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Brutal murder of gay Ugandan human rights defender David Kato

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/70432

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the entire Ugandan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Community stands together to condemn the killing of David Kato and call for the Ugandan Government, Civil Society, and Local Communities to protect sexual minorities across Uganda.

David was brutally beaten to death in his home today, 26 January 2011, around 2pm. Across the entire country, straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Ugandans mourn the loss of David, a dear friend, colleague, teacher, family member, and human rights defender.

David has been receiving death threats since his face was put on the front page of Rolling Stone Magazine, which called for his death and the death of all homosexuals. David’s death comes directly after the Supreme Court of Uganda ruled that people must stop inciting violence against homosexuals and must respect the right to privacy and human dignity.

Sexual Minorities Uganda and the Ugandan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Community call on the Police and the Government of Uganda to seriously investigate the circumstances surrounding David’s death. We also call on religious leaders, political leaders and media houses to stop demonizing sexual minorities in Uganda since doing so creates a climate of violence against gay persons. Val Kalende, the Chair of the Board at Freedom and Roam Uganda stated that “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S Evangelicals in 2009. The Ugandan Government and the so-called U.S Evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”

As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently declared, “I understand that sexual orientation and gender identity raise sensitive cultural issues. But cultural practices cannot justify any violation of human rights. . . . When our fellow humans are persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, we must speak out. . . . States bear the primary responsibility to protect human rights advocates. I call on all States to ensure the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly that make their work possible. When the lives of human rights advocates are endangered, we are all less secure. When the voices of human rights advocates are silenced, justice itself is drowned out.”

David’s life was cut short in a brutal manner. David will be deeply missed by his family and friends, his students, and Human Rights organizations throughout Uganda and around the world. Speaking about what the death of David means in the struggle for equality, Frank Mugisha, the Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda said, “No form of intimidation will stop our cause. The death of David will only be honored when the struggle for justice and equality is won. David is gone and many of us will follow, but the struggle will be won. David wanted to see a Uganda where all people will be treated equally despite their sexual orientation.”

Burial arrangements are underway for Friday 28, 2011 at 2PM at his ancestral home in Namataba, Mukono District.

Press contacts:
Frank Mugisha: +1 646 436 1858
Email. fmugisha@sexualminoritiesuganda.org

David Kato: Our courageous queer African martyr

South African social justice organisations mourn Ugandan comrade

Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Treatment Action Campaign and Section27

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/70473

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Treatment Action Campaign and Section27 are saddened and outraged to learn of the brutal murder of comrade David Kato in Kampala, Uganda yesterday, 26 January 2011. We join activists in Africa and across the world in condolences to fellow comrades in Uganda, his loved ones, family and friends.

Many have followed and been part of his social and political trajectory as a bold, courageous and outspoken openly gay man, defender of human rights, equality and freedom for many voiceless and faceless LGBTI under consistent persecution, especially in Uganda. As South African-based activists, we met him at the 1999 conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association that was held in Johannesburg. His zeal for expanding the realms of freedom across the world and his active commitment to solidarity and fighting for social justice left a lasting impression on all of us.

MP David Bahati and Pastor Martin Ssempa and their callous fostering of prejudice and homophobia are at least in part responsible for this callous murder. By mobilising for a law to ban homosexuality in Uganda, these two individuals have led a hateful crusade against rights and freedoms. Their actions are against their professed Christian values of love, justice and respect. David Kato stood for these values.

The Bahati-Ssempa crusade and the murder of David Kato are a fundamental attack on these core values of many Christians and many others on our continent. It is the government of Uganda’s responsibility to act to stop the killings and injuries of queer people. The effects of the much criticised Ugandan Anti-Homosexually Bill and the Rolling Stone tabloid's publication of 'a list of gay and lesbian people to be reported to the police', despite some victories, cannot be ignored as we come to terms with his murder . The silence of many in powerful positions on the plights of LGBTI people on the continent amounts to an endorsement of homophobia, hate crimes and the killing of our dear brother, David Kato.

The South African government itself has also consistently failed to uphold and promote its Constitution and to to urge AU member states to protect LGBTI people on our continent from any forms of violence, discrimination and persecution. At multilateral platforms, the SA Government and Department of International Relations and Cooperation have taken numerous homophobic stances creating and nourishing a climate of violent prejudice and homophobia.

Standing firmly in our resolve to continue struggling for the self-determination, freedom and equality of all LGBTI people in Africa, we will remember Comrade David's courage and dedication at the planned picket for 1 February in Pretoria (SA) to remind our government of their Constitutional obligations towards LGBTI people and to call for progressive activists participating at the World Social Forum in Dakar not to let his life go in vain.

We send Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) our solidarity and pledge to collaborate of whatever deemed necessary to get to the bottom of the murder of Cde David and to continue the struggles forged in Uganda.

No one is indeed free until we are free! Lala kahle Qabane! You leave a big gap in our movement. Your work and legacy will continue to inspire our struggles!

An urgent call: Return former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/70417

cc InacioIn support of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (currently in exile in South Africa), hundreds of signatories to a petition have demanded that the United States, the United Nations and the Haitian government stop blocking the leader from returning to the land of his birth. A letter from Aristide himself precedes this call.

I would like to thank the government and the people of South Africa for the historic hospitality, deeply rooted in Ubuntu, extended to my family and I.

Since my forced arrival in the Mother Continent six and a half years ago, the people of Haiti have never stopped calling for my return to Haiti. Despite the enormous challenges that they face in the aftermath of the deadly January 12, 2010 earthquake, their determination to make the return happen has increased.

As far as I am concerned, I am ready. Once again I express my readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time. The purpose is very clear: To contribute to serving my Haitian sisters and brothers as a simple citizen in the field of education.

The return is indispensable, too, for medical reasons: It is strongly recommended that I not spend the coming winter in South Africa because in 6 years I have undergone 6 eye surgeries. The surgeons are excellent and very well skilled, but the unbearable pain experienced in the winter must be avoided in order to reduce any risk of further complications and blindness.

So, to all those asking me to return home, I reiterate my willingness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time. Let us hope that the Haitian and South African governments will enter into communication in order to make that happen in the next coming days.

United to the Haitian people, once again my family and I express our sincere gratitude to the government and the people of South Africa.

Dr Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former president of Haiti, 19 January 2011

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AN URGENT CALL: RETURN FORMER PRESIDENT JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE TO HAITI

We are honoured to forward this full-page ad that appeared today in the Miami Herald, echoing the call of Haiti’s democratic movement for the return of President Aristide.

Signed by hundreds of people, it demands that the United States, the United Nations and the Haitian government stop blocking President Aristide from returning to the land of his birth.

The text of the ad and a list of signers is attached.

For those interested in joining this campaign, please sign the petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/haitiwom/petition-sign.html

In the aftermath of the terrible earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12th, 2010, calls for the return of former President Aristide have been growing louder. Last July 15, 10,000 people took to the streets in Port-au-Prince to commemorate President Aristide’s birthday and call for his return. A broad sector of Haitian grassroots organizations, women’s groups, human rights activists and educators have made it clear that now is the time to end President Aristide’s forced exile in South Africa. A petition circulating among Haitian women gathered well over 20,000 signatures within a few days, calling for the return.

President Aristide has publicly stated that he wishes to return home to Haiti to participate in Haiti’s recovery. President Aristide’s support among Haiti’s poor, who elected him twice as president, and who represent the vast majority of the Haitian population and are those most affected by the recent devastating earthquake, remains strong. There are no legal obstacles to his return; in fact Article 41 of Haiti’s Constitution, declares that “no individual of Haitian nationality can be deported or forced to leave the country for any reason whatsoever,” and Article 41-1 states that “no Haitian needs a visa to leave the country or to return to it.”

Nevertheless, President Aristide remains in exile because the Haitian government, the United States, France, Canada, and the United Nations forces in Haiti have blocked his return. The Haitian government has not responded to President Aristide’s request for the issuance of a passport. U.S. and UN officials have issued public statements opposing his return.

But they do not speak for the people of Haiti. As demonstrations for President Aristide’s return continue in Haiti, as broad sectors of Haitian society echo this call, as the voices of those living in refugee camps across the devastated city of Port-au-Prince and throughout Haiti reach us, we reiterate and support their demand.

We call on the Haitian government to immediately renew President Aristide’s passport as he has requested, and to facilitate his return, without any conditions, to the country of his birth. We call on the international authorities, particularly the United Nations and the United States government, to end their opposition to President Aristide’s return. Justice, humanity and respect for self-determination are at the heart of this issue. All hands are needed in Haiti at this difficult moment.

• Andaiye, International Coordinator, Red Thread
• Harry Belafonte, Actor/Activist
• Dr. Paul Farmer
• Eduardo Galeano, journalist, author, Uruguay
• Danny Glover, Actor/Activist
• Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Archdiocese of Detroit
• Selma James, Global Women’s Strike
• Reverend Jesse Jackson
• Tony Jeanthenor, Veye Yo, Miami, FL
• Farah Juste, artist/activist, Miami, FL
• Pierre Labossiere, co-founder, Haiti Action Committee
• Margaret Prescod, Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike
• Randall Robinson, author
• Alina Sixto, radio host, Fanmi Lavalas
• Oliver Stone, Filmmaker
• Kali Akuno, Malclom X Grassroots Movement
• Bernadene Allen, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, College of Marin
• Roger Annis, Canada Haiti Action Network
• Dr. Molefi Asante, Department of African American Studies, Temple University
• Orlando Aupont, Multi-Cultural Family Nexus
• John Avalos, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
• Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
• David Bacon, Labor activist, photojournalist
• Medea Benjamin, CODE PINK
• Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER
• Dennis Bernstein, KPFA Flashpoints
• Johanna Berrigan, House of Grace Catholic Worker
• Steve Bingham, Attorney
• Annie Bird, co-Director, Rights Action
• Hugo Blanco, La Lucha Indígena, Perú
• Blase Bonpane, Ph.D, Director, Office of the Americas
• Serge Bouchereau, educator activist, Canada
• Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder, SOA Watch
• John H. Bracey, Jr., Professor, University of Massachusetts
• Rev. Dr. Lea Brown, MCC Church
• Richard Brown, San Francisco 8/Committee for Defense of Human Rights
• Dr. Siri Brown, Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Merritt College, Oakland
• Keith Carson, Alameda County Board of Supervisors
• Mike Casey, President of Local 2, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union and President of SF Labor Council
• Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, President, National Council for Black Studies
• Ward Churchill, author, educator
• Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
• Marjorie Cohn, Deputy Secretary General International Association of Democratic Lawyers
• Brian Concannon, Jr., Esq., Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
• Rabbi David J. Cooper
• Peter Dahlen, President, Labor Arbitration Institute
• Ezili Dantò, President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
• Bob and Adele DellaValle-Rauth, Coordinators Pax Christi Virginia
• Jacques M F Depelchin, Ota Benga Alliance for Peace, Healing and Dignity
• Jean-Claude Derose, Haitian activist, Canada
• Tom F. Driver, The Paul J. Tillich Professor of Theology and Culture Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary in New York
• Emory Douglas, artist, former Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party
• Sister Maureen Duignan, OSF, Executive Director, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant • Berthony Dupont, director, Haiti Liberte
• Claudio Duran, Professor of History, Merritt College
• James Early, board member, Institute for Policy Studies
• Matt Eisenbrandt, Human Rights Attorney
• Joe Emersberger, editor, haitianalysis.com
• Minister Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam
• Moira Feeney Esq., Attorney at Law
• Leslie Fleming, Professor of Anthropology, Merritt College
• Bill Fletcher, Jr., BlackCommentator.com
• Sara Flounders, International Action Center
• Laura Flynn, writer, educator
• Willy Forges, Haitian activist, Canada
• Harry Fouche, former Consul General of Haiti to NY
• Nancy M. Friedman, Bay Area Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
• Paul George, Director, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Palo Alto, CA
• David Gespass, President, National Lawyers Guild
• Ann Fagan Ginger, attorney & author, Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
• Jackie Goldberg, California State Assembly Member, Chair of Assembly Education Committee, retired
• Sister Stella Goodpasture, OP, Justice Promoter, Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose
• Rashidah Grinage, Executive Director of PUEBLO (People United for a Better Life in Oakland)
• Peter Hallward, Professor of Philosophy, Kingston University London
• Peter Hardie, Executive Director, Pushback Network
• Tom Hayden, Peace and Justice Resource Center, Culver City, CA
• Ed Herman, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
• Aileen Hernandez, community activist, first woman on EEOC
• Gerald Horne, historian and author
• Phil Hutchings, Civil Rights activist (SNCC), Black Alliance for Just Immigration
• Nehanda Imara, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party
• Kim Ives, filmmaker & journalist with Haiti Liberté
• Rabbi Burt Jacobson
• Jafrikayiti (Jean Saint-Vil), author
• Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at, past National Co-Chair of N’COBRA
• Borgella Jeantine, Konbit Verite
• Frantz Jerome, educator, activist
• Avotcja Jilconilro, artist
• Linton Kwesi Johnson, reggae poet, & recording artist, Jamaica/UK
• Charles Jones, Professor, Department of African American Studies, Georgia State University
• Hank Jones, SF 8/Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
• Rose-Marie Joseph, Baz Fanmi Lavalas
• Marie-Claire Junelle, Public Health educator, Montreal, Canada
• Hekima Kanyama, Acting Center Director, Unity Council of the African Community Center for Unity and Self-Determination/Atlanta
• Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor of Africana Studies, California State University, Long Beach.
• Michelle Karshan, Haiti Dream Keeper Archives
• Susan Roberta Katz, Professor of International & Multicultural Education, University of San Francisco
• Katharine Kean, filmmaker
• Nunu Kidane, director, Priority Africa Network
• Jonathan Kozol, National Book Award-winning author and educator
• Ira Kurzban, Esq.
• Eusi Kwayana, teacher, activist, author, Guyana
• Ronald Laborde, RALIH, Haitian youth organization, Montreal, Canada
• Marilyn Langlois, community advocate, Mayor’s Office, Richmond, CA
• Dr. Frantz Latour, editor, Haiti Liberte
• Rev. James Lawson, United Methodist pastor, civil rights activist
• Rev. Phil Lawson, Interfaith Program Director for East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO)
• Jacques Elie Leblanc, columnist, Haiti Liberte
• Gerald Lenoir, Director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration
• Dr. Mark Lomax, First African Presbyterian Church
• Nina Lopez-Jones, Global Women’s Strike
• Picard Losier, Esq., Philadelphia, PA
• Sharon Losier, Esq., Philadelphia, PA
• Chokwe Lumumba, Esq., Member, City Council, Jackson, Mississippi
• Ian Macdonald, Queen’s Counsel, UK
• Moshé Machover, Professor Emeritus, University of London, UK
• Eric Mar, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
• Frank Martin del Campo, President, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement-AFL-CIO, San Francisco
• John McDonnell, Member of Parliament, UK
• Gayle McGlaughlin, Mayor of Richmond, CA
• Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman, 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate
• Rose-Marie Milford, Konbit Pou Fanm Lakay, Canada
• Paul W. Miller, Director, Haiti Justice Alliance, Northfield, Minnesota
• Tom Miller Esq., General Counsel, Global Exchange
• Judith Mirkinson, San Francisco Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
• Alejandro Molina, Secretary, Board of Directors, Puerto Rican Cultural Center
• George Monpremier, Fanmi Lavalas NY
• Darryl Moore, City Council, Berkeley, CA
• Joia S. Mukherjee, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer, Partners In Health
• Mumia Abu-Jamal, journalist/author
• Karen Musalo, Clinical Professor of Law & Director, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
• Gus Newport, former Mayor, Berkeley, CA
• Marlene A. Noel, Fanmi Lavalas NY
• Pedro Noguera, Ph.D, Professor, Steinhardt School of Education, N.Y.U.
• Kiilu Nyasha, host of Freedom is a Constant Struggle
• Tim Paulson, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council
• Fritzner Pierre, Dyalog Popilè (Popular Dialogue)
• Wadner Pierre, journalist, Inter-Press Service
• Kevin Pina, educator and filmmaker • Honorable Jim Prola, San Leandro City Councilmember
• Eric Quezada, Immigration and Human Rights Activist, Executive Director of Dolores Street Community Services • William Quigley, Esq., Center for Constitutional Rights, Professor of Law, Loyola New Orleans Law School
• Maisha Quint, Eastside Arts Alliance
• Barbara Ransby, Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Karen Ranucci, journalist
• Kate Raphael, KPFA Women’s Magazine
• Mary & Willie Ratcliff, editor and publisher, San Francisco Bay View
• Laura Raymond, Education and Outreach Coordinator, Center for Constitutional Rights
• Barbara Rhine, Attorney
• Blanche Richardson, Marcus Books
• Dr. Rae Richardson, Marcus Books
• Walter Riley, Attorney, Chair of Board, Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
• William I Robinson, Sociology Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle, St Louis, MO
• Nicolas Rossier, independent filmmaker and journalist • Maggie Ronayne, Acting Head of Archaeology, National University of Ireland
• Lisa Roth, co-founder San Francisco Dyke March
• Robert Roth, co-founder, Haiti Action Committee
• Grahame Russell, co-director, Rights Action
• Natsu Taylor Saito, Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law
• Carolyn S. Scarr, Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC: program coordinator
• Amilcar Shabazz, Chair, W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies University of Massachusetts
• Susan Scott, co-Chair, International Committee, National Lawyers Guild
• Jean Senat-Fleury, Av., Former Juge d’Instruction, Haiti and Former Academic Director of the Haitian Magistrates’ Academy
• Dan Siegel, Attorney, former president of Oakland School Board
• Judy Somberg, Esq., Chair, National Lawyers Guild, Task Force on the Americas
• Jean Sorel, Haitian activist, Canada
• Jeb Sprague, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Larry Stephens, Chair of African American Caucus (AFRAM) of Service Employees Union Local 1021 • James B. Stewart, Professor Emeritus, Penn State University, former President of National Council of Black Studies
• Irwin Stotsky, Esq.
• Lisa Sullivan, Latin America Coordinator, SOA Watch
• Phil Taylor, “The Taylor Report” CIUT 89.5 Toronto.
• Makani Themba-Nixon, Executive Director, The Praxis Project
• Michael Theriault, Secretary Treasurer, San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council
• Bret Thiele, International Human Rights Lawyer
• Lucie Tondreau, Caribbean Pan-African Network
• Walter Turner, Professor of History and Ethnic Studies, College of Marin, host/Africa Today, KPFA
• Franklin Ulysse, political analyst, Canada
• Akinyele Umoja, Professor of African American History, Georgia State University
• Unity Council of the African Community Center for Unity and Self-Determination/Atlanta
• James E Vann, Community Activist & Co-founder, Oakland Tenants Union
• Dave Welsh, Letter Carriers Union #214 and delegate, SF Labor Council
• Sam Weinstein, Assistant to the President, Utility Workers Union of America
• Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
• Burton Victor Wides, Esq., Former Counsel to President Carter for Oversight of U.S. Intelligence Activities, Former Washington, D.C. counsel to the Constitutional Government of Haiti
• Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Urban Research, Morgan State University
• Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Pastor Emeritus, TRINITY UCC, Chicago, Illinois
• Karen Zapata, Teachers for Social Justice
• Joe Zelenka, Chairperson. St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church Haiti Committee, President, Board of Directors, Parish Twinning Program of the Americas
• Benjamin Zephaniah, writer, poet, UK

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s letter was published by www.hayti.net/tribune/.
* Sign the petition at www.petitiononline.com/haitiwom/petition-sign.html.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Tunisia’s revolution: Self-organisation for self-emancipation

Horace Campbell

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70472

cc IA PIn the wake of the ousting of entrenched Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Horace Campbell reflects on events in the country, regional implications and the inspirational example of the Tunisian people in organising for a new future.

The full explosion of the Tunisian revolutionary process is now taking root across Africa, far beyond the town of Sidi Bouzid, from where Mohammed Bouazizi had sent a message to youths all across the world that they should stand up against oppression. The overthrow and removal of the dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011 was an important stage in this revolution. When this dictator (who was a top ally of the USA and France) fled to Saudi Arabia, dictators and corrupt party leaders all over the world trembled as the popular power in the streets found support in all parts of Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe. This revolution in Tunisia is a typical example of the self-mobilisation of ordinary people for their own emancipation, independent of a vanguard party or self-proclaimed revolutionaries. The iteration of the Tunisian revolution in other parts of Africa and the Middle East is fast becoming a pattern that speaks volume about the nature of 21st century revolutions.

At the time of writing this piece, the revolution is going through the third stage where the popular forces are seeking a drastic change in the politics of the society and demanding new order in Tunisia based on freedom, democracy and social justice. In short, the people were calling for a form of popular democracy that moves beyond alienation, and beyond the separation of politics and economics. The first stage of the revolution started with the self-immolation and self-sacrifice of Mohammed Bouazizi in the region of Sidi Bouzid. The unemployed graduate Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest police brutality after they harassed and stopped him from selling fruits and vegetables, which was his only means of a livelihood. The second stage involved the mass organisation and the deployment of new networks for revolution among the youth and the working people, leading to the popular overthrow of the dictator. The third stage involved the merger of the caravans of liberation into Tunis, the capital with the break in the ranks of the forces of coercion. It was at this stage that the true revolutionary character of the self-organisation started to emerge. At this third stage, the prolonged popular protest of the organised poor emerged, with women and youth taking the lead in calling for the arrest of the dictator and for a new government of the people. It is at this delicate stage of this revolution that it is most necessary for revolutionaries all over the world to stand together with the Tunisians, and to draw the positive lessons that can spread the revolution like a fire to burn off the corruption and destruction of capitalism and neoliberalism.

The capitalist classes have been wounded in Tunisia and they want to do all within their power to contain this new wave of revolution. However, their ability to undermine this revolution will depend on the vigilance and support of revolutionaries internationally. We must remember that revolutions are made by ordinary people and that there are millions who want a new form of existence where they can live like decent human beings. In another era of capitalist depression and war, it was C.L.R. James who commented that, ‘That is the way a revolution often comes, like a thief in the night, and those who have prepared for it and are waiting for it do not see it, and often only realise that their chance has come when it has passed.’

James was referring to the Chinese masses who had led the way in the revolutionary process in China. The real point of Tunisia, as in China, is that in every revolutionary situation it is the real action of human beings taking to the streets, defying the police and fighting with courage and imagination that changes society. Revolutionaries should grasp the epoch-making process that is now underway in the world. How this epoch-making process will mature across Africa, Europe and Asia will depend on the politics and organisations that shape the movement in the coming weeks and months. Revolutionaries must learn the positive lessons: the new pattern of 21st century revolution, the new forces of revolution and the new tools of revolutionary struggles that are being fashioned by those who are making sacrifices for a new mode of social existence.

SELF-IMMOLATION, SACRIFICES AND SELF-ORGANISATION

Within a month, the narrative in the international media on Tunisia has changed completely. Prior to the present uprising against the capitalist classes and the dictator, Tunisia was represented in the Western media as a stable free-market economy that was a symbol of the success of capitalism, a top ally of the USA in the war against terrorism. Tunisia was the choice destination for European tourists as the same European states shut their doors to migrants from Africa. Behind the image of Tunisia as a stable tourist resort where Europeans could relax was the reality of repression, corruption, censorship and massive exploitation of the people. The concentration and centralisation of wealth and power in the hands of the ruling family alienated even members of the capitalist classes, who were locked out of the inner circles of opulence and obscene wealth. In the midst of struggle, there was unemployment and suffering. Mohammed Bouazizi, a youth who had sought to dignify his existence by becoming a fruit and vegetable seller, decided to make a sacrifice to make a stand against oppression and made a break with the politics of obedience.

Mohammed Bouazizi, like millions of youths across the world, wanted a new world. He had studiously gone through school only to find that the economy did not have a place for him. He created his own space by becoming a fruit and vegetable vendor in the town. But even in this capacity, the society had no room for the creativity of the youth so the police harassed him continuously and on 17 December 2010 confiscated his vegetable cart. Bouazizi was the principal breadwinner of his family and decided to make a stand against oppression. After unsuccessfully complaining to the local authorities, he burnt himself as an act of protest. He did not die immediately and his sacrifice acted as an inspiration for others to resist oppression and to popularise his action.

The other youths in Sidi Bouzid took up his cause and carried messages of his self-immolation across Tunisia and beyond. As the youth mobilised and took to the streets with ‘a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other,’ their message cracked the walls of censorship to the point where the dictator himself sought to mollify this rebellion by going to the hospital to try to contain the anger of the youth and blunt the rising protest. In an effort to gain support of the youth, the government decided to declare 2011 the year of the youth. But the youths were not waiting for a dictator to declare the year for them; they were bent on taking the year and making the break for a new decade.

Mohammed Bouazizi joined his ancestors on 4 January, expiring from the self-immolation, but his act of sacrifice had acted as a spark to impress on the youths the importance of intentionality to make a break with the old forms of oppression. The rebellion that had been sparked by the action of Bouazizi took over the region of Sidi Bouzid and moved from spontaneous actions of solidarity to an organised resistance that brought in new forces who recognised the determination of the youths. From the spontaneous actions of the youths, the rebellion took on an all-class character as teachers, lawyers, workers, trade unionists, small scale entrepreneurs and other social forces joining in this first phase of the revolution. Within a week of the passing of Mohammed Bouazizi, the revolution had spread to Tunis and the masses had joined in the streets to topple the dictatorship.

THE FALL OF THE ZINE AL-ABIDINE BEN ALI REGIME

Ben Ali was like so many other African leaders who had joined the anti-colonial struggles only to take over the habits and behaviour of the colonialists. Tunisia had become independent in 1956 and the ruling party developed authoritarian principles as it sold itself as a base for Western capitalism. The more the society ingratiated itself with the West, the more the ruling sections of the political class felt a sense of impunity, believing that Western support could shield them from popular opposition. In the case of Ben Ali, he had not only supported a rabid form of corruption, his regime earned praise as one of the firmest supporters of the war against terrorism.

This support of France and the USA concealed the economic terrorism of capitalism, but as the global economic depression took its toll on the people, there were protests to reveal the extent of the terror and corruption of the dictator who had been in power since 1987. The ruling party was dominated by the national capitalist class, as well as the foreign multinationals and banks that cooperated to establish free-trade zones where workers could not organise. Unemployment and poverty among the youth had made them a pool of cheap reserve labour to be manipulated by religious and political leaders, but youths such as Mohammed Bouazizi had risen above the politicisation of religion. When the rebellion spread to Tunis by 10 January, the maturation of years of agitation immediately manifested itself in the slogans of the rebellion:

‘Down with the party of thieves, down with the torturers of the people.’

These slogans of rebellion resonated with all sections of the oppressed and initially Ben Ali dismissed the demonstrations as terrorists as the police shot and killed unarmed civilians. Ben Ali called the demonstrations the work of masked gangs ‘that attacked at night government buildings and even civilians inside their homes in a terrorist act that cannot be overlooked’. This reflex of calling the bogey of terrorism did not scare the people, and by Thursday 13 January the anger of the families of those shot in cold blood was buttressed by the maturation of the popular resistance to the dictatorship. The president’s billionaire son-in-law ran away and by Friday Ben Ali, who had promised the masses that he would not stand for the presidency in 2014, fled the country. While in flight even his imperialist allies deserted him. It was only the Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi who had the temerity to castigate the Tunisian people for removing Ben Ali from power. Gadaffi spoke for the other dictators across Africa and the Middle East when he said in a televised address that, ‘You [Tunisians] have suffered a great loss. There is none better than Zine [Ben Ali] to govern Tunisia.’

Gaddafi exposed the fact that the African unity that he represented was the unity of dictators. But even as he spoke the revolution was moving to the third stage as the caravans of liberation converged on Tunis as the ideas and principles of self-organisation and self-emancipation spread across Africa. Initially, other European leaders were silent, but as the gravity and seriousness of the Tunisian workers and youth became a force in international politics the government of Switzerland froze the accounts of Ben Ali and his family. Former allies of Ben Ali such as the leaders of the USA and France distanced themselves from his rule as the images of revolution from Tunisia spread through mainstream media rising from the networks of social media to the mainstream. In this information warfare, the news outlet Al Jazeera acted as a source of information connecting the struggles throughout the world of dictators and despots.

INTENTIONALITY, SELF-ORGANISATION, SELF-MOBILISATION AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT

When the second stage of the revolution was maturing, the interim government closed schools and universities in an attempt to blunt the youth energy. After the universities reopened, there were new demonstrations across Tunisia as teachers and students called a general strike. The full expression of a worker–student alliance was beginning to take shape as workers occupied workplaces while setting up committees to run their workplaces. It is this advanced consciousness of worker control that is slowly taking shape as the revolution of Tunisia experiment with networks of networks beyond the old standards of democratic centralism and other worn ideas of revolutionary organisation and the vanguard party. Social media and social networking may represent one of the forms of this revolutionary process, but the character is still embedded in the self-organisation and self-emancipation of the oppressed. It is this powerful force of self-emancipation that is acting as an inspiration and beating back vanguardists, whether secular or religious.

In order to discredit this revolutionary process, the Western media has been running the bogey that Islamists would be the beneficiaries of the revolution. But the women of Tunisia have demonstrated clearly that they are not going to be sidelined in a revolutionary process. These women, inside and outside of Tunisia, have been organising for decades and will not be silenced in this moment of revolution. What was visible from the images in Tunisia was the centrality of women and youths in this revolutionary process. Women in Tunisia had been organising for decades against patriarchy and other forms of male domination. It was one of the societies where the women had stood firm against the fundamentalists who wanted to control the bodies and minds of women. These women made common cause with the youths and other sections of the working people to form the backbone of the revolution. Their presence and firmness acted as a barrier to the kind of vanguardism that could be claimed by sections of the opposition. Hence as Ben Ali fled, all of the socialists, communists, Islamists, trade unionists, human rights workers, rappers and other social forces emerged on the political stage of Tunisia. The placards and slogans that proclaimed ‘vive la révolution’ were a manifestation that all over the country, from south to north, there had been a burning desire for change.

This burning desire for change was most clearly expressed in the expressions of workers and poor farmers from the rural areas, who converged on Tunis as they chanted: ‘We have come to bring down the rest of the dictatorship.’ They did this in defiance of a curfew and state of emergency. They had travelled through the night in a caravan of cars, trucks and motorcycles from towns across the rocky region far from Tunisia's luxurious tourist beaches.

I was in West Africa as this revolution unfolded. Everywhere I went, youths and other workers were anxiously following the revolution as the mass resistance spread to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. In all of the societies I visited there were young people who wanted to know more about what was happening in revolution. Bouazizi’s action sends a major lesson to youths across Africa and the pan-African world. This lesson is embedded in the significance of his self-immolation. Bouazizi’s self-immolation signifies self-sacrifice, different from the actions of suicide bombers. In a world where disgruntled elements take to suicide bombing as a weapon of coercion and protestation, Bouazizi stands out as an oppressed and disgruntled youth who wanted to make a sacrifice for revolution without violence and the killing of innocent souls. Youths do not have to embark on self-immolation as a sacrifice for a better tomorrow. But ultimately, they must be ready to make some sacrifices for self-emancipation, instead of being passive or offering themselves as tools of manipulation and suppression in the hands of the ruling elites.

In a period when alienated youths are open to manipulation by conservative forces to shoot up innocent persons or to make themselves into suicide bombers, the action of Mohammed Bouazizi marked a new phase of youth action. This new phase was manifest in the statement by some Tunisian revolutionaries: ‘Mohammed Bouazizi has left us a testament. We will not abandon our cause.’

WHITHER THE REVOLUTIONARY PROCESS?

Far from retreating from the streets, the demonstrations and positive actions of the people have galvanised others in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. The more the Tunisians made demands for the arrest of Ben Ali and his family, the more Western leaders sought to limit the damage and call for stability and social peace. But what is really being called for is the protection of local and international capital. The Western capitalists fear the socialists, progressive feminists, trade unionists and youths who are determined to build a new basis for economic relations where the wealth of the society would be organised for the well-being of the people. Already, there is a discussion of the full nationalisation of the assets that were previously owned by the Ben Ali family. This discussion of nationalisation stirs fear in the ranks of other capitalists who want to inherit the politics and economic base of Ben Ali.

How this process will develop in Tunisia will depend on the politics and organisations that shape the movement in the coming weeks and months. As one socialist organ proclaimed:

‘Tunisia needs a new democratic government which represents the national and popular will of the people and represents its own interests. And a system of this type cannot emerge from the current system and its institutions or its constitution and its laws, but only on its ruins by a constituent assembly elected by the people in conditions of freedom and transparency, after ending the tyranny.’

Revolution is a process, not an event. The revolutionary process in Tunisia is maturing with twists and turns. Those progressive forces in the imperialist centres must organise so that the militarists in the West do not prop up the dictators to hijack the process as the people begin to register a new historical era. The people have risen with confidence. They want a break with capitalist exploitation and corrupt leaders. Self-organisation and self-emancipation for social and economic transformation will take the popular forces from one stage of consciousness to the next.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

Tunisia: West could scupper genuine democracy with 'Islamic alternative'

Samir Amin

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70446

cc AzisSamir Amin discusses the Tunisian uprising and the country’s prospects for building ‘a democratic government supported by the people’, in an interview with Aydinlik Magazine.

Professor Samir Amin, respected political thinker, economist and writer, evaluates developments in Tunisia in an interview with Aydinlik Magazine. We also asked Samir Amin his views about Hu Jintao’s visit to USA and currency policy of the China. We present a broad summary of the interview with Amin, who answered our questions from Dakar by telephone.

POPULAR MOVEMENT

AYDINLIK: How do you interpret the movement in Tunisia?

SAMIR AMIN: The events of Tunisia must be interpreted as a very powerful popular movement uprising, a general uprising. About 80 per cent of the population of the country in many areas including in the capital were out in the streets for 45 days and continue to do so. They carried on their protests in spite of the repression and did not give up. This movement has political, societal and economic dimensions. Ben Ali regime was one of the most repressive police regimes in the world. Thousands of people in Tunisia were assassinated, arrested and tortured, but Western powers best friend never allowed these facts to be known. The Tunisian people want democracy, respect of rights.

Economic and social factors were also influential in the uprising of the people. The country experiences rapidly escalating unemployment, particularly of youth, including educated young people. The standard of living of the majority of the population is decreasing, in spite of the growth of the GDP praised by World Bank and international Agencies. Growing inequality explains it. The influence of the mafia type of organisation is also another important factor. The system was managed to the almost exclusive benefit of the Ben Ali family and its organisation.

There is another aspect of the movement that is very interesting. The Islamic influence was not effective in the uprising. Tunisia is really a secular country. People manage to keep religion and politics separate. This is very important and positive. It was said Ben Ali protected the country from fundamentalist Muslims. He used this argument very effectively for many years. Actually it wasn’t Ben Ali but the people that protected the country from fundamentalists.

The fact that the army wasn’t against the people gave strength to the people in the streets. The Ben Ali government gave support and financial aid to the police not the army. This is why the police played such an important role in the suppression of the events in the past.

IT IS NOT EASY TO ESTABLISH A DEMOCRATIC AND SECULAR REGIME IN TUNISIA

AYDINLIK: Who or which power leading this movement?

AMIN: I want to emphasise again this movement doesn’t belong to a particular group of people. This is a popular general movement. There are no foreign countries or groups behind it. It is social in essence. However it must be said that the Western powers will try to create an Islamic alternative and will try to support a movement of this sort in order to avoid a really democratic alternative. They already have started to do it, re introducing in the country the language of ‘Saudi Arabia’ as some commentators of the Tunisian people have already said.

It is very difficult to try to guess what the future holds for the country. For sure the establishment of a democratic and secular regime is not easy. Assuming the best – that is a democratic government supported by the people – (and that is not absolutely guaranteed), such a government will be confronted with the economic and social challenge: How to associate this democratisation of the political management with social progress? That is not easy. Tunisia’s ‘success’ for some time was based on three sources: The delocalisation of some light industries from Europe, tourism, mass out migration to Libya and Europe. Now those three channels have reached their ceiling and even start to be reversed. By which macro policy they could be replaced? Not easy to imagine for a small country, vulnerable and with little resources (no oil!). Solidarity and South-South cooperation might turn to be vital for an alternative. The Western powers will do all they can to have the democratic regime unsuccessful in this respect, and create therefore conditions favourable for a false ‘Islamic alternative’, labelled ‘moderate’.

CHINA NEVER GİVE UP ITS POLICIES

AYDINLIK: China President Hu Jintao met with Obama in Washington. Before going to USA, Hu Jintao said that the ‘system dominated by dollar is the product of past’. What is your opinion?

AMIN: China may smile towards the Americans but the will never compromise their policies. The winner of the Hu Jintao-Obama meeting was Hu Jinto, as was expected. China did not make any concession with respect to their independent management of their currency, the yuan. The life expectancy of the dollar that rules the international monetary system will come to an end, sooner or later. Chinese are well aware of this. Yet for the time being China doesn’t suggest to create a different alternative global currency (Chinese understand that this is not mature and therefore remains an illusion). China is concentrating at the moment on developing relatively free and independent regional alliances. China will struggle for such realistic possible answers to the challenge: Reinforcing regional agreements in Asia and Latin America, not on a global level.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This is a translation of an article that first appeared in Aydinlik Magazine.
* Samir Amin is director of the Third World Forum and chair of the World Forum for Alternatives
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

WikiLeaks, Tunisia and Egypt

The Real News Network (TRNN) interview

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70399

cc AzisIn this interview from The Real News Network, Samer Shehata answers questions about the impact of leaked diplomatic cables on the Arab world.

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay coming to you from Washington. Samer Shehata is an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University, and he also is an expert in the Middle East, and especially in social movements in Egypt and other areas of the region. And he's been following WikiLeaks. So we're interested in what's popped out for him. Thanks for joining us.

SAMER SHEHATA: You're welcome.

PAUL JAY: What's jumped out for you?

SAMER SHEHATA: The things that have jumped out at me, of course, have related to cables coming out of Cairo, and - as well as cables coming out of Tunis, also, as a result of what's been going on in Tunisia these days. So with regards to Tunis, for example, Tunisia, it is striking to me the knowledge that the Americans had of the extent, the depth of corruption in Tunisia. The cables are very specific. The American ambassador, for example, is invited to Ben Ali's son-in-law's house for dinner, and he describes the opulence, the luxury. He has a tiger or a lion in a cage that he shows his visitors and so on.

And it really is, you know, absurd, almost, the extent to which they were living, you know, excessively, and the Americans know this, of course. There are also rumors about the extent of corruption, going all the way up to Ben Ali himself. One of the cables mentions that there is credible information that on a certain business deal, Ben Ali said to someone, I want 50 per cent. The involvement of Ben Ali's wife in tremendous amounts of corruption, including a deal with Suha Arafat, President Arafat's wife, as it were, and her situation in Tunisia. For some time she was a resident. She was given nationality so she could do business there. Then her nationality was revoked and she left to Malta, and this had to do with, according to the cables, business deals gone badly between the president's wife and Mrs. Arafat. So the Americans certainly knew the extent of corruption. They also knew the unpopularity of the Ben Ali regime.

PAUL JAY: So that then begs the question what did they do about knowing all of this, which is nothing. He was their guy.


SAMER SHEHATA: It seems very little, yes. It seems that there were some occasional discussions of opening up media freedoms and so on. But in terms of real pressure, prioritising this, pressing Ben Ali or the regime in the media or privately, no, there seems to have been no serious pressure whatsoever.

PAUL JAY: So it really ends up being quite a condemnation of US policy towards Tunisia, that they know the inside story of just how rotten the regime is, and he's still one of their friendly dictators.

SAMER SHEHATA: I think so. There's no way to look at it in a positive light, despite these recent statements.

PAUL JAY: Other than that they're good observers.

SAMER SHEHATA: Other than they're good observers, they're good writers, they seem to be doing their job quite well. Yes, that's the case. And, of course, over the last day or so, as Ben Ali has left the country, there have been, you know, optimistic or positive remarks made by President Obama about the need for democracy in Tunisia and so on, but too little, too late, really.

PAUL JAY: And it's interesting he goes to Saudi Arabia as the place where he [inaudible]

SAMER SHEHATA: Ben Ali.

PAUL JAY: Ben Ali. Yeah.

SAMER SHEHATA: Yes.

PAUL JAY: Another regime they probably have a pretty good inside take on, they being US analysts.

SAMER SHEHATA: I think a very good take, yes. In fact, there are cables about Saudi Arabia, too, that are very interesting, analysing President Sarkozy's visit to Saudi Arabia and basically saying that the French don't understand the Saudis and the Saudis aren't happy with them, how could President Sarkozy even consider taking his girlfriend at the time to Saudi Arabia on an official visit she was scheduled to attend, or his hard-nosed relations with them. The cables state that the Saudis, of course, like friendship and trust, whereas Sarkozy came and wants to sell them French goods without any of the kind of Arab, you know, hospitality and so on.

PAUL JAY: How big a deal was the WikiLeak cable release in Tunisia prior to the uprising?


SAMER SHEHATA: I don't think it was that big of a deal, actually. I mean, there is - there was a great deal of attention focused on it, but there is a tendency I think we've been seeing in the last couple of days to say that the Tunisians saw the WikiLeaks cables and then they revolted. No. Almost anyone you ask in Tunisia knew the extent of the corruption and the individuals involved, especially that involving Leila Trabelsi, Ben Ali's wife. This was really confirmation that what people had heard, the rumours that were circulating in the country, were also verified, as it were, by the American State Department. So I don't think that, you know, it played any causal role. But Tunisians read with great interest, like many other people in the Arab world, what the State Department was writing about politics in those countries.

PAUL JAY: And what's jumped out at you from the Cairo cables?

SAMER SHEHATA: Well, the Cairo cables are interesting, because they also show a State Department very knowledgeable of the basic situation in Egypt. They know that President Mubarak isn't terribly popular. They know that Gamal Mubarak, his younger son, who has been groomed to be the president, is also not very popular. They are conscious of the other potential players involved - Omar Suleiman, the head of military intelligence, and so on. And yet there's really not that great of concern for the lack of democracy or the possibility of a father-to-son succession in a supposed republic in the most populous Arab country in the world, the one that receives a huge amount of American military and economic assistance annually. So there's no real concern for that. And we saw that recently with the very mild statements that came out of the State Department in response to the utterly farcical Egyptian ‘elections’, quote-unquote, that took place at the end of November, the beginning of December 2010.

PAUL JAY: Anything that surprised you, where you said ‘ah-ha’?

SAMER SHEHATA: There were some things that were surprising. The fact that Saudi Arabia, for example, and King Abdullah said with regard to Iran and the possibility of a US military strike on Iran, you know, cut the head off the snake, you know, or that President Mubarak also seems to have encouraged an attack on Iran. You know, these are things that Arab leaders don't say publicly, right? In fact, their official position is quite the opposite, right? They're not - they don't want war and regional turmoil. Also, the extent of American-Egyptian cooperation with regard to Gaza, I think, is also something that is interesting. It's clear in the cables that - and we knew this, but we didn't have any confirmation of this, that the Egyptians consider Hamas to be the enemy of Egypt and that they are, you know, willing to cooperate to some extent with the Israelis and the Americans because of a perceived mutual interest there, despite the suffering of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

PAUL JAY: Also some indication in the cables that Fatah itself is willing to cooperate with the Americans and Israelis to go after Hamas.

SAMER SHEHATA: And we knew that before, yes. And we knew that before, unfortunately, yeah.

PAUL JAY: Thanks very much for joining us.

SAMER SHEHATA: You're very welcome.

PAUL JAY: And as you continue to read WikiLeaks, maybe you'll come back and give us an update.

SAMER SHEHATA: Happy to. Happy to.

PAUL JAY: Thanks very much for joining us on The Real News Network.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Samer Shehata is an assistant professor of Arab Politics at Georgetown University. He is the author of the book: ‘Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt’ published in 2009. He has also written numerous articles on Arab politics for the International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe and the Arab Reform Bulletin.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

As African tyrants fall

Invincible dictators?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70440

cc B GIn the wake of Tunisia’s popular uprising that last week displaced former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Alemayehu G. Mariam looks to Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi for lessons in how to bring down dictatorships.

Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi (The Mahatma or Great Soul) is today revered as a historical figure who fought against colonialism, racism and injustice. But he was also one of the greatest modern revolutionary political thinkers and moral theorists. While Nicolo Machiavelli taught tyrants how to acquire power and keep it through brute force, deceit and divide and rule, Gandhi taught ordinary people simple sure-fire techniques to bring down dictatorships. Gandhi learned from history that dictators, regardless of their geographic origin, cleverness, wealth, fame or brutality, in the end always fall: ‘When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.’

Last week, it was Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s turn to fall, and for the Tunisian people to get some respite from their despair. In the dead of night, Ben Ali packed his bags and winged it out of the country he had ruled with an iron fist for 23 years to take up residence in Saudi Arabia, where he was received with open arms and kisses on the cheeks. (Uganda’s bloodthirsty dictator Idi Amin also found a haven in Saudi Arabia until his death in 2003 at age 80.) Ben Ali’s sudden downfall and departure came as a surprise to many within and outside Tunisia as did the sudden flight of the fear-stricken Mengistu Hailemariam in Ethiopia back in 1991. When push came to shove, Mengistu, the military man with nerves of steel who had bragged that he would be the last man standing when the going got tough, became the first man to blow out of town on a fast plane to Zimbabwe. Such has been the history of African dictators: When the going gets a little tough, the little dictators get going to some place where they can peacefully enjoy the hundreds of millions of dollars they have stolen and stashed away in European and American banks.

The end for Tunisia’s dictator (but not his dictatorship which is still functioning as most of his corrupt minions remain in the saddles of power) came swiftly and surprised his opponents, supporters and even his international bankrollers. President Obama who had never uttered a critical word about Ben Ali was the first to ‘applaud the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people’ in driving out the dictator. He added, ‘We will long remember the images of the Tunisian people seeking to make their voices heard.’ Those memorable images will be imprinted in the minds of all oppressed Africans; and no doubt they will heed the President’s words and drive out the continent’s dictators to pasture one by one.

After nearly a quarter century of dictatorial rule, few expected Ben Ali to be toppled so easily. He seemed to be in charge, in control and invincible. Many expected the 75 year-old Ben Ali to install his wife or son in-law in power and invisibly pull the puppet strings behind the throne. But any such plans were cut short on 17 December 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year old college graduate set himself on fire to protest the police confiscation of his unlicensed vegetable cart. Apparently, he was fed up paying ‘bakseesh’ (bribe) to the cops. His death triggered massive public protests led by students, intellectuals, lawyers, trade unionists and other opposition elements. Bouazizi was transformed into a national martyr and the fallen champion of Tunisia’s downtrodden – the unemployed, the urban poor, the rural dispossessed, students, political prisoners and victims of human rights abuses.

Bouazizi’s form of protest by self-immolation is most unusual in these turbulent times when far too many young people have expressed their despair and anger by strapping themselves with explosives and causing the deaths of so many innocent people. Bouazizi, it seems, chose to end his despair and dramatise to the world the political repression, extreme economic hardships and the lack of opportunity for young people in Tunisia by ending his own life in such a tragic manner. He must have believed in his heart that his self-sacrifice could lead to political transformation.

Truth be told, Tunisia is not unique among African countries whose people have undergone prolonged economic hardships and political repression while the leaders and their parasitic flunkies cling to power and live high on the hog stashing millions abroad. In Ethiopia, the people today suffer from stratospheric inflation, soaring prices, extreme poverty, high unemployment (estimated at 70 per cent for the youth) and a two-decade old dictatorship that does not give a hoot or allows them a voice in governance (in May 2010, the ruling party ‘won’ 99.6 per cent of the seats in parliament). In December 2010, inflation was running at 15 per cent (according to ‘government reports’), but in reality at a much higher rate. The trade imbalance is mindboggling: A whopping US$7 billion in imports to US$1.2 billion worth of exports in 2009-10. In desperation, the regime recently imposed price caps on basic food stuffs and began a highly publicised official campaign to tar and feather ‘greedy’ merchants and businessmen for causing high prices, the country’s economic woes and sabotaging the so-called growth and transformational plan. Hundreds of merchants and businessmen have been canned and await kangaroo court trials for hoarding, price-gouging and quite possibly for global warming as well. Former World Bank director and recently retired opposition party leader Bulcha Demeksa puts the blame squarely on the ruling regime’s shoulders and says price controls are senseless exercises in futility: ‘I’m not so angry with the retailers and sellers. I’m angry with the government, because the government counts on its capability to control price. Prices cannot be controlled. It has been tried everywhere in the world and it has failed. Unless you make it a totally totalitarian society it is impossible to control prices.’ (When a regime claims electoral victory of 99.6 per cent, there is little room to dispute whether it is totalitarian.) Aggravating the economic crises are chronic problems of reliable infrastructure including unstable electricity supply, burdensome and multiple taxation and a generally unfriendly business environment.

GANDHI’S CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE IN RESISTING DICTATORSHIPS

Without firing a single shot, Gandhi was able to successfully lead a movement, which liberated India from the clutches of centuries of British colonialism using nonviolence and passive resistance as a weapon. Gandhi believed that it was possible to nonviolently struggle and win against injustice, discrimination and abuse of basic human rights be it in caste-divided India or racially divided South Africa. Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence was based on the ancient Vedic (sacred writings of Hinduism) idea of ‘Ahimsa’ which emphasises the interconnection of all living things and avoidance of physical violence in human relations and in the relations between humans and other living things, notably animals. For Gandhi, Ahimsa principles also applied to psychological violence that destroys the mind and the spirit. He believed that to effectively deal with evil (be it colonialism, dictatorship, tyranny, hate, etc.) one must seek truth in a spirit of peace, love and understanding. One must undergo a process of self-purification to be rid of all forms of psychological violence including hatred, malice, bad faith, mistrust, revenge and other vices. He taught that one must strive to be open, honest, and fair, and accept suffering without inflicting it on others. Such was the basic idea of Gandhi’s ‘Satyagraha’ or the pursuit of truth.

DISMANTLING DICTATORSHIPS IN AFRICA

Ben Ali left Tunisia in a jiffy not because of a military or palace coup but as a result of a popular uprising that went on unabated for a month. Police officers are the latest to join in the street demonstrations and protests demanding an end to dictatorship and establishment of a genuine democratic government. But the Ben Ali dictatorship is alive and well-entrenched in power. A few members of his old crew have been arrested or fired from their jobs, but Mohamed Ghannouchi, other ministers and power brokers are still doing what they have been doing for the last 23 years. To placate the public, token members of the opposition have been invited to join a transitional ‘unity government’ pending elections in 60 days under constitutional provisions that favour Ben Ali’s Constitutional Democratic Rally Party (RCD). Those who led the uprising do not seem to have much voice or representation in the ‘unity’ government. For now it seems that the RCD foxes guarding the hen house are buying time and making plans to finish off the hens. But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and the best laid plans of Ben Ali’s lackeys may in the end fail and make way for a genuinely popular government. There are hopeful signs. For instance, informed observers note that there is a measure of solidarity and consensus among major opposition elements on such issues as democratic governance, human rights, release of political prisoners, democratic freedoms and the functioning of civil society groups.

The Tunisian people’s revolution provides practical insights into the prerequisites for dismantling dictatorships in Africa. The first lesson is that when dictatorships end, their end could come with a bang or a whimper, and without warning. Just a few weeks ago no one would have predicted that Ben Ali would be swept into the dust-bin of history with such swiftness. Second, there is always the risk of losing the victory won by the people in the streets by a disorganised and dithering opposition prepared to draw out the long knives at the first whiff of power in the air. Third, when tyrants fall, the immediate task is to dismantle the police state they have erected before they have a chance to strike back. Their modus operandi is well known: The dictators will decree a state of emergency, impose curfews and issue shoot-to-kill orders to terrorise the population and crush the people’s hopes and reinforce their sense of despair, powerlessness, isolation, and fear. Obviously, this has not worked in Tunisia. After more than 100 protesters were killed in the streets, more seem to be coming. Fourth, it is manifest that Western support for African dictators is only skin deep. Ben Ali was toasted in the West as the great moderniser and bulwark against religious extremism and all that. The West threw him under the bus and ‘applauded’ the people who overthrew him before his plane touched down in Saudi Arabia. Some friends, the West! Ultimately, the more practical strategy to successfully dismantle dictatorships is to build and strengthen inclusive coalitions and alliances of anti-dictatorship forces who are willing to stand up and demand real change. If such coalitions and alliances could not be built now, the outcome when the dictators fall will be just a changing of the guards: old dictator out, new dictator in.

The Tunisian people's revolution should be an example for all Africans struggling to breathe under the thumbs and boots of ruthless dictators. It is interesting to note that there was a complete news blackout of the Tunisian people’s revolution in countries like Ethiopia. They do not want Ethiopians to get any funny ideas. On 11 November 2005, Meles Zenawi defending the massacre of hundreds of people in the streets said, ‘This is not your run-of-the-mill demonstration. This is an Orange revolution [in Ukraine] gone wrong.’ Ben Ali said the same thing until he found himself on a fast jet to Jeddah. From India to Poland to the Ukraine to Czechoslovakia and Chile decades-old dictatorships have been overthrown in massive acts of civil disobedience and passive resistance. There is no doubt dictators from Egypt to Zimbabwe are having nightmares from Tunisia’s version of a ‘velvet’ or ‘orange’ revolution.

THE POWER OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE: DICTATORS, QUIT AFRICA!

In his ‘Quit India’ speech in August 1942, Gandhi made observations that are worth considering in challenging dictatorships in Africa:

‘In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence…

‘I have noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their imperialism.’

For Africans, the quarrel is not and ought not be about ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, religion, language or region, but about the injustices, crimes and gross and widespread human rights violations committed by African dictators. As Gandhi has taught, dictators for a time appear formidable, strong, golden and invincible. But in reality they all have feet of clay. ‘Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will,’ said Gandhi. The Tunisian people have showed their African brothers and sisters what indomitable will is all about when they chased old Ben Ali out of town. All Africans now have a successful template to use in ridding themselves of thugs, criminals and hyenas in designer suits and military uniforms holding the mantle of power.

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* 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.

Will dominoes fall in North Africa?

Dibussi Tande

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70443

cc AzisAs a wave of protests sweeps Egypt inspired by Tunisia’s uprising, Africa’s bloggers ask if Algeria and Mauritania too will stand up to their oppressive governments, writes Dibussi Tande.

The Arabist comments on the ongoing protests in Egypt, inspired by the recent Tunisian protests that led to the collapse of the Ben Ali regime:

‘The most significant thing about today's protests across Egypt is that their scale was totally unexpected. Yes, there has been a wave of protests since late 2004. But none have been nationwide to this extent, and none have been as big. We still do not have a clear picture of what transpired in much of the country, and media focus tended to be on the main protest in Cairo's Midan Tahrir. But that is enough to know that these may be the biggest protest movement since at least the 1977 bread riots and perhaps even the biggest since the 1950s.

‘It was not predictable, just like Tunisia, because it was an unknown unknown — we did not know that the threshold for such an event had been reached, partly because previous protests had fizzled out or were effectively contained by the regime. While we (here I mean the press, analysts, and activists) knew many Egyptians were tired of the current state of affairs, we did not know that an external change (what happened in Tunisia) could have this kind of impact on a country that, after all, has been protesting for years and that is nowhere as repressive and controlled as Tunisia was under Ben Ali… Today, a red line has been irrevocably crossed, a barrier of fear transcended.

‘What tomorrow brings is anyone's guess. The regime might contain and diffuse this, but will probably have to make some significant concessions (such as Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly's head, for a start). Or it might snowball into something much bigger.’

The Moor Next Door wonders whether Algeria would be the next country in the Maghreb to collapse given the widespread disaffection in the country particularly among the harraga, the disenfranchised youth who were at the forefront of the Tunisian protest:

‘David Kenner has an interesting posting at Foreign Policy on the “long-term viability of Algerian strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika,” based on Wikileaks cables. American diplomats identified key risks to Tunisia’s stability in leaked State Department cables, Kenner writes, and the cables on Algeria may be similarly predictive or useful in some other way. “Is Algeria next?” It identifies the harraga phenomenon and conversations between American officials and Said Sadi. In answering Kenner’s question these are valid points of reference. As someone put it on Twitter recently, “impossible is not Algerian”; Algeria’s long-term stability is very uncertain and it seems increasingly likely that discontent with the country’s managed crisis will produce some kind of political rearrangement in the near future. The harraga issue deserves comment as is shared between Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya and because it is interesting to think out politically in terms of Kenner’s overall question, which is important and reasonable (especially as most commentary has focused on Egypt as the next candidate for popular destabilization)...

‘Algeria’s structural crisis is significantly deeper, more militarized and factional than Tunisia’s and can be expected to be far more gory in a time of true crisis, when youth violence and public resistance goes out of the state’s control and organized opposition forces form.’

Dekhnstan publishes excerpts of the manifesto of Yacoub Ould Dahoud the Mauritanian who, inspired by Tunisia’s Bouazizi, set himself on fire in front of the Senate in Nouakchott a couple of weeks ago:

‘Extremism and terrorist groups are a result of 50 years of poverty and the loss of hope that rulers’ oppression will end... Enough corruption, Enough oppression. Mauritania belongs to the people, not to the Generals and their entourage.

‘To get the corrupt army band from power, enough with corruption, enough oppression. We suffered fifty years of corruption and oppression. Do we and the future generations not deserve one month of steadfastness to dash out of oppression, intellectual, material and physical oppression [?]’

He goes on to make a list of demands and then ends with a call for the ultimate sacrifice:

‘If you do not accept this offer, then you should face the people’s wrath and be forced out as Ben Ali was… Our lives are a small price to pay for Mauritania so that our sons can live in a country with social justice, liberty and democracy.’

Out Of Hadhramout recalls that 25 years ago, the Sudanese ousted their president in protests similar to Tunisia’s and wonders whether Tunisia can avoid the mistakes that the Sudanese made thereafter:

‘Before Tunisia, it happened in Sudan. Very rarely mentioned is the popular uprising against Ja'afar Numeiry that took place in Sudan about 25 years ago. In March 1985, a few days after Numeiry had doubled the prices of bread, petrol and public transport, public protests began in Sudan. Daily protests continued and were soon to be joined by university students, union activists and tens of thousands of others. Many were arrested, a state of emergency was declared so as to better manage crackdowns. Then, too, like in Tunisia, the military at first watched impartially; but eventually sided with the popular uprising. On the 5th of April, 1985 - the Sudanese armed forces supported the people's demands for the ouster of Numeiry and seized power in Sudan, while Numeiry was out of the country; they suspended the constitution, sacked Numeiry's top officials and dissolved the People's Assembly. Led by General Suwar Al'Dhahab, they formed a transitional government, they organized democratic elections and about one year after they had taken over, the military relinquished power to a democratically elected government. Only for that government to be ousted on the 30th of June1989…

‘Ben Ali has been unseated. Tunisians are now jubilant. They are rejoicing and celebrating. Revolutions are that sweet. But, they are only sweeter if dreams are realized; and if they bring better changes; if the goals for what lives were lost for, are achieved. Tunisians can - in fact, should - learn from the Sudanese experience. The question now for them, is: What next? Can and will their elation continue for long? Will their expectations be fulfilled? Can and will what they revolted for, be achieved?’

Buckaroo Thandi argues that perceptions of women are dictated primarily by geography:

‘The first time I ever noted the frenzy over women's chest areas was in Swaziland. The international media was fascinated by the Reed Dance, 'Women parade around like THAT?' they seemed to scream as they happily snapped away. But at my school in the middle of Manzini, Swazi school girls practiced for traditional dance competitions dressed in what was normal for traditional dances: bare chests and all.
Having read all the rants and raves about women and cleavages in Eurocentric literature and media, I looked sideways at teachers during those traditional dance practices, hoping to see signs of, at the very least, embarrassment...but there was none whatsoever. The teachers seemed to only be occupied with whether the girls were following the beats….

‘Certainly I've never heard of anyone within my circle of friends going on and on about bra size or dreaming of a visit to a cosmetic surgeon about it, well, only one but she wanted it because the weight was putting pressure on back. And yet, years ago, a kindly old man on the street went out of his way to advise me on why I should cover up my legs, 'It's the backs of your knees child, honour the backs of your knees. Don't show them off too much or they'll become a common sight.' Sounds like what some would say about a cleavage elsewhere.’

Oo The Nigerian laments about the inability of Nigerian residents to perform even the most basic monetary transactions on the web:

‘I just bought 3 domain names from GoDaddy. No, that is not news, the news is that I had to use a US based VPN before the purchase went through. (the VPN made the godaddy server think I was browsing from the US).

‘The first 50 times I tried making this purchase, it kept giving me the error “unable to process”. After doing quite a lot of Googling I saw that all purchases from Nigeria are flagged automatically. (No prize for getting why). So I went and setup the VPN and the purchase went immediately.

‘Of course I should have used Paypal but my account has kept getting locked ever since I returned to Nigeria from the UK...

‘Essentially, any purchase made from Nigeria is deemed fraudulent until strenuously proven otherwise.

‘What this means is that, those lovely stories about you creating a little webapp and slamming a Paypal button is fantasy if you are doing it from here. We are not allowed to participate in global ecommerce. If you think making payments with your own money is hard, try receiving. Without payments there is no commerce, so we are left out.’

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

‘Surgical operation’ in Cote d’Ivoire: The worst-case scenario?

Open letter to African heads of state

Pierre Sane

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70447

cc Wikimedia‘Can democracy be imposed from abroad, and moreover through foreign armed forces? And what would be the cost for the populations, the country, and our region?’ That is ‘the challenge for African leaders and intellectuals alike’, writes Pierre Sane.

Mr President,

On the 7th of August 2010 in Abidjan, the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire commemorated the 50th anniversary of its independence with the reserve appropriate to a nation destabilised by the crisis born out of the failed coup and armed rebellion of 2002. President Laurent Gbagbo did reach out to the rebels to initiate a process of reconciliation and engage the country on the road to peace and development. A presidential election organised by the political parties under the supervision of the United Nations was expected to seal this reconciliation, reunite the country and put it back to work. Unfortunately, the meticulously prepared election ended in an impasse, which will have to be one day investigated dispassionately in order to provide unbiased information to the African and international public opinions. But for now the country is threatened with military intervention to ‘dislodge’ Laurent Gbagbo from office. And so, for the first time ever in Africa, one would resort to external forces to ‘restore democracy’ following a polling dispute!

Such a scenario reminds me of Iraq eight years ago.

In Iraq, it all started with a systematic media campaign of disinformation, aiming at conditioning public opinion (the legendary weapons of mass destruction!), together with an abortive attempt to manipulate the UN system, extreme pressures on regional organisations and neighbouring countries, all relayed by local allies who were calling for a war against their own country. The latter had managed to convince the Americans that they would be welcomed ‘with flowers’. However, what was due to be a ‘surgical operation’ became, as time unfolded, a deadly occupation condemned by Senator Barack Obama at the time. There were no weapons of mass destruction, but the civil war than ensued led to the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, to massive population displacements and colossal destruction, the consequences of which will continue to be felt over the oncoming decades.

Hence, the worst that could happen eventually did.

Comparison is not reason. Cote d’Ivoire is not Iraq; neither can anyone pretend that Laurent Gbagbo is Saddam Hussein, or Alassane Ouattara Ahmed Chalabi. Nevertheless, the threat of intervention is being held up by the French government, supported by some Africans, including a few intellectuals. What is therefore challenging us – African leaders and intellectuals alike – can be worded as follows: Can democracy be imposed from abroad, and moreover through foreign armed forces? And what would be the cost for the populations, the country, and our region? Are those governments pushing neighbouring countries towards intervention suddenly driven by a quest for universal justice for the Ivorian people, and the Africans in general? Would they from now on intervene whenever democracy would be under threat anywhere in Africa? Would they over the oncoming years interfere in any election dispute in Africa (and elsewhere or only in Africa?), and impose the candidate they will have chosen as the winner, and forcibly if necessary?

Should we believe, as French President Jacques Chirac said in January 1990 in Abidjan (already!), that we are unquestionably ‘not mature for democracy’, and that time has come to impose it on us? Just as was imposed on us ‘freewheel liberalism’ through the violence of structural adjustment programmes, or dictatorships through the support to putschists or to the proponents of single party rule. President Chirac was happy to abandon us on the platform of the single party watching the train of history and democracy go by, but his successor, as a little Bush playing in his pré carré, wants us to ‘enter history’ using the most primitive of all rights: Force.

The polling process in Cote d’Ivoire definitely led to a cul-de-sac, but who in Africa can believe for one moment that governments which, from outside the continent, are trying to convince neighbouring countries to commit to the dangerous path of a deadly conflict, are really concerned with scrupulous compliance with the electoral wishes of Ivorian people? In the event of a war, would these governments open their borders to refugees fleeing the conflict? Or more likely establish camps in neighbouring countries and park them there, albeit making ‘generous’ donations to international NGOs who would exhibit their dedication before tearful television cameras? Once peace has returned, will they not embark again in those typical ‘post-conflict’ international conferences with the traditional pledges and never fulfilled commitments, while collecting the benefits of reconstruction deals? Not forgetting, of course, to secure offshore oil platforms, and even to may be find at last the appropriate location for Africom in a new ‘friendly’ country…

Meanwhile, this ‘return to democracy’ will cost the lives of populations in Cote d’Ivoire and in the whole region. The best way to turn them away forever from democracy!

Mr President,

Let us try to consider this worst-case scenario, based on recent historical facts in the region.

First of all, it should be emphasised that any intervention would require clearance by the Security Council, whether under the terms outlined in chapter VII of the United Nations Charter or under the Genocide Convention. Since there is presently in Cote d’Ivoire no threat to regional peace, or even less a threat of genocide, neither Russia nor China would be likely to give their agreement at this time.

So, what sort of intervention? Mr Alassane Ouattara stated on 5 January 2011 before a French television channel that it was a simple matter of ‘removing Laurent Gbagbo from the presidential palace, and taking him away’. To the journalist who then asked him if he did not fear that it would trigger a civil war, he replied: ‘Oh! No… the Ivorians will be dancing in the streets of Abidjan on the following day’! To summarise, removing Laurent Gbagbo and replacing him by Alassane Ouattara would be enough to return to ‘normality’, and peace would be preserved. Alassane Ouattara then added that ‘it has already been done elsewhere’.

Without emphasising the unlawfulness of such an operation, the doubtful legitimacy of a president forcefully brought to office by a foreign power and his future independence from those who will have in fine done so, one can question the plausibility of such a scenario. Or even that of the assassination of Laurent Gbagbo as a prelude to ‘normality’, as was the case for another reluctant character, Laurent Désiré Kabila, murdered exactly ten years ago inside his presidential palace. Otherwise why would such an operation not have been carried out since?

Various sources have mentioned that Nigerian soldiers were already in Bouaké, and that rebels from the Forces Nouvelles had by now infiltrated Abidjan, as well as French members of the Special Forces, that Liberian militia had been deployed, that Angolan fighters, allies of Laurent Gbagbo, were present, not to mention the Ivorian army itself, despised by the major powers, but whose reaction in the event of an intervention remains unpredictable, and the ‘Young Patriots’, whose anti-foreigner exasperation may be pushed to the limits. We have here are all the ingredients for a huge disaster, and this whether the ‘surgical operation’ turns out to be successful or not. And moreover in the presence of the U.N. forces, …who will do what by the way in front of such a blatant aggression?

Mr President,

The worst-case scenario – civil war pursuant to such an operation – should not be wished because the Africans are tired of these deadly conflicts, but would it not be the most plausible? In such an event, how would it be possible to ‘secure’ all the European populations, embassies, businesses and schools? How would we avoid the inter-ethnic carnages, considering the blend of populations in Abidjan and elsewhere in the Centre, West and North of the country? How would anyone coming forward holding a ‘flower’ be distinguished from another approaching with a machine-gun in his back? How to make the difference between a pro-Gbagbo and a pro-Ouattara, a rebel from the Forces Nouvelles and a Liberian militiaman? Just by shooting everyone? (i.e. the traditional collateral damages)? And what about those 7 million or so Ecowas community citizens, whose security would probably not be part of the ‘surgical’ plans of the army commanders? How to prevent the involvement of the armed gangs of the region, from Senegal (Casamance) to Liberia, on the lookout for any conflict or sponsors?

Then, and only then would it be possible to obtain a clearance from the Security Council under the terms of Chapter VII or the Genocide Convention, hence opening the way to a massive foreign intervention and a long lasting occupation in order to ‘maintain regional peace and prevent a genocide’.

Is that the purpose of the ‘surgical operation’?

May be some Ivorians will be dancing on the day after the intervention, but they will all weep a few days later. So will the whole region.

Reason should prevail. War is not the solution for the Ivorians, neither is it for the populations of West Africa, and even less in the interest of democracy. Whether Gbagbo or Ouattara are in office, the Ivorians essentially want to live in peace. And as far as democracy is concerned, it is a right and a forbearing conquest pursuant to the genius of each and every nation. It is built through education, through the evolution and outcome of internal contradictions, and power relations of the moment. Its progress in Africa will not be plain sailing, and will depend on the sincere and perennial attachment of the various actors to the democratic ideal, to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and to the common engagement to keep foreign powers away from internal political processes. It requires a slow and often chaotic establishment of the rule of law, and respect for the national institutions, however imperfect. Fifty years after African countries regained independence, and after all the soothing speeches made during the commemoration ceremonies, will we accept that a brother country be invaded, occupied and destroyed just because democracy has stumbled? What then is the point of celebrating 50 years?

In my modest opinion, the only way out is direct political dialogue. Let us not be told that an intervention would be the unavoidable consequence of the confiscation of power by Laurent Gbagbo. There is nothing unavoidable here, because peace is not under threat and the populations are not in danger. On the contrary, it is intervention, which would put the populations and regional peace under threat. Once again, the solution can only be found through political dialogue, not a dialogue involving triumph over an opponent without resorting to violence, but a straightforward dialogue leading towards reason, truth, and the superior interest of Cote d’Ivoire. Laurent Gbagbo has already suggested that an international body be set up to assess the electoral process and that the votes be counted again, as has been the case in Haiti. Alassane Ouattara has suggested that a national unity government be set up. Why not take these proposals seriously, and sit around a table, involving members of the Ivoirian civil society? Resorting to such a national dialogue is the only way Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara can forever leave their mark on the African people’s conscience, by refusing that war is brought to their country in order to remain in or access office over the bodies of their fellow countrymen and women. Also, an international community really concerned about the well being of the African populations should support this way of solving the crisis instead of preaching warfare.

As far as ECOWAS is concerned, it should not fight the wrong war. If it genuinely wants to confront the real threats facing our region, it must swiftly tackle the criminal endeavours of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, of the drug dealers attempting to take control of the state in some countries, and of the armed rebels who surf on the development blockages and on the crying inequalities that wreck our societies. The priority for ECOWAS should be to resolutely hasten and deepen the regional integration processes in West Africa, since it is the best way forward to development, democracy, and hence peace.

In 2011, there will be nearly 40 ballots in Africa! Will we be confronted again to foreign powers displaying the traditional and hypocritical ‘two sets of rules’?

You bet!

Yours faithfully,

Pierre SANE
President
Imagine Africa Institute
Paris, 23 January 2011

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* Pierre Sane is president of the Imagine Africa Institute.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Stakeholders in the Côte d’Ivoire crisis

Sanou Mbaye

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70450

cc WikimediaWhat is at stake in Côte d’Ivoire ‘are the consequences of French on-going colonisation and ruthless exploitation in connivance with unscrupulous local leaders of swathes of west and central Africa’, writes Sanou Mbaye, in an analysis of the five parties affected by the country’s post-election crisis.

In 2002 Côte d’Ivoire was rocked by a rebel uprising that partitioned the country into two parts, with the government led by President Laurent Gbagbo controlling the south, the rebels the north and the French army camping between the two. As a member of the Security Council, France managed to give this intervention the stamp of international approval under a UN mandate. In 2004, to avenge the death of nine French soldiers, the French army destroyed Côte d’Ivoire air defence and killed dozens of unarmed civilian demonstrators.

After a peace conference in 2005 a government of national unity was established. In November 2010 Laurent Gbagbo organised a much-delayed presidential election. His opponents were former president Henri Konan Bédié and former prime minister Alassane Ouattara. Once it was all done with, the country ended up with two stated presidents. Ouattara was declared winner by the independent electoral commission and the international community. Gbagbo was confirmed re-elected by the Constitutional Court. As a result, Côte d’Ivoire is now plunged in a deadly tale of five stakeholders.

The first stakeholder is the incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo. During his ten-year tenure, Laurent Gbagbo sought to accredit his opposition to French neo-colonialism, and his socialist and anti-imperialist credentials while strengthening a new class of rich Ivoirians including the military. Their sources of enrichment were enhanced in 2006 when oil and gas revenues supplemented the traditional cocoa and coffee incomes.

The second stakeholder is Ouattara. In his professional background as head of the Africa desk of the IMF, governor of the West African central bank, prime minister of Côte d’Ivoire, and deputy-managing director of the IMF, Ouattara presided over the deregulation and the liberalisation of the Côte d’Ivoire economy. He liquidated Côte d’Ivoire’s valuable and strategic assets to French conglomerates at knockdown prices after the 100 per cent devaluation in 1994 of the CFA franc. Ouattara kept for years pocketing a double salary as a prime minister and central bank governor. He stopped this practice only when this was discovered and exposed by then opposition leader, Gbagbo, whom he jailed.

The third stakeholder is France, which granted independence to its former African colonies on condition that French troops remained stationed on their territories and they maintain the colonial CFA franc as their common currency. The CFA franc is convertible and its convertibility is guaranteed by the French Treasury which holds a right of veto over the management of the two central banks which issue the currency: BCEAO of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and BEAC of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), which would issue the currency. A capital control limits the free transfer of the currency to France. The credit that these central banks could extend to each member country was capped at 20 per cent of any country’s public revenue in the preceding year. These countries also signed up to an obligation to keep 65 per cent of their foreign exchange reserves in a ‘compte d’operations’ held at the French Treasury, as well as another 20 per cent to cover financial liabilities. According to figures published by Banque de France, foreign exchange reserves were estimated in 2008 at US$15.8 billion for CEMAC and US$9.3 billion for WAEMU. Except from the French mandarins from Banque de France and the Treasury, nobody, not least African officials, has access to these figures, and no independent audit has ever been carried out.

At a fixed-rate of 665.957 to each Euro, the exchange rate of the CFA franc is grossly overvalued. This is tantamount to an economic suicide when one considers that countries around the world battle to keep their exchanges rates low in order to make their exports competitive. But this suits French businesses, which can transfer all their earnings to France at this very advantageous exchange rate.

Another advantage of the system for France is that the enormous wealth that the African leaders accumulate in exchange of their adherence to such a system is recycled uniquely through the French banking system and duly recorded. So, every now and then, some shadowy civil society organisation would bring a corruption libel case against a few of these African leaders before a French judge. The latest targets of such proceedings were the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Sassou-Nguesso of Congo or Paul Biya of Cameroon. The cases are then vastly publicised in French and world media before being suddenly dropped, an elaborate and not so subtle way of keeping these leaders under check.

The fourth stakeholder is the Ivorians themselves, a population under siege, governed by two declared winners of the same election, divided along ethnic and economic lines and fed with the venom of hatred, ready to massacre each other as they did in the deadly civil war they went through between 2002 and 2003.

The fifth stakeholders are two regional organisations: The African regional organisations: the African Union and the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS). They endorsed the international community’s stand in favour of Ouattara. France and the US were instrumental in shaping world opinion. France easily secured the EU members support. Jendayi Frazer, an African American, a former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Bush Administration and present US Ambassador to South Africa was instrumental in shaping the Obama’s administration stand. France’s former African colonies carried the day within the African regional organisations. This is comprehensible. What is less understandable is Nigeria’s readiness to spearhead a military intervention to dislodge Gbagbo when Cote-d’Ivoire is home to two million informal sector operator Nigerians in addition to the millions of other migrant workers who were attracted into Côte d’Ivoire to work on cocoa, coffee and banana plantations. They were the real architects of what was then dubbed ‘the Ivorian miracle’. Military intervention could entail the destabilising effects of seeing them flocking back to their countries of origin, not to mention the killings and the horrors already witnessed in the previous civil war.

But beyond all the rhetoric, the banning and condemnation, what are at stake in Côte d’Ivoire are the consequences of French on-going colonisation and ruthless exploitation in connivance with unscrupulous local leaders of swathes of west and central Africa. France has been able to phantom the politics and the economics of its former colonies so far. But, in a changing world and an increasing shifting of the world balance of power, its dominance will be more and more questioned.

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* Sanou Mbaye is a London-based independent economist and the author of “L’Afrique au secours de l’Afrique” (Africa to the rescue of Africa).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Declaration of the Conference of the Democratic Left

20 - 23 January 2011, Wits University, South Africa

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70401

cc T STwo hundred and fifty activists from across South Africa met last week to form a united front against big capital. In the concluding conference statement, they called for unity and mobilisation.

Post apartheid capitalism is leaving a trail of hunger, poverty, anger and misery. The wealthy elite, the bosses and their hangers on refuse to concede a single inch to the urgent needs of the majority. They label even the most modest reforms as the thin edge of the wedge of communism. And as always the government shakes and concedes…and a new round of suffering begins for our people.

From 20 - 23 January 2011 at Wits University, 250 delegates from around the country representing a diverse range of social movements, popular organisations and anti-capitalist formations gathered to forge a united political front to break this cycle which has made Sout Africa the most unequal country on earth. The cry of the Conference of the Democratic Left is: ‘Kwanele, Kwanele, Enough is Enough, Genoeg is genoeg.’

Every progressive programme, strategy and intention is either abandoned or rejected by the government in the face of the brutal logic of managing a capitalist state. The ANC has shied away from confronting capital and white privilege that was left largely intact when the end of apartheid was negotiated. This has resulted in a situation where the ANC leadership has adapted itself to the power of capital. Many of our former comrades are now comfortable members of the business elite.

Our recent history could have been different: if the productive potential of our economy and the spirit and traditions of resistance and organisation had been harnessed to overcome the deprivation of the past. But this would have required breaking with the logic of profits over people, capital accumulation over human need, competition over solidarity, and breaking with trickle down economics and thinking. And it would have required continued and continual struggle, organisation and mobilisation. In the face of the global crisis and the generally unfavourable international balance of forces it would have required a courage and boldness capable of sustaining the confidence of the oppressed in an alternative vision of socialism.

With a great sense of urgency we have come together as the democratic left and are uniting our separate and often fragmented efforts, to build solidarity, restore confidence and hope amongst the masses of this country. We do this convinced that a re-awakening of struggle is at hand. The so-called service delivery protests and the recent public sector strike are just the first signs of what is to come.

We are activists with a long history of building trade unions, civics, women, youth, student and political formations. We have been at the forefront of building many of the new movements that have been formed to resist neoliberalism and have struggled too rebuild the broader popular movement. We are activists who see as our first and main task to build these movements and to unite them in resisting retrenchments, cut-offs, evictions, violence against women, discrimination and abuse of gays and lesbians, the collapse of our education and health systems and the re-tribalisation of the countryside and the total eradication of racism. We are activists that believe racism has not been eradicated from our society and continue to struggle against all forms of discrimination, prejudice and injustice. We are activists that believe the oppression of women is deepening as the economic and social crisis unfolds in our country and must be central to all our efforts for social justice.

We are for a new, united and democratic mass movement of the oppressed and exploited that builds a counter power to the power of capital, the market, the investors, the black bourgeoisie, the state functionaries and other social layers that the capitalist state in South Africa rests upon.

In coming together and building this anti-capitalist front we hold up a mirror to ourselves as the left. We have many weaknesses, frailties and deficiencies. We have made many mistakes over the last two decades of struggle. We are conscious that it is not enough to be enough to be against, it is not even enough to have a programme spelling out what we are for. For us the ends do not justify the means. Our practice, our organisations and methods of struggle must reflect the new world we aim to create. Integrity, justice and democratic practice shall be methods by which we seek to fulfil our aims.

At the centre of our anti-capitalism is the knowledge that we must be green as well as red. Global capitalism threatens our world with disaster. If it is left to plunder the natural resources of our planet and pollute the atmosphere, the oceans and the soil, life itself will be under grave threat. The current global economic crisis represents the exhaustion of a system that is driven by profit and competition. The basic tenet of capitalism is to grow endlessly with no regard to natural limits, to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. It explains why wherever we look we see the crisis and decay of the system: be it financial, energy, food, environment, cultural and social. War, global warming and health pandemics threaten the annihilation of humanity within a couple of generations.

We are internationalists. We have no illusions that the crisis and contradictions of post - apartheid capitalism can be resolved without transforming our region, Africa and the world. For us as the democratic left there is no alternative but to unite our struggles with our compatriots in our region, across the continent, south and north, east and west. Most urgently we pledge our solidarity with our sisters and brothers fighting for democracy and social justice in Zimbabwe, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan, to name just a few of the most urgent situations in Africa. We understand that an urgent task for us is to fight the curse of xenophobia and Afro-phobia. We welcome into the formations of the democratic left refugee and immigrant communities from our continent who, like ourselves, know that globalised capitalism and imperialist aggression is making us refugees and migrants on our own continent.

The continuing crises in the core countries of globalised capitalism will affect the structural vulnerabilities, and aggravate the unemployment, hunger and suffering of the masses in countries throughout the world. The deepening of the global economic and climate-change crises will aggravate these problems even further and result in spreading popular protests, uprisings and even revolutionary situations as in Tunisia recently.

Globally a new period of resistance to capitalist crisis is gaining momentum. From Athens to London, from Tunisia to Egypt, from indigenous and peasant mobilisations to the reawakening of the traditional labour and social movements, there has been a renewal of struggle and organisation to the harsh attacks of capital. The reverberating call is: we shall not pay for your crisis. As the democratic left we will use all our energies and resources to ensure this call echoes across our villages, towns and cities.

We call on the workers, the unemployed, women and youth, shack-dwellers, back yarders, landless and the dispossessed, to organise, mobilise and unite. It is not yet uhuru. As the democratic left we pledge our solidarity in your resistance and struggle.

Ours is a movement of hope!

An injury to one is an injury to all.

Aluta Continua

Forward to socialism!

ISSUED BY THE STEERING COMMITTEE OF THE DEMOCRATIC LEFT FRONT (PREVIOUSLY REFERRED TO AS THE CONFERENCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC LEFT)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Phumzile Mtetwa (072 795 9194, phumi@equality.org.za
Mazibuko K. Jara (083 651 0271, mazibuko@amandla.org.za
Vishwas Satgar (082 775 3420, copac@icon.co.za)
Website - http://democraticleft.za.net/

-

DOCUMENTS FROM THE CONFERENCE:

- BUILDING THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY FROM BELOW
http://bit.ly/g7zDfA
The ecological and economic crisis of South Africa’s transnationalising capitalist economy is also reflected in increasing hunger, increasing food prices, unhealthy diets and polluting agro-processing food production. Advancing an Anti-Hunger and Food Sovereignty Campaign challenges this reality and politicises the food question in a more consistent way. Such a campaign has to be advanced bottom up, through a participatory democratic logic for democratic left politics. These campaign notes, presented at a Conference of the Democratic Left in South Africa, intend to promote such a process and emerge out of the Gauteng Democratic Left conference held in March 2010.

- SOUTH AFRICA: DEMOCRATIC LEFT DEMANDS ON HOUSING
http://bit.ly/dXO3tc
There is a need to outline a programme of demands in the area of housing. Through struggle in the Western Cape some demands have come to the fore, and they might be considered to be elements of a programme in the area of housing. The discussion available through the link provided, from the Conference of the Democratic Left, held recently, may not even include all the demands that have been raised by different communities in the Western Cape, so should not in any way be regarded as definitive even of recent Western Cape experience.

- SOUTH AFRICA: TIME FOR A NEW DEMOCRATIC LEFT POLITICS
http://bit.ly/gt1YFH
It is time that the people take their destiny into their own hands, writes Mazibuko Jara. 'Can poor and working people, working with middle class people committed to social change, open the path to a new politics that can change this country? Can a modest national conference under an umbrella of democratic left politics offer any hope for the majority and those interested in social change in this country? This 1st National Conference of the Democratic Left, which will follow two weeks after the celebration of the ANC’s 99th anniversary in January 2011, is a milestone in a maturing long-term political process.'

- SOUTH AFRICA: TOWARDS A UNITED DEMOCRATIC LEFT FRONT
http://bit.ly/dREBVQ
This paper, from the just-concluded Conference of the Democratic Left, presents a perspective and argument for organising the democratic left initiative as an anti-capitalist political front. It is anchored in the premise of maximising the unity of social and ideological forces against post-apartheid and global capitalism. To stimulate debate, discussion and resolution on the political form question for the democratic left initiative this document covers the following themes:
- A strategic approach to fronts;
- Learning lessons from the history of political fronts;
- The case for a United Democratic Left Front for South Africa;
- Key issues for a Democratic Left approach to building a political front through struggle.

Reclaiming a vision of hope and a life of dignity

Neoliberal South Africa and the narrowing of democratic space

Vishwas Satgar

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70464

cc S 92In a speech given at the first national conference of the Democratic Left, Vishwas Satgar sets out what it stands for, why it is needed and the role it will play in ensuring ‘a collective wisdom frames a new South African future.’

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 After this historical conference, South Africa will not be the same. Over the next few days we will be broadening the horizons of our 17 year old democracy. We will be adding a new term to the South African political lexicon: Democratic Left.

1.2 I want to talk about this new category but by trying to place into perspective where we are as a country and the world. I am hoping through this contribution South Africa and the world would be much clearer about what the Democratic Left stands for.

1.3 I want to start with a sharp and provocative question: How Did Afro-Neoliberalism Steal the South African Dream?

2. HOW DID AFRO-NEOLIBERALISM STEAL THE SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM?

2.1 In South Africa the struggle against racial and capitalist oppressions spawned a dream of a ‘liberated South Africa’. Such a dream was not just the words in document called the Freedom Charter it was also the everyday longing of the oppressed majority for a life better than the irrationality of apartheid. It is these multiple yearnings for hope and for dignity that framed the South African post-apartheid dream. This South African dream has not been realised but has been stolen by an indigenised transnational neoliberalism, a neoliberalism with African characteristics. Such an Afro-neoliberalism has remade the accumulation model, state form, state-civil society relations and our international relations. It has imposed a re-imagined present on us. But how did Afro-neoliberalism steal the South African dream?

2.2 The short answer to the preceding question, which is both opportunistic and misleading, is that the glorious National Democratic Revolution was hijacked by a ‘1996 Class Project’. This explanation, which has become common sense amongst the mainstream national liberation left, and which has been used to propel a neo-Stalinist populism to the centre of South African politics, does not tell us how the South African dream was stolen. It is inadequate to say the least. Neither was the South African dream stolen by a conspiracy or by the parasitic and corrupt elements in our society.

2.3 The South African dream of hope realised and human dignity was stolen from the people through a new form of class rule. It is a form of class rule that has globalised the South African economy on the terms of transnational capital, has reduced the state to a technical manager of the ubiquitous market and has reduced citizenship to a formal ritual of passive voting. This structural shift had an agent, a champion or more precisely a bloc of popular and class forces. Central to this has been the ANC-led alliance which has made the choices that have brought us to where we are. It has done this as the ruling force in South Africa today. It has chose to rule South Africa in the interests of transnational capital and not in the interests of the people and ecological web that sustains life. This ANC-led Alliance must to take full responsibility for the fear, the despair and deprivation still endured by the majority particularly the workers and the poor. When millions remain unemployed, when inequality widens, when hunger stalks many households in the land, this is the product of ANC-led Alliance rule. This cannot be blamed on apartheid! Changing one ANC President with another, changing one ANC leader with another is not going to change this. Voting for the ANC at every election is not going to change this.

2.4 This theft of the South African dream has merely plunged South Africa deeper into crisis, a double conjunctural and structural crisis and a double squeeze on democracy.

3. SOUTH AFRICA’S DOUBLE CONJUNCTURAL AND STRUCTURAL CRISIS: AFRO-NEOLIBERAL DYSTOPIA AND THE GLOBAL CIVILISATIONAL CRISIS

3.1 Post-apartheid South Africa moved in a straight historical line from one of the most heinous, unjust and offensive social systems in the world called apartheid into Afro- neoliberalism. This is the big irony of national liberation. This great domestic conjunctural leap has been a great leap into dystopia. The deepening of the South African economies immersion into global financial, production and trade structures through macro-economic adjustment has produced a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, obscene inequality, a deepening ecological crisis and growing hunger. Post-apartheid neoliberal South Africa is in a conjunctural crisis in which a capitalist pattern of development is not able to meet the needs of the people and the ecological web of life. It is a South Africa that is not viable.

3.2 South Africa is not exceptional. Despite the specificity of Afro-neoliberalism the world over has been locked into a neoliberal trajectory of development over the past few decades. This globalised expansion of capitalism on a global scale has placed finance capital in the driving seat of global restructuring. The analogue for this is what happened in the 1920s and 1930s sometimes referred to as the great depression.

Ironically under conditions of the great depression the world witnessed the rise of fascism. Today the world is in the grip neoliberal dogma and superpower imperialism. Actually, I would like to contend that transnational neoliberalism is the face of a new global fascism in which the rule of capital prevails on a planetary scale. Its own extremism is also engendering other extremes like religious fundamentalism, xenophobia and racism for instance.

3.3 However, besides transnational neoliberalism driving a global restructuring process in the interests of transnational capital it has also brought about a civilisational shift. It is about a civilisation of endless capitalist accumulation at the expense of human life, the ecological web of life and even democracy. In short, the crisis of transnational neoliberalism today due to the unravelling of global financial markets, which is a conjunctural crisis, is also a civilisational crisis. It is a civilisational crisis which could lead to the demise of planetary life in all its forms. This conjunctural and civilisational crisis has also added to the crisis of a globalised South Africa. A country which is tied into volatile global capitalist circuits of accumulation and which has made itself a willing node of reproducing capital and its exclusions. As a result it has brought to our shores the loss of one million jobs. Trevor Manuel’s macro-economic policy did not work!!! Afro-neoliberalism has not worked. This is South Africa’s second crisis.

3.4 All indications globally suggest that through the G20, the Cancun Summit, the World Economic Forum and even the crisis response of the United States that the global ruling class is not willing to define a world beyond capitalism and its total crisis. The solutions that go to the root of the global conjunctural and civilisational crisis are not on the agenda.

4. SOUTH AFRICA’S DOUBLE SQUEEZE ON DEMOCRACY

4.1 Historical democracy has never been part of capitalism. There is no organic or pre- given link between democracy and capitalism. In fact modern democracy grew out of popular struggles alongside the development of capitalism. This is the case in South Africa as well. Apartheid capitalism never gave us democracy, instead the people (the workers and the poor) have struggled for it. It is a product of sacrifice, of human will and a passion for liberation from oppression. It is precious because it is essentially about rule by and for the people. It is not about rule by capital.

4.2 The neoliberalisation of South Africa over the past 17 years has not produced a democracy responsive to the needs of the people and the ecological web. The internal re-engineering of democracy has produced the first squeeze against democracy. First, the disembedding and deterritorialisation of the market, has utopianised the market. It has made the market our present and our future. The trap and cage of the market master narrative is profoundly undemocratic. It has been propagated in our public sphere such that its values of greed, possessive individualism and competition are hegemonic. It has become naturalised in everyday South African life. The values of Afro-neoliberalism guide our everyday social choices and has produced a dog eat dog society. In this way it closes and it ends history at the same time. There is no alternative. Now human beings in South Africa and the world over love to fantasize, to dream and rearrange reality through hoping for more and for something better. Without this disposition an intrinsic part of what makes us human is killed. To dream of a better world and South Africa based on hope and dignity is a use value. It is outside capitalism. But the undemocratic and authoritarian nature of neoliberalism wants to take this away from us. It is narrowing democracy in a way that may not be visible but is actually terrifying.

4.3 Second, and part of the domestic squeeze against democracy has been a narrowing of the boundaries of democracy and the meaning of citizenship. Our dream of a peoples democracy has been shrunk from the triad of strong representative, associational and participatory democracy dynamically working together, to a form of weak representational democracy. Our politicians have become technocrats in this context merely to serve the market and ultimately the power of capital. Politicians must manage ‘market democracy’ such that the juggernaut of accumulation is not contrained and growth is realised at all costs. This means a shallow performance or semblance of democracy is enough. The index of electoral voting is a measure of market democracy. A ‘free and fair elections’ with a voter turnout is adequate to legitimate the rule of capital and give a formal meaning to citizenship: I am a voter. Actually, in this context we are not citizens but still subjects of capital!

4.4 The external squeeze on democracy emanates from the restructuring of the South African state. Besides globalising the economy, a globalised state has also reduced democratic space. This has happened through locking the South African state into a global power structure serving and reproducing the rule of transnational capital. The WTO, IMF, World Bank, G20, World Economic Forum, and the UN are all crucial tansnational policy making for a. These institutions are not there to serve global citizenship but are there to ensure global capitalism thrives. South Africa is a key player in all these institutions. Through its participation in this global power structure South Africa transmits a global consensus on what capital wants back into the domestic context. A weak representative democracy is literally a transmission belt of this global consensus.

5. REDEFINING THE CATEGORY ‘LEFT’: AUTHORITARIAN LEFT VERSUS DEMOCRATIC LEFT

5.1 Today’s Conference of the Democratic Left has a profound historical significance. It is a platform that is inaugurating the beginning of a left shift in South African politics. However, for the character of this shift to be understood we have to provide a distinctiveness to our identity as a Democratic Left. What is the differentia specifica or specific characteristics of who we are? What makes us a democratic left? This is an important question for this conference and process. I want to suggest that the best way to understand who we are is by distinguishing ourselves from the authoritarian national liberation left.

5.2 So then what are the specific characteristics of an authoritarian national liberation left? Simply there are three defining characteristics. First, the authoritarian national liberation left is implicated directly and indirectly, consciously or consciously, intentionally or unintentionally, in engendering the double crisis of South Africaand the double squeeze on South African democracy. It is a left not transforming capitalism but trying to manage it even through sacrificing democracy. It is a left not willing to go beyond it. This has and will express itself either as neoliberal variants of state capitalism, social democracy or African capitalism. The Democratic Left on the other hand is seeking transformative alternatives to the double crisis of South Africa and is seeking to renewing democracy as a weapon against capitalism. The Democratic Left is anti-capitalist.

5.3 Second, the authoritarian national liberation left is locked in a state centric practice. Society must be engineered from above and through the state. The coercive apparatus of the state, its intervention capacity, must be harnessed to bring change to the people. The people are passive recipients of what is deemed in their best interests. The Democratic Left on the other hand is seeking to democratise and embed the state in civil society. It is about building the capacity of the people, particularly the working class and the poor from below, to lead societal change. It is about a relational understanding of the state in which the power of the people determines the power of the state.

5.4 The third defining characteristic of the Democratic Left is about our vision of hope and dignity for South Africa. Unlike the authoritarian national liberation left our vision is not technocratic or defined by an ideological vanguard. Our vision is people driven. This then speaks to how we construct a vision.

6. CAPITALISM THE ENEMY OF HOPE AND DIGNITY: GUIDELINES FOR RECLAIMING AN ANTI- CAPITALIST VISION OF HOPE AND DIGNITY

6.1 The Freedom Charter once upon a time embodied a vision of hope and dignity for South Africa. In the light of South Africa’s double crisis and double squeeze on democracy it is a hollow vision. This calls forth the need for a new South African vision of hope and dignity, a genuine anti-capitalist vision. For us as the Democratic Left it means a people driven South African vision of hope and dignity that emerges from below. This implies a self conscious practice guided by the following:

6.2 First, to develop a South African vision of hope and dignity necessitates an appreciation that history does not have a predetermined outcome. There a no certainties that capitalism will end up in a post-capitalist world. At the same time, this necessitates an appreciation of having a utopian orientation in our practice. It means being conscious of the passions, dreams and aspirations amongst the people that frame a vision of hope and dignity. It means taking seriously and being attentive to the expressions of peoples utopian ambitions as expressed through various cultural forms like music, art, poetry, architecture, essays, stories and so on for a life world beyond capitalism.

6.3 Second, that a South African vision of hope and dignity, a utopian dimension to democratic left practice is born out of struggles and is therefore concrete. It has to be a vision forged on the frontlines and battlefronts against the multiple oppressions of capitalism. It is a vision that has to anticipate the making of another South Africa possible and necessary by articulating a grass roots appreciation of what it means to build a South Africa beyond and outside capitalism. It has be a vision shaped and formed by the values, aspirations and alternative understandings that have emergedin grass roots struggles. All we can do is create the conditions for these voices to emerge from below to articulate this vision in a coherent way.

6.4 Third, and flowing from the preceding point is that, we do not have the answers and do not have a blue print for the future. As a political process we will create the conditions for the social character of knowledge to prevail. We will learn from and with the people about the way forward beyond capitalism. The Mine-Line factory occupation is a clear example of this. Such a learning process will ensure a collective intellectual endeavour of equals prevails inside the CDL process. Workers, street traders, the unemployed, academics and so on will learn from each other and ensure a collective wisdom frames a new South African future.

Amandla!

Long live the Democratic Left!

Another South Is Possible!

Forward to a People Driven Vision of Hope and Dignity for South Africa!

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* Vishwas Satgar is a member of the Conference of the Democratic Left (CDL) National Convening Committee.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The Democratic Left Front, elections and the Socialist Green Coalition

Mphutlane wa Bofelo

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70448

cc F PMphutlane wa Bofelo explores the role of the newly-established Democratic Left Front in dealing ‘creatively and proactively’ with the challenges of neo-apartheid and neoliberal capitalism in South Africa.

The establishment of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) by social movements, community organisations, political parties, labour unions and working-class organisations across the ideological spectrum of anti-capitalist left politics, is the most positive development in the efforts to creatively and proactively deal with the challenges presented by the neo-apartheid, neoliberal capitalist dispensation.

The DLF is envisaged to be a mass political movement that seeks to explore and establish bottom-up, people-driven participatory democratic forms of organisation and people's power beyond elections, the government, the state and the party-political space. Therefore the DLF does not obsess with state power nor does it seek to transform itself into a political party contesting elections. Its focus is connecting and escalating the struggles of the poor and working-class communities and exploring and building together with communities – through action and the culture of ‘each-one-teach-one’ – sustainable, democratic, and egalitarian, eco-friendly economies and community driven development.

In many ways the DLF will be a mobilisation, solidarity, advocacy, awareness, conscientisation, campaigns, projects, action and resistance platform as well as a vigilant watchdog. It will have the role of speaking truth to power, keeping government and the political parties in check as well as the functions of building the confidence and ability of the people as a collective to reclaim and seize power from tiny and minute political and corporate elite. It will have the task of building new and democratic organs of people's power, new forms of resistance, providing alternative information and building and developing a new democratic, eco-conscious, caring, sharing and compassionate person. To play this role effectively it is better that the DLF remain a mass sociopolitical movement operating outside parliament and not contesting elections.

But the DLF cannot afford to preach anti-voting or anti-elections politics. A no vote is simply retention of the status quo. With all its limitations, the electoral process illustrates the significance and importance of the voices of the people through the ballot in deciding who attains political power.

Through voter education, electioneering platforms and other activities related to the electoral process, people's consciousness of the power of their voices and the significance of the political choices they make can be heightened. The electioneering process can also be utilised by leftists campaigners to articulate and put on the agenda issues, demands and concerns of the poor and the working-class.

Even if the left do not attain significant number of seats, the electioneering platform and the few seats they attain provides a vital platform for popularization of democratic left ideals and of contesting the hegemony of the establishment on dissemination of knowledge and influencing public opinion. If we agree that government, parliament and the state have access and control of information, knowledge and resources that legitimately must be accessed and controlled by the people, then we cannot leave that space uncontested.

The DLF cannot afford to tell workers, the people and communities that the ANC-SACP–COSATU (African National Congress-South African Communist Party-Congress of South African Trade Union) alliance are responsible for the mess in which the country is and that the policies of the liberal and rightwing opposition parties (DA, IFP, UDM, ACDP, Freedom Front Plus, etc) will put the country in worse conditions, and still leave the workers at the mercy of having to choose between the two devils. It will have to openly tell workers not to vote for neoliberal capitalist parties. But in their current state of disarray and weakness, the left-leaning formations within the DLF who are contending elections cannot hope to seriously contest elections and make any meaningful impact.

It is therefore critical that member-organisations of the DLF who are involved in electoral politics should constitute themselves into one election platform of the left instead of contesting as separate entities. In my view, there's no need to reinvent the wheel in this regard. In 2008 several social movements and political parties established the Socialist Green Coalition but it could not contest the national elections due to failure to afford the exorbitant fee required for registration.

The content of the election manifesto of that was put up by the Socialist Green Coalition is compatible with the essential principles and the main goal of components of the DLF that contest elections and with the ideal society that the DLF envisages.

This input therefore proposes that members of the DLF that aim to contest elections either as independents or individual organisations should come together with those who are already in the Socialist Green Coalition and engage in vigorous debates aimed at updating the electoral plank/manifesto that was established in 2008 and at developing consensus on the principles and practices of the Socialist Green Coalition and then contest elections under this one banner.

In this way, the components of the DLF who are involved in electoral/parliamentary politics will be able to provide the new democratic left with one election plank, as the DLF provides one platform for new democratic left politics beyond state-centric, vanguardist models of leftwing politics.

In short, here one advocates a simultaneous process of building a powerful mass political movement (DLF) pushing new democratic left politics grounded on participation and power from below and participation and power beyond elections, and building one powerful left election platform (SGC) aimed at using the parliamentary and state space to advocate and popularise the socialist agenda.

The critical thing here is to ensure that the activities of the SCG (which is made up of some components of the DLF) in government have no negative bearing on the image of the DLF and that even if the SCG was to be on the ascendancy on the political space, the DLF will continue to play the role defined above. Imagine if the UDF did not dissolve into the ANC but together with COSATU, the SACP, SANCO and other community, social and labour organisation retained the Mass Democratic Movement, playing the role that the DLF is envisaged to play.

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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.

Tanzanian gold mining: People and livestock poisoned

Zahra Moloo

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70445

cc US Nat. ArchivesIn May 2009, toxic waste from a gold mine located in North Mara, Tanzania, spilled into River Thigithe. Reports from the surrounding villages alleged that 20 people and from 700 to 1,000 head of livestock died from the contaminated water. The company that operates the mine, African Barrick, denied that the spillage led to the deaths of villagers, and Barrick's spokesperson said recently that there are no more problems with the river. But villagers living in Tarime district claim they are still experiencing health-related illnesses from the water. There are also reports that a number of people have been killed by security forces belonging to the company. Zahra Moloo reports in this audio piece [mp3].

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Thanks to Evans Rubara, Chacha Wambura and Carol Macharia for the Kiswahili-English translation and voice-overs.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Kenyans must hold rotten police force to account

H. Nanjala Nyabola

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70467

cc Demosh‘Like most Kenyans, the chilling sight of plainclothes policemen gunning down three unarmed “gangsters” at close range and in cold blood… left my stomach turning,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola. ‘Is this how low we’ve sunk as a nation?'

This has not been a good week to be Kenyan. The opportunistic and short-sighted gamesmanship of our politicians, we’re unfortunately accustomed to. What has really shaken the nation to the core is the public display of the full extent of the depravity and corruption of those trusted to protect us. Like most Kenyans, the chilling sight of plainclothes policemen gunning down three unarmed ‘gangster’” at close range and in cold blood, on a major highway, in broad daylight and with legions of witnesses, left my stomach turning. What kind of person would be capable of such brutality? What kind of police force would then turn around and deny what has been so clearly captured by a vigilant passer-by? Is this how low we’ve sunk as a nation?

What really cemented my disgust was that last week two other chilling reminders of the extent of the corruption within the police force found their way to my desktop. The first is from a few months ago, when the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNHCR) released a report revealing the true extent of corruption within the police force. A major part of that report was a signed statement by Constable Bernard Kiriinya, a courageous young man who bravely revealed specific incidences of brutality and excessive violence by the police, and paid for his bravery with his life. The report, available widely online, reveals the systematic use of extrajudicial killings by the Kenyan police force and its notorious death squads. Not for the fainthearted, the report reveals the extent of the rot in the police force, and lends an added chill to the images of plain clothes policemen executing three unarmed men on a major highway last week. It is sad that anyone, criminal or not would lose their life in the callous ways described in the report, it is even more saddening that one of the families in last week’s incident is claiming a case of mistaken identity.

The second was a video that also made the electronic rounds, showing a young truck driver resisting arrest by a police officer. Although the video is circulating as a joke – little man fights back - having read the KNHCR report, it is anything but funny. The young man in question loudly and then violently resists every effort by the police to have him pull over his truck, going as far as throwing a large rock at the policeman. Eventually, he gets into his truck and tries to drive away, but the policeman has enough time to call for reinforcements, and the video picks up with the young man lying on the floor, clearly having been beaten up, and the policeman arriving in an unmarked vehicle, filled with what appear to be plain clothes policemen. As in the case of the three “gangsters” journalists and passers-by recording the events are threatened by policemen and women to stop recording – it’s a testament to their courage that they refused. Watching the video, one can’t help but recall the statements of Constable Kiriinya, and wonder what happened to the young man after the cameras stopped rolling.

The Kenya Police does not have a monopoly of brutality, but has over successive regimes confirmed the lengths to which it is prepared to go in order to provide security through fear. To be sure, crime in the country is a major problem, but as one poignant editorial in the national press noted last week, the police cannot solve crime by becoming criminals themselves. Regardless of what the minster of internal security claims, suspending three police officers when the rot so clearly goes higher up the chain is not an acceptable solution. It is common knowledge that this kind of brutality, while perhaps in scale, is nothing new in the country. The Kenya Police was an integral part of the colonial repressive mechanism; routinely used to raid the homes of independence activists, round up suspected Mau Mau and their families and terrorise African and Asian communities. At independence, the security mechanism was never reformed but rather was co-opted by two regimes built on violence and fear – at the lowest moments, many Kenyans recall living in fear that their neighbours had been co-opted by security forces and were watching their every move. The Kibaki government, although less overtly repressive, seems to have taken such excesses to their logical conclusion, giving the police force carte blanche to kill criminals on sight and abandon any pretext of rule of law.

The solution clearly needs to be completely revolutionary - nothing short of a complete renewal of the police force, as recommended by the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation. Sadly, with the current government expending more energy on wrangling its way out of it’s international commitments to implement that agenda, for instance gaining the support of other AU nations in it’s attempt to withdraw from the ICC where the former police chief is currently under indictment, it appears that the police will get away with it again. Perhaps the only encouragement emerging from all of this is the force of reaction of the Kenyan people; their rejection of violence in the press and in other forums, not to mention the vociferous protest of the human rights community. What we need now more than ever is citizens, especially of other AU nations, to take up the cause and call for greater accountability and justice in Kenya.

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

Gabon’s Lords of Poverty

Khadija Sharife

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70398

cc B B MA multi-billion dollar iron ore deal involving lifetime dictators and a system of power through patronage makes for a toxic mix that is bad for the people of Gabon, writes Khadija Sharife.

Gabon’s Ba’aka pygmy population may soon be saying au revoir to smoked fish and nihao to tofu, if the $3.5 billion Belinga iron-ore mining deal, awarded to a Chinese consortium in 2006, goes off without a hitch. The ore, billed as one of the world’s last remaining major untapped deposits, was first discovered in 1885 in a remote forested region located in the Ogooue-Ivindo province, and is estimated to hold one billion tons of ore with iron content of 64 per cent.

According to the deal previously struck by Gabon’s former lifetime dictator - and Africa’s longest standing president, Omar Bongo, - China received a 25 year tax holiday, despite profits projected within the eight years and 90 per cent of the profits thereafter, as well as environmental and other para-fiscal exemptions, such as significant control over national infrastructure.[1]

Except that Gabon has little or no infrastructure - just 10 per cent of the roads are paved and an estimated 70 per cent of the population lives below the poverty belt. Political and civil rights are limited to laminated constitutions, and economic, social and cultural rights, such as state services ranging from healthcare to waste sanitation, are unheard of.

But it would be wrong to conclude that Gabon’s development policy has failed: over 120 French multinationals in addition to Gabon’s venal political elite take development very personally indeed, collaborating on the kind of corporate-state partnerships glimpsed in the Elf Affair.

Though Gabon scores in the top 33 per cent of countries with high ranking per capita GDP ($14,000) - averaging four times that of Sub-Saharan Africa - Gabon’s political elite lord over the country’s wealth as they do the artificially manufactured poverty. And just in case the population rebels, France’s strong Marine Infantry Battalion, based in the capital Libreville, will swiftly intervene, via France’s ‘Africa’ policy of Francafrique. Gabon, renowned as the focal point of Francafrique, composed of secretive defense agreements, multinationals, and handpicked black governors, has existed in a state of forced peace since decolonisation.[2]

Despite the Elysee’s internal recommendations in a June 2008 defense policy paper advising the closure of France’s military unit based in Libreville, French President Sarkozy has yet to do so.[3]

‘The French protect our system against internal and external threats. In exchange, we support their policies in Africa and elsewhere,’ revealed Gabon’s presidential advisor.[4]

Yet, despite continuing the tradition of power through patronage, the country’s new ‘electoral’ dictator - Ali Ben Bongo Jr. - has signaled a shift in the country’s allegiance, shifting away from the West, toward the East. Bongo Jr’s success was the product of ‘locked down’ cities, and widespread harassment and violence targeting opposition parties, civil society, as well as the already oppressed media, such as L’Union, whose editor Albert Yangari was arrested before being transported to the army’s intelligence headquarters.[5] None of this will come as a surprise to Gabon’s citizens in a country where public security is the mandate of the army, and the president has the power to veto any legislation at will.[6]

Tellingly, Bongo Jr’s choice of personal assistant happens to be Chinese, a trend proliferating throughout the continent, which has received over $29.3 billion since 2002 through development projects geared at the exploitation of finite resources, financed by the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim). And this is where China gets really smart: instead of establishing donor-relationships with cash-strapped corrupt African states, China - itself an emerging nation all too aware of socio-economic challenges - collateralises finite natural capital in exchange for development and revenue. This barter system has not only redefined Africa’s ‘risk’ profile - leading to the World Bank’s support of China Exim-led investments - but additionally generates a positive perception disconnected from that of the ‘western colonialists’.

The deal could not come at a better time: presently oil accounts for 80 per cent of export-earnings, but production has sharply declined, standing at 270,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from 351,890 barrels in 1998. Paradoxically, though the country remains one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s top five oil producers, Gabon holds just two billion barrels in dwindling reserves - unlike Nigeria’s 36 billion.[7]

Belinga’s iron-ore project, wholly financed by the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim), includes the $790 million Belinga mining facility; two hydro-electric dams designed to electrify the mine (Grand Poubara and Kongou Falls, the latter with a price tag of $754 million); and the 560 km railway and planned deep-water port at Santa Clara engineered to transport resources from north-east Gabon to the Atlantic and then Beijing. The first shipments are scheduled to leave for China in 2011, with an estimated 30 million tons extracted each year.[8]

But profits from finite resources are largely derived from taxes - including mineral tax (royalties), and corporate tax, via region-specific resources. Meanwhile, the proposed 26,850 jobs appear unlikely to materialise as China’s leitmotif is generally to export Chinese labour, save that of mining. Transmission lines, supplying power to end destinations, often amount to half the project’s costs, bypassing populations in favour of mining facilities.

The proposed Kongou Dam, situated in the Invindo National Park - Gabon’s share of the Central African rainforest, inhabited by unique and endangered species such as the forest elephant - jeopardises the ‘ecological commons’, primarily used by indigenous people for survival and income. Long before environmental impact assessments (EIAs) were conducted, China began paving the 42 km road to Kongou Falls, facilitating poaching, wildlife trafficking and the logging of one of the world’s last remaining ancient rainforests and carbon sinks absorbing 20 per cent minimum of emissions annually. The letter of agreement was signed by Gabon’s Mines Minister Richard Onouviet.

What does Gabon and the world stand to lose?

The subsidy, according to 40 years of research conducted in Gabon by fellows from the University of Leeds, is economically valued at £13 billion each year. Globally, the Central African rainforest is second only to the Amazon. Ironically, the loans violate China Exim’s own social and environmental guidelines -article six and 12 - referring to social, ecological, employment, security, health, migrant and land acquisition.

Thanks to a network of local civil society groups, headed by Brainforest, a Gabon-based NGO environmental organisation, China Exim appears to have postponed financing until China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation (CEMEC), is investigated for alleged ecological violations. Brainforest’s efforts have resulted in concessions initially marked at 5,000 square kilometers reduced to the actual size required: 600 square kilometers.

But Belinga remains the only hope for the export earnings required by Bongo and Co., as well as resource-hungry China.

‘Whatever happens and whatever anyone says, Belinga will go ahead,’ stated Omar Bongo in 2007.[8] Bongo Sr’s extraordinary ability to undermine and ‘purchase’ opposition parties has rendered Gabon a nation of imprisoned citizens, lucubrating the fiction of ‘flag independence’ – a situation benefitting the ‘khaki coup’ of Bongo Jr. in the recent elections.

Yet Beijing’s footprint, if properly engaged, may just be the catalyst needed to inspire a movement toward liberation from internal and external colonialists, whatever the skin color.

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* This article was first published in May 2010 in the Harvard World Poverty and Human Rights journal where the author is assistant editor.
* Khadija Sharife is the southern Africa correspondent for The Africa Report magazine and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) based in South Africa.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES:

[1] http://www.banktrack.org/show/dodgydeals/belinga_iron_ore_project
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/gabon-omar-bongo-death-reports
[3] http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20100216-50-years-later-francafrique-alive-and-well
[4] Ibid
[5] http://en.rsf.org/gabon-fear-in-libreville-after-leading-25-09-2009,34598.html
[6] http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/gabon/page.do?id=1011274
[7] http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/reserves.html
[8] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1174482620071012

China and Nigeria’s oil

Khadija Sharife

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70400

cc M B TA deal valued at nearly US$30 billion that will increase Nigeria’s refining capacity is on the cards. But is there a catch for Africa’s largest oil producer? Khadija Sharife investigates.

China has long been renowned in Africa as the architect behind the continent’s ‘weapons of mass construction’. To date, this trademark is best symbolised by the 1,860 km Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TanZam), constructed from 1970-1975, at a cost of $500 million.

The project, a vital inter-SADC vehicle financed via an interest-free loan, was finished ahead of schedule and served the critical purpose of diminishing Zambia's dependence on apartheid South Africa and Ian Smith's Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), crucially aiding in the isolation of the former.

Working alongside thousands of Tanzanians and Zambians were 25,000 Chinese labourers, constructing an alternative route. Since then, prior to Beijing's official ‘return’ in the late 1990s, infrastructure averaged just four per cent of foreign investment. That changed with the creation of China Export-Import Bank (China Exim) in 1994 - currently the world's third largest export credit agency (ECA), providing more than $23 billion in easy loans in just over a decade. An estimated 50 per cent of China Exim loans were invested in Africa, with 79 per cent of funds earmarked toward infrastructure, chiefly mega-dams, railways, power plants, mining facilities and telecommunications.

But another project is set to replace TanZam's legacy in scale and magnitude. Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, via the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), signed a $28.5 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), ranked as one of the world's largest construction companies.

For Nigeria, importing 85 per cent or $10 billion worth of refined oil annually, the proposal for three greenfield refineries and a petroleum complex is the difference between freedom and dependence. Presently, of Nigeria's four refineries, including Warri (125,000 barrels per day); Kaduna (110,000 bpd); Port Harcourt, Rivers State (150,000 bpd); Port Harcourt, Alesa Elemi (120,000 bpd); only one is said to be operational.

On average, the country generates about 2,000 megawatts, while the electricity capacity stands at 3,100 megawatts (MW), forcing local businesses in Africa's economic powerhouse, to resort to costly diesel generators. The capital outlay is understood to be financed by a consortium of Chinese banks, backed by the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (SINOSURE). The project is estimated for completion within five years once terms and loans are negotiated. The NNPC stated that the deal was designed to benefit not only the domestic market, but also to ‘export refined products to the West African sub-region and other parts of the continent’.

‘This deal still lacks financing, but otherwise it has all the hallmarks of China's more successful resource-backed infrastructure contracts in Africa,’ said Professor Deborah Brautigam, a Sino-African specialist and author of ‘China in Africa: The Real Story’. ‘The construction will be repaid through exports of refined petroleum. This will help in efforts to secure a long-term loan. Financing is always the big constraint.’

But is there a catch?

Former NNPC head Shehu Ladan revealed that the CSCEC-led consortium would be operated by China holding 80 per cent of shares, until costs were recovered. Given the opacity of accounting, especially concerning mega-developments, this is likely to become a major fault-line replicating Nigeria's long history with supply and demand-side corruption. ‘The public needs to be informed about when CSCEC expects to complete the recovery of its investment,’ said Nnimmo Bassey, director of Nigeria's Environmental Rights Action movement (ERA) in an interview. ‘The deal as reported appears open-ended. There is no estimated termination date when CSCEC will handover facilities to the NNPC.’

China's preferred Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model accompanying their resource-for-infrastructure system, is often successfully realised in African countries, despite governments being shortchanged when tenders (and loans) are recycled back to China. The Nigerian government will have no shares and make no contributions whether through financing or in the construction and management phase.

‘The truth is that Nigeria has been unable to manage the four refineries here. It is likely that the petroleum products will be viable, but Nigeria will likely be taken to the cleaners through this potentially toxic deal,’ he said.
The cost (estimated per barrel of capacity in context of construction costs) can be contrasted to that proposed last year between PetroSA and China concerning a 400,000 bpd $10 billion refinery.

Yet, is the deal designed to produce 750,000 barrels of refined petroleum via tangible assets that will be transferred to the government, better than the business-as-usual alternatives?

Recently, a multi-billion secretive deal between Trafigura, the Swiss-based commodity trader and one of three leading oil traders, also infamous for dumping toxic waste in Africa, signed a deal with the NNPC allegedly valued at $3 billion, swopping 60,000 bpd or 27 per cent of overall NNPC production, for open-ended refined products. ‘The contract was done to ensure that we have adequate and consistent product supply for Nigerians in the face of increasing security threat; in the face of the threat by the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) that it will start attacking the downsteam sector,’ stated the NNPC. The deal, subject to potentially gross mis-pricing and corruption, was described by Peter Esele of Trade Union Congress to Newswatch as the response of a government that had lost hope in the country's own refineries.

‘Right now, Nigerians are not getting value for their oil anyway,’ said Brautigam. ‘If the government can agree to allow a Chinese company to build and manage these refineries for an extended period of time, they may finally be able to say good-bye to the days of long lines at petrol stations.’

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* This article was first published in The New Age newspaper. Khadija Sharife is the southern Africa correspondent for The Africa Report magazine and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) based in South Africa.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

New Chinese dam project fuels ethnic conflict in Sudan

Peter Bosshard

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70416

cc PedroWith serious human rights concerns surrounding the development of the Kajbar dam in Sudan, Peter Bosshard of International Rivers says the companies involved need to respect the interests of local people.

Dams have impoverished tens of thousands of people and triggered serious human rights violations in Sudan. Now Chinese companies have won contracts to build three more hydropower projects in the country. Of particular concerns are plans to dam the Nile near Kajbar, on the lands of ancient Nubia. This project has already caused massive human rights abuses. Affected people are strongly opposed to it, and have raised the spectre of a second Darfur conflict.

The Sudanese government plans to transform the Nile, the only stretch of fertile land north of Khartoum, into a string of five reservoirs. Built by Chinese, German and French companies, the Merowe Dam was completed two years ago. The project doubled Sudan's electricity generation, but displaced more than 50,000 people from the Nile Valley to arid desert locations. Thousands of people who refused to leave their homes were flushed out by the reservoir, and protests were violently suppressed. The UN rapporteur on housing rights expressed ‘deep concern’ about the human rights violations in the project, and asked the dam builders to halt construction in 2007 – to no avail.

Next in line are the Kajbar and Dal dams. The Kajbar dam on the Nile's third cataract would have a height of about 20 metres, create a reservoir of 110 square kilometres and generate 360 megawatts of electricity. The project would displace more than 10,000 people and submerge an estimated 500 archaeological sites. The Dal dam on the second cataract would have a height of 25–45 metres and a capacity of 340–450 megawatts. It would displace 5,000–10,000 people. The hydrologist Seif al-Din Hamad Abdalla has estimated that about 2.5 cubic kilometres of water – 3 per cent of the Nile’s annual flow – would evaporate from the two reservoirs every year.

While the Kajbar and Dal projects are smaller, the stakes are as high, as in the case of the Merowe dam. The projects are located in Nubia, the ancient bridge between Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa. Nubians have developed their own language and civilization over thousands of years, but now risk being annihilated as a nation. In the 1960s, 120,000 Nubian people were displaced from their ancestral lands in Egypt and Sudan for the construction of the Aswan dam. Within Sudan, they were moved to an irrigation scheme 700 kilometres away, which turned into a complete development disaster. ‘By flooding the last of the remaining Nubian lands,’ warns Arif Gamal, who was displaced by the Aswan dam, ‘the Nubians are reduced to a group of people with no sense of memory, no past and no future to look for.’

The people from the Kajbar and Dal areas watched the fate of their neighbours in the Nile Valley, and knew that the government would not make any concessions when dealing with Nubians. They formed a committee to protect their interests, and opposed the dams from the very beginning. In December 2010, they warned: ‘We will never allow any force on the earth to blur our identity and destroy our heritage and nation. Nubians will never play the role of victims, and will never sacrifice for the second time to repeat the tragedy [of the Aswan Dam].’ A spokesperson called the Kajbar Project a ‘humanitarian disaster’ which the affected people would resist by all means, including armed opposition. The Los Angeles Times reported ‘fears of another Darfur’ if the Kajbar dam was built.

Chinese companies have expressed an interest in the Kajbar Project since 1997. When Sudanese and Chinese engineers carried out feasibility studies in 2007, thousands of people staged repeated protest demonstrations. The authorities cracked down harshly. In April 2007, security forces shot and wounded at least five protestors. On 13 June 2007, security officers killed four peaceful protesters in an ambush and wounded more than 15 others. The government arrested some 26 people, including journalists who tried to cover the massacre, and detained them for several weeks. The UN special rapporteur on Sudan deplored the ‘excessive force’ and ‘arbitrary arrests and prosecutions to stifle community protest against the Kajbar dam’ in a report.

For years the government did not disclose whether it would actually move forward with the Kajbar and Dal projects. In April 2010, it awarded a US$838 million contract for the Upper Atbara Project, an irrigation and hydropower complex in Eastern Sudan, to a Chinese consortium. Two months later, China's Gezhouba Corporation got a contract to build the Shereik dam, a 420-megawatt project on the Nile, at a cost of US$711 million. The Shereik dam in particular would create a big reservoir and affect a large number of people.

Abdeen Mustafa Omer, a renewable energy expert at the University of Nottingham, has documented a very large solar energy potential for Sudan, and a big wind energy potential, particularly in the lower Nile valley. These technologies could generate electricity without the destruction and conflict that the Kajbar and other dams would cause. Yet the Sudanese government does not promote them.

While the government remained silent about its plans, Sinohydro, the world's largest hydropower company, announced on 28 October 2010, that it had won a US$705-million contract to build the Kajbar Project over five years. At the end of December, 59 Sinohydro workers left from China for Sudan. At the same time, Sinohydro advertised jobs for work on the Kajbar dam in Pakistan. (In the case of the Bui dam in Ghana, the company hired 60 of its 600 foreign workers in Pakistan, reportedly because they were cheaper than Chinese labour.)

Since 2006, Chinese authorities have made increasing efforts to promote good community relations in overseas projects. The State Council and other government institutions have all called for the establishment of good community relations in Chinese investments. Sinohydro is currently preparing its own social and environmental guideline for overseas projects. Building the Kajbar dam with a government that brutally represses the rights of the host population would fly in the face of such commitments.

In 2007, China (along with the majority of member states) voted in favour of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the UN. This document stipulates that indigenous peoples have the right of consent regarding ‘any project affecting their lands’. The Kajbar dam, which is strongly opposed by the indigenous Nubian population, violates the UN declaration.

Sooner or later, companies which engage in projects that violate human rights will be held to account. PetroChina hoped to raise US$10 billion when it listed at the New York Stock Exchange in 2000, but could raise less than US$3 billion because of the operations of its parent company in Sudan. A German organisation recently filed a criminal complaint against managers of Lahmeyer International, alleging their complicity in the human rights abuses of the Merowe dam. Federal and state laws will prevent the French company Alstom from getting lucrative government contracts in the US because of its active role in the same project.

The Kajbar Project is still at a very early stage. Sinohydro and other companies can still learn the lessons of earlier human rights disasters in Sudan. They should heed the warnings of the affected communities and stay out of the Kajbar dam. International Rivers has been engaged in a dialogue with Sinohydro since 2009, and will strongly support the interests of the people affected by the project.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Peter Bosshard is International River’s policy director.
* This article was first published by International Rivers.
* For an illustrated version of this commentary with a map and links to all sources, see www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/6121 For a press release on the topic, please visit www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/6127
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Pambazuka Samir Amin Award

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/70429

Pambazuka News is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the first annual Pambazuka Samir Amin Award. This award, launched to mark Samir Amin’s 80th birthday in 2011, pays tribute to the extraordinary contribution Samir Amin has made to our understanding of the exploitation of the peoples of Africa and the global South.

Entrants are required to submit an essay showing original thinking and of no longer than 10,000 words on the subject of 'Accumulation by dispossession: the African experience'. Essays may be geographically focused on one or more countries, or about the continent as a whole; they may address the topic thematically (for example, focused on the mining sector, or agriculture, etc) or historically. Submissions are limited to one per person.

Submissions are open to citizens of African countries who on the closing date are under the age of 35 years.

A panel of leading African intellectuals from across the continent will select up to five contributors to receive this year's award. The chosen essays will be published as a book by Pambazuka Press, and summaries will appear in Pambazuka News.

The award-winners will be invited to a ceremony (to be held in either Dakar or Nairobi) where they will present their papers and meet Professor Amin and representatives of the award panel. The winners will receive a selection of Professor Amin’s publications personally signed by him; they will also be interviewed by the media. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Awardees may also be offered fellowships to enable them to spend periods at selected research or academic institutions in Africa; full details will be announced later.

Please submit your essay, written in clear English or French, using any common word-processing software, together with a summary of no longer than 500 words, and a copy of your CV. Please follow the author guidelines (.doc and .pdf) and the Pambazuka News style guide (.doc and .pdf) or write to awards@pambazuka.org to obtain copies.

Essays should be submitted by 6pm GMT on 30 April 2011 and sent to: awards@pambazuka.org. The results will be announced in September 2011.

Pambazuka News condolence page for David Kato

2011-01-31

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/action/70432

Pambazuka News has set up a condolence page for David Kato, the murdered Ugandan gay activist. Visit http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/action/70432, where you can leave messages of love and solidarity. Please also spread the word about this page. Please note that the comments are moderated so your message may take a little time to appear. We are currently posting all the organisational statements that we have from GALZ, GALCK, G-Kenya, Afra, ISHTAR, AMSHER, LGEP, UAF etc. Please add statements if you come across others.

Request for French–English article translation

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/70474

Request for Spanish–English article translation

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/70451

World Social Forum meeting on aid effectiveness

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/70515

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) has partnered with AWID and WIDE to organise a women’s consultation on aid effectiveness at the World Social forum in Dakar Senegal, as part of preparing for the Fourth High level Forum (HLF4) on Aid Effectiveness which will be held in Korea sometime in November this year. We do not have funds for this activity because we have just been invited to co-host the event with AWID and WIDE. To that effect, we are inviting members who already have funding to go to the World Social Forum to be part of this consultation. Please confirm with us as soon as possible if you are going to the World Social Forum and you already have funding from other sources, so that we can invite you to be part of this consultation.

French version:

Le Réseau de Développement et de Communication des Femmes Africaines (FEMNET) est entré en partenariat avec AWID et WIDE pour organiser un forum de consultation des femmes sur l’Efficacité de l’Aide au Forum Social Mondial à Dakar, Sénégal, comme partie des préparatifs du Quatrième Forum de Haut niveau (4ème FHN) sur l’Efficacité de l’Aide qui se tiendra en Corée quelque part en novembre cette année. Nous ne disposons pas de fonds pour ces activités car nous venons juste d’être invitées à co-organiser l’événement avec AWID et WIDE. A cet effet, nous invitons les membres qui ont déjà un financement pour se rendre au Forum Social Mondial de faire partie de cette consultation. Veuillez nous confirmer aussitôt que possible si vous irez au Forum Social Mondial et que vous avez déjà le financement en provenance d’autres sources, pour que nous puissions vous inviter à faire partie de cette consultation.

Dans l’attente de vous lire, nos sincères remerciements.

African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
Réseau de Développement et de Communications des Femmes Africaines
P. O. Box 54562, 00200, Nairobi, Kenya.
Behind KUSCCO Centre, Kilimanjaro Avenue, Off Mara Road, Upper Hill
Tel: +254 20 2712971/2; 20 2341516/7 (Wireless)
Cell: + (254)725.766932
Fax: +254 20 2712974
E-mail: communication@femnet.or.ke
Website: http://www.femnet.or.k

Was a UN general in Haiti assassinated?

WikiLeaks documents cast doubt on general’s suicide

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70418

cc UN PhotoIndependent multimedia reporting website Mediahacker reports on WikiLeak documents in which Dominican President Leonel Fernandez expressed concern that a United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) general had been assassinated.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez told US State Department deputy assistant secretary Patrick Duddy in January of 2006, according to a cable released by Norway’s largest newspaper, that he suspected Brazilian United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) military commander Urano Bacellar was assassinated by a paramilitary-type group. Fernandez said he believed Bacellar did not commit suicide and there had been a cover-up.

Fernandez inquired about the circumstances surrounding the death of Bacellar. Duddy confirmed that all indications pointed to suicide. Fernandez expressed skepticism. He had met General Bacellar; to him, suicide seemed unlikely for a professional of Bacellar’s caliber. Fernandez said he believed that there was a small group in Haiti dedicated to disrupting the elections and creating chaos; that this group had killed MINUSTAH members in the past (a Canadian and a Jordanian, and now the Brazilian general); and that there would be more violence against MINUSTAH forces as the election date approached.

The president said he knew of a case in which a Brazilian MINUSTAH member had killed a sniper. Although he allowed that Bacellar’s death might be due to an accidentally self-inflicted wound, he believed that the Brazilian government was calling the death a suicide in order to protect the mission from domestic criticism. A confirmed assassination would result in calls from the Brazilian populace for withdrawal from Haiti. Success in this mission was vital for President Lula of Brazil, because it was part of his master plan to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Duddy restated his understanding that the evidence pointed to suicide and that the specific circumstances of the other assassinations in all likelihood ruled out a conspiracy. Fernandez elaborated further on his hypothesis: there was a cover-up of an assassination and that more attacks would occur. He was firm in this view and repeated the warning. The ambassador asked who might be behind such an attack. Fernandez said he did not know. He commented that in the case of the demonstrations against his visit to Port au Prince in December 2005, Haitian activist Guy Philippe had organised the effort. Fernandez said that Philippe had people working for him inside the national palace.

Duddy praised Fernandez on his handling of the aftermath of the Port au Prince demonstrations. Fernandez retrieved from his desk a book of photos from the visit. He described his visit to the national palace in Port au Prince: the growing crowd, his uneasiness, the lack of security, the ‘ambush’ of his motorcade as they were leaving, machine gun fire, and the role of Dominican helicopters and MINUSTAH troops in rescuing the motorcade. He said that entities within Haiti had killed MINUSTAH troops via sniper attack on previous occasions, and he believed they would do so again. Their goal was chaos. ‘Imagine,’ he said, ‘the chaos that would have resulted if they had killed me in Haiti. There would have been wholesale persecution of Haitians in the Dominican Republic.’ For this reason he had downplayed the incident to the press, but the truth was that it had been very serious.

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

Walter Rodney: Writing a proud story

Patricia Rodney

2011-01-26

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70415

© walterrodney.comIn an interview with Ricky Jordan, Patricia Rodney – wife of the late Walter Rodney – discusses her preparations around finally being able to write her husband’s story.

She could have forged a career in politics, but Dr Patricia Rodney is her own woman: an independent mother and grandmother who has made nonsense of the stigma attached to single parenting, and one who has kept the legacy of her husband alive without going near a campaign trail.

Having just formally retired from the prestigious Morehouse School of Medicine as assistant dean for public health education, director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme and professor in the department of community health, the widow of slain Guyanese political activist and historian Dr Walter Rodney is preparing to finally write her husband’s story.

CLOSER PERSPECTIVE

“A lot of the writings done about my husband have been from a male perspective. A lot of men have written about him. I want to write about him as a woman and as someone who has lived with him,” she said in an interview with the DAILY NATION.

“I think I’m ready,” was how she put it. “I also want to work on the Walter Rodney Foundation that we [she and their three children] established in 2005 as a result of the donation of his papers to the Robert L. Woodruff Library in Atlanta, Georgia.”

The Georgia institution received those papers in 2003. So why not a Caribbean university?

“It’s not that we haven’t tried. For years I tried to donate his papers to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica but nobody was interested.

“Papers deteriorate, so we found a home. The Caribbean still has access to those papers; researchers do as well,” she explained. “But we needed to find a place for them. They [at Woodruff] were excited about it. I could have sold the papers, but I wasn’t interested in the money. I was interested in his work being preserved.”

The donation led to a symposium featuring Rodney’s work, also in Atlanta, and involved a consortium of historically black academic institutions. It was a watershed for the annual Rodney symposium, which is slated for March 19 this year, four days before his birthday, under the theme of Natural Disasters: The Further Underdevelopment Of Marginalized Communities.

But it was a conference commemorating her husband’s death that led her back to her birthplace, Guyana, in 2005 – 25 years after the assassination that rocked the Caribbean and echoed around the world.

Of her homeland today, she said: “People in Guyana are trying to make sure that his writings – he wrote children’s books as well – get into the schools because if you ask an average child who Walter Rodney is, they may not know, which is sad.”

Rodney’s children’s books were featured in a radio series in the 70s, but he himself was not allowed to read them, and only two such books were published: Kofi Out Of Africa and Lakshmi Out Of India. “The whole reason he was writing those series was so that the children of Guyana could begin to understand their history and each other . . . to create not just tolerance but an understanding of people and their lives,” his wife explained.

With this in mind, she also wants to publish the other series of children’s books. But her labour of love has gone way beyond symposia and writings; she has also retained her husband’s legacy in his children, all now adults – Shaka being an entrepreneur, Kanini a medical professional and Asha an attorney.

DIFFICULT ROAD

“It’s been a struggle,” Dr Rodney said, “and one of the things I hate is when people bash single parenting and blame it for every evil that occurs.

“I didn’t plan to be a single parent. It wasn’t part of my design when I got married but I became one by force. It’s not easy and I had to put my own education on hold because my children were my responsibility,” she added.

Determined that nothing would interfere with the rearing of her children, she said she even gave up thoughts of being married again.

“I wanted to develop my own potential, my own professional life . . . I couldn’t do that – focus on my children and then on a personal relationship – and give all those things equity, so I decided to do two of them: my children first and then my development,” she said, noting that Walter had also supported her development and had encouraged her to pursue her Master’s shortly before his death.

One is almost forced to see her husband as irreplaceable, since he had qualities she still misses 30 years on. In fact, one of her few regrets is “that I don’t have a husband!”

“Someone who was at his peak . . . 38 years . . . I cherish the fact that I had that time with him. One never knows how long you’re going to be on the earth,” she said wistfully. “But the magnitude of what he produced, the kind of person he was and the lives he touched is something that gives me a lot of solace.”

“They [his opponents] certainly silenced a movement. They thought at the time that the WPA [Working People’s Alliance] was very instrumental in bringing the races together, because people were very divided, not just Indians and Blacks but Portuguese, Chinese . . . . Then you saw a re-emergence of the Guyanese spirit. I think this is what frightened the government, that people were uniting,” she said.

Of his car bomb assassination, she recalled: “You’re never prepared for something like that. I never thought in the Caribbean that was our style of resolving issues. I knew there were attempts on his life but I never thought that the government would be so desperate.”

Noting that students, researchers and pan-Africanists still pay homage to the man who was banned by the Jamaica government – causing a riot there in 1968 – Rodney said her husband’s mission was focused on what he could give to the society – “things that can’t be bought”.

“He couldn’t be bought,” she added. “So he might have been dangerous to many people because people assume that everybody is for sale, and he wasn’t.”

HAVEN FROM HOME

Having sought refuge in 1980 in Barbados, which she still calls “the most stable place in the Caribbean”, she has only returned home twice in 30 years.

“Guyana was home, but it was also the hardest period I had in my own home. In a sense I’ve lived around the world and people have always been welcoming, but here we were in a country where we were both born and we were being harassed continually, so it wasn’t the best of experiences to be living in Guyana,” was how she put it.

Calling it a place of “false divisions”, she said, however, that there remained much hope since many Guyanese were committed, and it was a rich country that had wasted resources, human and otherwise.

“But I’m not willing to be involved in any political way,” she was quick to add. “I would give my skills to assist any society, but I’m not interested in party politics. My forte is not politics. I’m an educator.”

REGIONAL UNITY

Speaking of human resources, Rodney is saddened at immigration policies that mainly seem to target her country folk.

“I think it’s sad because, growing up as a child, people came to Guyana from everywhere. Our next door neighbour was a Barbadian. In Guyana nobody ever asked where you were from.

“We knew your accent was different but nobody questioned whether or not you were Guyanese, and it’s a shame to see that happening in the region where people don’t open their arms to each other,” she said.

But why welcome them in fragile economies? “People have skills,” she answered. “People don’t sit around and not do anything. People are likely to say, ‘Oh, somebody’s coming to take away my job’, but if that person is creating a job for themselves and paying taxes, why would they be a burden on your society?”

BROAD EXPERIENCE

Her curriculum vitae spans areas ranging from public health to domestic abuse – another area about which she is passionate.

“I think [the term ‘domestic abuse’] is a misnomer and places the violence within a family, personal context. When I lived in Canada, we [women’s organizations and health professionals] were successful in renaming the issue ‘violence against women’. This makes it a societal problem . . . . It is about relationship of power and affects the most vulnerable in our society: women and children,” she stated.

Having spent 15 years at Morehouse, Rodney has also been a recipient of various honours and awards, including three Outstanding Faculty awards, two Meritorious Teaching awards and a Service Award for excellence in teaching.

In 2001 she was the editor of two issues of the American Journal Of Health Studies on The Health Of Women Of Colour; in 2003 she was given a Regal Award for Excellence in Health and Wellness Advocacy by the Spelman College Health and Wellness Initiative; and was awarded a two-year (2002 to 2004) health partners fellowship by the International Centre for Health Leadership Development, University of Chicago.

In 2008, Rodney was honoured by the Cuban Society of Educators in Health Sciences; in 2009 she was recognised by the Lonard Tim Hector Memorial Committee in appreciation of her lecture at the seventh annual Leonard Tim Hector Memorial Lecture in Antigua and Barbuda.

She also received the Faculty Award at the annual Independence University of the West Indies/Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners/Caribbean College of Family Physicians’ continuing education conference in Barbados.

“My stint at Morehouse was a good fit for me in terms of helping to develop its public health programme. It’s the longest job I’ve ever had in my life,” said Dr Rodney with a chuckle.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This interview was conducted by Ricky Jordan.
* This article was first published by Nation News.
* © Nation Publishing Co. Limited 2011
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Zanzibar at 47: Orwellian tragedy or Kwei Armah African satire?

Salma Maoulidi

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/70449

On 12 January 2011 Zanzibar marked 47 years since the 1964 revolution. Historically, this day is given more prominence in Zanzibar’s political circles than 10 December 1963 when Zanzibar obtained its independence chiefly because it ushered in majority rule.

This year 12 January 2011 assumed particular significance in the island’s political landscape: Perhaps for the first time since 1995 when Zanzibar re-embraced multi party politics, there was no visible political rift between the major political players during the celebrations. Instead the 2011 12 January celebration brought Zanzibari from all walks of life and political persuasions together.

Zanzibar’s political tranquillity coincided with the 2010 general elections, following which was created a government of national unity (GNU) comprising the two most influential political parties in modern-day Zanzibar – the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the Chama cha Wananchi, better known by its English name, the Civic United Front (CUF).

Uncharacteristically the political climate leading to the general elections in Zanzibar was unusually calm. Among the captivating images of the 31 October 2010 general elections were motorcades waving on one side flags or khangas of the CCM while on the other side would be a flag or khanga of the CUF. Similarly adorned were vespa motorcycles and bicycles, commonly plying the narrow streets of Zanzibar.

The CCM and the CUF campaigned together and thereafter held post-election rallies together. It was also possible to see in rival neighbourhoods or hang-outs (the famous maskani) posters of opponents put up side-by-side with the area’s popular candidate without being torn down, such that it was an environmental committee which had to ask the Zanzibar Municipal Council to clean the city of election-related memorabilia for environmental reasons.

Is the professed political goodwill shared? Is the new political dispensation irrefutable? One can read into the situation using different scripts. Foremost, the fact that Zanzibar has three presidents – or more correctly two presidents in waiting or two spare presidents – speaks volumes about the nature of the political truce and the types of concessions that were made to enable the truce. Imagine an island nation whose population barely totals 1 million having three presidents!

Historically, Zanzibar’s cabinet was headed by a chief minister. This position does not exist at present. Instead the president is assisted by his two vice-presidents, each heading a specific portfolio. Political pundits however see the second vice-president performing the role of the chief minister, while the role of the first vice-president is still being assessed.

While the two political maestros who made the GNU possible may be applauded in international circles, they receive no accolades at home. Some die-hard CUF supporters contend that the First Vice-President Seif Sherrif Hamad is an opportunist who wanted to realise his presidential dream at all costs. They are angered by the deal between Karume and Hamad, seeing it as having effectively killed political opposition in Zanzibar.

Former president Karume fares no better. He has been chided by members of his party at various events. A number of people observed that during the 12 January celebrations in Zanzibar it is CUF supporters who cheered Karume when he entered the Amani Stadium and made his way to the podium reserved for state dignitaries, not CCM supporters.

Elsewhere, youth members of his party have openly defied his referendum and attempts at forming a GNU by chanting a famous militia tune suggestive of mass killings during the revolution to indicate their displeasure at being forced to eat (if not sleep) with their sworn enemy. Ardent CCM supporters believe that Karume left CCM Zanzibar much weaker than it was in 2000 when he took over from the ‘Commando’, as President Salmin Amour, Zanzibar’s fifth-phase president, is known.

Deep rivalries remain within the ruling party in the isle between those who want greater autonomy for Zanzibar within the union set-up and those who are perceived to be sell-outs of the Zanzibar agenda. Other rivalries that are surfacing are in account of those who benefited from Karume’s rule and those who felt sidelined or scorned by the regime. The intra-party rivalries were intensified just before President Salmin Amour left power and his chief minister, the current union Vice-President Mohammed Gharib Bilal, was the popular choice in CCM Zanzibar, but Karume was instead chosen to stand as the party candidate by the party at its headquarters in Dodoma.

Many have not forgiven Karume for slighting their choice as a nation. In fact, nationalist voices in Zanzibar expressed by political parties such as Jahazi Asilia, and before it Safina, emerged around this time. The membership base of these parties is largely discontented CCM (or ASP (Afro Shirazi Party) supporters) who feel that the cause of the revolution and the Zanzibari identity and the Zanzibar nation is being usurped under the current union arrangement. Decidedly the political wind may have changed in Zanzibar, but political mistrust has not totally faded from the political landscape.

Regardless of the inner political machinations, many political analysts agree that Karume left the presidency with greater credibility and respect than when he assumed the leadership of the nation. Indeed, the agreement between the outgoing president Amani Abeid Karume and the chief opposition leader Seif Sheriff Hamad late in 2009 sealed his legacy.

By sheer determination, he did what many in Zanzibar and Tanzania thought was impossible: he put into motion a process towards healing the deep partisan divisions that had plagued Zanzibar since 1995. This was a difficult feat considering that Seif Sherrif Hamad contested in all multi-party elections since 1995 as the opposition presidential candidate.

In some circles he was assumed to have won at the polls but was cheated from his victory, an allegation which led the CUF to refuse to recognise Karume and his government during his first term[1] and necessitating the intervention of the Commonwealth as well as the union president. This political impasse led to a political embargo against Zanzibar, which was lifted very recently with the home-grown political accord.

This, however, will not be Karume’s legacy, as another vice that has characterised his leadership has tainted his regime. Various dailies have recently linked President Karume to a suspect land deal with a hotel chain to lease them a prime seafront area at Shangani for 99 years, contrary to laid-down procedures, just a few days before his departure.

The hotel group has been identified as Kempinski by government officials and The Guardian newspaper. The move by Karume’s government to receive this parcel of land is unpopular for at least three major reasons. Key among them is that the allocation of land concerns the heartbeat of Zanzibar’s information system.

Indeed, the Mambo Msige building houses Zanzibar’s records – births, deaths, inheritance, title deeds, wakfs, all manner of company and societies registrations, copyrights and other records. Some of these records (perhaps also because of poor storage methods) are so delicate they easily disintegrate upon being disturbed. How can a nation’s historical and institutional memory be compromised to allow a foreign investor access to sea-view rooms?

Secondly, there is an open space adjacent to Mambo Msige which in the past was used for official regatta races during mwaka koga (the local new year). Under the previous regime this area was unlawfully given to the Oman Consulate but the allocation was later rescinded, causing a diplomatic rift with Oman. Recently, the Omani government agreed to return the area on the understanding that it would revert to its original purpose.

To demonstrate their commitment to the deal the Stone Town authority put up a sign that indicated that the area was now under its management and government by the Stone Town Conservation Act.[2] The fence was brought down, to the delight of the local population in Shangani, allowing them access to the beach and to numerous social services on the grounds. Sadly this access was but temporary as the area has been fenced off again to allow Kempinski to develop the area.

Thirdly, locals question why the government should issue Kempinski this area when the hotel already has vast land in the prime beach area of north-east Zanzibar, hosting the only private beach on the island. This case has been particularly controversial because not only is it irregular but it effectively side lines the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which has in the past worked with the Zanzibar Conservation Authority to restore Zanzibar Stone Town.

Sources in the Stone Town Conservation Authority indicate that the AKDN had requested for the location so that it constitutes part of the conservation project it funds in Stone Town. The AKDN had restored the old Ex-Telecoms building and is now house to Serena Inn. It also financed and technically assisted the restoration of Stone Town storm water drainage and Forodhani Gardens, the popular local and tourist hang-out.

Local citizens see Karume and the CCM government typical of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. It must be remembered that Karume’s father, the late Abeid Amani Karume, came to power to redress past injustices committed against Africans, including that of access to land.

Land reforms were a measure to create a power base or a source of legitimacy by a regime that came to power via unpopular means – a bloody revolution. In February 1964, all land was nationalised to reallocate Zanzibar’s chief resource to its rightful owners – the majority African population.

Upon assuming power one of the first acts of the revolutionary government was to pass the Confiscation of Immovable Properties Decree No. 8 of 1964 which enabled the government to ‘acquire any property’, on condition that it be in the national interest of the republic.

This was followed by the passage of the Presidential Decree No. 13 of 1965, which vested all land in the government. The major instrument under which land redistribution was effected was the Land (Redistribution) Decree No. 5 of 1966. Clayton argues that while land redistribution may be tainted with Marxist ideology of Abdul Aziz Twala, it bears the clearest hallmark of Karume’s own populist thinking prevailing over socialist doctrinal theory (Clayton: 137, Cameron: 110).

The original intention of guaranteeing land for the people has long been lost. Chachage reminds that the land issue became a cardinal one in the struggles for independence up to the revolution on 12 January 1964. Among the things the ASP campaigned specifically for in the run-up to independence were land redistribution measures.

Sadly, from 1980 when Zanzibar transitioned towards a more liberal economy, there is a systematic move by the government to review the land tenure system towards greater individualisation and commoditisation of land. Haki Ardhi faults the government’s desire to secure large pieces of land for investors, often for meagre amounts, while alienating local communities.

Confidence with the leadership in charge of land matters during Karume’s tenure was low. The ministry in charge of land matters, as well as its top officials, were suspected of property-grabbing to further their own economic interests, such that locals have nicknamed the president as ‘hapa pangu’ (literally, ‘This place is mine’) to indicate the systematic manner in which they appropriate old buildings, in some cases claiming it is family property, a fruit of the revolution.[3]

A case in point is former president Karume recently calling a press conference to defend his daughter Fatma over a land dispute involving the Zanzibar Anglican Church. Defiantly, church worshippers were filmed destroying fixtures put up for construction on a plot they alleged was invaded by Fatma. This is not the first time such an accusation has been levied against his children but what has shocked many was his decision to openly involve himself with the matter.

Undoubtedly there is a close link between land and politics in Zanzibar. Perhaps consciously the seventh-phase government in Zanzibar is trying to challenge the prevailing assumptions about state impunity over Zanzibar’s hard-won resource. The second vice-president has made reclaiming open spaces and dubious title deeds his crusade. It is estimated that to date close to 30 controversial title deeds have been revoked, most issued illegally or in irregular circumstances to the political and business elite.

Three years short of marking 50 years as an independent nation (albeit in a semi-autonomous set up), it remains to be seen what literary script will best describe Zanzibar’s experience with uhuru.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* © Salma Maoulidi 2010
* Salma Maoulidi is a social justice and gender activist in Tanzania.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] CUF representatives also boycotted Parliament.
[2] Act No. 3 of 1994.
[3] See, for example, Raia Mwema, Toleo Na. 114 30th December 2009; 2.

REFERENCES

- Haki Ardhi, ‘Consequences of Current Land Reforms: A Critical Overview of Social Aspects’ (presentation on file with author)
- Anthony Clayton (1981) The Zanzibar Revolution and its Aftermath, London: G. Hurst Co.
- Middleton, J. (1961) Land Tenure in Zanzibar, London, Her Majesty Stationery Office 1961.
- Prof. C. Seithy L. Chachage (1997) ‘Land, Forests and People in Zanzibar; Some Preliminary Observations on Finnish Aid’, University of Dar es Salaam.
- Z. Bader (1985) ‘The Social Conditions and consequences of the 1964 Land Reforms in Zanzibar’, Ph D Thesis
- THE GUARDIAN, ‘Z'bar gov’t in public property lease scam’ published on 17th January 2011 available at http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=25161
- The Presidential Decree No. 13 of 1965
- The Land (Redistribution) Decree No.5 of 1966
- The Confiscation of Immovable Properties Decree No. 8 of 1964

Call of the Intellectuals of Africa and the African Diaspora for Peace in Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast must not become a new Rwanda, a new Congo of the 1960s or Biafra!

2011-01-27

http://www.appelpourlapaixenci.org

The choice of peace is in their hands. The risk of an unending war, of genocide, of the deaths of millions of victims--women, children, the unarmed, the poor, the weak--cannot be ruled out if the potential for further conflict is let loose. We sincerely hope that in spite of the threats, admonitions, harangues and partisan analyses at play in this conflict, that the only true option, the one of peace for all, will finally emerge from the maze of the wild passions, extreme tensions and bias that dominate the political space in relation to Ivory Coast.

In particular, the observers, friends, brothers, cultural workers, intellectuals, diaspora Africans who orient the debate, should be careful not to overheat the discourse surrounding this conflict, in order to avoid further suffering, exactions and frustrations. Instead, they should help to develop a solid effort that goes beyond emotion to a truly restorative vision.

We should recall the numerous theaters of war and human disasters created by war and its consequences on the African continent, a disastrous situation more than ever promoted by its elite predators as well as by the massive interests of the geopolitical strategists, speculating on the possibility of capitalizing on unrest in Africa and reviving old colonial interests.

A succession of African tragedies has succeeded in disfiguring, mutilating, starving and tearing up the African continent, hampering it from demonstrating its rich, generous and eager humanity as it sought to play its role in a world bent on its exploitation.

Since 2002, Ivory Coast has been divided in two by a rebellious army. The disarmament agreed upon by international bodies involving Ivory Coast, France, the African Union, the UN, ECOWAS, the presidents of Burkina Faso and South Africa, was supposed to take place prior to any election. This disarmament did not take place, thereby negatively affecting the credibility of the elections. The international community and voices from Ivory Coast and the African diaspora should abstain from advocating a suicidal recourse to force that will resolve nothing, and that will invoke suspicions of a hidden agenda from the "international community." European and American authorities urging their nationals to leave Ivory Coast should align themselves with the search for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, thereby preserving the integrity of the country and saving human lives, those of Ivorian and of other nationals, Africans and non- Africans resident in the country.

Peace for Ivory Coast, Peace for Africa. No to a new Rwanda. No to a new Congo of the 1960s. No to a Biafran war. No to a new Liberia. No to a re-enactment of the fratricidal Angolan wars....

N. B. To identify yourself with this cause, please go to:
www.appelpourlapaixenci.org

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

Kenya: Statement on violence involving citizens and law enforcement agencies

Usalama Reforms Forum

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/70475

Press Release, 25 January 2011

The Usalama Reforms Forum is alarmed by the increasing spate of violence involving uniformed officers and civilians. Recent shocking actions involving assault of police officers by civilians and extra-judicial killings by the police are particularly concerning.

The execution of three people by police officers last week has shown the world what Kenyans know is still happening all too often in their country – that impunity still reigns particularly among the law enforcement agencies. It has shown that the arrival of the new Constitution and the moves made so far toward police reform are not nearly enough to put a stop to extra-judicial killings and the system that allows police to act outside the law. It has shown that, even since the call from the UN’s Philip Alston and the Ransley Commission in 2009 for moves to bring an end to these kinds of actions by security forces in Kenya, not much has changed on the ground. Certainly not enough to make sure that police do not behave like this, and that if they do, certainly not enough to make sure that there are swift and definite processes and consequences.

The results are all evident. When police officers are increasingly conducting their affairs outside of the law, demand bribes and block the public’s quest for fair administrative action, restiveness and violent reaction by citizens towards the police become the norm rather than the exception.

The Usalama Reform Forum condemns all acts of unlawful violence and extrajudicial killings by police officers in this country the same way it condemns violence by citizens directed at officers on duty.

Usalama supports the actions of the police service and the government in ensuring that the officers in question in this incident were immediately identified and suspended from duty. This is however not sufficient. Usalama demands that an immediate and open inquiry be launched and these officers be immediately arrested pending further investigations.

Usalama will be watching this case and urges the government to follow through on its promises to properly an promptly investigate this slaying and prosecute those responsible.

Further, Usalama calls on the government to immediately and urgently work with the Police Reform Implementation Commission and Parliament to ensure that the Independent Policing Oversight Authority is brought into being.

These latest killings bring into sharp focus the dire need for a mechanism in Kenya that is responsible for investigating such incidents. Such an Authority is needed to ensure that an incident like this is immediately reported and investigated by a statutory body independent of government, the police and any other interest groups. These kinds of situations demand transparency and a process that Kenyans can be certain of.

The legislation for an Independent Policing Oversight Authority is in draft form. Stakeholders including the police, human rights organisations, government and civil society have been consulted and their inputs given. Now is the time, more than ever, for the government, Parliament and the Committee to work together to pass the legislation and establish the Authority.

Usalama calls on those responsible to make this the absolute priority of the police reform process, and to recognise that the only way to bring an end to this barbaric practice and to start building trust with the community is to create and support a robust, fully-independent and powerful Police Oversight Authority.

Meanwhile, Usalama urges the public desist from preventing, obstructing, assaulting or attacking any officer carrying out their lawful duties under whatever circumstances

On its own motion, and in the intervening period before the IPOA is established, Usalama Forum has launched a “Policing Accountability Monitor” to track how police and members of the public are being held accountable for the violence they subject Kenyans to.

Notes: Usalama reforms forum is a coalition of national, regional and international civil society organization focusing on security sector reforms in Kenya. Members of the usalama Forum include, among others, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, WorldVision, Eastern Africa Institute of Security Studies, Research Triangle Africa, PeaceNet-Kenya, Socio-Economic Rights Foundation and the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum amongst a host of other agencies.

Since inception in 2008, Usalama Forum has partnered with key reform agencies in Kenya to set the agenda for reforms and make substantive drafting input into the Independent Policing Oversight Authority Bill is now making a technical input into the National Police Service Bill.

Help our Tunisian university colleagues

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/70392

Books which were banned under the Ben Ali regime are now beginning to be available in book stores in Tunis. Salma Yabes, manager of the Librairie al-Kitab in Tunis, said on January 20, 2011 that books which were banned under the Ben Ali regime have become available in the book store because friends and families who hid censored books in their homes now give them for free to the shop. In turn the shop provides these volumes for free to intellectuals, researchers, lecturers and professors Tunisian researchers, lecturers and professors will be crucial in building a new democratic Tunisia. Knowledge of current research is a high priority for them. In the past it was not possible to order books on the internet as they would be confiscated by the authorities upon arrival in Tunis. Tunisian researchers lack all kinds of books, but volumes in political science (democratization, authoritarianism, Islamism, and MENA international relations), sociology, anthropology and ethnography, and studies on contemporary Islam are in particular demand.

Librairie el-Kitab in Tunis is now working to establish contacts with publishers and order books, but there is also something YOU can do to help our Tunisian colleagues.

You can help in two ways:

1) Send one or more copies of books you have authored and other spare publication that you think falls in the categories above (they can be in English, French and Italian). 2) Send contact info of you publisher(s) to the Librairie al-Kitab so that they can get in touch and order books directly.

The Librairie al-Kitab is the biggest book store in Tunis and usually serves Tunisian academics. In the beginning they will make copies of books available in their book shop and at a later stage they will distribute the books to the relevant professors at the various universities and research institutes. The books will be distributed/given for free.

This is truly a positive contribution we can make and we encourage you all to become involved.

Librairie al-Kitab
43, avenue Habib Bourguiba
1000 Tunis Le Colisée
Phone: 00216 71 258 566
Fax: 00216 71 332 450
e-mail: Alkitab-tunis@alkitab.com.tn

Rikke Hostrup Haugbølle
Ph.D. Fellow
Dep. of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Snorresgade 17-19, 2300 Copenhagen
Denmark
E-mail: rikhostrup@hum.ku.dk

Francesco Cavatorta
Senior Lecturer
School of Law and Government
Dublin City University
Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Ireland
E-mail: Francesco.cavatorta@dcu.ie

Rwanda undergoes first universal periodic review

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/70393

ARTICLE 19’s submission to the UN Human Rights Council in July 2010 highlights three areas of concern which the organisation hopes to see reflected in the upcoming review. These include (1) limits on freedom of expression through restrictive media law and criminal defamation (2) harassment and attacks on journalists; (3) genocide ideology legislation.

“The upcoming review is an opportunity for UN Human Rights Council member states to put pressure on Rwanda to address the deteriorating freedom of expression situation in the country by repealing a number of national legislations relating to criminal defamation, media law and genocide ideology,” said Dr. Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE19 Executive Director says.

While the need for responsible, professional and ethical journalism in ensuring national cohesion cannot be gainsaid, there is need to allow media diversity and pluralism in Rwanda. The continued control and dominance of the broadcasting sector by the state owned radio and television is detrimental to efforts of good governance, transparency and inclusive citizen participation in development. There is dire need for support to the few independent radio stations and newspapers. The government should also license more private television stations and seek to transform the state controlled Rwanda TV into a public broadcaster.

Criminal defamation provisions in the Penal Code continue to be employed by the state as a tool of silencing those who hold views contrary to the state. This leads to increased cases of self-censorship and long jail terms for accused journalists. For instance, two journalists working for a privately-owned bimonthly, Umarabyo, Agnes Nkusi Uwimana and Saidath Mukakibibi, are currently awaiting judgment on 4 February 2011 over criminal defamation charges. The state through the prosecution has asked for cumulative sentences 33 years for Uwimana and 12 years for Mukakibibi respectively.

Similarly, while foreign radio stations remain an important source of independent news but are subject to government censorship.

ARTICLE 19 is also concerned by multiple reports of intimidation of political opponents, and has recorded many instances where political opponents are charged under the omnibus provisions of genocide ideology law. Rwanda’s genocide ideology laws create a wide range of problems for freedom of expression and freedom of association as it creates a wide net to snare all those who question the truth about the 1994 Genocide. Newspapers critical of the government are often accused of inciting ethnic hatred.

Xenophobic tensions rise in Freedom Park, Johannesburg

Informed Community Member

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/70471

21 January 2011

Tensions have risen and possible xenophobic violence imminent at Freedom Park, as the foreign shop owners decided to open their shops in freedom park after over a month of being forcibly closed.

Local businesses in Freedom Park forced foreign businesses to close on 11th Dec 2010, and they have remained closed since then for fear of being attacked.

To date several interventions have been tried but local business has
refused to budge.

As their losses continue to rise from being closed they have decided to open today and local businesses and youth league members have been mobilizing the whole day to attack the foreign businesses. Tensions are extremely high.

The UNHCR and its monitoring partners Militia trust and DMPSP - Displaced and Mirgrant Persons Support Program have been busy in the area for over a month trying to mediate, but to no avail.

Local business people and ANCYL people have even threatened attacks on UN Monitors in the area.

Foreign business people sent a letter to Eldo's police station yesterday indicating their intention to open their shops at 07:00 today, according to their constitutional rights. Police was forewarned but have been slow and lethargic to respond.

UNHCR representative, foreign business people scheduled to hold meeting at Eldo police station by 14:00

ANC Youth League claim that the MEC Gauteng for Housing, as well as other ANC provincial structures have given tem instructions that the shops must remain closed. This has also made police indecisive on how to respond the shop openings.

The community in freedom park is supportive of the foreign shops being opened as they provide lower prices, but the whole issue is being stirred up by a few roleplayers such as Thabang and Wahsington, which together with others are wishing to get positions in local govt elections. Local Current Councillor Ntombi has no power and just does what these guys want her to do.

More info can be attained from the following people

Lt Col Rajberry - 0828507947 - Eldorado Police Station
Layla Khan - Local married to Bangladeshi Shop Owner - 0795871019
Absalam - Somali shop Owner - 0783765524
Councillor Ntombi Ntombeka - 0718554221
Thomas Thaga - SANCO - 0835332899
Thabang Makele - GOLCOM (Golden Highway community) Youth Leader 0745144106
John dlomo - Local CPF member siding with local business - 0721577873
Gladys Mofokeng - Local SANCO Leader - 0783644310
Washington Mluleni - ANCYL Leader in Freedom Park and one of main
activists - 0729913242
Fred - DMPSP german volunteer and Monitor on behalf of UNHCR - 0798696590
Walter Da Costa - CEO DMPSP and MILITIA - 0729070699

The Call of the Democratic Left Front

Mphutlane wa Bofelo

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/70470

Back to the front

No more heckling at the back

No more ranting in the dark

No more pontificating from a distance

No more writing behind the scenes

No more analysis after the fact

No more paralysis by the facts

From now on we will regain

Our voices and reclaim the streets

We will control the schools

& takeover the farms & factories

We will run the city

Our poets and artists

Will write new songs

& give the nation

New symbols of hope

Worker and student

The red and the green

Together as one

We hearken to the call

To the front, comrades

No more slinking behind slogans

No more hiding in rhetoric

No more fighting over jargon

No more arguing over diction

No more debating accent

No more conflict over terminology

The earth is diminishing

The people are dying

We are called to the rescue

The call is out my people

To the front

No more children schooling

Under trees, the bush their loo

No more open toilets

& concrete slabs for houses

No more choking air & dummy foods

No children suckling thumbs for breasts

No more girls fearing the night

No more boys devoted to machineguns

No more adults chasing their shadows

No more frowning in the toilet

Emerging out with a smile

Knees on the ground

Hat in the air

This time we swear

Enough of hot air

From now on we will air

The boiling fury

Hidden in the eerie melodies

Hummed at the backyards

Of backyard dwellings

The call is out

Worker and student

Peasant and proletariat

Unemployed, employed and underemployed

Agnostic, atheist & gnostic

Red and green

Villager and township dweller

"Organize &mobilise, educate to liberate

Free the mind to free the land

Learn & Teach"

It's you who created

The dynamic slogans

Powerful symbols and songs

That carried the nation

Through years of struggle

"Burry division & build unity

Divided we fall, United we stand

An injury to one, is an injury to all"

It's you who will

Through action and struggle

Creative thought and imaginative thinking

Build the democratic left front

Create new slogans and songs

New platforms and new values

To guide us to the egalitarian society

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

Whatever comes

Khadija Sharife

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/70391

She watched the world through windows, counting number plates. Everybody seemed to be going someplace. Her place (just for now, she told herself) would be here, where she was needed. But she could count the wrinkles forming around her eyes now, and like the number plates, she too was moving even though she wasn't moving at all. It was the kind of moving she was helpless to stop though she prayed, to a god she did not always believe in, to slow it down a little so that she could catch up.

She'd read biographies and maps, using her mind as a blender to create new histories that she might play out, one day, on paper. But she didn't have the courage to write. Writers bared themselves. She hid behind words. They protected her, a coat of armour that held the world at arms length, so that she could be free to be trapped from where she could not leave. Most importantly, it concealed the need for saving.

She was still young enough that every so often, a nice man would come around, don a white cloak and try his hand at a rescue. But she didn't believe in big transcendental moments. Her first thoughts always extended to 'what happens after?'

They believed she needed to be removed from the bad place, though she knew it was her duty to make sure the bad things ended before she left. It was up to her, because she saw it, and knew it, for what it was.

But she had trouble speaking – this much was true. And it was possible that she had never made herself clear, or perhaps, they simply did not want to listen. From her brain to her lips, thoughts struggled for birth into words that were consumed by her tongue. Nothing could get past her tongue, putting to bed all that she could not articulate.

It was not a bed she lay in. An insomniac since her early teens, she had not truly slept in over a decade. Always, she broke from fitful dozing with a migraine. As time went by, it became a blurring of the sense, and she began to lose balance, memory, stumbling from one thought to the next, falling to the edge of herself. At times, suicide crossed her mind but yearning for the end was never because she wanted to die, only that she wanted reprieve for a bit. Sleep.

She prayed to sleep before the sun came up, so that she could be part of the night for a time. She was able to sleep the day away, often, because she was homeschooled through Damelin, a long-distance correspondence school officially recognised by the government. Thanks to the example set by her two older brothers, the first, a drug dealer who was second-in-command to the Paris gang in the Cape Flats, and the second (perceived as the more evil of the two), a first year medical student who was also gay. But there was another reason, her mother, who didn't seem to like her too much, had Cushing’s Syndrome and was in a bad way. Her father ran women for cash. She saw few people beyond the doctor and nurses at the clinic, the cashiers at the grocery store, the bus drivers. The girls in her area were too hard for her. The boys too rough. And her mother, too needy for company, a punching bag, a hand to walk her to the bathroom. Once a beauty, the mother has lost herself in the bottle, and now, seeing her face in her daughter's was both a blessing and a curse, of all that once was and had been taken so quickly. She could not see the faraway look in her daughter's eyes that indicated the letting go.

But she felt, innately, that both were of the same essence, and so she encouraged her daughter to keep her head in a book, away from all the bad things. And she strived to compose herself into something that could catch the attention of a nice man. Young girls, the mother knew, could easily get attention, but they could not keep it. Her daughter, she knew too, did not seek it, and would never be able to shape herself to the kind of world that bought beauty as a commodity. She was too rough and too real to play.

And yet, at the ripe age of 17, when her breasts felt heavy in her hands, and her hips moved from straight lines to curves, she became the paid company to a very rich man. At least, that was how it sounded. She bumped into him on a rainy day while waiting for the bus. He offered to pay her cab fare home. He marketed his money like Africa's young lion Thomas Sankara did revolution. She had never been with anyone before but he seemed to like her body and she wanted to be with him. With his clothes off he was a very different man: brutal gentle tender dominating and then submissive, finally, when she placed her hands on his chest and closed her eyes, trying to find her balance.

It was easier to let go of reality with him. In the daylight hours, he was 'acclaimed', people shook his hand and try to tell him their thoughts, that he might 'recognise' them and they would suddenly feel validated. He spent all day thinking, as she did, and they understood that of each other.

The freedom was that he wanted nothing from her but the moment, and she tried for nothing more, knowing she could promise nothing. Though there existed a 20-year age difference, they came together on a different plane of existence, one bypassing the high walls and norms that said 'Do not cross go'.

At first, she hadn't known that she was his because she was paid for. She liked him and he had been nice to her, made time for her. But then he spoke of his women and she understood and didn't break away even though something broke. He had spent over R10,000 a month on his previous girl, he told her, a 21-year-old art student who had spent time as an au pair in Paris. He had shown her the bills and informed her that this time around, he could only afford R5,000. 'Don't go buying any shit you don't need,' he had said. 'If you're going to buy underwear just to take it off for me, don't bother.'

She could not leave home without having an excuse, so she begged leave for an early morning job. They would expect her to bring back a salary so she asked the rich man for 50% of the legal minimum wage, for half a day's work, five times a week. But he could not see her every morning. They came to an agreement that she would be paid on a daily basis. Everyday she appeared on his doorstep, dressed in almost the same clothes (she didn't have many items of clothing) and he would welcome her in, talking to her as if she were a colleague. It was the dignity that he conferred which made her forget what it was.

And when he once joked, afterwards, while he pulled his pants on, before he placed R38 on the side table, that she was 'very cheap', she made as if it didn't hurt. Even though she was only paid company to him, almost as soon as he'd said it, his eyes became darker and he apologised, once, lips pursed together. That morning he said he had no work and would she want to take a walk with him?

But she left in the same way she usually did, soon after, money clutched in her hand so as not to forget and become inappropriately affectionate, and always, as painfully and awkwardly shy as she had arrived. He knew she would be back because of the beautiful and dark things she had let him do to her, and she knew too, because she had wanted to be the one he did those things too. He saw that she liked him and would become happy when he became less brusque and indifferent and he felt a funny tightening in his chest sometimes when she forgot what she was to him and allowed herself to become chatty and open, as she might with a close friend.

Once, he asked her whether she wanted any more money for the things she might need. She lied and told him that her parents provided everything that she needed. But the next day he had caught her buying milk and bread soon after leaving and her hands were shaking as she ate on the bench, waiting for the bus. He understood her better then, knew perhaps a bit more about her than even she did, this strange girl with rough edges, who stuttered and was not very much, he told himself. She ate quickly, shoulders hunched over, and when she had finished two slices, he saw her counting what was left, before re-tying the knot. Before he knew it, his legs were moving towards her. He would have taken her home and made her a steak, something substantial; held her so that the shaking would stop.

Then he remembered that she didn't know even know the names of capitals and reminded himself that she was a dunce who wasn't even that pretty. I'm doing her a favour, he said to himself, as he got dressed for his date with a beautiful Swiss filmmaker. Brushing his hair, he thought to himself that she had probably never properly brushed her hair, but the funny tightening wouldn't go away. She had asked him to lend her a book, a bent-up paperback, and he had done so telling her not to destroy it. It was how he had first seen her, head bent over a book.

Bringing home groceries had opened up a Pandora’s box. Her family's grocery list started expanding upwards and sideways, from medicines to shoes. Take an advance from your boss, said her mother. And then, if he likes you as a women, take what you can.

She knew that she would have to get a real job soon and that she would no longer be able to see him. She informed her mother she would have to finish up the month but would thereafter look for another form of employment. For the next few weeks, he began leaving R100 on the side table next to the bed, telling himself he didn't have any smaller change and that he couldn't be bothered to bother himself about peanuts. She took it silently and he felt a grim sense of satisfaction and sadness, that she was just a whore, albeit a cheap one who could not negotiate for herself, and hurt too, that she did want him partly for money. The next day, she got a text message in the early morning telling her not to come over, that his date had spent the night.

She didn't respond to him again for three weeks when she told him that she would drop his book off. He had sent her messages, many of them, asking her to come over for a bit, making jokes about extra health benefits. Each time he did so, he understood that he should have been speaking to her in a different way, but he didn't know what way that was or how to change the shape of things that he had created.

She told him about exams and thanked him for writing and being nice to her. He waited the morning she mentioned she would drop the book off but she did not appear. He found his mood becoming darker, more aware of the tightening in his chest that didn't seem to leave. He wondered if something had happened to her but he knew, somehow, that she was a hermit and just meeting him had required of her some courage she normally did not have.

Walking past the doorman that day, he was handed a book, a new version, because she was clumsy, he reminded himself, and probably spilled something over his copy. ‘Did she leave any kind of a message?’, he asked the doorman. She said ‘thank you’, the doorman responded, and that she liked it very much.

‘Doesn't take much to make her happy,’ he'd told the doorman. The doorman went on to say that he had missed her company even though she didn't smell very good or dress in anything but baggy pants. They'd spent time talking together many mornings while she waited for her bus. The rich man remembered that he had never asked her where she was coming from or how she would return.

‘Where does she live?’, he asked the doorman. Forty minutes away, replied the doorman. She lives in the Cape Flats. In the book was an envelope and inside the envelope money. Later, on counting it out, he realised that she had subtracted her daily side-table money and left him the excess cash.

He wondered if he had ever made her cry. She had always seemed happy or quiet around him, but never sad or teary. He spent the day thinking about the buses she took to see him, the times when he'd made her feel as if she had been taking too long to get ready and leave. He remembered when he had told her he couldn't leave her alone in his apartment in case she took something. He'd said it in jest and she'd smiled, but knew he did it to get the reaction that told him he had the power to hurt her because she cared. But he could not change things now so he left the subject alone and told himself, as he unlocked his BMW, that he didn't care whether she visited him again.

For six months, they did not see each other. During this time, she'd begun work as a secretary in an office selling holiday packages in South Africa. He came across her accidentally when he called in about a special. She answered the phone and the sound of her voice made him remember her bony knees, the chipped tooth in her mouth, the scars on her back, the millions of questions she would ask him afterwards about himself about his favourite colour and bird and pair of jeans. Once, he'd told her to shut up, but only because he had drunk too much the night before. She didn't ask him many questions after that. Instead, she took to wrapping herself in his sheets and cuddling near him, curled up in a ball. She never let herself fall asleep because as soon he made a motion to leave, she got the message it was time to leave.

But now he wished he'd held her and asked her questions about herself. She got happy when he did that, seemed lighter, like she had shrugged off the heavy blankets that tended to cloak her smile and her eyes. But she was working at an office and he didn't want to ask her anything as a client after he had kissed her in her most private places.

He found himself driving several times a week, 30 minutes east, to the travel agency, only to park his car on the side of the road, and watch the door. He did this for just 10 minutes each time, watching the clock to ensure that he did not go a minute over. But although he was fastidious with the clock when it came to her (as always, it dawned on him), the rest of the day would inevitably unravel, fragment, as if time were pieces of a puzzle whose bigger picture he could no longer remember with exactitude.

He noticed that she never went home immediately after the store closed at five. Instead, she hung around outside reading on the bench, head bent over her book, using her finger to follow the words. Sometimes she watched the cars or read the newspapers, if any had been discarded in the bin adjacent to the bench. He timed it so that his 10 minutes would coincide with her reading time. He felt contempt for her, that she had no place to go, nobody to meet, and contempt for himself for feeling that way, and he clung to that feeling, bundling it together with her dishevelled hair, her wardrobe (two pairs of jeans, three t-shirts, a hat for colder days), her unshaved legs, bitten nails, countless scars. And who could forget the torn underwear? He'd ask her for it several times when they first began spending time together. But she didn't respond until she told him, one relaxed day, completely out of the blue (both the day and the statement), that she only had five panties.

He wondered whether this was a coded demand for money or clothing – maybe a credit card for her pleasure. But when he asked her outright, she began shaking her head and rubbing her hands vigorously up and down her jeans. ‘I just mean that I don't have any to spare,’ she'd said, ‘and mine aren't very nice.’ ‘But it’s yours,’ he'd responded, ‘and that’s why I want it.’ Her underwear hung off her body, a size too big. He'd joked how kinky it was to take her mother's hand-me-down panties off before they got into bed. She commented that she would buy a new pair easily if he wanted, but that it didn't bother her at all.

But on the nights that he wanted to treat her to dinner at fancy places, she refused, saying that she was busy. He thought it might be her lack of clothing or maybe she was ashamed of spending time with an older man or perhaps she thought he might be ashamed of her. It was true, that he was ashamed someone of his stature, would consider, and be caught, by someone like her. But when she fell over her own untied shoelaces (because she was clumsy) or bit her fingernails, he felt cheated that he was not intimate enough with her that he could grab her hand away from her mouth and kiss her angry red fingertips, or kneel down and tie her shoelaces.

Three months after he had begun parking outside the store – and approximately nine months after they'd stopped seeing each other, the sign on the store announced its forthcoming closure.

She no longer showed up for work. Early one morning he walked in and requested her number. The storekeeper, a large coloured women, claimed that it could not be given unless it was with the owner's permission. The owner, he said, lived in Johannesburg and would not want to be bothered over the girl (so quiet, said she, you'd think she was retarded). But the large manager also mentioned that she would be back in the next few days to pick up her things.

He could not bring himself to wait outside the store for longer than ten minutes. He arrived the same time as before and watched the door, until the store was closed down, and for weeks after, while it was being renovated into a porn video shop.

He went on a date one night, with a gorgeous energy analyst who wore her infectious smile like a weapon of mass destruction. She'd studied four languages and attended an Ivy League school. The next day, he remembered only that his date had fake nails and an expensive handbag and knew that he was being unfair, but could not stop himself from judging other women as a taken man.

Then months later, the girl showed up on his doorstep. He had not been in a good mood for over a year and had forgotten how to smile, so he just nodded and let her in. She seemed taller, her voice strong and guarded. She asked him for a job at his company as a cleaner. He found an object and stared at it, feeling the tightening again. She told him her mother had remarried, that she was now attending UNISA, a long-distance correspondence university, studying literature, and would be able to work day shifts, that she had tried finding a job but hadn't been successful. He told her that they were not looking for any cleaners.

She was wearing a pair of baggy pants that he'd never seen before, though her white t-shirt was still the same. I like your pants, he said to her, watching the flowerpot carefully. She turned her head away too, and asked him if he was making fun of her. No, he told her, I just remember everything about you. He told her that he slept on the couch because the bed seemed empty without her. She apologised, explaining that if she could speak better, or if he could see better, he might have known what more there was to her and he wouldn't have paid for her company, like she was performing a service. I wanted to spend time with you, she said, but I had to have a reason to leave home so that I wouldn't get into trouble. My mother was very strict, she explained to him.

He was quiet, and thinking that she'd made him angry, she excused herself to leave. He walked her to the door and as she was leaving, thanked her for coming around and asked her to marry him when she turned 18, 'because he was looking for a wife’.

She looked at him for a long time then, and at her hands, and bitten nails, and lower still, to her shoes. He spoke quickly, telling her that nothing felt good without her, and he missed her voice, her messy hair.

She shook her head and said no, but he could not it let it go, finally, when he'd just found a way to change the shape of everything, because it occurred to him that whatever she didn't have, all that she was, was perfect. What made her conspicuous was the dignity that covered her like a second skin, irking him, as it fought to reach the surface of a mind educated in all things important. But not this thing, love, that did not require permission to bloom, and pushed everything out of place.

He told her, gripping the doorway with both hands, that for months he'd waited for her, and now that she'd come to him of her own choice, he wanted them to have rights over each other, so they could bypass all the jagged things that stood in the way. He wouldn't touch her, he said, until she wanted him, until she was ready, for whatever came.

What will we do, she asked, if not that thing we did? I'll watch you read, he said, and we can take it from there.

Because he had lots of books, and she liked him, and he liked her, she said okay, and went inside. They had time.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Khadija Sharife is the southern Africa correspondent for The Africa Report magazine and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) based in South Africa.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Unforgettable ordinary people

Thoughts on ‘Together’ by Julius Chingono and John Eppel

Philo Ikonya

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/70436

amaBooks is set to publish ‘Together’, a wonderful collection of short stories and poems written by Julius Chingono and John Eppel. The assortment, which in an equal share includes 24 poems and 11 short stories by Eppel and 25 poems and 8 short stories by Chingono, will be published in early 2011.Two contemporaries look at same reality in ‘Together’. These are powerful and well-chosen pieces. They include pieces written at different times. We get unique vistas, but these are linked. Each of the writers is absolutely singular and yet there are similarities. This affects details.

There are fine jewels here. For example the two conjure up images from small things, turning them into icons and vice versa – great things… into ordinary. Chingono writes a short poem about ‘20-044L’, a motor car number plate which is now part of a door that is just holding together. Eppel writes about many little things, including an Ingrid Jonker award in an un-burnt pot. An award in a pot!

The word 'together' is metaphysically about much more here than two men – one white, one black – writing in a collection titled ‘Together’. And, yes, there are racial tensions in some pieces that one feels have boiled over. Will they injure us or heal us? Racial, ethnic roots, politics and wealth have fuelled endless divisions.

This book ‘Together’ is for me a picture of Zimbabwe, a country which attracts much attention for many reasons – but it is also about other countries of Afrika. It makes us see Zimbabwe through two mindsets, almost simultaneously. The rest of Afrika is so near. There are many similarities with different countries but Kenya is the country outside of the Southern Africa region with which there is almost complete resonance in governance concerns.

The writing immediately communicates the great geographical space that Zimbabwe and many parts of Afrika are. Afrika is so rich. But our eyes are for much more than The Big Five which you are used to hearing about in wildlife; in this book, animals are incidental. Instead the book explores how vehicles and nature relate to governance. Why are cars so important in terms of brands or makes? Can we have a remake – as with the un-burnt pot and the door with a car number plate – and succeed?

People are tortured by power here, and also by traditions of reverence for old age and chosen leaders. ‘Together’ deals with unforgettable ordinary people caught up in power games of different types. Look at Gore in ‘Leave My Bible alone’, one of the many moving stories which Chingono contributes here. Gore may not die this Sunday afternoon but I am sure MaMoyo's thoughts and heartbeat are centred on losing him.

I love the church as depicted on a Sunday – how couples struggle to get there and impress the social classes, how some can only take that for a few hours. The scenes resonate with many African Christians. Sunday, rest and drinking seem to go hand in hand... and still the Bible in hand. I wonder how many Gores have lain in the mud or dust on Afrikan paths this Sunday on which I write. These poems and stories are submerged in such realism. You have to be strong! Death laces all life – everything here, including the imagination of Chingono, who pens ‘No funeral carries the fatal possibility’.

We go back to the same questions. What constricts Afrika's big space? Who steals her un-burnt pots and her scrap metal that can make doors? What is Afrika's real identity? What makes me feel so much compassion for the many Reverends – the many ordinary and gullible people who believe that things are being done, and well, for them: ‘The Reverend Benate Jojova was thrilled that he would be playing an active role in Zimbabwe’s constitution-making process…’ People move towards formal and legal institutions of liberation but they do not get there fully. Some argue for traditional solutions in Afrikan governance but others warn that it leaves too much free space for abuse.

In the meantime, we suffer pain as they negotiate governments of coalition in suits. Suddenly, peoples lives hang up – the way a computer does – choking growth, long before they die.

‘We waited.’ What threatens to steal Chingono’s boundless humour and why does he guard it so zealously in spite of tremendous suffering? Who mocks us this long? The songs of Chimurenga forced on the lips of a people who are betrayed are killing all. The waiting is explosive. I have been in this kind of waiting. The dust that rises from the dancing is a sign that soon things will change. And yet, why are the people of Afrika held in the grip of those to whom they give power and who would reduce them to beggars? These questions are relevant from Tunis to Harare, Nairobi to Yamoussoukro.

The open and vast space in Afrika contrasts with the narrow political restriction and the stolen space of the whole cast: Women, men and children. For Chingono, you – and many in Afrika – may be in the photograph, and yet not be in the picture.

‘In the photograph
I was so drunk
that I would stagger
out of the picture.’

Chingono’s humour again. Once you finish reading his funny bone that nothing can bury, and are inclined to amusement (‘Candy Mercenaries’ and I lost a verse), the huge and challenging context jumps at you, sometimes with bare fangs.

The Bible. Life and death. Alcohol. Life and death. Votes. Life and death. Rape and abuse in dimensions that one would a million times rather never existed. Death. AK 47. Life. Death. Waiting. Life. Dancing. Death. Support MDC. Death. Coalition governments. Life and death.

You can feel the strength of the writers' pens impressing the paper. The energy rises up to you from the pages. The images of lives that are tragically imbued with a spirit of freedom that seems to be all the time overcome by oppression is deeply moving. It persists. It keeps coming out in many stories and poems. Images in the stories are painfully etched on one's mind.

The strongest part for me is in the rapes and killing in ‘Of the Fist’. The cries of Chido and of Mai Mwatse will never die in us. And for sure, Douglas and even the perpetrators have lost their humanity after this. The question of what next remains a concern for many countries of Afrika.

It is quite clear that Zimbabwe is dealing with the need of a liberation that is fully home-grown, rooted and yet aware of legal justice. We cannot afford to be at the Humpty Dumpty and Winkelyn and Broren level. It is also obvious that the vote never translated into what the democracies of the world expected. AK-47 rifles and Operations no Opposition here, are too strong.

In my view, Eppel makes it clear that we simply are not who we think we are. It makes one think that Afrika made a huge mistake in negotiating its modes of governance after colonialism. Western democracy has not worked and does not look like it will work in some Afrikan – but we had our democracy, or the possibility of negotiating for one. It is clear that the people were never allowed to own their lives and politics after colonialism. The space shrunk far too fast. President Mugabe and Zanu PF kill for votes and power. Rape, murder going hand in hand with the most base of tortures and everything and homosexuals is used as the stick with which to hit opposition.

I remember again that all Chido's ‘mistake’ was in ‘Of the Fist’ is to be an officer of MDC during the election. Rape and the level of dehumanisation seen here would not fit even in a traditional setting. The ancestors are frustrated. The people are not themselves.

Eppel’s story, ‘The Floating Straw Hat’ is a very unique story in a class of its own, as is Chingono’s ‘Murehwa’. Both stories stand out not because the others are weak, but because they appeal very strongly to purity and innocence. ‘Murehwa’ will be new to younger generations and to Afrikans. It surely should remind many to pen some of the practices that are still on or that are dying in some places. And if that is how people still believe in what is traditional, how will they access these formalities such as elections and not see them as from the West? Yet, might the dead man not be Afrika that someone needs to undress and sing to?

In both the stories mentioned above, there is the persistent existence of something physical: It is the person who is gone that arrests people’s attention. This also happens in ‘Two meters Drainage Pipe’. The two writers have great mastery of mood and tone, not just language.

Eppel gets technical on religion and literary ways, as well as on philosophy as taught in the West. Yet, he is the one – even if quite clearly immersed in Christianity – who hits hardest at colonialism and the role of developed countries in what is going on in Zimbabwe. He is the one who had my breath held because I thought he would say that writing in Afrika with a 'k' as the first step in de-Latinising Afrika was of no use – when he endorsed it to my great joy, for I believe in that. Rome was not built in a day. Afrika has never been herself after colonialism. She lost her languages that still hum and sing like choirs in this literature. She lost. She needs to recover and have full confidence that before colonialism, she was Nubia that civilised the world.

The satire and irony in some of the stories may not make this easy reading for the ordinary street person but Zimbabweans are serious readers, save for the hard times they have endured in the recent past.

However, I need to say that Charles Dickens, Via Dolorosa and Pulcherrima – so much Latin – reminded me of our friend and Zimbabwean writer who died of rage in 2005, if I may say because of his originality and complete rejection of the West, in some ways. Dambudzo Marechera. The question of identity asking himself who he is, is key in Dambudzo. No one can forget the energy of his House of Hunger. He tore the barriers of belonging that we Afrikans often hide in, the family, because he felt he did not belong even at that level. He believed in his mother's muti, a type of witchcraft. Dambudzo, was calling on all of us to see that we have the solution if we have a vision and that we can do things on our own even when the immediate environment does not make sense. Can Afrika ask herself who she is and do the same?

But as Ngomakurira writes in newspaper The Zimbabwean, we failed to hear Marechera, whose agenda is still on the table. Are we going to fail to hear both Dambisa in ‘Dead Aid’, a non-fiction work and Dambudzo in ‘House of Hunger’? We have to shake off the thick layers of dehumanisation and loss of ourselves to find our way Together.

But at this moment, I would not pick poetry that is asking WOZA. WOZA (Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise) has been screaming for freedom. Jestina Mukoko, Muzvare Betty Makoni and Tsitsi to mention but a few. Many women – as Eppel shows so clearly – and men too have had the worst that could have ever happened to , and so it is time to acknowledge and congratulate those who would still write and act without fear for change. Eppel and Chingono deserve every attention. I know a book that is meaningful and interesting on Afrika links to many thoughts. It makes us laugh. It shows you how true fiction is as it sits partly among scientific and non-fiction books. This is one. It challenges too.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* We heard the sad news, that Julius Chingono died on 2 January 2011 after collapsing on New Year's Eve. Born in 1946 on a commercial farm near Harare, Julius Chingono spent most of his working life as a rock blaster in the mines. He wrote in both Shona and English, and won awards for poems written in both languages.
* ‘Together’, a collection of poems and stories by Julius Chingono and John Eppel is published by amaBooks Publishers, Bulawayo: 2011.
* Philo Ikonya is a Kenyan poet and activist.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Pambazuka News 175: Les stratégies altermondiales face aux crises actuelles

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/70387

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

Gbagbo and the ICC

Gado

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/70388

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

If Jesus were to be tried in Kenya

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/70389

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

Tunisia's waves of revolution

Gado

2011-01-25

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/70390

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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

Zimbabwe: Group reports surge in political violence

2011-01-31

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-01-31-zimbabwe-group-reports-surge-in-political-violence

Zimbabwe has seen a surge in political violence and intimidation as the government prepares for national elections, an independent advocacy group said. The Southern Africa Coalition for the Survivors of Torture said in a new report on Sunday that tensions rose markedly in January. They reported mob attacks, threats, assaults, questionable arrests by police and at least one shooting in the capital of Harare and its suburbs.

Zimbabwe: Violence and repression continue to dominate, says rights report

2011-01-27

http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/zimsectionofhumanrightsreport.pdf

Two years into Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government, President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have used violence and repression to continue to dominate government institutions and hamper meaningful human rights progress, says the Zimbabwe section of the World Report 2011 issued by Human Rights Watch. 'The former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), lacks real power to institute its political agenda and end human rights abuses. The power-sharing government has not investigated widespread abuses, including killings, torture, beatings, and other ill-treatment committed by the army, ZANU-PF supporters, and officials against real and perceived supporters of the MDC.'

Africa: Tracking the continent's peer review mechanism

2011-01-27

http://www.saiia.org.za/feature/tracking-the-africa-peer-review-mechanism.html

The theme for the 16th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa is 'Towards Greater Unity and Integration through Shared Values'. Arguably, the success story of South-South cooperation around shared values is the African Peer Review Mechanism, says the South African Institute of International Affairs. It is the continent’s home-grown governance tracking system and will be re-examined when African leaders meet on the summit margins. Key agenda items for the APRM forum include Liberia’s accession as the APRM’s 30th member, the much-anticipated peer review of Ethiopia, and progress reports on the National Programmes of Action (NPoAs) from South Africa, Lesotho and Nigeria.

Cote d'Ivoire: AU now softens stand on Cote d'Ivoire

2011-01-31

http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1097728/-/i671b9z/-/index.html

The African Union has backed off from its earlier position on a possible military intervention in Cote d'Ivoire if the incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo does not hand over to Alassane Ouattara, who has been recognised internationally to have won the elections last November. Instead, the AU has agreed to set up a panel of five Heads of State to find a settlement with a month.

Equatorial Guinea: Obiang becomes chairman of AU

2011-01-31

http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1098176/-/i66gkgz/-/index.html

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has officially handed over the chairmanship of the African Union to his Equatorial Guinea colleague Theodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. As President Obiang takes over, many must be wondering the wisdom of the African leaders in their selection of the boss of the continental body.

Somalia: UN and African Union to meet on peace process

2011-01-27

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37382&Cr=Somali&Cr1=

The United Nations and the African Union will hold a high-level meeting in a few days to review efforts to achieve peace, security and reconciliation in strife-torn Somalia, which has been suffering through two decades of conflict and numerous humanitarian challenges. The meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sidelines of the African Union Summit.

Zimbabwe: AU urged to push Zimbabwe on electoral reforms

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Statement

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/70522

Sham elections across Africa have been a major cause of insecurity, instability and violent conflict; recent examples include Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast. The Africa Union (AU) must be robust and resolute in promoting shared values and best practices in the management of elections for purposes of political stability, good governance and sustainable socio-economic development. As representatives of Zimbabwe’s civil society, we are convinced that at present, the country has not carried out sufficient institutional and legislative reforms to enable the country to hold credible elections free of violence and intimidation.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Statement

AU: Push Zimbabwe to Implement Adequate Electoral Reforms Ahead of Fresh Elections
Addis Ababa, 26 January 2011

Sham elections across Africa have been a major cause of insecurity, instability and violent conflict; recent examples include Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast. The Africa Union (AU) must be robust and resolute in promoting shared values and best practices in the management of elections for purposes of political stability, good governance and sustainable socio-economic development.

The AU’s condemnation of Ivory Coast’s election fraud is a commendable first step that must be backed by appropriate action. The same approach should be applied to all national electoral processes in Africa, including in Zimbabwe where recent elections, notably the 2008 plebiscite was marred by extreme violence and intimidation. Following those elections, the AU and the Southern African Development Corporation (SADC) underwrote an agreement under which Zimbabwe’s political leaders formed a power-sharing government in February 2009 aimed at paving way for transparent, free and fair elections.

As representatives of Zimbabwe’s civil society, we are convinced that at present, the country has not carried out sufficient institutional and legislative reforms to enable the country to hold credible elections free of violence and intimidation. We ask that the AU takes the following actions on Zimbabwe:

1. The AU and SADC should conduct independent investigations in Zimbabwe to establish whether the necessary conditions exist, and the environment is conducive to holding transparent, free and fair elections, before a new poll can be called. Fresh elections should, therefore, only be announced after the AU and SADC have cleared them.
2. Push for key reforms that must be undertaken ahead of fresh elections which include the establishment of a new democratic constitution, media freedoms, an up-to-date voters’ roll, an adequately resourced, independent and impartial electoral management body, and mechanisms to prevent violence and intimidation before, during and after elections.
3. Together with SADC, ensure that Zimbabwe enforces constitutional civilian control over the army and the security forces to prevent interference with electoral processes and to ensure democratic transfer of power. At present the infrastructure of violence, that includes the youth militia, war veterans and a partisan security force, remains unreformed adversely affecting the most vulnerable groups including women, children, the disabled, the elderly and the youth.
4. Ensure that SADC supervises fresh Zimbabwe elections which the AU and other international groups vigorously observe and monitor. Deployment of election monitors should be at least six months before elections with monitors remaining on the ground at least three months after the elections.
5. Provide technical, administrative and other assistance to Zimbabwe aimed at developing and strengthening its electoral institutions and processes.

Contacts in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe:
1. Mr. Phillip Pasirayi, Spokesperson, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition: email: pasirayip@yahoo.com
Mobile Number: +251 922 331 649
2. Mr. Dewa Mavhinga, Regional Coordinator, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition: coordinator@crisiszimbabwe.org
Mobile Number: +251 922 331 650
3. Mr. McDonald Lewanika, Director, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition: mlewanika@gmail.com
Mobile Number: +263 772127398

Ethiopia: Pastoralists battling FGM

2011-01-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91732

Pastoralist communities in two districts of northeastern Ethiopia have outlawed female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), saying it causes serious health problems to the women and is against their culture, a local official said. The two districts are Amibara and Awash-Fentale in Afar region. 'We are very happy to declare the abandonment of this horrible act on women,' the head of women's affairs in Amibara district, Fatuma Ali, said. 'We would like to thank the elders, our community and all our partners.'

Global: UN report highlights disadvantages faced by women in agricultural employment

2011-01-31

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37334&Cr=rural&Cr1=

Women continue to reap less benefits from employment in agriculture than men in rural areas, and the recent global financial and food crises have slowed down progress towards gender equality in farming-related labour, three United Nations agencies said in a joint report. The report – entitled 'Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty' – notes that women need access to education, training, credit, markets, technical assistance and labour protection. They also need equal, secure access to land and other assets and 'social capital', including the ability to participate equally in farmers’ organisations.

Kenya: Schooling the police on abortion, law, and morality

African Women and Child Feature Service

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/gKF3es

Abortion remains a thorny issue in Kenya today. It was one of the divisive topics that generated emotive debates during the discourse preceding the referendum to enact the new constitution. The issue of right to life and when a pregnancy should be terminated took centre stage to the point that it was tearing this country apart. However, whether it is ethical or not; moral or not, abortion remains an issue that cannot be swept under the carpet. Many women in their 40s and 50s and teenage girls who get unwanted or unplanned pregnancies die every day as they procure unsafe abortions.

Morocco: Underage marriages increase

2011-01-27

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/01/26/feature-03

Despite the provisions of the Family Code, child marriages are on the rise in Morocco. The Moudawana raised the minimum marriage age from 14 to 18 and required a judge's approval for nuptials with a minor. Still, five years after the Family Code became law, 33,253 females below the age of 18 tied the knot.

South Africa: New, assertive women's voices in local elections

2011-01-31

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54270

Noncedo Pulana lacks many things, but she is certainly not short of confidence as she prepares to stand for election as Khayelitsha ward councillor. She feels her long years as an activist in the sprawling township have prepared her to do a better job. Khayelitsha is reputed to be the largest township in South Africa. Created in 1985 to accommodate an influx of black labour to Cape Town, in 20 years its population grew beyond 400,000. Seventy percent of residents still live in shacks of wood and corrugated metal; one in three must walk 200 metres or more to the nearest public water point.

Africa: Appeal for human rights and democracy in Arab world

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/70519

In the aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, and the beginning of a popular uprising in Egypt, more than 2,200 Arab scholars, politicians, and activists - from over 20 Arab countries - have issued an appeal for the defense and consolidation of human rights and democracy in the Arab World.
2,200 Arab Scholars, Politicians, and Activists Issue Appeal for Human Rights and Democracy in the Arab World

Washington - 27 January 2011 - In the Aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, and the beginning of a popular uprising in Egypt, more than 2,200 Arab scholars, politicians, and activists - from over 20 Arab countries - issued today an 'Urgent Appeal' for the defense and consolidation of human rights and democracy in the Arab World.

'The Casablanca Call has been endorsed by leading thinkers and politicians from the Arab World, from all political leanings and persuasions, from the leftists and secularists to moderate Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood, agreeing that democracy and human rights are an absolute necessity for the Arab world today,' says Radwan Masmoudi, President of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), and convener of the Casablanca Conference on Human Rights and Democracy.

'The Tunisian revolution has shattered several myths: the myth of Middle Eastern democratic exceptionalism, the myth of achieving economic reform without political liberalization, and the myth that western backing of autocratic regimes in the region will maintain stability and protect western strategic interests,' said Emad El-Din Shahin, Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, and one of the drafters of the Casablanca Call.

Included below is the text of the Casablanca Call:

The Casablanca Call for Democracy and Human Rights

We, the signatories to this call, as politicians, intellectuals and civil society advocates, believe that the achievement of democracy and the embodiment of human rights in the Arab world is an absolute necessity and requires a broader engagement of all citizens and political and social forces. We observe, with great concern, the dramatic and alarming backsliding of political reforms in the Arab world, due to several structural obstacles since the beginning of the new century. We hereby appeal to all parties concerned with the future of democracy - governments, civil society institutions, political organizations, trade unions, and the media - in the belief that the achievement of real and effective reforms is the responsibility of all parties.

We affirm that confronting the various obstacles that continue to prevent the achievement of a peaceful transfer of power requires the following:

1- An immediate undertaking of profound and effective political reforms that respect the rule of law and institutional integrity based on the principle of separation of powers. This must be done in accordance with the principle of peoples' sovereignty, respect for human rights and freedoms, and by confirming the ballot box as the only legitimate method of achieving a peaceful transfer of power, and ensuring the transparency of the electoral process, accepting its results, and enhancing the efforts of independent monitors in accordance with international standards;

2- Protection of an independent judiciary as a top priority for democratic change, as a prerequisite for the protection of human rights and freedoms, and as the guarantor for the supremacy of the rule of law and state institutions;

3- The immediate release of all political prisoners - numbering in the thousands in various Arab prisons - and putting an end to political trials of any kind, torture of political opponents, and the practice of kidnapping;

4- Enabling and encouraging political parties and trade unions to engage in their right to organize freely, use all available media outlets, take advantage of public funding, and be free of any interference of the state apparatus in their affairs;

5- Acknowledgment of the right of civil society organizations to perform their advocacy roles freely and effectively, having their independence and privacy duly respected, their internal affairs not disrupted, and their sources of financial support kept open and active. We call upon all Arab governments to engage with civil society organizations in real a partnerships to achieve sustainable human development and to empower women and youth to take part in the development process;

6- Guarantee of freedom of expression, free access of the media and journalists to information and news sources. The respect for the independence of journalists' syndicates and allowing them to disseminate information and opinion without censorship, and undue administrative, or judicial pressures, and the abolishment of the imprisonment penalty in cases against journalists;

7- Development of mechanisms to ensure the neutrality of state institutions and their placement in the direct service of their constituents regardless of political allegiances, and without interference in the affairs of political parties and civil society organizations;

8- Mobilization of all forces and efforts to comply with good governance, political integrity and transparency, and combating corruption as an unethical social, political, and economic phenomenon that has turned administrative corruption into a system for administering corruption. We believe this undermines development efforts, drains national resources, and threatens social peace;

9- Summoning of the private sector to play its role in the contribution to political reforms, the preservation of freedoms and to strive for social justice, affirming the strong link between development and democracy, and ensuring transparency and free and fair competition;

10- Supporting efforts to achieve national reconciliation and unity and avoid the dangers that threaten unity, and feed the sectarian, religious, ethnic, and political conflicts that destabilize Arab states and societies;

11- Appealing to democratic forces in the entire world to put pressure on their own governments to refrain from supporting non-democratic regimes in the Arab world, and from adopting double standards in their relations with Arab regimes;

12- Reaffirmation of the interconnectedness of political reform with the renewal of religious thought, which requires support for, and expansion of, the practice of ijtihad in a climate of complete freedom of thought, under democratic systems of government. Furthermore, we support the dialogue that began several years ago between Islamists and secularists at the local and regional levels and emphasize the importance of continuing such endeavors in order to provide solid ground for the protection of democracy and human rights from any political or ideological setbacks.

Sign the Casablanca Appeal (in Arabic): https://www.csidonline.org/sign-casa-appeal

Lire L'Appel de Casablanca (en Francais)

Egypt: Violent repression of peaceful demonstrations

World Organisation Against Torture press release

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/70513

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) condemns the excessive use of force and violence against the protests that have started on 25 January 2011 in different governorates to denounce poverty, corruption and police brutality, which led to the death of at least seven protesters and one policeman, leaving hundreds injured and about one thousand protesters arrested.
World Organisation Against Torture

Press Release

Egypt: Violent repression of peaceful demonstrations

Geneva, 28 January 2011. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) condemns the excessive use of force and violence against the protests that have started on 25 January 2011 in different governorates to denounce poverty, corruption and police brutality, which led to the death of at least seven protesters and one policeman, leaving hundreds injured and about one thousand protesters arrested[1].

According to the information received, security forces used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse thelargely peaceful demonstrations and batons, clubs and sticks to beat the protestors. OMCT is also gravely concerned about the safety of those arrested and recalls to the competent authorities of Egypt that they are legally bound to effectively ensure the physical and psychological integrity of all persons deprived of liberty in accordance with international and regional human rights law, and in particular the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights to which Egypt is a State party.

OMCT is also concerned about the blocking of social networks and several Egyptian media websites, which are used by activists, journalists and bloggers, including human rights defenders, to exchange information and provide information on the demonstrations[2]. The Egyptian authorities have for years used the emergency powers to severely curtail freedom of assembly and to crackdown on peaceful opposition protests.

OMCT calls on the Egyptian authorities to

Immediately put an end to the continued repression of the peaceful protests and issue clear instructions to the security forces to refrain from using excessive force against the protestors in accordance with international standards, including the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms and the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials;
Guarantee freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression;
Immediately release all those who were detained while peacefully demonstrating and immediately cease torture and ill-treatment;
Carry out prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into the police abuses and violence, the results of which must be made public, in order to bring those responsible before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal and to apply penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law; and provide the victims with adequate compensation, reparation and rehabilitation;
Establish, in close cooperation with the people directly concerned and their representatives, programmes for social, economic and cultural development that effectively respond to the needs of the people of Egpyt ;
Ensure the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

Contact: Eric Sottas, +41 22 809 49 39

[1] According to information received from the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), a member of OMCT SOS-Torture Network, 1120 individuals were detained from 25 January till 27 January 2011 in 9 governorates (Cairo, Suez, Alexandria, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Northern Sinai, Ismailia, Fioum, Assiut). See EOHR press released diffused on 27 January 2011.
[2] See The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of OMCT - FIDH, urgent appeal EGY 001 / 0111 / OBS 009.

Global: Fees at the European Court of Human Rights a barrier to justice

2011-01-31

http://www.interights.org/reform-European-Court-of-Human-Rights-fees

INTERIGHTS’ have signed a statement opposing the introduction of fees at the European Court of Human Rights. Imposing a fee on applicants to the European Court of Human Rights may deny victims of human rights violations access to justice, based on their ability to pay, says the organisation. Administering a fee system could drain the Court of human and financial resources while deterring individuals - based on their economic standing - with well-founded human rights claims from seeking redress before the Court. If you are an NGO, a Bar Association or a law firm and would like to sign the petition opposing the introduction of fees, please email Amnesty International at Europeigoteam@amnesty.org with the name and country of the organisation and your name and email address.

Ivory Coast: AU called on to face responsibilities

2011-01-26

http://www.fidh.org/The-African-Union-must-face-its-responsibilities

While the African Heads of State and Government are preparing to discuss African shared values during the 16th Summit of the African Union (AU), 'concrete responses are awaited from the continental organisation for dealing with the crisis and conflict situations in a manner respectful of Human Rights', stated Souhayr Belhassen, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) president. FIDH calls on the AU to adopt a firm attitude in the case of Ivory Coast, in order to avoid an electoral conflict degenerating into a bloody civil war, at the same time creating a dangerous precedent for democracy in Africa at a time when 19 presidential elections are to be held in 2011.

Kenya: PM disowns offensive against the Hague trials

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/gUAWWv

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has disowned the shuttle diplomacy spearheaded by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to seek the support of African Union to defer Kenya’s case at the International Criminal Court. Mr Odinga, at a news conference in Nairobi, said what Cabinet had agreed on was the referral of the cases involving the masterminds of the post-election violence suspects to the International Criminal Court and not to defer them.

Morocco: Report confirms 'killing of 352 Saharawis'

2011-01-26

http://www.afrol.com/articles/37118

The Royal Advisory Council for Human Rights (CCDH) of Morocco in a unique report confirms the killing of 352 'disappeared' Saharawis from 1958 to 1992. Out of these, over 200 died in military bases and secret detention centres, including children.

Rwanda: Rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana sent to ICC

2011-01-25

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12277378

The head of a Rwandan rebel group accused of committing war crimes in Democratic Republic of Congo has been extradited from France to The Hague. Callixte Mbarushimana was arrested in Paris last October, following a request from the International Criminal Court. The Hutu rebel leader has denied accusations that he ordered his FDLR fighters to kill and rape civilians.

South Africa: Journo takes on Israeli authorities

2011-01-31

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-01-28-sa-journo-takes-on-israeli-authorities/

The only South African passenger on the Mavi Marmara, one of the Gaza-bound ships intercepted at sea by the Israelis in May last year, has laid a formal complaint with the national director of public prosecutions about her alleged suffering at the hands of the Israeli army. If the National Prosecuting Authority acts on the complaint of Gadija Davids, a Cape Town-based journalist, top Israeli politicians and soldiers could face arrest if they visit South Africa.

Tunisia: Amnesty report shows brutality of security forces

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/frBUpJ

Amnesty International has revealed disturbing new evidence of the brutal methods used by Tunisian security forces to try to quell anti-Government protests in recent weeks. An Amnesty International research team which has just returned from Tunisia found that security forces used disproportionate force to disperse protesters and in some cases fired on fleeing protesters and bystanders. Doctors' testimonies seen by the Amnesty International research team show that some protesters in Kasserine and Thala were shot from behind, indicating that they were fleeing. Others in Kasserine, Thala, Tunis and Regueb were killed by single shots to the chest or head, suggesting deliberate intent to kill.

Global: Questions over treaty to address climate change-related movement

2011-01-27

http://ijrl.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/1/2.abstract

An article from the International Journal of Refugee Law argues that advocacy for a new treaty to address climate change-related movement is presently misplaced for a number of reasons. It queries the utility – and, importantly, the policy consequences – of pinning ‘solutions’ to climate change-related displacement on a multilateral instrument, in light of the likely nature of movement, the desires of communities affected by it, and the fact that a treaty will not, without wide ratification and implementation, ‘solve’ the humanitarian issue.

Global: The global rise of anti-refugee reform

Call for abstracts

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/70559

The Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) Student Caucus is pleased to announce that the Annual Student Conference will take place on 29 and 30 April at York University, Toronto, Canada. This event offers graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines with a keen interest in migration and refugee issues the opportunity to present and discuss their research ideas with fellow students, academics, professionals, frontline practitioners, researchers, scholars and all those interested in forced migration issues.
Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, Toronto
Annual Student Conference: Call for Abstracts

Increasing the Securitization of Borders and the Politics of Forced Migration: The Global Rise of Anti-Refugee Reform

April 29-30, 2011

The Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) Student Caucus is pleased to announce that the Annual Student Conference will take place on April 29th and 30th at York University, Toronto, Canada. This event offers graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines with a keen interest in migration and refugee issues the opportunity to present and discuss their research ideas with fellow students, academics, professionals, frontline practitioners, researchers, scholars and all those interested in forced migration issues.

Canada has been recently shaken by a backlash against refugees. This fall the Conservative federal government introduced Bill C-49, an Act that seeks to deter human smuggling but ultimately criminalizes migrants seeking refuge in Canada. Not only does the Act strongly discourage asylum seekers from coming to Canada, but if they do arrive, they are homogeneously considered ‘irregular’ asylum seekers, and are subject to mandatory unreviewable detention, and face limits on their refugee appeal, healthcare services, family reunification rights, and so forth. Bill C-49 is just one, among many, pieces of proposed legislation that works to restrict the rights and freedoms of displaced peoples. The aim of this conference is to explore and interrogate key issues and concerns around the broad topic of the increasing securitization of borders and the politics of forced migration. We hope to reveal some of the lived experiences, NGO/grassroots advocacy, theoretical research premises, and practical policies that could help challenge and bring social justice to vulnerable groups of people involved in the forced migration process. To address these and other key issues, the wide-ranging theme for this year’s conference is Increasing the Securitization of Borders and the Politics of Forced Migration: The Global Rise of Anti-Refugee Reform. This overarching theme seeks to embrace a comprehensive and interdisciplinary discussion of forced human migration. We welcome you to submit proposals on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to:

* Forced Migration and The Refugee Process
* State Boundaries and Sovereignty
* International Human Rights of Migrants
* Gender and The Politics of Identity and Forced Migration
* Racialization and Forced Migration
* Children and Refugee Youth
* Social and Settlement Services (i.e., healthcare, housing, employment, etc.)
* Environment and Climate Change
* Human Trafficking and Smuggling
* "Irregular" Migration

Submissions that fall under the category of visual, audio, and performing arts are also welcome. All acceptable art submissions will be exhibited at the conference location. Group/panel submissions are also invited.

A selection of the top completed papers presented at the conference will be published in a journal of conference proceedings.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Individuals or groups wishing to participate in the conference MUST submit a 250-word abstract by March 4th, 2011.

Abstract submissions MUST be accompanied by the following:
1. Name(s) of presenter(s)
2. Key presenter e-mail address
3. Title of Abstract
4. A short personal profile (no more than 150 words)
5. Indication of whether the presentation will be made by a panel or an individual
6. Indication of the type of audio-visual aids needed (i.e., projector, laptop, DVD player etc.)

Abstracts should be submitted electronically to crsconference2011@gmail.com by March 4th, 2011

For more information please contact Abetha Mahalingam at abetha@gmail.com or Oana Petrica at oana.petrica@gmail.com or visit: http://www.yorku.ca/crs

South Africa: High court frustrates refugees’ hopes for Home Affairs interdict

2011-01-31

http://westcapenews.com/?p=2670

Hopes for an urgent interdict against the Department of Home Affairs’ issuing of fines to refugees and asylum seekers for the late renewal of their permits, and the confiscation thereof, were dashed in the Cape High Court last Wednesday.The application for an urgent interdict was filed by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Refugee Rights Project, which is representing eight applicants on behalf of a further 59, on 6 December last year in a bid to force Home Affairs to re-document affected refugees and asylum seekers.

South Africa: The Zimbabwean documentation process: lessons learned

2011-01-25

http://bit.ly/dRV8Uw

Between 20 September and 31 December 2010, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) carried out the Zimbabwe Documentation Process (ZDP). In the period leading up to the documentation process, civil society organisations began voicing concerns about the short timeline provided and the management of the process. These concerns continued as the process got underway. In light of these concerns, and in order to identify any obstacles as they emerged, the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) – formerly the Forced Migration Studies Programme – began sending researchers to observe the situation. The findings from this monitoring provide a picture of how the process worked and highlight important problem areas. This report presents the key lessons learned, with suggestions for carrying out future regularisation measures.

South Africa: Xenophobic attack victims face eviction

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/fsYkBn

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) of South Africa is representing 71 people facing eviction from a temporary refugee shelter in Randfontein. The occupiers are all people displaced from their communities during the xenophobic attacks of May 2008. They were taken to the Reit Shelter and promised they would receive assistance to re-integrate into South African society or to resettle outside South Africa. The shelter failed to provide the assistance promised, despite being contractually obliged to do so. SERI is defending the occupiers against eviction and has brought a counter-application seeking an order compelling the shelter to comply with its contractual obligations.

South Africa: Jobs before debate over 'decent work'

2011-01-25

http://www.trademarksa.org/node/3389

The government wants to focus on job creation, not spend time debating whether it is worthwhile creating jobs that do not meet certain standards, says Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant. Her comments reinforce those last week of African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who said demanding that new jobs should be decent was 'putting the cart before the horse' - a departure from President Jacob Zuma’s promise in 2009 that the 'creation of decent work will be at the centre of our economic policies'.

Zimbabwe: No money for public sector wages

2011-01-25

http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=91687

Zimbabwe's fiscal cupboard remains bare and the unity government will struggle to meet its wage bill for public sector workers in January 2011, finance minister Tendai Biti told the inaugural Global Poverty Summit in Johannesburg on 19 January. Public sector unions are threatening a national strike and have refused an 18-26 per cent salary increase offer by government that would increase the lowest-paid worker's monthly income from $128 to $160. The unions are demanding a minimum monthly wage of $500.

Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Roundup

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/70511

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....
Emerging Powers News Round-Up
31 January 2011

1. General News

Ethiopia: Mega irrigation project on disputed river planned
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has announced plans to start an irrigation project on the trans-boundary Omo River. The announcement comes in spite of an unresolved contention raised over the government’s Gibe III Hydropower Project, which is currently underway to generate 1800MW. Analysts argue that Ethiopia should negotiate with countries like Kenya and Egypt before embarking on such projects.

[url=http://www.afrik-news.com/article18836.html} Read More [/url]

U.N. to Step Up Battle Against Somali Piracy in Indian Ocean
A former Indian ambassador once jokingly remarked that one of the biggest misconceptions in the United States is that the Indian Ocean belongs to India. "Not so," he said, "but we wish we did." Today, the growing threats from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean is causing alarm in a country considered a veritable superpower in Asia.

Read More

US in drive to raise African investment
THE US administration was planning to aggressively increase its foreign direct investment in Africa, Eric Silla, special adviser to the assistant secretary for African affairs at the state department, said yesterday. Mr Silla was speaking at a seminar in Pretoria at the University of SA on US foreign policy challenges in Africa. He dismissed suggestions that the US was trying to compete with Chinese interests in a quest to gain ground lost to the second- largest economy in the world.

Read More

Sudan: Post-referendum issues and implications for Africa
The central question is, now that the referendum is over, what is next on the agenda. What are the key issues that needs to be ironed out before July 9 2011. The main protagonists in the referendum from both the National Congress Party (NCP) and SPLM, have not agreed yet on post-referendum issues. Critical components of those negotiations will cover nationality, foreign debt which stood around US$36 billion, currency, assets including oil revenues, White Nile water sharing, borders and the status of civil servants. Seibeb notes the outcome of the referendum represents an interesting space for the emerging actors not to mention using carefully orchestrated moves to enter the playground already cut-off by China and United States.

Read More

2. China In Africa

TZ travellers read more in China visa delays
Tanzanians are blaming the Chinese Embassy in Dar es Salaam for taking too long to issue them with travel visas. They say that the process that has, for years, been taking not less than a week, was now consuming more than a month to accomplish.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/hXcGks] Read More [/url]

Shareholder row a threat to Wesizwe's Chinese deal
Platinum junior Wesizwe is hopeful that infighting in the Bakubung community, its main empowerment shareholder, will not delay the shareholders' vote on a proposed Chinese investment of $877-million. The battles of the Bakubung, on whose land Wesizwe plans to build a mine with a capacity of 350000 ounces of platinum and related metals per year, led to the cancellation of Wesizwe's annual general meeting in August last year, as furious community members went to court to establish who had the power to vote their shares.

Read More

Economic projects in Angola may maximise impact of transport systems built by China
Angola may maximise the impact of the transport systems built by China by developing economic projects for specific areas and should seek out “sustainable partnerships," with the Chinese companies, according to a study by the OECD, NEPAD and the UN.

[url= ]http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/news.php?ID=10865] Read More [/url]

Mandarin for the future as China takes off
Mandarin is fast "becoming a good contender" against European languages such as German and French as China becomes a major global force. And increased relations between South Africa and the Far East country - and more recently an invitation by China for South Africa to join the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) group of countries - are also feeding the demand to learn the language and culture.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/e0DcyL] Read More [/url]

Interview with Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister on the sidelines of AU Summit
“China supports Africa to strength its unity and explore development paths suited to its national conditions independently,” says H.E. Mr. Liu Zhenmin, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China

[url= ]http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25183&Itemid=96] Read More [/url]

3. India In Africa

For UNSC seat, India woos Africa
India will give $250,000 to help build a monument against slavery and remember victims of the slave trade.

Read More

India’s diamond industry pins hopes on Zimbabwe exports
Indian diamond processors, who face a shortage of rough diamonds and, thus, a sharp rise in prices, are relieved after the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) last week approved Zimbabwe’s proposal to allow exports of its rough diamond stockpile. “We have received a letter from KPCS which says that the members (74 nations, including India) have approved Zimbabwe’s proposal requesting KPCS to allow it to export rough diamonds,” said Rajiv Jain, chairman, Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC), a government-approved body representing the Indian diamond processing industry. It is also the nodal agency for KPCS in India.Rough diamonds worth $160 million (around Rs.730 crore) are expected to arrive in India in a week, Jain and two other industry officials said. “Around four Indian firms had bought rough diamonds from Zimbabwe before KPCS banned from selling rough diamonds,” Jain said without disclosing the names of the companies.

[url= ]http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/24204018/India8217s-diamond-industry.html?atype=tp] Read More [/url]

Xavier Institute of Management facilitates foray into African markets
Xavier Institute of Management and Research, (XIMR), Mumbai, in association with Makerere University Business School, Uganda, launched their first-ever “Centre for Africa Studies” for the students of XIMR pursuing their Masters’ Programme in Management Studies. Initially launched for the students of XIMR, the program at a later stage will be offered to the corporate aspiring to expand their horizons in Africa.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/eZI85a] Read More [/url]

Morocco looks forward to strong partnership with India says Ahmed Reda Chami
The Kingdom of Morocco looks forward to a strong partnership with India in sectors including solar & wind energy, agriculture and tourism’. Morocco plans to generate 42% of its energy from solar, wind and hydro projects by 2020 under Green Morocco Programme and this offers immense business opportunities, said Mr Ahmed Reda Chami, Minister of Commerce, Industry, Foreign Investment and New Technologies, Kingdom of Morocco addressing the Luncheon Session on Emerging Morocco – a gate to opportunities at the 17th Partnership Summit, 2011 organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

[url= ]http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowBussinessNews.asp?id=24165] Read More [/url]

India to implement pilot project on renewable energy in Egypt
India will implement a pilot project on renewable energy in Egypt to enhance bilateral cooperation and encourage the Indian private sector to participate in developing wind and solar energy sectors in the country. The two sides also signed a MoU during the ongoing visit by the minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/fGGLMg] Read More [/url]

Of eggs, medicines and growing Indian connection in Liberia
If you order a couple of fried eggs for breakfast in any restaurant in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, the eggs are almost certain to be from India. Almost 90 percent of pharmaceuticals sold in the West African country are also from India.According to India's Honorary Consul General in Liberia Upjit Singh Sachdeva, 'There are no poultry and dairy farms in Liberia, and all the eggs are imported from India while chicken and meat are imported from South America and other countries.'

[url= ]http://bit.ly/i4gGWa] Read More [/url]

Indian bank expanding and recruiting in Africa
Banks from the developed world have long invested in emerging markets to diversify and find superior growth. But a new trend is for emerging markets institutions looking at opportunities in Africa. The Chinese are well-established, the Russians have made a mark, notably with Renaissance Capital, but 2011 might be the year of India. This week the Indian trade minister has made a high-profile official state visit to South Africa, as two-way trade between the two countries is growing beyond expectations and MMTC, india’ state-owned commodity trading enterprise, has opened its first African branch in Johannesburg’s Sandton business district. South Africa has just been formally invited to join the Bric bloc, made up of Brazil, India, Russia and China and in April it will attend the Bric summit in China for the first time.

[url= ]http://news.efinancialcareers.co.za/News_ITEM/newsItemId-30405] Read More [/url]

Indian consumer firms eye Africa as next growth driver
Indian consumer goods makers are scrambling to buy assets in Africa, applying their knowledge of challenging, lower-income markets to a continent where spending power is on the rise. Tapping Africa opens up new growth avenues for cash-rich Indian makers of personal care products such as soaps, shampoos, hair and skin care products, with rising costs and fierce competition squeezing profits at home.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/hPAGbd] Read More [/url]

Nigeria, India bilateral trade at $8.7 billion news
India will intensify efforts to correct the yawning imbalance in bilateral trade with Nigeria. India is major importer of Nigerian crude and the balance of payments is skewed heavily in Nigeria's favour.

[url= ]http://www.domain-b.com/economy/trade/20110128_nigeria.html] Read More [/url]

Ethiopia seeks investment from India
Ethiopia is becoming a major centre for Indian investment in Africa as companies seek new ventures in mining, textiles, leather, education and the hospitality industry in one of the world’s most oldest countries. The Ethiopian government has introduced new policies aimed at getting more investments in mining and increasing the sector’s contribution to the country’s funds.

[url= ]http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Ethiopia-seeks-investment-from-India/743601/#] Read More [/url]

4. In Other Emerging News

SA misses a trick as Saudi Arabian links fall into abeyance
South Africa should take Saudi Arabia seriously as a commercial partner. South Africa’s evolving South-South strategy, centred on Brazil, Russia, India and China, should include countries in the Persian Gulf region and the broader Middle East. Saudi Arabia, in particular, is a country with which South Africa should deepen trade and investment ties.

Read More

Joining BRIC gives SA leverage
Being a member of the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China] group of emerging markets is “an important leverage point” for SA, Goldman Sachs SA MD Colin Coleman told an Economic Outlook 2011 conference on Wednesday.

Read More

South Africa to Launch Development Aid Agency
South Africa announced last week that it will launch its own development aid agency in 2011 – the South African Development Partnership Agency. This move places South Africa ahead of other emerging donors such as India and China , who have yet to create separate agencies to dispense aid. Perhaps this is one more indication that the old 20th century paradigm of rich Northern donors and poor Southern participants continues to be challenged with the emergence of new donors. And will South Africa join DAC?

Read More

SA turns to Brics for help in training of diplomats
SA will, in the coming months, approach fellow members of the Bric bloc Russia and China to train local diplomats in commercial diplomacy. Diplomats trained in commerce and economics are indispensable in negotiating favourable trade and investment agreements with other countries. Russia, and more particularly China, have been aggressively pursuing trade deals abroad.

[url=http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=132545} Read More [/url]

Trade Imbalance in Cameroon-South Africa Relations
A South African delegation is presently in Cameroon for a five-day economic consultation to rebalance the trade deficit. The Governments of Cameroon and South Africa are finalizing discussions on how to balance the imbalance in trade relations between the two countries.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/fujWOo] Read More [/url]

SA must proceed cautiously with BRIC countries, say analysts
South Africa's invitation to join the exclusive Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) grouping has been welcomed by many but some analysts caution that the country needs to tread carefully if it is to avoid being taken advantage of by its much larger fellow BRIC members. Mzukisi Qobo, who heads the emerging powers programmes at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), warns that it is important for the South African government to devise an effective foreign affairs strategy if the country is to benefit from being a BRIC member. He believes that there has been no sign - even in the Department of International Relations and Co-operation's White Paper on Foreign Policy submitted to Cabinet last year - that the South African government has held a serious process to map out how it will contribute to and benefit from being on the informal BRIC forum.

Read More

Lack of risk management exposes BRIC economies survey
Rapidly growing BRIC emerging economies are vulnerable to external shocks as they lack adequate risk management and must synchronise fiscal and monetary policies, a survey of finance ministry officials showed. The survey, released on Monday by consultancy Booz & Company, said the role of finance ministries have expanded far beyond their traditional fiscal mandate and they must reform so that they are not overly driven by interventions, near-term fiscal targets and benchmarking against local peers.

Read More

SA will reap biggest harvest in trade deal
Negotiators from India and the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) are finalising request lists of products to benefit from lower trade tariffs. An agreement could lead to increased trade between South Africa, by far the largest member of Sacu, and India. The lengthy negotiations for a preferential trade agreement were given new impetus following a state visit by President Jacob Zuma to India in June. Such agreements allow countries to negotiate lower import duties, giving them a competitive advantage over exporters without such contracts.

[url= ]http://bit.ly/ehSuKS] Read More [/url]

Japan, China battle for African telecom investments
A battle for supremacy in investment in Africa has emerged between Japan and China, which are now competing for the dominance of the region's telecom market. A battle for supremacy in investment in Africa has emerged between Japan and China, which are now competing for the dominance of the region's telecom market. China has offered more than US$10 billion in funding for telecom and other related investments in the region. The Japanese government is also pumping billions of dollars into the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and some Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. The investments come in the wake of African governments' push for improved telecom services.

[url= http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=4643DFBA-1A64-6A71-CE68CEF794F56C23} Read More [/url]

5. Blogs, Opinions and Reports

UNESCO Science Report 2010
The report depicts an increasingly competitive environment, one in which the flow of information, knowledge, personnel and investment has become a two-way traffic. Both China and India, for instance, are using their newfound economic might to invest in high-tech companies in Europe and elsewhere to acquire technological expertise overnight. Other large emerging economies are also spending more on research and development than before, among them Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey.

Read More

Report Available here: Read More

The Emerging 7 will overtake the G7: Anand Sharma
The collective response in times of crisis has demonstrated the power of partnerships on a global scale – whether it is challenge of climate change or of global trade agreement, nations must act in unison, said Mr. Anand Sharma, Chairman, The Partnership Summit 2011 & Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in his Inaugural address at the 17th Partnership Summit 2011. Mr Sharma highlighted the role of the developing nations in the changed scenario and said that today more than half of the world’s economic growth is coming from the developing countries and that the Emerging 7 will overtake the G7.

[url= hhttp://bit.ly/ihWkrS] Read More [/url]

Changing international views on Zimbabwe
There is no single view of Zimbabwe internationally. As 2011 begins, the many views fragment or develop internal variations almost as a parallel to the fracturing of the Zimbabwean political landscape. The fissures within Zanu PF and MDC-Mutambara, the readvent of ZAPU, the lacklustre performance of Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister, and the self-seeking demeanour of elected parliamentarians on all sides, have created an international sense that there is neither predictability nor governmental capacity in the present or near-future Zimbabwe.

[url= ]http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=6541] Read More [/url]

Egypt: 'Mega protest' planned

2011-01-31

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/20111316148317175.html

Egyptian protesters have called for a massive demonstration on Tuesday in a bid to force out president Hosni Mubarak from power. The so-called April 6 Movement said it plans to have more than a million people on the streets of the capital Cairo, as anti-government sentiment reaches a fever pitch. Several hundred demonstrators remained camped out in Tahrir square in central Cairo early on Monday morning, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.

Egypt: Cairo protesters stand their ground

2011-01-31

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201113033817859936.html

Egyptian air force fighter planes buzzed low over Cairo, helicopters hovered above and extra troop trucks appeared in a central square where protesters were demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's rule. State television said that a curfew has been imposed in the capital and the military urged the protesters to go home. But the thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square chose to stay on Sunday. The show of defiance came as Egypt entered another turbulent day following a night of deadly unrest.

Egypt: Obama quiet on Egyptian protests

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/htlf2v

In the State of the Union speech, Barack Obama did get applause for saying that the US stands with the people of Tunisia. Now, he didn’t mention the two decades of support the US had given the dictatorship, notes this article from Alternet. The President did not have anything to say about Egypt - where thousands of people, inspired by Tunisia, were taking to the streets to protest their own repressive government - another one the US has backed for years. Secretary of State Clinton’s official word is that the Egyptian government was 'stable'.

Nigeria: Borno politician Gubio shot dead

2011-01-31

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12310536

A candidate for governor in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno has been shot dead, officials say. Modu Fannami Gubio and at least four other people, including a 10-year-old child, were killed by men on motorbikes after Friday prayers in Maiduguri city. Mr Gubio was the candidate for the opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in April's elections.

South Africa: ANC losing wards in local elections, says NGO

2011-01-26

http://www.ngopulse.org/newsflash/anc-losing-wards-local-elections-ngo

The latest survey by the South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) has found that the African National Congress (ANC) has lost 38 wards in local government elections over the past four years. The study also found that between the previous local government elections in 2006, and up until August 2010, the ANC managed to hold 306 ward seats, gain 17, and lose 55. SAIRR researcher, Marius Roodt, predicted the ANC is likely to lose support in the upcoming local government elections.

Sudan: Southern Sudan chooses to secede

2011-01-31

http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1098142/-/i66gn8z/-/index.html

Close to 99 per cent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a landmark January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday. Earlier partial results had put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba. Chan Reec, the chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau in charge of polling in the south, said a whopping 99.57 per cent of those who voted in the south chose secession.

Zambia: Poverty fuels secession bid by Western Province

2011-01-25

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91721

High poverty levels and the skewed distribution of resources in Zambia's poorest province is stirring secession talk - with an ethnic dimension. 'The tensions in Western Province are a consequence of the neglect that the place has suffered in terms of socio-economic and infrastructure development,' Thomas Mabwe, head of Development Studies at the Zambia Open University, told IRIN. 'Poverty levels in Western Province are the highest in the country, and there is very little to show in terms of infrastructure development. So, to some extent, people are just reacting to that under-development of their region,' he said.

Global: New report measures cost of crime, corruption, and trade mispricing

2011-01-27

http://www.gfip.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=364

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) has released its annual analysis of the cost of crime, corruption, and trade mispricing on developing countries. The report, 'Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2000-2009,' finds that approximately US$6.5 trillion was removed from the developing world from 2000 through 2008. The report shows the annual outflows for each country and breaks outflows down into two categories of drivers: trade mispricing and 'other', which includes kickbacks, bribes, embezzlement, and other forms of official corruption.

Global: Tackle corruption to cut earthquake deaths

2011-01-25

http://www.scidev.net/en/opinions/tackle-corruption-to-cut-earthquake-deaths.html

Countries that face corruption problems and have a history of severe earthquakes should take steps to regulate their construction industries to prevent unnecessary deaths in such disasters, argue Nicholas Ambraseys and Roger Bilham on www.scidev.net Over the past three decades, 83 per cent of all earthquake fatalities have occurred in poor countries that are more corrupt than is expected considering their level of income per capita, they say.

Tanzania: Over 50 per cent of Tanzanian public officials yet to declare wealth

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/gZcSrb

It is now official that almost half of Tanzania’s public servants and politicians are yet to declare their wealth as required by the law. According to the 1995 public servants ethics code and act all public servants are required to declare their wealth 30 days within their election and appointment. Thereafter they are required to continue declaring their wealth annually.

Tunisia: Arrest warrant issued for ex-president Ben Ali

2011-01-27

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12286650

Tunisia has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family, the nation's justice minister has said. Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said the interim government had asked members states to work via Interpol to detain Mr Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January. Mr Chebbi said Mr Ben Ali was accused of illegally acquiring property and assets and transferring funds abroad.

Africa: Major trading powers to push for July trade deal

2011-01-31

http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=98244&cause_id=1694

Major trading powers agreed on Friday to push for an outline deal in the decade-old Doha trade talks by July as world leaders appealed for all nations to make concessions or risk losing the opportunity for years. European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said the ministers from seven key economies had also agreed to instruct officials to negotiate a deal in the Doha round across the board and leave the trade-offs for ministers to tackle to a minimum.

Africa: Unequal development levels could hamper East African integration

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/fkjJse

Most Kenyans are not aware that 2012 is not just a critical election year, but also the year that will usher in a major change in the financial landscape of the country and Eastern Africa, writes Rasnah Warah in the Daily Nation. Next year, the East African Community is set to adopt a common currency in the five member states (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda), which is expected to reduce the cost and risk of doing business in the region. While the EAC is determined to go ahead with plans to adopt a common currency, sceptics are not sure whether the currency will be viable, especially as the region’s various members experience vastly differing socio-economic conditions, which could hinder the sustainability of the monetary union.

Global: Davos, An unrealistic view from the mountain

2011-01-31

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/31/davos-economics-crisis-comment

The theme of Davos this year was 'shared norms for the new reality', one of those phrases where the words can be rearranged in any order and remain utterly vacuous, says this article in the London Guardian about the just-concluded World Economic Forum. 'Business leaders, policy leaders and the world's smartest academics had five days in the high Alps to work out what this actually meant. Despite much head scratching not one of them could.'

South Africa: Development aid agency launched

2011-01-26

http://bit.ly/dJ83Gf

South Africa has announced that it will launch its own development aid agency in 2011 - the South African Development Partnership Agency. This move places South Africa ahead of other emerging donors such as India and China, who have yet to create separate agencies to dispense aid, reports Centre for Global Development.

Southern Africa: Region moves to set up Free Trade Area

2011-01-27

http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=98150&cause_id=1694

The year 2011 will move southern Africa another step closer to becoming a regional community, as one of the building blocks of a united Africa with its African Economic Community. Southern Africa is expected to take this step towards deeper regional and continental integration when three Regional Economic Communities (RECs) encompassing 26 countries in eastern and southern Africa – almost half of all African countries – approve a plan this year to establish a Grand Free Trade Area (GFTA).

Tanzania: Tanzania records dismal score on MDGs four years to deadline

2011-01-31

http://thecitizen.co.tz/sunday-citizen/-/7792-tanzania-records-dismal-score-on-mdgs-four-years-to-deadline

With four years to go, Tanzania still lags behind other East African countries towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says the latest report by the Centre for Global Development (CGD). The US-based think-tank puts Tanzania at fourth position, having one out of eight points, only surpassing war-torn Burundi which has 0.5 points on the eight core MDG targets of ridding extreme poverty, hunger, improving education, ensuring gender parity, reducing child mortality and maternal mortality, HIV/Aids, and attaining sufficiency in water provision.

Africa: Anti-gay attacks will lead to rise in HIV cases, warns Christian Aid

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/70525

The increasingly targeted attacks on gay people in a number of African countries, which are thought to have to led the murder this week of outspoken Ugandan gay activist, David Kato, will contribute to an increase in HIV infections, says Christian Aid. Kato, whose name and photograph recently appeared on the front page of anti-gay Kampala-based newspaper Rolling Stone, under the headline ‘Hang Them’, was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police confirmed. Nina O’Farrell, Head of HIV at Christian Aid, said: ‘It is vital to defend the rights of specific groups who are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, including gay people, who also suffer from heightened stigma and discrimination, which in many cases makes them less likely to access to HIV treatment, care and support.'
Christian Aid
Press statement
27 January 2011

For immediate release

Anti-gay attacks will lead to rise in HIV cases, warns Christian Aid

The increasingly targeted attacks on gay people in a number of African countries, which are thought to have to led the murder this week of outspoken Ugandan gay activist, David Kato, will contribute to an increase in HIV infections, says Christian Aid.

Kato, whose name and photograph recently appeared on the front page of anti-gay Kampala-based newspaper Rolling Stone, under the headline ‘Hang Them’, was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police confirmed yesterday.

Nina O’Farrell, Head of HIV at Christian Aid, said today: ‘It is vital to defend the rights of specific groups who are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, including gay people, who also suffer from heightened stigma and discrimination, which in many cases makes them less likely to access to HIV treatment, care and support.

‘Our work is founded on Christian faith and inspired by hope. We believe that all people are created equal, with inherent dignity and infinite worth. We act to change an unjust world, helping people to claim the rights owed to them by virtue of their humanity.’
ends

If you would like further information please contact Emma Pomfret on 07554 024 539 or email epomfret@christian-aid.org or Sarah Wilson on 07930 341 525 or swilson@christian-aid.org 24 hour press duty phone – 07850 242950

Notes to Editors

1. The term ‘gay people’ in the press release above is intended to encompass lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups.
2. Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in nearly 50 countries. We act where the need is greatest, regardless of religion, helping people build the lives they deserve.
3. Christian Aid has a vision, an end to global poverty, and we believe that vision can become a reality. Our report, Poverty Over, explains what we believe needs to be done – and can be done – to end poverty. Details at http://www.christianaid.org.uk/Images/poverty-over-report.pdf
4. Christian Aid is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of 100 churches and church-related organisations that work together inhumanitarian assistance and development. Further details at http://www.actalliance.org
5. Follow Christian Aid's newswire on Twitter: http://twitter.com/caid
6. For more information about the work of Christian Aid visit www.christianaid.org.uk

Africa: AU urged to implement monitoring mechanism

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/eSjff4

The African Union (AU) has been charged to set up a mechanism to monitor the decisions taken by its various authorities to ensure implementation, Désiré Assogbavi, an official of the Oxfam NGO said Saturday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 'AU holds at least two ordinary summits and several high-powered meetings every year. Important decisions come out from them for African populations but only ten per cent of the total of those AU measures are applied in the end. We must get out of this situation,' Mr. Assogbavi, who is the director of Oxfam liaison Office to the African Union said in a PANA interview. The African Union member countries have agreed to devote ten per cent of their public spending to agriculture and 15 per cent to the health sector.

Africa: Pregnant African women still vulnerable to malaria

2011-01-31

http://www.africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2656&Itemid=2

Millions of pregnant women still lack adequate access to insecticide-treated bednets and intermittent preventive treatment despite belligerent efforts in the past decade, a study published in the Lancet shows. The study published Wednesday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal shows that Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPTp) and Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) are not being fully utilised to protect pregnant women from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study, which reviewed national control strategies from 47 countries across Sub- Saharan Africa, showed that 23 million pregnancies in 2007 were unprotected.

Angola: Boost for polio campaign

2011-01-26

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91729

The Angolan government is preparing to renew efforts to eradicate polio with support from global partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has made polio eradication its top priority. Angola succeeded in stamping out polio for three consecutive years at the beginning of the century, but a strain of the virus prevalent in India reappeared in 2005 and has since spread to the neighbouring countries of Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.

Global: Five countries to watch on HIV/Aids in 2011

2011-01-31

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=91758

Things are generally more positive on the global HIV front: the number of new infections is down, treatment figures are up and headway is being made in the fight to end discrimination against people living with HIV. However, there is still work to be done and progress in the fight against the pandemic has not been even. IRIN/PlusNews lists five countries that could determine the future of the pandemic this year: South Africa, Russia, Haiti, Uganda and India.

South Africa: Cholera causing more deaths, experts urge vaccination

2011-01-26

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/cholera-causing-more-deaths-experts-urge-vaccination/

The cholera bacterium has undergone important mutations in recent years, causing longer outbreaks of the disease with increased fatalities, researchers reported on Wednesday. In a package of papers published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, they said mass vaccinations should be considered as a solution even after outbreaks have begun.

South Africa: Report on investigation into infant deaths at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital released

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/hMDXy1

Social justice group SECTION27 has welcomed the release of a report on the investigation into the tragic deaths of six infants on 18 May 2010 at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg. The report raised serious concerns about the extent to which the Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development adheres to norms and standards related to human resources, and the consequent overcrowding in public health facilities in the province. The expert medical panel that conducted the investigation found that the neonatal unit at the Hospital 'ha[d] been under severe pressure for a long time'.

South Africa: Street drug craze threatens ARV supply

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/g1Crsw

South Africa is in the grip of a dangerous new drugs craze that could threaten the country's battle against AIDS. The street drug called 'whoonga' is a cocktail that includes the anti retroviral (ARV) medication prescribed to people with HIV. Demand for the substance has prompted a wave of thefts of AIDS drugs across the country, reports Sky News.

Ghana: E-readers for schools

2011-01-27

http://mashable.com/2011/01/26/worldreader-education-ghana/

Worldreader.org is testing the idea that e-readers are libraries you can fit in your pocket. The non-profit is piloting a new campaign that would deliver e-readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, to children in Ghanaian schools. The e-readers will function as all-purpose textbooks by providing instantaneous access to the thousands of books now digitally available.

Somalia: Free education 'too expensive' for Somaliland

2011-01-25

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91719

The self-declared republic of Somaliland has introduced free education at primary and intermediate levels and doubled teachers' salaries but these decisions will be hard to sustain and could affect the quality of public education, say experts. 'We need to ask ourselves, does the Somaliland government have the capacity to handle this [salary] increase? The short answer is "no",' Saeed Osman, a Uganda-based researcher in Somaliland's education development, told IRIN.

South Africa: Varsities braced for deluge

2011-01-31

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article881460.ece/Varsities-braced-for-deluge

A dramatic spike in physical science distinctions is expected to cause a flood of last-minute applications for the medical, engineering and commerce faculties when the country's universities open for the new academic year. Statistics released exclusively to the Sunday Times show there was an enormous increase in the number of physical science distinctions - from 999 in 2009 to 5962 last year - in what experts have described as 'very surprising'.

'Denounce gay murder, Museveni'

2011-01-31

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article881434.ece/Denounce-gay-murder-Museveni

South African organisation Health4Men has called on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to publicly denounce the violent murder of the gay rights activist David Kato. Kato, an outspoken member of Sexual Minorities Uganda who spoke out against prejudice, intimidation and violence against men who have sex with men, was beaten to death on Wednesday.

South Africa: Government must declare corrective rape a hate crime, says campaign

2011-01-26

http://www.mask.org.za/“govermnment-must-declare-corrective-rape-a-hate-crime”/

In a desperate effort to bring the plight of corrective rape to the fore, a Cape Town gay rights NGO Lulekisizwe is petitioning the South African government to have corrective rape declared a hate crime and combated. More than 141,317 signatures supporting the petition have been collected worldwide, calling for the harshest sentences to perpetrators of corrective.

South Africa: Picket in Pretoria

1 February 2011

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/70514

On Tuesday 1 February, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, the Treatment Action Campaign, Section27 and various other civil society, faith-based and community organisations will stage a protest at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).
Lesbian and Gay Equality Project
28 January 2011
Press Release

SOUTH AFRICAN DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COOPERATION: YOUR FAILURE TO UPHOLD OUR CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES AT THE UN AND AU UNDERMINES OUR FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

On Tuesday the 1st of February, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, the Treatment Action Campaign, Section27 and various other civil society, faith-based and community organisations will stage a protest at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

In December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly voted to include protection for lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in a crucial resolution condemning extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings. This resolution was supported by the South African government, in contrast to its past votes against LGBTI rights at the UN. The latest positive vote underlines the importance of, and need for, a consistent South African policy framework on LGBTI equality as it arises at global and continental inter-governmental forums and bodies.

Following on this positive vote at the UN, we called on the South African Government to urge AU member states to protect LGBTI people on our continent from any forms of violence, discrimination and persecution. Despite the promising vote at the UN, SA foreign policy showed to be inconsistent and until now at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, the South African Government has not raised the importance of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

South Africa’s ignorance of its obligation to uphold its Constitution makes it, at the very least, complicit in the recent murder of one of the most vocal voices against homophobia on the continent, Ugandan David Kato as well as many other LGBTI people across the continent.

It is now absolutely imperative that South Africa play a role in AU member countries taking action to remove all laws, policies and measures that discriminate against LGBTI people and that violate their rights to equality, justice, freedom and life, and to ensure their protection from violence. Member countries should also be aware of and work against those socio-economic conditions that result in poverty and inequality; notably against women, those with disabilities, workers and LGBTI people.

For all the above reasons, following the recent calls made outside parliament this week, we will join in calling all South Africans to demand of their government to undertake the following:
i) To urge AU member states to protect LGBTI Africans from violence, persecution, and discriminatory laws and practices;
ii) To use its standing in the SADC, African Union and other continental bodies to promote the rights of LGBTI people in our continent to dignity, equality, freedom and non-discrimination and to avoid the murders of activists such as David Kato;
iii) To adopt a consistent foreign policy framework based on the values of human rights, equality and non-discrimination as enshrined in the Constitution; and
iv) To undertake education, training and information dissemination with all relevant South African diplomatic representatives and officials in order that they advance the Constitutional values of human rights, equality and non-discrimination in their exercise of South Africa’s foreign policy.

We will continue to stand firm until these results are met.

Picket:
February 1st 2011
10:00- 12:00
Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)
460 Soutpansberg Road
Rietondale
Pretoria
For More Information Contact:
Kunu 076 983 9195
Natasha 082 660 0723

Natasha Vally
Networking and Communications Officer
Lesbian and Gay Equality Project
Tel: +27 11 487 3810/1
Fax: +27 11 487 2332
Email: networking@equality.org.za

Uganda: Activists warn Rolling Stone

2011-01-26

http://www.mask.org.za/activists-warn-rolling-stone-on-outing-homosexuals/#more-3269

Ugandan gay rights activists have dared Rolling Stone Editor Guiles Muhame to continue outing gays and lesbians in that country, warning that he may be up for a surprise that could end his career or land him in jail. This after Muhame vowed to continue publishing articles outing Ugandan homosexuals despite a recent court ruling that permanently barred the newspaper from publishing such articles and even instructing the Rolling Stone to pay three plaintiffs damages of over 1.5 million Ugandan Shillings.

Uganda: Stop the deportation of Brenda Namigadde

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/hBpU4O

Ugandan lesbian Brenda Namigadde has been granted a temporary last-minute reprieve, and will not be deported back to Uganda from the United Kingdom. Word came down from the High Court judge as Namigadde was being escorted to the airport this evening. Visit http://www.allout.org to send an email, tweet or Facebook post in support of Namigadde,

Global: Carbon market gone in a puff

2011-01-27

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2011/jan/24/carbon-market-credits-trading

Carbon credits can be traded in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS), but unlike other commodity markets, it's not clear that carbon credits are tied to something that will have value tomorrow, or next year. Can the credits be owned, like a piece of property, or can they just disappear into thin air? And disappear they may. The entire EU trading system was shut down recently, with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks, reports the London Guardian.

Global: European commission extends carbon market freeze indefinitely

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/fyvkjL

The European commission's emergency suspension last week of trading in carbon allowances to put a halt to rampant theft of credits by hackers has been extended indefinitely until countries can prove their systems are protected from further fraud. While the suspension had been expected to end last night, Brussels now says that the freeze in trades had been imposed to give the commission executive some breathing space to figure out what to do.

Nigeria: Shell accused of misleading statements on spill crisis

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/hZlzWb

Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth International have filed an official complaint against oil giant Shell for breaches of basic standards for responsible business set out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The organisations claim that Shell’s use of discredited and misleading information to blame the majority of oil pollution on saboteurs in its Niger Delta operations has breached the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The complaint was filed with UK and Netherlands government contact points for the OECD.

South Africa: Cabinet mum on acid mine drainage report

2011-01-31

http://www.iol.co.za/business/cabinet-mum-on-acid-mine-drainage-report-1.1017927

A report on the management of acid mine drainage in Gauteng has been put to the cabinet but details of its recommendations will not be released until Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa approves it. The report, driven by her department but drawn up by a team of experts, apparently seeks ways to draw private sector mining companies that are still operating in Gauteng into the process of extracting the acid mine water and cleansing it. The level of the underground acid water is now 500m below the surface, 50m higher than in the middle of 2010.

Global: New studies explore large-scale investments in land

2011-01-27

http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/18037

A new set of research studies – available now on the International Land Coalition (ILC) website – explores the growing wave of large-scale international and domestic land acquisitions and the factors that are driving demand for investments in land. The studies examine how changes in demand for food, energy and natural resources, along with liberalisation of trade regimes, are making the competition for land increasingly global and unequal.

Egypt: Media block condemned

2011-01-31

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201113023414787871.html

International press institutes have come out strongly against Egyptian authorities’ suppression of the media, following the withdrawal of Al Jazeera’s license to broadcast from the North African country. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned on Sunday the information ministry’s move to shutdown Al Jazeera’s bureau in the country. The CPJ described the move as an attempt to 'disrupt media coverage by Al Jazeera and calls on them to reverse the decision immediately'.

Global: Bribery of journalists around the world

2011-01-27

http://zunia.org/post/cash-for-coverage-bribery-of-journalists-around-the-world/

Not only do journalists accept bribes and media houses accept paid material disguised as news stories, but all too often, reporters and editors are the instigators, extorting money either for publishing favorable stories–or for not publishing damaging ones. With all the organised efforts to support media development and defend press freedom around the world, there has been remarkably little done in any concerted way to reduce the problem of corrupt journalism, says this report.

Global: Press freedom under threat in the age of WikiLeaks

2011-01-26

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54245

Freedom of the press could be seriously impacted across the world in the wake of the ongoing political revelations brought about by whistle-blowing websites such as Wikileaks, one of foremost constitutional law experts in the US has said. Speaking at a Personal Democracy Forum event, at New York University, veteran First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams warned governments could use the controversy surrounding the recent release of thousands of confidential diplomatic cables as an excuse to crack down on journalists and publishers.

Malawi: Media ban law passed

2011-01-27

http://indepthafrica.com/news/east-africa/malawi-passes-media-ban-law/

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has signed a new law that allows his information minister to ban publications deemed 'contrary to the public interest', an official said on Wednesday. The new law gives powers to the information minister to ban a publication if he has 'reasonable grounds to believe that the publication or importation of any publication would be contrary to the public interest'.

Rwanda: UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) member states discuss Rwanda

ARTICLE 19 press release

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/70521

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) member states are set to discuss the human right situation in Rwanda for the first time, at the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR), that will be held on 24 January 2011 in Geneva. ARTICLE 19’s submission to the UN Human Rights Council in July 2010 highlights three areas of concern which the organisation hopes to see reflected in the upcoming review. These include (1) limits on freedom of expression through restrictive media law and criminal defamation (2) harassment and attacks on journalists; (3) genocide ideology legislation.
ARTICLE 19
Press Release
24 January 2011

Rwanda Undergoes first Universal Periodic Review

Geneva, 24 January 2011: The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) member states are set to discuss the human right situation in Rwanda for the first time, at the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR), that will be held on 24 January 2011 in Geneva.

ARTICLE 19’s submission to the UN Human Rights Council in July 2010 highlights three areas of concern which the organisation hopes to see reflected in the upcoming review. These include (1) limits on freedom of expression through restrictive media law and criminal defamation (2) harassment and attacks on journalists; (3) genocide ideology legislation.

'The upcoming review is an opportunity for UN Human Rights Council member states to put pressure on Rwanda to address the deteriorating freedom of expression situation in the country by repealing a number of national legislations relating to criminal defamation, media law and genocide ideology,' said Dr. Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE19 Executive Director says.

While the need for responsible, professional and ethical journalism in ensuring national cohesion cannot be gainsaid, there is need to allow media diversity and pluralism in Rwanda. The continued control and dominance of the broadcasting sector by the state owned radio and television is detrimental to efforts of good governance, transparency and inclusive citizen participation in development. There is dire need for support to the few independent radio stations and newspapers. The government should also license more private television stations and seek to transform the state controlled Rwanda TV into a public broadcaster.

Criminal defamation provisions in the Penal Code continue to be employed by the state as a tool of silencing those who hold views contrary to the state. This leads to increased cases of self-censorship and long jail terms for accused journalists. For instance, two journalists working for a privately-owned bimonthly, Umarabyo, Agnes Nkusi Uwimana and Saidath Mukakibibi, are currently awaiting judgment on 4 February 2011 over criminal defamation charges. The state through the prosecution has asked for cumulative sentences 33 years for Uwimana and 12 years for Mukakibibi respectively.

Similarly, while foreign radio stations remain an important source of independent news but are subject to government censorship.

ARTICLE 19 is also concerned by multiple reports of intimidation of political opponents, and has recorded many instances where political opponents are charged under the omnibus provisions of genocide ideology law. Rwanda’s genocide ideology laws create a wide range of problems for freedom of expression and freedom of association as it creates a wide net to snare all those who question the truth about the 1994 Genocide. Newspapers critical of the government are often accused of inciting ethnic hatred.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For more information please contact: Victor Bwire, Programme Officer, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa, at victor@article19.org, Tel +254 20 386 2230/2.

• For a copy of ARTICLE 19 submission to the Human Rights Council, see http://www.article19.org/pdfs/submissions/rwanda-article-19-s-submission-to-the-ununiversal-periodic-review.pdf

• ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works around the world to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

FAST FACTS ON RWANDA FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION SITUATION

· Two journalists with the Umarabyo publication; Agnes Nkusi Uwimana and Saidath Mukakibibi, await judgement on criminal defamation charges.

· Just before the presidential elections in August 2010, two publications perceived to be critical of the Government, Umuvugizi and Umuseso were ordered closed for six months while some journalists; Charles Kabonero, Didas Gasana and Richard Kayigamba were charged for defamation in February 2010.

· The 2009 media law gives suspension powers given to the Media High Council, sets entry standards for those wishing to join that are extremely high relative to other sectors.

· Similarly, the media law puts a very high licensing fees –US$ 41k for newspaper, US$ 81k for radio & US$ 187,500 for TV and requires that journalists reveal their if its suspected that to be criminals.

ARTICLE 19
Free Word Centre
60 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3GA
Tel: +44 20 7324 2500
Fax: +44 20 7490 0566
Email: mona@article19.org
Web: www.article19.org

Subscribe to the ARTICLE 19 mailing list at www.article19.org/subscribe for global updates on freedom of expression and access to information

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works around the world to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

Somaliland: Dismay at three-year jail sentence for editor

2011-01-26

http://en.rsf.org/somalia-dismay-at-three-year-jail-sentence-23-01-2011,39376.html

Reporters Without Borders says it is 'dismayed' by the three-year jail sentence and fine of six million Somaliland shillings (around 1,000 dollars) that a court in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway northwestern territory of Somaliland, has passed on Mohamud Abdi Jama, the editor of the independent newspaper Waheen, for allegedly libelling local officials.

South Africa: Deadline extended on contentious information bill

2011-01-31

http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article881464.ece/Deadline-extended-on-contentious-information-bill

Parliament threw MPs debating the contentious Protection of Information Bill a lifeline on Friday with a last-minute extension of their deadline. The mandate of the ad hoc committee set up in March last year to process the bill was due to expire on Friday. But the chairman, ANC MP Cecil Burgess, said at the last scheduled sitting that though he could not cite the rule making it possible, he had been assured that the speaker, Max Sisulu, would announce an extension before the current mandate ran out. He told reporters later the deadline had been extended to March 31.

Swaziland: Orphans’ doomsday scenario fails to materialise

2011-01-31

http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=91741

Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) comprise a fifth of Swaziland's roughly one million people, 80,000 more than predicted in a doomsday scenario back in 2004, but a social meltdown feared by some, has not happened. In 2004 the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) projected a grim future for the landlocked country as a consequence of the world's highest HIV prevalence rates - 26.1 per cent of people aged 15-49 are living with the virus - but although the nation is struggling, it is managing to cope.

Côte d’Ivoire: Fear descends on the north

2011-01-31

http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?Reportid=91756

With no sign at present of an end to the political deadlock in Côte d’Ivoire, the country remains partitioned. The economic repercussions of the crisis are being felt in both south and north. In Abidjan and the south, where Laurent Gbagbo and his administration are still in control, in the face of regional and international condemnation and isolation, prices of key commodities have risen dramatically. In the north - long held by former rebels Forces Nouvelles, and providing the main support base for Alassane Ouattara, internationally recognized as the elected president - livelihoods are being crippled and basic services reduced to a minimum in regions which have been marginalized for decades.

Liberia: Liberia’s Ex-Combatants in Cote d’Ivoire

2011-01-26

http://www.jhr.ca/blog/2011/01/fighting-for-survival-liberias-ex-combatants-in-cote-divoire/

The phenomenon of regional warriors in West Africa is rearing its head again today, as Cote d’Ivoire hovers on the brink of civil war. Thousands of combatants roam this fragile region from conflict to conflict, fighting as a means to survive in some of the poorest nations on earth, where peace without proper reintegration has brought not happiness but rather a life of idle deprivation for some former fighters, many of whom were coerced to take up arms as children.

Somalia: UN seeks wide consultation for post-TFG rule

2011-01-27

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91749

Consultations on the post-transitional government process in Somalia have started, and will involve all stakeholders and the international community, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Somalia said. 'There was unanimous agreement, both inside and outside Somalia, that the transitional period has to end in August as envisaged under the Djibouti Peace Agreement,' Augustine Mahiga told a news conference in Nairobi. 'In the meantime, consultations are under way to develop a consensus on how to end the transition and on the nature of post-transition political arrangements.'

Somalia: UN to step up battle on piracy

2011-01-27

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/01/un-to-step-up-battle-against-somali-piracy-in-indian-ocean/

Alarmed by the increase in piracy, the United Nations has proposed the establishment - for a transitional period - of a Somali extra-territorial jurisdiction court in the Tanzanian city of Arusha to deal just with piracy cases. Jack Lang, the Special Adviser on Legal Issues related to Piracy, told reporters the estimated costs of setting up a court would be around 25 million dollars. This, he pointed out, was 'a relatively modest expense compared to the estimated seven billion dollars' that is the current cost of piracy, including the multi-million-dollar ransoms extracted by pirates in the high seas.

South Africa: Flood death toll rises as government declares 33 disaster zones

2011-01-26

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/24/south-africa-flood-death-toll

Flooding in South Africa has killed more than 100 people, forced at least 8,400 from their homes and prompted the government to declare 33 disaster areas. With unusually heavy rainfall forecast until March, the UN has warned that almost every country in southern Africa is on alert for potentially disastrous flooding.

Sudan: Darfur returning 'to past patterns of violence'

2011-01-31

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91762

Fighting between government and rebel groups in North and South Darfur in western Sudan has displaced tens of thousands of people and hindered access by humanitarian workers to some affected areas, sources said. 'While the international community remains focused on Southern Sudan, the situation in Darfur has sharply deteriorated,' said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). 'We are seeing a return to past patterns of violence, with both government and rebel forces targeting civilians and committing other abuses.'

Africa: Communication technologies and political change in the Middle East and Africa

2011-01-31

http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/cghr/research_newmedia.html

The spread of digital technologies in the Middle East and Africa has generated the view that 'new media' open up political spaces for dissent, activism and emancipation. In October 2010, a conference 'New Media|Alternative Politics' brought together researchers, academics, activists, journalists and policy makers to discuss whether and how new media empower an alternative politics and mobilises political change. The first working paper, 'New media, same old regime politics: Resisting the repression of media freedom in Zimbabwe' by Amanda Atwood and Bev Clark from the Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe is now available.

Algeria: Maghreb digital library launched

2011-01-27

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/01/26/feature-02

Algeria launched the Maghreb Digital Library on 23 January in an effort to expand access to information. The initiative was part of a joint endeavour between the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and US-based NGO Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). The Maghreb Digital Library will help the University of Algiers open to the scientific field through different partnerships; something that would give the sector access to technological media that provide researchers with information and documents needed in their work.

Egypt: Government tries to block social media

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/fnXmvG

The protest movement in Egypt has mobilised the young and the middle classes using the Internet and social networks in a challenge to the authorities that has seen both Twitter and Swedish video-streaming site Bambuser blocked. Mobile phones too were unable to get a signal on Tuesday in Tahrir Square in the centre of the capital Cairo, which has been a rallying point for thousands of protesters. Pro-democracy activists countered on Wednesday by disseminating technical advice to overcome these obstacles to enable the mobilisation to continue.

Egypt: On Twitter, the search for Wael Ghonim

2011-01-31

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/01/31/egypt-on-twitter-the-search-for-wael-ghonim/

On Twitter, friends express concerns for Egyptian blogger and Google Middle East staffer Wael Ghonim, who has been missing since Thursday. Ghonim, who studied in Cairo and is now Head of Marketing at Google's UAE office, had tweeted his intent to be at the 25 January protests.

Setsi sa Mosadi

Newsletter of Khanya College Women’s Centre, Issue No. 2 - December 2010

2011-01-31

http://khanyacollege.org.za/sites/default/files/ssm-newsletter2.pdf

The latest edition of this newsletter contains information on:
- Building solidarity across borders
- NGO referral meeting
- The right to choose: a short play
- Home-based care
- Announcements.

Global: Commonwealth Foundation’s Civil Society Responsive Grants

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/e9BkpN

The Commonwealth Foundation is an inter-governmental organisation supported by Commonwealth governments to provide support towards strengthening of civil society for sustainable development, democracy and intercultural learning within the commonwealth countries. It has grantmaking programmes for NGOs specifically for supporting activities that involve intercultural exchange.

Global: International Ibsen Scholarships for individuals or organisations

2011-01-31

http://www.fundsforngos.org/scholarships-2/international-ibsen-scholarships-individuals-organizations

The Norwegian Government is accepting applications for the International Ibsen Scholarships for the year 2011. This is the fourth time that the Government will be handing out the scholarships meant for individuals, organisations or institutions from around the world.

Codesria and Fespaco workshop on African film

27 -28 February 2011, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/70462

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), in partnership with the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO ), is pleased to announce a two day workshop on 'African Film, Video & the Social Impact of New Technologies' that it is organising in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 27th-28th March 2011.
CODESRIA Announcement
3rd CODESRIA-FESPACO WORKSHOP ON AFRICAN FILM
Dates: February 27-28, 2011
Venue: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

African Film, Video & the Social Impact of New Technologies

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), in partnership with the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO ), is pleased to announce a two day workshop on 'African Film, Video & the Social Impact of New Technologies' that it is organising in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 27th-28th March 2011. FESPACO is a biannual event which was founded in 1969 to promote the development of the African cinema industry by providing a venue to reflect on, showcase and celebrate achievements in the industry. FESPACO seeks to contribute African voices and perspectives to the global cinema movement. The 2011 edition of FESPACO will begin in Ouagadougou on 26th February, and will end on 5th March 2011.

The theme for the 2011 FESPACO, which is the 22nd edition of the festival, is 'African Cinema and markets'. The festival features a wide range of activities to celebrate the anniversaries including itinerant exhibitions on the years of FESPACO and African cinema, film screenings, conferences on FESPACO and the FESPACO Foundation.

The CODESRIA WORKSHOP

The swift growth of Nigerian and Ghanaian video-movies in this decade presents film and media scholars with several opportunities for innovative research. First, at the level of production, we’d want to know if there are significant social and ideological differences, beside the costs of equipment and labor, between video and the celluloid apparatuses of movie-making. In other words, why have video-movies succeeded in Nigeria and Ghana, and failed to achieve similar commercial inroads in the Francophone African countries? Ideologically, it may be interesting to look at differences in training in film schools in Nigeria and Ghana as opposed to Senegal and Burkina Faso. Sociologically, one could also point to the presence of movie stars, urban popular culture and modern consumer objects in videos from Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, in contrast to the “auteur” cinema style preferred by Francophone filmmakers. There is also the very significant development of increasing collaboration between Nigerian and Ghanaian video productions, with directors, producers and actors/ actresses from both countries working together on co-productions that target audiences in both countries. One could also learn a few things about film reception and aesthetics by looking at Egyption “soap operas,” which are popular and influential, not only in North Africa, the Maghreb and the Middle East, but also in West Africa. This is an important pan-African project that needs to be studied closely.

Some scholars are already using the term national cinemas to refer to the video activities in Ghana (see Vitus Nnambigne) and Nigeria (see Onokome Okome), because of the commercial success of well structured production, distribution and exhibition systems. Does success in these areas alone determine the “nationality” or “nationhood” of these cinemas? What about other positive impacts of these new developments on the imagination and creativity of African young people? For instance, is there a new generation of film directors, actors, costume and set designers with more professional production?

Clearly, all is not well with the so-called Nollywood, Kaniawood and Ghanawood (also known as Gollywood) video industries. Some scholars fault the system for its poor quality narratives and its dissemination of negative stereotypes (witchcraft, drug dealers, violence, etc.). Recently, Egyptian soaps were boycotted in Algeria, because they were accused of introducing negative stereotypes of Algerians, after the 2010 African cup soccer matches between the two countries. How are these stereotypes influencing the behavior, lifestyles and ideas of those who watch these movies? To what extent do they influence the ideals of the new generation, for instance? And vice-versa, how do the lifestyle and serotypes of the globalised youth influence the themes that are depicted in these films? Scholars and artists, such as Femi Osofisan, have gone as far as to state that Nollywood videos amount to the revival of a new “Tarzanism” in African cinema, just to bring about those complex connection between filmmaking and social behaviors.

We propose a two-day workshop during the next FESPACO in February-March 2011, to discuss and analyze the economic, aesthetic and social impacts of the video-movie-phenomenon in Africa. We would also look at the relationship between the new technologies and contemporary African literature and film in order to determine what the video-makers could learn from their predecessors in literature and film, and vice versa. For example, could the narrative structure of the video-movies be aesthetically and thematically improved through some help from African writers and “auteurist” filmmakers? Conversely, could Francophone directors learn anything from the star-systems of Nollywood and Gollywood? Finally, we will look at African audiences’ reception of video-movies as constitutive of new democratic sites, new subjective formations, and social and economic desires that have so far been unavailable in film and literature.

The primary intention behind this workshop and programming of African films at FESPACO is to draw attention to new directions and creative visions in contemporary African cinema. CODESRIA is of the view that there are new, contending and often conflicting film languages and critical stances coming out of Africa today that have remained invisible largely because of a monolithic and politically correct definition of African cinema by Western art houses and festivals.

Special invitations will be extended to various film training schools, such as NAFTI [Ghana], etc, to sponsor a number of their faculty and students to participate in the workshop. The CODESRIA workshop will be held at the Splendide Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In order to allow for participants to have a larger look at the different aspects of the thematic, the workshop will be structured around four panel discussions on the following themes:
Part One: Video and Film Production and Distribution in Africa
Panel I: Video and Film Production and Distribution in Africa
Panel II: Video & the Training of a New Generation of Video Filmmakers

Part Two: Some Aesthetic Considerations in African Literature, Film and Video
Panel I: Teshome Gabriel and Critical Paradigms in African Film and Video
Panel II: New Theories of Production, Distribution and Reception

Part Three: Narrative and Popular Culture: Representations of Religion, Myth and the Star System in African Film and Video

The Workshop will be coordinated by Prof. Manthia Diawara, New York University, and Prof. Kofi Anyidoh, Kwame N’Krumah Chair in African Studies and Convenor of the CODESRIA Pan African Humanities Institute Programme at the University of Ghana, Legon.

For further information, please contact:
CODESRIA Pan African Humanities Institute Programme
University of Ghana Legon, Accra
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA
E-mail: k-anyi@ug.edu.gh
k.anyidoho@gmail.com
Or
CODESRIA Secretariat
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: +221 33 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221 33 824 12 89
E-mail: humanities.programme@codesria.org
Website: http//: www.codesria.org/

La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in Dakar

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/70517

The international peasant's movement La Via Campesina will join the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal from February 6 to 11. More than 70 farmers’ representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will take part in this forum, a place where social movements and civil organisations are going to debate alternatives for a better world, pursuing their thinking, formulating proposals and sharing their experiences.
Media Advisory
La Via Campesina at the World Social Forum in Dakar:

Stop land grabbing, defend food sovereignty and say no to violence against women farmers!

(Jakarta, January 28, 2011) The international peasant's movement La Via Campesina will join the
World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal from February 6 to 11. More than 70 farmers’ representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will take part in this forum, a place where social movements and civil organisations are going to debate alternatives for a better world, pursuing their thinking, formulating proposals and sharing their experiences.

At a time of rising food prices and upcoming food crisis, La Via Campesina will defend food sovereignty as the solution to the food and climate crises.

La Via Campesina will join the caravan organised by the social movements from Lomé (Togo) to Dakar (Senegal). The Caravan will depart on 23 January and is expected to arrive in Dakar on 5 January, to participate at the opening ceremony of the World Social Forum on 6 February.
During the World Social Forum, La Via Campesina will launch its campaign against violence towards women in Africa.

In the context of the WSF, the international farmers movement will also showcase African farmers’ food products and seeds at FIARA, a dynamic place for the integration of African people through local markets and exchange, as well as debates on issues challenging peasants’ lives in Africa. With its allies, La Via Campesina will organise a debate at FIARA on 'Land grab in the context of food and climate crises - the need for land policies that protect peasant production for local markets'. Land grabbing, as an integral part of the dominant corporate agribusiness model with large-scale industrial monoculture, is affecting peasants from Africa, Asia and the Americas.

For the first time, FIARA will also provide spaces for conferences and debates on food sovereignty.
The farmers' movement, with allies, will organise several debates, such as 'Defending peasant seeds against genetically modified organisms, transnational companies such as Monsanto and initiatives such as AGRA' and 'Food Sovereignty, violence against women and Climate Change'. It will also be actively involved in the debate on the preparation of the Social Movements’ mobilisations for the next UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa, in December 2011.

La Via Campesina will have a stand at the World Social Forum where printed information can be found. The stand will also be a meeting point with La Via Campesina's people.

Appointments with the media:
9 February (from 10 to 11 pm) – Via Campesina Press conference "Farmers’ expectations of the WSF" at LVC stand (venue to be confirmed).

Other Via Campesina's activities
5 February - Participation in a special day on migration island Gorée.
7 February (9am-12 midday) – Debate: "land grab in the context of food and climate crises - the need for land policies that protect peasant production for local markets" at FIARA.
8 February (12.30pm-3.30pm) - Debate: "defending peasant seeds against GMOs, transnationals like Monsanto and AGRA" at WSF.
9 February (12.30pm-3.30pm) - Debate on Food Sovereignty, violence against women, and climate Change at WSF
9 February (4pm-7pm) - Launch in Senegal and Africa of La Via Campesina’s campaign to stop violence against women peasants, at WSF.

Contacts for the media (to interview farmers’ representatives)

Mamadou Ba - phone: +221707052485

Boaventura Monjane – +221773942234 (from 3 February)
E-mail: boa.monjane@viacampesina.org
Lamine Coulibaly - téléphone: +221773942235 (from 3 February)
E-mail: laminezie@gmail.com

More on www.viacampesina.org

La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12790 Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

Master in Law in International Criminal Justice (LLM ICJ) in Africa

The Open University of Tanzania

2011-01-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/70524

The International Criminal Law Centre (ICLC) of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) proudly announces the first and only Master in Law in International Criminal Justice (LLM ICJ) in Africa.
Taught in Arusha, in close proximity to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the programme is flexible and intended for individuals who are unable to attend a more traditional residential course.
The International Criminal Law Centre (ICLC) of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) proudly announces the first and only Master in Law in International Criminal Justice (LLM ICJ) in Africa.
Taught in Arusha, in close proximity to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the programme is flexible and intended for individuals who are unable to attend a more traditional residential course. With 6 modules, taught over a 6 day period every two months by outsanding African academics from institutions across the globe. The programme offers excellent theoretical and practical learning.

Modules:

1. Principles of International Law
2. International Politics & Relations
3. Substantive International Criminal Law
4. Law and History of Accountability Mechanisms
5. Contemporary Issues in International Criminal Law
6. International Criminal Courts & Tribunals; Processes & Procedures
7. Dissertation

The faculty comprises leading scholars, practitioners, and experts in public international law and policy, drawn from universities and other institutions within and outside Africa, including:
Prof. C. Beyani (London School of Economics,UK)
Prof. J.C. Barker (Sussex University, UK)
Prof. B. Rwezaura (Open University of Tanzania)
Dr C. Odinkalu (Open Society Justice Initiative)
Dr E. Muli (Nairobi University)
Dr. K. Kamanga (University of Dar es Salaam)
Dr G. Melling (Buckingham University, UK)
Dr. P. Kihwelo (Open University of Tanzania)
Dr. S. Kolimba (Open University of Tanzania)
Dr. E. Bikundo (Sydney University, Australia)
Dr. G. Musila (Kenyatta University)
Dr. Y. Simbeye (Open University of Tanzania)
Fees are payable per module and each module costs $1,300. Students can register for a module and attend classes as and when they have time but must complete all modules within 2 years. Application fee is $60.
For further information contact the programme director:
Dr Y. SimbeyeHead, Constitutional & International Law Dept, Faculty of Law, Open University of Tanzania, Email: yitiha.simbeye@out.ac.tz, Mobile: +255755195930

Master's in International Human Rights Law (part-time)

University of Oxford

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/70461

Oxford University’s Master's programme in International Human Rights Law is offered jointly by the Department for Continuing Education and the Faculty of Law. It is conducted on a part-time basis over 22 months. It involves two periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights advocates who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside work or family responsibilities. The aim of the degree programme is to train and support future leaders in the field of international human rights law. A central objective of the course is to ensure that participants not only know but can also use human rights law. The curriculum places roughly equal emphasis on the substance of human rights law, its implementation, and the development of human rights advocacy skills.

New research in gender, violence and HIV

Cape Town, 28-29 March 2011

2011-01-31

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/514/Gender Violence and HIV symposium 2011poster.pdf

The two-day Symposium will review and debate the state of the art in research, policy and practice to support ongoing and emerging research that makes difference.

Refugee Law Courses for 2011

International Institute of Humanitarian Law

2011-01-31

http://www.iihl.org/Default.aspx?pageid=page5103

Refugee Law Courses at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law are organised by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They are supported by the Swiss Federal Office for Migration, the US State Department (Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration) and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Participants in the courses will have the opportunity to interact with practitioners and experts in the field of refugee/IDP protection, who will facilitate various thematic sessions of the programmes. Different learning methodologies are used to encourage participants to apply knowledge and skills acquired in operations in a practical and pragmatic manner. The five general international refugee law courses will be conducted in French, English (2), Spanish and Arabic.

Summer course on refugee and forced migration

Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, Toronto, Canada, 8-15 May, 2011

2011-01-31

http://crs.yorku.ca/summer/

The Summer Course on Refugee and Forced Migration Issues is an internationally acclaimed eight-day course for academic and field-based practitioners working in the area of forced migration. It serves as a hub for researchers, students, practitioners, service providers and policy makers to share information and ideas.

 The Summer Course is housed within the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), York University.

Bibliodiversity – Publishing and Globalisation

2011-01-31

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/514/Press release - Communiqué Bibliodiversity.pdf

The creation of 'Bibliodiversity – Publishing and Globalisation', rests on three preliminary acknowledgments. The notion of bibliodiversity, despite its rapid spread and significant potential, remains scantly explored, insufficiently discussed, poorly grasped, and even misused – reduced at times to a simple slogan. It was important to save the notion from becoming even more depleted. Furthermore, the two co-publishers – the International Alliance of Independent Publishers along with Double Ponctuation – wish to contribute to original research, the development of intellectual and functional tools, and the collection of testimony that could help us understand the changes occurring in the world of books and publishing. Finally, there is not yet much space available in which to study these changing phenomena with a perspective that is simultaneously international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary.

Gender & Development

Call for papers

2011-01-27

http://www.genderanddevelopment.org/Call%20for%20papers%20Citizenship%20Final.pdf

The November 2011 issue of the international journal Gender & Development, (published for Oxfam
GB by Routledge/Taylor and Francis) will focus on Citizenship. Development and feminist policymakers and practitioners, and academic researchers, are all invited to share insights from research and experience of Citizenship-focused development/humanitarian work in particular country contexts, which has direct relevance to development policy and practice.

Making History in Mugabe's Zimbabwe: Politics, intellectuals and the media

Book launch: 21 February, 2011, Brunei Suite, SOAS, London, WC1H 0XG

2011-01-27

http://bit.ly/gOs6nI

This book traces the role of politicians and public intellectuals in media, civil society and the academy in producing and disseminating a politically usable historical narrative concerning ideas about patriotism, race, land, human rights and sovereignty. It raises pressing questions about the role of contemporary African intellectuals in the making of democratic societies. In so doing the book adds a new and rich dimension to the study of African politics, which is often diluted by the neglect of ideas.

Ghana: Capacity building program officer

Revenue Watch Institute

2011-01-27

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/70452

The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) is a non-profit policy institute and grant-making organization that promotes the transparent, accountable and effective management of oil, gas, and mineral resources for the public good. RWI provides expertise, capacity building and funding to help countries maximize the long-term economic benefit of their natural riches.
Position Available: Capacity Building Program Officer - Media
Revenue Watch Institute
Accra, Ghana
January 2011

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About Revenue Watch Institute

The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) is a non-profit policy institute and grant-making organization that promotes the transparent, accountable and effective management of oil, gas, and mineral resources for the public good. RWI provides expertise, capacity building and funding to help countries maximize the long-term economic benefit of their natural riches.

Oil, gas and mining resources have the potential to fuel the growth and development of resource rich countries. But, often this wealth may be captured by elites, may distort and damage the broader economy, may reduce governments’ apparent need to respond to their citizens and may fuel conflict. Many developing countries lack the oversight mechanisms, both within government and civil society, to manage these challenges.

Revenue Watch is the only organization exclusively dedicated to helping oil, gas, and mineral-producing countries harness extractive revenues for development. We take a comprehensive approach to improving governance and development along the resource value chain—from the decision to extract, through the organization of production, revenue generation and management, to the expenditure processes in resource-rich countries. We believe that improved public oversight of these revenues, coupled with targeted assistance to governments on managing them, can help turn resource wealth from a hindrance into an asset.

Purpose and Context

The Capacity Building Program Officer for Media post will implement, monitor and promote our approaches to addressing the diverse and increasingly advanced needs of the media.
RWI believes that a vibrant, scrutinizing media is essential in giving public the information and voice it needs to demand the transparency and accountability necessary for good use of public resources and revenues, including those related to oil, gas and mining. RWI has undertaken some training and capacity building work with and for media actors, to improve the quantity and quality of reporting on extractive issues. But RWI now has a strong desire to develop more systematic, sustainable and impactful approaches and expand its coverage.

The Program Officer will focus on work to build the capacity of media as a key target group. At the end of 2009, RWI received funding to develop a significant new media capacity building program in Ghana and Uganda. The project is currently slated to run for 3 years, with the possibility of expanding in geographic scope in the following years. If the project is successful and further funding secured, there is the strong probability that the post will be extended and the remit expanded. The position will be based in Accra, Ghana, but will be managed from London.

Responsibilities

The Capacity Building Program Officer for Media will be responsible for the following:
• Ensure good on-going communication and coordination with other agencies involved in capacity building of media (especially related to economic media and the extractives) – nationally, regionally and internationally.
• Negotiate and manage all contracting and relationships with local partners and any others providing inputs to the program (including inputs from technical advisors within RWI).
• With local partners, ensure the smooth design and implementation of the:
• selection process to identify participants,
• needs assessments and trainings,
• mentoring program
• financial support mechanisms
• prizes for journalism
• Ensure an effective monitoring and evaluation approach is designed and implemented, including tracking and analysis of media coverage.
• Ensure project learning and impact is effectively documented and communicated to key audiences, using traditional and new media and tools.
• Maintain close and constructive relationships with editors, owners, leading journalists etc to ensure the smooth running of the program.
• Ensure effective financial management of the project and reporting to donors.
• Build contacts and lever the project to develop and sustain the RWI media programme in Africa and other regions.
• Represent RWI externally at meetings, conferences, with donors etc.
• Implement media related work as required by RWI’s capacity building portfolio, in agreement with the Director of Training and Capacity Building.
• Undertake other tasks as required by management.

Qualifications

Requirements
• At least 3-5 years experience running and managing capacity building projects in an international development and advocacy environment – including recruitment and management of staff, relationship management and capacity building of local partners, monitoring and evaluation, financial management.
• Demonstrable understanding of the media in Africa – key players, constraints, opportunities – and how it can be strengthened.
• Personal commitment to improving the use of, and accountability for, public resources.
• Skills in effective documentation and communication of project progress and learning.
• Ability to combine attention to detail whilst driving towards the overall goals of a program
• Ability to manage several simultaneous projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to work in a self-motivated manner, with management support from a distance.
• Collegiate working style with superior interpersonal, writing, and organizational skills.
• Ability to use all key Microsoft office software.
• Willingness to travel – at least1 week per month.
• Ability to be based in Accra for the duration of the project.

Strongly preferred
• Experience in media capacity-building and network building in low income countries, especially in Ghana and Uganda.
• Post-graduate degree in a relevant field (media, political science, economics, international affairs).
• Experience in adult learning and teaching/teacher training.
• Experience in civil society capacity-building and network building in low income countries.
• Fluency in at least one additional language to English, especially French.

Location: The candidate will be based in Accra, Ghana, where RWI’s Africa regional office is located.

Duration: Initially until the end of the first project, slated for completion by October 2012.

Start Date: March - April 2011

Compensation: Commensurate with experience. Benefits include medical, dental, work travel insurance, life and disability insurance, private pension scheme, 20 annual leave days plus all public holidays.

To Apply: Please email resume, cover letter, references and salary requirements before February 13, 2011, to: hdempsey@revenuewatch.org
Include job code in subject line: PC/MEDIA/RWI

Once we have had an opportunity to consider all resumes received by February 13, 2011, we will only contact those applicants whose background and prior experience appear to be most suited to this particular position.

No phone calls, please. The Revenue Watch Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Egypt: US officials backed rebels planning Egyptian uprising in 2008, says WikiLeaks

2011-01-31

http://bit.ly/hJlqLH

Even as they were officially supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, American officials were secretly helping dissidents interested in using social media to overthrow his regime, a secret dispatch from the US embassy in Cairo has revealed. The cable, dated 30 December 2008 and recently released on the Wikileaks website, also describes a plot to oust Mr. Mubarak in 2011, which it dismisses as 'unrealistic'.

Egypt: WikiLeaks cables show close US relationship with Egyptian president

2011-01-31

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/28/wikileaks-cairo-cables-egypt-president

Secret US embassy cables sent from Cairo in the past two years reveal that the Obama administration wanted to maintain a close political and military relationship with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, who is now facing a popular uprising. A frank briefing note in May 2009 ahead of Mubarak's trip to Washington, leaked by WikiLeaks, reported that the Egyptian president had a dismal opinion of Obama's predecessor, George Bush.

South Africa: WikiLeaks exposes SA spy boss

2011-01-25

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Wikileaks-exposes-SA-spy-boss-20110123

An explosive WikiLeaks cable claims that spy boss and President Jacob Zuma confidante Mo Shaik threatened to expose the 'political skeletons' of Zuma’s enemies and reveals that he was cultivated by the Americans as a key informant within the Zuma camp. The fresh revelations are likely to shake the Zuma administration as they involve one of the president’s key allies and the man tasked with running the country’s secret service.

Fahamu