yup. The UN is honoring Mugabe.

From the BBC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has appointed President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as a "goodwill ambassador" to help tackle non-communicable diseases.

the BBC then adds this in case you thought the appointment made sense:

Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, GenevaThe appointment of 93-year-old Robert Mugabe will cause astonishment among many WHO member states and donors.
A goodwill ambassador may be a largely symbolic role, but the symbolism of giving it to a man whose leadership of Zimbabwe has, critics say, coincided with a collapse of its health service, and major human rights abuses, will be very unpopular. 

Mugabe, after "winning" an election, decided to tear down a lot of middle class areas to punish them for voting against him. He called it "operation take out the trash" and insisted it was slum clearance, but it was not.

UKGuardian article on this from 2005:

The UN's 98-page report concluded that 2.4 million people had been affected, of whom 700,000 had lost their homes or livelihoods or both, in a humanitarian crisis of "immense proportions"....

The language was harsh by UN standards. It said the clearances were a "disastrous venture". It added that the operation, "while purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions on national and international legal frameworks".

one of the buildings town down was an HIV clinic near Harare, run by Sister Patricia, the public health nurse who worked with me.

Another building torn down was a convent in QueQue, again that housed some of the African sisters who I worked with.

file AFP

And I won't even go into the threats and massacres by his "green bombers"  in the past, or that he has decided to reorganize the group for the 2018 election.

Of course, all sins forgiven because he is an open communist.

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

Niger (take two)

The Green Berets killed in Niger were fighting the Boko Harum, but the press headlines are the Trumpieboy are that he insulted someone when he called the families.

Because everything must be politicized, you know, to foment Trump hatred.

But why were they there in the first place? Because President Obama sent them there in 2014...

Backstory from before their deaths from Reuters in 2015 HERE.

A Reuters reporter was the first to visit the detachment, which is among about 1,000 U.S. Special Operations Forces deployed across Africa. In Chad, Nigeria, Niger and elsewhere, they are executing Obama’s relatively low-risk strategy of countering Islamic extremists by finding local partners willing to fight rather than deploying combat troops by the thousands. The new approach, which Obama announced in May 2014, is far from being a silver bullet for the United States in its global battle against Islamic militancy. \

the backstory is not just the Boko Harum but the ongoing war in the Sahel, which gets little or no press coverage, partly because most of the special forces types there are French.

StrategyPage discussed this little covered war HERE. and has this note about the ambush:

October 4, 2017: In the northeast, just across the border in Niger four American Special Forces soldiers were killed when the training exercise (a large patrol) they were supervising was ambushed. Four of the Niger troops were killed as well and even more American and Niger troops were wounded...

The attackers were believed to be Islamic terrorists from Mali. In less than an hour French helicopters were in the area to evacuate the wounded and in the next 24 hours French troops and more aircraft from Mali moved to the Niger border to search for the attackers.

Italics mine, because another story had a father of another of the troops wondering why they had no air cover.

The press picked this up and started saying this was "Trump's Benghazi", i.e. implying that he refused to send help for those who were ambushed. Uh, in Benghazi the help was told to stand down for political reasons. Here, the French air support arrived within an hour.

And SP has the backstory:

 The area where the attack took place had never experienced an Islamic terrorist activity before but the border is long and the Islamic terrorists have been known to move around the area without attracting attention because the locals tend to avoid groups of men with guns.

Apparently Islamic terror groups had established a new smuggling route that ran through this areas. The U.S. has 800 troops in Niger, mainly to train Niger troops but some also maintain a number of Reaper UAVs used for surveillance. The smuggling operations often appear (especially from the air) like commercial or aid group traffic.

read the whole thing.

--------------------
AlJ notes that the SJW are not protesting the many killed in a truck bomb in Somalia. Why Not? Racism?

Well, no: because they were killed by Islamic terrorists, and the left loves Islamic terrorists, and most SJW are leftists. Pointing this out is a big no-no.

This is the same reason the SJW ignore the deaths in Yemen: They can't blame the US or the west for what is essentially a fight between the Saudis and the Iranians.

But the failure to notice the many killed or fleeing the war in the Congo is indeed racist. UKGuardian story from January 2017.

Congo’s Catholic church said in a recent report that more than 3,300 people had been killed in Kasai since October. The church blamed government forces, their proxies and the insurgents. More than a million people may have been displaced and were threatened with malnutrition and disease – historically the two biggest killers of civilians during conflicts in the country – it added.

more recent report about nearby Burundi at Crux. (which reports Catholic news).

Later stories are about the murder of wildlife activists, because of course SJW care more about wildlife than black children.

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

The US is helping Niger ?

In Niger, not Nigeria.

I was under the impression that France was doing a lot of the training in this area.

But not my area of expertise.

The Congo war starts again

Sigh. A long discussion on StrategyPage, 

local warlords behind the violence.

the good news: UN peacekeepers are trying to keep things from going into another full time civil war.

The bad news: They are corrupt.

UN peacekeepers have been in Congo for 18 years and have cost the UN about a billion dollars a year. It is the largest peacekeeping operation the UN has and this year the Congo force had to deal with an eight percent budget cut with more to come. One reason is the growing corruption and other criminal activity among the more hat 20,000 UN personnel in Congo. Corruption and other criminal activity is not unusual in the UN, especially in situations where the UN has been in an area for a long time and had opportunities to develop more relationships with local criminals (often government officials).

African music

In Africa, singing and drumming has a long history.

Our German sisters who ran our hospital, brought up on classical music, only heard banging and noise, but I could detect the rhythms, because American popular music tends to be a combination of celtic ballads and African rhythms, and I was amazed to find how complicated the rhythmic patterns are: Often different drummers played different rhythm in complementary forms to each other.

The nurses tried to give me a lesson in using one of the smaller drums, but alas I didn't have the time to actually get into the complicated rhythms of traditional songs.

Here is a lecture on African music at the Library of Congress about it: Downloaded for later watching.



The Mbira is another instrument. Usually you see these in craft shops as a single line, but professionals use a larger and more complicated one.

Alex Weeks at English Wikipedia

No, you don't play the melody on it: The melody is sung,  and the mbira is played counterpoint to the song, as can be heard in this film:



People will carry small versions with them and play them in leisure time, but professional musicians have larger versions.

usually the larger version is played inside a gourd or as in this film, with a sounding board.




You can often "buy" one at a craft shop or make your own, but like any instrument, it is part of the musical heritage, so you need to learn not only how to "play" it but the musical forms of Africa.

------------------------
cross posted from my other blog

Pushing back the Sahara

from the BBC:

Eleven countries are planting a wall of trees from east to west across Africa, just under the southern edge of the Sahara desert.
The goal is to fight the effects of climate change by reversing desertification.

wikipedia page here

Since 2005, the Great Green Wall concept has developed considerably. Lessons learned from the Algerian Green Dam[4] or the Green Wall of China led to understand the need of an integrated multi-sectorial approach for sustainable results.[5] From a tree planting initiative, the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel has evolved to a development programming tool. In 2007, during the eight ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Governments held on January 29 and 30, 2007 in Addis-Ababa (Ethiopia), African Heads of State and Government endorsed the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative with the objective of tackling the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification in the region.[3]

UKGuardian article (2012).

AlJ video:

more violence in the Congo coming?

AustinBay has another article on the unrest in the Congo due to the President there deciding not to obey the constitution and trying to stay in power.

Some observers argue the Kasai insurgency illustrates what could happen throughout the country if Kabila continues to illegally remain in office. Yes, another brutal civil war. Kabila maintains power because he controls the security forces and the government's patronage system. His presidential guard unit is the most powerful military unit in the country — with the major exception of the UN's MONUSCO peacekeeping force.

The Angolan government was once a staunch Kabila ally. Kasai's refugees and Kabila's failure to end the conflict have ended the alliance. Angola, Congo's largest and most populous neighbor, now calls Kabila an illegal president. Angola also possesses central Africa's most powerful national army.

Pope Francis: Obey me Minions

there are a lot of fault lines in church history, including if the bishops are devised from below or from above.

If you let the 'people' chose the bishops, it allows a coterie to push their own guy into power (as in the early church) but if you let the Pope/Vatican do it, you can get a person who the locals ( or the locals in charge) don't like. In places where bishops are powerful or governments are tyrannical, that can cause problems. Think of the power struggles of the Anglo Saxon vs the norman bishops who wanted to reform the locals. Hence the Philippines has it's own breakaway church from the Catholics, and of course in history a lot of the reason for Lutheran and Anglican churches had to do more with politics and nationalism than with dogma.

Since an isolated church can easily slide into heresy or nepotism, you can see the problem.

The church is not just spiritual, but has intitutions such as schools and hospitals, and in some places the priest/ minister is the most educated person around. This has changed in a lot of areas today, thanks to universal education and cheap books (and not the internet) but you still see how politics can rear it's ugly head in church matters.

Nor is it a Catholic problem, as we see as churches that are formed around a charismatic leader degenerates as the leader dies and his sons are not as holy as he was. Think Pastor Shuller in the USA or the InaCristo here in the Philippines.

To outsiders, it looks like trivia, but often it is a subtle thing that means a lot to those involved.

Pope Francis' tendency to push people around is not good: The pope is a pastor/shepherd, not a dictator, no matter what the Fundie protestants think.

And his love of power, not sensitivity to culture, is seen in this Vatican power play against a Nigerian diocese that doesn't want an outsider as their leader (even an outsider from the same tribe)...

according to the comments, he is from a different subtribe who speak a different dialect,

The Tribes have their own dialects and see themselves as unique entities from within. However we all see them as Igbo from outside.
The tribes include
-Onitsha
-Ika
-Nsukka
-Ezza
-Mbaise
-Abriba
-Ikwerre
-Oguta
Etc etc etc.
Their (Igbo) ethnology is one of the most interesting in Nigeria.
Sadly, they are misunderstood.

and the writer clarifies the problem in a second comment...
The diocese is rural and largely away from the city but it is dense in terms of the strength of numbers, both parishioners and priests. They’ve literally taken it upon themselves to train and build this diocese. They’ve also supported and trained many priests from around the country of different tribes. These priests number in the thousands. More than any rural diocese in Nigeria.
With this, there are about 1000 possible persons who qualify from the local diocese and probably up to 2000+ priests that qualify from the state.
This is based on their knowledge of the diocese, its peculiarities and difficulties.
Interestingly, out of these numbers from the diocese, not one has ever been made a Bishop anywhere. So the question is why??
Shockingly, it’s nepotism. The church Ij the east was first domiciled in the Anambra axis and even through others in the east have grown. The Anambra axis doesn’t recognize this fact and tends to through their influence dictate to others who may have slightly different views than they have. This to the local priest is unfair and a sort of denial on the part of the church of both the progress they’ve made and the sacrifices they continue to make.

Therefore, the nepotism claim or tribalism is reversed. Let me explain.
In Nigeria today, this Anambra archdiocese accounts for up to 15 Bishops. Many sent to other smaller dioceses. The argument here was that the Ahiara diocese isn’t a small diocese but has successfully run itself with its own priests and schools and hospitals for about 30years.
They therefore see this as a set back and the people I’ve spoken to see it as if the over 1000 priests they have trained and or sponsored are not good enough or are just plain evil people. This is not fair.
Like I said none of them has ever been sent to oversee their fellow priests anywhere in the universal Catholic Church.
Well, I think they should accept the decision since they’ve made their points for those who care to seek the facts. The question is wil their rural people understand why they or their leaders are not worthy of this honor??

I don’t know!!

 this is a local paper and the comment section is quite interesting.

essentially most of the bishops are all from the same diocese, and locals see this as a power play by this outside diocese to make their local church be seen as inferior to the big shot outsiders who want to run all the local churches.

Yup. Local politics is involved, but also a question if the church is universal or local: should the people have input into who leads them?

. More here.

Crux summary here.

Francis lays out his demands, accusing the recalcitrant priests of wanting “to destroy the church,” and saying he’d even considered suppressing the diocese. Instead, he’s demanding they all write to “clearly manifest total obedience to the pope,” including their willingness to accept the bishop he appoints. No matter how you slice it, it’s a dramatic show of papal muscle. Even Francis conceded, “this seems pretty harsh,” but said he was doing it “because the People of God is scandalized, and Jesus reminds us that whoever causes scandal has to face the consequences.

No, I didn't work in Nigeria so am not knowledgible about the ins and outs.

And does the holyman caste have anything to do with this?I don't know.

my work in Africa was in rural Zimbabwe with the Mashona, and in Monrovia Liberia. Yes I worked with Nigerians there but didn't get to know the culture. So I post this as an FYI.

migrants? not exactly

GetReligion links to several news stories about Nigerian girls being trafficked as prostitutes to Italy, Europe, and Arab countries.

Zimbabwe

Mugabe is old and sick and his wife is hoping to take over when he dies.

In the meanwhile, Trump is cutting funds from groups that push abortion, so a lot of "Family planning" groups will lose money. Of course, they could stop pushing abortion, which in African traditional society is murder, but whatever. the article touts a group that pushed only birth control, and they are outsiders. what about doing this with immunizations, cheap protein supplements, and WHO rehydration fluid? Because only birth control gets the money.

In the meanwhile, Mugabe is being pushed into reforms according to one local paper.

actually, if you read the article they are just continuing Obama's policy.

Congo election update

StrategyPage has an update on what is going on there.

the peacekeepers are trying but only partially sucessful.

 The UN, western donor nations and African nations bordering Congo are concerned that another great Congolese civil war (1996-2003) will erupt if Kabila clings to power. They want to avoid that disaster in which three to five million people died. The high death toll includes people killed in the fighting and "excess mortality" related to the fighting, such as displaced people dying of exposure. A key part of the political settlement ending it was limiting the president to two terms in office. The fighting didn't completely stop in 2003. Bitter fighting continued, much of it ethnic-related. However, UN peacekeepers prevented another outright civil war. An estimated 200,000 more people died in the post-civil war combat and chaos that continued for over a decade (2003-2013). Again, that figure includes "excess mortality." The post-war death toll is debatable, but in 2013 there were still over two million internally displaced people in eastern Congo. (Austin Bay)

Sigh.  another day, another massacre.

In our prayers

A report  of using "witchcraft" to brainwash children into murdering in the Congo.

Congolese refugees told the authors of a UN report that they believed the Kamuina Nsapu militia had magical powers, and militia members believed their magic - including young girls drinking the blood of decapitated victims - would make them invincible."This generalised belief about the powers of Kamuina Nsapu and the fear it triggers among segments of the population in the Kasais may partly explain why a poorly-armed militia, composed to a large extent of children, has been able to resist offensives by a trained national army for over a year."

This dis not, alas limited to Africa: The murders of ISIS is witchcraft (even though they claim it is for Allah( and of course, the Mexican drug lords worship "Saint death", a demon, to get rich.

Death and love of money and egotism and desire of power and of course deception/lies are satanic.

As for the USA and western Europe: They are too civilized to do such things. They only promote killing babies in the womb to empower women, while looking the other way when doctors kill grandmom so their kids don't have to take care of them.

reminds me of when I was in Africa: Our German sisters lamented some of the terrible atrocities by the "freedom fighters" who would torture or beat their enemies to death.

I answered: Yes. The Germans did it more nicely: they just gathered up the Jews and disposed of them quietly.

and then there is the problem of male rape.

one of the reasons Africans are horrified with the west's push to legalize "gay" rights: it is seen as giving an okay to the rapist...

And this, too, is ignored by the west.

Hey, even the Pope said "who am I to judge" (which was interpreted as being pro gay rights)... well, considering all the pedophilia in the church, maybe this is why a lot of us are unhappy with his lack of judgement against sinners.

Except of course those who criticize him. I hear an editor of a Catholic media organization in Colombia was just excommunicated fir this. Priorities I guess...

US Special forces in Africa

StrategyPage summary.

May 22, 2017: Since 2007 the United States has created and expanded AFRICOM (Africa Command) to manage all the increasingly numerous American military operations in Africa. Since most of these operations involved special operations forces rather than conventional military forces AFRICOM released little detail on what was where. But in the last few years more of these details have emerged. As suspected most of the 40-50 AFRICOM “bases” detected are not bases in the traditional sense but merely temporary agreements to use existing civilian or military airbases or other facilities in African nations. These are usually countries where AFRICOM is providing assistance in dealing with Islamic terrorist activity or other security threats. 

this is similar to the work of the US in the Philippines: Often supplying information from sophisticated spying, and of course training of local forces.

There is a line, however, on who can be targeted: Going against the local NPA (communist insurgents) is a no no. But the terrorists, especially those with foreign ties, are okay.

Mental heath treatment in Africa

Bookmarked for later reading.

Get religion discusses a Harper's piece on mental health problems and hospitals in Ghana (which alas is only readable if you are subscriber).

when I was in Africa, the joke was that all of our schizophrenics spoke English: Many had stress related psychoses from the culture changes.

But we also saw a lot of "conversion" reactions.

How many are demon related? Probably few. However, this is not a Pentecostal belief, because traditionally some people were affected by a spirit at puberty.

Conversion reactions will respond to suggestion and hypnosis, which is why prayer (or the traditional treatment by the local Nganga) works.

But there is also vitamin related problem, infection related problems, post concussion related problems, etc.

In the old days, if you had a spirit you might be revered, but if you were crazy, you would be beaten and thrown out on your own to live (reminds me of the man in the cemetary in the bible). Or you might be poisoned, either accidentally (by giving them herbal medicine to treat the problem.. we had lots of death from accidental poisoning to treat illness), or even deliberately.

This is what people did in the good old days to those who threatened them, before police and the court systems.

My friend in Africa had one of her nieces develop mental problems in puberty, perhaps from the stress of loving her dad to HIV and from school.

My friend cured her by taking her on a pilgrimage to the grave of John Bradburne, where she was healed, although she only lived a few more years. What did she die of? HIV? Infection? I have no idea.


Bradburne was gentle guy, a veteran with PTSS, who found God and who later worked at a leper colony and was martyred. Now, at least 30 of my collegues there were martyred, but the Africans only spontaneously saw him as a saint... I presume because the rest of us were bossy do gooders, and he only was known for his love.

dictator vs bishop's peace plan in the Congo

StrategyPage has a summary what is going on there.

The local bishops tried to make a peace plan, but evil is still there.

. That was key element in the December Accord, the agreement mediated by Catholic bishops and reached on December 31, 2016. The agreement also specified that Kabila would not to alter the constitution and his government would free all political prisoners. The bishops belonged to the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), which gave the agreement its backing. Yet in March CENCO said that continuing negotiations with Kabila had collapsed. Why does Kabila want to hold on to power? One obvious reason: Corruption in the government Kabila controls has made his family and associates rich.

African immigrants and refugees

Most of the controversy is about the Somalis who might bring in terror.

AlJ laments man made famine in Somalia. Want to fix it? Kill the bad guys who are intimidating aid workers and stealing food.

Somalia has been policed since the early 1990's by the UN (as is the Congo civil war). Including well trained soldiers from Kenya trying to keep the peace. The trouble is that peacekeepers keep the peace, they don't kill bad guys.

on the other hand, this explains the little noticed phone call Trumpieboy made to Kenya's president a couple days ago.

Kenya is having trouble with these "refugees" from Somalia, and deporting a lot of them

so the question is, of course, why they can't be settled in these nearby countries, where there are already a lot of Somalian workers. The answer: these countries don't want them because they cause crime and terrorism.

from my main blog. I think refugees need to be helped, and the best way to do this is pacify their countries.

But who will risk invading and doing this (as Britain did in India and was the excuse for colonialism in Africa).

Resettling refugees is good, but does have problems, the main one being you can't resettle all of them, the second is that the problem of assimilation takes three generations. (at least it did for the Irish, Italians, and Jewish immigrants into the  USA).

about ten perdcent of Zimbabwean population has emigrated to find jobs, mostly to South Africa or the UK. Wikipedia article.

There are various conflicting unofficial figures about the number of Zimbabweans in the US. The RAND Corporation estimated in 2000 that there were 100,000 in the state of New York alone.^[12] 

it's hard to find later statistics.  Indeed it is hard to find exactly how many Zimbabweans are working or emigrating abroad.

Rough estimates vary from place to place:

However, tacit agreement among nongovernmental organisations is that the Zimbabwe diaspora is spread out mainly in South Africa, Botswana, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia. South Africa is estimated to have the bulk of Zimbabwe’s diaspora community, with an estimated two million to three million Zimbabwean nationals living in that country.

Second to South Africa as a destination of permanent settlement for Zimbabweans is the UK. Community-based organisations estimate the total number of Zimbabweans living legally in the UK to be 200 000, but say it is about 500 000 if one includes undocumented immigrants. 

not many go to the USA: Only 45,000 is the estimate in this article. (2008).

this article states that since 1980 immigrants from Sub Sahara Africa number 1.8 million. into the USA. But few are from Zimbabwe.

and this video frrom the US Library of Congress discusses recent African immigration into the USA.

air force vs army worms in Zambia

BBC article

Armyworm devestates crops

DW report on the Armyworm eating the corn crop.

Global warming? No. Imported from South America, probably by an imported plant, and spreading around the continent.

Slow government response, and farmers believe the rumor that pesticides won't work

most farmers are still not aware of what can be done to reduce it's damage. Some farmers in Gokwe district bought all kind of theories about a mysterious worm due to lack of information and clear guidance from the government. As a result some healthy looking crops were left at the mercy of the devouring fall armyworm. Many of the farmers are now counting huge losses....

FAO warned that Zimbabwe is likely to be the hardest hit with 130,000 hectares of maize and corn crops largely affected. So far the fall armyworm has spread in at least 10 provinces in Zimbabwe.

Despite the farmers' concerns, the government sees no urgency or panic regarding the armyworm. The head Plant Protection Research Institute at Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Agriculture, Godfrey Chikwenhere, said the yield reduction obeserved was minimal. "The only issue now is that we are using a substantial amount of money on chemicals," he said."

Though from the casual observer when you see the worm and all the plant being [attacked] you might estimate that the yield is very high," Chikwenhere added.

The caterpillar stage is the dangerous one that eats the crops. Ah, but then it turns into a moth, which is how it can migrate so quickly into new area.

Zimbabwe hosts emergency meeting on armyworm infestation

The United Nations is holding emergency talks in Harare to address the crop-eating "armyworm" caterpillars currently devastating farmland across several African countries. (14.02.2017)  

'Armyworm' infestation threatens crops in Zimbabwe

After a prolonged drought, incessant rains in most parts of Zimbabwe had raised hope that food shortages would be eased. But an outbreak of armyworms may be making the situation worse. (23.01.2017)  

'Fall armyworm' attacks southern African crops

Southern Africa is facing a plague of pests which is threatening crop harvests and food supplies for millions of people. Zimbabwe hosts an emergency FAO meeting next week to shape a coordinated regional response. (07.02.2017)  

this WIKIHOW is more about how gardeners can control it in rich countries

BBC article:

Why is it such a threat to farming? It is very hungry (and not picky) - This pest targets maize (corn) and other cereal crops, like its African namesake, but it also attacks cotton, soybean, potato and tobacco crops. When it does invade, up to three-quarters of the crop can be destroyed.

Unknown enemy - Governments, communities and farmers have no previous experience of dealing with the new pest, which may be even harder to deal with than its native equivalent.

• It is fast - According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), it has taken only eight weeks for the pest to spread to the six southern African countries where there are suspected infestations.

• It travels far and wide - The caterpillar stage does the damage but "it's the adult moth that migrates long distances and that's how it's managed to get round Africa," says Professor Ken Wilson, an expert on armyworms.

• It is not just targeting any old crop - Maize is the primary food staple in many of the areas where the pest has been identified.

• It is hard to find - The fall armyworm burrows right into the stem of maize plants, concealing itself from view and preventing farmers from spotting the problem early.

• Bad timing - It comes after two years of record droughts, which have already affected more than 40 million people in the region, making 15% less food available, according to the UN.

often outside the crop looks good, until you open the cob.

Gizmodo articcle on efforts to control the pest. They blame global warming of course.

As if the drought/rain cycle was due to global warming, not a normal event that has been going on for years.

Actually all they say is that the moth didn't spread quickly during the drought, but once the rain came and there was a lot of good crops to eat it spread.

Nature article on droughts in Africa:

Our data indicate that, over the past millennium, equatorial east Africa has alternated between contrasting climate conditions, with significantly drier climate than today during the 'Medieval Warm Period' (approx ad 1000–1270) and a relatively wet climate during the 'Little Ice Age' (approx ad 1270–1850) which was interrupted by three prolonged dry episodes.

We also find strong chronological links between the reconstructed history of natural long-term rainfall variation and the pre-colonial cultural history of east Africa4, highlighting the importance of a detailed knowledge of natural long-term rainfall fluctuations for sustainable socio-economic development.

Mugabe 93 and won't quit

AlJ article on his birth day and party

Anti Immigration rally in South Africa

Al J reports on a planned anti immigration rally in South Africa.

foreigners are blamed for increased drug use and crime.

Many of the immgrants are from Zimbabwe.

The Congo peace accord backstory

Awhile back, the Catholic bishops in the Congo backed a peace accord.

 StrategyPage has a summary on the story and what is going on there.

 February 6, 2017: Many Congolese are not convinced the president Kabila will ever comply with the December 31, 2016 agreement brokered by the Catholic Church. That deal (“the December accord”) was made between the political opposition and several senior members of Kabila’s government. However, Kabila himself was not personally a party to the agreement. The agreement stipulated that Kabila could remain in power until national elections are held near the end of 2017.... 

so why does he want to stay in power? follow the money:

Kabila and his family are wealthy and that fortune could be lost or severely depleted if a reform-minded new government decides to recover billions stolen by corrupt politicians. The Kabila clan has extensive mineral interests (including gold, cobalt, diamonds and copper). Many of these family interests are in Katanga province. Corruption in the government Kabila controls has made his family and associates wealthier. It’s an old and wretched story. (Austin Bay)

 read the whole thing.

AlJ has an article on the M23 rebels.

International human rights groups say M23 fighters have been responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and the forced recruitment of children. In March 2013, following infighting between two M23 factions, Ntaganda turned himself in to the United States embassy in Rwanda and was extradited to The Hague.
Why the rebellion?The rebels say they started their rebellion because they were not happy with the pay and conditions in the Congolese army. But Congolese government officials and analysts say the mutiny began when the government came under pressure to arrest Ntaganda and hand him over to the ICC.
Given the fact that M23 is a ragtag army, and the vast 1136km distance between Goma and Kinshasa, it is highly unlikely that the rebels can topple the government. But they have continued to fight, sometimes emerging victorious after battles with poorly trained and ill-equipped soldiers. Many say the rebellion is fuelled by the presence of vast mineral resources in eastern DR Congo, claiming the rebels want to win control of them.

again follow the money.

Pedophilia scandal.

The UK Telegraph story of a friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is a pedophile. And a murderer.

A previous court case in Zimbabwe was dropped because of irregularities

A lot of our ric criminals get off this way in the Philippines.

I believe Jesus called this a wolf in sheep's clothing, and advised the millstone treatment for such people. (the old fashioned equivalent of the Mafia's cement sshoe treatment)

Sickening.

famine news

I am sending money to a friend in Zimbabwe to help her family (mainly to pay school fees for her nephews and nieces) and I haven't heard from here in several months. I hope she is well: She has high blood pressure and has had a stroke, and the last email said she is having problems getting to a computer or using her cellphone to text me that she received her money. I can't send much: I am on social security, but every little bit helps.

The money crisis there is bad: They had uberiflation which got in the news a couple years ago, but later allowed people to use SARands or US dollars, which did help: I can now send her US dollars by Western Union and know she is getting the amount I sent her, not the amount that was legal by official government exchange, which was much lower than the money was worth.

now, if you know history, the lack of money in hand has caused frustration  and even hardship, so the latest item (VOA) says that the gov't is trying to have the rural folks use debit cards etc. instead of coins.

Zimbabwe has a fairly high standard of education, and when politics and financial collapse occurred (due to Mugabe's socialist policies, but also because of sanctions because Mugabe stole the land from White farmers to distribute to locals, and later to his friends. Of course the white farmers got the land from the people, but never mind).

So the educated skedaddled to get jobs elsewhere: in the UK but mainly in South Africa, often as illegal immigrants, who work to try to support the families back home.

Hollywood teds to blame Trump, but these problems are nothing new, and Hollywood has indeed had films/tv shows that examine the issues under the guise of Science Fiction.  If you saw the sciFi movie District 9, well, that started as a short film satire against the dislike of immigrants. So under Trumpie, will the US be District 9, or Alien Nation, which is about assimilating refugees from outer space?

Well, anyway, this year the rains didn't come again so hunger again is a problem in rural areas. Not getting a lot of publicity in the US MSM. Get Religion links to this story about famine in rural Kenya, which will break your heart.

The point is that governments are trying to cope, but not doing a good enough job. The Red Cross is there, as are many from the "faith communities", but Muslim and Christian, which are on the front line of assistance.

And the article ends with a plea for improving the ability to farm:

Meanwhile, Matolo and other many faith leaders in East Africa continue to stress better farming methods, the use of quality seeds and increased water harvesting. “When I see the people starving, I feel desperate. I also feel disappointed that many of the promises by government officials to deliver water have not been honored,” said Matolo. “If these people can get water for irrigation, the area will become the country’s bread basket. They are doing it in Israel, which is a desert. Here, the soils are very fertile and the people are not lazy.”

The US has responded by increasing aid: Trump just sent 4 million more, on top of the 131 million already sent there since June 2015, which the UN, US and other agencies will use to feed people and work on the infrastructure. (safe water and sanitation).

Relief net has a long article about the various aid agencies helping countries in East and South Africa during this drought.

Aid agencies are often used since money to local governments might just get diverted. China has helped in Zimbabwe when western aid was cut over "human rights" abuses etc. but of course, lots of their money got diverted to keep the Mugabe regime in power.

and they mention that in Zimbabwe, the corn and other crops are being destroyed by the FallArmy worm.  This will need pesticides, and GM crops might help control it.

 CNN Report here.

sigh.

There are huge back stories about why not: From the countries emphasizing modernization in cities instead of farming, to the NGO's that too often oppose GM crops and the green revolution (and influence local governments to ban these modern crops), or NGO's who were more worried about animals than humans, to political instability and tribal politics, where one tribe got the money and the others were neglected. Indeed, in parts of Africa, a lot of the religious conflict is tribal conflict and/or traditional rivalry between farmers and herders.

Zimbabwe doesn't have a lot of religious conflicts, although there is a low grade one between between the Matabele (a warrior tribe and Zulu offshoot) and the Mashona (pacifistic farmers).

These famines are not new: as I said in an earlier post, they had a major one when I was there in the 1970's, and another in the 1990's. Sigh.

but one thing that is often left out of these stories (which in the western press alas often follow the  "westerners aid poor African" meme): that the Diaspora is supporting their families.

This HuffPost story is about remittances sent back from those who migrated to work elsewhere and are sending money home.

According to a report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2013, remittances sent to the world’s poorest countries including 33 African countries have increased to US $27 billion in 2011 from US $3.5 billion in 1990.

South African mining is a big source of these remittances, but then there are a lot of other stories out there about undocumented educated workers who do menial jobs to support their families.

This is the back story of all those Africans trying to sneak into Europe, or my previous post about Africans in China.

There are an estimated 400 thousand illegal black immigrants in the US: Some from Haiti or the West Indies, but many from Africa.

these immigrants have faces, and families. So do we gather them up and send them back, or work to integrate them? District 9 or Alien Nation? Anyone? Anyone?

Boko Harum

StrategyPage article on BokoHarum in Nigeria.

China takes over

UKTelegraph reports that the farms confiscated from white farmers has been given to Chinese nationals

my sarcastic quote: Better to give it to someone who knows how to farm than to one of the cronies who will let the land lie fallow.

Food security in Africa

Story from AlJ:

Zimbabwe activism

One change in the last ten years is that now rural Zimbabweans have cellphones.

Globalvoices has an article on netcitizen activism

Mawarire, wrapped in a Zimbabwean flag, posted a video on YouTube and Facebook, asking:

This flag, this beautiful flag, they tell me that the green is for the vegetation and the crops. I don't see any crops in my country. The yellow is for all the minerals… I don't know how much is left. I don't know who they sold it to and how much they got for it. They tell me that the black is for the majority people like me and yet for some reason I don't feel like I am a part of it.

read the whole thing...

Chinese peacekeepers in Mali

weibo link reports a Chinese UN peacekeeper in Mali was killed.

a long article about their work.

sleeping sickness

Librivox has an audiobook written in the early 1900's that investigates the problem of sleeping sickness.

they blame the epidemic on western traders and explorers who took infected porters with them, spreading the disease to new areas and killing hundreds of thousands of people.

However, what about the Arab traders, including the slave traders, who were in the area at the time? They cite Stanley and Livingstone, but ignore that Livingstone's work was most important in influencing people to oppose the slave trade...


Ironically, what opened Zimbabwe to western expansion was because the rinderpest epidemic killed off enough wildlife to stop the tsetse fly from having enough animals to feed on. There was a tsetse fly free area fenced off when I lived there 35 years ago...wonder if it is still working?

Let them abuse our boys or else post of the day

The PC professors in a US political site insist that since the US diplomats haven't been successful in pushing "gay rights" on Africa, that our multinational corporations should do it too.

Many global companies adopt an “Embassy” approach, enforcing pro-LGBT policies on local campuses so as to create a safe space in LGBT-unfriendly jurisdictions while helping promote greater tolerance in the local culture. American Express, for example, enforces global anti-discrimination policies everywhere it has offices, effectively raising the bar in jurisdictions like India where those protections are absent. Some companies take a step further, adopting an “Advocate” approach that seeks to effect change in the host nation itself. Such advocacy can take many forms, ranging from direct lobbying to support for local advocacy to symbolic action. Barclays stepped up to discuss its concerns when Ugandan legislators sought the death penalty for homosexual acts; the enacted law, while still draconian, omitted that punishment.

 All of this ignores the "elephant in the room": male on male rape.

Uganda's law was blamed on "Evangelical Christians" by the US gay activists, never mind that most Ugandans who are Christians are Anglican or Catholic.

Ah, but what about history: The slave trade from the Muslim north where boys and men were routinely raped, the good old days of colonialism where the "problem sons" of England were sent to Africa; the practice of hiring men for factories/farm or mines but not making accomadations for their families (male dormatories are especially notorious). Boarding schools, where teachers can exploit kids. And the punishment of prisoners during the genocides of Idi Amin or nowadays by both the jihadis and the "lord's army" types?

read the report from DW (German news site)

Hillary pushed women's rights by insisting on taking female rape and sexual exploitation seriously, but no one in the US wants to recognize this problem.

China in Africa

Lots of links via AlJ

or you can go to the BBC for more information, including this factoid:

In 2014, tiny Benin was the continent's biggest importer of wigs and false beards from China. It purchased Chinese hair pieces worth $411m.
A hefty three million kg (472,400 stone) were taken to Benin, with many of those wigs then whisking their way to neighbouring Nigeria.

the Congo imitates Mugabe

StrategyPage has an article on the Congo and includes some items about Mugabe as poster child for corrupt "presidents for life".

His opponents are pointing to Kabila’s recent visit to Zimbabwe. He met with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe who is basically Zimbabwe’s president for life. Opponents claim Kabila is seeking Mugabe’s help. Zimbabwe maintained a military force in the Congo during the Great Congo War (1998-2003). The opposition views that meeting with Mugabe as an indication that Kabila might use military and police force to remain in power. That is what Mugabe does. 

Boko Haram

Despite the headlines about Syria and ISIS, the number one terrorist group is Boko Haram in Nigeria.

StrategyPage has a long detailed post on that war, and on the multinational African forces that are fighting them. Things are improved partly because the new president is fighting some of the terrible corruption.

and then we have this:

:The UN revealed that there are now over 2.2 million refugees from Boko Haram violence. In addition several hundred thousand people in neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon have also been displaced by Boko Haram violence. 

hmm...haven't heard much about these refugees, but I suspect if you look closer, a lot of those "Syrian" refugees will turn out to be fleeing Nigeria or Saharan terrorist groups. And of course these Saharan groups make money by smuggling drugs and refugees from Europe.

Fire at Great Zimbabwe

LINK

PROPERTY worth thousands of dollars was destroyed in a veld fire that ravaged the Great Zimbabwe national monuments on Monday.
The inferno reduced three Great Zimbabwe family lodges and two public toilets located at the historical site to ashes.

veldt fires are common, often set to burn off the old, dead grass/hay/weeds at the end of the dry season so that new grass can come up and/or it's easier for farmers to plant new crops.

Nigeria improving

StrategyPage reports the new president in Nigeria is improving things.

September 7, 2015: The military continues to chase down remaining Boko Haram Boko Haram groups in the northeast, especially northern Borno State and its huge Sambisa Forest. The northeast in general is a thinly populated area with many places to hide. Aerial reconnaissance has proved to be a key tool in finding Boko Haram, along with tips from civilians (often local self-defense groups). For example air force bombers recently hit a Boko Haram camp that was using solar panels (seen from the air) for electricity. Boko Haram is at a disadvantage here because they need electricity to keep their communications working. Batteries alone will not get it done and any electricity producing device (generators, solar panels) are easy to spot (especially when using heat sensors) from the air. The military prefers air strikes because getting ground troops to a remote site can take hours and the element of surprise is lost. Moreover the Islamic terrorists are using more landmines and booby traps around their camps, even the temporary ones. These kill troops every week and will be a long term problem in these remote areas as civilians hunt and forage in these areas.  

the lemba Jews of Zimbabwe

from AlJazeerah:

many Bantu customs are similar to that of the ancient Isaraelites, but what makes this article interesting is that DNA studied suggest maybe their beliefs are true...

Chinese peacekeepers in South Sudan

LINK

April 8, 2015: China has completed deployment of an infantry battalion to South Sudan. The unit has 700 soldiers (13 are women). This is the first Chinese combat unit committed to the UN South Sudan peacekeeping force.  China,, however, has deployed military engineer units  to South Sudan but avoided calling them combat engineers. The engineers were ostensibly assigned to support missions (eg, improving roads and other infrastructure). The infantry unit will be assigned several missions, include protecting civilian areas and conducting peacekeeping patrols.

attacks on "immigrants" in South Africa

LINK


mainly about those from Zimbabwe and Malawi taking jobs in a country with a high unemployment rate.

sorry for the lack of posts

My husband was very sick for the last six months, and now has died. And since my contacts with Zimbabwe have gotten fewer in the last three years, I can only post stuff that is elsewhere.

I won't close the blog completely since news like this that concerns Zimbabwe does pop up now and then.

the church in Africa

report of Africa's news stories of the last year
from catholic world report

includes notes about South Africa's elections but doesn't mention Zimbabwe

Zim refugees take two

AlJazeerah story from August  2013 gives the backstory

Zimbabwe refugees in South Africa

AlJazeerah covers the stories.

Evicting refugees from a church

Since 2000, the Central Methodist Church in central Johannesburg became something of an institution for refugees from a host of African countries, particularly Zimbabwe, looking for a new life.
The church provided shelter, counselling, medical services, education for children and even skills development.
Verryn said helping refugees has been a difficult and divisive issue, especially when so many South Africans needed help themselves.
"We have a country that is fairly unfriendly to refugees. We have a cold prejudice towards them ... it's been a very difficult journey for many," he said.
After the xenophobic riots in May 2008 that left 62 people dead, the church became even more important as a safe house for asylum seekers and refugees from across the continent.
At one point, about 2,000-3,000 people were squeezed inside the church premises, raising the ire of local government.
Some estimates suggest that since 2000, more than 30,000 refugees have passed through the doors of the church at one point or another.

Islamic terror group in Uganda

From Global Security

The Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) is made up of Ugandan opposition forces, supported by the Government of Sudan, which fought the Government of Uganda. The ADF was formed in the late 1990s. According to the UN, most of its members are Islamists who want to establish Sharia law in Uganda. This Ugandan Muslim rebel group has conducted limited activities in Uganda and DR Congo. The Allied Democratic Forces, originally a Ugandan based insurgency, now operates in eastern DRC and is listed as a terrorist organization.
The Ugandan government has alleged that ADF has support from Sudan, an assertion backed up by Western diplomatic sources. It also says the ADF has links with Somalia’s al-Shabab, although some analysts contest this. Analysts agree the group has a bad human rights record.

SenseOfEvents blog reports:

United Methodist Bishop Unda Yemba Gabriel is resident bishop of the East Congo Episcopal Area. He preached at the Tennessee Annual Conference last summer, of which I am a member. He sent this message to Tennessee Conference Bishop Bill McAlilly this week.

To brothers and sisters in Christ:

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

As I write these few lines, my heart is too heavy because of the situation going on in Beni territory, northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is part of my Episcopal Area. The efforts of our army (are) insufficient to protect people. 

People there are killed every day in the neighboring villages and we run the risk of losing all our believers. Two weeks ago, a group of Uganda rebels killed people in the villages (of) Kamango, Oicha and Mbawu. A Methodist family (a father, his wife and their two children) were killed with machetes. 

Many people are fleeing to Beni. Our local congregations there are crowded with displaced people who flee from villages for their lives. We need your prayers. But, as you know, food and basic needs must be met. Our evangelization should reach people in need. 

I am sending this SOS message to all those who may want to help. 

May God be with us all during Christmas, but let’s keep in mind that our brothers and sisters are dying somewhere because of selfish interests. 

Bishop Unda Yemba Gabriel
Resident Bishop, East Congo Episcopal Area