FAO report on African land grabs

link

Large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have made headlines in a flurry of media reports across the world. Yet international land deals and their impacts still remain little understood. This report is a step towards filling this gap. The outcome of a collaboration between IIED, FAO and IFAD, the report discusses key trends and drivers in land acquisitions, the contractual arrangements underpinning them and the way these are negotiated, and the early impacts on land access for rural people in recipient countries – with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

India to invest in African land

From Oryza:

Africa’s “land grab” continues with India agribusiness set to spend $2.5 billion to buy or rent land for decades in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda to grow palm oil, maize, cotton, rice, and vegetables, mostly for the domestic Indian market and global markets under several deals being discussed. Some land is being offered for decade-long leases at just $1.50 per hectare or about 60 cents per acre. Investors point out that east Africa has as much arable land as all of India...

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a division of the UN, notes that “new international players, including the governments and some companies of the Gulf States, China, Libya, India and South Korea, have begun to acquire land, partly in response to the 2007-08 price spike in commodities.” FAO reports that at least 60 million hectares of land in Africa has been bought or leased for up to 100 years. There are also large land deals taking place in South America.

Many of these land purchase and lease agreements have been criticized for their lack of transparency and further consolidation of food production and processing.

Simon Muguru has died

from Al Jezeerah:

General Solomon Mujuru, a former Zimbabwean military chief and guerrilla leader in the country's independence war, has died in a fire at one of his homes, Zimbabwe's army commander said on Tuesday.

his wife, of course, is the VP, and like others in Mugabe's circle, he got rich

After his retirement, Mujuru acquired an empire of farms, properties, mines and other interests that made him one of wealthiest and most influential figures in the top echelons of Mugabe's party and its policymaking politburo.

if this happened in the Philippines, we would assume it was an assassination by a political rival, but Zimbabwe, despite all the violence, doesn't have that level of political assassinations.

peace be to his soul, and prayers for his family.

Podcast on Zimbabwe history

link

from the "history according to Bob" podcast series.

Plutocracy in Nigeria

Mugabe is an ideologue and lets his minions steal stuff, but he is minor league compared to Nigeria.

From StrategyPage

In the Niger Delta, fifty years of oil production has left millions of barrels of oil spilled into the local waterways and, increasingly, in the drinking water. Most of this leakage was the result of oil theft (tapping into pipelines, and stealing some of what gushed out, leaving the rest to flow into the waterways of the delta). Most of the oil revenue has been stolen by corrupt government officials, leaving very little to pay for over a decade of cleanup efforts (which will apparently never ha

ppen.)

Southern Sudan independence day

South Sudan is now a new nation.
I once worked with a doctor who was from there. He and his brother as teenagers were refugees in a camp in a nearby country, and some Seventh Day Adventists picked out some of the smarter boys, including him, to send to get an education...he became a doctor...his wish was to go home and care for his people, but he knew that he would be killed if he did that, so he was working in Liberia instead. When I left that country, he had changed jobs to work in a rural Lutheran hospital in that country....that was before the Liberian civil war, so I don't know if he is still alive and able to go home.

But since I met him in 1980, it gives you an idea of how long these people have been suffering....

the bad news? The North is attacking along the border to get the oil fields given to the south, and will continue to try to destablize the government.

BBC report HERE.

And heh: the (right wing) Gateway pundit points out that the cowboy hat worn by their president in this photo was given to him by GWBush, who was pivitol in pushing for their independence.

The daughter of a British professor/blogger just moved there to work in anthropology, and has a blog HERE.

Mines behind Congo's wars

From StrategyPage: An article on how every war lord and militia group get their pay from their leaders who "own" their own mines.

. At the moment 70 to 80 percent of the working mines are controlled by militias. Some of the militias are bandit groups. Some are tribal war parties masquerading as a political party. Some are nominally Congolese Army units. Controlling a mine is a source of revenue for the militia, tribe, or army unit. There is a gray area here that receives little attention in the international media. Many legitimate Congolese Army units gripe that their pay is stolen or is in arrears. A commander controlling a mine can pay his troops.

But of course, these groups only get money from the mines: someone else owns and exports what is mined there.

so NGO's are pressuring the UN to devise a "blood mineral" designation to discourage the buying of such minerals...the problem is that the rich guys will just bribe the inspectors...and then there is the China problem. China will buy what they want and need from anyone, ignoring the human rights problems...

Nollywood

Seunjonathan has a lot of Nollywood films on Youtube.

example:

will Swiss banks fight corruption?

a long Foreign Affairs article about dictators hiding their assets in Swiss banks...there is now a new law that might help get the money back to the people.

Swiss banks became known as a top choice for corrupt dictators by holding the multi-million dollar accounts of, among others, former Nigerian ruler Sani Abacha, former Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos, and former Haitian strongman Jean-Claude Duvalier. Thus, it may come as a surprise that last October, Switzerland adopted what is arguably the world’s toughest law for repatriating the ill-gotten gains of corrupt politicians to the people of those countries, allowing the country to return potentially corrupt assets more easily.

the bad news?

Mugabe probably has his money in Malaysia.

China in Africa

G6PD

I'm doing an article on G6PD Deficiency on one of my other blogs, and notice something? It doesn't occur in Zimbabwe.
Probably because this problem, like sickle cell disease trait, gives some protection against malaria, and malaria is rare in the highlands of Africa.

When I read laments about the white farmers, I remember the story that when some of our area (altitude 6500 feet) was rezoned for white farms, the people were sent to an area which was only 3000 feet in altitude....and a couple dozen ended up dying of cerebral malaria.

Two of our sisters also ended up with cerebral malaria and lived, but what is interesting is that the European sister "caught" it after visiting the low veldt, and the Shona sister caught it while working in the low veldt, but her family was from the high veldt.

So I saw few malaria in Zimbabwe, although I had malaria and treated many cases when I worked in Liberia.

Interesting too: The only case of sickle cell disease was in a woman who worked in the nearby mining area. Since she was not an "official" wife, she couldn't be treated at the mine hospital so came to us when the child was sick. Both her and the father were immigrants from Malawi...

Hedge funds grabbing African land

BBC reports it's not only China and India that is buying up African farmland:

US and European hedgefunds are buying up the land to make plantations for biofuel.

more reports at the OaklandInstutute

Phantom voters in Zim

from the BBC

A leaked version of Zimbabwe's voters' roll contains some 2.5m too many names, according to a report by a respected South African organisation....

"This phantom vote is more than enough to settle the outcome of any election," said the author, Richard Johnson.

Anglican corruption in Zimbabwe

NYTimes article
excerpt:

In a three-hour interview in his office, Mr. Kunonga, a portly man with a gravelly voice, scoffed at the idea that he or his allies had sought to have anyone killed. In fact, if he had wanted anyone killed, he said, it would have been Bishop Gandiya, his rival as the legitimate bishop of Harare.

But there was no need for violence, Mr. Kunonga said, because he was already winning the legal battle to control church properties.

“You must have a very good reason to kill people,” he said. “Being a political scientist, I know who to eliminate if I wanted to physically, and to make it effective. I’m a strategist.”

Mr. Kunonga added, “If I want to pick on people to kill, Gandiya would not survive here.” As for allegations that he and his men were involved in Mrs. Mandeya’s killing, Mr. Kunonga retorted, “What would an illiterate 89-year-old woman do to me to deserve death or assassination?”

GetReligionBlog points out that the NYTimesg by ignoring that the "bishop" attended a very liberal left wing seminary for training, ignores the communist aspect of the matter: The Times spins their own article, not to bash the left who loves Mugabe and helped get him into power, but to bash the US christians who oppose the homosexual agenda...

China buying land in Africa

from a 2009 article

The countries where China are mainly in South Africa including Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and currently Angola. The agricultural land story began with Zambia in 1995 when Zhongkan Farm, a private Chinese company invested $22,000 in a farm project. By the end of 2007, the number of farm projects across Africa had increased to 63. Mozambique has received $800 million from China for modernizing its agricultural sector. This will be used to increase rice production in the country from 200,000 tons to 500,000 tons. Teams from the Chinese Hunan Hybrid Rice Institute and at least 100 specialists are stationed in Mozambique.

Similarly, Tanzania received millions of dollars to modernize its own agricultural sector. The idea behind this was to help create a green revolution in Africa. In the entire African continent, 1134 agricultural specialists have come from China to teach and see the implementation of agricultural modernization policies.

Angola is increasingly becoming the most sought after country for Chinese investment. It is already China’s biggest trading partner, and is now going to benefit through agriculture. Angola offers the best environment for beef production, coffee, spices, fruits, sugar and cotton.

The agricultural revolution gradually taking place in Africa is not just beneficial for China alone, it is also helping the African countries as an employment generating industry and providing larger food supplies for its starving millions. It is a win-win situation for both.

Source : Chinafrica

Could GM foods help Africa

this article is more recent, from All AFrica, originally from The Monitor:

the article laments the usual suspects, i.e. that evil corporations are behind it, then quotes Prince Charles who is against it, then laments that South Africa hasn't fully implemented it so it hasn't worked yet, and then adds:

GM also is not so much about African foods like millet, sweet potatoes, cassava or yams and the various African vegetables. We need to develop our own food crops as we fight hunger and we don't have to automatically switch to foods from other continents. The more we adapt to western technology the more we have to spend on machinery and chemicals manufactured in the west.

After all, the industrialised countries will not buy our surplus food (including GM food) since they always have enough food and anyway they have safely put in place trade barriers that discourage African products access to their markets. Our food and poverty problems must be solved right on our small plots of land and by ourselves as farmers and researchers...

yes, those old women with hoes using traditional crops will do it...while all the younger men migrate to work for the Chinese in factories and farms and send their money home, like they do here in the Philippines, to feed their children (we have also forbidden GM crops, but some of our food is hurt by cheaper imports from countries that use modern chemicals and production values forbidden here)

china investment in farm lands

from ELDIS

During 2006 and 2007, a raft of new initiatives and programmes sprang into being around the goal of promoting agricultural technology, including biotechnology, in the African continent. These initiatives have been led by African governments themselves, as well as by international aid donors, agricultural research centres and philanthropic organisations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Africa remains the part of the world which faces the most intractable problems of entrenched poverty and poor productivity in agriculture. The new initiatives mentioned above are intended to stimulate new innovation and growth in African farming, a new ‘Green Revolution’ to match the transformations which took place in other parts of the world during the 1960s, 70s and 80s...

China is another part of the globe where government, scientists and policy-makers are working towards a uniquely tailored approach to biotechnology development. For many years now, China has taken a circumspect approach to GM crops

Food articles

Biowatch South Africa reports:


South Africa is the only African country commercially producing genetically modified crops. It is also the only country which is producing a genetically modified staple food – maize – on a commercial scale.

At least six of the 15 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have said no to genetically modified crops.

The countries in SADC are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Madagascar applied for membership recently.

The six which have taken a firm stand against genetically modified crops are:

* Angola – bans imports of all GM products except food aid, providing this has already been milled.
* Lesotho – bans Gm imports unless processed or milled
* Madagascar – bans growing or importing GM foods
* Malawi – bans GM imports unless they are already processed or milled
* Zambia – bans imports of all GM products
* Zimbabwe - bans GM imports unless they are already processed or milled

Other SADC countries and countries in the rest of Africa are developing legislation to regulate genetically modified crops.

Mugabe removes Zuma as mediator

from the zimbabwemail:

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has intensified his fight against an emerging consensus among Sadc leaders for him to go, by among other tactics, trying to sideline and remove no-nonsense facilitator President Jacob Zuma.

harassment of activists at SADC

from SWradioafrica

The civil society groups, including representatives from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, traveled to Namibia to lobby SADC leaders and pressure them to lay out a clear plan for democratic change in Zimbabwe. But their efforts were quickly thwarted by Namibia security officers and members of Zimbabwe’s CIO, who led a crackdown on the activists.

First to be targeted were about ten activists, including National Association of Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO) chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition officials MacDonald Lewanika, Pedzisayi Ruhanya and Dewa Mavhinga, and other representatives from the Zimbabwe Election Support.

The state security agents also briefly detained Jelousy Mawarire for taking pictures and chased away Shastry Njeru of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum from the venue of the SADC Summit. Mawarire, who had his pictures deleted from his camera, was later released after the intervention of Namibian human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe.

Also targeted were Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) head, Irene Petras, Joy Mabenge from the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for Zimbabwe, Lloyd Kuveya of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, and Makanatsa Makonese of the SADC Lawyers Association. The four were force-marched into the hotel’s parking area by two armed Namibian police who took them to the local Chief Inspector. They were then interrogated separately by Zimbabwe’s state security agents.

China in Africa

by TPMBarnett

Once feted as saviours in much of Africa, Chinese have come to be viewed with mixed feelings—especially in smaller countries where China’s weight is felt all the more. To blame, in part, are poor business practices imported alongside goods and services. Chinese construction work can be slapdash and buildings erected by mainland firms have on occasion fallen apart. A hospital in Luanda, the capital of Angola, was opened with great fanfare but cracks appeared in the walls within a few months and it soon closed. The Chinese-built road from Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, to Chirundu, 130km (81 miles) to the south-east, was quickly swept away by rains.

Business, Chinese style

Chinese expatriates in Africa come from a rough-and-tumble, anything-goes business culture that cares little about rules and regulations. Local sensitivities are routinely ignored at home, and so abroad.

Referenced from: http://thomaspmbarnett.com/globlogization/2011/5/10/the-chinese-in-africa-welcome-is-wearing-off.html#ixzz1M5wmH2PJ

Mugabe in Europe

And the "Biased, moi?" award of the day goes to CNN, who notes the murderer Mugabe is attending (uninvited).

Well, Grace likes to shop, and the only way they can get into Europe is on such "diplomatic" trips.

And of course CNN doesn't note how Mugabe is attacking the church in Zimababwe, but never mind.

They also don't notice that 22 world leaders and87 countries are sending representatives to the ceremony, presumably because that might put it into perspective, as might noticing that Mugabe's ambassador was invited to the royal wedding.

Article on African development

much of the news out of Zimbabwe is same old stuff: He is letting his folks kill the political opposition while stoking paranoia of the west to stay in power.

But his marxist rhetoric is absurd: Pleasing to the aging left in europe and the US but in these days when China is buying up Africa turning into nonsens.e

So I am posting another article on development in Africa:

Entrepreneurs epitomize this growing trend of seizing the opportunities that the continent presents. Tal Dehtiar from Oliberté Shoes – a shoe manufacturing company with operations in Ethiopia and Liberia- is one of them. He writes in a blog entitled “Oliberté, This is Africa“ the reason for investing on the continent:

we never have and still don't see an Africa that's categorised by negative generalizations. Oliberté believes that with the right partners, each country within Africa has the means to grow and support its people.

Many African entrepreneurs believe that although the triple bottom line -financial, social, environmental- is the new buzz word for companies investing in developing countries, one fact that need to be made clear is that Africa will not able to sustain the growth if the funding are only about “micro-finance”, and financing a woman with “50 US dollars”.

Indian documaker film on Mugabe

from MSnews India:

"Bangalore: An Indian has made a telling and insightful 54-minute documentary titled `Mugabe's Zimbabwe' that has caught the attention of critics and also filmed at Cannes (France) this April. It has been selected as one of the Hot Picks of 2011 in the factual entertainment section....
Mugabe's Zimbabwe is an inquiry into how Zimbabwe, from its successful independence 30 years ago has collapsed dramatically. The film presents a terrifying story, plotting Robert Mugabe's three decades of bloodshed, terror and corruption and narrates how he turned hope into desolation.,,"

Awards for Human rights advocates

from the VOA

Two Zimbabwean female personalities, rights activist Jestina Mukoko and National Healing Co-Minister Sekai Holland have been awarded the prestigious French National Order of the Legion of Honour, for what French authorities termed their outstanding virtue

Anglicans locked out

from the UK telegraph:

The apostate bishop Nolbert Kunonga has locked the doors of the churches, so only the ZANU PF can attend...so Anglicans have to worship elsewhere.

Skeleton stunt backfires on Mugabe

from the Scotsman.

summary:
Mugabe sent his youthful thugs out to pull bodies from mine shafts ( a common way to dispose of folks killed by Smith's anti terror terrorists) to show the world the atrocities of the Smith regieme, but some of the bodies are too recent to blame on Smith.



The exercise is being spearheaded by a little-known organisation called the Fallen Heroes of Zimbabwe Trust, led by an official of Mugabe's Zanu-PF. The trust has launched a public appeal for funds to continue. Overlooking Mr Mugabe's murderous record - and the fact Mr Smith's Rhodesian Front faced UK sanctions - the president's loyalists say the International Criminal Court should investigate the UK on charges of "genocide".

The MDC - locked in an uneasy coalition with Zanu-PF since 2009 - is suspicious of the timing of this discovery. Owen Gagare of the local NewsDay paper said when he was taken to view the skeletons "one of the bodies still had visible hair". Others were clothed and were reportedly leaking bodily fluids.

Top MDC official Tichaona Mudzingwa says the unsupervised exhumations are "an exercise to bury evidence."

"Probably most of the bodies being exhumed are victims of the 2008 violence," he told the press in a reference to the terror campaign launched by Mr Mugabe's militias after he lost the first round of elections to Mr Tsvangirai.

Follow the money

From the Philippine Inquirer:


NOUAKCHOTT – The African Union's panel on Libya Sunday called for an "immediate stop" to all attacks after the United States, France and Britain launched military action against Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

After a more than four-hour meeting in the Mauritanian capital, the body also asked Libyan authorities to ensure "humanitarian aid to those in need," as well as the "protection of foreigners, including African expatriates living in Libya."

Of course, there is a reason behind their backing a ruthless tyrant who kills his own people and funded terrorism: he bribed them.

The reason that China and Russia didn't veto the resolution is because the Arabs didn't want Libya turning into another Bosnia, where 100 thousand were killed while Europe and the world sat and UN peacekeepers watched.

So who Loves Ghadafffy?

The Mead list discusses a lot of "bought" Americans and Europeans.
more at Mother Jones.

BBC report on how Ghadaffy bribed Africa. when he proposed a "one Africa", he meant of course with the (white) Arabs in charge, preferably himself.

Gaddafi's main contribution to Africa since 1999, when he turned away from the Arab League and the Middle East to try to form a United States of Africa, has been to bribe and buy his way to the chairmanship of the African Union, to promote this idea of a borderless Africa, presumably led by him.

He did this in two ways. Firstly, he sought simply to buy the smaller, poorer states by bribing their presidents. Secondly, in states where he was opposed, he would fund opposition movements. So he has been extremely divisive in his relations with Africa, and his removal will quiet things down a bit.

The presidents of Nigeria and South Africa had to fight a running battle with him to stop his crazy ideas of subverting Africa, trying to make it into one, single country, just like that.

It is hard to say if he has ever genuinely been seen as a fellow African leader by other African leaders. He supported the ANC in South Africa, and Swapo in Namibia, and when Nelson Mandela came out of prison, he went to Libya almost straightaway to thank him.

But while he continues to support groups like that, he has also sided with appalling movements in western Africa which he saw as revolutionary. He has backed Charles Taylor, now on trial in The Hague, and Foday Sankoh, the dreadful rebel leader in Sierra Leone who led the Revolutionary United Front, which cut off hands and legs. So he has a very mixed record in his very idiosyncratic way....

More on Mangoma

from SWRadioAfrica:

...

The police charged him with abusing public office, a charge that stems from an alleged breach of tender regulations in the purchase of five million litres of diesel from a South African company. He has since been indicted for trial at the High Court on 28th March....

But High Court Judge Samuel Kudya dismissed this claim. He also said the State had no tangible facts to warrant Mangoma’s conviction, a position that suggests the state has a very weak case against the minister....

‘The Judge even alluded to the fact that when Mangoma bypassed the tender procedures, he did so in the public interest to speed up the procurement of fuel which was in short supply at that particular time,’ Muchemwa said.

High court releases Energy minister

From the VOA

Mangoma, deputy treasurer of the Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested last week and charged with criminal abuse of office in relation to a fuel procurement tender.

In his ruling, High Court Judge Samuel Kudya declared that the case against Mangoma was weak, and granted his freedom on $5 000 bail.,....

Defence attorney Selby Hwacha accused the Attorney General of not taking action against some officers in the Energy Ministry who allegedly misappropriated $35 million, despite an official request by Mangoma.

His trial is expected to begin March 28. If convicted, Mangoma faces no more than 15 years in prison or a $5 000 fine.

Meanwhile, MDC Member of Parliament for Gokwe-Kabuyuni, Costin Muguti was also granted bail by a Kwekwe magistrate, but remained in custody after the State invoked the notorious Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.

More MDC staff arrested

from the Independent:

Police have raided the party headquarters of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and arrested a youth leader and two security guards.

(no reason given)

Why Mugabe can't retire

Chinja Maitriroblog has an essay by Tanonoka Joseph Whande
summarizing why Mugabe dare not retire.

he summarizes Mugabe's crimes, but notes why no one will encourage him to retire:

Mbeki is having it both ways.



Why should he hurry to solve the Zimbabwean crisis? Even without outside help, the Zimbabwean situation is reaching ‘saturation point’ and will inevitably straighten itself out.



But the vultures are circling. Many big companies in Zimbabwe closed down and relocated to South Africa and other countries in the region. Supermarkets are closing down because there are no suppliers.



There is no food in the country. There is no fuel or spares. Zimbabwe does not even have money; it uses paper money and has no coins. There are no chemicals for water reticulation.



Hospital beds, like supermarket shelves, are empty because there are no medicines in the hospitals. Patients are asked to bring their own food which they can no longer find in the empty shops.



And South African business is watching, don’t you see? Mugabe is going to go, one way or the other. He is about to expire, both physically and politically, and South African business is best poised to rush in and set up shop.



They have the money; they have the means and they are nearest. So Mbeki is not losing sleep over Zimbabwe. Either way it goes, he and his country come out winners.



We hear so much about the SADC initiative, spearheaded by Mbeki. Hogwash. SADC, with its united inadequacy, is too cowardly and unwilling to solve problems that directly affect it.

Tsvangirai asks for a divorce

from the UK Telegraph:

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called on Thursday for a "divorce" in the unity government with President Robert Mugabe, proposing elections overseen by southern African neighbours. ...

"Even those with legendary patience, like some of us, have reached a stage where we are saying enough is enough. There is obviously a breakdown in the relationship between the parties," Mr Tsvangirai said.

"If people find that a marriage has reached irreconcilable differences, then agree to a divorce."

Mr Tsvangirai spoke hours after police detained Energy Minister Elton Mangoma, a senior member of the prime minister' Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on undisclosed charges...

Charisma and Megalomania

AustinBay has a long essay on megalomanics in politics

He makes several points.

One, if the megalomanic dictator is anti American, he will get a pass from the press (mainly in Europe but also in much of the US) for his atrocities and hijinks.

This of course applies to Mugabe, and is because of the Marxist bias in much of the press and the intelligencia, who have a soft spot in their heart for communists and those inspired by the communist propaganda of brotherhood and equality, never mind that it is a potemkin village that is based more on fantasy than reality.

He then goes on to discuss Mugabe and his ilk. How do you take over a country and keep in power?

People shape events, not vague historical forces or deterministic theories, and people who seek to successfully transition their society from a dictatorship to a democracy need reliable institutions that promote consensus, compromise and the pursuit of power by legal means.

Gadafi, Mugabe, and Chavez have systematically destroyed or attempted to destroy the institutions in their nations capable of promoting compromise. These thugs seek to turn such institutions into ideological instruments –not for an ism, but for the perpetuation of their own power.

Mugabe has yet to destroy the Catholic and Anglican churches, and they underpin the various factions of the anti-Mugabe opposition.

The Catholic Church still wields influence in Venezuela; when Chavez goes, and he will, eventually, perhaps the church will play a significant role in resurrecting that beggared nation.

Mugabe stands in stark contrast to his next door neighbor, Nelson Mandela.

Mandela –personally and institutionally– fostered consensus, compromise and the pursuit of power by legal means. (Kemal Ataturk did it in Turkey.) South Africa could fall into tribal anarchy, but it will not be because of Mandela. Mugabe’s personal jealousy of Mandela may well be a factor in his desire to cling to power no matter the long-term cost to Zimbabwe. Apres moi le deluge.

Bay quotes from two famous essays on politics, that of Jean Kirkpatrick and of Hofstatter. Both are classics and should be read to understand Mugabe and the world's interpretation of Mugabe's actions.

From Hofstatter:

“As a member of the avant-garde who is capable of perceiving the conspiracy before it is fully obvious to an as yet unaroused public, the paranoid is a militant leader. He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician.

Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish.

Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated—if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention.

This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.”

Mugabe charges six activists with treason

from RTT News:

A court in Zimbabwe on Monday released 39 people in a 45-member group of political and civil society activists arrested last month on charges of plotting a popular uprising in lines of the ones witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks. The court, however, slammed treason charges on the remaining six....

All of them were subsequently accused by prosecutors of plotting to "organize, strategize and implement the removal of the constitutional government of Zimbabwe" through a popular revolt. But the defendants had denied any wrongdoing, insisting that they were only taking part in an academic debate about African politics....

Zimbabwe to sell Uranium to Iran

from the UKTelegraph

Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Zimbabwe's foreign minister, said the sanctions – which prohibit member states from providing Iran with raw materials that it could use to make a nuclear weapon – were unfair and hypocritical.

He said that Zimbabwe, which is also the subject of sanctions over human rights abuses perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe's supporters, would benefit economically from the agreement.

A leaked intelligence report suggests Iran will be awarded with exclusive access to Zimbabwe's uranium in return for providing the country with fuel.

StrategyPage on Zimbabwe

Strategy page has a summary on the Zimbabwe situation. I have found their analyses insightful in the past, so you might want to go to the link and read the whole thing.

Summary: Mugabe is clamping down on his political "enemies" again, and the Jasmine revolts against dictators has scared him.

much of it is known by those of us who are following the situation, but they note rumors (unconfirmed) that some of the African mercenaries that are helping Libyan dictator were sent by Mugabe.
and they worry:

"National elections are looming, political violence is increasing in the major cities, and Robert Mugabe remains very much alive. If Qaddafi survives in Libya will he send commandos to help out Mugabe?

what might save Mugabe, of course, is the same thing Strategy Page has noted about Iran: That the best and brightest, who might start a revolution, have left the country already...

News update: will the Jasmine revolution hit Zimbabwe?

Sorry I've been too lazy to keep up with the Zimbabwe news, but here are links for your reading:

Bulawayo24

Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA

The Zimbabwean - ‎20 minutes ago‎

The seven members arrested remain in custody and finally managed to receive a meal at lunchtime today. All seven will spend a second night in custody.

Zimbabwe: Seeking Release of 45

New York Times - Celia W. Dugger - ‎4 hours ago‎

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, on Tuesday called on Zimbabwean authorities to release 45 activists charged with treason. A statement from her office said they were being held for “discussing ...

from SWRadioAfrica:

Security crackdown deters Zim protests Security crackdowns in Harare and Bulawayo deterred any mass action against the ZANU PF regime, with no sign of the protests that have been encouraged over the past two weeks.

Jabulani Sibanda shuts down schools for ZANU PF rally Mugabe ‘hanged’ by UK protesters Zimbabwean protesters in London displayed their anger with Robert Mugabe’s ongoing grip on power, by ‘hanging’ the dictator outside the Zimbabwean embassy on Tuesday.

More activists arrested as Mugabe hits panic button Mugabe’s regime appears to have hit the panic button, ordering the arrest of a total of 93 activists in the last 2 weeks alone. With protests having toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, the ZANU PF leader seems determined to pre-empt similar revolts in Zimbabwe.

Lavish birthday party for Mugabe

from the Times Live

"...A huge party, expected to be attended by 10000 Zanu-PF youths, was scheduled for yesterday, at a local five-star hotel in the capital.

The adverts were marked by hero-worshiping phrases and language. In one advert, Mugabe was described as a legendary icon whose selfless dedication in rendering service to the nation and the peoples' of Africa, was inspiring as well as unparalleled..."

and the paper has this photo of the lapdog China seeking stuff from the beloved leader (sarcasm).COMRADES-IN-ARMS: Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi and President Robert Mugabe.

Iran hunting for Uranium in Zim

via IndianExpress

VIENNA: Iran is expanding its global search for uranium and a key focus is Zimbabwe, says a intelligence report. A report from a member country of International Atomic Energy Agency — with the AP — says Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met last month with Zimbabwean mining officials to negotiate Iran’s uranium procurement plan.

Zim police claim to foil uprising

from the NewZimbabwe

Arrested ... Munyaradzi Gwisai

RELATED STORIES
Egypt: Fatwa on US Middle-East strategy?
'No' vote shall be Zimbabwe's Egypt
Egypt: Zanu PF dismisses PM 'pipe dream'

POLICE say they have foiled Egyptian-style uprisings in Zimbabwe after storming a meeting of 46 rights activists in Harare and arresting them, including the former Highfield MP, Munyaradzi Gwisai.

The activists face charges of “plotting to oust a constitutionally-elected government”, said Inspector James Sabau, the police spokesman for Harare province.

Police said they also seized a video projector, a laptop and two DVDs which Gwisai used to show videos from the Tunisian and Egyptian protests which led to the ouster of those countries’ leaders...

Will Zim rise to destroy the dictator as in Egypt?

from the Mail and Guardian (SA) this writer says no. Unless those in Zimbabwe are willing to do it themselves.

My opinion?
Ah, but the strongest and most willing have left Zim to work elsewhere and send money home to their families. Like Iran, when the best brains and hardest workers put all their energy into leaving, the hope for change at home lessens, allowing the government to threaten and keep the rest under control.

Violence against opposition again: Redux of past elections

lots of stories about the attacks on the opposition members, almost a copy of what happened the last election, where Tsvangirai dropped out to protect the lives of his followers.

Diamond money

The Zim Guardian:



THE Treasury is benefiting from sales of diamonds that have surpassed US$170 million this year alone, despite Finance Minister Tendai Biti's claims that diamond dividends were not flowing into the national fiscus.

Documents obtained by the State-run Herald newspaper reveal that Treasury will benefit from at least US$174 million in diamond sales for January to February 7 alone.

Some of the money has already reached the Treasury, although Biti claims that the country has not benefitted from diamonds...


Sources also indicated that Minister Biti was trying to force the Mines and Mining Development Corporation into revealing how Zimbabwe sells its diamonds, which could result in the contracted foreign firms being slapped with Western sanctions.

Recent revelations by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks claim Minister Biti has in the past been actively consulted by the EU when the bloc structured its sanctions regime.

from UPI:

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Zimbabwe's government says it will investigate the disappearance of $100 million in proceeds from an auction of diamonds.

The Ministry of Finance received a document from President Robert Mugabe's office passed to him from The Minerals Marketing Corp. of Zimbabwe saying it had given $170 million from the sale of Marange diamonds last year to the treasury....

"Treasury only received $64 million from the sale of alluvial and kimberlite diamonds. In that schedule MMCZ claims that treasury used part of the money to pay tax to Zimra....

Green Gurus

alas, it's streaming audio, but the BBC has interview with three founders of the Green movement:
the most important one for those working in development:

1. EF Schumacher

Julian starts by investigating the legacy of radical economist EF Schumacher. When his catchily titled book 'Small is Beautiful' came out in 1973, it was a huge best seller. He was courted by both politicians and the media. Schumacher's message was that conventional economics had failed us. In headlong pursuit of greater consumption, we had lost our humanity. We needed to get back to basics, he argued, and embrace small scale production and 'economics as if people mattered'. Schumacher believed passionately that the poor of the Third World were perhaps the greatest victims of modern capitalism. He set up an institute to design 'appropriate' technologies for the Third World that would not rely on Western manufacturers. Nearly thirty years on, how have Schumacher's ideas endured? In a world dominated by global corporations has 'Small is Beautiful' been trounced by 'Big is Best'?

Listen again to Programme 1

China criticizes West's approach to ZIm

from CNN:

(CNN) -- China's foreign minister pushed Friday for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying no country has a right to dictate the internal affairs of another nation, state-run media reported.

Starting in 2002, the European Union and the United States imposed targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and some senior party members amid rampant reports of stifling his political opposition, human rights violations and his controversial land reform policy that has targeted white commercial farmers.

Mugabe blames the sanctions for his country's woes, which late last year included an unemployment rate of more than 90% and an inflation rate of 231,000,000%.

Speaking Friday during a two-day visit to Harare, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that "China believes that Africans have the right to choose their own way of development, as they are masters of the African continent. All others are just guests."

--------------------

of course, having a greedy dictator who lets his croonies steal everything in sight is not quite the same thing as letting Africans chose their own way of development, but hey, what's a couple million dollar bribes between friends?

Violence by ZANUPF

According to Amnesty int'l, Mugabe back to his old tricks of harassing his opponents in Zimbabwe. More HERE.

Fear of Infection lowered HIV

from AFP:

WASHINGTON — Fear of infection helped drive a 50 percent decline in new cases of HIV in Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2007, said an international study published Tuesday in the United States....

"Today's findings strongly show that people in Zimbabwe have primarily been motivated to change their sexual behaviour because of improved public awareness of AIDS deaths and a subsequent fear of contracting the virus," said the study in PloS medicine.

Attitude changes were rooted in mass media campaigns that infiltrated church settings, workplaces and other activities, the researchers said.

Mob riots and loots in Harare

ZANU PF demonstration started to riot and so it's Tsvangirai's fault, if you believe Reuters.
:
Police said they had allowed youths from President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party to demonstrate against Harare city council for awarding a car parking contract to a South African firm but the protest had been infiltrated by criminals.

"We have arrested some known criminals from Mbare (a suburb) and we are still investigating the group that infiltrated the march," police spokesman James Sabawu told Reuters on Tuesday.

A Reuters witness saw shattered windows and empty shops early on Tuesday. Most of the shops remained closed. The state-owned Herald newspaper said those arrested in Monday's incident were suspected MDC supporters

---------------
from Newsday:



Our source said after demonstrations at the Gulf, the party expected the provincial leadership to address them and perhaps make clear the message to the foreigners – that if they have to be in Zimbabwe, they ought to bring with them meaningful investment in manufacturing and other sectors but not selling cellphones and the staple sadza.

Unfortunately, the planners overestimated the discipline of the youths, drawn from various townships, including “battle-hardened” Mbare’s Chipangano members.

Even while their colleagues were still gathering at the Fourth Street party provincial headquarters, scores of youths, chanting Zanu PF slogans and flying the party flag, had besieged the Gulf Complex.

-----------------
the Zimbabwean gives the MDC side:

The Zanu PF youths are wearing MDC T – shirts. They gathered at Zanu PF headquarters early this morning before driving past the MDC headquarters, Harvest House in seven trucks on their way to the Zanu PF Harare provincial offices along Fourth Street. At the Zanu PF provincial offices, they were given MDC T – shirts. They then marched to the Gulf Complex where they looted goods and property.

Zuma welcomes Mugabe's ambassador

from SWRadioAfrica


04 February 2011

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma on Thursday warmly welcomed the disputed Zimbabwe ambassador unilaterally appointed by Robert Mugabe, in a move that analysts say further undermines his efforts to mediate in Zimbabwe’s political crisis.

High Protein Cassava?

from NewScientist:

A DEADLY poison could save the lives of millions of African children, thanks to the discovery that cassava can be duped into turning about half of the cyanide it makes into extra protein.

Although cassava is a major source of carbohydrates for 700 million people, mostly in Africa, it normally contains only small amounts of protein. Claude Fauquet of the Danforth Plant Science Center in St Louis, Missouri, and his team bumped up the protein content to 12.5 per cent by adding bean and maize genes to make a protein called zeolin. They were surprised to find that the plant used its natural supply of cyanide to provide the building blocks of the new protein. "Cyanide is a source of nitrogen within the plant," explains Fauquet.

While non-modified cassava supplies just one-fifth of daily protein requirements, the extra protein is enough to supply the needs of infants on a typical cassava-based diet (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016256). Fauquet says his root could save 1 in 4 African children from a potentially fatal condition called protein-energy malnutrition.

However, it will be some years before it is rolled out

we didn't eat a lot of cassava in my area of Zimababwe but it is a staple food in Malawi and other areas of the continent

Zim Urban councils looted

via Zim Online:

HARARE – Corrupt councillors, commissioners and politicians in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and other cities looted hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds, land and other assets in an unprecedented orgy of self enrichment over the past decade while service delivery collapsed in the various municipalities.... Harare alone could have been fleeced of more than $100 million in shady land deals and contracts during the tenure of illegal commissions appointed by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, a former university lecturer whose wealth soared upon joining government....

Corruption has not spared town councils outside the capital. In Bindura, then mayor and now Mashonaland Central governor Martin Dinha bought a mayoral house he had lived in for a miserly $40 in 2008. The house costs at least $70 000.

Former deputy mayor of Chegutu town Phineas Mariyapera was fingered in a 2003 government audit for siphoning the equivalent of $4 million today from the council. Mariyapera, a ZANU-PF official, was never prosecuted.

more details at link

Mugabe opponents beaten

from the NYTimes:

"...political violence in Harare, the capital, and its impoverished suburbs — carried out by youths chanting ZANU-PF slogans — has surged in recent weeks, civic groups and independent journalists reported this week...."

new surge in political violence

from the Zimbabwean

article has details of attacks on various politicians

Poverty level up

from the Canadapress:

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean officials on Monday said it takes nearly $500 a month for families to be above the poverty line in this economically ravaged country, where most teachers and government workers earn less than half that amount.

ZANU PF tries to lure opposition

from Nehanda radio:

ZANU-PF desperate to annihilate its rivals at the next elections, has dangled a carrot in front of beleaguered Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara... \

The shopping list, according to the insiders includes Mavambo/ Kusile/ Dawn (MKD) leader, Simba Makoni, who, at 30, became the youngest bureaucrat in President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet when he was appointed minister of industry and energy in 1981 after joining the country’s first black administration a year earlier as deputy minister of agriculture.

AU summit ignores Zimbabwe crisis

again from SWRadioAfrica.

summary: they don't see the increased violence as a problem, so why waste their time on it?

SA population to shrink after 2030

from Moneyweb.

it's because of HIV, and also smaller families due to family planning.

MDC workers seek refuge

from SWRadioAfrica:

"...Two hundred MDC-T members were forced to seek refuge at their party’s Harare headquarters, after ZANU-PF youths hunted them down in Mbare over the weekend.

The MDC-T also reported that the ZANU PF youths besieged their Mbare office, where they allegedly assaulted staff, stole computers and vandalised furniture. Despite this, it’s understood the police did not make any arrests...."

Civil service unrest continues

from Newsday (SA):

"...Civil servants last week got a paltry salary increment of 24% while housing and transport allowances were increased by between $6 and $9, bringing the salary of the lowest paid teacher to $241, inclusive of allowances.

They rejected the increment and gave the government a seven-day ultimatum to come up with new figures...

The unions are demanding $502 as the starting salary for the lowest paid worker."

NeoImperialism?

StrategyPage has this in an article about the Congo:

December 18, 2010: Police broke up a riot by soccer fans in the town of Lubumbashi (Katanga province). The fans were angry when their team lost a close match. What's truly interesting about this is that the crowd thought the Japanese referee was Chinese and yelled that the Chinese referee should go home. The rioters subsequently attacked several Chinese owned stores in Lubumbashi. China has signed agreements with the government to provide infrastructure (roads, power lines, etc) in exchange for Congolese natural resources. Many Congolese believe the agreement is a return to colonialism. The rioters may be an ominous warning to the Chinese.

TOR

anyone in Zimbabwe who is worried about being detected while on the internet might want to look into downloading TOR:

"...Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. .."

Connected Africa

BBC has webpage here that posts stories of the internet in Africa.

Funny voters on Zim voting rolls

from the star:

one third of voters on the Zim voter rolls are very very old (and probably dead) or too young to vote.

Zim AG investigating Tsvangirai

from CNN:

"...

Harare, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- The attorney general in Zimbabwe has set up a team of lawyers to investigate whether Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai can be charged with treason or conspiracy related to revelations by the website WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks published U.S. cables last week saying Tsvangirai and his party leadership were planning with U.S. diplomats for Washington to contribute to a fund to buy-off security service chiefs to achieve regime change in Zimbabwe.

"I want to get the legal opinion of the legal experts to see if I can proceed with prosecution," Attorney General Johannes Tomana said an interview Monday. He said the six-member team would remain secret "to maintain its independence and professional integrity" and would submit its recommendations by end of March...."

Mugabe Ill?

from Zimbabwe Mail a report about Mugabe's latest illness:

No he's not ill, says his spokesman...he's just recovering from prostate cancer after surgery in a Malaysian hospital.

Although prostate cancer is a common cause of death, in many older men, it is slow growing and isn't necessarily fatal. But without details if it was merely large prostate from non cancerous causes, or if it was cancer or if the cancer was high grade or not, as a doc I can't comment more.

SADC court says Zim gov't undermining rule of law

from SWRadioAfrica:

"...The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal last month ruled in favour of Barry Gondo and eight others, who successfully sued the State in the Zimbabwe High Court after being beaten and tortured by security agents. The group argued in the SADC Tribunal that the government was refusing to pay the damages ordered by the High Court, in their cases dating back to 2003 and 2007.,...

"...The ruling comes as an important victory for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, where the State has displayed a decade long disregard for Court orders. The Zimbabwe Human Right NGO Forum, which led the case before the Tribunal last year, said the ruling is a “progressive.” The group added that it supports the opinion of civil society that one of Zimbabwe’s main challenges is “the absence of the rule of law.”

Abuse continues

the Zim independent, via All Africa

"...The MDC-T led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai charged in a statement on Wednesday that at least one of their supporters was abducted in Masvingo at gunpoint by a known assailant, but the police refused to open a docket on the matter on the grounds that the issue was too political for them to get involved...."

Civil servants to strike?

from Zim online

"

The Apex council that met with the government in the capital yesterday brings together civil service unions -- the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), Zimbabwe Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ZIMTA), Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ), College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe (COLAZ) and Public Service Association (PSA).

The offer rejected by workers would have seen the lowest paid among them taking home about $160 up from $128 with the highest paid civil servants earning around $241 per month.

Transport and housing allowances were similarly slightly increased from $7 to $20 and from $6 to $12 respectively.

Chikowere said civil servants want the lowest paid worker taking home around U$500, money the unity government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai -- which says it already is using 60 percent of total collected revenues on salaries -- says it does not have."

immigrant news

from the Times (SA)

On Wednesday the department announced that a moratorium on the deportation of Zimbabweans who don't have the proper papers to be in the country, would stay in place until August 1, to allow for the 275,762 applications for the legalisation of their stay in South Africa to be processed.

-----------------------

and then there is this: from an article about some Chinese detained for bad visas:

Zimbabweans are currently up in arms over the influx of Chinese and Nigerian business people who have taken up most of the shop space in the country’s main towns and cities.

(posted by accident: I meant to post on my Makaipablog, but never mind...)

African Entrepeneurs

Smartplanet has an article about Africa's growing economic clout:

The Economist, in fact, just published information, culled from the International Monetary Fund, that shows that six out of 10 of the world’s fastest-growing economies in 2001-2010 were in Africa, and seven out of 10 will be in Africa in the in 2011-2015 timeframe.

As categorized by The Economist,The fastest growing economies over the next four years will be

1. China (9.5%)
2. India (8.2%)
3. Ethiopia (8.1%)
4. Mozambique (7.7%)
5. Tanzania (7.2%)
6. Vietnam (7.2%)
7. Congo (7%)
8. Ghana (7%)
9. Zambia (6.9%)
10. Nigeria (6.8%)

Source: The Economist

of course, the bad news: If you start low, it's easier to grow your economy statistically...it's playing with numbers. You need to compare the actual size of the economy to get real information.

Big money

according to the Miami herald, those huge amount Zimdollar bills are a collector's item

the coming civil war in Sudan

The New Sudan?

Not getting a lot of press, but there is a major referendum in the Sudan later this month, and the black areas in the south are threatening to secede. International help may be needed to help "birth" these new nations.
the problem? The south has oil, and there are issues about the Nile water being diverted.
Story and map at the African Executive:

LA Times story HERE.

StrategyPage linkHERE.

why does this have anything to do with Zimbabwe?

Well, Bashir has stolen billions, and if the world lets him get away with stopping democracy, and refuses to let the south leave, it would be another signal to Mugabe that he can get away with anything.

WikiLeaks supporters attack Zim websites

from the Sydney (Australia) morning herald:

Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, has become a victim of online attacks by supporters of WikiLeaks.

Cyber activists said they had brought down government websites after Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, sued a newspaper for $US15 million for publishing a WikiLeaks cable that linked her with the alleged trade in illicit diamonds, and Zimbabwe considered treason charges against the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, over talks with US diplomats revealed by WikiLeaks.

Anonymous, a loose-knit group that has vowed to paralyse sites that act against WikiLeaks, said on its website: ''We are targeting Mugabe and his regime in the Zanu-PF who have outlawed the free press and threaten to sue anyone publishing WikiLeaks.''

How Wikileaks set back Zim democracy

from the Atlantic:

Tsvangirai supports the sanctions to stop Mugabe, but it's unpopular to say so...now Wikileaks has revealed this, and so Mugabe is the winner.



To their supporters, WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange are heroes of the democratic cause. Assange himself has claimed that his organization promotes democracy by strengthening the media. But in Zimbabwe, Assange's pursuit of this noble goal has provided a tyrant with the ammunition to wound, and perhaps kill, any chance for multiparty democracy. Earlier this month, Assange claimed that "not a single person, as far as anyone is aware, has been harmed" by Wikileaks' practices. This is no longer true, if it ever was.

Any damage to democratic reforms from WikiLeaks likely comes not from malice but naivety.

smuggled diamond money goes to Zim before vote

from Bloomburg:

...Chikwere and hundreds of other border smugglers are part of a chain whose money flows back into Zimbabwe...

The gems from Zimbabwe’s biggest diamond field in the Marange region are helping enrich the 86-year-old president’s party ahead of next year’s vote, according to Human Rights Watch, Partnership Africa Canada and the Zimbabwean opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, which governs in a forced coalition with Mugabe’s party.

Annual income from the gems may reach $2 billion, assuming the country is able to export them freely, the state-owned Herald newspaper cited Mines Minister Obert Mpofu as saying in October. Mugabe is trying to amass funds for the election campaign, said Tom Porteous, the U.K. director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, which has lobbied against abuses for the past 30 years.

Mugabe threatens "revenge"

from AlJezeerah:

...Zimbabwe's president has threatened to nationalise British and US-owned businesses operating in the country if economic sanctions imposed on his political party are not lifted....


Under empowerment laws, black Zimbabweans are slated to acquire 51 per cent of all businesses. In a live broadcast on state television, Mugabe warned UK and US firms that "unless you remove sanctions, we will take 100 per cent"....

well, that's a good way to encourage investment in the economy.

Mugabe threatens to take over US, UK firms

from the BBC

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says his country will nationalise all US and UK companies operating in the country unless Western sanctions are removed.

He told his Zanu-PF party's annual conference it was time to fight the sanctions imposed on him and party leaders.

Mr Mugabe also said it was time to end power-sharing with the party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Why are few outsiders wanting to invest in Zim?

The VOA has a discussion why, with different opinions from different Zim leaders.

my opinion? it's not the sanctions (which can be ignored easily by using fronts and proxies). It's because they are worried they will lose their investment. Either Mugabe will decide the company belongs to "the people" (aka his cronies) or officials will want excess kickbacks (although if this is not excess, it's usually written off as business expenses). But they also worry a war could destroy their investments.

Then there is the problem of a crumbling infrastructure, and the fact that the hardest working, best educated Zimbabweans now are working in South Africa.

But what do I know?

More African wikileaks

From AlJezeerah:

Chinese investment in Africa lacks morals.

"China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons," Carson said in a February meeting with oil executives in Nigeria.

"China is in Africa for China primarily," he said, according to a confidential cable written by the US consul-general in Lagos earlier this year.

Chinese investment in Africa has exploded in recent years, reaching a total of $9.3 billion by the end of 2009. Chinese state media say that more than 1600 businesses are investing in Africa in a range of industries, from mining to manufacuring. ...

"The United States will continue to push democracy and capitalism while Chinese authoritarian capitalism is politically challenging," Carson said.

Beijing pursues a "contrarian" approach by dealing with the "Mugabes and Bashirs of the world", he said, referring to the Zimbawean and Sudanese leaders respectively....

-----------------
But of course, western companies aren't much better:

Shell "infiltrated" Nigeria

A US embassy cable released by the WikiLeaks whistleblower website alleges that Royal Dutch Shell's top manager in Nigeria claimed the oil company had sources inside of "all relevant ministries" involving its business....

Other messages show oil executives fearful of Chinese and Russian companies breaking into a market vital to US fuel interests, despite saying all the major fields in the West African nation had already been developed.

The US ambassador to Nigeria, citing Pickard, said in the leaked cables that the Dutch oil giant had got a copy of a letter from a Nigerian government advisor rejecting a Chinese offer on oil exploration blocks.

"Pickard said Shell had good sources to show that their data had been sent to both China and Russia," Robin Renee Sanders, the US ambassador, had reportedly written.

Another cable recounting a February meeting between Johnny Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, and oil company executives shows the US' strong criticism of Chinese interests in the continent's crude supply.

"China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals,'' the cable quotes Carson as saying. "China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons. China is in Africa for China primarily.''

Tsvangirai tells army to stop harassing villagers

From Radio VOP:

Summary: In a speech about Human rights, Tsvangirai said the Army and gov't is accountable to the people, not vice versa, so protests and complaints should be listened to, not intimidated into silence

Mugabe's wife implicated in illegal Diamond trade

from AFP

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's wife was among those who gained millions of dollars from illegal diamonds mined in the east of the country, according to a US cable obtained by WikiLeaks.

"High-ranking Zimbabwean government officials and well-connected elites are generating millions of dollars in personal income by hiring teams of diggers to hand-extract diamonds," US Ambassador James McGee wrote to Washington in 2008.

"They are selling the undocumented diamonds to a mix of foreign buyers, including Belgians, Israelis, Lebanese, Russians and South Africans, who smuggle them out of the country for cutting and resale elsewhere."...

world wide health

alas, Zimbabwe has gone down.

Part of the problem is HIV, but most of it is because unlike the other countries, it has stagnated with outdated Marxist ideas.

Why business should consider Africa

From the Wharton School of business (Univ PA)

Odembo visited the University of Pennsylvania recently for meetings arranged by the U.S.A.-Kenya Chamber of Commerce and spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about the potential rewards and risks of investing in Africa, including Vision 2030, Kenya's plan to become a middle income nation in the next 20 years. ...

If you look at what has happened in the last few years in terms of improved governance, many countries are becoming more democratic. They're having elections more regularly. The typical tensions that would result in risk have been minimized to a great extent -- wars around the time of elections, civil wars between different communities, fighting between one community and another over natural resources -- we've overcome those challenges to a great extent. The continent is looking ahead to being a place where there's a certain amount of predictability. In the past, unpredictability was another risk.

Africa now has all the ingredients to minimize the risks that people feared before. One way to establish that is for a prospective investor to talk to companies already doing business on the continent. They would be able to tell you about changes that have taken place over the last five or 10 years, and how much we, as countries and as regions, have managed to minimize risks to investors. We appreciate now that we've been left behind and we must do what is necessary to create an enabling environment for private-sector business and investment, both local and foreign direct investment.

Knowledge@Wharton: How do you view China's investment strategy in Africa? What does it mean for investors from other parts of the world?

Odembo: I don't know if I can talk about the Chinese investment strategy because I'm not privy to [it], but I can discuss what I have observed. When the Chinese first appeared as investors on the continent about 10 years ago, a lot of African countries were very uneasy about the manner in which they were setting up businesses and the types of investments they were making. The Chinese have become much more sophisticated in the last 10 years. They now have a strategy. It appears to revolve around what they have studied extremely well on the continent. They know the demographics: There is a rising middle class on the continent; there's a very dynamic, young population; and the continent is becoming increasingly urbanized. Therefore, there is a market and purchasing power on the continent. One part of the Chinese strategy is based on the fact that they are reading Africa very well in terms of where we are now and where we are likely to go to in the next few years.

The Chinese also appreciate the riches that the continent has. Most other countries have known the riches that exist here. Some northern countries from North America and Europe have already extracted the valuable minerals and metals that they needed to develop their industries. The Chinese have figured out that over the next 10 years or so, some of the most valuable commodities that the global economy requires are on this continent.

The Chinese are positioning themselves to do business with African countries, and have figured out that in another 10 years, the continent will have a population of one billion people. That's a very sizable market for selling your products, not to mention the human resource capabilities for producing goods that you might want to export to your own country. Again, I'm not sure what the strategy is, but I can imagine that they're seeing it putting them in a very good position in terms of who will benefit the most.

Knowledge@Wharton: What implications will this have for investors from other parts of the world?

Odembo: It's a challenge. Investors will have to compete with somebody who already has a foot in the door, investing heavily in developing infrastructure, which is where African governments will tell you is where the greatest need has been -- infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. In the next 10 years or so, if this infrastructure has been developed, Africa is going to be able to trade within itself quite significantly. We've learned this during the global recession, when our commodities didn't have a ready market because our traditional markets were experiencing the crisis. We turned inward and started trading with each other.

Because of the potential for trading within the continent with a developed infrastructure, people investing in infrastructure will stand to benefit very significantly because they will know the infrastructure very well. Part of being a good business person and investor is knowing how the infrastructure is set up and how things move from point A to point B. ...

videos HERE and HERE

Making fuel from garbage

Mother Jones has an article on how "clever Ugandans" are turning garbage into fuel.

What bothers me is

1) essentially they are rag pickers.

2) no one seems to be pressuring the government into collecting trash.

3) no one seems to worry about toxic fumes from their "factory", where they not only roast left over food but also tires and other toxic plastics to get fuel.

4) how safe is this "fuel"? will those using it find their engines clogged up and useless after awhile?

5) the word "clever" in English sounds like they are amazed that Africans might be intelligent enough to do something (the word is commonly used to describe when children or animals are smart, but rarely used in the context of adult activity).

6) it points out that those in the west who think higher prices for oil is a good idea don't notice how modern oil and gasoline products are needed in third world countries, or that a rise in oil prices can devastate these economies.

Aside from these points, it is a good article about grass roots green business.

Africa could feed the world

from the BBC, pointing out that if modern methods of crop growing and hybrid seeds were used, Africa could feed the world.

"...He (Professor Calestous Juma Harvard University) estimates that while food production has grown globally by 145% over the past 40 years, African food production has fallen by 10% since 1960, which he attributes to low investment.

While 70% of Africans may be engaged in farming, those who are undernourished on the continent has risen by 100 million to 250 million since 1990, he estimates.

The professor's blueprint calls for the expansion of basic infrastructure, including new road, irrigation and energy schemes...."

of course, the "Green" lobby so beloved in many NGO's will swallow their teeth over this part of his speech:

"Tree crops like breadfruit, which is from the Pacific, could be introduced in Africa because trees are more resistant to climate change."

He also envisages genetic modification playing a growing role in African agriculture, with GM cotton and GM maize, which are already being grown on the continent, just the start of things to come.

"You need to be able to breed new crops and adapt them to local conditions... and that is going to force more African countries to think about new genomics techniques."

oh well...maybe China will help them copy their own investment in GM foods LINK

Sorry for lack of posts

I've been busy and by the time I get around to reading and posting on this blog, I'm so depressed that I quit bloggin.

Zimbabwe is getting worse, but not on the news.

Here are the headlines from today's SWRadioAfrica:

News stories for Wednesday 01 December

MDC activist dies after ZANU PF and police assaults The MDC reported Tuesday that Augustine Mahute, a party activist from Matapi Flats in Mbare Harare, died on Saturday night from injuries received in police custody. The MDC said Mahute had first been attacked by ZANU PF youths and then by the police officers at Matapi Station, where the youths had taken him by force.

CIO agent abducts six teachers in Rushinga The Progressive Teachers Union has expressed concern over the whereabouts of six teachers, thought to have been abducted by a state security agent in Rushinga Wednesday. Only last Friday a labour court ordered that Julius Mawarire, Tinashe Mavurayi, Talent Muchakazi, Angela Zanza, Silibaziso Mawire and Maphios Chisora should be reinstated at Gwangwava Primary School…

Standard editor arrested as media clampdown intensifies The editor of the weekly Standard newspaper, who handed himself over to police this week, was officially arrested Tuesday and formally charged, as the clampdown on the media continues to intensify. Police had tried to arrest Nevanji Madanhire on Monday, but the editor wasn’t at his offices and went into hiding.

Jabulani Sibanda terrorizing Lowveld, threatening death to MDC Jabulani Sibanda, the violent ZANU PF thug and chairman of the National War Vet Association, is reported to be in the Lowveld area, terrorizing villagers and threatening death to anyone who supports the MDC.

Mugabe allies back lifting of sanctions at EU summit Allies of Robert Mugabe have used a European Union (EU) summit in Libya to lobby on the dictator’s behalf, for the lifting of Western targeted sanctions in place against the regime.

ZUJ President deplores crackdown on journalists The President of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ),

Than there is the Zimbabwe Mail (which I read via email).

• Mugabe blasts Europeans
• Mugabe in massive Army recruitment in Matabeleland to use them on Shona raids
• “Work with traditional leaders” - Minister Mathuthu urges multinational companies
• Ncube Scrapes Bottom of Barrel as Tsvangirai is Outfoxed By Mugabe?
• MDC-M fingered in the arrest of MDC-T officials
• 'Bush and Blair should be prosecuted' - Robert Mugabe

The funniest stories are about how Wikileaks revealed that Mbeki was backing Mugabe in all those peace talks.

whowuddathot?

then there is this from BusinessDay:

Leaked diplomatic notes posted on WikiLeaks this week quoted Ms Nkoana-Mashabane as calling Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe "a crazy old man" .

If true, the comments are likely to harden Mr Mugabe’s attitude towards accepting SA’s advice on change in his country.

presumably saying the "Emperor has no clothes" is not allowed....

Primedia (eyewitness news) is more worried about the wikileaks will put Zimbabwean lives at stake.

Actually, the real "damage" will be stuff everyone knows: That Mugabe is crazy, that Mbeki helped him shaft Tsvangirai, and that the west thought Tsvangirai was honest but not forceful enough.