Pambazuka News 532: Time to bury the IMF
Pambazuka News 532: Time to bury the IMF
The Executive Director is responsible for all programmes and projects of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) including their conceptualisation, implementation according to FEMNET’s contractual obligations and internal policies and reporting on them. The Executive Director is responsible to the Board of Trustees and Executive Board and manages on the day to day basis the human and financial resources of FEMNET and is the Head of the Regional Secretariat in Nairobi, Kenya.
La Directrice Exécutive est responsable de tous les programmes et projets du Réseau de Développement et de Communication des Femmes Africaines (FEMNET), notamment de leur conceptualisation, de leur mise en oeuvre suivant les obligations contractuelles et les politiques internes et de faire rapport là-dessus. La Directrice Exécutive rend compte au Comité de gestion et au Conseil d’administration et elle assure quotidienne des ressources humaines et financières de FEMNET et elle est à la tête du Secrétariat régional à Nairobi, Kenya.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, will hold its 13th General Assembly on 5-9 December 2011, in Rabat, Morocco. The triennial General Assembly is one of the most important scientific events of the African continent. It provides the African social science research community with a unique opportunity to reflect on some of the key issues facing the social sciences in particular, and Africa and the world at large.
On 3 May journalists the world over commemorated World Press Freedom Day with gusto and pomp. They used the opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future events that have shaped the profession. But as the world commemorated, there were concerns in a Declaration issued by a Namibian conference about the lack of gender equality in the media.
Members of the gay and lesbian community have said they will lobby for the abolition of laws which criminalise their sexual orientation. Speaking at a dinner to mark the international day against homophobia and the minority groups, they said they will seek to have sections 162 to 165 of the Penal Code repealed. It was hosted by the Coast regional office of the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals,Transgender and Intersexuals.
Jalaa Writers’ Collective was created in 2009 by ten Nigeria-based writers who came together in an effort to tackle the book production and distribution challenges of the local publishing industry. The business model of Jalaa is based on the premise that there exists 'a gap between professional, traditionally published books that sell in the thousands and amateurish subsidy and self-published books that sell in the hundreds'. As such, the collective aims to engage the weaknesses of the industry by pooling the talent, resources and experience of its members in a systematic and profit-oriented manner.
Pambazuka News 531: Lessons from the uprisings
Pambazuka News 531: Lessons from the uprisings
The revolutionary uprisings underway across the Maghreb region offer five initial lessons, says Gustave Massiah.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/we'llgowhenfinished_tmb.jpgThe impact of climate change on women in Ethiopia, questionable carbon credit and biofuels schemes, a Liberian activist’s work with child soldiers, and France’s commercial ties to its former colonies are among the topics covered in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, compiled by Sokari Ekine.
Daisy Díaz, executive secretary of Cuban-African Friendship Association, sent Pambazuka readers this postcard, commemorating both African Liberation Day and the second anniversary of the passing of Pan-Africanist Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem on 25 May.
Béatrice Hibou speaks to France-based Tunisian dissident and intellectual Sadri Khiari about the roots of the Tunisian revolution and why no-one saw it coming.
While 50 years have passed since Algeria achieved independence from France, Algerians still lack a cohesive historical narrative of their past, writes Smaïl Goumeziane. Though fraught with difficulty, working towards such a history would go some way towards challenging ‘wars of memory’ and ‘selective amnesia’, Goumeziane stresses.
Looking at how Kenya's inheritance laws leave women in the lurch, Salma Maoulidi says it's impossible for African women to celebrate Africa Day when they are ‘not celebrated in the most intimate of spaces’ – their families and communities.
US preacher Harold Camping conned people into paying him $80 million in donations, by persuading them that the world was ending on 21 May. In the US, Camping is ‘exercising his constitutional right to practise “freedom of religion”,' says Cameron Duodu, but in Nigeria that’s what people call a ‘419’.
‘[I]t is transparently clear now that NATO has exceeded its mandate, lied about its intentions, is guilty of extra-judicial killings--all in the name of “humanitarian intervention”’, writes Cynthia McKinney from Tripoli.
‘Across Africa, China has become known as the agent of mass construction, wisely bartering infrastructural development … for long-term access to strategic resources,’ writes Khadija Sharife.
‘The current Libya invasion by the West is absolute portrayal of their failed impracticable democratic ideologies,’ writes Seth Ofori, in response to an article by Jean-Paul Pougala.
Travelling to Haiti every year to provide people with medical care, registered nurse Janice Karson is shocked to find that aid workers refuse to help Haitians in areas they see as ‘too dangerous’.
With the country witness to sustained, diverse protests in the face of a repressive and unrepresentative regime, Burkina Faso’s people are no longer scared of their government, writes Pierre Sidy.
Fahamu’s Refugee Programme is pleased to announce the , a monthly publication that provides a forum for providers of refugee legal aid. With a focus on the global South, it aims to serve the needs of legal aid providers as well as raise awareness of refugee concerns among the wider readership of Pambazuka News. You can also read the newsletter on our new blog and
Following last week's municipal elections in South Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo have issued a statement on the threat posed by the eThekwini Municipality’s Land Invasion Unit.
Cultural worker Claudia Wegener reflects on what the ideas of politicisation raised by Mahmood Mamdani’s ‘An African reflection on Tahrir Square’ might mean in a UK and global context.
A documentary made by South African film-makers Dylan Valley and Aryan Kaganof tried to piece together the real story of what happened to the residents of Hangberg, Hout Bay, when police attacked the community and destroyed their homes in a forced eviction in September 2010. But when a magazine interviewed Kaganof about what he discovered, he found that the media still shies from talking truth to power.
As the weaponless people who made the Tunisian revolution organise to fill the dangerous gap between the fall of the dictatorship and the election on July 24th, Amanda Sebestyen joins a delegation of the World Social Forum to witness the changes.
‘As feminists, we see the arrest of former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges as an opportunity to increase public awareness and as a wake-up call to renew action against sexual violence, not only in the US where his arrest occurred and in France, where media and many public figures are portraying him as the victim, but around the world.’ demanding ‘freedom from sexual assault and harassment’ for women ‘at all strata of society and in all corners of the globe.’
As Africa celebrates Africa Liberation Day this week, the great challenge for the continent’s peoples remains liberation from privatisation, writes Horace Campbell.
'Several major events have taken place on the African continent since the start of 2011, in a particular global context. Already weakened by its unfavourable historic position in the global system, over the past two decades Africa has endured the horrors of neoliberal austerity measures, the pillage of its resources and the privatisation of warfar. Africa is more than ever at a crossroads because of the failure of the neoliberal model, the crisis of capitalism and the exhaustion of neocolonial modes of growth,'writes GRILA, in a statement to mark African Liberation Day on 25 May.
Do you know that you have a constitutional right to eat a healthy meal everyday?
Do you know that you have a constitutional right to have a good house?
Do you know that the state should pay for you if you are unable to pay for yourself?
Why do you allow your human and constitutional rights to be violated?
Why do we suffer in silence as our leaders watch?
For real answers, join all other Kenyans at:
'Unga-30 Bob' Rally
Date: 31 May 2011
Time: 1pm
Venue: Outside Harambee House, Harambee Avenue
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga are invited to explain to all Kenyans!
Email: [email][email protected]
As you arrive at Hauwa Memorial College (HMC), Funtua, Katsina State, you are welcomed into its classrooms with these quotations: ‘Today's struggle is tomorrow's success’; ‘Better die in a quest than be a coward’; ‘A gentleman without policy is like education without certificate...’ and more written by the students. But the words are not the only things that catch your attention. HMC, Funtua, is is in a state of abject disrepair and two years after its founder's death, the place is under the threat of closure, writes Evelyn Osagie
Produced by a community of some 2,800 writers, bloggers, activists, intellectuals, poets, artists and representatives of social movements, Pambazuka News is committed to nourishing and supporting the building of a strong, progressive, pan-African social movement for freedom and justice. To do that, writes Firoze Manji, Pambazuka News must remain free and independent. The generosity and solidarity of our community of readers and authors is what makes Pambazuka News possible. Pambazuka needs your support to thrive! If you value what Pambazuka News has achieved over the last 10 years, if you appreciate what Pambazuka News is and does today, make a donation now. Make the donation you can afford. But make it now.
South African publisher Glenn Cowley, who ran the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press in the period 1998-2009, has passed away. Robert Molteno pays tribute.
Pambazuka Press and The Africa Centre invite you to:
In the field of international security, discussions about women and children are usually marginalised. But is it possible to achieve human security without placing women at the centre of the policy agenda?
Discussion with Funmi Olonisakin, Awino Okech, Ecoma Alaga and Ekaette Ikpe, chaired by Patricia Daley.
Following a series of mass actions in November, March and April, Swazi workers are putting their movement to end ‘exclusive control’ of Swaziland’s economy by royal elites onto the global agenda, with a solidarity conference that will take place during the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June.
In a review of Omar Barghouti’s 'Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions', Estelle Cooch praises the author’s profiling of the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, mixing of the analytical with the anecdotal and emphasis on Palestinian agency.
25 May is both African Liberation Day and the anniversary of the sad passing of Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem. Aaron O'Dowling-Keane reflects on Tajudeen’s bold and intelligent insights, his steadfast commitment to Pan-Africanism and the esteem with which he was held.
Sonny Onyegbula pays tribute to Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem some two years after his passing on African Liberation Day.
‘[P]olitical reconciliation between Washington and fast-rising Arab democrats is impossible,’ writes Patrick Bond, as civil society reformers in Palestine express their disgust with Barack Obama’s 19 May policy speech on the Middle East and North Africa.
Reflecting on the need to challenge power and its abuses, Alemayehu G. Mariam encourages young people in Africa to organise, become politically engaged and work together in defence of human rights.
South Africans are told that voting is all about making their ‘own choice’, but in most cases, it’s ‘a very limited choice between two competing factions of the elite that are equally invested in scaling back people’s legitimate aspirations for a just society into an insanely unequal society contained with state violence, new forms of spatial segregation and “service delivery”’, observes Richard Pithouse.
Reflecting on the availability of documentary sources, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe discusses the history of the Igbo genocide.
‘[W]ould it be too much to ask for people to look at the African city and see more than just poverty?’ asks H. Nanjala Nyabola.
Sceptical about the effectiveness of the ‘roadmap’ being implemented by Madagascar’s ‘de facto authorities’, CCOC (Collective of Citizens and Civic Organizations) has issued a memorandum on resolving the country’s two-year crisis.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/531/egyptian_socialists_logo_tm... newly formed Egyptian Socialist Party brings together supporters of the country’s transition into a socialist society to work together to develop a coherent strategy to ‘guide the people in the right direction’. In the following paper, the party sets out its perspectives and goals. The Egyptian Socialist Party will be launched in Cairo on 18 June.
NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) sustained assault on Libya ought to lead to calls for its leaders’ prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC), writes Yash Tandon, though ‘we know this will not happen’. A new regime run by ‘the people’, Tandon stresses, will merely see itself at the service of empire, helping to ensure access to oil, shore up Europe against refugees and bolster the region against forces deemed threatening such as Hamas and Iran; the challenge remains for Libyans themselves to sort out their differences and unite.
Gustave Massiah
Sharon and Conway Payn from the Symphony Way pavement dwellers discuss the unkept promises the South African government made about housing and their experiences on Symphony Way.
Launched on Africa Day (25 May), a new five-part series of radio documentaries chronicling the lives, challenges, dreams and positive contributions of migrants living in South Africa is hitting the airwaves. In ‘Breaking Borders’, five migrants tell their stories of where they came from, what life is like for them in their new home and what their goals are for the future. Keep on reading to find out more and listen to the documentaries online.
Pambazuka News 530: Memory, history and transformation: 'Time future contained in time past'
Pambazuka News 530: Memory, history and transformation: 'Time future contained in time past'
Thousands of farmers in Western Kenya are attracting global attention after being the first group in Africa to win financing from the World Bank (WB) to use agriculture to fight climate change. The farmers, spread in 45,000 hectares of land in Bungoma, Malakisi, Bondo, and Kisumu, will receive Sh28 million (US$350,000) from WB's BioCarbon Fund to adopt environmentally-friendly agricultural practices that cut carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
The head of the US Department of Agriculture recently announced an incentive program that would subsidise up to 75 per cent of the costs for establishing new US agrofuel plantations, in an 'effort to promote production of fuel from renewable sources, create jobs and mitigate the effects of climate change'. This 'incentive' is a hand-out to agribusiness, and despite the industry’s 'green' fuels hyperbole agrofuels could actually have a negative impact on atmospheric carbon when land use changes are factored in. These subsidies are a public handout to Monsanto, Cargill, BP and Chevron, says this article on the website of the Institute for Food and Development Policy.
The Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First shapes how people think by analysing the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation and developing solutions in partnership with movements working for social change. You can subscribe to their newsletter by clicking on the URL provided.
Traditional rulers from the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta region have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to re-examine the activities of the Joint Task Force (JTF) operating in the Niger Delta region. The call was the outcome of a two-day meeting in Port Harcourt and contained in a communiqué jointly signed by Eze Young Ogbonna and Pere Stanley Perediegha Luke, national president and national secretary respectively.
The winter edition of the Rural Women's Movement (RWM) newsletter contains articles on a strategy to resolve hunger and unemployment in Africa, halting rape and abduction of girls, and news of RWM's activities and achievements.
We are seeking a dynamic, highly motivated and creative young feminist to serve as our executive director. Reporting to the board of directors, the executive director will provide overall leadership in the strategic direction of the organisation through its office in Nairobi.
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...
The Bretton Woods Project and partners from around the world are launching imfboss.org, a new website dedicated to tracking the leadership selection processes at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With the IMF's current Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Khan involved in a media storm, the debate over the IMF's anachronistic and unfair selection process has been reopened.
Hector Rodriguez, vice-president of the 'Social Area Council of Venezuela', confirmed the Venezuelan government’s commitment to maintaining its reconstruction efforts in Haiti and sent a message of solidarity to the Haitian people on behalf of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. In an interview with Latin American news channel TeleSUR, following the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected Haitian president, Michel Martelly, Rodriguez said that they would 'continue working for the dignity, the life, of this brother nation', so that Haiti would 'keep moving forward'.
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and its partners l’Action contre l’impunité des droits humains (ACIDH) and Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) have filed a communication before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights against the Democratic Republic of Congo. The complainants allege that the events that took place in the south-eastern remote town of Kilwa and the subsequent failure of the DRC state to ensure reparations to victims are in violation of several guarantees of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Issue 2, 2011 of The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southern Africa newsletter contains opinions on South Africa's municipal elections and articles on Wal-Mart, decent jobs and Mauritius.
As health experts gathered in Geneva to attend the 64th World Health Assembly (WHA), global civil society organisations called on World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Dr. Margaret Chan to address widespread concerns about corporate conflicts of interest regarding global water governance, health and nutrition policy.
According to Dutch Defense Minister Hans Hillen, in an interview with Dutch business news radio station BNR: 'It is a disgrace and it truly annoys me that a bunch of Somali pirates with their $2000 dollar fishing boats, a few Kalashnikovs and some RPG’s (rocket-propelled grenade) can keep the western world’s high-tech navy ships and commercial fleet busy for months and months. Of course those small boats and those pirates don’t stand a chance with the modern navy ships and our well-equipped navy sailors, but the sea at that location is so huge, that it is impossible to guard it all.' When the interviewer Niels Heithuis of BNR asked the minister if sending ground troops to Somalia might be the answer to this problem, Minister Hillen reacted: 'No, please don’t call our plan sending ground troops. That would be overly exaggerated. We just want to order some marines to go to the Somali beaches and "play a little bit with the pirates’ boats". When they are finished, the pirates won’t bother us anymore'.
Members of Uganda's ninth Parliament were sworn-in this week, with female representation in the House reaching an all-time high. Women in the East African country are now sitting in 35 per cent of 375 available MP seats, up from the previous 30 per cent.
There are obvious gaps in access to the Internet, particularly the participation gap between those who have their say, and those whose voices are pushed to the sidelines. Despite the rapid increase in Internet access, there are indications that people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remain largely absent from websites and services that represent the region to the larger world. A research project is assessing the connection between access and representation - click on the URL provided to read more on this topic.
For many in the developing world, the IMF and its draconian policies of structural adjustment have systematically 'raped' the earth and the poor and violated the human rights of women, says this article about the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It appears that the personal disregard and disrespect for women demonstrated by the man at the highest levels of leadership within the IMF is quite consistent with the gender bias inherent in the IMF’s institutional policies and practice.
In late March, 29-year-old Libyan student Eman Al-Obeidy caught the world’s attention when she burst into a Tripoli hotel to inform Western media of her alleged detention, torture, and rape at the hands of Gaddafi’s forces. Eman Al-Obeidy has subsequently fled Libya. In this Q&A on the website of the Association for Women's Rights in Development, 22-year-old Amany Mufta Ismail, a woman activist in rebel-controlled East Libya, describes her reactions to the story of Eman Al-Obeidy.
In Cape Town, African women who think that AIDS is man-made are half as likely as other African women to have used a condom during their most recent sexual encounter, researchers report in the journal AIDS and Behavior. In addition, African men who believe that HIV is harmless while antiretroviral drugs are harmful are half as likely to use condoms as other men. There are important differences in the findings for men and women, which suggests that gender is crucial to understanding AIDS conspiracy and denialism in South Africa.
Women in the developing world need new methods of contraception that meet their needs and lifestyles, according to a Guttmacher Institute report. The study focused on sub-Saharan Africa, south central Asia and southeast Asia, which 'are home to 69 per cent of women in the developing world who have an unmet need for a modern method'. The report said new forms of contraception are needed in the three regions 'where there are 49 million unintended pregnancies every year resulting in 21 million abortions'.
Municipal elections appear to have had a dampening impact on service delivery protests, according to research by Municipal IQ, which carries out a Municipal Hotspots Monitor. Municipal IQ reported that there were 10 protests in 2004. This jumped to 34 in 2005, dropped to just two in the last municipal election year in 2006, rose again to 32 in 2007, dropped slightly to 27 in 2008, but jumped steeply to 105 in 2009 and to 111 in 2010. There have been 23 so far this year.
Foreign traders in many Johannesburg townships have closed their businesses and put their livelihoods on hold in response to a campaign of threats and intimidation launched in recent weeks by a group of local business people calling themselves the Greater Gauteng Business Forum (GGBF). In late April, the GGBF started distributing letters to immigrant shopkeepers in at least nine townships, giving them seven days to pack up and leave. The letter threatened drastic action against those who did not comply.
Eighteen months after fleeing across the riverine border separating the two Congos, some 120,000 refugees seem to have little prospect of returning home soon. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had scheduled an organised repatriation from the northern Likouala region Republic of Congo to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Equateur Province in late April, but this was indefinitely postponed because of logistical and financial issues. The exodus from DRC took place in late 2009 following conflicts over natural resources, such as fish ponds, between the Enyele and Munyaza communities.
Almost 4,000 Chadians who have returned home from strife-torn Libya via Niger are in a critical situation in the border town of Zouarke, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has warned. 'According to the Chadian government, more than 3,800 migrants including 310 women and children are in a very difficult situation in Zouarke with limited food, no water and transport to make their journey south,' the IOM said in a statement. Most of the migrants are Chadians, of whom 25,000 have already fled the Libyan conflict and made their way to the northern towns of Faya and Kalait, but the latest batch lacks the means.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has set September as the deadline for the over 25,000 Angolan refugees to voluntarily leave Zambia for their homeland, failure to which they lose their refugee status at the end of this year. UNHCR representative in Zambia Joyce Mends-Cole, announced in Lusaka that Angolan refugees wishing to repatriate with the assistance of UNHCR had only until the end of September 2011 to do so, following the recommencement of organised Angolan repatriation.
In order to reduce instances where pharmacists are inflating the cost of subsidised malaria drugs, the Kenyan government has embarked on awareness campaigns through the media to inform Kenyans of the availability of the drugs, and the recommended prices per dose. According to Dr John Logedi, the deputy program manager at the Division of Malaria Control, the awareness campaign will help consumers make an informed choice and enable them to seek outlets that sell the drugs at the right price.
Three international organisations have negotiated reductions on key first and second-line, and paediatric antiretrovirals (ARVs) that will help countries save at least US$600 million over the next three years. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the international drug purchasing facility UNITAID and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) made the announcement on 18 May. The deal expected to affect most of the 70 countries comprising CHAI’s Procurement Consortium, features notable reductions in the prices of tenofovir (TDF), efavirenz, and the second-line ritonavir-boosted atazanavir (ATV/r) used in HIV patients who have failed initial, or 'first-line', regimens.
Inaction marked the Extraordinary Summit of Southern African Development Community heads of state in Windhoek, despite an agenda covering Zimbabwe elections, political deadlock in Madagascar, the suspension of the regional court and allegations of corruption within SADC itself. In the days leading up to the summit, there was the chance that it might not take place at all, with the South African president, Jacob Zuma, pulling out at the last moment, preferring to concentrate on local elections in his own country. In the end, eleven heads of state and their representatives met in Windhoek, but deliberations lasted only a few hours before the summit was ended.
Police in Morocco have violently dispersed protesters who defied a ban on demonstrations, beating them up with batons and taking several into custody. Sunday’s police action in the capital, Rabat, and Casablanca seemed to suggest a tougher government response to the increasingly defiant protests that first erupted in February.
The President of the Union for the Development of Fouta Djallon, a region in Guinea where the alleged victim of IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn originates from, has expressed indignation over the alleged attempted rape of the lady (name withheld). Speaking to Radio France International (RFI), Mr Souleymane Diallo said that the ethnic Fula community in the United States will shortly undertake a 'massive demonstration' in support of the 32-year-old woman.
ZANU PF has demanded that recent strong resolutions on Zimbabwe, adopted by the regional security organ the Troika, be overturned, calling on the Summit of Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders to reverse the position. Dewa Mavhinga from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which is attending the summit, told SW Radio Africa that SADC leaders were set to discuss recent resolutions adopted by the SADC Troika in March. That summit in Livingstone, Zambia, had condemned the lack of progress in the unity government, in the first meaningful criticism of ZANU PF the region has ever issued. The Troika called for an end to violence and intimidation, and called for the drafting of an election roadmap towards a credible and violence free poll in Zimbabwe.
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was born on 6 January 1961 in Funtua, Katsina State, Nigeria. He died tragically on African Liberation Day, 25 May 2009 in a motor accident in Nairobi Kenya.
Libyan officials lied about photojournalist Anton Hammerl to the South African government, international relations and cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has said. 'We kept getting reassured at the highest level that he was alive until his colleagues were released and shared the information yesterday [Wednesday],' she told reporters in Pretoria. It was revealed last week that Hammerl has been killed while covering the Libyan conflict.
More than $25 billion is needed to implement roads infrastructure projects in East Africa in the next 10 years. The amount covers the cost of massive upgrading, modernisation and construction of roads to improve intra-regional connectivity and also link up EA with countries outside the bloc. 'The estimated cost of these roads infrastructure development in the next 10 years is in excess of $25 billion,' disclosed Ms Hafsa Mosi, the Chairperson of the East African Community Council of Ministers, when unveiling the Community's 2011/12 budget.
South Africa's local government elections were officially declared over on Saturday night by the Independent Electoral Commission in Pretoria. At a closing ceremony attended by political leaders from across the spectrum, the governing African National Congress remained firmly in charge of the nation's municipalities, taking just under 62 per cent of the vote nationally. The opposition Democratic Alliance took just under a quarter of all votes - 23.94 per cent.
s the Libyan uprising enters its fourth month, people in the liberated eastern part of the country are playing a waiting game, and for many, patience is running thin. The spontaneous jubilation that marked the early days of the revolution is all but gone. In its place, an unmistakable sense of weariness and uncertainty fills the cool springtime air. Concerns of a civil war or an Islamist takeover do not predominate here; most people laugh these off as overblown Western fears that are not grounded in Libyan realities. Now that the fate of the uprising is almost wholly in the hands of those with the best weapons, foremost on people’s minds is how much longer they must wait for the regime to fall.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/530/contaminated_water_tmb.jpgZ... Moloo investigates the impact of a Canadian-based gold mine on the North Mara region in Tanzania. Villagers in the area complain about deaths and ill-health due to pollution of the Thigithe River.
While the burning of shops in Zanzibar is being interpreted as a criminal and political act, ‘nobody has asked where the root of the problem may lie in the economic and social sphere,’ says Abdul Sheriff.
South Africa continues to be the most unequal social formation in the world. Sehlare Makgetlaneng reviews proposals by the African National Congress Youth League to radically overhaul the economic structure of the country.
Multinational Wal-Mart is trying to acquire South African retailer Massmart. Khadija Sharife explains why the deal would be bad for the country and bad for workers.
A multi-national study shows that if an HIV-positive person starts taking antiretroviral therapy early on, that is, when their CD 4 count is still high, their chances of infecting their HIV-negative partner can decrease by as much as 96 per cent. The results of the study are viewed as confirmation of untested wisdom among clinicians who have for a number of years thought that people on combination antiretroviral therapy have a lower chance of transmitting HIV to their uninfected partners.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi needs to seriously rethink his ideas around the ‘backwardness’ of pastoralism and the need for ‘modernity’, argues Abebech Belachew.
In Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, this June, African heads of state and government will gather at a summit with the theme, ‘Youth empowerment for sustainable development’. Youth action is critical to the continent’s development, and more specifically, in ensuring that girls and women can make equally valued contributions to this development.
As such, the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition would like to invite youth to reflect on the importance of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. Contestants are asked to respond to the question (in French or in English), ‘Why is the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa important to you?’ in an essay of a maximum of 2000 words. The competition is open to citizens of all African countries aged between 18 and 25.
Facebook is launching a resource center to help non-profits use the social network. The site will include educational materials, tutorials and a downloadable non-profit guide geared toward raising awareness and funds for causes specifically through the social network.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of child labour in the world and estimates show that it continues to grow. This paper examines the causes and magnitude of child labour in Kenya. It finds that socioeconomic status and structure of the household have a strong effect on child labour. Also, a large proportion of working children attend school.
The subject of child abuse and its long-term implications in adulthood has been widely studied in literature in different areas of the world and across different cultures, notes this article in the The Arab Journal of Psychiatry about a study that looked at Egyptian university students. It found that a large proportion of the sample reported both child abuse and several long-term pathological consequences of abuse in adulthood. 'The problem seems to be serious in this middle class sample and it remains possible that these problems could be worse in lower social classes.'
Ethiopia’s abortion laws, Uganda’s walk to work campaign, the Zambian Patriotic Front’s new manifesto, why Gbagbo’s statues had to go, Malawi’s ‘grumpy old man in State House’, and the plight of Gambia’s Hassan Touray feature in this week’s review of African blogs, compiled by Dibussi Tande.
29 May 1966, the Igbo Day of Affirmation, marks both the start of the 1966 genocide against the Igbo people and the day they decided to survive the violence unleashed against them, writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe.
Morocco's February 20 Movement, which spearheaded demonstrations across the kingdom, is preparing for fresh protests in Casablanca. The next one is set for 22 May in Sebata and Ben M'sik. On 29 May, a demonstration will take place in the city centre. The march will be followed by a five-hour sit-in which the young people describe as a warning to the authorities to meet their demands.
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema can only get away with unconstitutional statements calling for black South Africans ‘to take the land without payment’ because there are no social movements strong enough to put his words into action, writes Ronald Wesso.
Amid growing concern about al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) acquiring weapons from Libya, the Algerian army launched a large-scale surveillance and security operation along the joint border. Algerian military leaders met in Djanet to discuss ANP preparedness for possible security problems along the border with Libya, El Khabar reported. The defence ministry tasked the Ouergla and Tamanrasset regional commanders with monitoring security and humanitarian issues related to the influx of refugees.
‘I challenge every one of us to at least talk to one person you know about homosexuality. I’m not asking you to come?out, just yet, even I am struggling with that. But just try and? communicate our fears and insecurities as a minority group,’ writes Kenyan sister Esther Adhiambo, in a piece marking International Day Against Homophobia on 17 May.
‘How can you speak of human rights and the dignity of peoples when you perpetually violate them and block those who don’t share your ideology and must endure your abuses?’, asks 1980 Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel in an open letter to US President Barack Obama.