http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/496/66982_logo_tmb.jpgIn October 2010 we will publish the 500th issue of Pambazuka News as we reach our 10th birthday. Over that time, we have built up a database of some 60,000 articles and news items on the website - all available for free. Some 2,500 authors have contributed articles, poems, audiovisual materials and commentary. Pambazuka News has become the oldest and largest (and of course most dynamic) citizen journalism site for social justice in Africa.

The number of readers continues to grow - some 660,000 unique visitors to the site during the last 12 months. Pambazuka News has played a significant role in supporting social movements to get their voices heard, and is widely used in advocacy by a wide range of alliances and networks. Pambazuka News provides a perspective of a proud, active and resonant Africa fighting for progressive social transformation.

We think this is something to celebrate. We'd like you to join us in this celebration. If you'd like to send messages of solidarity, congratulations (or even commiserations!), we'll publish them on this site at the same time that we publish a special anniversary issue of Pambazuka News.

We'd also like you to join us by helping us to reach the 1,000th issue of Pambazuka News - forward to the next 500 issues and our 20th anniversary.

We've given you the first 500 free. But now we want your help. Would you consider donating at least $1 for every issue we publish in the future. Make a monthly donation of $4.00 - or an annual donation of at least $48 - to enable Pambazuka News to continue to support the movement for freedom and justice. You can sign up for a .

We want to raise $300,000 to expand the services provided by Pambazuka News to our readers. Please consider this appeal as a serious one: it is the only way we can make sure that Pambazuka News survives and grows, but above all, remains independent.

Donor support for science and technology (S&T) in Africa has been "disappointing", according to a report from the Commission for Africa published last week (12 September). Some US$3 billion, which the commission had urged donors to spend on building centres of excellence in S&T, has not been spent.

Preparations for an independence referendum for Sudan's oil-rich south are behind schedule, putting the country at risk of renewed civil war, diplomats and activists say. Plans for the January 11 vote, meant to decide the fate of the Southern Sudan, were signed as part of a 2005 peace deal between the government and southern fighters, and any postponement could reignite civil war in Africa's largest country.

As millions of children around the world start school this month, many are discovering something critical is missing. It's not teachers or textbooks - it's toilets. Poor sanitation doesn't just cause high rates of illness and absenteeism, but it also affects a child's intelligence, aid agencies say, with research showing that diarrhoea and worm infestations can lower IQ.

This latest report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the fragile political and economic situation following the devastating war with Ethiopia (1998-2000). Just a decade ago, Eritrea might reasonably have been described as challenged but stable. Today it is under severe stress, if not yet in full-blown crisis. While not likely to undergo dramatic upheaval in the near future, it is weakening steadily. Its economy is in free fall, poverty is rife, and the authoritarian political system is haemorrhaging its legitimacy.

Two Kenyan activists working on the cases of suspects charged with terrorism for the July 11, 2010 Kampala bombings have been illegally detained in Uganda and are at risk of abuse, Human Rights Watch has said. Human rights activist Al-Amin Kimathi of the Kenyan Muslim Human Rights Forum and Kenyan lawyer Mbugua Mureithi were arrested on September 15, 2010, when they arrived at Entebbe airport, and taken to the Ugandan police's Rapid Response Unit headquarters in Kireka, Kampala.

Maps of vegetation biomass carbon density are important for quantifying terrestrial carbon sinks as well as potential emissions to the atmosphere from land-use change. Worldwide, living vegetation stores an enormous 500 billion tones of carbon, more than 60 times annual anthropogenic carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The tropics and sub-tropics combined store 430 billion tones of carbon, while boreal and temperate ecoregions store 34 billion tones and 33 billion tones, respectively.

Gender Links, a dynamic Southern African NGO based in Johannesburg seeks a Marketing and Logistics Officer responsible for marketing Gender Links publications and services, events coordination, travel logistics and basic finance and administration duties. At least five years experience in finance and administration, knowledge of the SADC region and MS Office is required. The contract will be for an initial two year period. A competitive remuneration package will be offered, commensurate with skills and experience. Applications must be submitted by 29 September 2010 to: [email][email protected] or fax: 011-622-4732. Only short listed candidates will be contacted for interviews.

On Sunday 19 September, Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam extremists forcibly looted two independent radio stations, HornAfrik and Global Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), in Mogadishu. The two radio stations are independent and are based in the capital. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has condemned the two attacks by the Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam extremist groups. "This is unacceptable and amounts to the highest degree of media freedom violation," said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ secretary-general.

Panos has produced a briefing document for journalists on economic growth and poverty reduction. It sets out the main issues around the topic and gives tips on reporting it. It aims to help journalists consider issues and debates, and research their own stories.

The spread of digital technologies in the Middle East and Africa has generated the view that 'new media' open up political spaces for dissent, activism and emancipation. Cambridge University's Centre of Governance and Human Rights is convening a conference entitled 'New media, alternative politics' (14-16 October 2010) that will bring together researchers, academics, activists, journalists and policy makers to discuss whether and how new media empower an alternative politics and mobilise political change. For the conference programme and to book online, please see

Equality Now has called on the UN Human Rights Council to create a new mechanism to
assist member states to achieve women’s equality before the law. "The Human Rights Council is responsible within the UN system for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and ending discrimination against women falls squarely within this mandate. One very concrete action that could be taken by the Human Rights Council to promote women’s equality would be creation of a new special mechanism to focus on women’s equality with men before the law," said the organisation in a written statement to the UN last month.

'We want you to bring a strong voice to the women', says President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as she launches Liberia’s first and only radio station for women. Standing in a room full of ministers, officials, journalists and community women, Africa’s first democratically elected female President knows only too well what it’s like being a lone female voice in a male dominated world.

As world leaders prepare for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit on 20 - 22nd September at the United Nations in New York, aid agencies and development organisations have released colossal amounts of research outlining the progress of the MDGs. Amid this information overload, there are missing voices: those of the developing world, whose poverty the MDGs are meant to address.

Speculation on food commodities in global financial markets is pushing up and destablising the price of food. In 2008, high prices caused riots because people were going hungry. Big investment banks are making a killing out of reckless speculation, with disastrous consequences for the lives of poor people around the world. Come and find out how, and what we’re going to do to stop them.

Attempts to measure the tangible and intangible benefits left by the World Cup suggest that while expenditure on infrastructure and stadiums significantly boosted the economy and had some impact on job creation, overall gains were skewed in favour of the economic and political elite. Justin Sylvester and Daniel Harju of the Political Information & Monitoring Service (PIMS) at Idasa also argue that the disproportionate influence exerted by external actors such as FIFA and the international community reflect the ongoing poor levels of accountability and transparency enjoyed by our own citizens.

With an urbanisation rate of 4-5 per cent per annum and a staggering 38 per cent of its population currently living in cities, millions of girls in sub Saharan Africa are likely to be left behind the expanding benefits of urbanisation and technological advancement, a report by international child rights organisation Plan International says.

The discovery of natural resources worldwide ought to be a blessing. This is because when such natural resources are exploited, it is expected to bring in revenue to contribute to the development of local communities. However, in these communities in developing countries, the reverse is usually the case.
No single event illustrates this more than the recent tragic events in Zamfara State. About 335 suspected cases of strange ailments were reported in several hospitals within the locality. It turned out that 163 lives were lost out of which 111 of them were children between the ages of 5 to 10 years.

The September National Imbizo (SNI) is a historic meeting sixteen years after Democracy in South Africa. Ours leaders are fighting amongst themselves whilst the people suffer. We can no longer leave things in the hands of the politicians. It is for this reason that have we called for the SNI which is a gathering of ordinary South Africans who want to see change in the lives of our people.

Investing in clean energy, sustainable transport, forests and environmentally-friendly agriculture is essential, if internationally-agreed goals to reduce poverty are to be achieved. This is among the central conclusions of 'A Brief for Policymakers on the Green Economy and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)', launched as heads of state and ministers met at UN Headquarters to review progress to date - five years before the MDG deadline of 2015.