Bush's 'election' is a disaster for Africa and the world. It is a black day for human rights.

The term 'election' should be used loosely in this case, as there is now a stream of reports that the 'election' was stolen by massive computer fraud.

I read with interest the editorial and letter concerning the election of George W. Bush. I am a citizen of the USA who did not vote for him. In my circle of friends and acquaintances who did not support him there is an overwhelming feeling of depression and dread, and of deep disappointment in the number of our fellow countrymen who actually went to the polls and selected him. Please know that there are many of us here who are appalled by the actions of our government. And there are many of us who expect the rise of fascism in our country, and know that even voicing our opinion in the future will be dangerous. This is a very difficult time...

I am currently studying modern African history in one of the few such undergraduate courses offered in our country (and offer an apology on behalf of my country for the part we have played in making life a hell for so many Africans). It is true that Americans are for the most part abysmally ignorant of the rest of the world - a common misconception is that Africa is a country.

Our educational system and our media are largely responsible for this sad state of affairs. The seductions of material comfort play their part, also - but I suspect that the latter is not a peculiarly American weakness - it's just that we as a whole have had the opportunity to be so seduced, while in many other countries it is only the leaders who are offered the same temptation. I take comfort in knowing that throughout the world there are, and have always been, people who care about freedom and justice and who dream of peace. We are probably always the minority - but what a dreadful world it would be without us! Thank you for your excellent site. Peace.

Editor's comments: We have had many letters from Americans who share another view of the world to that propounded by Bush and his gang. Depressing though the results of the elections may be, the battle cry must be - as has always been - 'Don't agonise - Organise!'

Responding to recent criticism of the development industry, this book is a nuanced and original investigation of Northern donor agency personnel as they deliver aid in Tanzania. It explores how donor identities are manifested in the practices of development aid, and how calls for equal partnership between North and South often take a very different form in practice. It illustrates the conflicts and tensions in the development aid process, reflecting both the longstanding critique of the eurocentric nature of development, and discourse that still assumes images of the superior, initiating, efficient 'donor' as opposed to the inadequate, passive, unreliable 'partner' or recipient.

* Editorial: Why Bush’s re-election is bad for the world and bad for Africa; Q&A on US and Africa
* Comment and Analysis: Unifem’s Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda explains why any approach to peace and security in the Great Lakes region must adopt a zero tolerance approach to sexual violence
* Letters: Reader views on income inequality and unity in the fight for global justice
* Pan-African Postcard: Our weekly columnist on the US election, fear and why failure has never deterred George Walker Bush
* Conflicts and Emergencies: UN Truth and Reconciliation Commission report reveals the experiences of children in conflict
* Women and Gender: The Kigali declaration calls for the enactment and enforcement of legislation that protects and upholds the human rights and dignity of women and girls
* Elections and Governance: It would be a mistake to characterise the acquittal of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai's as a reversal of Zimbabwe’s politics of oppression, warns Brian Raftopoulos
* Corruption: Maina Kiai from the Kenya National Human Rights Commission writes that strength, clarity and leadership are required to turn rhetoric into reality in the fight against corruption in Kenya
* HIV/AIDS: AIDS will be a moral issue for as long as its politics are defined by inequalities, argues Sanjay Basu from the Yale School of Medicine
* Environment: Does isolation still protect forest communities in Cameroon?
* Media and FXI: Environmental journalism still on the fringes of mainstream media in Africa

With 10 per cent of patients being infected or otherwise harmed during their hospital stay, the United Nations public health agency has launched a programme to set worldwide standards that would reduce the number of preventable new illnesses, injuries and deaths that now cost billions of dollars. The new initiative, would focus on eliminating health-care infections, especially in 2005 and 2006. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that at least half of all medical equipment is unsafe and that 77 per cent of the reported cases of counterfeit and substandard drugs have surfaced in developing countries.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: George W. Bush’s re-election to the White House is bad for the world and bad for Africa. It’s not that the election of Democratic senator John Kerry would have resulted in a groundswell of change. But Bush took his country into a war that, as revealed by research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published this week in the Lancet, has resulted in the death of 100 000 Iraqi civilians – half of them women and children. Had the US electorate voted for Kerry, at least they would have sent a message to their leadership that bloodletting would not be tolerated in their name. Yes, Kerry might not have withdrawn from Iraq, but at least he would have been forced to think about the wisdom of an illegitimate foreign invasion if he knew that his second term in office was threatened.

As it is, Bush has a mandate from the US electorate to pursue a right wing agenda and the iron heel will now attempt to further stamp its authority on the world. For Africa, expect this agenda and the death of multilaterism to mean the securing of lucrative oil contracts even if it translates into supporting corrupt regimes, support for countries who back the ‘war on terrorism’ even while suppressing human rights domestically, the undermining of reproductive rights to the detriment of women’s rights and a fight against HIV/AIDS that has the best interests of the pharmaceutical industry at heart. Now that military intervention for 'regime change' has been legitimised as a political strategy with the collusion of Tony Blair (the chair of the 'Commission on Africa'), Africa will not be immune to the use of that strategy, only this time to the applaud of the majority of US citizens.

Q&A ON AFRICA AND THE US ELECTIONS

Last week, Pambazuka News sent a list of questions about the US elections to Ann-Louise Colgan, Director for Policy Analysis & Communications at Africa Action (http://www.africaaction.org). Answered before the results became known, the responses provide a useful insight into how Africa is seen by the US administration and what can be expected for the next four years.

PZ: Much of the news coming out of the US election race was focused on either the war in Iraq or domestic policy related to the economy. Where, if at all, did Africa feature on the radar screen and what were the main issues related to the continent that were mentioned?

ALC: This 2004 election season has had by far a greater focus than usual on foreign policy issues, but Africa has unfortunately been largely absent from the national debate. This only highlights once more the degree to which Africa is marginalized in the US policy discourse and in the public consciousness. Despite historical ties and important current interests, Africa is still largely considered to fall outside the scope of US policymakers’ concerns.

That being said, two issues related to Africa have featured on the radar screen to some extent this election season: Sudan & HIV/AIDS.

The genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, which has prompted a great deal of political activism and media attention in the US. in recent months, was featured in the first Presidential debate. This first debate took place just 4 weeks after the Bush Administration finally acknowledged that genocide was taking place in Darfur, and the moderator of the debate asked the candidates why they were not talking about sending in troops when they both agreed that this was a case of genocide. Both Presidential candidates emphasized the role and responsibility of the African Union in this regard, and neither stated that the US should take a leadership role. John Kerry did finish by saying that if it took US troops to coalesce the African Union, he would be prepared to do that in order to avoid “another Rwanda.” President Bush said he would not agree with committing troops to this area, just as, four years before, he had said in a Presidential debate that he would not send troops to the African continent to stop another Rwanda.

The issue of HIV/AIDS has also gained some attention this election season. The Bush Administration has sought to place the so-called President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) at the heart of its compassionate conservative agenda, and the Kerry campaign pledged to double this funding level for HIV/AIDS efforts in Africa and globally. Unfortunately, when a question on HIV/AIDS in the US was put to the vice-presidential candidates in the second debate, both revealed their ignorance about its disproportionate impact among African-American women in this country, which highlights their disinterest in the African-American community and their ignorance of the factors that continue to fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. They instead sought to answer the question by focusing on their plans to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, which are, of course, similarly inadequate.

But even in these two cases, where African priorities force themselves onto the agenda of candidates and policymakers, the urgent leadership required (and purported) by the US is absent. The measure of Africa’s importance is revealed by the reality of US policies, and not the rhetoric of election debates.

PZ: The problems with US policy towards Africa seem obvious - debt relief, HIV/AIDS, market access etc etc. How wide an understanding is there amongst the US electorate of these issues?

ALC: There is a deep understanding and interest in these issues among the various sectors of the US electorate that form Africa’s constituencies here in the US. These include a wide range of Africa-focused civil society groups and their supporters, academics, religious and labour communities, African-American & African neo-diaspora communities, activist student groups, and many others. Not all of these groups engage at the policy level, but they do care about US relations with Africa in a broad sense.

Across the US electorate as a whole, there is a narrow understanding of US foreign policy interests, particularly post-September 11th. Often, this translates to a lack of awareness of key global issues – such as poverty, civil conflict and HIV/AIDS – and the role of the US in responding to these challenges. While a broader understanding does exist on the issues of HIV/AIDS in Africa and genocide in Darfur, the US public is often misled to believe that the US is doing more than it is on these critical issues.

PZ: It seems as if there is a general acknowledgement that the re-election of Bush is bad for Africa. But would Kerry have offered anything substantively different?

ALC: The priorities and approach of the Bush Administration have certainly hurt Africa over the past four years. The US preoccupation with the “war on terrorism”, alleged weapons of mass destruction, and Washington’s military misadventure in Iraq, has hurt Africa directly in economic and political terms. The Bush Administration’s focus on oil and military security has also turned Africa into geo-strategic real estate, defining the continent’s value once more in a Cold War era model. More broadly, to the extent that US actions under the Bush Administration have undermined the very notion of multilateralism, they have been directly at odds with Africa’s interests. Despite rhetorical efforts to place Africa at the center of the Bush Administration’s “compassionate conservative” agenda, Africa’s priorities – the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty – have been ignored, as US approaches have instead been characterized by broken promises and harmful policies.

Should Kerry have been elected, it is unlikely there would have been a dramatic shift in US Africa policy, or in US priorities in relation to Africa. In fact, despite being married to a woman born in Mozambique, John Kerry has never even been to Africa! The “Kerry-Edwards Plan for Africa” pledged to double funding for HIV/AIDS programs globally, and to support debt cancellation and the fight against poverty, but it offered little by way of new approaches to these challenges. On the positive side, Kerry would likely have supported the elimination of the global “gag rule”, which undermines family planning programs and women’s reproductive health in developing countries. Kerry has also issued stronger statements on the crisis in Darfur and what the US role should be in addressing this crisis. But on issues such as trade, military relations and oil, a Kerry administration would likely have pursued a similar track to the Bush White House. Kerry was also unlikely to dismantle the Millennium Challenge Account or the conditionalities integral to that program, as well as to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and to debt relief programs.

PZ: There is an annual net drain of more than $12 billion dollars out of Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the highest such transfers from South to North in the world and it is mostly debt service. As Africa Action points out on their website, Africa's debt burden is an enormous obstacle to development of the continent. What progress is there likely to be on this issue over the next four years?

ALC: The past few months have seen important progress on the debt issue. During discussions among the “Group of 8” leaders at their annual summit in June, 100% multilateral debt cancellation was on the table for the first time in history. While there is still work to be done on this issue, both by campaigners and in negotiations between the G-8 governments, there are indications that an agreement can be expected in 2005 on some form of debt cancellation for some sub-set of deeply impoverished countries that need it.

Of course, since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration has been actively promoting the cancellation of Iraq’s “odious debts”. At the same time, it has practiced a double standard by ignoring the illegitimate and odious nature of African countries’ debts. Recently, the Bush Administration indicated that it now supports 100% multilateral debt cancellation for 33 of the most impoverished and indebted countries, and that the resources to realize this should come from the World Bank and IMF themselves. The Bush Administration also supports a shift from loans to grants in future assistance.

While it is clear that rich countries and international financial institutions must address the illegitimate and unsustainable debts of African countries and other countries in the Global South, only continued public activism will ensure that result. Two key dates next year where debt will be on the agenda will be the “Group of 7” Finance Ministers meeting in February, and the annual G-8 summit, which the UK will host in July 2005.

PZ: What are some of the key motivators of US policy towards Africa and how are these likely to play themselves out over the next four years in terms of the war on terrorism, access to oil, and securing access to African raw materials and markets for American companies?

ALC: Under the Bush Administration, the “war on terrorism” and US interests in oil and strategic military relations have largely motivated US policy toward Africa. These perceived interests will continue to shape the course of US Africa policy over the next several years. Washington will continue to focus on African countries’ oil resources as an alternative to the Middle East. In fact, the National Intelligence Council projects that US oil supplies from West Africa will increase to 25% by 2015, which would exceed US oil imports from the entire Persian Gulf. The US pre-occupation with “energy security” will continue, and will make increasingly important those African countries that are large producers of oil, such as Nigeria, Angola, Gabon.

In terms of strategic military relations, increased US interest in projecting military force into the Persian Gulf has led to a massive increase in the US military presence in the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere in recent years. This trend is also likely to continue in the coming years as the US seeks to secure access to military bases across Africa, including in regions where oil is to be found. At the same time, there will continue to be a US concern with the counter-terrorism efforts of African countries, to the extent that they provide security for US interests in East Africa and other sub-regions.

The trend that has become apparent since 2001, when these two agendas – oil security and counter-terrorism – came to form the backbone of US Africa policy under the Bush Administration, will likely be further reinforced in coming years.

PZ:. Say one thing and do another, seems to be the juggling act of the Bush administration as it attempts to make commitments on the HIV/AIDS issue in Africa while at the same time protecting the interests of pharmaceutical companies. Any policy predictions on this issue for the next four years?

ALC: The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and globally will remain the most urgent global threat, and will require a far more committed and effective response than has been the case until now.

Over the last four years, the Bush Administration’s ties with the pharmaceutical lobby in the US have led the US to pursue policies that protect the interests of these wealthy companies at the expense of the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries, who are dying without access to essential medicines. It is clear that activism around the issue of access to affordable medications will continue, and that both rich country governments and pharmaceutical companies will face increasing pressure to give the growing numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS in impoverished countries the right and the ability to receive care and treatment.

The pharmaceutical industry is closely allied with the Bush Administration, and is one of the largest contributors to the Republican Party. The US Global AIDS Coordinator, appointed by Bush, is himself a former pharmaceutical executive! A comprehensive and effective response to HIV/AIDS in African and globally in the next several years will require strong international support for initiatives such as the World Health Organization’s “3 by 5” plan and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria. This means challenging the power and the profits of the pharmaceutical companies and their influence over US policy on HIV/AIDS in the US and globally.
While a Kerry Administration may initially have been less beholden to the pharmaceutical companies, these companies would have done everything in their power to change this as quickly as possible.

* What do you think about the re-election of George W. Bush? What is your view on the relationship between Africa and the US? Send your comments to [email protected]

Amid the forest greenery and yellow and purple flowers near Nkol-Ntara, central Cameroon, the scene is disturbed by a sign a few feet high showing an oil derrick and petrol pump . It reads: "Caution: oil pipeline." The notice gives instructions to call a number in case of emergency or before starting to dig. This in a country where the World Bank estimates 30 per cent of adults are illiterate and there is less than one telephone for every 20 people. As attention focuses on the fate of Chad's oil money, however, Cameroonian activists are critical of what they say are double standards in the World Bank - allowing the government to remain opaque and unaccountable despite Cameroon's reputation for corruption.

Half of the world's poor will live in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015, up from 27% in 1999, despite significant inroads made in reducing global poverty, according to a new report. The latest survey compiled by the South African Institute of Race Relations uses World Bank data to show that poverty in SubSaharan Africa will worsen significantly. More than 400-million people are expected to live on less than $1 a day in 2015, up from 315-million in 1999 while global poverty will be reduced by a third.

Children receiving food aid are often stigmatised and maltreated by guardians, according to the findings of a pilot project in Zimbabwe to assess the impact of food interventions on children. The project was prompted by a lack of "humanitarian accountability to beneficiaries" and the fact that feedback from children had never been considered in the significant number of interventions taking place in Zimbabwe, said Chris McIvor of the UK-Based NGO, Save the Children, which conducted the study.

As corruption becomes the surest way for people to access certain rights and services, Tanzanians are increasingly forced to dispose of their assets in order to obtain cash to bribe officials. As a result, corruption is exposing both households and individuals to a constant erosion of income or asset-related resources. In this context, violence, robbery and insecurity are prevalent even within households, where women are now at greater risk than in public places.

Job-creation was a leading goal of government policy during the first decade of democracy in South Africa. However, little success has been achieved in the struggle to create sufficient jobs in the economy. Using the expanded definition of unemployment (which includes people who have given up looking for work), the unemployment rate was estimated to be 28.6% at the time of the transition to democracy. The most recent estimates (March 2004) find the unemployment rate to be 41.2% using the expanded definition, translating into 8.4 million unemployed people. This is according to a report from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).

The mobilization and organization of African civil society constitutes an important asset in the progress of the continent, concludes a new report from Partnership Africa Canada. "A commitment at this level requires better political recognition than is currently the case. This recognition must be achieved, however, without hindering civil society’s independence." Africa is facing some enormous challenges, which may prompt some to wallow in a state of Afro-pessimism. However, taking this approach would mean ignoring the vast efforts of the populations concerned and the multiple causes of the crises shaking the continent.

Difficulties mobilizing development resources for Africa and ways of improving the continent's financial systems are being discussed at a workshop in Kenya this week coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Experts attending the Nairobi meeting, held from 1 to 3 November, are seeking to identify how African countries can garner the $64 billion in new investment needed to generate a growth rate of 7 per cent and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) designed to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

Negotiations between the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) are moving forward successfully, according to South Africa’s Chief Trade Negotiator, Xavier Carim. SACU countries - South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland – are due to engage in the final round of negotiations with EFTA countries - Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Iceland - in December at an undetermined location. It is hoped that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will emanate from this meeting, which would in turn result in SACU countries having a "significant" increase in exports particularly in textiles, clothing, fisheries and agriculture.

Just weeks away from Namibia's parliamentary and presidential elections, two main opposition parties are considering boycotting the polls, accusing the public broadcaster of political bias. The Congress of Democrats (CoD) and Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) last Thursday alleged that the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was awarding the ruling SWAPO party a disproportionate amount of television airtime. A third opposition party has taken court action to force the NBC to give equal coverage.

Concerns over a constitutional crisis in Burundi abated on Monday when six Tutsi-dominated parties dropped their long-standing opposition to the country's current interim constitution. The interim constitution has been in effect since 20 October when the country's transitional, two-chamber parliament voted for it to stay in force for six months. Officially, the transition period ended on Monday, but the interim constitution allows the country's institutions to stay in place until elections are held in 2005.

Sudanese government officials and rebel delegates have welcomed - some cautiously - proposals from African Union (AU) mediators on security in Darfur, which has long been a sticking point between the two sides at peace talks in the Nigerian capital. Under the AU draft agreement, both sides would have to give the location of their forces and Khartoum would have to make good on its pledges to the international community to disarm the Janjawid militia, accused of waging a campaign of slaugher, rape and destruction against people in Darfur.

UN authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have handed over a French UN civil servant to French authorities following allegations that the person sexually molested children. Last week, two Tunisian UN peacekeepers were sent home following a UN investigation into the sexual abuse of minors.

This manual produced by the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa presents innovative examples of applied local practices of child justice in Africa. The topics mainly relate to programme delivery, to the expansion of services to children and to integrating human rights practice in criminal justice processes. The manual is aimed at policy makers and non-governmental organizations. It looks at the current child justice law reforms currently underway or already undertaken in a number of African countries.

Botswana's ruling party has won general elections, giving President Festus Mogae a second term in office. The Botswana Democratic Party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1966, took 44 of the 57 parliamentary seats. The fragmented opposition divided the vote, and the opposition Botswana National Front won just 12 seats.