It's not always about us

July 15: It's a good news-bad news occasion. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) of USAID reports that

[c]ross-border informal trade in Southern Africa was picking up as people in food deficit areas began to take advantage of crop surpluses in neighbouring countries....

By the end of May, close to 15,000 mt [metric tons; 1 metric ton = 1000 kilograms = about 2,205 pounds] of basic foodstuffs was recorded by an informal cross-border trade monitoring initiative.

"This represents a 15 percent rise in the trade over the amount captured in April..." the report commented.

The good news is that it shows that Africa is not the continent-wide basket case some would have it be and that, as researcher Nick Maunder was quoted, "informal trade can be very significant [in reducing household vulnerability]." People can and do make use of the resources available. Africa is suffering, but it neither needs nor wants a steady diet of handouts. What it needs is development assistance on terms that do not require the nations of the continent to undermine their local economies to serve the interests of international trade and capital.

The bad news, however, is that as Maunder went on to say,

"Basically, in a normal [harvest] year there's not a lot of trade going on - it's too expensive and the infrastructure is so poor that it costs a lot to move commodities in bulk - [as a result] the informal trade would be around 5 percent of consumption needs. But if you have a particularly bad deficit in a country then you do see informal trade really pick up, as people take advantage of the opportunity [to buy food in neighbouring countries]," he explained.

In other words, the informal trade has expanded because local conditions in some areas are so bad that the expense and difficulty become worth it.

Aid agencies have estimated that some 10 million people across Southern Africa might require food aid in the year ahead, mostly due to harvest failures brought on by erratic weather and the impact of HIV/AIDS.

So short term, food; long term, development. It has to be both.

July 16: It appears a path is being cleared for a peace deal in Cote d'Ivorie. At the request of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the deal,

Ivory Coast's leader Laurent Gbagbo has used a presidential decree to introduce legal reforms which northern rebels were demanding as part of a peace deal.

Mr Gbagbo said the changes, including new nationality laws and the setting up of an independent electoral commission, would take immediate effect. ...

The New Forces rebels had refused to disarm until the reforms were made.

Ivory Coast has been in crisis since the New Forces rebels seized the north of the country in September 2002.

The rebels from the mostly-Muslim north claimed the government, dominated by southern Christians, discriminated against them, making it almost impossible for them to become citizens. A power-sharing government was set up in January, 2003 but it came apart last November when the rebels withdrew after government forces broke a truce. It was regarded as a hopeful sign in April when the rebels agreed to re-enter the government.

Gbagbo's willingness to use special powers to push the agreement forward over the opposition of his own ruling FPI party is another good sign. Whether it will be enough to overcome the ethnic divisions and bitterness in a nation where even second-generation residents can be counted as "foreigners" and even nationals who move to an area away from where they were born are labeled, I have no idea. But it does appear some people are genuinely trying - and for that, if for nothing else, they deserve praise.

July 17: The BBC reports that

Turkish authorities believe Kurdish PKK separatists planted Saturday's bomb on a tourist bus, said the UK ambassador. ...

The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the US and EU, has been staging a violent campaign against the Turkish government for an independent Kurdish state since 1978.

More than 37,000 people have been killed in the campaign.

The rebels declared a unilateral truce in 1999, but ended it in 2004, saying Turkey had not done enough to meet their demands. ...

The minibus blast came six days after a bombing in the nearby town of Cesme, which left at least 20 people injured.

Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for that attack, as well as one in Kusadasi in April, in which one policeman was killed and four other people were wounded.

Militants both from the far left and from Islamist circles have carried out bombings in Turkey in the past, as have Kurdish rebels.

July 17: The Indonesian government and rebels from the province of Aceh have reached an agreement to end a 30-year-old insurgency that killed more than 15,000 people, the BBC reports.

The government and Aceh rebels are due to sign the peace accord, which aims to end the insurgency, on 15 August. ...

The talks began after the tsunami that killed at least 120,000 people in Aceh.

A deal will facilitate the delivery of international reconstruction aid to the province, which was the worst hit by December's tsunami. ...

A previous peace deal broke down in May 2003 amid bitter recriminations.

The meeting, brokered by Finnish mediators, had been deadlocked over the issue of political representation.

The Free Aceh Movement (Gam) - which has given up its demands for independence for the province - had insisted on being allowed to form its own political party.

Negotiators had rejected a proposal that would allow them to field candidates within existing political parties. ...

"The differences have been ironed out," [Indonesian Communications Minister Sofyan] Djalil said in Helsinki.

However, questions remained. In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would not agree to the rebels' demand for their own political party "in an easy way." It appears that people aren't sure just what that means. My hope is that he meant he's not really happy with the deal, it's not an easy thing to accept, but he does accept it. We'll have to see.