Photo: MNET

Tender Mavundla – a positive role model

DURBAN, – They formed an unlikely panel for an AIDS conference: a rugby player, a soccer player, a reality-show contestant, a comedian, a film producer, an actor and a singer.

Most admitted to being out of their comfort zone, but had accepted invitations to participate in the 4th South African AIDS Conference in Durban this week because they wanted to play a role in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The lively discussion, chaired by well-known AIDS activist Zackie Achmat, was about what that role should be.

Rugby player John Smit admitted that communicating messages about HIV and AIDS demanded sensitivity and an understanding of complex issues that presented a bigger challenge than some other popular celebrity causes. It’s much easier to, say, switch off the lights to help climate change, he said.

The media can be reluctant to delve into such issues but film maker Anant Singh, who produced ˜Yesterday, one of the first locally-made films to deal with HIV and AIDS, said, Sometimes we have to do things that we’re not sure are in our best interest commercially because we feel they’re the right thing to do.

In response to criticisms from audience members about negative portrayals of HIV-positive people in local soap operas, actor Rapulana Seiphemo commented: We don’t have influence over the story lines, we’re just hired.

Celebrities who speak out about their HIV status can jeopardise their careers, said aspiring singer Tender Mavundla, who is open about being HIV positive. The problem is, what you say affects your bank account; you risk losing your fans.

Whether or not celebrities take an active role in the AIDS fight, most of the panellists agreed that they have a special responsibility because of their power to influence behaviour. If you have multiple partners, it’s not cool, said comedian Joey Rasdien, the voice behind the popular ˜Scrutinize HIV-awareness adverts on South African television. “I was promiscuous; I used to shag [sleep] around, but we have to change our own behaviour.

ks/he source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Evans Mensah/IRIN

Ghanaians say they are already feeling impact of global economic crisis

The myth that African economies might be insulated from the global economic downturn was officially dispelled by the International Monetary Fund in early March when it warned the crisis could wipe out African countries’ financial successes of the past decade.

Ordinary Ghanaians did not need an official warning. Aku Johnson, 55, relies on regular remittances of US$350 from her son in the USA to put two children through school, but a few months ago the son lost his job as a supermarket attendant and he now sends far less. Johnson withdrew the children from school mid-March.

This money can’t take care of me and the children, she told IRIN. Living is now very hard [there], my son told me. I am just praying for him to get another job soon.

Thinly insulated

The Ghana Ministry of Finance estimates that remittances were $50 million less in January 2009 than one year earlier. Remittances made up an estimated 11.5 percent of the country’s 2008 gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.

Ghana is better-protected than some of its neighbours; oil revenues will soon start coming in and recent presidential and parliamentary elections kept the country in donors’ favour.

But Caroline Pearce, NGO Oxfam’s West Africa advocacy coordinator, said even in relatively stable Ghana people have been hit hard. “The reality is that millions of Ghanaians who live under or just over the poverty line are still vulnerable to any impact of the crisis. The fact that Ghana’s growth is slowing rather than going into reverse is encouraging, but does not help the poor mother who can no longer afford food or healthcare.

During economic collapses, infant deaths increase on average by almost three percent, according to a senior World Bank economist.

If this continues, many NGOs…will be forced to close down

Ghana’s new administration is looking to agriculture to boost the economy; the government projects the agriculture sector will grow at 5.7 percent in 2009.

The government says it will support farmers to meet these targets. But not all farmers are convinced. John Akarebo, a shea nut farmer in the Northern Region says he used to sell a sack of shea nuts for $19 but now his clients who buy for export will pay only $10.

Any time I protest, they say their partners abroad are no longer buying enough, and even when they buy they also want it at significantly reduced prices, so I don’t really have a choice, Akarebo told IRIN.

Akarebo said he would usually turn to NGOs for help buying seeds and tools, but several in the north have scaled back assistance.

International NGO Oxfam’s Ghana director Justin Morgan told IRIN Oxfam can no longer finance all of its projects in the country and have closed down in the Northern Region.

Bright Appiah, Executive Director of Accra-based NGO Child Rights International, told IRIN: Because of the financial crisis we are unable to get the manpower for many of our projects this year. It’s eight months until the end of the year and we have received five percent of the contributions we need. If this continues, many NGOs including ours will be forced to close down.

Oxfam is appealing to the G20 on behalf of Ghana and other developing countries. Our point is, countries like Ghana should not be made to suffer for a crisis they knew nothing about, and developed countries must keep their aid commitments,” Morgan said.

Aid stagnant

Aid agencies, including the Make Poverty History coalition, have been pushing G20 donors to live up to promises G8 leaders made in 2005 to double aid to Africa. In 2008 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development members’ aid rose by just 0.4 percent, according to Oxfam.

And in 2008 donors gave on average just 0.3 percent of their budgets to overseas aid “ the same proportion as in 1993.

Ghana’s new government presented its first budget on 5 March, showing the growth rate projected to drop from 7 percent in 2008 to 5.9 percent in 2009.

Donors have pledged to fund 68 percent of the $143 million budgeted for agriculture in 2009 according to Kwabena Oku Afare, head of policy and research at the Finance Ministry.

We just want to be realistic. The target is informed by the global economic meltdown, he said. We will not be spared, especially when a quarter of our national budget is donor-funded and we know that donor support might hit an all-time low.

Martin Derry, director of Ghanaian water and sanitation NGO PRONET told IRIN: We’ve seen [aid] packages to bring back car manufacturing industries and to salvage banking institutions’ ¦The strongest voices are on the side of bigger business ¦It is very easy to forget an entire continent that has no voice at a place like the G20. But Western governments should not forget Africa.

em/aj/np source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Aden Dahir/IRIN RADIO

Somali fishermen repair fishing nets in the southern coastal town of Merka

The move follows complaints by local fishermen of lost livelihoods because they lacked modern equipment and the means to replace old nets, and were being forced out by foreign-owned vessels.

“I do sympathise with the fishermen and we are working on a new law to regulate the activities of these [foreign] ships,” said Abdirahman Ibbi, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources in the new Somali National Unity Government.

Ibbi said an estimated 220 foreign-owned vessels were engaged in unlicensed and illegal fishing in Somali waters. Most were of European origin, he added.

However, he said, it was “impossible for the new government to monitor their fishery production in general, let alone the state of the fishery resources they are exploiting”.

Abdullahi Sheikh Hassan, head of a fishing cooperative in the southern coastal town of Merka, told IRIN that livelihoods were being destroyed. “Fishing is the only thing we know and without it we have nothing,” he said, adding that lack of support, combined with the foreign fishing vessels, was ruining fishing communities.

Hassan said many members of his cooperative, established in 1974, lacked equipment, such as boats and nets, “because they had no means to replace the old ones”.

Harassment claims

Reports of crews of foreign-owned ships harassing and intimidating local fishermen had been made by Somali fishermen.

“They are not only taking our fish, but they are also stopping us from fishing,” said Mohamed Abdirahman, a fisherman in Brava, 200km south of Mogadishu. “They have rammed boats and cut nets.

He said a number of Somali fishermen were missing and presumed dead after encounters with these big ships.

Abdirahman said the number of foreign ships in the south had increased after they were chased from the north by pirates. He said the foreign ships were now being protected by the navies of their countries and do whatever they want to us.

Local fishermen go out late at night to set their nets, but discover in the morning that they have been cut or stolen. “They are no longer satisfied to take our fish, but they are forcing us to abandon fishing altogether,” he said.

He claimed some of the foreign navies were treating Somali fishermen as if they were pirates and had occasionally opened fire on Somali fishing boats.

“We are forced to avoid going far and stay within sight of towns to avoid them and this means our catches are much smaller,” Abdirahman said. “We are being driven out of business by foreign vessels protected by their navies. Who is protecting us? Our existence depends on the fish.”

He said the international community was only “talking about the piracy problem in Somalia, but not about the destruction of our coast and our lives by these foreign ships”.

Photo: Aden Dahir/IRIN RADIO

A fisherman prepares his boat for the sea in Merka

Somalia has a 3,330km coastline, with major landing sites in Kismayo, Mogadishu, Merka, Brava, Eil, Bargal, Bolimog, Las Korey and Berbera, and Bosasso. It has large species, including tuna and mackerel; smaller stocks, such as sardines; shark species and lobsters.

Somalia, which has been ravaged by civil war since 1991 and has had no effective functioning central government, lacks the capacity to ensure controlled exploitation of the fishing sector and can hardly enforce fishing regulations on its own, much less stop foreign vessels, said a civil society source in Mogadishu.

ah/mw source.www.irinnews.org

Obama bows to the Saudi King. A new era in American leadership has started. We have to understand. What do you do when you meet a man of oil? Of course You bow to him, so that he does not cut the supply.

There is no shame for a Muslim man to bow for a Muslim King. It is only a way to show respect and we should treat it as so.

The French president at the back row seems to be enjoying watching the US President bowing to the King.

By API