Africa's topics - tribe.net

Hello! I am Efrit Mbotu!

2009-10-07T05:26:10Z

Efrit!

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Travel Pictures Kenya next to other Countries

2009-03-10T22:02:36Z

Kenya - Belgium January 2009 Travel Pictures Country next to Country

Dear,

This website Kenya-Belgium displays several pages each one containing two comparative (similar, contrastive, ...) photos. Let your thoughts flow freely and enjoy:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_32_en/bob_marley_in_kenya_and_bob_marley_in_belgium.html
Click the "-->"-button on the page opened for the following pictures.

Best regards, BoBi

Annex: overview of the photos:

a Kenyan stable of Bethlehem and Belgian Neon lighting:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_32_en/kenyan_best_wishes_and_belgian_best_wishes.html
Bob Marley on a poster and Bob Marley on a poster:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_32_en/bob_marley_in_kenya_and_bob_marley_in_belgium.html
a Concert of Red Sand and a Concert of the Starlights:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_32_en/a_concert_in_kenya_and_a_concert_in_belgium.html
Bob Marley on the Kenyan internet and Bob Marley on the Belgian internet:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_32_en/bob_marley_on_the_kenyan_internet_and_bob_marley_on_the_belgian_internet.html
a Kenyan Statue and a Belgian Statue:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_33_en/a_kenyan_monument_2_and_a_belgian_monument_2.html
a Kenyan Maternity wing and a Belgian Baby nursing table:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_33_en/a_kenyan_maternity_wing_and_a_belgian_baby_nursing_table.html
a Kenyan white Flower and a Belgian white Flower:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_33_en/a_kenyan_flower_2_and_a_belgian_flower_2.html
Kenyan Colors and Belgian Colors:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_33_en/kenyan_colors_2_and_belgian_colors_2.html

posted in Africa - 2 replies

New Ebola strain

2009-02-12T20:08:14Z

New strain yee haw

posted in Africa - 8 replies

Freed arms ship due in Kenya port

2009-02-12T10:47:33Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7885123.stm

posted in Africa - 0 replies

they're telling lies again

2008-12-28T15:06:19Z

Some fool posted this in political junkies tribe, saying that Africa needs white christian missionaries to maintain peace there and other equally fallicious nonsense.... his post is below, followed by my reply to his post. Please take a minute to read...

nishu

===========================================================================================================
B, this is cross posted because I believe it is relevent to two tribes I am on. If you disagree, you may delete it.

Now here is an atheist I could like. He doesn't feel the need to lie about the value of Christianity to the world. He affirms it. He has no axe to grind against biblical theists, he simply doesn't possess the faith to believe. I suppose there are a bunch of these folks out there, but they are not the vocal ones.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...0568.ece

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindsetMatthew Parris
Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

Background
British missionaries plead guilty to sedition in Gambia
Soulgasms of the Christian Right
Have Pentecostalism, will travel
PROFILE: warlord who kills in name of Christ
But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.

We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.

This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.

There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.

I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.

Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.

To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

===================================================================================================

Africa doesn't need God; The Black man and woman ARE God.

Bom Bholenath! Om Namah Kali

nishu

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Africa is BIG

2008-10-02T05:39:47Z

Great map for perspective..
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/35-the-size-of-africa/

posted in Africa - 1 reply

humanitarian work in africa

2008-07-27T02:55:30Z

I am interested in finding an organization that will aloow me towork in Africa--preferably East Africa. Anyone know of such organizations I can research?

Thanks!

posted in Africa - 2 replies

Tanzania Trip Planned for April/ May coming up quick!

2008-07-19T02:39:33Z

Is there anyone else in this tribe that has visited this area or is from there? I am traveling to Zanzibar, Mt Kilimanjaro, and Safariing near the Serengeti. I'd love to discuss the people here, and exciting moments so feel free to write me back or email me directly.

Thank you!

posted in Africa - 3 replies

Death toll 56 African nations demand compensation from South Africa

2008-06-29T02:34:42Z

And many are talking. I just checked out this blog below. South Africa has made a huge mistake:

http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-135131.0.html

ThisDay is carrying this story, saying several Nigerians have been beaten to death in a wave of anti-foreigner riots in south Africa. The report alleges that Nigerians have been dragged from buses and beaten to death.

Read

Many Nigerians were reportedly killed in South Africa yesterday following fast-spreading riots against foreigners in the country.

Also, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported yesterday that at least five people have been burnt or beaten to death in Johannesburg as violence against immigrants spreads.

A Nigerian who lives in South Africa told THISDAY yesterday that the xenophobic attacks were launched against Nigerians while many of them were either in church or on their way to church.

The areas where Nigerians were most affected are Hillbrow and Yeovil as the riots spread to the Johannesburg city centre.
Many Nigerians were said to have been dragged out of buses and beaten to death while the security agents appeared not to intervene.More than 50 other people were taken to hospital in the suburb of Cleveland with stab or bullet wounds, the BBC reported, noting that the trouble began a week ago in the sprawling township of Alexandra.

Immigrants from neighbouring African countries were set upon by men with guns and iron bars chanting "kick the foreigners out" as terrified Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Malawians fled to the safety of the local police station and to another township, Diepsloot.

They were then attacked there as well - shacks were burnt down and shops looted. The violence has since spread to other areas.

BBC’s correspondent in Johannesburg said the attacks have prompted soul searching among South Africans.
Nelson Mandela, former president, had expressed his concern, saying the country must not descend into what he called "destructive divisiveness".
Since the end of apartheid, millions of African immigrants have poured into South Africa seeking jobs and economic sanctuary.

But they have become scapegoats for many of the country's social problems - its high rate of unemployment, a shortage of housing and one of the worst levels of crime in the world.

posted in Africa - 2 replies

42 Massacred in South Africa

2008-05-22T10:12:24Z

Army 'to quell' S Africa violence

At least 42 people have now been killed in attacks against foreigners living in South Africa, prompting the army to step in to quell internal violence since the end of apartheid rule.

The upsurge in xenophobia caused the South African government to deploy soldiers to areas of Johannesburg, the largest city in the country, on Wednesday.

A statement from the office of Thabo Mbeki, the president, said that he had agreed to a request from the police for the involvement of the army, as the death toll from more than a week of violence nearly doubled.

The violence has largely been concentrated in and around Johannesburg.

Govindsamy Mariemuthoo, the provincial police spokesman, said: "The death toll has risen to 42, 400 people have been arrested, and 16,000 people have been displaced."

The foreigners, most of whom fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, have been blamed for an increasing crime rate in the country, as well as depriving locals of employment opportunities.

The unofficial unemployment rate in South Africa is believed to be about 40 per cent.

Army 'support role'

While government officials did not give details on the specifics of the army's role, Sally de Beer, the national police spokeswoman, said they would provide a support role rather than taking over law enforcement operations.

She said: "We do not see them performing policing, but rather acting in a back up capacity."

She also said that the army had equipment "that we might need for special operations" such as helicopters.

While the violence had previously been limited to Gauteng, the province that includes the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, reports of looting in the eastern city of Durban and the rural Mpumalanga province have raised fears that the violence could spread to other areas.

'Political violence'

De Beer said: "A mob of 200 were gathering on the streets carrying bottles and knobkerries [wooden clubs], busy attacking people on the streets."

Government officials raised the possibility that the attacks on foreigners were not spontaneous but organised, possibly for political reasons.

Four community leaders were arrested in Germiston, an area of Johannesburg, on Wednesday, on charges of incitement.

A police spokesman said: "The Germiston police have made a breakthrough in the xenophobic attacks that have plagued their area since Saturday by arresting four community leaders at [the] Dukathole informal settlement this afternoon."

Foreigners flee

According to Mozambican state media, more than 3,000 Mozambicans have fled anti-immigrant violence in South Africa and have returned home.

Jodi Kollapen, chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission, said that the authorities would face a difficult task re-integrating immigrants who had been driven from their homes.

She said: "There is no way you can re-integrate people into communities if the community remains hostile to them, and those who were evicted continue to feel insecure and intimidated about going back.

"They [the locals] will have achieved the objective of driving foreigners out of the country."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BADC5912-7111-4621-8AE6-ECD6C2F05B74.htm

posted in Africa - 1 reply

"Baghdad-izing Mogadishu and Somalia. "

2008-05-20T07:15:05Z

Update on the forgotten war...

Somalia government in trouble
Published: March 28, 2008 at 10:01 PM

MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 28 (UPI) -- The transitional government in Somalia, installed 15 months ago by Ethiopian troops with U.S. support, appears ready to fall, a government official said.

"I feel this slipping away," Mohamed Abdirizak, an official who abandoned a middle-class life in Virginia to return to Somalia, told the Los Angeles Times.

Abdirizak made the comment as he ducked to avoid bullets fired at the palace in Mogadishu, the capital.

Leaders in the Transitional Federal Government say they are desperately in need of more support from the African Union, which has sent only a fraction of the promised peacekeeping contingent, and the United Nations, which has refused a peacekeeping force.

Ethiopian troops drove out the Union of Islamic Courts, which had established its own fragile government in Mogadishu. Now, the transitional prime minister is trying to work out a deal with the Islamists.

Critics say the Bush administration erred by identifying Islamists in Somalia as terrorists.

"The policy has failed," said Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., who heads the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. "We're Baghdad-izing Mogadishu and Somalia. We're making people feel wrongly treated and pushing them toward more radical positions."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/28/somalia_government_in_trouble/2345/

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Anti-immigrant violence rages on in South Africa

2008-05-20T07:11:18Z

By Barry Bearak and Celia W. Dugger
Published: May 20, 2008

JOHANNESBURG: The man certainly looked dead, lying motionless in the dust of the squatter camp. His body seemed almost like a bottle that had been turned on its side, spilling blood. His pants were red with the moisture.

Nearby was evidence of what he had endured. A large rock had been used to gouge his torso. Embers remained from a fire that had been part of some torture. Shards of a burned jacket still clung to the victim's left forearm.

Then, as people stepped closer, there was the faintest of breath pushing against his chest. "This guy may be alive," someone surmised. As if to confirm it, the man moved the fingers of his right hand.

The jaded crowd neither rejoiced nor lamented. After all, the horrific attacks against immigrants around Johannesburg had already been going on for a week, and in their eyes the victim was just some Malawian or Zimbabwean, another casualty in the continuing purge.

This nation is undergoing a spasm of xenophobia, with poor South Africans taking out their rage on the poor foreigners living in their midst. At least 22 people had been killed by Monday in the unrelenting mayhem, the police said.

But the death toll only hints at the consequences. Thousands of immigrants have been scattered from their tumbledown homes. They now crowd the police stations and community centers of Johannesburg, some with the few possessions they could carry before mobs ransacked their hovels, most with nothing but the clothes they wore as they escaped.

"They came at night, trying to kill us, with people pointing out, 'this one is a foreigner and this one is not,' " said Charles Mannyike, 28, an immigrant from Mozambique. "It was a very cruel and ugly hatred."

Xenophobic violence, once an occasional malady around Johannesburg, is now a contagion, skipping from one area to another. The city has no shortage of neighborhoods where the poor cobble together shacks from corrugated metal and wood planks.

Since the end of apartheid, a small percentage of the nation's black population — the highly skilled and the politically connected — has thrived. But the gap between the rich and poor has widened. The official rate of unemployment is 23 percent. Housing remains a deplorable problem.

"That's fueling the rage at the bottom," said Marius Root, a researcher at the South African Institute of Race Relations. "There's the perception that they're not enjoying the fruits of the liberation."

Here at the Ramaphosa Settlement Camp, the squatter's colony southeast of the city, six immigrants have been killed in the past two days — or perhaps seven if the man found in the dust Monday morning does not survive.

"We want all these foreigners to go back to their own lands," said Thapelo Mgoqi, who considers himself a leader in Ramaphosa. "We waited for our government to do something about these people. But they did nothing and so now we are doing it ourselves, and we will not be stopped."

A familiar litany of complaints against foreigners are passionately, if not always rationally, argued: They commit crimes. They undercut wages. They hold jobs that others deserve.

George Booysen said that as a born-again Christian he did not believe in killing. Still, something had to be done about these unwanted immigrants.

They are bad people, he said: "A South African may take your cellphone, but he won't kill you. A foreigner will take your phone and kill you."

Beyond that, he said, immigrants were too easy to exploit.

"White people hire the foreigners because they work hard and they do it for less money," Booysen said. "A South African demands his rights and will go on strike. Foreigners are afraid."

These days, the nights and early mornings belong to Ramaphosa's marauders. On Monday, soon after dawn, they were boldly celebrating their victories. Stores belonging to immigrants already had been looted, but there were still fires to set and walls to overturn. There was dancing and some singing.

Then the police arrived, quick to fire rubber-tipped bullets. Rocks were tossed by the mob in counterattack, but in order to triumph they really only had to be patient. The police did not stay long. They could not keep up with the widespread frenzy.

Those left behind by the nation's post-apartheid economy commonly blame those left even further behind, the powerless making scapegoats of the defenseless.

South Africa has 48 million people. It is hard to find a reliable estimate of the number of foreigners in the mix. Most certainly, not all immigrants push ahead of South Africans economically. But Somalis and Ethiopians have proved themselves successful shopkeepers in the townships.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/20/africa/20safrica.php

posted in Africa - 1 reply

New Travel Pictures African Country next to Country

2008-04-17T16:32:23Z

Kenya - Belgium New November 2007 Travel Pictures side by side

Hi,

This Kenya-Belgium website displays several pages each one containing two comparative (similar, contrastive, ...) photos. Let your thoughts flow freely and enjoy:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_16_en/the_mighty_us_and_mighty_dollars.html
Click the "-->"-button on the page opened for the following new pictures.

Best regards, BoBi

Annex: overview of the new photos:

the Kenyan Matatu Mighty US and a Keytrade advertising panel with Mighty Dollars:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_16_en/the_mighty_us_and_mighty_dollars.html
the Kenya Commercial Bank and the Keytrade Bank:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_16_en/a_kenyan_bank_on_the_internet_and_a_bank_on_the_belgian_internet.html
a Kenyan Forest and a Belgian Woodland:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_16_en/a_kenyan_forest_and_a_belgian_woodland.html
a Kenyan Bird and a Belgian Gull:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_16_en/a_kenyan_bird_and_a_gull_in_belgium.html
a Crowd of Kenyan matatus and a Crowd of Belgian cars:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_17_en/a_crowd_of_kenyan_matatus_and_a_crowd_of_belgian_cars.html
the Kenyan Harbour of Mombasa and the Belgian Harbour of Zeebrugge:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_17_en/the_kenyan_harbour_of_mombasa_and_the_belgian_harbour_of_zeebrugge.html
a Kenyan boat and a Belgian Patrol boat:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_17_en/a_kenyan_boat_and_a_belgian_patrol_boat.html
the Kenyan National Vegetable Sukuma wiki and the Belgian National Vegetable Chicory:
http://www.dongo.org/kenya-belgium/list_17_en/the_kenyan_national_vegetable_sukuma_wiki_and_the_belgian_national_vegetable_chicory.html

posted in Africa - 4 replies

Can you help?

2008-01-30T01:42:08Z

Victoria Nansumba, aged 18 years, emailed us this message:

Have just completed my advanced level,form 6 this year 2007.lam suppossed to join the university for a degree course in Procurement and logistics,having passed very well with 20 points as a qualification for intrance to the university and the mentioned course. lts unfortunent,that our Gorvernment is not in position to sponsor me to the university and for that course.

This means that ,unless lam helped,by kind people or organisations,l will not be in position to undergo for the course mentioned.
The purpose of this communication,is to request you help me with advice or any information or help that may enable me continue for the above studies. Your help ,will not only benefit me ,but will also benefit my mother,who is a widow and cannot help me otherwise,as well as the entire family.

http://www.africa54.com/giving.htm

Iam having hope that my request ,will meet your kind consideration.

posted in Africa - 3 replies

US food aid is 'wrecking' Africa, claims charity

2008-01-30T00:50:27Z

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2871490.ece

US food aid is 'wrecking' Africa, claims charity
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 17 August 2007

Critics of US food aid subsidies say they help cause obesity among Americans and starvation among Africans.

Now Care, one of the world's biggest charities, has announced that it will boycott the controversial policy of selling tons of heavily subsidised US produced food in African countries. Care wants the US government to send money to buy food locally, rather than unwanted US produced food.

The US arm of the charity says America is causing rather than reducing hunger with a decree that US food aid must be sold rather than directly distributed to those facing starvation. In America, the subsidies for corn in particular, help underpin the junk food industry, which uses corn extracts as a sweetener, creating a home-grown a health crisis.

The farm lobby meanwhile has a stranglehold on Congress, which has balked at making any changes that would interfere with a system that promotes overproduction of commodities.

Critics of the policy say it also undermines African farmers' ability to produce food, making the most vulnerable countries of the world even more dependent on aid to avert famine.

Under the system Washington buys tens of millions of dollars of surplus corn and other products from agribusiness. The food, which can only be exported on US flagged ships, is then sold by charities to raise money to pay for emergencies.

Globally, about 800 million are chronically hungry and the number is rising every year. US farmers love the present system, but it is slow and unresponsive when there are food emergencies.

Care has caused a huge upset in the American charitable sector by deciding to phase out the practice. It has also upset US agribusiness and shipping interests, which benefit to the tune of some $180m a year from the practice.

Attempts to get Congress to end the policy, as it debates a new farm bill that will last for the next five years, have failed.

Alina Labrada, a spokeswoman for Care said: "I don't think that Americans who generously donate want people to go hungry at their expense."

Care's decision has led to a rift with some of the biggest US charities, including World Vision, Feed the Children and Africare, who rely on the system to fund a large part of their budgets. They argue that it keeps hard currency in impoverished countries and stops food prices rising.

The US claims to be the world's most generous provider of food aid, giving $2bn annually. Much of that aid lost in the overheads of shipping it to Africa.

Not only does subsidised US food hurt African farmers, but food purchased in the US regularly takes four months to reach the destination where there is an emergency. In contrast food bought locally takes only days to arrive.

posted in Africa - 4 replies

Marriages fall victim to Kenya violence

2008-01-30T00:32:29Z

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 25, 2:12 PM ET

CHEPKANGA, Kenya - He doesn't call. He doesn't write. His cell phone has been switched off for weeks. After 17 years, Naomi Kering's husband is gone — one more intertribal marriage fallen victim to the violence that has followed Kenya's disastrous presidential election.

"The kids always ask me, 'Where is he?' And I always say he is going to come back," Kering, a 34-year-old of the Kalenjin tribe, told The Associated Press as she stood in the rubble of her home, torched by a mob last month because her husband is a Kikuyu. "But I hope he stays away, because I love him and I want him to be safe."

Since the Dec. 27 vote, marriages that united different ethnic groups have felt the strain as communities shun the Kikuyu tribe of President Mwai Kibaki, whose disputed re-election unleashed a wave of bloodshed that has killed at least 685 people.

Until now, marriages like Kering's were common enough to go largely unnoticed, representing hope for what Kenya could be as a nation. But now the fabric of Kenyan society is fraying, forcing families to confront tribal identities many had cast aside long ago.

"This election has changed the very essence of these marriages," said the Rev. Charles Kirui, a Catholic priest whose church in the nearby town of Burnt Forest shelters hundreds of Kikuyus. "Marriages are breaking up because of a tribal conflict, which means we really have a problem in Kenya."

There are no figures on how many families are affected, but the impact is particularly felt in the heart of opposition territory in western Kenya, where tribal tensions have been most inflamed by the election.

This country of 38 million was once seen as a stable democracy on a violent continent. But it depended on a delicate balance of intertribal power.

After independence in 1963, then-President Jomo Kenyatta flooded this region, native to the Kalenjin and Luo tribes, with his Kikuyu people. The Kikuyu settlers quickly prospered, growing into the most powerful of Kenya's 42 ethnic groups, running businesses and politics.

But favoritism shown to Kikuyus fueled old resentments, and some of the worst clashes since the election have pitted Kikuyus against the Kalenjin, who often are distinguishable by looks and language.

Still, Kering says she never imagined the bloodshed would jeopardize her marriage to Isaac Guthua. The couple fell in love more than 15 years ago, when he would stop by the beauty salon where she worked nearly every day just for a glance at her.

On the night the election results were announced, however, Guthua said he could not stay. Kikuyus were being hunted down and slaughtered. As Kering cooked dinner and Guthua watched the news, they heard screams in the distance — a mob was coming for Guthua and other Kikuyus, including his two brothers who lived next door with their Kalenjin wives.

"We came out of the house and saw people with torches," Kering said. "They burned our house."

Guthua, knowing his wife would be spared because she is not Kikuyu, told her to take care of the children, ages 17, 15 and 8. Then he took off at a run with his brothers, Steven and Mwangi, and they haven't been home since.

"We never had a problem before this election," said Kering's sister-in-law and neighbor, 27-year-old Eunice Kinyanjui. She is pregnant with her second child with Steven Guthua, her husband of three years. "We lived happily in our family until this disaster."

They have decided to stay and face an unsympathetic community.

"The people here, they say, 'Who told you to intermarry?'" Kinyanjui said, adding that they have not been targeted for violence, only shunned. "We are now useless to the community, they don't talk to us, anything."

Kemei Gilbert, 18, a Kalenjin who was manning a roadblock in the area, said the women deserved no sympathy.

"These women are not our problem," Gilbert said. "In Africa, when a woman marries, she belongs to that community."

Kering and Kinyanjui both say they are confident their husbands are alive. Kering's husband called her two days after he fled, telling her he would likely go to Nairobi, 200 miles away. Kinyanjui hasn't heard from her husband, but he told her as he left that they might meet again.

The women seem resigned to the possibility that it will never happen, though Kinyanjui still has hope.

"I'll just believe that one day, one time, he will come," she said, her face wet with tears.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Kenya Opposition MP assasinated

2008-01-29T06:27:25Z

Gunmen kill Kenyan opposition MP

A Kenyan opposition MP has been shot dead in Nairobi, police say, adding they could not rule out a connection to disputed presidential elections.

Mugabe Were, a member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) of the defeated candidate, Raila Odinga, was attacked outside his home, police said.

He is the first leading politician to have died amid violence that has gripped Kenya since December's poll.

It comes as nearly 100 people died in fresh bloodshed in the Rift Valley.

Two gunmen shot Mr Were as he drove up to the gate of his house in the capital just after midnight, Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

"We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives. We are urging everyone to remain calm," he said.

Mr Were, who represented Nairobi's Embakasai district, won a seat in the 27 December legislative election, which was held at the same time as the presidential vote.

ODM spokesman Tony Gachoka said: "The current situation makes one suspicious. All fingers will point at the government, and the government will have to show it is not involved."

International concern

Police fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse a crowd of about 100 opposition supporters who had gathered in the western city of Kisumu in a show of anger at the killing, AFP news agency reported.

"First they started killing the ordinary people like us, now they are killing our leaders, we won't accept it," demonstrator Justus Othieno told AFP.

The protest comes on the heels of earlier bloodshed in Kisumu and also in Eldoret.

Riots have also been ongoing in the towns of Naivasha and Nakuru in the Rift Valley, where dozens of people have been killed in five days of ethnic violence.

Members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe have been fighting with Luos and Kalenjins who backed his rival, Mr Odinga, in the election a month ago.

Mr Odinga accuses Mr Kibaki of stealing the vote and has refused to recognise the result.

Analysts warn a cycle of violence is emerging amid the political impasse, where the pattern of attacks is followed by reprisals.

The former UN secretary general Kofi Annan has been trying to mediate a solution between the two sides.

He has set Tuesday as a target for Kenya's government and opposition to name negotiators to try to halt the bloodletting.

On Monday, European Union foreign ministers urged Kenya's politicians to work to find a solution or risk a cut in EU aid.

"What is alarming about the last few days is that there are evidently hidden hands organising it now. Militias are appearing... the targeting is very specific," said the UK's visiting minister for Africa, Mark Malloch-Brown.

While President Kibaki says he is open to talks, he has refused to countenance Mr Odinga's demand for fresh elections.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

KENYA OFFICIALLY A DICTATORSHIP

2008-01-28T11:33:28Z

Kenya church torched, 50 reported killed

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and TOM ODULA, Associated Press Writers 3 minutes ago

NAIROBI, Kenya - A mob torched a church where hundreds had sought refuge Tuesday, and witnesses said dozens of people — including children — were burned alive or hacked to death with machetes in ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed election.

The killing of up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret brought the death toll from four days of rioting to more than 275, raising fears of further unrest in what has been one of Africa's most stable democracies.

The latest violence recalled scenes from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when more than a half-million people were killed. The question facing Kenya is whether the politicians will lose control of the mobs, triggering a civil war.

President Mwai Kibaki, who was swiftly inaugurated for a second term Sunday after a vote that critics said was rigged, called for a meeting with his political opponents — a significant softening of tone for a man who rarely speaks to the press and who vowed to crack down on rioters.

But opposition candidate Raila Odinga refused, saying he would meet Kibaki only "if he announces that he was not elected." Odinga accused the government of stoking the chaos, telling The Associated Press in an interview that Kibaki's administration "is guilty, directly, of genocide."

The violence — from the shantytowns of Nairobi to resort towns on the sweltering coast — has exposed long-festering tribal resentment.

The people killed in Eldoret, about 185 miles northwest of Nairobi, were members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe.

They had fled to the Assemblies of God Church on Monday night, seeking refuge after mobs torched homes. Video from a helicopter chartered by the Red Cross showed many homes in flames and the horizon obscured by smoke. Groups of people were seen seeking sanctuary at schools and the airport, while others moved into the forest.

On Tuesday morning, a mob of about 2,000 arrived at the church, said George Karanja, whose family had sought refuge there.

"They started burning the church," Karanja told the AP in a telephone interview, his voice catching with emotion as he described the scene. "The mattresses that people were sleeping on caught fire. There was a stampede, and people fell on one another."

Karanja, 37, helped pull out at least 10 people, but added, "I could not manage to pull out my sister's son. He was screaming 'Uncle, uncle!' ... He died." The boy was 11.

Up to 50 people were killed in the attack, said a Red Cross official who spoke on condition of anonymity because her name would identify her tribe, and she feared reprisal. Even first aid workers were stopped by vigilantes who demanded their identity. Numerous blockades along the road to Eldoret increased the dangers of traveling.

Karanja said his two children raised their hands as they left the church and they were beaten with a cane, but not killed. His 90-year-old father was attacked with a machete, but survived, he said.

"The worst part is that they were hacking people and then setting them on fire," he added.

The attackers saw Karanja saving people and began stoning him, he said. Karanja said he ran and hid — submerging himself in a pit latrine outside the church property. He stayed there about 30 minutes until he heard people speaking Kikuyu, he added.

The Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group, are accused of turning their dominance of politics and business to the detriment of others. Odinga is from the Luo tribe, a smaller but still major tribe that says it has been marginalized.

There are more than 40 tribes in Kenya, and political leaders have often used unemployed and uneducated young men to intimidate opponents. While Kibaki and Odinga have support from across the tribal spectrum, the youth responsible for the violence tend to see politics in strictly ethnic terms.

In Nairobi's slums, which are often divided along tribal lines, rival groups have been fighting each other with machetes and sticks as police use tear gas and bullets to keep them from pouring into the city center. The capital has been a ghost town for days, with residents stocking up on food and water and staying in their homes.

Parents in the capital's slums — home to a third of its population — searched for food, with many shops closed because of looting.

Anne Njoki, a 28-year-old Kikuyu, said she fled her home in a shantytown after she saw Kikuyus being attacked and their homes looted. She was camped near a military base with her sister, 3-year-old nephew and 7-year-old niece.

"They have taken our beds, blankets, even spoons," she said of the looters.

In the Mathare slum, Odinga supporters torched a minibus and attacked Kikuyu travelers, witnesses said.

"The car had 14 people in it, but they only slashed Kikuyus," said witness Boniface Mwangi. Five were attacked by the machete-wielding gang, he said.

The prospect of even more violence is ahead. Odinga insisted he would go ahead with plans to lead a protest march in the capital Thursday. The government banned the demonstration, but Odinga said: "It doesn't matter what they say."

The widespread violence and gathering international pressure could lead Kibaki to seek a compromise with the opposition.

The European Union and the United States have refused to congratulate Kibaki, and the EU and four top Kenyan election officials have called for an independent inquiry. In Britain, Kenya's former colonial ruler, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Kibaki and Odinga to hold talks.

Election commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said Tuesday he had been pressed by both an opposition party and Kibaki's Party of National Unity to release the results of the vote. Western ambassadors "wanted me to delay announcing the results, even if it is for a week," to allow the commission to investigate alleged irregularities, he said.

Kibaki, 76, won by a landslide in 2002, ending 24 years of rule by Daniel arap Moi. Kibaki is praised for turning the country into an east African economic powerhouse with an average growth rate of 5 percent, but his anti-graft campaign has been seen as a failure, and the country still struggles with tribalism and poverty.

Odinga, 62, cast himself as a champion of the poor. His main constituency is the Kibera slum, where some 700,000 people live in poverty, but he has been accused of failing to do enough to help them in 15 years as a member of parliament.

Kenya's tourism industry, which brings in some $900 million and attracts more than 1 million visitors a year, is sure to suffer from the violence. The United States has warned tourists against all but essential travel to Kenya, and Britain has advised against travel in some areas.

Stuart Dickson, a Canadian who was vacationing in Nairobi, said he was cutting short his visit.

"We are leaving early because of the riots and how dangerous it is to be out on the streets," he said. "With shops being closed and everything, it is not the best place for a tourist or traveler to be right now."

___

Associated Press writers Tom Maliti, Katharine Houreld and Malkhadir M. Muhumed contributed to this report.

posted in Africa - 2 replies

shipping goods to GHANA, Africa

2007-11-13T10:52:22Z

One of my best friends is on a goodwill mission in Ghana (she's located in Ho, to be exact).

She's teaching English & Mathematics to 4 & 5 yr-olds in a very basic format.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to send a care package for the kids (approx. 30 lbs.) without costing too much.

Any insight is welcome -- Thanks for your time & consideration.

~ PEACE ~

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Africa’s Brain Gain: Virtual Schools

2007-11-13T10:50:04Z

Africa’s Brain Gain: Virtual Schools

By Matthew Shaer

http://www.utne.com/ 2007-11-01/Africas-Brain- Gain.aspx

In dry, dusty Dakar, the computer is more than a token convenience. It is a window to the outside world. Since the turn of the 21st century, local web access has increased at a startling rate, reaching thousands of the city’s residents. Internet cafés filled with chattering businesspeople and students line the wide boulevards. The telecom industry is booming.

But even as Senegal’s capital transforms itself into the hub of West Africa’s cyberrevolution, the country is struggling to keep its brightest minds at home. It’s a dilemma that is familiar across the continent. According to the International Organization for Migration, approximately 20,000 professionals leave Africa each year, seeking more prestigious posts in Europe and the United States. Educational institutions, home to many of those up-and-coming professionals, are the major casualties.

To stem this brain drain, a number of innovative e-learning ventures are trying to connect students to classes from abroad while keeping their feet firmly rooted on African soil.

Since 1997, the Nairobi, Kenya–based African Virtual University has worked to improve access to web-based learning in sub-Saharan Africa. As connection rates improve, the group has expanded its reach, launching satellite campuses in war-torn countries like Rwanda and Somalia.

In such countries the situation is infinitely more challenging than in relatively prosperous Senegal and Kenya. Consider the case of a small organization called Sierra Visions, which was founded in 2003, just one year after Sierra Leone’s long and bloody civil war ended. The country is still mired in reconstruction efforts. Poverty and economic stagnation loom large; the country is listed as number 176 on the United Nations’ Human Development Index of 177 nations.

Despite the daunting obstacles, Sierra Visions plans to launch a series of programs this fall aimed at teaching professional skills in areas like accounting, customer service, health, and education. The catch: Roughly half of the 50 Sierra Leonean instructors teach from their homes in Canada, Europe, and the United States.

The courses use a model called the “webinar,” which allows student and teacher to interact through video and audio. Yeniva Sisay, communications director at Sierra Visions, says the format offers the next best thing to face-to-face discussion. The classes are intimate and closely managed; a premium is placed on dialogue between teachers and students.

“It made me feel like I was a part of something, part of the global village,” says Emmanuel M. Sandi, a student at a Sierra Visions program last spring. Sandi isn’t alone. Students of programs like Sierra Visions stress that the feeling of belonging to a larger whole is vital to the learning process. It provides them with a context, a support system, and instructors who understand local issues.

The virtual platform also gives those Sierra Leonean teachers who decamped during the war a way to help from afar. “There is no way the healing process is going to come from anyone but ourselves,” Sisay says. “Outsiders will help, but this is our best chance, and this is the most important time.”

If Sierra Visions’ programs are successful, they could have implications for Africa at large, including the potential to lay the technological groundwork for what Stanford Mukasa, an associate professor of journalism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, calls “cyberunification.” Improved technology, Mukasa says, has the potential to bridge gaps between families in ways that were impossible to conceive of just a few years ago. A little contact—even a fuzzy voice, a shaky, pixellated image—can go a long way.

Some argue, however, that web contact is a poor substitute for the widespread and very physical investment that poor countries so desperately need. “I don’t see enough lobbying for the basic stuff—electricity, the roads,” says Conrad Coyanda-Parkzes, CEO of a telecom company called AccessPoint, which is assisting the Sierra Visions team in Freetown.

That basic stuff allows the more complex stuff, like fiber-optic cable systems and cell towers, to be built. Right now, says Coyanda-Parkzes, who moved to the United States from Sierra Leone in 1986 and visits the capital regularly, access costs are prohibitive, and technological progress is slow going.

There are signs, though, that some leaders are coming around, encouraging more telecom investments from abroad and focusing on wired infrastructure. Senagalese president Abdoulaye Wade, for example, has pressed for “virtual campuses” in downtown Dakar.

“They’re realizing,” says Sidiki Traore, director of the African Virtual University’s West African regional office, “that ‘the Internet is the solution for my country. Let me open up.’ ”

posted in Africa - 4 replies

South African Reggae Star Lucky Dube Shot Dead

2007-11-13T10:47:53Z

LUCKY DUBE’S RECORD LABEL, GALLO, MOURNS HIS TRAGIC LOSS

The staff of Gallo Record Company are devastated by the news of the tragic passing of reggae legend Lucky Dube. Lucky was slain in an attempted hijacking in Rosettenville in Johannesburg last night, at approximately 8pm, whilst dropping off his children at a family members house.

Although Lucky attempted to escape the scene, he had been fatally wounded from the hijacker’s attempt to steal his motor vehicle, and he died almost instantly.
Senseless and random, the death of Lucky Dube leaves a great void in the music industry, as 25 years of music suddenly ends in tragedy.

South African born but globally revered, Lucky Dube was one of the country’s most toured and beloved artists ever. His music touched millions around the world, primarily through his 22 recorded albums - in Zulu, English and even Afrikaans - many of which have been record breakers with phenomenal sales from around the globe.

As a frontline artist in the reggae genre, Lucky's creativity and inventiveness kept growing.
Compelling in his musicianship and intriguing in his lyrical content, Lucky's sonic daring to take his genre to new heights never failed to amaze even the most ardent fans, whilst reigning in new devotees to his magic every day.

His energetic band toured with him from continent to continent as South African musical ambassadors, and his live performances have earned him fans and accolades the world over.

Lucky joined Teal Records (later to become Gallo) as a fresh-faced young Mbaqanga singer in 1982. Five albums later he found a genre that spoke to his soul and changed the way he viewed the world. This genre was Reggae.

With his long-time sound engineer and best friend Dave Segal, he created some of the most legendary pieces of reggae music ever recorded, including the tracks Prisoner, Taxman, Slave, Victims, Together As One and Respect – all social anthems that garnered him the adoration of the people of his country - and across the globe.
Lucky was an artist that continued to break international barriers and recently just signed a deal with Warner Music International, securing him album releases across Europe of his latest album Respect.

Ivor J. Haarburger, CEO of Gallo Music Group is deeply saddened by the loss. “Lucky was not just an extraordinary artist, he was a personal friend. We go back over twenty years and had both a business and personal relationship. It’s so sad to lose such a great friend and so tragically, why?”

There are very few words that capture the magnitude of this devastating loss. As a musician, father and colleague, Lucky was one of the most charming, respected, selfless and dedicated people to have lived. He will be sorely missed.

Lucky Dube was survived by his new wife Zanele and his 7 children Bongi, Nonkululeko, Thokozani, Laura, Siyanda, Philani and his brand new three-month old baby Melokuhle.

Should you wish to send a message of condolence to Lucky’s family, please email Lucky@gallo.co.za or fax on +27 (0) 11 340 9471

CONTINUE TO LUCKY DUBE'S WEBSITE

posted in Africa - 4 replies

Rape Epidemic in Congo

2007-10-10T21:34:17Z

(what can we possibly do about this? awareness at LEAST- please tell everyone)

October 7, 2007

Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
<topics.nytimes.com/top/refe...ey_gettle
man/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , New York Times

BUKAVU, Congo — Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to
listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore.

Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his
hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out,
butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their
reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

“We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,” said
Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo’s rape
epidemic. “They are done to destroy women.”

Eastern Congo is going through another one of its convulsions of violence,
and this time it seems that women are being systematically attacked on a
scale never before seen here. According to the United Nations
<topics.nytimes.com/top/refe...u/united_
nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in
2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the
total number across the country.

“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said John Holmes,
the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The
sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s
appalling.”

The days of chaos in Congo were supposed to be over. Last year, this country
of 66 million people held a historic election that cost $500 million and was
intended to end Congo’s various wars and rebellions and its tradition of
epically bad government.

But the elections have not unified the country or significantly strengthened
the Congolese government’s hand to deal with renegade forces, many of them
from outside the country. The justice system and the military still barely
function, and United Nations officials say Congolese government troops are
among the worst offenders when it comes to rape. Large swaths of the
country, especially in the east, remain authority-free zones where civilians
are at the mercy of heavily armed groups who have made warfare a livelihood
and survive by raiding villages and abducting women for ransom.

According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the
Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the
forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are
notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up
anybody who gets in their way.

United Nations officials said the so-called Rastas were once part of the
Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after committing genocide there in 1994, but
now it seems they have split off on their own and specialize in freelance
cruelty.

Honorata Barinjibanwa, an 18-year-old woman with high cheekbones and
downcast eyes, said she was kidnapped from a village that the Rastas raided
in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was
tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The
men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said.

“I’m weak, I’m angry, and I don’t know how to restart my life,” she said
from Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where she was taken after her captors freed
her.

She is also pregnant.

While rape has always been a weapon of war, researchers say they fear that
Congo’s problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon.

“It’s gone beyond the conflict,” said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied
various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said
that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to
be going up and that brutality toward women had become “almost normal.”

Malteser International, a European aid organization that runs health clinics
in eastern Congo, estimates that it will treat 8,000 sexual violence cases
this year, compared with 6,338 last year. The organization said that in one
town, Shabunda, 70 percent of the women reported being sexually brutalized.

At Panzi Hospital, where Dr. Mukwege performs as many as six rape-related
surgeries a day, bed after bed is filled with women lying on their backs,
staring at the ceiling, with colostomy bags hanging next to them because of
all the internal damage.

“I still have pain and feel chills,” said Kasindi Wabulasa, a patient who
was raped in February by five men. The men held an AK-47 rifle to her
husband’s chest and made him watch, telling him that if he closed his eyes,
they would shoot him. When they were finished, Ms. Wabulasa said, they shot
him anyway.

In almost all the reported cases, the culprits are described as young men
with guns, and in the deceptively beautiful hills here, there is no shortage
of them: poorly paid and often mutinous government soldiers; homegrown
militias called the Mai-Mai who slick themselves with oil before marching
into battle; members of paramilitary groups originally from Uganda and
Rwanda who have destabilized this area over the past 10 years in a quest for
gold and all the other riches that can be extracted from Congo’s exploited
soil.

The attacks go on despite the presence of the largest United Nations
peacekeeping force in the world, with more than 17,000 troops.

Few seem to be spared. Dr. Mukwege said his oldest patient was 75, his
youngest 3.

“Some of these girls whose insides have been destroyed are so young that
they don’t understand what happened to them,” Dr. Mukwege said. “They ask me
if they will ever be able to have children, and it’s hard to look into their
eyes.”

No one — doctors, aid workers, Congolese and Western researchers — can
explain exactly why this is happening.

“That is the question,” said André Bourque, a Canadian consultant who works
with aid groups in eastern Congo. “Sexual violence in Congo reaches a level
never reached anywhere else. It is even worse than in Rwanda during the
genocide.”

Impunity may be a contributing factor, Mr. Bourque added, saying that very
few of the culprits are punished.

Many Congolese aid workers denied that the problem was cultural and insisted
that the widespread rapes were not the product of something ingrained in the
way men treated women in Congolese society. “If that were the case, this
would have showed up long ago,” said Wilhelmine Ntakebuka, who coordinates a
sexual violence program in Bukavu.

Instead, she said, the epidemic of rapes seems to have started in the
mid-1990s. That coincides with the waves of Hutu militiamen who escaped into
Congo’s forests after exterminating 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during
Rwanda’s genocide 13 years ago.

Mr. Holmes said that while government troops might have raped thousands of
women, the most vicious attacks had been carried out by Hutu militias.

“These are people who were involved with the genocide and have been
psychologically destroyed by it,” he said.

Mr. Bourque called this phenomenon “reversed values” and said it could
develop in heavily traumatized areas that had been steeped in conflict for
many years, like eastern Congo.

This place, one of the greenest, hilliest and most scenic slices of central
Africa, continues to reverberate from the aftershocks of the genocide next
door. Take the recent fighting near Bukavu between the Congolese Army and
Laurent Nkunda, a dissident general who commands a formidable rebel force.
Mr. Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi who has accused the Congolese Army of
supporting Hutu militias, which the army denies. Mr. Nkunda says his rebel
force is simply protecting Tutsi civilians from being victimized again.

But his men may be no better.

Willermine Mulihano said she was raped twice — first by Hutu militiamen two
years ago and then by Nkunda soldiers in July. Two soldiers held her legs
apart, while three others took turns violating her.

“When I think about what happened,” she said, “I feel anxious and
brokenhearted.”

She is also lonely. Her husband divorced her after the first rape, saying
she was diseased.

In some cases, the attacks are on civilians already caught in the cross-fire
between warring groups. In one village near Bukavu where 27 women were raped
and 18 civilians killed in May, the attackers left behind a note in broken
Swahili telling the villagers that the violence would go on as long as
government troops were in the area.

The United Nations peacekeepers here seem to be stepping up efforts to
protect women.

Recently, they initiated what they call “night flashes,” in which three
truckloads of peacekeepers drive into the bush and keep their headlights on
all night as a signal to both civilians and armed groups that the
peacekeepers are there. Sometimes, when morning comes, 3,000 villagers are
curled up on the ground around them.

But the problem seems bigger than the resources currently devoted to it.

Panzi Hospital has 350 beds, and though a new ward is being built
specifically for rape victims, the hospital sends women back to their
villages before they have fully recovered because it needs space for the
never-ending stream of new arrivals.

Dr. Mukwege, 52, said he remembered the days when Bukavu was known for its
stunning lake views and nearby national parks, like Kahuzi-Biega.

“There used to be a lot of gorillas in there,” he said. “But now they’ve
been replaced by much more savage beasts.”

posted in Africa - 0 replies

FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN AFRICAN WRITING

2007-08-21T11:57:21Z

The latest and fourth edition of Kwani?, East Africa's only literary journal is out. For readings, launch events and related things, check out their blog at:
www.kwani.org/blog

The Kwani? 04 blurb reads:

Following and keeping close to the great tradition set by its three predecessors, Kwani? 4 presents a wail of new voices in literary concert with the not so new. The now established talents- Binyavanga Wainaina, Muthoni Garland, Doreen Baingana- share these pages with the fast risers: Billy Kahora, Mukoma wa Ngugi and Shalini Gidoomal.

And Kwani? 4 has delved deeper into the all those spaces where the Kenyan story lives: the street corners, the neighbourhood pubs, the in-between semi rural places where the clash of cultures- the traditional versus the modern- continues to redefine the social roles of the individual, dismantle patriarchal constructs and still retain the pithy wit and the devices of ancient orature that time and the ritual of the communal fireside have honed.

Still, as though in ridicule of such notions of Africa as being the continent on the lee side of the Digital Divide, Kwani? 4 reaches into the burgeoning realms of the Kenyan blogosphere to bring such politically aware, borderline intellectual and only-two-degrees-shy-of-rebellious voices bringing a fresh look at the old themes of politics, slices of life and religion and placing them alongside such taboo subjects as sex beyond the hetero-normative ideal.

Kwani? 4 is a must read for all new fiction, mind provoking non fiction and photo-essays and witty graphic narratives.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Uganda: Value Added Products Vital for Farmers

2007-07-25T17:32:22Z

The annual agricultural fair ended in Jinja Uganda; this year the exhibitors displayed valued added products and hand tools that made farm work more productive. the lack of funds is a major barrier to sharing the innovations on display.

story:

http://digitaljournal.com/article/210338/Uganda_Value_Added_Products_Vital_for_Farmers

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Malian journalists convicted of insulting president

2007-06-28T23:16:53Z

Committee to Protect Journalists
June 26, 2007

Five Malian journalists who covered a high school essay assignment — and the teacher who commissioned the lesson — were convicted today of insulting President Amadou Toumani Toure, according to news reports and local journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the verdicts, which stemmed from a classroom exercise about an imaginary presidential sex scandal, and called for the convictions to be reversed on appeal.

“These spurious charges for covering a school assignment spoil Mali’s record of upholding democracy and press freedom,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “President Toure is credited with helping to establish democracy in Mali, but these charges undermine that record and set a dangerous precedent for the future.”

The journalists’ lawyer, Mamdou Konaté, said he will file an appeal. High security surrounded the closed, one-day trial; as many as 300 people had sought to attend the proceedings, a local journalist told CPJ.

The case began two weeks ago when Seydine Oumar Diarra, a journalist for the independent daily Info-Matin, was jailed in connection with a June 1 story headlined “The Mistress of the President.” Diarra’s story featured interviews with a high school teacher and his students regarding an essay assignment about a fictional sex scandal involving an African leader. Literature teacher Bassirou Kassim Minta told Diarra he assigned the essay as a way to help his students explore moral issues.

Diarra was sentenced to the 13 days in prison that he already served while awaiting trial. Info-Matin Director Sambi Toure received an eight-month suspended sentence and was fined 200,000 francs (US$400). Minta was sentenced to a two-month prison term and fined 100,000 francs (US$200).

After Diarra was arrested, three publications reprinted the story as a protest—prompting authorities to arrest the director of each publication. Receiving four-month suspended sentences and fines of 200,000 francs today were directors Hameye Cissé of Le Scorpion, Birama Fall of Le Républicain, andAlexis Kalambry of Les Echos.

Most newspapers in Mali refused to print on Monday in protest of the court case. Mahan Koné, president of the Mali press union, Maison de la Presse, said the group expects to issue a statement of protest.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Vanity Fair- Africa issue- July 2007

2007-06-18T06:26:56Z

hello.. just wanted to let you know that the latest Vanity Fair (July 2007) .. it is a special edition on Africa, guest edited by Bono, and *full* of interviews, current info+stats, the latest innovative projects, online resources, and general status of the situation ... i've put a few snippits below (from vanityfair.com)

brooklyn

*********************************************
The 21 people who put their famous faces to work for this issue say it all. Annie Leibovitz paired them up on 20 different covers—shout-outs for the challenge, the promise, and the future of Africa.

BONO
Musician, activist, and V.F.'s first-ever guest editor, Bono is in favor of erecting a very big tent when it comes to the AIDS epidemic. "This is an emergency—normal rules don't apply. There are no easy good or bad guys," he says. "Do you think an African mother cares if the drugs keeping her child alive are thanks to an iPod or a church plate? Or a Democrat or a Republican? I don't think that mother gives a damn about where that 20-cent pill comes from, so why should we. It can lead to some uncomfortable bedfellows, but sometimes less sleep means you are more awake."

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
As a leader of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement and, later, its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has devoted his life to working for human rights. In 1984 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Currently, he is establishing the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, in Cape Town, to, he says, "promote sustainable peace and values-based leadership throughout the world." (For more details, go to tutu.org.)

BRAD PITT
Brad Pitt's activism in New Orleans, Haiti, and Africa has received worldwide attention. His involvement in Africa began in 2004 with visits to Ethiopia and South Africa; in 2005 he helped launch the One Campaign to Make Poverty History. He is also a co-founder of Not on Our Watch, which teamed with the International Rescue Committee to hold premieres of Pitt's current film, Ocean's Thirteen, to benefit Darfur. He interviews Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

MADONNA
"I asked one of the children in Malawi, 'If you've got the world listening to you, if there's one thing you could say to the world, what would you say?,'" Madonna told Dr. Jim Yong Kim, former director of the World Health Organization's H.I.V./AIDS department. "And the boy said, 'Please just help us forget that we're orphans.'" Madonna and Dr. Kim's conversation about the plight of the more than one million AIDS orphans in Malawi is on vanityfair.com; read her own account of her work in Malawi in the Fanfair section.

MAYA ANGELOU
"The dignity of the African people simply will not be dismissed with 100 years of colonialism and the years of having slavery as the main export," says author, poet, historian, director, performer, and civil-rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou, who in 1996 was named a national ambassador to UNICEF. "You have to stand up for the fellow who's been knocked down," she says. "I am filled with gratitude for those who say, 'I identify with those people because they are human beings, and nothing human can be alien to me.' That's a powerful statement and a powerful thing to do."

BILL AND MELINDA GATES
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent $8 billion on global health, including the fight against AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in Africa and elsewhere. "I'm optimistic," says Bill, "that people's thinking will evolve on the question of health inequity—that people will finally accept that the death of a child in the developing world is just as tragic and worthy of our attention as the death of a child in the rich world." Melinda adds, "I believe the connection happens when you see people as neighbors and not as strangers. The people of Africa are our neighbors."

OPRAH WINFREY
Through her Angel Network, the public charity she founded in 1998, talk-show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey has helped fund 28 schools in five African countries as well as personally creating the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, in South Africa, in 2007. She says, "Education is freedom; it's the only way out. Despite the poverty and despair many of these young African children face every day, they have a fierce determination to get an education. I want to help give them the chance they deserve."

GEORGE CLOONEY
In 2005, George Clooney was going through the Oscar process when he read about the crisis in Darfur: "I wanted to take all the attention I was getting and do something positive with it. [But] you can't just talk about an issue, you have to understand it fully, you have to be there." With his father, Nick, Clooney traveled to Chad to film the 2007 documentary A Journey to Darfur. "The more time you spend with the people in the camps, who are holding on by a whisper and still believe that their lives will be better," he says, "the more you believe that anything is possible."

JAY-Z
Jay-Z went to Africa in 2006 on his first world tour and found a cause: 1.1 billion people don't have clean drinking water. He teamed up with the U.N., bought pumps, helped supply clean, running water to an entire village, and, with MTV, filmed a documentary, Water for Life. "I come from the Marcy projects, in Brooklyn," he says, "which is considered a tough place to grow up, but this [showed me] how good we have it. The rappers who say, 'We're from the 'hood,' take it from me, you're not from the 'hood. You haven't seen people with no access to water. It really put things in perspective."

DON CHEADLE
Don Cheadle became acutely aware of the crisis in Darfur while filming Hotel Rwanda in 2003. Since then he has returned to Africa to spend time in refugee camps, testified before a Senate subcommittee on human rights, and co-authored (with John Prendergast) Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. "Though the situation in Darfur today is dire," he says, "if our leaders insert themselves in a multilateral, political, and diplomatic process, I believe we can help to end the pain and suffering of literally millions of civilians."

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Kenya - Belgium New June 2007 Pictures side by side

2007-06-16T20:31:42Z

Hi,

This Kenya-Belgium website displays several pages each one containing two comparative (similar, contrastive, ...) photos. Let your thoughts flow freely and enjoy:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_12_en/a_kenyan_park_and_a_belgian_park.html
Click the "-->"-button on the page opened for the following new pictures.

Best regards, BoBi

Annex: overview of the new photos:

People in a Kenyan City Park and People in a Belgian City Park:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_12_en/a_kenyan_park_and_a_belgian_park.html
Out eating at the Kenyan coast and Out eating with Business people:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_12_en/out_eating_in_kenya_and_out_eating_in_belgium.html
a bottle of Kenyan Pilsner beer and a truck of Belgian Jupiler beer:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_12_en/a_kenyan_beer_and_a_belgian_beer.html
the Kenyan Pilsner beer strong like Lions and Belgian Jupiler beer - strong stories:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_12_en/a_kenyan_beer_on_the_internet_and_a_belgian_beer_on_the_internet.html
a Kenyan Ostrich family with chicks and a Belgian Duck family:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_13_en/a_kenyan_ostrich_family_and_a_belgian_duck_family.html
Sisal cultivation in Kenya and Potato cultivation in Belgium:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_13_en/sisal_cultivation_in_kenya_and_potato_cultivation_in_belgium.html
A Kenyan Coastline and A Belgian Coastline:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_13_en/a_kenyan_coastline_and_a_belgian_coastline.html
a Kenyan Truck Flipped over and a Belgian Road accident:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_13_en/a_kenyan_road_accident_and_a_belgian_road_accident.html

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Africa54 Digital Photo Exhibit

2007-06-13T19:40:43Z

As our effort to raise funds for villages featured in our Projects page we are now announcing the start of digital photo contest under the theme:
PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES : GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT

based on 4 categories, food, water, your backyard, your neighbourhood

http://africa54.com

posted in Africa - 2 replies

African Music Website

2007-06-13T06:57:13Z

I am helping spread the word, so share this message that was sent to me with others. So, for those who are interested, please help spread the word. Thank You

www.africanshome.com

check out our new news sections news.africanshome.com

I have launched a website to promote local artist and to show case their talents. As an artist you can upload your music, photos, and videos and also post your gigs and get a store to sell your merchandise. I am inviting you to check out the website and if you can please sing up, it will only take you a few minutes and it free. Thanks in advance for your support.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Zelia's Annual Belly Dance Fundraising Gala - A benefit for Tanzania

2007-06-01T15:54:44Z

June 2nd, 2007 - Maple Ridge, BC

Starring Zelia, her students and special guests from across Greater Vancouver!!!

Featuring Cabaret Belly Dance, Tribal Belly Dance, Bollywood, Fusion, and more……

All proceeds go to VIS-Greybrook Academy’s “Tanzania Fund” which provides assistance to a school and orphanage in Moshi, Tanzania, where many of Greybrook's students (and Zelia!) travelled to last fall.

(VIS-Greybrook Academy is a non-denominational, co-educational, international school in Pitt Meadows, BC.)

Show: 7:30pm
Doors open: 7pm

Where: The Maple Ridge ACT (Arts Centre and Theatre), 11944 Haney Place, downtown Maple Ridge

Tickets on sale now!!! (Advance tickets are only $15 for adults and $10 for children and seniors.)

Order on-line through The ACT webiste (www.theactmapleridge.org) or over the phone by calling The ACT box office: 604-476-2787

For more details contact Zelia at zelia@firespirit.ca.

***This event is proudly sponsored by Donna Partridge (www.donnapartrigde.com) and PCMG Canada (www.pcmgcanada.com).

posted in Africa - 2 replies

Poverty Scavengers

2007-05-31T14:07:59Z

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/30/poverty_scavengers.php

Poverty Scavengers
Danny Glover and Nicole Lee
May 30, 2007

Danny Glover is chairman of the board of and Nicole Lee is executive director of TransAfrica Forum.

In June of 2006, world leaders stood with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and pledged their support for debt relief for impoverished African nations. The intent of their principled gesture was to help a select number of countries pull themselves out of the quagmire of debt which prevents them from building infrastructure, schools and hospitals. But, it was also a pragmatic gesture. Poverty breeds insecurity, and as President Bush noted in his State of the Union address, poverty alleviation must be a cornerstone of our foreign policy to create a secure world. For the most part, the world applauded the efforts of the G-8 leaders, and the slow process to full debt relief began. But in the shadows stands a financial creature that threatens the resolve of the G-8 on African debt relief and threatens U.S. foreign policy related to development assistance for Africa and this administration’s so-called war on terror.

A vulture is a creature that lurks around waiting for another animal to be near death before it swoops in. The vulture is a cagey bird that hovers over the weak waiting for an opportunity to finish it off. Vulture funds are a group of financial institutions that buy African and Latin American debt from the lending country for a reduced amount and then press the struggling nations into courts as they demand payment of the full loan and interest several times the original value of the debt. This practice is crippling countries that welcomed international debt relief but are now facing the possibility of debt relief from the G-8 being meaningless. They will now have to pay the new owners of their loan.

In the African country of Zambia, over 70 percent of people live in poverty. The average wage is just over a dollar a day, one in five people are infected with HIV/AIDS and life expectancy is merely 37.7 years. Yet, in the midst of qualifying for debt cancellation by G-8 nations, the Donegal Corporation, owned by American businessman Michael Sheehan, bought Zambian debt from Romania. In April, British courts awarded Donegal 15 million dollars, almost five times the value Donegal paid for the debt.

The morally bankrupt actions of vulture funds render the commitments to debt relief made by the U.S. and other wealthy nations meaningless. U.S. taxpayer money, pledged to provided relief and assistance through debt relief, will fall into the hands of these greedy corporations. At the upcoming G-8 Summit President Bush should call for a commitment by world leaders to address debt relief and vulture funds. The U.S. Treasury should follow the lead of U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown and limit the awards vulture funds can claim for these debts. Congress must examine this practice and its impact on our overall foreign policy interests. The international community must employ effective means to protect countries like Zambia who have fallen prey to these vulture funds, including implementing fair and transparent international mechanisms to resolve these matters.

Vulture funds are aptly named. They present a threat to the end of world hunger. They undermine U.S. foreign policy and increase the possibility of a rise in terrorist organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. People of good will and good intentions must join with international civil society and call for the end of this treacherous practice.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Kenya Safety

2007-05-30T08:45:01Z

Hello,

I'm an American wanting to travel to Kenya. Specifically, I've been reading about the slums around Nairobi, in a book called "Shadow Cities" by Robert Neuwirth and I would like to see them for myself. Anyhow. I've never traveled to a country with a travel warning on it. The most dangerous place I've been has been Cambodia, which I found very safe. Anyhow I'm looking for people (specifically Americans) who have traveled there recently who can tell me that the dangers are exagerated, or rather that I should stay away.

Thanks
Orion

posted in Africa - 7 replies

Cameroon clean water project

2007-05-27T19:04:02Z

hey all -- my Peace Corps friends are working on building a clean water source in a small village in Cameroon. they are seeking donations :) check it out:

The project will consist of building a reinforced concrete spring box and reservoir on the side of a hill at the source of a natural spring. The water will then be piped down to the village by gravity. This is all for one village of about 400 people who constantly suffer from diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated drinking water. This project will protect their water source and improve the lives of every member of the village. More information can be found at the following website:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=694-081 &

Thanks again for your support!! Take care!!

Lindsey
--
Lindsey Madson, PCV
BP 477
Ebolowa, Cameroon
Africa

posted in Africa - 0 replies

USA clashes with China over Africa’s oil

2007-05-22T08:56:01Z

see http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/485 for links

Article and Video/Audio: Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil - “Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn't seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude skyrocketing, and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the 19th-century scramble for colonization. Already, the United States imports more of its oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia, and China, too, looks to the continent for its energy security.”

If the above article is any indication, then this new book by historian and journalist John Ghazvinian is going to be well worth the investment. To get an overview of what this book is about you can also listen to the Democracy Now! segment in which Ghazvinian discusses his book (49:37).

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Kenya - Belgium New May 2007 Pictures side by side

2007-05-08T03:23:34Z

Hi,

This Kenya-Belgium website displays several pages each one containing two comparative (similar, contrastive, ...) photos. Let your thoughts flow freely and enjoy:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_10_en/a_kenyan_beach_and_a_belgian_beach.html
Click the "-->"-button on the page opened for the following new pictures.

Best regards, BoBi

Annex: overview of the new photos:

Tourism on a Kenyan Beach and Tourism on a Belgian Beach:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_10_en/a_kenyan_beach_and_a_belgian_beach.html
the Indian Ocean and the North Sea:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_10_en/the_indian_ocean_and_the_north_sea.html
a Kenyan Ladies' hairdresser and the Belgian Barber Tolhuis:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_10_en/a_kenyan_ladies__hairdresser_and_a_belgian_barber.html
Darling Kenya Hair Additions and L'OREAL CASTING Crème Gloss:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_10_en/kenyan_hairdressing_on_the_internet_and_hairdressing_on_the_belgian_internet.html
Obstacle Track and Endless Traffic Jams:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_11_en/on_a_kenyan_road_and_on_a_belgian_road.html
Activity in the Kenyan Capital and Calm in the Belgian Capital:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_11_en/the_kenyan_capital_nairobi_and_the_belgian_capital_brussels.html
Cacao Milk Baby Echography 12 weeks and Newborn Cacao Milk Baby one hour old:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_11_en/cacao_milk_baby_1_and_cacao_milk_baby_2.html
a Kenyan Landscape and a Belgian Landscape:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_11_en/a_kenyan_landscape_2_and_a_belgian_landscape_2.html

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Switch to organic crops could help poor

2007-05-07T06:31:24Z

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Sat May 5, 4:51 PM ET

ROME - Organic food has long been considered a niche market, a luxury for wealthy consumers. But researchers told a U.N. conference Saturday that a large-scale shift to organic agriculture could help fight world hunger while improving the environment.

Crop yields initially can drop as much as 50 percent when industrialized, conventional agriculture using chemical fertilizers and pesticides is converted to organic. While such decreases often even out over time, the figures have kept the organic movement largely on the sidelines of discussions about feeding the hungry.

Researchers in Denmark found, however, that food security for sub-Saharan Africa would not be seriously harmed if 50 percent of agricultural land in the food exporting regions of Europe and North America were converted to organic by 2020.

While total food production would fall, the amount per crop would be much smaller than previously assumed, and the resulting rise in world food prices could be mitigated by improvements in the land and other benefits, the study found.

A similar conversion to organic farming in sub-Saharan Africa could help the region's hungry because it could reduce their need to import food, Niels Halberg, a senior scientist at the Danish Research Center for Organic Food and Farming, told the U.N. conference on "Organic Agriculture and Food Security."

Farmers who go back to traditional agricultural methods would not have to spend money on expensive chemicals and would grow more diverse and sustainable crops, the report said. In addition, if their food is certified as organic, farmers could export any surpluses at premium prices.

The researchers plugged in data on projected crop yields and commodity prices until 2020 to create models for the most optimistic and conservative outlooks.

Alexander Mueller, assistant director-general of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, praised the report and noted that projections indicate the number of hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa was expected to grow.

Considering that the effects of climate change are expected to hurt the world's poorest, "a shift to organic agriculture could be beneficial," he said.

Nadia El-Hage Scialabba, an FAO official who organized the conference, pointed to other studies she said indicated that organic agriculture could produce enough food per capita to feed the world's current population.

One such study, by the University of Michigan, found that a global shift to organic agriculture would yield at least 2,641 kilocalories per person per day, just under the world's current production of 2,786, and as many as 4,381 kilocalories per person per day, researchers reported. A kilocalorie is one "large" calorie and is known as the "nutritionist's calorie."

"These models suggest that organic agriculture has the potential to secure a global food supply, just as conventional agriculture today, but with reduced environmental impacts," Scialabba said in a paper presented to the conference.

However, she stressed that the studies were only economic models.

The United Nations defines organic agriculture as a "holistic" food system that avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, minimizes pollution and optimizes the health of plants, animals and people. It is commercially practiced in 120 countries and represented a $40 billion market last year, Scialabba said.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Documentary about the Children of Uganda

2007-05-04T00:01:09Z

see http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/407 for links

Video: Invisible Children (55:08) - “The "Invisible Children: rough cut" film exposes the effects of a 20 year-long war on the children of Northern Uganda. These children live in fear of abduction by rebel soldiers, and are being forced to fight as a part of violent army. This wonderfully reckless documentary is fast paced, with an MTV beat, and is something truly unique. To see Africa through young eyes is humorous and heart breaking, quick and informative - all in the very same breath. See this film, you will be forever changed.” … keep in mind that a large portion of the US Military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are also children as young as 17 years old. So what is the difference between the poorest countries in the world sending their children to die in brutal wars and the richest country in the world doing the same? The difference is that it would only take a fraction of the monthly cost of the Iraq war to stop most of the wars in Africa and save tens of thousands of children from dying, but it will take billions more to continue killing American children to occupy foreign countries.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Temple of Sound GlobalHead Track Listing/Guests Featuring Natacha Atlas/Hukwe Zawose/Ben Baddoo/Jo Legwabe

2007-04-24T23:39:22Z

Temple of Sound New Album Released in USA on May 8th 2007
Namaste Records/Koch Records

Temple of Sound release their fifth studio album "GlobalHead" on Namaste Records
(A Division of The Machat Company)/Koch Records in the USA on May 8th 2007
The album features 12 tracks written and produced by Neil Sparkes and Count Dubulah AKA Temple of Sound
Temple Of Sound are an internationally established production and performance duo at the forefront of dance, dub and world music.
Production work for a hitlist of World, Dance and Dub artists continues to push the barriers of World music forward . These include Natacha Atlas (Beggars Banquet), nominated for Best Album in World Music Awards 2007 and Los De Abajo (Real World).

Temple of Sound - GlobalHead (Namaste Records a Division of the Machat Company/ Koch Records) KOC-CD-5553
Track Listing:
1. GlobalHead
2. Take A Look At The World
3. City of God
4. iZulu (Li Ya Duma) - Title Theme From The Movie "Stander"
5. Wings of Desire
6. I'm A Stranger Here Myself
7. Axum Dub
8. Garden of Perfume (Adrian Sherwood Remix)
9. Blues For Babylon
10. Afrika Temple
11. Dust of Empire (Song of Albion)
12. A Walk With Love And Death

Temple of Sound are: Neil Sparkes - vocalist and percussionist; and Count Dubulah , guitarist and bass player
Featuring: Natacha Atlas, Rizwan- Muazzam Qawwali, Abdullah Chhadeh, Ben Baddoo,Junior Delgado, Jah Wobble, Dr Hukwe Zawose, Charles Zawose, Jo Legwabe, Adrian Sherwood, Getatchew Mekurya, Teremag Weretow, Nara and Jimi Papazanateas

www.templeofsound.co.uk
www.myspace.com/templeofsound
www.myspace.com/neilsparkesandthelasttribe
www.myspace.com/loungeclash
www.myspace.com/benbadooneilsparkesbougarabou

Namaste a Division of the Machat Company/ Koch Records 2007

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Note from tribe.net: please assign a moderator

2007-04-24T22:41:48Z

Hey there, "Africa" members--

This Tribe doesn't have an active moderator, but as a matter of policy, Tribe.net likes all groups to have a leader. Can you collectively choose someone to moderate your Tribe?

When you've reached consensus, have the new moderator send a note to help@tribe.net, with the words "Moderator Change –Africa" in the subject header, letting us know that you've selected a new leader. Please be sure to include a link to this discussion thread!

Thanks--

TOU (Terms of Use) Guy

posted in Africa - 11 replies

hOpe-Rah! and South Africa

2007-04-22T13:27:21Z

By Sarah McGregor Tue Jan 2, 12:37 PM ET

HENLEY-ON-KLIP, South Africa (Reuters) - American talk show host
Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday opened a $40 million school for disadvantaged South African girls which she has paid for out of her own pocket.
ADVERTISEMENT

The sleekly designed campus, sprawling 52 acres in a sleepy community south of Johannesburg, encompasses classrooms and laboratories equipped with flat screen computers, a yoga studio, beauty salon and well-stocked library.

"When you educate a girl you begin to change the face of a nation," said Winfrey. "The school is going to change the trajectory of their lives."

She said the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls was inspired by her own humble beginnings, struggling to survive with no electricity or running water, and as a former victim of physical and sexual abuse.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, on hand for the opening celebration, praised Winfrey.

"This is not a distant donation you've made but a project that is clearly close to your heart," Mandela said.

"South Africa should take a lesson from you about what personal commitment means."

American singers
Mariah Carey,
Tina Turner and
Mary J. Blige, comedian
Chris Rock, actor Sydney Poitier and filmmaker
Spike Lee attended the star-studded school launch.

FAILING SCHOOLS

"The future is so bright for them it burns my eyes. They want to be presidents and doctors. We don't tell the girls to become anything but their own best self," said Winfrey.

Activists criticize the South African government for neglecting public schools particularly in poor and rural areas where classrooms are often overcrowded and inadequately funded.

High levels of classroom violence, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse exacerbate the poor standard of education.

Winfrey said she hoped a better education could shield South Africa girls from contracting
HIV, a disease that affects an estimated 5.5 million of South Africa's 45 million people.

"Girls who are educated are less likely to get HIV/
AIDS, and in this country which has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the pandemic," she said.

While authorities seek to expand a program to waive school fees for some of the poorest South Africans, many believe that the legacy of apartheid-era laws remain a disadvantage for underprivileged black students.

Private schools are, in large part, reserved for white pupils whose parents can afford tuition payments.

The first batch of 152 mostly black students, chosen from thousands of applicants, will eventually be followed by another 300 girls between Grades 7 and 12, Winfrey said.

Admission criteria mean the family of each girl must earn less than 60,000 rand ($8,663) annually to get their foot in the door. After that, pupils were hand-picked by Winfrey for displaying strong leadership qualities in interviews.

Tuition and board is free at the residential school.

"Where we live there are lots of gangsters and I want to change all of that," Noxolo Buthelezi, 13, said in her new school uniform -- a forest green pleated skirt and jacket and collared white shirt.

posted in Africa - 18 replies

Picking Brians for effective African Schools

2007-04-22T13:25:48Z

I need to discover as many low cost educational models as I can come up with to forward them to people who are seriously interested in implementing one's that are feasible. I have started a new post for people to post models, and discussion, as well as share ideas.

I liked this idea, and would like as much info as you can give me on it:
i do know a handful of people who have dedicated their lives to schoolbuilding around the world, including a very cool model in Cambodia that builds solar-powered educational centers with computers for under $15,000 per school.

Thanks, and I appreciate all input

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Africa54

2007-04-12T15:59:58Z

We are putting the finishing touches on a new website www.africa54.com. Appreciate your input.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Marcus Mosiah Garvey "Look for me in the Whirlwind"

2007-04-08T18:03:57Z

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2470580076961613192

This is a must see documentary about one of the first great visionaries of the 20th century. It explains how J. Edgar Hoover became one of the most powerful men in America, by spying on and sabotaging Marcus Garvey and the UNIA movement. Forty years before Elijah Mohammed, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King was Marcus Garvey. He was the first and most powerful black leader to emerge on the industrial world. If the Western governments, United States and Europe, had allowed the UNIA to complete their work then Africa would most likely have been free from operation and starvation. This is the hidden history that few know or remember. This is the power of the people which the governments and corporation of the world fear. There are great lessons to be learned from peoples that our governments destroyed.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Book Reccomendation: "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" --Ishmael Beah

2007-03-20T01:23:39Z

I just wanted to reccomend a book by Ishmael Beah, as he has written about his life as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierre Leone...it is heavy and truthful and awakening...for me, i caught glimpses of life in Sierre Leone prior to the war, coming out in stories and games the children used to play, while Beah's journey through the war tells a sad truth about the politics and greed that started pitting children against children, fighting one another instead of uniting to create a better world for all Sierra Leonians.....these are children, 6, 7 , 8, 9...who are given guns, drugs, and forced into a fighting party with the notion to kill or be killed...it is called "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier", by Ishmael Beah.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Please help to find a ticket to Ghana from SF

2007-03-19T18:21:23Z

Hello,

I would like to go to Ghana this summer and I am unable to find a good local travel agency or website to buy a good ticket.
Please advice, I'll highly apprciate it. Thanks

Peace,

T.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Uganda: Notre Dame High School

2007-03-10T14:07:47Z

Greetings, here is another opportunity to make a difference.

Notre Dame High School is located 85 miles from Kampala City in the Central Region of Uganda on Bukakata Road - Mukungwe Sub-county Kirinda Village Masaka District.

It was founded by a group of voluntary educationists and teachers who felt pity of the disadvantaged and orphaned children on streets and in very poor homes and those whose parents died of AIDS. The school is founded on Catholic Christian faith pillars and is both secondary and vocational. The school is expected to accommodate 550 pupils both females and males.

NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT,

RAISING THE NEXT GENERATION OF UGANDANS BY PURSUING EXCELLENCE IN ACADEMIC AND PRACTICAL SKILLS INTEGRITY IN CONDUCT AND MORAL VALUES, SO THAT EACH CHILD WILL BECOME A REPONSIBLE AND PRODUCTIVE CITIZEN OF THE NATION.

http://www.squidoo.com/ndhsUganda/

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Help send a young woman to school: Uganda

2007-03-06T12:44:00Z

This is a direct appeal. You can make a difference in a young woman’s life. Her family does not have the funds to enable her to continue her education, despite good grades she must stay home. A year’s school fees are ONLY $350.00. You can make a difference. You can send the money directly to her family and receive confirmation that her school fees have been paid.

If you really want to make a difference then email me permafrog@hotmail.com, Bob Ewing and I will send you all the details.

I am organizing a fundraiser here in Campbellton for this purpose.

Funds can be sent direct via

http://www.moneygram.com/index.htm

or

http://www.westernunion.com/

posted in Africa - 0 replies

alternatives

2007-02-25T16:52:04Z

something to think about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzoNInZ2ClQ

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Fern - thought about you when I saw this article

2007-02-23T03:46:44Z

will you be writing / reporting for them?

Reuters to launch African website

Mark Sweney
Thursday February 22, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Reuters Africa will target the African business community, diaspora and the finance industry

Reuters is to launch a consumer-targeted African news and information portal that will include a continent-wide network of local bloggers. Reuters Africa aims to bring together a range of financial news, breaking general news and features that the company's diverse and extensive network of reporters file from across the continent.

Content will also include sports coverage and clips of video footage, taken from Africa Feed, the dedicated daily news programme supplied to business subscribers of the Reuters TV service.

The company has struck a deal with global banking firm HSBC to be the exclusive launch advertiser. The website will be funded purely through advertising.

The Reuters chief southern African correspondent, John Chiahemen - a 25-year veteran of the organisation - has been named the editor of Reuters Africa.

Chiahemen said that Africa's rising prominence on the world stage was a major factor in deciding to launch a pan-African portal.

"The whole idea is to put the enormous amount of content we have on Africa into a managed fashion," he said.

"We want to show that Africa can be covered as a business story, not just a disaster story. While it is true that African information is available from other sources, there is no single media I know that has the breadth of content Reuters has available."

Reuters Africa will target the African business community, diaspora, and the finance and investment industries.

Users will be able to navigate to specific country news and information using an interactive map of the continent.

Reuters will also provide stock, commodities and currency information.

The company's partnership with GlobalVoices, the international network of bloggers coordinated through the Berkman Center at Harvard University, will see the publication of local blogs from across Africa.

In addition, links to Reuter's AlertNet, which gives news, images and information on the world's conflicts and disasters, will be integrated into the website.

The first "big splash" event for Reuters Africa is the Nigerian elections, says Mr Chiahemen.

"The Nigerian elections in April, I believe, are the most important since the 1994 South African elections that brought Nelson Mandela to power. Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and the stakes are high in terms of democracy as well as in other areas such as its strategic importance in terms of oil."

Reuters Africa information was previously available only through its South African website or mixed with its other coverage.

Reuters will now have major consumer-facing websites targeting the US, UK and Japanese markets.

Reuters is also looking at developing its consumer-facing offering in Europe where it has websites covering markets such as Germany and France.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

posted in Africa - 2 replies

Kenya - Belgium New February 2007 Pictures side by side

2007-02-19T06:28:42Z

Hi,

This Kenya-Belgium website displays several pages each one containing two comparative (similar, contrastive, ...) photos. Let your thoughts flow freely and enjoy:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_8_en/kenyan_cooking_and_belgian_cooking.html
Click the "-->"-button on the page opened for the following new pictures.

Best regards,

BoBi

Annex: overview of the new photos:

Kenyan cooking and Belgian cooking:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_8_en/kenyan_cooking_and_belgian_cooking.html
the Kenyan Supermarket Uchumi and the Belgian Supermarket GB:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_8_en/the_kenyan_supermarket_uchumi_and_the_belgian_supermarket_gb.html
Kenyan Uchumi Supermarket vouchers and the Belgian Supermarket Colruyt:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_8_en/the_kenyan_supermarket_uchumi_on_the_internet_and_the_belgian_supermarket_colruyt_on_the_internet.html
Kenyan Passion fruits and Belgian Apples:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_8_en/kenyan_passion_fruits_and_belgian_apples.html
a Kenyan Bar and the Belgian Bar Sint-Antonius:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_9_en/a_kenyan_bar_and_the_belgian_bar_sint-antonius.html
the Kenyan Fort Jesus and the Belgian Castle Gravensteen:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_9_en/the_kenyan_fort_jesus_and_the_belgian_castle_gravensteen.html
Passage to Slavery and Prosperity:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_9_en/passage_to_slavery_and_prosperity.html
the Kenyan Matatu Swastika and a Belgian World War II Memorial:
http://www.kenya-belgium.be/list_9_en/the_kenyan_matatu_swastika_and_a_belgian_world_war_2_memorial.html

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Tribesters, lets help someone?

2007-02-13T22:34:19Z

In a previous post Bob mentioned someone that needed help. I say lets lend a hand?
It will cost us betweeb 5-25 US Dollars or whatever you can spare?

For once in our lives lets prove that talk is not cheap. We all say "shame" and post about how we want to help...so lets help!? How about we make this the historical 1st online Tribe pledge?

Bob give us the details pls?
I'll be the first to stand inline and offer whatever i can.

posted in Africa - 6 replies

Manyatta Kenya

2007-02-12T23:48:56Z

Introduction:

The community has started an ambitious project to save girls by teaching them hair arts and beauty skills. It has a project up and running providing skills training to 50 girls. To increase its impact the capacity of the project has to be increased and ways to make it financially sustainable need to be found.

Background and current status

With some external support the group hopes to turn their hair beauty project into a full institution offering training for all their young people in the area of hair and beauty therapy as well as other courses. This would create training and job opportunity for many community members.

http://www.nabuur.com/modules/villages_issues/index.php?villageid=410&rm=focus&focusId=628

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Africa's hope a blog

2007-02-09T13:56:31Z

Welcome everyone to my blog for Africa! My blog aim is to find ideas of how we can improve the lives, ideas of how some of the problems many villages can be solved. Help us with ideas of getting resources to help many villages to better their general conditions of life.

http://africashope.blogspot.com/

run by a colleague of mine.

bob

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Spread The Word Pleeeeeese

2007-02-08T07:35:35Z

Nomadic Wax is heading back to Dakar this February for African Underground: Democracy in Dakar - a cutting edge multi media project documenting the role of hip-hop on Senegal's up and coming elections.

We could use some help with the project and are looking for people to help spread the word.

Feel free to hit me back at ben@nomadicwax.com - if you'd like some more info or check the site at http://www.africanunderground.com

Many thanks!

Best,
Ben

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Our mission is to help children

2007-02-02T23:23:12Z

One of the agenecies with whom I am in contact.

Quarry is a nonprofit focused community based organization,without religious political or government affiliation established specifically to provide support to the children and schools of Quarry slum in Kayole Location, Embakasi division, Kenya.

Our mission is to help children, living in the slums of Nairobi, through education and vocational skills training. Through this work we can help break the cycle of poverty surrounding them.

Many of these children are AIDS orphans, some are living in extreme poverty which forces them to abandon school and go on the street to look for food without the safe haven of the SQC.org, all live in deplorable situations. SQC.org is committed to improving the lives of poor children,their families and communities through a child centred community development aproach.

for more:

http://sponsorquarrychild.bravehost.com/index.htm

posted in Africa - 1 reply

direct aid to an individual

2007-01-31T04:21:13Z

If you could would you give money, a small amount say between 5 and 20 dollars to an individual living in Uganda, for example? There would be no charitable receipt just a thank you. In order for the money to arrive quickly you may have to use Western Union which has farily high fees so a ten dollar donation may cost another $17.00.

posted in Africa - 18 replies

Leave Africa's Children Alone!!

2007-01-29T04:39:44Z

There are a few mails/bulletins making its rounds and I felt I'd like to add my voice to this.

We (as Africans) need to put a stop to this current trend of foreigners adopting African children like its fashion. I really do not care who they are or how rich they are. Our kids should not be allowed to be used as fashion statements. Did getting a little fluffy doggy run out of fashion in the US?

I would really like to question ones motives if they fly halfway accross the world to adopt a child...when on their own doorstep there are orphans & street kids! I ask you...Does America & the UK not have orphans...children in need?? Yes, I admit there is a much higher level of poverty that exists in Africa...but how different is the definition of an orphan in a 1st world country to that of a 3rd world country? Angelina Jolie & Madonna should be ashamed for putting their own 2nd! For pretending that poverty and motherless children do not exist in the countries they are from.

Instead of really reaching out to people and coming to build mud houses in Africa (like U2's Bono & his wife did in Kenya for a year), they instead come to steal a child away from its family & people. Instead of donating the millions they will spend raising that child into another famous brat, they could have fed hundreds of poor other African children.

For those of you who do not really understand what my point is, let me explain...

In Africa our person is shaped mostly by the culture we are born into and it is importent to us as Africans. I feel that is being ignored & disrespected for the sake of money and fame.
Maybe one day they will learn that community and family is above fame and wealth; and that in Africa an orphan may be without parents, but it is never without family. In Africa a community helps to raise a child.

Bring back our children!!

posted in Africa - 32 replies

Help Others Help themselves

2007-01-28T15:43:29Z

http://www.squidoo.com/give-so-others-may-live/

I have created this lens to make people aware of projects where the participants are seeking to reclaim their lives and communities either through education or sustainable agriculture. They are seeking funding to bring their plans to life. Where possible I have included the names, telephone numbers , and email addresses for the people who are organizing these efforts. You may contact them directly.

posted in Africa - 3 replies

Longs Distance Adoption

2007-01-16T20:45:30Z

Introduction

To give orphans an education and a future the community wishes to start a distance adoption program. The idea is to start with 21 children who are most badly off. The community is looking for ways to start a program that will provide these children with school fees, books and uniforms.

Background and current status

With distant adoption is meant that people can support an orphan with school fees, books and school uniforms. Contrary to adoption, the orphan stays in the local community.

The focus is not that neighbours will fund or raise funds but that the neighbours help the local community to set up a programme for "distant adoption".

There are approximately 106 orphans but will start with 21 who are badly off. We are looking for means to support these orphans by starting a sponsorship program where selected children are supported with school fees, school material like books and school uniforms.

For more information or to volunteer:

http://www.nabuur.com/modules/villages_issues/index.php?villageid=470&rm=focus&focusId=635

posted in Africa - 3 replies

Want To Buy a $100 Linux Laptop?

2007-01-14T08:49:18Z

By Tim Gray
January 11, 2007 9:35AM

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) group unveiled its final laptop prototype, dubbed the XO, this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The XO was developed for the One Laptop Per Child project to be a low-cost, durable, and easy-to-use PC that will appeal to children with its bright green body and white trim.

The nonprofit group that hopes to bring inexpensive laptops to poor kids around the world is now considering the possibility of allowing the $100 machines to be purchased by the general public.

The backers of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project haven't suddenly been bitten by the capitalist bug, but rather have come up with a way to offer the computers to the general public while increasing their availability to school children in developing nations.

According to one plan being considered, the computers would be offered to customers who would have to purchase a minimum of two laptops at a time -- with the second going to the developing world.

Ambitious Plan

OLPC plans to deliver five million of the laptops to developing nations this summer, including to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, and Thailand.

Project officials hope the plan will be the start of bringing isolated schoolchildren around the world into the information age. The plan is widely considered to be one of the most ambitious educational projects ever undertaken.

Tech Specs

The OLPC group unveiled its final prototype, dubbed the XO, this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The laptop was developed to be a low-cost, durable, and easy-to-use PC that will appeal to children with its bright green body and white trim, reminiscent of a toy.

The laptops take advantage of an inexpensive Linux-based OS and a low-power display screen made by Taiwanese-based Chi Mei Optoelectronics. The XO's software Relevant Products/Services has been designed to work specifically in an educational context.

The laptop also has built-in wireless Relevant Products/Services networking and video-conferencing capabilities so that groups of children can work together.

Global Recharge

While a typical modern laptop requires 40 watts of power, the XO needs a mere three watts to browse the Web, and less than a single watt to display an electronic book, according to OLPC.

The new battery can be recharged with the yank of a string, in much the same way a lawnmower is started.

"If we started selling the laptop now, we would do very good business," Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC's chairman and founder, was quoted by BBC News as saying. "But our focus right now is on the launch in the developing world.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Ethiopia bombs Kenyan village as 400 refugees are expelled

2007-01-10T07:06:36Z

By Standard Team

Kenya has closed its border with Somalia and expelled over 400 refugees in a bold move to lock out fleeing armed Islamic Union Courts fighters.

The drastic move came as reports indicated that the Ethiopian Air Force helicopters pursuing the militia had bombed a village on the Kenyan side of the border.

Unconfirmed reports indicated some villagers in the hamlet — inhabited by pastoralists — may have died and several injured in the attack.

But Foreign Affairs minister Raphael Tuju denied it happened. "There is no such thing, it is a rumour".

The denial was also repeated by Government Spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua.

The Ethiopians have invaded Somalia to help soldiers of Somalia’s fledgling Transitional National Government to battle the Islamists, who had taken control of key towns in the war-torn country.

The joint force managed to beat back the militia, routing them from Baidoa, the seat of the interim government, Mogadishu and their last bastion in Kismayu.

It was then that the Islamists fled towards Kenya, with the well-equipped Ethiopian troops in hot pursuit.

Bombed village inaccessible

On Wednesday, witnesses said the small Kenyan border village of Amey was bombed three times at around 5.30pm on Tuesday, but there was no official confirmation from the Government or the security forces of any casualties.

The far-flung village is only accessible by air, on foot or by donkey carts.

The BBC website also reported the bombing of the village situated some 17kms east of the Liboi border crossing. It, however, reported no casualties.

When contacted by The Standard on Wednesday, the Department of Defence refused to comment on the issue and instead referred the media to the Provincial Administration.

"DoD is just doing logistics in that region, please contact the Provincial Administration," DoD Spokesman Bogita Ongeri said by telephone.

A senior police officer in North Eastern Province who did not want to be quoted confirmed the bombing and said authorities were probing reports of casualties.

The officer said the area was remote and reports indicated some Islamist fighters had sought refuge there.

The Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi declined to comment on the incident, while North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Mr Kiritu Wamae refused to speak to the media in Garissa.

It’s a violation of international law

Kenya’s action to turn back refugees drew the wrath of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which termed it a violation of international law.

UNHCR Geneva office sent a protest statement to the Government, saying the action was unacceptable.

It said: "About half of the approximately 400 Somalis in the Liboi reception centre had already been screened and registered by Kenyan authorities".

"What the Government has done is inhuman, illegal, and against international obligations on refugees" said the UNHCR Representative in Kenya, Eddie Gedalof.

Speaking in his Westlands office, Gedalof said those turned back included women and small children who had already crossed into Kenya.

"You can imagine women and children who had trekked for hundreds of kilometres being loaded into trucks to be transported back into fear and uncertainty," he said.

A Standard and Kenya Television Network team at the Dadaab refugee camp, reported that the Provincial Administration had barred UNHCR officials from going to Liboi before the expulsion, said to have been supervised by Wamae.

But Tuju remained adamant on the Government position, saying Kenya would no allow the country to be used as a safe haven for fleeing militia.

The minister also, for the first time, announced Government support for the elected Government and denounced the militia.

The action by Kenya came a day after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf met President Kibaki at Mombasa.

Tuju, who addressed the Press in his office in Nairobi, said the Somalia border would remain closed as there were fears those fleeing combatants who could bring guns into the country.

Said he: "Out of the 11 million people in Somalia, there are only 400 seeking refuge in Kenya which we cannot allow at this time. No amount of annoyance from sections of people will make Kenya change this position".

He said no evidence had been given to show that the Somalia’s transitional government officials were chasing or fighting its people to justify refugee status in Kenya.

The minister said the Islamic Courts Union had been in power illegitimately and that it provoked the transitional government on December 18 in Baidoa, before they were bundled out by Ethiopian troops days later.

Kenya intensifies patrols

Meanwhile, a contingent of Kenyan security personnel, including the military, was still patrolling the volatile border in the wake of intensive fighting in Somalia.

It is believed most Islamist fighters had hidden weapons and fled on foot to villages on Kenyan side after their request to seek entry as refugees failed.

The North Eastern Provincial Police Officer, Mr Antony Kibuchi, and his deputy, Mr John M’mbijiwe, flew to the area and stayed overnight to co-ordinate the security operation following reports that close to 3,000 defeated Islamists had retreated to the common border.

Preliminary reports indicated that the defeated troops, including their leader Sheikh Hassan Aweys and his top commanders, were stranded at the border town of Dobley after Kenyan authorities rejected their request for asylum.

At the Coast’s Kiunga border, security was tight and no refugee was being allowed in.

Latest reports indicated some Islamist leaders were holed up at Kuda and Raskiamboni training camps, while some were reportedly stranded at the Kiunga border town.

Meanwhile, police on Wednesday said the eight Islamist fighters held at the Garissa Police Station were still under investigations and were not likely to be released soon.

posted in Africa - 4 replies

Building herbalist clinics and herbalist classes in Africa

2007-01-04T23:10:33Z

Any suggestions on how to go about this project, building herbal clinics and classes, with a budget near to nothing? Introducing plants and herbs that prevent and cure dis-eases, finding people who know how to make herbal preparations as well as injectable preparations for those who cannot keep any food or water down, also finding people who are willing to teach africans those methods,
I know we need money, or at least the tools to do such a thing,
I welcome any suggestions or information on the matter.
Thank you.

posted in Africa - 7 replies

water for 15 years...

2007-01-04T11:27:43Z

has anyone heard of this?

***********************************
Charity Water
Buy one virtual bottle of H20 ($20) from Charity: Water and one person gets clean water for fifteen years. A case ($480) helps rehabilitate wells in Africa.

Thirsty for some action? Charity: Water is an effort to bring about change in places like Ethipoia, Uganda, Central African Republic, and Malawi. It’s an exercise in intelligent giving, too. Buy a virtual case of bottled water and you’ll provide fresh well water to 24 people for fifteen years — and bring attention to the issues of poverty.

For more information, visit www.charityis.com

posted in Africa - 3 replies

Bush and Africa

2007-01-03T10:06:38Z

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/01/bush_and_africa.html

anuary 01, 2007

Bush and Africa
Clarice Feldman

In probably the least read edition of the year, the Washington Post informs us of the President's unprecedented aid to Africa. Katheryn Lopez of NRO's the Corner contrasts this report with Edwards' jaw flapping on the subject, but it could just as well be a feature for ourMissing Headlines series:
On This Week yesterday, John Edwards said: "But the genocide, global poverty, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the atrocities that are occurring in northern Uganda, there are a whole range of places that America would have basically universal support if we showed some leadership."

The Washington Post reports: "The president has tripled direct humanitarian and development aid to the world's most impoverished continent since taking office and recently vowed to double that increased amount by 2010 - to nearly $9 billion." - (Bush Has Quietly Tripled Aid to Africa, by Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post, December 31, 2006 )

posted in Africa - 5 replies

Canadians

2007-01-01T09:42:14Z

Greetings and a Happy New year. Are there any other tribe members who live in Canada?

posted in Africa - 1 reply

ETHIOPIA BOMBS Mogadishu International Airport, and admits.........

2006-12-25T10:24:23Z

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Mogadishu International Airport in the middle of Somalia's capital on Monday, witnesses said, in the first direct attack on the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to wrest power from the internationally recognized government.

An Associated Press reporter who arrived shortly after the strike saw one wounded woman taken away. There were reports of two people killed. The runway and one building used by the Islamic forces were damaged. Islamic officials were not immediately available for comment.

Ethiopia's prime minister announced Sunday night that his country was "forced to enter a war" with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts after the group declared holy war on Ethiopia.

The Russian-made jets swept low over the capital at midmorning, dropping two bombs on Somalia's main airport, which just recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of Mogadishu.

Somali troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, captured a key border town early Monday and residents celebrated as government soldiers moved through the town and headed south in pursuit of fleeing Islamic militiamen, a Somali officer said.

Islamic fighters left the town of Belet Weyne, on the Somali-Ethiopian border along the Shabelle river, overnight after Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Islamic positions Sunday, residents said.

Col. Abdi Yusuf Ahmed, a Somali government army commander, told The Associated Press that his forces entered Belet Weyne early Monday without a shot fired. He held up his telephone and a reporter could hear street celebrations.

Heavy artillery and mortar fire continued to echo through the main government town of Baidoa on Monday, said Mohammed Sheik Ali, a resident reached by telephone. Government and Ethiopian troops were attempting to push back Islamic forces just 12 miles south of Baidoa.

Sunday marked the first time Ethiopia has acknowledged that its troops are fighting in Somalia, though witnesses had been reporting their presence for weeks. Ethiopia supports Somalia's U.N.-backed government, which has been losing ground to the Islamists since June.

"Our defense force has been forced to enter a war to defend against the attacks from extremists and anti-Ethiopian forces and to protect the sovereignty of the land," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in a television address Sunday night. "Our intention is to win this war as soon as possible."

Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that fears the emergence of a neighboring Islamic state, dropped bombs on several towns held by the Council of Islamic Courts and its soldiers used artillery and tanks elsewhere. No reliable casualty reports were immediately available.

Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa. A recent U.N. report said 10 countries have been illegally supplying arms and equipment to both sides of the conflict and using Somalia as a proxy battlefield.

Residents living along Somalia's coast have seen hundreds of foreign Islamic fighters entering the country to answer calls by religious leaders to wage a holy war against Ethiopia.

The Islamic group's strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of
Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring
Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government says four al-Qaida leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, have become leaders in Somalia's Islamic militia.

Major fighting broke out Tuesday night. On Sunday, Ethiopian forces fought alongside secular Somali soldiers in Dinsoor, Belet Weyne, Bandiradley and Bur Haqaba, officials said.

Ethiopia and Somalia have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years, and Islamic court leaders have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.

Thousands of Somalis have fled their homes as troops loyal to the two-year-old interim administration fought Islamic fighters who had advanced on Baidoa, about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu.

Government officials and Islamic militiamen have said hundreds of people have been killed in clashes since Tuesday, but the claims could not be independently confirmed. Aid groups put the death toll in the dozens.

Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos. The government was formed two years ago with the help of the
United Nations, but has failed to assert any real control.

Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Mohamed Sheik Nor in Mogadishu and Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.

posted in Africa - 2 replies

Libya court condemns six to death in AIDS trial

2006-12-19T16:11:01Z

Libya court condemns six to death in AIDS trial

Five Bulgarian nurses, Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV.

By Afaf Geblawi - TRIPOLI

A Libyan court Tuesday condemned to death five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of spreading HIV-AIDS among hundreds of children in hospital, in a verdict greeted with shock by the international community.

The defendants burst into tears on hearing the verdict while the families of sick or dead victims started to celebrate, singing and dancing outside the heavily-protected Tripoli court.

Defence lawyer Othman Bizanti told journalists that an appeal would be filed before Libya's supreme court within the legal time-limit of 60 days, in the last recourse open to the medics.

The accused had worked at Al-Fateh hospital in Benghazi, Libya's seaside second city on the Mediterranean, where it was alleged they had infected 426 children with HIV. All six pleaded not guilty.

Bulgaria's parliamentary speaker urged Libya not to carry out the sentences.

"We categorically and decisively reject the confirmation of the death sentences... (and) express our deepest conviction that such verdicts cannot and must not be carried out," speaker Georgy Pirinski said.

Amid international outrage over the case, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini expressed shock and called for the verdict to be reviewed.

"I'm shocked by this decision," said Frattini outside the European parliament in Brussels. "I strongly hope that the Libyan authorities will rethink this decision" which poses "an obstacle to cooperation with the EU".

Christiana Malinova Valcheva, Valia Georgieva Cherveniashka, Nasia Stoitcheva Nenova, Valentina Manolova Siropulo and Snezhana Ivanova Dimitrova, were convicted along with the doctor, Ashraf Ahmad Juma.

The medics, held for the past seven years, had already been sentenced in May 2004 to face a firing squad, before Libya's supreme court ordered a retrial following a December 2005 appeal.

"I am happy with the verdict, which shows the impartiality of the Libyan justice system," Abullah Moghrabi, lawyer for the families, said.

In its verdict, the court ordered the Libyan state to pay the families between 250,000 and 900,000 dollars for each victim.

An eight-year-old, Nuri al-Orfi, on Tuesday became the latest victim to die of the disease, according to a family member, raising the overall death toll to 53.

Relatives of the victims carried portraits of their dead or sick children outside the courtroom as Libyan security forces fired into the air before the verdict was read out to keep the crowds at bay.

"Why me?" were the poignant words on one picture. "Will I live for long?" asked another.

Bizanti was attacked by angry relatives as he entered the court complex on foot after security guards prevented him from going in by car.

Prosecutors had called for the death penalty for the so-called Benghazi Six, despite reports in respected scientific journals in Britain and the United States rejecting the charges.

The European Union, which Bulgaria will join on January 1, has repeatedly called for the release of the six, while the Council of Europe in Strasbourg has denounced what it called a denial of the defendants' rights.

The case has strained relations between Tripoli and the West as the North African state works its way back into the international fold after renouncing in 2003 its efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Families of the dead children had demanded 15 million dollars in compensation for each lost youngster - a claim rejected by the Bulgarian government.

Defence lawyers argued that the children had been infected with HIV - the virus that brings on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - before the nurses began working at the hospital.

"This trial was neither just nor fair and all the evidence proving the nurses' innocence was not taken into account," Emmanuel Altit, a French lawyer who worked on the defence team told reporters in Paris.

In November, British medical journal The Lancet - in an editorial entitled "Free the Benghazi Six" - blasted the retrial as a miscarriage of justice with "no legal foundation".

It cited independent scientific evidence that the infections were caused by bad hygiene at the Benghazi hospital, and reports from human rights watchdogs that confessions had been extracted under torture.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Violence Spills from Darfur, Sudan into Chad

2006-12-18T02:47:33Z

By this report today, the violence is spreading from Sudan into Chad and CAR. The article mentions that Sudan has also been behind the Lords Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. Of course Chad has oil, CAR, some oil and diamonds.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6498366 (audio file)

posted in Africa - 3 replies

MUTUELLE JEUNESSE ACTIVE ,Uvira DRC

2006-11-09T20:00:57Z

I am working as an online volunteer with the MJA in Uvira which is in the Democratic Repbulic of the Congo. MJA is seeking funding so that they can assist 378 children to get an education. I have their proposal but it is in French. If anyone is interested in lending a hand, please let me know.

posted in Africa - 5 replies

OUTSOURCING

2006-11-07T06:20:02Z

This has come up before, however I need to make a few clarifications on this subject.

While we can blame the producers who exploit the cheap labor, we also need to blame consumers as well. You see outsourcing is a tricky issue because consumers want cheap goods. Me I buy cheap goods, and like to buy cheap goods. It is an addiction worse than crack. I shop around for the best deal. I however do not care how those goods were produced. I still wore Jordans when they were exploiting people, just as Kanye still wears diamonds. Is anyone willing to pay more for Goods that are ethically made?

Katherine Hemnett believes so. She wore a protest shirt entitled.
"People have more power as consumers than voters" After seeing two hotly contested back to back elections, I agree with her. She believes that selective purchasing is on the rise.

Does anyone own clothing from Edun?
http://www.edun.ie/

Edun is a fair trading company set up by Bono's wife Ali Hewson. she released $40 designer T-shirts, with $10 from the sale price funding health care for those making the tops in South Africa (-source FT Weekend)

What I propose is that everyone who is seriously concerned about exploitative outsourcing speak with your wallet. If not blame consumers. This is just one company, many exist. If one is in a position to promote such, I would also suggest putting together a story about consumer responsibility, as well as ethical companies. I hope by next week I will be able to look in your pictures and see Edun clothing.

I did my part in promoting them, and accentuating consumer responsibility.

EDUN CONTACTS

CONTACT US

US SALES
Maria McManus - mariam@edun.ie
00 1 646 827 7561

EUROPE SALES
Kate Boccoli - kate@edun.ie
+440781 075 0986

US PRESS
Bridget Russo - bridget_russo@edun.ie
00 1 646 827 7563

UK / EUROPEAN PRESS
Kate Tilleke - katie@exposure.net
or
Helen Hamber - helen@exposure,net
+44 207 907 7130

HEADQUARTERS
EDUN Apparel Ltd
30/32 Sir John Rogersons Quay
Dublin 2, Ireland
orla@edun.ie
T: + 353 1 2561289 F: + 353 1 2561299

posted in Africa - 2 replies

China cares for africa, which is more than I can say for US

2006-11-06T05:28:17Z

While GW is throwing away billions in Iraq. China is investing in Cooperation with African nations. I saw the opening of this on CCTV. It was amazing 48 African countries with delegates, many heads of state.

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zflt/eng/
http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/xw/t278699.htm

Who would have "thunk" that China would have better diplomacy than US. These are the same people many chastised for getting missile technology from Bill Clinton. The Irony is they are not using them, we are.

posted in Africa - 2 replies

Freetown :: Sierra Leone // Hull :: UK

2006-11-05T17:11:13Z

www.cafesociety.org

Cafesociety.org, in partnership with the British Council, Arts Council England and the British Library has been developing a number of educational programmes exploring the slave trade, campaigning and contemporary issues facing young people in the UK and Africa – particularly focussing on the twin cities of Hull and Freetown, Sierra Leone.

In a nutshell, the main focus of our work is to help young people develop a sense of international citizenship and - through digital media skills including film-making, photography and online journalism – to use their voices to effect positive change in the world.

Our aim is to pay homage to Wilberforce’s work and name by developing a sustainable and long-term media training facility for young people in Freetown.

As you may be aware the city was established by freed slaves, and an area of the city takes Wilberforce’s name, yet there is no free education in Sierra Leone and its people are enslaved by poverty

posted in Africa - 0 replies

New ocean coming up to Ethiopia

2006-11-05T14:46:47Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1936881,00.html

Weirdest thing I've heard of for a long long time. Comments? More information?

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Alright... better late than never... plus i need the inspiration myself.

2006-10-31T16:45:20Z

I finally got my lap top working and connected to the internet at the same time. I had/have a WHOLE BIG MESS of photo's loggin it up. I'm trying to consolidate and what not. Thought I would take a moment to share some samples with ya'll here. (of course then i got too excited and added a bunch more. so if its too much ... well blame the late hours and my bad habbits and over enthusiastic love of Namibia and all things Conservation there abouts.)

So I put them up in the photo album.
take a look if you feel it. ask any questions etc. give comments... i think maybe i tell stories about my experiance better with photo's.

and since i'm trying to motivate myself through a stupid part of getting into graduate school... i needed to remember what the hell its all for anyway. :) to get back to this life.
1 love,
trish

posted in Africa - 1 reply

The Last King of Scotland - Uganda & Amin inspired film

2006-10-30T15:16:28Z

I have seen thus film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/ . I had seen a documentary a few years back with a lot of footage of Amin and I remember from that him being very proud of his family. I've visited briefly and the wreckage of the hijacked plane was still at the airport. While the film has a sensational fictional side story of an affair between the white Dr character, also a fictional composite, and one of Amin's wives, I think the film captures the city and countryside flavor, the hopes of the people and maybe some of Amin's complexity. It certainly captures the behind the scenes maneuvering by the colonial powers that usually makes things worse.

Your reactions?

posted in Africa - 0 replies

No more Lengua Franca in Algeria?

2006-10-27T17:56:45Z

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/10/11/PM200610118.html

KAI RYSSDAL: A second...or even a third language...is almost required these days if you want to make a fast climb up the career ladder. Immersion programs are becomming more popular. French and Spanish of course. Chinese and Arabic, too. But what happens if learning a new language suddenly becomes a crime? In Algeria Arabic is the official language. But French is spoken for business. John Laurenson reports.

JOHN LAURENSON: Seven-year-olds at the Colombes, or Doves, primary school show off their flawless French:

[Student reads aloud in French]

LAURENSON: That's very good. And can you speak any other languages apart from French?

[Student responds]

LAURENSON: What do you speak at home?

STUDENT [in French]: Just French.

Until now, almost all the teaching here has been in French — a "linguistic deviation" according to the Algerian president. He's ordered Algeria's 150 private schools to teach in Arabic or close. One-hundred-eight of them, including this one, have agreed — in principle at least — to comply. The other 42 can expect the police to turn up any day. They already closed some schools in spring before the government granted a temporary reprieve to let pupils complete the school year.

ABERRAME BELAID: "Ces ecoles, elles doivent se soumettre au programme du Ministere de l'Education Nationale . . . "

Aberramane Belaid is one of the old-school Algerian politicians who are proud of their French. He was a French teacher for 10 years and school principal for another 25 before becoming mayor of the neighboring town of El-Kseur.

But he insists a clampdown is needed. "It's just about respecting the national curriculum," he says. "Arabic is our national language. It has to be taught properly in all schools."

Others say this new measure is a concession to the Islamists with whom the government has an uneasy peace. Whatever the cause, parents like Katia Kaci see a threat to their children's future. Most high-paying jobs require French and that language also opens the door to work in France where opportunities are greater.

KATIA KACI [voice of translater]: "The system they're creating is illogical because, when you get to university, if you want to study medicine, biology, architecture — anything scientific, at least — the teaching is practically all in French! So, inevitably, children who have been brought up only speaking Arabic are going to struggle. That's why we're demanding bilingual education for our children."

SAMIR BENIKEN: "In some institutes such as the Faculty of Medical Science, 65 percent of the failures are due to the language problem."

The founder and principal of Les Colombes school, Samir Beniken.

So, if Arabic-speaking kids are getting lost at French-speaking universities, isn't the logical next step to make the universities use Arabic as well? Samir Beniken says no.

BENIKEN: "Arabic is not a language of technology. Everybody knows that. Everybody's aware of that. A language is developed according to the economic growth of the country and also the industrial growth of the country. And, so far, the Arab countries did not reach that level in technology, so it would take years and years to have Arabic reach the international standards.

LAURENSON: You don't have the vocabulary?

BENIKEN: Yes, we don't have the vocabulary."

Children rush out of class to a tiny playground. In rich countries, private schools are usually better off than their public counterparts. Not here.

Les Colombes, in a cheap and dusty part of town, actually shares its building with a bunch of private apartments. If parents are willing to pay even this school's modest $600-a-year fees, it's to give their children French.

To try and satisfy them and the government, school head Beniken is increasing teaching in Arabic, maintaining French for math and sciences, and crossing his fingers. The government says it'll be sending out inspectors to make sure all schools tow the line.

In Bijaya, Algeria, I'm John Laurenson for Marketplace.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Dakar and around

2006-10-11T11:51:27Z

Hello,

I'm headed to Dakar in a few weeks to visit some friends. Although I do plan to do some of the touristy stuff (Goree Island, where my friend works; Lac Rose, etc) I am also interested in maybe checking out something different or maybe taking a dance or art class/workshop or even volunteering (although I'll only be there for a week). Oh and I'm fully fluent in French if tha makes any difference to your response.

Thanks!

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast

2006-10-03T20:32:18Z

Tragic. and sickening. what are the consequences for these tankers and countries that violate and disrupt the environment like this? Jeezzz.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 2, 2006
Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast
By LYDIA POLGREEN and MARLISE SIMONS
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Sept. 28 — It was his infant son’s cries, gasping and insistent, that first woke Salif Oudrawogol one night last month. The smell hit him moments later, wafting into the family’s hut, a noxious mélange reminiscent of rotten eggs, garlic and petroleum.

Mr. Oudrawogol went outside to investigate. Beside the family’s compound, near his manioc and corn fields, he saw a stinking slick of black sludge.

“The smell was so bad we were afraid,” Mr. Oudrawogol said. “It burned our noses and eyes.”

Over the next few days, the skin of his 6-month-old son, Salam, bloomed with blisters, which burst into weeping sores all over his body. The whole family suffered headaches, nosebleeds and stomach aches.

How that slick, a highly toxic cocktail of petrochemical waste and caustic soda, ended up in Mr. Oudrawogol’s backyard in a suburb north of Abidjan is a dark tale of globalization. It came from a Greek-owned tanker flying a Panamanian flag and leased by the London branch of a Swiss trading corporation whose fiscal headquarters are in the Netherlands. Safe disposal in Europe would have cost about $300,000, or perhaps twice that, counting the cost of delays. But because of decisions and actions made not only here but also in Europe, it was dumped on the doorstep of some of the world’s poorest people.

So far eight people have died, dozens have been hospitalized and 85,000 have sought medical attention, paralyzing the fragile health care system in a country divided and impoverished by civil war, and the crisis has forced a government shakeup.

“In 30 years of doing this kind of work I have never seen anything like this,” said Jean-Loup Quéru, an engineer with a French cleanup company brought in by the Ivorian government to remove the waste. “This kind of industrial waste, dumped in this urban setting, in the middle of the city, never.”

The tale of the sludge can be traced to July 2, when a rust-streaked tanker, the Probo Koala, arrived in Amsterdam after a lengthy stay in the Mediterranean. Leased by Trafigura, a global oil and metals trading company, it was pausing on its way to Estonia to unload what the company said was 250 tons of “marslops” or “regular slops.” That is the wash water from cleaning a ship’s holds, which would normally be laced with oil, gasoline, caustic soda or other chemicals.

Amsterdam Port Services, a waste processing company, took the job, for about $15,000. But as workers unloaded the waste, they found problems, the company said. For one, the volume was much higher, more like 400 tons. For another, the seeping fumes of the waste sickened some of the Dutch workers.

“It was pitch black and had a heavy stench,” said Luut Planting, a spokesman for Amsterdam Port Services. “No one had ever seen similar waste.”

The company stopped unloading the sludge, ordered analyses and then informed the Amsterdam city authorities of the presence of hazardous waste, Mr. Planting said. The material and test results are currently under seal in the office of the Dutch public prosecutor, which has opened a criminal investigation.

A statement posted on Trafigura’s Web site says that tests performed on material discharged by the Probo Koala in Abidjan by a laboratory in Rotterdam showed that the material was not toxic. “Contrary to speculation in the media and the activist communities about residue washings in a recent shipment to Côte d’Ivoire, tests conducted by the company and others show the washings themselves to have little or no toxicity,” the statement says.

As to the deaths and illness, the statement says, “It is still unclear exactly what caused the tragedy.”

But the Rotterdam laboratory, Saybolt, has told Dutch news media that it was asked only for a limited analysis and that the samples were not sealed, not properly marked and not wholly reliable.

Lucas Reijnders, a chemist and professor of environmental science at the University of Amsterdam, said he had seen the results of an analysis done in Ivory Coast by a lab there, Ciapol, on samples taken from the Probo Koala before the dumping.

The analysis showed extremely high levels of caustic soda; mercaptans, a kind of sulfur compound; and hydrogen sulfide, he said. The last, he said, is a volatile compound that “smells of rotten eggs, but at high concentrations you can no longer smell it because it paralyzes your nervous system.”

“It’s very lethal and acts very rapidly,” he added. The mix, he said, was suggestive of oil refining.

Exactly where the waste originated remains unclear. A spokesman for Trafigura, Jan Maat, said the Probo Koala had served in the Mediterranean “as a floating storage tank” and had taken on loads from several different ships, but he declined to give details.

Reports in the Dutch press said the Probo Koala had been secretly used as a floating refinery during the summer, when selling gasoline had become unusually profitable.

Mr. Maat denied that. “This is absolutely untrue,” he said.

After analyzing the waste, Amsterdam Port Services told Trafigura’s London office that the price to treat and dispose of it would now be much more expensive, close to $300,000. Trafigura, which in 2005 had revenue of $28 billion dollars, balked at the cost.

“It was so much higher than the first price,” said Mr. Maat. It would also have meant staying an extra day, costing $45,000 in port fees and a penalty of some $300,000 for arriving late in Estonia, he said.

A brief standoff ensued, but the Probo Koala was able to leave Amsterdam two days later after taking back all of its waste with the permission of the Dutch authorities.

“We have never handed back or refused waste before,” said Mr. Planting. “But the crux was that Trafigura refused to pay. If they had, the material would have been treated and there would have been no problem.”

From Amsterdam, the Probo Koala sailed to Estonia and took on Russian oil products. After delivering them to Nigeria, it continued to Abidjan, where it arrived on Aug. 19.

Mr. Maat said Trafigura’s London office had advised the Ivory Coast port authorities and the Transportation Ministry that it was delivering chemical waste requiring special treatment and close supervision, and hired a local company, Tommy. “We were informed that four companies there could handle it,” said Mr. Maat. “One of them was Tommy. Clearly this has not been a fortunate choice.”

He also said, “We do not acknowledge responsibility for the dumping of the waste without treating it.”

French, Dutch and British toxic-waste experts and oil traders said it can be easily ascertained that Ivory Coast has no facilities capable of handling high-level toxic waste.

Tommy hired more than a dozen tanker trucks, into which it pumped the sludge. The trucks fanned out, at night, to at least 18 sites across the city, according to witnesses in several neighborhoods where the material was dumped, as well as the French cleanup crew.

Several tankerloads went to the Abidjan landfill, in a community called Akouedo. Residents there are accustomed to foul odors, but knew something was particularly bad about the new material. They chased and surrounded one of the tanker trucks, forcing the driver to flee on foot, witnesses said. In other places, some trucks were simply abandoned by drivers fearful of being attacked as word of the illegal dumping crept out and public anger rose.

Efforts to reach Tommy by telephone were unsuccessful, and at least one of its executives has been jailed in Ivory Coast.

Last week Jean-Baptiste Giassey, a 13-year-old schoolboy, rooted through garbage piled at Akouedo, near a team of workers from Tredi, the French environmental cleanup company that is gathering up the polluted trash, which is expected to be sent to France for proper disposal.

Stinking mud oozed from the trash under his flimsy sandals, coating his feet and legs. He was looking for scraps of aluminum, which he would sell to traders for less than 25 cents a pound. He said he had been spending five or six hours a day at the dump, trying to earn enough money for new clothes.

“I don’t know that it is dangerous,” he said. “I come here every day.”

At first the Ivorian government did not acknowledge that something was amiss, even though the rank smell was spreading through the streets of Abidjan. Officials say they suspect they will find more dump sites than the 18 identified so far.

The spreading illnesses sparked violent demonstrations from a population convinced that government corruption was to blame for the dumping, and ultimately the furor forced the prime minister and his government to resign in September, though much of the government was reinstated later. Six Ivorians, one Nigerian and two European officials from Trafigura have been jailed so far in Ivory Coast.

The risk of sickness from the waste has abated with evaporation, experts said. But there may be long-term effects of exposure. In Dgibi, a village on the northern outskirts of Abidjan where some of the waste landed, an impromptu clinic set up to examine people exposed to the waste has been seeing 200 patients a day.

Most complain of nausea, headaches, skin sores and nosebleeds, said Stanislaus Dessi, a doctor at the clinic who works for the Ministry of Health.

“People are scared and confused,” Dr. Dessi said. “We try to calm them and give them medicine to treat whatever symptoms they have.”

The Probo Koala, back in Estonia, has been detained by the government there at the request of Ivory Coast.

Greenpeace has filed criminal complaints in Amsterdam against Trafigura, Amsterdam Port Services and the Dutch environmental authorities. The Dutch government said it could not comment while criminal investigations were under way. There are no fewer than five investigations going on in Ivory Coast.

The city of Amsterdam and the Dutch Parliament have begun their own inquiries.

“The whole procedure was illegal, first allowing the waste in, then pumping it back on board and letting the ship leave without any licenses,” said Eco Matser, a chemist and expert in toxic waste at Greenpeace.

Africa has long been a dumping ground for all sorts of things the developed world has no use for. “This is the underbelly of globalization,” said Jim Puckett, an activist at the Basel Action Network, an environmental group that fights toxic waste dumping. “Environmental regulations in the north have made disposing of waste expensive, so corporations look south.”

Lydia Polgreen reported from Abidjan, and Marlise Simons from Paris.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

FREE MALARIA DRUGS

2006-09-29T06:04:08Z

The government of Kenya has just proposed giving out free malaria drugs at all public hospitals

posted in Africa - 4 replies

Dikembe's Hospital Goal...

2006-09-28T17:54:06Z

JAMES CLINGMAN: Mutombo Hospital Should Be a Slam Dunk
by James Clingman, NNPA
September 22, 2006

Like Dikembe Mutombo used to do, I am wagging my finger at some of his fellow NBA players and coaches, specifically those who are not financially assisting him with building a hospital in Kinshasa, Congo. Yes, some are doing their own projects, and other players should help them, too, but those players who are simply striving to make more money, to become the ìfirst billionaire athlete,î and continue to squander their resources on trinkets made by everyone except Blacks should consider helping Dikembe.

I received an e-mail about the article in USA Today regarding Dikembe Mutomboís project in Congo; although he has been on this quest for several years, and has appeared on Sixty Minutes and other media venues, apparently this latest story has garnered more attention, which could be due to the strategy being employed to raise the money Mutombo needs to complete the hospital.

He is asking for 100,000 people to donate $10 per month for a year in order to raise $9 million. Thatís right, I said, ì$9 million.î It seems to me that amount could be raised in a New York minute by NBA players. Of course, if man-on-the-street folks want to contribute thatís all well and good. But the fact that this brother has to organize his latest campaign to do such a wonderful thing says a lot about his fellow NBA players. It also says a lot about their Black consciousness and the lack thereof.

Share your thoughts
on this story on the ChicagoDefender.com message board.

I have read about NBA guys spending enormous sums of money on ìthingsî but seldom read about them using enormous sums of their money for economic initiatives. What an opportunity this is to leave a permanent legacy in Africa, a legacy of collective work and responsibility, a legacy of brotherly love, a legacy of cooperation and support. Where is Craig Hodges when we need him?

Quite frankly, I think itís a shame, first, that the project is not completed after all these years and, second, that Mutombo has to pursue such a strategy, one which folks on my financial level choose to employ. We started the Blackonomics Million Dollar Club (BMDC) in an effort to get 200,000 people to contribute just $5, five times per year, to help Black institutions and organizations. We have a significant number of members thus far, but nowhere near the 200,000. The BMDC is the kind of initiative that could, at its maximum strength, solve Dikembeís problem ñ in less than a yearís time.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are earned by Black NBA players, much of which is spent at non-Black owned clothing and jewelry stores, real estate agents, automobile dealerships, and sports agencies, and they do not have the consciousness to give $9 million to one of their own. This situation also speaks to the larger problem of Black folks in general being unwilling to give our dollars to the things we say are valuable. We should be ashamed of not taking better care of one another.

Building a hospital in Congo, especially after Dikembe Mutombo has put $15 million of his own money into the project, rather than being a high percentage slam dunk, it remains a low percentage three-pointer, despite the tremendous resources controlled by NBA players and coaches.

With the changing of the guard in the NBA, the bling-bling Hip-Hop culture, so too comes the individualistic thinking, the self-absorbed attitudes of this new generation of players. The result of individualism over collectivism is not only manifested in the lack of players ìstepping upî to help Mutombo, it is also displayed on the court, and it is a prescription for failure.

How did the greatest team ever assembled, the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, destroy all of its opponents? It did it with teamwork, which stresses collectivism rather individualism. Michael Jordan could have dominated scoring ñ he did not. Charles Barkley could have dominated rebounding ñ he did not. John Stockton did not lead in steals, and Magic Johnson did not lead in assists. Why have we not seen that same kind of domination since 1992? Could it be that todayís players are too concerned about their individual stats and refuse to help their teammates do well?

The same principle applies in the day-to-day world of economic empowerment. If we fail to work collectively, sure, we will see a few individuals do well, but our team will lose. Much of what we see in our super-rich athletes and entertainers, especially the young ones, is a result of the older generation abdicating its responsibility to educate them on important issues such as collective economic empowerment and Black consciousness.

They were left on their own, to fend for themselves, to ìget theirs,î and they have done quite well at it, using their God-given physical talents. But an unintended consequence of such an attitude is the pervasiveness of individuality over connectedness and interdependence.

While I am confident Dikembe will get the funds he needs, and he should, I am dismayed at Black folks' lack of consciousness and commitment to help one another and to support one another with our dollars. Black NBA players should help this brother, as he should help them in their causes. These guys have too much money, too many affluent agents, and too many corporate sponsors to be asking for monetary assistance from brothers and sisters who cannot even afford the price of admission to an NBA game.

James E. Clingman, an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati's African American Studies department, is former editor of the Cincinnati Herald newspaper and founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce. He hosts the radio program, 'Blackonomics,' and has written several books, including
Black-o-Knowledge-Stuff. To book Clingman for a speech or purchase his books, go to his Web site, www.blackonomics.comor call him at 513/ 489-4132.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Bob Johnson goes to Liberia

2006-09-27T17:30:28Z

African-American Billionaire Leads Huge Investment Team to Liberia

The NEWS (Monrovia)
NEWS
September 25, 2006
Posted to the web September 25, 2006

Over 20 years ago, Billionaire Robert Johnson started the Black Entertainment Television network after taking a $15,000 bank loan; in 2001, Johnson sold the network to Viacom for $3 billion. With a little bit of luck, one of the richest men in the world will be hoping to rub some of his magic on Liberia.

Johnson, 59, will lead a group of African-American leaders to Liberia to facilitate at least $30 million of direct investments in the country's infrastructure, health, education and agriculture, according to a statement from the Charlotte Bobcats.

The statement said the delegation, which will include U.S. leaders in education, health, law and business, also will seek to establish a permanent interest group of African-Americans to reignite the historical ties between African-Americans and Liberians and advocate on behalf of Liberia for greater support from the United States government and the U.S. business community.

'Commitment to Liberia'

"I had the privilege of meeting with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and I am anxious to work with President Clinton's Global Initiative to support President Johnson-Sirleaf's leadership of Liberia as it recovers from more than 10 years of civil war," Johnson says. "The goal of our commitment is for Liberia to become an economic and social success that will benefit all Liberians."

Johnson's delegation will form the basis of an organization whose goals are as follows: 1. To establish a permanent interest group of African Americans to re-ignite the long-term historical ties between African Americans and the people of Liberia; 2. To form a permanent organization headed by African Americans to advocate on behalf of Liberia for greater support from the United States government and the US business community; and to further awaken African American interest in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the statement, among those participating with Johnson in the announcement were: Debra Lee, CEO of Black Entertainment Television; Clarence Avant, recording industry executive; Ciceley Tyson, actress; Jeffrey Wright, actor; Rodney Slater, former Transportation Secretary, and Chris Tucker, actor.

Speaking Wednesday as a panelist at the opening of the 2nd Annual Clinton Global Initiative Conference in New York, Sirleaf, last week called on foreign investors to come to Liberia and partner with the government in utilizing the country's abundant natural resources.

Sirleaf said that with peace now prevailing in Liberia, investors are welcomed to invest and join in partnership with the country. The Liberian leader said at the conference, attended by global leaders, including many Heads of State and Government, as well as heads of major international corporations, that Liberia was endowed with abundant natural resources, including timber, diamonds, iron ore, and rubber

Sirleaf said the Liberian Government was putting into place the necessary

laws and regulations that are "investor-friendly." The measures the President added would ensure that business practices meet international standards and inspire confidence.

Sirleaf indicated that her government, with the support of Liberia's international partners, is instituting plans aimed at poverty reduction through skill development and job creation.

The Liberian leader said her government's poverty reduction program is focused on meeting the needs of young people through vocational training and other programs, as well as developing the capacity of women.

The President also said that other aspects of the government's poverty reduction program take into consideration the involvement of people in the communities and villages in identifying their development needs so as to ensure sustainability.

Johnson's visit is the first of several high-profile visits to Liberia, according to National Investment Commission (NIC) Chairman Richard Tolbert. Mr. Tolbert told Star Radio recently that there is a promising investment climate for Liberia, adding that a lot of institutions have expressed interest in investing in the country.

Mr. Tolbert said government is currently working toward translating the interests of the institutions into concrete results. The NIC Chairman also dismissed allegations that he resigned his position and left the country over opinion differences about government's policy on rice.

Johnson, who started the nation's first network for African Americans 25 years ago, retired at the end of last year. He is also the founder of RLJ Cos., which provides strategic investment to a diverse portfolio of companies in the financial services, real estate, hospitality/restaurant, professional sports, film production, gaming and recording industries.

The company's core businesses include RLJ Development, a privately held hotel real estate investment company, and RLJ Urban Lodging Fund, a private equity real estate fund, which have more than $1 billion in combined assets; RLJ Asset Management Group; RLJ Equity Partners, a private equity fund formed in partnership with The Carlyle Group; and the Charlotte Bobcats and Charlotte Sting.

BET is the top-rated network among its target audience of African Americans ages 18 to 34; its overall audience remains relatively small, averaging about 543,000 viewers in prime time this year. But that's more than double the audience it had before Viacom bought it.

In 1980, Johnson founded BET, a cable television company tailored to African Americans that now reaches 75 million households in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. He sold it for $3 billion in 2000 to Viacom, parent company of CBS, MTV, VH-1 and UPN, although he retains the title of Chairman and CEO.

Johnson became the first African-American owner of a major sports franchise in 2002 when he paid $300 million to bring a new National Basketball Association expansion team, the Bobcats, to Charlotte, N.C., beginning with the 2004-2005 season. He also owns the WNBA's Charlotte Sting.

The entrepreneurial drive to create BET arose from a fear that someone else would do it first, said Johnson. If that had happened, "I would have hated myself for the rest of my life. To be honest, the entrepreneurial path I traveled came about most of all because I never really liked the idea of working for anybody. I just didn't like taking instruction."

Twice Johnson worked for others. His first job was a paper route in his hometown of Freeport, Ill. He didn't like getting up early and wound up dumping the papers in a garbage can. Later he worked at a battery factory where he was required to continually sweep black pitch from under a conveyor belt. "It seemed a waste of my time," remembered Johnson. "If I could sweep every hour or so, the rest of the hour I could talk to the young women working on the line." His supervisor didn't see it that way and insisted he sweep continuously. The two parted ways.

posted in Africa - 0 replies

Smash mouth Education.....free download

2006-09-19T06:12:13Z

Educational roots hip hop/roots reggae, check it out.

www.myspace.com/paatal
www.myspace.com/2ban

posted in Africa - 1 reply

What???

2006-09-19T06:09:00Z

I went to the lady's website, and although all of the ingredients are all natural (kelp, meats, etc) I can't really picture her "spreading it on her porridge" and actually eating it... just my personal opinion...

Donna
*****************************************************************************************

From the BBC News...

Kenya rejects aid of 'dog food'

Kenya's government is outraged by an offer of food aid from a New Zealand dog food manufacturer to help the 4m people hit by drought.

But Christine Drummond told the BBC she could assure Kenyans that the 42 tons of supplement she was offering was "definitely not dog food".

It is "a high-powered food full of nutrients. It tastes yummy," she said.

The minister co-ordinating the relief effort, John Munyes, told the AFP news agency the offer was in "bad taste".

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper that any food aid must be up to standard.

"Kenyan children are not in such shortage of food to resort to eating dog food," he said.

'Loving country'

The founder of the company which makes Mighty Mix dog biscuits says her freeze-dried Raw Dry Nourish is "like having a big meal in a teaspoon".

"I have been formulating it for special people like in Kenya, the people who need it the most to keep strong," Ms Drummond told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

There is no way that the ministry can allow dog food mixture to be brought in for human consumption
Dr James Nyikal

She was originally quoted in the Daily Nation as saying she wanted to send dog biscuits but when she heard how many people needed food aid, decided to send the powder.
But she said that this was a misunderstanding and her only desire had been to help malnourished children in Kenya.

"I am offering a natural food supplement... I am donating this food out of the goodness of my heart and to try and show that New Zealand is a loving country," Ms Drummond said.

She said she sprinkles the powder on her porridge every morning.

Kenya's Director of Medical Services Dr James Nyikal said: "There is no way that the ministry can allow dog food mixture to be brought in for human consumption."

Kenya has declared a national disaster because of the food shortages, which follow poor rains across the north.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4664884.stm

Published: 2006/01/31 15:28:53 GMT

© BBC MMVI

posted in Africa - 8 replies

Gates / Rockefeller Foundation unite for Africa

2006-09-18T09:56:01Z

Gates, Rockefeller Charities Join to Fight African Hunger

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; Page A01

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's richest charity, joined with the Rockefeller Foundation yesterday to launch a new development initiative for sub-Saharan Africa that they said would revolutionize food production and reduce hunger and poverty for tens of millions of people.

Modeled on the Rockefeller-pioneered "green revolution" that transformed farming methods and staved off widespread famine in much of the developing world nearly a half-century ago, the initiative coincides with a new round of Western concern about the long-intractable problems of the poorest continent.

Home to 16 of the 18 most undernourished countries, Africa is the only part of the world where food production has decreased in recent years. At the same time, political upheaval and conflict there are seen as providing fertile ground for extremists. Widespread famine in Africa has spurred high-profile relief efforts over the years, from United Nations programs to celebrity fundraising concerts such as Live Aid in the 1980s and Live 8 last year.

Sponsors of the new "Alliance for a Green Revolution" said yesterday they are looking for a more systematic, long-term solution to African hunger.

The alliance is the first Gates venture into poverty and development after years of focusing largely on global health and education. The effort follows a doubling of the foundation's $30 billion endowment, drawn largely from Bill Gates's Microsoft Corp. fortune, with investment guru Warren Buffett donating an additional $31 billion earlier this year. Gates has said he will step down from direct management of Microsoft in 2008 to work full time on foundation activities.

"We've been looking into the causes of extreme poverty and how we might make a contribution to reducing that," Gates said during a conference call with journalists yesterday. "If we can work on health and poverty issues concurrently, there is a lot that can be done to improve the quality of life. . . . Today no country of any size has been able to sustain a transition out of poverty without substantially raising productivity in the agricultural sector. It can have a transformative impact."

Melinda Gates, who serves on the board of The Washington Post Co. along with Buffett, said she and her husband studied development problems over the past three years before deciding to move beyond their health initiatives.

The Africa program will begin with a relatively small Gates contribution of $100 million over five years, plus $50 million from Rockefeller, to fund development of more robust disease- and drought-resistant seeds for primary African foodstuffs, enhanced distribution networks for seed and fertilizer, and university-level training for African crop scientists.

The new partners are still exploring how to make sure their initial steps do not overwhelm the continent's capacity to absorb assistance, Rockefeller President Judith Rodin said. Although future investments are likely to "scale up significantly," she said, "all of us intend to be mindful of really measuring outcomes and learning as we go and then providing the necessary resources."

Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development, said the mere fact that the world's biggest philanthropist is joining with the preeminent foundation working in agricultural development is "going to make a difference," adding: "It's a real shot in the arm."

Bill Gates agreed that the initial investment pales when compared with his contributions to the development of an AIDS vaccine. But he said that he expects the program to continue for decades.

"The first green revolution took a long time," said Gates program manager Roy Steiner. "It started in the 1940s with investment and made an impact in the 1960s. That takes committed partners that are going to be there for the long term and are willing to focus on what's going to help small-scale farmers" who produce most of Africa's food.

Program planners readily acknowledged that Africa's problems today far outstrip even those confronting Asia in the 1960s, including a lack of roads and irrigation, primary food crops that vary widely from region to region, degraded soil, unstable governments and tenuous security. The Rockefeller Foundation, which started shifting the bulk of its development funding from Asia and Latin America to Africa several years ago, recently shut down its program in Zimbabwe because of political strife there.

Although the Gates/Rockefeller program will be available throughout Africa, Rodin said, the partners are still studying which 10 to 20 countries to select for initial funding.

Following the pattern of its health initiatives, Gates will provide money and results-based expertise, building on existing seed development programs begun by Rockefeller and African agencies, such as a new strain of rice produced in West Africa that promises to increase yields fivefold. A concurrent goal is the expansion of seed and fertilizer distribution networks through small entrepreneurs in rural areas. Both partners hope to prime the pump for participation by both African and donor governments.

The Bush administration has increased U.S. aid to Africa significantly over the past five years, though much of it consists of food shipments and military assistance. This year's G-8 conference of the world's wealthiest nations brought agreement to cancel much of Africa's debt, but pledges to double development aid were acknowledged to be largely symbolic

posted in Africa - 8 replies

G8 totally ignores Africa

2006-09-15T23:36:48Z

One year, the flavour of the day, the next, completely off the agenda. The world's wealthiest nations met for the first time under the chairmanship of Russia this weekend. ... And not even a mention of Africa, which had taken centre stage last year.
Instead, the Group of 8, or G8, discussed their outlook for the world economy, and most importantly their concerns that high and volatile energy prices still pose a significant threat.

Sad.

posted in Africa - 10 replies

Clean water for Africa in three years?

2006-09-15T08:07:37Z

http://www.earthsky.org/shows/show.php?date=20060503

Can nanotechnology make saltwater drinkable?

Program #4,868 of the Earth & Sky Radio Series

Hosts Deborah Byrd and Joel Block

May 3, 2006

DB: This is Earth & Sky. Some places are struggling to have enough freshwater to sustain a growing human population.

JB: That includes some cities like Phoenix - the state of California - the Middle East - and, ironically, the coasts of many nations. Especially along the coasts, desalination can help. That's the removal of salts and other substances from saltwater to produce freshwater. Desalination is expensive. But it's already widely used in the Middle East, North Africa and the Caribbean, and California and Texas are planning desalination projects.

DB: We spoke with Kamalesh Sirkar at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He's using a new technology - nanotechnology - to purify saltwater. The most commonly used desalination techniques are called "distillation" and "reverse osmosis." The nanotech technique is also expensive, Sirkar said, but it should work faster than other techniques.

JB: He's now trying to make it more energy efficient, and he's trying to solve the problem of scaling - a process in which salts and minerals clog up the system.

DB: Sirkar is optimistic. He predicts that within about three years, nanotech devices using his desalination technology will be on the market.

JB: For the specifics of how this new nanotech desalination technique works, come to earthsky.org. With thanks to the National Science Foundation, we're Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

Author(s): Marc Airhart

More info:
This is a test version of Kamalesh Sirkar's "rectangular cross flow hollow fiber membrane module." In the center is a bundle of thousands of hairlike, hollow tubes. The walls of the tubes are membranes with small nanopores. Cold water flows inside the tubes and hot, salty water flows around the tubes. Water vapor from the hot water passes through the nanopores into the tubes and is carried away to the end of the module, where it pours out as fresh water.

Visit the International Desalination Association.

For an overview of the world's water situation, visit the World Water Council.

Despite recent press reports of a freshwater "crisis," experts say there is enough freshwater for everyone on Earth to drink and to grow food. But because of mismanagement, limited resources and environmental changes, one-fifth of the world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water. Those are the findings of a United Nations report released last March. Read Water distribution must be improved, for a description of the findings in the United Nations World Water Development Report 2.

Desalination can't eliminate the problem. But it might help.

Kamalesh Sirkar is refining a desalination technique called membrane separation that's been around for about 20 years.

Here's how membrane separation works. You run hot, salty water over a thin sheet of material called a membrane. The membrane has tiny holes in it called nanopores. They're so small that only steam can pass through. Liquid water, salts and minerals stay behind. On the other side, is a bath of cold water. When the steam passes through the membrane, it condenses - or turns back into a liquid. The product is pure water that's safe for drinking.

Sirkar's device - called a "rectangular cross flow hollow fiber membrane module" - rolls these membranes into thousands of hairlike tubes and packages them in a box (see picture). But it works on the same basic principle of membrane separation. In his device, cold water flows inside the tubes and the tubes are bathed on the outside with hot, salty water. Steam passes from the hot water into the tubes and is carried away as water to the other end of the tubes. There, it pours out as pure water.

Our thanks to:

Kamalesh Sirkar
Distinguished Professor
Dept. of Chemical Engineering
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ

John Tonner
Water Consultants International
Mequon WI

©2006 Byrd & Block Communications, Inc.

posted in Africa - 9 replies

Africa and the G8 Summit

2006-09-14T05:58:49Z

Africa and Aboriginal Tuesdays: The G8 & Africa - Reality Check by Ann-Louise Colgan

One year after the “Group of 8" (G8) rich country leaders proclaimed a new commitment to addressing Africa's challenges, this month's G8 summit reveals little progress on last year's promises and a growing divide between the priorities of this global elite and the majority of the world's population.

Last year's G8 focus on Africa was welcome and appropriate, as the continent finds itself at the epicenter of today's most urgent global crises – from HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases to extreme poverty, from environmental degradation to conflicts and humanitarian disaster. Yet the pledges of G8 leaders last summer were inadequate to the magnitude of these challenges, and their commitment to fulfilling even these limited promises has since been called into question. As the G8 holds its annual summit in Russia this weekend, new action is needed on several critical issues, which affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Africa's impoverishment is a function of many factors and international dynamics, but one of the most significant of these is the continent's massive debt burden. For years, African governments have been forced to spend more money each year repaying old, illegitimate debts to rich country creditors than they can spend on urgent domestic priorities. The fundamental injustice of this resource drain had long sparked activism across Africa and from solidarity groups worldwide, and this built the political will for debt cancellation by the G8 leaders last summer.

At last year's summit, the leaders of the world's wealthiest countries agreed to cancel the debts of 14 African countries (and 4 other countries), setting an important precedent and marking new progress on this critical issue. These countries were chosen for having met the rigorous economic conditions dictated by creditors in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief Initiative. The debt cancellation since enacted for this shortlist of countries by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has already enabled countries like Zambia to expand access to basic health care for their populations, and will allow a number of other countries to devote more resources to education, to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other priorities."

Yet, the G8 debt deal covers only one-quarter of African countries and only a portion of the continent's debt burden. Even after this deal, African governments must still pay $14 billion each year to rich country creditors, and most are therefore unable to spend any more money on health or other social services. New G8 promises of increased development assistance are simply negated by the drain of debt repayments. The onerous conditions attached to debt cancellation undermine human development and deepen impoverishment across the continent. Despite the fanfare accorded to last year's G8 debt deal, Africa's debt crisis is far from over and the G8 must revisit this issue and resolve it now.

Another critical issue affecting Africa and the world is the HIV/AIDS crisis, now in its 25th year. Africa is ground-zero of this global pandemic – home to two-thirds of those living with the disease worldwide – and the continent suffers devastating social and economic consequences as a result. Only a fraction of those living with HIV/AIDS in Africa have access to life-prolonging treatment, and hundreds of millions of Africans lack basic health care services as a result of the debt crisis and the continent's impoverished infrastructure.

Last year, the G8 promised to ensure universal access to anti-retroviral treatments by 2010, offering new hope in the fight against HIV/AIDS and in the lives of those affected by the disease. But the G8 failed to articulate a strategy to reach this goal, and at the recent United Nations (UN) Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, there was no new commitment to the investment necessary to expand access to treatment. There is a funding shortfall of tens of billions of dollars over the next several years, which represents a clear betrayal of the promises made last year at the G8 summit.

This month's G8 summit will include a focus on infectious diseases, including the Avian Flu. This subject will require special attention to Africa, where the same social and economic vulnerabilities that have fueled the HIV/AIDS crisis now leave the continent at risk from the Avian Flu. Such public health challenges have serious global implications. They underscore the need for rich countries to support African efforts to develop public health systems, retain health workers, and invest in a globally integrated and comprehensive response to these challenges.

If the upcoming G8 summit is to focus on the most urgent global issues, the ongoing crisis in Darfur, Sudan, must also feature on the agenda. As the government-sponsored genocide continues in Darfur, and the death toll approaches half a million people, the failure of international leaders to respond to this crime against humanity marks a shameful rejection of the notion of a “Responsibility to Protect”, asserted by world leaders at the United Nations last Fall. The people of Darfur face increasing violence and humanitarian disaster, and there is a global consensus on the need for a UN peacekeeping force to provide protection to civilians and humanitarian operations on the ground, but new action is needed from the G8 this month to achieve this step as a matter of priority.

The G8 represent the world's most powerful countries, and the agenda for their annual summit focuses mainly on these countries' political and economic preoccupations, but the G8 leaders represent only a small fraction of the global population. The interests and priorities of people in Africa and around the world demand greater attention from these leaders, and require new commitments, as well as follow through on previous promises. If the G8 are serious about supporting African efforts to address the continent's challenges, last year can't be the only occasion when Africa receives their focused attention.

Ann-Louise Colgan is Acting Co-Executive Director of Africa Action, the oldest Africa advocacy organization in the U.S. She can be reached at alcolgan@africaaction.org. This article was published by The Foreign Policy Association.

posted in Africa - 3 replies

KENYA

2006-09-14T05:46:18Z

The government of Kenya has just pushed to have indiginous herbal medicines incorporated into all public hospitals.

Very amazing I hope other developing nations follow suit

<Last year's G8 focus on Africa was welcome and appropriate, as the continent finds itself at the epicenter of today's most urgent global crises – from HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases to extreme poverty, from environmental degradation to conflicts and humanitarian disaster.>

medicinal herbs hold the key to addressing disease, and boosting local consumption of medicinal herbs, thus adding more disposable income to the countries local economy.

In the 2006 CRS (US congress) brief funding for africa was $4.5 billion in millitary aid, and $1.5 billion in aid for HIV AIDS. The problem is the money goes to pharmaceutical companies, gotta love US corruption.

I hope that no poison pills deny HIV money from going to Herbalists

on another note. I hope that the $4.5 billion in weapons does not add to conflict

posted in Africa - 0 replies

FREE AFRICAN HIP HOP FOR DOWLOAD

2006-09-07T16:01:14Z

check out this guy

www.myspace.com/thirdeyeafrica

posted in Africa - 0 replies

something simple

2006-09-05T14:11:29Z

http://www.tunahaki.org/how.html

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Newsmap

2006-08-28T07:57:17Z

I get stuck in old habits so tend to be slowadopting new stuff. But the utility of NewsMap http://muti.co.za/static/newsmap.html is beginning to dawn on me. There are continent maps where you click on the countries to get news for the country. The news links that come up seem particularly relevant. For those with a contient-wide interest in Africa, I'm sure you'll find it a real time saver. In fact it's so damn good I don't understand what's taken me so long to bookmark the site and check it everyday.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Pics DRC

2006-08-20T20:32:03Z

Hi

I added some pics that i took in the DRC.
They were taken with my cellphone, so not of the best quality.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

Suffering in the Congo

2006-08-20T17:24:24Z

Z Magazine Online

Printer Friendly Version

July/August 2006 Volume 19 Number 7/8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Africa

Suffering in the Congo
Behind the numbers

By keith harmon snow & David Barouski

back

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The British medical journal Lancet recently took greater notice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A group of physicians reported that about four million people have died since the “official” outbreak of the Congolese war in 1998. The BBC reported the war in Congo has claimed more lives than any armed conflict since World War II. Experts working in the Congo, and Congolese survivors, count over 10 million dead since war began in 1996—not 1998—with the U.S.-backed invasion to overthrow Zaire’s President Joseph Mobutu.

War in the Congo is driven by the desire to extract raw materials, including diamonds, gold, columbium tantalite (coltan), niobium, cobalt, copper, uranium, and petroleum. Mining in the Congo by western companies proceeds at an unprecedented rate and it is reported that some $6 million in raw cobalt alone—an element of superalloys essential for nuclear, chemical, aerospace, and defense industries—exits the DRC daily. Also, heterogenite, a cobalt ore, was departing the DRC in 2004 at a rate of 6,000 tons per month at about $20 per pound or $268 million per month. Therefore, any analysis of the geopolitics in the Congo requires an understanding of the organized crime perpetrated through multinational businesses to see why the Congolese people have suffered unending war since 1996.

Some people have lauded great progress in the exposure of illegal mining in the DRC, particularly by Human Rights Watch (HRW) whose 2005 report “The Curse of Gold” exposed Ugandan officials and multinational corporations smuggling gold through local rebel militias. The cited rebel groups were the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) and the People’s Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC). The western companies targeted by HRW were Anglo-Ashanti Gold, a company headquartered in South Africa, and Metalor, a Swedish firm. However, the HRW report failed to mention that Anglo-Ashanti is partnered with Anglo-American, owned by the Oppenheimer family and partnered with Canada-based Barrick Gold. London-based Anglo-American Plc. owns a 45 percent share in DeBeers, another Oppenheimer company that is infamous for its near monopoly of the international diamond industry. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, a director of Anglo-American, is a director of Royal Dutch/Shell and a member of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Advisory Board. The report also suppressed the most damning evidence discovered by HRW researchers—that Anglo-Ashanti sent its top lawyers into eastern DRC to aid rebel militia leaders arrested there.

Several multinational mining companies have rarely if ever been mentioned in any human rights report. One is Barrick Gold, which operates in the town of Watsa, northwest of the town of Bunia, located in the most violent corner of the Congo. The Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF) controlled the mines intermittently during the war. Officials in Bunia claim that Barrick executives flew into the region with UPDF and RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) escorts to survey and inspect their mining interests.

George H.W. Bush served as a paid advisor for Barrick Gold. Barrick directors include: Brian Mulroney, former PM of Canada; Edward Neys, former U.S. ambassador to Canada and chair of the private PR firm Burston-Marsteller; former U.S. Senator Howard Baker; J. Trevor Eyton, a member of the Canadian Senate; and Vernon Jordan, one of Bill Clinton’s lawyers.

Barrick Gold is one of the client companies of Andrew Young’s Goodworks International lobbying firm. Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta, is a key organizer of the U.S.-Uganda Friendship Council. Young was chosen by President Clinton to chair the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund in October 1994. Goodworks’ clients—or business partners in some cases—include Coke, Chevron-Texaco, Monsanto, and the governments of Angola and Nigeria (note weapons transfers from Nigeria cited below). Young is also a director of Cox Communications and Archers Daniels Midland—the “supermarket to the world” and National Public Radio sponsor whose directors include Brian Mulroney (Barrick) and G. Allen Andreas, a member of the European Advisory Board of The Carlyle Group.

Barrick Gold’s mining partners have included Adastra Mining—formerly named America Mineral Fields (AMFI, AMX, other names), formerly based in Hope, Arkansas, Bill Clinton’s hometown. Adastra had close ties with Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest diamond brokerage firm in the U.S., whose president, Maurice Tempelsman, has been an advisor on African Affairs to the U.S. government and has been the U.S. Honorary Consul General of the Congo since 1977.

Maurice Tempelsman accompanied Bill Clinton during his African tour in 1998. He serves on the International Advisory Council of the American Stock Exchange and is a director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a “scientific” front for his offshore diamond mining—raking the seabed into oblivion.

Adastra also purchased a diamond concession on the Congolese-Angolan border from the Belgian mercenary firm International Defense and Security (1998) and currently has cobalt and copper concessions in Congo’s Katanga (Shaba) province. Adastra is a member of the Corporate Council on Africa, along with Goodworks, Halliburton, Chevron-Texaco, Northrop Grumman, GE, Boeing, Raytheon, Bechtel, and SAIC—the latter two being secretive intelligence and defense entities involved in classified and supra-governmental “black” projects.

In April 1997 Jean-Ramon Boulle, a co-founder of Adastra (then AMFI), received a $1 billion dollar deal for mines in the Congo at Kolwezi (cobalt) and Kipushi (zinc) from Laurent Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire (ADFL) before they were even officially in power. The ADFL were even allowed to use Boulle’s private jet. Directors of Adastra are also former directors of Anglo-American. Other Clinton-connected founders of Adastra include Michael McMurrough and Robert Friedland—both involved in shady, criminal, offshore businesses in Indonesia, Africa, Burma, and the Americas.

Barrick sub-contracts to Caleb International, who has also partnered with Adastra in the past. Caleb is run by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s half-brother Salim Saleh, the former General of the UPDF. When Uganda withdrew from the Congo in 2002 following a so-called “peace” agreement, Saleh began training paramilitary groups to act as proxies to sustain the flow of minerals into Uganda.

Salim Saleh is a shareholder in Catalyst Co. of Canada which has a 100 percent interest in Uganda’s Kaabong goldfields. He is part owner of Saracen, a private military company created by the mercenaries-for-hire firm Executive Outcomes. The UN Panel of Experts on Illegal Exploitation of Congo’s Mineral Resources recommended Salim Saleh be put on a travel ban and have his assets frozen, but nothing was done.

Recent interventions by the armed UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo (MONUC) have concentrated on disarming or eliminating the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group that opposes the Rwandan government, and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group that opposes the Ugandan government. (Note that the Rwanda military has partnered with its erstwhile “enemies,” the FDLR, when necessary to secure resource plunder while Uganda has its own pattern of complicity with its “rebel” enemies. Rebel alliances are perpetually shifting.) The removal of these rebel groups will effectively clear the eastern Congo for further large-scale multinational mining. The Mai-Mai militia, whose stated goal is “to protect Congo from Rwandan and Ugandan invaders,” has committed documented human rights abuses, yet they appear to be off the agenda for MONUC. The Mai-Mai operate in the northern Katanga (Shaba) province and in the Kivus.

Katanga’s militias and racketeering are connected to criminal networks of businesspeople, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Billy Rautenbach, John Bredenkamp, and Marc Rich. U.S. diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman has profited from Katanga concessions since the Kennedy era. Lawrence Devlin, the CIA station chief of Lubumbashi under Eisenhower, maintained Tempelsman’s criminal rackets with direct ties to Zaire’s former President Mobutu and was subsequently employed by Tempelsman.

The Forrest Group has the longest history of exploiting the Congo, gaining its first mining concessions before the Congo declared independence from the Belgians. The group, which includes the Ohio-based OM Group, has numerous concessions in Katanga (Shaba). Chairperson George Forrest is the former chair of the Congo’s state-owned mining firm GECAMINES, and owner of the New Lachaussee weapons manufacturing company. His empire also includes munitions/arms factories in Kenya and Tanzania.

Coltan ore is widely used in the aerospace and electronics industries for capacitors, superconductors, and transistors after it is refined to tantalum. The U.S. is entirely dependant on foreign sources for tantalum, an enabling technology for capacitors essential to aerospace weaponry and every pager, cell phone, computer, VCR, CD player, PDA, and TV. U.S. import records show a dramatic jump in purchases from Rwanda and Uganda during the time they were smuggling tantalum and cobalt out of the Congo. Heterogenite

Sony dramatically increased their importation of coltan following the release of Playstation 2, while Compaq, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nokia, Intel, Lucent, and Motorola are also large-scale consumers. Sony’s current executive vice-president and general counsel, Nicole Seligman, was a former legal adviser for Bill Clinton through the DC firm Williams and Connelly, LLP, whose clients also included Oliver North. Sony executive vice-president and chief financial officer, Robert Wiesenthal, is a former banker with First Boston, a supporter of Refugees International’s “humanitarian” relief efforts at Rwandan refugee camps in Eastern Congo, just before the fall of Mobutu in 1995. Wiesenthal was also financial adviser to Cox Communications, OM Group, Time Warner, and the New York Times.

Walter Kansteiner, the son of a coltan trader in Chicago, is assistant secretary of state for Africa and former member of the Department of Defense Task Force on Strategic Minerals. Kansteiner’s speech at the Forum for International Policy in October 1996 advocated partitioning the Congo (then Zaire) into smaller states based on ethnic lineage. Ironically, while the speech was being delivered, Laurent Kabila and his ADFL were beginning their march to overthrow Mobutu with the aid of Rwanda, Uganda, and the U.S. Kansteiner is a trustee of the Africa Wildlife Foundation—another euphemistic front for resource acquisition in Congo.

Bechtel, a U.S. aerospace and construction company, provided satellite maps of reconnaissance photos of Mobutu’s troops for the ADFL invasion of Congo in 1996. They also created infrared maps of the Congo’s mineral deposits. The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) led by Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan president and graduate of the U.S. Army officers school at Fort Leavenworth, used Bechtel’s NASA maps to locate Rwandan Hutu civilians that fled the cataclysm in Rwanda in 1994. An estimated 800,000 refugees were hunted down and killed in the Congo’s forests. Bechtel’s friends in high places include former Secretary of State George Shultz (board of directors), former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger (Bechtel counsel), and retired USMC General Jack Sheehan (senior vice president) who is also a member of the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon. Riley P. Bechtel is on the board of J.P. Morgan. Bechtel’s Nexant Company is the prime contractor on the Uganda-Kenya pipeline project, believed to ultimately facilitate petroleum transport out of the Semliki Basin of Lake Albert.

The UN Panel of Experts named New England-based Cabot Co. for conducting unethical business practices. Cabot is one of the largest tantalum processors in the world. The current deputy director of the U.S. Treasury, Samuel Bodman, was CEO and chair of the board for Cabot from 1997-2001. Current director John H. McArthur is a senior advisor to Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank.

Private military contractors (PMCs) are also big business in Africa. Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, helped build a military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda next to the Congo-Rwandan border. “Officially,” Brown and Root was there to clear landmines, but instead housed mercenaries from Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) who trained the RPF and Laurent Kabila’s ADFL for the 1996 invasion of the Congo, and the Rwandan army’s re-invasion in 1998, after Laurent Kabila threw out the Rwandans, Ugandans, Bechtel, and the IMF. The French intelligence service reported that U.S. Special Forces and mercenaries from MPRI participated in the murder of Rwandan Hutu refugees on the Oso River near Goma in 1996 and even claims to have turned over the bodies of two U.S. soldiers killed in combat near Goma. The circumstances surrounding the unofficial recovery of these soldiers remain very mysterious.

MPRI is based in Arlington, Virginia and is staffed by 36 retired U.S. generals. It is contracted by the Pentagon to fulfill the African Crisis Responsive Initiative (ACRI). This program includes the Ugandan military and it supplied military training in guerrilla warfare to Ugandan officers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in July 1996. During the invasion of the Congo in 1998, Ugandan soldiers were found with ACRI equipment while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have implicated Ugandan battalions trained by ACRI in rapes, murders, extortion, and beatings of Ugandan civilians.

Executive Outcomes founder Tony Buckingham has established other PMCs around Africa. Buckingham’s Heritage Oil & Gas works closely with his PMC Sandline International to manipulate the petroleum options around Lake Albert and is believed to have signed concession deals with warring armies and governments on both sides of the Uganda-Congo border. Branch Energy is another Buckingham affiliated company operating in the Great Lakes region.

Investigations of illegal weapons sales to Rwanda last year, in violation of the UN arms embargo on the region, have been hampered by the Rwandan government’s refusal to provide a list of serial numbers of the 5,000 AK-47s delivered there. The shipping country, Bulgaria, also refused to provide serial numbers and would only confirm that the weapons were sold legally to a non-embargo country, Nigeria, en route to Rwanda and DRC. The governments of Uganda, Congo, South Africa, and Equatorial Guinea—a major U.S. petroleum protectorate—are equally culpable in supporting the clandestine arms sales to the region.

Weapons shipments arriving by boat from Tanzania and Tanzania’s role in supporting war in DRC are never questioned. This may have something to do with Barrick Gold’s mining licenses in Tanzania’s Masaai territories. Aircraft flying between Tanzania, the DRC, and Kenya, are allowed to do so without proper documentation, record-keeping, or customs oversight.

Another “untouchable” arms dealer operating behind the scenes in the region is an Indian-American named Mr. Kotecha. Kotecha’s interests in South Kivu are substantial and he is openly fingered as dealing in money laundering, arms, coltan, and diamonds. After the first U.S.-sponsored invasion of the Congo in 1996, Kotecha is known to have repeatedly boasted of being the “United States Consulate” in South Kivu. Kotecha holds a U.S. passport and owns a mansion in California.

When an outspoken local defender of human rights working for a small NGO (Pascal Kabungulu of Heritiers de la Justice) was assassinated during the summer of 2005 in Bukavu, the alleged killers, including a local Congolese military commander, were identified, but MONUC and the international “community” took no action. The killing revolved around his role in exposing Congolese commanders’ involvement in contraband smuggling (which continues today).

A UN Panel of Experts in a recent report challenged many airlines and companies for undertaking illicit flights (illegal, secret, unregistered, or falsely registered) into and out of the DRC. One of many notable companies apparently connected to Victor Bout’s arms trafficking networks is Simax, an Oregon-based company using an address in Sierra Leone. However, the UN Panel of Experts has once again ignored certain western agencies —with histories of illicit activities —whose flights remain equally surreptitious and unaccountable. At the top of the list is the International Rescue Committee (IRC)—whose directors include Henry Kissinger and whose flights in and out of the Congo and internal flights to and from isolated airports in eastern DRC are completely unmonitored by MONUC arms embargo inspectors. In Bukavu, for example, all light aircraft are subject to MONUC arms embargo inspections, but IRC flights are not within the MONUC mandate.

Similarly, while the UN Panel of Experts have investigated and reported on certain illegal criminal networks and activities in Congo, they never attend to the top-level deals brokered behind closed doors by executives from Adastra, Anglo-American, the companies of Sweden’s Adolph Lundin (a close friend of George H.W. Bush), who have control of mining concessions in the Lubumbashi, Kolwezi, and Mbuji Mayi areas in the Katanga (Shaba) and Kasai provinces. U.S.-based Phelps Dodge is partnered in Katanga copper/cobalt mining projects with Lundin’s Tenke Mining. Phelps Dodge director Douglas C. Yearly is also a director of Lockheed Martin, and the World Wildlife Fund—partnered with USAID and CARE in “conservation” (read: acquisition) projects all over the Congo while CARE’s “humanitarian” agenda is also funded by Lockheed Martin.

“Conservation” interests provide the vanguard of western penetration in Central Africa. USAID, WWF, AWF, and Conservation International lead the charge. Evidence from USAID cases all over the Congo quickly contradicts all fanfare about USAID bringing “sustainable” or “community development” projects. Most notable are the Central Africa Region Partnership for the Environment (CARPE) and Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), two programs pressing hidden military, intelligence, and economic agendas. One of the most unaccountable organizations working in the eastern DRC and western Rwanda is the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI), which is allied with state department interests and ever pleading for gorilla conservation funds. DFGFI has ties to the western intelligence, mining, and defense establishment and is under investigation (along with USAID) for seome $5 million in USAID allocated funds from 2002-2005. Additionally, National Geographic is involved in furthering the mythologies of conservation, democracy, community development, or the lip service paid to respecting and supporting indigenous people.

Suggested Remedies

Some people have suggested the reason that there isn’t greater awareness and equitable intervention in the Congo is because “we simply don’t know what to do” to remedy the situation. However, it is fairly clear what needs to be done, the west is just unwilling to do it because of powerful economic and geopolitical reasons. Here are some suggestions:

U.S. military training programs must have an oversight committee and total transparency. Western governments must end their hypocritical stance and ensure they don’t train any “rebel” or “dissident” groups, especially if they are against a democratically elected government (provided the elections weren’t fraudulent), even if the elected government isn’t politically aligned with the western ideology and/or economic ideals. To do otherwise would refute claims that the west is intervening to “spread democracy.”
In parallel with number 1, a committee must be set up to ensure the same doesn’t occur for the private military companies. As multinational corporations, these firms aren’t subject to the laws of warfare of established countries. The UN must pass resolutions mandating the World Court and International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute such corporations. Lastly, when such companies are exposed for conducting illegal activities, such as aiding coups or trafficking human slaves, the corporations who conduct these activities must be blacklisted from receiving government contracts, domestic or international, and the guilty parties must be prosecuted.
In the arms arena, more substantial efforts must be created to intercept and prosecute “embargo busters,” illegal brokers, and arms sellers. Furthermore, those selling, transporting, brokering, funding, or wiring arms transactions for weapons specifically intended for children should receive the harshest penalties. (Certain “small weapons” are modified to reduce their weight to make it easier for a child to carry.) Firms that participate in arms shipments, transport, and/or the flow of the money generated from these sales with countries, people, or organizations that are embargoed or act against national or international law should be held accountable for their crimes. Assets can be frozen, travel bans imposed, and all government and economic business ties with such firms severed. These penalties must also have an assurance of enforcement.
Debt relief is essential, but ways must be found to protect IMF and World Bank loans from being used for military expenditures. The motivations of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz are suspect as he is a former deputy secretary of defense under George W. Bush, a former ambassador to Indonesia under Ronald Reagan, a PNAC member, and a dual citizen in Israel. Likewise, the World Bank and IMF must shift their policy of privatization as a stipulation for loan approval in order to stimulate business growth within the state instead of having the business sector growth be almost entirely from multinational corporations. The World Bank and IMF must also provide debt relief to the counties that need it most according to economic indicators. Some countries receiving debt relief, like Uganda and Rwanda, are among the biggest spenders of their loans in the military sector. A majority of spending should occur on infrastructure and public services and this should not benefit the standard set of “embedded” western corporations.
The loan money should be used in areas that need development the most. For example, in Uganda, the loan money Museveni has used for development has focused in the south in Kampala, the capital, and in Mbarra, his hometown. Meanwhile, the Acholi people, who always vote against Museveni’s party in the polls, are ignored and the situation in the Lira, Gulu, and Kitgum districts continues to deteriorate. In addition, individual countries must examine the aid they give to countries that spend a high percentage of capital on military, as well as commit human rights abuses. Lastly, it should be noted that debt relief has not harmed banks that gave the loans in the first place and collected on interest rates, not to mention the U.S. businesses that profit on the privatized businesses as part of the loan deal while the debt is eventually transferred to taxpayers. Thus transparency is needed to insure that costs are also incurred by the firms granting the loans (if they want credit for their “humanitarian” debt relief).
Western countries must end the impunity for those responsible for looting minerals from the Congo. Firms that purchase smuggled minerals and/or purchase concessions from illegitimate rebel groups must be prosecuted. The World Court recently made a start by convicting Uganda and fining the government, but Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe remain unaccountable for their direct pirating, as are the western firms that purchased the minerals and western individuals supporting them. The Kimberly Process, established with the support of academic and intelligence experts at Harvard University, is a perfect example of the gatekeepers policing their own gates: the huge, entrenched, but secretive interests like the Oppenheimer/DeBeers and Maurice Tempelsman owned companies, are legitimized as dealers of “clean” diamonds, while the other, far less connected competitors and challengers of the status quo, including Congolese children sneaking into mines and being shot for “stealing” diamonds off their own starving families’ former lands, are demonized as dealers of “blood” diamonds.
The World Court and International Criminal Court must hold all military and civilian leaders that are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity —African, U.S., European—accountable for their actions. The west must not be allowed to shield criminals from prosecution by virtue of their economic and political alliances with western governments. Governments that harbor these criminals should be subject to prosecution. Economic sanctions may not be proper, as poor nations generally suffer severe civilian casualties as a result, but specific involved individuals in government and the military must be held accountable.
“Peacekeeping” forces, in particular MONUC, must be examined to ensure that their mission is being conducted with the interests of promoting stability in the country. As illustrated, elements of MONUC have used the mission as a cover to further the agenda of the west and its corporate sponsors under the banner of “peacekeeping,” causing the death of civilians in the process. Those responsible should be tried and prosecuted. The investigations should not stop at individual soldiers or brigades committing crimes, but uncover the motivations behind MONUC operations. There have been reports of MONUC troops looting ivory, gold, and animal skins in national parks. Villagers say that they have seen murders occur right in front of MONUC soldiers who didn’t act to prevent the killings. MONUC soldiers have raped Congolese women. When pro-Rwandan rebel leaders Laurent Nkunda and Jules Mutibusi, both war criminals wanted by the UN, took over Bukavu by force in May 2004, MONUC provided them with weapons and vehicles. Nkunda has stated the head of MONUC, William Swing, personally gave him a telephone to use during the raid.
The international media is completely silent on virtually every major issue of significance with respect to war in the DRC—and the international and criminal networks behind it. A boycott of key publications should include the most offensive: Boston Globe, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, US News & World Report, USA Today, New York Times, the New Yorker (Conde Nast Publications), Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly (highly subsidized by Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman) and, especially, National Geographic.
The fog of war needs to be cleared away from so-called ”humanitarian” and “human rights” programs, organizations, and individuals currently aligned with the western corporate enterprise. Notables in this category include: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, CARE, USAID, Norwegian People’s Aid, International Crises Group, International Rescue Committee, Refugees International, the Genocide Intervention Fund, and many UN bodies, but especially UNHCR. Most of these agencies appear to exist merely to perpetuate their own survival. Doctors Without Borders also deserves scrutiny for their recent actions in the DRC.
The peace and justice community remains unaccountable for its failure to take any significant actions to mitigate war in the Congo and expose the reasons behind it. A first step should be to open up the spaces to alternative voices currently excluded by major social justice media venues. Second is to declare a boycott on diamonds and gold and an organized campaign to protest and economically castigate diamond stores where Lazare diamonds are sold. A third action is the commitment of meaningful funds—both from individuals and organizations—to support the vibrant grassroots organizations and individuals working for human rights, women’s health, disarmament, education, food security, rainforest, and environmental defense in Congo. Fourth, people need to break through their fear (inculcated by the western media) of taking action to help people in the Congo. There is no reason—except the unacceptable—that westerners cannot establish a Witness for Peace program there.
Rights groups with missions pertinent to the Congo’s needs must expand their missions to include the Congo. Rape is endemic in the Congo. Survivors often give birth to HIV positive children with no prospects for medical or financial help. This has lead to an insurmountable need for aid to care for the orphans. Mothers of children conceived of rape are often disowned by their village and families. Western feminist and women’s rights activists and organizations must get involved and provide resources for the victims of rape in Congo. Those responsible for rapes must be tried and punished. Indeed, evidence from rape cases shows that sexual violence is significantly reduced simply by holding military officers accountable for their troops’ actions—but this is not happening.
MONUC’s Radio Okapi is the lifeline of news in the DRC today, but is largely comprised of UN programming. The United Nations needs to be pressured to open up the Radio Okapi network, eliminate the “fluff” pieces, and diversify and deepen its programming. As a simple example of how things could easily be improved, programs that sensitize the public to the issue of rape and sensitize the military to the punishment for it could easily be implemented. Such programming is never considered.
The transitional government in the Congo is comprised of military leaders and government officials. They must be held accountable for their crimes. Like the individuals, organizations, corporations, and governments that have supported them, all are responsible for crimes against humanity.
The current profiteering in the DRC is enabled by these key players at the highest levels of the DRC government and whose crimes remain hidden by the western press. The transitional government must not be allowed to appoint war criminals to cabinet or parliamentary positions, as well as local governor positions in the province.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
keith harmon snow is a journalist and photographer who has worked in 17 countries in Africa (allthingspass.com). David Barouski is a journalist and nursing student focused on mitigating suffering in the DRC.

posted in Africa - 4 replies

AIDS conference closes with blast at South Africa

2006-08-19T14:31:09Z

REUTERS
Aug. 18, 2006

South Africa's government remains "obtuse" and "negligent" in its approach to AIDS and should be denounced, researchers and diplomats said on Friday.

Top speakers at the 16th International Conference on AIDS reserved their closing remarks for a long and detailed critique of South Africa and President Thabo Mbeki's government, which at first denied that the human immunodeficiency virus causes AIDS and then resisted offering HIV drugs to its people.

One in nine South Africans is estimated to be infected with the virus, which is incurable and fatal but which can be kept in check by drugs.

"It is the only country in Africa, amongst all the countries I have traversed in the last five years, whose government is still obtuse, dilatory and negligent about rolling out treatment," Stephen Lewis, the U.N. special envoy on AIDS, told the closing session.

"It is the only country in Africa whose government continues to propound theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state."

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticized for promoting traditional cures such as garlic, beetroot and lemon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060818/wl_canada_nm/canada_aids_col_17

posted in Africa - 1 reply

More conflict

2006-08-15T17:45:00Z

News out of Somalia paints a picture of a conflict in the horizon. The conflict is between religious diehards, and warlords for control of Mogadishu. Many people have already fled the capitol.

News out of Sudan keeps getting worse each day.

However, both countries are under consideration for debt relief by the World Bank. My opinion is that this is insane. The world Bank should actually de putting pressure on the Sudanese government, and be giving Somalis incentives for stability, as well as staying away from fanaticism.

Anyone have any opinions. Personally I am going to start an e-mail pettition against the Sudanese government, as well as the World Bank for supporting them.

posted in Africa - 13 replies

well, Chavez is doing a little right, it appears...

2006-08-15T17:40:03Z

I served with the WB abd PC in Benin. Nice to see commerce underway there again. but then...where is the US role?

Venezuela : Venezuela offers premium prices of Mali Cotton for UN seat
August 7, 2006

During his Auggust 2-3 tour of the West African countries, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed agreements on gold in Mali and potential oil exploration in Benin.

What is of geopolitical importance is the cooperation on cotton deals. In Mali's capital of Bamako on August 2, Chavez announced a proposal under which Venezuela would buy the country's entire cotton output at a premium price - a move designed to gain favor after years of depressed cotton prices.

This announcement will add pressure to the United States and World Trade Organization who are already under stress to give more support to farmers in developing countries, especially in Africa.

In Benin, 60 percent of the population supports itself based on cotton agriculture, and cotton accounts for 70 percent of the country's exports.

In Mali, cotton is the basis of the economy, making up some three-quarters of the country's export earnings. Considering the lack of viable employment alternatives, farming cotton by small-scale landholders represents in many cases the sole means of subsistence for rural West Africans.

http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=21209

posted in Africa - 3 replies

Picking up A West African Cora Instrument While In Tanzania

2006-07-26T20:33:56Z

Hello,

I'm headed down to Tanzania in mid-August and was hoping to pick up a Cora harp while down there and then seek out lessons in the Portland, Oregon area when I return. My question is whether it would be possible to find or have a Cora shipped from East Africa to Tanzania so that I can take it back with me. Or perhaps get a Cora from someone in Tanzania?

Is anyone familar enough with the continent / music scene down there to offer a suggestion on how to aquire this amazing instrument?

Regards,

Rob

posted in Africa - 1 reply

African Women Blogs

2006-06-19T12:56:30Z

http://www.africanwomenblogs.com/africanwomen.html aggregates feeds from African women bloggers.

I'm such a dork and it's embarrassing to be one. I'm always astounded when something about me is shown to be stereotypically male. I am a guy, so that's not so astounding, but it's finding a generalization I'm making about all people only to realize the generalization is from a very male perspective and doesn't fit so well for more than half of all humankind that always surprises me. I love hearing women's voices online to broaden my narrow perspective. So this project is very cool.

Sokari of Black Looks http://www.blacklooks.org/ was instrumental in setting African Women Blogs up. Her blog is really an essential voice in the African blogosphere.

posted in Africa - 1 reply

asking a question

2006-06-19T12:35:29Z

Is there anybody who happens to know if one can use a credit card to buy money in Nairobi and in Moshi?

I am going soon, leaving straigth from work (Algeria) and since I wasn't planning to go I find myself completely unprepared.

Thanks

posted in Africa - 3 replies

AfriGadget

2006-06-14T06:18:20Z

Ethan Zuckerman's blog My Heart's in Accra is wonderful. Recently he did a post which was a presentation at Netsquared on Advocay and Citizen Journalism http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=816 It wasn't the main point of the post, worth reading in full, but I was struck by an observation:

"When we started working on Hao’s case, we were representing him, speaking on his behalf. There are situations where this is what advocates have to do - Nina can blog, while Darfuri refugees can’t. But the lesson we’ve taken from the situation is that advocacy is changing in the 21st century. It’s less about speaking on behalf of people and more about helping their voices to be heard. It’s less about speaking and more about pointing."

It's so great ot have a many-to-many media! A new blog is launched called AfriGadget. I thought Evil C might be interested, and all the rest too http://www.afrigadget.com/ Of course it will only be interesting with a lot of show and tell! They put up a Flickr group too http://flickr.com/groups/afrigadget/

So if you've got pictures post them. But even better if you know people in Africa encourage them to contribute. Simple good ideas can help everyone and it can be fun too.

posted in Africa - 3 replies