Welcome to an all day open thread hosted by “Foreign Policy and International Events Group”. Drop by to share links and stories or for commentary. (or just play peekaboo and say look what I found). Who are we and what we are trying do → Launching A Dailykos Discussions and Republishing Group For International or Foreign Policy Stuff
Starting off, I was unsure what I wanted to include, but my newsfeed sort of just led me to places.
📙 South Africa — BBC had the headlines a memorial piece on death of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini. Goodwill Zwelithini: South Africa's straight-talking Zulu king so naturally I checked in to read the details given that his involvement has been influencial in shaping South Africa. It had a detailed timeline and discussions of the king.
King Goodwill Zwelithini, the leader of the Zulu nation in South Africa has died at the age of 72. Pumza Fihlani looks back at his life.
"Bayede" rings out the salute to the king as South Africans, young and old, use the phrase on social media to mourn his passing.
He was a proud man who was a passionate defender of traditional culture, seeing it as a force for good both within South Africa and beyond its borders in the continent as a whole.
But the king had his critics, who have accused him of hanging on to outdated ideas. He was also criticised for being willing to work with the white-minority government in power before 1994, and not wanting to cooperate with the current government's land redistribution polices.
📙 South Africa: I popped over to The Sowetan, a Johannesburg (South Africa) based tabloid to see if they had anything that could be added to our daily, This ‘Stay out of the water’: More than 100 crocodiles on the loose in Mpumalanga was trending instead. Turns out
More than 100 crocodiles are still on the loose in the Sand River region in Mpumalanga after a mass escape from a breeding farm.
April Lukhele, compliance monitoring manager at the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), said 160 crocs escaped from Nola Farm, a breeding facility near Hazyview, but 52 had been recaptured.
One of the crocodiles being captured.
Image: Supplied
“This happened around January 28 during heavy rains. Water flooded the property and that’s how the crocodiles escaped. The owners managed to capture 40 at that time and the MPTA was alerted by the community of sightings and caught 12.
🔊📒 Uganda:I popped over to The Monitor to see if I could add something they had to say about the death of Zulu King. They have some usual short tuff, but a summary that said “It is quite funny considering how determined you men are to make love with us that you seem disgusted by what comes out of us.” of this Op-Ed Open letter to all men about menstruation, womanhood grabbed my attention. So I had to look inside. This could have be written in any nation and still be current, topical, and relevant.
In the spirit of celebration of women’s month, I want on behalf of all women to educate you, our dear men, about the intricacies of our experience as the not-so-fair sex because there is nothing fair about a monthly period. Yes, menstruation. The thing that turns all you grown up men into scared little boys.
It is quite funny considering how determined you men are to make love with us that you seem disgusted by what comes out of us. Believe it or not, menses are there for a reason. It is not like an additional feature on a play station console. It serves a major purpose.
📒 Nigeria: While I still had my page of inks to sources in Africa open, I took a scroll over to The Punch Nigeria. I was vaguely wanting to check if part 2 of a particular hefty reading column was out. Part one explored why there is such a schism between North and South in Nigeria. I was contemplating posting an extract, but instead this very topical gem Hollow protests about minimum wage caught me. It might resonate with kossacks and even anti-minimum wage ones.
Organised labour has a duty to protect the interests of workers, be they members of the various labour and trade unions or not. We are all bound together in a capitalist economy in which employers would rather pay slave wages than living wages. Successive labour leaders, from our acknowledged number one labour leader, the late Chief Michael Imoudu, to the present crop of redoubtable labour leaders, were and are committed to making life better for the workers. They waged, and still wage, the great battle for a better deal for workers in the public as well as the private sector. Their formula was, and remains, a minimum wage, an amount of money deemed by them each time to be fair enough for workers to live on from month to month with less tears.
No one knows for sure how many times labour leaders have fought the federal and state governments over the minimum wage. They always called out their members on strike as part of the pressure on the governments. The strike is the most lethal weapon in the calloused hands of labour leaders. Quite often, by the time the negotiations snaked their way to an agreement with the government, the minimum wage had been overtaken by market forces and the new minimum wage translated into so much in the pockets of the workers but so little in the market place where the cost of living and the fate of the workers are determined.
📚 Nigeria: In case anyone is curious about the other hefty read I mentioned that explores the divide between North and South in Nigeria, useful for understanding Nigeria, here are links without extracts. Part 1 The north and the rest of us and part 2 The north and the rest of us - Part 2
📱In the United Kingdom: I nipped over to Ghana. There was a news from UK. So came back to BBC to get proper links. Murder of Sarah Everard has been in the news. BBC has a collection thread for details Sarah Everard case. I am including an extract from one particular item titled Jess Phillips: Society has 'just accepted' dead women. Jess Phillips is a woman MP (Member of Parliament in UK).
Labour's shadow domestic violence minister, Jess Phillips, has said society has "just accepted" dead women as "one of those things".
She read out the names of 118 women and girls killed in the UK this year, where a man has been charged or convicted as the primary perpetrator, in an International Women's Day debate.
Ms Phillips said there was currently no government research into the data.
Ministers say they have prioritised support for victims during lockdown.
📚 Bolivia: I am always on look out for coup, former presidents being jailed etc. So this just happened. Over at Bolivia, following the dramatic changes surrounding then-Presiden Evo Morales, the coup, conflict, changes and subsequent election and return to power of Morales ally and political party to both the presidency and parliament, some new developement. Original spanish at La Razon → La expresidenta Jeanine Áñez es aprehendida en Trinidad y trasladada a La Paz . (translation link further below)
La expresidenta denuncia abuso y persecución política y niega que haya habido un “golpe” en 2019. Es traída a La Paz para que declare ante la Fiscalía. El ministro Del Castillo dice que la Policía cumplió una “tarea histórica” para dar justicia al pueblo boliviano.
La expresidenta transitoria Jeanine Áñez fue aprehendida este sábado en la madrugada en Beni por el “caso de golpe de Estado. Denunció que es víctima de “abuso” y “persecución política”. Es trasladada a La Paz y llega a las 03.30.
“Informo al pueblo boliviano que la señora Jeanine Áñez ya fue aprehendida y en este momento se encuentra en manos de la Policía”, reveló pasada la medianoche el ministro de Gobierno, Eduardo del Castillo, en su cuenta de la red social Twitter.
Google translated link → Former President Jeanine Áñez is apprehended in Trinidad and transferred to La Paz
The former president denounces abuse and political persecution and denies that there was a "coup" in 2019. She is brought to La Paz to testify before the Prosecutor's Office. Minister Del Castillo says that the Police fulfilled a "historic task" to give justice to the Bolivian people.
Former temporary president Jeanine Áñez was apprehended this Saturday morning in Beni for the “case of a coup d'état. He denounced that he is a victim of "abuse" and "political persecution." She is transferred to La Paz and arrives at 03:30.
"I inform the Bolivian people that Mrs. Jeanine Áñez has already been apprehended and is currently in the hands of the Police," the Minister of the Government, Eduardo del Castillo, revealed after midnight on his Twitter social network account.
Perhaps an easier read at Al Jazeera: Bolivia ex-president Jeanine Anez arrested
Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Anez has been arrested over the 2019 political crisis in which she replaced predecessor Evo Morales.
The conservative politician had faced an arrest warrant on charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy over an alleged coup after she replaced Morales in November 2019 when he fled the country during widespread protests against his re-election.
“I inform the Bolivian people that Mrs. Jeanine Anez has already been apprehended and is currently in the hands of the police,” the minister of government, Carlos Eduardo del Castillo, wrote on Twitter and Facebook on Saturday.
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