SADC Heads of State Summit and 30 year Anniversary

SADC Heads of State meeting in Windhoek, Namibia postponed confronting Zimbabwe about non-compliance with the Tribunal’s ruling on land-reform for 6 months. Effectively, the decision is postponed until the next Summit meeting in 2011. In the meantime, the role of the SADC Tribunal will be reviewed.

The White farmers claimed that this is politics winning over justice. The entire situation is political however. Even the organization is political by its very nature but also specifically for historical reasons. SADC was previously the Front Line States, which was organised to coordinate liberation movements in Namibia and apartheid South Africa. August 17, 2010 was SADC Day and the Summit also celebrated the organisations 30^th anniversary. Given that heritage it is could be considered amazing progress that the SADC Tribunal rendered the judgment it did in 2008, declaring the land reform program in Zimbabwe discriminatory based on race.

Furthermore, the Summit was an opportunity to recognise everything that has been accomplished by SADC in those 30 years. I do not have the time or inclination right now to gather the empirical evidence necessary (even if that evidence were available at all) to prove or disprove the accomplishments of SADC since its creation. Perhaps it was only ever effective as support for the liberation struggle. Perhaps 30 years is not actually enough time in ‘Africa time’. Perhaps the entire problem NOW with how the West views Southern Africa or sub-Saharan Africa is that both function at different speeds. Africa is making progress but it is not in a New York minute and the West may feel that an intervention of some kind will help to improve the velocity of the progress. But it doesn’t seem to work out like that. Instead, progress continues to be slow or slower and instead the West has intervened and created the industry of intervention called the donors and aid agencies. This industry is now a source of income for locals and not much progress happens. But the news and reports out of SADC are very positive, regardless.

SADC reported that HIV/Aids were on the decline in the region. It reported that there is peace and stability. SADC spent time during the Summit considering the situation in Madagascar and supported the call for the international community to stop the debilitating sanctions on Zimbabwe which have caused so much havoc for the economy. (tee hee) But still, SADC is trying to focus on attracting investment and this does seem to be the proper focus for our globalised economy …yada yada.

So everything is actually in order and how much should we really worry that the Tribunal is not respected in the region? The proper functioning of the SADC Tribunal may not really be a priority for anyone other than the White farmers……

Unfortunately, for those who think the Tribunal is not a priority there is a reality that can be observed which is demonstrated by the lack of certainty created when court rulings are discounted. Maybe courts are a neoliberal construction by the West , I don’t know.

I do know that a complete lack of certainty is bad whether it is legal, economic or social. As I have said before, fine don’t have a working legal system or a functioning government but at least get the women and children educated and healthy. Keep things simple and see if things improve.

I would love to see the Tribunal become a priority because it was not White judges who ruled against Zimbabwe and international sanctions don’t hurt anyone except the elite. I think all aid should stop and let things develop without intervention. But that can never be the reality either.

So, I am disappointed with the postponement of the discussion about the Tribunal. And, I am endeavouring to see things in the long term. Perhaps the SADC nations need 6 months to sort out that whole Tribunal protocol thing and in the meantime the judgments in South Africa allow the Zim properties there to be levied.

I think about my life, my PhD, my son and Africa and remember the Norah Jones song Broken,

“He's got a broken voice and a twisted smile,
Guess he's been that way now for quite awhile,
He's got blood on his shoes and mud on his brim,
Did he do it to himself or was it done to him?

He may move slow,
That don't mean he's going nowhere,
He may be moving slow,
That don't mean he's going nowhere.”

http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/politica/2010/7/33/SADC-checks-stability-pledges-reach-customs-union,69a980f8-fe32-4677-ba8d-df27fc83f686.html

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/SADC-Summit-Delays-Decision-on-Zimbabwe-Land-Reform--100969484.html

http://www.sadc.int/content/english/speeches/SADC%20Day%20Message%202010.pdf

Kissing and Making up

As with a lover who is eventually forgiven for transgressions real or imagined, I spent last week flying all over the place on British Airways. I had previously sworn never to fly on BA following a rather dramatic serious of miscalculations in Nigeria in 2009. On my most recent trip to Africa, I committed several (more) very blonde-headed blunders with my booked flights. BA was there to save the day. They even upgraded me on one leg of my journey….how can I stay mad after sparkling wine followed by a delicious cheese plate before being served a full lunch, all on a flight that only lasted 1.5 hours?? My layover with BA in Joburg was tolerable but I was scolded once I got back to California for not purchasing a vuvuzela!! Where was my head?


During my visit last week to Southern Africa, I read in the paper that the Director General (DG) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiu-ke, had been sacked for financial misappropriation. This was fascinating in and of itself, but equally because the African Stock Exchange Association meeting was just held in Abuja, Nigeria and the DG was visible everywhere.


There had been an ongoing dispute between the NSE President, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and the madam DG. The election of Mr. Dangote was nullified by a court (the details of this I do not have) and he responded with a petition to the SEC of Nigeria claiming that the madam DG had misappropriated NSE funds bringing the exchange to near bankruptcy. Mr. Dangote stepped down as NSE President in to the position of Vice-President pending the resolution of the various suits.


The SEC of Nigeria appointed an interim CEO of the exchange. It also appointed a law firm and accounting firm, KPMG, to investigate the allegations of financial mismanagement at the NSE. The investigations will focus on the oversight of the NSE by the Council of the Exchange.


In a related matter, the SEC of Nigeria announced on 10 August that it will arraign 260 persons and entities connected with a price manipulation and insider dealing on the NSE. The SEC will bring the matter before the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST). I do not know much about theat tribunal but will try to learn more and share it here.


The madam DG is contesting the allegations against her. She was set to retire in December of this year.


It is all very interesting but I am not really sure what we learn from all of this. It seems to me that the function of an SEC in Africa is very different than its counterpart on the more established exchanges. The SEC in Africa is almost like an appendage that works infrequently but does a great deal of damage when it is put to use. This is not a criticism of African exchanges. Rather it is scepticism at the donor’s insistence on this appearance of governance without real governance. Simply establishing an SEC does very little and it might in fact encourage a kind of malfeasance.



I am increasingly of the opinion that exchanges should do all of their own policing in many African countries. At least exchanges have a self-preservation motivation. I will think a bit more about this.


http://allafrica.com/stories/201008110108.html

Newest Campbell case update

There has been some activity in Southern Africa regarding the SADC Tribunal ruling concerning land reform in Zimbabwe. The North Gauteng High Court in South Africa postponed the auctioning of the property owned by the government of Zimbabwe in South Africa. The postponement was due to an emergency application by the Zimbabwe Government. The application argued that because the properties were under diplomatic immunity the sale of the property could not be done legally.

There were two respondents in the case, a German Development bank, KFW Bankengruppe, and Afriforum. Both respondents separately won judgments against the ZIm government and now seek the sale of these properties in South Africa in satisfaction of those judgements. The bank won a judgment against the ZIm government for failure to pay back a loan. Afriforum is the civil rights group working with the farmers who won the SADC Tribunal ruling in 2008.

Concurrently, two of the white farmers involved in the ORIGINAL ruling by SADC, Louis Fick and Michael Campbell, applied to the tribunal for a further judgement based on the non-compliance of the government of Zimbabwe with the first judgement. In the current case, No. SADC (T) 01/2010, the Tribunal found that the Respondent, the Republic of Zimbabwe, was in continuous violation of previous court decisions. The 16 July judgment gave some pertinent case history. Mike Campbell brought the application based on two previous decisions of the Tribunal ruling in his and other farmer’s favour. [The first was Mike Campbell (Pvt) Limited and others v The Republic of Zimbabwe. The second was the case of William Campbell and Another v The Republic of Zimbabwe.].As a result of the non-compliance the Tribunal resolved to report the matter to the SADC Heads of State meeting to be held in Windhoek, Namibia in August 2010. It also ordered costs against the Respondent.

It remains to be seen if reporting to the Head of State of SADC members will have any consequences.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201007280627.html

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33035:zim-property-auction-in-sa-postponed-after-government-intervenes&catid=31:weekday-top-stories&Itemid=30

http://allafrica.com/stories/201007190347.html

http://greatindaba.com/issue/july-2010-vol-19/article/country-not-bound-by-sadc-tribunal-ruling-minister?utm_medium=newZimSituation&utm_source=newzimsituation.com

http://www.sadc-tribunal.org/pages/decisions.htm

Everything I learned in kindergarten

This is very American but none-the-less true.
Here are all the things you ever need to know to get through your life: personal and professional.

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:

* Share everything.
* Play fair.
* Don't hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don't take things that aren't yours.
* Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Flush.
* Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
* Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
* Take a nap every afternoon.
* When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
* Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
* Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
* And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

SEC v. Goldman Sucks settlement

I am trying to drill down to what is the point of the whole settlement with Goldman thing. So many of the Wall Street Journal articles were all about who won and who lost. I think that misses the point. I think the point is that this settlement is all about a level of securities transactions that the retail investor never sees. (Thank God for that) or do they??

Let Goldman settle with the SEC. Let the SEC reduce charges from full on fraud to unintentional fraud. That is all fine with me. The real crux of the matter is sending the message that deception no longer is free. (totally nicked this from the WSJ) Also send the message that firms and banks need to be more responsible for the deals they create. Fair enough for that. But this deal concerns institutional investors and their complex and complicated rules.

What is not a factor in this deal is how things need to be reformed for the retail investor. That may be addressed by the Dodd-Frank bill. How do we protect the retail investor from big banks who create these new financial products that create mayhem? I think we are doing it. We pass laws afterwards that try to clean up the mess. And that is it. Consumer protection is a big part of the new financial reform and that is something. We will cover that in another blog.

Retail investors need to see that the capital markets are a force of nature. You cannot control the ocean and you do not want to. The ocean does wonderful things all on its own just like the capital markets. Let them create financial products that no one understands and then we need to respond and regulate it. It is not a pretty process but it just might be the thing that keeps us going as a nation. The financial crisis is unfortunate but we do not hate it enough to stop investing. To borrow from my friend from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, people are not actually uncomfortable enough to make drastic changes. I think the same is true in the US despite all the media rhetoric.

The problem is not Goldman Sachs per se. It is really the law. We need to fund the SEC even better so that there is an incentive for bright people to work there. Those same bright people are now working for Wall Street firms. We need to create the atmosphere of respect for the SEC. Even more respect is needed. We might have the best level of respect between industry and regulator, but there is room for improvement.

If Goldman is the most law abiding citizen on Wall Street, then we need to alter the law. We need to get back to fundamentals. We need to address compensation and incentivise bankers and investment bankers to comply with the law. We need to show traders that complying with the law is actually better than making tons of $$. How do you do that? I am not sure.

Honestly, I think more people just need to remember everything they learned in kindergarten. http://www.peace.ca/kindergarten.htm

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704229004575371601322076426.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_business#printMode

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/what-the-goldman-sachs-settlement-means-in-context

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/goldman-sec-talk-all-in-o_n_647693.html

Napa, California

Sterling Vineyards

Happy, happy 4th

Last week I spent a few days in Napa Valley, California--wine region USA--and learned that the first vines were brought there by priests. I think they were Franciscan. The Franciscans were very active up and down the Pacific coast of North America. I have visited all but a few of the Missions established by Blessed Fray Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest from Majorca sent to convert the Indians of Alta California. So many brave pioneering men and women have helped to make America a powerful and prosperous nation warts and all. As today is Independence Day, I cannot help but think about the debt we owe to the Founding Father s and those who supported their vision for the colonies by fighting for independence and conceiving of a new way to govern. This is not so much about being nationalistic, rather it is about paying homage to brave people and those who put it all on the line for an idea they believed in.

Maybe where America has gone astray, if in fact it has, is to lose sight of how humble we should be when we consider what those men did in Philadelphia before and up until 1781 with the passage of the US Constitution. We benefited from the efforts of England in the colonies until the War of Independence and relied upon the writings of progressive European thinkers of the day. We retain that influence in our architecture our laws and our shared history. In California we are no less connected to Europe and Mexico and the culture here reflects that in the best possible ways-food, family law and architecture.

America is great in theory and we should continuously re-examine ourselves to ensure that we are on the right path…because we owe a debt. Between the World Cup and July 4^th I have become completely sentimental (or maybe just more so).

I truly believe we would all be better off if we spent more time contemplating how connected we are. No Napa without the Spanish, no America without the English, no vuvuzelas without South Africa and apparently no football without the Germans!!

Today, I remember all those who died for their dreams worldwide and I hope in the future that We, the People, do a better job promoting peace & prosperity-no strings attached and no hidden agendas. Happy, happy Independence Day America. Be proud but stay grounded.