AFRO-NETS> The Drum Beat - 79 - Tempo, About Time, Base Line

[Warren Feek <wfeek@comminit.com>]

The Drum Beat - 79 - Tempo, About Time, Base Line
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Next Drum Beat Vacancy Special will be 13 Feb. 2001.
Contact Carey Hooge <chooge@comminit.com> to place your listings.

***

This Drum Beat pulls together some of the compelling stories and info 
from The C. I. Home Page from 4 Dec. 2000 - 30 Jan. 2001. Material 
changes regularly. See present stories on:
http://www.comminit.com

***

TEMPO

1. Youssou N'Dour Leads African Youth to the Internet (12-04-00) 
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,39562,00.html?tw=wn20001024

D Yap reports in Wired News that Youssou N'Dour announced the launch 
of the nonprofit Youth Network for Development (YND) Foundation and 
his own YND 'Joko Project' for Senegal. Designed to increase net ac-
cess and training for young people, the Joko Project will provide 9 
cybercafes in Senegal and 9 in expatriate Senegalese communities. A 
single website will publish youth content and permit real time chat. 
Senegalese youth who will fill an initial 65 'Joko' jobs.


2. 'Dotcommies' Take Over Cuba (01-08-01) 
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/12/20/p11s1.htm

T Ashby and E Bourget of the Christian Science Monitor report on a 
new revolution in Cuba. The Cuban government, supported by non-
American foreign investment, has developed an electronics industry 
producing semiconductors and computers, several ISP's, over 30 soft-
ware companies, and by 2004, a digital telecom system. With 8 univer-
sities offering IT degrees, computer youth clubs and adult training 
programmes across the island, and the highest number of college grads 
in Latin America, Cuba is poised to become a digital hub.

*** 
Opportunities - Award of US$ 1 million - International Associateships 
in Women's Studies Research - http://www.comminit.com 
***


3. Commerce Versus Lives: Brazil's Choice is Making a Difference (01-
08-01)
http://www.thebody.com/tag/dec00/brazil.html

Dec 2000 - The Treatment Action Group's M Harrington asked why Brazil 
gets free drugs to HIV/AIDS patients where others don't. He said drug 
companies offer too little at too high a price, rich governments de-
mand reduced use of cheaper generic drugs but won't pay the differ-
ence, and even UNAIDS programmes reach few without significant reduc-
tions in treatment costs. Brazil uses locally made cheap generic 
drugs that are supplied free to 87,500 of its 580,000 HIV/AIDS pa-
tients and has reduced AIDS mortality by 50% since 1996.


4. Soap Operas Serve Health, Send Messages (01-18-01) 
http://www.healthcentral.com/news/newsfulltext.cfm?ID=47078&src=n1

Health Central reports that research from the Centres of Disease Con-
trol and Prevention shows that 38 million US viewers watch daytime 
television at least twice a week and 50% describe learning something 
about disease prevention from the story lines. Over 33% take action 
on what they learned. The results confirm that TV plays an important 
role in communicating health...said Sonny Fox, of Population Communi-
cations International.


5. HIV Prevention Through a Crack Down on Traditional, Social & Sex-
ual Practices (01-22-01) 
http://ww2.aegis.org/news/wsj/2001/WJ010101.html

Wall Street Journal - On Lake Victoria, 100's of communities have 
cracked down on traditional social and sexual practices that help 
spread HIV. A Dutch project using maps to pinpoint clubs, abandoned 
huts and other hotspots for HIV transmission, gave communities infor-
mation that led them to use local militia to patrol wells, mills and 
abandoned huts and punish those they find after hours, create laws to 
limit women's drinking, criminalize 'flirtation' and ban some harvest 
rites. Views on these initiatives are being sought by the Af-AIDS 
discussion group:
http://www.hivnet.ch:8000/africa/af-aids/viewR?909 

***

New Drum Role - The People's Health Assembly: Revitalizing the Prom-
ise of "Health for All":
http://www.comminit.com/drum_role.html 


Z Chowdhury & M Rowson reflect critically on the promise of the Alma 
Ata health declaration of 1978, the failure to reach its goal of 
'Health for All' by 2000, and the importance of the People's Health 
Assembly in understanding the failure and reinvigorating commitment. 

Previous Drum Roles are archived and cover issues such as the World 
Bank's Global Development Gateway, Palestinian youth and the effects 
of violence, community radio in India, and rethinking radio in light 
of new technologies.

If you have a Drum Role idea, mailto:cmorry@comminit.com

***

ABOUT TIME

6. Trafficking in Humans: The 3rd Largest Area of Organised Crime 
(12-07-00) 
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/975944748/index_html

By M Osava of IPS, as posted on WomensNet. The international traf-
ficking of human beings, especially of women forced into prostitu-
tion, represents the world's 3rd largest area of organised crime, and 
a business that produces 7 billion dollars annually. Only the illegal 
drugs and arms trade produce greater profits. Every year, nearly 1 
million women worldwide are victims of the activity - which amounts 
to slavery - says P Arlacchi, ED of the United Nations Office for 
Drug Control & Crime Prevention (ODCCP).


7. Chinese Face Blood Bank AIDS Timebomb (12-14-00) 
http://www.aegis.org/news/afp/2000/AF0011A4.html

Sui AFP reports the village of Wenlou has been 'devoured' by AIDS 
with terrifying implications for China. In the past 2 years 30 of the 
800 residents have died from the disease and a sample test of 155 
villagers found that 65% were HIV-positive. The problems in Wenlou 
stem from unhygienic blood banks that toured the country from the 
early 1980s paying for blood. Wenlou villagers flocked to give blood, 
making 5 dollars each time. The blood stations would put the blood in 
a big tub, extract the plasma and then pump the remainder back into 
the peasants. Though there is as yet no study on how many people were 
paid for blood before the practice was banned in 1998, estimates run 
into 10s of millions.


8. South African Doctor puts Patient Rights before Patent Rights (01-
18-01) 
http://www.health-e.org.za/view.php3?id=20010102

S Valentine of health-e online news service reports on Dr Andrews who 
is importing the generic anti-fungal drug, Biozole, from Thailand for 
the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis, a disease to which HIV/AIDS 
patients are prone. The patented version of this drug, fluconazole, 
is made by Pfizer. It can cost up to ZAR 120 per capsule as opposed 
to ZAR 2 per capsule for the generic. Pfizer signed an agreement with 
the South African government to make fluconazole available for free 
as of Dec 2000 but due to technicalities the drug is not yet avail-
able and all of Dr Andrew's cryptococcal meningitis patients have 
died in the meantime.


9. Sex-Workers Sterilised to Prevent Babies & "STD's" (01-22-01) 
http://www.propoor.org/news/xnews.asp#1156

A story in The Telegraph India covered by Propoor reports that Indian 
brothel owners have had radical hysterectomies performed on scores of 
tribal sex workers. The owners tell them the operation - performed 
crudely by local quacks - will prevent them from having babies, allow 
them to earn more money, and protect them from STD's including AIDS. 
Indian human rights groups and women's organisations are calling it a 
barbaric violation of basic human rights and demanding a complete in-
vestigation.


10. Education System in Danger of Collapse from HIV/AIDS (01-25-01) 
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101100128.html

M Harvey at WOZA reports in Allafrica that a leaked document from the 
South African Dep. of Education says AIDS will become the single big-
gest killer of teachers this year and calls for a total re-planning 
of the education system. Unicef says 860,000 mostly African children 
lost their teachers to AIDS in 1999 and teacher deaths are overtaking 
teacher training. Macro-economic policies designed to respond to 
globalisation are exacerbating the problem as public money is taken 
away from hiring and training new teachers.


BASE LINE

Archived and searchable! 
http://www.comminit.com/base_line.html

11. Amazon Rainforest Gone in 20 Years? (01-11-01) 
http://www.latinnews.com/newsroom.htm#2 
Source: Latin America Newsletters Jan 2001

* 4% of the Amazon rainforest was destroyed between 1500 and the 
  1970's.
* 75 - 95% will be destroyed over the next 20 years.
* The speed of destruction has doubled over the past 20 years to 
  20,000 sq km's (the size of France) per year.

These figures are based on accelerating destruction stemming from 
Brazil's Avanca Brazil development programme.


12. State of Africa's Internet 2000 (01-29-01) 
http://www.usic.org/

Source: US Internet Council State of the Internet Report 2000.

The USIC Report 2000 finds that high connection costs, low incomes, 
poor infrastructure, illiteracy, lack of trained personnel, disinter-
est and a failure to understand the benefits of Internet access con-
tinue to slow the expansion of computer penetration and Internet use 
in Africa.

The online population for all of Africa is between 1.15 and 2.58 mil-
lion.

South Africa has 1.05 million people on-line followed by Egypt with 
50,000, Morocco with 20,000, and Kenya with 15,000.

The DR of Congo is the only country not directly connected to the 
Internet but only 8 countries have nation-wide dial-up access while 
42 countries have public access in the capital cities.

***
This issue compiled by Chris Morry <cmorry@comminit.com>

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