The New Dark Age

16 January 2014 — Pambazuka News

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Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839

CONTENTS: 1. Features, 2. Announcements, 3. Comment & analysis, 4. Obituaries, 5. Jobs

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1 Features
FRENCH COMPLICITY IN THE CRISIS IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Antoine Roger Lokongo

The violent political conflict in the CAR continues to claim innocent lives, cause massive displacement and destruction of property. The efforts being made to end the carnage and restore the country will not achieve much without taking into account the role of France in destabilising CAR
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90254
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HAITI: FOUR YEARS ON FROM THE QUAKE
Ama Biney

The people of Haiti continue to suffer the economic tremors of a post-earthquake reconstruction programme that has failed to transform the lives of the majority of the people, despite the fact that it is the people of Haiti who must not only construct the future of Haiti but also decide that future
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90253
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WILL NAMIBIAN BONES HAUNT GERMANS FOREVER?
Kwame Opoku

Contempt for Africans is still so strong in Germany that the government sees no point in returning to Namibia the human remains of the massacred Herero and Nama peoples. Further, Germany is unwilling to offer an apology and compensation
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90164
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PEMBANI COAL: MISDIRECTED BENEFIT?
Franz Fuls

Since opencast coal mining started on this farm ten years ago, the lives of the people have gradually deteriorated. The mine replaced the previous agricultural business that employed them. A villager said that only one person in the village has a full time job
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90162
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WAYS TO KILL A WETLAND
Franz Fuls

Although Exxaro has denied that mining the wetland constituted an illegal environmental activity, investigations show that the remained in violation of the requirements of the law and committed a criminal offence
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90163
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WHY DO IVORIANS DEMAND THE RELEASE OF LAURENT GBAGBO?
Committee of Actions for Cote d’Ivoire – USA

Many Ivorians are convinced that Laurent Gbagbo’s arrest, transfer and detention at the International Criminal Court is a political decision that perpetuates France’s maneuvers to keep the Ivory Coast under her sphere of influence. The restoration of Ivory Coast is impossible without Gbagbo
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90222
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THE ETHICS OF CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS
Claire Ichou

Around one billion people receive conditional cash transfers today, which have been praised as the magic bullet for poverty eradication. Such programmes are being implemented in Latin America and Africa. But they raise numerous ethical questions
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/90191
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2 Announcements
LGBTI IN AFRICA: A CALL FOR ARTICLES

In February, Pambazuka News plans to carry a special issue dedicated to the LGBTI situation in Africa. Send in your contribution
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/90255
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3 Comment & analysis
KENYA: WHY YOU’RE STRUGGLING TO MAKE ENDS MEET
More than half the people think the country is headed in the wrong direction
David Ndii

Pro-poor investment in key sectors like agriculture would hit all three of Kenya’s birds with one stone — job creation, poverty and cost of living. But the current government, like previous ones, is only interested in dazzling mega-infrastructural projects funded by loans but which are of little real economic value
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90251
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NELSON MANDELA AND THE RAINBOW NATION HE NEVER SAW
James N. Kariuki

In the negotiations to dismantle apartheid in the early 1990s, Mandela was admirably tough on the political front, but excessively soft on the economic side. In the end, Madiba settled for a lopsided economic deal that disinherited his people. But he wasn’t alone in doing this
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90252
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JUSTICE IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: MANDELA’S STRUGGLE CONTINUES
Munyonzwe Hamalengwa

In the future, South Africa will explode into a racial Armageddon unless the crimes committed under apartheid are addressed following the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that was the handiwork of Nelson Mandela
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90220
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BLACK SOUTH AFRICA REDISCOVERS ITSELF – WILL BLACK AMERICA?
Glen Ford

South Africa appears poised to reclaim its revolutionary legacy from the clutches of the African National Congress, which has “devolved into a fat and corrupt partner of white capital.” As the Age of Obama nears its end, Black America must also awake from the catastrophe of racial symbolism and self-delusion.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90259
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TORONTO AND THE CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF SOUTH AFRICA
Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali

The Toronto-based Biko Rodney Malcolm Coalition (BRMC) played an important role in isolating those African musicians who collaborated with the reviled apartheid regime and celebrating those who culturally boycotted South Africa. This history is important for us to remember
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90219
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BLUEPRINT FOR THE PRIVATIZATION OF NIGERIA’S REFINERIES
Chika Ezeanya

The debate surrounding privatization of public enterprises is a popular and on-going concern of scholars, public administrators and concerned citizens the world over. In privatizing Nigeria’s refineries many issues need to be considered and carefully implemented in order to ensure that the privatization benefits Nigerians
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90218
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NIGERIA: IS APC THE NEW PDP?
Chido Onumah

It appears the All Progressives Alliance (APC) is an amalgam of personalities from Nigeria’s main opposition parties. Yet, will the APC strengthen the party in terms of an ideology and build a mass base or continue to consort with unsavoury figures from Nigeria’s past? And for what purpose?
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90221
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DIE HARD: EGYPT’S DEADLY FACTORY
Nyira el Sheiref
From the more than 1000 workers in the factory, clinical examination suspected possible presence of lung silicosis in 450 of them, prompting around 300 workers to strike for ten days last year
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90261
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FUNDAMENTALISM: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM
Robert J. Burrowes

Fundamentalism is a significant social problem that has secular and also religious manifestations. It’s roots are psychological and the cure lies in nonviolent strategies to resist the violent behaviours of fundamentalists which are important and necessary
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90217
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PROSECUTING BLACK VICTIMS
Margaret Kimberley

Prosecutors go to bizarre lengths to put Black victims of police gunfire in prison. A young man blinded by a cop’s bullet may spend 35 years in prison. A unarmed, mentally ill man who was shot at by police faces 25 years behind bars because the cops wounded two bystanders. Who cares? “The black misleadership class are unconcerned with the plight of the people who are targeted by the system.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90260
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MLK JR: A HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAY IN HIS HONOUR
A.B. Assensoh and Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh

America celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday 20, the first ever public holiday in honour of a Black person. The history of this day is interesting, especially the strong resistance mounted by white politicians on the grounds that a Black person was no that important
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90262
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MLK, JR. AND AMERICA’S NEW INEQUALITY
A.B. Assensoh and Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh

Racial and ethnic minorities are still disproportionately counted among the poor in America. Reducing employment among them and increasing the minimum wage would go some way in realizing the ‘promised land’ that Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/90256
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4 Obituaries
AMIRI BARAKA HAS DIED: LONG LIVE AMIRI BARAKA!
Anthony Monteiro

To truly honour Amiri Baraka, one must examine his travels, the political journeys he undertook in search of paths to self-determination for his people and all humanity. He sought a liberatory synthesis of culture and politics. ‘We need a Cultural Revolution in the US and internationally, to reorient the world and ultimately transform it where we and everybody else is self-determining.’
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/90161
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RICHARD HART: A TRIBUTE
Luke Daniels

Richard Hart was a pioneer in the development of Trade Unions, political parties and organizations in the Caribbean. Although he pursued a career as a solicitor, he is more widely known as a historian and politician. He has written numerous books, pamphlets and papers
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/90263
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5 Jobs
REGIONAL CONTENT MANAGER
[euro]50,962 Location: Dakar, Senegal
AI
Amnesty International

For more than 50 years, we’ve been campaigning for human rights, wherever justice, freedom and truth are denied. We’ve reshaped policies, challenged governments and taken corporations to task. And in doing so, we’ve changed thousands of lives for the better. Right now, we’re creating a new kind of force for human rights, combining Amnesty’s strength and reputation with the voices of grassroots activists across the world. Delivering world class content that connects with people individually, you’ll help us to realise this potential.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/90257
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End of Pambazuka-news Digest, Vol 294, Issue 1
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