Historical roots and ties of apartheid and colonialism
According to the Financial Times, South Africa has a population of nearly 50,000 Jews, the majority of whom are Ashkenazi. The country has a history of Zionist Jews that supported South African apartheid but also has a history of anti-apartheid, anti-Zionist Jews, including Koni Benson, a member of South African Jews for a Free Palestine, and Andrew Feinstein, a...
Overcoming barriers through technology and providing services to hard-to-reach rural areas
Helping to improve direct and immediate access to even hard-to-reach communities with real-time measurable data through mobile phone technology is how Viamo explains its service. According to its Sudan Country Manager, Rudiana M.E. Mustafa, Viamo’s digital campaigns include starting a dialogue between organizations, governments, programs and the people they work with to utilize important public service messaging. Viamo works cross...
Africa, the World Cup and rooting for everybody Black
The world's most viewed sporting event happens every four years during the World Cup. Estimates suggest this year it will garner 3.2 billion viewers. In a recent commentary discussing who to root for during this global soccer match, subtitled “A Diasporic Black Man's Guide to the World Cup,' Maulud Sadiq wrote since his “family,” obviously due in great part...
South Africa’s foreign minister on Russia, China and upcoming BRICS summit
In an opinion piece written by Oupa Ngwenya published April 9 in the South African Sunday World, the headline framed the country’s foreign minister as presenting “(the) clearest voice with a good aim to U.S. madness.” According to Ngwenya, a corporate strategist, writer, and freelance journalist, “no one should be surprised when Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor exhibits the same state...
Israel said to train U.S. assassins in Iraq
/GIN LONDON (IPS/GIN)–The U.S. army in Iraq is enlisting Israeli experts to train its forces on assassinating resistance leaders, a move which a former U.S. intelligence official warned would further entrench the perception of America as another "Sharon" in Iraq, a British daily recently disclosed. Citing military and intelligence sources, The Guardian said U.S. forces are now being trained...
UAE activist subjected to reprisal for exposing abuses in prison: Rights groups
Emirati prison authorities have retaliated against rights activist Ahmed Mansoor after the publication of letters he wrote detailing his mistreatment and inhumane conditions in jail. Two rights groups said Jan. 7 that Mansoor has been denied access to critical medical care and transferred to a smaller and more isolated cell following revelations about his dire jail conditions. The human rights defender’s...
Pakistanis see U.S. as worse threat than al-Qaida, Taliban
JIM.LOBE WASHINGTON, (IPS/GIN) - Most Pakistanis consider the U.S. military presence in Asia and Afghanistan to be a more critical threat to their country than al-Qaida or Pakistan’s own Taliban movement, according to a survey released Jan 1. The results of the poll suggest that the vast majority of Pakistanis would oppose the aggressive covert actions that the administration of...
Coups or revolution? African nations at a crossroads and throwing off Western colonial shackles
Military leaders in the Central African nation of Gabon announced that they had taken power, ousted the government, and placed its longtime President Ali Bongo under house arrest. The officers introduced themselves as members of the Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions (CTRI). They annulled the official results from the Aug. 26 presidential election, closed borders, and...
Accidents and evictions by mining companies pile up as search heats up for minerals
(GIN)—Seydi Sow, a landowner in Djogo, Senegal, contemplated his eviction by a mining company with joint headquarters in Australia and France and which mines zircon in central Senegal. The elderly landowner said he was wronged in the compensation process. With two fields over 4.94 acres in size, he complained he received a small payment, much less than others with smaller farms. The...
Wikileaks Cablegate reveals unflattering U.S. view of African ‘client states,’ leaders
(FinalCall.com) - The fallout continues after Wikileaks began posting thousands of leaked classified U.S. embassy cables on Nov. 28. So far, only 667 of the 251,287 secret documents have been posted online and already there is international uproar consisting of praise and criticism. Wikileaks has closely protected its sources and will not discuss how the information was obtained. “It’s clear that...