Current Events from Africa
Libya’s Hunt for a Gaddafi Alternative
By: George Joffe, North Africa specialist, University of Cambridge
One of the most difficult facets of the crisis in Libya to unravel is the nature of the opposition to the Gaddafi regime.
Apart from the amorphous mass demonstrations calling for freedom and an end to oppression and the regime, it is extremely difficult to identify any institutions or ideologies that represent alternatives to the current regime holding on to power in Tripoli.
This is, perhaps, the true measure of the regime's success: through the twin tools of "direct popular democracy" in the jamahiriya - Col Gaddafi's people's committees - and the Revolutionary Committee Movement, which has been used principally to suppress the slightest dissent, Libyan society has been atomised and fragmented.
Yet the success of the demonstrations in recent days has forced new forms of opposition to the regime to begin to emerge and old ones, submerged by the blanket repression of the past, to re-emerge.
Thus, in eastern Libya, the towns are gradually being taken over - ironically enough, by committees handling administration and supply. They provide a spontaneous response to the deadening weight of the popular committees of the past, directed from Tripoli. They claim the leadership of the former justice minister who defected 10 days ago, although it is not clear exactly how real his role is.
Tribal leaders from the Sa'adi tribes, traditionally hostile to the Gaddafi regime, are also involved in the committees, thus bringing an ethos of tribal solidarity to them.
Army units that defected - and thus made the revolution in eastern Libya possible - are said to be led by the former interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, who also defected 10 days ago.
The rebels claim to control 80% of the oilfields on the western edge of Cyrenaica, thus giving them potential financial muscle for the future.
Tribal ethos
And, so they claim, they are preparing to move westwards, to engage pro-Gaddafi forces around Tripoli, where the regime depends on its support from the three tribes that have been its traditional power base - the Qadhadfa, the Warfalla and the Maghraha - together with the army's 32nd Brigade and an unknown number of foreign mercenaries.
Already Misurata to Tripoli's east and Zawiya to the west appear to be in rebel hands.
And what of the rest of the country? Well, it appears that the tribes of Tripolitania and the Fezzan have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. They will not choose until they know who is going to win.
Source: BBC News
Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12612169
News from Kenya: Kenya backs green economies
President Kibaki on Monday led leaders from 140 countries in rooting for adoption of green economy to improve capital base and ecosystem services.
The Head of State said although shift to green economy is not a substitute to sustainable development, countries should tap into renewable energy sources, geothermal and wind.
He was addressing a conference on green energy and growing challenges of electronic waste at the UN headquarters in Gigiri that has attracted delegates from 140 countries. Eighty of the countries are represented at ministerial and deputy ministerial levels.
President Kibaki, who was accompanied by Cabinet Ministers John Michuki (Environment), George Saitoti (Internal Security) and Unep executive director Achim Steiner, said no single nation has an answer to environmental challenges and that there is need for global partnership to address them.
Strengthen
He said the green climate fund and global environmental facility should support developing countries.
President Kibaki reiterated Kenya's push for the retention and strengthening of Unep headquarters at Gigiri.
Unep status, he said, should also be elevated to be like other global UN agencies.
"Kenya is committed to playing its role as host of Unep and the entire UN fraternity," President Kibaki said.
He said security around UN headquarters at Gigiri has been improved. The road from Gigiri to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is also being expanded for ease access by staff, delegations and other stakeholders.
Expressing happiness over UN's move to build an ultra modern building at its premises in Nairobi, President Kibaki called for strengthening of its presence in Nairobi.
Dr Steiner hailed Kenya's efforts to conserve the environment and increase forest cover from the current two per cent to 10 per cent as per new Constitution.
He regretted that worldwide one per cent of arable land is lost annually due to climate change despite the ballooning of population from 5.8 billion in 1992 to 7 billion.
He cited Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa as among countries in Africa whose leaders were committed to protect the environment.
He also congratulated Kenya for investing in geothermal and wind power.
The conference's theme is "Together towards a sustainable future on the road to Rio."
Only 15 months remain before the Rio conference.
Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1111828/-/111b1xmz/-/index.html
News from Ghana: Duffuor adjudged best African finance minister
Source: Ghanaian Daily Graphic
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of Ghana, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has won the prestigious Finance Minister for Africa award for 2011 after beating six other African finance ministers shortlisted for the award.
The authoritative London-based magazine, The Banker, published by the Financial Times Group since 1926, conferred the award on Dr Duffuor for leading a team that initiated prudent fiscal policies anchored on checking waste in public spending, ensuring quality of expenditure and enhancing domestic revenue mobilisation through improvement in tax policies.
In its January 2011 edition, the publication considered that in less than two years at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the minister "has been leading an arduous campaign to weed out wasteful public spending and enhance revenue",
It stated, "His vision for the medium term has been to accelerate growth of the Ghanaian economy without compromising macroeconomic stability."
It added that Dr Duffuor had also implemented fiscal and financial policies that promoted fiscal sustainability and support for the domestic financial system.
Dr Duffuor told the Daily Graphic that he was happy when he received the news, as it went to show that the nation's efforts at turning the economy around within a short period had received international recognition and approval.
But he would not like to take the credit but rather dedicated the award to the people of Ghana and the President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, who, he said, did not only appoint him but also gave him the necessary support and personal commitment to ensure that the economy became sustainably stable.
The African finance ministers who raced with Dr Duffuor were those from South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
"The distance we have travelled in these few months is remarkable. The benefits of the government's commitment to its economic programmes are clearly visible and the decline in the overall budget deficit this year (2010) is appropriate," the Finance Minister told The Banker.
The Independence, a local newspaper, crowned Dr Duffuor Man of the Year in 1997. Around the same period, he was also crowned the Marketing Man of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG).
Just last year, Dr Duffuor also received the International Distinguished Merit Award from the Gambia-based West African Institute of Insurance (WAII).
Dr Duffuor holds a PhD from the University of Syracuse, New York. His dissertation was titled:
"The impact of the post 1971 exchange rate system on developing countries, with special reference to Ghana".
The Finance Minister also holds two masters degrees - an MBA in Finance and Banking and a Master of Arts in Economics.
link: http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/201102/61454.asp
NEWS FROM TUNISIA: POLITICS AND RELIGION
Next Question for Tunisia: The Role of Islam in Politics
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: February 20, 2011
TUNIS — The Tunisian revolution that overthrew decades of authoritarian rule has entered a delicate new phase in recent days over the role of Islam in politics. Tensions mounted here last week when military helicopters and security forces were called in to carry out an unusual mission: protecting the city’s brothels from a mob of zealots.
Fethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A woman carrying a sign reading “Ghannouchi get out” during a demonstration in Tunis on Sunday.
Police officers dispersed a group of rock-throwing protesters who streamed into a warren of alleyways lined with legally sanctioned bordellos shouting, “God is great!” and “No to brothels in a Muslim country!”
Five weeks after protesters forced out the country’s dictator, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisians are locked in a fierce and noisy debate about how far, or even whether, Islamism should be infused into the new government.
About 98 percent of the population of 10 million is Muslim, but Tunisia’s liberal social policies and Western lifestyle shatter stereotypes of the Arab world. Abortion is legal, polygamy is banned and women commonly wear bikinis on the country’s Mediterranean beaches. Wine is openly sold in supermarkets and imbibed at bars across the country.
Women’s groups say they are concerned that in the cacophonous aftermath of the revolution, conservative forces could tug the country away from its strict tradition of secularism.
“Nothing is irreversible,” said Khadija Cherif, a former head of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, a feminist organization. “We don’t want to let down our guard.”
Ms. Cherif was one of thousands of Tunisians who marched through Tunis, the capital, on Saturday demanding the separation of mosque and state in one of the largest demonstrations since the overthrow of Mr. Ben Ali.
Protesters held up signs saying, “Politics ruins religion and religion ruins politics.”
They were also mourning the killing on Friday of a Polish priest by unknown attackers. That assault was also condemned by the country’s main Muslim political movement, Ennahdha, or Renaissance, which was banned under Mr. Ben Ali’s dictatorship but is now regrouping.
In interviews in the Tunisian news media, Ennahdha’s leaders have taken pains to praise tolerance and moderation, comparing themselves to the Islamic parties that govern Turkey and Malaysia.
“We know we have an essentially fragile economy that is very open toward the outside world, to the point of being totally dependent on it,” Hamadi Jebali, the party’s secretary general, said in an interview with the Tunisian magazine Réalités. “We have no interest whatsoever in throwing everything away today or tomorrow.”
The party, which is allied with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, says it opposes the imposition of Islamic law in Tunisia.
But some Tunisians say they remain unconvinced.
Raja Mansour, a bank employee in Tunis, said it was too early to tell how the Islamist movement would evolve.
“We don’t know if they are a real threat or not,” she said. “But the best defense is to attack.” By this she meant that secularists should assert themselves, she said.
Ennahdha is one of the few organized movements in a highly fractured political landscape. The caretaker government that has managed the country since Mr. Ben Ali was ousted is fragile and weak, with no clear leadership emerging from the revolution.
The unanimity of the protest movement against Mr. Ben Ali in January, the uprising that set off demonstrations across the Arab world, has since evolved into numerous daily protests by competing groups, a development that many Tunisians find unsettling.
“Freedom is a great, great adventure, but it’s not without risks,” said Fathi Ben Haj Yathia, an author and former political prisoner. “There are many unknowns.”
One of the largest demonstrations since Mr. Ben Ali fled took place on Sunday in Tunis, where several thousand protesters marched to the prime minister’s office to demand the caretaker government’s resignation. They accused it of having links to Mr. Ben Ali’s government.
Tunisians are debating the future of their country on the streets. Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the broad thoroughfare in central Tunis named after the country’s first president, resembles a Roman forum on weekends, packed with people of all ages excitedly discussing politics.
The freewheeling and somewhat chaotic atmosphere across the country has been accompanied by a breakdown in security that has been particularly unsettling for women. With the extensive security apparatus of the old government decimated, leaving the police force in disarray, many women now say they are afraid to walk outside alone at night.
Achouri Thouraya, a 29-year-old graphic artist, says she has mixed feelings toward the revolution.
She shared in the joy of the overthrow of what she described as Mr. Ben Ali’s kleptocratic government. But she also says she believes that the government’s crackdown on any Muslim groups it considered extremist, a draconian police program that included monitoring those who prayed regularly, helped protect the rights of women.
“We had the freedom to live our lives like women in Europe,” she said.
But now Ms. Thouraya said she was a “little scared.”
She added, “We don’t know who will be president and what attitudes he will have toward women.”
Mounir Troudi, a jazz musician, disagrees. He has no love for the former Ben Ali government, but said he believed that Tunisia would remain a land of beer and bikinis.
“This is a maritime country,” Mr. Troudi said. “We are sailors, and we’ve always been open to the outside world. I have confidence in the Tunisian people. It’s not a country of fanatics.”
A version of this article appeared in print on February 21, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition
ANTI-MUBARAK PROTESTERS HIT BACK
3 February 2011 Last updated at 07:44 ET
By Shashank Joshi Research Associate at the Royal United Services Institute
The army may now "facilitate" protests, but not a violent capture of the presidential palace Continue reading the main story
Egypt Unrest
Day after day, as anti-Mubarak protesters poured into Tahrir Square in between tank positions and checkpoints, it seemed that the army was facilitating the historic protests.
It thus came as no surprise to many that the president, under transparent US pressure, conceded that he would not stand for re-election in September.
But he did not fold. His statement on Tuesday night was a gauntlet thrown down to the heaving crowds, a declaration that his third decade of rule would last another nine months.
And the following day, thousands of Mubarak supporters charged the square sparking pitched battles with those calling for the president's immediate departure.
Mubarak's defiance, alongside the masses' remarkable welcome to the army over the weekend, has led some to conclude that the armed forces - the indispensable pivot of any revolution - would surely swing against their commander-in-chief.
Many have jumped to the conclusion that Mr Mubarak will imminently be removed, at the barrel of a tank if necessary.
Overly optimisticBut this is optimistic thinking of the sort that understandably accompanies outpourings of resistance, and particularly so when they wrest victories against oppressors.
In failing to understand Hosni Mubarak's strategy and the opposition's options, observers risk agitating for a dangerous escalation, without the adequate muscle.
Mr Mubarak has kept key military figures close
Mr Mubarak has three constituencies: the US-led international community, the military, and his people. Like any beleaguered tyrant, he has had to make tough decisions about how to allocate his sops between them.
His chosen strategy deals with them in that order.
Sacking the government - and the hated interior minister in particular - was a cosmetic change directed not so much at Egypt's citizens but at the US, designed to project the appearance of earnest and vigorous reform.
Not a soul in Cairo or Alexandria could have been moved an inch at the news, but - as Washington's co-ordinated and cagey reaction showed - it bought time from the US.
Even when the White House lost patience, its strongest message was to tell Mr Mubarak to quit in September, a pace seen as bordering on the insulting by the thousands who remained outdoors in Cairo.
Buying off the militaryThe second step was Mubarak's decision to lay the ground for power sharing with the military.
Continue reading the main story"Far from being a cabinet of desperation, Mubarak is practising exemplary 'military clientelism' - buying off the only group who can effect a coup”
The new vice president, Omar Suleiman, is not only a former general but has also spent decades monitoring the officer corps.
The prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, is a former head of the air force - a traditionally powerful branch of Egypt's armed forces from which Mr Mubarak himself emerged.
Far from being a cabinet of desperation, Mubarak is practising exemplary 'military clientelism' - buying off the only group who can effect a coup.
For as long as there is no tank commander in Cairo willing to seize a centre of power, there are no means for the activists to translate their historic revolutionary energy into a truly decisive blow against the regime.
As their numbers shrink at the news of Mr Mubarak's concessions and their homes go undefended, they will struggle to persuade the military to take such a risk.
The army may well "facilitate" protests, but - in the absence of a critical mass of army defections - what it will not do is facilitate a violent capture of the presidential palace.
If Mr Mubarak has played his cards well, that defection will never come.
Their promise not to shoot is not just a signal of fraternity; it is also an expedient way of retaining the valuable trust of the demonstrators, for which they were praised by President Barack Obama in his speech late on Tuesday.
Wild cardThe most unpredictable parameter is the prevailing attitude of junior officers.
Continue reading the main story"With two out of three constituencies secure, Mr Mubarak can play a waiting game”
No-one with any knowledge of Egypt can forget that it was a coalition of such officers that came together in the post-war Free Officers Movement that overthrew King Farouk I and led to the toppling of a succession of pro-British regimes.
The military may harbour unseen fractures that come to light only when a decision point is reached.
Lastly, what options does this leave the opposition with?
Mr Mubarak is effectively 'kettling' an entire country. Over a fifth of the country lives below the poverty line. They cannot protest indefinitely and, unlike the president, they must return to work.
In the meantime - with two out of three constituencies secure - Mr Mubarak can play a waiting game.
This forces the protesters to endure a harsh status quo or escalate by targeting the bastions of the state, the latter bringing upon them the wrath of an already petrified international community, who may feel it has done its job by putting a limit on Mr Mubarak's term.
Those agitating for escalation ought to recall the anti-Saddam uprisings of 1991 by Kurds and others, in which the US first encouraged and then shied away from supporting resistance.
The result was massacres under the eyes of the international community.
Shashank Joshi is a doctoral student of international relations at the Department of Government, Harvard University, and Research Associate at the Royal United Services Institute.
VIEWPOINT: SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED
24 January 2011 updated at 07:48 ET
Did Leila Trabelsi (r) really call the shots in Tunisia?
In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Ghanaian writer and politician Elizabeth Ohene considers the power behind strongmen.
Of course, like the rest of the world, I have been completely hooked on Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution.
Unfortunately some of it sounds like deja-vu.
Every revolution, every hated dictator, indeed, it seems every leader must have its femme fatale, the Lady Macbeth figure who is held responsible for the problems of the regime.
“Leila Trabelsi fits the role of the villain of the piece as perfectly as her designer clothes fit her”
It is a phenomenon that goes all the way back, French Queen Marie Antoinette with her admonition to those without bread to eat cake comes to mind.
Who can forget Imelda Marcos of the Philippines with her shoes?
Then there was Elena Ceausescu of Romania who pretended to be a scientist and that offended people more than the dreaded Securitate.
And now we have Leila Trabelsi, wife of Tunisia's deposed leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
It is rumoured she of the dramatic designer sunglasses made sure the Ben Ali family left town well provided with an estimated 45m euros (£38m, $60m) worth of gold bars taken from the central Bank of Tunisia. The bank has denied these reports.
She fits the role of the villain of the piece as perfectly as her designer clothes fit her.
I wonder why we always seem to need to find a powerful woman behind every strongman.
The real radical?
Simone Gbagbo is a politician in her own right and deputy head of the Ivorian Popular Front
Remember General Sani Abacha, the late unlamented Nigerian military dictator?
To hear some of the commentators, it seemed this powerful soldier could not make any of his proverbial calls to the governor of the Central Bank to ask for millions to be transferred into his account by himself.
He had to be prodded by his wife, Maryam Abacha.
At the height of his powers, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings of Ghana couldn't fire a mere minister unless it was at the instigation of his wife, or so we were told.
“Until the arrival this past week of Leila Trabelsi at the top of The Women Behind the Dictator Chart, the spot had been occupied for years by Grace Mugabe”
The gossip was that many ministers and officials were so worried about offending "Madam" that they would go to extraordinary lengths to please her, even at the risk of upsetting the president himself.
As the Ivorian crisis has escalated, we keep hearing that the problem does not lie with Laurent Gbagbo but with his wife, Madame Simone Gbagbo.
She it is, we are told, who will not allow her husband to compromise.
She is the real radical, she has sworn she will be the last one standing if need be, she has told her husband that under no circumstance should he bow to pressure and step down.
Apparently she is the real ideologue and in caricatures carried in the local press, her husband is shown in absolute fear of her.
Well, that is what those in the know would have us believe.
Is Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe likely to be bossed around by his wife?
Until the arrival this past week of Leila Trabelsi at the top of The Women Behind the Dictator Chart, the spot had been occupied for years by Grace Mugabe, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's wife.
This man with such intimidating intellect, who has been known to reduce his opponents to silence in arguments, is apparently under his wife's spell to such an extent that he would do anything she asks him to do.
Collapse the economy, introduce a 10bn Zimbabwean dollar note into circulation, seize commercial farms, empty supermarket shelves, make a strong uncompromising speech in parliament - all orchestrated by Grace Mugabe?
I wonder if it is possible for a man to become autocratic without a strong woman by his side?
As Mr Ben Ali contemplates life suddenly stripped of all his presidential trappings and in Saudi Arabia of all places, doubtless, he will come into his own and offer Tunisians some defence of his actions.
His wife is not likely to have the kind of influence she had in Tunisia, not in Saudi Arabia; she will be well covered there.
Read a selection of your comments.
Its true. Even here in Malawi, the first lady Callista Munthalika is the one rulling the country. Almost all positions belonging to the VP she has taken them. Soonest she got into the state house, there was a Cabinet reshuffle which saw many of her Rivals left their ministerial positions.
Francis Kalonga, Lilongwe, Malawi
Isn't it always the case that in a man's world women are blamed about everything that goes wrong? Very rarely good things men do are attribited to their wives' influence. This has been the case since the times of Justinian and Theodora. She is remembered as the "whore" who seduced him, rather than the woman who influenced him to pass laws punishing rapists. Thank you for a most interesting article Elizabeth!
Maria Chrysanthou, Nicosia, Cyprus
While working with refugees from the Sudan, I got into a friendly but serious debate about women's rights in Africa. I noted that women should have the chance to rule African countries as it was the men who had plundered their wealth through corruption, and it was men who started and fought the wars that brought Africa so much insecurity and tyranny. They stood horrified and said very seriously, "Oh no, they did no such things! Their wives made them do it!" It seems in many parts of the world that women are still viewed as an Eve like character, tempting holy men with their apples and causing sin where before there was none.
Elizabeth M, DC, USA
As usual Elizabeth fantastic!
Dorinda ataa Giwa, London
What an excellent essay Elizabeth Ohene's has written -- and all so true. But tut tut Ms Ohene the phenomenon goes back a lot further than Lady Macbeth. To me the most famous weak-leader strong-wife combo of any note must be Ahab and Jezebel!
Paul Charman, New Zealand
I understand your point of view but if you lived in these countries you might realize there is some truth to these sentiments. I don't know about the other countries but I will definitely say that in Nigeria there was certainly fuel in the allegations of improper conduct by Mrs. Abacha and more recently Turai Yaradua. One proof of this is quite simply the non-constitutional powers these ladies have wielded. Turai was known to chair cabinet meetings. Mrs. Abacha had an office and staff and a separate budget. None of these are provided for in the constitution of the land. The second factor is simply the sheer adulation and psychophancy these positions foster. Many of these ladies will not countenance reverting to just 'another' lady as opposed to the 'first' lady and most powerful woman in the land. That I fear is why they push their husbands, who to be fair usually need little prompting, to go down and take the ship down with them if need be!
James, Lagos, Nigeria
Reminds me that: Man is the Head of the family and Woman is the Neck; wherever Neck turns so does the Head!
Gholam, Toronto, Canada
Thank you for this very interesting piece Elizabeth - I have have always been fascinated by the dynamic between couples in power and what role the person behind the well known face may play in history. One case of interest is that of Robert Mugabe's first wife, Sally Hayfron (d. Jan 1992), who may have played a very large role in the birth of the nation we now know as Zimbabwe. By all accounts from what I have read she comes across as a caring and driven women - she founded the Zimbabwe Child Survival Movement and launched the Zimbabwe Women's Cooperative in the UK in 1986 before being elected Secretary General of the ZANU-PF Women's League at the Party's Congress of 1989. One can only guess at what part Sally played in the implementation of such social objectives and programmes but it does paint a stark contrast to what one reads of Robert Mugabe's second wife, Grace...
Nathan Trousdell, Wellington, New Zealand
This is a wonderful observation! the trend seems to be the same for all dictators in africa or all presidents displaying dictatorial tendencies in africa at least! am not sure about other countries! does this mean women are the source of all evil that happens to us? as for my country, Malawi, its surprising how my president Bingu changed as soon as he got married again! he was good and the country loved him but today he is the most hated because of his dictatorial and selfishness!
Chikondi Kamanga, Leeds, United Kingdom
I suppose Canadian customs personnel now have the perfect excuse to latch on to for letting a bunch of the Tunisian kleptocrats take refuge in our country. Who could have said no after receiving a badgering phone call from an enraged madam Trabelsi?
Jude Kirkham, Vancouver, Canada
Interesting and great article. How we are blamed for bad things! even when kids misbehave they are suddenly your children not the man's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annabel, Nairobi
Yes, a lot of strong men have strong women behind them but not all. There is no Mrs. Fidel Castro and do we even know anything about Sadam Hussein's wife or Mahatma Gandhi's wife? I don't think it as universal as it sometimes seems.
Lynn Moreen, Vail, USA
This article brings to mind a bumper sticker that read: "Eve was Framed." As a Christian, I believe the Biblical story. Still, I can't help but wonder. Elizabeth may want to add the name Jewel Taylor to the list of supposedly powerful women behind autocrat. Though ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor is standing trial in The Hague, his wife Jewel ran a successful senatorial campaign. She is one tough female senator in the patriarchy that rules the Senate. Does this tell us anything?
William Allen, Atlanta, USA