20th Century Language

Anti-Hispanic   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:17 am GMT
The New Nativism

Over the past decade, millions of Hispanic immigrants have bypassed traditional urban destinations and put down roots in the American heartland. With large groups of newcomers moving to some of the most homogeneous, tradition-steeped places in the country, a backlash was predictable. But no one could have foreseen the breadth and fury of the new nativism that has risen up from Middle America with an ominous roar.

The prairie-fire spread of anti-Hispanic "Americanism" makes it incumbent upon Congress to pass an enlightened immigration bill that is both sensible and humane. But as the stories in this special issue of The Nation so vividly demonstrate, this new American nativism will not be tamped down simply by making legal and bureaucratic improvements to our immigration system. The roots of this xenophobic upsurge--fueled by economic frustrations and national-security phobias, and inflamed by voices of hatred--run far too deep for that.

The loudest voices of xenophobia have been elevated to the status of national heroes and soothsayers. Anti-immigration hardliners like Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and inflammatory pundits like CNN anchor Lou Dobbs (see Daphne Eviatar in this issue), along with a massive echo chamber of right-wing radio gladiators and small-town newspaper columnists, have become the main sources of information for millions of Americans about the causes and effects of Hispanic immigration. States and municipalities are scrambling to fill the void left by Congressional inaction with a mishmash of "reforms" designed to crack down on undocumented immigrants and the companies that hire them. Already this year, more than 500 bills have been introduced in state legislatures. And in this year's midterm elections, politicians all across Middle America--Democrats and Republicans alike--are one-upping one another with draconian proposals and demagogic rhetoric.

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/f2-start.htm

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Extremists Declare 'Open Season' on Immigrants: Hispanics Target of

Incitement and Violence
As the public debate over immigration reform has taken center-stage in American politics and public life, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other racists have declared "open season" on immigrants and attempted to co-opt and exploit the controversy by focusing their efforts -- and their anger -- on the minority group at the center of the controversy: Hispanics.

As a result, to a level unprecedented in recent years, America's Latino immigrant population has become the primary focus of hateful and racist rhetoric and extreme violence -- aided, abetted and encouraged by America's white supremacist and racist haters.

Spurred in recent weeks by the debate on Capitol Hill and the groundswell of grassroots activism in support of America's immigrant community, extremists have become increasingly emboldened by, and fixated on, the controversy over immigration policy, encouraging their supporters to capitalize on the issue by encouraging anti-immigrant activism, and even violence against all Hispanics.

While white supremacists have for many years attempted to exploit rising anti-immigration sentiments in the U.S., the level and intensity of their attacks against Hispanics has reached dangerous new highs, with right-wing extremists joining anti-immigration groups, distributing anti-immigrant propaganda and holding frequent anti-immigration rallies and protests.

As a result, Hispanics, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status, increasingly are becoming the targets of hatred and violence from hardcore white supremacists.

Racists ranging from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to racist skinheads are among the most active anti-immigration activists in the country. Motivating their actions is the core conviction of modern white supremacist ideology: That the white race itself is threatened with extinction by a "rising tide of color" controlled and manipulated by Jews.

This following report examines the recent record of extreme rhetoric and violence from white supremacist groups and their followers that has played out against the backdrop of the immigration debate in America.

http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/immigration_extremists.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_1
Spamnish   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:31 am GMT
Poverty in Hispanic America

Poverty has many different, and overlapping, aspects. In addition to material poverty - lack of adequate food and shelter and access to basic consumer goods - and low education, people living in poverty often face high vulnerability to ill health and premature death and to environmental hazards. Material deprivation also tends to be accompanied by lack of power and voice in society, as expressed in low social status and exposure to neglect or bad treatment by institutions of the state as well as of civil society.

A pervasive sense of economic and social insecurity, and a lack of capacity to cope with adverse shocks, are other common characteristics of people living in poverty, especially in societies where traditional safety nets - such as networks based on extended families and kinship - have been eroded and where public spending on social security largely bypasses the poor.

Beginning with the simplest indicator of extreme poverty, the number of people living on less than one US dollar a day, the development in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1987 and 1998, based on World Bank estimates, is illustrated in Table 1 below:

The MDGs, adopted by the 191 U.N. member nations in 2000, establish the commitment to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. The achievement of these goals is based on the fulfilment of 18 specific targets set for the year 2015 and measured through 48 indicators. Progress towards the targets is based on the levels recorded in 1990.

The unequal distribution of wealth remains the underlying cause of poverty throughout Latin America, although the region's countries have made widely varying degrees of progress towards meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Most South American nations have begun to place greater emphasis on social policies in general over the past decade. For the most part, however, this has not been a result of the adoption of the MDGs, but rather a response to the exacerbation of poverty in the region and greater awareness of the problem, as reflected by the election of progressive governments in a number of South American countries.

ARGENTINA
Argentina, for its part, will be hard pressed to meet this target by the established deadline of 2015. While its social development indicators were among the highest in Latin America in 1990, it has suffered dramatic setbacks in the past few years as a result of the late 2001 economic and financial meltdown. The rates of poverty and extreme poverty rose from 22.6% and 4.5% in 1992 to 54 percent and 27.7% in 2002, at the height of the economic crisis, according to figures from the National Statistics and Census Institute. This situation led the government of President Néstor Kirchner, who took office in 2003, to adopt a number of social programmes that include the distribution of food aid and the provision of a monthly subsidy of 150 pesos (52 dollars) to unemployed heads of households. Modest economic recovery has now reduced the number of people relying on these programmes from 2.2 million to 1.5 million.

In the meantime, various other initiatives have been introduced, like the development programme, which has provided credits and tools to 425,000 micro and small businesses, and the family programme, through which 250,000 mothers are provided with a stipend for ensuring that their children remain in school. These income supplement programmes are "a badly needed band-aid, but not the solution," which lies in "opening up genuine sources of employment," community activist Marcelo Cresta said. Cresta is the coordinator of a project that provides free meals for children at the Our Lady of Luján de Quilmes Church in the province of Buenos Aires

VENEZUELA
In Venezuela, leftist President Hugo Chávez launched a wide range of social programmes in 2003, backed by windfall profits from record-high oil prices. An estimated 15 million Venezuelans, out of a total population of 26 million, now purchase food at subsidised prices from a government-run chain of stores, while 4 million new students of all ages have entered the school system, including 0.5 million students who receive grants or scholarships to enable them to study. In the meantime, primary medical care has been brought to millions of Venezuelans in impoverished urban and rural areas thanks to the cooperation of 15,000 doctors from Cuba.

BOLIVIA
Poverty in Bolivia is widespread and severe, specially in rural areas where extreme poverty is prevalent. Bolivia remains the poorest country in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, and also one of the most reform-oriented over the past decade. Poverty is high and deep. Nationally in 2000, 63% of the overall population was estimated to be poor, with about 95% of the rural population classified as poor.

Poverty in Bolivia is directly associated with a deprivation of essential assets and is more common among the indigenous population with low levels of education. Rural areas in Bolivia are considered less favored areas, where the poor are generally agricultural peasants or wage-earners who have limited landholdings and who lack access to credit and basic infrastructure. In urban areas, the poor are concentrated in the informal sector, particularly among domestics and non-remunerated family workers.

Poverty is estimated to have fallen from about 70% in 1990 to 63% in 2000, this drop is slightly slower than what would have been predicted given Bolivia's growth rates, suggesting that growth has not been particularly pro-poor. This pattern arises largely because growth in the rural sectors where the poor are largely concentrated has been slower than in other areas. Poverty is predominantly rural and higher among indigenous population.

The economic perspectives of the Bolivian economy show that growth rates for the coming years will not permit an acceleration in the fulfilment of the Millennium Development goals, especially considering that extreme rural poverty increased in the last two years. There is a common perception in Bolivia that some groups have lagged behind while income distribution and well-being have worsened.

COLOMBIA
40% of Colombians live in poverty. There are millions of displaced people due to guerilla activity. According to an eye-witness children go through bags of rubbish to find anything valuable. His wife gave these children some money and they asked why. She said buy some fruit or something. They were happy to have a few thousand pesos. He also saw a lady with a horse and cart and her baby crying very loudly. His wife picked the baby up while the woman was picking rubbish up to put in her cart. We gave the other child a bar of chocolate, the baby 5,000 pesos and the mother a bag of crisps, as we had just come back from shopping.

PERU
Whether poverty is measured in terms of family income or in terms of social indicators, such as child mortality, it has been greater in Peru than would be expected on the basis of the country's average income per capita. Historically, this situation has been an expression of the country's exceptionally high degree of inequality. More recently, especially in the course of the 1980s, it increased even more than in the other major Latin American countries, chiefly because of the drastic deterioration of the economy's overall performance.

Measures of poverty based on family income are, of course, dependent on the particular income level chosen as a dividing line between the poor and the non-poor. Destitution refers to income so low that it could not provide adequate nutrition even if it were spent entirely on food. Poverty in the less extreme sense takes as given the proportion of income spent on food in each society and compares that proportion to the level needed for adequate nutrition.

A comprehensive analysis of poverty in Latin America for 1970 concluded that fully 50 percent of Peruvian families were below the poverty line and 25 percent were below the destitution level. These proportions were both higher than Latin America's corresponding averages: 40% in poverty and 19% in destitution. In Peru, as in the rest of Latin America, the incidence of poverty and destitution was much higher for rural than for urban families. Fully 68% of rural families were below the poverty line, compared with 28% of urban families.

A more recent study provides new estimates of the incidence of poverty for 1980 and 1986. For Latin America, the share of families in poverty fell from 40% in 1970 to 35% in 1980 but then rose to 37% in the more difficult conditions of 1986. For Peru, the incidence of poverty also fell from 50% in 1970 to 46% in 1980, but then it increased to 52% by 1986, rising faster than in the rest of the region.

As in 1970, the incidence of poverty and destitution in 1986 remained higher for rural than for urban families, but the differences had lessened. In 1970 the incidence of poverty for rural families was 2.4 times that for urban families; in 1986 the ratio was only 1.4 times. The proportion of rural families in poverty actually fell, from 68% to 6%4, while that of urban families rose greatly, from 28% to 45%.

Cuánto S.A. has developed an ongoing monthly indicator of extreme poverty in Peru, combining measures of earnings by workers paid the minimum wage with earnings in the informal urban sector and in agriculture. Taking January 1985 as the starting point, this index shows a substantial fall in extreme poverty up to December 1987, in the first years of the García government's expansion. But then it shows a dramatic increase as the economy went rapidly downhill. At the end of the García administration, in June 1990, the index was 91% higher than in December 1987 and 32% higher than its starting point in January 1985.

http://www.leonteios.gr/english_proj/SpringDayPoverty/latinamerica.html
Guest   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:31 am GMT
qué tiene esto que ver con los idiomas?
Hispanic AIDS   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:44 am GMT
AIDS in Hispanic America

At the end of 2007 there were around 1.6 million people living with HIV in Latin America - more than in the U.S., Canada, Japan and the UK combined.1 While this region has often been overlooked in the past, there is now growing recognition amongst the international community that the HIV epidemics of Latin American countries demand more attention than they have received so far. This feeling is likely to be strengthened in 2008 when Mexico hosts the XVII International AIDS Conference, making it the first Latin American country to hold this prestigious event.

Latin American countries have been affected by HIV/AIDS in different ways, and to different extents. Responses have varied, with some countries displaying weak political leadership and others – most notably Brazil – forming strong and positive responses. Despite many differences between the epidemics of individual countries, high levels of poverty, migration, homophobia and HIV-related discrimination are apparent throughout the region, and these factors present common barriers to overcoming the crisis.2

In this page, we use the term Latin America to refer to the countries of South and Central America, excluding Suriname, Guyana, French Guyana and the Caribbean islands, which we discuss in our HIV & AIDS in the Caribbean page. AVERT.org also has an individual country page for Brazil.

http://www.avert.org/aidslatinamerica.htm
Spanish Gay Language   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:47 am GMT
Hispanic men who have sex with men

In almost every Latin American country, the highest levels of HIV infection are found amongst men who have sex with men (MSM).5 This problem is largely hidden, since homophobia and ‘machismo’ culture are common throughout the region and sex between men is highly stigmatised. The extent of HIV infection among MSM is downplayed in many countries, and prevention campaigns often neglect this group.

An example is Guatemala, where critics have disputed the government’s claim that the country’s AIDS epidemic is primarily heterosexual. Activists within the country argue that the official statistics, which attribute around 15% of HIV infections to MSM, do not reflect the reality of Guatemala’s epidemic. Some claim that the real figure is closer to 40%.6 As one civil society worker explained, MSM are often hesitant to reveal how they became infected and many are mistakenly classed as heterosexual:

“Annual spending estimates… confirm that many Latin American countries make little effort to provide AIDS-related services that address the needs of men who have sex with men.”

“Unless he’s a total queen, a man will always be [counted as] heterosexual. Plus, people don’t want to be recognised [as homosexual]”. - Ruben Mayorga, civil society worker, Guatemala City - 7
On the other hand, other Latin American countries – such as Mexico and Peru - openly acknowledge that their epidemics are primarily driven by MSM. In Mexico, the government has appointed Jorge Saavedra, an openly gay, HIV positive man, as head of its leading AIDS agency, which has helped the country to make significant progress in addressing the problem. Among other initiatives, Saavedra has helped to launch a provocative anti-homophobia campaign.8 In Peru, a large amount of research is being conducted relating to HIV and MSM. The country is now recognised by researchers around the world as an important base for studies of HIV infection among this group.

“It’s a very concentrated epidemic, and we have a very good relationship with the community.” - Jorge Sanchez, Peruvian epidemiologist - 9
Overall 0.6% of Peruvian adults are living with HIV, but studies have suggested much higher rates of infection among MSM. In one study carried out in the city of Lima, a prevalence of 18.5% was found among MSM, with transgender persons facing the highest risk.10

For the most part, the epidemic among MSM in Peru has not spread to other segments of the population, but there is a risk that this will soon occur. As is the case in other Latin American countries, large numbers of MSM in Peru do not identify themselves as homosexuals, and have sex with women as well as men. MSM therefore form a ‘bridge’ population - rising rates of infection among this group are likely to aggravate the spread of HIV among the heterosexual population.11 In both Columbia and Ecuador, it has been reported that a large number of women with HIV have been infected by their husbands or regular partners who have acquired infection through sex with another man.12

While Brazil, Mexico and Peru have made progress in addressing high infection rates among MSM, most other countries are still neglecting this group. According to the 2006 UNAIDS global report:

“Annual spending estimates… confirm that many Latin American countries make little effort to provide AIDS-related services that address the needs of men who have sex with men… Often, health professionals are too embarrassed to ask the right questions and, even if asked, men are afraid to provide the right answers.”

http://www.avert.org/aidslatinamerica.htm
Hispanic Whore & Hook   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:48 am GMT
Sex workers
HIV transmission between sex workers and their clients is recognised as a major factor in the spread of HIV in several Latin American countries. The extent to which sex workers are affected varies between areas – one study of different countries, which looked at brothel-based sex workers, found HIV prevalence rates ranging from 0% to 6.3%.14 However, higher rates are found among street-based sex workers, who are harder to reach with HIV prevention services. In Guatemala, for instance, surveillance suggests that 15% of street-based sex workers are living with HIV.15 Similarly, studies of cities in El Salvador found infection rates of around 16%.16 Since condom use is often low among regular sexual partners, male clients of sex workers may pass on HIV to their wives and girlfriends once infected.

In some countries, such as Ecuador and Bolivia, relatively low rates of infection have been found among sex workers. In La Paz, one of Bolivia’s capital cities, prevalence was 0.5% in 2002 – a figure that can partly be explained by the fact that an estimated 70% of sex workers in the city use condoms, according to health authorities.17 Again, though, these figures are largely based on brothel-based sex workers who regularly visit sexually transmitted infection clinics for check-ups, rather than street-based workers. In other countries, such as Honduras and Guatemala, commercial sex work has been noted as a major driving factor behind the spread of HIV.18

http://www.avert.org/aidslatinamerica.htm
Hispanic Putas   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:51 am GMT
Sex workers
HIV transmission between sex workers and their clients is recognised as a major factor in the spread of HIV in several Latin American countries. The extent to which sex workers are affected varies between areas – one study of different countries, which looked at brothel-based sex workers, found HIV prevalence rates ranging from 0% to 6.3%.14 However, higher rates are found among street-based sex workers, who are harder to reach with HIV prevention services. In Guatemala, for instance, surveillance suggests that 15% of street-based sex workers are living with HIV.15 Similarly, studies of cities in El Salvador found infection rates of around 16%.16 Since condom use is often low among regular sexual partners, male clients of sex workers may pass on HIV to their wives and girlfriends once infected.

In some countries, such as Ecuador and Bolivia, relatively low rates of infection have been found among sex workers. In La Paz, one of Bolivia’s capital cities, prevalence was 0.5% in 2002 – a figure that can partly be explained by the fact that an estimated 70% of sex workers in the city use condoms, according to health authorities.17 Again, though, these figures are largely based on brothel-based sex workers who regularly visit sexually transmitted infection clinics for check-ups, rather than street-based workers. In other countries, such as Honduras and Guatemala, commercial sex work has been noted as a major driving factor behind the spread of HIV.18

http://www.avert.org/aidslatinamerica.htm
Spamnish   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:53 am GMT
Injecting drug users

Drug use is common in many Latin America countries. A number of Southern Cone countries (those found in the southernmost area of South America,) have shifted from dictatorships to democracies in recent history, and this goes some way towards explaining the rise in drug use - for some people, liberation led to experimentation and excess, as one Argentinean explained to reporters:

“Around 1986 there was a tremendous fascination, especially among intellectual circles, with intravenous drugs. People wanted to try everything, and I think it was in some way a result, a legacy, of the military dictatorship because during the dictatorship you couldn’t do anything”

In Argentina, injecting drug use has been a major driving factor behind the spread of HIV, as infected needles are shared between users. The same is true in Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.20 Cocaine and heroin are the most commonly injected drugs, with cocaine users facing the greatest risk of HIV infection because they inject more frequently than heroin users.21

Harm reduction programmes, which provide users with clean needles and offer them support and information, have been implemented in Brazil and are thought to have contributed to declining HIV prevalence rates among injecting drug users in several Brazilian cities.22 23 Some harm reduction activities have also been carried out in Argentinean cities. In general, though, Argentina lacks harm reduction programmes at national, state and local level.24 This is despite a severe HIV epidemic among injecting drug users – one study carried out in Buenos Aires, for instance, found an HIV prevalence rate of 44% among this group.25 Other Latin American countries face severe restrictions in carrying out programmes of this kind, due to restrictive laws and a lack of political support.26

In several Southern Cone countries, ‘pasta base’ or ‘paco’ – a form of cocaine, which is smoked – has become extremely popular in recent years, both among poorer populations and the middle-classes.27 Although the rise in popularity of pasta base has generally had negative health implications, there is evidence to suggest that some drug users have started smoking cocaine in this form instead of injecting it. While there is currently little solid evidence, this may be reducing the level of needle-sharing in the region, thereby reducing the number of people becoming infected with HIV through injecting drug use.28 29

In other countries, such as Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, the spread of HIV through injecting drug use has been limited in scope. In Chile, data are scarce, and in Venezuela the role of injecting drug use in the HIV epidemic is negligible. However, the availability of heroin is increasing in these countries, which may lead to a change in the situation in coming years.

http://www.avert.org/aidslatinamerica.htm
No Future in HispAm   Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:58 am GMT
Hispanic Corruption

Corruption continues to be the greatest threat to democracy in Latin America. It has retarded economic growth, and perpetuated poverty. It has accentuated inequities in the justice systems of Latin American countries so that the rule of law does not apply equally across social strata. It has contributed to increasing distrust in political parties and governments; it has exacerbated voter fatigue and limited citizen participation. In 2001, according to a study published by Transparency International, regional support for democracy fell to 48 percent, down from 58 percent the previous year. Only 25 percent of respondents across the region expressed satisfaction with their democratic government. As award-winning Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer recently observed, "If one considers Latin America's tragic history of military regimes that took power arguing that democracy had failed, there is a lot to worry about."

Weak and partisan government institutions, along with the absence of checks and balances, transparency, and accountability, have provided numerous opportunities for corruption. The lack of public pressure from an ideologically biased or muzzled press has made Latin America an attractive and safe place for corruption.

For centuries, corruption has been viewed in Latin America as a way of getting things done. Almost all Latin American citizens have become accomplices in one way or another---in order to obtain a driver's license or a telephone line, to expedite the retrieval of a package at the post office or customs, or to supplement an insufficient income. Others have obtained university degrees, enriched their personal fortunes, avoided prosecution or imprisonment, used government resources to win elections, laundered illegal funds, managed lucrative illegal drug or arms trafficking operations, or have benefited in some other way from corruption. As the vice president of El Salvador, Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, pointed out in October 2001, "Corruption has become an anti-value and the corrupt, because of their astuteness and ‘success,’ are admired and emulated by both the rich and poor."

Failure of Anti-Corruption Efforts

The anti-corruption efforts of international financial organizations and development agencies, typically focused on institutional reforms, have not had the desired results in Latin America because public officials lack the political will to implement them. Local civil society anti-corruption initiatives also do not enjoy much credibility because opportunists have used them to develop public images, and eventually run for public office, or because of their partisan ties, hidden agendas, or involvement in corrupt activities. Many suffer from a dependence on generic concepts and strategies; limited vision and creativity; a lack of interest, knowledge and use of Internet resources; and a lack of both local and cross-border partnerships with seasoned and reputable anti-corruption actors. The best civil society anti-corruption efforts also have had inadequate funding, especially when difficult national economic situations have drained people of the time and resources that they might otherwise volunteer.

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/521.cfm
Guest   Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:04 am GMT
P.S: THIS IS JUST A RETALIATION TO THE HISPANIC ATTACKS ON OTHER PEOPLE. I WAS INTENDING TO POST THESE INFORMATION ON THE "Language of the 20th Century" THREAD BUT IT WAS LOCKED.
Guest   Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:10 am GMT
<< qué tiene esto que ver con los idiomas? >>

And what do those Anti-French messages in "Language of the 20th Century" thread have something to do with languages.

DON'T BE SO UNFAIR AND BIASED! I KNOW HOW THE HISPANIC MENTALITY GOES.
To irritated Frenchie   Sat Mar 01, 2008 11:25 am GMT
<< P.S: THIS IS JUST A RETALIATION TO THE HISPANIC ATTACKS ON OTHER PEOPLE. I WAS INTENDING TO POST THESE INFORMATION ON THE "Language of the 20th Century" THREAD BUT IT WAS LOCKED. >>

Actually, if you read that thread you will see the French people started the attacks first, which unleashed the Hispanic attacks that apparently really pissed you to make you take the time to post all this.

No matter how you present it, Latin America is better off overall then Franco-Africa and always will be. You posted articles about AIDS in LA, while your precious Franco-Africa is among THE WORST AIDS and other disease ridden places on Earth.

BTW I thought that posting the article about gays and all that was actually pretty funny.
World's poorest region   Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:47 pm GMT
West Africa: World's poorest region needs $300m in aid this year - UN

DAKAR, 5 December (IRIN) - The United Nations and relief NGOs in West Africa have jointly asked donors for US $309 million in aid for 2007 to keep humanitarian projects rolling in the region's 16 poorest countries.

The appeal is made annually and covers the requirements for the agriculture, food, water, health and human rights projects overseen by the UN and all its partners.

The Consolidated Annual Appeal (CAP) covers the needs of the West African region, where 250 million people live in the landlocked and dirt poor countries that form the arid Sahel region, as well as coastal Liberia, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, which are emerging from conflict, and the politically unstable Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria.

In West African countries such as Liberia and Niger, foreign-funded health, sanitation and feeding projects help keep people alive as they grapple with shrinking agriculture productivity, mounting inflation, the decline of traditional industries, and the resurgence of forgotten illnesses such as cholera and yellow fever.

Even with donor assistance, in most countries in the region, at least one in every five children born will die from preventable diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea, or will simply starve to death. Many million more children suffer physical and mental retardation from living with malnutrition.

The region's countries frequently come last in the UN's Human Development Index, which ranks living standards by life expectancy, and access to health and education services. In the UN children's agency (UNICEF) index, the State of the World's Children, West African countries consistently perform poorly in the education, health and nutritional sectors for children under five.

Speaking at the appeal's launch in Dakar on Tuesday, Amedou Ould Abdallah, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to West Africa, linked the region's humanitarian problems to stability.

In the year ahead, nine West African countries will hold one or more rounds of presidential, parliamentary and local polls. Elections are "periods of tension" Abdallah warned.

"We must work together in many areas, including humanitarian, agriculture, health and refugees, not just diplomatically, to assure security," he said. "We need to talk about the problems of the region. We must maintain stability in the region to create a good environment for the elections."

West Africa has traditionally been well-treated by donors, according to figures from the UN's humanitarian coordination agency (OCHA). Last year 87 percent of the money requested was provided by Brussels, London, Washington, Paris, Tokyo and elsewhere.

About 40 percent of the 2007 appeal is for food aid. However, aid agency chiefs have recently criticised donors for over-concentrating on food at the expense of other equally important life-saving projects, such as providing clean water sources and washing facilities to help prevent the spread of disease.

OCHA has identified food security and nutrition, sanitation, and population movements as the region's main priorities for the year ahead.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/STED-6W7PRW?OpenDocument
Poverty kills Niger’s hun   Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:49 pm GMT
Women cradling starving children at a clinic in Niger this week let slip their solemn expressions and burst into laughter. The joke: the idea that they might be able to eat meat.

"It’s hard enough for us to find millet," said Habiba Abdulsalam, 30, waiting like the other women for help for her hungry, diarrhoea-stricken baby. "We can only dream of eating meat," she said, darkly amused at the very idea.

Yet not far from the clinic in the village of Guidan Roumdji in southern Niger, a market stall stood laden with enough fresh cuts of goat to feed the dozens of hungry women and children- only at prices far beyond their grasp.

Niger’s worst drought in years has left 3.6 million people short of food in the West African country, but it is not just one failed harvest that lies at the root of the crisis.

Already counted among the poorest of the world’s poor, Niger’s farmers cannot afford to buy what is still on offer. Their children are beginning to die for want of a few cents worth of food.

As the Group of Eight industrialised countries meet in Scotland next week to discuss ways to help Africa, Niger’s emaciated children provide a case study of rich world inaction.

Medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) criticised donors like the European Union this week for failing to heed government appeals for help nine months ago, saying their apathy had already cost lives.

Niger’s government has provided some subsidised food at below market prices, but MSF says a major distribution of free food is needed immediately to avert mass starvation. In the country’s south, there are few signs it will come in time.

Niger’s cash-strapped government says it simply does not have enough money, while the UN World Food Programme provides free food only as a last resort, saying handouts distort markets and can create dependency.

For some women, who often have eight children, there is faint hope of keeping all their infants alive.

"For the past few years, everything was fine," said Halima Dingue, 25.

"Now it’s awful, everybody is suffering."

As in many parts of Africa, poverty here forms a vicious circle. Drought denudes pastures, forcing families to sell cows, just as dwindling crop supplies raise the cost of food.

Their purchasing power reduced to zero, families begin to eat seeds they would normally save for the next planting. Both adults and children- who learn to hoe virtually as soon as they can walk-are too weak to tend the fields.

Inevitably, the next crop suffers: the poverty trap closes. Niger has won debt relief advocated by campaigners, but without more aid, it may never break the cycle.

Promising temporary relief, the first green tufts of the next millet harvest in September are poking through the soil, but the two months until they ripen will be the toughest yet.

Remaining food stocks will run out and rain will form puddles for mosquitoes to breed, nurturing deadly malaria.

"There’s a few people who have food in our village, but most of us have nothing," said Sahoura Abdou, 24. "I don’t know how people are going to find enough to eat."

http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=24233&date=3/07/2005
human rights abuses Wafri   Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:50 pm GMT
Supporting Refugee Protection in West Africa

Instability continues to plague West Africa. Millions of people have been displaced by a series of brutal civil conflicts and continuing repression.

The International Refugee Program’s 1995 study, African Exodus, highlighted a number of serious barriers to the effective protection of refugees in the region. One of these barriers was the difficultly faced by local human rights organizations in advocating effectively on behalf of refugees. We identified the need and the opportunity to work with a number of local NGOs to support their capacity to protect refugees in the region. They subsequently formed a network known as WARIPNET (the West Africa Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons Network).

Refugees in West Africa

Conflict remains a feature of life in West Africa. Millions have been displaced by civil war and human rights abuses across the region. Between 1989 and 1996, the Liberian civil war claimed over 200,000 lives and displaced an estimated 80% of the Liberian population. Neighboring Sierra Leone has also been struggling to recover from a devastating civil war which broke out in 1991 when Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels launched an incursion from neighboring Liberia into Sierra Leone. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from both conflicts poured into Guinea, the Ivory Coast and other countries throughout West Africa. Guinea, one of the world’s poorest nations, hosted as many as 650,000 refugees. Between 1996 and 2001, Guinea hosted more refugees per citizen than any other country in Africa.

Sadly, the conflict in Sierra Leone and Liberia spilled over into Guinea once more in a series of violent attacks in late 2000 and early 2001. Many Guineans, blaming the refugees for the violence, formed vigilante groups that harassed refugees or even physically assaulted them. Thousands of refugees were forced to flee once more, seeking safety both from the forces that they had fled and the population which had hosted them.

Now, as Sierra Leone struggles to build its fragile peace and reintegrate thousands upon thousands of former refugees returning home, conflict between the government and opposition troops is escalating in neighboring Liberia, threatening to send the entire region spiraling into another crisis of displacement.

Similar struggles are occurring elsewhere across the region. The Ivory Coast, previously noted for its stability, was rocked by violence after presidential campaigns deliberately inflamed xenophobic sentiments in an effort to discredit the leading opposition candidate who has strong ties to neighboring Burkina Faso. Violence has erupted once more in September 2002.

Separatists in Senegal’s southern Casamance region have been engaged in a low-level insurgency since 1985. At the same time, Senegal continues to host a population of at least 40,000 Mauritanians who were expelled from their country between 1989 and 1990. Inter-communal violence in Nigeria left an estimated 50,000 people internally displaced at the end of 2002.

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/intl_refugees/regions/africa/west_africa.htm