Where’s the news for Africa?

I’ve just read an exhilarating article. There shouldn’t be so much to laugh actually, because the situation it refers to is more than serious. Well, I think I can simplify a bit a phenomenon that would require to be economically and politically analyzed.

It seems that Chinese investments in many African countries have been widely increased during the last years. Data show that China’ investments grew from less than 1 billion dollars in 2004 to 7 billion dollars in 2006. China is the second trade partner of African countries after United States.

As it has always happened, no country invests money in Africa without economical interests. What has been done for decades was spending money without building permanent structures that would have led them to an economical independence. And that’s how the national debt became overwhelming. All this happened with Western colonialism and, once the colonialism stopped, have been carried on through investments.

What’s make me laughing is that now China is being criticized because of the kind of agreement made with African countries. Indeed, these investments don’t create permanent structures but just temporary developments. So China has been accused to enrich its economy deteriorating the Africa’ condition. And who are moving this accuse are the same countries that did it for ages, the Western ones.

It’s the history repeating itself.. Let’s try to not be hypocrite, at least!

Still here

It has been a while since the last time I wrote a post. Well, I’ve been quite busy between enjoying the last month in London and my project for Burma.

This very brief post is just to say that I’m still here and from now on I’ll try to carry on Fighting the Agenda.
If you want, you can have a look to the Italian website Birmania Campaign that I was talking about weeks ago. I’ve just opened it. Everything is in italian, but you can watch the video published on the homepage.

The slow death of a butterfly

There’s a gruesome list of number on the Amnestry International website. It refers to people who have been killed because of the US justice. Death penalty was reintroduced in the States in the 1976. Since that year, 1168 people have been killed. Moving on from this number, I’d like to focus on two other data: 439 of these people were condamned in Texas, and 930 were killed by a lethal injection.

Texas has the sad primacy of death sentences. Amnesty reports that 200 people have been killed since Richard Perry became Governor of the country, in 2000. As far as I know – but I don’t have updated data to confirm it – the majority of them have been black people.

Lethal injection is then the common “death method”. Basically, it depends if you are lucky or not. The injection indeed is a mixture of three liquids: the first put the prisoner to sleep, the second induce paralysis and stop breathing, the third stops the heart. It happened in the past that the firts one, the anesthetic, wasn’t enough. This obviously causes a painful agony to the person.

There are a few people that mark your life. One of the mines is a young boy, 18 years old, who was condemnded for a murder that he sustained with all his voice he never did. He was an afro american boy. He wasn’t rich, so he couldn’t pay a  lawyer by himself. That’s why a young public defender with no experience was given to him. There were many episodes of injustice that made this case famous in Texas.
Justin died three years ago. But he actually started dying many years before, when he was imprisoned.

Justin was a poet, a young poet who loved butterflies. I had the honour to read what he used to write. His presence is still strong for all the people who fought for his freedom. To me he represents the symbol of a fight that people should never forget. And a friend I loved with all my heart.

This post is for him, wherever he is.

Aung Suu Kyi’ trial

The court rejected an appeal by lawyers of Aung San Suu Kyi to reinstate two key witnesses in the trial.

So, there will be a great disparity between the almost 20 witnesses against the democratic leader (all of them are police officers) and two on her side.

The trial is supposed to start again on the 3th of July. If Aung San Suu Kyi will be judged guilty, she will face a sentence of three or five years. In that case, she won’t be able to take part to the next elections in 2010.

Sorry, today it’s just my local agenda..

During the first residential of Internet Cultures we have been told by Shaku that there are rules to know writing about our workplace in a personal blog. I didn’t know it and I was quite disappointed because I would have really like to say something about my own..

Anyway, this is not what I’m doing. I’m just linking an article of the Guardian. I’m not even saying that I work in that company.. But, actually, if something is already published, why I shouldn’t talk about it in my blog? Anyway, I don’t know how is the rule. So, in order to be on the right side, I just link the article..

And sorry… This is not for sure relevant as news from the world are. But it’s a little iniquity that deserves to be known.

The never-ended world war

2009 is going to be the year in which hunger will reach an historic high, FAO reported. 100 million more people than last year are going to overstep the poverty line beyond which a person is considered underfed. One sixth of the humanity is undernourished. It means that 1.02 billion of people who we are supposed to share this world and its resources with, are hungry every day.

The reasons for that are mainly two. One the one hand, there’s the  world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. On the other hand, prices of food have been increased during the last years. I found an interesting report published by BBC about the World service food price index. If you scroll down to the last graph, you can observe the world average food prices increasing. But it’s also interesting to see how different kinds of food have become more expensive in different countries.

I’m wondering why every time this issue comes out it has been repeated that the only solution is giving developing countries the tools to sustain themselves. This is what FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf affirmed two days ago: “poor countries must be given the development, economic and policy tools required to boost their agricultural production and productivity”. I’ve heard these words many times since I was very young, and now I read that 2009 is going to be remembered as one of the worst years for hunger in the world…

It has been estimated that 642 million of people are suffering from chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific, 265 millon in Sub-Saharan, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 42 million in the Near East and North Africa,  and 15 million in developed countries.

The Expo 2015 that will be held in Milan will be focused on the issues of food and energy. The theme is “feeding the planet, energy for life”.

FAO report

Meanwhile in Peru..

Reading news during the last days, my attention was catched more than once by Peru.

However, I spent the time off I had reading and watching videos about Iran. What’s going in Iran is just unbelievable. The power of the Web has been even recognized from traditional media. It is evident indeed, that the Web has been over the borderline that stopped traditional media. I think it’s not easy at all to analyse this new step of the Internet. Channels I’m following during these days are:
BBC Global Voices WebCooperation PressTV

Anyway, even if the controversial in Peru seems to be at the end, I’d like to spend a few words to understand what happened there.

Last year, the President of Peru Alan Garcia passed some decrees known as “leyes de la selva” about the exploitation of naural resources of the country. The goal was “having Peru meet rules set in a free trade agreement with the United States” (CNN). The contested decrees easily allowed foreigner companies to use natural and water resources of Peru, and to gain concessions for oil drilling and mining. One of the decrees, the forestry law, removed 45 million hectares of jungle from the protected land’s list.

That’s the reason of the beginning of the protest in April and the violent escalation in June 2009. It seems that the worst clash between indigenous citizens and the police has been in the Amazonian city of Bagua. During the past fifteen days, more than 30 people died and around 50 people were wounded in the northwest Peru.

Currently, the decrees have been removed. However, agreements with the United States probably have a precious economic value for Peru. That’s why to me is not possible that this is the end of the “drecrees issue”. Let’s see what happens.

‘leyes de la selva’

“What not to do while Twittering Iran”

I thought this comment left by Shaku could be relevant during these days. That’s why I make a post of it.

Elena,

One of my friends in Bangladesh is an alternative journalist and he just posted the following about anyone fighting the agenda in relation to Iran at the moment: What NOT To Do While Twittering Iran. I thought you and your readers might be interested.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP’s over twitter

2. The only two legitimate hashtags are #iranelection and #gr88

3. Please don’t retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information

4. If you discover a genuine source, don’t publicise their name

5. Change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN VS. Dissenting Opinion (Dissenter @ Comments # 29)

5. Changing your Twitter timezone has absolutely NO EFFECT.

Cyberwar guide for Iran elections – Boing Boing
Source: bit.ly
Yishay sez, “The road to hell is paved with the best intentions (including mine). Learn how to actually help the protesters and not the gov’t in Iran.”

Child soldiers

The second report of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the issue of child soldiers in Burma has been released yesterday. This report covers a period of time from October 2007 to March 2009.

Ban Ki-moon higlighted what he considers a “lack of interest” from Burmese authorities to end the practice of recruiting child soldiers. The UN Secretary urges the junta to “redress the prevailing culture of impunity, to launch investigations into all incidents of recruitment and use of children, and to prosecute people responsible for such acts under the Penal Code.”

It seems that one of the specific cases that caught the Secretary’s attention regards a 11 years old boy. After he had served the Army for years, he was found suffering from a myriad of diseases and afflictions, including testing positive for HIV/AIDS.

source: www.mizzima.com

Thinking about blogging.. sometimes you have to!

I felt inspired by Audrey’s Blog Manifesto. Blogging is such a personal experience, so that you can actually do and write whatever you want. However, sometimes it’s good to stop and think about where have you been and where are you going. And change your track if necessary.

I had some days off and spent some time traveling around Europe. I thought a lot about the comment Shaku left me a few days ago. Basically, she asked me what was the aim of my blog: if I would have reported on “popular” issues but in a different manner or completely ignored the Agenda focusing on uncovered issues, encountering the risk to “preaching to the converted”, as she said.

Well, It’s hard to choose. I don’t have a plan. What I’m sure about is that I like to see the smallest feature of a painting. Sometimes it means reporting on “popular” issues but in a different way, sometimes it means covering the uncovered.
The temptation to report just on Burma is strong. Especially now that, as you can see, the world attention is going down although the trial is not even finished. But my blog is not just about Burma.

And this is because another project is going on, and is just related to Burma. I’m trying to open an Italian website that aims to reach two different targets: who is already interested and who is not. To do this, I’ll give hystorical information and I’ll try to upload daily news related to Burma. At the same time, I’ll create a space in which people who represent the Burmese community and journalists from different countries can exchange opinions and points of view. This project is a kind of experiment and maybe will be part of my dissertation. The aim is to see if it’s possible to enlarge a worldwide network to a country that is not involved in it, Italy. At the same time, I want to see if the worldwide network can lead to practical results, bearing in mind the 2010 elections in Myanmar.

I wanted to present this project because some people asked me why I am not focusing just on one country. Well, that’s why: I’m trying to do it through another channel. Fighting the Agenda is a different experiment.. it’s like creating my personal agenda, and I’m so glad that some people are interested in it!