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Mexico. Being a priest in Acapulco.

Wednesday, 1 January 2020 8:00

Once the Pearl of the Pacific, it is now a hell inhabited by those involved in the drugs trade and warring criminal bands. Acapulco has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world. One of its parish priests, Father Hugo Hernandez, describes it for us.

Saint Nicholas of Bari is a small blue church on the slopes of the mountains embracing the Bay of Acapulco. From above, the city looks like a semicircle of houses along the road leading to a strip of large hotels, with the blue Pacific beyond. Following the Miguel Aleman Avenue, the coastal road between the city and the sea is full of restaurants, shops and hotels. It was here that the film ‘Idol of Acapulco’ starring ‘rock and roll’ singer Elvis Presley was made in 1963. “You can’t say no to Acapulco”, Elvis sang. The city is also famous for the Quebrada Divers, young men who perform several times a day, diving from as high as 35 metres into the narrow, shallow inlets.

The name ‘Acapulco’ comes from the Nahuatl language and Aca-pōl-co means ‘the place where the reeds were washed away’.
Over the years, the illicit drugs trade has struck even this most famous Mexican holiday resort. The city of Acapulco is home to no less than five drugs cartels (the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, the South Gulf Cartel, the Independent Cartel of Acapulco and the Familia Michoacana Cartel which govern the sale of drugs. Acapulco is an important port and is located on the drugs route.
Extortion is a huge business for the gangs. There are no exceptions. Whether shopkeeper or doctor, anyone with a job and an income has to pay protection money to the boss in charge of his territory. Father Hugo, 61, originally from Guerrero State says: “A few months ago, a travelling circus came to this city. When the gangs demanded protection money, they came back one evening and opened fire on the spectators, killing about ten of them”.

To understand how the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’ became a place where crime rules, we must go back to the eighties. The drug traffickers were attracted to Acapulco by its climate – in the Sierra de Guerrero it is perfect for growing opium poppies – the strategic location of its port and especially for the extreme unreliability of its institutions. Corruption quickly became the norm and it is still widespread. “A policeman will earn about 200 pesos (about 10 Euro, NDR)”, Father Hugo explains; having been in pastoral ministry for 34 years, he is familiar with these things. “The drug dealers will offer him two thousand and promise him more if he turns a blind eye while they carry out their crimes. They will even give him a new cellphone and so the policeman becomes a hàlcon, a falcon, a spy who observes the territory and calls the cartel to warn them of danger. He may also be told beforehand where a consignment or a murder is to take place and he will, of course, be somewhere else at the time, rather than intervene”.

The government knows everything. “When they understood how profitable the drug trade can be, the local police demanded their share of the profits. They demanded the traffickers give them 25% of the profits in exchange for complete freedom of action in their territory”, the priest recounts. In the eighties, this ‘State extortion’ created an alliance between the cartels and the government. Officially, the government was at war with the traffickers and newspapers told of the army burning illegal poppy and marijuana cultivations. But the real story was that the government forces only acted against those who refused to pay protection money to the government. At the same time, the upper levels of the state were being destroyed by corruption while the army soldiers helped load the drugs onto lorries.
The situation changed when the corrupt politicians wanted first 50% and then 70% of the profits. The bosses decided to monopolise the protection racket. They stopped paying off the police and kidnapped policemen, civil servants and governors. They demanded ransoms and reaffirmed their superiority. That started a period of violence. In the first decade of this century the great cartels divided into smaller groups, often fighting among themselves. The response of the federal government of the then President Felipe Calderon was to send in the army and fill the streets with armed soldiers. To no avail. Acapulco was brought to its knees, tourists disappeared, unemployment rose while murder and extortion were so widespread that they became the norm.

That is now life in Acapulco. It is balanced on a knife-edge between paying protection money and trying to live a normal life; people go home early in the evenings so as to avoid the shootings. There is little one can do in such a situation. Father Hugo organises support groups for the victims of violence.
“We try to work through griefs and traumas and we try especially to avoid the desire for revenge”, Father Hugo explains. “Regarding the youth, the key is to re-educate them with values and make them aware of the harm they are doing to themselves and to others by agreeing to make easy money from those criminals”. However, despite the efforts of the priest, many young people have given up going to the church of Saint Nicholas of Bari to join the gangs, following the false dream of a better life. “I often see them passing by with their new clothes and a pistol in the pockets”, Father Hugo says.

The traffickers are always on the lookout for young people to join their ranks. Father Hugo comments: “Some young men join the gangs simply to be able to show off the latest smartphone to their friends. As in the case of the halons, the cellphone become a working tool to collect protection money. These days there is no exchange of cash as payments are made electronically. Little by little these young people disappear. They even leave school to join the traffickers”. The wages are good, promotion is swift but death, too, comes just as quickly. The same applies to the girls. The hàlconas end up as full members of the gang that controls the territory, or they are exploited as prostitutes”.
In conclusion Father Hugo says: “I myself, right from my childhood, have lived in a context of physical and psychological violence. We are all affected by this. When I meet these people, I find they are not evil but empty. They have all had much taken from them. They have been harmed and have suffered. And they react with violence. Even when I see before me what looks like an evil monster, I try not to go by appearances but to enter the heart of the person. Before attacking others, these people have themselves been victims. It is this suffering that moves me to continue working as a priest in this city”.
Gabriele Monaco

Middle East 2020. The real ‘Arab Spring’?

Wednesday, 1 January 2020 8:00

Syria and Iraq. The central role of the Russia in the region. The possible new nuclear deal. A peace solution in Yemen. The intensification of the street protests.

President Bashar al Assad has won the war in Syria; he and the Ba’ath party shall remain in power and the West’s drive for regime change have failed. The Government in Damascus has managed to take back the majority of the territory, even if the Kurds still control the large area that extends from Manbij to Al-Qaim. Even in that case, thanks to Trump’s decision to pull out, Syrian forces have resumed a dialogue with the Kurds, who appear to be heading back into Damascus’s influence.
This will be one of the key developments in 2020, but just how quickly and smoothly it unveils depends on what the Americans choose to do – and how the Turks might respond.The Trump White House has grown tired of its wars in the Middle East – and Trump shows little interest
in foreign affairs.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. president seems ready to stop supporting the Kurds of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), thus it can be said that Trump has contributed to the process of Syrian reconciliation that will likely intensify in 2020. Concurrently, the Syrian war has slammed open the door for Russia’s return to the region. Moscow has regained a central role in the Middle East, through its involvement in Syria. Russia will maintain the naval base at Tartous in the Mediterranean and it has also shown its ability to act as a referee – a much better one than Washington. Putin has managed to protect the Assad presidency, not only militarily, but also by being able to address the concerns of Syria’s rival Israel, negotiating to have Hezbollah and Iranian special forces – far from the Israeli border. Moscow may face a challenge in balancing Iranian needs in 2020 but Iran itself has become dependent on Russian support to allow bilateral relations to suffer; especially, as both Rohani and Putin are fully aware of the different goals they are pursuing in,
and through, Syria.

Israel, Iran, Iraq…
As far as Israel is concerned, whether Benny Gantz could succeed in forming a new government by the start of 2020, but his Blue and White Party does not have a sufficient majority in the Knesset to prevent a third election, which could take in the early months of 2020. Regardless, whether Gantz or Netanyahu, Israel’s strategic approach will not change, and it will continue to hit Hezbollah and Iranian forces in Lebanon and Syria with little opposition from Russia. Israel could take advantage of the intensifying chaos in Iraq to pursue more attacks against Iran’s allied militias there as well.
With Syria returning to some kind of normalcy, Iraq could become a more frequent target of Israeli raids – and not least because there are emerging, if ambiguous ties, between Baghdad and Tel Aviv.

Last November, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, resigned after weeks of violent anti-government protests that have rocked the country. The American presence remains intrusive and the presence of U.S. troops may well intensify in 2020 as Washington looks for ways to maintain a presence in the in its effort to contain Iranian influence, even if, Iran and Iraq signed an agreement toward establishing more and freer bilateral trade, contrasting with American sanctions imposed against Tehran. In 2020, the trade relationship is expected to expand in volume and value, according to the agreements signed in 2019.
The Israeli strikes in Iran could not have occurred without Iraqi and American knowledge and acquiescence and they prove that Israel’s main regional priority will continue to be the elimination of pro-Iranian Shiite militias wherever they might be. The fear, now more than before, given Bashar al-Asad’s endurance in Syria – is that Iran could find a way to consolidate its Shiite crescent from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. This strategy includes the obstruction of Iran’s missiles and its nuclear program – though Iran denies this, stressing it is pursuing civilian nuclear technology only.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

In this scenario, Trump, who appears determined to abandon Middle East Wars, might refocus his attentions to renegotiating a new ‘nuclear deal‘ with Iran. Trump would use such a deeal to boost his electoral chances, perhaps reserving its formalization as an ‘October Surprise’, to be announced in the weeks before the U.S. presidential election in November 2020. Russia and Syria’s ‘victory’ in the War has made such a deal necessary, if Trump wants to leave the Middle East and do so, offering assurances to Washington’s allies/clients. A new ‘nuclear deal’ and the inevitable improvement in relations between Iran and the West would strengthen Iranian pragmatists at the expense of the more ideological figures, who have driven the pursuit of regional hegemony, known as the “Shia Crescent”. Such a Deal, moreover, would allow Moscow – which has maintained close and friendly ties with Syria’s and Iran’s enemies in the Middle East, from Israel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to help weave Damascus’s position back into the fore of inter-Arab and international diplomacy.

There have already been rumors of improving ties in response to Turkey’s military operation against the Kurds. In late 2018, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus and Syria can expect to be re-admitted to the Arab League in 2020. Even Hamas, which broke ties with Damascus in the wake of the War, appears ready for reconciliation (Source: al-Monitor). The fact that the Saudis have shown interest in acquiring the Russian S-400 missile defense system, during President Putin’s visit to Riyadh in summer 2019, suggests that Moscow is in a position to ease Syria’s re-entry into the good books of the Gulf States’ – America’s closest Arab allies – in 2020.

Yemen
In this conciliatory context, which forces the United States to come to terms with the fact that Russia’s superpower ambitions are on the ascendant, a solution involving compromise between the Houthi forces and the Saudi-UAE-US backed Yemeni government led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, reviving the Stockholm talks that started in 2018.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom’s de-facto ruler; especially, as far as foreign affairs are concerned, expressed hopes for a political solution to the five-year long conflict. A renewed thaw in relations between the United States and Iran, with Russia as ‘guarantor’ could move diplomacy in such a direction in 2020.

The Arab Spring. The Real One?
In 2019, there have been protests in Iraq, Sudan, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt . The latest episodes in Iraq and Lebanon suggest that whatever phenomenon occurred eight years ago – flawed, and not necessarily democratic in nature by any means – suggest that the Middle East and the Arab world in general are experiencing a transformation, even if it is unclear what shape it will take. The West has corrupted the Arab Spring in most cases (especially Libya and Syria), ‘artificially’ allowing rebels to gain the upper hand, in many cases resulting in the erosion of the secular rule and secular values, advanced by the Arab republics and dictatorships mirroring the Nasserist and Baathist models.
While Sudan and Algeria have seen intense and prolonged protests – though, it should be noted that Algeria was the first Arab country to experience a ‘democratic’ impulse in the period from 1989-1992) – the scope of this article is to focus on the Middle East proper. Even there, protests in Lebanon and Iraq, the most intense, have also been prolonged. And there are few signs that solutions are forthcoming. The protesters have rejected all of their respective governments’ offers. In other words, the differences between the rulers and subjects remains as deep as ever. Interestingly, Iraq and Lebanon both have Shiite majorities and are ostensible ‘democracies’. By comparison, the Kingdoms – ever more Constitutional in nature – of Morocco and Jordan have fared better. Neither of those two Kingdoms has experienced the intense foreign exploitation of internal ethnic and confessional differences that have characterized Iraq and Lebanon since their (flawed) creation from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

If there is some hope for deeper change, it is that the current protest movements cannot even be suspected of being radical Islamic ones. They reach across the various socio-cultural strata, hinting that their complaints have deep roots. The firebrand leaders of the Shiite communities of Lebanon and Iraq, Hassan Nasrallah and Moqtada al-Sadr have encouraged the protests against governments, featuring significant Shiite political influences. Perhaps, in Iraq, where post-Saddam political dialogue has mainly occurred within the Shiite community, there may exist a more religious character to the mobilization in some cases. In Lebanon, rather, as L’Orient le Jour writes, the wave of protests appears to have re-discovered the unity between various segments of the Lebanese population, fractured deeply since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Similarly, in Egypt, massive demonstrations against the Government of President al-Sisi (the first since the coup of July 2013) have not involved the Muslim Brotherhood, or other Islamists. The protesters, mostly young men, did not even challenge the legality of al-Sisi’s rule. They are talking to the streets to express their economic frustrations, the absence of job prospects and the anger against the vexations of the security apparatus. These grievances are not new. They have long existed in Egypt – and typically, government austerity measures and lifting of subsidies of basic food items, has always triggered riots. But, the Muslim Brotherhood was able to exploit and manipulate the anger, channeling it into often excessive religious piety. This has not happened now.
And for this very reason, the current movements should raise even more concerns than the 2011 protests, which have, with the exception of Tunisia, left the status-quo intact. What started to happen in 2019, and which will continue in 2020, might well be the real ‘Arab Spring’.
Alessandro Bruno

Asia 2020. A continent where uncertainty reigns.

Wednesday, 1 January 2020 8:00

Eight countries, in all, are due to go to the polls to elect presidents or just parliaments. The trade war between the United States and China will determine how the year unfolds. Uncertainty will continue in Hong Kong. All eyes are on Japan as it prepares to host the next Olympics.

The year 2020 promises many challenges and commitments, with growing signs of economic crisis due in part to the trade war between the United States and China and customs initiatives by Trump affecting various other partners in the continent.

There is also a strategic problem with China’s growing military presence, firstly in the contested areas with a number of countries in the South China Sea, inviting rearmament and a more aggressive stance by its neighbours, and with the USA uncertain whether to adopt a role of leadership or isolationism. Forecasts regarding the severe consequences of rising seas-levels, atmospheric pollution and soil erosion cast a long shadow on a continent already burdened with demographic decline, insufficient welfare, economic and financial restructuring and vast migratory movements.
The Tokyo Olympics, set to take place in July and August 2020, may help to ease tensions and worries, but they will also be experienced as a continental event and they will act as a stimulus for sport and its diffusion as an instrument of peace.

Elections
Three Central Asian countries will go to the polls. Tajikistan, on a date to be fixed to elect the two houses of parliament, a National Assembly with 34 members and a Representatives Assembly with 63 members of parliament, and the president, to re-elect or replace Emomali Rahmon with a high probability that his son, Rustam Rahmon, will succeed him. Kyrgyzstan will elect its Supreme Council of 120 members, also on a date yet to be chosen, and lastly, Kazakhstan will hold elections on 30 April to choose their representatives: 32 members of a total of 47 for the Senate and 107 for the House of Representatives.

The Far East and South East Asia are the other areas holding elections. Taiwan will vote on 11 January in a first round to choose a president. These elections are important not only for the government of the island but also for its delicate international relations, especially its tense relations with the People’s Republic of China. It is hostile to the out-going president Tsai Ing-wen who however, as head of his Democratic Progressive Party, is standing as a candidate for a second mandate relying for victory on the disaffection of his fellow citizens regarding reunification with continental China.
Peking would want this to be based on the idea of a ‘Two-system country’, already being applied in Macau and Hong Kong but which, in the former British colony, has shown how difficult it is to combine real autonomy with the directives of the Chinese government.
The January elections will, inevitably, heighten regional and strategic tensions and, in a difficult situation for an advanced industrial economy aimed at exporting, will also create for the electors the problem of greater isolation which Peking has promised to foster if Tsai were
to win a second mandate.
The January presidential elections will be accompanied by those for the single parliamentary house, the Legislative Yuan, which will reveal – apart from the abundant internal issues – how the various parties allied with the ‘Pan-Green’ coalition headed by the Democratic Progressive Party, and the ‘Pan-Blue’ coalition led by the Kuomintang, view future relations with the allies and with Peking.

On 15 April South Korea will vote for its single house of parliament with its 300 members. The focus of the election campaigns is on economic growth, the increase of welfare, corruption, youth unemployment and, the inevitable but never said to be a priority, relations with the North and those necessary but always tense relations with its American ally. The contenders for control of the legislative power are especially the centrist Democratic Party and the party of Liberty Korea, the former said to be leading in the opinion polls due in part to the support which the ruling president, the Catholic pacifist and environmentalist Moon Jae-in has gained from the elections in 2017.
On 30 June Mongolia will open the voting centres to elect the Gran Hural, its single-house parliament. There are two basic themes between which the electorate is asked to consider. The first is the attempt by the president Battulga Khaltmaa to impose himself as the ‘strong man’ of the country, limiting the power of parliament. The second is that of economic hardship and especially the unequal distribution of wealth and the profits from the mines, the chief source of income for the state but handed over to foreign companies including Chinese companies, which also increases tensions with Peking.
Singapore could go to the polls before the end of the year, despite uncertainty regarding the date, to elect a new parliament the fourth generation of politicians since independence, new in its list of names but, as far as one can see, it will show an increase in seats by the 4G. Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether the hitherto dominant party, the People’s Action Party, will have its power curbed. There are increasing fears of an ever greater impact of the trade war between Washington and Peking, and the city-state is already feeling its effects. A possible deterioration could force the electorate to confirm its confidence in a tried and trusted political class, or, on the other hand, to seek a solution in new faces and new ideas, to what is seen as a situation of stalemate which does not absolve the government led by Lee Hsien Loong.
Still in the political sphere, but with broad repercussions, are the last two important electoral returns planned for 2020.

That of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in September is not only in danger of being suspended but will certainly become a new focus point for independence movements to oppose the constant erosion of the rights formally guaranteed to the Special Autonomous Region by the Sino-British Treaty and by the Law of the former colony. The situation has yet to be countered by an elitist and easily manipulated parliament, or the government it represents. The ‘Umbrella Movements’ of the 2014 autumn came about by having its demands for elections with a universal vote denied by Peking and the situation lasting since June 2019 is also a result of this, with claims that developed into a secessionist fringe. The intransigence of the local executive, Chinese pressure, and the brutal policy of the police have made the demands of the protesters increasingly unlikely to be heard in dialogue.

Dialogue, is, instead, taking place between the military which, up to 2011 held formal power in Myanmar and still control the activities of the parliament and the government, and the national League for Democracy, which holds the majority in parliament and which has in the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mrs Aung San Suu Kyi, an important point of historical reference in influential government roles. Despite frequent setbacks during the second half of 2019, the road to the renewal of parliament is open, with people due to go to the polls in November 2020.
There is no hiding the difficulties involved, already shown by the constitutional reform underway which aims to remove the generals from their grip on the country; nevertheless, the elections might well consolidate this young democracy which only had its first elected parliament in 2015.
Even with the help of elections which are unlikely to bring a majority change, the former Burma will provide impetus to the process of national reconciliation despite the ongoing conflict between the army and ethnic militias close to the northern and eastern borders, and attempt to come to terms with an economy in stagnation in an effort to improve the living conditions of one of the poorest populations in Asia.

Stefano Vecchia

Music. Gabacho Maroc. A Connecting Sound.

Wednesday, 1 January 2020 8:00

Afro-Maghrebian percussion, ngoni, chants and choreography, driven by infallible and colorful arrangements make it possible to create a rare and beautiful music. A perfect dialogue among Western, African and Oriental instruments.

Gabacho Maroc is one of the most popular music bands in present-day Mediterranean Africa, a land where the sun sets among the dunes, where the Arab culture encounters the Berber and Tuareg culture and Islam is the religion of the majority.
In those parts, the music of the majority is called Gnawa. It takes its name from the homonymous culture brought to those zones by black slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a culture marked by a strong mystical element incarnate in sound by hypnotic rhythms, especially adapted to accompany rites that are similar to those of animists where the border between spirituality and trance, syncretism and music-therapy is especially enfeebled.

The sounds are strange but quite fascinating to western ears. The basic instrument is the santir (a plucked stringed instrument that comes between a double base and a guitar), and the vocal harmonies are often accompanied by hand-clapping.
The music is very popular in Morocco where many groups perform in the streets. It is also often found in Europe, especially in the urban centres of France where Magreb immigration is strongest.
Of the many groups that have moved abroad, one of the most creative and entertaining is the Gabacho Maroc group: eight Moroccan and Algerian musicians who have been based in France for some years and have performed more than 200 concerts in Asia and South America as well as in European countries. The Gabacho like to combine idioms and rhythms but also different stylistic schools, moving easily from ethnic rock to jazz and to the more traditional Gnawa music.

Their album of last year, issued to mark their fifth year together, has the meaningful title of Tawassol (in Arabic it means Berbers connection): a production that is cultural and refined, festive and popular. Not for nothing the specialised critics chose it as the best album of world music for 2018. It is the ripe fruit of the search for dialogue between schools of expression that uses the spiritual anxiety that pervades these cultures as a binding force. The response of the public regularly oscillates between amazement and overpowering enthusiasm; because, as Patrick Duval, the Director of Hauts de Garonne Festival stated: “Dialogue among Western, African and Oriental instruments has rarely been engaged so beautifully. Borrowing from world music, jazz, and traditional Gnawa music, their repertoire is variegated, festive and refined. This project, with endless horizons, helps to revive the concept of fusion”.
Franz Coriasco

Africa’s Hotspots in 2020.

Wednesday, 1 January 2020 8:00

This year there will be several security hotspots around the continent. We focus on six African countries three in the centre (Cameroon, the Central African Republic, DR. Congo) and three in the West (Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali).

On 9th February 2020 national and local elections are scheduled to take place in Cameroon. At the moment, the security situation in the country does not guarantee a peaceful and fair vote. And this for several reasons. In the north of Cameroon, Jihadists belonging to Boko Haram or to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue their attacks and force many people to flee their homes. In Western regions, autonomist militias fight with security forces and disrupt public services.

Therefore, in those areas the polling operations cannot run smoothly. In addition to that, the regime led by President Paul Biya has created a political system that denies the opposition the possibility to campaign freely. On 25th November 2019, one of the leading opposition parties, the Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC) announced it will not run in the polls. MRC and other parties claim that the October 2018 presidential election (that Biya won with 71% of the votes) was rigged.They fear that also the 2020 vote will not be fair.
But boycotting the ballots might not be the best choice, because it would in any case exclude Biya’s rivals from power for 5 years.

The Central African Republic descended into chaos in 2013 with the revolt that ended the regime of President Francois Bozizé. Armed militias (broadly speaking, of Muslim orientation), supported by some foreign actors (especially Chad) took control of the territory and still try to impose their power, especially in exploiting mineral and natural resources. Militias composed of people of other confessions (broadly speaking, Christians and animists) appeared and started to fight back. Foreign powers, such as Russia but also France, intervened in 2019 to stabilize the country and the so-called Khartoum Agreement was signed between the government and several armed groups. This agreement apparently reduced the level of violence (at least in some areas of the country), but the situation remains unstable and the violence could re-explode at any moment. The fabric of the nation has been torn apart for years and it will take many more years to mend it. Ethnic tensions, especially those concerning Peuls (an ethnicity present in Western and Central Africa), are increasing and Jihadists (the majority of Peuls are Muslim) could exploit this situation. The presidential and national elections that are scheduled for 27th December 2020 could either be a step up or a step down into an abyss.

In 2020 the Democratic Republic of Congo will be still ravaged by the forces that have been destabilizing it for many years. Different militias will fight against security forces to exploit the natural resources in different areas, especially in North and South Kivu provinces. Some local militants joined the Islamic State and increased their attacks in 2019. Other militias are apparently supported by foreign powers like Rwanda and Uganda. In different zones, ethnic tension between the different groups is increasingly degenerating in violence. The government is not able to manage those emergencies due to the rift between President Felix Tshisekedi and his predecessor, Joseph Kabila. These two leaders reached a much-criticized power-sharing agreement. But things are not proceeding smoothly. Kabila supporters still control large parts of the state apparatus and resist any attempt to cede their power to the winners of 2018 election. Vast parts of the civil society contest the result of the vote, so the legitimacy of Tshisekedi is not recognized by parts of the population. Insecurity allows the spread of phenomena like sexual violence and the Ebola fever epidemic.

Troubles in the West
Nigeria, one of the economic powers of the continent, is in troubled waters. The security threats affecting the country are worsening. Jihadist groups (Boko Haram and ISWAP) are still active in the north, despite massive operations by security forces. Ethnic clashes in the so-called Middle Belt (the states in the geographic middle of Nigeria) between Peuls (called Fulani in Nigeria) and other groups are more and more violent. Crime (including kidnapping for ransom and piracy) and corruption are rampant. The political class is divided and mistrust of politicians is widespread.

In recent years Burkina Faso gradually descended into chaos. Despite its vibrant civil society (inspired by the example and words of Thomas Sankara), this country saw the degradation of its institutions since the fall of Blaise Compaore’s regime in 2014. Since 2015, terrorism has entered the scene and in 2016 the Ouagadougou attacks showed that Jihadists linked to Al Qaeda were able to strike also in areas of West Africa previously considered as safe. The security forces, due to their many problems, are not able to confront the terrorist threat. In 2019 attacks increased, and Jihadists from Burkina Faso are spilling over the neighboring countries (like Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and Ghana). In 2020 Burkina Faso will still be in turmoil, and this turmoil could drag down those countries. They are now in a better condition, but do not seem to have the strength to face the mounting Jihadist violence. The Ouagadougou government has asked for the help of Western partners, especially France. But this created controversy among Burkinabe people, who fear a new colonization by the former colonial power. The political tension will likely increase in 2020 also due to the campaign for presidential and legislative elections that will take place in November.

Despite a considerable military effort from the international community (especially from France), Mali is a country ravaged by Jihadism (both international and local) and by increasing ethnic tensions (like those between Peuls and Dogons). The insecurity that started in 2012 in the north of the country (when Tuareg armed groups tried to create an independent state) moved southward and now the center of Mali is also a hotbed of terrorism. Apparently, in many areas the Malian government can affirm its authority only in some towns (protected by the military) but the surroundings are in the hand of extremists that exercise state-like powers.These six countries will not be the only hotspots of Africa in 2020. But they are a good example of the hurdles that African countries find on their path to prosperity. Each one of these countries has at least some of the capabilities and the whole responsibility to solve its own problems, even if these are overwhelming and are due to the influence of its neighbors.
Andrea Carbonari

Widen the horizon of Empowered Women.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

Concluding the Special Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, Pope Francis in his homily said with a witty remark that the final document speaking of women falls “short” because of the importance of women in “transmitting the faith and in preserving the culture.”

For the laity to be privileged actors, “the Church in the Amazon wants to expand the spaces for a more incisive female presence in the Church” and promote “their active participation in the ecclesial community. If the Church loses women in its totality and real dimension, the Church is exposed to sterility (Pope Francis).” In the Amazon region, women lead most Catholic communities. Hence, the request to create a ministry for “the women leaders of the community”, requesting the permanent diaconate for them.

However, a special Synod risks focusing only on that particular region. The Church and the society, on the other hand, risk considering its conclusions as important and valid only for that region. The risk increases when names such as Brazil and Amazonia enter the stories and make us forget that there are other important forests in Africa and Asia oxygenating the world and that the Amazon itself covers nine states.

It is significant that at the Synod’s vigil, on September 20-21^st in Cochabamba city (Bolivia) there was held an important event that went unnoticed: the 6^th annual summit of the National Network of Women in Defense of Mother Earth (RENAMAT). A wide range of women – indigenous, peasants, youth, adults and girls -, arrived from different communities impacted by mining, or in resistance against the mining companies, gathered to reaffirm their commitment of struggling, which was professed as a dream back on 2013. It was then when they decided to resist to mining extraction, opening a space of their own.

The meeting went on with the usual indigenous ceremonies, with thanks to the Pachamama and the traditional coca leaf picheo (A special way of sucking coca leaf). Then the assembly evaluated the work done and honored Isabel Anangono, leader of the Intag Valley (Ecuador). Intag Valley after twenty years of struggle managed to stop two mining projects that were going to plunder the territory. In Cochabamba, it was the symbol of women’s struggles and of this struggle brotherhood throughout all Latin America.

The dispossession generates loneliness, sadness, pressure and concern among women and the Network wants to be the political engine worthy of accompanying the daily struggle. However, in this fight, women do not want to forget their most emotional and personal aspects and that is why in the meeting, they made typically female healing islands with massages, hairstyles, hugs, laughs and tears in the view of the self-assessment of each one of them.

To this also contributed a contest of dancing and songs where the indigenous folklore intermingled with the Afro-Ecuadorian one. The political analysis highlighted the environmental emergency leading peoples towards a catastrophe because of the looting by the hands of state projects. This awareness brought up the decision of taking solidarity actions expressed in a declaration in defense of the ecosystem.

Women, in the Upland plant beans, potatoes, quinoa and fruit trees such as apples and peaches. Therefore, each seed gave the name to the chosen projects focused on three guidelines: what RENAMAT is asked to do in the communities, the achievements that are expected at the national level, and the contents that should be worked on at the Itinerant School of the RENAMAT.

The final knitting contest wanted to remember how each woman spins her struggle in her territory, but the result should be a collective weave of resistance, defense of life and a better future for all. Gathered from all sides, each one shares the Network, the obstacles and the hopes so life would increasingly grow in the communities.

Pope Paul VI already said it very well: “The time is coming, the time has come when the women’s vocation is fulfilled, the time in which women acquire in the world an influence, a weight, a power never reached before. That is why, at this moment when humanity faces such a profound mutation, women imbued by the Gospel’s inspiration can help so much to prevent humanity’s decay.”

John Paul Pezzi, mccj
VIVAT International NGO
with consultative special status at UN

Somalia. An atmosphere of Tension and Instability.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

Mogadishu and the Federal States are on a collision course regarding different issues, especially the management of the elections to be held next year, the first since 1969. The bordering countries such as Kenya and the Arab states are fanning the flames of the crisis.

The coming months will be crucial for Somalia. In 2020, in fact, the first universal suffrage elections since 1969 are to be held. They could possibly represent the start of a new phase in the complicated and tiresome journey of emergence from the deep crisis initiated by the collapse of the regime of Siad Barre. But the country is preparing itself in an atmosphere of tension and instability.

Relations between Mogadishu and the Federal States are worsening. In the past year, five of the states into which the country is divided – the sixth, Somaliland, declared itself independent in 1991 – have formed their own ‘Council for Cooperation Among the Federal States’.
During a meeting that took place in Chisimaio, the capital of Jubbaland, last September, they declared they would call a halt to collaboration with the central government until they received a response to various important issues.
Some of these: the failure to combat the Al-Shabaab terrorists, the lack of a clear agreed mechanism for sharing resources, a poor commitment to ensure that credible universal suffrage elections are held and interference by the central government in the affairs of the Federal States. In the view of various experts in Somali politics, the real problem is the elections.
The five Federal States would aim at weakening the credibility of the Central Commission, maintaining that it would not be able to guarantee free and fair elections. The final objective would be to prevent the control of the vote in their own territory so that they may have more trump cards to play in the context of the control of power at national level. In August, there was already a dangerous trial of strength, when elections were held in Jubbaland.

Mogadishu contested the appointment of the electoral commission and of the grand electors who chose the members of the regional parliament saying it was not in line with the rules of the Constitution. But Chisimaio considered this judgement to be interference in local matters and continued the electoral process until the confirmation, for a second term, of the incumbent President, Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe, and leader of the federal wing of the central government. Mogadishu has not recognised the elections as valid. At the same time, a second parliament was being appointed which elected its own president. This is a potentially explosive situation.

Explosive situation
It is such a potentially explosive situation that it risks seriously destabilising not only Somalia, but the entire region. In fact, Ethiopia and Kenya also have their roles to play in this game. Addis Ababa is allied with Mogadishu in line with its relations with the Somalia central government. In 2006, Ethiopia played a decisive role in the defeat of the Union of Islamic Courts which, in effect, was governing a large part of the country, and in reinforcing the transitional federal government, sponsored by the international community which it helped to set up in Mogadishu. Nairobi, instead, is allied with Chisimaio. It considers Jubbaland to be a valuable buffer against terrorist infiltration and Madobe an optimal ally. For this reason, Nairobi has backed him, even at diplomatic level, as well as his reasoning and his re-election.

The Kenyan foreign minister, Monica Juma, publicly contested some of the observations and perplexities concerning the electoral process expressed by the peace mission, Unisom, and of the UN commission for political affairs. The position and intervention of Kenya are especially meaningful and delicate also due to the present difficult moment in diplomatic relations between the two countries. This is due to an age-old dispute about maritime borders which refers to sovereignty over an area of the Indian Ocean where large deposits of oil and natural gas have been discovered.
Tensions have constantly increased since last February when the Somalia Oil Conference was held in London, in which, according to Nairobi, the estimates concerning deposits in the contested area of the sea were presented. Since then, Kenya has accused Mogadishu of preparing to auction off oil extraction rights in the disputed sea area, without waiting for the judgement, to be issued soon, of the court of the Hague, to which Somalia presented the case.

Turkey and the Gulf countries
The stability of Somalia is also influenced by tensions between the two Arab-Moslem blocks: that led by Saudi Arabia, of which the United Arab Emirates and Egypt are part, and that made up of Turkey and Qatar. Ankara is a major investor in Somalia. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first non-African head of state to visit the country, after a gap of twenty years. Turkish Airlines is the only flag-carrying company allowed to operate in Mogadishu, the site of the largest Turkish embassy in the world and the largest Turkish military base abroad.

Qatar is also an important donor. Somalia refused to ally itself with Saudi Arabia at the start of the conflict in Yemen when it attempted to isolate Qatar. Since then, the clash between the two blocks has become weightier on Somali soil. It is a clash that is played out by fomenting problems between the Federal States and the central government, according to political analysts. The ‘public’ split was established by an accord between the United Arab Emirates and Somaliland which Somalia considers one of the Federal States, for restructuring the port of Berbera and the construction of a military base, going over Mogadishu’s head.

In this context, where internal relations are increasingly weak and competition between the various actors is continually growing, al-Shabaab has the opportunity to extend its influence over the territory, using its capacity, strengthened in recent years, of striking where it wants with impunity. There is also much evidence of a capillary presence in Mogadishu itself, evidenced, among other things, by payments of cash to avoid attacks. So terrorists have everywhere become mafiosi. But this is possible thanks to a close network of connivance that will certainly also be used to influence the elections in their favour.

Bruna Sironi

Africa. Pioneering the Fight against Plastic Waste.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

While Europe is only tentatively taking action against the flood of plastic articles, countries in Africa have taken drastic measures against disposable plastic bags, the most widespread
form of plastic waste.

Plastic waste pollution has since been recognized as one of the global most dangerous pollutants. It pollutes the oceans, threatens the marine environment and eventually enters the food chain as microplastics.

Africa’s cities are drowning in plastic wastes. The bags are carried everywhere by the wind and end up on the trees and on the roads, rivers and lakes, in sewers and on beaches. Consequently, Africa’s uniquely beautiful landscapes, beaches and natural parks have been marred by the avalanche of plastic rubbish.

According to UN estimates, up to 5 trillion plastic bags are put into circulation worldwide every year. The European Union has published guidelines on how to deal with plastic waste. However, they are not binding, and so they are not really effective. In some countries, trading companies and shops have voluntarily introduced a small fee on plastic bags which has helped to reduce the number.

Since waste disposal and recycling in Africa is poorly developed, the problem more visible there. The governments are trying to limit the plastic flood with legal measures. Worldwide, 127 countries have introduced laws to regulate the use of plastic bags. Africa is leading the way! Thirty-four of the fifty-five African countries have legally regulated or completely banned the production and consumption of plastic bags. This stringent policy is especially true of countries with the rapidly growing tourism industry. The continent has given the rest of the world an example of how to tackle the problem more effectively.

The success stories of some of the African countries give more impetus to other African countries and the world at large to take a cue. Rwanda was the first African country to impose a ban on plastic bags in 2008. It even applies to tourists. Today, Kigali has the reputation of being the cleanest city in Africa. Kenya has strictly banned plastic bags and imposed draconian punishments. Anyone who manufactures, imports or uses plastic bags risks prison sentences up to four years or a fine of up to 30,000€. Tanzania has followed the example of its neighbours and has imposed drastic penalties on the production and sale, as well as import and export plastic bags.

Malawi banned the production of plastic bags in 2015. Local producers complained against the decision, but the Supreme Court confirmed it. The decisive factor was the concern that microplastics would be absorbed by fish in Lake Malawi and thus enter the food chain. Senegal’s sea beaches, which attract many tourists, are increasingly polluted by cheap plastic waste. Stricter laws, more stringent penalties and frequent police checks are intended to curb the problem. Egypt has recently banned not only bags but also the use of plastic straws, crockery and cutlery along the red Sea coast. Other countries that have enforced bans are Mauritania, Morocco and Niger.

Recycling is usually too complicated and too expensive for city administrations in Africa, but there are original initiatives here and there. In South Africa, the British company Macrebur has developed a method of melting down plastic bags and using them as a partial substitute for tar. In the township of Jeffreys Bay, the first “plastic road” has been built. In many countries, young entrepreneurs recycle plastic waste to produce new products.

In South Africa, it is hats, handbags and brooms; in Kenya, durable fence posts; in Tanzania, mattresses and carpets; in Ethiopia and Senegal, fashionable shoes made from old vehicle tyres. In Western Sahara, a young man built a house out of sand-filled plastic bottles. In Kenya, people even built a ship from recycled plastic and flip-flops that sailed to Zanzibar. The list is endless!

However, there is still so much to be done. The challenge of plastic wastes needs wholehearted commitment and binding regulations from all the regional unions of the globe. The listed African countries have started a good fight that must be taken up by their counterparts in other regions and the wave must continue. The EU must advance its stance to binding regulations and be a trailblazer because of the production and consumption capacities of its member nations. The EU cannot contemplate an on-the-fence position in the plastic waste battle, and nothing in its policies must suggest that.

Wolfgang Schonecke

Uganda. Educating the heart.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

A Catholic nurse dedicates her life to Meeting Point International, an association that takes care of more than two thousand orphans and HIV positive women.

Kireka is one of the slums of Kampala, the Ugandan capital. It is an enormous area of houses made of iron sheets where around 70,000 people live. It is there that we met Rose Busingye, President of Meeting Point International, an international humanitarian association, founded in 1992, that looks after more than two thousand orphans and HIV positive women. “The women and children of the city quarter are mostly from northern Uganda. They are poor people, often exploited and oppressed. Our aim is, first of all, to bring people closer to God by educating the hearts of people to feel emotions”, Rose states.

She, too, was born in Uganda and has never abandoned her own country where she obtained a diploma in professional nursing, specializing in infectious diseases. Rose is considered the adoptive mother of all the children of Kireka. When she came to the poor quarter of the capital in the early nineties, she found there dozens of mothers making their living by breaking stones with improvised hammers and selling the gravel to builders. The city quarter was a place of filth and open-air sewers where children played while their mothers were busy breaking stones.
“I was very young when I started and I wanted to work for God, for Jesus. I was born into a Catholic family and proud of it; I knew about God and about Jesus. After school I would hurry to the outskirts of the city to help AIDS victims, the poor and the orphans. I have always worked for Jesus Christ and to make him present”, Rose informs us.

“In Kireka, it was not easy to start bringing those women together. However, we gradually transformed their work and today those women have become young entrepreneurs. Some of them, for example, make splendid necklaces. When they see beauty with their own eyes, they appreciate their own lives more ”, Rose further explains. “We have also built a new pre-school. We pay the teachers and a doctor. We provide food and teach music and dancing which is also an answer to depression”, Rose continues. “It is God’s work. By ourselves, we are unable to do anything”, says Rose, and by ‘we’ she means ‘her’ women.
Faith has permeated the lives of the women of Kireka and they have begun to feel the need to look after their children. “My women have understood the need to better themselves, Rose continues. Take Alice, for example. She is 46 years old and has been HIV positive for ten. She was looking for some medicine to end her life”. “I didn’t know what to do”, Rose said, “but before going to work, I would visit her; at times I would just sit there in silence. I didn’t know how to console her. A week later she told me through her tears: ‘I have six children. I had a husband and my life had some meaning. Now I have nothing. It is as if my life has no meaning. I want to die. Help me to die quickly. I won’t tell anyone’. That was eight years ago. Today, Alice is a Meeting Point volunteer who feels within herself the desire to help others”.

In 2005, when hurricane Katrina swept away all the houses in New Orleans, the women of Kampala felt they should do something to help. They each donated a day’s wages to help those other women, black like themselves, who lived beyond the ocean. “They brought me the money and told me: ‘Send it to our sisters in America who are suffering. This small gift is a sign of our tears’. The two thousand dollars were sent to the American Embassy”.
In Kampala, the mothers have learned how to help themselves, taking orphans into their homes and so creating one large family. “They are tied to one another, splendid and joyful, just like the necklaces they produce”, says Rose who has become a spiritual guide in a strategic centre of Africa where a person may be reborn simply by making beautiful necklaces.
“Because of the faith, I have seen people change. A woman disfigured in her body and mind due to the violence she suffered at the hands of the rebels, found herself again when I said to her: ‘The terrible things you suffered are not you. You have an infinite value given to you by God who created you and loves you’. There are many others for whom life had no meaning and who now know that their lives have infinite value because they have regained their dignity. One of my women used to cut her wrists, causing herself great pain, without realising it”, Rose continues. “Now that she knows Jesus, she tells me: ‘I am very sorry for all the harm I have done’. This happens when God finds a home in you.
When she, and many like her, came to know Jesus, they discovered all the pain they had inside themselves and recognised that they were human beings like everyone else”.

“Even my children had begun risking their lives, first with alcohol and then with drugs. Ever since they learned the meaning of their lives, that life is of great worth, they defend both their own lives and those of their friends. Some time ago, a small boy came to me whose parents had been killed, decapitated in front of him. He was ten years old. He said: ‘Send me to school. I want to learn how to kill twice as many’. There was not a lot to be said in such a situation so I sent him to school. Two years later he came back to me with a plan and said to me: ‘When I grow up I will buy you a motorbike and a large helmet so that you do not injure your head and then I want to build a house for boys like me’. That boy is now studying at university. But what changed him? I believe he changed because he found people who accepted him.

Here in Kampala, girls from tribes hostile to mine come to me as well as young men who have seen combat or have been boy soldiers. I should be afraid of them or despise them. Instead, I feel none of those things any more: for me they are people whom God loves and wants, who still need to be loved and wanted. If they are hungry, I give them food; if they need medicine I give it to them. When they arrive here I welcome them like all the other children, not according to whether they have stolen or killed. They belong to Jesus and therefore they belong to me”.
Stefania Di Pietra

Missionary Reflection. Religious and social transformation.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

Evangelisation is transformation at two levels: religious and social. The ultimate end of evangelisation is the Kingdom of God, thus, it must be holistic, impacting upon both the internal and external human realities.

Evangelisation is interactional, that is, it is an encounter between Christians and people of other faiths. Indeed, it blossoms in the context of deep interaction between people. Thus, it can never be abstract, even though it has spiritual components. Evangelisation is always experiential, forming part of the practicalities of life, behaviour and relationships.
Therefore, evangelisation is a positive interaction between two sets of people: proclaimer and recipients of the Message. In this engagement, the pillars of one’s life—emotions, convictions, and individual and collective modes of living—are touched upon.
All human groups have their own particular religious insight into the world, coupled with rites, songs, stories, and symbols. Religion is an important component of human culture, holding it together in an organic way. In fact, the Latin root of “religion”, “religio”, means “to link together”. Through religions, humans give meaning to life’s occurrences, offering a point of reference by which direction is given.

This importance of religion was acknowledged by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the innovative document Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian religions. Each religion is here interpreted as holding a certain amount of mysticism, spirituality, and ethical orientation which involve the presence and the action of the Holy Spirit. From the perspective of the Vatican II Council Fathers, all religions are deserving of both respect and attention. Although some may contend that non-Christian religions lack the theological depth of Christianity, the Council’s position remains that these faiths are no less valid nor are they un-important for people of faith.Re-interpreting local religious experience. Evangelisation is not the substitution of one faith for another.
Indeed, evangelisation is the revelation, proclamation and actualisation of the Good News whose bounty is to be clearly understandable and that must touch all of the recipients’ lives.
The first element of the Good News is to assert God’s Divine presence and action in the history of each human grouping, as St Paul emphasised in Lystra (Acts 14: 8–18) and Athens (Acts 17: 16–34). God’s providence was not dependent on the arrival of Paul or any other missionary. God is mercifully present and active from the beginning of time.

Therefore, the first dimension and novelty of evangelisation is the revelation – to the recipients of missionary action – of God’s presence and action in the history of each human group that was present before the missionaries’ arrival. Thus, evangelisation is not a replacement of local religion – earlier labelled as “pagan”- with Christianity but, rather, a reinterpretation, a deepening, a transformation of a people’s religious orientation without forcing it to lose its originality and uniqueness. The novelty of the Risen Jesus. Does the missionary make any contribution to the radicality of the religious novelty? The novelty is the proclamation and making provision for access to the experience of Jesus’ Resurrection. In the Acts of the Apostles, a record of the first missionary witnesses—Peter, John, Paul, Barnabas— called themselves witnesses of the Resurrection. Their concern was to make the transforming faith in and sacramental contact with Jesus accessible, through the signs of healing, joy, forgiveness, courage, and liberation from fear. Evangelisation brings religion to its fullness, fulfilment, and plenitude, found in the Risen Christ.

Hence, evangelisation is, in itself, a process of transformation with continuity (previous religious experience should be affirmed and upheld) and discontinuity (Christ’s novelty should be appreciated with all its challenges). How can we merge original, local religious experience with openness to the originality and uniqueness of the encounter with Jesus? No advance planning can be made on this score. Rather, the organic processes of situational and contextual exploration, experiment, and discernment are needed, accompanied by the teaching of the Universal Church. The possibility for a given Church to be authentically local (Redemptoris Missio, chapter 3) lies in grafting the religious experience of the Risen Jesus onto the indigenous religious experience in its completeness. “Catholicity” entails pluriform inclusivity.

Social Transformation
Religion is an important dimension of life, but not the only one; therefore, to be holistic, evangelisation should penetrate all aspects of life, not only being concerned with sacred days. Evangelisation should seek to transform and penetrate all time: family, market, work, politics, governance and relationships. This is apparent in the Church’s Social Teaching—since Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum in 1891 and the Magisterium’s insistence on social transformation in the light of scripture for the anawim, the little ones: children, handicapped, sick, destitute and the poor. “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel… of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and it liberation from every oppressive situation” (Justice in the World, 6).

All popes, from Pope John XXIII, amply elaborated on the social teaching to make it more relevant for transformation in different historical eras. St Pope John Paul II, for example, proposed that this link is indivisible: “The ‘new evangelisation’, which the modern world urgently needs … must include among its essential elements a proclamation of the Church’s social doctrine… [T]his doctrine is… suitable for indicating the right way to respond to the great challenges of today… [There] can be no genuine solution of the ‘social question’ apart from the Gospel…” (Centesimus Annus, 5). Pope Francis is even more explicit on the unavoidable social dimension of evangelisation, as he sees its avoidance as a distortion of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium, 176, 258). Proclamation of the Kingdom. Evangelisation cannot happen without local social transformation.

Undeniably, the “localness” of a Church can be measured by its social impact, because a Christian community can be an efficient and effective sign of the Kingdom of God if it is grafted onto the daily life and sufferings of God’s people. The social dimension of evangelisation reflects and is constituted by the Gospel’s being brought to a given time and place, within that milieu. Once the missionary has intertwined the Gospel with the pre-existing beliefs of a community, the social dimension of the Gospel has the potential to touch the lives of people. Without this extension to social commitment, evangelisation is pointless. The proclamation of the Kingdom simply cannot happen.
Fr. Francesco Pierli

Hare and the Hyena.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

0ne day, a long time ago when there was a famine in a certain part of Africa, Hare met Hyena. “How thin you are looking,” said Hare. “You look as though you would not say ‘No’ to a good meal either,” replied Hyena.

The two animals continued on the road together until they came to a farmer, who was grumbling because all his servants had left him. “We‘ll work for you if you will feed us,” suggested Hare.

The farmer willingly agreed, and, giving the two animals a pot of beans to cook, showed them the part of his farm where they must weed.
First of all they made a fire, and fetching three large stones, they rested the pot on them to cook their meal while they set to work. When the sun was high in the sky and it was time for the mid-day rest, Hyena told Hare to keep an eye on the cooking-pot while he himself went down to the river to wash.

Hare sat by the pot, stirring it with a stick and longing to begin his meal, while Hyena, as soon as he was out of sight of Hare, stripped off his skin. He looked the most horrible spectacle, and ran back to Hare uttering strange cries. Poor Hare was terrified. “Help! Help!” he squealed, as he ran for his life. “Never have I seen such a terrible creature! It must be a very bad juju.”

Hyena quickly sat down and ate all the food, which was scarcely enough for one in any case, and then he went back to the river, found his skin and put it on again. He strolled slowly up the bank to the place where the cooking-pot stood, and found Hare retuning cautiously.

“Oh, Hyena! – Gasped Hare -. Did you see it too?”. “See what? “Asked the deceitful animal. “That terrible demon,” explained Hare. “I saw nothing. But come, let us eat now,” said Hyena calmly, as he walked towards the cooking-pot and looked inside it.

“Where is it? Where is my food? What has happened to it?” cried Hyena, pretending to be in a fine rage. Hare looked at the empty pot. “It was that horrible demon – he explained -. It frightened me away so that it could eat our food.”

“Rubbish! You ate it yourself while I was washing at the river,” shouted Hyena, and no amount of protestations by poor Hare had any effect. “Well – said Hare -. I know what I shall do. I shall make a fine bow and arrow and if the creature comes again I shall shoot it.”

The next day the farmer again gave them a pot of beans, but instead of working while it cooked, Hare took a supple branch and began to make himself a bow. The cunning hyena watched him as he shaped the wood with his knife, and when it was almost finished, he said: “Give me your bow, Hare. My father taught me a special way of cutting bows to make them better than any others. I’ll finish that for you.”

The unsuspecting Hare gave up his bow and knife and Hyena began cutting it in a special way, making it so weak in one place that it was bound to break as soon as it was used. “There you are! Keep this beside you while I go and wash, in case that creature comes again, “said Hyena, as he bounded off to the river, to remove his skin once more.

Hare, waiting beside the pot of food, was just considering whether he could take a mouthful, so great was his hunger, when once again the most repulsive-looking animal he had ever seen bounded towards him.
Seizing his bow, he put an arrow in it and pulled. Snap! It broke in his hands, and as the horrible creature came closer and closer, Hare fled.

So, of course, Hyena had all the food once more, and then went back to the river and put on his skin.
He returned to accuse Hare of stealing the beans.Hare denied having even a taste of food, but looking closely at Hyena he thought he saw a little piece of bean stuck in his teeth as he spoke.

“Aha! – Said Hare to himself -. If that’s the way it is, I shall be ready for you tomorrow, my friend.”

That night while Hyena was sleeping, Hare made another bow. It was a good strong bow with no weak spots at all, and had three sharp arrows to go with it.
Then the hare, feeling ravenous by now, crept to the spot where they cooked their food, hid the bow and arrows in some nearby long grass and, returning to find Hyena still asleep, he lay down close by him.

The next day, everything happened as Hare had expected. The two animals worked hard all the morning while the cooking-pot boiled nearby, and at mid-day Hyena went to the river to wash.

Hare waited, his new bow in his hand. Presently the loathsome-looking creature came towards him. Hare raised his bow and shot. Straight into the creature’s heart went the arrow and Hyena fell dead on the ground. Hare bent over the body and was not surprised when he saw it really was Hyena.“Oh well – he remarked, as he ate the first good meal he had had for days – ‘my mother always told me that greed did not pay, and now I know she was right.”

Folktale from Central Africa Republic

Africa. The Sea is theirs.

Sunday, 1 December 2019 8:00

Fishing rights sold off by governments to foreign companies. Illegal fishing and how it damages the environment. Drug trafficking.
Factors that impoverish and render insecure the waters of many African countries.

The continent has 38 coastal countries, 13 million km² of maritime zones and owns 17% of global water resources. Economically speaking, 90% of African trade travels by sea. As regards food security, many African countries derive much of their protein from fish which makes fishing a primary activity in the survival of the inhabitants.

Maritime control is important to Africa for three reasons: it helps economic development, is an integral part of security and defends its nutritional integrity. Piracy, one of the most serious threats to the security of the African coasts, has for two years now, again begun to weigh heavily on the waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Guinea. There are other serious problems such as trafficking in arms, fuel, drugs and human beings, apart from the different crimes against the environment and illegal fishing. It is worth noting that the conflict in Yemen has caused an increase in criminal activities in the Red Sea using remotely controlled boat-bombs and unmanned submarine drones which constitute a threat to maritime trade and infrastructure with implications affecting the entire region.

One of the most widespread and worrying of the crimes is drug trafficking, especially in western Africa which, in the last decade, has become one of the main transit routes for South American cocaine destined for Europe, as well as being a strategic centre for the production, distribution and wholesale trading of narcotics. One of the more negative aspects of these illegal activities is that their proceeds have made it possible for the drug dealers to co-opt political powers in some countries of the region (e.g., Guinea-Bissau), thereby weakening the progress achieved in democracy and economic development. Fishing rights are also sold off by governments to foreign companies.
There is illegal fishing with consequent damage to the environment and the drug trade. All of these are factors that impoverish and render insecure the waters of many African countries. Another series of threats involves illegal fishing that is made legal.
Foreign companies, not infrequently Chinese, have succeeded in many governments of coastal countries to sign contracts which, in reality, allow them to plunder the fishing resources.

According to Ian Raby, head of research in maritime law at the African Centre for Strategic Studies based in Washington, “Many African countries have compensated for the serious shortcoming of ignoring their own maritime dominion but continue to pay little attention to the protection of their limited maritime resources”.
In the strategy pursued by African countries to guarantee maritime security, it is worth mentioning the Lome Accord, adopted in October 2016, at the conclusion of an extraordinary summit of the African Union in Togo. It is an important document for safeguarding the security and development of the seas around Africa and it has been placed within the Integrated Maritime Strategy for Africa up to 2050, and adopted on 6 December 2012 by the African Union to value the enormous potential of the African maritime sector.

The main point of the document is the recognition that no country by itself is capable of facing such challenges to transnational maritime security and it is therefore planning for coordinated action between African states. The only problem, and it is not a small one, is that, to come into force, the Lome Accord requires ratification by at least 15 of the 33 countries that have adopted it. Up to now, it has been approved only by Togo. Nevertheless, regional cooperation has shown its effectiveness through key agreements already in force, such as the code of conduct of Yaoundé for the suppression of illegal maritime activity in the Gulf of Guinea.This code was adopted during a summit of heads of state and government of the Economic Community of Western African States (CEDEAO) and of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC), that took place in June 2013 in the capital of Cameroon. The agreement represents an important model for cooperation between African countries in matters of maritime security that has now become one of the dominant factors in the general development of the continent.
(M.C.)

Photo Gallery – Jubilee 2025. Pilgrims of Hope

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Baobab

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