NGOs accused by Swaziland of being with 'the enemy'

From IRIN, a story about an attack on NGOs by the government of Swaziland. Protests are rising in the sun-Saharan African country so the government is looking for someone to blame.

The government of King Mswati III of Swaziland is accusing NGOs and foreign diplomats of consorting with "the enemy".

A new round of protests against sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch began on 12 April - the 38th anniversary of a decree issued by Mswati’s predecessor, King Sobhuza II, which imposed a state of emergency and banned political parties. Witnesses said heavy-handed police detained pro-democracy activists and media representatives.

"We say people should disassociate themselves from the banned political parties - or whatever you call them - then we find some of you, Your Excellencies, sitting and having diner with these people,” public works minister Nthutuko Dlamini told about 30 foreign envoys at a meeting called by foreign minister Lutfo Dlamini in the capital, Mbabane, on the eve of the protest. "You cannot be seen to be with my enemy. It is naturally wrong."

The primarily urban-based pro-democracy movement includes trade unions, banned political parties like the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), and the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), all termed as "terrorist organizations" under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

The non-partisan value systems of NGOs do not prevent them being drawn into the political fray, Dimpho Motsamai a researcher in the Africa Conflict Prevention Program at the Pretoria-based think tank, the Institute for Security Studies, told IRIN.

NGOs have to engage with the state around issues of policy, delivery or simply by asking of government "where did the money go?". Once NGOs "cross the line" and become defined as a political entity, they become exposed to Swaziland's security legislation that could lead to their banning, she said.

Nthutuko Dlamini told the diplomats according to local reports that countries should not provide financial assistance to "[non-governmental] organizations that have anti-government agendas", but should instead make those donations directly to the government.

No foreign country with a diplomatic mission in Swaziland is known to contribute financially to any political party or entity. However, foreign governments provide assistance to local NGOs working in the social, health and humanitarian sectors. NGO activities have not been disrupted by the pro-democracy protests so far.

"Government has always had a rather jaundiced view of NGOs, because they feel they have no control over us," a programme director at an HIV/AIDS NGO, who declined to be identified, told IRIN: "They are concerned about 'outside influences', and many NGOs have international ties and depend on the international community for financing. One of the themes we heard this week from government is that pro-democracy protests are due to foreign influences and outsiders with agendas," the director said.

A Swaziland-based sociologist, who declined to be named, told IRIN: "No Swaziland-based NGO has a political mission. But in Swaziland ‘culture’ has been politicized, so when some NGOs raise issues that are foreign to traditional Swazi viewpoints this is seen as the imposition of a foreign ideology on the Swazi way of life."

The sociologist cited as an example the experiences of NGOs such as Women in Law in Southern Africa and the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse that have drawn fire for promoting gender equality and the protection of women in a society where women were considered as minors under traditional law.

Donor dependent country

The landlocked donor-dependent country, sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, has the world's highest HIV/AIDS prevalence - an estimated 26 percent of people aged between 15 and 49 are infected - and at least two-thirds of the roughly one million Swazis live in chronic poverty.

Income from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) has provided around 75 percent of government revenues according to some estimates, but this has declined in recent years, exerting acute financial pressure on the public purse.

SACU, comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, is the world oldest customs union. It applies a common set of tariffs and disproportionately distributes the revenue to member states, providing a lifeline that ensures the economic survival of Swaziland and Lesotho.

In 2011 the government suspended the first quarterly pension pay-out of US$21 per eligible individual. A reduction of about 7,000 public service jobs was also expected this year, although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended the workforce be cut by a third, or 10,000 employees, because the number of workers on the payroll was disproportionate to the country's size.

NGOs provide an array of services, from support for people living with HIV/AIDS to assistance for abused women and children. About 100,000 Swazis currently receive food assistance from foreign donors, but in the past few years this number has sometimes surpassed a quarter of the population.

"Aside from the matter that government is not accountable for the money it receives - which is a key issue with the protestors - the truth is that NGOs provide many services that government does not," a spokesman for an Mbabane-based NGO, who declined to be identified, told IRIN.

In the past, NGOs publicly expressing a negative view of the monarchy have been condemned in parliament for "engaging in politics" with the support of foreign funding.

In 2009, a support group for HIV-positive women, Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL), held a rally protesting the lavish lifestyles and shopping excursions to the Middle East and Europe by Mswati and his 13 wives while most of the people lived in poverty.

Video: Violence continues across Bahrain

From Al Jazerra, a video on another political uprising in the Middle East, this time Bahrain. Warning, this video is pretty graphic.

Video: Pitched street battle in Yemeni capital

From Al Jazeera, a video that tells us the latest on pro-democracy protests in Yemen.

Will the protests spread to Saudi Arabia?

When we talk about the protests in the Middle East and North Africa we often wonder how much further they will spread. Many worry that the demonstrations and overthrows will spread to Saudi Arabia. The country sits atop a fifth of the world's oil reserves so any political unrest could make today's gas prices look cheap.

Although there are some grumblings by the people of Saudi Arabia, the king there is very popular. King Abdullah on Wednesday opened up the kingdom's pocket book by announcing a 135 billion social welfare package. This package is an attempt to calm people who might protest over inequality.

from this Associated Press article that we found at the San Francisco Chronicle, writer Tarek El-Tablawy describes the package to us.

The total cost was estimated at 135 billion Saudi riyals ($36 billion), but this was not largesse. Saudi Arabia clearly wants no part of the revolts and bloodshed sweeping the already unsettled Arab world.

Saudi officials are "pumping in huge amounts of money into areas where it will have an obvious trickle-down by addressing issues like housing shortages," said John Sfakianakis, chief economist for the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Banque Saudi Fransi. "It has, really, a social welfare purpose to it."

The most prominent step was the injection of 40 billion riyals ($10.7 billion) into a fund that provides interest-free loans for Saudis to buy or build homes. The move could help reduce an 18-year waiting list for Saudis to qualify for a loan, Sfakianakis said.

Another 15 billion riyals ($4 billion) was being put into the General Housing Authority's budget, while the Saudi Credit & Savings Bank was to get 30 billion riyals ($8 billion) in capital. The bank provides loans for marriage and setting up a business, among other things, and is supported by the Saudi government.

Other measures included a 15 percent cost of living adjustment for government workers, a year of unemployment assistance for youth and nearly doubling to 15 individuals the size of families that are eligible for state aid. The government also will write off the debts of people who had borrowed from the development fund and later died.

While Saudi Arabia has been mostly spared the unrest rippling through the Middle East, a robust protest movement has risen up in its tiny neighbor, Bahrain, which like others around the region is centered on calls for representative government and relief from poverty and unemployment.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/02/23/international/i105855S35.DTL#ixzz1EuQ0q4el

NPR has this analysis on why revolt in Saudi Arabia is possible but unlikely. Writer Kevin Beesley says that many people see King Abdullah as a reformer.

NPR correspondent Deborah Amos is in Saudi Arabia and says the reason is simple: "The king is extremely popular, among young people and with reformers, too, unlike [former President Hosni] Mubarak in Egypt, and [former President Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali in Tunisia, who were deeply, deeply hated. They see [the king] as a reformer, and the changes he's introduced in the last two years have been startling."

The reasons behind the unrest that led to successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and protests in Libya, Bahrain and elsewhere, vary from country to country. But there are three fundamental factors that nearly all have in common: economic deprivation, youth unemployment and political frustration.

Saudi Arabia has all those problems, and more. With its massive oil wealth, the kingdom is one of the world's richest countries, but the money is not distributed evenly. There are many wealthy Saudis and an estimated 6,000 royal princes, but the average national income is around $20,000 a year and many Saudis live on the poverty line.

"Inflation has hit Saudis hard," Amos says. "There have been sharp increases in food prices, and you need two salaries to get by."

Most estimates put unemployment in Saudi Arabia at around 10 percent. But like nearly all Arab countries, Saudi Arabia is experiencing a massive "youth bump" in its population — about two-thirds of the population is younger than 29 — and the unemployment rate for young people is thought to be around 40 percent.

Like the other oil-rich Gulf states, Saudi Arabia has invested billions in education, including sending students to universities in the United States, England and Australia. Now all of these graduates, especially an entire generation of well-educated young women, are looking for ways to use their education — and there are limited opportunities for them.

Social business could play a big role in the Middle East and North Africa

With the political change sweeping through the Middle East, people are beginning to ask "now what?" If the protests stem from a lack of an economic opportunity and a lack of a political voice, what is the best way to give to those things to the masses.

Suzi Sosa of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin says that social business could be one of the answers. The dual aims of profit and social benefit that these type of businesses bring can help give the people of the Middle East what they need. Soza's latest op-ed piece was found at INC Magazine.

Social entrepreneurship can be a powerful solution for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. By blending both financial sustainability (profits) with a prioritization of social impact, social enterprises will contribute to both economic revitalization and social reconstruction. Social entrepreneurship is also particularly well suited to youth. It not only taps into the desire for independence and self-actualization, but it is also relevant for a generation whose worldview incorporates a sense of responsibility that goes significantly beyond immediate family and self.

Social entrepreneurship provides a "third way" that can productively balance the desire for greater social equity with the need for rapid economic growth. At the macroeconomic level, social entrepreneurship deploys a stakeholder model that not only provides more robust checks-and-balances in the system but also more fairly distributes profits and benefits and adds greater emphasis to long-term planning. For example, in social entrepreneurship, instead of just focusing on shareholders, the enterprise governs itself by taking into account a network of stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, investors, the community, and the environment. In the MENA region many states governed from a semi-socialist approach while informal economies practiced unregulated capitalism. Social entrepreneurship can balance wealth creation with equity and fairness and can provide greater accountability without the overbearing bureaucracy and regulation that inhibits growth.

Finally, social entrepreneurship is a powerful solution because it contributes to the reduction of social and environmental problems without having to rely on charity or public funding. For example, in Egypt there are virtually no public resources to fund social programs. Currently, Egypt's public debt is more than 80 percent of GDP and government spending on education is less than 4 percent of GDP. The national GDP per capita is a meager $6,000 per year, leaving more than 20 percent of the country living in poverty. The only hope of achieving sustainable, scalable solutions to pressing social and environmental problems is to create enterprises that can provide for the public good while being financially sustainable and scalable on their own.

The MENA region is already home to some impressive social entrepreneurs. Synergos recently recognized 22 Arab World Social Innovators, including Kamal Mouzawak, a Lebanese social entrepreneur who founded two enterprises, Souk el Tayeb and Tawlet—both focused on the economic empowerment of rural farmers by providing profitable opportunities for them to sell their goods. In the Palestinian territories, Mohammed Kilany and Lana Hijazi founded Souktel, a social enterprise that leverages mobile networks and SMS messaging to connect unemployed Palestinians to job opportunities for an affordable monthly fee.

How development policy falls short with the Middle East protests

The countries now doing the rioting in the Middle East are some of the best performers in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The same countries also perform well on the World Bank's Human Development Index. This might contradict what we and many others have been saying about the protest being all about lack of jobs and lack of money.

According to Alasdair McWilliam of the Overseas Development Institute, the protests do center around inequality. In his piece for the Guardian, McWilliam says the protests are fueled by an economic inequality not easily measured by the UN or World Bank.

Unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds in the Middle East is the highest in the world, at more than 25%. However, about two-thirds of the region's population is now below 24 years of age. The ever-greater numbers of high school and university graduates are not being absorbed into the economy, while the private sector is not generating enough skilled positions. Employers, meanwhile, complain of poor education quality and low graduate skills.

Tertiary enrolment – school leavers going to higher education – in Egypt has risen from 14% to 28% since 1990, and in Tunisia from 8% to 34%. Egyptian high school graduates account for 42% of the workforce, but 80% of the unemployed. According to the global employment trends from the International Labour Organisation, Arab countries need to generate more than 50 million jobs in the next decade just to stabilise employment. These conditions have created a large body of disaffected youth, a boiling pot of frustration that is now spilling over at governments that have failed to provide employment opportunities.

The reasons for unrest aren't all economic. Increases in literacy and education, alongside urbanisation and the expansion of the media, have extended political consciousness and broadened demands for political participation. Despite national increases in living standards, the region's repressive, authoritarian regimes are often plagued by corruption and nepotism. Dani Rodrik, a development economist, points out that economic growth does not buy stability unless political institutions mature at the same time. This shows that widely used measures of development such as the MDGs and the HDI are, by themselves, insufficient to determine development priorities: much greater attention needs to be played to inequality, but not only inequality of income.

Middle Eastern countries have had, at least until recently, one of the most equal income distributions in the world. Egypt, for example, registered a Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality) of 32 in 2005, far lower than the 47 achieved by the US in the same year. This suggests that access to gainful employment and acute inequalities in political power also need to be considered.

Video: Mideast Unrest Spreads in Bahrain, Yemen, Libya

From the Associated Press, a video that summarizes the latest developments in the widespread Middle East protests.

Video: Violent Clashes Erupt During Yemen Protest

From the Associated Press, a video on protest in Yemen now becoming violent.

Video: Egyptian unrest and US media bias

From Al Jazeera, a video that looks at the US media bias in covering the Egyptian uprising.

Video: Egyptian Protesters Hang on Through Clashes

From the Associated Press, the latest on the clashes in Egypt.

Robert Zoellick calls on G-20 to rein in food prices

Food prices have surged above the levels of 2008 when prices were then termed to be at crisis levels. Riots occurred in the food crisis of a few years ago and were seeing an historic surge of anti-government protests now. This in part because of the pressures of trying to buy food and trying to obtain a job has pushed people to the point of revolt.

In an interview with Reuters, World Bank President Robert Zoellick calls on government to do more to curb food prices. Speculation of food commodities has helped to drive up prices and Zoellick says as long as speculators are allowed to do that food prices will remain volatile. Writer Lesley Wroughton says Zoellick wants the G-20 to make food prices a priority this year.

"We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices," Zoellick told Reuters.

"This can put pressure but also create opportunities," he added, noting that developing nations could boost revenues by increasing food production to meet rising global demand.

He said increased consumer demand, especially for sugar and meat, in fast-growing emerging economies was a major factor pushing prices higher compared with the 2007/2008 crisis.

A mix of high oil and fuel prices, growing use of biofuels, bad weather and soaring futures markets pushed prices to record levels in 2007 and 2008, sparking violent protests in Africa.

Zoellick said the Food Price Index of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, which measures monthly prices changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, showed food prices surging to above 2007/08 levels.

Higher food prices are set to push the index on Thursday to a record high in January for a second straight month.

The higher prices, together with political repression and growing inequality between the rich and poor, have fanned protests across the Middle East, including Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria and Jordan.

Cutting food prices to avoid more protests in the Middle East

Some of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa that are seeing protesters are making efforts to decrease food prices. Lack of economic opportunity and the high cost of food is foremost on the protesters minds when they hit the streets.

From Reuters Alert Net, writers Asma Al Sharif and Martin Dokoupil explain some of the steps and if they have worked.

Food costs are among the grievances of demonstrators around the region as global food prices hit record highs in December, above levels that prompted riots in 2008, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation, which warned prices of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar are set to climb.

Arab attention is keenly focused on Egypt, as wheat prices, already up on supply shortages caused by drought in Russia and floods in Australia, continue to climb to multiyear highs on futures markets closely watching unrest in the region.

"The government has to take care, monitor prices and improve salaries so that they avoid what happened in Tunisia and spread to Algeria and Cairo," said Raeda al-Farooki, a mother of four, at a large supermarket in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah.

"Onions were about 5 riyals ($1.3) per kilo two years ago and now are around 10. Imported food is even more expensive, but the worst part is that there is no increase in salaries," said Farooki, who lives on six thousand riyals ($1,600) per month.

Algeria, Libya and Jordan have either relaxed food taxes or duties on food imports or cut prices of staple food, and Kuwait recently introduced a generous stipend and free food for its citizens until March 2012 to ease the pain of higher costs.

There is also simmering unrest in Yemen, the poorest Arab country, where 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day.

Video: Egyptian Immigrants in U.S. Transfixed by Crisis

From the Associated Press, a video on Egyptian immigrants living in the US and their reaction to the protests in their home country.

Poverty as a cause of the Middle East protests

All of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa engulfed with protests have many things in common. The protests were all started because the people have no jobs and no money. They see an elite ruling class grabbing all of the wealth for themselves. This leads the people to the streets, and any success seen in other countries helps their resolve.

From this Associated Press article that we found at MSNBC, writer Brian Murphy offers this analysis on why being poor is a major cause of the protests.

Just days before fleeing Tunisia, the embattled leader went on national television to promise 300,000 new jobs over two years.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak did much the same Saturday as riots gripped Cairo and other cities: offering more economic opportunities in a country where half the people live on less than $2 a day.

The pledges-under-siege have something else in common: an acknowledgment that the unprecedented anger on Arab streets is at its core a long-brewing rage against decades of economic imbalances that have rewarded the political elite and left many others on the margins.

With startling speed — less than two months since the first protests in Tunisia — underscored the wobbly condition of the systems used by some Arab regimes to hold power since the 1980s or earlier. The once formidable mix of economic cronyism and hard-line policing — which authorities sometime claim was needed to fight Islamic hard-liners or possible Israeli spies — now appears under serious strain from societies pushing back against the old matrix.

Mubarak and other Arab leaders have only to look to Cairo's streets: a population of 18 million with about half under 30 years old and no longer content to have a modest civil servant job as their top aspiration.

One protester in Cairo waved a hand-drawn copy of his university diploma amid clouds of tear gas and shouted what may best sum up the complexities of the domino-style unrest in a single word: Jobs.

"They are taking us lightly and they don't feel our frustration," said another protester, homemaker Sadat Abdel Salam. "This is an uprising of the people and we will not shut up again."

The narrative of economic injustice has surrounded the protests from the beginning.

"The regimes and the leaders are the ones under fire, but it's really about despair over the future," said Sami Alfaraj, director of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. "The faces of this include the young man with a university degree who cannot find work or the mother who has trouble feeding her family."

Tunisia's mutiny that ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was touched off by a struggling 26-year-old university graduate who lit himself on fire after police confiscated his fruit and vegetable cart in December. Apparent copycat self-immolations quickly spread to Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere.

Video: Mass Egypt Anti-government Protest Planned

From the Associated Press, a video on a massive protest planned for Egypt tomorrow.

Tunisian inspired protests spread into Yemen

The government protests continue to spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Tunisia is still in the middle of it as protesters demand more reforms. The rioting in Egypt has entered a second day. Now the protest begin in a new country, this time in Yemen the Middle East's poorest country.

From this Associated Press article that we found at WTEN, we find out more about the opposition demands.

"We will not accept anything less than the president leaving," said independent parliamentarian Ahmed Hashid.

Opposition leaders called for more demonstrations on Friday.

"We'll only be happy when we hear the words 'I understand you' from the president," Hashid said, invoking a statement issued by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before he fled the country.

Saleh has tried to defuse simmering tensions by raising salaries for the army and by denying opponents' claims he plans to install his son as his successor.

After the Tunisian turmoil, he ordered income taxes slashed in half and instructed his government to control prices. He deployed anti-riot police and soldiers to several key areas in the capital, Sanaa, and its surroundings to prevent riots.

That hasn't stopped critics of his rule from taking to the streets in days of protests calling for him to step down, a red line that few dissenters had previously dared to cross.

Nearly half of Yemen's population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn't have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding the cities.

The government is riddled with corruption, has little control outside the capital, and its main source of income - oil - could run dry in a decade.

Video: Mass Protest Against Egypt Leader

From the Associated Press, some raw footage of the protests in Egypt.

Four people killed in Egypt protests

Two of the major factors that are fueling the protests in the Middle East and North Africa are poverty and corruption. The people protesting want more economic opportunity and don't like the fact that the ones in power are the only ones making money with bribes and graft.

The protests have spread into Egypt and what is happening in that country has really caught the attention of the west. Overnight, four protesters died as the police started to use force against the people.

From IC Scotland, we read more about the protesting that turned deadly.

The two protesters were killed during a demonstration in the city of Suez. The official said one of them had respiratory problems and died as a result of tear gas inhalation and the other was killed by a rock thrown during the protest.

The policeman died during the protest in Cairo. The official said he was hit in the head by a rock.
...

Throughout the day, police blasted crowds with water cannons and set upon them with batons and acrid clouds of tear gas in an attempt to clear demonstrators crying out "Down with Mubarak" and demanding an end to Egypt's grinding poverty, corruption, unemployment and police abuses.

Tuesday's demonstration, the largest Egypt has seen for years, began peacefully, with police showing unusual restraint in what appeared to be a calculated strategy by the government to avoid further sullying the image of a security apparatus widely criticised as corrupt and violent.

With discontent growing over economic woes, and the toppling of Tunisia's president still resonating in the region, Egypt's government - which normally responds with swift retribution to any dissent - needed to tread carefully.

Video: Tunisian politicians meet amid protests

From Al Jazeera, a video on politician efforts to calm the protesters in Tunisia.

Video: Tunisian Protests Spread to Algeria, Yemen

From the Associated Press, a video on the protests from Tunisia spreading into other countries.