On 22 December 2010 23:02, <usaafricadialogue+noreply@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Group: http://groups.google.com/group/usaafricadialogue/topics
- BRITISH MPs CONDEMNS ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN GAMBIA [1 Update]
- Why is Africa in such a mess? [11 Updates]
- African Farmers Displaced as Investors Move In [1 Update]
- 2011 Budget and Atiku's Voodoo Economics [1 Update]
- FW: Europe: Belarus Election Dispute Triggers Standoff - 600 Arrested [1 Update]
- Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015 [1 Update]
- MsJoe's Comments on Larry Eyong's Excellent Article on Ivory Coast Today [1 Update]
- Bayelsa State Governor on GEJ [2 Updates]
Toyin Falola <toyin.falola@mail.utexas.edu> Dec 22 03:22PM -0600 ^
BRITISH MPs CONDEMNS ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN GAMBIA
EDM calls for international pressure on the Gambia government.
Twenty Four British MPs have signed a House of
Commons Early Day Motion(EDM1140) which condems the
continues abuses of human rights in The Gambia and calls on the Coalition
government to do everything it can to place international pressure on the
Gambian government in support of fundamental human rights.
The EDM tabled by Labour Party MP Anas Sarwar appluad members of the
Gambian human rights campaign in Scotland for continue to raise
awareness on this tremedously important issue.
The motion express solidarity with the people of the Gambia in lights of the
reported human rights abuses been comitted in their country.
It further notes that according to independent report by Amnesty
International the alleged abuses includes abitrary
arrests,torture,incommincado detention,unfair
trials,rape,disapperarance and extra-judicial executions.
The campaign to secure the British Parliamentary opposition to the
human rights situation in the Gambia has been
assisted by the Campaign for human rights in the Gambia UK through
its Campaign Officer Alieu B Ceesay.
The sponsor of the parliamentary motion Anas Sarwar who sits on the
Commons International Development Select
Committee said today "I have grave concerns about human rights abuses
in The Gambia i was pleased to facilitate a
meeting with the Foreign Office,All Party Parliamentary Group on
Human Rights and representatives of the Scottish
Campaign for Human Rights in The Gambia"
"The Scottish Campaign for human rights in Gambia is doing a great
work to draw attention to a government that rules
by intimidation,torture and killing its crucial that the coalition
does everything it can to place international pressure on
the Gambian government,so i am pleased that EDM 1140 has attracted
cross party support from 24MPs"
"Its important that brave campaigners like Alieu are given a voice in
Parliament thats why i have asked parliamentary
questions about challenges facing Gambian citizens in their country
and abroad"He said
"I am fully behind the campaign for human rights in Gambia and i will
continue to press the coalition government. he
concluded
Plaid Cymrus Elfyn Llwyd MP from Wales said "The human rights
violations taking place in the Gambia are horrendous
and require vital international attention.
"Opponents of the Gambia government are routinely arrested and held
without charge,while a culture of enforced
disappearances,unfair trials,and horrific infringements on human
rights reigns in this troubled country".
"But more must be done and urgently.The UK government must make this
a priority in working with the international
community to ensure the Gambian government meets its human rights
obligations,and to bring an end to the wave of
terror that has swept the people of that country.
Alieu B Ceesay Campaign Officer of the (SCHRG) said "We hope this
parliamentary motion will send a strong signal
from the British Parliament to the Gambia government that arbitrary
arrests,torture,incommicado detention and exra-
judicial executions are serious violations of human rights, the
Gambian peoples rights under the countrys constitution
and under the International law must be respected.
A copy of the Early Day Motion will be forwarded to the Gambia High
Commission in London which all adds up to the
pressure and to let Gambia government know that public opinion is
been mobilise in defence of fundamental human
rights.Ceesay said.
The campaign is greatful to Anas Sarwar for standing up for human
rights in Gambia and all those MPs who have
signed this EDM "We welcomes the cross party support at the House of
Commons am pleased that this motion is rapidly
attracting support from MPs of all parties it shows that these are
important issues of human rights and we must speak up
and mobilise opinions in the UK against these abuses".said Arthur
West Chairman Campaign for Human Rights in
Gambia UK
--
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> Dec 21 05:16PM -0600 ^
By the way, even the Walmart example has only a limited discursive utility.
We know that the political and policy tentacles of the neoliberal order are
the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World bank). Other instruments of
neoliberal influence are multinationals (MNCs). Apart from serving to
illustrate the familiar point that MNCs are vehicles for co-opting more
peoples and countries into the global capitalist system, what really does
the Walmart narrative do to help us understand how African and other
marginal peoples fair under the current regime of capital? In America,
Walmart is an indisputable villain, a despised instrument of capitalist
exploitation and labor abuse. But is Walmart's reputation that clear-cut in
the developing world? In non-Western spaces where Walmart operates, do their
workers FEEL abused or do they feel empowered, lucky, and grateful to
Walmart for saving from from a lifetime of unemployment or underemployment
and for giving them economic stability? Are Indians bemoaning the
outsourcing boom in their country over the fact that outsourcers may not be
paying them Western salaries or giving them Western-style benefits? Are the
Chinese complaining about the growing Western investments in their country
that employ millions of Chinese people who would otherwise be jobless? This
is yet another example of how we sometimes transfer our Euro-American middle
class economic discourses to African and other non-Western settings where
the realities are a lot messier and the economic priorities a lot less
elitist and much more basic. Yes, Walmart may put some local businesses out
of operation when it expands to new territories in Asia and Africa but isn't
that more than offset by the jobs it creates, the above average (not Western
standard) wages it pays, and the cheap, life-improving goods that it is able
to deliver to folks?
The other day, a member of this forum forwarded a story about KFC's opening
in Lagos, Nigeria. On the surface it can be read as a classic example of
global capitalist expansion--another Chicken sweat shop in the Third World,
the extension of the exploitative hand of global capital. But don't we have
to go beyond this default mode and look at mitigating variables such as the
jobs it might create, the support it might give to local chicken farmers and
producers of other locally made ingredients? For the staff who would be
recruited, any talk of "slave wage" and exploitative labor practice is
elitist talk because the job is infinitely preferable to their previous
condition and has the potential to lift them out of poverty and lay a
sounder foundation for the next generation in their families. For the
Nigerian consumers of KFC products, KFC represents another Middle Class
indulgence and a quality family experience (never mind what it will do to
their arteries).
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's
greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> Dec 21 06:21PM -0500 ^
dear moses, i will try to respond to your email. not sure my
speculations are worthy of such deep reflections, but will do my best to
respond.
--i don't think of myself as trotskyist; just believe in the implicit
calls for a just society that left politics embraces. if anything i
prefer the mouffe and laclau approach
--in my previous email i tried to distinguish between the effects of
neoliberalism on europe and africa, right? between say irish and malian
people, so i won't repeat the examples, just affirm my agreement that
the effects are felt differently. why bother? because too many
interventions here seem to see a universal european hegemon versus a
uniformly victimized africa, and i have tried repeatedly to make
distinctions within africa and within other reaches of the world, not
see this flatly.
--it is true that i am focusing on class, or wealth, and economics in
this thread. but since i am already arguing that portugal doesn't equal
the gambia, it seems we agree that poverty in different places is
radically different. you want me to say the effects of globalization are
experienced differentially--that's what i have been trying to say all
along. anyway....
--i have an "unconscious euro-american liberal intellectual
universalism"? hard to respond to this.... let's keep to the issues, and
leave my personal, trotskyite, 60ish etc etc out of it. it doesn't help,
and since i can't even tell you who i am, why would you want to speculate.
it isn't some kind of soft liberalism to rail against the effects of
globalization--and if it is, then i share this same ill with sissako who
made it the subject of his film Bamako. it is also the view of spivak
who cuts to the chase on this topic.
--your next paragraph is really the heart of the matter, and i hope
others will express their opinions. please drop all the other stuff in
your first paragraph--there is no real debate there. the question here
is crucial: where do we come in today on the issue of contemporary
capitalism. you distract us if you raise the issue of the u.s.s.r., or
cuba, or wherever socialism's banner was raised. i don't want to get
into a false argument about totalitarianism versus democracy, or
so-called socialism in authoritarian garb versus so-called free world
capitalist economies or states. i want to ask a simple question: are we
hanging our hearts on the current neoliberal capitalist order, on
leaders who can best manipulate their way within the strictures of this
order, on states like india or china that have resolutely turned to
exploiting that order, as the ideal for africa?
that is the only question that matters.
my opinion is really quite simple, and as a critic of literature and
cinema, i do like images to convey my thought.
i lived in an apartment complex in mermoz, in dakar, which was adjacent
the the corniche and the back end of suffolk university, an extension of
the same university in boston, a business school. between the road and
the very high wall of suffolk lay about 20-30 feet of ground, with some
brush cover between the wall and the street. toward the summer of 2006
we had flooding, and the street was largely covered with water and
sewage. it was repellent.
now, there were poor families that lived in that space. their children
would wander into the street to play. it was a sad sight. and if you
carried on to the intersection, there on the corniche, were mansions of
the very very wealthy, with all their accoutrements of guardiens, pools,
power generators, you name it. i can't let go of the contrast, a world
that is now infinitely more divided than ever before between these two
positions of wealth and poverty.
when wade was elected in 2000, it was with the rhetoric of neoliberal
development. and he gave that to senegal. the lands of that beautiful
corniche, what senghor had called the permanent possession of the people
of senegal, were gradually expropriated, sold to kuweit and others
building hotels and mansions, cutting it off to the public.
now i have seen that same pattern of "development" on the mediterranean
coast of spain, of northern michigan, of everywhere there is a beautiful
coast for the wealthy to take.
i challenge you, friend moses, to defend this newly unfolding world of
wealthy expropriators. you claim not to believe in trickle down. well,
it is hard to read about the plight of indian farmers without hearing
any defense of current growth rationalize their plight.
you are right, china and india are also generating wealth, and maybe the
inequalities will some day be mitigated. right now they are being
exacerbated, not only in india, senegal, nigeria, but in new york,
detroit, los angeles.
you want me to focus on the emerging power of the newly enriched states:
china, india, brazil. i am perfectly happy that the west doesn't enjoy
any monopoly on power and wealth. but russia has rightly been called a
mafia state; and china is a repressive, authoritarian, dictatorial state
that hasn't seen a human right it doesn't want to bury.
what is your notion of a progressive ideology?
there are real choices: in senegal it was between wade and diouf, and
the policies of each had real effects on the lives of the masses of
senegalese. those who so enthusiastically supported the neoliberal wade
have lived to rue the day they supported him, especially those who
consider themselves progressive.
is he "lifting the poor out of poverty"? not likely
ken
--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> Dec 21 04:57PM -0800 ^
Folks,
When it comes to matters of Africa, I am a broken record, so I may be forgiven
for being silent on this matter. Let me just say that I have been mightily
entertained by the debate. Nothing new here, been there, done that. I repeat,
there is abolutely nothing new here, being there, done that. Anyone who believes
that he or she has just vomited new insights on the African problem is drinking
apeteshie. Anyone who believes that our misrulers are ignorant of "structures
and processes" is drinking ogogoro. My people, we have mastered all these
things, we have crammed the books, and we know all there is to know about why
and how great societies function well. We know what is missing. Our people are
full of it, that is the simple truth. Let us go buy tee shirts that say: STOP
THE BULLSH*T, JUST DO THE WORK!
I don't understand all this turenchi, we have been given grass to cut, instead
of cutting the grass, we have stolen the cutlass, sold it, sent the proceeds to
Switzerland, We stand on the ruined lawn talking nonsense, citing dead white
men, Foucault, Marcus, Toyota, blah, blah, blah! Liberals are falling over
themselves trying to convince us that our situation is not much worse than what
occurs in the West, there are poor people in America, you know, and white folks
are corrupt also, you know? Cold comfort can give a man a cold. The vast
majority of Nigerians are not to blame in this mess; it is the cognitive elite
of intellectuals and the political elite that should be held responsible for
this mess. They will not accept responsibility; they are too busy drinking
dunking baguettes in French wines to give a sh*t. Those that were raised at
great expense to drag Africa from the hell that a racist God put her are too
busy taking care of themselves. Shame on all of us for doing this to those who
paid our way through school so they would be freed from what passes for life in
their Africa.
Take Nigeria for example. Nigeria is not America and comparisons are beyond
silly, they are almost criminal. We see what DEMOCRACY has wrought in Nigeria.
Along with capitalism and the new Christianity, it is the worst thing that has
happened to Nigeria in a long time. It is PhDs, not idiots that are running the
country, they are the ones babbling inanities from Western books while they
steal us blind. Democracy works when there us an alignment between the governed
and the governor. In Nigeria, the elites are TOTALLY disconnected from the rest
of the people, those Fanon would call the wretched of the earth. My friends
ought to be ashamed of themselves. Instead of doing the work that they lied they
would do, they seek to bamboozle us with big words. They don't understand why we
have no respect for them, because they do not understand the word credibility.
It is very simple. Let us stop the bullsh*t and simply do the work. We have all
the structures and processes, but we lack men and women of character and will to
do the work. Our politicians aided by their sweet mouth intellectual elite are
stealing us blind and we know it. Our university lecturers screw their students
literally and figuratively and get up to mouth the latest continuous improvement
bullsh*t. Our university administrators have stolen all the money that they can
get away with. Why do they care? Their children and those of our asshole
lecturers go to school abroad, living the children of the poor and the
dispossessed at the mercy of broken down classrooms, Our universities are hovels
not fit for homeless dogs in the West. When you say accept responsibility, they
all line behind white liberals who start mouthing avuncular stuff about how em
all these problems are not unique to Africa. Who cares? Who is talking about
America?
You should see my village and get a sense of how evil my friends are. My father
lives in a place that time and thieves have forgotten. This is a man who was
once prepared to die for his country. Today, he tells me he was happier during
colonialism, that Abacha was infinitely better than the bastards that now rule
the country in the name of democracy. His words are a mean rebuke and he knows
it. The water tap in our village last spewed water in the early sixties. Some
people should be shot. And here we are not taking responsibility, spouting all
sorts of silly theories that we don't need. Mimicry is our name, mimicry. We
want to be like the white man. Everything he wears, we must wear, everywhere he
goes, we must go. We just don't want to do the work. Because it is the white
man's fault. Ha! Sometimes I just want to holler! Let the debate continue. And I
don't know how to spell Foucault! To hell with the motherf*cker!
- Ikhide
________________________________
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 6:16:47 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
By the way, even the Walmart example has only a limited discursive utility. We
know that the political and policy tentacles of the neoliberal order are the
Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World bank). Other instruments of neoliberal
influence are multinationals (MNCs). Apart from serving to illustrate the
familiar point that MNCs are vehicles for co-opting more peoples and countries
into the global capitalist system, what really does the Walmart narrative do to
help us understand how African and other marginal peoples fair under the current
regime of capital? In America, Walmart is an indisputable villain, a despised
instrument of capitalist exploitation and labor abuse. But is Walmart's
reputation that clear-cut in the developing world? In non-Western spaces where
Walmart operates, do their workers FEEL abused or do they feel empowered, lucky,
and grateful to Walmart for saving from from a lifetime of unemployment or
underemployment and for giving them economic stability? Are Indians bemoaning
the outsourcing boom in their country over the fact that outsourcers may not be
paying them Western salaries or giving them Western-style benefits? Are the
Chinese complaining about the growing Western investments in their country that
employ millions of Chinese people who would otherwise be jobless? This is yet
another example of how we sometimes transfer our Euro-American middle class
economic discourses to African and other non-Western settings where the
realities are a lot messier and the economic priorities a lot less elitist and
much more basic. Yes, Walmart may put some local businesses out of operation
when it expands to new territories in Asia and Africa but isn't that more than
offset by the jobs it creates, the above average (not Western standard) wages it
pays, and the cheap, life-improving goods that it is able to deliver to folks?
The other day, a member of this forum forwarded a story about KFC's opening in
Lagos, Nigeria. On the surface it can be read as a classic example of global
capitalist expansion--another Chicken sweat shop in the Third World, the
extension of the exploitative hand of global capital. But don't we have to go
beyond this default mode and look at mitigating variables such as the jobs it
might create, the support it might give to local chicken farmers and producers
of other locally made ingredients? For the staff who would be recruited, any
talk of "slave wage" and exploitative labor practice is elitist talk because the
job is infinitely preferable to their previous condition and has the potential
to lift them out of poverty and lay a sounder foundation for the next generation
in their families. For the Nigerian consumers of KFC products, KFC represents
another Middle Class indulgence and a quality family experience (never mind what
it will do to their arteries).
On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 11:24 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
hi pius
>>>>> For previous archives, visit
>>>>>http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>>>>> To post to this group, send an email to
USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>>To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>>unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
-- kenneth w. harrow distinguished professor of english michigan state
university department of english east lansing, mi 48824-1036 ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
>To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
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--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
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kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> Dec 21 08:06PM -0500 ^
are "the chinese" an undifferentiated mass? i suppose those chinese
jumping to their deaths in despair over the conditions of their lives in
certain factories express one set of reactions--and i don't think they
are reading western liberal complaints before deciding to do so. there
are others doing much better, so much better, maybe too much better.
agreed, we have to make studied judgments, not broad ones, but do we
have to return our critique, always, to "euro-american middle class
values" to diss it???
why not actually ask the hard questions about this economic situation,
in each case, each instance, instead of repeating the tiresome
celebrations of globalization of the ilk of thomas friedman. oh, forgot,
he is another western liberal middle class etc
k
On 12/21/10 6:16 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:
--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> Dec 21 08:20PM -0600 ^
i challenge you, friend moses, to defend this newly unfolding world of
wealthy expropriators. you claim not to believe in trickle down. well, it is
hard to read about the plight of indian farmers without hearing any defense
of current growth rationalize their plight.
you are right, china and india are also generating wealth, and maybe the
inequalities will some day be mitigated. right now they are being
exacerbated, not only in india, senegal, nigeria, but in new york, detroit,
los angeles.
you want me to focus on the emerging power of the newly enriched states:
china, india, brazil. i am perfectly happy that the west doesn't enjoy any
monopoly on power and wealth. but russia has rightly been called a mafia
state; and china is a repressive, authoritarian, dictatorial state that
hasn't seen a human right it doesn't want to bury.
what is your notion of a progressive ideology?
there are real choices: in senegal it was between wade and diouf, and the
policies of each had real effects on the lives of the masses of senegalese.
those who so enthusiastically supported the neoliberal wade have lived to
rue the day they supported him, especially those who consider themselves
progressive.
is he "lifting the poor out of poverty"? not likely
---Ken,
You have shifted the discussion from the economic realm. You are now
conflating economic ideology with political system. Fine. Socialist regimes
were authoritarian systems under the garb of socialism. Fine. But isn't pure
socialism (derived from pristine Marxian prescriptions) a recipe for
authoritarianism and dictatorship? Is it inherently ( at least at the
revolutionary stage) about the violations of rights and authoritarian acts
that are supposedly in the interest of the poor? Is it by accident that it
is called a dictatorship of the Proletariat? Please let's separate economics
from the politics of rights and freedoms. That politics can be a slippery
slope, a dead end debate. Yes, China and Russia may not be democratic in the
Western sense, but India and Brazil, two other countries that have
successfully exploited the global neoliberal infrastructure, are. Besides,
there is no industrialized country, capitalist or socialist, that do/did not
have varying degrees of authoritarianism, political repression, and/or
imperial domination and racism in its history. So, I don't know where the
correlation between human rights/democracy and ability to create and
distribute wealth lie. Some countries can create and distribute wealth
effectively while enforcing political strictures; others that are supposedly
democratic are not able to. I just don't see your point here.
Go to Lagos in Nigeria. What you describe for Senegal is taking place under
Governor Fashola (he's working with the Chinese, the Germans--an assortment
of foreign capitalists) to gentrify and develop many parts of the state. Yet
Governor Fashola is reputed to be one of the best governors and "performing"
politicians in Nigeria! Go figure! The lesson is simple: instead of simply
decrying the visibly expanding disparities in incomes and status in our
world, why don't we look at how locals are actually relating to these
capitalist investments that are supposedly responsible for the growing
disparities. In the early days of the Chinese and Indian embrace of "foreign
investment" Western liberal outrage reached a crescendo and took on a tone
similar to what you're saying here: critique of gentrification, displacement
of the poor, destruction of familiar ways of life of the poor, land grabs,
and the pitfalls of conspicuous consumption and consumerism (all of them
genuine but overblown concerns anchored on the sensitivities of
Euro-American liberal economic anxieties) etc filled the air. I even read
some of this stuff in grad school. A decade or two later, MILLIONS of
Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, Chinese unemployment has
been fought to a standstill, standard and and quality of life have improved
for millions of Chinese who would otherwise not have had a shot at a decent
life, and the Chinese have emerged as the primary financiers of world debt.
All of this while the gap between the rich and poor and the displacement of
poor Chinese people in some sectors have been occurring. Ditto India. In
both countries, what you describe about yawning disparities between the rich
and the poor are real but so is the fact that these countries how engineered
the emergence of a massive Middle class and have lifted millions of their
citizens out of poverty. Considering where they began, this is pretty
remarkable. The problems you focus on are real, but history tells us that it
is a fact of capitalist ascent. It happened in Britain, US, France, and
other Industrialized bastions of capitalism. These disparities may narrow or
expand. But as more and more people over many generations take advantage of
existing infrastructures funded by created wealth to get themselves educated
or trained, more and more people are actually lifted out of poverty EVEN
WHEN THE GAP BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR expands. In the Third World, if
people can live decently and have infrastructure with which to improve
themselves, they won't care as much as the Westerner about income disparity.
I haven't seen this disparity become a problem in India, Brazil or China.
The answer may lie in the fact that many poor people are, for the first
time, tasting a decent life and are happy. Early capitalism especially has a
way of sharpening the class divides because whole new classes (the Middle
class; professiona class, etc) are being created. What was the poverty rate
in America in the late 19th century and what is it today? To deny economic
progress because we want to do the noble act of drawing attention to
inequality is a tad disingenuous. Yes, wealth disparities are increasing,
and the displacement of poor people continues apace with capitalist
expansion and the spread of neoliberalism. But in countries and zones like
China, Singapore, India, Brazil, and China where the leadership found a way
to game the capitalist system to their advantage, millions of people have
been lifted out of poverty. I know that in terms of visuals and melodrama,
this is a less sexy and emotionally evocative story than the story of
gentrification, displacement, and increasing disparities. But if you're
poor, being lifted out of poverty is a big deal even if it happens through
the instrumentality of a fundamentally unjust neoliberal global system that
is displacing your kind elsewhere while further enriching the rich. Again,
these propositions are inherently messy tradeoffs and cannot be sliced and
diced neatly. Multiple transformations are going on in different places as a
result of the global triumph of capital. To single out one tiny urban spot
in Senegal as an illustration of the effect of global capital is to be
selective in one's perception of what capital is doing around the world and
the possibilities that capital can be both a force for good and bad--for
lifting people out of poverty and for displacing the poor. In countries like
Brazil, India, China, Russia, and other places, the have found a way to turn
adversity and constraint into a blessing. As a result, neoliberalism has
done more good for them than it has bad.
You asked what is my notion of a progressive ideology. Mine is a progressive
ideology that works towards a more just global capitalist system but which
pragmatically believes that the poor can be protected from the excesses of
capitalism (or compensated for damages) while being enabled to take
advantage of its openings; an economic system that redistributes not just
created wealth but also opportunities so as to mitigate the abuses of
capital and greed and give everyone a FAIR chance at success; a political
system that makes laws and policies to protect the weak, poor, and
vulnerable while empowering them to help themselves. This is an
oversimplification and is crudely stated for brevity, but as you can see, I
am not ideologically rigid, although I am progressive in my politics and
socially liberal (within limits). I welcome and will promote whatever is a
proven formula for lifting people out of poverty, improving lives, and
delivering effective leadership. It is, for me, not about ideology but its
abuse or effective deployment to ameliorate the condition of mankind.
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's
greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
Femi Kolapo <kolapof@uoguelph.ca> Dec 22 12:21AM -0500 ^
This is to draw your attention to the following AFrican Journal of Teacher Education's maiden edition. This issue features 21 articles. The table of content is at: http://www.ajote.spreadcorp.org/TOC1-1.html
African Journal of Teacher Education
Vol. 1 No 1. Oct. 2010
Table of Contents
An Exploration of Teachers' Integration of Visual Literacy in the Egyptian Secondary
English Language Classrooms
Asmaa Abdel-Moneim Mostafa
Factors Influencing Early Childhood Development Teachers' Motivation in Thika District, Kenya
Mary N. Ndani & Elishiba N. Kimani
Phonology in Teacher Education in Nigeria: The Igbo Language Example.
Linda Chinelo Nkamigbo
Promoting Teacher Ethics in Colleges of Teacher Education in Tanzania: Practices and Challenges
William A.L. Anangisye
Perceived Roles of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Implementation of Continuous Assessment in Secondary Schools in Nigeria
Olugbenga G., Akindoju, Sunday O. Banjoko & Akinola S. Jimoh
Implementation of Special Education Curriculum in the 21st Century in Nigeria: A Missing Link in the Rebranding Process
F.N.C Onyiliofor
Differentiating Instruction to meet the Needs of Diverse Technical/Technology Education Students at the Secondary School Level
Maduakolam Ireh and Ogo. T. Ibeneme
Teachers' Awareness of the Existence and the Use of Technology to Promote Children's Literacy Instruction
Ngozi D. Obidike, Ngozi E. Anyikwa & Joy O. Enemou
Academic and Social Challenges Facing Students with Developmental and Learning Disabilities in Higher Institutions: Implications to African Colleges and universities
W. E. Obiozor, V.C. Onu and Ifeanyi Ugwoegbu
ICT in Participatory Development of Teaching/Learning English as a Global Language in Nigeria: A Discourse
Queen Ugochinyere Njamanze
Competency Improvement needs of Women in Agriculture in Processing Cocoyam into Flour and Chips for Food Security in South Eastern Nigeria.
J. A. Ukonze, D. & S. O. Olaitan
Improving achievements of pupils with learning and behavior problems with co-operative teaching strategy in Aboh, Delta State, Nigeria
Ngozi Obiyo
Effective Test Administration in Schools: Principles and Good Practices for Test Administrators
Aloysius Rukundo and Justine Magambo
Teaching Health Education in Nigeria: The Case of Anambra State Public Schools System
Godson Chukwuma Ezejiofor
Responsibilities of Homemakers in Processing, Storage and Preservation of Pepper (CAPSICUM SPECIE) in Southern Nigeria
I. N. Dimelu
Parental Relationship as a correlate of psychological wellbeing of South Eastern Adolescents
Joy I. Anyanwu
Integration and Innovation in Early Childhood Education in Nigeria: Implications for Quality Teacher Production
V.C. Onu, W.E. Obiozor, O. E. Agbo, and Chiamaka Ezeanwu
The Relevance of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) in Developing Skills for Self Reliance: The Nigerian Experience
Suleiman Sa'adu Matazu
Challenges of Education for Democracy in The Gambia
Frederick Ugwu Ozor
Towards Inculcating Technology Know-how in Science Students: An Illumination of Evaluation of JETS Club Activities
Tunde Owolabi and D.S Braimoh
A Novel Approach to Fostering Lecturer Collaboration in a Developing Country
Vivian Ogochukwu Nwaocha
=================================-
managing editor for SPREAD Journals of Education
F. Kolapo
Femi Kolapo <kolapof@uoguelph.ca> Dec 22 12:44AM -0500 ^
This draws your attention to the vol. 2 of the journal, Review of Higher Education in Africa .
The Table of Contents can be accessed at http://www.spreadcorp.org/reviewHigherEdAfric/vol2.2TOC.html
--
Review of Higher Education in Africa
Vol. 2 No 1. Oct. 2010
Table of Contents
Editorial
James S. Etim
Towards Improving Research Capabilities of Tertiary Educational Institutions in the Third World Countries for Sustainable Development: A Review Summary of Research
Grace Koko Etuk, Eno Etudor-Eyo & Ime E. Emah
Developing Human Resources in Tertiary Business Education for Youth Empowerment and National Development
E. B. Usoro
Perceptions of Pre-Service teachers Towards Teaching: A Case study of the Eritrean Institute of Technology
Ravinder Rena & Ali Suleman
Lecturers' Views on and Attitudes to Pedagogical Skills Training: Obafemi Awolowo University as a Case Study.
Y. A. Ajibade, E. O. Oloyede, M. A. Adeleke, & E.O. Awopetu
Achievement Motivation Among University Managers and Institutional Effectiveness in Selected Nigerian Universities.
Steve U. Bassey & Roseleen J. Akpan
kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> Dec 22 12:08PM -0500 ^
dear moses
there is no separation between politics and economics: each translates
into the other since the function of political rule is to enable
economic structures to operate. the question is, in whose interest will
they operate.
FINALLY we have a solid basis for our disagreement, and no need to
really argue it further:
for you, socialism is a failed ideal, permitted authoritarianism and
dictatorship. capitalism will lead to the improvement of people's lives.
for me, socialist ideals are inseparable from progressive political and
economic policies, ones that will not perpetuate the wealthy classes
enjoying their prosperity at the expense of the poor.
i don't want to turn this argument to socialism, but to the most basic
values of justice, equity, of agency for citizens and citizen rights,
and by this i certainly mean the right to live a decent life, with food
and shelter and medicine. all the things neoliberalism says it is not
the responsibility of the state to provide, that we all do better when
it is dog eat dog.
the example i have of shocking inequality and injustice in senegal is
not isolated: when i asked ordinary people how life was now compared to
20 years ago, they said it was harder to make a living. if you ask
people in cameroon, on the street the answer is that things were better
before biya.
i will grant that a repressive state might improve living conditions,
though typically it will be for the upper classes.
but even there, there must be limits: how many of us would accept
servitude in exchange for better food?
brett shadle just wrote this on h-africa: it expresses my sentiments
better than i could:
I was unaware that anyone still seriously believes that what Africa really
needs to escape poverty is the liberalization of African economies, that
"holding others [i.e., the West] responsible for Africa's failings" is
simply an excuse dreamed up by bad African leaders, and that there is a
one-size-fits-all model for "fixing" Africa. I also was hoping that most
of us know the history of neoliberal "reforms" implemented over the past
few decades.
ken
On 12/21/10 9:20 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:
--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
ogbegbe@yahoo.com Dec 22 05:00PM ^
Hi All,
I am interested in the relationship between the universal and the specific, the general and the particular. I think the point is missed when these moments are counter poised as absolute opposites rather than as dialectical opposites. In which case it is possible to at once see both the struggle, as well as the unity of opposites.
Africa is peculiar, but so is Asia, Latin America, North America, the middle east, Australia, East and Western Europe!
They are peculiar because of the pattern of their experiences of the capitalism in its colonial and post colonial, as well as its liberal and neo liberal manifestations and constructions
So the specific nature of capitalist slavery and racism creates a different experience of capitalist dependency in Africa to the specific experience of sttler colonialism and the genocide of indigenous american populations in The Americas; nevertheless the connecting linkage is exploitation, suppression, and repression carried on by agents of globalising capital and superibtended by capitalist states and pro to states.
So India, China, Brazil are industrialisting, generating wealth and creating growth including providing employments, while at the same time producing nass misery, poverty and dehumanisation on grand scales!
India is generating wealth, but in absolute terms 8 of its poorest states now have more poor people than the whole of sub saharan Africa put together!
China is industrialisting and producing so much mass misery that in order to mitigate its impact and prevent an implosion at home, its specific mode of capitalist growth requires not only the export of capital and the aggressive search for markets and raw materials, but also the aggressive export of its surplus labour!
Of course the first and second waves of capitalist industrialisation also produced as by product generalised impoverishment and mass misery in europe and the americas; but it did this over decades and centuries!
This is why the rapid industrialisation over the life span of one or two generations in the present period seems to appear more deeply inhuman than the earlier ones.
So although Africa is characterised by its unique experience, it has not escaped the contradictory impacts of globalising capital.
The question I suppose therefore is how do we produce a different experience of industrialisation, national and human development, generate wealth and reduce or remove poverty?
Is capitalist globalisation the only path? Is being reduced to manoeuvre within its limiting constraints the only way out?
Regards,
Jaye Gaskia
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
-----Original Message-----
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:21:14
To: <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
dear moses, i will try to respond to your email. not sure my
speculations are worthy of such deep reflections, but will do my best to
respond.
--i don't think of myself as trotskyist; just believe in the implicit
calls for a just society that left politics embraces. if anything i
prefer the mouffe and laclau approach
--in my previous email i tried to distinguish between the effects of
neoliberalism on europe and africa, right? between say irish and malian
people, so i won't repeat the examples, just affirm my agreement that
the effects are felt differently. why bother? because too many
interventions here seem to see a universal european hegemon versus a
uniformly victimized africa, and i have tried repeatedly to make
distinctions within africa and within other reaches of the world, not
see this flatly.
--it is true that i am focusing on class, or wealth, and economics in
this thread. but since i am already arguing that portugal doesn't equal
the gambia, it seems we agree that poverty in different places is
radically different. you want me to say the effects of globalization are
experienced differentially--that's what i have been trying to say all
along. anyway....
--i have an "unconscious euro-american liberal intellectual
universalism"? hard to respond to this.... let's keep to the issues, and
leave my personal, trotskyite, 60ish etc etc out of it. it doesn't help,
and since i can't even tell you who i am, why would you want to speculate.
it isn't some kind of soft liberalism to rail against the effects of
globalization--and if it is, then i share this same ill with sissako who
made it the subject of his film Bamako. it is also the view of spivak
who cuts to the chase on this topic.
--your next paragraph is really the heart of the matter, and i hope
others will express their opinions. please drop all the other stuff in
your first paragraph--there is no real debate there. the question here
is crucial: where do we come in today on the issue of contemporary
capitalism. you distract us if you raise the issue of the u.s.s.r., or
cuba, or wherever socialism's banner was raised. i don't want to get
into a false argument about totalitarianism versus democracy, or
so-called socialism in authoritarian garb versus so-called free world
capitalist economies or states. i want to ask a simple question: are we
hanging our hearts on the current neoliberal capitalist order, on
leaders who can best manipulate their way within the strictures of this
order, on states like india or china that have resolutely turned to
exploiting that order, as the ideal for africa?
that is the only question that matters.
my opinion is really quite simple, and as a critic of literature and
cinema, i do like images to convey my thought.
i lived in an apartment complex in mermoz, in dakar, which was adjacent
the the corniche and the back end of suffolk university, an extension of
the same university in boston, a business school. between the road and
the very high wall of suffolk lay about 20-30 feet of ground, with some
brush cover between the wall and the street. toward the summer of 2006
we had flooding, and the street was largely covered with water and
sewage. it was repellent.
now, there were poor families that lived in that space. their children
would wander into the street to play. it was a sad sight. and if you
carried on to the intersection, there on the corniche, were mansions of
the very very wealthy, with all their accoutrements of guardiens, pools,
power generators, you name it. i can't let go of the contrast, a world
that is now infinitely more divided than ever before between these two
positions of wealth and poverty.
when wade was elected in 2000, it was with the rhetoric of neoliberal
development. and he gave that to senegal. the lands of that beautiful
corniche, what senghor had called the permanent possession of the people
of senegal, were gradually expropriated, sold to kuweit and others
building hotels and mansions, cutting it off to the public.
now i have seen that same pattern of "development" on the mediterranean
coast of spain, of northern michigan, of everywhere there is a beautiful
coast for the wealthy to take.
i challenge you, friend moses, to defend this newly unfolding world of
wealthy expropriators. you claim not to believe in trickle down. well,
it is hard to read about the plight of indian farmers without hearing
any defense of current growth rationalize their plight.
you are right, china and india are also generating wealth, and maybe the
inequalities will some day be mitigated. right now they are being
exacerbated, not only in india, senegal, nigeria, but in new york,
detroit, los angeles.
you want me to focus on the emerging power of the newly enriched states:
china, india, brazil. i am perfectly happy that the west doesn't enjoy
any monopoly on power and wealth. but russia has rightly been called a
mafia state; and china is a repressive, authoritarian, dictatorial state
that hasn't seen a human right it doesn't want to bury.
what is your notion of a progressive ideology?
there are real choices: in senegal it was between wade and diouf, and
the policies of each had real effects on the lives of the masses of
senegalese. those who so enthusiastically supported the neoliberal wade
have lived to rue the day they supported him, especially those who
consider themselves progressive.
is he "lifting the poor out of poverty"? not likely
ken
> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
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--
kenneth w. harrow
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
east lansing, mi 48824-1036
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
--
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"Olabode Ibironke" <ibironke@msu.edu> Dec 22 12:41PM -0500 ^
Oga Ikhide,
There is a good reason for the time honored concept of DIVISION OF LABOR.
Some people must step outside of the field of action, or in and out of it,
in order to maintain a clear perspective on the shifting nature of the
challenges. No one ever accused Generals of sitting in the cold comfort of
their command centers analyzing a war-if they are victorious. Yet, we credit
every war that's won to the brilliance and grand strategies of the Generals.
Now, I do not think we are Generals in a war, maybe the very best of us
are-this was why Fanon, Rodney, Cabral were all taken out. They were indeed
Generals. The persistence of the problems therefore may well be that we have
not found our Archimedean moment-there are NEW INSIGHTS always to be
discovered and enunciated- for this failure of re/discovery only would I
hold us accountable. As you well know that moment of re/discovery may not
come with a bang. So, long live the debate, long live the calculus, and even
the rarefied discourse, without which our fight is doomed to become A WAR OF
IGNORANT ARMIES CLASHING AT NIGHT!!! We need knowledge to be free and more
knowledge to live in liberty.
Peace,
Bode
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
[mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ikhide
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 7:57 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
Folks,
When it comes to matters of Africa, I am a broken record, so I may be
forgiven for being silent on this matter. Let me just say that I have been
mightily entertained by the debate. Nothing new here, been there, done
that. I repeat, there is abolutely nothing new here, being there, done that.
Anyone who believes that he or she has just vomited new insights on the
African problem is drinking apeteshie. Anyone who believes that our
misrulers are ignorant of "structures and processes" is drinking ogogoro. My
people, we have mastered all these things, we have crammed the books, and we
know all there is to know about why and how great societies function well.
We know what is missing. Our people are full of it, that is the simple
truth. Let us go buy tee shirts that say: STOP THE BULLSH*T, JUST DO THE
WORK!
I don't understand all this turenchi, we have been given grass to cut,
instead of cutting the grass, we have stolen the cutlass, sold it, sent the
proceeds to Switzerland, We stand on the ruined lawn talking nonsense,
citing dead white men, Foucault, Marcus, Toyota, blah, blah, blah! Liberals
are falling over themselves trying to convince us that our situation is not
much worse than what occurs in the West, there are poor people in America,
you know, and white folks are corrupt also, you know? Cold comfort can give
a man a cold. The vast majority of Nigerians are not to blame in this mess;
it is the cognitive elite of intellectuals and the political elite that
should be held responsible for this mess. They will not accept
responsibility; they are too busy drinking dunking baguettes in French wines
to give a sh*t. Those that were raised at great expense to drag Africa from
the hell that a racist God put her are too busy taking care of themselves.
Shame on all of us for doing this to those who paid our way through school
so they would be freed from what passes for life in their Africa.
Take Nigeria for example. Nigeria is not America and comparisons are beyond
silly, they are almost criminal. We see what DEMOCRACY has wrought in
Nigeria. Along with capitalism and the new Christianity, it is the worst
thing that has happened to Nigeria in a long time. It is PhDs, not idiots
that are running the country, they are the ones babbling inanities from
Western books while they steal us blind. Democracy works when there us an
alignment between the governed and the governor. In Nigeria, the elites are
TOTALLY disconnected from the rest of the people, those Fanon would call the
wretched of the earth. My friends ought to be ashamed of themselves. Instead
of doing the work that they lied they would do, they seek to bamboozle us
with big words. They don't understand why we have no respect for them,
because they do not understand the word credibility.
It is very simple. Let us stop the bullsh*t and simply do the work. We have
all the structures and processes, but we lack men and women of character and
will to do the work. Our politicians aided by their sweet mouth intellectual
elite are stealing us blind and we know it. Our university lecturers screw
their students literally and figuratively and get up to mouth the latest
continuous improvement bullsh*t. Our university administrators have stolen
all the money that they can get away with. Why do they care? Their children
and those of our asshole lecturers go to school abroad, living the children
of the poor and the dispossessed at the mercy of broken down classrooms, Our
universities are hovels not fit for homeless dogs in the West. When you say
accept responsibility, they all line behind white liberals who start
mouthing avuncular stuff about how em all these problems are not unique to
Africa. Who cares? Who is talking about America?
You should see my village and get a sense of how evil my friends are. My
father lives in a place that time and thieves have forgotten. This is a man
who was once prepared to die for his country. Today, he tells me he was
happier during colonialism, that Abacha was infinitely better than the
bastards that now rule the country in the name of democracy. His words are a
mean rebuke and he knows it. The water tap in our village last spewed water
in the early sixties. Some people should be shot. And here we are not taking
responsibility, spouting all sorts of silly theories that we don't need.
Mimicry is our name, mimicry. We want to be like the white man. Everything
he wears, we must wear, everywhere he goes, we must go. We just don't want
to do the work. Because it is the white man's fault. Ha! Sometimes I just
want to holler! Let the debate continue. And I don't know how to spell
Foucault! To hell with the motherf*cker!
- Ikhide
_____
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 6:16:47 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
By the way, even the Walmart example has only a limited discursive utility.
We know that the political and policy tentacles of the neoliberal order are
the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World bank). Other instruments of
neoliberal influence are multinationals (MNCs). Apart from serving to
illustrate the familiar point that MNCs are vehicles for co-opting more
peoples and countries into the global capitalist system, what really does
the Walmart narrative do to help us understand how African and other
marginal peoples fair under the current regime of capital? In America,
Walmart is an indisputable villain, a despised instrument of capitalist
exploitation and labor abuse. But is Walmart's reputation that clear-cut in
the developing world? In non-Western spaces where Walmart operates, do their
workers FEEL abused or do they feel empowered, lucky, and grateful to
Walmart for saving from from a lifetime of unemployment or underemployment
and for giving them economic stability? Are Indians bemoaning the
outsourcing boom in their country over the fact that outsourcers may not be
paying them Western salaries or giving them Western-style benefits? Are the
Chinese complaining about the growing Western investments in their country
that employ millions of Chinese people who would otherwise be jobless? This
is yet another example of how we sometimes transfer our Euro-American middle
class economic discourses to African and other non-Western settings where
the realities are a lot messier and the economic priorities a lot less
elitist and much more basic. Yes, Walmart may put some local businesses out
of operation when it expands to new territories in Asia and Africa but isn't
that more than offset by the jobs it creates, the above average (not Western
standard) wages it pays, and the cheap, life-improving goods that it is able
to deliver to folks?
The other day, a member of this forum forwarded a story about KFC's opening
in Lagos, Nigeria. On the surface it can be read as a classic example of
global capitalist expansion--another Chicken sweat shop in the Third World,
the extension of the exploitative hand of global capital. But don't we have
to go beyond this default mode and look at mitigating variables such as the
jobs it might create, the support it might give to local chicken farmers and
producers of other locally made ingredients? For the staff who would be
recruited, any talk of "slave wage" and exploitative labor practice is
elitist talk because the job is infinitely preferable to their previous
condition and has the potential to lift them out of poverty and lay a
sounder foundation for the next generation in their families. For the
Nigerian consumers of KFC products, KFC represents another Middle Class
indulgence and a quality family experience (never mind what it will do to
their arteries).
On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 11:24 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
hi pius
on point 1
victims are not all equal at all. the losses incurred by outsourcing to
u.s.workers does not leave them in anything like the conditions of african
farmers or fishermen whose livelihoods have been unsettled by global
neoliberalism. i think the only fair way to measure the effects of a
megalith like Walmart, the largest corporation in the world, the bringer of
cheap goods to the american public, is not by asking simply whether walmart
offers adequate salaries or benefits to its workers, but what the impact it
has on the workers abroad who fabricate goods at their command. some years
ago i saw a report on clothing manufacturing in bangalesh where a factory
owner, perfectly happy to put in fire extinguishing systems in his factory,
explained that the cost would make him uncompetitive with his competitors,
and as walmart insisted on the cheapest price possible he could not comply
with safety measures.
i offer this as an example of how we cannot understand the global economic
system on the basis of nation states any more.
to be sure there is local production controlled by national policies, but
they are increasingly superseded by larger than national forces. it is most
obvious in things like car manufacturing or the film industry, and gets
messier when food is involved. but everyone knows the story about rice
production or chicken production globally and its impact on african food
production.
i would appeal to the older members of this list to remember conditions of
production and distribution when they were younger and compare them with
now. it would be interesting to ask all the above questions and find answers
from a period of late colonialism, early independence and neocolonialism,
then the passage through the 80s till now.
have the disparities in wealthy grown or shrunk? is life harder for the
average, the poor senegalese or nigerian now compared with then?
2.on race i don't quite know how to respond. i would love your thoughts on
it. i feel competent to speak of how racism still marks things in the u.s.,
or france, but am less certain how to understand it as a factor in global
terms.
except for one thing: i am convinced that the genocide in rwanda would not
have happened in a white country (e.g.bosnia), and that the deaths in the
drc are a matter of supreme disinterest to the west.
ken
On 12/21/10 11:12 AM, Pius Adesanmi wrote:
Ken:
I see your point and agree with you to a great extent but I still see two
potential problems that you are overlooking or not addressing:
1) Your victimography (apologies for that coinage) of neoliberalism is
becoming more ambitious with every post. It is covering and leveling up
every part of the globe too tidily for my liking. I am beginning to see a
victimography in which the Agatu farmer in Moses's neck of the woods in
Benue state is being levelled up with the New York factory worker as an
equal victim of neoliberalism. Is it possible for some victims to be more
equal than others?
2) Is neo-liberalism blind to race? Does race have a place in the
victimography of neoliberalism?
Pius
--- On Tue, 21/12/10, kenneth harrow <mailto:harrow@msu.edu>
<harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
From: kenneth harrow <mailto:harrow@msu.edu> <harrow@msu.edu>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why is Africa in such a mess?
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, 21 December, 2010, 14:58
pius
outside of maybe north korea, what country's economy and social structure
does not obey the logic introduced by neoliberal capitalism. to a lesser
degree in one location, to a greater in another?
for instance, neoliberalism dictates free trade and enforces it by imf
rules. so it is built around a worldwide system of financial exchanges that
dictate conditions for lending and borrowing. those that provide the funding
are not subject to tariff rules; that that borrow are subject to tariff
rules. both operate within the same system, although the impact is felt
differently. the borrowers run enormous risks, as we have seen with the
rules for borrowing stifling the ability of local african farmers to
compete. when malawi chose to forgo the loans in order to support their own
crops, things improved.
maybe the loans worked better for ghana than for mali. again, there is room
within the system, as everyone has been loudly and correctly arguing, to
maneuver, so that some states do better than others. but all are maneuvering
within the same systemic constraints.
consider iceland's vertiginous fall, along with ireland's, before you tell
me that europe stands outside the system. all are vulnerable to its effects,
but not all are positioned in the same way within the system. thus germany
emerges relatively unscathed; but english university students are completely
screwed.
finally, it dispirits me to see moses cite approvingly the ascension of new
states like india or china within this system, as proof that it accommodates
positive change. there is not a shred of concern over the vast numbers of
people whose impoverished conditions are exploited by the constraints of
neoliberal capitalism, as though there were no price to be paid in
capitalism's workings, as though there were no labor to be exploited, as
though there were no police actions in china to repress workers' rights, as
though the advances for the very rich offset any abuses of the working class
how far we have come from a notion of progressive politics in africa when
the idea of fighting for freedom did not mean freedom to become as rich as
possible, never mind who suffers as a consequence.
moses and others are right to say we are here, we can't go back to older
days with socialist ideals. but there i a huge difference between those
like david brooks whose admiration for the rich and their ways is unstinted,
and those like bob herbert who aligns himself with the poor and continues to
fight for their rights.
now in dakar as in new york it isn't a question of simply the rich and the
poor, it is the superrich, the obscenely rich, the
don't-ever-dare-to-try-to-tax-me rich, the
this-country=belongs-to-me-i-own-it-and-everything-in-it, and the poor whose
life is marked by struggle, unemployment, and the sight of a fortress's
wall, always from the outside.
whose voice am i hearing? is it gbagbo, or limbaugh?
ken
On 12/20/10 10:42 PM, Pius Adesanmi wrote:
"i stated, as clearly as i could, that africa does
Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> Dec 22 03:04PM -0600 ^
"for you, socialism is a failed ideal, permitted authoritarianism and
dictatorship. capitalism will lead to the improvement of people's lives."
---Ken,
This is obviously an oversimplification of my position. I made it clear that
I believe that there is a lot of problems with the current neoliberal order
and that it indeed generates inequalities, places constraints, and leads to
abuses. We agree on these. But I also argued that socialism is no
alternative to the current regime of capital; that we tried it and it
immiserated people across the world and Africa and led to little improvement
in peoples' lives while conferring privileges, like capitalism does, on the
favored class. At any rate, my contention is that the neoliberal order is
only expanding, not shrinking and it is not going anywhere soon. Instead it
is acquiring new players from the Third World, making it even more global
than it already is. You agreed that going back to socialism was not feasible
or practical. Given your agreement that we're here and can't go back to your
favored socialism, what do we do except to, as I argued, tame, restrain, and
humanize capitalism to the extent possible---what the Scandinavians are
doing. Like you, I believe that the state should be an instrument of
redistribution, compensation, and protection of the poor and weak. This does
not preclude the embrace of capital and its wealth-creating potential. The
Scandinavian Welfarist regimes have successfully done this. Given all this
nuance, it is rather surpirsing to see you reduce the disagreement to the
simple statement that I hate socialism and prefer capitalism. I made it
clear that I am not inflexible when it comes to ideology and that for me, it
is really not about ideology but the abuse and/or effective deployment of a
system to create wealth and lift people out of poverty. I, of course, don't
think that socialism, given its disastrous track record, is a preferable
alternative to the current order. Show me another alternative to the current
order outside socialism and the Scandinavian (and to some extent the Chinese
where the state remains a strong referee, arbiter, and buffer against the
excesses of capitalism) model that I have touted that can help lift people
out of extreme poverty and create and distribute wealth and I'll immediately
sign up for it. For me, it is what helps to solve the problem of poverty
(which I know first hand) and improves the lives of people that matters. It
is not about ideology per se. Capitalism is flawed in many ways, but its
excesses and flaws and their impacts on the poor can be mitigated while
still harnessing its wealth-creating potential. There is no contradiction
here, just nuance that is grounded in a quest for progress and the need to
defeat or reduce extreme poverty. So, yes, neoliberalism has created many
problems around the world, but what is your alternative? A return to
socialism? A tamed capitalism which I favor? Another unnamed system of
political economy? In one breath you invoke socialism and in another you
admit that it is not a viable option for the future. And, instead of
disputing my assertion that socialism failed, you now say you're not
invested in socialism but fairness, justice, equity, equal opportunity,
rights, democracy, etc--the staple progressive menu of aspirations that we
all subscribe to. Let me say this as a historian; I have never come across a
civilization that flourished, created wealth, and improved lives without
costing the citizens something--usually some freedoms and rights and without
at least initially producing vulgar extremes of consumption, accumulation,
and displacement. Show me a single example in history. This is especially
true in the early stages of growth and expansion. Your insistence on the
combination of prosperity and democracy and justice is very lofty but it is
textbookish and not realistic. Why should it be different with the BRIC
countries when in the West, capitalist development produced similar
contradictions, which then abated or leveled off over time or ebbed and rose
as political and economic movements came and went?
Finally, let me say this: if gentrification and widening disparities were
Africa's only problem, this conversation would not be as intense as it is.
If Africa's people had basic social infrastructures, access to opportunities
for self-fulfillment, jobs, and access to markets, we would not be having a
conversation about rising disparities. I believe that the main problem of
Africa is the sheer number of its peoples trapped in extreme poverty. My
first priority is to overcome what Sachs calls the poverty trap. Before
then, I find the search for economic equality and egalitarian equity a
little escapist and a little removed from the immediate priorities of the
African poor. First things first. Progressives in the West railed against
poverty before they started railing justifiably against fat cats and
widening wealth gaps. Responsible, ethical, and visionary leaderships and
movements can invert the neoliberal order by modifying it to engineer
economic growth, create jobs, build social infrastructure, and improve
lives. It is not impossible. They don't have to implement IMF and World Bank
programs to the letter if they don't want to. The Chinese, Russians, and
Indians didn't. They asserted their sovereignty and defied some neoliberal
prescriptions where necessary. The result is what we're seeing today.
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's
greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
"Akurang-Parry, Kwabena" <KAParr@ship.edu> Dec 22 10:17AM -0500 ^
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/world/africa/22mali.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a22
African Farmers Displaced as Investors Move In
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Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
In Beldenadji, Mali, a canal has been extended to irrigate land, part of an American aid initiative. More Photos »<http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/21/world/africa/20101221_MALI.html>
By NEIL <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/neil_macfarquhar/index.html?inline=nyt-per> MacFARQUHAR
Published: December 21, 2010
SOUMOUNI
, Mali — The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/q/muammar_el_qaddafi/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, and the farmers would all have to leave.
Multimedia
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Left at a Loss<http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/21/world/africa/20101221_MALI.html?ref=africa>
[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/22/world/22mali-map/22mali-map-articleInline.gif]
The New York Times
Deals for farmland have involved many African nations. More Photos »<http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/21/world/africa/20101221_MALI.html>
Enlarge This Image<javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/12/22/world/22MALI-1.html','22MALI_1_html','width=720,height=563,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')>
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Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
A fishing community along the Niger River in Mali. The government has welcomed investors who will use the river for irrigation. More Photos »<http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/21/world/africa/20101221_MALI.html>
"They told us this would be the last rainy season for us to cultivate our fields; after that, they will level all the houses and take the land," said Mama Keita, 73, the leader of this village veiled behind dense, thorny scrubland. "We were told that Qaddafi owns this land."
Across Africa and the developing world, a new global land rush is gobbling up large expanses of arable land. Despite their ageless traditions, stunned villagers are discovering that African governments typically own their land and have been leasing it, often at bargain prices, to private investors and foreign governments for decades to come.
Organizations like the United Nations<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org> and the World Bank<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/world_bank/index.html?inline=nyt-org> say the practice, if done equitably, could help feed the growing global population by introducing large-scale commercial farming to places without it.
But others condemn the deals as neocolonial land grabs that destroy villages, uproot tens of thousands of farmers and create a volatile mass of landless poor. Making matters worse, they contend, much of the food is bound for wealthier nations.
"The food security of the country concerned must be first and foremost in everybody's mind," said Kofi Annan<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/kofi_annan/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, the former United Nations secretary general, now working on the issue of African agriculture. "Otherwise it is straightforward exploitation and it won't work. We have seen a scramble for Africa before. I don't think we want to see a second scramble of that kind."
A World Bank study released in September tallied farmland deals covering at least 110 million acres — the size of California and West Virginia combined — announced during the first 11 months of 2009 alone. More than 70 percent of those deals were for land in Africa, with Sudan, Mozambique and Ethiopia among those nations transferring millions of acres to investors.
Before 2008, the global average for such deals was less than 10 million acres per year, the report said. But the food crisis that spring, which set off riots in at least a dozen countries, prompted the spree<http://farmlandgrab.org/>. The prospect of future scarcity attracted both wealthy governments lacking the arable land needed to feed their own people and hedge funds drawn to a dwindling commodity.
"You see interest in land acquisition continuing at a very high level," said Klaus Deininger, the World Bank economist who wrote the report, taking many figures from a Web site run by Grain<http://www.grain.org/front/>, an advocacy organization, because governments would not reveal the agreements. "Clearly, this is not over."
The report, while generally supportive of the investments, detailed mixed results. Foreign aid for agriculture has dwindled from about 20 percent of all aid in 1980 to about 5 percent now, creating a need for other investment to bolster production.
But many investments appear to be pure speculation that leaves land fallow, the report found. Farmers have been displaced without compensation, land has been leased well below value, those evicted end up encroaching on parkland and the new ventures have created far fewer jobs than promised, it said.
The breathtaking scope of some deals galvanizes opponents. In Madagascar, a deal that would have handed over almost half the country's arable land to a South Korean conglomerate helped crystallize opposition to an already unpopular president and contributed to his overthrow in 2009.
People have been pushed off land in countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Zambia. It is not even uncommon for investors to arrive on land that was supposedly empty. In Mozambique, one investment company discovered an entire village with its own post office on what had been described as vacant land, said Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations food rapporteur.
In Mali, about three million acres along the Niger River and its inland delta are controlled by a state-run trust called the Office du Niger. In nearly 80 years, only 200,000 acres of the land have been irrigated, so the government considers new investors a boon.
"Even if you gave the population there the land, they do not have the means to develop it, nor does the state," said Abou Sow, the executive director of Office du Niger.
He listed countries whose governments or private sectors have already made investments or expressed interest: China and South Africa in sugar cane; Libya and Saudi Arabia in rice; and Canada, Belgium, France, South Korea, India, the Netherlands and multinational organizations like the West African Development Bank.
In all, Mr. Sow said about 60 deals covered at least 600,000 acres in Mali, although some organizations said more than 1.5 million acres had been committed. He argued that the bulk of the investors were Malians growing food for the domestic market. But he acknowledged that outside investors like the Libyans, who are leasing 250,000 acres here, are expected to ship their rice, beef and other agricultural products home.
"What advantage would they gain by investing in Mali if they could not even take their own production?" Mr. Sow said.
As with many of the deals, the money Mali might earn from the leases remains murky. The agreement signed with the Libyans grants them the land for at least 50 years simply in exchange for developing it.
"The Libyans want to produce rice for Libyans, not for Malians," said Mamadou Goita, the director of a nonprofit research organization in Mali. He and other opponents contend that the government is privatizing a scarce national resource without improving the domestic food supply, and that politics, not economics, are driving events because Mali wants to improve ties with Libya and others.
The huge tracts granted to private investors are many years from production. But officials noted that Libya already spent more than $50 million building a 24-mile canal and road, constructed by a Chinese company, benefiting local villages.
Every farmer affected, Mr. Sow added, including as many as 20,000 affected by the Libyan project, will receive compensation. "If they lose a single tree, we will pay them the value of that tree," he said.
But anger and distrust run high. In a rally last month, hundreds of farmers demanded that the government halt such deals until they get a voice. Several said that they had been beaten and jailed by soldiers, but that they were ready to die to keep their land.
"The famine will start very soon," shouted Ibrahima Coulibaly, the head of the coordinating committee for farmer organizations in Mali. "If people do not stand up for their rights, they will lose everything!"
"Ante!" members of the crowd shouted in Bamanankan, the local language. "We refuse!"
Kassoum Denon, the regional head for the Office du Niger, accused the Malian opponents of being paid by Western groups that are ideologically opposed to large-scale farming.
"We are responsible for developing Mali," he said. "If the civil society does not agree with the way we are doing it, they can go jump in a lake."
The looming problem, experts noted, is that Mali remains an agrarian society. Kicking farmers off the land with no alternative livelihood risks flooding the capital, Bamako, with unemployed, rootless people who could become a political problem.
"The land is a natural resource that 70 percent of the population uses to survive," said Kalfa Sanogo, an economist at the United Nations Development Program in Mali. "You cannot just push 70 percent of the population off the land, nor can you say they can just become agriculture workers." In a different approach, a $224 million American project will help about 800 Malian farmers each acquire title to 12 acres of newly cleared land, protecting them against being kicked off.
Jon C. Anderson, the project director, argued that no country has developed economically with a large percentage of its population on farms. Small farmers with titles will either succeed or have to sell the land to finance another life, he said, though critics have said villagers will still be displaced.
"We want a revolutionized relationship between the farmer and the state, one where the farmer is more in charge," Mr. Anderson said.
Soumouni sits about 20 miles from the nearest road, with wandering cattle herders in their distinctive pointed straw hats offering directions like, "Bear right at the termite mound with the hole in it."
Sekou Traoré, 69, a village elder, was dumbfounded when government officials said last year that Libya now controlled his land and began measuring the fields. He had always considered it his own, passed down from grandfather to father to son.
"All we want before they break our houses and take our fields is for them to show us the new houses where we will live, and the new fields where we will work," he said at the rally last month.
"We are all so afraid," he said of the village's 2,229 residents. "We will be the victims of this situation, we are sure of that."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Kwabena Akurang-Parry
elombah daniel <elsdaniel@yahoo.com> Dec 22 07:13AM -0800 ^
Erstwhile Vice-President and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential
aspirant Atiku Abubakar picked holes with President Goodluck Jonathan's 2011
Budget proposal and unfolded what he described as a shock therapy to reverse the
recurrent proportion of government expenditure which he put at 80 per cent.
Under Atiku's proposal to reverse what he said was an unsustainable burden of
recurrent expenditure, the former vice president is promising to channel all
receipts from oil and gas towards the development of infrastructure and
education while at the same time limiting recurrent expenditure to government
tax receipts.
How feasible will this be?
I know that while N2.5 trillion of the N4.226.19 trillion budgeted for next year
is to be spent on recurrent expenditure, only N1.005 trillion, less than 50 per
cent, is to be spent on capital projects. Nigerian currently derives more than
80 per cent of its revenue from oil.
Now under Atiku's proposal that would mean that Government generated receipts in
a year outside our oil earnings should amount to N2.5 trillion for Atiku's plan
to be workable. Alternatively, there would be serious cutbacks on government
overhead expenditure. Especially on the N1.12 trillion about N94, 959,545,401.20
billion that is spent on salaries of political office holders and N1,
031,654,689,033.18 trillion that goes to their allowances annually.
Is this workable?
Some helpful data: 2007 to 2010:
The 2007 Budget was predicated on a production volume of 2.5 million barrels per
day and a benchmark price of US$40 per barrel. Based on these assumptions and a
projected N100 billion from Independent revenue sources, projected total revenue
available to fund the federal budget is N1.73
The 2008 Budget was based on a number of assumptions and it is driven by the
need to meet certain targets. These are: Oil price of $53.83 per barrel, Crude
oil production of 2.45 million barrels per day, Joint Venture Cash Calls of
US$4.97billlion, Exchange rate of N117 to US$1
The budget is based on a prudent benchmark price US$53.83 per barrel to ensure
that we fund the budget with predictable revenues, whilst ensuring that the
benchmark price remains realistic.
Based on these assumptions, Then President, Late Umaru Yar'adua expected the sum
of N4.539 trillion to accrue to the Federation Account. This represented an
increase of 5.5% over 2007.
Oil Revenue iwa estimated at N3.629 trillion after taking account of existing
commitments to Joint Venture Cash Calls of N0.581 trillion, while Non-Oil
Revenue is estimated at N0.91 trillion. Oil Revenue represents 80% of the total
estimated revenue; while Non-Oil Revenue represents 20%.The aggregate projection
for Federation Account receipts in 2008 was N4.529trillion.
Oil-related revenue was expected to amount to N3.606trillion or 80% of this sum
while non-oil sources of revenue were to account for the balance of N923billion
or 20%.
The 2009 Budget was predicated on certain key assumptions that take a realistic
fiscal outlook for 2009. These include:
• Oil production of 2.292mbpd
• Benchmark oil price of US$45/barrel
• Joint Venture cash calls of US$5billion
On the basis of these assumptions, taking into account the revenue sharing
formula, the total federally collected revenue is projected at N5.131trillion,
which includes oil revenues of N2.9405trillion and non-oil revenues of
N1.973trillion (as well as other non-Federation Account items such as grants and
special levies amounting to N217.5billion). The total Revenue for the Federal
Government Budget was forecast at N1.778trillion including Independent Revenue
of N306billion.
For 2010 Budget:
Following from these assumptions and the operation of the revenue sharing
formula, total Revenue for the Federal Government Budget was forecast at N2.517
trillion. There is a deliberate expansion in budgeted expenditure over that of
previous fiscal years to counter the effect of the credit crunch on the economy
as well as to reduce the infrastructure gap.
Accordingly, the aggregate expenditure for 2010 is N4.079trillion, comprising
N180.28billion for Statutory Transfers, N517.07billion for Debt Service, N2.011
trillion for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure and N1.370 trillion for Capital
Expenditure. This represents a 31.5% expansion over the N3.102trillion
appropriated in 2009
Based on the above date, how would Atiku raise non-oil revenue to pay for his
FGN Recurrent expenditure?
Proposing what he described as a shock therapy to reverse the proportion of 80
per cent spent on recurrent expenses, Atiku at a session with senior media
professionals in Lagos on Sunday evening said: "Almost 80% of government income
is spent on recurrent. This is what is used in paying salaries, allowances and
all that. I want to reverse it. I want to propose to Nigerians that every money
that is earned from petroleum resources we should use it to develop our
country's infrastructure and every money we make from the Federal Inland Revenue
Service, from taxation to VAT and so on and so forth we should use it as
recurrent.
"Unless you implement this shock therapy you will not develop this great
country, we all have to make sacrifices because no amount…because at the rate we
are going there is no amount. 80 per cent of your income is going into
recurrent, so I was thinking one day, why can't we reverse it? All the money we
earn from oil let us dedicate it to develop infrastructure, education, power and
jobs and so on and so forth."
Now, Note that from 2007 to 2010 as in preceding years, Oil Revenue represents
80% of the total estimated revenue; while Non-Oil Revenue represents 20%.
In 2009, non-oil sources of revenue were to account for the balance of
N923billion or 20%. In 2009, non-oil revenues of N1.973trillion (as well as
other non-Federation Account items such as grants and special levies amounting
to N217.5billion; But the aggregate expenditure for 2010, is N2.011 trillion for
Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure.
In other words, receipts from non-oil sources would not be enough to pay for our
recurrent expenditure.
What then would be Atiku's magic? This question becomes more pertinent when you
take into consideration that Atiku proposes to limit recurrent expenditure to
"government tax receipts", thus removing revenue even from non-oil sources like
solid minerals.
elsdaniel@yahoo.com
Written by
Daniel Elombah
Publisher: www.elombah.com
(A Nigerian Perspective on world affairs)
+44-7958588018
________________________________
"Denial is a temporary mechanism by which we deceive ourselves, but deep down
below the surface of the average conscience, there is a still small voice that
says to us, something is out of tune" - Carl Jung
"Akurang-Parry, Kwabena" <KAParr@ship.edu> Dec 22 08:47AM -0500 ^
Africanization of the politics of "Ivory Coast" in Europe? Na waa oh!
Kwabena.
________________________________
From: Yaw Twumasi [yaw.twumasi@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 7:30 AM
Subject: Fwd: Europe: Belarus Election Dispute Triggers Standoff - 600 Arrested
http://www.rferl.org/content/standoff_between_lukashenka_opposition_nears_third_day/2254886.html
http://www.rferl.org/content/belarus_lukashenka_election_vote_crackdown_fraud/2253668.html
http://euroradio.fm/en/1434/reports/58362/
More Than 600 Arrested As Standoff Between Lukashenka, Belarus Opposition Continues
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Opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich attended the brief candlelight vigil held near a prison in Minsk where detained demonstrators are being held.
Last updated (GMT/UTC): 22.12.2010 13:22
By RFE/RL
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has further tightened the screws on Belarus's opposition after police broke up mass protests against his reelection.
Belarusian authorities say they have jailed more than 600 opposition activists in the aftermath of the crackdown. The Interior Ministry said the activists were given sentences from between five to 15 days.
Five of the seven opposition presidential candidates arrested on December 19 remain in custody. Ryhor Kastusyou and Dzmitry Vus were released.
A local human rights organization has said that the seven candidates could face up to 15 years in prison. The Vesna human rights center said the security service, which is still called the KGB, has filed charges against 20 top opposition figures, including the seven presidential candidates, for organizing mass disturbances.
KGB spokesman Alyaksandr Antonovich declined to comment.
Earlier, Justice Minister Viktor Golovanov has warned that political parties associated with the protests in Minsk may be "liquidated."
[http://gdb.rferl.org/29D68CF4-AD3C-4FFF-BF3A-60C2FC5BBD38_w527_s.jpg]<http://gdb.rferl.org/29D68CF4-AD3C-4FFF-BF3A-60C2FC5BBD38_mw800_s.jpg>
Relatives of detained demonstrators check a list of prisoners outside a prison in Minsk.
U.S. President Barack Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs said the United States "strongly condemns the actions that the government of Belarus has taken to undermine the democratic process."
The European Union's top diplomat Catherine Ashton, meanwhile, called on the regime to "immediately release" the opposition leaders.
'Rough' Treatment
Despite Lukashenka's pledge to quash any show of dissent, activists and relatives of jailed demonstrators remain defiant.
RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports that some 200 people held a brief candlelight vigil late on December 21 in front of the capital's Akrestsina prison, where most of those arrested are being held. Chants of "Freedom!" and "Long live Belarus!" were kept to a minimum as uniformed police stood by. Most of the protesters left after police urged them to disperse.
AP reported that several people passed bread and water to security guards in hopes that the items would reach loved ones inside.
The rally was part of a "campaign of solidarity" launched by the opposition to support those being held by police.
Kastusyou, the released presidential candidate, attended the candlelight rally. He searched a list of inmates provided by the jail hoping to find the name of his 22-year-old son, who had been detained.
His son's whereabouts remain unknown.
Alyaksandr Milinkevich, the leader of Belarus's opposition For Liberty movement and a 2006 presidential candidate, was also at the rally.
At an earlier press conference, Milinkevich called on all democratic-leaning forces in the country to join the campaign.
"I appeal to all allied political parties and movements and civil organizations -- if you do not pay attention to these violations of human rights that have taken place so violently in our society, then you will not have freedom in the future," Milinkevich said.
Kastusyou told a news conference following his release that he had been held by the KGB secret services and had been "interrogated toughly."
"When I was put into the cell around 6 a.m., my cellmates told me the prison had worked all night," Kastusyou said.
"Why was I detained? I can't give a definite answer, but I think to intimidate Belarusian society and crack down on the protest that unfolded on December 19. Our authorities don't have any other alternatives, I don't think they are capable of reacting in any other way."
Katsusyou said his interrogators let him go after he refused to publicly condemn his colleagues.
Vague Charges
The five other presidential candidates remain in custody. They face up to 15 years in prison for "organizing mass disturbances."
They include 64-year-old Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, who was beaten unconscious during the protest and subsequently snatched from his hospital bed by men in plainclothes.
"People in plainclothes burst into the hospital, they did not show any identity documents," his wife, Volha Nyaklyayeva, told reporters.
"They pushed me aside, held my arms, and did not answer when I asked them who they were and how they had gotten here. While they were holding me, without paying attention to my screams, they grabbed Uladzimer Prokofyevich from his bed. Since he could not walk on his own, they threw him on a blanket and rolled him across the floor of the room."
PHOTO GALLERY: Scenes of the Minsk protest on election day, December 19, and authorities' actions to disperse the crowd. More than 600 were arrested.
Presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau, who placed second after Lukashenka according to official results, is among those still in detention.
He and his wife, journalist Irina Khalip, were arrested on December 20 as they drove to a clinic to treat injuries sustained during the protest. Khalip was speaking to the Russian radio broadcaster Ekho Moskvy in a dramatic live broadcast at the time of the arrest.
In a recording of that conversation, Khalip is heard saying that "a traffic police car is stopping us now" before pulling them out of their car, followed by screams as she describes what is happening.
"What are you doing?" she asks the presumed traffic police. "OK, OK, I'm standing like in an American action film. They pressed me up against the car. My husband is lying on the ground. Monsters! Bitches! Fascists! They're hitting me in the face! They're tying my hands behind my back."
Lukashenka, a former collective farm manager, has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994.
In comments broadcast on December 20 on national television, he said any attempt to stage a "revolution" would be thwarted, adding that there would be no more "senseless democracy" in his country.
"Kids, you are messing with the wrong guy," he warned demonstrators.
A small demonstration later that day in the capital was disbanded within minutes, with police beating the activists and pushing them into police vans.
WATCH: Belarusian security forces quickly grabbed would-be protesters and hustled them off into detention when they tried to gather in downtown Minsk on December 20, one day after the election-night crackdown.
Download<http://flashvideo.rferl.org/Flashvideo/6/68/68e94927-9c2d-4a00-8290-5bbd62b6531a.flv>
An official preliminary count of the December 19 vote handed the authoritarian leader a fourth term in office with almost 80 percent of ballots.
Independent polls ahead of the election, however, suggested Lukashenka's real support is much lower.
International observers and Western governments have described the election as "flawed" and condemned the ensuing crackdown on Lukashenka's opponents.
In a statement, the chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, Senator Benjamin Cardin (Democrat, Maryland), called the detention of opposition candidates, activists, and journalists "deplorable."
U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said that with the marred election and the ensuing crackdown, the Lukashenka government had lost a chance to move closer to the West.
"Belarus and President Lukashenka may well never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity," Crowley said. "Our sanctions will continue in place and it's tragic what has happened in Belarus. Respect for the democratic process and the human rights of its citizens [are] at the center of our relationship and our aspirations for Belarus."
In June, the Obama administration extended financial sanctions against Lukashenka and other Belarusian officials for another year.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay joined the chorus of criticism, voicing concern over "violence against, and abduction of, opposition candidates and their supporters."
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) condemned as "unacceptable" the police assaults and detentions of journalists during the postelection protests.
According to Reporters Without Borders, some 20 journalists were arrested while covering the protests. Among those still in custody is Dzmitry Galko, who blogs for RFE/RL's Belarus Service.
written by Claire Bigg, based on RFE/RL reports
Yona Maro <oldmoshi@gmail.com> Dec 22 02:09PM +0300 ^
<http://www.stoptb.org/assets/documents/global/plan/TB_GlobalPlanToStopTB2011-2015.pdf>
stoptb.org<http://zunia.org/source/stoptb.org/?tx_dgcontent_pi1%5Btt_news%5D=309615&cHash=ab53a194ea72d0c1e86c5b61b38db4e4>
–
A new initiative -- Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015 is designed to combat
tuberculosis, which claims the lives of nearly two million people across the
world every year, could lead the way towards eliminating the disease if
governments and donors commit enough funds, the World Health Organization
announced. "There is an urgent need to scale up action against TB -- 10
million people, including 4 million women and children, will lose their
lives unnecessarily between now and 2015 if we fail," said Dr. Margaret
Chan, Director-General of the WHO, which hosts the Stop TB Partnership.
http://www.stoptb.org/assets/documents/global/plan/TB_GlobalPlanToStopTB2011-2015.pdf
MsJoe21St@aol.com Dec 21 11:24PM -0500 ^
Hello Africans and All
Please go to Mr. Larry Eyong's incisive article, which castigates colonial
interests. It comes after my comments.
Out of respect for Mr Larry Eyong's views and experience, I blind copied
his mail to about 500 lists, including members and leaders in the Ivory
Coast community, diplomatic corps and congress. Last night, I went through my
Mom's extensive research and history notes on Félix Houphouët-Boigny to
understanding the underpinnings. I read her explicit notations on how he
connived to undermine Nkrumah and was complicit in the coup related death of
Thomas Sankara. Houphouët-Boigny maintained an umbilical cord (her word)
relationship with France and was hailed as Africa's Wise Man in the West.
Some have been hobbling with congressional staffers and civil society bluffs
on the African political trajectory. I promise to still get back to Larry.
Given the undiluted colonial malarkey of that era, Ivory Coast should have
served as a prima facie stronghold that yearns for an African nationalist
- with all the particles for an anti-colonial minefield. The question: Why,
then, is this not a Mugabe Moment with most African nations aware of
Western exploits for self-interest and the general public dismissive of the
Western propaganda? Could Laurent Gbagbo be a victim of his own myopia,
having squandered and mismanaged this political avenue to rise to the mantle?
More exactly, his attitude towards fellow Africans has been the very
antithesis of what an African nationalist is made of, which fuels the regional
angst to see him gone. If his last dice is crying persecution, he has been an
opportunistic crucifier.
For example, he accused his man rival, Ouattara, of not being Ivorian but
someone from Burkina Faso. In 2002, after a coup attempt, Gbagbo accused
the West African immigrant population of abating the rebellion. Government
soldiers in the capital burned and bulldozed slums, displacing thousands of
African immigrants barely making a living. Women and children fled with
only what they had to cover their skins as clothes - with anxious relatives
rendered helpless, waiting for a sign of life. Left unexplained was the
nexus between these poor Africans and the West. A conscientious leader would
exercise the quality even when embattled.
Some astute observers lacked words to explain to Western people and
their elected leaders why multitude of flag-waving youngsters, groomed by
Ivorian Coast political parties, were shouting ''terrorists'' and
''assailants'' in accordance with Gbagbo's amplified Ivorite ideology - a term that
denotes a notion of Ivorian purity. The slogan " Ivory Coast for Ivorians,"
with a virulent anti African immigrant vigor, was not Western made. Gbagbo
could give Jean-Marie Le Pen, the right-wing extremist leader in France, a
run for his money on who is more anti-African.
If the human spirit affects politics, Gbagbo defeated any goodwill in
Africa. When President Jonathan of Nigeria signed the letter on behalf of
ECOWAS for Gbagbo to leave, fewer African nationalists have fewer tears to
shed. Yes, Africa must stand for a self-reliant Africa that does not kowtow to
whiffs and huffs from the West. Correct, we must disabuse ourselves of
Western fallacies and patronage. But where African nationalism applies, Gbagbo
pales as a self-made anachronism. He stands as a weak example that ruins a
good case on Africa's rise above the trappings of neo imperialism.
MsJoe
In a message dated 12/21/2010 1:27:54 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
ebenezar11@yahoo.com writes:
Fellow Africans:
Let's disabuse ourselves of the time -honored fallacies that the West has
been perpetuating about Africa.It is against the vital national interests
of Western nations for African countries to accede to genuine democracy.
Genuine independence presupposes the adoption of voluntarist and sovereign
national policies, that on the short run, could be hostile to foreign
interests, for the ultimate purpose of building a self sufficient national economy
with machine tool factories, research and development initiatives
(including industrial espionage) to acquire the industrialization capacity to build
magnetic levitation trains, build shipyards, armament and airplane
factories, and create a continental currency that would sustain long term self
reliant development.
So far, none of the 53 nonviable micro-nation-states of Africa has this
magnitude of capacity building, to sustain itself in a world of continental
nations. Perhaps that is why the nations of Europe which crystallized the
idea of the nation-state on the Westphalian model, transcended its
limitations to create the Mastrich model, where Europe could now compete with
America. In a relatively short time, the Euro, caught up and surpassed the Dollar
in value and is not threatening to be the world's reserve currency for
countries who abhor the jingoism of American foreign policy.
Kwame Nkrumah had this same vision in the late 1950, and attempted to
adopt it in Africa, but was countered by Houphouet-Biogny, Tubman of Liberia,
Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia among others who
spearheaded the French idea of "French-Africa" where the former colonies
would become oversees France. That is why Abidjan was made to become the Paris
of West Africa, and Houphouet-Boigny served as De Gaulle's overseer of the
French plantation in West Africa. Houphouet, assisted the CIA and the
French secret service to overthrow Kwame Nkrumah . Though a series of coup
d'etats conducted by De Gaulle's Africa point man -Jacques Foccart from Togo,
to Benin (Dahomey) to Mali, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) Niger, Mali,
Congo-Brazzaville, Mauritania,it became clear that any African leader who wanted
to remain in power must walk in lockstep with French policy. That is why
all African countries in the United Nations had to vote according to the
dictates of French foreign policy, else suffer removal from France. (Foccard
says De Gaulle aways instructed the French Ambassador to ensure the the
ousted President is not killed, so that ethnic cleansing would not occur. That
is why the game play is to offer Gbagbo an attractive exile in his friend
Mbeki's country. In terms of a cost benefit analysis that would be cheaper
than the cost of maintaining a United Nations force of 10.000 troops in Ivory
Coast for the next six months. Of course, Gbagbo has to be frightened and
rendered desperate enough to accept the deal).
Houphouet, who for thirty years sowed the seeds of discord in Ivory Coast,
was responsible for organizing the overthrowal of independent minded
African leaders. As a Baole "prophet and magician" he used CIA furnish
helicopters, to ferry cocoa and coffee from the hinterland of Ghana and paid the
Ashanti kings to rebel against Kwame Nkrumah and deprive him of foreign
currency so as to spark the popular uprising that finally took him out of office.
Half of the cab drivers in Accra were on the payroll of the CIA (After all
the US simply had to print the currency since Nixon had reneged on the
Gold standard)
Intriguingly, when rebels threatened any African country, Houphout offered
his good offices as a negotiator and brought the belligerents to Abidjan
for peace talks. While in Abidjan, the hotels were regularly bugged and his
French masters eavesdropped on the conversations and the strategies of the
opponents . The French puppets always carried the day. If it became to
difficult the United States were called in to bring in their lapdog-the United
Nations. This is an organization whose leader is merely handpicked
unilaterally by the United States, even to the opposition of all the other states
of the world. Yet, they deridingly claim that they have even a scintilla of
impartiality.
Long time observers of the politics of Africa are shaking their heads at
how the law of Karma is being applied to Cote d'Ivoire. They say, the
chickens of vengeance are coming home to roost. Let the Ivorians have a taste of
their own medicine -they claim. So say for thirty years Ivory Coast has sown
the wild wind, now it must reap the tempest.
Today, Gbabgo has become the new scapegoat of the West. Like Patrice
Lumumba whom President Lyndon Johnson said was better off being eaten by
crocodiles in the Congo river, than waiting for UN troops, like Kwame Nkrumah,
Hamani Diori -Barre Mainserra or Mamadou Tanja of Niger who would not cede
their country's uranium exclusively to France in return for virtually
nothing, like Mohammed Farrah Aideed who helped overthrow America's puppet
Mohammed Siad Barre in Somalia,
The West does not want a strong African nation. The United States
attempted to dismember the Congo by supporting the Katangese rebellion so as to
decapitate the nationalist Lumumba. De Gaulle supported Moise Tschombe the
rebel Katangese leader who was the darling of the United States. De Gaulle was
unequivocal that the dismemberment of Nigeria was a good thing for the
French in Africa, that is why he used Houphouet, Bongo and Macias Nguema of
Equitorial Guinea to fund the Biafran rebellion . Reagan supported Johnas
Savimbi and provided land mines that mained one million Angolan to fight
Edwardo Dos Santos who was seen as a Soviet puppet. In Mozambique the United
States used PW Botha to support Alfonso Dal Clama the leader of the RENAMO
rebels to destroy Mozambique and eventually kill Samora Machel . So that
Gbagbo would be decapitated is a certainty, but the issue is how many Ivorians
will be canono fodder. When that is done, will it be the end of the African
revolution ...no.
Of course, the subterfuge is democracy, -allowing the will of the people
to prevail. Well, that is material for college courses on Africa in American
college campuses. The reality of the application of American demo cray in
the jungles of Africa is nightmarish. In Liberia, when William Tolbert came
in to end the 99 year lease that America's Firestone had on large swaths
of Liberian rubber , William Swing of the CIA was sent in to decapitate him.
The hatchet man's job was done so fast that there was no time to groom a
credible leader. Samuel Doe (whom Reagan was later to erroneously introduce
as "Chairman Moi" on his maiden visit to the White House) a high-school drop
out, who was a Sergent in the Executive Mansion, was handpicked to become
President. (Of course, the Western press was on hand to extol his new found
leadership qualities, until he became an embarrassment to the US). Then
Charles Taylor was whisked out of a Massachusetts jail through the
intervention and funding of Ted Kennedy and the facilitation of Helen Johnson
Sirleaf to go to Monrovia and reclaim the American rubber plantation. Of course
we all know what happened, rivers of blood flowed, refugees were ferried
through Ivory Coast to the United States to become a new army of nursing home
workers.
At the end of the day, it is the fragility and the non viability of the
African nation-state that is highlighted. Gbagbo's Bete tribe, is recruiting
militia's from their Liberian cousins called the Gio, to chase away the
marauding Diola who are being armed by their Burkina Faso brothers. Their
justification is that the French purposely allowed asked Blaise Compare whom
Foccard paid to behead his trusted friend Thomas Sankara) to arm the rebels
and hold the Northern part of Ivory Coast so as to trigger an eventual
ouster of the unyielding Gbagbo who would not bow to the French president.
In 1994 the French used Sassou Nguesso to oust the democratically elected
President of Congo Brazzaville -Pascal Lissouba because he refused to
continue the financing of French political parties with the proceeds of
Congolese oil. (Those who think colonialism in French Africa has ended are living
in Alice in wonderland's world). The regimes that has remained stable in
French Africa like Cameroon,and Gabon take their marching orders from Paris
without argument. Paul Biya of Cameroon, shamelessly tells the press that
he is the best student of the French president. The United Nations is ready
to push democracy down the throats of Ivorians through the barrel of the
gun, yet Eyadema of Togo, and Bongo of Gabon are allowed to be succeeded by
their kids.
Larry Eyong.
---,
elombah daniel <elsdaniel@yahoo.com> Dec 21 03:16PM -0800 ^
My Quote of the day:
"When we came in 2007, we met a state that ranked low in every imaginable sphere
of the development indices-human development, education, health, infrastructure
etc. The statistics from several local and foreign agencies painted a grim
picture. Industrial activities were also largely non existent. There was neither
medium nor large scale industrial establishment. We lagged behind even in areas
like fish production and other acquamarine activities areas where we should
naturally have comparative advantage.The natural consequence of all these was
low productivity, high unemployment, marginal participation in the oil and gas
sector, frustration and agitation which sadly took a violent turn."
Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, Jonathan's successor in the state. Sylva
said this three years ago
Daniel Elombah
Publisher: www.elombah.com
(A Nigerian Perspective on world affairs)
+44-7958588018
________________________________
"Denial is a temporary mechanism by which we deceive ourselves, but deep down
below the surface of the average conscience, there is a still small voice that
says to us, something is out of tune" - Carl Jung
elombah daniel <elsdaniel@yahoo.com> Dec 21 03:49PM -0800 ^
--
Triple a Thegenius,
I believe he actually said this three years ago...what you saw today could be a
rehash and an advertorial by the Atiku group...Atiku dem are making a play out
of the quote...with regards to the indicting Sylva quote a friend said:
"What an indictment! But Sylva may be forgiven for calling it as it was. He had
no way of knowing then that GEJ shall ever be in his current position - vying to
be elected Nigeria's President. Yes, Sylva needs to be forgiven."
But another guy countered:
"It's no big deal. That's what most of them would want us to believe so that at
the end of the day, you'll judge them based on what they told you at the
inception of their administaration. I'm not fooled".
Daniel Elombah
Publisher: www.elombah.com
(A Nigerian Perspective on world affairs)
+44-7958588018
________________________________
"Denial is a temporary mechanism by which we deceive ourselves, but deep down
below the surface of the average conscience, there is a still small voice that
says to us, something is out of tune" - Carl Jung
________________________________
From: Triple a Thegenius <a3_tripleagenius@yahoo.com>
To: TalkNigeria@yahoogroups.com; naijapolitics <naijapolitics@yahoo.com>;
NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; nigeria360@yahoogroups.com;
naijaintellects@googlegroups.com; Bring your baseball bat
<NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 11:38:47 PM
Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| Re: [TalkNigeria] Bayelsa State Governor on GEJ
He didnt say it three years ago. It was a recent interview, I guess. It appeared
in one paper today. I will check and get across to you.
When i saw it this evening, I laughed. In promoting himself, he demoted the
president. I am sure he is on the way to Aso Rock to beg now.
________________________________
From: elombah daniel <elsdaniel@yahoo.com>
To: naijapolitics <naijapolitics@yahoo.com>; NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com;
TalkNigeria@yahoogroups.com; nigeria360@yahoogroups.com;
naijaintellects@googlegroups.com; Bring your baseball bat
<NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, December 22, 2010 12:16:38 AM
Subject: [TalkNigeria] Bayelsa State Governor on GEJ
My Quote of the day:
"When we came in 2007, we met a state that ranked low in every imaginable sphere
of the development indices-human development, education, health, infrastructure
etc. The statistics from several local and foreign agencies painted a grim
picture. Industrial activities were also largely non existent. There was neither
medium nor large scale industrial establishment. We lagged behind even in areas
like fish production and other acquamarine activities areas where we should
naturally have comparative advantage.The natural consequence of all these was
low productivity, high unemployment, marginal participation in the oil and gas
sector, frustration and agitation which sadly took a violent turn."
Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, Jonathan's successor in the state. Sylva
said this three years ago
Daniel Elombah
Publisher: www.elombah.com
(A Nigerian Perspective on world affairs)
+44-7958588018
________________________________
"Denial is a temporary mechanism by which we deceive ourselves, but deep down
below the surface of the average conscience, there is a still small voice that
says to us, something is out of tune" - Carl Jung
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