Nov 10th, 2012
General Petraeus, one time world-accredited hero of Iraq and Afghanistan has resigned from his position as director of the CIA after just over one year in office. Reason given: an extra-marital affair of the kind European politicians would not bat an eyelid about. Is this about morality and the self-castigation of a four-star lover boy […]
Oct 16th, 2012
On October 11th, the British government announced transparency measures regarding the trade of imported natural resources, including gas and petrol. Companies will be required to publish payments to any government of more than €80,000 . This is meant to inform the local populations of the crimes and misdemeanours of their respective governments when they handle […]
Sep 26th, 2012
Dear readers of this post Please look at this http://www.facebook.com/ViolenceFreeTechnology?ref=ts The aim is to organize world-wide campaign for a a day mobile telephone strike to protest about the rape that so often is part of extracting conflict minerals in the DRC, used for digital technology . This does not just concern the Congo- human rights […]
Sep 18th, 2012
In Kabul today, twelve people were killed by a suicide car bomber against a van on the way to the airport, supposedly in retaliation ”for the insult of our Prophet” according to the spokesman for the Hezb-e-Islami who takes responsibility for the attack. Three Afghans, nine foreigners including eight South-Africans were amongst the victims. Meantime, […]
Sep 6th, 2012
This is the original version of the article I published with Alphonse Maindo on Now Africa which was put up on this blog. When Aid Agencies Miss the Point: rape and the Global Marketplace in the DRC The question of the blindness (?) of aid policies becomes alarming when considering conflict minerals and rape in […]
Sep 5th, 2012
Here is the article Alphonse Maindo and I wrote about the links between rape and unregulated mining of metals mainly used in the electronics industry (our beloved phones, cameras, laptops etc). It appeared on the widely read ‘Think Africa’ site. We hope to find funding to undertake real research on the subject There must be […]
The news has been full of the news in Toulouse, south-west France, about a fearless terrorist shooting young soldiers and three children from a Jewish school. The military victims were Frenchmen like the murderer himself, likewise of North African ex-colonial descent. The crime in itself is horrendous, especially the cold-blooded murder of little children. However […]
The UN has just revealed staggering figures. Despite promises to the contrary, in one year, the production of Afghan heroin has increased by 61 %. Before the US and NATO intervention which began in 2001, the official figures were 185 tons a year (a symbolic figure as everyone knows that illicit production fuelled both Taliban and […]
Oct 21st, 2011
This is a lead interview with me on the state of Afghan women published this week in ‘L’Humanité daily in Paris http://www.humanite.fr/monde/carol-mann-%C2%AB-pour-les-afghanes-la-situation-n%E2%80%99-pas-progresse%C2%A0%C2%BB-481800