LAND GRAB
The International Land Coalition and Oxfam issued an important report in December entitled “Uneven Ground: Land Inequality at The Heart of Unequal Society”. Its analysis shows that the problem of land inequality is larger than thought. This has an impact in particular on the livelihood of the poor, especially on women, the young and indigenous […]
JEWISH DEPORTEES SENT TO MAURITIUS: AN UNTOLD STORY
During my time on the “Guardian” I was invited by the Mauritian government of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam after Independence in 1968 to visit the island and write about it. In the course of this trip, I learned that a large group of refugees had been detained in prison during World War II between 1940 and […]
MOZAMBIQUE’S 2021 ISLAMIST TERRORIST THREAT
The danger posed by an extremist Islamist group in the north of Mozambique is a grave problem for the local population, Maputo, as well as the southern African region. SADC leaders once more met at the end of December to see what they can do to help. Until now Mozambique has relied on its own […]
ARYANIZATION OF JEWISH WRITER’S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The “Aryanisation” of the Nazi era extended to medical Jewish authors. I am grateful to the medical historian Prof. Dr. Peter Voswinckel, who sent me the Karina Urbach’s Die Zeit article Stolen Books – Geraubte Bücher’ (10th December 2020) describing his “painstaking detailed” research of the history of Knaurs Gesundheitslexikon – Knaur’s Health Encyclopaedia – a […]
Nuremberg Trials
The accused “were the cruel hangmen whose terror wrote the blackest page of human history. Death was their tool and life their toy.” With these words Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz opened his address 75 years ago, to be precise on the 20th November 1945 at the main trial against the 22 major war criminals of […]
Angola
The oil-diamond and other resources-rich Angola with its impoverished majority – 70% live on less than $2 a day – has taken a step in the right direction: José Filomeno dos Santos (42), son of the former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for fraud. He was accused of […]
Anti-Semitism
Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called anti-semitism seismographic “for the state of our democracy” one year after the 2019 attack on a synagogue in Halle. A stout door had prevented a massacre at the time, leading to the frustrated attacker killing two others. President Steinmeier called the multitude of antisemitic incidents since 1945 a list of […]
Ruth Weiss’ Book reading tour, Germany, Autumn 2020: An unusual trip in an unusual year
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Zimbabwes Unpatriotic Citizens Law
The Bill is intended to criminalise contact with foreign governments as well as connivance with hostile countries and false statements about the country, according to Network Africa Germany. Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs secretary Virginia Mabhiza stated that the proposed legislation was based on the country’s constitutional foreign policy, which promotes and protects the national […]
All the best to Tsitsi Dangarembga!
Firstly : TO TSITSI DANGAREMGBA : CONGRATULATIONS FOR “THIS MOURNABLE BODY”, SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE! IT IS WELL DESERVED FOR A TIMELY NOVEL THAT COMPLETES A REMARKABLE TRILOGY – AND HOPEFULLY IS HEADING TOWARDS THE PRIZE ITSELF. What irony that Zimbabwe’s government is not only scathing of its foremost writer, but that it arrested […]