Region

Zimbabwe witnessed a fierce psychological battle at the beginning of March 2011. Inspired by their new models in the Arab world, political activists and civic society organizations tried to mobilize people for mass protests to demand change in government. But not a single demonstrator turned up on March 1 for the much-billed 1 million-man march against President Mugabe.

The United Nations warns that up to one million people are trapped in Libya and are in need of emergency aid as fighting intensifies between supporters of Col. Muammar Gaddafi and anti-government rebels. Earlier today, Gaddafi’s forces launched at least four air strikes against rebel-held areas in the oil town of Ras Lanuf.

In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems are of a different sort.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), an eminent non-governmental organization, has expressed disappointment at the proposed amendments to Egypt’s Constitution and asked the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to review these so that the objectives of the “January 25 revolution” are not consigned to oblivion.

International Women’s Day – March 8, 2011 – is a special day meant to remind everyone that women continue to have particular disadvantages even today, despite general emancipation, owing to the unnecessary restrictions in our male-dominated societies. More than that, womens’ rights continue to be severely curtailed in many places.

Amidst rising concern about a seriously deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in Cote d’Ivoire that a UN expert body perceives as a threat to international peace and security and an international think-tank says is dragging the strife-torn country to the verge of a civil war, a former Ghana president has faulted the international community’s behaviour.

Living in Germany one tends to view the world from a European perspective, and focus only on the lessons Europe has learned from the Second World War in the last sixty-five years. Visits to East Asia, however, not only help to adjust one’s lenses but also provide new insights. Japan is a distinguished example of a country that has been undergoing a bottom-up process of change.

In several meetings with groups of young people in Cairo, Tomas Hirsch, a spokesperson for Universalist Humanism in Latin America, gained insight into the vision of young women and men who continue going to Tahrir Square every night to ensure that the process of change continues in a real way. The following is a summary of our conversation with Hirsch.

The Libyan opposition fighting to overthrow Moamer Kadhafi announced its first formal meeting Saturday as it counted its dead from fighting for a key oil town and clashes raged in a city near the capital.
Kadhafi loyalists rained tank shells and machine gun fire on Zawiyah, 60 kilometres west of Tripoli, as they sought to wrest the city center back from opposition supporters.

The success of popular movements in the Middle East has raised the apprehensions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been reminded of its own weakness and soft underbelly.
President Hu Jintao has issued orders to party officials to “solve prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society.”
By Gunjan Singh*