Uganda has drafted a policy to manage its oil and natural gas resources now that early tests in the Lake Albert region have shown that the country has commercially exploitable reserves. The policy seeks to ensure that the country benefits from any oil reserves that might be discovered, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Fred Kabagambe-Kaliisa has said.

International companies and local elites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are pocketing revenues from copper and cobalt production instead of sharing it with local communities or spending it to reduce poverty, a watchdog group has said. A new report by the London-based Global Witness says that despite being one of the richest copper- and cobalt-producing areas in the world, the province of Katanga in southeastern DRC remains severely poor and the population has little or no infrastructure or public services.

United Nations chief Kofi Annan has vowed that the international community will do everything in its power to ensure the success of presidential elections due in Sierra Leone next year. Sierra Leone holds its first post-civil war elections early next year, although no date has been fixed yet.

As The Gambia gears up for presidential elections in September questions are being raised about the preparations for the polls, but a clampdown on local journalists means independent scrutiny is in short supply. Also, leader of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), Ousainu Darboe, alleged there are problems with the way new voters are being registered.

Twenty of the 33 candidates are calling for a delay, say the elections are being badly organised and question why an extra 5m ballot papers have been printed. The United Nations is helping to organise the polls, which follow five years of conflict. The east remains unstable - some 5,000 people have fled their homes recently.

Benjamin Mkapa, a former Tanzanian head of state, has been asked by regional leaders to help find a solution to the divide between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and an opposition that rejects the legitimacy of his government. Without a settlement, Zimbabwe's pariah status in western capitals is likely to continue, and financial aid will remain frozen.

After years of receiving international aid, southern Sudan has reversed the trend and announced a donation of $30m (£16m) to the United Nations. The money will build roads in the south, which has little infrastructure and a very low standard of living.

Last year, leaders of the world's economic powers proclaimed that 2005 would be the "year for Africa" and gathered at the annual Group of 8 (G8) meetings to create a plan to address the continent's challenges. Debt cancellation figured prominently on the agenda, and the G8 leaders crafted a deal to cancel 100% of the debts owed by 18 countries – 14 in Africa – to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Africa Action examines the current reality in Africa's debt crisis and investigates the results of last year's promises. As the G8 leaders prepare to convene in St. Petersburg, Russia, it is clear that Africa's debt crisis is far from resolved, and there is an urgent need for new action from the G8 on this critical priority.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: warns of identify theft
FEATURED: Our most essential basic requirement for survival, water, is being privatised. Hawa Ba describes the Senegalese experience
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- The World Bank is always quick to take the moral high ground by pointing fingers at corruption. Gail Hurley says that Wolfowitz lack sincerity about dealing with the Bank's own complicity.
- Eve Odete reports back on SOAWR's interventions at the Banjul Summit of the African Union
- A new vision for gender activism is called for, says Ann Kithaka
- The unwillingness of governments, multinationals and others to promote rudimentary democracy in Zimbabwe is obvious, writes Patrick Bond
- Stephen Lewis calls for an international agency for women
LETTERS: Football, politics and Africa - readers respond to last week's articles
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem reports on the razzmatazz at the AU Summit in Banjul
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine rounds up the African blogosphere
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: African Union launches the continent's first human rights court
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Two months after the Darfur peace accord, humanitarian situation worsens
HUMAN RIGHTS: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has finally legally recognized that genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994
WOMEN AND GENDER: Rape continues to be reported in Darfur
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Thousands displaced in DRC as crisis continues
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Election campaign kicks off in DRC
DEVELOPMENT: One year on, and what progress after Gleneagles?
CORRUPTION: Make 'Lecturing Africa' History, say governments
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Cameroon could lose all its doctors by 2009
EDUCATION: Zimbabwe education system running into ruin
ENVIRONMENT: Niger prays for rain
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Nigerian journalists under attack
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Internet to go mobile
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.

The World Bank, under its president of the last year Paul Wolfowitz, has been talking tough in the fight against corruption. But how sincere is Wolfowitz when it comes to dealing with the World Bank’s role in financing corrupt regimes of the past and the cancellation of these illegitimate debts? The answer is simple. He’s not, says Gail Hurley.

One could be forgiven for thinking that Paul Wolfowitz has spoken about corruption and nothing else during the year that he has held the post as World Bank President. Although his predecessor, James Wolfensohn, also highlighted corruption as a serious obstacle to development, Wolfowitz has significantly elevated the issue as a World Bank priority. Wolfowitz’s anti-corruption rhetoric has captured media headlines. But how comprehensive, consistent and effective are the plans and actions behind the talk? How far can the Bank really go with this agenda, in particular where the Bank itself has been the cause of corruption, and odious and illegitimate debts, in the past?

It appears as though the Bank’s focus on anti-corruption looks set to continue. In February, the World Bank, in cooperation with other multilateral development banks and the IMF, agreed to create “a framework for preventing and combating fraud and corruption”. It is to be ready for the Bank/Fund Annual Meetings in September in Singapore. On a recent trip to Indonesia, Wolfowitz presented a “long-term strategy” for using the Bank’s money and expertise to help developing countries rid their governments of bribe-taking and other dishonest practices. A key component will be the deployment of anti-corruption teams in many World Bank country offices. At the World Bank’s 2006 Spring Meetings, Wolfowitz correctly acknowledged that “for every bribe-taker, there is a bribe-giver, and often, that comes from a developed country” and any thorough approach to corruption must examine corruption by companies and individuals in the North, not just the South. In a recent leaked paper obtained by Eurodad, the Bank claims to be “raising the bar on governance and anti-corruption” even further. The paper, entitled “Raising the Bar on Anti-Corruption: Improving Governance and Accountability, Fostering Development” outlines possible ways forward for the Bank, including promoting good governance and accountability and supporting international efforts for the repatriation of stolen wealth.

The story presented so far however focuses very much on the “corruption of today” and pays scant attention to the “corruption of yesterday”. Remarkably absent from the anti-corruption strategy presented by officials so far is any critical examination of the Bank’s lending practices to poor countries in the past. The World Bank has over the years been involved with and lent to some of the world’s most notorious and despised regimes such as Mobutu Seke Seso of Democratic Republic of Congo and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.

Bank documentation at the time of these transactions, or published shortly afterwards, confirms that many Bank officials - at both country-level and in Washington DC - were perfectly aware of the nature of the regimes in place and that many loans were simply transferred into the bank accounts of the dictators and their generals. It was plain therefore that they did not reach the poor or foster economic development. Despite their odious and illegitimate nature most of these debts continue to be serviced today, at the expense of essential investments in poverty reduction and economic development.

How can any approach to weed-out corruption be successful or comprehensive if it does not look critically at the lending practices undertaken by the institution in the past? The Bank should learn the lessons of the past, accept co-responsibility for its mistakes and agree to cancel Bank debts resulting from loans where Bank officials knew much of the money would be diverted by corrupt elites. Wolfowitz says the real issue at stake is “how to promote good governance and accountability”. Accountability must begin at home, by addressing the mistakes - and in some cases downright negligence - of the past.

A serious inquiry into past Bank lending practices and the problem of odious and illegitimate debt will likely be resisted by Wolfowitz (who said as much at the Spring Meetings when I challenged him on this point). He argued that the governments represented in the Bank would not be happy if he raised this issue. But Wolfowitz has already challenged the Bank’s members on a number of issues. And we have seen the Bush administration acknowledge the odiousness of Iraq’s debt burden.

Iraq is a country with a very significant burden of odious and illegitimate debt, a clear case study of lending for geopolitical strategic and ideological purposes rather than any concern for the welfare of the overall population. The US government indeed acknowledged this in 2003 when United States Treasury Secretary John Snow remarked to Fox News that “certainly the people of Iraq shouldn’t be saddled with those debts incurred through the regime of the dictator who is now gone”.

Another country which Wolfowitz knows well is Indonesia, where he served as US Ambassador from 1986-1989 during the General Suharto years. His recent visit to Jakarta provided the World Bank President with an excellent opportunity to pledge to examine Indonesia’s case. Respected Indonesian NGO, the International Forum for Indonesian Development (INFID) argues that “it is widely known that approximately 30% of the World Bank loans during the reign of Suharto were corrupted”. Moreover, the debts were accumulated by an authoritarian regime and no public consultation took place. For years, the World Bank continued making transactions with Indonesia. The Bank supported and strengthened the authoritarian regime, says INFID.

A leaked 1997 World Bank report supports these allegations. The report found that as much as 20 to 30% of the budgets linked to development funds were embezzled and World Bank loans were clearly involved. Other internal reports attest to staff knowledge of the regime in place and the fraud taking place. Despite this clear awareness, loans increased. There was also an increase in World Bank loans to the Indonesian Government during the occupation of East Timor.

Indonesia’s total external debt stands at US$134 billion. Of this sum, public and publicly guaranteed debt amounts to US$ 80 billion. To pay this debt, the government put aside 26% of the 2006 state budget. In contrast, education was allocated only 5% and health 2%. Poverty levels are high and increasing in Indonesia: 50% of the population lives in poverty and earns less than US$ 2 per day. The World Bank is one of the country's largest creditors with approximately US$12 billion in claims.

Instead Wolfowitz chose not to use this opportunity to critically reexamine the loans that Indonesians argue involved corruption and fraud and yet which they are required to service under the current system.

One World Bank shareholder which is taking action on this is Norway. It is one of the first Northern countries to open dialogue on odious and illegitimate debt and to call for an international focus on this critical issue. Firstly, Norway has asked the World Bank to undertake a study of odious and illegitimate debt and has put money aside to support this research. Secondly, Norway’s Development Minister Erik Solheim has committed to more closely examine the illegitimate debts claimed by Norway, notably those incurred through the Shipping Export Credit Campaign of the 1970’s.

The débacle involves the export of Norwegian ships to developing countries (such as Ecuador, Peru and Jamaica) between 1977 and 1980. It exported these ships mainly to secure employment for a ship-building industry in crisis. In the case of Ecuador, the Norwegian authorities demanded state guarantees for the ships and when, after the first four years, the company stopped paying the remaining debt was transferred to the state. Ecuador has been servicing the debt for 16 years and its value today is five times the original amount. Minister Solheim has made the very welcome statement that he wishes to draw a line across this mistaken and damaging low point in Norway’s development cooperation policy and in the context of next year’s budget will look to take unilateral action to cancel these claims, citing the lending as irresponsible. All eyes will be on Norway over the coming months to see if the country will indeed cancel these claims and NGOs will push for a clear and public acknowledgement of the injustice and illegitimacy of these debts. Kjetil Abildsnes of the Norwegian Debt Campaign said in a recent statement to the press: “It remains to be seen if Solheim is tough enough to declare these debts illegitimate. We hope to get an answer [soon]. Norway can then become the first creditor in the world to recognise parts of developing country debt as illegitimate.” 

The World Bank - and other bilateral and private creditors - should take a leaf out of Norway’s book and take a critical look at the past. The Bank in particular has no excuse: Norway has put aside money to support research into this issue and it would seem to fit logically and perfectly within the anti-corruption theme that Wolfowitz is so keen to take forward. Indeed Wolfowitz must recognise that any comprehensive approach to corruption must necessarily involve a frank and open critique of past Bank lending practices leading to the cancellation of debts found to be odious and illegitimate.

Cancellation of odious and illegitimate debts has the power to transform the lives of the world’s poor as well as foster reform of an international financial architecture skewed in favour of creditors. Developing countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines, Indonesia and others continue to service debts of highly questionable origin when the benefits of debt cancellation have been clearly recognised.

Wolfowitz and World Bank Executive Directors need to place this issue firmly on the Bank Board agenda. NGOs will continue to press the Bank to do so and we hope that Norway will also do the same in particular because Minister Solheim has stated that “there can be no doubt that Norway wishes to be in front on this issue”. In the meantime, Wolfowitz should stop labelling his approach to the corruption problem as comprehensive. It is not.

It is not a question of being “stuck in the past”: the debt service on illegitimate loans has an impact on poor people today. Urgent action is needed at the international level. The funds the Norwegian Government has pledged to the World Bank and UN to support further research should not sit idly in the coffers of either the Norwegian Treasury or the World Bank but be put to good use to develop an international consensus – in equal partnership with relevant stakeholders – on how to tackle the issue of odious and illegitimate debt.

* Gail Hurley is with the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The unwillingness of governments, multilateral bodies and big business to promote rudimentary democracy and social justice in Zimbabwe is now glaringly obvious. Renewed solidarity initiatives can be taken with more confidence by grassroots activists on both sides of the Limpopo River and beyond, writes Patrick Bond.

Item: Kofi Annan appears to have been intimidated into not taking a trip to Harare, after Thabo Mbeki raised expectations he would achieve a breakthrough.

Mbeki last week passed the buck to Annan and Robert Mugabe: ‘It’s best left to them, to the UN and the Zimbabwean government and hopefully that will produce its outcome so that we remove this particular matter from the international agenda.’ Mugabe simply refused to give Annan an audience.

Item: Last Friday, the head of the European Commission’s Harare mission and the Austrian ambassador to Zimbabwe wrote a letter to the Herald newspaper firmly stating, ‘There are no economic EU sanctions against Zimbabwe. There have never been economic EU sanctions against Zimbabwe.’

The bureaucrats were right, and they pointed out that for the latest year data are available, 2004, ‘Zimbabwe had a trade surplus of E261 million [R2.23 billion] with EU states.’

Item: A few days earlier, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told parliament that Pretoria would not wield targeted 'smart' sanctions against Zimbabwe's rulers: ‘It may not be a very useful tool to use right now because it doesn’t seem to be yielding results, even in the hands of the most powerful block in the world.’

Of course not, but for a simple reason: Pretoria is a smart-sanctions ‘buster’ by permitting the Zimbabwe elite’s shopping visits, real estate speculation and illicit financial holdings. If Pretoria joined in imposing smart sanctions, the results would be immediate and formidable.

Item: big business is again hopping into bed with Mugabe, according to Dianna Games of the SA Institute of International Affairs writing last week in Business Day: ‘Many South African companies believe that Zimbabwe is still a better and easier place in which to do business than many other African countries because of its strong business culture, diversified industrial base and relatively good infrastructure. And many companies are still making good, albeit often declining, profits.’

Pointing out that more than two dozen large SA corporations employ about 20 000 Zimbabweans in mining, retail, franchising, commercial agriculture and banking, Games concluded, ‘There may be no better time for investors to take a long, hard look at the opportunities that Zimbabwe presents right now.’

That was also a point made last year by Tony Hawkins, professor of business studies at University of Zimbabwe and well known to Financial Times readers: ‘South Africa has gained market share in exports, tourism and services. SA’s share of investment in Zimbabwe has also risen as there has been an element of bargain-basement buying by some mining and industrial groups.’

Added Hawkins, ‘SA is also taking significant skills from the country, especially scarce black skills in health, education, banking, engineering and IT. It would be too much to say that SA has benefited in net terms, but there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that it is securing some gains from the crisis.’

Reflecting business confidence in Mugabe’s ability to hold on, two large multinational firms – South Africa’s Implats and the French bank BNP Paribas – last week announced, respectively, a R1.7 billion platinum investment (36% of which represents a gift to government for crony ‘empowerment’) and a R332 million credit secured by future nickel export revenues.

Another new Mugabe ally is the brutal dictator of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who visited Zimbabwe in March and whose country’s oil began flowing to Zimbabwe last week. Nguema wants the British mercentary Simon Mann extradited from Harare, where Mugabe’s forces are holding him after he transited Harare in a 2004 attempted coup bid.

Is pressure being applied by the West, as Mugabe often claims? Aside from an arms embargo on the government, the EU’s smart sanctions apply to just 100 key ZANU(PF) leaders, and take the form of travel bans and a threat to freeze any assets they place in European banks. There are similar provisions in the US, but these countries together provide in excess of R1 billion in aid to Zimbabwe, largely for food and humanitarian relief.

No one calls for that aid to be turned off because it feeds millions of people for whom Zimbabwe’s own farms – especially the small-scale and peasant sectors – generated maize surpluses, prior to the more general meltdown of the country’s agricultural infrastructure. The starvation threat has less to do with the takeover of white farms and more to do with the general lack of access to rural transport, fuel, pesticides, fertilizers, farm implements, electricity and the like.

What about a renewed diplomatic initiative from the West? A good reflection of the US imperial agenda in Zimbabwe may be last week’s report in a Harvard University journal authored by Todd Moss and Stewart Patrick of Washington's Centre for Global Development.

Moss and Patrick argue against existing sanctions: ‘The US and EU may need to review their sanctions legislation to ensure that it does not create a legal problem or disincentive for re-engagement or private investment.’

They also argue that a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe government will ‘have to deal with an inherited external debt of some $5 billion. Clearing arrears will be the first step, but the arrears accrued within the past few years account for nearly half the current debt stock, suggesting that some special dispensation may need to be found with the multilateral institutions and the Paris Club of creditors.’

In contrast, the position advocated by civil society campaigners, such as the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development and Zimbabwe Social Forum, is that the vast but useless 1990s loans advanced by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank should be completely cancelled.

Indeed, following the lead of the Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, Zimbabwean civil society may need to more publicly advocate serious sanctions, given the lack of pressure from opportunistic politicians and businesses.

Patrick Bond, director of the UKZN Centre for Civil Society in Durban, is coauthor of the book Zimbabwe's Plunge - and author of Uneven Zimbabwe. This article first appeared in The Mercury on June 7.)

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

Eve Odete, part of the SOAWR coalition delegation, reports back on the events in Banjul where Niger's rejection of the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa is roundly condemned. Despite that set back, support for the protocol grows, boosted in particular by the launch of the joint publication from SOAWR and the AU Commission of 'Breathing life into the African Union Protocol Women's Rights in Africa'.

The Seventh Summit of the African Union and its preliminary sessions, the Executive Council and Permanent Representative Council, has just ended in the Smiling Coast, the Gambia. As I look back at the press coverage during the summit, I scan a rainbow of grandiose arrivals including the outgoing Secretary General of the UN, Koffi Anan, the President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Thai diplomat, and the Chinese investor. Beyond the official Summit theme, Rationalization of Regional Economic Communities and Regional Integration, and the evidently charged geo-political agenda, did anything else happen?

Niger in Focus

‘The action by the national Parliament of Niger to reject, in its entirety the AU protocol on the Rights of African Women sets a dangerous precedence for the rest of Africa’ lamented Madame Djatou Traore, president, CONGAFEN Niger. Such was the clarion call by Solidarity for the Rights of Women in Africa, SOAWR, throughout the Summit, and it resonated among key policy makers. Caroline Osero-Agengo of SOAWR in congratulating the Gambian National Assembly for lifting the reservations on the Protocol called on the Vice-President Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs the Gambia to use the opportunity of the AU Summit to urge her counterpart in Niger to take steps to reverse the recent decision by the National Assembly of Niger. She said “for the millions of women and girls that continue to be stalked by the female genital mutilation and other harmful practices across Africa, the Protocol offers an opportunity to rectify the absence of laws against the harmful cultural practices’’ Is it the spirit of the Summit that generates an immediate commitment by Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy to urge the Speaker of the National Assembly of Niger to revisit the issue?

It is June 25 and the plenary room at the Kairaba Hotel is filled with over 100 women and men under the banner of the Solidarity for the Rights of African Women Coalition for a public symposium. I see faces from the previous day’s public forum also hosted by the African Center for Democracy and Human Rights. One after the other, participants dissects the Protocol. We hear painful stories of an aunt having to dissuade her niece from disfiguring herself through FGM and the joyful stories of a female excisor change profession to become a tailor. ‘’Nowhere is the dividing line between the past and the future more clear than the struggle to eradicate harmful cultural practices and to expand the power of women over their own bodies, assets and relationships.’’ Says Irungu Houghton. I note the sustained participation of the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Human Rights, Angela Melo, and hear her commit her good offices to urge member states to accelerate the ratification of the Protocol. Commissioner Melo singles out the National Assembly of Niger, deploring their recent action to reject, by a close vote in parliament, the Protocol in its entirety. She pledges to send a mission to Niger to persuade the government to rescind the decision. Commissioner Melo further deplores the lack of political will in Africa in advancing Protocol.

The long awaited, high profile public launch of the joint AU Commmission / SOAWR publication, and ‘Breathing Life into the AU protocol on Women’s Rights’ is here [1]. The ceremony attracts over 100 citizens and dignitaries from The Gambia and elsewhere in Africa attending the 7th Ordinary Summit of the African Union. In Launching the book, Her Excellency Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, calls for urgent public information campaigns for the women to understand and demand protection under the provisions of the Protocol. She commends the book to everyone present, all Government departments, NGOs, institutions of learning and individual women and men. ‘I encourage the organisers to translate into local languages and distribute the book far and wide’ She says.

In her speech during the launch, Winnie Byanyima, director, AU Gender, Women and Development Directorate, and moderator of the session, emphasizes the significance of the Protocol to the life of women in Darfur and reiterates the commitment of her Directorate to take into consideration their plight.

Ambassador Said Djinnit, Commissioner for Peace and Security Council applauds the ardent campaign by the women’s movement towards the development and the ultimate ratification of the Protocol. He reiterates his call to both men and women to sustain the efforts, and his firm belief in the rights of women and gender equality. He traces his personal experience as OAU Assistant Secretary General of working with women civil society leaders and Ambassadors to negotiate the adoption of a progressive and visionary Protocol. He closes by arguing, “You cannot transform a continent while keeping women away from decision-making. We need to develop alliances with each other.”

The book makes a clarion call for the universal ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol and is available from SOAWR members and the African Union Commission.

Common advocacy front is negotiated

The culmination of the AU pre-Summit Women’s Forum is a resolution adopted by the forum stating key policy messages for consideration by the AU [2]. The resolution is further strengthened when a joint AUC, SOAWR and FAS meeting agrees to consolidate their positions into one Resolution for submission to the Summit (see below). Adopted on 27 June 2006, the resolution addresses among others, the enforcement of the principle of gender parity in all key AU organs, the acceleration of the ratification of the AU protocol on the Rights of women, and the enhancement of human security in situations of conflict.

Further discussions with the Gender Directorate agree the consolidation of a common advocacy platform for the women’s movement in subsequent summits to ensure effective influencing of the AU agenda. Winnie further urges the women’s movement to strive to influence the summit agenda more proactively by negotiating common positions in line with the summit themes. A way of working to this end was agreed. I can’t agree more.

The visibility of the campaign during the summit is enhanced by several national and regional media hits following three well-attended press conferences and coverage of the high profile events. To cap this, and widely televised, is a green card issued to the vice president of the Gambia in honor of the exemplary role of the National Assembly in lifting all reservations to the Protocol.

In spite of my frustrations with flight connections to Banjul and the helicopter ride in Sierra Leone, I return home satisfied that the list of champions on the Protocol has grown.

* Eve Odete is Pan Africa Policy Officer for Oxfam GB.

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

[1] Breathing life into the African Union Protocol on Women's Rights in Africa is published jointly by SOAWR and the AU Commission, and can be ordered at http://www.africanbookscollective.com/

[2] Resolution Adopted at the pre-Summit Women's Forum in Banjul:

There is a significant risk that the Darfur Peace Agreement will collapse. The agreement does not resonate with the people of Darfur. On the contrary, on the ground, especially amongst the displaced persons, it meets more and more resistance.

The African Union on Monday launched the continent’s first court that gives states and people equal rights to challenge governments suspected of human rights violations or other infractions. Taking the podium and raising their right hands, 11 African legal experts pledged to "preserve, protect and defend" the African Charter of Human and People's Rights.

African leaders who were meeting in Banjul, The Gambia, say efforts would be deployed to integrate the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) into the African Union. The leaders of the NEPAD executive committee member countries made the announcement during the 7th AU Summit after having heard a report presented to them by the Secretariat a day ahead of the launching of the AU Summit of Heads of State and Government on July 1-2.

Hope that post-apartheid economic growth will translate into a better life for the poor is dying in the expanding squatter camps that ring Johannesburg, South Africa's bustling business centre. The poignancy of poverty in South Africa is that often the have-nots are within sight of the haves. In the case of Protea South, the settlement of 3,000 shacks adjoins the leafy suburb of Lenasia, with its large and heavily secured houses, clean streets and modern shopping complex.

A new report released by the Egyptian coalition opposition group Kifaya on 4 July says that corruption has infiltrated all aspects of Egyptian society and stands in the way of further social and economic development. "This report deals with corruption in the inclusive sense," says George Ishaq, Kifaya spokesman and coordinator. "It is diverse and includes that which is seen and that which is covered up. It includes the political and the cultural as well as the economic and the social. Corruption has become a social law."

Investigating the potential role of the state in Africa in promoting development in the era of globalisation, this book is a valuable addition to the ongoing debates about the role, nature and character of states in Africa. The volume argues that dogmatic faith in either state planning or markets is not sufficient; rather it is the quality of state involvement that is at stake.

African Painters - (http://africanpainters.blogspot.com/2006/06/suzanne-ouedraogo-from-burk…) comments on the work of Burkina Faso artist, Suzanne Ouedraogo who uses her art as a way of protesting against the practice of female circumcision. Her paintings present are a courageous, powerful picture of this horrendous violation of the female body. He accompanies the paintings with a poem on female circumcision by Nigerian poet, Chinwe Azubuike.

Egyptian Chronicles - Egyptian Chronicles (http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2006/07/bravo-aisha-first-egypti…) writes in praise of Egypt’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Aisha Abd El-Hady, a woman she had formerly thought of as a hypocrite. So why the change in attitude towards the Minister?

“Abd El-Hady presented her resignation from her position as a minister for Labour and Employment in the ministry to the Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif as she can't work anymore in this Cabinet who doesn't care for the 5 million workers who are going to lose their jobs because of the privatisation policy . The man who is responsible in privatisation in Egypt now is Minister Mahmoud Mohi El-Din, minister of investment , he is working on selling 365 public companies to the private sector. Already Abd El-Hady accused Mohi El-Din to ignore President Mubarak 's orders in protecting the workers rights”.

Abd El-Hady is an interesting woman. She only completed her education up to primary school level yet was able to hold her ground amongst the higher educated members of the Cabinet. She worked her way up starting as a factory worker which was one of the reasons why many Egyptian workers were disappointed with her previous lack of interest in their plight.

The Moor Next Door - Moor Next Door (http://wahdah.blogspot.com/2006/07/spirits-of-63.html) returns to the Algerian revolution that took place between 1955-1962 and celebrates the country’’s independence on the 5th July 1962.

“The Algerian Revolution was a revolt against exclusion, under-representation, racialism, displacement, colonialism, ignorance and all the other pretty words that come with battles in the name of rights. Algerians today, hold all of these notions close to their hearts, no matter what their political persuasion may be. The Revolution was a diverse one, claimed by former "assimilationists" fed up with the inability of the colonial system to extend the rights of man to Algerian Muslims, pan-Arab nationalists, socialists, Marxists, communists, Islamists wishing to reinstate the Islamic political order in a Muslim land, Amazigh Berberists wishing to bring equality and prestige to their people, the everyday men and women of Algerian wishing to finally know what equality and opportunity felt like, and many other interest groups.”

He writes that although the Algerian revolution could be described as a “Jihad” it was not one of those Jihad’s or “mass murder, rape, pillage, and bigotry that have ravaged the world in recent years.” It is a revolution based on patriotism and nationalism driven by an intense desire for independence and freedom.

Sotho - Sotho (http://sotho.blogsome.com/2006/07/01/francais-et-immigres/) writes a piece on the racist language used by the media when speaking about French immigrants and Black French people. He uses the commentary on the world cup to explain his point.

“Paper and television personalities are regularly accused of saying things like, “the Frenchman came from behind to win the race,” but “the Guadeloupean fell behind and never posed a threat to his opponents.” And they’d be talking about the same person, albeit at different times. It is surely subconscious but nevertheless shows deep-rooted ill-feeling toward the concept of fraternité.”

He goes on to give a number of examples of specific comments made about the Tunisians, Ghanaians and the French team which has mostly Black players.

French right wing National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen also made a comment about the number of Black players in the French team to which one player responded. We are French. We won the World Cup and the European Cup and we did it for France so what is the point of your comment.

afrika-aphukira - Afrika-aphukira (http://mlauzi.blogspot.com/2006/07/african-football-global-inequality-a…) also comments on the World Cup and the African media’s response to why no African teams progressed beyond the early stages of the tournament. He believes the analysis used reflect the usual two themes reflected in Africa’s media: self-blame and awe of Europe.

“Virtually no analysis I have so far looked at mentions broader issues of global, historical and political injustice and inequality, in how world cup berths are allotted in the different FIFA confederations. In fact, a Rwandan columnist repeats a common refrain about how Africans always blame colonialism for their ills, when no such thing has even been mentioned in any of the analyses and comments, whose uniting feature has been blaming African teams for lacking self-confidence and resources. Such is the strength of the reluctance to examine African problems in their broader context that blaming colonialism is considered not only taboo, it is brought up even when nobody mentions it.”

He believes there is a need to look at the way the World Cup is organised particularly the allocating of slots and the fact that all World Cups with the exception of Japan and Korea in 2002 have been played either in Europe or South America. For example

"The continent of Europe has 51 national football associations, and has 14 (15 in 2002) world cup finals slots. Africa, which has 52 member associations, has only 5 slots, an improvement from 1978 when Africa was accorded only one slot. "

And so it continues. However I believe one of the main issues for African teams in the World Cup is that many of Africa’s best play for European teams having gained citizenship of various countries. In addition the financial resources and therefore the training facilities are totally inadequate. In the case of the African Nations Cup many of the Africans playing in Europe did not even want to leave their league teams to come and play for their countries. Could one imagine a European or South American player acting in this way? I doubt it.

Building the Nation - Building the Nation (http://2bnileavenue.blogspot.com/2006/07/comment-4-dennis-thoughts-on-g… ) responds to a post on Ugandan blog, Country Boyi in which he writes a vitriolic piece on homosexuality in Uganda with the usual comments on it being “un African” and “gay people are headed for hell”. Building the Nation writes

“Firstly, because Dr. Sylvia Tamale advocates for the rights of people who are gay does not make her gay, period. It does not mean she wants to fuck another woman, to borrow a phrase from you. It just means she’s standing up for what she believes to be a marginalised section of society. Something we all should do for people we personally believe to be marginalised. For example, I am a proponent of the – now stillborn - Domestic Relations Bill (DRB). Does that make me a woman?”

It is excellent that this debate on homosexuality is taking place in the African blogosphere. Previously there have been discussions in the Kenyan and Nigerian blogospheres and now in Uganda. Let us hope the discussions continue as it is only through debate on the issues that transformation will take place eventually.

Harowo.com - Harowo.com (http://harowo.com/2006/07/03/somalia-washingtons-warlords-lose-out) comments on the role of the USA in supporting the coalition of warlords under the name of “Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism (ARPCT).

According to the writer, the CIA have been paying the Alliance between $100,000 and $150,000 a month via their Nairobi office. He explains the response by the people of Somalia to the victory of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)

“Somali reactions to the ICU's victory have been mixed. On one hand there is relief at the prospect of a respite from constant battles in the capital, but for some this is tempered by fears of the imposition of draconian interpretations of sharia (Islamic) law. .....
Among many though there is hope that the ICU will at least provide a degree of stability in a country that has been gripped by violent conflict between rival warlords since the 1991 ouster of military dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. He took power in 1969 and had originally aligned Somalia with the Soviet Union, but the alliance was broken when Barre came into conflict with Ethiopia in 1977.
Washington stepped in to fill the gap and supported Barre until he was toppled in 1991 by rebel forces led by General Mohammed Farah Aidid, Barre's former intelligence chief. In the wake of Barre's overthrow, the country was carved up by rival warlords. Under the guise of a UN-backed "humanitarian mission", Washington dispatched 20,000 US troops to Somalia in 1992.”

The fact that the CIA website lists Somalia’s resources as uranium plus other natural minerals does of course question the motives behind the involvement of the USA in Somalia both now and in the past.

Black Looks - Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/07/1906-2006_-_history_still_repeats_its… ) builds on last weeks interview withGeorges Nzongola-Ntalaja in Pambazuka News in which he spoke on the “strategic importance of the DRC” and on the probable outcome of the elections at the end on this month. Black Looks takes an historical route based on the political biography of Patrice Lumumba and returns to 18 and the beginnings of Leopold of Belgium’s rule in the Congo around 1906 when he first invited and international monopoly capital to the country and sold off mineral mining and agricultural rights.

“Firstly land was given to the mining companies; secondly land was used for the creation of a system of national parks; thirdly huge tracks of farmland were given to white settlers. But ultimately it was the mining sector that took control of the country and remains in control today. Two regions, the Katanga and Kivu provinces most affected by the above distribution of land have also been the most affected by war and conflict throughout the history of Congo.”

She concludes that Nzongola-Ntalaja’s prediction that nothing will change is a correct assessment of the post election period. The multinationals will continue to exploit the country, the corrupt leaders to exploit the people and the people to remain in poverty and victims of the various marauding militias wondering the countryside.

A year on from the promises to ‘Make Poverty History’ at the G8 Gleneagles summit and the Live 8 concerts, there is little agreement on what has been achieved in terms of long-term poverty alleviation in Africa. However, there is a consensus that African governments need more international monitoring and regulation even at the expense of short-term economic development. The focus seems to have shifted from economic assistance to lecturing African governments on democracy, good governance and anti-corruption.