Since it is Friday, I might as well put up a few music videos.

[10] First up is the Kano remix of The Very Best’s “Julia” (remember earlier this year’s excellent “The Warm Heart of Africa” album?):

[2] The subversive “Funny” by South African group Bed on Bricks [I first heard it used in a short film about Durban squatter movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

[3] Nigerian rapper Kel with “Waa waa alright.”

[4] Positive rap by a group of Ghanaian Hausa rappers:

[5] The very political Gabonese group Poetes Fyzik’s “Ce Que L’On Pense” [The video was shot at the recent 9th Annual Waga International Hip Hop Festival that took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in October 2009]:

[6] The Montreal-based Waahli’s “Sundance.”

[7] I love Georgia Ann Muldrew’s “Roses” collaboration with Mos Def. Here she is doing it sans Mos.

[8] “Special Girl” by Bangs. I am not sure about this song. Whether it is a parody or whether Bangs, a Sudanese rapper, is serious.

[9] “Aquarias” from Brooklyn singer Iyadede (her parents are from Rwanda):

And at [10] the energetic French “Sinik Rai”:

Gavin Sword KF9 Rwanda

There is a TV show that profiles treacherous jobs around the world, the episode i recall was one about Alaskan King Crab Fishermen.  These brave men (typically) work night and day in stormy seas on slippery decks in frigid waters.  The ships are rocking violently with waves crashing over the decks – death just a misstep away.

Here in Rwanda on my drive to work each day, I see women who are employed as Street Sweepers doing a job that rivals the dangers faced by the men on these Alaskan ships.  Working from dawn til dusk, these intrepid souls stand ON THE HIGHWAY with cars zooming past at 50+ miles per hour, sweeping the debris and dust from the road with meticulous care.  There are no pylons or barriers, no “Caution” signs, no “Slow Down – Sweepers at Work” signs.

Most drivers that I’ve seen do not even give any special wide berth to these courageous workers, they are missed by inches – not feet, by cars and trucks speeding to and fro.  These women truly have nerves of steel – and the pay for this work, I have heard, is the equivalent of $US70/month.  It is hard to grasp this number – they work 6 days per week, so that is approximately $3 per day.  Adjusted for pay vs. danger – i have to say that I think these women win the title of the “World’s Most Dangerous Job” hands down.  (I don’t recall the exact pay for the Alaskan King Crab Fishermen, but I do know that it was considerably more than $3/day).

Regardless, I am told that these jobs are actually sought after.  In a country with nearly 30% unemployment, it is still a job – and it allows them to feed their families or at least to contribute to the effort.  Menial jobs are common in Rwanda -  street sweeping, grass cutting  (with rudimentary instruments) or cleaning people work grueling hours for subsistence pay.  It is no wonder that so many Rwandans opt for self employment through borrowing from MFI’s like Vision Finance.

Kiva borrowers in Rwanda may not be making large profits each month but most make far more than $70, they have some control over their destinies and their jobs are generally not vying for the “World’s Most Dangerous” title.  I have learned that the options for employment in Rwanda are severely limited and whatever your perspective on microfinance, it offers other options for employment in a country that desperately needs more options.

Selling milk from dairy cows and goats can be an excellent business for small-scale farmers. Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has established a project in three East African countries, which aims to double the income of one million rural people, through small-scale dairying. Dr Amos Omore from the International Livestock Research Institute explains more to Pius Sawa.

Read (and listen) … (AGFAX)

The UN is admitting failure in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  A new report even claims that UN forces have aggravated the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces with the UN trained Congolese Army and the rebel group the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Richard Dowden of The Guardian writes, “There have been signs that elements of the UN force are going local and also taking to trading minerals and abusing local people.”

But not everyone agrees with the findings.  Reuters South Africa reported Information Minister Lambert Mende as saying such accusations are “really what we can call an exaggeration. If the situation is now worse, what is that based on? How many people were dying before this operation? How many are dying today? he asked, arguing there could have been many more victims of fighting if the offensive had not taken place.”

The FDLR, an ethnic Hutu militia that relocated to the Congo after the 1994 genocide from the neighboring country of Rwanda, continue to wreak havoc in the region.  They have been accused of such crimes as murder, rape, pillaging, and taking advantage of the natural resources of the Congo including smuggling gold.  According to Sky News “Congolese records show only a few kilos of gold are exported legally every year, but the country’s own senate estimates that in reality 40 tonnes a year – worth £743m – gets out.”

It is a troubling problem that continues to fund and fuel the trouble in Central Africa from an international network of buyers from dozens of countries, including the United States and Europe, according to the UN.

The New York Times predicts the new UN report will force the US government to do more, including  “urging Congress to pass legislation that would bar American companies from buying Congo’s “conflict minerals,” which include gold, tin and coltan, a metallic ore used in many cellphones and laptop computers.”

Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya open a common market.

Last Friday, the presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Kenya signed the East African Common Market protocol in Arusha, Tanzania, after eight years of discussion.  Goods, services, and labor will now move freely in the trading bloc, home to 120 million consumers.

They had planned to sign the protocol last April, but disagreements over aspects of the protocol had derailed the signing.

New changes:

-Goods and services produced in the region will be treated equally, and labor can move freely in East Africa.

-Companies can move production plants  to where they find the best business environment.

-Countries with more developed manufacturing sectors can sell their goods cheaply in other countries in the bloc, potentially harming local manufacturers and saving consumers money.

By John Allen

As Rwanda applies this week to join the Commonwealth, the international grouping dominated by ex-British colonies, both its membership application and a number of recent books on Central Africa are focusing new attention on the current government’s human rights record.

In a debate which somewhat echoes those over justice and human rights in Israel and Palestine, activists and regional experts are arguing over whether President Paul Kagame and his government are to be seen primarily as representing victims of genocide or a government which has become responsible for itself perpetrating human rights abuses.

Among recent interventions which have given rise to most controversy is a report by the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which said this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting should put Rwanda’s application on hold.

“Rwanda does not satisfy the test of Commonwealth values,” says the CHRI. “There are considerable doubts about the commitment of the current regime to human rights and democracy. It has not hesitated to use violence at home or abroad when it has suited it.”

Replying to the report, a senior Rwandan foreign ministry official accused the CHRI of “being in cahoots with people or groups that view Rwanda negatively.”

In a more vigorous response, Rwandan journalist Shyaka Kanuma wrote in Kigali’s Focus Mediathat the report’s author, Kenyan-born Professor Yashpal Ghai, “serves up… fare that you may crib off any of the numerous websites run by deniers of the ‘94 Genocide, revisionists of Rwandan history, conspiracy theorists and numerous groups whose extremist sectarian views the professor parrots with no inhibition…

“Reading these and numerous other charges,” Kanuma said, “one half expects Yashpal Ghai to also blame Rwanda for cancer, the bubonic plague, HIV/Aids, famine, desertification and other terrible afflictions on humankind in this region.”

In the United States, a reviewer in the Washington Post last Sunday describeda memoir by Joseph Sebarenzi, a former speaker of the Rwandan parliament, as “a thoughtful critique of Kagame’s regime.”

Stephen Kinzer said in his review of “God Sleeps in Rwanda – A Journey of Transformation”:

“Many development specialists consider Rwanda the most promising poor country on earth. Some others see it quite differently: as a repressive place where one man rules, dissidents are silenced by whatever means necessary, and the regime supports itself by looting the neighboring Congo.”

These differences of opinion made Rwanda “both important and fascinating,” Kinzer added, and Sebarenzi’s story was “a provocative warning to the many outsiders who are ready to canonize Kagame.”

Three months ago, three new books on Central Africa prompted a heavyweight attack on Kagame’s record by Howard W. French, a former New York Times correspondent whose questioning of what he regards as the over-simplification of many analyses of Rwanda’s genocide goes back a decade.

In a 4,000-word review in The New York Review of Books entitled “Kagame’s Hidden War in the Congo”, French noted that the three recent books* he was assessing all portrayed Rwanda and its allies in Central Africa “not as heroes but rather as opportunists who use moral arguments to advance economic interests. And their supporters in the United States and Western Europe emerge as alternately complicit, gullible, or simply confused.”

The 1994 genocide “was not the monopoly of the Hutus, as is widely believed,” French continued. And the three books “characterize Kagame’s regime as more closely resembling a minority ethnic autocracy.” He concluded at the end of his review: “Without addressing the problems of exclusion and participation, whether in a Rwanda ruled by a small Tutsi minority or in heavily armed eastern Congo, where contending ethnic groups want to get hold of the region’s spoils, it will be impossible to end this catastrophe.”

In a letter in the current (December 3) edition of the New York Review, Noam Schimmel of the London School of Economics, in turn hits back:

“Howard French’s characterization of Rwanda’s government as consisting of ‘a small Tutsi minority’ is incongruent with the facts,” he writes. “Hutus serve at the highest levels of government, in every branch of government, and in every level of government from local and provincial leaders to national authorities and ambassadors…

“It has become popular among some in academia to delegitimize Rwanda’s current government. There are legitimate reasons for criticizing it. But such criticisms need to be grounded in fact and sensitive to the context of Rwanda’s post-genocide situation.” Since the government now headed by Kagame took over, no “acts of government-sanctioned mass violence have taken place… This is a stunning achievement, and one that is too often overlooked.”

To which French replies in the same edition that the books he reviewed “relate a history that is much more complex than the one offered by Mr. Schimmel… They offer none of the moral clarity of the Holocaust analogies that remain popular in accounts of the Rwandan genocide, but rather show a region of multiple, interlocking genocides in which Hutus and Tutsis have repeatedly taken turns as perpetrator and victim.”

Rwanda’s application to join the Commonwealth will be decided on at the end of this week.  It has been almost a year since the country applied to join the international grouping dominated by ex- British colonies in January 2008.  And there seems to be debate on how smoothly the vote to include Rwanda at the summit in Trinidad and Tobago will proceed.

In an article in Rwanda’s The New Times they report that ‘reliable sources say that all member states unanimously support Rwanda joining the group mainly composed of former British colonies.’

Meanwhile, AllAfrica.com’s John Allen blogs that New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) writes, “Rwanda does not satisfy the test of Commonwealth values.  There are considerable doubts about the commitment of the current regime to human rights and democracy. It has not hesitated to use violence at home or abroad when it has suited it.”

Despite the issue of human rights violations, Canada is backing the admittance of Rwanda.  A spokesperson for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department told AFP, “Canada would welcome the admission of Rwanda to the Commonwealth.”

There are currently 53 countries in the Commonwealth, which gives an equal platform to small and large nations to lobby for trade deals, influence world powers and leaders such as the World Trade Organization (WTO).

But Daniel Howden of The Independent alludes that there may have another reason for the African country wanting to become the 54 member of the Commonwealth. Blame over responsibility for the 1994 Rwanda genocide has caused France and Rwanda to severe ties over accusations of the others involvement, which ultimately led Rwanda to boycott the French language in support of English.  Howden reports in an article entitled ‘It’s really about Kigali getting back at Paris’ that “one cabinet minister in the capital, Kigali, was heard to remark that Rwanda must be allowed into the Commonwealth club of English-speaking nations because “French is a dying language and we want to be part of a living language”.

In honor of his speech a few days ago, in which he praised mass-murderers Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and terrorist and murderer “Carlos the Jackal”, the supreme council of the Silverwolves’ Forestry Action Committee has decided to award the Venezuelan jackanapes its “Pigasus Maximus” award. This is not awarded in honor of the President’s porcine appearance, so different from the lean looks of his fellow countrymen, but rather to reward him for his moral turpitude in praising some of the worst mass-murdering criminals in history. Chavez has shown the true moral values of the far Left, indistingushable from the moral values of the Nazis, and it is for that reason that we Silverwolves have honored him with our annual award, so eagerly sought after by some of the world’s most heinous war criminals.

Of course we can well remember the mass-murderer Idi Amin, who is estimated to have murdered around 300,000 Human Beings. After expelling the South Asians, consisting of old Indian and Pakistani families who had mostly gone into trading in Uganda, Amin murdered his 300,000 Christians and Animists, mostly by bashing in their heads. As you may well recall, the reaction of Jimmy Carter was to say it was disgusting, leave it at that, and then permit the genocide to go ahead, just as his fellow party member Bill Clinton did a score of years later in Rwanda. Both men could have quickly stopped the genocides with American military intervention. Both found the “moral courage” to let massive numbers of women and children be bashed and hacked to death without lifting a finger to intervene. Shows how the Democrats really care about people. Especially Black Folk.

And Chavez seems to forget, though he probably approves it, the fact of the massive involvement of the PLO in propping up Amin’s reign of terror and bloodshed. And according to the UN-Published Book “Uganda and Human Rights”, Amin’s head torturer was the PLO member Ali Tawili, whose favorite game was to remove his victim’s anus with a bayonet during interrogation. These are the men that Hugo Chavez praises and holds up to the world as heroes.

And of course, he can’t forget his fellow despot Robert Mugabe, whose security forces have murdered, tortured, and starved countless Zimbabweans. I suppose dripping molten plastic on the genitals of men and women by Mugabe’s security forces is a form of political argument that Chavez can well appreciate. And the mass starvation of children due to Mugabe’s inflation, well, that small potatoes to Hugo the Porcine, who certainly hasn’t had a hunger pang since he’s been in office, judging from his girth.

The crimes of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad are legion and well known right now, since the press has been focusing on them the last few years. Hanging children for being gay, denying the Holocaust, threatening to commit mass-murder against Israeli civilians, murdering and torturing his own people when they dissent, rigging elections — there’s certainly a lot there for Chavez to praise. Probably a foretaste of life ahead in the Venezuelan Marxist paradise.

And finally, not to be left out is the mass murderer and Fascist terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. Evidently Hugo thinks it a great travesty of justice that Carlos rots in a French jail for murder. One can only wonder what the Venezuelan conception of the Law will be under El Pigasus Maximus. Certainly one radically different from the Anglo-Jeffersonian view of the law.

To deny mass murder and praise murderers is not only deeply disgusting, but it is a crime. Hugo Chavez has committed the crime of praising murderers, excusing their genocidal crimes, and encouraging terrorism. He is obviously one of the greatest Miscreants currently roaming the face of the earth, along with the child-murderer Ahmedinejad. Until he is removed from office, Jeffersonian-Libertarians should institute a boycott of all Venezuelan goods and services, and refrain from trading in the Bolivar, in order to teach the people who voted this Miscreant into power, that there is an economic price to pay for spitting on Morality.

Therefore, with the power vested in me as spokesman for the Silverwolves’ Forestry Action Committee, I, Lobo Silverwolf, do hereby invest Hugo Chavez with our “Pigasus Maximus” Award, which he richly deserves. May the millions of victims of those he praises achieve Justice.

Hooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww! — Silverwolf

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new global version of Amazon’s Kindle for Christmas, be aware that there are still quite a few places that the global version will NOT work.  I was disappointed to find that the new version still will not work in my country.

Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.   I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in (below).

It’s also interesting to note the PATTERN of groups of countries where the Kindle doesn’t work–some countries probably lack satellite coverage or delivery systems, while others probably don’t WANT readers to be able to download whatever they want by satellite.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,  Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S.,  Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009) the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan,  Yemen.

November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The white ribbon has become the symbol for the day.

Click on the picture to join the Community

For some reason, the Marks clan never seems to stay put in the United States for the Thanksgiving holidays. Here is a note, from several years ago, that I wrote about one of these side trips.

Naturally, my folks are in the most obvious of locations for Thanksgiving, Rwanda, to go see our 47th cousins, the mountain gorillas, in their natural habitat. You’re supposed to keep 10 feet away and not make any noise. So my dad’s gleefully snapping photographs of a mother and her baby, his back turned to the males of the pack, when the silverback alpha male of the group (apparently, these photos don’t nearly show his full 250 kg size) charges at my dad and stops not six inches away. Dr. Marks doesn’t know anything’s happened.

My mom says, “Darling, you’re going to want to sit on the ground, right now, and be really still.”

Dad says, “Why?” 

Mom says, “You need to trust me on this….”

So my dad sits on the ground, and the silverback comes round and starts examining him. While this is happening, my mom – figuring that we’ll want some sort of photographic evidence to the death of our father at the hands of mountain gorillas – starts snapping photos on her blackberry. If there hadn’t been the not-so-proverbial gorilla in the room, one might ask why my mom had her blackberry in the Rwandan mountains in the first place.

Luckily, the gorilla spent about a minute staring at my dad before continuing along his merry way. And my dad has made a new friend, a 250 kg mountain gorilla whom I have nicknamed after my sister, on account of its size and the thickness of its mange.

I måndags kom jag tillbaks från Rwanda. Det var en spännande resa med intressanta möten med bland annat parlamentariker Rwandas parlament, ett av världens mest jämställda diton. Dessutom var det tropiska klimatet mer tilltalande än de regngråa höstsvenska. På plats berättade jag om det svenska arbetet med att öka jämställdheten på främst arbetsmarknaden.

Hem välkomnades jag av telefonkatalogtjocka handlingar som måste läsas igenom och kommenteras. Därför blir det till att återkomma med en lite mer utförlig redogörelse för min vistelse i Afrika.

Rwanda is a unique country. Beyond the tragic months of the genocide in 1994, it has witnessed a veritable Phoenix effect; it is now one of the most business-oriented and development savvy countries on the continent. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s President carries great personal charisma and is credited, by some, as having single-handedly ended the genocide in 1994, to have made the transition from soldier to politician and to be responsible for setting the country on the path towards development, economic progress and integration – by law, at least one third of Parliamentarians must be female. Rwanda heads the African Development Bank and the country’s politicians and dignitaries (not least Paul Kagame) adorn a range of international events, projects and roles. The country has taken on the role of a diplomatic mediator, has become a “donor darling” and had expressed a desire to become the “Singapore of Africa” – a technology hub for the continent¹. Are institutions strong enough to withstand the test of time and leadership changes to continue on this path?

Rwanda is the most densely populated African country, it is land-locked and much of its current revenue derives from agriculture and exports of minerals to Belgium, Germany and China; tourism represents a growing industry both in terms of revenue and employment, and coffee is an increasingly central export. The country’s long term objective is to derive two thirds of its economic growth from industry and services, and one third from agriculture². Plus, the private sector is increasingly able to function as Rwanda implements effective reforms³.

President Kagame has strong personal relationships with world leaders, including the main donor governments as well as the World Bank, despite remaining a strong critic of the UN and its inaction during the genocide. The country relies substantially on foreign aid and manages to attract significant amounts every year. However, President Kagame bets more on investment and trade than on international aid as a means of lifting its citizenry out of poverty. The President is seen by many as a hero who has turned around the country: Time Magazine pits him at number 13 of the 100 most influential people in 2009. He is characterised as “the face of emerging African leadership”.

The fact that Paul Kagame exemplifies the new African leadership – he beats every other African president on the Times 100 list – implies that what happens in Rwanda matters not just to the country and the region, but also to the African continent. It is therefore of importance to assess the country’s future with an eye both to its achievements, but also towards its difficulties. Any leader faces criticisms, and Kagame’s record is tarnished by his repression of a free and independent media, by the erosion of civil liberties, by involvement in regional conflicts (notably with the Democratic Republic of Congo) and by financing proxy rebel groups, to name but the headlines ⁴.

Why does all this matter in the wider context, beyond the confines of Rwanda? Rwanda has been involved for decades in proxy wars, skirmishes and land-grabs with the DRC, for both political and resource reasons. These conflicts have involved several neighbouring countries and have cost scores of lives over the years. Rwanda joined the East African Community in 2007 (originally formed by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and now chaired by President Kagame). Hence what happens in Rwanda affects the EAC by proxy and because the EAC is Rwanda’s gateway to the sea. Ultimately, if Paul Kagame is the face of African leadership, it matters to Sub-Saharan Africa how he runs his country and what means he deploys to achieve his objectives.

Republik Rwanda beribukota di Kigali. Rwanda merupakan negara yang terletak di Afrika Tengah dengan komposisi penduduk yang padat. Negara ini terdiri dari tiga kelompok masyarakat yaitu Hutu (84%), Tutsi (15%) dan Twa (1%) (CIA Fact Book 2005). Hutu dan Tutsi merupakan kelompok etnis yang sering berkonflik dan berujung pada genosida tahun 1994. Pada bulan April 1994, kelompok ekstrimis Hutu melakukan pembantaian (massacre) terhadap etnis Tutsi dan etnis Hutu yang membela keberadaan Tutsi (Hutu moderat) serta menentang tindakan-tindakan ekstrimis Hutu terhadap Tutsi.

Rwanda terdiri dari tiga etnis yaitu Hutu, Tutsi dan Twa. Twa merupakan etnis pertama yang menempati daerah Rwanda sejak tahun 2000 SM. Kemudian diikuti oleh Hutu dan Tutsi. Hutu mengelola tanah yang ada di Rwanda dengan sistem pertanian (agricultural) sedangkan Tutsi mengembangkan peternakan (cattle). Twa menjalani hidup dengan berburu dan membuat barang perkakas. Mereka hidup berdampingan dan saling memenuhi kebutuhan masing-masing (Pottier 2002, hal 12).

Negara ini kemudian dijajah oleh Jerman dan Belgia. Belgia menjajah Rwanda sejak tahun 1916. Penjajahan yang dilakukan oleh Belgia, memberikan efek signifikan terhadap perubahan kehidupan sosial, politik dan ekonomi di Rwanda. Dalam kehidupan sosial dan politik, Belgia melakukan klasifikasi terhadap Hutu dan Tutsi dengan menggunakan cara yang baru yaitu tanda pengenal. Hal ini dilakukan untuk mempermudah pemerintah Belgia dalam merekrut etnis Tutsi bekerja dalam pemerintahan yang disertai dengan eksklusi Hutu dari pemerintahan (Desforges 1999, hal 34). Pada bidang ekonomi, pemerintahan koloni Belgia memperkenalkan tanaman kopi pada rakyat di negara ini. Kopi menjadi komoditas utama dalam bidang perdagangan bagi Rwanda karena didukung dengan kualitas tanah yang subur.

Pemerintah kolonial Belgia mendukung superioritas Tutsi sebagai perpanjangan tangan mereka dalam pemerintahan karena Tutsi memiliki kesamaan secara fisik dengan orang Eropa. Tutsi juga memiliki kemampuan untuk memimpin etnis lainnya. Hal inilah yang kemudian dijadikan alasan bagi pemerintah Belgia untuk mendukung superioritas Tutsi dibandingkan Hutu dan Twa baik dalam pemerintahan maupun dalam bidang pendidikan.

Kebijakan pemerintah Belgia yang memberikan status istimewa (privileged status) terhadap Tutsi, menimbulkan rasa iri dari mayoritas Hutu (Power 2001, hal 4). Hal ini mencapai puncaknya pada tahun 1959 ketika Hutu menggulingkan pemerintahan Tutsi yang dibentuk oleh kolonial Belgia. Pemerintah kolonial Belgia meninggalkan negara ini dalam keadaan berkonflik. Konflik terus berlangsung dan pada tahun-tahun berikutnya, Tutsi dibantai sehingga 150.000 orang Tutsi mengungsi ke negara tetangga (CIA Fact Book 2005).

Mereka yang mengungsi kemudian membentuk kelompok pemberontak yang disebut dengan Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) pada tahun 1990. RPF merupakan pihak yang nantinya disebut dengan pemberontak dan penjajah oleh kaum ekstrimis Hutu dan harus dihancurkan karena melakukan invasi ke Rwanda pada tahun 1993. Himbauan mereka terhadap hal ini mengakibatkan pembunuhan terhadap masyarakat Tutsi yang masih menetap di Rwanda. Perang antara RPF dan kelompok ekstrimis Hutu berakibat pada perang sipil di Rwanda pada tahun 1994.

Croatian Branco Tucak is fired as coach of Rwanda after their failure to qualify for the 2010 Nations Cup…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: soccer result. The blog is also related to: brazil soccer.

By Gavin Sword, KF9 Rwanda

The music of Africa conjures images of native dancers and handmade instruments – the drums, rhythms and dancing are mythical. Knowing I was coming to Africa, I was so looking forward to hearing the native music of Rwanda.  Music is one of the purest ways I know to experience and appreciate new cultures and connect with people.

During my time here, I have had a few occasions of hearing the native music of Rwanda and it was wonderful.  A church service and wedding ceremony I attended with traditional dance and songs were particularly memorable.  However, at my MFI, the radio plays pretty much all day long on the computer of my officemate and the thing is, it’s not African music at all.  This gentleman has a penchant for country music – and the truth is his brand of music has really gotten me hooked.

Country is a musical genre heretofore overlooked by this Kiva Fellow, but over the past two months I have learned the lyrics of more country hits than you can imagine.  A few toe-tappers come to mind and I am going to try to relate them to microfinance because I have listened to these songs every single day I’ve been here and I’ve had time to make some connections, however tenuous.

The Rhinestone Cowboy, by Glen Campbell is a song about a down-on-his-luck fellow who dreams of bigger things in life,

“There’s been a load of compromisin’ on the road to my horizon…but I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me…Like a Rhinestone Cowbow….getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know.  Well I really don’t mind the rain, and the smile can hide all the pain, but you’re down when you’re ridin’ the train that’s takin’ the long way…and I dream of the things I’ll do -with a subway token and a dollar tucked in my shoe…”

Those are some great lyrics!  Don’t we all dream of bigger things?  Many of the borrowers I have met share that same pluck and ambition – maybe not for the bright lights and hit records, but they have their own big dreams and are working so hard to reach them.  Not exactly like the Rhinestone Cowboy, but there are some rich metaphorical similarities to be gleaned, no doubt about it.

And who can forget Dolly Parton’s stirring rendition of  “9 to 5” – is there a more apt song about the life of a frustrated working man/woman in any land with hopes of a better future?  As Dolly laments,

“You’re in the same boat with a lot of your friends, waitin’ for the day your ship’ll come in and the tide’s gonna turn and it’s all gonna go your way…”

Hats off to our Kiva borrowers because they work for themselves, not having to deal with bosses that ‘just use your mind and never give you credit…and let you dream just to watch them shatter – just a step on the boss man’s ladder…”  Hooray for entrepreneurship and working for one’s self!

Finally, Ronny Milsap’s “I Wouldn’t Have Missed it for the World”… This brings to mind my own experience of being here as a Kiva Fellow in Rwanda;

“Our paths may never cross again…I’m glad for all the good times…cause you brought me so much sunshine…I wouldn’t have missed it for the world…I wouldn’t trade one memory…cause you mean that much to me…I wouldn’t have missed it for the world”
That Ronny Milsap really has a way with words.  My time here has changed my life for sure.  I have learned something of microfinance and what it can and can’t do.  I appreciate the complexities and nuances and appreciate more just how much I don’t know.  It has been an eye opening experience and one that “I wouldn’t have missed for the world…” .  And, I know when I go home, my I-Tunes collection will be permanently changed.  I will wistfully listen to country music and think of …Africa.

Croatian Branco Tucak is fired as coach of Rwanda after their failure to qualify for the 2010 Nations Cup…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: english soccer. The blog is also related to: german soccer.

I need to take you a bit back in time, before I can explain, why I am writing this today. Please bear with me.

During my last year of Law school I had to focus all energy, innovation and intellect on the writing of my thesis. Sometime around my third year in school, I realized that law might be just too black and white for me. You see in life I have been always so fascinated by the colorful zones (as opposed to the gray zones, legalists refer to with extreme fascination.)I had to find a topic of focus that was extremely difficult and challenging (to get me going as sadly, one of my many disadvantages is that, only hard-to-conceive and out-of-the-box concepts get me going) and…colorful. My legal expertise by then was International Law and International Humanitarian Law, so the natural choice of subject-matters would have been Rwanda, the Nuremberg Trials, Yugoslavia, the Balkans etc. Instead…I have always, always found fascination in the analysis of international affairs and/or phenomena based on the assumption that in Waltz’s threefold of sources of actors in the international arena (see: System, State, Man), man was the most psychologically challenging for me. I refuse to accept that man is the ‘victim’ of the system or the way that the state operates, simply because both the state as well as the system consist of men. If we can change the man, we can change it all. Better yet, if we can understand the man, we can then, interpret his reactions in a much more meaningful way.

I had found my topic, which was much more Criminal Law-oriented than international. How on earth would I make it to convince my Yale and Harvard-educated supervisor, to allow this youthful and stubborn Arian kid, to pursue a topic that was so ‘don’t go there’ in such limited time and with such limited resources? She and I, have always had a special relationship. I am not sure I can detect its beginning, but for some reason, I could feel she expected a lot from me. I decided to stop by her office. An archaic,  two-story, roman-like building dressed in Renaissance paintings and even sculptures. Her office was warm and challenging at the same time – nothing intimidates me more than distinguished intellectuals that remain unbelievably humble.

I had sweaty palms, a knot in my throat, my heart was racing like crazy…how on earth would I pull this through? When I told her…she swallowed a couple of times, got up and said ‘Let’s go for a walk, Mr. Schott.’ Am I getting expelled for trying?

We are walking amidst the greatest constructions of mankind, the sun is staring me right in the eyes, and I can’t help but lower my head in the direction of my footsteps. My hands were in my pockets and it almost felt as if they were in a tanning cylinder.

“Mr. Schott, Christopher, under my capacity as your professor and supervisor, I am going to say your topic is suicidal and very difficult to present from an international law perspective. In fact, it’s purely criminal law and I cannot see how you will put the two together. Under my capacity as a person though, I want you to do it, knowing that you remind me of myself and my drive when I was your age. And I will tell you something else Christopher. Unfortunately you are so intellectually and good-heartedly gifted that you will never have true friends in your life. Unfortunately you will always be envied and the people who will surround you, will never be able to understand your extremely giving nature, one that requires nothing in return. All great men died alone, but their art, was good enough to make them content. Unfortunately and I hope I am wrong, you are too special and too gifted for anyone to understand.”

Back then, I was too happy that I got her approval on my topic, that I never really understood why she had to go ahead and tell me all those other things. I had memorized them, simply because anything I cannot fully analyze, I register in my mind to play again and again until I do. My professor was American, she came to Greece to follow the love of her life (an attorney whose office was right above hers), when I asked if she had any regrets following him and leaving her family and life back in Boston, she answered quickly “No, my life is here, with him, besides, where in the US would I be able to have a 3-hr coffee and just look at people walk by every day in the sun?” She became my first mentor, right then and there, and for the next 365 days of my life, we became inseparable: I was working on my thesis at least  6 hours per day and when I would take a break from it, I’d try and focus on other classes as well. I had a specific cubicle in the library -no.8- every morning, I’d wake up, make my coffee, gather my notes together, get my laptop and establish myself in cubicle no.8, one that was right by the window facing the yard of the University (so I could people-watch occasionally, and think of my Professor’s remarks ‘My life is here, with him’. I would leave the library when they’d close the building, and I’d go home only to continue working on how to synthesize what I was trying to prove. My friends wouldn’t get it -they thought I was neglecting them- and the girl I was seeing back then (another law student) whose main concern was to just have me as the date she could show off every Saturday night, was not the person I wanted to share all this epiphany with. I broke off the relationship and I asked for some ‘time off’ from my friends…and then the letters began…

The Death Penalty. That was my subject-matter. And how could I understand the why’s and the how’s and even the when’s, without becoming acquainted with the protagonists of Death Row? I searched and searched, until I found my way to them: letters. An organization based in the UK, a non-profit, who began a system of correspondence between the inmates and anonymous friends, the inmates and the families of their victims, the inmates and God…letters each side would forward to the headquarters of the organization and then the authorities of the organization would forward to the respective recipient. To the scare and disapproval of my mum, who by then had started going to Church pleading for my soul’s salvation, I started reading the letters of inmates.

Until then, I was very pragmatic, harsh and legalistic when it came to the execution of the murderers and rapists of children, helpless women and honorable men. Assault and slaughter are two phenomena I have yet to accept or understand. The doers of these acts, I have yet to characterize as ‘human beings’. Yet they are…

And so, I synthesized my message from Huntsville to Mississippi to London. I got the highest possible mark for the defense of my thesis and two university presses have been wanting to publish it since then. I never published; I never will. But here’s a letter- as we are approaching Thanksgiving, and Christmas, as we are re-thinking of what we did over the last year, as we are realizing who we love and why and as we are putting aside all that’s been keeping us apart, all those stupid and silly reasons, here’s a letter, from a man who cannot change his future.

“I’m sorry it has taken so long to answer your letter. This has without a doubt been the most difficult letter I have ever written in my life and I wanted it to be ‘right’. I’ve done my absolute best to convey my thoughts and feelings to you accurately. If my thinking seems disordered or jumbled on occasion, please bear with me. There is a lot that needs to be said and deciding just what order to put it in is difficult at best. Thus, the delay in answering you.

Before I go any further I would like to assure you that no matter what I say to answer your questions or explain things, Nothing is intended to Justify my past conduct. (In the words of Kind David in Psalms 51:3, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”) There is no justification for what I have done and I accept full responsibility for my actions. What I did was wrong, Horribly wrong, and it cannot be justified. This letter is not an ‘excuse.’

For the killing of your Papa, I am as sorry as a human heart can be, and I apologize from the deepest depths of my soul to you, and to your entire family. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t feel and agonize under the immensely heavy burden of what I have done. (And this is as it should be!) I know words are so inadequate in a situation like this, but the truth is: I did it, I am guilty, and I am sorry. I would gladly do anything in the world, make any sacrifice, to bring your Grandpa back to you. As God almighty is my witness I swear to you, if my execution would bring your Grandpa back to life, I would willingly walk the green mile in an instant. But sadly, there is nothing that I can do. My death won’t bring him back. It will only create another grave, another funeral, another set of mourners overburdened by their grief. (My family. I deserve whatever happens to me, but my family doesn’t deserve any punishment, just as your family didn’t deserve what happened.) I am sorry that I can’t bring your loved one back to you. I sincerely wish I could.

In March 1989 I have my heart and life to Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior and was baptized in the prison chapel. This is not a case of “Jailhouse Religion” as there is no purpose to that “scam” on Death Row; I am not up for parole and religious conversion is not considered by the courts in appeals. It is something I had to do for myself and in response to God’s promptings when the Holy Spirit convicted my heart. I write this letter hoping that my words will be of some help to YOU, and that you and your family will find peace for your own souls and be reconciled to Christ (not letting hatred or vengeance rule your hearts and lives), and I hope that you will then be able to move beyond your pain and go on with your lives.

Grief, anger, hatred, vengeance…all of these things eat at a person from the inside. They must be dealt with for the sake of your own health, both mental and spiritual. Also, I would encourage you to go get in touch with members of an organization called Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation. They are victims’ families, just like you, and they can help you with your grief and pain. They put out a newspaper called The Voice.

Many things have happened in my life that have caused me to become so remorseful, caused me to be honest about my past, caused me to attempt to make my feelings known to you. And some of it has given me some insight into how you and members of your family might be feeling. While I have been living here on Death Row, locked in this little cage called a cell, both my Father and Grandfather have died. I was adopted as a child and these were members of my adoptive family who helped raise me. In addition, while here on Death Row, I have found my original biological family, the people who gave me away as a baby; but by the time I found them, my biological Mother and biological Father were dead. My real father put a pistol in his mouth and killed himself when he discovered my mother was pregnant with me. He was not her husband…they were both adulterers…I am the product of an illicit affair that had been going on for years. I am a bastard. My mother was killed, murdered, by a drunken second ex-husband in 1979. I never had the chance to know her. He broke in the home, chased her and beat her as she tried to defend herself first with a cast iron skillet and then with a butcher knife, both of which he took away and used against her, and then she fled into a bedroom where he caught her, beat her severely, tied her to the bed, breaking her arm as he bent it around the headboard so that bone was sticking out (it was from this hole in her arm that she bled to death), and he then proceeded to beat and rape her and finally raped her with a bathroom plunger handle and left her for dead. One of her other sons came home later that day to find her dead on the bed this way.

I never got to know my Mother, and a murderer like myself took her from me (Poetic Justice?), so I think I have some thoughts as to how you feel. (In addition this man served only 10 years in prison and has already been granted parole.) I understand your anger, your deep sense of loss, the dark hole you feel deep in the pit of your stomach when you think about it, and I understand your endless questions of ‘why?’ (Why was I never allowed to know my mother? Why was I not loved or wanted by my real family? Why did they abuse me? Why were so many of them dead (Mother, Father, three Brothers, two nephews) by the time I found them? I too have questions of ‘Why?’)

I can also tell you that all answers to your questions ‘why?’ won’t make the pain go away. They will explain things better, but your grief will still exist. They can execute me (and most likely will), and in three months your pain will still be there. (Every follow-up interview with condemned men’s victim’s families bears this out). There will only be another set of mourners, and still you will hurt. There are only two things that can ever make your pain go away. And in the memories of your loved one, a portion of that pain will always be with you, just as the pain of my mother’s loss will always be with me.

I will explain all that I can, answer all your questions ‘why’ and anything else that you may wish to ask. I will do all that I can to help you- but until you deal with your grief and let it go, your pain will never end. I know that sounds harsh, but it is also the truth and I would be doing you a disservice if I did not share this truth with you. As I’ve said, I want to do all that I can to help you, and to help ease your pain. I am sorry for what I’ve done, and this is the best thing I know to do to try and make things better.

And now I will try to answer the rest of the questions in your letter. I will start with a specific question before going on to the next one.

Why did you choose to destroy my family?”

I am not sure whether I should continue writing this, as it gets more intense with time. Let’s allow the readership to decide. I will gladly do so, if you want me to.

In the meantime, I owe you an explanation: how did this come about on this fine Tuesday morning?

I was sitting in my childhood room, browsing through documents, books, items and memories from that era. On the very last shelf of one of the bookcases, I found a publication that was untouched, one I was unfamiliar with and one someone had sent me a few years ago (while I was in Venice trying to help launch two Human Rights NGOs). My mum had forgotten to tell me about this package that had arrived years ago from London. From an attorney, who managed to put together plenty of letters from inmates and publish them. I turn the book open and in its very first page, in blue ink stood a small, handwritten dedication:

“May you capture the Abyss.”

Today of all days, I bumped into a forgotten package from years back, one whose existence I was ignoring, about a chapter in my life that had closed years ago with my graduation, to find a dedication that referred to the name I chose to give to the muse and soul of Matthew, my protagonist just a few weeks ago. A name, my bestest buddy, suggested to begin with.

Now what? Am I supposed to “Give time…time?”

Isn’t the entire sum of existence, the magic of being needed by just one person? Isn’t to live like to love – all reason is against it, and all meaningful instinct for it?

If there is one sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life and true love, as in hoping that another will come and replace it, and in thus, eluding the implacable grandeur of this life, of our destined love.

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you…It is, after all, by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of our existence. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. Where you bleed, there lies your heart.

]]> http://globaltj.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/rwanda-ibuka-stage-demo-against-ictr/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:45:52 +0000 atieme http://globaltj.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/rwanda-ibuka-stage-demo-against-ictr/ http://martynffrench.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/the-magic-of-the-virunga-volcanoes/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:13:42 +0000 fidelmaray http://martynffrench.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/the-magic-of-the-virunga-volcanoes/

 
Dramatic. Thrilling. Poignant. The wildlife experience of a lifetime

 October, the first month of the short rains, saw the arrival of the rains which, in most parts of Rwanda, people had been waiting eagerly for.  The Virunga Volcanoes area probably got the lion’s share of the rains (which is normal) but this did not prevent guests at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge from enjoying their daily treks to the Mountain Gorillas and other attractions of Volcanoes National Park. 

Situated in the foothills of the mighty Virungas, the chain of 15,000 ft volcanoes stretching through Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the lodge affords wonderful views of the volcanoes and the surrounding countryside, from where you may trek on foot to see the magnificent Mountain Gorilla – perhaps one of the most dramatic, thrilling and poignant wildlife experiences possible.

In Volcanoes National Park, with bamboo continuing to shoot in the Virunga Forest, gorillas feast on this seasonal food resource resulting in mostly shorter and easier treks for visitors. The lodge is only minutes away from the headquarters of the Parc National des Volcans

Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge has been built and operated by Governors’ Camp and is owned by a Community Trust, SACOLA, which uses rentals and community fees from the lodge to drive socio-economic and conservation initiatives in the communities adjacent to the National Park. Governors’ Camp Rwanda Ltd would like to thank the African Wildlife Foundation and Gaylord and Cathy Layton of Tayside Associates LLC for the vital role they played in the development of Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge.  To find out more about African Wildlife Foundation at www.awf.org

We hope to share the magic of the Virunga Volcanoes with you sometime soon! For more information contact me at fidelma@martynfrench.com

Amazon's Global Kindle Reader

I heard that Amazon now has a global version of Kindle. I was disappointed to find this morning that the new version still will not work in my country.

Since I’ve wanted one for some time, but have been waiting until they got a version that would work in my country, I checked out their website this morning, only to be disappointed again. Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new Global Kindle for a Christmas gift this year, since the new version will only work in SOME countries, I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

It is a story that will not just wane. A year ago, having moved to London from Glasgow, together with my catholic neighbours, i went to the local church for a Sunday service expecting not more than just a sermon.

Being the only blackman in the 300 seater cathedral, i got the chance to shake hands with the presiding priest who i came to know as Fr. Steven. Now that was lame! Having been brought up in a conservative parish deep in Uganda where i grew up, i knew Steven as a name that belonged to protestants. You see, we were made to believe then, that some names belonged to given religions and if you had to be a true catholic, it was wise to avoid them. (names)

Fr. Steven was smart, loving and caring. He had delivered his sermon with such precision and competence that i wondered if it was because he was white or just a question of being one of those talented preachers.

Turns out, Fr. Steven was indeed a talented former Anglican Reverand married with 3 children. Now, that was even odder! Curious and shaken, i asked to know if it was even legal for a married person to say mass. Having missed out on joining Kitabi Seminary to train as a priest myself, i had more reasons to demand answers.

You see, my parents had passed away when i was a young kid–just 1 year old. Fr. Celil Mbura, the then vocations priest at my local parish in Uganda had ruled that because they (my parents) had passed away without wedding in the church, i had no moral right to join a seminary later on become a priest.

But here was a married man, with kids and a wife who was seriously delivering goods and serving the holy communion. I was confused. I asked Fr. Steven about it and he told me there is no law that bars married people from becoming priests. In fact his interpretation of the rule was that a priest is not allowed to marry. Meaning any married person could become a priest but no priest would marry and still serve. Even more confusing but i understood it. I cursed the day i was denied access to priesthood and swore never to forgive Fr. Celil Mbura.

But that is a story for another day.

Today, the world is awash with a new story. Rome or The Vatican as we know it appears to have got this one right. With the Anglicans confused over whether their church should ordain and consecrate women Bishops, Rome appears to have found a way of winning back those it feels can be won. The rule book will not matter as long as the interpretation suits the interest of The Vatican.

The situation is so serious that the Archbishop of Canterbury has  had to express his concerns to the Pope over the way His Highness is welcoming disaffected Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church.

In the private meeting at the Vatican with Benedict XVI, Dr Rowan Williams made clear he had been put in an ‘awkward position’ because he had been given so little warning about the proposals to entice Anglicans to Rome by letting them keep many of their traditions.

But he insisted that the tone of the meeting had been ‘very friendly’, and relations between the two Churches were still strong. The Vatican also described the meeting as ‘cordial’.

Some Church of England leaders have accused the Vatican of discourtesy in failing to consult Dr Williams. The Archbishop was distressed when the proposals were sprung on him last month with barely two weeks’ notice.

Many believe the Pope is deliberately trying to poach Anglicans dismayed at the liberal drift of their own Church, undermining years of efforts to improve relations between the denominations.

A smart move of course given the circumstances.

The Vatican says its invitation came in response to pleas from Anglicans unhappy about the imminent consecration of women bishops

But should the Pope have consulted the Anglican church? Of course the Pope should not have consulted the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Me thinks the choice is purely a personal decision of the individual anglicans based on the terms offered by the catholic church!!!!

The Archbishop of Canterbury had his say when he allowed women priests. That was when he lost many anglicans support and any decsions they take has absolutely nothing to do with him now.

So I say back off and keep out, the irretrievable damage has been done and you and the anglican church are the losers

You tell me!

July 17, 2009

Back in July, the US loaned Rwanda $44 million to continue its multi-layered restorative justice system that was implemented to help the central African country come to terms with the 1994 genocide which killed more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Unfortunately, as I wrote for Mother Jones, this admirable goal has so far not lived up to its potential because the Tutsi-led government has too often used it for revenge rather than justice. A preview:

Gacaca, literally “on the grass,” is a restorative system which allows perpetrators responsible for crimes including isolated murder and destruction of property during the genocide to decrease their prison sentences if they plead guilty, apologize, and agree to supplement their shortened jail time with community service. But the gacaca courts have been instructed by the RPF to focus only on crimes that occurred during a limited timeframe, most of which were committed by Hutus. During the protracted civil war that preceded the genocide, though, The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Army was also responsible for murder, rape, and destruction of Hutu property. Also, gacaca judges are untrained and elected by the community, which raises concerns about international standards of due process and impartiality.