The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa
Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839
CONTENTS:
1. Action alerts, 2. Announcements, 3. Zimbabwe update, 4. Women & gender, 5. Human rights, 6. Refugees & forced migration, 7. Social movements, 8. Emerging powers news, 9. Elections & governance, 10. Corruption, 11. Development, 12. Health & HIV/AIDS, 13. LGBTI, 14. Environment, 15. Land & land rights, 16. Food Justice, 17. Media & freedom of expression, 18. Conflict & emergencies, 19. Internet & technology, 20. eNewsletters & mailing lists, 21. Courses, seminars, & workshops, 22. Publications, 23. Jobs
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Highlights from this issue
ACTION ALERTS: Stop UNESCO-Obiang Prize! ANNOUNCEMENTS: Fahamu Pan-African diary 2011: Call for entries ZIMBABWE UPDATE: Jestina Mukoko honoured WOMEN & GENDER: 10 facts on obstetric fistula CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Displaced DRC civilians trapped by conflict HUMAN RIGHTS: Eritrea accused of systematic abuses REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Burundian refugees granted Tanzanian citizenship EMERGING POWERS NEWS: Emerging powers news roundup SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: ERA accuses Shell, alleges tax evasion bid ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Grave concerns over Rwanda’s elections HEALTH & HIV/AIDS: Strengthening pharmaceutical innovation in Africa CORRUPTION: Africa to crack down on illicit diamond trade DEVELOPMENT: Burkina Faso stops water, electricity privatization LGBTI: New Zambia constitution forbids same-sex marriages ENVIRONMENT: Commodity fetishism in climate science and policy LAND & LAND RIGHTS: How food and water are driving a 21st Century land grab FOOD JUSTICE: GM contamination of corn is ‘crime against humanity’ MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: World Day against Cyber Censorship INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY: Feminist Tech Exchange reboots ENEWSLETTERS & MAILING LISTS: AfricaFocus Bulletin: Africa: Remmittances update PLUS: jobs, fundraising & useful resources, publications, courses, seminars and workshops
*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit del.icio.us/pambazuka_news
1 Action alerts
STOP THE UNESCO-OBIANG INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR THE LIFE SCIENCES
EG Justice Needs Your Help.
Sign the petition ( www.gopetition.com/online/34452.html/ ) now to STOP the UNESCO-Obiang International Prize for the Life Sciences.
In 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created the UNESCO-Obiang International Prize for the Life Sciences, named for and financed by the autocratic and abusive president of the oil-rich West African country of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
The prize is said to recognize ‘scientific achievements that improve the quality of human life.’ Meanwhile, the quality of life in Equatorial Guinea today remains abysmal. In spite of having attained the highest GDP per capita in Sub-Saharan Africa, 60 per cent of Equatoguineans live on less than US$1 a day in conditions comparable to Haiti or Chad. President Obiang has neglected to invest available resources in basic social services, resulting in declining primary school attendance, poor health indicators, and needless poverty.
The UNESCO Obiang Prize is a cynical ploy to co-opt the worthy name and reputation of UNESCO to enhance the image of a notorious dictatorship. The prize amounts to international approval for this kleptocratic and abusive regime and it undermines UNESCO’s mission to promote education, science, culture, and human rights.
You can help, by signing this petition to UNESCO! ( www.gopetition.com/online/34452.html/ )
Let’s send a message to UNESCO that corruption and abuse should not be rewarded and that funds used to create this prize should be reinvested in the people of Equatorial Guinea. ******
2 Announcements
PAN-AFRICAN DIARY 2011: CALL FOR ENTRIES
Pambazuka Press is planning to publish a Pan-African activists’ diary for 2011. The diary will be a handbook of key information about Pan-African history, quotations from thinkers and activists (women and men) in Africa and the diaspora, pictures of critical events in our past, information about key events during 2011, and lots more.
EVENTS
If you would like us to include events ‘ meetings, conferences, festivals, actions, courses, publications etc – that your organisation is planning to hold in 2011, please send details to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot] org.
QUOTATIONS
If you would like to suggest quotations for publication in the diary, please send them to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot]org. Make sure you include the source of each quote so that those who want to read more will know where to find it.
SUGGESTIONS
If you have suggestions about information you would like to see in the diary, please send them to panafdiary[at] pambazuka [dot] org.
Help make this diary the essential handbook for all activists in Africa and the diaspora. Make sure you get your recommendations in to us by 14 April 2010. Don’t be left out ‘ let us know what events you are planning for 2011.
We can’t guarantee that we will include everything you suggest, but we’ll do our best!
The 2011 Pan-African Diary: the essential tool for freedom and justice! ******
COMPARATIVE AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES ON CHINA AND OTHER EMERGING POWERS IN AFRICA
Call for Proposals
FAHAMU
Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa is a research project initiated by FAHAMU, the network for social justice issues. China’s deepening engagement with Africa is receiving increased attention from the global media, public- and private sectors as well as academic research. This should however not overshadow the activities of other emerging powers in Africa, including India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. This call therefore seeks to develop an African perspective by strengthening the civil society voice in the discourse surrounding the engagement between Africa and these emerging powers.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/62769 ******
3 Zimbabwe update
US SECRETARY OF STATE HONOURS JESTINA MUKOKO
www.swradioafrica.com/news110310/mukoko110310.htm
Jestina Mukoko, the Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, has been honoured by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the annual International Women of Courage Award ceremony. The Secretary of State said: ‘We are honoring women from around the world who have endured isolation and intimidation, violence and imprisonment.’ ******
ZUMA EXPECTED TO RESOLVE POLITICAL RIFT
zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php’art_id=6497&cat=1
South African President Jacob Zuma is expected in Zimbabwe next week amid reports that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC has written to his office saying they want a deadlock to be declared.
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4 Women & gender
AFRICA: AFRICA’S SUCCESS STORIES IN GENDER EMPOWERMENT
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp’idnews=50625
Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning – and wrongly so. ******
GLOBAL: 10 FACTS ON OBSTETRIC FISTULA
www.who.int/features/factfiles/obstetric_fistula/en/index.html
Each year between 50 000 to 100 000 women worldwide are affected by obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal. The development of obstetric fistula is directly linked to one of the major causes of maternal mortality: obstructed labour.
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GLOBAL: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2010 – RIGHTS AND RECOGNITION FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS
Domestic workers around the world are organizing to challenge the harsh, abusive, often slave-like conditions in which they work. They are organizing unions and support networks, and they are mobilizing in support of an international Convention that will finally recognize them as workers and establish their rights in international law. ******
GLOBAL: WHY IS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN NOT ON THE HIV FUNDING AGENDA – YET’
This International Women’s Day, we not only mark the 3 year anniversary of the Women WON’T wait. End HIV and Violence Against Women. NOW. campaign, but also reflect on where we are since the historic 4th World Conference on Women in 1995. The Beijing Platform of Action contained milestone commitments to the world’s women, such as the possibility of a future where it was possible to end all forms of violence against women; women’s poverty and our unequal share of caring work within and outside the home; as well as socio-cultural discrimination, sexual disciplining, and political exclusions of various categories of people, including women.
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NIGERIA: WOMEN PROTEST AT JOS KILLINGS
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8562961.stm
Hundreds of women have taken to the streets of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and the central city of Jos in rallies against Sunday’s massacre near Jos. The women, mostly dressed in black, demanded that the government protect women and children better. ******
SOUTH AFRICA: GENDER LOSES OUT IN BASIC EDUCATION CRISIS
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp’idnews=50633
With the 15th-year review of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women taking place at the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women in New York, South African teachers and education experts say they fear that a special focus on the advancement of girls is getting lost amidst the growing levels of poverty in the country.
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TANZANIA: PREGNANT TEENS FORCED OUT OF SCHOOL
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp’idnews=50623
Pregnancy is the leading cause of dropouts for school girls in Tanzania. And a national law forbidding young mothers to return to school after giving birth did not make it any easier for them to continue their education. But thanks to pressure from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), the Tanzania government has now adopted a new law that allows young mothers to continue their education at their former schools. ******
GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS ON WOMEN
Featuring Norah Matovu-Winyi, Monica Amollo and Pollyne Owoko, the following is a recording ( www.ustream.tv/channel/stand-up-against-poverty ) of a United Nations ‘global conversation’ video-stream on women’s rights, gender equality and maternal health. Drawing on their experiences as gender activists, the participants discuss the women’s movement, meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the future challenges for achieving sexual equality in Kenya.
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5 Human rights
ARICA: PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF RIGHT TO INFORMATION
Participants from the African Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information have released the Regional Findings and Plan of Action to advance the right in Africa. The conference found that while access to information is a fundamental human right, political and institutional constraints in Africa have limited the opportunities to exercise the right. Taking into account the realities of Africa, the regional document serves as an annex to the global Atlanta Declaration and Plan of Action.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/62937
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BOTSWANA: BRITAIN’S FOREIGN OFFICE CRITICIZED FOR MISLEADING PUBLIC
www.survivalinternational.org/news/5641
A London barrister has criticized the UK’s Foreign Office for failing to acknowledge on its website that the Botswana government illegally and forcibly removed Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their ancestral lands.
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CHAD: INSIDE A DICTATOR’S SECRET POLICE
www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/10/chad-inside-dictators-secret-police
For the two decades that he has been free, Souleymane Guengueng has constantly relived the two years he spent in a Chadian prison, where he watched hundreds of cellmates die from torture and disease. Thrown in jail in 1988 for still-unknown reasons, the deeply religious civil servant took an oath before God: If he ever got out alive, he would bring his tormentors to justice.
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EAST AFRICA: IRC INCREASES EFFORTS TO REDUCE CHILD LABOR IN NORTHERN UGANDA
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is building on initial success to reduce child labor in northern Uganda by launching a new program to further tackle the underlying poverty that forces many families to send their children out to work. ******
GLOBAL: ONLINE DIALOGUE ON DOCUMENTING VIOLATIONS: CHOOSING THE RIGHT APPROACH
The on-line dialogue Documenting Violations: Choosing the Right Approach, organised by New Tactics, took place from 27 January to 2 February 2010. The dialogue featured practitioners that have developed database systems to document human rights violations, organisations on the ground documenting violations, and those that are training practitioners on how to choose the right approach and system for their documentation. We looked at options for ways to collect, store and share your human rights data safely and effectively.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/62934
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HORN OF AFRICA: US REPORT ACCUSES ERITREA OF SYSTEMATIC ABUSES
af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE62B0BP20100312
The United States has intensified its criticism of Eritrea, saying the Red Sea state systematically abuses human rights and is a destabilising influence in the Horn of Africa
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KENYA: ANN NJOGU: COURAGE, AND HEART, ON BEHALF OF KENYA’S WOMEN
www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/10/courage-and-heart-behalf-kenyas-women
This week, the US State Department is honoring Ann with the 2010 International Women of Courage Award. With this award the US government pays tribute to outstanding women leaders worldwide, recognizing the courage they’ve shown as they struggle for social justice and human rights. In over a decade as a women’s rights activist, nobody deserves this award more than Ann Njogu, writes Janet Walsh. ******
KENYA: CRIMES RESULTED FROM A POLICY BY IDENTIFIABLE LEADERS – ICC PROSECUTOR
In response to the request by ICC Judges of 18 February 2010, the Prosecutor has clarified that senior political and business leaders associated with the main political parties, the PNU which was in the government at the time of the violence and the ODM which was the main opposition party at the time, organized, enticed and/or financed attacks against the civilian population on account of their perceived ethnic and/or political affiliation pursuant to or on furtherance of a State and/or organizational policy. ******
MALAWI: CIVICUS CONDEMNS DETENTION OF CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVISTS
The Johannesburg-based World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) has condemned the continued detention of three members of the Malawian civil soc iety organisation. CIVICUS said it found no evidence to suggest any incitement of violence against members of the ruling party as alleged by the authorities in Malawi.
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NIGERIA: INVESTIGATE MASSACRE, STEP UP PATROLS
www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/08/nigeria-investigate-massacre-step-patrols
Nigeria’s acting president should make sure that the massacre of at least 200 Christian villagers in central Nigeria on March 7, 2010, is thoroughly and promptly investigated and that those responsible are prosecuted, Human Rights Watch has said.
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6 Refugees & forced migration
BURUNDI: 155,000 BURUNDIAN REFUGEES GRANTED TANZANIAN CITIZENSHIP
About 155,000 Burundian refugees, seeking Tanzanian citizenship, have had their requests granted, according to a communiqu’ from the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), published on Thursday in Bujumbura, the Burundi capital.
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EGYPT: 14 EGYPTIAN NGOS DEMAND A HALT OF MIGRANT KILLINGS ON ISRAEL BORDERS
Fourteen Egyptian human rights groups have expressed their full support of the statement issued by the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights which condemned the Egyptian security forces for killing up to 60 migrants on the Egyptian side of the borders with Israeli since mid 2007.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/62961
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EGYPT: CMRS SHORT COURSES JUNE 2010
The Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo AUC is offering two short courses on refugee issues in June 2010. The first course on “Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Refugees” will be offered from 9:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m. from June 6- 10 and will be taught by Dr. Nancy Baron. The second course on “Introduction to International Refugee Law” will be offered from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from June 20-24 & 26 (with the exception of Friday June 25) and will be taught by Mr. Martin Jones
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UGANDA: AID WORKERS BATTLE TO HELP “FORGOTTEN” REFUGEES
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx’ReportId=88379
With at least 67,000 refugees in southwest Uganda, the government and aid workers are still battling inadequate resources in what a UN official described as a “silent emergency”. “We can hardly meet international standards of indicators such as water, health and food,” Nemia Temporal, deputy representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Uganda, told IRIN on 8 March. “For instance, we are delivering 15 litres [of water] per person per day instead of the standard 20l.”
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UGANDA: ONE DOCTOR FOR 16,200 REFUGEES
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx’ReportId=88396
Inadequate healthcare is just one of many challenges facing the 16,200 refugees in this sprawling camp in western Uganda, which is served by a single doctor. Among those waiting in one of the camp’s two health centres when IRIN visited was Mirian, 30, whose child was shivering with fever, most likely caused by malaria.
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7 Social movements
MAURITIUS: UK CHAGOS SUPPORT ASSOCIATION MARCH UPDATE
On March 10th MPs discussed the Chagos islands as the subject of a Westminster Hall debate, with the overwhelming message from parliamentarians being that the Government should resolve its legal dispute with the Chagossians and restore their right to return. The debate was initiated by Chairman of the Chagos Islands APPG Jeremy Corbyn, who urged the Government to reach a friendly settlement to the impending European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/62958
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NIGERIA: ERA ACCUSES SHELL, ALLEGES TAX EVASION BID
Foremost environmental rights advocacy organization in Nigeria, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), has accused the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, of not being a good corporate citizen in the country. ERA claimed in a statement that the warning by Shell that Nigeria’s declining oil output will be aggravated if the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is passed into law was an attempt to frustrate the move by the country to bring sanity into the sector and recover some level of sovereignty in relation to the resource. ******
SOUTH AFRICA: MIKE SUTCLIFFE BANS ANOTHER ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO MARCH
The notorious Mike Sutcliffe has banned another Abahlali baseMjondolo march. We have, as always, scrupulously followed the laws that govern protest and we have informed the City in good time that we intend to march on Jacob Zuma on 22 March 2010. Yesterday the march convenor, Troy Morrow from the Hillary AbM branch, was verbally informed that permission to march has been denied. The excuse that has been given this time is that the City does not have enough police officers to be able to ensure security at our march. ******
SOUTH AFRICA: TRADERS FURIOUS AS COPS DISMANTLE THEIR STALLS
Western Cape Anti-eviction Campaign
Informal traders in central Mitchells Plain have clashed with police over permits. Chaos erupted in the town centre yesterday morning when nearly 100 traders reacted angrily to the arrival of metro police who said they had been instructed by city officials to remove any structures which blocked the walkways.Many traders were unsure why they were being moved, and started swearing at police as they tried desperately to hold on to their goods and belongings. ******
ZIMBABWE: ZIMCODD TAKES THE HIPC DEBATE TO THE PEOPLE
www.zimcodd.org.zw/index.php’option=com_content&task=view&id=62
The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) has launched the second edition of a grassroots training manual on public debt. The booklet was unveiled in Harare at a reflective meeting held for ZIMCODD members, on debt sustainability measures for Zimbabwe. The launch coincided with the tenth anniversary of the social and economic justice coalition, which was established in year 2000. ******
8 Emerging powers news
EMERGING POWERS NEW ROUNDUP
In this week’s emerging powers news roundup, East Africa is the new frontier for oil exploration, China Eximbank to continue to invest in Africa, India- Africa project partnership conclave to discuss $9 billion worth of projects, and Tata Communications increases investment in Africa.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/62962 ******
9 Elections & governance
GRAVE CONCERNS OVER RWANDA’S ELECTIONS
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is deeply concerned at the continued restrictions and threats to opposition parties in the run-up to Rwanda’s presidential elections on 9 August 2010 and urges the Rwandan government to take immediate steps to ensure respect for the basic, universal rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly of opposition parties. The absence of these rights is tantamount to breaches of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political principles that insist on free and fair elections (Harare Declaration 1991).
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/62932 ******
GUINEA: AU CALLS FOR CHANGE OF VOTING RULES BEFORE ELECTIONS
The African Union (AU) has called for minor const itutional amendments in Guinea, a review of the voting rules and the extension of the voters’ registration exercise, to accommodate thousands of other Guineans in exile across West Africa. ******
NIGER: AFRICAN UNION ISSUES SIX-MONTH ULTIMATUM FOR ELECTIONS
The African Union (AU) has demanded an urgent election timetable, leading to the return to constitutional order in Niger following the ousting of President Mamadou Tandja in a coup on 18 February in the West African nation. ******
NIGERIA: ELECTORAL BODY TO RELEASE TIMETABLE FOR 2011 ELECTIONS
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Nigeria, Professor Maurice Iwu, announced here Thursday that the commission would release the comprehensive time-table for the conduct of the 201 1 general elections on Tuesday. ******
10 Corruption
DRC: EX-REBELS ACCUSED OF EXTORTION IN MINES
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8561330.stm
Former rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo who now serve in the army are running mafia-style extortion rackets in the mines, campaigners say. The country has some of the world’s richest mines, which provide minerals to the global electronics industry. ******
GLOBAL: AFRICA TO CRACK DOWN ON ILLICIT DIAMOND TRADE
A new project in 16 sub-Saharan African countries producing and dealing in diamonds, gold, and precious minerals is to strengthen their defences against money laundering, smuggling, and terrorist financing. ******
GLOBAL: DECISIVE MOMENT FOR GLOBAL TRANSPARENCY EFFORT
www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/08/decisive-moment-global-transparency-effort
An international initiative that seeks to promote more openness about how countries profit from their oil, gas, and mining resources should not weaken its modest membership standards because governments are unable or unwilling to meet them, Human Rights Watch has said. ******
MALAWI: BRITAIN REDUCES AID OVER PRESIDENTIAL JET
Britain, Malawi’s main bilateral donor, has cut aid to the southern African nation this year after Malawi bought a $13.26 million presidential jet last year, a senior British diplomat has said. Malawi’s finance minister told parliament recently that the government had made some payments towards the purchase of the 2 billion Malawi kwacha ($13.26 million, Sh1 billion) jet. ******
SOUTH AFRICA: ANC CHIEF’S FAT-CAT DEALS
www.iol.co.za/index.php’set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20100312042526674C372809
The chairperson of the ANC’s biggest and most influential region in KwaZulu-Natal, John Mchunu, has been awarded tenders worth at least R40-million by the eThekwini municipality. Mchunu recently made headlines for allegedly vetoing the completion of a R1.5m elephant sculpture project for the new Warwick Avenue interchange, apparently because it was the symbol of the IFP. ******
SOUTHERN AFRICA: HOW NCHINDO AND DE BEERS RIPPED BOTSWANA OFF
Former Debswana Managing Director, Louis Nchindo, and seven other De Beers executives, among them Gary Ralfe and Nicky Oppenheimer, pocketed millions of Pulas in bonus schemes that ripped the government of Botswana off ‘ a confidential report has revealed. ******
UGANDA: ARTICLE 19 LAUDS WHISTLEBLOWERS BILL
ARTICLE 19 welcomes the recent bold move by the Uganda Parliament to pass the Whistleblowers Bill, a critical milestone in the country’s efforts to stem corruption and embrace transparency and accountability. The Bill, approved by Parliament on 3 March 2010 in Kampala aims to create an enabling environment for citizens to freely disclose information on corrupt or improper conduct, both in the public and private sectors. In enacting the law, Uganda is the third country in Africa to adopt such a comprehensive law. ******
11 Development
BURKINA FASO: GOVERNMENT STOPS WATER, ELECTRICITY PRIVATISATION
In a landmark decision, the government of Burkina Faso has decided to remove its water and electricity utilities from the list of state companies to be privatised. Defying the IMF, government rather decided it would be enough to restructure the companies’ management. ******
GLOBAL: MOVE TO BLOCK CANADIAN MINING ACCOUNTABILITY
Anti-C-300’ pamphlets, buttons and large signs are everywhere at this year’s the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC’s) annual convention, as Canadian mining industry groups turn the heat up in efforts to block the controversial legislation. Bill C-300, if approved, would allow Canada’s government to investigate complaints about Canadian resources firms operating in foreign countries and withhold taxpayer-funded financing, such as from Export Development Canada, from transgressors. ******
MOZAMBIQUE: DONORS ON STRIKE
Budget support donors are on strike. No budget support money has been released to government since mid-December. Donors are demanding promises from government for action this year on electoral reform, corruption and conflict of interest, and on the growing role of the Frelimo party inside the state apparatus.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/development/62941 ******
WEST AFRICA: BORDERLESS TRADE CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
A campaign dubbed “Borderless Trade”, which is aimed at fighting against hindrances to the free movement of people and goods in West Africa, was launched on Wednesday in Krak’, at the border between Benin and Nigeria. ******
WEST AFRICA: FARMERS RECEIVE BOOST FROM UN ORGANIC FOOD EXPORTING INITIATIVE
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp’NewsID=34018
Some 5,000 West African farmers are reaping the rewards from a United Nations scheme aimed at helping them export produce to the growing organic food market in the industrialized world. The $2.4 million UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) project has helped farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone to meet the necessary certification and adapt to the required methods to grow and sell organic products, according to a FAO news release. ******
12 Health & HIV/AIDS
AFRICA: STRENGTHENING PHARMACEUTICAL INNOVATION IN AFRICA
This is a statement prepared by participants at the special meeting of the African Union s Extended Technical Committee on the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa in Pretoria, February 18-20. The Statement reflects the views of participants, on how to move forward with approaches national and regional strategies for country-driven pharmaceutical innovation and access to medicines. ******
GLOBAL: PRESSURE GROWING ON WEALTHY NATIONS FOR CLEAR SIGNAL ON LONG-TERM FUNDS FOR HIV
www.aidsmap.com/en/news/60570861-8584-4800-B571-3D485F5BA5F2.asp
Pressure is building on governments of wealthy nations to make clear where they stand on funding their promises to achieve universal access to HIV treatment, care and prevention, following a meeting of ministers and civil society advocates from countries with high HIV burdens in London this week. ******
SOUTH AFRICA: DELAYED DRUG REGISTRATIONS HARD TO SWALLOW
www.aidsmap.com/en/news/AB796611-5892-456F-9BEA-7B105AA96D30.asp
Delays in registering antiretroviral (ARV) medication may keep cheaper, more patient-friendly drugs out of reach as South Africa prepares to launch the world’s largest tender for medicines. In a letter to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Health, the South African HIV Clinicians Society called on the country’s drug registration body, the Medicines Control Council (MCC), to fast-track the approval of certain ARVs, the generic versions of others, and fixed-dose ARV combinations that combine multiple ARVs into a single pill. ******
ZIMBABWE: DEADLY TB HITS EPWORTH AMID WORSENING HEALTH CRISES
www.swradioafrica.com/news110310/tb110310.htm
A deadly strain of tuberculosis has reportedly hit Epworth, amid a rapidly worsening health crisis and critical shortages of food across the country. One case of the deadly multi-drug resistant TB strain has been confirmed in the high density area of Epworth and two more people in the same area are suspected to be infected. Zakaria Mwatia, from Epworth Clinic, confirmed the cases to local press, explain how the disease attacks those with already weakened immune systems. ******
13 LGBTI
AFRICA: BEST NEW QUEER AFRICAN SHORT FICTION
Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action, the pioneering, highly regarded South African gay and lesbian archives, invites African writers to submit stories on a queer African theme for publishing in a ground-breaking anthology. Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action intends the anthology to query stereotypes, show that there are many ways of being queer in Africa, and encourage queer artistic expression and appreciation. Literary merit and an insightful response to the complexities of African queerness will guide the selection.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/62948 ******
SENEGAL: ACTIVISTS CRITICIZE FOR ANTI-GAY PERSECUTION
ilga.org/ilga/en/article/mkkJCGF1ar
While gay rights are slowly expanding around the world, including in Africa, human rights activists note some political, media and religious leaders are leading sometimes violent campaigns in the opposite direction. Activists say they feel the tradition of tolerance no longer applies to homosexuals in that West African nation. ******
ZAMBIA: NEW CONSTITUTION FORBIDS SAME-SEX MARRIAGES
ilga.org/ilga/en/article/mk9qk911hK
While Zambia undergoes a Constitution Review Process, the gay community in that country has been dealt a severe blow by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC)’s decision to adopt a clause that prohibits marriage between people of the same sex. ******
14 Environment
BRAZIL: GOVERNMENT LICENSE FOR THE BELO MONTE DAM PROVOKES INTERNATIONAL OUTCRY
www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/5160
A coalition of 140 international organizations has sent a letter to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to demand that he immediately halt plans to build Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon’s Xingu River due to its immense social and environmental impacts, and instead consider alternatives. ******
COMMODITY FETISHISM IN CLIMATE SCIENCE AND POLICY
www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/summary.shtml’x=565990
The concept of commodity fetishism helps explain where today’s climate policies have gone wrong. In classic fetishistic fashion, “cost-saving” institutional practices have helped entrench many dangerous equivalences across society: equivalences among molecules, places, technologies and times; equivalences between offsets and emissions reductions, between biotic and fossil carbon, between hypothetical and real reductions, between fines and fees, between uncertainty and probability and so on. This illustrated powerpoint presentation diagnoses 12 examples of climate fetishism currently shaping the thoughts and behaviour of research institutions, UN climate negotiators, national governments, large corporations, physical scientists, traders and others. ******
15 Land & land rights
AFRICA: HOW FOOD AND WATER ARE DRIVING A 21ST-CENTURY LAND GRAB
An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens ******
GLBOAL: THE FOREIGN LAND GRAB PART 1: FOOD INSECURITY
Many are saying food is becoming the new oil. In the past two years there has been a remarkable increase in purchases of large-scale farmland by foreigners throughout Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. ******
16 Food Justice
AFRICA: AFRICA STILL HUNGRY DESPITE ANNUAL $3 BILLION OF AID AND $33 BILLION OF FOOD IMPORTS ‘ UN
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp’NewsID=34050
One in three Africans is chronically hungry, despite $3 billion spent on food aid for the continent annually and $33 billion in food imports, the director of the food security at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has warned. ******
GLOBAL: GM CONTAMINATION OF CORN IS A “CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY”
GM contamination of corn is a “crime against humanity”, according to organizations. This conflict will be solved at international courts. The authorization of GM corn crops in Mexico and the attempt by the FAO to legitimize this practice are strongly questioned by tens of organizations meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the parallel activities to the Conference on Agriculture Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (where the world’s most important seed companies are gathered). ******
17 Media & freedom of expression
ETHIOPIA: IFJ DENOUNCES ‘PUNITIVE’ FINES AGAINST MEDIA HOUSES
africa.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-denounces-punitive-fines-against-media-houses-in-ethiopia
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the ruling of Monday, 8 March by the Ethiopian Supreme Court which reinstated the hefty fines which had been imposed by the country’s High Court against four publishing houses which had successfully appealed a judgment of the High Court following the infamous treason trial of 2005. ******
GLOBAL: WORLD DAY AGAINST CYBER CENSORSHIP
www.rsf.org/World-Day-Against-Cyber-Censorship.html
Reporters Without Borders celebrates World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March. This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. It is also meant to draw attention to the fact that, by creating new spaces for exchanging ideas and information, the Internet is a force for freedom. However, more and more governments have realised this and are reacting by trying to control the Internet. ******
MOROCCO: PARLIAMENT COMMISSION CONSIDERS MEDIA REFORMS
A parliamentary commission hopes to reconcile tensions between the government and the media with specific recommendations, commission co-ordinator Jamal Eddine Naji said on March 9th at a press conference in Rabat. Parliament launched the commission March 1st to spur a national debate about the press between media representatives, members of parliament, political figure, the government and the public. ******
NORTH AFRICA: EGYPT RELEASES BLOGGER FACING TRIAL BY MILITARY COURT
Amnesty International has welcomed the release of an Egyptian blogger, who was facing jail after he published a post alleging nepotism within the armed forces. The organization said it remains concerned that the release of Ahmed Mostafa was conditional on him agreeing to apologise and on removing the March 2009 posting from his Matha Assabaka ya Watan (What happened to you, oh nation’) blog. ******
RWANDA: “MBARIZA NTORE’ – INFORM US SO THAT WE CAN VOTE
Mbariza Ntore’ (Kirundi for ‘inform us so that we can vote’) is a media support project of the Dutch NGO, La Benevolencija, set up with a total of 18 different media houses (radio, print press, TV, Internet and news agency) in Burundi. The project enhances the capacity of citizens to better understand the conditions in which they are being invited to fulfill their political rights.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/62938 ******
SOUTH AFRICA: ON PROTEST HOTSPOTS AND ANALYTICAL BLIND SPOTS
www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/439.1
Oukasie, Sharpville, Orange Farm, Siyathemba: images of violent protest action against poor service delivery have dominated the news in the past few weeks, signalling growing frustration with the Jacob Zuma administration’s failure to address the implosion of services in parts of South Africa. But all too often, media coverage does not help us to understand the complex forces that gave rise to such protests, writes Jane Duncan. ******
18 Conflict & emergencies
DRC: DISPLACED CIVILIANS IN DRC TRAPPED BY CONFLICT
www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-83FGZL’OpenDocument
The medical humanitarian organization M’decins Sans Fronti’res (MSF) is deeply concerned by the rapidly worsening situation in the isolated area of Hauts Plateaux in the region of Uvira, South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ******
NIGERIA: 200 HELD OVER KILLINGS
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/200-held-over-nigeria-killings-1920123.html
Police in Nigeria have arrested around 200 people following weekend attacks on three Christian villages in which hundreds of people were thought to have been killed. The central city of Jos, at the crossroads of Nigeria’s Muslim north and Christian south, has been tense since Sunday’s attacks, blamed on northern settlers, on the villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat just south of the Plateau state capital. ******
SOMALIA: DEATH TOLL HITS 54 IN FIGHTING
The death toll from two days of fighting in Somalia’s capital between government forces and al Shabaab rebels has risen to 54, ambulance services said as clashes subsided with both sides claiming successes. ******
SOUTHERN AFRICA: UN AID AGENCIES ON ALERT FOR POTENTIAL FLOODS
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp’NewsID=34057
The United Nations is gathering supplies for some 130,000 people in southern Africa on alert for potential evacuation from flood-risk zones following weeks of torrential rains in northern Mozambique and neighbouring Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Normal to above normal rains have swollen rivers, forcing authorities to discharge water from the Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe and the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. ******
SUDAN: IGAD LEADERS CALL FOR FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF PEACE ACCORD
IGAD Heads of State and Government have urged parties to the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to remain committed to the implementation of outstanding issues in the agreement. The IGAD leaders, meeting in Nairobi Tuesday, asked the parties to the CPA to particularly move towards completing the North-South Abyei border demarcation and redeployment of forces. ******
19 Internet & technology
AFRICA: BURUNDI CARRIERS FORM FIRST NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE CONSORTIUM TO DEVELOP FIBRE BACKBONE
www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html
One of Africa’s smallest countries is pioneering the use of a carriers’ consortium to develop its national fibre backbone and international links with help from the World Bank. Burundi Backbone Systems will oversee the development of a 1,200 kms backbone and several new international fibre links connecting the country to its neighbours in the next 18 months. ******
GLOBAL: FEMINIST TECH EXCHANGE REBOOTS
www.wougnet.org/cms/content/view/490/1/
In celebration of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2010, the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is launching its new website – ftx.apcwomen.org/ The FTX is both a training initiative for women’s rights advocates and a community of feminist and technology activists. The FTX was developed by the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) in response to calls from feminist and women’s rights movements for greater understanding of emerging technologies, their potential and impact on the rights and lives of women. ******
KENYA: MOBILE PHONES BRING INSURANCE TO FARMERS
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE62502R.htm
Kenyan farmers can now insure some of the costs of growing crops against bad weather by using mobile phone technology that links solar-powered weather stations to an insurance company. ******
SOUTH AFRICA: NEW LIFE FOR E-GOVERNMENT
www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html#computing
E-government will be renewed and handled with more vigour, because of its future importance to service delivery, says deputy public service and administration minister Roy Padayachie. ******
20 eNewsletters & mailing lists
AFRICA: REMITTANCES UPDATE
AfricaFocus Bulletin Mar 10, 2010 (100310)
www.africafocus.org/docs10/rem1003.php
A 2009 report from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) notes that some 30 million African workers outside their countries send home approximately $40 billion a year in remittances. But with only as many “payout” locations on the continent as in one Latin American country (Mexico), the process is expensive and dominated by two large money transfer companies which work primarily with banks. ******
21 Courses, seminars, & workshops
“ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES” – PHILIPPINES FROM 18 – 29 OCTOBER 2010
www.seasrepfoundation.org/ARM%20workshop4.pdf
The fourth SEASREP-Sephis training workshop on Alternative Research Methodologies will take place in the Philippines on 18-29 October 2010. The workshop aims to provide PhD students from the South an opportunity to strengthen the theoretical and methodological quality of their work under the guidance of experienced researchers from the South. Two weeks of lectures and discussions, knowledge building, and individual tutorials on research proposals will enable the participants to redesign their research project, improve their proposal and enhance their research capabilities. ******
AFRICA AND CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: THE SEARCH FOR A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONSHIP
April 8-10, Syracuse University
The Africa Initiative of Syracuse University, recognizes the need for the debate on Africa-China relations to transcend the emerging Sino-phobic scholarship and analyses that conceptualize Africa-China relations only through the limited lens of exploitation, new imperialism and anti-democracy. Towards this end, the Africa Initiative will host a select group of distinguished scholars to assess and deliberate on the nature and future of Sino-African relations and cooperation. This special symposium will be held from 8th-10th April 2010 in the main campus of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/62913 ******
ASIA DYNAMICS INITIATIVE CONFERENCE
This workshop explores the notion of ‘difference’ ‘ as identity, opposition and even resemblance ‘ in its multiple meanings and settings, and the ways in which it plays out in the social-political landscape. Moving away from the idea of difference as essential or natural, we explore how difference is constructed, manifested and obscured in socially uneven societies, particularly those fueled by neoliberal economic growth in the recent years.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/62963 ******
CAPITALISM IN CRISIS: THE 2010 ILRIG-ROSA LUXEMBURG CAPE PARTNERS’ CONFERENCE
Community House, Salt River, Cape Town – 10am to 5 pm on 9 and 10 April 2010
www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/473/lux.jpg
Have we seen a response so far from the capitalists and their governments that suggest that they are going to change from neo-liberal globalisation’ Will they look once again to the kind of Keynesian capitalism that worked so well for them in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and regulate capital flows, invest in public services and seek to grow capitalism by stimulating demand and providing full employment’ Or are they still wedded to the same system of mobile capital, speculation and the privatisation of public goods’
Conference will be a space for activists and analysts to debate the underlying causes of the global crisis, the responses of states, including South Africa and the response of the dominated classes to the global crisis and possibilities for alternatives to capitalism.
An Expression of Interest form is available here ( www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/473/ilrig.doc/ )
Let us know if you are coming.
Contact the organisers ilrigrlfconference2010@gmail.com ******
CHEVENING SCHOLARSHIPS – FOR TRADE UNIONISTS AND LABOUR ACTIVISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
* One year Certificate/Diploma of Higher Education/ BA degree. * One year MA * One term full time course
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/62987 ******
GLOBAL: FAO-UOC JOINT CERTIFICATE IN FOOD SECURITY:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (UOC) Department of Food Systems, Culture and Society are partnering to offer a fully accredited, online certificate in Food Security: Assessment and Action. ******
KENYA: 2010 PEACE FESTIVAL AND CONFERENCE
Call for papers
On September 19-25, 2010, a festival and conference promoting peace and conflict resolution will be held in Nairobi, Kenya. A two-day conference will be accompanied by seven days of artistic performances featuring traditional and popular music, oral narrative, and drama. Organized by the Drum Caf’, the event seeks to bring together practitioners and researchers working in areas related to the arts and/or conflict resolution in and out of Kenya.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/62012 ******
SOUTH AFRICA: HOUSE OF HUNGER POETRY SLAM
www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/473/Hoh.jpg
Venue – Alliance Francaise, 17 Lower Park Drive/Kerry Road, Zoo Lake, Parkview Time – 2-5pm Date – 20 March 2010 Guest Artist – Thobile Magagula for Swaziland The WINNER will TRAVEL to the House of Hunger Poetry Slam, Zimbabwe! For more info call Linda: 073 081 5194 ******
22 Publications
AFRICA: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) & WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN AFRICA
UNESCO and the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) are organizing a roundtable discussion during which the book Freedom of Information (FOI) and Women’s Rights in Africa will be launched. The meeting will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 16 March 2010 to explore the links between enhanced information flows, women’s empowerment and gender equality, and to promote stronger involvement by women organizations in advancing freedom of information in Africa. ******
INTERFACE ‘ A JOURNAL FOR AND ABOUT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Call for papers ‘ Issue 4
Voices of Dissent. Activists Engagements in the Creation of Alternative, Autonomous, Radical and Independent Media. Interface is a new journal produced twice yearly by activists and academics around the world in response to the development and increased visibility of social movements in the last few years ‘ and the immense amount of knowledge generated in this process. This knowledge is created across the globe, and in many contexts and a variety of ways, and it constitutes an incredibly valuable resource for the further development of social movements. Interface responds to this need, as a tool to help our movements learn from each other’s struggles, by developing analyses and knowledge that allow lessons to be learned from specific movement processes and experiences and translated into a form useful for other movements.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/62908 ******
UPSETTING THE OFFSET
www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/summary.shtml’x=565834
“Anyone concerned about the future of the planet,” writes Professor Ted Benton of the University of Essex, “should read this book. The contributors give powerful evidence and argument to show that the carbon trading regimes favoured by the world’s elites will not work — and are, indeed, set to make things worse. But the message is not negative. There are alternatives, both effective and desirable.” ******
23 Jobs
ANSA-AFRICA IS SEEKING 3 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) in Africa, hosted by the Economic Governance Programme of Idasa, is currently seeking three new Executive Committee members to guide the work of the ANSA-Africa Network. ******
PROJECT MANAGER, PROGRAMME RESEARCH AND ADMIN OFFICER – INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/473/DofEjob.pdf
The International Awards is accepting applications for the position of Project Manager (new position) and Programme Research and Admin Officer (new position), based at the International Award. To apply for either of these positions, please email CV along with a detailed statement, which outlines your suitability for the position, to jay.sandhu@DofE.org The deadline for applications for the Project Manager role is Thursday 11th March 2010 ‘ by 3pm. Interviews will be taking place at the Award House on Monday 15th March. The deadline for applications for the Programme Research and Admin Officer is Monday 29thMarch 2010 by 12 noon with interviews being held at the Award House w/c 5th April. ******
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ISSN 1753-6839
End of Pambazuka-news Digest, Vol 120, Issue 2
The New Dark Age 
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