Pambazuka News 426: The deepening economic and climatic crisis
Pambazuka News 426: The deepening economic and climatic crisis
2 April 2009 may yet be marked as the day on which, through the catalysis of a global economic crisis, China definitively emerged as a 21st-century world power. Just a few months ago, the talk in western capitals was still about graciously inviting China to join the western club of G7 plus Russia. Now G20 is widely accepted as the new top table of world politics, and China is already seen as one of the biggest players at that table. The question now is: what kind of world power will China be?
China's presence in Africa, "taken to be massive," is no t a threat to economic good governance, Carlos Oya, lecturer in development economic policy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London Univer s ity, said here on Monday. According to Oya, who spoke at a seminar on the theme of "governance for African development", said there was a manipulation effect through the media which described China's presence in Africa as a threat to economic good governance.
Cabinet ministers were among the dignitaries who witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of Daheng Botswana Textile Industry in Phakalane on Monday morning. The project is funded by two Chinese companies, Daheng Holdings Group and Touch International Holdings Group, for US$52 million. The Phakalane Industrial Park will be the first phase of the project, which will major in textiles and clothing products.
Conventional wisdom has it that, in the eyes of China, Latin America and Africa are largely interchangeable: vast tracks of land full of precious commodities. It’s simple, really: China invests billions building mines, derricks, roads and schools abroad in exchange for a steady supply of oil, iron ore, copper and bauxite to feed the factories back in Zhejiang.
The summit of the Group of 20 leading high-income and emerging countries in London on Thursday seems set to achieve progress. But achievement must be measured not just against past performances, but against “the fierce urgency of now”. Unfortunately, it will come up short.
The tiny, sweltering shop where Barnabus Ossai sells boxes of imported A4-sized printer paper is a world away from the trading floors and banking offices where the global economic crisis was born. Ossai doesn't hold a subprime mortgage — the 28-year old bachelor shares a small Lagos rental apartment with some 10 family members. And with a net worth hovering somewhere around zero, he's hardly exposed to risky collateralized securities.
China has adopted an active and responsible attitude and substantial measures to confront the global financial crisis in cooperation with the international community. It has decisively implemented an active fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy in a timely fashion in order to stimulate the economy.
Japan, the world's second largest economy, is calling for global initiatives to reactivate financial flows to Africa, including government grants, concessional loans and lines of credit. This is the crux of a message Prime Minister Taro Aso is carrying to the G20 summit in London Thursday, Japan's ambassador Takahiro Shinyo to Germany told German parliamentarians last week.
The East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY) will be operational in June 2010 instead of June this year, according to a project official. The delay means that the cable, owned by African and international telecommunications operators, is again the subject of speculation and allegations about the lack of seriousness of the project developers.
According to FDI: Source from the State Property Management Commission recently, China Hydropower Group and CEB recently signed the commercial contract of Adjarala hydropower station project in Lome, capital of Togo, with the contractual amount of nearly EUR282m. The Adjarala hydropower station project is located on the Mono River where Togo and Benin meet.
A delegation of the China-Africa Development Fund (CAD-Fund) led by Mr. J. P. Zhao, Chairman of the CAD-Fund, met with some officials of the African Union Commission, the Chief Executive Officer of NEPAD, representatives of the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday 30 March 2009, at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Thailand's commerce minister and rice exporters will visit African countries next month in a bid to secure rice deals, a senior official said on Monday. "It's a roadshow that includes trade and investment in Africa and, of course, rice will be the main issue we'll talk about," said Apiradi Tantraporn, director general of the foreign trade department at the ministry.
Standard Chartered has restated its confidence in the continuing resilience of the Africa-China trade and investment corridor. Commenting, Anil Dua, Regional Head of Wholesale Bank, Africa, said: "Trade between Africa and China exceeded $100 billion in 2008." Standard Chartered Bank's senior Wholesale Banking executives have just returned from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzen, China where they met with leading Chinese corporates with commercial interests in Africa.
Zimbabweans can get permits to stay legally in South Africa for six months, the authorities have announced. Some three million Zimbabweans are believed to have crossed the border to escape the economic collapse and human rights abuses at home. The permit gives migrants the right to work and get healthcare and education.
The challenge of making a fresh start in Britain is the subject of a darkly comic and fast-paced new novel, Harare North, by Zimbabwean writer Brian Chikwava. The novel is set in Brixton in south London, and it offers a view of London as seen through the eyes of its migrant population, particularly Africa's dispossessed. Hence, Harare North, the title and ironic name the book's unnamed hero gives to London.
A spectacular concert in an atmosphere of joy and freedom marked the end of the inaugural Nguva Yedu ~ Thuba Letu ~ Our Time youth arts festival in Harare. 600 people packed the Book Café car park for the final concert on Saturday 28 March, which presented 10 hours of outstanding poetry and some of the southern African region´s top music acts.
Despite the challenges that the global economic crisis poses to Africa and other developing regions in the southern hemisphere, South-South trade still offers huge opportunities as there is room for growth beyond the current levels. According to Jean-Louis Ekra, president of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) - a multilateral organisation that finances and promotes trade with African countries - the potential benefit from South-South trade may offer the same financial gains as trade with richer, Northern countries.
Chinese investment in the West African state of Benin has brought substantial and visible benefits to the country but local workers mutter about exploitation and even slavery. The Beninese government and Chinese entrepreneurs insist that all is well on Chinese-run infrastructure projects but here, as in other parts of Africa, notably Zambia, there is a backlash against Chinese methods and focus on the continent’s vast natural resources.
The advancement of the next generation of nuclear reactors has received a boost with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Beijing between the Chinese and the South African developers of pebble bed technology. Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd (PBMR) of South Africa has been developing the pebble bed technology in parallel with the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University and Chinergy Co Ltd of China, whose pebble bed concept is based on a 10 MW (thermal) research reactor that was started up in Beijing in December 2000 and achieved full power operation in January 2003.
Top Asian oil refiner Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) is eyeing overseas projects for its exploration and production business, as the sharp fall in crude oil prices spurs bargain-hunting among oil giants. Sinopec (600028.SS), who has aggressively pursued acquisitions beyond China, is focusing on opportunities in Africa and South America in the near term, Chairman Su Shulin told reporters at a media briefing on Monday.
A lecturer in African Politics at the Oxford University, England, Dr. Abdul Raufu Mustapha has called on Nigeria to be cautious in its relationship with China, a technological giant and rising world power. He said that while the technology and friendship of China could be beneficial, Nigeria and Africa must be discerning enough not to allow China undermine their interests.
China Friday called on the international community to "act cautiously" on the Darfur issue as it is afraid rash action could damage peace and stability in Sudan. "The involved parties should fully respect and listen carefully to the voices of the African Union (AU), the Arab League and African and Arabian countries," Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said in his meeting with visiting Sudanese president's envoy Awad Ahmed al-Jaz in Beijing
“On March 26, the Japanese government offered the Zambian government a loan worth US $274 million for the implementation of the Increased Access to Electricity Services Project to cover five areas in the country”, observes Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, Coordinator of the JCTR’s Debt, Aid and Trade Programme.
Stated-owned Sinohydro Corp, the largest hydropower engineering and construction company in China, recently won a hydroelectric project in West Africa, according to information released yesterday by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), sources reported. The EUR 282 million contract was signed by Communaute Electrique du Benin (CEB), Benin's state-owned electricity company, and Sinohydro Corp, in Lome, the capital of Togo, on Mar. 12.
Macau and South Africa can benefit from a co-operation between the two, Jerry Vilakasi, chief executive officer of the Business Unity of South Africa (BUSA), has said. Speaking to the Macau Daily Times before attending a dinner and cocktail reception with the South African Consul where he was invited as a key speaker, Vilakasi said that with tourism, infrastructure investments and gambling as the major sectors in Macau, both would benefit from a co-operation.
In the Great Depression, as in the current economic crisis, the downturn was particularly severe because of a lack of leadership in the international order. The dominant financial power of the 19th century, Britain, was financially exhausted by the First World War. The new major creditor, the United States, had emerged as a strong economic player, but did not yet have leadership committed to the maintenance of an open international economic order. The simple diagnosis was that Britain was unable to lead, and the United States unwilling.
In China’s long history, its leaders have managed other rises in power and preeminence, but the current rise confronts them with a different set of challenges on a global scale. This two-part series reflects on how China handles its rise and responds to other global powers. In the first article of the series, leading historian of China’s foreign relations, Wang Gungwu, details the considerations for Chinese leadership as the country moves beyond a global role largely limited to trade, exports and economics.
The main militant group in Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta region has scoffed at an amnesty offer announced on Thursday by President Umaru Yar'Adua, describing it as "unrealistic". "Such an offer by a government known for its insincerity must first be given to those who are being held captive by the Nigerian state for the rest of us to take seriously," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement e-mailed to journalists, in an apparent reference to its leader, Henry Okah, who is being tried for treason by the government.
The police fired several canisters of tear gas to disperse opposition protesters in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, late on Thursday. The demonstration was held in response to the call by the National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD), which is opposed to the 6 August 2008 military coup, on Mauritanians to resist the coup.
Former Guinean Minister Lansana Kouyate has said his country cannot 'technically' hold elections this year to return the country to democratic rule. Instead, Kouyate, leader of the newly-formed Party for Hope and National Development (PEDN), told journalists here Thursday that a national forum of key stakeholders should be convened to decide on the date for elections in the West African nation, where a military government took power in the wake of the death, on 23 Dec. 2008, of long-serving President Lansana Conte.
A regional conference on security on the Sahelo-Saharan strip running from Mauritania to Darfur, in Sudan, will be organised in Bamako in the coming weeks, President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali announced here. Toure said the decision followed the endorsement of the proceedings of consultations between experts from two countries in the region, Algeria and Libya, by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Sahelo-Saharan countries.
The International Organisation for the Francophonie (OIF) has suspended Madagascar, describing as unconstitutional the process through which the current leader, Andry Rajoelina, assumed office.In a resolution adopted at the close of its standing committee meeting here on Thursday, OIF said the suspension would affect the overall multi-lateral cooperation between it and Madagascar, except humanitarian programmes.
The Rwandan Foreign minister, Ms. Rosemary Museminaly, said here Thursday that some legal technicalities were still stalling the extradition, to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), of rebel leader Laurent Nkund a batware, who was arrested in Rwanda in January. Museminaly, who was speaking as a guest of the European parliament, said, however, that the question of extradition had already been agreed upon in principle by the authorities concerned.
The most powerful opposition group in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, has debunked fears that it will sit out a planned national opposition boycott and demonstration on 6 April, when it announced on Thursday that all Egyptians should join in the Monday activities. The move came after the 6 April Movement entertained fears that the powerful Islamic group would not participate in the strike.
ECOWAS ministers responsible for women and children will meet in Accra, Ghana, on Fridayto adopt the regional policy for the rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking in West Africa. In a statement issued in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital city, Thursday, and received by PANA here, ECOWAS said the policy seeks to establish and maintain a supportive and friendly environment where the victims, including those subjected to exploitative and hazardous child labour, enjoy equitable access to assistance in the region to enable them become functional members of the society.
Gweru based freelance journalist Kudzai Musengi was on 31 March 2009 allegedly abducted by three unknown men who bundled him into their car and blindfolded him before speeding off to a bushy area where he was subjected to intense interrogations. According to MISA-Zimbabwe, Musengi who was eventually released around 7pm on 1 April 2009, was interrogated about his alleged involvement with reports that were being beamed by Voice of America’s Studio 7 on farm invasions. Musengi denied having any links with Studio 7.
South Africa's president Kgalema Motlanthe, current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, has been mandated to present a request for an eight-billion US dollar lifeline for Zimbabwe at the G20 summit in London on April 2. He will also have the unenviable task of pleading with the leaders of the world's richest countries to lift travel and visa restrictions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and more than 200 of his party leaders, government officials and loyalists.
On April 27, 2009 relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other MOSOP members will bring Shell to trial in New York for the company’s complicity in the death of the Ogoni 9. Join us at this benefit for Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN) to support JINN while socializing and learning about the Ogoni and the upcoming trial.
On March 4th, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan. In retaliation, 13 NGO’s were banished from the country the day after, a number that rose to 16 within the week. As a result, a handful of projects have halted operations: those offering drinkable water supply, food distribution, health care and teaching systems among others.
Opponents to the Haute Autorite de la Transition (High Authority for the Transition) have been holding daily demonstrations in the Malagasy capital since March 21, 2009. Last Saturday's protest was harshly repressed by the security forces, and resulted in at least 34 injured people, including children.
South African prosecutors say they will announce on Monday whether they will drop corruption charges against African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. South Africa media has been full of speculation that the charges will be dropped but a prosecution spokesman said the decision could go either way.
In an attempt to confront the current economic crisis by encouraging pro-poor investment in housing, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Thursday signed six agreements with project partners from Argentina, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda with the aim of providing funds for affordable housing and infrastructure.
Sudan will hold general elections in 2010 - a year later than expected - the electoral commission has announced. The deputy chairman of the commission, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, said the electoral process would begin next month and finish in February next year. Under the 2005 peace deal to end years of war in the south, the elections were supposed to be held this year.
Guinea's military authorities have released three former ministers after they agreed to repay money they are accused of embezzling. The three, who include former Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare, were arrested last week. They have already repaid the first instalments of the money. However, another ex mines minister was "unco-operative" and remains in custody.
A ban on civil servants in Botswana wearing tight or revealing clothes to work is "sexist", a women's group says. The new directive said they could be disciplined for turning up in tight skirts or trousers, sleeveless tops, or clothes that showed cleavages or backs. The BBC's Letlhogile Lucas says women are particularly angered by a ban on headscarves and elaborate hairstyles.
Guinea-Bissau's former Prime Minister Francisco Jose Fadul is recovering in hospital after being beaten by people dressed as soldiers. Mr Fadul said 15 armed men in uniform had raided his house, assaulting him and his wife and stealing computers, phones and even their wedding rings. The beating came after he had urged the government to hold the military to account for alleged corruption.
The main objective of the G20 meeting was to save global capitalism. The emphasis on more regulations, the attacks on tax havens, the reference to the “moralization of capitalism” all converge toward the same objective: restore trust in global capitalism and some of the legitimacy it has lost in the eyes of the general public.
One of the most remarkable decisions of the G20 is to triple the IMF sources in order to increase its lending capacity to “poor” and middle-income countries. If this decision may save the institution from financial bankruptcy, it cannot, however, save it from moral and intellectual bankruptcy. In fact, the world financial crisis is a further illustration of the abject failure of the policies advocated by this institution along with the World Bank and the WTO. .
So tripling the IMF sources is not good news for Africa because it will only give the institution more power to continue imposing the same failed and ruinous policies. It is a new debt cycle that will start with the loans the IMF will be making with these resources. For Africa, the IMF is part of the problem, not of the solution. Therefore, any move aimed at strengthening it is not in the interest of Africa.
As expected, the G20 has failed to rise to the challenge of proposing structural changes in the world monetary, financial and trading system. In some respects, the Stiglitz Commission has made bolder and more interesting proposals to respond to the crisis. However, those proposals remain somehow within the confines of global capitalism.
But the genuine solutions to the current multiple world crises lie in the shift in paradigm. This is one of the messages sent by the tens of thousands of protesters who jammed the streets in London for two straight days. They not only denounced the horrors and crimes of global capitalism but also stressed the need to move toward alternative policies which would put people at their center, not profit and greed.
Some 250,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been displaced following an operation to flush out Hutu rebels, aid agency Oxfam has said. The joint operation against the rebels earlier this year was hailed as a great success by both Rwanda and DR Congo.
From the early eighties, when African students could still study for free at the Beida University in Beijing, discrimination against Africans in China was reported in the international media. Since then, the story has been regularly repeated. Just before the Beijing Olympics, racism was front page news again. In the bars of Sanlitun, the downtown area for foreigners, they were systematically denied entrance, just as in the discos of the capital.
Imagine you live in a cramped shack too small for you and your family. You fear eviction by the authorities at any time. You face the threat of your home being demolished. This is a reality faced by hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa - every single day.
The anti-poverty charity War on Want today condemned Gordon Brown and other G20 leaders for throwing money at the global economic crisis rather than addressing its root causes. According to War on Want, the G20 has used the London summit to resurrect the failed policies and institutions of the free market era, in a deal which prioritises short-term action at the expense of fundamental reform.
Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in Kenya face abuse by corrupt and violent police and a rapidly growing humanitarian emergency in the world's largest refugee settlement, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Kenya should immediately rein in abusive police and grant new land for additional camps, while the United Nations and international donors should urgently respond to Somali refugees' basic needs.
“We need to redefine what it means to be a man, reinforce zero tolerance of gender-based violence, and make sexual and reproductive health services more relevant and user-friendly for men,” Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, told participants in a global symposium on gender equality.
The United Nations refugee agency has expressed its concern over the increasing trend by Kenyan authorities to forcibly Somali asylum seekers back to their war-torn nation. On 31 March, 31 asylum seekers – nine men, eight women and 14 children – traveling by bus to refugees camps in Dabaab, in north-eastern Kenya, were sent back to Somalia.
Intensified clashes in the Central African Republic have driven tens of thousands of civilians from their homes, the United Nations reported today, noting that the unrest could prolong the humanitarian crisis that has wracked the country for more than a decade. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the violence could also jeopardize progress towards power-sharing between the Government and rebel groups.
The hybrid United Nations-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur, known as UNAMID, received a boost today from the arrival of 100 personnel from the second Egyptian Infantry Battalion. Another 100 troops from the battalion are slated to arrive tomorrow in the strife-torn western flank of Sudan as a meeting of the Tripartite Committee – comprising the Government of Sudan, the AU and the UN – is scheduled to take place for the first time in Darfur.
Ten staff including James Maridadi, the spokesperson of the Zimbabwe Prime Minister, have not been paid for over two months. The Public Service Commission has refused to confirm their appointment. heir details were submitted two months ago to the Commission headed by ZANU PF's Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwa to be on government payroll but no action has since been taken.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has warned Kenyan leaders that he will act expeditiously and relentlessly against the suspects of the post election violence that rocked Kenya last year. In a terse statement, the ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo said through his adviser Beatrice le Fraper du Hellen that he and his team are ready to step in once called to do so. He added that when the Kenyan parliament fails to set up a special tribunal to try those behind the violence the ICC would react.
The Nigerian government has given a final term to end the lingering civil and criminal charges against Pfizer. A lawyer representing the government of that country in the 1996 suit against the drug maker said it will head to court this April if Pfizer fails to comply with the settlement agreement.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa dismissed as "false" a South African TV documentary which exposed the appalling prison conditions in Zimbabwe. The documentary showed emaciated bodies of prisoners dying from hunger and disease. RadioVOP quoted the Justice Minister accusing the SABC of fabricating the story and claiming the pictures were taken in other jails in Africa, not in Zimbabwe.
South Africa’s antiretroviral programme is short of R1-billion this year alone, yet the ANC wants to introduce a “wholly unrealistic” National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme within five years. So said SA National AIDS Council deputy chairperson Mark Heywood at the 4th South African AIDS conference.
Over 40 percent of men who have sex with men were HIV positive, suggesting a “hidden epidemic” among this group. This is according to results from a survey of 266 men in Johannesburg and Durban, the vast majority of whom were black, under the age of 25 and identified as gay rather than bisexual.
The ANC is planning a post-election apology to the nation for former president Thabo Mbeki’s disastrous HIV-Aids policy, which has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of infected people, according to a report in The Times. “We owe it to the nation. We, as MPs, were there and we failed to rise up,” said an ANC MP.
Four repentant leaders of Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) issued a fresh appeal to Islamist militants to surrender under the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. The statement joins a series of appeals coming to light in the run up to the April 9th presidential elections.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, visited Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana this month. He met with Bushmen who are living inside the reserve without access to water. Professor Anaya visited several Bushman communities in Botswana, including the resettlement camps Kaudwane and New Xade, where the government dumped several thousand Bushmen after forcibly evicting them from their homes inside the reserve. He also visited two Bushman communities inside the reserve, Gugamma and Metsiamenong.
Judges and gynaecologists in Benin have undergone training on the interpretation of forensic evidence in cases of violence against women, as well as in investigative procedures when dealing with rape cases. The training took place in Cotonou, the country’s economic capital, at an international conference held Mar. 16 to 19 as part of the Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative, a U.S. government-funded programme to strengthen awareness of gender-based violence and prosecution of perpetrators in four African countries.
Throughout Mali, the use of mobile phones, the services offered by telecentres established in different parts of the country – thanks to agreements between local organisations, companies and cooperation agencies – and convergence with local radio stations, are opening doors that were unimaginable just a few years ago for people cut off from the flow of information and communications.
Can Facebook and YouTube help the poor tackle their pressing problems? Or is this promise just hype? One is faced with tough questions: Can “Web 2.0 tools” directly influence the poor themselves? Can those interested in poverty work do better to start with the “situation” rather than the “technology”? Or should one think big and dream of a network of networks encompassing a billion children and their teachers, families and friends — nearly all of the poor people in the world, and most of the rich?
All but one of Zimbabwe's ministers from the former opposition has accepted an official Mercedes Benz. When they were in opposition MDC politicians condemned the profligacy of Mr Mugabe’s Mercedes Benz-mobilised Zanu PF party. Last September, when the agreement to form a power-sharing Government was signed, senior MDC figures made an informal decision never to accept an official Mercedes.
About 100 journalists, human rights activists and media personnel gathered in Cairo this week to mark the "100 Anniversary of Press Freedom Demonstrations in Egypt 1909", an event organised by IFEX members in Egypt the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). It was held in cooperation with the Arab Affairs Committee of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate (EJS).
On 31 March 2009, reporter Nanankoua Gnamantéh and managing editor Eddy Péhé of pro-opposition weekly "Le Répère" were convicted of "insulting" Ivorian President Laurent Gbabgo and ordered to pay fines of 20 million FCFA (approx. US$ 40,000).
Hodan* spends most of her afternoons sitting outside her tiny house in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, blowing fruity smoke from a hookah pipe, her face covered in a green paste to help her skin look its best. She does not trawl the streets looking for customers; most of her clients make appointments to visit her at home. In this conservative Muslim country, commercial sex work is practised out of sight. Hodan says not even her neighbours know how she makes a living and if they ever found out, she is sure they would evict her immediately.
On March 9th, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food presented the conclusions from his mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the Human Right Council. In its March 20th resolution on the right to food, the Council encourages the Special Rapporteur to continue to engage with the World Trade Organization to follow up on the issues of concern identified in his report.
The peace and security council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has proclaimed that the process leading to the assumption of power by opposition leader Andry Rajoelina in Madagascar was unconstitutional and therefore has decided to suspended Madagascar’s membership from the organisation. Other African leaders, including the president of South Africa and current chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Kgalema Motlanthe, also condemned the ousting of President Ravalomanana as the product of unconstitutional action against democratic institutions. Prior to Ravalomanana’s resignation, the PSC had urged all Malagasy parties to uphold the spirit of dialogue and compromise in order to find a peaceful and consensual solution to the crisis and to carefully follow the provisions of the constitution of Madagascar on interim arrangements in the event of resignation. In a communiqué that the PSC issued on Madagascar, it reiterated that ‘the transfer of power was made in violation of the relevant provisions of the Malagasy Constitution and that the subsequent decisions to confer the office of the President of the Republic to Mr Andry Rajoelina constitute an unconstitutional change of government’.
The Libyan leader and chairman of the AU, Mouammar Kadhafi, met with officials of the AU Commission to discuss on a range of issues including the peace and security in Africa, the monitoring and implementation of decisions made at the 12th AU summit and the preparations for the next AU summit among others. Meanwhile, Mauritius has expressed its interest to host the 13th AU summit that was due to be held in Madagascar in July citing the need for the summit to be held in a country of the Indian Ocean region.
SADC leaders, who brokered the power-sharing agreement between Zimbabwean President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai, pledged to mobilise economic support for Zimbabwe to the tune of $8.3 billion from international donors at their recent summit. Further, African trade ministers are meeting to discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on African economies, increasing food prices, climate change and global trade. They are also ‘expected to reflect on how to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha round of negotiation and the EPA negotiations can be successfully concluded’. Meanwhile, India is seeking to strike comprehensive economic cooperation agreements with the Common Market of Southern Africa and the East African Community (EAC). Also in development news, the self-evaluation report published by the African Peer Review Mechanism forum warned that Mozambique’s development model is creating a wide moat separating the rich from the poor, which could lead to social convulsions in the medium term.
Civil society organisations gathered in Tanzania to talk about their increased participation in discussions on the integration process of the EAC, a contribution that would go a long way in deepening the democratic foundations of the bloc. Meanwhile the EAC deputy secretary general Julius Rotich, stressing the importance of the civil society in the affairs of the region, used the gathering to urge non-state actors to actively take part in the organisation. Participants in the sixth African Development Forum aimed at reviewing progress made towards achieving gender equality in Africa put their leaders to task over their failure to implement international declarations made to end violence against women. Also in regards to civil society, the Forum for the Participation of non governmental organisations in the ordinary sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights will take place in Gambia from the 13th to the 27th of May, 2009, to deliberate on the human rights situation in Africa.
Members of the Pan African Parliament, who feel that they are ready to be vested with some authority, are blaming the AU for slowing down the process of transforming the continental body into fully legislative organ rather than the current advisory role it enjoys. Also in regards to continental integration, Azubuike Ishiekwene analyses the difficulties that the United States of Africa agenda will face as African leaders continue to struggle to put their houses in order.
Commenting on the G20 (The Group of Twenty), Jacques Depelchin asks why, when Africans have suffered so much under the ’most predatory system ever invented by humans’, African leaders are helping to prop up that system, rather than encouraging new ways of doing things.
Pambazuka News 357: China, the West and Africa
Pambazuka News 357: China, the West and Africa
These following notes, written by Daniel Volman, are based on the Conference on “Transforming National Security: Africom—An Emerging Command” Organized which was organized by the Center for Technology and National Security Policy of the National Defense University in Virginia from 19-20 February 2008.
Although the conference was open to the public, it was immediately clear that it was very much an “in group” affair explicitly held to bring together people from all the different agencies and African governments that will have to coordinate their activities to make Africom work. Thus, the conference itself was part of the process of organizing Africom. Technically, the conference was held under the NDU rules of “non-attribution,” i.e. participants can quote statements made at the conference, but are not supposed to identify speakers. I’ve complied with the rule in this memo, but just let me know if you want to know who said what.
About half of the audience of approximately 300 people (they said that this was the largest meeting devoted to Africom that has been held so far) were from the U.S. military services, mostly from the various agencies and departments that have been working through Eucom up until now and will now have to begin working with the new Africom HQ staff in Stuttgart. Most of the ones that I talked to were actually from Defense Intelligence staff, i.e. the people who decide to do with the intelligence information collected by the DIA and other agencies.
Then there were a substantial number of people from other departments, not just DoS and AID, but also Agriculture, Commerce, Judiciary, and others, since they all have programs in Africa that they will have to coordinate with Africom. And finally, there were a number of people from African embassies and governments, including both political and military personnel.
The conference was part of the ongoing effort of the Pentagon to actually get Africom going and to bring other countries into the structure, including by bringing their personnel into the Africom structure. I know that they organized a parallel conference in London, at the Royal United Services Institute, on 18-19 February to bring the Brits in, and I assume that they have/will do the same kind of thing to bring in the French and other European countries.
The conference was very much a nuts-and-bolts discussion of all the practical matters of making Africom work.
The first interesting thing was the discussion of how they define Africom’s mission. The presentation on this were based on internal DoD presentations, so they were much more honest and revealing than the kind of thing that comes from the public pronouncements. The presentation specifically cited the challenge of preventing disruptions in African oil production and exports as one of Africom’s six chief missions, along with meeting the challenge of China, controlling ungoverned regions and transnational extremism, dealing with instability in the Horn of Africa, dealing with instability in the Great Lakes region, and dealing with the situation in Chad/Sudan.
When one of the African representatives asked about China, they backtracked and said that Africom doesn’t see itself as a response to China and will seek to cooperate with China in the future. Africom is scheduled to produce a posture statement outlining its mission and intentions in March 2008.
A couple of other interesting points they made was to say that they saw the Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (the people who are spearheading U.S. involvement in Somalia and Ethiopia) as a model for what Africom could do in the rest of the continent. They admitted that they had made no attempt to consult with anyone at the UN while they were developing Africom and hadn’t really consulted with anyone in Africa either.
It was clear from their statements that they were very surprised and unhappy about the public response from Africans to Africom and that this was the reason that they were going to have to keep the Africom HQ in Stuttgart for the time being, although they will continue to look for African hosts and will also work on ways to station Africom staff people in less obvious and provocative ways like sending small groups to liaison with selected African military forces. They want to believe that this is just a problem of public relations and that they just have to do a better job of explaining themselves. One of the new buzzwords in Africom is “active listening,” i.e. pretending to care what other people think.
Finally, on a purely practical matter, there was considerable discussion about just how much trouble they are having finding adequate personnel and developing the kind of linkages and working relations with the agencies they will have to depend upon to actually do anything. This is all taking them a great deal of time and it’s clear that they will not really be ready when they become operational on 1 October. They’re worried that the difficult process of organizing Africom may actually disrupt U.S. military activities in Africa because the transition process itself will confuse everything.
* Daniel Volman is the director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, and the author of numerous articles on US security policy and African security issues.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Langaa Publishers. Bamenda, Cameroon. 2008. [ISBN: 9789956558124, 360 pages, Price: £14.95]
The prolific Cameroonian writer and academic Francis Nyamnjoh continues to delight his readers with the publication of his latest novel Souls Forgotten. Souls Forgotten is a bitter indictment of the political and social situation of many African countries. The novel is set in the fictional land of ‘Mimboland’, a linguistically divided nation presided over by none other than President Longstay and suffering from endemic corruption, failing public services and wild nepotism whose similarities with the author’s native Cameroon are hard to miss.
The novel follows the path of Emmanuel, the apple of his villager parents’ eye whose hopes of social progression and riches are pinned on his academic achievements. Indeed as Nyamnjoh insightfully observes Emmanuel has the expectations of his entire home village resting on him as ‘one person’s child is only in the womb… from birth the child belongs to the entire community, to tend and harness for the good of all and sundry’. Emmanuel is thus emblematic of the many African youths who head to Yaounde, Dakar, Nairobi and other African capitals in search of fame and fortune to bring to themselves and their home village as the relentless pace of urbanisation continues across the continent.
The author effectively captures the frustration and desperation that many young Africans face when they arrive in the supposed ‘cities of gold’ and have to face the ‘guillotine’ of exam results. These results, which determine the have and have-nots, are not determined by academic ability but rather by the insecurity of the lecturers who see these youths as potential rivals. Like the lives of these many youths Emmanuel’s path in life does not go smoothly as his transformation from optimistic youth to desolate dropout unfolds in front of us. Ironically it is in his journey back to the village he was so desperate to escape that Emmanuel finally comes of age finally demonstrating the strength of character and integrity that the city often sucks away.
Competition is rife among the young and old as they strive to attain their share of the national ‘cake’. However, Emmanuel is not alone. Indeed it is the devotion and integrity of his girlfriend Patience, which provides one of the most touching images of the novel. Indeed Nyamnjoh’s characterisation is one of his strengths as his eloquent prose consistently forces the reader to reshape their opinions and prejudices throughout the course of the novel with the transformation of the apparently feckless Emmanuel into an unlikely hero.
Parallel to Emmanuel’s urban adventures runs the tale of his home village of Abehema where black magic, power struggles and greed prove to be a lethal combination. Emmanuel’s decision to return to his village after prophetic dreams links the two narratives and leads us to the inaccessible inner regions, where governmental indifference and ruthless exploitation lead to unimaginable devastation.
Nyamnjoh’s complex and rich interweaving of narratives is a further strength of the novel. He plays on African legend and traditional beliefs, often digressing into anecdotes and the supernatural, thus ensuring that the reader remains fully engrossed. Although the subject matter may seem depressing Nyamnjoh, as always, manages to inject the narrative with his humorous, satirical style. The author is a true analyst of African society never failing to use his literature to criticize and chastise the ruling classes in both Africa and abroad.
This is a complex novel which avoids the usual clichés about Africa. Through the juxtaposition of peaceful pastorality and cold urbanity Nyamnjoh offers an insightful study of the conflicting demands of tradition and modernity forced on many Africans, particularly the young. The question of tradition and modernity and achieving a balance between the two touches upon a central issue in modern day Africa. However, Nyamnjoh does not merely pose questions but gives answers as to how we can best continue ‘the battle for change’ which, long and tiresome though it may be, demands a constant struggle. He is far from resigned to the depressing situation depicted in Souls Forgotten instead this novel is a testimony to the strength of solidarity. Ironically this message is delivered by Chief Ngain, the greedy and ruthless leader of Abehama, who brings the wrath of the ancestors onto his village, just as President Longstay’s prolonged insensitivity to the will of the people has brought untold suffering to the land of Mimbo. He tells the local chiefs, ‘if after my death you decide each to go his own way, you shall all perish as the pieces of wood you’ve just crushed…‘If you stay united, you shall be as firm as the bundle you couldn’t break.’ It is this ‘power of togetherness’ that lingers with the reader particularly through the close bonds between Patience and Emmanuel. In fact this is exactly the message the author leaves us with: that where institutions and the ruling classes fail it is up to Africans themselves – together - to take hold of their own destiny.
*Alice Macdonald is a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The following is only a short exerpt of Souls Forgotten. The extend article can be found at the link below.
Four years have gone by since disaster struck the villages of Abehema, Tchang and Yenseh, killing over 2000 peasants and tens of thousands of livestock. Life has not returned to normal for most of the survivors now scattered all over Chuma Division and beyond, but they all seem resigned to their abnormal way of life. They are resigned to being ignored when they complain of heartburn, eye lesions, nerve problems, dying muscles, and paralysis. They have waited long for resettlement, rehabilitation or return from living and partly living, but they have waited in vain.
Four years ago when disaster struck, their fellow Mimbolanders came to their rescue, and so did the outside world. Then, although charred and burnt and roasted, even the most desperate of them found reason and determination to keep hope alive, which they did exceptionally well. This hope started fading only weeks after the immediate flare and universal gestures of solidarity and concern had died down.
The bulk of the victims were temporarily accommodated in camps and tents in Abeghabegh, Kakakum River, Pukafong and Hepalem, while men of science competed with one another to divine the causes of the disaster, ignoring whatever diviner-healers like Wabuah had had to say on the matter. They were determined to force feed Mimbolanders with their conviction that they knew best, and that only their ‘scientific’ opinion would have to count at the end of the day. To them, Wabuah and his likes were simply much too superstitious and illiterate to have anything to contribute. How could they be so insensitive as to deprive Science of the opportunity to be baffled by the fact that it was not in the nature of lakes to simply rise up and wipe out thousands of people and tens of thousands of livestock?
That was four years ago. Today they are still waiting, waiting with fading hope for the scientists’ famous master verdict. The diviner-healers pronounced theirs a long time ago, but no one in high office would listen to them, being schooled in science as modern politicians and civil servants all pretended they were. Waiting for the scientists seems like waiting for eternity. Three years ago, international experts in matters of gases, lakes and volcanoes met, deliberated and separated without agreeing on the causes. Wabuah and his fellow diviner-healers did not meet the criteria for invitation to participate in the conference, which was held under their very noses. The government of enlightened politicians and bureaucrats has repeatedly rejected the verdict of the diviner-healers for being “primitive and superstitious, and for taking Mimboland back to the dark ages prior to colonisation,” but their hopes for “more scientific explanations” are yet to be fulfilled by the high priests of modern science.
For Koulsy Lamko, France is at the center of war in Chad. He argues that France's central presence in Chad is only facilitating the continued fleecing of resources by a corrupt Idriss Derby government. The rebel leader, he concludes is only vying for a slice of the national cake
It would take a very wise man to understand and untangle the mess that is France foreign policy towards Chad. Regular observers would not be surprised by the erratic nature of the relationship over the decades; but the latest event in Ndjamena clearly demonstrate the inconsistent nature of a cynicism.
France coming to the aid of Idriss Deby, her protégé is simply history repeating itself. Over the last two decades, France has propped up a corrupt clannish regime that has shown its inability to improve the lives of its citizens. This is a regime that has ruled through terror, electoral fraud, manipulation of the elite and the politicized classes, intimidation of civil society, widespread corruption, and the diversion of public funds to military expenditure, among other things. That France should continue to prevaricate and gloss over these problems while continuing to trample over the fresh corpses of innocent Chadians is indeed lamentable.
Over the last three decades France has carried out a policy of propping up warlords and pillagers. By giving unconditional support to these mediocre and illiterate soldiers and predators governed by clan interest, she has consolidated the notion that power is only achieved through the barrel of a gun, while at the same time destroying any future hope for true independence.
For Chadians interested in peace, Idriss Deby and rebel leaders Timran Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri are birds of a feather – Members of the same family fighting for a slice of the same cake: political power and control of petroleum, which remains the country's only source of revenue following the destruction of industry and the food-processing sector! Politicians lacking in nationalist vision or ideals, devoid of direction and upon whom countless political and economic indictments can be heaped!
The fact that one could cling to power to the point of barricading himself right in the midst of hapless citizens held hostage in the conflict, while his assailants only war cry is that they “ want a power-sharing deal” reveals the ignoble intentions of all involved.
While one side cosies up to Franco-Africa, the other side lets itself get sucked by Sudan into the Darfur crisis, plunging the people of Chad in even deeper misery. Chad 's long suffering is evident when one traverses its deserted towns and villages. The Zoe's Arch incident is proof of this; what parent, however poor and desperate, would agree to hand over his or her child to a stranger? Here, illiterate warlords extract tribute and rule over oppressed populations, exercising limitless power. The media is spectacular in its mediocrity, and the few independent press who dare to speak up suffer the wrath of Deby's autocratic rule.
The French army has for along time monitored troop movements across the country. This time, admittedly, they were caught unaware by the advancing rebels whom the French media had previously given ample coverage. The official statements that followed; “France is Neutral”, then “France is not entirely neutral”, and finally “France will support the legitimate government of Chad, and take on its responsibilities” clearly demonstrate the cold-blooded duplicity that has characterised its involvement with Chad over the years. As the rebels advanced, it seemed as if victory was theirs for the taking. And they were quick to point out very loudly that France's interests would be “safeguarded, if not better protected”. Then just as suddenly, a counter -offensive is executed and the rebels are defeated. One wonders what could have weighed so heavily in Deby's favour: negotiations on the exploitation of oil resources in the Middle Chari region? The die is cast!
The fact that hundreds of Chadians died, thousands were injured and tens of thousands displaced is of little concern to the French government and its Special forces. Strategic geographical concerns, control of oil and other mineral resources and the maintenance of a “civilizing influence” are stakes too enormous for “La Metropole” to concede. In Franco-Africa, there is no price to high to pay, even if it comes at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. The Rwanda genocide speaks volumes on this count.
If Sarkozy was cynical enough to demand the release of the Zoe's Arch six while Chad was mourning her dead, he should have demanded the release of opposition leaders whose only crime was to dream of a new political dispensation based on constitutionalism, in the midst of military occupation and neo-colonialism aggravated by rapacious clanism. What is France doing in Chad? One would be hard put to come up with an answer! Defence Minister Hervé Morin's pussyfooting and grinning in N'djamena speaks volumes.
It would indeed be tragic if the divvying up of resources between partners and relatives was the sole cause for a putsch. These complicit politicians are still in some way players in Chad's democratization process. It is imperative that France stops its meddling. It must allow for a national dialogue to take place, for recent events to be laid bare and for a truth and reconciliation process to begin, so that the people of Chad can freely choose their leaders.
Translated by Joshua Ogada.
* Koulsy Lamko is currently Director of the University Centre for Arts and Drama in Butare and teaches Creative Writing and the Performing Arts at the National University of Rwanda.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
Venue: The Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya Dates: 2nd June - 5th June 2008
Sexual violence is a profound human rights violation and public health problem. Patriarchy, anti-woman attitudes and rape myths fuel this epidemic and the way in which survivors are treated by the health, justice and police services. Criminal justice and heath systems globally often are unable or unwilling to effectively respond to the legal and emotional needs of survivors.
A review commissioned by Sexual Violence Research Initiative on the uses and impacts of medico-legal evidence in cases of sexual assault of adolescents and adults found that survivors of sexual violence frequently choose not to report their assaults or are filtered out of criminal justice systems, resulting in low charge filing and conviction rates.
Download this review online at:
* All communication and online submission of required documentation should be done through Jessica Kizungu: [email][email protected]