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I.S. = Invasive Species – NYTimes.com

October 13, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Conflict, International Security, ISIS, Middle East, Peace & Security, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

I.S. = Invasive Species – NYTimes.com.

I can’t think of a better way to understand ISIS. It is a coalition. One part consists of Sunni Muslim jihadist fighters from all over the world: Chechnya, Libya, Britain, France, Australia and especially Saudi Arabia. They spread so far, so fast, despite their relatively small numbers, because the disturbed Iraqi and Syrian societies enabled these foreign jihadists to forge alliances with secular, native-born, Iraqi and Syrian Sunni tribesmen and former Baathist army officers, whose grievances were less religious and more about how Iraq and Syria were governed.

Today, ISIS — the foreigners and locals together — is putting pressure on all of Iraq’s and Syria’s native species with the avowed goal of reducing the diversity of these once polycultural societies and turning them into bleak, dark, jihadist, Sunni fundamentalist monocultures.

It is easy to see how ISIS spread. Think about the life of a 50-year-old Iraqi Sunni male from Mosul. He first got drafted to fight in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that ended in 1988. Then he had to fight in the Persian Gulf war I after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Then he lived under a decade of U.N. sanctions that broke Iraq’s middle class. Then he had to endure the years of chaos that followed the U.S. invasion, which ended with a corrupt, brutal, pro-Iranian Shiite regime in Baghdad led by Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that did all it could to keep Sunnis poor and powerless. This was the fractured political ecosystem in which ISIS found fertile ground…

Pambazuka – Russian markets attracting African exporters

October 10, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, EU Sanctions, Exports, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Russia 1 Comment

Pambazuka – Russian markets attracting African exporters.

The Russian market has always been attractive for many Western and European countries, which have exported their agricultural products including fruits and vegetables for high profits. But that has changed recently as the United States, Western and European Union members have slapped Russia with sanctions for the political developments in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.

Russia has also imposed reciprocal sanctions and introduced restrictions on the import of certain food and agricultural products from the European Union (EU), the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway. The products include meat, fish, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, oils and other commodities.

In their recent remarks, the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov and Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev have pointed to the possibility of finding alternative sources for the aforesaid commodities by replacing European markets with markets in other countries. Russian authorities have been looking for potential agricultural products exporters in Latin American, Asian and African regions.

South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco have shown their preparedness to cooperate and are still looking at the possibility to boost exports of agricultural products especially fruits and vegetables to the Russian food market to help fill in the gap after sanctions have severely limited food imports from those foreign countries…

What ISIS Could Teach the West – NYTimes.com

October 3, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Education, International Security, ISIL, ISIS, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

What ISIS Could Teach the West – NYTimes.com.

“…the extremists recognized a basic truth: Their greatest strategic threat comes not from a drone but from a girl with a book. We need to recognize, and act on, that truth as well.

For similar reasons, the financiers of extremism have invested heavily in fundamentalist indoctrination. They have built Wahhabi madrassas in poor Muslim countries like Pakistan, Niger and Mali, offering free meals, as well as scholarships for the best students to study in the gulf.

Shouldn’t we try to compete?

Shouldn’t we use weapons in the short run, but try to gain strategic advantage by focusing on education and on empowering women to build stable societies less vulnerable to extremist manipulation?… Girls’ education seems to have more impact than boys’ education, partly because educated women have markedly fewer children. The result is lower birthrates and less of a youth bulge in the population, which highly correlates to civil conflict.

I support judicious airstrikes in the short term against the Islamic State, but that should be only one part of a policy combating extremism. And a starting point should be to ensure that the three million Syrian refugees mostly in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon — especially girls — can get schooling…”

Get your Africa facts right: websites seek to stem flow of misinformation | World news | The Guardian

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Gambia, misinformation, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Responsible Journalism, West Africa Leave a comment

Get your Africa facts right: websites seek to stem flow of misinformation | World news | The Guardian.

Inaccurate media reports are hardly limited to Africa, but there’s a greater chance of international newspapers getting things wrong – and not admitting so – when it comes to the continent, Seay said.

“When most western outlets have just two or three people covering a continent of 11 million square miles, it very easy to make mistakes, even unintentionally. It’s a recipe for disaster in terms of quality of coverage.”

Around half of Africa Check’s investigations are triggered by readers wanting to know anything from the veracity of claims made by pop stars to supposed disease-busting local herbs. Operating out of Lagos and Johannesburg, the not-for-profit organisation funded by grants and individual donations has a team of five full-timers working alongside volunteers and freelancers, and hopes to expand to Kenya and Senegal next.

Anton Harber, a highly-regarded South African former investigative journalist and co-founder of the project, explained its ultimate aim. “I imagine a situation in which every public figure and journalist feels nervous about what they say or write because Africa Check might just catch them out.”

′Deadliest year′ for migrants crossing the Mediterranean: IOM | News | DW.DE | 29.09.2014

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Gambia, Illegal Migrants, Migrant deaths, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

′Deadliest year′ for migrants crossing the Mediterranean: IOM | News | DW.DE | 29.09.2014.

More than 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. A report has been released showing more than 40,000 migrant deaths since 2000.

Plight of the migrant one of most critical issues of our time

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Gambia, Illegal Migrants, People & Society, peter singhateh Leave a comment

Plight of the migrant one of most critical issues of our time.

“…In the space of a week 150,000 refugees from Syria streamed into Turkey, adding to the million-plus refugees Turkey has accommodated in the three-and-a-half years since the devastating conflict in Syria began. In one 48-hour period more than 60,000 Syrians came over the border. In 2014 the number of people seeking asylum will hit a 20-year high, according to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. That 20-year anniversary relates to April 28th and 29th, 1994 on the Rwandan-Tanzanian border, when 250,000 people walked across the bridge at Rusumo Falls, as victims of genocide floated past in the river below.

As Syrian Kurds carried what little they had left into Turkey, the sea that borders the west of the country was in the midst of its own nightmare. The New York Times reported this month that at a funeral in Sicily of 18 migrants who died trying to reach Europe from Africa, Msgr Angelo Giurdanella said in his homily: “The opposite of love is not hatred, but indifference.” Around 120,000 migrants have been rescued by Italian ships in the Mediterranean this year. More than 2,200 have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year. In a few days in mid-September, at least 750 migrants were feared to have died trying to make the crossing. To put those deaths in context in terms of media coverage, the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in January, 2012 claimed 32 lives. Nearly 70 times that number of migrants have died in the Mediterranean area trying to reach Europe so far this year…”

Hundreds feared dead as boat sinks off Libya – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

September 30, 2014

Peter Singhatey Articles on Africa Africa, Gambia, Illegal Migrants, People & Society, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey 1 Comment

Hundreds feared dead as boat sinks off Libya – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

A boat filled with up to 250 migrants heading for Europe has sunk off the Libyan coast and many passengers have died, a spokesman for the Libyan navy has said.

Only 36 people, including three women, have been rescued after the boat sunk near Tajoura, east of the capital Tripoli, said navy spokesman Ayub Qassem.

“There are so many dead bodies floating in the sea,” Qassem told the Reuters news agency, adding that the under-equipped coastguard had few resources to search for survivors.

Migrants have been streaming out of Libya in boats in rising numbers for years, on their way to Europe.

So far in 2014, more than 100,000 have reached Italy’s shores, the Italian government said this week…

How ISIS Works – NYTimes.com

September 17, 2014

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Conflict, International Security, ISIS, Middle East, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

How ISIS Works – NYTimes.com.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has a detailed structure that encompasses many functions and jurisdictions, according to ISIS documents seized by Iraqi forces and seen by American officials and Hashim Alhashimi, an Iraqi researcher. Many of its leaders are former officers from Saddam Hussein’s long-disbanded army who augmented their military training with terrorist techniques during years of fighting American troops…