The problems facing the new nation are the product of non-existent or underdeveloped state institutions, themselves the product of the current system’s failure to redefine itself from a liberation movement to a ruling party with a mandate to deliver services to the population.

One, infinite growth on a finite planet is an exercise in futility. And two, the 20 percent of the world's population living in North America, Europe, and Japan gobbles up 80 percent of the Earth's natural resources. These are the elephants.

The initiative for the report came not from campaigners but from two genetic engineers who believe there are good scientific reasons to be wary of GM foods and crops.

Dear Comrade,

A belated 'Thank You' for keeping the message of Walter's seminal and timeless work alive and reminding us to always honour his memory.

The symposium that resulted from your collaboration with OWTU, Pat, Norman Girvan and other comrades in T & T was hugely inspirational and, for me, it brought back so many memories of more focused action in equally challenging times.

Thank You!

Solidarity, Peace and Progress!

Gus John

The Democratic Left Front calls for action against destructive corporate interests that are driving the commercialisation and commodification of the natural environment.

Indigenous peoples insist on rights-based approaches and respect for traditional knowledge and practices in Rio+20 outcomes.

Twenty years of Rio: Assessing the progress.

I remember the days

when you hold a jar of water

A metal gong

Then you shout that our ancestors must be called

they must be heard

You shout,

CALL THEM! CALL THEM!

Yes we call them

our ancestors

I guess they cheer

our ambition to reunite with them

these lines are a sign

that, like libation,

my soul is yearning

for liberation

unity of mankind

spirituality, may we free our minds

(English version)

It is me, Masese

Now am coming from Bundo

Look how my body smeared with ebundo* is shining

Am going to the battlefield with a hummer

I have carried with me a spear and a mallet

I have come as a warrior

With warrior spears

Belongings and the spirit of warriors

Listen to the way I play the Obokano*

Trumpets and flutes

I will not close my eyes even if it’s misty

So misty and clumsy like heavy sounds of trumpets

Even if you pierce my waist with a spear-chigi!*
I will sway and fight like grass

On a mountain against strong winds

I come

Wearing clothes like moving stream of water

Now, stand over there and watch, don’t move closer

Look! The way I am preparing shields

Put them down to cover the soil like heavy drops of rain

One man army, one man government

I am the only son like the eye

Even if you trouble me, I can hide in a basket

And come out with a dagger

If we wrestle I will defeat you, like it is a wedding

Weaken you, make you wither before they come to separate us

Before we hold hands and fight

I and you will not draw

I burn like fire glowing from ekerende* and esasi*

Grow and spread further like Emanga* and Esameta* ranges

Grow and spread so you can play pianos- Nda! Nda! Nda!*

Don’t be jealous you may walk naked

Then you burst – NDA!

If someone troubles you,

Don’t worry yourself too much

Be silent and look for a piano

Or go to your bed and sleep -NDA!

END NOTES

1. Ebundo – a type of paint made from some specific soils and clay that was used as a kind of body protection from dirt or in ceremonies

2. Obokano - an eight-stringed harp from the Gusii people of western Kenya

3. Chigi - the sound made by a spear when it pierces flesh

4. Ekerende and esasi - these was a traditional tools of making fire by using a dry wood,ekerende, with a stick to drill; esasi is dry leaves mixed with dry dung that is fed to the spot of contact between the wood and the stick.

5. Emanga and Esameta are two great ranges in Gusiiland and normally people are told to spread out (grow) and produce like the two ranges

6. Nda - the sound of music/strings, largely onomatopoeic here

*Dennis Dancan Mosiere aka Grandmaster Masese is a poet, musician, actor, writer/editor, human rights educator and a Fahamu Pan African fellow for Social Justice

Existe um domínio no qual a propaganda ocidental investe de modo especial na opinião pública da África, e esse assunto, alardeado através das suas ONGs cúmplices e seus governos, é o do domínio inexistente e ilusório da chamada “transferência de tecnologia”.

Reuters reports on a London court case that 'has been given a glimpse into the opaque world of Angolan diamonds, in a battle between a Russian-Israeli tycoon and his one-time partner that has also thrown up how modern-day buccaneers are building fortunes from Africa's resources.' Reuters suggests Angolan officials have tried to stop the case because of the embarrassment it may cause in an election year.

The government is insensitive to the needs of the poor and does not understand the economic plight faced by many state employees. This is the sentiment of many public sector workers as the state and unions wrangle through wage negotiations, and while unions haven’t explicitly threatened to strike, their members are already preparing themselves for industrial action. The government suspended talks with unions last week, claiming they had no more money to put on the table.

The death toll of campaigners, community leaders and journalists involved in the protection of forests, rivers and land has risen dramatically in the past three years, said Global Witness. Brazil – the host of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development – has the worst record for danger in a decade that has seen the deaths of more than 737 defenders, said the briefing, which was released on the eve of the high-level segment of the Earth Summit.

Zambia's government estimates that some unscrupulous mining companies may owe the country up to $1 billion in unpaid taxes. What difference could that make to Zambia? A staggering one when we consider that Zambia’s external debt in 2011 was $1.6 billion. Countries like Zambia need fairer international tax rules to stop companies from dodging the taxes they owe, says this Christian Aid blog post.

Police in Kampala, Uganda on Monday raided a gay rights meeting and arrested several LGBT activists gathered at the Essela Hotel in Najjeera, a Kampala suburb, accusing the participants of 'propagating gay issues in Uganda'. East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, the organization behind the workshop, said that police interrupted the meeting and began questioning attendees at the event, including activists from Canada, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

After a year-long incubation process supported by the World Bank Institute, 19 Ugandan civil society organisations this week formally established a ‘contract monitoring coalition’ that aims to involve local communities in the oversight of government-funded projects - including those related to oil - awarded to private sector contractors. 'There have in the past been incidents of alleged collusion between contract parties,' Gilbert Sendugwa, who chaired the coalition in its formative stages, told Oil in Uganda. 'Our coming on board is going to minimise that possibility and also improve the flow of information.'

This report is the result of the work of an amazing group of women from Asia and Africa who came together to research into the conditions of women in same-sex relations in their countries. 'With great determination and courage this group of women set about revealing the many obstacles, humiliations and indignities these women face. They uncovered not only pain, invisibility and silence, but also the pleasures of bonding and the beauty of love,' says the preface. Major themes in the research were female masculinity, the silencing and invisibility of Women-Loving-Women (WLW), and attempts at organizing on the basis of non-normative sexualities.

Reporters Without Borders has strongly deplored the two-year jail sentence that a Marrakech court imposed on well-known blogger Mohamed Sokrate on trumped-up charges of drug possession and trafficking. He was also fined 5,000 dirhams (450 euros). Arrested on 29 May as he was leaving an Internet café, Sokrate was tried and convicted with unusual speed. The trial began on 7 June but was adjourned at the defence's request.

On the eve of a key United Nations Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Friends of the Earth International launched a new report exposing the increasing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN. 'Governmental positions have been increasingly hijacked by narrow corporate interests linked to polluting industries and business sectors seeking to profit from the environment, the climate and the financial crises,' said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International. The report presents a number of cases that clearly expose how UN policies and agencies have been excessively influenced by the corporate sector.

Gunfire and rioting rocked two northern Nigerian cities Tuesday in a fresh round of unrest, prompting authorities to slap curfews on both after weekend violence killed 52 people. The unrest broke out in the cities of Kaduna and Damaturu, adding to fears of spiralling violence in the country's north, where Islamist group Boko Haram's insurgency has been concentrated.

Nobody can actually buy land in Mozambique. The government owns it all. But the government will give companies exclusive rights to land for 50 or 100 years, and it's really cheap. Mozambique's government, in fact, has been encouraging investors to come and take advantage of this land. Dozens of companies, both foreign and local, have lined up to seize the opportunity.

The first batch of 700 South Sudanese have returned to Juba from Israel, as part of a policy to deport Africans and protect the state's Jewish identity. Israel and its military ally South Sudan, which gained independence in July 2011 after decades of civil war, both claim that the process has been one of 'voluntary repatriation'. While some among the first planeload of 124 people were very guarded about their feelings of returning to their new but still extremely impoverished nation, several people said the South Sudanese are being forced out.

The life and work of Thomas Sankara can be taken as a reminder of both the power and potential for human agency to enact transformation.

The state as an instrument of capital interests is providing cheap and disposable labour, land, and fiscal privileges to land grabbers.

As leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries head into a second day of talks at the grouping's seventh summit this week in Los Cabos, Mexico, calls are strengthening for a new debate around the group's lack of accountability. 'The G20 has liberally imposed itself over other institutions to mandate those other institutions to take on its agenda,' Gawain Kripke, a researcher with Oxfam America, said in Washington. 'That's potentially a problem, when you have this fundamentally unauthorised organisation setting the agenda and work plans for other institutions that do at least have bylaws and so forth.'

Indigenous peoples’ organisations and activists are calling on governments to fully implement their commitments to uphold human rights, including rights to lands and resources as an essential cornerstone for achieving socially just and ecologically sustainable development.

“Finally, if you do not abide, then know your legal permission to operate will be terminated.”

A review of Adam Hanieh’s new book, ‘Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States’ (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

This issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the Rio Plus 20 Summit to be held in 20-22 June in Brazil. Twenty years after the Earth Summit the world faces even more serious crises in the environment and the economy. Will Rio+20 do better in rising to the challenge of tackling the global crises? This issue of the Bulletin analyses the key issues to be decided at Rio, including reaffirming the Rio commitments, the Green Economy, sustainable development goals, finance and technology.

At least 80 people have been killed since Monday 18 June in clashes in northern Nigeria triggered by Islamists waging an insurgency against the government, figures from police and the Red Cross showed on Wednesday. The violence - some of which was sparked by church bombings over the last three Sundays - has heightened sectarian tensions in Africa's most populous country, which is evenly split between Christians and Muslims.

Uganda said on Wednesday 20 June it was banning 38 non-governmental organisations it accuses of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children. Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo told Reuters the organisations being targeted were receiving support from abroad for Uganda's homosexuals and accused gays and lesbians of 'recruiting' young children in the country into homosexuality.

Seven members of the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were arrested and then briefly detained on Tuesday, after a ‘die-in’ protest in Bulawayo. The ‘die-in’, which saw three different groups of WOZA members lying down at main traffic intersections in the city, form part of a WOZA led campaign to pressure for a devolved system of government to be included in the draft constitution.

Plan International says it is deeply concerned at new proposals by the Egyptian parliament to reduce the legal age for girls to marry to 14 - just four years after a successful campaign increased the age limit to 18. 'Early marriage can have a devastating impact on girls’ lives – they are more likely to be forced out of school, live in poverty, have early pregnancies and endure health complications or die during childbirth.'

Global Voices reports on the crackdown on political activists in Angola. On 11 June, Luaty Beirão, also known as Ikonoklasta or Brigadeiro Mata Frakuxz, was arrested at the airport of Lisbon, for allegedly carrying cocaine in his luggage. 'On social media, many people commented that the real reason behind #Ikonoklasta's detention was political. In recent times, the rapper's voice of dissent has become more and more visible, as he openly lent support to the frequent street protests in Luanda.'

Members States 19 June announced that they have reached an agreement on the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The agreed outcome document spells out action points such as the need to establish sustainable development goals and mobilize financing for sustainable development, as well as the promotion of sustainable consumption and production, among others.

As we commemorate World Refugee Day on 20 June, under the theme "One family torn by war is too many", the emphasis on family cannot be overstated because the wellbeing of every individual is strongly related to her or his access to family support.

An investigation in Libya by multiple human rights organisations paints an alarming picture of the treatment inflicted on the migrant population, in the confusion that currently reigns in the country. With rich oil reserves and a small population, Gaddafi’s Libya relied heavily on migrant labour to serve the economy. During the conflict hundreds of thousands of migrants fled to Tunisia, Egypt and neighbouring countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, fearing for their lives. More than six months since the conflict’s end, migrants and refugees in Libya continue to be victims of grave violations of their human rights.

One and a half years since the beginning of the Arab Spring, activists who guided their fellow citizens through the relatively unchartered terrain of social media activism feel their fight for human rights, democracy and transparency is only just beginning. Many of the leading social media activists in Tunisia, birthplace of the ongoing wave of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, are not satisfied with the results of the uprising and have set their sights on more ambitious goals: transparency in government actions, monitoring of electoral processes and abolition of laws limiting internet freedom.