La débâcle des LIC -- Lions Indomptables du Cameroun -- lors de ce Mondial en terre sud-africaine a favorisé la mise en exergue des fléaux qui ont jusqu´ici miné le football camerounais et le pays tout entier en général. Les Camerounais – tant du bercail que de l´étranger -- pourront-ils enfin assimiler la pensée selon laquelle il ne sert à rien d´escamoter les problèmes, de recourir au bricolage, aux « quimboiseurs », aux marabouts pour bidouiller des pseudo-solutions ? Pourront-ils enfin comprendre que la réalisation du potentiel du Cameroun et des Camerounais dans tous les domaines passe nécessairement par la valorisation de la critique franche et constructive, du goût du labeur, de la méritocratie, de la probité, du savoir-vivre et de la conscience professionnelle?
Speaking at the 25th Africa-France Summit in Nice, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that it was "not normal" that Africa has no permanent seat on the UN Security Council. He expressed France's support for greater African representation in global governance bodies such as the Security Council, the G20 and the World Bank Executive Board. However, at a summit focusing largely on economic ties between the two regions, Sarkozy's gesture was clearly a diplomatic effort to woo African leaders and gain leverage with business interests. With Chinese and Indian investment flooding the African continent, old powers like France are struggling to maintain their economic influence and market access...More
The States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court are currently considering the inclusion of the crime of aggression into the Court's jurisdiction at the ICC Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda. The latest news from the conference indicates that the permanent members of the UN Security Council are hindering attempts to empower the Court to prosecute the crime they have all committed...More
A report by Physicians for Human Rights accuses the Bush administration's terrorist interrogation program of human experimentation. According to the report, medical professionals associated with the CIA monitored and gathered data on interrogation methods in order to "enhance future interrogations." This raises a whole new set of legal issues since human experimentation without consent is in clear violation of international law. In particular, experimentation on detainees may constitute a war crime under the Nuremberg Code. Interestingly enough, the US Congress passed The Military Commissions Act in 2006, which weakened the language on illegal biological experiments contained in the predecessor law, suggesting that the administration was aware of such possible future charges...More
Cote d’Ivoire have been eliminated from the World Cup as they failed to achieve the eight-goal swing against North Korea that would have put Portugal under threat, winning only 3-0. The first half was entirely monopolised by the Elephants, but despite creating a stream of chances, they would only strike twice, with goals from Yaya Toure and Koffi Romaric. Such profligacy would be regretted after the break, as the Africans weren’t nearly so sharp and would only add to their tally late on from substitute Salomon Kalou...More
Selon le professeur Richard Mkandawire, conseiller agricole à l'Agence de planification et de coordination du NEPAD, bien que la République d’Afrique du Sud soit l'un des pays africains qui consacrent plus de 10% du budget national à l'agriculture, peu de ces ressources sont utilisées pour développer les infrastructures et améliorer les affaires des agriculteurs émergents. Si les gouvernements investissaient dans les petits agriculteurs, cet investissement contribuerait à changer le continent où un tiers de la population fait face à la famine chronique et à la malnutrition.
Bill Clinton has admitted that the US free-market agriculture policy towards Haiti did not work. But the solutions Clinton puts forward, as the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, calls for more of the same failed policies. Clinton's presidential policies toward Haiti deliberately reconfigured the country to fit into the new global division of labor, turning relatively self-sufficient farmers into low-wage workers in assembly plants. Now, Clinton ignores practical ideas put forward by Haitian popular organizations, while the ex-president continues to bolster export-oriented cash crops like coffee, mangos, and avocados...More
In a highly contested match on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, Africa’s only hope bowed to a much determined German team. The Germans controlled most of the match, putting enormous pressure on the Black Starts who have gone to the knock-out stage due to a goal advantage over Australia who beat Serbia 2-1 on Wednesday. Australia did go down 0-4 against Germany during their first match and this has worked against the Socceroos.
Credit rating agencies and financial speculators wreak havoc on smaller European economies. The fact that credit rating agencies are based in the US, make many European analysts believe that the agencies' activities favor American speculators - who see the falling credit ratings of European countries as an opportunity to turn a quick profit. The impacts of these sliding credit ratings on families, however, are drastic as their interest rates on private loans rise. Countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy, like Greece have lost the ability to respond to economic pressures. The lack of monetary tools to control currency and stimulate growth makes the deficit and debt targets that financial institutions desire nearly impossible to meet...More
The "aid regime" in sub-Saharan Africa swamps smallholder farmers with the proposed "solutions" from the same toolkit of failed policies endorsed since the 1980s. Powerful multilateral financial institutions, corporations, and government aid agencies collude around an approach to "development" that promotes privatization, deregulation, and the lowering of barriers to trade and foreign capital. This tour de force of philanthropic capitalism makes it difficult for farmer groups to get their voices heard by their national governments and it blocks local priorities from being taken into account...More
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