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Strategies & Market Trends : Africa and its Issues- Why Have We Ignored Africa? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (836)	8/19/2007 8:49:05 AM
From: sea_urchin	Respond to of 1267

Gus > Take up the Black Man's burden-- The savage wars of peace-- Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought. suntimes.co.za >>Zimbabwe’s problems ‘exaggerated’ Zimbabwe’s problems are "exaggerated" and the embattled country remains capable of resolving them, a summit of leaders from southern Africa said in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. "We also feel that the problems in Zimbabwe have been exaggerated. We feel they will solve their economic problems," the new chairman of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, told a news conference yesterday to mark the end of the two-day summit. "We are quite satisfied with the report from South African President Thabo Mbeki on the crisis in Zimbabwe. We feel that the problems in Zimbabwe should not be resolved through the press," he said. The Zambian leader had last March likened Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic". Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with inflation well past the 5,000 percent mark, four in every five people jobless and 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold. The SADC had last March mandated Mbeki to mediate in the crisis between Mugabe’s government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In a reaction to the MDC demand for a electoral changes before next year’s general elections in Zimbabwe, Mwanawasa said that the regional bloc was satisfied with current electoral law in the country. "We are satisfied that the law of elections that exist in Zimbabwe is valid to enable free and fair elections", he said. Observers noted that Mwanawasa’s remarks tallied with those made on Thursday in Lusaka, just before the opening of the summit, by a Zimbabwean minister who said that no political reforms were necessary in the country before the poll. "No political reforms are necessary in my country. We have a democracy like any other democracy in this world ... I cannot see how a system can be any fairer or more transparent (than it is Zimbabwe)," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told journalists. "You have a situation where issues are being portrayed, exaggerated. People try Zimbabwe as a country that has become ungovernable. Nothing is further from the truth," Chinamasa said. The Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. Chinamasa blamed his country’s economic woes on sanctions imposed by the West, and described allegations of human rights violations in Zimbabwe as "fabrications". Critics accuse Mugabe of stifling democracy and crushing any opposition to his rule. Mbeki is meanwhile accused by critics of treating Mugabe with kid gloves and turning a blind eye to his alleged excesses, partly out of gratitude to the veteran African leader who sheltered anti-apartheid activists from South Africa in his country. Mugabe was absent from Friday’s closing ceremony for the summit. He told Zambia’s state ZNBC television on Friday that sanctions were to blame for his country’s economic woes, adding things were getting better. "It is going well, relatively," he said. "We are trying to use our resources to bring about a turn-around." The defiant 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader was given a rousing welcome to the summit on Thursday, despite mounting global criticism of the crisis in his country. Portugal said on Friday that it would not ban Mugabe from an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon in December, despite European Union travel and financial restrictions against the Zimbabwe leader. Mugabe and more than 100 people closely linked to his regime were slapped with a travel ban and investment restrictions by the West after allegations that he rigged his re-election in 2002. Also on Friday, SADC leaders launched a military force to boost peacekeeping efforts in the region. The troops would be on permanent standby for monitoring missions, peace-building, post-conflict disarmament and security restoration as well as to provide support in major natural disasters.<< sundaytimes.co.za >>SADC leaders back Mugabe<< Etc.

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (836)	8/19/2007 10:12:50 AM
From: sea_urchin	Respond to of 1267

Gus > Take up the Black Man's burden-- The savage wars of peace-- Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought. rense.com >>Zimbabwe - All For Sugar From Cathy Buckle 8-18-7 Dear Family and Friends, A month ago, I received an email from one of the last few commercial sugar farmers still hanging on in Chiredzi. She described how in April a convoy had arrived at the farm and announced that the government were taking over their property and that the family had until September to wind up their business, give up their livelihood, get out of their home and off the land. The government delegation then proceeded to enter the family home and list all the things which were not to be removed as these were also being acquired by the State. These included fans and kitchen units and from the house the delegation moved out to the farm yard. Here they took details of tractors, machinery and farm implements and said these too were now the property of the State. The delegation said compensation for the listed items would be made "One Day" in the future at a price to be decided by State valuators when finances were available. The farming family are now, as I write, closing down their affairs and preparing to leave their home and property which grows sugar cane, citrus fruit and produces milk. In her email describing these last weeks, the farmer wrote that her children are well but very upset with these events and that they have so many questions about it all but there are not many answers. This farming family are leaving to make way, not for a landless Zimbabwean peasant, but for the daughter of a high up political figure in the district. This story of what is happening to one farm and one family in Chiredzi has been repeated hundreds of times over in the last eight years. The continuing seizure of farms in Zimbabwe by the State makes less sense now than ever before in our hungry land which has the lowest life expectancy and highest inflation in the world. The story of the seizure of this sugar farm is particularly poignant this week as tragic news has emerged of how three people died when a sugar queue in Bulawayo turned into a deadly stampede. Just a fortnight ago, I described being in a supermarket with my fifteen year old son and witnessing a stampede for cooking oil. The sight and sound of the rush, the pushing and shoving and the frantic snatching is still clear in my mind. These events are being repeated every day all over the country as there is virtually no food to buy in our shops as the government continues to insist on price controls. The deadly stampede happened in Bulawayo where many hundreds of people were queuing for sugar. A supermarket Security Guard opened the gates, people surged forward and then a wall collapsed. The Security Guard died instantly. Another man died later of head injuries and broken limbs. A 15 year old school boy was trampled in the stampede, his limbs were broken and he too died later in hospital. As a farmer who suffered the indignity and outrage of the seizure of home, business and farm by the State in 2000 and who was also given the unfulfilled promise of compensation, I understand exactly the agonies of the sugar farming family in Chiredzi. As a mother of a 15 year school boy, my heart goes out particularly to the family of the teenager trampled to death in a sugar queue in Bulawayo. Like my son, this teenager would have been just a year away from writing his 'O' Levels, about to embark on his life and perhaps go on to do great things for his country. In a week, so many lives and families have been broken - and all for sugar but all because of politics. Knowing this and then hearing of the standing ovation at the SADC summit in Lusaka makes the events on the ground at home all the more tragic. Do the SADC leaders know? Do they care? Until next week, thanks for reading. Love cathy. <<