Freedom Chete

chaos, chaos and more chaos. i hope this will not be the order of the day during this eletion period. Personally i pray for peace and tranquility but then again who knows what the day holds. After all these elections are taking place in Africa where violence during election period  has become the norm.

What is however pleasing so far is that there have been no reports of violence but the party in fighting between the two main political parties leaves a lot to be desired.

i just hope that voters are are well informed and choose their candidates well. i am particularly concerned with certain people who lost in their constituencies and are now said to be contesting in another constituency. What really bothers me the most is that this individual is a woman challenging another woman. Where is the sisterhood here.  Should we as women not support each other and urge each other on.

i am really upset about this decision made by the party to let thieves get priority over people who have been loyal and served their constituency well.

is this really fa

This year i, together with the rest of the world commemorate the 16 days of activism against gender based violence with a clear picture of what gender based violence(gbv) is all about.  I have never taken part in the commemorations because GBV is something that only happened to other people and not me.

This year however, today i am taken back to a time and a place where i was a victim of GBV.  I hate to use the word victim because it makes me sound helpless because i am infact an empowered woman and so i will settle for the term survivor. Yes i have survived it all being the strong black woman that i am. I have survived a nasty beating by my superior in the Herald newsroom and this has just made me stronger.

What this man intended for bad has just turned out to be good because after this violation of my human rights and dignity i have vowed to fight against this form of abuse. There can never be any good memories on being violate in that manner in front of one’s colleagues but hey, i survived it all.

My abuse was not only physical but it was also emotional, not to even mention that it cost me my job. One can always argue that the job did not pay much then but then agin, it was mine and i loved what i did adn still do. The reason i became a journalist was to fight for human rights. This is much more than a career, it is a vocation you are either born one or not.

The issue of commemorating the 16 days of activism against gender based violence is one that all journalists and other human rights activists should take seriously. ÜN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon says that “Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence — yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned.”

This years theme for the 16 days of Activism Against Genderbased violence is Demanding Implementation: Challenging Obstacles end violence against women. The question is what is the media doing to ensure that this happens?

The media plays a critical role in the sense that we are the custodians of imformation and what we write or broadcast is considered to be the gospel truth.   We can really drive this battle for equality and a violence free nation if we can only get past the hurdles in our way.

The fiorst hurdle being that of News. In school we are taught that news is information that has not yet been made public and a closer look at the news will reveal that news is in itself a masculine narrative. We have been taught to look at news in a non gendered context mainly because we have been socialised that it is a man’s world and that news is a man communicating to another man. The million dollar question here is where are the women? Are they not part of the public too? The subjects of news are all a mans domain.

Journalists should move from evnt based journalism which has got no analysis attached to it but should concerntrate their efforts to theme based journalism which gives them room to question issues because at the end of the day, we are all fighting for equality.

Every self respecting journalist should make it ther quest to question some of these things like voter registration, does it cater for pregnant women? Journalism operates on isues of priority and i believe human rights is the number one priority. Women’s rights are human rrights too.

As journalists we are letting the people down by not giving them an indepth analysis of some of the stories we cover, for instance the issue of the land redistribution in Zimbabwe. This process was carried out inorder to foster equittable land ownership pattern but an insignificant number of women beneffitted from the process. Women only made up 15% of the receipents of land. Why was there no gender discourse on the land redistribution.

We are now moving towards elections and many pressure groups and womens organisations are calling for 50/50 participation while still others are saying Women Can Do it. What is our stake in all of this as the media. Should we sit back and let events unfold?

Is it not our responsibility to give objective coverage to aspiring women politicians ?

There is need for media coverage that is objective towards women who want to run for public office. The media has for a long time been insensitive to female politicians and therefore been unfair to them as they often choose to report on what they look like, what they are wearing or what they have done in their private lives instead of focussing on the campaign message and other pertinent issues.

The media has the tendency of turning a deaf ear, and a blind eye of the productive activities of women who eventually get elected for public office. Often female politicians are featured in the media when something in the negative has occurred. For instance, MDCs Trudy Stevenson received a lot of media attention when she was assaulted but very little has been said in the media about her success.

As the media, we should make every effort to bring governemt to accountability because Zimbabwe is a signatory to CEDAW and the SADC gender protocol
 

i have really been keeping a low profile these days and i must admit that i lke the results. This is really srtrange coming from me because i am not the down to earth type. Sometimes the blows that are thrown at you during this course named life make you sit back and revaluate yourself.

This is exactly whats been happening to me of late. This is by no means a confession that life has been unfair with me because of the terrible losses i’ve suffered. Infact this has been the best year of the 30 that i have been priviledged to see. This year i lost three dear friends, Phineas who fathered my first child and had a somewhat short but very blissful marriage, Max who was my best friends husband and Angela; my friend of 17 years.

This is the year that i really came to, if the truth be told. i am now more aware of who i am and what my strengths and weaknesses are. Because of this clarity i really believe that life does not begin at 40 but infact begins when you realise who you are and what your purpose is. Often in life people invest a lot of their money and time on motivational books just to get a clear picture of what their lifes purpose is. I sadly some seek this truth till the day they die but still don’t get it. î am am glad i know who i am am i’m  going to stop at nothing to get what rightfully belongs to me. i am doing away with the slackening and all that procrastination which has delayed my ascend.

 I just know that i’ll make it though i’m going through a lot of pain right now.  

Civil society leaders have urged G8 leaders at Heiligendamm, Germany, to make a financial commitment to increase HIV and Aids funding and save the lives of 6000 people who perish daily owing to the pandemic.

“The G8 must prove its promises were more than mere empty rhetoric and say when and how they will increase aid,” said Charles Abani, director of Oxfam in Southern Africa.
Abani was referring to the promises made at the Gleneagles summit of the G8 in 2005. Then, the leaders of the eight richest countries agreed to increase aid by $ 50 billion a year by 2010, with half of this amount earmarked for Africa. Two years later, the total is still stagnant at $ 21.4billon.

According to Oxfam, the G8 could miss its 2010 target by a whooping $30 billion if they do not move fast. The organization which advocates for the end of poverty also stated  disappointed in Italy, which has shied away from financial commitment.

“Chancellor Merkel must lead the others today in announcing how they will meet their promises to increase aid,” Abani told journalists at a press conference held in Rostock on the second day of the summit.

Abani went on to say that delay in providing the funds would be a deplorable failure for millions of men and women who would have to pay with their lives. “These promises are not inconsequential numbers on a balance sheet but about life and death for real people, ” he said.

The Oxfam director also stressed that total official development assistance amounts to only $103 billon – a tenth of global military spending and less than what the world spends on bottled water.

Global Fund

HIV/Aids remains Africa’s biggest problem, causing at least 6000 deaths everyday.
The Global Fund, which finances program to stem AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, applauds the G8 for contributing 80% of its funds. According to the Fund, 3000 lives are thus saved everyday. Twice as many people, however, die of the disease. While $10.4 billion have been pledged to the Fund, only $3.5 billion have been disbursed.

Director of the Burundi AIDS program, Dr Francoise Ndayishimiye told journalists that the G8 had saved her life, as their funding had made antiretroviral drugs available to her. The medical doctor applauded G8 effort, but insisted more could be done if the leaders were to meet their 2010 target.

Dr Ndayishimiye pointed out the successes of the G8 summit in Genoa 2001. She said that the number of people accessing antiretroviral treatment had risen from 600 in 2002 to 8000. However, 16 000 are still on the waiting list.

The Doctor who is HIV positive was optimistic that leaders many lives would be saved, if the G8 kept their aid promises of 2005. “We can reach and save many lives, my life and my husband’s life will be saved,” she pointed out.

Global Action against Poverty, a global alliance of trade unions, community groups and campaigners against poverty said their response to the G8’S failure to fulfill their promises was, “The people roared and the G8 whispered.”

The alliance representative Kumi Naidoo said the 6000 people that died of HIV/Aids everyday where equivalent of the vicitims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, when the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center were crushed.“Why is the response not the same?” He suggested the response might if different if the victims’ color was predominantly white.

Collin Magalasi, the head of Actionaid’s South Africa Country Program, said the G8’s failure to fulfill their promises to the poor was immoral. He said the leaders’ actions were not only defrauding the poor but their own public which they represent. Magalasi expressed his organisation’s displeasure at the slow pace the leaders were taking.

He went on to say that the leaders snail pace was frustrating the needs of the poor in Africa and that their actions had resulted in braindrain. “In Malawi for instance 71%of the trained doctors have all left the country while 414 trained nurses have all left for United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.”

30 000 children die everyday, one in three seconds because of extreme poverty. More than I billion people around the world live on less than $1 per day and have no access to clean water. This situation can be reversed by a 1%increase in developing countries share of the world’s export.

GCAP is an International NON Governmental Organisation whose main mandate is to fight poverty also say that such an increase could lift 128 nations out of poverty.

Poverty has remained one of Africa’s major challenges and has played a critical role in the continent’s poor health delivery systems. Poverty also has a had in the development of disease in Africa and has delayed efforts to deal with HIVand Aids which affects 25 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 South African president Thabo Mbeki once described HIVand Aids as nothing more than a disease of poverty. Mbeki’s observations may be inaccurate but the facts on the ground all point to poverty having a hand in the spread of the pandemic t

Mitigation measures need to be put in place to eradicate extreme poverty. The seriousness of this problem has given rise to a number of human rights abuses for instance if a person is too poor to access health services, their right to health has been infringed.
When a child cannot go to school, their right to education has been taken and when there is no access to food and shelter their rights are also infringed upon.

Own initiative needed
 Another NGO, Actionaid say the fight against poverty can only be won if local communities are empowered to gain access to resources and opportunities necessary to overcome barriers to prosperity.
This can be done only when national governments provide basic essential services to citizens. African nations must also play their part in creating an economic environment that provides decent jobs for their citizens.
Governments must protect their citizens especially women and children from violence
However rich countries must provide the resources that spur development and push for fair international rules with developing countries to make it pro-poor and sustainable.

G8 Intervention necessary

During the recently ended G8 Summit, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to increase aid to Africa. If the leaders of the eight most economically successful countries make good on their word, it could be a starting point for the eradication of poverty.
Their gesture of goodwill will be strengthen further when they ensure that the money arrives on time and also that they deliver on the 8billion which is owed since 2006.

Regional Director of Oxfam  Charles Abani says that the gesture of goodwill would be meaningless if the Aid comes with conditions.

“The G8 must move away from the tendency of attaching economic conditions to aid and debt relief as it hinders development in Africa,” he said.