July 2009
Resource Scarcity and the Rwandan Genocide
By Reverien Mfizi
Land and resource scarcity is a major under-examined cause of conflicts in Africa. An environment of mistrust is created when people no longer see each other as neighbors but as competitors for a scarce supply of food, land, and water. These tensions are then exploited by opportunistic politicians who see their power as a way to control a country’s resources and enrich both themselves and the ethnic group they belong to.
Africa has been ravaged by conflicts that have displaced and killed millions of people. Most of these conflicts are seen as tribal disputes that erupted during the post-colonial period, the wake left behind by colonizers exiting their territories after bringing certain tribes to power over others. While colonization has been a major factor, little attention has been given to the fact that the increase of population, coupled with diminishing land and water resources, exacerbated post-colonial tensions. The genocide that ravaged the country of Rwanda in 1994 is a good example.
The Rwandan Genocide—committed by Hutu extremists against the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus—took the lives of more than one million people and is often simplified as a series of tribal killings like any other conflict on the continent. But Rwanda was also facing aggravating factors such as population increase, soil degradation, and chronic food shortages.
Rwanda has one of the highest population densities in Africa (829/sq mile), and more than 90% of the population still practices subsistence farming, with an average farm size per household of just 1.1 acres.
Furthermore, decades of over-cultivation have made the land unproductive and the country has experienced food shortages since the 1980s. While environmental scarcity cannot be solely blamed as the cause of the 1994 Genocide, it provided an environment where unrest and disorder grew and lead to an open conflict. Destitute Hutus who had no land, jobs, or other means of survival were manipulated by corrupt politicians and became the tools of genocidal machinery.
In order to understand the complex relationship of land and conflict, it is very important to examine the effects of human activity and how scarcity of land, water, forests, and fisheries contributes to violence. In his extensive research on environmental scarcity in Rwanda, Thomas Homer-Dixon, currently at the University of Waterloo, explains three ways environmental scarcity could arise:
First, there is “demand-induced scarcity” which is a result of extensive population growth that leads to shortage of resources. Second, there is “supply-induced scarcity” which arises from the degradation of resources and lack of an ability to resupply or renew available resources. Third, there is “structural scarcity” which arises from the inability of a given society to equally distribute resources. These scarcities can affect the social order in different way,s which include food shortages or famine, economic decline, population displacement, and disruption of the social or political order. A combination of these effects can produce conflict between social groups and therefore lead to violence when these social groups are organized around ethnic or religious divisions.
In Rwanda the increase of the population led to a demand-induced scarcity. The population density increased tremendously during a period ranging from the 1950s -1980s, which led to a reduction of family farm size, making it difficult for subsistence farmers to feed their families. According to the census, the population in 1978 stood at 4.85 million and increased to 7.17 million by 1991, an increase of nearly 40% in 13 years. Read more »
Introducing the New President of Buffalo State Students for Peace: Kyla Christie
G
reetings - I just wanted to introduce myself to members of the peace community . My name is Kyla Christie and I am the new President of Buffalo State Students for Peace (SFP) for the upcoming fall and spring semester. The WNY Peace Center has been one of our main allies, and I look forward to our continued work together.
SFP has historically focused on education, awareness, political agitation and direct action, and this year its focus is the same. This year I would like to see SFP as a more active organization, passionate about peace and social justice, forming a progressive student movement on campus.
Last year SFP increased their activities on campus and in the peace community. To name a few examples, we hosted distinguished speaker Amiri Baraka, took a trip to the School of the Americas, and registered many new students to vote. I want this year to have even more energy and intensity than last year.
Right now we are working on preparing for the In-District visits during the first week of August to combat military spending in the budget by twenty-five percent, and lobbying to use military dollars on things we actually need. We are also aiming to send people to the Think Outside the Bomb conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The vision of Think Outside the Bomb is to work toward a nuclear-free world, empower campus leaders, and bring about real social change. It takes place Aug 13-16.
This year Students for Peace aims to get involved with a number of different projects. We are planning to participate in the college’s Fall Write-A-Thon, focusing on human rights in conjunction with Amnesty International. We will also host a film series in conjunction with the WNY Peace Center. Read more »
The Venceremos Brigade returns Monday, Aug 3rd
CUBA: AN EMBARGO'S TIME IS PAST
HUNDREDS OF AMERICANS DEFY TRAVEL BAN OBAMA RELAXES CUBA BLOCKADE
VENCEREMOS BRIGADE WANTS IT BROKEN COMPLETELY
When the Obama administration eliminated travel restrictions on Cuban-American travel to Cuba, they forgot to do the same thing for the rest of the country. On Monday,Aug. 3rd, the Venceremos Brigade will remind President Obama of that omission when over 250 Americans return from an educational and work trip to Cuba in direct defiance of the federal travel ban.
The Brigade’s trip comes at a politically opportune time, as the Obama administration is finally taking tentative steps towards dialogue with Cuba. In addition, both houses of Congress are reviewing bills that would rescind the half-century old travel ban on Cuba. Meanwhile, the Organization of American States recently vowed to reverse a 47-year-old exclusion of Cuba from the group.
Over 150 Americans are defying the travel ban this year as part of the Venceremos Brigade’s 40th tour of Cuba. They hail from Massachusetts to Maryland, California to Florida, Cincinnati to Chicago, and Oklahoma City to Oakland. All are exercising their constitutional right to travel knowing they are violating the law, while urging, even demanding that the federal government finally do what most of the rest of the world has done: normalize political and economic relations with Cuba.
The Venceremos Brigade started organized visits to Cuba in defiance of the travel ban in 1969. Those tours began just eight years after the U.S. government made Cuba the only country in the world that Americans could not legally visit. Not only does this starve Cuba of contact with the United States, it prevents Americans from learning about what Cuba is really like on a citizen-to-citizen level. Read more »
Israel-Palestine negotiations must begin with a settlement freeze
By Nicolas Kabat
Reuters News recently published an article entitled, "Palestinians reject any Israel-U.S. settlement deal." I find the title misleading as any casual observer would be led to believe the Palestinians are "rejectionists," a term used to denigrate any Arab state that "refuses" to negotiate with Israel.
The article is actually discussing Palestinian discontent with a recent Maariv (Israeli newspaper) report, which stated that the U.S. and Israel had come to an agreement allowing for the construction of 2,500 housing units in the West Bank. The U.S. State Department denied the report and Israeli officials refused to comment, neither denying nor confirming the Maariv report. Palestinians are reasonably concerned about such reports.
During the Oslo years (1993-2000), settlements increased by 71%, a previously unseen pace, from 116,000 settlers in 1993 to 198,000 in 2000, when talks broke down (this is only settlers in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem). All this occured while the American public was flooded with reports of ongoing peace talks. The reason for such an increase in growth during peace talks is up to speculation.
Gershom Gorenberg, author of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977, believes it is related to settlers fearing the end of settlements and thus rushing to complete construction. Israeli authorities worked parallel to the settlers to solidify West Bank land grabs and thus "change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," to quote from the Oslo II Interim agreement. Read more »
Adopt Resistance Updates
By Russell Brown
As the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan show no signs of ending, the death tolls of innocent civilians and soldiers continue to rise. The wars are not going well for anyone. Many war resisters from various military branches who have decided that they cannot fight in wars they don’t believe in are being persecuted for their desertion.
Kimberly Rivera recently had a hearing in Toronto aimed at deciding whether or not she would be deported to the US to face court martial. Although we all thought it went well, she had the same judge Jeremy Hinzman had for his unsuccessful hearing. Kimberly could be facing four or five years in prison and separation from her family. “I shouldn't have to destroy my family for deciding not to destroy somebody else's family,” she recently said.
We all wait with our fingers crossed. Canadian supporters had a vigil at the courthouse before the hearing. Courage To Resist presented 6,000 signatures to the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco (after a vigil on the same morning for American supporters) asking the Canadian government to give refuge to Kimberly and other War Resisters. Read more »
Sadoo Enterprises Inc Rummage Sale
Join us at Northland & Main St, Buffalo
Set up begins at 8am, sale begins at 9am until we sell out
For organizations/individuals that are looking to participate in the rummage sale there is a $25 donation or entrance fee. Sadoo will provide all advertising and two tables to display your items. You are welcome to bring additional tables if need be.
For more information on Sadoo Enterprises visit www.sadooenterprises.org.
The Cost of Coca-Cola
By Swathi Ramakrishnan and Vijay Loganathan
With the arrival of summer, most of us in America think about drinking a refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola. It is a similar scenario in major cities of India. Unfortunately, that drink comes at a high social cost, not just in India, but around the globe, from Colombia to Palestine.
Due to scarce rainfall in the past few years in India, it has been very difficult for the farmers in drought regions to cultivate any crop. The situation is no better in Kala Dera, in the desert region of Rajasthan that has been in a drought for the past 8 years. It is home to a large Coca-Cola plant, set up in 2000, which reduced the ground water by 32 feet in its first five years. This pattern is seen in many drought-prone areas of India.
Water depletion is not the only problem that these plants cause. They have dumped their toxic waste into the surrounding areas or sold the waste to local farmers as fertilizers. In 2004, the leading newspaper, Times of India, confirmed the presence of pesticides in 12 products of Pepsi and Coca-Cola. The pesticides in these products are at levels that would never be tolerated in the US or Europe. This has not yet stopped the sale of Coke products. Instead there are plans for additional plants in the region of Ballia, where the groundwater is already heavily contaminated with arsenic thanks to Coke.
In his book, Belching out the Devil, Mark Thomas actually takes a look at other issues related to Coke not only in India, but also in places like Colombia, El Salvador and Turkey. Trade unions have launched boycotts in many countries because of Coke’s use of illegal paramilitary units to oppress workers in Colombia. Coke’s support of Israel’s occupation and siege of Gaza is equally disturbing. Read more »
6th Annual World on Your Plate Food Forum
Visit www.worldonyourplate.org to register and see updates
Special Membership Meeting of the WNY Peace Center
At the offices of SEIU 1199, 974 Kenmore Ave
All members in good standing are invited to vote on the sale of the property
The Hurt Locker Opens in Buffalo
More details to follow