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.

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.

 

God is green

Having woken-up in the early hours of this morning I grabbed our mp3 player and, thanks to restored internet connection at the office and the wonders of BBC downloads, listened to Radio 4’s Start the week. After listening to Wangari Maathai, the environmentalist and creator of the Greenbelt Movement in Kenya, talk about her new autobiography Unbowed: My Autobiography, I heard about a Channel 4 programme called God is green (to be broadcast at 8pm on Monday 12th Feb). In this programme broadcaster Mark Dowd speaks to religious leaders about why there isn’t a clearer message on the environment and climate change coming from the world’s religions? The interviews with the environment spokesperson for the Vatican suggested he didn’t know what he was talking about, the Bishop of London commits to not flying for a year, and, perhaps surprisingly, the programme finds that ‘US fundamentalist Christians’ are providing more of a lead in picking up the environmental debate than anyone else. Anyway sounded like an interesting programme for those with access to Channel 4 on Monday.

Another guest on Start the week, Michael Portillo, went on to argue that the environment is nt a ‘religious issue, but a political one. I couldn’t disagree with him more – not only do most religions believe in a creator God, the Bible clearly calls followers of Jesus to be good stewards of the earth which, at times, will need us to ‘get political’. Politicians alone will never be able to respond adequately to the predicted rate of climate change, as revealed in the recent UN IPCC report findings, without ‘religious’ people, and the wider electorate, taking up the issue and their responsibility in it.

That gave me pause for reflection as I gave up trying to get to sleep and instead opted to listen to the Zambian dawn chorus and the sounds of Ndola coming back to life.

Stand up… sit back?

We are currently in the UK, preparing to return to Zambia next week. Whilst in the UK we have been doing lots of talks about our work with Jubilee Centre and CMS. As we’ve been doing our talks it has been great to meet lots of new people and catch-up with old friends – and we’d love to carry on the conversations started on our visits through our blog. In our talks we’ve used a number of resources and mentioned a number of responses we can all make to fighting poverty. I have promised a few people that I’d put links to those resources and responses on our blog – so here are those links:

Supporting Jubilee Centre: If you would like to support the work of Jubilee Centre in Zambia financially or through prayer the following two leaflets explain how to do this – Jubilee Centre Leaflet and Jubilee Centre UK Giving Form.

Supporting Matt & Polly: We produce a regular newsletter and prayer letter which you can sign up to by contacting us – you can also subscribe to receive updates from this blog website by email. If you would like to support us financially in our work with CMS for Jubilee Centre click here.

Micah Challenge campaign and video: We have been using a video in our talks by Micah Challenge in the UK – you can get a copy of this video here or find out more about the Micah Challenge campaign in the UK at www.micahchallenge.org.uk

CMS: For further information on the work of CMS visit: www.cms-uk.org

We have also mentioned two books in our talks – both of which are really useful resources for exploring the kingdom of God and our role as part of it. We have blogged about Colossians Re:mixed by Brian J Walsh & Sylvia C Keesmaat before and will try to blog about The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren in the coming weeks.

World AIDS day

It won’t have escaped you that today is World AIDS day. Today we mark the fact that across the world more than 40 million people are living with HIV – 25 million of which live in sub-Saharan Africa. Every single day 15,000 people are infected with HIV.

For the community I work in HIV/AIDS dominates the whole of life. The estimated national rate of HIV/AIDS in Zambia is 16%, in the town we are in it is at 26%, and in the compounds of that town it is estimated to be even higher. People are scared to go and get tested and only do so when it’s too late. ARV drugs are free, but the blood count tests and transport to hospitals creates too much of a barrier to going to hospital to get them. If people do get onto the drugs then they need a balanced diet to be able to withstand the strength of the drugs – this is next to impossible in a community where people only expect to have a meal every other day. You see couple after couple nurse a partner until they pass away, knowing they will follow but wondering where they will get the care from.

But even these are the lucky ones. Partners will often run away when they find out that their spouse is sick, even though they themselves will be sick. One woman I met, called Beauty, was infected by her husband. She found out she was HIV+ as she was pregnant and was encouraged to go for testing. When the husband found out the news he ran away leaving her with their two children and one unborn child. She was desperate so ‘married’ someone quickly to get a roof over their heads – so she ended up being married to a man who now beats her and the children, but she has no where else to go. She gave birth to her child who only lived for one year. HIV is trapping people into poverty more than ever and making a mockery of any other development work.

On the other hand I have met people who have been brought back from the brink of death by the ARV drugs and are so inspired by this experience that they spend time helping others in home based care programmes, counselling or prevention programmes. They are the best people to get alongside those who are struggling as they offer inspiration, hope and understanding that no one else can quite match.

Lets not give up hope in the face of this pandemic. Let’s stand with those who are suffering, support them in life and be with them as they approach death. Let’s listen to those who are suffering and give them a platform to talk to the world. Let’s get all these big Bill Gates/ Bill Clinton projects right to the grassroots by empowering local communities to be a bridge. Let’s not forget that this is a pandemic that could be wiped out and lets not forget that those living with HIV/AIDS are still living and are created in the image of God.

Last year world leaders made a promise – that by 2010, AIDS treatment would be available to all who need it. That was in 2005, at the G8 summit in Edinburgh. The is calling on the UK government to keep this promise. Take action online with Tearfund or Oxfam.

Fancy doing more? Giant drug company Novartis is currently challenging Indian Patent Law in the courts after being denied a patent for a cancer drug. If they win, this will limit India’s ability to produce and export cheaper generic drugs to other developing countries, including HIV medicines currently benefiting millions of poor people. You can lobby Novartis through this Oxfam action page.