The British government has drawn sharp criticism from development charities for taking a debt repayment from Nigeria which dwarfs the UK's entire annual aid budget for the African continent. The Group of Seven leading industrial countries, which met in London over the weekend, are soon to receive $12.4bn (£7.2bn) from Africa's most populous nation as part of a debt rescheduling package agreed this year by the Paris Club of creditor countries. As Britain is Nigeria's largest creditor, it is set for a windfall of £1.7bn in the coming months - considerably larger than the £1bn-a-year portion of the European Union rebate that Tony Blair has offered to give up.

The World Bank's bombast about good governance, corruption and reducing poverty is a farce. In reality, the World Bank is supporting an oil pipeline project that allows a notorious dictator to fill his pockets and thumb his nose at the world. Meanwhile, the people of Chad are bleeding themselves dry to repay a monumental debt without enjoying the fruits of a natural resource that is rightly theirs, says this article from the website of the Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the governor who jumped bail on money-laundering charges in the UK and escaped home is "shameful" to Nigeria. Mr Obasanjo was commenting for the first time in public on the case of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, although he has asked the UK for an explanation. Mr Alamieyeseigha was expelled from the ruling PDP party last Thursday. He also faces corruption charges in a special court, which can strip elected officials of their immunity.

As a Zimbabwean in the Diaspora, the Commonwealth stance on Zimbabwe is good but not good enough.

The toothlessness of Commonwealth gatherings is occasioned by the presence in the forum of African leadership that never come up with substantive ways to change tyrannical regimes.

Maybe due to the nature of the composition or constitution of this body, we witness the failure of a radical approach to grievances of human rights abuses. In recent years Zimbabwe has remained a matter of both regional and world concern, with strong recommendations coming mainly from the west but however moderated by the sympathizers of Robert Mugabe in personalities like Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania.

One gets a strong feeling that African leaders fear being criticized and that they would defend each other irrespective of the wrong. Politically the notion of being criticized brings with it the negative connotations of failure. Because many of the leadership in Africa has done something that could cause protracted legal battles, there is a phobia for former African leaders going through trial, hence many have either died in exile or run away.

This could well explain the silence from Africa.

The above should therefore help us to understand the stand taken at the Malta Commonwealth meeting which made Zimbabwe a reference in passing rather than an issue on the agenda.

It is in this context that I find the Commonwealth stand on Zimbabwe misplaced in terms of human sympathy for ordinary Zimbabweans, given the atrocities gone and going on in Zimbabwe under the Zanu PF regime. If Uganda and the Maldives shall be the subject of investigations on human rights abuses, one would have hoped that Zimbabwe should have been given the same treatment.

As the UN investigations have shown, beyond a doubt, that human rights are being breached in Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth must call on higher organizations to intensify the inquiry into the need for a free and fair elections to establish justice, freedom and a democracy.

On November 21 Kenyans went to the polls to vote 'Yes' or 'No' to a new constitution. When the final results were announced the 'No' vote represented by an orange on the ballot paper trounced the 'Yes' vote characterized by a banana. The draft charter of the constitution being voted over had been the subject of bitter divisions in the country in the lead up to the vote. Maina Kiai from the Kenyan Human Rights Commission reflects on the lessons learnt from the referendum. He writes that Kenyans have clearly shown that they believe in the right to vote as a way of making decisions and that once again voters have firmly rejected the culture of Moism - characterized by patronage and divide and rule tactics. Kenya's politicians should take notice of the vote and listen to the people, he says.

The people's verdict in rejecting, ostensibly, the draft constitution is more than clear. I say "ostensibly" because I am not convinced that voters were voting only on the merits or demerits of the draft. Indeed, I would guess that quite a significant number were expressing their views much more on the other issues that have dominated the processes since the Bomas meeting as far back as 2003, than on the substance of the document. These issues included the sense of protecting our own; sending a protest message; unhappiness with the process; use of state resources; presence of perceived corrupt people in the cabinet; arrogance of the small clique in power; and exclusion of most Kenyans from the "warmth" of power.

Moreover, the one-month period for civic education was plainly inadequate to reach the millions of Kenyans, and the political class - on both sides - hijacked the process. Since Bomas, the issues have been more about politics, power, ethnicity, revenge and protection of old and new corruption, than about delivering a new constitution. And it has been about controlling the process, leading to the birth of a new constitution for Kenya, with both sides doing whatever they can to thwart the other's purported (and real) control of the different processes that emerged since 2003.

Of course there are real issues of substance dividing both sides, but way beyond these issues, is the question of control of the process that leads to the final document. This is on the basis that whoever controls the process will get what they want in the final document without the need for compromise and negotiations. And it is in this sphere that the political class - on both sides - outwits us all in being able to then sell their personal views as views of communities.

It has been argued previously that it is critical to remove the process and control the issue from the table so that we can genuinely discuss a draft without too much politics, and also giving time to genuine and expansive civic education on substance rather than politics. Could it be, for instance, that the 30,217 people in Tetu constituency who voted 'Yes' were all convinced on the substance of the document, as opposed to the 255 who voted 'No'? Or that the 29,974 people in Nyando who voted 'No' all disagreed with the merits of the entire document, as opposed to the 260 who voted 'Yes'?

These margins reflect more a "protection" and "our own" mentality than anything else, for even in the closest of families, there are always real divisions and difference of opinions on fundamental issues and the only way to overcome these differences is to project a need for togetherness as protection against a larger outside enemy. And in our referendum, the tribe and its perceived interests, and power swamped the contents of the draft.

Given the control factors and processes that led to the Wako Draft, it was not surprising that politics topped the agenda.

It was in this context that the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights spent considerable time and energy with various political actors, advocating a formula on the process that would not be controlled by either side. We argued that the political class needed to accept that the country was divided and that there was virtually no Kenyan who would not be perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be supporting one side or the other; and that therefore the only possible way to move from process issues and into content was to get five to seven eminent, credible, distinguished African constitutional law experts who are above reproach, to then craft a draft from the various views and existing drafts that exist in the country. This would include the collation of views by the Ghai Commission, the Ghai, Bomas, Ufungamano, Law Society of Kenya and the Federation of Women Lawyers (Fida) drafts to mention a few.

We were clear that we needed credible African experts who understand the African reality well, but who were also above Kenyan political control. And to ensure that no one said they were "appointed" by one side or the other, and that there was an accountability mechanism for these experts, we suggested that we approach Archbishop Desmond Tutu, or former South African president Nelson Mandela, and ask them to select the experts. Unfortunately our pleas fell on deaf ears all round.

I believe that the referendum outcome vindicates this approach and by rejecting the draft, we now have another opportunity to reconsider it. The key to building bridges lies not in the actual substance of any draft constitution; it lies in the process and the confidence around the process that we can generate. That way, we can then have debates on the contents without politics and power games, knowing that we can never all agree on the substance but at least this would ensure that we have a proper debate without politics and power intervening.

It will be tempting for the 'No' side, composed of Kenyan politicians, to interpret the vote as a mandate for them to lead and direct the process for a new constitution. This will be the road to ruin in as much as the Kiraitu approach led to ruin.

There are also other lessons that we can draw from this exercise to guide us into the future and bind us together. Important among them is that Kenyans have shown that they firmly believe in the right to vote as an indispensable tool in making decisions, or to send messages to the political class. I was very impressed by the calm and maturity exhibited by voters - in contradiction to the politicians. Even in areas where there were clear divergent views, the level of respect for the other side was overwhelming. This, despite the best efforts of politicians to incite violence and ethnic hatred; inflame passions; and raise our emotions. Clearly, our leaders have some lessons to learn from us, and we should now increase the pressure on them to start listening to us, rather than vice versa. This means that we, the public, must start holding our leaders accountable for breaking the law in trying to incite us to violence; hold them accountable for the misuse of state resources; and reject attempts to excite ethnic hatred through hate speech, for a start.

A third key lesson is that Kenyans, yet again after December 2002, rejected firmly the culture of Moism that has pervaded the political class in the country. This is the culture of patronage, the culture that views state resources as personal, the culture of divide and rule. This is the culture of decision-making by a small kitchen cabinet on the basis of their personal, not national, interests. It is the culture of arrogance and forcing issues down our throats, without the courtesy of explaining, simply because the State machinery is in their hands. And it is the culture of handouts as though money is the only thing that matters to us all. After a reasonable start in January 2003, and for about a year, key players in the Kibaki regime reverted to Moism as a way to maintain themselves in power, forgetting the reform promises they had made. Well, the voters have reminded us all - and I hope the victorious 'No' side learns this - that Moism is not just about Daniel Moi as a person: It is about a way of governing that is not only disrespectful, but also selfish, and cliquish.

I also draw the lesson that Kenyans want far more bolder and deeper reforms than have been carried out so far. In the early days of this regime, the support for reforms was amazing, and the bolder the better. It is time for the government to get back on this track. That must mean a complete "zero-tolerance" to corruption; a sweeping of the civil service including the retiring of those public servants - no matter how good - who have reached retirement age. With 65 per cent of the population being under the age of 30, few things affect the image of the government than its reliance on "old" men, when what it needs is energy.

It also means revamping the police to make it friendly not fearful; working to change attitudes in the public service; focusing more on delivery and accessibility; and bringing in more and competent women reflecting the face of the country, to high positions of governance. This necessarily means bringing in people from outside the government to serve (as public service should) from the private sector and civil society.

More reforms must also include more transparency and accountability to the people of Kenya. Nothing, for example, prohibits various politicians, government departments and agencies from holding public accountability forums where they submit their records to public scrutiny over and above the accountability to parliament. There are many questions that many of us still have from the referendum that we would like answered. For instance, how much was actually spent by the two sides in the campaigns? And where did the funds come from, outside the veil of "well-wishers"? Honesty in answering these questions will perhaps begin building some bridges between us the people and the political class on both sides.

The people of this country have many things to say, some good and some bad. They need to be listened to, even if one does not agree with them, and no matter how painful.

* Maina Kiai is the chairman of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* Read the report 'How and Where the Cause of Justice was Defeated in the Referendum Draft Constitution of 2005' for background information on the referendum.
http://www.mazinst.org/referendumdraft.html

Last week we published the first in a series of articles about the current negotiations over Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states and the European Union (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30549). In the first article, Stephen Hurt looked at the shifting power relations in international trade between the ACP states and the EU, showing how the current EPAs can be understood by looking at the historical relationship between the various groupings. The second article on the subject is based on a report by EcoNews Africa and Traidcraft and looks at the impact of free trade on the lives of ordinary Kenyans.

"During the past two decades, we have seen Kenya slide systematically in to the abyss of underdevelopment and hopelessness." - Kenya government paper, June 2003

"We liberalised excessively in the 1990s because of the IMF and World Bank. But it de-developed us. The levels of education collapsed. The generation of the 1990s is the lost generation."- Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Kenya Minister for Trade, June 2005

In the 1970s Kenya's future looked bright. The economy was growing and industry starting to thrive. But the country's fortunes reversed when it was forced to follow the rigid economic regime imposed by rich nations. During the 1980s, in return for aid Kenya was put on a strict diet of 'liberalisation'. This involved reducing government support for farmers, cutting tariffs and de-regulating markets. Then in the 1990s as a condition of joining the WTO Kenya liberalised even further. Cheap, sometimes subsidized goods have flooded the markets - everything from clothes to shoes, sugar to steel.

The result has been a generation without education, massive unemployment and shattered industries. Thrown in to competition with powerful companies and countries, Kenya's fledgling industries and vulnerable farmers didn't stand a chance. Many went under. The government lost income and was prevented from stepping in to help. The human cost of the liberalisation experiment has been enormous. 56% of people live in poverty (48% in 1990); under 30% of people are in formal employment (78% in 1988); 48% of children are not vaccinated (31% in 1993), there are less children in school and an increase in child deaths.

More of the same

"A good government must be able protect the local industry. If it is not able to protect local industry it is killing its own people." - Tom Owuor, Trade Union Secretary, Kenya

Despite the evidence from countries like Kenya that unfettered trade liberalisation does not reduce poverty, rich nations continue to prescribe the same medicine. Conditions attached to aid and debt relief and WTO rules all force poor countries in to an economic straight-jacket.

Added to the table now are Economic Partnership Agreements. These are free trade deals that the European Union (EU) is negotiating with 77 of its former colonies (including Kenya) in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). The EU is demanding access to ACP markets for its goods. EPA negotiations started in 2002 and are due to come in to force in 2008.

From the start the ACP have voiced their objections. They say they are not strong enough to be thrown in to open competition with mighty EU industries. They've seen what liberalisation has done in the past. And they're not ready for more. But the EU isn't listening.

Many ACP countries rely on aid from the EU which makes it difficult for them to play hard ball. And with no alternatives on offer they have little choice. They may also have just one person negotiating several detailed aspects of trade on their behalf - they simply can't keep pace with the battery of EU negotiators.

Case studies from Kenya

Kenya has set out its own plan for cutting poverty. Traidcraft's studies reveal that an EPA will not help Kenya to hit its targets but would put millions of people at risk. And it's not just Traidcraft saying this. Even the EU's own independent study by Price Waterhouse Coopers says EPAs could cost Kenya dearly.

Slim pickings for cotton farmers

Meshack Oonje knows his cotton. He was once a wealthy cotton farmer and proud of his achievements. But now he struggles to get by. "We've seen a big change," says the elderly man, speaking from 30 years experience of farming.

Oonje remembers the three decades from independence to the 1980s when huge sums of money were spent developing cotton farming, ginneries, spinning and textile manufacturing industries. It was also a time when cooperatives were strong. "I farmed my 5 acres alone. From that I was able to raise money and pay dowry of 14 cows," says Oonje.

The profit from his small cotton farm provided enough for his 13 children. He bought another 11/2 acres of land, more cows and built two permanent houses with iron sheet roofing. "Everything I have has been built on cotton. But now there is no profit," he says, adding that farmers are paid less than half the suggested government price.

Oonje is amazed that cotton farmers do not get more support: "This cotton can turn our lives around in a couple of years. It's not one of those crops you wait for years to harvest. Cotton is the crop we know. We cannot abandon it," he says.

The industry is again in disarray as cheap goods flood the market and foreign direct investment relocates to cheaper destinations like China. Further liberalisation under free trade deals like EPAs threatens to destroy the investment in training and other initiatives that were meant to re-launch Kenya's cotton and textile industry.

The sector supports 140,000 people (compared to 200,000 in the 1980s). Production is currently at 20% of 1980s level despite the fact that increased production could benefit millions.

Free market 'madness' hurts dairy industry

John Njogu Wahome is earning a decent income for the first time in almost a decade. And he hopes the investment made in his cows will continue to pay off. Not so long ago a desperate Wahome fed fresh milk to the neighbourhood dogs. "Processors told us our milk was bad. What could we do? We gave it to the dogs," he says.

It's been a difficult few years for the Kenyan dairy industry. Cheap powdered milk imports glutted the market in the late 1990s and in 2001, putting local dairy farmers out of business. Unable to earn an income some farmers were forced to resort to extreme measures in a last-ditch effort to draw attention to their situation.

"Farmers threatened to burn down the processing factories in Nakuru," says Hellen Yego another dairy farmer. "Then they wrote to the government complaining of food dumping in Kenya." Following the protests and representations from farmers the Kenyan government increased tariffs on imported milk products limiting the flood of imports. This along with some internal restructuring has allowed the dairy industry to regain some muscle. "When we got into this free market, that was madness," Wahome says, "it hasn't helped me or any farmer of Kenya." Wahome's son had to miss five months of college in 2001 when the imports of milk were at their height.

Dairy farmers in Kenya understand that the industry has been inefficient in the past. But they believe given the time to regenerate, protected from the full impact of liberalisation the industry can compete internationally.

Stephen Ngososei has many years experience as an agriculturalist and a dairy farmer. He sees EPAs that may come on line in 2008 as a fresh danger coming in through another door. "The opening up of the market is a big threat. Our government must come up and say categorically that we are not ready." Having staggered back from one bout with liberalisation the Kenyan dairy industry may not survive another.

Hostages to free trade in sugar

Stranded hundreds of miles away from his home on the Tanzania border, Richard Omollo feels trapped. "It's as though I'm being held hostage in my own country," says the 34 year old Omollo who now depends on donations to survive.

Omollo worked as a clerk at Miwani Sugar Company until it was closed in 2000 after struggling for years against a flood of cheap imported sugar in the market. The best paying job he can find is casual work on nearby farms where he earns a mere 28p for working a 12-hour day. He needs to make at least #1.20 daily for his family to afford the absolute basics.

Primary education is free, but Omollo's four children do not go to school. "My children walk barefoot, they're nearly naked. So they can't go to school." Farmer Alice Akoth Okongo helps Omollo with food and a little cash when she can. Okongo blames sugar imports for the impossible struggles faced by the community in the area. "They want to kill us, to kill the factory."

Okongo says the way free markets are being handled has created mass poverty where it never existed before. The result is instability and soaring crime rates with prostitution becoming a way of life for women in Miwani who have no other means of earning an income.

Linet Muga is separated from her husband and survives with her five children on a three acre plot given to her by her parents. Linet and Alice are fighting hard to get the voice of the sugar farmers heard. In August 2004 they formed the Kenyan Women Sugar Cane Farmers Network. They are campaigning to their own government and wrote to the G8 ahead of the summit in Edinburgh.

But Linet cannot hide her anger: "The people making these rules should come to the ground and see how we live. We are very bitter. We are sad and we are stranded because we don't know what tomorrow will have for us. Will they come to help us when we are dead?"

The sugar industry directly employs 40,000 people and supports over 2 million people 20,000 jobs were lost during liberalization.

Back to basics for Kenyan leather industry

Peris Njeri sold a lot of leather when she first opened her small shop on the outskirts of Nairobi's central business district three years ago. The single mother bought leather supplies from several tanneries and retailed them to shoemakers for repairs.

Then the leather supplies became harder to find as tanneries across Kenya closed down. Njeri was eventually forced to find a place where she could do the tanning herself. "Business was not good. There was nowhere to get good quality leather," says Njeri who is a trained leather technologist. She turned to the Leather Development Centre in Kenya where she waits her turn for service. It is tiring and the chemicals are expensive, but this is Njeri's livelihood.

The number of people like Peris has swelled with the closure of the tanneries. In early 1990, there were 19 operational tanning companies in the country producing leather most of which was consumed by local leather industries. By 2005 that number was whittled down to 4. Many former employees are now struggling to set themselves up as independent tanners and traders, joining the queue with Njeri.

Closure of the tanneries is partly blamed on second-hand leather goods imports that have flooded the market following liberalisation in the 1990s. Workers like Peris are not blind to the huge changes that must be made locally but they are sure that with the right international policies the leather industry can be turned around. But in the current environment of unplanned and externally driven liberalisation the sector does not stand a chance.

90,000 jobs were lost in the sector after liberalisation of markets and government lost US$15.2 million in revenue. A revived sector could employ 100,000 more people.

Time for change

Further liberalisation under EPAs could devastate the lives of 750 million of the world's poorest people. Countries like Kenya are being forced to negotiate away their future and being wedged in to shoes which don't fit. Developing countries must be given the right to fight poverty using the economic tools that will work best for them. EPAs are up for review in 2006. It's vital we don't lose this chance to change the future of the negotiations.

The UK and EU governments must:

- respond to the concerns of ACP governments about EPAs; - push for changes to the EU's negotiating mandate so that they drop unfair demands for trade liberalisation and negotiations on issues that the ACP have already rejected - propose viable alternatives to EPAs that will help reduce poverty.

* This briefing is based on the report 'EPAs: through the lens of Kenya' produced by Traidcraft and EcoNews Africa. For a copy of the full report visit: www.traidcraft.co.uk/policy

* Please send comments to [email protected]

EDITORIAL:
- "The AIDS pandemic is part of the price we are paying for allowing unabated gender-based violence and inequality," says Stephen Lewis in a World Aids Day interview with Pambazuka News
- Is World Aids Day just a public relations exercise for governments and a funding opportunity for NGO's? asks the AIDS Consortium's Thomas Mathole
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- The second article in a Pambazuka News series on Economic Partnership Agreements looks at the impact of free trade on the lives of ordinary Kenyans
- No to Moism! Was the resounding cry of Kenya's recent referendum, says Maina Kiai from the Kenyan Human Rights Commission
- Current climate change talks are like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, write Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada
LETTERS: Reaping without sowing, smiling African women and an appeal to Meles Zenawi
BLOGGING AFRICA: What the bloggers of Africa are saying about World Aids Day
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem asks why some African rulers want to rule until they drop dead
BOOKS AND ARTS: A review of Resisting Racism and Xenophobia: Global Perspectives on Race, Gender and Human Rights
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: Gearing up to Hong Kong
CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: Eritrea and Ethiopia border tension simmers; Genocide and companies that do business in Sudan; Death toll mounts for Zimbabwe's Operation Murambatsvina victims
HUMAN RIGHTS: Human rights breaches by Uganda and Maldives demand commonwealth action; Four days in a Zimbabwean jail
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Hunger strike in Ethiopia; Museveni rival back in jail; Mugabe sweeps senate vote
WOMEN AND GENDER: Stopping domestic violence
DEVELOPMENT: Concern over WTO; Cotton farmers mobilise
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Lack of coordination, leadership leads to missed 3 by 5 target
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Two reporters arrested in continuing crackdown on media in Ethiopia
INTERNET&TECHNOLOGY: Can ICTs be used for peace?
FUNDRAISING AND USEFUL RESOURCES: Human Rights Fellows Program for Angola and Mozambique
JOBS: Intitule du poste : Correspondant regional pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest Pambazuka News

On World Aids Day 2005, UN Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa Stephen Lewis - answering questions from Pambazuka News - adds his voice to those telling western leaders to keep their promises made on fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, warning that 'resting easy' once promises are made is 'pure folly' and pointing to evidence of backsliding following G8 commitments earlier this year. In the interview, Lewis answers questions on the slow-footed global response to the epidemic, his often outspoken statements and where the 'big breakthrough' in the fight against HIV/Aids will come from. The gender dimension of the epidemic is a frequent theme, with Lewis concluding: 'I do think it's dawning on even the most regressive policy makers, though, that the AIDS pandemic is part of the price we are paying for allowing unabated gender-based violence and inequality. But that dawning awareness is excruciatingly slow, and we just don't have time for incremental progress. Entire countries run the risk of being depopulated of women!'

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The theme of World Aids Day 2005 is 'Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise'. On World Aids Day 2005, what would you like your message to be about the fight against HIV/AIDS?

STEPHEN LEWIS: Without a doubt, I'd want to add my voice to those urging western leaders to keep the promises they've already made - including the solemn commitments of financial resources proffered as recently as last July, at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles. We are at a turning point, and the level of resources brought to bear on AIDS will decide which way we turn. It's now clear, though, that resting easy once promises of aid are made is pure folly: we needn't look further for evidence of backsliding on commitments than the replenishment conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, held just two months after the G8's promises to Africa were announced. In spite of the pledge to increase aid to Africa to $50 billion annually by 2010, and notwithstanding the G8's statement in support of universal HIV/AIDS treatment - that is, access to antiretroviral drugs for all who need them - the donors dealt a crippling blow to the Global Fund in September, giving it roughly half of the money it needs for 2006 and 2007. So yes, I think "keep the promise" is a timely message, and one that bears repeating over and again until it sinks in.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In a passage from your book 'Race Against Time' you say the following: "I'll devote every fiber of my body to defeating this viral contagion, but I cannot abide the willful inattention of so much of the international community. I cannot expunge from my mind the heartless indifference, the criminal neglect of the last decade, during which time countless people have gone to their graves - people who should still be walking the open savannah of Africa." What, in your mind, causes this inattention towards HIV/AIDS? Why are people able to read or hear about the pandemic, yet do so little about it? And how do politicians and policy makers justify their inaction?

STEPHEN LEWIS: Frankly, it's a mystery to me. I didn't understand when the world stood by and allowed the genocide in Rwanda to unfold before our eyes, and I can't comprehend now how it's humanly possible to do so much less than the minimum required to end the suffering inflicted by AIDS.

I think I understand why it is that such dramatic natural disasters as the tsunami provoke outpourings of concern: sudden catastrophes, particularly when they're captured on camera, attract attention and strike a sympathetic chord. With a surprise calamity of that magnitude, we suddenly see the world turned upside down, and follow the natural instinct to set things right again. The AIDS pandemic, on the other hand, is a long, drawn-out catastrophe. Although its mortality rates dwarf the tsunami's, which claimed some 200,000 lives compared with over 25 million deaths to AIDS so far - in an odd way, it seems that the very characteristics that make AIDS the worst plague in recorded history also mitigate against an urgent response. The inexorable nature of the AIDS pandemic, its slow-motion destruction, its longevity, its enormity: these are all characteristics that distinguish AIDS from other emergencies. For those in its grip, of course, the past history or projected future of the pandemic are of no consequence. For them, the suffering and death they face is the most urgent of emergencies.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: You have been vocal in your criticism of the policies and actions (or inactions) of many governments, both in the West as well as Africa. World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies have also come under attack for their inability to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic appropriately. Indeed, the very organization that you represent, the UN, and its leaders, have been fair game. Usually this type of criticism comes from outside of these organizations, but rarely from inside. Others in positions like yours are rarely willing or able to be so analytical and forthright when it comes to questioning these superpowers - how did you come to your analysis, and how are you able to be so vocal, without making enemies/getting fired?

STEPHEN LEWIS: My analysis is uncomplicated: with a staggering emergency like AIDS, the usual diplomatic proprieties simply don't apply. As envoy for AIDS in Africa, my job is to represent the African position, no matter how critical that requires me to be. I'll grant you that in the diplomatic arena, it's unexpected to hear opinions stripped bare of comfortable cushioning. But I feel confident that my colleagues are aware that my criticisms are always offered in the spirit of reform - which is a worthy as well as a loyal pursuit, and one that's currently high on everyone's agenda.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: News about the release of your recent book "Race Against Time" highlighted the rift between you and the South African government over their attitude to fighting the pandemic. While the honesty with which you have aired your concerns is refreshing, surely it can't be helpful to have such an open grievance between a government and a major agency responsible for fighting HIV/AIDS? What is it going to take to mend the rift?

STEPHEN LEWIS: Actually, I have a rather different view of disagreement: a rift isn't destructive if it's the result of an honest appraisal. On the contrary, the liberty - even the responsibility - to take issue with those in power is indispensable to real progress. In any case, the rift in question exists between me, individually, and members of the government of South Africa. The United Nations and its agencies continue to enjoy an amicable and productive relationship with the government.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In a recent Globe and Mail article you say that you "want to be around for the breakthrough." What is the breakthrough? What is it going to take to put an end to this pandemic?

STEPHEN LEWIS: The ultimate breakthrough, of course, will be the release of a vaccine, the development of which must continue to command our utmost attention. Short of a vaccine, however, the big breakthrough in my mind will come with the achievement of universal access to treatment. Now that we have the drugs that can transform HIV/AIDS from a fatal disease to a chronic condition, and now that prices have been driven down to entirely affordable levels - the Clinton Foundation has negotiated generic drug prices for several countries that bring costs down to $140 per person per year - the big question is, when will the money materialize?

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: You speak often of gender inequality, and not just of the inequality faced by women in Africa. This inequality is found too in the powerful agencies, like the UN, for example, that represent these women. Women are barely represented in positions of power in various government and other administrations. What will it take for women to be meaningful players in determining their futures?

STEPHEN LEWIS: I've long believed that the desire for gender equality is the most difficult of all quests for equal rights - even more elusive and complex than racial equality. Gender inequality is universal, so I wouldn't presume to diminish this age-old injustice by suggesting that there are easy solutions. But to answer your question with regard to governments and bureaucracies - what will it take? - there are three common-sense prerequisites to gender equity and equality that seem to be fundamental. First, the notion that women will gradually arrive at equal representation by assuming positions of power through attrition is neither acceptable nor realistic. Men must be required to relinquish to women half the power they hold - power, incidentally, that was obtained under false premises, and is often retained by force. Second, all current-day gender equity targets that are set below 50 per cent should be recognized as inherently unjust. It is preposterous that half the world's population should settle for one-third representation, or for anything less than half. And third, gender inequality is a universal curse. It will require forceful action and strong leadership from the international community. That should start, I'd submit, with the establishment of an international agency dedicated entirely to supporting women in their own pursuit of justice, equality and self-determination.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The following quote struck me as very interesting, especially in terms of your emotional ability to deal with this pandemic, given your involvement in the issue: "I'm not some sweet innocent. I'm 67 years old. I've learned something about politics, diplomacy and multilateralism. I thought I understood the way the world works. I don't." What has this learning process been like? What emotional toll has this work taken on you, and how do you counter it?

STEPHEN LEWIS: There is no question that this work provokes deep frustration and profound sadness. And yes, my frustration escalates to rage at times, and the sadness often feels irreconcilable. I think that's to be expected - there's just too much death, and it demolishes one's equilibrium. But my emotional turmoil is as nothing compared with what the millions of infected, dying and grieving people on the ground suffer every day. I suppose one learns how to counter the feelings of hopelessness by watching how the indefatigable people of Africa struggle through this horrendous pandemic, and by doing as they do. You persist.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What motivates you?

STEPHEN LEWIS: My ideology is my motivator. I'm a democratic socialist; all my life, I've been driven to act by deep convictions, instilled in me from the time I could think coherent thoughts. The drive for social justice, for human rights, for equality, for recognition of the dignity of all humankind - these are the only pursuits that really matter.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Much of the attention in Africa placed on HIV/AIDS has been ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, and use Condoms). But can the pandemic seriously be addressed without dealing with the question of power relations between men and women? Safe sex campaigns assume that women are in a position to negotiate on equal terms, when the reality is quite different. What is it going to take to make governments and policy makers realize this, and how should they address these issues?

STEPHEN LEWIS: The dreadful truth is that governments are being forced to come to that realization the hard way - and that's particularly, but not exclusively true of African governments. The statistics themselves tell a story of gender inequality gone berserk: a million more women are living with HIV now than in 2003, bringing the world total in 2005 to an incomprehensible 17.5 million HIV-positive women. More than three-quarters of those women are African. Young women and girls between the ages of 15 and 24 in sub-Saharan Africa are at least three times more likely to be infected than young males in the same age group. With disparities that pronounced, it's impossible to deny the straight line between cause and effect.

New studies show that even marriage can be a dangerous undertaking for young women, who are frequently wed to older and more sexually experienced men, or to husbands whose infidelity brings HIV infection into the marital bed. And as you mentioned, power relations between men and women can be so out of kilter that the idea of a wife negotiating safer sex with her husband is not even up for consideration.

I do think it's dawning on even the most regressive policy makers, though, that the AIDS pandemic is part of the price we are paying for allowing unabated gender-based violence and inequality. But that dawning awareness is excruciatingly slow, and we just don't have time for incremental progress. Entire countries run the risk of being depopulated of women! Nothing short of a global social movement demanding an immediate end to all forms of gender inequality can begin to reverse the trend.

Many thanks!

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to [email protected]

Official website of the World AIDS Day campaign:

http://www.worldaidscampaign.org

Resources:

AVERT
http://www.avert.org/worldaid.htm

Africa AIDS Watch
http://www.africaaidswatch.org/

Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa)
http://www.tac.org.za

AIDS Education Global Information Centre
http://www.aegis.org/

Pan African Treatment Access Movement
http://www.patam.org/

Health Global Access Project
http://www.healthgap.org/

Joint UN/World Health Organisation AIDS Epidemic Update for 2005:

http://www.unaids.org/NetTools/Misc/DocInfo.aspx?LANG=en&href=http://gv…
-owl/WEBcontent/Documents/pub/Media/Press-Releases03/PR_EpiUpdate_Nov05_en.p
df

World AIDS day articles in Pambazuka:

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=184

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=185

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=134

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has appeared in the High Court to sign bail papers, but then returned to jail. He is charged with treason, but is also accused of terrorism in a military court for which he is now being held. A constitutional court is now to decide whether it's legal for the two courts to try him simultaneously.

The Muslim Brotherhood obtained a record 76 seats in the second round of legislative elections held on November 27, despite arrests, intimidation and violence. Just like in the first round, the vote saw the advance of independent candidates connected with the Muslim Brotherhood group, which is banned from taking part in the elections. It, however, organised a campaign with the slogan: Islam is the solution.

President Robert Mugabe's party in Zimbabwe has won all but seven seats in a controversial new Senate, crushing the challenge posed by a severely weakened opposition party, final results showed on Monday, November 28. According to final results announced by the official electoral commission, the ruling party secured 43 seats in the 66-seat Upper House, while the main opposition party won seven. With an additional 10 seats in the Senate reserved for traditional chiefs loyal to Mugabe, and six others to be appointed by the president, the results confirm the ruling party's dominance of both Houses of Parliament, reports the Mail and Guardian.

Zimbabwe's embattled leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has suspended its own leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, from his position, according to internal party correspondence. In a letter obtained by Agence France-Presse on Monday, MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda said a national disciplinary committee met last week and resolved to suspend Tsvangirai from his position as president with "immediate effect". Sibanda said the suspension is for misconduct charges, including violation of the party's constitution, as reported by the Mail and Guardian.

Open verbal war broke out on Tuesday November 29 night between the Western Cape ANC and its key alliance partner, the SA Communist Party, with the SACP accusing "elements" of the ANC leadership of being racist and corrupt, and the ANC hitting back, calling the accusations "childish", "tragic" and devoid of truth. The communists were acting as though they were in heaven and everyone else was in hell, the ANC charged. The extraordinary verbal battle between the two parties came as tensions rise in the ANC ahead of next year's local government elections and against the backdrop of a drawn-out and debilitating regional fight for the heart and soul of the party.

African Finance Ministers have recommended 100 per cent debt relief for non-Highly Indebted Poor Countries (non-HIPC) facing special economic difficulties. Making the recommendation at a two-day consultative meeting in Tunis, the ministers, who did not give names of such countries, said discussions on total debt cancellations for the countries would be made at the meeting of deputies of African Development Fund (ADF) and International Development Association (IDA) in Washington next month.

The African Development Bank (ADB) Group said Burundi had met the conditions needed to qualify for US $226.01 million ($149.35 million in Net Present Value terms) in debt relief. "This amount will save up to 90 percent of Burundi's debt service obligations annually until February 2043," the bank said in a statement following a decision by its board of directors and those of the African Development Fund, one of the bank's entities. The ADB share of debt relief is equivalent to 18 percent of the relief being offered by all of Burundi's creditors, according to AlertNet.

On December 7 and 8 ActionAid International (Kenya) will host a Pre-Hong Kong meeting for Cotton Farmers in Africa to be held at the Pan Africa hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place from 13th – 18th December 2005 in Hong Kong. It is expected that fundamental issues with far reaching implications on the development of African agriculture are going to be part of the agenda for discussion. All sub-sectors in agriculture are going to be affected in one way or the other by decisions to be made during this crucial and important conference. One such sub-sector at the heart of most African farmers is cotton which is an important element of the on-going negotiations in agriculture. In view of the above, ActionAid International Kenya will be organizing a meeting in Nairobi whose overriding goal is to mobilize cotton producers from around Africa to voice out their concerns ahead of the forthcoming WTO meeting. The outcome of the meeting will be presented to the delegates attending the WTO meeting for advocacy and lobbying purposes during the Ministerial conference.

The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition has launched its quarterly newsletter in Accra. Speaking at the launch, the Chairman of the Coalition, Reverend Fred Deegbe, said that although people perceive corruption in the country to be high, they are not actively involved in the crusade. This he said is because of the lack of understanding of the real issues at stake. He said the Anti-Corruption Dialogue newsletter is expected to serve as an instrument for promoting the anti-corruption agenda.

I read an article written by Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Political Deadlock in Ethiopia: Charting a path Forward) on your website (http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=30323). I would like to congratulate him for a well-written article especially considering the situation, that is very hard to understand exactly what is going in Ethiopia for outsiders.

I thought I should take the opportunity to share with you an open letter that I wrote to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi three weeks ago. If you think it is appropriate, feel free to post it on your website.

An Open Letter to His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

Your Excellency,

First of all, I apologise for writing this letter in English instead of in one of the Ethiopian languages. The only reasons are that I do not have appropriate Ethiopian software and the skills to use the software, and it is much quicker to edit electronically than to write by hand.

I am an ordinary Ethiopian citizen who has never been directly involved in politics and who has never written a letter or an article to a politician or to the general public through any means of communication. However, recent events in Ethiopia make it almost impossible not to do a lot of soul searching and not to express my opinion no matter how little difference such an opinion might make.

I keep asking myself two questions again and again in the last 6 months. How could things go so terribly wrong in Ethiopia perpetually? How could the ideals (freedom, liberty, democracy, no group dominating the other, etc.) that you and so many of your comrades and other Ethiopians fought for, get relegated to minor importance while new priorities like maintaining power cause so much damage and bloodshed and assume more importance?

Despite Ethiopia’s long and colourful historic past there are not many examples we could proudly talk about of government power changing hands peacefully. No matter high level of popular support that some Ethiopian leaders (including yourself) had enjoyed at one point or another none of them could technically and legitimately claim that their power to govern stemmed from the people.

Your Excellency,

When the Emperor was overthrown in 1974, many Ethiopians hoped that the change would be for the better. The excitement and the hope very quickly turned to despair when the Derg regime turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators that Africa has ever seen. Although I was very young during the early years of the regime, the scar left behind due to the execution of so many young Ethiopian friends and relatives primarily because they had a different political inclination will never heal and will never be forgotten.

Most Ethiopians wanted to change the situation swiftly but they were initially powerless in the face of tyranny supported by seemingly one of the most powerful armies in Africa. However, Ethiopians always rise to the occasion when their freedoms are seriously threatened. It may have taken almost two decades to get rid of the regime but the Derg leaders never got breathing space being painfully reminded of people’s dissatisfaction almost every day.

You were the leading light, the thinker, the fighter, the organiser, etc. in this mammoth struggle against tyranny. The Ethiopian people defeated the Derg and said not again to one group dominating the other, not again to nepotism, tyranny, corruption, etc. The people of Addis Ababa, as indeed the people of almost all other cities and towns in Ethiopia, went out in their thousands to welcome the EPRDF fighters who heroically liberated Ethiopia from the terror of the Derg regime. They gave food and water to the EPRDF fighters and treated them as their children, brothers and sisters. They congratulated them for their achievements against all the odds. They received them with open arms and opened their homes and their hearts. How could those same fighters and their relations now shoot the heads and the chests of the same people and their relations of Addis Ababa who treated them as their family members only 14 years ago?

I have been one of your admirers in the last 14 years. I believed, I guess as many other Ethiopians did, that you have had the intelligence, the determination and the foresight to lead the country to democracy, freedom and development. I believed that you were in such a fortunate position to have learned from the mistakes of your predecessors inside and outside Ethiopia. I have been prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt in some crucial areas (e.g. the handling of the good as well as the bad times with Eritrea) in which you have been heavily criticised by your opponents as well as within your own party.

* Please click on the link below for the rest of this letter.

Today is World AIDS Day so I have chosen to focus on those African blogs that have written about HIV/AIDS from a range of perspectives.

Feminist African Sister – (http://feministafricansisters.blogspot.com/2005/11/bush-has-gone-too-fa…) criticises George Bush, who has extended the “GAG” rule which prevents funding from the US to any NGO that “perform abortions in cases other than a threat to the woman’s life, rape or incest; provide counselling and referral for abortion; or lobby to make abortion legal or more available in their country.”

Thus Bush has “Essentially, locking out large numbers of organizations in Kenya and structures, which could provide useful access to target communities at the highest risk i.e. women in the 15-24 age bracket”. The GAG rule has also been applied in Uganda and in Ghana where 647,000 “Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana clients will lose access to family planning services, counselling, and HIV/AIDS prevention education.” This is a slap in the face to the millions who are HIV+ or have AIDS in Africa and makes a mockery of the prevention campaigns which are designed so we can begin to see a reduction rather than increase in the numbers affected by this illness.

Soul on Ice - Soul on Ice (http://obifromsouthlondon.blogspot.com/2005/11/aids-in-africaaggression…) writes that out of some 4.7 million HIV+ Africans only a mere 500,000 are presently receiving ARV drugs. He expresses his anger which is personalised as he explains how he lost his uncle’s family to the illness.

“I lost my uncle and his family some years ago to the dreaded disease and this put it all in perspective for me. Prior to that I'd viewed it as something that happens to other people. Damn I'd even doubted its existence like agnostics. It's like faced with such horrible things you switch to denial mode. And here we are worrying about more money for material stuff and an African woman in Malawi has to travel 20 miles once a week to pick up tablets that will keep her alive to give her five kids a chance in life. Fuck the West for keeping the beautiful continent poor and defenceless. Stupid patents on life saving drugs. And they want to moan about terrorists.”

Malawian blogger, afrika-aphukira - Afrika-aphukira (http://mlauzi.blogspot.com/2005/11/yesterday-and-global-hivaids-discour…) writes about the film “Yesterday”, a story about a South African couple who are HIV-positive. The film, which is an HBO (US based TV station) production, interestingly is in Zulu with English subtitles.

“The pride and depth of an African language in driving such a powerful social message should make African elites and policymakers think twice about their insistence on making English a language used by a tiny fraction of the population, the lingua franca of policy, business, politics, administration, and education.”

He does however have some criticisms of the film, which portrays Africans as being largely ignorant of the disease and fails to deal with issues such as racism and the capitalist mining industry.

“The movie leaves unmentioned issues such as the racist, apartheid era bio-war research suspected to have been aimed at blacks, dismissed as a conspiracy theory by dominant, mainstream views. Also unmentioned is the role played by the capitalist mining industry which sequestered male miners in hostels, away from their wives and families for months or years on end, a situation that facilitated the spread of HIV/AIDS. Thus the dominant ideologies keep framing the HIV-AIDS debate in the same terms of individual responsibility, ordinary villagers as ignorant and needing ‘education’, and Africans as more promiscuous than the rest of humanity.”

Eseme Udoekong's Africa - Eseme Udoekong's Africa (http://www.bbc.co.uk/africalives/myafrica/blogs/005009) focuses on AIDS from the perspective of alternative healing including “faith healing” in the Christian church.

“Now let's get back to the point of this discussion. For example, I believe in medication (orthodox/herbal) and divine healing, but I don't worship either as god. At times when I'm sick he that is in me can say, 'just pray and I pray'. Or 'take only water' or 'go to the hospital'. All that it takes me to be healed is obedience to his bidding. You cannot tell me that unless I see the Doctor I can't be healed when I have been enjoying such divine healing benevolence. It may be so or otherwise to other people, depending on one's mind set.”

Black Looks - Black Looks (http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2005/11/personal_story_.html) posts an interview she had with a woman who is HIV positive but lives in Europe (UK).

“For those of us who were diagnosed such a long time ago and are still alive - if I was in Africa I would have been dead a long time ago - we are the ‘lucky ones’, those living in Britain or the West. But the problem is we were told we were dying and then after about 10 or 15 years of ‘dying’ the doctors suddenly changed their story and said you are not dying anymore take these pills and get on with your life. And for many of us this has been very difficult. They try to equate having HIV nowadays in the West with medication, as being just like having any other kind of chronic illness like diabetes. But it will never be the same. Because if I had diabetes I wouldn't be concerned about revealing my identity and nationality, I wouldn't be afraid of my neighbours or employers knowing about my illness. Because HIV will never loose the shame and stigma that has always been attached to it. The pain and despair never goes away – it’s the worst thing that ever happened to me. I hate it. I know there are people who are HIV+ who are much worse off than me but I feel like the last 20 years I have lived HIV and little else - even though I am not dead in some ways I am.”

Kid’s Doc in Jos - Kid's Doc in Jos (http://www.ecwaevangel.org/blog/faith_71) based in Jos, Nigeria, writes about two of his patients, 15 month twins Faith and Favour, who are HIV positive. He writes that Faith is now sick with pneumonia and has lost a lot of weight.

“I admitted him (which we could do only because we have some supporters who have given money to help such children), ordered a bunch of labs and a bunch of medicines. Tomorrow Barb will make a care package of some oranges, yoghurt, cookies, and so on.”

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

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The Darfur Consortium, a coalition of more than 30 Africa-based and Africa-focused NGOs committed to working for a sustainable solution to the ongoing crisis in Darfur, joined other civil society groups in calling on member states of the Africa Union to reconsider their decision to confer the Presidency of the African Union to Sudan in January. In a letter, issued on the occasion of the 38th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights held in Banjul, The Gambia, the coalition pointed out that the government of Sudan has borne responsibility for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur and that the situation in Darfur remains one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.