Pambazuka News 510: WikiLeaks: Implications for Africa
Pambazuka News 510: WikiLeaks: Implications for Africa
Donors continue pressing the Tanzanian government to fight against corruption as Transparency International’s global report indicated a dramatic increase in corruption worldwide, reports the Tanzania Corruption Tracking System. Speaking at the end of a week long Poverty Eradication Review and Annual Policy Dialogue, the General Budget Support (GBS) group of development Partners in Tanzania spoke tough against the government’s slow pace in the fight against corruption. Over 14 donors contribute to Tanzania’s budget through the GBS modality.
While male voices continue to dominate public discourse across the continent, Rasna Warah finds that a new documentary and anthology of stories have allowed women ‘to speak as honestly and as truthfully about their experiences as they can’.
‘African leaders must learn to accept defeat with equanimity and put national interest and continental prosperity above selfish quest for power,’ writes Uche Igwe.
‘Is China smartening up its environmental and social act in Africa? It certainly wants to be seen as doing just that’, writes Stephen Marks.
Shell’s infiltration of the Nigerian government, cocaine trafficking through Ghana and Kenya’s strategy for dealing with the chaos in Somalia are among the topics this week’s selection of bloggers are talking about, following WikiLeaks’ release of US diplomatic cables on Africa.
The first priority for developing countries when it comes to climate change mitigation should be reducing poverty, but the market-based approach of carbon trading is doing little to alleviate imbalances in the system, writes Khadija Sharife.
Reflecting on the words of former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, Isaac Newton Kinity considers a slogan – ‘Watajikaanga na mafuta yao’ (‘They will fry themselves with their own fat’) – that has puzzled Kenyans up to the present day.
African countries should look at the post-Cold War experiences of China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ‘to produce our own intellectual infrastructure for development and progress with freedom and dignity’, writes Okello Oculi.
Drawing on the history of Alfred Nobel’s legacy and the administration in Norway of his prizes, Annar Cassam considers the role of the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjorn Jagland in the selection of peace prize winners.
A China-Africa Dialogue took place recently in China, organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Beijing office in collaboration with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University. The first article of this edition, by Antony Otieno Ong’ayo, provides an overview of the implementation and the value of these Dialogues.
The second article, by Chris Alden and Dan Large, looks at the existence of ‘exceptionalism’ in China’s relations towards Africa. They trace the development of this exceptionalism in China’s foreign policy and the rhetorical manifestation of this in China’s relations with Africa. This is followed by an article focused on an important domestic issue in China, the rising price of food and access to food amongst Chinese workers. Finally, a report by ActionAid just released puts SABMiller in the spotlight. It reports that the company has avoided paying taxes in African countries, as well as India.
A number of important reports have recently become available, notably a series of Policy Briefs by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) collaborative research China-Africa Project. A list of links to these Briefs are provided in [pdf].
As the fallout from the release of the WikiLeaks cables continues, Cameron Duodu considers the implications for addressing corruption in Africa.
In conversation with Obang Metho, executive director of the Anuak Justice Council and the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, Alemayehu G. Mariam discusses the forgotten genocide of the Anuak, ‘in solemn anticipation of the seventh anniversary’ of the massacres over the period 13–16 December.
Previously reviled as ‘land grabs’, international institutions increasingly paint the global land rush as ‘large-scale land investments’, providing fertile ground for ‘win-win’ development schemes. But, caution Saturnino Borras Jr and Jennifer Franco, ‘any scheme that guarantees only winners and no losers deserves our scepticism and a closer look.’
Positive spin about the global climate summit in Cancun is based on reaching international consensus and establishing instruments to manage the crisis using market-based strategies – even though these are ‘failing everywhere they have been tried’. Looking ‘soberly at what was needed to reverse current warming and what was actually delivered, negotiators in Cancun ‘failed by any reasonable measure,’ Patrick Bond writes from Mexico.
Barely four months after passing Kenya's new Constitution, Kenya has entered a very dark hour. The peoples' freedom of assembly has been violated by the police presumably on the orders of the President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Hon Eugene Wamalwa, Maina Njenga, Tony Gachoka and others were brutally beaten, teargassed as they attempted to enter the historic Kamukunji grounds for a rally that had been licenced in writing by the Government of Kenya through the Nairobi Police.
In failing to challenge a US capitalist system geared exclusively to the economic interests of a small elite, Barack Obama is in danger of repeating the errors of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture, writes Horace Campbell.
The people of Somaliland have every right to statehood and membership of the AU and UN, writes Omer Hussein Dualeh.
Pambazuka News staff are taking a break for the next couple of weeks. We'll be back bringing you the latest on the struggle for freedom and justice on 6 January 2011. Meanwhile we wish you all a restful seasonal break, a happy new year and look forward to your coming back ready to advance the cause of freedom in 2011.
Editors
Following the ANC Youth League disruption of a UPM-convened public meeting to discuss the water crisis affecting poorer areas of an Eastern Cape municipality, Pedro Alexis Tabensky observes that ‘sadly for our democracy, this sort of oppressive behaviour in the name of the ANC seems to be part of a general trend of violence exerted against social movements’ .
A new book that reinforces racial prejudice against black women has been approved for distribution in the Brazilian education system. Sign a petition demanding that the Brazil ‘takes appropriate action in relation to racist books’.
As the Kenyan government continues its plans for multi-billion dollar port, oil and transport project, Zahra Moloo considers the socio-economic and environmental effects on Lamu and the absence of news coverage on the topic.
Fahamu is supporting the 'We are the Solution' campaign to ensure that rural women’s associations have the skills to improve, promote and share their traditional agricultural knowledge, ensuring that this rich knowledge is not lost and is indeed promoted as an alternative to the Green Revolution methods.
The three-year pan-African campaign, coordinated by ROPPA (Network of Farmers’ and Agricultural Producers’ Organisations of West Africa), launches in February 2011.
Its objectives are to:
- Strengthen the work of 12 rural women’s associations and their leaders through organisational and individual capacity building activities
- Facilitate the participation of 75 rural women participants in media and advocacy activities so that they can engage in decision-making processes in local, regional and global campaigns
- Mobilise and sustain an Africa-wide action oriented network of 1,000 stakeholders for information sharing, partnership and advocacy.
You too can support 'We are the Solution': By making a donation through our page, you'll help ensure that West Africa’s women farmers can campaign for an African agro-ecological solution to the food crisis.
We members of SuWEP from both sectors North & South met at Afhad University for Women in Khartoum during the period from 12th to 13th of December, 2010 to discuss issues that affects women in the pre, during and post referendum periods.
The following are a selection of petitions available online in support of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Makhosini Lucky Kunene explores South Africa’s post-apartheid landscape of violent service delivery protests, with a special focus on how foreign nationals have become targets in these attacks.
Sanctions-busting was a game perfected by the apartheid regime, but modern-day corporates are also adept at finding ways to exploit Africa's minerals, writes Khadija Sharife.
Journalist in Danger, partner organisation of Reporters Without Borders, on 10 December published its annual report revealing the disturbing state of press freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the plight of journalists working in the country. The report, released on International Human Rights Day, records in minute detail every attack on the right to be informed and to inform the public throughout the year - 87 cases in 2010 compared to 75 in 2009.
Francoise Mukuku from the youth organisation Si Jeunesse Savait reports on a cyberdialogue organised in the DRC around ICT's and violence against women. The online discussion, organised by Genderlinks as part of the 16 Days of Activism, was to be shared with all francophone countries connecting to the dialogue. 'Everything started with this question: What is our society missing economically when women are left out of technology development? Here we all agreed that it was like trying to clap with one hand, we miss the innovation, creativity and all the beautiful things that women could contribute.'
The School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM) at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China is excited to announce that our Master of Public Administration in International Development (MID) Program is now accepting applications for Fall 2011 enrollment.
The CODESRIA Lecture Series is a major outlet for disseminating special lectures and keynote addresses emanating from various scientific fora provided by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). This series projects CODESRIA’s main thematic areas, covering Africa’s social, economic, political and intellectual development. The neoliberal domination and the prioritisation of the private ruled by the market have deeply affected the educational models, and produced significant alterations on the social role of higher education institutions in Africa.
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage. The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial 'Copenhagen accord', the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.
Meeting the world's future food needs is dependent on preserving the genetic diversity of the plants we grow and eat, as well as their 'wild relatives'. While collecting and saving the world's seed patrimony in 'gene banks' or ex situ may be a worthy endeavor, a new FAO publication underscores the critical need for efforts that protect agricultural biodiversity on the farm itself or in situ. This means supporting the millions of small farmers and peasants throughout the world who manage diverse species of plants and animals in and around their fields.
It should be no surprise to anyone that South African diplomats been been frustrated both with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, or that Kenya and the United States have enjoyed close military to military ties despite vocal US criticism of the Kenyan government. Wikileaks cables released to date, such as the ones included in this AfricaFocus Bulletin, provide some nuances and may be embarrassing, but provide no 'smoking guns' or startling revelations. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains the text of two cables from late 2009, one reporting on conversations between Kenyan and US officials on disagreements about shipment of tanks to Southern Sudan, and the other a conversation between the US Ambassador to South Africa and the South African Foreign Minister, including remarks about the sitution in Zimbabwe.
Concentration in the agrifood sector has been increasing over the past few years, with sometimes tragic consequences for small-scale farmers and agricultural workers. In this new briefing note, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food explores how the creation and abuse of dominant buyer power by global agribusiness firms can be addressed in competition law, and how developed and developing States can work together in this way. The note shows that global food supply chains will contribute significantly to the reduction of rural poverty only to the extent that such abuses are effectively combated through competition law regimes that are designed to be consistent with the obligation of States to protect the right to adequate food.
To mark International Human Rights Day, on 10 December 2010, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) released a groundbreaking report exposing the precarious working conditions endured by journalists in Somalia. The nationwide survey revealed how the human rights of working journalists, particularly their labour rights, are grossly violated by every company and in every corner of the Horn of Africa country.
Uche Igwe travels to Nigeria’s Bayelsa State and, despite an influx of oil dollars, finds appalling poverty, lack of infrastructure and a volatile pre-2011 election period.
African nations should join forces to create a one-million-strong army to protect the continent and confront outsiders like NATO and China, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said. Gaddafi, well known for his forthright rhetoric, has acquired growing influence in Africa but his ambition to build a united states of Africa is not shared by the continent's biggest powers. 'National militaries alone cannot save countries. Africa should have one army with one million soldiers,' Gaddafi said in a speech in the Senegalese capital.
After the separation barrier against Palestinian territories, Israel has begun to build a new wall, this one to keep migrants from Africa out. The new wall is coming up on the Egyptian border, and with Egyptian support. The Israeli government approved plans late last month to build a detention camp near its border with Egypt to house illegal African immigrants. Local activists decried the move, which they say flies in the face of internationally accepted human rights norms.
Until 2007, when international medical NGO Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) came to Swaziland to help the Ministry of Health in the response on HIV/AIDS and TB in the Shiselweni region, HIV/AIDS and TB treatment was not available at any of the region’s 21 clinics. Patients had to either travel to the Hlathikhulu Government Hospital or Matsanjeni and Nhlangano health centres. These centres were located in each of the towns of the different regions in the country. A health centre is a facility that is smaller than a hospital with a few beds and does not have a theatre to do operations. MSF worked with government to bring services to the clinics, but this was not enough because some patients were either too weak or too poor to reach even the clinics.
The appeal by the Gambia’s former Chief of Defence against his death sentence for treason is being heard during December. An amendment to the country’s drugs and human trafficking laws could mean many more capital cases come before the courts. Besides Lang Tombong Tamba and his seven co-accused, the country’s death row holds, among others, Sulayman Bah, convicted of killing his housemate in a dispute over money.
Nigist Abebe has grown in confidence over five years on the job. Today she is one of 34,000 rural health extension workers at the heart of Ethiopia’s primary health care strategy. One of her most important functions in Dengo Furda Kebele, the village she was born and raised in, is supporting women through pregnancy and childbirth. An estimated 94 per cent of Ethiopian mothers give birth at home and in 2005, when the Health Extension program started, 720 mothers died per 100,000 live births.
Development in Africa could falter as climate change grips the continent, increasing the length and severity of droughts and floods by altering precipitation patterns, among other impacts. The region needs a major shift in its economic development policies and thinking towards decentralised, green economic development, experts now say. 'The world’s big economies are largely living off financial transactions which are unconnected to development,' warns Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship: Europe, the Middle East and Africa aims to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, and become active role models and leaders.
The policies pursued by the collective imperialist triad (USA, Europe, Japan), which aim exclusively at restoring the system to what it was before 2008, are bound to fail. As a result, the North-South conflict moves to the forefront. By taking independent initiatives, the countries of the South can take this opportunity to move ahead towards the construction of the only effective and viable alternative for their liberation from the domination of imperialist monopolies.
Real Stories Gallery is a conversation created by our visual arts and stories, to shift perceptions surrounding HIV and AIDS. Today HIV affects the lives of men, women and children on all continents around the world. Artists, poets, writers and storytellers from across the breadth and depth of our communities, are invited to share their experiences, reflections and life-saving knowledge. By working together we will inspire a culture of compassion and acceptance for our neighbours whose lives are affected. To submit your contribution you will first need to 'Register'. Once this is done you will then 'Add Your Contribution' to the Gallery, by uploading a photographic image of your work and/or text in word document form. Poets, creative writers and storytellers will follow the same submissions procedure. As will those who would like to contribute music or video submissions. You may choose to exhibit only or to sell your work.
identity - making decisions - peer pressure - values - HIV and AIDS - love - sex... These are just a few of the topics covered by 'My Life - Starting Now'. This 80-page manual, no. 8 in the Called to Care toolkit published by the Strategies for Hope Trust, focuses on knowledge and lifeskills for young people aged 10 to 15.
Gado on WikiLeaks and the US…
On the morning of Tuesday 14 December, hundreds of women and men came on the streets in central Khartoum planning to walk peacefully to the Ministry of Justice to hand in a memo signed by a large number of Sudanese men and women protesting against the repressive and humiliating practices and laws constituted by the Sudanese Public Order Regime and to condemn the flogging of women. Prior to reaching the ministry, and while people were still gathering, a wave of arrests took place, with approximately 41 women and five men summarily arrested.
Wherever change needs to occur, advocacy has a role to play. In this age of globalisation, development practitioners and civil society actors around the world are increasingly finding the need to be actively engaged in influencing the policies, programs and laws that affect their work at the grassroots level. Whether the goal is to protect a threatened watershed, get funding for a health clinic, enact laws to make buildings accessible for people with disabilities, or change laws which discriminate against women, advocacy can help to accomplish those goals. This three-week certificate explores advocacy as a political act. It is designed to enhance the capacity of civil society to influence decision-makers and policy makers by building the constituency for change and mobilising public opinion around issues of common concern.
As untamed fire ignites
a world separated by
pronouns,
broken world brakin'n
streets crack'd foot crak'd in
mak'n a dwellin' there…
The December issue of the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) 'Lasting Impacts, Access to Water' has been published. Articles, which can be read by visiting the website available through the link provided, include:
- A home-based clean water revolution
- Science helps to calm water conflicts
- Recycling wastewater offers a solution to scarcity
- Economic benefits flow from taps.
Career blog Kazi Afrika has a comprehensive list of job vacancies posted on their site. Some of the jobs include:
- World Vision Africa Program Officer – Nutrition Job Vacancy
- College Principal Vacancy in Mombasa Kenya
- Marketing & Communications Manager Job Vacancy in Kenya
- New Kenya Co-operative Creameries Limited Jobs
- Pathfinder International Jobs in Kenya
- Social Assessment for Indigenous People in Lake Victoria North Water Service Board.
Amira Ali's 'Speak no more – let us just make music', originally published in issue (491) – – is now available as a [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.
On Friday, December 17, from 9:00am-5:00pm, the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Program (BHESP), in collaboration with the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance (KESWA) and other local women’s rights and human rights organizations, will commemorate International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers.
Zimbabwe’s soldiers and police have been fingered in an orgy of rape in which they worked with militia from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party to allegedly sexually assault supporters of the former opposition MDC over the past decade, according to a new report. The report that calls for a government-led 'multi-sectoral investigation into politically motivated rape in Zimbabwe' was jointly produced by the Harare-based Research and Advocacy Unit, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) and self-help organisation Doors of Hope Development Trust.
More South African farmers expect to receive land offers in Mozambique as they seek to expand across Africa amid uncertainty over land reform at home, an official from a mostly white farmers group said on Monday. South Africa - Africa's biggest economy - has one of the most developed agricultural sectors on the continent and its farmers are looking to expand into other countries. Some 800 South African farmers are already farming in Mozambique.
President Jacob Zuma is suing Avusa Media for R5-million for Zapiro's Lady Justice rape cartoon, The Times reported on Tuesday. Zuma started proceedings against Avusa, the cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro and former Sunday Times editor-in-chief Mondli Makhanya in a summons issued in the High Court in Johannesburg on Friday.
South Africa is eager for elevation to the coveted Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) status of key emerging markets, but investors say Nigeria is a more probable African contender, even if promotion for either country is some way off. Investment flows into Nigeria are tiny compared with South Africa. Nigeria saw equity fund flows of just $216 million (R1.48 billion) for the first 10 months of this year, compared with $3.4bn for South Africa, according to fund tracker EPFR. Yet, while South Africa is the larger economy, Nigeria is expected to catch up in the next few years.
The United States is concerned that Mozambique could become a narco-state because of close ties between drug smugglers and the southeastern African nation's government, according to US Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks. The four cables released this week cite unnamed officials from law enforcement, the ruling FRELIMO party and business figures, as well as local media reports. The cables say cocaine, heroin and other drugs come in from South America and Asia, and are then flow to Europe or sent overland to neighbouring South Africa for sale.
SADC states and the European Union have missed the year-end deadline for the completion and signing of a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a target set in June and designed to bring finality to the complex process. Following the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement, the seven SADC states, Botswana among them, began lengthy negotiations for a new trade agreement, but the process eventually failed to meet the original December 2007 deadline enforceable by the World Trade Organisation.
Mame Penda Diouf talks over car horns and city bus engines as she shows off potted lettuce, mint and potato plants at a traffic circle in the Senegal capital, Dakar. A trader and horticulture trainer, she says micro-gardening creates jobs and allows people to better feed their families. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and many other international and local institutions are pushing just that message – that micro-gardening and other forms of urban horticulture can go a long way to boosting city dwellers’ food security and improving living conditions.
'Why, if condoms are available, is AIDS still spreading in Africa?' asks Elkana Ong’esa, an elderly Kenyan man in the new documentary, Protection: Men and condoms in the time of HIV and AIDS. 'Because AIDS has not been sufficiently explained to people, and that if you use condoms you can prevent it,' replies a young man participating in a baraza (community meeting) called to discuss the devastating impact HIV is having on their village.
'He pulled me by my hair and dragged me to the entrance of the house. I knew he was taking me to the bedroom, and I knew what that would mean. His one hand pulled at my long hair, braided to my scalp while his other hand wrapped itself around my face, choking me, his fingers digging into my eyes...I held on to the gate and refused to let him take me in - that was when he bit off half my ear.' Three weeks earlier, 46-year-old Gugu Mofokeng had left the shelter where she had been living for a year. Mofokeng's story may sound shocking, but it is not unusual in South Africa. Gender activists have long argued that violence against women in the country is at 'epidemic' proportions.
The government of Mali is seen as the largest obstacle to conduct an effective fight against Al Qaeda groups in the Sahara desert. Distrust between Algeria and Mali further hinder cooperation. Diplomatic cables from several US embassies, published by Wikileaks, reveal that the announced concerted fight against Al Qaeda in the Sahara and Sahel region is moving ahead slowly. Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had announced a joint effort to hit back at the terrorists.
As the deadline for the Zimbabwean documentation process rapidly approaches, the Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) has identified shortcomings at various Gauteng Department of Home Affairs offices. FMSP’s research reveals a process that is not running effectively, despite claims to the contrary by Home Affairs.
The Omusati Region of northern Namibia is on the margins of what any farmer would consider arable land, with temperatures routinely hitting 40 degrees Celsius or more and rainfall seldom exceeding a pitiful 270 millimeters per year. To make matters worse 83 per cent of the little rain that does fall evaporates as soon as it hits the ground. In a report to the United Framework Convention on Climate Change, the government of Namibia has predicted global warming will cause a temperature rise of between two to six degrees Celsius in Namibia, while annual rainfall could diminish up to a further staggering 200mm.
Gender Links (GL) has called on the government to declare a state of emergency in the fight to end gender violence. In a press release to mark the close of the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, GL said that countless research studies now show that the problem is overwhelming and the response is insufficient, especially when measured against the target of halving gender violence by 2015 in the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
After the sound of gunfire fell silent in Southern Sudan, marking the end of one of Africa's longest running civil wars, Pio Kowr Ding decided he would return home to the autonomous region to take up an agricultural research job with the government. With a masters degree in soil and land evaluation, and experience working for the Agricultural Research Corporation's Land and Water Research Center (LWRC) in Khartoum, Ding was keen to help the region rebuild its agricultural research. But when he arrived in 2008 he realised that the task was actually to start from scratch and the living conditions were tough.
Plans for a university that will stretch across Africa and be a 'flagship institution of higher education' will go ahead, despite political problems with two of its five planned centres, African Union commissioner and steward of the project, Jean-Pierre Ezin has insisted. The Pan-African University (PAU), which was proposed by the African Union (AU) in 2008, is expected to offer advanced graduate training and postgraduate research opportunities for "the cream of the crop" of African students, according to a draft concept note produced at the time.
A satellite imagery tool that will make an unprecedented amount of environmental data available freely online has been launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 16), in Mexico. Earth Engine, launched by Google on 3 December, aims to enable scientists to monitor and measure changes in the Earth's environment, such as global land cover, and hopefully help slow deforestation in the process.
The latest edition of the Global Information Society Watch questions the assumption that information and communications technologies (ICTs) will automatically be a panacea for climate change while also looking at the potential of ICTs to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as are the roles of international institutions, the global research agenda on ICTs and climate change and 'sustainability' as an evolving concept.
The Africa Portal is an online knowledge resource for policy-related issues on Africa. An undertaking by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Makerere University (MAK), and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), the Africa Portal offers open access to a suite of features including an online library collection; a resource for opinion and analysis; an experts directory; an international events calendar; and a mobile technology component -all aimed to equip users with research and information on Africa’s current policy issues.
NGOs, under the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), have launched a short messaging service (SMS) platform to receive complaints regarding the ongoing elections. Godwin Byaruhanga, an official from CCEDU, says the campaign will involve appealing to the public to vote candidates basing on their ability to address social issues and not those who give them freebies.
US embassy cables have revealed a top executive's claims that Shell 'knows everything' about key decisions in government ministries. The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main
ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil?rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable. The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo?Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti?aircraft missiles.
Minni Minnawi, the only Darfur faction leader to have signed the Darfur Peace Agreement [DPA] with the Sudanese government, has declared the failure of the 2006 deal. The announcement deals another blow to Khartoum, which faces the possibility of the southern portion of the country seceding in an upcoming poll. On Sunday, Minnawi accused the government of failing to implement the Darfur agreement, saying that he is ready to do battle. Minnawi, the Sudan Liberation Army [SLA] faction leader, secured several official titles after he signed the peace accord with Khartoum.
US drugmaker Pfizer hired investigators to find evidence of corruption against the then Nigerian attorney-general to convince him to drop legal action against the company over a drug trial, the UK's Guardian newspaper has reported, citing leaked US diplomatic cables. Nigeria's Kano state sued the world's largest drugmaker in May 2007 for $2bn in damages over testing of the meningitis drug, Trovan, which state authorities said killed 11 children and left dozens disabled.
Dale T. McKinley introduces a new word into the political lexicon – polipreneurship. The word describes the idea of politics as business, but also the way in which politics is seen and approached.
Pambazuka News 509: Post-election crisis in Cote d'Ivoire
Pambazuka News 509: Post-election crisis in Cote d'Ivoire
A driving force of the UN-led negotiations for years has been the effort to attract the private sector, offering more and more opportunities for business in the still nascent 'green economy'. The inclusion of carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems among the financeable mechanisms for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases is one example of that trend. But many environmentalists and scientists believe that the carbon market is getting ahead of itself. 'It is a further way of moving away from renewable energies, moving away from mitigation, to some kind of technology that would not solve the problem,' Nigerian Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), told Tierramérica.
The latest UNESCO figures show just five out of ten Liberian women over the age of 15 can read or write. For men it is six out of ten. The West African country now has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, ranked in the bottom fifteen according to UNESCO. 'Standing before you, my name is Erica. I am nine years old. I go to the Christian Ministry Fellowship international school,' says Erica proudly. Erica is among a new generation of students in Liberia who are being taught to read using new techniques not seen in West Africa before.
More than 20 million people will be vaccinated between now and the end of the year in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger as a mass vaccination campaign using a new conjugate vaccine unfolds across West Africa. Manufactured in India, MenAfriVac offers health authorities a powerful weapon against a deadly disease. Meningitis is an infection of the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal column. It is most prevalent in a region known as 'the meningitis belt', which extends across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.
Bacharou Gorel had 300 head of cattle before the food security crisis began in Niger. Today he has only 53 left. From Tilabéri in the west, through the central region of Maradi, and into Diffa in the far east of the country, no region has been spared this massive loss of livestock, according to Harouna Abarchi, from AREN (the Association for the Revival of Livestock in Niger), a non-governmental organisation based in Niamey, the Nigerien capital.
The world's governments agreed on Saturday to modest steps to combat climate change and to give more money to poor countries, but they put off until next year tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The deal includes a Green Climate Fund that would give $100 billion a year in aid to poor nations by 2020, measures to protect tropical forests and ways to share clean energy technologies.
The parliamentary elections in Egypt have seen the large victory of the ruling National Democratic party (NDP), amidst massive frauds reported by election monitors and the withdrawal of the main opposition parties in the run-off. According to prominent Egyptian political analysts, the NDP’s candidate selection process was marred by internal discord and suffered lack of sophistication, as the party allowed almost 800 candidates for 508 seats, with many candidates competing against each other in 'open constituencies', while preventing party members whose candidate applications were unsuccessful from leaving the NDP to run independently.
This paper contributes to ongoing discussions about the role of Sudan‘s $35 billion in external debt obligations – both for a unified Sudan and a possible Southern secession. First, it examines Sudan‘s existing debt dynamics and the potential eligibility for traditional debt relief and multilateral debt relief initiatives. Second, it outlines potential options for dividing Sudan‘s external debt obligations in the event of a Southern secession.
Security of two suspected gay persons arrested and released from Makerere and Wandegeya police posts in Uganda is a major concern since Mitchell Hall Gradens’ residents, where they were arrested, believe lynching would be the perfect solution to stop their alleged homosexuality. Eye witnesses claim that the two were found engaging in ‘homosexual activities’ at around 10pm on Wednesday 8 December. 'The person who found them, known only as Tamale, called other hall residents and they arrested the two. The mob wanted to lynch them but the Hall security intervened and the two were taken to police,' Adrian Jjuuko of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum Uganda (HRAPF) stated.
Recently launched was a 'bespoke, low-bandwidth version of Skype for use in 120 hardship locations served by UNHCR staff members around the world'. Many newspapers and blogs picked up on it, including Guardian Tech, Mashable, and the LA Times. Many friends directed me to it, knowing that I am always interested in tech developments in Africa. Unfortunately, 'bespoke' (I had to look it up) means designed and produced for particular customers. So that means this version of Skype is only available to UNHCR staff. It will not be available to anyone else for the foreseeable future - even if they live in places with slow Internet access.
The urgency and importance of all humans having a right to food security was spelled out by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating that 'everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food...' Inhabitants of Bamako, Mali do not yet benefit from these rights. Mali is amongst the one of the poorest countries in the world. With a population estimated at about 1,8 million people, Bamako the largest city and capital of Mali and it is currently believed to be the fastest growing city in Africa.
The African Union does not favour sanctions for now over a disputed presidential election in Ivory coast and will instead stick to quiet diplomacy, the Union's top security official said on Sunday. A row over who won an election on 28 November has left Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, in a state of paralysis with the president and his rival running parallel administrations, and many people fear an outbreak of violence. World leaders and regional bodies have recognised opposition challenger Alassane Ouattara as winner of the election on the basis of results from the election commission, which were backed by the local UN mission charged with certifying the vote.
African nations can break dependence on food imports and produce enough to feed a growing population within a generation despite extra strains from climate change, a study said last Thursday. About 70 per cent of Africans are involved in agriculture but almost 250 million people, or a quarter of the population of the poorest continent, are undernourished. The number has risen by 100 million since 1990.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation in association with SOAS and the Centre of African Studies-University of London is organising a Summer School in Mozambique in April 2011 on the topic of ‘Governance and Development in Africa’. The residential school is for 25 participants who are policy makers, academics, researchers or civil society representatives from any African country who will gain, through this training, new ideas and knowledge on the broad issue of governance and development.
The government of Djibouti permitted the controversial private US security firm Blackwater 'to operate an armed ship from the port of Djibouti' and to 'use lethal force against pirates'. The permission was given in February 2009, it is revealed in a cable from the US Embassy in Djibouti, published by WikiLeaks.
Men and women of African descent are wanted to judge essays written by children, aged seven to 16 years, from across Africa and the African diaspora for 'The Annual Essay Contest for Children of African Descent 2011'. Essays are written in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Sesotho. Judges wanted for all these languages. See how bright our children are as they tackle such issues as media censorship, biotechnology, corporate front groups and abuse of science, food sovereignty, corporate abuse, racism, ethics and respect.
Visit: 'Essay Contests' at
Contact: [email][email protected] or [email][email protected]
In the issue, you will find progress on the controversial purchase of radar for Tanzania and an exclusive media investigation linking Tanzania’s politicians to money laundering. There is also an article on corruption and poaching in Tanzania and an exposure of how some government agencies may be flouting the law to engage in questionable commercial dealings.
In this 90-page report, Human Rights Watch called on Egypt to halt the use of lethal force against border crossers and all deportations of persons to countries where they risk persecution or ill-treatment. Israel should halt forced returns of migrants to Egypt, where they face military court trials and possible unlawful deportation to their countries of origin. Both countries should respect the rights of persons seeking asylum.
As nearly 200 delegates gather at the Conference of the Parties in Cancun, Mexico, writer Dennis Martinez points out that Indigenous peoples and their advocates have no official seat among nations, and yet have experienced the worst impacts of climate change. To solve the problem, delegates of the wealthy nations have a climate-mitigation plan of choice - carbon offsets embodied in a program called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). But for healthy and stable ecosystems, Martinez finds that it fails to measure up to an overlooked method: continued indigenous stewardship.
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.
Reporters Without Borders has awarded its 2010 Press Freedom Prize to two symbols of courage, the jailed Iranian journalist Abdolreza Tajik and the embattled Somali news radio station Radio Shabelle. 'This year we are honouring a courageous journalist, Abdolreza Tajik, and a beleaguered radio station, Radio Shabelle,' Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said. 'These laureates work into two countries, Iran and Somalia, where reporting the news is a constant battle.'
Southern Sudan should arm the local Arrow Boys militia to protect civilians in Western Equatoria State (WES) against possible attacks by remnant Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters during January’s referendum on secession, say local leaders. 'We’ve told the government, "Let [the Arrow Boys] be trained and armed, and they will defeat the LRA, and when the LRA dies, the Arrow Boys will give back the weapons",' Western Equatoria governor Joseph Bakosoro told IRIN.
Three projects fighting malaria and tuberculosis in Mali have seen their international funding suspended as government found 'evidence of misappropriation and unjustified expenditure'. This was reported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's dominant financier of programmes to fight these diseases.