By Korir, Chief editor (API)

I dream of a black Prime Minister in Norway! I am imagining Norway getting a black man as Prime Minister and this is not impossible in the future. The truth is that the country would change dramatically to the unknown for the ethnic Norwegians who are used a soft style of rule and for the better for all groups living in the country. A new type where refugees, immigrant and ethnic Norwegians share power will electrify the country.

A black prime minister would suit Norway very well because Norwegians need to experience iron-handed type of rule. The Norwegian people are good and soft, but most of them very cunning when they get political positions.

The country is ruled by many, almost unschooled politicians, whose education is only primary school, because they are picked to positions due to party loyalty.

It is a fact, that many ministers in Norway are minister because their fathers or mothers were ministers years ago. And from the same party organization. Favouritism is at work at all time.

They say there is no tribalism and nepotism in Norway. I disagree.

Ethnic Norway has one tribe all right, but inside that one ethnic tribe are many dialects that you can call tribes or clans. Each dialectic person is loyal to those from his or her dialect region.

Talk of tribal belonging for instance. Go to a bar for a drink for instance, and you will find it tribalised by the type of beers sold. Each region that has its dialect has its own brand of beer and when ethnic Norwegians are in a bar they normally choose the brand from where they come from dialect-wise.

Talk of nepotism in the employment sector. Employment is sometimes finalised in bars and restaurants and in a verbal manner. You meet a person and while having a drink socially, by chance discus employment, if the person likes your roots, you may be asked to apply for a job even if one has not been advertised.

A new person joins you in employment where you work and if you ask how the person got the job, you will be told that the person is in to help for just a few weeks, reason – shortage of personnel for a short period. But if one watches closely, after the job is advertised, the person already there for the two or four-week period said to be helping is given the job – reason given, “the person knows the environment already. Thereafter the person is offered permanent employment. This is nepotism of the worst kind, because those who get the jobs this way are people known to people, who know some people, who end up being related to some people in high places, or married to someone in high place. What a way to escape direct nepotism!

The same countries that criticise African countries do the same, but in a hidden way, sometimes they call it civilised way where direct cash is not collected or that no favours are given in return.

A black prime minister would streamline this. If nepotism was to be the order of the day, with a black prime minister at the helm, at least it would be discovered easily and corrected. The ethnic Norwegians will have to learn new methods – open nepotism and tribalism, and as such become more open and understand the practice in other countries that are struggling to correct the situation so that nepotism and tribalism does not continue to be a burden to them.

Nowadays, Norway has many tribes from the rest of the world. Some are refugees, while some are immigrants. As the world continues to change, one day Norway will get a black prime minister and things will never be the same again. Norway needs fresh air – a high-handed type of rule, to help the ethnic Norwegians away out of conservatism.

End..

• By John Malino Lesiamito, Oslo-Norway

 Blame it on inequitable distribution of resources; which is proportionately equal to the voting blocks.

Kenya appears to be a bedrock for tribalism and nepotism. These two issues among others, may threaten to tear the Kenyan communities into disrepair if not cautiously addressed. I think Kenyans ought to look critically at the current situation under the new constitution dispensation, and confront these issues head-on, in order to avert a replica of 2007/2008 chaos.

I know that addressing tribalism and nepotism isn’t easy. However, in a country like Kenya where many ‘mindsets’ have been made to believe that-the most important thing in your life is your “State of origin”, it would therefore take a revolution to change the inherited colonial way of thinking, which was devised by the imperialists. The imperialists divided Kenya into arbitrary parts; now famously replicated as voting blocks.

With the 2012 general election drawing closer, both the montane hyenas and lacustrine hyenas from the so-called big voting blocks are sharpening their typical-political teeth and acting like saints under the deep skin of tribalism and nepotism. Isn’t it time for Kenyans to think twice by using the past to shape-up a better future? Well, time will tell, and the future may be harsher if we fail to root-out the deep-rooted tribalism and nepotism in our institutions; which in my opinion could be a time bomb on the waiting list.

Therefore, how can one best describe tribalism and nepotism? From a personal point of view, tribalism is a cocktailed-search for self-identification and belonging. Whereby, behaviors or attitudes are literally based on one being loyal to a tribe of its own or social group. It underlies strong possession of a cultural or ethnic attachment that separates a person as a member of a one group from members of another group. Whereas nepotism is the practice of favouritism or patronage bestowed when appointing relatives and friends to lucrative business or political positions discriminative for which an ‘outsider’ could be better off qualified. Moreover, failure to address tribalism and nepotism, the social and political stability of the multi-ethnic nation like Kenya, and the democracy itself may be hanging on a thin thread.

Many research that have been conducted before reveals that-if one continue doing or practicing the same things now and again, one continue getting the same results and I think that’s not what Kenyans are yoning for come 2012:we need a complete metanoia, and not anymore poetic show talks. It’s time for action, and the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki needs to leave a legacy behind when he retires from politics in 2012 on how tribalism and nepotism can be effectively dealt with henceforth.

I think a time has come when Kenyans have astronomical expectations, and that there is need to move away from the notion of suspicion we have of each other, and the phobia mania of ethnic domination: it is time to open up the country to the gates of equal distribution of resources. This is to say that-if things like water, electricity, education, jobs, health care, insecurity issues, food security and community housing would equally be addressed both by the central government and the county government, peace among communities like samburu, meru, pokot, rendille, borana, somalians and gabras would be realised faster than anticipated throughout the country.

For example, every year, when the KCSE results are released, many jubilated with undulations for the best performers. While on the contrary, a moment of sadness befell also those who did not perform well. The big margin witnessed in the exams performances throughout the country raises the question-why is it that the schools in down country from the big voting blocks perform better than the schools in the upcountry-marginalized areas mostly inhabited by the minority. This raises the eye-brows on how well are the resources distributed. Mostly, the best students go on to select lucrative courses in public Universities while the rest have to do with what is available. Some eventually choose to enroll in Kenyan middle level colleges. However; the best brains rarely study in the country. Well, no wonder up to date, no public university is yet thought to be constructed at Samburu county, Marsabit county and Turkana county.

If for example one conducts a snap interview with the best performers, it will in most cases reveal that a majority of the top brains rarely want to study in Kenya, let alone working in the country and are mostly from the so-called ‘the big voting blocks’. This means that the best students at Alliance, Starehe, and Mang’u amongst other schools have their eyes set on securing lucrative jobs abroad even in their tender years.

This presents a worrying problem for the country as its most promising youth have no intention of studying and working in the country under any circumstances. This is the first set of brain drain that is experienced. Yet, when the ambassadors from the western countries start lecturing to our politicians about corruption and the embezzlement of the free primary education; they are quite often met with a wanting inaction for those involved in the vice. PLO Lumumba, Kenyans expect decisive actions on corruption and not anymore lectures; poetic show talks.

Additionally, the second set of brain drain occurs right after graduation from our county’s private and public Universities. The best students then leave the country to seek for work opportunities abroad. It is estimated that nearly 35% of Kenyan University graduates now work overseas. The science and engineering graduates are the mostly hard hit. Since there are hardly any lucrative science and engineering careers in the country, a majority of them have to seek employment overseas. Even for the ones who remain behind, they end up working mostly in the financial industry in an area that they didn’t train for. This presents an internal brain drain.

However, the main cause of the country’s best and brightest brains shunning jobs in Kenya is because of the corruption, tribalism and nepotism involved in securing jobs. Simply put, your connections are the main determining factor in your career progression. To many bright youngsters therefore, all they are asking for is a merit based system that will see their talents recognized. How did we reach here, where are we heading and when will the miasma of tribalism and nepotism come to an end? That is my say, what is your say?

The writer is Lesiamito Malino John from Oslo, Norway and can be reached on e-mail: Lesiamito@gmail.com

SOMALIA: Cash transfers “a better aid option”

Photo: SCDO

Conflict, prolonged drought and a series of crop failures have precipitated a humanitarian crisis in Somalia (file photo)

NAIROBI, 30 June 2011 (IRIN) – As the drought in Somalia intensifies, with an estimated 2.85 million needing aid, more and more relief agencies are looking at the option of cash transfers, saying the system helps beneficiaries by giving them freedom of choice.

“Cash transfer programming is a very simple concept: give people money so they can buy what they need,” Sarah Bailey, a research officer with the Humanitarian Policy Group of the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI), told IRIN.

Cash transfers also stimulate local markets and support local producers, according to officials and beneficiaries. For cash transfer programmes to work, Bailey said, markets need to be working, “but markets are often stronger than we think”.

She said agencies therefore had to understand markets before deciding what assistance to provide, “and cash transfers are only appropriate when the market can absorb the cash injection and people can buy what they need”.

She said agencies should always choose the most appropriate type of assistance for each context: in some cases this would be cash; in others, food aid.

Insecurity

Across much of Somalia, conflict, prolonged drought and a series of crop failures have precipitated a humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Somalia Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), most of the 2.85 million Somalis needing aid are in the south-central region, representing 61 percent of the total population in crisis. But the area is largely under the control of Al-Shabab militias, and their perceived hostility to aid agencies means the delivery of food assistance is “extremely limited”.

“The 1.75 million people in crisis in the south include rural, urban and IDPs [internally displaced persons], an increase from 1.4 million in January,” FSNAU said in a statement on 28 June.

The spokesman for the UN Word Food Programme (WFP) in Nairobi, Peter Smerdon, told IRIN the agency’s operations remained suspended in the south-central areas of the country under the control of the opposition Al-Shabab. Somalia’s internationally-recognised transitional government’s authority extends to only parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Photo: ReliefWeb

Humanitarian snapshot (See larger version of map)

“WFP is providing food assistance [not just general food distributions, but also supplementary feeding, food for education, food for assets, school meals] for now but is exploring the possibility of using cash transfers or vouchers,” he said. “WFP is feeding one million Somalis, but under a new emergency operation starting on 1 July will aim to assist 2.65 million people.”

With security considerations affecting aid distributions, cash transfers present a viable alternative. In Somalia cash transfers are mostly through money transfer companies and sometimes via mobile phones.

Kate Churchill-Smith, programme and communications officer for international NGO Horn Relief, said cash transfers in Somalia, apart from being a flexible and dignified aid tool, also had other benefits.

“Somalia’s pastoralist population, for example, tends to carry a large debt burden,” she said. “If the aid community provides vulnerable Somalis with food aid, we are ignoring both their considerable debt repayment needs as well as their water needs. As a result, they may sell their food aid in the market to meet their obligations.”

However, Churchill-Smith said if cash were targeted at the most vulnerable households, “they will use a cash grant to meet their most basic and immediate needs – and this isn’t always just food”.

Horn Relief’s Sanag Emergency Response Project benefits more than 8,000 households (about 48,000 people), primarily in northeastern Sanag, Sool and Bari regions but also in the central region of Mudug. It also chairs the Cash-Based Response Working Group in Somalia and has, at the request of the Working Group and the Agriculture and Livelihoods Cluster for Somalia, developed guidelines on cash programming. The cluster has adopted the guidelines.

Advantages

Jawahir Hassan Ali, a mother of seven, told IRIN the food aid she used to receive from relief agencies had not been enough to feed her family and buy other essentials such as medicines and vegetables, much less send her children to school.

In February 2011, Ali’s family was included in a cash transfer programme run by Horn Relief in her home town of Baran, Sanag region. Before she started receiving cash, she sometimes had to sell some of her food, even though it was not enough.

“I had no choice; I could not even afford a piece of meat or one tomato,” Ali said. “Now with the cash I feel like a free woman. Sometimes I even buy shoes for my children, when I have saved enough.”

The cash transfer had made decision-making easier, she said, adding: “I can now decide what is important for my family.”

Inflation debate

Critics suggest injecting cash into an economy can generate inflation, although Churchill-Smith rejected the notion, saying the amount of cash handed out was small compared with the size of the local economy. “Evidence to date has consistently shown that cash transfers have no inflationary effect on local markets.”

She said many poor households depended on credit to survive, and small businesses unable to repay loans could not order goods or were forced to close. “Traders are then unable to pay off their debts, which is how the chain of credit travels to urban centres. Cash grants act as local cash injections and have been shown to have an extremely positive effect on the local economy.”

All aid assistance has the potential to affect markets. “Cash transfers can cause inflation and food aid can hurt producers by lowering prices,” said the ODI’s Bailey.

ah/js/mw source www.irinnews.org

SOUTH AFRICA: Still waiting for an anti-human trafficking law

Photo: International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Awareness-raising intensified ahead of the 2010 World Cup

JOHANNESBURG, 30 June 2011 (IRIN) – South Africa has been identified as a major human-trafficking destination for victims from within the country, the region and beyond, yet there is no legislation that specifically criminalises human trafficking and protects victims.

The country is a signatory to the 2000 UN protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons. In signing this document, also known as the Palermo Protocol, the government committed to adopting legislation to make human trafficking a criminal offence and began the process of drafting a law in 2003. However, the Prevention and Combating in Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Bill only reached parliament in March 2010 and there is no indication of when it will be passed.

The US State Department’s annual snapshot of human trafficking around the world, released on 27 June, described the lack of legislation that “fully defines trafficking, empowers police and prosecutors, and outlines provisions and allocates funding for victim care [as] the greatest hindrance to anti-trafficking efforts in South Africa”.

Until the TIP bill is finalized, police and prosecutors are using other laws that deal with sexual offences, employment-related offences, organized crime and kidnapping to deal with traffickers, but the penalties are often insufficient. Julayga Alfred, chairperson of the Western Cape Counter Trafficking Coalition and director of Annex, a local child rights NGO, also notes that the current laws are not always applicable.

“If its pure human trafficking, if, for example you were tricked [into a forced labour situation] and there was no kidnapping or rape, it becomes ‘You say, I say’, and very difficult to prosecute,” she told IRIN. “This is a business where you can’t be prosecuted, and it’s thriving.”

An unknown quantity

The actual extent to which human trafficking is flourishing in South Africa is unknown. “We really don’t know what the nature of the problem is, what kinds of trafficking we’re seeing… and without that it’s very difficult to write legislation,” Ingrid Palmary of the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told IRIN.

The US State Department report lists various forms of trafficking in the country including children being taken from rural to urban areas to work in the sex trade or as domestic workers, and young men from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe labouring for months on South African farms without pay, but the hidden nature of the crime and the absence of specific legislation means there are no national statistics on the number of people being trafficked in or out of the country.

Zoe Rohde of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, which is reviewing the TIP bill, attempted to compile statistics on human trafficking at the end of 2010 but received conflicting figures from different government departments.

“Between the SAPS [South African Police Service], Department of Justice and the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority], they all had different statistics,” she said, adding that some victims, especially those trafficked within the country, are not handled by any government department.

IOM assisted 338 trafficking victims between 2004 and 2010, but according to the State Department report, as of March 2011 the NPA had initiated just 22 human trafficking prosecutions, and in 2010 there were just nine convictions, with all the offenders receiving suspended sentences or fines.

There are many other cases that we just can’t prove are trafficking. People are getting away with it because it’s not seen as an offence by the community at large

“There are many other cases that we just can’t prove are trafficking,” admitted Bonnie Currie, who heads the NPA’s recently established Human Trafficking Rapid Response Team in Western Cape Province, where 15 cases are on the court roll. “People are getting away with it because it’s not seen as an offence by the community at large.”

Media reports have contributed to the widespread misperception that human trafficking only applies to women and children who have been taken by force from one country to another for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

The lengthy definition of human trafficking used in the TIP bill, which is drawn from the Palermo Protocol, includes fraud, deception and other forms of coercion as the means by which a trafficker may gain control over a victim, who may then be trafficked for the purpose of forced labour or servitude, not only sexual exploitation.

In South Africa, trafficking occurs not only across its borders but from rural to urban areas and the victims include men.

A government-commissioned study, conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council and published in 2010, was meant to fill in some of the gaps and inform the drafting of anti-trafficking legislation, but failed to provide hard data.

“We were very disappointed by it,” said Palmary. “That was our one opportunity to figure out what trafficking is [taking place].”

Hype or reality?

In the absence of official statistics, the nature and extent of human trafficking in South Africa remains contentious. During the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, government and NGOs launched various public awareness campaigns warning of a likely spike in trafficking activity while the month-long event was taking place.

When no human trafficking cases were detected, a number of commentators complained that the threat had been exaggerated and that resources could have been better spent on tackling the many other serious crimes besetting the country.

Alfred of the Counter Trafficking Coalition agreed that there had been a certain amount of “hype” rather than substantive evidence, but insisted that human trafficking was taking place in South Africa every day, and that the awareness-raising ahead of the World Cup had been valuable.

During that period, the national human trafficking hotline run by Alfred’s organization was receiving around 500 calls per month. “Now we’re finding the calls have dwindled to about 250 a month, not because cases are down, but because awareness-raising is not as intense,” she said.

Victim protection weak

A human trafficking law would give police and the NPA a better tool for prosecuting offenders, but is unlikely to halt this lucrative trade. The experience of Mozambique and Zambia, which both passed counter-trafficking laws in 2008, suggests that legislation can improve prosecution rates while doing little to help victims.

The State Department report points out that Mozambique has not taken the necessary steps to implement the protection and prevention provisions of its anti-trafficking law, and that Zambia’s protection for victims is also weak.

The South African government does not provide any funding for the care and accommodation of trafficking victims. “Victims have a variety of needs and there’s a severe gap,” Rohde of IOM confirmed. Poor screening by the police leads to some victims without documentation being arrested and deported.

The TIP bill prohibits the deportation of foreign trafficking victims and even provides for paying them compensation, but Rohde said implementation will depend on training for civil servants and political will.

IOM has held training sessions for officials from various government departments on how to identify and assist trafficking victims, and Alfred noted that several departments were drafting regulations in anticipation of the bill being enacted.

“There’s an indication that they really want to implement,” she said. “But only when the legislation is passed can they finalize the training and compel departments to do it.”

ks/he  source www.irinnews

KENYA: Tackling aflatoxin – if the price is right

Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

Aflatoxin is not always obvious, and maize that looks normal could actually be infested with high levels of the fungus (file photo)

NAIROBI, 30 June 2011 (IRIN) – A treatment that could control a deadly fungus, aflatoxin, from infecting maize is being tested in Kenya in a project donors hope will result in a commercially viable product with regional application, officials say.

However, farmers expected to buy and use the bio-control agent, known as Aflasafe, want financial incentives to rid the market of what is often an invisible attacker.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that literally billions of people in the developing world are chronically exposed to aflatoxin, which causes cancer, suppresses the immune system, retards growth and causes liver disease as well as death in both humans and animals, according to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a partner in the 18-month project.

Aflatoxin is not always obvious, and maize that looks normal could actually be infested with high levels of the fungus, which thrives under poor storage conditions.

Testing will focus on creating a locally successful hybrid of fungi, which, when applied to crops in the field, “crowd out” the toxins. Scientists expect to know by December 2012 which combination is best for Kenya, which has a particularly virulent strain found nowhere else in Africa.

But the project also needs to answer some key questions about how to market aflasafe.

“Can the farmer afford it? Can she see a return on investment? We need a mechanism by which she can recognize value,” said Prem Warrior of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is providing the project’s $1.2 million budget.

Cost

For farmers, the question of affordability and added value is central, and could determine whether or not they use the product, no matter how effective it is.

There is currently no quote for the cost of Aflasafe, since no one is producing it at scale, Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, a principal investigator with IITA, told IRIN.

However, Bandyopadhyay estimated it would cost a farmer US$10-12 per hectare. The average farm in Kenya is just less than 2.5 hectares, according to Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture firm.

Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

If farmers do not get higher prices for treated crops, some may not be willing to pay out of pocket for Aflasafe (file photo)

Steve Collins, chief of party for the Kenya Maize Development Project, said Kenyan commercial farmers could afford to pay but small-scale farmers would require subsidies to get started.

Wilson Songa, the permanent secretary in Kenya’s Agriculture Ministry, said there needs to be a plan to take Aflasafe from a handout to something farmers can buy on their own.

He said the Aflasafe project would immediately “touch the lives” of the 46 percent of Kenyans who live in poverty. “Some of the farmers are too poor to buy the product,” said Songa. “We will ensure that the product gets to them free of charge initially.”

Songa said 450 trainers would be sent out to provide education and information to farmers.

“We needed a project like this yesterday,” said Songa. “The whole region is waiting.”

The Ministry of Agriculture also promised to buy up 2.3 million infected bags of maize last year, but did not, saying it did not have the funds. It is unclear where it will find the money to pay farmers to start using Aflasafe.

If farmers do not get higher prices for treated crops, some may not be willing to pay out of pocket for Aflasafe.

“The farmers take on the cost and yet they don’t always benefit in terms of market price,” said Paula Bramel, IITA’s deputy director.

Better yields

“We have been going out and talking to farmers to see what they’d be willing to spend,” said Collins, whose organization surveyed 2,300 farming families in eastern and western Kenya. “They would be prepared to pay if they could get a better price.”

Collins said there was a good chance they could do so because protecting maize from aflatoxin also results in a better product, less likely to be rejected by traders.

Fungus-free crops will also yield more grain. Collins said yield per unit could be doubled, tripled, or maybe even quadrupled.

Paula Bramel, IITA’s deputy director, said there is currently no low-cost testing method in Kenya, and the government does not regularly test maize for aflatoxins. For the 70 percent of farmers in Kenya who trade informally, even government testing might provide little incentive to pay out of pocket for Aflasafe.

“The only way it will get to scale is if famers have a direct financial incentive,” said Kola Masha, the managing director at Doreo Partners, a venture capital and consultancy firm tasked with developing a commercial strategy for Aflasafe.

Regulating the market is key for this to succeed, he said, because it is the only way farmers would be able to profit from compliance. The only other way to create incentive is to turn Aflasafe into a product that also increases yield, for example by bundling it with fertilizer, he said.

Masha said a “very aggressive outreach programme” would be the final step in ensuring farmers grow and consumers demand aflatoxin-free crops.

Farmer Henry Zoka and his wife Patricia Maitha grow maize, beans, kale, and other crops on their farm 50km west of Nairobi. They are not sure if their maize has ever been infected with aflatoxin.

Zoka said the decision about whether or not to buy Aflasafe “would depend on the cost.” He said he would spend 1,000 shillings ($11.4) a season on the treatment. “We feel if we could get assistance it would be better.”

But Aflasafe alone might not even be enough to combat the deadly fungus.

“There’s no silver bullet in terms of a solution,” said Collins. “That’s why you have to take a holistic approach.”

Education, training, and communication about correct farming and storage practices are just as important as bio-control agents like Aflasafe, he said.

jb/js/cb source www.irinnews.org