Arcadia Foundation

International human rights organizations, Civil Rights Congress and the United Action for Democracy on Sunday night in Kaduna, Nigeria protested the 36 state governors’ endorsement of the execution of 316 prisoners on death row in prisons across the country.

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir el-Rufai, has expressed opposition to the move.

Mr. El-Rufai’s response to the sentencing calls for broad economic infrastructure reform to preemptively combat rising domestic violence in Nigeria, not deterrents out of fear mongering. “Fight the disease, not the symptoms. Corrupt officials are a greater threat to Nigeria‘s national security and should be dealt with first”, Mr.El-Rufai stated.

Hundreds of the members of the CRC and UAD bearing 316 lighted candles protested in front of the Kabala Christian Cemetery located about two kilometres away from the Kaduna Central Prison at about 7.30 pm on Sunday. The cemetery has over the past 60 years served as the burial ground for executed prisoners in Kaduna. Read Full Paper

Wait ’till he tweets about this one.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rejected charges by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that he is meddling in the Andean country’s political affairs ahead of presidential elections next month.

Chavez, who said last week that former Colombian defense minister and presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos could “generate a war” if elected, said last night that he has no preferred candidate for the May 30 election and will seek improved ties with his neighbor regardless. The comments came as Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus, who has reportedly said that he “admires” Chavez, begins to gain ground.

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Newsvision online reports that Ugandan President Museveni has made great strides to give additional districts their say. Mr. Museveni promised to dole out more power, developing a “big political post,” which would finally directly reflect the largely unrepresented Gulu district. The Gulu district has unfortunately gone unrecognized in Museveni’s administration for some time but promises have now been made for better representation IF the district’s citizenry vote for the NRM in the coming general election in 2011.

In actuality the district has had representatives, however, their votes largely go unnoticed when they haven’t voted for one of Mr. Museveni’s movements, which often progress with great support. Betty Bigombe, President of the Arcadia Foundation in fact served on the cabinet representing Gulu. Read Full Paper

Fresh off the heels of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe rolling out the red carpet for Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the International Monetary Fund has painted a gloomy picture on the country’s economy, revising growth forecasts to 2.2 percent from the initial 6 percent.

During Ahmadinejad’s visit, he trumpeted solidarity with the troubled nation, slammed Western nations’ “satanic pressures on the people of Zimbabwe,” and predicted “humiliation and defeat for our enemies.”

It seems Mr. Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change handled the uncomfortable visit with a tactful response of courtesy but not collaboration. Indeed, if campaigning for the lifting of economic sanctions from western bodies, perhaps fraternizing with their very public enemy would send across a mixed message.

Below, Al-Jazeera telelvision’s Alireza Ronaghi explains the trade relationship between Zimbabwe and Iran, the ramifications this bond poses abroad and what to make of Zimbabwe’s domestic economy amidst the rhetoric.

The stomach growl heard round the world: Aminatou Haidar, referred to as the “Sahrawi Gandhi” commenced a hunger strike in the middle of November of 2009, lasting all the way three weeks into December, until finally being admitted into a hospital upon nearing death. Her reason? She is striking simply for the right to be recognized as Western Saharan. To be recognized as not Polisario, not Moroccan, not Algerian, and not even as a refugee, says Human Rights Watch.

These particular refugees are ghosts in the eyes of the world. But maybe if you’re like the majority of the world you didn’t even know who the Sahrawi refugees were.

90,000 refugees live displaced without the right to leave in a place called “The Devil’s Garden,” with daytime temperatures exceeding 106 degrees, frequent sand storms, and no vegetation, let alone water. Sahrawi refugees have been refugees for 30 years.  Torture runs rampant, there is complete dependence on foreign aid, and the validity behind the suspected stealing of such aid is away from Sahrawi control.

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Jamestown Foundation correspondent Giorgi Kvelashvili below discusses the de-Sovietization of Georgia, its progress based on the work and recent writings of President Saakashvili. Though the unorthodox relationship with Russia has hindered the mechanisms of autonomy in the post-Soviet state, the boom we  begin to see with respect to police reform, a crucial element to ongoing civil discourse, is cause for hope.

In his April 15, 2010 article in Foreign Policy Magazine, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote about the significant progress his country has made in nation-building and consolidation of a liberal democracy.

In the piece entitled “Failed No Longer,” Saakashvili touched upon almost all aspects of Georgia’s internal development, foreign policy priorities, security issues, international engagement and, of course, the hurdles erected by Russia’s current leadership to obstruct Georgia’s freedom of choice.

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While top leadership of South Africa’s ANC has confirmed that disciplinary charges are being brought against Julius Malema, the ANCYL (youth league) head today jetted off on another “study trip”. Most recently, Malema was in Zimbabwe, discussing indigenization with Robert Mugabe, exploring it as a method of ‘restoring heritage‘ to South Africa following the World Cup. Today, it is time to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Malema, whose conduct while in Zimbabwe was seen to undermine President Jacob Zuma’s efforts as a mediator, will learn more about Venezuela’s so-called ‘nationalization‘ policies on what will be a six-day visit.

Malema has become a dangerous figure in contemporary geopolitics. International bodies associate him with South African leadership, as the reins on his hate-speech and controversial opinions about land reform, clearly have not been pulled hard enough by the Zuma administration. Worse, he is building allegiances with authoritarian figureheads on a global scale, utilizing their criminal ideology as his own each time he returns to Johannesburg and raising questions as to what the future of South Africa will look like by the final match of World Cup 2010.

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The European Union today stated it has given eight million dollars (USD)  to Zimbabwe to help fund a programme to dynamically improve political infrastructure in the drafting of a new constitution meant to pave the way for fresh elections.

Efforts to write a new charter, meant to get underway in July 2009, have stalled as officials complain they lack enough money to conduct a public outreach campaign to gather voters’ opinions on the charter.

“In order for the project to move forward, we are therefore pleased to grant our approval to the first quarterly work plan which amounts to 8,117,831 United States dollars (six million euros),” Xavier Marchal, EU head of country delegation, said in a letter to Zimbabwean ministers.”We have also noted that the government of Zimbabwe has pledged its contribution toward the project to an amount of 2,338,496 United States dollars.”

Under Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal, the country must draft a new constitution which would be put to a referendum.

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The Arcadia Foundation will be posting two new series of articles on a weekly basis on to our Foundation blog. We believe this initiative will be educational and in some cases truly frightening for our readers, but it is a reality we must all face. Tangible change is in our hands.

Every Friday you will read a round-up of oppressive regimes at work through a collation of grassroots blogs emanating on-the-ground in what we have entitled ‘This Week in Erratic Authoritarianism‘.

Here we will documenting the policies, clamors and controversies stemming from the executive cabinets in nations like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Iran, Russia, Libya, Gabon and more. Through our research, we will provide an expose and synopsis on the immediate ramifications these actions will pose to their respective populations and a brief application for how we can get involved in curbing the perpetuation of misery.

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China has promised to lend $20 billion to Venezuela, the country’s President Hugo Chávez said over the weekend. This underscores the Asian giant’s push to deepen ties to oil-rich nations in the developing world and single-handedly boosting the rhetoric of the would-be socialist revolutionary when it seemed his support was beginning to truly wane.

The credit—which Chávez claims ranks among China’s biggest foreign loans ever—symbolizes the growing importance of oil in China’s energy mix, and indeed the lengths the fast-growing nation is willing to go to secure it.

In the past, some major international deals announced by Mr. Chávez haven’t come to fruition. However, these funds come at a key moment for Mr. Chávez, whose popularity has come under pressure as a crumbling infrastructure has led to energy shortages and other problems. Venezuela suffers the region’s highest inflation rate of 25%.

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