Pambazuka News 318: Blue-hatting Darfur
Pambazuka News 318: Blue-hatting Darfur
Providing risk reduction services to female sex workers leads to sustained changes in behaviour, even after the level of that service is substantially reduced, according to follow-up data from a Kenyan trial published in the August 15th edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
SADC leaders have deferred the signing of the Protocol on Gender and Development because some member states need more time to conclude internal consultations following late changes to the document. A communiqué presented at the end of the 27th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in Lusaka on 17 August 2007 read, "...Summit noted progress on the negotiations of the protocol on gender and development and agreed to defer its signature to allow some member states to conclude their internal consultations".
Predicting what the ballot boxes may yield at the closing of the September 7th elections is near impossible. Opinions vary, and citizens are split between optimists with a bright outlook on the country’s future and pessimists who refuse to engage in politics at all. One Democratic Social Movement candidate said it is truly difficult to know the coming political map in any way. "The method of voting, the abundance of political parties and the multiplicity of election symbols, in addition to the similarity between the platforms of some parties … make it difficult to predict any result."
For the sixth consecutive year, Dignity is proud to invite applications to the Annual Global Linking and Learning Programme to be held from 30 November to 11 December 2007. This programme will build on the successes of the previous learning programmes on “Human Rights in Development”, and on “Economic Social and Cultural Rights” organised by Dignity International with a range of national, regional and international partners including the International Human Rights Internship Program and the International Network on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning, Forum Asia, Hakijamii Trust, Kenya, and Tanzania Council on Social Development.
The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday it feared that a lack of funding could bring a halt to confidence-building measures connecting Sahrawi refugees in Algeria and their relatives in the Western Sahara Territory. In January, UNHCR appealed for nearly US$3.5 million to continue the family visits and telephone services initiated in 2004 between refugees in western Algeria's Tindouf camps and their kinfolk across the border.
Twenty-one Botswana Bushmen arrested in June and July for hunting to feed their families are celebrating after all charges against them were dropped. They appeared yesterday before a magistrate in Gantsi. After an attorney had presented arguments on their behalf, the police withdrew all charges. However, six Bushmen arrested last week, also for hunting, are still waiting for their case to be heard.
Activists have launched a bid to shame some of the world's largest mutual fund companies into dumping Chinese oil majors they accuse of complicity in what the U.S. government calls genocide in western Sudan's Darfur region. "The American people do not want to invest in genocide," Zahara Heckscher, divestment campaign manager at the Save Darfur Coalition, said Wednesday as coalition members said they would target five investment firms with a mix of negative advertising, protest, and investor pressure.
People are again fleeing from their homes in North Kivu as tension and terror return to the border province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Petronilla Nsiya watched in horror early last week when armed men entered her village, Sake, frogmarched her neighbour from his hut, tied him to a tree and then butchered him. The man's wife was shot in the stomach.
This article argues that the understanding of how public policies have different effects on men and women has improved in recent years and is influencing macroeconomic policymaking. Reducing gender disparities can lead to improved macroeconomic performance. The recognition that gender disparities are harmful and that government budgets are not gender neutral implies a need to incorporate gender considerations into the budgeting process.
This paper explores the causal linkages between corruption and civil wars. It discusses the impact of corruption on the probability of violent conflict events and traces the shifts in the composition of corrupt transactions during and in the aftermath of violent conflicts. The author brings the two strands of empirical research of corruption and civil wars together and argues that anomalies arise that would have been difficult to detect within each field in isolation.
Bernard Nzimbi, head of the Anglican Church in Kenya, entrenched his anti-gay position by consecrating Anglican clerics Bill Atwood and Bill Murdoch as bishops last Thursday in Kenya. Atwood and Murdoch, from the United States, oppose gay unions, which have been authorized by certain Anglican dioceses in North America.
Nzimbi insisted in an interview with news agencies that the consecration would not widen the rift between the Anglican Church in North America and African Anglicans who oppose gay unions. “Since the talk about gay marriage started, many congregations in America have been looking for oversight from overseas,” he said.
Independent Newspapers in Cape Town has launched a monthly niche publication aimed at Cape Town's gay and lesbian readership this week called The Pink Tongue. With a print run of 15 000 it would be distributed to selected vendors throughout the city and aimed to give gay and lesbian readers a "non-trashy" read, Sandy Naude, advertising and marketing director for Independent Newspapers in Cape Town, told Sapa.
The FOI Bill of 2007 is an Act of Parliament to enable the public to access to information in the possession of the Government and public authorities, to establish systems and processes to promote proactive publication and dissemination of information; and for connected purposes. This petition asks the Kenya National Assembly to pass the FOI Bill 2007. It will be tabled in the House pursuant to Standing Orders 163-167.
The United Nations appealed for emergency funds for Chad to feed thousands of refugees from regional violence as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived on Friday to pave the way for international peacekeepers. Most of the 380,000 civilians sheltering in eastern Chad fled civil war at home in Sudan's Darfur region, but 150,000 of them are local people forced from their homes as ethnic conflict has spilled over the border in a regional spiral of bloodshed.
The opposition frontrunner in Sierra Leone's presidential election pulled out of a peace rally to have been held with his ruling party rival on Thursday, citing fears of renewed violence before a weekend run-off vote. The opposition All People's Congress (APC), whose candidate Ernest Bai Koroma led in a first round poll, said the ruling Sierra Leone's People's Party (SLPP) was arming supporters and had denied it campaign access to a contested eastern district.
A cabinet committee will investigate the violent countrywide service protests and MPs lack of basic services might lead to social instability. Government spokesman Themba Maseko yesterday said the committee was probing the causes of the protests and would determine what steps needed to be taken to resolve the issue. The announcement came amid reports that at least 11 protesters in Soweto had been arrested for burning down the home of a councillor this week.
To benefit from genetic resources, developing countries need to improve their governance, a meeting in Beijing was told this week. Developing countries are losing out because their laws do not specify which resources should be paid for and how, said Gurdial Singh Nijar, a law professor at the University of Malaya in Malaysia. He made his remarks at an international workshop on genetic resources and indigenous knowledge, supported by the UN Convention of Biological Diversity.
With global diversity increasingly at risk, a mechanism like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is required, argues Michel Loreau. Biodiversity has received increasing attention from scientists, governments and the public since the 'Earth Summit' at Rio de Janeiro and the establishment of the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992. There are local conservation successes to celebrate as a result, but global threats to biodiversity are still on the rise.
The populations of the rural areas where telecentres exist are not sensitised enough on the importance of such technology. The multipurpose community telecentres is an infrastructure which offers telecommunication services, computer science, audiovisual and Internet services from a terminal or terminals given to a community to enable them communicate at a cheaper rate. The telecentres are associated with proximity community services. However, the existence of the multipurpose community telecentres still remains a farce for many Cameroonians, argues Kelvin Chibomba.
A coalition of Botswana Civil society organisations that include the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana , the Ditshwanelo-Centre for Human Rights and the Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) have expressed disappointment following the refusal of the ruling party members of parliament to grant the opposition members a postponement of the discussion and voting on amendments to the Intelligence and Security Services Bill.
The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has been scolded on press freedom violations since he took over the kingdom from his father. At a news conference in Casablanca, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) Secretary General, Robert Ménard, told King Mohammed to understand that “one is free to comment.” he news conference was held to raise concern about the decline in press freedom in the run-up to the 7 September legislative elections. It was a follow up to a letter the RSF chief wrote to King Mohammed on 27 August.
In the early hours of February 29th 2004, democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife Mildred were forced to leave their home under escort of US military and summarily marched onto an unmarked plane whose destination they did not know and were not told.
An Unbroken Agony presents a detailed day by day and hour by hour account of the immediate events leading to the kidnapping and removal of President Aristide. Noted activist and one of the few truly progressive African American voices, Randall Robinson, sets down the facts of the Coup D’Etat, side by side with his own commentary. He provides the evidence that the US was actively involved while France was directly complicit in the Coup that ousted Aristide and saw him flown, along with his with wife to the Central African Republic. Once there, they were literally dumped off the plane and for all intense and purposes held prisoner.
Robinson begins with an historical overview of Haiti from “the most fateful of days” in 1492 when Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of the island he named Hispaniola but which the indigenous people called Ayiti to the only successful slave revolt in history which led to an independent nation in 1804. The struggle for emancipation by the Black Jacobins was led by Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines and denied France the most profitable slave economy in the world. Not only was Haiti the most profitable, it was also arguably the most cruel. For example slaves were slaughtered for the amusement of their French masters and on one occasion, men were bayoneted and then dogs were let loose to rip them to shreds and devour them.
The history of Haiti is often a tale of history repeating itself. In response to the creation of the “first free republic in the Americas” the US and Europe imposed a global embargo and France demanded that Haiti pay $21 billion (in today’s dollars) as compensation for loss of it’s slaves and territory. Thus right from the beginning the new country found itself in a debt which it has never recovered from. In 1915 the US occupied Haiti for 19 years and, despite independence, the wealth of the country was held in the hands of a tiny minority and remains so till today. Robinson spends a whole chapter discussing class and caste in Haiti from it’s historical roots to the present. A society that saw itself as almost “a race apart from the large majority of Haitian people”.
“In Haiti today color remains as insuperable a barrier to social progress as ever”. ….Not even the least controversial of President Aristide’s proposed social reforms were conceded by his lighter-skinned and more privileged fellow citizens. Not even his proposal to strike the word peasant as a category of citizenship from the national birth certificate for that all rural blacks bore.”
He continues with a quote from Langston Hughes:
“It was in Haiti that I first realised how class lines may cut across color lines within a race, and how dark people of the same nationality may scorn those below them”.
Robinson chronicles the rise to power of Aristide from his early days during the Duvalier years, as a young priest in La Saline, a poor neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince to the populist and much loved leader of the Lavalas family. He details the actions of the various rebel groups supported by the Haitian moneyed classes and businesses and trained and armed by the US.
“Over the course of 2003, the Bush administration broadened its assault on Haiti into a crippling, multipronged campaign. In addition to arming the Duvalierist insurgents and organising Haiti’s tiny, splintered political opposition, the administration moved apace to strangle Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, into a state of economic, social and political collapse.”
President and Mrs Aristide’s last 24 hours in Haiti are detailed hour by hour moving back and forth between their activities and the whereabouts and manoeuvring of the rebels 100km from Port-au-Prince. Robinson goes into great detail to show that neither President Aristide nor his wife changed their routine or cancelled scheduled appointments including an interview with US radio journalist Tavis Smiley. That they were under great pressure during that period is a fact but until the early hours of the morning of the 29th both insisted they were not leaving Haiti. He also shows that despite warnings from the US that Aristide was going to be shot and the rebels were on their way to Port-au-Prince, they were in fact in the area of Gonaives and not moving.
Robinson’s presentation of Aristide is almost saintly. He does not try to hide his unwavering support of Aristide and his Lavalas party. I’ve read criticisms that Robinson does not address Aristide’s governance and there is only one good guy here and that is Aristide. Whilst I agree he does not cover Aristide’s governance and that the book is partisan, I do not take that as a failing as some have said. Randall Robinson, Maxine Waters and Amy Goodman have time and time again proved their honesty and determination to see justice done. The US on the other hand has a record of lies, deceit, assassinations and attempted assassinations of leaders it does not like, support of rebels against governments it doesn’t like whether they are elected democratically or not. The US has a record of supporting undemocratic oligarchies, monarchies and dictatorships when it suits them.
Randall Robinson set out to write about the history, oppression and punishment of a nation of Black people who dared to resist White Supremacist hegemony and in this he succeeded. The purpose of the book is to chronicle the US government’s actions in the support and removal of a democratically elected President. One who was escorted in the dead of night on a US military plane by US military personnel and unceremoniously dumped in Central Africa. As Robinson points out, the irony was that his host/jailer in the Central African Republic was an unelected ruler who came to power via a coup but who was supported financially by the US and whose country was and remains under French ownership.
The book sets the record straight and acts as a counter balance to the wall of untruths and misinformation presented by the US, other Western governments and the media which continues to present the Bush government’s version of events without question.
* An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President” Basic Civitas Books, New York, 280 pages, USD $26.
* Randall Robinson: http://www.randallrobinson.com/
* Sokari Ekine is online news editor of Pambazuka News
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Fifty years after the Tonga people were forcibly removed from the Zambezi Valley to make way for the Kariba Dam between southern Zambia and northwestern Zimbabwe, the community is still trying to find its feet. Over the past decade a number of development programmes have been initiated to improve the Tonga people's lives, after their eviction by the former governments of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to make way for the hydroelectric power project that created Lake Kariba.
Peacekeepers are unlikely to arrive in Chad for at least three months, according to senior UN diplomats who spoke following a joint military mission to the country by representatives of the European Union and the UN. Meanwhile the World Food Programme (WFP) is launched a new appeal for funds to assist Darfur refugees in Chad and victims of inter-communal clashes in Chad.
Zamzam Abdinoor, a 16-year-old orphan, has already been married and widowed twice and is now a single mother of two. She was first married off to a militiaman in the port town of Kismayo. He was killed in one of Somalia's many factional confrontations just a year into the marriage. Her uncle then found another militiaman and she was soon married off again. The second husband also met with a violent death.
Car washer Githogori Maina remembers swimming in the "Indian Ocean" – the nickname of a once flowing part of the Nanyuki River in Kenya’s Laikipia district that now runs almost dry. "Back then, you could see the water. We also used to fish here," he said, pointing to a shallow part of the river. "Now you have to walk several kilometres to catch a single fish." The Nanyuki River has become shallow and full of stones. Sometimes, there is no flow downstream, and the remaining water is stagnant and dirty.
Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland has cracked down on people smugglers who have been using its ports as a springboard to get illegal migrants into the Gulf States, the head of police said. The crackdown is intended to stop the smuggling of Ethiopian and Somali migrants to countries like Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a phenomenon that peaks at this time of the year.
The problem of HIV in Kenya's prisons - where prevalence is about twice the national average - will remain unsolved as long as homosexuality is illegal, and prevention efforts remain out of reach, experts have warned. "We know homosexuality exists in the prisons, but our hands are tied because of the illegal nature of sodomy under our laws," says Mary Chepkong'a, head of the Kenya Prisons Service AIDS Control Unit.
In Uganda, the areas worst affected by the violence were close to the border with Sudan, far from the urban centres around which most camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) grew. It is the urban areas, such as Gulu in northern Uganda and Yei in southern Sudan, which have the highest HIV prevalence rates. Years of encampment and dependency on relief handouts have had a profound effect on the traditionally conservative Acholi.
South Africa's department of Water Affairs and Forestry is conducting a gender analysis audit, to assess the efficacy of their programmes specifically for women. The audit, which kicked off in July and will conclude at the end of September, will show the impact the department's projects have had on ordinary South African women. Speaking at a committee meeting on Women in Water and Forestry Wednesday, the department's Deputy Director-General Nobubele Ngele said this was an important piece of work that looks specifically at gender issues.
The World Bank Group committed a record $5.8 billion in International Development Association (IDA) resources to Sub-Saharan Africa in the last fiscal year, $1 billion more than in the previous year. In addition, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank Group’s private sector arm, provided $1.38 billion in financing for its own account and mobilized an additional $261 million in financing through syndications.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is establishing a second reception centre in Zimbabwe to provide a 'soft landing' for undocumented Zimbabwean migrants being deported from neighbouring countries. Last year 38,000 Zimbabweans were repatriated from Botswana to Zimbabwe. Earlier this year President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government requested the IOM to assist in setting up the country's second reception centre, in the Matabeleland town of Plumtree near the Botswana border, to assist undocumented migrants repatriated from Botswana.
A joint project by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Malawian government is helping small-scale farmers to expand into commercial food production. Initially, 50 "lead farmers" from around the country will receive training in business management skills and planning. "The project intends to equip farmers with knowledge that would enable them to take farming as business," said Mazlan Jusoh, the FAO's country representative in Malawi.
The high cost antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and inadequate control mechanisms in Zimbabwe are driving a flourishing trade in fake ARVs by unlicensed dealers, activists have warned. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) recently issued a statement warning the public that the dealers were importing and selling counterfeit ARVs to unsuspecting HIV-positive people who needed the life-prolonging medication.
Zimbabwe's failing economy and collapsing services have provided an environment ripe for graft, with the impoverished country's woes facilitating an ever-worsening slide towards corruption. Despite setting up a local graft-busting body in 2004, Zimbabwe appears to be losing the battle against corruption, with President Robert Mugabe's economic policies seen to promote corrupt behaviour, according to a leading watchdog.
Zimbabwe's police formally accused the country's main opposition leader on Thursday of "disorderly conduct" in connection with his recent tour of stores hurt by the government's controversial price freeze, his lawyer said. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the biggest faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was quizzed by police for nearly an hour in the capital, Harare, and then released from custody, one day after being instructed to appear.
At least 20 Burundi fighters were killed on Tuesday in heavy clashes between two rival rebel factions that sent scores of residents fleeing the capital's northern suburbs, witnesses said. Machine gunfire and explosions shattered the air as insurgents opposed to Agathon Rwasa, the leader of the rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL), battled fighters loyal to him.
A total of 109 primary and secondary schools have been selected as beneficiaries of the first phase of the 'Schools, University Access Programme to Digital Lifestyle' project of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) an initiative of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The projects to be completed in the next six months would include equipping the benefiting schools with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools.
Daniel Mashao, the chief technology officer at Sita (the South African State Information Technology Agency), has announced the launch of the government-wide free and open source programme at the GovTech conference. While many welcomed the February announcement of government's intention to adopt and promote open source software, the subsequent months saw disillusionment within the open source community that very little had actually happened.
Since its launch last year in December SW Radio Africa has become an alternative source of news and information using the short message sending (SMS) system directly to mobile phones. With many Zimbabweans struggling to get basic commodities from the shops, the short message sending system allows them to get news at any given time without having to peruse a newspaper or go to the internet.
A 'Center for Commercial and Agricultural Information' (PICA) for the collection and the publication of price lists via the internet has been launched in Togo to enable farmers and traders to interact over prices and availability of products.of the products by ICT. The center is equipped with computer and Internet facilities with a web page with a strong integration of data and mobile technology.
In August, Uganda's Security Minister, Amama Mbabazi, threatened to re-enter the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following two cross-border incursions by Congolese gunmen thought to have been linked to the army. Kinshasa stands accused of killing a British worker from the oil-exploring Heritage Corporation after a 15-minute exchange of fire with the Uganda People's Defence Force and private guards.
Entering Nairobi's fetid slums the senses are first assaulted by a gagging stench and the sight of rubbish everywhere, some even hanging from trees or smouldering in acrid fires. The city government does not recognise the "informal settlements" where more than 60% of the population live, so no services are provided and no garbage collected. The result is frighteningly insanitary conditions.
The Africancolours Artists’ Association (AAA), sponsored by the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust (CFoZT) will be conducting visual arts seminars around the country starting in Harare on 17th of September 2007 at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe. The main objective of the seminars is to encourage the country’s visual artists to use the various forms of Information Technology around to publicize their work to a global audience and help contribute to the growth of the country’s culture sector.
The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery allocates small project grants, for programmes of humanitarian legal and financial assistance to individuals whose human rights have been severely violated as a result of contemporary forms of slavery. Application forms should be duly completed and submitted by 31 December 2007 to the secretariat of the Fund.
The West African Editors Forum (WAEF) has learnt that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has filed a suit against three independent newspapers in Niger. The weeklies Le Canard Déchaîné and L’Evénement, as well as the bi-monthly Action, are being accused of “defamation” and “publication of false news that could undermine the honour of the leader”.
Pambazuka News 317: Peoples' Justice: The International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Pambazuka News 317: Peoples' Justice: The International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
I think 'Kumekucha', a thought-provoking title, is more attractive for your newsletter than the current 'kumepamabazuka'. The two words have more or less same meaning but there is a stronger emphasis in 'Kumekucha'. Experts in Swahili language will agree with me in this proposal. Just a thought I wanted to share with you if you really care to popularise your newsletter to a Swahili speaking readership.
Tajudeen Abdul Raheem surveys the state and status of names in Africa, in particular the legacy of Western colonialism, and identity politics around 'Arab' names. He argues that although names are very important both culturally and symbolically, they do not in themselves confer Africanness or commitment to Africa, which is measured by 'what we do, what our values are, and our concrete actions'.
I understand what Pambazuka is about - a platform, and outlet for those angry indignant people who have experienced an injustice and raised their pen to wage a war against it, with a pent-up feeling simmering inside them. It is there for them. I know what it really means because I was in search of such a platform myself for a few years and I tell you it has never been easy to find one. But it is not for those who have already spent their anger and indignation. I really appreciate your service in providing this platform as it gives voice for the voiceless.
The Director of Development is responsible for all aspects of the management of The Climate Group’s Development Office based in London, and is responsible for global co-ordination of fundraising activities in the regional offices of The Climate Group. He/she will report for all operational purposes to the Chief Operating Officer, but have a direct access link for the purpose of strategy and major gift approaches with the Chief Executive. He/she will be part of the International Management Team.
The world’s ancient forests continue to be destroyed at an alarming rate – threatening both biodiversity and the global climate. Do you want to do something about it? Do you have a talent for creating positive change? If so, you might be the person we are looking for to join our international team as a forest campaigner. Closing Date: 21 September 2007.
United Planet undertakes a diverse and creative range of educational, humanitarian, and peace-building initiatives. People of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities are invited to join United Planet's membership in "a community beyond borders." You can volunteer to support children and the disabled in communties throughout France and Italy. You can assist in agricultural, environmental, and community projects in New Zealand, Nepal, and India. You can help with AIDS/HIV programs in Uganda, Russia, Nigeria, and more. You can assist in human rights issues in Brazil, Bolivia, Mozambique, and Lithuania.
This open conference brings together business, multilateral institutions, governments and civil society to discuss the role of business in respecting and promoting human rights. In today's business environment, companies play a critical role in ensuring that international standards of human rights are being upheld and promoted. This relation-ship is highlighted in the United Nations Global Compact, which lists adherence to human rights as its first principal, emphasizing the need for business to use its re-sources and expertise to rebalance global inequality.
The Researcher will be based in Goma, eastern DRC, after an initial period of orientation (in HRW's New York, Washington, D.C., Brussels or London offices). Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, monitoring violations of human rights and international humanitarian law; curbing abuses through monitoring, investigating and documenting human rights violations in DRC (with a focus on the eastern provinces); applying sound judgment to investigation, reporting and advocacy work; writing and publicizing concise and accurate reports.
Tajudeen Abdul Raheem comments on African leaders' apparent contradictions between regionalism and contintenal unity, and how their quest for regional integration is becoming a smoke-screen for slowing political union. But, he says, 'How can you argue for gradualism at the continental level and not concede the same at regional and national levels? That is the ridiculous but logical conclusion of the gradualist argument about pan-Africanism. They will never be ready.'
The National Human Development Report 2007 released on Thursday in Kigali has called for a new agenda of scaling up of investment, increase in the quantity and quality of Official Development Assistance (ODA). The report further urges development stakeholders in Rwanda to promote a greater coordination and management of aid. The report entitled “Turning Vision 2020 into Reality: From Recovery to Sustainable Human Development” has been commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Rwanda and prepared by a group of researchers from the National University of Rwanda.
The MilAIDS Project of the Defence Sector Programme (DSP) at the ISS is planning to host a three-day conference from Wednesday 21 November until Friday 23 November 2007 in Tshwane (Pretoria). The conference is designed to harness multi-disciplinary research skills within the field of HIV/AIDS and the Armed Forces in Africa, bringing together policy-makers, practitioners and scholars whose research interests coincide with the activities of the Security Sector and Peacekeeping Missions in Africa.
The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), are convening an international workshop within the framework of the Africa/Asia/Latin America Scholarly Collaborative Program. The theme of the workshop is Rethinking Development Alternatives in the South: Prospects for Africa, Asia and Latin America. The workshop will be convened in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 5-6 October, 2007.
The Senior Program Officer for Africa will be based in New York and responsible for shaping and implementing the strategic direction of AJWS’ grantmaking in Africa and directly managing grants in Southern Africa. S/he will represent AJWS’ Africa program at international forums as well as AJWS Board and donor meetings. S/he will manage the work of the two Africa Program Officers and consultants in the field.
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) is a non-profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting women's equality worldwide by guaranteeing reproductive rights as human rights. Reproductive rights, the foundation for women's self-determination over their bodies and sexual lives, are critical to all women's ability to achieve their full potential. CRR seeks an International Advocacy Director. Deadline for applications is October 31, 2007.
The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) are pleased to announce the Africa/Asia/Latin America scholarly collaborative initiative encompassing joint research, training, publishing and dissemination activities by researchers drawn from across the global South. The workshop will take place in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, from 19 to 20 November, 2007.
The National Civil Society Congress is a representative and legitimate voluntary Civil Society membership umbrella body, which reflects the diversity, growth, evolution and sophistication of the Kenyan Civil Society. The National Civil Society Congress anchors its coming into being and existence more on a broad based popular legitimacy than on legality and legalese. Among its core objectives is to provide and function as the platform for all Civil Society (CS) sectors to interact, share information and harmonize their interventions and proactive approaches on key national issues.
Computers, deemed essential in schools to help improve education, are in fact leaving as many as three-quarters of city pupils suffering preventable back and neck pain. In a study to track computer-related pain in our children, it was found that 74 percent of more than 1 000 pupils who took part reported headaches, lower back and neck pain in the month before they were surveyed.
As Africa strives to pull itself out of grinding poverty, more and more countries are looking to technology to give them a leg up. The goal, supported by the United Nations and the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), is to get the continent IT-ready by next year, when a fiber-optic cable running alongside the east coast is scheduled for completion, bringing broadband access to 22 nations.
The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Open Society Justice Initiative (the Justice Initiative) are pleased to invite applications for the Human Rights Fellows Program for the 2008-2010 session. The deadline for applications is September 17, 2007. This program was launched in 2003 by OSISA and the Justice Initiative, in collaboration with Conectas Human Rights, the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, and civic organizations in South Africa, Mozambique, and Angola.
China's "no-strings-attached" investments in Africa appear to many a welcome alternative to the conditional loans offered by the World Bank and IMF. But what consequences will China's growing involvement on the continent have for Africans? China has become the new lead developer in many African countries, out-funding the international financial institutions and other bilateral donors in some cases.
The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), found that 41% of the IFC projects studied had low development ratings. IFC performed particularly poorly in Africa and Asia, where only half of its projects had positive development outcomes. In Africa, the quality of IFC work was particularly poor, rated as “high” in only 45% of projects, as compared to 68% in other regions.
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) filed a request for inspection of the World Bank's Kwabenya landfill project in Accra, the capital of Ghana. They argued that the project would displace a significant portion of the Agyemankata community and cause health problems for residents, who were not adequately consulted.
Bujagali Falls, roaring and frothing just downstream from where Lake Victoria flows into the Nile River, has long been treasured as a resting place of ancestral spirits, a thrilling rapids for whitewater rafters and a spectacular feature of the natural landscape. It will be a memory. Construction has begun on a $772 million hydroelectric dam that will turn the falls into a reservoir. The project, financed by the World Bank, is intended to reduce the acute power shortages that have badly hampered this East African country's development.
Why were we colonized? And were we ever really decolonized? These are the central questions that should be at the core of liberation discourse in Zimbabwe and Africa at large, in order to start dealing with neo-colonial ‘ghosts’. These ghosts are real enough when they take the form of dictatorships, exploitative neo-liberal capitalism and repression of our growing resistance to these.
African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) may be spoiling for war with the global software giant, Microsoft Corporation, over its bid to have its DIS 29500 'Office Open Extensible Markup Language (OOXML)' endorsed by the International Standard Organisation (ISO). African Civil Society Organisations are of the opinion that it is not in the best interest of the continent for any country to endorse OOXML, in line with the United States, Spain, South Africa and Kenya who have already voted 'No' to the OOXML.
Dibussi Tande, who produces the blog Scribbles from the Den, brings this week's selection which covers: Zambians living abroad; the vulnerabilities of South Africa; identity and belonging in Africa; political invovlement and the younger generation in Malawi; persecution of members of the African LGBTI community in a number of African countries; and the elections held in Cameroon in July 2007.
comments about the exclusion of Zambians living abroad from the planned National Constitution Conference (NCC):
"The Government has responsibility to ensure Zambians abroad were brought into the fold to take part in such crucial issues. Equal responsibility also lie with Zambians abroad who should not wait for Government and other people to 'remember' them! Zambians abroad must seize the initiative to define their destiny - unless they gave up being Zambian long time ago! It is for this reason that I fully support what ZASN is trying to do in creating a framework where Zambians abroad can leverage their skills and expertise back home. Our hope surely must be that may be one day an organisation like ZASN can push for such representation in other areas of decision making e.g. voting (which I currently oppose but maybe future technology will overcome my worries)."
Eliesmith argues that the South Africa has the potential to become another Zimbabwe:
"But the truth is that, if care is not taken, South Africa may become second Zimbabwe in less than two decades. The current economic, political and social ruin in Zimbabwe, engineered by a clique headed by Robert Gabriel Mugabe, has made that country (Zimbabwe), not just to become a metaphor for countries on the highway to economic, political and social oblivion, but, she has also shown the vulnerability of a country like South Africa, which, apparently have stronger institutions than countries on the rest of the continent. Well, that is, in a situation where, people with similar ideologies now leading Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe's ruling ZANUPF, takes over the ANC in South Africa and thus wins political power in 2009.
But South Africa is not yet Zimbabwe and we are all still impressed and bewildered at the same time, how that country, has succeeded to sail through apartheid to a multiracial democracy, without the expected bloodbath baptism. Some say, the South African miracle or political feat happened because, the creation of what is/was labelled the rainbow nation, which bore and wore, the consensus and the no-need-for-revenge-attitude of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. And this question: What will happen after the fatherly figure of Nelson Mandela is gone? Perhaps Frederick Willem De Klerk will take over. However, It is true that, since 1994 and until now, the Mandela effect is there, casting his strong shadow over the country."
Senegal-based blogger Francis Nyamnjoh
What these brief notes on the Tikar tell us is that pre- and post-colonial identities in Cameroon and throughout Africa are complex, negotiated and relational experiences that call for a nuanced rather than an essentialist articulation of identity and belonging (Nyamnjoh 2002; Pelican 2006). With the Tikar, as well as with any other group in Cameroon, Africa, America or elsewhere, being 'authentic' is a function of the way race, place, culture, class and gender define and prescribe, include and exclude. Being or not being Tikar should thus be understood within this framework of the politics of recognition and representation. It should also be understood in terms of how cosmopolitan communities have been and are being forged in Africa despite colonial and post-colonial politics of strategic essentialism and divide-and-rule. The Tikar experience, both imagined and real, in a way is an invitation to contemplate a deterritorialized mode of belonging where relationships matter more than birthmarks and birthplaces in whether or not one feels at home."
'The project is multi-pronged with emphases on tackling environmental issues that directly affects the villagers, building sustainable infrastructures, empowering the villagers to seek manageable solutions, especially the women and providing an efficient health care program. The underlying philosophy behind the project is that all programs initiated in the village will be able to self-sustain in the long run because emphasis will be put on an effective cost-revenue strategy.'" According to Malawi Politics the young Malawians do not seem interested in playing leading roles in the country's political life: "When you look at what is happening in Malawi now, one would think there are no fresh faces in our politics. All we hear from are the same recycled tired old politicians all of them groomed by Malawi congress Party. Why does the young generation refuse to get involved? To serve requires sacrifice. A lot of our brothers are in the Diaspora building a future for themselves and their kids... It is the intention of Malawi Politics to encourage our readers and contributors to bring up fresh names to this dialogue. Our generation should not so easily concede to the old Gladiators. Their time came and went. Africa and Malawi is looking for economic freedom and fresh ideas. It is our time to fight for Malawi." Blacklooks writes about the persecution of members of the African LGBTI community in a number of African countries in recent weeks: "The African LGBTI community has been under attack this week in Cameroon, Nigeria and in Uganda...In Nigeria there were riots in Bauchi state after some of the men arrested were released on bail and faced a barrage of stone throwers from the crowds... The case for the 4 young men [arrested] in the Cameroon is worrying as only last year 9 men were released after spending a year in prison for charges of homosexuality which were eventually dropped."
'On the whole, however, these elections represent a missed opportunity for Cameroon - a missed opportunity to continue building public confidence in the democratic process as Cameroon looks ahead to its next election.' ... there is every indication that the more things change, the more they stay the same as Cameroon's tumultuous democratization continues its relentless march backwards." *Dibussi Tande produces the blog Scribbles from the Den, http://www.dibussi.com
Africa has been rated fourth in broadband penetration among six continents that were sampled by the Economist Intelligence in the year 2007. The study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rated Africa as fourth in its uptake of broadband services within the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region scoring 7.4 behind North America 10, Western Europe 9.9, Central and Eastern Europe 7.6. After MEA came Latin America with 7.3 and Asia Pacific 7.1 within the six regions under review.
With the major public health challenges that are found in Africa, making progress in public health clearly demands a significant spread of public health skills. While health workers are making tireless efforts to address preventable diseases across the continent, and many successful experiences exist, revitalizing primary health care oriented systems calls for revitalized public health leadership and skills.
More than at any previous time in history, global public health security depends on international cooperation and the willingness of all countries to act effectively in tackling new and emerging threats. That is the clear message of this year's World health report entitled A safer future: global public health security in the 21st century.
Hundreds of representatives of social and labour organisations, faith-based, community-based and health networks, small farmers, traders, women and youth organisations, and developmental, human rights and environmental NGOs from across the whole of the Southern African region have gathered in a Peoples Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, 15-16 August 2007, parallel to the SADC Heads of State summit.
Improving maternal health remains the most elusive of the Millennium Development Goals. Every minute, at least one woman dies from pregnancy-related causes: 99 percent of these are in developing countries. The majority of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, and are avoidable through using standard interventions and health care which all pregnant women and their newborns need.
Many studies have recognized the importance of improving the status of impoverished women. This UNFPA workshop report describes a number of approaches used to date to empower women economically, including microcredit. The report includes a review of the literature on women's economic empowerment and a summary of presentations from the workshop.
August has proven to be a perilous months for gays in Nigeria and Cameroon, where large-scale arrests have taken place, and in Uganda, where gay activists have gone into hiding after government ministers called for their arrest.
The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University is now taking applications for the 2008 session. The 2008 HRAP focuses on human rights and globalization. The Program is designed for experienced lawyers, journalists, teachers, social workers, community organizers, and other human rights activists working with non-governmental organizations in labor rights, migration, health, social exclusion, environmental justice, and corporate social accountability.