Talking about the climate change in order to win Nobel Peace Prize?

Almost every world leader talks about climate change every day. All of them have realised that the popularity is based on the talk about climate change. Hopefully they mean it when they do the talk. Others however are eyeing the Nobel Peace Prize, a prize that has now almost lost meaning because it is dished out to every Tom, every Dick and every Harry, depending on what the Nobel Committee wants to achieve.

When President Barack Obama got it last year, there was an outcry. Many were of the opinion that he did not deserve it. We shared their opinion because the man had barely been in office for less than one year. What many did not realise was the fact that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had their own goals to accomplish. That of bringing the man leading the most powerful man to Norway for a quick visit and what do you do to get him fly in – the Nobel Peace Prize.

One thing that the committee failed to achieve was to get the Obamas to attend the evening concert that most leaders awarded the prize are supposed to attend.  He declined, not only attending the concert but also USA’s Jonathan Mann’s public staged yearly interview at the Oslo City Council. This may have angered many of the organizers. The man came, got the prize and left! Could it be due to the fact that he knew he did not deserve it and feared being longer in the country, an act that would have enabled journalists to question him on whether he was qualified for the prize?

By the Chief Editor Korir

New Report Finds Progress and Challenges in Chinese Resettlement Project

The $62 billion South-North Water Transfer Project is the biggest engineering scheme in Chinese history. About 330,000 people are currently being relocated for the expansion of the Danjiangkou reservoir, awhich marks the beginning of the transfer project’s Middle Route. On August 25, International Rivers published an eyewitness report on China’s biggest ongoing resettlement project. The report finds that the Chinese government has learned lessons from the experience with the Three Gorges Dam, but that serious problems remain.

The report was prepared by a Chinese development expert who knows the Dangjiangkou region well, but needs to remain anonymous. It finds that the Chinese government has learned important lessons from the problems of the Three Gorges Project. The levels of compensation and post-resettlement support have been significantly increased, and resettlement policies are more detailed than in the past. Resettlers are no longer moved out of their home provinces. The authorities have so far relied on persuasion rather than force to implement the relocation project. They have also instituted a certain degree of participation in project implementation through the involvement of elected resettlement committees.

At the same time, major problems and risks remain. Affected people were not involved in preparing the resettlement policies, which has created unnecessary problems. Affected people have no freedom to choose among different resettlement options. The resettlement budget is relatively low, which may cause problems particularly in the post-resettlement phase. Resettlement within the reservoir area will increase population density, fuel social tensions, and add pressure on ecosystems which are already under stress.

At the launch of the report, the researcher recommended that the participation of affected people in the project be improved, and that government support particularly for the period after resettlement be strengthened. The researcher also urged the Chinese authorities to take the ecological limits of the region into account as they implement the water transfer project.

Peter Bosshard, Policy Director of International Rivers, commented: “We commend the Chinese authorities for the improvements which they have adopted in their resettlement policies, and salute the courage of China’s dam-affected people who have helped to bring this progress about. We urge the government to carry out the measures recommended in the new report to avoid a deterioration of the situation. At the same time, the social and environmental problems of the water transfer project show that the solution of China’s water crisis will not lie in grand engineering schemes, but in efficiency improvements and conservation measures which can reduce the country’s water demand.”

Released by Peter Bosshard, Policy Director, International Rivers, USA .

South Africa: Striking out

-Irinnews, August 23, 2010 Johannesburg (South Africa) – Over a million teachers, nurses and other government workers have downed tools across South Africa, suspending public education and healthcare while their demands for better pay go head-to-head with government’s reluctance to accede. “We have embarked on an indefinite strike … all public schools are reporting zero presence – that means 100 percent absenteeism of teachers, so [the strike] is a success,” Mugwena Maluleke, General Secretary of South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU), told IRIN.

Public hospitals and clinics have managed to stay open with skeleton staff running essential services, but the department of health has asked the public to only use hospitals in emergencies and to opt for private facilities if they can.

Unions and the ministry of public service and administration have been locked in negotiations since April 2010. Civil servants are demanding an 8.6 percent wage increase and a housing allowance of R1,000 (US$137) per month, while the government has only agreed, so far, to a 7 percent raise and R700 ($96) a month for housing.

In a statement on 12 August the ruling African National Congress (ANC) called on “government and labour to urgently find a speedy resolution to the labour dispute in the public service, which has led to the countrywide strike crippling government-provided essential services like schooling and hospital services”.

It noted that “With school [year-end] examinations not far off, the strike action has brought almost all public schools to a standstill, something that has adversely affected thousands of learners.”

Ronald Nyathi, SADTU’s spokesman in Gauteng Province, was quoted in local media as saying: “Any school that stays open is declaring war on 1.3 million [public workers] … we will crush you because we are many.”

The threat has not been taken lightly. One inner-city school in Johannesburg told parents by text message: “Please make your own decision regarding your children’s safety,” and “Learners may wear ‘civvies’ [casual clothes rather than the school uniform],” after school on 19 August. The school would open the next day, but “gates will close at 8 a.m. sharp and close again at home time [around 2 p.m.].”

SADTU said in a statement on 19 August that it “condemns violence against or conducted by our members. The Union’s policy denounces violence and intimidation from any quarter.”

Local media reported that police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds and used water hoses against protesters in various parts of Johannesburg. “The shooting left six SADTU members injured – two suffered head wounds,” SADTU said.

Gauteng’s provincial minister of health, Qedani Mahlangu, appealed to striking workers to refrain from intimidation, and not to prevent ambulances, doctors, nurses and patients from entering hospital premises or deny patients access to much needed medical care.

”While workers have a right to express their dissatisfaction, it is unacceptable that lives of desperate people are put at risk”
“While workers have a right to express their dissatisfaction, it is unacceptable that lives of desperate people are put at risk,” she said in a statement on 18 August.

The following day, after assisting staff at the Natalspruit Hospital in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, Mahlangu told IRIN that 40 babies had been evacuated from the facility due to the strikes and protests by medical staff.

“The army has arrived to provide medical care and security,” at public health facilities throughout the province, and she had urged “those willing to work to come back” because the army could now provide security from violent protests, she told IRIN.

The Ministry of Defence said the military was assisting in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, and were on standby in Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, North West and Northern Cape.

Mahlangu said contingency plans – like private companies taking care of linen and the army providing medical staff – meant “everything is in order”, but she was pleading with the public “not to bring their loved ones to the hospital [unless absolutely necessary]”, and for families to take home patients that could be discharged.

Local media reported a number of casualties, including babies, but Mahlangu said this was not necessarily a direct result of the picketing or absence of staff – “in any hospital, people die daily”.

South Africa has around 1.3 million public servants, represented by 14 unions. According to the ministry of finance the government’s latest offer of a 7 percent raise and R700 ($96) a month for housing would already exceed the budget allocation by R5 billion ($890 million) – money the government simply does not have.

It is struggling to meet promises to the poorest South Africans to deliver services like improved housing and access to electricity and water, and has been left with little room to manoeuvre.

The country “has many social and economic problems, but there is also a strong dosage of politics and ideology in here [the union demands]; there is a political angle to the negotiations,” Dawie Roodt, a government finance expert, told IRIN.

“It’s not only about better pay, but also pressuring the state for redistribution of wealth to reduce inequality. Politicians have been ‘over-promising’ and most definitely ‘under-delivering’,” and although the government had taken the responsibility to effect social change, it has “bitten off too much”.

The state and the economy could simply not afford to give in to union demands. “Fiscal deficit is six percent of GDP [gross domestic product]; this is not sustainable and needs to be reduced,” Roodt said. That would mean a reduction in expenditure and an increase in taxes, or a combination of both.

Take it or leave it

Despite the strike, the public service and administration department said it would unilaterally implement its offer of a 7 percent wage hike and R700 housing allowance offer on 19 August.

“We urge the unions to change their position … otherwise government will be left with no choice but to implement the offer,” spokesman Dumisani Nkwamba said, and indicated that the government would implement the deal in three weeks’ time.

“The government can’t afford not to pay [the 8.6 percent wage increase and a housing allowance of R1,000 (US$137) per month that we demand] – our grievances are legitimate and genuine. If the government does not come to the table, we will escalate [the strike],” SADTU’s Maluleke responded.

“There is never a good time to strike … poor families will be affected negatively,” he added. “But unfortunately the government has not been sensitive to our plight.”

source.afrika,no

Tsjad: -Elections an opportunity for peace, says ICG

-East african, Kenya -August 23, 2010 Nairobi (Kenya) – The Chadian elections scheduled for November provide the biggest opportunity to end the political and military turmoil that has bedevilled the Central African country for the past five years. According to the latest report by the International Crisis Group — a leading adviser on conflict resolution and prevention — a lull in fighting between government forces and rebel groups, and the easing of tensions with Sudan since the start of this year, is the biggest chance for the return to normalcy.

However, President Idriss Déby’s rigid control of political space and recurrent problems in the electoral process could plunge the country back into turmoil, unless N’Djamena is willing to stick to the roadmap to peace.

For this to happen, the ICG advises that the Chadian government must take advantage of the moment to bolster relations with Sudan, fully respect its commitment to providing security in eastern Chad per Security Council Resolution 1923 (2010), carry out the internal reforms it has committed itself to and offer lasting peace to the armed opposition.

Both countries are facing rebellions that are proving difficult to tame.

It started with the Darfur conflict in 2003, where the Justice for Equality Movement launched an insurgence against marginalisation, which spilled over to Eastern Chad, where the Union of Resistance Forces launched their offensive against Djamena.

Both Sudan and Chad had traded accusations of sponsoring one another’s rebel groups for years, until the recent warming up of relations.

In May last year, the UFR launched a major attack on government troops in N’Djamena, but failed to overthrow the regime’s military.

After the failed offensive, some influential circles in Khartoum began to doubt the utility of an alliance with the Chadian armed opposition and consider a rapprochement with N’Djamena.

Fearing his military success may only be temporary, President Déby wants to ensure the rebels do not find sanctuary in Sudan to regroup and hopes the rapprochement with Khartoum will reduce their room for manoeuvre.

According to ICG, the January 2010 bilateral agreement and a series of presidential visits — President Déby’s to Khartoum in February and May and his Sudan counterpart Omar al-Bashir’s to N’Djamena in July — give reason to hope that relations are returning to normal.

The ICG recommends few areas which the Chad government can use to stabilise the situation.

One, use oil revenues to equip and motivate the army so that they can defeat the rebels and tilt the balance of power.

This is because the easing of tensions also allows him to reallocate funds from the defence budget to prepare for elections — which have been postponed several times because of the war.

But there are obstacles. Both presidents aim to use the reconciliation to strengthen their power: President Déby vis-à-vis the internal opposition and President al-Bashir with respect to the International Criminal Court.

Again, ambiguities surrounding the resumption of talks between N’Djamena and the Chadian rebel groups and between Khartoum and the Darfur’s JEM raise questions on whether the peace could be sustained.

Yet, free and democratic elections would demonstrate political will by adopting and implementing the measures in the August 2007 agreement reached by the presidential camp and opposition parties which aim to promote an appropriate environment for participatory politics and credible elections.

source.afrika.no

Benin: Leader faces impeachment over pyramid scheme losses

Nation,Kenya, August 23, 2010 Nairobi (Kenya) — Benin’s President Yayi Boni is inching towards a legal battle he could not win over an allegation which links him to a financial scandal that is rocking the tiny West African country. For several weeks now, many of the country’s lawmakers have been championing the cause of an estimated 70,000 victims of some financial conmen alleged to be excellent bedfellows of the president.

The scandal involves the Investment Consultancy and Computering Services or ICCS and about 70,000 of the local clients but the entire country of nine million inhabitants have practically been affected by the scam which could amount up to 180 million dollars (Sh14 billion).

The matter came to a head when dozens of the fraud victims took to the streets of the capital, Cotonou nearly three weeks ago in demand for their monies.

The angry protesters chanted “enough is enough” after a long and unending duel with the ICCS which gave no signs of paying neither the initial deposits nor interests on them as promised.

ICCS established itself in the country with the advent of President Boni’s government nearly four years ago after he won the presidency as an independent candidate – the first in the country’s political history.

Since then, the president has been basking in the adulation of his compatriots as their allegiance rose to an all time high peak.

But, with luck on his side, the banking expert may not face impeachment proceedings if eight more parliamentarians consider him above reproach and refuse to sign a petition.

However, his silence to date over the accusations and his sacking of a senior minister in connection with the scandal, leaves many to believe that the leader may be preparing a solid fight in the advent of a trial.

His style of leadership which focuses mainly on improving the salaries of state workers as well as the road and other infrastructural network of the country has galvanised the hope and admiration of his countrymen in his rule.

source.afrika.no