AfricaFocus: Politics and Human Rights news • analysis • advocacy tips on searching the web allafrica.com home | subscribe | unsubscribe | about AfricaFocus Bulletin | archive by date - place - topic | focus on a country AfricaFocus Bulletins with Material on Politics and Human Rights Select limited time period: 2003-2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 January 23, 2023 Update from Editor on Future Plans http://www.africafocus.org/docs23/af-230123.php When President Barack Obama hosted his US-Africa Summit in August 2014, my roundups in AfricaFocus Bulletin featured critical analysis of the likely outcome and the issues that were likely to be ignored, as well as alternate viewpoints by civil society groups. November 15, 2022 Africa/Global: "Daughter of Africa" Steps Up to Lead on Global Crises http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/af-221115.php At the climate summit in Egypt last week, President Biden pledged that the United States would take the lead on the climate crisis. But his speech was eclipsed the same day by a powerful call to action by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados. October 25, 2022 Africa/Global: Remembering Valeriano Ferrão and Charles Sherrod http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/af-221025.php Valeriano Ferrão died in Maputo, Mozambique, on October 2, 2022, at the age of 83. Charles Sherrod died in Albany, Georgia, on October 11, 2022, at the age of 85. As far as I know, the two had never met. And they were very different people. But for me, they epitomize the shared values of solidarity and integrity that were central to the movements they represented. October 10, 2022 AfricaFocus 3.0: Not ´A Nation of Immigrants´ http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/af-221010.php Coming in 2023: AfricaFocus 3.0 July 20, 2022 Africa/Global: Oligarchs of All Nations http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/books2207.php "Biden Concedes Defeat on Climate Bill as Manchin and Inflation Upend Agenda" - New York Times, July 16, 2022 June 9, 2022 Africa/Global: Ukraine, Africa, and Our Planet http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/upd2206.php “An end to this terrible war based on dialogue must be the international community’s highest priority. Support to the people of Ukraine must be matched by efforts to advance Russian/Ukrainian negotiations, European security dialogue, and wider risk-reduction measures to prevent nuclear escalation.” - The Elders, May 25, 2022 May 11, 2022 Africa/Global: Debt, IFFs, and Inequality in Africa http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/ineq2205.php “43 African governments are facing expenditure cuts totalling $183 billion (equivalent to 5.4 percent of GDP) over the next five years, reveals new analysis from Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) today. If these cuts are implemented, their chances of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will likely disappear.” - Oxfam International and Development Finance International March 25, 2022 Africa/Global: Updates from AfricaFocus http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/upd2203.php This is the first AfricaFocus Bulletin since January. Towards the end of that month, major issues with my home office computer systems crippled the interface which I normally use to publish the Bulletin, and catching up on a variety of medical issues also limited what I could do. Nothing life threatening, but lots of doctor appointments. January 19, 2022 USA/Africa: Bronx Fire Devastates Gambian Community http://www.africafocus.org/docs22/migr2201.php “This is the heart of the problem. If housing vulnerable people is an asset class – not a social good, or a human right – then generating returns for investors will always be in a zero-sum relationship with providing safe housing for those people. Landlords will always be in the middle; and when they’re taking sides, as they must in housing for profit, investors will always win.” - Annia Ciezadlo December 23, 2021 USA/Africa: Pandora Papers Keep Giving http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/iff2112.php 2021 was a banner year for attention to national and international tax reforms to reduce tax evasion and avoidance, with legislation in the United States spearheaded by the FACT Coalition and a global reform deal proposed by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). But the Pandora Papers also demonstrated the pervasive scale of illicit financial flows that siphon off wealth into an “offshore” world of secrecy. November 23, 2021 Africa/Global: From Climate Denial to Deceit and Delay http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/cop26-2111.php Asad Rehman of War on Want spoke to the presidency of COP26 with words that resonated far from Glasgow: “The rich have refused to do their fair share, more empty words on climate finance. You have turned your backs on the poorest who face a crisis of Covid, economic and climate apartheid because of the actions of the richest. It is immoral for the rich to talk about the future of their children and grandchildren when the children of the Global South are dying now.” Less than 2 minutes. Watch here! November 2, 2021 Africa/Global: The Heat is On! Time to Act! http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/clim2111.php The warnings are consistent and devastating, across the political spectrum from the International Monetary Fund from climate activists mobilizing at the climate summit in Glasgow and around the world. There are only eight years to have any chance of bending the curve of fossil fuel emissions sufficiently to avoid mounting climate chaos. Predictions are also consistent that the government officials gathered at the summit will continue to let promises and belated minimal policy shifts substitute for significant action. October 15 , 2021 Africa/Global: Hardly a Dent in #VaccineApartheid http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/vac2110.php “Millions of people remain at risk of dying from COVID-19 because high-income countries (HICs), including the US, continue to hoard excess vaccine doses, warns a new report released [on October 11] by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The international medical humanitarian organization is calling on governments to commit to a concrete plan to redistribute vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) via COVAX or regional procurement bodies by the end of October.” August 26, 2021 Mozambique/Global: “Most Egregious Corruption Case of the 21st Century” http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/moz2108.php “In my view the hidden debt scandal is the most egregious corruption case of the 21st century. In dollar terms, the Malaysian 1MBD case is larger, but Malaysia is far wealthier than Mozambique, ranked 47th out of 185 countries on GDP per capita whereas Mozambique ranks 180.“ - Richard Messick, senior contributor to the Global Anticorruption Blog and pro bono legal counsel to the Budget Monitoring Forum, a civil society coalition in Mozambique. July 27, 2021 USA/Africa: Building Back Better? Or Not? http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/usaf2107.php Last week marked six months for the Biden administration and for the narrow Democratic majority in Congress. So it seems an appropriate time for a report card on U.S. Africa policy. And that also means a review of U.S. policies on today's most pressing global issues, on which the negative effects fall disproportionately on Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. July 27, 2021 USA/Global: Let Cuba Live! http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/uscuba2107.php The Biden administration has now been in office for six months, along with a narrow Democratic majority in Congress. So it seems an appropriate time for a report card. I offered my evaluation in another AfricaFocus Bulletin sent out today, entitled “Building Back Better? Or Not?” But as I was finalizing that Bulletin, I realized that the rising U.S. attacks on Cuba are a key indicator of how things are going. April 19, 2021 Confronting Global Apartheid Demands Global Solidarity http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/ga2104.php "The COVID-19 pandemic has both revealed and deepened structural inequalities around the world. Nearly every country has been hit by economic downturn, but the impacts are unevenly felt. Within and across countries, the people who have suffered most are those already disadvantaged by race, class, gender, or place of birth, reflecting the harsh inequality that has characterized our world for centuries." March 8, 2021 USA/Global: Taxing the Tech Giants http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/dig2103.php “How should we determine the corporate tax a big tech company should pay in each country where they operate? There are many ways that this could be calculated, but most recommendations suggest looking at their sales, their assets and the number of employees they have in each country. In the absence of transparent reporting, collecting such data is not easy, but we can get a useful estimate through looking at a proxy indicator: the number of users they have in each country. For example, in just 20 developing countries there are nearly 1.5 billion internet users accessing Google, about 900 million people using Microsoft on their desktops and over 750 million Facebook users. For these companies, the number of users is a good indicator of both their sales and their assets.” - ActionAid December 14, 2020 Africa/Global: State of Tax Justice 2020 http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/tax2012.php “Of the $427 billion in tax lost each year globally to tax havens, the State of Tax Justice 2020 reports that $245 billion is directly lost to corporate tax abuse by multinational corporations and $182 billion to private tax evasion. Multinational corporations paid billions less in tax than they should have by shifting $1.38 trillion worth of profit out of the countries where they were generated and into tax havens, where corporate tax rates are extremely low or non-existent. Private tax evaders paid less tax than they should have by storing a total of over $10 trillion in financial assets offshore.” - Tax Justice Network, November 2020. November 30, 2020 USA/Global: On Climate, How Much Will Be New? http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/clim2011.php “One of the most powerful pieces of climate change legislation the Biden administration will need has already been passed: the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. This legislation, known for creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other public safeguards against financial wrongdoing, also empowers key agencies including the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit systemic risks to financial stability.” - Justin Guay, Sunrise Project November 30, 2020 USA/Africa: Build Back Better on Africa Policy http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/usa2011.php “President Trump's overt contempt for Africans is encapsulated in his famously crass remark about African countries. But the principal damage to Africa has stemmed from his administration’s broader policy choices, such as the disastrous rejection of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris climate accords; harsh curbs on legal immigration and asylum; and gutting of gender equality programs. … Nevertheless, the Biden administration should not merely go back to the pre-Trump status quo. … We argue that an even more fundamental questioning of U.S. Africa-related policy is needed.” - Imani Countess and William Minter November 18, 2020 Ethiopia: Not Too Late to Step Back from War? http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/eth2011.php “We, the undersigned citizens of countries of the Horn of Africa, condemn in the strongest possible terms the outbreak and escalation of open warfare in Ethiopia. We are saddened by the attendant losses of life, property, infrastructure and opportunities. We deplore in equally strong terms further stoking of the conflict. … This conflict will not have winners; the only winners in war are those who are wise and courageous enough to avoid it.” October 23, 2020 Nigeria: A New Generation Steps Up http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/nig2010.php “The protest is for our lives, it’s for our future. We want SARS to end but SARS is just the beginning. They should just wait for us. We’re not quiet anymore.” [This response appears] typical of the critical mass of protesters who are around 18-22 years old, are particularly fearless, and are protesting for the first time. - Ayodeji Rotinwa, Deputy Editor of African Arguments September 28, 2020 USA/Global: Millions Displaced by US Post-9/11 Wars http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/disp2009.php “Wartime displacement (alongside war deaths and injuries) must be central to any analysis of the post-9/11 wars and their short- and long-term consequences. Displacement also must be central to any possible consideration of the future use of military force by the United States or others. Ultimately, displacing 37 million—and perhaps as many as 59 million—raises the question of who bears responsibility for repairing the damage inflicted on those displaced.” - Brown University Costs of War Project September 23, 2020 USA/Global: Overhauling U.S. Foreign Policy http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/usa2009.php The most consequential election year in most of our lifetimes has featured stark crises unspooling against a backdrop of vigorous activist mobilizations and simmering public outrage. While the first essential step for progressives is to prevent the reelection of President Trump, that will not be enough. We need fundamental change rather than a return to the status quo ante. August 24, 2020 USA/Global: Divest from Violent Policing and Endless Wars, Part Two http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/viol2008-2.php The notion of policing as a war, in which more lethal force will lead to more security, is not a recent development, but is deeply rooted in U.S. history. The police and the military share the country’s legacy of white supremacy and violence against racial others, which has also given rise to mob and individual violence by white civilians. Both domestic law enforcement and the conduct of foreign wars continue to reflect the history of conquest, slavery, and U.S. empire of earlier centuries. August 24, 2020 USA/Global: Divest from Violent Policing and Endless Wars, Part One http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/viol2008-1.php The notion of policing as a war, in which more lethal force will lead to more security, is not a recent development, but is deeply rooted in U.S. history. The police and the military share the country’s legacy of white supremacy and violence against racial others, which has also given rise to mob and individual violence by white civilians. Both domestic law enforcement and the conduct of foreign wars continue to reflect the history of conquest, slavery, and U.S. empire of earlier centuries. June 8, 2020 USA/Global: Racial Pandemic and Viral Pandemic http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/pan2006.php The twin pandemics of racism and coronavirus are colliding, in reality and in metaphor. Anti-racism scholar Ibram X. Kendi writes in the Atlantic of “the racial pandemic within the viral pandemic.” And the meme of “America's two deadly viruses” has gone viral on Twitter. But while one is a literal (and new) virus and the other an endemic condition that has persisted over centuries, the scope of each spans the range from local communities to the entire planet. June 8, 2020 Africa/Global: Thinking Post-Covid-19 http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/post2006.php “Calls for debt relief—or more timid debt service moratorium—are drops in the ocean. Something much more ambitious and radical should be envisaged. This crisis allows us to think big. … [F]or these exceptional times, we need exceptional solutions. This virus does offer Africa an opportunity to exercise agency and embark on a more robust structural transformation process. Building on the gains of the last few years and the resilience of its population, there will probably be no better time to fast-track change.” - Carlos Lopes, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa May 12, 2020 USA/Global: Contesting Health and Workers' Rights http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/rights2005.php The global Covid-19 pandemic has made clear that the right to health is not just an aspirational value. Suddenly, it’s a matter of desperate self-interest for everyone, except, perhaps, those insulated by enormous wealth. The same is true for the rights of workers in the United States and worldwide: their work and their consumer power are indispensable to a global economy facing recession. The current crisis thus presents an opportunity to expand the recognition and exercise of these pivotal rights, accelerating efforts that were already underway before the virus hit. But all too predictably, these efforts are running up against stubborn resistance from forces that benefit (or think they benefit) from the status quo. April 27, 2020 Africa/Global: Pandemic Mobilization amid High Vulnerability http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/covid19d.php At a continental level as well as in almost all African countries, African institutions mobilized quickly in response to the pandemic. In most countries, the pandemic response so far has been encouraging in terms of buying time by flattening the curve, although implementation of lockdowns has been marred by human rights abuses by security forces and insufficient funding for support to those already economically vulnerable to loss of income. A minority of countries, including Tanzania, Burundi, Cameroon, and Madagascar, seem to be emulating the denial and delay pattern previously followed by the United States and the United Kingdom. April 13, 2020 Mozambique: Cumulative Shocks, Local and Global http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/moz2004.php As of April 10, Mozambique had registered only 20 cases of covid-19, and was carrying out an active program of screening, testing, and contact tracing for all entering the country. The success of containment was still fragile, however. In addition, 10 of the tests were traced to a worker at the multinational natural gas company Total in Cabo Delgado province, in the far northeast. In that same province, reminding us that the pandemic comes on the top of other urgent crises, jihadist insurgents are now expanding their offensive and extending their attacks inland. February 10, 2020 Malawi: Historic Victory for Rule of Law http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/mal2002.php “On Monday, Malawi´s High Court nullified the country’s May presidential elections. The 500-page ruling includes a laundry list of election irregularities — and faults the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) for failing to carry out its responsibilities according to the constitution and electoral law. The court ruled that President Peter Mutharika was “not duly elected” and called for fresh elections within 150 days. … This ruling is historic. It is the first in Malawi and only the second in Africa (Kenya was the first) to nullify an election and call for a rerun.” … truncated (198,439 more characters in archive)