Civil society groups say European Union plans to launch a trust fund to disburse aid to Africa independently of the World Bank will contribute little to eradication of poverty. The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, launched its plan Thursday (February 9) to fund development in Africa through the European Investment Bank (EIB), the soft lending arm of the EU. The fund, which should be operational by June, will mainly provide subsidised low-interest loans to finance water, energy, transport and telecoms infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on cross-border projects.

Development Deadline 2015 is a weekly e-newsletter from Inter Press Service (IPS) providing readers with "independent news reporting on how the Millennium Development Goals are influencing policy decisions and making a difference on the ground."

Ministers Kiraitu Murungi and George Saitoti are finally out of the Kenyan Cabinet following unrelenting pressure on President Kibaki to sack ministers implicated in corruption. Kibaki announced in a live television address to the nation that he had accepted the resignations of the two to pave way for investigations into the 16-year-old Goldenberg scandal and the Anglo Leasing affair whose details are still emerging.
* Related Link:
Kenya: Report on graft scandal made public
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51666

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said it is mounting an emergency operation to assist around 50,000 refugees in Algeria, after their homes and shelters in three refugee camps were washed away by torrential rains. In a statement from Algeria, UNHCR said it was planning an airlift of around 12,000 tents, 7,000 kitchen sets, 60,000 blankets and other living essentials to the camps, which house Sahrawi refugees who fled Western Sahara in 1975.

Over the past year, the number of Africans blogging has grown. However, women bloggers are still a minority in most country blogospheres except for Kenya were there is almost a 50/50 split between men and women. To try and redress this, two Nigerian women bloggers (Oreoluwa Somolu of Ore’s Notes - http://orenotes.blogspot.com/) and Sokari Ekine of Black Looks - http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks) initiated a blog mentoring project to encourage more Nigerian women to blog. Initially the project there will be a pilot project in Lagos, Nigeria which will consist of 15 participants and 20-30 mentors and will run for 6 months. For more information and if you are interested in mentoring on the project contact sokari(at)fahamu.org

Rwandan Survivors - (http://rwandansurvivors.blogspot.com/2006/02/survivors-this-posting-was…) publishes a moving statement by a 26 year old genocide “survivor” on her/his own suffering. S/he questions the use of the term “Survivor”.

“You are called genocide survivor but actually you are not! You just try to move along with others without any basis just like a shoot trying to grow up without roots.”

S/he goes on to urge the international community to stop debating on whether genocide is taking place or not in Darfur and Act:

“The policy of the international community is ‘No interest, no emergency’. They left people dying during the genocide then came back after to clean the bloody place with their nutritional and medical assistance to the injured survivors…Why should people waste time arguing on either if it is genocide or not in Darfur? Any second wasted results in a waste of lives.”

This is Zimbabwe (Sokwanele)- This is Zimbabwe (http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/352) considers whether the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) of Zimbabwe is involved with the infighting amongst the opposition party, MDC (Movement for Democratic Change). There are two main conspiracy theories. The first accuses the vice president of the MDC of conniving with South African President Mbeki to undermine MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The second theory is that Tsvangirai colluded with ZANU PF and betrayed the MDC by pulling out of the Senate elections in exchange for a “reward”.

Sokwanele however poses a third theory which they explain in detail:

“The view we put forward here is that both sides in the intense leadership struggle are thereby playing right into the hands of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) which not only benefits from the resulting division and confusion but actually planned it that way. And the meticulous planning began many years ago”

They conclude by calling on Zimbabweans to end the “personality cult” and stop following leaders who have proved themselves flawed.

Grandiose Parlor - Grandiose Parlor (http://grandioseparlor.blogspot.com/2006/02/bridge-in-60-days.html ) reports on a a bridge that was built in 60 days in Anambra State, Eastern Nigeria.

The bridge was built by a retired engineer and the men and women of the Ozubulu village and was financed by the Worldwide Organisation of Women. Discussing his experience, the engineer, Dr Strong writes:

“For many reasons this has been a very good project to show how the people themselves can get up and do for themselves when it is obvious the government will not or can not do what they wish for a better life. Here is a marvellous bridge birthed in a jungle across a muddy river and swamp. Just as easy it could have been a school, a clinic, a library, a community palm oil processing plant, a cassava starch extraction plant, a maze of fish raising ponds, a complex of chicken houses.”

Just imagine if this was replicated across the country and across the continent?

Rantings of a Sandmonkey - Rantings of a Sandmonkey (http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/5-sightings-2-realizatio…) reminds us that cartoons are still very much a part of the Middle Eastern blogosphere conversations. He publishes a list of things he saw in down town Cairo for example.

“A big banner that informs the Muslim population that Denmark - all of it apparently - are going to burn the Koran - yet again - this Wednesday, and in retaliation we all should fast on Friday and then pray to god against them when we break the fast. (Not kidding!)”

And so it goes on.

AfroHomo - AfroHomo (http://afrohomo.blogspot.com/2006/02/afrohomo-memories-004-fear.html) continues his memoirs of growing up gay in Nigeria:

“In my nightmare, I am walking down a Lagos street and street hoodlums attack me with sticks and blows. Finally, they put a tire around me, douse me with gasoline and set me on fire. My mum runs towards me in tears, too late to save me from the flames…
My nightmare is not a fantasy. About three years ago, I woke up in my dorm room (during the year I spent at a Nigerian university) to screams of pain. A guy was getting severely beat-up and dorm rooms were emptying out - everyone wanted to see the show. I stood watching the beating for a while, in that horror-fascination state of mind. I stood watching until I asked one of my friends: ‘What did he do?’"

He concludes that at least he is lucky as many of his friends are probably still “walking Lagos streets, conforming on the outside but bearing dangerous secrets”. Being gay in Africa is a living torture and as he explains:

“I can't be happy as long as gay Africans live under dangly swords. Increasingly, I see GLBT activism as my life's calling. Maybe that's why god has blessed me - to fight for gay Africans that may not be able to fight for themselves. It's a scary path to tread but…”

Chippla - Chippla (http://chippla.blogspot.com/2006/02/talibanization-of-northern-nigeria…) writes on the Tablinisation of Northern Nigeria. Kano, once a bustling cosmopolitan city, is now regressing “thanks to in no small part to Islamic religious fundamentalism” and the introduction of Sharia law:

“The federal government of Nigeria is now accusing the Kano State government of ‘seeking foreign funding to train an Islamic militia’, according to reports from the Nigerian Guardian (not archived). The Nigerian Minister of Information is reported as saying that the Kano State government is trying to turn the Hisbah into a parallel police force.”

Chippla agrees that Islam, like other religions, has a role to play in the country, but points to ”the danger of politicians hijacking religious teachings and dogma for selfish use.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre (ARSRC) calls for applications to its annual Sexuality Leadership Development Fellowship (SLDF) Programme. The Fellowship is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria from July 10– 28, 2006.

John Christensen comments on the issue of capital flight and tax avoidance, a massive drain on African’s resources. In the face of a reluctance by international organisations to address the issue, and the weakness of national efforts in the face of global capital, civil society will have a vital role to play in pushing for change.

Last month two global meetings painted two very different portraits of Africa. In the luxury Swiss holiday resort of Davos, shielded by a ring of steel fences and security forces, finance ministers, corporate executives and assorted celebrities gathered at the World Economic Forum. They talked vaguely about the responsibility to bolster aid and reduce the debt of African nations. The Africa portrayed at Davos was an indebted, broken continent whose impoverishment can only be solved by the generosity of donors in the North.

Four thousand kilometers away, civil society groups from Africa and beyond came together in the Malian capital of Bamako for the African leg of the World Social Forum, a vibrant grassroots alternative to the suits and platitudes of Davos. Five days of meetings addressed alternative solutions to poverty and disease across the global South. In these meetings a different Africa emerged: a region not simply in need of external resources, but with immense wealth potential of its own, being drained at an ever increasing rate with the collusion of the world's wealthiest countries and companies.

This was the message of the Tax Justice Network (TJN), an international coalition of researchers and campaigners who spoke at packed meetings in Bamako on capital flight and tax avoidance. The remarkable interest in these ordinarily dry topics shows how tax is emerging as an overlooked but central issue in the fight against poverty. The figures speak for themselves: TJN's own research estimates that a staggering $11.5 trillion has been siphoned 'offshore' by wealthy individuals, held in tax havens where they are shielded from contributing to government revenues. The benefits from taxing this wealth would far outweigh any realistic amount of foreign aid from those countries. If the income from this offshore wealth was taxed at the moderate rate of 30%, the resulting revenue - around $255 billion annually - could finance the United Nations Millennium Project in its entirety. Put simply, making the rich pay their due taxes could immediately fund measures to halve world poverty.

In common with the rest of the developing world, Africa suffers particularly acutely from this wealth drain. Around 30% of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP is moved offshore. As several studies have suggested, this rate of capital flight means that Africa - a continent we are continually told is irrevocably indebted - may actually be a net creditor to the rest of the world. Whilst Africa's wealth flows to Monaco, Switzerland, Jersey and London, those who lose out are the populations of African nations whose dwindling tax revenues cannot support government spending on health, AIDS programmes, education, infrastructure and communication. Meanwhile the banking secrecy maintained by the world's bankers and accountants in tax havens helps business and political elites to plunder resources across the continent, providing a secure cover for them to launder the proceeds of political corruption, fraud, embezzlement and illicit arms trading.

Astonishingly, international organisations including the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund have not pursued international action to stem the hemorrhaging of Africa's wealth. Instead, they have encouraged developing African nations to drop business and trade taxes further, in a desperate bid to encourage investment from multinational corporations accustomed to channeling their wealth through tax havens. The result is that ordinary people shoulder more of the tax burden through sales taxes, while homegrown national businesses cannot compete with giant international corporations which can avoid tax through the international movement of capital and assets.

National initiatives are beginning to work against this African plunder. Nigeria's heroic Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is working to recover some of the wealth lost to tax havens through corruption and the tax evasion of multinational oil companies. And last November, South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, called for wider measures against multinationals' aggressive tax avoidance.

But national initiatives alone are weak in the face of mobile, global capital. International cooperation on tax is urgently necessary - and if international institutions like the UN and the OECD will not take action, global civil society must force them to do so. Bamako saw a bold proposal: to form a continent-wide Tax Justice Network for Africa, to be launched at the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. This will be a major step in a new global development struggle, at whose forefront should be African activists and campaigners.

Davos and Bamako are worlds apart. Uniting them, though, is not just philanthropic promises over debt and aid, but a global theft which sees vast African wealth secreted away in bank accounts and offshore trusts in Switzerland and beyond. Stopping that theft, and taxing it for the benefit of African populations, will go a long way towards ending the poverty of Mali and its neighbours.

* John Christensen, is the director of the Tax Justice Network's International Secretariat. He is a development economist and former economic adviser to the UK and Jersey governments.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Former Senegalese prime minister, Idrissa Seck, was released from prison on Tuesday after more than seven months in detention on charges of corruption and threatening state security. An investigating panel of the Senegalese high court ordered the release after examining charges against the 46-year-old one-time top ally of President Abdoulaye Wade.

"Africans are angered by the continued unwillingness of African rulers to deal with human rights issues. The fact that they held the latest summit in Sudan in the first place shows their disdain for human rights", said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of Zimbabwe's National Constitutional Assembly. "The fact that they are passing the African Union chairmanship to a coup leader in Congo makes them laughable. Where do Africans turn now?" The pessimism of dashed hopes has an especially bitter taste. In July 2002 the reinvention of the African Union (AU) amid the ashes of the discredited forty-year-old Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was hailed internationally as a triumph. It was seen as a vital leap forward into the 21st century for the "dark continent" – with its tragic millions of poverty-stricken, starving, diseased peoples, and its elite coterie of portly, bemedalled, ageing dictators.

Globalization intellectuals and political activists, including Marxist economists and organizers, came together to meet on Jan. 18-19 in Bamako, Mali, just before the polycentric World Social Forum opened in this city. The gathering, which was not an official WSF activity but whose invitees also participated in many WSF discussions, issued a statement at the end of the meeting: the Bamako Appeal. The appeal involves promoting discussion and action on a series of points outlining major problems for humanity. These include the need to build a workers' united front and to struggle against imperialist domination and U.S. military hegemony; the problems of peasant societies under threat of destruction from subsidized competition; democratic management of media and cultural diversity; and the struggle against neoliberal and market-driven policies.

* To read the rest of this article visit http://www.workers.org/2006/world/bamako-appeal-0202/

* To read the Bamako appeal, click on the link below.

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Haitians put aside fears of violence and voted by candlelight into the night on Tuesday (February 7) in the first presidential election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled two years ago. Three people died, including a policeman lynched by a mob, and voting began more than three hours late in many areas, infuriating poor supporters of former President Rene Preval, a one-time Aristide ally favored to win. But with U.N. peacekeepers keeping watch, polling stations stayed open several hours after the official 4 p.m. (2100 GMT) closing time so everyone still in line could vote.

Chad's fight against AIDS is set to be one of the main victims if a standoff between the government and the World Bank drags on, senior UN officials have warned. The World Bank recently suspended all its loans to the impoverished landlocked country because of a decision by President Idriss Deby to tamper with an agreement governing how revenues from its fledgling oil project can be spent.

Expressing “serious concern” at the volatile situation in Côte d’Ivoire, where United Nations offices were looted and destroyed last month, the Security Council today (February 6) authorised extra troops to boost the strength of the UN peacekeeping mission in the West African nation. Reacting to Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s calls last week for more military personnel, the Council unanimously agreed to a temporary redeployment of troops from the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL), but the numbers fell short of Mr. Annan’s request for an infantry battalion and a police unit.

The mace, the symbol of the Kenyan Parliament's authority, has been flown to London to be polished at a cost of about Ksh. 2 million (about $28,500), a local daily in Kenya has learnt. And the Criminal Investigations Department is now investigating the manner in which the mace left Parliament. An official who did not want to be named, said polishing the mace in London would cost the National Assembly Ksh. 2 million yet the same work could be done by a local goldsmith for about Ksh. 20,000 (about $285). The Parliamentary Service Commission, which authorises expenditure of more than Ksh. 1million was not aware of the development.

Building on the first two White Papers this new White Paper on International Development will set out what the UK government will do - in developing countries, in the UK and internationally to translate the promises of 2005 into better lives for poor people in poor countries. The new White Paper will focus on three central themes: what can we do to reduce poverty and deliver development more quickly; what policies are needed in the UK and internationally to create the conditions necessary for reducing poverty; how can the international development system be reformed so that it delivers better results for development, and be more responsive to the needs of poor people.

Produced by Radio Dialogue, Taxi Tunes is a series of radio cassettes aimed at educating the people of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on various issues that affect them, including health, sexuality, environmental responsibility, and governance issues. Through distribution to drivers of kombis (taxis), Taxi Tunes are designed to prompt changes in attitudes among Zimbabweans, particularly young people.

Britain will grant the Tanzanian government £310 million ($542.5 million) over the next three years for its poverty reduction programme. The grant will make Tanzania one of the biggest UK aid recipients in the world. Unlike in neighbouring East African countries, the money is direct government- to-government support and is meant to be spent on water, health and education projects. The new money follows an agreement between the Tanzanian government and donors on January 14 when the Partnership Framework Agreement was signed.

Yebo Gogo - (http://americanafrican.blogspot.com/2006/02/mbeki-no-third-term.html) comments on Thabo Mbeki’s decision not to run for a third term.

“I think history will view Thabo Mbeki kindly. South Africa's president had had to fill seemingly unfillable shoes when he took over from Nelson Mandela, but he's turning out to be as good - and in many cases, better - as Mandela”

Unfortunately Mbeki stands alone amongst African leaders on this issue. Chippla - Chppla (http://chippla.blogspot.com/2006/02/mbeki-obasanjo-and-third-term.html) writes that unlike Mbeki, President Obasanjo has been conspicuous by his refusal to deny claims that he intends to run for a third term despite overwhelming public opposition.

“The option of a third term for the president has been dropped down as one of the key issues to be discussed over an amendment to the Nigerian constitution. This move was taken by the Parliamentary committee charged with overseeing the review of the constitution. Without a doubt, strong public opposition must have had a hand in this. Mr. Obasanjo, who is undoubtedly out of touch with the reality on the ground in Nigeria, must have been very surprised by the legions of people who strongly opposed an amendment to the Nigerian constitution to allow him to stay in office a day longer than that allowed for by the constitution.”

He concludes that Mbeki could do Nigerians a favour by teaching him how to answer questions.

Zimbabwean Pundit - Zimpundit (http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/quiet-diplomacy-disquietly-unrave…) also has an Mbeki story. This time it concerns the bi-lateral relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe. In an interview Mbeki admitted “that he failed to normalise relations between Zimbabwe’s feuding political parties”. Zimpundit also questions the timing of the admission.

“The timing of Mbeki's admission of failure comes at a rather curious juncture given that rumors are rife that South Africa's government has ordered an immediate embargo on fuel and electricity exports to Zimbabwe.”

Africa Unchained - Africa Unchained (http://africaunchained.blogspot.com/2006/02/saga-of-failure-africa-unio…) comments on an article by Wilf Mbanga “The African Union: Whats in a name?”

“Africans are angered by the continued unwillingness of African rulers to deal with human rights issues. The fact that they held the latest summit in Sudan in the first place shows their disdain for human rights," said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of Zimbabwe's National Constitutional Assembly. "The fact that they are passing the African Union chairmanship to a coup leader in Congo makes them laughable. Where do Africans turn now?”

The Moor Next Door - Moor Next Door (http://wahdah.blogspot.com/2006/02/lebanese-burn-danish-embassy.html) comments on the riots and destruction taking place in Lebanon over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that has developed into anti-Christian violence.

“What is very troubling is that the protestors did not even stop at destroying the Danish embassy, they stoned the St. Maron Maronite church and destroyed property in a Christian neighborhood. It seems just to be mindless violence, overtaking any reasonable thought or condition. The violence against the Christian church and neighborhood likely stems from the longstanding inter-communal tension in Lebanon, and the "cartoon crisis" has probably not done much to alleviate these.”

Sub-ZeroBlue - Sub-Zero Blue (http://www.subzeroblue.com/archives/2006/02/no_to_violent_respon.html) also comments on the violence which he writes is continuing despite calls by Imams and religious leaders to stop.

“I too would like to strongly condemn these attacks and say that they are totally unacceptable. Violence is never a solution to anything. It just complicates things more and adds fuel to the fire.
This is not the way Islam, our religion of peace, tells us to respond! These violent reactions harm our religion more than the cartoons or any disrespect the west could show! This has to stop!”

Black Looks - Black Looks (http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2006/02/cameroon_tabloi.html) reports on the campaign by Cameroon tabloids to out prominent people who they claim are homosexual. Already some 50 people have been named in the witchhunt.

“The campaign, by what can only be described as ‘gutter press’, amounts to a witch hunt, a violation of human rights and an invasion of privacy. The suffering of LGBT people is occurring all over Africa. Everyone who is a defender of human rights needs to join together with the LGBT community in a show of progressive African solidarity.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to [email protected]

As the Comoros prepare for upcoming elections that will test their new power-sharing arrangement, South Africa is gearing up to do its part in ensuring the April elections are free and fair. Following a one-week fact-finding mission to assess the archipelago's readiness and requirements for the elections, a South African technical delegation presented their findings to the African Union's (AU) Peace and Security Committee.