MentalAcrobatics reports back from Japan on the TICAD conference (4th International Conference on African Development) – Mental begins by stating the strange phenomena of holding African conferences in far off places.....
“So here we are at another conference on Africa, full of Africans, held outside Africa at an Asian economic powerhouse. This all sounds very familiar”.
However he then goes on to justify the familiar “talkshop Africa” and the cost of Africans meeting in this instance in Japan. Africa may need African solutions but Africa does not exist in a vacuum outside of the global community....

“These African solutions, however, cannot exist in isolation from the rest of the world. Rather active, positive and accountable engagement with partners is required. These partners may be development organisations such as the numerous UN bodies, these partners could be individual countries, such as Japan and China.”

Maybe he has a point but until we see the G8 meeting in Accra or Windhoek, I am not so sure.

Nigeria, What’s New

http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2008/05/53-nigerians-were-arrested-in-mlaga.html

Nigeria, What’s New reports that 53 Nigerians have been arrested in Malaga following the exposure of a Spanish lottery scam in which 25,000 letters were sent out every day around the world informing people they were winners. Apparently 2 out of every 1000 people responded making the scammers a cool €27million.

Nata Village Blog

http://natavillage.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/nata-gets-an-in.html

Nata Village announces the launch of an internet cafe....from small beginnings come great things and now the citizens of Nata village will soon be connected up to the big wide world - “Hallelujah!!! We are 120 miles from a bank and a grocery store but we're getting an internet cafe. Pictured above is the small addition to the Nata Post office. Thanks to Post Net, the government postal service in Botswana, we are getting 4 computers and access to the internet.”

Abagond

http://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/stereotype/

AbaGond has an interesting post on stereotypes on which xenophobia, racism and other prejudices are built....

“A stereotype is a picture you have in your head about people who belong to a certain race, religion, country or whatever. For example, “Asians work hard”, “Black women are loud-mouths”, “Rich people are stuck up” and so on..... Stereotypes are mostly applied to the sorts of people you barely know. Because if you knew them well enough you would know that the stereotypes are somewhere between useless and wrong”.

Regrets Only, An African Journal

http://reporterregrets.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-counterterrorism-training-program.html

Regrets Only, An African Journal reports that the US counter terrorism programme which targets the Sahel region is finally under way. The initiative is part of the US’s obsession with terrorism on the one hand and policy to find any excuse to have US troops and security personnel stationed in Africa.
“The initiative is a multimillion dollar security training and equipment program to assist Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in countering terrorist operations.

The program, funded by the State Department and carried out by the Pentagon, got under way this month in Mali and will continue in the other three countries over the next several months.”

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/