Africa blogging roundup 28th July 2008

3Arabawy reports on the trial in Egypt of some of the strikers from the aborted Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning mill strike back in April this year. The strikers are being tried for criminal offences by the Supreme State Security Court, which has been criticised for violating “internationally recognized fair trial norms”.

“In addition to concerns about the trial process itself, lawyers and activists have expressed concern both about the police investigation process and the motives for bringing the charges......In early June Egyptian daily El-Badeel published parts of the public prosecution office’s questioning of a state security officer involved in the case.

Mohamed Fathy Abdel-Rahman told the public prosecution office that he had relied on “80 or 90 sources” to gather evidence against those alleged to have committed crimes on April 6 and 7 in Mahalla.”

The trial of the 49 strikers follows their arrest and the firing of live ammunition into the crowds by the Egyptian police.

Intern Africa comments on the policy of “Outsourcing Delivery” resulting in the evictions and privatisations of housing in Cape Town’s Cape Flats district. Residents marched on the offices the local housing department calling for housing and the scraping of the eviction policies. The demonstration is part of an ongoing struggle of shackdwellers and slum housing residents across South Africa to obtain decent housing and sanitation.

Ghana Web writes an open letter to a pro-government journalist from an anti-government citizen (himself). He raises a number of examples of recent corruption scandals in Ghana such as the “Battle for Ashanti Gold fields” and the Norwegian cement giant, Scancem,

“Yet, today, they have the gall to pile up yet more of the very debt that got our country into such a financial mess in the first place (and was squeezing the very lifeblood out of our country: in the interminable interest payments we used to have to make, in the days before debt-relief).

And as we speak the greedy crooks amongst them are also busy grabbing kickbacks in the process: from their share of the fat fees that their crony-capitalist pals in Ghana's financial services industry, are now generating from all that frenzied overseas capital markets activity, which "smooth" Mr. Kwarteng talks so proudly about. What perfidy!”

Gathara’s World posts a series of excellent cartoons depicting the lowly state of Kenyan politics from corruption, violence, to the hearing of the Waki Commission in which the police deny there were any peaceful demonstrations and claimed they did not use excessive force against the civilian population....

“Testifying before the Waki Commission looking into the post-election violence, Commissioner of Police Brigadier Hussein Ali stated his belief that the police never encountered a single peaceful demonstration, denied that they had effectively banned all political gatherings and accused Kenyans of being interested only in rights and not responsibilities. He said his officers had not used unwarranted or excessive force in putting down the riots and demos except for the single "unfortunate" incident in Kisumu where two protesters were shot in cold blood.”

Dipesh Pabari of Sukuma Kenya interviews conservationist and founder of “Wildlife Direct”, Richard Leakey, on the affect of climate change on East Africa. Leaky believes population growth is the single most crucial factor to be addressed not just in East Africa but worldwide.

“It is only if you bring numbers down that we will be able to find a way for resource utilisation per capita to increase. It is the only way you are going to deal with poverty and unless you deal with poverty, the situation can only spiral downwards. This is a massive problem and the solutions are not simply condoms versus draconian measures such as one child per family. It has to be looked at in different countries in different ways. I think there has to be a commitment everywhere to slow and stop population growth. I do believe that we have been set back a long way by the opposition to family planning that is being shown by some of the religious groups and by some of the more conservative governments such as the current US administration.”

I am sceptical on this and believe that the North – the largest user of the earth’s natural resources – has a responsibility to reassess their usage of the world’s resources more in line with their own population needs which are presently relatively excessive. Putting the blame and making the global south pay for the North’s greed is not the whole answer.

Kenya Environmental and Political News Blog comments on the Kenya’s radioactive waste processing facility at Oloolua. The writers believe the price for Kenya is too high and the facility will compromise safety and bring about severe environmental damage.

“World statistics posted on the internet about nuclear substances are shocking: An example is that less than 8 kilograms of of a substance called plutonium is enough for one Nagasaki-type bomb. The technology applied in producing nuclear energy, particularly the process that turns raw uranium into lowly-enriched uranium, can also be used to produce highly-enriched, weapons-grade uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is responsible for monitoring the world’s nuclear facilities and for preventing weapons proliferation, but their safeguards are said to have serious shortcomings. On April 26, 1986 the number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power plant (in the former U.S.S.R and present-day Ukraine) exploded, causing the worst nuclear accident ever.”

One has to ask what is the back story to this facility being located in Kenya because other than financial gain for the facility there is no reasons for the site to be in Kenya?

Black Looks comments on the failure of Nigeria to take poverty seriously.

“Spending time in Nigeria, I get the feeling that poverty is taken for granted, almost as given. Definitely poverty is not taken seriously by the elite or even the aspiring middle classes and certainly not by any tier of government. I come away disgusted at witnessing the arrogance of the rich in their bullet proof cars and private motor escorts blasting their way through Lagos traffic and literally knocking cars out of the way; at witnessing the clearance of slums and markets along the Ibadan expressway in a “beautification” project - what are they supposed to do and where are they supposed to go? The idea that you can simply bulldoze the poor, take away livelihoods and burn them out of their dwellings is obscene and morally indefensible.”

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org

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