Pambazuka News 532: Time to bury the IMF
Pambazuka News 532: Time to bury the IMF
Somalia, which has not had a functioning government in almost two decades, is listed as Africa's deadliest country for journalists with 34 journalists killed since 1991, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Despite these killings and daily death threats, a few reporters remain in the country to provide the world with an inside view of the fighting that plagues Somalia.
AwaaZ is a magazine published tri-annually out of Nairobi, Kenya, under the Institute of Kenya South Asian History and Culture (IKSAH). The latest issues contains articles on:
- Judicial reforms and the difficulties ahead.
- Evictions, social justice and the constitution.
- Marginalisation of the Lamu people.
- Justice or the LGBTI community in Kenya.
- Making the constitution of Kenya the constitution for Kenyans.
The four-day Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting of ministers responsible for gender and women’s affairs ended in Windhoek on Thursday, 2 June. Issues on the agenda included the SADC regional gender programme and review of progress made by member states towards promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. Progress made in the signing and ratification of the SADC protocol on gender and development was also on the agenda. Thus far 13 member states have signed the protocol, while seven have deposited their instruments of ratification with the SADC Secretariat.
Police in Nigeria freed 32 teen girls from an alleged 'baby factory' used to feed the region's exploding sex trade and human trafficking markets, authorities said. Cops in the southern Nigerian city of Aba raided the clinic, known as The Cross Foundation, Monday after receiving a tip that the owner was harboring pregnant girls and selling their babies, Nigeria's Daily Champion newspaper reported.
From 9-26 April, Nigeria held parliamentary, presidential and governorship elections. During the last parliamentary term, only 7.3 per cent of the representatives in Nigeria’s upper and lower houses were women. In this year’s election, 200 out of 2400 (8.33 per cent) candidates for the House of Representatives and 80 out of 720 (11.11 per cent) candidates for the Senate were women. Abiola Akiyode of the Lagos-based Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC) says that overall, 909 out of 10037 (9.06 per cent) candidates for all elective positions were women. These positions include the Presidency, governorships and parliamentary seats. There has been an overall regression in women’s representation in political decision-making positions.
Global efforts to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS and improve the lives of people living with and affected by HIV are abundant, ranging from government initiatives to the multi-stakeholder Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria to NGO projects of all sizes. Much of this international body of work focuses on technical, bio-medical approaches to HIV prevention and treatment and fails to recognise the value of grassroots women's work in breaking silence, raising awareness and expanding access to testing and care - a crucial component in linking marginalised communities to testing and available treatment. Increasingly, grassroots women's groups are taking leadership within their communities by creating local programs for HIV/AIDS care and prevention that incorporate and respond to local contexts and needs.
A senior Egyptian general admits that 'virginity checks' were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities. The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the 9 March protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks. The general said the virginity checks were done so that the women wouldn't later claim they had been raped by Egyptian authorities.
The bodies of 150 African refugees fleeing turmoil in Libya have been recovered off the Tunisian coast after vessels carrying them to Europe got into difficulty. The boats ran into problems about 12 miles off the Tunisian island of Kerkennah, en route to Italy. Tunisian coastguard vessels aided by the military rescued 570 people, but many others went into the water when a stampede to get off the small fishing boats caused some of the vessels to capsize.
The state security agency is probing links between various loose-knit 'business forums' fomenting xenophobic violence across the country. The move comes as momentum builds in the number of attacks against foreign-owned businesses across the country and follows violence directed at Somali business people in Port Elizabeth. On Wednesday 1 June, police held back a crowd of more than 100 – including members of the Greater Gauteng Business Forum (GGBF) – in Ramaphosa informal settlement near Germiston, east of Joburg, as they attempted to forcibly close foreign-owned businesses there.
Since discovering that her 13-year-old daughter was pregnant about a month ago, Juanita* has paid several visits to the local chief in her village in western Kenya, seeking justice for her daughter and punishment for the man who abused her. 'She told me it was her teacher who did it. I confronted him and he admitted [he was the father] - he told me we could just settle it as adults,' Juanita, 47, told IRIN at her home in Migori District. 'We have been going to the chief because the teacher tells me he wants to marry my daughter and take care of the child, but I don't want that. Let him take care of the child who is a result of his bad behaviour, but leave my daughter alone because I want her to go on [with her education],' she added.
Six powerful explosions have been heard in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, as warplanes flew over the city. A powerful but distant blast was felt in the centre of the city at around 1900 GMT on Sunday 5 June, followed by stronger explosions a few minutes later, an AFP correspondent said, unable to immediately determine the targets. NATO fighter jets earlier launched intensive air raids on the capital and its eastern suburbs.
The UN Security Council has called on the Khartoum government to withdraw its forces immediately from the Abyei region, a key area of dispute in the north-south division of Sudan next month. There has been no agreement on which country the oil-producing region should belong to when south Sudan becomes independent on July 9, but the northern military seized it on 21 May 21, sparking fears of a renewed civil war. 'The council demands that the government of Sudan withdraw immediately from the Abyei area,' said a unanimous formal council statement.
A former Egyptian minister, Youssef Boutros-Ghali has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for squandering public funds and abuse of power. He is also expected to pay a fine of approximately $11 million. The ruling delivered in his absence indicates the country's determination to deal with past mistakes as it prepares for a new dispensation. Youssef Boutros-Ghali, the nephew of former UN Chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was a finance minister and a close confidant of Gamal Mubarak, son to the ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Reports that we couldn't verify independently indicate that he is in currently living Beirut. An arrest warrant has been issued by the International Police, the Interpol.
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The Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA), an organisation consisting of researchers and activists, issued a statement on the situation in Africa on African Liberation Day, 25 May 2011. The statement calls on the peoples of Africa and its diaspora to ramp up resistance, both locally and globally, and to unite on the basis of internationalism and Pan-Africanism.
Yash Tandon critiques the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) resolutions within the UN system to show how the forces of Empire have used 'humanitarian intervention' to advance their own interests. He also explains how the militaristic solutions advanced under R2P are part of a neurotic response to the various crises faced by the Empire.
For Zimbabweans who cross into South Africa in search of work, the risk of robbery, rape and extortion at the border is just the beginning of their problems. Khadija Sharife meets a ‘rightless’ underclass who are both exploited and scapegoated, simply for wanting to feed their children.
This paper, commissioned by the UNDP, ‘explores the scale and composition of illicit financial flows from the 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Illicit financial flows involve the cross-border transfer of the proceeds of corruption, trade in contraband goods, criminal activities and tax evasion. In recent years, considerable interest has arisen over the extent to which such flows may have a detrimental impact on development and governance in both developed and developing countries alike.’
AFRICA: SOCIO-POLITICAL UPHEAVALS AND HOPES FOR POLITICAL FREEDOMS
Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA)
Several major events occurred at the beginning of 2011 on the African continent, particularly from a global perspective. Already weakened by its unfavourable historical insertion into the world system, Africa has endured, in the past two most recent decades, the pangs of the implementation of neoliberal austerity measures, the plundering of resources and the logic of the privatisation of war. The continent is now more than ever at a crossroads because of the failure of the neoliberal model, the crisis of capitalism and the exhaustion of the neocolonial mode of growth.
******
2011: ARAB SPRING?
Samir Amin
The year 2011 started with a series of crashing explosions of anger of the Arab people. Will this Arab spring start the second phase of ‘the awakening of the Arab world’? Or, will these revolts trample and finally fall through – as was the case of the first phase of this awakening evoked in my book ‘the awakening of the South’? In the first hypothesis, the developments of the Arab world will necessarily fit in the movement of going beyond capitalism/imperialism on a worldwide scale. The failure to do so would maintain the Arab world in its current status at the periphery of domination, prohibiting it from playing an active role in shaping the world.
******
EGYPT AND THE STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES: THE PAKISTANI MODEL
Part 3: 2011: Arab spring?
Samir Amin
The three powers which dominated the Middle Eastern scene during the entire period of decline (1967–2011) are the United States – the master of the system – Saudi Arabia and Israel. Three close allies. The three share the same obsession for the emergence of a democratic Egypt. Because a democratic Egypt could only be a social anti-imperialist which would keep its distance with regard to globalised liberalism and would condemn Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to insignificance, while reanimating the solidarity of the Arab people and demanding the recognition of the Palestinian state by Israel.
Following the African National Congress' victory in South Africa's latest local government elections, Hein Marais, author of the new book 'South Africa pushed to the Limit', examines the paradox of a political party that presides over one of the most unequal societies in the world, where close to half the population lives in poverty, and more than a third of workers are jobless – yet triumphs in election after election.
As Barack Obama and William Hague offer very different kinds of support and different visions for Tunisia's future, trade unionists and human rights activists in the region have called for international solidarity, writes Amanda Sebestyen.
Viva Palestina Arabia is organising a seven-day summer university in Beirut, Lebabon, at the end of July with internationally known academics, writers, political figures and activists to discuss the unfolding revolutionary events in the Middle East and what they mean for Palestine and the international solidarity movement.
A statement from the coordinators of the World March of Women in Quebec sets out four reasons why Canada shouldn’t host the 2013 World Social Forum, from the difficulty of obtaining entry visas for activists from the South, to the need to focus on national grassroots alliance-building, following the election of a majority Conservative government.
In the wake of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), H. Nanjala Nyabola wonders why African governments are not calling for the same withdrawal from the IMF that they push for with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Uganda’s Walk2Work campaign, growing public consciousness in Kenya, Swaziland’s pro-democracy demonstrations, public sector protests in Botswana and the still invisible LGBTIQ movement feature in this week’s reflection on struggles for social justice across the continent, by Sokari Ekine.
Although Ghana’s alliance with Congo was ultimately unable to save Patrice Lumumba’s life or avert Mobutu’s 40-year dictatorship, the ‘African Union (AU) would do well to rediscover the spirit of those days, when Africans knew what was good for their continent, and what was not so good,’ says Cameron Duodu.
'Wamama wa Dhobi' are a group of domestic workers in Mathare, a slum in the city of Nairobi, Kenya. Documentary '' is about the struggles of women workers in informal employment; it follows their cries for for fairness and respect in the eyes of the Kenyan public as well as the law. ('Dhobi work' is domestic work for pay in an informal settlement).
The demise of the IMF's former managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is an opportunity to dismantle the fund and replace the current financial architecture with one that ‘invests in the repair and reconstruction of livelihoods and the planet’ instead of ‘destruction, dehumanisation, exploitation, and rape,’ writes Horace Campbell.
Despite the apparent ‘success’ of the privatisation of the Zambian copper industry, the true picture is one of systemic multinational exploitation, national assets sold ‘for a song’ and persistent tax dodging, writes Khadija Sharife.
‘Abdias do Nascimento defended the oppressed, advanced creativity, sought human community and made our lives better by his art, reason, emotion, and laughter,’ writes Molefi Kete Asante, in a homage to ‘this brother genius who has cherished our history and culture and who has made the life and struggle of the African Brazilian people his personal mission.’
Egyptian officials are warning that the country, just emerging from a popular uprising that ousted the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, could be facing a major economic crisis with lagging international aid and foreign investment. General Mahmoud Nassr, a member of the Supreme Military Council, which is running the country’s interim government, told an economic conference in Cairo last week that foreign direct investment (FDI) has come to a standstill while Western rating agencies race to downgrade the country’s sovereign credit rating. The poverty rate has also worsened to 70 per cent, Nassr added.
ARTICLE 19 has called on the East African Community (EAC) to hold a special session on Uganda to discuss the country’s ongoing grave human right violations, including frequent attacks on freedom of expression. 'ARTICLE 19 believes that the seriousness of the current situation requires the East African Legislative Assembly to immediately convene a special session to address attacks on journalists, human rights defenders and the media in the country. During May 2011 alone, at least nine people have died in Uganda following brutal attacks by state security agents, and many more were injured, including journalists.'
ARTICLE 19 is very concerned by apparent efforts by the G8, led by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, to impose tighter controls of the Internet. ARTICLE 19 once again calls on all states, including G8 member states, not to violate their freedom of expression obligations by imposing unjustifiable restrictions on the Internet. They should instead follow the recommendations in the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom expression’s new report, which emphasise the applicability of international human right standards to the Internet.
A wide-ranging group of civil society organisations from around the globe has sent a letter to World Bank president Robert Zoellick urging him to open up the proposed Energy Strategy to another round of consultations. 'The Energy Sector Strategy has the potential to serve as a blueprint for low carbon, low impact clean energy scale up, while addressing the need of energy poor populations, which is an area of significant expertise and interest for a number of civil society organizations. Given that the
Energy Sector Strategy document will be significantly changed from the Approach Paper that previously underwent consultation, we believe it would be a mistake to not post the full Energy Sector Strategy document for consultation.'
As part of the ‘Unga Revolution’, Kenyan civil society has been demonstrating over rising food prices and the escalating costs of living, writes Stephen Musau. And Kenyans should not feel alone in this struggle, Musau stresses, with the farmer-led movements across the global South like Via Campesina leading the fight for food sovereignty and the right to food.
The South African government has announced the closure of the only refugee reception centre in Johannesburg, amid warnings that this will have a serious impact on the thousands of refugees flocking across the border every week. 'It is unacceptable that poor and marginalised refugees will have to travel to Pretoria, at great personal cost, to receive permit extensions and other services,' said Sicel’mpilo Shange-Buthane, the Director of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa.
‘I do not want personal freedom if it comes at the cost of the oppression of millions. Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by all,’ writes lesbian blogger Amina A. on 'A Gay Girl in Damascus', as Western imperial powers tout the defence of LGBT rights as a justification for intervention in the ‘Arab Spring’.
Anti-Eviction communities who are facing eviction and whose homes have been flooded by the recent rains (more on this soon), are joining backyarders from Tafelsig who are at the Cape High Court today.
A leaked cable that has sparked a row between Britain and Malawi could give rise to rural hunger in the impoverished southern African nation. That is the upshot of the spiralling row that has seen Britain suspend aid including its support for a support for a highly successful seed and fertiliser programme in Malawi - and the government in Malawi stick to its guns despite the possible consequences for its people. The row, which we have been reporting on, stems from a leaked diplomatic cable that described Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika as 'autocratic and intolerant of criticism'.
A group of Mauritanian media professionals and bloggers last week announced the creation of a new club aimed at protecting journalists' rights. The club, whose vision is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, seeks 'to encourage journalists to write about topics on human rights in their press reports', according to its founding statement released 22 May.
Moroccan anti-riot police have broken up a series of protests recently, drawing international criticism. The European Commission on Monday 30 May expressed concern at 'the violence used during the demonstrations'. 'We call for restraint in the use of force and respect of fundamental freedoms. Freedom of assembly is a democratic right,' spokesperson Natasha Butler said. The demonstrations, organised by the youth-led February 20 Movement, took place in 40 cities and left dozens wounded in Casablanca and Tangier.
North and south Sudan have agreed to set up a demilitarised zone along their shared border, as the south moves closer to independence. The announcement, made by the African Union (AU) on Tuesday, comes 10 days after the north seized the disputed Abyei region, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee. Alex de Waal, an AU adviser who has facilitated negotiations on security issues between Sudan's north and south regions, said the parties agreed to the move on Monday during talks in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.
Nigeria's Daily Trust commemorated the second anniversary of Pan-Africanist Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's passing on 25 May with a special memorial supplement, featuring contributions from Okello Oculi, Kole Shettima, Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Horace Campbell, Aderemi Oyewumi and Nengak Daniel Gondyi. .
British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed. Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) of biofuel land identified - in countries from Mozambique to Senegal - is linked to 11 British companies, more than any other country. Liquid fuels made from plants - such as bioethanol - are hailed by some as environmentally-friendly replacements for fossil fuels. Because they compete for land with crop plants, biofuels have also been linked to record food prices and rising hunger. There are also fears they can increase greenhouse gas emissions.
As South Sudan prepares to become officially independent in July, Reporters Without Borders says it is appalled by recent developments affecting press freedom and appeals in particular to the new country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to release the Darfuri journalist Mohammed Arku without delay. Employed by Sudan Radio Service, Arku was arrested by South Sudan’s security services in Wau on 11 May for taking photos without government permission, although the area where he was arrested is not a militarised one.
How different is the West's economic model of liberalisation and privatisation from Apartheid's economic system, asks Osarhieme George.
We the 100 plus delegates from various countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, having met in Tshwane, South Africa, over three days to commemorate Africa Liberation Day and deliberate on African affairs and global issues hereby resolved the following Tshwane Declaration.
The Kenyan government has pledged to support ongoing investigations into post-election violence, a senior official of the International Criminal Court said. Mr Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division at the court, spoke after a meeting with the Cabinet committee on ICC. Mochochoko said his trip was triggered by government attempts to defer the ICC cases. 'We have received reassurance and recommitment from the government but we will see whether they will change,' he said.
The army and Ekurhuleni metro cops helped the police in 'unlawful raids' on shops owned by Somali nationals in Ramaphosa, east of Joburg.Details of the SANDF’s alleged actions are contained in an affidavit filed by the Somali Community Board’s (Scob) national secretary Amir Sheikh at the South Gauteng High Court. Scob, the representative organisation for Somali nationals in South Africa, successfully applied for an order to stop Greater Gauteng Business Forum (GGBF) members from 'intimidating, harassing, hindering and interfering with businesses owned by people of foreign extract'.
Lawyers from the East African region have sued the Uganda government, accusing its security agencies of human rights violations and breach of the Constitution during the recent walk-to-work demonstrations. The East Africa Law Society sued the Ugandan authorities at the East African Court of Justice in Arusha, Tanzania, in a case filed by the vice president of the regional law body, Mr Aggrey Mwamu.
Tanzania’s foreign affairs minister, Bernard Membe, is up in arms over the decision by BAE Systems to pay 29.5-million pounds in settlement of the controversial sale of a radar system. He told a press conference in Dar es Salaam that apart from the decision being unfair, the British company’s move was aimed at tarnishing the image of the Tanzania government before the international community. He warned that if BAE Systems went ahead and paid the money to a charity organisation, such an organisation would not be allowed to operate in Tanzania.
China, India and Saudi Arabia have lately leased vast tracts of land in sub-Saharan Africa at knockdown prices. Their primary aim is to grow food abroad using the water that African countries don't have the infrastructure to exploit. Doing so is cheaper and easier than using water resources back home. But it is a plan that could well backfire. 'There is no doubt that this is not just about land, this is about water,' says Philip Woodhouse of the University of Manchester, UK. Take Saudi Arabia, for instance. Between 2004 and 2009, it leased 376,000 hectares of land in Sudan to grow wheat and rice. At the same time the country cut back on wheat production on home soil, which is irrigated with water from aquifers that are no longer replenished - a finite resource.
Violence in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has driven the number of child casualties to a new high, the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) said, noting that the main cause of children’s deaths were burns, chest injuries and internal haemorrhage resulting from blasts, shrapnel and bullets. Of the 1,590 reported weapon-related injuries in May alone, 735 cases or 46 per cent were suffered by children under the age of five, compared to only 3.5 per cent in April.
Malawi will, for the first time since the re-introduction of multiparty politics in 1994, hold tripartite elections in 2014. This follows the cancellation of local government elections that were scheduled to be held this year. 'This means voters will be voting for the president, members of parliament and councillors at the same time,' Local Government and Rural Development Minister Anna Kachikho said. Kachikho said a bill had been prepared to amend the Constitution to allow for the holding of the tripartite polls.
This map available on the Global Voices website documents the use of online and mobile technology to promote transparency and accountability around the world and includes several entries from Africa.
The South African ambassador to Uganda, a former columnist for South Africa's Sunday Sun paper, has been found guilty of hate speech for an anti-gay article. South Africa's Equality Court fined Jon Qwelane $14,450 (£8,920) and ordered him to apologise for promoting hatred in the column published in 2008. Headlined 'Call me names but gay is NOT OKAY', it caused an uproar at the time. Mr Qwelane, who was appointed last year to Uganda where homosexual acts are illegal, did not mount a defence.
More investment is needed to find a cure for HIV, the new head of the International Aids Society has said. Bertrand Audoin admits this might take as long as 25 years, but he says a cure is the only way to keep ahead of the HIV epidemic in the long term during tough financial times. Sunday sees the 30th anniversary of the first medical reports of a new illness.
The Libyan government says Nato air raids have killed more than 700 civilians since bombing began in March. Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said more than 4,000 people had been wounded, but gave no evidence to confirm his figures. Nato has denied killing large numbers of civilians, saying its air strikes are to protect Libyans from Colonel Gaddafi's forces.
Two-and-a-half years into the financial crisis that began in the fall of 2008, workers have begun to fight back on a mass scale, says this World Socialist Web Site article. 'The ruling class and its political representatives are engaged in a worldwide drive to turn back the conditions of workers gained through struggle over generations. The war in Libya and the efforts of the US to bolster the military regime in Egypt are part of a global process that includes historic cuts in social programs in Europe and the United States. The February events in Egypt and the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa were the beginning of a working-class counteroffensive.'
Rwanda's community-based gacaca courts have helped communities confront the country's 1994 genocide but have failed to provide credible decisions and justice in a number of cases, Human Rights Watch said in a report released 31 May. As the gacaca courts wind down their work, Rwanda should set up specialised units in the national court system to review alleged miscarriages of justice, Human Rights Watch said. The 144-page report, 'Justice Compromised: The Legacy of Rwanda's Community-Based Gacaca Courts', assesses the courts' achievements and outlines a number of serious shortcomings in their work, including corruption and procedural irregularities.
This Human Rights Watch report calls on the government to bring to justice those responsible for massacres in 2007 and 2009. It says that the government should strengthen the judiciary and provide it with adequate resources, rein in and reform the security sector, and ensure that Guinea’s population can benefit from the country’s abundant natural resources. Human Rights Watch also recommended establishing a truth commission to uncover the causes of Guinea’s violent past and an anti-corruption commission to end the misuse of its wealth.
A radical rethink of current energy policy can cut South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent in 2050 compared to 1990 levels. More than that - after an initial spike in investment - South Africans four decades down the line would pay 23 billion dollars per year less for their electricity compared to business as usual. This scenario is presented in a report titled 'The Advanced Energy [R]evolution: a Sustainable Energy Outlook for South Africa', presented on 25 May in Johannesburg by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace.
Pharmaceutical industries in emerging markets are shifting their focus away from poor to developed countries, which will affect access to cheap generic medicines. Poor states should tackle this development by capitalising on the international trade exemptions they still enjoy regarding medicines as 'intellectual property'. These comments come from a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), titled 'Investment in Pharmaceutical Production in the Least Developed Countries', or LDCs.
Governments and international institutions that once bankrolled the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak have begun floating aid packages to speed up the economic recovery and transition to democracy in these countries. Arab revolutionaries have reason to be wary. 'Very few details have been offered about the form this aid will take,' cautions Amr Hassanein, chairman of MERIS, a regional affiliate of Moody’s credit ratings agency. 'But as generous as the packages may seem, you can be sure there are strings attached.'
A renewed wave of development babble began flowing soon after the February launch of the World Bank’s 10-year strategy document, ‘Africa‘s future and the world bank’s support to it’, says Patrick Bond. Within three months, a mini-tsunami of Afro-optimism swept in: The International Monetary Fund’s ‘Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa’, the Economic Commission on Africa’s upbeat study, the African World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Report and the African Development Bank’s discovery of a vast new ‘middle class’ (creatively defined to include the 20 per cent of Africans whose expenditures are $2–4 a day).
Billions of dollars are set to flow into Egypt from a host of International Financial Institutions (IFIs), writes Adam Hanieh on the website Jadaliyya. But far from supporting the aspirations of the Egyptian people, their real aim is to hijack the transition and ensure that the neoliberal project in Egypt is hastened.
In conversation with Ron Singer, Muhammed Osman discusses reporting on Sudan, his experiences of covering the country from both inside and out, the future of relations between the south and north, and his own personal history.
Abahlali baseMjondolo stands in full solidarity with the democratically elected leadership of the Makause settlement as they face threats of violence from the ANC branch in Primrose. We are far away in distance but close in spirit and we will do all that we can to mobilise support for the comrades in Makause as their community politic faces the threat of repression from the party politic. As our experience shows very well these threats must be taken very seriously by all democrats.
For Al-flea-ks
am using my ammu-diction
to kill your lexicography…
Afrika sasa tumefahamu
Ni mwamko wetu na akili timamu
Kusaidiana ndo ujamaa uwe mtamu
Waache wanaopiga kelele
Kwetu Afrika ni ngoma na si lele
Kumbuka sera ya Mwalimu nyerere
Waambie wale wasiofahamu
Kujifahamisha watie hamu
Huu wito usambae hadi Lamu
Nairobi hata Mombasa Watamu
Arusha na kule Dar es Salaam
Kusoma na kuandika ndo chemichemi
South African competition authorities approved Wal-Mart's $2.4 billion bid for Massmart on Tuesday (31 May), saying the retailer must not fire workers for two years. The conditions imposed on the deal - including a programme for developing local suppliers - will likely be seen as a win for the world's largest retailer, which said it would walk away from the deal if targets were put on local procurement.
Since 2002, the Government of Tanzania has been implementing the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) with two specific aims: making education more accessible and improving its quality. While significant success has been made in extending access, improving quality remains a challenge, says a May 2011 brief from Uwazi monitoring. 'This brief is the second in a series about the quality of public schools in Dar es Salaam. The results show that many public schools in Dar es Salaam lack proper playgrounds and face debilitating sanitary conditions.'
The City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit established to prevent the illegal occupation of city and provincial land, is acting unlawfully says Lawyers for Human Rights. The announcement by the LHR comes after violent clashes between backyarders and police recently after over 4,000 backyarders occupied city-owned land in Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plain. The Anti-Land Invasion Unit, established in 2008, demolishes about 300 illegally erected informal housing structures per month, according to the city.
Civil society organisations from across the Arab region met in Kuwait, from 4 to 5 May, within the framework of the Forum for the Future 2011, and unanimously adopted a declaration calling for the governments of the region to take urgent measures to eliminate discrimination against women. Based on universal standards and international law, the declaration calls on governments to abolish all discriminatory legislation within the next two years; to adopt laws to fight discrimination, violence and trafficking of women; and to withdraw all the reservations they have entered to the Convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW Convention).
A bomb blast rocked a popular drinking spot by an army barracks in northern Nigeria on Sunday 29 May, killing a dozen people hours after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in for his first full term, officials said. A rescue worker who asked not to be identified told Reuters his colleagues had counted 12 dead bodies and that about 25 people had been wounded by the blast.
There is growing unease among green energy developers that there will be even more delays to the procurement of green power - the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced it would release its revised tariffs for renewable energy only in mid-June. They were expected by the end of May. Besides having to wait for clarity about what they can expect to be paid for their power, broader policy uncertainty and other bottlenecks are contributing to unhappiness over the roll-out of green power, despite the government's commitments to boosting the development of renewable energy.
The recent revolutions in Tunisia and Libya have brought the issue of trans-Mediterranean migration to the forefront of popular discussions about Europe’s relationship with its immediate neighbours in the Middle East and North Africa, writes Polly Pallister-Wilkins on 'It was on the back of hyperbolic and cataclysmic predictions of Europe being “swamped” by migrants that the case for intervention in Libya was partly made and following this, a number of EU member states have agreed on a temporary suspension of the Schengen Agreement. Schengen is an agreement that deals with the free movement of people throughout the European Union and was first signed on 14 June 1985 by five out of the ten members of what was then the European Economic Community (EEC).'
The Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations are posed to put aside the pledge on fighting poverty in developing nations. Their attention has now shifted to supporting the aspirations of ‘Arab up spring’ through a new commitment called ‘Deauville Partnership’. The world leaders said in a statement that the international development banks could give more than $20 billion to Egypt and Tunisia as they seek to support countries that overthrew dictators this year and are trying to establish free democracies.
Figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that during 2011 Angola will leapfrog Morocco to become Africa’s fifth largest economy. Although growing, Angola's immediate influence on African affairs will not supercede that of the region's giants, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt, says this article by Dominic Wall on 'The gap between the trio and the rest in economic size, demographics and political clout is considerable. ECOWAS, by far the most sophisticated and active regional bloc, is dependent upon Nigerian funding and manpower, while Southern Africa - besides Angola itself - relies heavily on South Africa. These and other factors mean the traditional giants will continue to dominate. But Angola’s rise has been, and is likely to remain rapid, despite a number of economic weaknesses. And the ability of the Dos Santos regime to influence events on a regional scale cannot be ignored.'
Charles Dan is Africa Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN agency responsible for promoting and supporting worldwide labour rights. In a debate on job creation at the World Economic Forum on Africa, Dan called for a breaking-down of barriers between formal and informal economies. In a similar line of thinking, when other panelists fell silent on the problem of large levels of structural unemployment on the continent, Dan offered as a solution the growth of the social and solidarity economy. Read this interview with Dan on
Ghanaians are being treated to fascinating intrigue and allegations of chicanery and underhand dealings as the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) scrambles to regain its grip ahead of an anticipated election primary. A few weeks ago former President Jerry Rawlings used the broken English language proverb of 'Who born dog' to support his claim that incumbent John Atta Mills was allowing his appointees to get away with poor performance, and that this would not have happened when he was in power. But Rawlings, considered the strongman of Ghanaian politics, is finding batting from the other side a tad unfamiliar, with an aide alleging that his boss's phone has been tapped by the country's intelligence service.
Six opposition political parties have launched a coalition in Monrovia in a bid to oust President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the October polls. Johnson-Sirleaf is seeking re-election for a second five-year term, which she has promised to win against all odds. Several interest groups have also signed up with the coalition, arguing that they were supporting the coalition because of the ideals it stood for.
More than ten people were on Friday night (27 May) rounded up by authorities in Las Anod town in the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Although no statement has been made on the seizure of the civilians in Sool region, some 1,150 km northwest of Mogadishu, the crackdown appeared to have been related to insecurity.
An advocacy group has said new satellite images provide evidence that northern Sudanese troops have committed war crimes, including ethnic cleansing, in the contested border town of Abyei where the forces took over more than a week ago. The Satellite Sentinel Project said in a statement that satellite images by DigitalGlobe show that the Sudanese army burned about one third of all civilian buildings in the north-south border town, used disproportionate force and indiscriminately targeted civilians.
On 8–10 June 2011, key stakeholders from all over the world will gather in New York to review progress of the global response to HIV/AIDS and to plan the way forward. This forum has the potential to reinvigorate the commitment to HIV/AIDS nationally and internationally. In light of this, on 20 May, SECTION27, TAC, Médecins Sans Frontières, the World AIDS Campaign and the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa sent a letter to the Director General for Health calling on the South African government to take the lead in setting ambitious and measurable targets, and encouraging similar commitments from other UN member states.
Chevron's Annual General Meeting of shareholders kicked off at the San Ramon headquarters of the California-based oil giant in late May. Chevron's CEO John Watson, its Board of Directors and shareholders were greeted by over 150 activists, who had traveled to San Ramon from regions the world over, from Angola to Indonesia, from Alaska to Ecuador, to share the stories of the human and environmental degradation Chevron had unleashed in their communities.
On 11 May 2011, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD) gazetted regulations for the payment of educational assistance and health benefits exclusively to victims identified by the TRC. The regulations were gazetted after only a very superficial consultation process with victims and other stakeholders and do not address the key concerns expressed by these stakeholders, says this press release from the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ). 'The organisations comprising the SACTJ reject these regulations which fail to provide the full gambit of reparations needed by individuals who remained severely harmed as a result of apartheid atrocities. In rejecting the proposals, the SACTJ points to the actions of the post-apartheid state over many years in prioritising the needs of perpetrators over the needs of apartheid human rights violations victims and survivors. Measures to achieve political reconciliation in South Africa have not been balanced by redress measures for these severely harmed individuals. This represents the betrayal of a compact forged at the transition with victims of the anti-apartheid human rights struggle in South Africa.'
South Africa believes that the Doha round of trade talks will not be finalised this year and that 'the 2011 window of opportunity is closed', according to Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies. Davies said that the round would focus on delivering a plan b, which would focus on the less controversial issues with the prime aim of delivering something substantial to less developed countries. Davies said that, at a recent ministerial conference, attendees focused on what part of plan b could be delivered, even if on a smaller scale. This included some subjects that were less controversial in terms of the World Trade Organisation's talks, such as trade facilitation issues, customs cooperation, the abolishment of subsidies on exports, non-tariff barriers in industrial tariffs, rules about regional trade agreements, as well as fishing subsidies.
South Africa President Jacob Zuma arrived in Tripoli on Monday (30 May) for talks on ending the Libyan conflict as Nato said Muammar Gaddafi's 'reign of terror' was near its end. The South African presidency said Zuma is seeking an immediate ceasefire, to boost humanitarian aid and bring about the reforms needed to eliminate the cause of the conflict. But it rejected reports the talks would focus on an exit strategy for Gaddafi, saying the visit is part of African Union efforts to end the conflict between his forces and rebels fighting to oust him.
Plans are underway to establish asylum reception centres on the country's borders. Home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said this would also ensure that fewer foreigners entered the country. The department was recently ordered to relocate a reception centre in Crown Mines, Johannesburg, after the business community went to court claiming the large presence of refugees rendered conditions intolerable for business.
Rights activists are mobilising to unleash a fresh wave of protests against the Protection of Information Bill, accusing the ANC of trying to bulldoze the contentious legislation through Parliament using its majority, without making any concessions. The Right2Know campaign said it believed the ANC’s position on what it has dubbed the 'Secrecy Bill' had hardened. Some opposition MPs agreed, suggesting that with the local government elections behind it, the ruling party was now determined to have its way.
Unless drastic action is taken to reduce unemployment, South Africa may face another 1976 uprising, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said. 'I have already over and over again pointed out the danger of a ticking bomb, that unless we can do something drastic about the crisis of unemployment, in particular youth unemployment, we risk another 1976 uprising,' he said in a speech delivered in Johannesburg. He was speaking at a discussion themed 'Critical conversations on prospects for a non-racial future in SA'.
The credibility of the African Union (AU) is being questioned, after news that Zimbabwe will assume the chairmanship of the bloc’s Peace and Security Council. The rotational chairmanship passes from South Africa to Zimbabwe in June. The Peace and Security Council, in theory, is meant to promote peace, security and stability across Africa, while promoting democracy, good governance and the rule of the law. It is also meant to uphold the protection of human rights.
In a rare climbdown, the Angolan government has withdrawn controversial legislation severely restricting how people use the internet. It was scrapped when the government removed it from parliament moments before it was due to be voted into law. Under the proposal, which had already passed a first round of voting, it would have been illegal to share information electronically that could 'destroy, alter or subvert state institutions' or 'damage national integrity or independence'.
Police arrested more than 20 people to break-up rare protests in the Angolan capital but released all of them the following day, police and activists said Thursday (26 May). An anti-poverty protest near downtown Luanda was organised by the 'Revolutionary Intervention Movement', a gathering of rights activists, they said. About 100 protesters called on President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to improve living conditions in Angola, where UNICEF estimates that 87 per cent of the urban population lives in shantytowns, often without water supplies.
Botswana public sector unions said on Monday (30 May) they had conditionally accepted a three per cent pay rise but a six-week strike that has shaken the ruling party's 45-year grip on power would continue until all demands were met. A spokesman for the Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) said the government must reinstate 1,500 sacked workers as part of a final settlement, and lift a 'no work, no pay' policy. The agreed average pay rise is a fraction of the 16 per cent first demanded by the 90,000 state workers, and less even than the five per cent on offer from the government of the landlocked southern African country, the world's biggest diamond producer.
Germany’s colonial genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century against the Herero of then German South West Africa, today Namibia, ranks among the most egregious human right catastrophes. An extermination order (Vernichtungsbefehl) was issued in 1904. In a very short time between 60 000 and 100 000 people; almost all civilians, many of them women and children, were killed by means of German bullets and clubs, by hanging, or by burning the huts where they lived. Many were forced into the desert to die of starvation and thirst or by drinking water at poisoned water wells. Thousands, including women and children were condemned to slavery in the German military and civil institutions, as well as for private companies and on German farms. In the concentration camps the mortality rate was more than 45 percent. Surviving Herero women were forced to become ‘comfort women’ for the settlers and soldiers. German geneticists came to the country to perform racial studies of alleged Herero inferiority. Herero skulls and skeletons were shipped to Germany, supposedly for further study. The book argues that the genocide was not the work of one rogue army general or the practises of the German military in general, but that German colonial policy at the turn of the twentieth century laid the foundation for the Herero genocide; GSWA’s status as ‘new Germany’ precluded the option of military, economic or social failure in the colony; international and domestic political pressures fuelled the Herero genocide; Germany conducted the Herero genocide in order to acquire Herero land, rebuild German pride and fulfil Germany’s racist ideology; the Kaiser ordered the genocide; and Germany’s actions in GSWA provided it with relevant experience to the orchestration of the Holocaust a few decades later.
A new blog known as Society's Perfection aims to bring issues affecting the LGBT community worldwide to the fore, although it has a focus on Africa.
The University of Sussex invites applications for a fully funded PhD scholarship for research into climate change and the African climate system. ??
The ‘The Peter Carpenter Climate Change Scholarship’ is open to citizens of African countries only, and has a start date of October 2011. The scholarship covers 100 per cent of tuition fees and provides a stipend for living expenses of approximately £13,400. The scholarship is one component of the African Climate Initiative at Sussex, which aims to better understand the nature, causes and consequences of, and responses to climate change in Africa. ??We invite applications from those with an exceptional academic record including a first class degree in a relevant discipline (e.g. meteorology, physics, environmental science, geosciences, geography). Candidates with the equivalent of an upper second class degree and relevant professional experience may be considered.
Closing date for applications is 8 July 2011.??
The PhD programme??
The PhD will be supervised within the department of Geography, where there is a vibrant research programme into the climate of Africa (www.sussex.ac.uk/geography/research/clusters/climateresearch). The PhD will be focus on one of the major research themes in the department; Climate change and the water cycle, atmospheric aerosols; land-atmosphere interaction. Potential topics are provided on the webpage. Depending on qualifications the successful candidate can undertake a one year MSc in either ‘Climate Change and Development’ or ‘Climate Change and Policy’ prior to the 3-year PhD research programme (www.sussex.ac.uk/climatechange/mscprogrammes).
??Climate Change research at Sussex??
The cross campus Sussex climate change network (www.sussex.ac.uk/climatechange) is a virtual centre for multi-disciplinary research and teaching into the causes, consequences of, and responses to climate change. The network brings together world leading researchers from the University of Sussex and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) in a multi-disciplinary programme of research and teaching to improve our understanding of how climate change is developing, the impacts on people and the implications for mitigation and adaptation policy and action. Within the context of Africa, the network facilitates multi-disciplinary research to improve the quality of climate information available and its use in sustainable climate adaptation practice, for example in water management and agriculture. The University offers state-of-the-art computing facilities for climate research.??Contacts??For further information email [email][email protected]?Or informally email [email][email protected]??How to apply??Candidates should apply on-line at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/pg/applying/
Candidates should ensure that they clearly state on the application form that they are applying for the Peter Carpenter Climate Change Scholarship
??Applications should be submitted by 8 July 2011