"Fear of a Black Hat", a documentary about the career of a rap group called NWH, or Niggaz With Hats.

For white folks around my age, think "This Is Spinal Tap"

Searching to Bring the Lessons Home

By Amy Argetsinger
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 31, 2003; Page A01

It had been more than four years since she persuaded the people of Enoosaen to send her to college in the United States -- to support, for once, those grand ambitions in a girl. She had made many promises in exchange for their endorsement and had half assumed that she'd be ready to return by now to start delivering on them. That she would be trying to open a school for girls. Or a clinic. Or helping those women sitting around her mother's table start their own businesses.

But for now she was not doing any of those things. She was getting ready for her senior year at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg. Her education had made her realize just how big the world was. How vast the needs. And how much more she had to learn before she could really make a difference in a Kenyan village with no running water, with no paved roads. She would have to get a master's degree.

And then a doctorate.

Or perhaps a law degree, which would mean several more years in America before she could try to make good on her promises.

Earlier in the summer, Ntaiya had received news that fed her guilt over leaving home. Her 20-year-old sister Naserian was getting married -- throwing away the education their mother had labored to provide and rushing into the kind of careless young union that Ntaiya felt had doomed so many of their childhood friends to poverty.

"If I were there," she said bitterly, "I could stop this marriage."

But she was not there. And so there were things she simply could not do, and things she could not see. Like how a few homes now had electricity. And how the policies of Kenya's new president had filled the village school with children. And how, among even some of the people closest to her, attitudes about women and education were fast evolving.

Her home was changing, without her. Just as she was changing without her home.

These articles are based on interviews with and observations of Kakenya Ntaiya (pronounced kah-KEHN-yah n-ta-YAH) that began in spring 2001, the year after she arrived in Lynchburg, Va., to attend Randolph-Macon Woman's College. In August, staff writer Amy Argetsinger and staff photographer Jahi Chikwendiu spent a week with Ntaiya's family, neighbors and teachers in Enoosaen (pronounced eh-noh-sah-YEHN), Kenya. Swahili and Maa translators assisted with some interviews there. Other sources were Ntaiya's classmates, professors and college officials in Virginia.

• In a New Country, Confusion and Doubts (The Washington Post, Dec 30, 2003)
• A Road Paved With Pledges and Pain (The Washington Post, Dec 29, 2003)
• Her Extraordinary Education (The Washington Post, Dec 28, 2003)

SUDAN: OIL COMPANIES COMPLICIT IN RIGHTS ABUSES
Sudan: Oil Companies Complicit in Rights Abuses

(London, November 25, 2003) ? The Sudanese government?s efforts to control oilfields in the war-torn south have resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Foreign oil companies operating in Sudan have been complicit in this displacement, and the death and destruction that have accompanied it.

The report, "Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights," investigates the role that oil has played in Sudan?s civil war. This 754-page report is the most comprehensive examination yet published of the links between natural-resource exploitation and human rights abuses.

?Oil development in southern Sudan should have been a cause of rejoicing for Sudan?s people,? said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for Human Rights Watch. ?Instead, it has brought them nothing but woe.?

The report documents how the government has used the roads, bridges and airfields built by the oil companies as a means for it to launch attacks on civilians in the southern oil region of Western Upper Nile (also known as Unity state). In addition to its regular army, the government has deployed militant Islamist militias to prosecute the war, and has armed southern factions in a policy of ethnic manipulation and destabilization.

Human Rights Watch urged that the current peace negotiations deal comprehensively with the legacy of Sudan?s oil war, particularly the ethnic divisions that persist in oilfields of the south and threaten the long-term peace.

The report provides evidence of the complicity of oil companies in the human rights abuses. Oil company executives turned a blind eye to well-reported government attacks on civilian targets, including aerial bombing of hospitals, churches, relief operations and schools.

?Oil companies operating in Sudan were aware of the killing, bombing, and looting that took place in the south, all in the name of opening up the oilfields,? said Rone. ?These facts were repeatedly brought to their attention in public and private meetings, but they continued to operate and make a profit as the devastation went on.?

Let's see if anyone gets the title.

The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
November 24, 2003
Posted to the web November 24, 2003

By Ngumbao Kithi
Nairobi

A US-based organisation has called for the dissolution of the African Union and the establishment of a new continental body strictly for democratically elected governments.

The Free Africa Foundation president, Mr George Ayittey, from Ghana, said the AU could not solve conflicts because its leadership comprises "mafia states" practising politics of exclusion.

He suggested that the new body to take over from the AU should ensure independent and free Press in member states, independent Judiciary and electoral commission.

UN says AIDS deaths at new high

By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 11/26/2003

PRETORIA -- The global AIDS epidemic is entering its deadliest phase so far, with high numbers of new HIV infections being matched by an unprecedented number of deaths in many southern African nations, according to a United Nations report released yesterday.

Saying there were no signs of the epidemic abating, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, found that one out of every five adults in southern Africa is infected with HIV and that two countries, Botswana and Swaziland, recorded an astounding infection rate of 39 percent of adults last year.

UNAIDS estimated that a record 3 million people will die this year from AIDS-related illnesses, a 10 percent jump from 2002 estimates, and a record 5 million people will become infected with HIV, which causes AIDS.

"The epidemic continues to deepen, to expand, and it is tightening its grip on southern Africa and threatening Southeast Asia," Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director, told reporters in a conference call from London.

The numbers of those infected in southern Africa, he said, are "a really dramatic illustration how the epidemic is further eroding this part of the continent." Piot also said he was worried about the spread of the virus in China, India, and Russia, in particular. He pointed out that Russia was spending only a "few million dollars" a year on AIDS, while the billion-plus populations of both China and India mean that if the epidemic crosses the 1 percent threshold in those countries, more than 20 million people will be infected.Now, an estimated 40 million people are infected worldwide, according to the report, 7.4 million in Asia alone.The report, released six days before World AIDS Day, also reflected a growing caution about estimating the numbers of those who are infected or have died from the disease. Some critics, pointing to poor record-keeping throughout sub-Saharan Africa, have cast doubt on previous estimates of the impact of AIDS, impact, saying they were vastly inflated.

This year's report, based on data collected from pregnant women at prenatal clinics and from door-to-door surveys in at least seven nations, estimated that the number of people infected was between 34 million and 46 million worldwide. The report selected the midpoint between the estimates, or 40 million. Last year, UNAIDS estimated that 42 million worldwide were infected with HIV or AIDS.

Piot and Karen Stanecki, chief demographer for UNAIDS, stood strongly behind the numbers and stressed that this year's lower estimate did not mean that the epidemic was declining, but rather reflected more accurate statistics gathered in the past year. In particular, demographic studies taken in rural areas found that previous reports had overestimated prevalence rates in those areas.

All Sides in Liberian Conflict Make Women Spoils of War
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

TOTOTA, Liberia ? On that burning hot morning, peace had already been declared in this war-beaten country, West African peacekeepers were on the ground and President Charles G. Taylor had already left the country, ushering in what was widely seen as an end to strife.

Yet the lingering sound of gunfire sent Annie Joe running frightened through the woods and into a group of four or five men with AK-47's on their shoulders.

They demanded that she go with them. They kept her in a house all night and raped her, one after the other. In the morning they told her to go away. There was no use resisting. "When you want to fight, they say, `We kill you,' " she recalled.

Here as in other places, war made women the spoils of conquest, not unlike sacks of rice and four-wheel-drive vehicles. But what stands out is that in the succession of conflicts in Liberia since 1989, many women, and sometimes the same women, were raped by fighters from all sides.

Press Statement

Zambia has been host to the first ever Southern Africa Social Forum held at the Mulungushi Conference Center, from Sunday, 9 November, till today, 11 November.

We have been meeting as anti-globalisation activists, social movements, NGOs and unions opposed to neo-liberalism and corporate-led globalisation. We have drawn our inspiration from the growing international anti-globalisation movement as symbolized in the form of the World Social Forum, and from its African counterpart, the African Social Forum.

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?category=Editorial

Akong Charles Ndika

In less than a year, the African Development Bank (AfDB) will be celebrating its 40th anniversary. This comes at a time when there is growing consensus all over the continent on the need for Africa to have ownership of its development. In tune with this, African heads of states in June 2003 committed their leadership to the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which centres on African ownership and management of the agenda, strategy and process of the continent's development. In fact, the overarching goal is for ?Africa to claim this millennium?.

The AfDB is tasked with co-ordinating and facilitating NEPAD. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is widely regarded as the premier financial and development institution of Africa. The Bank started operations in 1966 with a clear mandate to promote the economic and social development of its regional members and to promote international dialogue and understanding of development issues relevant to Africa. Within its general policies, the AfDB emphasised the importance of planning an energy sector for social and economic development, and indicated the intention to provide energy services to the maximum number of households at the least economic and environmental cost. This was to be done through loans, equity investments, and technical assistance to regional member countries. This envisaged regional leadership has remained a pipe dream, however, as institutions of global economic governance like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund provided external influences on Bank operations.

Taylor Seen as Still Meddling in Liberia
A bounty offered by the U.S. for the warlord's capture indicates peace accord's fragility.
By Solomon Moore
Times Staff Writer

November 11, 2003

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa ? A $2-million bounty approved last week by the U.S. government for the capture of former Liberian President and international war crimes fugitive Charles Taylor comes amid reports that the exiled leader is making persistent efforts to meddle in the affairs of the fragile nation.

The measure specifies that $2 million will be used "for rewards for an indictee of the Special Court in Sierra Leone," which is seen as a clear reference to Taylor. The money would be given to anyone responsible for delivering Taylor to the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, following the precedent of war criminals captured after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Rwandan genocide.

The action against the warlord is an indication of Taylor's continuing influence and the fragility of Liberia's nearly 3-month-old peace accord as the West African nation awaits the arrival of 11,500 United Nations peacekeepers in the coming weeks. Those troops will reinforce 4,500 soldiers, many of them Nigerians, already on the ground.

Nigeria, which gave Taylor asylum in August to hasten peace efforts in Liberia and to protect him from a U.N. war crimes indictment for his involvement in a war in Sierra Leone, is one of the United States' major oil suppliers and a key political ally in Africa. Nigerian leaders heightened security around Taylor's villa in the city of Calabar over the weekend and warned that they would not tolerate any breach of territorial integrity, making imminent U.S. military action unlikely.

But the reward, which was signed into law Thursday by President Bush as part of an $87-billion spending bill to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, is a clear shot across the bow for Taylor and his supporters in Liberia. It is also meant to be an inducement for Nigerian officials to turn over Taylor to the war crimes tribunal, said U.S. congressional aides who requested anonymity.

Powell: Sudanese Commit to Reaching Deal

Wednesday October 22, 2003 12:01 PM
By ANDREW ENGLAND
Associated Press Writer

NAIVASHA, Kenya (AP)- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that the Sudanese government and rebels fighting a 20-year civil war have committed themselves to reaching a comprehensive peace deal by the end of December.

Powell, who was flanked by Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and rebel leader John Garang, promised that the United States would help implement a final agreement.

…The announcement came a day after the secretary of state promised to review U.S. sanctions in Sudan if the parties reached a deal to end the conflict that has left more than 2 million people dead, mainly through war-induced famine.

Garang, who leads the Sudan People's Liberation Army, or SPLA, and Taha said they were committed to peace but difficult issues still needed to be resolved.

IMF admits it is failing Africa
By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa analyst

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has admitted that one of its key African initiatives is in trouble.
In a working paper published in Washington, two of the IMF's researchers show that its programme to relieve some of Africa's poorest countries of their debt burden may not produce a sustainable economic situation.

The IMF's initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries was launched in 1996.

Its aim was simple: to cut the mountain of debts that countries had run up, reducing them to more manageable levels.

At the same time, the programme encouraged states to increase their spending on the poor - on badly needed policies aimed at building schools and paying teachers.

SOMALIA: TALKS IN KENYA "ON COURSE", SAYS OFFICIAL

Organisers say the Somali peace talks underway in Kenya are on course, and contrary to reports, have not stalled. James Kiboi, a member of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee which is steering the talks, admitted that "some personalities are not at the talks", but that the proceedings were continuing.

I want to make special note of what the article says is the major reason peace is now possible in Africa:

This week could mark something of a turning point for Africa: in Liberia a new interim government is due to be sworn in and peace talks aimed at ending the decades old Sudanese civil war get under way in Kenya .

This comes after last week's signing of a peace pact between the government and rebels in Burundi.

Does this mean that Africa - wracked by years of international strife and civil war - can finally look forward to peace?

There's still a disturbing amount of slavery going on around the world. And yes, I shut off the comments and pings on this one.

Daily Champion (Lagos)
EDITORIAL
October 8, 2003
Posted to the web October 8, 2003

THE recent discovery of seven slave colonies in Nigeria provokes serious questions on national security.

The colonies, located in Ogun, Oyo and Osun states, had over 400 child slaves from Benin Republic working in inhuman conditions at granite quarries.

If you're interested in African developments, then you know about the recent WTO trade talks in Cancun that "collapsed." Pambazuka News interviewed four African activists that were in attendance for the African side of the story. When you read about Green room processes, you'll see why I said they were in attendance rather than participating. And you may understand why the African Union refused to go along with the program.

via All Facts and Opinions

Now, can we please be done with this stoning to death shit? Times change, people.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 8/20/2003 07:39:39 PM |

posted by Prometheus 6 at 8/20/2003 07:35:54 PM |

posted by Prometheus 6 at 8/20/2003 07:32:36 PM |