Tunisia's Ministry of Development revealed recently that the poverty rate in the country has fallen to 3.8%, compared to 4.2% in 2005. The Ministry report specifies that 376,000 people are living beneath the poverty threshold in Tunisia. During a press conference, Mohamed Nouri Jouini, Minister of Development and International Co-operation, said the National Census Institute used new methods to determine the poverty figures.

Renewed bickering among Zimbabwe's opposition only months after a vow to bury their differences looks set to wreck prospects of a united challenge to President Robert Mugabe at elections next year. After they both fell victim to a crackdown by the security services in March, leaders of the two factions of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) promised they would no longer be distracted from their primary task of ending Mugabe's 27-year rule.

Africa is today at mid-course, in transition from the Africa of yesterday to the Africa of tomorrow. Even as we stand here we move from the past into the future. The task on which we have embarked, the making of Africa, will not wait.

Press Release - African Governments must not sign EPAs but double its efforts to achieve MDGs

Interview with Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Open Society Justice Initiative. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu is the Senior Legal Officer for Africa Open Society Justice Initiative. He is based in Abuja, Nigeria. In March 2007, Emily Mghanga interviewed Odinkalu in his personal capacity as an African citizen on the proposal to form an African Continental Government. While this interview took place before the Accra Grand Debate at the AU summit in July, many of the issues are still relevant. This interview is part of the Peoples’ Voices series of interviews with African citizens and CSO leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. Ivy Maina of Pan Africa Programme Oxfam edited this interview.

Interview with Janah Ncube, Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development (ACORD). Janah Ncube is currently the Senior Policy Advisor on Poverty and Development at the SADC Secretariat in Botswana. At the time of this interview she was the Gender Thematic Manager at ACORD in Nairobi, Kenya. In March, Emily Mghanga interviewed her on the proposal to form a Continental Government. While this interview took place before the Accra Grand Debate in July, many of the issues are still relevant. This interview is part of the Peoples’ Voices series of interviews with African citizens and CSO leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. Ivy Maina of Pan Africa Programme Oxfam edited this interview.

Washington, DC, July 26, 2007---The African Union (AU) Ambassador to the United States of America yesterday presented her Letters of Credence to President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington, DC. The presentation of credentials accrediting Ambassador Amina Salum Ali, a national of the United Republic of Tanzania, marks a new chapter in the relationship between Africa and the United States.

The 27th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government will take place from 10 - 18 August 2007 in Lusaka, Zambia. The draft program and media program are now available at

Mphutlane Wa Bofelo says that the programme planned by the Steve Biko Foundation as part of the 30th anniversary of the killing of Steve Biko looks like a homage to a writer and cultural worker rather than a tribute to a freedom fighter.

Looking at the weeklong programme planned by the Steve Biko Foundation at the BAT Center in Durban as part of the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Steve Biko, I realized that it is focused on literary and cultural discourses and the exhibition of works on, about and by Biko. It is noteworthy that the joint programme of the Steve Biko Foundation (SBF) and the newly established Biko Legacy Reference Committee (BLRC) are also focused on literary and theatrical activities. It is as if the initiative is paying homage to an ingenious writer and cultural worker rather than a tribute to a freedom fighter whose work and that of the movement he belonged to straddled the worlds of socio-political activism, mass mobilisation, community development, labour and working class politics. Biko is presented as an icon whose only claim to fame is the monumental piece of literature, 'I write what I like', and dying a lonely and gruesome death in an Apartheid cell rather than as a social and political activist who was a member and leader of a socio-political movement.

There is a conspicuous absence of activities and themes overtly dealing with the local and global socio-political and economic state of affairs. There is nothing in the programme that investigates how far the country that Biko laid his life for is with regard to the reclamation of the collective human dignity of Black People and the enhancement of their socio-economic wellbeing, and how far it is towards advancing Biko's vision of a South Africa with a human face; an anti-racist society in which there is equal allocation of power and equitable distribution of the wealth and resources of the land.

However, it will be a travesty of history and the truncation of the legacy of Biko to remember Biko without raising issues such as genuine transfer of political and economic power to the black majority and without any initiative to let Biko (and BC) speak to the issues and challenges facing black people and humanity in the era of the attack on the environment and the economies, cultures and natural resources of the global south by the regimes and regiments of global capitalism and the Washington consensus in the form of the structural adjustment programmes (implemented as GEAR in South Africa), liberalisation, privatisation, deregulation, socially unequal taxation and dependence on direct foreign investment and speculative capital.

The historical fact is that his writings, political activism and community work clearly articulates that, as opposed to the ideologically neutral humanist that he is portrayed to be, Biko subscribed to the philosophy of Black Consciousness and his affinities were towards a pro-poor, pro-working class political agenda geared towards an egalitarian society. He was a member of the BCM under the flagship of SASO-BPC. He led and was led within the structures of the BCM. If not combated, the subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to de-link Biko from the philosophy of Black Consciousness, the BCM and radical working-class oriented politics in order to look sexy and to court corporate capital and be in the good books of the powers that be, will result into turning Biko into a piece of iconoclast and a collectors item the same way that corporate capital and the corporate media is doing with Ernesto Che Guevara.

Simply put, this will be the case of remembering Biko so as to forget him, or as others have said, a matter of murder by memory. While the Steve Biko Foundation is said to have insisted on the exclusion of the Umtapo Center (which held up the name of Biko and BC when doing so invited being 'necklaced' and other things), it is interesting to see who the important figures in the BLRC are. Muntu Myeza's assertion that renegades cannot be advocates of a cause they have deserted will be instructive in this case. Sello Rasethaba jumped from the BCM to join the ruling ANC, saying the philosophy of BC and the BCM has run its course and went on to become an associate of the late corporate hooligan, Brett Kebble.

Rakhs Seakhwa's credentials in as far as governance and fiscal discipline is concerned include virtually leading the once dynamic Congress of South African Writers to its (un)natural death. The tale of how Rakhs and his comrades through COSAW directed the Staffrider magazine away from a BC line is another story. Duma Ka Ndhlovu was recently reported to have received R4.5 million shares from Tokyo Sexwale as part of Sexwale's attempt to have influential people in society tied to his wallet. People who allegedly received Sexwale's shares include the SBF's Xolela Mangcu. Let's remember how Mangcu wrote an opinion piece extolling the virtues of Sexwale and overtly canvassing for him, immediately his chief announced his availability for the ANC presidential race.

I might be accused of being subjective in my argument that people with a proclivity to dance to the tune of corporate capital are not the right candidates to preserve the legacy of Biko. But who can argue that as it stands, the current programme of the SBF and the BLRC points in the direction of fossilising the legacy of Biko, restricting our memory of Steve Biko to the remembrance of 'that guy who wrote "I Write What I like" and died in a prison cell', and steering away from any recollection of Biko the member and leader of SASO-BPC and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement; Biko the activist, Biko the militant, let alone Biko the socialist? Otherwise, why is the BLRC constituted only by individuals who represent themselves instead of also including representatives from the various segments of the BCM, and why is the programme so apolitical?

At least 14 people were injured in Guinea when supporters of regional prefect Mouctar Brada Drame clashed with demonstrators demanding he obey a government order to step down, police sources said on over the weekend. The groups armed with batons, knives and stones fought on Friday in the eastern town of Dubreka, about 50km from the capital Conakry and a stronghold of support for veteran President Lansana Conte.

Swaziland is ripe for a revolution following widespread pro-democracy protests that brought the tiny kingdom to a standstill. The capital Mbabane ground to a halt last week as thousands of workers took to the streets - in what has been described as the biggest demonstration in a decade - pushing for multiparty democracy. Led by unionists, the protesters demanded an end to monarchical rule and the lifting of a ban on political parties imposed in 1973

Yobachi Boswell returns to Katrina two years on and finds 'hope juxtapose to some despairing scenes, and simmering anger'.

Perspective of an outsider

I’ve always considered the Mississippi Coast my home away from home. I didn’t grow up there, but my family is from the Coast, and I spent many a summer there tip-toeing through the hot beach sand to get to the water, braving the heat of insufficiently air-conditioned homes, and sucking down succulent crayfish and crabs.

That’s why with the onslaught of Katrina bearing down via my television screen two years ago, I took it a little more personally than others not living there; not to mention I had a lot of family in the middle of it. Seeing the sturdy 1.6 mile Biloxi Bay Bridge, which I had ridden over from Ocean Springs to Biloxi numerous times, lying in the water in tattered pieces is what really brought home the power of the storm for me. Having seen and ridden over it in person and then seeing it humbled in the water; served as a great reference point.

On 30 June, I travelled back to the Gulf Coast, for the first time since Katrina, for my annual family reunion that is held around the 4 July every year. Last year, it was held outside of Mississippi for the first time, hosted by my mom in Montgomery Alabama; so I had not had opportunity to go back until now.

I arrived in Ocean Springs off I-10 a little after noon. It was a straight shot from the interstate to Highway 90, the main thoroughfare running through Ocean Springs (a small costal town of 17,000). Having not been there since before Katrina, I braced as I approached, wondering would things look spectacularly different, or would it all be easily recognisable. I made a left at the Burger King and headed up 90, and all was normal. That’s the same Burger King that had been there at least since when I was in junior high in the early 1990s; when my parents let me roam the area free with cousins and we would walk through the park across 90 to get burgers and fries. Particularly memorable for me, because free reign wasn’t exactly a hallmark of my folks parentage; but vacation, particularly in the laidback, water front atmosphere that the easy summers of the Gulf Coast brings, seems to loosen things up. To this day, I’m always more relaxed just being there, that’s why I always hate to leave; but the threat of a Katrina is why I never stayed.

Apparently though, natives of the region don’t share my concern. There has been no appreciable decline in population in Ocean Springs since Katrina, according to all anecdotal information. I would say that holds true for my family members who live in Moss Point, Ocean Springs and Biloxi. Only one cousin moved away, but then she wasn’t from there. She grew up in Oakland California and Kansas City Kansas.

As I travelled up Highway 90 and back down Government, and through various neighbourhoods for two days. As far as lingering damage goes, I tell you what – I couldn’t tell the damn difference. Maybe it was there and I didn’t see it, but if so that says something that one can go about there way and not notice unless someone went out of their way to show it to them.

I took a ride over to Biloxi with my cousin Joe to go see the rebuilt house of my Uncle Kitten, as we call him. Kitten’s nearing 70, and his home, only blocks removed from those casinos you saw pushed up on shore across Highway 90; sustained major damage though it remained standing. He still lives in a trailer in his own yard while he puts the final touches on the rebuilding; much of which he’s doing himself.

Across the street from his house and all down his street you can see the new fabricated homes waiting for occupancy. There are more remnant signs of destruction here, but it didn’t appear overwhelming at this point. The Highway 90 strip with all the Casino’s was as lit up and bright neon lights as 90 has ever been; and to my understanding they are just about all back up and running.

On 1 July, Joe and I moseyed over to New Orleans; about an hour East of Ocean Springs/Biloxi on I-10. Joe grew up and went to college there. He’s lived elsewhere since, but has been back a couple times since Katrina, including as recently as November 2006.

As we entered the city by first crossing the five mile stretch of bridge connecting Slidell Louisiana to New Orleans over Lake Pontchartrain, the culprit of the Katrina disaster, having spilled over into New Orleans flooding the city after the storm had seemingly passed; we noticed a number of large trees sticking up out of the lake that looked as if the tops had been chopped off. This juxtaposed to brand new multi-story houses on the other side of the levy; behind the trees that had not yet recovered.

Joe was impressed that the city in large had at least cleaned up the piles of debris from the street and that it was looking significantly better since his previous trip seven months earlier. He cautioned though that it is 'not a whole lot of improvement, but improving'. He initially had come down three months after the Katrina in the fall of 2005 'It was dead the first time I went, no street lights; it looked hopeless', Joe told me.

Well, here in the summer of 2007 I found both plenty of hope juxtapose to some despairing scenes, and simmering anger. World famous Canal Street was humming with traffic, and the large grassy medians that line the middle of the city’s major thoroughfares were cast over by well groomed oaks and even imported palm trees.

But just as things look like a normal American city for a spell, you then see a house still bearing the red X mark that rescue workers used to denote that a house had been checked and whether dead bodies had been found there or not.

After making our way through down town we headed east on Claiborne. I’ve seen great urban decay before, but nothing like a standing house with whole front ripped off of it on 'Maine Street'. We headed over the Industrial Canal into the much devastated Lower 9th Ward community. And guess what, it still is devastated. The interior neighbourhoods look like ghost towns. The housing lining the main street aren’t a great deal better. Gutted house after house characterises the area, but with a depressing note - people are living on the same streets where the majority of houses are unlivable. Most of the ones that they’re living in aren’t a great deal better. In the subdivision that you often saw on television, it still looks like what you saw on television - rows and rows of devastated houses. In some cases just the cement slabs where house used to be. At one point I saw a slab with three stairs on the backside. Undoubtedly those steps once led into someone’s backyard.

All the debris is not off the streets here, but most of it. Never mind that though, most houses are gutted and in ill repair. The majority still carry the rescue worker markings. In the midst of this, you’ll see one newly rebuilt home almost ready to come back online - on a block full of other houses that look like they were hit by a bomb. We turned the corner at one point and I thought “wow, that house is nicely rebuilt”. As we got closer we realized it was just a nice new roof. The inside of the house was still bearing the repercussions of being trounced by Lake Pontchartrain.

We also visited higher ground where water damage didn’t do as much devastation, in the Garden District an Uptown. We met up with folks rebuilding on the weekends while living out of state during the week. We also visited the French Quarter and Bourbon Street that evening. I’d been to Bourbon St. before, about 7 years earlier during Essence Festival weekend. It wasn’t the same, but the strip was readily active. Not a stalwart of people, but a pretty steady stream. Then again, this was a Monday night and no festivals were in town (Essence was coming back the following weekend); though my cousin Joe didn’t feel that it was up to par for even a normal pre-storm Monday night.

Things are coming back around in Mississippi and Louisiana, for some anyway, in some places. There are still a lot yearning to go back home who don’t have the means, who’s insurance didn’t pay, and who’s president didn’t follow through on his empty promises in the weeks after the disaster.

According to Mitch Carr of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Biloxi Bay Bridge will have two lanes open by November of this year, and will be fully functional by Spring of next year; with 6 lanes and dual-use walking and biking paths as well.

* Yobachi Boswell is author of the .

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Leben Nelson Moro critically assesses the impacts of oil after the return of peace in South Sudan. He reviews the situation of the the Dinka of Paloich, Melut County, and the Shilluk of Manyo County, two counties which are part of the oil-rich Upper Nile State.

The Government of Sudan (GOS) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) concluded the landmark Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 to end 22 years of fighting. A root cause was the contest over oil resources in the south of the country.

The agreement guarantees southern Sudan a 50 per cent share of oil revenues from oil extracted in the south. Implementation of the CPA promises not only an end to the violence, but also economic prosperity for the Dinka, Nuer and other indigenous people, who have suffered massive atrocities – including summary killings, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and looting of livestock and other property – at the hands of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and allied militias.

Oil development has rapidly expanded since peace returned to southern Sudan, bringing huge rewards to the government. Sudan began exporting oil in August 1999, when production was 150,000 barrels per day. Now, production is about 500,000 barrels, expecting to rise to 1,000,000 barrels per day in two to three years. This year’s revenues from oil will exceed US$4 billion. Economic growth is expected to be about ten per cent. Clearly, the country is witnessing an economic boom fuelled by oil.

The indigenous people of the oil areas, however, have languished in abject poverty. Oil companies have appropriated their lands without paying compensation, and have largely excluded them from employment opportunities. Indeed, some indigenous people, whom I interviewed in 2006, claim that their living conditions have deteriorated.

This article critically assesses the impacts of oil after the return of peace on the Dinka of Paloich, Melut County, and the Shilluk of Manyo County, two counties which are part of the oil-rich Upper Nile State.

Relocating Dinka of Paloich, Melut County

Prior to oil development, Paloich was an insignificant location along the Melut-Malakal road. The local people inhabited about 220 villages before the war, according to Laila, the MP representing Melut and Renk counties.

During the war, Paloich was occupied by the SAF. Most of the local people were killed or forced to flee. Most of the killings and displacement were carried out to protect oil companies from SPLA attacks. However, violence, lack of water, roads and markets in nearby areas compelled destitute and displaced people to seek shelter in the garrison town, which had water and other basic services provided by oil companies.

After the government and the SPLA agreed on a ceasefire in October 2002, Paloich town rapidly expanded. All-weather roads, built by oil companies, connect Paloich to several large towns. Commercial vehicles regularly ply the road linking Melut and Renk, well connected with Khartoum and other northern towns.

The transport and oil companies attract traders from the north. The prospects of employment in oil companies drew a horde of job seekers. Paloich was transformed into a bustling town, by war and the presence of oil companies.

The people of Paloich, however, are restless and burdened by memories of a terrible past and burgeoning new problems. In March 2006, I ventured into a residential area close to a Paloich police post. Many huts were under construction by people who had just returned. Most returnees stay with relatives until they were able to build their own houses. Some humanitarian assistance had flowed to returnees to help them to become self-supporting. According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Office in Malakal, lack of land was one of the key factors compelling returnees to depend on humanitarian assistance.

Close to the police post, there was a huge open pit. A community leader, who showed me around the town, said that oil workers had removed human bones from the pit, sparking protests by the local sheik (chief) and other elders. The army had rounded up all the people opposed to the action of the oil companies. So, the local people were silenced and the oil companies continued throwing away the remains of the dead they uncovered.

Since peace has returned, nothing has been done to relieve the trauma of the people, who suffered the desecration of graves by oil companies.

On the outskirts of the residential area, a Chinese factory was apparently producing construction materials. My local informant said the residents of the area were worried about the impact of the factory on their health. ‘We demonstrated against the factory but the Chinese did not stop the fumes from poisoning our environment’, he lamented.

It appears , an oil exploration company working in Sudan, hoped to quell the rising anger through relocating the local people elsewhere. Without consulting the local people, Petrodar selected a new site, situated about five miles south of Paloich town, and named it ‘New Palouge’. A school, primary health care unit and a mosque were built in the new location. Most of the people required to relocate were Christians or believers in local religions. Why a mosque was constructed, instead of a church, was a puzzle to many.

Petrodar dispatched vehicles to Paloich, under army escort, to move the local people to the new site. But no one agreed to board the vehicles, and they returned empty. According to Laila, the MP, the local people resisted the relocation for several reasons: firstly, they were not consulted. Secondly, the new location belonged to the rival Agwer Dinka clan called Pidhe. Thirdly, the new site was too small and was always under water during the rainy seasons. Fourthly, no compensation for losses suffered by the local people was given or promised.

Evidently, Petrodar and the ministry of energy and mining still conducted ‘business as usual’ despite the achievement of the CPA. But local civilians of Paloich were determined to get adequate compensation before considering leaving their ancestral villages. Some of these civilians had lived in the north during the war. They had learned about the generous compensation packages provided by the government to northerners asked to leave their homes to make way for national projects. They wanted the same treatment as displaced northerners.

For many of the people asked to relocate, the dramatic arrival of trucks, escorted by the SAF, was reminiscent of the violent relocations of southern displaced persons from Khartoum to desolate camps under the guise of urban renewal or re-zoning. In fact, rumours spread in Paloich that the people who carried out the brutal relocations in Khartoum had moved to Paloich to do the same thing.

The intention of Petrodar to relocate the people of Paloich to ‘New Palouge’ to make way for expansion of oil operations has failed so far. This failure was to be expected, for Petrodar had not changed the old habits of appropriating land without paying compensation during the war years. The company did not involve the local people in the decisions. Instead, it brought in the army to intimidate and coerce the people to move. Unsurprisingly, the local people refused to budge, instead, insisting on adequate compensation in line with the CPA.

Expanding seismic activity disrupts lives of the Shilluk of Manyo County

Rapid increase in seismic activity in the oil areas has disrupted the lives of many communities recovering from the ravages of war. The experiences of the Shilluk population of Manyo County illustrate this problem.

Manyo is one of the four counties comprising the Shilluk kingdom in Upper Nile. It has about 200,000 people, who depend on agriculture, fishing and Gum Arabic.

Petrodar crossed the Nile in March 2006, and began seismic exploration in Manyo County. Without adequate prior consultation, Petrodar workers made many seismic lines through large parts of Manyo. A southern geologist informed me, ‘these straight paths/lines go for hundreds of kilometres, destroying crops, fruit trees, and houses in their way’. The people of Manyo have lost acacia trees, from which they tape ‘Gum Arabic’, as well as houses and other property. Local leaders said that the Chinese recorded the damaged assets, and promised to pay compensation, but nothing has happened.

In fact, Petrodar held a meeting with the local people, but only after seismic work was already in progress. Most probably the meeting was held to soothe rising resentment; but it was a fiasco. According to Nazir or Paramount Chief Ogwal, who represents the Shilluk Mek (king) in Athidwoi payam: ‘At the meeting, the Chinese and their Arab companions were told to stop work and seek permission to operate in the area from the regional government in Juba.’

Instead of heading for Juba, the Chinese went to Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile State, and brought a letter authorising them to operate from the state governor, a member of President Omer al Bashir’s party. The local people were left reeling with bitterness against the Chinese and the unpopular governor.

The problems the Shilluk faced were compounded by the arrival of armed Arab nomads, locally called Jangaweed. Arab nomads claimed the ‘Gum Arabic’ areas, which the Shilluk insisted belonged to them. The contest over this valuable resource has deepened distrust of northerners in the south. In anger, some southerners have introduced new names for this resource. The minister of agriculture in southern Sudan, Dr Martin Elias, for example, introduced the name ‘Gum Africa’.

The struggle over Gum Arabic has resulted in violence and human displacement. The WFP reported violent clashes between Arab nomads and Shilluk civilians in Kaka in December 2005 that caused the death and displacement of many people. Another UN agency report warned that the border between Upper Nile and Kordofan is a threat to the stability of the whole region.

Worsening unemployment

As oil companies have expanded their activities, the lack of employment opportunities has fuelled frustration among local people. Most of the recruits in oil companies have originated from the north. Local people of the oil areas have largely been excluded from jobs in oil companies.

Paloich town has been particularly hard hit. I saw many young men roaming the dusty streets of the town in search of jobs with oil companies. One of the young men approached me. I talked to him briefly. He came from the area and had tried to secure a job with a company, in vain. The companies have not recruited for a long time, which makes local people furious.

At a meeting with local leaders in the administrative centre in Paloich, I learned more about the hardships of the unemployed. A local midwife said women had to brew alcohol to make ends meet because men were idle. ‘People of Paloich are automatically excluded because oil companies recruited in Khartoum.’

The despair that gripped this community has already given way to conflict. Oil companies have resorted to the old brutal tactics of the war years. I saw a Nuer man in a hospital ward in Melut in severe pain. Bandages covered most of his body. Oil company security men were responsible for his suffering. The security men arrested him, tied him up, and set fire to him. His crime was insisting on a job!

In the war years, brutality of this kind was commonplace. It is surprising that even after CPA, such brutality still exists. Indeed, old bad habits die hard!

These employment problems, also encountered by other communities in the oil areas, will worsen with the arrival of more returnees. Unless they change and begin addressing these grievances, oil companies should expect stiffer challenges by frustrated communities.

Conclusion

Since the CPA was concluded in 2005, local communities in the oil areas have continued to face oppression by oil companies, which have rapidly expanded their activities. The local people have been increasingly dispossessed from their land without compensation, and have continued to be denied employment opportunities. Some communities have started to confront the abusive oil companies. It is probable that local agitation will boil over into violence if oil companies fail to shed their old bad habits of doing business in Sudan.

* Leben Nelson Moro is a DPhil Candidate at the University of Oxford. A southern Sudanese, he has many years involvement in humanitarian work and refugee studies in Sudan and Cairo, Egypt.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Nice piece on the US Social Forum, but I'd like to make a couple of quick comments.

First on the issue of food/drink costs at the USSF, this a common problem that organisers of large events have to deal with in the US.

Large event venues here often have exclusive contracts with specific corporate vendors and force event planners to use those vendors - regardless of the high prices they always charge to event attendees. If event organisers want to use the space, they are not allowed to bring in their own (cheap, people-friendly) vendors.

Second, no disrespect intended to your publication or the USSF organisers, but the USSF was not the first social forum in the US. Far from it. The first social forum in the US was the New York City Social Forum held in early 2002. Since that time there have been around a dozen social forums in the US - at least five of which have been recognised as 'official' within the World Social Forum process. Many have been smaller affairs of a few hundred attendees each - but the Boston Social Forum in 2004 had over 5000 attendees from all over the US and over a dozen other countries, and was considered a 'regional' or continent-level forum. All of these earlier forums in the US have been quite grassroots - put together by individuals and organisations with few resources but lots of heart - which should give social justice activists the world over cause for cheer.

Just thought your readers should be aware of this information. I'd recommend the following web links for more information:

http://www.mwsocialforum.org/
http://maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/3926/index.php
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wef/socialforum.htm

International donors have committed US$90 million to help the Guinean government improve access to water, electricity and food and tackle mass youth unemployment. These are stop-gap measures designed to appease a population desperate for better living conditions.

The United Nations is investigating allegations of widespread sexual abuse by hundreds of its peacekeepers serving in the Ivory Coast, Al Jazeera reports. A Moroccan battalion of 800 troops in Bouake, in the north of the country, were confined to their barracks on Friday and all of the contingent's activities suspended.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee on Friday called on Sudan to prosecute war crimes committed in Darfur and to ensure that no support is given to militias that engage in "ethnic cleansing". It expressed concern that "widespread and systematic serious human rights violations including murder, rape, forced displacement and attacks against the civil population, have been and continue to be committed with total impunity throughout Sudan and particularly in Darfur".

Following a protracted debate, the Moroccan Parliament announced on July 23rd that it passed a controversial new law governing the conduct of public officials, Magharebia News reports. The new legislation requires top civil servants and state officials, including parliamentary representatives, to declare their personal assets.

Mwai Kibaki has once again demonstrated his complete lack of commitment to fight corruption and, even more, that he is a beneficiary of it. The Anglo Leasing and the corruption scandals of Moi, and Kenyatta before him, will remain unresolved so long as Mwai Kibaki is the President. His continued dalliance with Daniel arap Moi is proof enough of his going back on his word to Kenyans that ‘Corruption will cease to be a way of life in Kenya’.

Special Issue on Liberia

FEATURES:
- Stephanie Horton & Robtel Pailey introduce a special issue on Liberia.
- Anthony Morgan on Liberia’s checkered past
COMMENT & ANALYSIS:
- Ezekiel Pajibo & Emira Woods on US the US military in Liberia
- Keith Best on Liberians as agents of change
- Thomas Jaye on the Truth and Reconciliation process
- Sengbe Khasu discusses the Liberian condition
- Elma Shaw on the reintegration of refugees
- Wilton Sankawulo on the role of artists in post civil war Liberia
BLOGGING AFRICA: Review of African Blogs
BOOKJS & ARTS:
- Eva Acqui on the Liberian literary tradition
- Two poems from Omanza Eugene Shaw & Annaird Naxela

PAN AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen reflects on post Blair Britain
WOMEN AND GENDER: Decades of abuse in Kenya’s maternity wards
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: A strategy for comprehensive peace in Darfur
HUMAN RIGHTS: UN probes abuse in Côte d’Ivoire
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Mobilizing world opinion
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Migrant children face abuse in Canary Islands
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Big win for Cameroon’s ruling party
AFRICA AND CHINA: China defends Darfur stance as pressure grows
CORRUPTION: TI says major exporters still bribing abroad
DEVELOPMENT: ‘Aid for Trade’ may cut Africa’s health and education funds
HEALTH AND HIV/Aids: Programmes disregard HIV among the elderly
EDUCATION: Tanzania’s plans to raise education standards widely commended
LGBTI: Uganda’s lesbians want protection
ENVIRONMENT: Côte d’Ivoire toxic waste probe goes to France
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zambian police prohibit demonstration coverage
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: ICTs excluded in DRC development plans
PLUS: e-newsletters and mailings lists; courses, seminars and workshops and jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit