Global News
After Attacks, Malawi Prez Retracts Negative View of Women in Pants
Posted on 14. Feb, 2012 by citizen in Global News
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
Jan. 24 (GIN) – Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has stepped back from remarks earlier this month criticizing women for wearing pants or miniskirts. The remarks triggered an outbreak of beatings and of tearing clothes off women over their choice of attire.
In a 15 minute national address, President Mutharika condemned the recent attacks on women mainly by vendors who claimed that the President had ordered it.
“Women who want to wear trousers should do so as you will be protected from thugs, vendors and terrorists,” the president said in a local language, Chichewa. “I will not allow anyone to go on the streets and start undressing women and girls wearing trousers because that is criminal.”
On Friday, Jan. 20, hundreds of girls and women, among them prominent politicians, protested the attacks while wearing pants or miniskirts and T-shirts emblazoned with such slogans as: “Real men don’t harass women.” A recording of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” got a loud cheer when it was played during the protest. Men also took part.
Even the President’s VP chimed in with support for the protestors. “Some of us have spent our entire life fighting for the freedom of women,” Vice President Joyce Banda told the protesters. “It’s shocking some men want to take us back to bondage.”
During the reign of Malawi’s first President Kamuzu Banda, women were not allowed to wear trousers and miniskirts until 1993 when Kamuzu was about to leave power.
By Fungai Maboreke
Anti-Dictator T-Shirt Brings Life Sentence in Gambia
Posted on 14. Feb, 2012 by citizen in Global News
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama pose for a photo during a reception at the Metropolitan Museum in New York with H.E. Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh, President of the Republic of The Gambia. Photo: Lawrence Jackson
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
(GIN) – A former minister in the government of President Yahya Jammeh was sentenced this week to life in prison for conspiring to overthrow the ruler of 17 years with T-shirts demanding an end to dictatorship.
Amadou Janneh, who also holds a U.S. passport, was convicted of treason after a seven-month trial. Three co-conspirators were also convicted of printing T-shirts with the inscription: ‘Coalition for Change The Gambia; End Dictatorship Now’ written on the front side; ‘Freedom’ inscribed on the back.
They were sentenced to three years in jail.
Janneh, 48, was communications minister in 2005 and 2006. He has also worked with the US embassy in Banjul as political and economic affairs officer.
The trial was closely followed by Gambians in the internet. On the blog “Hello Gambia”, Mathew K Jallow wrote: “The trial period was unbearable …. The sight of Dr. Janneh and codefendants handcuffed and in leg shackles is more than anyone could bear to behold, but seeing them being lifted off the ground like furniture items and placed in the backs of military trucks, brought tears to the eyes of many Gambians. … This is an all round ridiculous case of political intimidation.”
Dr. Janneh and colleagues were arrested in early June 2012, detained for days before being paraded on TV and later charged before the Court. During the trial, a French-language email addressed to the President of Senegal was entered into evidence allegedly signed by Janneh. A police officer said he translated it from French to English although later admitted he was not certified in either language. Wolof is widely spoken as are Jola, Soninke, Fulfulde and other local languages.
The president, an outspoken military officer and former wrestler who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, has been accused of running the west African country with an iron fist and flouting human rights.
Mr Jammeh’s government has been criticised by international rights groups for its attitude to civil liberties, especially freedom of the press and the detention and disappearance of journalists.
Jammeh replied: “The journalists are less than 1% of the population and if anybody expects me to allow less than 1% of the population to destroy 99% of the population, you are in the wrong place.”
Iran Sentences American Man To Death For Espionage
Posted on 09. Jan, 2012 by citizen in Global News
A court in Tehran has sentenced an American ex-Marine to death for espionage and “working for an enemy country.” The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars reports 28-year-old Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, who was arrested last August while visiting family, was convicted of participating in the CIA’s “efforts to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism.” Fars claims Hekmati confessed his involvement with the CIA to the judge.
“I was deceived by the CIA,” he allegedly said in a confession. “Although I was appointed to break into Iran’s intelligence systems and act as a new source for the CIA, I had no intention of undermining the country.”
Hekmati’s parents release a statement proclaiming their son’s innocence and declaring a “grave error” has been made by Iran. U.S. officials have also demanded his release.
“Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or ‘fighting against God,’ as the convicting judge has claimed in his sentence. Amir is not a criminal. His very life is being exploited for political gain,” the Hekmatis said in a statement. “A grave error has been committed, and we have authorized our legal representatives to make direct contact with the Iranian authorities to find a solution to this misunderstanding. We pray that Iran will show compassion and not murder our son, Amir, a natural born American citizen, who was visiting Iran and his relatives for the first time.”
Hekmati served as an Arabic translator in the Marines from 2001 to 2005. After leaving the military he started a linguistics company. TransWorldNews
2011 — A Year of Challenges and Opportunities in Africa
Posted on 30. Dec, 2011 by citizen in Global News
It can be said that 2011 will be seen as a year of tremendous challenges and opportunities for the 54 nations of Africa. With the world economy continuing unabatedly in the throes of global recession, African countries fought hard to soften the impact on their local economies while at the same time dealing with the various issues of increased democratization, good governance, healthcare, education and jobs for its people.
Many of the African countries that gained their independence in the 1960s, celebrated their 50th anniversaries this year. The 50-year mark triggered some serious analysis amongst African people as to what has gone right, what has gone wrong, and what needs to be done over the next 50 years!
In 2011 seventeen African countries, (including Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and Tunisia), were slated to hold presidential election. Some of these elections, notably in Nigeria, Benin, Tunisia and Zambia went forward with the decision widely respected amongst the populations. While others, notably Cameroon, DRC, Madagascar, Malawi and Uganda were either deemed unfair by large segments of the populations or postponed altogether.
The “Arab Spring” an unprecedented effort to do away with tyrannical governments in the Middle East and North Africa, began in Tunisia, and quickly spread to Egypt, Libya and other countries in the region. Two of the governments and their leaders, Zine El Abidene Ben Ali’s in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak’s in Egypt, succumbed to the people’s pressure and shockingly collapsed in a short period of time. Rebellions in both countries were led by young people utilizing social networking technologies to mobilize. Both Tunisia and Egypt are now in various stages of democratic reform and trying to establish democratic institutions that would be more responsive to the people.
In Libya, the 30-year regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi came to an abrupt end in October, after a protracted civil war. Libya was also swept up in the winds of the “Arab Spring” with similar demands of the young people in Tunisia and Egypt for the tyrannical regime to step down. However, instead of leaving office, Gaddafi called out his military and began a brutal initiative to crush the rebellion. The United States and NATO responded by establishing a “no-fly” zone over much of the country, and provided assistance to opposition forces, which eventually lead to the deposing and killing of Gaddafi. As we head into 2012, many unanswered questions remain about the future of Libya, a wealthy oil-producing nation.
On July 9th, following a referendum on independence, the Government of South Sudan became the newest independent country on the continent, bringing to an end the continent’s longest running civil war. Independence for South Sudan comes after a protracted war with the north that lasted nearly 40 years and resulted in a purported 2 million deaths, millions more displaced, and a development starved economy. More than 75% of the oil reserves of the former Sudan (North and South), lie in South Sudan. In addition, the South is blessed with an abundance of other mineral resources, as well as water resources and fertile lands. Currently, it remains uncertain as to how this new nation will build a country virtually from scratch.
Once hailed as a model of stability, Cote d’Ivoire slipped into the kind of internal strife that has plagued many other African countries. Under the leadership of its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Cote d’Ivoire was a model of stability for more than 3 decades after independence. The regime of Henri Bedie (who succeeded Houphouet-Boigny upon his passing), ended in a military coup in 1999, with Bedie fleeing to France. In an effort to remain in power, Bedie planted the seeds of ethnic discord by trying to stir up xenophobic behavior against Muslims in the north, including his main rival, Alassane Quattara.
In 2000, Laurent Gbagbo came to power. In October 2010, after a much delayed elections was held, he lost to Alassane Quattara. Rather than handing over power to the newly elected president, Gbagbo sought to remain in power by the force of the gun. The ensuing four-month stand-off ended only when Quattara’s forces overran the country’s south region, finally capturing Gbagbo and transporting him to the Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court.
Another major story in Africa in 2011 was the return of devastating episodes of drought and famine in Somalia and east Africa. This time around, the drought is exacerbated by the protracted 20-year civil war in Somalia, with a very limited central government in the country. Hundreds of thousands have already perished in this drought and millions more are at risk!
With the growing realization of Africa as a bastion for strategic minerals — it is now attracting unprecedented interest from most notably China, but also India, the United States, Russia, Japan, Brazil, wealthy Middle Eastern countries and other countries, who are now devising all kinds of strategies to access African oil, diamonds, uranium, kotan, bauxite, and other natural resources. If the negotiations with these countries are not well managed by the African Union and African nations, there is a legitimate fear that Africa could find itself in short order with a new form of colonization!
Despite these challenges, Africa is making remarkable progress towards promoting economic growth and sustainable development on the continent. Some of the highest rates of returns being recorded across the globe, are being found on the African continent.
Additionally, the well-regarded presidential elections that took place in Nigeria this year, combined with the highly impressive economic growth being reported there, suggest the “sleeping giant” is now ready to take its place as the economic engine on the continent in 2012!
African leaders are also working hard to promote inter-Africa trade between countries, with heavy emphasis on increasing agriculture production – another sign that bodes well for the entire region and the world.
Africa is aggressively turning towards her Diaspora in the United States, South America, Europe and elsewhere, to attract trade and needed investment, to promote innovation and to access technologies, and to effectively lobby and promote the cooperation of western governments in the continents development.
While much remains to be done in Africa to promote economic development, Africa and the African world has much to look forward to in 2012.
By Melvin Foote
Special to the NNPA for Constituency for Africa
Melvin P. Foote is the President and CEO of the Constituency for Africa (CFA), a 21 year old Washington, D.C. based education and advocacy organization. He is also a well respected expert on a range of issues and topics concerning Africa and the African Diaspora. He can be reached at mfoote2420@aol.com.
Nigeria Joins Uganda to Pass Homophobic Legislation
Posted on 15. Dec, 2011 by citizen in Global News
Anti-gay children's march in Nigeria (Courtesy of Global Information Network)
(GIN) – Joining a movement fueled by a segment of conservative American evangelicals, the Nigerian Senate approved this week a bill criminalizing gay marriage, gay support groups and same-sex public displays of affection.
It was the latest attack on a minority already facing discrimination in Africa’s most populous nation.
The Senate increased the penalty for gay marriage from five years’ imprisonment proposed in a draft bill to 14 years. The bill must be passed by Nigeria’s House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before becoming law.
“Such elements in society should be killed,” said Sen. Baba-Ahmed Yusuf Datti of the opposition party Congress for Progressive Change, drawing murmurs of support from the gallery.
Gay sex has been banned in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, since colonial rule by the British. In some areas of Nigeria’s north where Islamic Shariah law is enforced, gays face death by stoning.
The bill’s penalties were debated this week at the National Assembly before a television audience to the occasional sound of laughter, sources said.
One senator worried the bill would hinder the tradition of Nigeria’s Igbo ethnic group in the southeast to have infertile wives “marry” other women to carry their husbands’ children. Another said gays suffer from a “mental illness.”
The Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights in Nigeria, in an open letter to President Goodluck Johnson, urged him to guarantee the safety of all human rights defenders including gays.
“We could not help but notice from the outcome of the public hearing on the Same Gender marriage Bill, 2011 that committee members had already taken a position on the subject. That was evident from their deliberate name calling and profiling of the groups or individuals opposed to the Bill.
“The experience has been denigrating and humiliating and does not conform to democratic principles of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, prohibition of discrimination, and fair hearing,” the group wrote.
Meanwhile, in Uganda, a court this month sentenced the killer of noted gay activist David Kato to 30 years behind bars. Kato’s slaying came only months after his picture was published in an anti-gay newspaper next to the words “Hang Them.”
Rights activists blame an increase in homophobia in Uganda on evangelical preachers. Val Kalende of Freedom and Roam Uganda, defending gay rights, said: “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S Evangelicals in 2009. The Ugandan Government and the so-called U.S Evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”
Prize Winning Novelist Turns Down National Prize
Posted on 05. Dec, 2011 by citizen in Global News
Chinua Achebe (Courtesy of Global Information Network)
(GIN) – World-acclaimed Nigerian novelist and professor, Chinua Achebe, has for the second time turned down the Commander of The Federal Republic award, Nigeria’s second highest honor. The move stunned President Goodluck Jonathan called the decision “regrettable.”
Author of the globally popular novel, Things Fall Apart, Achebe said,” the reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved. .. A small clique of renegades… (is) determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom.”
Achebe continued: “I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples… Nigeria’s condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honor…”
Achebe, winner of the Man Booker International prize in 2007 for “inaugurat[ing] the modern African novel”, currently lives in the US, where he is professor of Africana studies at Brown University.
The Achebe story prompted a cascade of online comments in his support. Writing in The Guardian of London, “Ogonnaya” penned: “I respect the man Prof. Chinua Achebe, who turned down such ‘honor’. What a man of integrity. I doff my hat for him. How I wish we have more of such men who are ready to sacrifice their selfish interest for national progress.”
By Fungai Maboreke
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
Angola’s Top Brass Accused of “Crimes against Humanity”
Posted on 30. Nov, 2011 by citizen in Global News
Angola child refugees (Courtesy of Global Information Network)
By Sami Disu
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
(GIN) – Angolan anti-corruption campaigner and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais filed a criminal complaint this week against mining businesses and seven Angolan generals for daily acts of torture and frequently murder against villagers and informal miners in diamond producing regions.
Those charged include Minister of State Gen. Manuel Helder Vieira (Kopelipa), and several high commanders in the Angolan Armed Forces for abuses amounting to “crimes against humanity”.
The criminal case, filed at the offices of Angola’s attorney-general last week, will be closely watched by anti-corruption and civil society groups in this poor, but mineral- and petroleum-rich country.
Marques, who has been investigating systematic human rights abuses and corruption in Angola’s Lunda region since 2004, is the author of Blood Diamond: Torture and Corruption in Angola. He has previously called on foreign countries to boycott Angola’s “conflict diamonds”.
Angola, in south-central Africa, has one of the widest income gaps between rich and poor. An extensive list of human rights abuses committed by the government appears on the 2010 Human Rights Report of the U.S. State Dept. published in April of this year.
Striking Zambian Miners Win Back Jobs And Pay Hike
Posted on 06. Nov, 2011 by citizen in Global News
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
Zambian miners ended a two week old strike for better pay, winning back their jobs and a pay hike from a Chinese firm. Union officials said it was a sign that Chinese-owned companies in Zambia are starting to bow to government pressure over worker rights.
Management at the Non-Ferrous China Africa locked out the workers who had gone on strike for a 100 percent raise from their base pay of $200 monthly.
China Nonferrous was forced to back down, and the workers at Chambishi Copper Mines were rehired as of Sunday night, the Wall Street Journal reported. The event, along with similar strikes at other Chinese mining facilities in Zambia, is being closely watched in Beijing.
Zambia has seen a rash of strikes at Chinese and Indian-owned plants after newly-elected President Michael Sata proposed raising the minimum wage from the current rate of $84 a month.
In 2006, Chinese managers at Chambishi shot six miners during a wage protest. Last year, at least 13 Zambian coal miners were shot by Chinese managers at the Collum Coal Mine.
Iowan Investors In Large ‘Land Grab’ In Tanzania, Refugees To Lose Homes
Posted on 06. Nov, 2011 by citizen in Global News
By Fungai Maboreke
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
A group of Iowa-based investors is winding up a deal with Tanzania for an 800,000 acre parcel, now home to over 160,000 people.
Several generations of families, former refugees from Burundi, who have successfully re-established their lives by developing and farming the land over the last 40 years, will be displaced against their will. They will lose their livelihoods and their community. Once they are gone, AgriSol Energy will move in.
According to the AgriSol, an investment company, the land deal will benefit local farmers, increase food and energy security in the area, maintain sustainable farming practices, and offer “opportunities to buy commodities at production cost.” But AgriSol will have the final say in all matters.
“Locals will have little to no bargaining power, and any development opportunities for local farmers will be on terms set by AgriSol,” the Oakland Institute said. Similar deals have been struck to increase production of biofuel crops.
A letter to AgriSol from the environmental Sierra Club notes: “This will be a 99 year lease on unfavorable terms, a step back towards Tanzania’s colonial past; that, reportedly, disputes are to be arbitrated under International Chamber of Commerce rules in London, which will further disempower local peoples; that AgriSol has demanded a change from the current prohibition of genetically engineered crops which threaten the local biodiversity and contaminate local crop species; and that biofuel production will subtract from the production of local food calories in favor of an export-oriented product.
A write-in campaign by Oakland asks the company to drop the initiative. It can be found at www.oaklandinstitute.org.
Gaddafi Gone, Sights Are Set On ‘Kleptocrat’ President Of Equatorial Guinea
Posted on 05. Nov, 2011 by citizen in Global News
Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network
Allegations of corruption and the massive looting of state funds are being leveled at another African leader who, with his playboy son, faces charges in France and the U.S.
The U.S. Justice Dept. this week filed suit against Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, eldest son of President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. The long-awaited suit seeks forfeiture of $70.8 million obtained through corruption and money laundering, it was alleged.
The suits, filed in Washington and California, were a laundry list of some of the world’s most extravagant items including a Gulfstream jet, a $30 million mansion in Malibu, California, racing boats, almost $2 million in Michael Jackson memorabilia and a Ferrari.
Last month, the French government took aim at President Obiang Mbasogo, seizing 11 supercars from his Parisian residence at 42 Avenue Foch, just down the street from the Arc de Triomphe.
The West African president is said to be the target of investigations into the use of state funds to buy private property in France.
Despite the grinding poverty experienced by most of his people, the billionaire Nguema remains popular among African leaders such as South African President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma, who hosted Nguema last week at a state visit complete with 21 gun salute and honor guard, seized the moment to endorse a UNESCO-Obiang prize for life science that has been the subject of dispute.
Meanwhile, Asst. U.S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer was quoted to say that the extravagant items appeared to be the proceeds of foreign official corruption, and the Department of Justice was seeking to seize them. “The United States will not be a hiding place for the ill-gotten riches of the world’s corrupt leaders,” he said.
Nguema has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979 when he overthrew his uncle and had him executed. His government has been described by several human rights groups as among the worst abusers of human rights in Africa.
