cc Alarmed at the fondness for neoliberal solutions to the global financial crisis among the Nobel Prize Winners Muhammad Yunus and Joseph Stiglitz, Patrick Bond suspects that the two economists are simply aiding rather than challenging the global capitalist system. With Yunus and Stiglitz both set to give talks in Johannesburg this week, Bond fears that civil society's calls for social and environmental justice will continue to remain overlooked.

 In the wake of Michael Jackson's death, Greg Tate discusses the entertainer's place in the pantheon of black American musical greats. Considering his immense cultural significance within American political and cultural life, Tate stresses that Jackson 'came to rank as one of the great storytellers and soothsayers of the last 100 years'. Regardless of his alienation from the black America of his origins, Tate argues, Jackson remained a devoted student of black music, dance and style, taking and giving back in unparalleled ways.

Nigeria’s E.C. Osondu has won the 2009 , described as Africa’s leading literary award, for ‘Waiting’ from Guernicamag.com, October 2008. The chair of judges, New Statesman Chief Sub-Editor Nana Yaa Mensah, announced E.C. as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held on Monday 6 July at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the prize.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/441/57579_Rustum_Kozain_tmb.jp… an interview with , the South African poet Rustum Kozain discusses his prize-winning collection of poems 'This Carting Life', material support for poets and the place of swearing in poetry.

cc Dissatisfied with donors' unwillingness to promote disabled people's rights in their dealings with Kenyan organisations, Phitalis Were Masakhwe calls on international funders to show greater scrutiny when it comes giving financial assistance. From women's rights to promoting multi-party democracy, carrot-and-stick policies have been central in forcing Kenya to reform, Were Masakhwe notes, arguing that they should occupy an equally central role in cementing equality for disabled people.

The two fat cats sat reading on the mat.
A Persian rug actually, but we won't go into that.
The Stock Market's up, they saw. Oh, what fun,
As their sleek black coats gleamed in the afternoon sun.

'Lyric, my mate', said cat one with a purr,
'scratch my back, just there, under the fur.
It's lasted a while, since 1994, this constant itch,
Which coincides incidentally with me getting rich, rich, rich.'

'You're wearing your diamond studded collar,
I see', said Kyoto. Did you perhaps pay top dollar?
'It was a bargain', said Lyric looking shifty,
'In the current financial climate you have to be nifty.'

'I rang my mate, old Nacker de Beer.
He said 'Look Lyric, everything's not as it may appear.
There's a storm brewing, the markets might tumble,
Don't cash in your shares yet, be ready to rumble.'

Kyoto's whiskers twitched, and he asked with a frown,
'Should we let them know the market's going down?'
'Who's them', meowed Lyric. 'You mean the unwashed?
Why, they're too stupid, they'll never have us sussed.

'Look at them, stretch your neck and you will see,
Those starving masses, they've never heard of BEE*
We've been out in the cold, in exile, for ever so long,
Now our financial masters are playing our song.'

A sound at the door made them prick up their ears.
They got up and stretched, exposing their rears.
'I think it's the boss, he's home early today.'
Said Lyric to Kyoto, 'Get ready to play.'

'Hello little pussies.' He enters the room.
'Had a good day boys?' his voice a loud boom.
He scratches their chins, his fat white hand lingers,
As he waves under their noses some golden fish fingers.

Now Lyric and Kyoto being nobody's fools knew,
That this was the moment, this was their cue.
They had to perform, to sing for their dinner,
Else their bank balances would surely get thinner.

They cleared their throats and puffed out their chests,
And prepared themselves for what they do best.

'Who wants to be a millionaire, we do.
'Who wants to be a billionaire, you do'.

* Marion Grammer was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She is an accountant and works for a Human Rights Advocacy Centre in Sydney, Australia. She writes fiction and occasional social commentary.
* Black Economic Empowerment.
* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Under a new initiative international donors are backing Africa-based policy research to improve local decision-making on complex global issues with potentially enormous humanitarian consequences like food security and climate change. Led by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and funded by IDRC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation, the Think Tank Initiative will provide core funding for 24 African think tanks over 10 years. US$30 million has been made available for the initial five years.

State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi stunned a Harare Court by denying that the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) was involved in the abduction of opposition and human rights activists, including Jestina Mukoko, last year. This is despite his predecessor in the ministry, Didymus Mutasa, admitting earlier this year that he had sanctioned the operation as a matter of state security.

The World Bank has approved US$3.5 million for Liberia for its Costal Defense programme which will target three cities including Monrovia, the capital City of Liberia and two other major cities in the country, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) communiqué has said. According to the EPA communiqué, the fund is also targeted to reduce the impact of climate change and build capacity for Liberians on the magnitude of funds needed to tackle climate change.

A meeting of a Commonwealth committee on Zimbabwe, which is set to host a roundtable discussion in South Africa next week, could pave the way for the possible readmission of the country into the 54-nation grouping. The group of former British colonies suspended Zimbabwe in 2002 after the widespread violence that characterised, and ultimately cemented, the result of the presidential elections that year. Zimbabwe then quit the grouping in 2003 after then South African President Thabo Mbeki failed to get the suspension lifted.

The co-chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on constitutional reform, Douglas Mwonzora, on Friday said comments made by Robert Mugabe that the new constitution must be anchored on the Kariba Draft, were just a reflection of Mugabe’s personal view point. Mwonzora told over 2,000 delegates attending the ‘2009 people’s constitutional convention’ that Mugabe’s views were not binding on the constitution-making process. During a question and answer session many delegates had voiced concern that Mugabe was imposing the Kariba draft on the people.

The troubled unity government of Zimbabwe is locked in a "make or break" battle over the constitution that could see the party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai walk out. Members of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) boycotted a cabinet meeting led by Robert Mugabe, but sources in the former opposition group said they were not yet ready to disengage.

Barely a week after World Bank gave Mozambique $31 million to help in increasing availability of reliable communication, the country is also to have $176 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).The loan is expected to help uplift the southern African country's economy.

A survey by an anti-graft watchdog has found Kenya east Africa's most graft-prone nation with a bribe expected or solicited in nearly half of all transactions, followed by Uganda and Tanzania. The inaugural East Africa Bribery Index, according to Reuters yesterday, showed Kenya's police force was the most corrupt public institution with 66.5 per cent bribery rate.

Elections in Guinea-Bissau to replace assassinated President Joao Bernardo Vieira are to go to a second round, the electoral commissioner says. Mr Vieira was killed in March in apparent revenge for the death of the head of the army in a bomb blast. The two frontrunners from Sunday's vote are the ruling party's Malam Bacai Sanha with 39.6% of the vote and former President Kumba Yala with 29.4%.

The International Monetary Fund said Zimbabwe’s economy may be recovering after a decade of recession. “A nascent economic recovery appears to be underway,” Vitaliy Kramarenko, the IMF Mission Chief for Zimbabwe, said today in a statement. “To sustain positive economic trends and improve living standards, reform and stabilization efforts need to be stepped up.”

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe met U.S. Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson on the sidelines of the 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union General Assembly in Sirte, Libya on Thursday. The meeting with Carson was the first time in several years that a senior member of the U.S. administration has met President Mugabe, The Herald said on Friday.

Former Guinea Prime Minister Dr Ahmed Tidiane Soumare was released on Wednesday morning after being detained for a few hours at Peleton Mobile 3 (PM3), a garrison of the gendarmerie in Conakry, according to his immediate family. The former head of the “broad-based” government under the late President Lansana Conte had been arraigned on Tuesday evening and taken to PM3 as he failed to keep his commitments of making a monthly payment for US$200,000 as promised when he was first arraigned last March.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern over the political and constitutional crisis in Niger, calling for restraint and political dialogue to resolve the issue. In a statement issued at the UN headquarters in New York, Ban said he was “deeply concerned” about the ongoing political and constitutional crisis in Niger.

Over 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes so far this year as a result of significant increasing violence in DR Congo, Sudan and Somalia, international agency Oxfam has said, as heads of state gather at the AU Summit in Libya to discuss peace and security across the continent.