Africa idle as thousands die
timeslive.co.zaby Justice Malala
Emaciated and parentless children, looking like walking skeletons, are arriving in camps in Kenya after walking for days without drink or food. Behind them lie arid lands and warfare.
Don’t bother looking for the story on the front page of your newspaper. It is on page 11, hidden among sexier stories. Our front pages are reserved for earth-shattering events such as the death of Amy Winehouse.
Eleven million people are affected by the famine sweeping across the Horn of Africa. No, you have not heard about it from our politicians. Don’t worry. Black life is cheap. It is the cheapest thing in the world.
We are here again. We are back in the 1970s, when Europe and other Western powers looked at our continent, shook their heads and muttered about African mismanagement. They said they would send “humanitarian aid”, they would send doctors.
We are back in the 1980s. Bob Geldof or someone like him will help put together a song, we will all mutter that “We are the world”, money will be raised and some of it will buy food and medical supplies for those children and their starving families.
But Africa will not lift a finger to help its own. That is because black life is at its cheapest in the regard of African political leaders. Black lives are nowhere as invisible as they are to African leaders. African leaders do not see black people - especially not when they die.
Over the past few weeks President Jacob Zuma has been running a spirited campaign against the Nato bombing of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. He has travelled the world, drumming up support for this dictator, a man who has been in power for an astonishing 42 years.
Zuma has found his courage. In defence of Gaddafi, he has managed to stand up to David Cameron of the UK and Barack Obama of the US. He has been a hero in defence of one man.
He has not raised a sweat to highlight the plight of thousands of starving, dying, fellow Africans on the Horn of Africa.
The chairman of the African Union, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, of Equatorial Guinea, cannot be relied on to lift a finger for starving people either. In power since 1979, and accused of rigging elections, jailing opposition activists and running one of the most corrupt, oppressive and undemocratic states in the world, Nguema is exactly what the African Union is not supposed to be about.
Nguema and Zuma coming to the rescue of a discredited, megalomaniac dictator such as Gaddafi is exactly what they would do. How much did Gaddafi contribute to the rise of dictators in Africa? If Gaddafi is deposed by his own people, will the people of Equatorial Guinea start wondering aloud why their own man has been in power for so long?
The Nguemas and Zumas of this world have serious intellectual muscle behind them in support of Gaddafi. Thabo Mbeki, our former president, has been active in beating the drum for Gaddafi, too.
In yesterday’s Sunday Times, Mbeki said: “What happened in Libya might very well be a precursor of what might happen in another country. I think that all of us need to consider this matter, because this is a major disaster.
“We can’t say that we can’t stop these Western powers from acting in the way that they have been acting because they will do it again tomorrow.
“I think we can, provided that we act and they can see that if they take this kind of action, they are going to meet the resistance of the entire African continent.”
Such vigour! Such energy! How about showing the West that, with our massive mineral wealth, with our intellectual might, we are capable of helping our own people dying on the Horn of Africa?
It is these same men whose voices are quiet while the people of Africa die of hunger. You are likely to hear from Nguema, Zuma and Mbeki when they start accusing “the West” of wasting time instead of helping. Their silence over the past few months while they have wasted jet fuel defending Gaddafi - who, by the way, is being attacked by his own people - will not be remembered.
- I have lied to you in this article. South Africa cares for dying fellow Africans. On Friday, our government pledged a massive R1-million for famine relief.
“We are planning to give [about] R1-million,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Marius Fransman.
That is less than the price of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s R1.1-million car. See how greatly our government values black life?
“The brother leader’s delegation has accepted the roadmap as presented by us. We have to give cease-fire a chance.”
—South African President Jacob Zuma • Pushing to get folks to back a peace plan that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to. The plan, which could lead to a cease-fire, may be just what Libya needed. Now we’re sure Zuma, representing the African Union, probably has a better handle on Gaddafi than most, but we’re going to say that this probably isn’t going to be particularly effective. And Zuma has a history of backing a soft-pedal approach to leaders that probably don’t deserve it. Robert Mugabe for starters. We’re sure Morgan Tsvangirai feels pretty good about Zuma’s help in that situation right now. source (via • follow)
Poor young South Africans lose faith in aging leaders
By Marius Bosch, Reuters, Sept. 2, 2011
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters)—Clashes between youth members of the ruling ANC and police this week are signs that millions of unemployed young South Africans do not believe their aging leaders’ promises to lift them out of poverty.
Unless President Jacob Zuma and his government move fast to create more jobs for young people, there could be further violence which will scare off investors and deal a blow to the already sluggish economy.
The disciplinary hearing the African National Congress is holding to examine charges that popular party Youth League leader Julius Malema has sown division in the party has acted as a catalyst for the deep frustrations of the young.
In scenes reminiscent of the apartheid era, thousands of Malema’s supporters rioted in Johannesburg when the hearing began on Tuesday, hurling rocks and bottles at riot police who responded with stun grenades and water cannon.
The disciplinary action against the youth league firebrand is a high-stakes gamble for both Zuma and Malema. One outcome could be the suspension from the ANC of Malema, 30, derailing his political career. If he is exonerated, Zuma could be plunged into a fight for his political survival.
Beneath this week’s violence lies a deep-rooted frustration at the failure of current leaders to improve the lives of young people nearly two decades after the end of apartheid.
“The tension within the party now really centers around the fact that the vast majority of the ANC’s rank and file still remain largely poor and under-employed—if at all,” said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, chief analyst of African frontier markets at risk and advisory group DaMina Advisors.
“They are increasingly disconnected from their ideologically moderate, millionaire and billionaire ANC ministers, leaders and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) minted business tycoons.”
Unemployment is officially around 25 percent. Millions still live in squalid shack settlements clustered around big cities.
But youth unemployment is about 50 percent, and a study by the South African Institute of Race Relations said about half of current 25- to 34-year-olds will never find work.
“If we do not deal with the unemployment crisis among young people we may see what is happening in the Middle East erupting here in our own country,” said Buti Manamela, an ANC member of parliament.
Many of Zuma’s cabinet ministers are veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle, seen as too moderate by more militant ANC factions and out of touch with the younger generation.
Young ANC members have embraced Malema’s calls for nationalization of the gold and platinum mines and the takeover of white-owned farmland, but his plan for “economic freedom in our lifetime” has unnerved investors.
Young South Africans are increasingly lining up with Malema, distancing themselves from ANC idealism and embracing the idea of putting cash in their pockets.
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South African parliament passes controversial secrecy law
- cause The South African parliament passed a bill on Tuesday that they say is intended to “save lives, to enhance and to protect the freedom and security of persons, to bring criminals to justice, to protect the national security and to engage in effective government and diplomacy.” Jacob Zuma is expected to sign it into law.
- reaction The bill has further strained the relationship between the press and the government. Many believe the law is an attempt to shield the country’s elite from criticism and prevent whistleblowing. A number of anti-apartheid leaders have also come out against the bill, including Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, who called it “insulting.” source
BRICS credit: Local currencies to replace dollar
articles.economictimes.indiatimes.comThe weak dollar grows weaker as the BRICS reach an agreement to use their own currencies to issue credit and grants. Have the good times for the US Dollar finally come to an end?
Cops vs photographers: What's wrong with this picture?
While demonstrators have been slammed for raining rocks onto journalists outside Luthuli House in Johannesburg this week, photographers say it is usually the police who stop them from taking pictures.
Protesters were slammed for attacking journalists during a demonstration in support of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema at his disciplinary hearing. Members of the media were pelted with rocks and glass bottles, while a broadcaster’s van was vandalised and damaged.
But while this attack was condemned by authorities, civil society groups and media organisations, and raised concerns about the way members of the public perceive the media, press photographers say it is actually police who prevent them from doing their jobs properly.
Continue @ Mail & Guardian Online
met·a·phor
[met-uh-fawr, -fer]
–noun
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our god.” .
2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
Jacob Zuma reportedly told party supporters in Mthatha over the weekend: “When you vote for the ANC, you are also choosing to go to heaven. When you don’t vote for the ANC you should know that you are choosing that man who carries a fork… who cooks people.
“When you are carrying an ANC membership card, you are blessed. When you get up there, there are different cards used but when you have an ANC card, you will be let through to go to heaven.”
ANC Spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu was quick to respond saying that the statement was “figurative” and “metaphoric”, and that “Those who are ‘alarmed’ by his expression are probably driven by jealousy for not having thought of the expression themselves,”.
Except that those who are alarmed (and there are many), don’t have a track record for saying inappropriate things publicly. I’m not the least bit religious, but that doesn’t prevent me from seeing how deeply offensive this would be. However, the ANC seems to have long had a policy of speak now, spin later; while their approach to spin control has been
- Deny that the alleged statement was made (then blame the opposition for spreading lies), or
- Claim that the statement was taken out of context (then blame journalists), or
- Claim that the statement was not meant to be taken literally, but that it was figurative and metaphorical (and suggest that those upset are just jealous that they never though of it in the first place).
The sad reality is that statements like this appeal to the older voting population, who only have a basic education - and the opposition would have to resort to similar stunts to appeal to that same demographic.
Zuma calls on African funds for development - Yahoo! News 2011-06-29 AFP
old.news.yahoo.comAfrica is moving in the right direction with a focus on economic growth, but needs funds to maintain the momentum, Zuma told delegates in Equatorial Guinea ahead of an African Union summit opening Thursday.
