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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2008 From www.FT.com Africa mourns loss of a leader unafraid to speak his mind One Sunday in late June, Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president who died yesterday aged 59, was on the eve of the most momentous day of his career.He had been the first… Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president who was laid low by a stroke hours before he was…would like to inform the nation that our president, his Excellency Dr Levy Mwanawasa, died this morning at 10.30am at Percy Military Hospital,” Rupiah Banda… The health of Levy Mwanawasa, the ailing Zambian president who has been a sharp critic of Robert Mugabe, his Zimbabwean counterpart, has deteriorated, his deputy… The fate of Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia’s president, was last night shrouded in confusion amid reports that he had died in a Paris hospital after suffering a stroke… Zambia on Thursday moved to end the confusion surrounding the fate of Levy Mwanawasa, dismissing reports that the president had died in a Paris hospital after suffering a stroke.”These are false and malicious rumours… …Mugabe if he claims victory in Friday’s poll.In some of the toughest words on Zimbabwe yet from an African leader, Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president and current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, described the situation… …Mugabe if he claims victory in Friday’s poll.In some of the toughest words on Zimbabwe yet from an African leader, Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president and current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, described the situation… …Mugabe if he claims victory in Friday’s poll. In some of the toughest words on Zimbabwe yet from an African leader, Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president and current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, described the situation… …President Paul Kagame is among the first to raise his head above the parapet, joining Botswana’s Ian Khama and Zambia’s Levy Mwanawasa in a growing band of African leaders who are prepared to condemn a tyrant. Not only has Robert Mugabe put southern… …sea-change in the thinking of the 14- nation Southern African Development Community.Regional diplomats indicate that Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia’s president, and Ian Khama, Botswana’s new leader, are impatient with the region’s traditional reverence for… *** Africa mourns loss of a leader unafraid to speak his mind. By Tom Burgis Published: August 20 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 20 2008 03:00 One Sunday in late June, Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president who died yesterday aged 59, was on the eve of the most momentous day of his career. He had been the first to break the longstanding deference of African rulers towards Robert Mugabe, condemning the abuses that had culminated in the Zimbabwean autocrat claiming victory in a discredited election. As early as March last year, Mwanawasa had referred to the “sinking Ti-tanic” that was Zimbabwe’s inflation-battered economy. Now, as the serving chair of the southern African bloc, the retiring former lawyer would carry the hopes of many Zimbabweans into an African Union summit in Egypt at which Mr Mugabe would try to stare down his counterparts into legitimising his flawed triumph. For a man most at ease in small gatherings, assiduously reading his briefing papers or escaping to the family farm for the planting season, the ordeal ahead was immense. Alphabetical seating by country was to have put him next to Mr Mugabe. It proved too much. Always in poor health since the car crash 17 years earlier that left him with slurred speech, Mwanawasa suffered a stroke. Even as he was flown to the Paris hospital where he would die seven weeks later, the summit was welcoming Mr Mugabe back to the fold, thwarting the efforts of a handful of Mwanawasa’s like-minded peers. The second son of 10 siblings, Mwanawasa was born in Mufulira, near the Congolese border, in 1948, 16 years before Zambia’s independence from Britain. A crusading legal career established his public profile. When the one-party state of Kenneth Kaunda unravelled into elections in 1991, Frederick Chiluba, the victorious leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, appointed Mwanawasa as vice-president. In 2001, disillusioned with the pervasive corruption of the Chiluba regime, Mwanawasa turned on - and ousted - his mentor. Within weeks he had stripped his predecessor of immunity from prosecution. A London court later found that Mr Chiluba had salted away $46m (€31m, £25m) of public funds. Mwanawasa’s anti-graft offensive won him the allegiance of international donors who flooded state coffers with aid. China came calling too, tempted by some of the world’s richest copper deposits. Economic growth rose from just over 3 per cent a year when he took office to 6 per cent last year. Yet, as his critics point out, about seven in every 10 Zambians still live on less than $2 a day. “Wealth has trickled downwards but it has not trickled outwards to the rural areas,” said a European diplomat in Lusaka. “That challenge is only just beginning.” It is not clear who will take up that challenge. Mwanawasa avoided anointing an heir. His death has thrown his party into turmoil as cabinet ministers who thought they had three more years to jockey for position face an election within three months. The discord may open a window for Michael Sata, the opposition leader who came second when Mwanawasa won a second term in 2006 and who has lambasted the government’s fiscal orthodoxy. Those who knew Mwanawasa, who had six children with his wife Maureen and two from a previous marriage, describe a man whose unspectacular oratory masked a deep conviction. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition, yesterday lamented the death of “a good friend and comrade”. He added: “Sadly, he has left us at this most trying time.”
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 6th, 2008 THE FOLLOWING IS EYE OPENING AND A FURTHER GOOD LAUNDRY-LIST OF WHAT IS WRONG WITH PROMISES OF FOREIGN AID THAT LEADS NOWHERE. THESE TWO PRESENTERS SHOW THAT AFRICA STARTS FROM POINTS BELLOW ZERO. BUT WHAT CAN THE G8 ACHIEVE IN THREE DAYS WHEN THE PROBLEMS ARE THAT THERE IS INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM NEGLECT, AND AFRICA’S OWN LEADERSHIP HAS NO CONSIDERATION FOR THE UN RULE - “THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT.” Sunday, July 6, 2008 G8 COUNTDOWN: G8 blind to Africa’s true needs, farmer says. Zambian farmer Joyce Mwanje landed in Japan after a long journey across half the globe, leaving her husband and seven children to tend to the fields where they till the land with hand hoes to grow maize, soybeans, vegetables and other crops. Mwanje has come with the important mission of representing fellow African peasant farmers to make their voices heard by the leaders of the Group of Eight countries who will meet in Hokkaido from Monday for their annual summit. Mwanje, 47, who heads her community’s farmers development club in the rural area of Chibobo in Serenje, central Zambia, wants to ensure that the G8 nations not only live up to their aid pledges, but also realize Africa’s true needs. “The problem we have is we can only use hand hoes for plowing our land. We don’t manage to have much harvest for income,” she said. “When world leaders meet to talk about the food crisis in the world, they have to look at the means of production that people have at their disposal,” he said. Ssuuna, whose group promotes ecological land-use management, criticized the developed nations’ emphasis on introducing new seeds and increasing the amount of fertilizers and agrochemicals in their push for the so-called Green Revolution for Africa. He said that what is really needed to transform the lives of African farmers is access to basic farming machinery and micro-financing. “People don’t want aid as such. People want to live meaningful lives, to earn their own living,” said Ssuuna, a 46-year-old Ugandan residing in Zambia. “Farmers want to farm, but we need to make sure that the systems and institutions that support farming are functional.” In Mwanje’s village, where the size of the average family is eight people and agriculture has been the source of livelihood for generations, a Zambian NGO called the Green Living Movement has been promoting sustainable agriculture since 2000.
Ssuuna explained that although the recent surge in global food prices should in theory be an opportunity for African farmers, in places like Zambia, where crop prices are set by the Food Reserve Agency and rural farmers have poor access to open markets, the price hikes only profit the agency and middlemen traders while farmers get paid little for their produce. Japan, to show its leadership as this year’s G8 chair, has pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012 and help double rice production on the continent as part of medium- to long-term assistance in tackling the food security issue. But both Mwanje and Ssuuna expressed doubt about promoting rice in Africa. “I once tried to grow rice in our field, but the harvest was not good and we didn’t get any rice grains to eat. May be water was not enough,” Mwanje said. She added that while she tried for one season because she liked rice, she never went back to growing it again.
“A failure to meet those commitments means they are failing so many people who do not have the voice to represent themselves in the G8, who do not have the means to change their own lives.” Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 13th, 2008 Just Got In: Mugabe Skips Regional Summit on Zimbabwe. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) – Southern African leaders discussed Zimbabwe’s deepening electoral crisis in a marathon summit that ended before dawn Sunday with a weak declaration that failed to criticize the absent President Robert Mugabe. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who claims to have won the March 29 election outright, had wanted the leaders to press Mugabe to resign after 28 years as Zimbabwe’s leader. Western powers, the United Nations and regional church, democracy and human rights groups had called for the meeting to demand an immediate announcement of the long-delayed election results. Instead, the declaration issued at the end of the 12-hour summit called for the expeditious verification of results in the presence of the candidates or their agents ”within the rule of law.” The declaration also urged ”all parties to accept the results when they are announced.” Mbeki said Saturday there was ”no crisis” after he had to fly to Zimbabwe before Saturday’s summit to engage Mugabe, who reportedly was not taking calls from African leaders last week. Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Party, denied that was what it said. Tsvangirai had hurriedly left the summit four hours before it closed and did not return as promised. Biti repeated charges that Mugabe has orchestrated a campaign of violence to intimidate opponents who voted against him, with allegations of beatings and burnings of huts corroborated by local and international human rights groups. ”We have a militarized, polarized situation,” Biti said in a news conference. ”There is violence, intolerance, hate speech and vitriolic propaganda.” Pande said the rival parties had agreed at the summit that the elections were free and fair. Biti said, ”We maintain that Zimbabwe is not capable of producing a free and fair election.” Still, he said, the leaders’ response was ”a major improvement” and that the economic bloc ”has acquitted itself relatively well.” ”The very fact that they had the guts to actually hold this extraordinary summit acknowledges that things are not right in Zimbabwe,” Biti added. Inviting Tsvangirai to the meeting was an unprecedented move that probably accounted for Mugabe’s absence.
There was no comment from Mugabe or the three hard-line ministers he sent to represent him at the summit. ”This time, African leaders are supposed to do the bidding of the white West, that is to pressure Zimbabwe to abet regime change agenda,” said a column in the state-run Herald newspaper Saturday. With Mugabe on the defensive after the election, ruling party officials have encouraged militants to invade the country’s few remaining white-owned farms and some farms owned by black opponents, saying they were trying to protect Zimbabweans from encroaching colonialism. Opposition officials say such attacks are a smoke screen for assaults on mainly black opposition supporters. ”The very integrity and utility of the SADC is at stake,” said New York-based Freedom House, which charts democracy’s progress around the world.
Before the summit declaration, U.S. Ambassador Carmen Martinez said the United States was looking for ”at least one step forward.” ”If SADC cannot even get a state to release their election results, it’s going to be very difficult for SADC,” she said.
Mwanawasa, the Zambian leader, had opened the summit with a reassuring message for Zimbabwe’s leaders, saying ”This summit is not intended to put President Robert Mugabe in the dock.” ——– Associated Press writers Joseph J. Schatz in Lusaka, Zambia, and Angus Shaw in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed to this report. ========================= BAN KI-MOON WELCOMES ANNOUNCEMENT OF AFRICAN SUMMIT ON ZIMBABWE says the UN official UN News. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today he is pleased that regional leaders in southern Africa are mobilizing to “help Zimbabwe overcome its post-electoral crisis through peaceful means.” Through a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban congratulated the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for arranging a summit of heads of State in Lusaka, Zambia, on 13 April to discuss the situation. Earlier this week, Mr. Ban expressed concern that the results of presidential elections in Zimbabwe have not been released and urged the electoral authorities to do so “expeditiously and with transparency.” “The situation in Zimbabwe could deteriorate if there is no prompt action to resolve this impasse,” he added in today’s statement. Mr Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, petitioned Zimbabwe’s High Court to demand the release of the election results. The electoral authorities have already announced the results of the Senate and parliamentary elections, which were held on the same day as the presidential vote. ———– It seems that even in the tightly controlled Zimbabwe, the elections were won by Tsvangirai. Mugabe, who has outlived a long time ago his usefulness to his people, does not accept the end to his rule and called for new elections which he will now control better. Tsvangirai, in full right, does not want to go for new elections. Will now South Africa finally realize that the region has had enough of Zimbabwe? Previously South Africa chose to stab in the back all of Africa by supporting Mugabe’s Zimbabwe in its quest to chair the UN CSD and now can only blame themselves for having turned to shambles that UN outstretch to Africa. Mugabe, who is Zimbabwe’s ruling President since Independence, has turned a country that was the bread-basket of its region to a perpetual needy country living now on food imported from Zambia. This must change if there is to be hope for Southern Africa. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on December 22nd, 2007 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20071222a1.html LONDON — An acrimonious summit meeting between EU leaders and the leaders of African countries ended last week in Lisbon. The EU was trying to offer the Africans a new trade deal, but many of the African representatives argued that the deal would make them worse off, not better off. They denounced European efforts as a continuation of colonialism that would “amputate” African state budgets and ruin African industries. The atmosphere was further soured by the presence of Robert Mugabe, who has brought his own nation of Zimbabwe to its knees in a frenzy of repression — a living symbol of human rights abuse who ought never to have been invited to the gathering. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown stayed away from the event in protest. It was not meant to be like this. The declared intention of the European Union policymakers in Brussels was to wash away postcolonial guilt, forge a new strategic partnership and open a new development chapter for the peoples of 76 former European colonies, 40 of them former British colonies and the others mostly part of the Francophone group. The central idea was to offer these countries better preferential tariffs on their exports into EU states than what they’ve enjoyed for more than 40 years and, in return, to require the African economies to cut their tariffs on the import of European goods. The new deals were to be presented as so-called Economic Partnership Agreements. This stuck in African throats. They did not see the concept as one of partnership, and 10 of them refused point-blank to sign up, including major participants South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia and Senegal. For them it was tantamount to exposing their infant industries to fierce European competition and, in the words of one leader, “slamming the door on development.” Behind the European approach was a deeper fear — namely that Europe is losing its influence on the African continent to the Chinese. The Chinese are indeed everywhere in Africa these days with ready cash and no strings attached, “sweet” and easy agreements to provide infrastructure, as well as weapons and military support. Their products are also highly competitive with European goods. Why was the European approach so clumsy? At root are two major flaws in EU policy. The first is to push the theory of absolutely free trade too far and too fast and to ignore the practical realities of development in very impoverished economies. A belief lingers in official minds in Europe that protection in all circumstances is bad and must be swept aside. Inequalities in trade relations, they appear to believe, can be compensated for with large aid packages. This completely overlooks the fact that much of Europe’s own industry grew under cover of protective tariffs and that without a certain amount of well-focused tariff protection, the infant industries in Africa’s struggling economies will just never take off. It also overlooks the glaring fact that most of Europe’s agriculture is still protected by high tariffs, subsidies and quotas. The second and much deeper fallacy is that Africa is a bloc or that Europe is a bloc, and that by putting the two together, face to face, trade and development solutions can be found. Not only is the geographical continent of Africa a conglomeration of vastly diverse societies and cultures, each with its own unique problems that require understanding and solutions. But on the European side interests vary and a real unity of approach is lacking. The proposition that if the EU countries all stick together they will always carry greater weight in trade negotiations — with America, China, Japan or anybody else — sounds superficially true. In practice, and in the modern global context, it could well be that bilateral negotiations and bargains — say between Britain and Nigeria, or France and Senegal, or Germany and South Africa — could create more business opportunities and generate more growth than mighty deals between the whole of Europe and the whole of Africa — which anyway are proving impossible to achieve except in general, watered-down terms that have little impact on Africa’s starving millions. The one area where a united European approach might really help African states is in promoting techniques of plain good governance and in standing up strongly for human rights at every opportunity. That would at least help distinguish European engagement from Chinese involvement, which hitherto has shown itself to be somewhat blind to human rights matters and to the records of regimes being assisted and supported. By letting Mugabe come to the Lisbon table, the Portuguese government, the summit host as holder of the EU presidency (shortly to pass to Slovenia), made a colossal error of judgment. They have sent the clear signal that even in this vital area the EU, while it may talk of putting human rights at the top of the agenda, in practice has no principled position and is ready to hob-nob with dictators and men of darkness. The misplaced ambition to show that the EU is a big shot and has a central place on the world stage has pushed aside common sense and practical measures. And that is a tragedy both for Africa and for Europe. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on December 18th, 2007 South Africa, With All Its Internal Squabbles, Has Fallen Far From The Example Mandela Set. The South Africans Showed Plain Chutzpah By Saying That If The Israelis Had Allowed their Ambassador Gillerman Was Fully Correct In Singling Out South Africa By Saying That He Honors We At www.SustainabiliTank.info have an IBSA Button for India, Brazil, and South Africa, as we Israel Started Already In the 1970’s To Help African States Ny Bringing To Them Modern Agriculture,
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on December 16th, 2007 November 200 “Making of the New 7 Wonders” DVD Now Available! Nominate New7Wonders of Nature Candidates NOW, get an Official Supporting Committee going! There is a wonderful diversity in the nominees. They include bodies of water such as Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia or the Dead Sea between Israel, Jordan and Palestine, canyons such as the Grand Canyon in the U.S. and Colca Canyon in Peru, waterfalls including Iguassu Falls in Brazil and Argentina, Victoria Falls in Zambia, Angel Falls in Venezuela and Niagara Falls between the U.S. and Canada, islands such as Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands and Yemen’s Socotra Island, as well as fjords such as Norway’s Geirangerfjord. Perhaps less easy to categorize but equally impressive are other natural marvels being nominated, such as Sunderbans, the largest mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh, the world’s largest salt flats, Salar de Uyuni, in Bolivia, Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, Mongolia’s Flaming Cliffs and the submarine Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.
New7Wonders Official Song. The beat of the first-ever global election has people grooving from all four corners of the planet. Click here and experience the musical heart of the New 7 Wonders of the World - your feet will soon be tapping along. Please see the diagram at the bottom of this newsletter for the stages and timing of the New7Wonders of Nature campaign. The first-ever global election revealed some surprising insights, first and foremost that the largest group that took part in the campaign was - contrary to what you may think - not the Chinese or the Indians, but rather the children! Yes, kids worldwide participated by voting, campaigning, submitting artwork, showing how New7Wonders is stimulating intercultural dialogue and fostering an environment of mutual appreciation. In another interesting twist, monuments inspired real cross-cultural support - sometimes more than national! For example, more Koreans and Japanese voted for the Eiffel Tower than did people in France, and children everywhere cast their votes for fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle - more than people in Germany. In an African sprint, an avalanche of votes in support of Timbuktu were cast in the final weeks of the event from throughout Africa. Founder and President of New7Wonders Bernard Weber says, “On a personal note, I am especially pleased to see that my two countries, Switzerland and Canada, were amongst the most active participants without having national candidates, along with some more exotic countries like Yemen, Albania and Afghanistan.” Read Bernard Weber’s fascinating, short analysis of the vote by clicking here. The 07.07.07 celebration truly spanned the globe! Huge, often spontaneous parties were held in the winning countries, like those held to celebrate being named Olympic Games host or winning a major international sporting event. The journey to the spectacular gala Declaration of the New 7 Wonders in Lisbon was full of exciting, thought-provoking and enlightening moments. Follow Bernard Weber and his team as they travel and work to fulfil the vision of bringing our world together to choose the New 7 Wonders of the World. See magnificent footage of many of the New7Wonders finalists, listen to rare music from many of the cultures represented, and enjoy interviews with people around the world who played a special part in the birth of the New 7 Wonders of the World. This is a great holiday gift, so order NOW! Limited Edition New7Wonders Silver Medals, and Medallions and Pins Three exciting new additions can now be found in the New7Wonders shop. Official New7Wonders Color Medallions. Official New7Wonders Pins. To edit your New7Wonders member profile, click here Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on December 11th, 2007 The Commission on Sustainable Development Is It A Moribund UN Body Or Will It Be Revived Because It Is Needed After The Re-Engagement Hoopla That Happens Now At Bali? We had experience starting from bef |