KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 35 * 7835 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU-SANGONET NEWSLETTER 35 * 7835 SUBSCRIBERS
The fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation is still scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar on November 9-13. This backgrounder helpfully summarises the positions different blocs hold on issues like trade and environment, trade ad labour standards, and indeed the need for a new round.
The southern Sudanese rebel leader, Dr John Garang, is said by sources close to him to be 'nervous' about the southern Sudanese leadership summit which is to be held here soon under the auspices of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Journalists attending a Media Institute of Southern Africa Annual General Meeting in Lusaka have condemned the brutal attack on three journalists and a driver from the Daily News in Zimbabwe last week.
Almost 3,500 children who as recently as five months ago were acting as soldiers in Sudan's civil war have returned to their communities and families in southern Sudan with high hopes for a fresh start in life. The move home - completed over the last few days - marked the end of a five-month transition period in which the children were cared for by UNICEF and a coalition of aid groups.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)'s Media Lab brings b l o g d e x to the Web. This project is all about a growing trend towards individual filtering and editing of commercial media. Imagine putting your online resources/bookmarks - plus commentary - on a web site. It provides resources for searching, accessing, creating, publishing and navigating weblogs. Read on: and use/start a blog!
Swaziland has been identified as one of the countries in SADC which has been the hardest hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic. According to a recent report 24% to 36% of the population aged between 15-49 are living with Aids.
The Eritrean government arrested six former members of the ruling party and closed eight privately run newspapers on Tuesday. An Eritrean official told IRIN that the six had been arrested "for putting the country in danger and causing confusion". He confirmed that the privately run newspapers had been "suspended temporarily", but would be allowed to reopen "once they learn to abide by Eritrean press laws".
The Swazi government has come under fire for trying to enforce Umchwasho, a cultural practice encouraging young women to keep their virginity, in an effort to fight Aids.
A group of staff journalists from Zimbabwe's Daily News were brutally attacked earlier this week as they tried to report assaults by self-styled war veterans on white farmers in the country.
South Africa is attempting to act as a bridge between the United States and the developing world as Washington attempts to build a global coalition to fight international terrorism.
The massive terrorist attacks on the United States last week have prompted calls for a unified international attack on terrorism, and led to a new emphasis on peace and nuclear disarmament. But within the Bush administration, pressure is mounting to free the U.S. military from financial and treaty restrictions.
Developing countries are set to buck a 40 per cent drop in foreign investment due to a slowdown in global economic growth expected this year, according to new figures released yesterday by the United Nations - although these figures fail to reflect the repercussions of the recent tragic events in the United States.
Eight non-governmental organisations said last week that Coalition 2001 chairperson Ngande Mwanajiti should resign over alleged irregularities in the manner he has been running the organisation.
Amnesty International are stepping up calls for an independent probe into allegations of abuse during Italy's G8 policing operation in July ahead of a high-level evaluation of findings of a fact-finding mission due to be released today.
Groups which assist refugees have this week issued statements urging the United States to exercise caution as it gears up for attacks against those it believes were responsible for the World Trade Center "plane bombings".
This feature in Zambia's Daily Mail covers the work done by the Evergreen Dairy Goats Project in rural Kanakantapa.
A long term collaboration between the governments of South Africa and Lesotho to protect the biodiversity of the Drakensberg and Maloti Mountains received a boost last week when the World Bank approved grant funding worth $15.24 million for the five year Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project.
The start of criminal proceedings against two Zambian journalists and two political figures on charges of defaming President Frederick Chiluba has triggered off a heated debate on the role of the media in societies undergoing transition.
Just after handing a torn plastic bag full of two cents coins to the education ministry officials in protest of a two per cent salary increase, a strong call has been made by unionists to "remove those in power" in order to save the country's education.
Advocates of genetic engineering say the technology could eliminate the parasitic weed Striga - commonly known as 'witch weed' and 'buda', in the Swahili language - which has devastated crops in East Africa.
The South African government has ruled out any military support in the "medium or long term" to the US government to capture those responsible for the terror attacks in that country last week, but has pledged to help in other ways.
A recent visitor to Africa speaks of his involvement in the Highway Africa Conference and his other experiences of technology on our continent. It provides interesting examples of how the Internet can be used in the struggle for freedom of expression and good governance.
Violence on Zimbabwe's commercial farms has intensified two weeks after the government signed the landmark Abuja agreement in which it undertook to respect the rule of law in land redistribution, farmers and analysts said this week.
In armed conflicts of recent years children have featured centrally as targets of violence and, occasionally, even unwillingly, as perpetrators of violence. Read the recent report from the UN Secretary General.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to Africa including South Africa, slumped last year, bringing down the continent's already low share in world FDI inflows to below 1%, according to the World Investment Report (WIR) that was launched yesterday.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have agreed to undertake 13 issues jointly to speed up judicial processes in the UN courts.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has been focussing on community projects that improve the living conditions and survival chances of vulnerable and orphaned children.
The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has expressed concern about the welfare of 11 former government officials who were arrested in Eritrea earlier this week.
Algeria is reportedly co-operating with the US in the international alliance against terrorism. State media reports that it has handed over to Washington a list of 350 Islamist militants known to be abroad and whom Algerian intelligence believes are likely to have links to Osama Bin Laden.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has been challenged to declare the Aids epidemic a national emergency.
The military in Sudan has denied claims by the Sudan People's Liberation Army, SPLA, to have killed a total of 175 government soldiers in three days of fighting in the south of the country.
Heavy rains in Guinea have left at least five people dead and 30,000 homeless in the worst floods for many years.
Reports from Burundi say there is heavy fighting north of the capital, Bujumbura.
As pressure mounts on Zimbabwe to restore the rule of law on white farms, the government is seeking a Supreme Court ruling to endorse the controversial land reform programme.
The Gender, Science and Technology Gateway is a clearinghouse of resources, information and activities in gender, science and technology for sustainable and equitable development. The goal of the Gateway is to promote women's contributions and provide resources for policy makers, agencies and NGOs seeking to benefit from the active participation of women and men in science and technology for development.
Bridges.org provides an update on South Africa's Draft Interception and Monitoring Bill. It contains in-depth background material as well as the latest press release. If you are interested in online privacy and security, take a look.
This project is an effort to provide software interfaces which are accessible to the many different language groups in South Africa. The focus is on software which is readily available, low cost and open source. It might be nice to type a document in a program which uses your mother tongue. Some translations have been completed, others are in progress and volunteers for translation are needed! (South Africa has 11 official languages). Please inform KFS if you have heard of similar projects in Africa.
The Internet has long been staked out as the territory of free expression. Many organisations and websites are dedicated to the fight for internet liberty and online privacy; many activists have used the 'net as an effective tool to save lives. Privacy and encryption were necessary tools in that process. This article discusses how recent events may affect the privacy of your internet sojourns in the near future.
The Zimbabwean media was dominated by a variety of interpretations of two election results and the increase in international pressure on President Mugabe and his government. An upsurge in political violence, which claimed at least three deaths during the week, was also widely reported in the print media. However, the perspectives from which these topics were reported once again revealed the state media’s enslavement to government’s interpretation of the events.
Authorities in parts of southern Africa have pursued the harassment of journalists despite efforts to improve the situation, a report by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Liberian authorities released popular talk show host Max Jlateh on Tuesday, one day after he was detained for allowing callers to express sentiments perceived by the state as "anti-American", a diplomatic source confirmed to IRIN.
The deeply flawed coverage of the recently concluded World Conference Against Racism shows a U.S. media out of touch with its country's role in global conflicts, writes Molly Secours.
During the past two years, the Beyond Aid Project (a collaboration between Charities Aid Foundation-Ghana and the Ghana Association of Private Voluntray Organisations in Development) has successfully trained 192 NGOs in local fundraising techniques, facilitated the design of a new Partnership Framework for Government/NGO relations in Ghana, initiated ongoing dialogue between NGOs and the corporate sector, and encouraged NGOs to form collaborative alliances. This second Beyond Aid conference has been developed to share lessons learned from these successes, as well as explore strategies for deepening NGO/Corporate partnerships. Participants will include NGOs, Corporate Executives, traditional leaders and individuals. Registration Deadline: 12th October, 2001
The terrorist attacks in Manhattan, Washington, DC and the Pittsburgh area constitute the most tragic and violent events ever perpetrated in the United States. As with other tragedies, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and other forms of misinformation crop up almost immediately, playing on people's hopes, fears, and appetite for amazing tales. E-mail has multiplied the speed and extent to which hoaxes, rumors and urban legends spread.
SANGONeT is a dynamic organisation, which facilitates the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by people and organisations working for economic and social development and justice in the southern African region.
Many organizations provide support services to children affected by AIDS in East and southern Africa. Yet few of these programmes have been evaluated. In Uganda, PLAN International, Makerere University, and the Horizons Program are collaborating on a study to assess the impact of an orphan support programme on the physical, educational, and emotional wellbeing of children. The researchers are also studying a different programme, called succession planning, in which children are reached before the death of the parent.
Central Intelligence Organisation operatives have been deployed at the Harare International Airport cargo area to intercept documents the opposition MDC intends to present at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia next month.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame appealed to the country's judges on Monday to remain disciplined and honest in their work and to cooperate closely with other law enforcement bodies, presidential spokesman Nicholas Shalita said on Monday.
Indications of an impending Senate probe into the activities of the Ministry of Defence emerged yesterday following allegations of corruption levelled against one of its ministers in the execution of the 2001 budget.
The Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) is pleased to post an invitation to a forthcoming conference organised by the Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS). The conference, entitled “International Agricultural Trade and Rural Livelihoods”, will take place 9-11 October 2001 at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West, just outside Cape Town. The purpose of the conference is to build understanding of how international trade issues are affecting agriculture in South Africa and to provide a space where common interests and innovative ways to support rural development in a globalised economy, can be
identified.
Egypt is talking about free Internet access. Beginning early next year, Egypt's 60 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will not charge customers for basic web access. This follows on the free service provided by ABSA in South Africa - although other South African ISPs still charge access fees. Hopefully the trend will follow through to other African states.
Political analysts say sub-Saharan Africa sometimes provides safe harbour and even a place of recruitment for Islamic militants.
TANZANIA is far behind other East African countries to achieve World Health Organization (WHO) standards as far as the ratio of doctor to patient is concerned and the Ministry of Health is now inviting private investors to train more doctors.
More than 200 victims of traffickers of women and children have been sent back to Nigeria from various countries within one month, according to reports received by a presidential committee set up to fight the trafficking of human beings.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on Wednesday proposed the creation of an African pact against terrorism, Radio France International (RFI) reported.
HIV/AIDS poses the "greatest threat to food security" and life in Africa, U.S. Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization George McGovern said yesterday.
Official South African mortality figures for 1997 through 2000, which could lend support to a new report labeling Aids the nation's leading killer, will be released by the end of the year, according to Statistician-General Pali Lehohla, the country's Business Day reports.
Applications are invited from African scientists employed by African health research/teaching institutions, who are interested in participating in future malaria vaccine trials in Africa. The 5-day Workshop on Molecular Biology and Immunology of Malaria Vaccines will mainly be organized by the Manhica Health Research Centre, in collaboration with the National Institute of Health and the Faculty of Medicine, University Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique is targeted at a selected group of advanced pre-doctoral or post-doctoral African scientists: it will update them on the latest developments in malaria vaccine research. The workshop will present the basic science and underlying rationale for the development of particular types of candidate malaria vaccines.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Ronnie Kasrils - South Africa's former deputy defence minister - this week instituted defamation action against four newspapers for their coverage of the arms deal.
Mr Richard Aboagye, Amansie East District Chief Executive, has called for collaboration between government, religious bodies and organised groups in the fight against corruption.
The Federal Government has approved the establishment of anti-corruption unit in all ministries and parastatals in the federal public service. This was the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting held in Abuja yesterday.
At the beginning of September 2001, the Ethiopian government suspended the
Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association(EWLA) and froze its bank accounts. EWLA was established in 1995 and has been active in defending the rights of women by providing legal services to battered, raped, abducted women and those suffering from all form's of violence. It has also done a commendable job at the level of advocacy by having revision of gender-insensitive articles in the law and by having an entirely new law such as the family law passed by the parliament. EWLA is totally non political and in fact has worked a great deal in cooperation with government agencies.
Keynote speech on Theme 3, NGO Forum, World Conference against Racism, 30 August 2001. "This is, needless to say, a very broad subject. Given its breadth, I will take a rather integrated approach in my talk, not just focussing on the situation of those who are currently uprooted, but on everyone -- from potential victims at risk of uprooting all the way through to returnees and post-conflict survivors." – Courtney Mireille O'Connor
The symposium aims to introduce and discuss the concepts and practices of community radios and their relevance to the Horn of Africa. The intent is to build on what is happening in areas of social development in the Horn and to reflect on the relevance of community radios in advancing social development initiatives. This will be accompanied by relevant experiences elsewhere in Africa that could provide learning opportunities to the Horn.
It is the forces of poverty, environmental degradation and hatred that give birth to the intolerance that can lead to fundamentalism and terrorist acts, Klaus Toepfer said today.
In a strikingly frank internal document, South Africa's health department has admitted that it has neglected large numbers of people infected with HIV because it lacks resources.
A four-year project between the Finnish and South African governments aims to provide information and communication technologies to 20 pilot schools in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Kingdom have agreed on a major livestock initiative for the poor in developing countries, FAO said in a statement issued today. The goal of the initiative is to contribute to poverty reduction through equitable, safe and clean livestock farming.
Rural Zimbabweans are facing a desperate food security situation due to a combination of a bad harvest and deepening poverty.
The objective of education worldwide, which until the last decade focused on universal access to schooling, is now heading towards a concept of teaching for learning to live together, says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
As the world celebrated the International Literacy Day on September 8, there is reason for both cheer and despair. Many more children are in schools worldwide as enrolments have risen. Adult literacy has also registered a modest increase. And yet, millions of people are still deprived of this basic human right. Oxfam Great Britain provides an insight into some of the challenges.
The Kikuyu Farmers Field School in Kenya is a school with a difference. And that is not only because it is without walls. More importantly, it enables it students, in this case, farmers, to look at farming as a business where they can produce for their consumption and surplus for income-generation.
The American model of addressing corruption in the public service may be useful to Ghana, says the Charge d'Affaires of the American embassy, Dennise Mathieu.
An anti-corruption song has become a popular "national anthem" in Kenya.
Political parties have called for the introduction of an integrity code of ethics and conduct for political parties and their leaders and candidates to promote clean politics.
Book review by Webster Whande. The above-mentioned book edited by Daniel Buckles brings an innovative analysis to conflict and natural resources in the developing world. This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners and donor organisations alike irrespective of which part of the developing world they are from. The case studies document the conflicts encountered in natural resource use in Africa, Asia and Latin America. ISBN 0-88936-899-6. Washington 1999.
An analysis, by Samantha Powers, based on newly declassified documents and interviews, frighteningly reveals how self-serving caution, flaccid will and countless missed opportunities by US officials allowed the 1994 Rwandan Genocide to continue.
A prosecution witness today claimed before judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, former Rwandan minister for higher education and scientific research, ordered killings of ethnic Tutsi who sought refuge at Gikomero Parish during the 1994 genocide.
Police investigating high-profile corruption cases have been ordered to finalise their investigations within the next two weeks, the pro-Ethiopian government Walta Information Centre web site said on 22 September.
The African Gender Institute newsletter Vol 8, July 2001. "The broad global dynamics of militarisation - the inherently international process inexorably linked to capital accumulation and to struggles for global hegemony - will be the subject of this newsletter. For now, as the title suggests, our focus is on bringing gender to bear on our understanding of the more localised manifestations of war and militarism in Africa."