In pursuit of Robert F. Kennedy’s dream of a more just and peaceful world, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Europe officially launched the RFK International House of Human Rights based in Florence, Italy.  The training center is housed in the Le Murate, which used to be a former prison but recently went through some renovations. It also hosts offices for RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights’ European branch. After going through a major facelift the building still maintains its prison features as a reminder of its past history of torture and other human rights abuses. In an official opening speech by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, she said that in pursuit of her father’s dream the Center will be a place where digital dissidents will get training from technology experts on how to use technology in promoting human rights.

Specialists from Tactical Technology Collective (TTC), Global Voices Online, OneWorld Digital Security Exchange, Witness.org, Electronic Freedom Frontier and Human Rights Watch shared their knowledge with the first group of digital activists who were selected from various countries including Zimbabwe, Mexico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Philippines and Sri Lanka. The one week training programme focused on adopting the latest technology tools in digital activism, use of social media to promote human rights and also provided a platform to share experiences with other human rights defenders. Coming from different backgrounds human rights defenders at this year’s training session were exposed to the best practices in implementing human rights work and the latest technology tools, which will help transform and overcome the day-to-day challenges of promoting human rights.

What is Zimbabwe’s equivalent?

How Phone Messages Helps Eritrean Revolutionaries
Some have called Eritrea Africa’s answer to North Korea and it is indeed the seemingly most repressive country on the continent. Revolution is practically unheard of and the country’s jails overflow with critics, opponents and dissenters. But you can’t keep liberty down, writes The Economist: for the past two years an expat protest group has been making calls to Eritreans, telling them to “Start asking questions”, or “Don’t take this lying down”. But in order to reach as many people as possible, the campaign recently turned to that most-hated of telemarketing tricks: the RoboCall. Using this automated technology, the group says it is reaching over 10,000 people a month with small but important messages encouraging change in this police state. – Source, MSN

It is always interesting, well, for me at least, that many leaders, African or otherwise, while apparently extolled elsewhere, are often “unwanted” and face harsh criticism in their own countries.

And this has nothing to do with the hiding-being-religion motif of a prophet being unwelcome among his own people. Far from it.

I have been thinking about this in the past few days that when our President was heaping praises on Zambian President Michael Sata for literally feeding Zimbabwe with 150,000 tonnes of maize, university students in Lusaka were protesting, taking to the streets demanding that their “crazy president” resign.

The students were protesting against something that resonates with Zimbabwe’s tertiary education students who however would never dare bum rush the streets in the manner seen in Lusaka.

That was not the end of it.

Jobless youths reportedly joined in the protests demanding jobs, and a comment attributed to one youth summed up the mood: “Let them come and arrest all the young people for speaking out on the wrongs that are beng done by the government. This is a government that has lost popularity so early and we cannot wait to vote them out. They don’t want to listen to people who voted for them and since they have closed their ears, we can take to the streets because that is the language they want to understand.”

One of the accusations leveled against President Sata was that he had become “arrogant and insensitive to the plight of the people.”

And we await here the day when students can get on their soapboxes and speak their minds about their wretched circumstances.

Yet because student activists will tell you there are spooks who sit through lectures pretending to be students, this has crippled any militancy you would expect from an impoverished aspiring academic.

But we read that President Sata’s response was typical of an African leader who is antithetical to the right to protest: LOCK THEM UP, he is alleged to have instructed cops.

That was not the end of the crackdown. Police have in past few days also locked up Zambia’s own protest poets for music critical to Sata.

The offending lyricist when translated went something like: “You were lying ‘Tata’ (old man). You promised cheap fuel; you said you will construct roads but you were lying as people are still sleeping in tunnels.”

We are in good company hey? Thanks for the maize.

As the world starts to open up its doors to you that is when you realise the importance of learning as many foreign languages as you can. My father spoke three languages and I used to think he was trying to show off, not realising that because of his quest for greener pastures he had to adapt to new environments fast, and being comfortable speaking many languages was essential to job hunting. After learning English in school my belief was I that I could conquer the world not realising that the world doesn’t work like that!

When I was in Firenze recently I went to a restaurant and ate something that I didn’t order. Amongst our group nobody knew how to speak Italian. On the menu there were some English translations but we decided not to order the obvious and went for something different and Italian. I was the first to place my order and the waiter who was serving us also had language challenges. All I could hear from her was “Signo, Poi and Prego”.

Every meal you take in Italy you have to complement it with wine. So whilst I was waiting for my meal I was sitting in front of two bottles, one of red wine and the other of olive oil. I was in Italy to learn not to get knocked in the middle of the day so two glasses were enough for the occasion. By the time the main meal came I thought there was going to be some more coming not realising that I was eating the main course! To me it looked like a starter or something. The order I had placed was in Italian so I got grilled meat in tomato paste. It tasted good but sounded strange to me to eat meat with tomato paste. That’s when I realised that the world works well for you if you master the local language – red meat in tomato sauce could have been avoided if I had managed to read the menu well in Italian! The next time we went to the same restaurant I could see waiters switching so that we got served by the English speaking waiters.

So here I was in the middle of this Italian town that English speaking people prefer to call Florence but actually it should be pronounced Firenze.  One thing I noticed from the day I set foot in this town was the church buildings. If you studied the Roman Empire in school you would know what I am talking about.

This a town where people just love art, art is everywhere. From buildings to the streets and even on the toilet paper I got in my room, art is just part of the day-to-day life in Firenze.

When I was walking around I saw this couple on honeymoon sitting in front of this artist having their picture drawn. They call it caricature.

Its summer in Italy right now so day light time stretches up to 11pm and this kinda affected me so much that I could find myself in the middle of the city after midnight, something I wouldn’t do in Zimbabwe. I would get back to my room around 2 am!

During my stay in Firenze I was living with about 8 friends from different parts of the world. The fear of getting lost was almost to none as the people there were helpful in giving directions and the motorists respect pedestrians so much unlike some places I know – Zimbabwe!

Usually when the word ‘developed’ is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is money, since surely you cannot develop without money, and therefore the logical assumption is that development results in money and therefore can be measured in it.

However, this is not always true, as in the case of Kerala.

Kerala is a small province in Southern India and is very poor with people living on between $298 and $350 a year. This is about one seventeenth of the income in the United States, and yet, demographically, Kerala is almost at the same level as the USA. A study was done to compare the 2 and it was discovered that:

- Kerala male life expectancy is about 70 years while the USA is about 72
- Kerala’s birth rate is about 18 per 1000 (and dropping) while the USA is about 16 per 1000
- And, possibly most shocking (or logical) is Kerala has 100% literacy!

This indicates that on one seventeenth of the money Kerala can achieve almost the same development as the USA (if development is not measured in money). Which brings to question why such a small place can do so much on such little money.

The answer can be found in education. Kerala had a huge drive in the late 1980s on education, which resulted in their 100% literacy. What was particularly focused on was female literacy. The idea was that if a woman is educated, she is far more likely to share her education with her children than a man. Therefore more people can benefit from one woman being educated rather than one man being educated. Although this did not improve the unemployment rate (which is still very high), it did create emancipation, which then trickled into other areas. With female emancipation, the birth rate dropped, aiding the problem of overpopulation and also reducing pressure on family incomes.

Kerala seems to be a huge success in terms of human development. Whether this is just a boom after a big push or a genuine, sustainable change in the people’s lives cannot be determined yet as it is still too recent. However, it can be said that not all development is reliant on money, and maybe other provinces in India and even other countries can learn from Kerala and its successes.

A question was asked during an election reporting workshop concerning how journalists and civic organisations can report or walk the fine line between bringing knowledge to the people and not attract the wrath of the authorities who have criminalised voter education.

It highlighted the problem many have with the conditions that prevail as the country prepares for elections whereby while political parties are encouraging supporters to vote on one hand, and on the other institutions expected to play a role in ensuring that the same voters make informed decisions being fettered by the threat of imprisonment.

Anyone seeking to make inroads into remote rural areas for example to “educate” voters does that at their own peril, and it has to be queried how then a people known to have no access to radio, TV and newspapers are supposed to participate in processes they have no clue about.

It could well be a replay of the referendum where voters merely followed instructions from their political parties and vote for issues they have no clue about.

And because this is a high stakes poll, we can expect all voters to be denied by the usual suspects all the information they need to make informed decisions.

This buttresses the charge that rural folks are “instructed” or “persuaded” with brute force who to vote for, and we have already read about Jabulani Sibanda “frightening” villagers in Lupane, which is just the beginning of worse things to come.

Common sense would tell you that the period in the run-up to elections provides insight into the credibility of any poll, and Sibanda’s reported actions in rural Matebeleland only serve to cast more doubt into the country’s – or Zanu PF’s seeing that he is a Zanu PF functionary – commitment to creating conditions “ideal for a free and fair election.”

And because these rural constituencies have rather unflatteringly been labeled as “unsophisticated” they are seen as very malleable in the hands of political hoodlums, and it is here where an informed voter can take charge of their political circumstances and indeed political future.

Thus we hear exhortations from some quarters that the rural folks must remain docile and allow themselves to be herded to rallies but make their choices known inside the voting booth!

A famous Tony Namate cartoon back in the 1990s actually has a peasant woman mischievously winking as she puts her “X” on a candidate contesting against Zanu PF, and while such commentary did indeed help magnify the extent of what has become a post-independence millstone around our necks, Zanu PF has still been able to claim the vote, raising questions whether if at all rural folk “vote freely.”

But it’s a debate that will take forever as some have already opined that Zanu PF has never allowed defeat to stand in the way to claim victory!

It thus has become a well-worn cliché that access to information is the bedrock of all electoral processes and democracy, yet we find ourselves doing the same things over, and over but still expecting to get different results.

It is essentially because of this that some of the most vocal people you meet in the street criticizing the status quo go to the pub instead when other citizens join long queues under the blazing African sun to cast their vote!

Another issue to look out for again this year would be the spread of newspapers, which areas they reach as they seek to report about the pre-election climate.

Yet one thing that has precedence is the “outlawing” of certain titles from certain areas where reading a particular paper has in the not-so-distant past been a punishable offence with vigilantes using cudgels on fellow villagers for merely reading a newspaper of their choice.

To an outsider it sounds crazy, but this is what we can expect in the coming months, that is if it is not happening already.