Pambazuka News 760: Brutal invasions: War, trade and Orwellian terror
Pambazuka News 760: Brutal invasions: War, trade and Orwellian terror
The number of Chinese businessmen is growing in the Namibian capital, where they supply affordable but low quality goods especially to low-income earners. But not everyone is excited about the presence of the foreigners.
More than twenty years after the end of formal apartheid, several African nationalists who resisted the inhuman system are still languishing in prison. Yet many apartheid agents who committed atrocious crimes against the African people were pardoned, some without even expressing any remorse. This is unacceptable. The ANC Government must release all political prisoners now.
On Lumumba Day, January 17, 2016, the statue of Patrice Lumumba in Kinshasa was guarded by Congolese security forces blocking anyone who wanted to pay respects to Congo's independence hero. Non-violent youth activists live in constant fear of being jailed or worse as their country slips ever deeper into Orwellian terror.
Uganda’s oil and gas are at the heart of campaigns for presidential elections taking place this month. But the resources are shrouded in mystery, as no one, except the Museveni regime, knows the details of the contracts the government has signed with multi-national companies. Ugandans need to keep an eye on these resources and demand answers on how they will be used to better their lives.
A new electricity system paradigm is emerging that’s not only low carbon, but is also cost-effective and holds great promise for Africa. A recent study has found that at least two-thirds of all countries in East and southern Africa have enough wind and solar power potential to meet their full projected 2030 electricity demand.
The war for Haiti is on. After six years of failed reconstruction following the earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people and laid to waste much of the country, the powerful local and international forces that have frustrated national rebuilding now also want to sabotage Haiti’s politics. The people say they will not accept and are appealing for international solidarity.
Kenya played host to the MC10, and the Government had to deliver to the Empire what it was obliged to under duress of the imperial system. Unless the South gets together in solidarity with the people of the world in active RESISTANCE against the Empire and the WTO, this war machine will destroy not only the global South but also the global North.
At York University, in Northern Toronto, from Nov 5-6, 2015 an international gathering of scholars meditated on themes related to African nationalism, history and development.
Ugandans are on edge as the election clock ticks. Yoweri Museveni, in power for 30 years now, is facing what many consider to be his toughest challenge yet. There are fears that he would attempt to rig the election or use force against the opposition to deny them victory. The country is polarized.
Reports abound of foreign troops’ presence and plans for major Western deployment motivated by the instability, and the threat of terrorism and to take decisive military action to check ISIL’s expansion.
The story of Vernon Dahmer remains largely unknown and sometimes misunderstood by some people who have read about him. The efforts he made against the oppression of an entire community by powerful governmental authorities and their racist backers make Vernon a true martyr.
How serious is the political crisis in Burundi to warrant international armed intervention? Despite pressure from the West, the African Union last week decided not to send troops to the central African nation. But what the AU and everybody else won't discuss – at least openly - is the fact the crisis is the handiwork of external forces pushing for regime change in Bujumbura.
National legislation should be revised so that women and men can equally extend citizenship to each other and to their children, whether their children are born in or out of marriage, at home or abroad.
Behind the current capitalist crisis lies the tendency to over-accumulate and generate gluts. Whereas the BRICS bloc’s elites pretend to be offering an alternative, they in fact are trying very hard to make the world system work for their own corporates. Of course with little success.
In a world where more people are busy buying and blowing their trumpets, Mr. Trump knows he is the appropriate person to blow his own trumpet. And boy, has he made a success of his new found vocation.
Pambazuka News 763: Walter Rodney and the scourge of state violence
Pambazuka News 763: Walter Rodney and the scourge of state violence
The regime has killed over 140 students, teachers and farmers since last November. This is part of a crackdown on anti-government protests by farmers who are demanding to stop the implementation of the Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan, which will displace people from their ancestral land.
A leaked report of the Commission of Inquiry into the death of revered historian and political activist Walter Rodney has confirmed what many people have believed for long: that Rodney was assassinated by the government of Guyana. The regime of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham was worried by the growing popularity of Rodney’s party, the Working People’s Alliance.
Marijuana is a traditional drug in West Africa, and it remains the drug of choice of the region’s young and poor. Legalising it in the region will be an economic boost to its farmers, as well as freeing law enforcement resources currently dedicated to suppressing its production, sale and consumption.
Two weeks after the report of the commission of inquiry into the death of Dr Walter Rodney was presented to the government of Guyana, an international pressure group is calling on President Granger to make the findings public. Dr. Rodney’s family, Guyanese and admirers of the radical intellectual and organizer around the world need to know the truth about his death 36 years ago.
Participants brought enormously disparate and dislocated struggles into one conversation, demonstrating the prominenParticipants brought enormously disparate and dislocated struggles into one conversation, demonstrating the prominence, scale, and impact of current agrarian struggles. The discussions were made all the more crucial in the context of international media’s dominant focus on urban issues and urban struggles, which further supports an impression that contemporary social struggle is an urban phenomenon.ce, scale, and impact of current agrarian struggles. The discussions were made all the more crucial in the context of international media’s dominant focus on urban issues and urban struggles.
As different as Hammarskjöld and Boutros-Ghali might have been in their background, their socialization, their character and personality, as much alike was their approach as regards the independence of their office.
On February 7, popular resistance forced U.S.-backed Haitian dictator Michel Martelly out of office following a flagrantly fraudulent election that sought to put Martelly’s minion in power. As it has done for many decades, Washington is still hell-bent on frustrating the people’s aspiration for true democracy. But Haitians are adamant and need international solidarity.
There is a plan to develop 25 acres of Sigiria Block in Karura Forest for commercial use. A company by the name Ibis Hospitality Ltd is alleged to have proposed to build a six-star hotel in the forest against public interest.
Former President Daniel arap Moi should explain to Kenyans what happened to the canteens that were looted during his regime in the 1980s. The present government of Uhuru Kenyatta needs to trace these properties, return them to the police and punish the looters.
The ‘No to ProSavana Campaign’ has been monitoring the ProSavana Programme. This programme raises many concerns and fears because of the way it was conceived and the negative impacts it has had on peasant agriculture, the environment and human rights.
Several organisations have written to the African Union and regional bodies asking them to condemn the decision by Ugandan authorities to shut down Internet access during recent elections ostensibly for national security. Such an action – which is becoming widespread - violates human rights and international law. It must not be allowed to become the new normal in Africa.
Robert Sobukwe died of cancer on 27 February 1978 after decades of abuse by the apartheid regime. His contributions to the end of this evil system and to pan-African thought remain outstanding. For Africa to be for Africans, pan-Africanism should be a lived experience, not an ideological project for political rhetoric.
Assassinations and other forms of violence targeting critics of the State have been part and parcel of Guyana’s political history. Revelation that Walter Rodney was murdered by the State must now force the people of Guyana to confront the reality of state brutality, seeking to end it once and for all.
In a response to critiques of this year’s Alternative Mining Indaba for sidelining effected communities and their concerns from the forum, the Bench Marks Foundation asserts their commitment to a popular movement of workers and the poor while reminding of the importance of contesting corporate power.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s official visit to Israel this week raises serious questions about Kenya’s foreign policy. The regime in Tel Aviv is arguably the most racist and islamophobic in Israel’s history. Israeli leaders have advocated for the murder of Palestinian children, the expulsion of refugees and even the banning of books that portray Arab-Jewish couples.
South Africa is eerily starting to mimic Brazil in the run-up to that country’s current financial meltdown: a devastating drought combined with a domestic fiscal crunch, unfavourable global financial conditions and a governing leadership that lost market and public credibility to deal with the problems.
Pope Francis has remained silent several months after a letter was sent to him providing compelling evidence of entrenched racism at the World Bank and the systemic exclusion of Africa as a continent and Africans as human beings from participation in international forums even in areas that determine their destiny.
Indeed, manners maketh the man, but what happens when the man who insists on being treated as a highly-respected elder uses his position to steal millions of dollars of public money to redecorate his private home? Maybe being a conscientious people with good manners is what is causing the downfall of Africa.
Pambazuka News 759: Fatal extraction: The human cost of Australia's mining empire in Africa
Pambazuka News 759: Fatal extraction: The human cost of Australia's mining empire in Africa
Investigative reporters counted more than 380 employees, subcontractors and community members in 13 countries who died in accidents or incidents linked to the companies since the beginning of 2004, including some who were shot to death. More were horribly disfigured or injured while working at Australian mines or during community protests against them.
Trouble is looming in villages and towns where some Australian mining companies are exploring and mining for gold in Ghana’s Upper West Region. A Citi News investigation has revealed that questionable land records are at the foundation of a rising tension between the local people and the mining companies.
Also, the villagers’ view that the mining companies, including Azuma Resources, are violating their economic and religious rights to explore for gold is fueling tension tensions.
In this report, Citi News’ Latif Mahama has been investigating the various issues stoking the tension between villagers and mining companies in the Upper West Region.
The increase in gold mining activities in Côte d’Ivoire has been touted by the Ivorian government as a shot of adrenaline into the heart of national economy and the path to development of local communities where gold mines are operated. But the boom has been more of a curse for populations from the gold-rich area of Bonikro/Hiré where Newcrest, an Australian mining company, is disturbing the tranquility of locals.
Communities living along the northern part of Lake Malawi in Karonga district have launched a spirited campaign to stop Uranium Miner Paladin Africa Limited from dumping ‘toxic’ waste into Lake Malawi.
For years, residents of Botlhatlogo, Sehithwa and Toteng, were among the poorest in Botswana; in 2014 the government-run Statistics Botswana found that 46.2% of the district’s residents lived in abject poverty. But the 2010 advent of the first ever copper mine in their midst raised hopes that perhaps things would turn out for the better. But that hope has all but fizzled out.
Australian companies have built a powerful reputation for using start-up firms to acquire Namibian mining licenses for a song only to sell these for millions or billions of dollars a few years later.
Mining has always been a dangerous business. But an investigation by a global group of journalists raises new questions about whether foreign-headquartered companies like Aquarius Platinum and Anvil Mining take a more laissez-faire attitude to safety at their mines in Africa than they do at home.
“To us this mine is a Golden Shame because after many years of operations all that we have managed to leap is environmental destruction, diseases and intensified poverty. We are left with young men who are impotent, women who are frustrated and an influx of criminals who come outside of Nzega.”
Fatal Extraction is an international collaboration combining corporate data and extensive field reporting to reveal deaths, injuries and community conflicts linked to Australian mining companies across Africa. Australia has more mining companies in Africa than other mining giants such as Canada and China.
Panel discussion: National Mechanisms for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention
Coordinated National Strategies for Confronting Contemporary Genocide
DETAILS
New York City Bar Association
42 West 44th Street New York, NY, 10036
Wednesday, February 3, 2016 6:00pm-8:00pm
SYNOPSIS
On Wednesday, February 3, 2016, the New York City Bar Association (NYCBA), in partnership with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), will host a panel discussion entitled, “National Mechanisms for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention: Coordinated National Strategies for Confronting Contemporary Genocide”.
The event will take place at the NYC Bar and will focus on the composition, mandate, and activities of National Mechanisms, with a particular focus on the challenges and opportunities that accompany their work. This discussion will explore the tools and apparatuses available to these National Mechanisms and how they are employed in developing and implementing a unified national policy for genocide and mass atrocity prevention.
PANEL
• Ambassador Tuvako N. Manongi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations
• Ambassador Jorge Montaño, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of the United Republic of México to the United Nations
• Ambassador Federico Gonzalez, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of the United Republic of Paraguay to the United Nations
• Moderator Owen Pell, Partner at White and Case LLP and Member of the Auschwitz Institute’s Board of Directors
SPONSORS
African Affairs Committee - Elizabeth Barad and Jason Spears, Co-chairs
CO-SPONSORS
International Human Rights Committee - Anil Kalhan, Chair UN Committee - Michael D. Cooper, Chair
Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice - Alexander Papachristou, Executive Director
RSVP
AIPR’s New York Programs Officer Rob Scharf at [email][email protected] or
Elizabeth Barad at [email][email protected]
OTHER NYC EVENTS
1. MEETING OF NYC BAR’S COMMITTEE ON AFRICAN AFFAIRS
To be held at the headquarters of the Bar at 42 West 44th Street.
Monday, February 1 at 6:30 P.M.
PROFESSOR JENNIFER TRAHAN will give a presentation on her recent trip to Rwanda.
Jennifer, an Associate Clinical Professor of Global Affairs at N.Y.U., recently took her students to Rwanda where she met with, among others, the Minister of Justice, President of the Supreme Court and the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide where she received a PowerPoint presentation of their list of génocidaires.
Jennifer has served as counsel and of counsel to the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch; served as Iraq Prosecutions Consultant to the International Center of Transitional Justice; and worked on cases before the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She is the author of “Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: A Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda”, and “Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: A Topical Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.” She is also the author of scores of law review articles, including about the Iraqi High Tribunal, the crimes in Darfur, and the International Criminal Court’s Crime of Aggression.
2. MEETING OF NYC BAR’S COMMITTEE ON AFRICAN AFFAIRS
To be held at the headquarters of the Bar at 42 West 44th Street.
Monday, March 7 at 6:30 P.M.
PROFESSOR MIKE POSNER will give a presentation on the confluence of business and human rights. He launched the first-ever center on business and human rights at a business school. He is a professor of Business and Society at NYU Stern. Prior to joining NYU Stern, Posner served from 2009 to 2013 in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the State Department. From 1978 to 2009, he led Human Rights First, a New York-based human rights advocacy organization.
Posner played a major role in shaping U.S. policy from inside and outside of government on issues ranging from refugee and asylum law and policy, national security and human rights, Internet freedom, and business and human rights. Throughout his career, he has been active in several leading organizations in the field of business and human rights, including the Fair Labor Association, the Global Network Initiative, and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
It has now become a ritual for Iue Tjitemisa, 42, to wake up every morning and look towards this abandoned mining structure in the distance and curse.
Discovery Metals built Boseto Mine at a cost of $175 million and Cupric Canyon bought it for $35 million. Workers put in their sweat and tears and were driven out in buses.
Namibia, a mining frontier for decades, continues to struggle with mining companies which subject workers to dangerous working conditions. Among the alleged culprits are Australian multinationals. Well-established Australian companies face allegations of treating Namibian workers differently by subjecting workers to health risks which would be deemed unacceptable back home.
After three days of deliberations and considering questions of the heroes and heroines of the Pan African world, the Colloquium passed three resolutions: Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney - Time to complete work; Resolution on the need for Robust intervention of the African Union in Burundi to stop genocidal violence and acts of genocide; and A Petition for the Government of the Dominican Republic to Stop Ethnic Cleansing Against Citizens of Haitian Descent.
Pambazuka News 761: Elections and change: Eyes on Uganda and America
Pambazuka News 761: Elections and change: Eyes on Uganda and America
The crimes, genocides, holocausts committed by the West on the people of the Planet are too enormous. Most people of Europe don’t want to see, to admit, that their opera houses, hospitals, museums, parks and promenades, are all constructed on the corpses of those who were robbed of everything: from Latin America and its open veins, to Asia and Africa.
The author explores Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, through nine of its inhabitants, portraying them with complexity and compassion, while also critiquing the counterterror policies that have done little, he argues, to bring stability to East Africa.
Join the Call for a Feminist UN Secretary-General in 2016! The is launching the call below and would like to invite widespread participation. Please share widely with your networks.
Real Estate in Ethiopia is booming. The phenomenon is steered by government policies whose actors from the ruling party are very much invested in the business themselves. Monopolization of land by the government and close ties of politicians, business affiliates and banks has made real estate a haven for money laundering and corruption - while Ethiopians continue to be evicted.
The first-ever ministerial conference on immunization in Africa will be held this month in Addis Ababa. This moment presents the perfect opportunity to acknowledge the benefits of vaccine programs, celebrate the successes on the continent, look seriously at what needs to be done to make sure all children get the vaccines they need, and then commit to making that happen.
It is the final week to Uganda’s fiercely contested elections. President Museveni looks set to extend his 30-year rule. The campaign period has been grueling and deeply divisive. Museveni and his challengers and their respective supporters must ensure the elections pass off peacefully.
Beyonce and her dancers recently performed in pseudo-Panther gear, pretending that resistance to the state is a matter of fashionability. No. Real opposition to white supremacy is not cool, or sexy. Being a black revolutionary means the possibility of death. It is facing the naked power of the national security state.
Despite abundant evidence of pro-corporate bias, the Bank endorses the government’s “sound policy” on redistribution because Bank researchers cannot grapple with the core problem that best explains why South African capitalism causes poverty and inequality: extreme exploitation systems amplified after apartheid by neoliberal policies.
From the crime bill to welfare reform, policies Bill Clinton enacted—and Hillary Clinton supported—decimated black America.
Sudan should stop the brutal suppression of protest and hold to account the security forces responsible for killing, injuring, and torturing protesters throughout the country.
It is hoped that the use of this technology will enhance inclusiveness and transparency of the voters’ roll thus contributing to a credible election in Zimbabwe. BVR will give rise to a highly accurate voters’ list which will boost confidence of the electorate in the electoral process.
Key stakeholders - governments, donors and the private sector - must change their attitudes to O&M and ensure that its requirements are factored into all projects, so as to help ensure that equipment attain their planned life-span.
For 30 years, the Ugandan leader who is poised to extend his rule in next week’s elections has presided over a militarized regime supported by the West. The citizens desperately need change but they have no way of achieving it through compromised procedural democracy. The forces for change in Uganda must re-strategize and keep up this struggle after the elections.
He has locked horns with the IMF and the other international poverty pimps for their role in maintaining dictatorial regimes in the developing countries. He has opposed both Iraq wars. He has embraced immigrants. He does not believe in building walls. He believes in tearing down walls of racism, sexism and sectarianism to bring human beings together.
Pambazuka News 758: White, male and rich: The power of skin colour
Pambazuka News 758: White, male and rich: The power of skin colour
I thought I’d become immune to the indignities of travelling with an African passport, but an encounter last month proved me wrong.
The richest 62 persons now control more than half of the world’s money, according to a new Oxfam report. Total wealth of these individuals is the same as that of the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people. The rich-poor gap is growing wider. The ultra-wealthy group of persons is getting wealthier.
White supremacy and anti-Blackness define the essence of Black suffering. But in South Afrika today, racism is often horribly and deliberately misdiagnosed because of the hegemonic hold that the ideology of white liberalism continues to have over Black political discourse and practice.
That the value of a brand so ubiquitous that it straddles both the in and outside of society is kept off its books is one of the wonders of the accounting world. Yet when Coke and other large multinationals are allowed to withhold, or hold in secrecy, the value of core business intangibles while charging confidential expenses against these assets, it not only distorts the market but also facilitates gross transfer pricing manipulation and drastically undermines taxes owed to governments.
Paul Kagame has long been the darling of prominent liberals such as Bill Clinton, Samantha Power and Tony Blair. But it’s becoming ever more difficult to publicly back the bloodstained Rwandan dictator.
In the ruling party manifesto, peace and stability are presented as President Museveni’s legacy. However, it is ironic that a re-election campaign built on these claims is now widely associated with so much state-sponsored violence and intimidation.
Former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s appointment as chief executive of Save the Children has made headlines in Denmark because of her anti-immigration position and her party’s support of a new immigration bill. Many have criticized her policies, including the Danish branch of Save the Children.
A ladder of racial hierarchy exists in America. It doesn't matter whether you are Nigerian, Kenyan or Zimbabwean. America doesn't care. You are simply black.
On 20 December 2015 at 1.13 pm I received a text message notifying me of a stabbing incident at checkpoint 56 in Hebron Old City near Shuhada Street. News would soon talk of a 35-year-old woman shot with a rubber bullet as she allegedly attempted to stab a soldier, the latest episode of tension between Palestinians and Israelis. “The soldiers do not allow the ambulances to operate; our children are left bleeding until they die. You could be killed just for taking your ID out of your pocket”, a local Palestinian explained to us.
The activists say the current political crisis has caused immense suffering to the citizens and urgent intervention is needed. They accuse the government of gravely breaching the Constitution of Burundi and the Arusha Accords.
Finally, it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel in Nigeria. Corruption is now firmly in the focus of a man who could for ever change the face of politics and indeed a country. Ibrahim Magu is taking on the big guns and he has no intention of backing down, not matter who or what the criminals employ to cover their actions.
The malaise of America has to be something about an inability to see, hear and feel the truth about itself. The worst social equality rates, a failing education system which indebts thousands of graduates for life while contributing to the advancing poverty of unsustainable wage and excessive military spending are just a few arguments in favour of building a wall, so that USA can figure itself out.
Ghanaians are going to the polls on November 7. What will they be voting for? What do they hope to achieve? There are thoughtful lessons from a former president whose legacy remains controversial, though.
The status afforded them by the government is shrouded in secrecy; whether they are visitors, refugees, asylum seekers or another category altogether. They do not appear to have the right to work and to family reunion. Worse still, they are actually not permitted to leave Ghana for 2 years.
Up to 100 fellows are selected every year in a globally competitive process based on personal, academic, and professional achievements.
Pambazuka News 757: Terrorism as Empire's new tool
Pambazuka News 757: Terrorism as Empire's new tool
Zuma has a very warm, self-effacing and jovial personality. He is also humble. Because of these traits many people often easily trust him. Others easily mistake his self-depreciating style, combined with his humble beginnings and bearing and his lack of formal education, for weakness. But how long will his cunning last?
By engineering chaos in Libya with the violent of Gaddafi in 2011, NATO effectively turned over the entire armoury of an advanced industrial state to the region’s most sectarian militias, including Boko Haram. Moreover, the success of Boko Haram is strategically beneficial to the US in its attempts to sabotage the country's development and in particular its burgeoning relationship with the People's Republic of China.
The latest executions in Saudi Arabia should make it very clear that the Western powers' "war on terror" has nothing to do with opposition to chopping off heads and sectarian religious fanaticism. Instead of condemning this crime, the US, UK and other Western powers have continued to give the Saudi regime, if not their public political blessing, at least their practical backing – in the name of the necessary alliances they claim flow from that "war on terror".
Why does Ghana want to be put on a list of countries who have defined themselves as those who tacitly approve of senseless US actions that often cause the deaths of innocent people, including women and children? Did this African country consider its own security when accepting the Al Qaeda men?