Most Recent Ten Issues http://www.africafocus.org/ http://www.africafocus.org/images/aflogo.gif http://www.africafocus.org en-us http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/usaf0811.php 18 Nov 2008 Nov 18, 2008 - "The problem [with projections of President-elect Obama's foreign policy priorities] is that for a new leader promising change, they have tended to reflect the most traditional sorts of Washington priorities, neglecting other parts of the world that are starving for American moral and political leadership; places where Obama, by virtue of his unique background, offers particularly compelling potential for impact. ... The most obvious and important omission ...is Africa, a continent of nearly one billion people today that according to United Nations projections will count an astounding two billion people by mid-century." - Howard W. French http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ken0811.php 11 Nov 2008 Nov 11, 2008 - "We are witnessing a situation where the politicians in government are satisfied that they are now sharing power and that it is business as usual. It is disturbing that they prefer to push all issues that contributed to the crisis under the carpet ... We as Kenyan civil society are certain that the crisis we witnessed is not over. These same politicians will certainly break this country if they go unpunished. We demand the full implementation of the Waki recommendations and immediate disbandment of the Electoral Commission of Kenya." - Kenyans for Peace through Truth and Justice http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/apc0811.php 7, Nov 008 Nov 7, 2008 - Two case studies in Tanzania, discussed in a new report by wireless internet expert Ian Howard for the Association for Progressive Communications, show two very different models for building sustainable telecentres to meet needs in rural areas. The Family Alliance for Development and Cooperation is an initiative by self-taught technician Joseph Sekiku, in Karagwe, who created a telecentre on his property with the help of small grants. The Sengerema telecentre, some 200 km away, is the result of several donor and community initiatives engaging a range of stakeholders. http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/nig0810.php 31 Oct 2008 Oct 31, 2008 - Opening arguments began this week in federal court in San Francisco in the landmark human rights case of Bowoto v. Chevron. Nineteen plaintiffs, including survivor Larry Bowoto, are accusing Chevron of collaboration with Nigerian military in brutal suppression of a protest by unarmed villagers on a Chevron offshore oil platform in the Niger Delta in 1998. Bowoto was shot during the protest; two other protesters were killed. http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/cit0810.php 24 Oct 2008 Oct 24, 2008 - "Although cities in the United States of America have relatively lower levels of poverty than many other cities in the developed world, levels of income inequality ... have risen above the international alert line of 0.4. ... Major metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington D.C., Miami, and New York, have the highest levels of inequality in the country, similar to those of Abidjan, Nairobi, Buenos Aires, and Santiago (Gini coefficient of more than 0.50)." - State of the World's Cities Report 2009/2009 http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ws0810.php 15 Oct 2008 Oct 15, 2008 - In 1975, as the last prolonged stage of Africa's decolonization process began with the fall of Portuguese colonialism, Portugal's neighbor Spain decided to dispose of its colony of Western Sahara by handing it over to Morocco and Mauritania, defying a World Court decision in favor of self-determination. For thirty-three years, Morocco has continued its occupation, with military and diplomatic support from the United States and France. http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/conk0810.php 11 Oct 2008 Oct 11, 2008 - The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, site of the United Nations' largest peacekeeping operation, attracts little attention from the world's media. Conditions vary from place to place in that vast country. But violence continues at high levels in parts of the country, particularly North Kivu, and efforts to rebuild functional state security and oversight over the economy still face enormous obstacles. http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ec0810.php 5, Oct 008 Oct 5, 2008 - "Confining African countries to the production of primary commodities amounts to condemning them to remain locked in the commodity trap. Africa needs to create a competitive advantage in the production of manufactured products, as many other developing countries have done." - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/ang0809.php 27 Sep 2008 Sep 27, 2008 - "Election free and fair, sort of," was the headline from the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) news service after Angola's long-awaited parliamentary election early this month. The news service notes that its stories do not represent the position of the United Nations, and there was no official United Nations observer team. But the comment was an accurate summary of the consensus of observers from Africa and Europe. http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/mal0809.php 19 Sep 2008 Sep 19, 2008 - "Despite big increases in the supply of mosquito nets ...the number available in 2006 was still far below need in almost all countries. The procurement of antimalarial medicines through public health services also increased sharply, but access to treatment, especially of artemisin-based combination therapy (ACT), was inadequate in all countries surveyed in 2006. ... Supplies of insecticide-treated nets (ITN) ... were sufficient to protect an estimated 26% of people in 37 African countries. Surveys in 18 African countries found that 34% of households owned an ITN; ... 38% of children with fever were treated with antimalarial drugs, but only 3% with ACT." - World Malaria Report, 2008