CAPE TOWN, Jan 25, 2012 (IPS) – When a food crisis hits the continent, African countries tend to look to the international donor community to mobilise aid. But a fast-growing, drought- resistant tree with extremely nutritious leaves could help poor, arid nations to fight food insecurity and malnutrition on their own.
A 15-hectare plantation of the “miracle tree” with the botanical name Moringa oleifera has already started to make a positive change in the rural village of Tooseng, which is located in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, Limpopo.
Moringa leaves are dubbed a “super food” because scientists found that they contain the calcium equivalent of four glasses of milk, the vitamin C content of seven oranges, the potassium of three bananas, three times the amount of iron found in spinach, four times the amount of vitamin A found in a carrot and twice the amount of protein in milk. It is like a supermarket on a tree……
Mavis Mathabatha, a former school teacher from Tooseng, has been working hard to set up a Moringa farm over the past three years that will produce enough leaves to make a positive difference in her community and further afield. “I want to make an impact in my area, province and across the country through this project,” she explains….
Today, Mathabatha’s farm produces and packages up to 10,000 tonnes a year of Moringa leaf powder, which is distributed not only within South Africa, but also exported to Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho. “I am hoping to further extend my market in the next few years. There is a lot of interest in my product,” Mathabatha says….
The CIA’s drone campaign targeting suspected militants in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to rescue victims or were attending funerals.
So concludes a new report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative
Journalism. It found that since President Obama took office three years ago, as many as 535 civilians have been killed, including more than 60 children. The investigation also revealed that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners.
We speak to Chris Woods, award-winning reporter with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. “We noted that there were repeated reports at the time, contemporaneous reports in publications like New York Times, news agencies like Reuters, by CNN, that there were these strikes on rescuers, that there were reports that there had been an initial strike and then, some minutes later, as people had come forward to help and pull out the dead and injured, that drones had returned to the scene and had attacked rescuers,”
Woods says. “We’ve been able to name just over 50 civilians that we understand have been killed in those attacks. In total, we think that more than 75 civilians have been killed, specifically in these attacks on rescuers and on mourners, on funeral-goers.”
More info HERE http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/6/us_accused_of_using_drones_to
A todas esas mentes borregas que son carne fácil del fascismo, que se han creído el cuento de que somos occidentales de una raza superior, apoyado en el falso Darwinismo económico y social más absurdo y se les llena la boca diciendo que los inmigrantes vienen a robarnos trabajos de mierda que cuando nos iba falsamente bien nadie quería, cuando estos vienen aquí huyendo de situaciones como la de la foto, que creamos nosotros como “occidentales”, con nuestros negocios neoliberales, con el mercado libre que ahoga el mercado interior en estos países, con nuestras guerras interesadas, nuestros golpes de estado encubiertos, por el petróleo, el gas, el coltan, los diamantes, el oro… que fomentamos el movimiento indiscriminado de millones de personas buscando refugio en otros países para acabar en campos de concentración…
Yo os digo ¡¡¡que os follen bien, borregos hijos de la gran puta!!!
Victor Cerdá
TODOS SOMOS KULPABLES!
Publicado por TINTA NEGRA, anARTchist blog
From The F Word– by Natalie DzerinsDisclaimer: This article will discuss my personal feelings about anti-capitalism, anarcho-communism and their relationships with feminism (and other systems of oppression). Because of this, I will not be discussing the histories of the movements. If you wish to learn about these, the origins section on the wiki-page for anarcha-feminism will point you in the right direction.
When I was about seven years old, I asked my mother why everyone couldn’t just do what they were good at and share everything equally. This was my first foray into anti-capitalism, and my opinions haven’t changed much in the past fifteen years.It has always been very important to me to strive for social equality, and capitalism simply does not provide that. I could wax lyrical all day about the oppressive and unjust nature of the capitalist society, in which we are told that the only value of a human being lies in their ability to make profits for a CEO, but this is a feminist website, and I have a 700-word limit. So I will merely outline why I believe that capitalism is inherently anti-feminist and that the solution to smashing patriarchy will necessarily involve smashing capitalism.
It is in capitalism’s best interests to oppress women. The main reason for this is that by 
devaluing and denigrating 51% of the population as useless and inferior, it seems legitimate to pay them less, or to not pay them at all, for their work – no matter how good it may be for society. Childcare and housework are two prime examples of this. They are services essential to humankind, yet we expect women to a) be the sole or primary providers of these services and b) perform them for free as well as generating capital by holding down other jobs.
This is what is known as the “double burden” on women. In a truly equal society, not only would these roles be seen as suitable for everyone, they would be seen as equally important to other work. As it stands, “Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, produce half of the world’s food, but earn only 10% of the world’s income and own less than one percent of the world’s property” (Global Poverty Project).
Another way in which capitalism exploits women is by creating problems for them to worry about, then offering to sell them a solution. This usually takes the form of making women feel disgusted about their own natural bodies, and convincing them they must change – see pantyliners, douches and pretty much the entire make-up industry. If we smashed capitalism, we’d smash the need for people to sell us things by making us ashamed of who we are.
There are many more examples of this, but once again, I am writing a blog post, not a doctorate. So – why do I believe that once we have smashed capitalism, anarchism is the solution?
Honestly, it’s mainly because I don’t believe in anything else. Any hierarchical system of government or community, be it feudalism
, the current parliamentary system or party-led communism will necessarily contain inequality. The needs of the few who make the decisions will outweigh the needs of the many who have decisions made for them. We can see this with the current coalition, whose members have both simultaneously claimed £35,000 on a “second home” when their first home is literally down the street and demonised people with severe disabilities wanting to live normal lives as “scroungers”. Four legs good, two legs better indeed.
However, people in the anarchist movement have been brought up in the same prejudiced, patriarchal societies as the most rabid capitalist, and that has to be overcome. Whether it’s women’s needs not being taken care of in an anarchist environment, or silencing women in group discussions, manarchism seems to constantly rear its ugly head, and we need a feminist movement-within-the-movement to counter it, and that movement-within-the-movement is anarcha-feminism.
So, that’s a very short version of why I am an anarcha-feminist. I’m not claiming to be 100% right, or to speak for all anarcha-feminists(!), but this is what I believe we need to do to create a fair, just and equal society for all.
For more on anti-capitalist feminism in the current UK climate, this article is a very worthwhile read.
Comments From YouBrava! It’s so good to see anarcha-feminism getting a voice in the “Big Feminist Blogosphere!”
http://anarcha.org/ is another great resource for information 🙂
What a refreshing article, thanks Natalie.
Long and shocking history of total repression of women
Caitlin Moran:the planet doesn’t need your babies
Dump Donald Trump.. top sexist hog
Pussy Riot and Madonna, branded sluts and therefore liars!
(The ‘TAV’ here is a stupid, useless expensive high speed train that was set to destroy the unique Soussa valley till a mass uprising got in the way)
With charges such as violence, property damage and injuries to police officers, more than 40 activists of the NO TAV movement have been put under investigation: 25 are under arrest, while the remaining ones are under house arrest and similar banning orders. The operation started at dawn on January 26, saw more than 150 officers involved, and took place all over Italy (and even parts of France, where some local activists were prohibited to travel to Italy). The majority of arrests were made in Turin, but many other towns and cities were also targeted by the raids: Milan, Palermo, Rome, Padua, Genoa, and many more. The operation is specifically linked to the clashes that took place between NO TAV activists and police officers in the two big action days of summer 2011, June 27 and July 3.
Many of the arrestees are prominent activists, linked to various radical movements. In Milan the police arrested Paolo Ferrari, an ex-Red Brigade member who’d got out of prison in 2004 after a 30-year sentence, and who’d been recently linked to a local social centre. In Turin one of the historical founders of the social centre Askatasuna was also arrested, and many other social centres were raided. Guido Fissore, a retired Councillor famous in th
e No TAV movement for going on hunger strike last summer as part of the protests, was arrested and his house searched. He’s now under house arrest and can only communicate with his close family.
Also arrested Tobia Imperato, employee of Piedmont’s Institute for the History of Resistance and author of the book Le scarpe dei suicidi (The suicidees’ shoes, PDF downloadable here), about 3 anarchists arrested in the 90′s in Turin accused of sabotage. Two of them, Edoardo Massari and Soledad Rosas, committed suicide while still in jail. Also under investigation are four editors of Radio Black Out, the most prominent radio in the world of political activism in Italy.
Please show solidarity with prisoners, the NO TAV website.
Sources: notav.info (the main NO TAV website), and other random articles.
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The Free 