Gramsci: The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming

[cynical lady]

Posted on Thursday 5 June 2008 - 09:34

 

Following a failed peace agreement between the Ugandan LRA Rebels led by Joseph Kony, The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared its intension to launch an attack on the LRA. Kony, the Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army has been hiding in eastern DR Congo through out the peace talks, fearing he would be arrested for war crimes.

A final peace deal was reached in March after almost two years of talks, but Kony never showed up to sign it.

 

The chiefs of defence forces in Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the UN Mission in Congo, Monuc, have been meeting in the Ugandan capital Kampala this week to find a military solution to the problem of the LRA.

 

Reports say their decision to allow the Congolese army to pursue the rebels on their territory, signals the end to a long period of negotiation between the LRA and the Ugandan government.

 

Ugandan army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda was, however, still convinced that that was still room for peace talks if some the world can be assured that it can work out.

 

"But in our view, there is room also for taking military action on this group, which has up to now persistently shown that they are not ready to sign the peace agreement," he is quoted to have said.

 

Arrest warrants have been issued for Kony and his top commanders by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Kony is accused of numerous war crimes, including mutilating and abducting civilians and forcing thousands of children into combat.

[cynical lady]

Zimbabwe's currency falls

Posted on Friday 6 June 2008 - 09:07

 

Things are moving from bad to worse in Zimbabwe as on Thursday its currency plunged to a new record low, trading at an average 1 billion to the US dollar on a recently introduced interbank market. And this has triggered massive price increases. For instance, a loaf of bread, which cost about Z$15 million before the polls, now costs about Z$600 million.

Things are moving from bad to worse in Zimbabwe as on Thursday its currency plunged to a new record low, trading at an average 1 billion to the US dollar on a recently introduced interbank market.

 

And this has triggered massive price increases. For instance, a loaf of bread, which cost about Z$15 million before the polls, now costs about Z$600 million.

 

A two-litre bottle of cooking oil costs about Z$5 billion, almost equal to an average low-income worker's monthly wage, piling the misery on a country also grappling with food, fuel, water and electricity shortages, 80 percent unemployment and hyperinflation.

 

Traders were quoting the Zimbabwean dollar at between 995 million and 1.45 billion against the greenback in Thursday morning trade, up from an average 700 million at the beginning of the week. The currency has depreciated by about 84 percent since the central bank effectively floated it in early May after years of an official peg.

 

Analysts said the rapid weakening of the currency was being driven by inflation expectations as well as huge demand for hard currencies.

 

"The exchange rate is being driven by massive demand for forex, as well as the desire to hedge against inflation," said Mudzingwa Nhiwatiwa, a research analyst at ZABG banking group.

 

"It shows our forex generating capacity is perilously low. Until we restore production and exports, the Zimbabwean dollar will continue to depreciate sharply."

 

Official figures put Zimbabwe's annual inflation -- the highest in the world -- at 165,000 percent in February, but analysts say the figure vaulted as high as 1.8 million percent by May.

 

Prices on Zimbabwe's stock market, for long a refuge for investors in the inflation-ravaged country, have rocketed since the beginning of the year.

 

The benchmark Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) industrial index leapt to a new high above 900 billion points on Wednesday, from just over 1.2 billion points at the start of the year.

 

Prices of basic goods, most of which are now imported, have gone up sharply since the disputed March 29 election in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 28 years.

 

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai also beat Mugabe in the presidential election, but not by enough votes to avoid a run-off ballot, set for June 27.

 

The Southern African country's production capacity, largely based on agriculture, has declined sharply mainly due to upheavals on commercial farms following President Robert Mugabe's drive to seize land from whites to resettle landless blacks.

 

Nhiwatiwa said the freeing up of the exchange rate system in the absence of improved production and amid uncertainty over the unresolved election stalemate, had seen prices rising sharply.

 

Critics blame Mugabe's policy for the economic crisis, but he denies the charge, and says the economy has been undermined by Western governments plotting to oust him as punishment for his land reforms.

 

Meanwhile a Reuters report Thursday said coalition of African-based civil society organisations urged southern African countries to freeze arms shipments to Zimbabwe to avoid plunging the country into deeper political violence.

 

Led by the International Action Network on Small Arms, the organisations said politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe was escalating ahead of a June 27 presidential run-off and any transfer of arms and military equipment could worsen the crisis.

 

They were optimistic their campaign for a moratorium would succeed after South Africa and other neighbouring states turned away a Chinese shipment of weapons bound for landlocked Zimbabwe in April.

 

"The ship turned back but politically motivated violence is escalating in Zimbabwe under the shadow of the armed forces and there is still a real danger that further arms shipments to Zimbabwe will worsen the situation," IANSA Africa Co-coordinator Joseph Dube said.