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by Ronald Rutherford
I was not sure the best place to post this xpost from Africa...Part II. The first part I tried it under Special Focus .
Well let me lead off with some articles/links for Zimbabwe. Suffer the little children is a phrase never far from your mind in today's Zimbabwe. The horde of painfully thin street children milling around you at traffic lights is almost the least of it: in a population now down to 11m or less there are an estimated 1.3m orphans.
Although I really could care less if Mugabe keeps his piece of paper or not. Not like it will help him get a job or something. But does provide some information about his past that should be of interest.
The next link from Human Rights Watch, I have not even skimmed it yet, but worthy of posting here.
China and Zimbabwe cement ties The government said the China-funded 424 tractors and 50 lorries would replace machinery destroyed during the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. Zimbabwe has deregistered all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and told them to submit new applications.
Mugabe Gets Ready to Eat Cake While Fellow Zimbabweans Can't Find Bread on Shelves
Zimbabwe's tobacco farmers in price stand-off ZIMBABWE'S annual opening of the tobacco auction floors hangs in the balance after Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo failed to get government approval for the new prices on Monday.
CIO at it again
Lots of good information from this site also, just a preview.
Repression intensifies in Zimbabwe: ZINASU, PTUZ, WOZA and media crackdown Meanwhile, Zimbabwean journalist Peter Moyo, a producer with South African TV state E-TV, was arrested in Mutare on 5 February, spending a night in police cells along with cameraman William Gumbo and his cousin Trymore Zvidzai. They were allegedly covering a story on illegal diamond mining and dealings in the area. Moyo and his team were charged with being unaccredited journalists - in Zimbabwe all journalists have to be accredited with the government. Note link will go bad after a while.
The next three links are to the additional Military Command for the USA under the name AFRICOM. The answer to the congressman (and others) is found in the much-maligned 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States of America which declared that "weak states...can pose a great danger to our national interests as strong states. Poverty does not make poor people into terrorists and murderers. Yet poverty, weak institutions, and corruption can make weak states vulnerable to terrorist networks and drug cartels within their borders." In Africa, the document went on to assert: "Promise and opportunity sit side by side with disease, war, and desperate poverty. This threatens both a core value of the United States - preserving human dignity - and our strategic priority - combating terror. American interests and American principles, therefore, lead in the same direction: we will work with others for an African continent that lives in liberty, peace, and growing prosperity."
US, Kenya discuss new military unit for Africa "AFRICOM is intended to give the US a more focused approach to US security and developmental programs on the continent. At present, three different US regional command headquarters maintain relationships with countries in Africa," it said.
The last link (editorial) then leads us into a revoking attack on actions by the USA in Somalia. I disagree with nearly all of it and could easily take a couple of posts just to break it down, but to be balanced I include it here:
But then why does all Geopolitical/Geo-strategic issues just revolve around the USA and the collective Navel gazing associated with that. China, on a domestic and international cleaning binge, is seeking to cleanse its status and reputation by the time it begins hosting the Olympics in 2008 to appear as a developed nation in a first-world prom dress. While this may appear as a farcical whitewash operation by a totalitarian regime, it presents an opportunity for the international community to take concrete steps in resolving the Darfur crisis. Again it has plenty of good links at the bottom of the post.
The below article could definitely learn a thing or two about political correctness. A deadly attack by rebels on a Chinese-run oil field in Ethiopia that left more than 70 dead is the latest example of the human and political cost of China's growing energy interests in Africa.
So reaction seems appropriate: China has condemned an attack on a Chinese oil company site in Ethiopia that killed 74 people, including nine Chinese. So China gets a majority of oil produced on the east African Coast while the USA gets a majority produced on the West Coast. But we are trying to prevent genocide in all of Africa. If we were only concerned about "Our" oil then it seems we would have initiated the change in Military Commands.
And just so people know that I am not too serious of a guy then watch Qadhafi clip 1421 as he explains: "We have turned towards peace, because America has turned toward peace with us."
Links of interest:
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Africa...Part II | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Africa...Part II | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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