Ministers of Trade of Ghana, Uganda and representatives of Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria have agreed on the need for Africa to present a common front on issues during and after the Fourth World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar.

The 60s and 70s were the age of liberation and revolution in Africa. It was the age of the late Abdulrahman Babu, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney and many others. For us in Dar es Salaam and many other areas of the world, it was a time of intellectual ferment, and insurrection of ideas.

But things have changed. Today, many academics have metamorphosed from intellectual researchers of yesterday to policy consultants of today. The truth of course is that we are neither consulted nor recommend policy. Policy is set elsewhere by those who hold the purse string while, we the local counter-parts, as we are called, mount stage shows organising national workshops of stake-holders;. No one pretends that consultancies generate knowledge, much less that the consultant is an organic intellectual. We all know, and admit it in private, that we are neither organic to anything nor intellectuals. We are simply paid juniors, euphemistically called counterparts, of Western consultants paid by the West, leaving us little time to care about the rest. In this game of euphemisms, Western paymasters are called development partners; consultancy, whose only source of scientific data is rapid rural appraisals and other consultancy reports, is called development work, which development work is dutifully executed by a Western team leader called development practitioner.

It is this amazing double-speak of imperial consultants and propagandists which has been at the heart of decimating the body of intellectual thought that provided the theoretical foundation and ideological inspiration for the age of liberation and revolution. The double-speak is aimed at three targets.

One, at rehabilitating imperialism morally by demonising Third World nationalism and delegitimising Third World states (particularly Africa) as no more than a coterie of ethnic groups out to loot poor, ignorant populations who need to be saved from their own rulers by the humanitarian interventions of the international community. Humanitarian interventions to save the Third World people from themselves, then is presented as the motif of numerous military and economic interventions by the international community from Serbia to Somalia. These interventions are not only begged for by our political leaders themselves but also justified by our intellectuals. In the post-cold war period we do not have any clashes of idea or ideological struggles but the clash of civilisations, as Samuel Huntington, the intellectual think-tank of the US state department, proclaims. The clash is supposedly between the Western civilisation and Islamic and Confucian civilisations, between the Good and Evil, between the Values of the Free World, and the prejudices of the Rest, between People and non-people.

Of course, the clash of civilisations had to be invented. How else would one justify the expanding military machine of imperialism while at the same time proclaim end of ideology after the Cold War?

The second big onslaught has been to make the ideology of human rights, and its related offshoots such as rule of law, good governance, poverty alleviation etc. Again human rights is of course not presented as an ideology but an immortal, all time truth. Its unquestioning pervasiveness and acceptance among our own intellectuals is remarkable. When I wrote my The Concept of Human Rights in Africa arguing that it was an ideology of domination and that we needed to re-conceptualise it and turn it on its head to make it an ideology of resistance, it was simply ignored and brushed aside as demagogic.

In our part of the world, human rights ideology, in short, has been pretty effective in displacing grand social theories and vision of human emancipation. Human rights discourse has succeeded in marginalising concrete analysis of our society. Human rights ideology is the ideology of the status quo, not change. Documentation of human rights abuses, although important in its own right, by itself does not help us to understand the social and political relations in our society. Given the absence of political economy context and theoretical framework, much of our writings on human rights, rule of law, constitution, etc., uncritically reiterate or assume neo-liberal precepts. Human rights is not a theoretical tool of understanding social political relations. At best it can only be a means of exposing a form of oppression and, therefore, perhaps an ideology of resistance. If not carefully handled, it cannot even serve that purpose.

The third target of imperial ideological onslaught has been the organisational expression of people’s struggles. Traditional and historically well-tested forms of organisation like parties, trade unions and mass movements are placed on the same footing as non-governmental organisations. As a matter of fact, it is the various human rights NGOs which occupy the centre stage because they are best funded by the donor community and whose importance is blown out of all proportion to their real capacity for change.

The very concept of NGO has drained the people of the organisational expression of their struggle. NGOs are supposed to be non-political, non-partisan and non-membership, formed by activists, usually from outside the social group that they are advocating for, without any constituency, accountable only to themselves and the funder. Their function, as they see it themselves, is awareness raising and advocacy in which people themselves are passive, ignorant subjects or victims, incapable of struggling for their rights. Under the demagogic precept of action not words, even well intentioned individuals in NGOs willy-nilly end up supporting the status quo because they have no theoretical tools or ideological stand to guide them. In the world of NGOs, theory and ideology are swear words. They are despised. In other words, we are told to act, not to think.

In the 60s and 70s, the radical intellectual did not make a distinction between political and civil, between nongovernmental and governmental but rather preached and practised the dictum that Politics is the concentrated form of economics and that the state is the table of contents of civil society and class struggles.

Today, the world is presented as a global village which is being inexorably villagised by the forces of globalisation. It consists of the international community and others. The composition of the international community is flexible but rogue-states are definitely not part of it. No one, we are told, has control over the processes of globalisation because it is controlled by the invisible hand of the market, which incidentally, is a very competent distributor of resources. We, in the Third World do not have much of a choice in this globalised world. The globalisation experts tell us, and our political leaders repeat it parrot-like, that globalisation offers opportunities and challenges. To be able to make use of these opportunities, among other things, we need to behave ourselves; enforce the civilisation values of freedom, individualism, good governance, and human rights. We must of course put in place an enabling environment to attract development funds by making available at no cost our state sovereignty, land, labour, minerals, water and air and space to investors. For this we need appropriate sectoral policies and the international community would always consider our applications for funds to hire consultants to draft such policies for us.

We all know that there is no community of interest in the international community; that globalisation is just another name for imperialism; that the global village embodies in it global pillage; that all cards are staked on one side in stake-holders workshops; that good governance is another name for legitimising economically despotic system, for governance is not a question of morality but a contest of power. Yet, it is amazing how this farce is re-enacted and the most we can allow ourselves is to make a few sarcastic remarks, which is good entertainment, while business continues as usual.

It needs hardly to be said that we are in the trough of the world revolution but I do not believe all is lost. The forces of progress may have been defeated but certainly not destroyed. Wherever there is oppression, there is bound to be resistance. There is a silver lining and we are already witnessing it: Seattle, Prague, Gothenburg, Genoa are dress rehearsals. As Abdulrahman Babu would have said, Comrades. Do not fritter away this opening. Use it.

Edited extract of a keynote address at the International Conference to celebrate the life of Adulrahman Mohamed Babu, Dar es Salaam, September 2001

* Issa Shivji, Professor of Law, University of Dar es Salaam

The human rights group, Amnesty International, has warned that state-sponsored killings in Zimbabwe are on the rise.

A pilot project in South Africa is testing the use of wireless technology amongst rural doctors. The project aims to use this tool to provide improved health care.

Telecentres (or whatever else you might choose to call them) sit in the middle of most efforts to close Africa's digital divide. Their critics rightly ask what they deliver in terms of of benefits for users. Those familiar with them worry about the range of technical resources required to run them. Sheena Lutges reports from the sharp end on both of these issues.

Who deserves western aid - Pakistan, producer of the Ghauri-II nuclear capable missile, left, or East African agricultural workers, right?

Background paper for a joint planning process by WHO and countries in this field. It studies lessons from the past. It illustrates different perspectives on policy-making and examines the key but changing role of government. The main roles and functions of government in health systems are reviewed and capacities to fulfil them are briefly addressed. A background paper prepared by Kimmo Leppo, Senior Adviser, Department of Health Service Provision, World Health Organization, Geneva for the Forum of Senior Policy Makers and Managers of Health Systems. World Health Organization, Geneva, 16-18 July 2001. Adobe PDF file format, (25 pages, 122 kB).

USAID is pleased to announce a Request for Applications (RFA) for an endowed fund tentatively entitled Local Initiatives for Tolerance and Stability (LIFTS) in Southeastern Europe. LIFTS will complement existing USAID programs in the region by awarding small grants to local entities to implement projects that promote peace and ethnic tolerance in the region. Activities to be supported by LIFTS will include, but are not limited to, the areas of conflict prevention and resolution and minority rights. USAID will contribute approximately $10 million denominated in Euros to LIFTS, which the partner(s) will be required to match with a contribution of at least $10 million.

The Global Partnership (GP) for NGO Studies, Education and Training is the outcome of co-operation between BRAC, the Organization of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP), Zimbabwe and the World Learning's School for International Training (SIT), Vermont, USA. It offers Postgraduate Diploma and Masters Degree program. In the past GP had students from about 30 countries from around the world.

Distance Volunteering is open to all those willing to contribute virtually through the Internet in philanthropic, humanitarian and social issues by means of links, exchange of thoughts and related information that can serve to encourage and help others in this field.

*Quality Management in International Health
*Health of Unstable Populations
*Reproductive Health Services in Resource-poor Settings
*Rational Drug Management in International Health

The Scholarship Application form for the XIV International AIDS Conference is now available on the web.

On October 15th, an on-line discussion was launched to explore Global Development Network's new global research project theme "Understanding Reform". The purpose of this
on-line discussion is to give GDN members the opportunity to provide input into the process of narrowing and specifying the scope of the project.

Giles Foden recommends ten books on the Afghanistan crisis. Zanzibar, Giles Foden's novel about the bombing of the US embassies in Africa in 1998, is published by Faber next year.

As Benjamin R. Barber makes clear in his thoughtful study, "Jihad vs. McWorld", much of the world is locked in a battle between two fundamentalisms that are equally at odds with the spirit and demands of democracy. Islamic fundamentalism and global market capitalism share more in outlook than is commonly recognized, he says. Both want to silence the voices of ordinary people and impose forms of control from above; both use media shamelessly and all too effectively to promote their ideological mission and values.

Limited sanctions should be imposed to prevent Zimbawean President Robert Mugabe thinking he has free run to intensify repression when the international community is focused on Afghanistan, say observers.

Tropical countries are losing their forests at a very high rate, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in a new issue of the "State of the World's Forests 2001," published Wednesday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will start functioning next year. For the first time in history, persons committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity will be subject to indictment, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment at the hands of a permanent court created by a multilateral treaty.

Odette Kasal Mukaj, president of the Women's section of the CDT disappeared in November in Kasaï. The security services of the Democratic Republic of Congo are thought to be responsible. Forday S.Brima and Soaman Contech, two trade unionists from Sierra Leone, were assassinated by rebel factions during a peace march. A sign outside the Fruit of the Loom in Salé, Morocco, reads "No trade unions". There is no shortage of examples of the growing difficulties faced by African trade unions seeking to carry out their activities.

Refuge invites contributions to an upcoming issue dedicated to examining the uniquely vulnerable situation of children in the context of forced displacement. Applying a human rights lens, this issue seeks to explore the challenges faced by children in countries of origin, in flight, and in countries of asylum, as well as the extent to which governments, international organizations, and non-governmental groups have risen to meet these challenges. Contributions must be received by November 15, 2001.

Britain is concerned that the Zimbabwean government has so far failed to honour its pledge made at Abuja last month to restore the rule of law.

Influential leaders of Zimbabwe's ruling party and senior intelligence officers hatched an "Idi Amin-type" plan to expel almost all white farmers from Zimbabwe by December if international efforts to resolve the land crisis failed, but the plan has apparently been abandoned.

Panellists at a discussion on media coverage of non-governmental issues and the role of the media in development said there is need for the media and NGOs to work together for a common purpose.

The Botswana government has launched its door-to-door Aids awareness and education campaign, but there are some snags.

Mozambique has asked the World Health Organisation to help the country find an adequate anti-malarial therapy to replace the well known drugs such as chloroquine to which malaria has become resistant.

Financial kickbacks and the awarding of commission could become punishable by law under a new anti-corruption bill.

Unita rebels have abducted 16 children attending mass in a Roman Catholic church
in Angola's northern Kwanza Norte province.

About 5 000 Capetonians last week marched in protest against the United States-led bombings of Afghanistan to the razor-wire-surrounded American consulate, bearing posters like "Stop the Oppression", "Stop the War" and "No Difference Hitler and Bush".

Document explores women's relationship to political parties in South Africa and Uganda. It seeks to examine processes and consequences of transitions from authoritarianism on women's political participation in representative institutions.

Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg, 23 - 25 November 2001. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (Trauma Clinic), in collaboration with Dienste in Ubersee are hosting the Healing Through Creative Arts Conference. The conference aims to create a forum, dialogue and context for the sharing of knowledge and expertise by the professional group of Arts Therapists as well as allied professionals and arts practitioners that utilize the creative arts as healing within traumatized communities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about the deterioration of press freedom in several SADC member states, including Malawi. Our research reveals an alarming pattern of harassment and intimidation of independent journalists, severe censorship, and the use of repressive laws to silence those perceived to oppose ruling parties and governments.

COSATU strongly condemns the arrest and detention of Mario Masuku, the President of Swaziland’s People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), on 4 October.

A Presidental order on the privatisation of Nigerdock may have prompted the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to redouble its efforts at meeting the October 15 deadline for the receipt of technical and financial bids on the company.

This year's World AIDS Campaign will chip away at masculine behaviours and attitudes that contribute to the spread of HIV, according to Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

More people worldwide are now displaced by natural disasters than by conflict. In the 1990s, natural catastrophes like hurricanes, floods, and fires affected more than two billion people and caused in excess of $608 billion in economic losses worldwide-a loss greater than during the previous four decades combined. But more and more of the devastation wrought by such natural disasters is "unnatural" in origin, caused by ecologically destructive practices and an increasing number of people living in harm's way, finds a new study by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental research organization.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has granted US $11.5 million dollars to Mozambique for an anti-HIV/AIDS programme, AFP reported on Tuesday.

Corruption is most often associated with business, government, or the police. But one surprising sector in which corruption flourishes all too easily is education. Experts meeting at an anticorruption conference in Prague have drawn attention to the corrosive effect that corruption in educational institutions can have on societies in transition.

The Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, a new tri-annual journal providing a forum for the sharing of critical thinking and constructive action on issues at the intersections of conflict, development, and peace, is calling for papers for its first issue. The publication endeavors to capture and examine critical peacebuilding and development topics and questions that challenge our era. Abstract Deadline: November 1, 2001; late submissions may be considered for our second issue.

As US bombs began raining on Afghanistan, it's hard to know the truth about what's happening -- and therefore impossible to judge whether the action is justified.

Fortunately as of last August, Ben Sedrine has at least temporarily left prison, thanks perhaps partly to the efforts of her many friends in Tunisia and abroad. But she is free only on bail and there are grave fears that she will be convicted and find herself back among the jangling keys and broken lives. She is guilty only of outspoken journalism and unflagging human rights activities, but these are construed by the Government of Tunisia as "defamation" and "spreading false news with the aim of disturbing public order".

The Good Electronic Health Record (GEHR), a major part of the work of the openEHR Foundation, is an evolving electronic health record architecture designed to be comprehensive, portable and medico-legally robust. It has been developed from the Good European Health Record project requirements statement and object model - the most comprehensive requirements documents ever developed for the electronic health record.

Human Rights Watch today hailed the announcement that the United Nations and its Secretary General, Kofi Annan, were awarded the 100th Nobel Peace Prize. "As UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan has been particularly forceful in highlighting the importance of human rights as an essential foundation for long-term security," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

In an effort to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Zimbabwe National AIDS Council (NAC) met AIDS organisations to set in motion a process to facilitate HIV/AIDS prevention and care by district HIV/AIDS committees throughout the country.

Rwanda's population - set to double to 16 million by 2020 at its current growth rate of 3.2 percent per annum - will present a major challenge to the government, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Donald Kaberuka has said.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has issued a call for nominations for the Gates Award for Global Health. The award comes with a $1 million honorarium and is presented annually to an organization that has made an extraordinary contribution to the improvement of health around the world.

This handbook is intended to be of use to non-governmental organisations and others who wish to address and combat racial discrimination. It provides an overview of the international and regional treaties and standards that prohibit racial discrimination. It also describes the United Nations and regional bodies that play a role in monitoring how states implement many of these human rights standards. The handbook suggests how these bodies can be approached to further the struggle against racial discrimination.

Movies are powerful tools for reaching young people with information about sexual health. Pathfinder International produced its first youth-oriented movie, Consequences, in 1988. The success of this film, which was translated into seven African languages and seen by more than 20 million people, convinced Pathfinder that an updated movie was needed to further educate African young people, an extremely vulnerable group due to high rates of unintended pregnancy and HIV infection.

Rampant drug abuse among students is to blame for the increasing incidence of strikes in schools in Uganda's Bushenyi district, according to media
reports.

Protais Zigiranyirazo, a former member of the Akazu, the inner circle of the late President of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of extermination or alternatively murder as crimes against humanity.