Zambia’s lost copper wealth – action trick

It’s been a while, but here is another action trick…

Having lived in the Copperbelt in Zambia we know that one of the central questions about Zambia is always: why is this once middle-income country so poor, when it is so rich – £2bn worth extracted from its mines last year – in copper?

As things are the lucrative trade in copper is not helping address Zambia’s poverty. SCIAF, Christian Aid and Action for Southern Africa, with the support of Zambian civil society, have just published a major report – Undermining Development? – on why Zambia fails to derive the benefits that it should from its enormous copper reserves.

Read the background in the Observer – Zambia’s new bid to cash in on copper.

Read the report – Undermining Development? – or the Executive Summary

Christian Aid and SCIAF are calling for the companies involved not to undermine Zambia’s efforts to tackle poverty and renegotiate their contracts – find out more and take action.

Bombs by Faithless – action trick

I came across the video for Bombs by Faithless months ago and keep forgetting to blog about it. The video and song would be a great tool for a creative look at injustice and the world – it would work well for a church service talk or reflective meditation. The images and lyrics talk of a world in pain, oppression and violence – where, ‘one man’s loss is another man’s gain’. It is pretty self-explanatory really and open to all sorts of uses.

You can watch and download the video here on the green.tv website – which incidentally has loads of ‘green minded’ videos. We’ve also added it to our vod:pod along with a few other videos we like - you can explore them all here.

So much heaven, so much hell. So much love, so much pain. So much more than I thought this world could ever contain. So much war, so much soul, one man’s loss, one man’s goal. So much more than I thought this world could ever hold… We’re just children, we’re just dust, we are small, we are lost, and we are nothing at all… nothing at all.

Lyrics to Bombs by Faithless

Black Gold Movie – action trick 5

A new documentary film about the impact of the coffee trade called Black Gold, is about to be released, so I am making it action trick 5.

The film exposes the injustices of the international coffee trade industry by following the journey of Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co. in Ethiopia, as he travels around the world to find buyers willing to pay a fair price for his coffee.

The blurb says: Against the backdrop of Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

You can watch the film trailer and find out more at the Black Gold Movie website. The film is to be released in the UK from 8th June.

stop vulture funds – action trick 4

Yesterday the vulture fund, Donegal International, that has been targeting Zambia for $55 million (we have talked about it before) was told it will only get $15.4 million. The fact Zambia has to pay anything to this company is still too much, but it is progress! The judge back in February found Donegal’s full claim to $55 million was not justifiable, but that it was entitled to something – and that award is now settled as being $15.4 million.

Apparently Donegal immediately claimed it had won the case and that Zambia should pay most of its legal costs, but the judge is restricting the proportion of the costs that Zambia has to pay, on the grounds that Donegal’s key witnesses were dishonest in their evidence before the court. You can read more at the Jubilee Debt Campaign website and BBC news website.

The UK and other donor countries funded Zambia’s legal fees, which enabled them to fight the case in the High Court – and get their losses reduced. But changes are needed to prevent such cases in future. Jubilee Debt Campaign and others are calling on the G8 to do what they can to prevent these companies targeting poor countries – through supporting the establishment of a fair, comprehensive framework for dealing with poor country debt, and funding legal assistance for countries targeted in this way.

Take action to tell the G8 to act against the vultures.

the slave tree – action trick 3

I have mentioned Freedom Day before. Recently, anticipating that this day to mark the end of slavery is just around the corner (25th March), we went in search for the famous slave tree in Ndola town and a local history lesson.

Swahili slave-traders used to frequent the area around the tree – meeting under the shade of the tree to sell and trade their slaves. Today it is in an almost forgotten part of town and in a decaying state, but I felt it had a story to tell. I took some photographs and walked up and down the quiet street – and decided to make a short film about it’s story.

I purposefully didn’t use images of people but rather focussed on the environment and local history to get across the complex reality of the area today. It is far from being a great video (it is my first effort at this sort of thing) but I liked the creative process more than anything. I am making it action trick 3 – to mark the importance of getting creative and using the local environment and history to get active. You are welcome to use the film if you like – use the above player or at YouTube (if you want to download it you can for free by using keepvid.com and then use VLC media player to play it).

vulture funds: action trick 2

Last week a high court judge in London ruled whether a so-called ‘vulture fund’, Donegal International, could extract more than $40m from Zambia for a debt which it bought for less than $4m.

In 1979 the Romanian government lent Zambia money to buy Romanian tractors. Zambia was unable to keep up the payments and in 1999 Romania and Zambia negotiated to liquidate the debt for $3m. But before the deal could be finalised a ‘vulture fund’ stepped in and bought the debt from Romania for less than $4m. They are now suing the Zambian government for the original debt plus interest which they calculate at over $40m.

Last week the judge did not accept all the ‘vulture funds’ arguments – and said that their witnesses had at times been “dishonest” – but ruled that legally they are entitled to something from Zambia. The exact total of what Donegal is ‘entitled’ is to be determined, but may be around $20 million. This would be half of the amount that Zambia is due to save from debt relief this year.

BBC Newsnight last week ran the story and attempted to interview the ‘vulture fund’ owner – there is a good report of the story on their website.

Whilst legally the ‘vulture fund’ may be entitled to money from Zambia morally surely the case is clear. The company brought the debt at a highly reduced price in 1999, at a time when it would have known that Zambia was considered poor and indebted enough to qualify for debt relief. One month before Zambia was finally granted debt cancellation in April 2005 – debt relief intended to improve its economy and provide the necessary resources to meet its peoples’ needs – Donegal launched its lawsuit to cash in on Zambia.

Jubilee Debt Campaign, together with Oxfam, is calling on Donegal International not to claim this money. Add your voice to the campaign – email Donegal not to claim money from Zambia

Five years ago Gordon Brown told the United Nations that the vulture funds were perverse and immoral. Jubilee Debt Campaign are also campaigning to outlaw the vulture fund practice. Add your voice to the campaign – email Gordon Brown to outlaw the vulture fund practice.

Action Trick no 1: Freedom Day – 25th March

The 25th of March 2007 is Freedom Day, which this year will mark the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Today twenty-seven million men, women, and children are still enslaved around the globe, so I am kicking off the Action Tricks series with a look at the things planned to commemorate the tireless work of William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano, amongst others, who were central to the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.

Perhaps the biggest is the release of Amazing Grace the film – based on the life of William Wilberforce, whose mentor was John Newton, the slave-trader -turned-song-writer, who wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace – the film website – has lots of resources, including film clips, discussion guides and church study guides on the issues raised in the film and modern day slavery.

In conjunction with the film there are plans for Amazing Grace Sunday – when churches around the world are invited to sing Amazing Grace and in praying for the end of slavery once and for all on Freedom day – 25th March. Again the website has lots of resources.

‘After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly before God’? Olaudah Equiano

Stop the Traffik, a global coalition, has lots of resourse on organising an event for the day, including an organiser’s pack, to help raise awareness of the problems of people trafficking today, with practical ways in which you can mark Freedom Day.

The bicentenary has a special connection for CMS, as William Wilberforce was one of the founders of CMS. They have lots of resources to help mark the event and focus on fighting slavery today: the current CMS Yes magazine is devoted to slavery; the CMS Lent Guide focuses on it; Free For All – unique events in schools across the UK run by CMS; African Snow play – a play sponsored by CMS to mark the anniversary and inspire new acts of abolition today. The play is based on the meeting of John Newton, the converted slave-trader who wrote Amazing Grace, and Olaudah Equiano, the former slave turned abolitionist whose extraordinary story has often been confined to a footnote or totally ignored.

Other websites with resources: Tearfund Freedom day resources, Amazing Change campaign; Set All Free – Act to End Slavery website; The Truth Isn’t Sexy campaign – exposing the truth between human trafficking and prostitution.

*Update* Also see the related slave tree video post

Action Tricks

Inspired by Jonny Bakers Worship Tricks I’ve decided to start a series of blog posts about all things campaigning and action, which I’ll be calling action tricks, consisting of thoughts, tips, resources and actions around campaigning and speaking out.

Having been involved for sometime in campaigning and finding a voice in the world of politics for those people and issues that usually go un-heard, I hope I’ve got something worthwhile to share. All the posts will be part of a series archived under an action tricks category tag so if nothing else, it will be a good personal archive of things I once came across and thoughts I once had!

When talking to people about poverty and injustice the conversation usually turns to what we can do, which then includes words like “but if I knew what to do I’d do it” or “if there was something that would really make a difference I would do it.” And we’d often be right – finding out possible solutions is usually not straight forward, but that doesn’t mean we can just do nothing. So I hope this series of posts may share things we can all do. These will rarely just be my ideas and thoughts, but will rather use the internet and blogging for what it is good at – sharing ideas and resources. The posts will point to other people’s ideas and organisations actions, as well as sharing different tools for action. Poverty and the environment will probably be the main themes…but we’ll see what comes up.

To see the latest action tricks click here.