Pambazuka News 508: Crisis of capitalism: Exploitation, resistance and solidarity
Pambazuka News 508: Crisis of capitalism: Exploitation, resistance and solidarity
There was a large presence of female thugs who terrorized both women and men in the recently held Egyptian elections, says a new report, 'The Gender Perspective in the 2010 Parliamentary Elections'. The report said female candidates were guilty of the same violations as male candidates. The majority of women supported male candidates, but the majority of those who supported female candidates were Muslim Brotherhood members.
Over 600 new cases of AIDS were recorded during the first nine months of 2010 in Algeria, where the disease has spread relentlessly since the outbreak began in 1985. 'According to the likeliest estimates, there are between 21,000 and 30,000 people living with the virus,' Dr Skander Abdelkader Soufi announced November 24th at an Algiers forum on HIV/AIDS.
The camp of Ivorian presidential challenger Alassane Ouattara vowed on Friday to reject any legal move to overturn provisional poll results giving him victory, warning of a possible return to civil war. The world's top cocoa grower was plunged into uncertainty last Thursday after the constitutional council, whose chief is close to President Laurent Gbagbo, said it did not recognise provisional results and would rule on the outcome within days.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who sometimes resides in Kenya and Tanzania, has severely embarrassed the Obama Administration throughout the past week with the leaking of US diplomatic cables. Worse is, by all accounts, yet to come. The leaked files include material from the 2007 Kenyan election and its violent aftermath. They are much-awaited in some quarters of the Kenyan political sector, especially with regard to the ongoing build-up to the cases at The Hague by International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. There are even those who are hoping that something might crop up in the Kenya cables which could play game changer to the whole ICC process as it stands at present.
The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) has become a 'talkshop' that is failing to lead the country’s fight against AIDS because it is poorly resourced, lacks leadership and there is confusion over its role. This is according to civil society groups and several sources working within the body, which was set up in 2000 to co-ordinate the country’s response to HIV.
Zimbabwean authorities have admitted that they are having serious problems issuing new passports to tens of thousands of nationals in South Africa, just a few weeks before a deadline to get proper documents in place runs out. Co-Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone, said this week that they may need to enlist the help of the South African government, because Zimbabwe is unable to process enough passports on its own. Makone said, after holding talks with her South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that Zimbabwe could only process 500 passports a day.
The former ruling ZANU PF party has withdrawn its support for changes to the Public Order and Security Amendments Act (POSA). POSA is a piece of legislation tightened up by a ZANU PF dominated parliament in 2002. The draconian legislation gives untold powers to the police, who apparently opposed changes to the Act. The Ministry of Home Affairs and the police are responsible for the administration of the Act.
Amnesty International has called on all states to commit themselves to end enforced disappearances, following news that a landmark treaty aimed at preventing the practice will come into effect. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (Disappearances Convention) will enter into force on 23 December, after Iraq on Wednesday became the 20th country to ratify it. The Convention aims to establish the truth about enforced disappearances, punish perpetrators and provide reparations to victims and their families.
At first glance Zimbabwe's public health system has undergone a renaissance since the dire days two years ago when shortages of drugs, staff and equipment were the norm. But this was not the norm, said John Mushangi, 42, an insurance broker who rushed his 15-year-old son to the facility after he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. 'We waited for more than three hours before being attended and during that time my son was bleeding heavily. There was no reason for the hospital staff to take so long because there were few patients in front of us [in the queue],' he told IRIN.
Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika has ordered that the electoral commission be suspended amid talks of grave fraud. The suspension follows an audit report detailing some US$ 9 million meant for local government elections scheduled for April next year and cannot be accounted for.
Google literally brought Accra - the capital of Ghana in West Africa - to a standstill with the public launch of its new product Google Trader. It is a free online classifieds service that allows Ghanaians to buy and sell products and services, as well as search for jobs or just about anything else. According to Google, Trader can be used by anyone in Ghana, but is expected to have the biggest uptake in major towns and cities across the country. 'Individuals can post short ads to buy and sell items and services, whilst businesses of any size can also use the site to reach more customers and increase their sales,' a statement read.
Ten years after the signing of an accord designed to move Burundi from civil war to democratic stability, the country has yet to establish transitional justice mechanisms aimed at enhancing reconciliation and bringing to book those responsible for crimes committed during the country's turbulent years. Human rights activists and political observers say the lack of these mechanisms - a truth and reconciliation commission and some form of criminal tribunal - had perpetuated a culture of impunity, allowing human rights violations to proliferate, especially by state organs such as the police and judiciary.
Kenya is likely to witness worsening food security, significant disease outbreaks, and further pockets of conflict in 2011, as well as a continuing flow of refugees from Somalia, say aid officials. 'There is a fear of La Niña compromising the [food security] gains made,' said Aeneas Chuma, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator at the 30 November launch of Kenya’s 2011 Emergency Humanitarian Response Plan (EHRP) appeal. Most of the US$525 million funding requested is expected to meet food security and refugee needs.
Hundreds of residents from civil society organisations marched in the streets of Bulawayo on 1 December to mark the 16 days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Girls . But sex workers and members of gay groups were barred by police from joining the demonstration. A dozen organisations took part in the event in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo. The commemoration was organised by the Musasa Project, an organisation that deals with domestic violence, under the slogan 'Structures of violence :Defining safety and security for women and girls'.
The United States and its allies should give much more attention - and resources - to ensuring that weak West African governments along the oil- and gas-rich Gulf of Guinea can protect their territory and coastal regions from terrorists, drug and human traffickers, and other threats, according to new report by an influential think tank released here this week. The 80-page report, published by the Washington-based Atlantic Council, warns that current economic and political conditions, as well as regional demographic trends are 'creating a fertile environment where illicit groups including acolytes of radical Islam can readily win new adherents'.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is moving to support its member countries to tap into benefits from the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) framework. Destruction of forests both contributes to carbon emissions and deprives the planet of an important mechanism to soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming.
Furious demonstrations continued across Haiti last Wednesday following the 28 November highly contested election in which thousands found themselves unable to vote. Rock-throwing and road-barricading protests were reported in Les Cayes, Hinche, Petit Goave and Archaie. On Tuesday, demonstrators clashed with United Nations peacekeeping troops in St. Marc and Gonaives. The UN mission issued several alerts to its personnel restricting movement.
In an interview with The Africa Report, the founder of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force. explains why the Niger Delta's troubles remain central to Nigeria's politics. 'The NDPVF was formed after the 2003 elections when the government threatened that they wanted me dead because of my views. I had offered to be a witness at Muhammadu Buhari’s election tribunal hearing. They were shocked that as close as I was to Odili, I would be willing to give evidence against his party’s conduct of the 2003 election in Rivers State.'
Egypt does not want to see a divided Sudan after the 9 January 2011 referendum, fearing an independent South will threaten its stranglehold on the River Nile waters, a leaked US embassy cable has revealed. In the cables published by online whistleblower WikiLeaks, Egypt had even asked the US government to help postpone the referendum by four to six years. The position is radically divergent from that of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) which on behalf of African Union has been pushing the Sudan parties to adhere to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and hold the referendum next year as scheduled.
In the aftermath of the referendum and simultaneous failed putsch, a veritable waltzes of arrestations and investigations are shedding a sad shadow on the island, says this Global Voices post. The referendum lowers the presidential age to 35 years old (from 40 years old), allows Andry Rajoelina (now 36 years old) to participate in presidential elections, to stay in power indefinitely during the transitional period, however long that period becomes.
Bloggers have reacted to documents published by WikiLeaks (Cablegate) that disclosed classified communication between the US State department and its embassies worldwide. The documents make reference to African countries and its leaders. In this Global Voices post, the views of bloggers are summarised, but there are also lists of stories related to Africa and relevant WikiLeaks documents.
A three-year plan to address the quality of education in Africa was launched in Tunis on Friday with various education officials from Africa calling for radical reforms to set guidelines for the sector. The programme, which begins in 2011, to be hosted in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, is on the theme, 'Education and training in service of Africa’s sustainable development.' Organisers say that the goal is to adapt education mechanisms to train competences to meet the needs expressed by companies and the job market.
Mauritanian newspapers this week devoted a large part of their analysis and comments to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz's offer of dialogue to the opposition during the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence. In its Wednesday 1 December edition, 'Le Quotidien de Nouakchott' asked if the Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD), which brings together nine political parties, has swallowed the precondition of the points included in the Dakar agreement. The Dakar agreement led to the holding of the 18 July, 2009 presidential election, which helped the country return to the rule of law after the 6 August, 2008 coup.
No one but the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) seems to dispute the fact that there was massive fraud during the first round of the parliamentary elections on 28 November. Many journalists were physically prevented from covering the widespread irregularities. Such incidents are unfortunately expected to recur during the second round on 5 December. Reporters Without Borders has drawn up a non-exhaustive list of cases of abusive behaviour towards journalists by NDP members and supporters with the complicity of the police on 28 November.
The Guinea Supreme Court last Thursday confirmed Alpha Conde, leader of the Rally of the People of Guinea (RPG), winner of the 7 November presidential run-off vote in the country. The 72-year-old Conde therefore becomes the fifth president of the Republic of Guinea, following the Supreme Court announcement which barely beat the Thursday midnight dateline set for the release of the results.
The military Joint Task Force (JTF) battling militants in Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta region last Wednesday raided and destroyed three camps operated by militant John Togo, seizing several weapons, a military spokesman said. The JTF spokesman, Lt.-Col Timothy Antigha, however said Thursday it was too early to give casualty figures, while denying rebels' claim that 100 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack, in the creeks of Delta state.
As online whistleblower WikiLeaks started publishing hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. embassy cables this week, from unflattering assessments of world leaders to secret plans to topple governments, here's what three IFEX members - ARTICLE 19, Index on Censorship and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) - had to say. 'We're more or less satisfied with WikiLeaks' evolution,' the head of RSF, Jean-Francois Julliard, told AFP. 'We like this partnership with the newspapers and this work to put things in context, verify the information and draw lessons from it,' he said. ARTICLE 19 reiterated its call for governments to improve the public's access to information, and only limit access if governments can demonstrate it would cause a specific and articulated harm.
Cameroonian journalists Robert Mintya and Serge Sabouang were released conditionally on 24 November on the order of President Paul Biya, report Journaliste en danger (JED), Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). They had been in prison since March 2010.
Reporters Without Borders has deploreed the fact that a climate of hostility towards the French news media is being encouraged by Côte d’Ivoire’s state-owned radio and TV stations and certain privately-owned newspapers in Abidjan that support President Laurent Gbagbo, such as Le Temps and Notre Voie. 'Our priority is respect for the safety of journalists,' Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. 'We are very disturbed that the national radio and TV have named foreign media and some of their staff and have blamed them for the current turmoil. This is dishonest and dangerous.'
Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) a Johannesburg based organisation that advocates for lesbians’ rights, strongly condemns the vicious attack of 21-year-old Ncumisa Mzamelo in an apparent hate crime. According to reports, Mzamelo’s lifestyle could have been why she was murdered, dumped in a disused toilet and her body set on fire. The circumstances and the severe brutality of the attack are indicative that the victim may have been targeted because of her sexual orientation. The intersectionality of black lesbians identities continue to put them at risk of being 'corrected' of their sexuality.
Liberia is the first country in Africa to establish a national action plan to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. The document, which was adopted by all member states unanimously in 2000, calls on states to include women in the peace-building process. Article 11 of the resolution emphasises the responsibility of all parties to put an end to impunity and to persecute those responsible for sexual gender-based violence.
The facts are grotesque and chilling. Violence against women, who constitute more than a half of the human population, is a pervasive and cold reality of social life in most societies. Its human and economic costs are simply staggering. If we are to redeem humanity for a better world, it is imperative that we awake our consciences and adopt robust and effective strategies to eradicate this mutating pathology that has become an integral equation in the calculus of domination.
Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga has done it again. Like many African leaders, he’s gone out of his way to endanger the gay and lesbian citizens of his country, thus increasing the likelihood of violence in a region already wracked with myriad problems. Last week at a Nairobi rally, as the annual 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence campaign was kicking off throughout Africa, Odinga called on police to arrest gays and lesbians if they were caught having sex, noting homosexual activity is illegal in the country’s constitution. Homosexual acts are illegal in many African countries, including Uganda, whose parliament has spent the better part of this year debating an Anti-Homosexual bill which could see gays and lesbians executed.
Compelling new evidence suggests the Nigerian military killed four Ogoni elders whose murders led to the execution of the playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. The evidence also reveals that the notorious military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Okuntimo, whose troops were implicated in murder and rape, was in the pay of Shell at the time of the killings and was driven around in a Shell vehicle.
With the climate world focused for the next two weeks on a summit in the Mexican city of Cancun, various players are questioning the role of the UN's climate change negotiations, writes Rehana Dada.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is supposed to create global governance for a global resource, putting into place international legislation that would prevent a human-caused planetary catastrophe by reducing and controlling greenhouse gas pollution. Hopes have already been dismissed that the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cancun will produce a binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Africa’s lead negotiator, Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi, said Cancun would be a 'total flop'.
Anna Tibaijuka, until recently the executive director of the UN Habitat, has been appointed to the Tanzanian cabinet. Chambi Chachage writes to her and offers some sage advice.
Okachikwu Dibia takes a roadtrip to a village in Nigeria and is appalled at the state of the roads.
A group of Ugandan organisations and individuals have made an urgent appeal to civil society to support the inclusion of sexual minorities in national health policy.
Isis-WICCE will be actively participating in the 16 Days of Activism by hosting a cyber dialogue on its newly revamped website. As an organisation, we have had the privilege of working with women’s activists globally. Therefore, we would like to call upon our networks to create a forum where members can share their thoughts, opinions, and statements on the theme of ‘militarism and violence against women’.
Participants will be invited to contribute in the cyber dialogue which they can also share within their networks. The dialogue will commence on the first day of activism and continue for 16 days with every other day providing a new engaging question.
The theme of the 16 Days of Activism is pertinent to the work of Isis-WICCE. We have seen how conflict and post-conflict situations create atmospheres and situations where militarism increases violence against women, especially taking into consideration the role the military plays as either perpetrators of violence or as their mandated role in protecting them. Thus, it is important to open up a discussion on the structures of violence that do exist and navigate a way forward.
This is a call for all parties who are interested to visit the Isis-WICCE Blog beginning on 25 November 2010 to participate in the dialogue.
Vali Jamal writes about his forthcoming book on Ugandan Asians. The book is called ‘Ugandan Asians: Then and Now’ and should be available in July 2011.
Writer Chuma Nwokolo recently launched a creative venture that mixes the power of blogging with story-telling. He published a brand new story on his blog, but the story was told in six letters, each of which he published daily throughout this week, with the final letter published on Saturday. The catch was that if the six parts got a hundred comments between them, he'd promise his readers to start a brand-new serial on the following Monday. 'So if you want a new tale next week - or if you simply want to put me through the torture of writing one under pressure - get commenting and send this link around your friends too!' he wrote on his blog. Visit the blog to find out how the story went.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers.
From the Seychelles to Liberia, African countries are creating financial centres that demand little or no taxation. Khadija Sharife provides a run-down of the places to hide away money from the taxman.
The iron rule of Hosni Mubarak has dominated Egypt for three decades. The regime he heads is preparing for the succession and seeking to channel Egyptians’ hunger for change into a tool of retrenchment. The secular opposition is absorbed by the effort of staying in the political game; the Muslim Brotherhood has larger ambitions. What place does a parliamentary election have in this landscape? Tarek Osman provides an assessment from Cairo.
The question isn’t ‘whether Ethiopians in America have reason to be thankful for the blessings of liberty and the opportunities they have to make material progress’, it is whether they should be thankful to the US for providing billions of dollars to Zenawi’s repressive dictatorship, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam.
A closer look at Haiti’s history demonstrates ‘how deeply problematic it is to think that the US and France should play any role in the governance and internal policy-making of Haiti,' writes Anthony Morgan.
Even with Mbeki gone, South Africa remains plagued by quacks selling ZAR80 juices they claim can cure a disease that only ARVs can treat, writes Oliver Meth.
Diagne Roland Fodé
Saudi Arabia's strategy to outsource food production will be at the top of the agenda when several heads of state and high-level delegations from African countries arrive in Riyadh for an investor conference on 4 December 2010. In some of these countries, Saudi investors are already acquiring farmland and starting to put the Kingdom's policies into operation. One of their main targets is West Africa's rice lands.
As a new report reveals that global beverage company SABMiller uses no fewer than 65 tax havens including Switzerland and Mauritius, Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at the company’s history in apartheid South Africa.
In recognition of World AIDS Day, Dibussi Tande brings a message from the African blogosphere ‘to think positive, and stand in solidarity with those infected and affected’.
In the midst of a global economical crisis as well as a climate crisis, South Africa needs an employment plan, rather than a traditional ‘growth path’. Employment should take place where it is needed, not where private for-profit interests deem it ‘possible’. The shortcomings of the New Growth Plan (NGP) show that organised labour and popular movements must continue to engage in the debate and forge an alternative economic policy to neo-liberalism.
The Children’s Resources Centre, Black Sash, COSATU (Western Cape), the National Consumer Forum and five individual bread consumers have launched the second class action ever undertaken in South Africa. They are seeking damages for consumers to recoup financial losses from bread producers over the increase of bread prices. 'The outcome of the investigations by the Competition Authorities, upon which the merits of our case are based, confirmed what we already suspected and feared: that the increase on bread prices was not some unfortunate occurrence caused by unpredictable weather patterns or the fluctuating price of fuel. Instead, the increase was the result of a series of immoral decisions by companies less concerned about the livelihoods of consumers than about squeezing out competitors, breaking the law, and making profit.'
South African blacks must put aside political affiliations and work together if they are to develop schools that will provide their children with a good education and the freedom to decide their own destinies, writes Veli Mbele.
The Fahamu Emerging Powers in Africa Programme is pleased to announce a call for applications for its Journalist Study Tour to India. Four successful applicants will be chosen to participate in a 6-day study tour. African media professionals in print, broadcast, radio and online fora throughout Africa are encouraged to apply for this study tour. African lecturers from journalism schools and media programmes on the continent may also apply.
Four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Africa have been selected to receive a prestigious award by UK-based charity, the STARS Foundation. Bungoma-based NGO, ACE Africa Kenya, Nairobi-based NGO, Childline Kenya, Hargeisa-based Africa Educational Trust and Cape Town-based, Home from Home Trust, will each receive a STARS Impact Award, consisting of $100,000 in unrestricted funding and tailored consultancy support. They will be presented to the charities’ Directors on 2nd December at a ceremony in London.
The Commission for Gender Equality has issued an invite for people to attend a two-day public hearing on gender transformation in the workplace.
Last year, the world spent $1.53 trillion dollars on the military. We can’t afford this price tag. We have too many other priorities that require our money: poverty, climate change, job creation. It’s time for people all over the world to come together and say no to the generals and the military contractors. Visit the website to find out more.
Economic growth that fails to take into account social and environmental impacts will not allow us to tackle critical global issues such as climate change and poverty reduction. The focus should be on quality not quantity, writes Muna Lakhani.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is unfortunately synonymous with its dreadful past and its terrible present, despite its beauty, complex history and unachieved potential. Locked not only into its own internal troubles but also into those of the Great Lakes region, it has provided more than enough material on forced migration, violence and political quagmires for the latest issue of FMR. While the articles contained in this issue of FMR make grim reading, they also offer glimmers of hope for better outcomes, at least potentially, alongside analysis of how and why these things have been happening. Authors come from Congolese civil society, UN agencies and NGOs, Congolese and donor governments, and international research - and include articles by the former UN Relief Coordinator John Holmes and the former Humanitarian Coordinator in DRC Ross Mountain. This issue also contains a further seven articles on other forced migration-related subjects.
Konstantina Isidoros’s article ‘raises the bar, lifts the lid and exposes the follies of Morocco perfectly’ writes Martin Dewhurst.
‘There are two monetary systems fighting for control of the global markets,’ writes Ellen Dunn. ‘One system is controlled by US and western European private banks using debt and the other is managed by sovereign states.’
The 83 members of WOZA (Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise) arrested after a peaceful protest to mark International Peace Day appeared in a routine remand hearing in Harare Magistrate’s Court on 1 December. They were further remanded out of custody to 29 December 2010.
Patrick Bond’s ‘The Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neo-liberalism in South Africa’ provides a useful framework for thinking about the effects of the country’s economy policy on the poor, writes Udo W. Froese.
With Ireland in the throes of pervasive public-spending cuts following its financial bailout, Horace Campbell calls for solidarity and the need to ‘internationalise the resistance in order to change the system’.
Israel’s most recent measure in ongoing efforts to deport the country’s growing migrant worker and refugee community is the government’s approval of a detention facility in the Negev desert for migrants and refugees. Israel considers only a small number of the 35,000 Africans, who have entered Israel over the past few years, as refugees. The rest are viewed as illegal economic migrants.
Uncleared minefields in northern Uganda’s Lamwo district have prevented thousands of people displaced during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency from returning home, officials said. 'These people can’t go to their villages [in Agoro sub-county] unless the place is cleared and declared free of the landmines,' local government official Mathew Ocen Akiya told IRIN. He said some 10,000 people were unable to go home because of the mines.
The vast inequalities of wealth on either side of the invisible boundary between the Arab world’s richest and poorest countries - Yemen and Saudi Arabia - have come to define the small town of Haradh in northwestern Yemen, where aid agencies are scrambling to help an increasing number of stranded and ill-treated African migrants. In addition to drugs and arms smuggling, Haradh is becoming increasingly infamous for its role in the trafficking of African migrants in search of work in Saudi Arabia.
After decades in exile, almost a quarter of a million officially registered refugees in Uganda and similar numbers of unregistered refugees are considering the prospect of returning to Sudan. Based on interviews conducted with refugees and returnees in northern Uganda and South Sudan, this research paper from the Policy Development and Evaluation Service of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is about the lives of individual Sudanese people who are either still living in Uganda and might identify themselves as refugees, migrants, traders or a little bit of all three, or have returned to South Sudan after decades in exile.
While some have looked favourably on Essar Africa Holdings Ltd being selected as the preferred private corporation to take on 54 per cent of the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO), Khadija Sharife points out that it’s not all good news.
Low expectations about the outcomes of Cancun show how far climate change has fallen on the world's political agenda. ‘And that is bad indeed,’ writes Martin Khor, ‘because the climate problem has got even worse.’
Firoze Manji e Molly Kane
As the UN Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opens in Cancun this week, Subhankar Banerjee explains why an agreement on the UN’s REDD programme would spell disaster for indigenous forest communities. ‘Is this the time to tinker with trading carbon by taking away the forests from the indigenous inhabitants and then selling the credits to the polluters – or is it possible to develop a common global vision of moving away from fossil fuel altogether and working with forest dwellers on sustainable solutions?’ Banerjee asks.
'After years of being told about the millions of illegal foreigners in the country who are responsible for the high crime rate and who deprive South Africans of jobs and housing, the government has suddenly managed to lose a million Zimbabweans. Where did they go?' asks this article on the Lawyers for Human Rights website. 'With the deadline for the issuing of special permits for Zimbabweans rapidly approaching, and with doubts surrounding government's ability to process all those seeking permits to avoid facing deportation, the government has adopted a new purpose - and a new set of numbers to suit this purpose.'
Clinical officer Silverius Kesanta uses his mobile phone to take pictures and notes of patients in remote areas of Tanzania and shares this information online with specialists from Dar es Salaam and abroad. Specialists view the information and provide advice so Kesanta can treat these patients himself. By using his mobile phone for distance diagnosis, Silverius Kesanta was able to treat a cheek infection of a young boy in the isolated Iringa region. Kesanta works at the Ilembula Lutheran Hospital and frequently visits people on location in the isolated Iringa region. As a clinical officer he treats patients, but for complex medical cases he needs specialist advice.
Kenya and South Africa signed agreements last Friday aimed at improving commercial relations between the two regional economic powerhouses before a planned visit by President Jacob Zuma next year. The deals were sealed during a visit by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to east Africa’s biggest economy. He said his trip was to create a better environment for businessmen to trade freely between the two countries.
Ministers and heads of African states refused to pass a draft declaration on climate change at the Africa-EU summit, it is said. Participating ministers refused to pass the draft Joint Africa- EU Declaration on Climate Change because it only showed the EU position rather than the African countries’ stance, Ahmed Abul Gheit said after a ministerial meeting in the Libyan capital of Tripoli last Sunday.
Trade ministers from the East African Community (EAC) economic bloc plan to continue trade talks with the European Union despite missing a November deadline, a top Kenyan official said. David Nalo, permanent secretary to Kenya’s East African Community Affairs ministry, told Reuters he expected the negotiations to last another year. 'Ministers of Trade in Arusha have agreed to engage with (the European Commission) and complete the negotiations that will lead to the signing of a full EPA,' Nalo said by telephone.
Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a distressing reality effecting millions of women and girls in almost all societies around the world. The continuous violation of women’s basic human rights through GBV hinders not only their development, but also the progress of the communities and countries they live in. In Africa and in most parts of the world, the root cause of GBV is the unequal power relations that exist between females and males and the low status of women. FEMNET’s involvement in the Men to Men Project started with a men to men consultation held in December 2001. The consultation brought together men from Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa, representing community organisations, human rights and legal groups, religious organisations, universities and the police. Visit their site to find out more.
A widespread farming catastrophe could hit Africa if global temperatures rose by four degrees Celsius or more, according to a study that calls for urgent planning for a much warmer future and investment in technology to avert disaster. In most of southern Africa the growing season could shrink by as much as a fifth, according to scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya, who carried out simulation studies based on existing climate change models.
Government officials, representatives of United Nations agencies and members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines will be meeting from 29 November through 3 December to discuss their efforts and plans to implement the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. They are talking about national victim-assistance plans, including how landmine survivors are involved in designing, carrying out and monitoring such work. They are talking about issues that affect women like me.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has pledged a renewed commitment to address the continuing problems faced by refugee women and girls around the world. 'Clearly, many challenges remain,' Guterres said in a special message to staff to mark the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter's talk of cleaning up the world's governing body belies its inherent corruption, suggests Gado.
The International Federation of Human Rights has compiled a Q&A about the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC), which is taking place before the International Criminal Court. 'This case is very important because, for the first time, the ICC focuses primarily on the prosecution of crimes of sexual violence, thus acknowledging that such crimes were widespread and systematic,' one of the answers says.
Uganda has lost more than two million hectares of forest since 1990, mostly converted to farmland by a growing population of smallholders. Carbon finance through the REDD programme is often presented as one way to arrest this destruction, but only if the benefits clearly translate to the grassroots. Almost a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide comes from the destruction of forests – second only to the energy sector. The idea behind REDD – reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation – is to give carbon stored in forests a financial value; financing the protection of forests in developing countries like Uganda with money raised from selling carbon stored in those trees to polluters in the developed world.
Tasha Ncube* has no kind words for the police. Early last month, the 31-year-old mother of two was beaten several times by her husband over what she says were small arguments. 'I reported him to the police.' But Ncube did not get the response she expected. 'They said I should go back home and ask relatives to mediate as they were getting many reports from women who withdrew charges after the husband apologised. I was so angry I did not know what to say…' Like many other women, she returned home to continue life with her abusive husband.
A thousand babies are infected with HIV every day - in pregnancy, during birth and through breastfeeding. Close to 400,000 African children are infected with HIV every year. The situation points back to the high HIV prevalence amongst women of reproductive age, especially in Southern Africa. Zambia is one of the countries recognised for making progress in addressing the problem.?? Seventy thousand Zambian women between the ages of 15 and 40 have HIV; the health ministry says 85 thousand children are living with the virus.
Baptista Macule is sitting on a sack of groundnuts in a dusty side-alley near the sprawling, makeshift Malanga market on the outskirts of Maputo. He squints into the sun as he tries to explain the extent of poverty in his country. 'People do not have enough food in their house,' he says. 'There are not enough jobs, and even when people have jobs, the salaries are very low. Salaries have not increased, but prices have.'
Southern Africa represents a region of diverse migration patterns including the movement of people within countries, across borders and between different continents. This paper from the International Organisation for Migration and the The Forced Migration Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand focuses on South Africa, and explores the linkages between health and the diverse movements of people within the county and across its borders. One of its findings is that current health-system planning within South Africa does not adequately engage with the health of migrants when they are in urban and transition areas.
Peter W. Vakunta reviews Benjamin Kwakye’s ‘The Other Crucifix’, a book which he regards as ‘the handiwork of a literary virtuoso’.
I am here
I am here
Screamed
The Oak tree
Twenty-two years after the first World AIDS Day, it’s time to acknowledge that African governments have officially ‘disappeared’ the existence of three highly vulnerable populations - sex workers, people who inject drugs, and gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM). It’s time for the denial to stop, urges Joel Nana.
Gerald Caplan charts the bloodthirsty history of ‘the most awesome military power the world has ever known’. 'Look forward to a future of permanent war in the pursuit of peace,' he writes.
Villagers in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe area in Mashonaland East province have expressed concern over mining activities by a Chinese company, which they accuse of endangering their lives and that of animals along the Mazowe river. The villagers in Zambu under headman Mushambi in Chief Chinhanga’s area complained of water pollution and siltation being caused by disposal of waste by a Mingehang Sino Africa Mining Investment gold milling plant, which is a few metres from the river.
Two Congolese student leaders in Harare were last week allegedly abducted by suspected state security agents, and grilled about their relationship with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opposition leader Sapard Tshimanginda Kalala. The students claim they were held for over 24 hours. Kalala, a renowned academic who heads the National People’s Patriotic Party of the Congo will be challenging DRC President Joseph Kabila, who has very close ties with President Robert Mugabe, in next year’s elections.
South African poet and writer Rustum Kozain reviews ‘The Uprising of Hangberg’, Dylan Valley and Aryan Kaganof's portrayal of two days of violence in Cape Town. Watch a . This article first appeared on the website of The Africa Report.
Lamenting Somalia’s long-term problems, Warsan Cismaan Saalax stresses that it ‘is important to begin triangled negotiations and dialogue between the TFG [Transitional Federal Government], Puntland and Somaliland’.
The majority of the world's child soldiers are involved in a variety of armed political groups. These include government-backed paramilitary groups, militias and self-defence units operating in many conflict zones. Others include armed groups opposed to central government rule, groups composed of ethnic religious and other minorities and clan-based or factional groups fighting governments and each other to defend territory and resources. This document from the Child Soldiers Initiative provides key facts and figures about child soldiers.
According to UN-HABITAT’s State of African Cities 2010, the share of Africans living in cities is set to jump from 40 per cent in 2009 to 60 per cent in 2050. The projections of this report indicate that Lagos, Nigeria, will surpass Cairo to become Africa’s most populous city, while Kinshasha, DR Congo, is expected become the fastest-growing city on the continent and top Cairo’s population within a decade.