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PAMBAZUKA NEWS 542: LIBYA: THE TRUE COSTS OF WAR The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839 CONTENTS: 1. Features, 2. Comment & analysis, 3. Advocacy & campaigns, 4. Pan-African Postcard, 5. Books & arts, 6. Letters & Opinions, 7. African Writers’ Corner, 8. Highlights French edition, 9. Cartoons /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 1 Features LIBYA: THE TRUE COSTS OF WAR Charles Abugre A wicked blow to Africa, the invasion of Libya has little to do with protecting civilians and all to do with strategic interests. Why are these invaders so heartless, asks Charles Abugre. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75252 ****** MALAWI'S UPRISING: DEMOCRACY, DEBATE AND LEADERSHIP Steve Sharra Following a day of protest on 20 July and a violent government crackdown that left 20 dead, Steve Sharra reflects on the lack of debate in Malawi. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75243 ****** ‘BLOOD DIAMOND’ REGULATION SYSTEM BROKEN Khadija Sharife The recent regulatory approval of Zimbabwean diamonds for sale reveals deep flaws in the system, writes Khadija Sharife. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75251 ****** SOUTH SUDAN IN THE POST-CPA ERA: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES Christopher Zambakari As a means to reduce conflict and fulfil its citizens’ hopes, South Sudan’s key challenges revolve around the development of an inclusive, residency-based citizenship, writes Christopher Zambakari. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75248 ****** THE AMERICAN DEBT CEILING DEBATE A symptom of class warfare Horace Campbell The debate on the United States public debt ceiling is ‘really another gambit to step up class warfare against the majority of American citizens and the planet by the growing political power of the top one per cent of US society,’ argues Horace Campbell. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75263 ****** FREE TRADE IS NOT WHAT AFRICA NEEDS, MR CAMERON Nick Dearden African prosperity relies on a wholesale rejection of the Western free trade model, which was not the view of David Cameron or the delegates he travelled with on a recent trip to Africa. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75242 ****** IS THIS BRITAIN’S WATERGATE MOMENT? Cameron Duodu With UK Prime Minister David Cameron continuing to face pressure over the News International scandal, Cameron Duodu considers the parallels with Watergate in the US in the 1970s. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75244 ****** THE CASE FOR OPENING SADC BORDERS Mandisi Majavu ‘South Africa became the regional economic powerhouse that it is today partly on the backs of immigrant labourers from the SADC who helped build the country’s economy. Is it unreasonable for people to want to share in the fruits of what they helped create?’ asks Mandisi Majavu. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75238 ****** AN AFRICAN RESPONSE TO ‘THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE’ Revolutions from Tunis to Ouagadougou Guy Marius Sagna For the past three decades, neoliberalism has insisted that ‘there is no alternative’ to semi-colonialism and the diktats of the IMF and World Bank. But, writes Senegal’s Guy Marius Sagna, our people ‘have enough common sense to understand that things have to change’. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75240 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 2 Comment & analysis CHIEF JUSTICE’S MANDATE AND MANAGING PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS Katto K. Wambua The appointment of Dr Willy Mutunga as chief justice in Kenya is a welcome development, writes Katto K. Wambua, but the wider public’s optimism needs to be tempered with pragmatism to avoid unrealistic expectations and subsequent frustration. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/75260 ****** THE KENYAN PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN Beth Maina Ahlberg Will there be an end to impunity and the cultivation of the rule of law and justice for the Kenya people? Beth Maina Ahlberg writes about the fresh winds blowing through the Kenyan judiciary and the vested interests wanting to maintain the status quo. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/75237 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 3 Advocacy & campaigns PETITION TO ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT: STOP RENEWED ATTACKS ON WOMEN On 11 June and 2-3 July 2011 ‘punitive’ night raids were carried out against women in the southern city of M’sila, Algeria. Considered to be ‘potential prostitutes’ by their neighbours because they live alone, and under the pretext of the defense of morality, hundreds of youth have burnt down the houses of women who barely escaped being lynched. The police did not intervene. Recently a press conference was held in Algeria where the Observatory on Violence Against Women condemned the lax manner with which the public authorities react to these punitive raids: ‘What we are denouncing is the absence of the state to the point where every individual can take the law into their own hands and find a pretext in the defense of morality to make an attempt on the lives of women.’ Please follow this link ( http://www.siawi.org/article2455.html ) to read more and to sign a petition addressed to the Algerian authorities. A French statement about these raids is available here ( http://www.elwatan.com/actualite/en-l-absence-de-l-etat-tout-individu-peut-se-substituer-a-la-loi-21-07-2011-133436_109.php[url ) . ****** MOSOP STATEMENT ON ANOTHER LAND SEIZURE IN OGONILAND Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People Following plans by Nigeria’s Rivers State to expropriate 258,954 hectares of land from Ogoniland for the development of a new town by the federal government, MOSOP has issued a statement condemning the ‘scramble for Ogoni’ which it says ‘will no doubt generate unmanageable land shortage for local subsistence food production and other uses especially housing development.’ http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/75253 ****** MANDELA PARK BACKYARDERS PRESS STATEMENT ON HOUSING ALLOCATIONS The Mandela Park Backyarders have issued a press statement detailing irregularities in the allocation of houses at the Mandela Park Housing Project in Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/75245 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 4 Pan-African Postcard THE VALUE OF STORYTELLING H. Nanjala Nyabola ‘Storytellers accounting for the role of terrorism in defining modern societies have chosen to tell a story in which communities are constituted and bound by an irrational fear of difference,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/75241 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 5 Books & arts CHINA: ‘ALL-WEATHER FRIEND’ OR ‘NEW COLONIALIST’? Review of ‘The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)’ Stephen Marks ‘The ongoing narrative wars over China’s African involvement between (mostly) Western Sinophobes and those they deride as “panda-huggers” have become as predictable as the opening moves in a game of chess.’ But Ian Taylor ‘well-informed and independent-minded account’ both challenges these orthodoxies, and brings out and questions ‘the assumptions they share,’ finds Stephen Marks. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/75247 ****** TELLING IT AS IT IS Review of Rasna Warah's 'Red Soil and Roasted Maize: Selected Essays and Articles on Contemporary Kenya' Oby Obyerodhyambo In a review of Rasna Warah’s 'Red Soil and Roasted Maize: Selected Essays and Articles on Contemporary Kenya', Oby Obyerodhyambo praises a hard-hitting collection of commentaries from the Daily Nation columnist. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/75239 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 6 Letters & Opinions MALAWI'S UNDELIVERED PROMISE Ndumba Kamwanyah In April of this year, Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika delivered his state of the nation address, entitled ‘A Promise Delivered’. Well, from what is currently happening in the country (which some observers liken to the ongoing uprising in the Arab world), nothing there remotely resembles a promise delivered. As far as I can make out, things in Malawi look more like a promise undelivered to me. Now 19 people have reportedly been killed by the police in an attempt to squash the anti-government protests. Here is the deal: unleashing soldiers and police on a peaceful citizens’ demonstration protesting against economic mismanagement is not delivering a promise. Signing a bill into law that bans any publication deemed not to be in the public interest (including a law that makes it impossible for individuals to obtain a court injunction and seek judicial redress against the government) cannot be termed as a promise delivered. Nor can postponing the local government elections mean a promise delivered. Stifling academic freedom as with the detention of Dr. Blessings Chinsinga because he discussed the Arab uprising during a political science lecture is not a promise delivered. Currently four Chancellor College lecturers, including Dr Chinsinga and Dr Jessie Kabwila-Kapasula, have been fired under mysterious circumstances. And neither is lavish spending to promote your own book (as the president did in January) a promise delivered. Expelling the British High Commissioner from Malawi for a leaked embassy cable that referred to you as ‘autocratic and intolerant of criticism’ is not delivering a promise. In response, the UK (the largest aid donor to Malawi) decided to go on the offensive by expelling the Malawian representative, and froze all new aid, the country’s main life support as 40 per cent of Malawi’s budget comes from international aid. The outcomes: fuel and energy shortages, severe foreign exchange (forex) shortages, and depreciation of Malawi’s local currency, the kwacha. But the big picture is that wa Mutharika’s behaviour and his response to citizens’ demands for more democracy are similar to how dictators behave when their reign is threatened. They try by any means to stifle criticism through state violence, using the soldiers and police at their disposal. But also the behavior also tells the true but sad story of this relatively peaceful southern African country. For decades Malawi has seen leaders/rulers who treated the country as a private company for personal gains. The first postcolonial president, Dr Kamuzu Banda (Ngwazi, the great lion, or Mkango wapfuko laMalaw, the lion of Malawi, as he preferred to be called) turned Malawian citizens into subjects, and the country into Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi, Inc. Kamuzu’s successor, Professor Bakili Muluzi was accused of dictatorial tendencies, including imposing Mutharika on the people. There is no love left between Bakili and Mutharika now, but if there is anything Mutharika learned from his predecessor it is how to impose his will on the Malawian people. Apparently, he is also now plotting to pave a political path for his own brother, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika (yes another professor!) to be Malawi’s next president. The bottom line: despite the presidential rhetoric, promises of economic and social development, reduction of poverty, and promotion of peace have not been delivered to the citizens of Malawi. ****** DIASPORA LOST 'IN PURSUIT OF MATERIAL THINGS' Henri Malo Keep up the good/bad news. African need a shock treatment, because so far the majority of us are lost in the pursuit of material things since moving up north. We need more debate, small or large educational forum around the country. freedom of speech for sure but not at the expense of truth. Know the truth and it shall set you free. ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 7 African Writers’ Corner TIA Nebila Abdulmelik It’s Cairo, Casablanca & Cape Town Addis, Abuja & Accra Ouagadougou, Timbuktu & Antananarivo Lagos, Lomé, Lusaka & Lalibela Its peace and turmoil Order and chaos Evolution and revolution Anarchy and regulation Innovation and duplication Progress and retreat Static and constant change... http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/75249 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 8 Highlights French edition PAMBAZUKA NEWS 199: WORLD FACED WITH EMERGENCE OF TRANSNATIONAL CAPITALISM Globalisation continues its forward march Noam Chomsky To date, the rise of public indignation has not questioned the power of companies. The future depends on what the majority is ready to withstand and knowing whether this vast majority will collectively come to a constructive proposal in response to the problems that are at the heart of the capitalist system of control and domination. If not, the consequences may be grave, as history has so clearly shown. http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/75157 ****** One Europe, several Europes in construction or deconstruction? Samir Amin To some, Europe is currently under construction. But Samir Amin thinks that those who think so have limited and fragile criteria for judgement which could be compared with the inter-dependence of interests, in the short-term, of European monopoles. According to Amin, the current crisis is most probably the start of the ‘deconstruction’ of Europe. http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/75164 ****** The emergence of transnational capitalism? Samir Amin Globalisation has always been an aspect of capitalism. By its very nature, it has been able to change with transformations which, depending on the parameters of analysis, give varied interpretations to the transnationalisation that the world is currently experiencing. In this transformation Samir Amin notes that the only question which arises is to know whether we have noticed ‘a qualitative change in the nature of capitalism’. http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/75162 ****** Senegal: What interpretation can be made of the happenings in June? Sidy Diop The events which recently shook Senegal show that the political system of the country is in crisis. Through massive street demonstrations, the population prevented the parliament from adopting a law, and a few days later, violent protests expressed the great dissatisfaction created by the energy policy. It should not be doubted that this is an unprecedented occurrence which calls for reflection in order to determine the true meaning of the happenings and perhaps draw lessons which are essential to hatch the institutional evolution that measures up to the new expectations displayed by the people. http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/75154 ****** Making revolution in Cuba today For many Cubans, Pedro Campos Santos does not need to be introduced. However, to most Cubans, he is probably still a stranger. What a pity. This is a result of the absence of horizontal flow of information and ideas. ‘Perucho’ belongs to an informal group called the SPD (Democratic and Participative Socialism), which for a few years now has devoted their activity to the advancement of the socialist way of life for the present and future Cuba – a way of life based on social self-governance and freedom for all people who practise this way of life, a socialism with all and for the good of all, just like the one José Martí wished for. In this interview, Martí, in his biography, recounts and gives us reasons for his political involvement and that of his comrades in the SPD. http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/75159 ****** The reason for marching against rape of women in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) When some Congolese heard of a march by their fellow citizens from Paris to Brussels, they thought it was madness. One of the recurrent questions asked was: ‘What will that change?’ The material, symbolic and humane reason behind the march was unknown to them. They had forgotten that great changes start from little things. This article by Jean-Pierre Mbulu is an attempt at theorising this walk and its effects. http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/75155 ****** ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 9 Cartoons FREE PRESS AND CORRUPTION: CAMERON LECTURES AFRICA Gado UK Prime Minister David Cameron may want to get his own house in order before lecturing African leaders… http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/75236 ****** GMOS AND GOATS Gado Claims that eating GMOs leads to giving birth to goats cause complaints… http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/75235 ****** /\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ Fahamu - Networks For Social Justice http://www.fahamu.org Pambazuka News is published by Fahamu Ltd. © Unless otherwise indicated, all materials published are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. 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