Pambazuka News 535: From aid and humanitarianism to solidarity
Pambazuka News 535: From aid and humanitarianism to solidarity
'The chances of a climate change deal in COP17 that will actually seal a deal that will do something about the problem of rising global greenhouse gas emission are becoming increasingly remote by the day. Why? It seems that vested high-carbon emission interests are capturing the process. In effect, those who financially benefit from high carbon emissions, such as energy companies, are involved in the actual negotiations to reduce emissions. This is only too evident in the South African negotiating team, where both petrochemicals giant Sasol and national electricity utility Eskom are official representatives.'
The website is a campaign to make ecocide - the destruction, damage or loss of ecosystems - a crime. 'You can help us close the door to the ecocide and open a new one to a clean green world. The more of us that stand up and call for ecocide to be made a crime the sooner our world will change for the better.' This involves demanding that ecocide be made a criminal offence, that
ecocide be made the 5th UN Crime Against Peace and that ecocide be eradicated.
Egypt’s premier has said that delaying a parliamentary election scheduled for September would give political parties more time to prepare, state media said, amid fears that an early poll would benefit Islamists. His comments come amid a mounting campaign by liberal and secular groups to delay the election until after a new constitution has been drafted. The 'Constitution First' campaign has sparked intense debate, with critics arguing that delaying the poll would keep the ruling military in place for longer.
Fresh satellite images show the army amassing heavy weaponry in the capital of Sudan’s embattled northern oil state, suggesting that a major offensive could occur soon, monitors have said. The US monitoring group, which was set up by Hollywood star and rights activist George Clooney last year, said the satellites images that were taken on 17 June were the first to show thousands of people seeking shelter around the main UN compound near Kadugli. Heavy fighting has raged across South Kordofan since 5 June between the SAF and northern troops aligned to the army of the south that Khartoum has vowed to crush using all available means.
Senegal is to create a new vice-president position. The move is seen as a means by President Abdoulaye Wade to maintain his grip on power. Cabinet has approved a proposal to create the position of a vice-president who will be a running mate for the president in next year's election. Observers see this as a means for the Senegalese President, 84, to maintain his grip on power while preparing grounds for a possible succession. The proposed plan has to be approved by the country's national assembly.
Somalia's prime minister says he has resigned, following an agreement between the president and parliament to remove him from office. Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had initially refused to step down, but will now go 'in the interest of the Somali people'. His removal was part of a UN-backed deal that extends the mandates of the president, the speaker and deputies to August 2012.
A UNHCR report released on World Refugee Day reveals deep imbalance in international support for the world's forcibly displaced, with a full four-fifths of the world's refugees being hosted by developing countries - and at a time of rising anti-refugee sentiment in many industrialised ones. UNHCR's 2010 Global Trends report shows that many of the world's poorest countries are hosting huge refugee populations, both in absolute terms and in relation to the size of their economies. Pakistan, Iran and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million and 1 million respectively.
Damning video evidence has emerged, proving for the first time that sniper rifles made in South Africa are being used in Libya’s bloody civil war by forces loyal to embattled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, reports City Press newspaper. The revelations come amid continued refusals by South Africa to divulge the details of conventional arms sales to Libya’s repressive government – which totalled nearly R69 million last year.
The top UN human rights body declared on Friday (17 June) there should be no discrimination or violence against people based on their sexual orientation, a vote Western countries called historic but Islamic states firmly rejected. The controversial resolution marked the first time that the Human Rights Council recognised the equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, diplomats said.
The latest in the South African Broadcasting Corporation's fight against the BCCSA ruling on unfair reporting in favour of the Mail & Guardian has seen Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) warning that the issue could pose a serious threat to media freedom in South Africa. MMA has added its voice to the call for action against the broadcaster in the face of a damning Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) ruling on unfair reporting. Earlier this year, the BCCSA ruled the SABC had contravened the Broadcast Code of Conduct by making unsubstantiated claims of alleged corruption against the M&G, as well as ordering the state broadcaster to issue an apology.
'Congress believes that discussion of ANC leadership should be opened and members should at all time be at liberty to discuss and deliberate on the leadership question, particularly for the 53rd National Conference of the ANC in 2012. Putting timeframes of the leadership question disadvantages members and structures of the ANC to honestly reflect on the kind of leadership needed to lead the ANC post 100 years of its existence. Congress further disapproves of emerging tendencies to use State power as a tool to dispense patronage and empower friends and families.'
NATO has acknowledged responsibility for an air strike that killed a number of civilians in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. A statement from the alliance said that a military missile site was the intended target of a raid on Sunday morning but one of the weapons did not strike it and may have caused civilian casualties. At a local hospital, reporters were shown three bodies, including a child, which government officials said were people killed in the air strike. 'Basically, this is another night of murder, terror and horror in Tripoli caused by NATO,' Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, said at the hospital. Five families were living in the building which was hit, he said.
The Okavango delta in Botswana has suffered 'catastrophic' species loss over the past 15 years, researchers have announced, in the latest sign of a growing crisis for wildlife in Africa. Some wild animal populations in the delta, one of the wonders of the natural world, have shrunk by up to 90 per cent and are facing local extinction, according to the most comprehensive aerial survey yet undertaken there.
Successive poor rains coupled with rising food and fuel prices are leading to a worsening food security situation with alarming levels of acute malnutrition being recorded in drought affected parts of Kenya, mainly in the north of the country, say experts. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2011 is the driest period in the eastern Horn of Africa since 1995 'with no likelihood of improvement until early 2012'.
Swaziland's labour unions are planning a series of further strikes to voice their feelings about proposed wage cuts and to lobby the government for regime change. Sibongile Mazibuko, the president of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, said the next protest action would take place over three days and their message was clear. 'We want this government to vacate office and we want regime change,' she said.
The biggest refugee camp in the world is full, creating a humanitarian emergency that threatens thousands of malnourished children, Médecins sans Frontiéres (MSF) has warned. Dadaab, a sprawling desert 'city' in Kenya with a population expected to reach 450,000 by the end of the year, has run out of space, the medical charity said. Many children who fled war in neighbouring Somalia are without food or shelter in dry heat of 50°C.
In Mugunga, about 12km from Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), communities of Bambuti have been eking out a living at the edge of the city. The Bambuti are believed to be among Central Africa's oldest inhabitants, surviving from hunting and gathering. Among those living in Mugunga, some fled the war in eastern DRC in 2005 and others were evicted from their ancestral homes in Virunga National Park, home to DRC’s mountain gorillas.
Nato is using information gleaned from Twitter to help analysts judge which sites could be targeted by commanders for bombing and missile strikes in Libya. Potentially relevant tweets are fed into an intelligence pool then filtered for relevance and authenticity, and are never passed on without proper corroboration. However, without 'boots on the ground' to guide commanders, officials admit that Twitter is now part of the overall 'intelligence picture'.
African farmers’ organisations, members of the International Movement of Peasants, La Via Campesina, and allied organisations denounce every attempt to adopt genetically modified organisms, GMOs, as being a false solution to the food crisis in Africa. According to the farmers, all of the myths promoting GMOs as a 'miracle' to increase productivity are false, as they threaten the genetic integrity of the local varieties that are the basis of African food security. Only organic food production, based on local knowledge and skills, can feed the continent, as diversified, agroecological farming systems actually produce more total food per hectare than does industrial monoculture.
The Cuban Five, five men serving four life sentences and 75 years collectively in a US prison, are the subject of an international campaign for their release because of the belief that that have been falsely convicted of committing espionage against the US. In this moving song, musician Anthony 'Mighty Gabby' Carter calls for their release.
At the climate talks in Bonn in the past fortnight, the deadlock over the Kyoto Protocol continued, with a real prospect that the global climate regime will unravel, writes Martin Khor in this article. '...both the climate situation and the prospects for the global climate regime have become more grim...Most significantly, the Bonn meetings saw the continuation of the deadlock on the future of the Kyoto Protocol (KP), the legally binding regime that commits developed countries to cut their emissions by certain percentages.'
Climate campaigners have raised the alarm at the direction of the UN climate negotiations as the latest round of talks came to an end in Germany last week. Speaking after the talks closed on Friday, Dr. Sivan Kartha of the Stockholm Environment Institute outlined the current 'gap' between emission reduction pledges and possible 'safe limits' of emissions of global-warming causing gases. 'In the race to stop climate change which will destroy homes, crops, and entire lives across the world, it is developing countries that are first out of the blocks. It is developing countries that have made pledges that add up with the science. Developed countries seem to be skulking away, trying to avoid picking up the tab for the pollution they've caused,' Chair of the panel, Asad Rehman, Head of International Climate at UK Friends of the Earth said.
Reflecting profound concerns of developing countries, a new report has strongly criticised the World Bank group for promoting false solutions to climate change, such as carbon trading, megadams, agrofuels and industrial monoculture tree plantations. The report - 'Catalysing Catastrophic Climate Change' - also gives vent to anxieties of social movements, environmental and social justice organisations, and affected communities. It was tabled at a side event by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) during the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn that concluded on 17 June 2011.
Pambazuka News 534: Interpreting the 'Arab Spring'
Pambazuka News 534: Interpreting the 'Arab Spring'
'Transparent governance, free expression and a free press are essential components of democracy. They are the means by which all people in South Africa, especially the vulnerable and poor, can hold our government to account. Our effectiveness at getting the state to implement HIV treatment and prevention programmes has been dependent on the Constitution being upheld, especially the Bill of Rights. We are therefore deeply concerned by reports that the ANC Parliamentary Caucus is backtracking even on its recent, inadequate concessions in relation to the Protection of Information Bill. As it stands, this bill will restrict media freedom. It will also severely limit the ability of organisations like ours to hold government accountable or to support government in working for a better life for all. The bill will drive a wedge between the state and the people it is supposed to serve.'
'The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the decision by ANC MPs to extend the 24 June deadline to complete drafting the Protection of Information Bill. COSATU hopes that the extra time will be used to re-examine the problematic clauses of the Bill which could conflict with Clause 16 of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. In particular the parliamentary ad-hoc committee needs to examine the genuine concerns from civil society that the provisions of the bill could be abused to cover up crime, corruption and misuse of funds by allowing officials to classify the evidence of this as secret.'
'We wholeheartedly endorse the position of our federation COSATU in criticising the current state of the Protection of Information Bill. We are also alarmed that the ANC Parliamentary Caucus is using its majority to ensure that no significant improvements and safeguards against abuse of the bill are being taken into consideration. Many other organisations supporting the growing Right to Know Campaign have eloquently outlined what the implications will be for civil liberties and accountability if the Bill is passed, and we are grateful to them for bringing this to the attention of the South African public, but we also believe that for those of us in the municipal sector, there are particular concerns. SAMWU has been in the forefront of fighting corruption at municipal level, and long before it was politically acceptable to do so.'
African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has criticised youth league leader Julius Malema for saying senior ANC leaders were plotting to disrupt the league’s elective congress as part of a ploy to oust him. Mantashe said Mr Malema’s claim was an attempt to create a 'scapegoat' before the league congress. His response to the youth league’s claims is the latest indication of a tense relationship between the youth league and its mother body. The league seems unhappy with the current leadership of the ANC and is likely to lobby for its removal next year should Malema be re-elected.
Top lawyers in the Southern African region have told SW Radio Africa that leaders in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are turning their back on human rights, by dissolving the region’s human rights Tribunal. Concern is still high after the shock decision by SADC leaders to close the court, with growing warnings about what this will mean for the rule of law across Southern Africa. The move has been described as regressive and a serious threat to human rights, the rule of law, and the regional bloc’s credibility, because it means there is now no independent court in the region to protect citizens’ rights.
Between 20 September and 31 December 2010, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) carried out the Zimbabwe Documentation Process (ZDP). Intended as a model for similar documentation projects that the DHA plans to extend to other categories of Southern Africans, the process provided a path for regularising the status of undocumented migrants. It also provided an alternative to the asylum system, which Zimbabweans have turned to in large numbers. The African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) - formerly the Forced Migration Studies Programme - began sending researchers to observe the situation at several DHA offices. The findings from this monitoring provide a picture of how the process worked and highlight important problem areas.
China is evaluating the impact of the Jasmine revolution on its overseas investment and outward business expansion strategy, says this article. 'Africa - once considered the lab for Chinese companies’ reach outside – is being relegated into a destination with too many risk factors. Safer political destinations and countries closer to home are likely to benefit from the shift. The readjustment has been in the works for some time but the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have made those subtle shifts more pronounced.'
'While many take having a toilet that is clean and safe for granted, it remains a luxury for a great deal of our most vulnerable communities. Approximately 10.5 million people in South Africa still do not have access to basic sanitation services. According to recent research by the Water Dialogues, approximately 500,000 people in the City of Cape Town do not have access to basic sanitation. Although this is a challenge facing every municipality, sanitation provision is a local government function. As a resident of Khayelitsha, I intend on holding my local government to account in acting in accordance with its constitutional obligations.'
Over the course of 15 years (1994-2009), Elke Zuern has interviewed civic and social movement leaders, local government leaders, members of NGOs and other community organizations in South Africa. In her new book, The Politics of Necessity, she compares these movements in South Africa to those elsewhere on the continent (Benin, Botswana, Nigeria), and beyond (Argentina, Chile, Mexico). Read an excerpt from the introduction to the book on the blog Another Country.
Producing electricity from the local waterfall was once just a dream for two farming communities on the fertile lower slopes of Mount Kenya. But thanks to a local initiative backed by UN cash and know-how, it is now a reality. Eager to harness power from the waterfall, villagers started the project by building a weir and powerhouse. But without a turbine, the work was in vain. But then the UN Industrial Development Organisation, or UNIDO, stepped in to provide the turbines.
Screwdriver in hand, Doussou Konaté unscrews a broken solar lantern. She patiently cross-checks the cables. And within a few moments, it is fixed. Mrs. Konaté has never attended school. But two years ago she was one of seven Senegalese women who travelled to India to be trained as a solar power engineer at the Barefoot College in Rajasthan. When darkness falls in the small village of Keur Simbara, 76 kilometres from Dakar, the lights come on. Mrs. Konaté, a 57-year-old mother of six, is known locally as the 'light woman'. With a bright smile, she says, 'When night falls, everybody lights up their lamp and you can go anywhere you wish because everything is clear. It is just wonderful.'
'In simple terms, the struggle of the workers of Botswana is a struggle against the neo-liberal restructuring of the public sector, which is about sustained attacks on worker's rights, their conditions and access to services by communities,' says Bongani Masuku, International Relations Secretary, Congress of South African Trade Unions, on 'It is a struggle we all support and continue to wage in our own countries and globally. We support them and call for global solidarity, particularly because for far too long, Botswana has paraded itself as a paragon of democracy on the continent and now that myth is being exposed and debunked. Workers have a right to defend their pay and conditions, as well as demand better services for communities.'
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has applauded President Goodluck Jonathan, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for signing into law the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill. 'The objective of the act is to make public records and information more freely available and to also protect public records and information to the extent that they are consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy,' according to a statement from the presidency.
Equatorial Guinea has built a multimillion-pound deluxe 'city' to host African leaders while the majority of its people live in dire poverty. Sipopo boasts 52 luxury presidential villas, a conference hall, artificial beach, luxury hotel and the county's first 18-hole golf course. It was built over two years to host an African Union (AU) summit that will last just a week. 'It's definitely a misplaced priority by the Equatorial Guinea government,' said Tutu Alicante, executive director of EG Justice, a group focused on human rights in the west African nation. 'This is a country where 75 per cent of people are living on less than $1 (60p) a day. This attempt to give an image of prosperity is totally misguided.'
At least five people have been killed after police stations were attacked in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, hospital sources say. The BBC's Bilkisu Babangida in the city said there were at least three explosions, while gunfire rang out in what is believed to be the latest attack by the Boko Haram Islamist sect. Its members have killed dozens of police officers and politicians in the city in the past year.
On Wednesday, 30 March 2011, the Refugee Space Project reports that Mr Swedi Fataki Mutambala was arrested in Gasorwe Refugee Camp, Muyinga Province. According to refugees talked to over the phone, Swedi - leader of the Association for the Defense of Refugees (ADR) in Burundi - had been sick and gone to the camp administrator so that he could go to Bujumbura hospital for a medical check-up. The police had arrived and Swedi had been arrested. Refugees said they did not know the reason for the arrest, but a few months ago refugees had been complaining about the violation of their rights.
Two witnesses were taken to task by the truth commission over their contradicting and inconsistent testimonies on the 1984 Wagalla massacre, reports the Daily Nation. Former Finance minister David Mwiraria maintained that a visit by the Kenya Intelligence Committee to Wajir a day before the killings was purely to assess development projects. But on closer scrutiny, he admitted that the trip was sanctioned to resolve the Shifta movement in north eastern Province.
World leaders began meeting in New York on 8 June to review progress made in the fight against HIV/Aids, 30 years after the pandemic first struck. The joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) says the meeting will also adopt new declarations and commitment to guide and sustain the global Aids response. UNAids says while progress has been made, more work remains to be done in coming years - especially in reducing the number of new infections. Globally, some 7,000 people get infected with HIV daily.
Opposition lawmakers on 6 June abandoned President Museveni in Parliament as he delivered his first post-election State-of-the-Nation address, protesting what they said was his tolerance of graft and corrupt individuals in government. Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mr Nandala Mafabi, led from the front as the MPs stormed out of Serena Hotel's Victoria Conference Hall where Parliament had convened. They later denounced what they felt is President Museveni's continued failure to deal with crooked government officials.
Egypt and Kingdom Holding Co., the company controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, have signed an agreement in Cairo over contested land in Toshka in southern Egypt. The signing ends a dispute over a 100,000-feddan (104,000- acre) piece of land that is part of the Toshka agricultural development project, which is intended to use water diverted from the Aswan High Dam reservoir to irrigate land in Egypt’s western desert. Kingdom’s original acquisition came under criticism after a revolution in Egypt that ended the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.
Parties to the conflict in Western Sahara continued to deepen their discussions on the electoral mechanisms for self-determination during three days of United Nations-backed informal talks in New York, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting. By the end of the talks, however, 'each party continued to reject the proposal of the other as a sole basis for future negotiations,' said the communiqué, reached after the meeting in Long Island, New York, that was convened by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross.
'In a world of changing priorities, can we spare some change for female-initiated preventive technologies, such as microbicides and female condoms, to support HIV-positive women and not just to protect women who are HIV-negative?' asks Morolake Odetoyinbo in this article from the UN Chronicle. 'Can we dare take a look at those national laws and policies which make women second-class citizens? Is it conceivable - and that is no accidental pun - that women’s rights can include sexual, reproductive, inheritance, and property rights?'
Global food prices will remain high and volatile throughout this year and into next despite record food production. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) twice yearly Food Outlook analysis says rising demand will absorb most of the higher output. It says its index of food prices in May was at 232, only six points below February's record high of 237.
This Human Rights Watch report documents the intensification of the eight-year conflict over the past six months. Since December 2010, a surge in government-led attacks on populated areas and a campaign of aerial bombing have killed and injured scores of civilians, destroyed property, and displaced more than 70,000 people, largely from ethnic Zaghawa and Fur communities linked to rebel groups.
Around the world, street papers have been welcoming people who felt too insecure to stay in their home lands. Whether or not they have official refugee status in their newly adopted countries, what these vendors often have in common is the fear of returning to where they came from. Coming to a new country might save people from a potentially dangerous situation but it is not, by any means, a magical solution for all problems.
We have come home
From the bloodless wars
With sunken hearts
Our booths full of pride
From the true massacre of the soul
When we have asked
‘What does it cost
To be loved and left alone’…
We Palestinian queer activists from for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian society, Aswat — Palestinian Gay Women, and PQBDS (Palestinian Queers for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions), are writing to you to express our disappointment with the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization’s [IGLYO] decision to hold its General Assembly for 2011, this December, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The President of the Swaziland National Union of Students, Maxwell Dlamini, has been detained, tortured, and forced by Swaziland’s regime to sign a confession that says he was in possession of explosives during the April 12 Swazi Uprising - a movement inspired by similar uprisings in North Africa and The Middle East.
The global reach of the internet, and its ability to transmit information in real time and mobilise populations, creates fear among governments and the powerful, says Frank La Rue, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. During the presentation of his report to the UN Human Rights Council 3 June, La Rue mentioned information filtering systems used in China that block access to websites containing key words such as 'democracy' and 'human rights'. The strength of the internet and the popular uprisings in recent months in North Africa and the Middle East, especially in Tunisia and Egypt, 'scares politicians', he told a press conference.
GA had looked forward to leaving Eritrea with her husband and living a better life in Israel, until they found themselves kidnapped for money by local Bedouins in Egypt’s Sinai desert. GA, who spoke to IRIN in the Israeli city of Jaffa, is just one of the hundreds of asylum-seekers trafficked by international gangs every month from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East, mainly through Sudan, ostensibly in search of better opportunities. However, say human rights groups, many of them end up in captivity. Bedouin tribes in Sinai, which borders Israel, often hold them until their relatives pay a ransom.
Five years after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revised its laws against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), these crimes continue to go unpunished because of judicial inaction and a legal culture at odds with the changes. The laws, ignored and misinterpreted, have left escalating numbers of sexual violence survivors unprotected, and perpetrators free to violate again. When the penal code was amended in 2006, it was intended to 'prevent and severely reprimand infractions relating to sexual violence and to ensure systematic support for the victims of these crimes,' according to the text. To this end, it included previously ignored sexual violations addressed in international humanitarian law, and toughened up sentencing for those who violated the vulnerable, including children, the disabled and subordinates.
Liberian officials at Bahn refugee camp - set up by the government and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to shelter Ivoirians fleeing violence - prefer residents to play down their political affiliations, and discourage the wearing of partisan T-shirts or the holding of political meetings. But late on a Saturday afternoon, with little to do and much to discuss, Ivoirian refugees talked with anger and concern about their future, while ruefully reviewing the events of the past six months in their country just across the border. 'I don't want to be here, but what choice does a refugee have?' asked Sandigui Lacinje Traoré, who previously worked for the Ivoirian state media in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire’s administrative capital. 'The war is not over yet as far as I am concerned,' Traoré told IRIN.
Tens of thousands of Haitians turned out to greet democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on his return to his country. Though originally forced into exiled under the Bush administration, Aristide has been treated in much the same fashion by Obama's government, writes Nia Imara.
Developed countries must become carbon neutral well before 2050, undertake ambitious nationally appropriate mitigation actions, pay their adaptation debts and discontinue carbon market mechanisms. These are some of the conclusions reached by delegates who attended a meeting on the climate crisis in Johannesburg between 24-26 May.
These are dry days.
I stop to breathe
as if the wall of heat
must be coaxed aside
to let air enter, leave...
‘If we are to have a truly Pan-African language, shouldn’t it be a language that best reflects Africa as it is today, rather than as we imagined it to be 100 years ago,’ asks H. Nanjala Nyabola.
Drawing on the immortal words of Thomas Sankara, Kingwa Kamencu calls on all those concerned for Africa to ‘dare to invent the future’, in an opening speech at the Oxford University Africa Society ‘Pan-Africanism for a new generation’ conference.
The year 2011 began with a series of shattering, wrathful explosions from the Arab peoples. Is this springtime the inception of a second ‘awakening of the Arab world?', asks Samir Amin.
‘Imagine if all African women could break the silence of sexual abuse without fear of shame and reprisal,’ writes Kabahenda Nyakabwa.
A number of organisations in Haiti representing social organisations, grassroots movements and people displaced in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake came together over the period 19–21 May 2011 to discuss the country’s housing crisis.
Get moving. That's the message from Onitaset Kumat on how to revive Africa. 'We must communicate to cooperate to elevate and we should have started years ago.'
After months of squabbling that angered donors and jeopardised gains from Islamist militants, the rival leaders of Somalia's government have agreed to delay elections. Despite the row, pro-government forces have been gaining ground in Mogadishu. African Union troops have seized territory from the al-Qaeda linked group, al-Shabab. However, al-Shabab still controls much of southern and central areas of the country.
A human rights campaigner from Madagascar was in the UK recently to demand that the Royal Bank of Scotland withdraw its financing of companies mining tar sands in her country. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has a long track record of financing companies operating in the Canadian tar sands, which are devastating the land and lives of First Nations people in Alberta. The bank has also financed French oil giant Total’s test mining of tar sands in Madagascar over the last three years. Total is expected to decide next month whether to go ahead with larger scale exploitation of tar sands in the country. If it does, the water supply of more than 120,000 people in one of Madagascar’s poorest areas could be disrupted and poisoned and its unique biodiversity severely threatened.
The homes of 12 Tafelsig backyarder families were demolished by the city’s Anti-Land Invasion unit recently, in a fierce face-off that left several people injured, including a woman who was seven months pregnant. This came two days after the Cape High Court granted a postponement to allow backyarders sufficient time to get legal representation to appeal the city’s application for an eviction order.
The World Bank is holding back $40 million in budget support to Malawi because the country hasn’t completed the review of its program with the International Monetary Fund, the Daily Times reported, citing the bank’s country manager. The lender is waiting for a review of reforms to help address persistent external economic imbalances, the Blantyre - based newspaper cited Sandra Bloemenkamp, the World Bank’s manager for Malawi, as saying. The money is for the budget for the fiscal year through June.
Former Black Panther Geronimo Ji-Jaga died in Arusha, Tanzania last Friday. ‘His death marks yet another loss of a committed social justice activist of an era that is gradually fading from our collective memory,’ write Seth Markle and Mejah Mbuya.
Ngwa Amos, who earns a living by taxiing people from town to town on his motorbike, is now a single father of four. His wife died in labour on a recent morning at the Bamenda General Hospital in northwestern Cameroon. The African Union, along with government and nongovernmental organisations, have pledged to reduce maternal deaths in this region, but Cameroon is moving further from that goal. Cameroon's maternal mortality rate was 550 deaths for every 100,000 births in 1990 – the reference year for the goals. Since then, the key figure has risen to 1,000 deaths, according to the latest UN statistics.
While this toolkit has been designed primarily for the local partners and activists of the VNC campaign, this can be a resource, too, for human rights activists who are keen to develop their
online activism and want to know where and how to start. The toolkit aims to impart the following skills:
- An understanding of why and how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can
be appropriated by women's rights and human rights groups in their advocacy skills
through their use of online tools, including networking and mobile tools for advocacy and
campaigning.
- The ability to develop an advocacy/communication strategy.
- Knowing what social neworking is and the various spaces and tools they could use in their
online activism.
- An understanding of online privacy and security issues relevant to building their online
activism.
Poet and singer Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘albums became part of my life and his songs and messages were part of the support system on which I and many other Black radicals came to depend,’ writes Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Politically conscious musician and poet Gil Scott Heron’s ‘physical body is gone from us now but his message is more relevant than ever. We everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people know only too well that the revolution still will not be televised-- "it will be live",’ writes Larry Pinkney.
An African gay activist, Edson 'Eddy' Cosmas, has had his first appeal for UK asylum turned down by a judge in a hearing 26 May at Harmondsworth detention centre, where he is being held. Judge S. Chana accepted the UK Border Agency (UKBA)'s argument that Cosmas's story was not 'credible' and that he has no reason to fear persecution in Tanzania even if he was gay, which he isn't. A lawyer for Cosmas, who had only been instructed for the case the previous night, asked for the case to be removed from the 'fast track process' so a psychological and physical assessment (to establish whether he had been tortured) could take place. This was refused.
The Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) has released new guidance for the massive US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a US$48 billion dollar programme started by George Bush. The programme has come in for criticism for providing millions to church-run organisations promoting the unscientific prevention strategy of abstinence alongside providing no funding for programmes which address the needs of Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). The new guidance document shows strong leadership, said The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), in recognising that human rights, legal barriers and homophobia must be addressed as part of an effective HIV response.
On 6 June 2010, Khaled Said, 28, was beaten by two plain-clothes police officers in an internet café in Egypt’s second city, Alexandria. He was then dragged out into the street where, eyewitnesses say, the beating continued until he died. Khaled Said quickly became a symbol for every victim of the security forces’ brutality. The first seeds of what would become the ‘25 January Revolution’ were sown in Alexandria on 6 June 2010. Despite the uprising, however, the trial for those accused of killing Khaled Said is still ongoing.
Sudan’s invasion of the town Abeyi; sexual harassment in Egypt; the impact of Egypt’s uprising on migrants; the detention of Syrian blogger Amina Arraf; Western Sahara; and the opening of the a centre for women in Eastern Congo, the City of Joy, are among the topics featured in this week’s review of African blogs, by Sokari Ekine.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir continues to commit crimes against humanity and carry out genocide against the residents of Darfur in defiance of the United Nations, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, told the Security Council. In 2005 the Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC after a UN inquiry found serious violations of international human rights law. The ICC has since issued arrest warrants against Mr. Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, making him the first sitting head of State to be indicted by the court.
FEATURING: Raakwys (The reunion of one of Cape Town's greatest Bands)
PLUS: The Zoe Abrahams & De Kaapo, DJ Sampie: Zounds of Da South, Spoken word/poetry, Stand up Comedy & more...
DATE: 15 June 2011
TIME: 7pm till late
VENUE: AIDC Solidarity Centre,129 Rochester Rd, Observatory, Cape Town
DONATION: R10, Bring your own XYX and meat to braai.
INFO: [email][email protected], 0838867164 or 0214472525