For the past couple of decade; Philippines have been in the verge of defining the most outspoken program on Population Control which is supported by the United Nation and several Non-government Agencies.  Its policies and guidelines are very much ideal that no other nation can provide the same structure as far as definition of the program is concern.

In fact, Philippines is among the few country who operates a department specific to Population Control Program (PCP). 

Today; the author wishes to identify results from the profound structure of the project.  Because the Philippine Government owns the responsibility to present an outlined outcome of the PCP; not only to the Filipino people but to include the UN who is involve in funding the project.

Should the Philippine Government failed; the Commission on Population Control should publish the figure – and if the PCP Project is a real failure – presentation of grounds should be made available at the same time. Thus, UN can justify the multi million funding from a so called ravage project.

The Real Picture:

Artificial birth control is often taboo in this staunchly Roman Catholic country. Yet with a birth rate that is one of the highest in the world, sustainable population growth is becoming a burning issue, especially to the millions of poor people struggling to feed themselves at these times of high food prices.

This year’s global food crisis, which saw prices of basic commodities such as rice soar beyond the reach of millions of poor people, created shock waves in the Philippines where over 40 percent of the population live on a pay less than Php. 100.00 a day.

Spooked by a precarious political and economic situation, some lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that will compel the central government to promote artificial family planning rather than solely focusing on natural birth control methods; an acivity supported by the Church.

Twenty-seven economists, including four former economic planning secretaries and one former budget secretary, have signed a paper supporting the bill.

“The absence of an unambiguous population policy reflects a lack of seriousness in promoting long-term economic growth and poverty reduction,” said Ernesto Pernia, a professor of economics at the University of the Philippines, and one of the 27 signatories.

He compares the Philippines to Thailand.

In 1975 both countries had similar population sizes of 41 to 42 million. Then Bangkok launched a major family planning effort.

Now Thailand has a population of around 64 million and is the world’s top exporter of rice. Meanwhile, the Philippines with a population of 90 million and become the world’s top importer of the grain.

Thailand had a gross annual income per capita of about 7,880 in U$ in 2007, while in the Philippines was 3,730 in U$.

According to the UP Professor, that if the Philippines had followed the (population) growth pattern of Thailand between 1975 and 2000 the per capita income would have been at least 22 percent higher and there would have been 5 million less poor people, said Pernia. “That is a conservative estimate.”

Yet the proposed reproductive health bill will likely never see the light of day as the influential Catholic Church is violently opposing the artificial birth control – defined as a violation of its religions norms.

The Church has denounced the bill as “morally unacceptable” and warned politicians, particularly senators who will be running for the presidency in 2010, that their stance will be remembered.

“The Catholic Church knows how to mobilize its members not to vote for anti-life politicians,” said Father Melvin Castro of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in a statement.

Priests at some Sunday masses gave PowerPoint presentations reiterating the Church’s stand on family planning and one archbishop even suggested denying communion to politicians who supported the law.

Nearly half of the estimated 3.1 million pregnancies that occur every year in this Southeast Asian country are unplanned. Around half a million end in illegal and often dangerous back-street abortions.

While a relatively small middle class in the Philippines can easily afford contraceptives, millions of poor women cannot. A month’s supply of the pill costs 40.00 pesos or around $1.00, around half the average daily salary of almost half of the population.

Backlash after the UN withdraw the PCP Funds

A lack of accurate information and access is also a problem.

Local governments often do not have the money to provide pills and condoms in public clinics and mayors that prefer to toe the Church line can ban them from clinics.

Officials who defy the Church sometimes risk a backlash.

Joseph Juico, a councillor in Quezon City in Manila, was denounced for introducing a family planning program in schools.

“Some priests and some lay ministers were calling me an abortionist. They were calling me a worker of Satan,” Juico said.

Couples attending compulsory family planning seminars before their weddings are often warned off using artificial methods.

“One of the women leading our workshop told us the pill had given her varicose veins, diabetes and made her deaf in one ear,” said one newlywed, who declined to be named.

Catholic clerics say natural family planning methods such as abstinence when the woman is ovulating are effective.

But in practice they are often unreliable and difficult to follow. Many couples in the Philippines only see each other once or twice a month because either the man or the woman has a live-in manual job elsewhere. It’s even less if one of them works abroad.

Extra-marital affairs rarely alluded to by priests in the Philippines, are common and men sometimes have second or third families.

A lack of artificial contraception means that many women literally burst into tears when their period is even one day late as the only recourse for an unplanned pregnancy is an illegal abortion or giving birth to another child they can ill afford to feed.

Without an effective birth control policy, the Philippines, already the world’s 12th most populous country is projected to have a population of over 140 million by 2040, then there will be no place to live on grounds but in shanties, swamps and shorelines. This will put a huge strain on its creaking health system, schools and other services, and its ability to feed itself. 

Extreme scarcity of food will be the canvass, looters, hold uppers, killers; one will survive synonymous to a life in jungle; everyone will battle hard for food. Sick people will outnumber, hospitals and healthcare facility will be deserted – hence only a few will afford medical services.  Criminalities, lawlessness and civil disobedience will skyrocket beyond controllable figures destroying the human race – where to breath a life for survival will no longer be probable.

Are we now ready to find an outcome of an impartial, poor and garbage population control policy that is influenced by our pious leaders?

Think again and support the best scientific alternative means – close at hand.  

The Author is an academic person who owns a passion for peace and self development. He who travels the world in search of a well defined political governance; where peace, abundance and security are of bounty.

He owns a strong faith in the theory of self preservation and self trust.

From his own conviction, He value not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumble, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

He also believes that ones good effort should be credited with recognition that belongs to the man who is in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be like those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. agp_von@yahoo.com

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Introduction

In the past few years, organizations worldwide have begun to embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR) both as a social responsibility and for competitive advantage. As HR leaders continue to take greater responsibility and initiative regarding corporate social responsibility policies, practices and activities, it is useful to reflect upon the drivers of CSR and HR’s expanding leadership role in CSR strategy and implementation. Given the complexity of corporate social responsibility combined with globalization—such as the potential benefits to society as well as to the company—this discussion requires thoughtful consideration of not only the primary reasons organizations in many countries are beginning to now view corporate social responsibility as a vital part of their business strategy but also a solid understanding of the link between the key drivers and the benefits of corporate social responsibility and HR’s role.

Despite the extensive body of literature examining firms’ strategies for CSR, majority of this research are as case studies and surveys of the CSR initiatives and CSR reporting. Little insight exists into the implementation CSR for sustainable development. This paper seeks to address this gap by examining issues surrounding the implementation and sustenance of CSR programs. Specifically, the question of how to implement the CSR initiatives systematically for the long term benefit of the organization is examined.

Concept of CSR

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (1998) defines corporate social responsibility as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. According to Goralski, (1972), any working definition of Corporate Social Responsibility requires three aspects: A business expenditure or activity must be ‘one for which the marginal returns to the corporation are less than the returns available from some alternative expenditure’; it must be purely voluntary; and must be an actual corporate expenditure rather than a conduit for individual largess. Then Davis (1973) propounded, the much known, ‘Iron Law of responsibility’. According to Mehta (2004) social responsibility is essentially a subjective term. Some interpret it as no more than the ‘price’ that needs to be paid to mitigate the possibly adverse implications of a company’s activities on the local community; and others as a good proxy for ‘corporate citizenship’ whilst others as the index for corporate ethics. Other definitions have been given by Wharton & Clifton (2002). Saxena & Gupta (2005) and define CSR as ‘Part – lying with corporates – of total commitment required to achieve complete harmony between terms and demands, even conflicting ones, of three core players – Society, Government and Corporates – for growth of healthy, meaningful and sustainable ‘Business’’.

As Gillis & Spring (2001) emphasize, consumers, investors, community members and potential employees are all seeking and demanding information on a corporation’s social performance; thereby asking corporates to be conscious of their responsibilities towards society. Khandwalla, (2004) voices similar sentiments that the fundamental idea embedded in CSR is that business corporations can no longer act as isolated entities, detached from the broader issues of society. As Cherunilam (1998) puts it, there is a symbiotic relationship that needs to exist between Business and Society. He further adds that business survives using resources of society, and has responsibility to society.

Key potential benefits for firms implementing CSR

Orlitzky, Schmidt, and Rynes (2003) provide a “breakthrough” in the CSR literature with meta-analytic evidence showing a significant positive effect of corporate social/environmental performance on corporate financial performance. Mackey, and Barney (2005) theorize with a supply and demand model that investing in socially responsible initiatives will maximize the market value of the firm. These studies should bring some closure on the long-running debate (Margolis & Walsh, 2003; McWilliams & Siegel, 2000, 2001; Roman, Hayibor, & Alge, 1999; Ullmann, 1985; Wood & Jones, 1995) about whether it is in an organization’s financial best interest to engage in CSR. In two studies Greening and Turban (2000; Turban & Greening, 1997) found that job applicants’ perceptions of a firm’s corporate social performance influenced their desire to work for the firm. With regard to CSR initiatives within the organization, it was found that under unjust conditions, employees reciprocate through lowered performance and vengeful behaviors (Ambrose et.al., 2002; Aquino et.al, 2001; Tripp et.al., 2002). Research shows that when organizational authorities are trustworthy, unbiased, and honest, employees feel pride and affiliation and behave in ways that are beneficial to the organization (Huo et.al., 1996; Tyler & Degoey, 1995; Tyler et al., 1996). Organizational actors are likely to engage in CSR to emulate their peers in order to preserve their social legitimacy (Schuman, 2004) by preventing negative perceptions, and to ensure the organization’s long-term survival(Meyer & Rowan, 1977) and social license to operate (Livesey, 2001). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a key component of a firm’s reputation (Argenti and Druckenmiller, 2004; Fombrun, 2005; Schnietz and Epstein, 2005).

Challenges in CSR implementation

But generally speaking, every CSR instrument has some major challenges to address.  The challenges identified are securing funds, Securing partners in implementation, Securing commitment from management, Securing commitment from employees, Securing commitment from company headquarters, Skepticism of other stakeholders on the real motives of CSR, lack of time, lack of cooperation from beneficiaries (Yoro, 2006). In India CSR lacks transparency, specific standards and often amount to little more than window-dressing and must be compared to violations of social and environmental standards within companies (Tatjana Chahoud et al.,2007). In India the CSR multi-stakeholder approachis still rather fragmented, and interaction between business and civil society organizations, especially trade unions, is still rare and takes place, at best, on an ad-hoc basis (Tatjana Chahoud et al., 2007). According to various surveys (including UNDP et al. (2002), WEF 2003), the monitoring problem persists and constitutes a possible obstacle to further CSR engagement. The extent to which companies incorporate CSR into their business processes was questioned by several of the stakeholders included in the survey, and doubts have been expressed by other empirical studies (Arora and Puranik 2004, 97). The vast majority of Indian companies include only the external dimension in their understanding of CSR. Indian companies put considerable effort into identifying beneficiaries, since they regard correct identification as one of the major challenges in their CSR engagement (Tatjana Chahoud et al., 2007). Generally Indian companies claim that they try to engage with their external stakeholders in a sustainable manner. However, what they meant by “sustainable engagement” was not absolutely clear from the companies’ answers (Tatjana Chahoud et al., 2007) The empirical results of the present study show that Indian CSR is still in a confused state in India (Arora and Puranik 2004, 98).

These clearly indicate that in many Indian organizations CSR implementation is not carried out in systematic manner except in few organizations. Hence a clear plan for implementation would aid the organizations in sustainable CSR initiatives.

Framework for CSR Implementation

There is no one-size-fits-all method for implementing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach: each firm has unique characteristics and circumstances that will affect how it views its social responsibilities; and each will vary in its awareness of CSR issues and how much work it has already done towards implementing a CSR approach. That being said, there is considerable value in proceeding with CSR implementation in a systematic way — in harmony with the firm’s mission, and sensitive to its business culture, environment and risk profile, and operating conditions. The bottom line is that CSR needs to be integrated into the firm’s core decision making, strategy, management processes and activities, be it incrementally or comprehensively.

This paper proposes an implementation framework comprising six key tasks (see chart below). In recognition of the fact that firms are at different levels of sophistication and development with respect to CSR, it is understood that firms may choose to forego a particular aspect or task when it has already been undertaken.

When?

(Conceptual phase)

What?

(Task delineation)

How?

(Checkpoints on the journey)

Dr. Vijila Kennedy

RVS Institute of Management Studies & Research, Coimbatore

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“For the second consecutive year Sierra Leone has come last in the UN Development Program ranking of human development indicators of 179 countries, which according to Engilbert Gudmundsson, World Bank Sierra Leone country director, “should be a call to action for everyone who is interested in the well-being of ordinary people in Sierra Leone”.  Sierra Leone’s maternal mortality indicators – the highest in the world – continue to drag the country down, according to UNDP-Sierra Leone deputy country director Samuel Harbor. Of every 100,000 live births, 1,800 women die according to the UNDP figures, while one in four children die before they reach age five.

While Sierra Leone emerged from conflict almost a decade ago, progress in rehabilitating the economy and building up basic health and education services has been slow, says West Africa regional World Bank country director, Ishac Diwan. Just half of Sierra Leone’s primary schools are functioning, many of them in inadequate conditions, and secondary school attendance is still only at 44 percent, according to the UN.  But the government is cash-strapped. “Sierra Leone is very poor, so simply put, the ability of the government to put in place development measures is very limited,” said Richard Moncrieff, West Africa regional director of think-tank the International Crisis Group (Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2008).  

For ordinary Sierra Leoneans, the true anguish of the slow development pace is taking its toll on them. If government intervention remains sloppy and erratic, the consequences will be grim both ethically and politically.

Politicians and policymakers do in fact have it in their power to change the trend of the human development index for Sierra Leone if only they are genuinely interested in fighting corruption vis-à-vis development, peace and human security. But so far, President Ernest Koroma’s All People’s Congress (A.P.C.) administration does not seem to have all the answers to the numerous problems facing the poor and exploited masses nor does his political program seem to differ with that of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (S.L.P.P.) it replaced. The people of Sierra Leone remain isolated from their own resources deprived of even the basic social services (energy, tap water and housing) required for growth and development. This has had the immaculately dysfunctional consequence of further worsening the living conditions in the country with still a low life expectancy, high infant mortality rates, a declining economy and a vastly hungry population which were the hallmarks of Tejan Kabbah’s policies and eleven years in office. Instead, the new political elite have, unsurprisingly, turned their rise to power into an opportunity.  

[Absurdly,] law makers in Sierra Leone are not only asking for four thousand dollars (US$ 4,000 or Le 12 million) per month but are also requesting a soft loan of USD$ 45,000 as car loan. They are asking for a 30 percent (%) payment of the cost over a three year period. These MPs want 70 percent (%) of the car loans absorbed by the budget, paid for by the tax payers. We are even told the initial recommendation was in a threshold of six thousand dollars (US$ 6,000) monthly, advocated for by the president, referring to it as reasonable payment. Granted the MPs current take home pay of US$ 768 (Le 2,288,745) per month is one of the smallest in the sub-region, but conservatively the said amount is the envy of many civil servants, who sadly do not even make US$ 20 per month.

Where were the MPs when they got bulldozed in the passage of some US$ 300,000 for a mere presidential inauguration or other travel expenses to the Gambia and other places, or the setting up of a commission of inquiry when there is an already established Anti-corruption Commission unit? Had the MPs being truthful in taken up tough issues, there is no way the so-called WANZA pay out running into billions can even be accommodated, or the Income electric electrification deal currently costing the nation unprecedented bill to service. The MPs can justify their request by holding an investigation into the process to make some savings in this bizarre operations condemned by the ACC but fell short to offer punitive measures (Concord Times, 2008).

Interestingly, Abdul Serry-Kamal, the country’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, took it as a chance to engage in acts which did not properly serve the interest of the people of Sierra Leone when wrapped up in that deal that gave the Lebanese merchant Mohamed Wanza $25,000,000.00 for spurious claims against the people of Sierra Leone. The local tabloid has portrayed the Wanza deal as demonstrating the failure of responsible governance (with “people with ancillary interests (rumored to include the Attorney General himself in receiving various unspecified shares of the settlement) would have received their cuts” to make the deal work for Wanza) (The New People Newspaper, 2008).

The real challenge is not the technical difficulty of nation building but the political difficulty of confronting the lobbying interests and illusions on which current policies rest. Ending corruption in Sierra Leone will involve three politically challenging steps. First, contrary to the romantics, the country needs severe punishment for corruption crimes, not less. The Singaporean model of crime and punishment, for instance, has some good lessons Sierra Leoneans can learn from.  

“Singapore’s legal system might seem unusually severe. Although Singapore does not hand out the death penalty randomly, Amnesty International states that Singapore has one of the world’s highest rates of execution relative to its population for drug trafficking and crimes of corruption. Even minor civic violations such as spitting, littering, or dropping cigarette butts on the street are dealt with heavy fines. [Singapore’s severe legal system thus seems to be working because Singapore is considered] one of the cleanest, greenest cities in the world, and a popular tourist destination, receiving over eight million visitors a year. At just 700 square kilometers, Singapore has an annual GDP that competes with leading nations of Europe. This gives it the world’s fourth most competitive economy, placing it ahead of the United States. The city-state also boasts a high standard of living, low unemployment, and a literacy rate of 98 percent. Singapore has 12 times the population of Vancouver but just half the crime rate” (Pacific Rim Magazine, 2008).

Multi-Sectoral Strategy against Corruption

Typically, in contemplating on a solution to a problem, people look to its causes—or, yet more absurdly, to its “root” cause. But there need be no rational correlation between the cause of a problem and fitting or even just realistic solutions to it. Such is the case with the development crisis in Sierra Leone. The root cause of the development problems Sierra Leone faces is the illusion and greed that sustains its systemic corruption. Corruption in government accounts for the failure of successive leaderships in addressing the country’s sluggish economic development and improving its human development index score.

Despite its potential, Sierra Leone remains among the poorest nations in the world with dependency on a ward of foreign donors because it does not have the economic resources to develop its economy. The country will still need a large base of sustained foreign support to significantly lift the standard of living of its people. Most of the foreign investment however will be in the mining sector, even though the sector creates relatively few jobs, though generates significant profits. The country’s basic infrastructure meanwhile remains inadequate, particularly faced with issues of insufficient electric supply, a marked lack of health infrastructure and the inadequate delivery of basic services. There is also a dearth of skilled manpower available to meet the demands of a constructive national development strategy and the country’s unreasonable transport structure also needs upgraded. Clearly, Sierra Leone still has a lot of ground to make up from many years of political instability and the horrors and devastation caused by the Civil War of the 1990s.

The IMF Country Staff Report No. 08/249, a Second Review under the Three-Year Arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility has shown performance to be mixed under the Fund-Supported Program with an output growth of 6.8 percent and broad-based, but missed key fiscal revenue and spending objectives clouded by slow progress on the structural reform front. Also, the output growth has been matched with significant revenue shortfalls in the second half of 2006 (0.7 percent of GDP) and 2007 (2.4 percent of GDP) derailed the PRGF arrangement. These shortfalls have only become more common with the leadership volatility that accompanies governing Sierra Leone. Accordingly, against a backdrop of relentlessly corrupt players in government, stable development has fluctuated more sharply as well.

The unambiguous losers when it comes to the relentless corruption in government are the poor people of Sierra Leone. The majority of the population of Sierra Leone barely makes ends meet day by day. Being poor, they are inevitably squeezed by bad management of the natural resources of the country, and by cruel implications of the illusions and greed that define the Sierra Leone society, the poor people of Sierra Leone does not seem to have any chance. The hungry youth that constitute a huge percentage of the marginalized poor are the unlikely victims who have not accepted their fate quietly. For decades, hunger among the youth has provoked the same response: riots – the classic political base for populist politics.

Also, at the end of the corruption chain, comes the real crunch: as poverty deepens among the rural-urban poor, those most likely to go hungry are children. Growth stunting is common among malnourished young children who remain in these poor rural-urban environments. Stunted growth is not merely a physical condition; it affects the complete physical, mental and social well-being of these young children. It is an irreversible condition that lasts a lifetime, and indeed, some studies find that it is passed down through generations. And so although the persistence of poverty in Sierra Leone is today’s news, if it is not decisively dealt with all seriousness at this time, its consequences will seal the fate of Sierra Leone which is already at the precipice of self-annihilation because of the political stakeholders’ inability to change their behaviors.

In short, national corruption must be dealt with, and it must be dealt with seriously, because the adverse consequences of corruption are so persistent and are the conditions responsible for the poor human development index rating for Sierra Leone. The question is how. The flaw is not in the people. The solution must come from the political leadership. That kind of leadership that could address the endemic corruption in the society has been talked about for decades, but it now must be taken more seriously.

Fortunately, policymakers have the power to do all of this: by changing anti-corruption regulation they can make laws more draconian and effective; by encouraging organizational changes within the Anti Corruption Commission (A.C.C.), they can make the A.C.C. more relevant and a force for good; and by encouraging innovations in technology and its integration in all government departments, they can regulate better the workings of government. When corruption is effectively contained the key parameters in advancing development, which are to (i) mobilize more domestic revenue; (ii) reorient public spending to infrastructure projects and poverty-reducing programs; (iii) prevent rapid accumulation of public debt; and (iv) accelerate implementation of structural reforms, can be better coordinated. Such structural reform agenda has to be revitalized to sustain growth in order to progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (M.D.G.s).

Program Objectives and Policies of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)

The key medium-term objectives of the PRGF-supported program which have been revised by the current administration in Sierra Leone projected a real GDP growth to be slightly lower but still strong at 6 percent, and double-digit inflation is expected to linger beyond 2010, assuming lagged spillovers from higher food and energy prices. With the policy objectives for 2008 to consolidate macroeconomic stabilization and prepare for sustained high growth over the medium term, the macroeconomic framework for 2008 at a real GDP growth of 6 percent has acquired a strange allure. Macroeconomics based on further expansion of agricultural, manufacturing, construction and service activities is prized as constructive in both its literal and its metaphoric sense. (The Breton Woods institutions are its leading apostles). In its literal sense, macroeconomic development is now a premium strategy, a development brand through which improvements in education and infrastructure and lower inflation levels would lead to both growth and progressive distributional change. In its metaphoric sense, it represents the antithesis of large government, hierarchical, pressured institutions in which government is made to work leading to faster growth. The Breton Woods institutions have suggested a model framework necessary to preserve institutions in Sierra Leone as efficiently functioning intuitions.

But distressingly, Sierra Leone institutions show little inclination to preserve themselves as functioning institutions. Given the chance, politicians come to these institutions and all they do is to embezzle and misappropriate government resources rendering institutions unproductive. This is because Sierra Leoneans believe the sure way of becoming fiscally adequate is by having access to government resources. The political life forces many educated Sierra Leoneans into the role of political activism, a role for which most take on with the ulterior motive of enriching themselves at the expense of national development programs. In successful market economies, political activism is a minority pursuit; most people opt for entrepreneurship so that others can have the worry and grind of running a government.

In modern political practice, selfless patriotism is helpful. In modern governance, corruption is an abomination, technology is essentially relevant to effective governance, and rigid regulatory standards are the holy grail of anti corruption measures. Far from being the answer to national lack of development, the political rhetoric about anti corruption measures does not have the force of law in a country that has not made any real effort to develop itself after independence.

Successful societies are better suited to cope with less draconian anti corruption laws and regulation. Yet since it got her independence from Britain, Sierra Leone has not been serious about making development work, basing political strategies instead on rhetoric and lies. This neglect is all the more striking given the persistence of corruption and poverty driven by the illusion and greed of the political elite.

The critical challenges for Sierra Leone remain to enhance recovery; sustain democratic governance, peace, justice and security; protect the human rights of vulnerable groups; create employment, particularly for youth; increase capacities for managing development and tackling income poverty; broaden political participation, especially amongst marginalized groups such as women and youth; accelerate the pace of social advancement; and reduce the heavy dependence on Official Development Assistance (O.D.A.). These key priorities are articulated in the conclusions of the Consultative Group Meeting in December 2006, the Peace Consolidation Strategy agreed with the Peacebuilding Commission and other economic development planning documents.

Making Governance Work

The five reforms – judicial reform, civil society and media, reform in the health services system, reform in tax, customs, and police administration, reform in the center for combating economic crime and corruption – fit together economically and politically. Measures have to be constructive measures to support reforms to reduce corruption and improve transparency and accountability. Good governance fundamentally underpins effective poverty reduction and sustained economic growth through government that is competent, transparent, non-corrupt, and responsive to the needs of its people. Reliable players in legislating laws and ensuring an equal playing field are essential in promoting lasting development, as is a reliable judicial system that adjudicates fairly. Only a practice of genuine democracy in Sierra Leone can harness the talents of all its citizens and allow them opportunities to realize that potential in the open marketplace of goods and ideas—a brand of development strategy echoed in the 2002 Monterrey Consensus, which states that: “Good governance is essential for sustainable development. Sound economic policies, solid democratic institutions responsive to the needs of the people and improved infrastructure are the basis for sustained economic growth, poverty eradication and employment creation” (U.S. Department of State, 2007).

It is time for Sierra Leone’s political elite to make conscious, determined efforts to pursue democracy and to rule justly, sometimes in challenging contexts. Politicians should now be seen to take substantive steps that increase transparency and good governance, both to expand freedom and democracy and because those policies have the greatest chance of reducing poverty and benefiting the lives of ordinary citizens. Such policies have the potential to attract growth-oriented foreign development assistance and investment (such as meeting the qualifying criteria for the Threshold Program of millions of dollars of assistance from the Millennium Challenge Account (M.C.A.) managed by the Millennium Challenged Corporation (M.C.C.), a US-based corporation) that can have powerful multiplier effects, both economically and in terms of democratic governance.

The defining principle of a Koroma administration National Development Strategy is reform that needs to be supported by messages of equal potency. The Koroma administration cannot expect to eliminate national development risks by being lenient with corruption in government. Government in Sierra Leone should understand how to set priorities and consider inescapable tradeoffs and opportunity costs. A responsible strategy should strive for reform to control corruption and providing material and technical assistance in five distinct component areas:

Component One: Judicial reform, with commitment to:

o    Reduce opportunities for corruption in the judiciary through increased transparency and accountability.

o    Automate the organizational management and functioning of the courts.

o    Improve Court procedures.

o    Clarify the roles of court personnel.

o    Providing training, court infrastructure improvements, and better management and IT systems.

o    Refocus priorities which recognize the priority to provide “primary justice” – in other words justice at the community level with a formal legal system.

o    Making sure that alternative systems for delivering justice (including through chiefdoms) are functioning properly and fairly.

o    Dealing with the backlogs and delays that continue to beset the formal justice system – civil, criminal and juvenile.

o    Putting in place new institutional arrangements to enhance cooperation, coordination and communication between the many actors involved in the justice sector. 

Component Two: Civil society and mass-media reform, with commitment to:

o    Support NGO monitoring of all components and initiatives.

o    Build the capacity of Sierra Leonean NGOs and mass media.

o    Implement reforms and new Government policies that can enable civil society and mass media organizations to effectively play their roles as monitors of government policy and performance.

o    Educate the public.

o    Build effective models of NGO/government partnership.

Component Three: Reform in the health services system, with commitment to:

o    Complement its ongoing efforts to make quality health care more accessible and transparent to all patients.

o    Reduce opportunities for corruption in the health care delivery system by limiting the discretionary powers of health care providers, budget managers, and procurement agents.

o    Establishment of norms and standards and by increasing accountability through increased oversight.

Component Four: Reform in tax, customs, and police administration, with commitment to:

o    Improve capacities and transparency in tax collection and customs administration

o    Improve institutional and human resource capacities in police administration

o    Improve Ethics Code implementation systems.

Component Five: Reform in the Anti Corruption Commission (A.C.C.), with commitment to:

o    Provide technical assistance to help the A.C.C. implement institutional reforms to decentralize the agency

o    Improve institutional and human resource capacities in police administration.

o    Help create an independent Civilian Board to monitor the activity of the A.C.C. and to advise the A.C.C. Commissioner.

o    Improve institutional and human resource capacities.

o    Enhance whistleblower protection mechanisms.

o    Improve delivery of social services in terms of quality, quantity and process.

Setting a Few Examples

Sierra Leonean political heavy weights will definitely need to do some genuine rethinking. The people most attracted to containing corruption through assertive leadership are potentially the constituency that could save Sierra Leone from its ruinous governance policies. The players in power in Sierra Leone indeed need to be serious about eliminating their dependence on corruption and recognizing a comprehensive approach to the process of reform with a national development strategy becoming an integral part of the overall process rather than a stand alone instrument for combating corruption. Sierra Leonean politicians are quite simply too profligate when it comes to their use of government resources as they do sustain a high-income lifestyle. The Sierra Leone Anti Corruption system needs to be shifted from burdening work to discouraging crimes of corruption with all entities constituting the pillars of integrity demonstrating zero-tolerance to corruption in all its forms and the supremacy of the law prevailing.

The mark of a good politician is the ability to guide citizens away from corrupt practices. Unless countered, corruption will continue to block the policies needed to address the human development index crisis in Sierra Leone. Properly informed, many citizens will rethink their priorities, but politicians will need to deliver these messages and forge new alliances. If corruption and poverty conditions are not dealt with decisively, the youth and rural-urban children will remain hungry and disoriented, and there is no hope for Sierra Leone. Setting a few examples by experimenting with the Singaporean legal system of justice against crimes of corruption is a small price to pay.

Related posts:

1. Human Development Index and Gender Development Index of India
2. A Balanced Strategy: Reprogramming Ngos and Enhancing Their Relevance as Development Partners in Sierra Leone
3. Sierra Leone Conflict Diamonds

ng>Problem of Identity in Globalization

Dr.R.Murali

Head, Dept. of Philosophy

The Madura College

Madurai-625011

“A world culture which was simply a uniform culture would be no culture at all. We should have a humanity de-humanised. It would be a nightmare”.- Eliot, T.S.

Although essentially an economic phenomenon, globalization could only be envisaged in the context of wider interaction between different cultures, and it is this aspect of globalization, its cultural over-spill, as it were, that many see as a greater threat than its purely economic aspect. Voices came to be raised against the globalization process and the danger it represents for specific cultural identities which, according to the anti-globalization lobby, are at risk of being altogether lost or, at best, greatly diluted, in the context of globalization.

One of the strongest critics to globalization comes from the fear that such a process might erode national cultures and individual identities. Mass consumption of standardized goods brought up by international trade and Foreign Direct Investment in cultural and other sectors may be seen as negative because it crowds out self-produced, traditional and locally manufactured goods and services or tends to reduce the perceived value of these goods to their so-called “pure” market value. Similarly, migration flows may be perceived as endangering local cultures and creating local political tensions over the provision of public goods in local receiving communities.

In contemporary socio-cultural conditions an individual is ‘forced’ to be in the constant search for identities, he cannot stay committed to one and the same identity for a long period of time.

The use of the magic word “identity” (“original identity”) obviously implies an explicit polemic against Modernity and stands for tradition as an apparently safe place against differences and uniqueness. It is quite clear that such a pleading sees culture in a rigid, fetishistic manner, but it is nevertheless important to what extent these terms have a strategic value today. We know very well that the instrumentalization of a blocked concept of cultural identity has far more harmful consequences in the practice: it is no coincidence that the initially positive concept of multiculturalism has turned today into a growing problem and is even negatively valued. The theoretical consequences of such use -or misuse- of the concept of identity have been highlighted probably best by Samuel Huntington’s scheme of the “clash of civilizations”. It is obvious that neither “globalization” nor “identity” are neutral concepts, but hardly fought for constructions determining each other and which also define different points of view and can name a number of diverging phenomena.

Almost all agree on the point, that globalization cannot be turned back.

Whether we are in favor of globalization or are against it, it is definitely an ever-expanding process.

Globalization is a three  dimensional term, encompassing political, economical and cultural aspects. As for the political and cultural dimension of globalization, we are

confronted via the world media with an agenda reflecting the downfall of the national state model, and with the prevalence in recent times of the terms and fears known as cultural “homogenization” and micro nationalism.

In recent years, with the process of globalization, the international media has begun to present the national state model as an old fashioned style of management.

Today in place of referring to total independence, countries speak of their mutual dependence on each other. Total independence has become impossible and is viewed as a third world country approach.

Economics is the most important dimension of globalization, which affects politics, and politics in return affects economics, and both of these affect the cultural dimension of globalization. The cultural trade of goods and services between countries is conducted within the framework of a global economic system. Between the years 1980 and 1998 a 5-time increase in the market for cultural goods and services occurred. The information-society’s most important component is the cultural industry, which is expanding at an incredibly rapid rate. Just as the products of  these industries can create cultural values, or change them, as well as function to strengthen cultural identity, they can also hasten their disappearance. According to the UNDP Human Development Report published in 1999, two-thirds of the world’s population are unable to benefit from global economic growth, based on international trade and developing technologies, and do not have the opportunity to become part of an informed society. This brings about the necessity to discuss whether or not “culture” can be regarded as any economic process within globalization economics.

In order to understand the fundamental importance of the issue, let us examine how much of a portion of our lives is encompassed by cultural goods and services: cultural goods consist of a variety of products such as books, magazines, multimedia products, software, records, CDs, films, videos, audiovisual programs and fashion designs. Cultural services are comprised of libraries, documentary centers, museums,theatres, and orchestras, even circuses, press, cable news broadcasts, and satellite broadcasts. As of 1998, the world’s 5 largest cultural exporters were Japan, USA, UK, Germany and China, exporting 53% of cultural goods and services while maintaining an import rate of 57%. In  the 1990’s the concentration of large firms in this market established an oligopoly, in the global sense. In the year 2000 nearly half of the world’s cultural industries were located in the USA, 30% were located in Europe, with the remainder being located in Asia. Today, 85% of movies seen in the world are made in Hollywood, whereas on the African continent, an average of 42 films are produced a year. In Africa, Chile and Costa Rica 95% of the films viewed are imported from the USA.

Cultural goods and services produced by rich and powerful countries have invaded all of the world’s markets, placing people and cultures in other countries, which are unable to compete, at a disadvantage. These other countries have difficulties in presenting the cultural goods and services, which they have produced to the world market and therefore are not able to stand up to competition. The natural result is that these countries are unable to enter the areas of influence occupied by multinational companies of developed countries.

To make a simple point let us look at language: In scientific and cultural areas, the language of dominant cultures is quickly spread by means of the media and the internet and becomes the common means of communication. Noticeably, the most frequently used language is English. English is the common language of use on the internet and if one is expressing oneself on information technology; it is the English terms, which become inserted into the local language. If with present day communication opportunities you are unable to reach your people with your folk songs and your literature, this means that the cultural identity of a generation ago and that of the current generation will be different. If the native fairy tales, songs, celebrations and stories of your childhood are replaced wit computer games produced on a different continent, then you have already become part of a global culture.

As long as the rules of international business perceive cultural goods and services as equal with other goods, and as long as on the global economic level, the powerful and the weak enter into competition under equal trade conditions, the cultural diversity of developing countries will be in danger. When we look at mankind’s situation today, the diversity of race, sex, language, class, age and religion can not be ignored. In the day-to-day lives of people, these most significant factors have accumulated for hundreds of years and form the pattern of the cultural identities of societies.

Globalization challenges the authority of states, and even it changes the nationalistic awareness of people, the truth is that, the roots of the identities of societies and cultures may be forced to change very much. But it is to be noted that the struggle for identification on the local (micro) level is increased. Who would want to break off all cultural ties in order to be a world citizen? Today throughout the world, in the midst of the discussion on globalization, it is increasingly being claimed that globalization brings with it homogeneity and that the identity of countries, in short their cultures, are becoming destroyed. The protest marches in Seattle, Davos, and Geneva indicate that the subject of globalization and cultural identity need to be taken much more seriously.

Hence, the protection of the local identities is necessary during the process of globalization, it is equally important not to disperse the traditional makeup of these local societies in such a manner as to endanger their being lost forever. As today’s global economy continues to expand, we know neither how to protect cultural identity at the local level, nor do has we known how to prevent local nationalism. What we do know is that if an economic standard of comfort is not ensured for, then developing countries will face even more hardships in the future. The protection of the world’s natural environment and cultural diversity, and the elimination of poverty can only be accomplished with economics. As long as the countries, which are in control of the global economy do not share same worries as those of less fortunate nations, the destruction of local cultures in underdeveloped countries will continue and waves of local nationalism will become a serious a threat to world peace.

The world during the next century will be less colorful and picturesque than the one we have left behind. Local fêtes, dress, customs, ceremonies, rites and beliefs that in the past have contributed to the rich panoply of human folkloric and ethnological variety, are fading away or becoming the preserve of minority and isolated groups, whilst, the bulk of society abandons them, adopting more practical habits better suited to our times. This is a process that to a greater or a lesser degree is experienced by all countries of the globe, not due to globalization but to the modernization that eventually causes globalization. This phenomenon can be regretted and we can feel nostalgia for the eclipse of tradition and past ways of life that appear, in our eyes from the comfort of our present situation, attractive, original and colorful.

While there is much discussion in the public debate on globalization and the possible erosion of culture (see for instance the website of UNESCO on cultural diversity), little economic analysis has formally discussed these issues.

we have in recent years witnessed the growth, in very many societies in all continents, of political movements seeking to strengthen the collective sense of uniqueness, often targeting globalization processes, which are seen as a threat to local distinctiveness and self-determination. A European example with tragic consequences is the recent rise of ethnic nationalism in Croatia and Serbia, but even in the more prosperous and stable European Union, strong ethnic and nationalist movements have grown during the 1990s, ranging from Scottish separatism to the anti-immigration Front National in France. In Asia, ONE of the most powerful recent example IS the rise of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan ;and many African countries have also seen a strong ethnification of their politics during the last decade, as well as the rise of political Islam in the north. In the Americas, various minority movements, from indigenous groups to African Americans, have with increasing success demanded cultural recognition and equal rights. In sum, politics in the 1990s has to a great extent meant identity politics.

Identity politics comes in many flavours: Some are separatist nationalist movements; some represent historically oppressed minorities which demand equal rights; some are dominant groups trying to prevent minorities from gaining access to national resources; some are religious, some are ethnic, and some are regional. Many writers see identity politics in general as an anti-modern counterreaction to the individualism and freedom embodied by globalization, while others see it as the defence of the weak against foreign dominance, or even as a concealed strategy of modernization. Some emphasise the psychological dimension of identity politics, seeing it as nostalgic attempts to retain dignity and a sense of rootedness in an era of rapid change; others focus on competition for scarce resources between groups; some see identity politics as a strategy of exclusion and an ideology of hatred, while yet others see it as the trueborn child of socialism, as an expression of the collective strivings of the underdog.

Jurgen Habermas views the problem from view point of territorial integrity and collective identity. Habermas argues that globalization processes are threatening not just the regulatory powers of the nation-state but the very bases of cultural and political solidarity upon which it is built. Globalization challenges the state’s ability to prioritize an equitable domestic policy, its territorial integrity, its collective identity, and its political legitimacy.  To be sure, interdependence implies that people are becoming more and more affected by decisions of collective actors aside from their own government, such as transnational associations and even other states (Habermas 2001, 70-1). “Legitimation gaps” are opening due in part to the frequency with which decisions are being made by actors not accountable to the procedural constraints of democratic legitimation.

In addition, globalization processes seem to undermine peoples’ understandings of their own collective identities, that is, the forms of social integration and cultural self-understandings that allow a people to see itself as “a nation,” which Habermas sees as happening in two ways: first, by the increasing pluralization of societies due to waves of transnational migration, and second, by the culturally leveling effects of global consumerism and mass culture, exported mainly from Europe and America.  Herbert Marcuse, the critical theorist, has also expressed the same opinion even in a more emphatic way  about the influences of the high capitalism on common people. He argues that the high capitalism makes people one-dimensional. To him, People loose their souls in hi-fi sets and apartments at cost of their critical awareness about the economic influences. The growth of multinationals and the globalization of their impact are wrapped up with the rise of the brand. The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multi-national corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products. (Klein 2001: 3)

This commodified, homogeneous culture doesn’t just impose itself on distant lands, of course; in the West too, it levels out even the strongest national differences, and weakens even the strongest local traditions. (Habermas 2001, 75)

Habermas fears that such effects diminish the cultural resources that maintain the historical congruence of national collective identity and democratic solidarity. These processes seem to be wearing away the effectiveness of democratic politics as a means to provide steering for social change; losses in civic solidarity and administrative capacity contribute to the surrender of public consciousness to market imperatives, as money replaces power as the steering medium of societies (Habermas 2001, 78).

As Habermas wrote in 1997, globalization ‘threatens to dissolve the social glue that holds together already fragmented national societies.’ In Germany, questions of nation, national identity and culture, along with the search for a binding ‘social glue’, have arisen just as globalisation challenges the possibility of the national unification process. Anti-globalisation there, as elsewhere, seeks to protect local identity, economies and culture from both the European Union and the more powerful American ‘empire’.

Russian philosopher,  Alexander Sergeevich Panarin says that globalization is another form of racism. He names it as ‘neo racism’. He says, “The politics and ideology of the modern globalization under command of the USA should be named neo racism. The problem at issue is the ambition of the influential western political and financial circles for world domination, as they consider themselves, with the western mentality, to be superior to all the others whom they treat with a barely concealed contempt. Contrary to their liberal rhetoric about the human rights and democracy, the globalists try actively to establish a one-pole world, the world of economic and political monopolism where the mankind is divided into the elect and the non-elect, into the race of masters and the race of the untouchable, into progressive civilized people and retarded barbarians and terrorists”.

Russian philosopher,  Alexander Sergeevich Panarin says The hidden aspect of the globalization is the consistent removal from any local interest, norm or tradition. However, nowadays the further the more the true centers of power and decision-making do not follow the will of electorate but follow the coordinated strategies of the international economic and political trusts.

For Amartya Sen, the central issue of contention is not globalization itself, nor is it the use of the market as an institution, but the inequity in the overall balance of institutional arrangements–which produces very unequal sharing of the benefits of globalization. He says that the question is not just whether the poor, too, gain something from globalization, but whether they get a fair share and a fair opportunity. There is an urgent need for reforming institutional arrangements–in addition to national ones–in order to overcome both the errors of omission and those of commission that tend to give the poor across the world such limited opportunities. Globalization deserves a reasoned defense, but it also needs reform.

The re-definition and re-evaluation of cultural identity is linked tightly to the process of globalization. Indeed, in order that certain cultural specifics can be considered indices of identity, they have to be seen from a global background. The more global certain phenomena claim to be, the more local will seem others. The fact that the global is nothing more than a globalized localism is pushed behind and doesn’t reach the conscience:

“Hegemonic globalizations are, in fact, globalized localisms – the new cultural imperialisms. Hegemonic globalization can be defined as the process by which a given local phenomenon – be it the English language, Hollywood or fast food – succeeds in extending its reach over the globe and, by doing so, develops the capacity to designate a rival social phenomenon as local.” (Santos, 1998: 102)

The tendency towards the ethnicization of cultural identity is most certainly one of the main responses to the pressure of globalization. Thus, the scheme center – periphery is still standing in the field of culture as well, for here too we can speak of a relationship of power when speaking of the relationship between cultures. The “dialogue of cultures” exists exclusively in unequal conditions – but this also takes into consideration the exponential development of possibilities in the digital era by the compression of time and space.

But it is also a fact that interculturalism and cultural identity are seen as a tense construction, essentially structured upon ambivalent moments. A new, dynamic concept of cosmopolitism arises as an attitude that surrenders neither to the logic of a blind globalization, nor accepts a simple particularity, but as  the capacity to think both across borders and about borders.

Strong political movements that must be built upon the process of class struggle that takes place each country. As Hugo Chavez said” It cannot be mere movement of protest and celebration like Woodstock.” It is an enormous struggle, an endeavor in which organization and coordination are keys. This is the challenge to international intellects and activists.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

–

Margaret Mead

Reference :

Eliot, T.S. (1948), Notes towards a Definition of Culture, London, Faber&Faber

Hall, Stuart (1992), The Question of Cultural Identity, in Stuart Hall et al. (ed.), Modernity and its Futures, London, Polity Press, 273-325

Related posts:

1. Your Online Identity
2. How globalization makes the poor poorer
3. Globalization – the Growing Integration of Economies and Societies Around the World

1. Introduction

It is on record that river Nile is one of the world’s longest transboundary rivers flowing a distance of more than 6,700 kilometres from its farthest source at the headwaters of the Kagera Basin in Rwanda and Burundi to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt. Its catchments basin covers approximately 10% of the African continent and river is shared by ten riparian countries which include Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Basin contains an extraordinarily rich and varied range of ecosystems, with mountains, tropical forests, woodlands, savannas, high and low altitude wetlands, arid lands and deserts (World Bank, 2008). Since the Nile waters do not stop at administrative or political boundaries, the river basin has been of great importance as regards human settlement, development of a rich diversity of cultures, civilisation and development for centuries. As of today, the Nile is a crucial resource for the economic development of the Nile basin States and a vital source of livelihood for 160 million inhabitants as well as 300 million people living in the ten riparian countries (Ibid). It’s estimated that in the next 25 years, the population in the Nile basin will be 600 million.

Nevertheless, for decades, the Nile basin people have been facing many complex environmental, social, economic and political challenges that have made it difficult of the proper management and sustainability of Nile water. Such problems include among others, disputes and conflicts over the control and use of the Nile waters; extreme poverty, food insecurity; droughts; floods; environmental degradation exacerbated by high population growth; inadequate sanitary services; unreliable electricity, water scarcity; lack of cooperation on the shared resources of the Nile basin (World Bank, 2008: 1-2, World Bank, 2003a: 5).  The transboundary nature of the river also possesses extra challenge.

Consequently, the Nile basin States jointly recognised that the best way to utilize, protect and manage the Nile basin in an integrated sustainable way was through a close international co-operation between and among all the countries within the natural, geographical and hydrological unit of the river whereby all interests of upstream and downstream countries are considered. However, this cooperative management of the Nile River Basin is one of the greatest challenges of the global international water agenda (World Bank, 2003a, 2004a).  Nevertheless, it is an important catalyst for greater regional integration, economic, political, knowledge integrations with benefits far exceeding those derived from the river itself.

2. Strategy for management of the Nile River with reference to the Nile Basin Initiative

The recognition of the cooperative management of the Nile by the Nile Basin States has given birth to the Nile Basin Initiative which reflects various aspects of integrated water resource management. The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is one of the recent international historic cooperative river basin management program and regional partnership where all the Nile basin states except Eritrea unite to pursue long-term sustainable development, improved land use practices and management of the Nile water resource for the benefit of all without discrimination (World Bank, 2008:2).

The history of the Nile Basin Initiative dates back in 1992 when the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin states recognized the need for regional cooperation and integration for regional growth, environmental conservation and the equitable sustainable development of the entire Nile Basin (Guvele, 2003). In that political atmosphere, the Technical Cooperation Committee for the Promotion of Development and Environmental Protection of the Nile Basin (TECCONILE) was formed which later created the Nile river Basin Action Plan in 1995 (NRBAP)(Ibid). In this Action Plan, the need to establish a Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework was at its centre stage and fortunately, this partially materialised in 1999 when the “transitional” Nile basin Initiative (NBI) was launched (Ibid).

2.1 State of Planning and implementation

Recognizing their common concerns and interests, the NBI embarked with a participatory process of dialogue among the Nile basin states that fashioned a shared vision “to achieve sustainable socioeconomic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources” (World Bank, 2008: 2). The policy guideline which accompanies the agreed joint shared vision provides a basin- wide cooperative water resource management framework and also defines the primary objectives of NBI. These objectives include;

1) To develop the water resources of the Nile Basin in a sustainable and equitable way

2) To ensure prosperity, security, and peace for all its peoples;

3) To ensure efficient water management and the optimal use of the resources;

4) To ensure cooperation and joint action between the riparian countries, seeking win-win gains;

5) To target poverty eradication and promote economic integration; and

6) To ensure that the program results in a move from planning to action.

In order to implement and achieve the NBI objectives as well as translating the agreed shared vision into action and fostering co-operative development on the Nile, the riparian governments developed a Strategic Action Program composed of two complementary sub-programs which include Shared Vision Program (SVP) and Subsidiary Action Programs (SAPs) (World Bank, 2008:2-3; 2003a:5-8 ). As of today, the Nile Basin Initiative with its strategic Action Program represents a deep commitment by the Nile riparian countries to foster cooperation, regional integration and sustainable development of the Nile River.  It is composed of the Council of Ministers of Water of the member states (Nile-COM), and a Technical Advisory Committee (Nile-TAC), comprising technical representatives from the member states.

However, the Nile Basin Initiatives’ Strategic Action Program is a greatest fundamental turning point and landmark towards integrated water resource management of the Nile River. In it whole, the Strategic Action Program is trying to create a knowledge base and essential tools for integrated water resource management through regional, economic, spatial sectoral and knowledge integration.

3. Analysis of the Nile Basin initiative’s Strategic Action Program

As already mentioned, the Strategic Action Program is composed of two components which include the Subsidiary Action Programs (SAP) having two branches one called the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program, (ENSAP) and the others called the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program, (NELSAP). The second component of  Strategic Action Program is the Shared Vision Programs (SVP) and is funded by the World Bank(WB), African Development Bank(ADB), Global Environmental Facility(GEF) and Nile Basin Trust Fund (NBTF), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)(World Bank, 2003a; 2004a; 2008).

The analysis begins with Shared Vision Programs which form the core of the NBI. It include seven thematic projects as discussed analysed below.

1) The Nile Transboundary Environmental Action Project

This project came into existence after the Nile basin Countries carried out a participatory Nile Basin Transboundary Environmental Analysis that identified various environmental concerns related to water resources (World Bank, 2003b). The environmental concerns identified included, deforestation that has led to losses of biologically important habitats, high rates of soil erosion leading to sedimentation of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs; localized water pollution arising from agriculture, industry, mining and domestic effluent; proliferation of aquatic weeds, particularly water hyacinth and wetland land reclamation (Ibid:15). However, some of these problems like deforestation and erosion are just symptoms of big underlying root causes like poor government developmental policies, which the program never identified.

Poverty and population growth were also singled out to cause additional pressures on natural resources and this has been compounded by a lack of awareness of land-water interactions and the functioning of critical ecosystems. However, this project does not capture how the consumption patterns of the high population are leading to environmental problems and how poverty actually causes pressures on natural resources quantitatively. It should be noted that poverty per se, has nothing to do with environmental problems but it is the underlying mechanisms that cause poverty which possess a big threat to the environment.  The project also ignores the issues of climate change which is arousing serious threats to African Continent.

Nevertheless, the Transboundary Environmental Action Project with its management unit located in Khartoum, Sudan was implemented in 2004.  As of today, various stakeholders are involved in the project and are greatly supported by the project. The project provides training to develop skills in government ministries, NGOs and local communities in each country in such areas as environmental management and monitoring, water quality monitoring, and conservation of wetlands (World Bank, 2003b, 2008). It is also working to raise awareness of critical environmental issues by strengthening networks of environmental education practitioners; developing curriculum for primary, secondary and university students; and supporting environmental awareness campaigns through nature clubs, schools, youth groups, scout troops, universities, churches and mosques (Ibid).

The project also promotes information sharing about issues affecting the environment among all stakeholders in the Nile countries, including developing a decision-support system that is based on reliable and consistent environmental data from each country to enable better region-wide environmental planning and management (World Bank, 2003b, 2008). The project also funds local NGOs and communities to promote community-based approaches to land and water conservation to reduce soil erosion, desertification, and pollution and to control invasive waterweeds.

The activities of this project on one hand reflect an effort of spatial, landscape and territorial integration all of which geared to protect and manage the environment as well as the delicate ecosystem of the Nile River basin.  On the other hand, through these activities, the Nile basin governments, NGOs, researchers, educators, and private sector representatives can acquire integrated knowledge that could help them to work together both within their own countries and across borders. This is fundamental in building mutual understanding, solid relationships, and collaborative partnerships that are essential building blocks for regional cooperation, sustainable development, environmental conservation and broader regional integration.

2) Water Resources Planning and Management Project

This project is working to address problems of water management fragmentation within each Nile basin state, weak human and institutional capacity to manage the Nile waters in an integrated manner, uneven distribution of water professionals within the basin as well as the inadequate interaction among water professionals in the Nile basin countries (World Bank, 2004b:2). The stakeholders involved in this project include government agencies in water-related sectors, civil society, NGOs, university networks, professionals in the field, and the private sector. In order to address these problems, the project is supporting basin-wide dialogue on good practice in water policy formulation and implementation.

To achieve sectoral integration as regards resource management in the Nile Basin States, the project is building skills in each country for effective formulation and implementation of successive national policies and strategies for integrated water resources management (IWRM) as well as planning and management of multi-country projects. The project has also come up with Nile Basin Decision Support System (DSS) where NBI countries will be able to share data on river hydrology to better understand river system behaviour, evaluate alternative development and management schemes (World Bank, 2004b:5-6). This will facilitate knowledge integration which is important for making more informed decisions for sustainable water resource planning and management in the basin. However, this project is aiming at building a common technical foundation rather than a common local socio-cultural and environmental knowledge base or both for facilitating integrated water resource planning and management from basin wide perspective. In that regard, the project’s focus represents a biased and typical top-down approach for integrated water resource management which don’t create a levelled ground for integrated and sustainable management of the river.

3) The Socio-economic Development and Benefit Sharing Project

To address the complexity and variability of the river basin’s hydrology as well as the differences of Nile Basin countries’ economies, the social economic Development and Benefit Sharing project (SDBS) is aiming at an integrated approach to water resources management, environmental conservation and regional development (World Bank, 2004a:2). This is a fundamental building block for integrated natural recourse management since the project focuses on knowledge integration as well as economic integration for sustainable management of the basin. In that regard, the project is currently building a multidisciplinary network of professionals (stakeholders) from economic planning, research institutions, technical experts from public and private sectors, academics, and representatives from civic groups and NGOs from across the basin (Ibid). The multidisciplinary network creation is vital tool of solving complex environmental problems since it provides broader platform to exchange views and solutions than a disciplinary network which provides no platform for exchange of knowledge thus leading to narrow views and solutions or no solutions at all.

Under this project, the multidisciplinary network of professional are required to carry out joint research, explore alternative Nile development scenarios, identify benefit-sharing schemes, foster information sharing and exchange, as well as enhancing public awareness of the importance of water as a shared and precious resource. However, the project is only building capacity to explore alternative new development scenarios without much consideration on how the old development projects in the Nile basin countries could be made more environmentally friendly. Again, as with other projects, the issue of local participation is still scanty in this project and the criteria for selecting professionals to form a multidisciplinary network as well as sharing benefits is not well defined.

4) The Confidence-Building and Stakeholder Involvement project (CBSI).

This project was created to address issues of disputes, conflicts, political tension and lack of cooperation in the management of the Nile basin resources (World Bank, 2003c). The CBSI project aims at building confidence, trust, collaborative relationships among everyone who has a stake in how water resources in their country are developed, allocated, and managed (Ibid). This is an important mechanism for constructive dialogue, planning and development and this can provide a benchmark for hierarchical integration from local, national, regional and international levels which is vital for the sustainable management of the Nile waters. The project is promoting broad-based stakeholder participation including dialogue, collective analysis, action, and monitoring for feedback and learning (Ibid).

However, the extent to which stakeholders should be involved in the project, their roles and interests is not well defined. The project also has a public information component. This is geared towards increasing public awareness by providing accurate, timely, and understandable information about the NBI and its programs to people across the basin in languages and formats they understand through a variety of culturally appropriate channels (World Bank, 2003c). Such information dissemination creates a clear picture of the benefits of regional cooperation and integration among the inhabitants of the Nile Basin. As regard building build confidence, trust and collaboration among countries, the project has various programs that encourage exchanges among parliamentarians, journalists, university professors, local leaders, including women leaders, schoolchildren, and university students. The project also has activities that focus on forums and networks geared to discuss issues of poverty reduction and development among others (Ibid) This is an important component of knowledge integration where various people are facilitated to share their views, experiences with others and this creates a sense of ownership of the projects being run by the NBI

5. The Nile Basin Regional Power Trade Project

This project is the first basin-wide effort to develop a regional power trading architecture for the Nile through the active participation of all basin countries. The project is responding to unreliable electricity in basin which has hindered economic growth and caused paramount environmental degradation. The project has come up with Nile Basin Power Forum where national power experts can exchange ideas on how to develop power supply facilities and ways of how to expand power trade in the Nile basin (World Bank, 2005a). This reflects an emerging Technical integration in the Nile basin.

The creation of a regional electricity market is intended to play a key role in furthering cooperation among the basin states, providing sustainable environmentally friendly energy and in ensuring that the hydropower resources of the Nile Basin are developed and managed in an integrated and sustainable manner (World Bank, 2005a).  In a long run, this project will create far reaching benefits as regards water conservation, land protection, and reduced emission of greenhouse gases. However, this project does not put into consideration other cheap power sources like, solar energy, wind energy, biogas and methane from wetlands which could be used by the people who can not afford electricity. If such energy potentials were recognised, it would have created an important aspect of integrated energy production.

6) The Applied Training Project (ATP)

This project is working to build capacity needed to promote integrated water resource management in the Nile basin (World Bank, 2003d). This is done under various components. The first component deals with training decision makers and professionals in water resources management in the basin countries in aspects of water management policy at national level (Ibid). The second component deals with offering post-graduate scholarships to applicants from the Nile basin countries so as to under take both master and doctorial training in water resource management. This is geared to build within each country a cadre of water resources management specialists able to reduce barriers for sectoral integration in natural resource management. As part of the effort to promote interaction and knowledge integration among water professionals in the NBI countries, the third component of the project deals with establishing the Nile Net, which is a network of training institutions that can engage in collaborative research, joint problem-solving and staff exchanges (Ibid).  This project will lead in the long-run the introduction of common basin-wide guidelines and standards for Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) principles. However, the desire for integrated water resource management in the Nile Basin is too skewed to scientific approach where people are trained in various scientific methods only without having a dose of what local water resource management practices and systems can offer.

7) The Efficient Use of Water for Agriculture Project

Due to the great importance of agriculture in the Nile basin, this project is aiming at providing a sound conceptual and practical basis to increase the availability and efficient use of water for agricultural production. The project is creating  a framework that will enable stakeholders from the Nile Countries to work together to promote basin-wide cooperation and awareness, enhance understanding and build capacity on the common irrigation and water harvesting issues (World Bank, 2005b). This is hoped to be achieved through basin-wide consultations, workshops, and seminars that will create networks of key actors who will collectively work together on water harvesting, community managed irrigation, and public and private-managed irrigation (Ibid). This reflects an aspect of knowledge integration where every stakeholder views are recognised as important for efficient use of water for agriculture.

In parallel with the Shared Vision programs, two Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP and ENSAP) have been set up. As with the Shared Vision Programs, institutional strengthening and capacity building which is an important aspect of hierarchical, sectoral and knowledge integration has also been provided to the two implementing institutions, ENTRO and NELSAP-CU. Under the SAPs, great achievement have been realised. For example in the Eastern Nile,  sub-regional Flood Preparedness and Early Warning Project, irrigation developments in Ethiopia and Egypt, and a Power Interconnection Project between Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries have been realised (World Bank, 2008). In the Equatorial Lakes region, Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric and Multipurpose Project has been constructed as well as the establishment of the Agriculture and Trade Project (Ibid). These SAPs provide a strong foundation for the Nile Basin countries to engage in concrete activities for long-term sustainable development, integrated water resource management, natural resource conservation, economic growth and regional integration.

3.1 Challenges facing the NBI

a) World Bank Participation

Despite a remarkable progress attained by NBI, it is feared that the initiative has little hope of achieving its goals in large part because of the World Bank’s- involvement and funding.  It is on record that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have played the single role in the impoverishment of the African continent (Foulds, 2002). It has been noted that because of World Bank’s policies, half of its projects have been unsuccessful and the failure rate is even higher in the poorest countries (Ibid). Therefore, considering the fact that six of the world’s ten poorest countries are within the Nile Basin, the World Bank-Nile Basin Initiative “inter-marriage” presents a doubtful scenarios of achieving the initiative’s objectives.

b) Nile Basin Water Treaty of 1929

Though the NBI tries to bring together all the Nile basin states to cooperate in the sustainable management of the Nile River, the 1929 Nile Basin Treaty still holds a lot of water. It is not yet known whether the NBI is done in good faith or as pretence to appease the international community especially the donors. It should be noted that the 79-year-old water sharing treaty has kept Nile Basin countries into vigorous conflict over the region’s most precious resource (Tvedt, 2004). It regulates Nile water usage among the 10 countries that share the Nile River’s watershed but giving much power to the Egyptians. In this sensitive political climate, any country in the Nile basin which wishes to utilizes the Nile water, has to seek permission from the Egypt.  For example, the treaty requires Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which are at the source of the Nile to seek permission from Cairo, 6 000 kilometres away, before drawing water from Lake Victoria to cultivate their parched fields, yet the NBI advocates for all Nile Basin States to be equal partners. This means that the NBI is in serious “hidden” contradiction with the 1929 Nile Basin Treaty and if this issue is not handled diplomatically, Nile water wars are abound to occur in the future.

c) Lack of sufficient staff for carrying out important activities

The NBI’s ambitious goal of establishing regional cooperation and mutually beneficial relationships among all Nile Basin countries is limited by the small number of staff. The current staff at the NBI cannot respond to the increasing and emerging demands placed on the institution such as strategic planning, resource mobilization or responding to Basin Management issues like Climate changes (World Bank, 2008). In additional to that, the NBI lacks the capacity to handle regional database as well as analysing water resource information (Ibid). Nevertheless, its assumed that under the Institutional Strengthening Project (NBI-ISP), NBI will be equipped with a more robust institutional infrastructure and critical skills needed to deliver its current work program more effectively(Ibid).

d) Procedural and Policies conflicts

The Subsidiary Action Program aim of creating the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) in Ethiopia and Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination unit (NELSAP-CU) in Rwanda has led to the emergence of  procedural and policy conflict between the programs and other NBI Institutions (World Bank, 2008). This is because these programs have evolved independent of each other resulting into differing set of policies and procedure and this has been due to the political differences between Rwanda and Ethiopia. This situation is thought to threaten future operation Integrity of the NBI. However, it is thought that the Institutional Strengthening Project will enhance basin-wide institutional integration through a harmonization of NBI policies and procedures across the basin (Ibid). In additional, the Institutional Strengthening Project is mandated to strengthen and harmonize administrative systems and functions across all NBI institutions.

e) Lack of coordination and Linkage with other regional Institutions

With the establishment of the NBI, other regional institutions have evolved like Lake Victoria Basin Commissions (LVBC) but NBI’s coordination with such institutions is not clearly established. However, it is hoped that Institutional Strengthening Project will strengthen the Nile National Focal Point Offices and NBI regional linkages with other institutions and stakeholders.

f) NBI is not recognised river basin Organisation

As early on noted, the NBI is just a “transitional institution” binding together the Nile basin Countries to move forward into a Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) which would create a permanent river basin organization (RBO). However, negotiations on the proposed CFA are well advanced but not yet concluded (World Bank, 2008).

4. SWOT analysis of the Nile Basin Initiative

This section adapt a SWOT analysis technique to summarise the nitty gritty of the Nile Basin Initiative. The criterion for evaluation is based on the framework concept of integrated water resource management. The perspective we have adopted is that of sustainable development of the water of the Nile for the benefit of all.

Strengths:

NBI focuses on multi-country, multi-sectoral program of collaborative action, exchange of experience, and trust and capacity building designed to build a strong foundation for regional cooperation and sustainable management of the Nile water. NBI is intrinsically geared towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals and Sustainable Development. NBI is developing knowledge based and essential tools for integrated water resource management through capacity building in each Nile Basin Countries It has led to the development of the Decision-Support System for information sharing NBI aims at building confidence, trust, collaborative relationships among everyone who has a stake in how water resources in their country are developed, allocated, and managed and stakeholder involvement The project is promoting broad-based stakeholder participation including dialogue, collective analysis, action, and monitoring for feedback and learning. NBI has managed to create a strong stakeholder commitment and ownership of its projects among all member countries by creating project management location units in each country NBI has Strategy for Addressing Environmental and Social Safeguards through an Environmental Management Plan. NBI has strong donor support from giant institutions like the World Bank, GEF, GTZ, ADB and CIDA for implementing its projects.

10.  It has framework for following up its projects through consolidated annual and quarterly interim financial reports.

11.  NBI promotes regional cooperation important for  increasing a range of direct benefits to riparian states which include electricity production, environmental conservation and

Water shed protection.

The NBI has set up governance, institutional structures and processes to provide permanent mechanisms for constructive dialogue, planning and development among   riparians, focused on the sharing of water and water’s benefits

Weakness:

1)       Lack of institutional depth like thin staffing which is insufficient to respond the increasing and emerging demands placed on the institution in the area of strategic planning, resource mobilization, or responding to basin management issues.

2)      Inadequate capacity to develop regional databases and to analyze water resource information

3)      There is a lack of coordination and linkages with some NBI stakeholders like the Lake Victoria Basin Commission – LVBC.

4)      The planning of NBI projects didn’t incorporate the local knowledge of the indigenous people in the Nile basin states.

5)      Despite the fact that the NBI is trying to develop and generate hydroelectric power along the Nile for the benefit of all people, the initiative is not part and partial of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) which provides comprehensive guidelines for constructing dams on international transboundary rivers.

6)      Theoretically NBI is bottom up but practically, is strongly top-down.

7)       NBI is the most complex and ambitious river basin project ever and this may result into misinterpretations and wrong analysis of the whole project.

Opportunities:

1). Continued support of the World Bank to the NBI projects present “hope” for the

achieving the NBI goals in future. Further more, financial and in kind contribution of member will help sustain NBI functions.

Establishment of Institutional Strengthening Project (NBI-ISP) is hoped to provide solutions to the challenges facing the NBI. For example, it will allow the NBI to undertake an institutional design processes to prepare the Nile Basin Institution for new challenges in absence or presence of CFA. Finalizing a Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) will help create a permanent river basin organization (RBO). More involvement of NGOs and civil society will involve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of the NBI projects Since the Nile basin countries are part of the African Union, NBI project has an opportunity of benefiting from the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which aims at providing an overarching vision and policy framework for accelerating economic co-operation and integration among African countries.

Threats:

1. Long-term challenge for operational integration across the basin because of  different sets of policies and procedures among NBI institutions like ENTRO and NELSAP-CU.

2. Nile Basin Water Treaty of 1929, which limits effective utilization the Nile

-waters

3    History of tensions and instability in the region, both between states   and  internal

states. Thus, when one country refuses to cooperate, it can have significant consequences on the NBI goals.

Increasing population coupled with poverty creates pressure on resources of the Nile NBI countries are in different development stages with 6 out of the poorest 10 nations of the world and this threatens the initiative’s path towards achieving its goals. The World Bank Polices possesses future uncertainty of the NBI projects due to its historical bad record in achieving its goals in the countries its funds.

10.  Corruption and aid money disappearing into private pockets can ruin all planning

11.   Climate change and water stress can force governments to act individually trying to exploit as much as possible for their people.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

In this paper, we conclude that the Nile basin Initiative represents the most comprehensive and complex management plan ever attempted for sustainable development of international transboundary rivers. The NBI tries to deal with all potential problems occurring at people-environment and development interface in the Nile basin through a multi-disciplinary, socio-cultural, economic, political and geographical environment which is an important attribute of achieving sustainable development as well as the Millennium Development Goals.  On the same note, we also conclude that the various projects which are being implemented by the NBI, reflect a “joint commitment and obligation” of the Nile basin states to put into action the recommendations of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

We also conclude that NBI is a paramount historical regional partnership in this new millennium as regards transboundary river basin management. This joint venture among the Nile basin states has created a “regional environmental-development interface think-tank” which is a vital mechanism for paving way to greater integrated water resource management that could result into mutual benefit of all without discrimination or favourism.  This has been done through spatial, regional, economy, and knowledge integration.

Nevertheless, the NBI is not immune from the challenges, weakness and threats as it can be cleared noticed in the SWOT analysis. At this juncture, we recommend in general terms that the NBI should capitalize on its strengths and opportunities to work out the challenges it faces. However, more specifically, we suggest the following recommendations:

The NBI should actively collaborate with the African Union in general and New Partnerships for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) so as to get some support and vibrant recognition. It should be noted that the goals of NEPAD conquer well with those of the NBI. For example, NEPAD’s goals which are threefold include promoting accelerated growth and sustainable development, eradicating widespread and severe poverty, and halting the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process. These goals translate very well with the shared Vision of the NBI, so, the collaboration between the two initiatives could have a vibrant platform for promoting sustainable development in Africa in general, Nile basin states in particular

Having realized the deficiency of local traditional knowledge in the overall planning of the NBI, we recommend that the initiative should consider incorporating issues of indigenous knowledge which represent the long-standing traditions and practices  of the Nile. It should be noted that the Nile basin has got a complex cultural diversity which could be useful for integrated water resource management in combination with the scientific approach being agitated by the NBI.

To achieve mutual benefit of the Nile water resources, we recommend that the NBI in conjunction with the international community should focus on serious amendment of the 1929 colonial Nile water treaty which possess significant challenge for realization of the initiative’s goals.

Since one of the projects of NBI is to building power plants, it can be feared that this project could have devastating impacts on the environment and the nearby societies. So, we recommend that the NBI should be harmonized within the World Commission on Dams so that it can adopt proper guidelines for the construction of dams along the Nile.  This will be vital in protecting dam-affected people and the environment, and to ensure that the benefits from dams are more equitably distributed.

Due to the fact that population pressure is one of the driving forces leading to environmental degradation in the Nile basin, we recommend that NBI should have a separate project focus on population control within the basin states.

To increase a sense of belonging, level of participation and ownership of the NBI projects, we recommend that “handouts” in terms of donations from the core funding institutions should be limited. Therefore, the Nile basin countries should try to build the capacity for soliciting their own funds for the NBI. This money could be got inter alia by reducing public expenditure, curbing corruptions.

Given the complex of the project, we recommend that the NBI should come up with a strong multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation team to following up all implemented projects. This team should be well equipped with modern techniques ranging from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) among others. We also recommend that the NBI should carry participatory land use planning in communities located near the river putting much consideration on land capability and suitability.

NBI should also carry out a livelihood analysis especially in communities along the Nile so as to come up with poverty eradication projects which are socially acceptable, applicable, economically viable and affordable. These will improve the welfare of the majority of the people at household level and this will act as an incentive towards sustainable utilization of the Nile basin resources.

Rather than building capacity in only scientific skills with regards Nile water resource management, we also recommend that the local knowledge base and management skills of the same should also be upgraded so as to have a strong foundation for integrated water resource management.

Since the NBI promote efficient use of the Nile water through proper irrigation methods, we recommend that the NBI should take caution about the salinazation problem that may arise thus leading to soil degradation and consequently poor agricultural yields. In additional, NBI should educate communities on how to use less agriculture inputs especially nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers that can cause water pollution (Eutrophication).

6. References:

Foulds, K., (2002): The Nile Basin Initiative: Challenges to Implementation. Paper presented

at the Managing Shared Waters Conference- 23-28 June 2002, Hamilton, Ontario,  Canada.

Guvele, A., C., (2003): The Nile Basin Initiative and its Implications in Post Conflict South

Sudan.  On line: http://cafnr.missouri.edu/iap/sudan/doc/nile-basin.pdf. (Retrieved on 30th 11.2008).

Tvedt, T. (2004). The river Nile in the age of the British. Political ecology and the quest for

economic power. London: I. B. Tauris, pp. 480.

World Bank, (2003a): Nile Basin Initiative, Shared Vision Program (SVP) Project-African

Region- Project Appraisal Document. InfoShop-World Bank, Vol. 1, Report No. 26222, pp. 170.

World Bank, (2003b): Nile Basin Initiative – Nile Transboundary Environmental Action

Project-Project Appraisal Document, InfoShop-World Bank, Vol.1, Report No. 24609, pp. 215

World Bank, (2003c): Confidence Building and Stakeholder Involvement : Nile Basin

Initiative (SVP) Project, African Region-Project Information Document. InfoShop-World Bank, Vol. 1 Report No. 26276, pp 4.

World Bank, (2003d): Nile Basin Initiative Applied Training Project-Project Information

Document. InfoShop-World Bank, Vol. 1, Report No. 26578, pp 10

World Bank, (2004a): Nile Basin Initiative for Socioeconomic Development and Benefit

Sharing project-African Region-Project Information Document, InfoShop- World Bank, Vol. 1, Report Number, 30531. pp 10

World Bank, (2004b): Nile Basin Initiative – Shared Vision Program – Water Resources

Planning and Management Project- Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet. InfoShop-World Bank, Vol. 1, Report No. 26866, pp13.

World Bank, (2005a): Nile Basin Initiative – Shared Vision Program-Regional power trade

project-Project Appraisal Document. InfoShop-World Bank. Vol. 1, Report No.

34083, pp. 108

World Bank, (2005b): Nile Basin Initiative – Shared Vision Program – Efficient Water Use for

Agricultural Production Project-African Region-Project Appraisal Document. InfoShop-World Bank, Vol. 1, Report No. 34084, pp 100

World Bank, (2008): Nile Basin Initiative Institutional Strengthening Project-Project

Information Document. InfoShop- World Bank, Report No. AB3787, pp 99.

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January 27, 2010

India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

The present population of Delhi is about 13.9 million. Of this nearly 45% population lives in unauthorized colonies, rural villages and slums and JJ clusters.

India is indeed shining! Yet the dense black cloud that we all can see if we have a minute to stop and look is the state of poverty in India. The Government of India-UNDP Factsheet entitled, INDIA: URBAN POVERTY REPORT 2009 states:

“The urban population of India is increasing but not as fast as other Asian countries … But this success has been accompanied by poverty in urban areas. Urban poverty in India remains high, at over 25 percent. Over 80 million poor people live in the cities and towns of India.(Source: National Sample Survey Organisation’s survey report). This is roughly equal to the population of Egypt. This has resulted in the ‘Urbanisation of Poverty’ a large number of states report poverty figures in urban areas much above that in rural area.

At the national level, rural poverty is higher than poverty in urban areas but the gap between the two has decreased over the last couple of decades. The incidence of decline of urban poverty has not accelerated with GDP growth. As the urban population in the country is growing, so is urban poverty. The nature of Urban Poverty poses different problems urban poverty poses the problems of housing and shelter, water, sanitation, health, education, social security and livelihoods along with special needs of vulnerable groups like women, children and aged people.

This seminar organized by Katha in collaboration with University of Delaware, with its special focus on colleges and school students, is designed to address social movements for change ¯ not just the current social, economic and cultural frameworks under which most of urban India, especially north India operates, but also the theoretical and empirical issues. Starting with an overview of why there are no effective movements for children, the future of the country, to an examination of what’s happening in empowering women and the work of nonprofits in the country. The seminar hopes to move towards findings and understandings from the well-established to the unanswered questions.

Seen as an open forum, a lot of time is built in for student discussions and dialogues, for debates and a special poster contest so that an emphasis could be given to innovative student-generated strategies and methodologies for change. It will also explore the question of onus and ownership for protecting the futures of our children.

And, to celebrate the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World students will be inspired to form a Global Students’ Alliance for Children.

Set up in 1988, by Geeta Dharmarajan, Katha has been working towards innovative methods of improving basic education for children working for their livelihoods and to provide higher education to all the members of the community and has expanded its role as a catalyst, using language, culture, education as the triple strength fulcrum and sees STORY as the most powerful tool in building an equitable level field for all.

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History and Origins of Recent Wave of Terrorism

By Mamnoon Ahmad Khan

   

Introduction

I clearly remember that thirty years back I haven’t heard the word terrorism or terrorist. There was only one term in use which was Israel’s aggression on Arabs and Palestinians. But after the Russian (formerly USSR) invasion on Afghanistan, the scenario changed. Russian brutalities were not hidden from the world. They not only destroy this independent country but they destroy its future generations. On many villages after killing their inhabitants they crushed the whole village with bulldozers. Even they did not forgive innocent children. Russians threw toy bombs in towns and villages from helicopters and when a child found it and started to play with it blew up. As a result so many Afghan children died or became handicapped. 

Soviet Aggression in Soviet-Afghan War

Over 1 million Afghans were killed.15 million Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran, 1/3 of the prewar population of the country. Another 2 million Afghans were displaced within the country. In the 1980s, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan.2 Along with fatalities were 1.2 million Afghans disabled with the blessings of the Russian  landmines (mujahedeen, government soldiers and noncombatants) and 3 million maimed or wounded (primarily noncombatants).3

Irrigation systems, crucial to agriculture in Afghanistan’s arid climate were destroyed by aerial bombing and strafing by Soviet or government forces. In the worst year of the war, 1985, well over half of all the farmers who remained in Afghanistan had their fields bombed, and over one quarter had their irrigation systems destroyed and their livestock shot by Soviet or government troops, according to a survey conducted by Swedish relief experts 4

The population of Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar, was reduced from 200,000 before the war to no more than 25,000 inhabitants, following a months-long campaign of carpet bombing and bulldozing by the Soviets and Afghan communist soldiers in 1987.5Land mines had killed 25,000 Afghans during the war and another 10-15 million land mines, most planted by Soviet and government forces, were left scattered throughout the countryside to kill and maim.6 A great deal of damage was done to the civilian children population by land mines. A 2005 report estimated 3-4% of the Afghan population was disabled due to Soviet and government land mines. In the city of Quetta, a survey of refugee women and children taken shortly after the Soviet withdrawal found over 80% of the children refugees unregistered and child mortality at 31%. Of children who survived, 67% were severely malnourished, with malnutrition increasing with age.7

Critics of Soviet and Afghan government forces describe their effect on Afghan culture as working in three stages: first, the center of customary Afghan culture, Islam, was pushed aside; second, Soviet patterns of life, especially amongst the young, were imported; third, shared Afghan cultural characteristics were destroyed by the emphasis on so-called nationalities, with the outcome that the country was split into different ethnic groups, with no language, religion, or culture in common.8

The Geneva Accords of 1988, which ultimately led to the withdrawal of the Soviet forces in early 1989, left the Afghan government in ruins. The accords had failed to address adequately the issue of the post-occupation period and the future governance of Afghanistan. The assumption among most Western diplomats was that the Soviet-backed government in Kabul would soon collapse; however, this was not to happen for another three years. During this time the Interim Islamic Government of Afghanistan (IIGA) was established in exile. The exclusion of key groups such as refugees and Shias, combined with major disagreements between the different mujahedeen factions, meant that the IIGA never succeeded in acting as a functional government.9

Before the war, Afghanistan was already one of the world’s poorest nations. The prolonged conflict left Afghanistan ranked 170 out of 174 in the UNDP’s Human Development Index, making Afghanistan one of the least developed countries in the world.10

 Once the Soviets withdrew, US interest in Afghanistan ceased. The US decided not to help with reconstruction of the country and instead they handed over the interests of the country to US allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Pakistan quickly took advantage of this opportunity and forged relations with warlords and later theTaliban, to secure trade interests and routes. From wiping out the country’s trees through logging practices, which has destroyed all but 2% of forest cover country-wide, to substantial uprooting of wild pistachio trees for the exportation of their roots for therapeutic uses, to opium agriculture, the past ten years have caused much ecological and agrarian destruction.11

Captain Tarlan Eyvazov, a soldier in the Soviet forces during the war, stated that the Afghan children’s future is destined for war. Eyvazov said, “Children born in Afghanistan at the start of the war… have been brought up in war conditions, this is their way of life.” Eyvazov’s theory was later strengthened when the Taliban movement developed and formed from orphans or refugee children who were forced by the Soviets to flee their homes and relocate their lives in Pakistan. The swift rise to power, from the young Taliban in 1994, was the result of the disorder and civil war that had warlords running wild because of the complete breakdown of law and order in Afghanistan after the departure of the Soviets.12

 

Israeli  Brutalities since the Arab-Isreal War 1967

       According to eyewitness accounts by Israeli officers and journalists, the Israeli Army – the army that claims to hold itself to a higher moral standard than other armies – executed as many as 1,000 Arab prisoners during the 1967 war.

Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish.

Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the El Arish airport where they were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their hands held on the back of their necks. Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escort an Egyptian POW from the group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Then the man would be taken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave.

I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes, Bron wrote. Afterwards, the (Israeli military) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of them leveled an Uzi at him and shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets.

Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave was filled. Then an Israeli Colonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area.

The reality is that Israel encouraged and then took advantage of that war for many political, economic, and territorial reasons. To grab these advantages, Israel attacked on Syria and captured the Golan in the last days of the war.

Sabra and Shatila Massacre Sep.16, 1982

Today, 27 years later, Israeli aggression against Palestinians continues.

 

The scars left by the Sabra and Shatila massacres are indescribable.

Photo courtesy: Piotr_360

 

On Sept. 16, 1982, members of the Lebanese Christian Phalange militia – with direct approval and support of then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon – entered Sabra and Shatila and initiated a 36-hour long assault, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of unarmed Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.

Journalist Robert Fisk, who was on the scene on September 19, 1982, reported seeing the “blackened bodies of babies tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded U.S. army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.”

The infants had been shot in the head. Some had had their throats slit. Scores of men had been shot in the back of the head or mutilated by axes. Women had been raped. Pregnant women had fetuses torn from their bodies.

The United Nations, which issued a formal declaration of genocide in 1982, also calls the Sabra and Shatila massacre one of the most heinous events in the 20th century.

How many died is not known, but figures range from about 1,000 to at least 3,500, a number estimated by the late Israeli journalist Amnon Kapeliouk.

“The exact figure (of victims) can never be determined because, in addition to the approximately 1,000 people who were buried in communal graves by the International Committee of the Red Cross or in the cemeteries of Beirut by members of their families, a large number of corpses were buried beneath bulldozed buildings by the militia members themselves,” wrote Dr. Laurie King-Irani, an adjunct professor of anthropology at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. “Also, particularly on 17 and 18 September, hundreds of people were carried away alive in trucks towards unknown destinations, never to return.”

Dr. King-Irani also was the North American Coordinator of the International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila, which hosted the Web site indictsharon.net.

Yet the perpetrators of the massacre were never brought to justice. An internal Israeli investigation called the Kahan Commission – which was political and not judicial – found Sharon to be indirectly but personally responsible. He resigned as defense minister but retained a government cabinet position. He served as prime minister from 2001 to 2006. A case that had been filed in November 2001 on behalf of some survivors against Sharon and others for committing war crimes under Belgium’s universal jurisdiction law was later rejected by a Belgian appeals court.

Sharon told the Israeli Knesset that the decision to send in the Phalangists had been made at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 15. The Israeli Command received the instructions that the “mopping up of the camps will be carried out by the Phalanges or the Lebanese army,” Dr. King-Irani writes, citing the Kahan Commission report, page 125.

Today, 27 years later, Israeli aggression against Palestinians continues. Operation Cast Lead in December and January killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than 5,300. Israel’s continuing siege has squeezed the 1.5 million residents there into an inhumane and unthinkable crisis.

All the Muslims of the world should honor the victims and survivors of Sabra and Shatila by keeping their memories alive. Where their voices have been silenced, we must raise our voices loudly and clearly and call for an end to the brutal occupation of Palestine and for the right of refugees to return to their homeland.

The Jenin Massacre of April 2002

A monstrous war crime that Israel has tried to cover up for a fortnight has finally been exposed. Its troops have caused devastation in the centre of the Jenin refugee camp, reached yesterday by The Independent, where thousands of people are still living amid the ruins.

A residential area roughly 160,000 square yards about a third of a mile wide has been reduced to dust. Rubble has been shovelled by bulldozers into 30ft piles. The sweet and ghastly reek of rotting human bodies is everywhere, evidence that it is a human tomb. The people, who spent days hiding in basements crowded into single rooms as the rockets pounded in, say there are hundreds of corpses, entombed beneath the dust, under a field of debris, criss-crossed with tank and bulldozer treadmarks.

In one nearby half-wrecked building, gutted by fire, lies the fly-blown corpse of a man covered by a tartan rug. In another we found the remains of 23-year-old Ashraf Abu Hejar beneath the ruins of a fire-blackened room that collapsed on him after being hit by a rocket. His head is shrunken and blackened. In a third, five long-dead men lay under blankets.

A quiet. sad-looking young man called Kamal Anis led us across the wasteland, littered now with detritus of what were once households, foam rubber, torn clothes, shoes, tin cans, children’s toys. He suddenly stopped. This was a mass grave, he said, pointing.

We stared at a mound of debris. Here, he said, he saw the Israeli soldiers pile 30 bodies beneath a half-wrecked house. When the pile was complete, they bulldozed the building, bringing its ruins down on the corpses. Then they flattened the area with a tank. We could not see the bodies. But we could smell them.

A few days ago, we might not have believed Kamal Anis. But the descriptions given by the many other refugees who escaped from Jenin camp were understated, not, as many feared and Israel encouraged us to believe, exaggerations. Their stories had not prepared me for what I saw yesterday. I believe them now.

Until two weeks ago, there were several hundred tightly-packed homes in this neighbourhood called Hanat al-Hawashim. They no longer exist.

Around the central ruins, there are many hundreds of half-wrecked homes. Much of the camp — once home to 15,000 Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war — is falling down. Every wall is speckled and torn with bullet holes and shrapnel, testimony of the awesome, random firepower of Cobra and Apache helicopters that hovered over the camp.

Building after building has been torn apart, their contents of cheap fake furnishings, mattresses, white plastic chairs spewed out into the road. Every other building bears the giant, charred, impact mark of a helicopter missile. Last night there were still many families and weeping children still living amid the ruins, cut off from the humanitarian aid. Ominously, we found no wounded, although there was a report of a man being rescued from beneath ruins only an hour before we arrived.

Those who did not flee the camp, or not detained by the army, have spent the bombardment in basements, enduring day after day of terror. Some were forced into rooms by the soldiers, who smashed their way into houses through the walls. The UN says half of the camp’s 15,000 residents were under 18. As the evening hush fell over these killing fields, we could suddenly hear the children chattering. The mosques, once so noisy at prayer time, were silent.

Israel was still trying to conceal these scenes yesterday. It had refused entry to Red Cross ambulances for nearly a week, in violation of the Geneva Convention. Yesterday it continued to try to keep us out.

Jenin, in the northern end of the occupied West Bank, remained a closed military zone, was ringed Merkava tanks, army Jeep patrols, and armoured personnel carriers. Reporters caught trying to get in were escorted out. A day earlier the Israeli armed forces took in a few selected journalists to see sanitised parts of the camp. We simply walked across the fields, flitted through an olive orchard overlooked by two Israeli tanks, and into the camp itself.

We were led in by hands gesturing at windows. Hidden, whispering people directed us through narrow alleys they thought were clear. When there were soldiers about, a finger would rise in warning, or a hand waved us back. We were welcomed by people desperate to tell what had occurred. They spoke of executions, and bulldozers wrecking homes with people inside. This is mass murder committed by Ariel Sharon, Jamel Saleh, 43, said. We feel more hate for Israel now than ever. Look at this boy. He placed his hand on the tousled head of a little boy, Mohammed, the eight-year-old son of a friend. He saw all this evil. He will remember it all. So will everyone else who saw the horror of Jenin refugee camp. Palestinians who entered the camp yesterday were almost speechless.

Rajib Ahmed, from the Palestinian Energy Authority, came to try to repair the power lines. He was trembling with fury and shock. This is mass murder. I have come here to help by I have found nothing but devastation. Just look for yourself. All had the same message: tell the world.

 

Recent Israeli aggression in Gaza

Israel has perpetrated an unprecedented barbaric slaughter on defenseless civil Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s intent seems to have been not only the destruction of some locations in the Gaza Strip, but the annihilation of Gaza and the burial of its population under piles of rubbles and blood lakes.

 

The time chosen by Israel to launch its aggression mounts anxiety amongst Arabs.

Worldwide concerns about the deep financial crisis, the transitional period in the White House, and Hamas’s declaration of the end of its truce with Israel without any Palestinian or Arab support that may halt Israel’s hostile intentions, all trigger anxiety that Israel is preparing for the worst to terrorize the entire Arab region.

Israel launched its aggression on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008 on three stages:

Stage One: Air bombardment as of Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 2, 2009.

Stage Two: Ground attack as of Jan. 3 to 10, 2009.

Stage Three: Starting on Jan. 10 with advance inside large cities, occupying more  territories and setting a buffer zone along the borders of the Strip, which finally ended on Jan. 18.

Throughout the three stages, more than 1300 people have been killed and more than 5300 injured of which more than a half are women, children, and aged persons. 

Blame the Victim, Not the Aggressor

US Foreign Minister, Condoleeza Rice accused Hamas for the violence. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could only express “deep alarm,” and where was Barack Obama? An AP photo showed him on vacation “working out” at the Semper Fit Center at the Marine Corp Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii on Saturday, and CBS News reported that he’s “closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza, but there is one president at a time,” according to Brooke Anderson, his chief national security spokesperson.

In a July 2008 interview, The New York Times asked Obama if Israel should negotiate with Hamas in Gaza. He replied that “I don’t think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens….I expect Israelis to do (all they can to stop them)….In terms of negotiating with Hamas, it is very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognize your right to exist, (and) has consistently used terror as a weapon. Hamas is a terrorist organization….it’s hard for Israel to negotiate with a country like that.”

Hamas was democratically elected. It’s the legitimate Palestinian government. It’s falsely called a terrorist organization, and it has every right to resist an illegal occupation under international law. It observed a unilateral ceasefire for months and extended peace overtures numerous times in the past. Israel spurned them by dividing Gaza and the West Bank, co-opting Mamoud Abbas, inciting Fatah against Hamas, isolating Gaza, and pursuing a policy of aggression, killings, targeted assassinations, mass incarcerations, and torture with full support from Washington, the West, and (from his comments above) the incoming Obama administration.

The UN Refugee Works Relief Agency’s (UNWRA) operations head for Palestinian refugees, John Ging, expressed outraged on what’s happening. Earlier he said: Gazans got nothing from the months of ceasefire. There was no “restoration of a dignified existence. We had our supplies restricted (during the period) to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position” with very little food left until it ran out.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) campaigns for Palestinian justice in areas of civil, human and political rights according to international law. Along with the Palestine Return Centre (PRC), the Palestinian Forum of Britain (PFB), the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), Stop the War, Friends of al Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), and Respect, Islamic Human Rights Commission it organized emergency protests opposite Israel’s London Embassy on December 28 and 29 to demand an end of the Gaza siege and ongoing aggression. The urgency was highlighted by saying: Israel’s Cynicism (Is) Supported by the West’s Complicity” as it called for public solidarity to end it.

For her part, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni ordered the Ministry to “take emergency measures (to) open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign,” according to Haaretz. In other words, Israel will spin its wanton aggression into justifiable self-defense and get dominant media help to sell it.

On December 27, The New York Times took the lead. It reported that “Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group’s rocket fire….Israeli military officials (called the attack) an effort to force Hamas to end its rocket barrages into southern Israel. Thousands of Israelis hurried into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets,” making it seem like Israel resembled London during the blitz when, in fact, Hamas attacks are mere pin pricks and only respond to first-strike Israeli attacks.

The Times and dominant media are silent on this. They continue spreading spurious lies about Hamas being “officially committed to Israel’s destruction, and when it won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 and then ‘forcibly’ took over Gaza in 2007, it said it would not recognize Israel, honor previous Palestinian Authority commitments to it, or end its violence against Israelis.”

All of the above is untrue. The Times continues to report falsely. Hamas wants peace, has repeatedly been conciliatory, and its founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said earlier that armed struggle would end “if the Zionists ended (their) occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians.”

Israel rejects all overtures. More recently, Hamas offered peace and Israeli recognition in return for a Palestinian state inside pre-1967 borders – its Occupied Territories that it’s entitled to under international law.

As early as 1988, the PLO under Yasser Arafat accepted a two-state solution with Palestinians willing to settle for only 22% of their pre-1948 homeland – a generous offer that, if accepted, would have had two sovereign states living peacefully alongside each other as neighbors.

Israel rejects this out of hand. It chooses dominance over peace, violence over reconciliation, and imperial conquest above the rule of law. It’s colonizing the West Bank, ethnically cleansing the population, and continues to terrorize Gaza. “The newspaper of record” is selective about “fit news to print,” so uncomfortable truths are suppressed. It reported that one Israeli was killed Saturday and another four wounded, one seriously, but didn’t explain that previous rocket attacks caused no deaths or injuries.

After many months of siege compounded by ongoing attacks, Gaza is gravely affected, but so is the West Bank. Under the Fatah government, no rockets are launched, yet Israel maintains a violent occupation, continues to seize Palestinian land, expand its illegal settlements, and lets its residents terrorize Palestinians with impunity, even in cases of wanton killings and destruction of property.

 

 US administration supports Israeli aggression against Gaza

 On 31 December, Associated Press reported that the UN Security Council had held an emergency meeting on an Arab request for a legally binding and enforceable UN resolution that would condemn Israel and seek to force the Zionist state to stop its military attacks on Gaza.

The draft resolution also called for the immediate protection of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the opening of border crossings for humanitarian aid.

But the draft, which was presented by Libya on behalf of the 22-member Arab League, was immediately rejected by the United States as “unbalanced”. Despite this US veto, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, told Associated Press that Arab nations would be working “day and night” to get the UN Security Council’s approval for a binding resolution in the announced terms.

As with the 2006 war in Lebanon, the government of President George W. Bush has strongly supported the Israeli attack on Gaza. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe even called Hamas “nothing but thugs”. Moreover, the US administration has been working to block all diplomatic proposals for a cease-fire in order to give Israel the green light to increase its attacks on Gaza.

While Israeli fighters, warships and artillery continued to destroy civilian buildings, bridges and mosques, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice did not hesitate to blame Hamas for the Israeli aggression and showed US backing for Israel’s rejection of cease-fire initiatives from the European Union and several Arab capitals.

Washington and Israel did not accept the victory of Hamas in the 2006 parliamentary election.

In June 2007, they promoted a coup d’état to bring down the national unity government that Fatah and Hamas had previously set up during their negotiations in Jeddah. The coup failed and from then on, the Bush administration backed the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip, which has often prevented 1.5 million Palestinians from receiving food, fuel, medicines and so forth.

The goal of this blockade is to make life for the people of Gaza so intolerable that the Hamas administration will fall.

The United States is not only protecting Israel in the diplomatic front but it has also given Israel some weapons that have been used on the Palestinians, including the GBU-39 missile — a new bunker-buster weapon.

Israel received 1,000 missiles of this type in early December in addition to the 3 billion dollars a year in US military aid, including F-16 fighters and Apache helicopters and the fuel and spare parts needed to keep them in operation.

Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of Palestinians (scores of them children), while the US Administration continues to insist that Hamas is “responsible” for the fighting.

US President Barack Obama’s Senior Adviser, David Axelrod repeated the same lies as President George W. Bush: that Hamas had been the first to break the ceasefire agreement. Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi agreed. She issued a statement concerning the Israeli aggression on Gaza in which she wrote, “When Israel is attacked, the US must continue to stand strongly with its friend and democratic ally.”

On the night of November 4, the day of the US election, Israel fired missiles on Gaza. It then continued to bomb Gaza over the following six weeks killing dozens of Palestinians. “The escalation towards war could, and should, have been avoided. It was the State of Israel which broke the truce, in the tunnel raid … two months ago,” the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom wrote in a press release.

The army continued its calculated raids and killings. The truth is that the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza is a crime against humanity for which not only the Israeli government but also the American one bears full responsibility.

In fact, for the US to support and be an accomplice in Israeli war crimes is serving a far more strategic purpose. What it is actually doing is setting up a “new order” in the Middle East which will ensure continued US domination in the region and control over its oil resources.

Israel is but a small partner in this bloody effort. The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, threats against Iran and Syria and the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006 are all part of this US application of the Israeli doctrine to dominate and divide the Arab and Muslim worlds.

In spite of all this military and diplomatic support, the officials of the US Administration fear a possible Israeli failure, similar to what happened in Lebanon in 2006 and have urged Israel to settle a timetable and exit strategy, foreign diplomats told the Los Angeles Times.

“US officials are concerned that the campaign could drag on without destroying Hamas, and might even bolster support for the militant group – just as the Israeli campaign in Lebanon strengthened Hezbollah. You are not hearing that same confidence you did in 2006 that the Israeli military can impose a new strategic reality,” said one Arab diplomat in Washington.

According to numerous observers, the war will weaken the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas and strengthen his Hamas rivals, even though Israel will continue its Gaza invasion.

The fighting has also ruined the already damaged reputation of the US-backed regimes of Egypt and Jordan, both of which have diplomatic relations with Israel and are regarded by the Arab people as corrupt and accomplices in the Israeli aggression. The stability of these regimes is seriously threatened.

Some observers believe that Israel wanted to create an international crisis at a time when Obama was on the verge of becoming the US President, in order to gauge the new Obama government’s sensibilities to the killing of Palestinians.

Israel wanted to determine Obama’s policies even before they are decided by his administration in order to make it complicit in its crimes against the Palestinians.

Obama’s submission to Israel has been put in doubt by the Israeli media. In March 2007 Obama told a small gathering of Democratic activists in Iowa: “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.” The comment made headlines and earned him the outrage of pro-Israel groups.

As a candidate in the recent presidential election, Obama changed his tone and said that Israel had the “right” to full sovereignty over all of Al Quds (Jerusalem), a position that guarantees that there will not be a lasting peace in the region, as Arabs and Muslims will never renounce their legitimate rights to the city.

Obama’s right-hand man, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is a rabid Zionist who worked for the Israeli army during the 1991 [Persian] Gulf War.

Now, these measures were seen as a means to avoid criticism by the influential pro-Israeli lobby in Washington, which has deeply infiltrated both the US Republican and the Democratic parties.

Obama’s initial reaction to the Gaza massacre was “no comment”. This has led many people to start wondering if his self-declared principles of safety and dignity are also going to be applied to the Palestinian people.

There is no doubt that the United States will pay a high price for its support of Israel’s state terrorism.

Many protesters from all over the world are burning US flags and showing their complete rejection of US policies that promote Zionist terror.

Although US mainstream media, which are under Zionist or corporate control, continue to falsify the reality regarding the extent of Israeli aggression and occupation, the internet and satellite channels of the Muslim world are offering professional coverage of the developments in Palestine.

Washington’s continued support for Israeli crimes will lead any initiative aimed at recovering its destroyed credibility in the Muslim and Arab worlds to failure.

How the CIA created Taliban and Osama bin Laden

 Is this a call to jihad (holy war) taken from one of Islamic fundamentalist Osama bin Laden’s notorious fatwas? Or perhaps a communique issued by the repressive Taliban regime in Kabul?

In fact, this glowing praise of the murderous exploits of today’s supporters of arch-terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban collaborators, and their holy war against the “evil empire”, was issued by US President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985. The “evil empire” was the Soviet Union, as well as Third World movements fighting US-backed colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship.

How things change. In the aftermath of a series of terrorist atrocities — the most despicable being the mass murder of more than 6000 working people in New York and Washington on September 11 — bin Laden the “freedom fighter” is now lambasted by US leaders and the Western mass media as a “terrorist mastermind” and an “evil-doer”.

Yet the US government refuses to admit its central role in creating the vicious movement that spawned bin Laden, the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists that plague Algeria and Egypt — and perhaps the disaster that befell New York.

The mass media has also downplayed the origins of bin Laden and his toxic brand of Islamic fundamentalism.

Mujaheddeen

In April 1978, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan in reaction to a crackdown against the party by that country’s repressive government.

The PDPA was committed to a radical land reform that favoured the peasants, trade union rights, an expansion of education and social services, equality for women and the separation of church and state. The PDPA also supported strengthening Afghanistan’s relationship with the Soviet Union.

Such policies enraged the wealthy semi-feudal landlords, the Muslim religious establishment (many mullahs were also big landlords) and the tribal chiefs. They immediately began organising resistance to the government’s progressive policies, under the guise of defending Islam.

Washington, fearing the spread of Soviet influence (and worse the new government’s radical example) to its allies in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states, immediately offered support to the Afghan mujahedeen, as the “contra” force was known.

Following an internal PDPA power struggle in December 1979 which toppled Afghanistan’s leader, thousands of Soviet troops entered the country to prevent the new government’s fall. This only galvanised the disparate fundamentalist factions. Their reactionary jihad now gained legitimacy as a “national liberation” struggle in the eyes of many Afghans.

The Soviet Union was eventually to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989 and the mujahedeen captured the capital, Kabul, in 1992.

Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$6 billion (some estimates range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the mujahedeen factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich Saudi Arabia, kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama bin Laden, provided millions more.

Washington’s policy in Afghanistan was shaped by US President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and was continued by his successors. His plan went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; rather it aimed to foster an international movement to spread religious fanaticism into the Muslim Central Asian Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union.

Brzezinski’s grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator General Zia ul-Haq’s own ambitions to dominate the region. US-run Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe beamed Islamic fundamentalist tirades across Central Asia (while paradoxically denouncing the “Islamic revolution” that toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran in 1979).

Washington’s favoured mujahedeen faction was one of the most extreme, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The West’s distaste for terrorism did not apply to this unsavoury “freedom fighter”. Hekmatyar was notorious in the 1970s for throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil.

After the mujahedeen took Kabul in 1992, Hekmatyar’s forces rained US-supplied missiles and rockets on that city — killing at least 2000 civilians — until the new government agreed to give him the post of prime minister. Osama bin Laden was a close associate of Hekmatyar and his faction.

Hekmatyar was also infamous for his side trade in the cultivation and trafficking in opium. Backing of the mujahedeen from the CIA coincided with a boom in the drug business. Within two years, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was the world’s single largest source of heroin, supplying 60% of US drug users.

In 1995, the former director of the CIA’s operation in Afghanistan was unrepentant about the explosion in the flow of drugs: “Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets… There was a fall out in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.”

Made in the USA

According to Ahmed Rashid, a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, in 1986 CIA Chief William Casey committed CIA support to a long-standing ISI proposal to recruit from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. At least 100,000 Islamic militants flocked to Pakistan between 1982 and 1992 (some 60,000 attended fundamentalist schools in Pakistan without necessarily taking part in the fighting).

John Cooley, a former journalist with the US ABC television network and author of Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, has revealed that Muslims recruited in the US for the mujahidin were sent to Camp Peary, the CIA’s spy training camp in Virginia, where young Afghans, Arabs from Egypt and Jordan, and even some African-American “black Muslims” were taught “sabotage skills”.

The November 1, 1998, British Independent reported that one of those charged with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Ali Mohammed, had trained “bin Laden’s operatives” in 1989.

These “operatives” were recruited at the al Kifah Refugee Centre in Brooklyn, New York, given paramilitary training in the New York area and then sent to Afghanistan with US assistance to join Hekmatyar’s forces. Mohammed was a member of the US army’s elite Green Berets.

The program, reported the Independent, was part of a Washington-approved plan called “Operation Cyclone”.

In Pakistan, recruits, money and equipment were distributed to the mujahedeen factions by an organisation known as Maktab al Khidamar (Office of Services — MAK).

MAK was a front for Pakistan’s CIA, the Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate. The ISI was the first recipient of the vast bulk of CIA and Saudi Arabian covert assistance for the Afghan contras. Bin Laden was one of three people who ran MAK. In 1989, he took overall charge of MAK.

Among those trained by Mohammed were El Sayyid Nosair, who was jailed in 1995 for killing Israeli rightist Rabbi Meir Kahane and plotting with others to bomb New York landmarks, including the World Trade Center in 1993.

The Independent also suggested that Shiekh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian religious leader also jailed for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, was also part of Operation Cyclone. He entered the US in 1990 with the CIA’s approval. A confidential CIA report concluded that the agency was “partly culpable” for the 1993 World Trade Center blast, the Independent reported.

 

Bin Laden

Osama bin Laden, one of 20 sons of a billionaire construction magnate, arrived in Afghanistan to join the jihad in 1980. An austere religious fanatic and business tycoon, bin Laden specialised in recruiting, financing and training the estimated 35,000 non-Afghan mercenaries who joined the mujahidin.

The bin Laden family is a prominent pillar of the Saudi Arabian ruling class, with close personal, financial and political ties to that country’s pro-US royal family.

Bin Laden senior was appointed Saudi Arabia’s minister of public works as a favour by King Faisal. The new minister awarded his own construction companies lucrative contracts to rebuild Islam’s holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina. In the process, the bin Laden family company in 1966 became the world’s largest private construction company.

Osama bin Laden’s father died in 1968. Until 1994, he had access to the dividends from this ill-gotten business empire.

(Bin Laden junior’s oft-quoted personal fortune of US$200-300 million has been arrived at by the US State Department by dividing today’s value of the bin Laden family net worth — estimated to be US$5 billion — by the number of bin Laden senior’s sons. A fact rarely mentioned is that in 1994 the bin Laden family disowned Osama and took control of his share.)

Osama’s military and business adventures in Afghanistan had the blessing of the bin Laden dynasty and the reactionary Saudi Arabian regime. His close working relationship with MAK also meant that the CIA was fully aware of his activities.

Milt Bearden, the CIA’s station chief in Pakistan from 1986 to 1989, admitted to the January 24, 2000, New Yorker that while he never personally met bin Laden, “Did I know that he was out there? Yes, I did … [Guys like] bin Laden were bringing $20-$25 million a month from other Saudis and Gulf Arabs to underwrite the war. And that is a lot of money. It’s an extra $200-$300 million a year. And this is what bin Laden did.”

In 1986, bin Laden brought heavy construction equipment from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan. Using his extensive knowledge of construction techniques (he has a degree in civil engineering), he built “training camps”, some dug deep into the sides of mountains, and built roads to reach them.

These camps, now dubbed “terrorist universities” by Washington, were built in collaboration with the ISI and the CIA. The Afghan contra fighters, including the tens of thousands of mercenaries recruited and paid for by bin Laden, were armed by the CIA. Pakistan, the US and Britain provided military trainers.

Tom Carew, a former British SAS soldier who secretly fought for the mujahedeen told the August 13, 2000, British Observer, “The Americans were keen to teach the Afghans the techniques of urban terrorism — car bombing and so on — so that they could strike at the Russians in major towns … Many of them are now using their knowledge and expertise to wage war on everything they hate.”

Al Qaeda (the Base), bin Laden’s organisation, was established in 1987-88 to run the camps and other business enterprises. It is a tightly-run capitalist holding company — albeit one that integrates the operations of a mercenary force and related logistical services with “legitimate” business operations.

Bin Laden has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in Afghanistan during the 1980s — fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has changed is his primary customer. Then it was the ISI and, behind the scenes, the CIA. Today, his services are utilised primarily by the reactionary Taliban regime.

Bin Laden only became a “terrorist” in US eyes when he fell out with the Saudi royal family over its decision to allow more than 540,000 US troops to be stationed on Saudi soil following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

When thousands of US troops remained in Saudi Arabia after the end of the Gulf War, bin Laden’s anger turned to outright opposition. He declared that Saudi Arabia and other regimes — such as Egypt — in the Middle East were puppets of the US, just as the PDPA government of Afghanistan had been a puppet of the Soviet Union.

He called for the overthrow of these client regimes and declared it the duty of all Muslims to drive the US out of the Gulf States. In 1994, he was stripped of his Saudi citizenship and forced to leave the country. His assets there were frozen.

After a period in Sudan, he returned to Afghanistan in May 1996. He refurbished the camps he had helped build during the Afghan war and offered the facilities and services — and thousands of his mercenaries — to the Taliban, which took power that September.

Today, bin Laden’s private army of non-Afghan religious fanatics is a key prop of the Taliban regime.

Prior to the devastating September 11 attack on the twin towers of World Trade Center, US ruling-class figures remained unrepentant about the consequences of their dirty deals with the likes of bin Laden, Hekmatyar and the Taliban. Since the awful attack, they have been downright hypocritical.

In an August 28, 1998, report posted on MSNBC, Michael Moran quotes Senator Orrin Hatch, who was a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee which approved US dealings with the mujahedeen, as saying he would make “the same call again”, even knowing what bin Laden would become.

“It was worth it. Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union.”

Hatch today is one of the most gung-ho voices demanding military retaliation.

Another face that has appeared repeatedly on television screens since the attack has been Vincent Cannistrano, described as a former CIA chief of “counter-terrorism operations”.

Cannistrano is certainly an expert on terrorists like bin Laden, because he directed their “work”. He was in charge of the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras during the early 1980s. In 1984, he became the supervisor of covert aid to the Afghan mujahedeen for the US National Security Council.

The last word goes to Zbigniew Brzezinski: “What was more important in the world view of history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”

 

Conclusion

A moment’s thought would show that any invasion that replaced the Taliban with a western puppet in Kabul would merely restore the Taliban as champions of Afghan sovereignty. The Americans sponsored them to be just such a puppet in the 1980s, funding some 60,000 foreign mercenaries to join them against the Russians. Intervention reaps what it sows.

Americans don’t want to acknowledge their mistakes but this is realty that [currently] Americans have made Taliban look like illegitimate child.  It was the Pakistani ISI with the blessing of CIA, who brainwashed Taliban when they were small kids living in the Tents in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, next to Afghanistan. They taught them to hate Russians. They taught them to fight, and they didn’t teach them anything else. Then they were just children growing up in Pakistan. And they are the ones who made them very religious and they are the ones who made them terrorists. They are the ones to teach them kill people and they did not teach them anything else.

Now America is savagely killing her own made Taliban without any mercy as they are non living things. These killings comprised of Taliban and a large number of Pakistani and Afghani civilians.

America has spread the circle of its drone attacks to Pakistan Administered Tribal Areas in the doubt of Taliban hideouts. Resulting a heavy loss of civilian lives consisting of innocent women and children while no or few Taliban causalities. The remaining members of these ill-fated families bearing fire of revenge in their hearts became suicide bombers. These suicide bobbers commonly known as terrorists, attack Pakistani forces and civilians causing heavy loss of life and property. Pakistan is paying an unbearable price for killing her own people (American made Taliban) in the so called War against Terror. America has injected terrorism in the form of Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to defeat Russia. Now this jinni of Aladdin (Taliban) is out of the lamp while American and Pakistani forces are not capable enough to put this jinni back into the lamp. If military operations against Taliban succeeded in restoring law and order in the region it would not be durable. Dialogue and a policy of tolerance is the only way to win the hearts of these Pukhtoons, otherwise the history showed us that they are born fighters and no military might is capable to subdue them. In the light of all historical facts I come to this conclusion that Israel, Russia and America are equally responsible of recent wave of terrorism which has engulfed the major portion of Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan. If American policy makers don’t react on time then these acts of terrorism can happen any where around the globe!!

Notes

 

^ Death Tolls for the Major Wars …  Kaplan, Soldiers of God (2001) (p.11)  Hilali, A. (2005). US-Pakistan relationship: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co. (p.198)  Kaplan, Soldiers of God (2001) p.188  ”MINES PUT AFGHANS IN PERIL ON RETURN,” By ROBERT PEAR, New York Times, Aug 14, 1988. p. 9 (1 page)  Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, H. (2002). Children of War: The Real Causalities of Afghan conflict. Ferozesons, Lahore, December 11, 2007,(p.89)  Hauner, M. (1989). Afghanistan and the Soviet Union: Collision and transformation. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. (p.40)  Barakat, S. (2004). Reconstructing war-torn societies: Afghanistan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (p.5)  Barakat, S. (2004). Reconstructing war-torn societies: Afghanistan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (p.7)

10.   Panetta L. (2002) Collateral Damage and the uncertainty of Afghanistan. Daily Dawn Karachi August 17, 2002.

11.   Kirby, A. (2003). War ‘has ruined Afghan environment.’  National Journal of Environment, Fall 2007edition,(p.75)

12.  Hauner, M. (1989). Afghanistan and the Soviet Union: Collision and transformation. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. (p.51)

 

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