TAYLOR SENTENCED TO 97 YEARS

Charles Chuckie McArthur Emmanuel Taylor, the son of former Liberian President, Charlse Taylor has been sentenced to 97 years imprisonment for torturing opponent of his father's administration during his tenure of office.

Taylor was commanding the ‘Demon Forces’ a paramilitary group which is specialized on torturing of political opponents during 1999 to 2003. The ‘Demon Forces’ was accused of applying various torturing techniques to political opponents including electric shock, molten plastic, lit cigarettes, hot irons, bayonets and ants bites.

Meanwhile, Charles Ghankay Taylor father of ‘Chuckie’ Taylor is similarly standing trial in the Hague for his alleged involvement in the Sierra Leone civil war. He is charged with various war crimes and crimes against humanity. His trial is expected to resume in The Hague after it went into a long break last year. His case was transferred to The Hague citing security concerns in the region a Senior Official of the Special Court for Sierra Leone said.

http://africanews.com

US Federal agents arrested Emmanuel as he tried to enter the US at Miami international airport in March 2006.

During the trial, witnesses said Emmanuel, known as Chuckie in Liberia, stood by and laughed as soldiers forced prisoners to play "stone football", kicking large stones until their bare feet were bruised and bleeding. One witness described having flaming plastic melted onto his skin; another said soldiers cut his genitals.

In April 1999, Emmanuel summarily executed three men and ordered guards to cut another prisoner's throat, his indictment said.

http://runningafrica.com


MY COMMENT:

When will Africans learn? We are our own greatest enemies, we are the major reason why Africa is still behind. We starve our people, we torture them, we deny them the right to exist. The blood that flows in Africa today is not by the whip of our colonial master, rather it is by the matchets, guns and laws of our leaders. This Taylors' case is absolute nemesis. This is the fate of tyrants in Africa and around the world, there is no escape. I hope other leaders learn from this.

OIL: A CURSE OR CURE IN NIGERIA

Hundreds of billions of dollars has been made from the Niger Delta's oil reserves and many people have gotten very rich. Conversely, the average Nigerian has suffered as a result of the country's oil prosperity. The United States Agency for International Development says more than 70 percent of the country lives on less than a dollar a day -- the population is among the 20 poorest in the world.

Oil companies are only part of the equation. The other is the Nigerian government. Transparency International, a global organization intent on stamping out corruption, has consistently rated Nigeria's government one of the most corrupt in the world.
Over the last few years, a culture of militancy and violence has arisen in the absence of jobs and services. Kidnappings for ransom and robberies happen with regularity.

It has provoked an environmental disaster of monstrous proportions. Since the 1970s, the United Nations estimates there have been more than 6,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta -- that is equal to more than 10 times the amount spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Yet, there is no international outcry and rarely are the spills reported, even to most Nigerians. They are still happening and the consequences are nothing short of devastating.

Communities along the Niger Delta have lived off subsistence fishing and agriculture for decades. Collecting food becomes impossible when a spill happens, like one that occurred in August. The waterways and mangroves are blanketed in thick brown oil sludge that goes on for miles. Toxicity overpowers the air and a sense of lifelessness pervades the landscape. Trash litters its cities. Electricity is sporadic at best. There is no clean water. Medical and educational services are limited. Basic infrastructure is severely lacking. These are not conditions that should plague one of the richest oil states in the world but in the Niger Delta this is life.

- http://cnn.com/

MY COMMENT:

Is oil really a curse in Nigeria? Is it a cure? In the war against poverty in Africa, Nigeria being one of the richest oil states should not be counted among the poorest nations in this world. The Niger-Delta region has become a terror zone, cases of kidnapping and robbery is very rampant due to excess poverty. Communities in this region have about 2 or 3 multi-national oil companies drilling on their lands, some even have 4 and yet they cannot even boast of clean water supply or good education. In other countries, oil companies provide certain facilities free of charge to the community they reside in but that is a different case in the Niger-Delta region. Who is responsible, who is to be blamed? The government, whose officials are only interested in looting the nation’s treasury, or the oil companies, whose negligence and sloppiness have cost the lives in various communities, or both? These are some of the questions the Niger-Delta people ask.

HUMANITARIAN AID STUCK AT EGYPTIAN BORDER

It was the second straight day that Mouzala Ioannis, five other physicians and a nurse from Doctors of Peace waited at the locked Rafah crossing amid eerie silence. Ioannis blamed the Egyptian government for holding up more than 25 trucks and SUVs filled with medical supplies donated by Greece, Turkey, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

- http://indybay.org/

Egypt is facing sharp condemnation from elsewhere in the Arab world. Near the border — closed to visitors, including journalists, both ways — there is a heavy presence of police, military and secret police, the Mukhabarat, and numerous checkpoints along the roads on the way to the split border town of Rafah, which has been declared a military zone. The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his ally, the Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, have called on Egypt to open the border and the Egyptian people to break down the barriers. But Egyptian forces have clashed with Palestinians trying to leave Gaza, and Mr. Mubarak has said firmly that the border will remain closed.

- http://nytimes.com/


MY COMMENT:

“Chaos at the Gaza-Egyptian border, with aid shipments halted and the gates firmly shut।”“Egypt and France propose plan to end Gaza conflict.”“Egypt offers humanitarian aid.”

These are excerpts from 3 news reports. So I ask ‘what role is Egypt really playing in the on-going crisis between Israel and Gaza?’ On one side, they sent out 30 closely-monitored ambulances into Gaza and on the other, ‘…holding up more than 25 trucks and SUVs filled with medical supplies donated by Greece, Turkey, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.’ I believe that Egypt’s aid to Gaza is more political than humanitarian; they are really focused on the political gains in the Israeli-Gaza crisis than actual assistance to the victims.

CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN ZIMBABWE

The International Red Cross has deployed seven emergency response units to Zimbabwe in a bid to bring under control a cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 1,500 lives. Such units, which will provide medical care and increase the availability of safe drinking water, are deployed only in "critical humanitarian situations," a Red Cross statement said.

The Red Cross said it hopes to deliver services to 1.5 million Zimbabweans by July, indicating that it anticipates a long battle to stop the spread of the disease.

The World Health organization reported 30,938 cases of cholera to date in the country, with 1,551 deaths through Tuesday, when another 630 cases were documented. Abdul Abdulkadir, the Red Cross disaster management coordinator for Southern Africa, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the continually rising death toll indicates a critical humanitarian situation demanding an aggressive response. He said the emergency response units will be working closely with the Ministry of Health.

A spokesman for the international relief group Medicins Sans Frontières, which took an early lead treating victims, also called the situation dire. MSF Coordinator Marcus Bahamann said the group is doing all it can but has limited resources to meet "massive" needs.

- http://voanews.com/

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's President, is trying to hide the real extent of the cholera epidemic sweeping across his nation by silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death.

A senior official in the health ministry said the health ministry, which once presided over a medical system that was the envy of Africa, had been banned from issuing accurate statistics about the deaths, and that certificates for the fraction of deaths that had been registered were being closely guarded by the home affairs ministry.

Harare's Central Hospital officially closed last week, doctors and nurses are scarce and even those clinics offering a semblance of service do not have access to safe, clean drinking water and ask patients to bring their own. The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights has accused the government of dramatically under- reporting the spread of the disease. Doctors and nurses – whose salaries can just buy a loaf of bread thanks to hyperinflation – tried to protest last week against the health crisis, but riot police moved in swiftly.

As the ordinary people suffer Mr Mugabe is locked in a bitter power struggle with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over who should control which ministries in a unity government.

- http://independent.co.uk/

CHOLERA FIGURES IN ZIMBABWE SINCE AUGUST 2008

1 December - Deaths: 484 - Cases: 11, 73

25 December - Deaths: 1,564 - Cases: 29,131
Total Cases in December 68%

MY COMMENT:

What is this despot doing to his country? First, he blames the West for all of his problems, then he tries to hide this case of cholera probably because he cannot put the blame on the West, as usual. Zimbabwe's problem cannot be solved in a day, but the first step in solving it is by removing Robert Mugabe from that seat. He has now become the Black version of the Rhodesian, Ian Smith whom he was fighting.

MADAGASCAR LAND DEAL

South Korea's Daewoo has signed a 99-year lease for half of Madagascar's arable land, reports the Financial Times. The firm expects to pay "nothing" for the lease.

The agreement covers 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) — an area half the size of Belgium. Daewoo says it plans to plant corn on 1 million hectares in the arid western part of the island and 300,000 ha (740,000 acres) of oil palm on land in the tropical east, a region that is home to the bulk of Madagascar's rare rainforests. The company will produce the food for export and plans to import workers from South Africa, although a Daewoo spokesman said that the project could create up to 70,000 local jobs. The company expects the project to cost $6 billion over the first 25 years.

The Daewoo annoucement comes after the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the push by some countries (notably China, Malaysia, and Middle Eastern nations) to secure farmland overseas could create a 'neo-colonial' system.

"We suspect there will be very limited direct benefits [for Madagascar]," added an unnamed 'European diplomat in southern Africa'. "Extractive projects have very little spill-over to a broader industrialization."

Environmental concerns

The development will likely stoke environmentalists' fears that agricultural expansion will come at the expense of Madagascar's biologically-rich ecosystems that are home to rare and unique species of lemurs, frogs, and reptiles. Daewoo has done little to allay these concerns.

"It is totally undeveloped land which has been left untouched," the Financial Times quoted Hong Jong-wan, a manager at Daewoo, as saying.

But officials from Madagascar are denying they have reached an agreement to turn over half the island nation's arable land to a South Korean corporation for food production, reports Reuters. The controversial deal — which would have paid Madagascar nothing and turned over 1.3 million hectares to produce corn and palm oil for export at a time when one-third of country's children are malnourished — was reported last week by the Financial Times.

- http://news.mongabay.com

MY COMMENT:

I honestly cannot believe that a country (Madagascar) whose ecosystem is revered by every country in this earth would think of touching a plot of its vegetation, much more give it away for what?! It is a very ’stupid’ act by the government. Madagascar has about 5% of the world’s total ecosystem, and to give it away for nothing is very distressing. Even to give it away for something is still not acceptable, for 99 years is PURE MADNESS, giving away the size is ……..??????……….. I really have no word for that yet.

‘Underdeveloped’ what is that?! No Asian country will ever lease more than 5 plots of land to an African country. The sizes of our embassies in these countries will give you an idea on how small they are willing to lease properties African governments.

One thing we Africans should understand is that these Asian countries creeping into Africa are not here to help us but to deplete the little resources we have left (through PIRACY and NEO-COLONIALISM). All they want is to really make us beg. They want to colonize us again. We have been through a lot in history, we suffered under colonization, and Madagascar case is nothing but neo-colonialism and piracy. We CANNOT go through it again.

It’s time to SAY NO TO PIRACY & NEO-COLONIZATION!