Cry my beloved continent...

I remember the first time I saw raw images of war crimes & crimes against humanity... what I saw then cannot be erased, what I feel today cannot be undone... it is as if finally coming face to face with the crimes I work daily to end awoke in me a deeper understanding of why peace and justice are so important. Which brings me to an issue that never ceases to irk me... the seemingly blase attitude of African heads of state to the realities that Africans are facing every day... and continued disrespect for both peace and justice. There is so much chaos in Africa, yet the heads of state will sit & discuss a bunch of theoretical propositions. Don't get me wrong, its worth talking about "economic integration", but it's an ideal we may never realise *stares at Europe*. We have bigger problems than trying to mirror European trends. We have war, impunity, bad governance and a general lack of respect for the rule of law and human rights. Yet our "leaders" are meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this week to primarily discuss economic integration. Issues of peace, security and justice are likely to be discussed on the sidelines. There is a glaring absence of sessions to discuss justice on the agenda. In fact, you can be forgiven for believing that as far as African leaders are concerned, justice is a non-issue. They will spend their week in air conditioned halls pretending like all is peachy across the continent. They will waste yet another week talking abt economic integration! Considering most African countries rely on donor funding for their budgets anyway, I dare ask: Whose "economy" are they proposing to integrate exactly? But, like I always say... People often get the presidents they deserve. We (the people of Africa) like to "sit back" & let raging megalomaniacs do what they wish THEN (& only then) do some of us "uprise". These "leaders" are our products. Most of them ride on the coattails of misplaced support. Most of them - self-imposed additional terms aside - are people who we allowed to seize power. And where we did not, somehow we still find it in ourselves to "at least" respect them. For what? For plundering our nations resources? For systematically violating human rights? For corrupt (and generally just bad) governance? If we paid as much respect to the basic values of human rights, good governance & rule of law, as we do presidents... Who we let govern us is an indictment on us. Autocracies do not "just happen". We, let's face it, give them the space to thrive. Today, someone somewhere is being tortured to death... tomorrow it could be you. Give voice to the voiceless, legs to limbless... you are not human if you do not respect human rights. You are not human if you do not respect human rights.

Why International Criminal Court's work is so significant for Africa: Cote d'Ivoire investigation

*A little late posting this... but better late than never I suppose*

A last refuge for justice


October 12 2011 at 07:53am


At the end of September, the judges of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber III authorised the court’s prosecutor to launch formal investigations in Ivory Coast. The investigations will focus on the violence that occurred in Ivory Coast from November 28, 2010, following the release of the results of the second round of elections in which the opposition movement, led by Alassane Ouattara, was declared victorious.


The post-election violence in Ivory Coast lasted more than five months. During this period, reports of widespread murder, rape and forced disappearances abounded. As a result of the protracted violence, 3 000 people died and about one million more were internally displaced.

While relative stability has returned to the west African country, according to the UN Mission in Ivory Coast, more than 30 000 people remain internally displaced. As per ICC procedure in matters such as these, the authorisation by the court’s judges followed a request on June 23, 2011 from the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to begin the investigations. Ocampo’s request stemmed from an invitation by the Ivorian government to investigate crimes committed in the country.


The judges’ decision is a welcome development in ensuring that justice is served for crimes committed in Ivory Coast. However, the decision comes at a time when the African Union’s relationship with the ICC remains sour. Since 2009, when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the AU has called on African states not to co-operate with the ICC.


Ironically, several African countries, notably Botswana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa, have consistently voiced their support for the ICC and remain committed to co-operating with it.


Furthermore, several African states – Ivory Coast included – have shown continued support for the ICC by calling on the court to investigate and prosecute crimes committed in their countries.


The first situations before the ICC came about after states that are signatories to the ICC’s Rome Statute asked the court to investigate crimes committed in their respective countries. These states are Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.


The ICC can also claim jurisdiction over a matter in a state party if the prosecutor, of his own accord, requests authorisation from the ICC’s pre-trial chamber judges to initiate investigations. To date, the prosecutor has only exercised this proprio motu power once, in the case of Kenya’s post-election violence.

The UN Security Council may refer situations to the ICC in countries that are not state parties to the Rome Statute. The security council has exercised this power in respect of two situations before the court: those of Sudan’s western province, Darfur, and Libya.


With the recent authorisation of investigations in Ivory Coast, four of the seven cases before the ICC are the result of choices made by African states themselves. This is a clear sign of acceptance by Africans of the importance of the ICC in assisting them in meeting their obligations to end impunity and promote international criminal justice.


While Ivory Coast has not ratified the Rome Statute, it has formally accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC. The first declaration accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction was made in April 2003 by then-president Laurent Gbagbo.

In December 2010 and again in May 2011, incumbent Alassane Ouattara made similar declarations and invited the ICC prosecutor to investigate crimes committed since November 2010.

The peculiar situation in which Ivory Coast has accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction, without taking the broader step of ratifying the Rome Statute, creates an interesting precedent for the authorities of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Palestinian authorities are bidding for statehood and in January 2009, made a similar declaration granting the ICC jurisdiction over the crimes allegedly committed by Israel during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. If the occupied Palestinian territories are granted statehood, the Palestinian authorities may also wish to refer the situation in their territories to the ICC. However, pending the outcome of the Palestinians’ bid for statehood, to date all the cases before the ICC are from African countries.


This African focus has led to some criticism of the ICC as targeting Africa. This criticism, however, ignores important considerations.


Firstly, 32 African countries have voluntarily ratified the Rome Statute and Ivory Coast has voluntarily accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Secondly, the criticism fails to acknowledge the fact that the majority of the situations before the ICC areas are a result of self-referral by the government of the country concerned.

Furthermore, the criticism overlooks that the ICC serves as a court of last resort, which only intervenes when a state is either unwilling or unable to prosecute alleged perpetrators of international crimes.

Lastly, the criticism does not acknowledge the pervasive culture of impunity and weak criminal justice systems in Africa – factors that have contributed significantly to the continued commission of international crimes on the continent.

The ICC exists to fill the impunity gap and to ensure justice for persons responsible for the most serious crimes of international concern. The ICC is furthermore complementary to national criminal jurisdictions. The preamble of the Rome Statute stresses that the first commitment by states is to themselves “end impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus contribute to the prevention of such crimes”.


Ivory Coast’s recent invitation to the ICC, alongside the ratification of the Rome Statute by 32 African states, are examples of African countries fulfilling their obligations to promote international criminal justice and end impunity.


The fact that at present, all the situations before the ICC are from African countries indicates not only that unacceptable levels of violence bedevil our continent, but it also presents an opportunity for Africa to be at the centre of developments in international criminal justice.


Even as certain African leaders criticise the ICC’s involvement on the continent, for Ivorian victims of mass atrocities, that involvement sends out a symbolically important message that their suffering has not been forgotten and that those responsible may meet justice, through the work of a faraway court in The Hague.


Ottilia Anna Maunganidze is a researcher in the International Crime in Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies.


http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/a-last-refuge-for-justice-1.1155343

Out with images of war in with the hungry.... step right up!

Watching the news fascinates me... So much so that I subscribed for satellite TV primarily so I could watch the news in the mornings as I get ready for my daily toil and again at night to "catch up"... yet, I must confess that the more I watch the news the more it just seems like a badly scripted attempt to cover "world issues" while only covering a few... or at least covering the ones that will pay for that holiday in Tenerife...


As I watch the news, read the newspapers and what have you, all I see is "sexy"... not catwalk sexy or shake your laffy taffy sexy (depending on how your pendulum swings)... but "This will make a killer headline" 'sexy'. So we are inundated by news of so and so's disastrous breakup, like people don't get dumped everyday... we "oooh" and "aaah" as the details of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged fetish for violent sex is narrated as if thousands of women are not raped each day... 1500 a month in the DRC alone, multiple times... but let's face it, the plight of the poor women in the eastern DRC stopped being glamorous round about the same time it became a cliche to refer to Goma as "the rape capital of the world"...



A friend earlier remarked that the media is acting as if famine is a new thing in Somalia... why do people "care" all of a sudden? I'll tell you why... after months of hearing and seeing the violence in Libya, "the world" is ready for something new, something en vogue... *drum roll please* In saunter the hungry people of east Africa onto our TV screens... Oh yes! Now, we've got "news".. I saw a clip on the news yesterday where the poor Somali child looked like she was made to look sad... Nothing quite like images of emaciated starving eastern Africans to get those TV ratings up... as I supped on my TV dinner, I wondered what I could possibly do to make that poor woman and her children better? Send a goat perhaps? Plant a tree? We ARE going green after all.. and if I plant this one tree in this one corner of the world... that little family on my screen might just disappear... into oblivion... or perhaps they'll just stay exactly where they are, suffering the same pain as the camera pans to the streets of Mzuzu... I hear the Malawians have had it! They want their neo-dictator to go... They can't take it anymore! Run along now dear sexy seekers, you need that "money shot"! The one that'll beat all the others and make it on the cover of National Geographic.. maybe even feature on Al Jazeera... I do love me some news...

When elephants fight

The thing about power - as has been said many a time - is that it corrupts... the love of power (over and above that of money) for me is the root of all evil. It is in and of itself an all consuming desire to conquer not only one's own world, but the worlds of other... power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. To date millions of people have died in fights for power.. many more will die today... and if we sit back and say "Aaah! But that is the way of the world" many more will die tomorrow and the day after and the day after that...

Today, I write with a heavy heart... once an optimist, man has shown me a side so dark my optimism has been tainted... I find myself believing more and more each day that at the core of many men is an evil so cancerous it threatens to ruin humanity... an evil so all consuming it will mark the end of us all..

I am happy to be alive, my day has not yet come.. but many did not live to see today.. they were killed.. killed by their kin, killed by their kith, killed by their kind.. not by the beasts that lurk in the savanna, but by others like them... hacked by machetes, shot down by AK47s.. Some are alive in body, but dead in spirit. They do not see the world as they did yesterday, they cannot.. stripped of their dignity, a deep hatred thrives where love used to blossom... they are victims of an inhumane world.. a world that does not hear their cries or see their tears.. a world that you and I call ourselves citizens of..

Once an optimist, my rose tinted glasses have been stained by images of mangled bodies and lifeless carcasses... Once an optimist, I see evil in the eyes of many.. I wonder if love can ever live there.. Once an optimist, I realise that my dreams for the world may not become a reality in my lifetime... Once an optimist, I try to celebrate the lives of those who die everyday, but I cannot... I did not know them.. they are faceless.. How can I celebrate their lives, when all I can do is mourn? Once an optimist, I sit here and realise that optimism is a luxury that many cannot afford...

Today I write as innocent people continue to be massacred across the globe - most in the name of politics... My heart bleeds for all the civilians who have been killed as collateral damage in unjust wars...

But as I write, the elephants continue to fight and the ground continues to suffer... as I write someone somewhere has just been gunned down... and as I write, someone somewhere doesn't care :-(

An open letter to those of whom we do not speak...

Dear Despots,



Thanks to you, I decided to stay home as the world revelled on the 31st of December 2010... Yes, a rather crap year was in its last hours (The memory of the 2010 FIFA World Cup only a blur of bad debt by then), but I couldn't celebrate... It's not that I didn't particularly want to. It just felt like I had reached my pit-stop, that I should take a breather before I embarked on what I hoped would be an amazing 2011.. Yes, the idealist in me not-so-secretly hoped that 2011 would be the year that the ever elusive world peace became a reality.. I needed my rest. No partying for me.



You might be wondering what this all has to do with you.. It's not like you care much for the plight of the ordinary person anyway... Not least one whose passion is the one thing you love most to destroy: human rights... Well, that's just it! My not-so-dear Despots.. This letter is to you..



On 31 December 2010, as many a middle-class spawn partied up a mini storm, explosions tore through Nigeria, 60 women were brutally raped by members of the military and militia in the Eastern DRC, Cote d'Ivoire teetered on the brink of collapse... As many a person partied up a mini storm on December 31st 2010, thousands across the world caught their last breath... killed, tortured, maimed... Some died physically, most died emotionally and spiritually. Their dignity stripped off them leaving them bare... As many partied up a mini storm on December 31st 2010, the world began to burn... You, the arsonists, drank your overpriced champagne and plotted your future as many lamented their present...



On 1 January 2011, the sun arose and with it a tempestuous new dawn... Ben Ali of Tunisia was toppled, Hosni Mubarak soon followed... The people had had enough... they were tired of typing out their sentiments and living at the mercy of greedy despots... they - like phoenixes risen from the ashes - got up and stayed up until their desires were met... Or were they? Tunisia and Egypt remain unstable... the rest of the region is catching fire... burning fervently and so close to the devil's cauldron... Born of violence many shall die of violence.. so the adage goes...



I have decided to stain my satellite view of Africa with red ink... it symbolises the blood that continues to be let in our people's struggle for their right to be human.. It marks the pain and suffering that no one should ever go through. The raw and gaping wounds that you have caused. It marks your legacy dear despots..



As the sun rose on 1 January 2011 I wondered: Will this decade usher in a new dawn? Will we rid ourselves of the choke-hold of our "leaders"... The sun has not set... When you're gone, dear despots... we may rest... and maybe I too will party up a mini storm on the eve of 2012... One can only dream *sigh*



Yours insincerely,



Sick & Tired

I tweet what I like... and I let people stroke my ego on facebook

A friend of mine recently started using twitter... After a few days she complained about how she has to metaphorically stand on a soapbox and hope people hear her ALL THE TIME.. By Day 3 she had 6 followers and after not tweeting for a couple of days I unfollowed her.. She asked how I could do that when we are FRIENDS... I told her that that's what I still have facebook for... so the people who think they are my friends don't think I've deserted them...

I tweet - A LOT! But that could be simply because I talk a lot too! The 140character limit helps in a way... but it only adds to the ADHD that we all try to suppress. No one creates albums of different shots of their face on twitter and if they did, I can just unfollow them until they get over their mole. I can interact with friends, foes and a few Romans while I get the news as it breaks... I use it the way I see fit.

Yes, twitter has its fair share of narcissists and it can sometimes feel like people are competing to be heard.. It has its limits, but when it comes to soothing our egos Facebook is the better choice. Facebook is the epitome of egotistical - we post flattering pictures of ourselves so our "friends" can "like" them and tell us how the sun makes our eyes pop... psssht! Then we write pseudo-cryptic posts on others' walls so that the "others" can see them and wonder what we're on about and secretly long to be in the inner circle too *yawn*.. Facebook is a lot like high school or college...

That said: I STILL post pictures on facebook *whips hair back and forth* and write on peoples' walls and post status after status so people comment... because well... we all have our id, ego and superego.. don't we?

How Angelina Jolie killed my love of cinema!

I'm a Pisces... the so-called "dreamers" of the current Zodiac (y'know, before some mad person tries to add an extra star sign that might see me being dubbed a *gasp* Aquarius *gasp*)... so fantasy is my realm... I love to read, I love to write, I love to draw, I love imagery and until Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan began being dubbed "A-Listers", I also REALLY loved going to the cinema to watch movies... ANY movie to be honest... Thanks to them, I now watch films... the kind that don't win awards for being spectacularly glitzy, but the kind that have a story and manage to tell it in under 2 hours... From the Hollywood red carpet to Cannes... almost like moving from being a cocaine addict to smoking mom's lawn...

I "listened" with amusement as friends of mine .... no names... harped on about the Golden Globes.. who won what, who wore what and "Oooh I can't believe Ricky Gervais said THAT"... I was, however, happy to hear that one of Angelina Jolie's movies was a resounding failure - not only at the box office, but also according to the Hollywood Foreign Press (the people who supposedly know everything about movies and whose opinion result in the Golden Globes)..

So, what's my beef with Angie? Last year, after watching a trailer or three of her movie "Salt", I decided that maybe she had redeemed herself since the flop that was Mr & Mrs Pitt... ooops, I mean Smith! So off to the cinema I went. I must admit that a friend had told me that I should probably wait for it to show on Welfare TV, I still went! I don't want to make this a review of the movie so I'll just say this: There's something about a woman fighting crime, but STILL managing to have flawless makeup & lipgloss that makes one think it's a 1 hour 30 min long ad for Revlon... Never mind that the cinematography was terrible and the glaring inconsistencies...

But don't get me wrong, Angie does provide entertainment - on and off screen... and she does it better than Lindsay Lohan... but next time she releases a movie, I'll read a book instead. (I did exactly that when The Tourist was released... and it seems I made the right decision)

Love is that shiny coin with no tail... just two heads.. right? right?

So, some guy - his identity is irrelevant - chased after a girl for many many moons... after playing hard to get, she eventually relented.. she "agreed" to be his one and only, his pudding pie, his left butt-cheek... what he did not bargain for, however, was that she LITERALLY wanted to be a part of him.. always there, never far enough to be missed.. wasting his SMS bundle and well generally being a nuisance of a girlfriend... so he dumped her... His reason? "She's just toooooo into me!"


Now, you're probably thinking "Huh? He did what now? Guys never know when they have it good!"... When I heard this short tale, I was quick to applaud the young fella - assuming he is "young" of course... I applaud him for the year of patience and perseverance that he spent pursuing this girl and for cutting her off swiftly once he realised he'd caught himself a piranha instead of bream... He clearly learnt rather late that wasting time is... well... wasting time!


Thing is, though I sometimes blindly support whatever psycho stuff {wo}men choose to do when in love, I cannot for the life of me allow myself to back people who choose to make other people the centre of their universe... and thus cease to exist. This young lad did her a favour, I hope she thanked him..


Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being madly, deeply into someone... in fact, I would sooner stand in the rain singing some old ballad to woo a guy if I thought I stood a chance.. risk catching pneumonia even... I really would. Yes, that's crazy, but I would only do it if I was certain that he's into that kinda crazy stuff... if I was certain that he would run out and stand in the rain with me... that we would spend the next week sharing chicken soup trying to get better.. I really would. Thing is, I know better! {I also hate chicken soup}


The trouble is some girls (and many a guy.. "Hi ex number 2, 3 and 4" *evil grin*) are just psycho like that... always in their partner's pocket, stuck to them like glue... what starts off as a parasitic symbiotic relationship just fizzles into a parasitic relationship.. when you take up more than just space and time.. when you want to ALWAYS be with them and suck them dry of life. Relationships aren't meant to kill the individuals and merge them into one ugly amorphous mass of neediness, they are meant to strengthen the individuals.. Y'know, that "winning couple swag"... the ever elusive "perfect pair"... she doesn't pretend to enjoy Saturday afternoon football and he doesn't go shoe shopping with her, but they work out just fine... Each brings their star quality to the table, appreciates the other's space and respects it.. Dial 0800 PIPE DREAM if you feel me on this.. "Number you have dialled is not available"? Snap! Keep trying....



Peace, Love and Gruyere...



Stuck in the mud... dead in the water...

In the last few days I have begun to accept more and more that South Africa is a nation divided... where race used to be the greatest cleavage, class and socio-economic status has comfortably replaced it.. much to the chagrin of those who coined the term way back when we have "redefined" apartheid... So much so that if you are a poor, black African living in one of the biggest shanty towns in the world, best believe your death is meaningless. The "investigation" into your death will be conducted by a novice desk officer and nothing will come of it.. On the other {manicured} hand, if you are a touring foreigner, visiting Africa to experience the glamourisation of poverty, rest assured yours will be the "death of the year"...or at least the week...



Yet... EVERYDAY... every single darn day.. at least one murder is committed in this country... at LEAST... most of the perpetrators never make it to the dock and may kill again... the few who do find themselves in court will mostly be acquitted - usually on a technicality, sometimes because despite clear witness testimony "there just wasn't enough evidence" to convict - and often because prosecuting these poor murderers is "a waste of state resources"... after all the NPA has the murderer of big fat fish like Brett Kebble to deal with! Even in death some animals are more equal than others... *oink*



While my heart and thoughts go out to the family and friends of the deceased honeymooner, I can't help but think of her as an unwilling martyr, one whose death has in some way got people talking about the rampant violent crime within these borders in which we find ourselves... The media... the vultures that they are, have found a carcass upon which to feast once more.. {The pun, while regrettable is purely intentional}...and we - the public - can {re}start to think about crime in South Africa...



After months of living in a relative state of psychological safety after the South African Police Service (SAPS)'s head honcho released data showing that there was a marked decline in the incidence of violent crime, we were once again reminded that we are in danger... So, please go back to locking your doors {your car, your flat, your office, even the trap door from which words spew every day... lock EVERY door} because WE ARE NOT SAFE.. Were we ever? Seriously. Were we?



It took the hijacking and killing of a Brit for us to be woken up from our self-induced slumber or complacency to realise that crime is real.. it was real BEFORE the honeymooners ventured into Gugulethu and it will continue to be real for minutes, hours, days, months, years to come if we do not commit ourselves to addressing the root cause of our societal malaise.



As bad a series as it is, I can't help but think of "Ghost Whisperer"! With all the restless souls purportedly floating somewhere close to the Ozone layer hoping their killer will be brought to justice, it would explain the growing cancer eating our society up... I'll bet my love-handles PW Botha is smiling his wry crocodile smile right now, rubbing his wrinkled hands somewhere in the doldrums of an imagined hell, thinking "I DID leave a legacy!"...


In the words of my friend Kwezi {duly tagged to avoid plagiarism charges}: "Township blacks you can kill other township blacks fine, but kill a tourist and that will be bad for income and we will set up a tourist desk, and give tourists an escort every time they are going into a dangerous area. fuck that shit."



So? Does anyone else see the elephant in the room? We painted it in rainbow colours in 1994, but we were too fixated with the idea of finally being "democratic" that we neglected to chase the damn mammal out! Trouble with elephants is they need to be constantly fed... I vote we get rid of the damn thing... the stench of its dung is not good for the house in which we live... though it will linger for a few more years, at least it will eventually go... right?

Do you know the one you love?

So... I've told myself that by the time I'm 30 I want to have visited at least half of the African countries... because I cannot continue to claim that I love this continent if I do not know it intimately... If I have not laughed with the Dinka at dusk, danced with the Masai at dawn or eaten amongst the pyramids like those from the House of Ptolemy .. I have told myself that until then, Africa will be the love I speak about, the love I hope to know, the one with whom I shall spend the rest of my life... but not that I truly love... not yet...



Yes, I am committed to my continent...It is here that I was born and it is here that I shall take my last breath... until then.. until the day I return to the bowels of the African earth, I will fight for it and help to make it strong... and when Africa has risen from its ashes and stands up high, I will creep into the shadows and watch my love shine... not because I do not want to be seen with it, but because I want the rest of the world to fall in love with it the way I have.. to see it's beautiful face and dare not lift a gun to tear it to shreds... to see it's evergreen glow and want to nurture it all the days of their life... What is love, but a selfish emotion if it is not shared? But, let me not contradict myself, I cannot claim to love Africa yet... I do not know it...



So, I ask you... do YOU know the one you "love"? Do you know their mind? their body? their soul? their essence? If you don't... how dare you claim to love them? How very dare you?