Protests Erupt Throughout Egypt: "Twitterized Revolution" (UPDATED 1540GMT)

(HN, January 26, 2010) - In what is being described as an extraordinary moment for Egypt, thousands of protestors from all walks of life hit the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities Tuesday to vent their outrage at the 30-year rule of the Hosni Mubarak regime. 

Smaller protests were reported today (Wednesday) in central Cairo and other cities amid signs the government was drawing a new line in the sand: as many as 800 people have been reportedly arrested.

As dusk fell yesterday, reports began to emerge of teargas, water cannon and rubber bullets used by police against protestors. Indeed by 1am local time, riot police moved in with force to clear Cairo's central Tahrir Square of people. Some estimates put the number of people in the square at 20,000.

News agencies report that at least four people have now died from protests.

A HUMNEWS source in central Cairo said it appeared that mobile phone networks were being constrained or shut down for a second day today. Activists on social networking sites said authorities have been blocking popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. (For its part, Twitter has confirmed its services are being blocked in Egypt).

Thousands of protesters, some throwing rocks and climbing on top of an armoured police truck, clashed with riot police in the centre of Cairo. Police responded with water cannon, batons and tear gas. Demonstrators were shouting "Down with Mubarak," and "demanding an end to Egypt's grinding poverty, corruption, unemployment and police abuses."

Also today, Amnesty International called on Egyptian authorities to refrain from using excessive force against demonstrators. “We witnessed reckless policing yesterday with the security forces relying on tear gas and using rubber bullet as a first resort” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry was quoted as saying that public gatherings, protests and marches will no longer be tolerated. The authorities have vowed to arrest and prosecute anyone found to be taking to the streets against the government.

(In Rome today, Egypt's trade and industry minister, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, told a news conference  there is no risk of destabilization. "I think the discontent can be managed," he said).

Nonetheless, Twitter feeds were full of notices about another mass protest on Friday. There are reports that officials will cut power to areas of Cairo if protests continue.

One tweet that has been widely circulated says: "A call for a one million protester march this Friday after prayers at around 1pm - this is for everyone Christians and Muslims."

One of the photos of protests in Cairo that went viral over the InternetAs with the historic protests in Tunisia earlier this month, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook appeared to have played a major role in mobilzing people. One Twitter post called the events in Egypt a "Twitterzied Revolution."

Social networking sites are not only being used to mobilize people. One tweet being circulated pleaded for owners of wireless networks to remove passwords so that people on the ground could continue reporting on developments to the outside world. Others were being advised to send mobile phone credit to anyone who needed a top-up.

"Anyone with wireless connection at home near to Tahrir Square, remove the password so ppl can access the Net to keep in touch," said one tweet that quickly went viral.

As the sun set, one Tweet said a huge neon portrait of Mubarak near the Raml Station in Alexandria had been shattered.

It is impossible to predict where the protests will go and for how long. The Egyptian security apparatus is known for maintaining a tight grip on the country, which has been under emergency rule for years.

Nonetheless, security forces were clearly caught off guard by the widespread protests. One observer said that, unlike the Tunisian protests, the gatherings in Egypt today were small and numerous - difficult for a security apparatus to control.

Western news agencies too - spread out thinly with breaking news in Lebanon, Tunisia, Albania and the World Economic Forum in Davos - seemed to have few resources on the ground in Egypt.

Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday issued a statement condemning the widespread internet censorship and attacks on journalists by police. It added that access to several local online publications were blocked - including Al-Badil, Al-Dustour and Al-Masry.

Some analysts say Egypt - with its large numbers of unemployed, disenfranchise youth and yawning disparities between rich and poor - is a "Tunisia" waiting to happen.

Poverty and joblessness are widespread in Egypt, where the population may exceed 100 million by 2020. The UNDP Human Development Index (2006) ranks Egypt 111 out of 177 countries. Recent estimates from the World Bank show that 23% of the population live below the national poverty line with more than 12% of children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition.

- HUMNEWS staff, agencies

With Food Prices Rising, People Revolting, Is Wal-Mart Really the Answer to America’s Unhealthy Food Crisis?

- a commentary by Cynthia Thomet

A recent Bloomberg report entitled, “Mexico prices rose more than expected last month [December 2010],” confirms a feeling that I couldn’t quite put my finger on until I read this piece—an increasing and incremental sour pinch on my pocketbook every time I go to the grocery store.

My HUMNews editor suggested I write about lemons for this PeaceMeal story. It is a food that is enjoyed by numerous cultures all around the world, she said. I started to dream about it as the ingredient that could unite us as a people. That is, if we could all afford it this year!

Yes, my friends, food prices are on the rise. So, it seemed only appropriate to write about this other food-related issue that we all share in common: inflation.

Back when I wrote my last PeaceMeal column, there were rumblings about this becoming a serious issue in 2011. Like clockwork, the Guardian  reported in our first week of 2011 that “soaring prices of sugar, grain and oilseed drove world food prices to a record in December, surpassing the levels of 2008 when the cost of food sparked riots around the world, and prompting warnings of prices being in ‘danger territory’.”

January 2011 has not even ended, and we are witnessing protests and riots in Algeria , Tunisia, and Jordan  In northern Nigeria, the prices of onions have more than doubled – ditto for India! And UNICEF reports that the number of mothers bringing their severely malnourished kids to feeding centers in Niger has spiked in recent weeks – due, in part, to higher food prices.

Back here in Atlanta, where I live, I have begun to see prices rising significantly at the local restaurant supplier that sells bulk produce, grains, packaged foods and beverages to area restaurants, bodegas and local merchants. And it’s been making me feel particularly vulnerable to all the forces that are out there: mother earth and weather, political forces here and abroad, economies local and distant.

Rising food prices is what political revolutions are made of. The French revolution was catalyzed by famine and hunger, and now we’re seeing some of the same scathing language from Jordanian protesters: “Unify yourselves because the government wants to eat your flesh.” (It’s enough to make you skip the meat aisle.)

At the same time, I couldn’t help being caught up (and even a little distracted) by the public relations partnership between Wal-mart and Michelle Obama for their healthy foods initiative  Yes, obesity and unhealthful eating are major problems in the United States. Yes, there are many “food deserts” around the country where low income peoples have little access to unprocessed foods. And, yes, Wal-mart is promising to change the quality of processed foods so they are healthier. But it ignores the fact that Wal-mart still wants consumers to purchase processed foods, because, frankly, that’s where the money is made.

My opinion: it’s just a PR initiative designed to secure a consumer body for a billion-dollar big box business that needs tax breaks and a seat at the government dinner table. I have always had the hunch that the very processing of foods is what diminishes the value inherent in any food, and I have recently found that there are scientists who have been researching this phenomenon. (Visit this article  to kick-start any research in the issue. It’s fascinating!)

But in the greater scheme of things, I think the Wal-mart initiative is really missing the mark, as far as true change is concerned. The PR rhetoric sounds almost like, “Why don’t they eat healthier cake?” when some of the major food issues facing the regular American public include:

• How global food production is run, managed, controlled and directed by a small number of major international food corporations.
• How food distribution and pricing is controlled by a small number of major international food corporations.
• How the major food corporations want to create a deeper dependency on processed foods, because of their greater profit margin returns.

It just seems that simplifying and downscaling the food production process could be the better way to go.

So, while President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia freaks out from the cresting wave of protests and flees Tunis (and packs up his gold bars and family , I’m turning a lemon around in my hand wondering whether the First Lady is conscious that even a fresh lemon as a garnish in water is a luxury many Americans could never afford—even if purchased from Wal-mart.

Seriously though, it is hard for me to listen to Wal-mart’s commitment to pass on its best prices to the consumer without thinking that their negotiation strategy doesn’t involve bullying local farmers into bending to the big box’s exclusivity will.

Cynthia Thomet is a humanitarian, a food lover and co owner and doyenne of the award winning downtown Atlanta, Georgia; US restaurant, Lunacy Black Market. http://www.lunacyblackmarket.com/.  You can find Cynthia's own blog here: http://thoughtfulcyn.wordpress.com/.   Her pieces for HUMNEWS search for the intersection between food and humanity, and how meals unite us.

2011 is Year of the Bat - Crucial Pollinators (Perspective)

By Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle

(HN, January 24, 2011) - Were you aware that bats are key pollinators in many parts of the world? Pollination is a vital ecosystem service without which many of our key industries such as agriculture and pharmaceuticals would collapse or incur heavy costs for artificial substitution. TEEB has found that in some estimates, over 75% of the worlds crop plants, as well as many plants that are source species for pharmaceuticals, rely on pollination by animal vectors.Bats provide a wide range of ecosystem services which benefit mankind from insect deterrent to bat guano fertilizer. CREDIT: Merlin Tuttle

Furthermore, for 87 out of 115 leading global crops (representing up to 35% of the global food supply), fruit or seed numbers or quality were increased through animal pollination. Bats also provide a wide range of ecosystem services which benefit mankind from insect deterrent to bat guano fertilizer.

Bat Pollinators: Tequila and the Tree of Life

More than 1,200 species of bats comprise nearly a quarter of all mammals, and their ecological services are essential to human economies and the health of whole ecosystems worldwide. Without bats, costly crop pests would increase, forcing greater reliance on dangerous pesticides. We could also lose some of our favorite foods and beverages and suffer the consequences of greatly diminished biodiversity.

Many of our most important foods come from bat-dependent plants. These include bananas, plantain, breadfruit, peaches, mangos, dates, figs, cashews and many more. In fact, in an average tropical food market, approximately 70 percent of the fruit sold comes from trees or shrubs that rely heavily on bats in the wild. Some such as the famous durian, still rely on bat pollinators even in commercial orchards. This king of Asian fruits sells for a billion dollars annually, but could be lost without healthy populations of its bat pollinators.

In East Africa nectar feeding bats are essential to fruit production of the Baobab tree, sometimes referred to as the African Tree of Life due to the exceptional variety of wildlife that depend on it for food and shelter. Recently, it has additionally become known as the Vitamin Tree. Baobab fruits contain six times as much vitamin C as oranges, twice as much calcium as milk, are rich in other vitamins and antioxidants and may soon become a billion dollar a year crop.

In deserts, from the southwestern United States to southern Peru, more than 100 species of cactus and agave plants rely on bats for pollination. Giant, columnar cactus plants, such as the famous saguaro and organ pipe, are heavily relied on for food and shelter by a wide variety of birds and mammals, and agaves are extremely useful in erosion control, as ornamentals and as the source of all tequila liquor. The world's thirsty Margarita drinkers can definitely raise a glass in praise of bats.

Bats: Nature's natural pesticide

Bats also provide an essential ecosystem service known as "biological control." Natural pests and diseases are usually regulated by a wide range of predators and parasites. TEEB has found that agricultural pests cause significant economic losses worldwide. Globally, more than 40% of food production is being lost to insect pests, plant pathogens, and weeds, despite the application of more than 3 billion kilograms of pesticides to crops, plus other means of control. Natural control of pests is to date one of the most effective means of dealing with these threats. Bats are essential predators which keep many damaging insects from destroying crops.

The colony of 20 million free-tailed bats that lives in Bracken Cave near San Antonio, Texas, for example, consumes 200 tons of insects nightly, predominantly crop pests such as corn earworm and armyworm moths. Just one of these bats can catch enough moths in one night's feeding to prevent 50,000 or more eggs from being laid, resulting in local cotton growers saving close to a million dollars annually in reduced need for pesticides.

A single mouse-eared bat (widespread in Europe and North America) can capture 1,000 or more mosquito-sized insects in just one hour. A colony of 150 big brown bats, a number that could live in a backyard bat house, can capture enough cucumber beetles in a summer to prevent them from laying 33 million eggs that would otherwise hatch into corn rootworms, a billion-dollar-a -year pest in the United States.

In many locations, bats can be easily attracted to bat houses to help protect gardens and organic farms. Outstanding success has been reported from Oregon to Georgia in the United States, probably because many of our worst insect pests listen for bat echolocation signals and flee areas where bats are heard. A pecan grower in Georgia reports having become entirely organic since he attracted thousands of bats to extra large bat houses in his orchard. So the next time you think organic, think "bats."

Bat Fertilizer

Bats are also the primary energy producers for many cave ecosystems. Guano deposits beneath their roosts provide energy that sustains thousands of unique life forms, from bacteria and fungi to arthropods and small vertebrates. These organisms are often endemic to a single cave or cave system, but provide a potential treasure trove of biodiversity needed for solving human problems, from production of new antibiotics and gasohol to improved detergents and waste detoxification.

Additionally, extraction of bat guano for fertilizer provides an invaluable renewable resource for whole communities in developing countries from Asia and Africa to Latin America. For example, due to this eco-service of bats, Thailand's Khao Chong Pran Cave has become a major source of income for the local community, as well as a unique tourist attraction. Careful protection and harvest management have allowed annual guano sales to increase from $10,000 to $135,000. Bat guano is big business.

From Terror to Tourist Attraction

As people learn to appreciate bats, these fascinating animals are paving the way for popular tourist attractions. When 1.5 million free-tailed bats began moving into crevices beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, Texas, health officials warned that they were rabid and dangerous, and local people wanted the bats eradicated. However, through the educational efforts of Bat Conservation International, fears were calmed, and in more than 30 years, not a single person has been harmed. The bats consume roughly 15 tons of insects nightly and attract 12 million tourist dollars each summer, clearly demonstrating the value of bats to our environment and economies.

Year of the Bat 2011-2012

Unfortunately, many people in other locations around the world still misunderstand, fear and persecute bats at great harm to themselves. Too many have heard only of vampires and disease, both of which have been greatly exaggerated by sensational media stories.

Needlessly fearful humans, in Latin America, have mistakenly destroyed thousands, even millions of highly beneficial bats at a time by sealing, burning or poisoning roosts, especially in caves, and many more bats have been lost through simple neglect of their conservation needs.

Ironically, even the common vampire bat of Latin America has proven useful. A new drug, Desmoteplase developed from research on vampire saliva, appears to greatly improve treatment of stroke victims, a potentially enormous contribution to human wellbeing. Who would have thought that a bat - and a vampire, at that - could help save countless lives?

Year of the Bat (2011-2012) celebrations will highlight bat values and needs, providing unique introductions to these incredibly fascinating animals that unfortunately rank among our planet's least understood and most rapidly declining and endangered animals. But as more people learn about and account for the ecosystem services provided by bats, greater conservation efforts will be made to ensure the survival of these fascinating and essential creatures.

For more information:

Year of the Bat 2011 - 2012 is a global campaign to promote conservation, research and education about the world's only flying mammals. Year of the Bat is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species and EUROBATS, as well as numerous partner organizations around the world.

The writer is Honorary Ambassador for the Year of the Bat campaign.

On the Bulldozing of Inconvenient Realities (Perspective)

By Richard Pithouse

"Whenever they find a reality that doesn’t suit them / they alter it with a bulldozer" - Mahmoud Darwish, A State of Siege, Ramallah, 2002.

Mahmoud Darwish, a poet who wrote, especially towards the end of his life, with a real confidence in what he called the butterfly's burden, the social weight carried by delicate beauty, began his life in al-Birwa, a village in Galilee. He was seven years old when his family fled the Israeli military in 1948 and his life was spun between Moscow, Cairo, Beirut, Paris and Ramallah before he died in Houston in 2008. A place of worship in another South African township - Langa - near Cape Town. Credit: Michael Bociurkiw/HUMNEWS

In his wandering exile he was able to visit Casa de Isla Negra, the cherished home of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. In a poem about his visit to Neruda's home he recounts his recollection, at Isla Negra, of a conversation with the Greek poet Yannis Ritsos in his home in Athens. He had asked Ritsos what poetry is and Ritsos had replied that it is the “inexplicable longing” that “makes a thing into a specter, and makes a specter into a thing. Yet it might explain our need to share public beauty.

Here in South Africa the Constitution may declare that we are all, or least all of us with the appropriate papers, equally the public and equally entitled to find and share beauty as we see fit. But much of our shared life is dominated by business interests that appeal to markets rather than publics and not everyone is in the market for everything. This is not always a case of market logic rendering, as it often does, some people superfluous and therefore invisible. When the poor are out of the places to which they are supposed to keep, when a shack stands next to a suburban home or a poor child sits next to a richer child in a school, the mere presence of people without money can render them hyper-visible. People, with all their individual depth and complexity, are sometimes turned into objects onto which all kinds of contempt, fear and hate are projected.

One of the many places in our society where the fracturing in who counts as a full member of our national public and who does not is immediately visible is Motala Heights near Durban. Motala Heights is nestled into a valley between the factories on the outskirts of Pinetown and a steep hill that leads up to the expensive suburb of Kloof. Some of the people in the valley are poor and live in tin houses that they have built on rented land and some are middle class or wealthy and live in large suburban homes. There is also a shack settlement at the foot of the hill that leads up to Kloof. 

In 2006 the eThekwini Municipality tried to send in their men with guns to eradicate the shack settlement. When Bheki Ngcobo told them that their actions were illegal in terms of the Constitution he was tear-gassed and beaten to the ground. But, in the end, the squatters stopped the City's illegal eviction. The law is not everything but it is also not nothing.

At the time the squatters were convinced that the eviction had been directed by a local landlord and businessman, Ricky Govender, and claimed that the municipal demolition team had been drinking in his pub before they set off up the hill to eradicate a community. There is no doubt that some municipal officials and police officers speak as if Govender, who boasts of connections to (South African President) Jacob Zuma, has some sort of extra-legal authority over the whole community. Govender's plans to force out the poor in order to develop Motala Heights for private profit clearly carry a lot more weight than the demand of its poor residents that the state support them in building a community for all the residents of the area.

Govender has been trying, for some years now, to evict some of the people in the tin houses. They are often old and poor. Some have lived in their homes for as long as forty-five years. Like the municipality, he has failed because his attempted evictions have been illegal. This is public knowledge. Allegations that he has dumped dangerous industrial waste right outside activists' homes, threatened to have activist Shamita Naidoo killed for R50 and to bulldoze people's homes have been reported in the local press. Newspapers have also reported that Govender has been interdicted in the Durban High Court from evicting people without a court order, from assaulting and harassing his tenants and from bulldozing their homes. In 2007 The Mercury reported that Govender had threatened to kill one of their photographers. Yet the state has made no visible move to ensure that Govender and the residents of the shacks and the tin houses should all live under the obligations and protections of the Constitution. Money and political connections appear to have bought Govender a degree of immunity.

Last month the squatters' claimed that, after years of struggle, the Municipality finally sent a team to fix up the dirt road leading into the settlement. They say that Govender instructed the team to stop work and redirected them to his pub where the gravel was used for his own private maintenance work. On Friday last week a bulldozer shuddered up the hill adjacent to the shack settlement, went straight to the Shembe temple and obliterated it. There was no warning of what was about to happen. The driver of the bulldozer referred residents to his boss who referred them to Ricky Govender. The temple had been there since 1997 and has been used for worship every Saturday since then.

In A State of Siege, a poem written amidst the Second Intifada, Mahmoud Darwish wrote that “Whenever they find a reality that doesn’t suit them / they alter it with a bulldozer.” Palestine has endured a unique horror since 1948 but the arrogance of unrestrained power bulldozes all kinds of inconvenient realities across space and time. A few days after the American backed military coup against the elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende on 11 September 1973, Isla Negra, Pablo Neruda's home, was ransacked by soldiers who burnt his books in the garden. "Look around,” he famously said to them, “there's only one thing of danger for you here—poetry." 

After the 1913 Land Act, Sol Plaatjie wrote of the “roving pariahs” torn from their rural homes and unwelcome in the cities and we have, of course, our own body of poetry against the bulldozing of inconvenient realities. In 1948, Modikwe Dikobe, trade unionist, novelist and secretary of the Alexandra squatters’ resistance movement in Johannesburg, wrote in Shantytown Removal of being left “unfeathered,” “wingless” and “dumbfounded” in a “ruin” that once housed “a thousand souls / With its own administration.”

The bulldozing of inconvenient realities is not just a strand in the story of our past. Almost a hundred years after the Land Act millions of roving pariahs remain in the shack settlements on the edges of our towns and cities. They are often shunted around at the point of guns wielded by the state and private power. There are plenty of sixteen year olds who have never lived a day under apartheid but who have seen their homes, communities and, in Motala Heights, their temple, treated as nothing but an aberration to be bulldozed from the landscape.

When people put on their white robes and walk up a hill to pray in a temple under a tree they are reaching towards the sacred, bringing body and spirit together. This is one way of making poetry, of honouring the butterfly's burden.

In Motala Heights we could say to the police, to Ricky Govender, to the eThekwini Municipality, to the headmaster of the local school "Look around—there's only one thing of danger for you here—people." But saying that will count for nothing if enough forces cannot be marshalled to defend the  public good and push the logic of private profit into its place.

--Mr. Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University. This first appeared  on the online site of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS)

Read HUMNEWS contributor Roxy Marosa's piece on Langa Township in South Africa.

IOC Nudges Palestinians and Israelis Closer - in Lausanne (Report)

(HN, January 21, 2011) -- Snow-covered Lausanne was the setting Thursday for top officials from the Palestinian and Israeli Olympic committees to try to bridge differences and seek common ground for cooperation.

Nader Al Masri - the only athlete from the Gaza Strip in Beijing, one of the four-strong Palestinian team.

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the two sides conducted cordial and productive discussions - to the point of the Israelis offering Palestinian athletes training facilities for the 2012 London Olympics.

"The representatives of the Olympic Committee of Israel said that they were ready to offer training opportunities to Palestinian athletes." the IOC said in a statement sent to HUMNEWS.

The IOC also confirmed that it would provide experts to work on a long-term sports development strategy in Palestine in order to continue to assist not only the athletes but also coaches and sports administrators, and to identify ways to better promote sport and its values at grassroots level, the statement said.

The two sides agreed to meet in Lausanne following IOC President Jacques Rogge’s visit to the Middle East last October. During that visit he must have seen the dilapidated state of sports and training facilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A second meeting will be scheduled in two months’ time to review the progress made, the IOC said.

There was also an indication that the Israelis agreed to ease access for Palestinian athletes, coaches, officials and sports material, as well as foreign visiting athletes.

Athletes from the Palestinian Territory were first represented at the Olympic Games at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

- HUMNEWS staff, IOC

Kashmir: The importance of reviving theatre as a medium of protest, debate and argument that questions a society (Report)

by Afsana Rashid Bhat

Bhand Kashmiri Folk Theatre performance CREDIT: FLICKRConflict in the Kashmir valley has badly hit the theatre movement, here. Theatre experts, however, believe that it offers enough space for theatre to debate and discuss.

Theatre director Bhawani Bashir Yasir says “efforts are on to revive the theatre movement in Kashmir, which took a back seat in valley after 1989 when armed struggle began here”. He hopes for better, prosperous and rich theatre, here.

“Ongoing conflict offers a lot to write, debate and perform in order to make masses think on various lines that can be more effective through theatre, provided the state seriously extends its full financial and moral support to genuine people engaged in the field,” says Bhawani, who is also director of Ensemble Kashmir Theatre Akademi (EKTA), School of Drama and Repertory.

He adds theatre in Kashmir has lost its proper audience over the last two decades. “Without material support from audience, our theatre can’t prosper”. Bhawani, who has been in the field for last 35 years, says “unless theatre doesn’t identify itself with contemporary challenges, aspirations and public sentiments, it becomes irrelevant”.

According to the theatre director, theatre is not “tamasha” (entertainment) but it is a medium of mild glorified protest, debate, argument that questions the society to find answers for good.

Rejecting that television and films pose serious threat to theatre, Bhawani who has been awarded senior fellowship by Ministry of Culture, Government of India for the year 2006-2008 says “theatre is art of multi angles where as film and television is an art of one eye. Art of one eye can’t subjugate art of multi angles”.

He adds “the hard fact lies in the reason that there is no financial allurement in theatre while as in television and films artists get money, name and fame, which lures them. Notwithstanding the fact, theatre is a learning institution and without theatre experience an artist can’t grow in television or films”.

Abdul Latief, a theatre artist argues that theatre in Kashmir is as old as written history in Kashmir and it has three essential elements - performer, audience and stage. Tracing brief history of theatre in Kashmir, he says, “Kashmir has been a hub of turmoil and turbulences since ages. When foreign cultural influence intruded Kashmir, theatre automatically underwent certain changes. However, for last 100 years theatre in Kashmir has tried to re-emerge”.

He said that Kashmir theatre history reached us through folk performers who under all circumstances managed to preserve and perform it. “We’ve rich traditional folk form of theatre known as ‘pather’ performed by bhands (folk artists). We’ve references of so many scholars of theatre in Kashmir history vis-a-vis Khamandar, Abenau Goupt, Kalidasa”.

Contemporary theatre, he says, is hardly 75 years old. According to him, there were some theatre activities in Kashmir in the 1920’s from the religious elite class (known as dharmic theatre) and the same was performed in temple premises of Srinagar up to 1940’s.

The theatre director while chipping in says, “When new progressive literary movement emerged, it had great impact on Kashmir. Many renowned theatre activists and literary scholars visited Kashmir like Balraj Sahani, Habib Tanvir. In the meantime, IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association) movement started in India, which had great impact on contemporary theatre in Kashmir. After this movement, theatre in Kashmir took flight in real sense when most of the activists performed new concepts on stage like Prof. Mohi-ud-Din Hajni’s play “Ghrees Sound Ghare” (1938) Prem Nath Pardasi’s “Bat-i-har” (1942). Formation of National Dramatic Club (1944) which later became Kashmir Kela Kendra in 1950’s was first theatre group to be registered. Then the National Cultural Front produced “Shaheed Shirwani”, “Kashmir yeh hai” in 1948 and “Kashmir hamara hai”.”

Bhawani says that 1980-1990 was the golden period of contemporary Kashmiri theatre. “In every nook and corner of Kashmir, there was a concerted theatre movement patronized by Jammu and Kashmir State Cultural Academy as district drama festivals were organized. A galaxy of playwrights, directors and actors earned popularity in theatre here during this decade. After 1990’s due to the conflict, Kashmir theatre movement went into comma. After 2002, our concerted efforts are to rejuvenate it”.

Theatre Director Bhawani Bashir YasirBhawani maintains that in 2002 drama festival was held at Tagore Hall by Jammu and Kashmir Academy in which only six productions were presented and those too were repeat productions of 1980’s. “Absence of separate ministry for culture in the state, lack of rehearsal space for artists, negligible funding, lack of professionalism, institutions and public support are confronting theatre activists in Kashmir working for its revival”, he says, adding “Theatre, in Kashmir, lacks public recognition, which renders it handicap and acts as a major impediment in its struggle to survive”

Stressing importance of media the theatre director believes that it can play a positive role in promoting theatre-culture among masses. “Print media hasn’t yet grown enough to give full coverage to theatre of Kashmir or to help it gain popular acceptance. The people lack required sensibility to acknowledge theatre”. Kashmir theatre, according to Bhawani, hasn’t yet been able to get sponsorships whereas in Jammu division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and other states private as well as public sector sponsors theatre to help its professional growth.

Theatre is a social institution, believes Bhawani adding people consider it only as a source of entertainment but it is a complete social science. “A nation without a living theatre is dead”.

- Afsana Rashid Bhat is a journalist based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir-India. Author of the book, “Waiting for justice: Widows and Half-widows”She is a recipient of the Sanjoy Ghose Humanitarian Award, Sanjoy Ghose Media fellowship (2006-07) by Charkha Communications Development Network - New Delhi, UN Population Fund-Laadli Media Award and Grass-root Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) – Media Awards-2007. She was also awarded a fellowship in 2005 for her work on impact of conflict on the subsistence livelihoods of marginalized communities in Kashmir by Action Aid India.

London Stock Exchange Group signs to restructure, develop the Mongolian Stock Exchange (News Brief)

(Photo: file)London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and the Mongolian State Property Committee (SPC) have signed an exclusive strategic partnership agreement to restructure and develop the Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE).

Under the agreement, LSEG will appoint a management team at the MSE to oversee its development and privatization. LSEG's Millennium IT, a global exchange technology provider, will provide trading and surveillance infrastructure to the MSE.

Using the LSEG Academy, both parties will conduct a training program on capital markets infrastructure and legislative framework for MSE officers, clients and officers of the Mongolia Financial Regulatory Commission.

LSEG will provide assistance in the broadening of tradable asset classes at the MSE, to derivatives and ETFs; and LSEG will also work to implement an international standard Mongolian market index.

Mongolian GDP is expected to triple to $23bn by 2013 on the back of demand for its mineral resources. The stock exchange more than doubled in value last year even though opening hours are limited.

A number of companies quoted in London have interests in Mongolia. Central Asia Metals joined AIM (Alternative Investment Market) at the end of September 2010. It has copper, gold and molybdenum mining assets in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. AIM-quoted investment company Origo Partners has as number of investments in Mongolia mining projects.

(Photo: file) AIM-quoted oil and gas explorer Petro Matad has three production sharing contracts in Mongolia and is capitalized at more than £210m.

At the MSE are working some 340 brokers and national specialists from 48 professional organizations, who have rights to run stock exchange trade and services. Since 1990, 474 joint stock companies have been registered at the MSE. They have traded 738.3 million shares with MNT 262.5 billion, and 3.1 million bonds with MNT 215.1 billion. With MNT 477.6 billion, 3,873 trades have been held as well.

For the time being, the MSE has registered 448,717 domestic and foreign share holders, investors and entities. They have been granted dividends of MNT 109.6 billion.

-      HUMNEWS Staff, (sources: London Stock Exchange, Mongolian State Property Committee)

Social Media Boom Takes Off in Africa (Feature)

By André-Michel Essoungou

In the mid-1990s, as the use of mobile phones started its rapid spread in much of the developed world, few thought of Africa as a potential market.Increasing numbers of young people on the continent - such as these Egyptian women - are using mobile technologies to access social media tools on the Internet. CREDIT: ITU

Now, with more than 400 million subscribers, its market is larger than North America's. Africa took the lead in the global shift from fixed to mobile telephones, notes a report by the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Rarely has anyone adopted mobile phones faster and with greater innovation (see A bank in every African pocket?, Better health at the click of a button).

A similar story now seems again to be unfolding. Africans are coupling their already extensive use of cell phones with a more recent and massive interest in social media — Internet-based tools and platforms that allow people to interact with each other much more than in the past. In the process, Africans are leading what may be the next global trend: a major shift to mobile Internet use, with social media as its main drivers.

According to Mary Meeker, an influential Internet analyst, mobile Internet and social media are the fastest-growing areas of the technology industry worldwide, and she predicts that mobile Internet use will soon overtake fixed Internet use.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube in Africa

Studies suggest that when Africans go online (predominantly with their mobile phones) they spend much of their time on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on). Sending and reading e-mails, reading news and posting research queries have become less important activities for Africans.

In recent months Facebook — the major social media platform worldwide and currently the most visited website in most of Africa — has seen massive growth on the continent. The number of African Facebook users now stands at over 17 million, up from 10 million in 2009. More than 15 per cent of people online in Africa are currently using the platform, compared to 11 per cent in Asia. Two other social networking websites, Twitter and YouTube, rank among the most visited websites in most African countries.

Along with regular citizens, African stars, thinkers, political leaders and companies have rapidly joined the global conversation. The Facebook fan base of Côte d'Ivoire's football star and UN goodwill ambassador Didier Drogba is more than 1 million people. Zambian best-selling author and economist Dambisa Moyo has more than 26,000 followers on Twitter. Media organizations in South Africa and companies such as Kenya Airways are using various social media platforms to interact better with customers and readers. During recent elections in Côte d'Ivoire candidates did not only tour cities and villages; they also moved the contest online, feverishly posting campaign updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Africa's upward trend in the use of social media is even more striking given the low number of Africans connected to the Internet and the many hurdles Africans face in trying to go online.

Tremendous Room for Growth in Africa

Africa's Internet users (more than 100 million at the end of 2010) represent just a small percentage of the 2 billion people online around the world. In the US alone, more than 220 million people use the Internet. Within Africa, one person out of every 10 is estimated to be an Internet user (up from one in 5,000 back in 1998), making the continent the region in the world with the lowest penetration rate.

Even young Africans are taking to mobile phones and social media. CREDIT: ITUAmong the many reasons for this poor showing are the scarcity and prohibitive costs of broadband connections (the fastest means of accessing the Internet), and the limited number of personal computers in use.

But these challenges simultaneously contribute to Africa's impressive growth rate in the use of mobile Internet, which in recent years has been the highest in the world.

"Triple-digit growth rates are routine across the continent," notes Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera, the world's most popular Internet browser for mobile phones. "The widespread availability of mobile phones means that the mobile Web can reach tens of millions more than the wired Web." Mr. Tetzchner believes that like mobile phones, whose use has grown rapidly in Africa in recent years, the "mobile Web is beginning to reshape the economic, political and social development of the continent."

‘Seismic shift’ coming

Erik Hersman, a prominent African social media blogger and entrepreneur who helped drive development of the ground-breaking platform Ushahidi, is equally enthusiastic. In an e-mail to Africa Renewal he notes that "with mobile phone penetration already high across the continent, and as we get to critical mass with Internet usage in some of Africa's leading countries (Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt) … a seismic shift will happen with services, products and information."

The sense that the future holds more promise is inducing major companies to show special interest in Africa's expanding pool of Internet users. Facebook, after launching versions in some of the major African languages (including Swahili, Hausa and Zulu) in May, has announced it will offer free access to its platform to mobile phone users in various countries around the world, including many in Africa. In October Google started testing a new service for Swahili speakers in East and Central Africa. Tentatively called Baraza ("meeting place" in Swahili), it will allow people to interact and share knowledge by asking and answering questions, many of them of only very local or regional interest.

Africans are also getting ready to benefit from the fast-growing mobile Internet sector. In South Africa, MXit, a free instant messaging application with an estimated 7 million users, is the most popular local social networking platform. From Abidjan and Accra to Lusaka and Nairobi, African programmers are designing, testing and launching new homegrown platforms and tools to keep the African online conversation going.

- United Nations Africa Renewal

(EXCLUSIVE REPORT) As Landmark Secession Referendum Ends in Southern Sudan, Sudanese Diaspora in the U.S. Await the Outcome After Voting For Independence

(HN, Jan. 15, 2010) – On Saturday, January 14, 2011 a group of Sudanese ex-patriates living in the Southern United States, travelled to Nashville, Tennessee to vote for the possible secession of South Sudan from Sudan.  HUMNEWS was along for the bus ride which ultimately led to South Sudan being voted into existence - creating the world's 238th nation territory. 

--- Max Ramming was along for the ride and here is his natural sound video piece, in the words and voices of those who experienced the event.

Battered Sri Lanka Contends With Destructive Climate Change (Report)

(HN, January 15, 2011) - Still recovering from the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami and the long-term effects of armed conflict, the island nation of Sri Lanka now finds a quarter of its territory under water.

Families wade through floodwaters triggered by heavy rains in eastern Sri Lanka, carrying clothing and possessions to higher ground. CREDIT: UNICEF

Recent catastrophic floods have decimated crops, driven tourists away at the height of the season - and caused a spike in food prices. The freak weather has even caused a plunge in temperatures. On Thursday, the capital city of Colombo hit 18.8 Celsius - the coldest day on record in more than 60 years.

Today, in its Twitter feed, the Sri Lankan Red Cross said initial estimates of damage is in the $500-million range.

The rains started December 26 and in one day alone on January 12, 300 millimeters fell, said a spokesperson for the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Elizabeth Byrs.

Already 27 people have died, and more than 1-million people have been affected - roughly a third children.

The country - a major tea and rice producer - faces loosing as much as 20 per cent of its harvest due to flood waters. The UN says about 300,000 people have been displaced; one UN official described eastern parts of the country as "a lake." The worst hit areas are Batticalao, Trincomalee and other regions in east-central Sri Lanka and the central provinces. Many roads have been rendered impassable.

More than 360,000 people are living in temporary shelters, Byrs told a media briefing in Geneva, monitored by HUMNEWS.

About 200,000 acres of rice fields are reported to be under water. Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said the floods had come just before the harvest season in February and March - in what was expected to be a bumper crop. The Rome-based food agency is gearing up to meet the food needs of about 500,000 people over a period of six months, Casella said.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, has warned of a major food crisis in the country and his ministers have been ordered to develop an emergency plan.

- HUMNEWS staff, UN

Donations for flood victims can be made to the Red Cross in Sri Lanka

Goodluck for Nigeria (Exclusive Report)

By HUMNEWS in Abuja

(HN, January 14, 2011) - "We have money - that is not our problem." That's what taxi driver Geoffrey Gumaju repeated as he navigated his battered, green taxi along the roads of the Nigerian capital.Mention of Nigeria's children was almost absent from the PDP convention CREDIT: HUMNEWS

Like many of his countrymen, he complains of a horribly-decaying infrastructure, despite the country's oil wealth. Roads are in bad shape, the health system has been described by DFID as on the brink of collapse and millions of youth are unemployed. "I have to bribe someone to get a job," says Gumaju.

Gumaju and Nigeria's 150-million people woke up this morning to news that incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan has won the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) ticket for the April presidential elections, handily defeating his opponent - former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Ordinarily, the presidency of this oil rich nation rotates between the predominantly Christian South and the majority-Muslim North. Jonathan, who assumed the presidency last year after the death of Umaru Yar'Adua, a northern Muslim, is a Christian from the South.

The PDP has captured every single presidential vote since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999. It gained independence from Britain in 1960.

In what was mainly a lackluster series of speeches, the three PDP presidential aspirants had little to offer in terms of concrete change. In fact, Jonathan, who spoke last before voting last night, said one of the biggest accomplishments during his term of office is that airplanes no longer get lost in Nigerian airspace. "The whole country is covered by radar now," he said.

Sarah Jibril, a colourful candidate and the lone female contender, was the only speaker to emphasize the need to lift the country's women and children out of poverty.

She said: “I represent ‘zoning neutraliser’. When you vote me, Nigeria will not be called one of the corrupt countries again. We did it in Liberia when we elected a female president. I have the mental capacity to lead Nigeria…I will be Mama President from whom there will be a rebirth. ”

The World Bank on Thursday boosted its growth forecast for Nigeria to 7.1 percent in 2011, from a previous estimate of 5.7 percent. Fresh spending on infrastructure is expected to contribute.

According to the UN, however, more than half of Nigeria's population of 150-million live in poverty, and 20 percent of Africa's poor call Nigeria home. The country accounts for 20 percent of global maternal mortality.

- From a HUMNEWS special correspondent in Abuja

World Bank Ups Growth Forecast for Sub-Saharan Africa (Report)

(HN, January 13, 2010) - Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa - the world's poorest region - will expand by as much as 5.3 percent in 2011, up from 1.7 percent in 2009, acccording to the World Bank.Tourism remittances are up in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, boosting economic prospects 

"In Sub-Saharan Africa, if you take out South Africa then we are at average growth rates of above 6 percent, similar growth rates as they achieved during the period before the crisis; overall, a very strong growth picture," said Hans Timmer, Director for the Prospects Group at the World Bank.

The latest Bank forecast for economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is an increase from 5.1 percent and is connected to the global economy recovery, and improved outlook for oil producers such as Nigeria and Angola.

The biggest risk to the continent's growth is another slump in the global economy as most African countries have “depleted the fiscal space they had created during the pre-crisis period and have not had time to rebuild it,” the Bank said.

Some countries saw a welcome uptick in tourist arrivals - especially South Africa, thanks to the World Cup. However, Cape Verde, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tanzania also experienced an increase in tourism revenue, the Bank said.

Also positive is that remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, which remained nearly flat during the crisis, registered a modest 1 percent gain in 2010 to reach $21 billion, the Bank says.

Remittance flows are important in supporting household consumption in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries, accounting for up to 25 percent of GDP in Lesotho and about 10 percent in Cape Verde, Senegal and Togo.

There are some dark clouds on the horizon for the region - especially climate change, which weighs heavily on the Bank's agenda for Africa.

Africa is facing an annual loss of 1 to 2 percent annual GDP because of climate variability, the Bank said in its latest Annual Report.

"Global temperature increases are expected to lead to reduced rainfall, water shortages, and compressed growing periods in Western and Southern Africa, and to increased rainfall, heavier flooding, and fiercer and more frequent cyclones in Northeast Africa," said the Bank.

An ongoing drought in Niger, Chad and northern Nigeria is ruining harvests and has forced thousands of families to seek emergency food aid for their severely malnourished children.

A mother holds her child at the Intensive Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre, which treats undernourished children in Niger. CREDIT: UnicefToday, UNICEF announced a new 3-million Euro commitment from the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) for emergency food aid for more than 50,000 children in seven drought-hit states in northern Nigeria. The children's agency has reported a spike in admission of severely malnourished children to therapeutic feeding centres in places like Niger. Soaring food prices are partially to blame.

"When prices of staples soar, the poor bear the brunt. Without global action, people in poor countries will be deprived of adequate and nutritious food, with tragic consequences for individuals and for the future prosperity of their countries." World Bank President Robert Zoellick said recently in an opinion piece.

- HUMNEWS staff, World Bank

Haiti, a year in pictures (Photo Essay)

Haiti, a year in pictures - Images by Nadav Neuhaus

Displaced in Haiti Drops Below One Million, A Year After Earthquake - IOM

(HN. January 11, 2011) - Close to 1-million people are still living in temporary shelters in Haiti one year after a major earthquake struck.Temporary shelter in Haiti CREDIT: IOM

However, according to the International Organization on Migration (IOM), this represents a "significant drop" in the number of Haitians living in displacement camps and is a welcome sign of progress in recovery efforts.

The UN agency said at a media briefing in Geneva today that still remaining is the massive task of finding durable housing solutions in the most challenging aspect of the humanitarian response.

An IOM country-wide assessment conducted between last November and January 2011 found 810,000 people are still living in informal sites in Port-au-Prince and provinces. This is nearly half the figure last July of an estimated 1.5 million internally displaced Haitians. It is also the first time that the camp population in Haiti has dropped to well below one million.

"While these figures seem a positive development, there is a long way to go. The displacement crisis in Haiti is the most visible and intractable issue. Getting people out of camps and into durable housing is key to long term recovery. However, there are many obstacles to doing this quickly and for Haitians, solutions can't come quickly enough," says IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.

The assessment, part of IOM's work in leading and coordinating camp management efforts in post-earthquake Haiti and regularly carried out, suggests a downward trend in the camp population of about 100,000 people a month. The largest declines are being witnessed in the south of the country in rural or semi-urban areas where housing options are more easily available.

Although an estimated 200,000 people have left the camps for transitional shelters, returned to damaged or rebuilt homes or simply left to live elsewhere, issues over land tenure, rubble, the lack of land preparation for construction as well as environmental concerns and risk mapping, are blocking more significant progress in resolving the displacement crisis.

"We have to acknowledge that life in camps will continue to be a reality for hundreds of thousands of people in the near future. In the meantime, the greatest possible efforts are being made to ensure that the displaced get the continued assistance and protection they need. As more camps continue to close down, this includes helping people without homes or livelihoods into more durable accommodation and into jobs," adds Swing.

Until more permanent houses can be built, transitional shelters which can last up to five years are the best option. IOM is complementing its work to assist the displaced by building 8110 shelters in the most affected areas. To date, 3000 shelters have been completed by IOM.

Although camp management activities have been the least funded of any humanitarian response in Haiti (43%), IOM and partners are regularly monitoring 100 per cent of all spontaneous settlements to track levels of service and to raise awareness on difficulties that the displaced face. For 2011, the camp management cluster of humanitarian agencies has appealed for $93 million.

According to UNICEF, the 12 January earthquake affected 1.5 million children and 63,000 pregnant women. As of 29 December, 3,481 people had died of cholera -- including 210 children below the age of five -- and over 157,000 cases of cholera had been reported, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

Also today, Nigel Fisher, the United Nations’ Humanitarian Coordinator, will present a UN report on 11 January in Port-au-Prince, along with the Haitian authorities. And tomorrow, various commemorative ceremonies such as the unveiling of a statue will be held in the capital in memory of the Haitians and the UN staff who had perished in the earthquake.

The UN response is still hobbled by lack of funding. According to UN-OCHA, the $1.5 billion appeal launched in 2010 has been funded to 72 per cent at the end of 2010. The $174 million cholera emergency appeal launched in late 2010, for its part, is only funded to 25 per cent.

- HUM staff, IOM

Southern Sudan 55-Year Quest for Freedom (Perspective)

By Hugo Odiogor

(HN, January 9, 2011) - A 55-year quest for freedom in southern Sudan makes a crucial home run today when over four million voters step out to cast their vote either to remain with their Arab and Muslim brothers or to become an independent state. The stakes are high for both sides and for Africa as a whole.Southern Sudan has considerable agricultural potential, but a lack of infrastructure - such as roads and storage facilities - and ongoing insecurity has limited production. CREDIT: Caroline Gluck, OXFAM

Sudanese President Omar Hassan El-Bashir pledged last week to abide by the result of today’s referendum, thereby dousing fears of a possible return to the trenches, in the event of southern voting to end its 113-year association with the Arab north.

El-Bashir, facing indictment in the International Court of Justice at The Hague, made what could be his last visit to the South as a united country last week and gave the world the assurance the north will not resort to violence to thwart the decision of the south. The vote is the result of a 2005 peace deal, which ended a 55-year conflict that has claimed the lives of two million people and left twice as many displaced.

El-Bashir held talks with southern Sudanese leader, Sylva Kiir, on issues bordering on citizenship rights, resource control, border demarcations, and the fate of the oil-rich Abyei, which is supposed to vote later on whether it should become part of the north or to join the south. Today’s referendum is part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended one of Africa’s longest-running civil war. In the north, the ruling National Congress Party, led by Omar El-Bashir, is campaigning for unity while  the former rebels under SPLM decided “to campaign for what the people want.”

Before the closure for registration last week, at least 3.4 million people in Sudan have registered to vote while Sudanese in Diaspora are also allowed to vote. Reports said aid agencies have been assisting to educate the illiterate rural population on how they will choose between two images on the ballot paper.

One of them is that of clasped hands symbolising “ unity.” The second symbol is a “single hand”, signalling separation from Khartoum. The vote for separation has united the diverse southern communities who are often divided along ethnic lines. There have been pro-separation rallies as the people look forward to end centuries of slavery and abuse at the hands of the Arabs in the north.

Sudan is located in the north-eastern part of Africa. It is the 10th largest country by land mass, combining the size of France, Britain, Germany and Belgium, put together. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Kenya and Uganda to the southeast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central Africa Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. The River Nile, world’s longest river, divides the country on the east and west.

Khartoum is the political, cultural and commercial capital of the nation, while Omdurman remains the largest city. Its population of 42 million people, Arab and Nubian origins who are Sunnis and the Dinkas and other diverse groups in the South.

Islam is the official and largest religion, while Arabic and English are the official languages. The pro-Islamic policies of the government led to a second civil war in 1983,  followed by a bloodless coup d’etat in 1989. Under the dictatorial leadership of El-Bashir, Sudan has initiated a series of macroeconomic reforms which resulted in its economy being rated amongst the fastest growing in the world. Sudan is rich in natural resources including petroleum, with China and Japan as its main partners.

The British began the process of divide and rule in 1922, when the northerners were not allowed to travel over the 10th parallel south and southerners travel over the 8th north. This ensured that Muslims were stopped from spreading their faith southwards while the British supported the influx of Christian missionaries to the south. This was the basis for the dichotomy that existed till date.

The two cultures were never given a proper opportunity to interact, in the 55 years of the country’s independence. The north imposed its dominance by force and attempted to impose Sharia on southern Christians where illiteracy is almost 100 per cent; poverty is rife, healthcare is non-existent and starvation a frequent blight.

Flashpoints of conflict

Separatist movements in regions such as Darfur and the Nuba Mountains and  border areas are watching the development in the vote today; in the same way other African and Arab countries are watching the development in Sudan.

‘Under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which brought civil war to an end, two referenda were agreed: one for southern secession or unity and the other to give Abyei the opportunity to choose to be part of the north or the south.

Oil diplomacy

Sudan has achieved great economic growth by implementing macroeconomic reforms and finally ended the civil war by adopting a new constitution in 2005 with rebel groups in the south, granting them limited autonomy to be followed by a referendum about independence in 2011.

The discovery of oil in the southern part of Sudan has been one of the problems of the country. It produces 500,000 barrels every day. Eighty per cent of the oil is in the south, while the pipeline runs to the  north. It accounts for 70 per cent of government revenue and 93 per cent of its exports. South produces vast majority of oil, but north has means of processing.

El-Basir is proposing a wealth-sharing deal that splits oil profits 50-50 between north and south Sudan. The Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), runs the largest oil-extraction operation in the country. China has been roundly condemned for closing its eyes to human rights violations in Sudan because of the oil diplomacy. Its company has been accused of false declaration of oil production figures which puts the south in disadvantage. In the five years of  peace, the north has shared $10 billion in oil revenue with south.

The suspicion that the north was hiding oil revenue almost derailed the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, three years ago. Bashir’s National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army must negotiate a new oil revenue-sharing agreement, and a “credible, independent” company must conduct a detailed audit of the country’s oil industry and release its findings in full to the public.

Observers  believe that the ICC indictment of  El-Bashir has put him under tremendous pressure and he is not in the mood to fight any more, but the UN, and some anti-genocide groups have set up Satellite Sentinel Project, along the border areas to monitor movement of persons and troops.

The surveillance project is to prevent a new civil war in the event that the south votes for secession in the referendum. “We want to let potential perpetrators of genocide and other war crimes to know that we’re watching, the world is watching,” they said. “War criminals thrive in the dark. It’s a lot harder to commit mass atrocities in the glare of the media spotlight.”

Today’s referendum is important for the people of Sudan and the world as it may see the birth of a new nation in Africa and the world.

This article originally appeared in the Vanguard Newspaper in Nigeria