New developments in Africa

I hope to create a running log of obscure and important issues in Africa. Here are a few items that stood out for me in the last week:

The Government of Gabon in January arrested five anti-corruption officials, and surprisingly, this action was condemned by the a Republican US Representative Ed Royce (CA) and Democratic Barney Frank. [I would give Ed a more resounding enthusiastic cheer but I just tried to thank him online and found only those in his district are allowed to email him, and no one answered his phone number.] One person arrested was the Gabon coordinator of an anti-corruption project called Publish What You Pay, which is a site that urges leaders in developing countries to publish the pay of their leadership. This effort was a project of Transparency International, a corruption measurement group I discovered when I decided to work in Cambodia. Cambodia, sadly, is one of the most corrupt governments in the world, which in practical terms I discovered means that money is required (not necessarily bribes, but some direct financial contribution) to do anything with the government. It is great to hear people are working hard under difficult circumstances, and I hope they are released unharmed.

Madagascar: For those of us who have been involved in the food movement domestically and internationally, it may shock you to learn the Madagascar government has leased at $12/acre half of the arable land in Madagascar to a Korean company Daewoo for the growth of corn and palm oil. I learned of the situation from one of my new favorite bloggers: Ethan Zuckerman. A colleague told me he avoids Ethan because he is way too smart. Ethan helped start another of my favorite sites (in theory, I visit it rarely): Global Voices - a site that "aggregates, curates and ampifies the global conversation online."
Photo: Amazing baobob trees in Madagascar.

Avaaz.org - email alerts I actually like to send

Like many of you, I get tons of emails requesting me to send a message to an important figure about some very important issue. Everything is really important. But somehow Avaaz does this simple task better than most. They are a coalition of global voices, so I feel part of the global community whenever I send my message, and their campaigns always seem thoughtful and targeted. Today I wrote to Clinton about the crisis in Sri Lanka, an issue that really has not been on my radar screen. I am not likely to engage that heavily on this issue, but I am glad to spend a few minutes every week or so to let the global leadership know the global community is holding them accountable. And they do more than just accumulate letters..they put out ads and large media campaigns to get the public's attention.