HUMNEWS: Closing the Geographic Gap™ in Media

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Tuesday

Jun212011

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

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 3:45AM

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.

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Sunday

Jun122011

Opposition Growing to Draconian 'Secrecy Bill' in South Africa (REPORT)

Sunday, June 12, 2011 at 3:17AM

South African President Jacob Zuma has shown little tolerance for media criticism. Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro - famous as 'Zapiro' - was sued last year by Zuma for a 2008 cartoon showing the President preparing to rape Lady Justice. And last Friday, Zapiro did it again - producing a cartoon about the Protection of Information Bill that has Zuma apparently preparing to “rape” a woman labelled “Free Speech”. Photo: The Witness(HN, June 12, 2011) - Opposition to a proposed secrecy bill - also known as the Protection of Information Bill - is presenting the Government in South Africa with one of its biggest-ever challenges.

Observers describe the bill as sweeping in its powers to muzzle civil society, as well as the media; possibly a knee-jerk reaction to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to stinging criticism from the media and civil society - as well as published embarrassing details about the private life of President Jacob Zuma.

Tensions between the Zuma Administration and mainstream media have reached a boiling point. One observer told HUMNEWS Zuma sees the media as essentially an elite, white-dominated entity - hostile to a predominantly black government.

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.

The Bill 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.

The Bill applies to all organs of the state, including national and provincial government departments, independent commissions, municipal and local councils and forums. It empowers the Minister of State Security to “prescribe broad categories and sub-categories” to classify information to prevent it from entering the public sphere. The heads of government departments are further empowered to put in place departmental policies, directives and categories for the purpose of classifying and declassifying information.

Under the Bill, journalists who publish classified information could face draconian punishments ranging up to 25 years in prison for a host of offences, including obtaining, possessing, intercepting and disclosing classified information. A proposed media tribunal would be empowered to punish journalists.

One analyst described the provisions on media as "the most dangerous assault on media freedom since the end of apartheid."

The popular South African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro - also known as Zapiro - said he has produced stinging depictions of Zuma because he feels strongly about the serious threat posed by the bill. “Silencing the media and whistle blowers is terrible. I wanted to communicate the need to fight for freedom of expression and free speech. I’m angry and upset about the bill. The whole of society will be badly affected. It’s appalling and it’s not what our constitution stands for," Shapiro was quoted as saying.

According to Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT), South African journalists and civil society activists are extremely anxious about their ability to pursue their quest for the truth in the future.

Dale McKinley, an independent writer, researcher, lecturer and political activist based in Johannesburg, voiced in a column what many people in South Africa have to say about the Bill.

Wrote McKinley: "It is clear that unless many more speak out now, the ANC will use its parliamentary majority to pass a Bill that will 'normalise' the gagging of the very democracy that so many inside and outside this country struggled and sacrificed to realise...Everyone needs to stand up, speak out and put a stop to what now represents an enforced 'marriage' of elite convenience."

In recent weeks, several civil society organisations, political parties and ordinary people have publicly voiced their opposition to the Bill, effectively forcing the ANC as the key backer to temporarily extend the time frame for the Bill's passage by two more months.

One international petition currently being circulated online says the Bill "could take South Africa back to the dark days of impunity -- allowing government institutions to operate without public scrutiny, and stopping the media from exposing corruption, and abuse of power."

The ANC has been ridiculed for arguing that their Bill is on the same footing as similar legislation in countries such as Zimbabwe.

A little over a month, McKinley says, during a sitting of the parliamentary ad-hoc committee tasked with processing the Secrecy Bill, ANC MP Vytjie Mentor energetically argued that Zimbabwe was a good example of how information could be successfully kept secret and thus was worthy of the committee's closer attention as it fashioned South Africa's own secrecy legislation.

Western diplomats have also voiced concern. Last year US Ambassador Donald Gipps suggested the proposed BIll would be a step backwards after hard-won battles to create a model constitution. He said: "South Africa must not turn away from that history now."

Some segments of the business community are worried that the bill could give state-owned organs, such as South African Airways, a competitive edge if it allows them to suppress information about internal operations.

Last year, the state-owned electricity utility, expressed concern, saying restrictions on sharing commercial information under the Bill could complicate negotiations with foreign investors.

One observer told HUMNEWS that, even if the Bill passes, it could face significant challenges from the country's Constitutional Court.

- By a HUMNEWS correspondent in Johannesburg, with files.

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Thursday

May262011

Food Insecurity: Who Will Save Us, the Smallholder or Large-scale Farmer? (PERSPECTIVE)

Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 5:12AM

A food market in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura, where prices have skyrocketed in recent months. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSBy Saliem Fakir

Land reform in South Africa is back as a lead item on the government’s agenda. It is a tacit admission that the process over the last seventeen years was a failure. The issue must also be seen in the light of growing food insecurity, as food prices seem to only go up rather than down.

South Africa’s land reform policy is not only a way to redress past loss but also an attempt to diversify farming as mainly white farmers dominate farming. However, in opening up the space for new entrants, the policy has inadvertently favoured larger farmers.

This too has not been entirely successful.

For a set of different reasons, the balance between small and large farming is quite important. Something we still have to get right. And, how we deal with it going forward will also determine how we deal with food insecurity.

In the meantime, food insecurity grows the world over, especially in Africa, where agriculture has not quite performed the way it should have despite the huge potential for both rain fed and irrigated farming.

Just as an illustration of the global challenge: about 925 million people are undernourished. Developing countries account for 98% of this number, while a significant number live in sub-Saharan Africa. Feeding an additional 1.4 billion people by 2030 or a global population of 9.1 billion people by 2050 would require food production to increase by 50%.

The race to feed the world adequately is on. The question is, who can best help meet this projected demand: small or large farmers?

In classic supply and demand economics, food inflation tends to improve food production as high prices incentivise more planting. But the beneficiaries tend to be large farmers and commercialised agribusiness because of access to finance, well-established logistics and connections with the market. They tend to respond more quickly to incentives from increased food price shifts.

However, there is considerable scope to look again at the role of smallholders in developing countries, especially Africa, where opportunity is ripe and also given that the success of large-holding ventures have not been as promising as initially thought.

There has also been a traditional bias against smallholding. In South Africa, smallholders have received little policy support, subsidies or preferential funding. The bias continues despite changes to land policy since 1994. Smallholdings are still thought of as being uneconomical and inefficient.

However, a report by Oxfam titled, Who Will Feed the World? The Production Challenge, seeks to dispel some of the myths around family run smallholding and small farming in general. The paper shows that in Vietnam and Thailand, family farming is highly productive and provides sufficient sources of income and food security for large rural populations.

Smallholding income can also be far more productive for rural areas than export orientated or foreign-owned large farms because any income earned, is spent in the rural area. This tends to stimulate other forms of rural economic activity besides simply just holding down the growth of unemployment.

However, the bias in favour of large-scale farming in Africa is being bolstered by a combination of factors acting in concert with each other.

Countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, with significant sovereign funds are taking liberties by purchasing large chunks of land, most of which is in Africa, as they seek to feed their own growing populations and solve their own food insecurity. They tend to favour staple food or even cash crops that are capital intensive and largely labour saving operations.

Currently, Africa registers the lowest level of agricultural productivity in the world and this combined with the lack of infrastructure, large geographic spread and conflict, reinforces policy bias in favour of large-scale farming operations.

Large-farms tend to be associated with more productivity. They get favoured above investment in small-scale farming because foreign investors also inject significant investment in roads, irrigation schemes, power supply and making new market connections.

There is also that dazzle effect as big is seen as beautiful with the usual promise of lots of jobs and cash.

Some African children, like this young girl in Nigeria, consume just one meal-a-day due to high food prices. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSIncreased migration from rural cities to urban areas in the next decade or so is expected to double. The demand for food will grow while the supply of labour in rural areas to plough land and harvest fields is going to diminish.

Proponents for the revival of agriculture in Africa take these as cues for the defence of large-scale farming.

They argue that modern agriculture – in terms of technology, markets and finance – favour larger holdings as they give better economies of scale, they are more productive, efficient and it is the only way to meet growing demand for food quickly.

Opponents argue that this model tends to favour corporate agribusiness. That agriculture becomes too commercialised and less attuned to a pro-poor agenda.

Large-scale farming can also displace smallholdings through consolidation or African governments desperate for foreign investment who will grant concessions that involve the removal of people -- raising questions about land rights and other entitlements that are eroded as a result.

Overseas sovereign funds that own these large tracts of land can also undermine national development objectives. They are not necessarily pro-poor even if they create jobs.

While Brazil has shown that large-farming, that is export orientated (cash crops such as soya), can boost foreign earnings and the country’s reserves. This is not often the case with farms owned by foreign sovereign wealth funds – depending on how governments set capital repatriation terms on earnings – as access to land does not translate into localising benefits in a substantive manner.

Sometimes, developing countries would be better off with a lesser evil. Large retail businesses, like supermarkets, that have strong supply chain ties and favour small holder production can do more for smallholders as they are more likely to create beneficiation than foreign holding of land that is unconditional.

A retail food market that is decidedly pushed in a pro-poor direction can ensure that contract arrangements retain the smallholding character of African agriculture and help diversify crop production from staple to high value crops. They could bring financial stability through long-term contracts.

Sometimes large-scale farming makes sense for crops that have short shelf lives and require good storage and transport infrastructure so they can be dispatched quickly to overseas markets. In areas where a large in-migration of labour is required mechanised large-scale farming is probably better suited because labour intensity is not an option.

In the meantime, about five hundred million smallholders currently support two billion people. They are an important part of the agricultural system. However, most smallholders (close to 60%) either produce sufficiently for themselves or have to still purchase food to meet all their requirements.

The Oxfam paper argues for complementarity, while overwhelmingly suggesting that smallholdings can vastly improve the productivity and value for African rural economies provided the right types of policies and forms of support are put in place. The paper though, intriguingly, says little about co-operatives and nationally owned farms.

A pragmatic approach may be warranted in this debate. It is not, as numerous studies have also shown, an either/or situation. Smallholders can bring far more than just economic activity in rural areas as they also can act as safeguards over social capital. Large-holders whose aim is to see agriculture as an investment opportunity will always see it that way rather than protecting a way of life.

Fakir is an independent writer based in Cape Town. This article first appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS)

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Saliem Fakir,

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Wednesday

May252011

Exploiting the Commons - Time to Change Course (PERSPECTIVE)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 1:08AM

The poor are the most heavily impacted by exploitation of the environment, argues Ashton. CREDIT: HUMNEWSBy Glenn Ashton

The business of exploiting the natural resources of the world for profit continues at an ever-increasing rate. While people are the generally unwitting drivers of exploitation and damage to natural resources, the real driver is laissez faire capitalism, as pursued by the dominant corporate-political nexus.

We all rely on our collective natural resources – water, air, soil, natural diversity – to keep us alive. This is the natural commons of the planet, the common property of all living organisms, which happens to include humans. The commons includes the biosphere, the living aspect of the planet that sustains the web of life upon which we are each individually and collectively dependent.

We each have a collective interest and ownership of the commons. The commons is on loan to present generations from future generations yet to be born. Accordingly we individually and collectively bear responsibility to maintain the natural commons in a condition that is as pristine and unspoiled as possible.

The reality is that large commercial entities rely on exploiting the commons to provide the resources and services from which they profit. In doing so the commons is exploited for private gain. Any and all negative impacts on the commons are externalised. Thus the real long-term cost and impact of exploiting the commons is indirectly borne by every living species that inhabits our biosphere. Degradation of any single aspect of the common space inevitably has knock-on impacts in this interconnected world.

Pollution of the air, water, land or destruction and exploitation of biodiversity are today taken for granted. These collective impacts are now exhibiting such a massive impact on the collective planetary organism, that life as we know it is in distinct danger of unravelling.

James Martin, who predicted the Internet and cell phones in the 1960's, is founder of Oxford University's 21st Century School. He hired the world's top brains to predict future scenarios. Their collective conclusion was that, should we continue as we are there will be a few breeding pairs of humans left at the poles by the end of this century. This may seem extreme to us in our comfortable cocoon, but the everyday reality of extinction faces not only humanity but many other species of life on earth.

Water resources are under extreme pressure in many parts of the developing world. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSCorporations engage with the public through advertising and public relations to sell as much of their product as possible. On the other they insist that they have green credentials. The inherent contradiction of these claims is visible to anyone prepared to look.

Through carefully devised psychology, through which they justify their impacts as essential to our collective well being, industry does its utmost to portray itself to society as benign. This is now commonly termed “greenwashing,” the whitewashing of negative environmental impacts.

In reality, greenwash has become the status quo. Its practitioners realise precisely how they dishonestly portray their destructive practices as “green.” The massive PR industry, involved in both spin and advertising, work only to hoodwink us, the public. And in order to feel okay we want to believe the lies.

In this regard South Africans are essentially more vulnerable than most other nations because of our high levels of inequality and poverty.

The motivation for exploitation of the commons is portrayed as an ongoing attempt to create employment, to provide services for those attempting to escape the poverty trap, to create wealth and prosperity for all. The alternative, we are reminded, is too awful to contemplate.

The reality is somewhat different. The garden path we are being led down is actually creating the circumstances which are truly too awful to contemplate. The commons has been so badly eroded that the well being of future generations has already become irrevocably compromised.

We need to ask whether we are going about things the right way.

We grow our food in ways that waste water, that pollute water and that erode the land. The very practice of intensive, industrial agriculture is ultimately a destructive practice, from the level of soil biodiversity at the bottom, to the impacts on mega-biodiversity above. The external costs and impacts on our collective commons are far higher than the benefit we reap from the crops we harvest.

Our ways of providing energy destroy the very fabric of the land. Mining coal creates acid mine drainage, polluting water sources. The atmosphere is a dumping ground for greenhouse and noxious gases and poisons. We are left with heaps of slag and biologically sterile waste. While the health impacts are borne by all, the poorest are least able to cushion themselves against these impacts on the natural world.

It has become increasingly difficult for the common man to decide just who the good guys are. For instance the very organisation that is tasked with monitoring and managing the impacts of these activities on our collective commons, which maintains the global database of threatened species, a huge organisation known as Conservation International (CI), is funded directly by some of the worlds most pernicious polluters.

ArcelorMittal, BHP Billiton, BP, Cargill, Chevron, Coca-Cola, De Beers, Goldman Sachs, Kraft Foods, MacDonald’s, Monsanto, Newmont Mining, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Rio Tinto, Shell, Walmart and many other major corporations fund CI. The contradictions in accepting funding while promoting conservation were recently pointed out in an excellent article by Chris Lang.

Other reputable conservation organisations like the World Wildlife Fund are funded by a similar list of corporate partners. Coca-Cola, IBM, HP, Toyota, Walmart, IKEA, Cargill, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and many others are directly involved in funding this self-appointed conservation organisation.

This is not to say that organisations like WWF and CI are evil or that their motivation is to undermine our collective commons. The real issue is that these supposed guardians of the global commons, of our collective biosphere, are profoundly compromised through their ties to industry, just as our governments are more responsive to corporate interests than to those of their citizens.

These organisations cannot truly claim to provide actual, meaningful or sustainable solutions to the problems of deforestation, of over fishing, of global warming, or to change the global industrial agricultural paradigm if they are so compromised by their funders. WWF is even involved in a programme called the Roundtable on Sustainable Soy that benefits major agricultural entities like Monsanto and Cargill, while simultaneously destroying our common biodiversity.

Even groups like Greenpeace, portrayed as radical environmental campaigners are compromised by their intrinsic ties to the exploitative economic system. Of course all of these organisations will howl against these allegations but what else are they to do? Yet it is notable that more radical groups like Earth First and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are gaining a broader credence that ties in with the forceful arguments made by thinkers like Derrick Jensen, Joanna Macey and Vandana Shiva.

While the poorest are the most profoundly impacted, those protesting the exploitation are largely relatively wealthy and well educated. This creates a major disconnect about who speaks for who. Do the poor and exploited actually have any voice at all in this debate? The reality is that they are effectively gagged by many of very same organisations that claim to speak for them. Consultation and stakeholder agreements are tools to placate wealthy interests while the “bottom billion” or two remain outside the negotiation tent, as do most other species on earth.

So at the heart of it our existing system is broken. We, together our institutions, are too compromised to truly care for the commons. Changing our system is assumed to be a quixotic quest. Yet there are certainly other, better ways of doing things than continuing down the road we are being led down by governments, dictated to in turn by the lords of corporate and free market ideology.

Many hoped, in a perverse kind of way that the global economic crisis of 2008 would prove so disruptive to the dominant economic model that something new would be able to emerge. That was not to be. However our model of endless growth, founded upon continued externalisation of its environmental impact will certainly founder, probably sooner rather than later. We cannot continue as we are.

So surely we must begin to adapt our systems, now? We must explore ways that are utterly different to our dominant, exploitative economic model. New economics, the zero growth model, green capitalism, triple bottom line accounting and so on are all ideas that have been floated. But are they enough?

These are not questions we have much time to contemplate. They should be placed at the top of our list of priorities. The alternative is simple – the extinction of people, along with the systems that sustained them. Surely examining our rather uncomfortable predicament can no longer be postponed? It can certainly no longer be sidetracked by the oligarchy that controls the corporate-political nexus.

Perhaps a real starting point would be to meaningfully redistribute the ill-gotten gains from the 1% at the top that control nearly half of the worlds wealth and to use this to begin to apply first aid to an ailing world and society? It is not only the poor who are staring down the barrel of desperation but increasingly the exploited middle and emerging middle classes as well.

At its root this discussion is not only about class or structure, it is one that affects us all; together with every living thing that shares our world. It must be prioritised. Our failure to embrace fundamental change condemns our children to a world closer to hell than to heaven.

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

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Thursday

May052011

(REPORT) Brazil's Social Grants System and Its Relevance for South Africa

Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 2:10PM

(Bolsa Familia represented on RT.com) By Saliem Fakir

The social grant is a wager with time. Its aim is to catch the indigent - those who have no chance of ever finding a job - within a social welfare net to soften the blow of poverty.

For others, it’s a respite during hard times. It lifts the spirits of those waiting for their fortunes to change. Well planned and executed social grants should also help break inter-generational cycles of poverty.

The thought that social grants create “dependency” is largely dictated by what happens in an economy.

As the Brazilian example shows, the urge for social upliftment is far greater than the desire to be dependent. However, conditions for entry into the mainstream economy as well as general economic growth are key factors that drive rates of employment both formally and informally.

Social grants have a redistributive role. Their place in a highly unequal society like South Africa cannot be disputed.

South Africa already has a complex web of social grants. The collective presence and weight of which is not easily discernable unless you are close to the budgeting and delivery of these programmes. What we don’t have is a basic income grant, which has long been debated but never concluded. However, the debate on the merits of an unconditional basic income grant should also not be ignored.

The impact of the Brazilian programme offers useful lessons.

(Patrius Anania is the Brazil Minister of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation)

The Brazilian programme, Bolsa Familia, is dubbed the ‘new generation of social programmes’ because of its focus on human development imperatives in return for social assistance. Bolsa Familia is also viewed as a stepping-stone to a Citizens’ Basic Income Grant, which Brazil passed into law in 2005.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former President of Brazil, introduced Bolsa Familia, a conditional cash grant for poor families in 2003. Bolsa Familia involved an integration of a number of social grant programmes that existed before under a newly constituted programme that is driven by a central system.

Bolsa Familia is the largest social grant scheme in the world. The relative cost of the scheme is about 0.4% of the Brazilian GDP. The programme is credited for lifting 20 million people out of poverty in a relatively short period of time, which has caused it to attract worldwide attention.

Bolsa Familia has spread to 16 other Latin American countries. The idea has even touched the ‘free world’. New York City has a similar scheme to deal with urban poverty in some parts of its city districts.

The application of a Brazilian type programme in the US is ironic given that the conception of a minimum income grant was actually pioneered by US economists and initially introduced in a partial manner before conservatives killed it the late 1960s.

Bolsa Familia turns conventional economic theory on its head. It challenges the predisposition that the trickle-down approach is the best mechanism for redistribution of income instead of active state intervention.

Bolsa Familia is a cash grant in exchange for families sending their kids to school and participating in other associated development support measures such as vaccinations, nutritional monitoring, prenatal and post-natal tests.

Bolsa Familia supports close to 12 million households or 50 million people and costs the state about US$4.5 billion per year. The programme targets families with monthly per capita income below US$52.

Preference is given to mothers or pregnant women within a family unit -- about 93% of beneficiaries are females. The family unit as a whole is made accountable for ensuring that the development obligations, which the scheme requires are being met in exchange for the cash transfers.

In 2007, the scheme was partially funded through a financial transfer levy on financial transactions - Brazil’s own “Tobin Tax” - and some support from the World Bank.

However, since the state was reluctant to increase the financial transaction levy, funds had to be sourced from elsewhere. Some funds were also generated through a tax on agriculture.

The distribution of grants is managed by central government and the disbursement mechanism is via the poor gaining access to a bank account (mainly through the state bank), which has also improved access to other financial services. The process for beneficiary eligibility, registration and verification takes place at the municipal level.

In March 2009, an International Labour Organisation study showed that Bolsa Familia had a better impact than other social transfer schemes because of the manner in which it was targeted. The scheme, in addition, avoided increased vulnerability of families to economic shocks by ensuring financial stability.

The income grant, which is supplementary to existing income, has had other benefits. For one, it stimulates local economic activity, especially in a counter-cyclical way, as it supports consumptive driven production as poor people continue to spend on food and other necessities.

However, Bolsa Familia does not work in isolation. The Brazilian government is also working to support labour inclusion programmes by seeking ways to break barriers that prevent poor people from entering the mainstream labour market. Some of the support comes in the form of special vocational training.

Vocational training programmes are mainly in construction and tourism where job growth is most likely to be created rapidly.

For a similar scheme to work in South Africa a number of conditions need to be satisfied.

Firstly, the overall impact and costs of existing social grant schemes need to be assessed both for the fiscus as well as for desired outcomes. Given that our net gini-coefficient has shown little improvement, a lot of questions need to be asked about whether the current social grants system is working or not.

Secondly, a centralised system of transfer will still depend on local level administration for registration and verification of beneficiaries. This assumes an effective local government system.

Question marks will be raised about South Africa’s local authorities and their state of readiness to support such a scheme. The scheme will also have to have an accessible disbursement system. The South African Post Office can serve as a bank for the poor given that the Post Office is also registered to operate as a public bank of late.

Thirdly, one assumption prevails only if the other holds. In this case, the link between cash transfers for development and education. The desired impact will only hold if teaching and educational facilities exist. More importantly, as the Brazilian example shows, school attendance does not assure the receipt of quality education.

Fourthly, the financing of the programme will also depend on competing demands for funds from the fiscus. Brazil’s Bolsa Familia was designed to ensure that the scheme did not crowd out funds for other programmes, but also went a step further by identifying other innovative sources of finance to support the scheme.

Finally, the effectiveness of social grant schemes will also have to be monitored, as the Brazilian programme shows that leakage can occur in cases where grants go to non-eligible beneficiaries. The rate at which this happens can compromise the entire basis of the scheme and exclude the intended target group.

The Brazilian model is flourishing and the model is being adopted widely in Latin America. There are also lots of similarities between South and Brazil. We have a lot to learn from them.

-- Saliem Fakir is an independent writer based in Cape Town. Should you wish to republish any original SACSIS article, please attribute the author and cite The South African Civil Society Information Service (sacsis.org.za) as its source.

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1 Reference |

tagged

Brazil,

social development

Monday

Apr042011

Can Knowledge Arrest Corruption and Poverty in Africa? (Perspective)

Monday, April 4, 2011 at 2:16PM

Can African youth escape the crushing weight of poverty and corruption? CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS- by Pokuaa Busumru-Banson in Johannesburg

(HN, April 4, 2011) - So I sit in my constitutional law class and we are engaged in deep philosophical debates about the importance of constitutional supremacy vs. parliamentary supremacy and democracy.

Further we read about the importance of seperation of power and how "power arrests power." We mull and chew on the importance of voting and majority vs. minority rights. The more I attend this class the more emotion rises up in me about the current state of Africa.

In as much as the effective implementation of democracy rests on the assumption that the majority of the population is educated, I'm realising more and more that knowledge in an African sense is power - but not necessarily one that will eradicate corruption or poverty.

I'm sure if there had to be a competition for the best written constitution, Africa would collect all the prizes. The intellectual quotient of the African is quite high and I'm almost certain that we would find a large number of genius people in our midst (whether the test is also structured in a way that incorporates all cultures is a debate for another day; maybe we should develop our own tests).

Take Zimbabwe. If we were to look at the concept of powers in a mechanical way Zimbabwe definitely has a good system. On paper, there is rule of law, and in theory, one can litigate against the state and win.

So what is the problem? I'm of the view that a different approach to corruption is needed. Zimbabwe had one of the highest literacy rates in Africa and the world. At some stage it was easier to get admission into the Ivy League colleges than institutions of higher learning in Zimbabwe because the standards were so high.

The African education system produced the best professors and doctors. But, sadly, even with all of this, we still find ourselves lagging behind in almost of things - except corruption and poverty.

In Japan and South Korea not even the president is above the law. One can leave a camera on a park bench in Singapore and come back and find it. Yes there is no such thing as a perfect system but what am I trying to get at? Culture.

I can speak for my own country (Ghana) and maybe parts of South Africa because it's what I know. I speak to people who fear undergoing drivers licence tests because they don't have extra money even for a can of coke. It's ridiculous. It's now no longer the amount of money you give but the system is so used to corruption that anything small suffices.

Or on the contrary, in Africa one can no longer give a gift as an act of appreciation for the person's effort (which is African culture to begin with) without it being received as a bribe. The culture needs to be taught at schools from a young age and practiced at grass roots level.

Education can teach us that corruption is wrong but if culture says it's ok then guess what? Corruption it is.

We as Africans should no longer accept the status quo as life, and merely say 'awww well that's life, that's the real world.'

Statistics and norms can be challenged and changed. We just have to be willing to change and fight the system.

HUMNEWS youth contributor, Pokuaa Busumru-Banson, was chosen to speak on a panel by The Elders at the Fortune Summit in Cape Town. A national of Ghana, she is currently studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

HUMNEWS |

tagged

Ghana,

Pokuaa Busumru-Banson,

Tuesday

Mar292011

Gays in Africa: Only Protected on Paper (PERSPECTIVE)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:06AM

Credit: The Red Room.orgBy Richard Pithouse

(HN, March 29, 2011) - It’s now almost three months since David Kato, a former teacher and a leading Ugandan gay rights activist, was beaten to death in Mukono Town in Uganda.

Kato was living in Johannesburg in the salad days of our new democracy and, inspired by the progress made here in recognising the legal right of gay people to an equal humanity, he became a key figure in the Ugandan movement when he returned home in 1998.

Homosexuality was first criminalised in Uganda in the 19th century under the British colonial occupation. That criminalisation of a mode of expressing love and desire that is part of all human communities across space and time was sustained and updated after independence in 1962. As the new century unfolded there were active attempts, often driven by senior politicians and clerics with the support of an increasingly rabid tabloid press, to create a popular moral panic about homosexuality.

Public vilification escalated and there were threats, calls for further state repression, censorship of gay people and organisations and a further tightening of a legal regime already so repressive that it carried a sentence of life imprisonment for certain forms of gay sex.

Of course the vilification of gay people by political elites was not unique to Uganda. In Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe’s public hostility stretched back to 1987 but reached a new level of intensity following his verbal attack on gay people at a book fair in Harare in 1996.

In Namibia Sam Nujoma began a campaign of demonization in 1995, the former Kenyan dictator Daniel arap Moi launched his first major attack in 1999 and here in South Africa Jacob Zuma made extreme homophobic comments on Heritage Day in 2006. In the same year Olusegun Obasanjo introduced a bill that aimed to further criminalise homosexuality in Nigeria.

The sobering reality is that homosexuality is illegal for men in 29 African countries and for women in 20 African countries. But while it is essential to take this reality seriously, it is equally important to put African homophobia in a global context - homosexuality is illegal in 80 countries across the world and in many countries where there is not a repressive legal regime discrimination and harassment remain rife. In 2009 Ian Banyham, a gay man in his 60s, was beaten to death by two young women in Trafalgar Square in central London. In California the right of same sex couples to marry was affirmed in June 2008 and overturned by a right wing campaign five months later.

But we do need to take the active mobilisation of homophobic sentiment by political leaders in our region seriously. The scapegoating of vulnerable minorities is a standard tactic used by political elites to deflect attention away from their own failures and compromises. And the masculinisation of politics that usually accompanies elite driven homophobia can be used to offer ordinary men some power and status amidst the wreckage of societies that offer no real hope for a decent life to most people.

The situation in Uganda is particular serious. In 2002 two women were arrested after the tabloid newspaper Red Pepper reported, hysterically, on their wedding. Their pastor had to flee the country. Four years latter the paper published a list of the names, workplaces and other information on 45 men it claimed where homosexuals. Many of these men were threatened and harassed.

In October 2009 Ugandan MP David Bahati introduced the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill which aimed to extend the criminalization of same-sex relationships and to introduce the death penalty for certain acts, to force Ugandan citizens to report any homosexual activity within 24 hours or face three years in jail, and to authorise the Ugandan state to extradite its citizens having same-sex relationships outside the country.

In October last year the Rolling Stone , a tabloid newspaper, published names, photographs and addresses of 100 people it claimed were gay, including David Kato, along with a call for their execution. Kato and other activists took the newspaper to court and won the case in November. The newspaper was ordered to stop outing people and to pay compensation to the plaintiffs. Two months later Kato was attacked in his home by a man who smashed a hammer into his head twice and left him dead. Former Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo, excommunicated for his principled rejection of homophobia, officiated at a tense political funeral. There is, at the moment, no certainty about who killed Kato and why, but in view of the way in which gay people have been vilified in Uganda, and his courage in opposing this, activists fear the worst and have been calling for a serious and credible investigation.

Here in South Africa our Constitution and our law offer some of the best legal recognition of the equal humanity of gay people and other sexual minorities in the world. We also have a vibrant gay movement and many straight people of real stature, like Desmond Tutu, who take an active and principled position on this issue.

But we have a President who has made his contempt for gay people clear. He did, under some pressure, and without the appearance of much conviction, go through the motion of condemning the arrest of a gay couple in Malawi. But his silence on this issue in the region has more usually been eloquently damning. In the religious sphere he has sought to shift the centre of political gravity from the progressive churches that opposed apartheid to towards the right wing and openly homophobic agenda of Ray McCauly and the National Interfaith Leadership Council. And, incredibly, he dispatched the notoriously and crudely homophobic Jon Qwelane to Uganda as the South African ambassador. And of course Zuma is not the only homophobe amongst our political elite. In March last year the then Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana, stormed out of an art exhibition at Constitutional Hill claiming that photographs of black lesbian couples by Zanele Muholi were “going against nation building.”

Muholi has documented more than 50 cases of violent hates crimes against black lesbians living in townships. Half of these women were raped and some of them killed. In 2006 Zoliswa Nkonyana was stoned to death by a mob of young men in Khayetlisha for being an “out” lesbian. Sizakele Sigasa, a lesbian activist, and her partner Salome Masooa were raped, tortured, and murdered in Meadowlands, Soweto in 2007. In the same year Thokozane Qwabe was found murdered in Ezakheni, Ladysmith and Simangele Nhlapo and her two year old daughter were raped and murdered and sixteen year old Madoe Mafubedu was raped and stabbed to death in Soweto. Eudy Simelane, who played soccer for the national side, was raped and killed in KwaThema, Springs in 2008. It is this reality and not the fact that some women find love and share desire with other women that is perverse.

Muholi’s photographs aim to “create a body of meaning that is welcomed by us as a community of queer black women” and to “ensure that those who come after us have ‘eyes to see’ the beautiful black marks of our existence and resistance.” Her work is entirely within the spirit of the Constitution. Xingwana’s comments were entirely opposed to the letter and spirit of that document which, what ever its limitations, certainly does reflect some of the aspirations to have come out of the best moments of the struggles against apartheid. But as much as it reflects some of those aspirations in principle the reality is that, as Muholi argues, in practice black lesbians are “only protected on paper.”

Legal activism is important and reaching agreements with states on commitments to human rights does sometimes offer a useful yardstick against which to measure the actions of governments and to leverage pressure against them. But the professionalization of activism after apartheid has led too many of us to accept that this should be the horizon of our commitment or that activism should be the preserve of NGO professionals.

To have any hope of meeting the challenges of our times we need an embodied and popular practice of active, direct and practical solidarity premised on an ethic of immediate equality. We also need to develop an emancipatory vision for a society that can offer a dignified life for everyone, and a strategy to make real progress towards that vision. Right now this is not something that we can vote for. It is something that we have to work for and, when necessary, fight for, where we live, work, play and pray.

Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University. This article first appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service - SACSIS

HUMNEWS |

tagged

Uganda,

Monday

Mar212011

UN: Fast pace of African urbanization affecting water supplies and sanitation (REPORT)

Monday, March 21, 2011 at 6:26AM

Rapidly-urbanizing African cities are placing pressure on water supplies. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS(HN, March 21, 2011) - Urban centers in Africa are growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.

Today 40 percent of Africa's one billion people live in urban areas - 60 percent in slums - where water supplies and sanitation are severely inadequate, according to the Rapid Response Assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat.

Africa's urban population without access to safe drinking water jumped from close to 30 million in 1990 to well over 55 million in 2008.

Over the same period, the number of people without reasonable sanitation services doubled to around 175 million says the report launched on World Water Day 2011 - which is tomorrow, March 22.

One of the most urbanized countries in Africa is Gabon, where 85% of the population lives in urban areas. Almost half of Nigeria's 150 million people live in urban areas, and the country is urbanizing at 3.8% annually. Within the next few years, its commerical capital, Lagos, will be Africa's largest cities.

"These are the stark realities and the sobering facts which need to be addressed as nations prepare for the landmark UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The conference, also known as Rio+20, takes a Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication as one of its two major themes.

"There is growing evidence from work on the Green Economy that a different path in terms of water and sanitation can begin to be realized. Indeed, public policies that re-direct over a tenth of a per cent of global GDP per year can assist in not only addressing the sanitation challenge but conserve freshwater by reducing water demand by a fifth over the coming decades compared to projected trends," added Mr Steiner.

Dr. Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, said: "Africa is the fastest urbanizing continent on the planet and the demand for water and sanitation is outstripping supply in cities. As cities expand, we must improve our urban planning and management in order to provide universal access to water and basic services while ensuring our cities become more resilient to the increasing effects of climate change".

The report, which underlines the growing cooperation between UN-HABITAT and UNEP on such issues, provides case studies of cities in several parts of the Continent where high urbanization rates are not matched with adequate water and sanitation infrastructure.

Addis Ababa, for the past 50 years, the capital of Ethiopia and one of the largest cities in Africa, has grown from 100,000 to 3.5 million people and is today facing severe challenges to provide its residents with enough freshwater and sanitation services. According to the report, only five percent of the solid waste collected in Addis Ababa is recycled and the rest is often piled on open ground, banks of streams and near bridges where it is washed into the rivers. Moreover, fears of food poisoning are worsened by the fact the 60 percent of the city's food consumption is supplied by urban farmers who irrigate their crops using wastewater.

Grahamstown in South Africa is another case study highlighted in the report. Located in a dry part of the country with frequent droughts, the city has seen its population more than double from 76,000 in 2004. Inspiring water initiatives, such as the Blue Drop System which is a regulatory tool used by South Africa's Department of Water Affairs to monitor the quality of drinking water, and rainwater harvesting has helped the city to provide adequate water services to its growing population. However, the city predicts future crises as climate change brings more droughts and water shortages.

Nairobi, Kenya's largest city, has seen its population increase from 119,000 in 1948 to 3.1 million today, many in the more than 200 slum settlements spread across the city and have limited access to safe water and sanitation. The largest slum, Kibera, receives about 20,000 m3 of water per day, 40 percent of which is unaccounted for as it is lost through leakage or dilapidated infrastructure. With half of Kenya's population expected to be living in urban settlements by 2015, the country is looking for solutions and in 2002 introduced the Water Act to improve the legislative framework for effective management and control of water resources.

But while there are solutions, much more needs to be done, notes the report, to improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation for urban areas. Moreover, it is essential that the long-term solutions make a connection between urbanization, water and ecosystems and recognize that urban areas in Africa will continue to grow and will the demand for water and sanitation services.

According to the report, solutions and policy interventions should consider some of the following options:

Mainstream the environment into urban water management;
Acknowledge and support the role of the private sector in complementing government and municipal authorities in delivering water and sanitation services especially to the poor urban areas;
Take into account the generally high levels of income poverty in Africa by acknowledging that market-based approaches are not always the best option to supplying water in urban areas in a sustainable way;
Inform residents about how the links between forests, protected areas and water supply;
Demonstrate that it pays to protect watersheds, instead of building expensive water purification systems;
Raise awareness on the impact of poor water quality on health, economy and the environment;
Mainstream the environment into urban water management through approaches such as Payments for Ecosystems Services, Integrated Water Resources Management, and Water Demand Management

HUMNEWS |

1 Reference |

tagged

Ethiopia,

Nairobi,

UNEP,

kenya

Tuesday

Mar082011

International Women's Day: A Modern Heroine From South Africa (PERSPECTIVE)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 3:40PM

By Roxy Marosa

Bron Villet lives in Cape Town, South Africa. A natural anthropologist, where ever she is, whatever she tackles in life, Bron adds a profound sense of integrity and energy - another inspiration for women from the south of the continent.

Bron has an idiosyncratic ability to engage with people across diverse fronts, often in spite of the complexity of a situation.

With a keen instinct for reaping the best in people, Bron has achieved measurable success in her career accomplishments and has impacted people’s lives extensively.

As a practitioner coach, Bron spent time in Pollsmoor prison working with at-risk adolescent males – this humbling experience further served to inspire her to continue with her work to be hands on in making a difference to the future of South Africa.

“From a young girl, my life purpose has always been to make a profound difference to those I connect with in all walks of life” says Bron.

With a background in the corporate, NGO and community sectors, Bron was pivotal in successfully starting up a sports foundation in 2007 with the mission of serving disadvantaged communities in the Western Cape.

The foundation focused on inspiring primary school children to dream about their futures, by setting and achieving goals in spite of the adversities they faced in their young lives, as a result of apartheid and the fractured communities they live in.

The opportunity to design and grow the foundation to reach 25,000 children within 2 years, wholly aligned with Bron’s energy and passion for empowering people to sculpt their own destiny and forge purposeful futures.

During her time spent working in these crime torn, drug infested communities, Bron’s desire to stand as an ambassador for women’s rights in Africa was sharpened. Bron Villet

With a desire to experience and gain understanding of how other cultures live, a journey across northern and southern Africa in 2010, afforded Bron the opportunity to interact with, and observe communities in both rural and urban Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.

"It was fascinating to engage with so many different cultures. Interestingly, some observations were disturbing, but it was these disturbing experiences which served to heighten my sense of purpose in standing as an advocate for women’s rights in Africa, especially considering recent uprisings in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and even more recently, Morocco. It is not uncommon in Africa for women to be subjected to the cruelest forms of violence, sexual abuse and slavery especially during war and cultural uprisings.”

Having just returned from her travels in Africa, Bron is seeking out international platforms to work in African communities with a focus to reach, challenge and inspire women and children.

-- Cape Town-based Roxy Marosa is host of the Roxy Marosa Show and runs several projects assisting people affected by HIV and Aids in South Africa.

HUMNEWS |

tagged

Libya,

Tuesday

Mar082011

International Women's Day: Celebrating A Quiet Heroine From South Africa (PERSPECTIVE)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 2:54PM

By Charlene Houston

Since 1994 the making of history in South Africa has increasingly shifted from the academy into the public domain. Many histories are being produced through biographies and autobiographies. These histories offer an opportunity to find out more about our past and what meaning the past has for our future.

The history of women in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid offers some valuable lessons

There are countless versions of history yet to emerge, each of these revealing different perspectives, questioning our beliefs and building our knowledge. Each adding pieces to the puzzle of who we are - as individuals and as a nation - why we are and where we should or could be going.

The history of women in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid offers some valuable lessons. Even if women were not at the forefront of battles, many wives, mothers, sisters and daughters became solid pillars of support through their quiet and steady support of family members actively involved in ‘the struggle’.

Many women married to banned activists became the heads of their families. Those abroad were at the forefront of forging the exile community wherever they found themselves. Through discussions with Shirley Wessels, I got a perspective of such a woman.

Shirley Wessels is a quiet, unassuming, middle-aged South African woman living in London. She remembers her own experience of exile as she contemplates the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa, her homeland. In the early 1960’s the South African government used a State of Emergency to crack down on political activity among black people. Political organisations were banned, Mandela and others sent to jail and critical voices were stifled. During this time, Shirley and her husband Dennis experienced police harassment. He was imprisoned and put on trial and then banned before they finally fled, seeking refuge in England.

The 1960s was a time of clandestine political activity. Activists were much fewer than in the late 1980s and therefore, more vulnerable. In the late 1950s the “congress movement” was not yet one non-racial body but consisted of various organisations working together. These included the ANC, the Coloured People’s Congress (CPC), the South African Indian Congress, the Transvaal Indian Congress and the Congress of Democrats (for white South Africans), the South African Communist Party and the South African Congress of Trade Unions.

Dennis was a member of the CPC, but the organisation had been banned along with several others and a number of laws were in place to curb activities that could be interpreted as anti-apartheid.

During this period Dennis was arrested and went on trial for working in the interest of a banned organization. Shirley recalls the great support they received from neighbours. Although they feared openly opposing the apartheid government, people wished them well and during Dennis’ trial they received gifts and prayers and even holy water for a court victory.

Dennis was placed under house arrest and Shirley held the family together and also had a job since Dennis could not leave home. Due to Dennis’ banning order, the family was isolated from friends and family. Their political activity was effectively limited since they were now marked.

Since they were unable to remain active in South Africa, the ANC (which had established headquarters in London) summoned them and several other banned activists to exile. Although she too was an activist, Shirley gave up her life in South Africa when she and Dennis decided to make the trip to a foreign country. With the help of other activists, they made secret plans for the trip.

Since Dennis was under house arrest he was not allowed to travel abroad. With the police watching their house all day, they needed to get Dennis out without being apprehended. Shirley explains that Dennis was not allowed out of the Wynberg magisterial district so he had to get permission to go to the dock on the day they left.

In those days travel abroad was by sea and Shirley recalls how terrified she was making her way to the docks with her little ones, hoping that Dennis would not get arrested along the way. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving on the journey without him. After all, that would defeat the purpose completely.

As Shirley and her two small children, aged two and three, made their way to the docks she still didn’t know if her husband would be allowed to accompany them.

She was still waiting when an officer came and took her to customs where the security officers intimidated her with their questioning. It was only as she was leaving the office that they told her that her husband would be accompanying the family. Shirley said she could weep from the relief.

Unknown to the security officers, Shirley was hiding two letters in her underwear, which she had been asked to deliver to two brothers in exile in London – these turned out to be Thabo Mbeki and his brother.

To Shirley, that journey seemed to take forever and she couldn’t wait to feel the relief of going to London, a cosmopolitan city in a country where all people were equal. Shirley and her family had become refugees.

She was very disappointed in London. Although the government provided asylum for those fleeing apartheid rule and imprisonment, Shirley learnt that racism exists everywhere. The isolation that began with the house arrest continued in the new country as they tried to settle in. Shirley recalls trying to find a house for her family in a decent neighbourhood. Whenever the landlords saw her dark-skinned husband they realised it was a black family and would make some excuse to withdraw the house from the market.

Her priority was helping the children to adjust while Dennis was invited to speak regularly, as the solidarity movement in London grew. She recalls how other families in exile supported them and provided much needed emotional support. Shirley speaks warmly of Christmas times with Alex and Blanche la Gum and Reg and Hettie September, who were also from the CPC.

A quiet woman, she surprises with her feisty, activist nature, always wanting to put right a wrong. Her time as an exile is long past, but today, Shirley’s concern for the plight of prisoners and asylum seekers is no surprise. Born out of her and Dennis’ experience of prison and exile, she is constantly drawn to playing a role in these areas, fighting for justice and human rights to prevail, both in England and in South Africa.

Having experienced exile she is very sensitive to the needs of refugees from other countries. She understands that South Africans were able to continue anti-apartheid work abroad because of the help of other nations who gave them refuge.

Since Dennis’ spell in prison she is also very concerned, and actively involved in ensuring human rights for prisoners. She continues to participate in global campaigns for justice and peace.

Today Shirley is involved in monitoring the rights of prisoners and participates in campaigns supporting better conditions for refugees in England.

Shirley is one example of the many women who, because of their unassuming ways, manage to accomplish build and maintain a solid foundation on which others can stand.

On International Women’s Day let us celebrate the quiet strength of women all over the world who regularly commit acts of courage that are usually never acknowledged.

-- Charlene Houston is an activist, storyteller and public history scholar based in Cape Town. This article first appeared on the website of the South Africa Civil Society Information Service - SACSIS

HUMNEWS |

tagged

IWD,

Shirley Wessels,

apartheid

Tuesday

Mar012011

(TRAVEL) - `A Trip to Adjara, Georgia’

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 1:59PM

--- By Craig Fedchock

Some of Georgia’s impressive historical churches. (CREDIT: Craig Fedchock)My work has given me the opportunity to travel to a wide variety of places around the world. I’ve seen giant fruit bats in Australia and the Philippines, the harvest of longan fruit in Vietnam, and citrus in South Africa. While I’ve seen so many things, I nevertheless didn’t know what to expect when I first came to the country of Georgia, nestled as it is along the Black Sea and reaching into the Caucasus Mountains.

While the capital Tbilisi is at least somewhat well-known if for nothing more than being the capital of the country that tried to take on Vladimir Putin’s Russia two years ago, and limited amounts of Georgian wine and food are starting to make their way to our shores, not much else is widely known about the country.

My experience began in the capital, a robust city which is benefitting from investments to its infrastructure from many countries, including most especially the United States. I suspect that most of you reading this piece would be fairly surprised to learn that the main road from the city’s airport into town is named “George W. Bush Avenue,” complete with the former President’s picture. As there are others much more experienced with Tbilisi and its environs, I shall be more than happy to defer to their perspectives and comments about that fine city.

My preference instead is to reflect on the far too short a time I spent in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, which, with its capital Batumi, is seemingly a miniature version of the country as a whole. There are daily flights to and from Tbilisi on the national airline Georgian Airlines, as well as Air Batumi, although their dependability is suspect as one of my colleagues found out to her good fortune to be explained later. There is train service as well to and from the capital, including an overnight train. My suggestion, however, would be to fly to Istanbul on any one of the major airlines and take the non-stop Turkish Airlines directly to Batumi. I myself was fortunate to arrive in traditional Georgian style in a “marshroutka”, sort of a large minivan with just enough shocks to keep you from tumbling like an astronaut in the space shuttle, but not enough to keep you from feeling like you just spent a few hours with one of those old fashioned weight loss machines in which you were strapped with a belt around your waist. The redeeming thing is that despite the best efforts of the somewhat macho Georgian drivers, I managed to arrive at my hotel safe and sound.

The Black Sea coast looking north from the Batumi botanical gardens. (CREDIT: Craig Fedchock)At the moment Batumi is in the midst of an enormous economic expansion. The city, a favorite summer vacation spot during the Soviet times for those coming from Moscow and the other large northern cities, is slowly but surely picking itself back up from the ashes from the former USSR as well as the significant internal strife which took place for some time after the fall of communism. Batumi has even been holding the Black Sea Jazz Festival for the past five years, bringing in some of the world’s best artists on a regular basis. One of the key landmarks in the city is the Sheraton Hotel, which opened only in June of this year. The Sheraton stands above most of the other buildings in the city, almost like the Alexandrian light house after which it claims its design. It will soon have company, however, as Radisson, Kempinski, Hilton and Novotel all are in the process of developing properties which are destined to make the Batumi skyline gain an appearance more akin to that of Miami than a Caucasian Black Sea resort when they are all completed sometime in the next two years.

Just a short walk from the Sheraton, and eventually all of the other hotels mentioned above, stands the “Boulevard”, a lengthy boardwalk the likes of which I have not seen elsewhere. Bordering the Black Sea “beach”, which is really stone rather than sand, the Boulevard stretches for roughly seven kilometers and just like everything else in Batumi, is on the upswing, with plans for expansion, some Batumians say, almost all the way to the Turkish border, about an additional 12 kilometers. The amazing thing about the Boulevard is that while it abounds with restaurants and discos, it does so in such a way that it still maintains a feeling of spaciousness that is not at all common with other boardwalks I’ve had the chance to visit. The Georgians have managed to keep their traditional menus alive in several of these shoreline restaurants, but I also saw a Chinese and even a Dutch (yes, a Dutch!) restaurant bordering the boulevard. While nothing has been written about Georgian cuisine that can even come close to doing it justice, I don’t doubt for a minute that the restaurants featuring other cuisines will produce some good results if for no other reason than Georgians will be doing the cooking!

The Georgian Table. (CREDIT: Craig Fedchock)I will mention that there are some true jewels in the Georgian culinary cupboard. From simple fare like Khachapuri, which is really not much more than bread and cheese, (but oh what bread and what incredible cheese), and the basic “salsa” of Georgia, Tkemali, (made from tart plums, garlic, coriander (or dill) and salt and pepper and which Georgians are happy to put on just about anything), to more exquisite dishes, having a meal anywhere in Georgia is truly special. Georgians will use almost any excuse to feed strangers, and the people living in Batumi are no exception. The hospitality of Georgians is unmatched and simply needs to be experienced. Beyond that however, the use of spices in the Adjara region is a little more creative and the flavors little more complex, and this alone warrants giving the region more attention.

As I mentioned above, the city is truly undergoing a major renovation, and nowhere do the results promise to be more fantastic than in the area known as “Old Batumi.” While there is still more work to be completed (according to one wine shop owner, who just happens to be producing a sherry-like Church Wine” based on a recipe his grandfather developed in 1907, the streets are being rebuilt for the first time since the Tsars were running the place, and the results are already striking.

Nearing completion is Europe Square, surrounded by buildings no more than two stories tall which easily conjure up images in the mind of just about anywhere in the developed countries of Europe (although France comes first to my mind). An additional shopping plaza is under construction in Old Batumi as well, and once complete, Batumi will definitely be in the running for being considered as a true jewel of the Black Sea.

Beyond the city of Batumi, there are a couple of other places which must be mentioned. For a short taxi ride from the Sheraton costing roughly about $3-5, you can visit to Batumi Botanical Gardens. With thousands of species representing almost all the far corners of the earth, you can easily spend a minimum of two hours walking on the well-paved trails without seeing even a third of everything you could possibly see. That the garden also houses Stalin’s one time dacha made it particularly fun for me, having spent several of my formative years studying the Soviet Union. For roughly $3, you can make a day of it here, just make sure you bring along some Georgian wine, bread and any number of the fresh fruits and vegetables which are seemingly ubiquitous on the road side.

A makeshift banquet of honeycomb, pears, and of course, vodka. (CREDIT: Craig Fedchock)The best thing of all for me, however, was the chance I had to visit Georgia’s newest National Park, Mtirala. This came about at the invitation of the Adjara Autonomous Republic’s Minister of Agriculture, Emzar Dzirkvadze, and resulted in a day I will most likely never forget. The Minister exhibited a true love of his region, and respect for the land for which he cares in many ways, not least of which was his willingness to get behind the wheel of the four wheel drive which took us up the winding and unsurfaced road to the mountaintop where the park is located. As I mentioned above, one of my colleagues was able to join the trip because her flight on Air Batumi was delayed until much later in the day. On the way there we stopped by a small stand, artfully constructed with the help of the World Wildlife Fund, for a taste of the honey produced by bees kept by residents living in one of the small villages of indeterminate age (maybe hundreds of years old?) that can be found in one of the truly remotest regions of the country.

While on the road to our visit, the Minister spoke of his plans for the region, all reasonable and deserving to be realized, while pointing out with pride the many things that are represented in Georgian nature. It was obvious in his comments that not only the minister, but his fellow Adjarians are committed to ensuring that whatever happens, the need to maintain the quality of life and produce, with a strong emphasis on organic production, is paramount. That being said, after a fantastic drive which had us driving next to, around or even in a few cases through, spring-fed waterfalls around almost every corner, we arrived at the Visitor Center (again constructed with the aid of the World Wildlife Fund and even equipped with a wheelchair ramp) for the park. While there, we were given a presentation by a park representative in flawless English which included a tour of the guest quarters, four rooms which at 20 Lari (the Lari is currently running about $.50 US) a night, including breakfast, which can only be described as elegantly Spartan, one of the best examples of the finest in ecotourism I have seen.

Georgian Beekeeper in Mtirala Park. (CREDIT: Craig Fedchock)We then visited the beekeepers, who make all of their beekeeping supplies out of local materials, and saw first-hand the love for the land which is in the Adjarian people, not to mention the ever-present Georgian hospitality. Within minutes of the completed presentation on beekeeping, a table magically appeared from out of nowhere under a pear tree and we were treated to the freshest honey and honey comb possible, along with the requisite shot of honey vodka. As we had some lunch waiting for us at the restaurant a short walk from the Visitor Center, we made our goodbyes far too quickly and moved a short bit it down the mountainside for our lunch. That the restaurant is situated next to a spring-fed mountain stream, and the water is absolutely drinkable only made the remainder of our time in the park that much more enjoyable. At the Minister’s suggestion, we gathered up our clay water vessel, walked about two minutes and filled our pitcher with water coming directly out of the mountain side. Everything in our meal, with the exception, once again of the requisite beer and vodka, was locally and organically produced (including some of the best fresh trout which kept getting bigger and bigger the longer we stayed at the table), and had we not needed to catch our flight home, all of us in our party would have had no trouble at all to committing to several additional days in the park.

The Adjara region is one of those places where you can lose yourself for a few days in the forested mountains, and come back to Batumi to enjoy nightlife and cuisine as sophisticated as anywhere. While the renovations are still underway it is not too early to pay a visit; you will leave wanting even more.

--- The author if Craig Fedchock, Director of International Capacity Development for the United States Department of Agriculture; Animal, Plant Health Inspection Service. He recently took this trip to the country of Georgia, and was so moved by the beauty of the culture and the people, he wanted to share the experience with others.

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Monday

Feb142011

“We’re Changing the Order of the Alphabet” (Report)

Monday, February 14, 2011 at 4:58AM

(HN, February 14, 2011, Las Vegas) – This was how Sebastian Kopulande, Chief Executive Officer of the Zambian International Trade and Investment Centre opened the historic first ever Africa-USA Business Executives Conference tonight in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference runs February 14^th-15^th.

For the first time, the city of Las Vegas, has welcomed hundreds of African business executives from countries such as Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia for two days of meetings with their counterparts from the US, for the first-annual Africa - USA Business Executives Convention and Expo.

The conference is designed to explore and create relationships and alliances between business leaders of both continents, allowing them to meet investment partners in a dynamic and vibrant environment of panels and exhibits for the purpose of forming sustainable and capacity-building agribusiness partnerships locally, regionally and internationally.

Why Africa?

“Many global commentators agree that this is the `African Century’. For investors, this means an understanding of the available opportunities as well as offering the chance to develop meaningful relationships among those doing business together,” says Ted Alemayhu, Executive Chairman of the event.

Five areas have been identified as being the most attractive for growth, namely agriculture, banking and finance, energy, telecommunications and aviation, travel and tourism. All will be featured at this year’s meeting.

Realizing the need to go beyond discussing issues, ideas and strategies for increasing livelihoods in Africa, the organizers say they are taking bold steps to not only learn how to “fish for our own food but to create partnerships to sell the fish”.

(Chisokone Market, Kitwe. CREDIT Wikipedia)One of the most prominent delegations at the conference are the Zambians.

Zambia is one of the most highly urbanized countries in sub-Saharan Africa with 44% of the population concentrated in a few urban areas, the largest city being the capital Lusaka with more than 1 million people. Unemployment and underemployment are serious problems, while most rural Zambians are subsistence farmers. Yet, in 2010 The World Bank named Zambia as one of the worlds fastest economically reforming countries.

The Zambian economy has historically been based on the copper mining industry, yet attendees here say they are interested in talking about issues such as solar power, farming (agriculture) and financial services.

Over the past 30 years the infrastructure in Zambia has been crumbling and the government is seeking not only new investment from the likes of Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Societe Generale - who are all here too - but also from the entrepreneurial Diaspora Zambian community here in the US to help make their homeland a star in the African growth landscape.

This element is so important in fact that the central Zambian government has set up a special office as a representative from the President’s office to the Diaspora community, and given the community a full time staff member.

The country has sent 54 people from Zambia to the first of its kind gathering. More than 50 other people who now live in other countries around the world - such as Belgium, the UK and Canada, and the US - have also come to see how they can be a part of `making Z the first letter of the alphabet’ as Angel Mondoloka, Chief Operating Officer of the Zambian International Trade and Investment Centre, says.

(Nkana Copper Mine. CREDIT Wikipedia)“We are lucky that the previous President Levy Mwanawasa began intensive business reforms in our country before his death (in 2008),” said Mondoloka. “This is our future and we are going to make it happen with smart investment, and entrepreneurship”.

The conference is serving as a matchmaker between small and medium sized businesses in Africa, US counterparts, and investment firms. Participants were asked to submit proposals before the convention began so they could be matched with the most appropriate contacts.

Patrick Kolata, who had travelled from Lusaka, wanted to create a solar power business and has been matched with a solar panel manufacturer. He said, “We have had to learn as Africans to be resourceful, now we want to be cutting edge entrepreneurs. Solar power will be a big industry for us in our future.”

He finished by saying, “We’re ready!”

The formal panels and business expo begin later today.

--HUMNEWS staff

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Thursday

Jan132011

World Bank Ups Growth Forecast for Sub-Saharan Africa (Report)

Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 8:58AM

(HN, January 13, 2010) - Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa - the world's poorest region - will expand by as much as 5.3 percent in 2011, up from 1.7 percent in 2009, acccording to the World Bank.Tourism remittances are up in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, boosting economic prospects

"In Sub-Saharan Africa, if you take out South Africa then we are at average growth rates of above 6 percent, similar growth rates as they achieved during the period before the crisis; overall, a very strong growth picture," said Hans Timmer, Director for the Prospects Group at the World Bank.

The latest Bank forecast for economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is an increase from 5.1 percent and is connected to the global economy recovery, and improved outlook for oil producers such as Nigeria and Angola.

The biggest risk to the continent's growth is another slump in the global economy as most African countries have “depleted the fiscal space they had created during the pre-crisis period and have not had time to rebuild it,” the Bank said.

Some countries saw a welcome uptick in tourist arrivals - especially South Africa, thanks to the World Cup. However, Cape Verde, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tanzania also experienced an increase in tourism revenue, the Bank said.

Also positive is that remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, which remained nearly flat during the crisis, registered a modest 1 percent gain in 2010 to reach $21 billion, the Bank says.

Remittance flows are important in supporting household consumption in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries, accounting for up to 25 percent of GDP in Lesotho and about 10 percent in Cape Verde, Senegal and Togo.

There are some dark clouds on the horizon for the region - especially climate change, which weighs heavily on the Bank's agenda for Africa.

Africa is facing an annual loss of 1 to 2 percent annual GDP because of climate variability, the Bank said in its latest Annual Report.

"Global temperature increases are expected to lead to reduced rainfall, water shortages, and compressed growing periods in Western and Southern Africa, and to increased rainfall, heavier flooding, and fiercer and more frequent cyclones in Northeast Africa," said the Bank.

An ongoing drought in Niger, Chad and northern Nigeria is ruining harvests and has forced thousands of families to seek emergency food aid for their severely malnourished children.

A mother holds her child at the Intensive Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre, which treats undernourished children in Niger. CREDIT: UnicefToday, UNICEF announced a new 3-million Euro commitment from the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) for emergency food aid for more than 50,000 children in seven drought-hit states in northern Nigeria. The children's agency has reported a spike in admission of severely malnourished children to therapeutic feeding centres in places like Niger. Soaring food prices are partially to blame.

"When prices of staples soar, the poor bear the brunt. Without global action, people in poor countries will be deprived of adequate and nutritious food, with tragic consequences for individuals and for the future prosperity of their countries." World Bank President Robert Zoellick said recently in an opinion piece.

- HUMNEWS staff, World Bank

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Monday

Jan032011

South Africans Ask: Should Murder Suspect Shrein Dewani Apologize? (Perspective)

Monday, January 3, 2011 at 8:37AM

By Roxy Marosa

(HN, January 3, 2011) One of the pieces I wrote in 2010 was about my tour with friends of one of the first townships in Cape Town - the sprawling and impoverished Langa. I expressed my emotions on a video clip.

It’s a township where a large number of poor black South Africans reside. Although there are a few residents regarded as middle class, the majority of the people are poor and face daily security and health hazards. On the tour, our guide explained that people freely roam around the streets during daylight hours but, as early as 7:30pm, most retreat into their homes - due to the security risks at night.

Their fears are well-grounded: there have been a number of muggings and even murders in Langa. People have reported these to the authorities, and in some cases, the perpetrators were never caught or brought to justice.

Fed-up, the community has taken charge and formed a community policing forum - essentially a group of responsible residents who receive crime reports and take swift action. They also work together to quickly bring the crimes to the attention of law enforcement authorities, who are then forced to act fast on the crimes. When a member of the forum witnesses a crime, they punish the perpetrators immediately, in addition to making a formal police report. This innovative collaboration has seen the crime rate in Langa decline. The members of the forum are known and respected in this township.Langa women returning from church services. CREDIT: Michael Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS

These acts of crime are a clear indication that South Africa is a country still overcoming it’s apartheid history. The highly-publicized November 2010 murder in nearby Guguletu Township of Annie Dewani - allegedly by a hit-man hired by her wealthy British businessman husband Shrien Dewani - reinforced the doubt many people here have in the security of the country and in the government.

It is no secret to South Africans that many people who were previously disadvantaged before apartheid are still mired in grinding poverty. Indicative of this is is the reported $2,200 payment received by the perpetrator and killer of Annie - in what has now become known as the "Honeymoon Murder." Although many people, especially the disadvantaged, want situations to change fast or have their society changed already, it is logical that this will not take place overnight. And the past 16 years have demonstrated change as a process, that it takes time - sometimes a painfully long time.

South Africa’s political future is also capturing worldwide attention. The blood and sweat of many who have contributed to the country’s current prosperity are seeing a growth in tourism fuelled, in part, by the 2010 World Cup.

Although an attractive tourist destination for many, South Africa still attracts ample criticism from others, due to a high murder rate (nationwide an average of 46 murders occurred daily last year, among the world’s highest rates), low level of safety and security and other reasons.

Having said this, the murder of Annie left many South Africans apologetic and doubting their own country. Even many South Africans government officials, fearing a backlash to tourism, offered apologies or felt compelled to explain what happened. As friends reflect on the country’s aftermath of the killing, interesting views were expressed to me, particularly about South African’s lack of confidence in the country. It came to light that these friends had pride over the country’s legal system.

In the end, the murder was solved (the suspect is on $350,000 bail in the UK, facing extradition back to South Africa) with the puzzle put together in a relatively short space of time. My friends acknowledged the soundness of the legal system and saluted it for the action and fast resolution.

All this begs the question: ‘Do South Africans have overall trust in their country?’ Responded to by friends, the answer was a clear ‘NO’. More views about other countries were expressed. ‘If Shrien had taken Annie to what is regarded a dangerous area in America, and she got killed there, Americans would protect their country by saying ‘What were they doing in that area at that time? People should not be hanging around the streets during that time,' " said one friend.

Is this confidence and love for a country or what?

So, knowing that South Africans are still recovering from the apartheid history and that the healing process will take years, should the accused Shrien Dewani apologise to playing on the vulnerability of South Africans?

Cape Town-based Roxy Marosa is host of the Roxy Marosa Show and runs several projects assisting people affected by HIV and Aids in South Africa.

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