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MEDIA
Editors Honored With Press Freedom Award 12mins. 9secs. 3
The World Press Review has honored three Sierra Leonean newspapers
editors for risking their lives to uphold press freedom and human rights in
their war torn country
Media Activists Launch Pan-African Information Network 9mins. 7
Two of the world's major media organizations launched a new pan African
e-mail exchange network to support press freedom. But that is just the beginning…
WorldSpace Offers African Broadcasters New Technology 6mins. 5secs. 4
African audio broadcasters can now exceed their boundaries and licensed
areas
to reach audiences world-wide, thanks to a new global satellite technology.
WOMEN
Understanding the Female Genital Mutilation Situation (Editorial) 10mins.
9
Can you ever over flog an issue? Not when it involves health, human rights
and tradition. Despite the tons of information on FGM, it is amazing how little
we
really know…
New Report Highlights Gender Discrimination 12mins. 8secs. 8
A United Nations report insists that inequality amongst the sexes is
still very much
a global phenomenon
Nigerian Women with an Agenda for 2003 10mins. 5
Nigerian women gear up for greater participation in the next general
elections
HEALTH
Virologist Deplores Low Investment in AIDS Vaccine Research 7mins. 4
The low priority being accorded to the search for a vaccine to curb HIV/
AIDS in
Africa has been deplored at a recent workshop in Senegal.
Environment
POLLUTION
Call for Ozone Protection Law 4mins. 6
An NGO has called on the government of Ghana to enact Ozone regulations
under
the Montreal Protocol to protect the Ozone layer
DISASTER
Landslide Kills 17 in Anambra, Renders 300 Homeless 3mins. 7
A landslide resulting from massive erosion in a Nigerian village has
culminated
in a tragedy
CONSERVATION
Tanzanians to Combat Deforestation On New Year Day 6mins. 8
New measures are being effected in Tanzania to restock the country's
depleted
forest cover 1
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Wildlife Service Backs Ban On Titanium 6mins. 16secs. 10
The Kenyan Wildlife Service has spoken out in support of the Government's
decision to halt titanium mining in the Kwale district
Point of View
'Thru the Eyes of a Woman' 6mins. 6secs. 11
Our new section looks at pertinent issues on environment and development
from
a personal perspective. Ms Owusua writes on Prostitution.
Noted… MEDIA
Voice of Nigeria Relaunched 7mins. 6secs. 11
Nigeria's external radio broadcast service has been relaunched with a
new look and a more optimistic attitude
CONSERVATION
Sweden Donates Towards Namibia's Nature Conservation 3mins. 12
The Swedish Ambassador to Namibia has signed a 750, 000 Namibian
Dollar support for nature conservation
$150million fund to save biological hotspots 1mins. 5secs. 12
The World Bank and two conservation organizations announce the launch
of
a new fund designed to better safeguard the world's threatened biological hotspots.
HEALTH
African AIDS Conference Postponed to December 5mins. 12
A major African conference on AIDS and development, originally scheduled
for
Addis Ababa in October, has been postponed
GLOBALISATION
African Conference on Penal reforms 1mins. 13
Cameroon will be hosting a landmark conference on the effect of globalization
on
penal reforms
Children's Section Mboma and the Donkey 10mins. 7secs. 13
The hippopotamus proves to the donkey that indeed he who laughs last
laughs best!
Parting Shots Celebrate the wisdom of the African experience
with unforgettable quotes plus 14
a word on conservation 2
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Vol. II No. 22 CHANGE Radio November, 2000
Editors Honored With Press Freedom Award 12min. 9secs.
Three Sierra Leonean newspaper editors have been honored by the World Press
Review for risking their lives to uphold press freedom and human rights during
the past nine years of conflict in their country. Paul
Kamara, editor of For Di People, Philip Neville, editor of Standard Times,
and David Tam-Baryoh, editor of Punch, received the International Editor of
the Year Award at the United Nations in New York from
Olara Otunnu, UN Undersecretary General and Special Representative for Children
and Armed Conflict.
Otunnu said he could not imagine more deserving recipients of such an award.
They and their country had suffered beyond description, yet courageous and committed
journalists had encouraged and led the people
to put a military junta under siege.
World Press Review editor Alice Chasan paid tribute to the professionalism of
all three men: "Under the
most horrific conditions, Paul Kamara, Philip Neville and David Tam Baryoh have
persisted against the odds to uphold the highest standards of the profession.
They have fully embraced the journalist's role in
creating the conditions for democracy and rule of law in their land, and have
braved mortal danger in pursuit of these goals. They are real heroes," she said.
Philip Neville founded Standard Times in 1994 and
was repeatedly arrested and detained in subsequent years. In 1997 he and his
staff went underground but
continued to publish although Neville was later forced into exile. When the
overthrown government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah was restored in 1998 he returned.
But RUF rebels later invaded the capital Freetown
and targeted the Standard Times for its reporting of rebel actions. The paper's
offices were burned down and its news editor, Paul Mansaray was hacked to death,
his wife raped and killed and their children
murdered. Neville was forced back into exile, only returning to Sierra Leone
last year.
Paul Kamara, who was unable to attend the ceremony, has been threatened and
jailed for his journalistic independence. He was ambushed and shot by the military
junta in 1996 resulting in severe injuries, particularly
to his leg. When he returned from receiving medical treatment abroad in 1997
the democratically-elected government was overthrown, and he took his paper
underground, evading capture by AFRC soldiers
although his offices were bombed and his home taken over by rebels.
David Tam-Baryoh launched Punch newspaper in 1996 and was soon being targeted
by both the military AFRC government and the RUF rebels. After being detained
three times he was driven into hiding, and
when journalists were being hunted down and killed for their war coverage he
went into exile, first in
Guinea and then Ghana. Receiving his award, Tam-Baryoh said he wanted to accept
it on behalf of the 15 journalists who had died in the Sierra Leonean conflict
-nine at the hands of the rebels, three in government
cells, one executed and the others members of the foreign press corps. Speaking
movingly about the way he as a journalist had been affected by what he had seen
happen to his colleagues and his compatriots,
Tam-Baryoh said he had a lot of heart-searching to do before he could write
easily about reconciliation.
For ten years he had been writing war stories and "telling the same story over
and over again -of agony". He almost couldn't remember how to do the rest of
a reporter's job: "Ask me to write an economic story
-I'm in the bush," he joked.
The World Press Review magazine grants its Editor of the Year award annually
to editors outside the US
in recognition of "enterprise, courage and leadership in advancing the freedom
and responsibility of the press, enhancing human rights and fostering excellence
in journalism". Previous African recipients include
Nigerian Dapo Olorunyomi, then editor of The News in Lagos, and Fred M'membe
of The Post in Zambia, both in 1995. The New York-based magazine is published
monthly by the Stanley Foundation of
Muscatine, Iowa, which pursues peace, with freedom and justice, through media
and educational programs. AllAfrica. com 3
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Virologist Deplores Low Investment in AIDS Vaccine Research 7mins. The
president of the West and Central African AIDS Research Network, Prof. Souleymane
Mboup of
Senegal, has deplored the low priority being accorded to the search for a vaccine
to curb HIV/ AIDS in Africa. The disease now affects an estimated 24.3 million
people in sub-Saharan Africa. The senior virologist
told participants at the opening of a three-day workshop for AIDS researchers
from 14 West African countries in Dakar that hardly 1 percent of the investment
being made in the fight against AIDS was being
directed to the search for a vaccine. Mboup, recognised as one of the scientists
who first isolated HIV
type 2, which is predominantly found in West Africa and India, particularly
regretted the lack of involvement by private companies in efforts to find a
vaccine. He attributed the failure by scientists to discover an
effective AIDS vaccine to the "great variety of HIV and sub-types" of the
AIDS-causing virus that prevail in Africa. He noted, however, that more than
a score of candidate AIDS vaccines were currently being
studied and the preliminary results of the first phase three trials would be
available within a year.
Turning to antiretrovirals, which had helped reduce AIDS-related mortality by
a third in the developed countries of the North, Mboup said the drugs were not
yet widely available in Africa because of their high
cost of between 10,000 and15,000 US dollars per patient each year. He welcomed
the mid-May acceptance by five major pharmaceutical laboratories to significantly
reduce the price of their drugs for
poor countries. He commended the US Rockfeller Foundation, which financed the
workshop, for its interest to learn from researchers in diverse African sub-regions
so as to draw its programme of intervention
in the continent's HIV/ AIDS sector.
Senegalese health Minister Abdou Fall, in a message, singled out poverty and
armed conflicts as being
among factors fanning the spread of HIV/ AIDS. The minister challenged countries
to find ways of eradicating the socio-economic conditions that help to propagate
the pandemic. While citing Senegal and Uganda as
countries with proven viable anti-AIDS programmes, Fall said a lot more needs
to be done to concretely curb the disease at the level of each African country.
Panafrican News Agency
WorldSpace Offers African Broadcasters New Technology 6mins. 5secs. African
audio broadcasters can now exceed their boundaries and licensed areas to reach
audiences world-wide,
thanks to a new global satellite technology, developed by an American company,
WorldSpace Corporation, that links reception direct from the satellite.
According to the company's director of technical operations, Daniel Obam,
WorldSpace is the first multi-media audio facility developed for and dedicated
to Africa from the concept that radios have only been
having local outreach. He told PANA Wednesday that WorldSpace technology has
been developed with Africa in mind due to its remote countryside and under-developed
infrastructure. "If there is a sky above
you, you will receive, on your radio set, whatever channel you would want to
listen to, and we are prepared to move African populations and communities into
the 21st century," Obam said.
The company, founded by Noah Samora in 1990 as AfriSpace to focus on Africa's
problems, especially HIV/ AIDS, now provides direct satellite broadcast delivery
of digital audio and multi-media programming
services to the emerging and under-served markets of the world. Explaining how
the technology works, Obam said the system uses global satellite audio direct
transmission whereby digital format facilities including
mobile audio, narrow-band video and multi-media reception are utilised to achieve
direct satellite up-linking of broadcasts through small remote stations. While
urging regional and national radio stations to
make use of the new technology to by-pass their boundaries for a wider audience,
Obam noted that 4
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existing technologies for information dissemination have very worrying
limitations in this era of globalisation. "This would provide Africa with an
opportunity to compete favourably with the rest of the world because
information is power," he said.
Already, Afristar, the programme that covers Africa, offers the audience the
choice of 42 African radio stations per beam, and even doubles or triples the
number where the two or three beams inter-pass, with
up-link stations in Benin, Egypt (Egyptian Radio and Television Union), Ghana,
Kenya, Senegal and South
Africa. Other up-link stations are located in Australia, China, France, Germany,
Indonesia, Singapore and the UK.
Panafrican News Agency
Nigerian Women with an Agenda for 2003 10mins.
On September 14 and 15, 2000, the Community Partners for Development, CPD,
organised a two-day workshop on the active participation of women in politics
in Nigeria. The workshop came in preparation
for the general elections scheduled for 2003. The workshop titled Women Agenda
2003, was attended by a cross section of the Nigerian populace including
government officials, politicians, bankers,
businesswomen, journalists, lawyers and representatives of NGOs.
The president of CPD, Ms. Ime Essien Udom, said the forum was called to seek
ways of encouraging more women to join politics and hold very active positions.
Highlights at the workshop included the viewing
of the documentary film, Against the Odds. The film was produced by
Communicating for Change as part of the Television trust for the Environment's
Rhetoric to Reality series that showcase the challenges
of women face in politics.
Women who are currently holding political positions at the national and state
levels narrated their experiences as politicians in a male dominated area. One
of them, Chief (Mrs.) Josephine Anenih, the National Woman
Leader for the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), commented on the opposition
she faced from her male counterparts within the party. Ironically, much of the
opposition she encountered were from fellow
women. Mrs. Anenih encouraged women to be more involved in politics and to stop
waiting to be invited
to join politics. She observed that though women had to fight three times as
hard as the men, they should keep trying until they got it right. Another woman
who narrated her story, Chief Mrs. Nkechi Nwaogwu
from the Advanced Peoples Party (APP) stated the dangers of politics such
as assassinations and violent threats from the opposition.
The workshop however praised the present administration for appointing women
in very key and vital
positions both at national and state level. The current data shows an increase
and improvement in women participation in government, with two female cabinet
ministers, four ministers of State, three women senators,
fifteen female members of the Houses of Assembly in all the 36 states, and
at least one woman commissioner in all the states. While the figures are encouraging,
the consensus is that it is still too little.
In her address to the conference Nigeria's Minister of State for Women Affairs
and Youth Development,
Dr. Bekky Igwe, pointed that the participation of women in the last general
elections (1998/ 99) was very low. She advised women to take advantage of the
democratic dispensation and make their voices heard.
Another speaker at the occasion, Dr. Reuben Abati, a journalist, said the
media had contributed to the prejudices against women and in reporting about
them. He therefore advised women groups to network
with media organisations and co-opt with both male and female journalists. He
also urged women to join
politics early rather then join in the last minute. He said they should also
be involved in legal and human rights activities. 5
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At the end of the two-day meeting, the participants adopted strategies that
will increase the participation of women in the next general elections. These
strategies include the early education of the girl child, the
mobilization of women by women and orientation of men and family members to
support women interested in politics.
CFC
Caution on Biotechnology 5mins. 6secs.
Could Africa be missing on benefits coming with technology? A recent symposium
in South Africa, on Food Biotechnology highlighted that safety systems should
be put in place. Guidelines should be scientific,
transparent and flexible. Biotechnology can increase efficiency in farming
and ensure food security, but some scientists in the region have urged caution
when implementing policies governing its use.
Biotechnology is the use of biological processes to develop various products
using a wide range of techniques involving the use and manipulation of living
organisms. These products can then be commercially exploited.
It includes genetic engineering where genes are transferred and isolated to
give certain super varieties of the end product. Some of the most common techniques
are tissue or cell culture, cloning and fermentation
methods, cell fusion and embryo transfer as well as gene technology (genetic
engineering). Biotechnology
is also used in producing antibiotics and fast-maturing varieties of crops.
Scientists attending a recent symposium on "Food Biotechnology: Facts, and
the Future" in Midrand, South Africa, organised by Africabio, a non-governmental
organisation, pointed out that there is need to
put in place bio-safety systems at national and international levels. The scientists
agreed that well-functioning
safety systems are composed of guidelines, which involve peoples' concerns,
have a review process, and provide feedback. Since most countries in the region
have not started bio-safety programmes, the symposium
agreed that guidelines should also be scientific, transparent and flexible.
There is a need to build competence and confidence in the people involved. Addressing
the symposium, Dr John Kilama, president of the
Global Biodiversity Institute based in the US said, "Africa must be involved
in the scientific evaluation of
biotechnology because if it is not, the continent may miss the benefits that
may come with the technology". Newslink Africa
Call for Ozone Protection Law 4mins. Friends of the Earth (FOE), Ghana,
and the National Association for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Workshop Owners (NARWOA) have called on the government to enact Ozone Regulations
under the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer. In a press release,
the organisations said these regulations
would empower the Environmental Protection Agency to implement its programme
of phasing out ozone depleting substances in the country. FOE said its investigations
indicate that vested business interests are
responsible for blocking such legislation, which has been in draft form for
the last three years. FOE says
these interests believe such legislation will prevent them from importing second-hand
fridges and deep freezers. FOE said the government has benefited from grants
of more than $450,000 to enable it build the
relevant capacity to implement such a programme, but has woefully failed to
live up to expectations. NARWOA regretted that government has not shown the
commitment and political will needed to tackle
the problems and obligations associated with the Montreal Protocol. The two
organisations urged the
government to be alive to its responsibilities by reactivating the necessary
processes that will lead to the eventual enactment of the relevant legislation.
Under the Montreal Protocol, developing countries are
obliged to freeze the use of all ozone depleting substances at 1999 levels
and subsequently reduce until a complete phase-out is achieved by 2010.
Accra Mail 6
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Landslide Kills 17 in Anambra, Renders 300 Homeless 3mins. A
landslide has killed 17 people and left about 300 homeless in a Nigerian village.
The disaster was set off
by torrential rainfall, and erosion of residential areas has been blamed. The
landslide hit the village of
Amakor, Nanka, in the Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The
rain washed several buildings into a gully. Besides the loss of lives, household
property worth millions of naira was also
destroyed in the tragedy, according to the councillor representing Nanka Ward
II in the Orumba North Council, Mr. Peter Adakah. Mr. Adakah who conducted the
council chairman, Chief Hyacinth Onwuchekwe
round the affected areas lamented the huge loss caused by the lingering gully
erosion. He expressed
concern over the plight of the villagers and appealed to the council chairman
to draw the attention of the federal and the state governments as well as international
agencies to the problem for urgent assistance.
The councillor noted that indigenes of Nanka community had in the past raised
alarm over the threat of erosion which had been eating deep into residential
areas and wondered why successive administrations in
the country had not responded. The state Commissioner for Housing and Environment,
Chief Nkwo
Nnabuchi had at a press conference raised an alarm over the worsening erosion
problem in the state. He made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government
to come to the aid of the state urgently as the state
had no financial resources needed to tackle the ecological problem. AllAfrica.
com
Media Activists Launch Pan-African Information Network 9mins. Two of
the world's major media advocacy organisations launched a new pan-African e-mail
exchange
network to support press freedom and build stronger independent media on the
continent on Thursday. The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and Reporters
Sans Frontieres (RSF) said in a statement
that the new RAP 21 network was the first continental discussion group of its
kind and was created with
the assistance of the Central African Union of Press Publishers to establish
an Africa-wide exchange of ideas and information. The initiative follows the
success of a similar regional initiative by the Media Institute
of Southern Africa (MISA) linking newspapers and journalists in the Southern
African Development Community. RAP 21, which is the French acronym for the African
Press Network for the 21st Century,
will include journalists and media executives working for the independent media
and will provide the first
ever 'live' link to the outside world for hundreds of professionals who currently
work in complete isolation from their peers and colleagues elsewhere on the
continent. The network will also, the statement said, act
as an alert system for press freedom attacks on the continent and will provide
information about management and training opportunities.
"The failure to create a community of interests and a dialogue among publishers,
editors and journalists on the continent has been a serious problem for the
independent press in Africa," said WAN Director General,
Timothy Balding. "The extraordinarily rapid growth in the use of low cost e-mail
and the internet can now be used to create permanent links among African media."
RSF Secretary General, Robert Ménard, added
that watchdog bodies could only improve reaction times and pressure on African
governments with the
help of African journalists and press activists.
RAP 21's 100 founding members have committed the organisation to proactively
mobilise African journalists to defend and promote press freedom by adding their
voices to protests. It will also administer an annual
African media award recognising individuals or organisations which have made
outstanding contributions
to the cause of press freedom. Other priorities include assistance and moral
support to imprisoned or threatened journalists, the creation of a permanent
information exchange and a forum for editorial material
between independent African newspapers. This would include encouraging African
media to link their web sites. RAP 21's administrators, including WAN and RSF,
will also provide technical and managerial 7
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advice and assistance to private African newspapers in a bid to boost readership,
improve marketing and advertising strategies, financial management and human
resources. Newspapers will be encouraged to
engage in education projects and association building, while RAP 21 will provide
a conduit for information from development agencies to the African press by
providing regular information on external initiatives to
help African press development. Prospective RAP 21 participants can request
membership by sending an e-mail to Coordinator Gamal Niang at rap21@ wan.
asso. fr
African Eye News Service (South Africa)
Tanzanians to Combat Deforestation On New Year Day 6mins. New measures
are being affected in Tanzania to restock the country's pillaged forest cover
that is constantly
threatened by illegal timber trade and unsustainable exploitation of forest
products. The government has designated 1 January, 2001 as a National Tree Planting
Day in which nationals across the country would
be expected to plant trees and engage in other reforestation activities.
Natural resources and tourism Minister Zakia Meghji said President Benjamin
Mkapa's assent proclaiming the day, which incidentally falls on New Year, was
being awaited. Tanzania's forest cover has been declining
sharply, mainly due to illegal timber trade and unsustainable exploitation of
forestry products. Wood is still
by far the country's most important source of energy, exceeding 90 percent of
the total national energy supply. Rampant fires started by ambitious farmers
anxious to clear large tracts of land at one go have also
been threatening the country's forest cover.
But now, things will change, Meghji noted, saying the national tree-planting
day was the government's new
focus and direction in reforestation measures. She said the tree-planting day
would bolster the government's efforts in implementing the national tree planting
campaign launched by Mkapa in April. The ambitious
campaign was aimed at re-greening the country by 100 million trees by the
end of 2000. Tanzania currently loses between 300,000 and 400, 000 hectares
of forest annually due to rampant tree felling. Forest cover
destruction is particularly alarming in the rural areas where shifting cultivation
and livestock keeping form
the key modes of life. The country's central and north-western areas are already
threatened with accelerating desertification.
Meghji said the affected regions, some of them currently experiencing drought,
were in danger of turning into desert if measures to reverse the threat were
not effected immediately. Mkapa has stressed the importance
of tree planting and maintenance as a way of enhancing environmental conservation
and has challenged Tanzanians to plant more trees. Authorities have thrown the
same challenge to thousands of refugees holed
up in the western region of Kigoma, who like their Tanzanian hosts rely heavily
on wood fuel for their daily energy requirements.
Panafrican News Agency
New Report Highlights Gender Discrimination 12mins. 8secs. Inequality
between men and women limits the potential of individuals, families, communities
and nations.
This is according to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Documenting the extent of gender discrimination in its 'State of the World's
Population 2000', UNFPA said that ending
gender discrimination was an urgent human rights and development priority. "Despite
the tremendous changes of the 20th century, discrimination and violence against
women and girls remain firmly rooted in
cultures around the world. Passed down from one generation to the next, ideas
about 'real men' and a 'woman's place' are instilled at an early age and difficult
to change," UNFPA said. 8
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Girls and women the world over, the report said, are denied access to
education and health care. Millions are subjected to abuse and violence, their
legal rights are not protected, medical concerns are given less
attention than men's are and they are denied opportunities in the work place
and receive less pay than men
for the same work. Speaking at the launch of the report in London, Dr Nafis
Sadik the Executive Director of UNFPA said: "This year's State of the World's
Population Report has a very simple message. It could
be summed up as 'the price of inequality is too high to pay'". Sadik added:
"It shows that in countries all over the world, gender inequality, discrimination
and violence are holding back not only women but men.
Not only families but communities and whole nations."
About 70 percent of people living in poverty are women and it is estimated that
over a 20 year period the number of poor women in 41 developing countries will
be 17 percent higher than the increase in poor men.
There are twice as many illiterate women as men and on average women are paid
30-40 percent less than men for comparable work. Two-thirds of the 300 million
children world-wide without access to education
are girls. Globally, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced
into having sex or abused in some way or the other, the report said. It said
that gender-based violence constituted a life-long threat
for millions of girls and women around the world. It further stated that one
of the most disturbing trends was that this violence was normally carried out
by an intimate partner or family member.
"Justification for violence," the report said, "stems from gender norms, and
distorted views about the roles and responsibilities of men and women in relationships."
The report said that studies around the world
have shown a "consistent pattern" of events triggering violent responses. It
said these included "not obeying a husband, talking back, refusing sex, not
having food ready on time, failing to care for the children or
homes and questioning the man about money or girlfriends or going somewhere
without his permission".
For example a study in Ghana showed that an estimated 43 percent of men and
about 50 percent of women said that a man was justified in beating his wife
if she used contraceptives without his consent.
Statistics released by the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) in June this
year said that interpersonal violence was the tenth leading cause of death for
women aged 15-44 in 1998. The UNFPA report said
that one in four women has been abused during pregnancy. In Nigeria an estimated
30 percent of women
have been victims of some of form of physical abuse and in Uganda this figure
is an alarming 57 percent. But these are just the reported cases and despite
the fact that rape and other forms of sexual violence are
increasing, many rapes go unreported because of the stigma and trauma associated
with them and the lack of sympathetic treatment from legal systems. The report
said it was estimated that less than 3 percent of all
rapes in South Africa were reported. South Africa has one of the highest incidents
of rape in the world.
The UNFPA report can be found at: http:// www. unfpa. org/ swp/ swpmain.
htm UN Integrated Regional Information Network
Understanding the Female Genital Mutilation Situation (Editorial) 10mins.
Many societies in Africa and western Asia practise Female Genital Mutilation
(FGM), often referred to as
female circumcision. World-wide, some 130 million girls and young woman have
undergone this dangerous and painful practice, with an additional 2 million
at risk each year. FGM is practised in about 28 countries
in Africa where the prevalence varies widely, from 5 per cent in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo to 98 percent in Somalia and in the Arabian Peninsula
and the Gulf region. It also occurs among some
minority groups in Asia, and among immigrant women in Europe, Canada and the
United States.
Essentially, FGM refers to the removal of all or part of the clitoris and other
genitalia. Those who perform the more extreme form, infibulation, remove the
clitoris and both labia and sew together both sides of the
vulva. This leaves only a small opening to allow passage for urine and menstrual
blood. Infibulation accounts for an estimated 15 percent of all cases of FGM,
and 80-90 percent of cases in Djibouti, Somalia and the 9
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Sudan. Other, less extreme forms involve removing all or part of the clitoris
(clitoridectomy), or the clitoris and inner lips (excision). About three quarters
of all young girls subjected to this degrading procedure have
undergone one or another of these less radical forms. This terrible violation
of girls and young women's human rights is based on prevailing beliefs that
female sexuality must be controlled, and the virginity of
young girls preserved until marriage. Men in some cultures will not marry uncircumcised
girls because they
view them as 'unclean' or sexually permissive. Genital mutilation is nearly
always carried out in unsanitary conditions without anaesthetic. It is also
extremely painful and may result in severe infection, shock or even
death. If the girl survives, she may experience painful sexual intercourse,
degrading the quality of her life.
The reduction of a woman's sexual experience by FGM is both a physical and mental
health problem for women and an impediment to the development of deeper and
more satisfying relationships between the
partners. The immediate health risks of FGM include haemorrhage of the clitoral
artery, infection, urine retention, and blood poisoning from unsterile, often
crude, cutting implements. Later complications are
mainly due to the partial closing of the vaginal and urethral opening, which
trigger chronic urinary tract
infections, repeated reproductive tract infections and back and pelvic pain.
Particularly where the more drastic forms of this practice have been carried
out, the girl will be at increased risk of experiencing a
difficult delivery and dying in childbirth. In some cases, FGM can lead to
sterility. A study carried out in the Sudan found that women who had undergone
FGM were twice as likely to be infertile as women who had
not. This is due to pelvic inflammatory disease caused by repeated infections
as a result of the retention of
urine or menstrual blood that speed throughout the reproductive tract, causing
inflammation and scarring of the fallopian tubes. In traditional societies,
infertility is a particularly devastating condition, since a woman's
worth in many of these cultures is measured by her ability to bear children.
The Independent (Banjul)
Wildlife Service Backs Ban On Titanium 6mins. 16secs. The Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) has spoken out in support of the Government's decision to halt
Kwale's titanium mining. Speaking after a brief tour of Mwatate constituency's
Kighombo dam, Taita Taveta District, KWS director Nehemiah Rotich said mining
would cause serious environmental damage.
Dr Rotich said independent parties should make and circulate an environmental
impact assessment before the project takes off.
"In accordance with the Environmental Bill, any project which can have adverse
effects on the environment, thus endangering human lives, must be subjected
to a thorough and independent impact study," Dr Rotich
said. "That is the KWS position." The impact assessment undertaken by Tiomin
Resources, the Canadian firm interested in the mining, had not been distributed
to all interested parties, including environmental
experts and local leaders for evaluation. It could mean a conflict of interests.
Thus, he said, it had raised suspicion that it does not reflect the true picture
of the environmental damage the project might cause in the
region. He said, "I have not had a chance to study Tiomin's assessment report,
so I cannot exactly say whether it's biased or not. But it's important that
such an impact study be undertaken by an independent
group of environmental experts with no vested interests in the project. To base
a judgment on Tiomin's
study alone is to be ridiculous. It's like telling an accused to be his own
judge". The KWS boss said the titanium venture had not been "adequately described"
to the relevant interested
parties, including environmentalists and leaders, saying this had inspired
suspicion over the firm's true motives. A fortnight ago, Cabinet Minister Marsden
Madoka said the Government had decided that the
mining project would not proceed as initially planned until all thorny issues
are thrashed out. Madoka said
he opposed the leasing of the land to the Canadian company, saying this would
aggravate the already volatile squatter problem in the area.
The Nation (Nairobi) 10
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Vol. II No. 22 CHANGE Radio November, 2000
Point of View
'Thru the Eyes of a Woman' 6mins. 6secs. When I see my 'sister'
dressed in a micro mini skirt, a crop top with a plunging neck line that seems
to
want to meet the skirt's hemline, heels a storey high and more make up than
a corpse, I think to myself "go
get 'em, girl!". These are not words of encouragement, and yet I cannot afford
to discourage or dissuade them from their profession -either chosen or thrust
upon them. Yes, some professions are thrust upon you
by default, or by prevailing circumstances; and there are a lot of prevailing
circumstances in our society today. I see women who themselves do not believe
in education, not encouraging their daughters to stay in
school, but instead make subtle suggestions and say things like, "go and see
old Mr. So and so, he works
at the bank." What does your fifteen-year-old daughter who has quit school want
with old Mr. So and so? Could she be looking for a job, perhaps? A job that
needs just a body and no qualification whatsoever?
The other side? The mother is suffering from an incurable disease; the fifteen-year-old
girl-child has become the sole bread winner; even if this child decides to stay
in school, there is no way of paying her
school fees, because mother also dropped out of school and was a teenage mother,
therefore, not employable... (is this a good place to say history repeats itself?)
Cruel though it may sound, it is the truth,
and the truth hurts. As I said, I cannot afford to discourage them, because
it is one thing to try to educate them both on the dangers of the journey they
have embarked on, and quite another to actually do something
about it. Supposing they went out onto the streets and they had no 'customers'?
Maybe I'm asking too
much of our men? No matter, the call is out; and in true democratic fashion,
you can choose to be part of the solution or part of the problem.
Akosua Owusua in the Accra Mail
Noted…
Voice of Nigeria Relaunched 7mins. 6secs. Nigeria's external
radio broadcast station, Voice of Nigeria, has been relaunched. The one-day
ceremony
was held on September 21, 2000, in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital. The occasion
was widely attended by representatatives from all levels of the Nigerian government
including the Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, broadcasters, and academics.
VON launched a new logo, a new station ID, new directions, new strategic global
partnerships, new programs, and better global reception. The Director General
of the Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Taiwo Allimi,
said the vision of the new VON is to become the international radio broadcasting
station of first choice for anyone genuinely interested in Nigeria and Africa.
He also says the mission of the new VON "is to reflect
Nigerian and African perspectives in our broadcasts… winning and sustaining
the attention, respect and goodwill of listeners worldwide, particularly Nigerians
and Africans in the Diaspora… making Nigeria's
voice to be heard more positively in the shaping of our world."
Voice of Nigeria was founded in 1961. The nation's growing role in the affairs
of the African continent
informed the need to have an external channel through which authoritative information
about the African situation could be disseminated to the entire world, with
just a two-hour daily broadcast to West Africa.
By 1990, VON became autonomous and in 1996, it started transmitting to the
entire world. As part of its expansion process, VON has also forged joint cooperation
in the areas of training for staff and exchange
of programs with foreign media organizations such as Radio France International,
Voice of America, and 11
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Vol. II No. 22 CHANGE Radio November, 2000
12
Germany's Deutsche Welle radio. It is already working with the WorldSpace technology
to improve both local and international reception to reach a potential audience
of about 4.6 billion people around the world.
Speaking on what informed the need for a new identity, Allimi says, "I realize
that it is important in today's world that, one, you must enter into partnerships
with global broadcasters to be able to have what I call a
shared vision of what global broadcasting in the world should be. Having accepted
that, I then felt it was important to dialogue with global broadcasters on this
our vision that the concept of our broadcasting
today must shift from accentuating wars and conflicts in the world to the promotion
of development and
peace in the world." CFC
Sweden Donates Towards Namibia's Nature Conservation 3mins. Swedish
ambassador to Namibia Gunilla Hesselmark and the Namibia Nature Foundation's
Executive
Director, Chris Brown, recently signed a 107,913.67 USdollar agreement for nature
conservation. Hesselmark said the funds would be donated to Namibians and organisations
interested in conserving their
environments. She said the Swedish Local Environment Fund wants to provide small
grants to local people
in the country to enable them to address environmental issues within their own
habitats through wildlife care and development. The ambassador challenged the
local people to make a living by opening their own
environmental projects, which could enable them to become self-employed. Hesselmark
noted further that about 259 000 dollars, which include the 2000 budget, has
so far been spent on environmental projects in
Namibia. In 1999, about 65 project proposals were received and Namibia Nature
Foundation, through
the Swedish Embassy, gave grants to 18 of these, representing a total investment
of 90, 459 dollars. The projects funded in the first phase included the development
of a family park in Wanaheda, Windhoek,
community nurseries and environmental education centres, and in developing
the national botanical gardens. Panafrican News Agency
$150million fund to save biological hotspots 1min. 5secs. A new $150
million fund designed to better safeguard the world's threatened biological
hotspots in developing
countries has been launched. This is a joint initiative of Conservation International
(CI), the World Bank, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The fund named
the Critical Ecosystem partnership Fund
(CEPF) will focus primarily on biodiversity hotspots. These are highly threatened
regions where some 60
percent of all terrestrial species diversity are found 0n only 1.4 percent of
the planet's total surface area. WWF
Dateline…
African AIDS Conference Postponed to December 5mins. A major
African conference on AIDS and development, originally scheduled for Addis Ababa
in October,
has been postponed to 3-7 December 2000. Known as the second African Development
Forum (ADF 2000), under the theme "AIDS: The Great Leadership Challenge," the
postponement is to enable a wide-section
of African participants to take part. This was disclosed by the United Nations
Economic Commission for African (ECA), co-organisers of the meeting. The conference,
under the auspices of the ECA in
collaboration with UN AIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank, among others,
is designed to serve
as "a launching pad for a renewed commitment to more concerted action against
HIV/ AIDS in Africa." 12
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Vol. II No. 22 CHANGE Radio November, 2000
Some 1,500 African leaders, policy-makers, civil society organisations
including people living with HIV/ AIDS, as well academics, the private sector
and Africa's development partners, are expected to take
part. According to ECA, the meeting will focus on "concrete roles and responsibilities
of African leaders at all levels in galvanising an African-led response to the
pandemic."
"The ADF 2000 process will build on the efforts already underway by African
countries and their development partners towards combating HIV/ AIDS, and will
address what gaps remain," the agency
added. It said the forum constitutes "a key opportunity" for Africa and its
partners to build on the momentum gained from the recent international conference
on AIDS in Durban, South Africa. It seeks to help Africans
at all levels engaged in the fight against HIV/ AIDS to share experiences and
learn from good policies on the pandemic in countries that have successfully
risen to the challenges.
Panafrican News Agency
African Conference on Penal reforms 1min.
An African Conference on Penal reforms is to take place in the capital of
Cameroon from 23 to 25 November 2000. The theme of the conference will be "The
effects of globalisation on the penal reforms in
Africa". Further information can be obtained from the coordinator, Mukete
Tahle Itoe at www. geocities. com/ tmukete
The Courier
Children's Section
Mboma and the Donkey 10mins. 7secs. Many years ago the Donkey
and Mboma, the hippopotamus, were good friends and used to graze together
on the same river bank. One day when the river was low, Donkey gazed across
to the far side and saw enticing green crops. Before Mboma joined him that morning,
Donkey splashed through the shallow water
and ate his fill on the tasty crops. When he returned that evening, Mboma eyed
his bulging stomach and asked, 'Where have you been? '
'I crossed the river, my friend, where there are delicious crops growing. Why
don't you come with me
tomorrow? ' 'Surely, ' replied Mboma, 'don't go without me. '
In the morning, Donkey and Mboma met and crossed over the river. As they went
Donkey advised Mboma that there was a guard watching those crops day and night.
'But you just relax and eat, my friend, '
Donkey assured him, 'I will keep watch and bray when I see the guard coming.
As soon as you hear me
bray, get out of the fields as fast as you can. ' Mboma thanked Donkey for his
kindness and munched and chewed as fast as he could until he heard the
donkey braying. The he crashed out of the fields at full speed, down the river
bank, across the river and back to the safety of his little pool, where he sank
under the water and out of sight. This happened again the
following day and the next, until Mboma realized that Donkey was not behind
or in front of him when he
fled from the supposed approach of the guard. Suddenly it dawned on him that
his friend was trying to keep as much of the food for himself as he could, by
letting Mboma eat just a little and then braying to get
him out of the fields. The guard was nowhere in sight and Donkey did not run
– oh, no – he stayed behind alone, eating to his heart's content. Mboma said
nothing about his suspicion and they carried on in this way
until the rains fell and the river rose again. 13
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14
Now Donkey was forced to stay on the other side because the river was deep and
fast flowing and he could not swim. He was getting thinner and hungrier everyday
because there was little grass near the river
and it did not taste nearly as good as cultivated crops. Mboma meanwhile grew
fatter and fatter because he continued to graze on the cultivated fields, eating
until he was full everyday.
'You should come back to the crops, Donkey, ' he said. 'Look at yourself, growing
thinner everyday with all that lovely food just across the river. '
'I wish I could, ' sighed Donkey, 'But you know I can't swim. '
'Oh, that's no problem, ' said Mboma, 'as you're my friend, I'll carry you across'.
So Donkey climbed onto Mboma's back and they started the crossing. All went
well until the middle of the
river when Mboma called out, 'it's very deep here and I can't touch the ground
any more'. He sank to the bottom, taking Donkey with him. Mboma carried on walking
over the bottom and out the other side but
Donkey, who could neither swim nor hold his breath like Mboma, drowned in the
river.
To this day the friendship between donkeys and hippos has never been revived.
Shangani folk tales
Parting Shots Celebrate the wisdom of the African experience
with these unforgettable quotes
On consequences He who sells sand as salt is paid stones as money
Nigeria
He who volunteers his head for the breaking of the coconut should not expect
to eat from it Nigeria
On deceit
If you want to burn down your house, your enemy will lend you a match Zimbabwe
On friendship A smile is the strongest weapon in the battle of life
Ghana More African Proverbs
And a final word on conservation,
There is a strong argument that creation has a right of its own to exist,
independently of human use… There is also an aesthetic argument concerning the
beauty of nature, but the conclusion is
that beautiful or not, a species has a right to survive by simply being
there. Peter Kramer,
WWF Conservation Director, The New Road, 1988 14
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