News24
SA breaks Zim boycott
07/06/2005 07:23 - (SA)
Erika
Gibson
Pretoria - Armscor has sold spare parts to the value of more
than R1m to the
Zimbabwean government, which will enable the country's
Alouette helicopters
to take to the air again despite European
sanctions.
In addition, the South African government donated equipment to
the value of
more than R3m for this purpose to Zimbabwe.
A Zimbabwean
company - which was, according to information, established by
high-ranking
members of the South African military community - will
apparently undertake
the upgrading of the helicopters.
Under normal circumstances, the
National Conventional Arms Control Committee
(NCACC) has to grant permission
and issue a permit before military equipment
can be exported to another
country, but in this instance the regulation was
waived as the NCACC
regarded the transaction as a commercial and not a
military
matter.
The NCACC informed Armscor that it was not necessary for the
committee to
issue an export permit as the spare parts did not fall under
the weapons
control act, said Armscor spokesperson Bertus
Cilliers.
The spares were advertised on Armscor's website as obsolete
equipment and
the Zimbabwean government made an offer to buy it, said
Cilliers.
The spares were supplied to Zimbabwe in March this
year.
The South African air force is in the process of phasing out its
Alouette
fleet, which will be replaced by new Italian
helicopters.
The sale of the spare parts cropped up last year after
Zimbabwe had tried in
vain to obtain spare parts for its fleet of Alouette
helicopters.
Several European countries have sanctions in place against
Zimbabwe, which
means that the country faces many closed
doors.
Zimbabwe is furthermore on the United Nations' blacklist of
countries to
which no weapons may be sold.
Desperate for
spares
Apparently an Israeli businessman initially acted as go-between
for South
Africa and Zimbabwe.
He apparently gave Zimbabwe a
quotation of $20m (about R120m) for the
spares, but the country decided it
was too expensive and the transaction
fell through.
As a result, a
Zimbabwean company with high-placed South Africans as
directors was
established to continue negotiations for the parts.
Apparently a probe
into this donation forms part of an investigation into
alleged financial
malpractice in Armscor.
Helmoed-Römer Heitman, military expert, said a
military export permit should
be issued whenever military helicopter spares
were sold.
In the instance of a government-to-government donation, such
as that of
naval patrol boats to Mozambique, no permit was
required.
Heitman said Zimbabwe was desperate for spares after its
helicopters worked
overtime in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo a couple of
years ago.
Several of the helicopters had been
written off in the DRC and only a few
were still serviceable due to a lack
of proper maintenance.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Driving Out the
Rubbish
Government sells its massive demolition programme as
regeneration, but many
believe it is designed to remove populations from
"disloyal" urban
constituencies.
By Dzikamai Chidyausiku in Harare
(Africa Reports No 36, 06-Jun-05)
Simon Phiri and his wife Tsitsi
desperately battle to salvage a few
belongings from their shack before a
bulldozer sent in by the Zimbabwean
government razes it to the
ground.
With a bit of luck and the help of their four children, Simon,
39, and
Tsitsi, 32, manage to save the family's most essential items - a
bed,
blankets and kitchen utensils - before the bulldozer crushes their
home.
The shack, made from corrugated iron, cardboard and plastic, was
where the
Phiri family have lived for the past 12 years. Simon built it in
the densely
populated township of Mbare, just outside Harare, in 1993 and
all his four
children have been raised there.
With Zimbabwe's new
Chinese-made warplanes occasionally sweeping overhead,
President Robert
Mugabe's police and demolition squads have turned Mbare
into a battleground,
leaving houses and makeshift shelters flattened in
street after
street.
Families carrying their remaining possessions on their heads or
in carts -
wooden planks, sheets of tin, pots wrapped in blankets and
plastic - are on
the march like refugees in some terrible war, after the
mass demolition of
their homes in Mugabe's "Operation Murambatsvina", which
translates as
"Operation Drive Out the Rubbish".
It is a scene of
desolation and despair, and one that is being repeated all
across the
country in an apparent bid to drive hundreds of thousands of
people from the
towns back to rural areas. This new Mugabe strategy is being
compared by
critics to that of Cambodia's Pol Pot, who in his "Return to
Year Zero"
forced the inhabitants of cities into the countryside in the late
Seventies.
Miloon Kothari, the United Nations special representative
on housing for the
poor, told reporters in Geneva that he feared Mugabe
planned to drive
between two and three million Zimbabweans into the
countryside in Operation
Murambatsvina, launched two weeks ago when police
began sweeping street
traders from the pavements in Harare and the northern
resort town of
Victoria Falls. The operation subsequently spread throughout
the country.
"We have a very grave crisis on our hands," said
Kothari.
An added concern is that the land is no longer able to feed the
people who
live on it - let alone extra hungry mouths. A recent report by
the Famine
Early Warning System Network, a UN agency, said most rural homes
have run
out of food. It warned that around five million people could starve
if the
government does not allow international donors to bring in
aid.
President Mugabe, in a speech to the central committee of the ruling
ZANU PF
party, explained the demolitions as a necessary part of urban
regeneration,
"Our cities and towns had become havens for illicit and
criminal practices
and activities which just could not be allowed to go on.
From the mess
should emerge new businesses, new traders, new practices and a
whole new and
salubrious urban environment. That is our
vision."
Zimbabwean local government minister Ignatius Chombo used the
same utopian
language, saying, "This is the dawn of a new era. To set up
something nice,
you first have to remove the litter, and that is why the
police are acting
in this way."
The independent Standard weekly
newspaper hit back with an editorial saying,
"Chombo's explanation is
nonsensical and an insult to the intelligence of
the people of this country.
The government should not delight in the
suffering of people when it does
not have a ready-made alternative for
them."
As well as his home,
Simon Phiri also lost the trading stall where he sold
secondhand clothes at
Mbare's colourful Mupedzanhamo market, the biggest in
the country and
recommended in the tourist guidebooks.
As clouds of tear gas mixed with
smoke from burning shacks wafted about him,
he said, "They have destroyed my
house and my small shop at the market. I
have nowhere to go. I was born and
grew up in Mbare. This is the only home I
know."
Phiri is only one of
the countless thousands of Harare residents who have
been rendered
unemployed and homeless after police and other state agencies
destroyed
their homes and stalls as part of what President Mugabe describes
as a
"clean up" campaign. In Harare alone, some 30,000 informal traders like
Simon have been driven out of business. The police say the aim is to rid the
capital of "criminals".
Victoria Muchenje, another Mbare resident
whose shack was destroyed, said,
"We are suffering, we have nowhere to go.
Our children are not going to
school, we are sleeping outside everywhere. If
you walk, everywhere you see
people sleeping in the road."
Wellington
Murerwa, was also in tears, as he watched his home burn. "I have
lost the
only source of income that I had after my vegetable stall was
destroyed," he
said. "Since 1981 the only place I have known as a home with
my family was a
backyard shack, and I cannot start all over again."
Shacks and other
"illegal" structures in other Harare townships such as
Highfield and
Glenview have been destroyed, ostensibly to "decongest the
city".
As
police in full riot gear moved in to torch shacks using petrol, many
residents tore down their own homes to salvage some of the building
materials. Many burned furniture they could not take with them.
As
well as the mass destruction of housing, more than 23,000 people have
been
arrested in the continuing campaign.
The assaults have left huge numbers
homeless and without a source of income.
Whole families are now sleeping in
the open as Zimbabwe's mid-winter night
temperatures dip to freezing point.
Others are battling to find scarce
transport to take them to relatives'
rural homes.
About half of the poor in cities like Harare, Bulawayo,
Mutare and Gweru
live in shacks.
Most of them came to the cities
because of the failure of education, health
services and agriculture in the
rural areas, where AIDS deaths are also
wrecking traditional social support
mechanisms.
In all, it is estimated that some 2.5 million people live -
or did so until
late May - in makeshift urban accommodation without adequate
sanitation or
clean water, the only kind of housing they could
afford.
With no access to mainstream jobs, given the imploding economy
and
unemployment at 80 per cent, such people have taken to the pavements and
alleys - cutting hair, mending shoes, weaving baskets and chairs and selling
fruit, vegetables and flowers in an attempt to earn a living.
The
assault has been seemingly indiscriminate. In Victoria Falls, for
example,
police burnt a six-mile long line of curio stalls that have
catering to
tourists for as long as anyone can remember.
Even squatter camps set up
by veterans of the war of liberation against the
former white government
were destroyed in the police rampage, including two
named after war heroes
Joshua Nkomo and Josiah Tongogara.
Many entirely legal properties have
been destroyed in the mayhem.
Irish missionary Sister Patricia Walsh, of
the Catholic church's Dominican
order, was lost for words when she saw that
bulldozers had demolished a
clinic in the Harare suburb of Hatcliffe where
for the past ten years she
and Zimbabwean-born nuns had run a crèche for 180
AIDS orphans and
distributed anti-retroviral drugs to about a hundred
HIV-positive women.
"I wept. Sister Carina was with me - she wept,"
recalled Sister Patricia.
"The people tried to console us. They were all
outside in the midst of their
broken houses, furniture and goods all over
the place, children screaming,
sick people in agony."
The nun asked,
"How does the government say that Peter, aged ten, and his
little brother,
John, aged four [not their real names] are 'illegal'? We
provided them with
a wooden hut when their mother was dying of AIDS. She has
since died, and
these two little people had their little home destroyed in
the middle of the
night. We get there - they are sitting crying in the
rubbish that was their
home. What do we do with them?
"Anne, whose house was destroyed,
delivered a baby a week ago. She is
critically ill and on the verge of
death. What do we do with her? We give
her painkillers, we give her
blankets, we give her food which she is unable
to eat. What is going to
happen to the baby?"
Many believe Mugabe's plans have little to do with
regeneration, but are
rather a social engineering project designed to force
potentially restive
urban communities back into the countryside, where his
government has more
levers of control.
According to Brian
Raftopoulos, Professor of Development Studies at the
University of Zimbabwe,
"It may well be that the ruling party [ZANU PF] is
looking to remove
'surplus' elements of the urban population ahead of the
next presidential
election by drawing them into more controllable rural
political
relations."
He concludes, "The long-term implications of this process do
not bode well
for democratic politics."
Many Harare residents believe
they are being penalised for electing members
of parliament from the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, in
the March
election.
ZANU PF lost all but one seat in Harare province in the
polls.
"I don't know the purpose for this madness. We think they are
punishing us
because we did not vote for them," said Norman Mateko, whose
small brick
house was razed in Hatcliffe, where middle- and working-class
housing
overlaps. "First they chase us out of the Central Business District,
confiscate our goods and then destroy our stalls. Now they are coming for
our homes. It's not fair."
For the MDC's shadow justice minister,
David Coltart, there is a deterrent
element to the government's policy, "The
truth is that this campaign of
retribution has everything to do with
Mugabe's and ZANU PF's fear that these
same people will rise in revolt
against a regime that has been responsible
for the destruction of the lives,
hopes and dreams of millions of
Zimbabweans.
"It has everything to do
with instilling fear in the hearts and minds of
these people before they
rise up."
Some analysts believe Mugabe could be deliberately goading the
population to
revolt - allowing him to declare a state of emergency and
abolish what is
left of Zimbabwe's civil liberties and rights.
The
draconian Land Tenure Act passed by the white-run former Rhodesian
government prohibited black citizens Zimbabweans from having permanent homes
in the major cities and towns. Forty years on, black Zimbabweans are being
forcibly removed from urban centres and ordered by police to go back to
poverty-stricken rural areas.
Memories of the brutal policies of the
past white regime in neighbouring
South Africa are uppermost in the mind of
Vincent Kahiya, editor of the
weekly Independent newspaper.
"I
believe only the survivors of South Africa's apartheid-engineered forced
Bantu removals would be able to appreciate the scale and ferocity of this
operation," he said. "The police are going about the rapine with gusto,
destroying everything deemed illegal - never mind that the police carry no
papers from any recognised court of law.
"There can be no worse
lawlessness than the callous operation going on in
Zimbabwe's urban
areas."
An added bonus for Mugabe, say some analysts, is that a
politicised
crackdown on "illegal" homes and traders offers a distraction
from the
immense problems the country is really facing - a crippling fuel
crisis,
shortages of maize, bread and other basic commodities, and a general
economic meltdown which has seen Zimbabwe's gross domestic product decline
for seven years in a row.
Most people now spend more time in fuel and
food queues than at work, while
thousands of commuters have had to walk
distances of ten or more miles
because of the various crises.
The
MDC's Coltart is certain the demolition project will make life even
tougher.
"What is particularly outrageous, sinister and callous about
this pogrom is
that it has been done at the commencement of winter and at a
time when
millions are already facing starvation and are affected by AIDS
and have no
access to medication," he said. "The sudden removal of a source
of income
and a warm bed will condemn many to death in coming weeks and
months."
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said that within just a few
days, Zimbabwe
has turned into a massive internal refugee disaster, with
more than a
million people displaced in Harare alone.
The crackdown
is cranking up emotions against the Mugabe government. But the
resentment is
unlikely to translate into political action because the MDC
appears hesitant
about what to do next following the disputed parliamentary
election.
Meanwhile, national police commissioner Augustine Chihuri
is adamant that
the campaign against vendors and housing will
continue.
He said, "I warn any miscreants who may wish to show their
discontent
against the current clean-up operations to stop the daydream
forthwith, as
the Zimbabwe Republic Police has adequate resources to ensure
that peace and
tranquillity prevails."
Meanwhile, the policy is
played out on the lives of some of the most
vulnerable members of
society.
"How can the little ones of the world be brutalised in this
way?" asked
Sister Patricia. "Their only crime is that they are poor, they
are helpless
and they happen to live in the wrong part of town, and in a
country that
does not have oil and is not very important to the
West.
"We stand in shock and cry with the people, but we also have to try
to keep
them alive. When will sanity prevail? Where is the outside
world?"
Dzikamai Chidyausiku is the pseudonym used by a journalist in
Zimbabwe.
Combined Harare Residents Association
Press Statement
6 June
2005
CHRA calls for a Stay Away on 9 & 10 June 2005
In the
face of the continuing brutal and repressive attacks upon
citizens of
Zimbabwe by the illegitimate and unaccountable rogue regime,
CHRA has
resolved to engage in various activities to challenge the actions
of the
fascist clique that has occupied our State.
CHRA therefore calls for a
two day stay away to protest the destruction of
property and the arrests of
thousands of citizens as the regime attempts to
destroy urban life for all
but an elite of zanu-pf supporters. We call on
all residents to remain at
home and in their neighbourhoods on Thursday and
Friday and subsequently to
boycott all shops and businesses that refuse to
join the
stayaway.
CHRA is joined in this call by our civil society partners and
we are
unanimous in our opposition to the illegitimate regime. We demand
an
immediate end to the madness of the so-called Operation Murambatsvina
and
compensation for the destruction of people's homes and possessions. When
the
rule of law returns to Zimbabwe, CHRA will spearhead legal claims
against
those behind the campaign including members of the zanu-pf police and
army.
All citizens who have suffered from these attacks are encouraged to
lodge
details of their losses (and who perpetrated the destruction) with
Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights and CHRA for future compensation which will
be
sourced from the ill-gotten gains of the thieves and thugs who are
currently
ruining our country, not from the ratepayers and residents of
Harare.
CHRA is also engaged in a legal challenge to the continuing
imposition of a
Commission in Harare headed by the sell-out Makwavarara and
her fellow
zanu-pf flunkeys. However even if we are successful in dislodging
the
dictatorship at Town House and restoring a democratically-elected
Council,
the regime will continue to subvert our democratic rights by
issuing
directives and undermining the actions of any legitimate council.
Only an
end to the crisis of national governance will allow a resolution of
the
local governance crisis. We are under no illusions that the
subverted
judicial process can deliver justice and we engage in such action
solely to
demonstrate the contempt that the mugabe regime has for its own
laws.
CHRA remains committed to non-violent methods in our fight against
this evil
as we are convinced that the mugabe regime, with its track record
and its
'degrees in violence", wants to provoke citizens into violent
reactions that
will then allow the regime to be even more brutal and
murderous than their
customary behaviour. However we would point out that
there is increasing
pressure from the people of Zimbabwe to confront the
regime with violence
and if a downward spiral into chaos is to be averted
then the sane and
rational members of zanu-pf must prevail over the thugs who
currently
dominate the party. We call upon such citizens to reject the
actions of
their party which can only have dire consequences for all
Zimbabweans.
-ENDS-
For further information,
contact:
Combined Harare Residents Association
Mike
Davies
Chairman
gardener@zol.co.zw
tel:
498792
mobile: 263 4 [0]91 249 430
IOL
Opposition demos to go ahead in Zimbabwe Basildon
Peta
June 07 2005 at 07:14AM
The Zimbabwean government
has vowed to deal ruthlessly with a planned
mass action called for Thursday
and Friday by an alliance of the main
opposition and civic groups to protest
against the arrests of more than 22
000 informal traders and the demolition
of informal settlements that have
left many homeless.
This
would be the first mass action in Zimbabwe in more than two years
after the
passage of draconian security laws which outlawed all strike
action, unless
sanctioned by the police.
The government has declared the planned
mass action illegal, but the
organisers say they will press ahead with it
because repression in Zimbabwe
"has reached intolerable
levels".
"We are protesting against the senselessness of
this regime in terms
of the mass suffering it continues to cause to the
people of this country,"
said an alliance spokesperson.
The
alliance includes the Movement for Democratic Change, the National
Constitutional Assembly, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the Crisis
Coalition of Zimbabwe and several other groups.
This
article was originally published on page 3 of The Mercury on June
07,
2005
From: Renate Hechenberger [mailto:renate.hechenberger@muenchen.de]
Sent: 03
June, 2005 10:52 AM
From Hep Monatzeder, Mayor of the City of Munich,
addressed to Cde David
Karimanzira, the provincial Governor
Harare
Metropolitan Province.
To: Cde David Isheminyoro Godi
Karimanzira
Dear Sir,
on behalf of the citizens of Munich, twin
city of Harare, I wish to express
our deep concern for the people of Harare
at this moment.
I have heard that police and army units have been engaged
in demolishing not
only the stalls of street traders, licensed as well as
unlicensed, but also
legally as well as illegally built homes in several
districts of Harare.
According to my information, thousands of people have
been made homeless and
many more have lost their means of supporting
themselves and their families.
I wish to protest most strongly against these
measures in the interest of
the citizens of our twin city, who had already
enough to put up with because
of the economic situation.
As a
long-serving Mayor of a state capital with a population of over a
million I
am fully aware that the maintenance of security and order as well
as the
compliance with legal regulations are of importance to the
administration of
a big city.
However, my experience has also shown me that a municipality
can only be
successful in the long run if the measures taken by the
administration are
always preceded by a careful weighing up of the interests
and well being of
all citizens.
I am sure that you take the
responsibility assigned to you on behalf of the
citizens of Harare just as
seriously as I do. I would therefore ask you in
the interest of Munich's twin
city to do your utmost to prevent further
demolition measures as long as the
people concerned are not offered
alternative accommodation, to provide food
and shelter for those who have
already been made homeless and as soon as
possible, to designate places
where traders can pursue their efforts to
provide for
themselves and their families.
Yours sincerely,
Hep
Monatzeder
Mayor of the City of Munich
The Times
Leading article
June 07, 2005
Trashing
the cities
Mugabe's razing of shanty towns must be condemned by
African
nations
Fresh from bulldozing houses,
torching trading stalls and
turning 200,000 people on to the streets, Robert
Mugabe's police are now
threatening to deal "ruthlessly" with anyone who
takes part in a general
strike called to protest against the Government's
demolition campaign. The
threat is all too credible: the former inhabitants
of Harare's shanties have
already been labelled "economic saboteurs" and
"miscreants", denounced as
black market traders and suspected of voting
overwhelmingly for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the
recent elections. Beatings
and arrests are the likely price of attempts to
protest against the
evictions.
The cynicism and paranoia of
Zimbabwe's rulers is breathtaking.
Mendacious spokesmen maintain that the
systematic demolition of thousands of
structures, including brick-built
houses for which the owners had permits
and formal lease agreements, is an
attempt to "clean up" the country's
cities and crack down on black market
trading. But "Operation Murambatsivna"
(Drive out trash) is as Orwellian as
its name. No attempt was made to
resettle the slum-dwellers. No warning was
given before their homes were
wrecked, possessions burnt and livelihoods
ruined. Nothing was done for the
nursing mothers, the babies, the sick and
the elderly kept back by armed
paramilitaries and left on the street, cowed
and bemused.
Little wonder that the United Nations
condemned Zimbabwe's
actions or that the country's braver religious leaders
said they were
shocked by the havoc. It is a greater wonder that the
demolitions have, so
far, evinced no word of protest or condemnation from
South Africa, the
African Union or from any of Zimbabwe's neighbours. For
misplaced African
solidarity with a fellow "liberationist" regime hurts all
Africa,
particularly when the developed world is again attempting another
bail-out
of a continent with too many crises. Despite attempts at
censorship, films
of the bulldozers at work fill the screens of Europe and
America - the very
countries now being asked to provide more aid to Africa.
The response is an
understandable cynicism from many
voters.
Aid agencies already report a fall in donations and
funds for
Africa - partly because of the tsunami, and partly because of a
perception
that aid will be stolen, embezzled, misused or simply disappear
in a maze of
bureaucratic incompetence. The fall is also because of a view
that Africans,
particularly African men, must take more personal
responsibility, whether it
be to curb the spread of Aids or to ensure that
obligations to their
families are met.
Africa does still
need assistance. Much of the south is
suffering drought and crops have
failed. The outlook in Zimbabwe is
especially grim. But there will be little
support for relief by the World
Food Programme for a disaster that is
largely man-made. And there will be
little enthusiasm in Washington to
support Tony Blair's call for more money
for Africa unless the continent
gives clear proof of good governance. That
must include a halt to the
atrocities in Zimbabwe.
The Telegraph
Africa must learn the boring stuff
By Mark
Steyn
(Filed: 07/06/2005)
'DJ Attacks Live 8 Line-Up As 'Too White',"
ran the headline in the
Independent on Sunday. No good turn goes unpunished,
and the trouble with
all the good turns lined up for the Rock Against Bush
mega-bash is that
they're overwhelmingly of the Caucasian
persuasion.
That's the crux of the "row" that "broke out" over the
weekend between Bob
Geldof, Knight Commander of the Order of the British
Empire, and Andy
Kershaw, Jockey of the Discs at the British Broadcasting
Corporation.
"If we are going to change the West's perception of Africa,
events like this
are the perfect opportunity to do something for Africa's
self-esteem," said
Kershaw. "But the choice of artists for the Live 8
concerts will simply
reinforce the global perception of Africa's
inferiority." And when Midge Ure
gives you an inferiority complex you know
you've got a self-esteem problem.
In this epic clash between St Bob and
DJ Andy, one recalls Henry Kissinger's
observation on the Iran/Iraq war:
it's a shame they both can't lose. I've
always had a certain regard for Bob
Geldof, and it's disappointing to see
him lending his name to a feeble bit
of poseur politics chiefly aimed at
certain Western leaders who are entirely
blameless for Africa's current woes
and severely constrained in their
ability to do anything to alleviate them.
So I reckon Live 8 is a dud, with
or without Midge Ure, Pat Boone and Val
Doonican.
On the other hand,
I've always quite liked those radio shows where Andy
Kershaw takes a tape
recorder to Niger or Mali and comes back with the
latest groovy sounds. But
come on, man, what a lame-o complaint.
Given that you and Bob and "Make
Poverty History" and all the rest are as
one in your indestructible
conviction that Africa's such a hopeless case it
needs to be put on an
ever-more lavish drip feed of Western "aid", it's
surely a bit late in the
day to begin raising self-esteem issues. I'd have
low self-esteem if I'd
been taken on by Western do-gooders as a permanent
poster child for the
world's irredeemable losers.
Bob and Andy agree that paternalism and
condescension are the only ways to
deal with Africa, they're just quibbling
over the particular form of
condescension. After all, Kershaw's remedy for
avoiding the "reinforcement"
of "global perceptions" about Africa would
surely reinforce the oldest
stereotype of all - that say what you like about
these darkies, but they've
got the most marvellous sense of
rhythm.
The point is we all know Africa can produce wild, vibrant,
exciting jungle
rhythms. What's unclear is whether it can produce anything
boring, humdrum
and routine. Accountancy firms, for example. I mentioned in
The Spectator a
few weeks ago the extraordinary number of US tax returns
that are now
prepared by accountants in India.
Small hospitals in
America have their patients' CAT scans analysed overnight
by radiologists in
India. These and a thousand other niche businesses were
not facilitated by
government leaders meeting at international summits. That
said, government
leaders did not actively obstruct their creation and
growth, as governments
do all over the Dark Continent.
It's hardly news that Western pop stars
are so deeply concerned about Africa
that they're willing to climb into
wacky gear and caterwaul geriatric rock
hits in a stadium for a couple of
hours every decade. But would they be
prepared to outsource the book-keeping
for their music publishing to a guy
in Ouagadougou or Niamey?
That's
tougher than another spasm of feelgood agitprop aimed at that brave
band of
guilt-ridden Western liberals who got such a frisson out of wasting
their
money on the tsunami appeal they're itching to waste a ton more. (One
quarter of all the tsunami aid sent to Sri Lanka has been sitting on the
dock at Colombo since January, unclaimed and/or unprocessed. Maybe St Bob
could do Sitting on the Dock of the Bay for his next charity
single.)
As long as Western progressives are divided into those who wish
to keep
Africa in a backward subsistence agriculture economy and those who
wish to
keep Africa in a backward subsistence agriculture economy but if the
rude
fieldhands break into something catchy enough when Andy Kershaw's
passing
they'll be in with a shot as the warm-up to Bananarama at the next
all-star
charity gala, the do-gooders will have no useful contribution to
make to
Africa's future.
According to the World Bank's Doing Business
report, in Canada it takes two
days to incorporate a company; in Mozambique,
it takes 153 days. And
Mozambique's company law has been unchanged since
1888. In the midst of the
unending demands that Bush do this, Blair do that,
do more, do it now, would
it be unreasonable to suggest that, after 117
years, the government of
Mozambique might also be obligated to do something
about its regulatory
regime?
Meanwhile, next door in Zimbabwe, Robert
Mugabe's government is being given
hundreds of thousands of tons of
emergency supplies from the UN's World Food
Programme. At the press
conference, James Morris, head of the WFP, was at
pains to emphasise that
the famine was all due to drought and Aids, and
certainly nothing to do with
Mr Mugabe's stewardship of the economy. Some of
us remember that during the
2002 G8 summit, also devoted to Africa,
Zimbabwe's government ordered
commercial farmers to cease all operations.
But still neither the UN nor
his fellow African leaders will hear a word
against Mr Mugabe. Listening to
Mr Morris, the old monster must have laughed
so hard his Chinese-made rubber
penis fell off. (A popular Harare rumour,
which I mention only in the hopes
that old 1970s supergroups will organise a
"Codpieces for Africa"
fundraiser. It's outrageous that dictators should
have to make do with these
cheapjack Chinese models.)
The issue in Africa in every one of its crises
- from economic liberty to
Aids - is government. Until the do-gooders get
serious about that, their
efforts will remain a silly distraction. But, if
you want some black music
to cheer up the silly distraction, I recommend the
lyrics of Andy Razaf,
nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar. If they
ever clean up their
kleptocratic act, Ain't Misbehavin' would make a great
group anthem for
Africa's heads of state. Until then, more than a few of
their hapless
peoples must wonder, "What Did I Do to be so Black and
Blue?"
Daily News, Botswana
FMD fence to be completed August end
07 June,
2005
FRANCISTOWN The erection of a cordon fence along the
Botswana/Zimbabwe
border is expected to be completed by the end of
August.
This was announced by Francistowns head of Animal Health and
Production
Lethogile Modise during a guided tour of the cordon fence by the
Minister of
Agriculture, Johnnie Swartz, Assistant Minister of Works and
Transport,
Frank Ramsden and government officials.
The fence, which
is 2.5m high and stretches from the Tuli circle in Bobirwa
to Zibanani
settlement near Maitengwe village in the Tutume sub-district, is
meant to
control animal movement, thus guarding against possible
transmission of
diseases such as foot and mouth.
Dr Modise said that in the physical
construction of the fence, 400km of the
expected 500km have already been
covered while the electrification part of
the project has covered only
160km.
Only 100km of the construction of the fence is remaining and we
are hopeful
that by the end of August it will be completed, he
said.
Even though the slow electrification of the fence seems to be a
major
setback, it was also revealed that theft and vandalism have
contributed to
the delay.
The perpetrators are said to be pulling out
the erected poles and cutting
the fence to facilitate easy access by both
Batswana and Zimbabwean
criminals.
On the cases of vandalism to the
fence, Modise said the security forces are
helpful in patrolling the fence,
adding that various committees have also
been set up to help with
patrols.
There are also foot patrols along the border but the distance
between
pickets might give room for illegal crossings into the two countries
as well
as cases of vandalism, Modise said.
Minister Swartz said that
the objective of their tour was to check on the
progress, adding that they
had noticed that the electrification of the fence
was taking long.
We
will have to sit down and find out how the electrification can be speeded
up, Swartz said.
For his part, assistant minister Ramsden said that
it was still
disappointing to find that there were certain people who are of
the view
that the fence is meant to control movement of human beings, adding
that in
the long run both countries will benefit from this
project.
People from the two countries must cooperate for the fence to be
a success
because in the end the fence will work for the good of both
countries.
He, however, cautioned against vandalism, as it would eat
deeper into
government coffers as more funds would have to be found to buy
other
materials as well as maintenance costs.
The project is a joint
venture between the Ministry of Agriculture and the
Department of Building
and Electrical Services (DEBS) of the Ministry of
Works and
Transport.
Ministry of Agriculture is involved in the physical
construction of the
fence while DBES has sub-contracted a private company to
electrify the
fence. BOPA
News24
SA takes up Zim property fight
Jun 07 2005
09:53:49:760AM
Cape Town - South Africa's embassy in Harare is
working on "an ongoing
basis" to resolve some of the issues related to the
confiscation of property
in Zimbabwe, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday.
Replying to Democratic Alliance MP Roy
Jankielsohn, Dlamini-Zuma said
the embassy was not aware of any cases of
false arrests of South African
nationals, but it was working "on an ongoing
basis to resolve some of the
issues related to the confiscation of
property".
It would "continue to provide consular and other
services to South
African citizens in Zimbabwe".
With regard to
incidents of violence and intimidation, the minister
said that the South
African embassy had dealt with these matters "in the
prescribed
manner".
She did not provide a breakdown of these
complaints.
Xinhua
Zimbabwean president scoffs at rumors of his
death
www.chinaview.cn
2005-06-07 15:44:04
HARARE, June 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe
on Monday scoffed at rumors spread in Harare that he
died last week after a
heart failure, local newspaper Herald reported on
Tuesday.
Senior government officials who attended a briefing
with the
president and Vice Presidents Joseph Msika and Joyce Mujuru at
Zimbabwe
House on Monday was quoted as saying that Mugabe laughed off the
rumors.
"I told the president that he is reportedly dead last
week as
aresult of heart failure. He laughed and said 'when did I die and
where?'"
said Secretary for Information and Publicity George Charamba
.
Charamba said Mujuru told the president that she had also
heard
that he died and phoned his residence only to be told that Mugabe and
First
Lady Grace Mugabe had gone to church.
Charamba said
he received two calls on Monday from the South
African media chasing the
rumor of the president's supposed ill health.
"I had a briefing
with the president. He is as fit as a teenager.
He is in the best of health
and is at work. Those doubting can check on
Thursday when he addresses
parliament," he said.
There are rumors in Harare that President
Mugabe died last week of
heart failure, and the rumors were being spread
through short messages on
cellphones. Enditem
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Emailjag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw,with "For Open Letter Forum" in
the subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prelude
text
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
1:
Dear Jag,
Today I write from a devastated Bulawayo. When I said
that after the
election there would be greater repression I could not
possibly have
imagined what is happening in Zimbabwe now, first in Harare
starting nearly
two weeks ago, and now coming to us. The police started
yesterday evening
and continued today with the result that all the fruit and
vegetable stalls
on Fith Ave, all the stalls of every sort in Lobengula
Street mall, the
whole of Entumbane informal market, the furniture and
mattress makers in
Makokoba and all the food and clothing sellers and service
-providers at
Renkini are history. The "World Bank" is an otherworldly scene
of twisted
iron bars and metal frames of what were once market stalls. There
are
piles of rubble everywhere lying in chaos and the police are trying
to
shovel it away.
Late this morning they attacked the sellers along
Lobengula street, dumping
their wares into police trucks and burning the
stalls. Smoke was wafting
everywhere. The mayor went to try to explain to
the vendors that the city
council had nothing to do with it and was not even
told, but some threw
stones at him. They cannot resist the police so try to
stone the one
person who is trying to help them. Other women beseiged the
council
offices. Later the mayor met with representatives of the vendors.
This
afternoon a convoy of six huge police trucks was seen coming from
Entumbane
loaded with remnants of stalls. I haven't heard anything about
Sekusile
market or Emganwini, but doubtless they have also been destroyed.
With the
exception of Emganwini and probably Sekusile, all these are
legally
designated stalls for vendors, for which they get licenses from the
City
Council and pay monthly fees.
There are no words to describe what
this means to hundreds of thousands of
people who eke out a living selling on
the streets, trying to get by when
the formal economy has collapsed. If ever
any government has behaved like
this, not to a selected, ostracized or
demonised group of its population,
but to the entire country, even their own
supporters, I don't know where or
when it existed. They have not just openly
stolen peoples' goods, but
their entire livelihoods. Do they expect them to
go to rural areas where
everyone knows there is no food? Could Didymus
Mutasa have really meant it
when he said that we only need six million
Zimbabweans, not twelve?
In Bulawayo at least we have few informal
settlements where people lived,
but there are some, and doubtless we will
hear about them soon. Late this
afternoon the streets of the business centre
were eerily empty as most cars
do not have fuel. Many people have simply
parked their cars and try to
walk. Every petrol station has a long queue
snaking around the block,
leading to a sign on the forecourt saying "No
Fuel". It appears that there
is none. Anywhere
Our brains are
evidently not equipped to absorb or give meaning to the
destruction that has
been perpetrated. We are not, as far as we know, at
war, but that is what
appears to be happening. Our government is making
war on the nation. We
cannot attempt to explain it, and everyone is in a
state of shock. We cannot
"adjust" any more to our fate, but as a people
we are paralysed by fear and
desperation. There will be prayer meetings of
the faithful, all night
vigils, but when the Amen is said, nothing will
have changed. Hopelessness in
the face of unspeakable evil and violence is
our
future.
ANONYMOUS
---------------------------------------------------------------
LETTER
NO 2
I refer to Sheleigh Barton's letter and others
There has been
some heavy sarcasm from people regarding my earlier letter
to fold up and
leave. I decided to do this after the presidential elections
of 2002 as I
refused to live under zanu pf, and it was very difficult. We
arrived in UK
with two suitcases and a 2 year old child. 1) 1st job as a
security guard,
terrible wages. 2) 2nd job as a cleaner,slightly better
wages, but cleaning
toilets,sweeping etc. 3) Self employed window
cleaner, better money but
extremely hard work especially during the long
winter. Often scraping ice
from my ladder to start work.
Schooling is only free as of age 5, and our
child had to attend nursery
school otherwise left behind in alphabet etc. My
wife worked as a
bookkeeper and her wages literally paid the nursery school
fees. Hard times
living in a shoe box house and just surviving, HOWEVER we
knew that not one
penny we earned was going towards taxes, rates etc and the
zanu pf
government.
White Zimbabweans are a pampered,spoilt bunch.
Over here in the UK it is
common to see old people (70 to 75 yrs) working as
shelf packers in
supermarkets, cleaners in huge office blocks lugging rubbish
outside,
labourers and other hard menial jobs. A lot of those left in
Zimbabwe
cannot picture themselves doing this and would rather hang onto
their
little bubbles and "do what it takes to survive".
Sheleigh
Barton says it is hard to gain entry into another country, however
she does
mention pleading asylum and if that is what it takes to get into a
country
then DO IT!. Staying in Zim and paying taxes and continually
"making a plan"
inevitably goes towards benefiting some zanu pf fat cat at
the end of the
line.
Zanu pf have declared war on white people, whites should
reciprocate and do
what we can to bring zanu pf down. Sitting in zim on fat
asses saying there
is no other option does not wash with me.
Trevor
Midlane
I read in zw news today that Tom Beattie will keep his farm because
he is a
zanu pf supporter. Well done Tom at least you don`t have to come and
clean
toilets in cold UK.......******** ! !
Tracey
Midlane
---------------------------------------------------------------
LETTER
NO 3
Dear Family and Friends,
For the last five years the Zimbabwe
government have insisted that there
has not been a breakdown of law and order
in the country. As the critics
talked of anarchy, a partisan police force and
widespread lawlessness, the
government repeatedly disputed the claims saying
they were all lies,
damned racist, colonialist lies. It is ironic that now,
as Zimbabwe's
horizons are obscured by the smoke from a thousand fires, the
police and
government say they are simply "restoring order" to Zimbabwe.
Hello, did I
miss something here?
All everyone can think about and
talk about is the massive destruction,
the smoke that fills our skies and the
multitudes of people who have been
affected. There continue to be TV
pictures of bulldozers knocking down
brick houses. There are heart breaking,
eye witness reports of families
sitting in the filth, dust and rubble of what
used to be their homes.
All week there have been people desperately trying to
save what they can
of their lives. People carrying planks, boards, sheets of
tin, bundles of
plastic - the things that were their homes. Everywhere people
are
desperately looking for somewhere to sleep, somewhere out of the cold
to
shelter, somewhere to store their belongings. The police tell them to
go
back where they came from, to go back to the rural areas. It is
ironic
that these are the same rural areas that the government said were
so
overcrowded five years ago that the congestion was used to explain
the
seizure of 95% of the country's commercial farms.
I remember
writing a letter like this about two years ago when I described
newly evicted
commercial farmers driving around in lorries filled with
their furniture,
desperately looking for somewhere to stay. Then it was
self employed white
commercial farmers whose lives, homes and jobs were
being destroyed, now it
is self employed black family traders.
First they came for the
farmers
Then they came for the judges
Then they came for the
opposition
Then they came for the media
Then they came for the
traders
Next ???
So few are left. Until next week, with love, cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle
4th June 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears"
are
available from: orders@africabookcentre.com ; www.africabookcentre.com ;
www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and New
Zealand:
johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au;
Africa: www.kalahari.net
www.exclusivebooks.com
Cathy
Buckle
---------------------------------------------------------------
LETTER
NO 4
Some strong response is required to the 'note' written by Kingstone
Dutiro.
He is obviously one of those racist zealots who has also been
brainwashed
into thinking that all farms were 'stolen'. Why doesn't he blame
his
ancestors for agreeing to allow other persons to settle on land.
His
name has been recorded along with others.
Brian
Hayes
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thought
For The Day
I kept quiet when they murdered 20 000 people in
Matabeleland. I am not an
Ndebele
I kept quiet when they tried to kill
Morgan Tsvangirai in 1987. I am not a
trade unionist.
I kept quiet
when they called homosexuals worse than pigs and dogs. I am
not
homosexual.
I kept quiet when they beat the students. I am not a
student.
I kept quite when they chased homeless people off the streets. I
am not
homeless.
I kept quiet when they killed farmer workers. I am
not a farm worker.
I kept quiet when they chased away the commercial
farmers. I am not a
farmer.
I kept quiet when they chased away the
teachers. I am not a teacher.
I kept quiet when they murdered Tichaona
Chiminya, Talent Mabika and
hundreds of MDC supporters. I am not an
activist
I kept quiet when they tortured Ray Choto and Mark Chavunduka. I
am not a
journalist.
I kept quiet when they tortured Job Sikhala and
other MDC members of
parliament. I am not a politician.
I kept quiet
when they arrested and beat the women of WOZA. I am not a
woman.
I
kept quiet when they chased away thousands of vendors. I am not a
vendor.
I kept quiet
I am ashamed that I kept quiet
I am
nothing.
I have no voice.
Who will speak for
me?
Anonymous
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
No 5:
Dear JAG,
NOBODY has security of tenure in Zimbabwe
-
not the old white farmer who had lived on his farm for 45 years and
who
helped his neighbours to drill boreholes in the arid BeitBridge area
when he
was warned that he would be jailed again this week for ignoring his
S8
order
- not the young farmer who has a letter from the Director of
Veterinary
affairs protecting his brahman herd from seizure as it is the last
genetic
pool of Pedigree Brahman cattle available in Masvingo Province
-
not the A2 settler in Trelawney who voted for the opposition and so he
has
been told to move off the farm that the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement
have
given him a letter to occupy
- not the "war veterans" and assistants who
helped the government to
Jambanja the farmers from their land and so were
given plots in New Town
who were chased out of their homes yesterday and sit
on the sidewalks of
their well designed shanty town waiting for a truck to
come and move them
to a farm far away for "re-resettlement" now that their
services are no
longer required by the Minister of Local Government
- not
the vendors who plied their trade on every street corner as they
desperately
scratched a living after losing their jobs in the formal sector
as factories
closed
- not the rural folk who drifted to town to look for food and
employment
as their crops failed and they faced starvation
- not the A1
settlers whose seed and fertiliser arrived in January, too
late to plant and
so they have a failed crop which made them move to town
to find food and a
job
- not the teacher who was chased away from his school for a
perception
that he was an opposition member and so moved to a santy in town
to find
employment
- not the wealthy chef who took over a farm and now
finds the bank wants
their money back
- not the politician who said
interesting things about rocket scientists
who was given 14 days to leave his
official residence when he fell out of
favour......
NOBODY HAS
SECURITY OF TENURE.
There is a cold winter coming and if the new
government nationalises all
land, that means that even the fat cats in their
beautiful homes will have
no security of tenure. But don't forget that the
Land Acquisition Act
already states that all land that has been used for
agricultural purposes
during the past 50 years can be taken for acquisition
by the government.
This means that most of the new suburbs around Harare and
Bulawayo which
have been set out within the last 50 years can be taken by
government under
the Land Acquisition Act.
Remember too that the
current government want to nationalise all land this
parliamentary cession
and, before you call me a prophet of doom, think
about the urban folk who
have been forcibly removed from their homes over
the past two weeks. Think
about the pieces of paper that they held,
thinking it gave them security of
tenure, think about the vendors who had
licenses, the farmers who had title
deeds and the government who don't care
a damn.
I wonder if even the
president has security of tenure?
Regards
Jean
Simon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
Third World: A Real
Solution to Poverty
Bush - Say no to the British Aid Initiative!
Peter J. Spencer June
6 2005
First
Essential:
Land
Reform
Human Resources
Development
This will Impact
Positively On:
Governance
Poverty
Health
Economic
Sustainability
Environment
Aid reduction - eventually
unnecessary
Aid – Globally
Misunderstood:
Aid provision is in
essence compelling and yet very misleading in that it leads one (especially the
populace of the 1st world) to believe one is helping. Therefore the
tendency is to increase the amount of $ - Aid believing this will increase the
help one is delivering. This is politically correct
nonsense.
NGO Organizations,
Academics and politically correct sympathises fundamentally have little to offer
in effective third and forth world policy conceptualisation determination and
implementation.
In fact since Dec 14
1960 when the 947th plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly passed
Resolution 1514 (xv) was passed the 1st world has injected billions
of dollars. The result generally speaking is today the 2005 third world
is from a social indicator point of view worse off then in 1960. This UN
initiative was only the first major debacle of which many others followed –
still regrettably this pattern is pathetically continuing.
Only the USA appears
to question many of the UN policies and initiatives - much to the concern of
the rest of the global community. The Bush Administration’s intension to
appoint an unpopular individual to the UN may have determined purpose and the
outcome may well prove timely. The individual will have to be made of pure
refined hardened steel to with stand the backlash and rage unleashed at the mere
mention of reform.
Further more, not
only on the social indicators front but from the point of view of
infrastructure, environment, health, employment, trade, and the public sector
- in fact any area across the spectrum of requirements needed to uplift
humanity’s wellbeing hence improve quality of life in the 3rd
World to a level where it is even tolerable - that being at the most basic
level acceptable to all in the 1st world - in all these, most
fundamental areas of human need, we have abysmally failed in all our
initiatives.
This human condition
in the 3rd world is not only unacceptable it is intolerable and sadly
to those who really understand - totally unnecessary. Regrettably Aid has
become one of the worlds largest industries and in this regard many in the
3rd world itself are the largest beneficiaries – not the
impoverished, not the starving, not the sick and homeless.
Some of these
countries - new Nations when they received this enforced independence from
colonial countries only had 3 or 4 university graduates. Unfortunately modern
civilisation does not operate in ether.
Civilisation
requires institutions, human recourse, infrastructure, investment, negotiable
land title, and an acceptable appreciation of common law. Global diplomacy
continues to patronise many of these 3rd World leaders knowing full well all the
basic civilised rules are being blatantly broken.
An example of this
is Zimbabwe’s Mugabe who claims he does things his way and the world is wrong.
Governments of most African States agree with him. With this behaviour
acknowledged as acceptable by his contemporaries and neighbour States
what hope do the 3rd world people have? Especially when from a
Global perspective no one of any influence or authority will challenge
this nonsense.
Civilisation
apparently sadly lacks persons in decision-making positions who appreciate this
fact. We deny those in the 3rd world the very fundamentals we in the
1st world as a civilised society could not do with
out.
With out these basics it
does not matter now much money is provided in aid it will have no positive
impact.
In the tribal society the
result is quite often that Aid funds corrupt the Political and Public Service
ruling elite of the Nation. Too often from a tribal viewpoint aid is nothing
more then wealth available for clan distribution.
Most of the UN
agencies staff authorised to administer the aid delivery implementation are so
culturally impacted by the entire tribal entrenched methodology and personally
are so benefiting from the status quo en masse they can not affectively address
the real aid delivery issues. In fact many are so disproportionately
benefiting they do not want to change the system - they perpetuate
it.
Perpetuating the Problem -
Thanks to The British
For Britain to
recommend a solution by way of debt reduction and aid fund increase is quite
simply - nonsense.
This misguided
approach to Aid delivery flies directly in the face of the historic facts.
This approach will
lead to the next 40 years being as the last 40 years - equally ineffective in
its ability to address the entrenched global poverty dilemma.
This in fact means
not only that millions will continue to die but also the side affect which is
failure in the delivery of all public services in particular in –
infrastructure, health, education, environmental damage etc.
It must also be
appreciated the NGO solution is not a solution more so - often an impediment to
reform. What is misunderstood by those who promote the NGO programs is that so
often their disjointed emotive driven approach to most of the issues in the
3rd world is not contributing to any permanent or sustainable
remedy. It is quite frankly no more
then a band-aid.
This is also the
case regarding most private funding initiatives. If the failed State has no
effective Government and public sector there can be no long-term
effective solutions until that resource –the Government and public
sector, is effectively and permanently established. Any attempt at Aid
delivery while this dysfunctional State remains, is futile, in fact this quite
common practice is even beyond basic commonsense.
NGO involvement does
not address the root course of the problem- year after year they have to deal
with and refinance the same problem. Having an NGO organization attend a
humanitarian issue on its own initiative often props up corrupt regimes as they
then justify shirking their responsibilities.
One of the main
reasons for this misinterpretation of how to deal with the problem is because we
rely more and more on academics, theory and emotions for foreign policy
initiatives – NGO’s compound all of these and they appease those in positions of
National responsibility.
The level this has
been reduced to intellectually one can more appreciate when one notes Bob Geldof
once again takes the initiative on foreign policy fund raising – just like the
last attempt 25 years ago the problem after his meddling will still be here. It
is no different then having a lawn mower manufacturer build and fly space ships.
The same goes for
the Microsoft owner and his millions of dollars directed at the aids sickness
impact in the African continent. Some how it makes people feel good to throw
their money at the 3rd world problem deeply and sincerely believing they in the
long term make a difference. Sadly man has believed this for 40 years, ever
since the Congo.
Third worlds leaders
are not going to object to the British approach as they the 3rd world
leaders will be the direct beneficiaries.
Solution:
The 1st
world can address the issues in an affective way that will deliver the
essentials to these desperate and failed States. It however requires an
entire new and very brave approach. The approach is humane and effective.
The approach will be
applauded by the populace and yet called neo colonial by the
leaders and
sections of the media who still see – contrary to recently published
material [i] that the
3rd World suffering is as a result of these States being unreasonably
exploited by long gone colonial powers. The approach being recommended does not
involve foreign military presence on these failed State shores nor does it
involve enforced political subservience.
The program is called “Global Village
Governance Stabilisation
Initiative” -
GVGSI.
The alternate
approach referred as GVGSI involves a Global determination to deal with issues
that are recognised as acceptable best practice in Governance and Public Sector
Reform. This approach would not have been possible during the cold war era as
the cold war’s ideological rivalry was a main factor perpetuating the
3rd World problem.
This new approach,
GVGSI is locked into accurate Globally acceptable transparent methods to monitor
the social indicators and Governance and tying aid delivery to ensuring those
indicators are rising at an acceptable rate.
Under the initiative
GVGSI the Aid in dollar value would be reduced annually over the 25 years and by
that time Aid would be greatly reduced and eventually be no longer required -
as The 3rd World Nations would no longer be failed
States.
The current British
initiative promotes concepts that have been continually and systematically
proven to be ineffective – with the resulting in ongoing loss of life and human
suffering so appalling as to having not been seen
historically.
The current situation
in the 3rd World is even more disturbing when one considers the UN
and Aid donor Countries through their AID Policies - actively perpetuate it.
The UN and these donor Countries provide billions of dollars each year yet
refuse to effectively confront these failed States or their own foreign policy
advisers and staff about the repeated and ongoing failures.
The fact that this
incompetence is now 40 years old - which translates into a terrible injustice
proves it is apparently
tolerated by the Global Community – it has become an accepted but sad part of
the world’s cultural norm.
This policy failure
is mainly due to the fact the current policy initiative has been conceptualised
predominately from a foreign position, not determined on the ground –nor
knowledge or experienced based and driven by emotion – this emotion
generated as a response to the Media sensationalising the appalling poverty and
suffering, predominately in Africa with the overall response being further
inflamed by political correct sentiments.
Also ever since
decolonisation - which was effected with out any study, research or
consideration in regards to the impact in the peoples of these States, there has
been a reluctance to revisit the subject by all including the Humanities
Institutes around the Globe. Colonisation although acknowledged as a part of
Global history was so demonised the issues associated with decolonisation could
not be comprehensively and openly addressed.
In the new States,
following decolonisation, activities that could be identified with any colonial
attachment, were dumped and removed often unnecessarily and irrationally. Proven
effective systems and practices were thrown out and any none indigenous
initiative was seen as unacceptable. In many cases nepotism and tribal loyalties
became the normal principle for policy and management principles.
With regard to this
new 2005 British Plan, President George Bush has publicly opposed the
British initiatives and the press has presented reasons for this stand. The
Presidents stand in opposing the initiative itself is once again proof that he
is prepared to make a stand on issues different to the popular opinion. In
this regard he the President’s stand for whatever reason is
correct.
The British
sponsored initiative in spite of all it’s sincerity and concern for the
suffering of the 3rd World if adopted will put reform in the
3rd world into a tail spin. In turn this will not only result in
ongoing enormous human suffering but very seriously impact on the first worlds
ability to comprehensively address a range of environmental and social issues so
essential to the survival of the globe as we know it - as a large number of
these problems are in the 3rd World.
If all the
3rd World human issues are not addressed and addressed effectively
NOW we will lose the opportunity to deal with it at all - before it spirals out
of control impacting comprehensively in a far more serious way on the Globe as a
whole. The problem will no longer be contained in the 3rd
World.
Peter
Spencer
“Saarahnlee”
Shannons
Flat
2630 NSW AUSTRALIA
- Ph
61 2 64 545 141 Fax 61 2 63 545122
[i]
The Oxford
History of the British Empire - Wm Roger Louis, Editor in
Chief - Oxford Univ Press 1998-99,