Featured this week

They say free trade is the answer to world poverty, but all too often it benefits the richest and deprives the poorest. In this, the second of four Pambazuka News special issues during 2006 discussing issues of trade and justice, a series of articles examines the point where trade meets the rights of people and communities. If free trade is the answer, these articles seem to ask, why is health care a luxury for millions in Kenya? Why does the oil trade wreak havoc in the Niger Delta? How is it that informal traders have virtually no rights? Why are local communities excluded from development projects driven by multi-national companies? Why is it that cotton farmers in West Africa suffer because of a grossly unfair subsidy racket? The last article in this edition asks how trade and business can be conducted in a more humane way. Please send comments on these articles to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

FEATURED: Soren Ambrose makes a case for holding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) responsible for poor health care in Kenya
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- The crude oil trade in the Niger Delta remains anything but sweet for local communities, writes Nnimmo Bassey
- Winnie Mitullah asks when the rights of informal traders in African cities are going to be considered in trade policy
- We visit the Yala Swamp region of Kenya with Patrick Ochieng, who asks if Foreign Direct Investment is really the answer
- Question and Answers on genetically modified crops, access to food and land
- Cotton farmers in West Africa have yet to experience the concept of trade justice, writes Tope Akinwande
- Steve Ouma Akoth discusses corporate responsibility, arguing for a broader notion of the moral self
- Karoline Kemp looks at five examples where communities are claiming their rights in the face of unfair trade polices and practices
LETTERS: Readers respond to Tajudeen Abdul Raheem's article 'Slavery then and now', published last week
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine rounds up the week's debates in the blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS:
- Rene Loewenson reviews 'The African Aids Epidemic: A History' by John iliffe
- Shailja Patel discusses plagiarism and the African arts
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: News about events taking place at the June African Union meet in Banjul
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Concerns about Darfur; Violence continues in Mogadishu
HUMAN RIGHTS: Egyptian police accused of torture
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women's rights activists under siege in Zimbabwe
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Mogadishu fighting displaces Somalis to Yemen
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Obasanjo reshuffles cabinet
DEVELOPMENT: Film puts World Bank and IMF on trial
CORRUPTION: Apartheid corruption revealed in new report
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: New UNAIDS report shows slowdown, but increase in sub-Saharan Africa
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Racism fears dog world cup
ENVIRONMENT: The danger of Abacha “coal pots” in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Securing land rights in Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Media crackdown in The Gambia
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