Safe Democracy Foundation » Subsaharian Africa http://english.safe-democracy.org Safe Democracy Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:06:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 An Obama foreign policy win in South Sudan http://english.safe-democracy.org/2010/12/10/an-obama-foreign-policy-win-in-south-sudan/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2010/12/10/an-obama-foreign-policy-win-in-south-sudan/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:37:06 +0000 osurce http://english.safe-democracy.org/?p=2255 Michael Gerson
12/10/2010

The new independence of South Sudan is a diplomatic success worth celebrating. After the Obama administration offered the Khartoum regime (the Muslim north of Sudan) a series of incentives called “the road map,” the regime agreed to allow southern Sudan to “go quietly.” The bipartisan nature of this pending diplomatic solution is worth noting: the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was begun in 2005 under the Bush administration, and helped create a unified national government in Sudan and guaranteed an “independence referendum” for south Sudan in 2011. That referendum will be voted on this January 9, with many southern Sudanese who now live in Khartoum returning to their home region to vote. Of course there will be challenges as the newly independent South Sudan becomes a nation, but this successful venture shows how government officials can do a great deal of good in the world.

Gerson is a nationally syndicated columnist who appears twice weekly in the Washington Post.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2010/12/10/an-obama-foreign-policy-win-in-south-sudan/feed/ 0 Mugabe’s Fearless Opposition http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/11/26/mugabes-fearless-opposition/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/11/26/mugabes-fearless-opposition/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:32:07 +0000 osurce http://english.safe-democracy.org/?p=1469 Michael Gerson
11/25/2009

COMMONWEALTH ZIMBABWE QUITRobert Mugabe has made the people of Zimbabwe destitute and dependent. Magodonga Mahlangu and Jennifer Williams, leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise and recent recipients of the John F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, have lead and engaged in non-violent protests against social injustice. Protesters are organized via word of mouth so that their communications can not be traced, and they are prepared for the arrests and beatings that result from their activism. Tens of thousands of women are committed to holding the government accountable and rising above the “stink” surrounding them (sometimes quite literally, as sewage systems fail and the government does nothing). With such fearlessness among Zimbabwean women, notes Gerson, it is Mugabe who should fear.

Gerson writes about politics, global health and development, religion, and foreign policy.

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Opinion summaries provided by Opinion Source, an organization with which Safe Democracy is associated

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/11/26/mugabes-fearless-opposition/feed/ 3 Somalia: the explosive combination of illegal fishing, toxic waste and piracy http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/06/04/1205/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/06/04/1205/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:04:55 +0000 Mabel González Bustelo http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/06/04/1205/ piratassomaliaMany foreign vessels, but especially European ones, have not only harvested the Somalian coast through illegal fishing, but have also used it as a dumping ground for its dangerous, toxic and even nuclear waste.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/06/04/1205/feed/ 7 Guinea Bissau: Africa’s first narco-state http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/03/20/guinea-bissau-africas-first-narco-state/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/03/20/guinea-bissau-africas-first-narco-state/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:01:53 +0000 Zidane Zeraoui http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/03/20/guinea-bissau-africas-first-narco-state/
nino_tagme.jpgGuinea Bissau is turning into the African continent’s first narco-state, a country in which the violence stemming from the fight to control the cocaine that passes through the country could get even worse.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2009/03/20/guinea-bissau-africas-first-narco-state/feed/ 6 Kibaki shoots to kill in Kenya http://english.safe-democracy.org/2008/02/07/kibaki-shoots-to-kill-in-kenya/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2008/02/07/kibaki-shoots-to-kill-in-kenya/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:46:41 +0000 Abuy Nfubea http://english.safe-democracy.org/2008/01/30/kibaki-shoots-to-kill-in-kenya/ kibaki.jpgEver since the last elections in Kenya, the world has seen the country sink into violence, due to the accusations of fraud in the elections controlled by president Mwai Kibaki. The author says that the most serious European press has analyzed the conflict as a typical expression of the savage tribal confrontation characteristic of Blacks. However, other sources assert that the majority of assassinations have occurred at the hands of the State, and not at those of any Kikuyu tribe or ethnic group. Why the African Union must shake off its indifference and avoid another Darfur.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2008/02/07/kibaki-shoots-to-kill-in-kenya/feed/ 1 The Responsability to Protect and the UN-African Union mission in Darfur http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/12/28/the-responsability-to-protect-and-the-un-african-union-mission-in-darfur/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/12/28/the-responsability-to-protect-and-the-un-african-union-mission-in-darfur/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:27:25 +0000 Borja Lasheras http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/10/18/the-responsability-to-protect-and-the-un-african-union-mission-in-darfur/ The author discusses the international community’s responsibility to protect those experiencing genocide, specifically in Darfur. He describes the United Nations´s call for humanitarian intervention, now newly and more specifically defined as the responsibility to protect.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/12/28/the-responsability-to-protect-and-the-un-african-union-mission-in-darfur/feed/ 1 The dispute for African Oil http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/11/08/the-dispute-for-african-oil/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/11/08/the-dispute-for-african-oil/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:18:37 +0000 Eloísa Vaello Marco http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/11/08/the-dispute-for-african-oil/ The discovery of an important oil reserve situated in the Gulf of Guinea between Santo Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea Ecuatorial has piqued American, French and Chinese interest in this African region. By 2010, daily production could surpass the current 3 million barrels and eventually reach 6 million, while the reserves are estimated to contain 24 billion barrels’ worth of oil. Let’s examine why it is so important that control and openness prevail in the exploitation agreements.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/11/08/the-dispute-for-african-oil/feed/ 1 The Impact of Climate change in Africa http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/10/11/the-impact-of-climate-change-in-africa/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/10/11/the-impact-of-climate-change-in-africa/#comments Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:10:46 +0000 Jesús Rivillo Torres http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/10/11/the-impact-of-climate-change-in-africa/

Even though the leading causes of to global warming originated in industrialized countries, the poorest regions, like those in Africa, will be the ones most affected due to their dependence on the presence natural resources that can be greatly affected by climate change.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/10/11/the-impact-of-climate-change-in-africa/feed/ 5 Crime and Impunity in the Niger Delta http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/04/03/crime-and-impunity-in-the-niger-delta/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/04/03/crime-and-impunity-in-the-niger-delta/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:44:27 +0000 Safe Democracy The consequences of oil politics

By Elisa Valle Marcos (for Safe Democracy)

Elisa Valle Marcos explains why Nigeria, the largest producer of petroleum in Africa, and home to vast deposits of natural gas, is considered by many experts as one of the most failed States in the world. With corruption, insecurity, and poverty running rampant, the Nigerian government has failed continuously to offer solutions to its many problems, even after the transition to democracy in 1999. And as the oil business continues to destroy communities, and the Nigerian government to ignore human rights, the question remains whether or not the international community can put pressure on Nigeria to change and lose the title of failed State.

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]]> http://english.safe-democracy.org/2007/04/03/crime-and-impunity-in-the-niger-delta/feed/ 3 Déjà http://english.safe-democracy.org/2006/12/28/deja-vu-in-somalia/ http://english.safe-democracy.org/2006/12/28/deja-vu-in-somalia/#comments Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:25:20 +0000 Safe Democracy Geopolitics and the struggle over Resources in the horn of Africa

By Asoka Ranaweera (for Safe Democracy)

Asoka Ranaweera describes how the current situation of civil war, repression, and lawlessness in Somalia is more due to the complexities of regional geopolitics, than it is to the supposed infiltration of Al Qaeda. And although the Western World is reluctant to play an active role in Somalia since the UN pullout in the early 1990‘s, it is essential for the world to turn its full attention to Somalia in order to better understand the situation and find a solution to the cycle of violence, which has been repeated over and over again in countless post-colonial states.

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