May’s International Carnival of Pozitivities is up at dropdeadhappy. Two blog posts stand out - “Myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS” by The AIDS Pandemic in which he looks at some of the “old” myths and some more contemporary myths such as HIV is a “black disease” or “two positive people do not need to use condoms” and then all the misconceptions around cure and prevention.

Myths and misconceptions about HIV and AIDS have been around since the very beginning of the pandemic. The first myths stemmed largely from the lack of information on this relatively new disease. ……..These myths have emerged despite the fact that there is now more accurate information on HIV. These new myths also create problems with prevention as people unknowingly put themselves at risk to contract the virus.

The Black Aids Institute post, Adhering to HAART Does Not Remove Risk of Passing on Disease is related to prevention and cure and the kind of news that ends up creating myths and misconceptions.

An article recently published by Switzerland’s Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS states that HIV-positive individuals on effective antiretroviral therapy are not at risk for transmitting HIV to their sexual partners under certain circumstances.

What I fail to understand and find highly irresponsible is why the Swiss AIDS Commission published this since they themselves acknowledge there is no scientific data to support the statement.

The East African reports that lawyers from East Africa and the SADC are to sue China over the arms shipment to Zimbabwe. The lawyers are also planning to “engage the African Union and United Nations into actively addressing the situation”. Whilst African leaders tip toe around Mugabe or worse pander to his madness and violence against his people, African Civil Society has chosen to actively support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle.

Le Monde diplomatique comments on the inequalities in South Africa highlighted by the preparations for the 2010 World Cup.

South Africa will host the World Cup in 2010 so construction – and corruption – is booming. But almost none of the building or the money can be accessed by the poor who live in shantytowns without proper water, sanitation or electricity.

Speaking of football, the season has ended and once again I havent gotten to see one single live game - next season looks promising though as I have been offered one ticket for a game of my choice (other than the big 4 and the derby game). The best footy blog? The Arseblog for your daily dose of gunner news and which for some strange reason is to become part of Ole Ole from this month. Flamini is off - good riddance, they never learn that the grass for ex-Arsenal players is never ever greener on the other side. Name one ex player that has achieved anything significant after leaving Highbury unless of course it’s the money!

Zimbabwe: Black America must not be silent
Bill Fletcher (2008-04-17)

Much of Black America stopped discussing Zimbabwe after its liberation in 1980; at least, we stopped discussing it for a while. After years of regular coverage of the liberation war, details regarding Zimbabwe became harder to obtain as attention shifted to struggles in Mozambique, Namibia, Angola and South Africa. Not to be misunderstood, it was not that facts were being withheld for us here in Black America, so much as we paid less attention to developments, and did not dig for information.

[…]

So many of us chose to ignore developments, however. We ignored purges that had taken place within ZANU prior to Liberation. We ignored the violent crushing of a rebellion in the early years of the Mugabe administration. We ignored President Mugabe’s adoption of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank formula of “structural adjustment”, despite its economic theory running contrary to a pro-people economic transformation. And, we ignored the fact that the land was not being redistributed. We ignored this and other unsettling matters while the focus of much of Black America was on events unfolding in other parts of Southern Africa.

Links: Shocking photos of violence from Zimbabwe - FREE Zim

South West Radio Africa

Tags:
Zimbabwe
African-Americans
Solidarity
Mugabe

PRESS STATEMENT: SA LESBIAN AND GAY COMMUNITY CONCERNED ABOUT DEMOCRACY CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE

The South African Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP), formerly known as the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), is concerned about the deepening political, economic and social crises in Zimbabwe. We express our full solidarity with the lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, women, workers and all the people of Zimbabwe. We add our voice in condemning the unjustified delay in the release of the 29 March elections. As Zimbabwean Independence Day approaches on 18 April 2008, Zimbabweans have nothing to celebrate in honour of their heroic liberation struggle and historic achievement of freedom and democracy.

The actions of the government of Zimbabwe, the police, the army, the judiciary and the Zimbabwean Elections Commission are against universally accepted democratic principles and practice. The Zimbabwean government is responsible for the social and economic crises facing that country. The crises are rooted in actual social stratification processes and ZANU-PF policy choices that support them. These originate from the early 1990s adoption of neo-liberal Structural Adjustment Programmes by Mugabe’s government. They have been reinforced by the failure of that government to transform that country’s economy into one at the hands and service of the needs of the overwhelming majority of the people. It is under such conditions that principles of democracy, equality and non-discrimination get sacrificed and political leaders look for easy scapegoats to hide their failures. No wonder then that Mugabe’s first targets were lesbian and gay people in Zimbabwe.

The homophobia promoted by ZANU-PF is not divorced from the oppression of women, the exploitation of workers and the gross violation of human rights that the same government has been responsible for. Beyond majority numbers, democracy is also about progressive values of equality, freedom, human rights and non-discrimination.
[Read more…]

Sokwanele

These photographs were taken the day before yesterday. The two men are MDC MT supporters based on Mashonaland East. They, and others, were viciously assaulted by Zanu PF militia on Tuesday night. Three houses were burned down in the same area in ongoing attacks. This must be stopped!

The Zimbabwean people have spoken in the elections. We said NO to violence and NO to lawlessness. This is a new Zimbabwe: we must not tolerate this abuse of our right to a peaceful democratic country, and this abuse of our people. We must stand together against tyranny. Take Action!

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has called an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss the Zimbabwean presidential poll delay. This is the first move by Zimbabwe’s regional neighbours to intervene since the elections on 29th March 2008. President Mwanawasa is the current Chairman of the 14-nation South African Development Community. This is what he said yesterday:

I wish to take this opportunity to commend the people of Zimbabwe for the calm and peaceful manner in which the elections were conducted.

Similarly, I appeal to them to maintain the same spirit of calmness which they exhibited during the elections as they await the results of the presidential elections.

However, given developments immediately following the elections, I have decided, as Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to call an extraordinary summit on Saturday 12th April, 2008 to discuss ways and means of assisting the people of Zimbabwe with the current impasse as well as adopt a co-ordinated approach to the situation in that country.

WHAT YOU CAN DO AND HOW YOU CAN DO IT

Tags:
Zimbzbwe
Elections

Kubatana.net is the second Zimbabwean human rights group to use Web 2.0 technology to monitor and report on the elections and the third in Africa following the Ushahidi project on the Kenyan elections started in January.

Sokwanele [Enough is Enough] created a google map for mapping election breaches using data they collected from their Zimbabwean Election Watch series.

Elections are a process, not an event, and the same applies to rigging: the scene has been set for unfree and unfair elections on March 29th, and the conditions on the ground have been developed through many months of non-compliance with regional electoral standards.

The events and incidents mapped on the Zimbabwe Election Watch map represent a small sample of the breaches identified under the project since we started monitoring the government’s non-cooperation with regional standards in July 2007. All the information logged under Zimbabwe Election Watch is derived from media sources.

Kubatana.net works with Zimbabwean civil society organisations to strengthen the use of email and internet strategies and provides an online resource on human rights and civic information. Using Frontline SMS, Kubatana set up an sms election service for subscribers to receive up to date election information and results. They have also been running a campaign “What would you like a free Zimbabwe to look like?” Ken Banks, creator of Frontline SMS explains how it works…

Zimbabweans have been incredibly responsive, with many people saying that the question gave them hope in uncertain times. According to Kubatana:

“It’s also been a real learning experience for us, reminding us that ordinary Zimbabweans have a wealth of good ideas to contribute, and our political and civic leadership must work on building a more participatory environment”

A combination of SMS and email were used in the initiative, with text messages such as “Kubatana! No senate results as at 5.20 pm. What changes do YOU want in a free Zim? Lets inspire each other. Want to know what others say? SMS us your email addr” sent out to their mobile subscriber lists. FrontlineSMS was used to blast the messages out, and then used collect responses which were then distributed via an electronic newsletter and on the Kubatana Community Blog

Ushahidi, Sokwanele, Kubatana and the NNEM (Nigerian election reporting project) have all shown the power of Web 2.0 and mobile phone in the hands of civil society in Africa.

Tags:
Zimbabwe
Elections