De Waal [www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/4587] reminds us that Idriss Deby "dismantled a model World Bank program for control of Chad’s oil revenue, which had been intended to ensure that the funds were used for development, rather than patronage and arms purchases. He fixed the elections. He stays in power through intrigue, intimidation and cash." This is an important reminder about how corrupt African leaders themselves play a central role in the immiseration and marginalization of their own people.

Rewrite this sentence as a question:

I should kill you.

Next, correct this split infinitive:

To clearly know what’s wrong.

Reverse the pronouns in this sentence:

You’ll forgive me.

The infinitive of Love is:

Love; To Love; Be Loved; Despise?

Note down five synonyms for Neighbour

and five antonyms for Hate.

Select a word from those in brackets

and insert it in this sentence:

I _______ my fellow humans

(Murder; Rape; Displace; Respect.)

Last: if a Person is the key to peace

determine if it’s I or You or S/He

(tick any one, or two, or three.)

*Stephen Derwent Partington, is the Kwani? poetry editor and a member of the Concerned Kenyan Writers Initiative.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Simon Gikandi takes on the role of the intellectual in a time of crisis.

What is the role of the intellectual in times of crisis? Do ideas make any difference in the management of public affairs? Can the imperative to act to change things be reconciled to moral demands?

These are questions that many Kenyans, especially the intellectual and professional classes have been wrestling with in the aftermath of the flawed elections of December 2007 and the wreckage of destruction and death that it has left in its wake.

At the centre of the agonising and hand- wringing that has been evident in the writings of intellectuals responding to the crisis, has been the question of how individuals should respond to a series of events that have broken up families, destroyed old friendships, and turned the very notion of a Kenyan identity into a what Chinua Achebe, writing on Nigeria, once called a convenient fiction.

What now appears to be a moral or ethical gap in the conduct of public affairs in Kenya has tended to be blamed on the political class, its opportunism, and its greed.

What has been missing in this debate, however, is the role of the intellectual class, the one group of people who should have provided us with the theoretical apparatus for managing public affairs without consideration of the demands of power politics and the dangerous cocktail of sectarianism and careerism.

Indeed, since 1982, we Kenyan intellectuals have abrogated our responsibilities as custodians of free thought and willingly supported the antics and policies of the political class.

Now we are in danger of yielding the moral high ground to the most parochial segments of our population. Soon, we will be at the beck and call of the Kenyan equivalent of John Kony or the late Alice Lakwena in northern Uganda.

Intellectuals are not likely to be seen walking across the rural countryside dressed in “tribal” dress, and wielding machetes, but it is a well-known fact that in Kenya some of our best minds have provided the ideas and the idiom that has fuelled communal conflict.

The worst kind of failure has been one of omission: The values we hold and the stories we tell ourselves, has often been distorted by respective governments and their opponents, but intellectuals have not been quick to correct such distortions.

The history books used in Kenyan secondary schools are a glaring example of this failure. They are all written to confirm to a syllabus established by the Ministry of Education and thus, instead of presenting history in a critical version, they rehearse political mythologies in the language of bureaucracy.

The section on political leaders in the New History Syllabus is a glaring example of what happens when the regimen of truth is sacrificed to bureaucratic expediency: it talks about the achievements of Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya, Ronald Ngala, Oginga Odinga, and Daniel arap Moi, without even a hint of their monumental failures, the colossal mistakes that have brought us to the current crisis.

The history books used in our schools do not even pretend to invite critical thinking or to raise basic questions about historical memory, actions, or ideals.

The sections dealing with the structures of government, especially the role of the Electoral Commission of Kenya in governance, are banal recitations of the statutory function of this now disgraced body and others.

And it does not end there: Turning to the subject of “Mau, Mau” is even more troubling. Here, the most contentious event in the modern history of Kenya is represented as a list of causes and results, not conflicts and debates.

Major scholarship has been done on “Mau Mau” in some of the major universities in the world and great advances have been made on the politics of the movement, its causes and its aftermath, but the new history syllabus is not very different from the one in operation 35 years ago when I was a high school student.

Then and now, the education of Kenyan children was organised around a bureaucratic consensus. No wonder many products of our educational system rehearse some of the darkest moments of our cultural history with a bizarre mixture of ignorance and impunity, willing to slaughter their neighbours, friends, and even members of the own family in the name of invented colonial identities.

There is another dimension to the failure of national pedagogy: Why have Kenyan intellectuals failed to rise beyond partisanship to provide the voice of reason when rationality is needed most? I have known some of the intellectuals associated with both the Kibaki and Raila camps since I was an undergraduate at the University of Nairobi in the late 1970s and I worked with many of them in various groups opposed to the last dictatorship.

Yet, the people who should be providing guidance through the crisis, promoting the larger ideals that might still hold the country together, now seem to be functioning as the cold war warriors of the plutocracies.

What happened? It is common knowledge that after the 1982 coup attempt, the Moi government embarked on a systematic destruction of the university as an autonomous unit of knowledge production.

The campaign against the university took two forms: First, there was the imprisonment and forced exile of intellectuals and the wilful emaciation of institutions of higher education which, deprived of essential material resources and overwhelmed with unreasonable demands for admission, were reduced into skeletons of their former selves.

Second, the professorial class was incorporated into the State apparatus. Shuffled between the university and the bureaucracy, professors and lecturers could no longer claim to be custodians of free thinking; instead, they had become workers in the service of power. here were several consequences of the destruction of the university as an autonomous body.

One was the emergence of the Non Governmental Organisation as an alternative sphere of knowledge production. Unable to get jobs or sustain research projects at the university, intellectuals turned to non-governmental organisations, most of them funded by foreign interests.

It is here that some modicum of research was conducted in such areas as the rule of law, democracy, and gender equality. NGOs were crucial in creating a space in which issues that were not part of the state’s agenda for the university could be explored, but NGO knowledge could not provide a real alternative to the university as an autonomous space for disinterested thought.

It is not my intention here to malign NGOs, which I consider crucial in civic education, poverty eradication, and the general business of ensuring good governance, but NGOs are dependent on the interests of their foreign donors who decide research priorities within the larger project of “development.”

Much more seriously, NGO knowledge could not be pure knowledge because it was premised on utilitarian ends and its success was judged on its ability to influence policy. NGO knowledge could not be a substitute for the university as a conduit of pure knowledge.

A final consequence of the destruction of the local university was the expatriation of Kenyan knowledge. Kenyan intellectuals, working in all fields of human knowledge, hold prestigious positions in some of the leading universities in the world. Many of them produce important knowledge on Kenyan issues.

But in relation to the Kenyan polity, this is extroverted knowledge, produced within the confines and privileged spaces of foreign universities, and tied to the institutional needs and desires of foreign audiences and interests.

Research on Africa outside Africa carries the burden of its own alienation in relation to the place that is supposed to be its object of study.

* Prof Gikandi teaches at Princeton University. This article first appeared in the Business Daily Africa.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Alejandro Bendaña argues that for every dollar of aid given to developing countries, ten dollars is lost as capital flight. He uses Venezuela to speak to this imbalance and offer an alternative.

If the goal is development—best defined as the sovereign democratic social transformation--then we must not speak of making the present “aid” modalities more effective, but of substituting present day aid and the system in which it unfolds. One begins by questioning the very nature of the larger international financial architecture, what it stands for, and who benefits primarily from it. “Development aid” as practiced by the North is part of a system that generates deepening inequality and dependence across and within countries. In this context, it is question of making aid less not more effective, of ending aid altogether, because on the whole it does more harm that good.

Think Outflows not Inflows. South to North. For every dollar of aid that goes into developing countries, ten dollars comes out as capital flight. Yet this is an issue which regularly gets sidelined in discussions on development. It is much more important to focus on how to stop the 9 going out than to keep the 1 coming in. It has been estimated that developing countries lose more than $500 billion every year in illegal outflows which are not reported to the authorities and on which no tax gets paid. In Latin America amounts extracted over the past 30 years may have reached some 950 billion dollars, according to figures provided by James Petras.

No amount of aid, foreign direct investment or even remittances is going to change the structural equation over the long run. If one is to speak of new inflows then we should conceive in the form of the payment of the real historical debt owed by the North to the South—not “aid” or charity or private philanthropy but reparations, restitutions, compensations, payment of the ecological debt to the people and environments of the South. There is a need to escape from a discourse and vision tightly linked to the preserverence of contemporary power structures, including the one upheld and practiced by governmental “aid” agencies. Of course there is a need for developing countries to retain much more of their own domestic resources, but we must also recognize that it is not simply a question of the often inexistent will of domestic financial elites but of internationally generated impediments that are upheld by so called free trade agreements, investment protection regimes, IMF conditionalities and the like that demand ever greater liberalization of the flow to capital and goods. Aid and loans are minuscule compared to the profits made at our expense through unfair trade, exploitation of our labor, appropriation of our resources, interests on loans, domination of our markets, privileges and incentives granted to multinational corporations. Add to that the cost of reparations and restitution.

How do you build an Alternative National and International Justice and Development Order?

First you must conceive it. If you believe there can be no alternative then there will be no alternative. This is difficult because it entails a paradigm shift.

Second reconceptualize and change the role of the market. Markets must take their subordinated space in the organization of a political economy. Markets and big capital cannot dictate engagement. Markets have to be embedded in society and therefore in relations of solidarity, not competition. A political approach to economics. As the President of the Constituent Assembly of Ecuador, Alberto Acosta stated Queremos un país en donde funcionen los mercados, entendidos como espacios de construcción social organizada en función de las necesidades del ser humano de hoy y de mañana. Queremos desbloquear el falso dilema entre mercado y Estado. No queremos un mercado descarnado que genera procesos de acumulación de riqueza en pocas manos, pero tampoco queremos un Estado ineficiente, que otorga prebendas y que transfiere recursos de todos y todas a los grupos de poder,
You must be clear about your indicators. If there is no improvement in the life conditions and dignity of people 50 miles outside Maputo, Managua or Manila, then it is no alternative. We can already report that thousands are benefitting from the new Venezuelan-led development support schemes outside of Managua in the form of clinics and eye operations.

That the alternative is constructed in changes, by the interplay of idea and politics. Ideas challenge the dominate paradigm and introduce the alternative but the goal is for the alternative paradigm to become hegemonic.

A New Dawn for the Americas.

The combination of ideas and political shifts is being witnessed today in Venezuelan led international collaboration scheme known as ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas).

In 2004, the government of Venezuela took a political decision to use its massive oil reserves and earnings to assist other countries in the world with the clearly stated objective lessen their dependence on the dominant trading and financial international order. According to statistics from Chavez opposition sources who feel that he is giving away national wealth, 18 cooperation agreements signed by Venezuela last year alone total some 4.747 billion chiefly oil and refineries, but also infrastructure, health, agriculture, housing, debt cancellation, aluminum plants, and others. And it is mostly Latin America, but also Iran, the UK, China and even Burkina Fasso[i].

ALBA’s premise is that a new form of regional integration and indeed greater political unity is necessary for independent development to take place. It was born as an alternative to the USG’s Free Trade Agreement of the America—integration to reinforce sovereignty and just social relations, as opposed to liberalization and denationalization. Venezuela and Cuba signed the first series of bilateral agreements and in 2007 Nicaragua and Bolivia joined ALBA. “A new political and strategic project for a new world” said Chavez comprising cooperation in the fields of health, industry, food production and energy security, with more of a social criteria and than a mercantile one. Its founding charter calls for the establishment of Council of Ministers but also a Council of Social Movements to help inform decision-making.

In early 2008, the ALBA heads of State, now including the small island state of Dominica, announced the creation of the ALBA Bank with a capital of 1 billion dollars. Its stated aim was to boost industrial and agricultural production among its members, support social projects as well as multilateral cooperation agreements among its members, particularly in the energy field. The objective was to tackle natural counter the negative effects that neoliberal globalization, including finance and trade, was having on its members. It constitutes yet another piece in the construction of an alternative international economic order but unlike its predecessor, the Bank of the South composed by South American nations, the ALBA Bank is less influenced the by the interests of conservative Brazilian megacapitalists who play wield strong influence in the Bank of the South. One must however await the publishing of the constituent documents and the actual project financing procedures before rendering a final verdict.

Of greater importance to the Caribbean and Central American nations was the formation of Petrocaribe in 2007. 14 countries, chiefly of the Caribbean, along with Nicaragua and Honduras, have joined the scheme whereby Venezuela, through its oil company PDVSA, agrees to guarantee 100% of member country energy requirements, principally oil and derivatives, at market prices (Venezuela as a member of OPEC cannot do otherwise), with 40 to 50% payable within 90 days (terms vary slightly in the different bilateral accords) and the remainder at an average of 25 years with 2% interest and 2 to 3 years grace. Proceeds of the later, presumably accumulated by the respective state energy companies or a designated governmental agency, are to form part of a development fund for social and infrastructure spending. As in the case of the ALBA Bank, procedures are being worked out in practice by way of bilateral negotiations.

What are some of the Concerns around ALBA?

Obviously given the sheer novelty of ALBA, its Bank and Petrocaribe, along with the dozens of bilateral cooperation in various fields, including the cultural, makes it difficult to comprehensively asses the process underway. Nonetheless, as with the Bank of the South, Latin America’s social movements and regional networks are monitoring closely, and some concerns can, should and have been expressed but within a framework of general support for the initiative and its anti-imperialist dynamic. These concerns revolve around:

A predilection for Megaprojects, particularly the construction of refineries, pipe lines and transport infrastructure that are of concern to environmental groupings Insufficient attention to the need to contest the dominant oil-centered energy, possibly perpetuating dependence and consumption of oil
The fact that it PDVSA is the Venezuelan counterpart and apparently in charge of the key facets of the cooperation including financial and technical oversight
The difficulty encountered by civil society organizations in obtaining information about the specific bilateral agreements with corresponding transparency concerns

The stated decision of at least one government (Nicaragua) to privatize the cooperation handling it as a private commercial debt and therefore not subject to legislative budget scrutiny and reporting, prompting suspicions of partisan use of the funds escaping accountability

A lack of appreciation for the autonomy and working dynamics of movements and their regional networks who, as a matter of principle, reject the notion of being “convened” by any government or of allowing the governments to select which movements should form part of the Council
The absence of credibility of the Ortega government in Nicaragua which continues to pursue neoliberal and confessional policies and is opposed by the Nicaraguan and Latin American social movements, particularly its women’s contingents

What does this all mean in terms of the 2008 Aid Effectiveness Debate (Accra Conference) sponsored by OECD and the UN’s Financing for Development (Doha)?
From a social movement standpoint, including Jubilee South, the “Aid Effectiveness” debate is a non-starter. A contradiction in terms unless the effectiveness works to the benefit of finance capital and is an instrument for domination, a lubricant for corporate capital penetration. Nor can there be talk of effectiveness in the context of aid increasingly becoming an open instrument of security and foreign policy goals, including the so called War on Terror or simply tied to the acceptance of trade and financial liberalization (current EU Partnership Association schemes). Entering the aid debate in preparation for Accra can only be justified if the objective is to utilize that debate to explain and denounce how the institutional and historical foundations of the international aid regime, and that the emphasis should be on stopping the inflows of capital and wealth from the countries of the South.

Finance for Development is a more straightforward proposition. The objective should be to better identify and challenge the international impediments (including so called aid) that stand in the way of domestic accumulation and its domestic mobilization, including the behavior of domestic capitalists in shipping national wealth abroad, including its citizens expelled by the impoverishment that is linked to the enrichment of global elites. Finance for development should take the form of reparations and restitution due from the North to the South—the only real, legitimate debt—on account of centuries of looting and exploitation, including the wrecking of the environment. Under no circumstance should we be under the illusion that “aid” and “loans” by “donors”—the discourse needs to be rejected—are intended to “help” the people of the South. To actually believe that is either “tragic ignorance or unforgivable arrogance”, states Lidy Nacpil, International Coordinator of Jubilee South

Which way forward--? The Shift in Power is underway, but it is not complete by any means.

The first point to stress is that the way forward for development cannot be separated, and indeed forms part towards of the construction of emancipatory democracy.

Second to build critical consciousness, North and South, about the centuries old extraction of wealth from the South to the North, from poor to rich, within and among countries—and not as a policy or technical issue but a moral and political one: to address not simply poverty as a contemporary reality but as a process of historical process of enrichment.

Third to restate the importance of solidarity and international mobilization of that consciousness. To put the heat on the street. Without resistance there can be no alternative—resistance is alternatives in the making. To support for the right of a people and region to exercise the right of economic self-determination, part and parcel of real democracy—in the face of what will be the unremitting hostility of the USG and its allies. Cuba continues to build its alternative, Venezuela its own, and Bolivia too—and all are the objectives of USG led destabilization campaigns.

Fourth, to engage critically. While we support the greater emphasis on the State now being emphasized in ALBA and the Bank of the South, we do not wish to substitute the rule of one group of Northern capitalists by a group of Southern ones. Banks are problematic and as REDES and Jubilee South America have made public those concerns. Hopefully at least some of those concerns will be addressed in the new ALBA Bank configuration. But one should always keep in mind Bertold Brecht’s’ belief that it is a greater crime to create a Bank than to rob one.

Fifth, not to lose sight of the goal of shifting power—and that is as much a product to be attained in the future as a process that requires practice in the future. Not simply away from Bretton Woods and corporate capital’s domination to State-led ones, which must be coupled with a greater democratic shift, to transform the international reality we have to transform our national ones. We welcome Venezuela’s decisive leadership in breaking some rules of the game—this historically unprecedented mobilizing of one country’s resources for the benefit of the others—this sovereign debt to solidarity debt--but this is not an end but the beginning, whether the governments like it or not. Aid, banks and debt are instruments of social and political control.

The shift of power as a shift away from capitalist mentalities and paradigms, where
· People are considered not as consumers but as citizens
· Countries are not seen as markets but as nations
· Capital and governments serve people and not the other way around

Forging a new development model and development solidarity architecture is fundamentally a political and a social task. It is one expression of the larger big struggle for human rights and sovereignty, and that struggle must increasingly be more led by women and youth and less by white men. By social movements, by uncivil society, in our continent by the indigenous and the environmental and debt movements who demand –not aid effectiveness—but historical justice in the form of the payment of the social and ecological debt that has accumulated over the past 5 centuries.

Support for alternative development path means support for the right and ability of the poor to build their own independent movements and bring sustained political pressure from below. Advancing toward of “non-reformist reform” coalitions that can push state power to implement real development policies that are justice based. Support for and participation of movements that will struggle for solidarity economies, for national democratic governance and for changes in financial and economic policies, structures and systems that can allow alternatives to be built.

We need to bring more movements into the picture, as this struggle is certainly not technical but political and therefore alliances must be constructed. At this conference we could have benefitted from the presence of leaders of the native aboriginal communities in Canada who no doubt would have key things to say about development assistance. With your environmentalists and their fight against tar sands exploitation which is making the world poorer. With peace and justice advocates that contest the notion that Canadian troops are bringing development and peace to Afghanistan. Without the involvement of movements and their perspectives on alternatives the Accra and Doha will simply mean two more boring male-dominated meetings

In 1933, John Manyard Keynes wrote [Capitalism] is not a success. It is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuous—and it doesn’t deliver the goods. In short, we dislike it, and we are beginning to despise it. But when we wonder what to put in its place, we are extremely perplexed.

Well in much of Latin America people are no longer perplexed and are beginning to put something in its place as did the Cubans some 50 years ago. Socialism or better stated socialisms in the plural for the 21st century are back on the drawing board—not following any model or purporting to invent any one model, but as a set of principles to guide human interaction in all its diversity and in its relation to nature.

Progress is being made although we don’t know where we will be at the end of the day, but in Latin America we are convinced that there is a new political dawn of certainty and decision that must be supported and extended.

*Presentation by Alejandro Bendaña at the Conference on “The Changing Face of Global Development Finance—Impacts and implications for aid, development, the South and the Bretton Woods Institutions,” Halifax Initiative, Ottawa, Canada, February 1-2, 2008.

[i] “Ayuda de Hugo Chávez en crisis”, La Prensa, (Managua), January 15, 2008. Figures by the opposition Centro de Investigaciones Económicas de Venezuela (CIECA)

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The African Union has accelerated plans for unification through the establishment of a high-level group of heads of state and government, under the leadership of President Jakaya Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania, who is the new AU chairperson. The high-level group, made up of Kikwete and President John Kufuor of Ghana as the outgoing AU chairperson, includes 10 other leaders, two from each of the five regions of Africa.

As southern Africa enters its second year of crippling energy shortages as accurately predicted by the Southern African Power Pool about four years ago, massive short-term projects of close to US$8 billion will need to be fast tracked over the next couple of years to get the region out of the present situation. Electricity shortages have in recent weeks severely affected some Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states leading to scheduled and, in some cases, unscheduled power cuts.

Newly announced presidential candidate Simba Makoni had a taste of his own party’s medicine Wednesday when the state machinery against him kicked into gear. Not only was he expelled from Zanu PF but both the government owned media and war veterans took turns slagging him off. A few hundred war veterans demonstrated at the Zanu PF headquarters with deputy leader Joseph Chinotimba warning Makoni against showing up at the building. He called on war vets to take control of the headquarters declaring that Makoni and his followers are now barred from entering the premises; ‘We are now going to campaign vigorously for President Mugabe.

The MDC national council, the party’s main decision making body, has endorsed Morgan Tsvangirai as its presidential candidate for next month’s general elections. Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said primaries to choose parliamentary and council candidates are also almost complete. He said party structures have since Saturday been selecting candidates for all the 210 constituencies up for grabs.

The government has announced that the Nomination Courts that were scheduled for Friday February 8th, have been moved to Friday February 15th. This is for registration of candidates seeking to run in the presidential, parliamentary and council elections on March 29th. According to the state’s Herald newspaper, the date was changed following requests by ZANU-PF and both factions of the MDC for more time to select candidates.

The much awaited and celebrated united front of the two Movement for Democratic Change factions that was sealed last Sunday crumbled in the eleventh hour again presenting President Robert Mugabe with chances to win the March 29 election. Arthur Mutambara leader of one MDC faction told the media contingency that the whole deal had been reversed following an impasse over nomination seats.

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today approved International Development Association (IDA) funding in the amount of US$42 million for Mali's Second Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC II). "We hope that with continued implementation of the reforms already under way, which the Government has pledged to continue, Mali with improve further its public management performance and effectiveness, to the benefit of its people”, said Agnès Soucat, World Bank Task Team Leader of the project.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has pledged to seek ways of giving quicker financial support to African states struggling after conflict in the world's poorest continent. Zoellick met finance ministers from Liberia, Togo, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast on Tuesday during a brief visit to Liberia, the second stop on a tour of African

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_01_kenopalo.gif comments on the continued inability of the Zimbabwean opposition to join forces in time for the forthcoming presidential elections:
“You would imagine that with a president like one Robert Mugabe the Zimbabwean opposition would do anything in their capacity to have him out of power. But you would be wrong. This power hungry lot (yes, this is what I think of them) has refused to come up with a coalition against Mugabe. Their leaders, Tsvangirai and Mutambara, have confirmed that talks between their rival MDC factions have “broken down irretrievably” - according to the BBC.
A divided MDC almost certainly guarantees the aging Mugabe a win in the March polls. … Tsvangirai and Mutambara owe it to their countrymen and women to form a united front if they really want to unseat Mugabe. They have no business running separate campaigns in March because this will guarantee the presidency to Mugabe.
[…]
Sadly, this is yet another case of African leaders lacking true leadership. It also paints a bad picture of both Tsvangirai and Mutambara and makes one doubt whether these two really want to end the bad governance that we’ve come to associate with Bob or whether they just want to perpetuate the same old practices of rent-seeking, cronyism and over-the-roof inflations rates - but may be with less human rights abuses and the jailing of opposition supporters. Even this is questionable, after seeing what Kenya has turned into following the “bad” years of Moi rule. African leaders just have a way of making you look back and shock yourself by wishing you had the likes of Moi in power.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_02_civilexpression.g…No Longer at Ease continues to provide daily updates on the crisis unfolding in Chad:

“The government is in control of the capital N'Djamena for the moment. The rebels are saying they'll return. But the most development has been in the French position: it seems they've made their minds up in supporting president Idris Deby, though few days ago they seemed to be waiting to see who will win. The UN resolution calling on members of the Security Council to lend support to the Chadian president raised the prospect of French intervention. The French defense minister said that their helicopters have been monitoring the Chadian-Sudanese border to expose any foreign intervention.

Thousands of Chadians have crossed over to Cameroon, and hundreds of civilians are reported dead or injured.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_03_brendait.gifBrenda Zula revisits President Levy Mwanawasa’s firing of Zambia’s Ambassador to Libya, Mbita Chitala.

“According to the Times of Zambia Newspapers, the President’s action was prompted by Mr. Chitala's article in which he was advocating for policies which he termed as being contrary to the Government position on the African Union.

Mr. Chitala was not given any authority by the Zambian government to write what he wrote on in The Tripoli Post.

‘The article has caused untold embarrassment to His Excellency the President and the Government of Zambia, and a Foreign minister of a country whose leader was described in very unkind words has intimated that he will send a note of protest to the Zambian Government.’"

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_04_constitutionallys…http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_05_cnnlibya.gifCNN Lybia one of the rare English language blogs from Lybia writes about deletion of one of the leading Libyan blogs following a campaign by the Libyan Union of Bloggers:

“Those of you who browse the Arabic language sector of the Libyan blogosphere, have definitely come across what used to be the most popular Libyan blog of Tariq Ali, a Libyan guy who confessed frankly that he didn’t believe in any religion… his blog has recently been deleted after [a] message… sent by the Libyan union of bloggers to maktoob, the host of Tariq's blog.
[…]
The other thing that is far beyond me is the reason behind the move of the Libyan union of bloggers against Tariq!! Was it because the guy identified himself as a Libyan? And they think of themselves as our guardians, so they have the right to impose a censorship of what we write? Do we have to be more cautious now, since we have a union that is capable of causing our blogs to be deleted? Are they proud of their union now as its first accomplishment was silencing a Libyan blogger? Has Tariq lost his blog because he doesn’t believe in God, or because he is Libyan??

This so-called union of Libyan bloggers doesn’t actually offer anything to Libyan bloggers, it only speaks in our name to achieve the personal goals of its founders, so "she" can add in her CV that she is the elected boss of all Libyan bloggers.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_06_dibussi.gifScribbles from the Den has a more upbeat and positive article, originally published in Chicago Tribune, about the increasing political influence of African bloggers:
“But perhaps the most remarkable -- and least appreciated -- novelty in Africa's turbulent political scene is the blossoming of information technology.
The world's poorest continent is, not surprisingly, also its least wired: Only 5 percent of Africans have access to the Internet, compared with the global population's average of 22 percent. But Web use in Africa has exploded almost ninefold since 2000, experts say. And by prying open the stranglehold that repressive regimes once held on the news, it has become, in the hands of ingenious Africans, a powerful tool for democratization and even disaster relief.
[…]
The U.S. should take note. As it prepares to engage with Africa more intensely than at any time since the Cold War, in part by the Pentagon's establishment of a new Africa Command headquarters to coordinate military and security interests, the U.S. will be competing on an increasingly flat information playing field.
Gone are the days when Washington could control its messages in client states. The scruffy cyber cafes of Chad and the man in Congo who rents his cell phone by the minute -- sometimes climbing atop a tree to improve reception -- ensure that Washington's voice will have to vie with those of the resource-hungry Chinese, or with the designs of Al Qaeda recruiters.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/343/blogs_07_dibussi.gif* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den

This week’s AU Monitor brings you news and updates from the African Union (AU) summit.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has been elected Chair of the African Union, promising that he will do everything “within his mandate to work towards peace and stability on the continent”. In addition, Jean Ping, Gabonese Foreign Affairs Minister, was elected as the new Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), replacing President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali. At the close of the AU summit, Mr. Ping stated that the AU should deepen its ties with the Arab world to help end conflicts in Africa where “Arab’s and African’s meet” and to promote economic development. Kenyan Erastus Mwencha, Secretary General of COMESA, was elected as Deputy Chairperson of the Commission while seven Commissioners were also elected to the AUC at this 10th ordinary session.

In an interview with President Mbeki at the close of the AU summit, he noted that progress on industrialization, the theme of the summit, would only occur once Africa became a manufacturing continent rather than simply an exporter of raw materials. Referring to both the decisions relating to the audit report and the union government, President Mbeki stated that they would be effectively postponed until the next summit of the AU in July with further inter-session deliberation. In her analysis, Anita Powell calls the stagnation of the Union Government decision power politics. Notably, the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao has cautioned the formation of a union government until sub-regional groups increase ties and communication amongst themselves first.

Further, the AU Executive Council made a decision on the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union, stating that no region should sign one if it is not discussed at the continental level. The Council said that the signing of any agreement will affect the continent as a whole. Afroflag Youth Vision and Oxfam International have issued a joint statement urging African governments to join forces and block the European Unions proposed economic partnership agreements (EPAs), as they will have a critical negative impact on Africa’s industrial development and economic policies.

The African Commission on Human and People’s Right’s (ACHPR) will hold its fourth extraordinary session in The Gambia this month, addressing, among other matters, the human rights situation in Kenya. ACHPR has also issued a statement on the violence in Kenya, expressing grave concern for the destruction, loss of life, and displacement of civilians; the group has also called upon all those involved to work through differences through dialogue and urges the Kenyan government to protect those at greatest risk.

The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition issued a communiqué on the situation in Kenya, expressing their concerns over the civil and political unrest following the elections and the violation of human rights that occurred as a result. While the president of the West African Bar Association, Femi Falana, urged the African Union to take proactive steps to limit the violence in Kenya, calling for them to impose sanctions on the Kenyan government for “violating its obligations under the AU Constitutive Act and African Charter as well as promoting unconstitutionalism”.

The media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists, has called on the AU to “strengthen AU institutions dedicated to supporting press freedom” to help ensure democracy, stability, and freedom of speech throughout the continent. While, a group of civil society organizations (CSO) released a communiqué on a people-centered African Union and the importance of CSO involvement in AU affairs. The communiqué states: “With a commitment from the AU to enhanced engagement of African civilians in the process of uniting the African continent, there remains the actualization of a new form of partnership. We believe that civil society can serve as the critical link between the African peoples and AU”. Further, a recent CSO Continental Conference resulted in a host of recommendations from African civil society on the audit of the AU, the union government, peace and human security and EPAs.

In regional news, Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC) Ambassador Juma Mwapachu calls for police and immigration authorities to join the movement in promoting cross-border trade and free movement of people in the region, encouraging authorities to contribute to regional integration as opposed to hindering it. Similarly, in an attempt to further economic integration, SADC will launch its Free Trade Area in late August, 2008, coinciding with the annual Summit of Heads of State.

The United Nations Foundation announced today its support for the "Say NO to Violence against Women" campaign. The Foundation will donate $1 for each the first 100,000 signatures to the online campaign that is run by the UN Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM. The contributions will go to the UNIFEM-managed UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.
People can sign on to the campaign at

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) notes the announcement made by the Registrar General’s office concerning the opening of inspection of the voters’ roll from 1 to 7 February 2008. ZESN is seriously concerned that the time allocated for the inspection of the voters’ roll is far too short considering that there are new constituencies and wards countrywide.

On 29 March 2008 Zimbabwe will be holding its harmonized presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections. Zimbabweans will again be faced with the opportunity to exercise their democratic right and freedom to choose freely, through the ballot box, leaders with the mandate to securing a prosperous, peaceful and democratic Zimbabwe.

In a clear case of the intolerance and partisan nature that continues to characterize the police force, 10 police officers on Saturday 2 February raided the Youth Forum offices in Harare. They arrested Terence Chimhavi the Youth Forum’s Advocacy Officer as well as Farirai Mageza, a member of the Youth Forum in Harare. The two were arrested at around 1600hrs and were detained at Avondale Police Station where they were thoroughly interrogated for more than 8 hours.

In a move calculated to instill fear in students, Bulawayo Polytechnic College has suspended five students following a demonstration staged by ZINASU on 23rd of January 2007. The Principal, Mr. T. P. Ndlovu has vowed to deal amply with all those who involved themselves in the demonstration. The suspended students are Melusi Hlambano, Food and Accommodation Secretary 2006, Tinashe Mhlanga, Bothwell Gwature, Brian Sibanda and Tinashe Chichera.

The 29 March elections will not solve Zimbabwe's crisis. From 8 - 9 February, nearly 4,000 delegates will attend the Zimbabwe People's Convention in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to decide how to organise themselves and work together to bring about peace and social justice. The majority of Zimbabwean men, women and children do not have food, clean water, and medical services. Come and hear what they have to say and find out how you can support them.