29 April 2004
A Weekly Electronic Newsletter For Social Justice In Africa
NOTE: To view the links that are referenced below, please copy the url and paste into your browswer.
CONTENTS:
1. Highlights from this issue,
2. Editorials,
3. Comment and Analysis,
4. Letters,
5. Pan-African Postcard,
6. Conflict and Emergencies,
7. Human
Rights,
8. Refugees and Forced Migration,
9. Women and Gender,
10. Elections
and Governance,
11. Development,
12. Corruption,
13. Health,
14. HIV/AIDS,
15. Education,
16. Social Welfare,
17. Racism and Xenophobia,
18. Environment,
19. Land and Land Rights,
20. Media and Freedom of
Expression,
21. News from the Diaspora,
22. Advocacy and Campaigns,
23. Internet and Technology,
24. eNewsletters and Mailing Lists,
25. Fundraising and Useful Resources,
26. Courses,
Seminars, and Workshops,
27. Jobs, 28. Books and Arts
1. Highlights from this issue
SELECTED HEADLINES FROM PAMBAZUKA NEWS 154
* Editorials: World Press Freedom Day: Demanding a right to expression
* Pan African Postcard: new section
* Conflicts&Emergencies: Update on the Sudan peace process
* Human Rights: Student activist arrested and beaten
* Women and Gender: To the moon and back - Women and water
* Elections and Governance: Ten years of democracy in rural South Africa
* Development: The breaking of the Bank
* HIV/AIDS: World Bank shows low credit in response to HIV/AIDS crisis
* Education: World Youth Report - the global situation of young people
* Environment: Nations agree on climate watch system
2. Editorials
SADC'S REGIONAL SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS
Laurie Nathan
In 1992 the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was established as a regional organisation with a mandate to promote economic integration, poverty alleviation, peace, security and the evolution of common political values and institutions.
There were great expectations that the demise of apartheid and the Cold War would usher in a period of sustained stability and development at national and regional levels. Yet over the following decade SADC region remained wracked by a high level of conflict that included civil wars in the DRC and Angola, as well as violence and state repression in other countries.
SADC was largely ineffectual in these situations, distinguished less by its peacemaking efforts than by its fractious internal quarrels. The formation of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security - a common security forum whose stipulated functions include the prevention and resolution of conflict - was itself bedevilled by acrimonious disputes among member states over a ten-year period. In this commentary I address three questions: what accounts for the difficulty in establishing the Organ? What are the reasons for SADC's poor record of peacemaking? And why was the analysis and prognosis of many academics and activists so flawed in the early 1990s?
Many analysts attribute the difficulty in establishing the Organ to disagreements over its status and structure or to competition and animosity between South Africa and Zimbabwe. These diagnoses are superficial and incomplete.
Three more substantial problems have prevented SADC from creating an effective security forum. First and most importantly, there is an absence of common values among member states. There are two key lines of division: between democratic and authoritarian tendencies in the domestic policies of states, and between pacific and militarist orientations in their foreign policies.
As in the case of Europe, a viable regional organisation with a political and security mandate can institutionalise the common values of its members, develop common policies and contribute to peace and stability. However, the viability of such organisations depends in the first instance on the existence of common values.
In the absence of sufficient normative congruence, states are unable to resolve or transcend their major disputes, achieve cohesion and act with common purpose in crisis situations. In the realm of political governance, there are many de jure democracies whose executives are intolerant of dissent, hardly accountable to parliament and insufficiently committed to respect for human rights and the rule of law.
According to Jonathan Moyo prior to becoming Zimbabwe's Minister of Information, "the assertion that the majority of African governments are now democratic has no empirical basis. It is true that multiparty elections are now common in Africa but this truth does not describe a fundamental development. The change is strategic, not substantive. Just look at Zambia and Malawi since the fall of Kenneth Kaunda and the late Kamuzu Banda. Zimbabwe is following suit with reckless abandon".
In 1993 SADC's Framework and Strategy document, prepared by the SADC Secretariat, called for the forging of common political values based on democratic norms, the creation of a "non-militaristic security order" and the establishment of mechanisms for conflict avoidance, management and resolution.
The document highlighted the need to address non-military sources of conflict and threats to human security, such as underdevelopment and abuse of human rights. The proposed strategies and mechanisms included a forum for mediation and arbitration; the ratification by states of key principles of international law; a non-aggression treaty and non-offensive defence doctrines; democratic civil-military relations; and reductions in military force levels and spending.
Many states did not support this anti-militarist agenda, however. Progress towards establishing a security forum was delayed over the next seven years by antagonistic and recriminatory debates around the Organ's status and structure as manifestations of underlying political and strategic differences among member states.
The second reason for the difficulty in operationalising the Organ lies in the reluctance of SADC states to surrender a measure of sovereignty to a security body that encompasses binding rules and decision-making in the sphere of high politics and the possibility of interference in domestic affairs. This reluctance derives from the political weakness of states and the absence of common values, mutual trust and a shared vision of the security body.
Third, Southern Africa is characterised by small economies, underdevelopment and weak administrative capacity, which undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of all the SADC's multilateral forums and programmes. Ten years after its formation, SADC estimated that only twenty per cent of its 470 projects met the criteria for properly integrated regional projects, the rest being essentially national projects.
In addition to its inability to prevent violent conflict, SADC does not have a record of successful peacemaking. In many intra-state conflicts it has refrained from critical comment and diplomatic engagement, treating violence and crises in governance as purely domestic affairs.
In the case of state repression and abrogation of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, on the other hand, SADC has repeatedly expressed solidarity with the government.
There are several reasons for these responses. First, SADC states are keen to avoid adversarial relations that might jeopardise regional trade and functional co-operation. Second, governments that are not fully democratic are naturally unwilling to speak out against neighbouring countries that engage in undemocratic practices. Third, Southern African states are determined to maintain a posture of unity and solidarity.
Forged in the heat of the struggles against colonialism and apartheid, this posture militates against public criticism of each other. The imperative of solidarity is greatest when foreign powers raise concerns that are perceived or can be portrayed as reflecting a 'neo-colonial' agenda. Solidarity of this kind enhances regime security at the expense of human security, masks rather than transcends the substantive disputes between states, and does not constitute a foundation for a common security forum.
Fourth, SADC's poor record of peacemaking is due to the impasse around the Organ. The absence of an agreed set of norms, strategies and procedures for addressing high-intensity conflict has contributed to collective inertia, divergent and parochial approaches by individual states, ill-conceived interventions of doubtful legality, and a confused mixture of peacemaking and peace enforcement.
Most of these problems were evident in SADC's response to the crises in Lesotho and the DRC in 1998. The dispute between member states around the DRC crisis crippled the Organ and gave rise to the notion of "two SADCs", with two camps pursuing contradictory pacific and militarist strategies.
In the early and mid-1990s a number of academics and activists were involved in efforts to establish a common security forum and were optimistic about its prospects. What mistakes did we make? The reasons might offer insights into future activities and policy recommendations.
First, we based our models of common security on the European experience without analysing adequately the nature of our own region and of its states in particular. We were strong on ideas and norms but weak on analysis. Second, we relied too much on the compelling need for a common security body and paid too little attention to the requirements for its success. Third, we overestimated the durability of the political bonds forged during the liberation struggles and underestimated the significance of the political differences between states.
Many analysts continue to make this mistake, arguing that the Organ breakdown can be overcome by states forging a political consensus on human security, democracy and respect for human rights. If states do not support these norms and values at the national level, however, they will not support them at the regional level. Regional policy on security is a product of national policies on security.
Fourth, we were preoccupied (as many analysts still are) with the architecture of security arrangements when the critical issues in fact lie elsewhere: structure follows strategy; strategy follows objectives; objectives are shaped as much by values as by interests; and the Organ breakdown has occurred at the level of foundational values.
In general, we overstated what was possible at the regional level and understated what was required at the national level. Where democracy and human security do not exist, they are most likely to be attained through broad-based popular struggles.
* Laurie Nathan is a Visiting Fellow at the Crisis States Programme, London School of Economics.
* Send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to editor@pambazuka.org.
* NOTE FOR EDITORS: Please note that this editorial was commissioned from the author for Pambazuka News. While we are pleased that several print publications have used our editorials, we ask editors to note that if they use this article, they do so on the understanding that they are expected to provide the following credit: "This article first appeared in Pambazuka News, an electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, www.pambazuka.org". Editors are also encouraged to make a donation.
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY: DEMANDING A RIGHT TO EXPRESSION
Patrick Burnett, Fahamu
When armed men raided the printing press of Gambia's The Independent newspaper on 13 April, five of them opened fire on staff while a sixth doused the printing press with petrol and set it alight. It was the second time in six months that the newspaper's printing press was targeted, but employees complained that it took the police five hours to arrive at the scene, even though there was a police station only one kilometre away.
Earlier in the month, eight internet users in Tunisia who said they had simply used the Internet to download files about the situation in the Middle East where accused of promoting terrorist attacks and sentenced by a Tunis court to up to 26 years in prison. Reporters sans frontières (RSF)
commented at the time: "The trial of these young people demonstrates the Tunisian judicial system's outrageous contempt for the rights of the defence. Simply consulting Internet sites cannot be considered evidence of a terrorist plot. The Tunisian regime is trying to terrorise Internet users and silence dissent."
On Friday, April 2, Ethiopian authorities jailed Merid Estifanos, former editor-in-chief of the private, Amharic-language weekly Satanaw. This was after he was unable to pay bail in a criminal defamation case stemming from a September 2001 opinion piece titled "The Hidden Agenda of Prime Minister Meles." Estifanos did not write the article, but as editor-in-chief of the newspaper, he was held responsible for its content. The Committee to Protect Journalists said: "We call on Ethiopian authorities to release Merid Estifanos immediately, and to work toward removing criminal penalties for press offences."
These are arbitrary selections of press freedom and freedom of expression violations during the month of April. They are by no means unique. The routine stories that surface from around the continent on a daily basis paints a picture of a media environment where journalists are routinely harassed, suppressed, beaten, tortured and imprisoned.
Last year, on the occasion of the inauguration of the African Union, Pambazuka News carried an editorial which highlighted the shocking state of press freedom on the African continent. The editorial stated:
"This distinguished gathering of Ministers did not think it necessary to respond to the urgent issues such as warnings by the World Food Programme of looming food shortages and famine in several African countries .By no coincidence, the governments of these countries have been identified by several international and African press freedom and freedom of expression organisations as suppressing press freedom and freedom of expression. In almost all cases, the rights to association, assembly and political participation have also been curtailed."
Noting the serious development challenges faced by the African continent - education, healthcare, HIV/AIDs, agriculture, provision of adequate housing and conflict resolution - the editorial pointed out that these challenges could not be met without the active participation of the citizens of African countries. It said:
"Active participation of citizens in shaping policy and decision making of their countries is however impossible if their own governments continue to deny them the rights necessary to ensure such participation. These include the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and political participation, as well as media freedom to facilitate a free exchange of information, ideas and opinion."
But, the editorial went on to say, these rights continued to be violated by numerous governments despite the fact that virtually all African countries had signed up to or ratified the constitutive Act of the African union, the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other similar documents.
One year later and the almost daily violations of press freedom and freedom of expression rights in multitude countries continue almost unremarked except for the shrill protests of various media freedom bodies. As the African Peer Review Mechanism (ARPM) of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) kicks in with its first reviews, it will be interesting to see whether the ARPM shows any teeth when it comes to reporting on press freedom and freedom of expression violations.
According to an AU/Nepad paper giving guidelines for countries to participate in the ARPM, the purpose of the ARPM is to foster the adoption of appropriate laws, policies, standards and practices that lead to, amongst other aims, political stability. Although the media is not specifically listed, it is difficult to see how a respect for media freedom and freedom of expression could be excluded from the definition of political stability. Country review visits by the ARPM team will indeed be responsible for carrying out widespread consultations that include the media.
But As World Press Freedom Day approaches on May 3, it is important to note that there has been little progress towards the enforcement of the right to freedom of expression on the African continent. Until such time as institutions and leaders commit to entrenching media freedom and freedom of expression as a basis for development on the continent and not as a concession benevolently handed out - and withdrawn - on a whim, World Press Freedom Day in Africa will be marked for the bravery of those journalists who go to work under a cloud of repression, rather than a day for the celebration of a right fulfilled.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
* Related Link:
Release of MISA's Annual Publication, 'So This Is Democracy?: State of Media Freedom in Southern Africa'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404280686.html
3. Comment and Analysis
ANTS, BEES, AND CATERPILLARS: HOW THE WORLD SHOULD LEARN TO SHARE
Mohammed Mesbahi
We need to raise awareness of the need to redistribute the world's resources, embracing the principle of sharing at all levels of society.
The current world economic system doesn't work. A world ruled by financiers and economists with no regard for human suffering or ecological damage is not sustainable. Unfair trading practices, set up by the World Trade Organisation and the G7 squeeze the third world to a point where famine and war are the result. When I think about the ever-worsening situation in the Third World I am reminded of an incident one summer in my childhood.
My sister and I went to stay with our aunt and uncle on their farm. When we arrived my uncle and aunt told us that the field of kale behind the farmhouse was full of caterpillars. Excitedly, we ran out into the field to look at them. Every leaf of every kale plant was covered in caterpillars, big ones, small ones and tiny ones.
As the days passed, the army of caterpillars marched across the field towards the house. They ate every leaf of every plant, leaving a forest of skeletons in their wake. Big fat caterpillars walked over the smaller ones, squashing them as they went. And when they reached the edge of the field they crawled towards the house, up the walls and in through the windows. We shut the windows. The caterpillars crawled over the gutters, up the roof and down the chimneys.
Everywhere we looked there were caterpillars: on the walls, the ceilings, under the chairs, in the bedrooms, the bathroom, and the toilet. They stuck to the walls and ceilings of the house, turned into chrysalises, then never hatched. Every one of those caterpillars died.
As I look at the world today I see the caterpillar metaphor in action. The rich crush the poor, with bombs, wars, crippling interest rates on loans and unfair trade. I see desperate poverty, leading to population explosions, and I see the destruction of the environment on a par with the caterpillar's destruction of their field of kale.
Just as the caterpillars destroyed their source of sustenance, so we humans are destroying our environment. We are destroying the very source of the air we breathe: the tropical rain forests. Our rich, like the big fat caterpillars, get richer and fatter while our poor, like the small thin caterpillars, are crushed to death or left with nothing to eat.
But all, fat and thin, rich and poor, are crawling towards eventual self-destruction.
But there are other models in the insect kingdom. Both ants and bees base their success on co-operation; the sharing of duties and resources to build highly successful communities. Ants that live in the topical rain forest co-operate not only with each other but with every aspect of their environment. Bees also work together co-operatively. Some would say that the bee model is regimented and smacks of communism. But the model merely demonstrates that sharing benefits both the community and the environment.
Part of the human race knows that sharing is the responsible way forward: the part which created the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the hundreds of organisations that attempt to mitigate the disastrous consequences of unjust economic policies.
Even the World Bank was originally set up with a view to ending world poverty. But the problem with the world at the moment is that we do not have a queen bee, a head ant, a co-ordinating centre; in other words a world government. World power is in the hands of financiers, under the auspices of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation. These institutions dictate the terms of trade and protect the interests of the West, to the detriment of the rest of the world. The world deserves better than this.
The Brandt Report (http://www.dfid.gov.uk/News/PressReleases/files/pr_africacom_brandt_background.html), for example, puts the needs of the world's people first. It is the blueprint for a world government. Every member of the world's society needs food, clean water, a roof over their heads, health care and education. The Brandt Report makes clear that we need to share responsibility for the world's resources and the environment.
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz in his book 'Globalization and its Discontents', explains in great detail how the current world economic situation evolved and what is wrong with it. The foundations of the current world economic system were laid by the United Nations in 1944 at Bretton Woods, in the US. Those present discussed how to rebuild war-ravaged Europe and as a result they set up an International Bank for the Reconstruction and Development of Europe. This later became the World Bank. They also set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to maintain world economic stability, so that there would be no more world economic depressions. As Joseph Stiglitz points out, these were good and worthy ideals at the time.
Over the years the power of the World Bank and the IMF, under the G7 (the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, France and the UK) grew and grew until they had economic dominion over the whole world. The World Trade Organisation was created, to set the price for third world exports, mainly raw materials and crops. The price for these commodities has fallen constantly ever since, making it harder and harder for these countries to repay the interest on their loans.
The economic system created in 1944 in the spirit of remorse and idealism, developed into a global economic network with a stranglehold over the third world. A world governed by financial institutions is not, and cannot be, a stable, sane or healthy world.
In the 1980s the World Bank and the IMF really began to squeeze the third world. It was during this period that Reagan and Thatcher came to power and began to promote the doctrine of monetarism and the free market economy. The IMF, the World Bank and the US treasury came to an agreement called the Washington Consensus (representatives of Third World countries were not invited to the meeting). They called for Capital Market Liberalization, i.e. forcing third world countries to open up to imports which they could not compete with, while using import tariffs to protect their own vulnerable industries.
The 1980s also saw the introduction of the iniquitous structural adjustment loans by the World Bank and the IMF. These loans were tied to so many conditions that third world governments were forced to cut back on essential spending, such as education and health programmes. This, over a period of decades has led to a worsening of health in the third world. Twelve million people now die of preventable diseases every year, and of these the largest number dies from dysentery and diarrhoea.
Since the people affected by diseases live in some of the poorest countries of the world, there is no incentive for the world's pharmaceutical companies to put money into research and development of new drugs or vaccines. Pharmaceutical companies play an important part in Western health schemes, carrying out research and developing new medicines. But since they are inextricably linked into the current world economic system, which is driven by the profit motive and competition with each other, they feel that they are forced to gear their research towards finding drugs to treat the diseases which affect the developed world: cancer, heart disease, diabetes etc., drugs which they can sell at a profit. Only ten percent of research money worldwide is devoted to ninety percent of the world's diseases.
The current world economic system is failing the majority of the world's population. Profit-driven research will always be geared towards the development of drugs to treat the diseases of those who can pay. A world system based on sharing would look at need, rather than profit - as the driving force behind research.
A World Government based on the principle of sharing would share responsibility for the health of the world population, direct research and development towards all the diseases which affect the world, not just those that affect the West.
A world economic system based on sharing would want to share responsibility for the health of the world population. A world economic system based on sharing would want to preserve ancient knowledge of traditional medicine, share responsibility for protecting rare medicinal plants, for growing and harvesting these plants and making them available to all those in need.
The current economic system exploits the environment shamelessly, leading to its destruction. We are destroying the world's tropical rain forests, an invaluable and irreplaceable source of medicinal plants.
Sharing is not just about sharing resources. It is also about the sharing of knowledge, both the high tech knowledge of the developed nations, and the detailed, intimate knowledge of the environment of the people who inhabit it. The current global economic system exploits both the environment and the people who live in it. The emphasis on profit denies all other values, such as traditional knowledge and respect for the environment. This is extremely dangerous, and if it continues will lead to complete ecological destruction, followed by the death of a large proportion of the human species. We need a world government to instil in everyone the necessity of sharing responsibility for the environment.
Sharing the world's resources, knowledge and responsibilities is the only way for the human species to survive. The infrastructure for such sharing is already in place. All that is required now is a shift of consciousness on the part of human kind, away from the idea that competition should be the basis of our economic system, towards the idea that sharing would be of benefit to all.
* Mohammed Mesbahi is the Chair and Founder of a London-based organisation called Share the World's Resources (STWR). http://www.stwr.net. This article was submitted to Pambazuka News by email.
* Send comments on this article - and other events in Africa - to editor@pambazuka.org
4. Letters
AN OPEN LETTER TO UN SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN
Eric Reeves
History has already recorded your substantial culpability during the Rwandan genocide ten years ago, and your failure to work effectively as head of UN peacekeeping during this terrible time. Judgment is a good deal more severe than your own recent admission that "you could have done more."
But with your present inadequate response, as UN Secretary-General, to the massive crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in Darfur, Sudan, you are compounding your failures of 1994. Without immediate, urgent, and appropriately robust UN action, your failure to lead during this vast crisis will be beyond either forgiveness or redemption.
No subsequent apology for inaction, no claim of ignorance, can possibly have meaning. Your legacy will be to have twice acquiesced in the slaughter and destruction of hundreds of thousands of innocent African civilians. For the evidence of what is now occurring in Darfur is both utterly unambiguous and authoritative beyond possible dispute.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21696
APPEAL FOR INFORMATION ON CIVIL SOCIETY
Chukwu-Emeka
I wonder whether anyone can help me: I'm looking for good material that will provide me with an overview of civil society in Africa, how it is structured, what are its constituent parts, where new developments are emerging from, where it might be headed, what its relations with African states & global civil society might be, what is exciting about it, what is depressing or worrying, etc, etc. I'd be grateful for pointers to websites, articles, books, etc. Many thanks in advance for your help.
Contact: cechikezie@tiscali.co.uk
MAKING INFORMED JUDGEMENTS
Anonymous
I have managed to read some of the Pambazuka newsletters and found some very useful papers and information there, so for those responsible thanks and keep up the good work.
I am keen to hear views on the current news that truces are being drawn and views regarding the politics of these positions (Sudan). I may probably not be able to directly act or contribute at this stage but it has been useful to have the input and views of those closely involved, even when I do not agree or fully understand the positions being taken but I hope it enables me to be informed enough to make good judgements should opportunities to support come.
THANKS
Claudio Emanuel
I would like to praise and commend you for the excellent enlightening work that you are doing. Thank you very much indeed for the updates and information sent.
WHEN 'NEVER AGAIN' BECOMES AGAIN AND AGAIN (4)
Nicole Venter
First a warm thanks to all at Pambazuka News who provide an invigorating forum and a vehicle for awareness & change.
Dear Eva,
(In response to Eva Dadrian, Letters, Pambazuka News 153)
Forgive me if I have offended you by using the example of a young girl who asked me to respite my ignorance of her history and a particular human atrocity. My point in using the Israeli example was not to offend the Palestinians - but to urge awareness of all human failure to find empathy and conquer ignorance within our communities. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to highlight the example of the Arab Village where I later lived for some time, herding goats.
I had been warned, as two American tourists had just been killed in the Wadi Kelt, not to enter the village and to display distrust and reticence, but, despite this, I lived in the village in a sublime peace. As a white woman, in jeans and a t-shirt, I represented everything that the community should find unacceptable culturally speaking, yet I was privileged and trusted to take care of the village of Arab Al Ramshe's 356 strong herd of goats, because it made me happy to be in the mountains with them - the entire wealth of the village goat herder and his family, a trust that defies thousands of years of tradition. They shared their stories of triumph with me, their stories of hope and tragedy, their heritage, their food and their home in a hospitable and respectful humility that I have seldom experienced in my travels since. They too taught me of awareness - that a one to one trust, devoid of history, soul to soul, was key to overcoming the violent approach that tragically some politicians fall prey to when first they take on positions of power.
I agree with you whole-heartedly that the dividing walls between us all should come down, that we should end apartheid in every form, but we need to remove it from our minds first or I do not believe we can achieve anything in practicality. We need to stop dredging up history for the sake of recrimination and reproach. If it cannot be a clear teacher for us then perhaps it should be mute.
I doubt very much that the young girl who took me to the holocaust museum at Akko had any idea what was to follow in her country but I very much believe, in learning to know her as a person, that she does not condone what is happening in her country today. Quite the contrary, I am certain it is breaking her heart. And certainly - I think she is now sensitive to it also. To some extent we are all victims of ignorance but I respect her duty to try and bridge that ignorance. More often than not, these issues are intentionally misrepresented. We are privileged to have the freedom to speak openly.
I think you are perfectly correct that we should listen with two ears and build awareness of all aspects of the phenomenon of genocide. This was the point of my letter and in fact, it was in order to address the situation in Rwanda, but yes you are right, it applies to America, Spain, South Africa and now Sudan. Is there a place where mankind has not failed himself. Can we try again?
I did not anywhere in my letter condone the attack on Palestinian children, instead I called for us as an African community to never become desensitized, which I can see you are not. You say No, No, No, Nicole, but in truth, I think we are agreed.
I think we are all participant in Pambazuka to find solutions and avoid recriminations. My solution may seem simplistic but I feel that change begins with love and love begins with understanding, so I thank you for your letter, I will read Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's "When 'never again' becomes again and again" - again, and I invite you to write me to discuss this further so that you and I may build a bridge over the distance I have inadvertently created with you. Let us seek the things common between us and find solutions for Africa today. Indeed if I am offending you, please patiently teach me again and help me to understand. Can we begin with you and me? As Tajudeen says, can we "Keep Hope Alive".
5. Pan-African Postcard
GREAT EXPECTATION ON SOUTH AFRICA
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
On Tuesday, President Thabo Mbeki was sworn in for his second and final term as President of South Africa. The inauguration attracted so many African and world leaders and the occasion was as grand as can be expected of a country that continues to enjoy the respect and goodwill of different peoples across the world.
This is because South Africa's liberation from the clutches of racist oppression and humiliation of African peoples has become an inspiration to many people across the world. Many still wonder that just over 10 years ago, the re-elected president, along with the majority black population of South Africa's could not even vote, let alone be voted for.
So many Western countries and leaders that have been falling over themselves to proclaim their friendship with South Africa, take pictures with the venerable and universally venerated Nelson Mandela, were the same people who kept their racist cousins in power through active collaboration or deliberate inaction or both.
Margaret Thatcher regarded the ANC as a typical terrorist organisation like the IRA in Britain and opposed both sanctions against South Africa and the release of Mandela and other freedom fighters from apartheid jails. Ronald Reagan, like successive American administrations before and after him, opposed the liberation of South Africa and touted constructive engagement with the apartheid regime that was destructive for both South Africa and the whole of Southern Africa. Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and other frontline states paid too heavy a price for their support for liberation. Effectively, the socio-economic progress and development of these countries were postponed until after South Africa's liberation.
It is necessary to recollect these sacrifices and historical facts because in the last 10 years of liberation, there seems to be accelerated forgetfulness or selective amnesia about the collective burden, sacrifice and triumph that South Africa represented for most Africans, especially and the freedom loving peoples of the world in general.
There was tremendous international solidarity for the struggle in the former Soviet Union and Cuba, among left-wing and liberal elements in the West, the churches, allied forces and across a large part of Third World countries in the Caribbean, Asia, Latin America, etc. In the Arab and Muslim world, too, there was diplomatic and political support that linked the South African struggle with the quest for freedom by the Palestinian people. Israel, of course, actively supported and collaborated on intelligence and security and defence with apartheid South Africa, despite the fact that many of the Boers were sympathetic to Hitler during the Second World War: racists were united by racism.
While it is the effort, determination, sacrifice and dedication of the people of South Africa and the clear leadership of the main liberation movements, principally the ANC, which finally led to the liberation of South Africa it is equally true that the solidarity movement in and out of Africa helped most significantly.
Both at the official and popular level there is a tendency to greater appreciation of the non-African support while taking the African solidarity either for granted or minimising it. Yet on South Africa, most of our countries, regardless of ideology at home and abroad, were united and stayed the course to the end.
Reading some accounts, it will seem that the anti-apartheid movement alone liberated South Africa. Other accounts validate only the reconciliation phase of the struggle and the change of heart by the racists and willingness of the ANC leadership to negotiate. It is indeed true that victory has many fathers while failure is an orphan!
There are too many negative views about other Africans. It is not just the Whites who look down on Black Africans from the rest of Africa. Many black South Africans have also bought into the racist propaganda that the rest of us have been sleeping and it is South Africa that can wake us up.
The last 10 years have been both challenging and triumphalist for both the people and the Government of South Africa. Many have been willing to show understanding even while expressing some disappointment. But as President Mbeki starts his second and final term, I don't think that many will show generous understanding anymore. They will expect some fast movement both internally and in foreign policy.
For me, I make only one demand of the President: Remove the humiliating demands and requirements on Africans visiting South Africa. It is not enough to say other African countries do the same. President Mbeki can lead on this issue from the front.
Three years ago, Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia liberalised visa regulation for Africans. I have not seen a notable rise in African presence in Addis. Nigeria signed the protocol on freedom of movement within the ECOWAS region at the height of its oil boom economy. Yet all West Africans did not move to Nigeria.
I know South Africa is a beautiful country with a lot of opportunities, but I can assure you that the whole of Africa is not queuing up to enter the rainbow nation. On the other hand, since the end of apartheid, the South African invasion of the rest of Africa through MTN, Vodacom, South African Airways, M-Net, DSTV, Shoprite, a new 'Boer Trek' buying up fertile agricultural land across Africa and other serious business ventures, are unmistakable.
* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General Secretary of the Global Pan African Movement, based in Kampala, Uganda and also Director of Justice Africa, based in London.
* Send your comments to editor@pambazuka.org
6. Conflict and Emergencies
AFRICA: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE PEACE REQUIRES DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
http://www.cps.org.za/cps%20pdf/synopsis71.pdf
Given the high levels of conflict in Africa, issues surrounding peace-building are among the most crucial challenges facing new multilateral institutions on the continent, including the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In the conventional view, peace-building has largely been accomplished once the formal peace agreements have been signed. However, building sustainable peace is in fact a long-term and multidimensional process which ultimately requires accountable and democratic governance, argues Chris Landsberg in Synopsis, a publication of the Centre for Policy Studies.
AFRICA: SMALL ARMS AGREEMENT: WORTH THE PAPER IT IS WRITTEN ON?
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=23506
In the latest attempt to curb the circulation of small arms in Africa, foreign affairs ministers and other representatives from eleven countries signed a protocol on weapons control recently in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. But, the jury is still out on whether this initiative really has the ingredients for success. The Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons was signed after a two-day meeting that brought together eleven states from the Great Lakes area and the Horn of Africa. These regions have some of the highest rates of weapons proliferation in Africa.
BURUNDI: CLASHES IN BURUNDI AFTER TRUCE ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=136&art_id=qw1082692802950B243 &set_id=1
Fighting broke out between Burundi's last active rebel group and government forces last Thursday, a day after both sides said they would cease unprovoked attacks, rebel and army sources said. Each side blamed the other for starting the clash and it was not immediately clear whether the fighting was the result of the truce not having being communicated down the lines or of rogue rebel elements.
NIGERIA: ETHNIC CLASHES CLAIM 20 LIVES IN PLATEAU STATE
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40792
At least 20 people died in three days of clashes between rival ethnic militias in central Plateau State, residents and officials said on Tuesday. The clashes between ethnic Tarok fighters and their Fulani rivals at Bakin Chiyawa in the Shendam district of the state began on Saturday, Emmanuel Bakat, a local government official and resident of the area, told IRIN.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: PEACEKEEPING SYSTEM IN THE SPOTLIGHT
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40732
Rapidly changing trends in international peacekeeping are likely to pose a serious challenge to regional authorities intending to establish an emergency force for dealing with conflict in Southern Africa, recent research has noted. In a paper entitled, "Towards a Common Southern African Peacekeeping System", South African-based political analyst, Cedric de Coning, argued that the fast pace of developments in the peacekeeping field over the last decade had "complicated" efforts by policy-makers and researchers to arrive at a common understanding of peacekeeping.
SUDAN: GOVERNMENT AND MILITIAS CONSPIRE IN DARFUR KILLINGS
In a joint operation in the Darfur region of Sudan, government troops working with Arab militias detained 136 African men whom the militias massacred hours later, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of attacks by Arab militias, known as janjaweed, in almost a month of research inside Darfur. "The janjaweed are no longer simply militias supported by the Sudanese government," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. "These militias work in unison with government troops, with total impunity for their massive crimes." The 136 men were then taken in army lorries to nearby valleys where they were made to kneel before being killed with a bullet in the back of the neck.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21683
SUDAN: THE CRISIS IN DARFUR: HISTORY IN REMAKING
The Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) has condemned the Sudanese Government for sanctioning ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region, and in so doing, grossly violating international principles of human rights and committing crimes against humanity. RCK has also denounced the passive resolution tabled by the UNHCHR and adopted by member States "which fails to propose any definitive action to resolve the situation in Darfur before it degenerates into a complete humanitarian crisis". Meanwhile the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT) has released information about attacks of villages in violation of a recent ceasefire and the detention and torture of 14 people in Darfur. Read the press releases from both organisations by clicking on the links below.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21827
SUDAN: U.N. RIGHTS BODY PASSES WEAKENED RESOLUTION ON SUDAN CONFLICT
http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_23148.asp
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights last week adopted a watered-down resolution addressing alleged atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region and rejected a U.S. move to vote on the more strongly worded, original draft resolution it had co-sponsored with the European Union (Agence France-Presse, April 23). It also decided to appoint an independent expert on the situation of human rights in Sudan for a period of one year. Fifty members of the U.N. rights body voted for the weaker resolution, which was drafted as a compromise between the European Union and a bloc of African states.
SUDAN: UPDATE ON THE SUDAN PEACE PROCESS
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/world/where/eagl /sudan/0404upd.htm
The strong prospect for peace in Sudan has been dealt a severe blow by the devastating conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, says Christian Aid. Whilst these attacks continue, government leaders and the main southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), have been negotiating a peace settlement in Kenya and are expected to reach agreement in the summer. However, as the devastating conflict in Darfur indicates, the war in Sudan is much more complex than north versus south - there are numerous conflicts which must be resolved if peace is to become a reality for all the Sudanese people.
WESTERN SAHARA: 13 YEARS AND $600 MILLION LATER, PEACE NOWHERE IN SIGHT
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40812
The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that UN peacekeepers will be pulled out of the Western Sahara next February unless the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front can come to some agreement on how to bring peace to the troubled desert territory. According to Annan, the international body is left with two options - the ending of the UN presence in the Western Sahara or a continuation of the push for a peaceful settlement. While the peace has held in Western Sahara for more than a decade, there has been no real rapprochement between Morocco and Polisario.
ZIMBABWE: ALLEGED MERCENARIES MAY BE EXTRADICTED
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=9176
Zimbabwe's government said it had revised its extradition policy to extradite 70 suspected mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in the oil-rich west African nation of Equatorial Guinea. An official notice said Zimbabwe drafted an extradition treaty for the first time with Equatorial Guinea, effective immediately. The notice meant the 70 suspects could be sent to Equatorial Guinea for trial on allegations of plotting to overthrow that country's government.
7. Human Rights
AFRICA/GLOBAL: AMNESTY SLAMS UN COMMISION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/deliver/document/15326.html
The UN's main human rights body has demonstrated an incapacity and unwillingness to address serious human rights violations and must reform, said Amnesty International as the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights drew to a close. The Commission failed to adopt draft resolutions on China, Chechnya, Zimbabwe and the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, repeatedly using the "no action" procedure to prevent discussion of resolutions on China and Zimbabwe. Amnesty International said: "The Commission has demonstrated that it must reform itself if it is to fulfil its responsibility to protect human rights and denounce violations wherever they occur."
AFRICA: BUSHWHACKING INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1203995,00.html
George Bush's government is trying to persuade the US supreme court to strike down the most progressive and pro-human rights law on the American statute books - a law which allows multinational corporations to be held accountable in the US courts for human rights abuses abroad. US Attorney general John Ashcroft's justice department is attacking a statute dating back more than 200 years which lawyers have revived in recent years to bring human rights claims, first against foreign torturers but now against huge companies over their operations in repressive states.
ANGOLA: CONGOLESE MIGRANTS FACE BRUTAL BODY SEARCHES
The Angolan government must stop its military forces from conducting brutal body searches, beatings and rapes of Congolese migrant workers in northern Angola, Human Rights Watch says. Since early April, tens of thousands of migrant workers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been subjected to brutal physical abuse as part of an operation conducted by Angolan soldiers to expel them from the diamond-rich border province of Lunda Norte. Angolan authorities claim that they are repatriating Congolese and other workers who have been illegally mining diamonds in northern Angola.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21682
ETHIOPIA: CONCERN OVER GENOCIDE COMMISSION
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has again highlighted the ongoing crimes against humanity and acts of genocide being perpetrated by the Ethiopian Armed Forces and "highlander" militias against the Anuak (or Anywaa) indigenous ethnic group in rural areas of Gambella, Ethiopia. "It has been estimated that during the period spanning December 13th, 2003 to March 31st, 2004, the total number of persons killed had reached 1137, and the killings have reportedly continued since then. The massive targeting of a specific ethnic group, with the clear intent of destroying a part or the entirety of the group, bears all the hallmarks of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity," said the organisation in a press release.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21737
LIBYA: TIME TO MAKE HUMAN RIGHTS A REALITY
http://news.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGMDE190072004
Amnesty International has released a new report, 'Libya: Time to make human rights a reality', detailing the findings of the organisation's first visit to Libya in 15 years. The report - released on the day of Libyan leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi's visit to the European Commission in Brussels, his first to Europe in 15 years - reveals a pattern of on-going human rights violations, a continuing failure to investigate and resolve past abuses, and a climate of fear in which most Libyans are afraid to raise concerns over current and past violations. While welcoming some positive developments, Amnesty International said that a comprehensive program of reform is needed to address these human rights concerns.
SOUTH AFRICA: APARTHEID ASSASSINS MEET MATCH
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page /0,5744,9400583^2703,00.html
Some of the worst human rights violators of the apartheid era, including a man who helped kill 14 civilians while they slept, have been employed as security contractors in Iraq. A South African killed in Iraq two weeks ago once worked for a secret apartheid death squad known as the Civil Co-operation Bureau. The CCB specialised in assassinating civilians who sympathised with black liberation movements. Gray Branfield, 55, was the latest South African casualty with a record of human rights abuse to have obtained lucrative employment with one of the many private security companies operating in Iraq.
SOUTH AFRICA: LPM MEMBERS ASSAULTED WHILE IN CUSTODY
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice /0,2172,78774,00.html
The Landless People's Movement (LPM) is accusing police of assaulting and torturing its members while in police custody. The allegations came out at a joint media briefing this week by the Freedom of Expression Institute and the LPM on alleged incidents during which the State "repressed" the LPM over the election period in Johannesburg.
ZIMBABWE: STUDENT ACTIVIST ARRESTED AND BEATEN
http://www.nearinternational.org/alerts/zimbabwe1820040423000000.php
Police in Harare on the 22 April arrested and inhumanely assaulted, social justice activist Tinashe Lukas Chimedza. Tinashe had been billed to speak at an Education Rights Forum at Mt Pleasant Hall, in his capacity as the Zimbabwe nominee to the International Youth Parliament, whose topic was 'Defending the Right to education, and Celebrating a legacy of Students Resistance'. Mr Tinashe was arrested on arrival at the venue, after being identified as one of the speakers.
8. Refugees and Forced Migration
AFRICA/GLOBAL: INTERNATIONAL THESAURUS OF REFUGEE TERMINOLOGY
http://refugeethesaurus.org/hms/home.php?publiclogin=1
The International Thesaurus of Refugee Terminology (ITRT) is designed to facilitate information retrieval and exchange. The Thesaurus is now available as an interactive and searchable tool online, in English, French and Spanish. We hope this new version will serve as a more efficient medium for identifying relevant indexing terminology and as a value-added mechanism for managing refugee and forced migration-related information.
ETHIOPIA/KENYA: ETHIOPIAN STUDENTS ARRIVE IN KENYA
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news
Hundreds of Ethiopian students have arrived in a remote Kenyan border town in recent days, saying they had crossed over from the Ethiopian side of the town after holding a demonstration at their boarding school that was quelled by the army. After the first two dozen Ethiopian ethnic Oromos arrived in the border hamlet of Moyale a week ago, the influx has quickly gathered pace. There are now some 560 young Ethiopians encamped on the grounds of a Kenyan police station, a compound hardly suited to shelter such a large group. The new arrivals are composed of primary and secondary school-age students who were attending classes at a school in neighbouring Moyale, Ethiopia.
NAMIBIA/RWANDA: RWANDAN REFUGEES TO ASSESS CONDITIONS FOR REPATRIATION
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40807
A group of Rwandan refugees in Namibia will embark on a "go and see" mission to their home country to assess conditions for their proposed voluntary repatriation. This visit is being organised to allay the concerns of the nearly 500 Rwandan refugees over their safety once they return. In April a group of Rwandans fled Namibia's Osire refugee camp and told the local Namibian newspaper that they did not want to be repatriated.
NAMIBIA: REFUGEES FACE RATION CUTS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40764
The food aid pipeline for 14,000 refugees in Namibia will face a complete break from June onwards, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. WFP Namibia programme head Abdirahman Meygag told IRIN on Monday the agency "only has small quantities of food, enough only for May distributions" in the main refugee camp at Osire and the Kassava transit centre.
SOMALIA/KENYA: PUNTLAND 'TO EXPEL KENYANS'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3660887.stm
The administration of the breakaway Somali republic of Puntland has ordered holders of Kenyan passports to leave within seven days. Government spokesman Ahmed Asharo told the BBC that the orders were issued after Kenya's decision not to respect Somali passports. Correspondents say the order will seriously affect aid agency workers.
SUDAN/CHAD: HUNDREDS OF SUDANESE REFUGEES CROSSING INTO CHAD EACH WEEK, UN SAYS
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10539 &Cr=sudan&Cr1=
A team from the United Nations refugee agency has arrived in a Chadian border town to verify reports that 200 to 300 Sudanese refugees have been crossing weekly from the Darfur region into Chad since the beginning of April, an agency spokesman said.
UGANDA/SUDAN: THOUSANDS OF SUDANESE REFUGEES DISPLACED IN NORTHWEST UGANDA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40748
United Nations agencies have begun an assessment mission in northwestern Uganda following the mass displacement of Sudanese refugees by Ugandan rebels, an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN on Monday. The UNHCR spokesman for Uganda, Dennis Duncan, said an assessment team comprising UNHCR, World Food Programme and UN Development Programme officials had been sent to the affected districts of Moyo and Adjumani "to figure out where it is safe and where it is not".
UGANDA: GOVERNMENT TO ALLOCATE EMERGENCY FUNDS FOR IDPS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40799
The Ugandan cabinet has approved an emergency allocation of 1.2 billion shillings (about US $630,000) to aid civilians displaced by an 18-year rebel war in the north and east, a senior government official has said. The budget was in response to an unexpected surge in the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the beginning of 2004, following a spate of attacks by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on civilian targets, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Moses Ali told IRIN.
UK/TANZANIA: CAMP PLAN SCRAPPED
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS &id=4088de085&page=news
The Home Office confirmed last night it had abandoned controversial plans to create "transit processing centres" in East Africa for asylum seekers in the face of opposition in Tanzania and criticism from the EU. Instead it is seeking to repackage plans to process asylum seekers in their own region of origin in a scheme possibly linked to extra aid.
9. Women and Gender
AFRICA/GLOBAL: CARE, WOMEN AND AIDS
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC14571
HIV and AIDS have significantly increased the care burden for many women. Poverty and poor public services have also combined with AIDS to turn the care burden for women into a crisis with far-reaching social, health and economic consequences. This is according to a fact sheet from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ AIDS that explores the impact that HIV and AIDS have had on the role that all over the world women are expected to take in domestic work and in providing care to family members.
AFRICA: TO THE MOON AND BACK - WOMEN AND WATER
http://www.unifem.org/filesconfirmed/2/351_at_a_glance_water_rights.pdf
Women are most often responsible for domestic and community water management in developing societies, being in charge of determining sources, quantity and hygienic quality, begins a Unifem publication. On average women and children travel 10-15 kilometres, spending 8 or more hours per day collecting water and carrying up to 20 kilos or 15 litres per trip. It has been calculated that in South Africa alone, women collectively walk the equivalent distance of 16 times to the moon and back per day gathering water for families. The economic value of this unpaid contribution is enormous, notes the publication.
DRC: HELP VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AMONG EXPELLED CONGOLESE, OCHA SAYS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40794
Tens of thousands of Congolese expelled from Angola may be in need of psychological support and health care following reports of systematic sexual violence they underwent upon their expulsion, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. "OCHA calls for an increase in the capacity of health partners already working on the ground and the financing of new partners with expertise in sexual violence and the prevention and transmission of HIV/AIDS," the agency said.
NIGERIA: CONFERENCE TO CHART THE PATH OF WOMEN IN AFRICA
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404260960.html
Chairperson of Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) and convener of the African Women Conference, Mrs. Amina Titi Atiku Abubakar, has said the conference is meant to reposition Africa and write a new chapter in the history of African women. The event is a six-day conference intended to highlight and deliberate on issues related to the development of African women.
SOUTH AFRICA: STRONG GENDER FOCUS IN NEW CABINET
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=128 &fArticleId=418950
Thabo Mbeki has placed his political legacy in the hands of 12 formidable women, a leader of an apartheid party and a few good men. Women now make up 43% of the national cabinet, designed to implement policies that were developed over the past 10 years and, more importantly, deliver services to the people. The representation of women in the cabinet is the highest it has ever been in this country - and in Africa.
ZIMBABWE: MAKING THE LAW LESS OF AN ASS
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=23496
As thousands of Zimbabwean women have discovered, the law is a blunt instrument when it comes to domestic disputes that threaten health and well-being. A distress call from a squabbling family has no guarantee of eliciting a reaction from the police, who can do nothing unless there are indications of physical violence. Bookings normally result when assault has been committed.
10. Elections and Governance
COMOROS: ASSOUMANI SUFFERS SETBACK IN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY POLL
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40804
Federal President Azali Assoumani suffered a setback in parliamentary elections held at the weekend when parties aligned to the archipelego's three regional presidents gained the majority of seats in the national assembly. Following run-off elections for the federal assembly on Sunday, supporters of the presidents of the three semi-autonomous islands hold 12 of the 18 elected seats in parliament, against six for the federal president's party.
IVORY COAST: REBELS MULL SUCESSION
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3664135.stm
On a tour of the north of Ivory Coast, the leader of the New Forces, Guillaume Soro, has announced a range of measures to restore normality in the territory under New Force control. In particular Mr Soro has called for the creation of New Forces police and customs officers. Some say that is the first step towards the north declaring its independence.
KENYA: OFFICIAL OPPOSES REFERENDUM CALL
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404220114.html
A referendum on the draft constitution will plunge the country into political turmoil, Constitution of Kenya Review Commission vice-chairman Okoth Ogendo said. Kenyans must be prepared for an automatic enactment of the draft if it is subjected to a referendum. "If we go to a referendum on the entire document, we will immediately have a new political order," he told journalists at the commission's headquarters.
MALAWI: LEADER WARNS EU POLL TEAM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3659625.stm
Malawi President Bakili Muluzi has threatened to expel European Union observers ahead of next month's poll. He said he had received intelligence that some observers were campaigning against his United Democratic Front. "If they come here to decampaign my government... I will ask them to leave the country... and I am not joking," he said in a campaign speech.
SENEGAL: ANOTHER NEW PRIME MINISTER, BUT LITTLE CHANGE
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40740
Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has once again reshuffled his cabinet, appointing his fourth prime minister in as many years. Idrissa Seck, who had headed the cabinet for the past 15 months, was sacked on Wednesday. He was replaced by Macky Sall, a 43-year-old petroleum engineer and unconditional supporter of Wade, who was previously Interior Minister. Political commentators said there were two main reasons for the reshuffle. Firstly, Wade wished to bring into government the Union for Renewal of Democracy - a small opposition party headed by Djibo Ka. Secondly, political commentators said, the 77-year-old president appeared to have fallen out with Seck and wanted to replace him with someone who would show more unconditional loyalty.
SOUTH AFRICA: IFP WITHDRAWS ELECTION CHALLENGE
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1602549-6078-0,00.html
The Inkatha Freedom Party has withdrawn its legal challenge to contest the declaration of the April 14 election as free and fair. IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said although widespread irregularities occurred in South Africa and particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, the party had taken the decision not to proceed with the challenge in the interest of national unity. "It was never our intention to spoil the celebrations of our first decade of democracy. It is my earnest hope that our announcement will have the positive effect of ensuring that future elections will proceed without similar problems and acts of intimidation," Buthelezi said in a statement.
SOUTH AFRICA: TEN YEARS OF DEMOCRACY IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2 &ItemID=5409
No one story explains post Apartheid South Africa, a nation trying to enact political, economic and racial reconciliation, all at the same time. The towns of Riviersonderend, Ceres and Swellendam, located in the Western Cape province's rural farm belt, each offer radically different profiles of the nation, on this the tenth anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. "We have got political freedom, but not economic freedom," declared Alan Thompson the Colored African National Congress deputy Mayor of Swellendam-the third oldest European-founded settlement in the country. Then he grinned stressing ANC success: "Structurally many things have changed, the streets have been tarred, housing has been built, there is electricity [in the townships]."
ZIMBABWE: TALKS INITIATIVE DEAD
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=9183
Renewed efforts to bring Zimbabwe's two feuding main political parties back to the negotiating table have hit a brick wall with Zanu PF showing signs of ill-feeling over the sincerity and impartiality of the arbitrators. Impeccable Zanu PF sources confirmed that there was a whiff of suspicion within their ranks, with some senior party officials, who are jealously guarding their positions, alleging that some of the church leaders pushing for the negotiations were sympathetic to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The church leaders from various denominations have been at the forefront of trying to bring the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF to the negotiating table which they abandoned almost two years ago.
11. Development
AFRICA/GLOBAL: BREAKING PROMISES IS NOT THE PATH TOWARDS WORLD SECURITY
Frustrating the hopes of peoples and nations all around the globe will certainly not help make the world a more secure place for our children, concludes the Social Watch report 2004, summarizing the findings of citizen coalitions in 50 countries, poor and rich, about what they see as main obstacles to human security. The Social Watch report keeps track every year about progress and regression in the path towards eradicating poverty and achieving gender equity, a promise made by governments at the UN in 1995 and reaffirmed in the year 2000 in the largest gathering ever held of world leaders.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21686
AFRICA/GLOBAL: WORLD BANK FINDS GLOBAL POVERTY DOWN BY HALF SINCE 1981
http://www.unwire.org/News/328_426_23113.asp
Rapid economic growth in East and South Asia over the last couple of decades has been responsible for a decrease in the number of people living in extreme poverty in developing countries, from 40 percent of global population in 1981 to 21 percent in 2001. However, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia are still far from reaching the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty levels by 2015, says a new World Bank report. According to World Development Indicators 2004, East and South Asia, particularly China and India, have lifted 500 million people out of extreme poverty - those living on less than $1 a day - in 20 years.
AFRICA/GLOBAL: WTO RULES AMERICAN COTTON SUBSIDY ILLEGAL
http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#1328
Brazil has won a landmark victory at the World Trade Organisation that could spell the beginning of the end of rich countries' subsidy payments to their farmers. The WTO, based in Geneva, has ruled that $1.5bn (£830m) of annual subsidies given by the United States government to its 25,000 cotton farmers are mostly illegal. The provisional ruling is confidential, but trade sources said pubic confirmation would be available as soon as next month and could start a domino effect whereby much of the £300bn in subsidies lavished on the rich world's farmers might tumble. "This could be the first domino," one said. The ruling is the first time a developing country has won such a decision from the WTO when arguing against one of the big trade powers.
AFRICA: THE BREAKING OF THE BANK?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10286
Recent IMF/World Bank reforms have real limits, deftly illustrated by the cause of debt cancellation. Ministers from wealthy nations have almost universally conceded that debt is a crisis, but assistance has been slow in coming. The creditor-based system of debt relief administered by the IMF/World Bank doles out aid at levels based more on poor countries' ability to cough up future payments than on what they actually need to reach humanitarian targets like the Millennium Development Goals. As economist Jeffrey Sachs writes, "It is perfectly possible, and indeed is currently the case, for a country or region to have a 'sustainable' debt" under IMF/World Bank definitions "while millions of its people are dying of hunger or disease."
GHANA: GHANAIAN CIVIL SOCIETY LEADER CALLS WORLD BANK POLICIES INHUMANE
As the World Bank convened for its spring meetings this weekend, Public Citizen released a new report that highlighted how the World Bank continued to promote water privatization despite its assertion that it had modified its stance on privatization policies after a series of failed experiments around the world. A review of World Bank lending from 2000 through 2004 reveals that while the Bank's public relations rhetoric has changed in the face of increasing global resistance to privatized water services, its loan policies in the water sector have not changed at all. The World Bank is pressuring governments to privatize water services, thereby ceding control of them to major transnational corporations, as part of the package of policies required before governments can access loans for building and repairing water and sanitation systems.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21676
TANZANIA: ACTIVISTS PROTEST IMF, WORLD BANK POLICIES
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=87&art_id=qw1082835721524B235 &set_id=1
Hundreds of Tanzanians demonstrated in Dar es Salaam on Saturday to protest what they called "bad policies" of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Placard-waiving demonstrators marched through several streets shouting anti-globalisation slogans. "The demonstration has been staged to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Bretton Woods institutions (on Sunday)," said Gemma Akilimali, an official with the Tanzania Gender Network Project, one of the non-governmental organisations that organised the march.
12. Corruption
AFRICA: FIGHTING CORRUPTION THE FIRST BATTLE
http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=115226
Fighting corruption at all levels with effective and transparent institutions was listed as the first battle-post in defining a pro-growth African agenda, as stipulated by studies conducted by the South African Institute for International Affairs. This, the organisation suggested, would involve the establishment of genuinely independent and well-funded anti-corruption authorities with the power to prosecute without political interference. It would also involve the strengthening of powers of banking and financial regulation to stop laundering illicit funds, improve public access to information on government spending, and publicly disclosing political party financing.
GHANA: CORRUPTION: BANE OF GHANA'S YOUNG DEMOCRACY
http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=115236
Speakers at a symposium organized by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) on Tuesday raised concerns about the level of political corruption in Ghana and the likelihood of it undermining the country's democratic processes and the rule of law. The panellists at the symposium on: "Political Corruption in Ghana" said government should put in place measures to strengthen anti-corruption agencies, enhance the education of civil society organisations and streamline political party financing in the country.
LESOTHO: US SENATE PANEL PROBING WORLD BANK
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/27/news/international /worldbank.reut/
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has started to investigate allegations of corruption in projects funded by the World Bank and its affiliates, Senate sources said Tuesday. Committee staff have been quietly looking into charges for some time and the first public hearing is set for May 13. Projects under review include the Yacyreta Dam on the Argentina-Paraguay border, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and projects in Cambodia, according to letters obtained by Reuters.
MOZAMBIQUE: ANTI-CORRUPTION UNIT QUESTIONS NYIMPINE CHISSANO
http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=115219
Investigators from the Anti-Corruption Unit in the Mozambican Attorney-General's Office have questioned businessman Nyimpine Chissano, the oldest son of President Joaquim Chissano, in connection with the September 2002 escape from the Maputo top security prison of Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho"), reports Friday's issue of the independent weekly "Savana". Anibalzinho was the man who led the death squad recruited to assassinate Mozambique's top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, in November 2000. After his mysterious disappearance from prison on 1 September 2002, he was tried in absentia.
NAMIBIA: PM ENGAGES IN CORRUPT PRACTICES, SAYS NSHR
The Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has strongly condemned what it says are several incidents of political corruption and bribery as well as intimidation over the last eight days. Pre-polling irregularities, vote buying, influence peddling and smear tactics as well as misuse of public funds characterize such incidents, the organisation said in a press statement.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21694
ZIMBABWE: ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE EARNS RIDICULE
http://www.transparency.org/cgi-bin/dcn-read.pl?citID=115203
After rolling out an armoury of anti-corruption measures, the government should broaden the anti-graft net to cover a wide cross-section of the economy if it is to earn plaudits for honesty and seriousness in its drive, commentators said this week. To bring back a semblance of credence to the anti-corruption drive, the crusade, which has so far been dismissed by critics as a smoke-screen ahead of the crucial 2005 Parliamentary elections, should cover key sectors, they said. The crusade should particularly cover the mining and agricultural sectors, among others.
ZIMBABWE: FINANCE CHIEF ARRESTED
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3655609.stm
Zimbabwean police have arrested the country's Finance Minister, Chris Kuruneri, on corruption charges. He has been accused of illegally dealing in foreign currency held outside the country, worth more than ZIM$6bn ($1.38m). He is the first senior official in President Robert Mugabe's government to be detained in a corruption crackdown.
13. Health
AFRICA/GLOBAL: MEASLES DEATHS DROP DRAMATICALLY AS VACCINE REACHES WORLD'S POOREST CHILDREN
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2004/pr30 /en/
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced a global reduction of 30% in deaths from measles between 1999 and 2002. At 35%, the reduction in measles deaths was even greater in Africa, the region with the highest number of people affected by the disease. This progress demonstrates that collectively countries can achieve the United Nations goal of cutting global measles deaths in half by the end of 2005.
AFRICA: CAMPAIGN GROWS FOR MALARIA DRUG
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3656969.stm
Campaigners in Africa say governments, donor agencies and pharmaceutical firms must take action now to prevent a shortfall in malaria treatments. They fear targets for eradicating the disease set by governments and health agencies at a summit in Nigeria four years ago may not be met. The mosquito-born disease kills an estimated one million children a year.
KENYA: GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES NEW POLICY ON MALARIA TREATMENT
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40745
The Kenyan government has announced a new anti-malaria policy which encourages the use of more effective combination drugs for treatment, alongside the promotion of insecticide-treated nets to prevent exposure to mosquitoes that carry the disease. Health Minister Charity Ngilu said in a statement to mark the annual Africa Malaria Day on Sunday that her government was trying to find US $20 million a year to implement the new policy.
NIGERIA: THE MASSIVE COST OF MALARIA
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404280630.html
Malaria was responsible for one out of three deaths in children and one out of 10 deaths in pregnant women and cost Nigeria 132 billion Naira per year to treat, minister of health Prof Eyitayo Lambo said at the commemoration of the fourth Africa Malaria day. Prof Lambo said government had adjusted its fiscal policies to include zero concessional duties for insecticides for public health use, a reduction of taxes and tariffs on yarns and the maintenance of a 40% import duty on imported nets to protect local industries.
SOUTH AFRICA: TAC POSITIVE ON CABINET HEALTH POST
South Africa's the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has welcomed the re-appointment of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, with whom the organisation has had a fraught relationship over the last four years. "The re-appointment of Health Minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will be a disappointment for many of us, especially the range of actors in the health sector. However, we urge Minister Tshabalala-Msimang to re-establish a working relationship in the interest of fulfilling the mandate of our people," said the TAC.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21808
UGANDA: CHOLERA HITS EIGHT DISTRICTS
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404280414.html
Cholera has broken out in eight districts, the health ministry said. Kampala, Kasese, Hoima, Arua, Nebbi, Kabarole, Masindi, and Bundibugyo have continued to report significant numbers of cholera cases since the beginning of this year, the ministry said. "As the rains increase, there is a likelihood of an upsurge of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera in several parts of the country. Already some districts such as Kampala in Namuwongo parish are experiencing an increase of these diseases. So far seven people are sick while two have been reported dead," said a statement.
ZIMBABWE: VOLUNTEER DOCTORS AND NURSES PROVIDE HEALTH CARE
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40774
A number of initiatives aimed at extending medical services to the rural poor have been launched by enterprising doctors in Zimbabwe. Many Zimbabweans are finding it harder to pay for medical treatment as inflation of around 600 percent translates into soaring fees for private doctors and shortages of medicines in public hospitals. Private hospitals, doctors and dentists increased their fees by between 50 percent and 100 percent at the beginning of April, hard on the heels of a similar price hike three months ago.
14. HIV/AIDS
AFRICA/GLOBAL: LANDMARK AGREEMENT REACHED IN FIGHT AGAINST AIDS
A historic agreement to adopt a unified global response to tackling HIV/AIDS was reached by the international community this week. Despite stepped up resources and the best intentions, the AIDS epidemic continues to be one of the greatest crises of the century, with 40 million people currently infected and over 25 million deaths to date. A major step was taken at a meeting in Washington D.C., co-chaired by UNAIDS, the UK and the US, where donors and developing countries agreed to three core principles to better coordinate the scale-up of national AIDS responses.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21689
AFRICA/GLOBAL: WORLD BANK SHOWS LOW CREDIT IN RESPONSE TO HIV/AIDS CRISIS
http://www.actionaid.org/resources/pdfs/HIVWorldBank2004.pdf
The World Bank failed to protect social spending during its structural adjustment operations in the 1980s and 1990s, and this led to the deterioration of basic services - including those needed for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. And instead of focusing on HIV/AIDS, the World Bank sought improvements in the way goods and services were provided and financed through health sector reforms, such as user fees, privatisation, decentralisation and integration of services. These reforms frequently had the unintended effect of reducing access to effective health care, including services aimed at the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. This is according to a paper Produced by ActionAid that evaluates the response to the HIV crisis by the World Bank.
AFRICA: AFRICA NEEDS 100,000 HEALTH WORKERS TO DISTRIBUTE AIDS DRUGS
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/health/20040428-0658-who-aids.html
At least 100,000 health workers are needed to distribute anti-AIDS drugs in Africa, where 70 percent of the world's HIV/AIDS sufferers live, the head of the World Health Organisation said Wednesday. "It's difficult to grasp the magnitude of the problem," Dr. Lee Jong-Wook said while visiting Singapore. "The 8,000 people dying every day from AIDS is equivalent to 30 jumbo jets crashing every day."
AFRICA: AFRICAN FINANCE MINISTERS URGED TO FOCUS ON HIV/AIDS
African Ministers of Finance convened in Washington DC for the annual International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings to review the two institutions' operations. Given that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is the greatest threat facing the African continent today, the members of the Pan-African Treatment Movement (PATAM) called on all African Finance Ministers to consider HIV/AIDS as an issue affecting all other critical developmental issues. PATAM is an Africa-wide movement advocating for access to HIV/AIDS treatment and other essential medicines. Through an open letter to their respective Ministers of Finance, PATAM members urged African governments to support initiatives that will contain and reverse the steady march of the epidemic. PATAM emphasised the importance of governments enhancing the current efforts by the World Bank and IMF against HIV/AIDS but rejecting those initiatives that hamper access to life-saving and affordable medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21693
BOTSWANA: BOTSWANA MOBILIZES LEADERS IN ALL SECTORS TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404270215.html
UNDP, in cooperation with Botswana's National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), has held a series of leadership development workshops to strengthen the response to HIV/AIDS in one of the world's hardest hit countries. About 130 leaders from many sectors attended the three-day sessions. They came from government departments, including the police, health and social service agencies, the private sector and civil society organisations.
BURUNDI: HIV-POSITIVE PEOPLE DEMAND PROTECTIVE LAWS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40775
An association for HIV positive people in Burundi, the Reseau Burundais des personnes vivant avec le VIH, wants the government to enact a law protecting affected people against discrimination and stigmatisation. "We demand that the government should promulgate the law protecting HIV positive people as soon as possible, not only to protect HIV infected people but to protect the entire community," Felix Ntungumburanye, the head of the association, said during a workshop in the capital, Bujumbura.
ETHIOPIA: NEW PROJECT LAUNCHED TO HELP FAMILIES AFFECTED BY HIV/AIDS IN ADDIS ABABA
http://ippfnet.ippf.org/pub/IPPF_News/News_Details.asp?ID=3420
A $6.3 million community care campaign for families affected by HIV/AIDS has been launched in Ethiopia. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the government's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) have collaborated on a project to support HIV/AIDS affected households, women and children. According to recent studies in Ethiopia, almost two-thirds of deaths in the capital among people aged between 20 and 54 are AIDS-related.
SOUTH AFRICA: HAART ALONE NOT ENOUGH TO STOP SPREAD OF HIV
http://www.aidsmap.com/news/newsdisplay2.asp?newsId=2667
Less than 10% of HIV-positive individuals in South Africa will be eligible to receive antiretroviral therapy if World Health Organisation guidelines which mandate the use of anti-HIV therapy in patients with a CD4 cell count below 200 cells/mm3 are followed, according to a French-funded study published in the May 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The study also found that this would have only a limited impact on the spread of HIV.
SOUTH AFRICA: RISKING HIV TO ACCESS GRANT
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40723
The South African government expressed concern this week after a news report highlighted the story of a young woman who admitted she was thinking of contracting the HI virus to access a disability grant. The young woman, Thato, said she had ten 'boyfriends' with whom she slept for money. She was supporting two nieces, her own child and a grandmother suffering from diabetes on the money she made, by being what she described as a "prostitute in disguise".
SWAZILAND: AIDS IN CONTEXT
"Swaziland now holds the dubious title of [having] the highest [HIV] prevalence level in the world. ... [It] is a vivid microcosm of all the similarly afflicted countries of Southern Africa. At the grass roots, where it counts, there's a superhuman determination to bring the pandemic to heel, and to overcome the tremendous assault on the human condition." This is according to Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. Lewis highlights innovative national Swazi plans, supported by the World Health Organisation, for stepping up response to the pandemic. But Swaziland is also representative of other countries in that in practice implementation is still painfully slow. And other obstacles, ranging from U.S. congressional delays on trade legislation to Swaziland's own unresolved issues of democracy and women's rights, may still overwhelm the positive momentum of national efforts, according to a briefing on HIV/AIDS in Swaziland by the Africa Focus Bulletin.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21685
15. Education
AFRICA/GLOBAL: INCREASED EDUCATION ATTENDANCE, BUT DISPARITIES
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30481 &URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Children everywhere are spending more time in school than ever before, but there remain substantial differences between countries and regions, according to UNESCO's Global Education Digest 2004. According to the Digest, a child in Finland, New Zealand or Norway can expect to receive over 17 years of education, almost twice as much as in Bangladesh or Myanmar and four times as much in Niger or Burkina Faso. The new edition of the Digest presents the latest global education indicators, one example of which is school life expectancy (SLE), or the number of school years that a child, on average, is likely to spend in the education system.
AFRICA: GATS DECISION ON EDUCATION AS TRADABLE SERVICE
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404280299.html
The recent inclusion of education as a tradable service under the General Agreement on Trade Services (GATS), run by the World Trade Organisation has caused much concern among members of the higher education community. Among the concerns being raised is the manner in which decisions are taken at the WTO, which do not harmonize the interest of developing countries. Also was the concern about the negative impact of GATS on the national higher education sector, especially where the public system is weak or in transition, and its threat to cultural specificities. Armed with this fear, leaders in the world of higher education, drawn from various African countries, policy makers, scholars, representatives of donors and international organisations, and other stakeholders are holding a three - day meeting in Accra, to deliberate on the implications of GATS for higher education on the continent.
AFRICA: LEARNING TO SURVIVE
Universal primary education is "the single most effective preventive weapon against HIV/AIDS," says a new report by Oxfam International. But donor countries are failing to come up with even the minimal funds they have pledged to support African countries under an optimistically named "Fast Track Initiative" to expand education funding. This latest edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin includes excerpts from the press release and executive summary from Oxfam International launching the "Learning to Survive" report, and a short extract from that report on funding shortfalls in Niger, one of the Fast Track countries where donors have failed to provide promised support.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21739
AFRICA: RICH URGED ON CHILD EDUCATION AID
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3658369.stm
Rich countries of the G8 are being pressed to provide funding needed to achieve an objective of ensuring that every child has an education. Finance and development ministers have been warned that efforts to achieve a number of other objectives for tackling poverty are not on track. The meeting of the joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund committee is being held in Washington.
AFRICA: WORLD YOUTH REPORT 2003: THE GLOBAL SITUATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/wyr/index.html
Overall, young people today are better off than previous generations, but many are still severely hindered by a lack of education, poverty, health risks, unemployment and the impact of conflict, a new United Nations report on the global situation of youth reveals. The World Youth Report 2003 provides an overview of the global situation of young people. The first 10 chapters focus on the priority areas of education, employment, extreme poverty, health issues, the environment, drugs, delinquency, leisure time, the situation of girls and young women, and youth participation in decision-making identified by the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) adopted by the General Assembly in 1995.
AFRICA: 'WE NEED BILLIONS, NOT MILLIONS'
http://globalmarch.org/act-now/sat.php
Speaking on behalf of 100 Million children deprived from their fundamental right to education. Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson of the Global Campaign for Education and Global March Against Child Labour slammed rich countries for breaking their promises on education. He said: "Is it not a shame that when we talk of military and defence and war budgets, we use the figures of billions, but when it comes to education, we always talk in millions? We have to talk about enough money for education, which has been promised by the international community." He was addressing the official press conference of the IMF-World Bank Development committee spring meeting in Washington, D.C.
CAR: NATIONAL EDUCATION ACTION PLAN ENDORSED
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40758
The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has endorsed an "Education for All" action plan, aimed at guaranteeing qualitative education for all citizens, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Saturday. The radio reported that the action plan was endorsed/adopted after a seminar held in the capital, Bangui, from Wednesday to Friday. The UN Development Programme, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), UNESCO and Coopération Francaise (French Cooperation) facilitated the seminar.
SOUTH AFRICA: AFRICAN LANGUAGES 'UNDER SIEGE'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404260620.html
University students are saying hamba kahle (farewell) to South Africa's indigenous tongues as they turn their backs on studying African languages. Language experts said this week that they feared for the future of the nine official African languages as English became the language of technology, commerce and government. "Indigenous languages are under siege. Parents in townships equate education with competency in English," said Professor Mohlomi Moleleki, chairman of the Pan South African Language Board and head of African languages at the University of the Free State.
SOUTH AFRICA: WITS STUDENTS PROTEST OVER FINANCIAL AID
Protesting Wits University students tried to break into the main library and the closed cafeteria on the campus as they protested against the slashing of financial aid. Earlier they barged into lecture halls on the east campus turning desks over and tearing up engineering students' exam papers, in a successful bid to halt classes, a reporter on the scene said. Meanwhile a group of Wits academics have written a letter protesting about the heavy police presence on campus. Click on the link below to read the letter.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21690
16. Social Welfare
AFRICA/GLOBAL: CHILD LABOUR AND ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES
http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC14725 &Resource=f1children
Analyses of the determinants of child labour have largely neglected the role of access to basic services. The availability of these services can affect the value of children's time and, concomitantly, household decisions concerning how this time is allocated between school and work. Therefore, this paper investigates the link between child labour and water and electricity access in five countries, namely El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Morocco and Yemen.
AFRICA: SCALE OF AFRICAN SLAVERY REVEALED
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3652021.stm
The trafficking of human beings is a problem in every African country, says the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). The report, which covers 53 African nations, says children are the biggest victims in what is a very complex phenomenon. It describes how they are forced into slavery, recruited as child soldiers or sold into prostitution.
ANGOLA: SPECIALISED MALARIA CENTRE CURBS CHILD DEATHS
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40755
A few months ago nine-month-old Aurelio Clemente, battling with malaria and meningitis, would have been yet another child mortality statistic in Angola, where one in four children die before their fifth birthday. But since the opening of a specialised malaria centre earlier this year in Kuito, capital of the central province of Bie, Aurelio's chances of survival have improved considerably.
LIBERIA: WARLORDS MUST FACE JUSTICE FOR ARMING CHILDREN, WEAH SUGGESTS
http://allafrica.com/stories/200404261102.html
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Liberian soccer legend George Weah has suggested that heads of warring factions in the country should face justice for arming innocent Liberian children during the country's recent bloody conflict. Weah said it was a violation of local and international laws, conventions and treaties for warlords to have given weapons to children to fight. He observed that most of the children who joined the various armed groups, were either raped or conscripted against their will. The UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador pointed out that it was important for warlords to face justice in order to explain why they armed innocent Liberian children.
SENEGAL: CHILDREN - THE FIRST VICTIMS OF MALARIA
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40793
Matam, in the far north of Senegal was chosen to host this year's fourth annual Africa Malaria day celebrations, with organisers highlighting the vulnerability of children to this potentially fatal mosquito-born disease. "Can we dream, one day, of a malaria-free world?" chanted a group of children to the assembled dignitaries, press and local community. This year, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, whose members include UNICEF, the WHO, the UNDP and the World Bank, worked with the government of Senegal to highlight the risks faced by children.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: MAJOR DESTINATION FOR TRAFFICKERS IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40730
South Africa is the major destination for human traffickers, with women and children from more than 10 African countries being smuggled into the country, according to a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report released on Friday. The report, "Trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, in Africa", said South Africa was also a favoured destination for global traffickers, who smuggled in women and girls from Thailand for prostitution.
ZIMBABWE: HUNGER KILLS NEARLY 50 CHILDREN
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1081423621594B254 &set_id=1
Sixty-three people, 48 of them children, died from hunger last month in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, a health official was quoted as saying in a newspaper report on Friday. A top health official in the city, Zanele Hwalima, told the Zimbabwe Independent that "poverty, food shortages and inability to access nutrients" contributed to the deaths. Health officials in Bulawayo were not immediately available to confirm the figures.
17. Racism and Xenophobia
AFRICA/BRAZIL: BRAZIL GRAPPLES WITH MOVES TO RACIAL UNITY
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040426-092929-3069r.htm
Nearly half of Brazil's 178 million people are descendants of black Africans. If they can be encouraged to start speaking with their pocketbooks, they will be hard to ignore, activists say. Racial unity has long been elusive in Brazil. Even though the country projects an image of tolerance and equality, people with lighter skin hold most of the country's wealth and power.
AFRICA/GLOBAL: IS IT TRUE? RACISM: IN THEORY AND IN PRACTICE
http://www.tuftsdaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART /2004/04/27/408dc62c27ac8
Racism is an assault, often intentional but also covert, by individual acts or regular practice, against persons for the sole reason of their ancestry, history, or physical appearance. The person who has never had an encounter with someone hostile to his or her race will find it hard to comprehend. It is sheer horror, the worst of mockery. What then is race? This is a much harder question. Racial theorists like to say that race is both real and imaginary, a construct and a reality. This desire to have it both ways leads to some odd and contradictory conclusions.
Contact: grimes@tuftsdaily.com
AFRICA/USA: METHODISTS SEE U.S. 'RACISM' AS MEMBERS' VISAS DENIED
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking &storyId=856582&tw=wn_wire_story
Leaders of the United Methodist Church accused Washington of "racism" on Tuesday after dozens of African and Asian church members were barred from attending a special conference of the third-largest Christian denomination in the United States. At least eight delegates from the Philippines and at least 17 from various African countries were unable to attend the church's general conference, a rule-making session held once every four years, after the U.S. government rejected their visa applications.
SOUTH AFRICA: DREAMING OF A WHITE(R) CHRISTMAS
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=23498
The swearing in of head of state Thabo Mbeki coincided with the tenth anniversary of South Africa's first all-race election in 1994, which put an end to over three centuries of colonial and apartheid rule. Not to be outdone, members of the Volksversetaksie, a pressure group which claims to articulate the grievances of Afrikaans-speaking whites, or Afrikaners, organised an alternative event Tuesday under the slogan 'Ten Years - Ten Grievances'. Their complaints focus on South Africa's land reform programme, crime and violence, alleged racism - and what the group describes as an attack on Afrikaans culture.
18. Environment
AFRICA/GLOBAL: NATIONS, SCIENTISTS AGREE ON GLOBAL CLIMATE WATCH SYSTEM
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-27/s_23197.asp
Dozens of nations and international organisations have endorsed a 10-year blueprint for a global climate watch system that would let governments share information about the Earth to assess climate change, forecast natural disasters and fight disease. The Earth Observation Summit assembled 47 nations and more than two dozen international scientific and humanitarian organisations in Tokyo to discuss forming a monitoring system by 2005. Details aren't expected to emerge until next year, but the plan through 2015 seeks to save billions of U.S. dollars and lives lost due to drought or diseases such as malaria.
AFRICA: AFRICAN HEADS OF STATE MEET AT NIGER RIVER BASIN CONFERENCE
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-27/s_23198.asp
African leaders gathered in Paris on Monday for a conference on the receding waters of the Niger River, the continent's third-longest river and a lifeline that sustains 100 million people. Representatives of nine African countries are trying to come up with an action plan to encourage better management of the water and prevent its levels from dropping further. "The basin is today threatened with becoming a place of desolation and misery," said Niger President Mamadou Tandja, who is head of the Niger Basin Authority.
AFRICA: ECO-IMPERIALISM IS KILLING AFRICAN CHILDREN
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews /TPStory/LAC/20040427/COWENT27/TPComment /Columnists
Hard on the heels of Earth Day came Africa Malaria Day. Earth Day got more coverage, and that's a shame, because malaria is as big a scourge as AIDS, maybe worse. Malaria kills two million people a year and ravages economies. In Africa, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds, and many who don't die suffer brain damage. But we've been blinded by environmental paternalism. And so we're standing back and watching. The problem is our irrational aversion to DDT, which, in the popular imagination, is the most toxic pesticide known to man. So allergic are we to DDT that the World Health Organisation will not fund its use, and most agencies are pushing for a ban worldwide. This, despite massive evidence that DDT as it is used today does no harm to people or the environment - and saves lives.
AFRICA: FARMING IS BIGGEST GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT, SAYS NEW BOOK
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-29/s_22824.asp
Inefficient farming practices are helping to drive deforestation, pollution, ocean degradation, and species loss and constitute the most serious environmental threat in the world today, according to a new book. According to World Agriculture and the Environment, a global survey by Dr. Jason Clay, head of the Center for Conservation Innovation at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), agriculture contributes to serious environmental, social, and economic problems, particularly in developing countries.
MALAWI: MALAWI LOSES K36.5 BILLION THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS EVERY YEAR
http://www.nationmalawi.com/articles.asp?articleID=7980
Malawi loses about $341 million every year through environmental related problems. This figure is more than half of the current annual national budget and represents a third of the country's total Gross Domestic Product. Energy and Mining Minister Hetherwick Ntaba said: "Laws to govern the environment are there but there is no one willing to enforce them. Our small and fragile economy cannot afford this waste."
MOZAMBIQUE: GREENHOUSE GAS RESOLUTION GIVEN GO-AHEAD
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-27/s_23201.asp
Parliament unanimously approved a resolution ratifying the Kyoto protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, saying Mozambique must play its part in seeking to avert global warming. "Although Mozambique makes a negligible contribution to greenhouse gases, we must think and act globally," Deputy Environment Minister Francisco Mabjaia said. The resolution now goes to President Joachim Chissano for his signature. The 1997 agreement seeks to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are widely seen as a key factor behind global warming.
TANZANIA: WILDLIFE CONSERVATION POLICIES AND THE INCENTIVE TO HUNT
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC14563
This paper from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology examines the factors which determine participation and effort in illegal hunting, in western Serengeti, Tanzania. It studies the impact on illegal hunting of the integrated conservation and development project, the Serengeti Regional Conservation Project (SRCP), and looks at how the pattern of crop production in agriculture, market accessibility and wildlife-induced damage to crops and domestic animals affect illegal hunting.
19. Land and Land Rights
AFRICA: LAND AS A GLOBAL ISSUE - A LUTA CONTINUA!
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods /landrights/downloads/land_global_issue.rtf
Land is always a deeply political issue, involving highly disputed and often very dangerous terrain, as recent events in Zimbabwe have illustrated all too graphically. But working on land requires adopting very long term horizons and sticking with things through thick and thin, for these are long term processes which defy quick fixes or easy final solutions. Contexts do differ greatly but it is clear that the clumsy imposition of liberalisation, the rolling back of the role of the state and of the state marketing boards, grain reserves and the like, combined with manifestly unfair international trade rules, have left many poor people far more vulnerable than they were and far more dependent on access to land than ever before, while that very access is increasingly threatened in a globalising world. In such a context, struggles for land rights continue to form a vital part of the wider fight for global justice. This is according to a paper for a Oxfam-Zambia Copperbelt Livelihoods Improvement Programme Land Workshop held on 29-30 March 2004.
CAMEROON: WILL NEW PLANS FOR AGRICULTURE TAKE ROOT?
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=23448
The problems that affect agriculture in Cameroon are dispiritingly familiar: underinvestment in rural areas, limited access to water - and a global trading environment that disadvantages small-scale farmers. Government says it is trying to tackle the situation. But, civil society groups don't necessarily view its efforts with optimism. Although 50 percent of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, "it only receives eight percent of total state investment monies," says Alain Kounga, president of the Association of Development Promoters.
NAMIBIA: NAMIBIAN PRESIDENT URGES CALM OVER LAND EXPROPRIATION
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news /archive/2004/04/21/international1447EDT0686.DTL
Brushing off fears of Zimbabwe-style farm invasions, President Sam Nujoma assured Namibians on Wednesday that a land expropriation program would be conducted in a legal and orderly manner. Most of Namibia's productive farmland is owned by whites who make up less than 5 percent of the country's people. The government is in the process of identifying a number of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: MUGABE GETS BACKING FOR LAND POLICY
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimes /newsst/newsst1082696463.asp
Delegates at a conference of Southern African former liberation movements and their sympathisers have given their backing to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial stand on land reform. "Mugabe's not doing any more than what a lot of indigenous people are asking for around the world," Michael Anderson, an Australian aboriginal activist and founder of the Sovereign Union of Aboriginal Nations and People of Australia, told AFP. "They want self-determination, they want return of the lands, control of their natural resources," he said.
20. Media and Freedom of Expression
AFRICA/GLOBAL: WORLD ELECTRONIC MEDIA FORUM FINAL REPORT AVAILABLE
http://www.wemfmedia.org/
The UN World Electronic Media Forum final report has been published and is now available on the World Electronic Media Forum web site. The World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF) brought together broadcasters, journalists and experts to discuss critical issues of media content relating to world violence, violence in the media, media freedom in the information society, the influence of the media in the world political agendas, etc. The report is a publication which collects the speeches and positions of the 650 broadcasters from around the world present during the UN World Summit on the Information Society(WSIS) (Geneva, December 2003).
AFRICA/GLOBAL: UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS JOIN TO EXPOSE AND MAP NET CENSORSHIP
http://www.crisinfo.org/index.php/content/view /full/252/
An international team of academics from the University of Cambridge, Harvard Law School, and the University of Toronto has begun formally monitoring worldwide Internet censorship and surveillance. "The Open Net Initiative represents a new approach to university-based research," says Cambridge University's Rafal Rohozinski. "We fuse cutting-edge intelligence-derived techniques with a networked model of analysis that includes some of the brightest minds in this field - we are striving to become the eyes and ears on digital censorship worldwide."
ETHIOPIA: FORMER EDITOR STILL DETAINED AND UNABLE TO RAISE BAIL
The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is concerned by the continued detention of Ethiopia journalist, Merid Estifanos, who has been unable to raise the elevated bail demanded of him. Estifanos, the former editor of the independent Amharic weekly newspaper Satenaw, appeared in court on 2 April 2004 to face charges of defamation. He had been led to believe that the charge referred to an alleged defamation of the Ethiopian foreign minister Seyum Mesfin. However, in court, he discovered he was also being charged with defamation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21770
MOROCCO: EDITOR OF WEEKLY IMPRISONED FOLLOWING ATTACK ON GOVERNMENT MINISTER
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) says it is extremely concerned over the abrupt imprisonment of Anas Tadili, editor of the weekly "Akhbar al-Ousbouaâ", on 15 April 2004. While officially arrested over a legal matter dating back 10 years, RSF fears Tadili may have been detained for an article published in his newspaper, and that the arrest was in fact the result of political pressure. On 9 April, Tadili's paper published an article entitled "Homosexuality and the political class in Morocco", detailing the homosexual adventures of a government minister at a resort in northern Morocco.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21766
SOMALIA: TWO JOURNALISTS DETAINED
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is deeply concerned about reports that two journalists have been detained in separate incidents in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Abdishakur Yusuf Ali, editor-in-chief of the independent War-Ogaal newspaper in Bossasso, Puntland, was arrested on April 21, because of an article accusing Puntland Finance Minister Abdirahman Mohamud Farole of corruption, said local journalists. Meanwhile Abdirahman Haji Dahir, a reporter for the independent Somaliland daily Haatuf, was arrested in the port city of Berbera because of an article that mentioned differences between Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin and his vice president, said local journalists.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21768
SOUTH AFRICA: FXI RELEASES THIRD REPORT ON STATE OF MEDIA FREEDOM
The Anti-Censorship Programme (ACP) of the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has released its third six monthly report highlighting censorship activities and other violations of the right to freedom of expression in South Africa. The report notes with concern that censorship activities are still on the rise, especially in relation to individuals and organisations embarking on popular forms of expression. For instance, it highlights a recent case where the state, without legitimate reasons, prohibited a peaceful demonstration planned by the Anti-Privatisation Forum in Johannesburg. When the Forum's members went ahead with the march in spite of the ban, 57 of them were arrested and arraigned in court.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21771
SUDAN: MEDIA CLAMPDOWN CONDEMNED
http://africa.oneworld.net/article/view/84874 /1/
The International Federation of Journalists has called on the Sudanese government to immediately lift repressive measures against foreign press coverage of the unfolding disaster in the west of the country where thousands of civilians have reportedly been massacred in a drama reminiscent of the Rwanda crisis ten years ago.
21. News from the Diaspora
CELEBRATING THE POSITIVE ROLES OF AFRICANS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT
http://www.ingoconference.com/home.html
Nexus International and a host of African community organisations are organising for the first time an African "Third Sector" Conference on the theme "The Third Sector, Overseas Missions in the UK, Innovation & African Development" that will bring together African Overseas Missions in the UK, African development organisations, international NGOs and philanthropic individuals from Africa. This Conference will also celebrate the positive role of Africans in their own development, and explore ways by which a reasonable framework and level of co-operation and collaborative networks could be established.
DIASPORIC STUDIES AT THE BERKELEY CENTER FOR GLOBALIZATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
http://bcgit.berkeley.edu/projects.html
In order to explain the specific nature of diasporic politics and to develop a theoretical framework to guide our analysis, a new research project will identify the transnational parameters that distinguish diasporic engagements from domestic politics and international relations. It will establish that diasporic politics partakes in both hostland and homeland politics, which provides it with a spatial basis of operation and mechanisms of political intervention.
NORTH-WEST CAMEROON: BALI NYONGA CELEBRATE IN POMP
http://www.icicemac.com/nouvelle/index.php3?nid=1381
An appeal by Bali Urban Council (BUC), Cameroon, headed by Chairman Ba Gwangatua Forkusam to Bali Nyonga elites at home and abroad to help alleviate acute water shortage problems led Dr. Richard Fosam (Ba Tutuwan), a senior engineer resident in Luxembourg to respond with a fresh water pump.
RETRACING OUR STEPS - THE PATH TO DEVELOPMENT
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive /artikel.php?ID=56451
"We need to learn more about the slave trade, find out the roles of our ancestors in its perpetration, use it as a basis to understand our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, and find out how to turn that tragedy into something more positive for our country, our continent and our people both here and in the Diaspora." These were the words of Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City, when he launched this year's Emancipation Day celebration under a sub-theme: "Retracing Our Steps-The Path to Development" on April 14 in Accra.
TOGOLESE DIASPORA FOR DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT (DIASTODE) HIGHLIGHTS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN TOGO
http://www.diastode.org/24
The organisation's website (http://www.diastode.org/index.html) features harrowing pictures of what it describes as the ongoing human rights abuses in Togo.
WHO WILL PAY FOR ZIMBABWE?
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1591602-6078-0,00.html
This article considers the pivotal role that Zimbabwe's diaspora could play in a post-Mugabe environment but points to the lack of action around such a forward-looking agenda or resources to support various aspects of Zimbabwe's recovery.
22. Advocacy and Campaigns
SPEAK OUT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
http://web.amnesty.org/actforwomen/index-eng
Violence against women is the greatest human rights scandal of our times. From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family. Visit Amnesty International's website to find out what action you can take.
23. Internet and Technology
AFRICA: THE WORLD'S FASTEST GROWING MOBILE MARKET
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2004 /04.html
Mobile subscriber numbers in Africa have increased by over 1000% between 1998 and 2003 to reach 51.8 million. Mobile user numbers have long passed those of fixed line, which stood at 25.1 million at the end of 2003. In its latest publication African Telecommunication Indicators 2004, issued on the occasion of ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004 taking place in Cairo, Egypt from 4-8 May, ITU examines the reasons behind the continent's rapid mobile sector expansion and explores the sector's future avenues for growth.
AN INCLUSIVE INFORMATION SOCIETY - RHETORIC OR REALISATION?
http://www.iconnect-online.org/base/ic_show_news?sc=107 &id=2370
Involving years of preparation, the World Summit on the Information Society was an enormously resource-intensive event, and many wonder if all this money and effort would not have been better spent on concrete actions to address - rather than talk about - the digital divide. This brief looks at what was said, and what results were actually achieved, in this first phase of WSIS.
GLOBAL SURVEY ON WSIS TARGETS
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2004 /Advisory-04.html
The International Telecommunication Union, the organizing entity of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), is conducting a survey to obtain views on the perceived importance of agreed upon targets for improving connectivity and access in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The targets outlined in the WSIS Plan of Action were agreed to by 175 countries represented at the first phase of the Summit in Geneva, 10-12 December 2003. The objectives of WSIS are to build an inclusive information society that will put the potential of ICTs at the service of development and to promote the use of information and knowledge for the achievement of internationally agreed upon development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
NO COMPUTERS MEANS NO ALTERNATIVES FOR VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN EGYPT
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=18647
Assiut is the hub of Upper Egypt - a city that has a large university, many educational institutions and a vibrant economic history. However, Assiut also has a chronically high unemployment rate among its educated young people with over 20% being unemployed according to official statistics in 2002. APC member in Egypt, ArabDev, has been working with Assiut Childhood and Development Association (ACDA) to counteract unemployment with IT skills training for the local job market.
ON ROUTE TO AN E-SOCIETY:HUMAN DEPENDENCE ON TECHNOLOGY AND ADAPTATION NEEDS
http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/publications /knowledge_report/memos/sabri.pdf
For years on end technology has been taking the world by surprise. The very things that are now operating machines, controlling nuclear power plants, assembling cars and running entire factories are the ones to have brought about an industrial revolution, an economic change and most importantly a social transformation. Information technology is no exception. Its evolution, advancement and results continue to spread at a record pace. Yet the integration of such technology into human social lives remains questionable. This paper aims to address the issue of the growth of human reliance on information technology and the arguments in favour of technology-human adaptation.
24. eNewsletters and Mailing Lists
FIGHTING AIDS IN CENTRAL AFRICA DISCUSSION LIST
The African Regional Youth Initiative (ARYI) invites women to participate in an on line discussion on the priorities in the fight against HIV/AIDS and its socio-economic consequences on women living in the Central Africa region. The Women's Program of the African Regional Youth Initiative seeks to empower and raise the voice of women in Central Africa through capacity building and transformative leadership. The online discussion is in both English and French. It will last two months and a document will be produced as a key output. The discussion commences on 19 April 2004. For more information, please contact the ARYI Women's Program coordinator, Sylvie N Ngoueme, sniombo@yahoo.fr. To subscribe to the discussion group, please send a blank email to: aryi_womenprogram-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
PDA4HEALTH - NEW ELECTRONIC FORUM
PDA4HEALTH, a new electronic forum setup by SATELLIFE, aims to share up-to-date information, knowledge, and experiences on the use of handheld computers for data collection and information dissemination in developing country health settings. Organisations and institutions engaged in field projects are encouraged to exchange the lessons they have learned, challenges faced, and successes achieved. Join for free by sending a message to the email address below.
Contact: pda4health-join@healthnet.org
WORLD RIVERS REVIEW AVAILABLE ONLINE
http://www.irn.org/pubs/wrr/
The April 2004 issue of the International Rivers Network's bimonthly magazine, World Rivers Review, is now available online. The issue's special focus is on the legacy of past World Bank projects. It contains several references to Africa, including an article on a proposed new dam on the Nile that will drown cultural treasures and communities.
25. Fundraising and Useful Resources
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: MSP PROJECT ON MARKETIZATION, DAILY LIFE AND HIV IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
http://www.equinetafrica.org/more.php?id=39_0_1_0_M3
The Municipal Services Project is seeking proposals for research on the impact of the marketization of key basic services (specifically water and electricity) on the ability of households with HIV/AIDS to cope with the illness. This research is intended to act as a pilot study for a larger investigation of this issue and is exploratory in nature. Up to US$10,000 is available for this phase of the work. The marketization of services (e.g. privatization, cost recovery) is most advanced in South Africa, but similar developments are occurring throughout the region. We will consider proposals from any Southern African country where the marketization and health link can be adequately investigated. Proposals must be submitted by May 15, 2004.
FIVE FOUNDATIONS COMMIT $10 MILLION FOR COMMEMORATIVE GRANTS
Special Fund Celebrates Tenth Anniversary Of South Africa's Democracy
http://www.fordfound.org/news/view_news_detail.cfm?news_index=142
The Ford, Kellogg and Mott foundations, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund have announced a commitment of a total of $10 million for a special fund for grants commemorating the tenth anniversary of South Africa's democracy and its impact on the social and economic development of southern Africa. The commemorative grants will support efforts to strengthen democratic institutions and encourage public debate about the experiences and advances since South Africa's first democratic elections ten years ago. The five foundations will identify projects for special funding to address the spread of HIV/AIDS, strengthen the role of NGOs in South Africa's democracy, help close the economic gap between disadvantaged and more advantaged groups, and other initiatives to be defined.
SAGA, DFID AND SIDA ESTABLISH A REGIONAL FUNDING AND POLICY LEARNING FACILITY
www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle &sid=553
The UK Department for International Development in South Africa (DFID-SA), the Southern African Grantmakers' Association (SAGA) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) have formed a partnership around the establishment of a regional funding facility and policy resource, provisionally named the Southern African Trust. The Trust will consist of a Regional Public Policy Learning Facility (RPPLF) and a grant-making facility. DFID has set aside GB£10mn and SIDA has also committed funds to the Trust.
WHEN FOUNDATIONS SHOULD LEAD - AND WHEN THEY SHOULD GET OUT OF THE WAY
http://www.soros.org/resources/articles_publications /articles/wisconsin_20040408
In a speech at the annual meeting of the Donor Forum of Wisconsin, Open Society Institute Vice President and Director of U.S. Programs Gara LaMarche discussed "the need for foundations to pursue their mission...through grantmaking that is focused at least in part on public policy goals." He also contended - by drawing attention to what he considers worrisome political, social, and economic developments in the United States - that foundations must "lead with their voice" and take a more active and direct role in opposing or supporting key initiatives when appropriate.
26. Courses, Seminars, and Workshops
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRAINING PROGRAMME
10 - 15th May; 1st Week Of June
Isis-WICCE Information Technology Training programme for women and girls is registering interested persons for the following sessions:
- Introduction to computers and MS Word (starting the week of 10 - 15th May up to the end of the month)
- The Internet and related applications (starting 1st week of June)
Each session accommodates 20 persons. If you are interested please register with Irene Tusiime at Isis-WICCE. Priority is for women and girls. Tel: 543953 Trainees will have free access to the Internet during the training period.
Contact: isis@starcom.co.ug
SEMINAR: THE RELEVANCE OF ROSA LUXEMBURG IN AN ERA OF ENDLESS WARS
20-22 May, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Anti-War Coalition in partnership with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation invites you to a seminar titled ' The Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg in an Era of Endless Wars'. The seminar will be held from May 20th to the 22nd at the Workers' Library, Newtown, Johannesburg. Invited guests are expected from the following countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, United States and Germany.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21764
27. Jobs
KENYA: SHORT TERM CONSULTANT
A community based grass-roots organisation in Nairobi (Kenya) involved in disability, child rights, income generation and development issues, is looking for a short term consultant preferably from Kenya itself. The person should have experience in participatory methodologies and non-governmental organisational development. The total duration of the consultancy for conducting a workshop will be around 7 days, some time in November or December 2004. Interested persons should send their CV to sunil.deepak@aifo.it
SOUTH AFRICA: JOHANNESBURG POSTS AVAILABLE
ActionAid International
ActionAid International, is a unique partnership of people and organisations in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. ActionAid International works with over 9 million of the world's poorest people to eradicate poverty and marginalisation and the injustice and inequity that cause it. ActionAid International has recently relocated it's International Secretariat to Johannesburg, South Africa and several exciting job opportunities currently exist. Appropriately qualified and experienced applicants are invited to submit CVs for the following positions: Head of Governance Development; Head of Human Resources and OD; Head of Finance and Administration; Accounting Officer; Executive Assistant; HR Administrator; Reception/Front Desk.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21761
SOUTHERN AFRICA: HIV/AIDS PROGRAMME OFFICER
Open Society Initiative For Southern Africa
In addition to working through partnerships with others, and advocating for open society ideals, the HIV/AIDS Programme Officer (PO) will develop strategies, guidelines and policies for OSISA's HIV /AIDS programme to enable OSISA to make a meaningful contribution to HIV /AIDS response in Southern Africa. The vision of the programme is a "Southern African region that is totally engaged in overcoming the HIV/AIDS pandemic through the deployment of appropriate policies, resources and leadership".
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21762
WEST AFRICA: INTERN
International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is seeking an intern to work for its West Africa Project for a period of six months. This internship involves working with the West Africa Project Director providing assistance in research and writing and editing reports on conflict issues in this area. This paid internship would suit someone with a recent graduate or postgraduate degree (from an African university) in political science, conflict studies or public administration.
Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=21763
28. Books and Arts
ART FOR HUMANITY
http://www.ahr.org.za/newsletter022004/
The latest Art for Humanity newsletter contains the following:
* Humanity's Fingerprints
* Taking Art to Humanity
* Lottery Sponsors Billboard Roll-Out
* 'God wants his people' in Umlazi
* Uniting to Fight for Children's Rights
* AfH Goes to Holland - Bon Voyage!
GOD HAS A DREAM
Desmond Tutu
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385477848 /pambazukanews-20/102-0868850-4325732?creative=125581 &camp=2321&link_code=as1
Reading this book is like having a long, and somewhat homiletical, afternoon tea with former Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Tutu. Four years after No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu's reflection on his role as Chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, comes this deeply personal book that Tutu calls "a cumulative expression of my life's work."
KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST
Adam Hochschild
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?o=1&l=as1&f=ifr&t=pambazukanews-20 &dev-t=D68HUNXKLHS4J&p=8&asins=0618001905 &IS2=1<1=_blank
King Leopold of Belgium, writes historian Adam Hochschild in this grim history, did not much care for his native land or his subjects, all of which he dismissed as "small country, small people." Even so, he searched the globe to find a colony for Belgium, frantic that the scramble of other European powers for overseas dominions in Africa and Asia would leave nothing for himself or his people.
MEMORY
Dennis Brutus
When we marched - slithered - through slimy mud past riot-shielded cops in Alex, while children peered wild-eyed from dark windows, for some of us these were re-runs of earlier apartheid - burdened days: but then it was defiant resolution that drove our hearts braced our feet: now sadness at betrayal sat stone-heavy on our hearts, our shouted slogans, weighted with irony, hung heavy over us in grimy air, we winced at familiar oft-repeated lies.
April 13/14 2004
* Alex = Alexandra Township, slum in Johannesburg, 31 August, 2002
SLAVE
Mende Nazer
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?o=1&l=as1&f=ifr&t=pambazukanews-20 &dev-t=D68HUNXKLHS4J&p=8&asins=1586482122 &IS2=1<1=_blank
Born into the Karko tribe in the Nuba mountains of northern Sudan, Nazer has written a straightforward, harrowing memoir that's a sobering reminder that slavery still needs to be stamped out. The first, substantial section of the book concentrates on Nazer's idyllic childhood, made all the more poignant for the misery readers know is to come. Nazer is presented as intelligent and headstrong, and her people as peaceful, generous and kind.
URANIUM ROAD
David Fig
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132 &fArticleId=411181
Mordechai Vanunu's release dovetailed with the release this week of a book - dedicated to him - on South Africa's nuclear weapons programme. The book, Uranium Road, was due to be released at a launch organised by the Nuclear Energy Costs the Earth Campaign of Earthlife Africa. It was written by environmentalist David Fig. Before he was locked up, Vanunu had alluded to nuclear links between South Africa and Israel during the apartheid era. According to Fig, Israel was just one of a number of countries that supported South Africa's nuclear programme during the apartheid era.
WHEN VICTIMS BECOME KILLERS
Mahmood Mamdani
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?o=1&l=as1&f=ifr&t=pambazukanews-20 &dev-t=D68HUNXKLHS4J&p=8&asins=0691102805 &IS2=1<1=_blank
Rejecting easy explanations of the Rwanda genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, one of Africa's best-known intellectuals situates the tragedy in its proper context. He coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutu to turn so brutally on their neighbours.
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