Kalahari bushmen's legal victory

By John Simpson

The Appeal Court judgment is a remarkable victory for the bushmen. Not only has the court upheld their right to water in the Kalahari Desert, but it has criticised the government’s treatment of the bushmen as “degrading”.

Survival International, the London-based organisation which campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples and has strongly backed the bushmen’s legal battle, described the appeal court’s decision as “momentous”.

Ever since 1997, when the Botswanan government decided to move the bushmen off their ancestral hunting-ground in the Kalahari, the bushmen’s battle to return has been a losing one.

In 2002, the Army moved the majority of the bushmen out of the Kalahari, often brutally, but some refused to leave. Others drifted back from the soulless shanty towns where they were forced to live.

For tens of thousands of years, the bushmen have managed to live and thrive in this deeply hostile environment. The British, who were the colonial power in Botswana before its independence, promised it to them in perpetuity.

The Botswana government’s decision to move the bushmen followed the discovery of diamonds in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), the heart of the bushmen’s territory. It has often been alleged that the two things were linked, though successive governments have denied this.

The legal battle focused on a single well, on which those bushmen who still lived in the CKGR depended for their water. The Army blocked up the pipe with concrete and filled the basin with sand: a melancholy sight in this inhospitable desert.

Nevertheless the bushmen managed to survive without the well. They found water in their traditional ways, and sometimes they managed to raise the money to buy bottled water from a store 48km away.

On at least one occasion, as a group was returning from the 108-km walk carrying hundreds of bottles, they were stopped by guards at the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who poured all the water on to the ground.

The 2010 judgment, which the appeal court has now reversed, was criticised inside and outside Botswana for its tone.

Presiding judge then Judge Walia said the bushmen had “brought upon themselves any discomfort they may endure”.

Botswana is in many ways a model African country — wealthy, democratic and not obviously corrupt. But even its supporters have been embarrassed by the treatment of the bushmen.

— © BBC News/Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate

Reference Link : http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/31/stories/2011013163191900.htm

Courtesy : The Hindu, BBC News

South Sudan's independence vote ends

Voting has ended in Sudan in the south’s historic independence referendum, with a large turnout for the week-long poll.

The vote is widely expected to see the south choose overwhelmingly for separation from the north.

The referendum was a condition of a 2005 peace deal which ended a 21-year civil war.

Official results of the vote – which was largely peaceful – are not expected until early next month.

Final results are not expected before next month

‘We are free’

Polling stations closed in Sudan at 1800 local time (1500 GMT) on Saturday.

Southern Sudanese Christian Bishop Paul Yugusk played what he called the “final trumpet” on the rule by the mainly Muslim north.

“I chose this day to close it with a trumpet, and this trumpet marking… the end of slavery, domination, and – overall – we are free,” the bishop said in the southern capital of Juba.

Turnout was extremely high for the vote, with the referendum commission chairman saying that by the close of polling on Friday some 83% of the registered voters cast their ballots in the south.

Many of those were in the first few days, with giant queues snaking for hundreds of metres around polling stations.

However, in recent days it was a quieter affair, with just a few people trickling in, the BBC’s Peter Martell in Juba reports.

About 53% of the eligible voters turned out in the north.

Reports from international observers have been almost universally optimistic, saying that so far the vote has been free and fair.

That has come as massive relief to the south, for whom this vote means so much, our correspondent says.

A senior official from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party said on Saturday that Khartoum would accept the outcome of the vote even if it meant partition of Africa’s largest nation.

Sudan’s Historic Vote

• Voting: 9-15 January
• To pass, there must be a 60% turnout, plus a straightforward majority in favour
• Vote is a condition of the 2005 deal to end the two-decade north-south conflict
• Most northerners are Arabic-speaking Muslims
• Most southerners are Christian or follow traditional religions
• Oil-rich Abyei area to hold separate vote on whether to join north or south
• Referendum could divide Africa’s largest country
• Final result due 6 February or 14 February if there are appeals
• South would become continent’s newest nation on 9 July 2011
• National anthem and flag chosen, but not new country’s name

Sudan: A country divided

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

Reference Link : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12200479  ( The Sudan divide over other factors such as Ethnic groups,Infant morality, Water&Sanitation , etc can be viewed in this original news link)

Courtesy : BBC News

 

Taking 'democracy' to China's villages

People’s voice-How a small village in China elects a new leader

The village of Xiwangping lies in the mountains to the west of Beijing; a pretty place surrounded by orchards of walnut and cherry trees.

Any villager over the age of 18 can take part in the local elections

With a population of just 354, this sleepy village seems a long way from the corridors of political power in the Chinese capital.

But on a recent summer’s day the central government took a bus-load of journalists to Xiwangping to show off China’s political development.

The journalists were invited to watch as the voters went to the polls to elect the head of the village government.

Grassroots elections like these – involving millions of voters – allow officials to claim that, in some respects, China is a democracy.

But given that the country is ruled by one party – the communists – and it allows only limited dissent, that is a claim contested by many.

Full employment

Village elections were introduced in 1988 at a time when there was genuine debate in China about how the country should be ruled.

Officials help explain the process – and occasionally complete voting forms

Elections are held every three years and any villager who is aged 18 or above can vote.

Not everyone can stand as a candidate; they are selected before an election in a process that some say is not always open and transparent.

In Xiwangping, the recent poll was contested by the man who has held the job for the last six years, Wei Xizhen, and his challenger, Song Haiying.

Mr Wei might only be in charge of a small village, but he is a seasoned campaigner who knows a thing or two about political speeches.

In a last-minute address, he reminded voters – and the listening journalists – that under his watch villagers had faired well.

“With the closure of the [local] coal mines, many villagers lost their livelihoods,” said Mr Wei in a small courtyard next to the voting station.

“With the support of all the villagers, my colleagues and I have been working hard to boost the development of the village.”

Then came a boast most politicians around the world would be happy to make, particularly in these economically difficult times.

“Because of our efforts we have realised 100% employment among all the villagers who desire to work,” said Mr Wei.

Voters in Xiwangping cast their ballots in a community centre, where there were plenty of officials on hand to explain the process.

There was even someone to help voters fill in their ballot papers, a practice that could be seen as more about influencing the outcome than helping those who cannot read or are confused.

Landslide victory

With only 263 registered voters, it took just a few hours for everyone to cast their ballot.

The votes were counted in full view of the assembled villagers

These were then counted in full view of assembled villagers; each vote was chalked up on a blackboard.

Residents seemed pleased with the election, in which two village committee members were also elected.

In the end, Mr Wei won by a handsome margin: the former steelworker received 234 votes, his opponent got just 20.

Perhaps Ms Song already knew what was going to happen: she did not even stay to hear the result, but went straight back to work after casting her ballot.

It would have been interesting to speak to her and find out why she decided to run against a man who obviously commanded such support in the village.

Mr Wei is also the head of the local communist party, a far more powerful position that the one he has just been elected to.

Unfortunately, the government officials who were keen for us to see the election could not provided the BBC with a working telephone number for Ms Song.

Unnamed villager

When we rang the one we were given, a recorded message said: “The number you are ringing has no right to pick up this call.”

The Chinese government is proud of the village elections – that is why they arranged for journalists to go and see the one in Xiwangping.

But Li Fan, a man who has been observing these ballots for nearly two decades, has serious reservations about them.

He said many are just a show of democracy, with the result decided by more senior officials beforehand.

“Local governments right now want to control local resources, such as land,” said Mr Li, director of The World and China Institute, an independent political think-tank that often comes under pressure from the central government.

To control those resources, local governments have to control the village elections, said the Beijing-based academic.

Mr Li said officials will sometimes buy votes, ban candidates they do not like or simply not hold an election at all.

“They are scared that if we have fair elections then the government regime will meet trouble. That’s why they try to control them,” he said.

Future hopes

But perhaps the biggest criticism of China’s democratic experiment is that is has never extended beyond the grassroots level, as many originally hoped.

Tallies were written on a chalkboard as the votes were counted

China’s top leaders are still selected from within the higher echelons of the Chinese Communist Party. Few people outside the system know how this happens.

There are no opposition parties in China and only a limited amount of dissent is tolerated. Those who openly oppose the national political system are sometimes sent to prison.

But in Xiwangping voting is now a habit that many would like extended to the country’s other levels of government.

“That’s what we hope for,” said one villager enthusiastically.

“If there was an opportunity for us to vote for our own state leaders we’d definitely do it. After all, even the president’s there to serve the people.”

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10453874.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

Bloomberg’s Man in Albany Is Young but Seasoned

Before going to work for the city, Micah C. Lasher had been a magician and a political consultant.

ALBANY — Just when Micah C. Lasher thought it was safe to finally sleep one recent morning, three words appeared in his in-box: “It’s a sham.”

An article by Mr. Lasher in “The Spectator”, the Stuyvesant High School newspaper, dated Feb. 4, 1998.

Mr. Lasher had stayed up all night helping write a bill to increase the number of charter schools in New York, a cornerstone of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s education agenda. But amid the frenzy, a highly contentious provision had slipped by him: the State University of New York would lose its power to approve charter schools.

Charter advocates, including the one who had complained via e-mail, were seething. Mr. Lasher raced to the State Capitol, and in a feverish two hours of speed-dialing, helped to broker an agreement among lawmakers, the governor and the mayor to restore the university’s role.

An hour later, the Assembly passed the bill.

“The adrenaline was pumping,” Mr. Lasher said. “This needed to be nipped in the bud immediately.”

As Mr. Bloomberg’s chief negotiator, Mr. Lasher, 28, is the wrinkle-free face of City Hall, balancing the roles of bulldog, policy wonk and peacemaker for a mayor who is not shy about comparing lawmakers to lunatics.

“He can go to war with you on Monday and break bread with you on Tuesday,” Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said of Mr. Lasher.

In an office near the State Capitol, Mr. Lasher and eight staff members scrutinize every significant piece of paper floating through the Legislature.

They assemble color-coded memos — yellow to support, pink to oppose — on topics like playground equipment and workplace harassment.

Then there is the politicking. On a recent day, just when Mr. Lasher thought that a long-shot effort to eliminate seniority protection for teachers was slowly picking up support, his BlackBerry hummed with news: two lawmakers were having second thoughts.

“Are you kidding me?” he repeated in disbelief, adding an expletive the second time, even though the bill’s chances of passing were slim.

While Mr. Lasher is praised as an honest dealmaker with an encyclopedic knowledge of policy, some lawmakers, particularly those critical of Mr. Bloomberg, say his intensity can be stifling.

“He can be a real nag,” said Kevin Sheekey, who, when he served as deputy mayor, had hired Mr. Lasher. “He’s constantly pushing. That’s very helpful in the job.”

Mr. Lasher, still plump-cheeked and bright-eyed, has yet to get a driver’s license. Despite his age, however, he has built an impressive résumé. He was a secret weapon to Manhattan politicians as a teenager, and in college he created a powerhouse consulting firm.

As a child growing up in the Upper West Side, he made a name for himself as a magician. He performed tricks like the Ambitious Coin, in which a half-dollar vanishes, on NBC’s “Today” show. And by age 14, he had published a 224-page book of tricks.

The youngest member of a neighborhood club of Democrats, he was responsible for cleaning out the clubhouse. Elected officials, taken aback by his zeal and shrewd mind, were soon approaching him for advice.

“He demonstrated to me more political acumen than people who spent a lifetime in this business,” said Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president and a former assemblyman, who relied on Mr. Lasher as an informal adviser when he was 17.

The prodigy loved winning, and he became so emotionally attached to his candidates that after one of them, Deborah Glick, lost a race for Manhattan borough president in 1997, he retreated to a corner of a West Village restaurant and cried.

He developed his political muscles at Stuyvesant High School, where he warred with school administrators as editor of the student paper, The Spectator.

A long-simmering conflict escalated when he published an April Fool’s edition that mocked teachers and criticized seniority rules. The school promptly shut down the paper.

What followed was a classic Lasher crusade: an all-consuming campaign to restore free speech. Mr. Lasher and his allies flooded the school with fliers and petitions, forcing the administration to eventually give in.

Amid Stuyvesant’s overachievers, Mr. Lasher was no star student. He enrolled at New York University, where in the wee hours of the morning he built a political consulting firm.

The result was SKDKnickerbocker, now one of the city’s most prominent firms, which created fliers for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and counts among its clients 1199/S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East.

At Knickerbocker, he helped manage 76 campaigns — roughly three-quarters of them successful — and practiced a distinct brand of politics: cunning, idealistic and fiercely competitive. But his ardor has sometimes gotten him into trouble.

In 2001, when he was 19, Mr. Lasher helped design a now-infamous handout leaflet that contributed to the downfall of Mark Green, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. The handout included a controversial New York Post cartoon that graphically depicted Mr. Green’s rival, Fernando Ferrer, kissing up to the Rev. Al Sharpton. Mr. Green won the nomination, but with the party not united behind him, he narrowly lost the election to Mr. Bloomberg.

In an interview, Mr. Lasher described the episode as “something that I deeply regret being a part of,” emphasizing his inexperience at the time.

Mr. Lasher likes to say he has picked candidates he believed in, and aside from Mr. Bloomberg, they were all Democrats.

He is a devout liberal who winced at the mayor’s effort to change term limits to allow himself to run for a third term, friends say.

But last year, when Mr. Sheekey invited him to join the mayor’s Department of Education and help make it more politically astute, Mr. Lasher accepted.

Last summer, he coordinated the successful effort to have the Legislature renew mayoral authority over the city’s public schools.

Mr. Lasher enjoyed working at the Department of Education so much that he three times turned down an offer to become director of state legislative affairs.

“He was really pushed into the job,” said Mr. Sheekey, who is an executive at Bloomberg L.P. “This is an office that is more important than any single city commissioner.”

In Albany, Mr. Lasher has become a master multitasker. His recent duties have included finding ways to entice television crews to film in New York and resolving a dispute between Apple and legislators over how it sells its iPad.

Mr. Lasher has worked hard to counterbalance his boss’s sharp tongue. When he learned in April that the mayor was planning to denounce a proposal to cut property taxes as “craziness,” Mr. Lasher was instantly on the phone with Senate Democrats, who had championed the idea, taking the heat.

“The mayor can be a little harsh,” said Assemblyman David I. Weprin, a Democrat who represents eastern Queens. “You really want someone in the position who can smooth things over.”

Mr. Lasher’s quick rise has fed rumors that he may be gearing up for a political race of his own. He had hoped to run for the City Council in 2009, but he abandoned his plans after term limits were extended.

Now, Mr. Lasher says he has made no definite decisions about his future, though he has not ruled out vying for a Council seat in 2013.

“Do I want to succeed and do interesting things and continue to take on more responsibility? Absolutely,” he said. “Do I have some grand plan for what that’s going to look like? Absolutely not.”

For now, Albany beckons. The budget is two months overdue, summer is approaching and the mayor is fuming. Whether a young political wizard can emerge as an effective ambassador for a city of eight million remains to be seen.

“The chick just hatched,” State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem said. “Let’s see what happens when it becomes a real rooster.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: June 9, 2010

An article on Monday about Micah C. Lasher, the chief negotiator in Albany for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, referred imprecisely to the controversial use of a cartoon by the mayoral campaign of Mark Green in 2001. While the cartoon, depicting Fernando Ferrer and Al Sharpton, was reprinted in a handout leaflet that Mr. Lasher helped design, it was not part of an advertisement for television or for a print publication.

Reference Link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/business/06novel.html?th&emc=th

Courtesy
The New York Times Company

Would-be MP on depression battle

Zoe Smith has started lobbying for better mental health provision

Scottish Labour Party activist Zoe Smith had expected to spend the night after the general election waiting to learn how many people had voted for her in North East Fife.

Instead she spent it in a psychiatric ward, receiving treatment for bipolar disorder.

The mental illness, which used to be called manic depression, affects around one in 100 people. At its most extreme it is marked by huge mood swings, from joyous highs to crushing lows.

Zoe, 34, had always assumed her energy and enthusiasm were just a normal part of her personality.

I was depressed, I was crying, I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning. I had no short or long term memory and I crashed my car a couple of times. The basics were getting done but I was just hanging on

Zoe Smith Political activist and mother

“I was very active in the community in St Andrews, where I live, and always had a lot on the go but I thought that was just the sort of person I was,” she says.

“I couldn’t pass up the chance to be involved in something that might make a difference and as a result I was attending meetings and events almost every night of the week.”

For the mother of three children, the stress of juggling her community work and commitments as a prospective Labour candidate, along with a job with her local member of the Scottish Parliament, eventually began to take its toll.

Following the breakdown of the relationship with her partner of 10 years last October, Zoe’s mental health began to deteriorate. She went to see her GP, who prescribed anti-depressants, but the drugs did little to help.

“I struggled through Christmas and New Year but in January I had what I’d describe as a breakdown,” she says.

“I was depressed, I was crying, I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning. I had no short or long term memory and I crashed my car a couple of times. The basics were getting done but I was just hanging on.”

With the general election looming, things were to get even worse for Zoe.

“It was quite clear that I was becoming very, very ill.

“One day I woke up with the most terrifying idea that I was at risk in some way. I didn’t open my curtains. I felt very, very threatened and I didn’t know why. I just knew that someone or something was going to get me and do me harm.

“I texted my community psychiatric nurse and asked her to come round to my house. By the time she arrived I’d shut myself in the bedroom with the filing cabinet up against the door.”

Psychiatric ward

In April, on the day Gordon Brown called the election, Zoe stood down as Labour candidate for North East Fife, the constituency held by the former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell.

Bipolar disorder

• Bipolar disorder – previously known as manic depression – is a condition that affects your moods
• They can swing from one extreme to another
• The depression phase of bipolar disorder often comes first
• During an episode of depression, you may have overwhelming feelings of worthlessness which often lead to thoughts of suicide
• During a manic phase of bipolar disorder, you may feel very happy and have lots of ambitious plans and ideas
• Source: NHS Choices

Two weeks later she was admitted to an NHS psychiatric ward. She believes the experience did little to aid her recovery.

“Initially I was grateful to be in hospital because I felt safe. I was hopeful I was going to go into hospital and get better but it was the wrong thing to hope for.

“It was a hideous environment. It was probably the most depressing place I’ve ever been.

“No-one there knew me before I was ill and suddenly they were controlling my life.

“All they offered were drugs and containment. There was no therapy at all.”

Zoe left hospital after almost a month and is now recovering from what she calls her “mental health car crash” at home in St Andrews.

Throughout her illness she has used her blog, entitled Political Parent , and Twitter to speak openly about her condition and challenge some of the misconceptions surrounding mental illness.

“You can talk about conditions like cancer but mental illness is still a big secret. People don’t talk about it,” she says.

“I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t have many prejudices but I had no idea how pervasive the stigma is.”

Zoe now hopes to use her experience as a politician and a patient to lobby for better mental health provision.

Education

She believes teaching people about good mental health is as important as promoting a proper diet and regular exercise. Educating schoolchildren about their emotional well-being, she believes, could prevent many youngsters from suffering mental health problems in later life.

“Although I’d never want to go through it again I’ve learned a lot about myself and I’ve become passionate about mental health,” she says.

“We need more community psychiatric nurses. We need more therapy in the community. We need more support for families because when someone suffers from mental illness it doesn’t just affect one person, it affects everyone.

“Mental illness can happen to anybody and it’s not a reflection on who you are.”

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10236517.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

Donor darling: What Ethiopian poll can teach Africa

What other African countires can learn from Ethiopia

Ruling party supporters have been angered by foreign criticism of the polls

What do a sports car and the Ethiopian opposition have in common?
They both have two seats.

This joke is doing the rounds in Ethiopia after an almost embarrassing landslide victory for the governing EPRDF party and its allies left the opposition with just a lonely brace of seats in the 547 member parliament.

There is no word for “landslide” in the local Amharic language, but they need one now.

The European Union said the polls were marked by restrictions on political freedom and the unfair use of state resources, and there is international concern over increasing repression in Ethiopia.

Meles Zenawi Ethiopian prime minister

But Prime Minister Meles Zenawi will not be losing any sleep.

A thorough trouncing is much better for the nerves than a nail-biter and it is unlikely that Ethiopia’s relationship with donor countries will change significantly even if a few fingers are briefly wagged.

The money will keep flowing.

“The United States has every right to use its tax payers’ money as it sees fit,” Mr Meles told reporters after his victory.

“If they feel that the outcome of the elections are such that they cannot continue our partnership, that’s fine.

“We shall be very grateful for the assistance they have given us so far and move on. Clearly we are not a protectorate,” he concluded.

Such comments are easier for Mr Meles to make now that he has a new friend in China – it will not utter a squeak over the elections.

Islamist buffer

China is helping with many infrastructure projects in Ethiopia – including an offer of a $500m (£344m) loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for the construction of the controversial Gibe Three hydroelectric dam.

Ethiopia receives aid worth around $2bn a year, mostly from the US and the UK.

The feeling amongst many donor countries is that the country desperately needs help in fighting poverty, and the money is being spent relatively wisely by Mr Meles’s government.

They see real progress: For example, a recent report by American researchers pointed to success in reducing child mortality.

China is behind many infrastructure projects in Ethiopia

The report said that in 1990, 202 Ethiopian children per 1,000 died before the age of five. In 2010, the rate had halved to 101 deaths per 1,000.

Of course, Ethiopia still has a long way to go in comparison to somewhere like Singapore, where there are just two deaths per 1,000 children under the age of five.

Ethiopia is also a donor darling because it is seen as an invaluable buffer against the growing Islamic extremism in Somalia.

When it comes to America’s foreign policy, any concerns over shrinking democratic space or eye brow leaping election results are totally trumped by any help in “the war on terror”.

Mr Meles could be receiving a few phone calls from other African leaders searching for election tips.

The Ethiopian capital is famous for staging the hugely popular 10km race, the Great Addis Run, but now all talk is of ‘the Great Addis Turn Around’

Paul Kagame of Rwanda may not need the advice but his neighbour in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, could do with a few hints on how to change the face of politics in the capital, Kampala, ahead of 2011 elections.

The Ethiopian capital is famous for staging the hugely popular 10km race, the Great Addis Run, but now all talk is of “the Great Addis Turn Around”.

Greatest enemies

In 2005, the opposition won all 23 parliamentary seats in Addis. In 2010 it kept just one. How?

The efficient well-oiled governing party machinery was a key factor – I lost count as to how many people told me that “the EPRDF only woke up in 2005”.

It was helped by the fact that the opposition was divided and fairly disorganised.

But many Ethiopia watchers suggest you have to look at what happened to the opposition over five years to get the whole picture.

If you try sending an e-mail from Ethiopia to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it miraculously bounces back

Almost 200 opposition supporters were shot dead when they demonstrated against what they saw as election theft in 2005; thousands were arrested, including opposition leaders who were sent to jail for close to years.

Birtukan Mideksa remains behind bars after being accused of breaking the terms of her pardon.

Press freedom has also been under attack. Journalists have fled the country since 2005 and if you try sending an e-mail from Ethiopia to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it miraculously bounces back.

Filming on the streets of Addis Ababa, it was hard to find people prepared to say on camera that they supported the opposition – many suggested that would be asking for trouble.

Addis Ababa has undergone great change in the last five years

The governing party dismisses all these allegations but analysts point out that the Ethiopian government is only willing to allow a certain degree of democracy and that will always be the root of friction with the donors – China excluded.

US-based Human Rights Watch said the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters and said the most salient feature of the election was the months of repression preceding it.

One publication recently suggested that the Ethiopian government’s greatest enemies were Eritrea and the weather. Human Rights Watch could also be added to the list.

It clearly angered the government as it shone a light on allegations of repression that no election observer team would be able to find – partly because they were not allowed in the country early enough.

But the African leaders hoping for tips from Mr Meles should also realise that hard work is also useful ahead of an election – it wins votes.

The scale of the housing estates being built on the edge of Addis Ababa is nothing short of staggering.

Time will tell how good the quality of the construction is, but there are also impressive eight-lane roads leading to these suburbs.

The development is by no means restricted to the capital: access to healthcare has improved in the rural areas and in Lalibela, 700km (about 435 miles) away from Addis Ababa, new classrooms are springing up and roads built.

Kenyans, Ugandans and others may be freer than Ethiopians but their list of “What my government has achieved” would be miserably short in comparison.

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10205887.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

Eliminate untouchability first: Karat

— Photo: M. Moorthy

CALL FOR SOCIAL REFORM:CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat addressing the first State conference of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front at Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu on Saturday.

PUDUKOTTAI: Annihilation of the caste system should be the goal and the first step in that direction is to eliminate untouchability, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has said.

Untouchability was the worst feature of the caste system in the country, Mr. Karat said here on Saturday at the first State conference of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front. “Even after 62 years of Independence what we find in our society is that caste transcended all classes. Though the Constitution proclaimed equality, we still find it did not go with the ground reality,” Mr. Karat said.

Struggle against the caste system should go along with struggle against socio-economic and class exploitation, he said. What was needed was a social revolution which could not come without fighting and abolishing the caste system.

The Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front has been engaged in path-breaking activity over the last three years fighting all forms of caste discrimination and untouchability. Even people outside Tamil Nadu were looking up to the Front as an inspiration in their struggle against oppression. The Front should bring under its fold all those who were against caste discrimination and untouchability and it would become a genuine instrument in bringing about social change in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Earlier, Mr. Karat released a collection of short stories authored by Aadhavan Dheetchanya on atrocities committed against Dalits.

In his address, Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front convenor P. Sampath called for starting branches of the front at all levels within the State. The front had created confidence among the oppressed communities.

General secretary of the All-India Vivasayigal Sangam K. Varadharajan, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan, party MLA S.K. Mahendran and All-India Democratic Women’s Association general secretary U. Vasuki and others took part in the conference.

Reference Link : http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/30/stories/2010053056571000.htm

Courtesy : The Hindu

Hard Times Spur Ideas for Change

As states around the country gird for another grim budget year, more leaders have begun to talk not of nipping, not of tucking, but, in essence, of turning government upside down and starting over. Ever growing is the list of states, municipalities and agencies with blue ribbon committees aimed at reconsidering what government should be.

A lawmaker in Nebraska this year proposed the unthinkable: Cut by half, or more, the 93 counties that have made up the state for generations. Senators in Indiana, aiming to thin the tangled layers there, want to eliminate the system of more than 1,000 township boards.

And in Missouri, where lawmakers this spring took a day off for a brainstorming session on how to “reboot government,” there is talk of merging the agencies that oversee secondary and higher education, providing incentives to counties for combining services, even turning to a four-day state workweek.

But despite the longest recession since the Great Depression and predictions already of new, gaping deficits in state budgets for at least the next two years, some of the most sweeping notions for overhaul remain just that — notions. And so, as more than a dozen states grapple with next year’s budgets, most of which take effect on July 1, many experts say politicians would be wise to do more than merely contemplate significant change — and may soon have little choice.

“We can incrementally hobble and muddle through, or we can stand back and be more strategic,” said Scott D. Pattison, the executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. “That’s the question: whether this will be the time when these ideas actually get carried out, or whether this is going to be a whole lot of reports that sit on a shelf.”

Beyond the immediate financial squeeze, political pressures are growing, too. The jobs of 37 governors are up for grabs in November, so talk of remaking government — eliminating services, merging school districts, shrinking employee costs — has become a refrain.

“We are working essentially off a 1950s, 1960s model” of government and services, said Tom Emmer, a state representative and a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, where lawmakers closed a nearly $3 billion projected budget gap in May and are already anticipating a $5 billion hole next year. Mr. Emmer voted against the current budget agreement, explaining in an interview: “You cannot Band-Aid the Good Ship Lollipop. It’s time to completely restructure the hull.”

Perhaps, but change — especially eliminating anything — has proven to be politically fraught.

In Georgia, after the House voted to end financing for the state’s Council for the Arts, artists, musicians and dancers, some in costume, turned up in the state Capitol. In the end, the 2011 budget gave the council nearly $790,000 — about a third of what it had received this year (and less than was needed to be ensured federal grant money) but still enough to keep it alive.

“Anytime you start changing things, you are playing with people’s hearts,” said Rich Pahls, the Nebraska senator who proposed reducing the number of counties — a thought that startled those long accustomed to having their own courthouse and board of supervisors. That arrangement was designed in the days of the horse and buggy, Mr. Pahls said, not a time when, in rural Nebraska, “people will drive 100 miles to the grocery store.”

The proposal got nowhere during this year’s legislative session, but Mr. Pahls remains hopeful. “None of this can happen overnight,” he said, “but I think we’re almost on the cusp of something now — a tipping point where people are dissatisfied with the way government is working as it is.”

Scott Walker, the county executive of Milwaukee County in Wisconsin — who has, improbably enough, suggested the possibility of eliminating county government — concurs. “It’s reached the point where the public is already there,” said Mr. Walker, also a Republican candidate for governor. “Our elected officials need to be willing to take that next step.”

One problem, said Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a Republican, is that “people like hanging on to the authority they have.”

A move to abolish township boards in Indiana failed to make its way through the state legislature, and efforts to abolish the office of lieutenant governor in states like Illinois and Louisiana have gained little traction.

Certainly, there are indications that revenues to states are steadying after a long, sharp drop. But experts say the budget picture in many states will remain dark, particularly as federal stimulus money, which some places have leaned on heavily to make up deficits, disappears.

Despite the struggles, there have been some broad changes. In Hawaii, the school year was 17 days shorter than usual (though some there want to restore the old calendar next year). In Massachusetts, a pile of transportation agencies were transformed into one last year.

Other examples are found in smaller places — places where the budget crunch hit hard, like Pewaukee, Wis., a city of 12,000 that found itself with a $1.8 million deficit and the need to replace two broken-down fire trucks. Leaders there decided to close the Police Department in January and sign a contract with the local sheriff’s department.

But in a sign of how politically hazardous cutting government can be, some in town clamored to recall the mayor, Scott Klein. Instead, Mr. Klein won re-election last month over an opponent who had promised to reopen the Police Department.

Elsewhere, making over government remains a work in progress. In Missouri, lawmakers agreed to merge the state’s water patrol with its highway patrol (saving about $1 million a year) and to stop printing copies of the state’s “blue book” guide to politics and statutes (saving $1.7 million). But larger ideas will wait.

Other places may wish to look at Michigan, a state plagued by budget problems long before everywhere else. Since the early 2000s — a period Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat, recalls as “the decade from hell” — the state has shrunk itself. It dropped a quarter of all state departments and 11,000 workers, closed 8 prisons and 10 prison camps, and drastically decreased funds for services like the arts and dental care for adults.

Much of that was accompanied by deep, loud complaint. “People have come to expect that government was going to be a certain way,” Ms. Granholm said, “and we’ve had to press the reset button on our economy and our government.”

But for those places resistant to change, still hoping to ride out the hard times for a few more years until flush budgets return, Ms. Granholm is skeptical.

“People who don’t take advantage of the crisis to cross over to a new model,” she said, “are wasting the crisis.”

Reference Link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/us/25remake.html?th&emc=th

Courtesy
The New York Times Company

First day in Commons for youngest MP Pamela Nash

Ms Nash previously worked as a researcher for John Reid

“Luckily I am one of the few new MPs who have been working in Westminster for the last couple of years so I am currently the tour guide for all the new Scottish MPs,” laughed Pamela Nash.

At 25 years old, as well as being among the 14 new Scottish MPs taking up their seats on the green benches for the first time, she is also the UK’s youngest MP.

She worked as a parliamentary researcher for the man she has replaced, John Reid, before being selected to stand as the new Labour candidate for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency.

“I think, like any business, the parliament needs new blood, as well as experience. It is this mixture that will enrich parliament,” she said.

“Young people have been under-represented at Westminster for a very long time and I feel it’s important that the parliament should be representative of the whole community and this means that we need MPs in their 20s to represent young people.”

“That said, I won’t just be representing young people, I will be representing everyone in Airdrie and Shotts.”

I will fight to bring Labour back into government Pamela Nash MP

Ms Nash hails from the former mining village of Chapelhall in Lanarkshire and grew up in the area she now represents.

Her seat is safe, in a Labour stronghold, secured with a majority of more than 12,000 votes.

She thinks her party must now concentrate on winning back confidence and votes south of the border.

“I have lived through a New Labour government. I remember the Tories from my childhood but I am also a product of New Labour. I will fight to bring Labour back into government,” she stated.

In the coming Labour leadership contest Ms Nash has already publicly backed David Miliband.

Views heard

She said: “For a while now it has been him I have looked to for leadership.

“New Labour is not so new anymore and we now have to reach out to middle England, to the voters that we have lost, as well as the core voters that we have left behind.

There are 14 new Scottish MPs taking up their seats at Westminster

“It is time for the next stage of the Labour project and I believe that David Miliband is the best person to move us forward.”

New members of the House of Commons arrived last week to collect their security passes and take part in a series of sessions designed to help them settle in at Westminster.

They have now now been getting down to business joining their other, more seasoned, colleagues to elect a speaker.

Ms Nash said at the forefront of what she hopes to achieve as one of the newest members of the parliament is ensuring that people her age get their say.

“I have spoken to a lot of young people during the last few weeks and months of campaigning who want their views heard in parliament and I am looking forward to representing those views.”

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8689311.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

2011 to be celebrated as ‘The Year of Germany in India'

Strong ties:German Ambassador to India Thomas Matussek (third from right), IGCC Southern Region Council chairman Ranjit Pratap (second from right) and Germany’s Consul General Hans-Burkhard Sauerteig (right), interacting with students in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: To commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relationship between India and Germany, the next year will be celebrated as ‘The Year of Germany in India’ and the year after that as ‘The Year of India in Germany’ said Thomas Matussek, Germany’s Ambassador to India, on Monday.

Delivering his address at the annual regional meeting of Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) and the convocation ceremony of Indo-German Training Centre (IGTC), he said that the relationship between India and Germany had a long history. It was good and sound, but lacked active interaction. It was set right with the opening up of the Indian economy.

“The celebrations in India would start by mid-2011 with the theme ‘City Spaces.’ During this period, Germany’s manufacturing prowess will be showcased through Science Express, convoy of MAN truck caravans and moving hi-tech tents. Science Express has been running in the country for the last two years. Caravans will be travelling to seven megapolis, and tents to several secondary cities,” he said.

Mentioning that an amount of 10 million Euros had been committed for this, Mr. Matussek said that the two years of celebration would be used to find solutions to socioeconomic problems of growing urbanised cities. Germany would take part in all major trade fairs, organise meeting of Nobellaureates from India and Germany and organise film festivals.

In his welcome address, IGCC Director General Bernhard Steinruecke said that IGTC will be opened in Kolkata in August in partnership with Max Mueller Bhavan.

L.S. Ganesh, professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, distributed convocation certificates to 24 students of Post Graduation Programme in Business Administration.

Industries Secretary Rajeev Ranjan said that State government will have a relook at the industrial policy to create an industry-friendly and investment-friendly atmosphere. IGCC chairman, Southern Regional Council, Ranjit Pratap urged German firms to make use of Indian human resources to improve bilateral trade.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/28/stories/2010042854320500.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu