Pambazuka News 464: Angola: Public office, private business
Pambazuka News 464: Angola: Public office, private business
Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) has launched a report on the state of education in Zimbabwe entitled ‘Looking back to look forward - education in Zimbabwe: a WOZA perspective’. The recommendations contained in the report form the basis of WOZA’s current campaign on education.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the organisation of an international conference on “Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibility of Academics and Researchers in Africa: What are the new challenges?”.
Don't miss this excellent opportunity to learn how to respond to the emerging youth market in sub-Saharan Africa through the development of Youth Inclusive Financial Services. This two week course will be offered at the Sustainable Microenterprise and Development Program (SMDP) Ghana in Accra from March 15-26, 2010.
On the 29th of December 2009 a lesbian woman and human rights activist, Thuli Rudd, also known as Thulani, was arrested on her way back home in Swaziland at the border from South Africa. She was charged with the murder of her partner, the late Pitseng Vilakati whose body had been found on Tuesday the 22nd of December 2009.
This latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines violent conflict that has claimed several thousand lives in 2009. Inter-tribal fighting, while not a new phenomenon, has taken on a new and dangerously politicised character, with the worst violence in and around the vast, often impassable state of Jonglei.
AwaaZ Issue 3/09 - Non Violence for Change
Cover Story: Is Non-cooperation a mattress against the bullet?
In order to collect information for his next report, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food launches a call for information on cases that illustrate the links among security of land tenure, access to land, and the right to food. He also intends to organize regional consultations.
The candidate of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) for the next presidential election, Henri Konan Bédié, has outlined his manifesto for the election saying he has identified '10 major challenges' likely to lead the country to prosperity.
The acting chairman of the Guinea's junta, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD), General Sékouba Konaté, has vowed to create 'a new peaceful transition authority' that will soon set dates for elections.
Madagascar’s government has said it will crack down on opposition leaders and their supporters, who reject plans for elections, if they provoke further civil unrest.
Armed Nuer tribesmen killed at least 139 members of a rival tribe in an attack in a remote area of southern Sudan, an official has reported.
Nigerians in the diaspora have written a letter to Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on the continued absence of President Yar’Adua from the country, demanding true information on the state of his health.
Zimbabwe has halted a controversial sale of 300 000 carats of diamonds, but blamed bureaucratic hold-ups rather than a scandal over rights abuses by the military in the diamond fields.
The government of Zimbabwe is aiming to increase the number of people on antiretroviral drug therapy for HI/AIDS to 300,000 this year from 180,000 at present, according to Health Minister Henry Madzorera.
A Ugandan government minister has said that a proposed law which includes the death penalty for some homosexual acts is "not necessary".
China says it will give a $7m (£4.4m) grant to help fund infrastructure development projects in Kenya. The announcement came at the start of the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's latest Africa tour.
The French government has announced that it will set up a new panel to try cases of genocide and war crimes committed in France or abroad. The new court would speed up the way genocide cases are tried where the suspect is on French territory but the process involves several jurisdictions.
January marks the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended a bitter north-south civil war in Sudan. With important elections scheduled for April, women are debating and fighting for an expanded role in the new institutions of government.
Children cannot consent to their own exploitation, making the use of children in warfare "particularly abusive," a top United Nations official has said at the trial of a Congolese warlord accused of enlisting child soldiers.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the unlawful, arbitrary and unjustified detention of Hannevy Ould Dehah, Director of Taqadoumy website in Dar Nahim prison in Nouakchott, after he had served his term.
United Nations agencies and Ethiopian health officials have developed a comprehensive two-year work plan to boost maternal and newborn health and survival in the Horn of Africa nation, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced.
The United Nations is sending health care kits and other supplies for 30,000 victims of massive flooding in Kenya, where thousands of others are feared to be at risk if heavy rains persist.
A controversial United Nations-backed Government offensive against rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), during which Congolese soldiers are alleged to have committed massacres and gang-rape, has been replaced by a new UN-supported operation with a central focus on protecting civilians.
A growing understanding of the role of family planning and the spread of contraception use resulting from greater access to reproductive healthcare is helping to save lives in Guinea-Bissau, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Angola is to use the first quarter of 2010 to adopt a new constitution for the country, announced the president of the National Assembly, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos.
A top UN official has revealed the world body's intention to boost its missions in Africa and beyond as a result of an unexpected increase in its budget for this year.
Three human rights workers involved in the defense of the famous Malawi gay couple have been arrested, according to a release from the UK-based Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) equality group, OutRage! The couple are in police custody and face a maximum imprisonment of 14 years.
At least 20 civilians were killed on Thursday evening and 40 others wounded after mortars and artillery shells hit the capital Mogadishu, according to eye witnesses' account. The deadly clashes erupted after Islamist insurgents fired at the presidency building, residents told AfricaNews.
Zimbabwe hopes to improve on its technological sector in the next five years. Technology Minister, Nelson Chamisa, said the country is embarking on a technological revolution path and drastic changes would soon be realized.
Malawian authorities have arrested Charles Bandora an ex- senior official of the former Rwandan ruling party, MRND, indicted by the Prosecution for Genocide. Bandora, a former businessman in Ngenda, Kigali, faces charges that include; Genocide, complicity in Genocide, conspiracy to commit Genocide, extermination, murder as a crime against humanity and organized crime.
The President of Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo has signed a pardon decree to free about 100 female prisoners in the West African country.
Teachers have threatened to go on strike if their salaries are not raised to US$600 per month from the current US$150. The President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Takavafira Zhou said their members would not turn up for work next week if they received no clarification on how much they will be earning. Ever since Finance Minister Tendai Biti presented his budget in December last year, there has been no word on how much teachers would earn.
The appointment of the former chief immigration officer, Elasto Mugwadi, to the new Human Rights Commission has come under fire, following revelations of a spate of injustices he perpetrated during his time in government.
South Africa has expressed frustration over the slow pace of talks aimed at ensuring a definitive solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe. Lindiwe Zulu, the international relations advisor to President Jacob Zuma, told Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg they were not happy with the slow pace of the talks.
Thousands of immigrants protested against racism in a southern Italian town on Friday, after a night of rioting that was sparked by an attack on African farm workers by a gang of white youths.
Climate change, associated with a four-fold increase in natural disasters in the last decade, and the growth of world population, which is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, pose new challenges for aid initiatives like those of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The University of Dar es Salaam Computing Centre (UCC) has launched a two-year project on capacity building on the effective use and management of information and communication technology in the public sector.
United Nations human rights teams are warning of increased weapon trafficking in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as armed villagers form units in response to killings, rapes and kidnappings carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for more action from governments and the United Nations to protect media as it announced a grim total of 137 journalists and media personnel killed during 2009.
Starting treatment earlier, at a higher CD4 count, and being in care six months or longer before starting ART, is associated with lower treatment costs during the first months of antiretroviral tretament, according to an analysis of the direct health care costs of treating over 10,000 HIV-infected adults in a private HIV care programme in southern Africa, published in the December 1 edition of PLoS Medicine.
This week, Libyan blogs addressed several thorny issues including racial discrimination, corruption and the responsibilities and freedom of bloggers.
As Tunisian lawmakers mull the 2010 budget, many politicians, labour leaders, and ordinary people are calling for the creation of a national fund to help the unemployed.
This publication from WIDE reviews the current debates about development, as well as the background for this new aid architecture, and analyses the international frameworks for financing for development and women rights, as well as governments´ commitments for resources. It also summarises and analyses all the contributions to the aid effectiveness agenda from a gender perspective.
In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto's GM maize.
The Zimbabwean government has been working hard to attract international investors to revive the country’s failing economy. Success on this front in 2010 may hinge on the coalition government convincing investors their capital will be secure.
HIV-related stigma and discrimination remain a key concern in South Africa, despite the multitude of HIV awareness campaigns that have been launched by government and civil society organisations throughout the years, health experts say.
An experience which Belita Simpokolwe went through in December last year remains deeply etched in her memory. "Sometimes I fail to concentrate in class when these things come back to my mind," laments 13-year-old Simpokolwe, a grade six pupil at Kawale Primary School, in the northern Malawi district of Chitipa.
Nearly one-third of all water-related disasters occur in Africa. The second issue of Joto Afrika considers the relationship between climate change, the greater incidence of extreme weather events, such as drought and flooding, and the increasing scarcity of water on the African continent.
"The illicit exploitation of natural resources is not a new phenomenon in eastern DRC. It has characterised the conflict since it first erupted in 1996 and has been well documented by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations Panel of Experts and Group of Experts, journalists and others. Twelve years on, the patterns remain the same, and despite abundant evidence of these activities, no effective action has been taken to stop this murderous trade." - Global Witness
UNESCO is suspending a life sciences prize sponsored by Equatorial Guinea, and is to review procedures for prizes it endorses, following bitter protests about the US$3 million endowment. The UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences was agreed by the organisation's member states in November 2008 "in recognition of scientific achievements that improve the quality of human life".
Solar-powered irrigation systems can boost food and income levels in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, researchers have found. Irrigation is known to reduce poverty in Asia, they wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (5 January), but the success of the technique is not well-documented in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cameroon is reversing its scientific brain drain by boosting the salaries of university academics. The early signs are that a government fund of 4.2 billion Central African francs (almost US$9.5 million), created in early 2009, has increased the number of scientists and stabilised the research environment.
Access to knowledge (A2K) is about designing intellectual property laws, telecommunication policies, and technical architectures that encourage broader participation in cultural, civic, and educational affairs; expand the benefits of scientific and technological advancement; and promote innovation, development, and social progress across the globe.
In 1995, Cameroon initiated a restructuring process in the telecommunications sector. Placed among the least-connected countries in Africa (ranked 179th out of 206 countries classified by the International Telecommunication Union), the Telecommunications Regulation Agency (ART) was established to ensure healthy competition between operators at the time of this restructuring.
Several heavy goods vehicle workers have been injured during a clash with riot police in the capital Algiers while holding a protest to demand better wages and benefits
Publishing scientific findings and accessing the research of others is an essential part of the academic process, particularly to encourage debate and foster innovation. But many research institutions in Africa cannot afford to subscribe to many scientific journals, making it hard for scientists to keep up with research, writes Joseph Musakali.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad is identifying pregnant women in refugee camps who have had their genitalia cut, in order to better prepare for potential complications, according to UNHCR and its medical partners. The exercise is part of efforts in the camps to tackle the health fallout of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as well as prevent new cutting.
More than half of Chad’s nine million people live near sites potentially contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) or landmines, according to the national demining centre. The government says more than 100 people are killed or wounded every year by landmines or UXO; aid organizations cover the bulk of medical care and rehabilitation for mine victims, according to NGO Handicap International.
School enrolment has risen sharply in Somalia's self-declared independent region of Somaliland since 1991, raising the literacy rate from 20 percent to 45 percent, education officials have said.
In November 2008, Kenya launched an ambitious national voluntary male circumcision drive, which aims to have more than one million men circumcised by 2013 The government's effort is largely concentrated on Nyanza Province, where fewer than 50 percent of men are circumcised and the HIV prevalence is 15.4 percent, about twice the national average. A recent rapid results initiative saw more than 35,000 Nyanza men circumcised within a six-week period. The circumcision programme provides voluntary counselling and testing for HIV and routine STI tests to all men who seek the services.
On January 6th, 2009, Sierra Leoneans commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Revolutionary United Front rebel invasion of Freetown, the capital. The invasion which attracted a long overdue international intervention in the civil war was one of the bloodiest and most destructive battles. For over a month, RUF rebels, ECOMOG peacekeepers and militia loyal to the government of Tijan Kabbah fought for the control of Freetown.
Patrick Bond collates excerpts of testimonials about the late Dennis Brutus, ‘a poet whose work will be celebrated forever, and whose wisdom in so many campaigns for social justice will be sorely missed’, from institutions, individuals and the media.
‘No South African threw themselves more passionately into so many global and local battles. But from where did the indomitable energy emerge?’ Patrick Bond pays tribute to troubadour Dennis Brutus, who died at the age of 85 on 26 December 2009, ‘battling cancer, climate change and capitalism.’
With tens of millions of hectares of land across Africa auctioned off to corporations and governments in secretive deals, in this week’s Pambazuka News Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at a set of agreements between the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and a group of white South African farmers. Will this partnership come at the expense of local people, Sharife asks, or could it generate models for freeing the continent from food insecurity through the sharing of resources and humanity?
On the one-year anniversary of her imprisonment by Ethiopia’s Zenawi government, Alemayehu G. Mariam pays tribute to political leader Birtukan Midekksa, ‘an ordinary woman irrevocably committed to the rule of law, freedom, democracy and human rights’. ‘The dictators are not afraid of Birtukan,’ writes Mariam, ‘but they are terrified of what she represents: Ethiopia's bright future.’
An international discourse of China-in-Africa has emerged, particularly in Western countries with dense links to Africa: The US, the UK and France. In this article, Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong assert that while China’s presence in Africa should be critically examined, interest in it in the West is skewed by elite perceptions of China as a rival for resources and influence in Africa and as a rising power, with the tone of the discourse far more negative than that accorded to the Western presence in Africa.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s desire to secure nomination as Africa’s spokesperson on climate change was primarily as a means to earn legitimacy among western powers and to 'ensure their tacit assent' as he prepares 'to violently thwart' the aspirations of the Ethiopian people for democracy in the May 2010 elections, writes Selam Beyane in this week’s Pambazuka News. It was thus ‘a foregone conclusion’, argues Beyane, that ‘Zenawi would forgo any viable long-term international accord for a short-term gain.’
‘Many liberation and political movements that valiantly opposed authoritarian regimes often behave in markedly undemocratic ways when in power themselves’, writes William Gumede. In an extract from a new book of essays, ‘The Poverty of Ideas’, Gumede explores the challenges South Africa faces in making the transition from an independence movement political culture to a democratic political culture.
The ever-rising poverty, joblessness and homelessness in South Africa may actually weaken the Left – the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) – within the African National Congress (ANC) family, rather than strengthen their influence, writes William Gumede in this week’s Pambazuka News.
While world leaders and NGO delegates from around the world converged in Copenhagen for the 15th UN climate change conference, thousands of activists, writers, academics and artists gathered at [mp3] features interviews with representatives of different countries across sub-Saharan Africa who were at Klimaforum. Wahu Kaara of the Kenya Debt Relief Network provides a critique of the UN climate change conference and addresses the significance of the Copenhagen mobilisation for movements in Kenya; Demba Moussa Dembélé, from the Jubilee South campaign in Senegal, talks about the need for sufficient funds to flow from the North to the South to compensate for ecological and climate debt; Julia Agwu from the University of Nigeria in Nsukka gives an analysis of gender and climate change and the impacts of climate change on women in Nigeria; and finally, Mabule Mokhine of the Greenhouse People's Environment Centre in Johannesburg explains the process by which land dispossession in South Africa was consolidated at the end of the apartheid and the need for collaborations between global grassroots movements.
Ronald Bruce St John agrees with Emanuela Paoletti’s analysis that migration between Libya and Italy is a multilateral issue.
Marion Grammer is surprised that Leslie Dikeni’s roll-call of South African intellectuals makes ‘not a single mention of the many so-called “coloured” and Indian intellectuals who were so prominent during the Apartheid years.’
Ann Eveleth asks if South Africa is in danger of losing its political discourse to a 'spectacle of the commentator'.
The new year began with a lots of hand wringing, soul searching and even outright anger in the African blogosphere over Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab’s Christmas day attempt to bomb a Delta/Northwest Airline over Detroit, and the subsequent inclusion of Nigeria on the US terrorist watch list along with 13 other countries.
Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s dastardly attempt to detonate a bomb on flight 253 has profound ramifications for all Africans and the African continent, writes Ama Biney, from tougher security checks for passengers flying from Muslim countries, to providing justification for a greater role for AFRICOM in tackling the ‘alleged global war on terrorism’. But, asks Biney, is increased military intervention an effective strategy for treating the root causes of terrorist attacks and building a safe and secure world for all?
Following the Egyptian government's refusal to allow activists from all over the world to travel to Gaza from Cairo, Uri Avnery highlights the country's increasing commitment to honouring Israeli wishes around the blockade of the Gaza Strip. While Egypt has previously turned something of a blind eye to the supplies funnelled to Gaza via underground tunnels, this situation is about to change through the construction of an 'iron wall'. Why a country historically considered as the leader of the Arab world is prepared to do this likely lies in its own decline, Avnery contends, with President Hosni Mubarak obliged to follow US – and by extension Israeli government – wishes with a view to shoring up Egypt's own influence and power.
Sharing the faith and optimism of the imprisoned political prisoner Birtukan Midekssa, Alemayehu G. Mariam stresses that Ethiopia's future is in the 'hands, hearts and minds of its people, not in the tea leaves read by the experts'. The battle for Ethiopia's future will be one between 'future-makers' and 'future-takers' Mariam contends, victory in which in the makers will defeat the takers' efforts to oversee a continuation of the past.
Just as we should deplore the role of religious extremism in terrorist acts, we must reject extremist intolerance and antipathy towards sexual minorities, argues Audrey Mbugua. Rather than 'surrender your brain' to hate-mongering religious leaders and misplaced fear, Mbugua stresses, we must focus on promoting peace and understanding.
Chielo Zona Eze praises Doreen Baingana's 'Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe', describing Baingana as a 'clever wizard who conjures a world of possibilities in the reader’s mind'.
In a survey of the business activities of six Angolan MPs, Rafael Marques de Morais concludes that the blatant overlap of personal, commercial and governmental concerns 'makes a mockery of the supposed separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary'. These six influential members of the country's National Assembly operate with complete disrespect for the rule of law, Marques de Morais stresses, as part of a broader pattern of institutionalised arrogance.
Pambazuka News 463: System change not climate change
Pambazuka News 463: System change not climate change
’Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centres on whether human society will survive.’ In this week’s Pambazuka News, Fidel Castro writes on the experiences of the Cuban delegation at last week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
‘What constitutes an intellectual in the South African context?’ asks Leslie Dikeni in this week’s Pambazuka News, ‘Who is an intellectual and who isn’t?’ In an extract from a new book of essays, ‘The Poverty of Ideas’, Dikeni separates the ‘real intellectuals’ from a new breed of ‘pseudo-intellectuals’ that have emerged in recent years: The ‘celebrity intellectual’, the ‘commercial intellectual’, the ‘policy analyst’ and the ‘new gender activist’.
A capitalist economic system dependent on fossil fuels and the exploitation of natural resources to generate profit has left people and ecosystems across large parts of the planet – including swathes of Africa – vulnerable to climate change, Ama Biney writes in this week’s Pambazuka News. The ‘derisory’ funding developed nations have offered to ‘assist developing countries to adapt to climate change’ is not enough to solve the problem, Biney argues. The real focus, says Biney, should be on ‘transforming the exploitative, unsustainable, profit-driven ethos that underpins the current system of wealth accumulation that simultaneously damages the environment’.
Tujuane interviews Muthoni Garland, managing director of Storymoja, a Kenya-based company formed with the ‘dream of publishing contemporary East African writing of world-class standard’. Storymoja’s mission, says Garland, is to grow East Africa's reading culture and to improve writing standards.
Annual campaign ‘16 Days of Violence Against Women’ has raised the profile of violence against women through Tanzania’s local media, Salma Maoulidi writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, but there’s no guarantee that greater visibility of the issues will change attitudes and spark political to stop violence against women. Raising alarm over the ‘intolerable multi-dimensional culture of violence’ that women experience, Maoulidi makes a series of sixteen demands ‘to underscore fundamentals in changing an ideology and deeply seated culture of violence against women’.
As Muslim leaders across Kenya meet to discuss the status of Kadhi’s (Islamic) courts in the country’s draft constitution, Salma Maoulidi looks at the challenges of securing legal and human rights compliance within a religious framework in Tanzania, where debate has been raging over the introduction of the Kadhi’s courts in the legal and judicial system.
Immigration from Libya to Italy in 2009 has decreased by 90 per cent, compared to 2008. In this week’s Pambazuka News, Emanuela Paoletti looks at explanations for the dramatic decline in “illegal” migration between the two countries, in particular ‘Libya’s selective enforcement of restrictive immigration policies as a means of gaining foreign policy concessions from Italy.’
Samir Amin
In the face of sustained prejudice, Audrey Mbugua argues for the right of transsexual people to decide what is best for themselves. Having witnessed misplaced opposition to transsexual people's desire to access gender-reassignment therapy, Mbugua stresses that the decisions a person makes about their body are first and foremost their own.
Lucy Corkin reviews 'China into Africa: Trade, Aid and Investment', edited by Robert I. Rotberg, a book which she regards as 'a very interesting read' despite its deficiencies in certain areas.
Despite earlier combative language involving 'walking out' of the Copenhagen climate conference, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's heading of the 'African delegation' in Copenhagen resulted in nothing more than mere 'servile on-looking', writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Roundly criticised by representatives from organisations such as the G-77 and the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, Zenawi's 'leadership' simply facilitated developed nations in discarding Africa's needs in the battle to tackle climate change, Mariam stresses.
S'bu Zikode, the elected president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, has been honoured with the Order of the Holy Nativity by the Diocese of Natal Anglican Church of southern Africa in recognition of his leadership skills.
Having anticipated a predictable status quo of suits-and-presentations from the Copenhagen climate change conference, Rahul Goswami stresses the ultimate strength of local producers and their 'focus on food for people'.
Pambazuka News 462: From Belém to Copenhagen
Pambazuka News 462: From Belém to Copenhagen
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an arm of the UN, the global food crisis is worsening. In 2009, over 1 billion people were undernourished globally, up from 873 million in 2004-2006; the accelerating growth and urbanisation of the world’s population, which is predominantly taking place in the developing world, is increasing the pressure on food resources and provoking food security fears.
Sudan wants to attract foreign investors to cultivate vast tracks of land that are currently unused in Africa’s largest country, State Minister for Finance Tarek Shalabi said.
As the world meets to find ways of mitigating the impact of climate change, Nigeria, like other African nations which are at the receiving end of the effects of the global climate change, is counting its losses from the impact of the phenomenon.
Kenya's assistant Minister for Trade Omingo Magara, who is a top leader of the ruling Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), lost his parliamentary seat this week after a petition against his 2007 parliamentary victory succeeded, following months of trial.
Ethiopian authorities have released former opposition politicians, jailed for causing mayhem after the 2005 general elections, but the fate of an influential former party leader, Birtukan Mideksa, remains unclear.