somalia Retailers Association chairperson Abbi Ahmed said more than 22 Somalian’s had been killed in the past three months.

South Africa: Social justice organisations hit back at ANC claims that conference was a plot

Statement by the TAC and SECTION27, co-hosts of the Labour/Civil Society conference

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/68406

'The Civil Society Conference held on 27-28 October 2010 will hopefully come to be seen as a historic turning point in South Africa. It may mark the revival of co-ordinated community based activism that aims to achieve social justice and better the lives of the poor in South Africa. It was attended by more than 50 independent organisations that believe in social justice and that fight for it every day. Civil society is therefore taken aback by attacks on the motives of the conference emanating from the ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) on 1 November 2010. We are surprised by the insinuations that the conference is part of a plot against the ANC. We expect better of the post-Polokwane ANC. This is conduct reminiscent of the paranoia of the Mbeki era. It is a conduct that suggests the ANC, or some of the people who hide under its flag, have something to fear.'
Press release
3 November 2010

The ANC should not be scared of independent campaigns against corruption and for service delivery, human rights and public accountability

Statement by the TAC and SECTION27, co-hosts of the Labour/Civil Society conference

The Civil Society Conference held on 27-28 October 2010 will hopefully come to be seen as a historic turning point in South Africa. It may mark the revival of co-ordinated community based activism that aims to achieve social justice and better the lives of the poor in South Africa. It was attended by more than 50 independent organisations that believe in social justice and that fight for it every day.

Civil society is therefore taken aback by attacks on the motives of the conference emanating from the ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) on 1 November 2010. We are surprised by the insinuations that the conference is part of a plot against the ANC. We expect better of the post-Polokwane ANC. This is conduct reminiscent of the paranoia of the Mbeki era. It is a conduct that suggests the ANC, or some of the people who hide under its flag, have something to fear.

Why did the conference take place?

Over recent years, for the most part, civil society organisations have worked separately on a multitude of struggles for service delivery, human rights and public and private accountability. The purpose of the conference was therefore to: attempt to rediscover unity amongst civil society organisations, find common causes and common strategies in our various campaigns for social justice. The conference organisers recognise that it is better to fight together for social justice than apart. Civil society and the trade union movement are unified in our vision of building a better country based on the rights and laws enshrined in the Constitution.

Fortunately in the democratic South Africa we don’t need anyone’s permission to meet. The ANC is a liberation movement and political party that most of us still support. It is not big brother.

The conference was neither anti-ANC nor anti-government. It stayed clear of debates about party politics and sought to be inclusive of various strands of political opinion amongst campaigners for social justice. But it did discuss the politics of service delivery, corruption and the major political challenges facing the country. It gave special attention to our deeply vulnerable and poor health and education systems. The conference was pro-poor, pro-justice and pro-democracy.

We welcome the fact that COSATU participated and played a leading part in the conference. COSATU vociferously draws attention to the wrongs of our society and has called for a new economic growth path. The conference was an opportunity to learn about and debate COSATU’s ideas.

COSATU represents organised working people. But they are tied through unemployment, poverty and squalid conditions to the issues for which civil society organisations fight daily: the fact that millions of people in South Africa are still homeless; declining life-expectancy due to HIV/AIDS and the enormous problems facing our health system; the terribly low levels of education that millions of children receive exacerbated by inequality between well-resourced private and former Model C schools and government schools; the need for accountability to communities especially by local government; the inadequate sanitation and insufficient access to electricity and other basic services endured by so many; and the high levels of crime.

What next?

The Conference was not a once off event. As stated in the Conference Declaration, we have agreed to further meetings at Provincial and district level and on key campaigns. This includes debating and developing a Social Justice Charter in coming months, which we hope the ANC will support.

The Conference also agreed to intensify human rights education and organisation among the poorest of the poor – people who are ignored by politicians and elites, and insulted by shameless sights of conspicuous consumption that mark out the new and old elite. (Please note: Commission reports from the conference will be issued in coming weeks.)

We believe the ANC NWC should have welcomed the conference. It should particularly have welcomed the affirmation of the Constitution and rule of law that is at the centre of the Conference Declaration. It should welcome an additional ally in the fight against corruption.

Effective government depends on a vigilant, capable civil society that knows the law, protects human rights and can act against what is wrong. The Civil Society/COSATU Conference did not challenge the ANC-led alliance; it only challenged the alliance to deliver.

In conclusion therefore let us state that:

1. As progressive social justice organisations committed to the poor and constitutional rights, we will continue to engage both the ANC and the government. Where necessary we have also used the courts. The conference commits us to continue to do so.

2. That we call on ANC to reconsider its ill-advised statement and provide effective leadership to society and instead affirm and support our objectives.

3. That we call on civil society and COSATU not to be intimidated by this statement but to work patiently, harder, and with discipline in taking forward the conference decisions.

Nonkosi Khumalo, TAC Chairperson

Mark Heywood, SECTION27 Executive Director

Africa: The clamour for African coal

2010-11-04

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/3903-The-clamour-for-African-coal

Since the workers from Vale, Brazil’s giant mining company, started to drink at his bar, fortune has favoured Mario Sálimo. With business growing week by week, the 47-year-old has opened extra rooms, added a restaurant and installed a dance floor. At weekends Mario’s Bar, near the clogged and dusty centre of Tete, is open until five or six o’clock in the morning. And the bar is not the only thing booming in this remote Mozambican town, which grew up as a trading post on the Zambezi river. Tete sits directly above one of the world’s largest reserves of high-quality coal.

Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Round-Up

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/68417

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers.
1. General

Africa is painting a distorted picture of economic progress
Last week, the World Bank predicted that the EAC region was set to grow by an average of five per cent over the next year. And who would blame the general public for believing the optimism, adjusted inflation figures that distort real living standards, an expansionary monetary policy, upward corrections in all the major financial markets, and a booming property industry are all positive signals for a change in our fortunes. But this veil, displaying a new chapter in our economic history only serves to hide a distortion that is perpetuated by ill informed institutional leaders. The economic gap that exists today between the rich world and Africa is alarming and has only been made more so to me, by the measures developed nations are taking to fix their deficits.
Read More

To prosper, Southern Sudan must wean itself from the aid bandwagon
Rich donors to Africa have a tendency to take credit for many of the continent’s achievements. But donor interventions in Africa are not always altruistic, and are quite often detrimental. Sceptics have often noted that aid does not reduce poverty; it is often the cause of poverty and violence in many parts of world. A recent article in Newsweek, for instance, has suggested that the pumping of massive amounts of aid money into Southern Sudan has had at least two visibly detrimental effects: educated Southern Sudanese are choosing to set up their own NGOs to tap into the aid money instead of taking up government jobs, and the high salaries paid to expatriate aid workers is distorting the local economy. Worse, massive aid flows could also be a catalyst for renewed violence, as a government flush with aid money could be viewed as “a prize by competing Sudanese factions”, writes Newsweek’s Kevin Peraino. But recent statements by President Barack Obama suggest that US aid policies towards Africa may be changing dramatically.
Read More

Dark Liquid Continent
The recent gulf of Mexico disaster has been said to be the worst oil spill in US history. This tragedy has brought to the surface the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the oil companies. With this disaster, BP (earlier, British Petroleum) is now in the eye of the storm. BP (now, re-branded as Beyond Petroleum) has for long been flaunting its environment-friendly logo of an invigorating green and vibrant yellow sun, bestowing it with a halo of social responsibility. A rather deceptive halo, it seems. It's not just CSR which has attracted attention, but also the double standards of oil multinationals at home and in host countries. A case in point is Nigeria where oil spills have been the order of the day. Yet, the oil multinationals operating in the Niger delta have often been immune to the basic protocol of rational conduct.
Read More

G-20 to Avoid `Competitive Devaluation,' Prod China
Group of 20 finance chiefs vowed to avoid weakening currencies to lift exports and left it to a leaders’ meeting next month to flesh out how to further pressure member China to allow faster gains in the yuan. Finance ministers and central bankers ended talks in South Korea Oct. 23 foreswearing “competitive devaluation” to calm fears of a trade war stemming from using cheaper currencies to spur growth. They called for reduced trade imbalances while stopping short of a U.S. proposal for targets that was aimed at making a yuan advance more palatable to China. Leaders will take up the debate at the Seoul summit on Nov. 11-12.
Read More

Global oil firms interested In Uganda’s refinery
Oil majors from India, China and Europe have expressed their interest in building Uganda’s first refinery, expected to have a capacity of 200,000 barrels a day, the minister of state for energy said last week. The new refinery will be a boost for the energy-starved nation in East Africa, which currently meets its oil product requirements through imports from the Mombasa oil refinery in Kenya. London-listed Essar Energy PLC, China’s CNOOC Ltd, France’s Total S.A. as well as other European oil companies have shown interest in the proposed project, Mr Simon D’Ujanga told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference.
Read More

Guinea mining 'totally corrupt'
Multinational firms have fought for years to control Guinea's enormous mineral wealth, leaving the future president with a totally corrupt sector to clean up, according to critics in civil society. "We are the world's second largest bauxite producer, we have iron ore reserves envied by everybody, we have gold, diamonds, oil, etc. But we vegetate in misery. We lack even water and electricity," said Mamadou Taran Diallo, president of the Guinean coalition of Publish What You Pay, a global initiative.
Read More

2. China in Africa

AU Chairman Ping Concludes Visit to China
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Dr Jean Ping, has concluded a four-day visit to China at the invitation of the Chinese Government. During the visit, which took place from 31 October to 3 November 2010, the Chairperson was received in Shanghai by the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr. Yang Jiechi, who co-chaired with Dr. Ping the 3rd China-AU Strategic Dialogue. Both sides exchanged views on a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including the situation in Sudan and Somalia.
Read More

USD16.4m deal inked to improve Tazara services
The Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) has signed a contract with the Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) for the manufacture and supply of six mainline locomotives and spare parts, worth USD 16.4 million. A Tazara press statement issued yesterday in Dar es Salaam said the agreement was signed by Tazara managing director Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika and CCECC representative Miao Zhong. It said the locomotives would be manufactured by CSR Qishuyan Locomotive Company Limited of China on behalf of CCECC under licence of the renowned General Electric (GE) of the US.
Read More

China firms outmuscling Kenyan ones on road projects
Kenya's prime minister on Tuesday challenged Kenyan road construction firms to improve their standards and take on Chinese companies that have won several tenders in the country's major road expansion programme. The government in east Africa's largest economy has embarked on its most ambitious infrastructure investment programme ever, entailing construction of new roads, upgrading of some facilities and the rehabilitation of others. About 78.6 billion shillings has been budgeted for spending on road construction in the fiscal year ending next June. Local firms have missed out on the lucrative contracts, scooping only a third of the total value of awarded contracts with the rest going to foreign firms mainly from China.
Read More

Chinese companies among bidders for Juba-Lamu oil pipeline: WSJ
Chinese companies are among those that are competing to win a contract for building a pipeline that would pump oil produced in South Sudan through a Kenyan port, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The controversial project would enable the landlocked South to avoid transporting its main export through the pipeline that runs through the North until it reaches Port Sudan.
Read More

Bid for Ghana Oil Field Rebuffed
Ghana's state-owned oil company and China's Cnooc Ltd. made an unsuccessful joint bid of $5 billion for a U.S. company's stake in one of Africa's most promising oil regions, an official of the Ghanaian company said Monday. The offer was for a 23.5% stake in Ghana's Jubilee field, one of the continent's largest oil deposits, and other nearby assets. The field, thought to contain 1.5 billion barrels of crude, is scheduled to start producing oil in December, heralding Ghana's entry into the ranks of Africa's major oil producers.
Read More

China on multi-billion dollar projects in Zimbabwe
China has pledged to assist Zimbabwe build two more schools, a mini-hydro power station and various other assistance as the two countries continue to strengthen ties. Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Xin Shunkang, said the assistance would be exten-ded under the China-Africa Co-operation. Mr Xin was addressing more than 30 journalists attending a two-day workshop on photography in Harare. He was speaking on China’s economic development and Sino-Africa relations. The multi-billion dollar projects, he said, would be implemented in the next three years as Zimbabwe and China celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations.
Read More

Congo defends $6 bln China deal, awaits funds
The Democratic Republic of Congo and China have defended a $6 billion deal for copper mining and infrastructure projects which some say could leave the poor central African nation out of pocket. The deal was reduced from $9 billion last year after the IMF raised concerns that it could plunge the poor central African nation deeper into debt and delayed a multi-billion dollar debt forgiveness deal pending its revision. Detractors still say the accord, one of a growing number signed between China and African states, lacks transparency and could ultimately be to Congo's detriment. "We don't lose -- we earn everything," said Moise Ekanga, Congo's coordinator for the Sino-Congolese Cooperation Agreement, in an interview setting out terms of the accord.
Read More

Chinese will open a $67 million leather factory in Ethiopia
China’s Xinxiang Kuroda Mingliang Leather Co. will open a $67 million leather factory in Ethiopia on Nov. 24, adding to the billions of dollars already invested in the East African country by China. Xinxiang financed 55 percent of the project, with the remainder coming from the China-Africa Development Fund, the Chinese embassy in Ethiopia said in an e-mailed statement today.
Read More

Ghanaian journalists to train in China next year
China is rolling out a training package for Ghanaian journalists, to broaden their horizon on the culture of the Asian giant and sharpen their skills. Mr Gong Jianzhong, Chinese Ambassador, made this known on Tuesday, when he paid a courtesy call to the Management of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra to acquaint himself with the operations of the wire service. Mr Gong expressed his appreciation to journalists and media houses in the country for portraying China positively to Africa and the rest of the world.
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Africa – China Conference opens in Ethiopia
A high level Africa – China Conference to discuss Development Transformation Approaches to reduce poverty, accelerate bread based growth and advance the Millennium Development Goals in Africa is underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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China seen as crucial market for SA tourism
China has been identified as a crucial tourism market, with Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk saying several initiatives are under way to unlock its potential as a key market. These include securing an agreement to lift travel restrictions on Chinese tourists to SA, as well as pursuing direct air access between the two countries. Mr van Schalkwyk said that, after two high-level visits to China this year, including a state visit by President Jacob Zuma in August, SA is hopeful that a deal lifting travel curbs on Chinese citizens will be reached by May. “I expect to announce a comprehensive agreement with China at the Tourism Indaba in Durban in May,” he said last week.
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China and Botswana consumate media wedding
To mark 35 years of the existence of diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and Botswana, the two governments saw it fitting to promote media cooperation because the Fourth Estate plays a conducive role in building and developing relationships. Officiating at the China-Botswana media seminar last Friday, Chinese Ambassador to Botswana, Liu Huanxing, said media partnerships between the two countries could enhance the existing socio-economic and cultural cooperation.
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Sinohydro Group boosts African stakes
Sinohydro Group, a leading State-owned group in hydropower construction, will increase its investments in Africa, said a senior company official. "We are conducting a series of projects in some African countries, including a copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and two hydropower stations, one in Mozambique, and the other in Zambia. We are also looking closely at investment opportunities in Liberia," said Ding Zhengguo, assistant president in charge of overseas projects for Sinohydro Group, on Tuesday.
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Chinese enterprises shoulder social responsibilities in Africa
A gradual transformation appears to be taking place among Chinese enterprises in Africa. Feng Zuoku, vice president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, spoke Friday at the launching ceremony of an online poll for the Top 10 Chinese Enterprises in Africa in Beijing. He said China now puts more emphasis on improving Africans' "living standards and quality of life.” "In addition to the breakthroughs made in trade and economic relations between two countries, Chinese enterprises have been involved in many projects related to Af-rican people's livelihood improvement, which have been welcomed by African people and praised by African leaders," Feng said. In order to showcase the all-weather relationship between China and Africa and recognize the philanthropic practice of Chinese companies in Africa, the voting has selected 20 candidate enterprises, all of which share the same qualifications of protecting Africa's local environment and cultures with a strong sense of fulfilling corporate social responsibility.
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China's great African hopes
China would like Africa, and South Africa in particular, to be a sexy topic in its business circles, it seems. Africa is usually conspicuous in its absence in the People's Republic of China's state media, but the past few weeks has seen a slew of articles aimed at boosting the image of the African continent in influential trade and investment circles. State media organisations, like other businesses in China, are directed from the top. Journalists inside China's massive propaganda machinery tell how government missives are regularly issued to editors, instructing what can and can't be reported, and what the editorial line on certain issues should be.
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A Win-Win Forum
The FOCAC has promoted China-Africa joint development, said a September report issued by the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). While helping project China's influence in Africa and beyond, it has boosted Africa's international profile and brought China-Africa relations onto a larger stage, said the report, titled "Toward a New Decade: Research on the Sustainable Development of the FOCAC."
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3. India in Africa

Slow credit disbursement to Africa worries India
At a time when India and China are locked in a race for control of natural resources and energy assets in Africa, the Indian government is worried about the slow pace of disbursement from a $5.4 billion (Rs24,030 crore) line of credit that it promised to Africa in 2008. The issue has already caught the attention of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which is conducting a review to ascertain the reasons behind the delays. Money from the line of credit, announced at a summit of the India-Africa Forum, was to be disbursed over a period of five years.
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India's ONGC confirms seeking Angola assets; no decision on Iran
Indian upstream player ONGC Videsh expects to conclude an agreement soon in Kazakhstan for an exploration block in the Caspian Sea and has not yet decided whether to pull out of Iran's South Pars project because of the threat of US sanctions, exploration director Joeman Thomas said Tuesday. ONGC Videsh, or OVL, the overseas arm of state-owned ONGC, is also actively pursuing offshore opportunities in Angola but cannot confirm that it is among the companies approached to take a stake in a block that ExxonMobil wants to quit, he said in an interview.
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US, India may jointly tap Africa agriculture
India and the US may team up to tap farm opportunities in Africa that may also translate into the US funding Indian farm projects in the continent. The proposal is a spin-off from the India-US Agriculture Dialogue and an announcement is likely during the US President Barack Obama’s visit starting 6 November. “As part of the India-US dialogue on agriculture, there has been some focus on Africa,” said a senior Indian government official who didn’t want to be identified. “We will talk to them. It will be our projects and their funding, and will result in reduced cost of delivery. The African countries will be our equal partners.”
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Uranium and diamonds set to boost trade with India
Trade between Namibia and India has seen a modest but steady growth although trade volume is still in favour of India with exports to Namibia standing at US$22 million, while imports from Namibia amount to US$4 million, according to information provided by the High Commission of the Republic of Namibia in India. The principal export commodities from India to Namibia are drugs and pharmaceuticals, inorganic, organic and agro, chemicals, glass and glassware, plastic and linoleum products, metals products, machine tools, machinery and instruments, transport equipment, rubber products and electronic goods.
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Malawi, India ink four pacts as Bingu invite investors
Malawi and India on Wednesday signed four bilateral agreements to deepen cooperation in the fields of health, rural development and mineral resources. President Bingu Wa Mutharika and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh held discussions on several issues for about an hour at Hyderabad House in Delhi before the pacts were signed.
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4. In Other Emerging Powers News

S.Korea says seeking $1 bln Congo mining deal
A consortium of South Korean companies will seek a minerals-for-infrastructure deal in Democratic Republic of Congo that could be worth $1 billion, Congolese and South Korean officials told Reuters late on Friday. The proposed deal -- involving refurbishment of a copper mine and construction of an Atlantic deepwater port -- would bolster South Korea's bid to secure long-term access to metals while speeding Congo's development, South Korean ambassador to Congo Kim Sung-chul said. "We were more poor than Congo in the 1960s, now we are chairing the G20. This change was possible only thanks to support from outside and we think it's high time we repay that," he said. Kim is leading a delegation of executives from South Korean firms Samsung, Hyundai, Bosco, Daewoo, and Taejoo Synthesis Steel to Congo mining sites.
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Brazil’s Vale to invest US$20 billion in Africa, with Mozambique a priority
Brazil’s Vale mining company plans to invest between US$15 billion and US$20 billion in projects in Africa in the next five years, nearly ten times as much as it has spent to date on the continent, and Mozambique will be one of the priorities. The company – the world’s biggest iron ore producer – indicated last week that it hopes the investments will also make it one of the three top copper producers on the continent, where there are abundant reserves of that mineral. It will also mine iron and coal.
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SA urged not to be ‘obsessed’ with Bric
SA’s bid to join one of the leading emerging market groups came under attack from trade policy experts yesterday. SA is campaigning to be admitted to the Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) bloc of countries, in the belief that joining Bric will open up new markets for exports. However, yesterday at a South African Institute of International Affairs trade forum , some trade policy experts disputed this belief.
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The fragile bit of Bric
Despite Brazil's powerhouse reputation, Latin America needs to learn from China to secure future economic growth. Over the past 30 years, both China and nations across Latin America have sought to move away from inward looking economic models and integrate into the world economy. In 1980, the collective economic output of Latin America was seven times as large as that of China. Now, China's economy is larger than all of the economies in Latin America combined.
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NTT takes foothold in Africa with Dimension Data
Japanese mobile operator NTT is finally moving to invest in Africa's lucrative telecom market, completing the buyout of South Africa's Dimension Data. Deminsion Data has a presence in many African countries but with the buyout, the company is now poised to expand its services. NTT is buying the company for US$3. 24 billion and makes it the first Japanese telecom company to take a major stake in the African market.The deal will likely open a window of investment in Africa by Japanese companies that have been reluctant to enter an expanding telecom market that has become a center of an investment war by international businesses.
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5. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

How the politics of polarity affects the African continent
At any given moment in the global political order power is distributed in a way and manner that favours certain states more than others. Now such states are usually dominant enough to assign their own values to the international political system which has been described as amorphous. So the nature of the distribution of power in the system determines the type of polarity prevailing at any given moment. Four types of polarities have been identified by scholars namely, unipolarity, bipolarity, tripolarity and multipolarity . A shift from one kind of polarity to the other signals a re-arrangement of the global power system hence a new world order ensues.
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Currency War Marks Beginning of Shift from Washington Consensus to Beijing Consensus
We sit amongst the vulnerable beneath the trampling of elephants as they fight it out. South Africa may be a big player in Africa, but is no match for the economic giants in the global arena. South Africa simply does not have the foreign currency reserves or trade power to fight a currency war. All South Africa can do is watch and hope for the best while attempting to stem the assault on the Rand to some degree -- but it won’t be enough. The currency war on everyone's lips marks a new front in geopolitical tussles between old and new powers. Emerging powers are slowly subverting the hierarchy of wealth in favour of themselves. This is really at the heart of matters, as they stand.
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ALLISTER SPARKS: Let's look for solutions closer to home
While it has become fashionable to extol the virtues of the fast-growing BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- and for our policy planners to enthuse particularly about the "developmental state," which they seem to regard as a blueprint for economic success yet have still to define it properly, I would like to suggest that we cast our gaze a little closer to home. To Africa, no less. Ten years after The Economist in its notorious cover story declared Africa to be "The Hopeless Continent," McKinsey and Company, the prestigious global management consultancy, has rated it as delivering the highest rate of return on foreign investment of all developing regions.
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BRIC’s role in Africa’s economic and infrastructural development: New partners in a new era
The lack of physical infrastructure in Africa is said to be the largest obstacle to the continent’s global integration. The shortage of industrialisation and diversification in trade and business has in turn greatly disadvantaged Africa’s ability to become regionally, as well as internationally connected. While the solution to this dilemma is making Africa more competitive, the issue of the continent’s poor infrastructure must first be addressed.
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Taming Africa’s dragon
President Jacob Zuma made a historical state visit to China recently, which was part of a strong strategic effort to visit all the Bric partners (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in little more than a year after he took office. In retrospect, the pundits have asked a good question: what really came out of these visits? In the Chinese trip, the only evident outcome of a 13-cabinet minister and 370-strong business delegation was a raft of new MoUs — memoranda of understanding: in effect a “gentleman’s handshake”, a letter of intent without any promise or legal commitment. So in short, nothing much at all.
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China: A blessing or Africa’s curse?
From Mali to Madagascar, Kenya to Zambia, Niger to Uganda, Chinese investors and labourers have infiltrated the continent. In some of the countries, their actions have been lauded but in others loathed, as Sunday Monitor Correspondents Janet Otieno, Jonstone Ole Turana, Saudah Mayanja & Caesar Abangirah narrate:-Africa has witnessed an influx of Chinese investors and labourers in recent years. So important has the continent become in the eyes of the Asian country that Beijing has adopted the softer approach of ‘not interfering in the continent’s political affairs’ to justify her economic pursuits.
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The Zambezi be dammed!
In August, the government of Mozambique officially approved the construction of the Mphanda Nkuwa Dam which is to be built in the Zambezi River about 60km downstream from the existing Cahora Bassa Dam. The project is expected to cost between $2bn and $3.5bn and deliver 1 500MW of electricity with the potential of being expanded to 2 400MW. Construction, led by a consortium of Mozambican and Brazilian interests, is slated to start in 2011 and take five to six years to complete. As early as January the Mozambican newspaper Notícias reported that negotiations of long-term power purchase agreements with Eskom were expected to be concluded this year. “So what’s wrong with that?” you ask. “Isn’t this sort of thing going to help Mozambique develop?” Indeed, proponents of the new dam claim that it will attract energy-intensive industries to the country, but in reality, Eskom and power hungry South Africa are expected to consume some 90% of the electricity generated.
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African Public Opinon on China
Today a student asked me if I had any information on African public opinion about Chinese immigrants. Recently, a number of news articles have described a growing backlash against immigrant Chinese in places like Angola and Namibia. I don't know if survey data is collected on this issue (and I suspect it would be mixed at best: Chinese traders and operators of small service businesses are patronized by African consumers, but local businesses resent the competition). But we do have fairly good data on public opinion about "China" collected by the Pew Global Opinion Polls. I checked their 2010 report to see how "Africa" (in this case, only Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya) stands in its views of China -- and, for comparison, the US.
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An analysis of Chinese media support in Africa
The Center for International Media Assistance and the National Endowment for Democracy published a useful analysis of Chinese media support for institutions in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia titled "Winds from the East: How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Influence the Media in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia."
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Sino-US storm clouds gather over Africa aid
At ground level, it seemed to be a happy harmony of Chinese, Western and African interests. After a Chinese construction firm won a contract to build a US-funded and much needed airport terminal in Mali's capital, officials from all three nations brought their pomp to a groundbreaking ceremony last month. The event topped the national news. But what plays well in Bamako can strike an ill chord in Washington. Even before the cornerstone was laid, wheels were in motion in the United States to make sure this kind of deal never happens again.
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Podcasts, Reviews and Interviews
“It’s not colonialism”
Peking University academic Li Anshan is an expert in Sino-African relations. Here, he hits back at criticism of Chinese investors abroad, telling Ning Er his country is succeeding where western aid has failed.
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Zimbabwe: Indian buyers pledge to back diamonds

2010-11-03

http://bit.ly/b22M4p

Indian buyers who visited the country last week to seal diamond deals have pledged to lobby their government to endorse Zimbabwe's gems ahead of the Kimberley Process meeting scheduled for Israel early next month. Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited said it would put its weight behind Zimbabwe as the KP meets in Jerusalem, Israel next Monday to determine whether Zimbabwe should be allowed sell its diamonds from Marange.

Egypt: Egypt hires PR company to revamp Its image

2010-11-03

http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/3638.cfm

In its quest to improve its image, Egypt's government recently hired the major UK public relations firm Bell Pottinger to better deliver its message to an international audience. The decision to seek PR help is due to the government's discontent over the way Egypt's regime is portrayed in Western media. According to Heba Morayef, a Human Rights Watch researcher on Egypt and Libya, there has been an increase in the number of arrests of dissidents, crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, and an increase in the number of arrests due to religious beliefs.

Ivory Coast: Election likely to go to second round

2010-11-03

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11681134

The presidential election in Ivory Coast is likely to go into a second round after partial results point to a tight race between the top candidates. With about half the ballots counted, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has 37 per cent, with Alassane Ouattara on 34 per cent, the election commission said. Turnout was about 80 per cent - reportedly one of the highest rates ever in Africa.

Liberia: President dismisses cabinet

2010-11-04

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/11/201011435156351626.html

The Liberian president has dismissed her cabinet in a move officials say will provide a 'fresh slate' for the government. No other reason was given for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's announcement on Wednesday but it comes amid a crackdown on corruption in the West African state that has led to investigations of some public officials a year ahead of presidential elections.

Namibia: Unions put a gun to Swapo's head

2010-11-02

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-01-unions-put-a-gun-to-swapos-head

With only weeks to go before regional and local elections, Namibia's ruling Swapo Party is coming under tremendous pressure from the civil servants who plan to march on the government unless the entire management of the state pension fund is dismissed and millions of Namibian dollars in unpaid empowerment loans are recovered.

Niger: Niger backs constitution to end junta rule

2010-11-03

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11684547

Results from a referendum in Niger show more than 90 per cent of voters backed a new constitution designed to return the country to civilian rule. The constitution was put forward by the junta leaders who came to power in a coup which ousted ex-President Mamadou Tandja in February.

South Africa: Mixed reaction to cabinet reshuffle

2010-11-02

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-01-mixed-reaction-to-cabinet-shakeup

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) urged newly appointed Cabinet ministers on Monday to bring down 'unacceptable' levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality. 'We urge the new team to remain fully united so that we can move forward together to deliver on our promises and bring down the unacceptable levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality,' a Cosatu statement said.

South Africa: Why capitalism needs the death squads

2010-11-03

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/575.1

In her recent book on the history of Columbia’s death squads, Jasmin Hristov has argued that neoliberalism needs the squads, and the resulting inequality would have been impossible to maintain without them. Hristov notes that death squad violence 'is purposefully directed towards sectors of society that stand in the way of the ruling class’s efforts to maintain economic dominance and acquire more resources to make even more profit. The upper classes so fear political organising among the poor, who could mount a formidable opposition to the status quo if allowed to organise unrestrained by state repression.' In the wake of political assassinations in South African provinces, Jane Duncan, the Highway Africa Chair of Media and Information Society at Rhodes University, looks at how serious the problem is.

Sudan: Obama renews Sudan sanctions

2010-11-03

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/11/2010111191135816881.html

Barack Obama has renewed sanctions against Sudan's government, keeping pressure on Khartoum to stick to the timetable for holding a referendum on southern independence. However, the US president also held out for the prospect for reconsidering Monday's decision if Sudanese leaders made progress in resolving the country's north-south dispute and improved the situation in the troubled Darfur region.

Tanzania: Political tolerance displayed in Zanzibar elections

2010-11-04

http://www.eisa.org.za/EISA/pr20101103.htm

The Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA) deployed a observer mission to the Zanzibar General Elections of 31 October 2010 and has issued preliminary findings and recommendations. The mission noted that there has been a significant improvement in levels of political tolerance since the last elections held in Zanzibar in 2005. The agreement between President Amane Abeid Karume, leader of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in Zanzibar and Seif Sharif Hamad, leader of Civic United Front (CUF) contributed significantly to this observable change in political tolerance.

Tanzania: Second opposition party questions poll

2010-11-04

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6A30G320101104

A second Tanzanian opposition party criticised the country's presidential and parliamentary electoral process on Thursday as authorities continued releasing results at a snail's pace. Tanzania's National Electoral Commission (NEC) admitted on Wednesday that there could have been irregularities in the vote tallying but said any errors would not influence the final result and rejected calls for a fresh poll.

Uganda: Museveni starts campaign

2010-11-03

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/736917

President Yoweri Museveni kicked off his election campaign in Luwero district, where he asked residents not to vote for the opposition because it cannot solve Uganda’s problems. Addressing rallies in Bamunanika, Luwero town and Wobulenzi, Museveni said it was only the Movement government that had a track record of solving the country’s problems.

West Africa: Much at stake in Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire elections

2010-11-03

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/west-africa/west-african-elections-theres-too-much-at-stake.aspx

By a coincidence of delayed timetables, neighbouring West African countries Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire are likely to go to the polls on consecutive Sundays, starting in Cote d’Ivoire on the 31st. In both these countries, delays have raised the spectre of civil conflict, but so has the prospect of finally holding the polls, states this International Crisis Group article. 'Why is this so? The feverish atmosphere flows partly from people’s hopes, the belief that democracy can really work this time and the desire to be vigilant against spoilers. But the answer also lies at elite level – in countries where economic opportunity is overwhelmingly dependent on official office, the stakes are simply too high.'

Zimbabwe: Corruption impedes right to an identity

2010-11-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90953

Getting a passport can be vital for making a living but mounting hidden costs are making it tougher to access one, despite the government recently slashing passport fees. Fees have been reduced from US$140 to $50, but the document can cost up to $120 or even $300, as Theresa Makone, the joint minister of home affairs, discovered on an impromptu visit to the Harare office which issues passports.

Africa: The end of water privatisation?

2010-11-03

http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/articles.aspx?id=4285

The European Union has set up a fund to promote partnerships between public water supply systems in Europe and corresponding utilities in subsaharan Africa. Seasoned observers disagree over whether or not this represents a definitive break with the old strategy of privatisation. Up to 10 years ago, our governments and economic elites were pushing the idea that drinking water supplies could not be expanded without private sector participation. Water privatisation was stubbornly opposed.

Global: Massive wealth disparities shown in new report

2010-11-01

http://www.alternet.org/story/148549/

At the wealth spectrum’s uppermost reaches, just over 1,000 billionaires and another 80,000 'ultra high net worth individuals' worth over $50 million each. At other end of the global spectrum sit three billion people - 'more than two thirds of the global adult population' – with an average wealth per adult less than $10,000, reveals a new report.

Nigeria: Nigeria aims to pass energy bill by year-end

2010-11-04

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6A30EV20101104

Nigeria still aims to pass a bill this year that will overhaul its energy industry, but the timing of its next oil licensing round is uncertain, a senior government official said on Thursday. The Petroleum Industry Bill will re-write Nigeria's decades-old relationship with its foreign oil partners, altering everything from the fiscal framework for offshore oil projects to the involvement of indigenous firms in the sector.

South Africa: Aid agency planned to boost African development

2010-11-04

http://bit.ly/ajXkUB

South Africa is set to create a US-style development aid agency as it seeks to play a more prominent role as a major donor country in Africa, says International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. She made the announcement at a regional heads of mission conference in Nairobi, Kenya during a three-day foreign policy session, Business Day reported on Wednesday.

South Africa: Social grants, entrepeneurship and investing in the future

2010-11-03

http://www.plaas.org.za/neves%20social%20grants.pdf

There are many myths around the abuse of social grants. In his article 'Social grants: Going beyond basic needs' David Neves from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies shows how social grants not only provide a safety net, but also act as a spring board for all sorts of other unseen opportunities, including small-scale entrepeneurship. Grants are often invested in the future, in ways that meet the needs and constraints of the poor - often either in building or upgrading housing or in their children and grandchildren's education and nutrition.

Tanzania: Are tax exemptions too high?

2010-11-01

http://twaweza.org/index.php?i=426

Tanzania grants high levels of tax exemptions relative to what it collects in revenue. This raises concerns about whether the practice is justified for a country that can barely raise enough to finance its budget. Analysis by civil society organisation Uwazi at Twaweza shows that tax exemptions have increased sharply during the second part of this decade (2006-2010) compared to what was granted in the earlier half of this decade (2001-2005). The analysis, presented in a policy brief titled, 'Tanzania’s Tax Exemptions: are they too high and making us too dependent on foreign aid?' suggests that Tanzania could make significant savings in revenues if it granted tax exemptions less liberally.

Tanzania: South should exit from aid dependency

2010-11-03

http://bit.ly/cT8BAg

The poor countries must have an exit policy away from aid dependency especially since the North will be cutting their aid as a result of the global crisis. Moreover, the South and its political leaders must think more for themselves, listen to their own experts and redefine development. This message was conveyed by South Centre chairman Benjamin Mkapa at the closing ceremony of the conference on the Global Economy in Beijing on 4 August.

Africa: New model shows future impact of circumcision on HIV epidemic probably underestimated

2010-11-04

http://bit.ly/avfvLn

Projections of the impact of circumcision on the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa based on clinical trials may underestimate the number of infections that can be averted by around 40 per cent, according to an international group of epidemiological modellers. The findings, published in advance online by the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, come from new epidemiological modelling work that incorporates findings from a pooled analysis of two recent studies that evaluated the impact of circumcision on HIV transmission from men to women.

Kenya: Mother-to-child transmission packs save lives

2010-11-04

http://www.wunrn.com/news/2010/11_10/11_01_10/110110_hiv.htm

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake joined the Kenya Government and other partners on Friday to roll out an innovative approach to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies (PMTCT). The initiative includes a combination of interventions and supplies such as a 'Mother-Baby-Pack' of antiretroviral drugs and antibiotics, which women can easily administer at home. Without treatment, around half of all children born with HIV will die before their second birthday.

South Africa: ART patients defy risky sex expectations, says study

2010-11-04

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90964

Fears that antiretroviral therapy might lead healthier-feeling HIV-positive people to have more sex and potentially infect others may be unfounded, according to a new South African study, which recorded patients having significantly less sex as well as safer sex after starting treatment. The study followed 2,332 HIV-positive patients enrolled in care who eventually started treatment at a large urban clinic in Soweto, Johannesburg's largest township, and a rural clinic in Mpumalanga province between 2003 and 2009.

South Africa: Hospitals failing to treat HIV-positive infants

2010-11-03

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90954

KwaZulu-Natal Province remains the epicentre of South Africa’s HIV epidemic but new research reveals that nearly a third of hospitals surveyed had not started a single HIV-positive infant on antiretroviral treatment in several years. The research, presented at this week’s Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Africa Conference in Johannesburg, was conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health (MatCH) Unit, with the government.

Tanzania: Of health facilities becoming ‘white elephants’

2010-11-04

http://bit.ly/aIbbi8

For a place to be deemed a health facility, there are things that are considered to be necessities such as human resources and medicinal drugs, among many others. However, we find so many health facilities in this country failing to meet these standards thereby being reduced to nothing but white elephants. Recently, it was reported that Dar es Salaam municipal hospitals are facing serious shortages of medicines and medical staff such as nurses and doctors, something that cripples the operations of these health facilities, aggravating the suffering of the general public as they fail to provide quality services to patients.

Algeria: Algeria aims to spur reading

2010-11-04

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/11/01/feature-02

The Algerian government has been implementing an array of pro-reading measures. In 2008, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia issued a decree covering the import and sale of books through festivals, fairs and trade shows. Last August, the Council of Ministers decided to introduce a VAT exemption on paper for book printing.

Global: World Education Forum closes

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/c07UE6

After four days of conferences, workshops and cultural activities, the World Education Forum in Palestine ended this afternoon with an assembly bringing together Palestinian and international educators and social justice activists from diverse sectors. Participants at the assembly reflected on the past few days and discussed how to take the various proposals coming out of the forum forward. Three main topics were discussed: how to build an education movement in Palestine, the future of international solidarity with Palestine, and learning from the experiences of other social forums.

Zambia: Challenge to retain teachers

2010-11-03

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53431

Zambia's efforts to strengthen its education system will come to little if no way is found to retain skilled teachers like Caroline Chisenga. She is a maths teacher with ten years of experience under her belt. She has recently upgraded her teaching qualifications with a full degree. But she has one eye on leaving the country in search of higher pay.

DRC: Groups mobilise against anti-gay bill

2010-11-04

http://www.mask.org.za/gay-rights-groups-mobilise-against-drc’s-anti-gay-bill/

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights organisations and activists have expressed concerns over the the Sexual Practices Against Nature Bill presented before the national parliament of the Democratic Republic of aiming to criminalise homosexuality and zoophilia as sexual practices against nature. Jean Bedel Kaniki, President of Groupe Hirondelles Bukavu, an LGBTI organisation in the DRC confirmed that on the 22 October 'the bill was judged admissible by the majority of the parliament and was sent to the socio-cultural committee that will discuss its permissibility in terms of the provisions and principles of the constitution before its promulgation'.

Uganda: Judge orders tabloid to stop publishing names

2010-11-04

http://www.mask.org.za/judge-orders-ugandan-paper-to-stop-publishing-gay-list/

A judge has temporarily ordered a tabloid in Uganda to stop publishing lists identifying people it claims are gay after an advocacy organisation filed a lawsuit. The order came a day after Rolling Stone - which has no relation to the iconic US music magazine - published a list of people it said were gay, urging readers to report them to police. Last month the tabloid published names, photos and address of 100 people that it called the country’s top gays and lesbians, alongside a yellow banner reading, 'hang them'.

Africa: Recent developments in synthetic biology in Africa

2010-11-02

http://bit.ly/aHley5

The focus of a new paper from the African Centre for Biosafety is the emerging field of synthetic biology, in particular its implications for the African continent. Synthetic biology combines a number of scientific disciplines and is generally understood to involve the deliberate design of biological systems, using standardised components that have been created in a laboratory. The conclusion of the paper leaves more questions than answers because of the emerging and secretive nature of the field, but highlights the very significant implications of this new technology and the need for a precautionary and vigilant approach towards it.

Global: Biodiversity conference gives cause for rejoicing

2010-11-01

http://www.indepthnews.net/news/news.php?key1=2010-10-31%2002:56:08&key2=1

'If Kyoto entered history as the city where the climate accord was born, Nagoya will be remembered as the city where the biodiversity accord was born,' said Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). He was commenting the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-10) that concluded 29 October in Nagoya, Japan. Upbeat assessments highlight that COP-10 achieved three inter-linked goals: adoption of a new ten-year Strategic Plan to guide international and national efforts to save biodiversity through enhanced action to meet the objectives of the CBD; a resource mobilisation strategy that provides the way forward to a substantial increase to current levels of official development assistance (ODA) in support of biodiversity; and a new international protocol on access to and sharing of the benefits from the use of the genetic resources of the planet.

South Africa: Objection to GM sugarcane trials

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/c82Af4

The South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI) has applied to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for permission to conduct field trials for four varieties of GM sugarcane. Having viewed SASRI's applications in terms of the Public Access to Information Act (PAIA), the African Centre for Biodiversity issued a statement saying: 'It is our opinion that the information provided is so inadequate that it is virtually impossible to conduct any meaningful independent assessment of the applications. Further, throughout the application runs the assumption that the genetically modified lines under discussion are 'equivalent' to their conventional counterparts. This is a view not supported by the published literature.' Read the rest of the statement through the weblink provided.

South Africa: Seizing opportunity From danger in dealing with water crisis

2010-11-01

http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/574.1

'Water management in South Africa is in serious crisis. Consumers were recently told to wash their fruit and vegetables as they could be infected by disease causing E. coli microbes because the crops were irrigated with water contaminated by sewage,' writes Glenn Ashton on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service. 'Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is killing not just crocodiles but entire riverine eco-systems. Our dams, rivers and streams are becoming ever more stressed due to the low flows of water that remain in them because of illegal over-abstraction for irrigation and contamination by poorly maintained sewage works.'

Southern Africa: Testing water quality in the Orange River

2010-11-03

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53435

You would expect to find children in the Vaal River outside Parys on a hot afternoon. But 28 of them, on the Gauteng side of the river, are not swimming; they are doing research for ORASECOM. For three months beginning in November, ORASECOM, the Orange-Senqu River Commission, will test the water quality, the environmental impact of industry and the general health of the ecosystem at some 60 sites along the river basin. The data is to be shared amongst all four of the participating states and the goal is to get some idea on the impact of water use along the system.

Uganda: Activists angry at reluctance on environment protection

2010-11-02

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1045006/-/clsavsz/-/index.html

Activists have started mobilising communities to demand the implementation of environmental laws following the government’s alleged reluctance to halt the degradation of the eco-system. Environmentalists said since 1992, the government had formulated many environmental laws and agencies to protect natural resources but it has failed to enforce the laws. 'Since the government has failed to honour its commitments, we have chosen to empower communities to have the right and ability to influence decisions about the environment and national resources that sustain their livelihood,' said Godber Tumushabe, the executive director for Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment.

Uganda: One million trees for Mt Elgon region

2010-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90956

A three-year project to increase forest cover and help local communities in eastern Uganda adapt to climate change has been launched. 'The planting of one million trees has started to sustain an area of tropical forest in Africa the size of Wales,' said John Griffiths, counsel-general of the Welsh Assembly, which is supporting the project. 'These trees will not only absorb carbon but provide shade for crops.'

Ghana: One more bad example of land grabbing

2010-11-03

http://farmlandgrab.org/16917

Chief Sumani Amidu of Kpachaa village in northern Ghana, has sat by as over half of his 100 villagers abandon him to seek new jobs and sources of food for their families. Three years ago the chief sold the village land for GH¢100 for a promise that never came. Now forced to farm himself to keep the children of the village alive, each morning on his 40-minute walk to the village’s last farm ing plot, he passes his old farmland now owned by a Norwegian biofuel company.

Zambia: Land legislation in Zambia bypasses the poor yet again

2010-11-03

http://farmlandgrab.org/16914

Land administration policies in Zambia are heavily centralized. The 1995 Lands Act that regulates Zambia’s land policy stipulates that all land is to be held in trust by the president, and most of the poor people live on customary land as they cannot afford to obtain a leasehold tenure. There are organisations trying to rectify this, however. The Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA), a network of NGOs working for pro-poor land policies, has previously criticised both post-independence and present land legislation as being inadequate, of not listening to the poor that to a large degree tend the land, and of focusing too heavily on liberalising land markets.

Angola: Letter to interior minister about violence against journalists

2010-11-04

http://en.rsf.org/angola-letter-to-interior-minister-about-02-11-2010,38737.html

Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation. 'We are concerned by the fact that the victims all work for critical or opposition news media,' Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said in the letter, sent on 28 October. 'The level of violence is very disturbing. The physical safety of journalists is in danger. We are alarmed by the gravity of these attacks.'

Morocco: TV network banned

2010-11-03

http://www.panos.org.uk/?lid=33532

The Moroccan government has suspended all operations by the pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera in the country for allegedly failing to follow the 'rules of serious and responsible journalism'. The Qatar-based network condemned the decision and said its editorial guidelines would not be affected by the closure of its bureau in Rabat and the withdrawal of accreditation for its local staff.

Somalia: Open letter to Puntland president on media freedom

2010-11-04

http://www.ifex.org/somalia/2010/10/29/letter_president_puntland/

'We, the undersigned journalists and freedom of expression organisations, express to you and your administration our deepest concern at the worsening media freedom situation in the north-eastern regions of Somalia that are controlled by Puntland. Since you assumed the office of Puntland President on 11 January 2009, journalists have been arrested, physically assaulted, suspended, censored and even killed, and the operations of news media organisations have been threatened, closed or restricted.'

South Africa: Trade union head speaks against info bill

2010-11-04

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article744814.ece/Vavi-speaks-out-against-info-bill

The government's contentious draft Protection of Information Bill will threaten whistleblowers trying to root out corruption, says Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. 'Cosatu is committed to free expression... I believe that the Protection of Information Bill as currently drafted clearly breaches these laws,' he told a gathering hosted by The Daily Maverick in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Zimbabwe: Two journalists arrested

2010-11-03

http://www.misa.org/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?category=2&id=1288695268

Freelance journalists Andrison Manyere and Nkosana Dhlamini were arrested and detained overnight at Waterfalls police station in Harare on 30 October 2010 while covering a constitutional information gathering meeting, reports the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Manyere and Dhlamini were arrested together with Diana Nyikadzino, Phineas Natarika and Eric Murayi during the meeting held at St John Retreat in Harare South. The five were arrested in the melee of scuffle that ensued after Dhlamini tried to interview some of the participants at the meeting.

Africa: Foreign aid shocks as a cause of violent armed conflict

2010-11-04

http://www.eldis.org/go/what-s-new&id=56521&type=Document

Researchers have attempted to link foreign aid to conflict with some suggesting that aid exacerbates existing ethnic cleavages while others say it presents an opportunity to payoff rebels who start civil war. Yet others argue that aid decreases the risk of civil war by promoting economic growth and strengthening state capabilities. This study delves into the confusion over foreign aid and its effects on armed conflict. It argues that aid shocks or sudden decreases in aid revenues, may shift the domestic balance of power and potentially induce violence because potential rebels gain bargaining strength with the government.

Haiti: Cholera toll an indictment of imperialism

2010-11-03

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/pers-n01.shtml

Like the massive death toll inflicted by the earthquake last January, the cholera outbreak in Haiti is not some natural disaster, but rather the product of desperate poverty created by centuries of imperialist oppression, says this World Socialist Web Site article. Haitian and international officials reported Sunday that the death toll from the outbreak of cholera had reached 337, with over 4,000 confirmed cases of the disease, mostly in the central and northern part of the Caribbean nation.

Haiti: Fear of looming hurricane grips Haitian quake camps

2010-11-03

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02247787.htm

How do you prepare a tent to stand up to a hurricane? That is the question faced by hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors living in fragile outdoor camps who are bracing for a hurricane forecast to hit the poor, stricken Caribbean country over the weekend. 'This camp won't stand up to a big wind,' said Jean Sincio, a coordinator for a camp of flimsy tents built in the grounds of a school. It is one of hundreds of tent and tarpaulin settlements in the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince housing more than 1.3 million people left homeless by the 12 January quake.

Morocco: UN schedules new talks on future of Western Sahara

2010-11-03

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11680896

A new round of talks on the Western Sahara will aim to break an impasse over the future of the disputed North African territory, the UN says. The meeting of Western Sahara's independent movement Polisario Front and Moroccan officials has been scheduled for next week in New York.

Nigeria: Blast hits government building in oil delta

2010-11-04

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6A304U20101104

An explosion rocked a government guest house in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta on Wednesday, a month after twin car bombings in the capital Abuja, a local government official said. The explosion damaged two upstairs rooms of the guest house in Asaba, the capital of Delta state, but there were no injuries, Sunny Ogefere, spokesman for the state governor said.

Nigeria: Nigeria tackles Iran over arms

2010-11-04

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/17960.html

A diplomatic row is brewing between Nigeria and Iran over the shipment of 13 containers of arms and ammunition into the country. Although the arms-laden ship came from the Indian port in Mumbai, it was alleged that the ship originated from Iran. It was also alleged that Nigeria might have been a routing point for the arms, which are believed to be on the way to Gaza Strip in the Middle East, with the consignment belonging to the Hamas Militant Group.

Sudan: Police, rebels clash in Darfur

2010-11-04

http://bit.ly/9PW31R

Sudan policemen and Darfur rebel militias clashed in Sudan's western region of Darfur, government and rebels said. It was reported that both sides are claiming a crushing victory. The Sudan government said its forces had killed many rebel fighters while rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) claimed to have killed about 50 policemen. The interior ministry said the fighting begun when Jem rebels ambushed a government fuel and food supplies convoy in southern Darfur.

Tanzania: Deadly animal virus could spread to Southern Africa, UN says

2010-11-04

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36637&Cr=disease&Cr1=

A deadly animal virus which broke out earlier this year in Tanzania could spread to Southern Africa, threatening the lives of more than 50 million sheep and goats in 15 countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. Known as Peste des Petits Ruminants, or small ruminants’ plague (PPR), it is considered the most destructive viral disease affecting small flocks, on par with rinderpest, a deadly cattle plague that has wreaked havoc on agriculture for millennia, resulting in famine and economic destruction.

Kenya: SA firms invade Kenya’s internet market

2010-11-02

http://bit.ly/9Kb6DL

Will MTN finally set up as a mobile service operator in Kenya after several years of failed attempts? That’s the million-dollar question after the data unit of South Africa’s biggest mobile operator took control of a local internet service provider, UUNET, by buying a majority stake. The firm has since rebranded to MTN Business Kenya, to reflect its principal shareholders.

Nigeria: Computers blog launched

2010-11-04

http://zunia.org/post/nigeria-computers-blog-launched/

Developed by Jidaw Systems Limited, a ICT training, consulting and web content provision firm in Nigeria, the Nigeria Computers blog is a public online resource for Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) in Nigeria. With an aim to promote ICT4D in Nigeria, the blog will provide information, insights and opportunities to network. The blog’s focus on ICT4D content is geared towards ICT for job creation, business development, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Tanzania: Twittering 2010 Tanzania general elections

2010-11-03

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/11/02/tanzania-twittering-2010-tanzania-general-elections/

Tanzanians voted on on 31 October 2010 to elect the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, President of Zanzibar, Members of Parliament and Members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Using hashtags #UchaguziTZ, #uchaguzi, and #TZelect, Tanzanian netizens have been keeping their followers updated with results and on-the-ground observations.

Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice updates

2010-11-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/68266

The fourth in an ongoing series of updates from the Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice is available. It is intended to track developments in the field and facilitate information sharing among practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. The includes:
- The Rule of Law and the MDGs
- Access to Justice and the New Kenyan Constitution
- Locked Up and Forgotten - Prison Overcrowding in South Asia
Write to jchandler@justiceinitiative.org to find out about subscription.

New South Bulletin out

2010-11-03

http://bit.ly/97FV6F

Issue 51, 29 October 2010 of the South Bulletin, produced by the South Centre focuses on key issues missing from the G20 Agenda. Articles deal with recent emerging issues in the global economy – the currency chaos, volatile capital flows, and a new protectionism in the U.S. The Bulletin also reports on:
- The slow progress in the UNFCCC climate talks in Tianjin, China;
- The South Centre’s conference and Board meeting in China;
- Impact of the global economic crisis on LDCs; and
- Yasuni initiative to leave oil in the ground to fight climate change

Awards for young environmental journalists opened

2010-11-04

http://www.unep.org/yeja/

Entries for the UNEP Young Environmental Journalist Award Africa are now open. The competition, which is made possible through funding support from the Government of the United States of America, is open to African journalists between 25 and 35 years old, working for African news and media organisations.

Sierra Leone: Call for researcher to do a study on ecological debt

2010-11-04

http://bit.ly/cTdujG

AFRODAD will in 2010 produce three reports on ecological debt, binding together debt, climate change and extractive industries. The objective of the research is to deepen the understanding of the concept of ecological debt. The research will help to define a conceptual framework that can help develop policy recommendations to be used in advocacy activities. Specifically the research will seek to establish the magnitude of ecological debt in Africa and recommend key policy areas for advocacy.

Voices from the Continent

Call for Papers, Harvard Africa Policy Journal

2010-11-04

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/503/APJ 2011_Call for papers_09302010.pdf

The Harvard Africa Policy Journal is the leading scholarly journal in the United States dedicated to African policy. A call for papers has been issued for this year's theme, 'From the Heart of Africa'.

Tanzania Elections 2010: present state and future trends

School of Oriental and African Studies, London

2010-11-04

http://bit.ly/bgngCq

Nine days after the general elections in Tanzania a panel of experts will discuss the scene on the ground leading up to the elections, the election process itself and the what next for Tanzania.

Asian University for Women: Full-time faculty positions

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/68452

The Asian University for Women is seeking to appoint candidates to the following positions:
- Full-time faculty position in Asian Religion and Philosophy
- Chinese Language Instructor
- Full-time faculty position in World History
- Full-time faculty member in Media/Journalism.
Asian University for Women
Asian Religion and Philosophy

The Asian University for Women invites applications for a full-time faculty position in Asian Religion and Philosophy. Applicants must hold a PhD in Religion, Religious Studies, or Philosophy or be on track to receive their PhD prior to their appointment to the faculty. Applicants should have expertise in historical and contemporary South, Southeast or East Asian religions and religious thought, intellectual and social traditions, or philosophy. Faculty members will be expected to teach two courses per term, typically one in the core curriculum and one in the Asian Studies major.

The AUW is an innovative liberal arts institution with an international faculty and students drawn from across Asia. The University is located in the port city of Chittagong, Bangladesh. AUW values a strong commitment to research, a promise of successful scholarly engagement, and dedication to teaching excellence in a liberal arts environment. The AUW offers a competitive package of salary and benefits, including housing, for faculty members and their families who relocate with them to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Please submit cover letter, CV, the names of three references, graduate transcripts, teaching statement, research statement, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and one or two scholarly papers and/or other writing samples as either MS Word or PDF files to Ms. Tasneem Abedin, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost, Asian University for Women (tasneem.abedin@auw.edu.bd).

Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but for best consideration, please submit your application by January 8, 2010. Please refer to AUW’s website at: http://www.asian-university.org for further detail.

Chinese Language Instructor

The Asian University for Women invites applications for a full-time Chinese language instructor to teach Chinese as a second language to non-native speakers. Candidates must have a minimum of a Masters Degree in Chinese Language with excellent proficiency in spoken and written Chinese and experience in teaching. Preference will be given to native Chinese speakers. Faculty members will be expected to teach two language courses per term.

The AUW is an innovative liberal arts institution with an international faculty and students drawn from across Asia. The University is located in the port city of Chittagong, Bangladesh. AUW values a strong commitment to research, a promise of successful scholarly engagement, and dedication to teaching excellence in a liberal arts environment. The AUW offers a competitive package of salary and benefits, including housing, for faculty members and their families who relocate with them to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Please submit cover letter, CV, the names of three references, graduate transcripts, teaching statement, research statement, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and one or two scholarly papers and/or other writing samples as either MS Word or PDF files to Ms. Tasneem Abedin, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost, Asian University for Women (tasneem.abedin@auw.edu.bd).

Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but for best consideration, please submit your application by January 8, 2010. Please refer to AUW’s website at: http://www.asian-university.org for further detail.

World and Asian History

The Asian University for Women invites applications for a full-time faculty position in World History with a preferred specialty in any historical period and area of Asian History. Applicants must hold a PhD or be on track to receive their PhD prior to their appointment to the faculty. We especially encourage applications from candidates whose scholarship places Asia in a broader thematic context, such as comparative state-formation and imperialism or international relations and globalization. The successful candidate will be expected to teach two courses per term, typically one entry level course in the core curriculum in World History and one higher level seminar in the Asian Studies major.
The AUW is an innovative liberal arts institution with an international faculty and students drawn from across Asia. The University is located in the port city of Chittagong, Bangladesh. AUW values a strong commitment to research, a promise of successful scholarly engagement, and dedication to teaching excellence in a liberal arts environment. The AUW offers a competitive package of salary and benefits, including housing, for faculty members and their families who relocate with them to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Please submit cover letter, CV, the names of three references, graduate transcripts, teaching statement, research statement, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and one or two scholarly papers and/or other writing samples as either MS Word or PDF files to Ms. Tasneem Abedin, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost, Asian University for Women (tasneem.abedin@auw.edu.bd).
Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but for best consideration, please submit your application by January 8, 2010. Please refer to AUW’s website at: http://www.asian-university.org for further detail.


Media/Journalism

The Asian University for Women invites applications for a full-time faculty member in Media/Journalism with one or more preferred specialties in any of these areas; electronic, new and emerging media, alternative media or print media. Applicants must have some years of practical experience in the field and hold a minimum of a Masters degree in Media or Journalism. Candidates with an international background or have global knowledge and experiences about the related industries are encouraged to apply; familiarity with the Asian region will be an advantage. The successful candidate will be expected to teach two courses per term.

The AUW is an innovative liberal arts institution with an international faculty and students drawn from across Asia. The University is located in the port city of Chittagong, Bangladesh. AUW values a strong commitment to research, a promise of successful scholarly engagement, and dedication to teaching excellence in a liberal arts environment. The AUW offers a competitive package of salary and benefits, including housing, for faculty members and their families who relocate with them to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Please submit cover letter, CV, the names of three references, graduate transcripts, teaching statement, research statement, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and one or two scholarly papers and/or other writing samples as either MS Word or PDF files to Ms. Tasneem Abedin, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost, Asian University for Women (tasneem.abedin@auw.edu.bd).
Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but for best consideration, please submit your application by January 8, 2010. Please refer to AUW’s website at: http://www.asian-university.org for further detail.

International Grants Portfolio Manager – Trade & Climate Change

Comic Relief

2010-11-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/68380

Reporting to the Head of International Grants and managing a small team, you’ll lead on the delivery of our trade and climate change programme strategies, and the development of our social investment strategy as well as playing a critical role in strengthening corporate and other relationships that will enable us to fulfill our mission.
International Grants Portfolio Manager – Trade & Climate Change
Permanent role
£40,000 - £45,000
Central London



We know that, within a global context, the scale of need is huge and what Comic Relief can contribute is modest. But by using our resources carefully in a targeted way we believe we can help to make a significant impact. In this role you’ll have the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of creating change through driving a mix of grant making and social investments across our trade and climate change programme.

Reporting to the Head of International Grants and managing a small team, you’ll lead on the delivery of our trade and climate change programme strategies, and the development of our social investment strategy as well as playing a critical role in strengthening corporate and other relationships that will enable us to fulfill our mission.

This is a high profile role where your experience of working with/within the corporate sector will be critical as you explore opportunities for collaboration, develop relationships with our key partners and lead on risk assessment of potential partnerships. Equally important will be your ability to make sound decisions on grant applications so a track record of working in and evaluating development in developing countries is essential.

To join us as an International Grants Portfolio Manager go to http://bit.ly/c9QeB6

Or send a large SAE, quoting ref: CR1081, to Recruitment, Comic Relief, 5th Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP.

Closing date: 26th November 2010.

Comic Relief positively welcomes, and seeks to ensure we achieve, diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality. We encourage applications from disabled people as they are currently under-represented in the organisation and guarantee an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job.
registered charity 326568

Legal Research Panel

Interights

2010-11-01

http://bit.ly/d0fI2a

The overall purpose of this consultancy is:
- To assist INTERIGHTS’ lawyers through in depth legal research on complex or emerging legal issues arising principally, but not exclusively, in our litigation;
- To provide research and analysis of the highest quality, with links to relevant laws, cases and articles;
- To provide high quality written documents in agreed specialist area.
Panellists do not need to be resident in the United Kingdom, as the work would be conducted primarily remotely via email and telephone.

Research Associate

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)

2010-11-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/68269

AWID is currently seeking an activist/researcher with a strong background in economics and development to work with our Influencing Development Actors and Practices for Women’s Rights (IDeA) strategic initiative. IDeA is engaged in an exciting action-research agenda that is attempting to connect theoretical debates on development and the need for alternative models with concrete experiences, lessons learned and analysis from a women’s rights perspective.
IDeA – Research Associate/ The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) / Location: Flexible / Closing date: Sunday, November 14, 2010



Organization:
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is an international feminist membership organization that works to strengthen the voice, impact and influence of women's rights advocates, organizations and movements internationally.

AWID is currently seeking an activist/researcher with a strong background in economics and development to work with our Influencing Development Actors and Practices for Women’s Rights (IDeA) strategic initiative. IDeA is engaged in an exciting action-research agenda that is attempting to connect theoretical debates on development and the need for alternative models with concrete experiences, lessons learned and analysis from a women’s rights perspective. We’re looking for someone with excellent writing and research skills, including knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The successful candidate will be able to critically engage with the assumptions of mainstream/orthodox economics from a women’s rights perspectives.

Overview of the Strategic Initiative:
Launched in 2008, AWID’s strategic initiative, Influencing Development Actors and Practices for Women’s Rights (IDeA) advances feminist understandings of the relationship between development and women’s rights with a particular focus on the aid effectiveness agenda and the Financing for Development process at the UN. The initiative produces and disseminates knowledge on development issues with special emphasis on women’s perspectives and aims to connect theoretical debate on development and the need for alternative models or paradigms with concrete experiences, lessons learned and analysis from women’s rights perspectives.


QUALIFICATIONS
Experience:
4 to 6 years experience:
- working for a non-profit organization in a related role
- conducting research, including collecting, analyzing, and presenting data
- working in a multi-cultural team
- Significant experience in writing and editing research to communicate research findings to diverse audiences
- Experience with advocacy initiatives or influence strategies
- Experience working with non-profit organizations based in the Global South and/or Central and Eastern Europe

Academic Qualifications:
- University degree or college diploma in a related field: economics, political science, international relations, development, women’s studies, etc.

Expertise & Skills:
- Ability to engage critically with the assumptions of mainstream/orthodox economics from a women’s rights perspective in order to analyze and engage meaningfully in debates around challenges to the current neoliberal models of growth and development.
- Demonstrated capacity to connect related micro and meso level debates around alternative models to current trends and challenges to the neoliberal economic model at a macro level
- Excellent research, writing and editing skills, ability to analyze information across a range of disciplines and able to extract relevant analyses and communicate them to diverse audiences
- Good knowledge of research methodologies including statistical and quantitative methods as well as qualitative methodologies (interviews, case studies, etc.)
- Demonstrated capacity with alliance-building and negotiations among diverse groups (including women’s rights organizations)
- Strong administrative and computer skills, including word processing, presentation packages (Power Point), Internet, and email
- Effective public speaking and presentation skills
- Keen attention to detail and quality control
- Able to manage conflict effectively
- Strong interpersonal skills and able to build alliances with diverse actors
- Able to multi-task, and willing to perform diverse tasks as needed in a timely manner
- Proactive, able to work independently and as part of a team
- Able to work under pressure and to produce results quickly
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English

Knowledge & Other Requirements:
- Strong knowledge of feminist/heterodox economics, with a clear understanding of the implications of economic policies and principles on different groups
- Some knowledge of development and economic rights frameworks and related UN processes
- Familiarity with international and regional women’s rights organizations and networks working on development and economic rights
- Able to travel internationally (approx. 7 weeks per year)
- Committed to the principles and values of feminism and anti-oppression

Assets:
- Graduate degree in a related field
- Courses or certificates in women's/feminist studies, political economy or human rights considered an asset
- Relationships with women’s rights organizations in multiple regions, particularly Africa and/or Asia
- Bilingual (English as well as Spanish and/or French)

For a complete job description, please visit our website at www.awid.org

How to Apply:

Please send:
1) Cover letter and current CV (addressing how you meet the necessary qualifications and outlines why you want to work for AWID)
2) The exact source/location you saw the advertisement for this position

Fax: +416 594 0330
E-mail: jobs@awid.org (please include “IDeA – Research Associate” in the subject line of the email)

No phone calls please. Only email and faxed applications will be accepted. The application closing date is Sunday, November 14, 2010. We thank all who apply, but only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. AWID encourages, promotes and supports diversity in all aspects of its work.

To learn more about AWID and our programs, please visit our website at www.awid.org

South Africa: Programs Coordinator

Children of South Africa (CHOSA)

2010-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/68429

Children of South Africa (CHOSA) is a small funding NGO that is looking for a full-time Programs Coordinator with progressive politics who speaks fluent isiXhosa. This person should understand grassroots and community-led development as well as be anti-authoritarian in his/her socio-political outlook.
2 November 2010

Summary of the type of person we are looking for...

Children of South Africa (CHOSA) is a small funding NGO that is looking for a full-time Programs Coordinator with progressive politics who speaks fluent isiXhosa. This person should understand grassroots and community-led development as well as be anti-authoritarian in his/her socio-political outlook. This person should be able to facilitate in a participatory manner workshops and discussions about social, political and economic issues and how they relate to children and youth. We are looking for someone who understands that community development is always a political process and this process should be led by the communities themselves. Please see the Job Description below for more information on the position. The deadline to apply is 19th of November 2010.

Job Description for Cape Town Programs Coordinator

Position to begin: mid-January 2011 (six-week on-ground training; full responsibility to commence on 1 March, 2011.)
Time commitment: 80 hours/week divided by two people (Programs Coordinator and Programs Fellow)
Duration: Must be willing to commit for at least two years
Salary: R4,500/month salary plus compensation for CHOSA-related expenses (petrol, AA-determined car wear and tear, telephone, internet, printing, office supplies)

The following job description is intended to be split between two people who will make up the CHOSA on-ground team. They are required to collectively divide the work and determine individual responsibilities as best suites their skills and availability.

1. Work hands-on with the community-based organizations (CBO) that CHOSA supports in Cape Town. Including but not limited to:
• Liaise with Baphumelele Children’s Home, Ubuhle Babantwana, Emasithandane, Philani Family Fund, Ilitha Labantwana, Qaqambani Safe Home, and any additional projects/organizations/communities that CHOSA takes on or needs to network with.
• Hold regular meetings with each relevant project. Frequency of the meetings will depend on the organizations’ needs at that time, but should not be less than once every two weeks at each organization. The purposes of these meetings are: 1) To continue/build open and trusting relationships with the CBOs; 2) To receive updates on the progress of the CBO in general as well as any specific project underway; 3) To receive accounting for funds if there is a CHOSA grant in place; 4) To work with the CBOs to develop their organization in ways that fit with their goals for development and assist in this process of growth. This is also a time to discuss internal/external problems, and ways in which CHOSA can support/help the project either directly or through referrals should the project want this assistance.
• Participate in bi-annual meetings with each CBO’s board of directors and CHOSA's Executive Director.
• Ensure that the CBO is able to prepare a financial report back to CHOSA. If the organization does not have the ability to prepare an end-of-the-year statement (or audit), then the coordinator is required to request more frequent (preferably monthly) engagement by the organization’s bookkeeper in order to ensure the project’s finances are in order.
• Report back to CHOSA on each organization’s finances.
• Total expected time commitment: 40-50 hours per week

2. Administer CHOSA volunteering/tutoring program. Including but not limited to:
• Speak at the CIEE volunteering orientation.
• Hold an informational session for all interested student-volunteers.
• Hold individual interviews with each potential volunteer.
• Liaise with CIEE and with relevant CBO(s) in order to coordinate the CHOSA after-school program.
• Coordinate the work of assistant volunteer coordinators at each project, making sure that they are helpful for the volunteers and engaged with the work. Should we need additional/new assistant coordinators, then the On-Ground team is responsible for training them.
• Support volunteers in creating curricula/lesson plans.
• Support volunteers in their classrooms, should they need help on any given day.
• Coordinate monthly ‘decompression’ sessions where volunteers are able to reflect on their experience. This includes planning agendas for these meetings including one Xhosa lesson with an outside instructor, a CHOSA information session, and an end of the semester meeting to get feedback.
• Draw up an operating budget and get it approved by CIEE administration.
• Collect receipts from students as semester progresses and get them reimbursed from CIEE on a monthly basis.
• Introduce volunteers to the rest of CHOSA and help them feel connected to CHOSA on a personal level.
• Motivate volunteers throughout the semester to stay involved with CHOSA once they return to the States, particularly by fundraising. This includes taking volunteers to visit other CHOSA-supported projects at end of the semester.
• Help volunteers organize field trips with their kids as well as a fundraiser to finance the trips.
• Attend after-school programs each day they run. Occasionally there will be conflicts with other requirements, in which case the job is to make sure that a volunteer coordinator is on-site.
• Total expected time commitment: 12-16 hours per week during UCT semester, 2-4 hours per week when programs are not running.

3. Communicate with CHOSA’s management and board of directors
• Attend weekly meetings with CHOSA’s on-ground representatives and long-term volunteers (in Cape Town).
• Work with CHOSA's Executive Director toward implementing CHOSA's mission on the ground..
• Attend board meetings as requested.
• Consult with and report to the Board of Directors on all general issues of procedure and policy.
• Communicate openly and regularly with CHOSA’s fundraisers and primarily CHOSA’s fundraising director. In particular, this is a time to share information gathered through meetings with projects, working with volunteers, events with partner projects and for CHOSA itself.
• Send monthly reports describing all major initiatives and developments of the previous month. You will also use sections of the report as blog posts for the CHOSA Blog.
• Total expected time commitment: 4-5 hours per week.

4. Organize networking events
• Survey organizations to determine best/most pressing need for networking event.
• Organize and put on +/- two events per year that bring together the staff and management of as many CHOSA-supported projects as possible to provide some sort of programming, and to allow them to meet and work together toward common interests/goals.
• Total expected time commitment: 1-3 hours per week

5. CHOSA Arts Initiative
• Solicit people to put on workshops, classes, etc.
• Coordinate and oversee the overall effort of each initiative to make sure it is accomplishing goals and best serving the children.
• Total expected time commitment will depend on whether there is an arts initiative running at that time. If so, the on-ground team is responsible for committing the necessary time to orchestrating the initiative.

6. Other Responsibilities:
• Show current/potential donors around to visit the projects when asked by the board and when Executive Director is unable to do so himself.
• Represent CHOSA at certain events (such as NGO forums) when requested by board or Executive Director.
• Search for and visit new projects when requested by the Board.
• Organize and deliver in-kind donations
• Connect local donors to projects they can support directly, when opportunities arise.
• Maintain office: paying bills, rent, keeping files organized, etc.
• Lead short-term student-volunteer groups, such as MSU, that we work with every year.
• Report CHOSA-related expenses to Executive Director on a monthly or quarterly basis.
• Total expected time commitment: 5-6 hours per week

7. What the position does not include:
• Fundraising for CHOSA (this is voluntary).
• Researching other NGOs.
• Administrative tasks in South Africa including coordinating partnerships on a non-program level.

Job Requirements for Cape Town Programs Coordinator

Languages – Fluency in isiXhosa and English

Computer literacy – fluency in use of internet, email, blogging, office programs (in particular command of spreadsheets and word processors)

Experience – experience working in communities with community-based organisations

Writing skills – should be able to write thoughtful letters, proposals, articles and other types of documents in English and ixiXhosa.

Communication skills – ability to work well with and communicate with people in a non-domineering manner. Ability to navigate and stay out of personal disputes while still maintaining open lines of communication.

Respect for others – should be able to respect and treat equally people of different cultures and ethnicities. Should not discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, ge, origin, etc. Should treat each individual as an equal.

Independent hard worker – should be able to work independently without someone telling you what to do. Should be able to set up your own appointments and manage your own schedule. Should be able to report back on your work.

Instructions on how to apply

Please send the following to job@chosa.org by 19th of November
1) Your CV (resume)
2) A cover letter
3) Please answer the following questions in 360 words or less:
• What your idea of community development?
• What is the role of NGO's in the development process?
• What would you personally do to live up to this philosophy of development?

Fahamu