CANCUN TO DUBAI: FROM DEGLOBALISATION BACK TO GLOBAL APARTHEID?
CANCUN TO DUBAI: FROM DEGLOBALISATION BACK TO GLOBAL APARTHEID?
Former Malian president Alpha Oumar Konare spoke of the enormous task ahead on Tuesday as he took over the reins of power at the African Union (AU) for the next four years. The 57-year-old professor of history and archaeology admitted that financial backing and international support for the year-old AU were vital for its success.
Two Central African Republic (CAR) ministers have called upon some 41,000 refugees who have been living in southern Chad since early 2003 to return home, Radio Centrafrique reported on Tuesday.
Delegates at a conference on HIV/AIDS in Africa’s Great Lakes region are exploring ways in which people living with the disease could gain greater access to affordable anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. The conference, the second of its kind in the Great Lakes, brings together delegates from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as representatives of the World Bank, UNAIDS, NGOs and the UK-based Community Health and Information Network.
A summit of African leaders trying to rescue Burundi's peace process ended on Tuesday without agreement on a power-sharing solution to a decade of civil war. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed in 10 years of conflict between the Tutsi-led army and Hutu rebels fighting to end the traditional political dominance of the Tutsi minority.
The past two weeks have seen the highest-level and most important meetings between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the last twenty years, yielding high hopes for a peace deal, according to the think-tank, International Crisis Group.
Social and cultural norms and traditions in Lesotho are hampering efforts to combat the rising HIV/AIDS epidemic, government officials told IRIN. Ignorance about HIV/AIDS has been a major stumbling block for efforts at halting the spread of the disease, she said.
A Kenyan drugs company plans to start making anti-retroviral drugs to treat Aids sufferers next month, becoming the first African company outside South Africa to do so, the company said on Wednesday. Activists hope for a breakthrough in fighting the epidemic by producing the life-prolonging drugs in Africa, where only a tiny minority can afford the imported versions.
Peace talks intended to end more than a decade of violence and chaos in Somalia entered their final stage on Tuesday after delegates adopted a transitional charter, mediators said. The negotiations had been stalled for weeks because of disputes over what type of federal government best suited the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which has not had an effective central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The Commonwealth is divided by a blistering row over Zimbabwe after South Africa bluntly told Australia to stop trying to prevent President Mugabe attending its December 5 summit meeting in Nigeria. South Africa accused John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, of using “mega-phone diplomacy” after he announced that he had received assurances from Nigeria that Mr Mugabe would not be invited to the biannual meeting of 54 mostly former British colonies.
After conflict has shattered the capital of the poor, what must be done to ensure that reconstruction benefits the majority? How can economic policy contribute to building peace? Can commercial alliances of state and private actors be prevented from working against broad-based recovery? A report from the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER) takes a critical look at post-conflict recovery in Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, warning that the ending of conflicts has not necessarily delivered secure livelihoods.
What are the links between HIV, poverty, education and gender inequality? How have structural adjustment and cost-sharing affected vulnerable children in Tanzania? Are policy-makers able to address the serious inequalities and vulnerabilities faced by the growing number of children working the country’s streets? A paper from the University of Hull presents findings from ethnographic research in northern Tanzania. With almost a million people who have died from AIDS and an estimated million more cases, the disease is compounding Tanzania’s economic problems and placing an enormous burden on the surviving, economically active young people.
Any lasting peace agreement in Sudan must provide meaningful guarantees for the protection of the human rights of all segments of Sudanese society including their rights to participate in post-conflict political processes, says a new briefing paper from Human Rights Watch. The talks aimed at ending the twenty-year civil war between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which have been underway again since June 2002, are taking place on an informal but high-level basis in Kenya in September 2003, under the auspices of the regional Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD, comprised of Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti), led by Gen. (Ret.) Lazarus Sumbeiywo.
As he walks across the dusty tracks of his sunburnt village, Abdallah Nyinga looks much like any other teenager. But this thoughtful, softly-spoken 16-year-old is really quite different from the rest - single-handedly, he’s gradually changing the way his community thinks. The change started four years ago, when he was at primary school. As part of a WWF environmental education programme which runs throughout Tanzania, one of Abdallah’s lessons concerned the importance of trees.
Since the successful elections on 14 May 2003, the donor community and the people of Sierra Leone have grown increasingly frustrated with stagnating reform and recovery, says this new briefing from the International Crisis Group. UNAMSIL is due to depart by December 2004 but the police and military are still fragile, so it would be wise to have contingency plans. The situation in neighbouring Liberia also remains a security risk. There is no systematic plan of decentralisation, and local elections scheduled to take place by the end of the year are likely to be postponed. Efforts to address rampant corruption have proved fruitless and Sierra Leone’s diamond mines remain poorly monitored with illegal mining and smuggling still estimated to produce hundreds of millions of dollars that are unaccounted for and unavailable to help rebuild the economy.
Over the last two weeks schools around the world have opened their doors for the start of the new school year, but UNICEF says that recent household surveys show that some 123 million children are currently being left out - perhaps never to see the inside of a classroom. UNICEF said that in sub-Saharan Africa, 46 million school-aged children have never stepped foot in a school, a figure that has risen steadily every year since 1990.
A camera operator from free-to-air commercial station, e-tv was assaulted and a colleague threatened in an allegedly racial attack in upmarket Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa. Lensman, Shabani Ramenu and producer, Debbie Meyer were accosted while out on assignment for current affairs series, Third Degree.
The 16 September 2003 sees the start of Internet Week, which will see industry leaders gathering in Johannesburg to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the Internet, its development and the way in which it can and will change the way that Africa operates. The subjects to be discussed include legal and regulatory issues, the proposed convergence bill, as well as mobile, wireless and broadband multimedia concerns. Other discussions will include a look at open source in South Africa, encryption and spam and virus control.
The World Forum on Communication Rights will be held on December 11th 2003 alongside the WSIS in Geneva. It is organised by a coalition of civil society organisations. It will highlight key issues that the WSIS has failed to address concerning communication and human rights.
Africa's information technology promoters from private industry, the media and academia are finding evidence that the continent is overcoming price and infrastructure problems to exploit the Internet as a tool for poverty alleviation, democratisation and development.
September 12 marked the 26th anniversary of the death of Black Consciousness Movement founder Steve Bantu Biko. In this post-Biko era, there has been much euphoria about the South African success story. Yet this rhetoric conceals a gruesome and insidious phenomenon: an anti-African racism that permeates all spheres of life in the country.
Water from a prepayment meter is 20% more expensive than from a standard meter in Johannesburg and 58,8% more expensive than the same amount of metered water in Cape Town. And while the people of Sandton are free to choose whether to have a prepayment meter, the poor of Soweto do not enjoy the privilege of choice, argues Roger Ronnie, the general secretary of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union. Ronnie was responding to an advert placed by Johannesburg Water (JW) in a South African newspaper. Communities in Soweto have revolted against JW's attempt to install pre-payment water meters.
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), required by the IMF and the World Bank for access to debt relief and concessional assistance are loaded with a number of myths that should be debunked. According to these two institutions, PRSPs are country-driven and reflect the priorities of each country in its fight against poverty. But 'national ownership' is more theoretical than real. In many cases, CSOs have been frustrated by the process and democratically-elected parliaments have been bypassed. And the fact is that African governments put in PRSPs what the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) would like to see, rather than what the poor really want.
Controversy over the call for debarment of a Canadian contractor is proving a litmus test of the World Bank's commitment to apply the same standards to corrupt Northern companies as it does to Southern companies and government officials. In a landmark judgment on 15 August, the Court of Appeal of Lesotho rejected the major appeal of Canadian engineering firm Acres International. The company was convicted of bribing a public official to win a contract on the World Bank-funded Lesotho Highlands Water Project last year.
Africa peoples’ impact at the WTO Ministerial in Cancun was out of all proportion to the numbers present. While we were lacking in numbers of activists who could get to Mexico, the African Peoples Caucus made up for this with our political convictions about our needs and aims, our political experience in mass actions, our strategic sense and tactical skills, and the dynamism of our political expression.
When Kenyan and Ugandan delegations walked out of the World Trade Organisation's meeting on Sunday afternoon and Kenya's delegate George Odour Ong'wen declared to reporters that "the talks have collapsed and there is no agreement," United States Deputy Trade Representative Josette Shiner was startled; she shouldn't have been. Africans in particular have long chafed at the power of the U.S., EU, Japan and Canada within the WTO.
Related Link:
* Africa tears into draft WTO text http://allafrica.com/stories/200309140112.html
The 13th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa (ICASA) takes place between 21-26 September in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference is a forum where every two years African scientists, social leaders, political leaders and communities come together to share experiences and updates on the responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The objectives are to: Review and discuss updates on major advances in understanding the epidemic; Provide a forum for critical analysis of various responses to the HIV/AIDS/STI epidemic and discuss the extent to which these responses have impacted on the course and status of the epidemic and; Outline and set effective strategies and priorities for dealing with epidemics from an African point of view. Click on the URL below to find out more about the conference.
Dozens of refugees and illegal immigrants from east Africa were feared drowned in the Gulf of Aden this week after smugglers forced them off a boat at gunpoint, six miles from the coast of Yemen, according to a UN official. At least 21 people died and fears were mounting for a further 80 thought to have been aboard the vessel, with most of the victims said to be women and children too weak to swim ashore. The boat left a small Somali fishing village on September 9 packed with Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing war and poverty.
At least 10 people have been killed in southern Nigeria in clashes between security forces and armed youths that broke out three days ago after a pastor shot dead a gang member. Last month, dozens were killed in Warri, when clashes broke out between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups, who are locked in a bitter dispute over political power and the spoils of Nigeria's oil wealth.
Well, that was a really great moment on the southeast corner of Mexico on Sunday, was it not?! A few Third World elites - led by Kenyan and Ugandan delegates - finally walked out of the World Trade Organisation summit, insulted to the bitter end by US and EU dictator-negotiators Robert Zoellick and Pascal Lamy. Meanwhile, thousands of activists on the outside tore away at the barricades, a few getting within meters of the Cancun conference centre. (As many predicted, South African officials talked left but acted centrist in Cancun, playing the subimperialist card as long as possible, but saving a bit of face by joining the group of 20+ agricultural exporting countries. Trade minister Alec Erwin expressed 'concern and disappointment', while South African progressives in the streets of Cancun were thrilled at the meeting's demise.)
Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South director Walden Bello summed up: 'The WTO has been severely damaged. Two collapsed ministerials (Seattle and Cancun) and one that barely made it (Doha) recommend the institution to no one. For the trade superpowers, it is no longer a viable instrument for imposing their will on others. For the developing countries, membership has not brought protection from abuses by the powerful economies, much less serving as a mechanism of development.'
Last week also bore two other gifts of 'deglobalisation,' that shorthand phrase Bello has been using to promote the roll-back of corporate power. The Swedes voted decisively against adopting the Euro, and the Argentine masses maintaining sufficient pressure on president Nestor Kirshner to prevent a sell-out to the IMF. Along with economists interviewed by the Financial Times, French water privatiser Suez is furious that the IMF failed to get the desired massive increase in utility price hikes as part of the new loan deal, indicating an unprecedented degree of Argentine official resistance to neoliberalism.
Can anything comparable reoccur this weekend, in the midst of the annual meetings held by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank? It's worth considering both the last summit on financing (back in 2002), and prior annual meetings. Once out of every three years, these are held away from Washington. In Berlin in 1988, 80,000 protesters came out to demand an end to structural adjustment and Third World debt. In Bangkok in 1991, the urban movements of the Klong Toey ghetto fought displacement by a government intent on prettifying the meeting site and, in turn, they harangued and harassed the Thai regime and IMF/WB delegates. In Madrid in 1994, more tens of thousands came out to say, 'Fifty years is enough!' (the institutions were founded in 1944). In 1997, the Hong Kong meeting hosted Asian elites in their most angry, anti-Washington mode, in the midst of the regional economic crisis. In 2000, Prague became the birthplace of 21st century European anti-capitalism, as 15,000 people managed to force the chairperson of the IMF/WB board of governors to close down the meeting a day early.
That man, South African finance minister Trevor Manuel, was once an anti-apartheid revolutionary, but at the famous Prague Castle debate with Bello and other leftists, he insisted, 'Without the international financial institutions, things would be even worse for poor countries.' A few months earlier, in April 2000, Manuel was called into flack-catching duty when 30,000 demonstrators made life miserable for several hundred suits at the annual spring meeting in Washington.
One thing the A16 Washington and S29 Prague protests did was force the two institutions to look in the mirror and put on some makeup. Because of the grotesque hypocrisy identified with the bankers' hedonistic partying, subsequent annual meetings were cut back dramatically from eight days to three. Instead of the fanciest Washington hotels on Rock Creek Parkway, the Bank and IMF retreated to their headquarters, in the staid (and more readily defended) centre of town, two blocks west of the White House.
Now, in the wake of their Cancun catastrophe, those responsible for global minority rule are reconvening in a favoured terrain: an undemocratic Arab state where protest is simply not tolerated. With Qatar's capital of Doha serving nicely as the WTO conference retreat in 2001 (and no protests to speak of), the question now is whether Dubai will allow global financiers the breathing space to reassert forward momentum for corporate globalisation.
Here are two worrying signs: first, the elites are sufficiently confident to extend the meeting time back to eight days; and second, Trevor Manuel again appears in their midst, suavely chairing the policy-making IMF/WB Development Committee, as Mr Fix It (see his line at pubs/ft/fandd/2003/09/).
Back in March 2002, under Manuel's co-leadership (with former IMF boss Michel Camdessus), the Monterrey UN Financing for Development conference was the first major opportunity to correct global capital markets since the spectacular late 1990s emerging markets crises. South Africa's own 2000-01 currency crash of
57% was the freshest evidence. But similar financial problems and power relations were patently obvious, having spread from Mexico through Latin America (1995), then to Eastern Europe and South Africa (1996), to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia (1997), then to South Korea, Russia and South Africa again (1998), to Brazil (1999), then to Turkey (2000), and then Argentina and South Africa (2001).
Yet in Monterrey, Manuel revitalised the Washington Consensus. He openly endorsed privatisation in a major address to big business: 'Public-private partnerships are important win-win tools for governments and the private sector, as they provide an innovative way of delivering public services in a cost-effective manner.' Meanwhile, back in South Africa, the 'partnerships' were nearly universally failing, from the standpoint of both workers and consumers (and sometimes also businesses), in the water/sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, postal system, forestry, air transport, ports, road transport and road construction sectors. In August 2001 and October 2002, South African workers Cosatu held two-day mass stayaways against private partnerships involving essential public services. Manuel didn't mention these problems, even as caveats.
Debt relief was even more elusive. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) was endorsed by Manuel as 'an opportunity to strengthen the economic prospects and poverty reduction efforts of its beneficiary countries.' Within a year, however, even the World Bank openly conceded HIPC's failure, including longstanding criticisms both that its staff 'had been too optimistic' about the ability of countries to repay under HIPC, and that projections of export earnings were extremely inaccurate. HIPC debt cancellation had by then reached only around $30 billion (and hasn't proceeded much further since), while total Third World debt which the Jubilee South movement demands be cancelled exceeds $2 trillion.
In late 1999, HIPC was accompanied by the renaming of the Washington Consensus philosophy of structural adjustment: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).
At Monterrey, Manuel told fellow finance ministers that the PRSPs were 'an important tool for developing countries to reduce their debt burdens.' In contrast, civil society resistance to structural adjustment intensified across the Third World, including Manuel's home continent. The World Development Movement's annual 'States of Unrest' series covers dozens of countries and hundreds of IMF Riots. The report covering 2002 showed that 'this broad based movement clearly indicates how policies promoted by the IMF/WB are not only keeping the poor in poverty, but are also impoverishing sectors of society generally relied upon for wealth creation, economic development and civil society leadership.' Civil society meetings in Africa now regularly denounce PRSPs as a scam.
Is better global governance the answer? The charge of 'global apartheid' certainly applies to the IMF/WB, where nearly fifty Sub-Saharan African countries are represented by just two directors, while eight rich countries enjoyed a director each and the US maintains veto power by holding more than 15% of the votes. (There is no transparency as to which board members take what positions on key votes.) The IMF/WB chief executives are chosen from, respectively, the EU and US, with the US treasury secretary holding the power of hiring/firing.
It's much like what was termed, in the days two centuries ago when Washington, DC hosted slavery, the 'Big House.' Nevertheless, the Financial Times reported that the 2003 governance reform strategy emanating from Manuel's Development Committee offered only 'narrow technocratic changes,' such as adding merely one additional representative from the South to the 24-member board. (Even this was vetoed by the Bush regime's executive director to the Bank, Carol Brooking.)
In all of this, far more than mere intra-organisational positioning is at stake. The IMF/WB remain central to lubricating US imperialism, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bank, for example, is reinvigorating its push towards state services privatisation in the 2004 World Development Report, which will be released on Saturday. (The best preliminary english-language critique, by Uruguay-based Tim Kessler of Citizens' Network on Essential Services, is at http://www.servicesforall.org/ html/tools/2004WDR_critique.shtml )
According to London School of Economics professor Robert Wade, 'The World Bank has made no evaluation of its earlier efforts to support private participation in social sectors. Its new private sector development thrust, especially in the social sectors, owes almost everything to intense US pressure.' As a result, the frustration over African impotence in Washington occasionally boils over. In June, at a UN meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian president Miles Zenawi poignantly implored, 'While we will not be at the high table of the IMF, we should be at least in the room where decisions are made.' In sum, as we will see again in Dubai, the likes of Manuel and Zenawi are reduced to serving as the international equivalents of South Africa's apartheid-era bantustan leaders. Their function is merely begging the new global version of the hated apartheid state for a few crumbs and a bit more dignity, while promising to obey the rules of the game and even endorsing the language as their own homegrown policy.
Some say that Manuel's softly-softly approach divulges that, in the words of a Business Day newspaper report in May, he has been considering other 'international posts--perhaps at the World Bank or IMF,' allegedly, 'for ages. The rationale is that he... is seeking new challenges. A few other reasons have been put forward, but a desire by the well-respected finance minister to move on to the global stage seems most plausible.' Of course it is certainly not necessary to endorse a conspiracy theory to explain Manuel's spinelessness. His patriotism is not an issue; his consistent application of neoliberal ideology is, however. That's why, in contrast to the lowly Kenyan and Ugandan trade negotiators, we can't expect African leadership from the current chair of the IMF/WB development committee. Nor can we expect an end to structural adjustment, debt peonage or the institutions' massive democracy deficit at Dubai.
Manuel is an Anglican, and occasionally joins a congregation in Cape Town presided over by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane (Desmond Tutu's successor). I bet he hasn't read Ndungane's new book, A World with a Human Face (published by David Philip, CT), which contains these useful marching orders for the global justice movements: '[If] we must release ourselves from debt peonage - by demanding the repudiation and cancellation of debt - we will campaign to that end. And if the World Bank and IMF continue to stand in the way of social progress, movements like Jubilee South Africa will have no regrets about calling for their abolition. To that end, the World Bank Bonds Boycott movement is gaining even great momentum. Even a money centre city like San Francisco decided to redirect funds away from Bank bonds into other investments, on the moral grounds that taking profits from World Bank operations contributes to poverty, misery and ecological degradation. More and more investors are realising that profiting from poverty through World Bank bonds is not only immoral, but will not make good financial sense as the market shrinks.' Have a look at http://www.worldbankboycott.org to join this great movement - and then help prepare for a 60th anniversary ('retirement party') protest in Washington next year.
* Patrick Bond's updated book, Against Global Apartheid, is published this month by Zed Press, London and University of Cape Town Press.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 123: 9/11, IRAQ AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF U.S. AGGRESSION FOR AFRICA
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 123: 9/11, IRAQ AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF U.S. AGGRESSION FOR AFRICA
The privatisation of water has been accompanied by large profits, higher prices, cut-offs to customers who cannot pay, lack of transparency, reduced water quality, bribery and corruption, says a book from the Council of Canadians and the Polaris Institute, which takes a sobering look at the growing scarcity of fresh water and argues that the commodification of water is wrong on ethical, environmental and social grounds. The book notes that trade agreements are robbing governments of their control over domestic water supplies: with water now classified as a good, global trade institutions give transnational corporations unprecedented access to the freshwater resources of signatory countries.
Privatization of public services and natural resource extraction is now a central component of IMF and World Bank program and project work in developing countries. For most impoverished countries, it is a condition for development assistance and debt relief. This review by the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of organisations concerned about the international financial system, looks at privatisation in the areas of water, land and labour - and indicates that broad assumptions about the benefits from privatization are an error. "For the poor especially, privatization as a whole has not brought better service at an affordable price," says the review.
According to the BBC, in a news report last week, Uganda is seeking military assistance from the U.S. in the war in northern Uganda against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The war has reportedly resulted in more than 800,000 displaced people over almost 18 years, while more than 20,000 children have been forcibly recruited into the LRA. Human rights and peace groups in Uganda, however, also doubt the wisdom or the potential for success of the Ugandan government's military operations against the rebels, even should it gain additional international military assistance. This posting from the Africa Policy E-Journal contains a first-hand report from Gina Bramucci of AVSI, an Italian NGO that works in northern Uganda, and a press release summarizing the latest Human Rights Watch report on the conflict.
An outbreak of cholera in Zamfara State in northwest Nigeria has killed dozens of people with scores admitted in hospitals, officials said on Friday. The first cases were reported more than a week ago in the remote villages of Makera, Sanna, Salo and Marinai in Talata-Mafara local council area. Alhassan Abubakar, an official of the General Hospital, Talata-Mafara said at least 40 people had so far died with about 54 people receiving treatment in the hospital.
The Bureau Chief of The Source magazine in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's delta region, Mr. Lawson Heyford, was arrested on August 23, 2003 by police detectives. Sources said his arrest may not be unconnected with stories he wrote on a communal clash in July in Ataba town, in the Delta region, during which many persons were killed and houses destroyed.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION, LIVELIHOODS, AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: ISSUES IN WILDLIFE LAW AND POLICY
The Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy intends to publish in volume 7, early in 2004, a special issue on a variety of legal and policy issues that have arisen in Africa, where concerns about and programs for biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, and development intersect. Authors from a variety of scholarly disciplines are invited to submit proposals for papers. The Journal, now to be published by Taylor and Francis, reaches a diverse international audience of scholars, managers, and others with biodiversity conservation and sustainable development interests in international groups and institutions.
Kenya's recent introduction of free primary education helps girls forced out of school by poverty to regain lost ground. The girls, however, still face many challenges, from the humiliation of worn-out uniforms to views favouring boys' education.
Sexual assault is prevalent in Zimbabwe, according to rights groups. Concubinage in youth militia camps and the governmental use of rape as a means of punishing female political dissidents are both forms of the problem.
In 18 months, Amani Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to the assistance of victims of violence in Zimbabwe, has documented 16 cases of rape. Sixteen - not even one a month. Not enough to make the case for the systematic rape of women during Zimbabwe's political crisis. Not enough to make anyone sit up and take notice. However, this relatively small number belies the degree to which women have been and continue to be targeted in the continuing political violence.
The 1325 PeaceWomen E-News was initiated in May 2002, as a direct means of maintaining the momentum and visibility of Resolution 1325, advocating for the further implementation of the Resolution, and keeping people informed of the scale and range of activity around 1325. By prioritizing the efforts of women peace activists, by providing them with timely information to help build their capacities as peace women, by providing informed and current analyses of 1325, 1325 PeaceWomen E-News can help fuel the support and advocacy efforts for further implementation of Resolution 1325. To subscribe to the 1325 PeaceWomen E-Newsletter, please send an email with the subject "Subscribe" to [email protected]
Half of Africa's population, mostly the poor and disadvantaged, do not have access to existing essential medicines and many more are denied new medicines for treating common diseases like malaria and HIV, says a report released last Monday. "Only 50 000 of the 4.5-million people who need antiretroviral therapy have access to treatment despite significant reductions in cost," states the annual report for 2002 of the regional director of the World Health Organisation.
More than 1,200 children who were sold by poor families on the coast of Ghana to fishermen on Lake Volta will be returned to their parents next week in an operation organised by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). The programme is voluntary and involves measures to boost the incomes of parents who sold children into virtual slave labour for as little as US $180 to dissuade them from continuing the practise.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called on the Sudanese government to allow the daily newspaper Alwan to resume publishing immediately. The paper was suspended on 2 September 2003 after state security officials accused it of "inciting sedition." "This is the third time this year the newspaper has been censored," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Justice Minister Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin calling for the ban to be lifted.
A lobby group operating under the wing of the Catholic Church in Kenya wants three books withdrawn from the school syllabus, saying they are "morally objectionable." The lobby group, Parent's Caucus, claims that sections of Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's "A Man of the People" and S. A Mohammed's "Kiu" and "Kitumbua Kimeingia Mchanga" - all set-books for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations (KCSE) - are sexually explicit and contain pornographic material.
I saw your announcement asking for letters in support of Amina Lawal. After previous campaigns to secure letters were launched, a very compelling response from some Nigerian women suggested that its impact was more negative than positive. You can read their letter at http://www.counterpunch.org/iman05152003.html Thank you for your very important work at disseminating information on Africa.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Kingdom Government have embarked on a resettlement programme that will enable some West Africans in need of special protection to reside in Britain. The first group is likely to include Liberians who fled to Sierra Leone during the 1989-90 civil war, according to UNHCR. A small number of refugees are expected to arrive in October, with the possibility of the number rising to 500 in 2004 if the pilot scheme proves a success.
Church leaders in southern Africa have accused the Zimbabwean government of sacrificing an entire generation of young people to maintain its grip on power. In a chilling report, the Solidarity Peace Trust documents how children as young as 10 are being drafted for military training.
Key players in the fight against Aids met recently, ostensibly to develop a strategy against the disease. However, sources said the suspension of Dr Margaret Gachara as the director of the National Aids Control Council, took the centre stage. Against the backdrop of massive corruption in the council, critics claim Kenya is facing defeat in the anti-Aids battle. Public outrage is only complementing widespread disquiet among donors over the council.
Almost a million children are being vaccinated in Ethiopia as part of the global polio eradication campaign which aims to eliminate the crippling disease by 2005. Tens of thousands of children aged between six months and 14 years are being targeted under the joint government and United Nations campaign in remote Somali Region.
The government has rejected as "blatant lies" questions raised this week about President Thabo Mbeki's role in South Africa's multibillion-rand arms deal. It said on Thursday the claims made by Independent Democratic Party leader Patricia de Lille had no substance. "She is regurgitating baseless allegations," the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) said in a statement.
In a joint protest, the Media Foundation for West Africa and ARTICLE 19 reiterated their concerns over the Enforcement of the Act establishing the National Media Commission of The Gambia. A letter by the groups calls on media and human rights organisations to support the Gambia Press Union in their boycott of the Media Commission until the present Act is repealed. Radical revisions need to be made in order for the legislation to meet international press freedom standards and to ensure media freedom in The Gambia, they say.
Zambia's 120,000 striking public servants on last Thursday dismissed a government threat they would be sacked if they did not return to work, and called instead for the authorities to honour an agreement to pay their housing benefits. "There is total chaos in the country - let them just pay and the workers will go back to work," Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSUZ) secretary-general, Darrison Chaala, told IRIN. The government on Wednesday described the industrial action launched on 26 August as illegal. "I am, therefore, advising all striking workers to return to work forthwith or face the consequences of their illegal action," Vice-President Nevers Mumba said in a national address.
Malaria accounts for between 30 and 45 percent of all illnesses reported at health centres for displaced people in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, a health worker leading the fight against the disease said last Thursday. "The majority of the cases are children below five years of age and pregnant mothers. There are also many cases of premature births due to malaria," Caroline Lynch of the American John Hopkins University malaria programme, the MENTOR Initiative, told IRIN.
The Central African Republic announced recently that it would bring its case against deposed president Ange-Felix Patasse, wanted for rape, murder and massive embezzlement, before the International Criminal Court (ICC). "The government has already agreed to lodge a complaint with the ICC against all those who were behind atrocities committed against the Central African people", Justice Minister Faustin M'Bodou said.
In celebration of the International Year of Freshwater, CIVICUS focuses on issues relating to water and people: Freshwater issues around the globe; The growing thirst for water; Indian communities forced to drink Coke; Call for nominations to the CIVICUS Board; Classifieds; and CIVICUS World Assembly. To subscribe email [email protected].
The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) and the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) have raised expectations of renewed commitment by African Heads of State to better governance and enhanced human security for the continent. Most of these commitments, to human rights, democracy, peace and security, have been chronicled before in the protocols, declarations and decisions of the OAU from 1963-2002.
One of the most significant differences between the OAU commitments and those of the AU and NEPAD, is that the new initiatives make provision for monitoring mechanisms and review of implementation of these decisions. There is also specific provision for greater popular participation and recognition of the need for civil society engagement in the policy-making and implementation of AU programmes, including NEPAD. Civil society organisations need to meet their governments half way, accepting the offer of greater engagement in public policy-making and pushing the boundaries of this opportunity.
Countries that accede to the NEPAD African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) voluntarily commit to specific benchmarks and standards contained in a memorandum of understanding. AU institutions such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Pan-African Parliament and ECOSOCC have been tasked with the political governance component of peer review. Rather than wait for the necessarily lengthy process to capacitate and/or establish these AU institutions, relying on governments to monitor or learn from one another, this project consists of a core network of 7 established African NGOs to embark upon a process of benchmarking the performance of key African governments in respect of human security issues, measured against the commitments taken at the level at OAU/AU heads of state meetings. The network will review commitments in the areas of democracy and governance, human rights, corruption, civil society engagement, conflict resolution and peacekeeping, arms management, terrorism and organised crime.
It is a one year pilot project that will begin by reviewing eight of the countries that have already acceded to the APRM, namely Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. The initial partners are: African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR), African Peace Forum (APF), Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Southern Africa Human Rights Trust (SAHRIT), Southern Africa Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), and the West African Network for Peace (WANEP). The project is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). For more information visit our website:
Kenya's political theatre has been thrown into disarray, following the death of Vice President Michael Kijana Wamalwa on August 23. It has come at a time when the ruling party, National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), is grappling with a contentious issue of the establishment of a prime ministerial position, as suggested in a draft constitution, which is currently being debated in Nairobi by 629 delegates. It is indeed a head scratching moment for Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, as he ponders over a tough choice of who will take over Wamalwa's shoes. Already, debate is raging across the country over the possible candidates he is likely to consider. Interestingly, things have taken a tribal dimension, the very aspect that NARC vowed not to subscribe to.
http://ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=19955
Rwanda's first multi-party elections, which have been described as free and fair, may pave the way for the central African country to join the East African Community bloc, according to a government official. The official, Seth Kamanzi, who is Rwanda's ambassador to Kenya, told IPS that “the delay in Rwanda becoming a part of the bloc is because it was considered undemocratic”.
Diagnosed with HIV three years ago, Kabuki is determined not to let her sexual partner know. “He has lived with me for many years but has not bothered to perform the marriage rites. He thinks he is taking me for a ride. Why should I tell him?” she asks. Thirty- five-year-old year old Kabuki, who hails from one of Ghana's HIV endemic areas, says she is afraid her partner will abandon her as has been the case of many other women who were brave enough to reveal their status.
Currently, most computer translators are for major European and Asian languages. But what could be possible if there were translators for the languages of Africa?
* Better communication within the continent?
* Easier sharing of information among diverse communities?
* Expedited translation of materials for education and development?
The page available through this link seeks to highlight these possibilities, but more importantly to promote discussion of ongoing projects to develop translators for diverse African languages.
Some online advocates are concerned that anti-spam measures will end the free flow of information - the first principle of the Internet. Marv Johnson, legislative council for the American Civil Liberties Union, worries that the ability to speak anonymously on the Internet is put at risk by legislation that makes it illegal to mask a sender's identity or forge routing information. This would criminalize the actions of people who have a legitimate reason to hide their identities, for instance dissidents under oppressive regimes, closeted gay teens, or government whistle-blowers.
For many across the globe, the word "activist" creates images of individuals hanging out in the top of a 200 year old tree or perhaps picketers with hand written poster boards. While true in some cases, activists of all shapes and sizes are increasingly making use of high tech tools to intensify their message. Wired news acknowledged this widespread trend in a recent article highlighting the technology activists will be using at the World Trade Organisation's meeting this month in Cancun. (Sourced from PoliticsOnline, http://www.PoliticsOnline.com)
Share your ICT Story with the world! The 2003 competition is open for submitting your stories through September 26, 2003. By entering the competition, you give visibility to your specific project and experiences.
Wired.org is a four-day international virtual conference geared to nonprofit and non-governmental organisations, socially responsible companies and educational institutions. You’re invited to join together with practitioners, thought leaders and representatives from leading organisations, in an online learning community to share ideas about using the web: For four days, September 16-19, leading professionals will come together for online presentations from experts in the field – all focused on how nonprofit and non-governmental organisations can work the web to achieve their missions and objectives.
The Refugee Law Project has protested the way 15,000 Sudanese refugees are being treated in a relocation exercise that started on Monday. Emmanuel Bagenda, an advocacy officer with the Law Project, told a press conference at their offices in Kampala that the way the Government was carrying out the relocation of Kiryandongo refugees to West Nile was in disregard of its obligations to protect them under agreed international standards and conventions. "We are disappointed that the Government could use such high-handed measures to transfer the refugees. The Government should have engaged them in dialogue before embarking on the exercise."
Burundian rebels of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) killed at least a dozen people in late August in Rusabagi, 85 km south of Bukavu in South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), provincial Vice-Governor Jean-Pierre Mazangi told IRIN last Thursday. The Bukavu-based human rights NGO, Heritiers de la Justice, had earlier reported the raid.
Indigenous peoples of east and central Africa resolved last Thursday to form a common front to pressure their respective governments to stamp out discrimination against them and give them due recognition. Meeting in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, the indigenous peoples, commonly known as pygmies, also voiced their objection to their continued absence from government institutions, saying they would fight for greater representation at decision-making levels.
A UN-appointed independent expert on human rights for Somalia has said that appalling conditions in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) should be tackled urgently. Speaking at the end of an 11-day mission to Somalia, Dr Ghanim Alnajjar called on the international community, local authorities and civil society groups to address the issue, according to a press statement from the UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator’s Office for Somalia.
On March 18, 1975, Herbert Chitepo, a Zimbabwean nationalist in exile and chairman of the war council that struggled to liberate Africans in white-ruled Rhodesia, was killed by a car bomb. Since then, there have been four separate published confessions to his assassination and at least as many accusations and innuendos about who was responsible for the crime. Luise White in The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo, does not set out to resolve questions about who was guilty and who was accountable for this horrible murder. Instead, with a presentation that is as much murder mystery as history writing, she uncovers what is at stake in so many confessions to Chitepo's murder and why his assassination continues to incite conflict and controversy in Zimbabwe's national politics today.
This powerful book is based on interviews with (former) prisoners that were conducted by Zimbabwe Women Writers. The stories that are told are revelatory. Women who find themselves in prison are too often driven by circumstances into a situation where the emotional or material poverty of their lives makes breaking the law appear the only option. The vivid particularity of these personal stories, often told with unexpected candour, is balanced by essays written by experts in law, gender, and prison reform. A Tragedy of Lives is a book which will demand that we ask how much responsibility should be borne by the culprits, and how much by society; and, what can be done both to prevent the ‘crime’ and create a more compassionate environment.
Our lives are all affected by three hugely powerful and well financed, but undemocratic, organisations: the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. These institutions share, with minor differences, a common ideology. They aggressively promote a very particular kind of 'corporate' capitalism, neoliberalism, giving free rein across the world to the interests of a small number of huge, undemocratic and largely unregulated transnational corporations. This book presents the history and fundamental ideas of this economic ideology. Describing each member of the 'unholy trinity', it shows how neoliberalism hijacked the IMF, World Bank and WTO in relation to their global financial, development and trade management roles.
At the outset of the twenty-first century, Afropessimism permeates both the scholarly and popular literatures on Africa. In the dominant discourses, Africa is constructed as "hopeless," "hemmed in," on the periphery, and even as "left out" of the global economy and community of nations. This interdisciplinary volume interrogates these interpretations and offers a probing critique of neoliberal globalization and its uneven impact on Africa. The essays debate the constraints and opportunities for Africa’s political economy, civil societies, and cultural production in the current era of intensifying globalization.
Parents and some volunteers taking care of about 20 disabled children have continued to run the Oponganda Centre for Children with Disabilities at Grysblok in Katutura, after its formal sponsors withdrew in 2001.
The ruling Zanu PF party will at the end of this month start holding district and provincial elections throughout the country, in a move party insiders say could be aimed at consolidating the party’s structures before President Robert Mugabe leaves office, The Standard has learnt.
The Limpopo Department of Finance and Economic Development has launched the South African Women Entrepreneurs Network project. The project is an initiative by the Department of Trade and Industry to organise women entrepreneurs into a national network of individuals and organisations committed to the promotion and advancement of women entrepreneurs.
“Men are the cause of many problems in society. We make children, we infect women and then we turn our backs on them. What kind of life is that for a woman?" This was the message of Koffie Plaatjies, the first man to go public with his HIV-Aids status in the Erongo region, when he spoke at the launch of the Take Control video series.
Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF), established in January 2001, with a mandate to create a platform for job creation, skills development and transfer for the South African youth, has committed approximately R470-million to 61 projects over the past 24 months.
Some welfare organisations in the Northern Cape have received an injection of funds and vehicles from the provincial government. The Truly Blessed Day Care Centre, the only facility for children with multiple disabilities in the Frances Baard Region and Gopalanang Service Centre for the elderly in Warrenton each received a 23-seater minibus.
A leading French company is among those the Government has nominated to be contacted over the possibility of constructing the stalled Bujagali hydro-electric power project in Jinja. Sources said the French-owned Electricite De France (EDF), Union Fonesa International of Spain, South Africa's Eskom Enterprises Pty and the UK-based CDC Capital Partners were among those short-listed for the delayed 250-megawatt Bujagali dam.
LWR is now recruiting for a Program Manager for HIV/AIDS Projects - based in South Africa - to support churches and related ecumenical or faith-based organisations in Southern Africa to develop programs to address the AIDS crisis in impoverished communities - based on need rather than on race, ethnicity, religion, or creed. This is a temporary position with a two-year contract with no possibility of renewal.
A five-day regional health meeting ended on Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa, with African health ministers pledging to give greater attention to women's health and scale up their HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) programmes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) regional committee session, held last week, urged governments to develop "appropriate policies and legislation to create a supportive environment for scaling up interventions" for the three epidemics, a WHO statement said.
Thousands of people displaced by recent fighting in Liberia, who are sheltering in school buildings around the capital, Monrovia, are reluctant to leave the buildings and return to their original camps, saying they fear that it is not yet safe enough for them outside the city centre.
With trade ministers from around the world gathering in Cancun, Mexico, this week for a key round of negotiations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), labour unions are complaining loudly that workers rights have been excluded from the agenda. Globalization has the potential to bring prosperity to people across the world, but today's crude, free market globalization is pushing standards down and leading to massive exploitation," said the ICFTU's General Secretary, Guy Ryder, who will be observing the Cancun meeting.
African trade ministers and officials are approaching the fifth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial talks that began in Cancun, Mexico, on Wednesday, with low expectations. Since the collapse of the WTO's 1999 session in Seattle, Washington, the organisation has struggled to come up with a new world treaty on trade. It took about two years before trade ministers met in Doha, Qatar in November 2001 and gave themselves three years to complete work on a new treaty.
Related Link:
* Gloomy forcast for sunny Cancun
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20037
South African anti-globalisation protesters have branded the South African government as a sell-out willing to abandon the rest of Africa and the developing world to further its own business interests. The six protesters levelled the charges on Sunday before heading to Cancun, Mexico, to join about 50 000 other activists who will protest against the latest round of the World Trade Organisation negotiations that are scheduled to start on Wednesday. The six are part of the African Trade Network that wants to "constitute a strong African voice that opposes and seeks alternatives to further expansion of the WTO".
Kabissa has made available an updated version of its highly successful TIME TO GET ONLINE self-learning materials for African civil society organisations. Kabissa developed the materials to help civil society activists and organizers to get online, learn the essential "steps to success on the Internet" and to integrate the Internet into their organisations. The materials follow Kabissa's proven methodology for going through the four steps of connecting to and taking advantage of the benefits of the Internet: connecting, accessing, interacting and advocating.
Charles G. Taylor, who was forced out as president of Liberia on August 11 and flew to exile in Nigeria, took with him $3 million donated for disarming and demobilizing thousands of armed combatants, a senior United Nations official says. The sum is roughly equal to six months of current government revenues in Liberia, by any measure one of the poorest nations on earth.
We are looking to recruit a development worker to work with the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information and Dissemination Service (SAFAIDS) providing in-house training and mentoring to staff in writing, editing, materials production and communication skills. The postholder will also contribute to develop information strategies. You will have a minimum of 3 years' direct work experience in writing, editing, assessing information needs, repackaging, publishing and targeting materials for a diverse audience. Solid knowledge of gender and HIV/AIDS as development issues and experience in training or mentoring are essential.
Adili means integrity in Kiswahili and is a fortnightly news service containing news and views on corruption in Kenya. All interviews in Adili are exclusives to TI-Kenya. Subscribe online at http://www.tikenya.org/newsletter.asp or by sending an email to [email protected]
We are keen to recruit a number of Technical Advisors for mine clearance operations in Africa. Applicants must have: A comprehensive understanding and experience of mine clearance and survey procedures; Practical experience of training and preferably some formal training qualifications; A track record of hands-on practical work, self-sufficiency and an ability to adapt to difficult or adverse circumstances.
Save the Children's Sudan and south Sudan programmes are looking for an experienced consultant to join three national researchers to design and implement a study on the exploitation of child labour in South Darfur and any associated separation of children from their families.
There are grounds for deep concern about the controversial multi-billion rand South African arms deal transaction and especially about the part of the United Kingdom in it, says this report from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). The report says South Africa urgently needs to spend money on the development of civil industry, water supplies, education, housing and health - and above all on the mitigation of the catastrophe that is AIDS. On the other hand, it faces no military threat, and peace-keeping in Africa needs troops and light equipment, not warships, fighter planes and tanks. "The deal supports the mutual interests of the European and South African politico-military-industrial complexes. The real needs of the South African people do not figure."
Despite the considerable resources invested in health care in southern Sudan over the years, the impact they have made "seems pale in comparison to the continuing needs", says the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, in a new report. "Access to health care is not good and it is not improving," the author of the report, Dr Michaleen Richer, told IRIN. Without roads and transport to bring people to health services, communications systems between health workers and people living in rural areas, and higher levels of education to allow people to diagnose correctly and prevent illness from occurring, no real impact would be made, she said.
Plans to relocate thousands of Sudanese refugees from an area in western Ethiopia where ethnic clashes killed some 100 people a few months ago have been abandoned, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Tuesday. However, an alternative site is being sought and the relocation should be done by the end of the year, UNHCR said.
The Civil Society Forum says two Cabinet ministers allegedly implicated in corrupt deals should be suspended pending investigations. Executive Director of Transparency International Gladwell Otieno asked President Kibaki to immediately suspend Ministers Karisa Maitha and Ali Mwakwere.
When Josephine Vika asked Mzimkhulu Jam, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe sergeant major who brutally raped and murdered her 21-year-old daughter, Nosipho Vika, why he had done it, she did not expect his response. “Ag Voetsek,” he said. “I don't have to answer to women”. After Jam was jailed for 26 years in February Josephine told a reporter that in that moment, she had seen that he believed women were no better than animals. Gender inequality contributes to South Africa's high levels of violence, hampers economic development, places strain on our health care system and is fuelling the AIDS crisis.
Is land reform compatible with wildlife management? Zimbabwe is seeking to combine the redistribution of large, 'under-utilised' landholdings to smallholders, with wildlife management, which needs extensive land holdings to be viable. Whilst one stresses direct redistribution, equity and land for crops, the other emphasises maximising foreign exchange earnings, encouraging public-private partnerships and relies on trickle down. This paper by the Department of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe considers why Zimbabwe is attempting to combine the two, and whether it is possible.
Communities in the ecologically sensitive Wild Coast region have declared that a proposed multi-billion rand toll road will not benefit established communities. "The motive for this road is not for the development of the local people and communities but profits for big business, notably engineering, trucking, mining and finance corporations," declared a resolution against the road.
The ruthless exploitation of Congo's children by leaders of armed forces to further their own material and political ends is the most egregious example of human rights abuses in the entire conflict in the Congo, Amnesty International says in a new report. The recruitment and use of children under 18 in armed conflict constitute war crimes and, as such, they are crimes against the entire international community, not just against children in the DRC, said the report.
This conference, focusing on children with severe disabilities in Africa, aims to highlight the progress made and the challenges faced in the areas of early childhood intervention, inclusion, human rights and the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) with children who have severe disabilities. It will provide an unprecedented opportunity for individuals with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, advocacy groups, professionals, policy makers and academics to be involved as planners, presenters and delegates.
This paper offers analysis and political reflection that tries to look behind the issues in the Congo and identify the roots of the problems. Some of the issues addressed is the present situation in North Kivu against the background of the history of the region and the political, social, economic and cultural situation of the South. It is claimed that in this region people speak too often in empty slogans without touching the concrete reality that the population is experiencing, and especially without talking about the failures of civil society.