DARFUR ON THE EDGE

November 7, 2012

More trouble in Darfur has prompted the acting head of the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) to urge the Government of Sudan to urgently launch an investigation into the violence.

The UN website reported the incident on its website today:

"UNAMID had received reports some days ago of an alleged attack on civilians that resulted in fatalities, an abduction of a civilian and widespread population displacement in Sigili, located in the Shawa area, about 40 kilometres southeast of El Fasher, the capital city of the west Sudanese state of North Darfur. The attack reportedly took place on Friday."

Despite the various peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfuri guerrillas after the worse of the Darfur Genocide between 2003 and 2010, the situation is still volatile. Much of the region had been operating as an independent sultanate for several centuries before it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. Many of the inhabitants, however, are non-Arab and these have age-old grievances against the Arab "elite".

UNAMID was established in July 2007 in order to protect civilians, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and assist with "an inclusive peace process in Darfur". This is all very welcome, but unless the government of Omar al-Bashir doubles its efforts to foster harmony, UNAMID will simply become more and more vulnerable in a festering scenario. President al-Bashir has, despite his indictment, shown that he can at times, make concessions and think creatively, as some of his negotiations regarding the creation of South Sudan has shown. Let him surprise us again. Established in July 2007, UNAMID has the protection of civilians as its core mandate. In addition, the Mission is tasked with facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid and assisting with an inclusive peace process in Darfur, among other responsibilities.

THREE CHEERS FOR MOZAMBIQUE!

November 6, 2012

The Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago, a chain of 10 almost uninhabited barrier islands and two coral reef complexes which is situated off the coast of Mozambique, has been declared a marine protected area. Mozambique's conscientious decision has made it the administrator of Africa’s largest coastal marine reserve, covering an area of about ten and a half square kilometres.

The first European to discover the islands was the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 and they soon became a docking area for Portuguese trading vessels. Their rich fishing stocks and natural beauty attracted a fishing and tourism, both of which were detrimental to the delicate bio-diverse balance. The coral and turtles were particularly at risk.

The WWF (which stood for "World Wildlife Fund" when it was founded in 1961)has spent years striving for this outcome. Florêncio Marerua, Mozambique´s WWF Country Director was delighted with result:

“This is a very important step in our effort to achieve the conservation and sustainable management of Mozambique’s marine and coastal resources, as this adds a globally significant area to the network of marine protected areas along the country’s coast. It is particularly exciting that both the government authorities and local communities recognize the benefits of conserving these resources.”

The decision is a credit to Mozambique's government and its people. It is a lesson to those governments who would put profit before responsibility.

OBAMA? ROMNEY? AND THE WINNER IS...

November 5, 2012

Yesterday I spoke about the Coptic Pope and how his name was pulled out of a jar from a short-list of three, by a blindfolded boy. Well, one can't help thinking about the American elections. Think how much time, money and effort would be saved by just pulling the name out of a hat! You would definitely have to have Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney, of course, but you would have to have a third...

Let's see... It's difficult to have a candidate who does not veer towards one or towards the other... Maybe one who touches a bit of both... I know! Mickey Mouse. If Romney is religious and Obama is spiritual, Mickey now has the Jedi Knights behind him. That should cater for all tastes. So what would the different results mean?

Well, if Obama won, it would take him another four years to make a few inroads: a better health service there, a bit more for gay rights here and the closure of Guantanamo... oh no, sorry, not quite. Oh well, "two out of three ain't bad".

Romney would certainly bring a few surprises out of the hat with him. Perhaps a New Jerusalem (probably void of Arabs), maybe a New Iran (probably void of Persians), but certainly and a brand New America (probably void of liberalism).

It's not looking good. But hey, we must not forget Mickey Mouse. He'll add magic, he'll appeal to the young... and he has all the qualities essential for a good politician: he's resilient, he's resourceful, he knows how to act and most importantly he's at ease with vermin. Mickey: you've got my vote!

HABEMUS PAPAM (A COPTIC ONE, THAT IS...)

November 4, 2012

The Coptic Church has elected a new Pope to succeed Pope Shenouda III, who died last March. Bishop Tawadros, 60, has been chosen in a ceremony in St Mark's Cathedral, in Egypt's capital, Cairo. The nomination follows an age-old ritual that involves the compiling of a short-list of three candidates, one of whose names is then randomly pulled out of a container by a blindfolded boy. The other two nominees were Bishop Raphael and Father Raphael Ava Mina, a monk. The three were originally chosen last October in a ballot involving almost two and a half thousand Church officials and community members.

Bishop Tawadros has a tough act to follow. Pope Shenouda III had been in office for over 40 years and had managed to guide and extend the Church through difficult times and negotiations, while maintaining his gravitas and traditions of the Coptic faith. Nevertheless the new Pope has a wealth of experience to back him up. Apart from his ecclesiastical knowledge and work, which includes his current post as aide to the acting leader, Bishop Pachomius, he is well read, has studied in Britain and has even managed a pharmaceutical business. He will need great skill in these uncertain times following the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

The Coptic Church is very similar in doctrines and traditions to the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Church. It went its own way after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, owing to differences of opinion regarding the nature of Christ. It is the main Christian faith in Egypt, with a following of about 10% of the 90 million or so inhabitants. It is unlikely that the new Pope will have to face the modernising forces other Christian denominations are having to come to terms with. His main concern will be the safety and freedom of worship of the Coptic faithful in Egypt. He may well need Heaven's help in order to achieve this difficult task.

CATHOLIC CHURCH TARGETS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL

November 3, 2012

The Catholic Church in France has launched a full-on attack against same-sex marriage, as a draft bill to legalise it is set to be debated in parliament on Wednesday. The bill is being proposed by President Francois Hollande's left-wing government and aims to give same-sex couples similar rights to traditional couples, including adoption.

Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris complained that:

“Changes of this magnitude require a broad national debate that does not involve random sampling or pressure from some ostentatious lobby.”

"Ostentatious"? Quite a remarkable choice of words coming form the higher echelons of the Catholic Church. The cardinal, who was speaking at the annual plenary meeting of Catholic bishops at Lourdes today, went on to call for opposition to same-sex marriage by every democratic means possible. This is bold, seeing as laïcité, or secularism, is enshrined in the French Constitution. Can the Church really prove that there is something socially or ethically wrong with same-sex unions and that its antagonism is not purely on religious grounds? Unlikely.

In France, a civil partnership contract, the Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS), was introduced 13 years ago and and it allows for a civil union between two adults of any gender. This has largely been taken up by opposite-sex couples, with only 6% or so "pacsé" from same-sex couples this year. That law too caused much controversy, but it did not, in the end, lead to the decadence predicted by those fighting the change. The outcome of this one, should it pass, would be equally non-apocalyptic; it would simply usher a fairer and more inclusive society.

THE METEOROLOGICAL CONGRESS CANNOT DO IT ALONE

November 2, 2012

"Prevention and preparedness are the heart of public health. Risk management is our daily bread and butter. Information on climate variability and climate change is a powerful scientific tool that assists in these tasks. Up to now, this tool has been underutilized... Climate and weather affect the air people breathe, the food they eat, and the water they drink."

This is the point Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, made at her opening speech of the Extraordinary Session of the World Meteorological Congress in Geneva, Switzerland on 29 October, 2012.

The Congress, sponsored by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), plans to finalise a model for the Global Framework for Climate Services. This will focus on four areas that are dependent on an understanding of climate change for their development:

health, agriculture and food security, disaster risk management, and water.

UNISDR chief, Margareta Wahlstrom, emphasised Dr Chan's urgency, stating that:

"Over the last ten years the top 40 recipients of humanitarian aid experienced over 1,500 major reported disasters affecting over 900 million people and causing some 800,000 deaths. Many of these disaster events have been weather related. Many have caused economic losses which have put enormous strains on already fragile states."

It's all well and good to keep an eye on the weather, but unless nations do more to stop it going mad in the first place, the UN's role in this respect will end up being like that of the Red Cross or Red Crescent in a war zone: picking up the pieces. If anything good came out of Hurricane Sandy, it is that the US is being forced to take note.

HAITI DEALT ANOTHER BLOW

November 1, 2012

The United Nations headquarters in New York was closed for "an unprecedented three days straight" following the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy on the east coast of the United States, but one of the UN's first concerns as business resumed, was to draw attention to another of Sandy's casualties: Haiti.

The head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)in Haiti, Johan Peleman, said that up to a million people there now faced "food insecurity" as the the half-island nation was dealt another devastating blow from nature. As well as Sandy, the country was hit by a protracted drought this year and another fierce hurricane, Isaac, which struck last summer. All this in the backdrop of the cataclysmic earthquake which destroyed much of the country in January 2010. Sandy contributed another 20,000 or so homes to the heaps of ruins.

Mr Peleman said that the new storm had possibly wiped out many of southern Haiti's crops:

“Already, the drought and the previous storm had hit the northern part of the country very badly and we had seen the levels of food insecurity rise there... With the south being hit now, we are going to face, in the next couple of months, very serious problems of malnutrition and food insecurity.”

Equally worrying is the spectre of a rapid spread of water-borne diseases and a in particular Cholera.

Nature has not been the only power that has reaped havoc in Haiti. Foreign colonial powers have exploited Haiti and contributed to making it the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. See post dated July 20, 20112: We all owe Haiti a debt.