Land grabbing has become a recurring phenomenon in Africa but the situation in Tanzania is a disaster; from the northern part of the country where about 40,000 of the Maasai tribe were said to have been evicted from their ancestral land so that the Dubai Royal family can hunt, to the south where the SAGCOT program (Southern Agricultural Corridors of Tanzania) of G8/NEW Alliance has driven thousands of families into penury. In December 2015, the AEFJN Secretariat took a fact-finding mission to Tanzania. Some of the journeys took as long as 17 hours but it gave the staff good first-hand experience of the disaster of land grabbing in Tanzania. This documentary studies just the tip of the iceberg of land grabbing in Africa.
Looking at the Other Side of the Story in 2017
There is a human tendency to look for solutions to problems in a manner that draws attention but never solves the problems. It is a deliberate scheme to deny the truth. Truth unsettles us because it challenges our illusions, the falsely-founded privileges we cling to and the mental constructs that serve our selfish ends. Unfortunately, the shadows of repressed truth never sleep. Can Africa tell her story? Yes, of course! But that is made very difficult by the current economic configurations of the world and the ingrained but selfish desire of ‘powerful nations’ and conglomerates to perpetuate the status quo. How would a man under the rubble of fallen house get up to fight the men who designed and built the house with substandard material in order to make more profit? It is not so much the story of the man under the rubble of a fallen house as that of the man who compromised the standards.
Against tax evasion in Malawi
Tax evasion has very serious consequences in Malawi as in many other developing countries: lack of access to drinking water, privatization of health clinics and hospitals, closure of several schools… Stella is a young Activist of the AEFJN network. Continue reading “Against tax evasion in Malawi”
Our confrere Andreas Göpfert share his expertise in Peacebuilding.
The English JPIC promoters met in their January monthly meeting at the UISG offices as usual to reflect on opportunities available to be artisans of peace. Our presenter Andreas Göpfert, MAfr has a background of studies in peacebuilding and extensive experience in conducting workshops on nonviolence in parts of West Africa.
Read more in Newsbrief, the newsletter of JPIC Commission in Roma