PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 99: Muhammad Ali - Toda e qualquer homenagem é pouca
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 99: Muhammad Ali - Toda e qualquer homenagem é pouca
On Monday 250,000 Angolan children will return to school in the biggest education campaign in the country's history, backed by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Angolan government. The size and scope of 'Back to School' "underlines the fact that education is being unswervingly endorsed as the engine to drive Angola's long-term recovery" after three decades of civil war, UNICEF said in a statement.
Women in Mali face high risks during pregnancy and childbirth, and about one in 19 die from pregnancy-related causes, the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights reported last Wednesday. A third of deaths among women aged 15-49 were due to complications resulting from pregnancy and childbirth, according to the institution.
Government troops in Cote d’Ivoire reported fresh fighting in the west of the country on Sunday, as efforts continued to persuade President Laurent Gbagbo and his rivals to implement a peace accord agreed in France last month.
Related Link:
* Death squads sow terror
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=37&o=15740
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said last Friday he preferred a policy of ‘constructive engagement’ and effective diplomacy, rather than ‘antagonism’ towards Zimbabwe. Obasanjo was speaking in the South African capital, Pretoria, after talks with President Thabo Mbeki on the first day of a two-day state visit.
More than one million people in Zimbabwe's urban areas are facing starvation as the food situation in the country continues to deteriorate. This brings to seven million the number of people in need of humanitarian aid according to the latest United Nations food situation report.
Public Enterprise Minister Jeff Radebe and his director general said on Saturday they were "outraged" at media reports blaming them for the bungled privatisation of Transnet's production house to an allegedly ANC-linked company.
As years of conflict and civil unrest continue to weaken the health sector in West Africa, the World Health Organisation has called for immediate donor support in order to avoid a total break down of the region's systems.
Sudanese authorities confiscated the Saturday edition of one of Sudan's oldest political daily newspapers, its editor said on Sunday. "We do not know why the paper was confiscated," Al-Sahafa editor Nur Elden Maddani told reporters.
Ugandan public primary schools will now offer free education to all children of schooling age, instead of just four per family, President Yoweri Museveni announced here last Friday. Museveni told journalists at the State House here that government would pay school dues for 6,57 million children in its schools.
Islamic sharia law is making inroads into the predominantly Christian south of Nigeria at a time when religion is expected to be a crucial issue in looming general elections.
An offensive by government-backed southern militias in the Western Upper Nile oilfields of southern Sudan during the first month of 2003 presented the gravest threat to the peace process since its revitalisation in mid-2002. A strengthened cessation of hostilities agreement was eventually signed on 4 February and a memorandum of understanding codifying points of agreement on outstanding issues of power and wealth sharing was signed two days later. However the fighting raises serious questions about the government's commitment to peace, says the International Crisis Group.
PROMPT, a UK based charity working in partnership with The Mifumi Project and The Nagongera Women's Guild in Tororo, Eastern Uganda, has established a pilot project with funds from Comic Relief, which is one of the first of its kind in Uganda. The purpose of the project is to promote protection for and support the needs of women experiencing domestic violence, by putting in place a number of policy, procedural and practical measures.
We are social movements that are fighting all around the world against neo-liberal globalization, war, racism, capitalism, poverty, patriarchy and all the forms of economical, ethnical, social, political, cultural, sexual and gender discriminations and exclusions. We are all fighting for social justice, citizenship, participatory democracy, universal rights and for the right of peoples to decide their own future.
In the last few years, after several decades in which development aid has had only a minimal impact, we have witnessed the emergence of a number of local development organisations, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that endeavour to support them. Unfortunately, this process has not been accompanied by the necessary capacity-building. People and Change: Exploring Capacity-Building in NGOs (2002) is based on the author's personal experience in Southern and East Africa, but appears equally applicable to other regions, including West Africa. This new book will therefore undoubtedly prove an excellent reference work for all those involved in capacity-building, whether as service-providers, beneficiaries or cooperation and donor agencies.
Mpumalanga's controversial health minister, Sibongile Manana, has tried once again to evict the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project from two of the province's hospitals. Manana and Grip - which provides free counselling, health care and anti-Aids drugs to rape victims in the province - have been at loggerheads since October 2000, when she lambasted Grip for providing the drugs to rape survivors.
Hundreds of foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers, were beaten and jailed during two nights of racially-motivated arrests in Cairo, Human Rights Watch says. The threat of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and racially-based harassment continues to hang over many asylum-seekers and refugees in Egypt, says the organisation.
On February 14, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will embark on a march for access to HIV/AIDS treatment. TAC says if government fails to sign a national treatment and prevention plan that includes the use of anti-retroviral therapy, then they will be forced to embark on a national and international campaign of civil disobedience against the South African government. The link provided below contains a variety of background information and documents distributed by Africa Action dealing with issues relating to treatment access.
Journalists of the Ethiopian free press, publishers and media professionals have issued a joint statement in protest against a new draft press law.
Uganda has agreed to withdraw its troops from Ituri Province, in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is after the United Nations warned that Uganda and Rwanda had begun fresh deployments of troops near Bunia, in Ituri Province, despite pulling out most of their soldiers late last year under a peace agreement.
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) will walk against violence on Valentines Day, 14th February 2003, from 12 Noon to 12:45. The meeting place is Bulawayo City Hall Car Park. Further details are to be provided on Harare, Gweru, Mutare, London and Johannesburg.
Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi, has said he has nothing to lose by giving up his chairmanship of the Commission. This follows a proposed ammendment to the ICPC Act by federal legislators.
Chief Secretary Marten Lumbanga has claimed it is untrue that corruption was on the increase. Speaking at the closing of a one-day conference on 'Good Governance' at the Courtyard Hotel, Dar es Salaam, he said the corruption index in Tanzania had fallen from 81 points to 71, according to Transparency International.
Justice came of age in spectacular fashion in New York last week when women bagged six of the top seven judicial seats on the new International Criminal Court. Intensive lobbying by a women's rights group saw female candidates dominate early rounds of voting for judges on what will be the world's first permanent war crimes court.
While many African countries have made impressive strides in strengthening democracy and human rights within their own borders, there remains a serious gap in their support of democracy as a part of their foreign policy. This is the conclusion of Defending Democracy: A Global Survey of Foreign Policy Trends 1992-2002, recently published by the Democracy Coalition Project, a research and advocacy nongovernmental organisation involved in democracy promotion around the world. In addition to documenting an increase in support for democratic norms and processes internally, the survey established an upward trend in African countries' willingness to back international efforts that promote such institutions. However, serious problems remain. Recent developments such as those surrounding the flawed elections in Zimbabwe demonstrate enduring tensions between democracy promotion and the long-standing principles of non-intervention and solidarity that have traditionally governed Africa's interstate relations.
There was an "overall sense" from civil society that Nepad had gone for what was politically winnable in current terms, according to Neville Gabriel, a senior official within the Justice and Peace department of the Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference, who was speaking at a Southern African Regional Poverty Network panel discussion on the decision by the UN General Assembly to make Nepad the framework for its relations with Africa. Gabriel said civil society would like to see a far more direct approach by Nepad to poverty reduction in Africa, noting that Nepad could only be seen to achieve its goals if African communities believed that it was delivering effectively at the community level. Other civil society concerns included debt cancellation and the extent of Africa's integration into the global economic order.
Political analysts have long believed that sustaining democratic government in a poor society is harder than in a relatively wealthy one. This is a sobering thought for all those committed to democracy in Africa. Precisely why poverty undermines democracy, however, is much less clear. Perhaps poor people have far less time to devote to political participation. Or, given the imperative to satisfy basic survival, people may sacrifice "higher order" needs like self-government, freedom and equality, says an Afrobarometer Briefing Paper.
Gencor has undertaken to pay out more than R460-million to compensate sufferers of asbestos-related diseases. This money will go into a trust fund to pay for treatment and to compensate families who lose breadwinners. But the bill for cleaning up the asbestos mines remains unpaid, and in villages in large parts of the Northern Cape and Limpopo people live in buildings made of asbestos and drive on asbestos roads, while children play on dumps of asbestos fibre.
A major human tragedy is in the making in the Liberian capital Monrovia, where thousands are seeking refuge after fleeing the conflict between government and rebel forces.
Over the last 40 years, the United States has bombed Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Yugoslavia. Millions worldwide will take to the streets on Saturday, February 15, 2003 in a coordinated anti-war protest to stop the next bombing: a planned war against Iraq. Read commentaries from Ali, Chomsky, Fisk, Monbiot and others by clicking on the links provided or browse through the selected background links, documents, news articles, web sites and poetry, before adding your name to any one or all of a number of petitions against the war.
We're looking for an experienced and motivated individual to represent Christian Aid in Burundi. With responsibility for Christian Aid's Burundi programme, you will manage the staff and field office, develop Christian Aid's policy and programme, and contribute to the strategic planning of the wider team.
The job includes devising, in collaboration with the members of ICG's Central Africa team and the Africa Program Co-Director, a detailed schedule of field research and writing tasks to be carried out; Conducting field research into prevailing security, social, political and economic conditions in Central Africa and; Analysing specific issues linked to the political stability, economic regeneration and the prevention of further conflict.
Amnesty International is a worldwide organization campaigning on human rights issues. The International Secretariat in London is the movements centre for international research, campaign action and policy making. It employs over 400 staff across international, regional and resource programs. As part of an extensive change process the International Secretariat has been reorganized and the management system is being restructured to strengthen leadership, delivery and accountability of all staff. To this end, Amnesty International wishes to appoint two new Senior Directors, who together with the Secretary General and the Executive Deputy Secretary General will form the senior leadership team.
The Municipal Services Project (MSP) is looking for an experienced Project Coordinator to manage research and administrative activities in the second phase of the project. This is a three-year contract position from March 2003 to March 2006. The Coordinator will ideally be based in Cape Town at the International Labour Research and Information Group Trust (ILRIG) offices, affiliated with the University of Cape Town, although candidates located in Johannesburg or Durban will be considered.
The Senegalese who saw the sculptor Moustapha Dimé emerge, grow, and die, or the Burkinabè who look on as the painter Ferdinand Nonkouni develops should logically be the people who love and understand these artists' output the best. However, when you take a closer look at recent art history in Africa, you realise that things are neither as simple nor as logical as one might think, no matter what the artistic field. During colonialism, the African poets and novelists who claimed to represent their subjugated compatriots as they dealt "pestle blows" to denounce the "cruel towns" and propose "myths that galvanise", were only read and appreciated by the elites whose social and political mores they attacked. After the "rains of independence", the dialogue of the deaf continued between black writers and their peoples who remained illiterate in the languages and art forms in which they conveyed their thoughts and moods.
In an era of unprecedented global wealth, millions of children across the world are facing a health crisis. Although the international community has set challenging targets for reducing child mortality and childhood diseases, in many of the world's countries the situation is getting worse not better. This report examines the global policy context behind the child health crisis. In particular, it looks at the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the World Trade Organisation's drive to increase international trade in services such as water and health care.
Patrick Bond is evidently a very angry man, but uncontrolled anger makes bad journalism and can harm the cause he is so passionate about (Pambazuka News 98). By airing all sorts of negative judgments and comments, many of them personal, he has made his article read like a tirade that alienates most of whom he hopes to appeal to. Two kinds of people enjoy a tirade: one is the few who are as passionately attached to the rager's cause and who also share the rager's particular set of antipathies and prejudices. This is a small audience, and one which does not need winning over. The other kind of people get fun out of witnessing the rager rapidly digging his own grave and making a fool of himself, and is sure to include all those he evidently considers as enemies. The more merciful readers feel embarrassed and simply stop reading. I presume Patrick wants to be read, to win others to support his cause, and not to be enjoyed as a foolish spectacle.
Better then to let facts speak for themselves (and be careful not to select facts to suit your cause: it may work in the short term, with the uninformed reader, but in the long term harms your credibility); and distinguish between facts, opinions, judgments, speculations and assumptions about people's motives (the last three belong to gossip not journalism).
There is more than enough objective evidence that Africa is being cheated left right and centre; our own hearts tell us how to react to these abuses, without the need to be lectured to about what our response should be. And it is counterproductive to resort to unethical rhetoric, which does no credit to the writer or to the publication which agrees to print his words.
Ben Kobus
The course will introduce the international field of human rights education (HRE), including presentations of programming approaches, teaching and learning resources, and related theory. The course is intended for educators and trainers working in both the formal and non-formal sectors. Participants will be assisted in the development of a curriculum, training, or planning to use these skills to further their organisation's advocacy efforts.
In association with the Government of the Republic of Senegal and ENDA TM, we shall host our 4th International Conference & Exhibition on Traditional Medicine under the theme: "Traditional Healing & HIV/AIDS" at Hotel Meridien President, Dakar, Senegal, West Africa.
This unique two-week course aims to standardise, consolidate and strengthen the institution of election observation in Africa. Through this we attempt to contribute to a credible and genuine assessment of elections in Africa. The course will also deal with problematic issues such as cultural sensitivities on the continent. We are confident that this course will contribute to a culture where aspects such as democracy, civil society and human rights and a respect thereof form the basis of African societies.
This course is designed to meet the skills development needs of staff from human rights and development NGOs, government agencies, the judiciary, and other institutions with responsibility for information and documentation functions in Nigeria.
ERC-L is a monthly e-mail newsletter about new resources for human rights education and training on the web site of Human Rights Education Associates (HREA). HREA's Resource Centre consists of: a Library; a Forums section with various discussion lists related to human rights and human rights education; a Human Rights Education Links section; and a Databases section. To subscribe to ERC-L send an e-mail to: [email protected] with the following message: subscribe erc-l. Archives of previous newsletters can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/erc-l/markup/maillist.php
UNESCO in collaboration with AMARC Africa is organising a pan-African symposium on Community Multimedia Centres from 12-17 June 2003 in Dakar, Senegal. The aim of this meeting is to find out more about how community radio stations across Africa are using ICTs in order to forge a strategy for larger-scale CMC development in Africa.
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is a network of well over 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) advocating for a fair, effective and independent International Criminal Court (ICC). If you are interested in keeping abreast of day-to-day developments pertaining to the ICC, you are invited to subscribe to the email list, [email protected]. To subscribe simply email [email protected].
Drillbits & Tailings is a monthly mining, oil, and gas update published by Project Underground. It is available online in English and Spanish. Back-issues are archived on the web site www.moles.org. To subscribe, send a BLANK EMAIL to: [email protected]
How can international NGOs (INGOs) use networking, learning and information systems to increase their development impact? What is the state of their systems for accessing and processing information? How could they become more successful in sharing and learning information?
Part technology, part academia, Wikipedia is taking the open source idea to new levels with an online, collaborative encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute. (from the Tectonic Newsletter: email [email protected])
Disturbed by the negative impact of the increasing wave of cyber crime on the image of the country, the Nigerian Government says it will put legislation in place to deter the culprits. Gabriel Ajayi, Director-General of the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) who disclosed this, said the government is drawing up a comprehensive plan that would make cyber crime on the internet unattractive to the perpetrators, reports http://www.balancingact-africa.com.
A new online Zimbabwean publication has launched, reports http://www.balancingact-africa.com. The Zimbabwe Online Messenger is comprised of voluntary employees that also include professionals in journalism as well as editors. The purpose of the on-line paper is to keep Zimbabweans living abroad informed about events taking place in Zimbabwe. The on-line paper also provides links to other Zimbabwean newspapers.
Trials of a potential Aids vaccine for Africa have begun with human volunteers in Uganda, one of the worst hit countries on the continent. The vaccine is specifically designed to combat the A strain of the HIV virus, which is the type prevalent in east Africa.
Thirty-eight people in the Republic of Congo have died in a suspected outbreak of the deadly ebola virus, the country's health ministry said late on Tuesday.
Calling Eritrea the number one jailer of journalists in Africa, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) delivered more than 600 petitions last week to the Eritrean government urging authorities to release journalist Isaias Afewerki and 17 other colleagues being secretly held across the country.
Press-freedom conditions in Tunisia were under the spotlight last week as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on Tunisian authorities to release two journalists from prison.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) aims to protect wild flora and fauna from threats posed by international trade. A paper from the Overseas Development Institute looks at the scope for the parties to CITES to commit themselves to linking conservation initiatives with measures to address rural poverty. It argues that it is time to give teeth to the belated, and still largely rhetorical, recognition that international conservationist goals must go hand in hand with a commitment to poverty reduction.
Every day, 1000 people in South Africa die of HIV/AIDS because they cannot afford essential treatment. This is because the multinational pharmaceutical companies are keeping the prices of their drugs artificially high. Please sign ACTSA's petition demanding that GlaxoSmithKline, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, puts lives before profits.
It is a great honour for us to take the field today to play for Zimbabwe in the World Cup. We feel privileged and proud to have been able to represent our country. We are however deeply distressed about what is taking place in Zimbabwe in the midst of the World Cup and do not feel that we can take the field without indicating our feelings in a dignified manner and in keeping with the spirit of cricket. We cannot in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact that millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed. We are aware that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans may even die in the coming months through a combination of starvation, poverty and Aids. We are aware that many people have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their opinions about what is happening in the country. We have heard a torrent of racist hate speech directed at minority groups. We are aware that thousands of Zimbabweans are routinely denied their right to freedom of expression.
On the eve of the anniversary of the entry into force of an international treaty banning child soldiers, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers warned that the problem of child soldiers, far from being solved, is still prevalent. "Child soldiers continue to be abused as foot soldiers, porters, look-outs and sexual slaves - the problem is not decreasing but, with each new conflict, children are at risk of being drawn into the fighting," said Casey Kelso, Coordinator of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
A journalist has told the BBC his stay in a notorious Liberian prison was like being in a torture camp. Hassan Bility said that during his detention he was electrocuted, his penis was attached to electrodes, he was blindfolded and beaten.
Every Monday morning, patients infected with the AIDS virus come to the red-brick clinic in this impoverished community of dilapidated shacks. In the waiting room, babies wail, nurses hustle and some young women fidget on wooden benches as their earrings dangle and their chipped pink toenails gleam. The clinic looks like one of the hundreds of medical centers overwhelmed by South Africa's AIDS epidemic. Yet there is little talk of depression or dying here.
Do we understand enough about the impact of demographic change on natural resources management (NRM), farm investment and household income strategies in semi-arid areas? Is eco-disaster around the corner, or does land scarcity encourage investment in productivity-enhancing and land-conserving technologies? How should policy initiatives combine poverty reduction with environmental improvement? These questions were raised by a study of Machakos District in Kenya from 1930 to1990. They have now been tested further in four countries – Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya – in research led by Drylands Research UK and carried out with in-country research teams.
FDI is not a magic bullet for development in the SADC, says research from the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of African Economies and the London School of Economics. The research warns that the developmental benefits of capital flows are not automatic and that mechanisms are needed to ensure the equitable distribution of the expected benefits of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
UK International Development minister Clare Short has warned the oil industry there is the risk of more Brent Spar-style consumer boycotts if companies fail to join a global drive to stamp out corruption in the developing world by disclosing the payments they make to governments. Oil companies are meeting in London this week to discuss a British plan intended to promote more transparency in the industry.
The fraud and corruption trial of former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni and businessman Michael Woerfel appears set to get under way. A possible settlement deal between Yengeni and the state has not materialised.
The man convicted of being the leading figure behind the murder of Mozambique's prominent journalist Carlos Cardoso now declares that it was not the President's son that had ordered the assassination.
Research conducted by the Centre for Social Research at the University of Malawi suggests that 81.5% in the ministry of Labour and Vocational Training were found to be willing to go for voluntary counseling and testing (VCT). The ministry has commended women within the ministry for taking a leading role in the fight against HIV/AIDS in their on-going HIV/AIDS Workplace Programme.
This article examines urban governance in the framework of sustainable urban development, and agrees with most analyses that sustainable settlements embrace social, ecological and economic dimensions. The discussion stresses that a form of governance that neglects any of these components cannot attain sustainability. It argues that, in Harare, sustainability hinges very much on the role of the governance system, especially as it relates to urban poverty and the day-to-day survival of the urban poor. It is this role of urban governance that eventually manifests itself in the state of society, economy and the environment.
Three media workers, two of them who work for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, were arrested on 7 February in Zimbabwe while covering a demonstration at the Nigerian High Commission.
A famine early warning agency has warned that southern Mozambique faces yet another poor harvest this year, which was likely to lead to a "dramatic increase" in food insecurity. In a report based on field assessments and analysis of satellite imagery, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network said that insufficient and erratic rains over the last three months has resulted in extremely poor harvest prospects throughout southern Mozambique, and in parts of the central region.
A Pan-African workshop focused on using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the education systems in Africa will be held in Gaborone from 28 April to 2 May 2003. An estimated 250 participants will be participating.
The phenomenon of street children is nothing new. As many as 30,000 children were living on the streets of London in the 1850's, for example. In comparison, it's a relatively recent problem for South Africa, but with numbers steadily rising and the HIV epidemic set to make things worse, it is becoming a pressing issue.
Asserting that tens of millions of urban children around the world are living in poverty and life-threatening environments, UNICEF says that municipal authorities need to place the best interest of the child at the forefront of their decision-making. At the launch of the report, "Poverty and Exclusion among Urban Children", released by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre (IRC), UNICEF Deputy Director Kul Gautam stated: "The tens of millions of urban children who are denied basic social services - such as education and health care - are living proof that the world has systematically failed to protect them."
We are so proud of your statements on behalf of PLWHA in Africa. We saw you on television before the G8 meeting in Canada last summer and lately we heard you on the BBC. We live in Nigeria but our roots are in Canada (Toronto). We belong to the Congregation of Our Lady's Missionaries but don't let that throw you. We have been working since 1991 in the rural part of Benue State, Nigeria, setting up programs for people infected with HIV.
You met some of our people when you visited Benue State in 2002 or late 2001. They met you on the road coming from Alaide to Government House and you invited them back to Government House for a discussion.
We encourage you to continue to fight for antiretroviral drugs for those infected although I suspect you need no encouragement. You give hope to people like us and to the Nigerians we work with in our programs. You are so articulate, passionate and sincere in your presentations. I applaud you whenever I hear you speak. You have unique and wonderful gifts, Stephen. Thank you for using them for Africa, the forgotten continent.
Suzanne Marshall, Nigeria (reposted from AF-AIDS: [email][email protected])
The Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising are pleased to announce a variety of Workshops & training courses to be held during February and March. Click on the link below for course information and contact details.
Political violence has characterised the run up to the parliamentary by-election to be held in Kuwadzana over the weekend of 29 - 30 March 2003. The imposition of an unofficial curfew by ZANU PF supporters in Kuwadzana, following the death of ZANU PF member, Tonderai Mangwiro, in a petrol bombing, has stepped up organised violence and torture in the area.
Police in Bindura have arrested Itai Masotcha Zimunya, the Zimbabwe National Student’s Union vice president. He was arrested in Bindura where he had gone to organise for mass action.
The Voice of America has launched a new radio program for Zimbabwe called Studio 7. The program is broadcast Monday to Friday from 7:30 to 8:00pm. Zimbabweans can listen to Studio 7 on medium wave at 909am or short-wave at 13600 or 17895. Studio 7 features balanced reporting on Zimbabwe and the region, as well as world and U.S. news. Sports, music, culture and health features are also part of Studio 7’s coverage of news, information and entertainment for Zimbabwe.
On average, the morals of IT professionals who work for an organisation with a code of ethics are significantly higher than professionals working for companies that do not have a code. Communication and enforcement of a code of ethics is essential in raising public awareness of the code and in minimizing unethical behaviour.
In a recent diplomatic dance to confront those governments and armed groups using child soldiers, the United Nations took both a firm step forward and a small side step. The challenge to act came in 2001 when the UN Security Council, led by France, adopted a ground-breaking initiative to compile a list of those using or recruiting children as soldiers in armed conflicts on its agenda. Non-governmental organisations campaigning against the use of child soldiers welcomed this landmark resolution.
The Zimbabwe National Student’s Union fight for peace and human rights in Zimbabwe has received international recognition. The organisation has been awarded the Student Peace Prize 2003 by the International Student Festival in Trondheim. The ISFiT awards the Peace Price once every two years to a student or a student organisation that has made a particular effort for democracy and human rights.
The South African government should urgently implement outstanding recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), say Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in a briefing paper. "President Thabo Mbeki should use the opening of the 2003 parliamentary session to announce a program of reparations for victims and to renounce any possibility of a further amnesty," the organisations urged.
The usage of the Internet - which has been described as a possible engine for economic growth - is still a ‘mountain to climb’ in many African countries. According to a report published by Africa Online, of the 770 million people in Africa, one in every 150, or approximately 5.5 million people in total, now uses the Internet.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has denounced the seizure of an edition of the Arabic-language daily "As-Sahafa" on February 8. "We denounce the policy of constant harassment against opposition newspapers," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
After almost a decade in exile, two of Burundi's key rebel leaders are due to return to the country following the signing of the ceasefire agreement last year. Analysts say this will help the peace process in Burundi.
Large foreign ships are harassing and intimidating Somali fishermen around the southern coastal towns of Marka and Barawe, according to local fishermen, who fear the ships are destroying the livelihood of Somali fishermen and their families.
The World Food Programme (WFP), in partnership with World Vision, has launched a major school-feeding programme in the northern Burundi province of Karuzi, thereby boosting the chances of higher school attendance rates among otherwise hungry pupils.
Imagine being torn from your family and your home by a foreign invasion. Imagine living in a refugee camp in one of the harshest desert environments on earth. Imagine having your time in exile extended to an entire generation due to political manipulation by the invader and the ineffectiveness of the political and peacekeeping arms of the United Nations. Imagine, finally, enduring this situation with precious little solidarity and attention from the wider world. This, in summary, is the plight of the Saharawis of Western Sahara, one of the world’s forgotten people, begins a report from Refugees International.
In an effort to better understand and improve the status and quality of life of women in the Republic of Congo, the government has begun the compilation of data on violence against women country-wide.
Refugees International (RI) is to send a mission to West Africa to identify humanitarian assistance and protection needs of Ivoirian refugees, Liberian refugees, and nationals of other countries displaced by conflict in Cote d'Ivoire, RI reported on Monday.
Malawi on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of two senior government officials accused of obstructing investigations into the sale of the country's strategic maize reserves which added to the country's food crisis.
Controversy has erupted over President Levy Mwanawasa's decision to appoint key opposition members of parliament (MPs) to his cabinet, a move that critics say is a breach of Zambian law and designed to weaken his opponents.
President Levy Mwanawasa has called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not to force Zambia to complete the privatisation of key public firms, the state-run Times of Zambia reported on Tuesday.
The head of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has criticised the international community for often “undermining national development efforts”. Kingsley Amoako called on rich nations to “revisit their policies on aid, trade and debt” in order to reinforce their billion dollar development aid packages.
Tens of thousands of Eritreans are reapplying for refugee status in Sudan, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
Civilians in Western Upper Nile (Wahdah State), southern Sudan, including women and children, have been targeted by the Government of Sudan and allied militia groups in a series of attacks since the new year, a new report has said. A preliminary report issued on Sunday in Khartoum by the independent Civilian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT) stated that the attacks had occurred in villages around Mayom, Mankien, Tam and Leel.
Separatists in Angola's northern Cabinda province on Tuesday confirmed reports there have been "exploratory" talks with the government over the future of the oil-rich enclave.
Britain has given Shs 1.5bn (£600,000) to boost education in Uganda through the Commonwealth Education Fund. The fund was started in 2002 by the British government to help poor countries develop their education systems. Seventeen Commonwealth countries, including Uganda, are to benefit from the initial fund of £10m.
THE French government has released a 1.5million euros grant to the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) for the preservation of the Zambezi River resource and promotion of tourism in the area.
According to the Daily Dispatch, Steve Heath has embarked on a month-long journey from Cape Town to KwaZulu -Natal to raise funds for the Bobbi Bear Foundation. Bobbi Bear is a national charity for abused children. Steve is pushing a 85kg trolley which carries a tent, food, fishing rods and clothes as well as a South African flag and a red teddy bear. The Bobbi Bear Foundation is hoping to raise R500 000 from Steve's long journey.
The Daily Dispatch reports that the Eskom Development Foundation has donated 10 industrial sewing machines for the Happy Home Centre for Disabled Children in the Eastern Cape. The Foundation is providing a helping hand to the Centre for the second time after it realised the significant impact of a first donation it made in 2001.
A school founded in a shearing shed seven years ago moved to brand new buildings last week, thanks to the work of the Vusisizwe Trust and the AngloGold Fund. Since 1990 the trust has funded and managed the construction of 1051 classrooms, administration facilities and toilets at 56 Eastern Cape schools at a cost of R96,4 million.
In November 2001, WTO members at a ministerial conference in Doha signed up to a 'Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health' which explicitly endorses the right of poorer countries to issue compulsory licences for the manufacture of patent-protected drugs in the face of a threat to public health. Also at the Doha conference, the TRIPS Council was told to find out, by the end of 2002, how a country can get access to generic drugs if it cannot manufacture them itself. At the end of November, talks on this question broke down, primarily because of the unbridgeable gap between the positions of the United States and the developing countries. The Doha 'Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health' calls for the Agreement to be interpreted in a way that promotes progress towards the goal of 'medicines for all'. It remains to be hoped that the industrialised nations will take this call to heart and heed it more fully in future negotiations within the TRIPS Council.