Pambazuka News 592: After Rio +20, struggles in Sudan and Algeria and helicopters in Haiti
Pambazuka News 592: After Rio +20, struggles in Sudan and Algeria and helicopters in Haiti
A United Nations agency seeking to safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage has rejected its advisors' call to include Lake Turkana on a list of endangered sites. The decision is a blow to Kenyan activists who have been fighting construction of a dam planned for a river in Ethiopia that feeds Lake Turkana.
Call for applications for masters, doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2013: The Programme on the Study of the Humanities in Africa (PSHA) at the University of the Western Cape invites suitably qualified candidates to apply for masters, doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships for the 2013 academic year. The PSHA is an exciting research platform based in the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) dedicated to redefining Humanities research in and about the postcolonial world and making sense of the driving forces of globalization and nationalism. It is backed by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This study (by Salimah Valiani, Associate Researcher, Centre for the Study of Education and Work, University of Toronto, With a Foreword by Samir Amin) traces the structural forces creating the conditions for the increased supply and demand of temporary migrant nurses around the world. It is argued that technology-driven health care cost escalation, the restructuring of nursing work, persistent undervaluing of nursing labour, and concerted state effort to produce nursing labour for export, put in motion, the global integration of nursing labour markets. Please click for details of launch events in Kenya and South Africa.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is calling for proposals for its new Multinational Working Group (GMT) on the theme of "Africa in the Information Society Era". The MWG is an important CODESRIA program aimed at promoting multinational and multidisciplinary reflections on issues affecting the African community of social science researchers. Each MWG will be led by two or three coordinators and will include a maximum of fifteen researchers. Two to three senior researchers will be selected as independent assessors and will also be resource persons during meetings of each Group. The average length of a MWG is two years during which all phases of the research process should be completed and final results prepared for publication in the CODESRIA Book Series.
A new report from Global Witness reveals that Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) appears to have received off budget financing from a Hong Kong-based businessman as the CIO and other security agencies continue to prepare to influence elections due to take place sometime in 2013, reports the latest issue of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, which contains a press release on the report from Global Witness, the Executive Summary of the report, and selected additional excerpts.
Seventy-five US family farmers, seed businesses and agricultural organizations representing more than 300,000 individuals and 4,500 farms filed a brief on July 5 with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. asking the appellate court to reverse a lower court’s decision from February dismissing their protective legal action against agricultural giant Monsanto’s patents on genetically engineered seed. The plaintiffs brought the preemptive case against Monsanto in March 2011 in the Southern District of New York and specifically seek to defend themselves from nearly two dozen of Monsanto’s most aggressively asserted patents on genetically modified organism (GMO) seed. They were forced to act preemptively to protect themselves from Monsanto’s abusive lawsuits, fearing that if GMO seed contaminated their property despite their efforts to prevent such contamination, Monsanto would sue them for patent infringement.
A new study from Earth Open Source called 'GMO Myths and Truths' - authored by two well known genetic engineers with help from an investigative reporter - conducted an exhaustive survey of hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies. The report concluded not only that GM food crops pose significant, if largely under-evaluated, health risks, but that they have so far failed to deliver on their promise to increase crop yields and lower herbicide and pesticide use.
South Africa needs to urgently look to countries such as Rwanda, Thailand and Brazil, where they have employed community health workers (CHWs) to deliver a range of primary health care services that dramatically reduced mortality, public health expert Professor David Sanders told the National Health Assembly (NHA). Speaking during a plenary session, Sanders said by extending the scope of what CHWs could do and by supporting properly selected and trained individuals, the country could make a very real impact on maternal and child mortality.
HIV care and treatment has come a long way in the past decade, write Brian Honermann and Mark Heywood in this opinion piece marking 10 years since South Africa's Constitutional Court upheld the constitutional right of all HIV positive pregnant women to access health care services to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). 'In 2002, an HIV positive mother would pass on HIV to her baby about 30% of the time. With access to Nevirapine the transmission rate was cut in half. Now, with better drug regimens being used, transmission of HIV from mothers to babies happens in only about 4% of cases during or shortly after birth.'
Across regions, young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment, underemployment, vulnerable employment and working poverty, says this article from the UN Focal Point on Youth, which looks at youth unemployment in the aftermath of the financial crisis. 'Even during periods of economic growth, many economies have been unable to absorb large youth populations into the labour market. In recent years, however, the global financial and economic crisis has further hit young people particularly hard in the developed world.'
As European elections show the public increasingly rejecting austerity, critics call on the IMF to focus on the flaws of the eurozone rather than austerity in country programmes. Throughout the past months the prolonged recession in parts of Europe saw unemployment reach record highs and output stall, with concerns that austerity is hindering growth and the prospects to achieve fiscal and debt targets.
Media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has condemned an attack on a Togolese journalist who was covering a demonstration in the West Afrian state and called on authorities to immediately investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Atayi Ayi, a reporter for the daily Forum de la Semaine, was taking photographs of a protest in Lomé, the capital, when two groups of unidentified demonstrators beat him and seized his camera, CPJ said in a statement.
The Rio+20 summit from 13 to 22 June was disappointing to many, but it could still succeed through the mandated follow-up actions on a high-level political forum, sustainable development goals, finance and technology, says The South Centre, which gives an in-depth assessment in its latest bulletin. Individual articles include:
- The Rio+20 Summit and its Follow Up
- Rio+20: Summit Adopts Text, Ends With Positive Speeches
- Rio+20: An Inside View on the Tough Fight Over Means of Implementation (Finance and Technology)
- Sustainable Development As An Answer To Economic And Financial Crises
- Food Issues in the Rio+20 Spotlight
- 'It's Not Fair to Require Emerging Countries to Contribute As Much As Rich Countries,' Says South Centre
- Indian PM’s Speech at Rio+20
- Chinese PM’s Speech at Rio+20
- South Centre Seminar in Rio on World Economy
A prominent Sudanese opposition politician has been arrested, amid growing unrest over economic hardship. Kamel Omar was taken from his home by unknown men who showed no warrant, a spokesman of his party said. A government official said he was held for alleged links to Darfur rebels, as well as to the recent protests.
United Nations ambassadors for South Africa and Brazil have demanded more action and discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity as part as universal human rights standards, and to combat hate crimes. The Ambassador of South Africa to the United Nations, on behalf of his country and Brazil, delivered a statement on 2 July to the United Nations Humans Rights Council, saying that LGBT rights are part of the Universal standard of Human Rights, and demanding action against discrimination and hate crimes.
This Fact Sheet highlights the involvement of the EU in the global land grab, both directly through the involvement of European capital and corporations in the acquisition of land and indirectly, through the suite of EU policies which are transforming land into a global commodity. It concludes with a number of concrete demands and proposals for the EU to end its collusion in the global land grab and align with international human rights law, especially the Right to Food.
Kenyan women match men almost coin for coin in the now vibrant mobile money transfer market, surveys published by an international polling firm show. According to three studies on payments and money transfer behaviour carried out in Kenya and another 10 sub-Saharan African countries carried out by Gallup and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, both genders are involved in mobile money transfers in equal measure.
Sudanese security forces fired tear gas on Sunday after demonstrations broke out at the University of Khartoum, where nationwide protests against high prices began last month, a witness said. The university is where an unprecedented three weeks of national protests began on June 16, when students first voiced their opposition to high food prices.
A coalition of local and international non-governmental organisations in health in Ghana, is asking the government to reject World Bank's proposal to adopt cost-sharing to sustain its National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which has been operational since 2003. In its January report titled: 'Health Financing in Ghana at a Crossroads', the World Bank said Ghana's NHIS basic benefit package was financially unsustainable and, therefore, the government must consider cost-sharing. The coalition, which has been at the forefront of the promoting free universal access to health care in the country, said on Wednesday that it did not agree with the World Bank's suggestion, especially when it acknowledges that government expenditure on health is low.
Egypt's President Mohammed Morsy has ordered parliament to reconvene, a month after it was dissolved. Mr Morsy, whose Muslim Brotherhood won most seats, said the chamber should reconvene until a new election is held. The military had enforced a court order last month dissolving parliament because party members had contested seats reserved for independents.
Gunmen killed several people in an attack on two Christian villages in central Nigeria's Plateau State early Saturday, officials said. Although police and army spokesmen could not give an exact toll, one politician said at least 23 people had been killed and blamed Muslim herdsmen for the attacks.
One week after its creation, IndustriALL Global Union announced its intention to shine a light on Rio Tinto’s unethical behavior around the world, starting with the release of a report on the company’s operations in Africa. Speaking to journalists at the Foreign Press Association in London, the newly elected General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union Jyrki Raina said, 'Rio Tinto’s operations in Africa are a story of displaced communities, broken promises, cozy arrangements with local dictators and the oppression of union involvement.'
This briefing from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre provides an overview of corporate legal accountability for human rights, summarising trends and developments in this field. The goal is to help a wide audience understand what is happening in different parts of the world.
Apartheid will not end and black people will not have real freedom until free and high quality education becomes a reality, says Zwelinzima Vavi. 'Education is certainly not free and equal for all, we have huge inequalities in our education provision,' Cosatu's general secretary said on Sunday. Vavi was speaking at the opening of the Equal Education national summit.
The battle for supremacy between Nigeria and South Africa and an attempt by France to play a bigger role in African issues, are likely to influence who becomes the next head of the African Union Commission in this week’s polls. There is a growing competition between Nigeria and South Africa for the control of the continent’s economic and political scene after South Africa offered the candidature of Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, contrary to the unwritten rule that big economies should stay away from the leadership.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information ANHRI has condemned a 4 July 2012 ruling issued by the Helwan Misdemeanor Court sentencing Ashraf Nabil and his assistant, Ahmed Helmy Abdulsamd, to six-month suspended prison terms, as well as a fine of EGP 200 (approx. US$33). In early June, Nabil and Helmy were in Helwan filming a short movie about election bribery, entitled 'Do not Sell', when they were attacked by supporters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik. They were then detained by members of Shafik's campaign team and taken to the Helwan police station.
Journaliste en Danger (JED) says it is outraged by the prolonged and illegal detention of Bruno Kabwe, interim director of Radio Parec, a community radio station based in Kalemie, in Katanga province, on the orders of a colonel of the armed forces (FARDC). According to information obtained by JED, Bruno Kabwe was arrested on 22 June 2012 and was immediately taken into custody at the headquarters of the 61st Brigade. He remains in detention and is prevented from having visitors. Kabwe is accused of having made 'rude' comments about Jean-Marie Izumbu, the colonel in question and the commander of the 61st Brigade of the FARDC.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has launched its annual state of media freedom report, 'So This is Democracy?' The current edition documents numerous media freedom and freedom of expression violations that MISA recorded in Southern Africa during the course of 2011. Most of the country reports in the 2011 edition note that the existence of archaic laws is fundamentally threatening media freedom as such laws are open to abuse, based on level of interpretation.
Hundreds of families from villages in Somalia's Bal'ad District, in Middle Shabelle Region, have been displaced following recent fighting between African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces and Al-Shabab insurgents, say officials. 'Our settlements are now the front line between the AMISOM/TFG alliance forces and Al-Shabab and we don't know where to go,' Hussein Mayow, a father of six, told IRIN. The displacement followed 25 June clashes in Bal'ad, about 40km northwest of Mogadishu, with the worst affected areas being the villages of Wala-Moy and Hamar-Daye, said an official with the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Youth and Sport, who preferred anonymity.
The war against drugs is hurting the fight against HIV, according to a new report by the Global Commission on Drug policy, an international panel that advocates science-based strategies to reduce the harm caused by drugs. 'The public health implications of HIV treatment disruptions resulting from drug law enforcement tactics have not been appropriately recognized as a major impediment to efforts to control the global HIV/AIDS pandemic,' the authors said. 'The war on drugs has also led to a policy distortion, whereby evidence-based addiction treatment and public health measures have been downplayed or ignored.'
Nigeria’s health services halved the maternal mortality rate between 1990 and 2010, but in parts of the predominantly Muslim north, which is less socio-economically advanced, women are 10 times more likely to die in childbirth than in the oil-rich, predominantly Christian south. Maternal health personnel are calling for more appropriate interventions to bridge the gap. Reasons for the divide mirror those in many West African states: too few referral facilities and health practitioners - especially midwives - and inadequate antenatal equipment; too few clinics and poor roads that make accessing clinics difficult and expensive; poverty and cultural barriers to visiting hospitals.
Only 13 diseases or infections transmitted from animals to humans like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever, are responsible for around 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. In the least developed countries, 20 per cent of human sickness and death was due to zoonoses - diseases that had recently jumped species from animals to people - according to a new study by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Nairobi, Kenya, the Institute of Zoology in Britain, and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam. The World Health Organization (WHO) has noted that at least 61 per cent of all human diseases, and 75 per cent of emerging infectious diseases, are zoonotic or caused by a bacterium, virus, fungus or other communicable disease agent picked up from an animal source.
Meet Mohammed aged 22. He has never left Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee complex, but that hasn’t stopped him learning how to create and host websites, set up a small business and teach others how to use computers. When he isn’t out interviewing people for a local newspaper produced in the camp, Mohammed can usually be found in the Hag youth ICT laboratory, tucked away in a discreet corner of Ifo2 camp, an extension of Hagadera, one of the three camps that make up the sprawling Dadaab complex.
Reporters Without Borders has releasing a report – in English, French and Arabic – on the state of freedom of information in South Sudan, which will celebrate the first anniversary of its independence on 9 July. The product of a visit to the South Sudanese capital of Juba from 9 to 15 May, it says that the divorce with Khartoum is not entirely consummated and that independence has brought no significant improvement in media freedom. It looks at the media war being waged by the two Sudans and highlights the impact of the ubiquitous, heavy-handed security forces.
The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme is facing discrimination charges brought by six former employees. The group, dubbed the KEMRI six, are accusing the programme of exploiting African employees, impeding their career development, and giving preferential treatment and pay to researchers from developed countries. They also allege their work was stolen and given to researchers from developed countries. Many consider the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme to be a model North-South partnership, praising its substantial support of African researchers. But others criticise what they perceive to be a failure to promote African scientists, or to involve them in setting research agendas. According to scientists in Africa and Europe, partnerships between rich and poor nations often generate tensions.
Madagascar has launched an online research network, the Research and Education Network for Academic Learning Activities (iRENALA), which aims to boost science, technology and education in the country, as well as internationalise its science. The network, launched earlier this month (8 June), will promote discussions between worldwide researchers, students and policymakers, and facilitate access to digitised documents available in virtual libraries, according to Horace Gatien, president of Toamasina University. It will also encourage remote learning in the higher education sector, he said.
Ben Cousins, co-author of 'Land, Power & Custom: Controversies generated by South Africa’s Communal Land Rights Act' and Research Chair at the Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at UWC, recently talked with Talk Radio 702 about the difficulties surrounding land distribution. He stated that the fair distribution of land was an enormously complex issue, but that there was no need to change the Constitution in order to distribute land. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the link provided.
In 2010 and 2011, the International Land Coalition (ILC) supported five community-based projects promoting the legal empowerment of rural women. Projects piloted innovative ways to enhance women’s land rights, but also identified models for replication and scaling up. Activities included raising women’s legal awareness through grassroots mobilisation, community trainings, and consultations and the provision of paralegal services, with the aim of improving women’s ability to use legal and administrative processes and structures to gain or maintain land rights and to benefit from them. This briefing note captures lessons learned from these five projects and from the learning exchanges.
One year after South Sudan declared independence, many humanitarian needs remain unmet. Communities lack access to basic health-care services. The situation is particularly difficult in northern regions close to the border with Sudan. Recent fighting in this area has had a direct impact on the availability and price of food, contributing to an increase in child deaths from malnutrition. 'In Malakal Teaching Hospital, there has been a dramatic rise in child malnutrition admissions over the past three months, since fighting escalated,' said Melker Mabeck, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in South Sudan.
A high court judge in Uganda, Justice Eldad Mwangushya has said security agencies should 'infiltrate' gay rights groups to ascertain if children are 'recruited into homosexuality'. The judge made in Kampala at the beginning of the hearing of a case brought by gay activists against the government and Ethics and Integrity Minister for forcing the closure of a gay rights workshop in February this year.
Rebels from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have taken control of three towns in the country's eastern North Kivu province, a spokesperson for the group has said. The rebels, known as the M23 movement, had taken Rutshuru and the towns of Ntamugenga and Rubare, less than 10km away, on the road to the provincial capital Goma, by midday (local time) on Sunday. The rebels said they did not face any opposition from the FARDC, the DRC's national army.
Sudan and South Sudan have pledged to cease hostilities along their disputed oil-rich border, but stopped short of actually signing an agreement, officials have said. The verbal agreement on Saturday came as the latest round of talks closed in the Ethiopian capital ahead of celebrations on Monday to mark one year of independence for South Sudan.
Six west African leaders have called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate 'war crimes' in northern Mali, in a statement issued at the end of a summit on the crisis there. Over the past week, armed Islamist fighters have descended on cemeteries holding the remains of Timbuktu's Sufi saints, systematically destroying its six most famous tombs, in actions decribed by the ICC as possible war crimes.
Burkina Faso is enjoying something akin to a gold rush. The precious metal generates a huge amount of money for the government, but there is a downside to the boom. Of the thousands taking up work in illegal gold mines, many are children, often opting out of school to enjoy the meagre gains earned at mine pits.
A major liberal party in Libya has claimed an early lead in the first free election since the toppling of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a vote that will choose the assembly tasked with writing the country's new constitution. Early reports on Sunday showed that the National Forces Alliance (NFA), a coalition led by former prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, is leading the polls, said Faisal Krekshi, the coalition's secretary general. Jibril, who played a prominent role as rebel prime minister during the popular revolt that toppled Gaddafi last year, resigned his position in October.
A free text messaging service called EcoChat has become popular with Zimbabweans living in South Africa, according to Econet. The service is free during 2012, and forms part of the Econet ‘Call Home’ SIM card. Similar to popular messenger service What’s App, subscribers only pay standard data rates, which works out to be the fraction of the cost of an SMS.
Preparations for Angola’s second peacetime polls scheduled for August are being overshadowed by allegations of electoral fraud, state media bias and growing concerns about a violent crackdown on activists and protestors. Human Rights Watch has criticised the government for its heavy-handed response to street demonstrations by former soldiers demanding unpaid military pensions, and the lobby group said that it was worried about a series of violent attacks on youth groups known for their criticism of the government. 'The recent spate of serious abuses against protesters is an alarming sign that Angola’s government will not tolerate peaceful dissent,' said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director.
Algerians celebrated with unprecedented enthusiasm on Wednesday (July 4th) the eve of the nation's 50th independence day. The country's 48 wilayas joined together with concerts, parades and processions that punctuated a long, emotionally-charged evening that remembered the 1962 break from 132 years of French rule.
After weeks of delay, the United Nations released its full annex by the UN Security Council condemning the Rwandan government for its support of Congolese rebels. The 48-page annex, which was leaked partially last week, claims that the Rwandan government was instrumental in the militarisation of M23, a mutinous movement that is allegedly led by, among others, Bosco Ntaganda, a military official wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes relating to the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
Liberian education law is silent on what should happen to girls who get pregnant while enrolled. Pregnancy and subsequently dropping out of school is just one of many problems limiting access to education for girls in Liberia. Girls in the rural areas have even more obstacles in their paths. Traditional practices along with a lack of schools and financial support are some of the challenges they must overcome.
The UK Government has been accused of 'immoral' double standards after it emerged that it is encouraging British businesses to do trade deals with Sudan, which means with the regime of a president who is wanted for war crimes. As aid agencies and the UN warned that the humanitarian crisis caused by the Sudanese government was close to breaking point, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), an agency of the Department for Business, co-operated with a trade mission to Khartoum last week.
The three human rights organisations are deeply concerned about Moroccan refusal to investigate the assassination of a young Saharawi man, Sai?d Dambar, who was shot dead in the head by a Moroccan policeman on December 21st, 2010.
A foreign mining company has polluted the environment so much that the local people have no access to safe and adequate water. And that is not the only mining company killing people in Ghana. The government looks on.
Politics, ethnicity and religion have always been interwoven in Ethiopia, which is why Haile Selassie never wanted to reveal the full identity of his mother.
The current protests have clearly demonstrated that after 23 years in power the Bashir regime’s capacity for coercion is weak and increasingly de-linked from the Sudanese people.
Months after the central government tried to quell land speculation in oil-rich Bunyoro by suspending the issue of new land titles, ‘Oil in Uganda’ visited Kasenyi, on the north eastern shores of Lake Albert, and unearthed a tale of double-dealing and thuggery seemingly abetted by district leaders and security officials.
With the closure of gacaca and the winding down of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), many survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda fear that the injustices they suffered will never be repaired.
A deficit of transformational leadership, dwindling economic fortunes and increasing violence have turned the vast plains of Northern Nigeria into a bastion of despair.
Rwanda has been involved in hostile actions to destabilize DR Congo over the last 15 years. The US is aware of this but protects President Kagame’s regime to secure its own interests in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
The ruling reaffirms that multinationals cannot use their power to silence the media.
Two subsidiaries debarred -- company agrees to pay $500,000 to the World Bank as part of settlement
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The tribal wisdom of the Plains Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that: "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And, of course...
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Aid workers’ stereotypes and prejudices about residents of displacement camps in post-earthquake Haiti stem from an acute disconnect between NGOs and the people they are there to work with. These misperceptions have perpetuated deliberate decisions to deny water and sanitation services to desperate survivors.
Abonnema Wharf Community demolished by the Rivers State government in flagrant disregard of judicial process.
O Professor universitário camaronês estabelecido na Suíça efetua mais uma análise da guerra na Líbia e das suas consequências ideológicas.
Os lucros e riquezas obtidos pela exploração dos recursos naturais do Congo Oriental continuam a alimentar a violência, a pilhagem e o sofrimento da população congolesa.
The reality of communities with oil, gas and mineral resources - whether in Nigeria, Ecuador, Philippines or Canada - are the same. All of them face daily assaults on their lives.
A review of: (1) Fred Pearce, The Landgrabbers. The New Fight over Who Owns the Planet, Eden Project Books, London, 2012, pp.xii + 388, £20; and (2) GRAIN, The Great Food Robbery: How corporations control food, grab land and destroy the climate, Pambazuka Press, Oxford, 2012, pp.164, £14.95.
Nigeria’s Rotimi Babatunde has won the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for his short story entitled ‘Bombay's Republic’ from 'Mirabilia Review' Vol. 3.9 (Lagos, 2011).
The organisers of the campaign to name and shame the worst Olympic sponsor have announced preliminary voting results that show mining company Rio Tinto in the lead with BP in second place and Dow Chemical third. People have voted in the thousands on the Greenwash Gold website and final results will be announced and medals awarded just before the start of the games.
Politics in Ghana has been shaped by the events surrounding the overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah in 1966. Successive regimes have repressed the agitation for popular democracy.
South Africa is silent as members of the LGBTIQ community are attacked and killed, while Islamist militants are destroying treasured historical buildings in Mali. It is all ‘thoughtlessness’.
02 July 2012 - The Botshabelo Unemployed Movement (BUM) and the Democratic Left Front (DLF) call on informal traders in Botshabelo not to use foreign traders in the township as a scapegoat for their anger at the attacks they have faced from the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality last week and their dire economic circumstances. The BUM and the DLF regret last week’s outbreak of xenophobic violence in Botshabelo. The BUM and the DLF call on informal traders and all unemployed people to desist from continued attacks against foreign traders in Botshabelo.
02 July 2012 - The Democratic Left Front (DLF) fully endorses the call for support issued jointly by Abahlali BaseMjondolo (AbM) and the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) for the mass occupation of the ward councillor’s office in the Zakheleni shack settlement (in Ward 88 in Umlazi). This call for disciplined and peaceful occupation of the office is part of intensifying mass mobilisation and pressure against the ward councillor (Nomzamo Mkhize) and the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
29 June 2012 - Two Sudanese men currently detained in Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre in London have been on hunger strike for 37 days in protest against their indefinite detention, and are determined to continue until they are released. Visitors and human rights activists supporting their cases are extremely concerned for their health.
Former president, Jimmy Carter, denounces the current US administration for its disturbing and widespread violations of human rights.
Through The MasterCard Foundation, students may apply for a scholarship that will cover the costs related to the attainment of a Bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University (ASU) including: tuition; round trip airfare from the student’s home country to Phoenix, Arizona; housing; food; living expenses; and experiential learning abroad.
A complete application for The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program at ASU is available at Scholarship applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until 15 July 2012.
Message of solidarity and indignation from the Africa Region 1 of La Via Campesina after our comrades Alberto Gomez and Fatimatou Hima have been expelled from the Kinshasa airport, DRC, respectively in the evening of the 29th of June and 1st of July 2012.
The US government’s heightened preoccupation with “terrorists” is out of proportion with the threat these groups actually pose to the United States. So what exactly is America’s military adventures in Africa about?
Algerians are by nature anarchists. Whether at the level of local daily life or in periodic broader social movements, large numbers of grassroots Algerians over the past five decades have refused to accept the authoritarian and corrupt regime imposed since independence. That struggle continues.
The Berghof Foundation has announced the release of 'Giving Peace an Address? Reflections on the Potential and Challenges of Creating Peace Infrastructures' by Ulrike Hopp-Nishanka. It is the lead article in their Handbook Dialogue 'Peace Infrastructures – Assessing Concept and Practice'. The article defines and narrows the emergent concept of 'Peace Infrastructures' as networks of organisations established by conflict parties with the aim of building peace. Thus, it argues, infrastructures for peace have a great potential to contribute to peacebuilding, by strengthening the ownership and commitment of the stakeholders to the conflict.
The 9th session of the African Commission for Intelligence and Security Services (CISSA) concluded 27 June in Algiers with plans to further co-ordinate counter-terrorism initiatives across the continent. Government officials and security experts took part in the two-day closed session, which aimed to find solutions to the volatile situation in Mali, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) encroachment into the Sahel-Saharan region and other security threats. The annual meetings provide the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council with necessary information to draft African policy, preserve peace and settle disputes.
South African newspaper City Press reports that the ANC policy conference recommended the boycott of Israeli products as one of its planks to support the Palestinian freedom struggle. 'This is a significant policy shift in its relationship with Israel. At the policy conference the ANC delegates cheered the action by Minister Rob Davies to ensure that products from illegal Israeli settlements are re-labelled,' comments the blog Writing Rights.
Mireille Mbouaki farms in the village of Mboubissi, sixty kilometres southeast of Pointe-Noire, capital city of the Congolese department of Kouilou. This year the rains have been poor and irregular. Ms. Mbouaki is very worried. She has good reason to worry. In many coastal towns, cassava plants are suffering. Leaves are wrinkled and shriveled, plants are stunted, and roots are rotting. The changing climate has not been kind to Congolese farmers.
Abdul Hamid Adiamoh, managing editor of Today, a privately-owned newspaper, was on 28 June released by the Banjul Magistrates’ Court. Before his release, he had been in detention for eight days without charge. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that Adiamoh paid an outrageous fine of 100,000 Dalasis (about US$ 3,142) before he was released.
The World Bank, an institution set up to provide loans to developing countries and reduce global poverty, is often criticised in development circles. Much of this is directed at its failed structural adjustment programmes in the late-1980s which broke a trend of state-led development and introduced a market liberal approach. Questions remain about the bank's approach. Think Africa Press spoke to former World Bank President Robert Zoellick - replaced by Jim Yong Kim - and Peter Chowla of the Bretton Woods Project, an institution which aims to challenge the power of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund while opening the policymaking space and promoting alternative approaches.
Using or creating a new law is only the first step in what must be a longer political struggle to provide genuinely democratic forms of public water provision. As such, legal campaigns must also strive toward building frameworks for regulating, maintaining and monitoring progressive management of services after they become public. In addition, dedicated and committed activism is more critical to the success of campaigns than the legal tools themselves. These are two of the findings of a paper from the Municipal Services Project which examines how effective legal strategies have been in activism against the privatisation of water.
Israel deported 190 South Sudanese illegal migrants on Tuesday 3 July, raising the number of deportees from the Jewish state to the Africa’s newest nation to 317 since mid-June. The migrants landed at Juba international airport, where they were received by relatives and South Sudan government officials.
The lawyer for the family of slain Burkinabé president Thomas Sankara says he has 'irrevocable evidence' of those who assassinated the late charismatic leader. Mr Bénéwendé Sankara made the statement in Ouagadougou where he reapeted the call for Burkina Faso’s defence minister to order the launch of legal procedures in the matter. On Thursday, a superior court in Ouagadougou said the assassination case filed by the slain leader’s wife Mariam Sankara and their son could be prosecuted under local laws.
Human rights organisations in Sudan are calling on the government to release more than 1000 protestors reportedly arrested in the last two weeks over strikes which started on 16 June. The protests have been going on in the capital Khartoum and other regional towns, were triggered by the government's cut on fuel subsidies but generally they are due to economic hardships. Using tear gas and rubber bullets Sudan's anti-riot police units and plain clothed security agents of the National intelligence and Security Services (NISS) engaged in running battles with protestors arresting some in the process.
A campaign by Nature Kenya and other Environmental Justice Organizations (EJOs) has saved the Dakatcha Woodland Important Bird Area (IBA) from destruction from biofuel crops after Kenya's National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) rejected clearance for a pilot project on over 10,000 ha of land, reports Africa Report.
About 70.2 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide have been sold or leased to private and public investors since 2000, according to this article from the Worldwatch Institute. The bulk of these acquisitions, which are called 'land grabs' by some observers, took place between 2008 and 2010, peaking in 2009. Although data for 2010 indicate that the amount of acquisitions dropped considerably after the 2009 peak, it still remains well above pre-2005 level. Africa has seen the greatest share of land involved in these acquisitions, with 34.3 million hectares sold or leased since 2000.
This paper examines what motivates the participation of African slum dwellers in urban social movement activities, through a case study of grassroots mobilisation around evictions in Kurasini ward, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The study shows that, contrary to the expectations of movement leaders, property owners were significantly more likely than renters to participate in a risky and time-consuming mobilisation effort. The study identifies three factors that favoured owner participation: the nature of expected payoffs from participation; greater belief in their efficacy of action; and greater connection to place.
Kenya has asked several countries to help it recover corrupt cash stashed in overseas accounts, but not all have agreed, the east African country's top legal adviser said. Corruption has blighted the image of east Africa's biggest economy for decades and many Kenyans view efforts to stamp it out as bogus and ineffective. Githu Muigai, Kenya's attorney general, said four territories had agreed to cooperate - Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom and Jersey, a British dependency known for its offshore banking.
Twaweza has developed a draft note, 'Three Experiments to Improve Learning Outcomes: Delivering capitation grants better and testing local cash on delivery,' on incentivizing learning in schools. The basic idea involves paying a set amount for every child that achieves proficiency in early grade literacy and numeracy, and to contrast it with an input based incentive such as the capitation grant. A set of randomized control trials (RCTs) will be used to rigorously measure impact. The idea has been developed in consultation with the Center for Global Development, the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL) at MIT, the Tanzania government, local Members of Parliament and the teachers’ trade union.
The international community on Tuesday 3 July weighed options to help embattled Mali save its north from Islamist fighters who have smashed ancient shrines in Timbuktu and rigged another city with landmines. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc says it has 3,300 troops ready to enter Mali, whose vast north has been occupied by armed rebels for three months after a 22 March coup plunged the nation into chaos.
Idasa's Right to Know, Right to Education project has published its latest newsletter. The newsletter provides inisghts into the project impact and feedback from project partners involved with project implementation in Zambia and Kenya.
The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has welcomed the news that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) will work closely with Section27 to resolve the text book crisis in Limpopo and that they have indicated that they intend meeting with civil society. This was revealed in a joint statement by Section27 and the DBE on Thursday 28 June 2012. Sarah Sephton, the LRC’s director in Grahamstown said the LRC has not had any response from the Minister of Basic Education’s office on the non-delivery of workbooks in the Eastern Cape and urged the Minister to adopt a similar approach to this issue as she has taken to the text books.
The Arabic Network of Human Rights Institutions has expressed its extreme indignation over the increase of the harassment of journalists, bloggers and activists in Morocco. This comes after the arrest of the blogger 'Hasan Barhon'. In addition, they cite threats and assault against 'Ahmed El-Merini', as well as the arranged robbery of the activist 'Mohamed El-Morabt'.