Drought, Unrest Pushing Millions Over Brink as World Averts Gaze (REPORT)

The horrifying face of hunger: This infant was brought by her mother to an acute malnutrition centre in West Africa. CREDIT: HUMNEWS(HN, July 8, 2011 - UPDATED 1900GMT) - Emergency camps in Kenya and Ethiopia - themselves suffering from horrific drought conditions - are receiving up to 2,000 Somali migrants-a-day as they flee unrest and dry conditions in their places of origin.

The prediction by the UN refugee agency - UNHCR - that the crisis on the Horn of Africa could become a human catastrophe of unimaginable proportions appears to become more of a reality by the hour.

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres says three out of every 10,000 refugees die each day - three times the emergency level.

As many as 12 million people have been pushed into a fight for survival, says the aid agency Oxfam.

"Large numbers of lives could soon be lost if nothing is done. It is currently the worst food crisis on the planet," says Oxfam.

The countries most seriously affected are Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Fresh images from Kenya and Ethiopia show exhausted mothers cradling their dying, dehydrated infants after long journeys by foot into overcrowded camps.

This is very much a children's catastrophe. UNICEF estimates that more than two million young children are malnourished and in need of urgent life-saving action. Alarmingly, half-a-million of those children are facing imminent life-threatening conditions.

With arrivals being clocked by the hundreds each hour, aid agencies say they can hardly cope with the rapid influx of migrants.

Typically, severely malnourished infants are difficult to treat on the spot as their ravaged bodies cannot accept food and live-saving treatment needs to be provided in steps.

And as BBC correspondent Ben Brown pointed out, some mothers with dying babies refuse to go to emergency points for fear of leaving their other children behind.

In an ominous admission, the US Government said today that the drought in the region is likely to worsen by the end of the year.

Some of the medications and vitamins used to treat acute malnutrition. CREDIT: HUMNEWS"Our experts...expect the perilous situation in the Horn of Africa to worsen through the end of the year, said Nancy Lindborg, a senior official at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Given limited labour opportunities, the dwindling food stocks, and sky-high cereal prices, many houses cannot put food on the table right now."

UNICEF says global acute malnutrition rates in Northern Kenya are now above 25% but as high as 40% in the Turkana district.

Aid agencies, including UN mainline agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP), are appealing for tens of millions of dollars in emergency funding. However the main UN appeal is less than half funded.

- HUMNews Staff 

Near Famine Conditions Slamming Horn of Africa Amid Donor Fatigue (REPORT)

At a UNICEF-supported feeding centre in East Africa, a weary mother pauses after her baby received emergency therapeutic food. CREDT: M Bociurkiw(HN, July 6, 2011 -- UPDATED 1820 GMT) - Horrific scenes are being reported by aid workers dealing with the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 60 years.

"A human tragedy of unimaginable proportions" is how the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, described the crisis.

After two years of successive drought, parts of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and neighbouring countries are reeling from near-famine like conditions. It is estimated that as many as 10 million people are affected across the Horn of Africa.

Climate change, rising food prices and violence have conspired to keep food from getting to people in the region.

In a separate development, rebel leaders in Somalia - one of the countries worst affected by the crisis, with about 2.8 million people affected - announced Tuesday they are lifting a two-year-long ban on aid agencies supplying food.

"We have now decided to welcome all Muslim and non-Muslim aid agencies to assist the drought-stricken Somalis in our areas," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, Al Shabaab spokesman, told a news conference in Mogadishu.

The United Nations has flagged as emergency areas large areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti and Somalia.

A HUMNEWS correspondent in Ethiopia reports that despite frequent rains in the capital, Addis Ababa, areas in the far eastern and southern corners are seeing their worst drought for a decade, with some 3.2 million people in need of emergency aid. The correspondent says that Nairobi residents report far less rainfall and increasing power outages.

The Ethiopian economy is particularly vulnerable to climate changes, as almost half of its GDP is generated by the agricultural sector. Just a few years ago, some 14 million Ethiopians stood on the brink of starvation from a killer drought, saved only by massive international aid.

Regional news agencies have broadcast video showing fields covered with dead livestock, and with thousands of hungry people streaming into feeding centres in camps like Dadaab, already the world's largest refugee settlement, which is hosting many people from Somalia.

"Dadaab is a place where life hangs in the balance every single day," reported the BBC's Ben Brown from a refugee camp. "July 2011 and once again this corner of Africa is cursed, teetering on the brink of disaster."

The UN says the situation is classified as a humanitarian emergency but that the situation is deteriorating quickly and could wind up as a famine/catastrophe.

An estimated 1,000 people are entering Ethiopia and Kenya from Somalia every day, according to the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It is believed that a quarter of the population has been uprooted.

"We haven't seen the worst of this drought yet," Mohamed Elmi, Minister for Development of Northern Kenya, told The Daily Telegraph. "In Kenya, which is already significantly affected by the drought in Somalia, malnutrition levels are well beyond emergency levels and saving lives is becoming our major focus."

Unfortunately, many aid agencies are struggling with their own financial crisis - with the front line World Food Programme (WFP) being forced to pull out of countries such as Burundi. OCHA says its recent appeal for money is only 40 percent funded.

OCHA chief Baroness Amos has urged donors today to "dig deep" to help the millions affected.A regional feeding centre: in most cases families walk several kilometers to seek emergency feeding for their malnourished children. Cutbacks by WFP at this centre in Burundi means that siblings of ill children no longer receive nutrition. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw

She said: "The scale of the problem is much greater than we had anticipated last year. We need the money very quickly as children and some adults are turning up in refugee camps malnourished."

Complicating the situation for aid agencies in Somalia is a general state of lawlessness and banditry.

- HUMNews Staff

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Unrest Simmers as Egypt Awaits Change (REPORT)

by Nejeed Kassam and Alesha Porisky

(Cairo, Egypt - HN, July 4, 2011) -- The sound of rocks hitting the pavement reverberated off the walls of the Egyptian museum.  Voices were loud and horns blaring, even more than usual for Cairo’s busy streets. The change in the usual Cairo drone brought us to the balcony, overlooking Merit Basha Street, mere meters from the square.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alesha Porisky 7/3/2011

The street had mysteriously emptied of cars, and those on the far side towards the bridge were making u-turns as fast as possible.  Young revolutionaries surged forward from the square, carrying rocks, sharpened sticks and crates; the Egyptian flag tied around many a neck.  Their targets, we later learned, were Mubarak supporters, who tried to stand their ground.  Rocks were being tossed by both sides; chunks of concrete breaking on the pavement.  Crates were being used as shields; words were another weapon of choice. 

After a brief skirmish, the two sides separated.  The Mubarak supporters disappearing, as the revolutionaries made their way back to Tahrir Square, supporting a man who was bleeding heavily from the head and limping.  It was clear, even from five stories up, that neither side had gotten away without injuries. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Alesha Porisky 7/3/2011

Since Friday various political activist groups have been staging a sit-in in Tahrir Square; waiting.  This afternoon violence erupted when Mubarak supporters reportedly set fire to protestors’ tents.  When we ventured down to Tahrir Square, the smell of smoke hung thickly in the air.  The number of protestors had grown substantially since the morning, and tensions were high.  People lined the traffic barricades surrounding the square, watching with anticipation as protestors chanted in demonstration.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alesha Porisky 7/3/2011

When we interviewed a local student and self-proclaimed revolutionary he speculated that tensions would remain high over the next few hours, as both Mubarak supporters and the revolutionaries remained in the surrounding areas.  He estimated that close to a million people would show up on July 8^th, for the planned citywide protest.  

Even With Mubarak Gone in Egypt, Cairo Remains a City of Protests (Report)

Protesters carry Egypt flag on Friday in Tahrir Sq, Cairo, Egypt (CREDIT Alesha Porisky)(Cairo, Egypt. HN, July 2, 2011)  - On Saturday around 200 protestors were still in Cairo’s Tahrir Square following demonstrations on Friday in this city and others, such as Alexandria and Suez, which called for swift justice for the perpetrators of police brutality in clashes on June 28 and 29^th.

More than 1,000 people were injured this week when police in and around Tahrir Square tangled with protestors from families of those killed in the January 25 Revolution, and the situation turned violent.  Many criticized the police for using “excessive force” in dealing with the activists.

According to official records forty-nine protesters were arrested on June 28-29 and were detained for 15 days pending investigations by Egypt’s military authority – now in charge of running the day to day operations of the country.  

Protesters called for reforming all state media outlets, the resignation of Egypt’s Minister of Interior Mansour El-Essawy and the reform of the Central Security Forces (CSF).

The military tried to quell opposition by saying it has every intention of following through on parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

Protest organizers speak in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. 7.1.11 (CREDIT Nejeed Kassam)Egypt's former President, Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted on February 11 by an 18-day popular uprising, has been hospitalized since April in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with heart troubles; and some reports say he is also suffering from stomach cancer.  He is scheduled to stand trial on August 3rd on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of citizens during February’s protests.  If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

In recent protests, citizens who first took to the streets to demand the overthrow of Mubarak have begun shifting their anger towards the ruling military council, accusing it of using violent tactics to stifle dissent.

Tents continue to be pitched in the middle of Tahrir Square – and a major mass protest planned more than a month ago, is called for July 8. 

"No to the return of police terror," read one sign left over from Friday's protest, when 5,000 converged on the square.

Protest barricades in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday 7.1.11 (CREDIT Nejeed Kassam)Among the key demands are the trial of officials and police officers in abuse cases before and after the January 25 revolt, an end to military trials of civilians, an inclusive political process and freedom of expression and media.

The biggest public debate in Egypt now, is whether to postpone September's elections, and a new constitution be drawn up first. A number of human rights groups, including the Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services, recently put out a statement calling for Egypt to follow the example of Tunisia, and ‘put the horse before the cart’, creating a new constitution first.

---HUMNEWS staff

Immigrants and 11 Latin America Nations Fight New US Immigration Laws (REPORT)

Protestors hold signs and chant while marching to Georgia's state capitol Saturday. (CREDIT: J DiBenedetto, HUMNEWS 2011) (Atlanta, Georgia, USA-HN, 7/2/11) – Today, thousands marched on the US state of Georgia’s Capitol in protest of House Bill 87 – an anti immigration bill which passed and was signed earlier this year - chanting cries of “Humans are not for sale” and “Justice for all”.  Protestors called upon US President Barack Obama to step in and do something to halt the stringent requirements.

In March of this year, after a moderate amount of debate in the state House of Georgia, the legislature passed a strict immigration bill that has sparked ire among 11 Latin American countries and various civil and human rights groups.

Following a similarly controversial step in the US states of Arizona, Utah and South Carolina, Georgia passed the law, known as House Bill 87, targeting illegal immigrants and those who harbor them in the state. It carried by a largely Republican party-line vote of 113-56 in the House; with a 37-19 vote in the Georgia State Senate. HB 87 is also called the `Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011'.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal went on to sign the bill, one of the nation’s toughest immigration enforcement measures in May, and both the Georgia law and the South Carolina law took effect July 1.  All of these laws have challenged the thorny debate over illegal immigration in the United States and triggered immediate court appeals.

Under Georgia’s sweeping HB 87, police will be empowered to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and Georgia employers will be required to check the status of potential workers by using the US Federal `E-Verify’ system before hiring. The measure also sets new regulations and penalizes people who transport or harbor illegal immigrants in the state. 

State lawmakers have cited passage of these bills as being necessary because they say “efforts to get comprehensive immigration legislation through the US Congress have failed”, complaining the federal government has not secured the nation's borders.

Immigration protestors want Justice for All on Saturday in Georgia (CREDIT: J DiBenedetto, HUMNEWS 2011) But federal judges in both Utah and Arizona have halted both of those states' laws amid complaints that they are unconstitutional. In Georgia last week, two of the more controversial provisions of the state’s new immigration enforcement law were blocked by US federal judge Thomas Thrash; but other provisions that were not overturned go into effect July 1. It is now a criminal offense to apply for a job with a false I.D. in Georgia, punishable by up to $250,000 in fines and 15 years in jail.

Aside from the 11 Latin American countries, the US Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and several other civil and immigrant rights groups are party to the legal cases hoping to stop Georgia HB 87 from going forward.

The governments of Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru filed court papers stating that HB 87 is unconstitutional because there is already a federal immigration law on the books.

“HB 87 substantially and inappropriately burdens the consistent country to country relations between Mexico and the United States of America,” Mexico says in its brief in support of halting the law. It also claims the bill is “interfering with the strategic diplomatic interests of the two countries and encouraging an imminent threat of state-sanctioned bias or discrimination.”

In its defense, the state of Georgia has also filed court papers against the challenge to dismiss the lawsuits.

Even before the law in Georgia took effect yesterday, there were reports of immigrants, Hispanics and others who may be affected by the new law leaving the state to avoid detection or prosecution.

In a state – and indeed region where agriculture is one of the biggest industries for the South – the consequences include serious labor shortages with crops rotting in fields, and forcing farmers to raise prices to pay for new workers.

"When this all started in May there was big concern whether we would have enough labor to harvest the crops," Executive Director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, Charles Hall, said.

Immigrant workers have been leaving the state since Georgia's bill passed. (CREDIT: J DiBenedetto HUMNEWS 2011) Judge Thrash’s ruling last week has stemmed the flow of people leaving for the time being. But many remain worried, and in recent days have taken to Georgia’s streets and called for a `Human Rights Summer’ in the state to stop the bill from fully coming into practice. Organizers plan to visit Latino communities throughout the state to educate people and organize mobilizations.

The two provisions halted by the judge would have resulted in police checking the immigrant status of anyone detained for traffic violations or some other crime and would have criminalized the harboring and transporting of undocumented immigrants.

Still in play and set to go into effect on January 1, 2012 are parts of the bill which will require employers with 500 or more employees to use the federal E-Verify system to determine job applicants’ legal status before hiring them. Federal law says that E-Verify can only be used for new employees; so many undocumented workers will be unaffected unless they lose their jobs.  That requirement will be phased in for all businesses with more than 10 employees by July 2013.  Also starting January 1, applicants for public benefits must provide at least one state or federally issued “secure and verifiable” document.

In South Carolina, a new illegal immigration enforcement unit has been established by that state’s law and the unit will coordinate between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.

Critics of the bill cite both the need for migrant workers for food harvesting but also other economic issues as being impacted with the state’s decision.  Metro Atlanta school officials plan to closely monitor their enrollment figures over the summer.  The reason: many illegal immigrants could leave the state and pull their children out of public schools if opponents are unable to block the law in federal court. In Arizona, which passed a similar immigration law last year, hundreds of children left some of its schools after the bill passed. The state’s tourism business is also taking a hit too.

On Saturday immigrants and US citizens alike took to the streets of Atlanta (CREDIT J DiBenedetto HUMNEWS 2011) On Friday in Georgia, the day HB 87 took effect, a Latino community group called The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights organized a “day without immigrants” to protest the measure. It called for a day of non-compliance, asking businesses to close and community members to stay home and not work or shop. Accounts suggest that at least 125 Atlanta-area businesses closed to show their support Friday.

“We will mark our presence with our absence so that the state of Georgia takes note of the important role and contributions of Latinos in the state,” the group’s president, Teodoro Maus, said.

At Plaza Fiesta, a mall in Atlanta that caters to the growing immigrant population, many stores were closed, with signs in the windows expressing opposition to the law and saying they would be closed Friday in solidarity with the immigrant community. Many restaurants in the food court, however, were open.

The group is also trying to create shopping zones that are friendly to the immigrant community. After a business owner signs a “pledge of non-compliance” with the new law, they get a sign to put in their window that says “Immigrants Welcome Here, Georgia Buy Spot.”

Georgia’s Hispanic population has nearly doubled since 2000, to 865,689, or nearly 10 percent of the state’s population, according to 2010 US Census figures.

But the legal fight nationally is far from over. It could drag on for months and reach the chambers of the US Supreme Court before long.

----HUMNEWS staff

Ethiopia Eyes Tempting Business Opportunities in South Sudan (REPORT)

A sign in the central business district of Addis Abba directs people to the South Sudan office. CREDIT: M. Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSFrom a HUM Correspondent in Addis Ababa 

Even before the January 2011 referendum confirming the birth of Africa's newest nation, business people in the region were already salivating at the tantalizing opportunities to bring South Sudan into the 20th century - and the global economy.

Outside the oil sector, there is little infrastructure in Southern Sudan. There is already some foreign investment in the beverage sector and Ethiopia has two banks active there.

The sense of excitement is palpable in Addis Ababa's five-star hotels. Earlier this week, representatives from South Sudan could be seen meeting with local businessmen in the bustling Sheraton Hotel.

One European businessman in Addis Ababa said that opportunities are especially ripe in the banking and telecommunications sectors. "Basically they need everything," he said in the lobby of a hotel in Ethiopia's capital.

Ethiopia's large water and construction firms also stand to benefit. "We are ready to execute as many projects as offered," says Awash Welday, chief of Ethiopia's Awash Welday Water Works and General Contractor.

Aside from Ethiopia, Kenyan and South African firms are also eyeing developments closely. Kenya Commercial Bank is reported to have plans to double the number of branches in Southern Sudan. Kenya East African Breweries also has a presence, as does SABMiller plc of the United Kingdom.

South Sudan is due to officially become an independent state on July 9, making it the world's newest country.

The new opportunities are important for Ethiopia as its strives to become a major economy on the horn of Africa. The country of 80 million people became landlocked after its former northern region, Eritreria, declared its independence in 1993.

On the diplomatic front, Ethiopia is already deeply entrenched in South Sudan: it is sending a 4,200-strong peace-keeping force on behalf of the UN to the disputed Abyei region, which sits astride the two halves of Sudan.

A new Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 777 at Addis Ababa International Airport. The flag carrier already serves two destinations in Southern Sudan. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSGiven Ethiopia's strategic location next to Sudan - coupled with the entrepreneurial spirit of its domestic and returnee Diaspora workforce - the country stands to benefit enormously from business opportunities in South Sudan. Emblematic of its importance is the existence of a Government of South Sudan liaison office situated in the Central Business District.

Among the flagship businesses in Ethiopia aggressively moving ahead to establish a presence in South Sudan is flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, which already flies to the capital Juba, and as of June 17, to the Upper Nile region town of Malakal.

Ethiopia, the size of France and Spain combined, has undergone a major transformation in the last decade. It is the fifth-biggest economy in Africa - after South Africa, Nigeria, Angola and Sudan - climbing up from 10th in 2003. By 2023, its GDP purchasing power will hit about $500 billion - making it the third-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Ernst and Young. Agriculture contributes 45 percent of the GDP and more than three years ago a modern commodities exchange was opened to revolutionize trading.

Protests Erupt in Tahrir Square (NEWS BRIEF)

A group of protesters making their way towards Tahrir Square PHOTO: Nejeed Kassam

By Alesha Porisky and Nejeed Kassam Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt

For the past three days, according to local residents, there have been small demonstrations and marches in the late evenings in and around Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt.

Wednesday evening, however, the protest grew significantly in size and scope, described by a hotel worker as “chaos in the streets.” While this may be an exaggeration, there is definitely life to the protest; what was maybe one hundred for the past few nights has grown to a lot more, maybe over a thousand, but it’s hard to estimate exact numbers.

From Tahrir Square, the birthplace of Egypt’s January 25^th Revolution, drums could be heard beating and there were people marching and chanting. Just a few hours before, life was as it always is in Cairo and after-work traffic was normal: bumper-to-bumper. But the street came alive with protesters as the evening unfolded. What started, around 10.30pm, as a small march, had grown.

By 11:00pm, there was tear gas pouring through the street by Tahrir Square, which did little to silence protesters, many of whom continued their chants with fervour.  While people buried their faces in sleeves and tissues, workers at nearby restaurants quickly pulled down their riot barriers and retreated inside with their customers.

There seemed to be conflicting reasons as to the reason for the protest.

One source, a worker at Pizza Hut in Tahrir Square, said that the march was a response to an event that happened this morning. He alleged that yesterday, a number of women, especially the mothers of those who died in the Revolution, marched around Tahrir, as a way to remember those who lost their lives. Apparently, some of these women were attacked. Wednesday evening’s protests were, according to him, a response to these beatings.

However, an employee of a local hotel in the Square cited a different reason: the postponement of the investigation into Habib al-Adly, the former Minster of the Interior.  The announcement was made June 26, to the obvious displeasure of hundreds of demonstrators in Cairo.  No reason was given for the trial’s delay.

South Africa's Youth Face a Grim Future (PERSPECTIVE)

The glitz of Cape Town's waterfront seems a far distance from South Africa's marginalized youth. CREDIT: HUMNEWSBy Danny Schechter

"Don't know much about History ..."

Durban, South Africa: I got into South Africa before I got there.

I did so through meeting a young woman whose given name was Pony in the tradition of South Africans who call their daughters "Beautiful" or "Truth" or some other creative appellation.

She was on her way home to a small country town after a year spent in Cuba where she is in a course teaching scientific sport. She was one of a number of scholarship students traveling on the plane with me from Madrid. Cuba has adopted the systematic training system, or Sports Institutes used in East Germany, and put it to good advantage in its award-winning, state-backed athletic program. Now they are sharing their knowledge with other Third World countries.

Pony, in her late teens, was one of a large number of foreign students attracted to the idea, and was selected by the Cuban Embassy in Pretoria for the five-year opportunity beginning with a immersive Spanish language course. She now speaks Spanish pretty well, and knows all the Cuban revolutionary songs and slogans like "Patria O' Muerte, Veneceremos" ("Fatherland or Death, We Will Win"), that tens of thousands of Cubans echo at huge rallies. She laughed when I chanted one at her as we unexpectedly sat next to each other on the large Iberia jet.

As it turned out, I knew more about Cuba's role in supporting South Africa's liberation struggle, a gesture of solidarity that led to Fidel Castro being cheered the loudest of all foreign heads of state who attended Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the first president of a Democratic South Africa. I covered the scene in a film, "Countdown to Freedom," that I made about the historic l994 election.

Cuba's foreign policy has put a premium on backing revolutionary movements since 1960, and was the only country in the world to openly help South Africa militarily by sending its own troops - "internationalist volunteers" - to Angola, where they defeated the apartheid army in a crucial battle that accelerated the process of political change in South Africa. Many Cubans died alongside Angolan soldiers and South African liberation fighters in a war that has been largely forgotten.

Cuba has, in the years since, mellowed in its revolutionary ardor and is in the process of reforming its top-down Socialist economy.

After 19 years of "freedom," post-apartheid South Africa has also cooled its commitment to "struggle politics" and has become more of a "normal" African state, albeit an advanced one economically. It is now battling corruption within the ranks of its government and the ruling African National Congress (ANC), while coping with enormous challenges to create a new society so that youngsters like Pony who are very ambitious and eager to learn will have a future.

She admitted to me she doesn't know as much about politics or her own history as she would like, and says that's true of many in her generation. That's in part because the real history is not taught in any detail in the schools, or shown with any regularity on South African TV stations that are more into selling than telling by pumping out sports and popular culture.

Kids know more abut Mandela than the movement he led, an expression of the celebrity worship that dominates youth culture. On TV there, Oprah is better known than such lionesses of the freedom fight as Albertina Sisulu, revered by many as the Mother of the Nation, who died a month ago.

When I asked a young, white South African girl who the ANC leader and Mandela's law partner Oliver Tambo was, she asked, "You mean the airport guy?" Johannesburg's principal airport was renamed for Tambo after years of honoring Afrikaner leaders. (This is all more anecdotal evidence for why South Africa needs its own History Channel of the kind being proposed by producer Anant Singh.)

In Durban, where streets are being renamed for other liberation heroes, vandals have blacked out the new street names with paint to protest the change. I was told that people are pissed off because it screws up the GPSs in their cars. (I was thrilled to see a highway named after my old friend and London School of Economics colleague, the journalist and feminist heroine Ruth First.)

As it turns out, Pony was flying home on June 16th, the annual Youth Day holiday marking the anniversary of the Soweto uprising of l976 where kids Pony's age and younger revolted against forced instruction in Afrikaans. (South Africans were scandalized when an iconic picture of a young man carrying a victim of that police massacre was mocked on Facebook. In the new one, the child who had been shot in the original was smiling and carrying a bottle of beer.)

At least Youth Day is commemorated, as it was this year with concerts and hip-hop shows. In Soweto, there was a riot when local kids felt excluded and fought their way into a stadium while private cops maced and beat them to the horror of many onlookers. The event turned into chaos when all many of the kids wanted to do was "krump," the latest street-dance craze.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma hardly made the ceremony a priority, showing up three hours late after most of the crowd had left in the company of Julius Malema, the controversial head of the ANC's Youth League. Malema claims to be a youth leader, but he is more like a demagogic politician who has learned that the more outrageous his statements, the more "militant" his pose, the more publicity he gets. Sadly, the media can't get enough of his provocations.

He and his league are certainly not doing much of a practical sort to improve education or create jobs for tens of thousands of unemployed and perhaps unemployable young people who cheer his rhetoric while being stuck in lives of crime and desperation.

Here in Durban, one newspaper says "The youth today mistake nastiness, name-calling. crass materialism and the sale of political office to the highest bidder for revolutionary thought." Some of those demanding more youth leadership are being dismissed as "Gucci revolutionaries."

Their demand to nationalize the mines without compensation, a demand rejected by the ANC, is seen as radical to some, but analysts think it is a ploy to shakedown patronage payments out of worried business leaders, some of whom have already made them. A bigger problem would occur if this demand was ever realized, because the government has a poor record of running industries in the so-called "para-statals" like ESCOM, the electricity monopoly with its frequent mishaps.

A new book, "Zuma's Own Goal" (Africa World Press), picturing the president playing soccer on the cover, details the miserable failures of the ANC's poverty-reduction strategies, arguing its continuing loyalty to neo-liberal policies are responsible for a still-widening gap between rich and poor.

South Africa was rebranded though last year's World Cup, which brought the country so much world attention and its people so much good cheer.

But now, the people are left with enormous debts to pay off for the construction of fancy stadiums that are barely used. The global financial crisis has now hit home, with poverty up and foreign investments down.

The "Rainbow Nation," the hope of so many with the fall of apartheid, faces enormous challenges from structural economic issues that are increasingly intractable, even as protests mount.

My new friend Pony may be oblivious to this swirl of contradictions, but is bound to be affected by them.

--- News Dissector Danny Schechter produced the "South Africa Now" TV series and directed several films about Nelson Mandela. "Don't Know Much About History" is a line from an R&B classic, "Wonderful World," sung by Sam Cooke. Published with permission by Reader Supported News.

Major Media Markets Big Winners at African Journalism Awards (REPORT)

By a HUMNEWS Correspondent in Johannesburg

(HN, June 26, 2011) -- Major media markets such as Kenya, Uganda and South Africa walked away with the bulk of the awards last night at the African Journalism Awards in Johannesburg last night.The African Journalism Awards gala in Johannesburg. CREDIT: HUMNEWS

The top prize winner was Fatuma Noor of The Star of Kenya, who was recognized for her hard work on a three-part series on the militant Islamic group in Somalia, al-Shabab. It was chosen from among 1407 entries from 42 nations across the African continent.

The series tells the story of the young men who give up their freedom abroad to return and fight for the ‘Al-Shabaab’ in one of the world’s most dangerous places on earth – Somalia.

Fatuma Noor was one of the 27 finalists at the Awards ceremony on Saturday evening and was a winner in the category ‘General News Award (Print).’

The Awards, which rotate location each year in tribute to their pan-African credentials, were held at a Gala ceremony hosted by CNN and MultiChoice. Established in 1995 in Ghana, the awards were co-founded by the legendary African photo-journalist "Mo" Amin.

Last night, Kenya alone received four awards, Uganda three and host country South Africa three. One sponsor of the event told HUMNEWS that the domination of larger media markets in the awards line-up is a trend that has held almost since the event was first hosted. He added that smaller countries may not have the capability to submit entries or that some works are produced in countries that have governments hostile to enterprise journalism.

Chair of the judging panel, journalist and media consultant Joel Kibazo said: “The judges were impressed with the high quality of entries to the competition this year, and this intrepid young journalist has shown great courage and determination in going the extra mile to tell this fascinating story. Fatuma Noor’s three-part series on the Al-Shabaab provides a detailed and personalised portrait of the young men who leave their comfortable western lives to join one of the world’s most ruthless militant groups in Somalia.”

The evening also recognised Mahamud Abdi Jama as this year’s recipient of the Free Press Africa Award, for his work in Somalia. His situation was noted by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) in New York. He wrote a critical article about the government there and was jailed for just over a month and released when pressure was put on the government of Somalia.

Media freedom is still very tenuous in many markets on the African continent. Just last week, the CPJ reported that Ethiopian columnist Reeyot Alemu has been detained and held incommunicado. She is a regular contributor to the independent weekly, Feteh.

Even in host country South Africa, journalists tell HUMNEWS they fear a sweeping crackdown if a proposed draconian bill on secrecy passes the legislature.

(The Bill is a revised version of a 2008 piece of proposed legislation that was withdrawn after protests that it would give state bodies too much leeway to quash information. It establishes serious hurdles for the media and civil society to obtain information about official corruption mismanagement and government service delivery issues. It gives government officials wide powers to prevent disclosure in the interests of “national security” which is broadly defined to cover a vast array of information).

No mention of the legislation - initated by the administration of President Jacob Zuma - was made last night.

Other winners at the awards ceremony were:

ARTS & CULTURE AWARD

Kofi Akpabli, Freelance for DailyGraphic, Ghana.
Title: ‘What is right with Akpeteshie?’

DIGITAL JOURNALISM AWARD

The Dispatch Online Team on behalf of ‘The Daily Dispatch’ in South Africa.
Title: ‘Failed Futures’

ECONOMICS & BUSINESS AWARD

Sylvia Chebet and Kimani Githae, Citizen TV, Kenya.
Title:  ‘An uphill task’

ENVIRONMENT AWARD

Lamia Hassan, Business Today Egypt, Egypt.
Title:  ‘Washed up’

FRANCOPHONE GENERAL NEWS AWARD: PRINT

Rabin Bhujun, L'Express Dimanche, Mauritius.

Title: ‘Le vrai pouvoir des castes’

FRANCOPHONE GENERAL NEWS AWARD: TV / (RADIO

Claudine Efoa Atohoun, ORTB, Benin.

Title: ‘Le barrage de Nagbéto: Outil de développement ou source de nuisance’

FREE PRESS AFRICA AWARD

Mahamud Abdi Jama,Waaheen Media, Somalia.

HIV/AIDS REPORTING IN AFRICA AWARD

Beryl Ooro, K24 TV, Kenya.

Title: ‘HIV infection among senior citizens in Kenya’

MOHAMED AMIN PHOTOGRAPHIC AWARD

Norman Katende, freelance for The New Vision, Uganda.

Title:  ‘When death strikes’

PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE GENERAL NEWS AWARD

Selma Marivate, TV Miramar, Mozambique.

Title:  ‘O Movimento Rastafari em Mocambique’

RADIO GENERAL NEWS AWARD

Melini Moses, SABC, South Africa.
Title: ‘Hillbrow – Den of Iniquity’

SPORT AWARD

Kamau Mutunga, DN2 Magazine, Daily Nation, Kenya.
Title: ‘Soccer and Superstition (Animal body parts and snake blood on the pitch)’

TELEVISION – GENERAL NEWS – FEATURE/CURRENT AFFAIRS AWARD

Lindile Mpanza, e.tv, South Africa.
Title: ‘Silence of the innocents’

TELEVISION – GENERAL NEWS – NEWS BULLETIN AWARD

Farouk Kayondo, UBC, Uganda.
Title:   ‘Watching in the hood’

TOURISM AWARD

Benon Herbert Oluka, DailyMonitor, Uganda.
Title: ‘Why Ugandans would rather watch goat races than visit their national parks or heritage sites’

As Peace Takes Hold in Isolated Burundi, Donor Crisis Feared (REPORT)

Waiting for change in Burundi: According to UNICEF about 50% of the population is under 18 years old CREDIT: HUMNEWSBy a HUMNEWS Correspondent in East Africa

The global economic crisis and the drawing down of the emergency situation is translating into a decline in donor and humanitarian aid agency activity in Burundi - one of the poorest nations on the planet.

As the scarred nation struggles to emerge from four wars since independence in 1962 - between 1993 and 2006 some 300,000 people were killed - Burundi finds itself near the bottom of the UN's Human Development Index - with a GDP per capita of just $110. More than two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line.

The health system is in a shambles and, according to UNICEF, almost 60% of children are stunted, a key manifestation of malnutrition.

On the economic side, the former Belgian colony has a very small tax base and is heavily reliant on external aid. It is set to miss most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the most densely populated places in the world, it has difficulties feeding its 8-million inhabitants. Quite the change from independence until 1993, when Burundi's economic performance was one of the best in Africa.

Yet the landlocked, East African country hardly registers on the radar of major donor countries.

And crises elsewhere in the world means that cash-strapped agencies like the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) are scaling down their operations here.

"Maybe donors need to be told that they need to invest in Burundi to prevent another crisis," said a European diplomat. "You can either spend $100 now to treat a mildly ill patient or $1000 later to treat a severely ill patient."

However one main challenge, experts agree, is the provision of good governance. Diplomats say the current leadership is extremely inexperienced and lacking vision. "They are narrow-minded and introverted and are only interested in looking after their own constituencies," said one diplomat.

Periodic violence by armed bandits remains a problem in Burundi. Earlier this week gunmen in police uniforms killed five people.

The humanitarian arm of the European Community (ECHO) is shuttering the doors of its Burundi head office all together next year. Other UN agencies are also expressing fears about the cash situation a year or two up the road.

Part of the challenge in drawing donor attention is generating more media coverage, aid workers say. Few of the major western news agencies have a bureau in the capital Bujumbura, preferring instead to send correspondents from the East African media hub of Nairobi.

A man dries his coffee beans next to a highway near Gitega. Coffee exports represent about 90 percent of Burundi's export earnings. CREDIT: HUMNEWSRelatively peaceful and credible elections last year won the Maryland-sized country international applause. But rampant corruption, low capacity and frequent changes in the cabinet makes the shift from the emergency phase to long-term development difficult, experts say. Recently, western ambassadors wrote a scathing letter to the Government complaining of an escalation in extra-judicial killings.

After President Pierre Nkurunziza, an avid golf player, won the election last year, opposition figures have either fled the country or gone undercover.

A 2006 USAID-funded study recently found that what is needed is diversification of the economy - away from an over-reliance on coffee growing, which accounts for some 90 percent of export earnings. However landlocked and with the nearest seaport well over 1200 kilometers away in Dar-es-Salaam - via poor roads and customs barriers, connecting Burundi to the outside world is not a simple matter. Indicative of the lack of economic activity is that Bujumbura's lakeside port is operating a just a fraction of its capacity.

A Nairobi-based Western diplomat who follows Burundi said the country's only, long-term hope is to take advantage of the opportunities that can come from regional integration. He pointed to the small neighbouring country of Rwanda, which has recovered from its multi-year conflict much better and is even now boasting a tourism sector and functioning stock market.

Said the diplomat: "The Government will have to position itself to benefit fully from regional integration. Instead what we are seeing is a squandering of one opportunity after another. I'm seeing very little political will to open horizons.

"My message is to focus on integration. It will be a catastrophe if they don't."

One glimmer of hope is the prospect of new mining operations in the country. A Canadian mining company is said to have obtained exploration rights for gold deposits. Another is improving yield on coffee exports: the Seattle-based company Starbucks is said to be looking at Burundi as a market for beans.

And in another positive development to further integrate Burundi into the global economy, Seacom Ltd., a closely held company that operates a fiber-optic link off East Africa, said this month it plans to extend the high-bandwidth fibre-optic cable to Burundi.

The USAID study suggests development of the tourism sector as part of an economic development package. But Burundi's sandy beaches - it sits on the clean and majestic Lake Tanganyika - international-quality hotels and guest houses are little known to the jet-setting public. For visitors, it's possible to arrive at Bujumbura International Airport - one of the cleanest and most efficient in Africa - and be sitting on the beach drinking a can of locally-made Primus beer less than one hour after touchdown.Burundi already has some international-standard tourism assets, including a good international airport and the Bora Bora Beach Resort in Bujumbura (shown above). CREDIT: HUMNEWS

International air links are limited, but that may improve later this year with the addition of service by South African Airways. Sadly, deforestation and a decline in the wild animal population doesn't give the countryside the appeal of other East African countries. The part of the country with the most exotic vegetation and wildlife - bordering Congo and Rwanda - is still regarded as a security risk.

India and Sri Lanka After the LTTE (PERSPECTIVE)

President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh of India PHOTO: ICG

- By The International Crisis Group   Colombo/Brussels

India has long been the country with the greatest influence over Sri Lanka but its policies to encourage the government there towards a sustainable peace are not working.

Despite India’s active engagement and unprecedented financial assistance, the Sri Lankan government has failed to make progress on pressing post-war challenges. Government actions and the growing political power of the military are instead generating new grievances that increase the risk of an eventual return to violence.

To support a sustainable and equitable post-war settlement in Sri Lanka and limit the chances of another authoritarian and military-dominated government on its borders, India needs to work more closely with the United States, the European Union and Japan, encouraging them to send the message that Sri Lanka’s current direction is not acceptable. It should press for the demilitarisation of the north, a return to civil administration there and in the east and the end of emergency rule throughout the country.

New Delhi’s relations with Sri Lanka in the two years since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have had four main priorities:

• providing humanitarian assistance to displaced Tamils in the north and east;
• supporting major development projects, primarily in the north, with concessionary loans;
• pressing the Sri Lankan government and the main Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), to work towards a negotiated settlement of ethnic conflict through the devolution of power to Tamil-majority areas in the north and east; and
• encouraging greater economic integration between the two economies.

India’s approach has so far paid only limited dividends. Deepening militarisation and Sinhalisation in the northern province have increased the insecurity and political marginalisation of Tamils and are undermining prospects for inter-ethnic reconciliation.

The government continues to resist any investigation or accounting for mass atrocities in the final months of the war. Democratic governance is under sustained assault throughout the country, as power is concentrated in the president’s family and the military; attacks on independent media and political opponents continue with impunity.

Even on Indian-sponsored development projects and economic integration, the Sri Lankan government has dragged its feet; for example, construction has begun on only a handful of the 50,000 houses India has offered to build in the northern province.

While officials in New Delhi admit they are frustrated, India remains hesitant to press President Rajapaksa’s regime very hard. This is due in part to its history of counter-productive interventions in Sri Lanka.

India’s misguided policy of arming Tamil militants in 1980s significantly expanded the conflict, and its decision to send peacekeepers to enforce the 1987 Indo-Lanka accord ended in disaster as the LTTE fought them to a standstill and later took revenge by assassinating former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

India’s interventions have made Sri Lankans of all communities suspicious, limiting India’s room for manoeuvre. Many Sinhalese see India as favouring Tamils and as wanting to weaken or divide the country, despite its crucial role in destroying the Tamil Tigers. For many Tamils, on the other hand, India is seen as having repeatedly broken its pledges to defend their rights and protect their lives, especially during the final phase of the war in 2009.

India’s reluctance to put serious pressure on the Sri Lankan government is also due to strategic considerations, in particular its desire to counter the growing influence of China, whose financial and political support the Rajapaksa government has been cultivating. India’s own growing economic interests in Sri Lanka have also tempered its political activism. New Delhi’s traditional reluctance to work through multilateral bodies or in close coordination with other governments – due in part to its fear of international scrutiny of its own conflicts, particularly in Kashmir – has also significantly weakened its ability to influence Sri Lanka.

India, nonetheless, has strong reasons to work for fundamental changes in Sri Lanka’s post-war policies.

It has a clear interest in preventing either a return to violent militancy or the consolidation on its borders of another authoritarian government with an overly powerful military. India’s own democratic values and successes in accommodating ethnic diversity should also encourage an activist approach, especially as it seeks recognition as a rising global power with hopes of a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

India’s own restive domestic Tamil constituency, to which the central government needs to respond for electoral considerations, is pressing for stronger action. After decades of actively supporting minority rights and devolution of power in Sri Lanka, India has its reputation on the line. With the much-hated LTTE defeated with Indian assistance, New Delhi should, in principle, have more leeway to push for reforms.

If it is serious about promoting a stable and democratic Sri Lanka, India will have to rebalance its priorities and press more consistently and in concert with other powers for major political reforms in Sri Lanka. Parties in Tamil Nadu, in turn, will need to use their leverage with New Delhi in consistent and principled ways, even at the risk of sacrificing potentially profitable political deals.

India’s support for negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance, which belatedly began in January 2011, has been useful and should be maintained. But the immediate focus of the talks and of Indian influence should shift from pressing for effective devolution of power to demilitarising the north and east and rebuilding meaningful democratic institutions and freedoms. This would require:

• re-establishing the authority of the local civil administration in the north and east to oversee development and humanitarian assistance without interference by the military or central government;
• holding the long-delayed election for the Northern Provincial Council;
• publicising the names and locations of all those detained on suspected involvement with the LTTE (including those in “rehabilitation” centres);
• expediting the release of land currently designated as (or operating as de facto) high-security zones; and
• removing arbitrary restrictions on political activities and on the humanitarian activities of local and international NGOs.

India should monitor its projects in the north more closely and insist, along with other donors, that they effectively empower local people. India should insist on working through the newly elected local governments and, eventually, with the Northern Provincial Council.

To make this possible, India will need to coordinate more closely with Japan, Western donors and international development banks. Together they have the political and financial leverage to influence the Rajapaksa administration should they choose to use it. India should revive its idea of a donors conference to review post-war progress and to push the government to demilitarise the north, lift the state of emergency and relax anti-terrorism laws.

In New York, Geneva and Colombo, India should publicly acknowledge the importance and credibility of the report by the UN Secretary-General’s panel of experts on accountability and should support an independent international investigation into allegations of war crimes at the close of the civil war in 2009. At the same time, it should send strong, public messages to the Sri Lankan government on the need for domestic action on accountability.

It should also work towards the establishment of a truth commission that would examine the injustices and crimes suffered by all communities, including those committed by all parties during the Indian army’s presence in northern Sri Lanka in the late 1980s. Acknowledging the suffering of all communities will be necessary for lasting peace.

India should broaden its political agenda from focusing solely on devolution and ensuring the rights of Tamils.

Without a reversal of the Sri Lankan government’s growing authoritarianism, centralisation of power and continued repression of dissent, any devolution will be meaningless and the risks of renewed conflict will increase.

India’s longstanding interest in a peaceful and politically stable Sri Lanka is best served by strong messages to Colombo to end impunity and reverse the democratic decay that undermines the rights of all Sri Lankans.

By raising political concerns that affect all of Sri Lanka’s communities, India can also counter suspicions among Sinhalese and eventually strengthen its hand with the government. This will take some time, but the work should start now.

- International Crisis Group June 23, 2011. The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.  An entire PDF version of this report can be found here. 

What Pearls of Wisdom Does Michelle Obama Have to Share with South Africa's Youth? (PERSPECTIVE)

By Fazila Farouk

When I first heard that America's first lady, Michelle Obama, was coming to South Africa, I thought to myself, “There goes the news - column inches upon column inches are going to be wasted on the colour of her lipstick.” The fact that she’s America’s “fashion ambassador” already made the news in the run up to her visit.First lady Michelle Obama. CREDIT: White House

Obama’s transformation from understated and perfectly well groomed woman to glorified clotheshorse has been disappointing to observe. Nobody begrudges her the opportunity she’s been given to transform her appearance, but in all fairness, she did take to the glamour rather more enthusiastically than one expected - openly relishing it and making fashion the hallmark of her role as America’s first lady. One expected a little more substance from a woman of her standing.

The official reason given for Obama’s visit to South Africa is that she’s in the country to talk to our youth about leadership and that she’s particularly interested in young women. This, I have gathered from media reports as well as questions that I personally had to field in a telephonic interview with a reporter from the Washington Post.

Well, that’s the official reason for Obama’s visit, but I’d hazard a guess that the unofficial reason may have more to do with America’s domestic politics than it has to do with the country’s international relations.

It is well known that 2012 is a presidential election year in America when Barack Obama will be running for re-election. The dynamic duo, Mr. and Mrs. Obama appear to have divvied up the globe in pursuit of the ethnic American vote.

 
Some weeks back, President Obama was in Ireland re-connecting with the Irish heritage on his late mother’s side of the family so he could build support for the Irish-American vote back home. Just last week he was in Puerto Rico courting the Latino vote. His wife’s visit to South Africa (and Botswana) seems a natural next step in their international campaign to bolster domestic support for his re-election next year, in this case, targeting the African-American vote.

The Obama’s are very good at marketing themselves. President Obama’s 2008 election campaign has even won a prestigious international advertising award for “best marketing campaign in history.” When it comes down to the brass tacks of his re-election, the Obama’s know what it will take to keep him in office.

This time the Obama’s need to rally the support of the international community, as they’ve made such a mess of things back home. The so-called grassroots constituency that brought Obama to power is likely to stay away in droves next year, as the bold “change you can believe in” Barack Obama turned his back on them from his first day in office as America’s president.

It all started with him appointing Wall Street insiders to his team. Then he went a step further by making good on Bush era prescriptions to bail out the banks that caused the 2008 financial crisis in the first place. His grassroots constituency was left out to dry.

While the Obama’s moved into the most sought after address on the planet - the White House - thousands of African-Americans lost their homes as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis caused by the banks that President Obama has been so cautious not to confront. His electoral support base, of course, thanked him for his lack of gratitude by staying away in droves from America’s 2010 midterm elections, which resulted in the Democrats losing the US Congress to the Republicans.

If Obama’s grassroots constituency does vote for him again, “Brand Obama” won’t be duping them so easily the second time round. This time they’ll be voting for the lesser of two evils in the Democratic Party’s battle against Republican rule. They’re well aware of this fact too.

In September last year during a televised public meeting, Velma Hart, an African-American mother representing the bedrock of his middle class support base, openly challenged President Obama to his face. She said, “Quite frankly I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.” His mealy mouthed response is not worth elaborating on, suffice to say that it was hopelessly inadequate.

So what message is Michelle Obama going to share with ordinary, middle class and poor South Africans after her husband’s administration so clearly let down people of a similar class in America?

What exactly is her message to the youth of South Africa going to be? “Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps?” As someone who epitomises the story of success built on sheer determination and hard work, it’s clear she that she would be partial to individual endeavour.

But the America that she grew up in is not the America of today. Nor does either America come close to the fledgling democracy that is South Africa today.
Any young working class woman in Soweto comes up against a wall of challenges that Obama in her entire early life would never have encountered.

So how then does a young person contribute to our society when the conditions are far from what can be described as ‘enabling’, not only because of the shortcomings of the South African government, but quite significantly, also due to the foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration?

What has Obama got to say to the HIV positive youth in the ghettos of South Africa whose lives and future livelihood depend on our country being able to make access to anti-retro viral drugs universally available?

What is her response to the fact that the PEPFAR fund, a multi million-dollar AIDS fund initiated by George W. Bush, had its funding reduced for the first time in its seven year history under the Obama administration last year? The consequences of this decision are so dire for combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa that the Treatment Action Campaign went as far as writing aletter to President Obama condemning it.

The saga continues today still. Just last week at the opening of the18th International Aids Conference in Vienna, which drew participants from around the world, high-level aids activists were reportedly “raging at the Obama administration, while pining for the Bush administration.”

President Bush was a much better friend to the HIV infected youth of South Africa than the Obama’s can ever claim to be.

And what about the masses of unemployed youth in South Africa? The most crippling crisis facing the youth of South Africa today is the challenge of unemployment. What exactly is the Obama administration doing to ensure their access to productive, secure and decent work?

Well, in this regard, the Obama administration has once again failed the youth of South Africa (and the rest of developing world too).

The Obama administration can take credit for taking “the development” out of the “development round” of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), commonly referred to as the Doha round of talks.

America, in particular, has been singled out for making unreasonable demands on emerging economies, which includes South Africa, to open up their markets to US products. To simplify a somewhat complex set of negotiations where the US is demanding tariff reductions from the developing world, which would allow American goods to flood these countries’ markets -- what this boils down to in the end, is that job creating sectors in South Africa are under threat from cheap and not infrequently subsidised American goods.

Of concern is the hypocrisy of the image presented by the first lady of America.
While Michelle Obama has busied herself establishing an organic vegetable patch in the gardens of the White House, promoting home-based food production, the food crisis has ravaged many developing countries that have lost their ability to grow their own food, as imports have flooded in under current international trade rules. Subsidized American agribusiness with a propensity for flogging genetically modified products onto unsuspecting developing nations is one of the main culprits distorting agricultural trade between first and third world countries.

One of the defining features of our interconnected global economy is that decisions taken in New York and London reach deep into the lives, dreams and aspirations of ordinary folk in townships like Soweto. What’s new since the financial crisis of 2008 is that the young people in the developing world who've always been exploited and abused by the overlords of the global economy are now being joined by an army of youth in Europe from countries such as Greece and Spain where unemployment has crept up to unprecedented levels, resulting in street protests and riots – not unlike our very own service delivery protests.

However, unlike South Africa, the youth of Spain and Greece come from middle class families. They’re educated and have skills, but are unable to find jobs -- and the reason they can’t find jobs is through no fault of their own. The problem is the growing financialisation of the global economy that has undermined investments in job-creating sectors.

Together with his benefactors, President Obama, whose campaign was generously funded by Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs, has played an important role strengthening the financialisation of the global economy. Thus, what is sometimes referred to as “Casino Capitalism” has become the basis of the global economy.

This is what led to the financial crisis, the subsequent recession and a global decrease in jobs. Some 30 million jobs have been lost worldwide since the 2008 crisis (according to a co-authored International Labour Organisation report released in the latter half of 2010).

The jobs will continue to bleed until we address the fundamental issues that drive this unjust situation. The youth of the world, including our own in South Africa, will continue to face an uncertain future until the world is put on a different trajectory that respects the right of every human being to a decent life that offers a secure and decent livelihood. The struggle for employment does not have to result in a scramble for dirty, dangerous and demeaning work – the three D’s commonly associated with the work poor people are most easily able to secure, and which is largely the outcome of liberalisation policies promoted by the Obama administration.

In light of the above, it does seem somewhat fraudulent for America’s first lady to be prancing around the world telling young people to get involved in actively contributing to their societies. What pearls of wisdom is she carrying around in her purse to share with the downtrodden youth of South Africa and the world, while the policies of her husband’s administration ensure that these young people remain trapped in a life of destitution and servitude?

Its time political leaders, including their supportive spouses, realised that rhetoric ought to be matched by deeds that make a difference to the lives of ordinary people facing challenging realities.

Farouk is executive director of the South African Civil Society Information Service. This article first appeared on the SACSIS website.

On World Refugee Day, UNHCR Reports Highest Number of Refugees Worldwide in Fifteen Years

(CREDIT: UNHCR, World Refugee Day 2011) (HN, June 20, 2011) - June 20th is always the United Nations globally recognized `World Refugee Day’.  But this year the day holds significance for more people on the planet than in the last 15 years. 

That’s because the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that as of last year, 43.7 million people around the world have been displaced from their countries by war, conflict or persecution.  

Adding insult to injury, eighty percent of those refugees fleeing the safety of their own homes are being kept safe with food, shelter and water by some of the world’s poorest nations, and UNHCR is warning that these countries cannot continue to afford this cost alone.

This past weekend António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, spent time with the actress Angelina Jolie meeting with some of the refugees who most recently fled  Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain and other Middle East nations currently experiencing internal turmoil which has forced thousands to stream across their nations borders for other countries such as Turkey and Malta.  

(CREDIT: UNHCR, Gooodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie at a camp for Syrian refugees in the southern Turkish town of Altinozu.)In a statement reflecting `World Refugee Day’, Guterres says, “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. It’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”

UNHCR’s 2010 Global Trends report, flags Pakistan, Iran and Syria as the world’s biggest hosts of refugees by amount of people who have fled there – totaling three million collectively that the countries have taken in; 1.9 million refugees are being housed in Pakistan alone.

And the world’s refugee populations are only expected to grow as predicted by UNHCR, next year and beyond.  In 2010, the refugee agency projected that 747,000 locations places were needed to resettle the global flow of refugees, and the 22 countries that accept such displaced people, led by the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Norway, took in only 98,000 people. In 2011, UNHCR estimates that 805,000 locations for refugees to be resettled will be needed.  

The developed nation housing the largest refugee population is Germany, hosting 594,000 people.  Guterres urged industrialized nations to increase the number of people they accept who are seeking asylum, lessening the burden on already poor and overwhelmed countries, some whom, like Syria, are going through their own internal strife and seeing its own people flee to Turkey.

Civilians fleeing the fighting in north-west Syria has picked up significantly in the last two weeks with more than 9,600 people now living in four camps managed by Turkey and the Turkish Red Crescent.

(CREDIT: IGEO, a camp for Darfur, Sudan refugees in Chad.)Not only are there more refugees in the world today but more people are staying in a `refugee state’ much longer than ever before.  Some like those in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere spend their whole life in refugee camps. 

In 2010 for instance, 7.2 million people, the highest number in ten years, had been exiled from their home countries for five years or more; mostly due to the length of the conflict they were fleeing from, which prevented people from returning to their homes. Only 197,600 refugees, were able to return to their homes in 2010, the lowest number since 1990.

UNHCR puts the official number of refugees who registered with it last year, along with the agency for Palestinian refugees at 15.4 million in 2010; with another 27.5 million people – the highest level in ten years - having been displaced by conflict within their own home countries’ borders.

--- HUMNEWS staff

Rethinking the Amazon (REPORT/BLOG)

By Gabriel Elizondo

The full page spread in Rio daily O Globo on Wednesday was headlined with the screamer: “More Blood in the Forest.”

It was in relation to the latest revelation that another Amazon activist was killed this week, brining the number to six killed in a little over a month.

The latest murder made big news not only inside Brazil, but also sparked a new round of coverage of the Amazon kilings in the global press like here, here, and here.

But what exactly is going on? New revelations seem to indicate that perhaps the latest activist killed was, well, not as much of an activist as first thought. Maybe all these killings are getting a little complicated, and not as simple to deconstruct in one headline.

Now is a good time to take a step back and look at the facts, and answer some questions still lingering.

First, a recap of the killings and what we know on each:

Date: May 24

Names: Jose Claudio Ribeiro and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo.

Location: Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state.

Sumamry: The husband and wife were gunned down, execution style, while on a motorbike on a dirt road while leaving the remote Amazon reserve where they lived. (My impressions from his funeral here, videohere). Both were outspoken anti-logging activists who made well-documented calls about the death threats against them. Of all the recent killings, Jose Claudio Ribeiro was the most high profile and well-known person. Local police have put out sketches of two men they think were the gunmen. No arrests have been made. 

Date: May 27

Name: Adelino Ramos

Location: Vista Alegre do Abunã, in Rondonia state.  

Sumamry: Ramos, a longtime activist in the landless workers movement, was ambushed, shot several times and died - all in front of his wife and young kids, who were not injured.

At the time of his killing it was 10 am and he was taking produce to the local farmers market to sell. In 1996 Ramos survived one of the Amazon’s most famous and deadly incidents when police killed 10 land rights activists in an encampment they occupied.

At the time of his killing last month, he was leader of a small farmers movement that would occasionally denounce illegal logging activities. He had received death threats, and had filed reports with police. Two days after the killing, local police arrested a 38-year-old man they suspect had killed Ramos. The motives are still not public. 

Date: May 28

Name: Eremilton dos Santos

Location: Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state

Summary: The 25 -ear-old subsistence farmer lived on the same Amazon protected reserve as Jose Claudio Ribeiro and his wife Maria, and was killed less than 10km from where they were shot. Dos Santos reportedly was on his motorbike going to buy fish when he was apparently ambushed and killed on a dirt road.

One theory is that he was a witness to people on motorbikes who killed Ribeiro and his wife, and was killed to be silenced. Dos Santos was likely going to give testimony to police on what he knew of the Ribeiro killing. But local police say, while they are investigating all hypothesis, it would be slightly odd Santos would be singled out when many other people were going to give testimony as well in the Ribeiro case.

They are also looking at other angles to see if dos Santos was involved in criminality unrelated to illegal logging that would have made him a target. There are no known indications he received death threats and he did not appear to be a vocal anti-logging activist.  Nobody has been arrested for his killing.

Date: June 1

Name: Joao Vieira dos Santos

Location: Eldorado do Carajás in Pará state

Summary: The small-scale farmer lived on an Amazon settlement in a highly deforested area and apparently was shot execution style, initially leading many to the instant conclusion he was another killed for his anti-logging activism work. But later police said dos Santos was a fugitive from a neighbouring state and using a false name.

The local investigator says it’s unlikely he was killed because of land conflict or activism work. Nobody has been arrested for his killing. 

Date: June 9 (death confirmed on June 14)

Name: Obede Loyola Souza

Location: Pacajá in Pará state

Summary: The 31-year-old was killed with a bullet though the head less than a kilometre away from his home in the Amazon reserve where he lived and cultivated a small plot of land. Initially his killing was reported as another environmentalist killed, but late Wednesday a representative from a local NGO said Souza was not an "environmental activist" and his name was not on a list of those receiving death threats. There are conflicting reports. Police are still investigating. No arrests have been made.

Some of the recent Brazilian press coverage of the Amazon murders. Photo: Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera.

Four questions

Are all the people being killed ‘environmental activists’? Depends how you define "environmental activist". A person sitting in an office in London or Los Angeles might view an environmental activist as one who discreetly goes on a bridge to unfurl a huge banner protesting against jungle deforestation before getting forcefully arrested by police. Brazil has those types. But the people being killed recently here are generally not those types of activists, if they’re even "activists" at all.

Even in Brazil there are no easy definitions, as words used to describe those killed range from trabalhador rural (rural worker), lavrador (farmhand) to ambientalista (environmentalist). Jose Claudio Ribeiro was a clear environmentalist/activist. But some of the others killed, such as Souza, might have simply been seen as an environmentalists by the very nature of living on a protected reserve.

Based on my experience, most of the people who live on Amazon reserves or are squatters on Amazon land do so not out of pure activism, in the traditional sense of the word, but out of their own self interest, well being, and survival.   

Why are all these killings happening now? No clear answer to this, but I’ll start with another [cynical] question: Maybe it’s been going on all along, but nobody was paying attention until now? Para state is one of the most violent in all of Brazil, with 40 murders per 100,000 residents, almost four times more than Sao Paulo state, and almost 25% more than famously violent Rio de Janeiro state. In the vast and remote area that makes up Para, killings are not uncommon in rural areas.

Rarely are they covered in Brazil’s mainstream press; it would be impossible to do so, just like anywhere else. But after the death of Jose Claudio and his wife Maria, there has been more urgency and willingness to cover subsequent killings as part of a broader storyline of risks 'activists' face. So maybe in between high profile Amazon killings like that of Dorothy Stang and Jose Claudio Ribeiro, there are a bunch more nobody ever hears about - making it all the more disturbing.

But aside from this, in Para state, there is another factor as well on perhaps why there seem to be more killings: Diminishing Amazon resources. Para is - by far - the most heavily deforested of Brazil’s Amazon states. Fly over the eastern half of the state at low altitude - like I have over a dozen times - and look out the window and you would never know you're in the Amazon because there are few thick swaths of forest can be seen.

Why? Because it was all cut years ago. Therefore, the little Amazon left in Para has more value both to those who want to protect it, and those who don’t. Bottom line: More conflict.

A map from Greenpeace; In this photo showing part of Para state in Brazilian Amazon. The parts in red indicates areas that have been deforested. The finger pointing to the general area where the most recent Amazon killings took place. Photo: Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera.

Why can’t police stop it? Three words: It’s not easy. The Amazon state of Para alone - where most of these murders have taken place - is almost exactly 5 times larger than all of England. Para is made up of basically the capital city of Belem [1.3 million people], a few cities in the 100,000-400,000 population range, and then a whole lot of nothing. Most residents of the state are poor and 25% are ‘functionally illiterate,’ according to the government’s own statistics.

The state has vast areas, and few police, usually poorly paid. Cell service is almost non-existent in many of the rural areas where land conflict is the most deadly. So, frankly, it’s easy to get away with murder. The federal government knows this. It’s no state secret that the local cops can’t handle it alone, and that is why Pres. Dilma Rousseff is sending in federal agents, and not the first time - click here for 2008 video report from Para.

Here's one more example: In the most recent murder, the name of the victim was first reported as Obede Loyla Souza and repeated in most of the press coverage. But his name actually is Obede Loyola Souza. Minor point, I know. But it shows how in these remote areas, where information is often passed word-of-mouth, even basic things can be misconstrued. How can we expect the police to solve the murder of a man whose name we can't even get right?   

Is it only about forest? Hardly, because there is hardly any forest left in some of Para state. It’s a conflict over land. Wood only makes up 4% of the state exports, and cattle (another cause of deforestation) only 5% of state exports.

The combination of iron ore, aluminums, and minerals made up 78% of Para’s $8.3 billion in exports in 2009. This is an industrial state, where huge mining and mineral companies with headquarters in places like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing, make their profits.

Underneath the multinationals are literally thousands of medium sized farmers, ranchers, loggers, mining interests, fighting for what’s left: That 9% of the $8.3 billion dollar annual pie still is a lot of money in a place with low public security and diminishing Amazon resources.

Follow Gabriel Elizondo on Twitter @elizondogabriel

Originally published by Al Jazeera on June 16, 2011 under Creative Commons Licensing 

On Their Annual Day African Children Remain Extremely Vulnerable (NEWS BRIEF)

A young boy in Burundi. CREDIT: HUMNEWS(HN, June 16, 2011) As the Day of the African Child is commemorated across the continent today, millions of young people face deadly threats, ranging from pneumonia and malaria to HIV and AIDS and domestic violence.

There are thousands of children under 18 languishing in jails from Nigeria to Burundi - either housed with adults or incarcerated without trial or proper legal representation.

The best laid plans of donors and governments have, in some instances, have failed to reach targets.

For example, despite the distribution of millions of bed nets, for example, in many African countries - including Nigeria and Burundi - malaria will be far from eradication by the UN goal of 2015.

In countries such as Lesotho, almost one in four people are living with HIV and an estimated 17 percent are aged 15-24.

In Africa, sexual violence is a daily reality for girls. A recent Swaziland study documents that about one third of adolescent girls under the age of 18 have stated that they have been victims of sexual violence by boyfriends, husbands and/or male relatives. Most of the violence takes place in the home, or close by in neighborhoods or at school.

There are bright spots on this day that deserve acknowledgement. The incredible efforts of such institutions as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has translated into the near eradication of polio in the four remaining endemic countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

And across the continent, more children are receiving free primary education than ever before.

In Burundi, a visionary project operated by CARE and funded by the Nike Foundation has provided micro credit, small business grants to adolescent girls who have fallen into poverty due to early pregnancy and other reasons.

- HUMNEWS correspondent in East Africa