* Editorial: Poverty is a gross violation of human rights and must be abolished, argues Pierre Sané. And before you laugh out loud because you think this statement is naïve keep in mind that: "There is nothing to smile at in distress, misery, dereliction and death which march in grim parade with poverty."
* Comment and Analysis: Steve Kibble says the pushing through of the NGO Bill in Zimbabwe completes the strangling of basic freedoms, but that the love of liberty shall not be killed
- Another Africa is still possible, as the third African Social Forum prepares to meet in Zambia
- Onyekachi Wambu raises questions about Northern NGOs bandwagons in relation to diaspora, and calls for a partnership between African social movements and the diaspora
* 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence: "We do not interfere in domestic affairs" - A Ugandan woman tells how she suffered years of domestic violence
- Senegal moves closer to ratifying the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women
* Letters: Pambazuka readers rave and rage about Everjoice Win's article last week on international days of "this and that"
* Pan-African Postcard: Those calling for the head of Kofi Annan are a danger to the world, says Tajudeen Abdul Raheem in his weekly column
* Conflict and Emergency: The Equatorial Guinea coup plot raises uncomfortable questions for the UK and US governments
* Human Rights: NGOs to engage with African committee of experts on rights of the child
* Refugees and Forced Migration: The grim fate that awaits those deported to the DRC
* Elections and Governance: The latest from elections in Ghana, Mozambique and Niger
* Books and Arts: A review of 'We miss you all', described as "engaging, surprising, challenging and absolutely inspirational".

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
REQUEST FROM THE EDITORS: How useful do you find Pambazuka News? How does Pambazuka make a difference to your work? Would you recommend it? If so, please could you send us 'quotable quotes' that we can use in our publicity and fundraising.
Send your comments to: [email protected]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>>>>>Sign up for women's rights: http://www.pambazuka.org/petition

>>>>>Stay awake: Get Pambazuka News alerts: http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/alerts.php

The railroading through Parliament in November 2004 of the NGO Bill means that the government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) has now completed its strangling of three basic freedoms. Freedom of association has now joined freedom of information (the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act - AIPPA - shut down the only independent daily newspaper) and freedom of assembly (the Public Order and Safety Act - POSA - makes any gathering subject to police permission and scrutiny) in the oxygen tent in line with the GOZ strategy of shutting down all independent voices and democratic spaces. By contrast, the government sponsored Youth Militias (Green Bombers) operate with impunity.

ZANU-PF's strategy for survival and retention of their ill-gotten assets is a holistic strategy of repression with mutually reinforcing elements. Increased militarisation sees military and security sectors immune from the law and occupying increasingly prominent positions in the intelligence, provincial administrations and electoral authorities. Secondly the regime has used its presidential powers to amend the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act allowing police to detain without formal charges opponents of the regime, supposedly to counter corruption. Thirdly the judiciary is almost completely compliant, as shown in its confirming most of the contentious legislation. The neutralising of the judiciary has important knock-on effects in areas like press and media freedom and intimidation, information starvation, freedom of the opposition to assemble and be heard, politicisation of the police, further land 'resettlement', human rights violations, show trials of the opposition, politicisation of governmental-controlled food aid, public order and the like.

The NGO Act bans foreign funding for political governance, human rights and anti-corruption work and effectively proscribes international NGOs from carrying out such work. It makes registration of NGOs subject to arbitrary authority under a government-controlled NGO Council and provides severe penalties including shutting down NGOs and imprisoning staff for contravention of the Act. Very wide-ranging definitions leave much to ministerial dictate and arbitrary decision-making from both formal and informal government structures.

It is unclear how much the Act will affect the churches in Zimbabwe; government assurances that they will be fine if they stick to 'religious matters' contrast with the police closing down meetings held in churches to discuss the Act. The Act went through despite its running contrary not just to the Zimbabwean constitution, but also to several regional and international rights conventions that Harare has signed up to, and despite its likely economic impact given the numbers employed in the NGO sector and its effect on foreign exchange and tourism (what is left of it).

The NGO Act, the Electoral Amendment Act as well as legislation to provide payments to collaborators (non-combatant forces in the 1970s liberation war) are all in the context of the forthcoming parliamentary elections. These are set for March 2005 although the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is currently suspending participation until the conditions for a free and fair election are met, although it will be meeting in late November to review this. The combined legislation will severely limit any check on the government, make illegal non-governmental funding for civic and voter education, ensure government control of the electoral process and support from a potential opposition force of 'collaborators'.

It is widely believed that 'a dirty dozen' of NGOs already named in the newspapers and mostly operating within the human rights arena were the primary target although the bill would affect all NGOs. This would include the national Constitutional Assembly, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Transparency International Zimbabwe.

For a local journalist, although the immediate target are indeed NGOs (foreign and national) the wider context is of control of black, particularly rural, Zimbabweans to ensure not just obedience but the impossibility of thinking any other way than in channels laid down by ZANU-PF and of destroying the MDC. A peace activist described the strategy as - 'the regime attempting a scorched earth policy in terms of social formations. While it wants to hold elections so as to appear democratic it wants to prevent thought, communication, information, and analysis.'

The act has been on the way since 2000 when the GOZ saw then the result of civil society lobbying in the rejection of the government's draft constitution in a referendum. It was given additional impetus by Zimbabwean civil society providing much of the evidence for the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights report on Zimbabwe finally submitted to the African Union to outrage from Harare at being criticised by fellow Africans (far harder to bear than from the West). The GOZ is convinced that NGOS are a front and money conduit for the MDC who are themselves a front for Tony Blair - a position hardly helped by the Blair statement in July 2004 in the UK parliament that he was working for regime change in Zimbabwe.

In fact the act could be said to be already in operation before its official date. A climate of fear and arbitrariness around NGO work has existed for some time with local ZANU-PF activists and youth militias feeling free to determine who is allowed into 'their' area whatever local governors might say. Work permits (TEPs) for outside NGO staff are being refused almost as a matter of course. To see how the proposed NGO Council would look, says a local human rights activist, we should examine the workings of the supine pro-government Media Information Council.

The Act has served its purpose of dividing and confusing civil society as to the best response to the legislation - pretending it is not happening, ignoring the plight of others and carrying on programmes as much as possible, seeking friendly 'godfathers' inside ZANU-PF, relocating and/ or shutting down in Zimbabwe. The use of repressive divide and rule tactics make the NGOs the latest in a series including the judiciary, the media, the churches and farmworkers and farmers.

Internationally and regionally the GOZ has divided or silenced critics with even the limited sanctions regime ineffectual, despite their renewal in Europe in February 2004 and in the USA. The GOZ control strategy appears to be to survive until the elections, despite the likely gap in food supplies and then to get an African 'free and fair' verdict which would take the heat off, challenge the international community to lose interest and give it a strong hand in post-election negotiations with the MDC. This would also give Mbeki a vindication of 'quiet diplomacy' even though Harare is in undoubted breach of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) electoral protocol it signed up to in Mauritius in August 2004.

Who is then standing up to the government on the NGO bill? Foreign embassies are not able or not willing to say much. NANGO, the Zimbabwe local NGO umbrella body presented a forceful case to the Parliamentary Portfolio committee examining the bill, but is unable to affect the strategy. Whilst rights-oriented Zimbabwean NGOs protest, the churches appear busy defending their own territory and interests, but not those of wider civil society. International development NGOs who are mostly Western do not wish to be painted like their governments as part of the plot to 'recolonise' Zimbabwe. Despite the brutal expulsion from Harare in October 2004 of a Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) fact-finding and solidarity delegation to Zimbabwe, the South African government appeared keener on criticising their fellow Alliance members than the Mugabe regime. Some regional churches and NGOs have provided critical support for Zimbabweans but have been unable to persuade their governments or ruling parties to make much beyond the occasional muted criticism as happened in Botswana.

However it does appear that the confidence of the ruling party in its hold on power has run into a number of problems even if they are unlikely to result in any other electoral scenario but ZANU-PF maintaining its electoral hold including enough seats to change the constitution. Its propaganda is subject to massive public scepticism in relation to the supposedly improving economy -the public does not believe that inflation is going down in light of its own experience. Some of the first wave of settlers who seized land are in turn being thrown off their land so that the elite can have it (breeding a kind of sans culotte bitterness). Economically, the crisis of production and livelihood continues - a systematic process of de-professionalisation and de-capitalisation. A very significant proportion of professionals, such as doctors, engineers, educationalists and financial managers have sought employment elsewhere. Despite rumours of its demise, the parallel market is up and running again with the rate against £1 being roughly Zim $14,000. A much -vaunted accommodation with the IMF is no more likely than returning foreign investment. 99% of the population live with an income less than the poverty datum line, mitigated only by remittances from the 15 to 25 % of the population living outside.

The cabinet decision to expel COSATU showed the South African public its contempt for the neighbours and indeed for court orders against the expulsion. COSATU was mobilising itself and civic groups in the region to "seal entry points into Zimbabwe for four days" from December 4 to 8.

Internationally, parliamentarians were horrified by the treatment of MDC MP Roy Bennett - who physically attacked the Minister of Justice after endless taunting from him, and was sent to prison with a sentence of hard labour. The not guilty verdict in the trial of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai for treason showed how threadbare the case was, according to a lawyer observing the trial. The latter said that although there was no case to answer, the judge with a vestige of professional self-respect, but allegedly a recipient of a farm under the fast-track land reform process, prolonged the trail as long as possible so that the state could tie up Tsvangirai in a lengthy legal process.

The government appears to have little strategy or resources to deal with an expected food gap between January and March, although it has loudly proclaimed that it will be self-sufficient - to widespread disbelief - and does not need NGO or World Food Programme help. Nor does the refusal to allow in British media organisations to cover the cricket in late November show Harare in a good light.

The debate on whether free and fair elections can be held or not is critical, for the coming months. Some form of transitional administration, with international (UN, AU, SADC) support, will be needed. But how can such a transitional arrangement be brought about? In the end the whole system of neo-patrimonialism and endemic corruption presided over by the regime needs root and branch change. The authoritarian mindset has little ability to think alternatives other than repression and blame on outside conspirators. In the words of the Crisis in Zimbabwe NGO Coalition 'Slurs, verbal abuse, violence and intimidation may win arguments, but they can never reconstitute, heal or rehabilitate societies. NGOs may be closed, elections may be rigged, newspapers may be bombed and millions starved, but it will never kill the people's love for liberty.'

* Steve Kibble is Africa/Yemen Advocacy Coordinator for the Catholic Institute for International Relations.

* Please send comments to

Corruption is a worldwide and age-old phenomenon. Yet in recent years, Northern donors have become increasingly vocal about corruption in Southern countries and the need for these countries to clean themselves up. Northern donors themselves, however, refuse to change their own policies, or to make tackling corruption a priority. Indeed, they continue to support corrupt Southern elites who are willing to back Northern priorities on economic liberalisation, including free trade and the down-sizing of the state.

Ghana remained calm Wednesday as results pointed to president John Agyekum Kufuor heading for a first-round victory as the picture of the election became clearer 24 hours after polls closed. His New Patriotic Party (NPP) is also in a strong lead in the 230- member parliament. According to results from 176 constituencies in the presidential election released by the Electoral Commission Kufuor has 55.6 percent of votes with former vice president John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) polling about 42.1 percent.

As Nigerians joined the rest of the world to mark the United Nations Anti Corruption day on December 9, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, again called on the federal government to ratify the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. The Convention was adopted by African Heads of State, including President Olusegun Obasanjo in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003. In a statement released in Lagos, IAP said it was imperative that the Nigerian government sets in motion the process that will lead to the ratification and domestication of this important regional instrument, especially in light of the president's claim that fighting corruption is one of his key programmes.

Poverty will only cease when it is recognized as a violation of human rights and, as such, abolished.

One should be aware that the striking feature of our civilization, as it globalizes around the aspiration to unprecedented prosperity, is the persistence and even increase of poverty. It is an overwhelming fact: poverty affects half the world's population. It is spreading: the vast majority of the 2 to 3 thousand million human beings who will be added to the world's population before the end of the century will be exposed to it. It is putting alarming pressure on the environment and global equilibrium. The figures are apocalyptic: 8 million children die each year because of poverty, 150 million children under the age of five suffer from extreme malnutrition, 100 million children live in the streets. Every three seconds, poverty kills a child somewhere. And our world puts up with it.

When, in 1994, 800 000 corpses of Tutsi and opposition Hutu victims of genocide in Rwanda were carried on rivers of blood through the country of a thousand hills, the world held its breath. We all felt guilty. We wished that action had been taken to prevent it. We all said, once again, "never again!". The United Nations established an International Tribunal to establish the truth and hand down justice. "We cannot bring back the dead, but the guilty shall pay. International law will prevail. Morality is safe". But what about the 8 million children who die each year from poverty-related diseases? We are well aware of these figures and they are probably under-estimated.

What, then, is the basis of the ethical double standard which leads us to accept the poverty manufactured by our society, even though it kills more surely and methodically than machetes and militias? Is there a single moral or ethical justification for this central contradiction between the equality proclaimed in the granting of rights and growing inequality in access to life-giving resources? To address this question is essential for the preservation of our own humanity.

It would seem, however, that the famous "standards of decency" are changing. Thus, the international community has set, as a priority for the millennium (Millennium Development Goals [MDGs]), to reduce by half in 15 years the number of people living in extreme poverty. This approach, however laudable in itself, does not exhaust the issue. For one thing, the intended goal will not easily be reached. But even if it were successfully achieved, the basic question would remain untouched: can persistent poverty be tolerated at all?

This problem has to be tackled from another angle. As long as we consider poverty as a quantitative, natural deficit to be made up, the political will to reduce it will not be energized. Poverty will only cease when it is recognized as a violation of human rights and, as such, abolished. This is why, and this is how.

When poverty is defined in relative terms, it is at once infinite and incurable. We are forced, at the same time, to consent to it indefinitely and to exhaust, in vain, unending resources in seeking to reduce it. This relativistic approach can only determine an arbitrary poverty line which is adopted as an artificial horizon. But such a bogus horizon remains unbearable: what do one or two dollars a day mean, and above all, what right do we have to make do with such a figure? For poverty is not a fate to be alleviated by international charity or aid. Nor does poverty reflect poor people's lack of self-reliance or their inability to compete in a free-for-all of supposedly equal opportunities. Poverty does not persist solely because of incompetent, corrupt governments that are insensitive to the fate of their population. No. Fundamentally, poverty is not a standard of living or even certain kinds of living conditions: it is at once the cause and the effect of the total or partial denial of human rights.

Of the five families of human rights - civic, political, cultural, economic and social - proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as inherent to the human person, poverty violates the fifth, always; the fourth, generally; often the third; sometimes the second, or even the first.

Reciprocally, the systematic violation of any one of these rights degenerates rapidly into poverty. As was recognized at the International Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, in 1993, there is an organic link between poverty and violation of human rights.

And yet, human rights are indefeasible and inseparable. Their violation is a fundamental infringement of human dignity as a whole, and not a regrettable inconvenience to be endured by distant neighbours. It must therefore cease, and the imperative takes a simple form: poverty must be abolished. The claim sounds naïve, and may even bring a smile to your lips.

Condescension would, however, be misguided as well as inappropriate. There is nothing to smile at in distress, misery, dereliction and death which march in grim parade with poverty. We should, indeed, be ashamed. But the issue is also substantive: the abolition of poverty is the only fulcrum that offers the leverage to defeat poverty.

Leverage, in this case, comes from investment, national and international reforms, and policies to remedy the deficiencies of all kinds that are the backdrop to poverty. Fortunately, humanity now has the means to answer the challenge: never have we been so rich, so technically competent and so well informed. But in the absence of a fulcrum, these forces cannot act as effectively as they might.

If, however, poverty were declared to be abolished, as it should with regard to its status as a massive, systematic and continuous violation of human rights, its persistence would no longer be a regrettable feature of the nature of things. It would become a denial of justice. The burden of proof would shift. The poor, once recognized as the injured party, would acquire a right to reparation for which governments, the international community and, ultimately, each citizen would be jointly liable. A strong interest would thus be established in eliminating, as a matter of urgency, the grounds of liability, which might be expected to unleash much stronger forces than compassion, charity, or even concern for one's own security, are likely to mobilize for the benefit of others.

By endowing the poor with rights, the abolition of poverty would obviously not cause poverty to disappear overnight. It would, however, create the conditions for the cause of poverty to be enshrined as the highest of priorities and as the common interest of all - not just as a secondary concern for the enlightened or merely charitable. No more than the abolition of slavery caused the crime to vanish, no more than the abolition of domestic violence of genocide have eliminated such violations of the human conscience, the legal abolition of poverty will not, then, make poverty disappear. But it will place poverty in the conscience of humankind at the same level as those past injustices the present survival of which challenges us, shocks us, and calls us to action.

The principle of justice thus implemented and the force of law mobilized in its service are of enormous power. This, after all, is how slavery, colonialism and apartheid were ended. But while slavery and apartheid were actively struggled against, poverty dehumanizes half the planet to a chorus of utter indifference. It is, undoubtedly, the most acute moral question of the new century to understand how such massive and systematic violations, day in, day out, do not trouble the conscience of the good people who look down upon them.

While equality of rights is proclaimed, growing inequalities in the distribution of goods persists and is entrenched by unjust economic and social policies at national and global level. To deal with poverty as a violation of human rights means going beyond the idea of international justice - which is concerned with relations between states and nations - towards the creation of global justice, which applies to relations between human beings living in a global society and enjoying absolute and inalienable rights - such as the right to life - that are guaranteed by the international community.

Such rights do not belong to the citizens of states but, universally, to human beings as such, for whom they are the necessary condition of life on the planet. The obligation to denounce violations and to ensure respect, protection and effective enjoyment of rights is incumbent on all, without distinction of race, country, or creed. The principle of global justice thus establishes the conditions for a fairer distribution of the planet's resources between its inhabitants in light of certain absolute rights. Let us remember that, morally speaking, the right to property is not absolute: it follows that territorial sovereignty, which entails ownership of natural resources, cannot qualify an absolute right, such as the right to life elsewhere.

What we must note is that nearly 3 billion people receive only about 1.2% of world income, while 1 billion people in the rich countries receive 80%. An annual income transfer of 1% from one group to the other would suffice to eliminate extreme poverty. In fact, the transfer continues to operate in the opposite direction, despite efforts towards debt reduction and development aid.

At the end of the day, there is a simple choice. Not between a "pragmatic" approach, based on aid granted by the rich to the poor, and the alternative sketched here. The real choice is between the abolition of poverty and the only other way for the poor to obtain rights, which is for them to take them by force. Needless to say, the latter solution usually causes misery for all: social strife, rampant crime, mass uncontrolled migration, smuggling and trafficking are the only things to flourish. But what moral basis do we have to demand moral behaviour from people to whom we deny any opportunity to live a healthy life? What right have we to demand that they respect our rights? The sombre option will become increasingly likely if nothing is done - or too little, as tends to be the case with pragmatism, however deserving.

The options thus reduce to a single choice, which is the only one compatible with the categorical imperative to respect human rights: to abolish poverty in order to eradicate it, and to draw from this principle all the consequences that free acceptance of it implies.

No great programme will ensure the eradication of poverty. Its proclaimed abolition must, first, create rights and obligations, and thereby mobilize the true forces that can correct the state of a world plagued by poverty. By simply setting an effective and binding priority, abolition changes the ground rules and contributes to the creation of a new world. Such is the price to pay to give globalization a human face; such is also the greatest opportunity for sustainable development that we can hope to grasp.

What are the implications for NGO activity? First, I would suggest that it is imperative to develop strategies that give tangible significance to the principles of indivisibility and interdependence of human rights. The unfortunate historical separation of human rights into civil and political rights on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other, has tended to entrench the view that poverty was beyond the scope of human rights NGOs and to farm out poverty to market forces or development processes. Campaigns for ratification of international treaties must promote treaties on social, economic, and cultural rights, national legislations must be amended accordingly, and violations of such rights must be actionable. Furthermore, in the field, research techniques must be deployed to monitor the violations suffered by victims, fulfillment of their obligations by states and international actors, and reparations for injured parties.

Ultimately, the issue is to mobilize public opinion for a universal justice that is within our grasp. Its emergence has been lengthy - very lengthy. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Rome Conference that established the International Criminal Court, the emergence of universal justice has been defiled by acts of barbarity that have grossly infringed human dignity. Now, however, the legal instruments are there, and, step by step, experiments and initiatives give hope. It remains to energize political will by unceasing mobilization, true thinking, the contributions of experts and support for victims and their families.

What promises does such global justice bear? Let me quote Nobel Laureate José Saramago: "Were such justice to exist, there would no longer be a single human being dying of hunger or of diseases that are curable for some but not for others. Were such justice to exist, life would no longer be, for half of humanity, the dreadful sentence it has hitherto been. And for such justice, we already have a practical code that has been laid down for fifty years in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a declaration that might profitably replace, as far as rightness of principles and clarity of objectives are concerned, the manifestos of all the political parties of the world".

Such global justice is essential in order to ensure common welfare, and therefore international peace. To ensure freedom from poverty, a fundamental human right. To give dignity to the poor and the outcasts. But to succeed in the quest for justice, every single individual must be made aware of the issues at stake and mobilized.

The world will celebrate Human Rights Day on December 10. What better day to remember the rights of the poor?

* Pierre Sané is UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, a post he has held since joining the Organization in May 2001. He is responsible for a programme of work that ranges from human rights and the fight against discrimination to philosophy, ethics of science and technology, policy-action research and international cooperation in Social Sciences. Prior to joining UNESCO he was Secretary General of Amnesty International (1992-2001). At the beginning of his career he worked in the field of regional and international development both in Africa and in Canada. He writes this article in his personal capacity and not as a representative of UNESCO.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* International Human Rights Day takes place on December 10.

>>>>>Human Rights Links:

http://www.ohchr.org/english/events/hrd2004.htm
http://www.un.org/av/special/hrday/
http://www.hri.ca/index.aspx
http://www.hrweb.org/
http://www.derechos.net/
http://www.hrw.org/
http://www.amnesty.org/

The European Union has pledged to support African countries to negotiate a new trade deal to replace the existing Cotonou Agreement. Louis Michel, the newly appointed EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid said trade issues were a priority in poverty reduction efforts in the continent. Michel also defended EU against accusations that it was imposing conditions on African countries by forcing them to negotiate in blocs.

Tabulation of votes has finally begun in all 11 provinces and at national level in Maputo, Filipe Mandlate, spokesman for the National Elections Commission (CNE) said Wednesday afternoon. Most provinces started inputting results sheets into the computers five days late and there is no chance that they will complete their work by the end of Thursday, as required by law. Processing in two provinces, Gaza and Cabo Delgado, was held up by Renamo objections, but Mandlate said these had been resolved. In Gaza, Renamo demanded that press, observers and party delegates be invited to the start of data input and that all be given the list of polling stations and there registration book numbers. Read the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin, available through the link below, for the latest on the elections. You can also visit the website of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa for more detailed information: http://www.eisa.org.za/WEP/mozambique.htm

World exclusive!

A Grateful Africa Gives Something Back Not content to take and take and take, Africa finally rewards the ever-generous Western giver with a warm-hearted gesture of her own. A pleasantly surprised world will look on in wonder and moist eyes as Africa demonstrates a capacity (yes, that's right, capacity) for compassion bordering on the downright selfless. But in these troubled times is it not right that an Africa that has so much should give a little something to those less fortunate than she?

"It is not right that Africa should simply continuously collect," said Adekunle Oduwagbemilolasoladeshe speaking from his home in Lagos, Nigeria, "after all, we also have much to give, it's time to put something back." Today, in response to an outpouring of concern in Africa, we are proud to release the song, "Do They Know It's Summertime?" in aid of victims of the cold in Britain.

"In this their moment of greatest need, we in Africa cannot walk by on the other side of the street," opined Blessings Dube in Harare, Zimbabwe, "we must show that we care, that we have warmth in our hearts. I personally don't listen to those cynics who say it's pointless giving because nothing ever changes in Britain. We have to have hope that our generosity will make a difference." The song's producers hope that "Do They Know It's Summertime?" will raise millions in aid of needy victims in Dartford. Millions of smiles, that is.
Rather than set their breathtaking song to a new tune and in order to conserve resources the record's producers suggest that the beautiful ditty be sung to the tune of another well-known song, also likely to reach number one in the pop charts. They hope that the well-known Congolese singer Papa Wemba will perform the song and perform it live to crowds in Europe.

Do They Know It's Summertime? Africa Aid

Do they know it's Summer
It's Summertime
There's a reason to be afraid
At Summertime, it's just so bright & we can't find shade
But it's their world of plenty that they're trying so hard to destroy
Throw your arms up in despair at Summertime
But just you wait there
While they fire yet more guns
At Summertime, it's hot, and you're under the sun
There's a world of funky lingo
And it's a world of shock and awe
Where the only sun that's shining is in the holiday snaps
And the smouldering shells that fall there
Create so much smoke in a plume
Well tonight just sing this song & and know your due
And there won't be any sun in England this Summertime
The biggest problems they'll have this year are rife
(Oooh) Where the sun never glows
The wind or is it snow
Do they know it's Summertime at all
(Here's to you) sitting here having such fun
(Here's to them) wondering what's like to have a sun
Do they know it's Summertime at all
Free the world, free the world, free the world
Let them know it's Summertime again
Free the world, free the world, free the world
Let them know it's Summertime again
Free the world, free the world, free the world
Let them know it's Summertime again
Free the world, free the world, free the world
Let them know it's Summertime again
Free the world, free the world, free the world
Let them know it's Summertime again

A Nigerian state governor under investigation for alleged money-laundering in Britain can't be tried in Nigeria because of the immunity he enjoys from prosecution under the constitution, a court ruled Monday. More than GBP1 million that Plateau state Governor Joshua Dariye is suspected of having diverted from Nigeria's treasury was traced to eight bank accounts in Britain, Nigeria's attorney general's office said last month.

The 2nd High-Level Forum (HLF) on the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Abuja, Nigeria, was held 2-3 December. In September 2000, 189 world leaders made a commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Three of the eight goals relate directly to health: to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters, child mortality by two-thirds, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The HLF comes in advance of 2005, the "report card year", when Heads of State will meet to review progress at the Millennium +5 Summit in September.

President Mamadou Tandja has won a second five-year term in office, becoming Niger's first head of state to secure re-election as the arid landlocked country enters a new era of political stability.
Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44576

BACKGROUND BRIEFING: During virtually its whole independent existence, Niger has see-sawed between fragile democratic governments, whose stability has depended on their varying ability to incorporate representatives of the country's ethnic patchworks, and military dictatorships of varying shades of authoritarianism. Niger has never had what could be termed a totalitarian or overwhelmingly repressive government. Yet at the same time none of the military or civilian administrations could be said to have satisfactorily guaranteed civic rights and freedoms. Read this election briefing on the Niger elections from the Centre for Democracy and Development by clicking on the link below.

Zambia's main opposition, the United Party for National Development (UPND), will demonstrate against the government's decision to delay a new constitution until after elections in 2006. "We are planning to stage non-violent demonstrations with civil society throughout the country because of President Mwanawasa's recent statements that we cannot demonstrate against his decision to enact the new constitution in 2008," UPND spokesperson Patrick Chisanga told IRIN.

Setting up an independent electoral commission to oversee Angola's first post-war elections was critical to the credibility of the poll, analysts said on Tuesday. "Although peace has been achieved, Angola remains politically polarised. It is vital that a new, independent commission be established to ensure that voters buy into the process - without such a body, one can expect to see numerous challenges to the eventual results," Martinho Chachiua, of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, told IRIN.

Reparations should be the banner through which Africans and the international solidarity movement unite in an ever-expanding struggle against the forces of neo-liberal globalization, argues this commentary on Nepad and reparations from the www.zmag.org website. "The global justice movement must take up the demand for Africa reparations until those who have benefited from the crimes of slavery, colonialism and global apartheid are finally held accountable and made to pay reparations that are long overdue," it concludes.

Governments, aid agencies and donors need to acknowledge the chronic nature of problems that lead to recurring crises in Southern Africa, such as the widespread food shortages two years ago, a new report recommends. Titled "Southern Africa: The Cycle of Poverty Continues", the study by the development agency Save the Children argued that although the number of food insecure people was now estimated to be 60 percent lower than at the height of the crisis in 2002, "Save the Children does not believe that it is a case of 'mission accomplished', and that we can now shift our collective energies to other acute crises". The report commented that the process of development had stalled or reversed in most of Southern Africa over the last 10 years.

The number of workers earning less than two dollars a day and living in abject poverty has reached a record 1.4 billion people, the International Labour Organisation said on Tuesday, the ILO said in its World Employment Report 2004. Farmers and agricultural workers suffer the most from earnings below the two dollar poverty line, the UN's labour agency added as it called for a huge boost to the quality of jobs on offer. About 40% of workers in developing countries are employed in agriculture, yet most of their jobs are informal or poorly paid, making it a key sector for development, the ILO said.

The future for Namibia's development projects is looking grim as while the country's debt is still manageable, the State's financial situation leaves little room for manoeuvre. The warning bells that Government is strapped for cash was sounded by Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila announcing this week that for the first time since Independence no additional budget would be tabled this year. At the heart of the dilemma is a smaller than expected revenue for the 2003-04 financial year - a billion dollars less than forecast.

The lacklustre performance of Southern African economies over the past year has been attributed to the AIDS pandemic, political instability in some countries, and the negative effects of prolonged drought. In his annual report, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretary, Prega Ramsamy, noted that regional economic growth had stagnated, jeopardising progress towards achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). "If this situation is not reversed quickly it is hard to see how SADC is going to meet the MDGs," the secretary commented.

Thank you for the information regarding Dennis Brutus. Whether we agreed with him or not, the fact remains that Dennis is a giant who paved the way for the great strides made in the fight against apartheid sports. The fruits that we are now reaping are to a great extent the product of men like Dennis and the late George Singh and many other sports administrators who stood up to counted against the fascist regime. I can do no better than lend my support to the words expressed by the Arch and Fatima. Long may you live Dennis and everything of the best.