http://www.africafiles.org/ AfricaFiles is a network of volunteers committed to promoting African perspectives and alternative analyses for human rights and economic justice in Africa. en-ca Copyright 2010 AfricaFiles. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:45 EST 20 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24292 Both the Gates Foundation and Monsanto will profit at the expense of small-scale African farmers. It is clear that profit and not philanthropy will persuade business to invest in African agriculture. JK/CJW ed. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24292 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24283 Aflatoxins are carcinogenic by-products of fungi that colonise maize and groundnuts, among other crops, and are poisonous to humans and animals. The disease has affected nearly all of the maize harvested a few months ago in eastern Kenya and is has killed several people in previous years. A woman leads the search for solutions. HSEN/CJW ed. Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24283 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24209 The European Investment Bank is no longer involved in the Gibe III hydroelectric project; the Ethiopian government has found alternative sources of finance. To be Africa’s tallest dam Gibe III drew a lot of criticism because of the effect it was likely to have on the food security of at least eight Ethiopian tribes. DN Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24209 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24177 "The 'climate debt' that the industries and over-consumers of the global North owe Africans and other victims of climate change not responsible for causing the problem has accrued by virtue of the North’s excessive dumping of greenhouse gas emissions into the collective environmental space." This is Patrick Bond’s analysis of the history, and the "reparations" required. AB/CJW Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24177 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24160 The race to invent a new energy future is not waiting for the last sack of coal to be dug out of the ground. Ironically, this new energy future is being shaped despite the intense use of coal in a somewhat out-of-step South Africa today. AB Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24160 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24146 As evidenced by USAID administrator Rajiv Shah’s recent speech to the US Global Leadership Coalition, the US and the Green Revolution’s ’solutions’ for African agriculture remain more of the same, rooted in a corporate-funded, GMO-oriented, and market-based system designed entirely in the interests of Western business. While US development aid fasts becomes simply ’an investment subsidised by US taxpayers with high returns for US corporations’, African farmers’ groups such as COPAGEN, LEISA, and PELUM continue to organise in defence of self-determination and genetic biodiversity. Pambazuka editor. J.Stamp Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24146 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24099 Trafigura, a multinational company, has been fined €1 million (£845,000) for transporting toxic waste to the Ivory Coast, and dumping it there. Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24099 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24065 The government of Mozambique has developed a gender strategy for the agrarian sector aimed at creating equal access to resources and opportunities for men and women. It also urges implementation of programmes for diversification of subsistence crops and access to improved technologies, including agro-processing, in response to climate change. AB Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24065 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24066 Is Angola prepared to deal with an oil "spill" like the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico? AB Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24066 http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24008 Unlike BP’s oil spill that is publicly visible, biopiracy happens secretly in remote labs far from the public eye. Its detection requires passionate commitment and investigative skills. This article shows how civil society organizations have protected the public interest against corporate privatization. AB Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00 EST http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=24008