The Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights Fellowship, hosts a Human Rights Fellow to teach and conduct research while at residence in the College and organises lectures and other events centred on the fellow's area of expertise. The purpose of the fellowship is to offer an opportunity for prominent practitioners in international human rights to take a sabbatical leave from their work and spend a period of up to a semester as a scholar-in-residence at the College.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria faces a "critical year" in 2005 because of funding shortfalls, and it might not be able to award new grants, Executive Director Richard Feachem said in an interview last Thursday while attending an international pharmaceutical industry meeting in Spain, Reuters reports. In order to carry out its work for 2005, the Global Fund needs at least $2.5 billion in funding, but it has secured only $1.6 billion from donors, according to Reuters.

Nigeria's main trade union has said it will hold a second general strike in protest at fuel rises, warning it would specifically target oil production. The umbrella union body Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) confirmed the action would start on 16 November. Union leaders accused the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell of being the "enemy of the Nigerian people" and called for action against the firm.

Certainly no one can ignore the relationship between income inequality and long term political stability in nations (Kenya: New report shows huge inequalities in income, welfare [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43877]). Crimes in the inner cities of the US and in Brazil and increasing crimes in both urban and rural Kenya are symptoms of income inequality.

The first study on income inequality in Kenya was carried out by ILO in 1972 and a report was published. Like other important documents this one gathers dust in the archives. This issue of economic disparity has a relationship with race and ethnicity. In the US the Republicans stand for 'merit' and the Democrats stand for 'welfare state' - maybe through their words not in action. The Scandinavian welfare state model is despised in the US.

What kind of model do we want for Kenya? Is it not time to reduce government's role in economic development so that we can embrace a private lead economic growth that does not fall prey to the politics of ethnicity, religion and regionalism? The state should provide basic infrastructure and create a suitable environment for entrepreneurs to thrive. It should not be the role of the state to channel resources to some favoured regions. This is a political decision that often incubates political upheaval.

I have not read the whole document but I hope the researchers investigated not merely regional disparities which are misleading, but the petty bourgeoisie in Kenyatta's and Moi's administration, the capture of Kenyan strategic economic sectors such as banking and finance by British investors, capital flight, fall of the coffee, tea, tobacco and cotton industries and the role of ethnic conflict in development.

Blind statistics taken by a 'non partisan' party may be a 'convenient weapon' of a 'learned' politician who wants to unfairly direct national resources to his region. No wonder the report fits well with views of some Kenyan politicians. Moi had the same conclusions and his solution was to strangle Kikuyu entrepreneurs so that the rest of Kenya could catch up with them. He introduced a quota system to limit the number of qualified Kikuyus going for higher education. This was very punitive to people who had no understanding of why their hard work has anything to do with other peoples failures. This is very political research and I hope the researchers understand the 'implied' message in their 'authentic' conclusions. One must consider history, culture, politics and accessibility to resources before deriving some convenient blueprint conclusions about development in the 'only stable' country in strife torn Africa.

The 10 October election of Abdullahi Yusuf as president of Somalia proved divisive; clashes between Yusuf's Puntland territory and breakaway Somaliland killed over 100 on 30 October, with further violence likely, according to November's CrisisWatch report from the International Crisis Group. In Liberia, UN forces struggled to contain a flare-up in inter-communal fighting in Monrovia. The situations in Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria deteriorated in October.

Why has environmental journalism remained on the fringes of mainstream media?

This is the question journalists, representatives from non-governmental organisations, government and the private sector in southern Africa pondered when they met in Johannesburg, South Africa in early October.

Under the theme “Taking Environmental Journalism from Margins to Mainstream”, the meeting explored ways of getting environment stories into the mainstream media in the region. Participants had the opportunity to interrogate editors who take decisions on what issues are covered in their media, be it electronic or print.

While the environment is showing increasing signs of stress and damage and the problems are acknowledged, the meeting observed that the tendency is to continue thinking the effects will only be felt in the ever-receding future. This attitude has led to little coverage of environmental issues in the mainstream media in southern Africa.

Hugh Tyrrell, the conference coordinator, put it simply when he said: “Environmental and sustainable development are priority issues in Africa today. The media has a responsibility to report on them in clear, compelling ways that create better understanding, wise decision-making and concerted action.”

It was observed that the attitude of mainstream media had resulted in alternative media as seen in the proliferation of specialised environmental publications produced by journalists concerned about ensuring coverage of environmental issues. However, these are restricted to specific audiences and usually miss those who would benefit more from such stories – the non-specialist readers.

A number of perspectives were aired on why mainstream media does not adequately cover environment issues. An interesting one is that there is fear, by the publishing houses, of losing business. If they are seen as publishing articles that blame some private companies for environmental degradation, the media houses risk losing advertisement.

George Monbiot, a leading environmental writer who gave the keynote address, said environmental journalists should not be surprised when their stories are not used because “a journalist who is concerned about the destruction of the environment will by definition find herself or himself at odds with the prevailing media culture.”

This is a culture where the owners of the mainstream media who are business tycoons either have direct financial involvement in other businesses or associate with those who do. The two, according to Monbiot, have one thing in common: they want “complete freedom to swing their fist, whether or not your nose is in the way”.

Another perspective that came up is that environment stories being submitted are shallow and usually not well-researched when written for use by the mainstream media. Some of the participants and editors, attributed this to lack of good accessible environmental information and the fact that most senior journalists have left the mainstream media.

One seldom finds journalists over 25 years of age in newsrooms today. Senior journalists who are equipped with research and investigative skills have either been attracted to the private sector or have joined the specialised publications.

When environmental information is available, it is usually not user-friendly. Journalists not familiar with the technical jargon end up writing stories that are rejected because they are not suitable for the person on the street.

There are a few sources of accessible information on southern African and Africa, including state of environment reports, but these are not well known.
A key environmental information centre in the region is SARDC’s IMusokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa ((IMERCSA) at

The editors admitted that media is a business and to remain in it, they have to keep a following of readers and viewers. To do that, they have to publish or broadcast stories that are interesting to their audience. The onus is therefore on environmental journalists to make their stories interesting to win space and airtime.

Joe Thloloe, Chief Executive Officer of South Africa’s E-Television (etv) and chair of South Africa’s National Editor’s Forum, said he would not force stories “down people’s throats” if they did not like them. His organisation carried out research on what people like to watch on television and environmental documentaries ranked among the last issues.

South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, told the meeting that despite the hurdles that the journalists face, it is undisputable that today’s environmental journalist occupies one of the most important and challenging positions in the media spectrum, that of balancing the roles of watchdog, educator, researcher, activist and social commentator.

He said the region needs more environmental journalists, but these should be equipped with up-to-date skills, cutting-edge knowledge and in-depth understanding of the environmental and sustainable development issues.
The journalists also felt there is need for training of journalists in environmental reporting to equip them with skills to tackle the technical aspects of environmental issues.

The need to network was emphasised as an association for environmental journalists in southern Africa was formed at the end of the conference. A steering committee was appointed, tasked to come up with a name and to draw up a list of environmental journalists in the region as well as coordinate them with the aim of improving reporting on the environment (SARDC).

* by Leonissah Munjoma
* SOURCE: Southern African News Features offers a reliable source of regional information and analysis on the Southern African Development Community, and is provided as a service to the SADC region. SANF is produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), which has monitored regional developments since 1985. This article may be reproduced with credit to the author and publisher. http://www.sardc.net

AFRODAD is pleased to re-launch the Debt and Development in Africa newsletter in electronic format. AFRODAD requests interested individuals and institutions to supply them with their current e-mail addresses, to enable them to send a copy of the newsletter instantly. Contact [email protected] for more information.

WOA's primary role is to serve as a voice in Washington for its member denominations and faith communities on issues concerning Africa and U.S.-Africa policy. Thus an essential mission of the Executive Director is to brief Africa secretaries and others on critical legislation and policy issues on the Washington agenda and to reflect the views of its sponsoring members in debate. The Executive Director is responsible for overseeing the programs, services and activities of the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) and WOA/PRI and, with the Board, sets policy, research, legislative priorities and lobbying activity.

Without doubt, the star of the October 12-13 international conference on anti-corruption that brought together delegates from more than 90 countries to Kenya was Georgian Prime Minister Zhurab Zhvania. He was remarkable in his clarity on anti-corruption efforts, expressing his willingness to take on the high and mighty as a way to tame corruption in Georgia. He did not mince his words in a typical bureaucratic and diplomatic manner as most leaders do, winning over the vast majority of the audience. He said anti-corruption efforts must be multi-faceted, including political, social and legal censure, especially since finding the evidence to sustain a legal charge can be hard to come by.

His statement that serious circumstantial information against a minister or top civil servant was a reflection on him directly as prime minister and therefore merited political action through suspension from office until investigations were complete, brought thunderous applause from the audience perhaps reflecting on the differences between Kenya's fight against graft and Georgia's. Mr Zhvania described how on taking office he reduced the size of his staff from 600 to 90, recruiting new and highly qualified people as a way to bring in reformers to implement the changes required.

He talked of how he dismissed 20 of the 23 generals in the military and how he scrapped the entire traffic police unit which was the most obvious corruption machine in the country. The leader emphasised that one cannot have reforms without reformers, a statement that has begun to emerge strongly in Kenya and which Mr Justice Aaron Ringera also endorsed. One of the most important tools for fighting corruption, he declared, was a Freedom of Information Act that strips away the secrecy in and of government, on which grand corruption thrives.

This in Kenya would mean the discarding of the Official Secrets Act that some top officials love and throw in the faces of potential whistle blowers on corruption attempts. But critically, for us in Kenya, it would also mean ensuring that the declarations of wealth introduced last year be made public.

By the end of the conference, participants remarked that this was the approach that Kenya, and Africa needed to tackle corruption. The meeting was an outstanding success, having been organised by the Department of Governance, Transparency International-Kenya, and Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin. The fact that so many leaders in politics, civil society and anti-corruption commissions from across the world agreed to come to Kenya attests to the international recognition that Kenya has gained - even if only slightly - from the days of the Moi regime. It is unimaginable that a conference of this nature could have been held in Kenya two years ago.

The presence of so many leaders was a tribute to the international credibility that Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo brings to the anti-corruption struggle. The gathering included the Prime Minister of Norway, who reminded the audience that fighting corruption is not done for the sake of it, but to reduce poverty and realise economic and social rights.

Others were the Mexican minister for Public Administration, who together with his president is responsible for taking action against public officials who engage in corruption, the Peruvian Speaker of the National Assembly and the chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee, and the Norwegian Minister for International Development.

There were five leaders of anti-corruption agencies from Pakistan, Malawi, Zambia, Indonesia, Guatemala, and South Korea who were all relatively new in their positions, reflecting the start-stop-start nature of anti-corruption efforts across the world.

President Kibaki got the ball rolling by reaffirming his personal commitment to leading the fight against corruption. He stated that like any battle, the war must be led from the front by generals so that officers and foot soldiers can carry it on. Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi repeated his clear and unequivocal attack on corruption saying: "We must not feed corruption by hiding it away."

He also reiterated his oft-quoted view that the networks of corruption still existed and were clearly operating within the State bureaucracy. He stated that corruption must be at "the top of the development agenda, since it destroys everything including the fabric of society." And he is right, since State tolerance of corruption makes nonsense of any efforts geared to improving human rights record, security and eradicating poverty.
But was this meeting simply an attempt at public relations on anti-corruption? What lessons were learnt, if any?

Mr Zhvania spelt it out clearly that anti-corruption efforts need a strong, concerted and determined approach, without fear of making mistakes, to succeed. It needs strong will, clarity of mission and decisiveness. And it needs political and legal action. Some in the audience attributed his direct and total approach to anti-corruption crusade to the fact that he is only 41 years-old.

But the Prime minister explained the approach was a direct result of having watched the slow but sure collapse of the Shevardnadze regime in Georgia of which he had been a part of and which had come to power following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mr Shevardnadze had come to power with massive popular support, promising to reform and rebuild Georgia and its overwhelming corruption problem. Some of his advisors, such as Mr Zhvania, urged him to move quickly on corruption before the window of opportunity closed.

But Mr Shevardnadze was indecisive, allowing the return of the networks of corruption and endemic corruption. It was so big a problem that it infected Mr Shevardnadze himself, and he attempted to steal the November 2003 election to remain in office. He had to be forced out in what became known as the "Rose Revolution" because thousands of protesters carried roses to symbolise their peaceful intentions.

On becoming prime minister, Mr Zhvania vowed not to make the mistakes of his mentor and moved fast before the window of opportunity closed. His radical approach has borne fruits, not just in terms of massive political support but also economically, as both domestic and international investors increased their confidence in the country. Moreover, his war on graft has reduced some of the costs that arise with irregular deals, making life a lot more affordable. The government has also recovered some stolen assets, adding to its capacity to realise economic and social rights.

Notably, many Kenyan ministers and senior civil servants were not fully engaged in the conference, despite the presence of the international VIPs. Indeed, some of the foreign guests, such as the Norwegian minister for International Development, organised important side meetings during the conference, something that our ministers, many of whom either did not attend or only made technical appearances, would have gained from.

But perhaps the enduring lesson for us is the immensity of the gap between official rhetoric and actual implementation. The rhetoric is spot on, and if Kenya were to be judged from the number of official speeches and pronouncements made against corruption, I am sure we would be at the top of Transparency International's Perception Index. Given some of President Kibaki's actions, such as restoring Mr Githongo to State House, only but a small minority in this country do not recognise his depth and personal commitment to the crusade.

The problem is the considerable public doubt on the commitment of some of the key players in his Government - both political and bureaucratic - to anti-corruption measures. This apparent lack of commitment is gauged by the immense defensiveness and discomfort exhibited when "new" corruption is discussed and by statements that attempt to whitewash scandals such as Anglo Leasing.

It is expressed in the lack of consistency in dealing with circumstantial evidence to force key people around the Anglo Leasing scandal to step aside like Mr Shem Ochuodho and Mr Maurice Dantas of Kenya Pipeline were. They were suspended, not because they engaged in corruption, but to facilitate free investigations.

The lack of commitment is shown by the refusal or time wasting tactics employed whenever questions of expenditures in ministries - especially with regard to the buying of luxurious vehicles at the tax payer's expense - are raised.

Make no mistake: The line between wasteful expenditure of taxpayer's money to buy vehicles worth Sh15 million each for Government officials and official corruption is thin. The mindset that focuses on entitlements in office and using taxpayer's money unreasonably is extremely close to the one that dispenses of the pretence of buying items and simply pocketing the money directly.

As stated by the Norwegian prime minister, Mr Zhvania and Mr Githongo, the window of opportunity to fight official corruption is very small. Mr Githongo suggests 24 months. I think that is too much and the revival of grand corruption in Kenya; through such scandals as Anglo Leasing; attests to the very real possibility that our window of opportunity has closed.

Information in the public domain suggests that the officials who signed the paperwork with a fictitious entity called Anglo Leasing should be charged, at the very least, with criminal negligence and attempt to commit fraud. But this has not been done. Yet there is a real possibility that doing so could lead to further evidence of the real people behind Anglo Leasing.

Similarly, it is not enough for Mr Murungi to continuously complain about the inherited civil servants who facilitate corruption and are an obstacle to reform. For he is a minister, and a powerful one at that, who should act to bring about change instead of just complain like a civil society activist.

That is the challenge before us today. For Kenyans to reap the benefits of all this anti-corruption talk, then the litmus test is the final dismantling of the networks of corruption inherited from the Moi regime which seem to have found a comfortable home within the ranks of the Government.

Only then can we feel confident that the more than US $1 billion stacked abroad from our taxes from the past regime's will bear solid fruit as a dividend on the war against corruption. Only then will we begin to trust the Government to close the door on irregular and illegal allocations of public land and plots.

Time is short but with strength, clarity and leadership, we can still turn this boat called Kenya around.

* Maina Kiai is the Kenya National Human Rights Commission chairman. This article first appeared in the Daily Nation and is reposted here with permission of the author. Please send comments to

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released the first set of comprehensive data comparing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in poor countries with the rates of antiretroviral (anti-HIV) drug access in those nations. The data are striking and disheartening, yet have received little press coverage. Indeed, at the time of their release, some American newspapers ran editorials indicating that antiretroviral access has received "too much attention".

Two problems are implicit in such a contention. The first is political. AIDS is very much a symptom - albeit the most extreme symptom - of the large diseases of inequality and poverty that result not only in HIV, but also in hunger, hemorrhagic fever and housing problems. The same credit and political obstacles that have led to gender discrimination in housing and employment have led women into prostitution and relationships based on sexual dominance [1, 2].

The same structural adjustment programs and neoliberal economic policies that have crashed farming sectors and forced thousands into migration are the same policies that have led migrants to the barracks of minefields to live with depression, alcoholism and the subsequent solicitation of prostitutes [3-5]. And so to address AIDS appropriately would be to appreciate that it does not simply receive "too much attention", but that the attention it receives should be drawn towards its base - and this includes the inequalities in healthcare access that are symbolized by antiretroviral access disputes.

The second problem with the new popular line of thought on antiretrovirals is a statistical problem. The recently-released WHO data are striking but perhaps not surprising. If "too much attention" has been focused on drug access, then why are only six-tenths of a percent of the 1.6 million infected people in Tanzania able to access antiretroviral medications? Why are only 1.5% of the 2.4 million in Mozambique and the Congo able to gain such access?

In a country like Zimbabwe, where one of every four adults is infected, only one of every fifth can access an antiretroviral medication. As one scrolls through the WHO's data, the numbers of infected persons continue to be expressed in seven digits, while the percent of those gaining access to antiretrovirals continues into smaller and smaller decimal ranges.

Some persons have stated that countries like those I have listed above lack the necessary infrastructure to deliver antiretroviral therapy [6]. The persons who make such claims do so in order to close conversations and prevent creative solutions from entering the public health community. But others who are determined to open new doors for patients have definitively responded to the "infrastructure line" - in Haiti, Paul Farmer's group has shown better treatment rates in the poorest sector of the Western Hemisphere than at Harvard's teaching hospitals [7, 8]; in the warring regions of the Congo, Doctors without Borders has seen better results than their colleagues at hospitals in France [www.msf.org">.

The adherence of patients in poor settings to antiretroviral medications is often higher than that in the U.S. and other wealthy nations [9] - both because the groups that have worked in the poorest of places have incorporated community health workers into programs that are constructed with the advice of the poor (as opposed to employing a highly institutionalized and decentralized mode of care seen in the U.S., where a poor patient needs to travel to a dozen offices to complete welfare paperwork), and because generic medicine producers have combined the key antiretroviral medications into a single once-a-day pill [10].

Ah, but won't these generics undermine research and development (R&D)? That would be true, if the patent-based industry these generics compete against were to have done such R&D. But in reality, the top AIDS medicines were researched primarily through taxpayer funds distributed through the National Institutes of Health to government and university laboratories, then sold for tiny royalties to the American and European pharmaceutical industry [11, 12].

That industry has been the most profitable in the world for fourteen years - making profits as a percentage of revenue approximately three times the rate of the rest of the Fortune 500 [13, 14]. Eighty-five percent of the top therapeutic drugs on their market had their R&D conducted through taxpayer funding [14]. And the industry's own R&D is surprisingly unproductive, with over half of new drugs on the market being reformulations of old medicines, carrying little or no therapeutic value according to the Food and Drug Administration's rankings [14].

This should be unsurprising to those who view the industry's tax records, obtainable through the Securities & Exchange Commission. These records reveal that the patent-based industry spends, on average, 27% of its revenue on marketing and only 11% on R&D [12, 15, 16].

The effects of generic competition to help break this monopoly are striking in terms of improving medicine access [17], but what the WHO shows is that these generics have not reached far enough. In January of 2005, the provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement passed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) will begin to kick-in, limiting the ability of key generic providers to supply poor markets, as described extensively elsewhere [18, 19]. Recent trade agreements written by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have further restricted competition, ironically while claiming to be promoting "free trade" [20].

But what the WHO data reveal is that certain key institutions controlling antiretroviral expansion projects have been far more successful in this hostile context than others. The most transparent group - the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria - although not without its own problems, has enhanced access for the most number of people, including those in 63 countries. The group is notable for receiving public commentary and making its processes of change public and visible.

Yet in comparison, groups that have worked with little public input and much secrecy - the Clinton Foundation and the World Bank group - have garnered press coverage while accomplishing comparatively little. The Clinton group, in spite of its fanfare, has reached only 18 countries with its drug deals; the World Bank has assisted 3 in procuring antiretrovirals, mostly for technical assistance purposes (the nature of which is unclear). And U.S. government based programs, in spite of their purported funding levels, have similarly poor coverage, with the President's AIDS Initiative reaching just 14 nations, excluding many with the highest burdens of disease. At every level, then, the issue of how effectively criticism from those most affected by this disease reaches those most in power ultimately reciprocates in terms of efficacy in treating the poor.

From the perspectives of those who cannot leap to Geneva, such high-level bureaucracies may seem out of reach, and the problems therefore too out of control to effect. Yet a group of university students is assisting in changing that idea, demonstrating that multiple levels of action are necessary and can be effective in addressing this problem. On Saturday October 9th, a group of students called Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) released an "Equitable Access License" (EAL) with provisions designed for universities to reshape the manner in which they sell (often taxpayer-funded) university research to pharmaceutical companies [www.essentialmedicines.org">.

The provisions are based out of an earlier movement at Yale University, which resulted in a 40% decrease in the price of the key AIDS drug stavudine in South Africa. But recognizing, once again, that AIDS medicines are symbolic of a larger, systemic problem, the students have written the EAL to apply to all devices and medicines of public health importance. This is particularly crucial in the context of the USTR's recent trade agreements, which have not only included the types of provisions that lead to the spread of infectious disease, but also are likely to continue altering the food importation patterns of nations in such a manner that the recently-observed elevations in diabetes and cardiovascular disease in poor nations are likely to escalate [21].

The EAL may appear as a technical project - and it is - but its spirit has more to do with morality than with the details of intellectual property law. The word "morality" rarely appears in discussions of AIDS, since such conversations are usually clouded by questions about whether AIDS is a "development issue" (and I would suppose it is), whether AIDS is a "legal quandary" (I suppose everything can be made into one of these), and whether AIDS is a "national security issue" (what type of people need this kind of argument to address a pandemic?).

At its core, these kinds of statements avoid the more basic, and perhaps more truthful, reality that AIDS will be a moral issue for as long as the politics of this Syndrome are defined by inequalities. In the face of such a truth, progress seems to be made by pushing at every level - from universities to global institutions - and observing what trends in the behaviour of the powerful can improve the livelihoods of the poor.

*The WHO's data can be obtained at:

* Sanjay Basu is at the Yale University School of Medicine.
[email protected]

The Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is inviting research proposals on the theme “Globalization, Violent Conflict, and Peacebuilding”. The purpose of the competition is to identify and support promising new research that sheds light on the various conflict-related impacts of globalization, seen as a complex and wide-ranging phenomenon with political, economic, as well as socio-cultural ramifications.

"The bodies had been whisked away but the dried pool of blood covering the dirt-floor dead end of a twisting alley was a chilling sign of what happened here last week. Residents in the National Fort district, which like most of Port-au-Prince's slums is a bastion of support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, gathered around the darkening blood the following day. Some, who were afraid to give their names, said policemen wearing black masks had shot and killed 12 people, then dragged their bodies away. At least three families have identified the bodies of relatives at the mortuary; others who have loved ones missing fear the worst."

Internet search engine Google has launched a Kiswahili language service to be accessed through the .ke domain name. The service was launched on October 2004, according to the Google web logs commonly referred to as blogs. Kenya Network Information Center (Kenic) systems manager Michuki Mwangi says use of Swahili and the .KE domain in such a reputable search engine will boost the Kenyan identity.

"Venez Sur Internet: Etapes Faciles Pour Réussir sur Internet", the french version of Kabissa's 150-page Internet training manual "Time To Get Online - Simple Steps to Success on the Internet", is now available. While tailored for African organizations, they are also perfectly relevant and useful for non-profits wherever they are in the world.

The government set October as the month by which schools – both public and private – should submit their 2005 budget proposals for approval. The amounts set will have to cover the whole of next year, as the Ministry of Education has indicated it will not entertain requests for supplementary levies. Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate is amongst the highest in the world, however – officially pegged at 252 percent. The continual escalation in prices for goods and services – everything from chalk to fuel – makes projecting financial needs a year ahead akin to gazing in a crystal ball.

The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the Eritrean government's "dictatorial" approach to press freedom, warning that free and independent journalism "faces extinction" in the country. "The international community must intervene to stop the rot," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "Independent journalism faces extinction in Eritrea and the outside world must act now." The concern of the IFJ and other press freedom groups over the Eritrean crisis intensified at the end of last month when the last remaining foreign correspondent was expelled from the country. Jonah Fisher, who worked in Eritrea for 18 months as correspondent for the BBC and Reuters, said the authorities gave him no explanation, but his expulsion followed a period of "increasing difficulties."

The Gambia's Council of Ministers has decided to revoke the Act passed two years ago establishing a National Media Commission that was considered repressive and unacceptable by all standards. Now, the Executive has drafted a new Bill to repeal the infamous NMC Act No.7 of 2002, which was enacted despite numerous appeals and protests from local and international press freedom organizations against its passage.

The African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) has initiated Opportunity Africa, a project to provide a gateway to Africa-related careers, training & education for young people of African descent in the UK. Opportunity Africa’s purpose is to enhance the skills base and job preparedness of young Africans in London for the world of international/Africa-related work.

Deadline: 11h00 on 25 November 2004

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (COH WHS) Management Authority invites tenders for the appointment of consultants to develop and implement a destination marketing, investment promotion and fundraising strategy for the COH WHS. The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (Blue IQ) is a government project of the Department of Finance and Economics and the Department of Agriculture and Conservation.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will not prosecute child soldiers and will work with local elders striving to end northern Uganda's brutal 18-year-old war, Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said on Monday. Uganda's government has praised the ICC probe but some northern religious leaders have criticised it, fearing it will create a crisis of confidence and stall further surrenders by rebels of the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Africa needs up to $2.5 billion a year to fight malaria, or 10 times the donor funds pledged for a campaign against the disease, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 1 million people a year around the world -- more than 90 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the WHO said in a statement issued from its regional office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

"We, the delegates representing the core countries of the Great Lakes Region, namely Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and the co-opted Republic of South Africa, assembled at the First Regional Women’s Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda on 7 – 9 October 2004, as part of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region under the auspices of the African Union and the United Nations;

Call on the Heads of State and Government to:

- enact and enforce legislation that protects and upholds the human rights and dignity of women and girls;
- take concrete measures to end the culture of impunity and enforce punitive action against perpetrators of crimes against humanity particularly genocide, massacres, rape and other forms of gender based violence;
- put in place mechanisms and policies with a view to eliminating ethnicism and exclusion;
- put in place a regional mechanism with requisite resources to ensure women’s equitable representation and effective participation in peace, governance and development processes at national and regional levels;
- provide adequate resources for the effective implementation of all women and children’s rights, peace and security instruments;
- fulfil their roles and responsibilities towards all displaced persons within their borders and ensure the speedy enactment and adoption of national and regional policies on refugees and internally displaced persons;
- harmonize national policies for the treatment, care and provision of services to victims of conflict, those affected or infected with HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially women and children;
- harmonize national and regional policies on environmental protection for sustainable development;
- implement affirmative action for women at 50% minimum quota as set out by the AU at all decision making levels;
- provide access to both formal and non-formal education, health and other social services with special support to vulnerable groups;
- mainstream gender in legislation, policies and programmes;
- ensure the inclusion of gender perspectives in macroeconomic policies;
- ensure establishment of financial institutions and initiate investments to address gender inequality;
- guarantee economic opportunities for Women to access credit and own property including land;
- negotiate as a bloc on economic issues in order to protect women’s interests from unfair trade practices and policies."

Sudanese government officials and rebel delegates have welcomed - some cautiously - proposals from African Union (AU) mediators on security in Darfur, which has long been a sticking point between the two sides at peace talks in the Nigerian capital. Under the AU draft agreement, both sides would have to give the location of their forces and Khartoum would have to make good on its pledges to the international community to disarm the Janjawid militia, accused of waging a campaign of slaugher, rape and destruction against people in Darfur.

Concerns over a constitutional crisis in Burundi abated on Monday when six Tutsi-dominated parties dropped their long-standing opposition to the country's current interim constitution. The interim constitution has been in effect since 20 October when the country's transitional, two-chamber parliament voted for it to stay in force for six months. Officially, the transition period ended on Monday, but the interim constitution allows the country's institutions to stay in place until elections are held in 2005.

Just weeks away from Namibia's parliamentary and presidential elections, two main opposition parties are considering boycotting the polls, accusing the public broadcaster of political bias. The Congress of Democrats (CoD) and Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) last Thursday alleged that the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was awarding the ruling SWAPO party a disproportionate amount of television airtime. A third opposition party has taken court action to force the NBC to give equal coverage.

An estimated 2,000 people, mainly women and children, have entered Uganda during the past three months after fleeing hunger in southern Sudan, local officials in northern Uganda said on Friday. "We estimate that up to 2,000 of them have crossed over to Moyo district," Akumu Mavenjina, the Resident District Commissioner in charge of Moyo told IRIN by telephone from Moyo town.

"African states and governments need to be sensitised about their obligations towards IDPs, and about IDPs' rights under the African Charter, their respective constitutions and national laws. Urgent attention should be directed at the root causes of displacement in Africa. The absence of a binding international legal regime on internal displacement is a grave lacuna in international law," states Bahame Tom Nyanduga, Special Rapporteur on Refugees, IDPs and Asylum Seekers in Africa for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Nyanduga was writing in the September issue of Forced Migration Review.

Zimbabwe's beleaguered ruling party has introduced a Bill banning foreign funding of, and imposing extraordinary state controls over, non-governmental organisations involved in human rights and governance activities. Resorting to Africa-centrism and its 1964 ideology of "we are our own liberators", Zanu PF claims these organisations tot up murder and torture accounts and teach the bourgeois delusions of multiparty democracy and individual liberty all for the Blair-Bush conspiracy. Zanu PF liberated Zimbabwe on its own, it says: so should its challengers. Is this belief myth or lie? Zanu PF's version of struggle history forgets scores of foreign supporters, argues this commentary on the website of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Britain’s Channel 4 recently broadcast a programme entitled “America’s New Frontier” as part of its Unreported World series. The documentary focused on the social and political situation in Angola. Along with other Western African countries, Angola is becoming increasingly important as a source of oil for the United States. Reporter Sam Killey described Angola as “one of the most strategic frontiers in the American empire.” He explained that in the light of the unstable political situation in the Middle East, Angola and other West African countries were becoming a focus of America’s oil strategy. According to a Human Rights Watch spokesperson, $4.27 billion “went missing” between 1997 and 2002, around nine percent of GDP each year.

Negotiations between the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) are moving forward successfully, according to South Africa’s Chief Trade Negotiator, Xavier Carim. SACU countries - South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland – are due to engage in the final round of negotiations with EFTA countries - Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Iceland - in December at an undetermined location. It is hoped that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will emanate from this meeting, which would in turn result in SACU countries having a "significant" increase in exports particularly in textiles, clothing, fisheries and agriculture.

The mobilization and organization of African civil society constitutes an important asset in the progress of the continent, concludes a new report from Partnership Africa Canada. "A commitment at this level requires better political recognition than is currently the case. This recognition must be achieved, however, without hindering civil society’s independence." Africa is facing some enormous challenges, which may prompt some to wallow in a state of Afro-pessimism. However, taking this approach would mean ignoring the vast efforts of the populations concerned and the multiple causes of the crises shaking the continent.

As corruption becomes the surest way for people to access certain rights and services, Tanzanians are increasingly forced to dispose of their assets in order to obtain cash to bribe officials. As a result, corruption is exposing both households and individuals to a constant erosion of income or asset-related resources. In this context, violence, robbery and insecurity are prevalent even within households, where women are now at greater risk than in public places.

"Indymedia is a global media network that provides open space to publish challenging, independent reporting, with emphasis on political and social justice issues. The Indymedia network is based upon principled mutual aid and voluntary participation, maintaining openly accessible newswires with the capacity for anyone to publish texts, images, audio, and video. On 7 October, 2004, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company, Rackspace, at the request of the US Justice Department, apparently in collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities. Although the hard drives were returned on October 13, the particular legal framework under which the seizures took place is unknown. In response, people all over the world have been endorsing a declaration against the seizures." You can sign this declaration by visiting the website available through the URL provided.

Blade Nzimande, General Secretary for the South African Communist Party, writes in the latest edition of Umsebenzi Online: "A central pillar of the SACP's Red October Campaign is the mobilisation of farm-workers and the rural poor in support of our ANC-led alliance's election manifesto commitment to "speed up land reform, with 30% of agricultural land redistributed by 2014". This coming Saturday, 6 November 2004 is our National Day of Action, under the slogan: "Mawubuye Umhlaba". We are calling upon the millions of workers and the landless poor to join us on this day, as we table our demands to white commercial agriculture for accelerated land reform and a national land summit."

Half of the world's poor will live in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015, up from 27% in 1999, despite significant inroads made in reducing global poverty, according to a new report. The latest survey compiled by the South African Institute of Race Relations uses World Bank data to show that poverty in SubSaharan Africa will worsen significantly. More than 400-million people are expected to live on less than $1 a day in 2015, up from 315-million in 1999 while global poverty will be reduced by a third.

"HIV/AIDS treatment including anti-retroviral therapy is increasingly available throughout the developing world. However, the drugs and associated laboratory tests are rarely provided for free. Most people living with HIV will die simply because they cannot afford the contribution which is sought from them. We believe that, for human rights, public health and economic reasons, there should be free access for all to a comprehensive minimum medical package, including ARVs."

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including December 1, which is World AIDS Day.

The outcome of the US presidential election is a shock to many people outside of the US who have been hoping against hope that Americans will do the world a favour with their votes and get rid of George Bush. Even the much predicted repeat of the disputed outcome of the last presidential election, which Bush controversially won, not by popular vote but through electoral machinations in the state of Florida (in which his brother Jeb was and still is Governor) and the connivance of the Supreme Court did not materialize in the end. Bush this time has won with a clear popular majority.

Winning by a whiff in 2000 did not stop him from behaving as though he had won an overwhelming mandate not just inside America but also to govern the whole world. He has divided his country and polarized the world. Indeed George Bush has succeeded in making America the number one bogey nation of the world with his reckless approach to international peace and security.

If the rest of the world had a vote in the US elections there is no doubt that Bush would have been booted out. If the views of the rest of the world mattered to Americans there would not have been a cliffhanger and it would have been a thorough defeat for the Bushman.

The fact that this is not so shows a number of things. One, Americans are as bitterly divided today as they were four years ago. Two, at the end of the day they (or at least a majority of them, no matter how small) do not care about what the rest of the world thinks. The attitude is one of take it or leave it. Three, opinion polls in America despite all the much-vaunted technology are as voodooist as in any developing country. All the exit polls indicated a Kerry victory but the actual declared results tell a different story. The same happened four years ago. Same mistakes twice should discredit the trade. Either American voters are incredible mass liars or the pollsters are fraudulent or both. Four, all the fears, allegations and counter allegations about the electoral process should humble Americans and all westerners who are quick to judge other peoples that democracy, even in the allegedly most developed country, is still a work in progress.

Now that Bush has been re-elected president the implications should be clear for Americans and the rest of the world. First, he will see the result as a legitimation for his domestic and foreign relations despite all the bitterness that they have caused. If Bush could wreak such havoc with a stolen victory what would he now do with a less controversial one?

Second, If Americans do not care about the views, interests and opinions of the rest of the world, why on earth should any other people or country care about America's views? A world in which every country does as it pleases is a recipe for global chaos. America has every right to decide who and how it is governed but it must respect that right to self-determination in other countries too. For instance if Zimbabweans want Mugabe or Venezuelans want Chavez and Cubans still want their long term president, Castro, why should the US government give itself the right to proclaim or orchestrate regime changes in these and other countries whose leaders it does not like? This also means that if some countries' voters desire theocratic leaders whether of the Islamist or any other religious inclination it will be their right to do so. After all Bush fought on a Christian fundamentalist neo-conservative agenda and his last four years in office has tested the notion of America being a secular state to extreme limits. If that is democratic in America why should it be less so for other peoples?

Third, victory twice over candidates who are definitely intellectually superior to him and more nuanced about the world is yet another demonstration that the standard of both national and global political leadership is in free fall. Bush’s victory could mean only charlatans, dimwits, liars, duplicitous and cruel politicians need aspire for success. This is a publicly Christian president who will even change the American constitution to protect the foetus and unborn children yet has no qualms killing women, children and innocent men in Iraq by the thousands!

Four, the received wisdom in Western election studies is that the voters are so enlightened that they will vote for their economic interests but Bush victory has stood this on its head. His father lost when the economy was not doing badly and he has won with a wobbly economic record whose limited recovery has been jobless. All his life personal failures have never stopped him from political victory. Five, Bush re-election may help reinforce a popular prejudice among non-Americans that Americans are one of (if not the most) ignorant peoples in the whole planet. Otherwise how does one account for the appeal of Bush?

However, America's selective disinterest in global opinion did not diminish the interest of the rest of the world in America's elections. I was particularly happy that observers from around the world, including a few Africans, were there to monitor the elections.

The reaction of the Americans was predictably hostile, believing that their democracy is beyond outside scrutiny. Yet US foundations, government, academics, NGOs and other election tourists from other parts of the West are now institutionalised accessories for any elections in Africa, Latin America, and other poor parts of the world. If they could observe us why can’t we observe them too? Why is what is good for the goose not good for the gander?

Finally, Kerry's running motto for the election was to exhort Americans not to vote for their fears but vote for hope in a new beginning. It is clear that fear has won and the nightmare from it will not be limited to the shores of the USA in the next four years. But one thing is certain - the world will survive Bush.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to

EDITORIAL COMMENT: George W. Bush’s re-election to the White House is bad for the world and bad for Africa. It’s not that the election of Democratic senator John Kerry would have resulted in a groundswell of change. But Bush took his country into a war that, as revealed by research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published this week in the Lancet, has resulted in the death of 100 000 Iraqi civilians – half of them women and children. Had the US electorate voted for Kerry, at least they would have sent a message to their leadership that bloodletting would not be tolerated in their name. Yes, Kerry might not have withdrawn from Iraq, but at least he would have been forced to think about the wisdom of an illegitimate foreign invasion if he knew that his second term in office was threatened.

As it is, Bush has a mandate from the US electorate to pursue a right wing agenda and the iron heel will now attempt to further stamp its authority on the world. For Africa, expect this agenda and the death of multilaterism to mean the securing of lucrative oil contracts even if it translates into supporting corrupt regimes, support for countries who back the ‘war on terrorism’ even while suppressing human rights domestically, the undermining of reproductive rights to the detriment of women’s rights and a fight against HIV/AIDS that has the best interests of the pharmaceutical industry at heart. Now that military intervention for 'regime change' has been legitimised as a political strategy with the collusion of Tony Blair (the chair of the 'Commission on Africa'), Africa will not be immune to the use of that strategy, only this time to the applaud of the majority of US citizens.

Q&A ON AFRICA AND THE US ELECTIONS

Last week, Pambazuka News sent a list of questions about the US elections to Ann-Louise Colgan, Director for Policy Analysis & Communications at Africa Action (http://www.africaaction.org). Answered before the results became known, the responses provide a useful insight into how Africa is seen by the US administration and what can be expected for the next four years.

PZ: Much of the news coming out of the US election race was focused on either the war in Iraq or domestic policy related to the economy. Where, if at all, did Africa feature on the radar screen and what were the main issues related to the continent that were mentioned?

ALC: This 2004 election season has had by far a greater focus than usual on foreign policy issues, but Africa has unfortunately been largely absent from the national debate. This only highlights once more the degree to which Africa is marginalized in the US policy discourse and in the public consciousness. Despite historical ties and important current interests, Africa is still largely considered to fall outside the scope of US policymakers’ concerns.

That being said, two issues related to Africa have featured on the radar screen to some extent this election season: Sudan & HIV/AIDS.

The genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, which has prompted a great deal of political activism and media attention in the US. in recent months, was featured in the first Presidential debate. This first debate took place just 4 weeks after the Bush Administration finally acknowledged that genocide was taking place in Darfur, and the moderator of the debate asked the candidates why they were not talking about sending in troops when they both agreed that this was a case of genocide. Both Presidential candidates emphasized the role and responsibility of the African Union in this regard, and neither stated that the US should take a leadership role. John Kerry did finish by saying that if it took US troops to coalesce the African Union, he would be prepared to do that in order to avoid “another Rwanda.” President Bush said he would not agree with committing troops to this area, just as, four years before, he had said in a Presidential debate that he would not send troops to the African continent to stop another Rwanda.

The issue of HIV/AIDS has also gained some attention this election season. The Bush Administration has sought to place the so-called President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) at the heart of its compassionate conservative agenda, and the Kerry campaign pledged to double this funding level for HIV/AIDS efforts in Africa and globally. Unfortunately, when a question on HIV/AIDS in the US was put to the vice-presidential candidates in the second debate, both revealed their ignorance about its disproportionate impact among African-American women in this country, which highlights their disinterest in the African-American community and their ignorance of the factors that continue to fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. They instead sought to answer the question by focusing on their plans to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, which are, of course, similarly inadequate.

But even in these two cases, where African priorities force themselves onto the agenda of candidates and policymakers, the urgent leadership required (and purported) by the US is absent. The measure of Africa’s importance is revealed by the reality of US policies, and not the rhetoric of election debates.

PZ: The problems with US policy towards Africa seem obvious - debt relief, HIV/AIDS, market access etc etc. How wide an understanding is there amongst the US electorate of these issues?

ALC: There is a deep understanding and interest in these issues among the various sectors of the US electorate that form Africa’s constituencies here in the US. These include a wide range of Africa-focused civil society groups and their supporters, academics, religious and labour communities, African-American & African neo-diaspora communities, activist student groups, and many others. Not all of these groups engage at the policy level, but they do care about US relations with Africa in a broad sense.

Across the US electorate as a whole, there is a narrow understanding of US foreign policy interests, particularly post-September 11th. Often, this translates to a lack of awareness of key global issues – such as poverty, civil conflict and HIV/AIDS – and the role of the US in responding to these challenges. While a broader understanding does exist on the issues of HIV/AIDS in Africa and genocide in Darfur, the US public is often misled to believe that the US is doing more than it is on these critical issues.

PZ: It seems as if there is a general acknowledgement that the re-election of Bush is bad for Africa. But would Kerry have offered anything substantively different?

ALC: The priorities and approach of the Bush Administration have certainly hurt Africa over the past four years. The US preoccupation with the “war on terrorism”, alleged weapons of mass destruction, and Washington’s military misadventure in Iraq, has hurt Africa directly in economic and political terms. The Bush Administration’s focus on oil and military security has also turned Africa into geo-strategic real estate, defining the continent’s value once more in a Cold War era model. More broadly, to the extent that US actions under the Bush Administration have undermined the very notion of multilateralism, they have been directly at odds with Africa’s interests. Despite rhetorical efforts to place Africa at the center of the Bush Administration’s “compassionate conservative” agenda, Africa’s priorities – the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty – have been ignored, as US approaches have instead been characterized by broken promises and harmful policies.

Should Kerry have been elected, it is unlikely there would have been a dramatic shift in US Africa policy, or in US priorities in relation to Africa. In fact, despite being married to a woman born in Mozambique, John Kerry has never even been to Africa! The “Kerry-Edwards Plan for Africa” pledged to double funding for HIV/AIDS programs globally, and to support debt cancellation and the fight against poverty, but it offered little by way of new approaches to these challenges. On the positive side, Kerry would likely have supported the elimination of the global “gag rule”, which undermines family planning programs and women’s reproductive health in developing countries. Kerry has also issued stronger statements on the crisis in Darfur and what the US role should be in addressing this crisis. But on issues such as trade, military relations and oil, a Kerry administration would likely have pursued a similar track to the Bush White House. Kerry was also unlikely to dismantle the Millennium Challenge Account or the conditionalities integral to that program, as well as to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and to debt relief programs.

PZ: There is an annual net drain of more than $12 billion dollars out of Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the highest such transfers from South to North in the world and it is mostly debt service. As Africa Action points out on their website, Africa's debt burden is an enormous obstacle to development of the continent. What progress is there likely to be on this issue over the next four years?

ALC: The past few months have seen important progress on the debt issue. During discussions among the “Group of 8” leaders at their annual summit in June, 100% multilateral debt cancellation was on the table for the first time in history. While there is still work to be done on this issue, both by campaigners and in negotiations between the G-8 governments, there are indications that an agreement can be expected in 2005 on some form of debt cancellation for some sub-set of deeply impoverished countries that need it.

Of course, since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration has been actively promoting the cancellation of Iraq’s “odious debts”. At the same time, it has practiced a double standard by ignoring the illegitimate and odious nature of African countries’ debts. Recently, the Bush Administration indicated that it now supports 100% multilateral debt cancellation for 33 of the most impoverished and indebted countries, and that the resources to realize this should come from the World Bank and IMF themselves. The Bush Administration also supports a shift from loans to grants in future assistance.

While it is clear that rich countries and international financial institutions must address the illegitimate and unsustainable debts of African countries and other countries in the Global South, only continued public activism will ensure that result. Two key dates next year where debt will be on the agenda will be the “Group of 7” Finance Ministers meeting in February, and the annual G-8 summit, which the UK will host in July 2005.

PZ: What are some of the key motivators of US policy towards Africa and how are these likely to play themselves out over the next four years in terms of the war on terrorism, access to oil, and securing access to African raw materials and markets for American companies?

ALC: Under the Bush Administration, the “war on terrorism” and US interests in oil and strategic military relations have largely motivated US policy toward Africa. These perceived interests will continue to shape the course of US Africa policy over the next several years. Washington will continue to focus on African countries’ oil resources as an alternative to the Middle East. In fact, the National Intelligence Council projects that US oil supplies from West Africa will increase to 25% by 2015, which would exceed US oil imports from the entire Persian Gulf. The US pre-occupation with “energy security” will continue, and will make increasingly important those African countries that are large producers of oil, such as Nigeria, Angola, Gabon.

In terms of strategic military relations, increased US interest in projecting military force into the Persian Gulf has led to a massive increase in the US military presence in the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere in recent years. This trend is also likely to continue in the coming years as the US seeks to secure access to military bases across Africa, including in regions where oil is to be found. At the same time, there will continue to be a US concern with the counter-terrorism efforts of African countries, to the extent that they provide security for US interests in East Africa and other sub-regions.

The trend that has become apparent since 2001, when these two agendas – oil security and counter-terrorism – came to form the backbone of US Africa policy under the Bush Administration, will likely be further reinforced in coming years.

PZ:. Say one thing and do another, seems to be the juggling act of the Bush administration as it attempts to make commitments on the HIV/AIDS issue in Africa while at the same time protecting the interests of pharmaceutical companies. Any policy predictions on this issue for the next four years?

ALC: The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and globally will remain the most urgent global threat, and will require a far more committed and effective response than has been the case until now.

Over the last four years, the Bush Administration’s ties with the pharmaceutical lobby in the US have led the US to pursue policies that protect the interests of these wealthy companies at the expense of the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries, who are dying without access to essential medicines. It is clear that activism around the issue of access to affordable medications will continue, and that both rich country governments and pharmaceutical companies will face increasing pressure to give the growing numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS in impoverished countries the right and the ability to receive care and treatment.

The pharmaceutical industry is closely allied with the Bush Administration, and is one of the largest contributors to the Republican Party. The US Global AIDS Coordinator, appointed by Bush, is himself a former pharmaceutical executive! A comprehensive and effective response to HIV/AIDS in African and globally in the next several years will require strong international support for initiatives such as the World Health Organization’s “3 by 5” plan and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria. This means challenging the power and the profits of the pharmaceutical companies and their influence over US policy on HIV/AIDS in the US and globally.
While a Kerry Administration may initially have been less beholden to the pharmaceutical companies, these companies would have done everything in their power to change this as quickly as possible.

* What do you think about the re-election of George W. Bush? What is your view on the relationship between Africa and the US? Send your comments to [email protected]

With 10 per cent of patients being infected or otherwise harmed during their hospital stay, the United Nations public health agency has launched a programme to set worldwide standards that would reduce the number of preventable new illnesses, injuries and deaths that now cost billions of dollars. The new initiative, would focus on eliminating health-care infections, especially in 2005 and 2006. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that at least half of all medical equipment is unsafe and that 77 per cent of the reported cases of counterfeit and substandard drugs have surfaced in developing countries.

The landmark court case against Botswana's government by evicted communities of the San people is to recommence next week. The case was adjourned in July. The San communities are fighting for their right to return to their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The Gana and Gwi communities of the San people - also called "Bushmen" or "Basarwa" - are fighting for their right to maintain their extensive hunting and gathering livelihood in the desert reserve after having been evicted by the Batswana government.

South Africa's judiciary is behind in the transformation process, says the country's Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Bridgette Mabandla. She was responding to a question in the National Assembly from former deputy justice minister and now Democratic Alliance shadow justice minister Sheila Camerer who noted that not a single white candidate had been considered by the Judicial Services Commission last week for posts of judges.

* Editorial: Why Bush’s re-election is bad for the world and bad for Africa; Q&A on US and Africa
* Comment and Analysis: Unifem’s Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda explains why any approach to peace and security in the Great Lakes region must adopt a zero tolerance approach to sexual violence
* Letters: Reader views on income inequality and unity in the fight for global justice
* Pan-African Postcard: Our weekly columnist on the US election, fear and why failure has never deterred George Walker Bush
* Conflicts and Emergencies: UN Truth and Reconciliation Commission report reveals the experiences of children in conflict
* Women and Gender: The Kigali declaration calls for the enactment and enforcement of legislation that protects and upholds the human rights and dignity of women and girls
* Elections and Governance: It would be a mistake to characterise the acquittal of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai's as a reversal of Zimbabwe’s politics of oppression, warns Brian Raftopoulos
* Corruption: Maina Kiai from the Kenya National Human Rights Commission writes that strength, clarity and leadership are required to turn rhetoric into reality in the fight against corruption in Kenya
* HIV/AIDS: AIDS will be a moral issue for as long as its politics are defined by inequalities, argues Sanjay Basu from the Yale School of Medicine
* Environment: Does isolation still protect forest communities in Cameroon?
* Media and FXI: Environmental journalism still on the fringes of mainstream media in Africa

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), stung by last week’s humiliating deportation of its top officials, is mobilising civic groups in the region to seal entry points into Zimbabwe for four days — a move that could trigger a diplomatic rift between the two countries. The proposed blockade, being coordinated in conjunction with Amnesty International in Johannesburg, South Africa, is pencilled for December 4 to 8 2004, according to information obtained by The Financial Gazette.

Amnesty International has called on governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to respect and ensure respect of women's rights by lifting their reservations to the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) [http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=483], which aims to protect women from violence and discrimination. In a report entitled Weakening the protection of women from violence in the Middle East and North Africa region, Amnesty International urged these governments to bring their domestic laws in line with international standards, including CEDAW, the main treaty devoted to the rights of women.

In this pathbreaking collection, international activists and scholars reveal how plans implemented by the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and other first world interests drastically limit access to medical care and essentially sentence millions to disease and premature death. Edited by affiliates of Health Alliance International - a nonprofit organization associated with the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine - Sickness and Wealth provides a historical context for understanding the complex interrelationship between health, politics, and capitalist globalization.

MISA-SA is seeking to employ an Information and Advocacy Officer. The incumbent has to manage the Freedom of Expression and Right to Information Programme.