US President Barack Obama. Photo/REUTERS.

Today millions of African Americans now hold deplorable perceptions about their race and group that are harmfully very inaccurate.  Black people are not the largest benefactor of affirmative actions nor are they the largest recipients of welfare benefits –white women are. Every year in the U.S. thousands of more of whites are killed by whites than the number of Blacks killed by Blacks, yet we never hear the slogan of white on white violence.  The belief that Blacks don’t enjoy reading is also grossly inaccurate. In fact it is totally fallacious, because Black readership is at its all time highest. For never before have there been more published African American authors, publishers and Black owned book stores. The Johnson publishing company, for example, is one of several African American publishing companies that have made the fortune five hundred list almost exclusively on the backs of millions of Black readership alone.

What is more, the premise that there exists an innate proclivity for divisiveness among African Americans is also totally inaccurate. This premise is inconsistent with the true history of African Americans.  While perhaps difficult to believe, Black unity (Umoja) was historically, the cornerstone of the African American community and a crucial factor in the survival of Black America for more than four-hundred years of White racial oppression.  It is credited for the success of the Underground Railroad system that secretly led to the escape of hundreds of African slaves to the North.  Black unity and cohesion also contributed to the survival of millions of African Americans not only during slavery, but also during the aftermath of brutal Jim-Crow era lynching and through the financially crippling years of the United States’ great depression era.  Black unity was the most significant factor in the success of the 1960′s civil right movement.  The remarkable degree of unity among African Americans then was made evident by the brilliant organization and mobilizations of mass bus boycotts, marches, freedom riders, and sit ins that were peacefully conducted through the unified protest of civil disobedience.  These methods of civil disobedience gave the world images of African Americans being violently attacked by Whites and not violently responding to them in return.  These images touched the hearts and consciences of others, gaining national and global support eventually leading to America’s abandonment of blatant and legalized forms of Jim Crow racism.  The degree of unity and organization demonstrated among African Americans then was extraordinary and arguably remains unrivaled by any other group in the history of America.

The position that academic failures and drastic loss of scholastic motivation in Black students results from inherent intellectual inadequacies is patently inaccurate.  Prior to the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education, and despite being relegated by Jim Crow policies to racial oppression, inequalities, indignities, and attending poorly funded schools, Black illiteracy that was 30% in 1919, had dropped to less than 7% by 1955. It had not only almost disappeared in the South, but in some areas, it was less than White illiteracy was in New York.  In 1950, Black colleges had 71,000 students, and 553 African Americans had a Doctorate Degree.  The intellectual growth of African Americans was extraordinary.  African American contributions to advancement in the fields of science, agriculture, medicine as well as domestic inventions during and following reconstruction were remarkably astounding.  This was made evident by the overabundance of patent applications submitted by African American inventors to the U.S. Patent office. This is especially impressive and a miraculous feat considering these applications came under such racially oppressive conditions and so shortly after slavery.

How is it then have so many millions of African Americans come to now hold such deplorably inaccurate perceptions of themselves as a race; a view that Black unity, racial pride, and educational aspiration– collective characteristics that were once hallmarks of Black culture and identity– all merely disintegrated when integration and other subsequent opportunities became available and that they themselves are totally the blame and now their own worst enemies.

These ill self perceptions among millions of African Americans are not merely coincidental they are the result of a deliberate covert psychosocial mass manipulation is program that is being deplored against America’s Black population as a means for maintaining white dominance and control. The benefit of reading this literature will be a change from feelings of confusion, hopelessness and despair to an awareness of the most urgent issue of our time.

As a means of maintaining its white dominance and control, the U.S. government now uses a modern covert system of control and suppression of its Black population that uses false disinformation disseminated through the national media that is deliberately designed to confuse, and divide its Black population and to create a consensual environment of where in which Blacks are more easily exploited and ultimately suppressed.

This covert revamped system of white racism is so proficient that it directly contributes to the ill self perceptions among millions of African Americans and the myriad problems now adversely affecting Black America.  However, because of its immense degree of sophistication realizing this monumental disclosure will be quite difficult for many African Americans. Since most Blacks have never heard of this method of asserting White racism, therefore many will find it too shocking and stunning to contemplate.

The present despairing state of Black America is neither a baffling phenomenon, nor the result of some innate racial deficiency among Blacks, but is rather, in fact, a deliberate design and outcome of a very sophisticated, more detrimental and proficient system of racism that has been secretly implemented against African Americans–as a means of maintaining America’s white dominance and control. In order to recognize it requires that African Americans reexamine some of their most basic beliefs and prior assumptions.  It will also require that African Americans first overcome a psychologically ingrained “White is right” preferentiality that has been thoroughly indoctrinated upon the Black psyche.

Although the United States government portrays itself as the leading ethical and moral authority of the world and professes equal rights for all American citizens, its oldest and most important objective has always been an unyielding commitment towards the preservation of its White dominance and control. Therefore, if the U.S. government treated its Black population in a manner which did not promote maintaining its White dominance and control, it would be diametrically opposed to itself.  This hidden scenario has always necessitated the U.S. government to secretly use every conceivable means and opportunity to domestically defend its position of White dominance even if it means engaging in suppressive methods that contradict its own stated moral and ethical values.

Because the 1960′s were a period of massive black rebellion and unrest, especially in 1968 after the brutal assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that eroded the American global image, increasingly placed the nation’s peace and stability in dire jeopardy, and caused the U.S. government to fear the uprising of a violent Black revolution. These collective problems resulted in President Lyndon B. Johnson ordering the formation of the Kerner Commission.  Its mission was to investigate and prescribe a cure or recommendation for the problem.  The Commission concluded that blatant White racism was the single aggravating factor for the collective problems. The Kerner report’s findings led the U.S. government agents of White supremacy to reform their techniques use for maintaining its white dominance. It required that the U.S. government abandon its blatant forms of institutionalized racism and create a more sophisticated system of maintaining white dominance and control in the United States.

As a means of maintaining its White dominance and control the U.S. government secretly implemented its largest ever covert operation against its Black population. The constant relentless bombardment with deplorably negative images of themselves that of which African Americans are so inundated with, through a White controlled media, is a very carefully and deliberately designed massive social engineering psychological conditioning program that provides a stealthier and more socially acceptable means of maintaining white dominance.

There are  secret agencies within the U.S. government that covertly disseminates false deplorably racially devaluing statistics and propaganda about its Black population that are deliberately designed to adversely manipulate and shape the minds and collective consciousness of its African American population– corrupting African Americans sense of unity, cohesion, and reason — and facilitates a consensual national environment of where in which its Black population is more easily divided, exploited and ultimately suppressed.

When most people hear the term of psychological manipulation, they usually think in terms of the classic “conspiracy theory” that refers to overt mind control such as mind altering drugs with carefully hypnotic programming. However, the real and true dangers are the well proven methods of affecting the unconscious mind by using deception, and psychological manipulation. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles.

The constant relentless bombardment with deplorably negative images of themselves that of which African Americans are so inundated with is a very carefully and deliberately designed mass media social manipulation program that subjects African Americans–through a White controlled media –to seeing only the fraudulent worst in themselves. Its unrelenting daily assault on the Black psyche drills the message that Blacks are powerless, of lesser moral, and intelligence and that they need Whites to govern over their lives.  It totally detaches African Americans from their sense of power and reality. Moreover, it corrupts African Americans’ sense of racial unity and cohesion, mold the character of self-hatred, engender self-doubt, self-loathing, and distrust among their group while insinuating that Blacks admire, respect, and trust only Whites.

The motto of this psychosocial program is to divide and conquer and it works by affecting the unconscious mind through deception. It uses the psychology of deceit to adversely affect the recipient group in terms of their behavior. Here is a simplified example of how this is being implemented against African Americans.  Let us, for example, imagine that a crew of people was aboard their own massive ship and that this ship was being shadowed by another neighboring ship that was constantly broadcasting derogatory messages to the first group. Such messages as that their ship was lesser, smaller, not seaworthy, perhaps slowly sinking or that their crew was incompetent and was planning a mutiny.  With time, the group receiving the negative messages, being unable to refute or to confirm these derogatory messages and deficiencies will grow weary and paranoid of the negative messages and will eventually comes to accept these negative assessments of themselves. The perception created by the taunting now unconsciously influences how the taunted group perceives themselves, subsequently causing them to become distrustful of themselves, doubting themselves, hating themselves and, eventually, fighting among themselves. The taunted group may even become so besieged by deep feelings of inadequacy that they may even jump into the sea and attempt to swim towards the taunting ship now believing it to be superior to their own ship even if their own ship was, in fact, better.

The basis of this concept of mind manipulation is that the human being’s most critical aspect is the mind and it works by affecting the mind through deception. It uses the psychology of deceit to adversely affect the recipient group in terms of their behavior. It is implemented by, first, simply learning everything about the targeted group, their beliefs, likes, dislikes, strengths, and vulnerabilities. Once you know what motivates your target, you are ready to begin psychological operations against them.

Within a real life setting this mortifying psychosocial treatment is precisely what is being deliberately done to African Americans. Where of which they are constantly bombarded and inundated by deplorably negative imageries of themselves through a totally White controlled media outlets that intentionally subjected them to seeing only the fraudulently worst in themselves.  This is done through an immense campaign of false derogatory misinformation and false negative media reports and statistics that are created by U.S. governmental agencies and then leaked to its collaborators in the news media, which either knowingly or unknowingly carry the stories as their own. These false information about African Americans are then disseminated unrelentingly everywhere; it is deliberately perpetuated through news releases in magazine articles, radio, television, press releases, documentaries, and false census reports. However, the weapon is not in how the message is carried, but is instead within the messages that it carries and how these messages perpetuate and frame the myth of Whites’ racial, moral, and ethical superiority over its Black population. This falsehood detrimentally affects the Black population at large.

The ultimate goal of this governmental psychosocial treatment of African Americans is to destroy the Black unity and cohesion that was historically the cornerstone of civil rights gains and that was a crucial factor of the survival of African Americans through more than four hundred years of White racial oppression. The overrepresentation of Black crimes and grossly exaggerated statistics of Black on Black violence within this psychosocial program are intentionally designed to create fear, hatred, and distrust thus molding the character of disunity and self-hatred among the Black community.  (Black’s own personal negative experiences and interactions with their fellow Blacks merely then confirm the program’s perpetuated message that it is they that are their own worst enemies).  Logic dictates that given that unity and cohesion among African Americans was responsible for the demise of White America’s past system of blatant, institutionalized racism, then destroying this unity would be an essential objective of this psychological manipulation program.

All African Americans have experienced the burden of this system of applied psychological conditioning, some more severely than others have.  It is experienced every time we (Blacks) read a newspaper, watch the evening news, listen to a radio report, enter a classroom and read its racially biased textbooks.  To the detriment of many African Americans, it has been an extremely effective. It has successfully conditioned many African Americans to accept the dominance of Whites and white institutions over their lives by misleading them to believe that they are, themselves, their own worst enemies, therefore engendering an aberration of internalized self contempt that pulverizes Black unity and halts Black upward mobility. It is at the root of both the profound division and self hatred now afflicting so many Black Americans and is at the heart of internalized feelings of superiority that many whites possess. It attempts also to discourage miscegenation between Blacks and whites. Not only does this massive governmental psychological manipulation campaign negatively impacts Blacks self perceptions,  but it also conveniently provides a more socially acceptable and covert means of ensures that the masses of African Americans remains the most racially devalued and most economical exploited and suppressed group in America.

And while many African Americans have successfully navigated through this psychologically mortifying mine field and have gone on to lead successful, productive lives, for far too many this immense devaluation can seem inescapable and tragically, over time, many begin to accept subconsciously and painfully the negative portrayals of themselves. Many also become discouraged by the acceptance that their society is also preconditioned to see the worst in them and that, therefore, if they were ever to gain acceptance, if it is to be won at all, that success would be hard won. This in turn manifests negative internalized psychological pain and distress within many African Americans that can take many forms. In fact, this governmental mortifying psychosocial treatment of African Americans may be the most aggravating, if not core, factor of the national phenomenon of self hatred; loss of educational aspirations; loss of unity, cohesion and racial pride; and fragile psyches of many African Americans today. It is in fact so fundamentally detrimental to the Black human condition and psyche that it may even affect the extent to which many African Americans realize their full human potential.

The psychological manipulation of African Americans has been so successfully accomplished that it is almost impossible to reverse. You see, part of the conditioning is almost like Stockholm syndrome. The victimized group begins to love their enemy and to feel that the enemy is justified in its oppression, etc. The victim begins to feel that they deserve the mistreatment, and they will actually oppose anyone who suggests what is being disclosed here.

This type of psychological manipulation program has also been proven very effective in rapidly destroying a group’s ethical and moral values and engendering negative cultural norms with regard to violence, brutality, and even murder. All people, to some degree, are products of cultural conditions and their worldviews operate outside of their level of consciousness. Therefore, no group can be preconditioned to see only the worst in themselves and not exhibit some degree of negative psychological impact.
The media’s constantly depicted deplorable imagery of Black Americans is also designed al so to create a shift of victimization that changes the root problem of racism in America to be due to Black’s behavior rather than White’s proclivity for racism. Therefore insinuates that America would be a better society as a whole if African Americans were gone, thus engendering increasingly prejudiced distorted
perceptions and acrimonious beliefs about African Americans that are designed to makes the nation and the entire world insensitive to their plight, tranquilizes efforts on their behalf, lessens pressure for social change on their behalf, and makes any serious criticism of White racism almost impossible today. Therefore fostering a national setting of where in which Blacks are more easily exploited and ultimately consensually suppressed. It also creates a false justification for the legal system’s mistreatment of African Americans wherein they are disproportionately incarcerated, given stiffer sentences, and are more likely than other racial groups to be treated brutally, beaten, and fired upon by police officers while they are unarmed. These injustices now goes ignored because the perception has subconsciously become that it’s all now justified.  When contempt of Blacks is made to appear to be justifiable, it is the fiercest and most effective type of racism because its witnesses, bystanders, and even world audiences will sit by idly allowing African Americans to be brutally mistreated under the belief that it is justified.

The effects of this social program are also manifested in ideas, education, governmental policies, economic stratification, social segregation, housing markets, hiring and promotion practices, psychological issues, and minority access to a variety of social services and opportunity. It also affects attitudes that when enacted through governmental policies, laws, and other legislation actions, serve to ensure that African Americans will not advance.  Through the usage of mass psychological manipulation White America’s methods of institutionalized racism has been secretly modified into a more sophisticated and stealthy design. Unfortunately to the detriment of many African Americans this modern system of deploying white racism has been very proficient.  Some studies have shown that this social program has engendered increasingly acrimonious beliefs and prejudiced perceptions about and against African Americans that are arguably stronger today than they were after emancipation.

Unlike the blatantly overt system of racism used in the past that resulted in African Americans unifying themselves against it, this modern system of racism is not easily recognized or comprehended by its Black victims. It is so well disguised that although many of its Black victims may instinctively feel that there is something wrong, they are however unable to sufficiently conceptualize it so that they can unify and defend themselves against it. It is so sophisticated that even the very brightest of African Americans may have little, if any hope of extricating themselves from its detrimental effects.
It was this governmental psychological conditioning program that ended the Black revolutionary movement of the 1960′s and that stripped African Americans of the national and international support that was acquired during that era’s civil rights struggles.

Although this disclosure may sound ridiculous for some, it is however consistent with history. Through out western history cultures that create and maintain empires have done so by manipulating the people that they are trying to conquer. They go out of their way to make sure that the people that they’re attempting to conquer is perpetually misled and manipulated. Therefore the conquered group’s perception of reality is not their own. It is shrewdly imposed upon them without them even knowing it.  When the people in power wants to suppress or to exploit a group they do so by portraying that group as a fearsome enemy or a major problem of the society through lies and manufactured news items. These negative imagery’s are used to socially engineer a national consent that justifies mistreating the group.

This same type propaganda technique was used by Adolph Hitler to facilitate a national consensual setting that allowed his heinous mistreatment of the Jews. Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels portrayed them as a fearsome enemy of German society through lies and manufactured news items. These negative imageries were used to justify their annihilation.  Since the beginning of recorded history, ruling governmental bodies of nearly every nation have involved themselves in implementing methods designed to maintain and defend their positions of established power against its minority group. The U.S. government is in no way an exception to this rule, but is rather, to the contrary, a leader of implementing suppressive methods to defend its positions of established power against its minority group. In fact from the time that Africans were first enslaved and brought to America its government has always implemented methods designed to ensure that its White dominance be maintained.

Even after the abolishment of slavery, Jim Crow inequities continued White dominance through denying Blacks the right to vote and the brutal lynching of thousands of African Americans. After these blatant methods used to ensure the continuance of its White dominance had become morally unacceptable, the United States government secretly applied a more subtle, sophisticated, and socially acceptable method for ensuring the continuance of its white dominance and control through the usage of mass psychological manipulation.   Since World War I, the U.S. government had been engaging in more overt usages of mass psychological manipulation campaigns designed to influence public opinion towards it governmental objective. Such as seen, for example, during World War l, when then Unit ed States President, Woodrow Wilson, used mass psychological manipulation to sway popular opinion in favor of entering the war, on the side of Britain. That war propaganda campaign produced such an intense anti-German hysteria as to permanently impress America’s governmental elites with the potential of large-scale propaganda to control public opinion.  Since then the U.S. government has acquired an extensive history of conducting mass media campaigns of psychological manipulation programs through the national media to influence and direct the perception and climate of the nation towards its governmental objectives.

The massive Black rebellion of the 1960′s quite logically necessitated that the U.S. Government used these same proven methods of mass psychological manipulation program against its Black population. Clearly, the sophisticated method of mass media psychological manipulation met such a need.  It was perfectly suited for the changing times.  Unlike the extremely cruel and public racism used in the past, which Blacks were able to easily identify and thus unify to form counter strategies against, racism through psychological warfare is much harder to detect. This governmental mass psychological manipulation of African Americans continues today and can be traced to many of the maladies now affecting Black America.
The many problems now facing Black America will not be corrected by implementing outdated strategies of foot marches, speeches, or the commemoration of fallen Black martyrs.  We can no longer survive as a race addressing today’s modern systems of racism using nineteen century strategies.  In order for African Americans to acquire real change within the American society, it is imperative that we understand how racism has sophisticatedly evolved in America. This understanding is, in fact, extremely imperative if Black people are to even be a part of the future.

Send in to API by F.Jones

Kenya National Assembly Speaker, Mr Kenneth Marende. Photo/WILLIAM OERI

The choice of the two disputing sides to hold their first meeting in Parliament before the reconciliation exercise begun attested to this trust, he said.

Photo: www.karamoja.eu

Disarmament efforts are ongoing in the northeast Karamoja region of Uganda (file photo)

KAMPALA,  – Efforts to recover illegal arms in the northeast Uganda region of Karamoja may not succeed unless disarmed communities can protect themselves, say officials.

“Originally we supported the disarmament… but the surrender of the gun has instead exposed us to more danger…” Jackson Angella, a resident of Kotido District in Karamoja, told IRIN. “We have sought… protection for our lives and our cows, but it won’t come, so the gun in one’s manyatta [kraal] is security.”

According to a July report, Changing Roles, Shifting Risks: Livelihood Impacts of Disarmament in Karamoja, by the Feinstein International Center, disarmament is increasing poverty as people cannot protect their assets.

The report argues that complete disarmament in Karamoja may not be possible.

“First, more weapons will continue to flow into Karamoja; second, hard-core criminals will never give up their guns; third, the lack of protection for those who have disarmed will ultimately lead to a loss of faith in the state. People will eventually re-arm in order to protect themselves, furthering the flow of weapons,” it said.

A lack of concurrent disarmament in neighbouring northwest Kenya and Southern Sudan has ensured a relatively unimpeded flow of weapons and ammunition back to the region.

“Kenya and Sudan must be brought on board. Otherwise the pull-factors of the gun will remain and this will create a vicious cycle of [rearmament],” Francis Kiyonga, a Karamoja legislator, told IRIN. “Disarming the Karamojong and [leaving] them at the mercy of the armed communities in Kenya and Sudan is a cruel joke.”

Cross-border livestock rustling is rampant along the border, influenced by periods of repeated and prolonged drought, among other factors.

The Ugandan government started the Karamoja disarmament in 2001 in response to an upsurge in internal livestock raids.

Since 2006 though, noted the Feinstein report, “… disarmament has centred on the removal of weapons from communities in Karamoja… largely through forceful means with negative consequences for communities as well as for civil-military relations”.

The report quotes a man in Rengen Sub-County, Kotido: “If you turn in a gun, then both you and your gun are detained!”, while a woman in Panyangara Sub-County commented that “people are very fearful about turning in guns”, and felt that whether you kept your gun or took it to the barracks, “either way you are in trouble”.

But the military has denied this. Army spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulaigye, said the “window for voluntary disarmament is still open, and those who bring in guns are given certificates.

“At first, we were even offering money for guns surrendered but these people were using the money to buy more guns and surrender them to us. We stopped the money offer because it was becoming a trade. But detaining people who voluntarily bring in their guns would be counter-productive for us,” Kulaigye added.

Livelihoods threatened

The disarmament has also affected livelihoods. It has led to the transfer of animal management responsibilities and the collapse of essential migratory systems.

Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN

Policemen serving in Uganda’s Anti-Stock Theft Unit (file photo): Communities in Karamoja are reluctant to surrender their guns due to insecurity

The livestock are confined in kraals at barracks under military guard, yet “the military has little interest in or aptitude for animal management and guarding livestock from criminal attack is not within the normal realm of duties for a national army”, said the report.

This has also made it difficult for households to sell their animals to meet other needs.

The report recommends that communities and their livestock return to traditional systems as soon as possible once an effective and tested system of civilian protection is in place.

“If the kraals are dismantled before this time, there will be a rapid descent into the levels of insecurity experienced in the past and a quick re-arming as communities seek to protect their assets,” it said, adding that poverty and marginalization also need to be addressed.

Echoing this, Kiyonga said there was a need for more socio-economic investment in the region. “… If all… children are taken to school and this is maintained for about 15 years, we would have cut the cycle and we shall not be able to recruit warriors,” he said.

However, despite negative individual experiences of disarmament, the Feinstein report found that generally local communities supported complete disarmament to enable peace and development.

“…The attractiveness of disarmament as a policy to the problems in Karamoja and neighbouring areas is obvious – without guns, people cannot perpetrate gun violence, therefore the guns should be removed.”

vm/aw/mw source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Bill Corcoran/IRIN

Kallie Geslin (left) and Charles Pietersen on the farm they once owned

In July the state-owned Land Bank, which provides financing and advice to black farmers and is pivotal in addressing racially skewed land ownership, told parliament that more than 350 farms would have to be repossessed if the non-payment of loans continued.

The bank said it was losing R100 million (about US$13 million) a month as a consequence of unpaid loans and had repossessed 25 farms in the second half of 2008, of which six were owned by emerging black farmers. A moratorium on repossessions for several years had served only to allow the debts of struggling farmers to mount.

The moratorium was lifted in July 2008 when oversight of the Land Bank – mired in financial scandals – was moved from the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs to the finance ministry.

However, the Western Cape provincial president of the National African Farmers Union (NAFU), Willy Williams, said the Land Bank and government were as much to blame for the situation as the struggling farmers, because they failed to provide adequate support to the new farmers.

“Our members face many challenges when getting started, and many of these revolve around a lack of expertise in running a modern farm. The state is responsible for providing training in this area, but it does not have the capacity to deliver it on time,” he said.

Lack of support

“There is also an issue around the high cost of land in the Western Cape, because the state does not provide enough money to cover the cost of purchasing the land and the initial working capital needed to run a farm.”

Kallie Geslin, 38, and Charles Pietersen, 42, were part of a group of 74 emerging black commercial farmers who secured government and Land Bank loans of R4.6 million (about $600,000) in 2003 to buy a Western Cape wine farm under the land reform programme.

The men had been brought up on wine farms in the region and said agriculture was “in their veins”, but their dream of operating a successful enterprise was over by 2008, when the Land Bank repossessed their 205 hectare farm near the town of Paarl because of arrears.

When we started to work the farm in 2004 we did not have the skills or the working capital to get us through the beginning. We had to sell our first crop to get operating money, but we did not get enough

“When we started to work the farm in 2004 we did not have the skills or the working capital to get us through the beginning. We had to sell our first crop to get operating money, but we did not get enough,” Geslin said.

“This caused a lot of infighting in our group, as some people wanted an income from the sale of our crop rather than reinvesting it in the farm – they did not understand we needed to put the money back into the business. Because the ownership of the land was allocated as a share to individuals, everyone had the same rights. This made it very difficult to make the right decisions for the business.”

The men said the management skills training “also came very late, and by the time we began training it was too late to save the business – we were already in trouble. The farm has now been sold back to a white farmer,” Geslin said.

NAFU’s Williams said about 40 percent of the emerging black commercial farmers in the Western Cape were struggling to make ends meet, and many of the ventures were group initiatives, which had been government’s preferred option.

“We find the emerging black farmers who are most successful are involved in the equity scheme – this is where an existing farmer sells a portion of their land to an employee and remains involved in the business, helping with expertise,” he said.

Small-scale farming the answer

Ben Cousins, Director of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), told IRIN that farmers experiencing difficulties were badly advised by the Land Bank in terms of the size of the loans they should secure.

Land reform has been a big disaster story because of the high failure rates. Government officials contend that beneficiaries should mostly be emerging black commercial farmers rather than smaller-scale operators, but these can be highly productive

“So I think many of these farmers in trouble received bad advice [from the Land Bank and department of agriculture], and were given loans way beyond what they could repay.”

Cousins said there was a strong argument that government should make small-scale farmers the primary beneficiaries of their land reform policy because the chances of success were much better.

“Land reform has been a big disaster story because of the high failure rates. Government officials contend that beneficiaries should mostly be emerging black commercial farmers rather than smaller-scale operators, but these can be highly productive,” he said.

“They do not need major bank loans to work, but rather innovative forms of financing that are supported by the NGO sector in terms of advice and expertise.”

bc/go/he source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Laura Lopez Gonzalez/IRIN

“When you are doing counselling you need to be yourself first”

JOHANNESBURG,  – When Amanda Kubeka saw her cousins in Johannesburg, South Africa, struggling to cope with their newly diagnosed HIV infection, she decided to do something about it by volunteering at a local clinic. She is now a counsellor at the Emthonjeni voluntary testing and counselling centre at one of the city’s busiest taxi ranks. She spoke to IRIN/PlusNews about what it is like to assist people through a test that could change their lives forever.

“Sometimes it is [difficult to break the news]. It’s easy when it’s a negative result, but when it’s a positive result and a person came in and was so sure they were negative, only to be disappointed to find out that they are positive, it’s not easy to tell that client.

“If it’s early in the morning and it’s your first client, your spirit does go down; it’s not nice. Then, if the next client again is positive, it spoils my day, but what can I do? I’m doing what I love and I’ve got passion for what I do.

“When you are doing counselling you need to be yourself first – you need to be honest, friendly, patient, and you need to empathise with the client; put yourself in their shoes.

“You need to deal with the client’s feelings; you need to reflect on what they are feeling. Tell them, ‘I see that you are feeling angry’. Ask them, probe, ‘Why are you feeling like this? Do you understand what these results mean?’” You need to go deeper into their feelings.

“When you find discordant couples [where one partner is positive and the other is not] it is difficult because you have to deal with so many feelings – they blame themselves, and one [of them] may say, ‘You brought this onto us’.

“[Safe sex] is a big challenge, especially with married couples, because they really don’t understand why one is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative – they’ve been married for more than 20 years and now they have to introduce condoms.

“That’s why we have sessions where we try to teach them how to initiate condom usage, and it’s difficult, especially for women, to introduce condoms. Most women say: ‘You know what? We feel like cannot introduce condoms to our partners, but we’ve got kids and we need to be there for our kids.’

“My favourite part [of the job] is those sessions … [where] we empower women to take a stand, because sometimes they feel so helpless. At the end of the day, it’s your decision whether you want to use a condom.”

llg/kn/he source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: IRIN

Police moonlight as criminals

HARARE,  – The demise of the all-but-worthless Zimbabwe dollar and its replacement with foreign currency is being mirrored by a rise in violent crime, perpetrated particularly by police officers.

Rampant inflation, unofficially estimated at trillions of percent annually, saw the local currency withdrawn from circulation in April 2009 and officially replaced by foreign currencies, such as the South African rand, Botswana pula and US dollar.

A serving Zimbabwe National Army officer, who declined to be identified, told IRIN that junior soldiers and police officers were being driven to crime by desperation, as they suffered the same economic hardships as most of the population. However, unlike non-uniformed Zimbabweans – 94 percent of whom are thought to be unemployed – soldiers and police, like all public servants, enjoy a US$100 monthly wage.

“They have observed how senior security officers drive luxury cars, get free fuel for their multiple farms, and other benefits. Soldiers and police officers have no other skills which they can use to raise extra money – all they can do is to use guns, but when they get used to that lifestyle, they can easily become warlords,” the army officer said.

“From a security point of view, what this means is there are underground armies, which can even be a danger to national security because nobody knows how many there are, and how many weapons are in their hands,” he commented.

In late 2008, at the height of hyperinflation, soldiers embarked on a looting spree in the capital, Harare, over poor pay and non-payment. They were being paid in local currency, but maximum daily bank withdrawals were pegged at Z$500,000 (US$0.25). Soldiers also attacked Roadport, a regional bus station in Harare used by money changers, and robbed them of local and foreign currency.

Expensive goods

Political journalist Dumisani Muleya told IRIN that since the beginning of 2009, local newspapers have been awash with headlines like: “Four detectives face robbery charges”, and “Bank Heist: Two cops in court”, which illustrated the trend among security force personnel to resort to crime.

The dollarized economy has made goods and services more freely available, but at high prices, which was “causing some rogue elements within the security … [forces] to use armed robbery as a way of raising extra income … and that creates a climate of insecurity and instability,” he said.

The numerous wars fought in the region, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Mozambique, have made it easier for criminals to access weapons, as have the policies instituted by President Robert Mugabe’s government prior to the power-sharing deal that led to the formation of the unity government in February 2009.

Giles Mutsekwa of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who heads the home affairs ministry with a counterpart from ZANU-PF as part of the deal, told IRIN that rogue elements were using government-issue guns to commit armed robberies, but the government was “getting on top of the situation, and there is no need for the population or visitors to get worried”.

We believe that when all the guns are surrendered, then we will be able to manage and control the upsurge of armed robberies involving serving and ex-servicemen and -women

Handing out guns

During the violent 2008 presidential election period, guns were issued to government security personnel to intimidate people into voting for the ruling ZANU-PF.

“We have started a process to ensure that all guns that were issued are brought back, and that a completeinventory of the guns in the country is carried out. We believe that when all the guns are surrendered, then we will be able to manage and control the upsurge of armed robberies involving serving and ex-servicemen and -women.”

Mutsekwa said there were also concerns about National Youth Service graduates, a pro-ZANU-PF youth militia who received “national values” education and military training, which was believed to include firearms instruction.

“We long identified the potential danger posed by former members of the youth service to communities if they continue to be unemployed while living in abject poverty, and those are areas that we are also looking into as a security ministry.”

dd/go/he source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons

Is the health system equipped to handle mass male circumcision?

HARARE,  – Providing male circumcision as an HIV prevention measure in Zimbabwe’s state hospitals is off to a very slow start, and experts cite the country’s crippled health sector as the main reason for the delay.

Although about 140 circumcisions were successfully performed at four hospitals as part of a training exercise, health officials told IRIN/PlusNews the government was not yet ready to roll out the programme.

The money is there: Zimbabwe has received funding from donors for the male circumcision programme, which is being administered by Population Services International (PSI), a social marketing NGO.

But the health workers are not ready. Government intended implementing the initiative by August this year but has had to train more health personnel. “We don’t want any hiccups when we open the doors to the public; that is why we are proceeding with caution,” Dr Owen Mugurungi, National Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS coordinator in the ministry of health and child welfare, told IRIN/PlusNews.

“We want to make sure that when we make the announcement that rollout has begun, people can come and get quality service, and that nothing will go wrong. We want to make sure that we have adequate staff, and that they are also knowledgeable about how to conduct the operation safely.”

The government, working with AIDS service organizations, has embarked on an awareness campaign to educate people about the benefits of the procedure.

“We want men to understand that male circumcision is part of the prevention package, and that this procedure works with other aspects in our prevention campaigns, otherwise we will have a huge disaster on our hands if this is not carefully understood,” Mugurungi said.

Is the public health sector ready?

We don’t want any hiccups when we open the doors to the public; that is why we are proceeding with caution

Health minister Henry Madzorera said it would be some time before male circumcision was offered at all hospitals and clinics. “We want to do this in the same manner that was done with national antiretroviral therapy programme. It started at four hospitals in Harare [the capital] and Bulawayo [the second city] and then the programme was decentralized to smaller hospitals throughout the provinces.”

Zimbabwe’s public health facilities were starved of resources, drugs and equipment for years, but a health worker strike that began in November 2008 shut down health services completely for several months. The loss of qualified nurses and doctors would make it even more difficult to deliver the service.

“I am sure the ministry is aware of the scale of collapse in the public health sector … there is just no staff to do this kind of thing,” said Itai Rusike, director of the Community Working Group of Health (CWGH), a local NGO operating in 25 districts.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world – 15.6 percent, or at least 1.7 million people living with HIV, according to UNAIDS – and could not afford to delay introducing the new prevention method.

Rusike called on government to use communities already practising male circumcision to drive the process, so as to alleviate pressure on public hospitals. An estimated 10 percent of Zimbabwean men are circumcised for religious and traditional reasons.

“There are communities already doing male circumcision, such as the Muslims, and this could be a good entry point. The ministry can offer technical support and monitor to see that the exercise is done under the most hygiene standards,” Rusike suggested.

According to the only study on the acceptability of male circumcision, undertaken in Harare in 2000 by UNAIDS, at least 45 percent of respondents expressed a wish to be circumcised if the practice was “affordable, safe and was confirmed to reduce the risk of contracting HIV or sexually transmitted infections”.

st/kn/hesource.www.irinnews.org