PAMBAZUKA NEWS 62
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 62
THE 31st General Assembly of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) ended in Warri, Delta State, last weekend with broadcasters showing great concerns for the coming elections.
NICRO, a leading social service organization working in the field of crime prevention and restorative justice through development, is looking for a Programme MAnager and a Victim Support Worker.
Learn How to develop and implement strategies in areas such as fund raising, income generation, volunteer recruitment, financial management, cross sector partnerships and media engagement.
Following the highly successful International Conference on 'TAX AND THE NON-PROFIT SECTOR' in March 2001, the Non Profit Partnership will hold a national conference on the enabling environment in March 2003.
Ready for the WSSD? Enroll in P&DM's Globalisation & Environment Executive Course.
The University of the Witwatersrand's Graduate School of Public and Development offers short courses for government and non-government officials, to provide cutting-edge information about public and development issues.
RAU University offers a two week intensive study and completion of assignments leading to a certificate, recorded at SAQA, worth a quarter of an MA.
The Foundation for Human Rights is looking for a Project Officer, to be based in Pretoria.
The Community Development Resource Association (CDRA) is offering several five-day courses for organisational, programme and project leaders or managers of development organisations.
Gun Free South Africa is looking for a person who has a passion for peace and against violence; who does not own a gun and is committed to remaining gun free at home and at work.
JEP believes that young people have the inherent right to contribute to and be nurtured by South African society, which recognises and responds to the full range of needs and gifts of young women and men. The JEP is seeking a Training Co-ordinator.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans, including a 45-year-old blind man, have sought refuge in neighbouring countries after torture and death threats by war veterans and Zanu PF youths. The victims have fled to refugee camps in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Namibia.
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Thursday awarded its first batch of grants - worth $378 million - to fight the world's deadliest diseases in 31 countries.
Under the proposed media law, a vendor (in, say, Nyamira District) will have to establish (heaven knows how) that the publisher in Nairobi has, on that morning, posted two copies of the newspaper to the registrar before selling the newspaper or risk breaking the law and getting jailed or fined.
The value of the Border Community Chest in helping deserving organisations throughout its region was illustrated again on Tuesday when the distribution committee decided to make annual grants for 2002-3 of just under R200 000. It was agreed to allot R135 000 to organisations and R60 000 to food distribution.
Professor Georges Nzongola Ntalaja is an academic from war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Until recently he was the UNDP Senior Special Adviser for Governance in Abuja. The articulate professor, in this interview with Musa Aliyu and Jibril Abubakar, spoke his mind on the peace initiatives in Congo, the roles played by former President Laurent Kabila in concert with Rwanda and Uganda in creating the crisis, Nigeria's leadership role, the UN's show of less attention and more.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $1.8 million to advance work it supports in three aspects of international peace and security: the development of cooperative security methods; efforts to limit the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and assisting in the development of science, technology, and security specialists.
Ethiopia has been awarded more than US $7 million as part of the Global Fund to tackle diseases, backed by computer billionaire Bill Gates. The award is part of a multi-million dollar package announced in New York recently, and which gives a large proportion of the money to African countries.
Adultery, especially when committed by an 'older' woman cannot be condoned, said presiding Lusaka Boma local court justice Sainet Chitambo as he dismissed a 31-year-old woman's claim for compensation for prostitution remarks.
The V-Day is global movement set to raise funds and awareness to stop sexual violence that is being perpetrated against women and girls the world over. It is a concerted efforts to fight against the rape of women and girls, against incest, battery, female circumcision and sexual slavery.
The National Portfolio Committee on Health in Parliament, and the South African Gender-based Violence and Health Initiative, will jointly hold hearings in Parliament on Gender-Based Violence and the Health Sector on June 4 to 5, 2002.
Southern African journalists now have access to a single authoritative database on HIV/AIDS with the launch of the SAfAIDS's media information pack in both English and Portuguese.
Three journalists charged with violating Zimbabwe's new media law by reporting false information have been released by a court in Harare.
The controversial Media Commission Bill whose presentation was postponed a couple of times before, is expected to be finally tabled for debate before week ending May 3rd by honourable members at the National Assembly.
PRIME Minister Hage Geingob wants the Namibian media to help resurrect the N$3,3 billion Epupa hydropower plant plan, which he says has been "stalemated" due to opposition from environmentalists and the international media. Geingob made the appeal after visiting the Maguga Dam, a joint South African-Swaziland hydropower plant at Piggs Peak in northern Swaziland, during his three-day official visit to Swaziland.
CONTROVERSY surrounds the impending closure of Joy TV, with some industry sources describing it as a paranoid move by ZBC aimed at silencing potentially dissenting views.
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The National Assembly is yet to work on the controversial Media Commission Bill that has raised concerned from media practitioners.
The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has dismissed "as a joke" the power-sharing agreement signed on 19 April between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government, the rebel Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) and members of the unarmed opposition and civil society at the end of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD), the BBC reported.
The Eritrean government is to demobilise 5,000 soldiers this week as part of a pilot project, the head of the National Commission for Demobilisation (NCD) said.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights on Friday narrowly adopted a resolution expressing deep concern over the human rights situation in Sudan. The resolution - adopted by a vote of 25 in favour and 24 opposed, with four abstentions - expressed deep concern at the negative role of undisciplined militias armed by the Sudanese government and of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the use of children as soldiers, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, torture, and summary and arbitrary executions.
Nigeria is to receive more than US $1 billion in an out-of-court settlement of a case against relatives and associates of its former president, the late Sani Abacha, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) reported on Wednesday, in Geneva. US $535 million is to be sent back from Switzerland while the rest will come from other countries.
Power cuts blamed by Cameroon's electricity utility on a shortage of water in its hydropower dams have affected households, businesses and key social services in the Central African country over the past four months. The effect on hospitals, in particular, has been telling, according to health professionals.
United Nations HIV/AIDS experts believe HIV/AIDS prevalence in Zanzibar is on a steady increase, but are worried that currently available data could be underestimating the actual magnitude of the pandemic in the semi-autonomous islands.
The UN refugee agency has condemned the killing on Thursday of two Rwandan children at a refugee centre in Nairobi, saying it would provide "all necessary" support for investigations being carried out by the Kenyan authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Thousands of people displaced by insecurity prompted by a joint Ugandan-Sudanese military operation against the (Ugandan) rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, have arrived in the government stronghold of Juba, according to aid officials.
Serious military engagements are occurring between government of Sudan forces and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in western Upper Nile (or Unity/Wahdah State) and northern Bahr al-Ghazal, in the south of the country, according to humanitarian sources.
Two years after the onset of a devastating drought, Kenya is moving out of emergency and into a recovery phase, though there are still pockets that continue to feel the stresses of drought, especially in pastoralist areas, according to the latest UN donor alert for the country.
A recent Oxfam report says that some five million people have died from violent conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa in the last decade, including about 800,000 people in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and 2.5 million in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 1998.
The ruling on Eritrea's border with Ethiopia, announced earlier this month, is likely to have an impact on crucial humanitarian issues in Eritrea such as reintegration and refugee repatriation.
The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa is all too evident. Millions have died, their children orphaned and entire communities destroyed. But it is the crippling effect of AIDS on African economies that is now starting to ring alarm bells.
As much as US $2 billion of Ethiopian debt could be wiped out after the completion of the much-heralded Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), Ethiopian officials said.
Comoros Electoral Commission has declared last week's presidential poll invalid and ordered a revote.
The Basarwa hunter gatherers may have lost the first round of their court bid to remain in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, but they still have another chance to fight their removal, one of their lawyers said on Monday.
Almost 1,000 people have died from cholera in Malawi since November and about 33,000 infections have been reported up to mid-April, the national health department told IRIN on Friday.
Regional and international pressure to end Zimbabwe's bitter political conflict may result in a hasty deal that could undermine democratic principles, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned.
Women who have undergone female genital mutilation in The Gambia have a higher prevalence of bacterial and viral infections, a recent study of 1348 women aged 15-54 years found.
Rich countries have warned debt-burdened economies around the world that the era of massive IMF bailouts for bankrupt countries is over. As part of a new plan for tackling financial collapses such as the one that has crippled Argentina, this weekend's meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations agreed that the size of Fund lending to crisis-hit countries will be severely limited.
This weekend, after a week of arm-twisting and secret meetings, the US government forced the departure of Jose Bustani, director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the UK Guardian reports.
President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet have at last backed off from their controversial stance on antiretroviral drugs, with a high-powered government delegation announcing before journalists that the health department is working on a universal roll-out plan of nevirapine. In a first admission of the efficacy of the drugs, Health Minister Manto Tshabala-Msimang read from the executive's statement: "Cabinet noted that they (antiretrovirals) could help improve the conditions of people living with AIDS if administered at certain stages in the progression of the condition, in accordance with international standards."
The two rival presidents of Madagascar have signed a landmark power-sharing peace deal, late Thursday morning, in Senegal. The agreement, signed after more than 24 hours of feverish but determined African mediation, envisages a government of national reconciliation in Madagascar during a six-month democratic transition.
One out of twelve children will die before age five, almost all from preventable causes, the United Nations has announced as it released an updated version of its landmark publication on the world’s children. The child mortality rate and other statistics contained in the report lend gravity to the basic United Nations assertion that serious investment in the rights and development of children is essential to overcoming poverty.
At least 23 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas experienced protests or civil unrest last year as a result of their governments' pursuit of policies backed by the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank, according to a report released this weekend.
Calling education crucial to the reduction of global poverty, international finance ministers have approved a World Bank plan aimed at enrolling all young children in elementary school.
Activists of a campaign aimed at bankrupting the World Bank used the Bank's spring meetings in Washington last weekend to draw attention to the institution's alleged brutalising of Africa. They used the opportunity afforded by international media coverage to highlight their call for a boycott of the bonds that the World Bank issues on the private market. Sales of the AAA-rated bonds are the source of 80 per cent of the funds that the Bank uses for its programmes, according to the NGO coalition sponsoring the boycott campaign.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday dismissed a report by Human Rights Watch on extrajudicial killings by the Nigerian military in 2001, news agencies reported.
Across Africa, the Middle East crisis is provoking passionate debate bordering sometimes on angry condemnation. Both Muslim and "anti-colonial" sentiment, already stirred by the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the war in Afghanistan, have been inflamed by what is perceived to be the heavy-handed treatment of the Palestinians by Israel and uncritical support from the world's superpower, the United States. Charles Cobb Jr asks whether Africa's relationship with Washington could eventually suffer?
One year since a "Slave Ship" off the coast of West Africa brought child trafficking into the glare of the international spotlight, not enough is being done to combat the continued abuse, a leading anti-slavery campaigner charged Wednesday.
The department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has launched a countrywide corruption survey aimed at assessing the prevalence of corruption in public service delivery.
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said he intends to appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Judiciary. In his statement to the committee, Museveni said judges and magistrates were biased. He said some of the decisions by the judges were amazing.
Clare Short was caught up in a diplomatic row last night after she accused the French of being directly implicated in the massacre of millions of Tutsis in Rwanda in the Nineties. The outspoken International Development Secretary said France had 'created genocides in Africa' after allegations that the French government backed Hutu interests in the country.
Gani Fawehinmi, fiery government critic and advocate of human rights has declared that he will run for presidential office next year, and promises to investigate all past Nigerian leaders if he's elected.
A Congolese rebel commander says the country's largest rebel movement is divided over whether to join a new power-sharing government with President Joseph Kabila.
IN furtherance of its efforts to reform the Nigeria Police, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Tafa Balogun raised a 555-man anti-corruption squad. Code named "Ghost Squad", the team is charged with the responsibility of checking corruption in the force.
A R4-million national survey to fathom the extent of corruption in business and the public service is to be conducted over the next two months, the government announced on Monday.
Senior UN officials outlined the need for increased international assistance for Angola during a meeting with the Security Council on the country's humanitarian crisis. The Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, told the Security Council that the civil war in Angola has uprooted 4 million people, or one-third of the country's population.
Britain is a growing destination for an illegal logging trade worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year which is defrauding impoverished west African countries and stripping bare one of the world's most valuable and biologically rich tropical forests.
An Anti-Corruption Police Unit team has left for Washington to further investigate the Kenya Urban Transport Infrastructure Project. The head of the unit, Mr Swaleh Slim, said the team will again question Mr Gautam Sengupta, a former senior World Bank official who was the task manager for Kutip.
TOP government officials and retired public servants including the Secretary to the Federal Government, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) and retired Permanent Secretaries have literally removed the bureaucratic guards over their mouths and revealed how pubic service accountants perpetrate corruption and how the scourge can be curbed.
FRED Kamugira, the Mbarara District chairman, has refuted press reports that Mbarara is the most corrupt district in Uganda.
We ask for your and your organization's endorsement of the July 7th 2002 ATTN (AIDS Therapeutic Treatment Now) March to take place in Barcelona, Spain immediately prior to the opening ceremonies of the International AIDS Conference. If you are able to do so, please complete the endorsement information below, or respond to [email protected].
Having heard the case for the prosecution, the evidence presented by the witnesses and the verdict of the jury, and taking into account the silence of the accused who were invited to defend themselves, we the judges elected to this International People's Tribunal on Debt, declare that the following accused have been found guilty of the crimes detailed below:
President Robert Mugabe is facing new pressure from his militant war veterans as the former fighters, whose campaign of violence helped win Mugabe’s disputed re-election last month, demand that he appoints them as Cabinet ministers, provincial governors and as Zimbabwe’s ambassadors abroad.
The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, and the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Francis Deng, on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding in New York to improve UN efforts to respond to the severe crisis of internal displacement around the world, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Thursday.
Replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is briefly suppressed during acute measles, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A study of HIV-infected children living in Zambia found that HIV levels in the blood were significantly lower while the children had measles compared to HIV-infected children who did not have measles.
Contributions to the Global Fund should be equitably shared among the countries whose citizens live the most comfortable and unthreatened lives. This means that the wealthiest countries, such as the US, should contribute considerably more than they currently do. But it also means that contributions should come from the likes of Australia, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates relatively wealthy countries that have not yet contributed a penny.
Africa Malaria Day on April 25 will be marked with more optimism than recent years due to increasing awareness that the insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN) offers excellent protection against one of the world’s deadliest diseases. However, much works remains to be done.
Over the past two decades, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have undermined Africa's health through the policies they have imposed. The dependence of poor and highly indebted African countries on World Bank and IMF loans has given these institutions leverage to control economic policy-making in these countries. The policies mandated by the World Bank and IMF have forced African governments to orient their economies towards greater integration in international markets at the expense of social services and long-term development priorities. They have reduced the role of the state and cut back government expenditure.
The Angolan government and relief agencies will soon know more about the
humanitarian needs in vast areas that have not been accessible for years. It is estimated that 500,000 people are in need of assistance in the regions previously cut off from aid because of the war.
This week at the Commonwealth conference titled "Parliament and Media" where the two discussed ways of cooperation in Cape Town, minister in the presidency Essop Pahad accused the media of "selective morality" by reporting media attacks in Africa and not in Israel.
At this Media Summit, while we look at the N12 billion the Media will spend on advertising and promoting Corporate Nigeria, we should look critically at the message. It is no longer okay to ape foreign advert strategies without solving our own local problems or without a thought to improving society.
OneWorld, the online human rights and sustainable development network, has launched OneWorld Radio (www.oneworld.net/radio), a new portal offering services and features for broadcasters and NGOs.
There was bitter reaction on 24th April to the probability of Parliament passing a Bill seeking to control the media. The Statutes Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2001 went through the crucial second reading, where MPs debated its advantages and disadvantages.
Attorney-General, Amos Wako, was on 23rd April accused of harbouring mischief by re-introducing amendments to the Books and Newspapers Act contradicting his stance of encouraging the media to be self-regulating.
The second phase of a workshop on election coverage started yesterday at the Institute of Education, Tower Hill, Freetown.
A former President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Sam Van Kesselly, is calling on Government to "reopen The Journalist Newspaper to help buttress national efforts at creating the needed enabling environment for socioeconomic, political and cultural growth."
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has directed the Kibaale-based Kagadi Community Radio to stop airing controversial political views on the ethnic clashes in the district.
The global battle to fight Hiv/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis received a major boost when the US set aside $500-million for global Aids fund. The US says $300-million of it will be distributed immediately to help finance new programmes to tackle the killer disease.
The global battle to fight Hiv/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis received a major boost when the US set aside $500-million for global Aids fund. The US says $300-million of it will be distributed immediately to help finance new programmes to tackle the killer disease.
The Department for International Development has provided funding to ease Zimbabwe's woeful food shortage. The funding has made it possible for the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe to start a feeding programme in rural Zimbabwe for children whose farm worker parents have lost their jobs in Zimbabwe's land acquisitions.
Telkom Foundation's "Adopt-a-Project" initiative has helped two schools in Umlazi to go on-line. Telkom has donated 20 stand alone computers worth over R50,000, which has been split in half between the schools. The donated computers will form the nucleus of a Telkom-sponsored computer centre that will harness communications technology in a learning environment for the school pupils.
In a function attended by former president Nelson Mandela, Aventis Pharma announced that it was to contribute R150-million to a campaing agaist TB.
In an attempt to accelerate service delivery,government has set aside R2,7-million in foreign donor funds for Amatole District municipality. The funding will be used to unlock municipalities economic development opportunities.
As one of the priority areas entrusted to INSTRAW in the Outcome Document of Beijing+5, INSTRAW will be carrying out activities in this research program, which entails research into the gendered aspects of access and use of ICTs as well as its impact on women's empowerment.
The Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network has embarked on a campaign to get the government to reduce the cost of products used by women every month.
In an effort to achieve more women participation in politics, a non-governmental organisation, Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) has called on Nigerian women to initiate a nationwide campaign for the inclusion of an affirmative action clause in the Nigerian constitution.
Seventeen girls who fled their homes to escape circumcision have gone to court to block the rite.
Gender Links, in partnership with the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, will release a new resource tool kit for Southern African media trainers on mainstreaming gender in the media, "Gender in Media Training: A Southern African Tool Kit".
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tuliameni Kalomoh has expressed dismay at the silence of women's organisations as women are subjected to indignities suffered from their husbands such as constant verbal abuse, physical and psychological battering and financial blackmail.
The very recent Zimbabwe presidential elections saw an escalation of sexual and physical violence against women in many communities and in many ways in which violations against women are still a present day issue and many of the women live with them on a daily basis in the private enclosures of our homes and offices.
The Rural Action Committee of Mpumalanga Province (TRAC-MP) is seeking to recruit a dynamic and motivated person to Co-ordinate Training, Research and Organisational Development activities within the organisation.
Two challenging vacancies exist in Cape Town for Training Co-ordinators in the health sector.