The New Dark Age

9 September 2011 — Pambazuka News

Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839

CONTENTS: 1. Features, 2. Announcements, 3. Comment & analysis, 4.
Advocacy & campaigns, 5. Books & arts, 6. Letters & Opinions, 7.
Cartoons

1 Features

LIBYA COULD BREAK UP LIKE SOMALIA

Samir Amin

The revolution in Libya, led by a motley group of democrats and
Islamists and their imperialist allies, is likely to entrench the deep
divisions in the country, writes Samir Amin, warning of the
possibility of disintegration of the nation.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76091

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‘FREE TRIPOLI’, JUST DON’T MENTION THE CORPSES

Lizzie Phelan

Following her experience of being on the ground in Tripoli, Lizzie
Phelan writes of the Western media’s alarming ability ‘to not just
fabricate events but to create’.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76085

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WHAT DOES GADDAFI’S FALL MEAN FOR AFRICA?

Mahmood Mamdani

Gaddafi’s fall points to more Western interventions to come in Africa,
writes Mahmood Mamdani.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76055

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INDIA’S VOLTE-FACE ON LIBYA: THE SECRET MISSION

The recent Paris meet was a grim victory celebration by the NATO
powers who wanted non-European poodles on the bandwagon, writes M.K.
Bhadrakumar.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76054

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LIBYA: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR AFRICAN UNITY

Nana Ansah

Events in Libya are a clear wake-up call for Africa to unite, writes Nana Ansah.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76093

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LIBYA: INSIDIOUS PLUNDER, WHAT ELSE?

Nicholas H. Tucker

Though we might see events in Libya as a sort of twisted fantasy tale,
their effects will be all too real for the country and Africa at
large, writes Nicholas H. Tucker.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76095

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THE WAR AGAINST LIBYA IS CRIMINAL

Amy Niang

The NATO military campaign in Libya is a pointed example of
imperialism as the last stage of capitalism, Amy Niang argues. It is a
travesty of international law, whose goal is conquest of economic
resources.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76092

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LIBYA: HOPE, UNCERTAINTY AND SUSPICION AFTER GADDAFI

Dibussi Tande

Dibussi Tande captures the reaction to the fall of Gaddafi in this
week’s round-up of the African blogosphere.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76100

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SAMIR AMIN: A TRIBUTE TO A FIGHTER AGAINST GLOBAL CAPITALISM

Horace Campbell

Honouring Samir Amin as he celebrates his 80th birthday this month,
Horace Campbell pays tribute to Amin’s tireless work ‘to strengthen
effective forms of popular power’ and underlines his enormous
contribution to our understanding of global capitalism’s increasing
destructiveness.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76097

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SAMIR AMIN: A TITAN OF RADICAL THOUGHT

Ama Biney

To understand the present capitalist economic crisis, Ama Biney
contends that there is an urgent need to revisit the works of Egyptian
political economist Samir Amin. His bold proposals on ending global
inequalities and injustices are timely.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76102

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SAMIR AMIN: COMBINING WORLD-CLASS SCHOLARSHIP WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE

Ebrima Sall

With Samir Amin celebrating his 80th birthday this month, Ebrima Sall
salutes Amin’s long-standing commitment to allying world-class
scholarship with an unflinching commitment to social justice.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76113

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TRIBUTE TO SAMIR AMIN

Issa G. Shivji

In the era of globalisation, post-modernism and culturalism, many a
Marxist intellectual of the 1960s and 1970s has metamorphosed,
abandoning the class stand of the working people against the voracious
capitalist system and imperialism. Not so Samir Amin. He has stood
firm against capitalist barbarism. He does not mince his words nor
does he capitulate to intellectual fashions. He does not seek
accolades from Western scholarship nor does he curry favours to be
counted among the ‘best’ 100 intellectuals. He remains steadfast in
the great struggle of national liberation and social emancipation of
the working people of the world. He remains anchored in class
struggles at 80 as strongly as he was at 30 when he wrote his ‘Class
Struggle in Africa’.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76050

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMIR AMIN!

Norman Girvan

Your prodigious, insightful work on the nature of world capitalism,
its origins and evolution, and on the long but necessary transition to
socialism has educated, enlightened and inspired us over the last half
a century. Truly you are one of the most original thinkers of the 20th
and early 21st century. Your treatment of Eurocentricity and on the
epistemological and philosophical consequences of the worldwide
expansion of European capitalism has given us a frame of reference
within which the cultural diversity of humanity is validated as an
intrinsic part of authentic socialism.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76051

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HONOURING SAMIR

Cameron Duodu

I heard of Samir Amin long before I met him. As a member of the Ghana
Youth Council, I was involved in organising a conference that we
thought would bring together youth movements throughout Africa to plan
how we could plan together to advance the cause of Africa’s political
and economic development.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76087

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SAYING “THANK YOU” TO SAMIR AMIN AS HE TURNS 80

Bill Fletcher, Jr

Although I only met Samir Amin in late 2010, I had studied his work
for decades, finding in them superior analyses and inspiration. In
fact, after reading so much of his work I was quite unprepared for the
person I actually met. He was very down to earth, incredibly funny,
and could actually listen, the latter characteristic not one that can
ever be taken for granted, particularly in the case of individuals who
gain iconic status.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76052

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LONDON CALLING: FANON, SPONTANEITY AND THE ENGLISH INSURRECTIONS

Nigel C. Gibson

In the wake of England’s riots, Nigel C. Gibson draws on Frantz Fanon:
“How to be human in a dehumanized society” This question haunted Fanon
and it haunts our age.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76058

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HOW FAMINE MAKES UNSCRUPULOUS BUSINESSMEN FABULOUSLY WEALTHY

Rasna Warah

The global aid industry has made a core group fabulously wealthy,
writes Rasna Warah.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76053

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EGYPT’S MILITARY RULER TANTAWI AND THE AMERICAN SIEGE OF GAZA

Revelations from WikiLeaks

Ali Abunimah

As a WikiLeaks cable reveals, the US was even more actively involved
than originally thought in ‘enforcing the siege of Gaza along Egypt’s
border’, writes Ali Abunimah.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76056

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SUDAN: IN-BUILT NEOCOLONIALISM

Explo Nani-Kofi

With South Sudan continuing to face a number of acute historical
challenges, the Pan-Africanist movement must move to develop
campaigning and lobbying on the side of the ‘marginalised majority’ in
South Sudan and Sudan alike, writes Explo Nani-Kofi.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76057

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SUDAN: FOR LGBT, MORE CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

Ghareeb

In the second and final part of an article on LGBT rights in Sudan,
Ghareeb writes that South Sudan has a long way to go before it becomes
a society tolerant of homosexuality. Part one of the article is
available here: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75747

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76059

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MAPPING WAR CRIMES IN SUDAN: AN OPEN LETTER TO GEORGE CLOONEY

Samar Al-Bulushi

In a letter to Hollywood actor George Clooney regarding his activism
on Sudan, Samar Al-Bulushi raises a number of concerns around the
motives, accountability and politics behind the Satellite Sentinel
Project.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76060

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DIRTY DURBAN’S MANUAL FOR CLIMATE GREENWASHING

Patrick Bond

With serious concerns around the city’s pro-pollution policy and
activity, will Durban — the host of the upcoming COP17 summit — clean
itself up, asks Patrick Bond.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76061

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WHAT AILS MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Lindela Figlan

Social movements in South Africa are divided, which renders them
amenable to external pressures, according to Lindela Figlan. Unless
they unite and pursue a common vision against capitalism, they will
not succeed in their objectives.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76103

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THE SECOND ACT OF A KENYAN WHISTLE-BLOWER

A conversation with John Githongo

Ron Singer

In a interview with John Githongo, Ron Singer discusses the state of
Kenya’s media and the dominance of self-interested political and
ethnic forces.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76062

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ON LGBTI COMMUNITIES: ALTERNATIVE UNPACKING NEEDED

Mia Nikasimo

In response to an article entitled ‘Unpacking the LGBTI communities’,
(http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/74658) by Andrey
Mbugua, Mia Nikasimo takes great exception to Mbugua’s assumptions,
language and presentations of LBGTI and transsexual people.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76098

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THE ROAD FROM ATTICA

Michael E. Deutsch

‘9 September marks 40 years since the uprising at Attica State
Prison’, writes Michael E. Deutsch, an incident alarming in its
reflection of the US authorities’ extreme brutality and the rise of
the ‘prison-industrial’ complex.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76114

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2 Announcements

FAHAMU REFUGEE LEGAL AID NEWSLETTER – SEPTEMBER ISSUE

The new Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter is now available (
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/546/FRLANSept2011.pdf ) .
This issue includes breaking news about Australia’s plan to ‘swap’
asylum seekers with Malaysia; an in-depth article on the issue by Dr
Savitri Taylor; a trio of pieces about the situation faced by Rwandan
refugees, including an important statement, which you can sign on to,
against the planned invocation of the Cessation Clause; a review of
issues faced by LGBTI people in Sudan, a little-known topic; case
notes on rulings about Dadaab camp and UK-Cyprus return; discussion of
a recent review of asylum in Poland; and a report from visits to
Syrian refugees in camps in southern Turkey — as well as our usual
announcements of opportunities, requests and relevant new resources.

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REQUEST FOR FRENCH-ENGLISH ARTICLE TRANSLATION

Do you have experience translating articles in French into English?
Would you be able to volunteer to translate an article for us? Please
drop us a line at editor@pambazuka.org if so.

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3 Comment & analysis

FAMINE: LESS LAND, MORE HUNGER

Esther Vivas

Africa faces an alarming rise in land grabbing, writes Esther Vivas.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/76094

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MALEMA ON BOTSWANA

Ronald Wesso

Following comments about Botswana being a puppet of US imperialism,
ANC Youth League President Julius Malema is appearing before the
party’s disciplinary committee, writes Ronald Wesso.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/76101

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THOUSANDS PROTEST AGAINST SWAZILAND’S ABSOLUTE MONARCHY

Peter Kenworthy

Swaziland’s authorities are acting with more restraint towards
protestors in response to this week’s demonstrations, writes Peter
Kenworthy.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/76088

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4 Advocacy & campaigns

AERIAL BOMBARDMENT CONTINUES DESPITE SUDANESE GOVERNMENT CEASEFIRE DECLARATION

SUDO(UK)

In spite of the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire in South
Kordofan by President Bashir on 23rd August there has been a
continuation of aerial bombardment of civilian targets by Government
forces and attacks by Government soldiers and their allied militias.
At the same time SPLA forces continued to attack Government garrisons.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/76065

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BLUE NILE: OUTBREAK OF WAR BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN TROOPS AND THE SPLM

SUDO(UK)

In the early hours of the 2nd of September there was an outbreak of
fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan
People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) which involved all of those gathered
in the Joint Integrated Units (JIU) forces in Blue Nile.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/76066

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HALF A MILLION LIVES THREATENED BY LAND AND WATER GRABS FOR
PLANTATIONS IN ETHIOPIA’S LOWER OMO VALLEY

Oakland Institute

According to a new Land Deal Brief from the Oakland Institute (OI) to
be released on September 12, 2011, the controversial Gibe III
hydroelectric project located in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is facilitating
the take over of 350,000 hectares (ha) of land for sugar cane and
cotton plantations.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/76078

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ONLY 17 HOURS LEFT TO BRING SYMPHONY WAY BOOK TOUR TO EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA

We only have 17 hours left to raise the money we need for a our book
tour. If we get at least $4,000usd, then we’ll be able to bring 2
authors on tour.
Please contribute here now so that our voices can be heard outside
South Africa: http://www.indiegogo.com/SA-Pavement-Dwellers-Book-Tour

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/76086

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SIGN ON TO STATEMENT PROTECTING RWANDAN REFUGEES

Fahamu Refugee Programme

On 31 December 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and several
states hosting Rwandan refugees are considering invoking the
‘cessation clause’ of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees. This is a very unusual and dangerous move that could cause
revocation of the refugee status of tens of thousands of people who
fled ethnic and political persecution in Rwanda, stripping them of
basic rights and exposing them to forcible repatriation and possible
persecution. Cessation is premature and should be stopped.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/76084

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5 Books & arts

ACHIEVING ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

Review of ‘Haki Zetu: Economic, social and cultural rights in practice’

Hakim Mbanzamihigo

In a review of ‘Haki Zetu: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in
Practice’, Hakim Mbanzamihigo writes that the “handbook could be a
useful tool for the promotion of ESCR at the most local level”.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/76049

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6 Letters & Opinions

AFRICA AND THE FUKUS

Moeen R

We are now living in very dangerous times. France, UK and US known as
FUKUS have a major plan to attack many nations in the twisted belief
they are fulfilling some sort of Biblical Prophecies. Morrocco, South
Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria are the
next targets in Africa.

Syria and Iran in the Middle East and India partly due to the Maoist
insurgency that is growing even though the Indian Government is
keeping it quiet. Oil has been found on the Somalia/Kenya and
Ethiopia/Kenya border areas so that is another potential target for
FUKUS in the future.

Please beware of these facts no one is exempt there is a lot of
trouble coming and many people around the world will suffer.

Currently, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya,
Tunisia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechenya, Somalia are in
Conflict with Bosnia and Kosovo in danger of conflict. You do not have
to believe this but for sure you will see more conflicts start-up
around the world then you must wake-up to reality.

Be safe and be aware.

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EMPTYING OF LIBYA’S ‘BLACK’ CITIES

Myron Lloyd

I think it is absolutely disgusting how black cities in Libya like
Tawergha are being emptied out by the rebels and US airstrikes. One
thing that I have noticed is that in all the videos I have seen where
the rebels are ‘liberating’ a city, there seems to already be no one
there! How are we protecting the civilians if most people have fled in
fear? The Wall Street Journal even reported a rebel commander saying
that the people in Tawergha should just pack up their things and go
because it won’t exist anymore after the rebels arrive.

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TO THE AFRICAN UNION ON LIBYA

Antumi Toasij?

My question is: Can we defend ourselves or we are still weak?

This is a pledge for the African Union to take action and firmly
intervene in the issue of Libya. As events in this war develop in the
worst direction the intervention is necessary for two main reasons,
first one is the documented racist harassment of the Black populations
living in Libya. If we allow the Libyan Rebels to continue with this
kind of prosecutions without reaction or even punishment, we will set
a huge step back to the Apartheid Era because it can be an extremely
dangerous precedent for all the countries in the north of Africa or
even the European countries too, meaning that attacking or killing
black innocent citizens is cheap and easy.

The second reason is that C’te D’Ivoire and Libya have become
experiments for the Neocolonial powers in a time of economical crisis.
Traditionally, when the European economy breaks down then the
colonialism raises. If we don’t take effective and executive strong
actions all Africa will be in a serious danger of recolonization. This
intervention has a strong legal basis as Libya is still a member of
the AU and Article 4 of the African Union Act provides for: ‘(h) the
right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a
decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely:
WAR CRIMES, GENOCIDE and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY’.

I’m not asking for an intervention in support of Kaddafi’s regime but
in support of African independence and protection of our citizens. The
intervention should be military if necessary with enough effectives of
the AU crossing the borders of Niger and Chad. It should consist in a
rapid rescuing operation of all black citizens living in Libya,
repatriation if they wish so and/or a demonstration of force to stop
killings in the hands of the Libyan Rebels.

Remember History tends to repeat itself specially if we don’t learn
from past lessons.

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7 Cartoons

GADDAFI AGREES TO NEGOTIATE

Gado

Gaddafi agrees to negotiate?

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/76048

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LIBYA’S NTC IN SESSION

Gado

Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) in session.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/76047

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MUSEVENI VERSUS BESIGYE

Gado

Tank versus protest placard?

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/76046

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End of Pambazuka-news Digest, Vol 191, Issue 1