Pambazuka News 473: Land reform is common sense
Pambazuka News 473: Land reform is common sense
Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action, the pioneering, highly regarded South African gay and lesbian archives, invites African writers to submit stories on a queer African theme for publishing in a ground-breaking anthology. Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action intends the anthology to query stereotypes, show that there are many ways of being queer in Africa, and encourage queer artistic expression and appreciation. Literary merit and an insightful response to the complexities of African queerness will guide the selection.
Many are saying food is becoming the new oil. In the past two years there has been a remarkable increase in purchases of large-scale farmland by foreigners throughout Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.
An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens
The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo AUC is offering two short courses on refugee issues in June 2010. The first course on "Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees" will be offered from 9:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. from June 6- 10 and will be taught by Dr. Nancy Baron. The second course on "Introduction to International Refugee Law" will be offered from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from June 20-24 & 26 (with the exception of Friday June 25) and will be taught by Mr. Martin Jones
The concept of commodity fetishism helps explain where today's climate policies have gone wrong. In classic fetishistic fashion, "cost-saving" institutional practices have helped entrench many dangerous equivalences across society: equivalences among molecules, places, technologies and times; equivalences between offsets and emissions reductions, between biotic and fossil carbon, between hypothetical and real reductions, between fines and fees, between uncertainty and probability and so on. This illustrated powerpoint presentation diagnoses 12 examples of climate fetishism currently shaping the thoughts and behaviour of research institutions, UN climate negotiators, national governments, large corporations, physical scientists, traders and others.
"Anyone concerned about the future of the planet," writes Professor Ted Benton of the University of Essex, "should read this book. The contributors give powerful evidence and argument to show that the carbon trading regimes favoured by the world's elites will not work -- and are, indeed, set to make things worse. But the message is not negative. There are alternatives, both effective and desirable."
Anti-C-300' pamphlets, buttons and large signs are everywhere at this year's the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's (PDAC's) annual convention, as Canadian mining industry groups turn the heat up in efforts to block the controversial legislation. Bill C-300, if approved, would allow Canada's government to investigate complaints about Canadian resources firms operating in foreign countries and withhold taxpayer-funded financing, such as from Export Development Canada, from transgressors.
The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) in Africa, hosted by the Economic Governance Programme of Idasa, is currently seeking three new Executive Committee members to guide the work of the ANSA-Africa Network.
A coalition of 140 international organizations has sent a letter to Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to demand that he immediately halt plans to build Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon's Xingu River due to its immense social and environmental impacts, and instead consider alternatives.
Inadequate healthcare is just one of many challenges facing the 16,200 refugees in this sprawling camp in western Uganda, which is served by a single doctor. Among those waiting in one of the camp’s two health centres when IRIN visited was Mirian, 30, whose child was shivering with fever, most likely caused by malaria.
On March 10th MPs discussed the Chagos islands as the subject of a Westminster Hall debate, with the overwhelming message from parliamentarians being that the Government should resolve its legal dispute with the Chagossians and restore their right to return. The debate was initiated by Chairman of the Chagos Islands APPG Jeremy Corbyn, who urged the Government to reach a friendly settlement to the impending European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case.
The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) has launched the second edition of a grassroots training manual on public debt. The booklet was unveiled in Harare at a reflective meeting held for ZIMCODD members, on debt sustainability measures for Zimbabwe. The launch coincided with the tenth anniversary of the social and economic justice coalition, which was established in year 2000.
Fourteen Egyptian human rights groups have expressed their full support of the statement issued by the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights which condemned the Egyptian security forces for killing up to 60 migrants on the Egyptian side of the borders with Israeli since mid 2007.
In this week's emerging powers news roundup, East Africa is the new frontier for oil exploration, China Eximbank to continue to invest in Africa, India- Africa project partnership conclave to discuss $9 billion worth of projects, and Tata Communications increases investment in Africa.
This workshop explores the notion of ‘difference’ – as identity, opposition and even resemblance – in its multiple meanings and settings, and the ways in which it plays out in the social-political landscape. Moving away from the idea of difference as essential or natural, we explore how difference is constructed, manifested and obscured in socially uneven societies, particularly those fueled by neoliberal economic growth in the recent years.
The chairperson of the ANC's biggest and most influential region in KwaZulu-Natal, John Mchunu, has been awarded tenders worth at least R40-million by the eThekwini municipality. Mchunu recently made headlines for allegedly vetoing the completion of a R1.5m elephant sculpture project for the new Warwick Avenue interchange, apparently because it was the symbol of the IFP.
Former Debswana Managing Director, Louis Nchindo, and seven other De Beers executives, among them Gary Ralfe and Nicky Oppenheimer, pocketed millions of Pulas in bonus schemes that ripped the government of Botswana off – a confidential report has revealed.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Nigeria, Professor Maurice Iwu, announced here Thursday that the commission would release the comprehensive time-table for the conduct of the 201 1 general elections on Tuesday.
About 155,000 Burundian refugees, seeking Tanzanian citizenship, have had their requests granted, according to a communiqué from the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), published on Thursday in Bujumbura, the Burundi capital.
The African Union (AU) has called for minor const itutional amendments in Guinea, a review of the voting rules and the extension of the voters' registration exercise, to accommodate thousands of other Guineans in exile across West Africa.
The African Union (AU) has demanded an urgent election timetable, leading to the return to constitutional order in Niger following the ousting of President Mamadou Tandja in a coup on 18 February in the West African nation.
The Johannesburg-based World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) has condemned the continued detention of three members of the Malawian civil soc iety organisation. CIVICUS said it found no evidence to suggest any incitement of violence against members of the ruling party as alleged by the authorities in Malawi.
A campaign dubbed "Borderless Trade", which is aimed at fighting against hindrances to the free movement of people and goods in West Africa, was launched on Wednesday in Krak', at the border between Benin and Nigeria.
IGAD Heads of State and Government have urged parties to the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to remain committed to the implementation of outstanding issues in the agreement. The IGAD leaders, meeting in Nairobi Tuesday, asked the parties to the CPA to particularly move towards completing the North-South Abyei border demarcation and redeployment of forces.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is building on initial success to reduce child labor in northern Uganda by launching a new program to further tackle the underlying poverty that forces many families to send their children out to work.
Britain, Malawi’s main bilateral donor, has cut aid to the southern African nation this year after Malawi bought a $13.26 million presidential jet last year, a senior British diplomat has said. Malawi’s finance minister told parliament recently that the government had made some payments towards the purchase of the 2 billion Malawi kwacha ($13.26 million, Sh1 billion) jet.
The death toll from two days of fighting in Somalia’s capital between government forces and al Shabaab rebels has risen to 54, ambulance services said as clashes subsided with both sides claiming successes.
Have we seen a response so far from the capitalists and their governments that suggest that they are going to change from neo-liberal globalisation? Will they look once again to the kind of Keynesian capitalism that worked so well for them in the 40's, 50's and 60's and regulate capital flows, invest in public services and seek to grow capitalism by stimulating demand and providing full employment? Or are they still wedded to the same system of mobile capital, speculation and the privatisation of public goods?
Conference will be a space for activists and analysts to debate the underlying causes of the global crisis, the responses of states, including South Africa and the response of the dominated classes to the global crisis and possibilities for alternatives to capitalism.
An Expression of Interest form is available
Let us know if you are coming.
Contact the organisers
[email][email protected]
South African President Jacob Zuma is expected in Zimbabwe next week amid reports that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC has written to his office saying they want a deadlock to be declared.
Reporters Without Borders celebrates World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March. This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. It is also meant to draw attention to the fact that, by creating new spaces for exchanging ideas and information, the Internet is a force for freedom. However, more and more governments have realised this and are reacting by trying to control the Internet.
Hundreds of women have taken to the streets of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, and the central city of Jos in rallies against Sunday's massacre near Jos. The women, mostly dressed in black, demanded that the government protect women and children better.
Former rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who now serve in the army are running mafia-style extortion rackets in the mines, campaigners say. The country has some of the world's richest mines, which provide minerals to the global electronics industry.
Oukasie, Sharpville, Orange Farm, Siyathemba: images of violent protest action against poor service delivery have dominated the news in the past few weeks, signalling growing frustration with the Jacob Zuma administration’s failure to address the implosion of services in parts of South Africa. But all too often, media coverage does not help us to understand the complex forces that gave rise to such protests, writes Jane Duncan.
Foremost environmental rights advocacy organization in Nigeria, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), has accused the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, of not being a good corporate citizen in the country. ERA claimed in a statement that the warning by Shell that Nigeria’s declining oil output will be aggravated if the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is passed into law was an attempt to frustrate the move by the country to bring sanity into the sector and recover some level of sovereignty in relation to the resource.
This week, the US State Department is honoring Ann with the 2010 International Women of Courage Award. With this award the US government pays tribute to outstanding women leaders worldwide, recognizing the courage they've shown as they struggle for social justice and human rights. In over a decade as a women's rights activist, nobody deserves this award more than Ann Njogu, writes Janet Walsh.
For the two decades that he has been free, Souleymane Guengueng has constantly relived the two years he spent in a Chadian prison, where he watched hundreds of cellmates die from torture and disease. Thrown in jail in 1988 for still-unknown reasons, the deeply religious civil servant took an oath before God: If he ever got out alive, he would bring his tormentors to justice.
An international initiative that seeks to promote more openness about how countries profit from their oil, gas, and mining resources should not weaken its modest membership standards because governments are unable or unwilling to meet them, Human Rights Watch has said.
Nigeria's acting president should make sure that the massacre of at least 200 Christian villagers in central Nigeria on March 7, 2010, is thoroughly and promptly investigated and that those responsible are prosecuted, Human Rights Watch has said.
* One year Certificate/Diploma of Higher Education/ BA degree.
* One year MA
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With the 15th-year review of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women taking place at the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women in New York, South African teachers and education experts say they fear that a special focus on the advancement of girls is getting lost amidst the growing levels of poverty in the country.
Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning - and wrongly so.
Pregnancy is the leading cause of dropouts for school girls in Tanzania. And a national law forbidding young mothers to return to school after giving birth did not make it any easier for them to continue their education. But thanks to pressure from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the Tanzania government has now adopted a new law that allows young mothers to continue their education at their former schools.
The medical humanitarian organization Mèdecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned by the rapidly worsening situation in the isolated area of Hauts Plateaux in the region of Uvira, South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
While gay rights are slowly expanding around the world, including in Africa, human rights activists note some political, media and religious leaders are leading sometimes violent campaigns in the opposite direction. Activists say they feel the tradition of tolerance no longer applies to homosexuals in that West African nation.
While Zambia undergoes a Constitution Review Process, the gay community in that country has been dealt a severe blow by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC)’s decision to adopt a clause that prohibits marriage between people of the same sex.
Amnesty International has welcomed the release of an Egyptian blogger, who was facing jail after he published a post alleging nepotism within the armed forces. The organization said it remains concerned that the release of Ahmed Mostafa was conditional on him agreeing to apologise and on removing the March 2009 posting from his Matha Assabaka ya Watan (What happened to you, oh nation?) blog.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the ruling of Monday, 8 March by the Ethiopian Supreme Court which reinstated the hefty fines which had been imposed by the country’s High Court against four publishing houses which had successfully appealed a judgment of the High Court following the infamous treason trial of 2005.
The United Nations is gathering supplies for some 130,000 people in southern Africa on alert for potential evacuation from flood-risk zones following weeks of torrential rains in northern Mozambique and neighbouring Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Normal to above normal rains have swollen rivers, forcing authorities to discharge water from the Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe and the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
One in three Africans is chronically hungry, despite $3 billion spent on food aid for the continent annually and $33 billion in food imports, the director of the food security at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has warned.
Some 5,000 West African farmers are reaping the rewards from a United Nations scheme aimed at helping them export produce to the growing organic food market in the industrialized world. The $2.4 million UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) project has helped farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone to meet the necessary certification and adapt to the required methods to grow and sell organic products, according to a FAO news release.
Police in Nigeria have arrested around 200 people following weekend attacks on three Christian villages in which hundreds of people were thought to have been killed. The central city of Jos, at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south, has been tense since Sunday's attacks, blamed on northern settlers, on the villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat just south of the Plateau state capital.
A deadly strain of tuberculosis has reportedly hit Epworth, amid a rapidly worsening health crisis and critical shortages of food across the country. One case of the deadly multi-drug resistant TB strain has been confirmed in the high density area of Epworth and two more people in the same area are suspected to be infected. Zakaria Mwatia, from Epworth Clinic, confirmed the cases to local press, explain how the disease attacks those with already weakened immune systems.
Jestina Mukoko, the Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, has been honoured by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the annual International Women of Courage Award ceremony. The Secretary of State said: “We are honoring women from around the world who have endured isolation and intimidation, violence and imprisonment.”
The United States has intensified its criticism of Eritrea, saying the Red Sea state systematically abuses human rights and is a destabilising influence in the Horn of Africa
The notorious Mike Sutcliffe has banned another Abahlali baseMjondolo march. We have, as always, scrupulously followed the laws that govern protest and we have informed the City in good time that we intend to march on Jacob Zuma on 22 March 2010. Yesterday the march convenor, Troy Morrow from the Hillary AbM branch, was verbally informed that permission to march has been denied. The excuse that has been given this time is that the City does not have enough police officers to be able to ensure security at our march.
One of Africa’s smallest countries is pioneering the use of a carriers’ consortium to develop its national fibre backbone and international links with help from the World Bank. Burundi Backbone Systems will oversee the development of a 1,200 kms backbone and several new international fibre links connecting the country to its neighbours in the next 18 months.
E-government will be renewed and handled with more vigour, because of its future importance to service delivery, says deputy public service and administration minister Roy Padayachie.
Pressure is building on governments of wealthy nations to make clear where they stand on funding their promises to achieve universal access to HIV treatment, care and prevention, following a meeting of ministers and civil society advocates from countries with high HIV burdens in London this week.
Delays in registering antiretroviral (ARV) medication may keep cheaper, more patient-friendly drugs out of reach as South Africa prepares to launch the world's largest tender for medicines. In a letter to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Health, the South African HIV Clinicians Society called on the country's drug registration body, the Medicines Control Council (MCC), to fast-track the approval of certain ARVs, the generic versions of others, and fixed-dose ARV combinations that combine multiple ARVs into a single pill.
A parliamentary commission hopes to reconcile tensions between the government and the media with specific recommendations, commission co-ordinator Jamal Eddine Naji said on March 9th at a press conference in Rabat. Parliament launched the commission March 1st to spur a national debate about the press between media representatives, members of parliament, political figure, the government and the public.
GM contamination of corn is a “crime against humanity”, according to organizations. This conflict will be solved at international courts. The authorization of GM corn crops in Mexico and the attempt by the FAO to legitimize this practice are strongly questioned by tens of organizations meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the parallel activities to the Conference on Agriculture Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (where the world´s most important seed companies are gathered).
A London barrister has criticized the UK’s Foreign Office for failing to acknowledge on its website that the Botswana government illegally and forcibly removed Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their ancestral lands.
A 2009 report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) notes that some 30 million African workers outside their countries send home approximately $40 billion a year in remittances. But with only as many "payout" locations on the continent as in one Latin American country (Mexico), the process is expensive and dominated by two large money transfer companies which work primarily with banks.
Kenyan farmers can now insure some of the costs of growing crops against bad weather by using mobile phone technology that links solar-powered weather stations to an insurance company.
In celebration of International Women's Day, 8 March 2010, the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is launching its new website - The FTX is both a training initiative for women's rights advocates and a community of feminist and technology activists. The FTX was developed by the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) in response to calls from feminist and women's rights movements for greater understanding of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women.
In a landmark decision, the government of Burkina Faso has decided to remove its water and electricity utilities from the list of state companies to be privatised. Defying the IMF, government rather decided it would be enough to restructure the companies' management.
A new project in 16 sub-Saharan African countries producing and dealing in diamonds, gold, and precious minerals is to strengthen their defences against money laundering, smuggling, and terrorist financing.
Pambazuka News 468: The new American imperialism in Africa
Pambazuka News 468: The new American imperialism in Africa
Howard Zinn, 87, an activist historian whose 'People's History of the United States' resurrected neglected stories of the country's past and became a surprise bestseller in the 1980s and beyond, died of a heart attack on 27 January in Santa Monica, California, where he was on a speaking tour.
Colette Braeckman
As Macau marks the 10-year anniversary of its return to Chinese rule, Lucy Corkin discusses the 'special administrative region's' role in promoting stronger economic ties between Portuguese-speaking countries.
In the wake of the Haitian earthquake, ANC Youth League Deputy President Andile Lungisa calls for the disaster to be seen within its broader historical context. Discussing Haiti's history as a nation long oppressed by external interests, Lungisa underlines the country's new vulnerability to forces concerned solely for profit in the aftermath of its tragedy.
This is a call for the forthcoming South African Sociological Association (SASA) Congress, hosted by the University of Fort Hare, 13-16 June, in East London. Papers should be related to the theme is “Sport, Leisure, and Development in the 21st century: Opportunities and Challenges”; however, if you have a paper idea that doesn’t exactly fit, please go ahead and submit it to me or one of the other working group conveners. If your abstract is accepted we WILL find a space for it.
India has stepped up its efforts to gain an economic foothold in Africa in a new scramble with China for the continent's resources, signing energy deals with top oil producers Angola and Nigeria, writes Louise Redvers.
While economic growth in developed markets is only now starting to slowly recover from the battering it took during the global financial crisis (GFC), emerging markets have been powering ahead, writes Janice Mace.
South Africans are inclined to moan about so much…the fact that things don’t seem to function, the corruption, the crude avarice of the new elite, the poor performance of Bafana Bafana, the crime. Add to this Julius Malema, Jacob Zuma's polygamy and the scandal of the mismanagement of our parastatals and you have a picture that evokes images of imminent collapse for the chattering classes.
Ishani Duttagupta argues, with the support of an number of influential commentators, that India can indeed do a China in the continent of unlimited resources, with its deep diaspora giving her an edge.
Global apartheid refers to the divergence in the economic and social development of a white North, industrialised world and a brown South in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The author concludes that the same kind of worldwide solidarity that helped bring down apartheid is necessary to free the global South from economic domination.
In this article, Richard Lapper asserts that South African companies are making up for lost time in their own continent. Links with other emerging markets - themselves interested in Africa's resources and high-growth consumer markets - are growing quickly. The economic momentum is also giving substance to a foreign policy that since the end of apartheid has favoured links with Asia, Latin America and Africa in an effort to reduce a historical dependence on Europe and the US.
Marion Grammer acknowledges the significant contribution made to the liberation struggle by the teachers, writers and intellectuals behind the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), the first organisation in South Africa to adopt the principle of non-racialism, which debunked the myths about African ‘inferiority’ and administered ‘an antidote to the poisonous indoctrination of apartheid. It was ‘the politics of anti-imperialism and non-racialism learned from the Unity Movement’, says Grammer, that ‘provided the impetus that sent young people marching and protesting and fighting for democracy in the 1970s and 80s’.