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Mutapa   Mutapa Richwell Phinias's TIGblog
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Theme for World Aids Day 2008 set
Related to country: Zimbabwe

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

"ZIMBABWE-Proven Leadership in HIV Prevention: Scale Up Treatment, Care and Support Now" is the country’s theme for the 2008 World Aids Day commemorations.Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world tomorrow in commemorating World Aids Day amid calls for increased efforts in improving treatment, care and support for people infected and affected with HIV.

This year’s theme was adopted following consultations, and seeks to acknowledge the positive gains the country has achieved in the area of HIV and Aids. Zimbabwe registered a significant decline in the HIV prevalence rate from 33 percent in 1999 to the current 15,6 percent.

At a Press briefing in Harare recently, the chairperson of the World Aids Day planning committee, Pastor Maxwell Kapachawo, said while acknowledging Zimbabwe’s proven leadership in HIV prevention there were still gaps in the provision of treatment, care and support for those infected and affected."Our call for action is for all stakeholders to take the lead in issues of treatment, care and support," he said.This year’s main event will be held at Chipadze Stadium in Bindura where about 5 000 people are expected to witness various activities to mark World Aids Day.

Meanwhile, Power FM presenter, Leander Kandiero, will tomorrow take the lead in line with the global HIV and Aids leadership, as he embarks on a non-stop 24-hour broadcast in solidarity with all those infected and affected by the virus.Kandiero — who will be fasting throughout the day — said he hoped that the information carried throughout the day-long broadcast would help counter the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.His initiative is the first of its kind and demonstrates how being innovative can significantly contribute towards addressing HIV and Aids.

The broadcast which will start at midnight, will feature interviews with people living with HIV, officials in Aids service organisations, phone-ins by members of the public, and highlights on key facts on HIV in Zimbabwe.

December 1, 2008 | 11:01 AM Comments  0 comments

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Mutapa   Mutapa Richwell Phinias's TIGblog
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One-Man 24-Hour Marathon Broadcast on HIV & AIDS - WAD 2008: Take the Lead
Related to country: Zimbabwe

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

For the first time ever in Zimbabwe, and indeed in world history, a 24-hour marathon broadcast on HIV and AIDS!

The brainchild of POWER FM, a musical station wholly owned by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, the 24-Hour marathon broadcast to be aired on Power FM presents Zimbabweans with an opportunity to reflect, talk about, question as well as map the way forward regarding the country's responses to HIV and AIDS.

Twenty four years since the first HIV case was detected in Zimbabwe, Power FM and SAfAIDS have partnered on this initiative due to their firm belief that, despite the progress Zimbabwe has made in the past 10 years, there is need to constantly go back to the drawing table and come up with new ways of dealing with the epidemic, still one of the leading causes of death in Zimbabwe, and the whole of southern Africa.

Zimbabwe has managed to record a decline in HIV prevalence from over 30 percent, 10 years ago, to the current 15,6 percent.

"This One-Man 24-Hour marathon broadcast is a brilliant and innovative way of keeping HIV and AIDS issues on the agenda. We can only applaud POWER FM and Leander Kandiero, the 24-Hour man show presenter, for coming up with such an excellent idea said SAfAIDS deputy director, Ms Sara Page. "As SAfAIDS, we are proud to be associated with the whole idea and look forward to providing accurate and relevant information on HIV and AIDS and TB during the broadcast."

"What this shows is that each and every one of us can do something to make a difference. We can all take the lead to make a difference in our homes, workplaces, communities and even in our country," she added.

This year, World AIDS Day is being commemorated under the theme of leadership, which Kandiero says was one of the reasons he decided to take the lead and commit himself to being on air throughout the 1st of December with the aim of raising the profile of HIV and AIDS issues and providing a platform for people living with HIV and AIDS to have their voices heard.

"It is just about using your talent and your space to make a difference. If each and every one of us in this country contributes something, be it time, or money, or even knowledge and information, Zimbabwe can only continue to record declines in HIV incidence while people living with HIV can also become more positive about themselves and as a result, live longer," he said.

It is hoped that corporates, individuals, opinion leaders and all Zimbabweans will tune in to the broadcast and participate in various ways, even if it is to buy medicines for those in need of them.

POWER FM says it firmly believes in its moral obligation to give back to the communities that make up its listenership by supporting such innovative and worthwhile initiatives like the One-Man 24 Hour Marathon Broadcast.

So come World AIDS Day on the 1st of December 2008, you are advised to "Take the Lead and be the first to tune in to Power FM."

For more information please contact:
Beatrice Tonhodzayi
SAfAIDS
Tel: + 263-4- 336193/4 or 307898
Email: beatrice@safaids.org.zw

Or

Tinashe Chiname
POWER FM
Tel: + 263- 54- 226000
Posted by 24/7 Marathon Broadcast-Leander Kandiero at 5:51 AM

December 1, 2008 | 10:45 AM Comments  0 comments

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Botswana: “Africa’s new democracy”?
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

THE plight of the Bushmen in Botswana is well documented. In a sign of desperation the vulnerable group a few days ago appealed to Pope Benedict XVI to support them in their struggle to return to their land, as the Vatican established diplomatic relations with Botswana earlier this month.

“We beg the Pope to help, to pray for us so that the government changes its attitude towards us and respects our rights as indigenous peoples of this land,” said a spokesman for the Bushmen this week.

Despite Botswana’s High Court having affirmed the Bushmen’s rights to live in their reserve in 2006, the government of the new president General Ian Seretse Khama continues to violate their rights.

It has given the company Gem Diamonds permission to mine diamonds on Bushmen land.

Not one Bushman has received a hunting permit since the High Court ruling, making it unlawful for the government to withhold permits. None of the Bushmen have been allowed to access borehole water on their land. Hunting and borehole water are the backbone of Bushmen life. Life is now extremely difficult for them.

The appeal to the Pope was not coincidental. On 1 July, the Pope expressed his solidarity and support for the indigenous peoples of Raposa-Serra do Sol in Brazil when he met them in the Vatican and declared “We will do everything possible to help protect your land.”

These autochthonous peoples have a right to their land. They have an emotional historical connection to these lands Their linguistic, cultural and social/organizational identity is through these lands. Infact, their existence is expressed through the lands from which they are being evicted.

The colonizing or expansionary activities of the Batswana government today threatens this group.

This is the case with the Indians of Raposa–Serra do Sol; the Dongria Kondh living in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa, India; the (Red) Indians of North America; the Maoris of New Zealand; the Aborigines of Australia; the Masai and Ogiek of Kenya: the Innu of Canada – the list is endless, but the plight is the same.

These groups share one common characteristic – their governments are purportedly democratic. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, U.S., and India are considered thriving democracies. Botswana and Kenya are said to be models of democracy on the African continent.

A majority of these countries also share an interesting similarity: they control the big mining companies and conglomerates.

Large mining projects in these regions take place in rural areas, where they coexist with indigenous communities, and they advance at the same time as many of these communities become poorer and poorer.

India, Canada and Australia have moved significant groups of indigenous peoples from their lands to open up areas for uranium and other mining; and have failed to compensate them.

Where the indigenous have stayed, the consequences have been dire.

Examples suffice. Traditional heads opposed uranium mining in Meghalaya (India) and members of a Special Operations Team (SOT) of Meghalaya police killed five militants of the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) last year. In the U.S., the House Committee clashed with federal agencies whom they accused of incompetence in dealing with the mess left from uranium mining on Navajo land. A study found that the cancer rate doubled among Aborigines near Ranger mine (Australia).

Botswana’s Bushmen

Closer to home, in Botswana, the plight of the Bushmen cannot be overemphasized.

A recent study of the plight of the modern Bushmen revealed some troubling statistics. 90% have been forced to abandon their traditional hunter/gatherer lifestyle and merge with pastural/urbanized.

The Botswana government and De Beers/Anglo American interests have been responsible for pushing away (colonizing) the Bushmen who, according to anthropologists, ethnologists and paleontologists, have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 40,000 years.

This is the plight of indigenous peoples, who are minorities in their own countries.

Khama, Conservation International and Sadc

Botswana President Ian Khama recently snubbed a Southern African Development Community summit to discuss problems in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Many reasons were advanced for that snub. It has now emerged that he was attending a meeting of Conservation International in the United States at a time when the summit was going on in South Africa.

President Khama is reported to have made “prior arrangements” to attend the U.S. meeting and could not substitute it for a crisis meeting in the region.

Conservation International is an NGO and there have been concerns in Botswana as to President Khama’s eligibility to sit on an NGO board whilst also serving as a Head of State.

But, that is not the main issue. The issue is that President Khama has been responsible for the plight of the Bushmen. Infact, Khama and his predecessor, Festus Mogae, have presided over this “colonisation” of Bushmen lands and have been rewarded for it.

Former President Mogae was recently awarded a prize for “exemplary leadership” – the Mo Ibrahim prize for “good governance”.

Giving an “Achievement In Africa Leadership Award” to Mogae was an ironic twist that left the Bushmen flabbergasted. They cried: “We don’t think he should receive this award because of how he treated us when he was President of Botswana. He evicted us from our ancestral land and that has really affected our lives. He put us into poverty, HIV-AIDS and alcoholism.”

Survival International wrote: “Festus Mogae's government evicted the Bushmen from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002, and banned them from hunting and gathering.

“Bushman hunters were arrested and tortured; those protesting peacefully against the evictions were arrested and shot at; and at least one woman died of starvation and thirst when Mogae's government shut down the borders of the reserve.”

The Mo Ibrahim Prize consists of US$ 5 million over 10 years and US$ 200,000 annually for life thereafter. Interestingly, the committee awarding the prize included former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, one of the “Elders” recently denied entry in Zimbabwe.

Does good governance not demand respect for people, especially minorities? President Mogae's tenure overturned decades of respect for Bushmen land rights and makes a mockery of the Mo Ibrahim prize.

President Khama, who is a Board Member of Conservation International (the only Head of State), makes a mockery of that NGO by denying the Bushmen their rights.

Conservation International says of its mission: “We believe that the Earth's natural heritage must be maintained if future generations are to thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically. Our mission is to conserve the Earth's living heritage – our global biodiversity – and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.”

Ironically, the natural heritage of the Bushmen is not maintained; the Bushmen do not “thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically” today and they are not “living harmoniously with nature” in Botswana.

The irony of “democracies”

This is the irony of democracies. It is inseparable from big business interests. Richard Branson (and other big businesses) is reportedly supportive of, and funds, the Group of Elders. He is the epitome of big business and has huge interests in the region. The mining conglomerates: Anglo-American etc fund research projects on “democracy” and big-business-friendly Governments go high up the “Index of Democracy” ladder every year.

Kenya, with its appalling record on violence and corruption, is heralded a thriving African democracy; never mind the failing State, with all the aid being pumped in.

Botswana, with its appalling attitude and neo-colonial attitude towards a 4,000 year legacy of the Bushmen, is considered a thriving democracy. It is the only country that still has customary (judicial) whipping of convicted criminals, including women. If that is not torture, then what is?

Corporal punishment is shunned by “modern democracies”. How come this “democracy” is rewarded for such an archaic practice?

Even women in Botswana are still whipped; hence the Setswana saying that "Ya mosimane ke e nkgwe", meaning that corporal punishment was traditionally for males only.

Democracy in Africa

The future of democracy in Africa is threatened not by Africa’s inability to develop functional social and political systems.

It is not even threatened by the intransigence of the current crop of leadership, per se.

It is threatened by non-African business interests – big business interests – that are responsible for the movement of our peoples from their lands; and for the manipulation of our socio-political and economic systems to make way for their interests – the creation of new markets for their mass produced commodities from the West and for the exploitation of our vast resources.

The plight of all indigenous peoples can be traced back to some big business interests – a strange coincidence.

Current “targeted sanctions” against Zimbabwe are aimed at businessmen with huge interests in big business and mining and mining related companies. This is not a coincidence.

New additions to the U.S. sanctions list are mining magnates: John Bredenkamp (who the U.S. said was involved in arms trading and diamond extraction), Muller Conrad "Billy" Rautenbach (who it said was linked with mining projects that "enriched the government")

Companies designated by the Bush administration do not include Anglo-American – which is heavily involved in mining deals in the country. Surely AA should also be “propping up the regime”. This exclusion is also not a coincidence.

Unless our democracies become true democracies, for Africa, we can never extricate ourselves from the very troubling web created by big business interests.

The reality of the moment is that big business and Western governments are so intertwined that the difference is now almost non-existent.

At least for now, we hope, Botswana will not be used as a launch pad for the recolonization of Africa by big business. Paying huge monetary prizes to presidents – who are elected by the people – defeats the whole purpose of “governing for the people, by the people”. Presidents will become Chief Executive Officers who “govern for business” and ignore the plight of their people, especially those indigenous people who have an inalienable right to their lands.

info@talkzimbabwe.com

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/news/117/ARTICLE/3813/2008-11-28.html