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Give us support, not sympathy

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Time Zone: EST (New York, Toronto)
Messenger: the rock Sent: 7/4/2005 1:55:09 PM
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Give us support, not sympathy, Africa tells West By William Maclean
2 hours, 7 minutes ago



SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - African Union (AU) chairman Olusegun Obasanjo called on rich nations on Monday to provide "massive" financial help rather than sympathy in its fight against poverty at their summit in Scotland this week.

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Some of Obasanjo's remarks ran counter to a call by AU host Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that Africa should refuse conditional help from the wealthy countries, some of them the continent's former colonial masters.

Obasanjo, president of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, said he hoped the Group of Eight (G8) summit would extend a recent debt cancellation beyond the 14 African countries that benefited from it.

"This is not the time for a lot of talk but more of a time for serious and concerted action," he told the opening session of a half-yearly summit of the 53-nation African Union.

He praised a British-backed report recommending more help for Africa to be presented to the G8 summit chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday and Thursday.

But he said rich nations should repay money looted in the past by corrupt African leaders and deposited in the West -- funds believed to be worth tens of billions of dollars.

"The current situation in Africa ... is the slow pace of development, increasing poverty and a rising rate of unemployment," Obasanjo said.

"For Africa (to fight poverty) it will require not only the debt forgiveness for which we have been vigorously campaigning but also a massive inflow of finance through repatriation of corruption-tainted funds in foreign banks, the fulfillment of commitments made by our development partners, new funds through investments ... and our collective political will to undertake our own part for our upliftment," he said.

Gadaffi told AU leaders earlier to reject conditional aid from the West.

"Begging will not make the future of Africa, (instead) it creates a greater gap between the great ones and the small ones," he said.

But it is Obasanjo who will be the key influence behind the wording of a message that African leaders are expected to send to the G8 summit about rescuing the continent of 800 million from poverty, war and disease, diplomats say.

IMPROVE QUALITY OF AID

AU spokesman Desmond Orjiako, a Nigerian, told Reuters: "We have requested Western partners to expedite debt cancellation for the whole of Africa by 2007.

"They should also improve the quality of the aid so that it is really helpful to poor African people."

Many critics of Western aid say it suffers a number of defects, principally that much of it goes to pay expensive Western consultants or that it is conditional on African governments doing business with a donor country's companies.

More than 40 percent of Africans live on less than $1 a day, 200 million Africans are threatened by serious food shortages and AIDS kills more than 2 million Africans a year.

As it does at all its gatherings, the AU at the summit targeted wars as a big barrier to growth on a continent that has seen 186 coups d'etat and 26 major conflicts in the past half century.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the summit nations had a responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing if their own governments failed to do so.

Rock stars around the world sang for Africa on Saturday to try to pressure the G8 leaders into action.

There was no mention in the agenda of Zimbabwe, in keeping with the AU's habitual deference to President Robert Mugabe.

But guests include European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who has said Africa must join the rest of the world in condemning Mugabe's crackdown on illegal shantytowns.

AU officials last week rejected calls from non-governmental organizations to intervene in Zimbabwe, saying the crackdown there was an internal affair.




Messenger: the rock Sent: 7/4/2005 2:20:44 PM
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Tuesday, 15 February, 2000, 14:11 GMT
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe strongman



Mugabe: One of the grand old men of African politics

When Robert Mugabe came to power in 1980 the talk was of peace and co-operation after decades of white colonial rule and a bitter civil war.
Click here to watch Jane Standley's video profile of Robert Mugabe.

Taking the helm of the newly renamed nation of Zimbabwe he was quickly elevated to the ranks of international statesman.

He has, however, always been regarded as something of a political enigma.

Raised and educated as a Roman-Catholic Mr Mugabe became a committed Marxist during the guerrilla war against the Rhodesian Front government of Ian Smith.

Taking power on a wave of popular support his early political promises of reconciliation and democracy were later overtaken by a strong authoritarian streak and a deep distrust of opposition.

Guerilla leader

Born in 1924, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was educated in missionary schools and received the first of his seven degrees from South Africa's Fort Hare University.

Returning to Rhodesia in 1960 he joined Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) but left three years later to form the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu).

Jailed without trial for 10 years he left Rhodesia for neighbouring Mozambique in 1974 and led the largest of the guerrilla forces fighting a protracted and bloody war against the Smith government.

After months of negotiations the 1979 Lancaster House agreement set the seal on a Rhodesian peace deal and Mr Mugabe returned home to a rapturous welcome from black supporters.

He initially built a coalition government with Mr Nkomo, whose Zapu forces had also fought the Smith government, but the discovery of a large arms cache at Zapu-owned houses led to Mr Nkomo's dismissal from government.

A brutal crackdown on Zapu supporters followed, leading many commentators to compare Mr Mugabe's own approach to political opposition with that during the time of white rule.

The collapse of the coalition allowed Mr Mugabe to strengthen his hold on power.

Economic collapse

In recent years Mr Mugabe has become an increasingly outspoken nationalist, lashing out at the 75,000 white Zimbabweans and their alleged foreign backers for his country's economic collapse.

Mr Mugabe has made much of his devout Christianity, but his marriage to a former private secretary in 1996 - 41 years his junior and with whom he already fathered two children - raised more than a few eyebrows.

At the same time he has pursued what he regards as a deeply moral campaign against homosexuality making "unnatural sex acts" illegal with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

A vocal opponent of colonialism Mr Mugabe has been criticised for committing his armed forces to what many see as little more than a wasteful colonial-style intervention in the Congolese civil war.

The war has also raised accusations of corruption, with government officials alleged to be lining their pockets from Congo's rich mineral reserves while Zimbabwe's own economy plummets out of control.

Opposition stifled

Local journalists who have tried to investigate these and other allegations against Mr Mugabe and his family say they have been intimidated and in some cases tortured.

Until recently, Mr Mugabe had always been able to stifle political opposition. His Zanu-PF party still dominates what is virtually a one party state occupying 147 out of the country's 150 parliamentary seats.

Growing discontent over the country's failing economy with inflation and unemployment soaring to record levels are starting to threaten his authority.

And with defeat for President Mugabe in the constitutional referendum, his long stated aim of handing over large tracts of fertile land from whites to blacks looks no nearer to being resolved.

The issue, which was a major cause of the guerrilla war for independence in the 1970s, looks likely to remain mired in arguments over compensation.




Messenger: the rock Sent: 7/4/2005 2:21:22 PM
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PEOPLE DYING IN ZIMBABWE
THE WAR ON WHITES INTENSIFIES

By: Jan Lamprecht

Oprah Winfrey is in South Africa, schmoozing with Nelson Mandela. She is clearly dishing out large amounts of money for various projects which Mandela has talked her in to and which she believes will help South Africa. There are plans for a big party on Robben Island and various celebrities including Naomi Campbell and various Rock stars will be involved. I couldn't help but chuckle at a speech given by Bishop Tutu. He said "We beat Apartheid, and we will beat AIDS!" Such is the wishful thinking of people over here with regard to AIDS. But let us not dwell on AIDS because unless medical science comes up with something, AIDS will run its devastating course and all the rhetoric in the world will not change a thing.




I must admit, I often chuckle when African Americans like Oprah come to Africa because they think they are doing something great here, meanwhile, they don't know how their African cousins are taking them for a big ride. They are so awed by "Africa" that they think they are treading on holy ground. They think they are doing the sacred "black thing", but meanwhile, their cousins over here were schooled by the Russians and Chinese and are making the very most of their naivete and their standing in the world. They are being played like a piano. One day a tremendous number of African Americans will realize how they were used by those who live in Africa and who have a deviousness that they cannot guess at. One day African Americans will realize that the people who told the truth the most often, were the whites whom so many of them now spurn. Let them learn the hard way. In the meantime, a quiet news snippet reached me. There are plans afoot to build a statue of Mandela in one of our coastal cities here in South Africa, which will rival the Statue of Liberty!

My article on Zimbabwe last week reached the wrong people, and before I knew it, I had an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in Zimbabwe attacking me for making things sound worse than they really were. Then someone else in Zimbabwe let me have it, as well as a South African journalist. However, I began wondering if the NGO was not merely acting like so many Zimbabwe Government officials in trotting out the party line that "there is no problem in Zimbabwe". I told the NGO official that I thought she was helping to prop up Mugabe, and that people like her had blood on their hands. As word of my e-mail fight spread, an extremely wealthy European businessman with big investments in Zimbabwe gave the NGO a good piece of his mind. This man (who does not want his name spread around), told the NGO that as recently as last week, he had meetings with senior members of Mugabe's government. He said that my writing style was aggressive, but my facts were completely correct. I had told the NGO that people in Zimbabwe were like someone blinded by the light of an oncoming train which was about to run them over. The European businessman (who is busy lobbying certain governments in Europe) said that he was amazed at the attitude of people in Zimbabwe who were staring an unbelievable tragedy in the face. I also informed the South African journalist that in my opinion, journalists were doing little enough to prevent an unbelievable disaster in Zimbabwe.

An American, with Government/Military connections told me that he could assure me that the "US Cavalry" was not going to save Zimbabwe.

Since that article on the "Total Devastation in Zimbabwe", new facts have come to light showing that the situation is just getting worse. On SABC news on 7th December, they stated that a tremendous disaster is expected in the first 3 months of 2003 in Zimbabwe. A lady from the UN tried to create the perception that the "drought" had indeed played a role creating the problem. But even she had to admit that there is virtually NO FARMING being done by rural people - the very ones Mugabe had claimed would be doing the farming.

She also mentioned that AIDS combined with a lack of food is a killer. This is something I have been hearing from Zimbabweans the last two months, and it is worth mentioning. 35% of Zimbabwe's population is HIV+. They say that the lack of food, combined with HIV is causing many people to die. This week I spoke to a rancher whose ranch had been taken over by the war vets. He told me that "the blacks are dying like flies from a combination of HIV and lack of food". I have been hearing this for the last two months from Zimbabweans. Apparently the lack of food weakens their immune systems even more and then AIDS really takes hold of them and leads to a premature death.

Also on SABC news was how desperate black women in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution. They are worried that this will accelerate the spread of HIV...

The rancher I spoke to this week told me that there is a lot of anger building up. The more reliable news reports have been saying for some time that Mugabe is using food as a weapon to decimate his political opposition. But what has not received enough mention is that a lot of those who don't support him are from the Matabele tribe. There are two main tribes in Zimbabwe: the Shona and the Matabele. The Shona, of which Mugabe is a member, are the majority. Zimbabweans have been telling me that mass starvation will not only be along political lines but also along tribal lines.

The rancher, from Bulawayo, which lies in the Matabele territory, told me that this week he saw signs of a growing anger against Mugabe from the Matabele. He said he saw graffiti appearing at bus stops which read "F*ck Mugabe" and "Mugabe suck my dick".

Some weeks ago Mugabe passed a new law whereby anyone waving or making signs at his motorcade can be thrown into prison for up to a year. He is very sensitive to criticism by common folk.

Two months ago I was privy to some information from a Zimbabwean who was planning to create a ground-swell of Ghandi-like peaceful resistance inside the country. This person told me that nobody had the military power to oppose Mugabe but she was going to attempt to get people to show their discontent and suffering in simple, Ghandi-like ways. The main thing she was going to try was a pot-banging exercise, to get women to bang their empty pots as a sign of their hunger - and hopefully, others would join in. She said there was no way he could outlaw such behavior. Another form of peaceful protest was to walk without shoes as a sign of solidarity with those who are hungry. I have heard some news reports that the pot-banging is actually taking place. Whether it could lead to something bigger I do not know.

I do know that many businessmen with investments in Zimbabwe are lobbying foreign governments to put pressure on Mugabe. But in the long run, I don't think it will help at all.

Instead, Zimbabwe continues forward into one of the greatest man-made disasters of history. In terms of percentage damage to one country, it must surely be worse than anything which Hitler or Stalin ever did. I don't know of a single instance in history where a ruler targeted 50% of his population for mass murder. The mass media is definitely under reporting on the situation there.

This week, there was a report in a German newspaper regarding an interview between a German journalist and President Sam Nujoma of Nambia. He has been praising Mugabe in recent months and there have been reports and rumors that Namibia will be the next Zimbabwe. Nujoma was extremely nasty to the German journalist, and refused to answer questions about Zimbabwe, South Africa or other matters in the region. He did however say that "whites are arrogant" and that the blacks have the means to take care of them. All in all, he gave the impression that he is out to pick a fight with whites. Here in South Africa, they swooped down on 94 white conservatives last Friday. They arrested people and threw them in jail without following proper procedures nor having any charges against them. It seemed to be a case of arresting them, ransacking their houses and then trying to find evidence of a plot against the government. It seems as if Mugabe's "Third Chimurenga" (Liberation war), against Whites is taking its first steps beyond the borders of Zimbabwe and into Nambia and South Africa. So keep watching the news because we are headed for some very interesting times here in Southern Africa and for the next round of wars since the so-called "Liberation Struggle".


"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."




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