Pambazuka News 505: Exploiting Haiti's disaster / Attacks on press freedom
Pambazuka News 505: Exploiting Haiti's disaster / Attacks on press freedom
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has launched a national programme to improve living conditions in the oil-rich country's informal settlements and slums, local media said Tuesday. According to a UNICEF report published in June, 87 per cent of Angola's urban population lives in shanty towns and just 42 per cent of people have access to water, down from 60 per cent in 2001.
The ruling ANC will appoint two independent researchers to investigate the nationalisation of mines, its secretary general said on Monday. 'The NEC (national executive committee) has resolved to appoint two senior researchers and a project manager to investigate successful models that could be considered on the role of the state in mining,' Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.
Three more former ministers have followed Barbara Hogan in resigning as MPs after being axed from the executive two weeks ago in the biggest cabinet reshuffle since 1994. The Sunday Independent has confirmed that former minister of Sports Makhenkesi Stofile, former Public Works minister Geoff Doidge and former Water and Environmental Affairs minister Buyelwa Sonjica this week tendered their resignations to National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu.
'We have just heard that three vehicles were burnt during a protest in TR Section, Khayelitsha, today. One of them contained stationery for the matric exams. We want to make it absolutely clear that this protest was organised by the ANC Youth League and not by Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape. We only head about it for the first time when we started to get calls from the media.'
Zambia has fared badly in the Open Budget Survey (OBS) coming out second from the bottom of 94 countries that were surveyed. Presenting the findings of the OBS, Economic Association of Zambia (EAZ) executive director Alexander Chileshe said Zambia ranked among the bottom two that failed to uphold transparency and accountability for their national budgets. He observed that Zambia did not give room for citizens and even parliament to have a say on how the budget was being implemented.
About 800 South African commercial farmers have already signed land deals to expand production in Mozambique, ahead of a conference next week to discuss other possible opportunities in the Gaza province. South African farmers have received new land offers to grow crops in over 20 countries.
A Uasa economic impact study on the impact of South Africa's water crisis released on Monday predicted a possible decrease in disposable income, a hike in government spending, and thousands of job losses. The study was commissioned by the trade union Uasa to establish the real impact of the South African water crisis on the country. Macroeconomic effects of decreased water quality include a rise in the ratio of government debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 28 per cent, a drop of R16-billion in household spending, a drop of 1 per cent in the GDP growth rate as well as a drop of R9-billion (2,5 per cent) in total fixed investment.
After successfully protesting the Protection of Information Bill (the secrecy Bill) the Right2Know Campaign has emerged as a vibrant campaign with significant influence in the public discourse. This rapid growth has raised a number of questions and the R2K Working Groups have called for a National Dialogue amongst campaign supporters to deliberate on matters of the Campaign's scope, strategy, and structure.
Western governments are rigging the market against poor cotton growers in Africa by pouring billions of pounds of taxpayers' money into farms in the United States and Europe, according to a new report. The US and EU have handed cotton farms subsidies of $32bn (£20bn) in the past decade, disadvantaging otherwise cheaper West African imports, according to the report by the Fairtrade Foundation.
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Human Rights Documentation Systems (HURIDOCS) launched a new online database of jurisprudence of the African Human Rights System on 8 November 2010.
The last court hearing of the trial of Dr. Isatou Touray, the Executive Director and Amie Bojang- Sissoho, Programme Coordinator for the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP) that took place on last Wednesday, 3 November 2010, before Magistrate Emmanuel Nkea of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court has begun to raise eyebrows, says a press release from a coalition of NGOs.
The Fahamu Emerging Powers in Africa Programme is pleased to announce a call for applications for its Journalist Study Tour to India. Four successful applicants will be chosen to participate in a six day study tour. African media professionals in print, broadcast, radio and online fora throughout Africa are encouraged to apply for this study tour. African lecturers from journalism schools and media programmes on the continent may also apply.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 'We are the World', United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa) and Trust Africa sponsored, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Africa Humanitarian Action, co-hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), a Symposium entitled 'Reflections on International Humanitarian Interventions in Africa' was held at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 21-23 September 2010. The stimulating discourse of the symposium, which included thinkers, practitioners and activists on the continent and beyond, was the driving motivation for AfricaSpeaks4Africa.org.
For the second day running MDC-T Senators brought the Senate to a standstill in protest against the presence of 'intruders'. Immediately after the opening prayer MDC-T Senator Tichaona Mudzingwa rose to object to the presence of Thokozile Mathuthu, David Karimanzira, Jason Machaya and Faber Chidarikire in the House. (These are persons who the MDC-T say are no longer ex officio members of the Senate, as they were illegally and unconstitutionally appointed as provincial governors by President Mugabe.)
Israel is building a 60km-long barrier on its southern border with Egypt aimed at physically keeping out African asylum-seekers amid a rising tide of intolerance towards people widely referred to as 'illegal workers'. The barrier will be built at two locations which witness the most crossings - near the Gaza strip and near Eilat. The estimated US$1.35 billion project is due to be completed at the end of 2013.
More than 250 health care providers, advocates, parliamentarians, women’s groups, community members and allied agencies from across Africa are meeting in Accra, to share best practices and lessons and initiate an agenda for action. The four-day conference focuses on unsafe abortion as a critical issue for reproductive health and rights in Africa, and for achieving the Millennium Development Goal 5, to reduce maternal mortality.
The US adult film industry was brought to a virtual standstill recently after an actor tested HIV-positive and all his sexual partners were tested for the virus. There are no such precautions in Kenya's porn industry, where actors usually perform without a condom or routine HIV testing. 'I don't know my HIV status and I can't say I know that of the men we act with,' said Angela*, who recently made the switch from eight years of street-based sex work to acting in local porn films.
For the 10th anniversary of 1325, Peacewomen has launched the ‘Women, Peace and Security Handbook,’ which examines the degree to which the Security Council has internalised the thematic agenda of Women, peace and security in its geographic work over the past 10 years, specifically in the Council’s country-specific resolutions. Divided into thirteen thematic chapters, the handbook is a reference guide for both progress made and action to be taken on the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
A top official with the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) has confirmed that Zimbabwean prisons are a harsh environment for female prisoners, adding that new prisons need to be built as the old ones are dilapidated. ZPS Commissioner, Retired General Paradzayi Zimondi, told journalists during a tour of Khami Prison in Bulawayo that there is need to build new prisons. 'We need special prisons for juveniles and females with children. Our prisons are old and they do not have facilities to cater for such prisoners,' he explained.
Gender-based violence is a persistent human rights violation in South Africa, especially seeing girls and women of all ages continually enduring incidents of rape and assault. Official estimates that have been criticised as being overly conservative, put the number of women raped in South Africa at 27,750 a year, or three an hour. Last week, an 8th grade girl was allegedly gang raped by three schoolboys on the high school’s premises. The incident was allegedly filmed by students using mobile phones. Media Monitoring Africa says that numerous aspects of how this story has been reported have given cause for concern.
Bangalore-based Indian company, Karuturi Global, the world’s largest flower producer, couldn’t get enough land in India to compete with rivals. So the company went to Ethiopia early this year and leased 1,200 square miles of land - larger than the State of Rhode Island - to grow flowers. After a few years, the land will become useless due to heavy use of fertilisers. Millions of Ethiopians are facing food shortage and yet the World Bank-financed dictatorship leases huge tracts of land to foreign agribusiness to grow and export flower, reports the Ethiopian Review.
Refugee Space Project is a 'Space', a 'Platform' or 'Network' intending to connect refugees among themselves first of all, and then with other non-refugee people (friends of refugees) so that they can reason about the life of these people of concern and share their stories, ideas and ideals to raise public awareness about the reality of life they are leading in the world.
A clearer example of hate speech would be hard to find, writes Chandre Gould, a senior researcher, at the crime and justice programme of the Institute for Security Studies. 'The authors of the report hide behind the worn, thin mantle of tradition and culture to justify their hatred of difference. They claim that homosexuality is "unAfrican" and goes against African tradition. This claim is nonsensical not only because homosexuality is the subject of just as much vitriol and hatred in the Western world as it is in Africa; but also because sexual orientation is not culturally determined.'
Other Worlds is working to document the ways that communities and social movements, together with their allies around the world, are working to build just economic, environmental, and political alternatives out of the ruins of the earthquake. You can read the ongoing reporting coming out of that work in the 'Another Haiti is Possible' archive on the Other Worlds website.
South Africans are fearful that Johannesburg may soon be at the mercy of acid water, with whisperings of the CBD crumbling as basements flood and buildings corrode. The government is said to be too slow, gutless and corrupt to enforce necessary action, the mining companies too heartless and unwilling to pay, the community and environmental activists too alarmist and the solutions too expensive or ineffective. South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper is featuring a series on acid mine drainage, or AMD, in South Africa, with each week focusing on a different area.
A rise in armed incursions is restricting people’s movements, reducing their ability to farm and increasing food security concerns in the Haut-Mbomou and Mbomou regions in the southeast Central African Republic (CAR), says an international humanitarian agency. 'There is plenty of fertile land in the region but violence is interfering with traditional ways of life such as agriculture, hunting and fishing, with farmers often afraid to stray far from town to work their fields for fear of attack. This has reduced production, pushing up prices to the point at which not everyone can afford to buy food, even when it's available,' said Christa Utiger, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) economic security coordinator for the CAR.
As the deadline to deport undocumented Zimbabwean migrants on or after 1 January 2011 looms, human rights activists warn South Africa could face a potential human rights disaster, though a senior South African official says the government is not aiming for a 'massive deportation operation'. Rights NGOs working with Zimbabwean migrants said they were bracing for hundreds of thousands to be deported.
Pambazuka News 504: Biopiracy, biodiversity and food sovereignty
Pambazuka News 504: Biopiracy, biodiversity and food sovereignty
The African Commission on Human and People's Rights denied observer status to the Coalition of African lesbians. Their reason as set out in the report to the AU is that the organisation does not seek to protect rights guaranteed under the charter.
This is not true. CAL works to protect the human rights of human beings. The charter confers the rights to all human beings.
A special issue of Pambazuka News focusing on the implications of the decision on people who are vulnerable to human rights violations of human rights because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity will be published shortly.
Please send your contributions to natasha [AT] amsher [DOT] net
La Via Campesina delegates attending the conference of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya from 19 to 29 October 2010 regret that the conference failed to achieve a radical decision to halt the mass commercialization and destruction of biodiversity.
The power of the poor becomes evident when the poor are able to organise – a moment of great promise, but also danger, S’bu Zikode told an audience in the United States recently.
Fighting between two sub-clans over grazing pasture and water has left 20 dead and thousands of families displaced from several villages in central Somalia, say locals. 'In my own town of Galinsor, about 1,300 families [7,800 people] have been displaced, out of a total population of 5,500 families,' Osman Abdi, an elder, told IRIN on 9 November. 'Many of the families have fled to surrounding villages and are living in the open or sheltering under trees.'
The Rwandan authorities are trying to tackle gender-based violence by addressing the role of security personnel in ending the scourge. 'Violence of any sort is an affront to society, an abomination that is simply unacceptable,' Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza said. 'Security forces in Africa must recognise gender-based violence as a crime.' The prime minister, who was speaking at a recent high-level conference in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on the role of security bodies in ending violence against women and girls, called for community involvement in efforts to root out the vice.
Alemayehu G. Mariam remembers the victims of the June and November 2005 massacres in Addis Ababa, where hundreds of people were killed by police for protesting the result of the general election. The author examines the use of police brutality by the government of Meles Zenawi to silence political opposition. He argues that the culture of impunity must stop and that it is imperative that the world continue to bear witness to the killings. ‘The Ethiopian massacre victims now belong to the whole of humanity,’ Mariam writes, remembering the men and women who died. ‘They must be remembered by all freedom-loving peoples throughout the world, not just Ethiopians.’
World leaders have an historic opportunity to reform the global economy to ensure that the one in six people who live in extreme poverty benefit from economic recovery, international agency Oxfam said today ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul. Oxfam is calling on the G20 to forge a new Seoul Development Consensus to replace the failed Washington Consensus of the past. The new consensus should combine financial support for health, education and poor farmers in developing countries with action to make the global economy work in the interests of poor countries.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called recent agreements reached on IMF governance reform 'historic'. However, a closer analysis reveals that the shifts in votes are smaller than claimed and though the basic power structure of the IMF will better incorporate large emerging markets, it will also continue to see dominance of the US and Europe, says the Bretton Woods Project.
The European Action Day is an initiative of the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ – a European network bringing together over 250 civil society organisations present in 15 European countries to take measures that will stop corporate abuses and provide access to justice for victims of these abuses. 'From mercury poisoning in South Africa to child labour in India, companies, including European ones, continue to get away with breaches of environmental and human rights standards,' states Ruth Casals, ECCJ’s coordinator.
When Oussama Benjelloun was a child, he wrote to Majid magazine about his ambition to become famous. He never heard back. Now the 26-year-old has realised his childhood dream by entering the world of media. His gateway to fame came by starting a blog. Today, Maghreb viewers can find him on Nessma TV, where he hosts a segment on new developments concerning the internet.
Tunisia is becoming the number one medical haven for its Algerian and Libyan neighbours. The Health Ministry reported that Tunisian health institutions received more than 140,000 Libyan and Algerian patients last year. 'In Libya, we suffer from the bad treatment of medical professionals and from their indifference to the health problems that worry us,' frequent visitor of Tunisian clinics Bouajila Fakhri told Magharebia.
The turn of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to new sources of financing, including kidnapping foreigners, extorting smugglers, and dealing in drugs is raising alarm among security agencies of the greater Maghreb. The countries of the region have officially committed themselves to co-ordinating their efforts to tackle the al-Qaeda threat in the region. Algeria, Mauritania, Niger and Mali have already set up a joint military headquarters in Tamanrasset, in southern Algeria and a joint intelligence centre in Algiers.
The visible aftermath of violence is easy to see at the tent camp of Gdaim Izik and the Western Sahara city of Laâyoune, still reeling from two days of deadly clashes with Moroccan troops, less clear is a death toll or the actual circumstances surrounding the military action. The crisis began early Monday (November 8th), when Moroccan forces intervened to disperse a tent camp near Laâyoune set up three weeks ago to protest against Morocco's social policy in Western Sahara.
Oil has not even started flowing but, already, it is causing conflict in Bunyoro, western Uganda where land disputes have erupted. The two billion barrels of oil discovered in the Lake Albert area have drawn speculators hoping to cash in on rising land values in the area and sparked conflicts in many villages, particularly in the district of Buliisa.
Fifteen years ago Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists who led protests against Shell Oil company were hanged by the Nigerian government after a sham trial on trumped up charges. Justice in Nigeria Now remembers Ken Saro Wiwa and his colleagues, noting new revelations about Shell’s PR strategy after the deaths of the Ogoni activists.
The African Commission for People and Human Rights (ACPHR) has declined to give observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL). Outraged LGBTI activists have described the decision as a huge setback by the highest body supposed to promote and protect human rights on the continent. This week’s blog roundup focuses on LGBTI news and issues.
As multinational food processor Nestlé attempts to patent the well-known benefits of South Africa’s fynbos plants, Khadija Sharife explains the role tax havens play in enabling corporations to protect the value of intellectual property rights.
While a trade deal between the European Union (EU) and Southern African countries is close it will not be concluded before the end of this year. In the meantime, South Africa remains in pursuit of an ambitious regional integration agenda. Namibian trade minister Hage Geingob has confirmed that the December 2010 deadline for a economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the EU that Southern African states had set themselves in Gaborone, Botswana, earlier this year will not be met.
Internationally acclaimed Kenyan poet, playwright and activist Shailja Patel has launched 'Migritude' in the US. 'Part memoir, part political history, part performance tour-de-force', the project 'weaves together family history, reportage, and monologues of violence, colonisation, and love, to create an achingly beautiful portrait of lives and migrant journeys undertaken in the boot print of Empire.’
As the World Bank pushes forward with a massive investment in North Africa’s energy sector, it is up to the institution to ensure that this program benefits those who need it most, says the Bank Information Centre. In December 2009, the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), under the leadership of the World Bank, approved a $750 million Investment Plan for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The plan aims to invest in CSP projects in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan and to mobilise an additional $4.85 billion from other sources bringing the total cost of the program to $5.6 billion.
'We, the undersigned civil society organisations from 23 countries, urge G-20 leaders to make concrete progress towards the introduction of an internationally coordinated financial transactions tax (FTT) at the upcoming summit in Seoul. Our organisations have long advocated that such taxes are a practical way to generate revenues needed to fill domestic and international financing gaps, discourage the type of short-term financial speculation that has little social value but poses high risks to the economy and serve as a desperately-needed and sustainable source of financing for health and development. In recent months, the case for an FTT has been strengthened with new inputs from sometimes unexpected sources.'
‘For the last twenty years, the most powerful political and economic interests in and around Haiti have waged a systematic campaign designed to stifle the popular movement and deprive it of its principal weapons, resources and leaders,' writes Peter Hallward. January’s earthquake ‘triggered reactions that carried and that are still carrying such measures to entirely new levels.’
‘When we think of wars in our times, our minds turn to Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bigger war is the war against the planet. This war has its roots in an economy that fails to respect ecological and ethical limits – limits to inequality, limits to injustice, limits to greed and economic concentration,’ writes Vandana Shiva. ‘Making peace with the earth was always an ethical and ecological imperative. It has now become a survival imperative for our species.’
Labour unions suspended their three-day warning strike aimed at forcing the government to enact into law and implement a national minimum wage of 18,000 naira (about $120). The strike was called off Wednesday after an emergency meeting between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria. They agreed to suspend the strike for three weeks on the understanding that President Goodluck Jonathan would place the Minimum Wage Bill before the National Assembly for speedy legislative process after the National Council of State meets on it November 25.
Google has launched Google Voice Search in South Africa to enable internet users to use their natural voice to speak into their cell phones for Google searches. Google senior staff engineer Johan Schalkwyk has said 'you speak into your phone and it sends your voice over the network where it's analyzed and you get your search results.'
UN aid Chief Valerie Amos said that United Nations is to help the voluntary return of people displaced by the conflict in Darfur. During her six day tour of the region, Amos said the decision would also be based on whether 'there is some provision of basic services that the security situation is such that their safety has been considered.'
ALISON, the online learning website, has officially announced the release of a new free online course on how to create your very own Podcasts. The course is ideal for anyone looking to record and share audio and video podcasts with others over the web.
The campaign to build a reading culture should start in the home, writes Susan Najjuma.
If people don’t receive comprehensive sex education growing up, what is another option for disseminating critical sexual and reproductive health information to them? By targeting young married couples in Egypt, The Mabrouk! ('Congratulations!') Initiative strategically focuses efforts on young couples preparing to start a family. Established in 2004, the initiative combines a multimedia campaign with interpersonal and community empowerment approaches as part of the Communication for Health Living (CHL) project to create sustainable social change related to health practices.
Achieving ‘the Pan-African dream will take some great men of character and courage that have the will to take the lead’, writes Waiswa.
A text message from a clinic each week resulted in better adherence and a higher level of viral load suppression among people with HIV after starting antiretroviral treatment in Kenya, a randomised controlled trial has shown. The results were published in the Online First section of The Lancet this week. The trial was sponsored by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Data about experiments conducted must be disclosed, and their effects on the environment assessed, writes Mathieu Hamaekers.
Heavily armed soldiers wearing military fatigues on Wednesday launched a lunchtime raid on Green Valley farm in Chipinge East, in an operation in which they took away MDC officials. One of those ‘abducted’ by the soldiers, who were brandishing AK47 rifles, is Solomon Mazvokwadi, an MDC-T ward youth chairman for the area. The soldiers were deployed in Chipinge East three months ago and have been patrolling the area, allegedly intimidating MDC supporters.
The Endorois community is seeking the intervention of the African Commission to compel the Government to implement a ruling delivered early this year. The community has dispatched a delegation of 10 members to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) meeting in Banjul. Gambia, to express displeasure over Government's failure to honour its ruling. In the landmark ruling, the African Commission found the Government guilty of violating the human rights of the Endorois, by evicting them from their land to pave way for creation of Lake Bogoria Game Reserve, between 1974 and 1979.
Unless the money needed for tuberculosis is invested now the world will face a drug-resistant epidemic that will affect everyone in the world, warned Dr Nils Billo, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). Speaking at the launch of the World Health Organisation’s Global Tuberculosis Control Report, Billo said that TB very often fell between the cracks even though it was a critical problem in many countries, including the former Soviet Union, Russia and Asia.
Dozens of NGOs have expressed their 'concern about the continued deterioration of freedom of expression in many parts of Africa in 2010' in a resolution adopted this week at a major gathering of civil society from across the continent. The 'Resolution on Freedom of Expression and Protection of Journalists' came out of the Forum on the Participation of NGOs held in Banjul, The Gambia, in advance of the start of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights ordinary session.
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 Fahamu Emerging Powers in Africa Programme is pleased to announce a call for applications for its Journalist Study Tour to India. Four successful applicants will be chosen to participate in a 6 day study tour. African media professionals in print, broadcast, radio and online fora throughout Africa are encouraged to apply for this study tour. African lecturers from journalism schools and media programmes on the continent may also apply.
A group of civil society organisations have called on the Ugandan government to take all appropriate measures to ensure the full respect of fundamental human rights and adequate protection from violence for people suffering discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Reporting to the Head of International Grants and managing a small team, you’ll lead on the delivery of our trade and climate change programme strategies, and the development of our social investment strategy as well as playing a critical role in strengthening corporate and other relationships that will enable us to fulfill our mission.
AWID is currently seeking an activist/researcher with a strong background in economics and development to work with our Influencing Development Actors and Practices for Women’s Rights (IDeA) strategic initiative. IDeA is engaged in an exciting action-research agenda that is attempting to connect theoretical debates on development and the need for alternative models with concrete experiences, lessons learned and analysis from a women’s rights perspective.
‘Under the guise of developing "climate-ready" crops, the world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations are pressuring governments to allow what could become the broadest and most dangerous patent claims in intellectual property history.’ Hope Shand unpacks the findings of ETC Group’s new report into patent claims on ‘genes, plants and technologies that will supposedly allow biotech crops to tolerate drought and other environmental stresses'.
The is seeking a PhD candidate who has just finished or who is already on the job market with a specialisation in comparative politics and foreign relations of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The candidate should be interested in coming to India for this exciting new school.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the independence of most of the French-speaking African states and has been so celebrated in France and in the former French Sub-Saharan African states. The independence of North Africa followed a different course, but the 1954-1962 Algerian War heavily influenced French policy in Sub-Saharan Africa - usually referred to as Afrique Noire (Black Africa). Less celebrated are the political assassinations which were carried out in the lead up to the 1960 independences. Thus the November 3, 1960 death of Felix Moumie, the Cameroun independence leader, by poison in Geneva, merits attention to remind us that State-sponsored murders have terrorism of population as an aim.
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) has announced that issue number 11 of 'Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism' is available. It includes:
- At the End of the Baton of South African Pretentions - Warren McGregor (ZACF)
- Electricity Crisis in Protea South - Lekhetho Mtetwa (ZACF)
- Conned by the Courts - Sian Byrne, James Pendlebury (ZACF), Komnas Poziaris
- Death and the Mielieboer - Michael Schmidt
- The Crisis Hits Home: Strategic Unionism or Revolt? - Lucien van der Walt
- Sharpening the Pangas?: Understanding and Preventing future Pogroms - Michael Schmidt
- Riding to Work on Empty Promises - Jonathan P. (ZACF)
The latest issue of the Kakuma News Reflector is now available online. The Kakuma News Reflector (or KANERE) is a refugee free press devoted to independent reporting on human rights and encampment.
Approximately 8,000 Somalis, who fled across the Kenyan border from the Somali town of Belet Hawo following intense fighting there, were ordered to return to Somalia by the Kenyan authorities between 1 and 2 November. On 4 November about 3,000 were forced further into Somalia by Kenya's administrative police, where they are at risk of serious human rights abuses. Amnesty International is urging those concerned by the development to write to the Kenyan authorities.
As G20 leaders mull the global consequence of quantitative easing in the US, Horace Campbell highlights the need for a democratised international body that can hold major powers accountable. ‘Without such a body, the kind of competitive devaluation that has been initiated by the US could be a recipe for full-blown warfare.’
Firing up the local production of knowledge is crucial to escaping the ‘industry of development’, writes Luca Bussotti.
A group of journalists arrested in Libya have been released on the order of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan media report. Authorities had arrested 19 journalists and a senior media executive, reportedly as part of a power struggle inside the ruling elite.
The United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries will carry out an official visit to South Africa from 10 to 19 November 2010 to examine the regulatory and oversight system in place to monitor the activities of private military and security companies. The UN expert body will hold discussions with government authorities, parliamentarians, civil society organizations, representatives of the diplomatic community, as well as representatives of the private military and security industry based in South Africa. In these discussions, the Working Group will focus, among other things, on the content and possible impact of the relevant legislation adopted in 2006.
African academies are still battling to obtain funding and recognition from policymakers despite several efforts to strengthen them. This message came out of the sixth meeting of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) taking place in Somerset West near Cape Town, South Africa, this week (7–11 November).
Will Africa give birth to a new nation in 2011? Southern Sudan will hold an a referendum on whether or not it should remain as a part of Sudan on 9 January 2011 as part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. A simultaneous referendum will be held in Abyei on whether to become part of Southern Sudan. Global Voices carries a roundup of posts that discuss Sudan.
Four of the seven upstream Nile Basin Initiative countries have decided to sign a new Nile deal. Despite strong Egyptian and Sudanese opposition, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia signed a new water-sharing agreement. The other three countries, Kenya, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are expected to sign the new deal within the next 12 months as allowed by the accord. Global Voices presents a wide variety of opinions on the deal.
Women in Uganda’s rural areas will learn about domestic violence against women through the use of different ICT tools to build awareness around the issue, but they will also learn to report and prevent it - and the mobile phone will be playing a big part in their campaigns - from frontline SMS, to around-the-clock hotlines. Other tools being used include web 2.0 and online publishing tools, as well as radio.
The United Nations envoy for children and armed conflict has condemned the increasing number of children being recruited as soldiers by various armed groups in Somalia. Speaking on Monday, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, also highlighted the growing practice of forcing young girls into marriage and other forms of gender-based violence.
France's highest appeals court has authorised judges to proceed with an investigation into assets held in the country by three African leaders. The anti-corruption group Transparency International has accused the three of using African public funds to buy luxury homes and cars in France. The three leaders, one of whom is now dead, had denied wrongdoing. They are Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo and Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, as well as the late Gabonese leader, Omar Bongo.
The BBC website is encouraging comments from its readers on whether social media outlets such as Facebook, Youtube and blogs are having an impact on politics in Africa? The post points out that a rap record using the voice of Uganda's President Museveni is currently proving popular on websites like youtube. But a reader raises concern about whether such use of social media sidelines the real meaning of what political campaigning should be about. 'Instead of raising awareness of ideals to be fulfilled, and issues to be overcome, the parties are busy churning out entertainment schedules instead.'
Newly re-elected Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete receives calls to level the political playing field, suggests Gado.
As Yoweri M7, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni launches a hip hop appeal to the Ugandan electorate…
In a time of complete chaos, when disaster came stomping through the land, grabbing what it wanted…
The Lioness is a mother
a friend, a sister
She's a teacher…
When it comes to Zimbabwe’s transition, the experience in Kenya shows that reforms must be on paper and in the real world. And the logic of reform must be for the people and not to maintain power for the ‘big boys’, Cyprian Nyamwamu says.
Kenya’s Gender Festival is an open forum which brings together feminist and gender-focused groups, and other development actors working at various levels. Join us to share experiences and build capacity on gender equality, feminism and the intersections between these and power.
Following investigations by Maka, Rafael Marques de Morais writes of the role of ‘foreign investment in broadening, consolidating and institutionalising corrupt dealings’ with Angola’s political leaders. Marques de Morais stresses that: ‘It has become normal for foreign investors to ignore anti-corruption laws thanks to the impunity that they enjoy through their association with the regime’s most corrupt and abusive figures.’
While the ICC (International Criminal Court) may do its part in ending an entrenched culture of impunity in Kenya, write Leigh Brownhill and Kiama Kaara, it is the Kenyan people, not the ICC, that will play the bigger part in achieving the noble but elusive goal of peace.
The Rural Poverty Report 2011 contains updated estimates by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) regarding how many rural poor people there are in the developing world, poverty rates in rural areas, and the percentage of poor people residing in rural areas. The report says 1.4 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty – and more than 70 per cent of them are living in rural areas of developing countries, while the latest measurements show that 925 million of them are undernourished.
Of Nigeria’s 150 million population 40 million are unemployed. 'A capitalist Nigeria is finding it difficult pulling Nigerian youth out of the frustration caused by unemployment simply because it is based on the profit motive. At the base of capitalism are greed and inhuman neglect of the unfortunate condition of the masses in general and the working class in particular,' writes Ola Balogun in an article on the Centre for Civil Society's website.
The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation has released a major study on violence in South African society, recommending that government define its response to violence more clearly. The report notes that whilst it is clear that dealing with the problem of illegal firearms is a central pillar of government’s efforts to address crime, the argument for a focus on armed violence goes beyond this. 'This is partly through the fact that it motivates that knife violence also become a focus of attention, but also because it challenges government to reconceptualise its approach to how it defines violent crime priorities,' says the report.
'An elected government that does not accept that people have a right to form new parties and to contest its hold on power may be a "democratically elected" government, but it is not a democratic government. In a democracy, everyone has the right to form parties and to contest for state power at the polls and any limitation on that right is a limitation on democracy,' writes Richard Pithouse about ANC comments criticising a recent civil society conference convened by COSATU and the Treatment Action Campaign.
Project Literacy, the largest provider of adult basic education and training (ABET) in South Africa, has been forced to shut down its provincial offices and retrench more than half its staff after the government withdrew a major contract. Project Literacy chief executive, Andrew Miller, points out that the former director-general of the Department of Higher Education and Training, Mary Metcalfe, had awarded the contract, on behalf of the National Skills Fund (NSF), in September but that it had been withdrawn three weeks later.
Some oil companies, including Shell and Chevron, have signed up to what is known as Voluntary Principles, by which they declare how they would change their corporate practices in the area of security and human rights. See the principles at This Environmental Rights Action article asks whether these principles have resulted in any positive change, touches on the principles behind them and how they can be applied to Nigerian oil fields.