can both peace and justice grow out of the turmoil in volatile sudan?
TRANSCRIPT
ISSUES TUESDAY JANUARY 27 2009 13
The new colonists scramble for Africa
Just when colonialism was con-sidered dead and buried, alongcomes neo-colonialism in its lat-est guise. Allied with its close
relatives globalisation, free marke-teering and lack of transparency, itis currently launching a new offen-sive on the disempowered popula-tion of the African continent.
Kwame Nkrumah, and others inthe post-colonial Pan Africanistmovement, coined the term “neo-colonialism” to describe access tothe resources of less developednations by national and privateinterests allied to wealthy nations.
Government-to-government deal sas well as private deals ostensiblyoffer to manage land that is notbeing economically used, to improvefood security. But for whom?
This trend is being driven mainlyby recent rises in the prices of foodcommodities, as well aspandering tothe rising interest in crop-based bio-fuels. While a degree of the foodprice increases was driven by short-ages triggered by natural causes, therole of speculators in driving upcosts to profit from perceived short-ages and seek shelter from otherrisky instruments like junk bondshas been significant.
The food security-focused NGO,Grain, issued a report on this phe-nomenon last October, whereit citedmore than 100 examples of this newneo-colonial land grab. These landgrabs are primarily by nations thathave insufficient natural capital orspace – such as the desert-boundnations of the Middle East and over-populated nations such as Chinaand South Korea. They seek toimprove the food security of thosenations while undermining the abil-ity of host nations to access similarbenefits, through the alienation of prime agricultural land.
The acquisition of 1.3 millionhectares of land in Madagascar bythe South Korean company DaewooLogistics Corporation on a 99-yearlease has raised eyebrows. This landrepresents about half of theisland’s
arable land. A reported 70% of thepopulation there suffers from foodshortages and malnutrition, andmore than 50% of the population isbelow the age of 18. What hope isthere for local youth when SouthAfrican farmers are reportedlybeing recruited to run the farms?
This land grab is in the maindriven by a new wave of colonialinterests seeking to gain food secu-rity. Many of the oil-rich Gulfstatesare involved as they have littleaccess to arable land or water.
This new thrust by the Gulf states is clearly influenced by thewish to diversify their extensivefinancial resources from recent oil
price windfalls, to areas where theyare able to generate sustainableprofit and influence.
China is also seeking new landand has moved aggressively intoAfrica with land interests in Zim-babwe, Mozambique, Nigeria,Uganda, Cameroon and Tanzania.
There is perhaps a more worry-ing side to the new neo-colonial landgrab. This is where corporate andfinancial groups and collectives seeksimilar opportunities for purelyprofit-seeking motives. For instance,the Danish company Trigon Agricontrols 100000ha of land in Russia.Morgan Stanley, despite its liquidityproblems, owns 40 000ha in Brazil.
Perhaps more sinister is the newsof leasehold rights being acquiredfor about 400000ha of land in Sudanfrom the family of former warlordGabriel Matip. In a deal struck by USfinancier Philippe Heilberg, who hasused a British Virgin Islands sub-sidiary of his Jarch Group to facili-tate the deal, private interests haveintervened in disputed territories.
Given the instability in thatnation and the forced eviction of mil-lions in neighbouring Darfur, thissort of land acquisition is perhaps aharbinger of an unsavoury trend inwho gets to control the land in dis-puted territories.
Given that the concept of neo-colonialism hasAfrican origins, it would bereasonable to assume that
there would be awareness of theseissues within Africa. However, cor-ruption, limited democratic partici-pation by civil society, non-transpar-ent bi- and multilateral deals, allcoupled to the lack of transparencywithin many African governmentsthemselves, evidently underminebeneficial outcomes for citizens.
Clearly those accessing land aimto accrue benefits. But Africa hasnot yet fully addressed many issuesfrom its colonial heritage, such asarbitrary borders and land dispos-session by corporations and war-lords or through internal and exter-nal political interference.
The New Partnership for AfricanDevelopment (Nepad) has activelysought corporate and private capi-tal-friendly solutions. The wooing of powerful interests includes inter-ventions at G8 meetings by suaveformer president Thabo Mbeki, notto mention numerous jaw-jaw ses-sions at the World Economic Forum.This is why so many progressivecommentators have been leery of endorsing Nepad and its structures,criticising them as pandering tovested interests.
Activities to increase agricul-tural growth in Africa have also
been compromised by questionablealliances. For example, the Associ-ation for a Green Revolution inAfrica has seen the undemocraticand unsolicited intervention of sup-posedly neutral funders such as theBill and Melinda Gates foundation.The relationship between these fun-ders and pro-genetically modifiedfood interests has served to under-mine local agricultural collectives,NGOs and projects that aim to pro-mote and share proven solutions tofood insecurity and malnutrition.
This is perhaps the most danger-ous manifestation of neo-colonial-ism as it operates behind a veil of philanthropy while underminingdemocratic interests. Instead of being taxed and distributed by stateorgans, the obscene profits accruedby capital are now in the hands of ill-informed and often ideologicallybiased do-gooders. For instance,given the technocratic origins of theGates fortune, it is logical thatundue emphasis will be placed ontechnocratic agricultural solutions.
There is an urgent need to exam-ine these new neo-colonial thrusts.Careful and objective analysis mustbe undertaken as to how food andland sovereignty is being compro-mised through naive interactionwith the new global powers of finance and trade. The interests of global capital need to be tempered byintervention and through morepragmatic approaches that takeaccount of the historical relation-ships between land, community, foodsecurity and economic development.
It is ironic that while Africanshave fought to cast aside colonialoppression and its concomitant her-itage, we have instead opened thegates to a new wave of colonialinterests that again threaten tobypass the marginalised whileenriching a well-connected minority.
It would be tragic to cast asideAfrica’s recently won freedom for ayoke of a different design. Glenn Ashton is a writer and
researcher working in civil society.
Can both peace and justice grow out of the turmoil in volatile Sudan?ByHEIDI KINGSTONEIndependent Foreign Service
Along the stretch of highway lead-ing to the international airport inKhartoum, there are illuminatedsigns of Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir alternating with those of Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecu-tor of the International CriminalCourt (ICC) who has indicted him.
It is a jarring sight, and a jarringstatement. The country is waiting tosee if the ICC will issue an arrestwarrant for its leader, the first for asitting head of state, making it aneven more turbulent time in a turbu-lent co untry.
Sudan is always in turmoil andalways at a crossroads, with issuesof power and control at the centre.Depending on circumstances, it canalways go in several directions.
At the heart of this crisis is Dar-fur, where the ICC has gathered itsevidence for the 10 charges of crimes of genocide, crimes againsthumanity, and war crimes.
But there is more to Sudan thanDarfur. Darfur ismade up of threeprovinces, in total the size of France, and it is one of severalequally critical parts that cannot bedivided or separated from any solu-tion in Sudan.
Some of the key problems facing
Sudan, the largest country in Africaand hugely underdeveloped, have todo with unity and disintegration,peace and justice.
Most immediately, Sudan awaitsthe impending ruling from the ICC,expected in the next few weeks.
The illuminated posters makesuch an impact because the issuehits straight at the core interests of the government, whose main aim isto stay in power and “steal money”,says a Western diplomat.
For that, hesays, they are willingto make deals or commit mass mur-der. “It’s nothing personal, just busi-ness.”
Now the regime is trying to show
it is a good partner to the interna-tional community and so, in Octo-ber, it launched the Darfur Peace Ini-tiative, one of dozens of initiativeslaunched over the last few years.
The ICC has put pressure on theregime.
“Many commentators and politi-cians believe that the whole issue of having a national initiative is to tryand bail out President Bashir fromwhat he might face in the ICC,” saidHafiz Mohammed, co-ordinator forthe Darfur programme at JusticeAfrica in London.
The real question is whetherthere can be peace and justice, asidefrom whether there should be or not,
and what happens if you give prior-ity to justice over peace.
The paradox is that the situationis better now than before the Julyindictment. The levels of violencethat peaked in 2003-5 have subsided,but the situation in Darfur is tense.Militias originally armed by the gov-ernment, and rebel groups that reg-ularly split like amoebas, have madetravelling outside the main townsdangerous.
Many in Darfur want justice andbelieve peace will follow. Other sym-pathetic voices posit that for the gov-ernment, which does not accept theICC ruling and so does not regard itas justice, it will simply blow any
chance for peace away, and that iswhat Khartoum threatens.
While Sudan continues toshadow box with the internationalcommunity, it is also more stablethan people give it credit for. Thegovernment is entrenched and moreunited than it appears. The NationalCongress Party and the Sudan Peo-ple’s Liberation Movement (SPLM),together form the Government of National Unity in Khartoum. But itis not is a government of nationalunity.
In 2005 they signed the power-sharing agreement that is part of the Comprehensive Peace Accords.This, comprehensive in name only,
brought Africa’s longest-runningcivil war between north and southSudan to an end. But it left the southcompletely under the domain of onepolitical group, the SPLM/A, to theexclusion of other forces. And theCPA is barely being held together.
People in Sudan also questionwhy Bashir is being indicted forcrimes in Darfur, horrendous asthey are. The irony is that what hap-pened in the two-decade-long civilwar was, as the same Western diplo-mat pointed out, “10 times worsethan what happened in Darfur, andno one has been indicted for that”.
The question remains: can therebe both peace and justice in Sudan?
Rich countries and private interests are striking deals to take overland and bolster their food security,writes Glenn As
ht
on
In an effort to clear some of the clut-ter with which I have surroundedmy life over the years, I’ve been sort-ing through my books and tossingout those I know I shall never wantto read again.
Sometimes this is like meetingold friends.
I have ended up with several pilesof books – one to chuck out, one toconsider further and one under thegeneral heading of “Hey, I mustread this one again.”
Needless to say the chuck-outpile is the smallest.
There’s one book I shall keep fora very strange reason. It is simplythe most boring book I have everowned. I don’t have the heart tothrow it away.
Years ago, in a moment of weak-ness I bought it, thinking it mighthelp to add a light touch to the Tav-ern of the Seas column.
It is called The Anatomy of
Humour (Biopsychosocial and Ther-
apeutic Perspectives), by RobinAndrew Haig MD, FRANZCP, MRCPsych, Director, Mental Health Ser-vices, MacArthur Area, Sydney.
When I bought it I was encour-aged by the dedication “To Maria,who has tolerated my humourwhilst writing this book”.
All I can say is the Maria musthave been a saint. I failed to detect asmidgen of humour between thecovers of this weighty tome. Thegood Doctor Haig manages to turnany suggestion of laughter into aboring ho mily.
Here he is on the subject of tick-ling: “The stimulation of cutaneousreceptors at low intensity producesa ticklish sensation which, if inten-sified, is replaced by pain. Tickling
of certain areas (eg feet) may pro-duce an emotional abreaction whichhas been employed in some alter-nate therapies. Sully (1902) sug-gested that the function of the tickleresponse may be to shake off para-sites that touch the skin lightly,although it is not clear why thisshould be accompanied by l aughter.”
I think I shall keep the book sim-ply as a yardstick against which tomeasure degrees of boredom. I sug-gest that the “Haig” be introduced tothe English language as the basicunit of boredom.
“How did you enjoy the movie?”“I rated it about three Haigs.”“Wow! As bad as that, hey?”Maybe Tavern readers have their
own standard measure of boredom.I’d be interested to hear about them.
Murphy’s lawSince raising the question of the ori-gin of Murphy’s Law, I’ve found sev-eral explanations, each of which
claims to be the genuine article.As with so many urban legends,
choose the one you like most andadopt it.
In one story, Commander J Mur-phy of the US Navy was a procure-ment officer in charge of obtainingnew aircraft.
He tried to instil simplicity of maintenance into manufacturerslike Douglas and Grumman. Appar-ently one of his most belabouredexpressions was: “If an aircraft fit-ter on one of our carriers can re-install a component wrongly, thenone day he will.”
Which led to the famous law.Another version is that the law
was named after Captain Edward AMurphy, working on a US Air Forceexperimental project.
One day, after finding that atransducer was wired wrongly, hecursed the technician responsibleand said, “If there is any way to doit wrong, he’ll find it.”
The project manager kept a list of engineering “laws” and added thisone, which he called Murphy's Law.
Take your pick.
Last LaughDancing cheek-to-cheek is just a
form of floor-play.
Tavernof theSeas
D A V I DB I G G S
Tel: 021 788 9710Fax: 021 788 9560E-mail: [email protected]
Oh,rats! The mobster in me is … trapped
I’m like a novice mobster on hisfirst job.
In my head I can hear a Brook-lyn drawl. “Take da bat, Johnny. Hitit hard, right in da middle of dabody so it don’t have time tosquirm. We wanna no squealin’. Nosqueakin’. Just a good, clean hit.Then we go to Marcello’s forspaghetti and meatballs.”
Standing with a rock in myhand, gazing up, I waver betweenfeeling icy and Italian, and gentleand Genevan. The Italian side of me – sans moustache, Uzi and amama who uncomplainingly laun-ders my bloodied suits – is tellingme to take motion into account, andhurl the lump a few centimetres infront of my target to ensure a per-fect hit. The Genevan voice whis-pers, “Vork avay. Vee are all Kod’screatures. Vee can liff in peace. Siteby site.”
The Genevan accent isn’t quitewhat I imagined. I had picturedJulie Andrews in The Sound Of
Music . And ratacide is much harderthan I thought.
I’m not sure how many are upthere. I hear them in the day,rustling and gnawing in the attic,their cold feet busy among boxesand camping gear. In the evening,they trundle along the telephonewire like tramps on tarmac, com-muting between the compost heapand their sealed condo.
What was the builder thinking?Paid handsomely with our entire
flexibond to convert our study intoa bathroom, he correctly ripped outthe stairs leading up to the attic, butincorrectly sealed up the entrance,leaving an anorexic hole ingen-iously situated above the newshower.
Now, whenever we plan to gocamping, we have to embark on astrict diet of watercress soup so wecan squeeze past the shower headand up into the musty loft. And if visitors are coming to stay, we haveto season the soup with creatine sothe unfortunate sod who venturesup there has the strength requiredto toss the stored mattresses out of the attic window into the gardenbelow.
And now there are the rodents.A colleague at work recentlydescribed how her dogs are experts
at catching rats. Enthralled that weare not alone in our infestation, Igabbled about how our rats emergein the evening. How they are adeptat trapeze work. How they seem tolike climbing the palm tree. Howthey would look so splendid in tinyyellow trousers and pink leotards. Ialmost felt proud of the critters.
“Yes, but my rats come from theshed where they keep the horsefood. It’s not like we’re dirty,”replied my colleague.
Granted, there are days when Imight leave an eggy pot to soak, andI sometimes can’t be bothered tosweep up the pelts our dogs shed onthe floor, but does having rats meanwe are dirty?
That night I Googled “Ratskilling”. One of the sites showed anentire family, including a see-through baby and a grey-muzzledgrandpa, clamped lifelessly in arow of traps.
My Genevan vegan hissed thatthis was genocide.
Another website informed methat poisoning would cause a slow,cramping death and a smell of ran-cid chops. My inner mobster stucka baseball bat in my ribs.
Which is how I end up in the gar-den, taking aim with a rock. If therats need to be lightly killed, it willbe by my own hand. Mano-a-mano.Or mano-a-rato. Telling the voicesin my head to take their fight out-side (where the Genevan will surelyend up face down in the Plectran-
thus), I take aim and fire. Just then,a wind gusts through the garden,and the rat catapults i nto the air, onto the grass, and scuttles into thebushes. I watch its tail flickingthrough the ivy and follow the wav-ing foliage as the rodent makes itway towards the palm tree, back upto the telephone wire.
Such tenaci ty.Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly
– this split personality stuff getsconfusing – the Genevan has giventhe mobster third-degree burnswith a red-hot poker, and is now inmy left ear, telling me to put downthe rock. Leave the creatures be.Perhaps build them an en-suitebathroom, complete with minibidet, Tretchikoff prints andstreaming audio.
I just don’t have murder in me.That night there is silence
upstairs, as though the ratriarchhas instructed everyone to lie lowfor a while.
In bed, my husband turns over,listens. “Hey, you’ve sorted themout,” he murmurs. “How manytraps did you put up there?”
In my pre-slumber haze, JulieAndrews beams in my head,singing of hills and children andgoats and cheese. Of rats beingalive with the sound of music.
“Von Trapp,” I mumble, slidinginto sleep.
“Only one?” my husband replies.“Impressive.”
HumanLeague
H E L E NW A L N E
SOWING THEIR SEEDS: a shortage of space in overpopulated countries has seen many of them snap up landon the African continent – o ften to its detriment, the writer argues
Africa has not
yet fully
addressed many
issues from its
colonial heritage,
such as land
dispossession
C A _ N W S _ E 1 _ 2 7 0 1 0 9 _ p 1 3 C M Y K
