Pambazuka News 588: Bread, freedom, justice and solidarity
Pambazuka News 588: Bread, freedom, justice and solidarity
South African social justice organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi have released their first e-newsletter. Visit the website through the URL provided to subscribe.
New genetically altered corn aimed at helping farmers deal with drought offers more hype than help over the long term, according to a report issued by a science and environmental advocacy group. The Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) said the only genetically altered corn approved by regulators and undergoing field trials in the United States has no improved water efficiency, and provides only modest results in only moderate drought conditions.
Crime-fighting unit The Hawks have said they were investigating the MTN Group - Africa's largest mobile phone operator - over allegations of bribery related to its Iranian licence. 'We can confirm that we are conducting a formal investigation,' McIntosh Polela, a spokesman for the unit, said. Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri, based in Istanbul, is suing MTN in the US for $4,2bn, alleging the SA-based company bribed Iranian government officials, arranged meetings between Iranian and SA leaders, and promised Iran weapons and United Nations votes in exchange for a licence to provide services in the Islamic Republic.
Born Again in the United States of Uganda is the story of how well financed U.S. evangelicals, fundamentalists and neoconservatives conspired in the incitement of hatred against gays and how this led to the introduction of the ‘Kill the Gays’ bill to Uganda’s parliament.
The sentencing of a young Sudanese woman to death by stoning for adultery presents numerous grave violations of domestic and international law, Human Rights Watch said. The sentence also underscores the urgent need for Sudan to reform its legal system in accordance with its human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said. Intisar Sharif Abdallah, whose age has not been determined but is believed to be under the age of 18, was sentenced by a judge on 22 April 2012, in the city of Omdurman, near Khartoum. Since her sentencing, she been held in Omdurman prison with her five-month-old baby, with her legs shackled.
This post from the blog Africa is a Country reflects on the film Safe House, starring Denzil Washington, which was filmed in Cape Town. Washington had previously been quoted as saying he felt more comfortable making the film in a 'black' country, but as Loren A Lynch points out, the film perpetuates Hollywood stereotypes. 'The majority of audiences rarely see past guise of set dressing into the political and racial implications of not only the film but also of the film industry itself. Western audiences remain content with Hollywood’s constructed perceptions of both countries and cultures outside of their own, when in reality the differences stick out almost as much as Denzel Washington in a “brown” country.'
Over the course of nearly 20 centuries, millions of East Africans crossed the Indian Ocean and its several seas and adjoining bodies of water in their journey to distant lands, from Arabia and Iraq to India and Sri Lanka. The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World traces a truly unique and fascinating story of struggles and achievements across a variety of societies, cultures, religions, languages and times.
Nigeria was recently approved $4million from the United Nations Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme to conserve rainforest trees. Part of this was used to carry out 'REDD readiness', a series of workshops and campaigns aimed at forest communities and oil companies. The aim is to help them get to grips with conservation and the importance of curbing carbon emissions. Most of Nigeria's UN REDD money will be poured into Cross River, a reward for what its officials describe as government’s 'conscientious efforts to save the forests'. In a country that has lost over 90 per cent of its lowland rainforests, Cross River has been recognised as Nigeria's environment capital and contains over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s remaining rainforest. Many on the ground are already aware of the REDD money and expectations are high.
Ikhaya (Home) is a part of the Photo XP community project supported by Greatmore studios, co facilitated by Zanele Muholi and Lindeka Qampi. It is a collection of 60 hours of photographic memories that were taken in different areas of Khayelitsha. All of them are black lesbians between 21 and 31 years of age, from various places within and outside of Khayelitsha. So far 2012 PhotoXP has been exhibited at three (3) different events in May 2012. The first Ikhaya show was at Greatmore Studios on the 10th May, followed by Exuberance on the 12th May 2012 which was part of UCT GIPCA event. The recent, third show was during the OSISA: Money, Power & Sex conference on the 22-24 May 2012 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Dr Mansogo was convicted for professional negligence and sentenced to three years in prison in a politically motivated trial.
Guinea President Alpha Conde has ignited anger among a section of Sierra Leone’s opposition for a statement seen as interference in the latter’s politics. President Conde Saturday openly declared support for his Sierra Leonean counterpart in the forthcoming elections. The Guinean leader made the pronouncement as the two leaders inaugurated a new highway linking Conakry and Freetown, the respective capitals of the two states.
In the light of growing Turkish influence and the confusing pattern of conflicting interests and international gatherings, will Somalis receive the help and respect they so desperately need from the Istanbul II conference?
The Writing Rights blog has an article about a communications tender that was awarded to TBWA/Hunt Lascaris in December 2010 by the Western Cape provincial government. During 2011, a group of civil society organisations lodged an independent and separate complaint with the Public Protector about the legality of the procurement of the tender. This group of complainants consisted of Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), Social Justice Coalition (SJC), Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), Right 2 Know Western Cape and Equal Education (EE). Recently, the public protector found, among other things, that it was improper for two of the premier's special advisers to be on the bid evaluation committee.
Governments from all over the world will meet in Río de Janeiro, Brasil from 20-22 June to commemorate 20 years since the 'Earth Summit', the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development. In this statement, La Via Campesina says they will mobilize for the event, 'representing the voice of the peasant in the global debate and defending a different path to development that is based on thewellbeing of all, that guarantees food for all, that protects and guarantees that thecommons and natural resources are put to use to provide a good life for everyone andnot to meet the needs for accumulation of a few.'
A paper in the Journal of Peasant Studies situates the current land rush in its historical context, focusing on legal mechanisms. 'Even before capitalist transformation this feudal-derived machination was an instrument of aligned class privilege and power, later elaborated to justify colonial mass land and resource capture. Now it is routinely embedded in the legal canons of elite-aligned agrarian governance as a way to retain control over the land resources which rural communities presume are their own.'
Somali militants Al-Shabaab are amassing troops in lower Juba region, reports indicate. Consequently, tension was mounting among the civilians over an imminent major military operation. 'Militants loyal to Al-Shabaab (the radical Islamist group) were Wednesday seen positioning ‘technicals’ (battle wagons mounted with machine guns, in and around the town,' a resident in Kismayu, who did not disclose his identity for security reasons, told the local media.
In ‘Global History: A View from the South’ Samir Amin shows us how we can overcome the exploitative pressures of global capitalism.
The Egyptian revolution is important for all struggles against militarized power, exploitation, class stratification, and police violence. Join the resistance to the counter-revolution.
Why has peace in Somalia been so hard to come by? Someone needs to get rid of the Western powers and their roadmap to nowhere.
If you want a vision of Africa under AFRICOM tutelage, look no further than Libya, NATO’s model of an African state: condemned to decades of violence and trauma through military colonialism.
Black Music Month is going unnoticed by President Barack Obama.
Five million Brazilian farmers are locked in a lawsuit with US-based biotech giant Monsanto, suing for as much as 6.2 billion euros. They say that the genetic-engineering company has been collecting royalties on crops it unfairly claims as its own. The farmers claim that Monsanto unfairly collects exorbitant profits every year worldwide on royalties from 'renewal' seed harvests.
Long before the ICC, or even Invisible Children, made Kony an Internet sensation, local activists were shouting themselves hoarse trying to get the world to understand the broader context of the conflict in the north – President Museveni’s stranglehold on the country for almost three decades.
Are you that concrete jungle
Crumbling under the weight of
Maneuvering, manipulative matatus
Where passengers are shuka’d at whim
Are you where darkness whispers sweet lullabies
Or where lights play dirty tricks
Where money is mobile
And glass ceilings tower as high as KICC
Where freedom is plastered on bus stops
And injustice deeply rooted
Into territorial boundaries
Where few attest their tribe is indeed Kenyan
Where tusker runs like maji
Where unga is revolutionized
And revolutions are most definitely not televised
Where radios relentlessly relay well kept secrets
Where the rain commands the city
And payday drives traffic
Where the likes of Kibera & Sinai make way
For the likes of Karen & Spring Valley
Are you the capital of thieves and robbers
Or a mega polis of IT geeks, business gurus and self made men
Where every pocket is packed with dreams
But not every dream packs pockets
Tell me, Nairobi, are you that place?
© Nebila Abdulmelik, February 2012
[email][email protected]
http://aliben86.wordpress.com
The world joins the Queen of England to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee on the throne.
The puzzling question remains: Why would the two political activists be kidnapped when the protest they had planned had already been aborted?
Violence against the youth, who have been organizing anti-government protests, is the most prominent aspect of the campaign by the regime to entrench itself in power. Yet, a more sinister operation has been unfolding: kidnappings and torture.
Fears are mounting that Zimbabwe’s military will seize power in the event of President Robert Mugabe’s death or electoral defeat. A top army general said they would not allow anyone who does not share the ideals of the veteran ruler’s Zanu PF party to lead the country. 'As the military, we do not only believe, but act in defence of these values and we will not respect any leader who does not respect the revolution,' Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) chief of staff Major General Trust Mugoba said.
The secretive Bilderbergers aren’t normally a protest magnet. But last weekend, protesters hurled creative abuse at the black limousines rolling past towards the Chantilly Marriott Hotel.
Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings has given the first hint that his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, might enter the presidential race in December. It is not clear whether the former First Lady would do so as an independent candidate or form a new party. Not too long ago, Nana Agyeman was rejected by delegates of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) when she took on party leader President John Evans Mills.
An 'exceptional' airlift of almost 12,000 South Sudanese ended with a final flight from Khartoum on Wednesday but thousands more continue to live in makeshift conditions while they, too, await transport to the South, officials said. One hundred Southerners took the last chartered plane from Khartoum to South Sudan's capital Juba, Jill Helke, chief of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Sudan, said.
All political parties in Angola will benefit from government financial support, it has been announced. Parliamentary Affairs minister Norberto dos Santos said every party and recognised coalition would be allocated at least $90,000 (9.6 million Kwanzas). The money is meant to help the parties prepare for parliamentary elections scheduled for August 31. Dos Santos said 77 parties and seven coalitions recognised by the constitutional would be funded.
The recall election serves as a wakeup call for progressives. The future of the struggles against capitalism cannot be decided by electoral struggles, which are one of the many forms of mobilization.
Malawi has said it will not host the African Union summit in July because the bloc insisted on inviting Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, wanted on international war crimes charges. 'After considering the interests of Malawians, I want to inform Malawians that the cabinet met today and decided it was not interested to accept the conditions by the African Union, therefore Malawi is not hosting the summit,' Vice President Khumbo Kachali told journalists in a brief speech broadcast on state radio.
Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy program, touted for improving food security for the past six years, has been allocated a whopping K40.6 billion in the 2012/13 budget which represents about 60 per cent of the Ministry of Agriculture allocation. 'The major allocation is for the Farm Inputs Subsidy Program (FISP) which has been allocated a total of K40.6 billion for the purchase of 150,000 metric tonnes of fertilizers comprising 75,000 metric tonnes of Urea and 75,000 metric tonnes of NPK fertilizers which will be distributed to 1.5 million farm families at a price of K500 per bag,' said Lipenga when he presented the financial plan.
Teachers in Swaziland have voted to strike indefinitely, almost certainly closing down schools in the kingdom. A total of 98.7 per cent of Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) members who took part in a vote opted for a strike. The strike for a pay increase of 4.5 per cent is due to start on 13 June.
As the number of African children adopted by people outside the continent reaches record levels, experts, activists, government officials and academics have called for the practice to be stemmed, warning that adoption was too often motivated by financial gain rather than the best interests of the children involved. Between 2003 and 2011, for example, at least 41,000 African children were sent abroad for adoption from Africa, according to a study entitled 'Africa: The New Frontier' for Inter-country Adoption by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF).
A near decade-long insurgency which stoked insecurity in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) northern regions has eased after the disbandment in May of two main rebel groups there, bringing hopes for stability. The Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) and the Republican Forces Union (UFR) dissolved and their fighters begun to disarm under peace agreements with the government.
A growing cholera outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed nearly 400 lives and affected more than 19,100 people since January, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 'The total number of cholera cases in 2012 is around 90 percent of cases reported last year. Since January 2011, 983 people have died from the outbreak affecting eight of 11 provinces of the country,' Yvon Edoumou, OCHA spokesman, told a news conference.
Malawi's new president, Joyce Banda, has inherited an unenviable to-do list from former president Bingu wa Mutharika, and AIDS activists are hoping that bolstering the donor-dependent AIDS response will be one of her most urgent priorities. A lot is at stake. An estimated 10 per cent of the adult population is HIV-positive, with about 70,000 Malawians newly infected with HIV every year. Yet the country is almost entirely dependent on external funding for its AIDS programmes, and ambitious plans to scale up treatment have been derailed after the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria rejected a succession of funding proposals.
The continued arrival of refugees fleeing post-election violence and militia activities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in western Uganda, and the government’s efforts to resettle them, have created a land row that has already cost the life of a government official. Alphonse Nteziryayo, commander of Rwamwanja settlement, in Kamwenge district, had accompanied humanitarian aid workers to assess the land the government had set aside for the settlement of Congolese refugees in Uganda when he was attacked and killed by squatters, who had settled there.
Israeli authorities have began a roundup of South Sudanese migrants ahead of their deportation, three days after a court ruled that their lives were no longer threatened in their homeland. 'The deportation operation is getting under way. We are starting the job,' Interior minister Eli Yishai told independent television station Channel Two. 'We told the infiltrators from South Sudan to come voluntarily; whoever doesn't, with the Lord's help we shall get them all...they'll be put on a plane,' he said.
The United States said last week it is 'concerned' about a troop mutiny in the Democratic Republic of Congo and by 'recent reports of outside support' for mutineers operating under the name M23. But the US statement refrained from identifying Rwanda as the reported outside supporter of the M23 rebellion led by Gen Bosco Ntaganda. While expressing support for the DRC’s recent move to arrest Ntaganda, the US did not explicitly call on Rwanda to aid those efforts, even though Rwandan military officials are said to be supplying the M23 leader with weapons and recruits.
A senior official of the radical Islamist Al-Shabaab group has announced that his movement was ready to reward anybody bringing in information leading to the killing or capture of top American leaders. Sheikh Fu’ad Mohamed Khalaf alias Shongole specifically mentioned US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sheikh Shongole was reacting to a statement from the US State Department putting a bounty of $33 million for the capture of top Al-Shabaab leaders. 'We are offering 10 camels for any information concerning (Barack) Obama,' said Shongole.
Under mounting pressure, Liberia on Saturday announced it was closing its border with neighbouring Ivory Coast following a fatal attack on UN peacekeepers. Seven Nigerien UN peacekeepers died in the attack on Friday which also claimed the lives of eight civilians and an Ivorian soldier. Both the UN and the Ivorian government believe the attackers came from Liberia.
Forty years ago, the Incomati flowed through the Magudi District of Maputo, in majestic splendour, more than 700 metres wide during the wet season. Now, except during extreme flooding, the river broadens to a little more than half that width during the rains, and dwindles to a trickle during the dry season. The lower water levels in the Incomati River are attributed to increased demands upstream, where thousands of new arrivals draw water for irrigation, domestic use and livestock. The diminished river can no longer support the diverse aquatic plant and animal life that it used to.
Two rebel groups that seized northern Mali two months ago have clashed following protests in the town of Kidal, witnesses say. A source told the BBC that fighting broke out between Tuareg MNLA rebels and the Ansar Dine Islamist group on the third day of protests in the town. Last month, the two groups agreed to merge and turn their vast northern territory into an Islamist state.
Fighting between government forces and tribal fighters in the southern Libyan town of Kufra has continued for a second day, officials said. At least 16 people have died since the clashes began on Saturday, with women and children among the dead. Libya's government has been struggling to maintain security since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi last year.
Recently, Egypt's 30-year-old emergency law expired and former President Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killing of protesters during Egypt's uprising. Yet the future for free expression in Egypt remains in doubt, say the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and other IFEX members.
Ten African nations have pledged, ahead of Rio+20, to include the economic value of natural resources in their national accounts. Africa has taken the lead in the quest to persuade nations to include the full economic value of their natural resources in their national accounts, with the promise last month by ten of its nations to do so. The heads of state or government of Botswana, Liberia, Mozambique and Namibia, along with ministers from Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, signed the 'Gaborone Declaration' at the Summit for Sustainability in Africa (24-25 May), co-hosted by the government of Botswana and the nongovernmental organisation Conservation International.
A study has cast doubt on the innovative role that some claim Twitter, the 'microblogging' social media tool, can play in generating new information during disasters, although it did find that 'tweets' speed up the exchange of existing information. An analysis of tweets sent by people in the United States following the emergency at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant found that most linked to traditional news outlets, such as the New York Times and CNN, for updates.
Libya has postponed its landmark election for a constitutional assembly to July 7 because of technical and logistical issues, the head of the electoral commission said. The first elections since the fall of the country's longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi were due to be held on June 19. Two hundred representatives are to be elected and tasked with drafting the country's constitution, but authorities say they need more time to vet candidates.
Sudan and South Sudan have broken off security talks after failing to agree on a demilitarised zone along their disputed border. After 10 days of talks, the two sides were unable to agree on Friday where to draw a demilitarised buffer zone along the 1,800km-long border. Khartoum's delegation accused South Sudan of making new land claims, most importantly to the Heglig oilfield whose output is vital to Sudan's battered economy. The southern army had temporarily occupied Heglig during the recent fighting.
Ethiopia’s only ISP, state-owned Ethio-Telecom, has just installed a system for blocking access to the Tor network, which lets users browse anonymously and access blocked websites. At the same time, the state-owned printing presses are demanding the right to censor the newspapers they print.
The Kimberly Process intersessional in Washington, with Human Rights Watch (HRW) urging the diamond monitor to tackle what it calls continuing human rights violations in Zimbabwe's Marange fields. The meeting, which ran from 4-7 June 2012, will take up a range of topics related to the mining and trading of conflict-free rough diamonds. Human Rights Watch Africa director, Daniel Bekele urged the Kimberley Process, under the chairpersonship of the United States, to address the ongoing rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s Marange fields and the lack of transparency by mining companies operating there.
Egyptian liberals have walked out of a meeting to select members of a panel to write the country's new constitution, charging Islamists of trying to take seats allocated for secular parties. The walkout could throw the writing of the constitution, which would lay out the powers of the presidency, into further disarray at a time when uncertainties mar both the course of the presidential runoff election on June 16 and 17 and the legality of parliament.
Gay rights activists in Uganda have launched a new documentary tracing gay love in pre-colonial Ugandan society. Kabaka Mwanga II, widely believed to have been gay, ruled Buganda from 1884 to 1897. The documentary, 'Gay Love in Pre-colonial Africa: The Untold Story of Ugandan Martyrs' was premiered in Kampala last week ahead of the 3 June public holiday to commemorate the burning to death of Ugandan martyrs.
Representatives of the International Criminal Court arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to try to secure the release of a detained delegation visiting Muammar Gaddafi's captured son, a Libyan official said. The four-member delegation was being held in the western mountain town of Zintan after one of its lawyers, Australian Melinda Taylor, was found carrying documents regarded as suspicious for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a Libyan lawyer and a militia member said.
AIDS activists and researchers are at loggerheads over the planned South African trial of a lower dose version of the controversial antiretroviral stavudine, which has in the past been responsible for debilitating side-effects in HIV patients. In the one camp, the Treatment Action Campaign, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders) and the Treatment Action Group have serious concerns about the proposed trial.
According to a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), pneumonia and diarrhoea are the leading killers of children under five years despite the fact that there are a number of cost effective interventions to curb these illnesses. Far fewer children are dying today than 20 years ago – In 1990, 12-million child deaths were recorded, compared to 7.6-million in 2010.
Journalists from across Africa announced the creation of the first continent-wide professional association of health journalists. The new organization, the African Health Journalists Association, aims to improve the quality and quantity of reporting on health issues so that people across the continent can make healthy choices for their lives. The group’s media coverage will encourage the best possible public health programs and policies throughout the continent.
James Elangwe, 87, belongs to the Balues, the only clan in which inheritance passes through the female line. But this doesn't mean that women inherit. Instead, it means that when a man dies, the first son of the man's sister inherits. Elangwe says matrilineal inheritance puts women at a greater disadvantage than patrilineal inheritance because wealth leaves the immediate family. Elangwe's wife belongs to a tribe where inheritance passes from father to son in a patrilineal system. Women cannot inherit, but he says at least it stays within the immediate family if there is a son.
ARTICLE 19 has recently highlighted the critical issue of the right to information for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The international NGO delivered practical training sessions on the Right to Information for internally displaced persons to regional leaders and representatives of local community based organisations. Over 20 participants from the Coast province attended the training sessions held in the Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza regions of the country. The program aims to build the capacity of IDP leaders and civil society organisations to request and utilise government held information.
A Nigerian civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Nigerian government to prosecute 16 foreign companies involved in bribery in the country. In a statement made available to PANA in Lagos Sunday, SERAP said it would seek leave of court for an order of mandamus to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Mohammed Adoke, to act if the companies are not prosecuted 'within 14 (fourteen) days from the receipt and/or publication of this letter (to the AGF).'
A brigade will deploy to Africa next year in a pilot program that assigns brigades on a rotational basis to regions around the globe, the US Army announced in May. Roughly 3,000 soldiers - and likely more - are expected to serve tours across the continent in 2013, training foreign militaries and aiding locals.
Considering the debate generated by healthcare reform in the United States and the gradual withdrawal of the French state from public-funded social action, one might think that social protection is an endangered idea. On the contrary, the right to security is an integral component of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 22) and an important part of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), as conceived by the United Nations. This Global Voices blog examines social welfare systems in several African countries.
Walter Rodney's classic study, 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' has just been republished by Pambazuka Press. You are invited to a Panel Discussion on the book at the Cipriani Labour College, CLR James Auditorium, on Wednesday June 13 at 6 PM. Click on the link for more information.
The second issue of the Thinking Africa Newsletter for 2012 is available. Articles include:
- uBuntu, the Law and Public Secrets
- Conference on Land Practices reminder
- uBuntu and Subaltern Legality
- Programme of the Thinking Africa 'uBuntu: Curating the Archive' colloquium, 9-20 July 2012.
In this podcast, Africa Today speaks with Dr. Isaac Saney on Latin American Studies, Race in Cuba, and Cuba's role in Southern Africa. Dr. Saney is the author of 'Cuba a Revolution in Motion'.
In this broadcast, Africa Today speaks with Dame Babou, Senegalese journalist and host of 'Africa Time' and Hamadou Tidiane Sy of Questaf.com on recent developments in West Africa - the coup in Mali and the Tuareg insurgency in Northern Mali.
This is to invite you to Kilombo 2012, which is an event on Africa, Africans and Social Justice. This is going to be an annual event and the first which is Kilombo 2012 will lay the foundation for launching the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination.
After weeks of countrywide public hearings on which hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ rands were spent, the department of justice and the select committee on security and constitutional development received a rude wake-up call on the controversial Traditional Courts Bill, reports City Press. Most of the provinces either rejected the bill or asked for massive changes. In what can be described as a victory for rural women, who have waged war against the bill since it was tabled in 2008, the department of justice will have to go back to the drawing board.
Food cannot be grown without water. In Africa, one in three people endure water scarcity and climate change will make things worse. Building on Africa’s highly sophisticated indigenous water management systems could help resolve this growing crisis, but these very systems are being destroyed by large-scale land grabs amidst claims that Africa's water is abundant, under-utilised and ready to be harnessed for export-oriented agriculture. In this report, GRAIN looks behind the current scramble for land in Africa to reveal a global struggle for what is increasingly seen as a commodity more precious than gold or oil - water.
The film Seeds of Freedom charts the story of seed from its roots at the heart of traditional, diversity rich farming systems across the world, to being transformed into a powerful commodity, used to monopolise the global food system.The film highlights the extent to which the industrial agricultural system, and genetically modified (GM) seeds in particular, has impacted on the enormous agro-biodiversity evolved by farmers and communities around the world, since the beginning of agriculture. You can watch a preview of the film through the URL provided.
Angola is bankrolling a concerted campaign to secure SA's efforts to win support for Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to lead the African Union (AU) with a $200,000 pledge to finance lobbying ahead of the AU summit. Oil-rich Angola, signalling its foreign policy ambitions on the continent, has combined in the campaign with SA, which is chartering aircraft to take teams of cabinet ministers to lobby around the continent.
Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura is forming a new press unit of police to act as an ombudsman for complaints by journalists and as a public relations department. 'The inspector general is committed to professionalizing the police force,' Simon Kuteesa, who will run the new unit, said. 'We are not re-inventing the wheel here - it's all part of a strategic initiative.' The new unit is expected to be operational in three months, he said.
Rapid urbanization is an important characteristic of African development and yet the structural transformation debate focuses on agriculture’s relative merits without also considering the benefits from urban agglomeration. This UNU-WIDER Working Paper argues against an ‘agro-fundamentalist’ approach to African development, but says the short-term imperative of reducing poverty necessitates further agricultural investment.
The 2012 Gender in Nigeria Report launched recently shows that gender inequality is at highly worrying levels. There is a lack of gender balance in the economy, education, politics, health, access to justice and almost all areas of human development. According to the report, 'Nigeria's 80.2 million women and girls have a significantly worse life chances than men and also their sisters in comparable societies; 60-79% of the rural workforce is women but men are five times more likely to own land. '
Kenya has been plunged into mourning after Internal Security minister George Saitoti and his assistant Joshua Orwa Ojodeh were killed in a helicopter crash in Ngong Forest. The accident occurred on Sunday minutes after they had taken off from Wilson Airport in a new police helicopter, heading for a fundraiser in Mr Ojodeh’s Ndiwa constituency. The cause of the crash was yet to be established.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, an independent charity, tracks the social & environmental impacts of 5100 companies worldwide. We seek a highly-motivated person, based in South Africa, to lead our work on Anglophone countries in Southern & Western Africa. NGO experience, excellent English language skills, and the right to work in South Africa are required. Fees: R190,000/year for 3 days per week work. Further details are below. Closing date 3 July.