Lauren with chimps

I hope someone will be interested in this....

On Sunday, I am heading to Bend, Oregon to intern at Chimps Inc. It is a sanctuary for eight chimpanzees who were abused in the entertainment industry. While there, I will be playing with the chimps and making their environment enjoyable. Also, I will research captive breeding and how it influences reproductive activities and mental health of the apes.
You can follow my days at laurenwithchimps.blogspot.com.


Whether you "believe" that chimps are our relatives or not, although there is scientific evidence to prove this, they should be treated with kindness---not be forced to perform for humans. This sanctuary helps chimps who have been put under this horrible psychological and physical constraint. And also, looks for ways to help wild chimps that are threatened daily by logging, agroforestry, development, bush meat hunters, illegal international trade, etc.

Thanks for reading and please, feel free to leave comments/questions on my blog...and I will do my best to answer them!

Cheers!

A long long time ago in a far away place called Ghana there was only one TV station. It was the centre of all the entertainment scene in Ghana. All who had TV watched it and those who had no TV stood behind peoples dirty unwashed window sieves to watch it.

TV transmission started at 5pm on weekdays and ended at somewhere midnight when the Saturday movie ended. On weekends transmission started at 8 ended around noon (probably for the engineers at GBC to break for a bowl of afternoon fufu) and resumed at 4pm.

Transmission began with an announcer in a neat Ghana kaba or cloth outlining the program for the day. Sometimes if you were lucky you would witness someone hand over something to the announcer or even try saying something despite the fact that transmission is live. It was a ‘’real’’ reality show.. On such warm weekend mornings, GBC began their shows with a cartoon –which usually was ‘’GForce’’-. You watched it whether you liked it or not. It was the same thing every morning. Usually GBC never completed it and they repeated the same episode over and over every morning. Anyway since we had no option we all watched it and did what kids do.

Also on the menu were other good children programs.Something we don’t have now with the current long hours of transmission and lots of TV stations on the airwaves. In those days we had Hobby Time on weekdays (Tuesdays I think). On hobby time I learnt a lot of do it your self stuff like painting, making X’mas decorations and simple musical instruments.

On Mondays there was Tina Moses and her nice and impeccable English. Not slanging but still nice to listen to (even if one only understood half of what she was saying)

Other days Uncle George with his exuberant and animated shouts of Kyekyekule (at which point hundreds of Ghanaian children wherever they were responded with ‘’kyekyeekofinsa yeeaahhhh’’) was on TV. At least though the period of transmission was short there were programs for children everyday- made for Ghanaians by Ghanaians and we enjoyed it.

Now roll forward 10 years on and the situation is different. All the time slots on TV is now commercialised. Musicians pay TV stations to show their music. Most of the time, children are forced to watch some gospel musician who is not going to sell any album except what was sold at church during the launch of the album.

After the payoola musicians come a series of dubbed mexican soaps -morning ,noon and night. I have no problem with soaps and paying musicians who are trying to earn a living. But children at a certain age require a different sort of entertainment. Programs to make them dream, use their imagination or watch other school kids on kyekyekule. At the age of 7 or 8 what a mexican playboy on TV –say Lucio says to his girlfriends mothers sister holds no interest to a child whatsoever.

What sort of children do we want to raise up in Ghana? We might not feel the effects now, maybe 10 years from now when the current 7 year olds turn 17 and begin singing gospel; or become Ghanaian mexicans then we would have start to do something.

As usual being Ghanaians, it would be all talk and no action. So you know what, if you cant afford Multichoice just look for the biggest knob on the TV and press it. If you cant find the knob pull the plug from the socket, get a book for your child and have fun!

Yours Nii Ayi

In Support of the Pope's Abstinence Stance

The Catholic Church is unwilling to promote condom use among its followers.

By: Eche Sica

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa a few months ago, he unequivocally announced his abhorrence for contraceptives. This was scarcely-surprising considering the late affable John Paul II’s, insistence on abstinence as a preferred method in the fight against HIV/AIDS. But the backlash that followed was hardly predictable as more than a few talking heads wasted no words in denouncing the Pontiff’s utterances.

To begin with, many are willing to forget that one of the most widely accepted anti-HIV campaign messages is the ABC strategy. It is a fact that this strategy has the blessings of many governments, experts, and the United Nations. As we can see, condoms are actually the third, NOT first, in the ‘ABC’ pecking order.

To be sure, the ABC strategy advocates that one should Abstain first, remain Faithful to their partners, and, lastly, use Condoms. Having said that, I’m not unaware of emerging debates within the corridors of reproductive health about the efficacy/ineffectiveness of this strategy, but, to date, no one has proposed a better modus operandi.

Janet Fleischman (who consulted for UNAIDS) went further to suggest a DEF strategy with, D standing for "disclosure, "E" lack of access to education, and F for female-controlled prevention methods. While Fleischman and the UN should be applauded for continuous efforts in HIV prevention, this addition/alternative, ‘DEF’ does not completely abolish abstinence as the primary means of prevention.

Shouldn’t our efforts be focused on the first option—Abstinence—since it has been recognized by all as the surest or most potent way of preventing HIV/AIDS?

Let me give some support to this position. If the proposition is that the Vatican’s doctrine increases infection, then one would expect to see higher rates in highly populated Catholic areas. Well, the statistics indicate that the opposite is quite true.

Consider this: Of the top ten nations where AIDS is prevalent in Africa, only Lesotho can be considered a largely Catholic populated nation. Equatorial Guinea which has one the largest Catholic population in Africa (93.52%) belongs to the low infection rate categories (3.4%).

Available statistics indicate that Angola, another predominantly Catholic nation, has an infection rate of 2.1%--one of the lowest on the continent. The same goes for other Catholic Countries such as Burundi. Even in Ghana where Catholics make up 33% of some regional populations, the infection rate stands at a mere 3.1%.

However, countries with low Catholic populations such as Botswana and Swaziland have some of the highest infection rates, i.e. 23.9% and 26.1% respectively (see CIA World Fact book). If we’re going to go berserk and call the Pope names because he wouldn’t condone our indulgences, we should at least be honest enough to tell people the hard facts.

Clearly, the prevailing idea that Catholicism is the reason why AIDS cases continue to rise falls flat and should be treated as nothing, but an anti-Catholic propaganda.

According to a report in the Washington Post, certain states in the US have shown that abstinence messages were “more likely to persuade black junior high school students to put off initiating sex…” We are also aware of the effectiveness of abstinence messages in reducing the HIV rates in countries like Uganda. So the issue of condemning fidelity as unrealistic is really moot.

After all, let’s imagine—it’s not going to happen, though—just for a second that the Vatican renounces its stance on condoms (say) tomorrow. Does that mean we’re going to see an automatic reduction in AIDS figures?

There will be some people out there who will want to go it ‘raw’ no matter what. As they like to say “Why eat Banana with the peals on”. Are we going to blame this too on the Papacy? I believe that sex is one of the most private, if not enticing of all human feelings; so I refuse to be judgmental. But to be honest, the real reason behind this whole circus is because we ignore one of the most basic rules for any HIV prevention campaign: self control. This is a disservice to the millennial generation.

With that said, the Holy See should be congratulated for at least taking an emphatic stand on such a controversial issue. The rage against Benedict XVI must have faded by now. So let’s all get our breath back and agree that since sex is a precious thing it should be enjoyed in the best way-under the best circumstances-with the best consequences.

A better democracy for Ghana

Ghana’s electoral politics is the poster child of democratic reform in Africa.

By:Gideon-Nii Ayi

There is a chasm between the ruled and rulers in Ghana and in most of Africa. Democracy as I understand it should be that the power to rule a nation is derived from the people. Others might give reference to the power of the thumb.

We vote and even in the recent elections we showed who has overall power by kicking the NPP out. Yes in terms of voting we still do have the power. But voting for your leaders is a very minute and only an initial part of the whole deal called democracy.

As we forever continue to hear, democracy is the peoples rule. This means we the people should continue to dictate the affairs of the state. We should set the general agenda of the day, -the broad outlook which defines Ghana as Ghana. The little details of running the affairs should be left to the government and the civil servants.

Very often Ghanaians sit back and through their hands in exasperation saying ‘’Why can’t we do this’’ ‘’This is common sense’’ ‘’We should sack that public official ..’’ and we wonder why the government of the day won’t just follow common sense in ruling Ghana.

Well – there is a big space between the voters and the voted. It is called 4 years. We wait till every 4 years before we show our disapproval. At most we leave the airwaves to some few social commentators to make some noise and complain to our wives/girlfriends/boyfriends and whoever is sorry enough to listen to our chatters. We do nothing more.

But how should it be. This 4 years space that we have of what use can it be? As that old blues song goes -I don’t know much about history, don’t know much trigonometry’’ and I also say I know not much about political science- but at least this I do know- I have never met my Member of Parliament before (although he stays some few houses from me!)- neither do a lot of Ghanaians know how to channel their grievances to their MP. In Ghana people approach their MP when they need financial favours-(or placement in an educational institutions for their kids), any other problem and we wait till Sunday church service and give it to Nyame-God- to solve for us- when we asked this same Nyame to give us an MP (and a President), in the same church one fine December Sunday morning. God must surely be puzzled and asking --- so why request for a President then?-

We should be able to influence public policy and not leave it to only some NGO’s and some few parliamentarians to run the show for us. Talking to the MP’s may be one and yet effective method.

Holding public officials accountable for their actions is another but can the everyday person in the street go about enforcing this? It is beyond one person and certainly more than a thousand to effectively control the state of Ghana as it is now, So what is to be done? To be continued

Kenyatta's stance on nature

I thought this would be a nice addition to the blog.
It's from the Kansas City Zoo's Africa exhibit.

Politics influence nature and nature influences politics.

Like Kenyatta says, let's keep nature beautiful.

God is not a politician

By: Edward Amartey-Tagoe, Accra, Ghana.

People have ended up in deep trouble for attempting to broadcast their religious faith in areas where such acts are prohibited. One of such people is Ghanaian Daniel Baidoo who was sentenced to 25 years imprison, in Lybia, for preaching Christianity.

Another instance happened in Afghanistan not too far from Al-Quadafi’s territories. Some American soldiers distributed Bibles printed in Pashto and Dari languages—all Afghanistan’s main languages. Their great commission acts, however, have landed them in trouble—thanks to Aljazeera, Brian Hughes and the Law.

The main point I want to highlight in this post is not about the motives behind the propagation of the Christian religion in both cases. My argument is rather centered on whether or not it is right to do something that may seem right to an individual although it is well known that such an activity is illegal within the province of practice? There is no single doubt that the propagators of the acts—considered criminal—in these scenarios were very much aware of the consequences.

By kind courtesy of the Vice-President Mahama of Ghana, Mr. Baidoo was granted some sort of clemency after he had served seven out of his twenty-five-year sentence. The act may be right, but the place made the act wrong. This is what some staunch followers of Christianity refuse to comprehend. The General Order Number One is a military regulation that expressly forbids “proselytizing of any religion, faith or practice” especially in a predominantly Islamic territory such as Afghanistan.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff cleared the air by saying “from the United States' military's perspective, it is not our position to ever push any specific kind of religion, period,” That aside, it is even a more serious crime according to the Afghan constitution to propagate any other religion aside Islam. Such a crime is punishable by a death sentence (I guess Daniel was lucky in Lybia then...)


The propagation of the Christian religion in some places has ended some people, usually staunch adherent of Christianity, in trouble. Are there any lessons believers of any faith can take at least from these two instances? I am pretty sure there must be a thousand. I stand to be corrected, but one very intriguing observation I have made is that Muslims are hardly caught up in this trap. Does it mean they are more disciplined than their Christian counterparts are? Also, are Christians more tolerant than Christians, given what has happened?

To a few these issues about Christians breaking the rules to ensure the spread of the Good News might be a debatable one, I personally do not share such opinions though. Nobody is above the very laws that have been made to ensure our existence. I believe the best way to show make-up of one’s religion is to show the discipline that makes up a religion. Breaking the rules to spread one’s faith is not the trick. The spread of a religion I believe can be through other creative mean such as living staying within the legal boundaries set for all.

My closing arguments concern the sort of treatment these ‘criminals’ are to face. Was the clemency really needed for the Ghanaian fellow? Should the same forgiveness be extended to the offender in Afghanistan? Not the likeliest of options, I must admit. In a situation where the crime is not the propagation of Christianity but rather drug trafficking, would a pardon be appropriate?

The law is the law and that is what guides human institutions to run effectively, lest we become savages. I believe the powers that be need not encourage any sort of crime in any form. Believers of various religions should stay within the confines of their faith and be very cautious when they are extending such faith to someone else because God is not a politician.

Zuma steps into the cauldron

Africa’s rainbow nation heads into a new era with the election of Jacob Zuma as the third president in the post apartheid era

By: Rejoice Ngwenya, Johannesburg, South Africa.

South African President-elect Jacob Zuma assumes political power on Saturday, 9 May 2009 riding on a sixty-five percent-but-less-than-two-thirds majority mandate. Shortly after the pomp and ceremony, his life at the helm begins in earnest in a fiery cauldron of popular expectations.

The majority of South African voters may have snubbed the rival Congress of the People [COPE] with a distant third place position and a seven per cent share of the political cake, yet this will hardly exonerate Zuma. More importantly, Helen Zille’s Democratic Alliance [DA] will colonise 67 seats after increasing its voters by over one million, giving her more leverage to fan the flames of legitimate dissent whilst gnawing at the power base of the larger-than-life African National Congress [ANC].

Most South Africans interviewed say they voted for Zuma’s ANC because the party still has a greater propensity to fulfil electoral promises. Yet despite the gains made in his Kwazulu-Natal home ground, the general whittling of votes from that party reflects an incremental bewilderment with an ANC establishment struggling to keep citizens pacified. A sweeping assumption here is that the Zuma courtroom drama took its toll on the party’s reputation. Some argue that his unclear ideological positioning that inconsistently swings from right to left made it easier for the non committal party faithful to switch sides. Others though, maintain that ANC radicals Julius Malema, Blade Nzimande and Zwelibanzi Vavi put off prospective sympathisers with their leftist dogma. Moreover, the DA “Stop Zuma” lobby is said to have been one of the sleekest electoral campaign by a Southern African opposition party. In its own sinister way, the ‘misfortune’ that befell ANC’s electoral juggernaut is a blessing in disguise for African democracy that can only thrive with multiple parties.

When Zuma gets to his office on May 11 2009, he will be confronted with a folder of unfinished business relating to the South Africa Municipal Workers Union driver strike for higher wages. Moreover, feminist advocacy group, Gender Links, has fired salvos on dissatisfaction with ANC’s gender policies, threatening to put Zuma’s polygamous exploits under further constitutional scrutiny. More answers will be required on crime, homelessness and a system that is gobbling up three hundred million Rands in unemployment benefits while the tide of HIV and AIDS infections is showing no signs of receding. Further down the line, it will be interesting how his government will finance a health and education system that is starved of qualified professionals.

On the regional front, Zuma has to contend with despatching restive arch-rival Thabo Mbeki to manage an increasingly fractious inclusive political arrangement across the border in Zimbabwe. Zuma has always argued that his party’s ‘quite diplomacy’ failed to reign on Robert Mugabe’s political excesses, but with signals showing a possible conclusion towards regional integration under the Common Market for East and Southern Africa [COMESA] framework, Zuma is unlikely to want to antagonise his regional partners. The Southern African Development Community - Council for Non Governmental Organisations [SADC-CNGO] recently made an assessment that the other thirteen members in SADC are uneasy with South Africa’s brand of exported economic and cultural imperialism. However, in the face of a vicious global recession and a declining market of hard goods in South Africa, Zuma is well-advised to keep his regional colleagues accommodating rather than defensive. In any case, balancing the demands for free trade, insulating industry from a crippling influx of cheap goods from China and resisting protectionist tendencies will take more than chanting liberation war songs!

Yet the question still lingers: will Africa ever embrace Jacob Zuma as much as they pampered the ego of Nelson Mandela and stroked the intellectual prowess of Thabo Mbeki? After all, these erstwhile Zuma predecessors can claim to have done what he can only dream of – iconic symbolism of the struggle against Apartheid, receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize and also being credited with the African Renaissance as part of the New Partnership for African Development [NEPAD]. The answer is: unlikely.

My submission is that Africa South of the Sahara is exasperated with ex-revolutionary political domination by the likes of ANC [South Africa], ZANU-PF [Zimbabwe], BDP [Botswana], Frelimo [Mozambique], CCM [Tanzania], SWAPO [Namibia] or KANU [Kenya]. Uganda, DRC, Rwanda, Lesotho, Swaziland and Angola all have ruling parties that have strong ties with the ‘revolutionary’ past. At a time when enlightened Africa was hoping that Zuma’s ANC would for the first time in a decade, share real political power, the echoes of domination still inundate the subcontinent. What this means is, according to members of civil society organisations, both the AU and SADC will keep shifting towards clumsy elitism that protects the interests of ‘old boys’. Developments in Madagascar and Zimbabwe reflect a desperate desire for political transformation outside the well-trodden paradigm of post-colonial hangover.

But then political miracles have been known to happen. For a long time, ANC’s pre-independence swan song was leftist pro-socialist rhetoric borrowed from liberation ties with the Soviet Union. However, when Nelson Mandela stepped out of Robben Island, his brand of inclusive government and racial tolerance gave birth to a new term – the rainbow nation. This is a system that even allowed an eccentric ‘tribe’ of Boer fanatics to establish Orania, their own ‘homeland’ in South Africa, unthinkable even by Mugabe’s primitive standards. Before long, multi-national corporations were laying siege to South Africa’s stock as free markets reigned supreme. Although the populist element in the Communist Party and Congress of SA Trade Unions [COSATU] rang alarm bells on increasing poverty and crime levels, both Mandela and his successor Mbeki stuck to the pro-liberal agenda. By introducing high-sounding terms like BEE [black economic empowerment] and RDP [Reconstruction Development Program], the ANC sought to narrow the gap of poverty. What we do not know is how much Jacob Zuma, even as vice-President contributed to South Africa’s intelligence of economic resurgence and global competitiveness.

But what we know is he has been portrayed as a not-so-educated, conservative but vocal adventurer who claims morsels of royal blood in his tribal veins. The Zulu traditional governance system is identified more with hereditary patriarchal chieftainship and military aggression than participatory tolerance. Therefore, whether or not Zuma will depart from this stereotype and tolerate effective opposition from COPE and DA or simply get Africa to pay more attention to him, time will tell.


Rejoice Ngwenya is President of Zimbabwean think tank Coalition for Liberal Market Solutions and an affiliate of www.AfricanLiberty.org

Can governments ensure affordable and secure tenure?

Franklin Cudjoe: Kenyan Lawyer, Charles Khmala seems to think that the proper role of government in society should not only be protecting our lives and property, but guaranteeing freedom from homelessness. Charles quarrels with free “liberal” market type determination of rental values even in slums and well-built up middle class environments.

But it seems the recent spate of clashes over land and forced evictions of squatters has deep roots in the post independent government’s blanket cheque, in the name of “African Socialism” to all to usurp private property. You’d probably be interested in this age-old economic war over property.

By Charles Khamala

Historically, the Kenya government’s raison d’être justifying evictions from road reserves, railway lines, forests and power way is that people living near these public utilities are vulnerable to all sorts of danger. Yet failure to provide any low-cost housing causes encroachment upon unoccupied land, including public utilities.

By 2005, according to UN-Habitat, 2 million poor people comprising 55% of Nairobi’s total population crowded into 199 informal settlements, half the city’s total land surface. Curiously, rent control is ineffective in protecting temporary structures from illegal distress or forced eviction.

It is necessary to evaluate whether the approach in the proposed 2007 Kenyan Draft Land National Policy, of providing affordable and secure housing indirectly through democratic community structures which recognize customary land rights rather than directly through judicial enforcement of rent restriction legislation, fulfils the country’s international obligations.

Article 25 of the Declaration of Human Rights recognizes “everyone’s right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family including.... housing and the necessary social services and the right to social security even in the event of...lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” Represented in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights the right to an adequate standard of living entails that “state parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of the right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.” Adequate housing means more than a roof over one’s head. It also includes secure tenure and basic facilities all of which must be affordable. Hence the right to housing is a derivative of the right to health and in turn, life. It is a survival right which the state is obligated to secure through free but sensible economic and political maneuvering.

Individual land titles were granted by law over collective ownership, essentially because collective ownership resulted in careless attitude for property. It is possible that the usurpation of aboriginal lands by the colonial master contributed to landlessness in colonial Kenya. The result was a large swathe of homeless people who squat on state and private property. As a result, landlord’s powers to remove trespassers were only curtailed using rent restriction, introduced to prevent tenants from becoming homeless amid looming urban housing shortages during war times.

Although the independence struggle was waged for land and freedom, our settlement retained capitalist private property rights, which seemed applicable to only politicians in power who understood the cravings and fruits of private property, but masked their desire with African collective ownership of property. Proclaiming African socialism, as the right to an adequate standard of living was the primary social right, consequently, it became democratically unreasonable to utilize criminal trespass law to prosecute people for encroachment on private, and state land.

To solve the menacing squatter settlements, Kenya’s 2004 National Housing Policy adopts World Bank “slum upgrading” and “sites and services”, a semblance of measures introduced in the last century to contain the squatter scenario administratively. The measures may well mean that residents are subjected to real estate free market shock therapy even if the intention is to bring sanity to the long discredited government urban land use planning.

The 2007 Draft National Land Policy may have appeared to ambiguously reconcile residential premises rent controls with collective land forum mechanisms. While the 2007 Landlord and Tenant Bill purportedly introduces rent restriction to informal settlements, it may have indexed the protection of property on the philosophy of market forces, which may create problems for squatters who not only lack the understanding of the workings of the market economy in its unforgiving quest to allocate resources properly, but worried about the attendant corrupt practices that go along with such liberal policies.

However, property rules tactically restrict performance of actions indirectly through dividing the country spatially into defined regions and locations. Thus land is held either privately, in common or by the government. The technique our liberal democratic constitution deploys is to empower landowners to determine its user. Municipal land comprises common space including roads, parks and social amenities allocated for specific public utilities which prioritize access to markets or recreation. Attempts to perform unauthorized activities, like holding of unlicensed public demonstrations, hawking, or constructing temporary shelters may warrant removal or attract trespass prosecution. Access to government land is restricted to persons with official collective purposes. A human rights problem arises where occupants cannot afford to own, rent or license land. Expensive and insecure tenure contradict the public interest to maintain security.

Neither scholars nor practitioners agree on the origins, causes or solutions to inadequate levels of housing. But there could be one common sense reason- poverty or if you like, supervised states plunder as in Kenya and other African countries. Irrespective of the ideological arguments determining use and value of property, it is clear that Kenyan legal scholars who support the Draft National Land Policy’s call for a needs-based approach that would effectively enhance a human-face rental market regime. In the short-term, Kenyan constitutional courts are urged to adopt creative decisions to interpret the right to life so as to include the right to own property.

Beyond the legal dimension, governmental consultation with community groups can facilitate implementation of sustainable solutions to Nairobi’s forced eviction epidemic. In the long-term responsive governance entails greater inquisition by the Housing Ministry and both rent tribunals in maintaining comprehensive information registers of protected rental premises, involvement of rent inspectors in negotiating lease agreements and prosecution for breach.


Charles Khamala is a Kenyan Lawyer and writes for www.AfricanLiberty.org