AFRO-NETS> Patent fair use (6)

[Christian Labadie <CLabadie@t-online.de>]

Patent fair use (6)
-------------------

There is one great thing about Bush junior: he is very predictable!

In the message "Patent fair use (3)" I predicted this: "The former US 
president has left the unfortunate legacy of bombing a Sudanese phar-
maceutical plant. Sudden, swift and undeclared bombings have become a 
common weapon of the US foreign policy. If the US looses the case at 
the WTO, a quite plausible prospect, Africa should prepare itself for 
retaliations. The US will pick-up on anything, will send a few war-
planes and drop uranium enriched bombs. Do expect them! It will be 
the cost of producing home-made medicines for AIDS."

and then that: "In that respect, it is fundamental that Supreme court 
judge McNally remains safe and respected despite his stand against 
the Mugabe government. Should an African country fail to respect one 
of its Justice or try to intimidate its own Supreme court, this would 
dramatically undermine the future of the whole African continent and 
most importantly the reputation of African courts. A justice with a 
sense of duty and of principles must be respected regardless of their 
opinions."

Now read this:

<<US threat to punish Zimbabwe repression

Andrew Meldrum in Harare and Chris McGreal
The Guardian Weekly, Vol 164, No 9, p. 1

The United States says it is looking for new ways to punish Robert 
Mugabe following threats to the lives of Zimbabwe's leading judges 
and the expulsion of two foreign journalists, including BBC corre-
spondent.

Washington said it was consulting key allies, including Britain, to 
co-ordinate measures to get the government to halt its increasingly 
violent campaign against opponents and what appear to be the first 
steps toward barring the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, from 
running for president. The pretext would be trumped-up charges of 
citing revolution.

The US has already cut a large proportion of its aid since Mr Mugabe 
encouraged supporters to occupy white-owned farms and ignored the 
Zimbabwean supreme court's ruling that the land invasions were ille-
gal.

Britain joined in the international condemnation of the expulsion or-
ders issued against a BBC reporter, Joseph Winter, and Mercedes Say-
agues, a reporter for the Guardian Weekly's sister paper in South Af-
rica, the Mail & Guardian. Zimbabwe's high commissioner, Simbarashe 
Mumbengegwi, was summoned to the Foreign Office to hear a minister, 
Brian Wilson, protest at the expulsions, the harassment of judges, 
and the recent bombing that wrecked the presses of Harare's Daily 
News.

President Mugabe's reaction to such protests came in an address to 
foreign diplomats assembled at the State House in Harare: "We are 
still the subject of malicious propaganda by external forces opposed 
to the land reform programme," he told them. "This is affecting our 
image abroad."

Mr Winter flew to Johannesburg on Monday following a raid on his home 
by men presumed to be government supporters that forced him and his 
family to seek shelter at the British high commission.

The information minister, Jonathan Moyo, who has been accused of em-
bezzling US$ 80,000 in a lawsuit filed in Nairobi by the Ford Founda-
tion, has hinted that all foreign journalists will have to leave be-
fore long.>> (reproduced under fair use)

I hope that Zimbabwe realises that the international public can re-
main dead quiet on AIDS drugs issues because they are afraid of 
speaking up, but will find millions of words to argue about free 
press and the safety of high court judges. There is a French say that 
reads "Qui trop embrasse mal etreint", thus don't try to give too 
much land at once otherwise you may end-up loosing all of it. I know 
that it sounds stupid but it may be quite funnier to just give every 
Zimbabwean citizens the right to "grow vegetables" on a given size of 
land, than trying overnight to undo injustice. Now if this would be 
combined with a cross-study on the impact of gardening on "malnutri-
tion", "immune supression" and "human dignity", this would give a 
bright and long-lasting chance of success. But please, don't turn 
Southern Africa into another NATO-pilot exercise field. And hey! 
"gardening" may have a chance to find some UN-funding, I doubt that 
the land redistribution will.

Christian Labadie
mailto:CLabadie@t-online.de

----------------------
Other related links:

* San people of Namibia to get drought relief, 22-Feb-2001, SABC News
  The Namibian government will provide emergency food aid to thousands 
  of hunter-gatherer communities in the country suffering the effects 
  of drought, it was announced late yesterday.
  http://www.sabcnews.com/SABCnews/Article/print_whole_story/0,1093,11418,00.html

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