Why should the world care about the environment in places like Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Rwanda?

If there are any reasons why the world should care about the environmental issues in Africa, two immediate reasons come to mind: geopolitics and the concept of a global village. There are as many other reasons why any sane person should run as far away from the continent as posible. Even though Africa has great potential and resources, her endless woes and the buffoonery of her leaders, are an enduring night-mare that causes sleeplessness to the rest of the world.

However, people in Europe, Asia, America and the rest of the world are still drawn to Africa because it is almost impossible to shut the continent out from the rest of the world.

Africa's link with the rest of the world began with the scramble for her, where Great Britain, France, Portugal and Germany to mention a few, acquired colonies in Africa. Following independence from the colonial governments, political instability and internal conflicts have left an endless litany of human and environmental degradation in the continent.

In the case of Mozambique, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, the world's attention has been caught by the threat to their unique fauna and flora.

In some of the African conflicts, (like the liberation war in Mozambique) vested interests ensured that support (military and otherwise) continued to flow in from the former rulers.

For this, and other historical links, it has been difficult for the world, particularly the western world to turn a blind eye to what is going on in these countries.

On the other hand, the natural environment knows no boundaries. For instance, the well known annual migration of wildebeests in the Maasai-Mara and Serengeti National parks is a cross-border affair between Kenya and Tanzania. If there is disease outbreak among these animals or their environment is affected, it would not just be Kenyan or Tanzanian, but a regional problem.

This illustrates the fact that an environmental issue in one part of the world can take a global dimension, depending on its magnitude.

That said, the world has become a small village. Technological advancement in media reporting has ensured that the effects of the floods in Mozambique, the degradation of Gishwati forest in Rwanda, and malpractices in the Zimbabwean national parks are flashed in our living room television screens.

It therefore follows that a civilized world (knowing the importance of ecosystems), would use all resources at its disposal to restore any environmental degradation before it worsens. Furthermore,environmental issues linked to internal conflicts tend to have a spiral effect on neighboring countries.

In 1994, for example, one million Tutsis fled into neighboring Congo. Most of these refugees who did not have food, and shelter turned to the natural habitat for food and materials for building their homes. In effect the natural environment in Congo was now supporting a bigger population than it did before.

The net result was that both the political and environmental repercussions of war had now sucked in Congo, Uganda and all the international communities with vested interests there.

ln the Gishwati forests of Rwanda, the thick African mahogany, and the strangler figs were chopped down, to create room for potato and maize fields. The end result has been eroded terraces, and landslides that have killed people. Lake Kivu, on the Rwanda-Congo border now carries excess nutrients that pollutes rivers and affects the fishing industry.

War, conflict and political instability destroy even well-established economic institutions. In Zimbabwe, deforestation, poaching and unsustainable resource exploitation is destroying what was once among the best managed National park systems in the world.

Around Victoria Falls and Hwange National park, poaching for subsistence and for commercial purposes is on the rise. Since poaching is a high stakes activity, use of sophisticated weapons means that visitors, for fear of their safety, would avoid this part of Africa.

What this translates into is that an important foreign exchange earner has been brought to its knees. This exposes Zimbabwe to lending institutions like the World Bank, and IMF as an irresponsible regime which has failed to protect a sustainable natural resource.

In the case of Mozambique, the twelve year conflict resulted to massive destruction of the natural resource base. Wildlife was hunted both for meat and trophy by FRELIMO and RENAMO. That meant that the natural habitat in Gorongosa National park and the Zambezi delta were not self-sustaining. With destruction to infrastructure, the tourist industry had virtually come to a standstill. The natural environment could not sustain itself, threatening the very livelihood of subsistence farmers.

When hunger threatens a people, their natural recourse has always been to migrate to the neighboring countries who often cannot cope with the sudden influx of a large population; this was the case with Mozambicans who spilled into most of the southern African countries.

Massive resources have had to be mobilized to help not only in reconstruction, as was the case in Mozambique, but also in conservation of threatened species of wildlife like the rhino in Zimbabwe.

These, and many others, underscore the need for the world to care about the environment in Mozambique, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

Bibliography:

www.crisisgroup.org

www.worldlife.org/bsp/publicat ions/africa/146/mozambique.pdf

www.und.ac.za/und/indic/archiv es/crime/issue10/conserv.html

Working Outside the home and traditional family gender roles: is it time to reconsider?

There are traditional family gender roles that have worked well for both men and women for eons. In some of these roles, the male and the female are by their physical and emotional make-up, naturally suited. The most important of these functions is child-bearing by a woman. Because she carries a baby in her womb for 36 weeks, the bond between mother and child lingers much longer beyond the womb.

This role of breastfeeding, nurturing and looking after a baby until it is weaned, belongs only to the mother and not the father. The father creates a stable loving support and complements the mother’s central position as the maker of the home.

Although economic and social realities of our time have curtailed the nurturing role of mothers, and men forced to take up functions they are ill-suited for, the rise in crime rates and anti-social behavior in our society today are indicative of the break-up of the family fabric. A warm stable loving home environment is crucial to the well-being and healthy development of children. If this lacks in children, they will react accordingly. We have swapped the parental love with the pursuit for material needs. This has resulted to the emotional vacuum in the lives of children now filled by anti-social behavior, which is their way of crying for attention.

A lot has been said about equal opportunities for men and women in career and professional pursuits; of the need to change the traditional roles played by mothers and fathers. Ideally the mother created the suitable home environment for the children and family to thrive, while the father supported them by providing the material needs. Though these roles have evolved with time, even the most die-hard professional woman at some point find it hard to resist the maternal instincts urging her to procreate, cuddle and hold a baby to her bosom. This is the way she was created.

It is acknowledged that many men had abused the privilege that the designer of life had bestowed on them and became lords rather than family guardians. However, this is not enough reason to swing the pendulum far to the left. Both male and female should lead productive lives; some women are endowed with special skills that their societies require. What need to be done are safeguards that work well for the welfare of families.

Indeed most governments have created laws- the nine months paid maternity leave for working women in European countries- to help women look after their babies until they are able to be independent. It is now acknowledged by social scientists that the family unit makes the most important contribution to the well-being of any individual. Employers also know that a stable home life makes an employee more productive, hence the need for enabling them to look after their families.

The traditional belief that a professional career woman must sacrifice her family life until her mid-life is a violation of her human rights. On the other hand, cultural norms that drove men to work like zombies to help support their growing families only creates highly stressed men prone to drink and drugs.

A middle ground can be worked out which acknowledges the values of the traditional roles played by both men and women. Governments and employers ought to create enabling laws and safeguards for working families. This way, children will grow and develop to full maturity, and well-balanced individuals that posterity will depend on.

We Can Unlearn Prejudice

One of the most striking similarities between man and other creatures is their capabilities to learn, and to store that knowledge for daily use. But what distinguishes man from other animals is his ability to organize formal learning, and his highly sophisticated rationale; his ability to judge right and wrong, which animals lack. It is this ability for rational behavior that lends credence to the hypothesis that one can unlearn what he/she has learned; learning is not one way traffic.

Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion not based on reason or experience. It is an unjust behaviour formed on such a basis. Prejudices that we have against a particular group based on race, gender or class are attitudes that are learned. Research in the last thirty or so years has found that children learn prejudice through observing, influence by and the existence of patterns in the culture in which they live.

Whereas it is true that everyone discriminates at some personal levels, when, for instance, choosing the color of dress, and making friendships, there is little evidence that prejudice is inborn. Behavior is molded by action or attitudes of parents, the society through media, peer groups and even the teachers at school.

In a research he conducted in the late eighties on racial attitudes and how it affected children, Kenneth B. Clark says that some of the white people he interviewed told him that their parents punished them every time they played with black children in their neighborhood. Thus parental pressure makes a significant contribution towards opinion forming. Media reports, literature and peer pressure contribute significantly towards shaping perceptions of one social group towards another.

If society can use its superior socio-economic powers to shape warped opinions which are prejudicial to equity, and social equality, then it follows that the same effort and mechanisms may be useful in undoing the damage done. Through out history man has learned from his past mistakes.

Great democracies of the world like France and Great Britain were once absolute monarchies. During the dark ages people died for their contrary views about the Pope and his powers to forgive sins and so on.

We have come a long way, and in the same way scientific discoveries were made, and democracies created, prejudice can be unlearned.

Healing The Past Through Truth, Justice and Reconciliation

By Njonjo Mue

History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.— Maya Angelou

The bloodletting following the contested and so far discredited presidential election is a symptom of failing to face up to history.

Historical injustices, perceived and real, especially the question of land and resource allocation and other gross violations of human rights, provided the fuel for the fire that threatens to consume us. The election merely struck the match. Kenya urgently needs a process of accounting for the past.

From South Africa to Liberia to Chile to Argentina, people are refusing to allow history to be silenced. Succeeding generations refuse impunity and demand moral accountability for past injustices. Kenya will be no different, and the longer we leave our issues unresolved, the more complicated they would become.

There are those who caution us not to reopen old wounds. But we must open them up if they did not heal properly to let the puss out.

For, as philosopher George Santayana cautions us, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Our country is badly in need of reconciliation. But there can be no reconciliation without forgiveness, and there can be no forgiveness without truth.

Truth in the context of reconciliation expresses itself in acknowledgement of injustices committed during violent conflict or oppression. It includes full disclosure of misdeeds; publication of accounts of formerly hidden injustices and violence; and storytelling by victims in the context of therapy.

Truth telling is also important to establish an accurate record of a country’s past, and lift the lid of silence on particular periods or incidents that we are ashamed to confront. It is also important in ensuring the reform of structures that facilitated such abuses. This is the only way that the truth will lead to the transformation of society.

"Forgive and forget," is the famous mantra of the morally lazy. We must forgive and remember because the process of reconciliation depends a great deal on how we remember the past. As our recent experience has shown, memories can return with a vengeance unless they are redeemed and become a way of transforming the future.

But we should not go excavating the past for the purpose of inflicting revenge upon our fellow citizens. There is a healing way that can bring hope for the future along with our sorrow for the past. This more excellent way involves forgiveness. This is at the core of reconciliation.

Look for a ‘third way’

Forgiveness is the most difficult part. Revenge is the most natural reaction of a human being when unjustly treated. The trouble with revenge, however, is that it enslaves the victim and the perpetrator. What to one is a justified act of vengeance is to the other an unwarranted injustice that calls for counter-revenge. This dynamic has led to some societies being caught up in vicious violence.

Forgiveness breaks the power of the remembered past and transcends the claims of the affirmed justice and so makes the spiral of revenge grind to a halt. But it must not be cheap forgiveness that does not acknowledge the hurt visited upon the victims. True reconciliation, according to Desmond Tutu, "exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the degradation, the truth…. Spurious reconciliation can bring only spurious healing."

It is important to avoid the two extremes of dealing with the past — impunity and retributive punishment — and find a ‘third way’ that deals with the past in a manner that will promote a new political culture and a shared vision for the future.

This ‘third way’ should balance the requirements of truth, forgiveness, accountability and the restoration of justice leading to national healing and reconciliation.

The concept that comes closest to expressing the complex and multifaceted reality of reconciliation is one, which brings about wholeness resting on a balance between Truth and Mercy, Justice and Peace.

This concept incorporates contrition, confession and forgiveness; peace in the land through the improvement of people’s social and economic conditions; justice through the prosecution of perpetrators and the establishment of a culture of democracy and human rights; and public acknowledgement of crimes through a truth-telling. Reconciliation should integrate all these elements.

The crimes committed in the past against the people of Kenya by the State and by one another cannot be simply forgotten. We have to build a culture of respect for human rights and democracy. There has to be a genuine commitment to break with the past, to heal the wounds, and to forgive but remember in redemptive ways to avoid repeating past mistakes. This way, we can build a shared vision of the future – a vision of a great nation at peace with itself.

—The writer works for the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

Kenya: A Reversal of Painful Gains

The grim picture of the reversal of democratic gains in Kenya following the last presidential elections, may well have been captured by two columnists in the January 6 East African Standard newspaper, who suggested that it was not only an unforeseen scenario, but one that could also prove to be a costly mistake for the country’s political arrangement.

However, I thought that their use of the adjective costly was ambivalent. Indeed, the lives lost in the last two weeks in the skirmishes between opposing sides, can never be replaced; the trauma that families and citizens will have to live with following the loss of life, will deny them the joy of life. Furthermore, the economy will need more than a miracle to stabilize, let alone move forward.

But, Kenya’s democratic gains have come painfully, a long way. It has weathered personal, regional and even elitist groups’ selfish interests to reach where it had reached before 27th December 2007. The fight for democratic gains has been costly; there are those like Prof. Mukaru Nganga who having been shunted away from their jobs because of their search for truth, died sad and broken men. Other names that come to mind are John Khaminwa, Martin Shikuku, Jean Marie Seroney, Mohammed Ibrahim, Raila Odinga, Gitobu Imanyara, Kenneth Matiba, and Charles Rubia, who had to be kept in detention for their fight for democracy.

What we are witnessing today looks like a re-play of a video or movie, which by its good beginning, promises a fabulous climax, but suddenly ends tragically.

In 1963, when Great Britain handed power to Jomo Kenyatta, there were, arguably two competing political parties (KANU and KADU). Indeed, there was even a Senate, and though KANU won with a majority, there was a likelihood that KADU and other smaller parties, would continue to play their role of keeping the government on its toes to ensure good governance was maintained.

However, short-term political expedience ensured that KADU and other political groups not only disbanded, but also gave Kenyatta a leeway to consolidate imperial powers, clamp down on dissent and preside over one of the most terrifying police regimes in Africa. When Moi took over in 1978, he wrong-footed the well-meaning Kenyans by making them believe that his would be a much more democratic government, with respect for human rights.

Within two years of settling in power Moi showed another side of his character, which was hitherto unknown. In 1982, parliament moved to legislate Kenya as a de-jure one party state. Between 1980 and 1990, the security apparatus brutally clamped down on dissent and criticism. Moi not only usurped the powers of the judiciary and the legislature, but also centralized, and personalized the presidency. In 1986 the security of tenure of the Attorney General, the Controller, and Auditor General were proscribed. He then assumed emergency powers to arrest and detain anyone perceived to be disloyal to him.

In a short while MPs and Ministers were reduced to impotent one-finger-waving demagogues. What followed was a comedy of the greatest absurdity; grown men fell over themselves trying to prove to Moi that they were unquestionably loyal to him.

It is instructive to suggest that barring donor aid freeze, pressure by civil bodies, International community, and individuals, Moi would have continued his misrule for much longer. At the height of his dictatorship in the late eighties to early nineties, Kenyans had been reduced to cynical complacency. But thanks to a tough stance by donor agencies, and pressure from Western countries, section 2(A) of the constitution was amended to allow for multiparty democracy.

However, concentrated power within the presidency ensured that the playing field was still tilted in favour of the person in power. The state-controlled electronic media still gave the incumbent most coverage, and when the opposition was ever mentioned, it was always in the negative. Thus, with the same constitution still in place, it was not surprising that Moi still won the election against a divided opposition in 1992, and 1997.

By the end of his term in 2001, however, some huge reforms had been made. An Inter-Party Parliamentary Group (IPPG) committee had been addressing issues relating to a free press, a new constitution geared towards devolution of power, and equal representation on key parliamentary committees. During Moi’s last term, for instance, the opposition headed the influential Public Accounts Committee. This and other crucial improvements ensured that some form of transparency and accountability was shown in government expenditure.

Other IPPG agreements included the proportional nomination of MPs to parliament according to party strength and numbers. This had been put in place after the 1997, when KANU got the majority nominations, and in 2002 when NARC had the lion’s share.

The period between 2003 and 2004, however, saw huge boulders being placed on the way of reforms. Government Ministers not only ensured that a new constitution was not enacted as promised by the new government, but even called for censorship of media, whose free reporting they suggested, bordered on the reckless. Signs that the political nirvana would be hard to come by had been noted earlier, when president Kibaki reneged on a Memoranda of Understanding that had promised power sharing among the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition.

When push finally came to shove on the issue of the new constitution, a referendum was called, and which the government lost by a huge margin. The die now cast, and the fairy tale NARC government irreparably divided, President Kibaki had to form a new government of national unity by bringing in opposition MPs. From then onwards, a beleaguered Kibaki was fighting for his political life with little or no reform agenda. Indeed, one of his hawkish Ministers went on record by saying that removing Moi from power had been the agenda, not changing the constitution.

As the campaigns for the last elections heated up, analysts noting the high stakes of the coming elections predicted the extent to which both the incumbent and the high profile opposition were prepared to go to ensure they achieved victory. Therefore, it came as no surprise to many that during the tense vote-counting at KICC, the government flexed its muscle by bringing in a large number of armed GSU paramilitary police within the precincts. It was clear to all, and sundry who must emerge the winner.

The rest is now history, as the country reels from the shock of waking up to the reality of a muzzled media, and the presence of police everywhere, as hawkish PNU Ministers keep on aiming provocative jabs at the ODM leadership.

Although we seem to be back to square one, as far as political reforms are concerned, the signs are that we are at a critical moment just before the dawn of the final liberation.