Monday, December 30, 2002

Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's New Leader: "Mr. Kibaki helped draft KANU's constitution in the days before the break from British rule. He later served as finance minister to Mr. Kenyatta and as Mr. Moi's vice president, a position he was later fired from after a power struggle. Even then, he stuck by his leader and his party. Until his last days in KANU, Mr. Kibaki defended the party as the best way to develop Kenya. "

Thursday, December 19, 2002

Nestle claims £3.7m from famine-hit Ethiopia "The multinational coffee corporation, Nestle, is demanding a $6m (£3.7m) payment from the government of the world's poorest state, Ethiopia, as the country struggles to combat its worst famine for nearly 20 years. The money is compensation for an Ethiopian business which the previous military government nationalised in 1975. It could feed a million people for a month, according to Oxfam."

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Mugabe ratchets up the misery in Zimbabwe | csmonitor.com: "In the countryside, the prospect of starvation is real - 6 million or 7 million people are at risk, primarily because Mr. Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriot Front (ZANU-PF) systematically denies even donated food to peasants or town dwellers who live in areas that voted against him."

Tuesday, July 09, 2002

African Leaders Drop Old Group for One That Has Power: "The 39-year-old group will be replaced on Tuesday by the African Union, a body that will require its members to make commitments to democratic principles and to respect human rights. Unlike the Organization of African Unity, the new group will have the right to intervene with member states in cases of genocide, war crimes or gross violations of human rights. Its members must promise to hold free elections and to allow opposition parties to campaign freely. "

Friday, June 14, 2002

A Tycoon and His Conscience - South Africa's new black capitalists (NYT Magazine)

Sunday, June 02, 2002

Africa Creeps Along Path to Democracy: "Since 1990, 42 of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have held multiparty elections, the World Bank says. Not since Africans began shaking off colonial rule more than 40 years ago has the continent witnessed such broad political change."

Friday, May 31, 2002

Heart of Cheapness: Krugman oped - "So here are our priorities. Faced with a proposal that would save the lives of eight million people every year, many of them children, we balk at the cost. But when asked to give up revenue equal to twice that cost, in order to allow each of 3,300 lucky families to collect its full $16 million inheritance rather than a mere $10 million, we don't hesitate."

Tuesday, May 28, 2002

New Drug for Malaria Pits U.S. Against Africa: "With resistance to old malaria drugs spreading, African officials want to start using a relatively new Chinese remedy so powerful that some experts consider it a miracle drug. Because more than 2,000 African children die of malaria each day, doctors there are clamoring for the drug, and the World Health Organization recommends it. But the United States generally opposes using it in Africa yet. An adviser to the Agency for International Development in Washington, Dennis Carroll, said the medicine, artemisinin, probably represented "the best long-term option." But, he added, the drug is expensive and hard for poorly educated people to take correctly. It needs, he said, more testing in infants and is "not ready for prime time." Other experts say delays will cost too many lives because the drugs now in use are rapidly losing their effectiveness. Artemisinin was first refined 30 years ago in China from the qinghaosu plant, used in fever remedies for 2,000 years."

Monday, May 20, 2002

A Vibrant Battler of Apartheid Keeps Her Vibrancy. Author Nadine Gordimer is celebrating South Africa's hard-fought freedom, even as she acknowledges the challenges ahead.

Saturday, May 11, 2002

M&M/Mars is currently asking consumers to vote for a new color for its M&M™s. Global Exchange is encouraging chocolate eaters to swing the votes in support of Fair Trade Certified chocolate between now and May 31. Fair Trade M&M's Ballot Box...... * Vote Online for Fair Trade Certified M&M's at the M&M's web site: http://www.mms.com/us/ Choose "Write in Your Own Color" type "Fair Trade Certified!" in the box, and click to submit your vote. * Cast & Collect Fair Trade Ballots. From now until May 31, Fair Trade supporters across the world will urge their community members to fill out specially designed Fair Trade M&M's Ballots. Call or e-mail the HRAS for a stack of write-in ballots or download the ballots at http://www.humanrightsaction.net/downloads/guides/marsballot.pdf/ * Fax A Prepared Letter Free to M&M/Mars from the Global Exchange web site: http://www.globalexchange.org/cocoafaxMMMars031402.html * WRITE a letter to M&M/MARS to register your vote.: Paul Michaels, President, M&M/Mars Inc., 6885 Elm St., McLean, VA 22101 *CALL M&M/MARS at 1-800-627-7852. *E-MAIL M&M/MARS consumer.affairs@mmmars.com and askmms@mmmars.com.

Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Nigeria to Recover $1 Billion From the Family of a Late Dictator: "The family of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, who has been accused of looting national assets during his military rule, will return $1 billion to Nigeria, the Swiss government said today. The out-of-court arrangement allows the family to keep $100 million, which the Swiss Federal Office of Justice described as funds "acquired prior to Abacha's term in office and which, according to Nigerian authorities, demonstrably do not derive from criminal acts.""

Thursday, April 04, 2002

In rural South Africa, 'hippos' carry the load: "The large rolling water buckets -- called "hippo rollers" by their inventors â013 do not provide a long-term solution to the developing world problem of access to clean water. But for thousands of women across South Africa who spend much of their day hauling the clear, cool liquid, it's a step in the right direction."

Saturday, March 30, 2002

From Old Files, a New Story of U.S. Role in Angolan War: "a trove of recently declassified American documents ... show conclusively that the United States intervened in Angola weeks before the arrival of any Cubans, not afterward as Washington claimed. Moreover, though a connection between Washington and South Africa, which was then ruled by a white government under the apartheid policy, was strongly denied at the time, the documents appear to demonstrate their broad collaboration." An AIDS Skeptic in South Africa Feeds Simmering Doubts. Peter Mokaba has a new, controversial calling: explaining why the world should stop worrying about South Africa's AIDS epidemic. "H.I.V.? It doesn't exist.. The kind of stories that they tell that people are dying in droves? It's not true. It's not borne out by any facts. ... Antiretrovirals, they're quite dangerous. They're poison actually." ... the questions that Mr. Mbeki raised still simmer within the ruling party. Foreign Policy In Focus - "We are the Democrats:" The Crisis in Zimbabwe and the Death of the NEPAD "Zimbabwe case has highlighted the perpetual reluctance of African elites to criticize one of their own, particularly in light of African leaders' reactions to what most people saw as fundamentally rigged elections. This point raises profound questions as to the seriousness and credibility of the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)."

Friday, March 22, 2002

African leaders wary of evolving US definition of 'terrorist': "African leaders ... rankled at attempts by the US and Britain to define terrorists. During their own liberation struggles, many Africans, including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, appeared on State Department terrorist lists, but are now considered allies, even friends. ... The US supported rebel groups in Angola and Mozambique, as well as oppressive white-minority regimes in South Africa and Zimbabwe. With US help, Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi not only tried to topple the Angolan government during the 1980s, but throughout the 1990s he armed rebels who undermined the newly democratic Namibia." Mugabe Tightens Curbs on Top Opponent: "Political analysts warned today that Mr. Mugabe risked losing African allies if he continued to harass the opposition."

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Killer Songs: "Simon Bikindi is Rwanda's most famous musician. He is also one of the country's most famous accused war criminals.... accused of inciting genocide with his songs. "

Sunday, March 10, 2002

Sudan's War Bars Cure for Disease Eradicated in Other Parts of Africa: "Sudan has 80 percent of the world's reported Guinea worm cases, virtually all of them in the war-ravaged south. Clinics are a rarity in the poor villages there. Aerial bombardments by government troops are not. The war between the government in Khartoum and southern rebel groups has raged for 18 years, frequently causing aid workers and residents alike to run for cover. When the fighting flares up, as it has of late, otherwise rare diseases also spread."

Wednesday, March 06, 2002

The Angola Mirror: Kristof oped - "Jonas Savimbi, the Angolan rebel who was killed 10 days ago, murdered and tortured countless civilians over the years; the Angolan civil war that he sustained may be responsible for more than 500,000 deaths since 1975. But he was our warlord, not the other side's, and so we were as blind to his brutality as the Saudis and Pakistanis are to the sins of their terrorists. "

Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Congo Factions Gather for Peace Talks: "President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa ... saying that Congo "is central to the achievement of an African renaissance." "The inter-Congolese dialogue is therefore about the future of our continent," addressing "whether we, as Africans, have the will and the capacity to pull the continent and our peoples out of misery, out of indignity, out of poverty, out of underdevelopment," and "whether we, as Africans, have the will and the capacity to solve our problems by peaceful means." This is a particularly fluid period in the region. The Kinshasha government's two main allies, Angola and Zimbabwe, entered the war partly for domestic reasons. Last week, Angola's rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, was killed by government forces; next month, Zimbabwe is holding a presidential election that, regardless of the outcome, might reduce its involvement in the Congo war. At the same time, the continent's economic giant, South Africa, is flexing its political muscles."

Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Amid Riches, Angola's Poor Consider Their Future: "A country of about 13 million people, Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer after Nigeria, and has become an important source of oil for the United States. The ChevronTexaco Corporation is the biggest producer, and at the end of last year, TotalFinaElf of France began pumping a new field that is expected to push Angola's daily production over one million barrels. The companies have paid billions in signing bonuses and taxes, but the civil war has consumed much of the money, while most of the rest has apparently found its way into the offshore accounts of powerful people here and abroad. Little has found its way to ordinary people."

Monday, February 25, 2002

Desperation Drives a Zimbabwean Exodus South: "Once one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, Zimbabwe is now racked with food shortages, surging unemployment and an increasingly authoritarian government that seems more and more willing to crack down on its critics."

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Awe and Unease as South Africa Stretches Out: "fellow Africans are watching with awe and admiration, but also with some unease at the prospect of ceding so much control to outsiders. This explosion of trade and investment - exports have tripled in recent years - is one of the most vivid illustrations of South Africa's metamorphosis since apartheid ended in 1994. Once a pariah state, South Africa now seems poised to dominate the continent that once shunned its products and leaders. The economic expansion has been accompanied by South Africa's growing political influence. "