Pambazuka News 269: Ivory Coast: Dynamics of mediation
Pambazuka News 269: Ivory Coast: Dynamics of mediation
In an apparent widening of its military offensive against rebels in North Darfur State, the Sudanese military have used Antonov planes to bomb another seven villages in the volatile region, sources in the region say.
Deputy Ugandan rebel leader Vincent Otti has warned there will be no peace deal unless international indictments for the top rebels are dropped. Mr Otti and three other Lord's Resistance Army commanders, including leader Joseph Kony, are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Six people have now died from the toxic waste dumped in the biggest Ivory Coast city, Abidjan, while 9,000 have sought treatment, the government says. The UN has set up an inter-agency team to respond to the crisis. A French team is analysing the waste, and says it will produce a report by the end of this week.
A Somali radio station has resumed broadcasting after it was closed down by Islamist leaders for playing local love songs. However, Radio Jowhar is no longer playing any music, even jingles. The Union of Islamic Courts, which controls much of the south, is split between hardliners, who want Taleban-style rule, and moderates.
Thousands of mourners have attended the funeral of the Sudanese newspaper editor whose beheaded body was found in Khartoum after he was kidnapped. Many people wept openly as Mohammed Taha's body was carried on a wooden bed from his home to the cemetery. The BBC's Alfred Taban says the killing has shocked Sudan.
The African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet) is seeking a qualified and talented person to fill the position of Executive Director. Based in Kampala, Uganda, the Executive Director will head the AfriComNet Secretariat, and will be answerable to a Board of Directors drawn from countries across Africa.
Under the supervision of the Director General, he/she carries out the Five - Year strategic Plan of Action and contributes to PIWA’s institutional building.
The Finance / Administration Officer reports to the Country Representative and the Programme Co-ordinator in Copenhagen. She/He is responsible for the financial administration of the project/programme and supervises the local administrative and logistics staff. In case of absence she/he has to substitute the Country Representative.
This year's Global Education Digest presents the latest education statistics from primary to tertiary levels in more than 200 countries. The Digest presents a wide range of comparable education indicators which can be used to assess progress towards the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals. These cross-national indicators are also useful for benchmarking the performance of a national education system to those in other countries.
This paper focuses on the situation of teachers, the problems they face and the detrimental effect these problems are having on children's ability to complete a good quality education. As well as setting out the problems faced by teachers, education managers and governments in poor countries, the paper also collects together a range of solutions to the problems highlighted.
Pambazuka News 268: Special Issue: Women, trade and justice
Pambazuka News 268: Special Issue: Women, trade and justice
On May 25, one of us spent several minutes laughing on the phone with a friend of ours, an environmental journalist. We were looking at the homepage of the Independent website - a newspaper that has made huge efforts to present itself as a radical campaigning force for action on climate change.
Hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital after breathing toxic fumes from poisonous waste dumped in residential areas of Cote d'Ivoire's main city, Abidjan. On Tuesday, hundreds of the city's residents threw up barricades in protest, prompting the government to appeal on national television for roads to be cleared so that medical personnel could get through.
A senior commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) says peace talks with the Ugandan government could fail if the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not lift indictments against five rebel leaders wanted for crimes against humanity. "The ICC must revoke the indictment," said Vincent Otti, the LRA's second in command, who, with the group's leader, Joseph Kony, and three other commanders, is wanted by the ICC.
A mini-summit of Cote d'Ivoire's main political leaders ended in disagreement after participants failed to reach consensus on preparations for delayed elections aimed at restoring peace in the divided country. "The Yamoussoukro summit has failed," said spokesman for the New Forces rebels, Sidiki Konate, late on Tuesday.
Lasting solutions are needed for the humanitarian problems of gender-based violence, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), a senior United Nations (UN) official said on Tuesday. This would help restore peace and stability to the region, Ibrahima Fall, the Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, said in Nairobi, Kenya, at the opening of a three-day regional conference on peace and security.
Where once the bunkers and razor wire of an African Union (AU) peacekeeping base dominated the plain in front of Tawilla town, now only a small water tower reveals the whereabouts of their camp, swallowed up in a sea of makeshift shelters.
Sources on the ground indicate that the government of Sudan is indiscriminately bombing civilian-occupied villages in rebel-held North Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today. The bombing campaign comes as Khartoum is threatening to eject African Union peacekeepers and stymieing efforts to deploy a U.N. force to the region, and should trigger sanctions against senior Sudanese government officials.
Mr. President, the African Union is essential to the political and economic development of Africa’s diverse community of States. It has become clear that the AU represents a real commitment by its members to establishing a forum for political dialogue and to address the challenges and seize opportunities that are arising throughout the continent.
"This is no way to run a peacekeeping operation. Morale is low, we cannot pay our troops and the [Sudanese] government makes sure we are unable to do our job." - Senior African Union official
QuickGuides are 24 page books, readable in an hour, covering the fundraising and management needs of both large and small organisations. QuickGuides are the perfect way to learn about a subject quickly and easily, and because they are written and reviewed by knowledgeable professionals from all around the world they will be useful wherever you operate as they are not country specific. And with 6 new titles to add to our current 22 and more planned for 2007 - from sources of funding to events planning, motivating staff to marketing – it’s all there. At £8 or US$14 per book, QuickGuides are accessible to all, and you can build your own library of expertise. And as a reader of Pambazuka News, you can take advantage of a special promotion of 3 books for the price of 2 until the end of October 2006. Or for £125 you can buy an entire library of all 28 titles. QuickGuides are a resource you can’t afford not to have. Quote ref: pambazuka and order online now at our online bookshop.
This ten day advanced course is designed for practitioners from government, inter-governmental non-governmental agencies, donors and community representatives in the Middle East and Africa with institutional responsibilities in the field of refugees and migration. The participants will explore the practical implications and challenges of applying the much-touted human rights approach to policy making in real situations.
The African Union has given notice that it is not going to continue its Peace Mission beyond the end of this month when the mandate expires. Khartoum's initial response was more or less: “Good riddance” though it has now 'modified' its position to include impossible conditions under which it may 'allow' the African Union troops to remain.
The Sudanese government wants the Mission to be financed by itself and the Arab League. This is obviously a condition that the AU cannot accept and has rightly refused to countenance. In addition, the Sudanese government has categorically rejected the UN Security Council Resolution 1706.
The African Union Peace Keeping Mission in Darfur has been faced with many challenges. One, the experience is new and consequently there were lots of obstacles to be dealt with. Two, the mandate was too limited, and, therefore, it has been unable to embark on peace enforcement that could have saved more lives. In a sense, it is an AU mission based on the old OAU fudge. Three, it never had enough resources to carry out its limited mission effectively.
But by far the biggest challenge is the bad faith of the Sudanese government. Also, too many external interests have been impacting on the conflict.
These challenges have contributed to the misconception that Africans cannot resolve their problems themselves. The fact that the Mission was put together was a positive step towards confirming that Africans and our political leaders were no longer prepared to be indifferent to the suffering of other Africans.
That Rwanda and Nigeria both immediately offered troops was also an expression of this Pan African Solidarity. Rwanda knows only too well the consequences of apathy and indifference. On the other hand, the Nigerians have always regarded Africa as the “centre piece” of the country’s Foreign Policy and have always sought to put their money where their mouth is.
I am not enamoured by Obasanjo at all but I must concede that he has remained consistent on Pan African Issues. In the case of Sudan, Nigeria has been engaged from time immemorial largely because both countries are superficially similar but also because there is a long association between the peoples.
The North-South ethno-regional - racialist and religious fault lines in Sudan are very familiar to Nigeria. Therefore successive Nigerian governments have tried to be peace-makers in Sudan. There is also the fact that there are a significant number of Sudanese people who may be of Nigerian origin.
One of the most difficult challenges that the AU had to confront was the limited nature of their mandate. Due to this weakness, the Sudanese government was able to outmanoeuvre the AU. It played the AU against the UN / USA and got a weakened intervention force.
The Sudanese government also exploited the United States of America’s low credibility and the anti-Americanism that Bush’s war without end continues to generate among many Africans and peoples of the world. The US is the only government that has officially declared that what is happening in Darfur is nothing short of genocide.
This should have put an obligation on both the US government and the rest of the member states of the UN to abide by the Geneva Convention. Neither the US nor the other states have discharged that responsibility. The US cannot do so because nobody will believe it, especially after it waged a unilateral war on Afghanistan and Iraq.
In practice, the AU force has been toothless because of the limited mandate. This should be enough reason to review the way in which the Peace and Security Council (PSC) operates. It is not a case for abolition - rather it is a case for wider reform so that it is able to intervene effectively.
The issue of resources have to be dealt with seriously. Almost all organs of the Union are handicapped by lack of money, not just the PSC operations. It is simply unacceptable and should be indefensible that we cannot fund the AU on our own given the enormous resources wasted by governments across this continent.
Why are we able, ready and willing to spend money on Presidential vanities and unjust wars but have no resources for peace and development? Why should anybody take us seriously if we do not take ourselves seriously?
However, whatever internal resources we generate, should not mean that Africa cannot and should not avail itself of global resources both material and immaterial. We are part and parcel of the international community. Any threat to our peace and security is a threat to the rest of the international community.
Africans have been helping to make, keep and maintain peace across the world from Bosnia to Lebanon, and, therefore there is nothing wrong in asking others to help us too.
It is clear that extremist elements are now in control of policy in Khartoum. Whether President Bashir is a willing or unwilling prisoner is difficult to say categorically. Sometimes politicians prefer to be seen as ‘powerless’ even as they may be in full support of the unpopular direction their government may be embarking.
These extremists see peace negotiations as weakness. They fear that Darfur may be on the road to some form of independence, like the South. In that way of thinking they are willing to disorganise any peace negotiation.
It is telling that the key moderate voices of past negotiations are very quiet now. The most important of these voices is that of the second Vice President, Ali Osman Taha. As evidence to show that Bashir is firmly ensconced with his extremist hegemonists, he reportedly swore he will never allow the UN into Sudan and instead was prepared to go to Darfur and fight himself.
But the government is not the only villain. Some of the rebel leaders themselves do not want any peace resolution, and still others suffer from inflated opinions of themselves. Right from the start, many of the rebel leaders never wanted an AU force.
That ruse has now been exposed for what it is: bad faith by a government bent on killing its own peoples. There is a need for both the AU and the UN to call Khartoum's bluff.
By stating its exit date, the AU has already taken a clear position. The ball is now in the court of the UN whose July 31 resolution was made under the enforcement chapter of the UN Charter. AU members are also members of the UN and part of that decision. Therefore we may leave as the AU but return to protect fellow Africans as part of the UN Force.
• Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement,
Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa
• Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Reinventing Development: Translating rights-based approaches from theory into practice. Paul Gready and Jonathan Ensor (eds) Zed Books £16.95 ISBN 1842776495
In the aftermath of the Second World War, mass mobilizations swept the African continent, as people in villages, farms and cities demanded the right of self-determination and an end to colonial subjugation. The independence governments that were subsequently swept into power proposed that the path to self-determination should be through what Western governments described as ‘development’, seen as the universal panacea for the problems of ‘underdevelopment’.
Despite the haziness of the term, it had a certain progressive ring – implicit in the idea of development was that of emancipation, which had inspired millions to support the movement for independence. And it was in this that the modern missionaries – the development NGOs – found their raison d’être.
By the end of the 20th century, the appeal of development had waned. Twenty years of structural adjustment programmes had reversed nearly all the gains of independence, removing the right of African people to determine their own social and economic policies, rendering their governments less and less accountable.
Development NGOs were experiencing a crisis of credibility as their development programmes came to be perceived as part of the so-called ‘Washington consensus’ agenda. Development had lost its emancipatory appeal. It was in need of reinvention.
Amartya Sen was probably among the first to recognize this in his call to reassert the link between development and freedom. [1] Others gradually took up the cry, until even the World Bank became a proponent of ‘the rights-based approach to development’.
The appeal was obvious: human rights has – as development once had – an association with something that is implicitly participatory and emancipatory. But has the new dogma changed anything in practice? Has it led to poverty being recognized as a massive human rights violation that kills millions prematurely every year? Has it resulted in bringing to account those who are responsible for and benefit from the impoverishment of humanity? Has it resulted in international agencies supporting movements claiming reparations for injustices? Has it meant resources being allocated to popular movements so they can exercise their collective power in support of their claims or defend themselves against attacks? What real difference has it made to the struggle for emancipation – the right to determine one’s one future?
With some notable exceptions, there were few answers to be found in this book. This collection of essays does, however, provide a remarkable insight into the current discourse among international development agencies about something that appears to be the new universal panacea for the poor. It shows that, like the term ‘development’ before it, the human rights approach to development has come to mean anything and everything to everyone.
For UNICEF, it is essentially an effective programming tool; for Oxfam International, it is business as usual, but recast using the new rhetoric. For CARE International in Rwanda, it provides a different analytical framework for its work but the solutions seem drearily similar to conventional approaches to development.
In Afghanistan, the rights-based approach is seen as necessary not so much to defend the rights of Afghanis but primarily as an advocacy tool (and, some might say, for strengthening negotiation for funds).
For ActionAid, the rights-based approach is radically different: they show that rights are fundamentally about enabling the poor and disenfranchised to organize, and thereby use their collective power in their own interest.
Instead of the traditional charitable and humanitarian response to the earthquake and communal violence in Gujarat, they understood the ‘need to take sides unambiguously with the poor’. The need for political action in relation to children’s participation is more cautiously acknowledged in Save the Children’s case study from Nepal.
Two valuable essays in this book seem strangely out of place. Ghalib Galant and Michelle Parlevliet from the South African Centre for Conflict Resolution make a strong argument for why conflict prevention and the struggle for human rights are inextricably linked – though how this relates to the rights-based approach to development is not made entirely clear. An excellent essay by Neil Jarman on human rights and peace-building in Northern Ireland discusses how human rights have moved to centre stage following the paramilitary ceasefire – though the term ‘rights-based approach to development’ is not once mentioned!
In addition to a series of case studies, there are more discursive essays on the concept of the rights-based approach – the introductory essay by the editors, an essay by Harsh Mander, an essay on rights and culture by Jonathan Ensor, and a helpful summary and conclusion by Olivia Ball. I was struck by the fact that none of these essays sought to address the nature and scale of human rights violations taking place in so-called developing countries.
Injustice, crimes against humanity, genocide, gender-based violence, child abuse, war, torture, occupation, the use of state sponsored terror and its mirror image of non-state terror – topics that are the normal focus of human rights discourse – were mentioned at best only peripherally, if at all. Do these subjects have no relevance to the discourse on rights and development? Their absence lends weight to the sense that the discourse on rights-based development is just a new spin on an old, and rather discredited, concept of development.
• Firoze Manji is Executive Director of Fahamu and editor of Pambazuka News.
• This article first appeared in the September edition of Alliance Magazine.
Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Notes:
[1] Amartya Sen (1999) Development as Freedom Oxford: OUP.
We are members of the global scientific community working on HIV/AIDS who wish to express our deep concern at the response of the South African government to the HIV epidemic. HIV causes AIDS. Antiretrovirals are the only medications currently available that alleviate the consequences of HIV infection.
What is the role of women in world trade?
Compared to 50 years ago, women represent an increasingly higher number of the world’s labour force, with many studies placing the number at over 50 percent. However, this doesn’t include women who work in the informal sector or the unpaid activities of women at the household level. On a broader level, women’s access to health care and education, for example, are profoundly influenced by national economic policy – meaning that if international economic best practice doesn’t take into account gender issues, then women are disadvantaged.
How does trade have an impact on women’s rights?
Trade liberalisation, which refers to the untaxed flow of goods and services between countries, has had positive and negative influences. Increasingly, the negative impacts of trade liberalisation, has made trade a central feature of advocacy work by gender activists. Women have gained jobs in the manufacturing sectors, but these jobs may not lead to positive social outcomes as women often work longer hours and are paid low wages. The opening of markets and the influx of cheaper goods have in some cases destroyed livelihoods, and it is women who have borne the brunt of these changes.
Have women’s rights been considered in international trade bodies?
The World Trade Organisation, an international rules-based and member driven organization which oversees a large number of agreements defining the "rules of trade" between its member states, has long been criticized for not including the voices of women, preferring to view trade as gender neutral. Moreover, its main decision making bodies are male-dominated. To this extent, nothing has been done to take into account or lessen the negative impact of trade liberalization on women’s rights. Despite increasingly loud voices, the WTO refuses to reform itself, has unclear rules about its decision making and operates in manner that is non-transparent.
What is the core of the problem? – Trade or the global economic system in which we conduct trade.
There is nothing wrong with trade per se; in fact the cornerstone of human society is based on trade. To human beings, trade is a tool for survival. However, a problem arises when one group of people uses trade to exploit and oppress another group of people. From a feminist standpoint, this normally happens in a patriarchal society. A patriarchal society is a society based on the belief that women are inferior to men. The global economic system is shaped and influenced by patriarchal logic. Indirectly and directly, the global economic system cultivates and encourages misogynists attitudes in traders, which nine out of ten times tend to be men.
What is the Alternative? Or, as patriarchal society puts the question: What do women want?
Women want to be treated with dignity and respect. Lots of feminists have said this before, but women want an end to sex discrimination by job definition and sex-role stereotyping in the media. Like any “normally” functioning group of people on the planet, women want equity and self-management . Women want a good economy that accomplishes central economic functions without exploitation of women, people of colour and the environment; but most importantly, women want an economy that meet people’s needs and develop their potential, to paraphrase Michael Albert.
What’s the solution to these problems?
Most governments are already signatories to a host of international agreements committing them to gender equality. These include the UN’s Beijing Platform for Action, which requires that governments correct imbalances that any policy, including economic policy, might create.
Economic policies are often fostered on countries by International Financial Institutions and donors. Officially, consultation in the implementation of these policies does take place, but in reality economic policy should be formulated through a democratic process that takes into account the voices of local people and considers the existing power relations within society.
Fact and Figures: Women’s rights and trade
- "Thirteen countries - of which Burundi, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia and Tanzania are a few - are in the same shape or worse off today than they were in 1990. For almost 40 countries the data is insufficient to say anything, which probably reflects an even worse situation for women." - Social Watch, an NGO watchdog system (Source:
- ."...there is growing evidence that trade liberalization tends to disadvantage women, who constitute the majority of small-scale farmers in rural areas. According to the FAO, women make up about 44% of the formally documented agricultural work force in developing countries..." (Source:
Economic Partnership Agreements: Territorial conquest by economic means
Trade liberalisation, hunger and starvation
We are fatigued with charity, we know we can do it ourselves
FEATURED: Cheikh Tidiane Dièye introduces a special issue on trade and women's rights, arguing that women, more than any other group, suffer the weight of the constraints of poverty largely brought about by the world trade system
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Roselynn Musa points out that the voices of women and poor people are largely missing from trade policy negotiations
- Salma Maoulidi asks what does trade mean for women in the East Africa region.
- Mohau Pheko argues that the July collapse of World Trade Organisation talks aimed at fostering a global free trade regime is actually an unexpected bonus
- Facts, figures, questions and answers on trade and women, compiled by Pambazuka News Staff
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul Raheem on the AU, the UN and the Sudanese government
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine interrogates the political situation in Zimbabwe, racism in South Africa, the Darfur Crisis
BOOKS AND ARTS: Reinventing Development
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news on Sudan, Somalia, Uganda
HUMAN RIGHTS: Great Lakes Summit kicks off
WOMEN AND GENDER: Fact sheet on reforming gender architecture in the UN
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Spain vows to curb migrant wave
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Will Congo explode?
DEVELOPMENT: Preface to global poverty or global justice
CORRUPTION: Firms admit paying bribes in world bank program
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: ARVS becoming big business
EDUCATION: Zim University to teach Chinese language and culture
RACISM & XENOPHOBIA: Complaint of racial division in the newsroom
ENVIRONMENT: Bringing the earth back to life
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Vice president’s daughter grabs farm
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Beyond propaganda
DIASPORA: Haiti, shocking Lancet study
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: NEPAD’s IT project faces failure
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.
7th September 2006 -- 2:30pm Sexual Offences Bill altered just days before finalisation Yesterday, the Justice Portfolio Committee added a new provision to the Sexual Offences Bill effectively aimed at criminalising the clients of sex workers.
Building an effective and accountable way to fund science and technology across Africa is a major challenge facing the region's leaders and scientific communities. You are invited to join the debate. A few years ago, proposals for an African Science and Innovation Facility (ASIF) emerged from a group of African science ministers, meeting under the auspices of the New Partnership for Economic Development. This is the latest effort to build an institution that will meet the continent's science and technology needs, and its biggest challenge will be to avoid the fate of its predecessors. In January 2007, the African Union will hold its 8th annual summit, focusing on science, technology and innovation and organised with support from NEPAD. This autumn, a number of meetings will take place to prepare and discuss proposals including a model law to regulate biotechnology across the continent, the role of the African diaspora and a new financing facility to support African research. SciDev.Net has grouped its coverage of these issues, key documents relating to the summit, links, and an invitation to join our related discussion group. Join the debate at
Canoes glide through the black, stinking water as children run along an overhead maze of precarious walkways through Makoko, a growing slum on stilts in Nigeria’s sprawling commercial capital, Lagos. Many of the original residents of Makoko are fishermen attracted from across the region to hopes of a better life in Nigeria, West Africa’s oil-rich economic powerhouse.
Following the 2006 Skoll World Forum, which focused on social capital markets, this Alliance special feature takes forward debates from the Forum and looks at the full spectrum of funds available for social change, from grant funding to fully commercial financial instruments.
We regularly work with individuals around the world who are interested in connecting with the nonprofit organizations through volunteer opportunities, internships, and job openings.
Zimbabwean blog ‘Enough is Enough’- (http://enoughzimbabwe.org/tsvangirai-suprise-march-surprisingly-late)comments on opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai’s march from the MDC party headquarters to parliament last Friday. He wonders if the march, which was reported as being a “surprise”, was really that much of a surprise to the Zimbabwean authorities.
“What surprises me is that the police don’t perceive MDC to be a viable threat so they’ve essentially stopped monitoring the party and have started looking elsewhere for threats to the state. This despite Tsvangirai’s insistent protestations that this winter was going to be a ‘winter of discontent.’ With Zimbabwe’s winter gone and no protests led by the MDC, it’s surprising that the police or other government authorities weren’t expecting the march.”
'Ethiopundit' - Ethiopundit (http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/09/intellectuals-and-their-disconte...) writes on the appropriation of intellectuals by the Meles Zenawi government to justify his continued rule in Ethiopia.
“As we discussed in Short Term Memory, Cheerleaders and Sachs & Violence, there is a long tradition of intellectuals 'adopting' African tyrants stretching back to those 'romantic' revolutionaries Nkrumah and Nyerere and their destruction of the Ghanaian and Tanzanian economies and societies. All that is needed from a tyrant is to speak the right progressive language while flattering their ferenji intellectual sponsors - even as boots stomp the faces of and impoverish the 'people' everyone pretends to be so concerned about.”
Ethiopundit makes an excellent point here that could be applied to other African leaders such as Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo whose appalling human rights record and negative strategy of “hit fire with fire” in the Niger Delta is ignored by the West. Obasanjo fits well into the above analysis. Ethiopundit goes on to say:
“The folks at Columbia fit squarely in that tradition of excusing oppressive governments with some variety of the old 'making the trains run on time' justifications for evils past. Take this sentence from the Initiative statement quoted in full above that describes a non-existent "remarkable degree of macroeconomic stability and good growth on average" in Ethiopia.”
Intellectualism in this case is a tool to justify the lack of political will by the West to take Zenawi’s dictatorship to task.
Kenya blog, 'Pandemonium Today' - Pandemonium (http://pandemoniumtoday.blogspot.com/2006/09/call-to-arms_11573023083985...) comments on the tendency to view Africa solely in terms of “corruption, greed, inefficiency, neglect, and political irresponsibility.” He believes that we as citizens also have to take responsibility and are at least partially to blame for the failures of our countries. He writes:
“I observe many people who will quickly denounce their country yet hang on to identification with it. Their nationality or place of origin will come second to their name when asked who they are yet, in the same breath they will let out a condemning supercilious cry, 'Africans!' What is pathetic is for us to think we stand above it all when this position itself mirrors the same denial and irresponsibility that several of our less-than-acceptable leaders exercise.”
South African blog, 'YBlog ZA' - YBlog ZA (http://128.241.192.81/blog.html) comments on what he considers to be the ridiculous conclusion of a recent opinion poll in South Africa claiming that South African Blacks are the biggest racists in the country.
“Yeah, well, there you have it. I knew there was something about them I didn't like. They're a bunch of bloody racists. Plus 94 Research tells me so and the Sunday Times, our largest-circulation paper, spells it out. The poll results headlined this past Sunday's edition, which was avidly snapped up by countless millions who've always suspected our black brothers and sisters of having it in for us... Not only are they racist, they're twice as fucking racist as we are. But this doesn't bother me. I am, after all, a blogger, a professional, and a hard man to boot. I have nothing to fear but blacks with white teeth and big guns. Given this, I decided to tackle the racists head on, and so beat a path to their favoured hangout, Muggers Alley, on Cape Town station's upper deck.”
An excellent piece that goes to the heart of how racism is constructed not only in South Africa but throughout the world.
'The Voice of Somaliland' - Voice of Somaliland (http://waridaad.blogspot.com/index.html) discusses why “Black Africa should resists Arab domination of the African Union.” He looks back historically at Arab racism towards Africans until the 2001 statement by Gaddafi to the Arab League calling on Arabs outside Africa to join the African Union. He describes the statement as “nothing but a declaration of race war on Africa. It is an invitation to more Arabs to invade and colonize Africa. Indeed, it is a call for the final phase of the 15 centuries old Arab lebensraum war on Afrikans - a war to Islamise and conquer all of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape and from Senegal to Somalia, and to then enslave or Arabise all the conquered Afrikans. In order to make that clear, it is necessary to first put his invitation in the context of the traditions of Arab melanophobia and negrophobia, and of Arab expansionist ambitions and conquests that go back to the time of prophet, Mohammed.”
One way of countering any notions of “conquest” by Arabs over Africa would be for Africa to reclaim the whole continent including North Africa or Arab speaking Africa as it’s own and end the divisive geographical markings that separate the continent into Sub Saharan Africa and North Africa.
'Sudan Reeves' -
As Khartoum continues to vehemently refuse the deployment of UN troops even under a Security Council resolution, Reeves suggests that there is one alternative supported by Darfuris, both in the camps and in the Diaspora. "...Non-consensual deployment of a robust international force, one fully adequate to protect endangered civilians and humanitarians, and to produce a military stand-down by the combatants." He believes that the authority to take this route already exists in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter but that this takes courage and the political will that is lacking in the UN and international community. "...Decides that the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is authorized to use all necessary means, in the areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities :to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, to ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers, assessment and evaluation commission personnel, to prevent disruption of the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement by armed groups, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of the Sudan, to protect civilians under the threat of physical violence, in order to support early and effective implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement, to prevent attacks and threats against civilians, to seize or collect, as appropriate, arms or related material whose presence in Darfur is a violation of the Agreements..." 'Black Looks' – Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/09/paradise_found.html) ‘Black Looks’ comments on the rising numbers of migrants from Africa landing in Spain, and the response of the Spanish government. Only last weekend, some 1,900 men and women landed in the Canaries. On Tuesday, the Spanish government issued a statement that it was no longer going to tolerate the continued arrival of immigrants from Africa and that their respective countries must begin to take responsibility and act to prevent people leaving in the first place. Two weeks ago the Senegalese government in an unprecedented move, signed an agreement with Spain which will allow the Spanish Guardia Civil to patrol Senegalese waters to prevent people from leaving in boats. However, ‘Black Looks’ points out that migrant labour from Africa has been beneficial to Spain and Europe as a whole and questions the rhetoric of the Spanish government in their calls for the end of illegal immigration. “There are layers of realities around immigration in Spain and Europe as a whole. The country has benefited from the cheap Moroccan and West Africa labour on construction sights and in their agricultural sector which has resulted in a 2.6% growth in the economy over the past 10 years. Without immigrant labour it would have fallen by 0.6% annually. Similar growth figures apply for the whole of Europe. The Spanish government’s rhetoric that it will not tolerate the continued arrival of migrants cannot be taken very seriously as long as Spain continues to need cheap labour to produce cheap food. The difference between today and a year ago is the sheer numbers that are arriving such as the 1,900 since Friday.” * Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org * Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Lasting solutions are needed for the humanitarian problems of gender-based violence, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), Ibrahima Fall, the Special Representative for the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, said in Nairobi, Kenya, at the opening of a three-day regional conference on peace and security.
In the Israeli discourse, Israel has always been the innocent victim of vicious aggression from its neighbors. This perception of reality has only intensified with its two recent wars - against the Palestinians in Gaza and against Lebanon. On this view, in both cases Israel has manifested its good will - it ended the occupation of the Gaza strip in 2005, just as it ended the occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000.
Today we spend the hour with the legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller and activist Pete Seeger. For over 60 years Pete Seeger has been an American icon. In the 1940s, he performed in the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie as well as the Weavers. In the 1950s, he opposed Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt and was almost jailed for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
A shocking new report in the British medical journal the Lancet on human rights abuses in Haiti finds that 8,000 people were murdered and 35,000 women and girls raped during the U.S.-backed coup regime that followed Jean Bertrand Aristide. Those responsible included Haitian police, United Nations peacekeepers and anti-Lavalas gangs.
Presenting their latest work in Africa through still images and video film, Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher travel from the swamplands of the Nile in Sudan, to the Omo River in Ethiopia, and to the semi-desert of northern Kenya. Exploring the secret rituals of coming of age and the arts of courtship and seduction, Fisher and Beckwith seek out some of the most fascinating and visually powerful peoples who still retain their traditions on the African continent.
One particular risk internally displaced persons and refugees face is the loss of property left behind and the inabilility to recover it. In fact, destruction of property has become an instrument of warfare or even ethnic cleansing in many civil wars, and resistance to return often takes the form of refusal to evict persons who have taken over their houses or apartments, or to refuse compensation for destroyed property.
The Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA) is pleased to announce the launch of it’s new website:
From the newsletter: Iranian colleagues was explaining why he had just shaved away his beard. Another colleague, from India, agreed that he was considering doing the same thing or at least having a “clean” shave. This was not a fashion driven conversation. It was fear: fear of being singled out, of being picked on; fear of being pulled aside in a queue; fear of being forced to leave a plane.
A "healthy" number of companies have admitted paying bribes under a new World Bank disclosure program, which encourages firms that have worked on bank-funded projects to report corruption or fraud. From cash handouts to forking out for luxury travel, sports utility vehicles and schooling for children of government officials, companies are revealing that bribes are part of doing business in some developing countries, reports Reuters.
During 15 years of chaos, they became breadwinners, then peacemakers. Now their new freedoms are threatened. Her face is soft and round, cocooned in a loose blue cotton hijab. Her eyes, black onyx full of mystery: a Somalian Mona Lisa. But Maryam Mohammed covers her smile with hennaed fingers, casts her eyes downward, a picture of shy anxiety, the last person you'd expect to do the most dangerous job in one of the most dangerous cities on Earth, reports the LA Times.
The International NGO Journal (INGOJ) is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. INGOJ was founded to publish proposals, appraisals and reports of NGO projects. The aim is to have centralized information for NGO activities where stakeholders including beneficiaries of NGO services can find useful information about ongoing projects and where to obtain particular assistance.
Agenda requests poetry contributions that explore the crime of human trafficking, especially affecting women and girl-children. Contributions will be considered for publication in issue 60, working title "Human Trafficking".
The last time the Zambian government built a secondary school was in 1979. So the community of Kachembe took charge. The women fetched sand from the river 2km away and carried it, bucket by bucket, on their heads to the site they had chosen for their school. The men dug the foundations and made the bricks.
Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer has five times as many South African patients using its anti-retroviral (ARV) products as it had just more than a year ago. Despite the Department of Health only procuring R83-million-worth of ARVs from Aspen in those 16 months, company CEO Stephen Saad says it has seen the number of South African patients using its ARVs grow from 20 000 a year ago to 100 000, a 500% increase.
The political hurricane blasting ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma towards the presidency of the party and the country has dramatically intensified. To the roaring, chanting approval of more than a thousand delegates at the congress of SA's biggest teaching union, Zuma launched a fierce attack on key policies of President Thabo Mbeki, whom he accuses of leading a political conspiracy against him.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) has condemned bodyguards' destruction of media photographs of President Thabo Mbeki entering a Pretoria Medi-Clinic. This amounted to "gross censorship unacceptable under South Africa's Constitution", Misa-South Africa's chairperson Raymond Louw said.
African education policymakers have failed to meet growing demand for secondary schooling. Budgetary provision for secondary education has stalled or declined and fewer pupils are moving from primary to secondary level.
Markets for pharmaceutical products are adjusting to major changes in international trade, intellectual property protection and drug registration requirements. Can the strengthening of intellectual property protection and registration standards improve access to medicines in developing countries?
The Western Kenyan highlands are one of the poorest regions in the world, with low agricultural yields and widespread poverty. Many experts believe restoring soil fertility is vital for improving agricultural production.
In the last decade, discussions on the effects of climate change have become more intense. They mostly focus on reducing emissions in industrialised nations, but learning how to adapt to climate change is equally important. What lessons can policymakers learn from experiences to date?
Physical mobility and transport barriers that prevent rural children from attending primary school can be substantial but are often complex and hidden. The situation is particularly severe in sub-Saharan Africa where, with few exceptions, more than half the children in any age group fail to attend school regularly.
While new drugs and vaccines are needed to treat diseases of poverty, not enough is being invested in developing these products because of the lack of a demand or market for them. Advance price or purchase commitments potentially offer a solution, yet a number of structure and design issues first need to be resolved.
Forest-dependent poor people often struggle to uphold their claims to resources in the face of discriminatory legal frameworks and powerful private forestry companies. Are efforts to enhance governance in the forest sector helping to support poor people in claiming their legal rights, or working to further marginalise their interests?
Educationalists know that large classes have a negative impact. Yet they don’t know enough about how skilled teachers still manage to cope with huge student numbers. The high pupil-to-teacher ratios in developing countries will not disappear.
Burundi's second vice president, Alice Nzomukunda, resigned on Tuesday in protest at interference by the chairman of the ruling party. "The government's hands are tied by [the chairman] Hussein Radjabu," Nzomukunda said at a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura. Alice Nzomukunda was Burundi's second highest ranking official in the ruling party.
A genocide is taking place in Gaza. This morning, 2 September, another three citizens of Gaza were killed and a whole family wounded in Beit Hanoun. This is the morning reap, before the end of day many more will be massacred. An average of eight Palestinian die daily in the Israeli attacks on the Strip. Most of them are children. Hundreds are maimed, wounded and paralyzed.
The glacier has begun to creak. In the world's most powerful dictatorship we detect the merest hint of a thaw. I am not talking about China or Uzbekistan, Burma or North Korea. This state runs no torture chambers or labour camps. No one is executed, though plenty starve to death as a result of its policies.
Some Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees in Nigeria have attributed their seeming reluctance to return home to inadequate incentives, loss of loved ones, insecurity back home and pursuit of education. Since 2004, when the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, launched a voluntary repatriation programme for the thousands of refugees, barely 670 of them have returned home.
Our client, the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) is a partnership-led global effort holding policymakers to account on their promises on AIDS.It supports the advocacy and campaign activities of a range of agencies, many outside the mainstream development sector. The WAC works at national and international levels bringing diverse campaigning voices together within a long-term and focused effort.
A former lecturer in criminal law, gender law and international human rights law at the University of Ghana, Judge Kuenyehia has co-authored several books and influential papers on how law is interpreted and implemented throughout her continent. She has sought to encourage African women to gain a better understanding of the law, setting up networks of female professionals who go out into communities to promote awareness of legal rights and issues.
The International Development Research Centre and TrustAfrica have established an Investment Climate and Business Environment (ICBE) Research Fund which will make available up to US$2.8 million through various initiatives and rounds of funding for researchers in private sector development based in African universities, business schools, and independent research institutions.
Ethiopia has asked the Nigerian government to allow it engage the services of 600 Nigerian teachers, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Olusegun Akinsanya said here Tuesday (September 5). Akinsanya told journalists in Addis Ababa, the capital that the Ethiopian government wanted to recruit the teachers to teach in the 12 new universities being constructed throughout the country.
Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim said on Monday (September 3) that the African Union has no right to transfer its peacekeeping mission in Darfur to the U.N. and therefore they must leave by the end of September.
The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)’s Information and Technology (ICT) broadband infrastructure network could fail if most African countries do not sign the project’s protocol, press reports said. The Daily Times of Malawi reported that out of 23 NEPAD member states, only six countries have signed the protocol, a development which experts say may jeopardise the project.
Ivorian civil society on Monday (September 3) proposed a 24-month transition in Cote d’Ivoire within the backdrop of the UN security council’s session on the Ivorian crisis slated at its New York headquarters, the Ivorian civil society Convention (CSCI) announced in a statement copied Monday to APA.
President Lansana Conte has taken a set of measures aimed at reducing the state’s lifestyle by withdrawing service vehicles to replace them with Toyota Corolla cars. About 30 Guinean government officials on Saturday received their new vehicles against the handing back of the sparkling "SUVs".
The United Democratic Party (UDP)-led alliance will stamp out corruption if it is voted in to office, said Henry Gomez, the leader of the Gambia Party for Democracy and Development[GPDP], which is a member of the alliance during an interview with APA Monday (September 4).
President Yahya Jammeh Monday (Seotember 4) told party supporters at Sabakh Sanjal constituency, about 200 kilometres from Banjul the capital, on his campaign trail for the September 22 presidential elections that neither coup d’etat nor elections will remove him from power. “
GAMTEL is the primary provider of telecommunications and related services in The Gambia. The company’s main objective is to be a leader in providing world-class communications services.
This book has been titled Labour Pains to reflect the intensity of the struggle for gender equality in the trade union movement and society. Women in labour carry the double burden of paid work and unpaid work in the home. Black working class women are oppressed as black people, as women and as workers. They also face a ‘struggle within the struggle’ as they are forced to confront sexism in their won unions as well as in the workplace and at home.
"We, South African civil society, petition you and our Government to adopt Free and Open Source software and open content wherever possible. As a developing country, South Africa, along with all the countries on the African continent, needs you and our Government to act as agents of positive change in our society and trigger shifts in the information and communications technology market dynamics."
Gordon Brown was at the centre of a row over the future of the International Monetary Fund as it emerged that Africa was seeking to block reforms giving four leading developing countries a bigger say in the running of the Washington-based organisation.
Join Africa Action, activists from around the country, religious leaders, students, and members of the Darfuri and Sudanese community at a gathering to mark the second anniversary of the Bush Administration's declaration that genocide is occurring in Darfur, Sudan.
Police in Harare have issued a stern warning to the main Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which is planning to hold countrywide protests against poor pay and living conditions this month. On Sunday police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper that police were ready to deal with any unlawful acts after the ZCTUs general council set September 13 as the date for long-awaited street marches.
Next Generation Awareness Foundation, Inc. Seeks Notable Films, Documentaries and Participants for Consideration for its 2007 Programs
Within the Global Labour University network, a cooperation between the International Labour Movement, academic institutions, foundations and the ILO two Master programmes on Labour and Globalization for trade unionists are offered in 2007. The duration of the programmes is one year.
The September issue of ReConnect Africa is now online. Connecting Africa to the global world, ReConnect Africa is a unique online publication and portal that provides readily accessible information, articles, interviews and jobs in Africa.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the United Nations and the African Business Roundtable will join forces in New York next month to review progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal in Africa.
Thanks for this review of Article 19's Broadcasting Pluralism and Diversity manual (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/36699). Article 19 plans to produce a second edition of the manual next year and we will take into account Fackson Banda's comments. The manual has been published under the Creative Commons licence and we welcome comments, additions and practical examples of its use.
"Mr Lewis had been an employee of Media24, working as a page sub for certain of its Cape Town publications. He has complained of racial divisions in the newsroom in which he worked and of various forms of racism in the company. We do not wish to engage with the merits of this complaint."
The dramatic and in some cases damaging environmental changes sweeping Africa's lakes are brought into sharp focus in a new atlas. Produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Africa's Lakes: Atlas of Our Changing Environment compares and contrasts spectacular satellite images of the past few decades with contemporary ones.
Zimbabwe's largest university will soon begin teaching Chinese, in the latest example of increased ties between the Beijing and Harare governments. Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper reports that Chinese and Zimbabwean officials signed a deal to introduce Chinese language and culture instruction at the University of Zimbabwe.
A senior Zimbabwe official said Wednesday (August 30) that Harare is determined to press ahead with draft legislation that would allow authorities to monitor phone calls and Internet communications, despite public hearing testimony from opposition politicians, media representatives, human rights groups and others that the bill should be scuttled.
The 63 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) charged with breaching the peace while conducting a peaceful Valentine's Day protest outside Parliament on February 14, 2006, have been found not guilty. The Provincial Magistrate read out a 10-minute ruling after a 14-day trial that saw four police officers and 55 women take the stand to testify.
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has scoffed at the arrest of the head of Zimbabwe's state-run grain company on charges of corruption saying government's blitz was only harvesting "small fish." Samuel Muvuti, the acting chief executive officer of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), was arrested and charged under the country's Prevention of Corruption Act.
Kumbirai Madzima, the daughter of vice-president, Joyce Mujuru, and her husband Tapiwa have reportedly kicked farmer Darryl Zietmann off his property, Ashcott farm, situated on prime agricultural land about 150km northeast of Harare.
An on-going project to erect a 400-kilometre long electric fence in Kenya's Laikipia district is being seen as a ploy to separate white ranchers from peasants. The project is part of a grand scheme to set up a series of mega-conservation sites along the Rift Valley.
Eleven dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers of Dutch origin are poised to take their case for compensation for confiscated land to an international tribunal, reports Business Day, Johannesburg.
Soul Beat Africa is an exciting organisation using information and communication technologies to create opportunities for those involved in development communication in Africa to share what they are doing, thinking and experiencing and to discuss and review each others work to improve the impact of communication on African development.
The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society is pleased to announce a unique fellowship opportunity: the spring 2007 Emerging Leaders International Fellows Programme. The programme provides leadership training through applied research and professional mentorships for young scholar-practitioners in the nonprofit sector.
Librarians from across Africa have launched an information exchange network to promote access to, and more effective use of, government information for democratic and economic development on the continent, following a workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, co-sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The international advocacy organisation freedominfo.org has just released its report Freedom of Information Around the World 2006: A Global Survey of Access to Government Records Laws. The report provides an overview of access to information laws from dozens of countries.
"Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?: An Experimental Approach" was written by Jeremy Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, and Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development.
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Thursday (August 31) that would give the United Nations authority over peacekeepers in Darfur as soon as Sudan's government gives its consent - which it has so far refused to do. The resolution is meant to give more power and funding to a force, now run by the African Union, that has been unable to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.
The United Nations Democracy Fund has unveiled its first beneficiaries, awarding $36 million in grants to 125 projects around the world that range from promoting voter registration to encouraging judicial reform, supporting female parliamentarians and teaching human rights awareness in schools.
For 650 million people with disabilities - roughly 10 percent of the world’s population - a new U.N. treaty which would extend international human rights to this traditionally marginalised sector of society is finally within reach. After four years and eight sessions of negotiations, the United Nations‘ Convention to Protect the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was finalised last Friday (September 1) by the U.N.
Six years into the new millennium and the world feels like a very different place from the last years of the twentieth century. For those engaged in civil society capacity building, these changes are felt as increasing pressures for conformity with the orthodoxies of the aid industry.
The Gleitsman Foundation invites nominations for the 2007 International Activist Award, which honours exceptional individuals whose vision and courage inspire others to join with them in confronting and challenging injustice. The award is open to anyone residing outside of the United States. The 2007 Award will honour those who have struggled to correct social injustice