Voices asking for democracy in Swaziland/ Des voix s’élèvent pour demander la démocratie au Swaziland

(Liens en anglais/ links in english)

Ocnus.net nous présente une nouvelle du Swaziland où les syndicats ont initié un mouvement de protestation qui a paralysé le pays. Ce mouvement exige de la part du roi Mswati III, qu’il permette l’ouverture démocratique de son royaume. En effet, le Swaziland est l’une des dernières monarchie absolue de le planète.

Ocnus.net brings us the news about tiny Swaziland, a small landlocked country stuck between South Africa and Mozambique. This country is one of the last absolute monarchy in the world, but that may come to an end with protests going on that paralysed the country. People want the king, Mswati III , to allow democracy in his kingdom:

Protest Brings Swaziland to a Standstill
By Lunga Masuku, Sowetan 26/7/07
Jul 31, 2007 – 9:10:18 AM

MBABANE – Swaziland ground to a halt today as thousands of workers staged the country’s biggest demonstration for over a decade in a push for multi-party democracy in Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

As riot police and plain-clothed officers kept a close eye on a mass march in the capital Mbabane, union leaders warned such shows of strength would be repeated if King Mswati III and his government did not meet their demands.

“It is about time that the people of Swaziland realise that they made a big mistake by making the king an absolute monarch,” Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions secretary-general Jan Sithole told the marchers in downtown Mbabane.

“If the situation does not change such protests will become the order of the day,” he added as traffic was brought to standstill.

Sithole said the traditional tinkhundla system of government – under which the king retains full executive, legislative and judicial powers – was dragging the country into poverty.

“Seventy percent of the people of the country live below poverty line, while only 10 percent of the ruling elite enjoy the wealth,” he added to a roar of approval from striking workers.

Unionists want a ban on political parties contesting next year’s general election to be overturned, saying that only a multi-party system will bring genuine democracy to the former British colony.

“It was political parties that brought independence to Swaziland and it will be political parties that will liberate the country from the system that now exists,” said Sithole.

He said the protesters did not seek the overthrow of the king, who is husband to 13 wives, but merely to trim his powers.

“Even now political parties and unions want a king that will reign, not rule.”

The protest in Mbabane comes a day after a similar demonstration in the centre of the second city of Manzini.

Schools and government factories were once again closed while while hospitals and banks were operating skeleton services.

Yesterday’s march in Manzini was marred by reports of looting and many shops had closed their shutters in Mbabane in anticipation of fresh violence.

The marchers stoned a furniture shop but there were no other reports of violence.

Government spokesman Percy Simelane insisted the protests had had little impact and said they were “nothing” compared to the last major protests by democracy activists in 1996.

“Our offices and shops are operating normally. However the industrial sector has been slightly affected but this does not scare the government at all,” said Simelane, who had earlier urged unions “to put the economic needs of the country at heart” before striking.

Landlocked Swaziland is one of the poorest countries in Africa, a situation compounded by the Aids pandemic.

It has the highest rate of HIV in the world – with more than 40 percent of adults infected, and 70 percent of the 1.1 million citizens live on less than one dollar a day.

It is also currently facing a major drought, with the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warning earlier this week that more than 400,000 people face starvation as a result of poor maize harvests.

“Ponte City”, une icône de Johannesburg/ ‘Ponte City’, Johannesburg’s icon

(Links in english/ lien en anglais)

Voici un article du Globe and Mail traitant de la revitalisation de Ponte City, un bâtiment résidenciel de 173 mètres et 54 étages, au coeur de Johannesburg (Afrique Du Sud) construit durant la décennie 70, en plein apartheid. Il était destiné aux riches blancs qui occupaient le centre-ville. Avec la fin de l’apartheid, ces derniers ont quitté le centre-ville et ce sont les indiens et les noirs qui occupent Ponte City aujourd’hui, dont beaucoup d’immigrants illégaux. Un groupe de promoteurs veut revigorer le centre-ville de Johannesburg et cela passe par la restauration de Ponte City. Malheureusement l’article ne met pas beaucoup d’emphase sur qu’il adviendra des résidents pauvres de cet immeuble qui devront éventuellement trouver une nouvelle demeure ailleurs…

 

Here is an article by the Globe and Mail talking about ‘Ponte City’, a 173 m. and 54 stories high building in the center of Johannesburg (South Africa). It was built in the 70s, during the apartheid era. The article mentions the presence of illegal immigrants and poors living in the building. Since Ponte City is meant to be revitalized by a group of developers, not a lot is said about the future of these unfortunate residents who will have to find a new home soon:

 

The fall and rise of a Johannesburg icon

A team of developers hope that reviving residential tower will return downtown to its glory days

STEPHANIE NOLEN

July 30, 2007 at 3:50 AM EDTJOHANNESBURG — Once upon a time, there was no more desirable address in perhaps all of the southern hemisphere. Certainly, there was no taller one.

They call it Ponte City: a 173-metre high, 54-storey cylindrical tower, the whim of a 1970s architect who created an iconic building that is to the Jo’burg skyline what the CN Tower is to Toronto’s. When Ponte opened, it featured shag carpet on the walls, burnt-orange linoleum on the floors, chrome-covered wet bars, built-in saunas and, from each and every apartment, staggering views of the continent’s most bustling city. People flocked to live here, just as architecture and style writers stumbled over each other to rave about its chic.

Back then, of course, only white people got to live in downtown Johannesburg. When the apartheid laws that segregated living spaces were repealed in the early 1990s, black and Indian people flooded into the city centre. And whites fled just as fast, taking their money with them. The metropolitan government largely abandoned the policing of the city centre and the provision of services.

Ponte City began a rapid decline. Within a year or two, its 11 storeys of parking garage were being used as a dimly-lit brothel, drug lords operated brazenly out of the lobby and three stories of trash built up in the hollow core of the building. Rent for the three-storey luxury penthouse fell to just $500 (Canadian) a month, as Ponte went from byword of style to epicentre of crime and urban decay.

Now, however, an unlikely pair of developers has bought the city icon, filled with dreams of restoring it to glossy urban glory; the latest, most audacious move in efforts to bring downtown Jo’burg back from the brink.

“When you get a building like this, you can have a social impact, because the private sector buying a building like this is going to bring the middle class back into the centre of the city,” said David Selvan, one of the new owners. “In one fell swoop you change the thinking. There are very few things you can do to have this kind of effect.”

He and partner Nour Addine Ayyoub plan a new Ponte, one with an on-site gym and up-market grocery store, an amphitheatre in the core that projects movies onto the building sides and coloured glass boxes popping out into the core so everyone can experience that heart-stopping look down. Flats will sell for $60,000 to $115,000.

“Look at this place! Could you afford to live here in Toronto or New York?” Mr. Selvan enthused. “No! Only in South Africa!”

Of course, the reason the flats will be affordable is that, a $14-million renovation notwithstanding, Ponte sits at the core of Hillbrow, the worst neighbourhood in the city with the world’s highest violent-crime rate. And no coloured looking-glass boxes can change that. At least not quickly.

But Neil Fraser, an expert on the redevelopment of the city, says that turning Ponte around will have a big impact on the area.

The city, through its Johannesburg Development Agency, has been hard at work in recent years to change thinking about the downtown, an area that a full 80 per cent of respondents in a 2002 survey said was too dirty and unsafe for them to set foot in. The JDA has rehabilitated derelict buildings such as a cultural centre, and created a new fashion precinct – and then provided incentives to private businesses to move into the neighbourhood.

The program has made considerable achievements: The JDA is coy with its statistics, but there is no question that business occupancy has risen dramatically in the city over the past few years, while residential occupancy is increasing as well. Housing prices are up nearly 60 per cent in two years. It’s become politically fashionable for corporations, including many of those who fled the inner city at the end of apartheid, to move their headquarters back downtown. By opening up in downtown Jo’burg, they are seen as pledging support for the new, black South Africa it represents.

The city has also had unusual success in persuading the private sector to sign on to support the regeneration efforts. Mr. Fraser noted that the private sector has in many cases put far more money than the government into projects such as street lighting and sidewalks.

Ponte’s redevelopers envision their buyers as the professionals who now commute into businesses in the city from fortified homes in the northern suburbs. Bringing that middle class into the city, Mr. Fraser said, will stimulate retail and services, and a nightlife, providing an effect of normalization, he said. “Today you don’t have a 24-hour environment, and residential leads that.”

Sammy Mafu, marketing director for the JDA, rhymed off what the inner city does have: illegal shebeens (taverns), squatters, minibus taxi ranks that take over crucial arteries, sidewalk barber shops.

“Until the middle class lives here, you’re always going to have these problems,” he said. “The poor are only going to think about the health of their family and their tummy, not the health of their urban space.”

(Above: “Inside” Ponte City “doughnut shaped” tower)

Johannesburg’s inner city has become a refuge, albeit a dangerous and dirty one, for people from impoverished rural parts of South Africa and for illegal immigrants from all over Africa. Thousands of them squat in the abandoned buildings, and thousands more rent cheap flats such as those now provided in Ponte City. And they, of course, will have to go, as Ponte is reborn with its Italian bistro.

“It’s very painful to have to shift, because I’m used to it here, and it’s safe,” said Norma, a young illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe. She pays $100 a month to rent half a bedroom in a top-floor penthouse for herself and her four-year-old daughter – they share the flat with 10 other Zimbabweans. “I wish I would have the money to buy a flat here. I wish I would. But I will have to find somewhere and I don’t know where I will go.”

Mr. Ayyoub said his company has hired someone to help tenants find new housing, and approached other low-cost buildings in the neighbourhood to secure space.

Mr. Selvan, 56, is a lawyer turned film producer who grew up in wealthy white South Africa but spent years living abroad. Mr. Ayyoub, on the other hand, is the 40-year-old son of Moroccans who was raised in a tough immigrant-dominated slum of Rotterdam, an area not unlike Hillbrow. He moved to South Africa a couple of weeks before the first democratic elections in 1994, drawn by the country’s sense of possibility, and made a fortune in the software business.

The new Ponte will be ready for occupancy early next year. Mr. Selvan and Mr. Ayyoub acknowledged that it will be something of a mission to persuade wary South Africans to buy back into Hillbrow. But they are believers. “The city’s reputation internationally is based on turning this [neighbourhood] around,” Mr. Ayyoub said, waving out a 53rd-storey window. Just below him was Ellis Park Stadium, where the final game of the 2010 soccer World Cup will be played.

Last year, only a quarter of people surveyed said they thought downtown was too dirty or too unsafe to visit. “It is going very firmly [in the right direction],” Mr. Fraser said. “The impetus is there, the political attraction is there, a lot of things going in its favour, but there are a lot of areas that need TLC before you can say we’re on the road again.”

Points on Ponte

Designed by architect Rodney Grosskopff and completed in 1975, it has 54 residential storeys.

The building is finished with a rough grey concrete in a style referred to as new brutalism.

On windy days, gusts coming down into the building’s core from above collide with air funnelling back up, creating huge, sudden whirlwinds almost like cyclones. The building’s windows all had to be specially sealed to counteract the winds.

Ponte is said to have the highest number of suicide-related falling deaths of any building in the world. Most jumpers have gone outward, rather than down into the building’s core.

The German writer Norman Ohler set a 2002 novel in the building, Stadt des Goldes. “Ponte sums up all the hope, all the wrong ideas of modernism, all the decay, all the craziness of the city,” he said of the tower. “It is concrete fear, the tower of Babel, and yet it is strangely beautiful.”

We showed some picture of Ponte City, you can see pictures of other Johannesburg’s buildings here.

 

Arrêtez d’essayer de “sauver” l’Afrique/ Stop trying to ‘Save’ Africa

Voici un article écrit par Uzodinma Iweala (voir photo) dans la Washington Post, il y a une semaine mais qui vaut la peine d’être lu. “L’Afrique est un contient qui doit être sauvé de ses innombrables calamités”. Cette déclaration de certains Occidentaux soulève des questions de fond qu’Iweala nous présente ici.

Here is an article from Uzodinma Iweala (see picture) written in the Washington post a week ago but it is worth the read. “Africa is a continent that has to be saved from  countless calamities”. This declaration from the West brings fundamental questions that are raised by Iweala:

-Stop Trying To ‘Save’ Africa’
By Uzodinma Iweala
Sunday, July 15, 2007 Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria , I was accosted by a perky blond college student whose blue eyes seemed to match the “African” beads around her wrists.

“Save Darfur!” she shouted from behind a table covered with pamphlets urging students to TAKE ACTION NOW! STOP GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!

My aversion to college kids jumping onto fashionable social causes nearly caused me to walk on, but her next shout stopped me.

“Don’t you want to help us save Africa?” she yelled.

It seems that these days, wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crisis it has created in the Middle East, the West has turned to Africa for redemption. Idealistic college students, celebrities such as Bob Geldof and politicians such as Tony Blair have all made bringing light to the dark continent their mission. They fly in for internships and fact-finding missions or to pick out children to adopt in much the same way my friends and I in New York take the subway to the pound to adopt stray dogs.

This is the West’s new image of itself: a sexy, politically active generation whose preferred means of spreading the word are magazine spreads with celebrities pictured in the foreground, forlorn Africans in the back. Never mind that the stars sent to bring succor to the natives often are, willingly, as emaciated as those they want to help.

Perhaps most interesting is the language used to describe the Africa being saved. For example, the Keep a Child Alive /” I am African” ad campaign features portraits of primarily white, Western celebrities with painted “tribal markings” on their faces above “I AM AFRICAN” in bold letters. Below, smaller print says, “help us stop the dying.”

Such campaigns, however well intentioned, promote the stereotype of Africa as a black hole of disease and death. News reports constantly focus on the continent’s corrupt leaders, warlords, “tribal” conflicts, child laborers, and women disfigured by abuse and genital mutilation. These descriptions run under headlines like “Can Bono Save Africa?” or “Will Brangelina Save Africa?” The relationship between the West and Africa is no longer based on openly racist beliefs, but such articles are reminiscent of reports from the heyday of European colonialism, when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce us to education, Jesus Christ and “civilization.”

There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one’s cultural superiority. My mood is dampened every time I attend a benefit whose host runs through a litany of African disasters before presenting a (usually) wealthy, white person, who often proceeds to list the things he or she has done for the poor, starving Africans. Every time a well-meaning college student speaks of villagers dancing because they were so grateful for her help, I cringe. Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head — because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West’s fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West’s prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.

Why do the media frequently refer to African countries as having been “granted independence from their colonial masters,” as opposed to having fought and shed blood for their freedom? Why do Angelina Jolie and Bono receive overwhelming attention for their work in Africa while Nwankwo Kanu or Dikembe Mutombo, Africans both, are hardly ever mentioned? How is it that a former mid-level U.S. diplomat receives more attention for his cowboy antics in Sudan than do the numerous African Union countries that have sent food and troops and spent countless hours trying to negotiate a settlement among all parties in that crisis?

Two years ago I worked in a camp for internally displaced people in Nigeria, survivors of an uprising that killed about 1,000 people and displaced 200,000. True to form, the Western media reported on the violence but not on the humanitarian work the state and local governments — without much international help — did for the survivors. Social workers spent their time and in many cases their own salaries to care for their compatriots. These are the people saving Africa, and others like them across the continent get no credit for their work.

Last month the Group of Eight industrialized nations and a host of celebrities met in Germany to discuss, among other things, how to save Africa. Before the next such summit, I hope people will realize Africa doesn’t want to be saved. Africa wants the world to acknowledge that through fair partnerships with other members of the global community, we ourselves are capable of unprecedented growth.

Uzodinma Iweala is the author of “Beasts of No Nation,” a novel about child soldiers.

Les Belges et le pillage de l’or de la République Démocratique du Congo/ Belgians and the plundering of the gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo

(Liens en français/ links in french)

According to the belgian newspaper, La Libre Belgique, gold and tin are plundered by Belgians in DRC provoking a reaction by Belgium’s Foreign Affairs’ minister, Karel De Gucht, who asked for more precisions on the matter by the United Nations’ experts.

Voici une révélation du journal, La Libre Belgique concernant l’iplivation de Belges dans le pillages des resosurces aurifères de RDC:

Pillage de l’est du pays : des Belges impliqués?
M. F. C.

Mis en ligne le 28/07/2007
- – - – - – - – - – -
Karel De Gucht (voir photo) a fait demander des précisions aux experts de l’Onu.

Nos confrères du “Morgen” indiquaient vendredi que, selon un récent rapport d’experts de l’Onu, la Belgique reste la plaque tournante de l’or en provenance de l’est du Congo, avec lequel des armes illégales sont achetées. La Belgique est, en outre, de loin, le plus gros acheteur d’étain en provenance de cette région, et le bénéfice finit dans les poches de chefs de guerre, indique notre confrère flamand.

En réponse à cet article, le ministre belge des Affaires étrangères, Karel De Gucht, a publié un communiqué indiquant que notre ambassadeur à l’Onu a demandé à “recevoir les indices fondés de l’implication éventuelle de ressortissants ou de sociétés belges dans le financement de milices et groupes armés” au Congo. S’il y a “des indices fondés (…) je transmettrai ces informations au parquet fédéral qui engagera l’action adaptée”, indique le ministre.

M. De Gucht précise que “la justice belge a d’ores et déjà commencé à étudier un certain nombre de questions mentionnées dans le rapport”, dont une tentative de vente de pyrochlore.

Une action de la Monuc

M. De Gucht insiste sur la “priorité” que représente pour la Belgique la transparence au sujet de l’exploitation des richesses naturelles. Il suggère que l’on fasse “effectuer l’inventaire des réseaux existants, par, par exemple, le groupe d’experts des nations unies”, mais estime aussi que la Monuc (Mission de l’Onu au Congo) doit soutenir “activement le désarmement de ces groupes armés par les forces de combat congolaise (FARDC) et agir au niveau de leur financement”.

Jusqu’ici, malgré une résolution du Conseil de sécurité de l’Onu lui rappelant qu’elle est habilitée “à utiliser tous les moyens nécessaires” pour défendre les civils congolais menacés par des groupes armés, la Monuc préfère se contenter d’appuyer l’armée congolaise – qui n’est pas très entreprenante contre les groupes armés, notamment en raison de l’attitude ambigüe, en la matière, du pouvoir de Kinshasa.

© La Libre Belgique 2007

• Note. Il faut savoir que, selon Wikipédia, Karel De Gucht “a multiplié les critiques sur la capacité des dirigeants congolais, et en particulier Joseph Kabila, en sortant selon certains des réserves que son statut diplomatique devrait imposer. Ces attaques étaient assorties d’une polémique liée à l’apparition de tracts diffamants sur la naissance supposée de Kabila. De Gucht a également suscité de vives critiques en montrant le Rwanda comme un modèle qu’il opposait à un Congo corrompu.” Dansd la versionanglais on spécifie que ces commentaires on refroidit les relatios entre la RDC et la Belgique mais pour une courte présiode seulement.

Ceuta et la paranoïa islamiste/ Ceuta and the islamist paranoia

(Lien en français/ link in french)

Here is an article from the french paper, the Figaro, adressing the issu of the irlsmiste prescne in the small spaish enclave of Ceuta in Morocco.

Un article du Figaro qui traite de l’enclave espagnole de Ceuta et du débat autour de la présence d’un groupe islamiste:

Dans cette enclave européenne en territoire marocain, la pauvreté nourrit la tentation islamiste. Reportage (DIANE CAMBON).

 

CE N’EST pas tout à fait l’Espagne ni non plus le Maroc. Comme Melilla, l’autre enclave espagnole sur la côte marocaine, Ceuta est à cheval entre la culture islamique et chrétienne. Territoire lilliputien de 17 kilomètres carrés, la ville espagnole est revendiquée par Rabat de longue date. Aujourd’hui la revendication est montée d’un cran. Le numéro deux d’al-Qaida, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, considère Ceuta comme l’un des « territoires occupés », à récupérer au même titre que Jérusalem ou Al – Andalous (l’Andalousie).

 

À Madrid, on prend très au sérieux cette menace de la nébuleuse d’Oussama Ben Laden. Mais à Ceuta, les autorités locales cherchent plutôt à la minimiser. Elles vantent la cohabitation entre les deux cultures et personne n’ose affirmer haut et fort qu’à Ceuta, on parle de « cristianos » et « moros » (chrétiens et maures) pour différencier la population. Enfin, tout le monde banalise l’opération policière « Duna » du 12 décembre, dans le quartier musulman « Principe ». Un coup de filet orchestré par 300 policiers venus de la péninsule et au cours duquel 11 islamistes présumés ont été arrêtés (quatre ont été remis, depuis, en liberté).

 

Lors des saisies, les forces de l’ordre ont retrouvé du matériel de propagande signé al-Qaida, une grande quantité d’argent et des faux papiers. « Ces arrestations sont une farce, elles sont uniquement de la gesticulation de la part des forces de l’ordre », lance Yamila, une Espagnole musulmane, membre de l’association du quartier El Principe.

 

Comme la plupart des 15 000 habitants de cette modeste zone, Yamila a été choquée par l’opération policière : « Avant, on nous reprochait de ne pas être assez patriotique avec l’État espagnol, aujourd’hui on nous suspecte d’adhérer aux thèses islamistes », s’insurge-t-elle. Et d’ajouter : « À force de nous stigmatiser, certains vont finir par croire qu’ils sont de véritables islamistes. » Ici, dans ce dédale de rues, récemment asphaltées à l’occasion des municipales du 28 mai, remportées haut la main par les conservateurs du Parti populaire, la culture musulmane domine. On compte une trentaine de mosquées, des teterias (salon de thé) et la grande majorité des femmes portent le voile.

 

Seuls deux « chrétiens » y vivent encore : le facteur à la retraite et le frère franciscain Diego Diez, dont la principale mission est de servir 700 repas quotidien aux plus démunis du quartier. Ancien bidonville, peuplé par des Marocains engagés dans les troupes franquistes en 19 36, le quartier est devenu une médina colorée, composée de 4 000 logements construits anarchiquement par les descendants des combattants.

 

L’argent de la drogue

 

« Ici, vous faites tout vous même. Il n’y a aucune aide de l’État. Si vous avez de l’argent, vous avez l’eau courante, sinon, vous restez avec votre toit ondulé », ironise Mohamed, 21 ans. Sur cinq mètres, le contraste est frappant entre les belle maisons, recouvertes d’« azulejos » (faïence) et les cabanes décrépies, à flanc de colline.

 

Longtemps, l’argent de la drogue a permis de mettre sur pied les plus belles demeures. « Il y a encore une petite dizaine d’années, vous pouviez gagner 1 800 euros en une nuit en traversant le détroit de Gibraltar avec une cargaison de haschisch », commente un habitant du quartier. « Aujourd’hui, c’est trop dangereux et les Marocains le font pour à peine 400 euros », dit-il. Le renforcement des contrôles, avec la mise en place de détecteurs électroniques pour repérer les « pateras » (barques) chargées d’immigrés, rend désormais plus difficile la traversée du détroit.

 

Du coup, la pauvreté a gagné du terrain. Ceuta détient le taux de chômage le plus élevé d’Espagne, soit 35 % de la population, dont la grande majorité est de confession musulmane. L’échec scolaire (seulement 4 étudiants musulmans sur 1 000 poursuivent des études) et la marginalité ne font qu’empirer. Autant d’ingrédients qui prédisposent ce quartier a être une poudrière, selon des membres de l’association locale.

 

« Citoyens de seconde zone »

 

« Regardez, comme on vit. Les bennes à ordures ne viennent pas et il n’y a pas d’éclairage public alors que l’on paye aussi nos impôts locaux ! Si la mèche islamiste s’enflamme, il ne faudra pas s’étonner », fait remarquer un habitant, qui souhaite conserver son anonymat. « Nous sommes considérés comme des citoyens de seconde zone alors que nous avons la carte d’identité espagnole », commente Mohamed du parti Union démocratique de Ceuta (UCD). Crée en 2003, ce parti constitué d’Espagnols musulmans et rattaché à la Gauche unie, peut se targuer d’avoir obtenu aux dernières élections quatre députés, soit le double des socialistes du PSOE.

 

Le député Mohamed Mustafa se défend d’appartenir à un parti fait pour les musulmans et s’insurge contre ceux qui essayent de les assimiler aux courants islamistes : « Nous sommes les seuls à nous préoccuper des inégalités sociales à Ceuta et il se trouve que le collectif le plus touché est celui des Espagnols de confession musulmane. » Les Espagnols musulmans représentent désormais près de 38 % de la population locale, un nombre qui ne cesse d’augmenter même si leur représentation dans les institutions locales est encore modeste. Les adhérents de l’UCD militent pour que le quartier El Principe, perché sur sa colline, soit desservi par deux lignes d’autobus, pour que les enfants puissent jouer dans des squares comme ceux du centre ville et pour que le trafic de la frontière ne les affecte plus…

 

En contrebas se situe la porte d’entrée de l’Union européenne en Afrique, le poste frontière d’El Tarajal. Il est ouvert 24 heures sur 24 et des milliers de Marocains y défilent chaque jour. En avril, la Garde civile a sollicité des renforts de Madrid. « Malgré la sécurité, cette frontière est totalement perméable. On ne peut pas fouiller sous chaque djellaba et vider toutes les voitures chargées de marchandises », commente avec lassitude un policier posté à la frontière. Une centaine de personnes tentent de forcer le passage, le dos courbé sous leurs paquets.

 

Émission Amandla du 18 juillet 2007/ Amandla show from July 18th 2007

Voici les thèmes qui ont été abordés pendant l’émission Amandla du 18 juillet dernier sur les ondes de CKUT 90.3FM (Montréal). Vous pouvez la télécharger ici (lien valide pour deux mois seulement).

Émission entièrement en anglais

L’artiste zimbabwéenne Stella Chiweshe (voir photo plus bas) vient à Montréal pour donner un spectacle dans le cadre du festival Nuits d’Afrique. Elle est la première femme du Zimbabwe à diriger son propre groupe et elle joue le mbira (aussi connu sous le nom de kalimba). Nous vous présentons une entrevue qu’elle a donnée à un membre de notre équipe d’Amandla. Sa présence au Festival Nuits d’Afrique à été couvert par le journal “Le Devoir“.

The Ravaging of Africa: Coporate Plunder. Rediffusion d’une émission radio en quatre parties qui traite des impacts destructeurs de l’impérialisme américain en Afrique. “Corporate Plunder” détaille les effets désastreux de la présence de Royal Dutch Shell au Nigeria et ceux de la canadienne Tiomin Resources au Kenya. On souligne aussi les façons dont les entreprises occidentales réussissent à ne payer aucunes taxes en Afrique. Avec Ifieniya Lott, Mwana Siti B. Juma, Charles Abugre and John Christensen.

Here are the subjects that were addressed in the July 18th Amandla radio show on CKUT 90.3 FM (Montreal). You can download the show here (link valid for two months only).

Show entirely in english

The Zimbabwean artists, Stella Chiweshe (see picture), comes in Montreal to perform at the “Festival Nuits d’Afrique” . She’s the first woman in Zimbabwe to lead her own group and she plays the mbira (also known as kalimba). We air an interview she gave to one of our Amandla crew member. Her presence at the Festival Nuit d’Afrique was alos covered by “Le Devoir” (in french).

The Ravaging of Africa: Corporate Plunder. It is a four-part radio documentary series about the destructive impact of U.S. imperialism on Africa. “Corporate Plunder” details the disastrous effects of Royal Dutch Shell’s operations in Nigeria and those of Canada’s Tiomin Resources in Kenya. Also highlighted is the massive tax looting of Africa by Western corporations. With Ifieniya Lott, Mwana Siti B. Juma, Charles Abugre and John Christensen.

Voici une petite video d’un spectacle donné par Stella Chiweshe en 2006. Here is a video showing a performance by Stella Chiweshe in 2006:

Ethiopia blocks food aid in Ogaden/ L’Éthiopie bloque l’aide alimentaire en Ogaden

Provenant du International Herald Tribune, l’Éthiopie bloque la région de l’Oganden et intercepte les aides alimentaires destinées aux populations locales. Ce sont d’anciens membres du gouvernement éthiopien et des agents de l’ONU qui font part de cette situation.

According to the International Herald Tribune:

The Ethiopian government is blockading emergency food aid and choking off trade to large swaths of a remote region in the eastern part of the country that is home to a rebel force, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation, Western diplomats and humanitarian officials say.

The Ethiopian military and its proxy militias have also been siphoning off millions of dollars in international food aid, and using a United Nations polio eradication program to funnel money to their fighters, according to relief officials, former Ethiopian government administrators and a member of the Ethiopian Parliament who defected to Germany last month to protest the government’s actions.

The blockade takes aim at the heart of the Ogaden region, a vast desert on the Somali border where the government is struggling against a growing rebellion and where government soldiers have been accused by human rights groups of widespread brutality.

Humanitarian officials say the ban on aid convoys and commercial traffic, intended to squeeze the rebels and dry up their bases of support, has sent food prices skyrocketing and disrupted trade routes, preventing the nomads who live there from selling their livestock. Hundreds of thousands of people are now sealed off in a desiccated, unforgiving landscape that is difficult to survive in even in the best of times.

“Food cannot get in,” said Mohammed Diab, the director of the United Nations World Food Program in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian government says the blockade covers only strategic locations, and is meant to prevent guns and matériel from reaching the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the rebel force that the government considers a terrorist group. In April, the rebels killed more than 60 Ethiopian guards and Chinese workers at a Chinese-run oil field in the Ogaden.

“This is not a government which punishes its people,” said Nur Abdi Mohammed, a government spokesman.

But Western diplomats have been urging Ethiopian officials to lift the blockade, arguing that the many people in the area are running out of time. “It’s a starve-out-the-population strategy,” said one Western humanitarian official, who did not want to be quoted by name because he feared reprisals against aid workers. “If something isn’t done on the diplomatic front soon, we’re going to have a government-caused famine on our hands.”

The blockade, which involves soldiers and military trucks cutting off the few roads into the central Ogaden, comes as Congress is increasingly concerned about Ethiopia’s human rights record.

Ethiopia is a close American ally and a key partner in America’s counterterrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa, a region that has become a breeding ground for Islamic militants, many of whom have threatened to wage a holy war against Ethiopia.

The country receives nearly half a billion dollars in American aid each year, but this week, a House subcommittee passed a bill that would put strict conditions on some of that aid and ban Ethiopian officials linked to rights abuses from entering the United States. The House also recently passed an amendment, sponsored by J. Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican, that stripped Ethiopia of $3 million in assistance to “send a strong message that if they don’t wake up and pay attention, more money will be cut,” Forbes said.

Ethiopia’s pardon on Friday of 30 political prisoners who had been sentenced to life in prison could ease some criticism. But Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, is pushing ahead with measures to more closely vet assistance to the Ethiopian military. According to human rights groups and firsthand accounts, government troops have gang raped women, burned down huts and killed civilians.

American officials in Ethiopia said they were trying to investigate the situation but that the Ogaden was too dangerous right now for a fact-finding mission. American officials said they had heard persistent reports of burned villages and that the blockade was putting the area on the cusp of a crisis.

Villagers say that anyone who criticizes the government risks getting killed. According to Ogaden Online, a Canadian-based news service that has been highly critical of the Ethiopian government and covers the region through a network of reporters and contributors, some equipped with satellite phones, four young men who were videotaped by The New York Times at a community meeting in an Ogaden village in May were later tortured and executed.

[...]

Émission Amandla du 11 juillet 2007/ Amandla show from July 11th 2007

Voici les thèmes qui ont été abordés pendant l’émission Amandla du 11 juillet dernier sur les ondes de CKUT 90.3FM (Montréal). Vous pouvez la télécharger ici (lien valide pour deux mois seulement).

Commentaires sur le film: “God grew tired of us” – en anglais. Documentaire sur les garçons perdus du Sud-Soudan qui lutte pour leur survie dans les camps de réfugiés d’Éthiopie et du nord du Kenya. (voir poster promotionnel plus bas)

The Ravaging of Africa: Economic War – en anglais. Rediffusion d’une émission radio en quatre parties qui traite des impacts destructeurs de l’impérialisme américain en Afrique. “Economic War” présente sur la destruction des économies et des sociétés de Guinée, Zambie, Kenya et d’Afrique du Sud par les politiques de la Banque Mondiale et du F.M.I. Avec Bakary Fofana, Sara Longwe, Caroline Adhiambo, Njuki Githethwa et Molefe Pilane

Interview avec Tiken Jah Fakoly dans le cadre du festival Nuits d’Afrique de Montréal – en français. (Ci-contre: album “Coup de Gueule” de Tiken Jah). Plus bas, on vous présente une vidéo live de sa chanson très populaire: “Plus rien ne m’étonne”.

Here are the subjects that were addressed in the July 11th Amandla radio show on CKUT 90.3 FM (Montreal). You can download the show here (link valid for two months only).

Comments on the movie: “God grew tired of us” – in english. A documentary on the lost boys of South Sudan struggling while living in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Northern Kenya. Story of their odyssey through Africa. (See promotional picture on right)

The Ravaging of Africa: Economic War – in english. It is four-part radio documentary series about the destructive impact of U.S. imperialism on Africa. “Economic War” focuses on the World Bank’s and IMF’s decimation of the economies and social sectors of Guinea, Zambia, Kenya and South Africa. With Bakary Fofana, Sara Longwe, Caroline Adhiambo, Njuki Githethwa and Molefe Pilane

Interview with Tiken Jah Fakoly – in english. He was present at the “Festival Nuits d’Afrique” de Montréal – in french. (Up: “Coup de Gueule” album from Tiken Jah). We show you here a live performance of Tiken Jah while he sings: “Plus rien ne m’étonne”, one of his most popular song.

Émission Amandla du 4 juillet 2007/ Amandla show from July 4th 2007

Voici les thèmes qui ont été abordés pendant l’émission Amandla du 4 juillet dernier sur les ondes de CKUT 90.3FM (Montréal). Vous pouvez la télécharger ici (lien valide pour deux mois seulement).

Émission en anglais

Enjeux sociaux liés au SIDA au Botswana. Ces enjeux sont très liés à la situation du droit des femmes qui sont les personnes les plus affectées par le SIDA. Des ONG locales de femmes sont impliquées dans l’éducation et la dissémination de l’information sur le VIH/SIDA au sein de la population.

Commentaires sur la performance du Seun Kuti (fils de Fela Kuti) au festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Voir photo ci-contre et un extrait vidéo de son spectacle plus bas.

The Ravaging of Africa: Militarizing Africa. Rediffusion d’une émission radio en quatre parties qui traite des impacts destructeurs de l’impérialisme américain en Afrique. “Militarizing Africa” décrit comment les États-Unis ont fomentés la guerre qui a dévasté la République Démocratique du Congo et planifié l’invasion de la Somalie par l’Éthiopie. Avec Mfuni Kazadi, Millicent Okumu, Farah Maalim et Halima Abdi Arush

 

Here are the subjects that were addressed in the July 4th Amandla radio show on CKUT 90.3 FM (Montreal). You can download the show here (link valid for two months only).

Show in english.

Social issues related to HIV/AIDS in Botswana. They are closely linked to women rights since they are the most affected by AIDS. Women oriented NGOs are involved in education and dissemination of information on HIV/AIDS in the population.

Comments on Seun Kuti (Fela Kuti’s son), performance at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Here is a small piece of Kuti’s performance in Montreal:

The Ravaging of Africa: Militarizing Africa. It is four-part radio documentary series about the destructive impact of U.S. imperialism on Africa. “Militarizing Africa” describes how the United States has fomented the devastating war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as taken part in and engineered the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. With Mfuni Kazadi, Millicent Okumu, Farah Maalim and Halima Abdi Arush.

The Chadian farmer who gave his land to Darfuri refugees/ Le fermier tchadien qui donnait ses terres aux réfugiés du Darfour

Voici une histoire qui nous présente Al-Hajj Saboor Arta Bakit, un fermier tchadien qui a décidé d’héberger 160 familles de réfugiés du Darfur sur ses terres. C’est un acte de générosité qui prend une ampleur particulière quand on sait que le nord du Tchad et le Darfour sont des régions où la guerre est devenue un élément du quotidien. À lire dans le Christian Science Monitor(en anglais).

The following story introduces us to Al-Hajj Saboor Arta Bakit, a Chadian farmer who gives aprt of his land to 160 refugee families from Darfur. An act of unselfishness rarely seen in that part of the world where wars in Northern Chad and Darfur have become part of everyday life. See the story in the Christian Science Monitor.