Pambazuka News 414: Africa mobilises against Israel invasion of Gaza
Pambazuka News 414: Africa mobilises against Israel invasion of Gaza
Human Rights Watch has asked the Ugandan government to honor its international obligations to rehabilitate child soldiers in the case of Bushobozi Irumba, who was abducted by the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) rebel forces at the age of 9. Arrested at the age of 15, Bushobozi was charged with treason and is due to face a court in Uganda on January 8, 2009.
Extreme poverty will continue to blight sub-Saharan Africa for another 200 years unless action to overcome it is intensified, a new report has suggested. Social Watch, a network of campaigning groups, has devised a measure known as the "basic capabilities index" to assess the level of hardship throughout the world.
Egyptian authorities have almost fully sealed the border with Gaza, preventing delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. "The government has expressly forbidden the entry of aid convoys laden with food into the Gaza Strip," Emmad al-Din Moustafa, member of the Popular Committee for Aiding Gaza told IPS. "The continued border closure -- like the Israeli assault itself -- constitutes a crime against humanity."
For some time now the West through its media has focused its attention on Mugabe and Zimbabwe. Aside their giant media houses like the BBC and CNN, Aljazeera have lately joined the bandwagon, running daily documentaries on the impoverishing state of Zimbabwe. They have even been innovative enough by stepping into the world of adverts and clutching such opportunities to further demonize Mugabe and Zimbabwe.
Significant new investments in the fight against the AIDS pandemic could have positive impacts on broader health systems in Africa if governments handle them right. A study of six countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda -- by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), titled "Missing the Target 6 - The HIV/AIDS Response and Health Systems" indicates that new investment in AIDS services has exposed existing fragilities in health systems.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the murder of Hassan Mayow Hassan, a Somali journalist, who was shot dead in the Afgoye District of lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia. "We strongly condemn this killing which marks a violent start of the year for journalists in Somalia," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "There is an urgent need to end violence against journalists in Somalia and all warring factions must refrain from targeting the media.
The latest round of United Nations-supported Government-rebel political negotiations seeking to quell the violence engulfing the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continued today, with the co-chair reporting slow but steady progress.
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) says the number of suspected cases of cholera in Zimbabwe has now reached almost 36,000 while nearly 1,780 people have died from the infection since the outbreak began over five months ago. The relief community has boosted its response capacity and coordination in order to manage the outbreak, the worst ever in the country’s history, amid a collapsing health system and worsening humanitarian situation.
Despite some problems, voter identification and registration in Côte d’Ivoire have been positive overall in the run-up to elections, a key element in resolving a political crisis that in 2002 divided the West African country into a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south, a top United Nations official has said.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has embarked on one of the largest vaccination campaigns in the history of the Central African Republic (CAR), aiming to give 800,000 children the tools they need to address the three leading causes of preventable death: malaria, measles and diarrhoea. “UN agencies and non-governmental organizations run campaigns all the time, but this is a big one and we want it to stand out,” UNICEF Representative in CAR Mahimbo Mdoe said of the 10-day initiative.
There were 9.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Central and Eastern Africa region as of December 2008, according to a United Nations report, 400,000 less than at the end of June, but because of the fluidity of the situation officials advised against laying too much store on the reduction. They noted that IDPs are sometimes continually moving, either returning home or being uprooted a second time.
The United Nations is continuing to rush assistance to help those uprooted by clashes in the war-torn far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including victims of violence at the hands of the notorious Ugandan rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Kenya teachers' plan to go on strike looks imminent as a scheduled talk between them and the education minister hit a snag. The minister Professor Sam Ongeri failed to convince leaders of the teachers' body - Kenya National Union for Teachers - on Tuesday to rescind their decision.
Measles outbreak has hit the town of Maroua in northern Cameroon, leaving two dead and over 160 infected. Medical officials in the town are on high alert to abate the progress of what they now refer to as an epidemic.
Abdurahman Mohamad Farole has been elected as the new president of Puntland, a regional autonomy. Before his election to the presidency, he was the finance minister and close ally of the outgoing president Adde Musa.
With an increasingly laughable judicial system conniving to illegally detain abducted activists, defence lawyers and rights groups are using name and shame tactics to apply pressure for their release. This week lawyer Alec Muchadehama, who is representing 7 MDC activists charged with plotting to overthrow Mugabe’s regime, named several state agents who abducted his clients.
The case against human rights activist Jestina Mukoko and her eight other co-accused was once again postponed in the Harare magistrates court on Tuesday, in order for a superior court to rule on the group’s arrest. On Monday a judge ordered that Mukoko receive medical attention before the case proceeded - the second such order after police failed to comply with a previous one, stating Mukoko should be taken to hospital so allegations of torture could be investigated.
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has requested a meeting with President Robert Mugabe in a last-ditch effort to salvage a power-sharing deal, an opposition spokesman said on Friday. Tsvangirai and Mugabe signed a unity pact last September, but the agreement appears to be unravelling following a dispute over the control of key ministries and the abduction of several opposition and human rights activists.
More than 50,000 people fleeing chaotic conditions in Somalia and neighbouring countries crossed the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden to Yemen in 2008, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday. At least 590 drowned and 359 were reported missing among the 50,091 known to have made the perilous voyage in Somalia-based smugglers' boats last year, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.
The warming climate is likely to put stress on crops and livestock alike and could cause serious food shortages for half the world's population, U.S. researchers predicted on Thursday. The worst effects will be in the regions where the poorest people already live -- the tropics and subtropics, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. But temperate regions will see very warm average temperatures, they added.
The South African Supreme Court of Appeal will hand down judgement in Zuma case that witnesses a face-off between the corruption-tainted Zuma, leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), and axed president Thabo Mbeki. Zuma will hear his fate two days after the ANC releases its 2009 election manifesto in the Eastern Cape on Saturday which names him as its presidential candidate.
African investors have hatched an ambitious plan to launch a dedicated satellite to beam more bandwidth to the continent. Africans will supply 90 per cent of the funding, with global satellite company Intelsat providing the experience and credibility to get the project done. The main local backer is Convergence Partners, a hi-tech investment fund chaired by Andile Ngcaba, a former Director-General of South Africa’s Department of Communications.
The declines in HIV prevalence and incidence seen in recent years in some countries may be largely due to differences in people’s susceptibility to the virus rather than behaviour change, according to a mathematical model based on a survey of Kenyan sex workers, published in the January 14th edition of AIDS.
A quarter of Ugandan HIV-positive patients with active tuberculosis (TB) had a viral load below 10,000 copies/ml, investigators report in a letter published in the December 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Furthermore, the investigators found that viral load increased in a significant proportion of patients whose viral load was below 1000 copies/ml after they started treatment with anti-TB drugs.
Three regional economic blocs have made a giant step towards the long-conceived goal of an African Economic Community, approving the expeditious establishment of an enlarged Free Trade Area (FTA) encompassing 26 Member States in three sub-regions. Meeting at a Tripartite Summit in late 2008 in Uganda, leaders of Member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC) agreed on what many have described as an important milestone towards continental integration as envisaged by the African Union (AU).
In 2003, two journalists from Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines were convicted of war crimes in the Rwanda genocide -- illustrating the dangerous role media can play by relaying hate speech or rumours during times of violent conflict. RTLM, which broadcast from July 1993 to July 1994, was found to have "fanned the flames of hate and genocide in Rwanda". It was the first such conviction since that of Julius Streicher at Nuremberg for his anti-Semitic publication Der Stürmer.
This paper questions the lending progammes of the World Bank (WB), and discusses the significance of its engagement with developing economies. It analyses the history and economics of international development policy vis-à-vis developing economies, and critiques the political economy of the policy-based intervention of the WB and IMF in the developing world in general and Africa in particular.
This paper presents key findings from a study of pro-poor agricultural growth (PPAG). Over the past few decades changes such as those surrounding ecology, liberalisation and HIV and AIDS have increased the challenges facing the rural poor. The authors outline a framework for new responses to these challenges in the context of PPAG.
Today’s resource boom in Africa, driven by Asian economic growth, offers new opportunities for resource-rich African countries. Contrary to the experience of previous booms, however, most mining profits now accrue to foreign companies, leaving little room for governments to use revenues for pro-poor investments or to mitigate adverse distributional impacts.
It is estimated that up to 84% of Malawians earn their livelihoods directly from agriculture - it contributes over 90% to export earnings, 40% to GDP and accounts for 85% of total employment. While the advent of democratisation in May 1994 provided a rare opportunity to address the chronic imbalances in the patterns of land ownership and distribution, the major development strategies that the government has since implemented have shied away from addressing the land question.
This paper examines the effect of AIDS-related mortality of the prime-age adult population on marriage behaviour among women in Malawi. A rise in prime-age adult mortality increases risks associated with the search for a marriage partner in the marriage market.
“The current climate of fear is without precedent in recent years in Gabon and is indicative of President Omar Bongo’s readiness to hunt down all those who show too much interest in such subjects as the Bongo family’s possessions and the government’s handling of public funds,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The persecution of journalists must stop at once and the detainees much be released, as they have not been charged.”
The current rate of domestic violence in our community, has at long last hit ‘Talk Back’, a prime radio talk show on a prime FM radio station called Radio One. Radio One, is an FM radio station that largely targets people in Kampala. ‘Talk Back ’, is broadcast every morning from around 8.15 to 8.45 am. Most of the topics discussed on ‘Talk Back’, are a continuation of what transpired on the previous evening’s radio talk show called ‘Spectrum’. Both Spectrum and Talk Back capture the elite in Kampala.
To strengthen the effectiveness of African Women's Regional Networks in participation in African Union (AU) Policy formulation and implementation processes, UNIFEM has organised a consultative and planning forum for Regional and Sub-Regional Women's Networks and Organisations.
Mrs. Muyonjo is a housewife in a remote village of Ivukula in Iganga district, Eastern Uganda. She used to ride her bicycle for twenty miles in order to come to the nearest small town with electricity to charge her mobile phone battery. Not any more. One day, she fell victim to unscrupulous individuals. “I will never give my telephone to the village battery chargers again. I gave them my new phone for charging, and they changed my battery and instead returned to me an old battery whose battery life can only last for one day.”
Uganda's largest university will begin a two-year study this month (January) of how to improve health research and health service delivery in the country. The two-year needs assessment will define how to align Makerere University's activities with the goals and needs of the country's health system, and devise teaching and research strategies for the university.
Cécile Moutouba marched with a knife in one hand, a stick in the other. She said her husband has used both against her. Moutouba was among some 100 women who recently walked for more than 2km, their hands on their heads (a sign of mourning), in the Chadian town of Guelendeng, 153km from the capital N’djamena.
Local NGOs subcontracted by a multi-million-dollar microfinance programme are taking bribes from borrowers, according to the fund’s directors. Aboubacar Aboudou, the first director of the government-run “microloans to the poorest” programme, told IRIN a lack of oversight and the programme’s rapid growth since its creation in February 2007 has left it open to “unscrupulous intermediaries” hired to process loans.
In the darkness after pre-dawn prayer a village elder would squint at the sky overhead, tilting his head back until his cap fell off, looking for a cluster of bright stars that signalled the middle of the rainy season. Now many traditional methods are becoming increasingly unreliable predictors of the weather due to climate variability, and African farmers already facing fluctuations need scientific data to help them adapt, farmers and climate experts say.
A law passed in November 2008 prohibiting female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the state of Southern Kordofan is unique in Sudan. But for it to translate into genuine abolition, deep-seated attitudes and misinformation will have to be overcome. More than two-thirds of women in the state have undergone FGM/C, according to a 2006 household survey conducted by the Ministry of Health.
A private sector-employment agency in Togo that trains, places and advocates for domestic workers said it is trying to improve notoriously abusive work conditions for domestic workers. In October 2007, the Togolese government classified domestic work as one of the worst forms of labour, making it illegal for anyone younger than 18 to be employed as domestic workers.
Voodoo rituals have long been inaccessible to anyone except disciples and priests. Even though certain practices like scarification carry a high risk of HIV infection, outsiders to the voodoo community have largely been unable to penetrate the secrecy that health officials say can be deadly to its followers.
When Mary Muli and her husband failed to conceive a child, they followed the long-held tradition among the Kemba in Kenya's Eastern Province and brought another woman into their home to bear children for them. "We were married for 30 years when we realised we would die without children," Muli, 60, told IRIN/PlusNews from her home in Kitui District. "I brought Teresia to bear us children and to one day remain behind when we are all gone."
Parents, police and even judges are hesitant to press charges against human-traffickers because of fear of punishment, concern for the community and confusion about Togo’s 2005 anti-trafficking law, according to an NGO analysis of the law. Any abuse of power that leads to a child’s migration and exploitation constitutes trafficking, according to the 2000 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the signing last November of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for journalists and media workers in Cameroon. In a letter to the Prime Ministre of Cameroon on Wednesday, the IFJ expressed "confidence that the implementation of the agreement will contribute to the professionalisation of the media sector and to the promotion of ethics in the media in Cameroon."
The United Nations says it has "credible information" that Zimbabwe may have received Chinese weapons by way of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The U.N. Security Council says Boeing aircraft delivered 53 tons of Chinese ammunition, meant for the Zimbabwean army, from the DRC to Zimbabwe last August.
Public buildings in England and Wales are pumping out 11m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, more than Kenya's entire carbon footprint, the Guardian can reveal. Unpublished findings of an energy efficiency audit of 18,000 buildings including ministerial offices, police stations, museums and art galleries reveal that the 9,000 buildings audited so far produce 5.6m tonnes of CO2, with one in six receiving the lowest possible energy efficiency rating.
This latest International Crisis Group report, argues that the announced withdrawal at year’s end of the Ethiopian army, which intervened in December 2006, opens a new period of uncertainty and risk but also provides a chance to launch an inclusive political process. “The world is preoccupied with a symptom – piracy – instead of concentrating on a political settlement, the core of the crisis”, says Rashid Abdi, Crisis Group’s Somalia Analyst. “There is no quick fix to Somalia’s tragedy, but this opportunity must not be missed”.
Egypt deported a group of 32 Eritreans on Wednesday, most of whom had tried to flee across the Egyptian desert to Israel, security sources said. The Eritreans had been arrested over the past two months and were flown back to their country's capital Asmara, the sources said.
Angola has increased border restrictions with the Democratic Republic of Congo where an outbreak of the highly contagious and deadly Ebola virus is believed to have infected 40 people and killed 13. State-owned daily Jornal de Angola said migratory movements between part of Angola's eastern province of Moxico and the DRC were suspended, days after authorities closed the border of its Lunda Norte province with the DRC.
Ugandan rebels have killed 38 people since Christmas in a wave of attacks on southern Sudanese villages, a senior Sudanese official said on Thursday. Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of south Sudan's Western Equatoria state, said thousands of civilians had fled the area fearing more raids by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters.
As we watch the horrors taking place in Gaza, it’s difficult to say the words “Happy New Year” though of course this is what we all wish for each other – a new beginning and some hope for a positive change. However, as in January’s past we are faced with yet more violence, death and injustice. African blogs especially those in Egypt have been very vocal in their commentary and reports on the “War in Gaza”.
Sokari Ekine reviews the following blogs:
“War On Gaza”
Arabawy
From the Rock
Rantings of a Sand Monkey
The Moor Next Door
SubZero Blue
Egyptian Chronicles
A Socialist in Egypt
Black Looks
Darfur rebels accused Sudan's army of bombing their positions on Thursday, breaking a period of relative calm in the country's violent west. No one was immediately available to comment from Sudan's armed forces. International sources, who asked not to be named, said they had heard similar reports.
Ghana swore in opposition leader John Atta Mills as president on Wednesday in a democratic transfer of power that has won plaudits from Africa and the world. President John Kufuor stepped down after serving the maximum two four-year terms in office in the West African state. His party's chosen successor lost a cliffhanger presidential election run-off to Mills last week by less than 0.5 percent.
Two days before Christmas, Myanmar's mission to the UN got a gift with no strings attached. In the dimly-lit Indonesia Lounge next to the General Assembly chamber, Nigeria's Permanent Representative Joy Ogwu handed her counterpart from Myanmar Kyaw Tint Swe a check for $500,000. This was Nigeria's response to the UN's plea for funds to continue to respond to Cyclone Nargis, which hit in May.
President Kibaki’s decision to cancel the traditional New Year’s Eve state festivities at State House Mombasa is a laudable and encouraging move towards people sensitive leadership. For a long time, the Kenyan civil society has been vocal in condemning the unnecessary, spendthrift and morally irregular expense of holding grand state festivities in the same country where citizens are suffering grand social injustices and unaccountable unresponsive leadership.
Honourable citizens, Bunge la Mwananchi remembers with nostalgia that the very ideals that we fight for today such as human rights, equality, democracy, freedom, democratic constitution, political accountability and transparency, sustainable development and people sensitive leadership, were ideals that you once believed in, spoke eloquently about and worked hard to achieve before you entered the August house.
First, it took the animals. Goats fell silent and refused to stand up. Chickens died in handfuls, then en masse. Street dogs disappeared. Then it took the children. Toddlers stopped talking and their legs gave out. Women birthed stillborns. Infants withered and died. Some said the houses were cursed. Others said the families were cursed.
EU forces in the Gulf of Aden have prevented several pirate attacks in the last few days and arrested more than 25 pirates. Somali pirates gave up a raid on a Greek oil tanker on Friday (2 January) after the intervention of EU forces, the Greek merchant marine ministry has reported.
JASS (Just Associates), a fast-growing global organization dedicated to strengthening the voice, visibility and collective organizing power of women, is looking for an experienced Senior Manager of Finance & Operations (SMF&O) with at least 10 years of experience, including at least 4 years working with an international organization with multiple offices and partners. Deadline for application submission: January 26, 2009.
JASS (Just Associates), a fast-growing global organization dedicated to strengthening the voice, visibility and collective organizing power of women, is looking for an experienced African women’s rights activist with at least 7 years of experience working on HIV/AIDs in Southern Africa and beyond. Application deadline: January 26, 2009.
Chronicles of a Refugee is a 6-part documentary film series looking at the global Palestinian refugee experience over the last 60 years. Starting with 'al-Nakba' (catastrophe) in 1948 (part I) and continuing through repeated community and individual expulsions (part II) and enduring discrimination by virtue of being Palestinian (part III), the first three episodes are more historical and informative, presenting an almost comprehensive review of 60 years of dispossession.
EXTRACT ONE
CÉLIA DANIELS
Lord, will you never have enough of the crying and the screaming of your people? His Calvary became ours. His chains, our chains. The night gave birth to Jesus. The son of God was black. The hair of Christ is frizzy, the night gave birth to Jesus. The son of God was black, did you know that? Black as charcoal.
In this interview conducted by Jarmo Pikkujamsa for African Writing Magazine, Mamadou N'Dongo, a Senegalese writer and filmmaker and author of Bridge Road and L’Errance de Sidiki Bâ, talks about the roots of Bridge Road in Black American struggles, the art of film in relation the craft of writing, and much more.
Lamenting the greater insecurity and civil unrest provoked by African governments’ excessive spending on defence, Chuma Nwokolo argues that arms stockpiles act as a central obstacle for countries’ development and stability. Emphasising that the practice of supplying African territory with arms remains a throwback to the slavery era, the author highlights the high proportion of GDP spent on arms and the military by particular African governments such as Angola and Eritrea. In a bid to catalyse effective action, Nwokolo calls upon people to support the worldwide .
http://www.pambazuka.org/
In an article examining the efforts of Angola’s ruling MPLA to harness the media as a tool of social control, Rafael Marques de Morais explores the isolation of alternative media outlets and the regime’s efforts to re-appropriate subversive coverage to its own ends.
cc. We, black people in the United States, condemn the criminal Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza. We understand that these war crimes are being conducted with the overt material and unapologetic political backing of the government of the United States of America . Most importantly, we have learned the lessons of four centuries of racist oppression in the Western hemisphere; that the liberation struggles of the oppressed must not be divided by language, geography, gender, religion or race; that if they come for Gaza in the morning, they will most certainly come for Harlem at night.
In 1967, Dr Martin Luther King Jr spoke out against the US war in Vietnam. He called out the US as ‘the greatest purveyor of violence in the world’. For speaking this truth, Dr King was condemned by the rulers of the US and their loyal servants in the mass media, who arrogantly and condescendingly told him that the Vietnamese war had nothing to do with the black struggle for equality. Dr. King refused to be intimidated.
The stand taken by former US congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney in escorting the humanitarian supplies being taken by ship to break the Gaza siege is another example of black people's support. Her response after the ‘Dignity’ was rammed by an Israeli military boat was not to cower but to ‘organize’.
In the spirit of all those who have fought in our centuries-long river of struggle, we will fight by all means necessary to ensure that this genocidal attack on and blockade of the Palestinian people is ended. We demand that:
- Our elected officials, in particular, the Congressional Black Caucus, stand in opposition to the Israeli assault
- Sanctions be brought against Israel as they were brought against the racist apartheid regime of South Africa
- Disinvestment in US corporations which support Israel.
* The Blacks Against Genocide Coalition is composed of groups and individuals who have come together in response to the criminal Israeli assault on the Palestinian people. Please read and circulate the statement below. Please let us know if you or your organisation will sign on to it.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
In his new book, Duncan Clarke describes oil as Africa's way out of poverty and assails those who see the resource as a corrupting influence on the continent's politics. Lara Pawson finds his thesis crude.
Exploring the growing support for the newly formed Congress of the People (COPE) in much of South Africa, Mphutlane wa Bofelo cautions against people’s unquestioning backing of the party. The author argues that for all the hope it inspires in many South Africans, COPE is likely to be even more unfavourable to social spending than the African National Congress (ANC).
UNFAMILIAR POTATOES
We used to scrub and shine
those soiled potatoes
until they looked alien
to the earth
you once called me a potato
one before the scrubbing
a slob
rounded and out of
proportion
I locked myself up for days
uncomfortably looked down
at my reflection
in the glass door to the house
which distorted my
figure even more so
and now years later I laugh
and think of you as the potato
mouldy green and brown
with wrinkles, misery,
sharp stench and frown
all alien to me
and now I smile
I am long past the stage
of rotten potato
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/414/Tanzanian_Gaza_protest2_l.jpg
His head wrapped in bandages
His face scared
With blood
Oozing out of the wounds
His eyes shut
Unconscious maybe dead
His arms high
High enough to surrender
No. He will never surrender
He is a terrorist
He is a murderer
He is an extremist
He must die
10-month-old baby?
A baby who cries for his mother's milk
A baby whose hands wave in the air
Who clutches at your thumb
Is he your terrorist?
Is he who you are targeting?
Because he is who you got.
He will never surrender,
How can he surrender
For a crime he has not committed
The new year was an occasion for the world’s pundits to review the global economic shock and its impact, including its implications for China and Africa. Former Chief Economic Advisor to the IMF Professor Nouriel Roubini was one who did not mince his words.
‘‘The global financial system in 2008 experienced its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. ...Unfortunately, . The entire global economy will contract in a severe and protracted U-shaped global recession that started a year ago. The U.S. will certainly experience its worst recession in decades, a deep and protracted contraction lasting at least through the end of 2009. Even in 2010 the economic recovery may be so weak -- 1 percent growth or so -- that it will feel terrible even if the recession is technically over.
In September this year, my cousin Norman died of an HIV related infection. It was very wrong, not too surprising and painful news. Wrong because we live in the era of ARVs and no one need die of HIV related infections. Not surprising, because if you are living with HIV in Zimbabwe where there is an absolute collapse of the health system death is highly likely. Public hospitals are closed, no medicines, private health care and medication too expensive, and besides you need over 200 days of daily queuing for cash to get a 30 day supply of ARVs. Painful, because I hadn’t spoken to him for months and the last time I spoke to him I was so angry with him and my anger had not yet subsided. Angry with him, because firstly I discover he is HIV positive. How can Norman, in his early 30s, well educated, intelligent and a switched on guy be HIV positive? He knew how you get it and how you can prevent yourself from getting it? Where did he slip up? How could he be so stupid!!?
cc. On the 18th of December, 2008, a Statement on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity with the backing of 66 states including six African countries, was read at the General Assembly. The statement reaffirmed “the principle of the universality of human rights amongst other things. But a counter-statement arguing against the statement supported by 60 states including a multitude of African countries.
In this essay that shows the discrepancy between universal human rights and their selective application, Lawrence M. Mute asks: Why did the whole of Anglophone Africa decline to support the Statement? Why did such little empathy flow from many discriminated groups to LGBTI communities? Why would many a group discriminated on grounds of race, disability or gender still find it rational to perpetuate discrimination on homosexuals or lesbians?
cc. Mukoma Wa Ngugi reflects on the absence of action by African governments against the Israeli invasion of Gaza and lambasts the divide between African Muslim and non-Muslim populations, calling for a solidarity of action.
Egypt: mass protests against the government's response to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza but police moved to quell street protests over the issue.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-03-voa3.cfm
Gambia: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has called on "civilized members of the human race" to rise up against "this holocaust that has been unleashed on the helpless Palestinians, whose lands, human dignity and right to peaceful and dignified existence in their own country are being blatantly violated with impunity."
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/jammeh-decries-%22palestine-holocaust%22-2009010218671.html
Mali: Several hundred people took to the streets of Bamako, the Malian capital, to protest against the Israeli bombings in the Gaza strip and show support for the Palestinian people. The protesters condemned the "savage" bombings of the Gaza strip and deplored the "indifference" of the international community in the face of the tragedy. http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/bamako-residents-protest-against-gaza-bombings-2009010218682.html
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/mauritanian-journalists-protest-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-2009010819038.html
Namibia: The Namibian Government has joined the ranks of countries condemning the Israeli incursion on Gaza, describing the operation as a "disproportionate use of force" and calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip.
Nigeria: The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has called on the United Nations to take decisive actions against Israel as was done against Yugoslavia in the case of Kosovo.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053793.html
South Africa: Thousands of demonstrators marched to Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday to call for an end to Israel's offensive in Palestine's Gaza Strip.
Tunisia: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claimed that independent journalists were assaulted by Tunisian police on December 30th. The reporters were covering a demonstration in Tunis by the legal opposition Progressive Democratic Party against Israel's Gaza offensive. Victims of the alleged police violence were Al Jazeera correspondent Lotfi Hajji and Al-Maoukif reporters Ismail Debara and Mohammed Al Hamlouny. http://www.workers.org/2009/world/global_anger_0115/
The chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Jean Ping strongly condemned the seizure of power by elements of the Guinean armed forces and their subsequent suspension of various legal institutions following the death of President Lansana Conté. In addition, the peace and security council (PSC) suspended Guinea from the AU until the return of constitutional order and welcomed the present efforts and coordination between different stakeholders for the rapid return to legitimate governance. However, the new military authorities in the country played down the AU’s decision and analysts suggest that the sanctions will have little or no effect.
The PSC also discussed the situation in Mauritania, expressing its deep concern at the junta’s lack of political will to return to constitutional legality, encouraging efforts being made by Mauritanian parties, international partners and the AU to promote the return of constitutional order within the deadline stipulated by the Lomé Declaration. On Guinea Bissau, the PSC strongly condemned the attack on the residence of President João Bernardo Vieira and commended the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for its initiatives to help the country re-establish political order. Reiterating its deep concern at the prevailing security and humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the PSC lauded the mobilisation of the international community to support the peace process in the country and to contribute towards the alleviation of the current humanitarian crisis. In addition, the AU Commission has strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza, appealed to the United Nations Security Council and members of the Quartet to compel Israel to an immediate cease-fire and called upon both parties to the conflict to return to the Truce Agreement.
The PSC also discussed the situation in Somalia, paid tribute to all humanitarian agencies and workers in Somalia, expressed appreciation to countries providing humanitarian aid and called for their continued support. Meanwhile, at a joint news conference, the Burundian and Ugandan defence ministers threatened to withdraw their troops from Somalia if the AU failed to urgently strengthen its peacekeeping mission in the country by providing adequate equipment and enough financial resources. The AU chairperson urged all Somali stakeholders to take the necessary steps for the early appointment of a new president following the resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf and called on those who have not yet done so to join the on-going peace process.
Still in peace and security related news, the AU Commission chairperson denounced the murder of a Senegalese peacekeeper by militia groups in Darfur while reiterating the AU and UN’s commitment to peacekeeping efforts in the region. While Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe no longer enjoys the trust of the regional body, the Southern African Development Community, to distribute humanitarian aid fairly, the community agreed at a ministerial meeting to launch an urgent international campaign to mobilise financial and material resources for both Zimbabwe and the DRC. The decision followed the food shortages and the outbreak of cholera and a humanitarian disaster respectively in Zimbabwe and DRC.
In regards to regional integration, the AU convened a meeting of Africa’s finance experts, central bank governors, capital market authorities and regulators to discuss economic integration as a weapon against the global economic slowdown and the creation of the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund and the African Investment Bank. The AU Commission chairperson had previously stressed the need to establish stronger African economic communities with greater impact saying that no single country would alone overcome the current challenges of globalisation and financial crisis.
In environmental news, the attempt to expand carbon-trading mechanisms and create rewards for sustainable farming practices on the continent made little progress at the climate change conference in Pozna?, Poland as there were several rival proposals under consideration including the African Climate Solution fronted by the 26 member states of the Common Market For Eastern and Southern Africa.
Finally, the Centre for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union invites civil society and nongovernmental organisations to the fourth Citizens’ Continental Conference on the African Union summit to be held between 16 and 17 January 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Horace Campbell in makes too many generalised statements not supported by facts e.g. "Zimbabwean workers are being assaulted every day." This is a clear exaggeration coz I'm also a worker and have not witnessed the daily occurrence of this.
-on homophobia & virginity tests, how many people have actually been killed because they were gay? What's the extent, in numbers PLEASE, of the problem of virginity tests?
"It is scientifically NOT correct to say cholera is caused by "unsanitary conditions." The disease is, in fact, caused by a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae. Unsanitary conditions catalyse the spread of cholera but do NOT cause it. That's why you can have dirty slums but without cholera ravaging there.
"If Mugabe is only popular "OUTSIDE of his own country" then in the March 29 elections why didn't the MDC win by a landslide margin like 95% to 5%?
Why is Campbell sanitizing the role of whites in the DRC mess? While he is happy to link Mugabe's military to the Rwanda genocide (itself questionable) why does he opt to be silent on the part played by Belgium, France, UK & the US?
While "African dictators" are associated with grand theft which requires the UN to lead repatriation of stolen wealth, how about the the daylight robbery of African resources by white former colonialists? How about reparations for the slave trade?
If Campbell thinks the sanctions imposed by the US, UK & EU are "targetted" at Mugabe & his cronies, he is either not being sincere or he is not serious! It's the common man who is suffering, not Mugabe. The German withdrawal of printing paper from the RBZ affects the poor man in the street who has to queue for days on end at the bank to get his meagre earnings. In short those sanctions are neither "smart" nor "targetted"
, it is understandable that you are very upset with professor Mamdani, who so eloquently puncture all the lies you are peddling about Zimbabwe. But please, stop portraying yourself as a friend of Zimbabwe and an anti-imperialist. You are neither in the way you act in the case of Zimbabwe.
In your article you are mixing up things in order to pretend being an anti-imperialist.
You are of course totally right when you talk about the “pseudo-humanitarianism of the so-called international non-governmental structure." I suppose you have in view the so called international NGO-community, heavily supported by Western governments. In Sweden for example, the most NGOs engaged in developmental business are funded by the (conservative) government (between 80 to 95 percent). Western governments in many cases use the NGOs as a tool and human rights as a pretext to destabilise intransigent countries that oppose a neo-liberal agenda. Zimbabwe is a showcase and WOZA epitomize these organisations, wholly funded by the British as it is.
But you are deadly wrong when you talk of the “Mugabe dictatorship” and blame it for all the malice in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has been ostracised from normal economic relations with the most powerful nations and financial institutions in the world for more than a decade. That is now taken its toll.
Then you mix things up. I follow you when you write that Idi Amin was manipulated by the British and eventually removed by Tanzania. A justified intervention, it seems.
But then it is not easy to grasp you. Do you really mean that the end goal of the present British Zimbabwe policy is, in connivance with Mugabe and Bredenkamp, to rob the Zimbabwean people? And that they will force Tsvangirai into a coalition government in order to perpetuate the scam? Isn’t there a spin to much in your machinations?
And in order to stop this heinous piracy you are calling on the Obama administration and US Justice department to prosecute the Britons who have been involved in corruption and fraud in southern Africa? Jesus! Aren’t you a little naïve here, Mr Campbell?
More interestingly and revealingly is that you are calling for the blocking of all international payments to Zimbabwe. Economic ostracism is partly to blame for the predicament in Zimbabwe and it is obvious how liberals change colours when they scent blood.
Recently Dagens Nyheter, the largest morning paper and leading liberal paper in Sweden, wrote:
“If the (Zimbabwean) borders were totally blocked, making it impossible to get food or money into the country, Mugabe would have difficulties to salary “his cronies” and would run the risk they may turn against himself.”
This way of putting things reveal of course a (white) liberal pipedream, namely that a deluge of blood would purify Zimbabwe from Mugabe and at the same time teach all the Africans and anti-imperialists elsewhere a lesson: stop support the cancer* in your midst or you will face the same destiny!
I remember when Madeleine Albright once got the question if the sanctions against Iraq were worth the price of 500.000 dead Iraqi children and answered: It’s a hard choice, but I think, we, think, it’s worth it.
Now, if the economic strangulation of Zimbabwe will succeed and the government of President Mugabe removed by this way of foreign intervention to the price of hundreds of thousands dead Zimbabweans, we will ask the Campbells around the world; Can you really justify such a price for the removal of Mugabe?
And most likely they will answer us: Yes, we can!
In response to : I am a teacher at a high school on the Cape Flats and have been teaching for the past 20+ years.
I find it particularly disgusting how many teachers of SADTU, who actively helped organise and vote in the ANC government, now PRIVATELY voice concern about the state of affairs in education.
The very least you should do is to withdraw your support and membership from the ANC/SADTU and their flawed educational policy!
Or shut your mouth and look the other way at school as many other SADTU-members are in fact doing!
I think the network of concern is a valuable outlet for those in education that's GATVOL of the political direction in SA.
Mahmood Mamdani in skirts the Gukurahundi, never named, and completely dismisses the extent of it at some level:
"The Shona-Ndebele divide so conspicuous in the two guerrilla movements produced great tension after independence between the mainly Shona government and the mainly Ndebele labour movement, with Mugabe's ferocious repression in Ndebele areas in 1986 remaining the bloodiest phase in post-independence Zimbabwean history."
But Gukurahundi began in 1981 and it was at its worst, if I recall, between 1983 and 1985 -- though 1986 was no picnic for the Ndebeles. It continued in "relaxed" forms from 1986 to 1990 and into the next decade. Mamdani paints it as something that happened in 1986. He doesnt call it genocide, which it was/is.
Later Mamdani (recent citation on Zimbabwe) says:
"The first casualty was the rule of law, already tenuous by 1986."
Why 1986? This is like the recent book by gerard Prunier on Congo that cites the beginning of the war as 1998. There's something at work here, and its called "interests."
Perhaps the best analyses from which to situate Mugabe is that by UCSD professor Francis Njubi Nesbitt, whose definitions of collaborators with white power would cast Mugabe in the "comprador class".
An excellent article, especially for white people. Of course, Njubi doesn't get into the "silences" produced by Mahmood Mamdani, especially as pertains to the great lakes. (Mamdani was --is? -- very close to Museveni and Kagame and Jacques Depelchin).
Mary Ndlovu’s analysis of the situation in Zimbabwe is the clearest I have seen yet and reflects what many in civic society have been saying since well before the March elections.
WOZA, the NCA and the 3,000 civil society representatives who gathered at a People's Convention in Harare in February this year have all called for a transitional authority to address the humanitarian crisis in the country and create an acceptable climate for elections.
The opposition called for a transitional authority and NOT a government of national unity in the stale-mate following the March elections. Alas, the International community with it's lazy media and ill informed advisors did not seem to be able to tell the difference between a government of national unity and a transitional authority. But Zimbabweans know the difference only too well; just as they know about the 20,000 massacred in order to coerce into existence the last government of national unity with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU.
To avoid the crash that Ms Ndlovu sketches in her article, those with responsibility for Zimbabwe's future; SADC leaders, international diplomats and our own national politicians need to take a long hard look at our country's recent history and accept that power sharing in Zimbabwe died with the victims of Gukuruhundi. It is now time for all Zimbabweans at home and abroad to unite with one single voice and call for an internationally approved transitional authority with a limited and clearly defined remit to establish the conditions needed for terror free elections in Zimbabwe.
Ah, Prof. Nabudere, the devil is in the details! However, the details here provide a red herring. The world economic crisis derives from the simple logic of capitalism itself, based upon concentration of capital. In this period, the capitalists have concentrated huge amts of wealth in their hands, for what purposes we can only speculate. Yet it is the hoarding of liquidity in their coffers which has dried up cash and cause the shortages across the globe. For a more comprehensive breakdown, read, .
In response to Horace Campbell's : I can see where you are coming from. All the aspects of African Kleptocracy and neoliberal capitalist influence you describe are familiar for an African like me. I was in Harare 2001 and I had travelled there severally before.
When one reads such opinions as yours and compares them to Mahmood Mamdani's, it is easy to be confused. But here is my question, given that most African countries are ruled by Neoliberal kleptocrats, why is Zimbabwe special? Reading your article,
I would have liked to see data, schorlarly, right? showing how the 2001 ZIDERA has less impact on Zimbabwe as opposed to Brendenkamp and co. Since Kleptocracy was there before ZIDERA, are you saying what we see in Zimbabwe today is solely because of Kleptocracy? A historical review from 1979 and the issue of land redistribution could help set the context.
Otherwise, it sounds like you are saying Mugabe has no moral basis to fight imperialism without honestly analyzing the effects of ZIDERA on the people of Zimbabwe. In addition, how does Mugabe's support to Congo's Government feature here? The war in Congo, the imperial and capitalist interests in Congo are as much a factor here. Furthermore, South Africa has to face complex land redistribution issues sooner or later and how they deal with the Zimbabwe issue is critical. This is true of Namibia.
Now be honestly scholarly.
This article, , is either pure revisionism or taking history over the top. Your recolaction of events seems to be both under-researched and seriously flawed, if not juts enthused by a desire to sound better and occupy a better moral high-ground.
Declare your interests!
Good analysis,
, but please note that the Ghanaian opposition presidential candidate is John Atta Mills not Arthur Mills
Pambazuka News 416: American dreams, Palestinian nightmares
Pambazuka News 416: American dreams, Palestinian nightmares
WAJIBU: a journal of social and ethical concern, is a Kenyan journal that has been published in Kenya for the past 22 years and has subscribers not only in Kenya but in various other countries in Africa and abroad. We invite submissions on all aspects of how digital technology is shaping public discourse, culture, politics and economy in Kenya.
Pambazuka News 413: Zimbabwe on the edge of the precipice
Pambazuka News 413: Zimbabwe on the edge of the precipice
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for the release of Ebenezer Viwami editor of Alerte Info an independent news agency based in Abidjan the capital. Viwami was arrested last Saturday for allegedly publishing false news on a riot that sparked the very at the prison in Abidjan. "This arrest looks contradictory with the promise of President Laurent Gbagbo not to jail journalists for libel" said Gabriel Baglo the Director of IFJ Africa office. The IFJ calls for the immediate release of Ebenezer Viwami.
This 66-page report describes how laws in over three dozen countries, from India to Uganda and from Nigeria to Papua New Guinea, derive from a single law on homosexual conduct that British colonial rulers imposed on India in 1860. This year, the High Court in Delhi ended hearings in a years-long case seeking to decriminalize homosexual conduct there. A ruling in the landmark case is expected soon.
The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) has recently concluded a merger with Amandla! Publishers and embarked on a new programme under the theme "Dialoguing Alternatives for Social Justice". The programme aims to strengthen movements for social justice through the production of alternative knowledge and by enhancing the institutional capacity of community media organizations and the communication capacity of progressive civil society organizations that facilitates a dialogue giving voice to the poor and marginalized locally and internationally. We are growing our committed and dynamic team and invite applications for the position of Journalist & Coach
The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) has recently concluded a merger with Amandla! Publishers and embarked on a new programme under the theme "Dialoguing Alternatives for Social Justice". The programme aims to strengthen movements for social justice through the production of alternative knowledge and by enhancing the institutional capacity of community media organizations and the communication capacity of progressive civil society organizations that facilitates a dialogue giving voice to the poor and marginalized locally and internationally. We are growing our committed and dynamic team and invite applications for the position of Capacity Building Facilitator.
The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) has recently concluded a merger with Amandla! Publishers and embarked on a new programme under the theme "Dialoguing Alternatives for Social Justice". The programme aims to strengthen movements for social justice through the production of alternative knowledge and by enhancing the institutional capacity of community media organizations and the communication capacity of progressive civil society organizations that facilitates a dialogue giving voice to the poor and marginalized locally and internationally. We are growing our committed and dynamic team and invite applications for the position of Operations Manager.
The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) has recently concluded a merger with Amandla! Publishers and embarked on a new programme under the theme "Dialoguing Alternatives for Social Justice". The programme aims to strengthen movements for social justice through the production of alternative knowledge and by enhancing the institutional capacity of community media organizations and the communication capacity of progressive civil society organizations that facilitates a dialogue giving voice to the poor and marginalized locally and internationally. We are growing our committed and dynamic team and invite applications for the position of Administrator.
A recent study by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights found that 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women experience public sexual harassment in this country dependent on Western tourists, including explicit comments, groping, men exposing themselves and assault. Nearly 97% of Egyptian women and 87% of foreigners do not alert police. But human rights activists believe that the extensive news coverage of Saleh's case may inspire more women to file complaints.
Marrying off Mauritanian girls as young as six years old to men in Gulf states is turning into a profitable trafficking enterprise as a typically rural marriage practice migrates to the city, according to urban families. “It used to be widespread in the rural milieu, but now child marriages are more developed in urban areas as a new business,” said Sidi Mohamed Ould Jyyide, a sociologist in the capital Nouakchott.
As the Poznan Climate Change conference enters its final days, IRIN, with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is pleased to announce the launch of eight short videos exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa.
Practical application of and academic interest in human rights has grown exponentially over the last decade. Activism – its ethical imperatives, its particular constituencies, its social and political impact, and even its organisational structure - has become the subject of rigorous scrutiny. This journal aims to capture learning and communicate the lessons of practice across professional and geographical boundaries, within and beyond the human rights mainstream, and to provide a vehicle for innovative national and local practitioners world-wide who currently lack a platform for sharing their expertise internationally.
The ECOWAS Peace Fund got a boost Monday with a donation of US$100, 000 from China. At a brief ceremony in Abuja, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Xu Jianguo, who presented the cheque of the said amount to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said the contribution was in recognition of ECOWAS' efforts in regional integration. While describing ECOWAS as a "very important regional organization in Africa," Mr. Xu said that China and ECOWAS faced similar challenges and that China would not hesitate to assist the regional institution.