This bill has strong
bipartisan support in Congress, nearly unanimous support
from the nations of Africa, and brings together a broad
group of concerned citizens on both continents -- from Jack
Kemp and Andrew Young to the African Association of Women
Entrepreneurs. It represents an effort to build a
partnership with African nations that involves listening and
working with them.
USAfricaonline
VIEWPOINT
Kosovars
and African refugees: Different strokes for different
folks
by Joe
Davidson
Special to USAfricaonline.com
With the conclusion of the air war against Yugoslavia, much
of the world's attention is focused on the Kosovar refugees.
Their plight is a tragic one and the response of many to it
is heart warming. Given the circumstances, it's
understandable that the refugee problem in the Balkans would
dominate the focus of the media and the international
community. But what should not be accepted is the way other
refugees have been thoroughly short-changed by the press and
those who fund programs for them.
The Los Angeles Times is one news organization that
has examined the differences in the way the world treats
refugees in Europe and Africa. It found that:
•The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
spends 11 times more on each refugee in the Balkans than is
spent on those in Africa.
•Some refugee camps in Africa have one doctor for every
100,000 refugees. In Macedonia, camps have as many as one
doctor per 700 people, which the newspaper says is a far
better ratio than that found in many Los Angeles
neighborhoods.
•While refugees at most camps in Albania have ready
access to clean water, Eritrean families with as many as 10
members are given about 3 1/2 gallons of water for three
days
•Up to 6,000 refugees die each day from cholera and
other diseases in camps in Africa, which hold as many as
500,000 people; that‚s 15 times the size of the largest
camp in Macedonia, where fortunately, epidemics and
starvation have not been a problem.
Given the Eurocentric pattern of foreign affairs news
coverage, it's difficult for people in this country to know
or care much about a devastating series of events that are
claiming many lives in Africa. In Angola, for example, about
10 percent of the population has been displaced because of
civil war. About 1.5 million are dead in Sudan and hundreds
of thousands are homeless as a result of its 15-year
conflict. Hostilities in Guinea-Bissau have dislocated about
one million people in that West African nation.
Clearly there is much more that is positive in Africa and
just focusing on the devastation would feed into the
negative stereotypes that too many already hold. But news
coverage can make an important difference, as it did years
ago when pictures of starving people in Ethiopia generated
an outpouring of public and private assistance.
When it comes to humanitarian aid, the problems must be
illustrated so that those who live in the world‚s
richest nation have the information needed to seriously
consider how programs they help fund either address or
neglect the needs of the world‚s poorest people.
Do we really support, can we really justify, a UN effort
that provides only 11 cents per day for refugees in Africa?
There must be a more equitable distribution of aid.
The Congress and the administration should insist that U.S.
and international programs root out any double standard that
favors a particular group's location or complexion. Granted,
there are complex geo-political factors at play in this
drama. But given the stark differences in the way refugees
are treated, it‚s easy to believe that what really
counts is white skin with a European address.
•Davidson, former Johnnesburg-based foreign
correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is a contributing
editor with Emerge magazine, commentator for National Public
Radio's "Morning Edition" and MSNBC.com. He plans to
contribute to USAfricaonline.com and The Black Business
Journal (www.BBJonline.com).
PRESIDENTIAL
PERSPECTIVE
Clinton
on U.S-Africa Growth and Opportunity Act
Special to
USAfricaonline.com
"The African Growth and Opportunity Act promises a new
partnership with Africa based on mutual respect and mutual
responsibility. Also (this July), African nations signed two
significant documents -- a cease-fire in Congo, and a peace
agreement ending the war in Sierra Leone. With these
agreements, and with democratic government in Nigeria and a
new leadership in South Africa, we have an historic
opportunity.
The United States must do everything we can right now to
support the efforts Africans are making to build democracy
and respect for human rights, advance peace and lay the
foundation for prosperity and growth.
This bill supports education and job creation so that all of
Africa's children can grow up educated and productive. It
supports better health care and the flow of ideas and
technology that will help Africa's doctors save more lives.
It serves America's national interests: in creating new
markets for American goods and services; in building strong,
reliable and democratic partners overseas; and in creating a
more prosperous and stable world."
William (Bill) Clinton is president of the United
States.
USAfricaonline
VIEWPOINT
Why
I'll Vote For King As Person of the Century
by Dr. Earl
Ofari Hutchinson
The
editors of Time magazine will pick a "Person of the
Century" to grace their cover in January 2000. Martin Luther
King, Jr. is in the running for the top honor along with
Hitler, Einstein, Elvis, Churchill and Gandhi, but just
barely. The reason, among others, for you to vote for King,
is that the editors of Time will probably swallow one
of the huge myths of history. They, like much of the public,
narrowly label King a "Black leader," a "civil rights"
leader, or say that he simply imitated Gandhi.
It is true that King was an ardent student of Gandhi's
preachments of non-violent resistance and non-accommodation
to injustice. But he took his teacher's message and refined,
broadened and stretched it into a global moral imperative
for all humankind. That moral imperative went way beyond the
limits of the civil rights movement.... King pledged that he
would struggle and sacrifice until racism, poverty and
injustice were, as he put it "crushed by the battering rams
of justice." He more than kept that pledge. This is why I am
writing the editors at Time to tell them that he should be
the "Person of the Century."
-Hutchinson, author of the 'Crisis in Black and Black'
and other books, is Los Angeles-based executive editor and
columnist for USAfrica The Newspaper, USAfricaonline.com and
The
Black Business Journal.
Why
Dr. King's vision is valid
into the 21st century