Pambazuka News 505: Exploiting Haiti's disaster / Attacks on press freedom
Pambazuka News 505: Exploiting Haiti's disaster / Attacks on press freedom
On the strength of the ‘psychological warfare and mind control’ inflicted on its citizens, US society’s increasing militarisation should be treated with acute concern, writes Horace Campbell.
Though basic social security is critical for mitigating the dire consequences of economic crises, it remains out of reach for most people across the world, above all in poorer countries, finds a new United Nations report. According to the 'World Social Security Report 2010-2011: Providing Coverage in Times of Crisis and Beyond', most of the world's working age population and their families lack effective access to comprehensive social protection systems. Worldwide, nearly 40 per cent of the working-age population is legally covered by contributory old-age pension schemes,
A Zambia ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) politician has been jailed for assaulting journalists who had gone to cover President Rupiah Banda at the Lusaka International Airport last July. Lusaka Province MMD youth chairman Chris Chalwe was convicted on 9 November by the Lusaka Magistrates Court which found him guilty of assaulting journalists from state-owned Times of Zambia and the privately-owned the Post newspaper when they went to cover President Rupiah Banda at the Lusaka International Airport.
Military officers in Madagascar say they have taken over the island nation. Col Charles Andrianasoavina, who made the announcement, was one of the officers behind a coup that brought Andry Rajoelina to power last year.
The Paris Club of creditor nations has cancelled $7.35bn (£4.6bn) of debt owed by the Democratic Republic of Congo. The deal was agreed following a meeting between representatives of Paris Club members and senior figures from the DR Congo government. In a statement, the Paris Club said the figure represented more than half of DR Congo's foreign debt.
Following his recent kidnapping in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Jonathan Beale recounts his troubling experience.
Doctored photographs of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni showing him as a rap star are damaging his image, his press secretary has told the BBC. The images started appearing in the local media after a rap remix of a song the president sang became a hit ahead of presidential elections next year. Spokesman Tamale Mirundi said those showing the president half-naked and wearing bling were the most offensive.
The Guinean authorities have declared a state of emergency as violence continues in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election. Reports say three people were found dead in the capital Conakry after the latest clashes between the security forces and opposition supporters. The winning candidate, Alpha Conde, says he wants to lead a process of national reconciliation.
Nigeria's military confirmed on Thursday it had freed 19 foreign and local hostages being held by militants in the Niger Delta oil region. The hostages included two Americans, two Frenchmen, two Indonesians, one Canadian and 12 Nigerians, Major General Charles Omoregie, commander of a military taskforce in the Niger Delta, told a news conference in oil hub Port Harcourt.
'It is difficult to pin down exactly what degrowth is. It is not a model for an alternative economic system. It is more a tool for opening up a discussion on the failures of and alternatives to the status quo,' writes Glenn Ashton for the The South African Civil Society Information Service. 'For instance we need to consider whether our primary reason to interact with strangers is to exploit and extract money from them. Surely happiness is more important than exploitation? Presently both rich and poor, exploited and exploiter alike are unhappy, unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Degrowth supports ways to achieve a far more functional society than our present model, which externalises damage to both psyches and planet.'
Hundreds of thousands of Chadians uprooted by violence in the country's east say they can't go home unless the government improves infrastructure and health services in their towns and villages, aid workers say. Four years after inter-communal clashes forced people to flee their homes, Chadian authorities believe there is now enough peace and stability for the displaced populations to return.
Reporters Without Borders has hailed the release of Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, the blogger known as Kareem Amer. He was finally set free on the evening of 15 November, 10 days after completing a four-year jail sentence, and is now reunited with his family. He has decided for the time being to make no statement. The blogger was again subjected to physical mistreatment at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria during the 10 days he was held illegally after 5 November, the date he should have been released.
Reporters Without Borders has called for the withdrawal of bill which is about to be submitted to parliament and which would allow the authorities to block public access to official documents including judicial decisions, new legislation and public records. Announced on 22 October and called the 'General Law Amendment Bill', the proposed law’s sole aim seems to be to place additional obstacles in the way of access to information and thereby hamper the work of the media even more.
'Turning a blind eye when people are targeted because of their real or alleged sexual orientation, makes the authorities complicit in the abuse.' So said Chris Dolan, Director of the Refugee Law Project, a member of Uganda’s Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law. This after gay rights groups in Uganda expressed concern about the deafening silence of political leaders while human rights violations against sexual minorities continue unabated in the heart of Yoweri Museveni’s country.
As the transgender movement rises across Africa and the world Batswana have formed their own transgender identity oriented organisation titled Rainbow Identity Association (RIA). It aims to offer support to trans people not recognised by the lesbian, gay and bisexual community as well as the general society.
International donors meeting in Dakar next week are expected to finance the prosecution of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré nearly two decades after his removal from power, according to a coalition of rights organisations. Legal proceedings against Habré - who is accused of thousands of political murders and brutal torture during his rule of Chad from 1982 to 1990 - have been delayed for nearly a decade since he was first indicted in Senegal in February 2000.
Media and entertainment giant Naspers ‘has engaged in the kind of “aggressive” tax planning devised to strategically move such assets into low-tax regions’, writes Khadija Sharife.
The United States’ policy to double agricultural exports shows that its government 'has learnt nothing' from the last food crisis, a problem reflected in the dramatic increase in that country’s trade-distorting farm subsidies between 2007 and 2008. The US’s recent official report on its farm subsidies for 2008 to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows that trade-distorting subsidies doubled from the previous year, while permissible 'green box' subsidies reached a historic high.
Thousands of women were raped during Uganda’s civil war but there have been few government efforts to assist them, especially with psychosocial and counseling services. The two-decades long war in northern Uganda between government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) resulted in the internal displacement of about 1.5 million people and the death of thousands. Women in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps suffered sexual violence from government soldiers and civilians.
No sooner had Mariness Luhanga announced her intention to contest local elections in Mzimba district in northern Malawi, than she was summoned to appear before a village court on allegations of insulting men. 'I knew that some people in the village were not amused by my campaigns and had started to circulate stories that I was disrespectful to male candidates, that I was calling them names,' Luhanga, who wants to stand as a People Development Movement (PDM) candidate in Chapitamuno village told IPS.
The gender unit of TWN-Africa is hosting a round-table on gender and regional economic integration in Africa on 18-19 November, 2010, in Accra, Ghana. The meeting will bring together scholars, feminist economists and gender experts, as well as policy-makers, to discuss issues of gender equity and Africa’s economic integration.
A group of human rights campaigners have protested outside the Tel Aviv Opera House, denouncing the Cape Town Opera for what they say is its support of Israeli oppression of Palestinians, SA Artists Against Apartheid said on Tuesday. See a video of the protest at
With displacement lasting 20 years on average, displaced children’s education cannot wait until solutions are found. All people have the right to education, including IDPs in emergency settings, in protracted displacement, or in the course of finding durable solutions. This paper introduces a series of case studies looking at education for IDPs. It examines the international human rights law framework for guaranteeing education to IDPs, focusing on issues such as non-discrimination and documentation that are particularly likely to arise in this context.
Kenyans are likely from next month to start burying their dead in coffins made from corrugated cardboards or cartons following a local company decision to invest in this venture. The first samples of such coffins, the Eco Jeneza, have already been made and are on display in some major coffin outlets in the city. The coffin manufacturer, East African Packaging Industries (EAPI) Limited, says the coffins are going to be made from cast-off materials, reducing wastages and creating more jobs.
Maghreb youths should play a key role in developing new technologies in the region, according to participants in a Hammamet forum that wrapped up on 12 November. The three-day event, dubbed 'ICT4 ALL Forum Tunis+5', brought together more than 700 managers from ICT companies and representatives of international organisations. The conference spotlighted ways to create job opportunities for the younger generation through modern communication and information technologies.
The International Federation of Journalists ( IFJ) has condemned the arrest and detention by police in Zimbabwe of Dumisani Sibanda, the President of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists. The IFJ has called for his immediate release and says the action is the latest in a series of hostile incidents that are putting the country’s journalists increasingly at risk. Sibanda, Bulawayo Bureau chief of The Standard, is being questioned over a story involving the police force.
Human rights defenders can apply for the Front Line Fellowship Program, which offers them an opportunity to take some time out from their normal work. Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders founded in Dublin in 2001 aims to protect human rights defenders at risk. It offers its fellowships to help human rights defenders not only take some time off their work but also work on a project to build their capacities further and contribute to the protection of human rights defenders internationally.
Join New Tactics in Human Rights for an online 'Tactical Dialogue on Participatory Research for Action' from November 17 - 23 2010. Participatory action research is research which involves all relevant parties in actively examining together current action (which they experience as problematic) in order to change and improve it. Participatory research can create credible and critical documentation at the grassroots level. Not only can the information be utilised in advocacy and lobbying efforts, the research process itself can serve to create a network of activists, informing organisations working on issues that impact study participants, and directly benefiting the people themselves. This dialogue will be a space to share resources, challenges, approaches and ideas for using participatory research for social change.
As Tanzania concludes its fourth multiparty elections, Richard Whitehead considers the victory of the CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) – the long-time incumbent party – and the changes in the country’s political composition revealed by the elections.
The November issue of IDRC's Lasting Impacts, 'Sustainable Agriculture' has just been published. It contains articles on:
- More food, higher incomes in the Andes
- Planting trees brings prosperity, opportunity to farmers, women in Nagaland
- Replanting hope in Africa’s highlands
- Sustainable agriculture key to solving land disputes in Lebanon
Click on the URL provided to read the November issue.
Routledge African Studies has announced free downloads of the top five downloaded articles from each of their African Studies journals. Articles include:
- African diaspora and the metropolis: an introduction by Fassil Demissie
- An epidemic waiting to happen? The spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa in social and historical perspective by Shula Marks
- A nation to be reckoned with: The politics of World Cup stadium construction in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa by Peter Alegi.
Nawal el Saadawi is a popular speaker and writer in the UK. For the first time ever she will be facilitating a course on her specialised area, creativity and dissidence. Places are limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis.
Patients are at risk of developing resistance to Tuberculosis medicine due to lack of access to quality treatment, according to a report presented at the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health. TB patients should ideally receive a six months fixed dose combination regimen at the cost of around US$26 per patient but in some countries this is not the case according to 'Falling Short: Ensuring Access to Simple, Safe and Effective First-Line Medicines for Tuberculosis'.
A new United Nations report shows for the first time how poor health is linked to poverty in cities and calls on policymakers to identify those that need the most help and target measures to improve their well-being. The report, entitled 'Hidden Cities: unmasking and overcoming health inequities in urban settings', was launched in Kobe, Japan, where leaders from governments, academia, media and non-governmental organisations have been meeting for the past three days to examine how to improve the health of city dwellers.
Global food import bills may pass the $1 trillion mark in 2010, a level not seen since food prices peaked in 2008, says a new United Nations report, which warns that harder times could be ahead without a major increase in food production next year. According to the latest edition of the Food Outlook report, released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food import bills for the world's poorest countries are predicted to rise 11 per cent in 2010 and by 20 per cent for low-income food-deficit countries.
The United Nations estimates that 95 per cent of aggressive behaviour, harassment, abusive language and denigrating images in online spaces are aimed at women and come from partners or former male partners. Other surveys show that the victims of cyber-stalking are predominantly female. APC Women and Inter Press Service Africa co-hosted a media roundtable on 17 November entitled ‘Click Against Violence: Taking 16 Days of Activism Online’, to discuss online Gender Based Violence and resources available to cover the issue.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers.
Discussing the works of Maaza Mengiste, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Solomon Gebre-Selassie explores the characters and plots of three African novels by female writers.
Conditions were ripe for cholera because international policy towards Haiti hasn't changed in decades, says this opinion piece in the London Guardian. 'Economic exploitation, political intervention, NGO gifts with chains attached, media misrepresentation, the same mistakes have been made over and over again. Sadly, even an earthquake doesn't seem to have changed that. It's little wonder Haitians are manifesting their anger in increasingly heated protests.'
‘For the last twenty years, the most powerful political and economic interests in and around Haiti have waged a systematic campaign designed to stifle the popular movement and deprive it of its principal weapons, resources and leaders,' writes Peter Hallward. January’s earthquake ‘triggered reactions that carried and that are still carrying such measures to entirely new levels’.
Why don't royal divorces attract the same media fanfare as weddings, wonders Gado.
A damning report confirms critics’ accusation that industrial biofuels are responsible for the world's food and hunger crisis, writes Mae-Wan Ho.
Has Tanzania’s parliament elected Anna Makinda as its first female speaker because she’s the best person for the job, or because it thinks she’s less likely to demand accountability than her predecessor, asks Salma Maoulidi.
The banning of works of art at a national gallery both curtails ‘fundamental rights of freedom of conscience and expression’ and ‘derails attempts’ to grapple with Zimbabwe’s traumatic past in ‘a palatable manner’, argues David Coltart.
Protecting Nigeria’s thriving film industry from piracy, political alliances in Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea’s elections through the eyes of a Peace Corps volunteer are among the posts in this week’s roundup of the African blogosphere, by Dibussi Tande.
‘What may seem to some a progressive and brave government is upon closer examination a tyranny’, which despite ‘rhetoric about land redistribution, is ultimately very hostile to its own society’s poor and working people, women, youth, elderly and ill,’ writes Patrick Bond.
Jacob Odipo’s resilience and resolve for a more equal Kenya was always on full display, writes Raphael Obonyo.
As the two-year lifespan of Zimbabwe’s coalition government draws close to an end, Japhet M. Zwana finds little cause for optimism about the country’s future.
A group of Uganda gay rights activists have protested steps by the government to ‘intentionally delete’ LGBTI from accessing vital health services for Most At Risk Population Groups (MARPS) in a national health policy soon to be launched.
A new generation of activists is being inspired to find creative ways to ‘manage diversity and promote pluralism’, thanks to an annual arts and culture festival aimed at promoting protest, writes Deep Roots.
Reflecting on how the media and war industries often feed off each other for political and commercial ends, Mwaura Kaara considers the prospects for ‘peace journalism’ that ‘captures the truths as they are without bias or favour’.
Petra Diamonds, the largest diamond-mining group listed on the UK's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), may deal in the glittering rocks that bring lovers together in holy matrimony. But the company’s activities behind the scenes may just be tearing people – and societies – apart, writes Khadija Sharife.
'Loyalty to political parties and to those who try to privatise the history of the struggle against apartheid for themselves becomes a very serious threat to the poor in a top-down system of governance,' writes S'bu Zikode, president of South African shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. 'But loyalty has also been the source of our survival. Loyalty is fundamental to the strength that we build in our families and with our friends, our movements and our communities … Our loyalty should start from the bottom of society, where we are, and not from the politicians at the top of society.'
‘The road to controlling the press, however attractive to rulers it may be, must be trodden with extreme wariness. For it is luxuriantly strewn with signposts that read: “Expect unintended consequences!”’, writes Cameron Duodu.
Following concerted efforts to deny the Rwandan genocide from Edward Herman & David Peterson, Adam Jones urges Pambazuka readers to ‘do what they can to spread word of Herman & Peterson's denialist enterprise’.
The College of Arts and Social Science is pleased to announce to all university students a new course onPan African Thought. The course begins this semester, i.e. November 2010.
A new study finds a lack of transparency and corruption are reducing the impact of an initiative in Cameroon that channels a portion of national timber levies to rural forest communities. The study highlights the challenges of using a climate change pact to do something similar in forested regions around the world. In an article published in the peer-reviewed journal International Forestry Review, scientists at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) examined how revenues from a tax paid by logging companies in Cameroon, known as an Area Fee (AF), are distributed to local councils to reduce rural poverty and stimulate local economic growth.
Egypt's ruling party has rejected as 'interference' calls, including by Washington, to allow foreign observers to monitor this month's parliamentary elections, media reports said on Wednesday. The National Democratic Party's secretary general Sawfat al-Sharif said only local groups would be allowed to observe the November 28 poll.
A mission from the International Monetary Fund, led by Seán Nolan, visited Luanda during 1 -11 November 2010 to conduct policy discussions for the fourth review under Angola’s 27-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF. The SBA was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on 23 November 2009 and provides for the disbursement of SDR 858.9 million (about US$1.4 billion) over the course of the arrangement. Following the visit, Nolan said implementation of the government’s stabilisation and reform program has been broadly as envisaged, with budgetary outlays tightly contained.
Malawi’s economy needs a strong and vibrant public sector that can craft helpful and significant policies if the country is to register sustainable economic development, a political science associate professor has said. Presenting a paper titled ‘The role of a strong public service in an economy: Lessons and Opportunities for Malawi’ during the third economic seminar jointly organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) and the Economic Association of Malawi (Ecama), Blessings Chinsinga, an associate political professor at the University of Malawi, described the public sector at the moment as too weak to lead the way to prosperity.
Ivorians preparing for a tense presidential run-off on 28 November are hoping the fragile peace of the first round on 7 November will hold, but fear it could easily crumble as cracks begin to emerge. Having been repeatedly postponed, the long-awaited elections have so far gone relatively smoothly. International observers have broadly praised the conduct of voters and political parties. Gbagbo took 38 per cent of the vote in the first round, with former prime minister Alassane Ouattara winning 32 per cent.
An economic meltdown in Swaziland, exacerbated by a major decline in revenue from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), is unlikely to leave the national AIDS response unscathed, say local health officials. Revenue from SACU - the world's oldest customs union, comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa - contributed 76 per cent of the Swazi government’s income in 2009 but dropped in 2010 and is expected to continue declining over the next decade.
With close to 25 years surveying land and helping resolve land disputes, J. Patrick Vanie has unrivalled expertise on the nuances of land ownership in Nimba County. 'I know this county right down to my fingertips,' says Vanie. But Nimba’s land commissioner admits to feeling swamped by an overwhelming caseload. 'The land business here is tough, it is no joke,' Vanie concedes. 'The demand for land here has become very, very high.'
A 'forgotten emergency' has left tens of thousands of pastoralists in Djibouti needing food and nutrition assistance as well as longer-term coping mechanisms, according to the UN. The tiny Horn of Africa state is the subject of a US$38.9 million appeal for food aid ($16.2 million), agriculture and livestock ($6.5 million), health and nutrition ($7.4 million), water and sanitation ($2.4 million), and emergency preparedness and sanitation ($6.4 million).
The exit of multinational British Petroleum from the Tanzania market faces stiff opposition from its workers who want to know their fate before any transfer of assets is made. According to sources in the petroleum sector, workers are up in arms accusing management of ignoring their pleas for a negotiated settlement.
A new report by the World Bank and the UN says the cost of coping with natural disasters could triple to US$185 billion per year by the end of the century. The report - compiled mainly by economists over two years - said the projection did not include climate change impact costs. But added more frequent and intense tropical cyclones because of climate change could raise total costs by an additional $28-$68 billion a year by 2100.
'Media reforms are inevitable, they are by public demand,' says the MDC Information & Publicity Department in response to permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba's announcement that the government has no intention of issuing broadcasting licences. 'Zanu PF wants to refuse these reforms and continue with its propaganda agenda on its failed policies and rampant corruption that is now in the public domain. By maintaining the status quo and denying the entry of private broadcasters, Charamba and his masters are desperately trying to prop-up Zanu PF’s declining grip through the airwaves ahead of elections expected next year.'
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a Geneva-based international housing rights watchdog, has released a 'report card' examining the impact of Zambia’s land reform processes on women. The report, 'The Impact of National Land Policy and Land Reform on Women in Zambia', was released together with the Women's Land Link Africa (WLLA), a joint initiative of organisations dedicated to improving women's land and housing rights in Africa. The key finding in the report is that Zambian women’s enjoyment of land rights in both rural and urban areas is hampered by male-dominated structures and patriarchal decision-making mechanisms.
Victims and other affected parties are working on a short deadline to engage with the process that could see up to 149 persons convicted of murder, robbery and theft, pardoned through Special Presidential Pardons. While the Department of Justice has published the names of 149 convicted persons who have been recommended for a presidential pardon, victims affected by these crimes have not been directly informed. The South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ) has sought to make victims aware of the process and to inform them of how they can engage with the process to make sure that their voices are heard.
The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has announced issue three of the SA Reconciliation Barometer newsletter. It includes the following articles:
- Albie Sachs: Recipient of the 2009 Reconciliation Award, Jo Higgs
- The search for our shared South Africanness, William Gumede
- ANC revivalism and nonracialism, Tim Murithi
Guinea’s veteran opposition politician Alpha Conde was declared the winner of the presidential election on Tuesday last week, as losing candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo called for calm after deadly clashes. News of Mr Conde’s victory came after a tense day in which violent clashes left at least one person dead and several wounded, and allegations of election fraud from Diallo.
Nigeria’s main militant group said last week it had seized seven oil workers in a raid on an ExxonMobil facility and threatened a major attack while claiming the military fired rockets at one of its camps. The offshore raid was the latest such incident in recent months in the Niger Delta, the heart of the country’s huge oil industry, and the military warned of action at the weekend, saying residents near militant camps should clear out.
Cuba has announced plans to build biolarvicide factories in Brazil and several African countries in a bid to tackle malaria and dengue fever. Biolarvicides are biological products that are added to water to kill mosquitoes at the larval stage. Labiofam - the Cuban laboratory in charge of the project - has been producing two biolarvicides, Bactivec and Griselesf, since the 1990s.
Barely a year ago nearly 1,000 people from 80 countries gathered enthusiastically at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, Cuba, under the banner 'Innovating for the health of all'. They were attending the annual meeting of the non-profit organisation the Global Forum for Health Research (GFHR).
Now, less than a year after taking office, the forum's executive director, Anthony Mbewu, has resigned, and the forum itself is in failing health. Why did this international organisation, set up in 1998, founder so spectacularly and so quickly when the need for health research remains so great?
Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom has backed a proposal by Dr Kizza Besigye that a portion of oil revenue should be dedicated to fighting poverty in the oil-rich region where the resource has been discovered. Besigye, the candidate for the four-party opposition Inter-Party Cooperation coalition, on Monday promised that his government will give Bunyoro region its fair share of oil revenue if elected president. Besigye’s proposal flies in the face of the ruling NRM party’s position, which considers the oil as a national resource and offers no affirmative action for Bunyoro.
The signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) prevented Zimbabwe from continuing to spiral out of control and helped to establish a measure of political and economic stability, says this research report from the Institute for Democracy in Africa. 'However, major concerns remain, given the intransigence of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) specifically over honouring its responsibilities outlined in the GPA...The international community has three options: maintain the status quo, completely lift restrictive measures, and the calibrated lifting of restrictive measures tied to six benchmarks.'
President Ernest Bai Koroma has promised not less than 50,000 acres of land anywhere in the country to CHICASON group companies. The company would be involved in manufacturing, and mining oil and gas as part of its business expansion in Sierra Leone. 'My country is moving from a frontier state, I will give CHICASON not less than 50,000 acres of land anywhere in the country. I will serve as arbiter between the habitants and CHICASON. My government is supporting the private sector and Nigeria deserves our support,' he said.
Commodities company Olam recently announced plans to invest US$1.5 billion in the African country of Gabon. Demand for agricultural commodities has outstripped supply for the last nine out of 10 years and agri-commodities companies are increasingly turning to unexplored regions like Africa for their resource needs.
NGO Gender Links has welcomed the appointment for the first time of a woman, Monique Oh San Bellepeau, as vice president in the Republic of Mauritius. After nearly four decades of independence and two decades of Republic, her nomination is a strong sign that gender equality is high on the agenda of the present government. It is also a victory for gender activists and Mauritian women at large, as well as for women in the region.
A consortium of South Korean companies will seek a minerals-for-infrastructure deal in Democratic Republic of Congo that could be worth $1 billion, Congolese and South Korean officials told Reuters. The proposed deal - involving refurbishment of a copper mine and construction of an Atlantic deepwater port - would bolster South Korea's bid to secure long-term access to metals while speeding Congo's development, South Korean ambassador to Congo Kim Sung-chul said.
While the Ethiopian regime uses its power to keep citizens in darkness, a cadre of young journalists are displaying a courageous commitment to the truth. Alemayehu G. Mariam pays tribute.
Access to flexible funds, solidarity, nurturing and safe environments, and a willingness to engage for the long term are some of the key needs of movements for change, writes Hakima Abbas.
It has 8,692 retail outlets in 15 countries and an annual turnover that exceeds South Africa’s gross domestic product by nearly $110 billion. But unions in South Africa are opposed to Wal-Mart’s expansion into southern Africa. And they’re not alone, writes Terry Bell.
Uche Igwe attends a speech by US Senator Benjamin L. Cardin about new legislation that requires both US and internationally based companies to publish what they pay to governments for the commercial development of oil, gas and minerals.
On 30 October, Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services raided a Khartoum office shared by Radio Dabanga and Darfuri human rights activists, arresting 13 people, reports the Washington Post. According to Radio Dabanga's Dutch-based director, Hildebrand Bijleveld, the detainees are being held incommunicado in unknown locations.
Insecurity and logistical difficulties have prompted the United Nations refugee agency to relocate some 3,500 Sudanese refugees from a camp in north-eastern Central African Republic (CAR) to safer areas in the south-central part of the country. Some 500 people have been moved so far in the airlift carried out by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the CAR Government, which began last week and is expected to take about one month.
The Security Council has urged parties to the 2005 peace pact that ended the country’s long-running civil war to take urgent action to ensure the holding of peaceful and credible referenda on self-determination in less than two months’ time. Sudanese are slated to vote on 9 January on whether the south should secede from the rest of the country and also to determine the final status of Abyei, an oil-rich area in the centre of the country, as set out in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
Ghana's efforts to provide universal healthcare coverage for its nearly 24 million people won the hearts of researchers and medics gathered for the world's first-ever conference on health research. A modest West African nation usually classified as just one of the few developing countries closer to meeting the UN poverty goals, Ghana has been increasing its healthcare funding in line with the Abuja declaration on healthcare funding.
'Morocco has been able to persist in flouting its international legal obligations toward Western Sahara largely because France and the United States have continued to arm Moroccan occupation forces and blocked the enforcement of resolutions in the UN Security Council demanding that Morocco allow for self-determination or even simply the stationing of unarmed human rights monitors in the occupied country,' writes Stephen Zunes on 'Despite 35 years of exile, war, repression and international neglect, Sahrawi nationalism is at least as strong within the younger generation as their elders, as is their will to resist. How soon they will succeed in their struggle for self-determination, however, may well rest on such acts of international solidarity by global civil society.'
The European media expresses surprise at Zanzibar's calm during elections, suggests Ahmed Viriyala.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kiwete rides a tired CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) horse, says Gado.
Gado suggests the market for George W. Bush's new book, 'Decision Points', is somewhat small.
Insisting female potential recruits are pregnant is an effective army deterrent against women in the military, suggests Gado.
Two women's rights defenders – Dr Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho – are on trial in Gambia.
With Western countries battling to maintain low currencies and the US accusing China of deliberately undervaluing the renminbi as part of an ‘international currency war’, Sanou Mbaye asks ‘what does this herald for African countries?’
With Nigerian National Assembly officials stressing that they will not submit to pressure from oil multinationals, Uche Igwe considers the extent to which the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will facilitate reform of the country’s oil and gas sector.
An Angolan minister has told the BBC that a convoy carrying Chinese mine workers was attacked in the region of Cabinda this week. He said that two soldiers guarding the workers, contracted by Angola's state oil company Sonangol, were killed. A faction of the Cabinda separatist movement Flec has said it carried out Monday's attack.
China will launch a $1 billion fund aimed at boosting trade and economic ties between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday at a forum in Macau. He did not elaborate. Wen, who delivered a keynote speech at a economic forum for China and Portuguese-speaking Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Timor-Leste, announced multiple initiatives to boost trade and investment between China and the seven nations.