South Africa And Illegal Succulent Harvesting

 

Move Over, Ivory

SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa extradited a South Korean citizen to the US last year for trafficking in unlikely contraband: the fascinating, fleshy and sometimes flowery plants known as succulents. The criminal recently pled guilty to illegally harvesting $600,000 worth of Dudleya plants from state parks in California, according to the US Department of Justice.

As VICE News explained, the South Korean man, Byungsu Kim, escaped to Mexico when he discovered the feds were after him, traveled to China and then was arrested in South Africa after police caught him in another harvesting operation.

The case underscores how the illicit trade in succulents is an international problem, wrote Modern Farmer. The plants’ stalks are engorged because they fill with water, making them pretty houseplants that require little maintenance and irregular watering. Buying a succulent in a store or nursery likely won’t contribute to the problem, the Evening Standard, a London-based newspaper, wrote. But rare succulents are especially sought after in Asia. Many of those rare species are now endangered as a result.

Social media is driving the disaster. More than 3.5 billion people have viewed posts using the #PlantTikTok while Instagram users have posted 12.2 million images with the #succulents keyword, noted Business Insider.

In China, online influencers who showcase succulents have developed a massive following which fuels demand for the rare plants. “Hundreds of thousands of people are logging on daily to admire these vegetating celebrities, oohing as chattering hosts turn and twirl them around, showing off blushes of new color, entire centimeters of growth, or – what a treat! – some velvety new leaves,” the Washington Post reported.

South Africa, home to a third of all succulent species, is perhaps suffering more than most countries. Demand for the plants skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic when eager Asian buyers and others teamed up with impoverished South Africans who provide the GPS coordinates of succulent clusters to smugglers willing to risk arrest while digging up the plants, the New York Times reported.

Now the succulents in South Africa are in danger of disappearing, wrote the Guardian. The British newspaper cited a scientific study that estimated that 85 percent of Pearson’s aloe in the Richtersveld region has disappeared in the past five years due to poaching as well as climate change, especially drought.

Officials are trying to crack down on the trade. Last year, a South African court sentenced an American citizen to a suspended sentence of two years in jail and banned him from the country for seeking to traffic protected succulents, the Independent Online wrote.

Few smugglers appear to have gotten the message.

Namibia-The Value Of Life

 

NAMIBIA

The Value of Life

Hundreds of Namibians protested in front of the country’s parliament this week as lawmakers prepare to vote on an agreement with Germany that the European nation hopes will provide a degree of compensation for the genocide committed during its colonial occupation of Namibia, Al Jazeera reported.

In May, Germany acknowledged it had committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people between 1904 and 1908. It promised to pay $1.3 billion in financial support to the descendants of the victims.

Under the deal, the sum will be paid across three decades and will primarily benefit the Herero and Nama descendants.

However, some of the victims’ descendants and opposition parties rejected the offer as a “fake genocide deal” and said that the amount was insufficient.

Defense Minister Frans Kapofi noted that the government had raised concerns about the amount but described the offer as “an achievement, of some measure, to get the Federal Republic of Germany accepting responsibility” for the genocide.

Germany had ruled Namibia from 1884 until it lost the colony in World War One. The 1904-1908 genocide began when the Herero and the Nama rebelled against their colonial rulers.

Historians estimate that up to 65,000 of the 80,000 Herero and at least 10,000 of the 20,000 Nama were killed.

The German government had previously acknowledged “moral responsibility” for the killings, but to avoid compensation claims it had never issued a formal apology.

Swaziland Is Now Eswatini

 

ESWATINI

The Absolute

In southern Eswatini – a small, landlocked country bordering Mozambique and South Africa formerly known as Swaziland – grandmothers depend on the illegal marijuana farming industry. They call the weed “Swazi gold.”

As the Guardian reported, elderly women resort to growing the crop because there are no jobs and they live in poverty. The government doesn’t provide services, and often the women are raising grandchildren whose parents died from the region’s ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Those conditions have helped fuel discontent with King Mswati III. Eswatini is not only a kingdom, but the last absolute monarchy in Africa. The law doesn’t recognize political parties. Anyone advocating for reforms is legally a terrorist, according to a blog devoted to Eswatini affairs, Swazi Media, reproduced in the allAfrica news service.

As the economy worsened during the coronavirus epidemic, the death of a law student at the hands of the police prompted protesters to take to the streets to demand law enforcement reform, National Public Radio wrote. The protests morphed into pro-democracy demonstrations for political change. The police crackdown resulted in at least 40 deaths and more than 150 serious injuries.

Mswati III has also arrested members of parliament who have spoken out for government reforms that would alter the king’s power. Freedom House called for the lawmakers’ release as more of the king’s subjects assembled to express their displeasure with his actions.

“Indeed, it’s angering and raging because these are the people’s representatives in parliament,” Vuysiwa Maseko, a 25-year-old protester, told Voice of America. “They are the voices of the voiceless and arresting them means government is shutting 1.1 million voices – the population of Swaziland.”

The headline in New Frame, a nonprofit, South Africa-based publication focused on social justice, put the conflict simply: “The people versus the king.” The story described how the king’s Operational Support Services Unit terrorized the population, including shooting and maiming children for no apparent reason but to display wanton power and cruelty.

At the London-based think tank Chatham House, experts said they didn’t see how King Mswati III could continue to suppress the population and ignore calls for democratic reforms. He was dooming his subjects to never-ending episodes of protest and crackdown-related violence. They noted that Eswatini was declared a constitutional monarchy in 1967, but since then the royal family has expanded its power and reduced that of others.

Some police have already resigned publicly, saying they don’t want to participate in a force that hurts the people, the Mail & Guardian of South Africa wrote.

Not even absolute authority can withstand unlimited pressure.

W

Rwanda-Defacing Heroes

 

RWANDA

Defacing Heroes

A Rwandan court found Paul Rusesabagina of “Hotel Rwanda” fame guilty of terrorism-related charges in a monthslong trial that critics say was not a fair one, the Washington Post reported Monday.

The court said that the former hotel manager and opposition figure was guilty of forming an armed militia and being part of a terrorist group blamed for deadly gun, grenade and arson attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. Judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi said Rusesabagina’s opposition group was responsible for the attacks on civilians in Rwanda. She cited a 2018 video in which Rusesabagina said “to use any means possible to bring about change in Rwanda” as evidence of his guilt.

Rusesabinga had called the proceedings a “sham” and withdrew from the trial in March, saying he did not expect justice, the Associated Press wrote.

Human rights groups and his lawyers noted that the trial was not fair: They said that Rusesabagina was denied confidential communication with his lawyers and that the court failed to question the motives and credibility of witnesses against him.

Former journalist and author Michela Wrong, who has followed the case, said that the trial is part of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s efforts to curb dissent. Rusesabagina had accused Kagame of human rights abuses.

Rusesabagina’s lawyers said that he was illegally arrested by Rwandan authorities last year after he was tricked into boarding a plane that took him to Rwanda. He said he believed he was heading to Burundi to give speeches at churches.

Rusesabagina is remembered for his efforts in saving more than 1,000 people by sheltering them at the hotel he managed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 Tutsi were killed, along with many Hutus who tried to assist them.

He was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and his heroic efforts were depicted in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” where Rusesabagina was played by actor Don Cheadle.

R

Democratic Republic Of The Congo-New Family Law Bill

 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The Price of a Bride

A proposed bill that would amend Congo’s 1987 family law regarding the payment of dowry and the issue of polygamy has stirred controversy with many saying the government has no right to interfere in matrimonial affairs, Africa News reported.

Congolese lawmaker Daniel Mbau, who proposed the legislation, has demanded a change in the family code to set a limit on the amount a would-be groom pays as dowry.

Under the bill, the proposed dowry for rural areas should be no more than $200, $500 for those in urban areas. Mbau said that many Congolese parents have turned the payment of dowry “into a business,” creating problems in society.

Currently, some families in the capital, Kinshasa, demand $3,000 to $5,000 as dowry for their daughters. The amount could rise depending on the daughter’s education level.

“Today, some parents are asking for so much. I attended a ceremony where a parent asked for an air ticket,” said one Congolese woman.

Although the bill has yet to be scheduled for national debate, it has whipped up a storm among the Congolese, many of whom believe there is no reason to change tradition.

Meanwhile, Mbau has also proposed the criminalization of polygamy in Congo, which is still practiced by some Congolese tribes.

Morocco-Avoiding Sink Holes

 

MOROCCO

Avoiding Sinkholes

Moroccan King Mohammed VI recently denounced “methodical attacks” on his country, alluding to critics abroad who have raised questions about the kingdom’s policies in the disputed territory of the Western Sahara, the alleged use of Israeli spy software in civil rights violations as well as its policies in North Africa.

The comments, as Africanews and Agence France-Presse reported, made the king sound paranoid. But he’s right to say that Morocco faces challenges on all fronts.

In the Western Sahara, tensions have been escalating between Morocco, which claims the former Spanish colony along Africa’s Atlantic coast, and Polisario Front, a militant group seeking independence.

According to Bloomberg, the Front last year abandoned a 30-year ceasefire and began launching attacks against Moroccan forces. Front leaders claim that a referendum brokered by the UN on the territory’s status should occur under the ceasefire but it has yet to happen. Morocco has deployed increasingly sophisticated weaponry in the region, too, DefenseNews wrote.

Independence advocates, meanwhile, claim that Moroccan officials have unjustly cracked down on them in a bid to suppress dissent.

“The authorities forced me into a police car and took me to a nearby police station, where I was interrogated, sexually assaulted, and told to go home and not to speak to anyone,” wrote Sultana Sidibrahim Khaya in a CNN opinion piece where she called for President Joseph Biden to rescind US recognition of Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara. Khaya recently was placed under house arrest.

Morocco’s relations with its eastern neighbor, Algeria, are also declining. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune cut off diplomatic relations recently and ordered his forces to the Moroccan border after he blamed the kingdom for cooperating with Israel as well as Algeria-based rebels to cause forest fires in the country, wrote Middle East Monitor.

Unlike Morocco, which normalized ties with Israel last year, Algeria doesn’t recognize Israel, noted Al Jazeera. Algerian leaders have also long supported the Polisario Front, too.

Morocco is also seeking to repair ties with Spain, its largest trading partner, after a diplomatic rift related to the complex dynamics in the region. The two countries had a falling out after Spanish officials allowed a Polisario Front leader to enter their country for medical treatment. The leader used Algerian travel documents.

As Reuters reported, Moroccan officials in response lifted restrictions on allowing 8,000 migrants from entering the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Morocco.

Mohammed VI has near-supreme power in his country. He’ll need all of it to weather the storm that is hitting the country.