Latest Posts Page

Arms Trafficking. The Sahel Connection.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

The arms trade criss-crosses the Sahel region. To the north highly organised networks of traffickers operate. On the opposite bank the local intermediaries come into play.

The Niger River is over four thousand kilometres long. It is an impressive current of fresh water which, from the Loma Mountains, on the border between Sierra Leone and Guinea, to the Gulf of Guinea, carries with it ancient territorial disputes, tribal tensions, Jihadist movements and illegal trafficking. Among these, one of the most lucrative is the trafficking of light arms which literally exploded in Sahel and in West Africa at the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011.

Assaults on the arsenals of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya have moved considerable amounts of arms towards the south, especially those of medium and small calibre.
The dossier entitled The West Africa-Sahel Connection, compiled recently by the Small Arms Survey observers based in Geneva, has mapped the flow of arms, indicating the most frequently used routes, giving details of confiscations, the institutional and military sources and, especially, showing the deep sources which, ‘from within’, have provided information useful for reconstructing the method used by the smugglers.

The rules of contraband
In Sahel and all of West Africa, the ‘nature’ of arms trafficking changes as it moves south of the River Niger. Towards the north, highly organised networks of traffickers are operating who are capable of moving large quantities of arms. Along the opposite bank the local intermediaries who see to the sorting of the loads come into play.
The movements are facilitated by a series of problems endemic to these lands: porous borders, corruption established within the security forces, smouldering crises that constantly burst into flame and spread, increasing the requests for arms. Apart from these elements, the lack of controls causes the addition of other legal and illegal commerce, while the arms ‘disappear’ in the traditional black market through the same channels used for drugs, human beings, rare species, ivory and gold.

“When the loads are small, the customers finance the transport and provide the drug merchants with the cash necessary to pay the bribes at road blocks and gain access to the frontier”, Matthias Nowak, an investigator of the commentator Small Arms Survey explains to SouthWorld. “Motor cycles are used to transport the goods as they can travel more easily through the forests and cross where the border is unsupervised. There are also more complicated networks connected to trans-national crime, among tribal groups such as the Tebu between the south of Libya and the north of Niger, or separatist formations as is the case in Mali. These people are capable of providing huge quantities of arms anywhere from the desert to the Atlantic Ocean”.

Niger and Mali the main Centres
For larger quantities of contraband, the main centre is Niger. Converted blank-firing pistols made in Turkey, smooth-barrelled and AK assault rifles enter the country from the south west of Libya through Salvador Pass, located to the north-west of Madama, in the region of Agadez. Even though, in recent years, the increased concentration of French and US forces in the area has forced the smugglers to opt for alternative routes that cross the south of Algeria, once the loads are in Niger, they proceed towards Mali, or farther south towards Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The more frequented routes are shared between the Tebu, in the region of Kawar, and the Tuareg in the region of Tahoua.

Once the arms arrive in Mali, they circulate especially between the cities of Mopti, Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, where the trading still goes on apace despite the massive presence of the French military in the area of the operations Serval and Barkhane, and of the United Nations MINUSMA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali). One of the emerging routes passes through the south-east border of Mauritania; it originates both in the Senegalese city of Bakel and in Eastern Sahara, stopping in Mali where it passes through the city of Foïta. Other Malian hubs are Koygma, Ber, Lerneb, Raz El Ma and Gossi in the regions of Timbuktu and Taoudeni; in Khalil, I-n-Afarak, Talhandak, Tin-Essako and Anefif in the regions of Ménaka and Gao. At this point, it is the groups affiliated to the Coordination of Azawad Movements and to the Platform of armed groups: both subjects involved in the complicated process of pacifying the country, but which have no intention of laying down their arms.

The incursions of Boko Haram
Contexts such as these are fertile ground for the sorties of Jihadist groups operating under the umbrella of al-Qaida or of the province of Islamic State in east Africa. In recent years, its main beneficiary has been Boko Haram. The Nigerian group has exploited the attacks aimed at the military bases of the Abuja army and the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF, made up by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, as well as Benin) for supplies of Chinese-manufactured arms (automatic rifles 56 and 56-1 and machine guns 80), Russian AKs, Bulgarian and Chinese RPG launchers, anti-aircraft defences mountable on pickups, and various types of ammunition.

How can the phenomenon be halted?
To counter the phenomenon, various UN departments – Interpol, WCO (World Customs Organisation) – and NGOs involved in de-mining and disarmament have mobilised internationally, while at continental level there have been interventions by the African Union and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). However, attempts to keep track of arms in circulation and prevent the sacking of military structures have been fruitless.

They will continue to be so as long as the military, themselves, keep opening the doors of their arsenals in exchange for bribes. This has happened in the past in countries like Guinea-Bissau where it was the heads of the local armed forces who supplied the separatist rebellions in the region of Casamance in the south of Senegal. It is happening today in Mali, Nigeria and wherever the ‘engagement conditions’ proposed by the smugglers are more advantageous than the meagre salaries paid irregularly by governments. “Formation is fundamental”, Matthias Nowak affirms. “But so is a larger presence of the institutions that should guarantee better services to the communities they govern”.

On the other hand, it is only by making the systems of governance more efficient and transparent and by bettering the standard of living of the population, that any new hotbeds of crisis may be nipped in the bud, and the demand for arms be reduced. This would bring a halt to this and other illegal trafficking between the Sahel and the coast of West Africa that has had a free hand up to now.

Rocco Bellantone

South Africa. 2020: The year of Reckoning.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

The year 2020 is going to tell us a lot about the long-term future of our country. Are we going to pull ourselves out of the mud of corruption, incompetence and ignorance, and start to glimpse the ‘better life for all’ that we have been promised since 1994, or will we instead continue dithering around, putting personal and party interests before public needs, and simply dig ourselves deeper
into the hole?

The main indicator will be how the governing party deals with Electricity Supply Commission (Eskom) and the other ailing state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Now that we have begun to tackle the political and governance disasters of the Zuma years (and the fact that we have done this is itself a massively encouraging factor), we find ourselves facing economic meltdown. It would be bad enough if we only had to deal with unemployment of over 30%; or with a national debt that will soon reach 70% of GDP; or with falling tax revenues; or with factors beyond our control, such as drought and climate change.

Any one of these would test the abilities of a government with a good track record when it comes to economic policy; and our government has anything but a good track record. Instead, we must confront an economic challenge greater and more immediate than all these—Eskom has been mismanaged to the point where it has a debt of over R450 billion (30 billion dollars), and not only can it not pay back this debt, it cannot even pay the interest on it.
If that sounds like too much money to think about, consider it this way: Eskom is owned by the state, that is, you and me.
That R450 billion is our debt, money that we owe to banks and institutions here and overseas. Do you have a family of five people? You owe R40 000 (US$ 2, 668). Are you single? You owe R8 000 (US$ 533.60) . No one else is going to pay it. How will you pay it? Through taxes mainly, as the government continues to hand over billions of Rands to keep Eskom going but also through higher electricity prices, since this is the only product that Eskom can sell.

Unfortunately, we are all doing our best to save electricity, and on top of that regular load-shedding further reduces the amount of product that Eskom sells, leading to more growth in its debt, and so the vicious cycle continues.
If you like, you can add into this unhappy mix the problems affecting South African Airways (it owes R20 billion which it cannot pay back, and loses millions more every day); the Passenger Rail Agency, PRASA (which is so badly run that it now transports only a fraction of the number of people that used the trains 20 years ago), and various other SOEs. Ironically, it is only the size of the catastrophe at Eskom that makes the problems of these other parastatals look manageable.
I referred earlier to how the governing party, not the government, deals with the ailing SOEs.

One of the root causes of our governance and economic problems is the fact that the ANC’s massive electoral dominance, allied with its mythic status as the party of liberation, has erased the distinction between the two, the party and the government. The ultimate centre of governance in South Africa is the ANC’s National Executive Committee, based at Luthuli House, Johannesburg, rather than Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet, based at the Union Buildings in Tshwane. And so, when important decisions have to be made, the first question is not “what is in the best interests of the country,” but “what is in the best interests of the ANC.” Sometimes the question is further narrowed to ‘what is in the best interests of my faction of the ANC’, and sometimes it is just assumed that the interests of the country and the interests of the ANC are the same thing. Eskom provides us with clear examples of the problem. Over the years, it has grown its workforce to the point where it now employs nearly 50% more people than it did fifteen years ago, while producing no more electricity than it did then.

A large part of its debt problem stems from its huge wage bill, but any talk of retrenchments is immediately ruled out by the ANC; its trade union ally, COSATU, won’t accept it, and the ANC does not want to pay the political price for putting people ‘on the street’. So the debt crisis at Eskom continues. Academic and technical experts concur that one way of helping Eskom out of its current mess is by bringing in private sector finance, skills and resources; in other words, by partial privatisation—but that is a dirty word in the ANC, which still pretends that it is a broadly socialist movement.

And its alliance partners, COSATU and the Communist Party, would sooner see the lights go out permanently than admit that their statist ideology is a pipe dream. So the skills shortages and the incompetence at Eskom continue. (To be fair, a new CEO from the private sector has been appointed, but whether he will be allowed to cut staff and to introduce a degree of privatisation is far from clear.) ANC factionalism plays its part too.

The secretary-general, Ace Magashule, and the remaining Zuma-ites in the NEC, many of whom benefited from the dodgy dealings of the past, and who stand to lose out significantly if President Ramaphosa’s clean-up continues, will do all they can to frustrate him, including taking ‘the side of the workers’ in debates around much- needed restructuring and cost reductions at SOEs. The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, drags his feet when he should be moving urgently to allow private power producers to add their electricity to the national grid; and still maintains that coal, rather than renewables, must be the long-term mainstay of electricity generation.

The crooked coal supply contracts entered into between Eskom and various crooked companies during the Zuma/Gupta era (which also account for a large slice of the huge debt) don’t seem to bother him at all. As in the days when he was ANC secretary-general, Mr Mantashe can’t seem to pick a side in the factional and patronage battles.

By the end of this year, if we have not seen decisive measures to change direction at Eskom and at some other SOEs, the long-term prospects for the country will be very bad indeed. Fortunately, here at the beginning of the year there are some positive signs: the appointment of Mr De Ruyter at Eskom was a brave step politically; so was the placing of SAA into business rescue. The arrest of various executives implicated in corruption at SOEs is also important, not only in itself, but also because it signals that the prosecution authority is finding its focus. Let us hope for more of the same as the year rolls along.

Mike Pothier
Programme Manager,
Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC)
Parliamentary Liaison Office

The ‘Deal of the Century’ .

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

The latest ‘Peace’ plan, the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ by US President Donald Trump has added more pressure on King Abdullah.

Jordan plays a crucial role in President Trump’s ‘project’, which at its essence implies the retirement of the two-state solution (Israel and a Palestinian State, entirely independent, comprising of the entire West Bank, the return of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories and Gaza with East Jerusalem as Capital). Rather, Trump’s plan places the proposed Palestinian ‘State’ (a mere scrap of what was envisaged by the Oslo Accords 1993/1995) under Jordan’s protection.

Under the plan, the problem of the refugees would remain unsolved, as these would continue to live in Jordan without the benefit of naturalization, since granting citizenship would run counter to the monarch’s efforts to add more balance in the population, already dominated by the Palestinians. The legacy of Black September having not faded. The two-state solution would have favoured Jordanian stability and King Hussein was one of its leading sponsors. Still, King Abdullah may sincerely reject the Deal, and he also knows that those who drafted it, and who would finance some of its more ‘generous’ aspects, are the Americans and the Saudis. However, given that those same Saudis and Americans have sustained Jordan’s economy, the Jordanian monarch does not have the luxury of independence on the matter. Abdullah might be pressed into accepting the Deal. Without a regular flow of aid, Jordan’s governments will be forced to lift subsidies, triggering widespread protests. Accepting the Deal, of course, would compromise the relationship between the Hashemites and the Palestinians. That may be a more digestible poison, because Palestinians dominate the private sector, while Jordanians dominate the public arena; therefore, the Palestinians have the most to lose from economically motivated protests.

A small minority of Palestinians dominate the private sector and the professions in engineering, finance, trade, and construction. However, most Palestinians reside in the poor suburbs of the main cities, while the ‘native’ Trans-Jordanians inhabit the rural areas. The electoral laws have exploited this distribution, maintaining the balance of power in favour of the tribes. Rural areas get a level of parliamentary representation that exceeds their demographic strength. At the same time, the Palestinian dominated urban and suburban areas suffer from under-representation. The result is that the Transjordanians will always make up the parliamentary majority. This pattern creates both evident political obstacles as well as social ones. Even though economic policies such as subsidy cuts, unemployment, and the raising of taxes affects all citizens, the communities continue to impose obstacles against one another.

The 2011 protests, for example, had to avoid Palestinian nationalist symbolism, preventing the formation of shared socioeconomic interests based on class rather than ethnicity. Still, the International Monetary Fund can often succeed in unexpected ways.
During a series of protests over Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki’s proposed widening of the income tax in 2018 to meet IMF conditions to secure a new credit line to the government, ethnic divisions were drowned in a general sense of economic malaise as the demonstrations engaged the middle and higher bourgeoisie (both Palestinian and Jordanian) such as medical doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. The more impoverished strata of the population joined the protests because they had to endure rising prices for services and higher prices for staple goods because of subsidy cuts. Ethnic divisions, as elsewhere in the world, have mere relative value in contexts of higher income.

Interestingly, the income tax protests offer a textbook example of how the Constitutional monarchy uses parliamentary democracy to its advantage, shielding him from social discontent even as it wields almost all executive power. The professionals who protested in the streets took care to avoid blaming the monarchy for the higher costs of living caused by the new taxes, focusing their anger on the elected representatives of government instead. Thus, the King forced Mulki’s to resign, replacing him with Omar Razzaz, who reversed the income tax law. Abdullah’s decision to remove al-Mulki reflects an effort to appease the uprising, which if left unheeded, could have provided opportunities for the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups to take control of the protests away from the secular opposition groups. (A.B.)

Jordan at the Crossroads.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

Jordan is a country marked by ‘artificial’ borders, drawn on a map in the wake of World War I and the new world order that emerged from it.

These borders extend from the fertile lands of the Jordan River and the shores of the Dead Sea, to the desert of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
The country has attracted considerable archaeological interest, owing to the presence of remains from every major period of Biblical, Greek, Roman, Persian, Babylonian, Nabatean, Byzantine, Umayyad, and Ottoman history.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as it exists today, is the last remaining kingdom that emerged from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, the Anglo-French diplomatic intrigues, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and the Arab revolt of 1916-1918. Jordan began its history as the Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946 (renamed Kingdom of Jordan in 1949) after gaining independence from the British.

Jordan’s current monarch, Abdullah II is the last representative of the Hashemite dynasty, which traces its roots to the Hashim ibn ῾Abd Manaf, great-grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad. In the 20th century, al-Husain ibn Ali al-Hashemi, the Sharif and Emir of Mecca established a dynasty (with British assent) which spread from the Hijaz to Syria through his son Faisal (in 1919, a short-lived ‘Kingdom of Syria’ was established under him) and Transjordan through his son Abdullah – who became Abdullah I. A third brother, Ali, briefly became king of the Hijaz, succeeding his father, until Abd al-ʿAziz al-Saʿud expelled him in 1925, founding Saudi Arabia. King Faisal in Iraq succumbed in 1958 during the coup led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim. One of the more significant aspects, in the context of the Middle East is its stability. Jordan has served as a model of consistency or homogeneity after the end of the British mandate in 1928, and after achieving full independence in 1946 with the Treaty of London.

Stability and Continuity

Unlike its neighbours Syria, or Iraq, Jordan has retained the monarchy and the same Dynasty. The Constitution adopted in 1952 gives the monarch the power to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and the cabinet. The monarch approves amendments to the Constitution, and has the power to declare war, as head of the armed forces. The government has legislative power over more ‘administrative’ sectors: clearly, the monarch enjoys powers superior to those of the government, which can be dissolved at any time. The Jordanian government does boast the aesthetics of democracy.

A bicameral Parliament consisting of two houses: The Representatives and the Senate, makes up the National Assembly. Every four years, Jordanians elect 130 representatives proportionally in uninominal colleges (15 seats are reserved for women, 9 for Christians and 3 for the Circassians). The Representatives approve, reject or modify laws. The 65 senators remain in office for 4 years, the speaker of the upper chamber is appointed by the monarch for two renewable years. In 1992, Jordan adopted a national charter to support the Constitution, introducing greater political pluralism, characterized by the admission of banned parties, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, in the country’s political mechanisms. However, the political power is firmly in the hands of the monarchy, also under the tribal bond that unites it to the Transjordanians, who are the Hashemites’ most reliable support base. King Abdullah II, as did his father Hussein, also benefits from the support of the Jordanian army and security forces.
A major factor contributing to this stability is the small population (9.5 million as of 2015) and the 90-95% Muslim population (the remainder being Christian) is overwhelmingly Sunni. The population is largely Arab (some 98%), many of whom are nomadic shepherds, or Bedouins. The Circassians, who emigrated from the Caucasus in the late 19th century due to the Crimean War, represent the largest ethnic minority – and it is generally deeply loyal to the Hashemite monarchy.

This unity may explain why Jordan has pursued a consistently pro-West foreign policy, even while maintaining good relations with neighbours such as Iraq, for example, which were essential to safeguard economic health. King Hussein, who reigned from 1952 until his death in 1999, always maintained strong diplomatic ties with the West-particularly with the United Kingdom and the United States. Despite its participation in successive conflicts in (the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur of 1973), in 1994, Jordan became the second Arab state to open diplomatic relations with Israel. In geopolitical terms, Jordan has played a fundamental role for the stability of the Middle East and a reliable preserver of balance between the Arab states. (AB)

Uganda. Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli, a Blessed for Africa.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

On 22 November 2020, the Italian Comboni priest Father Giuseppe Ambrosoli will be beatified in Kalongo in the north of Uganda. A story of dedication to the poor as a doctor and missionary.

It was the summer of 1949 when a young doctor asked to enter the Congregation of the Comboni Missionaries. In his letter of application he wrote: “I would like to place myself at the service of the missions as a qualified doctor”. Before joining, the young doctor decided to go to London for a course in tropical medicine. When he returned to Italy, he entered the Comboni Institute.
On 9 September 1953 he made his first profession and on 13 December 1955 he was ordained priest by the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI.
A few months later, on the first of February 1956, he left for Africa. His destination: Kalongo, in the North of Uganda. The town of Kalongo is located on a plateau 1,100 metres above sea-level. When Father Giuseppe arrived there, it had a population of over 4000. There he found a small medical dispensary.

He was not at all discouraged and his plan for a large hospital meant there was a lot of work to do. Working with his own hands, he dug for stones and transported them on a lorry to the building site where he also saw to the making of bricks. Little by little that dispensary grew, one block after another until it had room for 350 patients. There were departments for maternity, paediatrics, medicine, surgery, gynaecology, radiology and infective diseases; to these were added others for the care of the malnourished, the lepers and tuberculosis patients.
Father Giuseppe immediately understood that, to win the hearts of the Africans one must sow infinite benevolence. In only a few years, the people began to call him Ajwaka Madit (the great doctor) or Doctor Ladit (the great giver of medicine). Together with his unmistakeable smile, his peacefulness became proverbial. But this did not prevent him, as the occasion required, from being strict, with courage and determination and even capable of risking his life for others.
He defended the wives of the soldiers and, in general, of the people of the south, upon whom the guerrillas who were his people of the north, tended to unleash all their aggression.

The faith of the people in the healing powers of Father Giuseppe knew no limits. They saw him as a kind of healer. In the collective imagination of the people, Father Giuseppe became ‘The man of God with the power to heal’. To heal not only the body but the spirit and the heart. In his work as a surgeon, Father Giuseppe afforded special care to the women as mothers and bearers of life. He understood that those mothers were capable of heroic acts to make sure their children were born and lived.
Father Giuseppe looked for collaboration and made people responsible: the doctors working alongside him were duty bound to look upon Kalongo Hospital as ‘their own’. He wanted all the nursing staff to feel directly involved in running the complicated machine that was Kalongo Hospital. For this he valued the local element.
His esteem for the Sisters working with him was deep and sincere, and he regarded their work as essential.

Towards the end of 1973, Father Giuseppe’s health began to show signs of deteriorating but he gave himself no rest. Even the periods he spent in Italy were a race against time as he went from one operating theatre to another to learn the latest surgical techniques. He met with support groups who provided medical equipment. He was well aware of his precarious state of health but he felt it would be a betrayal to hold back with things in Uganda in such a state of emergency. For him, to love others more than himself was the norm.
The year 1986 was certainly the most difficult year for Kalongo, overrun alternatively by rebels and the regular army. On 21 October, the army occupied Kalongo amid indescribable scenes of panic: not only the people but even the patients as well took flight. Relations with the government troops collapsed irremediably: the very fact of having spent a few months with the rebels was interpreted as connivance. This is the destiny of any hospital in a war zone. The situation of the hospital came to a head on 30 January 1987. The military authorities accused the missionaries and hospital personnel of collaborating with the Acholi guerrillas and ordered the evacuation of Kalongo. Having to transfer everything and everyone suddenly to Lira was a real Calvary for Father Giuseppe. His concern was for the doctors, the young women students of the school of midwifery, and the Sisters in charge of them. He feared the students would miss a school year while he wanted them to end their courses with their exams and diplomas. Even though he had only one partly-functioning kidney, Father Giuseppe asked his superiors’ permission to delay his return to Italy for treatment. Unfortunately, his health was rapidly deteriorating.

After working unceasingly for 31 years, he died in Lira on 27 March 1987, of a renal infection. He was 64 years old. It was not until seven years later that his remains were exhumed and reburied in Kalongo, close to the hospital that bears his name.
On 28 November 2019, Pope Francis authorised the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints ‘to promulgate, among others, the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Giuseppe Ambrosoli’. The miracle, granted through the intercession of father Giuseppe and which will allow him to be beatified next November 22, took place to the benefit of a young Ugandan woman. This was the decision reached in Spring of last year by the medical commission set up by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, concluding their examination of ‘an extraordinary and inexplicable cure’ from the clinical and scientific point of view. The beneficiary’s name is Lucia Lomokol. On the evening of 25 October 2008 (she was 20 years old), she lost the child she was carrying in her womb and was dying of septicaemia in Matany hospital, in Northern Uganda where she had been brought in an extremely poor condition. The hospital had no means of helping her. Then Doctor Eric Dominic placed an image of father Giuseppe on her pillow and asked the relatives there to pray to ‘The Great Doctor’. The following morning, Lucia was better, something no one expected.

Today the work of Father Giuseppe goes on through his foundation called ‘Doctor Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital’. The foundation was built in 1998 by the Ambrosoli family and by the Comboni Missionaries to guarantee the continuity and future of the hospital and the school of midwifery founded by him. Its aim is to ensure access for the population to a qualified health service for their better health and standard of living. The Foundation proceeds together with the local communities and fosters medical training so that Uganda may one day have its own independent health service. Father Ambrosoli will be the first Comboni Missionary to be beatified. (E.B.)

Gambling in Africa.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

It is illegal in just seven countries. In the continent it is an industry with large profit margins. A market in rapid development due to the internet, smartphones and online payment systems. Is it harmless?

A market worth billions of dollars. It is a transverse passion involving mostly young people but also women and the elderly. A cross between hope and dependency. Gambling contains all these elements. It is a world of chance and expectations which, in Africa in recent years, has generated a business that would seem to conflict with reports that still speak of needs and poverty.
In fact, gambling summarises, for better or for worse, the constant evolution of the continent, due to its connection with various factors: economic growth, the spread of the internet and the smartphone and methods of payment online. These are all elements that, directly or indirectly, may explain the expansion of the phenomenon. We add to these the instinct for business affairs (including those that are illegal) of those who see the African continent as a virgin market and a goldmine. And gambling is one of these.

The profit figures are impressive: in 2016, gambling is said to have generated, worldwide, 400 billion dollars and probably more than 500 billion in 2020. Online betting alone accounted for 50 billion dollars in 2017 and these figures continue to increase. The African continent has today attracted the attention of analysts and sociologists where people gamble not just for the fun of it. There are many people who live by gambling. Even in the remotest villages we find small shacks made of wood or iron sheets equipped for lottery betting. A few cents may gain a hundred times the amount. Who could resist trying their luck? But this is but a small fraction of the phenomenon and concerns the world of peasants, fishermen and small businessmen. It is the huge casinos, the websites and especially gambling applications that guarantee sums amounting to billions. Given that much of this money, in the form of taxes, ends up in the coffers of governments, the morality of gambling allows for attempts at regulation, something that is not at all easy when it is a matter of controlling apps and mobile money.

The Geography of Regulations
There are only seven countries in Africa where gambling is forbidden and, consequently, punished by the penal code. These are Libya, Mauritania, Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi, Eritrea and Somalia. A further seven countries place limitations on gambling by means of partial prohibitions. These are Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, Egypt, Togo, Nigeria, The Central African Republic and South Africa. In all other states there are laws and norms that allow and regulate gambling and, in a few cases (Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda), online gambling is also regulated.

Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana are the countries with the highest percentage of gamblers and the highest expenditure. But even the DR Congo, Senegal, Mali and Morocco are ’emerging’, despite these three countries (as stated in the 2019 Gambling Compliance report) being mostly Moslem.
In Nigeria alone (according to a study by News Agency Nigeria), 60 million people between the ages of 18 and 40 years, are now spending as much as 5 million dollars a day on sport-linked gambling. These are mostly people who have no permanent employment. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it must be remembered; more than 40% of the population live on less than 2 dollars a day. Despite this, the casinos, slot machines, video poker and backgammon, even those that are illegal, are more numerous than ever. In South Africa, there are at least 38 casinos and there are plans to increase the number of licences for off-shore properties, the opposite to what other governments are trying to do. This is one of the countries where it is forbidden to gamble online; this prohibition is neither respected nor controlled and besides, it concerns only cell-phones and not desk-tops. Kenya – to give another example – boasts 28 casinos, 11 bingo halls and a horse racecourse.

Young Gamblers
An inquiry conducted by Geopoll (a research company in the field of cell phones and information concerning emerging markets) has revealed that 54% of young people in the Sub-Saharan region have sought their fortune in gambling. The first on the list are the Kenyans at 76%, followed by the Ugandans, on 57%. Ghanaian youngsters seem to be the least interested, with 42% of them involved in gambling.
Furthermore, Geopoll has discovered that Kenya leads the field in betting on football matches, with 79% of those involved. The main football competition used for betting is the European Champions League. Nevertheless, the African Cup of Nations competition has also assisted an increase in betting. It must be said that at this point the gambling industry comes into play.

Kenya has proved to be very fertile soil with an expenditure of at least 2 billion dollars per year. But, as the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, stated recently, “They accumulate money and take it away”. This is one of the reasons why the leaders of these countries are beginning to react by applying extreme measures. Museveni has made it known that he will neither renew old licences nor issue new ones. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya, seems equally determined. Last year, Nairobi introduced a tax of 35% on winnings from gambling – the highest in the region – apart from a 30% tax on companies and a legal mandate to devote 25% of income from betting to social causes. When the companies threatened to pull out of the country, the latter rate was first reduced to 15% but again increased this year to 20%. Last year, 17 directors of foreign gambling agencies were expelled from the country, accused of violating internal laws.

A Social Crisis
To summarise, let us take a close look at what is now becoming a social crisis. Suicides among young people are increasing. A recent example is that of a student of Kenyatta University who took his own life after gambling, and losing his university fees, betting on the Europa League. This is how the number of very young people entangled in the web of gambling grows ever larger.

On 3 September 2019 a group of 38 students, in a district of Kenya, were surprised while betting; some were arrested and some were found to be primary school pupils. There are also those who, on the contrary, see a number of benefits to be gained from gambling: above all, employment opportunities. SportPesa, one of the biggest gambling houses in Kenya, has let it be known that it had to dismiss 400 people due to the new government regulations. Then there is the income from taxes and even the ‘easy money’ gained by low-income gamblers. And what about gambling addiction? And the psychological and social disorders caused by gambling? People are starting to think about these issues before things get out of control. It is not for nothing that the Betting Control and Licensing Board, which in Kenya manages the authorisation of lotteries and gambling as well as the fight against illegal gambling, has adopted some measures such as a ban on advertising betting connected with sport. They have also banned TV advertising from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. as well as sponsoring sporting personalities.

Despite everything, it will be hard to end such a profitable industry as gambling. The organisers of ICE Africa, already at its third edition, are certain of this. It is one of the most popular events in the international gambling world. It is a business to business event – organised in South Africa – during which networks are created, the latest innovations in the sector are presented and achievements and criticisms are shared. No politicians are invited; it is purely a meeting of businessmen. Its objective is to look for gold, even by means of the perversion of gambling. This year, the new element was Women in Gaming, a demonstration that the future of this sector consists in its ability
to cross every divide.

Antonella Sinopoli

Angola. The fall of the Dos Santos Empire.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

After targeting the President’s son, the Angolan justice, it has frozen the assets of his daughter, the richest woman of the continent
and everyone now wonders whether the former head of state
is next on the list.

The wind of reform is blowing strongly in Angola since the election of the new president João Lourenço in 2017. As soon as he was sworn in, he has embarked on an anti-graft campaign whose main target is the family of his predecessor, José Eduardo dos Santos who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1979 to 2017.
The offensive started in November 2017 when President Lourenço fired 46 year-old Isabel dos Santos, his predecessor’s eldest daughter, from her position of chairwoman of the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol in 2016 and 2017. Two months later, Lourenço sacked José Eduardo dos Santos’ son, José Filomeno, the chairman of Angola’s 5 billion dollars Sovereign Fund.

In September 2018, José Filomeno dos Santos was accused of having transferred illegally from the Banco Nactional de Angola U.S. $ 500 million on a British bank account since he became chairman of the Fund in 2012. He was also accused of forgery and money laundering. After that he was arrested and remained six months in custody. Eventually, José Filomeno, went on trial in December 2019. He is facing a maximum of 12 years in jail if found guilty,
Then, came the turn of Isabel, nicknamed “The Princess.”, whom Forbes describes as Africa’s richest woman, with a fortune of approximately $ 2.2bn . Her empire includes the largest Angolan bank, Banco Bic, with $ 4.2 bn of assets, the telecoms firm Unitel, a supermarket chain, the cement company Nova Cimangola and a television company. Over the past decade, her companies obtained loans, public works contracts and licenses worth billions of dollars from the Angolan government.
According to the “Luanda Leaks” exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist, (ICIJ), over 400 companies in 41 countries are linked to Isabel dos Santos or her husband, Sindika Dokolo, a major collector of African art. The list includes 94 companies in tax havens such as Malta, Mauritius, Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands and the Netherlands.

The investigation started after Isabel’s successor at Sonangol, Carlos Saturnino, alerted the authorities about alleged irregular money transfers. On the 22 January 2020, prosecutors froze her assets in Angola and charged her with money laundering, influence peddling, harmful management, forgery of documents and other crimes. The Angolan authorities will conduct a criminal investigation to determine whether she should be charged.
According to the Luanda Leaks, Isabel dos Santos “benefitted from extraordinary opportunities afforded to her by the government of her father”. The 715,000 documents revealed by the ICIJ include emails, contracts, audits, incorporation papers and organisational charts, board of directors meeting minute, loan agreements, invoices and tax documents. The Angolan government is now trying to recover $1.1 billion that accordingly are owed by Isabel dos Santos, her husband and an associate of the couple.
Investigations concern namely a $38 million payment in November 2017 from Sonangol to a Dubai-based company controlled by a dos Santos associate. Investigations should also focus on the sale by Sonangol of its 40% stake in a joint venture it formed with the Portuguese company Amorim Energia in Galp Energia to Sindika Dokolo’s firm, Exem Holding AG. The sale price was $ 99 million, but Sonangol agreed to lend Exem most of the money needed to complete the sale and only received $15 million up front. Today the stake is worth about $800 million.

The investigators’ task is not easy. Another suspect in the case who managed Sonangol’s account at the Portuguese bank EuroBic, was found dead at his house in Lisbon in January. According to a police source, “everything” suggested that he committed suicide.
Now, can the money be recovered? The Angolan attorney General Helder Pitta Gros warned that if Isabel Dos Santos did not return to Luanda voluntarily, an international arrest warrant would be issued for her. But it might difficult to execute it. Isabel dos Santos who was born in the capital of Azerbaidjan, Baku, has a Russian passport. She has not returned to Angola for the last two years and she spends more and more of her time in Dubai where she stays at the Bulgari Resorts, on a private island in the Jumeirah Bay area. And Dubai is not a jurisdiction which extradites easily its residents.
According to former Byblos Bank executive Daniel Ribant, maybe eventually, part of the embezzled amounts will be recovered. Yet, this make take time since the money has been spread among 400 companies and since Isabel has excellent lawyers.
Therefore, Ribant thinks that a negotiation between the dos Santos family and the government would have been preferable. It would have paved the way for the quick repatriation of part of the money and would have less harmed the image of the country.

But in an interview with Deutsche Welle broadcasted on the 3 February 2020, President Lourenço said that there would be “no negotiations” with people who had allegedly taken their assets out of the country illegally. “People who were involved in acts of corruption benefited from a six-month period of grace to return assets they illegally took out of the country”, he said Lourenço and apparently they missed the opportunity.
The prosecution against Isabel dos Santos and the Luanda Leaks may also have important political implications, says Ribant. Indeed the ex-President, José Eduardo dos Santos himself who is currently receiving medical treatments in Barcelona could be prosecuted outside of Angola, where he ringfenced his immunity in 1992, by amending the constitution in order to make sure that he cannot be prosecuted for any official action except in the event of bribery or high treason.
Ribant suspects the cases against Filomeno and Isabel dos Santos are part of a well-planned operation involving the Serviço Nacional de Recuperação de Activos, created in 2019, whose task is to recover state assets abroad with the technical support of American experts. The Angolan court’s decision to freeze Isabel dos Santos’ Angolan assets, mentions her father’s role in the purchase of the bankrupt De Grisogono jewelry in Switzerland by his daughter with Angolan public money. Investigations should also focus on allegations that Isabel and her husband set up a system to sell Angolan diamonds to De Grisogono below market prices through the Angolan parastatal Sodiam. In fact Isabel is a nominee. Without her father, her fortune would not have existed, says Ribant.

In the banker’s view, the Isabel dos Santos’ case could open a Pandora box; Nobody knows where the anti-corruption wave will stop. It could backfire or spread the scandal elsewhere. Some in Angola are saying that justice should clamp down on other alleged corrupt people of the nomenklatura. Now, warns Ribant, this could spark “a cataclysm” with serious consequences on the ruling party, the MPLA. One of the MPLA’s veterans, former Prime Minister Lopo do Nascimento argues that José Eduardo dos Santos should be protected because the situation is humiliating for Angola. Political scientist Agostinho Sicato says that the Luanda Leaks have harmed the credibility of many Angolan politicians and may incite the Prosecution to investigate other cases. A possible target is the former Sonangol chairman and former Vice-President, Manuel Vicente. He has so far been protected by João Lourenço.who refused to extradite him to Portugal where Vicente faces accusations of corruption and money laundering. In such context it might be difficult for Angola to attract investors who maybe concerned by the corruption levels and reputational risk, warns Ribant.
Meanwhile, Isabel dos Santos denies that her fortune is the result of nepotism and corruption. She claims that the Dubai payments were for legitimate services provided to Sonangol.

François Misser

The custodian of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

Inevitably, the Jordanian government – and the political arrangement, which has taken decades to craft in order to achieve the present equilibrium among the Jordanian tribes, the Palestinians and the religious authorities – will lose legitimacy.

The Jordanian monarch, pressed with the difficult decision of having to compromise the interests of the various political actors, will necessarily choose in favour of the Jordanian tribes (such as the Fayez and Bani Hasan), which have been the most loyal, and were the first to recognize the Hashemite monarchy in 1946. The tribes wield their power through clienteles, such that Jordanians with access or links to the tribes, advance through the public sector to the highest offices in the security, military and administration.

The Palestinians do not enjoy such access, and the tribes already distrust the demographic expansion of the Palestinian communities. Until now, most non-naturalized Palestinians reside in refugee camps or peripheral cities. Naturalized Palestinian-Jordanians, meanwhile, do not enjoy all of the legal and political rights or public services of ‘full’ Jordanians. The King has used the promise of integration as political ‘bait’ to be deployed in periods of stress, and as a deterrent to the kinds of protests that, for example, led to ‘Black September’ in 1970.
And the monarchy has reason to suspect such a possibility, given the active role that Palestinians played in the protests of 2011 as part of the so-called Arab Spring.
The King will be forced to facilitate the integration of the Palestinians, by allowing them to play a more significant political role; one more commensurate with their demographic and financial strength. Such a path would be fraught with dangers. The tribes would resent the loss of influence, and the very notion of political equality with the Palestinians, who, would resent having to give up their nationalist aspirations, given that the Deal of the Century does not grant any ‘right of return’.
Besides; the Deal of the Century, does not spare the institution of the monarchy itself, compromising its religious roots.

The Hashemite tribe traditionally supplied the guardians of Mecca and Medina. They were the Sharifs of Mecca. After the colonial powers redesigned the Middle East and the al-Saud family took over the custodianship of the Holy Sites, the Hashemite family became the custodian of Jerusalem’s Old City, home to Islam’s third holiest site and the very core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As custodian of Jerusalem, the Jordanian monarch enjoys prestige in the context of the ‘Umma, that is the universal Muslim community; and through the administrative links to the City, it does have a voice in determining its status. There are rumours that the Saudis (and Moroccans) want to replace the Hashemites as Jerusalem’s custodians.
King Abdullah, in public speeches, has admitted to the external pressure for him to relinquish custodianship of the Two Holy Mosques. Apart from the loss of prestige, under such circumstances the Jordanian monarchy would have an even smaller say in matters concerning its sovereignty and the status of the Palestinians. The strategy intends to force the ‘Deal of the Century,’ which creates the conditions for a total Palestinian capitulation, at all costs.
As the Saudi Crown Prince hinted, in a less than subtle way’, the Palestinians should accept the Deal as it has been outlined or “shut up”. Nevertheless, the Deal is so toxic that in its effort to erase Palestinian nationalism, it would also swallow up Jordan’s integrity.
In many ways, the ‘Deal of the Century’ has exposed Jordan’s weaknesses. While the Kingdom has managed to survive crises and a precarious socio-political balance for over seven decades, it may finally crumble under the plans to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Jordan may have to follow Syria’s path, pursuing stronger ties to Russia and China, both of which have criticized the ‘Deal’, and both of which have been providing a solid contrast to the West’s influence in the Middle East. In July 2018, Beijing proposed an alternative to the ‘Deal’, involving a two-State solution based on pre-1967 borders.

As for Jordan, China has sought deeper diplomatic relations, envisaging an inclusion in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the New Silk Road. Jordan presents some of the richest evidence of the cultural liveliness of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations. The country has survived through skilful, almost Machiavellian leadership from the Hashemite kings, who have managed inherent economic difficulties with pragmatic politics, balancing the interests of enemies and allies alike. The But fiscal and monetary stabilization demands from multilateral banking institutions, and the geopolitical machinations in Washington to settle the Middle East (as in Arab-Israeli) conflict entirely in Israel’s favour have exposed Jordan’s structural flaws. These include an excessive reliance on foreign aid and a lack of social cohesion, owing to unresolved ethno-nationalist fractures in the population.

Alessandro Bruno

Philippines. On the side of the underdog.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

A Benedictine theologian, activist, missionary and intellectual, Sr. Mary John Mananzan speaks of the Philippines of the past and of today. From the former dictator Ferdinando Marcos to the President now in power, Rodrigo Duterte. The Church has always offered resistance and will continue to do so, taking the side of the poor.

“The Church cannot remain silent before injustice”. Especially when this is in the form of state violence that seriously threatens the lives of the poorest. This is the view of a well-known member of the frontier Philippine Church: Sister Mary John Mananzan, a Benedictine, theologian, activist and Superior of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Manila.

To the general indifference of the world in general, the Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte continues with his abuse of power in his own country, ordering summary executions of those he himself considers ‘criminals’. “It is up to us to be courageous, resolute and to resist this tyranny”, says Sr. Mananzan, who heads the Movement Against Tyranny, a global Philippine alliance composed of leading figures in the political, cultural and ecclesiastical world against the arbitrary acts of the President. Duterte is violent and “the ongoing oppression seriously affects the poor and women – Sr. Mary explains – this President is a nightmare for us. He is so rude and misogynous that he thinks the only solution to adopt is that of killing people”.

Sr. Mary is no newcomer to political resistance; for many years she fought against the regime of Ferdinando Marcos, a dictator and the tenth President of the Philippines from 1973 to 1986. Martial law was imposed for the first time in the Philippines in 1972: when the country was in the iron grip of the ruling former liberal who soon dissolved parliament and abolished political parties and had himself invested with full power in 1973, only to flee to Hawaii ten years later. “Even under the martial law of President Marcos – Sr. Mananzan recalls – killings were not taking place daily like today”. She believes Duterte is even worse. This is shown by the words of the President himself: “Imprisonment alone is not enough to deter criminals from committing more crimes: we ought to put them in a boat, perhaps in groups of five and leave them in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to become food for the fish”.

Asked whether the Church suffers persecution by Duterte, Sr. Mary John says: “ The Church is the keystone of social assistance and education in the Philippines. Without the Church, everything would collapse”. The Church in the Philippines is especially at the service of the poor. Take the example of Father Mark Ventura, 37, known for his work against exploitation by the mining companies, who was murdered on 29 April, 2018, after saying Mass on the island of Luzon, in the far north of the country. “Religious Sisters and lay people are the backbone of service to this frontier Church”, Sr. Mary John explains.
“We women of the Church are everywhere, even if we make no decisions. We live with the poor. 80% of those who are active in the Church are women, and the Sisters are considered the best educated group of women in the Philippines. If you want to know why the Church is tolerated in my country, my answer is that it is because of the women”, says the missionary Sister who is also the head of Saint Scholastica College, “not even Duterte dares to attack the Sisters: he never says a word against us religious. Besides, the President attended a school run by the Sisters. Many politicians of today attended our schools and they cannot make trouble for us”.

Sister Mary John is happy to speak also about herself: the first woman to obtain a degree at the Gregorian University in Rome in 1973, she studied theology, she says, proud of her work as a feminist: to clarify she adds, “I was a political activist before becoming a feminist. While at university, I was not conscious of being a feminist, it came instinctively”. In reference to her present activism she comments: “We are not radical but social feminists”.
Always in the front line of the battle on behalf of the helpless, this Sister fights for the protection of creation, and during the recent Amazonian Synod, she took part in some meetings in which she affirmed that, “mining activities carry off the resources of the indigenous peoples and the army, rather than defend them, assists the multinationals”. Hers is a truly ‘spiritual militancy’.

Speaking of the Philippines, we ask Sister who protects the President. Sr. Mary believes he is backed by the majority of the Filipino people. It is his populist approach to the problems of crime, drugs and people trafficking that makes him so popular among the people. Apart from the human rights associations, some courageous journalists and activists in the Catholic Church, there is really no political opposition capable of consolidating itself. “Fortunately we had Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle – the Sister says, smiling – an intelligent man and very outspoken. Now he moves to Rome to be the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.”
The Archbishop of Manila has represented a viewpoint and lifestyle that is diametrically opposed to that of the tyrant. “Do not be domineering – Cardinal Tagle said some time ago in a homily – Do not use your power to impose yourselves. Do not use it to accuse people falsely. Just because you are in a position of power does not mean you have the right to destroy or humiliate others. Anyone who does so is fearful and insecure as an individual”.

Miela Fagiolo D’Attilia

Brazil. The Magic and Colour of Movement.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

A school of dance for the blind, the only one of its kind in the world, located in the outskirts of São Paolo. The challenge of a young woman. Innovative methods. Working against prejudice. A liberating dance. “I have learned to cover my eyes and open my heart”.

On the tips of her toes she moves slowly in a circular movement, allowing her arms to rise upwards. Other ballerinas join in the rhythms of the music of Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer. The attentive gaze of the instructor helps to create harmony in the group of dancers. We are in the outskirts of the southern zone of São Paolo in Brazil. We are visiting a special school of dance. It is the story of the only blind dancing troupe, started in 1995, in the whole wide world. Its foundress was Fernanda Coneglian Bianchini Saad, who was seventeen years old when she started it. She was a ballerina from childhood. Her parents were volunteer workers at the Padre Chico Institute for the blind, run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (Vincentian Sisters) in the outskirts of São Paolo.

One day it happened that Fernanda went to see her parents at the Institute, dressed in her dancing clothes. The Sister in charge of the Institute, seeing her dancing costume said: “How would you like to teach classical dance to some of our students?” At first Fernanda was confused and found the idea very odd but then she agreed. Unaware of what was happening, a whole new world, full of surprises, was opening up before her.
Fernanda recalls: “My first group consisted of ten children. My first lesson was to teach a certain step to the children. I explained that they had to imagine they were standing inside a bucket, then jumping out and back in again. One little girl asked me what a bucket was. That took me by surprise. I realised I had to get inside the world of the blind”.
That is how she began to teach dance to some of the students of the institute. The challenges presented by the blind boys and girls forced her to develop a whole new teaching method whose purpose and motto was, ‘To make the impossible possible’. In the words of Fernanda: “A ballerina must always look at the stars, even if she doesn’t see them”.
This method of teaching dance employs the sense of touch and the repetition of movements, expanding the sensibility of the students since those who hear the music close their eyes and open their hearts.
Fernanda made her methodology systematic while writing her degree thesis entitled: ‘Classical Ballet for the Visually Challenged: The Fernanda Bianchini Method’. “When I started, I realised there was no material and no training whatever available that could have helped me teach ballet to visually challenged students”, she says.
In the university context, she came up against a further requirement: “In class I understood that, most of all, I had to increase my sensibility”.

The Fernanda Bianchini methodology soon became well known and the new challenge arose to start a project that would include blind people in dance performances, something unheard of anywhere in the world. The reality proved to be more complex and was enriched by new experiences. The young instructor was continually in demand by new students, people of all ages, not only the blind but also people with hearing, movement or learning difficulties. Little by little, people were competing to join the Fernanda Bianchini School of Dance and it became necessary to divide the students into three groups: children, adolescents, and adults.

The students worked hard for four years, with weekly tests. From the start, Fernanda provided lessons in ballet, contemporary dance, tap dancing, bodily expression, dancing for the elderly, plays, and musical scores, as well as complementary activities such as physiotherapy, yoga and physical exercises. Ever since 1999, the school of dance for the blind and people with other disabilities has been receiving invitations to participate in dancing and festival performances in Sao Paolo and in other parts of Brazil.
The project has never ceased to grow, with activities that respond to some dreams while generating others, so much so that the Padre Chico Institute was unable to accept all the applicants.
In 2003, with the support of parents, friends and volunteers, the Fernanda Bianchini Association, Ballet for the Blind (AFB), was founded and set up in a rented house in the outskirts of Sao Paolo.
Today, with the experience of twenty-five years during which more than a thousand lives were transformed, the AFB is helping 450 students who range from small children to the elderly.

Breaking down barriers
The social integration of the blind and others by means of dance as an extracurricular activity is the main mission of AFB. Fernanda Bianchini wants all the students of her association to be recognised and applauded for their artistic talents and not just out of pity because they are blind or move differently to the majority of people.

An example: one girl student lost her sight when she was nine, due to meningitis. She had seen dancers performing on television and dreamed of joining them. She was one of Fernanda’s first pupils at the Padre Chico Institute for the Blind. She never missed her lessons and travelled alone by bus to school, even though she had to overcome many difficulties while crossing the city. There were no pavements in the city quarter where she lived and she needed help to catch the bus.
Determined to succeed, she persevered until 2017 when she was struck down by meningitis and suffered several strokes. She went into a coma and the doctors feared she would never dance again. Nevertheless, as soon as she came to, she remembered she had a performance planned and said she wanted to dance again. Her recovery was slow but she was supported by her teachers and friends and, with their help, she began to dance again.”The recovery of our first ballerina was a real miracle”, Fernanda Bianchini recalls. “We prayed a lot for her recovery! I believe that faith in God makes life worth living “, she added. The AFB Director has always given importance to the dimension of the faith in her life and devotes herself to her students as if they were her own family.
As well as Fernanda, the AFB has thirteen dance teachers, two of whom are products of the same Institute. Due to the method and spirit of the Association, the performances of the Ballet of the Blind are filled with the colours of movement. The performances include classical ballet, contemporary dance, folk dancing and theatre. Overall, the performances celebrate the subtleties and variety of life. For this reason, the Association has also developed a method for teaching classical and contemporary dance to people in wheelchairs.

The unique mission of the Fernanda Bianchini Association – Ballet by the Blind, has been shown in the more than one hundred distinctions and tens of awards received. In its lifetime, the ballet group has been invited to perform in Argentina, England, Germany and the United States.
Twenty five years have passed but Fernanda’s spirit remains the same. She says: “People come here and dedicate themselves to art. This is my aim in the life of today. To help others to make their dreams come true and to help make the world a better place, more inclusive and less discriminating”. Fernanda insists she, herself, has learned much more than she has taught in all those years.
“When you blindfold yourself, you do not see the difference between one thing and another. I have learned to close my eyes that see only a little, and open the eyes of my heart that see the real world”.

Fernando Félix

Chad / Mons. Miguel Sebastian, “Let us not be intimidated by the regime”.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

A country where injustice and impunity reign. A government that threatens the Church. Youth in search of a better future. An interview with Mons. Miguel Sebastian, Bishop of Sahr in the south-west
of the country.

“We have here the government of Idriss Déby Itno, President since 1990, a government that does what it likes. The sufferings of the people are increasing. There are ethnic conflicts everywhere which are a total disaster in the east. There is widespread conflict between pastoralists and farmers, not only in the south”, says Mons. Miguel Sebastian, Bishop of Sarh, in the south-west of the country.

The Bishop continues: “ People speak of a ‘democratic’ country just because elections are held. In reality, it is a despotic regime supported by the military. The citizens are very disillusioned, almost desperate. While doing the rounds of the parishes, everyone spoke to me of injustice. The people can take no more. Impunity is the order of the day. Then, many young people leave the country in search of a better future abroad. Many go to Sudan as they say there is gold there. They abandon their villages and create a crisis in the local economy”.
From a political standpoint, there has recently been a change in the leadership of the opposition. The leader is no longer Saleh Kezbabo but Sande Ngaryimbe, the head of the Union for Renewal and Democracy (URD), a party founded by Wadel Abdelkader Kamougue, the historical opponent of the regime.
Mons. Miguel Sebastian comments: “ It seems to me that the new leader has taken a conciliatory attitude towards the government. However, the real issue is that the opposition and civil society may cry out, criticise, and condemn, but nothing changes. In the diocese of Sarh we have reconstituted the Commission for Justice and Peace. And we will act. We will not remain silent but condemn. We shall use the community radio, Radio Lotiko. Violence leads nowhere but our voice will”.

The Bishop of Sarh does not spare France in his criticism. “It is present everywhere, especially militarily in the war against the Jihadists, but also at the service of N’Djamena. As a matter of fact, the civil authorities take advantage of this to label as a terrorist, anyone coming down from the north. This is how it receives help from the USA but especially from Paris”.Speaking of the involvement of the Church, he says it must go ahead despite the threats of the president. “It must not give way. For example: the last time we bishops intervened to ask for a constitutional referendum to approve reforms, President Idriss Déby turned against us. He even threatened us, stating that he would not tolerate a similar initiative again. He also accused us of writing messages that were too critical. He really did threaten us. In our Christmas message, we bishops of Chad once again analysed the situation of the our country, a real catastrophe, and we denounced what is not right and brought our own little light to call everybody to build a better Chad. We especially called on Christians to be bearers of hope. In this time of general discouragement, hope must mobilise our forces, both individual and communitarian because Christian hope is dynamic”.

The diocese of Sarh has an area of 57,000 Kms. In a population of 1.5 million, the Catholics number about 13%. There are 32 diocesan and 26 religious priests serving 21 parishes. Mons. Miguel Sebastian has been Bishop of Sarh for nine years. Previously, he was Bishop of the diocese of Lai, for 16 years. He was one of the first Combonis to go to Chad in 1977. “From a pastoral point of view, the main problem is that of vocations. The priests are very few. When I visit parishes, everyone tells me to send them some priests. Vocations pastoral is a priority of mine.
It is not normal that such a large diocese, founded 58 years ago, should be short of priests”.

Speaking of the priests, he says: “They are very generous. The people want them and follow them. As a result, they are very active but not contemplative enough. We have a problem of spirituality. I speak a lot with my priests, preaching retreats for them and making it easy for them to meet me. The second problem is that many priests live alone. We cannot go on like this since the dangers are great and the temptations very strong. Nevertheless, they live in very difficult social situations. The presbyteries are a disaster: old buildings, badly maintained. There is a great shortage of finance. The priests have very old cars but do not complain. The real problem is that if we are not rooted in the Lord, we cannot work well”.
Looking to the future, Mons. Miguel Sebastian says: “We must continue being the voice of the suffering people. On our part, we are determined to continue. As we wrote in our last Christmas message: we Bishops call upon all Christians to be bearers of hope and peace”.

Filippo Ivardi Ganapini

African Youth activists and climate change.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

Africa emits only 5% of world greenhouse gas emissions yet is most at risk from worsening heatwaves, droughts and floods.

African youth activists urged their governments to do more to combat climate change to safeguard food and water supplies on the continent most vulnerable to rising temperatures.
Deforestation in Africa and local energy policies promoting fossil fuels were all adding to the crisis, said Makenna Muigai of Kenya. “I urge African leaders to take into consideration that all of us at the end of the day will be affected by climate change,” she said.

Ndoni Mcunu, an environmental scientist at Witwatersrand University in South Africa, said that African nations should make their economies more efficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Africa only contributes 5% of the greenhouse gases yet we are the most impacted,” she said. China, the United States and the European Union are the top emitters.According to African Development Bank, Africa has 15% of the world’s population, yet is likely to “shoulder nearly 50% of the estimated global climate change adaptation costs”, noting that seven of the 10 countries considered most vulnerable to climate change are in Africa: Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Among policy advice, Vanessa Nakate, 23, of Uganda urged a halt to construction of a pipeline to export Ugandan oil via Tanzania to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
She said that activists in Africa often felt ignored, both at home and abroad. “The biggest threat to action in my country and in Africa is the fact that those who are trying as hard as possible to speak up are … not able to tell their stories,” she said, adding that some feared arrest if they took part in local protests about climate change.
“If their voices are silenced it means they won’t be able to explain to the people that we are facing a climate crisis. It’s important for every voice to be listened to no matter where they come from.”

East Africa is currently facing its worst locust invasion in decades after one of the wettest seasons in 40 years came on the back of a drought — a situation scientists say is becoming the new normal.
“Uganda mainly depends on agriculture and we’re really affected by climate change, for example by extreme weather conditions — droughts in some places, floods in other places — that means food prices are affected and only the more privileged can get something to eat and the less privileged are left with nothing,” said Nakate.

Last January, Nakate won unwanted attention after she was cropped from a news agency photograph at a meeting of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland. Her absence meant the image showed only white activists, including 17-year-old Thunberg.
Nakate said that the controversy about the photograph – subsequently reissued to include her – might end up helping. “I’m actually very optimistic about this. I believe it is going to change the stories of different climate activists in Africa,” she said.

Teenage activist Ayakha Melithafa of South Africa said it was difficult to galvanise local action on climate change when many people in Africa suffered crises, of poverty and unemployment. “It’s hard to convince people in Africa to care about the climate crisis because they are facing so many socio-economic crises at the same time,” she said. She called for better public education to show that climate change would exacerbate strains on water and food supplies.
Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg and her “Fridays for Future” youth movement, said that African nations have a role to play even though global warming has been caused overwhelmingly by major industrialised nations.

Alister Doyle

Photo Gallery – Jubilee 2025. Pilgrims of Hope

Advocacy

Baobab

Youth & Mission