Afrobeat Radio speaks with Kenyan social justice activist Onyango Oloo – On Afrique365 Radio at 7/6 CT

This is a repeat of AR April 27, 2013 show. Click here to listen www.afrique365.com 

Today on AfrobeatRadio, Kenyan social justice activist Onyango Oloo, poet, blogger and one time former political prisoner joins Wuyi Jacobs to discuss post election Kenya. Ann Garrison talks to former Congress woman Cynthia McKinney on her new book “Aint Nothing Like Freedom.”

Saturday April 27, 2013 on AfrobeatRadio on WBAI 99.5 FM. From 4:00 to 5:00 PM EST. Streaming live @www.WBAI.Org. Please support WBAI Emergency Transmitter Fund @ www.give2wbai.org

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Kenya Election: Odinga and Kenyatta hold final rallies

The two front-runners in Kenya’s presidential election have been holding their final rallies in Nairobi, ahead of Monday’s polls.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta are favourites to succeed President Kibaki, in the first poll since the post-2007 election violence.

Thousands of supporters gathered for the two rallies in central Nairobi.

The president has urged Kenyans to vote peacefully on Monday and for the losers to accept defeat.

The election is the first to be held under a new constitution, adopted in 2010 in an attempt to avoid a repeat of ethnic clashes which led to more than 1,200 people being killed and an estimated 600,000 others being forced from their homes.

Uhuru Kenyatta addressed supporters at a rally at Uhuru park, around a mile north of Raila Odinga’s main campaign event at the Nyayo national stadium.

 

For more on this story, join Afrique365 Radio at 1/12 CT for the BBC Newshour (Credit: BBC Worldservice).

Afrobeat Radio speaks with Cherif Keita, Professor of literature at Carlton College – Happening Now

This is a repeat of AR Jan 26, 2013 show. Click here to listen www.afrique365.com 

The first segment of the show  features Part Two of Ann Garrison’s conversation with Bruce A. Dixon and KPFA/Hard Knock Radio’s Dave ‘Davey D’ Cook on race and class in Obama’s America. Racial injustice is still writ large, but Black faces in high places have put us past the point where we can recognize allies by the color of their skin.

While in the second segment, we will continue our discussion on “imperial adventures” in Africa, focusing on radical Islamic and Arab expansionism in Africa, trans Saharan terror networks and its historical predecessor “Trans Sahara Slavery”. Cherif Keita, professor of literature at Carlton College, Africa music expert Akenataa Hammagaadji join Wuyi Jacobs to explore the connections between religion, religious violence and tolerance in Mali and in the Mande Empire through the works of African writers:  Yambo Ouologuem, Ahmadou Hampaté Ba and Massa Makan Diabaté.

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Liberia: Homes in Monrovia Demolished Ahead of High Level UN Meeting

Homes demolished in Monrovia ahead of High level UN Team Meeting (foundation.org photo)

Fatou Nernee is scavenging through the debris of her home, which was razed to the ground by bulldozers belonging to the Monrovia City Corporation in Liberia. She is looking for something to keep as a treasured memory of a place she called home for over 20 years.

Nernee and many others have been left homeless because of a current cleanup drive by the government ahead of the United Nations High Level Panel (HLP) meeting on the Post 2015 Development Agenda this week.

“They broke my house down yesterday. The police arrested my brother and took him to the station,” Nernee told IPS.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon named United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as co-chairs of a high-level panel to advise him on the global development agenda after 2015, the expiry date for the millennium development goals.

The Monrovia meeting is the third of four HLP meetings, the first of which was held in New York in September 2012. The HLP will be finding ways to build and sustain broad political consensus on the post-2015 development agenda around three themes – economic growth, social equality and environmental sustainability.

The demolition of these homes come as the Sirleaf appointed the five-star, privately-owned Royal Grand hotel, which belongs to Lebanese businessman Ezzat Eid, as the venue for the meeting.

The mayor of the city Mary Brohof Monrovia defended the demolitions.

“We want to make this city the greenest and cleanest city in West Africa,” she said during a press conference.

But Nernee and other residents of the over a dozen demolished buildings and businesses on 24th Street, which is about 10 blocks away from the Royal Grand hotel, say the government has destroyed their homes and made their lives more difficult.

“It is not easy to find a place to rent in this city. This has made plenty people homeless. Our stuff was in the house and when they demolished the buildings,” she said.

The HLP meeting is taking place in a country that is the embodiment of global developmental challenges. Liberia’s infrastructure and political institutions were broken down during the country’s two civil wars, which occurred from 1989 to 1996 and 1999 to 2003 and were considered among the bloodiest in Africa.

This West African nation is in the early stages of rebuilding and does not have electricity and access to cheap energy continues to be a problem. As many as 85 percent of the country’s estimated 4.2 million people are said to be unemployed, according to the U.N. Development Programme.

The government Bureau of Statistics, however, puts Liberia’s current vulnerable employment rate at 77.9 percent. Vulnerable employment is an indicator that is defined as people who are self-employed and holding unsustainable jobs, mostly menial labor.

Sirleaf argues that her government has made considerable progress since she took over in 2006.

While the government continues to announce progress in healthcare delivery, challenges still remain.

The U.N. has reported that the number of women dying of pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications has almost halved in 20 years, yet Liberia continues to have one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world with a maternal death rate of 994 per 100,000 live births.

“Liberia is once again considered a true friend to many, a good neighbour in our region, a reliable contributor to international peace and security, and an improving destination for investors. Today, our republic is safer, stronger and better,” Sirleaf told lawmakers on Monday, Jan. 28, the day of her state of the nation address.

Those who are frustrated with the slow pace of progress here held public protests as Sirleaf gave her state of the nation address.

“We have come to inform the visiting guests that everything is not fine in Liberia. This government has been able to make many of our people homeless and jobless,” said Julius T. Dweh Jessen III, one of the protesters.

Ma Mary Frederick, a 74-year-old widow whose husband was killed during the civil war, stood under the burning sun with a placard she could not read, protesting for the payout of her late husband’s military benefits.

“I have seen the first vote, second vote and I can’t get anything from the government,” she said referring to the country’s two democratic elections since Sirleaf became the country’s first post-war president in 2006. “All day we stand in the sun and the police beat us. I have nothing; my grandchildren can’t go to school,” she said.

“We are sitting down at home with nothing good to eat and they made matters worse by breaking down the house I used to live in. Now we are sleeping outside.”

The two contrasting images of a meeting of world leaders at a five-star hotel in downtown Monrovia as blocks away locals decry the demolition of their homes raises questions about the purpose and substance of the meeting and the implications it will have for this post-war country, student activist Janjay Gbarkpe told IPS.

Though not everyone agrees.

Liberian economist Sam Jackson told IPS that the HLP meeting gave Liberia an opportunity to highlight the progress made after the war and a chance to carve out a development agenda.

“Liberia is a post-war country and being a post-war country, the developmental challenges are huge,” he told IPS.

“Therefore it is important for the issues of peace and security to be part of the new global agenda and with Liberia you can see after 10 years of peace and security, what can be accomplished. We are looking at peace and security to be the foundation of economic transformation for the world.”

Credit: Allafrica Media

Egypt unrest: Morsi declares emergency in three cities

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has declared a state of emergency in the cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismalia after days of deadly unrest. A daily curfew from 21:00 to 06:00 will be imposed for 30 days from Monday, he said in a speech to the nation. At least 33 people died over the weekend in Port Said, where a court judgment sparked rioting. Unhappiness with Mr Morsi’s rule fuelled unrest elsewhere. In the capital Cairo, anti-government protesters clashed with security forces near Tahrir Square for a fourth consecutive day. The liberal opposition accuses Mr Morsi of being autocratic and driving through a new constitution that does not protect adequately freedom of expression or religion. The government is also being blamed for a deepening economic crisis. Mr Morsi said he mighty take further steps “for the sake of Egypt” as it was his “duty” as president. According to the BBC, he also invited political leaders to a “national dialogue” on Monday.

State of Emmergency

The state of emergency applies to the three cities along the Suez Canal, and their surrounding regions. “I have said I am against any emergency measures but I have said that if I must stop bloodshed and protect the people then I will act,” the president said. “If I must I will do much more for the sake of Egypt. This is my duty and I will not hesitate. Protests erupted in Port Said after a court sentenced 21 local people over deadly football violence nearly a year ago. BBC Correspondents say the city remains in a state of rage after the 21 defendants were sentenced over riots which killed 74 people after a football game last February. February’s violence began when fans of Port Said side al-Masry attacked visiting supporters from Cairo club al-Ahly. Fans flooded on to pitch attacking Ahly players and fans as the match ended. Most of the victims died of concussion, cuts and suffocation. About 30 people were killed in unrest in the city on Saturday with a further three dying at a mass funeral on Sunday.

 

Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee speaks out against fellow winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Yemini “Arab Spring” activist Tawakkol Karman and rights campaigner Leymah Gbowee at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, December 11, 2011. (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)

Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee said fellow Nobel laureate, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, had not done enough to tackle corruption.

According to Globalpost, Gbowee, who shared her Nobel with fellow Liberian Sirleaf and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman, said she was resigning from the reconciliation commission, according to the BBC.

“What has changed?” Gbowee asked, while speaking to Agence France Presse in Paris, on a promotion tour for her new book.

“Her sons are on the board of oil companies and one is the deputy governor of the central bank. The gap between the rich and poor is growing. You are either rich or dirt poor, there’s no middle class,” she said.

Gbowee added, “I feel I have been a disappointment to myself and Liberia. Not speaking is as bad as being part of the system. Some may say I am a coward but the opportunity to speak out has come here.”

Sirleaf won a second term in Liberia in 2011, days after winning the Nobel. Liberia, facing the fall out of nearly 14 years of civil conflict, has been plagued by graft and corruption. Critics have accused Sirleaf of not doing enough to fight corruption.

On Oct. 2, Liberia’s opposition party was outraged by Sirleaf’s admission that some of her supporters hid their sons’ cards to prevent them from voting in 2005.

The Associated Press reported that while speaking at a women’s fundraiser in New York during the United Nations General Assembly, Sirleaf said, “Knowing then that they had young sons who would all be the followers of one of the young candidates, they took all their voter cards from them in the night to make sure that they were not able to go to vote.”

Acarous Gray, a member of the House of Representatives who belongs to the opposition party that lost against Sirleaf in 2005, said last week, “This president said she would have zero tolerance on corruption, corruption would be public enemy number one … when a group of people come to you to disenfranchise other group, the president is under obligation to take action against them, but the president has failed.”

Gray recently threatened President Sirleaf with impeachment for for what he termed as the President “aiding and abetting cheating during the country’s 2005 presidential elections”.

Gray told the VOA African service recently that it is a criminal matter in Liberia to deprive people of the right to vote.  The opposition lawmaker said Sirleaf’s reported revelations confirmed his party’s claims that the 2005 general elections were fraudulent.

African migrants look for better life in Yemen

Thousands of African migrants have arrived in Yemen this year, looking for a better life. But many find they are no better off now than they were at home. Al Jazeera’s Jane Ferguson reports from the capital .
Category:

Europe IMMIGRATION CONTROL: Fence off Africans migrant

The tide of illegal immigrants from Africa to Europe does not seem to be abbing, with many countries still struggling to return to normal life after the events of the Arab spring. But people who have overcome the natural barriers are finding the ones set by humans impossible to surpass. RT’s Oksana Boyko looks at how a recent clampdown on illegal immigration in Spain and Morocco has left hundreds in limbo.
Europe cares about reinforcing its borders but not about human lives. The criticism comes from Amnesty International, which says in its report that European governments often endanger asylum-seekers by preventing them from reaching European shores.
¬The human rights group says its campaign is aimed at holding to account any European country that practises human rights violations in the way it enforces migration controls.
“Today, Europe is failing to promote and respect the rights of migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees,” Amnesty alleges in a statement according to AP. “Hostility is widespread and mistreatment often goes unreported.”
The group is particularly concerned about what it calls “externalization,” which includes the common practice of ignoring asylum claims. Moreover, the report states Europe actively prevents Africans from reaching its shores by boat. As a result, in 2011 alone, at least 1,500 people, including women and children, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Amnesty points out that many of those deaths could have been avoided had appropriate rescue measures been implemented.
“For the EU, reinforcing Europe’s borders clearly trumps saving lives,” AP quoted the director of the organization’s European Institutions Office, Nicolas Beger, as saying. “By attempting to curb irregular migration, European countries have bolstered border control measures beyond European frontiers without regard to the human cost.”
Over the past 10 years, the report continues, European countries have started implementing various border control measures outside their own territories, in other countries or on the high seas. Last year, on several occasions, Italy sent people back to Libya, where they were subsequently detained and mistreated. In this way, Amnesty International explains, human rights abuses go unpunished along Europe’s coasts.
The release of the report on Wednesday is expected to coincide with the launch of an online public petition urging the European Parliament to hold EU governments and institutions accountable for mistreating migrants.

Do Sex Strikes Work? – A Special Report

This is the VOA Special English Health Report , from http://voaspecialenglish.com

Women in a civil rights group in Togo called a weeklong sex strike in August to try to force the president of the West African nation to resign. Members of “Let’s Save Togo” planned to withhold sex from their husbands to pressure the men to take action against President Faure Gnassingbe. The opposition says his family has ruled Togo for too long. He became president in 2005, shortly after the death of his father — who had held power for 38 years. Withholding sex for political goals has a long history. The idea appears in the theater of ancient Greece. In the play “Lysistrata,” the women of Athens decide to deny their husbands sex until the men end the Peloponnesian War. But do sex strikes work? Pepper Schwartz is a sociology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. She says the idea is good for making news headlines, but it takes a lot of work. She says the sex strike is a good way to make a point for a few days. But she says that it probably will not work over a long period of time. She also notes that: “if you do stick to it too long, you might lose that other person’s willingness to support your issue.”But pro-democracy activists in Togo say a sex strike during the civil war in Liberia gave them cause for hope. In 2003, Liberia had been through 14 years of war. Leaders of the group Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace organized a series of nonviolent actions. They included a sex strike. The actions earned the group’s leader a share of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Leymah Gbowee shared the prize with two other women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She became Africa’s first democratically-elected female president in 2006. The third winner was Tawakkul Karman, a women’s rights activist in Yemen. Yaliwe Clarke teaches gender studies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She says that the women in Togo can inspire other women in Africa just like the Mass Action for Peace in Liberia did. But sociology professor Pepper Schwartz says women need to hold real power in order for something like a sex strike to work. “They only work in proportion to the amount of power women have in a society,” she says. “In other words, you have to have a certain amount of power already to tell your husband no.” She says this depends on having a society where men respect the opinions and wishes of women. For VOA Learning English, I’m Laurel Bowman. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 05Sep2012)