Food Riots and other choices
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere - three quarters of the population lives on less than two dollars a day.
Haitians have company - more than anyone thought. The news from the World Bank is that, cough, poverty might be more pervasive than they thought. Looking back at their figures, they've revised up their estimates of the number of people living in poverty from 985 million to 1.4 billion, a more than 40% increase.
The Bank's spin is that poverty is still lower now than it was in 1981, when there were 1.9 billion people living in poverty. But most of the world's reduction in poverty comes from China. Excluding China, world poverty fell from 40% to 30% over the past 25 years.
Read the full BBC report.
Worse, these figures don't include the recent increases in food prices. Poor people around the world, particularly in cities where you need money to buy food, are finding meals increasingly hard to come by. Ethiopia, as this report shows, is facing food price inflation of over 40%. Things are so hard that, in some cases, families are forced to choose which of their children they will save from hunger.
Some have taken to the streets rather than face this choice. In Haiti, as Reuters reports below, food riots have broken out again. Sadly, they're not likely to be the only ones we see as winter approaches. ... read more »
Mercury: The social value of land must come first
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579146
Opinion
The social value of land must come first
August 27, 2008 Edition 1
Imraan Buccus
There has been considerable discussion after the announcement that the eThekwini Municipality is considering expropriating land from Tongaat-Hulett to finally move ahead with the long promised Cornubia development.
We all know that in Durban, as in cities around the country, the question of housing is the biggest source of conflict between poor people's organisations and the state.
Mercury: Judge rules on threat to demolish shacks
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579195
Judge rules on threat to demolish shacks
August 27, 2008 Edition 2
Tania Broughton
RESIDENTS of a Durban informal settlement will sleep easy after securing a final Durban High Court interdict preventing city officials from demolishing their makeshift homes.
Yesterday's order by Acting Judge Jerome Mnguni is being hailed as a victory for the shack dwellers.
While the matter centred on a narrow issue of "reasonable apprehension" of demolition, their attorney, Mahendra Chetty, of Durban's Legal Resources Centre, said the ruling sent out a message that the rights of those living in informal settlements could not be trampled on.
Mercury: Student's family want answers
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579178
Student's family want answers
August 27, 2008 Edition 1
GUGU MBONAMBI
THE family of Mthokozisi Nkwanyana, the 20-year-old University of South Africa student who died during a protest, say they are trying to raise funds for his funeral on Saturday.
Nkwanyana was a second-year political science student at the university, and the family depended on his success and hoped that he would one day save them from their anguish and poverty.
Now the impoverished family are desperately seeking funds, and appealing to the public and well-wishers to assist them with the funeral arrangements.
The Post: Illegal power cuts puts area in darkness - Sub-station bombed
http://www.thepost.co.za/?fArticleId=4579424
Illegal power cuts puts area in darkness
Sub-station bombed
August 27, 2008 Edition 1
CHARLENE RAMJITH
AN INTIMIDATING note, left behind after a sub-station, which generates electricity in Maynard Road, Sea Cow Lake, was blown up, has sparked fear among residents.
The note, according to the concerned community who believe those responsible for blowing up the sub-station were from a nearby informal settlement, stated: "If we cannot have electricity no one can".
Once more, with spin
George Monbiot writes below, eloquently as ever, about the rapaciousness of the European Union. In particular, he trains his sights on how EU policies are harming African fisheries. (Veteran Stuffed & Starved readers will remember the BBC covering this from a slightly different angle.)
But you know things are fairly far gone when Monbiot's analysis is adopted by a senior UN official, and reported in the Financial Times. Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, puts it a little impenetrably:
"The risk is of creating a neo-colonial pact for the provision of non-value-added raw materials in the producing countries and unacceptable work conditions for agricultural workers.
But it's the same sentiment as Monbiot's. Below the fold, Monbiot parses out what, exactly, neo-colonialism means. ... read more »
Victory in Court While Evictions Continue Outside
Abahlali baseMjondolo has just won a major court victory against evictions. But outside the court the eThekwini Municipality is currently demolishing shacks in the Siyanda settlement. There is no court order and so, according to South African law, these demolitions are illegal and criminal acts. Media are urged to rush to the scene.
The shacks that are being demolished were built a month ago after renters in the area were left homeless when shack owners were moved to RDP houses and the renters illegally left homeless. This happens in every relocation or upgrade in Durban and in South Africa it is a completely illegal and in fact criminal act to leave someone homeless. The people who have been made homeless again today, just after being homeless last month, will rebuild again. What else can they do? This is the cruel reality of the government's plans to eradicate shacks: give houses to shack owners and leave shack renters, the poorest of the poor, homeless and desperate.
The Hungry of the Earth
Here's a piece with which I'm particularly pleased, which just came out as a commentary in this month's Radical Philosophy. ... read more »
AbM Statement on the Cornubia Development
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo eThekwini Press Release
Why are Shack Dwellers Excluded from the Discussions About the Cornubia Development?
Nothing for Us, Without Us!
There has been much discussion about the Cornubia housing development in the press. The City and the political parties have had their say. Tongaat-Hulett, the company that owns the land, have had their say. The technical experts have had their say. Shack dwellers' organisations have not had their say. We who live with the rats in the mud and the fires have not had our say. We who were publicly promised houses in this development in November 2005 have not had our say. We who have been beaten and arrested while defending our right to speak for ourselves, defending our communities from eviction, and defending our right to decent housing in the city have not had our say.
M&G: 'It's our duty not to be silent'
For pictures click here.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-24-its-our-duty-not-to-be-silent
News | National | Land & Housing
'It's our duty not to be silent'
PEARLIE JOUBERT | CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Aug 24 2008 06:00
After 15 years of fighting with government and the Cape Town municipality about their right to live in Langa, the Joe Slovo community finally had their day in the Constitutional Court this week.
Opposing their right to continue living in Cape Town's Langa township -- earmarked for housing development -- were Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, government-appointed housing agency Thubelisha Homes, former Western Cape housing minister Richard Dyantyi and the city of Cape Town.
The Star: Concourt lashes Hlophe's squatter ruling
http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20080822055832386C803440
Concourt lashes Hlophe's squatter ruling
22 August 2008, 10:33
The Constitutional Court's battle with Cape Judge President John Hlophe did nothing to dampen the justices' criticism of his landmark eviction order against 20 000 Western Cape squatters.
Justice Kate O'Regan on Thursday expressed disquiet over Judge Hlophe's controversial order that the residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement be moved to make way for government's pilot N2 Gateway Housing Project, pointing out that it made no mention of where they would be moved to.
Isolezwe: Kufe umfundi kubhikishwa enyuvesi
http://www.isolezwe.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4571398
Kufe umfundi kubhikishwa enyuvesi
August 22, 2008 Edition 1
Sihle Mkhize
UPHELE sekumuncu umbhikisho wabafundi base-University of South Africa (Unisa) ophikweni lwayo lwaseThekwini ngesikhathi kushona umfundi oneminyaka engu-22 ubudala okusolakala ukuthi uhluleke ukuphefumula ngemuva kokuhilwa yisisi esikhipha unyembezi esiqhunyiswe ngesikhathi amaphoyisa ezama ukuhlakaza isixuku.
Lo mfundi ochazwe njengoMncedisi Noconjo ubenza unyaka wesine ezifundweni zomthetho.
Mercury: Cornubia 'the way to go'
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4571305
Cornubia 'the way to go'
Low-cost housing blueprint for future
August 22, 2008 Edition 1
Matthew Savides
INTEGRATED communities, like the proposed 1 200ha multi-use Cornubia development near Umhlanga, are "absolutely the right way to go" for future integrated developments in the country.
This is the view of KwaZulu-Natal Institute of Architects president Ivor Daniel, who said it was important that all low-cost housing developments were carefully planned so that employment opportunities were nearby and they promoted a sense of community.
Mercury: Land owner to take legal action to evict tenants
According to CALS Govenders' attempt to legally evict his tenants has no chance of success. Click here to read the CALS letter to Govender's attorney.
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4569458
Land owner to take legal action to evict tenants
August 21, 2008 Edition 1
Tania Broughton
MOTALA Heights land owner Ricky Govender, who stands accused of waging a "war of attrition" against some of his tenants to force them off the land so that he can develop it, says they are "delusional" and are fabricating stories against him.
The Mercury: Cornubia development treated 'with urgency'
buffer zones? no threat to houses prices?....
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4569476
Concern that project rushed ahead of elections
Cornubia development treated 'with urgency'
August 21, 2008 Edition 1
Matthew Savides
UMHLANGA was important to the eThekwini Municipality, which would ensure that a proposed 1 200ha integrated development near the area was done responsibly and would not affect property prices.
This was according to deputy mayor Logie Naidoo yesterday, speaking in the wake of the municipality's threat on Tuesday to expropriate the land from Tongaat-Hulett Developments to speed up construction.
Sowetan: 'There is no way I'll go to starve and die in Delft'
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=826420
'There is no way I'll go to starve and die in Delft'
21 August 2008
Anna Majavu
This morning an important case comes before the Constitutional Court, involving 20 000 Cape Town residents whose informal settlement is set to be bulldozed.
State-owned company Thubelisha Homes (now bankrupt), Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Western Cape housing MEC were granted an eviction order on March 10 this year against occupants of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa.
AEC Communities join residents of the Joe Slovo settlement at SA Constitutional Court 21 August
***Press Alert***
AEC Communities join residents of the Joe Slovo settlement at SA Constitutional Court 21 August
Threatened with mass eviction, the residents of the Joe Slovo settlement in Langa, Cape Town will be gathering outside of the South African Constitutional Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg on 21 August at 9am. They are appealing the judgement of High Court Judge Hlophe that would forcibly remove them to Delft, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, to makeway for the completion of the N2 Gateway Housing Project.
As a national housing project, the N2 Gateway is supposed to provide the residents of informal settlements along the N2, some of the most visible informal settlements in Cape Town, with formal housing. Yet the project's plans were developed with little community input and when they were announced, provoked strong reaction as they could not accomodate most of the 20,000 residents of Joe Slovo.
Let them Eat Rats
Photo Credit: Limonada
I think what disturbs me about this Reuters news piece even more than the Let them Eat Mud story that I posted about mud cake consumption in Haiti, is that the government in Bihar, India, is actively promoting it.
Just to be clear. It's official government policy for people to eat rats. The full story here and below.
It's a useful case to ruminate over. What is it, after all, that's so appalling here? Clearly the idea of eating vermin is, by definition, distasteful, but what a culture decides is edible, and what is pestilent, isn't written in our DNA. As we used to chorus in Sociology 101: "it's a social construct". Some think pork is as dirty as rat. Some think that by renaming pigeons as 'squab', they'll taste better.
That people are eating rodents isn't the only thing that should turn our stomachs, though. The Bihari government endorsement of rat-eating is simultaneously a sign of defeat. They've given up on fighting poverty so that people can afford to eat. Given up on trying to protect the grain harvests with decent infrastructure. Given up, almost, on their people.
In a time of scarce resources and rising hunger, rat-eating becomes a handy technical fix. After all, what is rat-eating but a technology to increase nutrition and eliminate the use of pesticides and the need for secure grain storage?
And if we're appalled by this, and we should be, then how different is this from the logic that justifies Golden Rice? After all, doesn't golden rice become useful only when governments have resigned themselves to the fact that the only thing people can afford to eat is rice? That the healthcare system can't be resuscitated? That the best technology to fix the problem is one that doesn't address it?
_______________________ ... read more »
Does your Embassy Walk the Talk?
While this post isn't exactly about food, it is about the hypocrisy with which developed countries pretend to fight hunger on the one hand, and cause it on the other.
This is a graph of what embassies pay their security staff in Zambia. In none of the cases does the pay meet the requirements to feed a family of six in Lusaka, according to a union report. Predictably, at the bottom of the list, paying six times less than what a family needs to survive, is the World Bank. The full list, from best paying to worst, below the fold. ... read more »
Daily News: 'No one can have it if we can't'
Note how this article conflates community connections and copper cable theft - two completely different things....
http://www.dailynews.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20080820111834480C857906
'No one can have it if we can't'
20 August 2008, 12:14
By Heinz de Boer
"If you remove our cables, you had better move all the power from the area. No-one can have it if we are not allowed to (have electricity)."
This is part of a bizarre threat made to the city after vandals destroyed a mini substation and totally blacked out a large part of Sea Cow Lake from Friday. The electricity supply was restored on Tuesday.
