8/2/08

Obama needs to step it up
POSTED August 2, 11:00 AM

What a depressing week.  If one had held out any hope this presidential campaign was going to be a high minded, civil debate of the substantive issues, this week made it clear; there's no chance in hell.  Reading the mainstream medias account of the week ("Presidential campaigns turn nasty" and "McCain and Obama go negative"), one would get the impression the two have been standing toe to toe, trading blow for blow. 

That's just not the case.  Obama returned from Europe and was supposed to talk about the economy all week.  Nothing was supposed to take him off message.  The campaign had hoped the Middle East and European trip would assure some uneasy voters Obama could hang with the big guys and look presidential.  Successful trip in that regard.  This last week was intended to demonstrate he has a command of the economic issues and a plan for addressing the problems.  Drawing contrasts between his plan and the McCain plan was the objective.  He never got the chance to focus on the economy this week.  Way too busy trying to swat away the McCain barrage of inane ads.

This week has made the McCain campaign strategy clear.  They've decided they won't beat Obama on issues, so they will paint him as a terrorist loving, vacuous celebrity who doesn't embrace wounded troops and is responsible for the price of gasoline.  (Sounds pretty stupid when you line them up in a row, doesn't it?).  And even with all that, the press presents it as if the campaigns were dueling, trading nasty ads back and forth.  Obama was asked about his involvement:

"This is the classic dilemma of politics,'' Obama replied. "We get four or five shots in a row (assertions by McCain), that I would rather lose a war so that I can win a campaign, that I am not willing to visit the troops, that I somehow am full of myself, that I'm an empty-headed celebrity, whatever repeated attacks have been launched this week, so when I say, boy those are kind of silly arguments, the press says, isn't that being negative. Well no, I'm describing what their strategy has been for the last week... I'm just stating the facts....

"Ultimately, what I think we've got to do is keep driving home the essential message of this campaign, that we've got to change business as usual... What we've seen this week ahs been politics as usual... This is the same thing that was done four years or eight years ago... You guys are all familiar with this. You've seen this before. We've seen this movie before.''
(Link)

Well, that's true, we have seen this movie before.....and we know how it ends: The absolute slimiest, simple minded, hateful campaign wins.  The strategy is to paint the opponent as French loving (jeez, we can't have that) or out of touch intellectual (you invented the internet?) or a wuss (was that windsurfing?) and distract voters from a policy that thinks it's no big deal to lose 4000 Americans and spend a couple trillion dollars we don't have on a war in Iraq,policies that drive the economy into the tank, stand by idly as gas prices rise then advocate more investment in gasoline,  subvert the Constitution, and willfully ignore environmental threats for fringe ideological reasons.  So, what happens?  Well, heaven forbid we elect someone that speaks French.  We go, instead, for the knucklehead with the plan to bankrupt the country.

Obama doesn't need to get in the mud with the McCain folks.  Let them roll around there by themselves.  But he can inform voters of the facts.  "Straight talk"?  Puhleeze....I don't know if John McCain ever used straight talk, but no straight talk has crossed his lips in the last several years.  McCain is a friend of the troops?  Sorry, just isn't the case.  The Obama campaign just needs to inform voters of how veterans groups rate Senator McCain's record in Congress.  McCain will be a good steward of the economy?  How's that? By employing the same harebrained policies that got us in this mess? 

Obama only needs to state the facts.  They speak for themselves.






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Oak: the Middle East politics of the wine world

bcrosariol@globeandmail.com

Pick of the week

Domaine Nadine Ferrand Macon Blanc 2006 ($17.95, No. 0085019). This entry-level white Burgundy is medium-bodied and deliciously ripe. Hints of apple and mineral get added complexity from a nutty tang.

Oak.

The word might seem insufficient to hold down a whole paragraph. But this is a wine column. Oak is the issue of the century.

Do you like your wine to taste strongly of vanilla, coffee or charred wood? Those are telltale signs that it has spent months maturing in toasty oak barrels. Are you instead a fan of crisp acidity and fresh-fruit flavours. Your wine probably saw very little time in barrel, possibly in used barrels rather than new wood, or it may have been aged entirely in stainless-steel tanks.

Oak is the great wine divide, the oeno-analogue to Middle East politics, stem-cell research and music by Coldplay. You can love it or loathe it, but no passionate wine drinker is neutral about oak.

Oddly, most makers of fine wine would say publicly that they like to play down oak. No wonder. Oak has become politically incorrect in these organic times because wood, though natural, is technically an additive. In fact, in lower-priced wines, wood shavings are tossed into vats and stirred around like parmesan in a bowl of minestrone. This is a lot cheaper and faster than aging a cabernet in $1,000 French-oak barrels for 18 months.

Wine, like so much shopping that passes for cooking nowadays, is supposed to be about farming, not human intervention. But clearly it's also about hypocrisy. Even producers of merlots that taste like vanilla-mocha frappuccinos will say their wine was "made in the vineyard" and simply "kissed by oak." Try glancing at the back-label description on a bottle you find excessively oaky some time.

I'm not sure how things got to be this way. Mainly it's backlash, I suppose, sort of like how everybody started listening to "unplugged" recordings in the early 1990s on rebound from all that 1980s technopop.

Wine's own technopop era (coincidentally reaching its apogee in the 1980s) was epitomized by Wolf Blass, the German-born, bowtie-sporting Australian winemaker famous for the line "No wood, no good." (His wines, in particular the chardonnays, have since been deforested to a good degree.)

But it's obvious that many consumers, and certainly no shortage of powerful wine critics, still love the added velvetiness, subtle sweetness and mocha-coffee-toasty quality of overt oak. That toastiness, by the way, comes from varying degrees of actual charring of the wood over an open fire. In the right context, say, a barbecued-rib cookout, I can be fond of the style myself. (Just don't report me to the International Sommelier Guild, please.)

So it's refreshing, in a manner of speaking, to come across a wine that wears its oak on its sleeve. Café Culture Pinotage 2007 from South Africa ($13.95, Ontario product No. 0072710) is what you might pejoratively call an oak bomb. More generously, you could call it a Triple-shot Vente FrappuVino. In fact, the name Café Culture is not coincidental. Winemaker Bertus Fourie specifically wanted to showcase the uncanny, roasted-coffee flavours imparted by aging in heavily charred oak. The term for coffee roasting, torrefaction, is in fact also used in wine.

This wine is full-bodied and almost syrupy, with a lusciously smooth texture, flavours of sweet blackberry and plenty of creamy, smoky, earthy sweetness. Unlike most pinotages, this one barely exhibits that familiar burnt-rubber flavour. The wine also won a gold medal at South Africa's Michelangelo International Wine Awards competition.

I would be remiss in speaking of monster oak influence without invoking the name Torbreck. I've never visited this Australian winery, beloved of influential American critic Robert Parker, but I imagine it to be a giant log cabin. The red wines make no secret of their time in wood. And the appropriately named Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz 2006 ($24.95, No. 0927533; $32.99 in British Columbia, No. 78154) is nothing if not a crowd pleaser for Frappuccino Nation. In most, though not all, years, including this 2006, it's quite a compelling oak bomb, I must say. This one is a chocolate-covered espresso bean that walks like a wine, brimming with concentrated dark-skinned fruits, wood spice and a liqueur-like warmth, with good acidity and black-pepper spice to keep things lively on the finish.

In a very different place on the oak spectrum is an well-priced white wine in today's Vintages release, Domaine Nadine Ferrand Macon Blanc 2006 ($17.95, No. 0085019). This entry-level white Burgundy, from the concentrated fruit of mature, 45-year-old vines, is medium-bodied and deliciously ripe. Hints of apple and mineral get added complexity from a nutty tang in this surprisingly evolved chardonnay from Burgundy's excellent 2006 vintage for whites.

Though Australian chardonnays get a bad rap for exhibiting too much lumber, I was impressed with the relative restraint in Penfolds Thomas Hyland Chardonnay 2007 ($18.95, No. 0611228; $21 in British Columbia, same product number). Ripe melon and apple get a lively lift from crisp acidity and support from subtle, nicely integrated oak. A well-made, crowd-pleasing, full-bodied white.

Among the best values of today's Ontario release, unquestionably, is Altos Las Hormigas Malbec 2006 ($12.95, No. 0640490; $15.95 in British Columbia, No. 522888). This full-bodied Argentine red shows concentrated black-skinned fruits, dark chocolate and fairly conspicuous spicy oak. Very nice long finish for such an affordable wine.

Also well-priced is Château La Casenove La Colomina 2005 from southern France ($15.95, No. 0074542). Fruity but with a nice, classically south-French savoury-licorice quality, it's clean and quite modern, if only slightly betraying its considerable, 14.5-per-cent alcohol.

And also worth the money is Corte Zovo Sa Solin Ripasso Della Valpolicella 2004 ($16.95, No. 0650713), a full-bodied Italian red with rich fruit, delicate spice and herbs and, here it comes again, roasted coffee.






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Young Liberals ponder tuition hike

Delegates at convention call for rapid changes

KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette

Published: 13 hours ago

About 800 delegates to a weekend convention of the Quebec Liberal Party's youth wing will debate the doubling of university tuition fees, to about $6,000 a year, and a proposal for refunds of union dues.

They will also debate proposals calling for elementary students in the French system to do half their Grade Six school year in English, so they become bilingual, as well as motions calling for higher hydro rates and a shift away from income tax to consumption taxes, like sales tax, to put more cash in Quebecers' pockets.

François Beaudry, president of the youth wing, says the Liberals should step on the accelerator and he told reporters he isn't worried about the political price the proposals might carry.

"I am one of those who doesn't think politics is about polls," Beaudry told reporters. "It's about ideas."

The proposals are the result of province-wide consultations with members of the party's youth wing, who hold one-third of the votes at Quebec Liberal conventions.

"We have good ideas," Beaudry said. "They will be debated. We are presenting what the young Liberals want."

In recent months, the popularity of Premier Jean Charest has risen in the polls, and more Quebecers are satisfied with his government, even though the opposition parties charge Charest is running government by cruise control.

Charest said on the way to a meeting with his caucus yesterday, before the weekend youth convention, that he isn't alarmed the youth wing wants him to step on the gas.

"Well, if the youth wing had said the contrary, I would be disappointed and surprised," Charest said. "If you are young, you are always a lot more in a hurry than if you are in another age in your life."

The premier said he would pay attention to the weekend deliberations, adding that his government has been "very active." He noted its $1-billion Employment Pact, in partnership with employers, and agreements to add 2,000 megawatts of wind energy.

And he denied he has been avoiding controversy, pointing to plans to build three new teaching hospitals as public-private partnerships.

The youth wing proposal to raise Quebec's tuition fees, now the lowest in Canada, to the Canadian average, goes beyond the Charest government's plan to phase in a $500 annual tuition increase over five years.

Under an innovative proposal, students would not have to pay the additional tuition burden right away, but only after they graduate.

They would pay a percentage of their additional debt in the form of a so-called "post-graduate tax." Details as to how much they would repay and for how many years have not been worked out.

Beaudry explained that the proposal to allow union members a refund of their dues is meant to establish a new balance of power between unions and their members.

"The worker works hard and he contributes for many years," Beaudry said. "It's a lot of his money. We want to protect the workers."

Another resolution under debate calls for banning "mosquitoes," ultrasonic alarms that can only be heard to people under age 25 that are used to keep young people away from certain places




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Living without 'isms'

'It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth'

Gao Xingjian

Gao Xingjian. Photograph: Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty

In May this year, when news of the Sichuan earthquake reached the Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian at his home in Paris, he remembered living through a similar disaster in China more than 30 years ago: "Even though I was quite far away then, I was terrified." That earthquake, in Tangshan, near Beijing, was one of the 20th century's worst in terms of lives lost. "Afterwards there were terrible downpours, but no one wanted to stay in the buildings. I can imagine the fear in Sichuan."

It was the tail-end of the cultural revolution, the collapse of which was accelerated by the aftermath of the 1976 quake. When the 10-year terror began in 1966, Gao felt compelled to burn a suitcase-full of all his manuscripts since adolescence, in case he was denounced. But he was still sent for "re-education" in the countryside. Labouring in the fields, he began again, hiding his work in a hole in the ground, when "to write, even in secret, was to risk one's life". As Gao said in 2000 when he became the first (and only) writer in Chinese to win the Nobel prize for literature, "it was only during this period, when literature became utterly impossible, that I came to comprehend why it was so essential."

Gao, who was first published when he was almost 40, has written more than 20 plays, short stories, essays, criticism and two semi-autobiographical novels: Soul Mountain (1990), based on a journey down the Yangtse river; and One Man's Bible (1999), memories of the cultural revolution spliced with episodes in the life and loves of a world-famous man of the theatre. The novels were translated into English in 2000 and 2002, followed by Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather (2004), a collection of short stories. His Nobel lecture is the title essay of The Case for Literature (2007). Yet since 1989 all his work has been banned in mainland China (most has been published in Taiwan).

A pioneer of experimental theatre in China in the early 1980s, Gao fell foul of renewed purges, and left for Germany, then France in 1987. But it was his reaction to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 that he believes sealed his fate. "I heard the news on the radio that people were gunned down, and right then, I knew I was looking at exile," he says. He condemned the crackdown on French television, publicly resigned from the Chinese Communist party he had joined in 1962, tore up his Chinese passport and applied for political asylum. He has lived in Paris for 21 years as a painter and writer/director, becoming a French citizen in 1998.

For Jung Chang, Gao has "immortalised the memories of a nation suffering from forced amnesia; my own memories flooded back reading him". Ma Jian, the London-based author of Beijing Coma, sees Gao as "both a linguistic innovator and a writer of integrity, whose work constantly reaffirms the importance of the individual over the collective. He was one of the first writers of the post-Mao era to absorb developments in western literature and philosophy, and meld them with Chinese classical traditions to create a new kind of drama and fiction." By contrast, the critic Julia Lovell commends his shorter fiction yet feels the novels are a "sprawling, self-indulgent take on the horrors of political oppression".

Aged 68, Gao lives in Paris's 2nd arrondissement with Céline Yang, a novelist who left China after 1989. Gao, who also writes in French, has translated and directed plays in his adopted language, and was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 2000. He sees himself as a "fragile man who has managed not to be crushed by authority and to speak to the world in his own voice". As he pointed out recently at Warwick University, on a rare visit to Britain, most of his life's work has been done since leaving China. While the Swedish academy saw him as a "perspicacious sceptic" possessed of "bitter insights", for Ma, Gao is a "tranquil yet engaged presence; a very composed, mild-mannered man, but a passionate reader and artist". Speaking in French, smiling readily though he seems frail, Gao recalls the Nobel prize as a "whirlwind. I was carried away, and it was difficult to organise my life. Very soon after, I fell ill, and had two big heart operations one after the other. It was because of the fatigue and pressure. I became an ornament on the political scene."

The official Chinese reaction to the Nobel was predictably hostile. The head of the Chinese Writers' Association said the prize had been "used for political purposes and thus has lost its authority". According to Ma, that body had "campaigned for years for the Nobel prize to be awarded to one of their state-sanctioned writers, so they were furious when it went to a political exile". Yet Gao has also been attacked by dissidents - notably for his play Escape (1989), written within months of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the ostensible trigger for all his work being banned in China. Its three characters take refuge from the army crackdown in a warehouse, amid sexual tensions and cynicism about self-proclaimed heroes. "Exiled writers said my play blackened the democracy movement," Gao says. "Even today, those attacks continue." In Ma's view, "It was criticised by the pro-democracy activists because it failed to show the students in a heroic light."

According to Gao, a writer's only responsibility is "to the language he writes in". Determined to rid himself of others' ideologies, to live, as he says, "without isms", he advocates a "cold literature", detached from both political agendas and consumerist pressures, whose purpose is to bear witness. His essays express a loathing for Nietzsche's idea of the Superman and and its hold over Chinese thought. "Many intellectuals feel themselves to be Supermen who are spokesmen for the people," he says. "But in my opinion, they're to be pitied. Under Mao's dictatorship, these poor sheep suffered the same fate as everyone else. I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself."

He was born in 1940, the eldest of two brothers, in Ganzhou. Shortly after the Communist revolution of 1949, the family moved to Nanjing. His father was a senior employee in the Bank of China, and his mother an amateur actor. It was a "well-to-do, protected childhood, and my parents were very open-minded - which was rare. It's like a lost paradise." His mother read western literature in translation, from Balzac and Zola to Steinbeck, and he grew up with both western and Chinese classics. His love of theatre comes from his mother, with whom he first acted on stage, aged five. She also encouraged him to keep a diary. But when Gao was 20, during the "great leap forward", she drowned at a rural labour camp. "Even though she wasn't really an intellectual, she was sent away for re-education just like all the others who were not from Communist 'red' families," he says.

As a child he played the violin and flute, and painted, but opted to study French literature at the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, drawn to such dramatists as Genet and Artaud. After graduating in 1962, he worked at the Foreign Languages Press, translating French classics. But in 1966-76, all foreign-language books were banned.

In One Man's Bible, the narrator is both participant in the cultural revolution and victim. After protesting against Red Guards' beating of a colleague at his workplace, Gao was treated as a hero, and led a rival Red Guard faction. The Red Guard, he explains, was initially composed of "children of high-up party executives, who felt like mowing down and killing old people like their parents. Other youths reacted and set up a rebellious Red Guard faction. All young people, to protect themselves, had to join one or the other. But once I got in, I saw it wasn't really a way out. Experience has taught me that any kind of political grouping is oppressive. It's the blind mass that crushes the individual."

The novel also reflects Gao's experience of being informed on by his first wife. On this he will say nothing, other than to allude to Stalinist Russia and East Germany. After Mao's death in 1976, Gao translated Beckett and Ionesco, and visited France and Italy. In his first book, essays on the modern novel, he took issue with Mao's guidelines for literature urging didactic, realist art. In Ma's view, the book "influenced a generation of writers by introducing them to the concepts of stream of consciousness, surrealism and black humour." Gao, Ma adds, was "the 'elder brother' of the small band of dissident Beijing artists and writers that I belonged to. He could speak foreign languages and had travelled abroad. We all looked up to him."

Made artistic director of the People's Art Theatre in Beijing in 1981, Gao broke with realism in experimental plays such as Absolute Signal (1982), about the change of heart of a would-be train robber. It startled Ma by exploring, "in a nuanced way, the psychology of a 'bad' individual. It heralded a new kind of drama, in opposition to the one-dimensional propaganda of the cultural revolution". Yet Gao became an early casualty of a renewed drive in 1983 against "spiritual pollution" and western modernism. His play Bus Stop (1983), a take on Waiting for Godot, was banned after 10 performances.

"I'd already self-censored," Gao says. "Then I was censored by others. That's when I decided to write just for myself." His resolve coincided with being diagnosed with lung cancer - the disease from which his father had died. "After Bus Stop, they threatened to send me back to work camp. Then this shadow was found on my lungs. I went back to my hometown and had more tests - and by a miracle it had disappeared." The reprieve made him realise that "if you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life."

He fled to the forest highlands of south-west China, ostensibly to research woodcutters' lives. For five months he tracked the Yangtse riverfrom its source, from Sichuan's giant panda reserve to the China sea. "I was looking for a place of refuge. It was also a spiritual and cultural quest, to find the origin of Chinese culture, the source that had not yet been polluted by politics." The result, completed in Paris after more of his plays had been banned in rehearsal in Beijing, was Soul Mountain, which took seven years to write.

The novelist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo read a pirated copy and found it "very beautiful and poetic - intimate but epic". "The novel in Chinese sensibility is 2,000 years old," she says. "It's the language of real people from the streets - the non-official version." For Gao, the "tiny history of a few individuals in a novel can't be revised or manipulated. It goes to the heart of human nature. If it's still read, it's still valuable."

Though it reads like an autobiographical monologue, Soul Mountain shifts viewpoints - a technique repeated in One Man's Bible and Gao's plays. "Literature can't merely be an expression of self - that would be unbearable," Gao says. "You have to be critical not just of society and others, but of yourself: each subject has three pronouns: 'I', 'you', and 'he' or 'she'." He sees such self-scrutiny as a safeguard: "If you're not perfectly conscious of yourself, that self can be tyrannical; in relationship to others, anyone can become a tyrant. That's why no one can be a Superman. You have to go beyond yourself with a 'third eye' - self-awareness - because the one thing you cannot flee is yourself. That's why Greek tragedy is still the tragedy of human beings today."

Gao's later plays have been called a modern Zen theatre, combining modernist techniques with traditional Chinese drama and ritual, from masks and shadow play to opera. They have been widely staged in Europe, Taiwan and Hong Kong - where Tales of Mountains and Seas (1993) premiered in June at a festival devoted to Gao's work. But they are rarely seen in the English-speaking world. Escape was commissioned by a US theatre company, but premiered in Sweden after Gao refused to revise it. "When the company asked me to change the text, I understood what they wanted: there was no American-style hero," he says. "I said, no. Even the Chinese Communist party couldn't make me change a play; why should I accept correction from America?"

It was while directing his modern take on a Peking opera, Snow in August (2002), in Taiwan, that Gao collapsed and later had major heart surgery. In Marseilles rehearsing his play The Man Who Questions Death (2003), he collapsed again. He has co-directed a 90-minute film, Silhouette/Shadow (2006), that reflects his brush with death. Showing him painting, reciting poetry and rehearsing actors, it captures a flow of images and memories as he is rushed to hospital in an ambulance. A "cinepoem or modern fable - neither fiction nor autobiography nor documentary", it was filmed over four years, without funding. "Since childhood I'd dreamed of making a film, but producers in France and Germany wanted to make commercial films with chinoiserie. I refused."

The film, which has no dialogue and might be released only on the internet, is part of a life's experimentation.Though he enjoys dancing, swimming in the sea and cooking seafood, Gao says he works "non-stop, 12 hours a day", and never takes summer holidays "or even weekends, because freedom of expression is so precious to me".

The market pressures China now shares with the west are, he believes, "harder to resist than political and social customs". He feels lucky that his ink paintings were selling in Europe before he fled, and have been widely exhibited. "I could make a living, so I could write books that didn't sell much. I always understood that literature can't be a trade; it's a choice." Painting, he says, "begins where language fails", and he works listening to music - often Bach. Ma sees his paintings as "infused with the still, reflective quality of Zen Buddhism that I think he strives to achieve in his writing."

To Ma, who believes that One Man's Bible is about the "burden of painful memories, and how they corrupt the present and destroy oneself and those around one", it is a "tragedy that a writer of such calibre is condemned in his own homeland". Guo feels Gao's voice is crucial for its "stubborn, personal view of our history. The kids born after the 1980s know nothing about the past - the tragedy and sorrow of my father's generation - and how society dedicated to a collective dream ruined people and invaded their lives."

Gao sees his work as an affirmation of the self in the face of efforts to extinguish it. Recalling a time when it was "impossible to say freely what you thought, even in your family", he says: "Everything people say in those circumstances is false; everybody is wearing a mask. It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth."

Gao on Gao

"Without Isms is neither nihilism nor eclecticism; nor is it egotism or solipsism. It opposes totalitarian dictatorship but also opposes the inflation of the self to God or Superman. It hates seeing other people trampled on like dog shit. Without Isms detests politics and does not take part in politics, but is not opposed to other people who do. If people want to get involved in politics, let them go right ahead. What Without Isms opposes is the foisting of a particular brand of politics on to the individual by means of abstract collective names such as 'the people', 'the race' or 'the nation'."

(The idea behind it is that we need to bid goodbye to the 20th century, and to put a big question mark over those "isms" that dominated it.)

· From The Case for Literature, translated by Mabel Lee, published by Yale University Press






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Matadi :

se loger ou travailler dans des containers

Dieudonné Mwaka Dimbi

Syfia Grands Lacs/RD Congo, 31 juillet 2008



Pour faire face à la crise du logement, de nombreux habitants de Matadi, à l'ouest de Kinshasa, habitent des containers ou y mènent leurs petites activités. Installés un peu partout, ces logis pas chers et faciles à se procurer dans cette ville portuaire sont cependant peu confortables et ne sont pas très sains pour ceux qui y vivent.


Quand on arrive à Matadi, par le pont Maréchal Mobutu à l'entrée ouest de la ville ou par le pont Mpozo, à l'Est, on est frappé par le nombre impressionnant de containers installés le long des artères principales. Ils sont partout, au cœur même de la ville, sur les avenues Maurice Mpolo et de la Poste qui mènent au port comme dans les quartiers populeux, notamment autour des ronds-points mouvementés. Les gens en font ce qu'ils veulent selon leurs besoins : petites maisons d'habitation, bureaux, débits de boisson, cabines téléphoniques, officines pharmaceutiques, restaurants, salons de coiffure, cybercafés et même postes de police…

Matadi, chef-lieu de la province du Bas-Congo, située à 360 km de la capitale, Kinshasa est bâtie sur de la pierre et des collines. Son nom signifie d'ailleurs "pierres" en kikongo. Son sol ne permet pas à tous surtout aux plus pauvres de se construire une maison ou un bâtiment en dur. On compte donc très peu de nouvelles constructions dans la ville même si avec l'extension de l'agglomération certains habitants se risquent à construire sur les versants des collines. A la portée de tous (100 à 300 $ pièce), les containers sont la seule solution économique pour se loger ou entreprendre une petite activité. Ils sont aussi faciles à trouver qu'à installer.

Fin 2007, des milliers de ces abris ont été vendus aux enchères aux habitants par l'Office congolais des douanes et accises (Ofida) pour désengorger les installations du port de Matadi. Le parc à containers du port en comptait alors plus de 7 000 pour une capacité de 3 500 unités…"Du coup, j'en ai acheté cinq, explique Bonat Baku, un jeune commerçant. Deux me servent de bureau et de dépôt de marchandises, les trois autres de boutiques."

Des aménagements à qui mieux mieux

Cette vente publique aux enchères a été une aubaine pour beaucoup de gens. Même des entreprises en ont tiré profit. L'Office congolais de contrôle (OCC) notamment, s'est dotée de bureaux containers installés à côté de la Minoterie de Matadi (Midema), qui abritent ses services oeuvrant au port. "Nous y travaillons à l'aise sans problème majeur, car tout y est…", raconte avec le sourire J. P. Malula, un agent.
Pourvus de portes et de fenêtres, ces abris sont aménagés selon l'usage qu'on en fait. Ceux qui font office de bureaux sont souvent climatisés. Certains sont par contre simplement couverts d'une double toiture, en tôle et en bois et qui protège bien contre la chaleur. D'autres sont munis des plafonds en planche. Responsable d'une boutique de ce type au rond-point 24/15, Cécile Lukombo estime que les containers "sauvent de nombreuses familles démunies qui disposent aujourd'hui d'un toit."
Avec sa petite famille, Marcel Batondele vit dans ce genre d'abri, dans des conditions très précaires. La chaleur y est suffocante en saison des pluies et il y fait froid en saison sèche. Il y a été contraint, dit-elle, par la crise du logement "qui a atteint son paroxysme à Matadi." Selon un agent de l'État-civil de Matadi, la population du chef-lieu de la province serait passée, en moins d'une année, de 400 000 à près de 500 000 habitants entre 2007 et juin 2008, aggravant ainsi la crise du logement.

Risques de maladies

Marié et père de deux enfants, J. N. habite aussi un container depuis deux ans, près de l'hôpital de l'Onatra, en ville basse. Il l'a bien aménagé et compartimenté en deux pièces : un petit salon et une chambre à coucher. La "maison" est aussi climatisée. Pour autant, "je n'y resterai pas longtemps", rassure-t-il, conscient des risques que lui et sa famille courent de vivre dans ce type d'habitat. Avec ses petites économies, il s'affaire à construire une vraie maison en dur dans la périphérie de la ville.

Selon Louis Tsasa Thubi Mabiala, médecin à l'hôpital de référence de Kikanda, chargé de l'hygiène, eau et assainissement, habiter des containers comporte des risques sérieux sous un climat où les températures varient de 21 à 38° selon les saisons. "Les familles qui y vivent sont exposées à diverses maladies comme l'asthme, la toux, les éruptions cutanées…", prévient-il. Il leur conseille de rester le plus de temps possible dehors pendant la journée.

Agent à la division provinciale de l'Urbanisme et Habitat, André Bunga estime que tous ces containers qui envahissent la ville ne posent pas vraiment de problème si "leur emplacement ne gène pas la circulation et ne salit pas l'environnement." Rien n'étant encore fait pour mettre un peu l'ordre, le maire de Matadi, Jean-Marc Nzeyidio Lukombo, n'est pas du tout satisfait de l'allure que prend sa ville et estime que ces containers, installés sans aucun respect des normes urbanistiques, "font perdre à la ville sa beauté.".



 
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China's web censors easing off: report

Last Updated: Friday, August 1, 2008 | 9:57 AM ET 

Journalists work at the Main Press Centre in Beijing.Journalists work at the Main Press Centre in Beijing. (Oded Balilty/Associated Press)

Journalists covering the upcoming Beijing Olympics are finding some websites in some Chinese cities unblocked after complaints this week over internet censorship, the BBC reported Friday.

Reporters were upset earlier this week that they were denied access to sites such as Amnesty International, which has accused China of failing to live up to its promise to improve human rights.

Other sites dealing with Tibet, Tiananmen Square or the spiritual group Falun Gong were also blocked in the work rooms for journalists covering the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.

China routinely filters internet access for its own citizens, but said during the Olympic bidding process that foreign media would have "complete freedom to report" at the Games.

That promise, though, appeared to have been broken. On Thursday, the head of the International Olympic Committee's press commission suggested that IOC president Jacques Rogge had knowledge of China's plans to censor internet access for foreign journalists during the Olympics.

Chinese President Hu Jintao chimed in on the controversy during a carefully choreographed news conference on Friday, urging journalists to avoid injecting political issues into the Games and to report fairly.

"We hope that foreign reporters while in China will respect our laws and rules, report objectively and help communication and understanding between China and the peoples of the world," Hu said.

The censors appeared to be loosening their grip on Friday, according to the BBC. The British news organization reported that journalists in Beijing could see several websites that were unavailable earlier in the week, including Amnesty International's.

Previously unavailable sites were also visible in Shanghai, Chengdu and Tianjin, the BBC said.

A spokesperson for the IOC told the BBC that the issue was resolved.

"The media are now able to access sites to do their job," the official said.

Restrictions, though, may remain. The website of the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China, is still blocked, the BBC said.






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Man cleared of shooting BBC presenter dead

LONDON (AFP) — A man jailed for life in 2001 over the murder of a popular BBC television presenter was "overwhelmed" Friday after being found not guilty at his retrial of shooting her dead.

Barry George, 48, was cleared of murdering Jill Dando by the jury at the Old Bailey central criminal court in London.

Dando, 37, was shot through the head on the steps of her west London home in April 1999.

One of the best-known faces on television, she presented the popular BBC series "Crimewatch", among other programmes. She was engaged to be married at the time of her death.

George, an epileptic with mental disability, was "overwhelmed," his lawyer Jeremy Moore told reporters outside court. He is expected to be released later Friday.

His first words on being cleared were: "I can't believe it," Moore said. George did not believe he would be found not guilty, reporters were told.

"He is of course extremely relieved and delighted. He's just re-adjusting to being a free man again," Moore added.

"This is not, however, a time to celebrate. Barry George, an innocent man, has spent eight years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Those eight years could have been better served by the police in searching for the real killer.

"We are obviously delighted with the outcome today that we feel is the only sensible verdict that the jury could have made on the evidence there was before them."

"I would be surprised if there was not a claim for compensation," he added.

George was jailed for life in 2001 but his second appeal, in November last year, resulted in the conviction being quashed and a retrial ordered.

The second trial began on June 9 this year, with the judge ruling out evidence that a single particle of firearms discharge residue was found in the pocket of George's coat.

Prosecutors said George was a celebrity and gun-obsessed stalker with a grudge against the BBC.

But George's laywers said the prosecution case was circumstantial and there was no direct evidence that their client was the killer.

London's Metropolitan Police force expressed their disappointment at the jury's verdict and said they would reflect on how to proceed.

"We are disappointed by today's verdict, but especially disappointed for Jill's family and friends. However we respect the decision of the court," said Commander Simon Foy, who heads the Homicide Command.

"The investigation into her murder was complex, thorough and professional with more than 2,500 statements taken and 3,700 exhibits recovered.

"It would not be appropriate to comment any further at this time except to say that we will be reflecting upon today's verdict and considering how best to proceed."

The Crown Prosecution Service, which decides whether to bring forward cases, said the evidence was "fit to be put before a jury".

CPS reviewing lawyer Hilary Bradfield said: "Mr George now has the right to be regarded as an innocent man, but that does not mean it was wrong to bring the case."






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South Africa to close camps for displaced foreigners: official

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South Africa is to close camps set up around Johannesburg and Cape Town for thousands of foreigners displaced in May anti-immigrant attacks, officials said Friday.

Six camps in Gauteng Province, which includes economic capital Johannesburg, housing about 3,000 foreigners, are to be formally closed on August 15, with the remainder due to shut over the following weeks. There are about 4,200 people camped in 45 sites across Western Cape Province in the southeast.

"We would like everybody to be fully reintegrated by September 3," the local director of a disaster management centre in Western Cape, Hildegarde Fast, told AFP.

But that deadline may be shifted in certain camps "because we understand that there might be some very difficult cases: people who do not want to be reintegrated but cannot be repatriated because they come from conflict zones," she said.

Some 16,000 immigrants have already left the camps of the province and a "majority" have been returned home or to alternative zones, she added.

But the fear of becoming targets of fresh attacks lingers.

Since victims of xenophobic attacks began to return to their homes in Western Cape, five foreigners have been killed and seven others injured, the weekly Mail and Guardian reported.

The police confirmed the killing on Tuesday of only one immigrant.

"It is very difficult sometimes to separate what is simply a robbery and what is something specifically motivated by xenophobia," Fast said.

The newspaper also reported cases of racketeers offering immigrants protection.

Foreigners, notably Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, were targeted in May during the wave of the anti-immigrant attacks in which at least 62 were killed and tens of thousands were displaced.

The foreigners were accused of crimes and stealing jobs from South Africans.






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Zuma graft trial pitting ANC against SAfrica's judiciary

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Top officials from South Africa's ANC on Friday called corruption charges against leader Jacob Zuma "political" ahead of his trial next week, amid fears the party's criticism of judges threatens judicial independence.

"It is a political case which is trying to stop the old man from becoming the president of South Africa," ANC Youth League president Julius Malema told reporters a day after Zuma lost a last-ditch legal battle over the charges.

"Zuma must be president whether there is a court case or not," he said.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said at the same news conference that 66-year-old Zuma, favoured to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president in elections to be held next year, had been "moved from prosecution to persecution."

The ANC leader's corruption trial is to open Monday in Pietermaritzburg, but will likely be further delayed with Zuma's lawyers filing legal challenges to the case.

Attempts by Zuma to have the case declared unlawful could even delay the trial until after general elections in April 2009.

He faces 16 charges, including money laundering and racketeering in a case which also implicates French arms firm Thales.

Zuma, who toppled Mbeki as ANC leader in December, has been under investigation for the past eight years and has always maintained his innocence. He has promised to step down if convicted.

On Thursday, the Constitutional Court rejected Zuma's bid to prevent documents seized in police raids being used in evidence at the trial.

Zuma had been accused of soliciting a bribe of 500,000 rand (68,000 euros, 43,500 dollars) annually from Pretoria-base Thint, a subsidiary of French arms firm Thales, to prevent it being investigated over an arms deal.

In the build-up to Monday's court date, a series of attacks by the African National Congress has raised fears the party is using a strategy which threatens judicial independence.

"The short term priority appears to be to ensure that Zuma gets into power in 2009 and they seem to think that the courts are an expendable casualty in that battle," said Frans Cronje, deputy chief executive of the South African Institute of Race Relations, a Johannesburg-based thinktank.

Mantashe has accused Constitutional Court judges of being "counter-revolutionary", and groups such as the ANC Youth League and its veterans' association followed up with a warning to the judges in a joint statement last week.

"We call on judges to either stick to their daily jobs, or form political parties if they want to play politics. They are no gods," said the statement.

Mantashe's comments in a newspaper interview came after a number of Constitutional Court judges accused a junior colleague of improperly trying to influence them in matters relating to Zuma's corruption trial.

In an interview with the Mail and Guardian newspaper, Mantashe said the real target was Zuma, placed in the crosshairs by "counter-revolutionary forces."

"The comments of Gwede Mantashe is a strategic softening up of the judiciary and of public opinion so if steps are taken to bring the judiciary in line with ANC aspirations then people will be prepared for it," Cronje told AFP.

David Unterhalter of Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand Law Clinic said in an interview on public radio that the recent saga was "a very dangerous turn of events."

"It has called into question the role of the judges as an independent institution, to suggest the judges should be part of a revolutionary strategy to transform the country -- that is not the role of the judiciary."

Many South Africans assumed the "revolution" ended with the adoption of the country's post-apartheid constitution more than a decade ago.

But such talk has swirled in the public arena recently as Zuma allies claim they will "take up arms and kill" for him and the revolution.

"It is a sad truth of politics that revolutionary movements, no matter how noble their intentions, become bad governments," said Laurence Caromba, an analyst at the Center for International Policy Studies.

He said South Africa was "sliding inexorably towards its worst political crisis since the 1994 transition."






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There may yet be life in an EU-Mediterranean process
By Christopher Patten
Commentary by
Saturday, August 02, 2008

Maybe it is time to be a bit more generous to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and look at the outcome of what he does rather than the way that he does it.

The original launch of the Mediterranean Union almost sank the whole enterprise. Appearing to speak without giving the issue much thought, Sarkozy initially proposed a club of European and mostly Arab states along the Mediterranean's shore. It would have been in essence a French-run enterprise that the rest of Europe would have paid for. This did not go down well, particularly with the Germans.

There was also a strong suspicion that the French were trying to find a way to buy off Turkey with a relationship falling well short of European Union membership.

So the auguries for an attempt to revitalize Europe's relationship with its Mediterranean partners were not good. But by the time of the grand Paris Summit earlier this month to send the new club on its way, the initial suspicions had largely been overcome. Sarkozy bowed to his European critics and enjoyed a diplomatic triumph. We shall soon see whether there is substance to the initiative, or whether it is just a coat of fresh paint on an old and tired idea.

The original Barcelona Process, launched in 1995, was an excellent scheme. Intended to provide an economic and political backdrop to peace-making through confidence-building in the Middle East, it was an admirable recognition of Europe's historical, commercial, cultural, and political ties with its neighbors to the south of the sea which has brought us all together over the years.

There were aspirations for a free-trade area by 2010. There were pledges of political integration based on shared values. There were people-to-people links. There was a forum where Israelis and their long-term Arab foes could sit together and discuss other matters than the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. There was a development budget. And there were meetings. So many meetings.

The effort was far from worthless. Development projects were funded through grants or cheap loans, and these have probably played at least some part in increasing the attractiveness of the Maghreb and the Mashreq to foreign investors. There was some lowering of agricultural and other tariffs by the EU. Dialogue on political reform, and euros to support it, helped further the process in some countries, notably Morocco and Jordan. There was some cooperation on common problems like drugs and illegal immigration.

But, as a significant component

of Europe's policy toward its most

crucial neighbors, the successes of the Barcelona Process were modest: a great idea on the launch pad had difficulty getting off the ground.


So Sarkozy deserves at least two and a half cheers for trying to revitalize it. But if the Mediterranean Union is to achieve more than was managed in its first manifestation, a number of things will need to happen.

First, Europe is better at talking about free-trade areas than delivering free trade. For example, there are still too many barriers to agricultural trade between the North and the South. And guess which country leads the opposition to any significant opening up of European agriculture. Step forward, France, and take a bow.

Second, however slow we have been in opening up a real Mediterranean market, the barriers to freer trade between Arab League countries are just as great.

Third, it was excellent that in Paris Sarkozy began the process of bringing Syria in out of the diplomatic cold.

We must also hope that his attempts

to act as a peace-broker between West Bank Palestinians and Israel are blessed with success.

But the truth is that Europe, for all the gallant efforts of Javier Solana, has been absent from serious politics in the Middle East. We have not dared to cross America. A largely non-existent European policy toward the region has been dictated by the absentee monopolists of policy in Washington.

Europe should get more seriously involved, even at the risk of occasionally irritating America, which may be less likely to happen once the Bush administration is history. For a start, we should recognize that there will be no political settlement in Palestine without Hamas. What would incredibly have been former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's first visit to Gaza in his first year of peace-making had to be canceled recently because of security concerns. Enough said.

Finally, Europe has to decide how serious it is about all the admirable stuff in the Barcelona Process on pluralism, civil society, the rule of law and democracy. Is Europe serious that a shared concept of human rights should be one of the foundations of our Mediterranean partnership? If so, what are we in Europe proposing to do about it? If this is just blah-blah, better not say it. We discredit ourselves and important principles when we say things that we do not mean.

Christopher Patten is a former governor of Hong Kong and European commissioner for external affairs. He is currently chancellor of Oxford University and co-chair of the International Crisis Group. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with Project Syndicate (c) (www.project-syndicate.org).






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Preparations for Eastern Africa regional electrical interconnection well underway PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 01 August 2008

Addis Ababa, August 1 (WIC) - Preparations for Eastern African regional electrical interconnection among all the seven member countries are progressing well, according to the Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP).

 

EAPP Acting Executive Secretary, Engedasew Negash, told WIC that various activities, including financial agreements for the establishment of the regional power pool, have been carried out.

 

Some 2.6 million euro financial agreement was signed between the European Commission and the African-Caribbean–Pacific Countries (ACP) on behalf of EAPP for funding its activities, he said.

 

Besides, a financing agreement of close to one million USD was concluded between the African Development Bank (AfDB) and EAPP Permanent Secretariat.

 

The funds would help strengthen the capability of the EAPP Permanent Secretariat to contribute to the improvement of the integration of the electricity markets of the eastern African countries, according to the Acting Executive Secretary.

 

The funds would also help design strategic business plans, regional database for the power pool and prepare regional power system master plan and electricity grid code, he added.

 

EAPP, NELSAP (Institution of Nile Basin Initiative for the Equatorial Lakes region) and COMESA are jointly facilitating discussions on power exchange agreement between Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC, he further indicated.

 

The major three regional electrical interconnections being carried out under the auspices of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) are the Ethio-Sudan, Ethio-Djibouti and Ethio-Kenya interconnections, Engedasew said, adding that the second project is under implementation while the last is being studied.

 

Established on February 24,2005 by ministers responsible for energy of Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Sudan, EAPP has been adopted by COMESA on November 16,2006 as its specialized institution for electrical energy mar






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Roadside bomb kills Ugandan peacekeeper

afrol News, 1 August - Ugandan peacekeeper has been killed by a roadside bomb in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu today, AU official confirmed.

An explosion, which occurred near the Ugandan base at Mogadishu's international airport, targeted a six vehicle African Union convoy from the airport, killing soldiers including a Ugandan contingent man.

Several eyewitnesses on the spot confirmed that the attack scared Mogadishu's most heavily guarded tour.

Another witness said a bomb was hidden in a pile of garbage and exploded as soldiers were making routine checks on the road.

A local resident Mohamed Ali Nur said one of the vehicles was destroyed and that AU forces sealed off area. He did not know how many people were hurt in the incident.

Somalia has seen a string of assassination plots and explosions on government officials in recent months since Islamic insurgents demanded withdrawal of Ethiopian troops who had been backing the Somali government since 2006. They helped in flushing out the Islamic Courts Union that controlled most parts of the country in December 2006.

Somalian President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was himself a victim of a road side bomb in June when his motorcade was hit.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia has also expressed concern at the rapidly deteriorating security situation characterised by killing of aid workers in Somalia, where Islamists insurgency continues to thrive.

The AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi arrived in Somalia last year as a separate force from the Ethiopian troops. These peacekeepers are mostly confined to bases near Mogadishu's airport, port and government buildings while Ethiopians are based around the country.

Some 2,600 AU peacekeepers have been deployed in the lawless Horn of African sate, a figure which falls far short of the 8,000 soldiers pledged by continental body in 2006. Earlier this year Uganda was the first country to contribute troops and was followed by Burundi.

The Ethiopian backed transitional government and the main Islamist political opposition movement signed an agreement in June, leading to a splinter in opposition ranks, with hardliners insisting the complete withdrawal of Ethiopian troops before peace talks begin.

Somalia has experienced almost constant civil conflict since the collapse of the country's Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in January 1991. The country had since been bereft with a functioning government.




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Clinton Africa Trip Again Hits Turbulence

By Anne E. Kornblut
KIGALI, Rwanda -- A plane carrying former president Bill Clinton throughout Africa had to make an emergency landing after having engine trouble on the way to Rwanda on Friday -- the latest in a series of transportation woes on the Clinton trip.

Clinton, who is on a four-country tour visiting sites where his foundation works, had to leave his chartered 767 charter after it had problems following takeoff from Ethiopia. A second plane, a 707, carrying members of his delegation and reporters then turned back around and picked up the former president, his daughter, Chelsea, and others on the trip.

The mishap came after a protracted delay on the backup plane earlier in the week. The traveling press and delegation members spent more than two days in Newark as problem after problem (six in all, including a cracked windshield and a fire) befell the 727 that was originally supposed to transport them. Numerous travelers dropped off the trip before it even began.

Over the weekend, Clinton is scheduled to travel from Rwanda to Liberia and then on to Senegal -- the planes permitting.






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8/1/08

Rwanda: FDLR Rebels Surrender, Demand Talks With Government


 

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In a drama-filled hander over of their guns, Rwandan rebels aligned to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda - FDLR said on Thursday that their return can only be after 'inter-Rwandan dialogue', RNA reports.

About 67 rebels from the RUD group (Rassemblement pour l'unité et la démocratie) and a dissident faction of the FDLR surrendered to a joint UN-DRC government reception center in the Lubero area of the North Kivu province.

However, the FDLR group told journalists later that putting down their guns did not mean automatic return to Rwanda as it had been anticipated by U.N. and DRC government officials at the site.

It is probably the first time that the rebels have decided to put their guns down but rebuked coming back to Rwanda.

Up to 20,000 of these Rwanda militias - some who are accused in Kigali of Genocide - have been repatriated as part of the World Bank funded project that has reached some 60,000 former combatants.

The demand for what this break-away faction of the FDLR rebels call 'inter-Rwandan dialogue' has been the position held by the group's top hierarchy - who experts say are holding the low rank militias hostage against their will.

This position is explained to mean that they want talks with government that should result into a range of reforms in the management of the country - ushering in their high-profile demobilisation.

Government of Rwanda has outrightly dismissed this demand instead saying they should return like millions of other Rwandans have over the years from different countries across the region.

Among its ranks, are those that left Rwanda after the Genocide as minors and grew up in the jungles. It is this age group that has maintained the flow of surrenders. The older lot however, - that is actually said to have blood on their hands - have rarely appeared.

Relevant Links

Since 2003, when the FDLR top commander Major General Paul Rwarakabije and Brigadier Jerome Ngendahimana along with a dozen other militias joined government in Kigali, very few top defections have occurred.






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Exploring New Policy Questions in HIV/AIDS Treatment


  • More demand for research
  • Questions related to treatment, adherence, and prevention
  • HIV/AIDS research with country partners in Rwanda

August 1, 2008— With more funding for large-scale treatment programs for HIV/AIDS, research on emerging policy questions related to treatment is increasingly in demand.

In tandem with programs designed to step up access to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and to deliver treatment through public-private partnerships, World Bank researchers are collecting and analyzing new treatment-related data to uncover evidence that could shape future health policy and improve the design of HIV/AIDS treatment programs.

With continued funding—the World Bank alone has committed $1.5bn to over 30 Sub-Saharan African countries since 2000—and improved knowledge through research, the ultimate goal is to prevent further spread of the disease and to ensure its progress from being a "silent killer" to being widely treatable.

Here are some of the key policy questions that World Bank HIV/AIDS research is attempting to address:

Why is treating HIV so important?  

HIV/AIDS affects most adults in their prime, limiting their ability to work and provide for family members and contributing to high rates of premature death in developing countries.

World Bank research has already shown significant impacts of HIV/AIDS and of adult mortality on poverty and living standards, orphanhood, and education in the developing countries most affected by the disease. 

Redoubling efforts to treat HIV patients appears to have a ripple effect, benefitting not only individuals, but also all those who depend on them. 

"Treating HIV/AIDS isn't only about counting the number of lives saved, critical as that is," said Elizabeth King, manager of the Human Development and Public Services team in the Bank's Development Research Group "It's also about improving the quality of life of those infected with the disease and the lives of the family members who share in carrying the burden of HIV/AIDS. "

What determines adherence to HIV treatment?

Patients receiving education about ARV drugs
Patients at the Rubona and Rusatira
Health Center receiving education
about ARV drugs

Adhering to treatment is crucial for its effectiveness; it also prevents patients developing resistance to the drugs.  Through new household surveys, World Bank researchers are now trying to identify what factors determine adherence to ART.

In addition, researchers are using health facility surveys to measure treatment quality.  Healthcare service delivery could also have an impact on ART adherence and the welfare of patients and their families.

Longitudinal household surveys of HIV/AIDS patients and health facilities are in progress in Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya, South Africa, and India. 

Many of these baseline surveys are ongoing or are completed, as seen in this timeline, but the complete story won't be clear until the follow-up surveys, now in the field, are completed.

Does treatment availability make people less cautious about protection?

HIV/AIDS treatment is now more widely available in Africa. What impact does the availability of treatment have on prevention and on the future behavior of patients, family members, and society?

The "disinhibition" hypothesis (or treatment optimism) has been seen in vulnerable groups in some developed countries. Some groups appear to have become less cautious about HIV transmission as treatment becomes more accessible and living with HIV/AIDS is more accepted in the mainstream.

A major question that Bank researchers are studying is the link between scaling up treatment and the type of prevention steps that may be required. Efforts may need to include increasing prevention education campaigns along with access to treatment.

"While access to treatment and its ultimate success are important, we also need to find out what works in terms of prevention," said David Wilson, lead health specialist in the World Bank's Global HIV/AIDS program. "Researchers are trying to identify and evaluate various innovative methods to strengthen prevention efforts and the most effective prevention messages for youth. "

Has AIDS funding affected the quality of healthcare service delivery?

"It is widely believed that the large amount of money given for HIV treatment has helped improve the capacity of the health system in general," said Damien de Walque, Economist in the Bank's Development Research Group, "but some will claim that other diseases have been neglected. "

To ascertain the real picture, health facility surveys include questions about all other services, and exit interviews with patients both with HIV/AIDS as well as other diseases. 

An evaluation currently being carried out in Rwanda tests whether "performance-based contracting"—a form of funding that links performance with payments received for completed work—can enhance the effectiveness of service delivery and thus ultimately improve the health status of HIV-positive patients.

This is an important policy question, as this form of funding is becoming more popular and is being increasingly used in Rwanda's health sector






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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66

Rwanda: Oil Prices, High Demand Hike Beer Costs


 

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Kigali

Faced with high transportation costs and increasing demand for beer and soft drinks, prices will go up effective August, the local Dutch owned drinks brewery announced on Friday.

Officials from the brewer Bralirwa told journalists in Kigali that the recent scarcity of beer and coca cola soft drinks - which it produces - was caused by the 'high demand' that has kept rising since last year.

The company enjoys sole monopoly as the only beer maker with a line of products to its name including local brands Mutzig beer and Primus beer. It also sales international brands such as Amstel, Heineken and Guinness beers.

As for soft drinks, it makes the Coca Coca line of products including Coke and different tastes of Fanta.

From August 01, the company said costs for different sizes of its products would increase by 50 Francs.

The Northern province-based company said costs of transporting these products to other provinces has become unbearable due to high oil prices. The Dutch owned firm moves thousands of crates using a multitude of long-haul tracks.

As prices run high globally, Rwanda also finds its pump prices shifting from time to time. In January, a litter of diesel was about 600 francs but is now selling at 927 Francs.

Large Primus beer is up from 500 Francs to 550, as the smaller size jumps to 300 from 250 Francs. Large Mutzig beer will now cost 750 from 700, as the smaller bottle goes for 400 from 350 Francs.

Amstel beer now sells at 500 and Guinness at 550 francs. The high-end Heineken beer will go for 1200, up from 1000 francs. As for Coke drinks, each 300ml-size bottle will now go for 250 from 200 Francs.

The company also blamed the prices hikes on the costs of products required in making beer drinks.

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However, there are also beers that come in from Uganda and Kenya but these remain for the upper-class clients because of their prices.






--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66