brad brace

Nairobi - For a country to negotiate a place on the UN Security Council by using gnus and zebras as negotiating chips is a bold and unusual idea. But that is exactly what the Kenyan government has seen fit to do.

In the next few weeks 175 wild animals including hippopotami, giraffes and wart hogs will be sent on the 7,000-kilometre journey to Southeast Asia.

“We would be very grateful if Thailand supported our efforts to obtain a seat on the UN Security Council, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki told the group of delegates from Thailand who had arrived in Nairobi to close the deal.

The Kenyan government has tried to play down controversy over the trade.

“Zoos in Dubai and the US also have animals taken from Africa’s savannah. Where do you think they came from? Kenya’s Foreign Minister Ali Mwakwere asked animal rights activists who have protested against the trade.

Southeast Asia’s reputation as a transit point for the illegal trade in endangered animals has also thrown a shadow across the deal.

Recently four gorillas were discovered who had been poached from Cameroon destined for a zoo in Malaysia.

The animals from Kenya are due to be removed from the wild and sent to the Chiang Mai Night Safari Park, a pet project of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra aimed at boosting tourism in his home province of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Kenya’s authorities are hopeful visitors to the safari park in Thailand will want to see the animals in the wild and make the journey to Africa.

In response to criticism, Kenya’s government says that contrary to rumour no elephants, lions or other endangered species will be exported to Thailand.

Apart from Thailand’s support for its unlikely bid to sit at the Security Council table it is unclear how Kenya otherwise stands to benefit from the deal.

Questions directed at finding out what this could be have gone unanswered by Nairobi. However, reports in Kenya’s newspapers suggest a half million dollars has played a role.

The deal has been widely condemned by animal rights activists, who have called it a disgrace.

“The animals are part of the nation’s heritage. The government cannot just give them away without asking the people, says Elizabeth Wamba of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

“This sets a dangerous precedent. What should we do if we get more requests like this?”, asked Wamba.

Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, has spoken of a sad day for Kenya.

“The trade stinks, he says. Leakey believes removing the animals from the wild and putting them in a zoo is abhorrent.

As the delegation from Thailand arrived in Nairobi, Masai warriors dressed in traditional costume protesting against the export-deal met them.

The delegation can count themselves lucky the warriors only used placards and slogans to protest instead of their traditional weapons.

October 20, 2005

More than one million Kenyans face starvation. In the Ukambani region, five MPs yesterday
warned that about 800,000 people were threatened with starvation.

The legislators said most parts of Ukambani had recorded poor harvest in the past two seasons
due to rain failure.

The alert comes after reports that three people had died of hunger in Mandera District, among
them an eight-year-old girl. The deaths occurred barely a month after eight people died of an
undiagnosed disease in Dandu division, the worst hit area in the arid district.

In Rift Valley Province, three districts have been hit by drought leaving more than 200,000
people threatened with starvation. They include Samburu, Turkana and West Pokot.

The districts did not receive adequate rainfall and residents are forced to depend on rations
of maize, beans and cooking fat supplied by the Government.

Kajiado, Koibatek and Nakuru districts have also been hit by drought. MPs Daudi Mwanzia,
Moffat Maitha, Itwiku Mbai, Mwangu Ivuti and Kiema Kilonzo said Machakos, Makueni, Kitui and
Mwingi had been affected by drought.

“We are now sounding an alert that our people are threatened by hunger,” said Maitha.

In West Pokot more than 60,000 people are threatened with starvation following prolonged
drought. More than 80,000 people required food in Samburu District as the consignment
delivered by the Government runs out.

Elsewhere, scores of people were yesterday injured when two Somali clans clashed over a
watering dam in Banissa division of Mandera District. The skirmishes pitted the Degodia
against Garre herdsmen.

Area acting OCPD Robin Keter said five of the victims were slashed and were admitted to
Banissa Dispensary. Others sustained minor injuries and were treated and discharged.

Elsewhere, the Government pledged to distribute relief food to Mandera District after an
assessment indicated that more than 156,000 people faced famine and severe water shortage.

Assistant minister in the Office of the President, Dr Wilfred Machage, said the Government
would distribute 2,000 bags of maize, 1,000 of beans, 5,000 cartons of cooking oil.

Another 1,000 cartons of powder milk will be distributed to area residents in the next two
weeks, he said.

It may be one of the most recognizable shapes on the planet… and whether or not you’re a fan of Coca-Cola or the triumph of global capitalism, there’s no denying that Belize’s artistic rendering of the ubiquitous coke bottle is a masterpiece. Today I was in Orange Walk for its homecoming.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting:
Standing four feet tall, the solid mahogany Coca Cola bottle is estimated to weigh more than five hundred pounds. In 1996, four Belizean artisans laboured more than eight weeks to create this unusual work of art. Robert Westby sculpted the national symbols and the jaguar, Federico Reyes carved the map of Belize, and Ramon Espat was responsible for the painting. But it was Carmelo Teck who was charged with shaping the giant coke out of single block of hardwood.

Carmelo Teck, Bottle Carver:
“Inna wah way it’s not the biggest, but it was the most complicated one because we needed to shape it the way they want it. I couldn’t find any way how fu do it so I try invent this calliper to get the measurements and sizes because it had to be accurate.”

Robert Westby, Animal Carver:
“It wasn’t difficult for me because I had a lot of training in wood carving. I was also a student of George Gabb and I’ve been doing it for years, almost thirty years now… The team that, me Mr. Espat, Mr. Teck, and Mr. Reyes–he’s not here—but it was a very confident and sure that it would work out right.”

The Coca Cola Company commissioned the piece nine years ago for the exhibition “Salute to Folk Art” displayed during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta Georgia.

David Craig, Merchandizing Mgr., Bowen & Bowen:
“They wanted to highlight the folk art of all the countries of the world and to create an exhibition so that the many people and athletes coming to Atlanta would be able to see it.”

“Folk art is a very special art. It’s art that really you don’t get any formal training for…it just springs forth from the creative mind and you use indigenous materials. Our artists have been doing it for many, many, years probably without recognition. We are just selling off these pieces.”

Fifty-three countries submitted entries but only a select few were chosen to participate in a two year European tour. Of course, the Belizean piece made the cut and local officials thought their contribution had been lost to the art world.

David Craig:
“We signed off on the bottle a long time ago. We didn’t believe that we would get it back, but we kept asking, asking and we finally have it back here because we want to show it to Belizeans. We want people to enjoy what the many people from all over the world that visited Atlanta and Europe enjoyed.”

Having returned to its roots in Orange Walk, the bottle will be hosted at the Banquitas House of Culture. But a national tour is already in the planning stages.

Joe Loskot, Coke Bottle Project Manager:
“Belize has a considerable amount of talent and we are now putting our talents to use and to show the world that we do have good craftsmen in Belize… It shows that we can have diverse talents all in one. We can amalgamate them and we can put out something that Belize can be proud of.”

Coca-Cola originally paid Loskot’s company twenty-five thousand dollars for the piece. According to Bowen and Bowen, the exhibition is in collaboration with the Image Factory and the National Institute of Culture and History.

NAIROBI - Drayton Maina looks sharp behind the wheel of his car in a grey suit, colourful tie and shiny leather shoes.

It would be hard to tell that the Kenyan driver — like millions of his fellow Africans — is dressed from head-to-toe in second-hand clothes brought in from the West.

“The only thing you can’t get in a Kenyan second-hand market is a wife!” he jokes, picking out a fleecy top to counter Nairobi’s morning chill for a mere 200 shillings ($2.64) at the vast Gikomba street market.

Maina is proud to tot up the modest cost of his smart work attire: wide-collared suit 500 shillings, white shirt 150, cartoon tie 100, black leather shoes 800.

Despite widespread poverty across the east African nation of 32 million people, that sort of price is affordable for many and underpins the roaring success in the last two decades of the second-hand clothes trade known in local Swahili as “mitumba.”

Popular as the clothes may be among the poor, Kenya’s mitumba explosion has annoyed many in the former British colony.

Textile manufacturers say it has helped decimate their industry, while cotton-growers are equally aggrieved.

And the mass use of second-hand Western clothes has given a sometimes drab look to Kenyan streets — at least in the capital Nairobi, where colourful traditional African dress is rare.

Shipped into Kenya in enormous quantities, vast piles of clothes are shifted at Gikomba, a teeming labyrinth of makeshift stalls, boxes, carts and barrows full of clothes and shoes in a densely-populated, pot-holed suburb of Nairobi.

“MITUMBA FEEDS MANY MOUTHS”

Many of the sellers sit on top of their wares, as buyers rummage through the garments. Some clothes are sold by item, others by weight. Bargain boxes sell women’s underwear and children’s clothes at 20 shillings an item.

Many come to Gikomba to pick up large quantities to take out to the countryside and sell on at smaller markets.

Middlemen buy the clothes in bags known as “bales” from a handful of major importers who draw on charity stores, out-of-date stocks or over-runs in the West or in Asia.

Most importers and middlemen are reluctant to talk about the exact origin of the clothes, whether they pay for them and whether the donors are aware that the clothes are sold on again.

Some people in the business believe traders get the clothes for free by saying they will be donated to poor people in developing nations. Others think they pay a nominal fee to charities, or to Western firms to take seconds off their hands.

Jas Bedi, chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers’ textile and apparel group, says the mitumba industry is exploiting goodwill in richer countries.

“People in Europe and America have sent clothes in good faith to Africa for the under-privileged and the poor, not to be turned into business by unscrupulous traders.”

The source of the clothes may be as muddled as Gikomba’s market but all agree that the clothes are prized.

“Everyone prefers mitumba in Kenya,” said John Omare, 25, next to his pile of boys’ T-shirts in Gikomba. “This is one of the largest open-air markets in east Africa. The mitumba industry is feeding a lot of mouths.”

“NAIL IN THE COFFIN”

Bedi estimates the mitumba trade employs some 30,000 people. That dwarfs the 12,000 left in the formal textile industry, which used to employ around 100,000 in the 1970s and 1980s.

In that heyday, Bedi says, there were some 100 major factories, compared to 7 or 8 now. Cheap Asian imports also played their part in the decline but mitumba gets most blame.

“Allowing imports of mitumba obviously had a negative impact on the industry. Mitumba is sent free, then sold, so with zero procurement costs, how can we compete?” Bedi said.

Between 200 to 300 containers of mitumba, each holding about 10 tonnes, enter Kenya’s Mombasa port each month, Bedi said.

“If you think a shirt weighs about 4 grams, then you can see just how much is coming in. It’s dumping basically. The people (textile manufacturers) who are surviving are barely surviving. They are waiting for the final nail in the coffin.”

Textile firms that have struggled on have done so by virtually abandoning the mass market to diversify into niche areas like school or factory uniforms, or the fashionable local “kikoi”: a colourful cloth worn around the waist or shoulders.

Lobbyists for the textile industry want the government to level the playing-field by raising taxes on mitumba imports — or just by ensuring taxes are paid at all at the ports. But in fact in the last budget in June, Finance Minister David Mwiraria halved tax on a kilo of mitumba.

“We have tried to fight this battle for the last 20 years, we’ve even taken it up at (World Trade Organisation) levels, but we have not won,” Bedi said.

“The politicians say we’re a poor country, we can’t do anything. OK, fine, so why not just give it away then?

Meanwhile, mitumba is every season’s must-have across Kenya, with some estimating that between half and two-thirds of the population wear second-hand items from the markets.

“This is an important service we provide for our nation,” said mitumba middleman Justus Malila in Gikomba, hustling a delivery through a muddy backstreet as the cheers and chants of a religious meeting next door rang out.

Nairobi - Since gaining independence in 1963, Kenya has held four elections. But,
perhaps the most decisive ballot of all has been cast by citizens who voted with
their feet — leaving Kenya for countries that seemed more promising.

Concerns about corruption, economic decline and insecurity have prompted an exodus
of teachers, doctors, nurses and other professionals.

“The economy has been badly mismanaged, reducing the purchasing power of highly
trained and skilled people,” Michael Chege, an economic advisor to the Ministry of
Planning and National Development, told IPS. “You cannot expect them to remain
earning low salaries when their skills are in demand outside, and at a high salary
scale.”

Chege himself is an exception to this trend. He returned to Kenya in 2003, five
years after having fled political repression under former president Daniel arap Moi.

According to authorities, most skilled migrants head for Southern Africa, the United
Kingdom (UK), Australia and the United States.

The results of a survey by the London-based Institute for Public Policy Research
(IPPR) issued earlier this month (Sep. 7), showed that Kenyans made up the
eighth-largest group of immigrants in Britain by 2001. After South Africa, Kenya
sent more nationals to Britain than any other African country.

Kenyan officials say they do not have figures for the number of citizens working
abroad; but, organisations which recruit professionals say these number in the
thousands.

As those wishing to take up residence abroad frequently have to be screened for HIV,
centres which test for AIDS also have an interesting tale to tell. Moses Otsyula,
who owns the Nairobi-based Pathogen Diagnostic Laboratories, says he has screened as
many as 2,500 professionals in one month alone - most of them nurses.

Salaries for nurses in Kenya range from about 200 to almost 530 dollars a month. In
the United States, these medics can earn up to 6,000 dollars per month - perhaps
even more, says Nancy Akinyi, an office coordinator for Hamsdel Professional
Services. This agency recruits nurses from across the country to work in the United
States.

In addition to being paid low salaries, nurses face a dispiriting lack of equipment.

“There is a shortage of resources at government hospitals, especially the ones in
remote areas,” says Mary Muli, a nurse in Nairobi. “This is also part of the reason
why nurses leave for other destinations.”

Similarly, lecturers who earn between about 200 and 400 dollars a month can earn 10
times that in South Africa, notes Chege: “The purchasing power of a lecturer in
Kenya is estimated to have declined by 40 percent between 1980 and 2000.”

Others do not fare as well once they leave. The IPPR’s report notes that just under
a quarter of settled Kenyan migrants in the UK are unemployed. For new migrants,
this figure is about 40 percent.

Atieno Ndede-Amadi, who heads the Nairobi-based Africa’s Brain Gain, also warns that
Kenyans living overseas may find themselves exploited.

“Once they go, they are on their own — they have no bargaining power,” she told
IPS. “The pay they are being given might not be the actual market rate. It may be
lower, and since these people are desperate they just accept it.”

Africa’s Brain Gain conducts research on migration issues. It also lobbies
governments to find ways of assisting people who seek their fortune abroad.

As with migrants from other countries, Kenyans working in foreign countries send
remittances home — although government does not know how much these amount to. The
country’s central bank is now trying to assess this.

However, remittances mean little to patients who find there are too few nurses to
care for them in hospitals - or to parents obliged to put their children in schools
which don’t have enough teachers to give pupils personal attention.

This matter was brought into sharp relief recently during a tribal clash in northern
Kenya, the worst to occur in the country since independence.

Almost 100 people were killed in the massacre, which took place in July when members
of the Gabra ethnic group were attacked by the Borana clan.

Scores of severely wounded people were rushed to a district hospital after the
incident. However, only one doctor was on hand to attend to them.

Situated on the equator on Africa’s east coast, Kenya has been described as “the cradle of humanity”.

In areas of the Great Rift Valley, palaeontologists have discovered some of the earliest evidence of man’s ancestors.

In the present day, Kenya’s ethnic diversity has produced a vibrant culture, but is also a source of conflict.

After independence from Britain in 1963, politics was dominated by the charismatic Jomo Kenyatta. He was succeeded in 1978 by Daniel arap Moi, who remained in power for 24 years. The ruling Kenya African National Union was the country’s only legal political party for much of the 1980s.

Violent unrest - and international pressure - led to the restoration of multi-party politics in the early 1990s. But it was to be another decade before opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki ended nearly 40 years of Kanu rule with his landslide victory in 2002’s general election.

With its scenic beauty and abundant wildlife, Kenya is one of Africa’s major safari destinations. But the lucrative tourist industry has been hit by fears of terrorism; flight cancellations and travel warnings issued by some foreign governments have had a severe impact on the sector.

Despite President Kibaki’s pledge to tackle corruption, some donors estimated that up to $1bn had been lost to graft between 2002 and 2005.

Other pressing challenges include high unemployment, crime and poverty; most Kenyans live below the poverty level of $1 a day.

One of Africa’s more politically-stable countries, Kenya has been a leading light in the Somali and Sudanese peace processes.

* Population: 32.8 million (UN, 2005)
* Capital: Nairobi
* Area: 582,646 sq km (224,961 sq miles)
* Major languages: Swahili, English
* Major religion: Christianity
* Life expectancy: 43 years (men), 46 years (women) (UN)
* Monetary unit: 1 Kenya shilling = 100 cents
* Main exports: Tea, coffee, horticultural products, petroleum products
* GNI per capita: US $390 (World Bank, 2003)
* Internet domain: .ke
* International dialling code: +254

President: Mwai Kibaki

Political veteran Mwai Kibaki won a landslide victory in the December 2002 elections. The constitution barred his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi, from standing for re-election. Mr Kibaki’s National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) won a parliamentary majority.

Mr Kibaki said he would make the fight against corruption a priority and promised to tackle Kenya’s economic woes.

But two years into his presidency, crime and corruption were widespread and the economy remained weak. A poll suggested that many Kenyans thought that life was worse under the Narc government than under Mr Kibaki’s predecessor.

The president also pledged to introduce a new constitution. Parliament approved a draft in July 2005, paving the way for a popular referendum. But changes to the draft document, which critics said left too much power in the hands of the president, sparked unrest.

A respected economist, Mwai Kibaki served as finance minister and vice president in the 1970s and 1980s. He left Kanu in 1991 and founded the Democratic Party.

His victory marked the end of almost 40 years of uninterrupted rule by Kanu, and it was third time lucky for Mr Kibaki, who lost two elections in the 1990s.

Mwai Kibaki was born in 1931 and hails from Kenya’s largest tribe, the Kikuyu. He studied in Uganda and Britain, before joining the push for Kenya’s independence in the 1960s. He became an MP in 1963.

Kenya enjoys a more diverse media scene than many other African countries, with a large middle class providing a base for substantial advertising revenue.

There is a tradition of a relatively independent press, although newspapers often had to practise self-censorship during the era of Presidents Kenyatta and Moi. The print media is dominated by two major publishing houses, the Nation and Standard, both of which also have substantial broadcasting operations.

Most Kenyans rely on the broadcast media, particularly radio, for news. Until recently the liberalisation of broadcasting had a limited impact outside Nairobi but some private radio and TV networks now have wide coverage of much of the country. TV viewing is substantial, but few Kenyans are regular internet users, owing to cost and access problems.

The Kibaki government came to power promising further media liberalisation, but some incidents since then have alarmed observers. In late 2003 there was a crackdown on unregistered “alternative” newspapers, using a controversial law passed by the previous government.

Months later, a court criticised the information minister for harassing Kiss FM, the most popular private radio station, which had gained a reputation for upsetting the government.

Full-time FM relays of the BBC World Service are on the air in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, and some BBC programmes are also rebroadcast by private Kameme FM. The Voice of America has an FM relay in Nairobi and Radio France Internationale is relayed on FM in Mombasa.

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Kenyan security forces battled stone-throwing protesters and looters in Nairobi in a second day of unrest touched off by moves to protect the president’s power in an overhaul of the nation’s constitution.

One person was killed, at least seven arrested and four injured as riot police and troops fought street battles that criss-crossed the capital and shuttered many stores.

Kenyans making their way home from work moved in panicked groups across the glass-strewn streets, fleeing wind-whipped teargas clouds and soldiers chasing protesters and looters.

In several hours of skirmishes, police and soldiers turned water cannons on pockets of protesters, fired teargas, beat ringleaders and hurled back stones tossed at them.

Standing in front of the police lines, scores of people sang songs calling for an uprising. “Even if you kill us, we still want our constitution,” they chanted.

Protesters dragged metal kiosks into the streets to frustrate their pursuers, threw garbage cans, rocks and furniture and lit fires at intersections. Some took advantage of the chaos to steal, leading to one looter’s death.

“He was looting and was cornered by the public and killed,” said Nairobi police chief Kingori Mwangi. “We did not fire even a single live bullet.”

Groups opposed to President Mwai Kibaki’s handling of the constitutional reform process had called for three days of protests before Friday’s deadline for parliament to finalise its version of the new document prior to a referendum.

The protests have been banned by the authorities.

The most contentious issue is the president’s power which the latest version, the Kilifi Draft, by a government-dominated parliamentary committee leaves virtually untouched.

A previous version - the so-called Bomas Draft - from a wide cross-section of Kenyans recommended most authority go to a new prime minister’s post.

‘Havoc’

“The common citizen wants the Bomas draft and a small clique of MPs want the Kilifi Draft,” said Nicodemus Nyabwa, a bystander who was caught up in the chaos.

“This is what has caused the havoc. President Kibaki should give the people the constitution they want.”

Most Kenyans are disillusioned with Kibaki’s two-and-a-half year rule, saying he has failed to live up to his 2002 election pledge to end the tribal politics and corruption that flourished under predecessor Daniel arap Moi’s 24-year rule.

Critics say cronyism is rife in Kibaki’s government, which they accuse of watering down initial cross-party recommendations for rewriting the constitution, drawn up by Kenyans before independence from Britain in 1963.

Members of Kibaki’s National Rainbow Coalition have accused opposition parties of trouble-making hypocrisy, saying they failed to deliver a new constitution in the past.

By late afternoon, the streets of central Nairobi were strewn with stones and garbage. Police barricaded roads and shops were locked up, many with people cowering inside.

“They are just looters, idlers, thieves and time-wasters throwing stones. It’s just stupid people. We cannot leave now or go about our duties,” said Vicki Lucas, a pharmacist locked in her store with about 10 other people.

Many shop fronts, telephone booths and car windows were smashed. Several dozen movie-goers were forced to stay in a downtown theatre while the mayhem died down.

MANY KILLED IN KENYA FEUD
13.7.2005. 19:21:55

Up to 66 people, around 22 of them children, have been killed and dozens wounded in a bloody raid on a remote village in eastern Kenya.

Residents said the raid was an inter-clan attack sparked by long-running disputes over water and pasture.

Witnesses who ferried some of the most seriously injured to hospital spoke of a grisly attack with dead bodies lying on the streets of the remote village of Turbi.

They said members of the Borana clan invaded and shot the victims, all of whom are believed to belong to the rival Gabra clan.

In Nairobi, police said at least 19 people — 15 villagers and four attackers — had died in a raid on one compound or manyatta in Turbi, about 580 kilometres northeast of the capital, but said the death toll could rise.

However, residents of Marsabit, the nearest town to Turbi about 150 km south, said between 21 and 23 people had died in the attack.

Others, including a local businessman who has radio contact with Turbi said at least 23 people, the majority of them children, had been killed but his death toll could not be confirmed by independent sources.

Roba Eleme, a mechanic with Kenya’s water ministry who brought 12 seriously wounded Turbi residents to Marsabit for treatment, said he had seen numerous dead bodies outside one large house and several in the street.

“I could not count, but there are very many people dead as many as 30 or even 100 and most of them are apparently children who it appeared were running out of the house,” he said.

The two clans have feuded persistently over water and pasture in the region.

Condemnation after closure of websites and community radios

Reporters Without Borders protested as Thaksin Shinawatra’s
government demonstrated a toughening stance towards critics, closing
several community radios and two alternative news websites in the
space of a week.

The organisation said it was particularly concerned at the closure on
21 June of two controversial websites http://www.fm9225.com and
http://www.thai-insider.com, apparently on the orders of the Ministry
of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

“Thailand already blocks access to thousands of sites considered
‘inappropriate’, particularly pornographic, but also some
publications exposing ‘cases’ implicating the authorities,” the
organisation said.

“However this is the first time to our knowledge that the minister
has ordered a host to close a news website. It sets an extremely
serious precedent, all the more so since the government refuses to
justify its decision and even pretends not to have made it.”

“We would like to remind it that the closure of an online publication
can only be decided by a court; it cannot be justified by an
administrative decision.”

According to the English-language daily Bangkok Post, the ICT
ministry directly contacted the web hosts companies to get the
websites removed from the Web. The ministry has so far denied being
behind this censorship.

The website www.thai-insider.com carried articles exposing corruption
and implicating the government. Its head, Ekkayuth Anchanbutr, a
fierce opponent of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has already
moved his site to another host. Thai Insider can now be accessed on
www.akeyuth.com.

The site, www.fm9225.com posts broadcasts by several community radios
such as FM 92.25, which is critical of the government. According to
Thai daily The Nation, a manager of the site said he had received a
letter from the department of the ICT ministry responsible for the
Internet saying that the site was endangering “the country’s unity
and security”.

For more information on Internet censorship in Thailand, see:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=1074

The website closures come at a time when the government has begun a
trial of strength with a number of community radios. The authorities
have talked about wanting to regulate the sector, which comprises
more than 3,000 stations, while some of the radio’s management see it
more as a bid to bring them to heel.

At least two such radios have been closed since a deadline was passed
on 15 June by which all community radios had to register and to
resolve their “technical problems”.

Reporters Without Borders is asking the government to try to find
negotiated solutions to resolve the technical problems. “The rapid
development of community radios is good news for pluralism of news
and information in Thailand. It is regrettable that the government
should be tempted to snuff out these fledgling radios,” said the
organisation.

Agents of the Public Relations Department (PRD) and the regulatory
body the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) closed two
Bangkok community radios Huay Kwang and Bang Khen on 17 June 2005.
The transmitter of the first and the antenna of the second were
seized. The authorities said they had been using non-regulation
equipments which was interfering with signals from other radios and
with aviation.

The new regulations governing community radios limit their output to
30 watts and a range of less than 15 kilometres. It also bans the use
of antennas higher than 30 metres. Operators say they need 500 watts
and 60-metre aerials.

Radio controllers who fail to comply with these technical rules could
face up to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 baht (about
2,000 euros).

The government issued two warnings in May to the station FM 92.25
that its antenna was too high. To avoid closure, FM 92.25 took down
its antenna and launched the website www.fm9225.com.

Thai journalists contacted by Reporters Without Borders said that the
summary sanctions taken by the PRD against community radios could be
explained by the authorities’ determination defend its own position
in the sector. The PRD in fact manages nearly 200 stations. The army
has two TV stations and 120 radios.

BANGKOK, May 7 - Thailand’s love affair with beauty pageants was fuelled today when hopefuls for the title of Miss Universe 2005 began arriving from around the world for this year’s most important beauty competition.

Welcomed by Thailand’s former Miss Universe, Miss Apasara Hongsakul, and this year’s Thai entrant, Miss Chananporn Rosjan, the contestants descended on the Dusit Thani Hotel, the centre of this year’s pageant.

The first contestant to arrive, Miss Pham Thu Hang from Vietnam, told reporters that she was impressed by the warm reception she had received from the Thai delegation.

The main contest will be held on 30 May.

Island studies is not the mere study of events and
phenomena on sites which happen to be islands;
islands do not merely reproduce on a manageable scale
the dynamics and the behaviour which exist elsewhere.
Islandness is an intervening variable which contours
and conditions physical and social events in distinct,
and distinctly relevant, ways.
— Godfrey Baldacchino,
UPEI Canada Research Chair in Island Studies

BELMOPAN, Belize, April 27 - Belize’s prime minister has vowed to survive a wave of anti-government strikes and riots but warned that the tiny Central American nation’s debt crisis poses a serious threat to its economic future.

A popular beach and scuba diving center, Belize has been thrown into turmoil over the last week by riots, strikes at the main telephone company and opposition calls for Prime Minister Said Musa to step down due to unpopular tax increases and corruption scandals.

Musa defiantly blamed opposition leaders for the worst political crisis since independence from Britain in 1981 but said he will survive it and that the real threat is debt.

“The political crisis will be easier to weather than the economic but I am convinced we will work our way through it,” he told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.

“I am convinced that if tomorrow we called an election we’d win again,” said the 61-year-old Musa, who was elected to a second five-year term in 2003.

Musa, of Palestinian descent, said he had no intention of resigning, although he might reconsider his position if there were serious violence.

“If the situation became so disordered that life and limb were at stake, I love my country I love my people, I would certainly have to consider that option,” he said, adding he thought further violence unlikely.

Belize’s residents are famously laid-back and Belize City, the biggest town in this country of just 270,000 people, was calm on Wednesday morning after the unrest of the past week.

Telephone service was sporadic and a teachers’ strike went into a second day but more schools were open and more teachers working than on Monday.

CORRUPTION AND DEBT

At the heart of the crisis lies nearly $1 billion of public debt and persistent allegations of government corruption.

Belize’s fiscal deficit amounted to a huge 8 percent of gross domestic product last year and the Standard & Poor’s rating agency said this month that the country’s finances were in “dire” shape.

“We have to reduce the debt and we have to get the fiscal deficit under control and bring it below three percent,” said Musa, who was first elected in 1998.

Heavy government spending and a tourism boom have fueled steady economic growth in recent years but the fiscal deficit now poses a serious threat to stability and the government has been forced to cut back on projects and impose tax increases.

Musa said those hikes and spending cuts would close the financing gap and reduce the fiscal deficit over the next 18 months. “We are not going to depend on people forgiving debt.”

Much of the criticism of Musa’s government stems from allegations that money from the social security fund, which pays pensions, was used to back a short lived telecommunications company owned by an ex-minister.

Musa accepted that investigations would likely uncover irregularities but he did not believe there was any criminal offense and he rejected suggestions that a corruption scandal was enough to warrant new elections.

“If every time any government faces allegations of corruption they were to resign and call elections, I think just about every government would be calling elections every year,” he said.

An ongoing investigation of global islands accompanied by multi-media pdf-publications.

bbs: brad brace sound weblog

Victims Sue Thailand, U.S., Accor Over Tsunami 

U.S. and Austrian lawyers have filed a lawsuit demanding Thailand, U.S. forecasters and the French Accor group answer accusations they failed in a duty to warn populations hit by December’s Tsunami disaster, a lawyer said Monday.

The lawsuit was filed Friday at a New York district court on behalf of tsunami victims by lawyers including U.S. attorney Edward Fagan, internationally renowned for 1990s lawsuits against Swiss banks over Holocaust-era accounts. It demanded an account of their actions on Dec. 26.

“We expect a hearing within 30 days,” Austrian lawyer Gerhard Podovsovnik told Reuters.

“We don’t earn any money on the lawsuit. We want to help people,” he said. “We are suing to get information.”
The disaster left about 300,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Bangladesh and East Africa. Hundreds of thousands lost their homes.

The text of the lawsuit is available on the Web site www.tsunamivictimsgroup.com.

The U.S. and Austrian lawyers filed the lawsuit on behalf of around 60 named plaintiffs from Austria, Germany, France, Netherlands and elsewhere. Podovsovnik said they were also acting on behalf of at least 40 more not named.

The lawsuit suggests the Thai government and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates a Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, failed to issue the requisite warnings.

“Respondent NOAA did not notify all involved countries which lay in the tsunami’s path. From public information it appears that … NOAA failed to issue an alert that would notify countries where the tsunami hit that the deadly wave was coming,” the lawsuit said.

“Published reports emerged that upon receipt of the NOAA alert and other data, the seismological and oceanographic experts of Thailand spent more than one hour talking about what the risk may or may not have been, instead of immediately issuing a warning to their population,” it said.

It also accused Thailand of failing to notify Sri Lanka that a tsunami wave was headed its way.

Among the charges leveled against Accor, the owner of the Sofitel hotel chain, was failure to equip its luxury resort and spa in Khao Lak, Thailand with state-of-the-art seismic detection and warning systems, despite its location “in an earthquake and tsunami fault zone.”

Last month, Accor issued a statement denying media reports of possible negligence in connection with the tsunami disaster. “The allegations concerning Accor are completely unfounded,” Accor said on its Web Site.