As evidenced by USAID administrator Rajiv Shah's recent speech to the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), the US and the Green Revolution's 'solutions' for African agriculture remain more of the same, rooted in a corporate-funded, GMO-oriented and market-based system designed entirely in the interests of Western business. While US development aid fasts becomes simply 'an investment subsidised by US taxpayers with high returns for US corporations', African farmers' groups such as COPAGEN, LEISA and PELUM continue to organise in defence of self-determination and genetic biodiversity, writes Richard Jonasse.

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

It is not this drug that is killing me
It’s the syringe of truth and unfortunate coincidence
That most prisons are half-filled with black men
A common phenomenon
We are less than a quarter of the population
So tell me if these are not our homes
For like the ships they hold us in bulk
Keeping us in limbo, for we are truly don’t know

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

Yet this affliction is painless
But it tears me to the bottom of my spirit
Leaves no laceration
Yet I bleed like me spirit is being ripped apart
They will ask for a dying wish
And I will desire to tell the jury what I know now
My generation is thus that is being slain
By the Grim’s scythe of
Crack, smack, the click clack
And the bang bang
The few role models we have
Are half-filled with the common illusion
That we will all end up super stars
So I've got my Glock and smack
What now?

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

For it’s not this poison killing
But the pain within
Who will collect my mother’s tears
In their palms, take them away
And make her smile
Keep faith in Jesus used to say
So I accept Jah with all my being and flesh
Mind and once relentless spirit

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

For I have seen these four walls for too long
With any luck I’ll be going home
A place where I will be at peace
And meditate on this life past gone

The genetically diverse and "exquisitely well adapted" traits of Africa's livestock should be better harnessed to meet the continent's needs. Seventy per cent of Africa's rural poor keep livestock and 200 million people depend on the animals for their livelihoods. African livestock breeds have successfully survived, and adapted to, an extraordinary range of diseases and climate changes. But they are currently being displaced by "exotic" breeds imported from the developed world.

While Rwanda prepares for the upcoming presidential elections to be held in August this year, concerns are mounting regarding the future of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI) as arbitrary arrests of these groups continue to swoop the country. Naome Ruzindana, Director of Horizon Community Association (HOCA) said numerous cases of arrests and abuse of the LGBTI people have gone unnoticed in Rwanda and “this is because there is no documentation of such cases and in some instances we find out at a later stage and then when we try to follow up, the people involved do not want to cooperate and some live in fear of being re-arrested, making it difficult for them to reach out to us.”

Morocco must combat corruption by adopting an overall strategy that includes more than just punitive measures, according to the Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption (ICPC). "Punishment alone is not enough," ICPC chief Abdesselam Aboudrar said Tuesday (July 6th) in Rabat at the presentation of his group's annual report.

Egypt's biggest opposition bloc, the Muslim Brotherhood, has set up a website to help potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei gather support in his campaign for change and political reform. The website, also joined by other opposition groups, has collected almost 3,000 signatures since its launch late on Wednesday, in a sign the banned group is capable of mustering large numbers of supporters for a cause.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has dismissed ongoing public hearings for a new constitution as a mockery to the people of Zimbabwe, because it had “become even clearer that political parties are in charge of the process.” In a statement signed by Secretary General Wellington Chibebe, the union said the process, dogged by chaos, was meant to be a “national affair” but was now being manipulated by the three political parties in the coalition government.

Constitutional outreach teams have now been deployed to every corner of the country, three weeks after the program was launched in Harare. SW Radio Africa is reliably informed that the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) that is leading the reforms has this week received less complaints from its teams conducting public consultative meetings.

The progress made by Guinea-Bissau following last year’s political crisis could be jeopardized unless major reforms in the areas of defence and security are carried out, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report. Recent months have witnessed rising political and security tensions in the country, where a series of political assassinations last year had threatened security and stability but where order was restored with the election of Malam Bacai Sanhá in the June 2009 presidential election.

Anti-corruption watchdogs have shown their teeth, but Egypt's fat cats appear safe from prosecution as long as they stay in favour with the regime. "The state investigates corruption but usually only after officials are out of office, and only with the green light from above," says anti-corruption expert Ahmed Sakr Ashour. "We need (to prosecute) these officials while they are in office and abusing power."

Anger against the push by MPs to increase their pay was on Thursday written on the faces of these Kenyans demonstrating outside Parliament. But inside the Chamber, the people’s representatives were unmoved in their resolve for more pay and refused to adjourn until the extra money was in their pockets. MPs, with the apparent support of the front bench, refused to second an adjournment motion moved by Government joint Chief Whip Jakoyo Midiwo to pave way for the break until August 10.

Although some West African countries have made positive gains in consolidating peace and human rights, such strides are being undercut by the paucity of good governance, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a new report. “The resurgence of coups d’état in West Africa, which I have consistently denounced, and the major role played by the armed forces in these coups, are a reflection of the difficult civil-military relationships in situations of bad governance,” he says.

When African delegates arrived in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, in May for the first review conference of the statue that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), they were aware that some in Africa believe that the court unfairly targets political figures from the continent. Indeed, all five cases currently being handled by the court, which is based in The Hague, involve African leaders. It was therefore notable that delegates from 30 African countries ultimately agreed that the charge of “unfairness” is flawed.

Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said that Zimbabwe won't be able to tap into a US$ 30 billion fund run by the African Development Bank to help member states over the next five years because it must first clear debt arrears to the AfDB, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Zimbabwe owes the AfDB a total of US$ 400 million, the World Bank US$ 1.2 billion and the International Monetary Fund US$ 140 million. Its total foreign debt amounts to some US$ 8 billion.

The former ruling ZANU-PF party of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has accused Western governments of trying to sabotage the country's troubled constitutional revision process. ZANU-PF's governing partner, the Movement for Democratic Change, has accused war veterans and other groups aligned with ZANU-PF of disrupting the ongoing public outreach program or suppressing views other than those they favor.

The latest UNCTAD report on science and technology repeats previous calls for a "green revolution" in African agriculture but contains no mention of the real and present dangers that the international trade and financial framework presents to African farmers. In the report, titled "Enhancing Food Security in Africa Through Science, Technology and Innovation", UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) warns that sub-Saharan Africa is very likely to miss the first millennium development goal (MDG) due to ineffective farming techniques and wasteful post-harvest practices.

USAID administrator Rajiv Shah recently gave a speech to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) in Washington, DC entitled Achieving High Impact Development: A Vision for USAID. Shah's idea of high impact development was a "distinctly American" contribution: the "culture of risk-taking and entrepreneurship." In a speech heavy with platitudes about American diversity, dedication

Pastoralists across East Africa are set to benefit as the region’s national borders are relaxed amid joint efforts to mitigate the risks associated with their migration. "With the coming into effect [on 1 July] of the common market protocol, pastoralists like the Maasai, the Pokot and the Somali who do not believe in borders as they have kin in more than one country will enjoy better freedom of movement across the borders," Augustine Lotodo, a member of parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly said. The protocol allows free movement of people, goods, services and capital across the East African Community’s five members: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

The new international cocoa agreement will provide a positive shake-up in the cocoa market and ensure better prices for stakeholders, including small farmers. It also strengthens the participation of civil society and the private sector in the cocoa industry, according to Guy-Alain Emmanuel Gauze, Côte d’Ivoire’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva and president of the UN cocoa conference.

Egypt's recently concluded Shura Council elections were accompanied by widespread reports of serious electoral breaches by the ruling party. According to analysts and opposition figures, such voting "irregularities" bode poorly for upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.