Foreign aid should not further political objectives
Posted: Friday, December 13, 2002

From Innocent Gore in CHIRUNDU, www.herald.co.zw

FOREIGN aid should be given to strengthen economic co-operation and not to further political objectives, President Mugabe said yesterday.

The President said this at a ceremony to commission the new Chirundu Bridge on the Zambian side of the border.

The ceremony was also attended by Zambian President Mr Levy Mwana-wasa, Cabinet Ministers and senior Government officials from the two countries.

Cde Mugabe lauded the Japanese government for providing the US$25 million grant for the construction of the new bridge, which is expected to ease congestion and smoothen the flow of traffic at Chirundu Border Post.

He said since independence, Zimba-bwe had enjoyed cordial relations with Japan, which availed grant aid packages to various sectors of the Zimbabwean economy, such as transport and communication, health and local government.

Zimbabwe also received assistance in the form of technology transfer and the training of artisans in various technical fields.

"I wish we could say that of many other countries which we are associated with in history.

"They should learn that when aid is given with the purpose of strengthening co-operation, it would be better appreciated than aid, given in order to perpetuate political objectives.

"And when we have such aid given for political objectives, we shall never want nor entertain it," Cde Mugabe said.

The new bridge is going to ease the flow of traffic and is expected to increase the volume of trade between Zimbabwe and Zambia. MORE

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The British in bid to divide Zimbabweans
Posted: Monday, December 9, 2002

By Darlington Muzeza

As was the case in the 1890s when the British used dubious tactics of dividing the Shona and the Ndebele, the same people, in cahoots with some local enemies to the State and President Robert Mugabe, are again in a desperate bid to fabricate ethnic differences to divide us.

As I went through a document purporting that the Shona would want to subdue the Ndebele through President Mugabe, I could only conclude that this is another example of the ongoing barbaric attempts to cause tribal and regional animosity between us, perpetrated by our enemies, whose objective is to denigrate the President and undermine the 1987 Unity Accord.

Are these political cowards claiming to be democratic so despondent that they have failed in their thinking, that they are prepared to continuously demonise their country and people’s hard- won independence, unity and solidarity?

It does not show vision on the part of these people who aspire to be leaders of this country. By trying to undermine unity, peace, tranquillity and co-existence that the two tribes have shown, they are betraying the country.

This tribal propaganda being peddled by the British intelligence and some local enemies of the State is merely a scapegoat to oppose the land reform in Zimbabwe.

The land that Zimbabweans have taken is not a Cde Mugabe issue, but a historical concern that should have been corrected long back, and the idea of taking it back now is not bad.

The economic plight of the blacks is, to a large extent, a function of colonialism as well as our domestic enemies in which some political upstarts interested in assuming power for personal aggrandisement have sabotaged our economy by calling for sanctions. They have also peddled hostile publicity to create an impression that Zimbabwe is not a safe destination for investment.

This has been done in opposition to the land issue that our detractors have personalised to mean a Cde Mugabe issue.

President Mugabe and his Government are right in correcting these colonial imbalances and had the President not done so, history was not going to spare him judgment over the matter.

The revolution would have been incomplete if the land question was not addressed and the purpose for having gone to war would have been rendered illusory.

Therefore, it is frivolous for some MDC members in cahoots with the British intelligence to use this trivial tribal issue, which, since 1987, has been buried.

To cause confusion, suspicion and insecurity among us as a tactic to derail the land reform shall never succeed.

May I remind our enemies that the land reform has proved to be unstoppable and it is not a political gimmick.

Those preaching the gospel of tribal chauvinism are not only detractors and enemies of the State but are obsessed with political parochialism.

Zimbabweans are an enlightened people. They discern illusions from reality and this cheap politicking is a sheer waste of time and resources. We are aware of and understand who our enemies are.

It should be borne in mind that both the Ndebele and the Shona suffered the same enslavement, oppression and suppression by the same people who want to see us divided.

Atrocities were committed in Mboroma, Nyadzonya and Chimoio.

Both the Ndebele and the Shona people perished in these brutalities committed by humanity against humanity with impunity. Surprisingly, these people have the audacity to tell the world that we are divided.

They divided us when they colonised our country and they want to repeat it.

Hatikanganwe zvazuro nehope sezvinoita vamwe vedu. Our relationship as one people is inexorable and is second to none.

Those propaganda statements are a direct insult intended to undermine our cherished 1987 Unity Accord forged by the late Father Zimbabwe, Dr Joshua Nkomo, and President Robert Mugabe, to facilitate the reconstruction of our country.

The lies being spread are a shame in the face of solidarity, unity and co-existence that we enjoy.

I urge all Zimbabweans to remain united against all odds of self-opinionated people who want us to be disunited.

Those championing such propaganda shall die as political nonentities because their objectives are not to build, but to destroy our country.

Their support is fast fizzling out because of lack of policies to rehabilitate our ailing economy.

Their utterances speak volumes about their confusion and lack of political wisdom to know that land is the economy. Their fabrication of facts is a desperate move by people who have run short of ideas.

Our detractors should appreciate that the Ndebele and the Shona are one people.

We achieved unity that our enemies never wanted or desired to see born. That unity should be guarded against those who threaten it.

Reproduced from:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=16656&pubdate=2002-12-09

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Shaping Zimbabwe's Economy Using African Model
Posted: Monday, December 9, 2002

Analysis By Dr. David Nyekorach-Matsanga in London

The Persistence of Vulnerabilities in Zimbabwe

During the past 9 months, the CNN, BBC and other western media outlets have been focusing the attention of its viewers on the imminence of another cataclysm in Zimbabwe: the collapse of the state of Zimbabwe. This expected to lead, before the end of this year or early in the new one, to devastating economic consequences in the Southern Africa state of ZIMBABWE. We are accordingly being reminded, should we ever pretend to have forgotten, of the extent the neo-colonial masters have predicted the vulnerability of the Zimbabwe economy then GOD will hate us.

This plus the current drums of war in Europe against President Mugabe has forced me to write this analysis for that doubting Thomas that never heard Dr. Herbert Murewa's quote from the Bible at the end of the Budget of 2003 in November. I had decided not make my feelings known but as humble Christian and Director of Africa Strategy whose voluntary duty is to defend and correct the wrong impression the British government and the opposition MDC are spreading in Europe about Mugabe I have to the dirty toxins on Zimbabwe now being spread by the followers of the Mad and Disoriented Creatures (MDC) in this country.

The negative notion on Zimbabwe has not changed a bit since 1997.The blame has been put on President Mugabe's policies yet the whole pattern of our economies in Africa remains the same. At the root of this lie structural imbalances and rigidities. These manifest themselves in the form of (i) demographic explosion; (ii) rapid desertification; (iii) frequent periodic drought in economies whose agriculture is virtually completely rain-dependent; (vi) dependencies; (v) economic and social disequilibria; (vi) lack of public accountability; (vii) destabilisation caused by conflict created by British and American systems, civil war, internal strife and coup d'etat; and, (viii) the debt overhang.

Unless and until these imbalances and inequalities are addressed at the root, the African economies will continue, at best, to achieve growth without development and at worse neither growth nor development. This requires a fundamental restructuring of the African and therefore Zimbabwean political economy is not an exception.

In my analysis I will try to show to those enemies in the Western World who hate President Mugabe that it is not his fault but it is a general trend on the continent. It requires an integrated approach to development that takes into account the effective inter dependence and linkage of economic sector activities, recognising the special role played by the food and agriculture sector as the leading production sector in an economy going through a period of demographic explosion like the one in Zimbabwe. Any government faced with this outside pressure needs measures for raising the general level of productivity to reverse the declining production trends. It will require giving very high priority to combating desertification including stopping all activities that bring about deforestation. This will increase production and stop future drought. Indeed, the protection of the environment and the cycle of reproduction of species require an optimum balance between population and nature and consequently the avoidance of a development profile that involves the depletion of or irreparable damage to environmental resources.
As political scientist I believe that most countries in the west have ignored the rules that govern environmental issues as far as Africa economies are concerned. The demand for timber in Europe has forced people in Africa to cut down forests that has caused the change of weather patterns. The colonial economy did not emphasis the need for human beings as the owners of the process, which has led to break down in relationship in most African nations like Zimbabwe. Above all, it requires a sustainable human-centred development process to be able to get out of economic hardships.

At present, in most SSA countries, less than one-third of the population have no access to potable water and electricity. Education for all still remains an unattained objective as a result Africa's illiterate population is increasing. The goals of competitiveness and efficiency will remain unattainable in a society burdened by deficient and inefficient economic and social infrastructure. So also will it be unattainable in a polity where the British and their stooges have demonised democracy, distorted governance and confused public accountability and where the fragile socio-political systems are often undermined by internal strife created by British and USA intelligence networks, coup d'etat, conflicts and civil war. Like Zimbabwe.

These often paralyse the state and turn them into a failure. States collapse when fragmented by internal strife like what the MDC and the British are advocating Zimbabwe in which none of the factions is capable of re-establishing central authority or when they lose their legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of their population and are therefore unable to exercise authority without excessive coercion or when they are rent by the unbridled greed and avarice, incompetence, negligence. The British and USA want to create such chaos in Zimbabwe by trying to overthrow the government of Mugabe. These signs are at advanced state in Zimbabwe.

A sound management of the economy is also a condition sine qua non of an effective viable and dynamic state. Macro-economic policy that alienates the government from the people, impoverishes the population and throws them out of jobs may achieve higher rates of economic growth for a while but certainly not sustainable human development. That is why I agreed with President Mugabe when he said no to devaluation and he has totally refused the instruments of neo-colonialism called IMF and World Bank.

No one now disputes that "demand management" which is a requirement of structural adjustment programmes of the 'World Bank and the IMF is largely politically motivated and shortsighted. Nor that these programmes have had little success in reviving economic growth on a sustainable basis in SSA. Impartial observers, particularly among Western experts, have now come round to my long-held view points that SAPs are too un-focused, typified by the proliferation of conditions, where more than hundred conditions per programme have not been unusual. As a person who has read some economics to a level of distinguishing between good and bad I will concur with the Zimbabwean approach that looks at the future of the nation not the interests of the current MDC demands and of the British hegemony.

How does Zimbabwe resume the struggle to forge the future?

Then the time is now and the delivery has been done by the land distribution programme, which has been completed.
The Economist in one of its leader articles - Emerging Africa - on the June 14, 1997 issue, inter-alia, urged Africa to forge its own future. This is no doubt a very opportune and appropriate counsel to give. This indeed is in conformity with the acknowledgement made from time to time by the Western world that the primary responsibility for the development of Africa is that of the people of Africa and their leaders. Indeed, at their Denver Summit in June 1997, the so-called Seven (now turned Eight) most industrialised democracies of the world echoed the same sentiments when they stated that developing countries have a fundamental responsibility for promoting their own development, and that developed countries must support these efforts. But when Zimbabwe brought out its land reform program most of these so called countries tried their level best to distort and reject these reforms. Hence the start of the economic hardships that this country is facing.

However, as all Zimbabweans know, the reality has been quite different. Every attempt that has been made by the Zimbabweans to forge their future, to craft their own development strategies and policies has been rebuffed by the so-called international financial institutions (IFIs) with the support or at least the connivance of the donor community. While the Zimbabwean leader can be faulted in some ways as alleged by the imperial monster powers, at least in this regard, fairness demands a full acknowledgement of the series of heroic efforts which he has made since the 1980s to craft his own indigenous development paradigms in the light of the perceptions of his people.

Mugabe has been the only African leader who has followed and understood all the declarations of the African meetings. The Lagos Plan of Action in 1980 (LPA); Africa's Priority Programme for Economic Recovery 1986 to 1990 (APPER) which was later turned into the United Nations Programme of Action for Africa's Economic Recovery and Development UN-PAAERD) by its adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations at its Special Session of May/June 1986; the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes for Socio-Economic Recovery and Transformation (AAF-SAP) in 1989 and, the African Charter for Popular Participation for Development in 1990. The UN General Assembly also adopted both AAF-SAP and the African Charter. I can mention a long list of all these important declarations whose ink has only dried on paper but not implemented by the same neo-colonial masters.

Unfortunately, all of these were opposed, pooh-poohed, undermined and jettisoned by the Bretton Woods institutions. This has been a matter of concern and bitter frustration to Africans who see these negative reactions as the blatant exercise of power by the rich over the poor and, more importantly, as a negation of the democratic principles and the denial of the rights of a people to make decisions about their future - regardless whether such decisions prove to be right or wrong.

The undermining of the ability of African governments to determine their development strategy and choose the package of public policies without fearing being turned into international pariahs has made a farce of the pro-democracy movement. It is indeed inconsistent to champion the cause of democracy all over Africa and deny the governments and people the elementary right to forge their own future. Thus, the failure to change course and direction of public policies discussed in Section III above has been due largely to both external pressure and resistance. Not the reasons advanced by those opposed to the land redistribution program in Zimbabwe. I am trying to pump sense into those who think that the problems in Zimbabwe were created by Mugabe's land redistribution process.

Debt overhangs as barrier to good economics

At present, it is clear that the only way Zimbabwe can avoid losing the right to be in charge of its own national economic management is by not being burdened by unserviceable debt. But as far as the land redistribution is concerned Mugabe has won the war. It is the only way Zimbabwe can avoid being obliged to pursue programmes that are adjudged to be unfocused. The Economist with its tremendous influence should see to it that the regrettable economic (including debt) situation of Zimbabwe is not l used to deny them the right to craft their own development strategies and policies. This will encourage the resumption of initiatives by the government to the road to recovery, which the new Minister of Finance announced on 15th November 2002.

Needless to add that the African governments and leaders have themselves to blame for their failure to put their money where their mouth is. To adopt, after great deal of effort, discussions, consultations and negotiations, common strategies, policies and programmes only to ignore them in deference to those crafted by donors and international financial institutions in order to have access to loans and credit shows how deep seated African leaders' dependency, lack of self-confidence and commitment have been I thank the leadership in Zimbabwe for the tenacity and steadfastness they have shown when standing firm against the whirl wind of poison from the British decayed foreign policy.

Zimbabwe will only be able to invent for itself a future that will bring rising prospects of prosperity through total commitment to its own programmes and through their vigorous implementation. The policies of economic policy consist not only in their conceptualisation, articulation, adoption and popularisation but also in total and unrelenting commitment to implementation. It is only by so doing that Zimbabwe, particularly as one of the countries in SSA, can rediscover its self-respect and remould its image. We need not to urgently shed the image that we are incapable, as a people, to run a modern society and sustain the independence of our political economies through the process of internally generated development. That is what I saw in the budget of November 2002. I had wanted to see what the British budget would look like before I make my analysis and contribution to the stability of Zimbabwe.

Framework of Zimbabwe's Indigenous Development Paradigm

It is clear from the foregoing that for Zimbabwe's economy to stop going to doldrums it has to fundamentally be reshaped through a human-centre holistic development strategy postulated in the Lagos Plan of Action and the with the Africa Charter on Popular Participation providing the political underpinning. In specific and operational terms, this means
(i) The pursuit of an increasing measure of self-reliance at the national level through (a) the internationalisation of the forces of demand, which determine the direction of development and economic growth reality. In any case, the strategy of export-oriented industrialisation is to enable Zimbabwe to rejoin the global economy more forcefully and more vigorously and take the fullest advantage of the new world order.
(ii) The promotion of private investment in Zimbabwe. While all this is welcome, I believe that Zimbabwe's experience under the Lome Convention however shows that duty-free access is useful if there is the capacity to produce and supply the market in the near future. It is this capacity that the pursuit of this strategy will create.

Zimbabwe's Achilles Heel: Debt Overhang and demonised democracy

To enable Zimbabwe to pursue vigorously and determinedly the pursuit of the goals of its human-centred holistic development paradigm, which the Hon. Minister of Finance put forward to the nation, and the priority goals, its major albatrosses must be successfully and speedily removed. They are the debt overhangs and the perennial attacks on Zimbabwe's democracy. This has led to a halt in development and smooth planning in all sectors of government.

Unfortunately, these cannot be adequately treated in this already long analysis for each of them, given that its importance and complexity, requires to be so treated separately. But this analysis will be considered rather empty if it does not deal, however briefly, with these all-important problems that currently overwhelm the Zimbabwean political economy and threaten to force it to collapse. Let us begin with the debt overhang.

Today, 32 developing countries are classified as Severely Indebted Low Income Countries (SILICs). 25 of these are in Africa. They are Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principle Somalia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire).

These are countries whose 1993 GNP per capita was no more that US $695 per annum and for which either one of the following two key ratios for 1991 to 1993 is above a critical level: present value of debt service to GNP is 80 percent or more, and present debt service to export goods and services is 200 percent or more. In 1994, the total debt of these countries alone was $209.3 billion. 24 percent of this was owed to multilateral institutions, while the balance was made up of bilateral government-to-government and commercial loans. But the real burden of the debt lies in the growing weight of debt service obligations. Because multilateral institutions cannot, under existing rules be rescheduled or reduced, the burden of servicing the debt has risen to unsustainable levels. For the SILICs, the debt burden is like a millstone around their neck. This is what those who blame Mugabe should look at before jumping at conclusions.

Unfortunately, the several moves towards solving the debt crisis through debt relief, reduction and cancellation have been both too late and too little. And until September 1996 when the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative was launched by the World Bank and the IMF, multilateral debt was excluded from all solutions. The cumulative result of this exclusion was that whereas only 24 percent of total debt was owed to multilateral institutions in 1994, the SILICs debt service obligations to these institutions in the same year was 43 percent of their total debt service burden. In 1980, the percentages were 8.9 and 13 respectively.

Debt has thus become the major obstacle to Zimbabwe's development. Its most devastating impact is felt through the economic effects of debt overhang due to an unsustainable debt stock. Debt overhang discourages domestic and foreign investment by creating uncertainty about inflation, currency stability and future taxation. It also raises the risks of commercial transaction, by increasing the cost of access to trade credits. Consequently, the levels of investment are invariably very low in countries facing debt overhang like Zimbabwe. And needless to add that the rate of growth is low and little development takes place. The debt crisis has also exacerbated Zimbabwe's dependency.

Regrettable as it may sound, there is little evidence that an effective and permanent solution is in sight. The HIPC Debt Initiative, which is the first debt reduction mechanism, which promises to deal with the ongoing debt crisis in a comprehensive and concerted way, has had a very poor start. It is now more than five years since the initiative was heralded as a breakthrough and, in the words of the World Bank President James Wolfensohn, as "very good news for the poor of the world" this optimism remains to be justified. Instead the world institutions have turned heat on Zimbabwe by demonising and isolating the country.

Uganda was so far the only country to benefit from the HIPC Initiative. The debt relief package agreed for the country on April 23, 1997 by bilateral and multilateral creditors amounted to only 19 percent of Uganda's debt burden (i.e. US$338 million). The magnitude of the relief has come as a disappointment and, what was worse, is that it did not become effective until April 2000. As the country's former Minister of Finance, J.S. Mayanja stated, "any delay (in debt relief) was not merely an issue of timing.

But Uganda is still very lucky compared with other SILIC/HIPC countries. Of the other countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Senegal - whose expected decision point is 1997 little progress has been reported. 6, 5 and 5 countries are slated for 1998, 1999 and 2000 respectively. The 1998 list consists of Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Togo; on the 1999 list are Congo, Madagascar, Niger, Tanzania and Zambia while the 2000 list is composed of Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those who blame Mugabe for the mess of the economy of Zimbabwe should read and look at all the national budgets of these countries.

Judged by the slow progress made during the first year of the HIPC Initiative, considerable delay is inevitable in achieving the various completion points. Finally, the point must be that of the 32 SILICs, only 24 have been earmarked to benefit from the HIPC Initiative. The 8 countries - Burundi, Kenya, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Somalia - which have been excluded have no doubt been deemed to be unqualified for one reason or the other which has nothing to do with the objective data based on the ratios of debt service to export goods and services and of present value of debt service to GNP. Consequently, I have no alternative but to conclude rather grimly that it is a long way to the time when Zimbabwe like other African countries can hope to exit from the debt crisis and achieve debt sustainability.

The demonised democracy by the British and USA hegemony

If the persistence of the debt crisis gives cause for concern, the pervasiveness of internal strife caused by the British system has added chaos to the situation in Zimbabwe, continue to give credence to the basket case hypothesis and the sense of hopelessness that it generates. The Economist last year described Africa as a violent continent. Since 1990 it has had about 80 violent changes of government with more than two dozen heads of state and government having lost their lives through political violence changes of government. Six - Sudan, Uganda, Ghana, Burundi, DRC and Benin - have each gone through violence and brutalisation several times.

Nigeria tops the list with its six changes of government. Five other countries - Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Comoros and Central African have had three battings each, while two - Burkina Faso and Chad - have experienced violent changes four times. Eight other countries - Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Togo and Liberia - have had it two times with the remaining seven having one bout of violence each during the past four decades. Today, as many as ten SSA countries are engaged in severe political crisis. These conflicts are caused by the British and USA intelligence networks that benefit by looting the resources in Africa, as is the case of the DRC.

Zimbabwe faces of devils of western imperialism

There is no gainsaying the fact that wherever there are conflicts, civil strife and war, there are ipso facto brutalisation, poverty, hunger and starvation and, of course, also debt. They do indeed go hand in hand. There is also invariably democratic deficit. Despotism and kleptocracy engineered by the British intelligence are now rampant in Zimbabwe. Indeed, at the root of Zimbabwe's persistent economic crisis the British and USA perennial bouts of political strife might cause violence in the near future. As I have said again and again, we will never comprehend Zimbabwe's crisis so long as we continue to take a purely the economist viewpoint. What we confront in Zimbabwe is primarily a political crisis created by the British hegemony, albeit with devastating economic consequences.

To achieve lasting peace and sustainable democracy and development In Zimbabwe, it is imperative to fully comprehend and master the many complex factors and forces that have brought about these this current economic stand-off, and political instability. It is too simplistic to regard them as merely a post-independence teething problem and to resort to stereotypes by lumping them together under the banner of ethnicity or bad leadership. The truth of the matter is that we really do not know. We are yet to fully comprehend the many underlying causes and histories of conflicts that have, over the centuries, plagued the continent as a whole. And, thereafter, we need to master them by devising strategies and policy options for transcending the existing conflicts and averting potential ones. THIS IS ALL THE LEGACYOF COLONIALISM.

This requires serious, empirical and dispassionate research; not expressions of partisan commitment of MDC nor mouthing of "peace making" platitudes and devaluation of currency. By the very nature of these internal strife, there is an urgent need of applied, proactive research which involves looking back in order to look forward, taking two or three steps back from current or immediate past conflicts in order to understand their causes and dynamics more fully so that we can look one or two steps forward to master and transcend them.

It is only by so doing that we can lay a firm foundation for sustainable economic development and political peace in SSA. It is unforgivable to continue with the pretence that cessation of hostilities and change of government in Zimbabwe is tantamount to peace and economic miracle. It is imperative that we must, through proactive research seek ways and means of achieving lasting economic freedom and peace, which are much needed in Zimbabwe. To us this will be achieved by the tough line we have taken against the British government and the much lobby work that has shut down the rumour factory of the MDC in London.

Fortunately, the African Strategy (AS) which was established some 4 years ago as an independent, non-governmental, non-profit continental organisation for research and to fill the void of strategic thinking has embarked upon mobilising Africa's research and intellectual capacity to undertake such a projects. I have chosen eight countries for case studies. They are Rwanda and DRC in Central Africa; Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa; Angola and Mozambique in Southern Africa; Sudan in North Africa; and, Somalia in the Horn of Africa. While virtually every African country is potentially a conflict, country, it is believed that a comprehensive study of these eight countries, which are still engaged in conflict or have recently emerged from it, will enable us to realise the goals of comprehending and mastering African conflicts. (AS) enjoys the full support as of the United Nations in this endeavour. Hence I have applied to the UN for the project to be incorporated and registered into the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa, which will show our documents and analysis to the international community. Those countries like Zimbabwe will be able to benefit because most us who like Mugabe on the continent will fight tooth and nail to see his programs through.

The Way Forward for Zimbabwe: Facing the Daunting Challenge

To say that the task ahead of Zimbabwe is daunting is no exaggeration. There is also a time factor. I usually disagree with T.S Eliot in all his theories but one thing, which struck me as an African, is the quote "Time past is time future. Are both contained in the time present. And time present in time future" The rest of the world is moving so fast that the gap between it and Zimbabwe has become too wide. I have always been asking my self which way my beloved people of the great Southern African state will go? The Zimbabwean people themselves are yearning for the move forward. Their leaders have risen to the challenge and mobilised the entire people and thereby unleashing their energies for achievement of the Zimbabwean miracle. When I sat in the Zimbabwe Parliament in the Speakers Gallery on 15TH November 2002 and listened to the learned friend Hon. Dr. Herbert Murewa read word by word his plans for the future of Zimbabwe one thing that I was worried of was for him to mention the word "devaluation" which the MDC members were whispering in the Parliament Chambers. But his Bible sermon, which brought in tougher rules on monetary issues pleased and I have to tell you that compared to my dear friend Gordon Brown in the Labour government Hon. Dr. H.Murewa parable were fantastic. He never borrowed and borrowed like the Tony Blair's cash boss.

I want to thank him for having thought like some of who hate IMF and World Bank policies that would bring the downfall of the President Mugabe. There is no room in Zimbabwe politics to contend and simply to persist in continuing to elevate a collection of wrong signals unto national policy. That is why I support the abolition of the Bureau-de-change nightmare in Zimbabwe. They work well in an economy with IMF and World Bank policies not where the offices of IMF have dust on the shelves. That is the message I got as political analyst whose knowledge on economics and on political economy on Africa favours the Murewa approach. Simplification over the acknowledgement of complexity, quick fixes over patience, sustainability and the nominal over the real is not the route of "an economic war cabinet" of President Mugabe.

In other words, those opposed to Mugabe want to persist in the concerns for their "things" rather than for people which as the experience of the 1980s has showed and has created a divided society where the less fortunate are hurt, damaged and discounted by public policies which have jettisoned social justice and sacrificed the common good.

Is Zimbabwe capable of drawing inspiration from East Asia and turn its current basket case country into wonder country during the next two to three decades? Will the people develop the ability to accelerate the rate of accumulating physical and human capital, focus exclusively on productive investment agriculture, make human development the priorities and promote the mastering of technology? Will Zimbabwe strive to join humanity in the acquisition of the new and emerging technologies, which will dominate global economic activities in this twenty-first century? Finally, can I state that action during the next two to three decades should establish the African values, which are truly humanistic, pro-people enforcing social disciple, competitiveness and a high moral code.

If the answers to these questions are positive and affirmative as seen in Zimbabwe and Kenya as countries that have survived without IMF and World Bank then the African elite and policy makers will accept that economic development and transformation does not require mimicking the life-style of the West and that imitative development will not spark off the process of self-sustained development. I believe that we would have begun to develop the self-confidence essential for self-reliance. We need to keep reminding ourselves that development is not a matter of change; it is one of choice.

If Zimbabwe can put its act together, if it can wean itself of its colonial past, its unenviable heritage and its neo-colonial status, the sky is virtually the limit, given its potentials. No doubt leadership - in terms of quality, integrity and commitment - is a crucial factor in the pursuit of the development ethic that alone can bring about the second liberation of this country. Those leadership qualities are in ZANU-PF. The heroes of the first liberation - political independence - were well-known household names in their own times and are still useful to the current situation in Zimbabwe. Because they know all corners of the nation and they can seep with African broom of nationalism. The second liberation needs its own heroes modelled and guided by the fathers of the revolution on all matters and given the knowledge and experience of the first freedom fighters. These must not be the type of MDC sell-outs and turncoats bought by the British but people- both men and women imbued with vision and with fire in their belly who are totally and irrevocably committed to redeem Zimbabwe in the socio-economic fields and continue with the work of Mugabe t of the past two decades; men and women who will uncompromisingly pursue the goals of transforming the Zimbabwean polity, society and economy.

It is my earnest hope that Zimbabwe will succeed in producing such leaders, who can motivate and mobilise their people and galvanize and unleash their energies. In addition, an enabling international environment is, as has been made abundantly clear again and again in my analysis, essential. It is therefore important that the New Global Partnership for Development that the G.7 (now G.8) and the concepts of NEPAD be looked at seriously without destroying the national Independence of Zimbabwe. The major so-called industrialised democracies initiated at their Lyon Summit in 1996 the amorphous agency called NGPD that deal with African problems like they did in 2002 in Canada with NEPAD which I have always called "LEOPARD" because of the colours of the skin in the Canada meeting. But what must be known is that all these are simple "fixes" not solutions the problems of Africa or Zimbabwe.

The real solution is for the people of Zimbabwe to look at their Banking Laws that makes political weaklings in MDC to think that the whole economy is gone. The Kenyan case study and the Ugandan case of1979 after Idi Amin can be used as a comparison and there are lots of things that can be borrowed and learnt from these cases. Africa strategy is ready to avail the documentation of recovery for use as we did help to restore the foreign exchange saga in the Kenyan economy by standing firm against the IMF WARLORDS.

The continued support for democratic institutions of pluralism in Zimbabwe, the rule of law, which is in plenty in Zimbabwe and sustainable human development based on the land redistribution program as, agreed to by the Denver Summit is a welcome follow up development to Africa. However, it is imperative that these words must be matched by deeds. Not by demonising the government of President Mugabe. I have written this analysis for those who have not allowed the government of Zimbabwe to solve its own problems and for those MDC turncoats who are telling their masters in LONDON THAT ZIMBABWE IS FINISHED ECONOMICALLY.

Dr David Nyekorach-Matsanga can be contacted at africastrategy@hotmail.com

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Shaping Zimbabwe's Economy Using African Model
Posted: Monday, December 9, 2002

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The Roots Of The Sudan Problem
Posted: Monday, December 9, 2002

P. Barton
California, U.S.A.

The conflict is Sudan is an example of what can happen to Western Nations and others when religious imperialism joined with a racist and envious and chauvinist mentality and agenda is applied. Sudan also known as the ancient civilization of Nubia-Kush was the world's first civilization and according to present evidence, Sudan's civilization is about 3000 years older than the first Egyptian Dynasties. In fact, Egypt's Dynasties came from Sudan (known as "Ethiopia" by the ancient Greeks). Ancient Greek writers such as Herodotus and Diodorus mention this fact in their writings.

The very first example of the relentless application of war, terror and slave raiding to destabilize a great kingdom happened in Sudan (Nubia Kush) after the invasion of Egypt by the Semites during the 600's A.D. Yet, the Africans of Sudan from Emperor Kalydosos (600's A.D.) to the Funj (1500's A.D.) fought to keep their lands free of Semitic influence and defeated numerous Arab armies for 800 years.

Today's Nuba, Nubians, Dinka and a few groups in West and Central Africa are related to these ancient Cushites who migrated after the Arabs began slave raiding into Sudan during the 700's A.D. and to this very date, December 7, 2002 (see the book, "Destruction of Black Civilization," by Chancellor Williams, Third World Press, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)

MANY AMERICAN PEOPLE INFURIATED BY ATTACKS ON KENYANS, WEST AFRICANS AND SUDANESE CHRISTIAN AFRICANS

Attacks on Africans in Sudan, Mauritania and West Africa, Kenya and elsewhere is causing a festering of anger in the U.S. as well as the rest of the Americas and the African Diaspora. One African commentator pointed out that the Semitic "welcome," in Africa is wearing thin. To many Africans, Sudan and Ethiopia have been Christian nations since before the 300's A.D. and the continued attacks on Africans of the Nubian Churches or modern Christianity in Sudan is an insult to Africans whether they are Christians or not.

In the opinion of many African Spiritualists (Animists) and Christians around the world, it is a matter of African religious, cultural and traditional rights and heritage. This lack of respect for Africans' culture, religion and heritage is one of the reasons for the rapid rise of Semitic slavery into Africa during the 700's A.D. In fact, one of the bloodiest and most devastating slave rebellions on the Semitic slave lands, took place in Baghdad during the 800's A.D., according to Runoko Rashidi's writings.

There are about 300 million people of African origins in the Americas. Among these millions are people of prehistoric African-American origins belonging to tribes such as the Washitaw, Gwale, Black Californians, Jamassee, Califunami, Guanini, Black Caribs, Chuarras, Afro-Darienite and many others. These groups particularly the ancient Olmec (Mende-Shi) and the descendants of the present-day Washitaw Nation who owned one million square miles of the Louisiana Territories before it was illegally sold, are the original inhabitants of the Americas along with the Mongoloid American Indians.

Today, particularly in parts of Latin America, the plight of Blacks/Africans of both slavery era as well as prehistoric era origins is similar to that of the original African people of Sudan. Ancient evidence also shows some of these prehistoric African-Americas people to be directly connected to civilizations in West Africa and Sudan.

CAN PEOPLE OF THE SAME RACE APPLY A RACIST POLICY FROM A FORMER DOMINANT GROUP AGAINST THIER OWN PEOPLE?

To begin this issue, both Arabs and Jews are Semites. Yet, over the past 40 years, those who follow the Arab/Isreali situation know very well that the terms "racist policies" is used in referring to the conditions there. The same reality applies to Sudan as well, where the only factor of division is an imposed Semitic religious imperialist and "colonial" culture on people who are both Black African Negroid by race and cultural heritage, (the term "negroid" applies to the Western Branch of the Black race, the other being the Negroid-Australoid of India and Australia)

There are many who continue to say that the situation of RACIST RELIGIOIUS IMPERIALISM in Sudan is a "local" problem. They don't seem to understand or fail to see that the people who began the genocide in Sudan, the rape of African women to create a "multiracial" "colored" population in the North, who are mislabeled "Arab" against the African law and tradition of tracing lineage on the Mother's side as well as the African father's side, race and group, were 'white" Semitic people from North Africa and the Middle East. These foreign races and peoples violated African women and the result was (and still is mixed children raised and trained to hate their African selves). These invaders have absolutely no claim to any children or child born of African women. That is the African law and it has been in effect long before Egyptian times.

"SEMITIC" AS AN ETHNIC, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS ADVERSARY TO AFRICAN RACIAL, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

In using the term "Semitic" the idea is to describe a cultural and ideological system more than a specific ethnic type. Hence it does not refer to any specific group but to their culture, religions and agenda. White Arabs are the first to point out that Sudanese are Black Africans, no matter how "mixed" a few from the North of Sudan may be. As far as the African concept of racial identification is concerned, one traces on both the mother and father's line, but an invader group of a different race who has children with an African woman has no rights to any children by that woman, nor does his child becomes part of his "race" or group. That child is African.

The Western Media and the religious imperialists continue to label Sudan "Arab" North and "Christian/Animist" South. Pan-Africans see Sudan as Nubia-Cush, under present foreign religious and cultural colonialism, no different from that of the British who were the last European colonial power in Sudan.

Sudanese in Northern Sudan who are of "Arab" fathers and African mothers are African and Negroid. They are not "Arabs," and that fact is known through the "white" Semitic, Arab world, where Black Sudanese are treated like "Abed," or "slaves," are seen as Black Africans and called as such in a racist manner. WHERE IS THE PRIDE OF THESE BLACKS? In Syria, where there are Black Sudanese, their treatment should convince them that as far as "white" Arabs are concerned, Sudanese are Black African, no matter how much Arab blood a few may have.

RETURN AND REBUILDING AFRICAN CUSHITE CULTURE AND IDENTITY

Sudanese are the original Cushites, descendants of a powerful Black African people who had civilizations and cultures from Sudan to Kenya and from Sudan in the center to South Arabia, India, Indo-China, South China in the East, around the Pacific to Olmec-Shi Mexico, to West Africa. In fact, many West Africans such as the Yoruba, Walof, Nago-Mina, Mandinka, Serer, Ashanti, Tiv, Songhai and others continue to have related tribes in parts of South Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Arabia and that region.

These related tribes continue to exist to this very day. In fact not only did the ancient Cushites migrate to West Africa in prehistoric and ancient times, they also migrated to the Americas and their languages, culture, plastic arts, alphabets and even sculpture with everything from cornrows and tribal scarification to the languages have been found in Mexico and other parts of the Americas (see the world-famous, "A History of the African-Olmecs," pub. by 1stBooks Library, 2595 Vernal Pike, Bloomington, Indiana 47404 U.S.A. also the writings of Cheikh Anta Diop, "The African Origins of Civilization, Myth or Reality," pub. by Lawrence Hill Press, Brooklyn, NY: See Also "A History of Racism and Terrorism, Rebellion and Overcoming")

The other groups of Blacks in the Americas came from the Yoruba, Ashanti, Mandinka, Tiv and other groups from West Africa. A large number came from the Congo-Angola region. The third group came from Eastern Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia. Hence, we here in the Americas can trace our ancestors to places like Juba in Sudan and Gondar in Ethiopia.

AFRICAN-AMERICANS ANGER IS BREWING

The anger and disgust by Africans in the Americas, whose great-grandparents were captured in places like Sudan and West Africa and who know about the situation in Sudan are angered to the maximum extent. In places like Brazil, with about 100 million people of African origins with at least 25 million being of Sudanese/Congo, Ethiopian/East African origins, the situation in Sudan is very close to the hearts. As for African-Americans and Blacks in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America the anger is even hotter.

People of African descent or Americas-Africans in the Americas and elsewhere see the situation in Sudan as one of Semitic religious and cultural racism and imperialism against the descendants of the very Africans who built ancient Egypt, Nubia-Kush and Mesopotamia, long before the Semites arrived on the scene about 2000 B.C. This knowledge of self among Blacks in the Americas is as strong as the Chinese and Black Dravidian knowledge of self and history. That knowledge must be paramount in the minds of all the INDIGENOUS AFRICAN PEOPLE OF SUDAN.

THEY ARE THE PEOPLE WHO OWNED AND DEVELOPED WORLD CIVILIZATION AND THE SEMITES (WHITE SEMITES) ARE INVADERS WHO BEGAN ARRIVING DURING THE 700'S AD, WITH THE INVASION OF EGYPT (please get this great book, "The Destruction of Black Civilization," by Chancellor Williams, published by Third World Press, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

The time has come for Africans in Sudan to return African traditional culture and religion to the region. One of the first aspects of culture that must be changed is the idea that a white Semite or any other Semitic invader from the Semitic lands can take an African woman, force children on her and call the children by some other race or group other than African Negroid.

The attempt by African leaders in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Black Egyptians and Nubians in Egypt, Eritheria, Somalia to REORGANIZE THE ANCIENT CUSHITE CULTURAL REGION MUST COMMENCE. As long as Black Africans accept the imposition of a foreign religion and culture and reject their names, cultures, religions, history and legacy, then Africans will always be seen as "Abed," or slaves by the racist Semites. The fact that Black Sudanese refugees in places like Syria are treated with such disgust, or that the white Semites think Africans should be their slaves and continue to hold the racist mentality while going around preaching "brotherhood," is ENOUGH TO CONVINCE AFRICANS THAT AFRICAN UNITY AND AFRICAN CULTURE MUST REPLACE ANY FOREIGN CULTURE AND RELIGION THAT IS APPLYING A NEW FORM OF IMPERIALISM ON THE CONTINENT.

Religions of alien invader peoples in Africa should never be allowed to dominate and change the mentality and indigenous culture of Africans. If people in the Cushite region (Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Eritheria, and others) have forgotten their history, all they have to do is re-introduce the history of Nubia, Egypt, Kush and Punt back into the school programs. TEACH AFRICAN CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WHO THEY ARE AND THAT THEY ARE NOT "SLAVES" OR SEMITES OR EVEN OF "WHITE" SEMITE CULTURAL OR RACIAL ORIGINS. The fact is the Semites came from the Black root (see the works of John Wilson (Kenya East African Standard article), where he discovered that some "white" nations from the Middle East to the Scottish Highlands were originally Blacks who lived in the Karamojong region. The program "Eve" (about ancient human origins clearly discusses this). So Semites did not create Africans.

The oldest living example of the Semitic languages is Iraqwu, a language of East Africa. Some historians have pointed out that both Hebrew and Arabic, Aramaic and others are dialects of languages like ancient Egyptian. On the other hand, languages like those of West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa are offshoots and exactly like ancient Egyptian spoken before the invasions of foreign people into Egypt. Nuer, Nuba, Galla, Wallof and many others are examples.

In retrospect, to those who don't understand why there has been a TERROR WAR against Africans for about 1400 years, it is essential that they study African history and how slavery by Semites in East Africa and Sudan began.

When groups of people or nations are threatened with absorption, genocide or religious and cultural overwhelming, as is the case of Blacks in Sudan today who are now victims and part of the Semitic imperialistic agenda, and are being used by the Semites to continue the further enslavement of Africans and taking of African lands and resources, IT IS THE DUTY OF THESE AFRICANS TO UNITE WITH THEIR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO WANT TO MAINTAIN THEIR ORIGINAL RACIAL, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS HERITAGE AND IDENTITY.

As far as Blacks in the Americas, Africa, Europe, India, West Papua, Melanesia and world over are concerned, that is what Pan-Africanism is all about. It is the duty of Africans and others realize that when the 'isms of others are forcibly imposed on them, it is their duty to reply with a more effective 'ism that helps to counter the imperialist and religious imperialistic agenda of other people.

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Patently absurd: It is now the turn of ATTA
Posted: Saturday, December 7, 2002

By Devinder Sharma

At a time when the World Trade Organization (WTO) is forcing developing countries to implement the trade-related intellectual property rights regime, the United States patent on "a method for producing atta flour -- typically used to produce Asian breads such as chapatti and roti " -- exposes the absurdity of the entire patenting regime.

A broad-based US patent (# 6,098,905, dated Aug 8, 2000) was granted to a Nebraska-based private company, ConAgra Inc. Interestingly, the so-called inventers - Ali Salem, Sarath K. Katta and Sambasiva R. Chigurupati - have Asian ancestry. Their 'invention', if at all it can be called an invention, relates to a method for producing wheat flour or atta. The novel method that they have created for making wheat flour and subsequently patented 'covers changes, variations, modifications, and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention'.

And what have they invented - a method to produce atta that includes "passing an amount of wheat through a device designed to crack the wheat so as to produce an amount of cracked wheat, followed by passing the cracked wheat through at least two smooth rolls designed to grind the cracked wheat into flour, with the smooth roll importantly grinding the wheat to a smaller particle size and shearing the wheat to cause starch damage in the finished atta flour." Isn't that a great 'invention' that merits a US patent? Isn't this similar to the manufacturing process being used by thousands of roller flourmills (many of them modernized) that exists throughout South Asia?

Since the 'inventors' have drawn a patent that covers the 'spirit and scope' of the invention, any modification and variation to this 'invention' too is patented. In other words, ConAgra has in one broad sweep ensured that the wheat flourmills throughout Asia (and in several other parts of the world) come under its monopoly control over the technology they have been using. With many big and even multinational food companies (including giants like Cargill) moving into the atta segment, ConAgra can literally make hay while we continue to consume chapattis and rotis. The patent application accepts that the requirement for wheat flour in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia will grow in the years to come, and so therefore the company sees a huge market.

The patent application uses all the scientific jargons that are normally used in establishing novelty and its industrial application. Preliminary tests were conducted at the Kansas State University (US) and subsequent tests were carried out by the United Milling Systems of Denmark and of course at the ConAgra Milling Research facility in Omaha, Nebraska. One wonders why the company didn't think it proper to conduct these trials in India and by involving the best judge of the atta technology - the housewives. Their preference for a particular brand of atta is based on the kind and quality of chapattis that it makes. Fundamentally, a housewife will tell you that the best atta is the one, which is not 'hot' when it comes out from the flourmill.

In India, a majority of the big atta mills use the roller processing. Some like Golden Seal, Annapurna and Captain Cook use the stone milling technology. Interestingly, the starch damage percentage in the stone milling technology is much higher than the roller mills - 15 per cent against 5 to 9 per cent in rolling mills. This makes it suitable for the dough making, and at the same time the protein percentage hovers between 10-11 percent, almost equal or higher than the roller mills. Many of the roller mills in India use three rollers to crack wheat grains and grind the atta and therefore find nothing novel in the patent.

This is not the first time that the US or for that matter many other developed countries have granted patents that makes a mockery of the entire IPR regime. And that too at times when the patent system claims to look into three specific criteria - novelty, utility and its non-obviousness - before granting a monopoly control over a technological invention or method. Multinational Nestle has already been granted a European patent on vegetable pulao and parboiled rice. When asked what was novel about the patent, all that the multinational replied was that it has developed a 'unique' method of cooking vegetable pulao. In a country where hundreds of different recipes for making vegetable pulao already exists, one wonders what is the 'uniqueness' that Nestle claims to have developed. Patent examiners should have thrown out such a process patent application at first sight.

More recently, George Williamson Ltd., of England had filed for a patent on the entire manufacturing process of tea, from the plucking of leaves to its final packaging in chests, prompting the Tea Board of India to launch an offensive to counter the monopoly control over a process that has been in vogue throughout the country. So much so that a drug multinational, Burrough Welcome, has drawn a patent on the commonly used Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) by health workers. Irrespective of the fact that the therapy has been in vogue for ages in the developing countries but was first reported in an academic research paper in Bangladesh in 1971-72, and since then even the UNDP gives recognition to the Bangladesh researchers for the 'invention'. With a minor tinkering, the drug multinational subsequently got the patent.

Many IPR experts believe that one way to counter such unfair patents is to document the traditional knowledge that already exists and to make that available to the patent offices throughout the globe. What is not being understood is that it is perfectly right to 'educate' the patent lawyers who want to learn of the 'prior art' that exists elsewhere but what about those who refuse to see beyond a patent application. After all, it is difficult to imagine that the patent examiners in the US Patent & Trade Mark Office had never known what wheat flour is and so wasn't even aware of the process of producing it. There is something called 'common sense', and that cannot be built by producing digital libraries on traditional knowledge and commonly used production processes.

(Devinder Sharma is a New Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst)

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How Kenyans see the land crisis in Zimbabwe
Posted: Friday, December 6, 2002

From Final Call.Com
WEB POSTED 03-12-2002

NAIROBI (PANA)—Like hundreds of thousands of his compatriots, Michael Karanja, who lives on the fringes of one of the large scale White-owned agricultural farms in Kenya’s Thika District, some 30 miles east of Nairobi—has been following with keen interest the ensuing feud in Zimbabwe between Pres. Robert Mugabe and White land holders. Mr. Karanja is especially interested in the European Union’s sanctions against Pres. Mugabe.

He says Mr. Mugabe is right to want to re-allocate stolen and unused land now owned by Whites to Black war veterans. Mr. Karanja also says that other African leaders are doing a disservice to the continent by not coming out openly to support an embattled freedom fighter.

"Mugabe is being vilified for standing up for the rights of his people. This land, the so-called farmers in Zimbabwe are now claiming to be theirs, was taken from Africans in a way of robbery, because they do not have the supporting documents to show that they rightfully bought it from Africans," charged Mr. Karanja, a 59-year-old father of six. And he is not alone.

Pres. Mugabe might be unpopular to the West and White Zimbabwean community, but he appears to be gaining support in Kenya where the issue is quite emotive because of the similarities in the two countries’ cases.

The Lancaster House (London) served as the venue for independence talks for the two countries—Kenya’s in 1960s and 1970s for Zimbabwe.

So, to the ordinary man on the street, scholars, politicians and even journalists in Kenya, Pres. Mugabe is right and Western powers are applying double standards to protect their cousins.

The rallying cry for the independence fathers in both countries was land, which they felt was wrongly wrenched from Africans.

Like in Zimbabwe, the White Kenyan settler community owns the choice agricultural land leaving the majority Black population on less productive areas.

Dennis Akumu, a former Pan-African Trade Unionist and ex-MP, is a key member of the Pan-African Reparations Movement (PARM), a group that has been vocal in support of Pres. Mugabe’s cause.

"People the World over are talking of equity, transparency and democracy. But these three virtues cannot exist in a country where the majority have been marginalized and their leaders ostracized (for pointing out the injustice)," he says.

John Kamau, editor of the Nairobi-based Rights Features Service, an NGO on human rights issues, agrees with Mr. Akumu.

According to Mr. Kamau, "there is no way any sane government in the world would allow 98 percent of its population to live in near penury while less than two percent own parcels of land they do not even need."

He argues that at the Lancaster House Conference, it was made clear that the White farmers had up to 1990 to either develop their land or give it up to the Zimbabwean government.

The same document gave the government the right to nationalize all land not developed or nationalized, he said.

Mr. Kamau dismisses the argument that the EU sanctions were imposed because of Pres. Mugabe’s "dictatorial" rule, saying the West has never cared about who is elected president in Africa so long as he played by their rules.

"Haven’t we had Idi Amin Dada (Uganda), Marcius Nguema (Equatorial Guinea), Mobutu Sese Seko (ex-Zaire) and Siad Barre (Somalia)? An elementary student of history would tell you that these (people) were maintained by Western support," he added.

Veteran journalist Phillip Ochieng, in a Sunday Nation article titled, "Fleet Street’s Jungle Justice in Zimbabwe," accuses the Western press of conspiracy against Pres. Mugabe.

Rejecting the forceful taking over of farms by Black Zimbabweans, Mr. Ochieng, however, feels the reporting is biased.

"But from what moral (ground) can you preach law and fair elections to them (Zimbabweans)? Fair elections? Why haven’t you applied sanctions on George W. Bush for rigging himself to the most powerful office in the free world?" he asked.

Whether Pres. Mugabe succeeds in his mission or not, he appears to be enjoying large support from Kenyans, who may not influence developments in his troubled country.

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Harare's concerns genuine, says envoy
Posted: Thursday, December 5, 2002

Diplomatic Reporter, www.herald.co.zw

INCOMING Dutch ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Johannes Heinsbroek yesterday said Harare has genuine concerns over its differences with the European Union.

Dr Heinsbroek was speaking in a meeting with President Mugabe at State House after presenting his credentials.

Sources who attended the meeting said the ambassador was responding to Cde Mugabe who had wondered how Netherlands could be dragged into the fight between Zimbabwe and her former colonial master Britain.

Netherlands and the rest of the European Union have ganged up against Zimbabwe and imposed sanctions at the instigation of Britain.

Britain has been campaigning for Harare's isolation because of the Government's resolve to correct colonial imbalances by redistributing land, which was forcibly grabbed from locals by white settlers, mostly British descendants.

According to the sources, President Mugabe noted that relations between Netherlands and Zimbabwe were chequered saying it was difficult to explain the strain in ties between the two countries.

"I don't know how the Netherlands would want us to relate? But not through the medium of Britain.

"Where have we gone wrong? Our problem with the United Kingdom is clear, they are our former colonial master.

"We do not understand how the Netherlands could be dragged into a fight that is British, pretending there are issues of human rights and good governance. I don't know . . . ," the sources quoted President Mugabe as having told Dr Heinsbroek.

In response, the sources said, Dr Heinsbroek said it was important that Zimbabwe and Netherlands engaged in talks to restore good relations.

He pledged to work towards improving relations between the two countries.

"Zimbabwe has genuine concerns and Europe also has her own concerns and we just have to talk. It is important that we have to talk.

"We must prevent an exchange of monologues. We can start with preparatory talks so we can restore our relations," the sources quoted Dr Heinsbroek saying.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Dr Heinsbroek said it was important for Zimbabwe and Europe to talk noting that both sides had concerns, which should be addressed.

Cde Mugabe also said relations between the two countries could improve.

"Things cannot be worsened for all time. Bilateral relations have to improve at some time."

The sources added that Cde Mugabe told the Dutch ambassador that there was no perfect democracy in the world.

He said the Dutch had a monarch while Zimbabwe had its own system of governance and wondered why Netherlands wanted to change Harare's system.

Cde Mugabe said even the Lancaster House constitution that the British helped craft at Zimbabwe's independence was not perfect.

He told Dr Heinsbroek that British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair thinks he can rule Zimbabwe but Harare would resist any attempts to undermine its sovereignty.

"Even if Mugabe goes there will be people who will take over and resist any attempt to put authority on our sovereignty," the President reportedly said.

He said Zimbabwe respected the sovereignty of Europe and it expected the same of Europe.

"The days of Machiavellian are gone and countries wanted to be sovereign and democratic. I am supposed to be under sanctions… whatever that means in the eyes of Europe. But we are in year 2002. Are we that backward?"

Three other new ambassadors - Mr Tsaneshiye Iyama of Japan, Archbishop Joseph Edward Adams of the Vatican and Mauritian High Commissioner Mr John Dacruz - also presented their credentials to Cde Mugabe.

United Nations Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan's special envoy for HIV/Aids, Mr Stephen Lewis, also met Cde Mugabe to discuss the effects of the pandemic in Zimbabwe and how the country was fighting the scourge.

Mr Lewis is on a six-nation tour of Southern Africa to assess the HIV/Aids situation in relation to the drought gripping the region.

He said their talks also touched on how the UN could help the countries procure anti-retroviral drugs.

Mr Lewis said he was gratified that the Government was reconsidering plans, announced in the 2003 national budget, to gradually scrap the Aids levy.

Reproduced from:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=16580&pubdate=2002-12-06

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Alexander Pushkin: Russian-African genius
Posted: Tuesday, December 3, 2002

By Selwyn Cudjoe, July 4, 1999

WHEN I arrived in the United States in the 1960s-ages ago, it seems-one of the first books I encountered was JA Rogers's World's Great Men of Color. In the 1950s Rogers, a Jamaican, went from house to house selling his books in Harlem, trying to get his people to realise that Africa and Africans had made enormous contributions to the world. In that book I learned that writers such as Alexander Pushkin, Alexandre Dumas, Samuel Coleridge and Robert Browning were of black ancestry, an astonishing fact to someone cradled in a colonial education. It was the 1960s, an age of Black Power; a time when most of us came into a better awareness of our people and ourselves.

On June 6, Russia was ablaze in festivity as it celebrated the 200th anniversary of Pushkin's birth. As a London Times headline puts it, "Pushkin Mania rages: Russians cash in on bicentenary of their poet's birth". Reporting from Moscow, Anna Blundy noted: "Russia has been swept by Puskhinmania in preparation for tomorrow's bicentenary of the poet's birth...Russians all know long tracts of Pushkin's work by heart, and Sunday's festival is the dominant theme of most television, and radio broadcasts, newspaper articles and advertising campaigns."

Pushkin remains Russia's playful and elusive genius, a combination of Shakespeare and Mozart rolled into one. He holds the same status in Russian literature as Shakespeare has in the English language. Eugene Onegin, Pushkin's classic verse novel of 1833, has become a work to which Russian writers pay obeisance. Each school child knows it by heart and recites it at the drop of a hat.

During the weeks that led up to Pushkin's second centenary, a member of the public read out one line of Eugene Onegin and told viewers how many days there were to go before Pushkin's birthday. I only wish that we could do a similar thing for Maxwell Philip, CLR James or VS Naipaul.

But greatness or not, at the beginning of the 19th century, Pushkin's Africanness was an issue.

Throughout his life, his pronounced African features-thick lips, dark skin and kinky hair-remained an issue and Pushkin was acutely aware of them. Yet, he always took pride in his African ancestry.

In her new book on Pushkin, Elaine Feinstein tells us that Abram Petrovich Gannibal, Pushkin's great-grandfather, born in Northern Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the 1690s, was of royal stock. Pushkin claimed that his great grandfather was a prince who lived a luxurious life. He was abducted from Ethiopia when he was eight years old by a "Frenchman collecting animals and other curiosities for Louis XIV" of France. Shipped to Istanbul, he was placed in the Sultan's seraglio where the Russian ambassador found him and sent him back to Russia as a present to Peter the Great (Pushkin, pp 17-18).

In the Russian court, Abram became a great favourite of Peter the Great. The Tsar became so attached to this precocious and intelligent child that he had him baptised into the Orthodox Church at Vilno where the Tsar himself became his godfather and the queen of Poland his godmother.

Feinstein reports that when Abram's brother, a person of standing in the African world, arrived to claim Abram, the Tsar refused to part with him. Sending him to study military strategy in France, Abram returned to Russia in 1725 and was given a commission in the Tsar's own regiment. When Elizabeth, the Tsar's daughter, came to the throne, Abram was made a Major General and granted an estate in Mikhaylovskoe in a province of Russia.

As he grew up, Pushkin took great pride in his great-grandfather and his Africanness which he openly embraced and celebrated in Eugene Onegin. Even so, Pushkin suffered from a sense of his own "ugliness" and the taunts of his classmates. At the lycee where he studied when he was 12, he was nicknamed "monkey". However some of his school friends called him "the Frenchman" because they thought he was a "mixture of a monkey and a tiger".

This "stain" of his blackness remained with him. In 1827, he returned to his family mansion in Mikhaylovskoe where he began his unfinished novel, The Negro of Peter the Great, based on the life of his great grandfather. In this highly fictionalised account of his ancestor Grannibal, Pushkin centred his story on "a Negro's wife, who is unfaithful to her husband, gives birth to a white child and is punished by being shut up in a convent". Even as he tells this gripping story, the sexual prowess of the black man in a white world assumes much importance.

Perhaps, it is wise that Pushkin did not finish telling this story. It would have had to come up against the scurrilous attacks of those who preferred to believe that he came from a slave background. In fact, he was forced to defend Abram's honour against the calumny of Fruddy Bulgarin, a crusading journalist. Putting the question in verse, Pushkin said: "Filyarin says he understands/That my black granddad, Gannibal/ Bought for a bottle of rum, once fell/Into a drunk sea captain's hands." To this, he responded: "My grandfather, so cheaply bought,/ The Tsar himself treated with trust/And gave him welcome at his court./ Black, but never again a slave."

Pushkin, it was rumoured, was a renowned womaniser. Yet when, in 1837, it was reported that a French officer, D'Anthes, was messing with his wife, Pushkin challenged him to a duel and was killed at the age of 38. Yet, he remains the people's poet, Russia's answer to Shakespeare and someone about whom we in T&T ought to know a lot more.

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US rapped for stance on Zimbabwe's land
Posted: Monday, December 2, 2002

Herald Reporter

NEW York City councillors have attacked the United States government for its position on Zimbabwe's land issue which they say is heavily influenced by a biased former colonial power, Britain.

"We cannot expect Britain to have a neutral position on the land issue," the councillors said in a report compiled after a two-week fact-finding tour in Zimbabwe.

The report urges US to immediately lift travel restrictions against Government officials and help kick-start dialogue between Zimbabwe and Britain.

"It would be difficult for the Zimbabwean officials to state their case to the world if they are restricted from travelling to other countries.

"How can the US have dialogue with North Korea and Iraq, in the interest of peace, while preventing Zimbabwean officials from travelling to articulate their position?"

The US, they said, was supposed to be neutral and help resolve the dispute between Zimbabwe and Britain instead of taking sides.

"Without an independent US position, it will be difficult to act as an honest broker," they said.

"Some of the people in Zimbabwe are eager for independent facilitators to be involved."

Britain, the country most hostile to the land reform pogramme, has also been asked to assess its strategy of dealing with Zimbabwe.

"We urge the British government to reconsider its position and agree to compensate white farmers for their land," the councillors said.

"In the process, it should also discuss compensation for the expropriation of the land from the original African population."

The councillors said they had found that there were double standards when Western countries, especially Britain and the US, talked about democracy and human rights in Africa.

Zimbabwe, they said, had fallen victim to such double standards and was being called undemocratic, but democracy was thriving in the country.

They called for increased commercial contacts and visits by ordinary Americans to Zimbabwe, including the media, to observe the changes occurring in the Southern African country.

They said their investigations had established that the land issue was irreversible while media accounts on the programme were mostly exaggerated.

"We found a country where all sides agree that land reform is an idea whose time has come," said the councillors.

New farmers, they said, were grateful to the Government for having been provided with land while there was still a role being played by white farmers who had accepted the new dispensation and were willing to accept the policy of one farmer, one farm.

"In our meetings with various stakeholders affected by the land reform programme, we found that allegations by the media against it are largely unsubstantiated and are actually exaggerations or distortions of what is actually happening there.

"We also found that despite a steady flow of Western media reports of lawlessness, free-for-all land grab of commercial farms, this is not the case at all."

The city fathers said they were convinced that increased agricultural production, with the newly acquired lands by new farmers, would lead to economic growth in Zimbabwe.

The projected famine that threatened not only Zimbabwe but all of southern Africa, could not be substantially attributed to the land reform as had been charged in some quarters.

The real cause of the famine was drought that affected food production in the last season.

"The role of commercial farmers in staple food production has also been exaggerated by Western media reports.

"White commercial farmers had long since abandoned crop farming and turned to other more lucrative industries such as horticulture, tobacco, paprika, citrus, game ranching and safari services," they said.

It was also stated in the report that allegations that President Mugabe was giving land to his friends were surprising considering the number of people resettled.

At least 300 000 families have benefited under the Model A1 scheme, while 40 000 others were allocated plots under the A2 Model.

"In light of that fact, we find the charge that President Mugabe only gives land to his 'cronies' not credible.

"We are hard pressed not to believe that anyone could have that many 'cronies.'"

The councillors said they found a reasonably vibrant free Press in Zimbabwe, contrary to international reports that the media was routinely suppressed.

The delegation was led by New York City Council Member Charles Barron and consisted of other councillors and journalists.

It held meetings with President Mugabe, several Government ministers, members of opposition parties, farmers and Non-Governmental Organisations.

Reproduced from:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=16468&pubdate=2002-12-02

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President: Be fully geared for farming
Posted: Friday, November 29, 2002

Herald Reporter

PRESIDENT Mugabe has urged newly-resettled farmers to use their ploughs to till the land in preparation for the coming agricultural season, instead of waiting for tractors from the Government.

He said it was imperative for people to be fully geared for the season since time was running out.

"It is encouraging to note that in some areas, crops have already started to grow.

"There are some areas which have not been ploughed, particularly in resettlement areas.

"In the rural areas, some have already started to plough. Do not wait for tractors. Those with cattle must start to plough maybe one or two hectares in the areas, in which they have been resettled."

The President said this when he officially opened a science and administration block at Chikaka Secondary School in Zvimba.

He urged those with tractors to assist those who were struggling to till the land owing to lack of equipment.

He said Zimbabweans should remain united to overcome challenges facing the country. MORE

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A Briefing On The History Of U.S. Military Interventions
Posted: Sunday, November 24, 2002

by Professor Zoltan Grossman
Assistant Professor of Geography
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA, 2001

KILLING CIVILIANS TO SHOW THAT KILLING CIVILIANS IS WRONG

Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, most people in the world agree that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice, without killing many thousands of civilians in the process. But unfortunately, the U.S. military has always accepted massive civilian deaths as part of the cost of war. The military is now poised to kill thousands of foreign civilians, in order to prove that killing U.S. civilians is wrong.

The media has told us repeatedly that some Middle Easterners hate the U.S. only because of our "freedom" and "prosperity." Missing from this explanation is the historical context of the U.S. role in the Middle East, and for that matter in the rest of the world. This basic primer is an attempt to brief readers who have not closely followed the history of U.S. foreign or military affairs, and are perhaps unaware of the background of U.S. military interventions abroad, but are concerned about the direction of our country toward a new war in the name of "freedom" and "protecting civilians."

The United S