Important New York Times Articles This Week

I'd like to draw your attention to two articles that appeared in the New York Times this week.

The first, "Study Finds Pattern of Severe Droughts in Africa," describes scientists' recent documentation of recurring, centuries-long megadroughts in Africa.  These droughts are both unavoidable and unpredictable.  The last such drought ended in 1750, after lasting about 300 years.  Megadroughts are primarily a problem in West Africa, an area known to be significantly drier than other parts of the continent.

The second article, "Plan Tries to Lower Malaria Drug Cost," details a new plan to provide the most effective malaria medication at a low cost to people in developing countries.  The program, beginning with a budget of $225 million, will pressure drug companies to reduce the private-sector price of the drug from $4 to $1 and will use donor funds to pay $0.95 of the cost.  With a wholesale price of $0.05, the retail price in poor countries should be around $0.20.  International health organizations, non-profit organizations, and several European countries are backing the plan, but the U.S. has yet to offer support for it.

An Inside Look at Darfur's Rebels

Today's Los Angeles Times offers readers an up-close look at rebels in Sudan's Jebel Marra Mountains.  In "Darfur Rebels Make Their Stand Above the Fray," Edmund Sanders describes his trip to a place no journalist has visited in seven months.

A rebelled-controlled area, things are better in the mountains than in the rest of Darfur.  Those who live here are isolated from the rest of the country, and many of the rebels don't dare leave for fear of being attacked, but they agree it's a better than the other option - living in internally-displaced persons camps and being entirely dependent on foreign aid.

Economic Crisis Causes Job Loss in Africa

The global economic crisis has brought a decline in demand for many commodities, which has forced factories to close and caused people to lose their jobs.

A recent Washington Post article illustrates the problem with an example from Zambia: an Indian-owned copper mine near the town of Luanshya currently employs 12,000 people, and locals describe the town as "fully dependent" on it.  However, it's going to have to cut 1,100 jobs to reduce costs.  Other mines across the country have already closed.  People in other countries are feeling the same problem: decreases in demand for Botswana's diamonds, Chad's oil, and Tanzania's cotton are also forcing people out of jobs.

Clashes in Sierra Leone

Clashes broke out Friday in Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown.  Problems began when members of the country's opposition party, the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), were accused of throwing broken bottles members of the governing All People's Congress (ALC) during a parade.  Then on Monday, thousands of SLPP supporters surrounded the ALC headquarters, trapping government officials in the building.

Police fired tear gas into the crowd on both Friday and Monday.  At least 20 people have been treated for injuries, and at least six women were raped during the riot.

See BBC video coverage of the riots.

Sierra Leone suffered a brutal civil war between 1991 and 2002, in which tens of thousands were killed and over 2 million displaced.  Since the end of the war, the country has been fairly stable, and there were successful democratic elections in September 2007.  Since then, however, tensions between the ALC and the SLPP have mounted.

Pope Visits Africa, Discusses Condoms

Pope Benedict XVI is in the midst of his first trip to Africa, which will take him to Cameroon and Angola.  During a speech in Cameroon, the pontiff reaffirmed the Catholic Church's opposition to condom use: Pope Benedict stated his belief that distributing condoms in Africa would worsen the HIV/AIDS epidemic and recommended promoting abstinence as the best means of preventing the spread of HIV.  His comments, not surprisingly, have been met with outrage from health organizations working to combat the disease.

Election Dates Proposed in Guinea

Guinea's military government, which came to power in a coup last December, has proposed dates for the elections it has been promising since it took power.  The suggestion calls for legislative elections in November and a Presidential election in December, along with a referendum on the country's laws.  There has been little speculation thus far on who might enter the Presidential race.  Until the elections are completed and Guinea returns to civilian rule, the country will remain suspended from the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union.

Nicholas Kristof on the Current Situation in Darfur

On March 4, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity.  The Sudanese government responded by expelling from Darfur thirteen aid organizations on whom as many as one million Sudanese depend on for food, water, healthcare, and shelter.

New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof recently published excellent analysis on the issue.

"A President, A Boy, and A Genocide" (March 4) tells the story of a 8-year-old Darfuri refugee in eastern Chad who lost one eye and both hands to a grenade he and his friends found near their homes.  Kristof also describes the Sudanese government's response to al-Bashir's arrest warrant and outlines the steps the U.S. government and the rest of the international community must take.

Kristof continues this commentary in "Watching Darfuris Die" (March 7).

He also recently released a video reporting on the arrest warrant and its effects.

Violence against Zimbabwean Women Refugees

The New York Times recently posted a fantastic video on the plight of women fleeing Zimbabwe to seek asylum in South Africa.  Men on both sides of the border act as guides for Zimbabwean refugees, but they often steal from the refugees and rape the women.  The journey is so dangerous and conditions in South Africa are so bad that some refugees, especially women, may have been better off staying in Zimbabwe.

10,000 Ugandans Serving in Iraq

The Christian Science Monitor posted a fascinating article this morning - "Why 10,000 Ugandans are Eagerly Serving in Iraq."

Not only have 10,000 Ugandans already served in Iraq, but thousands more dream of doing the same.  And, if President Obama withdraws U.S. troops from Iraq, Ugandans will set their sights on Afghanistan.

Ugandans are apparently good candidates for service, as many speak English (Uganda is a former British colony), are impoverished (the country is among the world's 20 poorest), and have experience (a 20-year conflict has produced a large population of army veterans).  But perhaps most importantly, they are willing to work cheaply: Ugandans earn an average of $600 per month for the same job that would earn an American $15,000 per month.  Even when accounting for the low cost of living in Uganda, these two figures are astonishingly inequitable.  Many Ugandan soldiers in Iraq resent the fact that multi-billion dollar corporations are profiting from their cheap labor.

One cannot help but argue that anybody should make more than $600 per month for putting their life on the line. But, to Ugandans, from a country where this meager wage goes a long way, it is adequate compensation.  One returned soldier reported building two houses, buying a bar, and increasing the size of his cow herd and banana plantation with one year's earnings.

Paying Ugandans $15,000 per month would also create problems at home.  Most Ugandans cannot even fathom earning $15,000 in a year, much less in a month.  If thousands of Ugandans were to return home with that much money, the country's inequality would skyrocket, creating new tensions.

Yet is it fair for the same company to pay a Ugandan four percent of what it pays an American for the same job?  Hardly.

Morocco Cuts Ties with Iran

On the same day that Mauritania severed its relations with Israel, Morocco did the same with Iran.  An Iranian official's recent comments about Bahrain's former status as an Iranian province sparked outrage in the Arab world, particularly among Sunni-dominated states such as Morocco.

Morocco and Iran have had a rocky relationship since the Iranian revolution in 1979 and only normalized relations in the late 1990s.  Following the Iranian revolution, Morocco hosted the exiled shah, and Iran retaliated by supporting Western Sahara in its movement for independence from Morocco.  Morocco has also accused Iran of attempting to spread Shi'a Islam among the Moroccan population, which is officially 99% Sunni.