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About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
Starting off the thread with a piece of good news:
It seems the plan is already being criticized in some places:
as not enough
including debt relief for corrupt regimes
involving no new money
being written off against aid pledges
writing off debt that was not being repaid anyway
oh and finally even the BBC pointed out that the whole deal would only involve 50 million pounds of British tax payers money (less than the cost of security for the Gleneagles summit) The commentator described this as hardly a sacrifice.
It is probably a start and any absolutely any consideration of Africa should be welcomed, but lets hope for more.
Thanks observer393,
Well that is very sad if it’s all an accounting exercise. I better read up more thoroghly on the agreement.
This was in another article i the Guardian:
But it also states:
And herein is the essence – the terms of trade. Massive agricultural subsidies in the EU and the US prevent the African farmers from exporting their products.
Many Africans were/are asking for a level playing field in trade: Access to EU and US markets: Real Free Trade without unfair subsidies. They see this as the only way to actually have real development.
Unfortunately there is no chance of them getting this, so Africa will remain reliant on the cycle of aid, debt, debt forgiveness, aid etc leading to no development, more wars, famine, disease.
Quite depressing really.
A phyric victory you mean.
Now just consider for one tiny second, who will benefit the most from all this lip flappin ????
Before you say anything, kindly check out the following ;
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1504698,00.html
UK arms sales to Africa reach £1 billion mark
Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday June 12, 2005
The Observer
British arms sales to Africa have risen to record levels over the last four years and have reached the £1 billion mark, The Observer can reveal.
Analysis of official figures shows annual weapons sales almost quadrupled between 1999 and 2004.
Campaigners and MPs called the increase ‘obscene’ and ‘unacceptable’ at a time when the government is putting so much political capital into relieving poverty in Africa.
Many exports approved by the Department of Trade and Industry involve selling arms to some of the most deprived states and to countries with poor human rights records.
Among the most controversial exports since 2000 discovered by The Observer are:
· More than £30 million of military equipment sold to Angola, including armoured vehicles and body armour.
· Export licences granted by the DTI last year to sell £3.6m of military equipment to Malawi, one of the least developed nations in the world.
· Licences for military exports granted to Eritrea, Ethiopia, Algeria, Sudan, Zambia, Uganda, Namibia and Somalia.
· Arms sales to South Africa that trebled last year to £114m, including components for combat aircraft, missiles and radar.
· UK arms sales to Nigeria up tenfold since 2000 to £53m, including armoured vehicles and large calibre artillery.
According to the DTI’s annual reports, specific licences for arms sales to Africa total more than £631m since 2000. But experts believe the true figure is closer to £1bn when the value of ‘open’ licences are taken into account. Such licences allow for smaller arms sales to take place with much less scrutiny from officials.
Paul Eavis, director of Saferworld, which campaigns for the control of the arms trade, said: ‘The government is to be congratulated on leading the charge on debt relief, but if it is serious about helping Africa develop as a continent, then it should think again about its arms sales policies towards these countries.’
Andrew George, Liberal Democratic spokesman on international development, said: ‘It would seem obscene that at a time when one arm of government is focusing on debt relief, behind the scenes another arm is boosting this unacceptable trade.’
In 2004 the global total spent on munitions rose above $1 trillion for the first time since the height of the Cold War. In contrast, the amount spent on aid over the same period was $78.6bn.
The DTI refused to comment on any of the arms export licences it had approved to Africa, on the ground that such transactions were subject to commercial confidentiality.
——————–
Considering this is just the U.K’s contribution, when you add Frances, Germany and of course the good old U.S. of A. share, tell us again how GOOD this deal will be for the citizens of Africa.
The debt relief deal is great news; yet there is a way, that many people have been fighting for, to provide much needed aid without costing tax payers: The Tobin Tax.
There are a number of campaigns to bring in the Tobin Tax which is basically a stamp duty on international currency speculation. It could raise billions and have the added benefit of ‘cooling’ fragile currencies at volatile times. In the UK, the concept has the support of the Lib-Dems and the Green party in England; SDLP in Scotland and Plaid cymru in Wales. The Tobin tax is being considered by the UN and the EU. The Canadadian parliament has passed a motion calling on the government to promote it internationally. Note that it was the late Paul Wellstone who was promoting the measure in the US
fact sheet here: http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/factsheet.htm
Is diary promoting allowed here?
This one (not mine) is a subject very close to my heart as well as being very well written and I would love it to get more attention before it slips away.
Motherhood ideology, individualism, and mothers in prison
perpetual Open Thread. Great for announcements and world news alerts. Thx for the link, that was a great diary.
bless you – something important and vital to take my mind off of…
On May 9th, Susanhu alerted the BooMan Tribune community to the Top 10 Ignored Stories according to the United Nations. Several members signed up to cover them here, but there are still some on the list that need volunteers. Here’s the link, if you would like to take one of the issues, please reply to this message so Susanhu can see it later. Thanks for your help!
I had been toying with the idea to take on the Sierra Leone bit, but thought others should have a chance – since I already did one on Somalia.
I’ll take the illicit drugs diary, anyone else want to volunteer to do a diary on one of the other stories? (ask, I say go for it on Sierra Leon)
Come on BooTribbers, we need three more!
I’ll try to come up with something for the ‘Environment and Health’ topic.
Awesome jorndorff, thanks for pitching in. Lookin’ forward to the diary.
Anyone else wanna take the Cameroon or Granada stories?
Has anyone heard from DuctapeFatwa lately? I’ve not seen him/her around since June 5, and Ductape is usually a fairly prolific poster.
Dove, we’ve all noticed DF’s absence, and were commenting on it an open thread the other night. Apparently his blog hasn’t been updated lately either; hopefully it’s just a vacation, and nothing more serious!
Does anyone know a good source for political demographics statistics? In particular, I want to know the racial, gender, and religious breakdown of the US by political affiliation.
I recall all sorts of stats like this floating by on one blog or another recently, but now I can’t find any.
A number of people have been killed by a group of murderers in and around Kampala. They do say that they are being sent to kill Baganda and Banyankole tribes. They don’t give a reason as to why they are doing so! They kill, torture, rape and rob. Could it be a political reason to why this is happening. They are driving saloon cars where by they stop and ask whoever is standing by the road that do you need a lift and if you accept then you are in for it.
Do you have any links to articles in local media (or any media – for that matter)?
Is there a “Hotlist” anywhere that I’m missing. Is there a quick way to see if people respond to one’s comments. If not consider this a suggestion. :]
plus sign (+) sign next to a diary title, that should automatically create a hotlist for you in the right margin below your main menu. It will tell you when there are new comments for the diaries listed. Hope that helps.
In the top corner of the page it lists ‘stuff’ under your login. One is “Your Comments” and lists them from most recent to oldest.
seen this yet from CNN? My mouth dropped when I read it, not so much because of the content, but because it was real reporting from a source that has been lacking for a long time.
First lines of the column:
That was a delightful piece of reporting!
You might enjoy this one:
For over eighteen years now, the Ugandan women have played an important role in the development of Uganda through several initiatives like children projects, orphanages and other societies as regards development in the economic and social welfare of the people in the communities they serve.
I am depicting a case study from the UWESO community organisation which has been lady by the First Lady of Uganda for the past years. (Lincoln Joel Nsubuga)
The Continued Success of a Women’s NGO: The Uganda Women’s Efforts to Save Orphans (UWESO)
After almost two decades of civil war in Uganda (1971 – late 1980s), the Ugandan economy and society were in ruins, poverty in the rural areas being particularly severe. Social services and infrastructure were dangerously depleted and rural health care, water supplies, sanitation, roads and telecommunications were inoperative.
The country’s recovery over the last decade has, however, been striking. The Government has restored law and order in most areas and has set in motion a wide-spread, decentralized democratization process. Rehabilitation of the economy has been made possible by effective government programmes underwritten by the donor community, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and by market-oriented structural adjustment policies. The achievement of annual GDP growth rates averaging 5% in real terms has been made possible by assistance from external donors, effective government programmes, a resurgent private sector and, most importantly, by private initiatives on the part of Ugandan civil society.
Of the multitudinous victims of civil strife, the saddest and the most vulnerable were the many orphans who had been left homeless, were mostly suffering from malnutrition and were exposed to disease, especially malaria, gastroenteritis, and tuberculosis. In the Ugandan context, orphans are children of less than 18 years of age who have lost one or (commonly) both parents, initially due to civil strife but increasingly because of the burgeoning Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic that now affects the entire country. In the latter case, the father usually dies first and is quickly followed by the mother, mostly due to malaria, which destroys body resistance. The orphans are doubly penalized because not only are they deprived and vulnerable, but the foster family that takes them in usually comes from the most vulnerable groups. The heads of the foster families are overwhelmingly female, i.e. surviving widows, elderly grandmothers, often a female teenager, aunts or cousins who themselves face serious labour constraints in terms of food production and farming, as well as inheritance problems and reduced purchasing power and creditworthiness – all of which reduce their food security, nutritional status and schooling. A recent study showed that the magnitude of the problem is large and likely to become greater. There are about 1.6 million orphans in Uganda, i.e. about 18% of the estimated 9 million children under 18 years of age, and these numbers are likely to grow to about 2 million by the year 2002. The traditional caring mechanisms of the extended rural African families are stretched to a maximum because one family out of every four is now looking after children that are not their own.
Support to this particularly vulnerable group is provided by UWESO, a national voluntary NGO that was founded by a group of Ugandan women in 1986 to address the orphan problem and is based on the mobilization of women volunteers in rural areas who are not paid and initially received no support. Membership now numbers about 10 000 women throughout the country, but, as of July 1998, UWESO still had a full-time staff of only about 25. The NGO operates outside of the government structure and administration and relies on voluntary efforts (in terms of time and resources) at the grass-roots level and on whatever external or domestic support that can be mobilized. UWESO began as a relief agency that distributed food and medicines in war-torn areas and gradually extended its activities to providing welfare assistance to needy orphans. An earlier activity was to sponsor the school fees of orphans attending primary school. Prior to 1994, UWESO’s activities were constrained by the small scale of its funding, i.e. membership fees, locally generated funds, individual contributions and limited bilateral grants. However, in 1995, the BSF.JP provided a major boost to the NGO by financing a UWESO Development Project (UDP). The grant of USD 1.45 million for the period up to July 1999 made it possible to build on the innovative and cost-effective action of volunteer members and to establish the first phase of a structured development project. The BSF.JP first of all strengthened the capacity of the small national secretariat through technical support, skills training and resources to create a proper financial control capability, basic transport and equipment. It subsequently funded investments and operational costs so that UWESO activities could be decentralized to branches at the district level and to support income-generating activities for targeted foster families and orphans. IFAD appointed UNOPS as the cooperating institution for administering and supervising the BSF.JP grant to UWESO.
With the help of the BSF.JP project, UWESO has evolved into a development organization with a small core of full-time professional staff and a strengthened management, fund-raising and implementation capacity. The organization’s approach has shifted to empowerment of foster families and, as reflected in the 1995 mission statement, it now seeks to improve the quality of life of needy orphans by empowering local communities to meet the social, moral and economic needs of this core of children in a sustainable way.
At the beneficiary level, the UDP has had a positive impact on foster families, as shown by household surveys undertaken during the interim evaluation and the Rapid Rural Appraisals (RRAs) undertaken in selected villages. The savings and credit services have been especially popular. The rural finance system and associated income-generating activities, effectively backed up by intensive training for beneficiaries in bookkeeping and business management, successfully introduced individual loans through groups. This involved some 1 875 persons, of whom 87% were women. In all, 4 000 loans were advanced, equivalent to a cumulative total of about USD 400 000 at prevailing interest rates. Overall loan recovery rates were about 90% and were lower only in the northern districts where there is still a degree of local insecurity. The savings and credit services helped boost the incomes of foster parents which meant that living conditions improved, small-scale businesses prospered and 10 000 children were kept in school. Since the majority of clients are widows, about half those children are likely to be orphans. Thanks to these services, UWESO members and clients are now introducing a regular savings habit.
Orphan sponsorships funded under the project have had a mixed impact, but the most successful innovation was the introduction of informal vocational training of orphans on the part of local artisans for one year. Practical skills training was provided by local artisans living near the families in order to meet neighbourhood needs such as bicycle and radio repairs, carpentry and tailoring, and the scheme was open to children as young as 12 years. Despite UWESO’s efforts, boys outnumbered girls in taking up such training because of the high dropout rate of girls from non-traditional trades. However, UDP sponsorships of primary school and formal vocational schools did not prove to be cost-effec-tive and had a limited impact. The support of such school sponsorships by UWESO reflects a residual relief orientation from the past rather than a new focus on empowerment and development.
The project has strengthened UWESO’s capacity as an institution through enhanced staff training based on a training needs assessment in management communication, financial control and computer skills. As a result, the preparation of annual workplans and budgets has been to professional standards, with timely reporting and no qualification of the annual audits.
Overall, the UWESO project has made it possible for the NGO to make the transition from one-off welfare-oriented operations for the benefit of single orphans to a development approach that targets all members of the foster families caring for the orphans. Operations have been decentralized to volunteer branches, which cover five of the country’s 45 districts. UWESO has gone from being a local welfare-oriented NGO to a diversified provider of services with emphasis on development and empowerment. In this respect, a major innovation pioneered by UWESO in Uganda’s rural areas has been the introduction of an effective rural savings and credit scheme. The NGO’s past advocacy of school places for orphans contributed to the Government’s decision to restart the Universal Primary Education Programme in January 1997, under which free education is provided for four children in every family and for all orphans thus making it unnecessary for civil groups such as UWESO to sponsor school places for orphans. UWESO’s learning culture, which stresses in-service training, and the adoption of promising ideas from external training institutions and lecturers, will foster the sustained growth of the NGO.
The internationally renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who visited Uganda at the invitation of IFAD and BSF in April 2000, produced a documentary on UWESO. It was shown at the 54th Cannes Film Festival in the Films Out of Competition category, and was Kiarostami’s first film outside his home country.
A second phase of UWESO was approved in August 2000 and the UWESO Development Programme is making a potent contribution to the overall advancement of Uganda, serving as a shining example for other African countries to emulate.
More information from this link;
http://www.ifad.org/bsf/projects/uweso.htm
I followed the link and read the full article. Have you been involved in the work of UWESO?
I don’t think he is involved in the UWRSo, this is my friend from Uganda. Have you read his diary and mine about him…I asked him to do a diary on Women of Uganda, but he posted it here instead of a diary.
Well I was not involved in UWESO but I was following their services and continued support to the orphans in Uganda.
Today is National Aboriginal Day here in Canada!
Is this a point to place site questions?
First the compliments–I love the way I get a drop-down menu when I hover over my personal page–I can jump to comments with a single click.
I also like being to set the recent diaries list past fifty.
But I haven’t figured out how to access diaries beyond the most recent 99.
Help???
Thanks.
chriscol, one way to access diaries further back than the most recent 99 is to click on the ‘diaries’ box at the top of the home page.
This will give you the ten most recent diaries – not just the titles but the short, above-the-fold, portion of each. At the bottom of this page you can click on the pointer to the next ten most recent diaries, and so on. A bit laborious, perhaps, but it’s the only way I know of going back in time past 99 unless you know the poster’s name or keywords of something specific you are looking for.
Selection of Newsie’s Entries:
OK so I am taking the advice that I should just read/discuss politics in an “echo chamber”. So I went over to Red State and read some of their recommended diaries, my horizons weren’t really broadened. Are there actually an intelligent right wing blogs (besides some voices on Anti-War.com)?
oops.. should not just read
She is taking her rape case to Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Article is here.
This is a follow-up to a diary by sparrowsong on 6/14/05.
Hey everyone! {waving frantically}
I got blocked from the BooTrib at work, if you can believe it. Some kind IT soul took pity on me and now I can get here again! YEE HAW! 😉
Thanks, Booman, for resetting my password so I could get in! I hope you’re all doing well – I’ve missed this place terribly!
Mindmouth, go right over to the Froggy Bottom cafe and say hi, this is new since you were here. did you get my message at DK..
DIANE!
I logged in here, said hello, and went and checked my comments at DK and saw your reply – I just posted back to you to tell you how good it was to see you there! I had no idea you had posted to me there until after I realized I could again log on to the Trib from work. It’s fate! 😉
The Froggy Bottom Cafe….okay, I’m headed on over.
Alas, I have to give back the work computer tomorrow — moving to a new job and all that. Since I don’t have my own computer, I may well be on hiatus / checking in only sporadically for a while until I can sort something out. Hopefully that won’t be for too long – -so Booman, please don’t delete my account!
I know the Israeli topic can get heating so I’ll just post this here instead of doing a diary about it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4625355.stm
attacking journalists and bystanders outside the court – shown live on BBC world today.
It is a real shame that it is only with the death of a westerner that the rather bizarrely named Israeli Defence Force even investigate anything. Who remembers the Palestinian youngster who had a clip emptied into her where even the murderers squad members spoke out against the killing? The result – an internal investigation revealing nothing wrong had been done. It is not surprising so many Palestinians turn to Hamas or volunteer to be human bombs.
that police has ordered the evacuation of the U.S. Capitol… It’s currently 6:33pm EDT 6/29/05.
Ok, I know most of us are focusing on O’Connor, but I foudn this Brooke Shield’s op-ed excellent, I suggest reading it.
I think all this Tom Cruise talk can actually be a good thing in that it may cause many of these issues to get more attention and provide more information on mental health concerns.
TOP TEN SURPRISES IN PRESIDENT BUSH’S PRIMETIME ADDRESS
10. Claimed he had plan to win war, then switched on the
bat signal.
9. Kept talking about how Scientology changed his life.
8. Ten minutes of policy, 20 minutes of Karaoke.
7. Imploring all Americans to support Joey McIntyre in
the next episode of “Dancing with the Stars.”
6. It was basically a 50-minute infomercial for new George
Bush grill.
5. Spent 15 minutes looking at himself in the monitor.
4. Most of speech was devoted to his fourth of July deviled
egg recipe.
3. Revealed he’ll soon be giving uncensored weekly addresses
on sirius satellite radio.
2. Midway through, he got engaged to Tom Cruise.
1. Finished up by asking if Kerry still wanted the gig.
From the June 29, 2005 show.
Selection of Newsie’s Entries:
Make sure to email Susanhu if you would like to join the blogroll for the CCR campaign to Denounce Torture. It looks like she is compiling names of individual bloggers in case you don’t have your own blog. Let’s grow that list! Tell your online friends.
Susan’s email and more info/downloads for the campaign can be found at the link.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2005-07-01T154615Z_01_N
01622019_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-SECURITY-GUANTANAMO-DC.XML
Article on Guantanamo Closing Down..
At least, there is a new post on his blog, dated for June 29. So, whew! We’ll have to point him to the ‘worry, worry, worry’ diary when he comes on here.
Plame “For Dummies”.
Juan Cole on group claiming responibility for London bombings: link
You know what’s funny about this? I suspect most people will agree with her. He’s such a goon.
UniC did an awesome morph animation between George W. Bush and Alfred E. Newman.
We’re approaching upwards of 1850 right Boo? I just saw 1823 over in bonddad’s diary. (hi greywing!)
I wrote a diary about Fox news a few days ago and how Fox news was explaining how:
Well it turns out Harrods is not owned by a regular person. It’s owner isMohamed Al-Fayed. That that mean that Harrod’s is a terrorist cell?
what a terribly written post!
A little diary pimping… And getting the word out!
You know what? I have read about 15 different stories from various papers in the USA and around the world BUT there is one part of the story that all of them seem to leave out of it. Something I have personal experience with concerning Sharm El-Sheik.
If you click on the link (don’t forget to watch the 20 second video there!) you might get an idea what I am talking about.
MFO Southcamp
Don’t you think this is a MAJOR EFFIN PART OF THE STORY?
I knew as soon as I started scrolling through one story after another that you would not find any of this reported.
Why would the MSM care that there are always American soldiers (and other countries too!) stationed in Sharm?
Is this a part of the story that might of interested you?
Do you really think that tourists were the “only” targets?
I know, I know… A lot of very wealthy Europpean, American, and Middle East OIL magnates go there often. It is a resort town for the extremely FILTHY RICH… But do any of you think that maybe, just maybe, Gambling Saudi princes and tourists were not the only targets?
According to the CIA factbook Niger not only has uranium, the also have “elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, and lion”.
Selected Entries:
In case you hadn’t seen it, here is my new Amazing Morphing ElePig logo:
Feel free to save and use.
Another is action. I have posted an eco-diary at kos, and was gonna post it here, but I can’t sit at this dam computer long enough to do all the html again….please look, and if you think, recommend.
Ho.
support this point !!!]
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