Pierre Camatte, seized by a gang near his home in Menaka and shopped to the AQIM in the desert, has returned to Bamako. Will he ever be able to go back to his longtime home? The Malians released four AQIM prisoners in exchange, we can assume under French pressure. What else each side got from France or other western nations we will likely never know. Algeria and Mauritania have withdrawn their ambassadors to Mali in protest. Mali has its problems, but in this case, it just seems everyone else's festering problems, which would cost them too much to fix at home, come to northern Mali out of convenience. The very least Algeria, Mauritania, and the west can do for Mali is is to make it harder for their proxy warriors to end up in Gao. But that's wishful thinking, I'm sure. No word on the other hostages.

Following the Monday night communique outlining the transitional authority of the CSRD, The junta President Salou Djibo has named as Prime Minister Mahmadou Danda, the former interim Communications Minister during the 1999 junta's interim rule. Danda has served the government since the 80s, and most recently as Sport Minister in 2000 (under Tandja). He was until now working for the Canadian Embassy, one of the nations most involved in uranium and gold mines. As interesting, Salou's new Personal Chief of Military Staff is Colonel Amadou Moussa Gros. Gros rose under Gen. Ali Saibou's military rule in the 80s, becoming Min. of Tourism. An old friend of Tandja's, he served the brief MNSD government of Hama Amadou in 1995 that was overthrown by Bare. Bare later reactivated him, and made him Chief of Staff. Of late he has been head of a military charitable group, the AAETN. To top this off, Salou went to visit Saibou himself to receive the blessing of the old President and his family.

Quite apart from the obvious conclusions about corruption and power, I was struck by the range – or lack of – in the discussion on the BBC today on the packing of the Afghan Electoral Commission in the run up to parliamentary elections. The removal of foreign elements from the commission was the center of concern with Karzai appointing all members of the body. First, foreign observers might be just as corrupted by Karzai, or his sponsors. But the debate never imagined any Afghan opposition or civil society taking part as a check on power. West Africa, following the civil society led wave of democratization in the 1990s, made truly independent electoral commissions (usually under the French acronym CENI) the cornerstone of electoral transparency in most nations, with wide membership of all forces in society. The current crisis in Cote d'Ivoire points to their continued importance, if imperfection. These experiences, sadly, seem ignored elsewhere.

Col. Hima "Pele" Hamadou told the press this weekend that (ex) President Tandja would be visited by the Red Cross to confirm his health. Pele says that Tandja is under house arrest with his family. MNSD-Nassara VP Ali Sabo (assistant to party president Seini Oumarou and chair Albadé Abouba, both high ranking ministers whose whereabouts are not public ) has told the press that Tandja is not allowed any visitors but his doctor, and is being held not at the military school south of town, but in the "Villa Verte": a luxurious house abutting the President Palace's compound, often used for state functions, official meetings, and as home of visiting heads of state. Former Mauritanian President Ould Taya, disposed by coup, spent the first days of his exile there in 2005. Not too shabby!

The Louverture Project (TLP) collects and promotes knowledge, analysis, and understanding of the Haitian revolution of 1791–1804. This unique history project follows the example of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, and is committed to creating a vast, accessible, and useful open content resource. Like Wikipedia, The Louverture Project is built and maintained by a community of users, all of whom have access to and responsibility for editing the 454 pages (and growing) currently online.

Someone began a text message earthquake scare on the 18th in Ghana, causing panic amongst thousands. Ghana's National Security agency has vowed to get to the bottom of the rumors, which claimed the BBC was reporting that NASA had told them a quake was about to hit Ghana. Of course no one, especially the US Space Agency, can predict earthquakes. Finger pointing has ensued, with the NDC party blaming rival NPP activists of starting the scare to divert attention from the ongoing NDC national congress. But the attention gained from Haiti has stirred both wide charity work by Ghanaians and a look at their own readiness. Ghana has recorded major quakes back to the 1600s, with a 6.3 quake hitting in 1939. Small tremors have hit as recently as 2005. Yet the Ghana Geological Survey Department reports it's only seismographs are broken: one in Accra, installed in 1988, broke down two years ago while the one at Kukurantumi, fixed in 1923 is said to have gone out of order many years ago.

Le Corrier of 21 January reports "Tentative de «tazartchisation » de l’ANDP: Amadou Bagnou pris la main dans le sac". They bring us up to date on the just ended congress on the ANDP Zaman Lahiya, party of the recently deceased Tandja rival and member of the Dosso ruling house, Moumouni Djermakoye Adamou. In seeking a new leader for the, the party ended its congress on the 17th split, with a 6 month interim leadership going to Kindo Hamani. But the day after, one Amadou Bagnou appeared on government TV and newspapers claiming to be the new head on the party. Bagnou HAD been a member of the party in 1993, when he was Prefect of Tillaberi. But he left the party and joined the ruling MNSD, becoming sub-prefect of Boboye. More recently he was MNSD prefect of Loga under Tandja. Le Courrier suggests he's been re-inserted by Tandja's people to bring the ANDP into government. Odd, as the ANDP formed in 1991 as a split from MNSD when Tandja beat Moumouni Djermakoye for it's leadership.

The APA reports two Nigerien Police officers and one Gendarme are presumed dead in Haiti. They were part of the UN Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in Haiti, and their deaths were reported by the government in Niamey.

An Ivorian court has ruled that a previously unknown NGO should get all compensation, not the victims. '…a senior partner at Leigh Day, the British law firm that has been representing claimants, said that following Friday's ruling, "the prospect of our clients receiving their compensation look somewhat remote… Thirty thousand Ivoirians have been looking to get the compensation due to them to alleviate their lives. Now there is a very real chance they will not see a penny." Another Leigh Day lawyer, Kouame Klement, said only his firm knew the identity of those due to be paid, and that he was worried Mr Gohourou's group would create fictional lists of names. Leigh Day said in a statement that it was concerned there was a "Mr Big" behind Mr Gohourou… Amnesty International is among those concerned that the money could be stolen if passed to Mr Gohourou's newly created non-governmental organisation.'

Adam Thaim, chief editorialist for Bamako's Le Republicain, reflects on a Mali being caught in an international conflict over drugs and terrorism. In short, Malian's must solve this smuggling problem, before the West drags them into a "war on terror" and "war on drugs" from which they will benefit little. He notes a gang fight over cigarette smuggling at Batal – 15 km from Gao – last week that left one man dead, and another shot through each hand in punishment. Thaim fears the tie up in international conflicts will turn people against one another, and "Malians will soon assume every northerner is a bomber and any rich man is a drug dealer" While Malian's must pull together, the greater fear is from the perceptions of outsiders. "We are not owners of these conflicts and therefore it is not we, ultimately, who can gain from them. But rightly or wrongly, the link between this activity [the drugs trade] and the AQIM has been made and this will not win us the next Nobel Peace Prize."

"L’Afrique peut-elle se développer? TANDJA a osé !" shouts the headline. A suck-up piece about how President Tandja dares to reject colonial notions of "democracy" in favor of real "African" traditions. This is the same crap we've been fed for decades: cult of personality dressed up as liberation. What's interesting is that the byline is Ousseini Lawali in "La nation" N°00 of 13 January 2010. Yes, Number Zero of a brand new paper in Niamey, bravely printing the stories other refuse to tell of how great the President is. And so last week's meetings of the government press authority (CSC) come into focus. While the CSC was founded in 1993 to protect journalism, it is now a government controlled censorship agency. Last week it announced a vague "refoundation" of press laws and journalistic standards in Niger. So we we likely see the vibrant, if little distributed, independent newspapers gagged in coming months, to be replaced by "independent" papers like "la Nation".

This week's presidential decree: the rescinding of the "Journée continue" law of 2007. Much in vogue in the last decade across the Francophone world, the 2007 law mandating the elimination of the two or three hour lunch break was inspired by similar laws in Burkina and Mali. Government offices were expected to be open from 7:30 to 16:30 five days a week. But complaints continued that staff would leave on their short lunch at noon and just not come back. One can assume that this is a bone to administrators, as they will likely see pay cuts due to sanctions. Whatever the rights or wrongs, the initial change was made by the National Assembly, the government and the President, but in this new age, the stroke of Tandja's pen undoes it without public notification.

This is the offer which has been floating around opposition circles for several months: a transition to a seventh republic which resembles the 5th. Tandja, like General Ali Saibou during the transition from the 2nd to the 3rd Republics, would become a figurehead to a constitutional convention with executive power, and then retire to his farm. Tandja will not accept this willingly. ::

The important thing to note here: neither side is really about to compromise, especially Arzika for the government, who's position is entirely dependent of the dictatorial powers of the new constitution. Both sides are positioning themselves to win ECOWAS's support when the talks end. The opposition hopes that strong ECOWAS sanctions will split the regime and overturn Tandja. The government hopes that ECOWAS will be frustrated, make some statements, and eventually — quietly — accept Tandja's rule as a fait a complis.

Reuters Alertnet describes nine national and international crises which are likely to appear in the headlines over the next 12 months. Their prediction that somewhere in the rural Sahel chronic malnutrition, heightened by national poverty and market dominated agriculture, will break out into Famine is a safe if depressing bet.

"Here is a selection of some of the under-reported humanitarian emergencies at risk of deteriorating this year. The list is by no means exhaustive nor is it any kind of ranking."

Thailand's Restive South / Violence In The Philippine Mindanao / Food Shortages In Nepal / India's Maoist Rebellion / Hunger In Guatemala / Ogaden Crisis In Ethiopia / Malnutrition In West And Central Africa / Conflict In Central African Republic / Chad's Wild East

"This Week in Haiti," Haiti Progres, 17–23 September 2003. A two-part article looks at high-school textbooks in the U.S. to show why so may Americans are so ignorant about Haiti and how this limited knowledge has been distorted, muffled and hidden behind a veil of silence. Part of the large "World History Archives" fair use and free "Haiti Archives" documents.

Among those killed in the Haiti UN building was Mamadou Bah, son of a prominent Dinguiraye Peul family. Educated in Lome and Paris, Bah worked in New York as well as Europe Africa and Haiti. Eventually taking joint Franco-Guinean nationality, Bah rose to become chief spokesperson for Minustah, and spearheaded the construction, through the Bibliothèques sans frontières (BSF) charity, the construction of over 100 free libraries across Haiti. The list of family condolences shows the wide diaspora of one Guinean family: in Montreal, Atlanta, Maryland, Washington and Conakry, as well as France and Haiti, people morn this young man tonight.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pittsburgh, PA – From September 22nd to 25th members of the NYC Local of the Socialist Party USA, will be in Pittsburgh, PA to participate in mass demonstrations in opposition to the G20 meeting being held in the city. We will be providing live reports, pictures and videos to the Socialist Webzine (http://socialistwebzine.blogspot.com) and our twitter account (@socialistzine). We will also be available by phone for interviews before, during and after the street protests.

Nations in the G20 control 90 percent of world GDP, and 80 percent of world trade and operate under the free market direction of the IMF and World Bank. As a result, UNICEF reports that more than 25,000 children die each day due to poverty and millions survive on less than $1 a day. The economic policies of the G20 are a direct cause of the current global economic crisis which has produced mass layoffs and social suffering throughout the world.

The G20 meetings have no published agenda and there is no accountability – the meetings are conducted in secret and remain closed only through the violent acts of police. We oppose these policies and will make this opposition clear by taking part in the demonstrations against the G20 meeting.

“People are tired of settling for the crumbs of the global economy,” says Billy Wharton, Editor of The Socialist and Socialist Webzine. “Thousands will march in Pittsburgh to demand democracy, economic redistribution, and a future beyond capitalism.”

The NYC Local of the Socialist Party USA supports the creation of a world where the vast wealth in society is used for the benefit of the greater good. We believe in a radical expansion of democracy to all areas of life and we promote the use of our civil rights to protest. With our participation in these demonstrations we are not only declaring our opposition to the G20, but also our belief that the exploitative policies of capitalism offer no way forward for humanity. For us, taking part in these demonstrations are a declaration in our belief that a more democratic and equitable future is possible.

###

For more information or to arrange interviews contact:

Billy Wharton
Editor, The Socialist and The Socialist WebZine
718-869-2279
billyspnyc (at) yahoo.com

Shooting Victim, Tehran.,
originally uploaded by misterarasmus.

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“If a crocodile buys a pair of trousers,  don’t ask where he puts his tail.”

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The headlines last night were a bit hysterical, but there’s no doubt that the President of Niger took a decisive step yesterday. He may not like the consequences of what will happen in the next few months, but there will be consequences. Not General Baré Maïnassara sort of “consequences“, but people are going to remember him for this above all else, and he may be spending his dotage in Morocco.

Tandja wants to remain as president. It’s not that this is such a great gig. It’s that for the first time an elected, sitting president has gotten a chance to get comfortable (Mahamane Ousmane had less than three years, a divided government, and was watched pretty closely) and then has to pack up. It wouldn’t be such a big deal, but for Tandja’s falling out with ex-heir apparent Hama Amadou. The ruling MNSD-Nassara has all but split over Amadou’s 2007 fall from the PM and arrest on corruption charges. Was he corrupt? Probably. But he was likely no less on the take than his enemies within the MNSD.  Now Amadou’s people have signed up to the opposition front as a politicial party called “Friends of Hama Amadou”, clearly following the model of Moumouni Adamou Djermakoye‘s split from the MNSD in 1991, a move that cost the former military party a ruling majority in the old Third Republic.

Tandja’s people know this history well and are likely worried that all their contacts made over the last ten years might become more millstones than lodestones. This is especially true of those who’ve benefited most, the various heads of parastatals, business contacts like Dan Dubaï (who has become the bogey man of the opposition) or ministers like Mohamed Ben Omar (who keeps jetting to Arkansas — of all places — cutting business deals, an odd thing for the Minister of Communications to be up to in any government).

So the opposition have some reason to call this a “constitutional Coup d’etat”: that’s clearly the intention. But as of yet, Tandja’s on solid constitutional ground. He dissolved the National Assembly after they (implicitly, through the various party pronouncements of the last two weeks) came out against his plan for a referendum to create a new constitution prior to the October presidential elections. He has the right to do this once every two years, provided he calls elections withing three months. As parliamentary elections were scheduled for November already, he can bring that forward (or say he will) the three months needed, and operate without them until the end of August.

Why a referendum? The constitution of 1999 is explicit (article 136, for those playing at home): the only two articles which may never be revised in any way are those granting amnesty to the soldiers who cut the last President (Baré Maïnassara) in half with a machine gun, and the basic description of the Republic’s institutions in Article 36: That Niger is a secular republic, with a National Assembly, Prime Minister, and President; and that the President — among other restrictions — can only be reelected once to a five year term. So Tandja’s boys hit on the idea of a referendum. The president may call a referendum at any time, provided he asks the “advice” of the National Assembly and Constitutional Court, and that he does not “revise” the constitution. So let’s have a referendum on a whole “new” constitution! Bring on the Sixth Republic (a chance to one up France?). You can see the edge he’s walking here. The letter of the law, yes, but the spirit, no. It didn’t help that when Ben Omar announced this plan, he made sure to point out that mark VI would be a “fully Presidential” system, which, like the less than democratic systems of 1960-74 and 1996-99 would be “incontestably the political system more adapted to our country. It is more in tune with our conception of the African chief.” I can hazard several guesses as to why that kind of reasoning makes me want to hit something, none of which I’ll go into here.

The confusion in the foreign press comes in with the timing of the dissolution: five hours after the Constitutional Court of Niger released a ruling that found Tandja’s plan unconstitutional and in violation of his oath on the holy Koran. In a nation that is 95% Muslim, that last bit has to sting.

And I think that’s the key here. Did Tandja et. al. dismiss the Assembly when he did as a political calculation? Was it that all the constitutional “advising” was out of the way, and the risk that his allies might join a motion of censure by the PNDS a risk not worth taking?

Or was it that all the presidents men are angry? That Tandja, the old Lieutenant Colonel, member of the 74 Coup government, and law and order Minister of the Interior, doesn’t like being told no? I should note that the top two spots in the Constitutional Court are held by women. Who are telling him he’s a bad Muslim. That’s gotta hurt. And whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes angry. If Tandja slips on the fine constitutional line he’s walking, he may lose any way back.

Already the opposition, freed from any obligation to hang around the assembly are beginning a 1500 km road show of protests in each of the eight Regional capitals, beginning in Tandja’s remote home town of Diffa. It’s always hard to tell in Niger, where the political class is a tiny minority of this impoverished rural nation, but the referendum may go very poorly for Tandja anyway. Will he fix it? He previously packed several of the seats on the electoral commission when the Magistrates union refused to participate. But the urban elite are mobilizing, and if Djermakoye and Ousmane get over their distaste for opposition leader “Comrade” Issoufou we could see a repeat of the Third Republic, where the entire political class agreed on just one thing: keep the old military party of the MNSD out of power. Plus ça change, plus c’est pareil

Two or three thoughts for the day.   A review of Tom Goyens’ “Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880-1914.” is available.  I may reprint it in full, as it’s under Creative Commons licensing.  Allow me to digress (or not to, given the subject).  Creative Commons is a Copyright/Left for creative works, which I think is generally superior to the GNU Public License.  If you’re unaware of this, and you produce text, art, or photographs, you really owe it to the world to take a crash course.  Copyright, which has expanded like a disease over the last fifty years, is doomed.  In fact, it has expanded like antibodies fighting an overwhelming infection: proliferating in a failed attempt to smother its stronger foe.  Information wants to be free, and all that.

But even with CC licenses you owe it to the rest of us to remember that the only thing you deserve from your work is the right to be identified as the person who created it, and recognized for exactly what you created. Try to impose a more strict license than that — which you can do in the CC — and it’s as doomed as copyright.  It’s the intellectual equivalent of “those who don’t work don’t eat.”  And since modern Capitalism is based upon one group of people benefiting from the work of other people, Copyright is going to go down fighting.  Think “Terminator: Salvation”, but with less natural dialogue.

Second, I’ve been slightly obsessing about the papers recently: not the normal ones, but Niamey’s latest political crisis through the distorted mirror of the thriving newspapers of Niger‘s capital. Every day’s Le Sahel (the government rag), Republicain, Roue de l’Histoire, and Le Canard déchaîné are piped on line by two expatriate run websites, which means they probably have more readers abroad than they do at home (see below).

The President is attempting a slow motion coup, under the slogan “Tazartché”.  My dictionary says that’s “continuity” in Hausa, but your results may vary.  That a 71 year old ruler’s pals don’t like constitutional term limits (they want a refurendum on a New “Sixth Republic” before this November’s elections) is no surprise. One must give props to the writers of the 1999 constitution, though.  Article 36 says that the President is limited to two Five year terms.  Article 136 then says, that Article 36 (amongst others) is unrevisable.  In any way.  And yet President / Lieutenant Colonel Tandja and his MNSD party — created in 1987 as a single party modeled on Mussolini and Franco’s Integral Nationalist  “managed” corporatism –  want to pull an end run.  Who in New York does this remind us of?  Except in Niamey there is a vibrant opposition, massive protests, and an outside authority (ECOWAS) saying “changing the rules just before an election is a coup”.

As an aside, I’ve just learned that Mike Bloomberg is legally 5′ 6”, although he had previously pretended to be 5′ 7”, and even 5′ 1” on a drivers license.  Isn’t that a felony? Additionally, anyone who’s stood near him thinks 5′ 6” is an exageration.  Not that being short is bad, but being dishonest about it is a sign you might enjoy large cocaded hats and invading Austria.

So having established from obsessively reading the papers online (what a world),  that Niger’s unstable political culture is more healthy than New York City‘s (Bloomberg is Mamadou Tandja, Anthony Wiener is Mahamadou Issoufou, Christine Quinn is Mahamane Ousmane, Reverend Billy is Moussa Kaka, I grow millet somewhere, etc…), what does this say about Nigerien politics?  Still nothing good, I’m afraid.  Headlines like  “Ben Omar, le petit menteur!”, calling the Minister of Communications a liar, or impugning him with diverting catering funds as a University student in 1988, mask some simple facts.

Over %80 of Nigeriens are illiterate.  Most don’t have access to clean water.  Most live in rural communities and grow crops to feed their families, sell the excess when available, and travel for a few months after harvest doing odd jobs in Ghana or Nigeria to earn some cash.  If the rains don’t come, there is little safety net.  In part, this is poverty.  In part this is because the intrusion of world markets since around 1980 (forced by the IMF and World Bank as “deregulation”) have turned rice and other basics into commodities, speculated upon by traders in London or Chicago, and consequently sold at prices matching what the Western Middle Classes can pay, but bought from government subsidized corporate agribusiness at prices much lower, and in volumes much higher, than any farmer can produce even in the poorest nations of the world. Given that reality, the newspapers slandering the largely ideologically vapid horsetrading that goes on amongst the Niamey elite is meaningless.

And that’s different from New York City only by degree, not by disease.