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letters & opinions
Open letter and response to Uganda Human Rights Commission
Vincent Nuwagaba
2012-05-17, Issue 585
Do I have a right to a fair hearing? Do I have the right to freedom from torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment? Do I have the right to live in dignity as a human being? That’s what I demand.
On 'I demand justice or death'
Uganda Human Rights Commission
2012-04-25, Issue 582
Statement from Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) in response to Pambazuka News article titled ‘As a Ugandan citizen, I demand justice or death’
German/French/Greece trivia
GaveKal
2012-04-19, Issue 581
QUESTION: Who is the third biggest arms importer in the world, behind India and China? ANSWER: Greece QUESTION: If Greece had spent the EU average on defence over the past 10 years (1.7%) of GDP rather than spending 4% of GDP, how much money would it have saved? ANSWER: 52% of GDP or Euro150 billion. So why are France and Germany not demanding that Greece cuts its defence spending; a residual fear of the Turk or perhaps there is another reason...? QUESTION: In the period 2006-2010 which country was Germany’s largest market for munitions? Answer: Greece, which accounted for 15% of total German arms sales. QUESTION: In the same period, what country was France’s largest arms export market in Europe (third largest overall)? ANSWER: Greece QUESTION: In 2010 (last year data is available) social spending in Greece was cut by 1.8bn Euros, how much did military spending change? a) Decreased by Euro 900 million b) No change c) Increased by Euro 900million ANSWER: C
South Africa: On Hellen Zille’s comments
Statement by the Mandela Park Backyarders
2012-04-05, Issue 580
Zille's comments brought back memories of the Afro-phobic attacks of 2008; but this time, invoking such phobia between people already living in South Africa.
Letter to the editors of Amandla!
John S. Saul
2012-04-05, Issue 580
The real question worth arguing about soberly is: Does the ANC (or the SACP for that matter) have the capacity to right itself and become a real instrument of genuine liberation of the South African people in the post-apartheid period?
Re: A fresh look at Malcolm X
Mboya Ogutu
2012-04-05, Issue 580
I suppose, there is no time even an excellent work will please all "stake-holders". For someone with the stature of Malcom X, time and space will continue unfurling a myriad intepretations on his life. He is, as Marable says a part of the Black Aesthetic in America. To us in the Motherland, Malcom X represents our hope and idea of freedom and dignity for the diaspora Africans. What Marable has revealed is an extremely complex, protean and fearless African with a special love for his people.He was a man always learning. Although some aspects of Malcom's life, as revealed in the book are somewhat disconcerting, one is left with a humbling thought that Marable points out: His fiery and incisive oratory and telling truth to power was a marvel and extremely important during his time. I find Marable's coverage of Malcom objectively respectful without subservience or sheer myth-making. Malcom X still comes out as an awe-inspiring Afrikan man. Period
Let’s not joke with the emotive land question.
Cheruiyot Collins
2012-04-05, Issue 580
The key issues around past historical injustices and gender perspectives must be at the center of the land question for it to make meaning in Kenya’s national development discourse.
Tshisekedi is no nationalist as claimed
Antoine Lokongo
2012-03-29, Issue 579
Professor Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is misleading Pambazuka's readers about Tshisekedi. He writes: "Given the importance of the DRC as a land of considerable natural wealth, the major powers prefer leaders with no national constituency who are easy to manipulate like Joseph Kabila to those like Etienne Tshisekedi who are unapologetically nationalist." Tshisekedi is not a nationalist. With Mobutu, he betrayed Patrice Lumumba. He called Patrice Lumumba "a frog that must be gotten rid off". Is this being unapologetically nationalist?
Would Obasanjo understand peace if he saw it? – Dakar update
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
2012-03-29, Issue 579
Opposition candidate Macky Sall defeats Abdoulaye Wade, Sénégal’s president, in the country’s second round, election. Once again, the Sénégalese electorate, arguably Africa’s most sophisticated and resilient, has shown that it can be done! A salute to this beacon! This electorate has not only stopped Wade from his attempt to unconstitutionally extend his maximum two-term duration in office, implicitly supported by Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo (the AU and ECOWAS so-called mediating envoy to Sénégal), it has, also, resoundingly voted against the president despite that much bandied, seeming armour of certitude so beloved by Africa’s dictators – ‘incumbency’.
Mamdani's article on Kony video an eye opener on Rwanda
Antoine Lokongo
2012-03-22, Issue 578
Professor Mamdani's article on the Kony video is an eye opener for the situation in Rwanda as well. He writes: ‘The solution is not to eliminate the LRA physically…At its core the LRA remains a Ugandan problem calling for a Ugandan political solution.’ By analogy, the solution in Rwanda is not to eliminate the Hutu physically…At its core the Hutu problem remains a Rwandan problem calling for a Rwandan political solution. We Congolese have had enough to bear the brunt of the Ugandan and Rwandan internal problems which they export into our country.
The guise of growth
Jack Lindstrom
2012-03-22, Issue 578
I’m involved in the Occupy movement, so I absolutely agree that capitalism is the system perpetuating these problems. My question is, what, if anything, can American activists do that will be to Africa’s greatest benefit? Sorry if this question is vague, naïve, or frustrating - it seems your article is suggesting that what the western world needs to do is in fact to stop meddling with Africa - but one thing activists can do is to agitate to stop such meddling, both in the form of exploitation and in the form of creating dependence.
Contaminated Japanese food for Africa
Kaori Izumi
2012-03-22, Issue 578
I just got information that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan has agreed with the World Food Programme to export canned fish, including that produced in disaster-affected areas to the following countries: Ghana, Congo, Senegal, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.
Simone Gbagbo: it is time for progressive women to speak out
Uchenna Osigwe
2012-03-22, Issue 578
Simone, wife of President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire, is a political prisoner. The only reason why she’s in prison today is because her husband was overthrown in a military coup by the forces of the man under whose order she’s currently languishing in jail. Simone didn’t commit any crime. Indeed she won her parliamentary seat handily in the 2010 elections, and unlike the presidential election, that election result wasn’t contested by opposing parties. As women around the world celebrate International Women’s Day, and given that the month of March is dedicated to attracting attention to women’s issues, one needs to ask why there’s silence from all quarters about the ignoble treatment Simone Gbagbo is being subjected to.
Camapign for a nuclear free Africa
Soumya Dutta
2012-03-08, Issue 574
Nuclear power is the epitome of extremely dangerous concentration of energy, with massive cost externalization and is antithetical to the very idea of justice.
Bill Gates' support of GM crops is wrong approach for Africa
Glenn Ashton
2012-02-29, Issue 572
Bill Gates' support of genetically modified (GM) crops as a solution for world hunger is of concern to those of us involved in promoting sustainable, equitable and effective agricultural policies in Africa.
On the Igbo genocide
Gerald Caplan
2012-03-01, Issue 572
Herbert Ekwe Ekwe continues to disseminate his tenaciously held views about what many of us call the Biafran War of the late 1960s. It's important for Pamabazuka readers to know that much of his argument is challenged by most detached students of that terrible war. I hope others will jump into this debate to take on Mr. Ekwe in detail, so let me make only a few points here.
On the Igbo genocide 2
Gavin Williams
2012-03-01, Issue 572
It is regrettable that Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe seems to have become the sole commentator on the appalling pogroms of 1966 and the civil war in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. He is right that those directly responsible for the series of pogroms against Igbos, or for war crimes, have never been held to account and that Nigerians have not yet come to terms with the history of these events and of the war itself.
On the Igbo genocide 3
Ian Smillie
2012-03-01, Issue 572
I read Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe's essay in your Issue 571 with dismay. It would be hard to exaggerate the horrors of the Biafran War, but Mr. Ekwe-Ekwe does an excellent job of it.
Homage to a humble man
Jacques Depelchin
2012-02-22, Issue 571
My sense is that there are texts that one should be able to see (right away) that need wider audience. I think the obituary written by Hirji on Henry Mapolu is one such text…if one is going to agree with what is said by Hirji. What is crucial, it seems to me, is that people beyond Tanzania, beyond sociologists, beyond academics, must hear/learn about what someone like Henry stood for. One of the things that stands out, among the many things, is how he refused to go for the job of district commissioner. A presidential appointment. In this day and age very few people know what ‘principled values’ mean. Hirji's obituary of Henry conveys that in a very clear way.
Dispatch from Dakar: The people are determined
Akwasi Aidoo
2012-02-23, Issue 571
There is no way President Wade can hang on to power for very long. Chances are the politicians will work out some deal.
Is the ANC 100 years or 57 years old?
Motsoko Pheko
2012-01-26, Issue 567
Motsoko Pheko responds to reader comments on his article 'Is the ANC 100 or 57 years old?'
Correction
Can Durban recover from city-scale neoliberal nationalism?
Rozal Damoense
2012-01-19, Issue 566
Mike Sutcliffe has never been Mayor of Durban. Instead Mike Sutcliffe was Municipal Manager. Stay well. The Editor replies: Thank-you for the correction. We apologise for this error, which was made in the editing process....
Plan International responds on foreign aid to mining firms
Abigail Brown, communications department, Plan Canada
2012-01-09, Issue 565
Dear Editor, I’m writing to notify you of two errors in a story on your site that we are kindly asking to have corrected as they are misleading to your readers. The story is called: Foreign Aid to Mining Firms [url=http://www.pambazuka.org/e...
'Until then, we continue to die'
Response to Stephen Lewis' ‘There is no doubt it is murder’
Happy Kinyili
2011-12-15, Issue 563
‘As a people, we have looked and continue to look to our western saviours to ride in on their magnificent white horse to our rescue. This ain't happening,’ writes Happy Kinyili, in a call for Africa to 'imagine and envision' the future for itself.
A response to ‘False News on Pambazuka - Editor dangerous’
Pambazuka News editors
2011-12-08, Issue 562
Pambazuka News responds to an email from Global Peace-keepers Team claiming that: ‘The Editor of Pambazuka who supported the illegal actions of NATO and Rebels against the legitimate State of Libya which led to the deaths of over 150,000 Libyan Citizens, is now supporting the false reports of Aisha Gaddafi calling for the overthrow of the new Libyan Regime.’ They further alleged that by posting this summary Pambazuka News has put at risk the lives of Aisha Gaddafi and relatives since her statement was an apparent breach of her conditions of exile in Algeria. PAMBAZUKA NEWS RESPONDS:
Thoughts on Algeria and the Arab Autumn
A response to David Porter
Marieme Helie Lucas
2011-11-17, Issue 558
Marieme Helie Lucas critiques an article by David Porter appearing in Issue 557 of Pambazuka News. She praises the author’s analysis but also points out that some important happenings are missing and some erroneous statements and assumptions were made.
Elected vice-president of the AU's ECOSOCC
Mama Koité Doumbia
2011-11-10, Issue 557
I'm writing to inform you that I was elected vice president of the African Union’s ECOSOCC at its fourth General Assembly, on 1 November 2011 in Nairobi. This election is certainly an honour, but it is also a great responsibility and I invite you all to join me to ensure the mission’s full success! The challenges in Africa are enormous and we need as a society to play our part in the construction of our continent. Africa needs all her daughters and sons!
Hypocrisy knows no limits
Mazin Qumsiyeh
2011-10-27, Issue 554
With the death of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Mazin Qumsiyeh says the US and their allies may still be in for a surprise in the region.
Lion of Africa is killed in combat
Gerald A Perreira
2011-10-27, Issue 554
Gerald A Perreira recalls Muammar Gaddafi as a brilliant and profound man of honour, courage, strength and great integrity. He spent his entire life fighting on the side of oppressed humanity worldwide and will continue to inspire those who admired him
Statement on the news that Muammar Gaddafi has been murdered
David Comissiong
2011-10-27, Issue 554
NATO’s assassination of Gaddafi ‘may well turn out to be the final nail in the coffin of the system of "international law"’, writes David Comissiong.
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