Report: U.S. Funded Religious Programs in Africa & Iraq (Tiffany Stanley)

The United States government used taxpayer dollars to rebuild mosques in Iraq and teach Bible - based abstinence in Africa, violating a prohibition on funding "inherently religious activities,"according to a recent audit of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID).

The report by the agency's inspector general, released Wednesday (July 22), said "some USAID funds were used for religious activities" during 2006 and 2007.

USAID disputed those claims, and a spokesperson said the results are "not supported by the facts and is an unsupported legal conclusion regarding the constitutional requirement of separation of church and state."

According to the report, USAID funded an abstinence-promoting HIV/AIDS prevention program for youth in Africa with curriculum that included Psalm 119:9 as a Bible "memory verse" and a take-away thought that said, "God has a plan for sex and this plan will help you and protect you from harm." USAID later told the grant recipient that their funds could not be used in conjunction with the program.

A second instance concerned the rebuilding of four mosques damaged by the U.S. military in Fallujah, Iraq, at a price tag of $325,000; after the audit, the agency reportedly refused to pay $44,531 of that money to a contractor.

The report raised questions of whether the constitutional principal of church-state separation applies in other countries, and whether diplomatic advances and foreign policy trump official governmental support of religion.

Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said, "I'll concede the issue is a little murky."

But, Boston added, "If it's illegal for the government to build houses of worship in the U.S., that rule should be in effect in other nations."

In 2007, USAID requested clarification from the Department of Justice on the legality of such funding and has yet to receive a response. In compliance with the audit, agency officials met with a representative of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on April 21 to "discuss issues raised by the audit."

Alliances for Health: Faith in Action (Katherine Marshall)

A story. In 1854, a baby girl was very sick with diarrhea. Her mother washed the diapers and threw the waste water into a cesspit under a house in their Soho neighborhood. Within weeks a cholera epidemic had killed some 700 people in the neighborhood. Thousands more were sick.

A doctor, John Snow, and an Anglican priest, Henry Whitefield, refused to believe the prevailing theory: that disease was spread by a "miasma" or "bad air." The men tracked down everyone who was sick and painstakingly mapped where they lived. Snow was a scientist, and he began to link the illness to one well in the neighborhood. Whitehead knew the people and had their trust, so they cooperated with the inquiry.

When the men realized that a single well -- the now notorious Broad Street well -- was linked to nearly all the cases, they removed the handle of the pump and closed it. The epidemic quickly subsided.

The detective work that helped to link disease to the contamination of a water source is an important part of medical history. The role of the scientist is well known. The pastor's is not.

Steve de Guchy, a minister and theology professor at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, told this story to hammer in the central message of a conference last week in Capetown. Its title was "When Religion and Health Align: Mobilizing Religious Health Assets for Transformation," and it brought together the kind of motley gathering that does give transformation a chance: ministers, medical doctors, theologians, epidemiologists from all over Africa and the United States,

The contemporary objective is the same as that of the 19th century seekers - to stop millions of preventable deaths. And again the core idea is to link the strengths of medicine and public health with those of the "religious health assets." "Mapping" the assets- taking careful stock of what is there and analyzing it-is a vital first step.

We have vastly more knowledge today than Snow and Whitefield had in 1854. Science has made huge strides and the killers of the past - diarrhea, malaria, respiratory illnesses, all most lethal to small children - should be history. They are not. World leaders, including Barack Obama, have made poignant statements in recent weeks about the imperative to act on these large global health challenges.

But many in scientific and public health circles seem to be wearing blinkers when it comes to the role that religious health assets could play, both locally and globally, in mounting more effective programs.

Part of the problem is that the assets are so complex and diverse - a galaxy, as a Catholic cardinal once described them to me. Large and tiny, formal hospitals and clinics and informal mothers' groups, traditions (good and bad) linked to health, pulpits and platforms where messages can be spread. And above all, a will, where there is knowledge, to contribute and deal with the suffering that falls most heavily on poor people.

Another problem is a common assumption that modern science has banished the role of religion in health, so huge in the past, to the distant margins. And the well-touted negative health experiences tied to religion (Christian faith healing denying care to children, imams claiming that mosquito nets are designed to cause infertility, just as examples) don't help.

But the fact is that there are huge religious health assets. Hospitals and clinics, hundreds of thousands, for a start. Nurses and doctors. A passionate commitment to caring for those who suffer. Most religious traditions see health, often broadly defined so that it links physical health, stress, and spiritual health in seamless ways, as part of their core missions.

But beyond health care itself, what may perhaps be as valuable today as it was in 1854, is the knowledge of communities and networks of people with religious links. What better way to spread the most vital advice to fight the H1N1 virus-to wash your hands?

Most health care happens outside hospitals, in families and communities. Messages are vitally important. So the alliance for transformation that Dr, Snow and Father Whitehead formed long ago is the kind of creative and open model of partnership we need today. The thousands of ideas and insights hatched in Capetown at the African Religious Health Assets Program conference last week can be an inspiration.

Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, a Visiting Professor, and a senior adviser for the World Bank.

Jerusalem bishop: as in South Africa, churches key to peace in Middle East

Jerusalem Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan has appealed to leaders of churches in Europe to stand by Christians in the Middle East in their struggle for justice and peace by remembering how injustice was fought in South Africa.

"I ask you as our brothers and sisters in Christ, do not leave us alone, do not leave us alone in the struggle," Younan told the once-every-six years assembly of the Conference of European Churches meeting in Lyon, France.

"Do you know how the apartheid system collapsed? It is because the churches in the world accompanied the churches in South Africa," said Younan, who heads the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. "As long as you accompany us as churches in Europe, there is hope that peace and justice will come to the Middle East."

About 300 delegates from CEC's 120 member churches - principally Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant - and 500 other participants are attending the 15-21 July assembly. The theme for the gathering is, "Called to One Hope in Christ".

Receiving a standing ovation from delegates, Younan said in his 16 July address that he would never lose hope for peace and justice in the Middle East despite circumstances such as the region's declining Christian population.

"The longer the conflict goes on, the more the people will emigrate," he warned.

As a sign of hope, Younan pointed to the formation of a council of religious institutions in the Holy Land that includes local Islamic and Christian leaders, and Israel's two chief rabbis, and that meets every two months.

"Even when there is bombing, shelling, suicide attacks, we could as religious leaders meet together and speak of justice," said Younan, a vice-president of the Lutheran World Federation. "We do not come to each other with smiling faces; we carry the suffering of our people under our skin."

One project of the inter-religious council has been to carry out a review of textbooks used in schools, which instead of promoting justice and reconciliation, Younan said, "are teaching hatred against the other".

Another project has been to commission Palestinian and Israeli communication bodies to monitor the public utterances of religious leaders. "What we see is shameful," said the Lutheran leader, speaking of the results of the monitoring. "We all have to repent, even as Christians."

Younan said that as a Palestinian Christian, "I call also my people the Palestinians to see God in the Israelis, and have told also Israelis to see God in us Palestinians."

He said, "If we accept each other's humanity, then I would say very clearly than we will recognize each other's human, civil, religious and political rights." To applause, Younan concluded, "The day is coming, the day of transformation of Palestinians and Israelis, the day is coming as long as there is the risen Lord. That is my faith."

Protests press Zuma to live up to promises (Michael Georgy)

Violent riots and threats of a fresh wave of crippling labour strikes may force South African President Jacob Zuma to deliver quickly on election promises and risk scaring investors in Africa's biggest economy.

Just three months after his African National Congress's (ANC) sweeping election victory, township violence is boiling over in scenes reminiscent of unrest during apartheid.

Charismatic and persuasive, Zuma raised high hopes in his election campaign, vowing to help millions of blacks still living in shacks 15 years after the ANC came to power.

Now the riots have injected urgency into the task, and Zuma is limited by the first recession in Africa's biggest economy in 17 years. He must also reassure foreign investors he will be cautious about spending and not steer the economy to the left.

"Now we are seeing an early test. We are seeing a very visible sign of the extent of discontent, something that hadn't really been on investors' radar screens," said Razia Khan, regional head of research for Africa at Standard Chartered.

"This is something that will sit uncomfortably over the longer term for anyone really concerned about potential next steps, what can be done given the extent of discontent."

Trouble on many fronts

Zuma faces trouble on several fronts. Labour union allies who helped his rise have wasted no time in pushing hard for leftist economic policies that could unnerve investors.

Labour demands are piling up by the day as frustrations spread in townships where police fired rubber bullets and teargas this week at protesters who hurled stones at them.

A fuel sector union agreed to an improved 9,5% wage offer on Thursday, but warned it may yet strike in sympathy with paper and chemical workers who downed tools this week.

Council workers are threatening to stay at home from Monday, action that could keep tens of thousands of local government employees at home, crippling the public sector.

Gold and coal unions are considering a pay offer. If they reject it stoppages will hit some of the world's biggest mines.

New strikes could delay efforts to improve basic services, raising the possibility of new riots erupting.

Township residents are calling for the removal of local ANC officials they accuse of corruption and gross neglect of communities lacking jobs, housing, sanitation and medical care.

Even if Zuma had the resources, throwing money at the problem would not help because of the extent of incompetence and corruption in local government, analysts say.

"Even if they put together a Marshall plan at this stage we know that local government capacity is a huge problem," said political analyst Susan Booysen.

"It's almost a brick wall into which all excitement about democracy and participation and improvement of life just crashes."

So far, the rage is focused on local authorities and township residents say it is too early to judge Zuma.

But the long-term credibility of the man who portrays himself as the champion of the poor may rest on whether he takes decisive action against local government officials.

That was clear in flashpoint Siyathemba township. When local mayor Lefty Tsotetsi arrived in an armoured police vehicle to address thousands of seething residents, it was too risky for him to step out of the vehicle.

Young men, some carrying clubs and pipes, said they have been unemployed for years and accused him of living a life of luxury and handing out jobs to relatives and friends.

He later promised to improve services. No one seemed to believe the mayor and a new house he is building was torched.

Zuma told businessmen late on Thursday that although the government acknowledged problems with delivering basic services, looting, violence and the destruction of property could not be justified.

Tough security measures could deepen alienation.

In Siyathemba, some spoke of a policeman named Doctor who they say was brutal in dealing with the unrest. "He will die like a dog," several young men threatened.

"A crackdown is often going to be difficult, Zuma has to maintain his approach in being more open, more consultative and try to utilise the space that is open, in terms of engagement, that is where the short term solution can come about," said Eurasia Group analyst Mike Davies.

For now, a weak opposition and South Africa's peculiar political system could work in Zuma's favour. The same incensed people who protest against poor services are the biggest backers of the ANC, mainly because it led the fight against apartheid.

"They don't just vote they throw bricks as well. It's a very awkward type of political culture we have. We have practised that now for quite a number of years. And protest in South Africa does not necessarily mean instability," said Booysen. -- Reuters

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-24-protests-press-zuma-to-live-up-promises

ELCA Youth Discuss Racism & Celebrate Diversity (ELCA News Service)

NEW ORLEANS -- Members of Ascension Lutheran Church, Dorado, Puerto Rico, swayed gently to the beat as the music started to play.

Once the drums started, they were up on their feet. Tambourines, maracas and drums in hand, the youth and their parents pounded out a festive beat, smiling, laughing and dancing as the music played.

The song, "Salaam Alaikum," means "May peace be with you" in Arabic. The Lutherans from Puerto Rico make sure to add some Caribbean flair to it.

Members of Ascension were among 89 congregations from across the United States, Caribbean and Virgin Islands attending the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) with the theme, "God is Key: Open Your Heart and Step to God's Beat" here at the Sheraton Hotel.

More than 900 Lutheran teenagers of various ethnicities met this week to celebrate, worship and share cultures and experiences in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The event preceded the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering here.

Most participants will stay for the gathering, July 22-26, which includes some 37,000 Lutheran teenagers, adult leaders and other volunteers. "Jesus Justice Jazz" is the theme of activities at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome.

Participants will also scatter across the area to assist at nearly 200 community service sites.

The Lutheran youth shared music and dance with each other: members of Alaska Native Lutheran Church, Anchorage, Alaska, taught a traditional native the "polar bear" dance; the Rev. Gabi Alelabouni, Faith Lutheran Church, Brookfield, Ill., played the tabla, a Middle Eastern drum, while Ali Amir, an international guest from Palestine, played the Kanun, a Middle Eastern plucked zither. Amir is one of 37 international youth who attended MYLE and is at the Youth Gathering.

The event challenged the youth to use music as an expression of their faith, cultural background and as an example of diversity in the ELCA to the rest of the Lutheran community. "God never works alone; God works in community," said the Rev. Ruben F. Duran, who preached at morning worship. "Community is the body of Christ." Duran is ELCA director for new evangelizing congregations.

Duran, originally from Lima, Peru, was one of six speakers. Other speakers were Niveen Sarras, a student from Palestine attending Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LTSC); Larry Thiele, a synodically authorized minister who serves Dacotah Oyate Lutheran Church on the
Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota; Karris Golden, a journalist and public speaker of African and Scandinavian descent; Dr. Joy Phillip, who holds a degree in systematic theology from LSTC and is originally from India; and the Rev. Patrick Keen, the pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church
here.

"You are going to be exposed to people who are hurting," Keen said in his message during opening worship. He also spoke about racism in the church, a major topic during the event. Keen, an African American who was involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s in Chicago while in high school, told the youth that no one can deny them access to the church because of their race, ethnic background or sexual orientation.

"Regardless of what anyone else says, I have access," he said.

Participants attended two daily worship services, ethnic caucuses, leadership workshops and learning sessions where they discussed living in interfaith families, global identity and advocacy.

Lutheran teenagers from Abiding Savior Lutheran Church, Durham, N.C., presented "What's color got to do with it," a video they created after being treated as outsiders and subjected to misconceptions, stereotypes and social rejections at previous youth events because they
are African American. The students in the video described being stared at, excluded and treated differently because of the color of their skin.

Alexus Monds, a member of Abiding Savior, said that, although they don't expect to fix the problem of racism in the church, they want to make sure the problem was known.

"We don't expect this to change people, but we want to make sure this experience don't change us," she said.

Carrie L. Draeger is a senior communication major with a concentration in journalism at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.

Obama’s melodies may need some fine-tuning (Bhekinkosi Moyo)

When the trumpeter blew his horn on Saturday afternoon welcoming President Barack Obama to Ghana, he responded rhythmically by saying: “I like this.”

He went on to sing his own governance melody very well. But will African leaders dance to his music? It does not look likely.

Just a few weeks ago, African heads decided that their members should not cooperate with the International Criminal Court in the arrest and surrender of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.

In short, his music is sweet indeed, but the dancers are likely to inflict scratches on it. But if highlighting governance achievements was the main reason for his visit, wouldn’t he have done better to visit one of the conflict-ridden countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Guinea or even Kenya?

To a certain extent, Obama’s administration chose the easiest way to address the theme of governance by opting for the already converted. Hence conspirators argue that Obama’s visit was tied to Ghana’s recently discovered oil.

“Get your act together” was Obama’s translucent message to African leaders, delivered to the Ghanaian parliament just before he made an emotional trip to the Cape Coast Castle -- a place instrumental in the transatlantic slave trade.

His message was music to many who have suffered under the tyranny of dictators. Obama’s sweet melodies connected good governance with development.

His strong message to African leaders who trample on the freedoms of their people was: “Now make no mistake: history is on the side of brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa does not need strong men; it needs strong institutions.” That Africans are responsible for their destiny is a musical note that fits well in his melody.

It is important that Obama sings this simple note -- for far too many years, development agents and Western governments have treated Africa and its people as helpless victims. Obama’s administration must give agency to Africans and relegate the United States to a partnership status.

There is no better place for this than in Africa, where the youth constitute at least 75% of the population. Most of the problematic octogenarians are very close to death. The importance of this is that it also recognizes Africa’s position in global power play.

Africa is an important region for the world’s superpowers and emerging powers in terms of natural resources and geopolitics. Obama is right in observing that the “21st century will also be shaped by what happens in Africa”.

Africans must therefore push hard in international platforms for principles of equality, partnership and mutuality. But although Obama sang very well, his melodies were at times discordant. It was difficult to harmonize his emphasis on equality with his elevation as super-instructor.

His speech had the tone of someone giving instructions either to children or a group of tired sportsmen or women. Linked to this, I could not help but be confused on the Saturday morning when Obama had breakfast with President John Evans Atta Mills.

The two presidents arrived in the same vehicle -- the American car popularly known as the Beast. Why didn’t they use the Ghanaian presidential car? I wondered who was in charge of Ghana at that moment. Clearly the Americans temporarily took over Ghana.

My journalist friends staying at the Protea hotel were threatened with eviction simply because the Americans wanted rooms for Obama’s people. At the La Palm hotel, where I stayed, there were threats as well to many of us who had booked a long time before Obama’s visit. So hotels preferred Americans to Africans.

All this is discordant to Obama’s melody. But it must serve as a word of caution to future hosts of Obama in Africa, such as South Africa during the 2010 World Cup. His visit should not trample on individuals’ basic rights.

Dr. Bhekinkosi Moyo is head of programs at TrustAfrica, a pan-African foundation based in Dakar, Senegal

Calvin leaves divided legacy in South Africa

The influence of the 16th-century Protestant reformer Jean Calvin, born in France on 10 July 1509, has probably not been felt as much in any single country as South Africa.

"In South Africa, the reception of Calvin has been deeply ambiguous and controversial, and it remains so until today," Dirk Smit, professor of systematic theology and ethics at the University of Stellenbosch, told students at the Protestant Theological University in Kampen, the Netherlands, in April 2009.

Now, as Protestants worldwide mark the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth, South Africans are remembering how the followers of the Protestant reformer were counted among the most strident supporters of apartheid, and eventually also among its most vociferous opponents.

The major Dutch Reformed churches in South Africa did for a time use theology as a justification for apartheid, and one of the smaller white-dominated churches still refuses to recant its racist ideology as heresy.

The roots of Calvinism in South Africa go back to 1685, when many French Huguenots fled to the Netherlands after the Edict of Nantes guaranteeing religious freedom was revoked. The Huguenots were strict followers of Calvin, and came from strongholds all over France.

Refugees in a foreign land at that time, they took up an offer of the Dutch East India Company to go to South Africa for an initial period of five years to support white settlers who had arrived in the Cape in 1652 to supply ships with vegetables and fruit on their way to Indonesia.

The Huguenot immigrants received farms and implements, and were mostly well-educated. Doctors, teachers, pastors and lawyers were among the first to arrive in the Cape. They were the progenitors of many of the Cape Afrikaner families. To this day, the French spelling of many of their surnames survives in names such as Du Plessis, De Villiers and Roux.

In his teachings, Calvin propagated a sense of duty and purpose often described as the Protestant work ethic. The strictly religious Huguenots played an important part in church and economic life in South Africa, and influenced the country's future both religiously and economically. Not least, they created some fine vineyards at the Cape.

Because of the religious wars raging in Europe, none of the first Huguenots returned home when their five years were up on the southern tip of Africa.

Yet, as progressive as the Huguenots were in their first years at the Cape, they became removed from European thought, and some historians say that the whole age of enlightenment passed them by.

The Reformed churches begun by Afrikaners descended from the Huguenots were by the end of the 19th century divided along colour lines: black, coloured (mixed race), Indian and white. Four separate churches, each with its own structure, emerged in the 20th century. In 1948, under the leadership of Daniel Malan, a former Reformed pastor who had become prime minister of South Africa, traditional racist practices were transformed into the apartheid ideology of the ruling party. Mixed services were no longer possible.

In the latter part of the 20th century, some South African theologians, such as the Rev. Beyers Naudé, himself an Afrikaner who studied at the same university as the 1948 prime minister, questioned the justification of apartheid theology.

In 1963, Naudé left the white Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduits Gereformeered Kerk), where he was a regional moderator and minister. He later joined the black branch of his church: the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa, and went on to become general secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Progressive whites and black Reformed theologians cheered Naudé's vociferous opposition to apartheid but government leaders condemned it.

Addressing the general synod of the Reformed Church in America in 2009, the Rev. Russel Botman, today the mixed-race rector of the University of Stellenbosch, once a bastion of apartheid, described how, as theology students, he and others broke with apartheid theology that a Calvinist doctrine justified.

Botman told the synod, "One day in the spring of 1978, we arrived at a conclusion: apartheid has as its point of departure the irreconcilability of people of different race groups. It was thus against the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which takes its point of departure in the doctrine of reconciliation."

He also told the American synod of another historical landmark. In 1982, the general council of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches, meeting in Ottawa, Canada, elected the Rev. Allan Boesak, then moderator of a branch of the Dutch Reformed Church serving South Africa's mixed-race people, as president of WARC. Boesak laid out before the WARC assembly his theological understanding based on the doctrines of Calvin and Karl Barth.

"It was no longer merely the biblical understanding of a black, Reformed church on the southernmost tip of the Cape of Good Hope. The theological understanding that Christians are witnesses to reconciliation as the heart of the gospel of Christ became an ecumenical matter throughout the Reformed tradition and churches," Botmann said about the occasion.

Recalling the role of the black Reformed churches in the struggle against apartheid in the nineteen eighties and nineties, theology professor Dirk Smit told his Dutch audience, "There were many debates at the time over the legitimacy of the apartheid government: over ways for the church to be the voice of the voiceless; over limits of getting actively involved in the public sphere; over the right of civil disobedience, including conscientious objection; over possible forms of non-violent resistance; even over the legitimacy of violence and armed struggle for freedom. In many of these instances, Calvin's convictions concerning the responsibility of the magistrates to defend the weak and to resist tyrannical rule often played a major role."

Smit concluded that remembering Calvin in South Africa today did not mean a blind praising of him, "but rather standing in his living legacy and tradition".

Smit's faculty has organized a "Calvin09 Conference" from 30 August to 2 September in Stellenbosch. In the promotion for the conference the organizers say on the Web site, "The Reformed community in South Africa has a deeply ambiguous history."

HIV response "has tranformed African health systems" (Mara Kardas-Nelson)

Scientists and policymakers attending the Fifth International Aids Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town, have strongly reacted to allegations that AIDS takes up such a huge chunk of international funding that it prevents other diseases from receiving financial support.

Instead, they say, the HIV response has helped to strengthen healthcare systems across Africa, dubbing Aids funding and technology "transformative".

"HIV has challenged … and transformed African health systems in very fundamental ways. Because HIV is a chronic disease, it transforms a system to one that is much more interested in long-term outcomes for people,” says Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the International Centre for Aids Care and Treatment Programmes and a professor at Columbia University.

Michael Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, agrees: "Aids has shown that when the world decides to come together around a goal it is possible to achieve [extraordinary things]."

Over the past few months, there has been numerous accusations that domestic and donor funding is unfairly allocated to Aids programmes, leaving other health problems neglected.

This backlash to "Aids exceptionalism" has caused donors and programme implementers to question the effectiveness of HIV programmes and consider whether they are diverting funds and attention from other diseases, especially within resource-poor areas such as sub-Saharan Africa.

Conference delegates acknowledge that a large percentage of the world’s health funding, especially within resource-poor countries, does go to HIV, but contend that this does not mean it diverts from other programmes.

"To my knowledge, no one has shown data that spending money on HIV means not spending money on health systems," says El-Sadr.

Instead, she argues, funding HIV programmes strengthens the fight against other concurrent health problems.

"People interested in HIV are interested in other health outcomes, they’re interested in maternal health and child health because they’re intrinsic in HIV outcomes," she says.

Alan Whiteside of the University of KwaZulu-Natal believes arguments against Aids funding fail to see the interconnectedness of all health outcomes, and is unhelpful in strengthening Africa's poor health indicators.

"Aids is absolutely exceptional and is an emergency, but it is disingenuous to divide the health sector. HIV and Aids has brought huge amounts of money to health and it works across entire health systems," he says.

Despite the successes in scaling up health systems, Jacqueline Batarigaya, senior policy adviser for the International Aids Society, cites the continuing "serious deficiencies in health systems" as instrumental in preventing future roll-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for seven million of Africa’s HIV-infected people currently waiting for treatment.

Batarigaya says a severe shortage of healthcare workers across the continent is a major impediment to increasing the number of patients on treatment.

"There is currently a 3,4-million healthcare worker shortage in the world, and we’re 1,7-million short in Africa alone. We can’t treat seven million people without these workers," she says.

Whiteside blames the brain drain and the South African government's lack of commitment to training new health workers as responsible for the shortage and resulting treatment shortfall.

"I find it quite incredible that we haven’t scaled up our training of healthcare workers in South Africa. It's just been business as usual," he says.

In order for the country to meet the targets outlined in the National Strategic Plan for HIV/Aids, which calls for 80% treatment coverage for those who need it by the year 2011, Whiteside says further healthcare innovation is needed.

El-Sadr reiterates: "We can’t say that HIV is over. It’s still an emergency."

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-21-hiv-response-has-transformed-african-health-systems

Mandela Day aims to shape legacy of global icon (Fran Blandy)

As Nelson Mandela turns 91 on Saturday, his family and his charitable foundation are trying to harness his iconic status around the globe to promote community service on his birthday.

Celebrities and politicians will also be holding concerts and other celebrations from Johannesburg to New York.

But as South Africa's first black president ages, those closest to him are trying to turn his name's magic appeal into an annual "Mandela Day" of service while preventing it from becoming over-commercialized.

"The focus is on community service, picking up the one element of Mr Mandela's legacy that should apply to us all, and that is service to mankind," said Ruth Rensburg of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Organisers are asking the public to dedicate 67 minutes to an act of service to others, a minute for every year since Mandela took up the struggle for equality in South Africa.

Mandela's eldest grandson and chief of the Mandela clan, Mandla Zwelivelile Mandela, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) he will spend the day in the Mvezo village, where his grandfather was born, cleaning the graves of his great-great-grandparents.

The younger Mandela said his grandfather, just two weeks ago, came to the village to remind children of the collective struggle against apartheid rule.

"He said: 'There is no leader that exists alone. I existed with ordinary men and women of this country who sacrificed more than I ever did and they just chose me to be the face of this campaign'," said the grandson.

He said Mandela Day should "pay tribute to the collective effort of leadership" that helped bring democracy to South Africa and "be able to plough back to communities where we came from."

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, emerging in 1990 committed to democracy and negotiating a deal that led to universal suffrage and the country's first black presidency, earning him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Mandela has officially retired from public life, but his name, image and presence are still sought after, with celebrities wanting to meet him and the African National Congress seeking his continued endorsement.

Great concern

Mandla Mandela, whose father's death of Aids in 2005 prompted the former president to speak out against the stigma of HIV/Aids, is at the centre of a battle for the leader's legacy.

This year he denied reports that he sold the television rights to his grandfather's funeral to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Mandla told AFP the rights to his grandfather's name and how it is used was of great concern to the family, warning Mandela Day itself risked "losing its purpose".

"Now people are already seeing this as a profit-making scheme and doing their own initiatives to reap rewards out of this."

Rensburg, of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, says Mandela's intellectual property is in safe hands and was monitored around the world, and stopped where necessary.

A London art gallery has come under fire for displaying prints of artwork that the exhibitors claim were signed by Mandela. His lawyers say the signatures were faked.

"My serious concern is what becomes of the name after the old man has come and gone," said Mandla.

"We currently see that name commercialised, seeing my grandfather printed on coins and things. It is for us as a family to really become active participants as to what we desire for my grandfather's legacy to become." -- AFP

Source: Mail & Guardian Online

Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-16-mandela-day-aims-to-shape-legacy-of-global-icon

Obama, Africa, and Truth-Telling (Valeria Elverton Dixon)

Now that the Cold War that was anything but cold in Africa is over; now that the CIA, as far as we know, no longer pays for the overthrow and murder of democratically elected leaders as it did with Patrice Lumumba of the Congo in 1960; now that the United States no longer supports African kleptocrats that hold power through brutal thug rule as did Joseph Mobutu in the Congo later named Zaire; now that the U.S. through the CIA no longer sends millions of dollars in cash and weapons to support one side of a civil war in Angola, the side also supported by the apartheid government of South Africa; now that the U.S. no longer provides weapons to a particular side of a conflict in Somalia, leaving leftover weapons to fall into the hands of clans at war; and now that the U.S. no longer ignores genocide the way it did in Rwanda, the vote of Africans is sacred. Now, according to President Obama, “Africa’s future is up to Africans.”

In other important speeches to the world, President Obama has been courageous in telling the truth of the misdeeds of the United States. His critics call these simple statements of truth apologies. I have never heard an apology, even though an apology would be fitting. Still, stating the facts is important. It is important not only for the Other, but it is important for citizens of the United States to know what various administrations have done in our name. Truth-telling is an important element of just peacemaking. The truth is that our hands are not clean when it comes to much of the post-colonial confusion in Africa.

President Obama spoke about the colonial history of Africa from within the context of his own family’s story – his grandfather who was both a village elder and a cook for the British in Kenya and his father, a goat herder, who made his way to a university education in the United States. President Obama and his family visited the site from which Africans left to sail as cargo to the new world. It was a voyage of unspeakable horror that diminished the humanity of all of humanity. Remembrance is an important ethical act.

In an African cosmology, the community is composed of the living, the dead, and the not-yet-born, those who have yet to be conceived. Thus, when we think about moral choices within this cosmological framework, we ought to think of the past, present, and future of now. To think of the past honors the dead. They are among the great cloud of witnesses watching as we run our race. When we remember the truth of history, including our own bloody acts, we start from a righteous starting line. To forget, to leave the truth unstated, is unrighteous because it puts us at greater risk of repeating the unacknowledged wrong.

President Obama was right to speak of corruption, the importance of strong institutions, the efficacy of bottom-up change, self sufficiency, and the triumph of justice. He was right to remind young people of their responsibility to hold leaders accountable. This includes holding leaders accountable to face and to state the truth of history.

This is important not only to honor the past, but to plan wisely for the future — so that when we have joined the great cloud of witnesses, and the not-yet-born are the living members of the community, they will find inspiration from our courage to face the facts and to move forward.

Dr. Valerie Elverton Dixon is an independent scholar who publishes lectures and essays at JustPeaceTheory.com. She received her Ph.D. in religion and society from Temple University and taught Christian ethics at United Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School.

Struggles to understand and be understood (Crystal Hall)

Before I came to South Africa, I never considered what a privilege is it to understand the words spoken around me. Before living in a country with eleven official languages, I took for granted that many may have to learn a second, third and even fourth language just to communicate in a new city, or even a new part of town. I had no concept of what it felt like to listen intently for the few words that I might recognize in a limited new vocabulary and the frustration of not knowing how those small recognitions fit with the many unknowns.

More than ten months into my time in South Africa, my isiZulu is not even close to conversational. I do not understand the majority of what is spoken around me at church functions. I can sit through a six hours communion service and only occasionally hear words that I recognize, never mind understand the context in which they are spoken. (At least now I am better at recognizing the major sections of the liturgy.) Most people I meet are more than excited that I can simply greet them and exchange a few pleasantries in their home language. To my frustration, there is no expectation that I understand anything in isiZulu when English is my first language.

I never considered what an intimate connection one has to one’s mother tongue. It is the language spoken in one’s home by one’s family members, the language in which one most easily expresses emotion. It is the language in which prayer comes most easily. After months of attending church services in isiZulu, to hear a liturgy in English, the words themselves suddenly had new meaning. They were no longer words I heard every Sunday. I had missed these words for many, many Sundays and greeted them like old friends that I had not seen in a very long time. I was comforted by their familiarity and excited to appreciate them in a profoundly new way.

Like many Americans, I have never taken the study of language seriously. I’ve never had to, because almost everyone that I associate with in the US also speaks English as a first language. The circles in which I move have never necessitated that I learn another language. I studied French for the required number of years in high school and dabbled in it for a few semesters at university, but I had no appreciation for how difficult it can be to learn a language in a practical way. There is a difference between doing grammar exercises in a classroom and trying to ask for directions in an unfamiliar city. There is also a difference between singing through phonetically-written hymns having no concept of what one is actually saying and feeling that one is praying every word one sings.

I have crossed a language, and hence a cultural, divide. In my ignorance as a white, middle class, English-speaking American, I had no understanding of the difficulties a black, poor, isiZulu-speaking South African might encounter simply on the basis of their linguistic understanding. To be a Zulu in South Africa is not only to learn one’s mother tongue, but also to be required to learn at least English and possibly Afrikaans. (Both are historically colonial languages, with all their cultural, political and ethical implications on society.) My struggles to take public transport and find my place in a church liturgy do not compare to trying to understand the instructions given by an emergency room nurse or a magistrate considering the custody of children. But now, even in my own limited and small way, I understand differently.

I know now what it means to be an outsider and a minority, to struggle to understand and be understood. This is a feeling compounded by a new awareness of my race, class and nationality in any given social interaction. Now I have perhaps even a vague understanding of what the Latino, working-class, Spanish-speaking immigrant in the US might experience in this struggle. I will never ask the question, which now seems grossly insensitive, “Why can’t they just learn English?!”

Crystal Hall is an ELCA-MUD volunteer serving in Pietermaritzburg.

Mugabe calls top US official "an idiot"

Zimbabwe's state media reported on Monday that President Robert Mugabe described the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs as "an idiot" after an acrimonious meeting between the two at an African summit in Libya.

The state Herald newspaper carried the remarks after a briefing Mugabe gave to Zimbabwean reporters at the end of last week's summit of the African Union.

US embassy officials in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, where Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson is visiting, would not comment on the remarks.

According to the Herald, Mugabe said nothing came out of those talks.

"You wouldn't speak to an idiot of that nature. I was very angry with him, and he thinks he could dictate to us what to do," Mugabe was quoted as saying.

He said regional leaders supported the formation of a power-sharing government in February, and then "you have the likes of little fellows like Carson saying 'do this, do that'."

"Who is he? I hope he is not speaking for Obama. I told him he was a shame, a great shame being an African-American," Mugabe was quoted as saying.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the former opposition, visited President Barack Obama in Washington last month as part of a trip to the US and Europe to re-engage with Western leaders after a decade of Zimbabwean isolation.

Mugabe is known for vitriolic outbursts against his critics, reserving some of his harshest comments for those who, like Carson, are black.

Mugabe labeled Carson's predecessor, Jendayi Frazer, who is also black, as "that little girl trotting around the globe like a prostitute" to campaign against him.

Frazer had criticised Mugabe's party over political violence and vote-rigging surrounding disputed national elections in March 2008.

The pro-Mugabe state media launched repeated attacks against former US Ambassador James McGee, who is also black, describing him as a "house Negro" for white Western leaders.

In typical language used by Mugabe, he has called former British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "B-Liar."

Before Tsvangirai joined the coalition government, Mugabe had referred to him as "Fatcheeks" and a tea boy.

On Friday, McGee, who left Zimbabwe on Sunday after a three-year tenure, promised more US support for the country's political and economic recovery, but said democratic reforms needed to be in place first.

McGee, a harsh critic of Mugabe's autocratic rule, rejected the idea that Zimbabwe needed more support from donors to restore the rule of law, respect for human rights and to guarantee basic freedoms of speech and association.

"It doesn't cost anything ... to have judges apply the law equally. Dropping phantom politically motivated prosecutions is free. Stopping the arrests of political activists and independent journalists is also free," McGee said in a farewell speech.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online, http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-06-mugabe-calls-top-us-official-an-idiot

"Mandela Day" gains momentual

Support is growing for turning Nelson Mandela's birthday into an annual "Mandela Day" of community service, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Monday. Support is growing for turning Nelson Mandela's birthday into an annual "Mandela Day" of community service, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Monday.

"The call... to celebrate Mr Mandela's birthday on 18 July as Mandela Day, is gaining momentum," Foundation CEO Achmat Dangor said in a statement.

Mandela Day is not meant to be a public holiday but an annual event where people around the world are asked to spend 67 minutes of their time to do something which makes a difference to the world around them.

A series of events will be staged across South Africa, in New York and in other cities across the world to celebrate the day.

"Mandela Day is a global call to action on all people to follow in Mr Mandela's footsteps by doing good in their own communities.

"This is in recognition of his decades of sacrifice for humanity," Dangor said.

Some of the programmes planned to take place on Mandela's 91st birthday in South Africa include a community discussion in Khayelitsha about xenophobia.

Foundation staff members would be giving of their time to various causes on the day.

The Nelson Mandela Institute for Rural Development and Education with the University of Fort Hare would be working with volunteers to clean up the town of Alice and the Jabavu High School located there.

"Afterwards they will celebrate Mr Mandela's life with poetry and song at a jamboree on campus."

In Cape Town the Mandela Rhodes Foundation will participate in workshops promoting ubuntu in the workplace.

Earlier this month, the ANC said its parliamentary caucus and youth league would work together to make Mandela Day a reality.

"We committed ourselves... that on the 18th of July we should commemorate Mandela Day through community work programmes organised and executed through our constituency offices," ANC Chief Whip Mathole Motshekga said at the time.

Ahead of the launch of his day, Mandela met with a group of South African and American students at the beginning of this month.

The students developed a charter applying Mandela's ideals to their day-to-day lives which would be passed on to their communities and peers.

"Mandela has said: "It is time for new hands to lift the burdens" of the world.

He has also said that he wished that "South Africans never give up on the belief in goodness".

"If each one of us becomes involved together we could help create an international global movement for good," Dangor said.

For more information, please visit MandelaDay.com.

What did the doctors gain? (Sharon Dell)

Striking and dismissed Pietermaritzburg doctors were back at work yesterday, relieved to be performing their duties, but not altogether certain of their gains.

Doctors returned to their posts yesterday morning after intervention on Thursday by Cosatu (Confederation of South Africa Trade Unions) and the SA Medical Association (Sama) saw the government agree to rescind dismissal notices served on close to 300 KwaZulu-Natal doctors.

Medics have until July 21 to accept or reject the government’s latest occupation-specific dispensation offer (OSD), a salary package for public servants based on experience. If the offer is rejected, a dispute will be declared and the matter referred to arbitration.

A quick tour of Pietermaritzburg’s three state hospitals yesterday in the wake of the medics’ unprecedented 10-day strike revealed that all doctors seemed to be back at their stations and it was business as usual, with only minor outpatient and emergency services backlogs being reported.

While doctors canvassed said they were glad the strike was over, some said morale is low and that many are disillusioned. “If morale was low before, it’s hit rock-bottom now,” said a doctor at Grey’s Hospital.

He said the firing and reinstatement of the doctors has had the effect of sidelining some of the major issues that led to strike action: improving patient care and working conditions.

“From the bottom of my heart, I believed in this cause,” said another doctor.

“I was prepared to go on with it,” said a doctor from Northdale.

An Edendale doctor said: “It was very stressful being on strike, so we are glad it’s over, but it has not addressed working conditions and the freezing of posts.”

The doctor drew attention to the shortage of pharmacists, which was hindering the hospital’s capacity to administer Anti-Retro-Viral medication.

The president of the midlands branch of Sama, Graham Ducasse, said yesterday he is “thrilled” that doctors have returned to work, although Sama is not happy with the final OSD package.

However, he said, the latest offer represens a “huge step forward”.

A spokesman for the KZN doctors, Dr Shailendra Sham, said a joint union and departmental task team was being set up to look at improvement to infrastructure and working conditions.

He said that while there istill some dissatisfaction around the government’s latest salary offer, there is“no further role for mass action at this stage”.

MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the department has rescinded all the letters of dismissal it issued on Monday.

Amahoro: An Emerging Conversation in Africa (Nontando Hadebe)

Conversations can offer creative spaces for questions to be asked and the exchange or exploration of ideas. Conversations can also be fearful spaces where the flow of life, ideas, and questions is hampered. I want to share an example of each of these conversations: one open and creative and the other fearful and restricted.

A conference was held in Magalisburg, South Africa, from June 8-12, under the auspices of the “Amahoro movement.” Amahoro means ‘peace’ or ‘shalom.’ The mission of Amahoro is to provide space for conversations among emerging Christian leaders within and outside the African continent in a context of friendship and a common vision for transformation.

Amahoro does this through gatherings in different parts of Africa that explore new frameworks and ideas of what it means to be church in a continent beset with numerous challenges. These gatherings aim to build networks and provide forums for exchanging experiences of innovative projects that are transforming lives, as well as exploring new theological paradigms that can inform and direct these projects.

The theme of this gathering was “Reformation,” a search for new ways of practicing the Christian faith that respond to concrete realities of the poor and oppressed. Participants came from Africa, Europe, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. My attendance and that of four Zimbabweans was made possible by the generosity of two Sojourners readers, Matt and Joy Kauffman.

This was a conversation of life that was not afraid to face difficult questions such as xenophobia in South Africa and North-South relationships of power and dependence. The program was designed to allow for conversations, networking, and dialogue. Each participant brought a symbol of peace from their culture, and on the last evening there was an exchange of symbols.

The Zimbabwean delegation represented the diversity of ministries going on: children’s work and outreach; healing, peace and conflict resolutions; HIV/AIDS in communities; and youth ministry. It was a sacred moment where we encountered each other and God as we sought to be ‘church’ in each of our different contexts.

The other conversation is in Zimbabwean society. Although there is promise of change, the atmosphere of fear is still there. But, the conversation of hope seems to cross these barriers and help to connect people. It is our prayer that with each passing day, fear and the conditions that create fear will recede. Your prayers as always are appreciated. May we all be initiators of life-giving conversations!

Nontando Hadebe, a former Sojourners intern, is originally from Zimbabwe and is now pursuing graduate studies in theology in South Africa.