|
|
  IMPORTANT : Please use top right "PayPal Donate" link to help sustain SpideredNews.com.
"In an era where media consolidation is occurring at an all-too rapid pace it's essential to look for alternative news sources that are free from corporate bias. The future of our rather stupid species depends on it. Sites like yours have made a massive impact on me over the last year, I'm very grateful." http://www.lukeskirenko.com
"SpideredNews is a REALLY good resource. Thanks for the effort and time you put in to providing it." Comment by SetFree
Hint: If you spot (or create) an article or video which should be highlighted, please post it on the WPN Forums. SpideredNews.com could then spotlight it. |
|
GUARDIAN Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:43:04 GMT
The charity says a 'Robin Hood tax' should be imposed on greedy banks in the developed world to help low-income nations fill huge budget holes and avoid sinking further into poverty
The financial crisis has driven millions of people into poverty and put many more at risk as the world's poorest countries scramble to fill huge budget holes with dwindling help from richer nations, according to Oxfam.
With the deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of slashing poverty just five years away, and aid budgets under pressure from the downturn, Oxfam is stressing the urgent need for new sources of help, such as a 'Robin Hood tax' on financial transactions.
The charity is worried that much of the focus during and after the credit crunch has been on the fate of richer countries such as Greece, the US and the UK, while continued growth in emerging markets such as Brazil and India has been largely been taken as a sign the crisis was restricted to developed nations.
But its study of the budgets of 56 low-income countries, many of them in Africa, concludes that they too propped up their economies by borrowing in the earlier part of the crisis, and have now been left with gaping budget deficits.
"It is brutally unjust that the poorest people on earth are made to pay the price for bankers' greed through cuts in schools or life-saving medicines," said Max Lawson, spokesperson for the Robin Hood Tax Campaign and policy adviser at Oxfam. "A Robin Hood tax would make the banks foot the bill for the misery they have caused."
The first detailed analysis of the impact on poorer countries says revenues fell in almost two-thirds of them last year and for almost half, revenues will still be below 2008 levels by the end of 2010.
"Even if the rich world recovers, the crisis will still be wreaking havoc in the poorer countries," says the report, commissioned by Oxfam from Development Finance International.
The crisis created a "huge fiscal hole" of $65bn (£41.4bn), it adds, as budget revenues slumped by $53bn in 2009 – nearly a 10th of pre-crisis revenues – and by a further $12bn in 2010.
The report concludes that "because the international community's response to the crisis had been so slow", low-income countries (LICs) have had to fill two-thirds of that fiscal hole by borrowing domestically – usually an expensive choice — or by running down reserves. That sparked deep spending cuts which have hit education and social protection, pensions, in particular.
The authors criticise the International Monetary Fund, which has backed many of the countries, for appearing to retreat to its "traditional position" and not providing enough flexibility on unwinding deficits without harming development spending. The countries with IMF programmes are highlighted as having done better so far on overall MDG spending but the body is slammed for its apparent lack of research into the area.
"Five years away from the deadline for reaching the Millennium Development Goals, it is scandalous that no international organisation is tracking MDG spending in the way that this report has done at the level of individual low-income countries," says the research.
"If these changes are not made, the fiscal hole caused by the crisis risks becoming a 'black hole' into which the MDGs, and the lives and education of many of the world's poorest citizens, will disappear."
As fiscally squeezed richer nations push through cuts to reduce their deficits and to protect their credibility in financial markets, aid budgets are coming under increasing scrutiny. In the UK, the government's aid budget has been ringfenced from cuts, but ministers are still under pressure to find savings.
Oxfam and other anti-poverty campaigners are worried this comes in the hour of greatest need for many poor countries. "Recent trends in many donor countries have been to reduce aid pledges, concentrate aid on fewer countries, and focus on only a few of the MDGs," its report says.
It....
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
GUARDIAN Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:19:18 GMT
Former activists in South Africa's liberation movement lead 20th anniversary rally at apartheid-era jail
Arm-in-arm and shouting "Viva Mandela!", veterans of South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle today retraced Nelson Mandela's final steps as a political prisoner exactly 20 years ago.
Former activists led a symbolic march through the gates of the former Victor Verster prison in Paarl, near Cape Town, to commemorate the anniversary of Mandela's release on 11 February 1990. Thousands of people awaited them, dressed in the African National Congress colours of gold, green and black.
The heavyweights of the liberation movement were missing. To the disappointment of supporters, there was no appearance by Mandela himself, his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, or the president, Jacob Zuma.
Instead, under a blistering sun and clear blue sky, the march was led out of the Drakenstein prison - formerly known as Victor Verster and the last jail where Mandela was held - by Cyril Ramaphosa, Mac Maharaj, Ahmed Kathrada and Andrew MlangeniThey stopped for speeches at a 10ft (3m) high bronze statue of Mandela, erected in 2008, with his fist raised and taking his first steps as a free man after 27 years in apartheid-era prisons.
Ramaphosa, who headed the reception committee 20 years ago, told supporters: "When comrade Nelson Mandela was released, as he walked out of these prison gates, we knew that his freedom meant that our freedom had also arrived. As he became free we also knew that we were now free."
Trevor Manuel, another reception committee member and now a government minister, reminded the crowd that Mandela had pledged to place his life in the hands of his fellow South Africans to continue as "a fellow-soldier in the struggle for liberation".
Manuel said: "Today Madiba [Mandela's clan name] continues with that promise. He hasn't ever given up the responsibilities. It was not something that he said because he was happy to be out of prison. He said it because it was fundamental to his belief system.
"We were here with him then, we are here with him today still."
Despite media reports, ANC officials denied that there had ever been plans for Mandela or his ex-wife Winnie, who walked beside him 20 years ago, to be at the event. Mandela is now 91 and in deep retirement.
An ANC poster outside promised "Keynote speaker: Jacob Zuma" but instead his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, delivered the main speech to a muted audience. The ANC said that it had only announced "the presidency" would be represented, not Zuma personally.
Zuma is embroiled in a scandal over his private life after fathering a child, his 20th, in an adulterous relationship. There are reports in the South African press today that he has two more daughters, aged 12 and seven, by a businesswoman in his home province, Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Some supporters had travelled far in the hope of seeing Mandela. Wendy Nokwanda, 35, a farm worker, said: "I'm very disappointed. I want to see him, I want to talk to him, I want to touch him."
Mvuso Mbali, 37, said he was at the prison 20 years ago. "I still remember vividly what happened," he said. "Today we are reinventing our freedom, and uniting our people to follow the values of Mandela."
Mandela marked the anniversary of his release at home last week, reminiscing with fellow veterans sbout the struggle for the cameras of his daughter Zindzi's production company, which was preparing a documentary called "Conversations About That Day".
He is expected to be in parliament this evening for a state of the nation address by Zuma scheduled to coincide with the anniversary.
South Africa
Nelson Mandela
David Smith
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
|
GUARDIAN Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:05:36 GMT
'Chuckie' Taylor is said to have laughed as prisons were beaten and raped by his 'Demon Forces' paramilitaries
The American-born son of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor has been ordered to pay more than £14m in compensation to five people tortured during the West African country's civil war.
A judge in the US made the order a year after the same Miami court sentenced Charles McArthur Emmanuel Taylor, known as Chuckie, to 97 years in prison for his role in one of Africa's bloodiest chapters; he was the first person to be convicted by a federal court of committing offences outside the US.
The 32-year-old led the notorious Anti-Terrorist Unit, a band of pro-government paramilitaries nicknamed the Demon Forces who carried out murder and torture during his father's presidency from 1997 to 2003.
Witnesses at his criminal trial in 2008 spoke of hearing him laugh as prisoners were abused and how the Anti-Terrorist Unit "did things like beating people to death, burying them alive, rape – the most horrible kind of war crimes".
His father, also Charles Taylor, is currently on trial at the Hague facing 11 counts of crimes against humanity. The former warlord's regime was accused of involvement in murder, rape, gun running and diamond smuggling in both Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone. The trial – in which Taylor denies all the charges – has been going on since June 2007.
"Chuckie" Taylor was the result of a teenage romance when the former president was at college in Boston, Massachusetts, and lived in Florida with his mother until he was a teenager when he went to live with his father in Liberia. He was first arrested on a fake passport charge at Miami airport in 2006 but later indicted under the 12-year-old anti-torture law, the first time it had been used.
This latest civil case heard that five Liberians had testified before the court that they had been tortured and abused by the Anti-Terrorist Unit.
They described being held in jungle pits filled chest-high with water, being exposed to electric shocks to the genitals and other body parts and witnessing the killing of others by Taylor's men.
At the end of the civil trial last week, Taylor, who is currently in prison in Illinois, dismissed the torture allegations as deceptive propaganda.
However, human rights groups have welcomed this latest ruling against him. They say it is a move that might serve as a warning to others who commit similar abuses that they will be held accountable for their actions.
A spokesman for United States immigration and customs enforcement said that it was a "clear message the US would not be a safe haven for human rights violators".
Charles Taylor
Liberia
Tracy McVeigh
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
| | | |
GUARDIAN Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:01:56 GMT
Study shows net usage has increased as businesses switch to broadband but is still far short of figures for the west
The number of internet users in South Africa has passed 5 million and continues to enjoy strong growth, research shows. But internet penetration in Africa's economic powerhouse is only 10%, still far behind developed countries in the west.
South Africa's internet users grew from 4.6 million to 5.3 million last year, a rise of 15%, according to research by World Wide Worx, a technology and research and strategy organisation, sponsored by Cisco.
Arthur Goldstuck, the managing director of World Wide Worx, said: "The good news is that we will continue to see strong growth in 2010, and we should reach the 6 million mark by the end of the year."
The climb follows years of stagnation between 2002 to 2007, when internet penetration in South Africa never rose above 7%. But the rate almost doubled in 2008, and continued accelerating in 2009.
World Wide Worx said the growth had been driven by regulatory changes enabling small internet providers to enter the market with more competitive packages. It cited the granting of electronic communications network service licences to more than 400 organisations.
"This meant that service providers that were previously required to buy their network access from one of the major providers could now build their own networks or choose where they wanted to buy their access," it said.
The Internet Access in South Africa 2010 study found that growth had been spurred by small and medium businesses upgrading from dial-up to broadband connections. In doing so, they extended internet access to general office staff, adding up to 20 new users each.
The laying of the $600m (£368m) Seacom undersea cable linking the South African coast with Europe is expected to increase the number of connections and make them faster.
Goldstuck added: "In the coming year operators will begin to leverage the combination of new undersea cable capacity and new fibre-optic networks to supply corporate clients and resellers with bigger, faster and more flexible capacity.
"Almost every large player in the communications industry has realigned its business to take advantage of this relentless change."
Consumer demand is also rising, driven partly by the popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In 2008 South Africa's online advertising grew by 32%, the steepest rise in the English-speaking world. But nine in 10 South Africans are still not online, with many in poor townships or rural areas relying on internet cafes or doing without.
South Africa ranks fourth in Africa for total internet connections behind Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco, according to Internet World Stats.
Figures from last September showed penetration in Africa at 6.8%, the lowest of any region in the world, despite growth of 1,392% in the past decade. North America stood at 74.2%, Australasia at 60.4%, Europe at 52%, Latin America at 30.5%, the Middle East at 28.3% and Asia at 19.4%.
South Africa
Internet
David Smith
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
| | | | | | |
GUARDIAN Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:06:00 GMT
Their injuries are a painful reminder of a bitter conflict, but this football team is bringing pride to the country
Before they play, they pray. A dozen men, all missing a limb, lean on crutches and bow their heads. Shouts from a nearby football match and the sound of cars passing on the road beside us fill the air. The coach mutters an "amen" and the men lift their heads and begin warming-up. They move on their crutches with grace, dribbling around cones at pace, using the inside and outside of the foot.
A premier league team – the Invincible Eleven, for whom Liberia's most famous footballer, George Weah, formerly of Milan and Chelsea, used to play – are training on this patch of sandy scrubland by the side of a main road. But the handful of passers-by who stop and watch are more interested in the men on crutches who call themselves the champions of Africa.
On Christmas Eve 1989, Charles Taylor launched a rebellion in northern Liberia. This tiny country of three million facing the Atlantic on Africa's west coast had been ruled by one of the world's more bizarre dictators, Samuel Doe, who had come to power in a coup at the age of 28. Despite banning political parties, closing down the free press and stealing tens of millions from the state, Doe received full backing from the United States who saw him as sufficiently anti-communist to deserve their support. The fear of another "red" state in Africa prompted the US to back some brutal dictators, Doe included.
Within six months Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was laying siege to the capital, Monrovia. Civil war racked the country for the next seven years. More than a dozen peace accords were signed and ignored until elections were held in 1997. Taylor threatened to go back to war if he didn't win. His slogan, "He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I'll vote for him", summed up the fear he had spread throughout the country.
Taylor supported a rebellion in neighbouring Sierra Leone, eager to capture its abundant diamond mines. But his interference in other West African countries led to his downfall. Guinea's president, Lansana Conté, backed a new Liberian rebel group, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd), and by 2003 Lurd had surrounded Monrovia. Taylor flew to exile in Nigeria before being arrested in 2006 and taken into the custody of the UN. He is now on trial in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sierra Leone.
Part of Taylor's legacy is the thousands of young men in both Sierra Leone and Liberia who are missing limbs. His Sierra Leonean rebels used to chop off arms and legs of men who refused to sign up. In Liberia the amputees tended to be people wounded in battle who couldn't find a doctor in time to save their limb.
Outside every shopping centre in Monrovia, a crumbling city with pockets of affluence, there are amputees begging for change. One of them is Prince Chea, although he'd prefer it if you call him Samuel Eto'o. "I play almost like him," he says with a touch of modesty. Like so many Liberian teenagers, "Eto'o" had dreamed of becoming a professional footballer but he lost his right leg when he was hit by a mortar in 2001. He has no job and little chance of ever finding one. But he still has football. "People know me now," he says.
Eto'o plays centre-forward in Liberia's national side, which won the second All-African Amputee Football Championship in 2008. The team had been runners-up the year before in Sierra Leone, where five nations competed for the title. Although 2009's World Cup was cancelled – funding for amputee football across the world is still hard to come by – Eto'o's dreams of becoming a football star are still very much alive.
Victory in 2008 – they beat Sierra Leone in the final in Monrovia – has also helped to change attitudes among the wider public. After the war Liberia's amputees tended to be shunned. With no public transport system in the capital people rely on...
|
GUARDIAN Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:57:07 GMT
President Abdoulaye Wade's pet project, already controversial over its £17m price tag, has been criticised by religious leaders
Its £17m price tag was branded an insult to the poor. Now Senegal's giant monument to the "African Renaissance" is in trouble again – for an offensive display of women's legs.
The 49-metre bronze group of man, woman and infant perched on a hill overlooking the capital Dakar, and due to be inaugurated in April, is bigger than New York's Statue of Liberty.
But the pet project of president Abdoulaye Wade has been mired in controversy and condemned by religious leaders. Christians objected when he compared it to Jesus Christ, while Muslims, who make up 94% of the population, said it was "idolatrous" for presenting the human form as an object of worship.
"Our problem is with the woman's bare legs," architect and Wade adviser Pierre Goudiaby Atepa told Reuters, referring to the thigh-length hemline of the female figure's tunic.
"Right from the start President Wade pointed out the bare legs and asked if we couldn't put it right. I've given him an estimate for doing that and it's up to him to decide."
An official in Wade's office said any decision on whether to remodel the statue, likely to be a costly procedure, had not yet been taken.
Wade has already been forced to apologise to Senegal's Christian minority after publicly likening the statue to Christ. Theodore Adrien Sarr, the archbishop of Dakar, said the comment had "shaken and humiliated" Catholics, prompting angry protests by hundreds of young Christians.
Wade, 83, has said he was personally involved in designing the statue, which in style is more reminiscent of Soviet-style socialist realism than traditional African art forms. Nearly 50 North Korean workers were drafted in to build it.
The towering structure has sparked debate about the purpose of public art. It is intended to symbolise Africa's renaissance and prove that the continent can build its own monuments to rival those bequeathed by European colonialists.
But its detractors argue that Senegal could better use the funds to modernise its crumbling infrastructure. Impoverished residents in the monument's shadow endure incessant power blackouts and flooding.
Penda Mbow, professor of history at Dakar university, said: "The problem is the monument itself, not whether her skirt is lengthened or not.
"The problem is that it shows a woman with a secondary role on the continent, which is historically not accurate," said Mbow of the impression that the female figure is subjugated to the male in the group.
Dakar residents were bemused by the latest fuss over the project, which promoters hope will become a major tourist draw.
"I think they should have thought about this before, they've spent so many millions on it already," said student Penda Dethie Nael, 22. "The money could be going elsewhere."
Senegal
David Smith
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
|
GUARDIAN Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:29:33 GMT
First football World Cup to be held in Africa puts South Africa on parade but lacklustre new year celebrations could be a warning
A strange thing happens after you've been an expat for a while. You start feeling for your adopted country, if not pride, then at least an unconscious affinity. It's like looking out for your hometown football team's result every week, even though you say you don't really care.
I spent Christmas away from South Africa, in the United States, where affairs in Pretoria are not exactly big news. Driving around the snowbound woods of upstate New York, or dining in the majestic commuter cathedral of Grand Central Station, I recalled John Lennon's observation: "If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome. Where else? Today, America is the Roman empire, and New York is Rome itself. New York is the centre of the earth." Which makes Johannesburg, presumably, somewhere between Carthage and Pluto.
But South Africa hopes the centre of gravity is about to shift, at least in terms of soft power. In this country, mention "Twenty-ten" and you're not talking about a mere year; it is shorthand for the football World Cup finals, to be hosted by South Africa from mid-June to mid-July. Never before has Africa staged a football World Cup or Olympic games.
Politicians speak of the World Cup in the same breath as the victory over racial apartheid 16 years ago. Jacob Zuma, the president, said in his new year's address that this is "the most important year in our country since 1994". He described the football tournament as "the greatest marketing opportunity of our time".
An editorial in South Africa's Sunday Times proclaimed: "The year 2010 is in many ways going to define who we are and what we want to be. The eyes of the world will be on us and we will be scrutinised to see whether we are worthy of a place among the world's leading nations."
On Twitter, someone opined hopefully: "In 2010 South Africa becomes the centre of the world. The Americans will not be impressed."
But "Twenty-ten" itself, this monumental, epochal year to end all years, arrived last week with more of a miaow than a roar.
Johannesburg, or Jozi, has been erecting banners that describe itself as a "world class city". New Year's Eve, however, suggested it still has some way to go.
Yes, there was the annual carnival in Newtown, with stilt-walkers, musicians and dancers playing to a football theme. But it was all over by three in the afternoon. The rains came and restaurants were closing their doors. Local listings guides revealed a few parties here and there, but no evident focal point to join merry throngs in counting down to midnight.
Sydney had its usual orgy of fireworks on the harbour bridge. London would put on a supernova explosion around the Eye. New York would unleash fire and confetti in Times Square. Johannesburg had Mary Fitzgerald Square. "It was just me, myself and I, and the cameraman partying out from the early evening here," said a desperate-looking Jody Jacobs of e.tv's 24-hour news channel. "People were expecting a big party on the square but obviously that's not happening here tonight."
Jacobs interviewed a couple of would-be partygoers wearing South African national football shirts. "I came all this way and it's quiet here," one complained from among a noisy crowd. "I need some party now!"
Another said: "I was expecting to party. We're so disappointed. South Africa, come on! I have decided to leave this place because there's no party. I want to party. I want to welcome 2010."
In past years the square has hosted a new year's concert, but it had been cancelled this time because the city no longer had the money.
People were out on the streets in Hillbrow, a notoriously rough inner city area. A baby was hit on the head with a brick just before midnight and is in a critical condition.
But most apparently saw in the new year at home, which is how they'll spend most of the next 365 evenings here. Johannesburg is.....
|
GUARDIAN Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:05:01 GMT
The World Cup will be the big event of 2010 – whether it's locals or tourists buying the papers
Only bulk sales are rising in the South African newspaper industry. The newspapers that publishers give away for free are still allowed, under fabulously lax ABC rules, to count as real sales in order to impress companies who advertise in their products.
The latest ABC figures, for the third quarter of 2009, revealed that of the 50 or so daily and weekly papers only three were up (a bit) on the previous three months and only two could safely be said to have risen on the year (one was up 1% and the other up 0.4%). We can't wait for the World Cup and, especially, the English supporters. Maybe they'll buy us?
South African papers have been slow to get excited about the summer but it was probably the recent draw in Cape Town that brought home a sense of what is coming our way. "Becks here", screamed posters fixed on to lampposts. It was almost as if the whole English team had arrived.
The immediate press reaction was to wrap itself up in the flag and proclaim that they (pick your title) never doubted our ability to host the World Cup. The day after the draw, one of Tony O'Reilly's papers, the Johannesburg Saturday Star, ran an editorial that said, in part: "it was unfair that many South Africans doubted our country's ability to do a proper job … More dismaying was the way that some South Africans, and some media in fact, went out of their way to project an image to the world of a country that was crime-ridden."
Well, few newspapers have fed as heartily on the crime story in South Africa than the Saturday Star but we have put that behind us. We editors are all agreed that we want the World Cup to be a Great Success. As the editor of a financial daily, I suppose we will look at the whole affair from a different angle. But for many of my brother editors, here's a short wish list English fans may be able to help out with. First, get drunk and wander off on your own into Hillbrow in Johannesburg. Second, do get out of your car and pose with that lion cub in the game park. Its parents are miles away. Third, celebrate the night away in a T-shirt in either Johannesburg or Cape Town's fan parks. That will give us the "Fan killed, eaten or freezes" headlines which, in the possible but highly improbable event that our team fails to lose to France, Uruguay or Mexico, local papers will need to keep the World Cup on their front pages.
Seriously though, newspaper proprietors are desperate to make money out of the World Cup. But it won't be easy. Fifa will rule with an iron fist and it is already almost impossible to pretend any association with the event without Fifa's say-so. That comes at a price.
A lesson about the attitudes of the people who bring big sports events to this country was learned earlier in the year when the Indian Premier League cricket tournament was played in South Africa. Before it began, the Sunday Times, the biggest weekly in the country, ran a story about the IPL boss, Lalit Modi. The IPL demanded a correction but the paper managed to repeat what had irritated Modi in the first place. The paper and all its associates (including Business Day) probably missed out on about R3m (£245,040) or R4m worth of advertising as a result.
So how to monetise the World Cup remains a newspaper mystery here. It is unlikely more locals will buy papers, unless our team does miraculously well. That means it'll have to be the English fans who make next year's ABCs look good. And they may not have to buy their papers anyway. Publishers will more than likely give them away and claim them as "bulk sales" or, in a new ploy I have noticed, "travel bulk". I don't know what that is but I'll bet it's a pile of free newspapers dumped in front of your hotel in the morning.
• Peter Bruce is the editor of Business Day, Johannesburg
World cup & the media
Newspapers & magazines
ABCs
South Africa
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010...
| | | |
GUARDIAN Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:05:11 GMT
Who will win the World Cup? And can Roger Federer avoid the curse of Gillette?
Sport loves new years – and new decades even more. New years appeal to sport's sense of constant renewal, its thrillingly blinkered forward-facing universe, fed by an unceasing supply of new games, new balls, new seasons and new eras. In sport, new eras tend to be bookmarked by decades, in part because – in one of the many ways that it is nothing like life – sport tends to run along clean lines, and to arrange itself considerately to our expectations. With this in mind, 2010 in sport seems destined to be a business of dramatic full-stops and significant new chapters.
The biggest sporting event of the year is the football World Cup in South Africa in June. Significant World Cups go in 20-year cycles: Brazil in 1950 was the first really modern tournament, with its concrete stadia and air of space-age flash; Mexico in 1970 brought the coronation of Pelé and the fetishising of the Brazilian way; and Italia 90 nudged football into the mainstream. South Africa 2010 should deliver something equally seismic and the host continent will hope this is the start of football's African period. Brazil or Spain should win, but Ghana and the Ivory Coast look well placed to become a much-needed first African semi-finalist.
By then the year's other major global event will already have taken place in Vancouver, in February. The Winter Olympics is a fortnight of cowbells and split times and rosy teutonic people in fluorescent one-pieces. Britain will do well despite its lack of mountains because in the post lottery-funded world Britain always does well in sports that require you to be seated (cycling, rowing, bobsleigh) or have an expensive piece of fibreglass kit. Watch out for Shelley Rudman in the skeleton and oddly discomfiting brother-and-sister pair Sinead and John Kerr in the ice dancing, and for Ghana's first ever skiing Olympian, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, who will compete – and no doubt come last – in the giant slalom.
Elsewhere cricket will continue to go quaintly mad, like a deeply weathered elderly relative who keeps insisting on putting on a pair of hotpants and breakdancing to Bach. For the first time the season's opening county fixture between MCC and champions Durham will take place not at a chilly and sombre Lord's, but in Dubai under floodlights using a pink ball. Amazingly, this is not a joke. Later, Pakistan will play a test match against Australia at Lord's, the first ever neutral five-day money-spinner on English soil. And finally it's the Ashes in Australia in November and another novelty: England might be favourites to win.
In tennis Roger Federer has a twin-pronged mission: to avoid the curse of Gillette, maintaining his pristine marketability after the recent besmirching of fellow TV ad shavers Thierry Henry and Tiger Woods; and seek a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title. (This will probably mean beating Andy Murray, who looks well-placed to win his first grand slam in SW19 in June.)
Formula One will be defined by the rebirth of Michael Schumacher, poised to return to the sport at the age of 41. Also in line for another – perhaps final – return from retirement is Floyd Mayweather, the finest boxer of his generation, who may fight Phillipino superstar Manny Paquiao in what will be the bout of the century so far, if a wrangle over pre-bout blood tests can be settled.
So this is what 2010 will look like in sport: a series of crests, renewals, era-dawnings and abrupt farewells, all made to seem that little bit more resonant, their miniature theatre pimped and fluffed by the fact that the new year ends in a zero.
World Cup 2010
Winter Olympics 2010
Cricket
Tennis
Formula One
Barney Ronay
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
| |
GUARDIAN Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:49:30 GMT
Diplomat leaks details of security council report and blames junta leaders for killing and rape of unarmed protesters
United Nations investigators believe Guinea's wounded junta leader was directly responsible for the mass killings and rapes of protesters in September, which they consider crimes against humanity, a UN diplomat said.
The investigators also concluded there are reasonable grounds to suspect junta leader Captain Moussa "Dadis" Camara, the army officer who shot him on 3 December, Lieutenant Abubakar "Toumba" Diakite, and Guinea's anti-drug chief, Commander Moussa Thegboro Camara, bear "individual criminal responsibility" for the events of 28 September and the days following, the diplomat said.
The 60-page report was sent to the security council, Guinea's government, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States at the weekend. Its contents were first reported by Le Monde newspaper.
On 28 September, soldiers loyal to Camara sealed off the exits to the national football stadium where tens of thousands of protesters had gathered to demand an end to military rule. Troops entered and fired their assault rifles, spraying bullets into the unarmed crowd, survivors said.
The French daily newspaper said the report surmised that there were "indications of a premeditated intention" to kill as many people as possible, because soldiers used real bullets, gave no warning, "fired until the bullets ran out and targeted parts of the body where vital organs are located", and "women were raped with objects, including bayonets, sticks, pieces of metal and clubs".
The three-member UN commission, which interviewed 700 people to reach its findings, recommended that the International Criminal Court investigate those believed responsible for the killings, the UN diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public.
The report said 156 people were killed or disappeared on 28 September, 67 whose bodies have been returned to their families, 40 seen to be dead but whose bodies have disappeared, and 49 others who are missing and whose fate is unknown.
The commission said at least 109 women or girls were victims of rape and sexual mutilation, others suffered "cruel and degrading treatment", and dozens of people were arrested or arbitrarily detained in military camps, the diplomat added.
The junta has insisted only 57 people were killed and has denied all acts of rape or sexual violence.
The commission believes the authorities have been trying to erase evidence of alleged violations and believes the number of victims is much higher, the diplomat said.
It concluded "there is sufficient reason to presume the direct criminal responsibility of President Moussa Dadis Camara", the diplomat said.
The state of Camara's health has remained a mystery since he was shot at by his own presidential guard this month and airlifted to a Moroccan military hospital. Guinea's vice-president is in charge.
In Guinea, Frederic Kolie, a Cabinet minister and a spokesman for the military junta, said authorities did not yet have the report and had no immediate response.
The UN commission said it is "reasonable to conclude" the violence constituted crimes against humanity, the same conclusion reached by Human Rights Watch.
It also called for reform of Guinea's army and judicial system, establishment of a Truth Commission in the country to look into the events, reparations for victims and sanctions against the perpetrators, the diplomat said. .
War crimes
Human rights
United Nations
Guinea
Protest
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
| |
GUARDIAN Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:11:49 GMT
Members of the district steering committee endorse Amref's activity plans after calling for more money to be spent on infrastructure and less on training
District officials in Katine asked the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) for more money to be spent on infrastructure (hardware) and less on training (software) in discussions about plans for the third year of the project.
This is the third time authorities in Soroti, the district in which Katine is found, have expressed their desire for the project to minimise its training budgets.
Amref argues that training is an important element of the project to ensure sustainability when its staff leave the sub-county. For example, villagers need to be taught how to maintain the newly sunk boreholes so they don't fall into disrepair.
But at a district project steering committee meeting to discuss activity plans for the third year and a proposed fourth year of the project, held earlier this month, the authorities asked Amref not to spend more money on training. Members added that they would like to assess the impact the training sessions already held have had on the community. Over the last two years, Amref has conducted training in all the five components of the Katine project.
The Soroti district vice-chairman, Daniel Ewadu, pointed out to the committee that it is now a government policy not to include training in any work plans, such as those drawn up by Amref.
"It is now government policy not to encourage training in the work plans. Not even meetings − if they must be there, then it should not constitute major activities. You can't keep training up to the time when we expect results from the training," he said.
Eunice Wange, who represents the district health officer, questioned the sort of training being offered in the health component. "Training up to the last moment − what are you training vaccinators in the fourth year for? What new things are you going to give them?" she asked.
She said the project should, at least, opt for competence-based training, where those trained would gain skills as they work.
The committee did, however, praise work planned by Amref under the water and sanitation component. Members agreed that of the five components it could be the most successful and said the implementing officers understood their job.
The livelihoods component was equally applauded for proposals to establish 48 new farmer groups, which would mean there would be one for each village in the sub-county. The proposals to train them were also welcome.
Members were also happy about plans to provide more teaching materials, renovate classroom blocks and introduce an advocacy programme for vulnerable children.
The authorities, however, noted that some of the activities in the third year were similar to those in the proposed fourth year and asked for the plans to be restructured.
During the fourth year the authorities do not expect Amref to implement major activities, but prepare strategies for exit.
Committee members pointed to plans under the health component to train village health teams and community vaccinators in the third year and again in year four. Under community empowerment, Amref plans to conduct basic IT training in both years.
Amref's project manager, Oscar Okech, said the programme activities were not the same and that they reflected the views of other partners during the mid-term review meeting held in Soroti in September.
Following the meeting, the activity plans were restructured to take the committee's comments into consideration and were endorsed by members.
"That activity plans we presented had been approved by Amref, but it is important to consider the views of development partners," he said. One of the ideas that Amref picked up from the committee and included in the new activity plans is the on job training for village health teams and community vaccinators.
The full activity plans for years three and four – and an explanation on.....
| |
| Full List of Western Africa articles |
|
|
|
NEWS SUMMARY
Legalise drugs and a worldwide epidemic of addiction will follow | Antonio María Costa
The young tearaway who's in the running to be next Pope
Millions at risk as crops fail in central Africa
Children killed in S Africa crash
Spanish hostages 'free in Africa'
Newcastle close in on Tiote deal
Bout 'smuggled weapons to Africa'
Turn left at the horn: 'Rhino City' revealed
Man who received 'blood diamonds' from Naomi Campbell quits charity
