This article by Everjoice Win is fantastic.

Delighted to read Everjoice Win's article on World Aids Day. Such fresh and frank commentary needs to be printed as a flyer and distributed around liberally. Well done Everjoice!

I am a woman although some would not consider me to be. I am almost 21 and it almost never counts for anything much. I am also from "The Deep South" of the US. That is, more specifically, Alabama.

I am proud that the world has decided to recognize woman on one day (two if you count Mother's Day) of the year, so very appreciative that they can give up one year of their lives for women. But, do they? I mean, do they really stop and take notice? Sure, people like you, editors, writers, politicians, leaders of governments, they are obliged to care. What about the rest of the world? How do we make them care?

I wore my red ribbon yesterday to school and to work. Do you know how many people asked me why? Do you know how many people said, "huh?" when I told them that it was World AIDS Day? Too many. I wore the ribbon so that I could remind people, as well as myself, of the ever-growing concern for women less fortunate than myself. I wore it to remind myself to be in prayer for those I know who are plagued by the awful disease. You know, women are starting to take more notice of Breast Cancer Awareness and the pink ribbon, but could it be because they know someone who has breast cancer, or they have it themselves?

We, in America, are not as aware of the AIDS epidemic as we should be, especially with the amazing rate at which the disease is spreading throughout our country. People still have the backwards mentality to think that if someone has AIDS/ HIV then they deserve it. I want to shout "wake up!" to these narrow-minded people.

The truth is, we have not moved an inch past where Alabama was in the 1960s. We are still as racist as we were then, only now, the racism extends an ever reaching arm to homosexuals, to women, to Buddhists or people of any other religion outside of Southern Baptists, and to those living (if you can call it that) with AIDS.

Oh, I am proud to be an American. But I am prouder to be a woman. Especially when there are women like Ms. Win and the ever-courageous Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the rightful leader of Myanmar. Women of the world, wake up and MAKE your voice heard! How can you sit quietly anymore?

Plagued by violence and drought, Somalia is mired in a humanitarian crisis forgotten by most of the world, a top U.N. official said on Friday as he led the world body's first high-level visit in a decade. Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and humanitarian relief coordinator, started a three-day trip to raise awareness of Somalia's problems by visiting the capital of Somaliland, an autonomous enclave which is unrecognized internationally.

A new report from Oxfam, 'Paying the Price', finds that rich countries' aid budgets are half what they were in 1960 and poor countries are paying back a staggering $100 million a day in debt repayments. Oxfam also calculates that 97 million more children will be out of school by 2015 unless urgent action is taken. Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam's Executive Director, said: "The world has never been wealthier, yet rich nations are giving less and less. Across the globe, millions of people are being denied the most basic human needs - clean water, food, health care and education. People are dying while leaders delay debt relief and aid."

More heads are expected to roll as Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika pushes ahead with his campaign to rid the country of high-level corruption, analysts said on Friday. Last Thursday the mayor of the commercial capital, Blantyre, was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Kwacha 400,000 (US $3,782) from the city's coffers. John Chikakwiya is said to have solicited the money from the Grain and Milling Company for the rehabilitation of roads, but the funds cannot be accounted for.

The Zimbabwe government's draft law to regulate nongovernmental organizations threatens the existence of civil society groups in the country, Human Rights Watch says in a new briefing paper. Scheduled for a vote in parliament next week, the bill substantially restricts freedom of association and thus falls far short of the Southern African Development Community's principles to protect human rights during elections. "A vibrant civil society is crucial for a functioning democracy," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy director at Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. "With elections coming up in March, Zimbabwe needs to allow sufficient space for civil society groups, not pass a law that would stifle them."

The six suspended provincial chairpersons of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party were not only bent on sabotaging the imposition of a woman as co-vice-president. They wanted, for the first time ever, to have President Robert Mugabe's own position contested at the party congress. The fourth five-yearly congress of Zimbabwe's ruling party, Zanu PF, was thrown into turmoil with the suspension of six provincial chairpersons and strong censure of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

The upcoming third edition of the African Social Forum (ASF), from 10-14 December in Lusaka, Zambia, faces as one of its challenges the broadening of the forum to make it more popular than it has been up until now by enabling movements which do not appear on the African or international scene to express their voices and concerns.

"A popular Forum in 2004 would constitute an important condition for the successful organisation of the World Social Forum in Africa in 2007. This third edition would make it possible to examine the stakes of such a perspective and bring out together the visions and objectives that could be pursued for 2007," says a briefing document on the upcoming Lusaka meeting on the ASF website.

The ASF has taken place annually, since Bamako in 2002, as a prelude to the annual World Social Forum.

At the first forum in Bamako in 2002, over two hundred social movements, organizations and individuals from forty five African countries established the 'Bamako Consensus', that endorsed the Charter of the World Social Forum to build a different world.

Under the theme "Another Africa is Possible", participants undertook analyses, shared experiences and heard testimonies on wide-ranging economic, social, political and cultural matters affecting the African peoples. The ASF identified a number of recommendations and proposals for activists and networks to include in their work, and a steering committee was put in place to move the process forward.

At the second ASF meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a final statement was issued detailing how past and present economic policies implemented by African governments had failed to improve the lives of ordinary Africans. The Forum concluded that only a dynamic civil society organised in strong and active social movements "can and must challenge the neo-liberal political economy of globalization". The consensus was for the need to build a new African state and society, where public institutions and policies would guarantee cultural, economic, political and social rights for all citizens.

Following the Bamako and Addis Ababa Forums, a process of consultations have taken place around Africa to find a way of effectively exposing the current social, political and economic injustices for better government and state action. These have resulted in various regional forums designed to create a platform for interest groups of civil society to discuss issues together relating to social, political and economic justice.

The ASF has in the past faced criticism that it is dominated by wealthier NGOs at the expense of less well resourced social movements, whose members face constraints in terms of their ability to travel to and participate in such events. But the counter argument has also been made that activists need to get involved before they express disappointment at the outcomes of the meetings.

The ASF briefing document issued ahead of the upcoming Lusaka meeting explains that as a space for "discussion, reflection, mutual consolidation and democratic debate", it is important for Africa that the Forum continues to be the instrument of the growth of African social movements and of "vigilance in relation to the policies conceived and implemented on the continent".

The document also notes that the world has experienced major upheavals in the last two years, linked to American policy with regards the 'war on terror' and the war in Iraq.

"The effects of these upheavals on the African peoples are not negligible and aggravate the effects of the liberal policies implemented on the entire planet over the last twenty years. Already the aggravation of several conflicts, the growing presence of foreign military forces and the increased grip on the petroleum and mineral resources of the continent are perceptible."

As a result, the document notes that it is necessary to review the situation and that the Forum "must allow a better understanding of the new stakes and the outlining of alternatives and resistance strategies which the African social movement will try to promote for the benefit of the peoples of the continent."

Other priority areas and themes for discussion at the forum include the question of sovereignty in relation to external influences, the future of peasant farming in light of WTO and regional trade agreements and the question of Pan-Africanism.

For the first time at the ASF meeting in Zambia, a youth camp will be established where participants will be charged with developing an African youth council, an African youth communication line and a follow-up to the resolutions to the ASF council. The youth camp is intended to develop a youth movement within the ASF.

* Compiled by Patrick Burnett, Fahamu. For more detailed information, please visit http://www.africansocialforum.org/english/fsa2004.htm

THIRD WORLD NETWORK WEB SPECIAL ON ASF

Third World Network-Africa, the Accra-based advocacy organisation, will have a dedicated page on its website www.twnafrica.org to report the forthcoming African Social Forum (ASF) which starts in Lusaka, Zambia on December 10, 2004. The four-day event will bring together hundreds of activists and organisations campaigning on human rights, gender, race, the environment, trade, and many other issues. The website will present regular news and features from the African Social Forum, and will also welcome contributions and reactions. For more information, please contact Emmanuel.k.Bensah at [email protected]

* Background reading from Pambazuka News on the African Social Forum

- Living the alternative: Background to the World Social Forum and the African Social Forum
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=139
- Another Africa is possible
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=12669
- ASF condemns US aggression
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=12705
- The African Social Forum
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=11315
- Putting the ASF in order
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19930
- In search of deeper dialogue beyond Addis and Bamako http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=19929

* Editorial: Everjoice Win loves international days of “this and that”. World Aids Day, she writes, would have provided much needed light relief for most women.
* Comment and Analysis: UN resolutions on Darfur continue to be ‘weak and meaningless’, states Eva Dadrian
- Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa must challenge global apartheid, argues Titus Alexander
- Tributes to Dennis Brutus on the occasion of his 80th birthday
* 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence: News and events
* Honouring Sylvia Tamale - Ugandan activist for women's rights
* Letters: Is Pan-Africanism the answer?
* Pan-African Postcard: Defeating HIV/AIDS calls for unified action, writes Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
* Conflict and Emergencies: Tensions escalate between DRC and Rwanda
* Women and Gender: Securing gender rights in DRC key to lasting peace
* Elections and Governance: Ghana goes to the polls on December 7
* HIV/AIDS: Remember the caregivers on World Aids day, writes Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda
* Land and Land Rights: Finding common ground for tackling land reform in Namibia

The recent aspersions cast on prominent leaders of our movement like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi reveal the inability of our movement to accept criticism and constructively engage with dissenting views, writes Cosatu's Tony Ehrenreich. "In many respects it is enlightening that differences within the tripartite alliance are made public, because it is in this way that the many members of the alliance are able to evaluate for themselves what lies behind the disfunctioning of the alliance."

Heavy rains and low turnout cast a shadow over Thursday's second day of Mozambican elections for a successor to President Joaquim Chissano as foreign observers complained they were denied full access to the polling process. National Electoral Commission head Arao Lithure took the unusual step of making a live address on state radio and television to urge Mozambicans to vote, saying they had a right to help determine their country's destiny.

The interim prime minister of Somalia, Ali Muhammad Gedi, on Wednesday named a partial-government of 27 ministers who immediately took oath of office at a ceremony attended by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Gedi's director of communications, Hussein Jabiri, told IRIN that the full government would consist of 31 ministers, 31 vice-ministers and five state ministers.

For the past two weeks, the intensified violence in Darfur, Western Sudan, the restrictions imposed on humanitarian aid to 1.4 million people, and the expulsion of senior aid officials from two of the most renowned international humanitarian organisations are the dire result of the past and present failure of the United Nations Security Council, the United States, the international community and the African states.

By refusing to act on the extensive documented evidence of the atrocities, war crimes and human right abuses committed against the black African civilian population of Darfur, the United Nations Security Council has dried its crocodile tears on the empty slogan of “Never Again” that it proclaimed six months ago when commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, and turned its back on the people of Darfur. None of its resolutions on Darfur has made any impact on Khartoum in stopping the violence and the ethnic cleansing in the region. In addition, the United Nations has not put any pressure on Khartoum to fulfil its commitments stipulated in the Joint Communiqué jointly signed with the UN Secretary General in July 2004, regarding the “immediate disarming of the Janjaweed and other armed outlaw groups”.

Have we forgotten the Resolution on the armed conflict in Darfur adopted by more than 100 African human rights organisations during the 34th Session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, at Banjul (Gambia)? That was only a year ago, in November 2003.

It is true that collective decision-making is all very well but what do you do when the culprit is part of the collective? When Sudan, for example, sits on the African Union's Peace and Security Council as it debates alleged atrocities by Sudan government-backed militias and then comes to frustrate the efforts of that same Peace and Security Council to monitor the cease-fire in Darfur?

Could it be possible that because we, Africans, do not agree with the policies of Washington, London or Paris, we are ready to sacrifice the lives of our own people and hence reject any human rights resolution condemning an African state? This is exactly what happened at the UN General Assembly in Nairobi ten days ago. A draft resolution which could have denounced the killings and the ethnic cleansing that is still taking place in Darfur was frustrated by developing countries including almost all Islamic and African states. Is Africa saying to Sudan “Maalesh (never mind, in Arabic) - do not “fully and unconditionally respect your obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights as well as other regional and international human rights treaties to which you, Sudan are a State Party”.

The African Summit held in Tripoli (Libya) in October 2004 was claimed to be 'an important step to settle the crisis peacefully' and part of “relentless efforts” to settle the Darfur crisis in order to introduce the best model in facing other African problems. “Global support will be more effective and useful than threatening sanctions." It is said that it is Khartoum's legitimate right to solve its internal crises and no one can contest the Sudanese government's prerogative to deal with issues pertaining to its national security. Yet, time and again, the Sudanese government has proved its inability to finding a peaceful solution to the Darfur problem. Khartoum has made many promises to international visitors, to African leaders, to the UN, but has delivered nothing. It has failed - one would even say “refused” - to rein in the Janjaweed militias that it has unleashed against the black African population of Darfur. It has systematically stopped and restricted the humanitarian efforts. It has expelled aid workers. It has bombed and killed its own citizens. It has blocked all regional and international mediation efforts to solve the crisis.

Whenever confronted with real facts on the ground, the Sudanese government officials are always prompt to deny, reject, accuse, condemn and blame others, yet they have not found a proper answer to the Darfur crisis. When last July, the UN Security Council passed a first resolution condemning the atrocities perpetrated against the people of Darfur, Khartoum was angry. Later in September, the Sudanese vice-president was fuming when the UN Security Council passed yet another resolution on the violence in Darfur. As extraordinary as it may appear, Khartoum is always “right” while the African Union, the United Nations, the international community, the humanitarian organisations, the media and the people of Darfur are always “wrong”.

The Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail says that the African Union (AU) has not fulfilled its commitment towards Darfur, particularly regarding the expansion of forces it promised to send to help in monitoring the ceasefire and protecting civilians. Yet, only a few weeks ago, Khartoum not only imposed “restrictions” on the African Union troops, but also was refusing to allow the same AU troops to fly into Darfur. The Sudanese government's onslaught on the AU does not stop there. Nageeb al-Khair Abdel-Wahab, State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sudan, has labelled the recent AU report on the renewed clashes in Darfur as “unfair and imbalanced” whereas the report holds all the warring parties - the government, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - responsible for violating the security and humanitarian protocols signed in Abuja, Nigeria (October 21 to November 10, 2004).

Though western mediators acknowledge that the issues in Darfur “need to be worked out” they fail to understand that these are not “manageable” disputes that can be handled “as they arise”. Time and again, analysts have made it clear that the issues at stake, not only in Darfur or in the South, but in Sudan in its entirety, are related to “structural” matters and to how Sudan can be governed and not who is to govern Sudan. The viable solution to be found needs to be “proactive” and long term so to avoid the recurrence of the problems. A “reactive” and short-term solution would only solve the problem “temporarily”. Sudan has been mis-governed since independence by interest groups and political ideologues that are today trying to keep their hegemony despite and against all common sense. Whether it comes under internal pressure from opposition parties or it concedes to pressure from the international community, Khartoum's position in dealing with its problems is unlikely to change. The government of Hassan El Beshir is determined to maintain its hold on power at any cost and force its policies on the Sudanese people by all means, except national dialogue. Let's be serious. Khartoum is not interested in global support.

Human rights activists, observers, analysts and US officials have all condemned the extremely weak and meaningless United Nations Security Council resolution (Nairobi). Now, Khartoum and the militias it has armed have “carte blanche” to continue their vicious treatment of the black African people of Darfur with impunity. They can kill, burn, rape, displace people, usurp their land and propagate racial hatred in the province.

* Eva Dadrian is an independent broadcaster and Political and Country Risk Analyst for print and broadcast media, who currently works as a consultant for Arab African Affairs (London) and writes on a regular basis for AFRICA ANALYSIS (London), for Al Ahram HEBDO Echos Economiques and Al Ahram WEEKLY (Cairo) and contributes to Africa Service BBC WS (London).

* Please send comments to

Ghana is still experiencing some shocks in its political economy in the country’s attempt to deal with its post-military, prolonged authoritarian past. "While alternation of power is seen to have helped in the consolidation of the democratic process, there are fears that severe security problems triggered by lack of access to resources might create further security challenges," says an article in the journal Democracy & Development: Journal of West African Affairs, published by the The Centre for Democracy and Development, a non-governmental organisation which aims to promote the values of democracy, peace & human rights in Africa and in the West African sub-region. Published last year and based on a study in 2002, the article makes for interesting reading ahead of Ghana's election next week. The study also concludes that:

- Government policies to redress poverty and other socio-economic concerns have just reached the implementation stages. Progress made so far is commendable, but challenges remain.

- The internal threats that Ghana has to confront are potentially dangerous. Many of them have to do with who lost power, who has gained power and who is wielding power. In dealing with them, Government has to adopt an institutional approach that does not paint its actions as patently partisan.

- The threat from the neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire given the recent crisis is by far the most critical facing the country.

>>>>> For the full article, visit http://www.cdd.org.uk/pdf/ghana.pdf

NEWS: ELECTIONS 2005

President John Kufuor is on course to win a second term as the opposition candidate struggles to emerge as his own man, analysts said last Friday. Kufuor, of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), will face his main rival John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and other minor candidates on 7 December. If no-one wins more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be a run-off but most commentators think that unlikely.

>>>>>For the full article, visit http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44383

COMMENTARY: ELECTIONS 2005
Quassy Adjapawn
Politics in Ghana has come a long way. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, and his Convention People’s Party in 1957 achieved the symbolic status of making Ghana the first black African colony to gain independence and subsequently became the first independent African member of the British Commonwealth. Ghana became the symbol of African liberation and as such attracted an inordinate amount of attention from the West.

Since then Ghana has suffered a series of coup d'tats, amongst them the 1966 military takeover led by General Kotoka and in 1972, Colonel Acheampong’s overthrow of the second republic. The year 1978 marked a palace coup to restructure the military regime and in 1979, there was a coup by junior military officers led by Jerry Rawlings. Rawlings staged another coup in 1981 to overthrow the constitutional People’s National Party (PNP) government in the third republic.

>>>>>Click on the link below to read the full article.

A study prepared for the Bretton Woods Project has found that the Development Gateway, an internet portal on development issues initiated by the World Bank, presents a biased picture of development debates, lacks independence and is inefficient when compared with other similar initiatives. The Gateway seeks to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction through knowledge and resource sharing. Initially conceived and designed by the World Bank, it commenced operations as an independent not-for-profit organisation in July 2001.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

We in South Africa needed the support of the international community in our efforts to end the vicious system of racial oppression called apartheid.

We had to have eloquent advocates to tell the world our story and persuade it to come to our assistance. Today we are free and democratic striving to be non-racial and non-sexist. We won a spectacular victory over the awfulness of apartheid a victory that is unthinkable without the support of the international community referred to earlier.

We had none more articulate and with all the credibility and integrity so indispensable than Dennis Brutus to plead our cause. He was quite outstanding and we South Africans owe an immense debt of gratitude.

I join many, many of our compatriots and our friends in the international community as we salute him when he celebrates his 80th birthday. Many happy returns and God's richest blessings broer! Thank you for having been such a stalwart. We owe much to you.

God bless you.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Fatima Meer, Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban

Denis, we thank you for your 80 glamorous years, a considerable part of them spent leading us in our fight against the injustices that was and still is unleashed upon us. We know your disappointments and we salute you and applaud you for bringing them to our notice. I hope you are spared some score more years to correct the ways that still remain. I am with you in the fight that still remains and I need your commitment and your energy and your integrity. Live on wonderful soldier, live on for South Africa, for all those who continue to be oppressed and deprived and impoverished throughout the world. Live on Denis in spirit, if not in body. Live on, dearest compatriot.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Sean Jacobs, New York University, New York

Vir Dennis Brutus. Waar ek vandaan kom is jy nou al 'n wyse ou man, maar jy laat die laaities moeg lyk. Regte Suid-Afrikaners eer jou.

>>>>>>>>>>

Trevor Ngwane, Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, Johannesburg

unkonka wefusi
umakad' ebona
inkunzi emidwayidwayi
okudala beyidwanguza
yehlula izinhlamvu zamaphoyisa ezomoya
yehlula amaBhunu esiqhingini
igagu umlom' omnandi
umlomo ishoba lokuziphungela
mfoka Bhaduza uthembeni na?
ngoba ozakweni bomzabalazo
sebephenduke amambuka
badla izambane likampondo
kodwa indima singakayiphethi
elikaMthaniya kaNdaba lisaphethwe zinyoni
mana njalo qabane lamaqabane
nwele zimhlophe
isina muva liyabukwa
oMandela bagiya bakushiya enkundleni
kanti baphosisile umgidi awukapheli
umzabalazo usaqhubeka
ithemba alisobe labulala
Dennis Brutus
uyiqhawe lamaqhawe
uyingonyama
mana njalo
ukhule uze ukhokhobe
ubambelele ngezindonga

>>>>>>>>>>>

Center for Economic Justice, Washington/Alburquerque/Johannesburg

What makes Dennis Brutus so unique as an activist and as a human being, is that he has been an inspiration and a source of spiritual strength to so many of us worldwide who are struggling to make the world a just place, including all of us at the Center for Economic Justice. Struggling for justice and humanity is hard work; it is full of setbacks, heartbreak, and loss. It is precisely at the hardest points in our struggle that we think of Dennis. We are inspired by how he keeps doing the most important work in the world with a smile and with kind words for everyone. We are amazed at how strong his spirit is after everything that he has seen and suffered through, especially the betrayal of the hopes of the South African people by persons he had always regarded as comrades. We love you, Dennis!

>>>>>>>>>>

Dale Mckinley, Anti-Privatisation Forum, Johannesburg

Comrade Dennis - 80 years young and still going strong, still fanning the flames of resistance, still sharing your words of wisdom and creativity and still a revolutionary. You have taken the words of Che and put them into your heart and into practice - "If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine". You are a true comrade.

>>>>>>>>>>

Firoze Manji, Fahamu, Oxford

Dennis - is it really 80 years? How much we have gained in those years, and sadly how much have we lost. But the best was that those years produced fighters such as you who have held up the flag in Africa and for Africa. You are an example to us all. Keep fighting - onwards to the next 80 years!

>>>>>>>>>>

Jann Turner, Johannesburg

I would love to wish Dennis Brutus a happy birthday. Sunday the 28th of November happens to be a very important day for me too - I turn 40. I'm exactly half his age and I would be proud to accomplish half of what he has done in his life in my own time on this earth.

>>>>>>>>>>

Bill Fletcher, TransAfrica Forum, Washington

Dennis Brutus stands as a tribune of the dispossessed. His willingness to speak out on all cases of injustice, and side with the oppressed makes him the type of person we all wish to emulate. His perseverance, dedication and eloquence have made him not only a hero for the South African freedom struggle, but for all those who struggle for social justice.

>>>>>>>>>>

Njoki Njoroge Njehu & Soren Ambrose, Washington & Nairobi

We offer our heartfelt 80th Birthday greetings to Dennis Brutus. We celebrate you - friend, leader, courageous, poet, internationalist, outrageous, inspirational, unbowed, joyful, unrelenting, always responsive, committed, dignified, revolutionary, fighter for freedom and justice, stalwart for solidarity, and much more. Dennis Brutus, PRESENTE!

We celebrated Dennis' 75th Birthday in Seattle, a few days before the historic collapse of the WTO Ministerial - what a wonderful Birthday present for Dennis?! We are delighted and proud to say that the 50 Years Is Enough Network has already co-hosted, not one but two celebrations, of Dennis' 80th birthday. Both occasions doubled as fundraisers, as Dennis continues to multi-task and to do everything in his power -- including just having a birthday -- to support and build the movements for global justice, and in particular the 50 Years Is Enough Network. Dennis has a created a legacy to be proud of, that is inspiring, and a catalyst for creating that "other possible world."

As we prepare to move back to Africa, we are proud to call Dennis our great friend, a true Mzalendo (combatant/patriot in Kiswahili) for justice, and a brother in the struggle for true liberation for Africa and the world. Where there is struggle, there you will find Dennis. So Dennis, we invite you to Kenya to celebrate your 81st Birthday with those in the struggles there - we will organize appropriate fora for the celebration. Happy Birthday Dennis! And a happy celebration to all those able to be with him as he appropriately marks the occasion in South Africa. Many, many, happy returns. We love you, Dennis! Viva Dennis Viva!!

>>>>>>>>>>

The Ethiopian government is taking steps to prevent any abuses of opposition political supporters and has contacted all regions in the country to stress that forthcoming elections should be held in a fair and democratic manner, a spokesman told IRIN. "This is the period of preparation for the election," Zemedkun Teckle said on Tuesday. "Let me assure you, one commitment of the government is to ensure free and fair elections."

The preliminary findings of a study on child domestic workers in Lesotho, forced onto the job market by poverty and HIV/AIDS, has uncovered the sometimes "highly abusive nature" of their relationship with employers. Commissioned by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender Youth Sport and Recreation, the survey "revealed the serious challenges imposed upon children, as they become more and more reliant on various forms of labour to sustain their poverty- and HIV/AIDS-stricken families," a UNICEF statement said.

This volume interrogates the structures of social change, civil society, the working classes and ruling and competing elites in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. It considers positive and negative examples of accountable, open and ethical government and the arguments that are presented to explain the distinctions, which have emerged between Botswana and its neighbours.