South Pakistan Flood Victims Still Struggling (NEWS BRIEF)

(HN, November 25, 2011) - Three months after the worst floods in southern Pakistan's history, nearly three quarters of a million people remain displaced in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, and a third of the affected area remains under water.IDPs at a relief centre at the Sindh Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority College in Badin. Credit: IOM

According to aid agencies, of some 800,000 homes severely damaged, some 328,000 were totally destroyed.

Pakistan's government believes that up to twice as many households may have been affected. 

A recently released aid cluster report estimates that just over half of affected families have received tents or plastic tarpaulin shelter kits.

Thousands of people are still living in the open with little or no shelter facing falling temperatures with the onset of winter," says International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Pakistan Emergency Manager Tya Maskun.

"Shelter cluster agencies have about 45% of the funding that they need, but most of that money is focused on emergency shelter. We calculate that we are only meeting about 10% of the need for NFIs like kitchen sets, blankets and sleeping mats, most of which were swept away in the floods," she adds.

- HUMNEWS staff, IOM

Global Fund Cancels Fundraising; Seeks New Leadership (NEWS BRIEF)

(HN, November 23, 2011) The high profile Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has, in a surprise move, cancelled its multi-million dollar fundraising efforts and has instigated a search for a new chief.

The Geneva-based Fund aims to save 10 million lives and prevent 140-180 million new infections from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from 2012 to 2016. It has$4 billion in its trustee account and expects to sign grants for existing approved programs worth $10 billion for the period 2011 to 2013.

In a statement today issued in Ghana, the Fund said that in its last pledge round, in October 2010, it managed to raise only $11.7 billion, well short of the $13 billion “austerity budget” it said it needed as a minimum to continue programs already started. It had hoped to raise $20 billion.

Questionable disbursement practices by many countries, including Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania and Zambia, lost their grants or had new safeguards put in place after officials were accused of stealing. The Fund’s own inspector general exposed the fraud and earlier this month was trying to recover about $20 million that had been allegedly stolen.

The funding has its complications. Recipient country, Zimbabwe, for example, has blamed the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for delays in disbursements of Fund grants.

"The five-year strategy and transformation plan adopted at the meeting together commit the Global Fund to shift to a new funding model that focuses on investing strategically in countries, populations and interventions with high potential for impact and strong value for money,” said Fund board chair Simon Bland. “It will provide its funding in a more proactive, flexible and predictable way. It will better manage risk and it will work more actively with countries and partners to facilitate grant implementation success. In doing so, I believe the Global Fund will shift from an institution that has successfully provided emergency funding to allow countries to cope with the runaway pandemics, to become a sustainable, efficient funder of the global efforts to control them and eventually win the battle against AIDS, TB and malaria."

The fund’s board, while meeting in Accra, created a new general manager position to take some day-to-day authority from the executive director - French national and physician, scientist and diplomat, Michel Kazatchkine. His fundraising capabilities have reportedly come into question.

- HUMNEWS staff, agencies, Global Fund

The Political and Economic Impact of Thailand's Floods (VIDEO)

By Shreeya Sinha

(HN, November 23, 2011) - Since July 2011, Thailand has endured its worst flooding in more than half a century. The death toll has reached more than 500, and 22 of the country's 77 provinces, including Bangkok, the capital city, are still affected. The floods have shattered businesses and infrastructure and disrupted global supply chains at a crucial time in Thai politics.

Yingluck Shinawatra was elected Prime Minister two months before the floods started. Thailand's first female leader ran on a campaign of political reconciliation but now faces the additional challenge of rebuilding while opponents try to to take advantage of her missteps. And while the flood waters start to recede in the capital, the political and economic implications may linger.

In the above video, Asia Society Associate Fellow Duncan McCargo, the 2009 Bernard Schwartz Book Award winner, analyzed the crisis and its affect on Shinawatra's tenure in the video above. "There will people asking if Thailand is facing bad karma after six years of political tension and crisis," he said. McCargo outlined the oppositional politics at play that are impeding rebuilding efforts.

"It remains to be seen whether the government, the bureaucracy, and the military can hold back the waters," he said.

The author, Shreeya Sinha, is an award-winning Journalist, Multimedia Producer and Social Media Editor for Asia Society. She was raised in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.

The Bad Host: Africa's Biggest Polluter Hosting Cop17 (PERSPECTIVE)

By Glen Ashton

(HN, November 22, 2011) - If we had to choose a country to host the COP17 international climate change negotiations and broker a consensus deal to manage the increasingly urgent matter of human induced climate change, we could not do much worse than choose South Africa.South African fur seals asleep in Cape Town harbour: annual, sanctioned hunts of this endangered species continue. CREDIT: M. Bociurkw

It is not that South Africa won’t be a gracious host. This is a nation renowned for its hospitality and its open, welcoming nature, across all cultures in this multifaceted society.

South Africans are certainly excellent negotiators as well. The country has vast experience reaching negotiated settlements between diametrically opposed sides. This is illustrated both in the recent history of the country as well as in the role it has played in the creation of the African Union and the resolution of numerous conflicts across the continent.

The reason South Africa is an abysmal choice is because of the hypocrisy inherent in having Africa’s biggest and most recalcitrant polluter oversee the world’s most important global climate change negotiations.

The only worse choice to chair COP17 would be the United States. Yet even that is moot. South Africa is so deeply compromised by its requirements to maintain positive perceptions for investment, to appease the Washington consensus and its neo-liberal economic policies, that we cannot realistically hope for this particular tail to wag the dog of international climate change negotiations.

South Africa proclaims its intent to shift to a lower carbon economy yet remains stubbornly committed to development of its coal and other non-renewable energy resources. Its view is so profoundly compromised it perceives natural gas as akin to renewable energy, as outlined in the recently release National Development Plan (NDP). 

If anything, the NDP reveals the absence of a properly considered, integrated energy policy. It emphasises the failures of South Africa’s recent energy white paper, inordinately influenced by major energy consumers and producers. 

South African economic development is founded on the market and corporate friendly lassiez-faire regulation of its emissions and dirty energy. It is responsible for more than 40% of Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions and is the worlds 12th largest emitter, yet only the worlds 25th largest economy. Brazil, with a GDP nearly four times greater than South Africa emits less, as do France, Italy and Indonesia.

South Africa’s emissions are directly linked to its coal addiction. The greatest local emitter is the secretive parastatal electrical utility Eskom, almost entirely reliant on coal.

The second significant emitter is Sasol, South Africa’s massive oil-from-coal industry. Sasol was originally state-owned but was privatised in 1979. Its Secunda plant is the world’s biggest single point source of CO2 emissions. 

The extent to which the South African state, through Eskom, subsidises energy is neatly illustrated in its incestuous relationship with BHP Billiton, the Australian owned transnational. Billiton pays less than it costs Eskom to produce power in an irrational sweetheart deal. 

South Africa committed to a 34% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and a 45% by 2025. CREDIT: M BociurkiwBilliton’s Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique presently pays around 10% domestic consumers are charged in South Africa. Eskom has consistently refused to provide figures for Billiton’s power costs in South Africa. Attempts to gain transparency remain deadlocked in court. Billiton’s role is not insignificant, consuming up to 10% of Eskom’s total capacity. Billiton should be paying for new power plants, not the public.

Eskom has refused to provide any sort of transparent breakdown of costs for its power generation and supply networks in order to enable independent analysis of its operations. This is unacceptable behaviour by a national utility, but Eskom’s corporate arrogance is well established. Further, Eskom has obstinately blocked access to grid infrastructure thus thwarting entry by independent power generators.

South Africa’s failure to adopt renewable energy, despite numerous promises, is just as remarkable. The renewable energy white paper of 2003 committed to 4% of renewable energy (1650MW) by 2013. Not only is this target unattainable, the only installed renewable energy project to date - the Darling wind farm - is tiny (5.2MW), foreign-funded, privately managed and completed despite persistent state indifference.

Eskom’s only planned renewable projects, a 100MW concentrated solar plant and a similar capacity wind farm are only on the cards because their funding of US$240 million was offset against the World Bank’s US$3.4 billion loan granted to build Eskom’s massive coal power station at Medupi. That Eskom’s only renewable projects are the result of World Bank conditionalities demonstrates Eskom’s obstinate reluctance to pursue renewable energy options.

Besides paying lip service to renewables, the SA government committed to a 34% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and a 45% by 2025 during the run-up to the Copenhagen COP15 negotiations. Clearly, considering Eskom’s commissioning of two massive coal power stations, these reduction commitments are now unattainable except through statistical manipulation. 

Eskom’s influence on government policy has undermined any meaningful mitigation of its catastrophic generation policies. Lobbyists from within Eskom and the nuclear industry reactivated the nuclear programme, shelved in 2008 because it was considered unaffordable.

On the other hand the open market has indicated willingness and capacity to immediately install over 11 000 Megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity in the Western Cape Province alone. This has been stymied by government policy decisions to cap wind energy at 4 800 MW. Even this capacity is dependent upon a state-run tender system, with further negative implications.

As if all of these background shenanigans are not enough, the host country’s position as co-ordinator of negotiations is utterly compromised by having both Eskom and Sasol represented on its COP17 negotiation team. The unreality of it all is Kafkaesque. 

The fact that Eskom, Sasol – and consequently the South African government – remain fixated on false solutions like “clean coal technology,” (a contradiction in terms) and “carbon capture and storage,” (another non-starter in terms of practicality and cost) demonstrates the degree to which the host nation’s perspectives are fundamentally compromised.

South Africa cannot, in any way, be taken seriously as an honest broker in the COP17 negotiations. Any failure to broker a fair and binding deal in Durban is symptomatic of the incestuous relationship between Eskom, Sasol and the South African Government, acting in concert as proxies for the polluters of the world.

Ashton is a writer and researcher working in civil society. Some of his work can be viewed at www.ekogaia.org This commentary first appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS)

'We back the people, not dictators' (BLOG/REPORT)

By Teymoor Nabili in the Middle East 

On the day the White House announced yet another blow in its 30-year campaign against Iran, former State Department official and Middle East expert Martin Indyk was in Doha to argue that US policy in the region has undergone something of a transformation.

(On the same day, veteran CBS correspondent Bob Simon was visiting the Al Jazeera newsroom. “I’ve known Martin for 20 years “ he told me, adding with a wry smile “Ask him if he still uses the phrase “peace process.”  I did. He doesn’t.)

Indyk says he plays no real part in policymaking these days, or even advising anyone in the Obama administration, but the thesis he confidently expounded at the Brookings Doha HQ was that the entire calculation of US interests and values has been fundamentally recalibrated as a consequence of the uprisings across the Middle East.

An Obama administration was always likely to step away from President Bush’s focus on democracy promotion to a certain extent, he said, but it was the Arab awakening that really made the difference.

 “It’s very clear the US is on the side of the people now, and not the dictators.”

It was an interesting proposition, and one that was tested by members of the audience.

One mentioned Saudi Arabia. That, it seems, is an exception. The strategic interests are paramount in the case of Saudi, but the US is applying pressure for "values" reform behind the scenes.

What about Bahrain? Well, the problem there was that President Obama was so diverted by the events of Libya that he momentarily took his eye off Bahrain, and so he missed the narrow window of opportunity to make a difference.

And yes, perhaps the response to events in Tunisia was a little behind the curve; but certainly we can expect the new policy to be demonstrated soon with regards to Egypt, and President Obama will surely stand behind the latest uprising against the military coup leaders that are now once again killing people on the streets. America had been naive in thinking the military would be custodians of a transition to real democracy.

And the reason why the Israel/Palestine issue is now off the Obama agenda is because of the polls in Israel.

Bibi eats poll numbers for breakfast, Indyk said, and as soon as he realised that Obama was polling badly in Israel, he knew he could challenge the US president with impunity.

It was all interesting stuff, delivered in the moderate and calming tones of the seasoned diplomat; but I’m not sure the audience went home believing that there has indeed been a fundamental change in the way Washington conducts its relationship with the Middle East.

A short while before his presentation, I sat down with Indyk in the Al Jazeera studio to talk about how this new approach might translate into action now, in Syria, Egypt and Iran.

He told me he thinks military action in Syria is a strong possibility, with Turkey best   placed to intervene. Obama, he says, is in “constant contact” with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and that’s the best way the US can “exercise leadership” over Syria.

As for Iran, well, there’s no doubt in his mind that the IAEA report is a “smoking gun”. Obama’s done what he can, Iran has been utterly intransigent, and it was even Tehran that scuppered the Turkey/Brazil swap deal, not Washington.

Here’s the full thing.

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing

Talking Toilets. Why It Matters to Humanity, and to Business (REPORT)

(PHOTO: Discovery) (HN, 11/19/11) - In 2001, the World Toilet Organization (WTO) declared November 19, World Toilet Day (WTD).  Today it is celebrated in over 19 countries with over 51 events being hosted by various water and sanitation advocates.

This sometimes embarrassing to talk about subject is actually no laughing matter, and in the struggle to discuss it, you will find declarations of “Ode to the Commode”, “Let’s Talk Sh*t”, “Let’s Have a Sanitation Celebration” and “An Ode to a Revolutionary Device” as common references.   

(Jack Sim, Founder World Toilet Organization) Founded by Jack Sim, who created both the WTO and WTD to raise global awareness of the struggle 2.6 billion people on the planet face every day having no access to proper, clean sanitation – WTD is now in its 11^th year of celebration. 

(PHOTO: wecf, WTD, '09)The organizations signature campaign – the "Big Squat" – is the premier global event bringing awareness to this often unmentionable issue.

Indeed, clean sanitation is a luxury in many parts of the world.  Having one in your own home even, is a rarity. With nearly 40 percent of the globe not having adequate or “any” toilet facilities, the human need we all have to excrete often leads to open defecation which can pollute ground water, contaminate agriculture, and spread diseases such as cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A. 

When people defecate in the open, flies feed on the excrement and can carry small amounts away on their bodies and feet; then when they touch food, the germs are passed on, which may later be eaten by another person and the cycle becomes a global problem.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) almost 1.8 million children every year, approximately 5000 every day, die as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation.  Africa’s situation is the most concerning globally where more than 60% of the continents billion people do not have access to a toilet;  and in 2007, Afghanistan was ranked as the worst place in the world by the “State of the World’s Toilets” report—92% of the country’s 26.6 million people lack proper toilet facilities.

Not only does poor sanitation result in health problems and death, it has economic implications for a country.

(PHOTO: Endtheneglect.org)“Improved sanitation increases primary school enrollment, reduces illnesses so children miss fewer school days, increases productivity among adults, provides safety to women, and reduces the pollution of water resources.  The costs of environmental and health degradation due to inadequate water and sanitation services have been estimated at more than 1 percent of GDP in Colombia, 0.6 percent in Tunisia, and 1.4 percent in Bangladesh,”  says the World Bank.

Not to mention, not having clean sanitation places so many people globally in a humiliating and inhumane situation.

So what is being done around the world to make this situation better?  Plenty. And organizations such as

WaterAid.org, UNICEF, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation now see access to clean toilets as a right, and an urgent need which is one of the most important components of sustainable development the world can undertake.

HUMNEWS interviewed philanthropist and supporter of World Toilet Day, John Kluge Jr, to find out more:

Q:        John, people find the idea of `Talking Toilets’ difficult.  Why does it matter?

A lot of jokes come about when you talk about toilets. It is a very difficult subject. And, I don't think we've created the language to talk about it without perhaps there being an ‘ick factor.  But in fact when you talk about toilets the issue amounts to almost 1/3 of the people on the planet today not having access to sanitation services, something many in the world now take for granted.  And, even beyond that is the issue of clean drinking water and most of the cause of dirty water is a lack of sanitation. It’s a clear cycle.

Q.        The issue is certainly a humanitarian one, but in terms of finding reasons to support investment in making clean sanitation a right, globally, why should people care?

The opportunity is enormous. The returns of investment for every $1 dollar spent on building new sanitation facilities and toilets is between $7 and $8 dollars.  If we did provide every person and every community in the world that now needs toilets, in purely financial terms that is a $650 billion dollar return on investment. But of course, on a humanitarian level the impact is even greater because supporting clean sanitation will save lives, improve education, and create great health on the planet. For instance, 1 out of every 3 girls drops out of school now because they don’t have clean toilets as they are maturing at puberty.  And by putting a latrine in children’s schools you can eliminate 97 percent of disease.  This is both a financial opportunity for the public and private community to support and take advantage of - and a human opportunity.

(PHOTO: kencanconnection) Q.        Are the needs in cities the same as say in rural areas?

Most sanitation efforts have centered on the urban poor where a greater population of need exists.  And not only is there a difference between rural and city sanitation, but there is also a difference between community sanitation and personal sanitation.  In many places in the world, communities or villages don’t even have one toilet, let alone one in a house, hut or tent.  

Q:        Who is working on this issue around the world and what needs to be done?

The bulk of the work has been done by both ngos and governments. This is not sustainable because it is generally a one-off micro approach to let’s say one village, or one neighborhood. I believe we need to come up with models that work on a macro level and address the problem entrepreneurially and with innovation.  And, we need as many people as possible to join us in this effort.

In terms of the actual kind or type of toilet needed - there is no one stop solution.  The Gates Foundation made a donation over the summer of $42 million to support toilet advancement which they call one of the single biggest innovations in world development. We can put different latrines in urban or rural communities.  Public facilities in urban communities for example work well, but different needs exist in rural settings. But done poorly or haphazardly without taking into consideration specifics of use, they don't work well.

Q.        What are you doing yourself John to help with this effort?

My company Eirene is dedicated to creating a more peaceful and prosperous world for everyone, and we do that by only supporting issues which can impact a billion people or more. Issues such as Aging, Education and Sanitation are among our top concerns.  To address sanitation, we’ve created a `super toilet fund’ which will build the supply chain, providing a million toilets over the next ten years, directly impacting the health and well-being of 100-150 million people. That's a fraction of a billion, yes. But when you realize that you can then create business opportunities and jobs around waste collection that can be converted into fertilizer, for example, you start to see ideas that can inspire others to find solutions too. And the environmental impact we can have by actually regulating the waste supply chain is enormous.

(PHOTO: Water and Sanitation Programs) Q.        Where in the world are you starting?

Over the next decade, we’re working to implement our programs in Mozambique where we’re starting, and go on to Madagascar, Zambia, Bangladesh and beyond.  In Mozambique for instance only 26% of people have access to good sanitation.  But we know we can’t do this alone and that we need partners. I recently had a conversation with President Clinton about the need to create sustainable supply chains for sanitation and with Patricia Arquette’s organization `Give Love’ operating on sanitation in Haiti.   Ideo.com is one of our collaborators.  It will truly take a village and the possibilities are endless for waste use - micronutrients, farming…we have a lot to do!

Q.        Why devote your life to helping others John?  What can people learn from your own experience?

I worked in foreign policy for several years. It was fulfilling but I saw the real on the ground changes that my entrepreneurial friends were making was more impactful – and I wanted to be just as helpful and, have as much fun as them.  Doing good doesn’t have to be all a downer, you can have fun and make a difference too.  We’ve started working on a game for good for instance.  This is something I’m devoting my life to now, looking down the road 30-40 years to see these issues through.  Big impact is not made in quick fixes; we have to invest long term in the future.

Q.        Thanks so much for joining us John.  How will you be spending World Toilet Day today?

I’ll be helping to spread the word about this critical situation by working to find solutions, and you can find me on Twitter at @klugesan. Join me!

--- John Kluge Jr. is a philanthropist and humanitarian who co-founded Eirene as a high-impact global support and investment firm devoted to solving long term critical world issues affecting more than a billion people.   

The Other Greek Crisis (REPORT)

By Barnaby Phillips in Europe

The most important statistic that came out of Greece this week had nothing to do with the economy.

The EU said that 300 migrants are illegally crossing the border from Turkey every single day.

Frontex, the EU Border Control agency which has monitors on the Greek-Turkish border, said that the total number for the month of October was 9,600, representing "an absolute monthly record".

It describes the situation as "dramatic".

In other words, the Greek economic crisis appears to be having no impact whatsoever on the numbers of people trying to enter the country

Afghans are still the biggest group, but there have been significant increases in the numbers from Pakistan, Algeria and Morocco.

Of course, the vast majority of these people don't want to stay in Greece.

They plan to move on to more prosperous parts of Europe, travelling via Italy or the Balkan countries.

But many migrants discover it is not so easy to do this, or that they end up being repatriated to Greece from other European countries.

Ill-equipped for challenge

Greece is ill-equipped to deal with this challenge.

Even before the economic crisis, successive Greek governments had a lamentable record in treating illegal immigrants humanely and efficiently.

This week, a senior Frontex official told a Greek newspaper that most of the 26 countries that contribute to the force on the Greek-Turkish border are increasingly reluctant to continue, mainly because of Greece's failure to create new reception centres for migrants.

The official described conditions in existing reception centres as "unacceptable".

Migrants are often kept in filthy and crowded facilities. It's shocking that this issue has not been properly addressed over the years.

Greece argues, with some justification, that it is on the geographic frontline of a common European problem, and that wealthier countries have an obligation to help.

Human-trafficking is big business in Turkey, and the government there clearly lacks the will or ability to control it.

Meanwhile in central Athens today there are many thousands of desperate immigrants, struggling to find food and work.

Far-right extremist groups try to exploit the inevitable tensions.

As Greece's economy continues to shrink, this is a dangerous and unpredictable situation.

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing

Nigerian Leads List of Africa's Wealthiest (REPORT)

(HN, November 16, 2011) - A billionaire from oil-rich Nigeria leads the Forbes Magazine 2011 list of wealthiest individuals in Africa.Africa's richest individual, Aliko Dangote. CREDIT: Dangote Group

With a fortune estimated at $10.1 billion, Aliko Dangote made his billions from a stake in the pan-African, publicly-traded company, Dangote Cement. At just 53-years old, he also has interests in flour milling, sugar refining and salt processing. Dangote now accounts for a quarter of the Nigeria Stock Exchange's total market cap. 

Dangote is among 16 billionaires identified by Forbes as Africa's 40 wealthiest individuals. Egypt clocked in with the most billionaires, at seven - and primarily from the Sawiri and Mansour families. None of the 40 wealthiest are female, Forbes said.

Documenting the true extent of wealth on the continent is almost impossible, with many dictators concealing their wealth offshore. In China and Russia, wealthy individuals have been known to threaten journalists who publicly document their wealth.

Even though it is home to Africa's wealthiest man, Nigeria has extreme poverty. These women are at a UNICEF-supported feeding centre in Katsina. Credit: M BociurkiwAccording to Forbes, Dangote's fortune "surged 557% in the past year, making him the world's biggest gainer in percentage terms and Africa's richest individual for the first time."

Dangote's base - Lagos - is set to become the most populous city in Africa, in already the most-populous nation in Africa - but one with extreme poverty, with the poverty rate above 70 percent, according to UN Habitat. According to Forbes, Dangote recently bought himself a $45 million Bombardier aircraft for his birthday.

Number Two on the list of Forbes' most wealthiest Africans is South African diamond magnate Nicky Oppenheimer. With an estimated fortune of $6.5 billion, he recently deepened his pockets by selling the family’s remaining stake in diamond miner DeBeers.

Number Three is Nassef Sawiris, who runs Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's most valuable publicly-traded company, and is said to have a net worth of $4.75-billion.

Forbes acknowledges that much of Africa's private wealth is in the hands of current and former dictators. Among them it identifies two Nigerians: the late Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s former military ruler, who had stashed away at least $3 billion in offshore accounts; and, Nigeria’s former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, worth at least $12 billion.

Indicative of the inequality gap represented by the Forbes Africa list is that only six nations on the continent are represented: South Africa, with 15 wealthiest; Egypt, 9; Nigeria, 8; Morocco, 5; Kenya, 2; and Zimbabwe, 1.

- HUMNEWS staff

Mogadishu: Five Years On (REPORT)

By Nazanine Moshiri in Africa 

There is a reason why Al Jazeera English chose Mogadishu as one of the cities from which to launch its new channel. The conflict in Somalia is one of the longest running in Africa, and one of the most under reported. The Somali people have lived without a central government for 20 years. War and famine have claimed perhaps a million lives.

When my colleague Mohammed Adow reported from the streets of Mogadishu on November 15, 2006, the Islamic Courts Union was in control of the city and much of Southern Somalia. 

At the time, Adow painted this picture in his report:

Before the Islamic Courts took control of Mogadishu, it would be too dangerous to venture out. The chaotic streets were ruled by dangerous militia men. Today one of the world’s most dangerous cities has been tamed.”

Having spoken to vendors in Mogadishu’s Bakara market on November 15, 2011, they agreed.

Yes, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) implemented strict Sharia law. It was against dancing, television and music. That would have scared most moderate Muslims, but Somalis were willing to put up with it because the ICU ended the rule of Somalia’s dreaded warlords, who would kill, torture and rape.

As long as people were not being killed and they had the opportunity to go about their businesses peacefully, most were ready to comply.

Tony Burns, the operations director for SAACID, Somalia’s oldest NGO, reflects: “Under the Islamic Courts Union, Mogadishu was peaceful and secure. There was a sense of law and order.  For the first time in decades the diaspora was returning to Mogadishu.”

Just a few months later, Ethiopia – backed by Washington – invaded. There was concern that Somalia would become a hotbed for extremists around the world. 

It was a self-fulfilling prophesy. The ICU was replaced by al-Shabab, which has become a far greater threat. Its fighters are loyal to al-Qaeda and their battle for control of Somalia has raged on for the last five years, killing tens of thousands of people.

Al-Shabab, once seen as a defender of Somalia against Ethiopian aggression, has lost much of its popularity because of its reluctance to allow aid to reach the victims of the country's famine. In August, it decided to withdraw from Mogadishu, which meant losing its economic and strategic strongholds, like Bakara market and Mogadishu's stadium. 

Al-Shabab is much weaker now, but the atmosphere on the streets of Mogadishu is still one of apprehension.

In Bakara market, no one dared talk to us on camera. One trader selling shoes told me that if he is seen speaking to a foreigner journalist in the morning, by the afternoon al-Shabab would send someone to pick him up and he would be executed.

As a foreign journalist in Mogadishu, you either travel in an African Union armored personnel carrier or with private security – that means on average 10 to 15 armed guys.

The Somali people don’t have that luxury. Every day they face the threat of suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices (IED), grenade attacks and shootings.

Everyone you speak to in Mogadishu will tell you that peace and security are what they want. Only then can they begin to rebuild what was once one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing

Hillary, Stoves Won’t Save the World (PERSPECTIVE)

By Jennifer Lentfer

(HN, Novermber 12, 2011) - "Hillary Clinton unveils initiative on clean cooking stoves," was among last year’s highlights at the Millennium Development Goals Summit. But what has become of The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves a year later? A system of cooking typical in many African villages. Credit: CETRUD

Climate change, deforestation, global health, and women’s empowerment remain extremely important issues to address. And I remain extremely wary of any products manufactured in the developed world that are touted, marketed, or delivered to “make life better” for poor people in the developing world.

I have worked for many years supporting a local, community-based organization operating in Kasese, Uganda, The Center for Environment Technology and Rural Development. They have been helping women build safer and more environmentally sound stoves with locally available materials in the Rwenzori region for years.

In their own words,

“Cooking with three stones has been common in rural areas of Uganda. But in the villages where our programs are located, CETRUD has helped women who cook the meals for their families through the building of appropriate and safer cooking stoves. This saves wood and provides relief to women, and often their small children, who suffer constant smoke inhalation. Cooking stoves improve general health, save time, and reduce the amount of wood used.”

The New Yorker featured the Aprovecho Research Center’s 10^th annual Stove Camp in Oregon, which they described as a “kind of hippie Manhattan Project” of the “small but fanatical world of stovemakers.” Despite recent publicity among policy wonks and donors, several designs for improved cook stoves have been developed and successfully utilized in the developing world using locally available materials such as clay, mud, concrete, sheet metal, or tile. Local efforts also have the flexibility and responsiveness to address environmental conditions and community needs more directly than any global alliance can.

This is why the United States’ $50 million commitment was met by me with a deep sigh, disappointment, and skepticism, Julia Roberts-endorsed or not. Taking exception to newly-hyped technological ideas that will “save the world” can be unpopular. In fact, a fellow international do-gooder once criticized my view as an “a priori xenophobic dismissal of the intentions and products of rich-world technological intelligence.”

Rather, my concerns are based on wanting to ensure that any efforts to improve people’s lives in the developing world are first based on the locally available resources, before creating additional dependency on outside “expertise,” supplies, or technology. My concerns also include wanting to avoid undermining local economies and local organizations, especially if products such as these are delivered through traditional funding mechanisms, with each layer of bureaucracy taking its share.

On this World Pneumonia Day and beyond, Clinton and other thought leaders in the international aid sector need to take a more responsible approach to throwing their support behind “solutions” such as these. The media must also stop portraying foreign assistance as a kind of ever-elusive, arrogant search for a single, magic "silver bullet” to solve poverty. Instead, let us all focus on putting real resources behind local initiatives and means of overcoming obstacles in the developing world.

Despite whatever trend comes next from the policymakers, development experts, and donors, skilled and experienced people working on the ground know that no technological initiative in and of itself can offer the full answer to complex problems in the developing world. As former Clinton crony, Al Gore, reminds us in his movement to stop global warning, “It’s not a silver bullet, it’s silver buckshot."

Lentfer is a blogger at how-matters.org, a blogsite aimed at raising the level of human dignity within development assistance and putting real resources behind local means of overcoming obstacles. Serving with various international organizations over the past decade, she has worked with over 300 grassroots groups in sub-Saharan Africa. This post was based on one that originally appeared at: http://www.how-matters.org/2010/09/21/hillary-stoves-won’t-save-the-world/   

Watch this video on cookstoves by the Global Aliance for Clean Cookstoves:

The Politics of Sex (PERSPECTIVE)

By Jane Duncan

Recent revelations that (South African) Sports Minister Filike Mbalula had sex with a women, Joyce Molamu, while he was separated from his wife, have prompted public debate about how public the private lives of politicians should be. Mbalula has called on young people to be faithful to their partners in the context of the fight against HIV/ Aids.
Black working class women suffered triple oppression by virtue of their race, class and gender. Credit: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS

Media commentators have justified publication of the story on the basis that it was in the public interest to know about his hypocrisy, as it raises questions about his trustworthiness as a politician.

But South African popular opinion seems to be curiously impervious to these concerns. If it was, then Jacob Zuma's presidency would never have been supported, given his own questionable conduct on matters sexual. Clearly, many feel that what politicians do in their private time is their own business, as long as they perform their official duties. 

Some even believe that sex is one of the perks of being in power: as one commentator in a weekly newspaper stated, ‘…all I can say is that ministers eat. They are in a position of power. I’d also eat if I were him.”

Such behaviour and attitudes seem to have become the natural order of things in political life. Yet this natural order does not seem to apply to women; how often are women ministers caught using their positions of power to ‘eat’? Why has it become socially accepted, even expected for men to use power to get sex? And why do women like Molamu play along?

The widespread tolerance of male dishonesty on matters sexual implies a society that lacks moral codes around sex. Unfortunately, the terrain of morality has been occupied by social and religious conservatives, who tend to support gender inequality while despising gays and lesbians. The concept of a revolutionary morality based on care and respect for others - and which found expression in liberation politics - has largely been lost. 

South Africa has emerged from a deeply conservative Christian nationalist society which repressed sexuality. Black working class women suffered triple oppression by virtue of their race, class and gender. 

In the struggle against apartheid, many activists recognised that the problems that women experienced in their personal lives were not individual experiences only, but were as a result of systemic, gendered oppression. In line with the dictum that 'the personal is political', women were not belittled for bringing personal issues into the political arena and men were encouraged to change how they related to women. 

This created a moral climate where women were treated as equals and an expectation of behaviour that recognised their humanity. As a result, activists refused to close their eyes to abusive sexual practices. 

Many organisations and unions also set up childcare facilities and other support networks to ensure women’s participation, at the same time advocating for the socialisation of these activities to remove the burden of unwaged domestic labour on women. 

It seems fair to say that the promise of the struggle to remake gender relations has not been realised. While formal equality for women and the right to sexual orientation have been recognised in the Constitution, and women are now able to access abortion on demand, the sorts of social and cultural changes that many hoped for have not occured. 

As many gender activists feared, there has been a backsliding on gender equality under Jacob Zuma's administration. The global economic crisis, which coincided with Zuma's rise to power, is gendered in its nature and its effects, in that it has widened the gap between men and women. 

The number of economically active women has dropped and many have been forced back into the home, which has made them more vulnerable to gender-based violence. The capitalist system will concede demands for equality, including gender equality, fairly easily during periods of economic growth. But in recessionary periods, regressive ideologies that emphasise inequality, including sexism and homophobia, become more pronounced.

The system actively promotes these ideologies, as they provide ideological justifications for keeping women out of the workforce and confining them to a reproductive role to rear the next generation of labourers. Forms of sexual expression that unsettle these ideologies are demonised as unnatural.

Either through acts of commission or ommission, the Zuma administration has reproduced conservative sexual ideologies so typical of recessionary periods by actively discouraging open discussions of sexuality and allowing the demonisation of alternative sexualities. 

For instance, a recent amendment to the Film and Publications Amendment Bill subjected certain forms of sexual content to pre-publication censorship by the government-controlled Film and Publications Board, ostensibly to protect children. Thankfully, this provision was declared unconstitutional recently.

The growth of these ideologies has had deadly consequences for many women and lesbians, with violence against women and corrective rapes and even murders of lesbians increasing.

While it is difficult to map changes to the social organisation of sex during the crisis, it should be anticipated that transactional sex - where sex is used as a currency - has become more prevalent. This is because women’s economic vulnerability makes it harder for them to maintain control over their own bodies and assert an autonomous sexuality and easier for men to define the terms and conditions in which sex takes place. 

This is not to say that women are incapable of practicing sexual agency, but the balance of power in the bedroom and in society generally still largely favours men. By seducing Mbalula, the Molamu's of the world are not practicing sexual freedom. Rather they are reproducing abusive sexual practices that conflate sex with power: practices that will backfire on the very women who use them in time.

The social conservatism of Jacob Zuma’s administration has made it more difficult for women to challenge gender oppression, leading to the depoliticisation of relationship problems. Women’s demands for cultural change have become muted. 

Under Zuma, heterosexual men largely define the terms and conditions on which sex is practiced, and heterosexuality has become the normal, even desirable, expression of the sexual emotion. To this extent, he has ushered in a new era of heteronormativity. 

Hidebound, ideologically backward mentalities around the role of women in society are not being challenged, which creates a climate where more men, including Zuma's male Ministers, use their positions of power to 'eat', irrespective of the pain and humiliation caused to their partners. 

Taking their cue from the top, even men who consider themselves to be politically progressive find it all too easy to lapse into sexual behaviour where they too 'eat', rather than promoting more just and respectful human relationships. There is simply too little pressure on them to change. 

Why has this backsliding happened? University of the Witwatersrand academic Shireen Hassim has argued that in the transition to democracy, the women’s movement allowed itself to be pulled into focussing on democratising the state, assuming that when more women were represented in official structures, then gender equality would automatically flow from there. 

This approach led to the institutionalisation of the gender movement, and the transformative grassroots organisation of women, using mass mobilisation and confrontation, withered away. 

A further factor in the demobilisation of the grassroots gender movement was that the African National Congress (ANC), including its Women’s League, rejected arguments for an autonomous women’s movement, claiming that the ANC was the only home for progressive gender politics. These shifts led to changes that benefited elite women primarily, with black working class women still remaining the most socially, economically and politically marginalised constituency. 

South Africa lacks a national social movement that generalises women’s individual experiences, challenges gendered abuse of power in the workplace or in the home, and struggles to change the systemic conditions that disadvantage women. Matters that were considered private under apartheid have become private once again. 

A free society encourages sexual relations that are based on free choice, mutual respect and interpersonal responsibility. Clearly, South Africa has some way to travel before it is free.

Professor Duncan is Highway Africa Chair of Media and Information Society, School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. This article first appeared on the website of the South Africa Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS)

Ghana: We Need to Have a Greater Sense of National Pride (PERSPECTIVE)

Last week, HUMNEWS was the first western news agency to break the news of a case in the West Africa nation of Ghana, where a young Ghanaian woman, after being told by a foreign restaurant owner in Accra that she was not welcome to become a club member, turned to Facebook to stir up public opinion. Her efforts quickly led to the restaurant being closed down by the authorities. In the column below, the victim, Elizabeth Okoro, expressed her feelings about the threat such discriminatory acts pose to society.

By Elizabeth Okoro

(HN, November 10, 2011) - Looking at the comments that have been posted in my Facebook Group and also considering my own experience living here, in as much as there seems to be an upsurge in establishments that exclusively target white foreigners, it is also evident that discrimination in Ghana is not only inter racial.

We also have Ghanaians practising a form of reverse racism against their fellow citizens due to a misguided belief that a foreigners' money is more worthy than our own or that anything foreign automatically equates to superiority. 

What a situation when a taxi driver can speed past a waiting Ghanaian by the roadside to the other side of a road where a white tourist waits - or when a server in a restaurant saunters past a table of Ghanaians waiting to be served to a newly arrived group of white business men.

I believe that this is symptomatic of a graver, deep-set psychological barrier that refrains us from attaining the soaring heights that our founder, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, foresaw for us. 

It is something we need to work on as a nation, and in order to achieve this, we need to have a greater sense of national pride and ownership of our country. This will take a revolution of the mind set of the average Ghanaian.Growing expatriate populations in Africa, including at this beach-side club in Bujumbura, could create more tension about different service levels for locals and expats. Credit: HUMNEWS

We need once again to believe in our rich culture, our bountiful resources, our colourful history,our individuality as well as our diversity, our world renowned hospitality and our potential to be an even greater nation than we are now.

Collectively as a nation, we must begin to seek answers of our leaders and to question the status quo.

We also need to stop sitting idly whilst our self-seeking leaders sell off our hard fought inheritance to Oliver Twist-minded foreigners traipsing in with their bottomless bowls. 

We are physically located at the centre of the world and it is my fervent belief that Ghana has the potential to be just that; the centre of all great things. The centre of political transparency, the centre of great education, the centre of excellent health care, the centre of outstanding individual achievements and the centre of technological advancement. 

Once we start treating each other with the respect due, and acknowledging our own worthiness, every other nation and race will have no choice but to follow suit.

The time for making excuses for our lack of development is past, it is now time to take action. We have demonstrated that as long as we speak out together, our voices CANNOT and WILL NOT be drowned out.

We need to use this new found voice to crumble the deep foundations of the establishment who prefer social and economic stagnation in the name of party politics. It is the only way to shape a better Ghana and a better future for us all. 

Okoro, 26, was born and raised in Ghana by a Ghanaian mother and Nigerian father. She studied in England from the age of 16 culminating with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from King's College London. She moved back to Ghana in 2008 and has been living and working there since.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder of BRAC, Bangladeshi humanitarian, wins world’s largest education prize in Qatar

(PHOTO: wikipedia)Keen to promote the cause of education, Qatar stepped in to fill a perceived gap last year when its Qatar Foundation conceived the $500,000 WISE Prize for Education. While the Nobel committee gives out prizes for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, there’s been no major global prize to recognize outstanding service in education – until now. On Tuesday, the Qatari emir awarded the inaugural WISE Prize to Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, who, despite his British knighthood in 2010, remains an under-recognized pioneer in the field of education.

Abed’s organization, BRAC, which I’m privileged to be a part of, has been called the best-kept secret of a development success story. Founded by Abed in 1972, it is now the world’s largest nonprofit by most measurable standards. From its headquarters in Dhaka, BRAC now operates in 10 countries, with a staff of 125,000 reaching 138 million people worldwide – constantly improving and replicating programs that put individual empowerment at the core of antipoverty efforts. For these 40 years of humanitarian work with a social entrepreneurial approach, and specifically for his role in providing affordable education to millions, Abed received the world’s largest education prize at Doha’s World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), which runs this week from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3.

For Abed and BRAC, education is part of a comprehensive antipoverty strategy designed to create ladders of opportunity for the poor. “In these difficult financial times, as more and more people rise up to speak for the ‘99%,’ occupying streets across various cities of the world, the issue of inequity has been thrown into the forefront of world politics,” says Abed. “How do we begin to address this? We start with education – because education is the great equalizer.”

What’s different about the BRAC approach? Praised for its innovation and business-like approach to poverty alleviation, the organization promotes a “low-tech, high-touch” approach to educating the world’s poor. That might sound contrarian in a world enamored of new technology, but it’s effective. The wisest investments are often as simple as renting a schoolhouse instead of building new ones. In the message it delivers this week to over 1,000 thought leaders in the education field, BRAC emphasizes cost-efficiency and scalability – developing solutions that can be replicated several million fold, across multiple countries.

That said, BRAC does partner with private entities in tech ventures to advance its mission and promote connectivity among the poor when it is cost-effective to do, using mobiles phones, smart phones, desktop and laptops. The organization is in partnership talks with Pearson PLC, a leading global media and education company, to assist in Pakistan and elsewhere.

This week’s award signals that philanthropists are increasingly embracing the BRAC approach. His Excellency Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, chairman of the WISE conference, says Abed “recognized that education is a passport to social inclusion and opportunity. He discovered a successful formula, and he adapted and expanded it – first in Bangladesh and then in other countries.”

“As a direct consequence, millions of people around the world lead healthier, happier and more productive lives,” Al-Thani adds. “His vision, resourcefulness and determination are vital ingredients of the innovation process and he stands as an example to all of us who believe that education, more than anything else, determines the destiny of individuals and societies. The jury saw him as an ideal WISE Prize Laureate.”

The jury for the award consisted of five globally recognized leaders in education: James Billington, the U.S. Librarian of Congress; Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University; Fatma Rafiq Zakaria, chair of India’s Maulana Azad Educational Trust; H.E. Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology for South Africa, and Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, the WISE chair.

Already educating millions in Bangladesh – it is, in fact, the largest private educator in the world – BRAC is now in the midst of an international expansion effort that sees it perfecting and scaling up its low-cost education approach with help from private sector partnerships. Aided by a $45 million commitment from The MasterCard Foundation, BRAC is expanding its efforts in Uganda, for instance, aiming to reach over 12 percent of the population by 2016. It is also active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, South Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Haiti.

BRAC’s large-scale solutions aim to create opportunities where few exist for the poorest of the poor. “Innate talent is distributed equally around the world at birth, knowing no bounds of geography or class,” says Susan Davis, president and CEO of BRAC USA, a US nonprofit set up to advance BRAC’s mission. “Opportunity is not. We need to redress that imbalance if this world of 7 billion is to prosper as a whole.”

In addition to traditional learning, BRAC seeks to “educate the whole person” by teaching life skills, which are especially important in conflict and post-conflict environments like Afghanistan and South Sudan. It is embedding social and emotional learning into its curriculum, teaching self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

“BRAC has always been an institution devoted to education at all levels – not just in the classroom,” says Richard A. Cash, an author and expert on global health at Harvard University and one of the founders of BRAC USA. “In fact, in many ways it is what defines the organization. There are training programs for workers at all levels of the organization in Dhaka and the field.”

The Qatari prize is the latest in a string of accolades Abed has received in recent years. In addition to last year’s British knighthood and a Clinton Global Citizen Award in 2007, he has also received the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award, the Gates Award for Global Health, and the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. After 40 years of working quietly to alleviate poverty in all its forms, it is recognition well earned. 

---Scott MacMillan is a writer and is the communications manager at BRAC USA in New York.  

Seoul Salvation (PERSPECTIVE)

By John Feffer

(November 9, 2011) His name was on the lips of everyone I talked with in South Korea last week. As an underdog with little name recognition but a long history of progressive organizing, he came from behind late last month to become the new mayor of Seoul.

Remember his name. Park Won Soon is perhaps the first politician to win with an Occupy Wall Street platform.

A founder of the watchdog organization People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), Park has been a key leader in Korea's vibrant civil society. After a couple decades as a political gadfly, he is now in a seat of considerable power. And people are talking about him not only for the positions he staked out as an independent candidate, which focused on social welfare issues, but for the potential of his victory to transform Korean politics in 2012. The implications for South Korea's relations with the North, with its other neighbors, and with the United States are enormous.

I met Park Won Soon more than a decade ago, when he was just starting to think beyond PSPD. Korean civil society activists are always working, always networking and multitasking, and they sometimes joke that they only take vacations when hospitalized for exhaustion. Park, on the other hand, always struck me as exceptionally serene. The names of the organizations he built after PSPD  — the grant-making Beautiful Foundation and a think tank called the Hope Institute — reflect his optimistic disposition and his desire not just to change Korean politics but to transform Korea's overall sago bangshik, or way of thinking. He also possesses tremendous powers of persuasion. Once he even convinced the top South Korean steel company POSCO to underwrite fellowships for civil society activists to study in the United States. Try to imagine a similar partnership between Chrysler and Moveon.org. 

This former watchdog now runs a city of over 10 million people, larger than Tokyo or Mexico City or any city in the United States. Seoul is responsible foralmost 50 percent of the country's GDP (New York, by comparison, is responsible for about 8 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product, Beijing about 3 percent of China's). So, essentially, Park Won Soon is in charge of a mid-sized country, minus the foreign and military policy. Given Seoul's disproportionate weight, the mayoralty is a political stepping stone, and one of Park's predecessors in the job, Lee Myung-Bak, is now the conservative president of the country.

But Park Won Soon is not a career politician. He is more interested in the delivery of services, particularly to the less advantaged. “We must make sure no one is sleeping cold and hungry under the skies of Seoul,” he told his staff. On his first day in office, Park expanded the free lunch program to all elementary school children, a major commitment to universal entitlements that will ensure support across class lines. His effort to reduce university tuition at the publicly funded University of Seoul is a big thank-you to the huge number of young people that supported his campaign. He has been skeptical about a number of high-profile infrastructure programs in Seoul, preferring to focus on building more public housing. And he has pledged to increase social welfare spending in order to reduce economic inequality.

Rising inequality, which has spurred the growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its spread worldwide, has been a major problem in South Korea. For instance, the country ranks an impressive 15th in the world in the UN's Human Development Index. But if income inequality is factored in, it drops to the 32^nd position, a loss in rank exceeded only by the United States and Colombia. By decrying this inequality and labeling his opponent a member of the 1 percent, Park may be the first politician to rise to power in the Occupy Wall Street era – and he won't be the last.

Park's election has upended political expectations in Korea. As a political outsider, he nevertheless trounced the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) candidate Na Kyung-won. Na had some powerful backers. The most prominent was the GNP's Park Geun-Hye, who is the daughter of former authoritarian leader Park Chung-Hee and a leading contender in the 2012 presidential race. That Na lost, and lost badly, reflects the unpopularity of President Lee Myung-Bak, whoseapproval rating hovers around 32 percent. The most popular podcast in Korea these days is a low-budget affair that features four guys sitting around a table slagging the president.

Next year South Korea will hold parliamentary elections in the spring and then presidential elections in the winter. The opposition Democratic Party smells blood. It has already shifted into high gear in the Korean parliament to defeat the recently signed free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. But Park Won Soon's victory will not translate directly into a victory for the Democratic Party. After all, he initially ran as an independent before agreeing to a unified ticket. Crucial backing came from Ahn Cheol-soo, a maverick academic and software tycoon who has largely avoided political parties. Ahn's endorsement boosted the future mayor's approval rating from 5 percent to nearly 50 percent. Korean voters, like their counterparts all over the world, are rejecting politics as usual and the ritual do-se-doing of parties.

During the election, Park didn't say much about national policy, instead concentrating on municipal matters. But he has expressed concern about the FTA and criticized the current administration’s confrontational approach to North Korea. He has also indicated interest in joining the organization Mayors for Peace. These stands will embolden other politicians to follow suit. And they point to a repudiation of Lee Myung-Bak's foreign policy and a return to the more independent initiatives of previous leaders Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun.

In a country where social hierarchy is deeply entrenched, where the language has multiple levels of address depending on social rank, Park Won Soon's most radical policies may well lie in his hands-on, bottom-up approach. Whenaddressing his management team, he uses the humble form of address and has asked his subordinates not to rise when he walks into the room. And last week, the new mayor showed up at 6 a.m. in a fluorescent green uniform to clean the Seoul streets in the morning trash pick-up. This was no mere photo op. Park is genuinely interested in the perspectives of all the citizens of Seoul.

Park Won Soon is certainly not the first civil society organizer to win political office in Korea. But he may be the first to combine a reformist platform with a commitment to revolution – a revolution in social values.

Speaking of Revolutions

Around the time that residents of Seoul went to the polls to elect Park Won Soon, Tunisians participated in their freest and fairest election in the country's history. The winning party, Ennahda, takes its inspiration from Turkey's Justice and Development Party. But perhaps more important than who won or lost was how the Tunisians played the game.

"In a country of 10.5 million people with 4.4 million registered voters, perhaps as high as 90 percent of those eligible cast their votes, including many from the interior who had not formally registered but who had the right, according to the law, to participate," writes Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) contributor Rob Prince in Tunisia Elections: The Real Thing This Time. "Eighty-one parties fielded candidates, half of whom were women. Over 7,000 accredited election observers, among them 533 foreign observers, monitored the proceedings, which were deemed among the most democratic ever held in the region."

Vietnam, meanwhile, has experienced a revolution of a different sort since it instituted a non-coercive two-child policy in 1988. The average number of children born to a family dropped from six to 2.1, which translates into 18.6 million fewer children. Writes FPIF columnist Walden Bello in Seven Billion…and Rising, the lower birth rate "has meant that Vietnam could devote more resources to upgrading the quality of education, alleviating poverty, and increasing investment. The country registered a growth rate of 7.2 percent per annum in the period from 2000-2010. By 2010, average per capita income in the country had tripled, reflecting economic growth outpacing the population growth rate."

The World Bank, finally, is poised for a revolution…in transparency. In 2000, along with a colleague, World Bank employee David Shaman launched B-SPAN, a web-streaming service to publicize Bank policy dialogues. "The large majority of staff understood the Bank needed to be more open and accountable with its stakeholders to help the institution establish a measure of legitimacy and enable it to mold economic policy in its client countries," he writes. "Over the five years I managed the system, we produced more than 700 unedited webcasts on the entire gamut of the Bank’s operational and research activities. By 2004, B-SPAN was being watched by a quarter-million viewers and attracting almost 2 percent of the Bank’s Internet traffic."

After five years, though, the World Bank let the initiative die. Shaman is back and trying to restart B-SPAN. Read about his efforts in A Pivotal Moment for World Bank Transparency.

Going to War?

Last month, the U.S. government unveiled a bizarre plot that involved an Iranian agent enlisting Mexican narcotraffickers to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington. If relations between Washington and Tehran weren't so dismal, it would be easy to laugh off the allegations. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is taking the plot seriously. With the IAEA now saying that Iran is on the doorstep of the nuclear club and Israel again making noises about a strike on Iran's nuclear program, it's a bad time for Washington to be spinning spy yarns.

The evidence for the plot, as FPIF contributor Richard Javad Heydarian points out, is pretty thin. And it's hard to imagine a motive. "Assassinating a top Saudi official on American soil not only jeopardizes Iran’s national interests, but it also runs counter to Iran’s apparent strategic calculations," he writes in Iran Plot: A Pretext for War. "Facing challenges on both domestic and international fronts, Iran is in no position to provoke Saudi Arabia and the United States. If Iran really wanted to hurt the Kingdom, it could do so through proxies in Middle East. To conduct such an operation on American soil would brazenly provoke a conflict that Iran has tried to avoid for decades." 

The war in Somalia, meanwhile, continues as the Kenyan army advances south on key al-Shabaab strongholds. "Despite the denials, it is clear that the United States and its NATO allies are in cahoots with Kenya in its current adventures in Somalia," writes FPIF contributor Francis Njubi Nesbitt in History Repeats Itself in Somalia Invasion. "They have funded, trained, and supported the Kenyan armed forces for years. They have admitted helping Kenya train and equip ethnic Somali fighters associated with clan-based militias in the lower Juba region that borders Kenya. The United States used drones and helicopter gunships to take out the militants who bombed its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998." 

John Feffer is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Originally published by Institute for Policy Studies licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

No Eid for the Children of Sindh (REPORT)

By Kamal Hyder in Asia 

Photo by Al Jazeera

This year Pakistan was hit by yet another wave of floods and, once again, millions of people in the country's Sindh province saw a deluge the like of which they had not seen in living memory. The rains pounded the rich agricultural districts of the province and exposed the depth of the corruption that plagues this country. Many dubbed it as a man-made disaster rather than a natural one.

Despite the fact that there were ample warnings of an impending disaster, the authorities seemed ill-prepared to cope with the catastrophe. Entire villages were destroyed and people were forced to flee and seek refugee on the embankments of the roads where they used their quilts and cotton sheets to set up shelters.

Three months on, and despite the fact that some people have been rescued from the floods, thousands remain without adequate shelter. And most of the rich farmers have made for the cities to live in their villas.

As I arrived in Mirpur Khas, I saw thousands of women begging for food outside the home of a political leader from the ruling party. He was nowhere to be seen, and after waiting for hours, they went back to their makeshift shelters on small islands surrounded by stagnant water that engulfed graveyards and public parks.

The large mango trees growing by the roadside were already drying up because of the stagnant water and the cotton crop was completely destroyed. The excessive water still inundating the fields made it virtually impossible to plant the wheat, which is the country's staple diet.

When the poor farmers left their villages, they took whatever wheat they had with them. It seems this year there will be acute wheat shortages and that could lead to a famine-like situation in a province ruled by feudal lords. It is not hard to imagine that a famine would also lead to political upheaval and perhaps more crime. 

Everywhere I looked I saw thousands of people still waiting for help. These proud farmers worked on the large land holdings owned by the Vadera, or the feudal landed aristocracy. Now they had no work and were begging for food and clean drinking water.

While the country begged for aid from the outside world, the rich and well-to-do were preparing to celebrate Halloween. Just a few days earlier, my team and I were in Peshawar where we saw a huge billboard inviting people to the Halloween party at a local four-star hotel. If you asked everyone there what Halloween meant, most would not give an answer except to say that the Americans love it.

Society had seen a transformation of sorts, with its rich eager to look horrible and scare as many people as possible on Halloween night. One school boy wanted to be the Pharaoh who fought Moses and another wanted to be a blood sucker with long teeth to revive the spirit of Dracula. 

But for the children of Sindh province living on the roadside camps, there was no such 'luxury'. They were sad that this year they would be deprived of their second Eid. The poor were complaining about the rising prices of bread, but the rich rulers did not mind if they had to pay more for a bottle of Scotch imbibed away from public eyes, inside the confines of the large perimeter walls - guarded by dozens of armed men who are ready to fend off intruders. 

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing