Since I've posted fairly often to this list in the last month (which is a
bit unusual for me, but I guess I felt I had some things to say), I was all
ready to sink back into the (relative) obscurity of my more usual lurking
role when I read Hillary's comments that there is certainly more to discuss
than the "conflict du jour" as portrayed in the media-and although I'm not
sure media attention should necessarily make any topic taboo to critical
geographers or anyone else, it did make me want to try (once again) to raise
a subject on this list that I think is very much worth engaging, precisely
for the reasons Hillary outlined in his posting, "drawing attention to the
world's more forgotten disasters," which is the subject described in the AP
newswire report below, one I hope is worthy of discussion even though it's a
media report . . .
Africa is an area of the world filled with those very long-term "disasters"
Hillary urges us to discuss-not only conflicts, which have raged for not
weeks or months but years and even decades, but AIDS and other deadly
diseases, droughts and flooding, poverty and debt, unemployment and crime,
race and gender inequality-all of which rarely makes it onto the world's
radar of consciousness, especially as defined by what appears in a slot on
the evening news. (I don't even know whether this article even appeared in
any newspapers, but if it did, I'll bet it was buried somewhere deep in
section B.) But when I raised a similar point in May, I received two
thoughtful responses, one onlist and one offlist-and then the dialogue died.
To be honest, I think I was much more concerned by that than by any media
inattention.
So I would still like to ask now what I did then, since nothing has
changed-nor is likely to without a lot of attention of all kinds-for some
attention to be paid to that corner of the world. What should be done-what
can be done-to stop the ongoing horrific conflicts and resulting enormous
refugee problem in Algeria, Angola, the Congos, Eritrea, Sierra Leone,
Sudan, and undoubtedly some places I've missed? If you don't like the Kosovo
(or for that matter the East Timor) solution, then what should be done? What
steps should and can be taken to stop the scourge of AIDS that is
devastating the population? What about the poverty and crime that is
paralyzing the continent? What do we have to say on aspects of the culture
designed to keep people in their place-whether because of race/tribe or
creed or color or gender or sexual orientation? What is our stance on
"cultural norms" such as female circumcision? And the most pressing question
of all: why do we outside of the continent ignore Africa? Is it true, as
Hillary says, that unless the media draws our attention to a matter, we have
nothing to say? At one time Africa was known as the Dark Continent; I'd say,
given lack of enlightened comment on what's happening there, it still is . .
.
Anyone up to the challenge?
Best regards,
Becky
-----Original Message-----
World Leaders Focus on Africa Wars
.c The Associated Press
By NICOLE WINFIELD
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The annual gathering of world leaders at the United
Nations is focusing rare but welcome attention on the problems that plague
Africa - and prompting criticism that a double standard exists when the
world responds to a crisis.
Presidents and diplomats from Africa and elsewhere decried the bloody
conflicts this year in Angola, Congo and Sierra Leone and challenged the
United Nations to mount a response similar to its ambitious efforts to
rebuild Kosovo.
"We have seen in the past few months the kind of resources that the world
has been willing and able to mobilize in the Balkans at short notice,"
Ghana's foreign minister, James Victor Gbeho, said Tuesday.
"We do not see the same response to the tragedies of Africa," he said.
On the fringes of the General Assembly, France and Britain launched a joint
initiative on Africa today, promising to coordinate their policies toward
the continent, which both colonized in part over the last century.
The two countries promised to help African nations solve their debt
problems, tackle poverty and deal with conflict, British Foreign Secretary
Robin Cook told reporters after a one-hour meeting with his counterparts
from Gabon, Nigeria, Kenya and the Ivory Coast.
President Clinton addressed many African concerns in his speech to the
General Assembly, calling for an all-out battle to fight poverty, the spread
of AIDS on the continent and mass killings and displacement around the
world.
"Over the next 10 years in Africa, AIDS is expected to kill more people and
orphan more children than all the wars of the 20th century combined,"
Clinton said.
He announced he was seeking another $100 million for AIDS prevention,
counseling and care in Africa and would convene a special White House
meeting to try to accelerate the development and delivery of vaccines for
malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and other diseases that disproportionately
affect the developing world.
"No country can break poverty's bonds if its people are disabled by disease
and its government is overwhelmed by the needs of the ill," he said.
Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, said African development depended on
its liberation from debt and increased overseas aid, as well as private
investment.
"Africa's debt is essentially nonpayable and certainly unsustainable under
any sensible growth-oriented macroeconomic scenario," he told the assembly
Tuesday. "There is an urgent need to release more resources from debt
servicing to financing development and creating conditions that encourage
inflows of private foreign investment."
During a special briefing Tuesday to members of the Security Council on the
situation in Congo, Zambia's President Frederick Chiluba said the warring
parties "have so far complied" with a cease-fire agreement.
Nevertheless, Chiluba, who helped negotiate the cease-fire that ended a
yearlong civil war between rebels and President Laurent Kabila, urged the
council to dedicate adequate money and manpower and to mandate for a U.N.
peacekeeping force to move into Congo to monitor the cease-fire.
The conflict drew in a half-dozen African countries, displaced tens of
thousands of people and threatened the entire region.
"In other regions of the world where conflicts have occurred, no expense has
been spared in the pursuit of peace," Chiluba told council members. "This
body needs to do the same now for the (Congo) and for Africa."
AP-NY-09-22-99 1320EDT
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.
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