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At the crossroads between 'Green Economy' and rights of nature

Pablo Solon

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83206

cc I RUnder the rhetoric of “green economy”, capitalists are actually attempting to use nature as capital, proposing unconvincingly that the only way to preserve natural elements such as water and forests is through private investment.

Almost one thousand dolphins are lying dead on the beach. Another five thousand pelicans have also been found dead. What is the cause of this massacre? There are different explanations. Some argue that it was the offshore oil exploration while others say that these birds are dying because anchovy, their main food, have disappeared as a result of the sudden heating of coastal waters due to climate change.

Whatever the explanation, the fact is that during the past months, the coasts off Peru have become the silent witness of what the capitalist system is doing to Nature.

In the period from 1970 to 2008, the Earth System has lost 30% of its biodiversity. In tropical areas, the loss has even been as high as 60%. This is not happening by accident. This is the result of an economic system that treats nature as a thing, as just a source of resources. For capitalists, nature is mainly an object to possess, exploit, transform and especially to profit from.
Green economy is about cheating nature while making profit out of it.
Humanity is at the edge of a cliff. Instead of recognizing that nature is our home and that we must respect the rights of all members of Earth's community, transnational corporations are promoting more capitalism under the misleading name of "green economy."

According to them, the mistake of capitalism that led us to this current multiple crises is that the free market had not gone far enough. And so with the "green economy," capitalism is going to fully incorporate nature as part of capital. They are identifying specific functions of ecosystems and biodiversity that can be priced and then brought into a global market as "Natural Capital."

In a report of EcosystemMarketplace.com, we can read a brutally frank description of what they are after when they speak of Green Economy:

"Given their enormous impact on our daily lives, it's astounding that we don't pay more attention, or dollars, to ecosystem services. Ecosystems provide trillions of dollars in clean water, flood protection, fertile lands, clean air, pollination, disease control - to mention just a few. These services are essential to maintaining liveable conditions and are delivered by the world's largest utilities. Far larger in value and scale than any electric, gas, or water utility could possibly dream of. And the infrastructure, or hard assets, that generate these services are simply: healthy ecosystems.


So how do we secure this enormously valuable infrastructure and its services? The same way we would electricity, potable water, or natural gas. We pay for it."

In simple terms, they will no longer just privatize material goods that can be taken from nature, such as wood from a forest. Instead, they want to go beyond that and privatize the functions and processes of nature, label them environmental services, put a price on them and bring them into the market. Already in the same report, they have estimated values for these environmental services for the years 2014, 2020 and beyond.

To illustrate, look at the leading example of "green economy," the program called REDD (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). REDD's purpose is to isolate one function of forests, their ability to capture and store carbon, and then measure how much CO2 it can capture. Once they have estimated the value of the potential carbon storage of the forest, carbon credits are issued and sold to rich countries and big corporations who use them as offsets, to buy and sell polluting permits in the carbon markets.

The new commodities of the REDD market will be financial papers or carbon credits, that will account for a certain amount of CO2 that a forest has not decreased in it's storage. For example, if Indonesia has a deforestation rate of 1,700,000 hectares per year and then next year instead of destroying this amount, they only deforest 1, 500,000 hectares, they will be able to sell in the REDD market, the carbon credits for the amount of CO2 that is stored by the 200, 000 hectares that was not deforested.

In essence, REDD provides a monetary incentive for not deforesting. However, this incentive has a doubly perverse effect.

First, the company of a country that buys those carbon credits will be able to keep polluting and releasing to the atmosphere that amount of CO2 they paid for. In other words, carbon credits are polluting permits for the rich.

Second, only countries that reduce their deforestation will be able to put carbon credits in the REDD market. So if a region doesn't have deforestation, and has always preserved its forest, they will not be able to sell any carbon credits from reduction of deforestation. So what is happening now, for example, in some parts of Brazil, is that in order to be prepared for REDD, trees are being cut with the purpose of increasing the deforestation, so that, tomorrow, the reduction of the "deforestation" will be higher and the amount of carbon credits that can go into the market will be bigger.

The whole system is about cheating nature while making profit from it.

This is just one face of "green economy" for forests. Imagine what will happen if and when the same logic is applied to biodiversity, water, soil, agriculture, oceans, fishery and so on. Add to this the proposal to perform geo-engineering and other new technologies in order to further the exploitation, tampering and disruption of nature.

This will open the door to the development of a new speculative market.

This will allow some banks, corporations, brokers and intermediaries to make a lot of profit for a number of years until their financial bubble explodes, as can be seen with past speculative markets. More importantly, though, this market also has a real deadline, because there are limits to exploiting the Earth system: passing those limits means devastating our home.

In order to promote such an assault on nature, the capitalists have first labelled their greed economy as "green economy." Second, they have promoted the view that because of multiple global crises, cash strapped governments do not have the public money to take care of Nature and that the only way to get the billions of dollars needed for the preservation of water, forests, biodiversity, agriculture and others is through private investment.

The future of Nature relies on the private sector, but the private sector will not invest the billions of dollars that they accumulated by exploiting labour and nature's wealth, without incentives. And so, governments need to offer them this new business of making profit from the processes and functions of nature.

Most promoters of "green economy" are very straightforward on this: if there is no pricing of some functions of nature, new market mechanisms and guarantees for their profit, the private sector will not invest in ecosystem services and biodiversity.

"We cannot command nature except by obeying her"

The "green economy" will be absolutely destructive because it is premised on the principle that the transfusion of the rules of market will save nature. As the philosopher Francis Bacon has said, we cannot command nature except by obeying her.

Instead of putting a price on Nature, we need to recognize that humans are part of Nature and that Nature is not a thing to possess or a mere supplier of resources. The Earth is a living system, it is our home and it is a community of interdependent beings and parts of one whole system.

Nature has its own rules that govern its integrity, interrelationships, reproduction and transformation, and these rules have worked for millions of years. States and society must respect and assure that rules of nature prevail and are not disrupted. This means we need to recognize that our Mother Earth also has rights.

Scientists have been telling us that we are all part of an Earth System that includes the atmosphere, the biosphere, the lithosphere, and the hydrosphere. We humans are just one element of the biosphere. So why would it be that only we humans have rights and all the rest are just materials for human life?
To speak of equilibrium in our Earth system is to speak of rights for all parts of the system. These rights are not identical for all beings or parts of the Earth System, since not all the elements are identical. But to think that only humans should enjoy privileges while other living things are simply objects is the worst mistake.

Why should we only respect the laws of human beings and not those of nature? Why do we call the person who kills his neighbour a criminal, but not he who extinguishes a species or contaminates a river? Why do we judge the life of human beings with parameters different from those that guide the life of the system as a whole if all of us, absolutely all of us, rely on the life of the Earth System?

There is a contradiction in recognizing only rights of humans while all the rest of the Earth system is reduced to a business opportunity in the "green economy."

Decades ago, to talk about slaves having the same rights as everyone else seemed like the same heresy that it is now to talk about glaciers, or dolphins, or rivers, or trees, or orangutans as having rights.

In an interdependent system in which human beings are only one component of the whole, it is not possible to only recognize the rights of the human part without instigating an imbalance in the system. To guarantee human rights and to restore harmony with nature, it is necessary to effectively recognize and apply the rights of Nature.

Nature cannot be submitted to the wills of markets or a laboratory. The answer for the future lies not in scientific inventions that try to cheat nature but in our capacity to listen to nature. Science and technology are capable of everything including destroying the world itself. It is time to stop geo-engineering and all artificial manipulation of the climate, biodiversity and seeds. Humans are not gods.

The capitalist system is out of control. Like a virus it’s going to kill the body that feeds it. It is damaging the Earth System in ways that will make human life as we know it impossible.

We need to overthrow capitalism and develop a system that is based on the Community of the Earth.

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* Pablo Solón is the Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. He was the former Bolivian ambassador, under the Evo Morales government, to the United Nations. As ambassador to the UN, he became known as a tireless advocate for the rights of nature. This piece was originally published at: http://pablosolon.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/at-the-crossroads-between-green-economy-and-rights-of-nature/

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The elephants in Rio

Don't bank on a new "green economy" to solve our climate challenges.

Janet Redman

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83207

cc F X POne, infinite growth on a finite planet is an exercise in futility. And two, the 20 percent of the world's population living in North America, Europe, and Japan gobbles up 80 percent of the Earth's natural resources. These are the elephants.

A close friend of mine in Fairfax, Virginia, is expecting her first child. By the time this baby girl turns 60, she'll live in a world that's warmer than it's ever been since humans began walking the Earth 2.5 million years ago, according to a new study.

The world already looks much different than it did just a generation ago. The alarming rate at which plants and animals are disappearing has scientists asking if we're entering a sixth mass extinction. The oceans' fish stocks - the main source of protein for more than a billion people - are declining, and mysterious coral reef die-offs in recent years will likely make a bad situation worse. More than half of the planet's surface now has "an obvious human footprint."
This is exactly where world leaders hoped we would not be when they gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the historic 1992 Earth Summit.

Twenty years ago, decision-makers knew human activity could hurt the environment. But they were also grappling with the fact that about half of the world's population was living in poverty, and needed access to land, water, food, dignified work, and other essential ingredients for a better life.

To bring these two realities together, the Rio summit embraced "sustainable development" - an economic model that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Governments adopted a roadmap for sustainable development heading into the 21st century called Agenda 21 and launched global environmental agreements on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification.

The global community is gathering in Rio again to face the painful fact that little progress has been made. In the back of everyone's mind is the global financial crisis, destabilizing economic inequality, and a lack of political will to do anything perceived as threatening corporate competitiveness.

What went wrong? Part of the answer is that the original Earth Summit avoided two of the biggest elephants in the room. One, that infinite growth on a finite planet is an exercise in futility. And two, that the 20 percent of the world's population living in North America, Europe, and Japan gobbles up 80 percent of the Earth's natural resources. It doesn't seem likely that Rio+20, as this new meeting is known, will recognize those elephants either.

The leaders heading to Rio are touting a mythical new "green economy" they say will solve all our climate challenges. While still ill defined, they're generally referring to a model of economic growth based on massive private investment in clean energy, climate-resistant agriculture, and ecosystem services - like the ability of a wetland to filter water. Under this new concept, Wall Street gets to reap profits from a whole new line of business, and governments get to spend less protecting the environment.

Not surprisingly, peasant farmers, indigenous communities, anti-debt activists, and other grassroots groups reject this "green economy" rubric as corporate "greenwashing."

The fear - echoed by many environmentalists and anti-poverty groups - is that by putting a price on things like water or biodiversity as a way of managing their use, we turn them into commodities and risk having basic needs and services fall victim to speculators who make money off volatile prices.

Think about it. Does it make sense to put the future of our remaining common resources - forests, genes, the atmosphere, food - into the hands of people who treated our economy like their personal casino?

It's no coincidence that when people are in charge of managing the land and water they live and depend on they do a better job than some hedge fund manager in a remote office building. Instead of concentrating decision-making power about nature in the financial sector, the Rio+20 summit should support local, democratic control of natural resources.

That way, when my friend's daughter is old enough to vote, she'll have a planet worth fighting for.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

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* Janet Redman is the co-director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies. www.ips-dc.org This article was first published on: http://www.otherwords.org/articles/the_elephant_in_rio

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The false solutions of Rio+20

Carbon Trading and REDD+ in Mozambique: farmers ‘grow’ carbon for the benefit of polluters

Via Campesina - Africa

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83197

cc ILRIFood production and people's sovereignty in Africa could be seriously compromised by carbon capture projects and the so-called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) mechanism.

MAPUTO, 18 JUNE 2012 (VIA CAMPESINA AFRICA NEWS) –As evening falls, Albertina Francisco*, a farmer from the Nhambita community in Sofala province, Mozambique, returns home. She is tired after another day of work at her machamba (a term used in Mozambique to refer to a patch of farmland). In addition to looking after the maize, mapira (a type of sorghum) and cassava which she grows, another task has been added to Albertina’s workload: looking after the trees she planted a few years ago to ensure she is not penalized by Envirotrade at the end of the year, the company with which she has a carbon supply contract. Albertina is required to ensure the survival and good growth of the plants and to ensure that at least 85% of the plants received survive.

“In addition to the maize and mapira I also have to look after the trees now, to make sure they don’t die. I planted a lot of trees and it’s not easy checking on them all”, said Albertina, who visits her land twice a day.

Just like Albertina, another 1400 farmers in Nhambita and other villages in the Púngue administrative region in Sofala have been contracted to plant and care for trees on their land.

“When they came they said that the project is good because by planting trees we’d receive money to fight poverty and we’d be in charge (of the trees) even after the conclusion of the project”, one Nhambita farmer tells us.

The project is called the “Nhambita Community Carbon Project”1. The aim of the company that runs it, Envirotrade, is to capture carbon through agro-forestry, and sell carbon credits on the voluntary markets, which at this stage comprise Europe and the United States. By buying carbon credits, companies in industrialised countries can “sell” a positive image to their clients, clean their conscience and allow pollution of the planet. With the implementation of REDD+ and the purchase of carbon credits, it is expected that rich countries will continue to emit greenhouse gases, as they will be financing carbon capture projects in other locations, generally in countries in the South.

Envirotrade also claims to be alleviating poverty through this project.

In addition to using their land to plant trees (gliricidia, faidherbia, cashew trees, mango trees, and timber-yielding varieties), communities are also expected to protect and patrol a defined area of just over 10 000 hectares, from which Envirotrade also sells carbon credits through the REDD+ mechanism.

Planting, preserving and protecting the forests are all services regulated by a contract between Envirotrade and the farmers. The contract is for a fixed term of only seven years. Yet, as stipulated by the clauses in the contract, the producer (farmer) is under the obligation to plant and care for trees, and will receive an annual payment, which varies according to the system chosen and the size of the area of land used. After seven years payments cease, but farmers still have a duty of care.

“It is the farmer’s obligation to continue to care for the plants which they own, even after the seven year period covered by this contract”, one of the articles in the clause on obligations of producers stipulates.

According to Envirotrade trees capture carbon for a period of 50 to 100 years. The farmers’ duty to care for the plants and forests thus automatically spans several generations.

“If a farmer passes away during the contract period, the contract, all the rights contained therein but also all the obligations, are transferred to their legitimate/legal heirs (children)”, António Serra, National Director for Envirotrade clarifies.

It should be noted that the contracts regulating these activities do not include a section on farmers’ rights.

Nhambita is a community in Gorongosa district, in the administrative region of Púngue at the centre of Mozambique. It is extremely biologically diverse and boasts a wealth of vegetation and forests to be envied.

The European Commission contributed about 1.5 million Euros of financing to Envirotrade between the start of the project in 2003 and 2008, for research and testing in Nhambita. However the European Commission cut its funding, one of the reasons being irregularities observed in the proposed method for measuring carbon.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE FARMERS…

According to Envirotrade their projects aim to alleviate poverty (in communities), and contribute to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. “It is a new way of doing business”, the company, which believes it is offering a new way of life for individuals and communities, states on its website [1].

The services set out in a farmer’s contract which we gained access to were to be provided through planting trees in an area totalling 0.22 hectares (22 by 22 metres) in the farmer’s yard; and the farmer will receive a total of 3,215 Meticais (128 USD) over the seven years of the contract period. In order to earn enough money to actually alleviate poverty, this farmer would need access to a much greater land area, diversified systems, and would have to plant many more trees – which proves virtually impossible.

The most highly paid system run by Envirotrade is termed “forest plantation” and can earn the producer about 17.500 Meticais (670 USD) over seven years.
These amounts refer to one hectare, which means the amount may be lower or higher depending on the area of land in question. Nhambita’s farmers have an average of one hectare of land per family.

António Serra, National Director for Envirotrade in Mozambique, explains: “A farmer who has one hectare can sign a seven year contract one year using the bordadura system (border strips), the following year sign a seven year contract for consociação (mixed crops) covering the same area, and the third year sign a seven year contract under the quintal (yard) system. In this way the producer is involved in the project over a long period of time.”

However, do not let anyone be under any illusion that they will become rich through REDD+ and planting trees: “Carbon trading is not there to make anyone rich (farmers). The market itself shows that there are many costs involved. This is not going to make communities wealthy. Individuals need to have other sources of income”, Envirotrade’s Carbon manager said in an interview.

Envirotrade stopped issuing new contracts three years ago, because of financial difficulties.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY IN DANGER

It is important to stress that commitment to this type of service could aggravate food insecurity for the community or for families, if the timescales and size of land areas needed to plant enough trees to ensure higher earnings are taken into account. This will lead to farmers “growing carbon” instead of growing food crops.

On the other hand “the current focus on the economic value of the forest [as promoted by Envirotrade] should not make the biological, spiritual and cultural values less important, as they [the communities] have been providing effective conservation for generations”, a study2 by Jovanka Spiric, who has researched the socioeconomic impact of the REDD programme in Nhambita, states.

A considerable number of farmers have abandoned farming and dedicate all their time to maintaining firebreaks and patrolling forests in the REDD+ area.

Gabriel Langa*, a father of four with two wives, is the head of the group which manages firebreaks and patrols Bloc 2, one of the “protected” REDD+ areas in the Bué Maria area of Púngue. Before, he used to farm to feed his family.

“Now our main activity is firebreaks. I don’t have time to go to the machamba”, Langa says.

Langa will earn 8845 Meticais (340 USD) during the firebreak phase for the “conservation” area, which he will divide between the group of four that he manages.

FORESTS WERE NEVER AT RISK OF DISAPPEARING…

According to Envirotrade, the buffer zone of the Gorongosa national park3, where Nhambita community is situated, was at risk of disappearing due to intensive logging (for coal) and unchecked land clearing by fire.

Community leaders together with the Committee for Natural Resources management for Púngue, operating out of Nhambita in Gorongosa and set up before the arrival of Envirotrade on the scene, dismiss this hypothesis and claim that the committee has always known how to care for and preserve the forests and land in the area.

“The community had no problem with this and always knew how to manage resources. With the creation of the Management committee in 2011 this capacity was strengthened because we were trained to do it”, said Francisco Samajo, president of the committee. “This is probably what brought Envirotrade here”, he added.

Reacting to this, Aristides Muhate, Carbon Manager for Envirotrade says: “Sometimes people want first and foremost to assert their merit. Everyone knows that this area would be a hotbed of illegal logging today. He (the head of the resource management committee) wouldn’t even have the resources (money) to carry out the patrolling that he does”.

Envirotrade finances the Natural resources management committee, which in turn pays inspectors to patrol the forests and “protect them” from members of the same community.

Although the farmers admit to having benefited in some ways from the Envirotrade project (in terms of fruit trees, some annual income, health centres, transport in case of illness) consensus does not seem to prevail regarding the assertion that the communities were very poor and that their forests and lands were poorly managed.

Another Nhambita farmer, Raimundo Eduardo, stated that he had never considered himself to be poor, as in his own words “I have a machamba and I always worked”.

GIVING UP TREE PLANTING: NOT EVERYONE IS FINDING THE ACTIVITY FUN

Juvenal Francisco, 31, a farmer from Nhambita, gave up tree planting in 2010 as he felt the services did not bring him income.

“It seemed as if I was only working for them and I wasn’t seeing any benefits for me”, Franciso tells us. He took the initiative of contacting Envirotrade himself to make clear his desire to give up the activities.

What motivated Francisco to terminate the contract was the fact that as of year four he had not been paid the annual amount set out in his contract, allegedly because he had been unable to care for the plants in the way required by Envirotrade. Juvenal Francisco is of the opinion that Envirotrade failed to comply with one of the conditions it committed itself to, namely that of paying him for a seven-year period.

“As of year four they stopped paying me and they never explained why”, he said. Juvenal says he planted over 900 timber- and fruit-yielding plants starting in 2007. Now, he dedicates his time to growing maize, sweet potato, mapira and cassava.

This has been a great source of conflict between Envirotrade and many farmers. A high number of “contracted” farmers find their earnings reduced for not achieving the 85% survival rates set out in the contract. Our reporting team also learnt that over the past three years, there have been delays to payments for environmental services, due to financial difficulties.

FARMERS DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE INVOLVED WITH

The Nhambita communities are not familiar with the REDD+ concept; and despite the fact that some farmers know that they are planting trees and preserving forests “to sell carbon”, they show a lack of deeper understanding of the concept and its mechanisms.

Envirotrade's National Carbon Manager, forest engineer Aristides Muhate, justifies this fact. “Information exists on different levels. There’s no reason why we should waste time explaining complicated concepts to the farmers, ” he says, pointing to the low levels of schooling among most of the population of Nhambita and the surrounding areas. This could be considered in breach of the right to advance information and free consent before operations started on their lands.

“We know that our income from planting trees comes from carbon. I don’t know anything more about it”, Elias Manesa from the Mutabamba community confessed, showing that he didn’t understand what carbon is.

The lack of comprehensive information surrounding Envirotrade’s carbon business involving community resources calls into question the transparency of the process. The poor or complete lack of understanding among farmers of the concepts linked to REDD+ and the carbon markets means that they are managing their resources and getting involved in the business without awareness of its full implications: allowing Northern polluters to continue to release carbon into the atmosphere. This poses risks to these very farmers’ well-being if we take into account the fact that these emissions will have a negative impact on Mozambique, for instance through droughts and flooding.

Another woman, who does not have a personal contract with Envirotrade but who has planted and cares for trees because her partner decided for both of them to get involved, was also unaware of the ultimate objectives of this activity.

“All I know is that my husband receives money (annually) because of the trees we’ve planted. I don’t know any more details”, she said. In fact, over half of the farmers who have signed contracts with Envirotrade are male. Few women own land in Mozambique, even though they constitute the group which devotes the greatest effort to food production and other land-linked labour.

EMERGING SOCIAL CONFLICT

Signs of social conflict linked to payments for environmental services (PES) between Nhambita community members are beginning to show. This situation could become more serious in the future.

Farmers who do not benefit from PES are displaying resentment for not receiving any money from Envirotrade.

In other REDD projects in countries like Indonesia, payments for environmental services are creating inequalities due to income disparities, and this tends to create divisions in the community and jeopardize organisational, social and cultural cohesion.

As an example, the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique1 recently published a story on the case of farmers being displaced because of implementing the REDD programme in Mexico.

Jossias Jairosse* arrived in Nhambita recently and works in the community carpentry workshop in his village. Envirotrade had stopped issuing contracts when he settled in the community. He feels resentful and inferior to his neighbours, as they have annual income levels which he has no hope of reaching.

MOZAMBICAN LAND IN DEMAND WITH OTHERS FOR REDD+ PROJECTS

A company backed by British capital is eyeing up about 15 million hectares (19% of Mozambican territory) for REDD+2 activities. Cases of land grabbing linked to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation could make this figure even higher, if agrofuel production and the growing of different monocultures are included here. These practices can also be included under REDD+ as the system includes carbon credits from cultivation and land use and not just from forestry. According to the 2008 national forest inventory, about 70% of the country (54.8 million hectares) is currently covered by forest and other wooded areas. These areas are at risk of being exploited for carbon capturing.

Mozambique finds itself in a privileged position, among the most “coveted” countries in Africa when it comes to the implementation of so-called development projects benefitting from foreign investment. The World Bank for instance considers Mozambique an appropriate location for REDD projects, the Clean Development Mechanism1 and industrial agriculture.

Companies in the North have been acquiring land in Mozambique for export-oriented production, agrofuels and now for REDD+. Currently even the so-called emerging economies, namely India and Brazil, are acquiring land for use in agro-business and for mining.

In most of these cases local communities, and particularly farmers and indigenous populations, are heavily affected and often their rights are violated. In the case of the REDD+ programmes there is a significant risk that farmers will find themselves serving as employees of companies who use forest resources and local land to take advantage of the carbon credits system internationally, thus maximising their profits but not necessarily contributing to eliminating poverty in the communities.

In Uganda 22 000 farmers were displaced from their lands by a forestry carbon offsetting project in 2011.

The Nhambita carbon project will serve as a model at Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and the Green Economy, and appears on the website of the Rio+20 Commission for Sustainable Development.

Civil society organisations criticise the Rio+20 summit harshly for trying to bring approval and legitimacy to the commercialisation of nature.

“We are awaiting the REDD National Strategy and outcomes of Rio+20 in order to broaden implementation of the REDD+ programme in other locations”, Aristides Muhate of Envirotrade confirmed when interviewed by us at one of the company’s camps on May 23rd, 2012.

In fact, Envirotrade has a further two projects in addition to the Nhambita one, which operate with the same objective of selling carbon: one in the Zambezi Delta region and one in the Maconia district of the Quirimbas archipelago in Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique. Envirotrade is actively developing plans for a further two large-scale REDD+ projects.

The Nhambita REDD+ project might be copied in other areas of Mozambique. Members of the Mozambican government as well as international representatives, including Zambian ex-president Kenneth Kaunda, have visited the project, which could also serve as a model to be copied outside Mozambique in other African countries.

WHAT IS REDD?

The idea behind Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation is that developed countries wishing to reduce their emissions should receive financial compensation for doing so. Thanks to photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, which means they serve as a sort of “sponge” absorbing pollution. The REDD concept is marketed as a way of preserving forests, stopping climate change, protecting biodiversity, eradicating poverty and financing communities.

However, according to the United Nations, REDD could lead to “locking up forests”, “loss of land”, “conflict over resources”, “the concentration of power in the hands of elites”, “new risks for the poor” and could “marginalise the landless”. [2]

Many sectors in civil society warn of the risk that REDD projects could result in massive takeovers of land and constitute a way of colonising forests.

Work on developing the REDD National Strategy started in 2009. With the technical support of the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation and Indufor (Brazil), The Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Action (MICOA) and the Ministry for Agriculture (MINAG) held provincial meetings in Maputo to present the REDD+ programme. However, during these meetings the information given basically centred on the benefits and opportunities for Mozambique in implementing REDD+, thus creating expectations concerning income among participants. The negative aspects of REDD+ were not mentioned.

“The process was not very transparent, there was no access to the process for representatives of civil society who wished to follow it. Access to information was also lacking”, said Anabela Lemos of Justiça Ambiental (“Environmental Justice”).

The REDD National Strategy is still being debated in Mozambique. Its drafting has been the target of criticism from civil society organisations, including the National Farmers’ Union (União Nacional de Camponeses, UNAC) and Justiça Ambiental (Friends of the Earth Mozambique), because of its focus on clean development mechanisms and carbon markets, because it has named agrofuel and monoculture projects as eligible for REDD+ and because it did not involve civil society from the outset.

For example, community consultations that have been carried out reveal themselves to be unrepresentative – community and farmers’ consultations involved only 889 people in a country with a population of over 20 million.

“The REDD National Strategy is still being discussed, but the (Sofala) provincial government authorised it because the idea was to see how it would turn out. All the experiences will be compiled here (in Nhambita), that’s why we are a sort of laboratory, a model project”, said Aristides Muhate, carbon “head” at Envirotrade.

Recently, Charles Hall of Envirotrade told British newspaper The Observer3 that “the business model for Envirotrade frankly remains to be proven”. According to him, “The fact that this can be made into a sustainable business on the basis of selling carbon offsets remains to be seen”.

International peasant movement La Via Campesina (which includes UNAC in Mozambique), recently released a position paper ahead of the Rio+20 conference, condemning among others the REDD mechanisms, carbon markets and the green economy.

“We repudiate and denounce the green economy as a new mask to hide increasing levels of corporate greed and food imperialism in the world, and as a brutal “green washing” of capitalism that only implements false solutions, like carbon trading, REDD, […] and all of the market-based solutions to the environmental crisis”, part of the position paper reads.

Augusto Mafigo, president of the Mozambican National Farmers’ Union, is concerned by the involvement of Nhambita farmers in carbon and REDD+ projects. Mafigo is convinced that REDD+ can be detrimental to farmers.
“As farmers we reject REDD, as it is clear that this is not a sustainable programme, and we run the risk of losing our resources and aggravating the poverty which already plagues us”, he said.

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NOTES

* Real names withheld to protect the sources.

1 http://www.envirotrade.co.uk/html/home.php
2 http://www.envirotrade.co.uk/documents/Jovanka_Spiric.pdf
3 http://www.gorongosa.net/
_______________________________
1 http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2011/12/VIGNA/47042
2 http://www.iied.org/redd-mozambique-new-opportunity-for-land-grabbers
_______________________________
1 http://www.iied.org/redd-mozambique-new-opportunity-for-land-grabbers

_______________________________
1 http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanismo_de_Desenvolvimento_Limpo
2 UN-REDD Framework Document, http://www.undp.org/mdtf/UN-REDD/docs/Annex-A-Framework-Docoment.pdf , p. 4-5 A Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) Policy Brief, Based on the report “Making REDD Work for the Poor”, (Peskett et al, 2008) http://www.povertyenvironment.net/pep/ PEP includes UNDP, UNEP, IUCN, OCI, SIDA, ADB, DFID, WCMC For footnotes and complete textual citations of UN documents: See Earth Peoples http://www.earthpeoples.org/blog REDD Brochure
3 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/apr/11/bbc-envirotrade-robin-birley-mozambique

Beyond capitalist green economy: In defence of Mother Earth and the commons

Democratic Left Front

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83214

cc F d EThe Democratic Left Front calls for action against destructive corporate interests that are driving the commercialisation and commodification of the natural environment.

As a South African eco-socialist organisation which actively mobilised at the Durban COP17 Summit, the Democratic Left Front (DLF) issues this statement in response to the concept of the ‘Green Economy’ and other outcomes of the recently concluded Rio+20 Summit which was held in Rio de Janeiro from 20-22 June 2012. This statement also puts forward the DLF platform for a just transition to a low carbon economy and a call to action for a climate jobs campaign.

THE GREEN ECONOMY

In the face of widely recognised dangers and threats of ecological collapse and climate change, the outcomes of the Rio+20 Summit failed to effectively regulate and place limits on the capitalist market. On the contrary, powerful transnational corporations and international business councils, increasingly over-represented in inter-state multilateral negotiations, successfully pressed for the ‘marketisation’ which will amount to a dramatic expansion of the commercialisation and commodification of the natural environment and its life services. At Rio the elites considered policies of placing a monetary value on nature’s environmental services, offsetting and trading these on markets, via credits, much like the controversial carbon trading mechanism. The sustainable development goals agreed to at the Rio+20 Summit are subordinated to this pervasive logic of marketisation. In effect, genuine sustainable development has therefore been denuded of meaning and is not supported by concrete measures to move away from the logic of capitalist growth that destroys irreplaceable ecological resources.

The DLF strongly believes that the ‘Green Economy’ punted at the Rio+20 Summit is a new greenwash justifying the continued profit-making from nature. Through the promises of being environmentally friendly and providing jobs, the Green Economy is as seductive as the concept of sustainable development and as potentially divisive while being just as illusory and elusive. We caution our sisters and brothers in civil society to not be fooled. The Green Economy is about the transformation of nature, her environmental services, and life itself into a product to be marketed and sold as if it was a packet of potatoes. We are made to believe that the very processes that have brought us to the crisis – extreme marketisation - can somehow overcome the crisis. Blue carbon, the commercialisation of the ocean as a carbon sink, especially related to mangroves, tidal salt marshes and seagrass meadows etc. is being trumpeted under the slogan of the green economy, as the solution to the climate crisis. Extreme technologies such as geo-engineering and nanotechnology under the monopoly control of giant corporations are promoted as instruments to solve the ecological crises. All this, as opposed to taking the necessary steps to moving to a low carbon economy; overseeing a just transition that dramatically expands decent work in the service of humanity and the biosphere as the first steps to consolidating an alternative paradigm of what Latin American indigenous communities refer to as ‘buen vivir’ – living well.

THE GREEN ECONOMY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Since the COP17 Conference in Durban, the South African government has rolled out a massive media and publicity campaign promoting the Green Economy. The South African government has promised hundreds of thousands of green jobs and huge investment in green projects such as clean renewable energy. These promises were repeated by the South African delegation at the Rio+20 Summit. Like many ANC government promises the Green Economy promises are not being met and in some cases they are a diversion from reality. Investment in renewable energy, crucial to reduce South Africa’s very high emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), is dwarfed by investments in more dirty coal-fired energy, coal to gas and dangerous nuclear energy. In essence, the South African government pays lip service to the Green Economy. All its policy positions on the Green Economy are subordinated by its fundamental policy commitment to the continued and accelerated extraction and export of minerals including coal. All the major infrastructure programmes announced by President Zuma at the State of the Nation Address in February are about ensuring efficient public infrastructure to enable seamless extraction and speedy export of minerals such as gold, coal, platinum, uranium, iron ore, titanium and others. This mining-dependent development path will continue to rely on the provision of coal-based electricity as a cheap input. In addition, the fracking of shale gas is likely to be approved by the South African government. Fracking will further intensify South Africa’s mineral energy economy to the detriment of the environment and society, and much against the logic of a Green Economy.

Already, the ecological damage from previous waves of mining in South Africa can be seen in the destruction of our freshwater sources through acid mine drainage, pollution of lakes and rivers through heavy metal deposits, the reduction of vast areas of arable land to wastelands through soil acidification, and radioactivity arising from uranium waste. The social damage caused by extractivism is increasing as communities are shunted from land in favour of mining prospectors, thousands of ex-mine workers left to die alone from lung and other diseases acquired in the mines and hundreds of current miners killed as profits trump health and safety.

DLF PLATFORM FOR THE TRANSITION TO A LOW CARBON ECONOMY

It is clear to us almost two decades into the new South Africa that for the majority of people and the environment – capitalism is not working and is extremely destructive. This is increasingly evident at a global level. The financial crisis that broke out in 2008 is a symptom of a much wider crisis of the global system. Not only does it represent a crisis of the neoliberal model but a deeper crisis of the over-productivist, endless-growth, financial-speculative model which puts humanity and the planet at great risk. In this regard we are confronted by a simple but stark reality, namely, that an economic system based on unlimited growth contradicts a limited planet.

Capitalism, a system based on the drive to accumulate more and more (endless and unlimited growth) – is at the root of these crises. Since the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro and accelerating after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development has been the imposing of a system of free market capitalism freed from all externalities – no longer having to consider social, health, labour and environmental ‘boundaries’. It is our view that the deepening environmental crisis reflected in accelerating climate change, mass extinctions of plant and animal species, rapid deterioration in biodiversity, acidification of the oceans, deforestation, and freshwater pollution are explained by the dynamics of the global capitalism enabled by national states that has set humanity up against the limits of the planet and which is undermining attempts at arresting the global crisis. Capitalism cannot be green. It is not in the interests of humanity and our planet. We urgently need alternatives.

As the DLF we strongly believe that:

· The people are the guardians of land, life and love;

· The rights of people and those of mother earth must be recognised and realised;

· In the struggle to preserve nature the basic needs of those living in nature must be respected;

· Humanity must live within environmental limits;

· Thousands of years of local knowledge must be preserved as a common good against the threat from corporate bio-piracy;

· The ecological crisis as a direct outcome of accumulation for accumulation’s sake cannot be solved within the same logic and parameters;

· Those who are responsible for the crisis should be held to account and made liable for ecological rehabilitation and pay reparations to affected communities and peoples; and

· Sustained mass struggles and campaigns are the foundations upon which alternative paradigms are already being constructed.

We demand:

· The recognition of the rights of Mother Earth in legally binding national and multilateral legal instruments;

· Democratic collective ownership and control of what we produce and how we produce and what we consume;

· An end to the export model of development which is a major cause of both the ecological and economic crises as it opens up a dynamic of a race to the bottom;

· A movement towards a planet free of extractivism and that the use of our natural resources through mining or any other method is done in accordance with the principles of democracy, renewability and sustainability;

· Policies that protect our indigenous seeds, open pollinated varieties and are against genetically modified organisms;

· Policies that promote agro-ecological methods that guarantee food and seed sovereignty and indigenous knowledge;

· A state-driven shift away from fossil fuels to a low carbon economy through the creation of millions of climate jobs;

· The dismantling of transnational corporations through stringent regulations and the scaling back of their operations from the commons and to areas of the economy that do not impact on nature and her environmental services.

We call upon:

· Popular movements and organisations, poor and working people to reject the corporate driven concept of the Green Economy and its agenda of profiting from the commodification of nature and her environmental services;

· All our people to mobilise in defence of the commons, especially the protection of our land, forests, atmosphere, rivers, oceans, our culture and knowledge resources under democratic public ownership and control

· Popular forces and movements to occupy the United Nations and its multilateral processes such that we push back against corporate interests and control;

· Our people to mobilise, attend and speak out against corporate interests that profits from the destruction of the planet;

· Our people to mobilise in mass action and stand in solidarity and raise our fists and voices against the leaders of the global elites on our vision of eco-socialism that is based on social, economic and environmental justice.

To take forward the above, the DLF is building a mass campaign for climate jobs in South Africa. We call on civil society and popular organisations to join this campaign. This campaign will be launched in the last quarter of 2012.


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Rio+20: Governments gamble with our future

South feminists demand responsible action now

DAWN Executive Committee

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83215

cc UN W G‘We are outraged that a vocal minority have hijacked the text on gender and health and blocked mention of sexual and reproductive rights, claiming that these have nothing to do with sustainable development.’

While governments were locked in their semantic battles in the Rio+20 process, women’s and other social movements continue to fight on multiple fronts for human rights, justice and sustainability. These struggles take place on diverse territories and geographies including the body, land, oceans and waterways, communities, states, and epistemological grounds. Each of these terrains is fraught with the resurgent forces of patriarchy, fnance capitalism, neo- conservatism, consumerism, militarism and extractivism.

An understanding of the deeper structural roots of the crises we face today and analytical clarity on the interlinkages between different dimensions are both critical. There is no core recognition that the multiple crises we face are caused by the current anthropocentric development model rooted in unsustainable production and consumption patterns and financialisation of the economy that are all based on and exacerbate gender, race and class inequities.

In sharp contrast to twenty years ago at the historic Earth Summit when linkages between gender and all three pillars of sustainable development were substantively acknowledged, the Rio+20 outcome document has relegated women’s rights and gender equality to the periphery without recognition of a wider structural analysis.

Over the past few months we have witnessed and confronted attempts by a small group of ultra conservative states (with the strong support of an observer state – the Holy See), to roll back hard won agreements on women’s rights. We are outraged that a vocal minority have hijacked the text on gender and health and blocked mention of sexual and reproductive rights, claiming that these have nothing to do with sustainable development. Meanwhile most states concentrate on what they considered their 'big ticket' items of finance, trade and aid with little interest to incorporate a gender analysis into these macroeconomic issues.

There is a reference to women’s “unpaid work” but without recognizing the unequal and unfair burden that women carry in sustaining care and wellbeing (para 153). This is further exacerbated in times of economic and ecological crisis when women’s unpaid labour acts as a stabilizer and their burden increases. For example, reference to the root causes of excessive food price volatility, including its structural causes, is not linked to the risks and burdens that are disproportionately borne by women (para 116). Development is not sustainable if care and social reproduction are not recognized as intrinsically linked with the productive economy and reflected in macroeconomic policy-making.

Reference is made to the critical role that rural women play in food security through traditional sustainable agricultural practices including traditional seed supply systems (para 109). However, these are under severe threat unless governments stop prioritising export oriented agribusiness. The reason why such wrong-headed policies are not adequately addressed is because of corporate interests that are protected in the Rio+20 outcome.

Northern governments advocating for such corporate interests have warped the sustainable development paradigm in the so-called ‘green economy’ that is skewed toward the economic pillar, emphasising sustained economic growth over equitable development and without any ecological limits. Within this section women are regarded as either welfare recipients or as a supplier of labor for the green economy, but not acknowledged as rights holders, especially of economic, social and cultural rights (paras 58k & l).

The ‘green economy’ concept is somewhat challenged in the text by an affirmation of diverse visions, models and approaches to development as well as the policy space to integrate all three dimensions of sustainable development (para 56). While the recognition of policy space and sovereignty over natural resources, is important, there is a need to deeply question a development model that is based on extractivism and that fails to take into account social and ecological costs.

While the Rio principles including common but differentiated responsibilities are reaffirmed at Rio+20, the outcome is imbalanced across the three pillars of sustainable development without sufficient attention to gender and social justice, including women’s rights. It fails to tackle the systemic inequities of the international monetary, financial and trading systems; and prioritises economic growth over the ecology and equity.

Feminists across the global South will continue to demand that governments stop regressing on their commitments and begin to seriously address the structural transformations that are required for genuine sustainable development.

Endorsed by:

DAWN Executive Committee

DAWN Media Focal Point: Cai Yiping Email: caiyiping2000@gmail.com Tel (Brazil): +55-21-69440960; info@dawnnet.org | www.facebook.com/DAWNfeminist

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The people must be the focus of ‘green’ projects

Indigenous Peoples Movement

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83216

cc I RIndigenous peoples insist on rights-based approaches and respect for traditional knowledge and practices in Rio+20 outcomes.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 20 JUNE 2012: As government representatives start formal negotiations in Brazil to seek agreements on so-called ‘green economy’ policies and to assess progress in fulfilling commitments on environment and development made at the Rio Earth Summit twenty years ago, indigenous peoples from all over the world have come together at the Rio+20 global summit to put forward their own solutions for sustainable development and to flag serious risks associated with government ‘green’ proposals.

Jean La Rose of the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), Guyana, said:

“Governments, international agencies like the World Bank and NGOs are pushing for new low carbon development policies in countries like Guyana. Official information on these initiatives does not match our experience. Our communities have not been properly consulted so far and there are no secure safeguards for our land and territorial rights and right to free, prior and informed consent. At the same time, plans for mega dams, roads and continued logging and mining operations in our forests are being developed in the name of ‘green growth’, which risks generating multiple harmful impacts on our peoples.”

Indigenous leaders are also present at the negotiations to highlight the historical and present contributions of indigenous peoples’ cultures, traditional knowledge and practices in sustaining the world’s most fragile ecosystems. They are also raising concerns that despite protection under international treaties and agreements, in many countries traditional livelihoods and practices remain under threat from outdated environmental policies as well as from new REDD+, PES and protected area initiatives that seek to restrict or criminalise customary use of land and natural resources.

Peter Kitelo of the Ogiek people in Western Kenya said:

“Government policies at the international and country levels do not recognise the need for legal and land tenure reforms, which are desperately needed in order to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples. In Kenya there is now a lot of talk among government agencies about sustainable development and community forest management, yet the government is seeking to sell concessions for plantation development and REDD+ projects on our lands without our free, prior and informed consent...”

Leaders also express grave concerns over increasing threats to their lands and livelihoods stemming from land grabbers and the growing global demand for food, fibres, fuel, minerals, hydrocarbons and other resources.

Robert Guimaraes Vasquez of the Shipibo people in the Peruvian Amazon said:

“While governments are coming to Rio to talk about sustainable development, in my country, Peru, the pressure is growing day by day from policies of the national government that seek to open up our remote forest territories to transnational companies through road infrastructure projects. These mega projects pose severe threats to indigenous peoples and in particular those autonomous groups in voluntary isolation. How can this be sustainable? We all know it is not just. Yet governments spin this destructive form of development around and call it poverty reduction and investment for national development...”

Indigenous peoples’ organisations and activists are calling on governments to fully implement their commitments to uphold human rights, including rights to lands and resources as an essential cornerstone for achieving socially just and ecologically sustainable development. They also call on States to fully recognise the importance of cultural diversity and local economies in maintaining ecosystem integrity and sustainable livelihoods. Onel Masardule of the Kuna people and Foundation for the Promotion of Traditional Knowledge of Panama said:

“Governments in most countries have already signed up to human rights agreements and environmental treaties and have endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We are here in Rio once again to demand that States fulfil their obligations and commitments in all development policies, finance and actions and put proper arrangements in place at the national level to implement these agreements. Our rights must be secured so that our lands and territories are maintained for the benefit of our future generations and the whole of humanity.”

CONTACTS

For further information and/or to arrange an interview with any of those quoted above, please email:

Francesco Martone (francesco@forestpeoples.org)

Tom Griffiths (tom@forestpeoples.org)

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The electoral victory of political Islam in Egypt

Samir Amin

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83202

cc J RThe Gulf States, America and Israel are hell bent on frustrating the revolution in Egypt. That is what the results of the presidential election show.

The electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood and of the Salafists in Egypt (January 2012) is hardly surprising. The decline brought about by the current globalization of capitalism has produced an extraordinary increase in the so-called “informal” activities that provide the livelihoods of more than half of the Egyptian population (statistics give a figure of 60%).

And the Muslim Brotherhood is very well placed to take advantage of this decline and perpetuate its reproduction. Their simplistic ideology confers legitimacy on a miserable market/bazaar economy that is completely antithetical to the requirements of any development worthy of the name. The fabulous financial means provided to the Muslim Brotherhood (by the Gulf states) allows them to translate this ideology into efficient action: financial aid to the informal economy, charitable services (medical dispensaries etc.).

In this way the Brotherhood establishes itself at the heart of society and induces its dependency. It has never been the intention of the Gulf countries to support the development of Arab countries, for example through industrial investment. They support a form of “lumpen development” – to use the term originally coined by André Gunder Frank – that imprisons the societies concerned in a spiral of pauperization and exclusion, which in turn reinforces the stranglehold of reactionary political Islam on society.

This would not have succeeded so easily if it had not been in perfect accord with the objectives of the Gulf states, Washington and Israel. The three close allies share the same concern: to foil the recovery of Egypt. A strong, upright Egypt would mean the end of the triple hegemony of the Gulf (submission to the discourse of Islamization of society), the United States (a vassalized and pauperized Egypt remains under its direct influence), and Israel (a powerless Egypt does not intervene in Palestine).

The rallying of regimes to neo-liberalism and to submission to Washington was sudden and total in Egypt under Sadat, and more gradual and moderate in Algeria and Syria. The Muslim Brotherhood – which is part of the power system – should not be considered merely as an “Islamic party”, but first and foremost as an ultra reactionary party that is, moreover, Islamist. Reactionary not only concerning what are known as “social issues” (the veil, sharia, anti-Coptic discrimination), but also, and to the same degree, reactionary in the fundamental areas of economic and social life: the Brotherhood is against strikes, workers’ demands, independent workers’ unions, the movement of resistance against the expropriation of farmers, etc.

The planned failure of the “Egyptian revolution” would thus guarantee the continuation of the system that has been in place since Sadat, founded on the alliance of the army high command and political Islam. Admittedly, on the strength of its electoral victory the Brotherhood is now able to demand more power than it has thus far been granted by the military. However, revising the distribution of the benefits of this alliance in favour of the Brotherhood may prove difficult.

The first round of the presidential election on 24 May was organised in such a way as to achieve the objective pursued by the system in power and by Washington: to reinforce the alliance of the two pillars of the system – the army high command and the Muslim Brotherhood – and settle their disagreement (which of the two will be in the forefront). The two candidates “acceptable” in this sense were the only ones to receive adequate means to run their campaigns. Morsi (MB: 24%) and Chafiq (Army: 23%). The movement’s real candidate – H.Sabbahi – who did not receive the means normally granted to candidates, allegedly only got 21% of the vote (the figure is questionable).

At the end of protracted negotiations it was agreed that Morsi was the “winner” of the second round. The assembly, like the president, was elected thanks to a massive distribution of parcels (of meat, oil and sugar) to those who voted for the Islamists. And yet, the “foreign observers” failed to observe a situation that is openly ridiculed in Egypt. The assembly’s dissolution was delayed by the army, which wanted to give the Brotherhood time to bring discredit upon itself by refusing to address social issues (employment, salaries, schools and health!).

The system in place, “presided” over by Morsi, is the best guarantee that lumpen-development and the destruction of the institutions of the state, which are the objectives pursued by Washington, will continue. We will see how the revolutionary movement, which is still firmly committed to the fight for democracy, social progress and national independence, will carry on after this electoral charade.

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Sudan and Egypt: The uprising continues

Sokari Ekine

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83203

Sudanese President al Bashir must contend with the anger of his own people on the streets; and in Egypt, the people are not convinced the win by Morsi is their own victory.

The renewed Sudan uprising whose genesis can be traced back to December 2010 is now nearly two weeks old. The latest protests began when a small group of women students from the University of Khartoum held a demonstration in response to increases in transport and food prices. [ ]http://bit.ly/KNvzJk] Women of Sudan have been involved in previous protests such as those which took place in September 2010 and March 201. In both cases women were protesting against violence against women.

The protests have now moved to include other universities and the general public calling for regime change in Sudan. The protests come at a time of economic crisis for Sudan. Years of fighting wars in western and southern regions- Darfur, Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile. [http://bit.ly/MAYbRA] In the east, a 2006 peace deal signed with the Eastern Front [Kassala- ]http://bit.ly/MAZD6u] remains precarious and the dispute with South Sudan over oil, pipelines and land remain. The picture is a beleaguered Khartoum government which in addition to wars and insurgency on it’s borders is now having to fight an internal uprising with it’s own people.

The government has predictably responded with tear gas, beatings and arrests and has particularly targeted bloggers and foreign journalists. Usamah Mohammed @simsimt [http://bit.ly/MB0XpX], Karima Fath Al-Rahman [http://bit.ly/MTQIyW] and a prominent activist Magdi Akasha of the youth movement, have all been arrested. [ http://bit.ly/LBzCGH ]Egyptian correspondent for the Bloomberg News, Salma Elwardany @S_Elwardany was detained for five hours and later deported. Maha El-Sanosi was taken from her house in the middle of the night together with her phone and laptop. She was later released but has to report to the NISS. Mohamed Hassan Alim was also taken from his house and remains in custody.

As to why the protests are taking place at this time, blogger Sudanese Thinker, AMIR AHMAD NASR writes [http://bit.ly/LNrkrZ]

“As the fear barrier crumbles, Sudanese have a chance to topple Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) cronies -- and to build a better future for their country. It is important to understand why Sudanese would risk their lives to oppose Bashir. The narratives peddled by some commentators about the country's recent conflicts -- that they are between "Arabs versus Africans," or "Muslims versus Christians" -- are not only unhelpful, they are wrong. These characterizations have neither benefited the international community nor the diverse citizens of Sudan -- including the Arabs and Afro-Arabs of the North who felt alienated by it, and who have also been violently oppressed for decades.”

Nasar, like other many other Sudanese bloggers and tweeters, insists the present protests are different from those in the past as they include the wider population and are taking place beyond the capital, Khartoum. Moze Ali [Thoughts of his Moezness [ http://bit.ly/MwELig ] points out that the protests are different because now people are calling for regime change rather than just opposition to the government’s austerity measures.

“The common misconception is that the protests are against the austerity plan, they're not. The protesters are calling for the fall of the regime. They might have been sparked by the austerity plan, but they have been ongoing for 10 days now and it doesn't seem that they will stop any time soon. The students, and citizens who eventually joined, want regime change for very simple and understandable reasons. The education and health systems in Sudan are virtually nonexistent. There's no infrastructure, no legal system, no economic plan of any sort, and last but not least, no freedom of expression. For all intents and purposes, Sudan is a failed state; statistically, socially, economically, financially, and any everything else.”

Yousif Elmahdi @Usiful_ME is defiant as the protests slow down:
“So things have calmed down recently, so what? This only ends when we say it does, & that’s with the regime gone. Nothing less...”

Referring to the planned mass protests on 30 June he writes that this needs to be huge and there is no turning back now. In an earlier piece he addresses the question: “Sudan, Are We a Failed Nation?” [http://bit.ly/LgySnF] The short answer is yes...

“Sudan is a failed state. Its social, political, and economic shortcomings render it third on Foreign Policy’s index. Basic freedoms are minimal; women are oppressed and activists, journalists and politicians arrested under a complicit rule of law. Poverty, estimated at 46.5% overall and 57.6% in rural areas, grows more acute. Sudan’s Human Development Index is lowest of all MENA countries - 169 of 187 overall. With conflicts in every corner of the country, the South may not be the last to secede. Corruption is so pervasive (sixth worst Corruption Perception Index) that Sudan would be a middle-income country had it implemented an amnesty similar to that announced in South Sudan. Instead, we remain stratified in the event horizon of an economic meltdown.”

He comments on the failures of previous uprisings which he attributes to a “helplessness” and a “fear induced passiveness often confused with apathy”.

In this situation, the Sudanese like people in other parts of the continent for example Nigeria, achieving change is too daunting and so we settle for less. Stumbling and mumbling along with the status quo until a time comes when this is no longer possible. Every time there is an uprising whether it’s Sudan, Nigeria or Cameroon people become less fearful and more determined and are able to sustain opposition for longer periods of time. This may not be THE uprising that will remove Omar Bashir but it is one on a continuum, a defining moment in the struggle that will eventually see him go the way of his neighbours to the north.

EGYPT

Mohammed Morsi is now the president of Egypt but questions remain on how much worth the position has and for how long will he remain. As Sharif Kouddous shows, what was supposed to be the end of the transitionary military rule, Egypt has instead become a military dictatorship with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF] has ‘assumed near-full control of all the key branches of the state”. [http://bit.ly/Mx0eaI]

“Minutes after polls closed Sunday evening in the country’s first-ever competitive presidential election, which pitted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi against Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak’s last prime minister, the SCAF issued a set of constitutional amendments that strip the incoming president of almost all significant powers and cement military authority over the post-Mubarak era. The move by the ruling generals came days after the dissolution of the popularly elected parliament by a court packed with Mubarak-appointed judges, as well as a decree by the Minister of Justice reintroducing elements of martial law to the country by granting the military broad powers to arrest and detain civilians.”

Following an increase in sexual violence [http://bit.ly/Mx6WO2] Egyptian women will be holding another demonstration in Tahir Square. The demonstration is being organised by the Sexual Harrassment Action Group [SHAG - ]http://on.fb.me/M5aObw] The website Nazra.org has published testimonies from women who have experienced sexual violence. It is additionally disturbing that Tahrir Square - the site of revolutionary protests has become a ‘war zone of harassment”.

“Although sexual violence towards women is a problem not necessarily with a focal point, in recent weeks, the iconic Tahrir Square has become an almost war-zone for harassment, Egyptian and foreign women have told Bikyamasr.com.

“I was pushing through and as the men were praying in the square, I had my butt and chest grabbed repeatedly by people,” said one Egyptian woman, who asked that her identity not be revealed.

She told Bikyamasr.com that “I was in shock, because the Islamists were in the square, but I guess it doesn’t matter who is protesting, women will be attacked.”

Other women, including foreign journalists, told Bikyamasr.com that they had been repeatedly groped on the streets near and inside Tahrir Square. For many, they said they will not return to the square during the evening in fear of being sexually assaulted.” [ Bikyamasr - http://bit.ly/LQ92I8 ]

Many of the testimonies speak to organised mob attacks of sexual assault which many see as being motivated by a desire to “punish women and keep them at home”. There is also the very real possibility that the harassment is being carried out by SCAF paid thugs to terrorise women and stop them from going to the square and the surrounding streets.

THE MEDIA

Whilst Al Jazeera was seen as a ‘friend’ to Tunisian, Libyan and Egyptians this has not been the case in Sudan. Both Al Jazeera [English and Arabic] and AJ Stream have been accused of supporting the Bashir regime by a number of Sudanese tweeters namely:

@ Arch_Asaad, @Am_e89 and @Tahir3T.

@Tahir3T Please keep mentioning @SkyNewsArabia_B @Alarabiya &@france24_ar for everything & Skip @Ajarabic @AJenglish‪‪#SudanRevolts‬‬ ‫‫#السودان_ينتفض‬‬
@Arch_Asaad So @AJStream decided NOW to ask me to Skype w/ them telling them what happened? I rather do it with another Media does not protect a Tyrant

Mimz ‏@MimzicalMimz

Dear @AJStream, you can refer to @amnesty but the loop will bring you right back to the source (us). Please stop patronizing us.

Sarah Mohamed Ali ‏@Sarorah @TilalAbubakr @simsimt @Arch_Asaad It's all about political orientations.. Aj are clearly one of the government tools to report ppl to NISS

The reasons behind the above comments are not clear beyond what is self-evident, that is, they have been betrayed in some way. Finally for those who claim the Sudan uprising is disorganised and without a demand led focus, Girifna’s published demands from February 2011 are worth repeating. [http://www.girifna.com/blog-girifna/demands ]

“We demand the resignation of the National Congress Party (NCP) government, to be replaced by a transitional government. This transitional government should represent all geographical regions of Sudan, its civil society agencies, youth and women. We expect the transitional government to achieve the following:

1- Conduct national elections within a time-frame that is no longer than two years.

2- Eliminate all public order laws and laws restricting freedoms.

3- Eliminate all increases imposed by the NCP on the prices of basic consumption goods such as fuel, sugar and foodstuff. And take action to fight poverty and improve living conditions.

4- Release all political prisoners and ensure freedom of political participation and freedom of the press.

5- Put a stop to the use of religion to terrorize political opponents as well as stop all atonement campaigns and accusations of treason.

6- Recreate the national forces, police, security and public service agencies to ensure they serve national interests and are professional, objective, neutral and transparent.

7- Investigate all violations against human rights and torture and bring those responsible to trial.

8- Investigate all crimes of corruption and illegal accumulation of wealth, as well as the looting of public wealth. In addition, put to trial all those accused of corrupt practices and pursue the recovery of what they stole from the country’s resources and wealth.

9- Reevaluation of Sudanese judicial personnels and the immediate formation of transparent courts of appeals to accept and handle appeals of cases ruled by the Sudanese judicial system since June 30 1989. These courts have the legitimacy to refute a previous ruling and compensate individuals or groups.

10- Resolve the crisis in Darfur and respond to all the demands of the people of Darfur, as well as put to trial those who have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

11- Stop the war on our people of South Kurdufan, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains.

12- Ensure the freedom of mobility, residency, work and ownership to South Sudanese residing in Sudan.

13- Conduct a national conference to find a mechanism to govern Sudan and find solutions to the current national crisis.

14- Put an end to the ethnic monopoly over power and permit the participation of all marginalized peoples.

15- Allow the active participation of youth in political decisions and give youth the opportunity to assume leadership positions within their parties.

16- Adopt a democratic mechanism to draft and approve a national constitution that codifies these demands for freedom, social justice and equity into law.

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Are women occupying new movements?

Hakima Abbas

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83199

cc S CLong before people took to the streets of Tunis and the squares of Cairo, two important acts of mass civil resistance tipped the balance of power and forced concessions for democratization in Guinea (2007) and Madagascar (2009), with women maintaining visible leadership within the top tiers of the mobilizations.

At the recently concluded OpenForum, held in Cape Town South Africa, I was asked to speak to the question of whether ‘women are occupying new movements.’ There are a number of implicit assumptions in this framing. One of which is that the mass civil resistance that the world has recently witnessed in various places around the globe, including in Africa’s North[1] and North America, constitute movements rather than moments in a continuous process of transformative change. There has been a focus on acts of civil resistance rather than the process of change due to the spotlight and interests of corporate media, as well as the massive uprising and impact of popular mobilization achieved in Tunisia and Egypt.

Yara Sallam of Nazra for Feminist Studies poignantly stated, “we see the overturn of the Mubarak regime as the spark of revolution, not the completion of it. The Egyptian peoples’ revolution has just started.”[2] As this statement suggests, the moments of significant shift to democratize society in Africa’s North are part of a larger process of change – not only does the struggle continue, it is part of a long history and trajectory of people- centered African struggle for liberation. Indeed Egypt’s leaderfull[3] revolution was the culmination of decades of popular resistance primarily centered around the labor struggle and its formations.

Activist and writer Arundhati Roy, speaking at the People’s University in Washington Square Park stated, “The Occupy movement has joined thousands of other resistance movements all over the world in which the poorest of people are standing up and stopping the richest corporations in their tracks. Few of us dreamed that we would see you, the people of the United States on our side, trying to do this in the heart of Empire.”[4] Occupy, as an anti-imperialist movement led largely around anarchist principles, is indeed following the multitude of people around the world from Mozambique to Senegal, Greece to Honduras, who have opposed a neo-liberal onslaught which has strangled nations and citizens into entrenched poverty and dependency. Because of (our)stories[5] of centuries of resistance against occupation, part of the struggle of the 99% in the United States must be to dismantle the power and privilege which keeps them in the 1% in relation to 99% of the world’s people.

It seems evident, if only demographically, that no movement could thrive without the active participation of women. Despite this, what is consistently disputed is the participation of women in acts of civil resistance and while the question of role is posed, an important question of power remains. In the age of Twitter, Facebook and rapid diffusion of images around the world, the participation of women on the front lines of protest and in acts of mass civil resistance can no longer be disputed. However, the power of women evidenced by our leadership within movements, the actions committed, and the ensuing change remains to be assessed. Further, the feminist perspectives, theories, practices that shape the movements lack analysis. Indeed, assessments of the ways in which patriarchal power within the movements is or is not destabilized are needed.

It is our responsibility as women in the struggle to not only document our presence and analyze our modes of participation in movements for change, but we must also seek to understand how our theory (individual and collective) informs movements, deconstructs patriarchy within movements, and shapes the collective vision for liberation for all. Even people’s (our)stories have rested on the narrative of men in the struggle—men who have access to tools of documentation and have been positioned in formal leadership. So while the political thought of independence struggle in Ghana, for instance, is largely documented through the writings of Nkrumah, the invisible political process, thought, and tactics of the market women who were central to liberation remains obscured with recognition relegated to participation rather than leadership of thought, knowledge, ideas and strategies. Even the political thought of women who have held formal leadership positions in our liberation struggles, like Field Marshal Muthoni in Kenya, Bibi Titi Mohammed in Tanzania, Thenjiwe Mtintso in South Africa, has yet to be archived. We need to know how their knowledges shaped the movements in which they held active leadership roles.

Long before people took to the streets of Tunis and the squares of Cairo, two important acts of mass civil resistance tipped the balance of power and forced concessions for democratization in Guinea (2007) and Madagascar (2009). Women maintained visible leadership roles within the top tiers of the mobilizations in Guinea and in Madagascar. In Guinea, Rabiatou Serah Diallo, General Secretary of the National Confederation of Guinean Workers was one of three leaders of the general strike and in Madagascar Mamy Rakotondrainibe is the president of the ‘Collectif pour la Défense des Terres Malgaches’ which was active in the protests against land grabbing that sparked the mass protests of 2009. Without the corporate media spotlight on this civil resistance, the gains and losses have not shaped the popular imagination of Egypt and Tunisia and allowed for the proliferation of lessons learned. And as with the field marshals of liberation, no significant attempts to document the political thought of these women and the countless foot soldiers have been made.

In both our past and present struggles, the documentation of women’s political thought must not be a purely academic exercise but rather a feminist movement building process, which allows women’s contributions to create and build an alternative world order. As Shereen Essof points out, “In an environment of deepening polarisation, alienation and misogyny, when the world’s socio- economic and political paradigms are failing us, it is important that as feminist activists we re-evaluate our strategy in order to be clear about which platforms allow us to engage in activism that contributes to building a free world for all people by dismantling patriarchy and its brother ideologies.”[6]

Part of the potential contribution of feminist political thought is a reconceptualization of economic relations, resource relationships, and the definitions of labor which would break down patriarchal capitalist dominance. In the democratizing movements which are gaining ground as the neoliberal capitalist global order is shifting from its imperial base in the United States, this reconceptualization is critical if we are to deconstruct dichotomies such as informal and formal labor and social reproduction and production. This can only be done if women’s political and economic thought is part of the narrative and women themselves are the source and creators of knowledge and alternatives. This will be particularly salient in the revolutions of Africa’s North as the decentralized leaderfull nature of peoples’ uprisings present important opportunities for democratized knowledge from various sites of struggle. It is also true in struggles such as the one led by women in West Africa who have come together to resist market-driven solutions to agricultural practices and to build sustainable agro-ecological and women-centered alternatives. Their campaign is fittingly called We Are the Solution.

Importantly, the growing movements for democratization of Africa are pushing organizing outside of the NGO space, the dominance of which was strangling resistance into logframes. The leadership of women in multiple sites of struggle create important conversations about where transformative processes percolate and whether the revolution can create self-determination from the body to national borders. The unique protest of Aliaa Magda in Egypt whose near naked photos stood as a singular reclamation of embodiment spoke eloquently to this nexus.

Let us bring together multiple people, groups, and communities from and in various spaces to redefine and create alternatives based on past and present community-based knowledges, principles of equity, and value for plurality. Not merely as an intellectual exercise, but as a profound community process of building a different world. As Paulo Freire says: “Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. The content of that dialogue can and should vary in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality. But to substitute monologue, slogans and communiqués for dialogue is to attempt to liberate the oppressed with the instruments of domestication.”[7]

As the people of Africa take to the streets, at the vanguard are those most disempowered and marginalized from the dominant project, it is indeed time that African women, and peoples broadly, create our world in our image reclaiming our power and self-determination.

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* Hakima Abbas is executive director of Fahamu. This article was first published by The Feminist Wire.

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.


END NOTES

[1] The term “North Africa” has become associated with the division between so-called sub-Saharan Africa and the north of the continent. I use Africa’s North as a reclaiming formulation which places the north of our continent as inherently part of the whole.

[2] Yara Sallam, Nazra for Feminist Studies, during Open Forum, May 2012, Cape Town, South Africa

[3] The Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings in 2011 are often referred to as “leaderless revolutions.” I posit here that these, more accurately, can be described as leaderfull civil resistance.

[4] Arundhati Roy speaking at the People’s University in Washington Square Park, New York, United States, 16 November 2011

[5] I use (our)stories throughout in an attempt to gender neutralize the terms history or herstory, which is more commonly used in feminist activism, in recognition of gender plurality rather than a binary and an attempt to reclaim the past in the narrative of the people rather than the powerful.

[6] ‘South Africa: patriarchy, paper, and reclaiming feminism’,Shereen Essof, 21 February 2012, openDemocracy

[7] ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, Paulo Freire, 1970

South Sudan a year later: What to do?

Makol Bona Malwal

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83205

cc E PThe problems facing the new nation are the product of non-existent or underdeveloped state institutions, themselves the product of the current system’s failure to redefine itself from a liberation movement to a ruling party with a mandate to deliver services to the population.

Reversing more than half a century of neglect, suffering and civil war should be our top priority now. In addition to the heartbreaking human toll taken over the years, we are also left with a combustible internal political scene. The reality is that maybe the hardest challenge that we are faced with is: what to do?

A year old and we are beginning to be known as the problem country. Needless to say the problems are many. Poverty, diseases, famine, poor leadership, ethnic clashes and corruption are just a few of these problems. With each passing day the problems increase. It has been a series of disasters, with no recovering from any on sight, only to fall into another.

If one surveys the daunting economic, social and political problems that confront us now, it seems that millions of South Sudanese are thinking the unthinkable, regardless of whether we (South Sudanese) admit it openly or we do not, that the liberation and independence promise has in many respects faded away. South Sudan will never be the same, but it will not likely be what our people imagined it to be either.

Most South Sudanese are decent people. South Sudan fought for so long with the foundational beliefs of “dignity has to be restored to all South Sudanese”. This sentiment as little as it may be is still existing, but making it a reality is far more complex than anyone had imagined.

Our problems are the product of non-existing or underdeveloped state institutions, themselves the product of the current system’s failure to redefine itself from a liberation movement to a ruling party with a mandate to deliver services to the population. On the other hand there are no examples in post-colonial Africa of liberation movements that have managed this transition completely or successfully.

To show signs of performing, leave alone in a better way, the system first will have to concern itself with governance and this is not a simple shift to make.

We are in a struggle over the transition of South Sudan to a different system that we do not know yet. We have to define the long-term objectives of what that system should be - in meaningful, but still very general terms. We do not have and cannot have a precise idea of appropriate structures for that better system we want to construct. And we should not pretend that we have.

In the short term we have to keep in the forefront of our minds that our task/ work is primarily to keep things from getting worse. It is to preserve gains already achieved, mainly our independence and not sliding back into an all-out South Sudanese civil war. Most important of all we must remember that in the middle run, we are living in a time of transition. In this transition, the issue is no longer whether or not we want to sustain the system, but what will replace it. And we have to work very hard and very uncompromisingly, to push in the direction of a more democratic and a more egalitarian system.

We cannot construct such a system in this middle term. What we can do is to make possible the multiple political activities that will end up tilting the balance in favor of a better organised and a far less noxious system.

The current system in its preoccupation with holding on to political power neglects the essential task of developing independent state institutions. There is no state-led training program for civil servants and most of these positions are given to political actors as thank you for services rendered in the independence struggle or for displaying personal loyalty. Hence South Sudan does not have a skilled and professional bureaucracy.

A very important reason why South Sudan will remain poor is the stranglehold of an archaic provincialism that now permeates all sectors of society. It is a mentality allergic to talent and merit and today especially fearful of the vast and well-educated South Sudanese diaspora.

Criticism within the system is rare, which allows poor performance and unethical behavior to go unsanctioned. We must discard the notion of; I deserve to do whatever I like, because I went to the bush. The oligarchy surrounding the system tells itself what they think they want to hear. Communities emerging from conflict need more results than noise; but even more important is that all actors see the need to act with humility.

The defining political issue of the moment in South Sudan is: Is government too big - a burden to our society? Or is it too ineffective a protector of less than average people, co-opted by the power of the gun and moneyed interests? Is it contributing to the general welfare of our people or is it institutionalising inequality, serving the few rather than the many? However you slice it, the outlook/ answers are grim.

In the long term, the political challenge will be building a more equitable society that engages in peaceful nation-building that is law-abiding, transparent, democratic and inclusive of the diversity within our country. Other countries in Africa such as Ghana, Botswana and further afield such as India have attained democracy despite social divisions, low literacy rates and poverty, etc.

In spite of all that, we cannot rely on outsiders with a variety of agendas and motives to challenge these vices for us. It must come from within us, with the support and solidarity of those who respect South Sudanese sovereignty and aspirations and have the best interest of all South Sudanese people at heart.

We have to remember that the outcome of the struggle during the present chaotic transition is not in any way inevitable; it probably has a fifty-fifty chance and will be influenced by the totality of the actions of people on both sides. One can define fifty- fifty as unfortunately low. I define it as a great opportunity, which we should not fail to try to seize.

To state the obvious, political stability depends on economic and social security and for development to take place in South Sudan there must be peace, security and stability.

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* Makol Bona Malwal can be reached at: mbmalwal@yahoo.com

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Signs of the times in Haiti

The military, money and the meaning of an occupation

Nia Imara

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83222

cc UN PhotoThere are periods in a country’s history when the signs and warnings that that history will soon enter into a dramatically different phase are clear as day. Such is the period today in Haiti, where daily events portend an inauspicious development for the future: the Haitian Army may soon be returning.

For the past several months, paramilitary groups consisting of former military men, former death squad members, and new recruits have been planting themselves throughout Haiti. They are armed, they have new uniforms, and they are loudly demanding that Michel Martelly make good on his presidential campaign promise to formally bring back the army, which former President Aristide disbanded back in 1995 to near universal support. This past April, one of these groups of hopeful soldiers stormed Haiti’s parliament to voice their demands and their support for Prime Minister designate Laurent Lamothe. It is estimated that as many as 3,500 men and women are currently training in impromptu military bases across the country.

President Martelly, who was elected by only a small minority of the populace in March 2011, has publically denounced the armed men and asked them to disband. [1] But it strains the imagination to think that he is truly ingenuous, and anyone who honestly assesses his record would be hard pressed to assert that he is genuinely displeased with the activity of the renegade paramilitary. To the contrary, the reformation of the Haitian Army is in perfect alignment with his plans for Haiti’s future. Last year, Martelly announced a $95 million plan to form a new army. [2] To begin, the plan calls for the employment of 3,500 soldiers, as well as a National Intelligence Service (SIN is the French acronym) that would be authorized to handle people accused of “terrorism”.

Yet the return of the army is far from what the majority of Haitians have expressed that they want for their country, which is still suffering from the January 2010 earthquake, from cholera introduced by the United Nations (UN), and from more than eight years of a debilitating military occupation by the UN, the United States, France, and Canada, with Brazil having nominal command of the UN troops.

Martelly’s entry into office gave the green light to the unofficial military, known as the Pink Militia in Haiti, which has since been actively organizing itself and even claiming authority over the law in some neighborhoods. This past year especially, a climate of fear and repression has descended, especially upon those who are active in Haiti’s most popular political organization, called Lavalas. Reports from Haiti indicate that pro-democracy grassroots activists are under attack by elements that are both officially and unofficially affiliated with Martelly and who would also like to see the return of the army. Due to the repression, intimidation, and threats to their lives, some activists have gone into hiding. Many in Haiti who are old enough to remember compare the period today with the Duvalier dictatorship, which used the army as an instrument of repression against the poor majority.

Martelly’s administration and the UN have permitted these paramilitary groups to act with near-impunity. [3] This should come as no surprise, however, since Martelly — a loyal supporter of the Duvalier regime who gained the eager support of the US State Department—has been unwavering in his promise to bring back the army, and because for the past eight years the UN has consistently sided with the forces that made the coup against the democratically elected Lavalas government in 2004. Each of these parties—the army, the Martelly administration, the US government, and the UN — have a common vision for the future of Haiti. In order for this future to be realized, it is necessary for the army to be reborn.

* * *

Since Haiti is often portrayed as a hopelessly impoverished nation with a history of political corruption and instability, why the United States is so interested in Haiti might seem inconceivable. “Why Haiti?” one is led to ask. Though the answer may be difficult to accept, the facts are incontrovertible: the United States provided the Duvalier dictatorship and it death squads with tens of millions of dollars; the US helped to fund and train the Haitian-born paramilitary that provided the cover to bring down Aristide’s democratic Lavalas government in 2004; US organizations including USAID and the International Republican Institute have generously supplied anti-Lavalas groups with resources and sponsored anti-Aristide campaigns in the media; the US government aided and abetted the kidnapping and forced exile of Aristide from Haiti….But what conclusions should we draw from all this? Why Haiti? What’s in it for the US?

Underlying the question “Why Haiti?” is the notion that Haiti, a small, desperately impoverished country of ten million souls, has little to offer such a powerful nation as the United States. It is not commonly known, however, that there is a vast amount of money to be made in Haiti. Anyone who has lived in poverty knows how incredibly costly it is to be poor. The reverse side of this coin: How enormously lucrative poverty can be.

The answer to the question “Why Haiti?” has been accurately summarized by Haitians who have witnessed the powerful, wealthy elite of this world tear apart their country since the 2004 coup. Five or six years ago, in the early days of the occupation, many Haitians explained that the US sponsored the coup so that it could pave the way for its neoliberal agenda in Haiti, so that it could privatize Haiti. In order to do this, it was imperative that the Lavalas movement—the chief obstacle to this goal—be destabilized and repressed. This is precisely what has taken place in Haiti for the past eight years, and in recent years, it is clear that these efforts have borne much fruit. Here are a few examples:

• Promptly after Aristide was forced into exile in 2004, the United States Congress began to deliberate on the HOPE Act, which provided for the duty-free export to the US of products manufactured in Haiti. It was passed in 2006.

• In 2007, President René Préval announced that the state-owned telephone company Teleco would be privatized. In a deal brokered by the World Bank, the plans were consummated in April 2010, and the company now belongs primarily to Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese Army.

• In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brokered a deal for the South Korean clothing company Sae-A Co. Ltd. to open up shop in Haiti. US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that the US government worked with US clothing manufacturers to oppose a minimum wage increase for Haitian assembly line workers. [4]

• The Inter-American Development Bank, Sae-A Co., and the US government are presently constructing the Caracol Industrial Park in northern Haiti. Ground was broken last November, and the US has thus far committed $124 million to the project.

• In December 2011, the Dutch company Heineken announced its plans to increase its shareholding in the leading Haitian brewer from 22.5% to 95%. [5]

• After the 2010 earthquake, the Canadian firm Majescor Resources acquired all of the shares of a Haitian firm in order to begin searching for gold, copper, and other minerals. Within the past couple of years, US and other multinational investors—including Newmont Mining Corp., Eurasian Minerals Inc., and VCS Mining—have also acquired permits and spent millions of dollars for exploratory drilling campaigns for minerals in northern Haiti. [6]

Thus, the gold rush on occupied Haiti is both literal and figurative. But Haitians have long been aware of their human and material wealth. For instance, the platform of Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide’s political party, for his second term in office, included detailed accounts and plans for the gold and other mineral resources that have recently been “discovered” in Haiti. [7] The foreign companies and corporations that want to exploit Haiti invariably claim that their investments will create more opportunities for the people and that they will facilitate Haiti’s sovereignty. History, however, tells a different story.

For nearly a century, going back at least as far as the US military occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934—US and international business interests have made duplicitous investments in Haiti that proved to be to the overwhelming disadvantage of the majority. Then, as during the Duvalier dictatorship of 1957 to 1986, these interests exploited repressive conditions to execute profitable business deals with undemocratic regimes in the service of the Haitian and foreign elite. The case of rice is an infamous example. In the 1980s, in compliance with international lending agencies — and while the country was still reeling from Duvalierism — Haiti lifted tariffs from rice imports, after which the US — where the rice industry was subsidized — promptly flooded the market with cheaper rice. Haitian farmers could not compete, and the price of rice steadily rose once Haiti’s dependence on the US for this staple was consolidated. This policy destroyed Haitian rice farming and severely crippled the country’s ability to be self-sufficient agriculturally. In 2010, former President Clinton, whose home state of Arkansas was one of the largest beneficiaries of this policy, publicly apologized for his role in this situation, which led to increased urbanization and an increasing dependence on sweatshop labor to fuel Haiti’s economy.

In his book, Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization, Aristide describes this and other salient examples of how foreign investors’ conditional investment in and privatization of Haiti have adversely impacted the society. He also provides solutions and a vision of the future for Haiti, which are simply reflections of the hopes and strivings of most Haitians, who elected him president by an overwhelming majority in 2000. During his first term in office in 1995, with overwhelming popular support, he disbanded the military, which had consumed 40 percent of the national budget. Today, the people have consistently expressed their desire for free and widespread access to education, employment, housing, an inclusive and democratic government, and an end to the UN/US occupation—not for an army.

The right thing for the United States government to do is to break with its odious foreign policy of supporting dictatorships in Haiti as well as its abhorrent treatment of the Haitian people. At the very least, it should withdraw its support of Michel Martelly and the occupation and to stop trying to control Haiti’s future, by economic or any other means.

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* Dr. Nia Imara is a longtime member of Haiti Action Committee: http://haitisolidarity.net/
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END NOTES

[1] Martelly was selected by les than 17% of the electorate. Funded in part by the US government, the fraudulent elections that brought him to power violated a number of Haitian laws—for instance, the most popular political party, Lavalas, was banned from participating—and were widely boycotted. See “The Emperor Has No Votes” by Charlie Hinton. http://goo.gl/vlPgp . By comparison, in the 2000 elections, the voter turnout was at least 65%, and Aristide was reelected to a second presidency with 92% of the vote.
[2] “Haitians Train for a Future With a Military.” http://goo.gl/BKCp6
[3] Time will tell how effectively the UN follow through with its very recent “crack downs” on the illicit army. “UN crack down armed men pushing to restoration of army.” http://goo.gl/s7ofj
[4] “WikiLeaks Haiti: Let Them Live on $3 a Day.” http://goo.gl/Sg5xx
[5] “HEINEKEN to increase shareholding in leading Haitian brewer.” http://goo.gl/57Tpa
[6] “Shock waves — Majescor flourishes in post-quake Haiti.” http://goo.gl/46gkH
[7] “Eurasian Minerals Provides an Update on Haiti Exploration Programs.” http://goo.gl/g9iiq
[8] "Investir dans l'Humain, Livre Blanc de Fanmi Lavalas, Sous la Direction de Jean-Bertrand Aristide." Published by Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, Haiti. 1999.

And you, what are you waiting for? A World without slavery

Beverly Bell

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83196

cc Water.orgHaiti is home to one form of slavery propelled by economic desperation. Parents who cannot feed or school their children regularly give them away in the hopes that the family receiving them will offer more than they themselves can.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Birthing Justice: Women Creating Economic and Social Alternatives. The series features twelve alternative social and economic models which expand the possibilities for justice, equity, and strong community. They are based in the US, Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Some are national-level, some global-level. Some are propelled by people’s movements, some forced or adopted into government policy. In first-hand narratives, women describe their role in having created the models and show us their unique perspectives and challenges in the movements.

Below is the twelfth narrative of Birthing Justice.

Today there are up to 27 million slaves in the world, more than at any time in history, even including during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.[1] In many cases, the slave systems are facilitated by the spike in global trade in a quest for global profits. Though that trade is often called ‘free’, what is in fact free is the movement of the captives across borders – free as in easy – and their labor – free as in unpaid.

Haiti is home to one form of slavery propelled by economic desperation. Parents who cannot feed or school their children regularly give them away in the hopes that the family receiving them will offer more than they themselves can. Instead, the children usually end up in forced servitude, as restavèk or “stay with’s.” Anywhere from
225,000 to 300,000 restavèk work every day from before sunup to way after sundown.[2] The children are as young as three, with girls between six and 14 years old comprising 65% of the population.[3] They are often sexually and physically abused.

Helia Lajeunesse is part of a group of restavèk who are raising visibility of and opposition to the system. The survivors are joined with other social sectors who are working for a more just economy, since abolition resides largely in eradicating the economic desperation of parents.

Helia is also part of a global movement of people working toward a world where no one is commodified, and where the dignity and rights of each can flourish.


HELIA LAJEUNESSE | PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

The restavèk system is modern slavery. When a family takes in a restavèk to live with them, they stop doing any work in the house. The restavèk child has to do everything. If the child doesn’t work hard enough, they beat them. The child can’t eat with the family, and usually doesn’t even eat the same food – just scraps. He or she sleeps on the floor, often in the kitchen. They don’t pay the child; they just give them a little food. They never send him or her to school. The family views that child as an animal.

It’s such a horrible system and it’s due to the economic situation of the country. You might have a family that has a lot of kids; that family can’t afford to give the child even food so they send him or her to the home of someone else, in the hopes that that person can provide better care.

Let me give you an example from my own life. I had five children. They lost their father. I couldn’t feed them. I was obliged to give four away, even though the youngest was only three years old. I only kept the littlest who wasn’t even a year old then.

When I went to Washington to talk about restavèk, what made me so sad was to go to a museum that had an exhibit on slavery. I saw a picture of a woman with a hoe, a basket under her elbow, and a rope around her waist. That’s how my life had been as a restavèk. It made me cry.

Here’s my story. My mother died when I was seven months old. I went to live with my grandmother, but she died when I was five. My relatives didn’t have the means to care for me, so they gave me to someone. I went to live at that person’s house as a restavèk. I was the one who got up first and went to bed last. Whatever work had to happen there, I was the one to do it. I got up at 4:00 to make the fire and cook the food. I was the one who had to go get the water and carry it back up the mountain on my head. They didn’t give me any food from what they ate; I had to go out into the street and scrounge around to get my own food. They used to beat me on the head.

One day, I was coming back from delivering food to the child of the house, which I had to carry on my head to her at school every day. There was a man holding a school under a thatched hut. He called to me, “Come be part of this school.” I said, “No, I can’t, because when I go home, my aunt [the common term for the guardian] will beat me.” He said, “You should come.” I went. Then when I went home, I said, “There was a man holding a school today, so I attended.” She said, “What? You went to school?” I said, “Yes, and could you please give me a little pencil and a notebook?” She asked me what I thought I was doing and started beating me.

Poverty and misery made me not know how to read and write, or count in my head, until I was a grown-up.

Through my childhood and youth, I escaped three times and went to different homes, four in all. But each time, I suffered as badly or worse than before. I was abused so much. Misery was killing me.

When I was nine years old, the child of the home fell down at school and hurt her knee. I told her mother that. The mother called the police to come arrest me, and I spent a day in the police station. Everyone said to her, “Your daughter just fell down. You shouldn’t do that to this girl.” So she came to free me.

I said to myself, “One day, my life is going to change.” Despite that, though, I kept on suffering misery.

A young man started liking me, a person of good faith. He brought me to Port-au-Prince and he got us a little room to stay in. He gave me five children. We were living in such poverty. Then in 2004, a gang of men broke into my house. They raped me and my oldest daughter. My husband tried to protest, and they took him away; we’ve never seen him again. My daughter got pregnant, so then I had a grandchild from rape. I was raising five children and a grandchild all by myself.

That’s when I found KOFAVIV, the Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim. It’s made up of women who’ve been raped and who were restavèk. They supported me and embraced me and didn’t let me go. They got me health care, got me tested for HIV-AIDS, and found a psychologist who could talk with me. They also got me to be part of a reflection circle, which is sharing about what you’re suffering with a group of women and learning how to move forward. Only then did I learn that my life wasn’t over.

But even though my life got a little better, I still suffer so much because my son and my daughter aren’t with me. The reason is that the person who killed their father is close by, and they say they don’t want to come to the neighborhood where I live. As long as that man is around, they’re scared he can come back for them.

So my 18-year-old daughter is still living as a restavèk. That hurts my heart so much. Here I am struggling against the system, but I still have a child who is in it. I can’t live in peace. I know that family isn’t treating her well. They haven’t even put her in school.

I’m struggling to end slavery in Haiti because I know how I suffered. Even though my life hasn’t changed 100%, it’s not the same way it was. Now I can advocate for people, I
can travel to the US to stand up in front of crowds of people and speak.

We do a lot of things in KOFAVIV. We’re working with victims, women who were
restavèk, to help them re-establish their lives. We also embrace children who are restavèk today to help them not get discouraged by life. We have a school that we’ve established in Martissant where children who don’t have a mother or father, or who were raised as restavèk, can now go study. We do professional training for 50 youth.

Another thing we do is raise the level of consciousness of people who keep restavèk children. (But I have to tell you, it’s not just families who have restavèk; people also treat their own children this way.) We do theater with them, tell them stories and jokes, try to create a relaxed ambiance. We help them understand that when someone lives in their house, they shouldn’t view her or him as a restavèk. That person is a child. Make their lives easy. Send them to school, give them knowledge. Look on that child as though it’s your own child.

We also help parents in the countryside who think they’re doing their child a favor by sending them to go live with a family in town. They think their child is fine. We encourage them to do whatever is within their means to keep their child with them and not give them away into servitude.

We’re also getting neighbors to know they have a responsibility, too. We encourage people, when they know a family is mistreating a child, to try to go talk with them. We say, “If you hear someone beating a child in their home, go knock on the door and talk to the person. Tell them to stop beating the child. Tell them that this is a human being and they need to treat them well.” If you go talk a first time and a second time and nothing changes, the third time you can take another level of action. Go talk to the police.

When we can’t confront the person directly because we’re worried about what will happen to the child afterward, we put a tape recorder outside the violator’s window to record them beating the child. Then we take that tape to the radio station. The family hears it on the radio and is ashamed, and hopefully gets a different understanding about treatment of the child.

We talk to the press and radio about our work. We held a march in Port-au-Prince with thousands of people. We wore T-shirts that said, “I’m against the restavèk system. And you, what are you waiting for?” We did theater in the street, the press was there, everyone saw it. It was beautiful. We gave flyers with the same message to everyone who passed on foot and in cars.

We’re seeing a lot of response from our work. I don’t say that everyone is becoming 100% aware of how wrong this slavery is. We’re only in Port-au-Prince; we need it to change out in the countryside, too. But still, we’re seeing people change the way they’re treating the children who are living with them and their own children. For example, there was a woman who used to beat the restavèk child a lot. We invited her to the march. She brought her husband and the child who was living with her. That child used to sleep on a piece of cardboard in a kitchen. Even though the woman didn’t give the child a bed, at least now the girl has somewhere clean to lie down. And now they send the child to see her own family in Jacmel; they didn’t used to do that. The girl is going to school, too. We asked her, “How is your aunt treating you?” She said, “She doesn’t beat me anymore. She even plays with me.”

I feel that this slavery will end. It’s an enormous struggle. But just like I’ve learned and am speaking out, everyone will become aware that this system has to end. We need people to stand up for this, not just in KOFAVIV, but in the US, too. I ask everyone to lend their participation, whether it’s through their courage or their ideas, to help this struggle advance, and to stand strong in the work we’re doing.

We’re going to continue struggling to do away with this system completely. I can’t
say how soon this will happen, but it will. That’s certain.

NOTE: This interview was taken before the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

To learn more about Helia Lajeunesse’s organization, Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (KOFAVIV), please see www.kofaviv.org and www.beyondborders.net

NOTES

[1] Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (University of
California Press, 2004), 8.
[2] UNICEF, in its report Haiti 2010-2011: Mid-Year Review of 2010 Humanitarian Action Report, estimates 225,000. Child right advocates typically put the number at 300,000.
[3] US Department of State’s Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in Persons Report 2009, US Department of State, www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/
tiprpt/2009/123140.htm (accessed June 27, 2011).

INSPIRED? HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR GETTING INVOLVED!

• Not for Sale can connect you to organized efforts to end human trafficking and slavery. Its website provides detailed action items specific to academic, faith, business, and artistic communities (www.notforsalecampaign.org/action).
• Don’t support manufacturing made by enslaved people. Know who made what you buy and whether they use child and forced labor (www.free2work.org/companies).
• Learn where specific examples of slavery exist in your community and around the world with Not for
• Sale’s slavery map (www.slaverymap.org).

And check out the following resources and organizations:

• Coalition of Immokalee Workers Anti-Slavery Campaign, www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html
• Freedom Network U.S.A. to Empower Trafficked and Enslaved Persons, www.freedomnetworkusa.org
• Humanity United, www.humanityunited.org
• Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking, www.endslaveryandtrafficking.org
• Campaign to End Child Servitude (Haiti-specific) of Beyond Borders, www.beyondborders.net/WhatWeDo/EndingChildSlavery.aspx
• Restavèk Freedom Foundation (Haiti-specific), www.restavekfreedom.org
• Polaris Project, www.polarisproject.org
• End Child Prostitution and Trafficking, www.ecpatusa.org
• Free the Slaves, www.freetheslaves.net
• John Bowe, Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy (Random House, 2007)
• Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter, The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today (University of California Press, 2009)

Beverly Bell has worked for more than three decades as an advocate, organizer, and writer in collaboration with social movements in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S. Her focus areas are just economies, democratic participation, and gender justice. Beverly currently serves as associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and coordinator of Other Worlds. She is author of Walking on Fire: Haitian Women Stories of Survival and Resistance and of the forthcoming Fault Lines: Views Across Haiti’s Divide.

Copyleft Beverly Bell. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Beverly Bell, Other Worlds.

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Nigeria: The many faces of Islam

Abdulrazaq Magaji

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83204

cc T-CMilitant Islam is well known in Nigeria thanks to the atrocities committed by Boko Haram and other radical groups. What is less known, but remains a problem, is the intense conflicts among Muslim sects, which often hurt non-Muslims.

For Nigerian Muslims, this year’s Ramadaan, the one-month fasting period by adherents of the Islamic faith worldwide, will follow a weather beaten path. As is the practice, the Amir al Mumineen (Commander of the Faithfuls) and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, who is also the President General of Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, based on verifiable information from across the country, will soon announce the sighting of the new of the moon of Ramadaan to signal the commencement of the fasting period.

Expectedly, the announcement by His Eminence, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar will go unheeded by a significant minority. Many believe that those who will not heed the annual announcement choose that path as their way of protesting the recognition of the Sultan of Sokoto as leader of the Muslim community. Disagreements over the dates to commence the Ramadaan have, over the years, been the underlying manifestation of a needless acrimony among the Nigerian Muslim community. The façade of unity received a terrible jolt early last year.

In the thick of the 2011 presidential election campaign, prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi stirred the hornet’s nest when he publicly declared that he would have no qualms casting his ballot for a Christian in an election that pits a Christian against a member of the Jama’atu Izalatul Bidi’a wa Ikamatu Sunnah, JIBWIS, a Muslim sect that once subscribed to militant campaigns to, as the name suggests, end innovations in Islam and impose undiluted traditions of Prophet Muhammad on society. The red was still in the eyes of members of the Izala sect and apprehension grew among members of the Christian community when the cleric rationalised his position.

His words: ‘Christians don’t insult me, they don’t insult my religious beliefs, they don’t insult my respected religious leaders. That, precisely, is what the Izala man does; he calls himself a Muslim but he does not respect my beliefs. He openly insults me, he openly insults my religious and my respected religious leaders. He takes pride in openly referring to me as kafir. Why should I vote for someone who calls himself a Muslim but who publicly calls me kafir instead of a Christian who does not call me a kafir, at least, not in the open?’ Few disputed his claim: Prophet Muhammad, in some of his sayings, spoke vehemently against the use of the term kafir even for non-Muslims, especially Christians, who are recognised in the Holy Qur’an as Ahlil Kitaab or ‘People of the Book.’

At the heart of the disunity in the Muslim community is the raging controversy between members of the Ahlil Sunnah, the mainstream Muslim group and Izala, on one hand, and these two rival groups and other more militant groups on the other. Basically, all the contending religious groups have no fundamental differences; where they differ is how to attain these goals, a situation that has led to so much bloodletting and destruction of property. Strangely, non-Muslims have been often been caught in the crossfire of what should normally be intra-religious confrontations. Another interesting angle to the scenario is the common knowledge that all the new groups, many of them espousing extreme and militant views, sprouted from the mainstream Ahlil Sunnah. Except for some exceptions, all the contending and constantly feuding groups basically subscribe to the five cardinal pillars of Islam arranged in their order of simplicity: Iman (faith in God), Salat (five daily prayers), Saum (fasting during the month of Ramadaan), Zakat (alms giving) and Hajj (pilgrimage to the Holy Land). Noticeable exceptions surround the acceptance of Prophet Muhammad as the seal of prophets and some new but curious interpretations regarding the five daily prayers which some do not consider as mandatory.

Take, for instance, the Ahmadiyya. To the consternation of the Muslim community, members of the group, which originated in Pakistan, revered its founder, Ghulam Ahmad, to the extent of elevating him to the position of a messiah and prophet. Since the early 1970s, members of the Ahmadiyya sect have been contending with four out of the five cardinal pillars of Islam on account of their being barred from embarking on the annual Hajj. That decision by the Saudi authorities whipped majority members of the sect worldwide into line as they were forced to moderate their views. Though the Ahmadiyya sect still enjoys some visibility in Nigeria, the immediate reaction of majority of its members, in the aftermath of the decision to bar members of the sect from performing the Hajj, was to change the name of the group to Anwar- al Islam.

Though disagreement within the Muslim community had been simmering, it was basically limited to differences between the Tijjaniya and Quadriyya sects. But the Tijjaniyya and Quadriyya succeeded in managing their crises largely because they belonged to the mainstream Ahlil Sunnah. There is a widely held belief that it was the differences between the Tijjaniyya and Quadriyya that facilitated the emergence of the Izala. Since it came on stage, the perception of members of the Izala group of other Muslims, basically the Ahlil Sunnah, and which in the recent past was the source of constant bloody letting, is one big community of unbelievers because of innovations allegedly introduced into the practice of Islam by the Ahlil Sunnah. Two of the allegations levelled by the Izala against the Ahlil Sunnah are the annual celebration of Maulud Nabiyyi, or birthday of Prophet Muhammad and, regular songs of praise, zikr, in honour of the prophet.

Aside Maulud and zikr, the Izala are remarkable for frowning at naming ceremonies, ostentatious wedding ceremonies and display of respect for elders through prostrating before them. These, among others, are in the views of the Izala, mere innovations since they were not practiced in the days of the prophet. Many Muslims still find these developments quite disturbing and those versed in Islamic theology are taken aback by the charges of introduction of ‘innovations’ into Islam. For instance, pilgrimage to the Holy Land, at least on once in the life time of a Muslim is prescribed for those with the means. But this cardinal principle is not possible, at least in modern times, without ‘innovations’: air travel, acquisition of Basic Travel Allowance, BTA, and vaccinations are mandatory for intending pilgrims. Question is: are Muslims to forego this cardinal pillar of Islam simply because they were not in practice in the days of Prophet Muhammad? Curiously, in their decades of campaigns to end ‘innovations’ in Islam, members of the Izala sect have yet to revert to the use of camels, end open air preachings through outside broadcasting vans and dismantle loud speakers mounted on their mosques on account of the common knowledge that Prophet Muhammad did not have to do any of these in his time. Disunity within the Muslim community worsened with the emergence increase in the activities of the Maitatsine, the Shia inclined Muslim Brothers and sundry groups.

The Maitatsine crisis which began in Kano in the north west in 1980 before spreading to Bulumkutu in the outskirt of Maiduguri in the north east and other parts of the north was not the first in the north; difference was that, with Maitatsine, the country, for the first time witnessed a band of religious zealots, armed to the hilt, squaring up to the overwhelming military might of the state. Outside their hazy claims to Jihad, the Maitatsine sect waged their war in predominantly Muslim communities which resulted in high casualty figures. Not unexpectedly, Maitatsine provided a common platform for feuding Muslim groups who united in their condemnation of members of the Maitatsine group.

Since Maitatsine, it is safe to say that Nigeria did not witness any armed insurrection of note in the name of religion but there were clear cases of radical, extremist groups that emerged to challenge the status quo often with dire consequences to human lives and property. It is important to state here that just like Izala before it and sundry groups that emerged after it, Maitatsine was the product of the disdain for western education on one hand and growing frustration arising from the dwindling socio economic fortunes of some people in Muslim communities of the north.

The early 1980’s also heralded the emergence of the Muslim Brothers on the stage. Though denied by its leaders, the Muslim Brothers drew inspiration from the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which knocked off the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from his peacock throne and replaced him with Imam Ayatullah Ruhullah Khomeini. The Muslim Brothers are associated with World Shi’a Movement, a radical muslim sect with millions of adherents in the Muslim world though they are swift in dismissing it. Its leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El Zakzaky, was one of the first set of students who abandoned their studies at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to join an endless gravitation to Iran to receive the blessings of Imam Khomeini. Upon returning to Nigeria, the group began to espouse revolutionary ideas and never hid their intention to ‘purify’ Islam. Most of the demonstrations on campuses of tertiary institutions and secondary schools across the north between 1980 and 1982 were allegedly instigated by the young Muslim revolutionaries under the direction of Sheikh El Zakzaky.

That suspicion is rooted in the early history of Islam. Just before the death of Prophet Muhammad, there emerged a group among his followers who saw his cousin, Ali, as the right person to occupy the post of Caliph as there was to be no prophet after Muhammad. Those who took this position pointed to the kinship between the prophet and Ali and the fact that he married Fatima, daughter of the prophet. But the early Muslim community had an example on how to choose its leaders; throughout the mission of Muhammad, which lasted for twenty three years, he laid emphasis more on competence than issue of kinship in appointments. Indeed, on his death bed, Prophet Muhammad appeared to have named his successor as leader of the Community when he appointed Abubakar to lead the Muslim faithfuls in prayer. On the death of Prophet Muhammad, therefore, Abubakar was the natural successor to the apparent consternation and disaffection of those who rooted for Ali.

The mainstream Ahlul Sunnah believes and recognises the diversity and peculiarities of Nigeria and promotes the idea of Muslims co habiting in peace with non Muslim groups as was the practice in the days of Prophet Muhammad and as the prophet enjoined his followers to do. Prominent clerics of the mainstream Ahlul Sunnah regularly remind their followers of God’s clear, direct and specific injunction on tolerating and peacefully co habiting with the Ahlul Kitaab or, People of the Book, God’s name for Christians in the Glorious Qur’an as contained in Chapter 5 v 82 of the Muslim Holy Book: ‘You will find (time and again) that the most hostile of all people to the Believers (i.e., Muslims) would be the Jews and those who are idol-worshippers or pagans; and nearest among them in love to the Believers would be those who say, ‘We are Christians’, because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world and, they are not arrogant.’This injunction and several others have so far been discarded by members of the Jamaat al Ahlul Sunnah wa Lidaawat wa Jihad aka Boko Haram.

Another area of divergence between members of the Jamaat al Ahlul Sunnah wa Lida’awat wa Jihad and the mainstream Ahlul Sunnah revolves round the issue of vengeance. In His bid to regulate societies and restrain individuals or groups from taking laws into their hands, God allows room for vengeance provided it is done according to rules He has laid down even though He admonishes people to forgive those who offend them. However, in seeking revenge, especially in the case of murder, the main condition laid down is for the murderer to be sought and punished for his crime; none is permitted to visit the sins of a brother on any other member of his family as Islam forbids visiting the crimes of a father on his son.

In essence, what this means is that a Muslim, say in Geidam, is forbidden to kill a non-Muslim resident in the community in the name of avenging the death of a Muslim brother in Warri. In the opinion of prominent Muslim clerics God laid down these and many more injunctions as a warning against man’s insatiable appetite to sow the seeds of discord ‘because He could have created all mankind to wear the same skin colour, speak one language and profess a common religion.’

Unity! This is the five letter word that is posing the greatest problem to the Muslim community in Nigeria today and which attainment could help bring down the current security challenges and wanton destruction of human lives and property. In trying to tell the story of Islam in Nigeria as one not characterised by militancy, violence and intolerance, several pan Islamic associations and inter faith organisations have sprouted to project Islam in its true and undiluted picture- a religion of peace- by constantly preaching peace, concord and tolerance. Two of such early Muslim groups were the Jama’atu Nasri li Islam, JNI, and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, NSCIA. Since it was created fifty years ago, the JNI, which has the Sultan of Sokoto as its president general, has been working in collaboration with traditional rulers to propagate Islam, preach peaceful existence and promote inter and intra faith understanding. But even in its early years and, with politics and religion constantly clashing, the JNI did not enjoy the support of all members whose interest it was set up to protect. The death of the First Republic and the coming of the military did not bring much respite as some groups, more as a result of the carry over of the ill feelings of the politics era, continued to attack the JNI for hobnobbing with traditional rulers.

As things stand, the issue now transcends intra Muslim rivalry as many Nigerians do not appear to see an immediate end to the divergent views within the Muslim community. For instance, the role played by politicians in funding private militias and growing poverty especially in northern Nigeria have been cited as some of the factors responsible for growing militant posturings in the name of religion. If Nigerians were shocked by the 1980 Maitatsine uprising and, today feel even more threatened in prevailing peace time, northern leaders and, by extension, leaders on the national scene learnt nothing from those past events and events from the unfolding scenario.

As was the case with the Maitatsine sect, the military will ultimately bring its might to bear and will eventually succeed in dislodging the Boko Haram, kill or arrest its entire leadership and disperse what remains of its followership. Chillingly, many innocent lives will be lost in the cross fire. Then, as was the case thirty one years ago, it will be time for backslapping and bear hugs. Big money will be appropriated to organise victory parades across the land and, as to be expected, there will be long, boring and empty speeches to celebrate the end of a nightmare and the return to life on the fast lane. In the euphoria of the victory, nobody will see the need to redress wrong headed social and economic policies that gave rise to Boko Haram. Going by the stiff neck introduction of belt tightening measures this year against the backdrop of cases of mindless treasury looting that go unpunished, government so far has failed to display enough commitment to redressing the conditions that continue to attract frustrated youths to espouse extremist and often divisive views.

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* Abdulrazaq Magaji, journalist and writer and former history lecturer, is based in Abuja, Nigeria and could be reached at magaji777@yahoo.com

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Kenya Railways: A case study of human rights travesties

Kenya Railways Action Group

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83200

cc WikimediaKenya Railways Corporation has over the past two decades gone from being an exemplar of service and care to leaving behind a greed-driven legacy of retrenchment, dislocation and abandonment of its employees.

As one of the key national institutions, the Kenya Railways Corporation, at its apex, was an employer to over 25000 Kenyans, deployed to serve the Nation across the Railway Network distancing 2400km from Mombasa to the Kisumu lake shore, with branch lines to Taveta – Tanzania, to Malaba – Uganda; and, within Kenya, to kitale, Nanyuki, Solai – Nyahururu and the Kajiado - Magadi lines. The complex network of feeder lines to the industrial areas of Nairobi and all the other major towns in Kenya also provided the connecting rail network for the invaluable range of transport services offered to the economies of the countries within Eastern Africa and the great lakes region.

Through this railways establishment Kenya became the leading provider of transport linkage to the countries depending on its services for the vital imports of goods, which moved the engines of industry and sustained their economies. Aside from this, it provided other important auxiliary services, which included the provision of engineering and technical services through the massive Central Workshops facilities - only rivaled by those in South Africa and Egypt.

The then central Railway Training School also provided vital training on the maintenance and repairs of railway equipment and infrastructures and, most importantly, played the critical role of preparing the next generation of railway men and women for the future administration and management of the Railways.

Sorry to say that all these programs, which were mooted and painstakingly mooted by our visionaries, following many years of planning and resources commitment, were in one fell swoop sacrificed at the altar of greed.

Today the Kenya Railways Corporation has become a shell of its former self and is rapidly fading into obscurity, for the reasons outlined in this paper. This forms the basis of our appeal to the concerned stakeholder for concerted action and restitution to those who were caught up or traumatized by the effects of the plunder to their lives and livelihoods, from those who, entrusted with a great and noble responsibility because of narrow interests, deliberately, caused the collapse of this giant Corporation, probably pushing us many years back in our quest to join the polity of advanced nations.

Conversely, the Railway Act (Cap 397) empowers the Corporation to fully exploit all the resources availed to it for the benefit of the employees and the country at a large.

As intended, the economic contribution to the exchequer and the general welfare of the people of Kenya would therefore be dependent on how well these resources were applied in meeting this and those other objectives which have been clearly specified in the Act.

LAND

To facilitate its operations, the Kenya Railways Corporation was endowed with large tracts of land - including estates property, major assets and infrastructures - spread along the length and breadth of Kenya. Over the last hundred years, most structures have been built parallel to the railway network, stretching over 2400 km.

However, over time and starting with the instigation of the Musuva Commission of Inquiry in 1989, this land was invaded and rapidly changed hands, without ascertaining the railways traffic requirements and the necessary expansion of the railways operational infrastructures.

In the more scandalous cases, operational land was recklessly excised and disposed of, without ascertaining KRC’s present and future expansionary needs. See Ndungu report.

For example, the allocation of land within the boundaries of the locomotive turning triangles (termed Diamonds) in the major stations system, greatly obscured traffic operations and endangered safety. This encroachment gradually crept into the Railway estates housing and staff were at times required to cede their housing accommodation overnight - often without notice - to pave way for the so called property owners or developers of the new acquisitions.

This encroachment into railway land worsened with the passage of time. The plunder was cloaked with impunity, with trespass or open violation of the employees’ rights that was justified by the political correctness of the perpetrators.

With the subsequent retrenchment of employees, the ensuing scramble for the displaced railway assets escalated. The workers’ rights and interests were completely subjugated in the process - even in the instances where GOK had issued clear instruction guidelines that the workers are given first priority and fair treatment in benefiting from the divestment program that had commenced in the government parastatals. Every effort by GOK to empower the employees under the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) for Employment and Wealth creation, launched in 2003, was jettisoned.

Housing assets were initially identified to be sold to staff under the GOK initiative, but the target employees were hounded out of those houses or hastily retrenched to deny them the opportunity to benefit, as their civil service colleagues had done. The staff, rightly resisting vacation of quarters for nonpayment of their outstanding benefits, were viciously evicted; regardless of the violations of theirrights, KRC influenced the disposal of the cases in court on technical grounds, leaving many employees scarred and bearing irreparable damage to their lives.

This occupation and resultant effect of the hostile takeover process was entirely dehumanizing to the employees. It characterized the beginning of the severe disintegration of the once robust railways system. The attrition witnessed presently, which continues to affect and hound the lives of railway men and women, is the consequence of the scramble for the institutional assets and lands identified and set aside by the taxpayers for the welfare of the retired staff, following concession of the corporation.

COMMISSION

We can say that the genesis of the corporation’s problems accelerated following implementation of the Musuva Commission of enquiry report recommendations. It opened the system to opportunism. The deliberate variation of the commercial and administrative procedures established to regulate the complex railway systems were dismantled without thought.
KRC became a laboratory for experimentation, and in the course of time the Corporation became a haven for enrichment by all shades of personalities, brandishing name tags from the political establishment and seeking to exploit the railway resources. The scramble and plunder of railway land and assets went on to the extent of completely subjugating the welfare and legal rights of the employees. Where their labor rights were concerned, the Union was compromised to such a degree that the employees had no alternative but to hold the short end of the stick in any negotiated terms.

In the subsequent retrenchment onslaught, the employees’ cries for fairness were completely ignored and, for many, their lives began to disintegrate before their very own eyes. Families broke up and parents divorced as wives and children refused to accompany their spouses and parents to their rural homes. Evictions like the ones of Muthurwa and Makongeni Estates spilt into the public domain and the courts, where the right to housing and illegal evictions is now the subject of contention.

The barriers that had been placed in their paths in their quest for justice discouraged many, and having no other recourse, they let destiny to take its course. As a result of the inhuman treatment, many employees who were sent home without the decent safety net promised by the World Bank, in compensation for the lost employment years, silently perished from broken spirits and destitution.

BENEFITS

The Railways retrenchment was effected in phases. The first phase commenced in 1994 when the World Bank recommended that KRC could initially sell its surplus assets to raise the funds to cover the retrenchment costs. The staff then retrenched were promised increments later rescinded, forcing many to retire in penury. Those who tried to seek redress faced a biased union, an impervious court system and a hostile political environment. Their plight was drowned in the corridors of corruption, and many left for their rural homes with nothing to show for their years of toil.

The second phase commenced in 1998. With the learning curve of shortchanging the employees perfected and securely in place, this group’s terms of retirement were equally varied, leading many to retire with peanuts. Litigation did not succeed; for example, it took over 14 good years to have their exempted tax deductions refunded. In all these instances, the union was at the centre of the controversy, with the argument that once the lowly terms negotiated was registered, the courts, which had been appealed to by the aggrieved employees, could do nothing about it. In other instances, the employees whose benefits were exempted from taxation were paid last year, and, to date, others are still chasing their payments,. Others despaired and died while still awaiting payment, leaving their dependents to reckon with the administration. Those who survived the ordeal are now awaiting the outcome of the Inter- ministerial disputes resolution committee that had to step in to address the numerous cases that had been brought to it by the aggrieved employees.

Completed cases of refunds were sat upon or with held by KRC on flimsy reasons, such as that the files could not be traced, or citing lack of funds; yet GOK had set aside and granted to the corporation millions of shillings to clear outstanding debts. The issue of underpaid benefits payment has been under correspondence and has severally been referred to the World Bank by the aggrieved employees for necessary clarification. The matter is still hanging to date and is shrouded in secrecy, in view of the serious financial repercussions where funds are found to have been misappropriated.

The third phase commenced in year 2002. The circular letter stipulating the initial severance benefits promised to staff of three months pay for every completed year of service was as in the previous cases rescinded and the staff paid instead one month’s pay for every year completed. Their protest led to naught, and the most affected group, at the time, was the employees engaged on renewable contract terms; they had their contracts automatically renewed at the end of every second year period. Nonetheless, these staff merited payment, given the fact that the service rendered to the corporation was continuous, making them eligible for the full payment of benefits.

The most affected in this category were the women staff in the secretarial cadre, equally eligible for admission to permanent and pensionable status prior to retrenchment. They were retrenched on the remainder of the 2 years running contract. Those who appealed and made vigorous follow ups with GOK were paid their lump sums and rightly admitted to pensionable status, on account of the many years of loyal service rendered. The victims of ignorance and misinformation were left out and retrenched on the balance of their running contracts of the expired contract terms at the time of retrenchment. The affected staff left with empty handbags to face an uncertain future and to deal with with economic hardships.
The fourth phase commenced in year 2006, following the decision to concede KRC. Sheltam, the firm that won the railways bid, later abandoned the concession in controversial circumstances, causing unquantified financial losses to the Kenyan taxpayers in billions of shillings.
This phase was fraught with irregular financial dealing and retrenchment terms which similarly to the previous ones, severely short-changed the staff. The payment process was riddled with controversies, with batches of the staff earmarked for retrenchment paid under terms which did not clearly reflect the agreement GOK had entered into with the World Bank at the commencement of the retrenchment program. For example, the administration created a new category of employees called permanent contract workers, whose description appeared nowhere in the corporation’s personnel regulations. The funds requisitioned on their behalf are yet to be fully accounted for, though many were sent home with almost nothing to their names.

The PKF auditors appointed by the World Bank to oversee the payment process transparently, were themselves embroiled in the misdemeanors and abandoned the program, left mysteriously without settling numerous cases of underpayments and over payments to staff, six years down the line. They have yet to account to GOK and the World Bank the millions of shillings alleged to have been misappropriated during the process of effecting payments to the staff earmarked for retrenchment.

The information on the actual retrenchment benefits was variously stifled or varied, in a manner which left many retrenchees confused as to the applicable terms.
Again, the role of the Union in undermining the rights of the employees, in collaboration with the railways establishment, came to the fore.

IMPACT

On the whole, this process fundamentally affected the lives of many employees. With the mounting pressure to take over the operations and railway assets, the employees’ human rights were violated in many respects. With regards to housing, many employees eligible for free accommodation until their benefits were settled in full and in accordance with established railways regulations and the existing rules of natural justice, found themselves viciously evicted and left to seek abode in the surrounding slums. The plight of their families remains the discussion for another day, to be best told by them.

We believe that this truth will be known, with your assistance, as we begin to make the rounds in the country to collect and document these stories for posterity.

Even where the parent Ministry (transport) directed that that staff who had been unjustly evicted be reinstated to their quarters until their dues were paid in full, KRC was recalcitrant; they ignored such instructions and countered with their own arrangements, which were entirely inconvenient to the interests and welfare of the affected staff. In such instances, KRC advised the aggrieved staff to proceed to their home stations or to source accommodation in the vandalized railway quarters, away from their home stations, where found available. Those who took this option and occupied such vacant wayside quarters were later, treacherously, told to pay rent or face evictions.

In spite of the Railways Union’s clarification to the Transport Ministry on the railway’s housing policy, and the ministerial directive to KRC for reinstatement of the staff back to their houses, the staff affected, who had completed the requisite options forms introduced by KRC to implement this ministerial directive, never received any feedback, leaving the matter to fizzle out with the passage of time. Today, a majority of these staff now live in embarrassing destitution, leaving heartbreak, sorrow and desolation, thanks to the travesties of new managers and changed and untested policies imposed on an institution which once ran like clockwork and took very good care of its employees.

As such, it may be observed that over the years many KRC employees became victims of an institution run down as a consequence of conflicting interests. Their condition has worsened with every subsequent separation of staff from the institution. It was therefore necessary to document these happenings, so that justice can be served for those whose rights and lives have been turned upside down by the establishment; and to seek restitution for those who have suffered loss and to comfort the bereaved in the cases where spouses surrendered and sought solace across the Rubicon.

Across the country, there are over 9465 retired employees who now depend on the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme for their livelihood. They are required to receive monthly pensions until the end of their lives. However, this prospect is now threatened and constrained by political machinations targeting the properties which were set aside by GOK to provide for the pension needs of the retired employees.

Equally, the non-permanent staff, numbering over 3000, presently are pursuing payment of their retrenchment benefits with the corporation. Staff who stuff who suffered evictions and were residents in the sprawling Makongeni and Muthurwa railway housing estates are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for redress through the courts.

However, in all these instances procrastination is noted, and whether this is deliberate or otherwise depends on whether those who have been charged with the responsibility to act are enjoying largesse by way of railway land. We have always suspected that to be the case, as the continuing suffering of KRC employees in the midst of all the atrocities committed to them clearly defies logic.

In this respect we would like to request the readers of this article to come on board and assist in achieving the following objectives:

i) Facilitate funding for mobilization of the aggrieved staff, system-wide; to collate and document their grievances and channel them to the right agencies for redress.

ii) To counsel and provide hope to the widows and dependents whose breadwinners have departed prematurely as a consequence of the maltreatment by the railway establishment

iii) To establish a case for compensation and payment of claims owing to the staff who were prematurely retrenched, which have not been fully settled by the employer.

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Democracia na África: Entrevista com Firoze Manji

O que significa democracia?

Firoze Manji

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83227

cc R OEntrevista com Firoze Manji, redator-chefe de Pambazuka News - Panafrican Voices for Freedom and Justice

No início do ano toda a atenção [internacional] se voltou para as revoltas na Tunísia e Egito. Muitos se mostraram surpresos com a potência desses movimentos, porém poucos se surpreenderam com os protestos; afinal de contas lá governavam os ditadores, desde décadas no poder, enriquecendo de maneira obscena enquanto seus povos viviam na miséria. O movimento se alastrou rapidamente para outros países de região, onde até hoje os déspotas tentam sufocar com violência o grito da democracia. Então altos brados de protesto ecoaram na Europa, na Grécia e na Espanha: “Nós queremos democracia!” gritavam as pessoas na Espanha. Quem contaria com isso? Aqui [na África] não temos nós a Europa como modelo de democracia que prontamente apresentaríamos a todas as outras nações do mundo?

São frequentes as queixas sobre a repressão política aos cidadãos e cidadãs visto que cada vez menos pessoas participam das escolhas. Porém quais são nossas efetivas possibilidades de participar nas decisões sobre a direção seguida por nossas sociedades? O mercado dita preços e salários, assim como as matérias primas priorizadas e os produtos fabricados. No mercado de trabalho o que se espera de nós é a renúncia a todos os direitos civis democráticos. Não há alternativas, seja na Grécia ou em Portugal todos os partidos esperam se alinhar a programas recessivos antissociais. Não há alternativa afirmam os arautos de uma política econômica que coloca o interesse pelo lucro das empresas acima de todas as outras necessidades sociais. Assim quão democrática é uma sociedade cujo fundamento mais importante segue princípios totalmente antidemocráticos? Não poderia nossa vida se estruturar de forma totalmente diferente? Nós nos perguntamos quais alternativas existem e como seria uma sociedade democrática.

Entrevista com Firoze Manji, redator-chefe de Pambazuka News - Panafrican Voices for Freedom and Justice

TT: Sob quais pré-condições poderá funcionar a democracia na África e em outras nações dependentes no [hemisfério] sul?

FIROZE MANJI: Em toda a parte onde os homens tentaram empregar sua força para eleger alguém, coisa que questiona o domínio das corporações – como, por exemplo, Thomas Sankara em Burkina Faso, Patrício Lumumba no Congo, Amilcar Cabral na Guiné Bissao – o imperialismo tentou apoiar as respectivas elites que já se mostravam prontas para assassinar estes líderes, bem como a organizar golpes de Estado (como contra Nkrumah em Gana), ou a deflagrar uma revolução (como em Angola e Moçambique). O imperialismo não deseja as democracias nos países do Sul. Ele usa todos os seus recursos para impedir o desenvolvimento dessas nações.

TT: O que significa democracia para o senhor e qual sua visão sobre o que seja uma sociedade democrática?

FIROZE MANJI: O conceito de democracia sofreu greve distorção devido à predominância do neoliberalismo. No melhor dos casos a democracia é reduzida ao direito dos cidadãos de, em intervalos regulares, lançarem seu voto nas urnas. Na maioria dos casos tal processo é apenas aquele brevemente descrito por John Githongo [1]: o de eleger quem já se situou para se servir dos tesouros nacionais. Eu duvido porém que esse posicionamento desemboque na democracia.

30 anos de programas de ajustes estruturais e de política neoliberal resultaram em que nossos países se tornassem territórios ocupados, ocupados por empresas, por algo entre 500 a 700 oligopólios controladores de praticamente todos os aspectos da nossa vida. Ainda que nós na África tenhamos derramado muito sangue e sacrificado muitas vidas para conquistar nossa independência ante o domínio colonial nossos governos tornam-se sempre mais dependentes dessas empresas e sempre menos comprometidos com nossos cidadãos e cidadãs.

Tal atitude, junto ao apoio das instituições financeiras internacionais e das organizações de ajuda, permite a essas empresas sugar as riquezas das nossas nações e espoliar nossos recursos naturais e nossa força de trabalho, bem como de eximir-se dos impostos e manter os salários baixos e, como o emprego do capital aberto, prosseguir com a acumulação [de capital] através de expropriação e privatização de bens comuns como água, energia, comunicação, terras e sistemas sociais, entre outros. Uma corrupção sem precedentes de funcionários e políticos [africanos] por essas empresas resulta em lucros imensos.

Isso resultou no contrário das expectativas e objetivos da independência: a expectativa de vida caiu; a mortalidade materna e infantil aumentou, o desemprego e a perda da posse da terra se agravaram rapidamente e isso em paralelo com os saques rurais e a usura. A assistência médica, as instituições sociais e de formação são privatizadas e o abastecimento das massas despencaram para nível não mais diferenciável daquele do apartheid. Nunca tantas pessoas passaram tanta fome, mas não por que exista pouco alimento e sim por que a especulação elevou às alturas os preços dos gêneros básicos de alimentação.

Isto é conducente à democracia? Penso que não

Vivemos em territórios ocupados – uma vez fiz uma comparação com o governo de Vichy na França ocupada pelos nazistas. Regimes imperialistas conquistaram seus territórios no Iraque e no Afeganistão e criaram sua própria versão dos governos ao estilo Vichy. – Apenas poucos se rendem à ilusão de que aqui se erige algo conducente à democracia. A opção de se poder escolher alguém que serve a um governo de colaboradores não funda qualquer democracia.

Assim o primeiro pressuposto para a democracia deve ser o fim da ocupação. Enquanto não forem os cidadãos e sim as empresas privadas que detenham o controle sobre o que é produzido, como é produzido, para quem é produzido, o que acontece com o excedente, quais relações serão estabelecidas com as outras nações e como se configurarão as condições comerciais, os cidadãos simplesmente não estarão em condições de decidir a sua própria vida. Em vez disso seu destino será decidido por potências imperialistas, oligopólios e especuladores em Wallstreet, Londres e Tóquio.

TT: Fale sobre a democratização de sociedade, da produção, da economia e de todos os aspectos da vida [no continente africano]. Como isso funcionaria. O que podemos e devemos fazer para alcançar esses objetivos?

FIROZE MANJI: Como eu disse, nosso destino não está em nossas mãos. As firmas exercem muito mais poder do que os cidadãos. A bem de verdade vivemos numa plutocracia e não numa democracia – Aqueles que possuem mais riqueza têm mais poder e influência. Isso me leva ao cerne da questão: a autodeterminação, a capacidade dos cidadãos de determinar seu destino – seja do ponto de vista econômico, político, social ou de qualquer outro – deveria repousar sobre os princípios da democracia. Contudo faz pouco sentido tentar descrever uma concepção idealizada de democracia sem analisar a atual situação e identificar os processos necessários à nossa articulação para erigir na nossa práxis diária a visão de um mundo onde queremos viver.

Portanto sempre argumentei que o fetiche da urna eleitoral deve ser substituído pela luta por uma democratização de todos os aspectos da nossa existência que nos impeçam de decidir por nós mesmos o nosso destino. Para um tal processo não existe nem fórmula e tampouco modelo e sim a premissa de que ele emerge das lutas e é determinado pelas particularidades, História e circunstâncias e que representa imensa fonte de criatividade.

Veja por exemplo o que aconteceu no Egito e na Tunísia. Depois de anos cheios de lutas contra a expropriação geradora de guetos nos postos de trabalho, nas áreas rurais e nas universidades a paciência das pessoas estava esgotada. As manifestações de massa tiveram lugar nas ruas. Milhões de pessoas foram mobilizadas. Porém elas não apenas se mobilizavam e faziam manifestações: elas foram confrontadas imediatamente com a necessidade de organizar o abastecimento com comida, água potável, saneamento básico, coleta de lixo, cuidados com os feridos, cuidados com as crianças e alojamentos. Inúmeros comitês foram espontaneamente fundados como reação às necessidades coletivas.

Pudemos observar evolução semelhante em qualquer revolução – certamente essa é uma das características decisivas que provavelmente diferencia os protestos de massas das revoluções: a formação de órgãos alternativos de processos de decisões democráticos. Quando lhes é permitido se desenvolver, eles podem se tornar órgãos populares de um poder paralelo que desafia a autoridade dos Estados capitalistas.

Contudo seria ilusório crer que devêssemos apenas esperar pela formação de um levante em massa. A luta pela democratização e contra a expropriação é continuamente conduzida. Ela ocorre no local de trabalho, pela fundação de sindicatos e de organizações civis; dentre os camponeses e camponesas desapropriados de sua terra e do produto do seu trabalho; na criação das organizações de mulheres, que levam adiante a sua emancipação bem como nas diferentes formas dos movimentos sociais. São estes tipos de lutas que devem ser alimentadas, acalentadas e apoiadas, pois representam a alavanca que promove a democratização da sociedade e isso de um modo que assugure que sejam os cidadãos e cidadãs e não as corporações e uma pequena elite que decidam o nosso destino.

Estes são processos que ocorrem em todo o continente africano como também em muitas nações do hemisfério sul. As pessoas se mostram frustradas com a forma capitalista da democracia a qual efetivamente só oferece uma escolha entre aqueles que amoldaram ao despotismo descentralizado do capitalismo para, assim, servir aos interesses deste.

Traduzido do inglês para o alemão por Beate Wernegger

Traduzido do alemão para o português por Attila Blacheyre

[1] Jornalista e político queniano

O Dr. Firoze Manji é queniano e possui longa experiência nas áreas de saúde, direitos humanos e de desenvolvimento internacional. É editor e redator-chefe de Pambazuka News http://www.pambazuka.org/en/ e fundador da Fahamu-Networks for Social Justice http://www.fahamu.org/
Firoze Manji: O desenvolvimento da África após o Colonialismo e a Libertação Nacional
http://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Standpunkte/Standpunkte_23-2010_web.pdf
Publicado em Talktogether Nº 37/2011

A comparação falso entre Africa e Asian dragões

Jean-Paul Pougala

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83225

cc Korea.netExiste uma lenda colonialista zelosamente conservada afirmadora de que a África estaria melhor repartida nos anos 60 do que os 4 tigres asiáticos: Coreia (do Sul), Taiwan, Malásia e Indonésia.

Na verdade trata-se um ardil geoestratégico que visa três objetivos principais: primeiramente eximir os europeus da pesada responsabilidade pela espoliação e pela (má) sorte de centenas de milhões de africanos levados à miséria e, em seguida, convencer a estes mesmo africanos que eles nada valem, que eles de nada são capazes e que seria melhor deixar a Europa ditar a agenda política, econômica e social no continente africano. E, em terceiro lugar, os europeus se valem deste refrão mentiroso para criar uma cortina de fumaça que impediria os africanos de avaliar a credibilidade e a competência reais desses europeus com base no seu passado africano, ou seja, a partir de seu próprio balanço do extenso período em que os africanos cuidaram da gestão e organização do seu próprio continente.

DOIS EXEMPLOS NOS PERMITIRÃO COMPREENDER BEM MEU ENFOQUE: CAMARÕES E TAIWAN

Visto que os dois países não têm a mesma estrutura, não parece conveniente comparar o Camarões de 1960 a Taiwan e sim principiar com o mesmo Camarões 50 mais tarde afim de se averiguar quais dos antigos administradores (os franceses) e dos novos gestores (os camaroneses) se mostraram mais incapazes. Se os novos são mais estúpidos do que os antigos, então há uma base de partida para a hipótese de se prosseguir na comparação.

Comecemos por ver o balanço de Alemanha, França e a Grã-Bretanha nas gestões por eles levada a cabo em Camarões, de 1884 a 1916 pela primeira, de 1916 a 1961 pelas duas últimas, uma a Leste e a outra a Oeste do país. Antes da independência em 1960, cerca de 80% da população camaronesa habitava as cidades e a administração colonial não criara qualquer escola nessas áreas, como decorrência disso menos de 3% dos camaroneses eram escolarizados na ocasião da independência; em 2011 o nível de escolaridade chegaria a 96%. No passado colonial não havia qualquer universidade; 50 anos mais tarde havia uma dezena.

Para a saúde pública, em 1961, após 32 anos de ocupação alemã, 45 anos de ocupação francesa e britânica, Camarões contava com 3 hospitais, em geral destinados ao tratamento dos invasores. Em 2011, 50 anos após, o balanço é mais animador, pois há três dezenas de hospitais. No tangente à água potável e à eletrificação, em 1961 Camarões era um país envolto na escuridão da noite; a população ia buscar água no rio das cidades e aldeias ou nos poços construídos pertos de fossas sépticas. 50 anos depois a água potável ainda não está garantida, mas se acha disponível a número infinitamente maior de pessoas do que na época da ocupação britânica e francesa. O mesmo se aplica aos quilômetros de estradas pavimentadas. Em 1961, no plano administrativo, apenas 4% de população era registrada ao nascer e se beneficiava com uma certidão de nascimento. 50 anos depois quase 100% da população têm uma certidão de nascimento. Para corrigir as deficiências administrativas dos europeus, os novos dirigentes de Camarões se viram obrigados a gerar certidões de nascimento a posteriori, com a menção nascido POR VOLTA DE... Como a maior prova documental da notória incompetência dos ocupantes europeus. Assim pode-se concluir sem risco de erro que os invasores europeus de Camarões, os alemães, os franceses e os britânicos foram verdadeiros cancros nos planos econômico, administrativo e social, basta observar o balanço de 77 anos de ocupação de Camarões.

Atualmente sabemos em que condições os camaroneses assumiram a administração da sua pátria em 1961. Ou seja, era uma nação paupérrima, um país que mais parecia um campo de sobrevivência perdido no deserto tropical. Que comparação podemos então fazer com o tigre asiático Taiwan? Eis 6 razões para a mentira da inútil comparação entre a África e a Ásia, com o único e exclusivo objetivo de gerar uma confusão para, assim, disseminar a ideia destrutiva de uma África agonizante e incapaz do menor esforço:

1 Em 25101945 as tropas japonesas baseadas em Taiwan se rendem aos norte-americanos, isso após 50 anos de colonização e de política de assimilação possibilitadoras do desenvolvimento de infraestrutura industrial e de uma base de intelectuais. Isso significa que depois de 1895 Taiwan foi administrada como uma extensão do Japão, como a nação japonesa, ou seja, como uma nação poderosa. Ademais Taiwan não segue este curso na mesma época que os países africanos e sim 15 anos antes e, tampouco, parte da etapa zero no plano econômico ou intelectual (há bibliotecas, livrarias, editoras, imprensas, jornais e prêmios literários). Nesta mesma data, em 1945, os africanos – aos olhos dos ocupantes franceses e britânicos – nada mais são do que primitivos ou, mais gentilmente, autóctones a se utilizar como escravos. E a partir de 1945 Taiwan passa de fato a tutela dos Estados Unidos da América; torna-se um país-chave no impasse pela batalha pela liderança da China continental. Não foi por mero acaso que seu protegido Tchang Kai Check se refugiaria nesta ilha após a derrota para Mao, fazendo desse um dos teatros dos acontecimentos políticos dos mais estratégicos no início da guerra fria e palco dos acontecimentos mais inusitados da história do século XX: a partir de uma ilha de apenas 35.000 km² com 370 km de comprimento e 140 de largura (posto avançado do capitalismo norte-americano) pretendia-se lançar um assalto e conquistar o terceiro maior território do mundo, a China, com seus 9.641.144 km², para assim evitar que ela fosse tomada pelo comunismo, o que não poderia ser o caso de qualquer país africano.

2- Desde 1945 a dinâmica japonesa é monitorada pelos Estados Unidos da América que fazem uma espécie de Plano Marshall para acompanhar a reforma agrária e a nova industrialização do arquipélago com o objetivo de estimular ao máximo a necessidades internas e satisfazê-las. E assim que surgem os pequenos proprietários com os fundamentos de pequenas empresas, as mais ramificadas do mundo graças às generosas doações do mentor norte-americano, o que não é o caso de qualquer país africano, pois os africanos que tomaram o poder após a independência devem, todos eles, aplicar a política econômica ditada pelo mentor (França ou Grã-Bretanha), bem ao contrario do que os norte-americanos implementam em Taiwan. Isso significa que não há qualquer estimulo à marcha interna, pois tudo continua baseado nos antigos produtos, ditos coloniais, como e o caso do café, do cacau ou da banana, totalmente destinados a exportação para os países dos antigos ocupantes, sem possibilidade alguma de redirecionamento as nações africanas, pois não há qualquer mercado interno, e tampouco qualquer crescimento exponencial demandado pela ascensão das trocas internas.
3 - A partir de 1955, as exportações de Taiwan podem assim começar a oferecer ao mundo pequenas máquinas agrícolas que a ilha desenvolveu inicialmente para os seus próprios campos, e também pequenos artigos oriundos da profusão de indústrias leves. Enquanto isso os africanos permaneciam petrificados nas culturas de produtos agrícolas ditos coloniais, os quais eles próprios não consumiam e também à mercê de um mercado internacional que eles não podiam dominar.
4 - o plano puramente político, os países africanos não representavam qualquer problema para seus mentores além do fato de que eram simples reservatórios de votos para as Nações Unidas a fim de aumentar a credibilidade ou o peso político da Franca e da Grã-Bretanha e justificar seus lugares como membros permanentes no Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas. Enquanto os norte-americanos tinham necessidade de um Taiwan forte econômica e politicamente para convencer a eles próprios de que não haviam feito a escolha errada na China ao escolher Tchang Kai Check em vez de Mao Tsé Tung, utilizando a ilha justamente como um ponto de partida para a revanche do fracasso ante as tropas de Mao, ainda que eles fizessem inscrever na própria constituição de Taiwan que a ilha e zona de administração provisória à espera do retorno a Pequim. Por esta razão é que Taiwan foi escolhida nas Nações Unidas como representante de todo o povo chinês, e não a China continental. Tal manipulação política só poderia tornar Taiwan um país singular e situado na rampa de um desenvolvimento meteórico com taxas de crescimento de dois dígitos anuais desde 1950 e que permanecerá em tal nível durante as duas próximas décadas.
5 - Por ocasião das tempestades de reivindicações pelos direitos cívicos em 1965, o presidente dos Estados Unidos Lyndon Johnson, que sucede ao assassinado John Kennedy, promulga uma lei para reformular a lei de imigração vigente a partir de 1920 a qual só encorajava a imigração de brancos do norte da Europa, os arianos puros, para os Estados Unidos. A nova lei permite aos habitantes da ilha maior mobilidade para os Estados Unidos e também melhor integração de sua economia à norte-americana. Esse não foi o caso das nações africanas, sempre consideradas pelos europeus como uma peste a ser contida no seu ambiente natural, isto e, como animais confinados para sempre no seu zoológico, a África., e que, a bem da verdade, só é gravada na memória da maioria dos europeus como um grande zoológico, não tendo outro valor que não o dos animais que lá habitam e sua vegetação a ser salva a qualquer preço como reivindicam com ares de justiça os ecólogos. Que importam os homens e mulheres que vivem lá?
6 - Em 2009 o primeiríssimo investidor na República Popular da China era Taiwan, e não o Japão ou os Estados Unidos da América, porém exame mais acurado não esconde o fato de que falar de Taiwan é, indiretamente, falar do próprio Estados Unidos no plano econômico, sobretudo após a crise econômica dos anos 90, ocasião em que várias indústrias de ponta foram salvas, tanto em Taiwan como na Coreia, gracas ao capital norte-americano para lá transferido para garantir o sucesso dos seus protegidos. Ao mesmo tempo os mentores dos países africanos se indignavam que a China estivesse investindo na África, chegando ao ridículo do presidente da república francês propor a Pequim uma coordenação conjunta dos investimentos industriais que a China faz na África. Isso demonstra que ele próprio não compreendeu que nada fora feito para merecer tal magnanimidade, mas que cada gesto corresponde a um peão movido, como num jogo de xadrez, em função de seus próprios interesses geoestratégicos. Pequim sabe que para se tornar uma superpotência é necessário que uma potêncial atual ceda seu lugar, e esse lugar ocupado pela Europa deve ser reconquistado. Assim sua melhor estratégia consiste em enfraquecer essa Europa naquilo que esta considera seu botim do futuro, a África, e isso está em curso. A proposta de um chefe de Estado francês ou britânico de que a China lhes delegue poderes para atuar na África equivale a dizer que a China poderia, em 1965, pedir a Washington que passasse para ela os investimentos em Taiwan, não compreendendo que Taiwan era justamente o trampolim para atingir a própria China. Como se pode comparar Taiwan aos países africanos se até seus mentores não se acham em condições de compreender até que ponto e que tipo de jogo se está jogando?
Esta análise pode ser estendida aos 3 outros tigres, pois no período da guerra fria todos serviram como laboratório de comunicação e de propaganda ocidental para provar a outra parte que seu sistema capitalista marchava muito bem. O que se depreende de todos estes seis pontos é que nossos benfeitores de domingo, ao afirmarem que em 1960 a África estava melhor do que os tigres asiáticos ou nada compreenderam ou então pecam por ignorância e ingenuidade.
A objeção por eles apresentada é a de que a suposta superioridade da África na época estava no plano do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB). Esta é uma inverdade pois na ocasião da independência as riquezas contabilizadas nesse PIB pertenciam quase todas às populações francesas e britânicas, especialmente a quase totalidade da produção agrícola.

CONCLUSÃO

Afirmar que a África estava em melhor situação em 1960 que os tigres asiáticos é mentira sustentadora da tese de que os africanos são uma nulidade e que fariam melhor em confiar a gestão de seus países aos antigos invasores. Trata-se de uma incitação a agir por procuração. Trata-se de renunciar a um mínimo de soberania para, assim, confiar o destino das nações africanas à gestão europeia. A juventude africana precisa compreender que ela deverá se armar de conhecimentos e de ambição para desempenhar todo o seu papel na gestão política, econômica e administrativa do continente africano. As armadilhas para levá-las às cadeias invisíveis de submissão são numerosas e frequentemente surgem onde menos se espera. A vigilância e o rigor intelectual devem guiar todo o pensamento, bem antes da ação.

* Jean-Paul Pougala enseigne Géostratégie Africaine en Master2 à l’Institut Supérieur de Management (ISMA) à Douala au Cameroun. Cet article est le résumé du cours du

Transferência de tecnologia

Jean-Paul Pougala

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/83226

cc E t PExiste um domínio no qual a propaganda ocidental investe de modo especial na opinião pública da África, e esse assunto, alardeado através das suas ONGs cúmplices e seus governos, é o do domínio inexistente e ilusório da chamada “transferência de tecnologia”.

Isso por que convém recordar que, na configuração atual do mundo e das relações internacionais, não existe de fato transferência de tecnologia, e por várias razões:


AS REGRAS DA UNIÃO EUROPEIA

A Comissão de União Europeia, através da norma (CE) nº 772/2004 de 7 de abril de 2004, proíbe a transferência de tecnologia entre as empresas, e estabelece as exceções, pois julga que essa prática é ruim para a concorrência e impede o progresso da sociedade. Isso por que, a partir do momento em que uma empresa espera que sua concorrente lhe franqueie seus segredos de fabricação, ela passa a não inovar mais e não se esforça por se recuperar do seu atraso e obsoletismo. Por outro lado essa mesma prática leva as empresas de ponta a dormir sobre seus louros e a se comportar como patrão, decidindo e manipulando as regras do mercado. Noutras palavras, se uma empresa sueca passa seus segredos de fabricação à sua concorrente do Mali, corre no mínimo o risco de rebaixar esta última ao papel de simples espectadora, destinada a desaparecer cedo ou tarde, ou a estagnar num estágio marginal ou banal de satélite da empresa sueca quando lançada na passividade a qual não impõe pesquisas e tampouco o embate para manter seu lugar e conquistar novos mercados.

A Comissão Europeia vai mais longe na sua própria definição de savoir-faire(saber fazer), que, segundo ela, não comporta obrigatoriamente um elemento secreto. Ou seja, o fato de repassar a alguém uma informação, uma técnica, uma tecnologia não mais sigilosa não deve configurar transferência de savoir-faire e sim banal operação de tirar alguém da ignorância culpável em que se encontra.

Eis, em detalhe, como a Comissão Europeia descreve o savoir-faire, o know-how:

“Savoir-faire (know-how): conjunto secreto de informações práticas não-patenteadas, resultantes de experiências e testadas (ou seja, que não são do conhecimento geral ou facilmente acessíveis). O savoir-faire é substancial (quer dizer, importante e útil para a produção de produtos contratuais) e identificado (ou seja, descreve de maneira suficientemente completa para permitir verificar que preenche as condições de secreto e de substancialidade)”.

Se uma ONG ensina agricultores de BurkinaFaso a utilizar um trator para cultivar seu campo para assim se fadigar menos e obter produtividade maior e, ao fazê-lo, fala de transferência de tecnologia, ela mente conscientemente; pois as técnicas por ela ensinadas se acham disponíveis no domínio público desde séculos. A questão a se colocar antes de tudo é: por que essa comunidade de BurkinaFaso não teve acesso a uma técnica agrícola disponível no domínio público? Não importa que ela não possua os meios de procurá-la, ou que ela não tenha sido informada a respeito. Tanto num caso quanto no outro temos dois problemas específicos, bem identificados, a resolver e que, em caso algum, estão ligados a qualquer problemática da operação da transferência de tecnologia. Noutros termos, no que tange ao primeiro caso, a ONG que vem com o trator queima as etapas e impede de se colocar convenientemente o problema no sentido se criar as riquezas para o acesso a nível aceitável de apropriação das técnicas modernas. No segundo caso o problema da formação da África se coloca mais claramente: 70% da população africana vivem nas zonas rurais e agrícolas. Nos países froncófonos da África não há colégios agrícolas; mas só raros liceus agrícolas. Para a maior parte dos profissionais da área só existe a formação universitária para a formação de engenheiros agrônomos, todavia falta toda a panóplia da formação inicial e intermediária através pela qual se democratiza as técnicas agrícolas.

Para a Comissão Europeia, toda transferência de tecnologia não deve violar as regras de concorrência por ela criadas e sancionadas pelo artigo 101 do Tratado sobre o Funcionamento da União Europeia (TFUE). E esta simples formulação significa a interdição da transferência de tecnologia de uma empresa estabelecida num país europeu para sua concorrente instalada num país africano, visto que as duas empresas se batem por conquistar os mesmos clientes e lucros. E − caso o sistema for à base da soma zero, isto é, o que uma ganha é automaticamente perdido pela outra − por que razão uma empresa florescente deveria “abrir o jogo” vendendo à sua concorrente seus próprios segredos de fabricação? Mesmo se no parágrafo 3 desse famoso artigo 101, e também nos artigos 3 e 4, a Comissão Europeia determine claramente as condições de isenção à interdição de transferência de tecnologia, o fato é que, na ausência de um acordo com “os graves efeitos da anticoncorrência”, na prática existe uma articulação para se colocar as empresas africanas fora da concorrência, fora de todo risco de se tornarem um dia ameaça potencial ou competidoras das empresas européias.


UMA VERDADEIRA MANIPULAÇÃO

A maquinação consiste em colocar a noção de “transferência de tecnologia” em todos os enfoques a fim se fazer as empresas africanas crerem que sua saúde viria unicamente da beneficência de um “branco” particularmente bom que lhes indicaria o rumo para que elas também possam ver o sol da modernidade industrial. Uma vez abaixadas as defesas das vítimas, passa-se à segunda etapa: tornar a África a lixeira da obsolescência europeia, o canal das sucatas ocidentais. Isso da indústria ao exército, passando pelas indústrias de vestuário e de automóveis. Tudo se articula para inundar a África de produtos, de máquinas, de armas que contribuirão para garantir que esse continente jamais se torne perigo, concorrente ou ameaça para a Europa.

Quando uma empresa espanhola decide descartar determinada máquina é mais frequentemente por que esta representa abismo financeiro no consumo elétrico ou custo muito elevado de manutenção e, em todos os casos, ela limita a competitividade da empresa em relação à suas concorrentes. Ceder tal máquina a uma empresa marroquina é condená-la a se endividar enormemente pela aquisição de meio de produção que, depois do dia da sua compra, não pode acompanhar o passo da concorrência. Tal prática representa compra prejudicial para o marketing da empresa marroquina e, inversamente, negócio (agradavelmente) inesperado para a vendedora visto que esta ainda consegue obter dinheiro por máquina finalmente descartada. Nada melhor, pois se ela tivesse decidido mandar tal máquina para o desmanche seria obrigada a pagar a empresa especializada pelo desmonte do conjunto da máquina e pelo trato diferenciado de cada componente sucateado, para assim evitar que as partes poluentes voltassem à Natureza. Ao ceder tal produto à empresa marroquina, ela obtém duplo proveito: mantém seu concorrente potencial nem estágio em que não pode lhe prejudicar e economiza a verba destinada à proteção ambiental.

É nesse mesmo espírito que os veículos sucateados têm sido descarregados na África com o objetivo bem estabelecido de impedir a emergência de marcas concorrentes de veículos africanos capazes de colocar em risco o lucrativo marcado europeu de automóveis. E, assim procedendo, força-se a mesma África se tornar mercado certo para os carros franceses e britânicos. E isso durou até que o terceiro aproveitador não esperado, o Japão, veio perturbar esse botim.

No setor da indústria de vestuário, as roupas habitualmente usadas e já tornadas rotas pelos europeus, chamadas na França de friperies, acabam enviadas para a África para uma “segunda vida” no principal objetivo de impedir que uma verdadeira indústria de vestuário veja o luz do dia nesse continente. Assim fazendo, a Europa poderia contar com uma mão-de-obra africana explorada à la volunté para lhe garantir o acesso ao excelente marcado do algodão africano, visto que este não poderia ser beneficiado localmente, e nisso é ajudada pelo financiamento público aos produtores norte-americanos desse produto. Essa estratégia reduz a zero toda a margem de negociação dos produtores africanos de algodão.

QUAIS AS LIÇÕES PARA A ÁFRICA?

A transferência de tecnologia não existe; trata-se de termo puramente virtual, sem aplicação num mundo real de empresas onde a competição é inclemente. Hoje se mede a verdadeira diferença entre as nações pelo número de patentes registradas a cada ano. A África deve recusar essa marginalização psicológica na qual se encontra confinada ao copiar brasileiros, indianos e chineses que passam todo o seu tempo a perscrutar pelas patentes expiradas para, assim, superar muito rapidamente seu atraso no plano tecnológico.

Isso se aplica a todas as áreas: da mecânica à petroquímica, passando pela indústria farmacêutica. Todas as patentes registradas pelos poderosos em dado momento terminam por cair em domínio público e é aí que precisa ocorrer a verdadeira transferência de tecnologia; aí se deverá conquistar soberanamente aquilo que seus antigos proprietários não estão contentes que se lhes tome. Convém partir dessas patentes, assim gratuitamente obtidas, para a maturidade que permitirá que se lance nessa concorrência internacional da inteligência constituída pelas patentes, pelos direitos dos autores, pelos copyrights. A cada ano centenas de patentes de medicamentos de cardiologia, neurologia etc., caem em domínio público e não importa quem possa reproduzi-las à vontade, pois tudo se processa legalmente. Milhares desoftwares, de peças mecânicas, de sistemas hidráulicos etc., entram em domínio público e não importa qual start-up possa deflagrar sua atividade em Lagos, Kinshassa, Niamey ou Lusaka copiando-os sem pagar um único centavo de pela pesquisa ou direito autoral. A Itália anteontem, o Japão ontem, a China hoje. Todas estão se levantam ao reduzir seu atraso tecnológico copiando sistematicamente todas as patentes logo que caídas em domínio público para, assim, não partir do zero. Tal prática colocou tais nações em posições privilegiadas ao ultrapassar os antigos proprietários dessas patentes. A África não pode se contentar em esperar reciclar as tecnologias obsoletas e inúteis que decidem vender-lhe a preço de ouro. Todos os escritórios de patentes no Ocidente pululam de obras, de detalhes sobre os velhos segredos de fabricação doravante à disposição e gratuitos. Basta haver a coragem de ir buscá-los onde eles estejam. A transferência de tecnologia, se de fato existe, não é ato angelical, mas requer primeiramente vigor, força moral e determinação sem o acanhamento de desejar frequentar as deliberações dos grandes deste mundo, e não mais como fantoche, como valete, como servo e sim como concorrente; como cérebro, como alguém inteligente e, neste sentido, a África nada tem a invejar das outras nações e continentes. Os poderes públicos africanos devem compreender tudo o que ganharão ao facilitar e encorajar os jovens à criação dos start-ups inovadores por meio de procedimentos administrativos simplificados. Nossa verdadeira independência também passará por essa apropriação da tecnologia.

Douala, 12 de abril de 2012

Jean-Paul Pougala

www.pougala.org

www.geoestrategiaafricana.com

Umlazi police shootings

Democratic Left Front

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83193

26 June 2012

The Democratic Left Front (DLF) joins the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) and Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) in condemning the South African Police Services for their callous act of shooting unarmed community activists in Umlazi earlier this evening. This shooting was not even triggered by any provocation of the police or any public violence whatsoever. The police shot three comrades of the UPM with live rounds as the community were dispersing from a mass community meeting. Even more worrying is that two of the injured comrades are missing. This raises serious concern about their security and well-being. The UPM has admirably sought emergency medical treatment for the one injured comrade who could be located.

An estimated 2,000 people had gathered at the local hall to discuss an intended peaceful occupation of the local ANC councillor’s office as part of the ongoing community struggles and demands for service delivery, jobs and access to land. Clearly, this is a case of sustained state repression against community protests and is a violation of basic rights to freedoms of assembly, speech and association.

In consultation with the community, the UPM and AbM, the DLF will seek legal advice and consider appropriate legal action as part of defensive measures whilst. The DLF calls on the Umlazi Ward 88 community, the UPM and AbM to remain united in their struggles for a decent life, and not to be intimated by police repression. Such sustained disciplined mass struggles are the ultimate key to win community demands as well as expose and defeat police repression.


ENDS

FOR COMMENTS, CONTACT:

Bheki Buthelezi (UPM & DLF) – 072 639 9893

Mazibuko K. Jara (DLF) – 083 651 0271

Athish Kirun (DLF) – 078 257 3764

Ayanda Kota (UPM & DLF) - 078 625 6462

Mnikelo Ndabankulu (AbM) - 081 309 5485

China Ngubane (DLF & Right to Know Campaign) – 072 651 9790

Another 18 people arrested in Umlazi, Durban

Unemployed People’s Movement

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83209

24 June 2012

Last night when the comrades from Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Unemployed People's Movement were protesting outside the Umlazi Police Station to demand the immediate release of Bheki Buthelezi, the police said that they would be making further arrests to 'stop the burning of tyres in Umlazi'. They made the same threat to Bheki as he was released at the Adam's Mission Police Station far from the protest.

At the same time as Bheki returned home to the welcome of a large crowd the police went to the Zakheleni shack settlement in Ward 88, Umlazi. There they found a party to celebrate the birthday of a 14-year-old child. This party was peaceful. No one in the settlement had complained and no one had called the police. The police arrested 18 people at this party. Some of the 18 have been involved in protests. Others have not been involved in the ongoing revolt in Ward 88. The 18 have all been charged with public violence which is the standard charge that the police use against activists. They are currently being held in the Umlazi Police Station. It is assumed that they will appear in court tomorrow but the police have not confirmed this.

It is clear that the police are acting on behalf of the local ANC to crush the ongoing rebellion in Ward 88 in Umlazi.

For further information and comment please contact:

Bheki Buthelezi, Unemployed People's Movement, Durban: 072 639 9893

Ayanda Kota, Unemployed People's Movment, Grahamstown: 078 625 6462

Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Durban: 081 309 5485

Rio+20: A declaration by Africa Alliance for Green Economy

Africa Alliance for Green Economy

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83213

We the African civil society organisations present in Riocentro have acknowledged that the Rio+20 outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that took place in Rio de Janeiro Brazil from 20-22 June 2012, has not matched the expectations of the civil society organisations represented at this Conference.

We appreciate that the outcome text has adopted relevant concepts such as:

- The contribution of culture and civilisation to fulfil sustainable development

- Youth Employment

- The right of civil society and other stakeholders to contribute to sustainable development as well as the right of access to information

- Capacity building of countries regarding a ‘green economy’

- Technology transfer (the term ‘as mutually agreed’ seems unclear)

- Sustainable production and consumption

However, we are concerned that it has left out the detail that is relevant to achieving sustainable development:

- A ‘green economy’ was the main topic of the Conference but the text is not very clear on a ‘green economy’ in terms of definition and mutual understanding. It is urgent to have a common view of what green economy means for our countries and our common future.

- The text does not give the mechanism for implementation and the financial means of achieving it. It also appears that there is no safeguard measure to guarantee the right of citizens and that of indigenous people with regard to natural resources. This can lead to wrong interpretations by international companies, considering the rights of populations and state sovereignty.

- The profit-oriented policy could endanger the natural capital of Africa and put our Mother Earth on the market.

- Only an inclusive approach of bringing together all stakeholders can help develop a strong vision on a green economy for sustainable development and poverty eradication, and to clearly define mechanisms for implementation and for sustainable funding.

- African leaders should urgently meet after Rio+20 to define the path the continent should take to achieve this new concept and mobilise funding for African experts to work on the pressing issues.

- The non-commitment of developed countries to allow a new financing mechanism to support sustainable development or to develop innovative financial mechanisms such as taxes in financial transactions.

- We congratulate the African negotiators for adopting a united position during the negotiations and to have a request for a chapter on Means of Implementation, if the concept of a green economy has to be implemented in Africa.

- We recommend that world leaders should take seriously the threat that our planet is facing, and find the way to bring all people to contribute to a good solution. We want to recall that Southern countries are the most vulnerable to climate change effects and that more means should be mobilised for their adaptation and access to climate friendly technologies.

- We recommend that African private sector and local councils should join this network initiated by civil society organisations in order to join efforts to achieve reconstruction of the sustainable development roadmap, and promote green employment for youth and green business for women.

- Call for international organisations to support our efforts to build this working group on a green economy by bringing some funding, capacity building and competencies to African countries in order for them to be fully equipped to carry on and follow the process of green economy implementation in African countries for sustainable development and poverty eradication.

- We commit ourselves as civil society organisations to bring together our expertise on green economy in order to propose a vision and relevant orientation for our leaders and for our people in the area of green economy policy. We are also engaging to train different stakeholders in order to adapt themselves on green achievements.

- Considering the above, we decide as African civil society present here in Rio de Janeiro to work together as a network called: ‘African Alliance for Green Economy’ (‘Coalition Africaine pour le Developpement Durable et l’Economie Verte’).

- We are open for a wide membership from civil society organisations, private sector organisations and local councils.

Made on 22 June 2012

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Rio+20 : Action against use of agrochemicals

La Vía Campesina

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83211

Rio de Janeiro, Thursday June 21 -A march organized by La Vía Campesina this Thursday the 21st will be denouncing agribusiness’ false solutions, through large landholdings and poisoning of food.

“Agribusiness is Brazil’s lie.” With this slogan more than 250 militants of La Vía Campesina Brazil and International occupied the National Confederation of Agriculture’s (NCA) space, set up on the Mauá pier in the port of Rio de Janeiro, to denounce the agribusiness discourse that falsely includes sustainable agriculture. The AgroBrasil stand, promoted by the NCA, Embrapa, Sebrae and the multinational corporations Monsanto and JBS proposes new technologies for producing food and, according them, preserving the environment. What is more, they will be putting together a document that combines the proposals of different agribusiness companies, which they will present in the official Rio+20 conference.

Via Campesina militants put up posters throughout the whole NCA space, denouncing the abusive practice of using agrochemicals, which poison the food of the Brazilian population. They extended banners as well and organized a direct action in order to raise consciousness around the high consumption of poisons in the crops on Brazilians’ dinner tables; Brazil is the largest consumer of agrochemicals in the whole world. “Did you take your doses of poison today?” asked the protestors.

“We came here to denounce and so that the whole population knows that the farce being promoted by the NCA that agribusiness in agriculture is sustainable.” They also said that, among the multiple social and environmental problems that emerge out of this production model, the use of agrochemicals is one of the most serious.

SURPRISE ACTION AND MARCH

The protest took the organizers and visitors of this space connected to Rio+20 by surprise. Many supported the action, which was done completely peacefully, and joined in the march organized by Via Campesina, from the Sambódromo to the Mauá pier.

The protesters marched in line all the way to the NCA stand, which was where both actions took place. “Here, agribusiness is discussing false solutions to capitalism. We are here to reject these false solutions and support food sovereignty. The people are only sovereign when they produce their own food with their own seeds and without the use of agrochemicals”, said Dilei, militant from the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) in Paraíba.

The Via Campesina movements propose, in opposition to agribusiness, food sovereignty, which consists of giving farmers and peasants the dignified conditions to produce healthy food for the population, with public policies that give incentive to family-based agriculture and respect traditional knowledge and nature.

More news and pictures on www.viacampesina.org

Land grabs: The Agrisol files

The Oakland Institute

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83195

Dear Friends,

Last June, the Oakland Institute exposed the largest land deal in Tanzania, which had been hidden away from public scrutiny and discussion. In this deal, Iowa-based Bruce Rastetter's AgriSol Energy LLC partnered with Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to lease more than 325,000 hectares without public debate or consent.

The Oakland Institute has been shining a spotlight on this land grab since our original research revealed how Bruce Rastetter leveraged ISU's involvement to provide legitimacy to a land grab masquerading it as responsible agricultural investment. The project was portrayed as sustainable agriculture, while plans were being laid to develop large-scale monocrops, use high levels of chemicals, and even ask for changes in the national biosafety regulations so that genetically modified crops could be grown. While over 160,000 small-holder farmers and residents were to be displaced through this scheme.

A year later, the top news in Iowa is an Associated Press story of incriminating emails concerning Bruce Rastetter--showing a conflict of interest and profit motive behind AgriSol's partnership with ISU in the controversial Tanzania land deal. Rastetter's position as an ISU regent makes his scheme to develop a lucrative agricultural deal even more flagrant. And now the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a Des Moines-based group, has brought an ethics complaint against Rastetter for misusing his membership on the Iowa Board of Regents that oversees Iowa's public universities to advance an "African land grab" that involved Iowa State University.

This project, which was once steamrolling in Tanzania, has now ground to a halt. But it hasn't been stopped for good.

How a university became involved in a land grab that would displace 160,000 residents already farming the land is a dirty story that is now unraveled.

By now, the ISU has completely withdrawn any support or association with the project.

We need your help to prevent deals like this from ever being on the table. [url= Donate]http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/join-us]Donate[/url][/url]

That the AgriSol deal has gone sour is just one example of how research with a purpose can change the world. That's what we do at the Oakland Institute.

The Oakland Institute research has been critical in empowering local communities and decision makers in many countries so they can make informed choices about the investment they need to develop their agriculture and overcome hunger and poverty. By providing information and analysis, sponsoring radio programs in local languages, and hosting events on the ground around agricultural investments, the Institute is working to ensure people have a say in their own future. This work has already resulted in popular mobilization in countries such as South Sudan and Sierra Leone as well as increasing awareness for many decision makers across the world.

We are committed to a world free of hunger, which requires policies and investments that will benefit the people, not just a handful of businessmen, investors, and politicians. It is our mission to unearth and publish information that propels activism and builds change. To continue this work, we look to individuals and foundations that are committed to the same work and goals for support.

We hope that we can count on your continued support and ask you to make a generous gift to the Institute today so we can continue our shared work and build coalitions to make real change.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Anuradha Mittal

The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank whose mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic and environmental issues.

www.oaklandinstitute.org

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/oak.institute

Why genetically engineered food is dangerous

New report by genetic engineers

Earth Open Source

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83210

Press release for immediate release

Earth Open Source

17 June 2012

LONDON, UK – Aren’t critics of genetically engineered food anti-science? Isn’t the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational GM-supporting scientists on the other?

A new report released today, “GMO Myths and Truths,”[1] challenges these claims. The report presents a large body of peer-reviewed scientific and other authoritative evidence of the hazards to health and the environment posed by genetically engineered crops and organisms (GMOs).

Unusually, the initiative for the report came not from campaigners but from two genetic engineers who believe there are good scientific reasons to be wary of GM foods and crops.

One of the report’s authors, Dr Michael Antoniou of King’s College London School of Medicine in the UK, uses genetic engineering for medical applications but warns against its use in developing crops for human food and animal feed.

Dr Antoniou said: “GM crops are promoted on the basis of ambitious claims – that they are safe to eat, environmentally beneficial, increase yields, reduce reliance on pesticides, and can help solve world hunger.

“I felt what was needed was a collation of the evidence that addresses the technology from a scientific point of view.

“Research studies show that genetically modified crops have harmful effects on laboratory animals in feeding trials and on the environment during cultivation. They have increased the use of pesticides and have failed to increase yields. Our report concludes that there are safer and more effective alternatives to meeting the world’s food needs.”

Another author of the report, Dr John Fagan, is a former genetic engineer who in 1994 returned to the National Institutes of Health $614,000 in grant money due to concerns about the safety and ethics of the technology. He subsequently founded a GMO testing company.Dr Fagan said: “Crop genetic engineering as practiced today is a crude, imprecise, and outmoded technology. It can create unexpected toxins or allergens in foods and affect their nutritional value. Recent advances point to better ways of using our knowledge of genomics to improve food crops, that do not involve GM.

“Over 75% of all GM crops are engineered to tolerate being sprayed with herbicide. This has led to the spread of herbicide-resistant superweeds and has resulted in massively increased exposure of farmers and communities to these toxic chemicals. Epidemiological studies suggest a link between herbicide use and birth defects and cancer.

“These findings fundamentally challenge the utility and safety of GM crops, but the biotech industry uses its influence to block research by independent scientists and uses its powerful PR machine to discredit independent scientists whose findings challenge this approach.”

The third author of the report, Claire Robinson, research director of Earth Open Source, said, “The GM industry is trying to change our food supply in far-reaching and potentially dangerous ways. We all need to inform ourselves about what is going on and ensure that we – not biotechnology companies – keep control of our food system and crop seeds.

“We hope our report will contribute to a broader understanding of GM crops and the sustainable alternatives that are already working successfully for farmers and communities.”

ENDS

Notes

1. The report, “GMO Myths andTruths, An evidence-based examination of the claims made for the safety and efficacy of genetically modified crops”, by Michael Antoniou, PhD, Claire Robinson, and John Fagan, PhD is published by Earth Open Source (June 2012). The report is 123 pages long and contains over 600 citations, many of them from the peer-reviewed scientific literature and the rest from reports by scientists, physicians, government bodies, industry, and the media. The report is available here: http://earthopensource.org/index.php/reports/58

A shorter summary version will be released in the coming weeks.

NEWS POINTS FROM THE REPORT

1. Genetic engineering as used in crop development is not precise or predictable and has not been shown to be safe. The technique can result in the unexpected production of toxins or allergens in food that are unlikely to be spotted in current regulatory checks.

2. GM crops, including some that are already in our food and animal feed supply, have shown clear signs of toxicity in animal feeding trials – notably disturbances in liver and kidney function and immune responses.

3. GM proponents have dismissed these statistically significant findings as “not biologically relevant/significant,” based on scientifically indefensible arguments.

4. Certain EU-commissioned animal feeding trials with GM foods and crops are often claimed by GM proponents to show they are safe. In fact, examination of these studies shows significant differences between the GM-fed and control animals that give cause for concern.

5. GM foods have not been properly tested in humans, but the few studies that have been carried out in humans give cause for concern.

6. The USFDA does not require mandatory safety testing of GM crops, and does not even assess the safety of GM crops but only “deregulates” them, based on assurances from biotech companies that they are “substantially equivalent” to their non-GM counterparts. This is like claiming that a cow with BSE is substantially equivalent to a cow that does not have BSE and is thus safe to eat! Claims of substantial equivalence cannot be justified on scientific grounds.

7. The regulatory regime for GM foods is weakest in the US, where GM foods do not even have to be assessed for safety or labelled in the marketplace, but in most regions of the world regulations are inadequate to protect people’s health from the potential adverse effects of GM foods.

8. In the EU,where the regulatory system is often claimed to be strict, minimal pre-market testing is required for a GMO and the tests are commissioned by the same companies that stand to profit from the GMO if it is approved – a clear conflict of interest.

9. No long-term toxicological testing of GMOs on animals or testing on humans is required by any regulatory agency in the world.

10.Biotech companies have used patent claims and intellectual property protection laws to restrict access of independent researchers to GM crops for research purposes. As a result, limited research has been conducted on GM foods and crops by scientists who are independent of the GM industry. Scientists whose work has raised concerns about the safety of GMOs have been attacked and discredited in orchestrated campaigns by GM crop promoters.

11.Most GM crops (over 75%) are engineered to tolerate applications of herbicides. Where such GM crops have been adopted, they have led to massive increases in herbicide use.

12.Roundup, the herbicide that over 50% of all GM crops are engineered to tolerate, is not safe or benign as has been claimed but has been found to cause malformations (birth defects), reproductive problems, DNA damage, and cancer in test animals. Human epidemiological studies have found an association between Roundup exposure and miscarriage, birth defects, neurological development problems, DNA damage, and certain types of cancer.

13.A public health crisis has erupted in GM soy-producing regions of South America, where people exposed to spraying with Roundup and other agrochemicals sprayed on the crop report escalating rates of birth defects and cancer.

14.A large number of studies indicate that Roundup is associated with increased crop diseases, especially infection with Fusarium, a fungus that causes wilt disease in soy and can have toxic effects on humans and livestock.

15.Bt insecticidal GM crops do not sustainably reduce pesticide use but change the way in which pesticides are used: from sprayed on, to built in.

16.Bt technology is proving unsustainable as pests evolve resistance to the toxin and secondary pest infestations are becoming common.

17.GM proponents claim that the Bt toxin engineered into GM plants is safe because the natural form of Bt, long used as a spray by conventional and organic farmers, has a history of safe use. But the GM forms of Bt toxins are different from the natural forms and could have different toxic and allergenic effects.

18.GM Bt toxin is not limited in its toxicity to insect pests. GM Bt crops have been found to have toxic effects on laboratory animals in feeding trials.

19.GM Bt crops have been found to have toxic effects on non-target organisms in the environment.

20.Bt toxin is not fully broken down in digestion and has been found circulating in the blood of pregnant women in Canada and in the blood supply to their foetuses.

21.The no-till method of farming promoted with GM herbicide-tolerant crops, which avoids ploughing and uses herbicides to control weeds, is not more climate-friendly than ploughing. No-till fields do not store more carbon in the soil than ploughed fields when deeper levels of soil are measured.

22.No-till increases the negative environmental impacts of soy cultivation, because of the herbicides used.

23.Golden Rice, a beta-carotene-enriched rice, is promoted as a GM crop that could help malnourished people overcome vitamin A deficiency. But Golden Rice has not been tested for toxicological safety, has been plagued by basic development problems, and, after more than 12 years and millions of dollars of research funding, is still not ready for the market. Meanwhile, inexpensive and effective solutions to vitamin A deficiency are available but under-used due to lack of funding.

24.GM crops are often promoted as a “vital tool in the toolbox” to feed the world’s growing population, but many experts question the contribution they could make, as they do not offer higher yields or cope better with drought than non-GM crops. Most GM crops are engineered to tolerate herbicides or to contain a pesticide – traits that are irrelevant to feeding the hungry.

25.High adoption of GM crops among farmers is not a sign that the GM crop is superior to non-GM varieties, as once GM companies gain control of the seed market, they withdraw non-GM seed varieties from the market. The notion of “farmer choice” does not apply in this situation.

26.GM contamination of non-GM and organic crops has resulted in massive financial losses by the food and feed industry, involving product recalls, lawsuits, and lost markets.

27.When many people read about high-yielding, pest- and disease-resistant, drought- tolerant, and nutritionally improved super-crops, they think of GM. In fact, these are all products of conventional breeding, which continues to outstrip GM in producing such crops. The report contains a long list of these conventional crop breeding successes.

28.Certain “supercrops” have been claimed to be GM successes when in fact they are products of conventional breeding, in some cases assisted by the non-GM biotechnology of marker assisted selection.

29.Conventional plant breeding, with the help of non-GM biotechnologies such as marker assisted selection, is a safer and more powerful method than GM to produce new crop varieties required to meet current and future needs of food production, especially in the face of rapid climate change.

30.Conventionally bred, locally adapted crops, used in combination with agroecological farming practices, offer a proven, sustainable approach to ensuring global food security.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michael Antoniou, PhD is reader in molecular genetics and head, Gene Expression and Therapy Group, King’s College London School of Medicine, London, UK. He has 28 years’ experience in the use of genetic engineering technology investigating gene organisation and control, with over 40 peer reviewed publications of original work, and holds inventor status on a number of gene expression biotechnology patents. Dr Antoniou has a large network of collaborators in industry and academia who are making use of his discoveries in gene control mechanisms for the production of research, diagnostic and therapeutic products and human somatic gene therapies for inherited and acquired genetic disorders.

John Fagan, PhD, is a leading authority on sustainability in the food system, biosafety, and GMO testing. He is founder and chief scientific officer of Global ID Group, a company with subsidiaries involved in GMO food testing and GMO-free certification. He is a director of Earth Open Source. Earlier, he conducted cancer research at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and in academia. He holds a PhD in biochemistry and molecular and cell biology from Cornell University.

Dr Fagan became an early voice in the scientific debate on genetic engineering when in 1994 he took an ethical stand challenging the use of germ line gene therapy (which has subsequently been banned in most countries) and genetic engineering in agriculture. He underlined his concerns by returning a grant of around $614,000 to the US National Institutes of Health, awarded for cancer research that used genetic engineering as a research tool. He was concerned that knowledge generated in his research could potentially be misused to advance human germ-line genetic engineering (for example, to create “designer babies”), which he found unacceptable on grounds of both safety and ethics. For similar reasons, around the same time, he withdrew applications for two additional grants totalling $1.25 million from the NIH and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). In 1996 he started Global ID when he saw that GMO testing could be useful to assist industry in providing consumers with the transparency that they desired regarding the presence of GMOs in foods.

Claire Robinson, MPhil, is research director at Earth Open Source. She has a background in investigative reporting and the communication of topics relating to public health, science and policy, and the environment. She is an editor at GMWatch (www.gmwatch.org), a public information service on issues relating to genetic modification, and was formerly managing editor at SpinProfiles (now Powerbase).

EARTH OPEN SOURCE

Earth Open Source (www.earthopensource.org) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assuring the sustainability, security, and safety of the global food system. It supports agroecological, farmer-based systems that conserve soil, water, and energy and that produce healthy and nutritious food free from unnecessary toxins. It challenges the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture on the grounds of the scientifically proven hazards that they pose to health and the environment and on the grounds of the negative social and economic impacts of these technologies. Earth Open Source holds that our crop seeds and food system are common goods that belong in the hands of farmers and citizens, not of the GMO and chemical industry. Earth Open Source has established four lines of action, each of which fulfils a specific aspect of its mission:


CONTACT

Claire Robinson +44 (0)752 753 6923 (UK) claire.robinson@earthopensource.org
Dr John Fagan +1 312 351 2001 jfagan@earthopensource.org
Dr Michael Antoniou +44 (0)20 7188 3708 michael.antoniou@kcl.ac.uk

Scramble for natural resources in East and Horn of Africa threatens minorities and indigenous peoples and fuels conflict

Minority Rights Group International

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83198

27 June 2012

State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012 documents the scale and severity of the impact on minorities of an unprecedented competition for scarce resources, prompted by the prolonged drought that wreaked havoc in the region and the knock-on effects of the global economic downturn. Across the region, but disproportionately in minority and indigenous areas, communities are struggling to access and gain control of the land and natural resources they depend upon for their livelihoods and culture.

‘Sustainable natural resource development has to benefit all communities and should not come at the expense of minorities and indigenous peoples,’ says Mark Lattimer, Executive Director of MRG. ‘Natural resource extraction that affects minority and indigenous groups should be pursued only with their participation and in a way that does not erode cultural or religious identity.’

The report highlights cases showing how the rush for the remaining resources in the region has thrown communities into conflict, leaving tens of thousands displaced through land grabs and livelihoods threatened.

In Ethiopia, the government continues to commit gross human rights violations by uprooting thousands of indigenous people from the remote western region of Gambella, including Anuak and Nuer, through its controversial villagisation programme, in order to free up land for large-scale agricultural investment.

Since the start of relocation, estimated to target 45,000 households, there have been reports of armed violence, sometimes resulting in deaths, between Ethiopian forces, indigenous Anuak and Nuer, highlanders (Ethiopians who are non-indigenous to Gambella region) and foreigners working on agricultural estates.

In western Uganda, the Basongora, a pastoralist community in Kasese district, have never recovered their land lost under colonial rule to pave way for the Queen Elizabeth National Park. This is despite successive post-independent governments promising to resettle them and address the social injustice suffered by the community.

For over a decade, the Basongora have had running battles with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, mandated to protect the park, whenever the community tries to access the park. This hostility prompted President Museveni in April 2012 to warn the Uganda Wildlife Authority against arbitrarily evicting people from national parks, urging them to instead convince communities of the benefits that conserving national parks and tourism can bring.

In South Sudan, Africa’s newest state, a history of cattle raiding between the Lou Nuer and the Murle, as well as other groups, has developed into inter-communal violence on a highly organised scale in Jonglei state, affecting some 120,000 people. Competition over oil and other resources between the Khartoum government and South Sudan including a series of conflicts escalating along the border areas between the two countries has escalated the formation of militia groups and a breakdown of traditional structures of authority.

In the mineral rich Democratic Republic of Congo, the Buela, a forest community, signed an agreement in 2011 with a subsidiary of a European company to allow forest areas used by the community to be logged. However, the company did not inform the community of its rights and responsibilities before the agreement and the presence of military personnel at the signing ceremony was intimidating to a community that had previously suffered torture, killing and rape at the hands of the army.

The report sets out for the first time corporate responsibility in relation to minority rights, and provides evidence of companies’ ongoing disregard for minority and indigenous peoples’ rights (even when their Corporate Social Responsibility policies say otherwise).

In Kenya, the government’s ambitious Vision 2030, meant to transform parts of the country into modern cities, looks set to be implemented at the expense of the livelihoods and cultures of minority and indigenous groups who live there. For instance, the government is set to develop Lamu, the largest town on Lamu Island and one of the oldest and best preserved settlements among Swahili towns in East Africa, into a port, airport and a refinery.

The proposed railway line between Lamu Port and Addis Ababa will pass through northern Kenya, affecting communities such as Bajuni, Boni and pastoralists who reside in Isiolo area.

‘For any development or investment project that would have a major impact within the community’s territory, the government and investors have a duty not only to consult with the community, but also to obtain their free, prior and informed consent,’ says Mark Lattimer.

Notes to the Editor

Interview opportunities in Africa available with:
1. Mark Lattimer, MRG’s Executive Director
2. Mohamed Matovu, East and Horn of Africa Section Author (see contacts below)
3. Ethiopian Activist
4. Mr. Amos Isimbwa, Founder, Basongora Group for Justice and Human Rights +256704777007


MRG Africa Press Office – Mohamed Matovu
T: +256 782 748 189

E: mohamed.matovu@mrgmail.org
Twitter: @MinorityRights
• State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2012 will be available on MRG’s website on 28 June 2012
• Watch a video produced for the launch of the report. If you wish to use the video, please contact MRG Press office
• Find more revealing case studies from Africa on land rights and natural resources on MRG’s Minority Voices Newsroom
• Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is a non-governmental organization working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide. We work with more than 150 partners in over 50 countries.


Mohamed Matovu

Africa Regional Information officer
Minority Rights Group International
+256 312266832 (Office)
+256 782748189 (Cell)
mohamed.matovu@mrgmail.org
meddieme@yahoo.co.uk (private)
www.minorityrights.org

Twitter: @MinorityRights <http://twitter.com/#!/MinorityRights>

Skype: mohamed.matovu

Facebook: www.facebook.com/minorityrights <http://www.facebook.com/minorityrights>
W: www.minorityvoices.org

Eskinder Nega, 5 exiled journalists convicted of terrorism

Committee to Protect Journalists

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83201

Nairobi, June 27, 2012- Today's conviction of six Ethiopian journalists on vague terrorism charges is an affront to the rule of law and the constitution in the Horn of Africa country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At least 11 journalists have been charged with terrorism since November 2011, according to CPJ research.

Before issuing the court's verdict, Judge Endeshaw Adane in the Lideta Federal High Court in Addis Ababa, the capital, accused blogger Eskinder Nega, and five exiled Ethiopian journaliststriedin absentia, of using "the guise of freedom" to "attempt to incite violence and overthrow the constitutional order," according to news reports. The defendants, who were among 24 charged with anti-state crimes, return to court for sentencing on July 13. News accounts reported that the prosecutor requested life sentences-the maximum penalty-for all of them.

Eskinder and the five convicted journalists have professed their innocence, according to news reports. The journalists include Mesfin Negash and Abiye Teklemariam of the U.S.-based Addis Neger Online; Abebe Gellaw of the U.S.-based Addis Voice; Abebe Belew of the U.S.-based Internet radio Addis Dimts; and Fasil Yenealem of the Netherlands-based ESAT, according to news reports.

The judge accused Eskinder of wanting to spark an Arab Spring-style popular revolt in Ethiopia through the use of online articles and a speech in a public forum shortly before his arrest in September 2011, according to news reports. Prior to this, police had detained Eskinder and told him to stop writing about the Arab Spring. The journalist had also published an online column questioning the government's use of the anti-terrorism law to silence dissent and calling on the government to respect freedom of expression.

The journalists were accused of being linked with the opposition Ginbot 7, which the government has designated a terrorist group, as well as other outlawed groups. They were also accused of "allowing terrorist organizations such as Ginbot 7, Oromo Liberation Front, and Ogaden National Liberation Front to express their terrorist ideas and promote their agendas on their online publication," according to a translation of the original charge sheet.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, human rights defenders, three U.N. special rapporteurs, and three members of U.S. Congress have publicly criticized the Ethiopian government for using the sweeping anti-terrorism law to criminalize freedom of expression. The law criminalizes independent reporting on opposition groups that the government has deemed terrorists.

"We condemn the convictions of Eskinder Nega and five other journalists who exercised their internationally recognized right to freedom of expression," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "With its ruling, the court has effectively criminalized free expression, trivialized the genuine threat of terrorism, and undermined the credibility of the judicial system in Ethiopia."

Local journalists told CPJ that the judicial process was marred by due process violations. The court did not accept any evidence or witness statements from Eskinder's defense, and the blogger was charged without his lawyer present, the journalists said. In addition, public statements by government officials and news reports by state-controlled media contributed to a country-wide smear campaign launched by the government against the journalists, according to CPJ research.

This conviction marks the third terrorism verdict against journalists in the past six months. Three journalists were convicted in January on charges of terrorism, according to CPJ research. Two of the journalists were given prison terms and the third, an exiled reporter, was given a life sentence. In December, two Swedish journalists were convicted of terrorism and each given 11-year prison terms, CPJ research shows.




CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization
that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.
Contact:
Mohamed Keita
Africa Advocacy Coordinator
Tel. +1.212.465.1004 ext. 117
Email: mkeita@cpj.org

Tom Rhodes
East Africa Consultant
Email: trhodes@cpj.org

Uganda to ban NGOs accused of promoting gay rights

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/83194

Wed Jun 20, 2012

'KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda said on Wednesday it was banning 38 non-governmental organisations it accuses of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, along with more than 30 other countries in Africa, and activists say few Africans are openly gay, fearing imprisonment, violence and losing their jobs.

Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo told Reuters the organisations being targeted were receiving support from abroad for Uganda's homosexuals and accused gays and lesbians of "recruiting" young children in the country into homosexuality.

"The NGOs are channels through which monies are channelled to (homosexuals) to recruit," the minister, a former Catholic priest, said.

He did not name which organisations were on the list.

A bill calling for harsh penalties against homosexuals and outlawing the "promotion" of homosexuality, including providing financial support to gays and lesbians, is pending in the east African country's parliament.

A previous bill called for the death penalty for repeat offenders, although the new version is expected to drop this clause, as well as calls for life imprisonment, after international condemnation of the proposal and threats to cut off aid.

On republication of ‘How Europe underdeveloped Africa’

Gus John

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/83212

Dear Comrade,

A belated 'Thank You' for keeping the message of Walter's seminal and timeless work alive and reminding us to always honour his memory.

The symposium that resulted from your collaboration with OWTU, Pat, Norman Girvan and other comrades in T & T was hugely inspirational and, for me, it brought back so many memories of more focused action in equally challenging times.

Thank You!

Solidarity, Peace and Progress!

Gus John

Libation – a poem

For my elder student

Dennis D Mosiere

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/83221

I remember the days

when you hold a jar of water

A metal gong

Then you shout that our ancestors must be called

they must be heard

You shout,

CALL THEM! CALL THEM!

Yes we call them

our ancestors

I guess they cheer

our ambition to reunite with them

these lines are a sign

that, like libation,

my soul is yearning

for liberation

unity of mankind

spirituality, may we free our minds

The music of obokano

Dennis D Mosiere

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/83224

(Ekegusii version)

Ninche Masese

Mbono nkare gocha korwa Bundo

Rigereria buna nyeagete ebundo

Nkogenda esegi n’enyundo

Nabogoirie ritimo n’etindo

Nachire buna omorwani

Namatimo y’abarwani

Nemesetwa y’abarwani

Tegerera buna nkobugia amakano

Chingoma na ebitureri

Tinkomiamia na riba ritaturi

Ritononkerete kobua eroti na ebitureri

Namonsegesa ritimo ekerege igoro

Buna chigi chigi

Nabo nkoirwana buna obonyoru ekegoro igoro

Nachire

Mbegete chianga buna amache riyenga

Bono bono kongera aare

Roar buna ngosata chinguba

Nchibeke nse chitube amaraba

Buna riyenga ri’embura

Esirikali y’omonto oyomo

Omwana entabo ntongetie riso
Namonseng’ensia ninsoe egetita ime

Nsoke n’enaigo

Natochaka ekinano

Nigo ngokorwokia enyangi

Bwoondoche togayanwe

Totarasamania na gokiritania

Nche naye ntogochia makari

Nche nigo ngwoka buna omorero

Okogwa korwa ase ekerende na esasi

Randa orande buna Emanga na Esameta

Randa ko obugie ekenanda na endanda

Tagotwara ekeririanda

Nigo orabaise gotara getirianda

Bwateke buna enda

Onye n’omonto okogochanda

Kira takonya gwechanda

Rirorio rigia ekenanda

Gose soa getanda orare nda!

*Dennis Dancan Mosiere aka Grandmaster Masese is a poet, musician, actor, writer/editor, human rights educator and a Fahamu Pan African fellow for Social Justice

Rio+20

Gado

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/83219

The winner in Egypt

Gado

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/83220

Egypt's new president

Gado

2012-06-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/83218

Namibia: South Africa stifles local dairy industry

2012-07-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/83228

http://bit.ly/NULAIL

Campaigner – North Africa

Amnesty International

2012-07-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/83230

£34,032 per annum
Central London

About the role

We’re looking for a Campaigner to contribute to our campaign against human rights violations in North Africa. Working at the International Secretariat, you will contribute to a range of projects, including Amnesty International’s response to the momentous changes in North Africa witnessed in 2011 and 2012. You will act as a focal point, providing advice and support to our worldwide membership, including devising campaigning strategies, preparing written and other campaigning materials and providing research support.

About you

You will have excellent communication, campaigning and research skills and a demonstrable commitment to human rights. Ideally you will also have specialist knowledge of North Africa and experience of campaigning in a membership organization. While there is no line management responsibility, you will participate in coordinating the work of the team. Along with English, fluency in Arabic or French are essential; it would be highly desirable if you were fluent in both Arabic and French.

About us

Our aim is simple: an end to human rights abuses. Independent, international and influential, we campaign for justice, human rights and dignity wherever they’re denied. Already our network of almost three million members and supporters is making a difference in 150 countries. And whether we’re applying pressure through authoritative research or direct lobbying, mass demonstrations or online campaigning, we’re all inspired by hope for a better world. One where the human rights of everyone are respected and protected everywhere.

For further information about this and our other current vacancies, and to apply online, please visit our website www.amnesty.org/jobs

Closing date: 18 July 2012.

CVs will not be accepted.

Regional Campaign Coordinator – MENA

Amnesty International

2012-07-02

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/83229

£41,124 per annum
London

The human rights situation in the Middle East and North Africa is currently a significant focus of Amnesty International’s global campaigning. Use your experience as a campaign strategist and your expert knowledge of human rights in the region to inspire worldwide action on what have become high-profile issues.

About the role

Spotting opportunities for action, you will lead on the development of regional strategies for human rights change, as well as co-ordinating their implementation by a variety of different actors within Amnesty International’s global movement. You will also provide expert advice on campaigning in and on the region to support the work of country specialists.

About you

An experienced strategic campaigner, you will have both a specialist knowledge of human rights, political and social issues in the Middle East and North Africa region and know how to harness a variety of campaigning tools to effect change. You will have excellent communication skills allowing you to discuss complex strategic thinking orally and in writing in both English and Arabic. Knowledge of other regional languages, such as Persian and French, is an advantage.

About us

Our aim is simple: an end to human rights abuses. Independent, international and influential, we campaign for justice, freedom and truth wherever they’re denied. Already our network of over three million members and supporters is making a difference in 150 countries. Whether we’re applying pressure through powerful research or direct lobbying, mass demonstrations or online campaigning, we’re all inspired by hope for a better world. One where human rights are respected and protected by everyone, everywhere.

Closing date: 15th July 2012.

For more information and to apply, please visit www.amnesty.org/jobs

Fahamu