{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 10 mai 2010 – Bloomberg- May 10, 2010–Workers at South Africa’s state-owned transport company, Transnet Ltd., started an indefinite pay strike today, potentially hindering shipments of iron ore, ferrochrome, fruit and the coal that fires many European power plants.
RWANDA
UGANDA
At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr./www.nytimes.com/May 10, 2010
KAMPALA, Uganda — On the grounds of Uganda’s biggest AIDS clinic, Dinavance Kamukama sits under a tree and weeps.
Her disease is probably quite advanced: her kidneys are failing and she is so weak she can barely walk. Leaving her young daughter with family, she rode a bus four hours to the hospital where her cousin Allen Bamurekye, born infected, both works and gets the drugs that keep her alive.
But there are no drugs for Ms. Kamukama. As is happening in other clinics in Kampala, all new patients go on a waiting list. A slot opens when a patient dies.
“So many people are being supported by America,” Ms. Kamukama, 28, says mournfully. “Can they not help me as well?”
The answer increasingly is no. Uganda is the first and most obvious example of how the war on global AIDS is falling apart.
The last decade has been what some doctors call a “golden window” for treatment. Drugs that once cost $12,000 a year fell to less than $100, and the world was willing to pay.
In Uganda, where fewer than 10,000 were on drugs a decade ago, nearly 200,000 now are, largely as a result of American generosity. But the golden window is closing.
Uganda is the first country where major clinics routinely turn people away, but it will not be the last. In Kenya next door, grants to keep 200,000 on drugs will expire soon. An American-run program in Mozambique has been told to stop opening clinics. There have been drug shortages in Nigeria and Swaziland. Tanzania and Botswana are trimming treatment slots, according to a report by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
The collapse was set off by the global recession’s effect on donors, and by a growing sense that more lives would be saved by fighting other, cheaper diseases. Even as the number of people infected by AIDS grows by a million a year, money for treatment has stopped growing.
Other forces made failure almost inevitable.
Science has produced no magic bullet — no cure, no vaccine, no widely accepted female condom. Every proposal for controlling the epidemic with current tools — like circumcising every man in the third world, giving a daily prophylactic pill to everyone contemplating sex or testing billions of people and treating all the estimated 33 million who would test positive — is wildly impractical.
And, most devastating of all, old-fashioned prevention has flopped. Too few people, particularly in Africa, are using the “ABC” approach pioneered here in Uganda: abstain, be faithful, use condoms.
For every 100 people put on treatment, 250 are newly infected, according to the United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency, Unaids.
That makes prospects for the future grim. Worldwide, even though two million people with the disease die each year, the total keeps growing because nearly three million adults and children become infected.
Even now, the fight is falling short. Of the 33 million people infected, 14 million are immuno-compromised enough to need drugs now, under the latest World Health Organization guidelines. (W.H.O. guidelines are conservative; if all 33 million were Americans, most clinicians would treat them at once.)
Instead, despite a superhuman effort by donors, fewer than four million are on treatment. Just to meet the minimal W.H.O. guidelines, donations would have to treble instead of going flat.
Uganda is a microcosm of that: 500,000 need treatment, 200,000 are getting it, but each year, an additional 110,000 are infected.
“You cannot mop the floor when the tap is still running on it,” said Dr. David Kihumuro Apuuli, director-general of the Uganda AIDS Commission.
Some battles will still be won. Middle-income countries with limited epidemics, like India, Brazil and Russia, can probably treat all their patients without outside help. China almost certainly can. South Africa might; it has a raging epidemic but is rich by African standards.
But for most of Africa and scattered other countries like Haiti, Guyana and Cambodia, it seems inevitable that the 1990s will return: walking skeletons in the villages, stacks of bodies in morgues, mountains of newly turned earth in cemeteries.
As he tours world capitals seeking donations, Dr. Michel D. Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said he had become “hugely frustrated.”
“The consistent answer I hear is: ‘We love you, we hear you, we acknowledge the fund’s good results, but our budget is tight, our budget is cut, it’s the economic crisis.’ ”
No commander in the global fight openly concedes that the war is over, but all admit to deep pessimism.
“I don’t see the cavalry riding to the rescue,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an AIDS researcher who leads one of the National Institutes of Health.
“I’m worried we’ll be in a ‘Kampala situation’ in other countries soon,” said Ambassador Eric Goosby, the Obama administration’s new global AIDS coordinator.
“What I see is making me very scared,” agreed Michel Sidibé, executive director of Unaids. Without a change of heart among donors, Mr. Sidibé said, “the whole hope I’ve had for the last 10 years will disappear.”
Donors give about $10 billion a year, while controlling the epidemic would cost $27 billion a year, he estimated.
His predecessor, Dr. Peter Piot, said he had seen optimism soar and then fade.
Hopes rose from 2001 to 2003 when cheap generic antiretroviral drugs became available, Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations formed the Global Fund and President George W. Bush initiated the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar.
“Then, we were at a tipping point in the right direction,” Dr. Piot said. “Now I’m afraid we’re at a tipping point in the wrong direction.”
AIDS2031, a panel he convened to look ahead to the epidemic’s 50th anniversary, issued a pessimistic report in November that concluded: “Without a change in approach, a major epidemic will still be with us in 2031.” Because of population growth, it said, there may still be two million new infections a year even then.
According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, the lifetime bill for treating one Ugandan AIDS patient, counting drugs, tests and medical salaries, is $11,500.
Donors have decided that is too much, that more lives can be saved by concentrating on child-killers like stillbirth, pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles and tetanus. Cures for those killers, like antibiotics, mosquito nets, rehydration salts, water filters, shots and deworming pills, cost $1 to $10.
Under its new Global Health Initiative, the Obama administration has announced plans to shift its focus to mother-and-child health. The AIDS budget was increased by only 2 percent.
The British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also said they would focus support on mother-child health.
“The political winds have changed,” said Sharonann Lynch, chief author of the Doctors Without Borders report. “And I don’t believe for a minute it’s just the economic downturn. I think world leaders feel the heat is off and they’re fatigued.”
American taxpayers have been particularly generous to Uganda, paying for 88 percent of its drugs; Ugandans know it.
Karen Morgan, an American who runs a laboratory at the hospital where Ms. Kamukama was turned away, said: “Just today, a patient came up to me in the parking lot and said, ‘Thank you, American.’ I said, ‘For what?’ He said ‘For my medicine. You care if I live or die.’ ”
Nearby, in a tent on the hospital lawn, Moses Nsubuga, a D.J. known as Superch
arger, rehearsed his troupe, the Stigmaless Band, composed entirely of teenagers on AIDS drugs.
One of their songs is “America, Thank You So Much.”
Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, the hospital’s founder, helped the Bush administration form its AIDS plan and sat beside Laura Bush during the State of the Union address as it was announced.
The loss of donor interest “makes me frantic with worry,” Dr. Mugyenyi said. “Once word spreads that there is no treatment, people do what they did in the past: go to the witch doctors and buy fake treatments.”
He offers copies of e-mail messages he exchanged with American aid officials. One reminds him that he has been instructed to stop enrolling new patients and asks for an explanation of reports that he is treating 37,000 when only 32,000 are authorized. Another asks him not to announce publicly that his funds have been frozen.
He admits slipping pregnant women and young mothers like Ms. Kamukama into treatment slots “contrary to instructions.”
“Morally, I can’t turn them away,” he said.
He has another reason. Family members like Ms. Kamukama and her cousin will often share one set of pills, an act of love that leads to disaster. Incomplete treatment means both will probably die, but may first develop drug-resistant AIDS and pass it on.
American officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the financing freeze.
“The decision was made late in the Bush administration to cap Uganda at $280 million,” one said. “That’s an industrial amount of money.”
United States Embassy officials debated adding $38 million, he said, but cabinet-level Ugandan ministers had been caught stealing from other donors and, though forced to repay the money, were not jailed. The government “hasn’t shown the leadership or commitment to transparency to earn additional funds,” the official added.
Also, he said, Uganda contributes too little. Oil was recently discovered near Lake Albert and the government promised to spend the royalties on roads and electricity, but did not mention AIDS.
“And now the paper says they’re buying Russian jets,” another official added with obvious disgust. Uganda is negotiating for a $300 million squadron of Sukhoi fighter-bombers.
For doctors on the front line, the frustration is palpable.
Dr. Natasha Astill is a British AIDS specialist working at a hospital on the edges of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, in a mountain valley with pygmy settlements close by fancy gorilla-tourist lodges. It is so remote that the drugs that reached Kampala in 2003 did not get here until 2007.
After a long day in which she and a nurse saw 118 patients, many huddling together in the examining room to avoid the storm pounding on the tin roof, she broke down in tears. All day she told subsistence farmers she could not, for example, treat the white fungal thrush filling their mouths unless they could pay $1 a day — more than they earn.
She can still give free antiretrovirals to a few; while her hospital’s American funds are frozen, it still gets some drugs from the Ugandan Ministry of Health and cash gifts from wildlife tourists and the singer Elton John. But soon this hospital, too, will make a waiting list.
“It makes me angry,” she says. “It feels horrible. Sometimes you wonder if you’re doing people favors. You start them on drugs, you give them hope, and then you’re not sure you can keep it up. We all knew these drugs are for life.”
TANZANIA:
CONGO RDC :
KENYA :
‘Kenyan example is not one to be followed’
May 10 2010 /www.iol.co.za/ Sapa-AFP
Dar es Salaam – African leaders on Friday criticised the formation of coalition governments on the continent following flawed or disputed elections.
Two African countries – Kenya and Zimbabwe – are now ruled by power-sharing governments following contested polls which also sparked political crises.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga – named to the post in a 2008 deal with President Mwai Kibaki whom he accused of rigging his re-election the previous year – said their agreement should not be replicated.
“The Kenyan example is not a model to be followed. It is a compromise that has been reached as a result of a crisis,” Odinga said during the World Economic Forum on Africa being held in Dar es Salaam.
“It is not an example for Africa to follow. Zimbabwe followed because it was seen that the incumbent has lost and refuses to leave power (and) there is a danger of disintegration of the state,” he added.
South African President Jacob Zuma – whose predecessor negotiated the Zimbabwe deal – defended the agreement, but said lack of implementation was undermining it.
“It is the only route to peace and stability in Zimbabwe,” Zuma said. “The problem is at the level of implementation. You cannot have an agreement and not implement it.”
On Thursday, Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said he would not agree to a coalition government again, terming it a “very painful exercise”.
“Would I do this again? I don’t think so. I think it is a bad precedent,” he explained.
Kenya’s Odinga blamed the African Union of failing to instill democracy in its 53 member states.
“It is also the ineffectiveness of the African Union to take the lead and a firm stand on issues where democracy is in danger,” he said.
“That’s the reason why we end up with such kind of compromises. They are basically examples of how not to do it.”
Salim Ahmed Salim, former secretary general of the Organisation of African Unity, since renamed the African Union, criticised Africa’s inability to crack down on leaders who cling to power.
Africa “has been unable to deal decisively with the phenomena of leaders trying to perch themselves to power perpetually without any possibilities of change,” he said. “Coalition governments are not a solution.” –
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
Transport Strike Threatens South African Coal, Iron Ore Exports
May 10, 2010/By Mike Cohen and Nicky Smith/Bloomberg
May 10 (Bloomberg) — Workers at South Africa’s state-owned transport company, Transnet Ltd., started an indefinite pay strike today, potentially hindering shipments of iron ore, ferrochrome, fruit and the coal that fires many European power plants.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union rejected a new wage offer on May 8, triggering the strike at Transnet, which operates ports, railroads and fuel pipelines. The Strike started at 6 a.m. local time, Ezrom Mabyana, the president of Satawu, said in an interview.
“Coal and iron ore exports, and the distribution of fuel, and the supply of gas and bunker fuel to airlines and shipping lines could be crippled,” Neren Rau, chief executive officer of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said on May 6. “The resultant reputational risks to South Africa as a reliable trading partner would be incalculable.”
South Africa is the largest supplier of coal to European power stations, the world’s biggest exporter of ferrochrome, used in the production of stainless steel, and has a $1.2 billion fruit industry. While Richards Bay Coal Terminal is privately operated, the trains that supply the terminal and the bigger port in which it operates are managed by Transnet.
The United Transport and Allied Trade Union suspended action until May 11 while it consults its members on Transnet’s latest pay offer, General Secretary Steve Harris said. It may join the strike on May 12.
The unions, which say they together represent about 85 percent of Transnet’s 54,000 staff, are demanding a 15 percent wage increase while the company is offering 11 percent. South Africa’s inflation rate was 5.1 percent in March. Satawu represents about 18,000 Transnet workers while Utatu represents about 21,000.
‘Squeezed’
“We will be squeezed in the middle,” said Raymond Chirwa, the chief executive officer of Richards Bay Coal Terminal, as Transnet operates the port and the rail network. The terminal had stockpiles of 4.62 million tons of coal as of April 30 and Transnet planned to close the rail lines to the port for 10 days as of today for maintenance irrespective of the strike action.
Carmakers such as Volkswagen AG, General Motors Co. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG may also be affected by the strike.
“Any industrial action at South Africa’s ports and rail infrastructure would be extremely damaging to the automotive and associated industries,” David Powels, president of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, said on May 5. “Strike action would close all the assembly plants within a matter of days with a massive cascade effect.”
Transnet retirees, trainee staff and managers have been called on to step into positions left vacant by striking workers to keep some services going, said Pradeep Maharaj, the company’s group executive for human resources.
Pink Lady
Plans for iron ore to be loaded on to ships calling at the west coast port of Saldanha have been made, though loading may be slower than usual, he said.
The strike is also a blow to fruit exporters. “We’re harvesting Pink Lady apples and navel oranges now, if there is a strike it will be a huge problem,” said Gielie van Aarde, chief executive officer of Freshgold SA Exports Ltd. The company exports 36,000 metric tons of fruit a year to markets in east and West Africa, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Russia and the Middle East. “We can’t have stoppages at the harbor. It’s not like a production line. We are working with nature.”
The strike may add to South Africa’s 25.2 percent unemployment rate and stifle growth that resumed in the third quarter of last year after the country’s first recession in 17 years. The economy shed 870,000 jobs in 2009 and a further 171,000 in the first three months of this year.
–Editors: Philip Sanders, Antony Sguazzin, Alastair Reed
BHP, Harmony, Lonmin, Verimark: South African Equity Preview
By Ron Derby and Garth Theunissen/Bloomberg/May 10
May 10 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index fell 997.76 points, or 3.6 percent, to 26,515.07 in Johannesburg. The index shed 7.4 percent last week.
Anglo American Plc (AGL SJ): Copper rose as much as 2.1 percent to $7,092 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Stock of Anglo, the diversified mining company that makes up more than 10 percent of South Africa’s benchmark stock index, fell 11.47 rand, or 3.9 percent, to 283.78 rand.
Astrapak Ltd. (APK SJ): South Africa’s largest plastic- packaging company releases its annual results. Astrapak fell 1 rand, or 8.7 percent, to 10.50 rand.
BHP Billiton Plc. (BIL SJ): The world’s largest mining company said expansion plans, including its Olympic Dam project, may be “very difficult” to approve after Australia’s government announced a 40 percent tax on resource profits. BHP fell 5.32 rand, or 2.5 percent, to 210.48 rand.
Barloworld Ltd. (BAW SJ): The diversified holding company releases first-half earnings. Shares in the company fell 2.25 rand, or 4.8 percent, to 44.50 rand.
Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. (CML SJ): The asset manager was raised to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan Chase & Co. with a 12-month target price is 13.70 rand per share. Coronation’s stock fell 40 cents, or 3.5 percent, to 11.10 rand.
Exxaro Resources Ltd. (EXX SJ): The miner may be among companies affected by a national strike by workers of South Africa’s state-owned rail and port operator, Transnet Ltd., which threatens to disrupt exports of coal and iron ore. Exxaro’s stock fell 6 rand, or 5.2 percent, to 109 rand. Stock of Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. fell 13.80 rand, or 4.3 percent, to 306.49 rand.
Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. (HAR SJ): Africa’s third-largest miner of the metal releases its third-quarter results. Shares in the gold miner fell 1 rand, or 1.4 percent, to 72 rand.
JD Group Ltd. (JDG SJ): The furniture retailer had its price estimate lowered to 39 rand compared with 43.5 rand at UBS AG. JD Group’s stock fell 3.50 rand, or 8.4 percent, to 38.37 rand.
Lonmin Plc (LON SJ): The world’s third-largest platinum producer releases an interim earnings statement. Lonmin declined 10.60 rand, or 5.3 percent, to 188.40 rand.
Paracon Holdings Ltd. (PCN SJ): The company releases first- half earnings. Paracon shed 24 cents, or 14.1 percent, to 1.46 rand.
Sappi Ltd. (SAP SJ): The world’s largest producer of glossy magazine paper, was raised to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ at Citigroup Inc. Stock of Sappi fell 1.83, or 6.1 percent, to 28 rand.
Sasol Ltd. (SOL SJ): Oil rose 2.7 percent to $77.12 a barrel in electronic trading in New York. Stock of Sasol, the world’s biggest maker of motor fuel from coal, fell 9.90 rand, or 3.4 percent, to 278.10 rand.
Verimark Holdings Ltd. (VMK SJ): The retailer of fitness equipment and household goods said per share earnings excluding items rose to 12.4 cents in the year through February, compared with a loss of 3.4 cents the previous year. Shares in the company dropped 23 cents, or 23 percent, to 77 cents.
The following stocks will begin trading without the right to their latest dividends:
Barloworld Ltd. (BAW SJ), Basil Read Holdings Ltd. (BSR SJ), Datacentrix Holdings Ltd. (DCT SJ), IQuad Group Ltd. (IQG SJ), JSE Ltd. (JSE SJ), Liberty International Ltd. (LBT SJ), Old Mutual Plc (OML SJ), PSG Group (PSG SJ).
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) was unchanged at $18.50. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) gained 0.2 percent to $41.01. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BBL US) gained 1.6 percent to $55.27. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) fell 3.1 percent to $4.75. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) fell 4.3 percent to $12.58. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) shed 2.1 percent to $9.36. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) gained 0.8 percent to $24.30. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) slipped 1.1 percent to $3.71. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) shed 1 percent to $35.86.
–Editors: Vernon Wessels, Antony Sguazzin.
JetBlue, SAA ink interline accord
By Christine Boynton/ atwonline.com/ May 10, 2010
JetBlue Airways and South African Airways last week announced an interline agreement effective May 12. Under terms of the accord, passengers will be able to purchase a single itinerary for travel on both carriers and can utilize “through check-in.” SAA Executive VP-North America Marc Cavaliere said, “There are lots of travelers flying to South Africa and southern Africa that originate in many of the cities that JetBlue currently serves. We have had numerous requests from our customers expressing an interest in being able to easily connect to JetBlue’s flights at [New York] JFK.” SAA offers service to Johannesburg from JFK and Washington Dulles (via Dakar) aboard A340s. Cavaliere noted that the agreement comes “just in time” for the June 11-July 11 World Cup in South Africa.
HIV awareness plan stepped up
10 May 2010/www.sowetan.co.za/Mhlaba Memela
THE global HIV and Aids awareness and charity campaign, Goal for South Africa, has stepped up its operations to increase awareness of the pandemic in the country and beyond.
Its campaign is set to focus attention on the Fifa World Cup tourists organised in the country and highlight challenges posed by the disease.
Goal for South Africa (GFSA) is a private initiative started in 2009.
The campaign aims to raise as much money as possible in donations to fund educational projects designed to stem the spread of the disease.
GFSA indicated in a statement it had joined forces with the South African National Aids Council to fight against the spread of HIV-Aids.
It had met Sanac chief executive officer Nono Simelela to discuss government’s measures to alleviate the Aids situation in the coming years . They had also discussed special measures to reduce the risk of HIV infection for tourists during the World Cup activities. Simelela said the government had a programme which covered prevention interventions such as communication and social mobilisation.
“We also have a programme to detect and manage sexually transmitted infections and the provision of large numbers of male and female condoms free of charge in the public sector,” she said.
Simelane said they had embarked on a massive HIV counselling and testing campaign to encourage citizens to know their HIV status and seek care.
She said the government welcomed support.
But those who fund us need to understand that there is a country plan, one monitoring and coordinating framework and that we must also adhere to the Paris Declaration.”
AFRICA / AU :
UN /ONU :
UN Security Council strongly condemns Darfur attack
10 May 2010 / By International Justice Desk (RNW) /(Source: AFP)
The 15-member UN Security Council Friday condemned “in the strongest terms” the attack in western Sudan on a convoy of the joint UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) that killed two Egyptian peacekeepers.
The council “condemned in the strongest terms the attacks on UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur… which resulted in the deaths of two Egyptian soldiers and left another three seriously wounded,” Lebanese Ambassador Nawaf Salam, Council President for this month, said in a statement.
Earlier, UNAMID special representative Ibrahim Gambari expressed “outrage at this cowardly attack,” according to a UNAMID statement, while UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said here that UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon was “equally incensed” by the attack.
“The members of the Security Council expressed their condolences to the families of those killed in the attacks, as well as to the Government of Egypt,” the UN Security Council president said.
“They encouraged the Government of Sudan to ensure that all the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice,” he added.
Friday’s latest deaths bring to 24 the number of UNAMID members killed in Darfur since the force was deployed there in January 2008.
The United Nations estimates that some 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since rebels in Darfur rose up against the Khartoum government, which was aided by local Arab militias, in February 2003.
The Sudan government puts the death toll at 10,000.
United Nations raises awareness of malaria in Africa
May 10/Toronto Headlines Examiner/Andrew Moran/ www.examiner.com
Toronto – The United Nations Nothing But Nets campaign were at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas to raise awareness of the serious issue of malaria in Africa. The campaign urges people to donate $30 so the organization can send nets to refugees living in camps.
Malaria is a widespread tropical and subtropical mosquito-bone infectious disease and can be found in the Americas, Asia and Africa. There are approximately 350 million and 500 million cases reported per year and kills between one million and three million people.
According to the United Nations Foundation Nothing But Nets, one child dies of malaria every 30 seconds but since 2001 the Measles Initiative has distributed millions of bed nets to children in Africa in order to prevent the disease.
The UN campaign was created in 2006 and has cooperated with numerous partners and thousands of supporters, including UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the United Methodist Church and many others.
Two years later, the campaign joined the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to expand the program and send more preventive bed nets to refugees in Africa. By the end of 2009, Nothing But Nets had sent more than one million nets to the African continent.
On World Malaria Day, thousands of people around the globe participated in The Sleep Out to End Malaria. The initiative, which took place in various locations across the United States, Zimbabwe, South Korea and others, would help end malaria deaths by 2015. Volunteers are now organizing an autumn Sleep Out to End Malaria on a large number of university campuses.
On Sunday, the UN Nothing But Nets campaign made a Buzz Tour bus stop in downtown Toronto at the Yonge-Dundas Square and provided information to bystanders on the crucial health issue in Africa and the organization.
The bus was converted from a school bus and is fuelled on waste vegetable oil and outfitted with solar panels. Volunteers urged people to contribute $10 to join the “global fight against malaria.” The money would send a preventive bed net to Africa.
So far, more than 3.1 million bed nets have been sent.
World rice output to increase 4 percent: UN FAO
May 10, 2010/- Sapa-dpa
World rice production is expected to increase 4 per cent this year, reaching 710 million tons, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Monday.
The increase will be concentrated in Asia, which will produce an estimated 643 million tons of rice, an increase of 29 million tons over 2009 figures, the FAO said.
“The recovery in rice production is anticipated to be import-driven, with Asian countries largely behind the increase in world rice imports in 2010,” the UN agency said.
Bangladesh, Iraq, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Philippines are expected to purchase more rice this year to offset domestic shortfalls caused by drought and flooding.
Imports by European and Latin American countries are also set to increase, while they may fractionally decline in Africa.
China, Myanmar, Thailand, the United States and “especially Pakistan” will be the major rice exporters this year to meet the rising global demand. Thailand has been the world’s largest rice exporter for the past five decades.
“Global rice consumption in 2010 is forecast to increase by 2.1 per cent to 454 million tons, milled basis,” FAO said in a statement.
International rice prices have been on the decline since January, FAO said.
The organization estimated global rice production in 2009 was 680 million tons, 1 per cent below the 2008 harvest.
“Much of the reduction being on account of Asia, where crops were impaired by erratic monsoon rains and the resurgence of El-Nino conditions,” it said.
Production also fell in Africa last year, while increases were were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North America and Oceania.
USA :
JetBlue, South African Airways Form Alliance
By SUSAN CAREY/ online.wsj.com/MAY 10, 2010
JetBlue Airways Corp., emboldened by its dominance at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, on Friday said it will cooperate with South African Airways to let customers purchase single intineraries for flights on both airlines with a connection at JFK.
Passengers who purchase these combined itineraries will be able to travel on a single e-ticket, check their bags to their final destination and receive boarding passes for both carriers’ flights upon checking in with JetBlue in the U.S. or SAA in southern Africa, JetBlue said.
JetBlue, a leading U.S. discount carrier, already has similar marketing arrangements with Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Aer Lingus Group PLC and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines.
The South African Airways tie-up, which begins next week will call for SAA to sell on its website tickets with connections at JFK to all JetBlue cities and to 40 cities in the SAA network. JFK is a gateway for SAA’s daily flight from Johannesburg. SAA also flies to Washington with a stop in Dakar, Senegal.
Dave Barger, JetBlue’s chief executive officer, said in a recent interview that the carrier’s “open architecture” strategy allows it to partner with different types of airlines to get more leverage from its domestic and Caribbean route network and its leading positions in New York and Boston.
“I don’t think you have to be in one of the major alliances,” Mr. Barger said, referring to the big three global marketing groups, Star Alliance, SkyTeam and oneworld. “In an ideal world, you’re not alligned and you have deals with American, Lufthansa and Aer Lingus,” he said.
It can be tricky to have relationships with these rival airlines, he said, and to juggle “contrarian relations” between a discount airline and major-network airlines. But the fact that other, larger airlines want to funnel their passengers into JetBlue’s network “is an affirmation of JetBlue, our culture and our product,” he said.
Lufthansa, a minority owner of JetBlue, is a major player in the Star Alliance, which includes UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc. and South African Airways. American is an anchor member of the oneworld alliance, which includes British Airways PLC. Aer Lingus operates joint-venture flights with United between Washington and Madrid. On its website, the Irish carrier also sells bookings on JetBlue flights to 30 destinations via New York and Boston.
Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com
Is the anxiety over Arizona’s immigration law justified? Depends on whom you ask
Some residents say the law’s been blown out of proportion. But even naturalized citizens and longtime residents find reason to fear — out-of-date ID photos or lingering Spanish accents, for example.
By Hector Tobar/ www.latimes.com/May 10, 2010
I’m my mother’s only son. That means I have to be on my toes when Mother’s Day rolls around.
So when the name of my querida madre popped up in my e-mail last week I snapped to attention. She lives thousands of miles away but still keeps close tabs on me. I opened her e-mail, expecting to field the usual questions about her grandchildren and my health.
Instead, my mother asked me about Arizona.
The Grand Canyon State has been on her mind lately. She used to live in Sedona and still has many friends in northern Arizona. In fact, she was planning on visiting them next month.
She’s back in her native Guatemala now — it’s cheaper there for a retiree — but travels frequently to the U.S. After many hours at home watching reports about Arizona on Fox News, CNN and CNN en Español on her satellite TV, she was deeply worried. A kind of madness had overtaken her old home state. It was up in arms over immigration.
“I don’t want to take the risk that they’ll hear my accent, look at me suspiciously and take away my U.S. passport, thinking that it’s false,” she wrote.
My mother has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1971. She can write and speak English perfectly well. But like many naturalized Americans, she hasn’t quite shaken the Spanish from her tongue. And she seemed to think that this might cause Arizona police to single her out.
As is now well known among those concerned about immigration and immigrants, Arizona’s SB 1070 allows local authorities to demand proof of legal residency from those who might fall under “reasonable suspicion” of being illegal immigrants.
When we talked on the phone my mother asked me directly: “Do you think I should go?”
I suggested we call her friends in Arizona and ask them.
“Oh, golly sakes, no one’s going to bother your mother,” Herb Dyer exclaimed over the phone. Dyer, a retiree, and his wife, Marilyn, still live on the same block where my mother used to live — on a street overlooking Sedona’s famous red rocks.
Back in her Sedona days, my mother was just another American suburbanite, living with her husband in a brand-new subdivision. The Dyers lived next door.
“She’s got her citizenship,” Dyer said. “Why would she be afraid?”
That’s actually a very good question, one I’d also posed to my mother. I asked her why she thought an officer might confiscate her passport.
“Because I don’t look like my picture,” she said.
Hearing about my mother’s trepidation made Herb Dyer angry — at the bill’s many critics, who’ve been protesting and marching quite frequently in Phoenix.
“They’re just blowing this whole thing out of proportion,” he said. “It’s a sad situation. . . . We have people that are good Mexicans, who do good work.” A lot of Arizonans are mad over the immigrants in the jails, he said. But as for my mother, “she’s not going to be doing anything that a police officer is going to be noticing.”
A lot of people in northern Arizona would agree with Herb. My mother is not much taller than 5 feet and could not be mistaken for a criminal threat by even the most paranoid law officer.
Next I called my mother’s compadres in Cottonwood, about 20 miles southwest of Sedona.
“She knows how it is here,” Ricardo Rodriguez said with ominous overtones that suggested my mother was worried about much more than her passport picture.
Rodriguez is a 51-year-old naturalized American of Mexican descent. He and his wife, Antonia, have known my mother since the 1980s, when they were active members of Sedona’s Catholic church. They all became compadres when my mother agreed to be godmother to the Rodriguezes’ daughter.
It was a time when only a few people questioned whether Mexican immigrants should be allowed into the northern Arizona family. Sedona’s tourist economy was booming and there were jobs aplenty.
Now the climate there has grown very ugly for people of Mexican descent, Rodriguez told me.
He’s grown used to being stopped by police who demand various documents. Often the stops seem arbitrary. Sometimes a patrol car will tailgate his vehicle on the highways around Cottonwood.
His U.S. citizenship is a kind of shield against official harassment. But his friends and relatives who are legal permanent residents live in fear of the authorities. “If you’re driving in a car with someone who doesn’t have papers and they stop you, you could be arrested for smuggling,” Rodriguez said. Such an arrest could lead to loss of legal status.
There’s no magic way to tell legal from illegal immigrants just by looking. Illegal immigrants have even managed to fake their way into jobs as police officers, and a growing number speak English better than Spanish. In today’s Arizona, a lot of people learn the status of a friend or acquaintance only when something goes wrong.
The other day Rodriguez got a call from a friend in Phoenix. “He told me, ‘I ca
n’t go to work because they’re all over the streets. I’m here at home hiding like a bear. If they catch me, they’ll separate me from my kids.’ “
Given the sense of dread hanging over Latino Arizona, Rodriguez wasn’t surprised my mother would want to cancel her trip.
“We’re used to people saying they’re afraid to visit us,” he said.
But he hoped she would travel to Arizona anyway. It’s important not to surrender to fear, he said.
So on Sunday I called my mother and told her she should follow the good advice of the Dyers and the Rodriguezes and travel to Arizona. My Mother’s Day gift: plane and train tickets to L.A. and Flagstaff.
Next month she’ll spend a week getting caught up with Herb and Marilyn and Ricardo and Antonia.
My mother is the most deeply intuitive person I know. So when she gets back I’ll ask her “Did you feel any fear in Arizona?” I know she’ll give me an honest answer.
hector.tobar@latimes.com
CANADA :
Canada a quiet powerhouse in Africa’s mining sector
Geologist Laurent Coulibaly Blair Gable for The Globe and Mail/Shawn McCarthy /Ottawa — From Monday’s Globe and Mail /10052010
Driven by a 21st-century resource rush, sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing an impressive surge in foreign investment, and Canadian firms are leading the charge
.Laurent Coulibaly’s degree in geology has led him from the Burkina Faso city of Bobo-Dioulasso to a small office in west-end Ottawa where he works on developing gold mines in his homeland.
The 43-year-old father of three has worked for the past six years for Ottawa-based Orezone Gold Corp., part of an army of Canadian companies in the forefront of Africa’s push to develop its vast mineral resources.
Back home in Burkina Faso, siblings, cousins and friends are now working in the mining sector; he can count at least 20 cousins in the industry, which has provided an economic boost for a country that ranks near the bottom of global rankings for per capita income, literacy and human development.
Resource development is key to Burkina Faso’s – and indeed, Africa’s – future, he said.
“Burkino Faso is a landlocked country with no open space to the ocean. Communication is very difficult and there is very little revenue from the population,” he said. “So mining is very important to bring wealth into the country.”
Sub-Saharan Africa is witnessing an impressive surge in foreign investment that is being driven by a 21st-century resource rush. Countries such as the United States, China, Europe, India, Russia and Canada are vying to exploit the continent’s barely tapped, but vast, deposits of oil and gas, metals and precious minerals, coal and uranium.
Indeed, Canadian companies – including firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and nominally headquartered here – represent the largest source of foreign investment in Africa’s mining sector. After a recessionary lull, the commodity boom has reignited, driven by demand from China and other emerging markets. It is that same hunger for resources that has buoyed the resource-rich economies of western Canada.
“Africa has been a significant beneficiary of the rapid growth of Asian, mainly Chinese, demand for Africa’s commodity exports,” Admassu Tadesse, executive vice-president of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, told a Canada-Africa business conference held in Toronto last month.
The demand for commodities will remain an important driver of African growth, even as countries look to consolidate their gains and stimulate the broader economy through investments in infrastructure, health and education.
But foreign investment is not an unmitigated blessing. Mr. Tadesse acknowledged that African countries have experienced the “resource curse,” in which the influx of foreign money contributes to corruption and environmental degradation, while providing little or no benefit to the local population.
Non-governmental organizations are pushing resource companies to provide greater transparency in the revenues they pay to governments in order to reduce corruption, and to devote significant resources to development projects aimed at ensuring the local population benefits from investment.
And they want the Canadian government to take the lead, both domestically and by pushing the Group of 20 countries at the coming Toronto meeting to adopt the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which would force companies to spell out their local payments.
So far, Ottawa has resisted those calls, said Ousmane Déme, an Ottawa-based spokesman for the international Publish What You Pay coalition.
“Because Canada is now the biggest player in Africa in the mining sector, we would like to see the Canadian government adopt a more sustainable approach on corporate social responsibility and accountability,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we are not seeing a positive sign in that direction.”
Canadian officials, however, have signalled a willingness to put the transparency issue on the agenda at the Group of Eight meeting in Huntsville, Ont., with hopes that Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom will commit to adopting regulations for companies listed on their stock exchanges.
“ Because Canada is now the biggest player in Africa in the mining sector, we would like to see the Canadian government adopt a more sustainable approach on corporate social responsibility and accountability. Ousmane Déme, ”
— Ottawa-based spokesman for the international Publish What You Pay coalition
The Canadian mining industry says it supports broad-based, global commitments to transparency if they are adopted in a way that creates a fair playing field against international competitors.
Mr. Tadesse said many African governments are committed to programs to combat corruption, and have learned from past mistakes to use the resource revenue more wisely.
“As the lessons are applied, Africa’s natural resources will enhance the business environment and help foot the bill of the massive infrastructure program under way,” he said. “There is much promise in this regard as new oil and mineral discoveries are creating new opportunities in countries that previously had limited endowments.
The largest recipients of that influx of capital are mineral-rich and rapidly growing South Africa and the nations of Nigeria and Angola, whose prodigious offshore oil reserves have propelled them into membership in the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries.
But resource wealth is spread across the continent, and many of the countries have only begun to exploit it. Africa ranks first or second among continents in reserves of bauxite, cobalt, diamonds, platinum and zirconium, the U.S. Geological Survey notes in a recent report.
Much has been written of late about the Chinese invasion of the continent: how China’s state-owned companies – backed by Beijing’s resource diplomacy – have been investing heavily in the resources needed to feed its growing industrial demand and the infrastructure needed to get the commodities to market.
But in mining, Canada is the quiet powerhouse.
At the end of 2008, Canadian companies had mining assets of $21-billion (U.S.) in 33 countries, although 92 per cent of that was concentrated in just eight countries: Democratic Republic of Congo; Madagascar; Zambia; Tanzania; South Africa; Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.
The strong Canadian presence is the result of the country’s traditional mining prowess and the financial clout of the Toronto Stock Exchange, which is the world’s largest capital market for the mining sector. The exchange has 169 listed companies that have projects in Africa, from giants like Barrick Gold Corp. to exploration companies like Orezone. Last year alone, just its top 10 African-focused financings raised $1.8-billion.
Top 10 Africa-focused financings on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2009
Company Project
Paladin Energy Ltd. $400-million raised for uranium in Namibia
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. $345-million raised for copper and diamond in DRC, Mauritania, Zambia
IAMGOLD Corp. $345-million raised for gold in Burkina Faso
Katanga Mining Ltd. $282-million raised for copper in DRC
Anvil Mining Ltd. $200-million for copper in DRC
Equinox Minerals Ltd. $184-million for copper in Zambia
Red Back Mining Inc. $165-million for gold in Ghana, Mauritania
Banro Corporation $117-million for gold in DRC
Centamin Egypt Ltd. $98-million for gold in Egypt
Mantra Resources Limited $52-million for uranium in Tanzania, Mozambique
But Ottawa’s diplomacy has failed to keep up with the inroads made by the private sector. There is no strategic push to advance and broaden Canada’s investment and trade with the growing continent. Outside of the mining and engineering sectors,
there is only spotty Canadian business presence, said Lucien Bradet, president of the Canadian Council on Africa.
Canadian colleges, however, have been working with the mining sector and local governments to provide training programs so local residents can find skilled work in the mines. Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, Sudbury’s Cambrian College worked with a college in Mwanza, Tanzania, to train electricians and heavy-duty mechanics for mine work for Barrick, among others. It’s now working with several other colleges in the country to expand the program.
In a program funded by African governments themselves, the Association of Canadian Community Colleges has been asked to establish training programs in six West African nations, including Burkina Faso, to provide technicians and skilled workers for the mining industries, as well as other growing sectors of those economy.
“There is a tremendous shortage of skilled workers,” said Paul Bennett, the association’s vice-president, international partnerships. As a result, many companies import expatriateworkers – largely from South Africa and Australia – a trend that is both expensive and minimizes the benefits to local populations.
G8 invitation augurs well for African nations
Harper’s overture to Malawi and Ethiopia signals that Africa is finally doing more than just waiting for help
John Ibbitson /Ottawa — From Monday’s Globe and Mail /10052010
.When the world talks about matters that affect Africa, too often Africans aren’t part of the conversation.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s invitation to Ethiopia and Malawi to join the G20 talks in Toronto on June 26 and 27 ensures that the continent will have a voice in economic discussions that could deeply affect the health of its collective economy and the welfare of its citizens.
The G20, which has rapidly evolved as the premier forum for confronting global economic problems and for co-ordinating solutions, has only one permanent member from Africa: South Africa.
Yet the global economic crisis had dark consequences for African nations. Cash-strapped first world governments, including Canada’s, cut back on foreign aid to the region. Fluctuating prices wrought havoc on exports from Ethiopian coffee to Malawian minerals. And capital retreated from the continent as investors sought safer climates and stronger cash reserves. .
Nonetheless, better financial management in many countries, coupled with greater private-sector investment, allowed much of Africa to weather the recession with less trauma than had been the case during previous downturns, according to Antoinette Sayeh, the Africa head of the International Monetary Fund.
“Africa has seen a significant increase in foreign investment that predates the crisis, and during the course of the crisis, those investments also fared reasonably well,” she wrote recently.
Still, if this is to be an African century, one precondition must be economic stability outside Africa as well as within it. So there is good reason for Malawi and Ethiopia to be at the talks, though the former nation might not have been Mr. Harper’s first choice.
Any conversation between Mr. Harper and Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi’s President, might proved strained, for Canada dropped the impoverished southeast African nation from the list of major-aid recipients last year and closed the high commission in Lilongwe to boot.
The move was the result of the Conservative government’s determination to focus its foreign aid on 20 key nations, with a greater emphasis on support for countries in this hemisphere. The news was greeted with deep dismay by government officials and aid agencies.
Dimitri Soudas, Mr. Harper’s director of communications, said the government decided to limit its African aid to seven nations, excluding Malawi, “in light of their real needs, their capacity to benefit from this aid, and the extent to which these countries respond to Canada’s foreign policy priorities.”
But Mr. Mutharika was elected chairman of the 53-member African Union in January, and is thus the logical choice to represent Africa at the summit. Malawi is also one of the most genuinely democratic African nations, and under Mr. Mutharika’s leadership has begun to show gains in economic development and quality of life for its 15 million people.
Mr. Soudas said Ethiopia was chosen because of its regional and continental influence.
Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most-populous country. The United States and Europe each pour $1-billion (U.S.) in aid a year into Ethiopia, and Ethiopia remains a Canadian aid priority, despite the government’s reputation for thugishness toward opponents and journalists.
One reason is that the nation is so poor and its citizens’ situation so precarious. Another is that an unstable Ethiopia would further destabilize the Horn of Africa, which is perpetually troubled by war and civil strife. Although Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest Christian nations, a third of the population is Muslim, and instability could also turn the country and the region into a petri dish for the growth of al-Qaeda and other forms of Islamist extremism.
The G20 meetings next month will focus on an unstable European Mediterranean, on reining in irresponsible banks and investors, and on weaning global economies off government-induced stimulus without plunging everyone back into recession.
Mr. Harper’s invitation to Malawi and Ethiopia to be part of those talks signals that Africa is finally starting to contribute to solutions, rather than just passively waiting for help.
This is Africa’s moment
This century is being invented before our eyes, and Africa is the site of the greatest transformation. G8 and G20 countries had better recognize opportunity knocking – before it knocks them over.
From Monday’s Globe and Mail / Monday, May. 10, 2010
.It is time to see Africa another way, as an unshackled continent. This century is being invented before our eyes, and Africa is the site of the greatest transformation. Canada, and the other G8 and G20 countries that gather in June, had better recognize opportunity knocking – before it knocks them over.
Africa has the highest fertility rates, the youngest and the most rapidly urbanizing population on the planet. Some time about now, the one billionth African will be born, which would have aggravated grinding poverty had the continent’s economic growth not outstripped the population increases, growing on average 5 to 6 per cent a year (the IMF is forecasting African growth at 4 per cent for 2010) as a result of increasing commodity prices, debt forgiveness and free market reforms. The resiliency of African countries during the global economic crisis was in part because, in the words of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, “Africa is at the periphery of the global economy,” a situation that, he said, “can’t be left to continue.” It can’t, and it won’t.
African governments have reined in deficits, opened up to foreign investment (with inflows increasing 10 times in just 10 years), and sought to reduce reliance on the public sector. The result is an astonishing growth in entrepreneurialism. Some 330 million people are estimated to now fall into the continent’s burgeoning middle classes. Where there are middle classes, there is consumerism. Africans are subscribing to mobile phones at an astounding pace, an increase from 54 million to 350 million, or 550 per cent, over the five years ending 2008, according to a UN report. That’s the fastest growth in mobile telephone usage in the world.
That in turn is transforming commerce, government, and society. Just as e-mail, the Internet and social media are changing North America, mobile phones are changing Africa. They are creating new business models: African farmers and merchants are using text messaging to find out the latest market prices for their goods, and even as a form of banking, to collect or make payments, while rural Africans can now find out when a medical professional might be available, saving an hours-long walk to town. Video-enabled phones are helping Africans record human rights violations committed by oppressive regimes or corporations. The developed West can in many cases learn from these advances, for its own profit or for use back home.
Africa, with its vast geographic advantages (the power of the Saharan sun, the flow of great rivers, and the geothermal potential of the Rif valley), resources (it produces half the world’s chromium, half of its diamonds, half its platinum, one third of its gold, and has one-tenth the world’s proven oil reserves and one-sixth of its forest cover) and population, is an unstoppable force. It is also an attractive place to invest. One country has been quick to see Africa’s promise: Chinese direct investment in the continent is accel
erating. Canada’s private sector, too, has been among the world leaders in investment. And yet Canada’s government has made Africa less of a priority, withdrawing from many previous commitments.
Africa’s progress, though, can be slowed. The recent recession has led to near-sighted decisions that have lowered investment in the continent, by as much as two-thirds, according to recent UN data. Some donor countries, such as France, Italy and Germany, have reneged on or reduced aid commitments made at the historic 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles. This jeopardizes the tremendous strides made in Africa in recent years.
Not just Africans will be hurt. If economic resources do not keep growing, or if they stay concentrated in a few hands, abetted by some corrupt African governments, and if the threat of climate change goes unaddressed, Africa will produce new economic and environmental refugees, straining already-stretched Western social safety nets (Indeed, internal migration from the countryside to African cities is a leading edge of this change).
So when the G8 and G20 meet in Canada in June, Africa should be on the agenda. A 2009 review by the ONE campaign found that not a single G8 member was on track to deliver on a vaguely worded Gleneagles commitment to “make trade work for Africa.” Canada did well to “untie” its aid by 2012-13, so that relief dollars can be spent in Africa, rather than on Canadian products. But G8 members should make other Gleneagles promises concrete, critically by reducing their agricultural subsidies and opening up their markets to African countries.
Other G8 and G20 Africa-related agenda items ought to include health care, including maternal health, and cheaper forms of assistance that produce economic results: for instance, the “Academic Chairs for Africa” initiative, spearheaded by Canadian David Strangway, which would create 1,000 senior research positions at African universities and could help reverse Africa’s brain drain.
And the G20, itself a quickly evolving institution, will have to come to terms with Africa’s growing strength. Stephen Harper is to be commended for inviting Ethiopia and Malawi to attend the summit, but the G20 has only one permanent African member country, South Africa. The continent is ill-represented by one state alone, especially when it boasts Nigeria, the world’s eighth most populous country, and other resource-rich countries.
When the G8/G20 gather in Canada, the world’s cultural and sporting attention will be fixed elsewhere: on Africa, with South Africa hosting the World Cup in an unprecedented, continent-wide celebration. Africans are claiming their place. New stories are replacing the old: Africa rising, Africa’s century. Canada and other western countries need to join them on the fast road to development.
The Globe’s long effort pays off for Africa’s moment
Guest-edited edition is meant to challenge Canadians and bring Africa to the spotlight, writes editor-in-chief John Stackhouse
John Stackhouse, Editor-In-Chief/Globe and Mail Update / Monday, May. 10, 2010
.This edition of The Globe and Mail should surprise, delight, startle, illuminate. It should not leave you unfazed, just as Africa should not leave Canada unchanged.
The idea was born last fall, when Bono was in Toronto with his band, U2. Between concerts, he met privately with a small group of Canadians who have worked in Africa, to understand why our country seems to be losing interest in the continent.
He suggested speaking to Canadians through The Globe, to try to put Africa back in our minds at the very moment the world is looking to Canada for leadership at the G8/G20 summits.
Today, you’re holding the product of months of work, motivated not by tragedy or sadness, but by a growing awareness that Africa is key to this century, a resource-rich and youthful continent that has found itself and is set to take on the world.
Working with ONE – the advocacy group founded by Bono and Bob Geldof to take on poverty issues – a team of editors here assigned reporters, columnists and photographers, invited guest contributors (from K’Naan to Bryan Adams) and pushed for access to every key office on earth (Obama? Check. Ban Ki-moon? Check.)
The paper itself was edited over the weekend by Bono and Mr. Geldof. They picked the best material, directed our editorial board, argued passionately (with each other) over the front page design, took video questions from our online readers and sat for an interview with our foreign correspondent extraordinaire Stephanie Nolen. While Bono had to return to New York for his 50th birthday party (it was a surprise), Mr. Geldof persevered into Sunday night, reworking headlines and arguing with our staff about placement.
That was just a beginning. Today, in another first, Ory Okolloh – a fearless Kenyan-born, Harvard-educated lawyer – will help run our website, from her base in Johannesburg. If you go to globeandmail.com, you’ll find her work and a rich hub devoted to G20 issues – from the global economy and banks to terrorism and poverty. And yes, a lot of Africa. We’ll continue to surprise you with new material right through the summit.
But back to the rock stars. Why hand over the newspaper to two European musicians who have never lived in Africa?
Mr. Geldof and Bono recognize their star power, and its ability to cast light on the shadows of public debate. That’s a good tool. They also don’t presume to speak for Africans, or Canadians. They were here as global citizens, confronting a global issue.
The duo have hijacked G8 meetings to make poverty a central theme. Working with Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, they ran a global campaign that obliterated nearly $100-billion in African debt. Working with presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, they helped put HIV-AIDS atop the U.S. foreign-policy agenda. Bono raised $150-million through corporate donations for AIDS work in Africa.
Rock stars? Consider this: Mr. Geldof carries development-finance documents under his arm when he goes out for dinner. While he’s still known to many Canadians as a punk rocker, he’s a significant London-based investor and business operator, and one of Europe’s most influential political activists on debt, poverty and AIDS.
Bono is more lyrical, but no less focused. He spends as much time on African issues as on music. In March, he travelled to five African countries, and then went to the White House to brief President Barack Obama. When he landed Saturday in Toronto, he immediately turned on his phone and called a U.S. senator, to continue a conversation about U.S. policy on Africa.
For a more detailed look at how this came about, you can watch video highlights on our website. You’ll find plenty of places to express your views, and take issue with our approach.
But first, read on. The Africa century has begun, and Canada will be different for it.
AUSTRALIA :
Coal of Africa sees no impact from Australia Super Profit Tax
Monday, 10 May 2010/www.steelguru.com/(Sourced from www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk)
Coal of Africa the coal development and mining company operating in South Africa has received queries from shareholders as to the potential effects of the proposed Resource Super Profit Tax announced by the Australian Government on May 3rd 2010.
The underlying intention of the RSPT is the levying of tax on profits arising from the exploitation of non-renewable resources located in Australia.
Coal of Africa has consulted its advisors and, as the company has no operational projects in Australia, it expects no increased taxation charges resulting from the implementation of the RSPT.
EUROPE :
CHINA :
Congo Says It Won’t Approve Zijin, China Fund’s Bid for Platmin
May 10, 2010 / Bloomberg
May 10 (Bloomberg) — The Democratic Republic of Congo said it won’t approve a $284 million bid by China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. and CAD Fund to buy copper mine developer Platmin Congo because it violates regulations.
The offer is “in violation of applicable regulations,” Alexis Mikandji Penge, the chief of staff for the minister of mining, said in an e-mailed statement. “As a result, it has no effect in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Zijin, China’s largest gold producer, and Chinese state- backed CAD are buying Platmin Congo to get hold of assets including stakes in two copper-cobalt projects. The U.S. last month asked Congo to improve its business climate after a Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s project was in dispute for two-and-a-half years.
“Benefits to Zijin are almost negligible in the next three years, given their plan to start production in 2013 and the huge political risk in Congo,” said Owen Liang, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co.
The Central African nation has one of the worst business climates, according to the World Bank’s 2010 Doing Business guide. Congo ranks 182nd out of 183 countries on the list.
“The Minister of Mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo denounces and disapproves of the transaction between the Platmin and Zijin companies,” the e-mail statement said.
The opposition is another setback to Zijin’s expansion plans, as the company seeks two major overseas acquisitions this year to increase reserves. Zijin is still waiting for Chinese regulatory approval for a A$545 million ($492 million) takeover of Australia’s Indophil Resources NL to gain a stake in Southeast Asia’s largest untapped copper and gold deposit.
Approval Uncertainty
Zhao Jugang, head of board secretary office at Zijin, couldn’t immediately be reached for a comment. The company in its May 7 statement announcing the acquisition had said “there is uncertainty in obtaining” approvals from the two governments.
Zijin will own 60 percent of a venture controlling the assets, with CAD having the rest. CAD, invested in by the China Development Bank Corp., has an initial capital of $1 billion and aims to support Chinese companies in African investments, according to Zijin’s statement.
“While the acquisition is pending for approvals from both the Congo and Chinese governments, we view it as a reflection of Zijin’s persistent efforts in seeking new growth drivers,” Credit Suisse Group AG analysts including Trina Chen said today. The acquisition may boost Zijin’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 6 percent after 2013, the analysts wrote.
Congo holds 4 percent of global copper reserves, is among the world’s largest producers of cobalt and industrial diamonds, and is Africa’s largest producer of tin ore, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
–Michael J. Kavanagh and Li Xiaowei Editors: Tan Hwee Ann, Indranil Ghosh.
INDIA :
India’s coal needs to get more pressing
May 10, 2010/www.commodityonline.com/By Michael Economides
India is hungry for coal and domestically there is neither the quantity nor the quality to feed the country’s needs. The situation is exacerbated because coal consumption has soared in the construction (steel, cement) and power generation sectors. Given ongoing high demand, the problem is expected to become even more pressing.
Following China’s example, India is seeking new and distant coal locations in the US, Colombia and Russia to add to supplies from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa, the usual sources of the recent past. It is expected that American and Colombian coal will be shipped to India before the end of the year. China, paving the way, has imported several million tons of coal from Colombia this year. The Chinese generally blaze the coal import trail for India to follow. This is a routine that is already happening in South Africa. India imported 1.4 million metric tons (Mt) from South Africa in February, double the January figure of over 720,000 Mt.
India and China, the two fastest growing large coal-consuming countries, are looking for high-energy content coal at a low average cost that would justify the long-distance shipment. “It’s good to know that India is a market into which we can sell our coal, even if it’s not our first choice,” a Colombian supplier said.
Industry sources say that over the last few months many global coal producers and traders have been assessing the prospects of the Indian market. These include Colombia’s Cerrejon, conglomerates Vale, Xstrata, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Anglo Coal, and Mechel from Russia. In addition Europe is close to shipping surplus coal for the first time from Netherlands to India. In the export hubs of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp, coal stockpiles are reportedly over 7 million metric tons (Mt) out of a total capacity of around 9 million Mt.
The search for more coal is due to India’s need for more electricity. The Eleventh Plan of India (ending March 2012) calls for the addition of more than 50 GW of new coal-fired generating capacity.
Coal accounts for over half of India’s total energy consumption. About 70 percent of India’s own coal production is already utilized for power generation while three quarters of India’s electricity is generated from over 80 coal-fired thermal plants. India, the third biggest coal producer in the world, had reserves of 56,498 million Mt, or nearly 7 percent of the world total.
Yet, India’s federal coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal recently said coal imports are likely to rise 21 percent over the next year. The imports are needed because domestic output is not keeping pace with the demands of a fast-growing Indian economy. Jaiswal added that coal imports in 2010/11 are estimated to top 85 million Mt up from 70 million Mt in the current fiscal year. “Though local production has increased by about 8 percent, yet energy requirements have risen by 15 percent,” Jaiswal said. The import figures represent almost 15 percent of India’s coal consumption of over 600 million Mt.
More coal imports are almost certain in the future. The Indian government estimates that imports could reach 200 million Mt by 2017.
Indian largest coal producer, the state owned Coal India Limited (CIL), is looking to buy joint global stakes with the US’s largest coal firm, Peabody Energy Corp, in America, Australia, Indonesia and South Africa. CIL has earmarked over $2 billion over the next four years to buy stakes in overseas assets. Last year, CIL acquired two blocks with estimated reserves of 1 billion tons in Mozambique.
State-owned National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), India’s biggest power producer, and Tata Power are also looking to put in place coal supplies from Australia, Indonesia and Africa.
Following suit is the $15-billion, Ruia family-controlled, Mumbai-based Essar Group (with interests in oil, steel, retail, power) that recently finalized a deal to buy Aries coal mines in Indonesia from an unnamed private company. The deal follows the Essar Group’s recent acquisition of US-based Trinity Coal (200 million tons reserves) for $600 million. The company has plans to raise about $3 billion by listing its energy and power businesses on the London bourse, to fund its $8 billion India expansion plans.
To facilitate these acquisitions New Delhi has drawn plans to create a sovereign fund that will help state-run firms finance the purchase of oil, gas, coal, LNG, and other energy sources abroad. The government has also ratified a coal ministry move to auction coal blocks to ensure transparency and speed the allotment process. “Only the highest bidder would be given coal blocks in the country, as it was found that private players were acquiring them as property assets,” the coal ministry has said. The government has also proposed setting up a coal regulator to deal with coal pricing and disputes.
Despite these efforts, India has a long way to go to meet its coal requirements and it’s clear that international sources are likely to dominate India’s ever-increasing energy appetite.
Courtesy: Oilprice.com
Vedanta buys Anglo zinc assets for $1.3 bn
10 May 2010/REUTERS
LONDON: India-focused mining group Vedanta Resources Plc bought Anglo American’s zinc assets for $1.34 billion on Monday to boost its exposure to
the metal.
Vedanta will become the world’s largest zinc producer, with 11 percent of the global market, after buying the assets, including the Skorpion mine in Namibia, lisheen in Ireland and Black Mountain in South Africa. “These high quality assets complement Vedanta’s existing portfolio, creating the largest zinc and lead producer in the world,” Chairman Anil Agarwal said.
The sale for Anglo is one step on a divestment programme that seeks trim its portfolio and focus on key commodities, such as copper, iron ore and platinum.
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 10 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,10/05/2010
