Category Archives: Yona Fares Maro

World Bank – Civil Society Engagement Review of Fiscal Years 2010 – 12

From: Yona Maro

The world witnessed a new level of civil society activism over the past few years. From the Arab Spring in the Middle East to the anticorruption movements in India and the “occupy” movement in some Western countries, citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) went to the streets to demand greater political participation and economic opportunities.

CSOs also increased their engagement with the World Bank Group, stepping up efforts to influence policies and seeking greater operational collaboration at the country level. From the growing numbers of civil society representatives attending the Annual and Spring Meetings, to the establishment of a new fund to support social accountability efforts, relations between CSOs and the World Bank continued to expand and deepen during the past three years.

It is against this backdrop that we are pleased to present the World Bank – Civil Society Engagement Review of Fiscal Years 2010 – 12, the most comprehensive of the Civil Society Review series since its first edition in 2002. It illustrates how these relations have evolved in many areas ranging from information disclosure and policy dialogue, to operational collaboration.

The Review also highlights important examples of operational collaboration in the areas of health, education, disaster recovery, and environmental protection. At the country level, innovative joint initiatives were undertaken – such as establishing a regional network on social accountability in Jordan, monitoring World Bank projects in Nigeria, and earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti. As the chart below indicates, there was civil society involvement in 82 percent of all 1,018 new projects funded over the three-year period.

Link:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/CSO/Resources/228716-1369241545034/CSReviewFY10-12FINAL.pdf

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African Development Statistics Are Misleading

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From: Yona Maro

A revamped data agenda is needed to deliver robust GDP statistics for Sub-Saharan Africa, says Morten Jerven.

The development indicator with the greatest influence on policy and public debates is GDP (gross domestic product). It is used to rank countries’ progress and wealth – but its interpretation and measurement are tricky.

For Africa, in particular, countries’ economic development statistics are misleading as a result.

The difficulties in accurately measuring GDP are not restricted to the developing world, but, all other things being equal, poorer economies are likely to have lower-quality statistics.

Lack of data

A poorer economy will have relatively fewer available resources to fund an official statistics office.

The quality and availability of data, and therefore the cost of collecting robust statistics, depend on individuals and companies keeping formal records of economic activity or filing taxes – which are less likely in poorer countries. This information is only occasionally collected in surveys.

While defining what constitutes economic activity is a massive problem for measuring GDP in the developing world, it is dwarfed by the difficulty of actually recording economic transactions.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, this basic problem is aggravated by some historical factors. For example, most countries on the continent have not been collecting taxes on property and incomes, but on goods crossing borders – therefore states have had weak incentives to monitor production and domestic economic transactions.

And although African states’ statistical capacity was greatly expanded in the late colonial and early postcolonial period, it suffered greatly during the 1970s economic crisis.

Statistical offices were neglected in the decades of liberal policy reform that followed. This period of ‘structural adjustment’ in the 1980s and 1990s meant governments had to account for more with less: informal and unrecorded markets in food and services grew, while public spending was curtailed.

Out-of-date benchmarks

As a result, our knowledge about growth in African economies is limited.

Anyone can download GDP data for 2012 from the World Bank covering 47 Sub-Saharan African countries and then rank and compare them. But due to the uneven application of methods and poor availability of data, any comparisons will be highly misleading.

This was made clear in 2010 when Ghana updated data and methods that had been unchanged since 1993 to publish a new estimate: switching to using 2006 rather than 1993 as the benchmark year for calculating growth almost doubled its GDP.

As for any index, when the base year is out of date, GDP estimates become unreliable as they may no longer reflect a sizeable part of the economy.

It is widely expected that when Nigeria revises its GDP data, probably next year, it may surpass South Africa as Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy. The problem is that not all countries in the region use a recent base year.

The International Monetary Fund recommends updating it every five years, but countries struggle to do so. Indeed, by that rule, Ghana’s GDP estimate is already out of date.

Expanding country-level expertise

What to do about unreliable GDP estimates?

The message for data users is to question your evidence. And data disseminators, such as the World Bank with its World Development Indicators, need to label their data correctly and clearly acknowledge knowledge gaps. A great deal of information sold as data is only weak guesses and projections.

But the biggest challenge is to invest in countries’ capacity to produce better data.

In the macro analysis of growth and poverty, the distance between the analyst and the economy being studied has increased since the 1990s, when downloadable data sets became popular. To some extent, this practice has replaced country experts, who tended to be better informed about gaps in country-level statistics.

Improving this state of affairs will require a change in scholarly methods, expanding country-level expertise – such as strengthening domestic universities and think-tanks – as well as training journalists to report on economic development.

While funds have been available for statistical offices, partly due to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) agenda, they have tended to divert resources from economic statistics towards social statistics more relevant to MDG monitoring.

Moreover, these are generally ad-hoc funds that support data collection for a donor-funded project. In practice, many statistical offices operate as a data-collection agency for hire, not an office that provides objective information needed for day-to-day politics or policy planning.

This system means that donors distort data production rather than expand statistical capacity. And it stretches resources for manpower and infrastructure.

The problem here is lack of coordination: many countries have national strategies for statistical development, but, more often than not, donors break with these plans’ priorities and demand the data they need, thus adding to the fragility of statistical offices under increasing pressure.

Put monitoring first

Policy debates can drive capacity building too.

On a global level, perhaps the most visible commitment to results-based and evidence-driven policy was the adoption of the MDGs. But progress in achieving them has been difficult to measure.

In retrospect, it was naïve to require this extent of measurability without a systematic understanding of how data can and should be generated by weak statistical systems.

There is a lesson here: statistical capacity must become central to discussions about post-2015 development targets.

In the MDG discussions, for example, targets were identified first, but less thought was given to where the data needed to monitor them should come from.

With future goals, it may be useful to turn the initial question around: rather than asking what kind of development we should target, the question should be what kind of development can we monitor?

A new agenda for development data in Sub-Saharan Africa is required – one that puts local demand, incentives and applicability at the centre.

Morten Jerven is associate professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He has published widely on African economic development including a recent book, Poor Numbers. His research is published on mortenjerven.com.

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Russia MFA & use of chemical weapons in Syria

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From: Yona Maro
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Comment by the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Syria
THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

1676-04-09-2013

We draw attention to the mass filling of information space with different materials, the purpose of which is to impose responsibility for the alleged use of chemical weapons in Damascus on the Syrian officials, before the results of the UN investigation are presented. Thus, “the ground is prepared” for forceful action against Syria. In view of this, we deem it possible to share the main conclusions of the Russian analysis of the samples taken in the place of the incident using military poisonous substances in the Aleppo suburb – Khan al-Asal.

We remind the reader of the tragedy of the 19 March, which resulted in the death of 26 civil persons and military persons of the Syrian army, whilst another 86 persons received injuries of different severity. The results of the analysis of the samples, conducted at the request of the Syrian authorities by the Russian laboratory, certified by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, were transferred to the UN Secretary-General on the 9 July in connection with the call by the Syrian authorities to the latter to conduct an independent investigation of this episode. The main conclusions of the Russian professionals consist in:

– the warfare used was not regular Syrian army ammunition but was an artisan-type similar (in type and parameters) to the unguided rocket projectiles produced in the north of Syria by the so-called “Bashair An-Nasr” gang;

– hexogen was used as an explosive, which is not part of the regular Syrian army ammunition;

– shell and soil samples contained nerve agents – sarin gas and diisopropylfluorophosphate – not synthesized in an industrial environment, which was used by Western states for producing chemical weapons during World War II.

We highlight that the Russian report is extremely specific. It is a scientific and technical document containing about 100 pages with many tables and diagrams of spectral analysis of the samples. We expect that it will significantly assist in the investigation into this incident by the UN. Unfortunately, it has in fact not started yet.

The attention of those, who always consciously intend to impose all the responsibility for events on the official authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic, is now fully switched to the events in Eastern Ghouta. However, here we have “flawed selectivity” again. These are evident attempts, in particular, to forget the data about cases (which were presented to the UN by officials from Damascus), when Syrian army personnel was affected by poisonous weapons on the 22, 24 and 25 August, when they found materials, equipment and containers with traces of sarin gas in the suburbs of the Syrian capital city. As is known, the affected military persons were examined by members of the UN fact-finding mission headed by Ake Sellstrom. It is evident that any objective investigation into the incident of the 21 August in Eastern Ghouta cannot be carried out without taking into account these circumstances.

In light of the foregoing, we welcome the statement of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Ake Sellstrom’s group intends to return to Syria at the earliest to continue their work, including in the Khan al-Asal region.

Cyber-espionage: The greatest transfer of wealth

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From: Yona Maro
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By: Pierluigi Paganini

Introduction

In recent months, the world-wide security community has discovered many cyber espionage campaigns that hit governments, intelligence agencies and private industry. The majority of them were related to state-sponsored hackers, while others were organized by groups of cyber criminals having obtaining access in order to resell sensitive information and intellectual property.

There is no specific area of the globe subject to the majority of cyber espionage attacks. Typically, they center on the most technologically advanced countries: the US, Japan and Russia, mostly. But a good number of operations have also been detected in problematic regions like the Middle East as well.

The technologies used to spy on victims, and the motivations behind them vary. Network surveillance appliances, communication cracking techniques, malware and “social network poisoning” are just a few of the methods adopted for political, economic or criminal intents. Profit, power and protest are the main motivations behind the attacks, radically affecting a user’s approach to the web and its perception of security.

Cybercrime groups, governments, and groups of hacktivists tend to lean toward the spread of malicious agents that have the capacity to silently infiltrate their targets, stealing confidential information from them. The Chinese government is considered the biggest aggressor in cyber espionage, while US networks are the privileged targets of cyber attacks that hit every sector, from media to military.

A report published in 2012 by the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission revealed that “U.S. industry and a range of government and military targets face repeated exploitation attempts by Chinese hackers, as do international organizations and nongovernmental groups including Chinese dissident groups, activists, religious organizations, rights groups, and media institutions.”

“In 2012, Chinese state-sponsored actors continued to exploit U.S. government, military, industrial, and nongovernmental computer systems,”

The report revealed that Chinese cyber exploitation capabilities last year were “improving significantly.” But while the US has as many enemies as allies, all of us in the cyber era are potential victims. The number of state-sponsored attacks is increasing in impressive ways, due to the commitment of governments to cyber technology.

According to the last report of F-Secure related to H2 2012, one of the most interesting phenomena observed in the period is the changing of techniques for cyber espionage campaigns. To this point, almost all recorded corporate espionage cases were based on using specially-crafted documents containing a malware payload; meanwhile, in Q4, the attackers have started to exploit vulnerabilities in in web browsers and browser plugins.

The consolidated technique known as the ‘watering hole‘ attack was the most efficient for cyber spies, capable of infecting every visitor of a particular website compromised for the campaign.

“The rise of web-based attacks in corporate espionage raises two points: first, this trend means that any corporation with an online presence that serves such potentially ‘interesting’ targets may be at risk of unwittingly serving as an attack conduit, and secondly; obviously, such organizations must now find a way to mitigate such a risk, in order to protect themselves and their clients.”

Figure 1 – Waterering Hole attacks (F-Secure)
Every company that manages online resources must be aware of this technique of attack. Defending against watering hole attacks does not require additional defense systems, save for attacks that exploit zero-day vulnerabilities against which a multi layered security approach is necessary.

Cyber espionage Statistics
Estimating the real impact of cyber espionage on the global economy is quite impossible, due to the difficulty in identifying the majority of cyber attacks accounted for in each sector.

NSA Director General Keith Alexander called cyber-espionage “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.“Symantec places the cost of intellectual property theft for U.S. economy at $250 billion a year, with cybercrime a further $114 billion annually. Meanwhile, McAfee provides an estimate encompassing global remediation costs to total a staggering $1 trillion per annum.

The UK Cabinet Office reports intellectual property theft and industrial espionage costs of £16.8 billion in 2012. The 2012 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) reported 855 security breach incidents in industrial and corporate networks, totaling 174 million compromised records across the US, UK, Holland, Ireland and Australia. Of these 855 incidents investigated by the DBIR, 92% went undiscovered until an external party revealed them.

The figures provided are very troubling. While enormous, we must remain conscious that the true extent of cyber-espionage is incalculable. Private companies and governments often do not report losses because in many cases, they aren’t able to detect the attacks. When the cyber espionage campaigns are discovered, information on them may be kept secret for fear of brand and/or reputation damage, company devaluation and loss of public confidence.

In many cases, estimates provided on the impact of cyber espionage don’t include the cost of defense systems deployed (and eluded by the cyber threats), as well as the cost of compensation and remediation actions of the victims.

Case Studies: Operations Aurora, The Elderwood project, Flame and Red October
If you ask a security expert to provide some examples of the most interesting cyber espionage campaigns in the history, you will probably hear about some of the following cases:

Campaign Name Description

Operation Aurora Operation Aurora was a cyber attack first publicly disclosed by Google on January 2010. It began in mid-2009 and continued through the end of the year.Google revealed that the sophisticated attacks originated in China, they were well-resourced and consistent with an advanced persistent threat attack.The attacks were aimed at dozens of organizations operating in various sectors, including Adobe Systems, Juniper Networks, Yahoo, Symantec, Northrop Grumman, Morgan Stanley and Dow Chemical.

The Elderwood project In September 2012, Symantec detected attacks that were part of a cyber espionage campaign called the “Elderwood Project.” Their execution exploited various 0-day vulnerabilities in many large-use software including IExplorer and Adobe Flash Player. Symantec declared that some of the exploits had been realized from knowledge of a stolen source code, assuming a link with the known operation, Aurora. The attacks implemented “watering hole” techniques to infect the victims with malware, injecting malicious code onto the public web pages of sites that the targets visited.

Flame The Flame campaign was discovered in May 2012 by Kaspersky Labs. The nature of the systems targeted and geographic distribution of the malware (the Middle East), combined with the high-level of sophistication led security experts to believe that it was developed by a foreign state, intent on hitting a specific country in the region. Flame is a complex malware, designed with the primary intent to create a comprehensive cyber espionage tool kit.

Red October Most recently, the Red October campaign has been revealed by Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team. The investigation began after several attacks hit computer networks of various international diplomatic service agencies. This was a large-scale cyber espionage operation conducted to acquire sensible information from diplomatic, governmental and scientific research organizations in many countries; most of them in Eastern Europe, former USSR states and countries in Central Asia.Unlike previous cyber espionage campaigns, Red October has targeted devices, including enterprise network equipment and mobile equipment (Windows Mobile, iPhone, Nokia). It hijacked files from removable disk drives, stole e-mail databases from local Outlook storage or remote POP/IMAP servers and siphoned files from local network FTP servers.Most troubling was evidence collected that demonstrated the campaign began in 2007 and is still active. During the last 5 years, a huge quantity of data collected (including serv
ice credentials) has been reused in later attacks.

Reading the list of cases, one observes that many cyber espionage campaigns remained undetected for a long time. Resourceful attackers in fact used, in many cases, zero-day vulnerabilities that allowed them to elude detection by principal defense systems. In some instances, the hackers have stolen documents and sensitive information for years, changing the operative mode over time. This particularity led investigators to believe that the campaigns were organized and managed by groups of professionals possessing a variety of skills, including research capabilities to uncover and exploit unknown vulnerabilities.

On the Elderwood operation, Orla Cox, a senior manager at Symantec’s security response division, reported that it has uncovered at least eight zero-day vulnerabilities since late 2010, and four since last spring. She said:

“We were amazed when Stuxnet used four zero-days, but this group has been able to discover eight zero-days. More, the fact that they have prepared [their attacks] and are ready to go as soon as they have a new zero-day, and the speed with which they use these zero-days, is something we’ve not seen before.”

Symantec produced a detailed analysis of the phenomenon, stating:

“This group is focused on wholesale theft of intellectual property and clearly has the resources, in terms of manpower, funding, and technical skills, required to implement this task,”

“The group seemingly has an unlimited supply of zero-day vulnerabilities.”

The level of sophistication of the attacks, the targets chosen and abilities shown by the attackers suggest the commitment of a foreign government. Moreover, security experts believe that in many cases, the campaigns are linked each other, citing the case of Operation Aurora and the Elderwood project. With a majority of attacks linked to state-sponsored actors capable of organizing so complex an operation, the investigation on Red October revealed the possible involvement of Russian RBN, long considered a cybercrime outfit capable of providing an array of malicious services, including phishing, DDoS, malware hosting, gambling and child pornography.

Figure 2 – Elderwood project global detections

Cyber espionage and private businesses

Small business is the most vulnerable to cyber espionage. It represents an attractive target, due the lack of security mechanisms and processes as well as – in many cases – the direct relationship between enterprises and governments. In recent years, the number of attacks against government contractors has increased. A cyber attack against a subcontractor is easy to realize, as the line of defense penetrated is often fragile, allowing the attackers to acquire sensitive information from targets of interest.

Last year, Trend Micro reported an increase of focused attacks. Hundreds of millions threats were blocked from infecting small businesses, but large companies proved equally vulnerable, having been hit as part of the IXSHE campaign.

A recent study on cyber-espionage has demonstrated that more than 200 families of malware have been designed and used to spy on government and corporate representatives.We have assisted the diffusion of new agents that work in botnet architectures, as new variants – designed especially for mobile devices – are specifically developed for selected targets.

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The primary intent of cyber espionage is to steal classified information from government agencies or trade secrets from corporations. This situation can be extremely dangerous for the economy of a company, as well as that of the overall country. As governments and businesses alike are motivated to reduce the technological gap with their competitors, it’s clear how diffused the phenomenon is.

Cyber espionage can have a devastating effect on the social fabric of a nation as well as on the actions of every private company. It is sneaky and silent: unlike other crimes, it may be conducted for years without the victim being aware of it with serious consequences. This happened in the case of Nortel, a company which ended up in bankruptcy due to the theft of company secrets.

Last year, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive published a report to Congress, presenting a frightening picture of the degree to which other countries use cyber espionage to attempt to gain business and industrial secrets from US companies. The biggest cyber-espionage threats against American businesses come from China and Russia. These states engage in deliberate efforts to obtain sensitive business and technology information. The report concludes that China and Russia will “remain aggressive and capable collectors of sensitive US economic information and technologies, particularly in cyberspace.”

“National boundaries will deter economic espionage less than ever as more business is conducted from wherever workers can access the Internet,””The globalization of the supply chain for new—and increasingly interconnected—IT products will offer more opportunities for malicious actors to compromise the integrity and security of?these devices.”

The document called the Chinese government a “persistent collector”: the most active one, while depicting Russia’s intelligence services as conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and technology from US targets.

The increased number of malwares developed by governments to spy on their adversaries (such as Flame, Gauss and Duqu, as well as the recent “Operation Beebus” campaign) demonstrate the high interest of intelligence agencies to implement these methods to acquire restricted information.

Recently, MI5 issued 300 warning letters to UK business leaders highlighting the risk of “electronic espionage” from Chinese organizations. MI5 Director General Jonathan Evans declared that an “astonishing[ly]” high level of cyber-espionage campaign target Western countries on an almost industrial scale.”

The number of corporate victims underscores a troubling trend: criminals aiming to steal corporate secrets and intellectual property with the intent to benefit in economic terms. The information leaked is usually resold to competing companies and governments interested in strategic know-how.

We must distinguish two scenarios:

Cybercriminals steal information to perpetrate cyber fraud: spreading malware to steal a user’s credentials for banking and payment platforms.

Cybercriminals use technology to acquire sensible information to sell to highest bidder.

Uri Rivner, head of new technologies at RSA, is convinced that we are in the age of cyber espionage. Criminals steal trade secrets from other nations and companies for their own benefit. Consider another phenomenon: the impressive growth of internet availability in Asia Pacific, which has brought to this part of the world an increase of cybercrime and in particular of cyber espionage.

In this area, there is a growing demand for information technology that is often vulnerable to all sorts of cyber attack. These conditions make the market attractive to criminal organizations in the absence of effective regulations that often allow crimes to go unpunished.

The web is a jungle where it is increasingly difficult to defend our identity and resources. Rik Ferguson, director of security research and communication, Trend Micro declared:

“The reason why criminals are focusing their attacks on stealing personal data is simple. It’s the sheer volume of people working from multiple devices that leaves them vulnerable to attacks,”

“While Trend Micro has been integral in working with authorities to break up a number of cybercriminal rings over the last year, these cybercriminals have acquired new techniques and tools from collaborating with one another to accelerate their ‘industry.’ The fact is: business is booming for cybercrime and everyone needs to take notice.”

In the face of these ongoing threats, government agencies are defining best practices to reduce the risk of exposure to these attacks. NIST has recently made public their Draft Special Publication 800-83 (SP) Revision 1,Guide to Malware Incident Prevention and Handling for Desktops and Laptops. Malware is considered the most common external threat to personal computers, causing widespread damage and disruption and necessitating extensive recovery efforts within most organizations.

The publication provides recommendations for improving an organization’s malware incident prevention measures, while giving extensive recommendations for enhancing an organization’s existing incident response capability. These approaches seek to better handle malware incidents, particularly widespread ones.

Though cyber espionage as such is not considered one of the main activities of hacktivists, thoughtful security experts don’t rule out the possibility. Groups such as Anonymous could easily adopt cyber espionage techniques to disclose sensitive information as a means of expressing dissent against a government or the policy of a private company.

When cyber espionage is deployed in the private sector (where companies spy on competitors, as well as their own employees, to capture vital information or to avoid unauthorized diffusion of confidential data), they acquire products from software outfits specializing in cyber espionage. The tools may be designed for justifiable purposes, such as supporting investigations and preventing of crime and terrorism. But too easily, they can be utilized by private businesses to undercut competitors, as well as by governments, in the bloodthirsty tracking and persecution of dissidents.

Social Media and cyber espionage

So far, this article has focused on cyber espionage based on the spread of malicious agents to gather confidential information. Also of great interest is cyber espionage as spread through social media. By accessing a social network profile, it is possible to acquire a lot of information on the victim; their relations; participation in events and discussions related to specific professional areas. The information gleaned could provide the basis for other types of attacks, as well as for a large cyber espionage campaign. By analyzing the relationships of a victim, it is possible to discover past experiences and use the data to create fake accounts, damaging their reputation and poisoning their professional network.

Starting with the assumption that the internet (and in particular, the social network) lacks a coherent and safe digital identity management, last year, I introduced the concept of social network poisoning: applying strategies designed to make knowledge related to a profile and its relationships unreliable. The application of this on a large scale could lead to the collapse of Social Networking, exposing members to the risks of cyber espionage and other cybercrime such as identity theft.

In the same way as “route poisoning,” this “poisoning action,” conducted with the aim of polluting the contents of social network profiles, typically introduces artifacts into existing real relationships, thus making the information unreliable. The result is the failure of the chain of trust which all social networks are based on, in order not to allow search engines specifically developed to retrieve information of any kind relating to a particular profile.

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The principal espionage techniques implemented through social media platform are:

Replacement of identity, or the ability to impersonate another user, using a wide variety of social engineering intelligence tactics.

Simulation of identity, creating a false profile, which does not correspond to any existing person, for malicious purposes or simply to remain anonymous.

Building of personal /social bots , creating a large number of fake profiles (e.g. millions of fake profiles) managed by machines, able to interact with real users in a way likely, thus changing the “sentiment” and “conversation” on a large-scale, as well as altering all the social graphs and precluding meaningful correlations on the data.

black curation: the use of real (or fictitious) user’s “holes” to speak on topics of which you want to change the meaning, or to create new ones ad-hoc, in analogy to the black SEO (search engine optimization) already use on search engines.

The social networks are excellent instruments to conduct cyber espionage campaigns while gathering information on targets. For this reason, it is strongly suggested that you consider carefully which profiles to add to our network, recognizing the possibility that some of them have been already compromised. This gives cyber criminals or spies the possibility of accessing information shared in the profile.

The intelligence industry in the west is still too vulnerable to all kinds of attacks, so it is absolutely necessary to define cyber strategies to deal with incidents like those described.

Last year, the impressive growth of state-sponsored attacks aimed at stealing information (to give economic, political and military advantages) famously included the cyber espionage campaign against NATO’S most senior commander, using the Facebook platform.

Chinese spies set up a fake Facebook account in the name of American Admiral James Stavridis, enticing his colleagues to “friend” him and thus divulge their own personal information. In the attack’s second phase, Senior British military officers and Ministry of Defence officials accepted “friend requests” from the bogus account.

With this attack successfully completed, it became possible to steal sensitive information like private email accounts, photos and messages, as well as uncover his network of friends. Similar incidents are troubling, and show how even the higher echelons of strategic commands may be vulnerable, too.

If you think the information uncovered in this way is unimportant, you are mistaken. Let’s think about how it can be used to find photos of a victim’s residence, or determine his location at a given time. Further, with the knowledge of their private email account, it is possible to target people close to victims who may be misled by fake mails.

Of course, similar operations are hampered by the controls enacted by the managers of social networks, in collaboration with major institutions and law enforcement. The stakes are high and control of social networks is strategic. Many agencies and law enforcement agencies like the FBI are working to prevent such crimes. They’ve commissioned the development of complex analysis systems that monitor the powerful networks. Intelligence agencies are aware that social networks and forums are exceptional instruments for information gathering and to measure the global sentiment on every kind of argument; political as well as social.

What is the future of cyber espionage?

The relentless spread of high-tech devices into our lives will sustain the practice of cyber espionage. Mobile and social networks are the platforms that attract the interest of attackers most of all, due to the large quantity of user’s information they manage. New advanced toolkits are sold daily via the underground, usable to exploit vulnerabilities inside victim’s machine with the primary purpose of installing malware that can gather confidential information.

From a government perspective, state-sponsored research aims to produce new technologies, able to infiltrate common-use objects. The most innovative ones relate to the use of electromagnetic waves that could spy on a targeted network or interfere with communications, altering the content of transmission (for example, introducing a malware in it).

That is the future of cyber espionage: the possibility of interfering with targeted systems remotely, acquiring sensitive information silently. Another interesting field of research is related to the “intelligence of things”: the possibility of exploiting the computational capabilities contained in every object surrounding us, interacting with users maintaining a huge quantity of information. Mobile devices, but really, any kind of appliance present in our home (such as smart-TV and gaming console) can be used to spy on the user. Governments have instituted an array of projects to exploit the vulnerabilities.

The greater the technological component of our lives, the greater the potential for cyber attacks.

References
http://www.uscc.gov/annual_report/2012/2012-Report-to-Congress.pdf

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-83-rev1/draft_sp800-83-rev1.pdf

http://www.verizonenterprise.com/resources/reports/rp_data-breach-investigations-report-2012_en_xg.pdf?__ct_return=1

http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/flame-the-never-ending-story/

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/the-elderwood-project.pdf

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Network_Poisoning

Fixing the Cracks in Tax: A Plan of Action

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From: Yona Maro

In this policy brief, 34 organizations that collaborate to achieve tax justice provide recommendations to the G20 and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the Action Plan presented by the OECD, in July 2013, to tackle base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

The OECD’s BEPS Action Plan is a welcome and long overdue step forward. The OECD – and also the G20 and the G8 – has clearly acknowledged that base erosion is a serious problem that threatens the integrity of the Corporate Income Tax, and damages governments, individual taxpayers and some businesses.

The BEPS Action Plan provides a unique opportunity to foster fundamental changes to prevent double non-taxation of income effectively, as well as to prevent cases of no or low taxation associated with transnational corporations’ practices that artificially segregate taxable income from the activities that generate it.

If successful, the project will help governments tackle tax avoidance and evasion by transational corporations. However, strong political courage will be required to define, implement and enforce reforms to counter base erosion effectively.

Link:
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/fix-the-cracks-in-tax.pdf

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Technology Pioneers 2014

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From: Yona Maro

This year, the World Economic Forum is pleased to present 36 leading start-ups selected as Technology Pioneers 2014. The class is particularly diverse, providing new solutions to a number of challenges, including technologies for a greener and more sustainable planet; the deployment of precise and targeted therapies in the treatment of cancer and other diseases; the rethinking and redesign of how we deliver education; a robotics renaissance; the creation of a more personalized Internet experience; and the initiation of a “sharing” economy, to name a few.

These companies have been evaluated by a committee of world-renowned experts and selected due to their demonstrative vision and leadership, potential for growth and innovative ideas, as well as their impact on society and business. As World Economic Forum “New Champions”, Technology Pioneer companies carry opportunities for growth, generate innovative technologies and solutions for unresolved or longstanding problems and, ultimately, help redefine new possibility frontiers.

Link:
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/TP/WEF_TP_Brochure_2014.pdf

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Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa

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From: Yona Maro

This book brings together new household and enterprise data from 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to inform policy makers and practitioners on ways to expand women entrepreneurs’ economic opportunities.

Link:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/13785

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Syria’s Chemical Weapons: Issues for Congress

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From: Yona Maro
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syria.pdf 310K

Syria’s Chemical Weapons: Issues for Congress
Mary Beth D. Nikitin Specialist in Nonproliferation

Paul K. Kerr Analyst in Nonproliferation
Andrew FeickertSpecialist in Military Ground Forces
August 20, 2013 Congressional Research Service 7-5700
www.crs.gov R42848

Summary

The use or loss of control of chemical weapons stocks in Syria could have unpredictable consequences for the Syrian population and neighboring countries as well as U.S. allies and forces in the region. Congress may wish to assess the Administration’s plans to respond to possible scenarios involving the use, change of hands, or loss of control of Syrian chemical weapons.

Syria has produced, stored, and weaponized chemical weapons, but it remains dependent on foreign suppliers for chemical precursors. The regime of President Bashar al Asad reportedly has stocks of nerve (sarin, VX) and blister (mustard gas) agents, possibly weaponized into bombs, shells, and missiles, and associated production facilities. Chemical weapons and their agents can deteriorate depending on age and quality. Little is known from open sources about the current sizeand condition of the stockpile. Syria continues to attempt to procure new supplies of chemical weapons precursors, which are dual-use, through front companies in third countries. Mostcountries that have had chemical weapons arsenals in the past have destroyed these weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention, or are in the process of destroying them. The U.S.intelligence community cites Iran, North Korea, and Syria as having active chemical weapons programs.

[ . . . ]

syria.pdf
310K
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Gas and the New Development Opportunity in Mozambique

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From: Yona Maro

In the two decades since the end of civil war the country has depended heavily on donors to fund its development. Mozambique has now discovered natural gas deposits in large commercial quantities that could contribute billions of dollars to the economy and catapult Mozambique into place as the world’s third largest exporter of LNG.

http://allafrica.com/download/resource/main/main/idatcs/00070834:e407164714744eaec3f728ec493d437e.pdf

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Digital News Report 2013

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From: Yona Maro

This study has been commissioned by the Reuters Institute to understand how news is being consumed in a range of countries. News is becoming more mobile, more social, and more real-time. This year’s survey reveals continuing shifts in how, when, and where people access the news, with digital patterns becoming more entrenched – particularly amongst the younger half of the population.

Audiences increasingly want news on any device, in any format, and at any time of day. But our survey reveals that the multi-platform and digital revolution is not proceeding at an even pace in all countries. What happens in the US does not necessary follow automatically in Europe or elsewhere. Geography, culture, and government policy also play their part, with Germany and France still showing strong allegiance to traditional forms of media.

We also see marked differences in ‘participatory cultures’, with very different rates of take up in social media, commenting, and voting across our surveyed countries. For traditional brands – and especially newspapers –these changes bring ever-greater competition and more disruption to business models. But this year’s survey offers some signs of hope for those investing in original news content. More people say they’ve paid for digital news in the past 10 months and we have data for the first time about the types and frequency of digital payment. Traditional brands continue to attract the largest online audiences and we find that trust in news brands remains uniquely valued by young and old.

Link:
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/Publications/Working_Papers/Digital_News_Report_2013.pdf

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Africa’s Top 20 Tech Influencers

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From: Yona Maro

Africa’s technology landscape is vast and growing. It is ripe for expansion and is increasingly becoming an attractive environment for companies (local and international) to set up shop and invest.

The people on this list have taken advantage of this growth and have established themselves as pioneers in the industry. Some of them are investors, others are entrepreneurs and bloggers, but a common thread is that they are all African and are behind some of the most inspiring and innovative companies in tech.

1. Elon Musk – SpaceX

South African born founder of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Elon Musk has proven what can be achieved when innovation and creativity are expertly blended. The company’s SpaceX Dragon recently successfully completed its first commercial cargo mission to the International Space Station. In May 2012 the company’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule grabbed international headlines by successfully launching from Cape Canaveral in the US and becoming the first space launch by a private company in the history of space flight.

2. Dr. Hamadoun Touré – ITU

The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was re-elected for a second four-year term in October 2010. He is widely acknowledged for placing emphasis on ICT as a driver of social and economic development and has previously served as Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) from 1998 – 2006. Born in Mali, Dr Touré is also known for his contribution to telecommunications throughout Africa, having championed the implementation of outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and launching projects based on partnerships with key global stakeholders.

3. Mike Adenuga – Globacom

Mike Adenuga is the founder of Nigerian multinational telecommunications company Globacom Limited (Glo), based in Lagos. The telecommunications company was established in 2003 and is owned by the Mike Adenuga Group. Initially launched in Nigeria, the company has extended its reach to the Republic of Benin, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In 2012 Adenuga featured on Forbes’ Africa’s 40 Richest list – his net worth of $4.6 billion earning him the rank of second wealthiest Nigerian.

4. Strive Masiyiwa – Econet Wireless

Born in Zimbabwe, Masiyiwa is the founder of telecommunications services Group, Econet Wireless. Masiyiwa successfully fought a landmark 5 year legal battle in Zimbabwe beginning in 1998, which effectively ended the state’s monopoly in the country’s telecommunications sector. The company provides services related to mobile cellular telephony, fixed networks, enterprise networks, fibre optic cables and satellite services. Masiyiwa’s achievements and list of personal accolades include ’10 Most Outstanding Young Persons of the World’, ’15 Global Influentials of the Year’, Builders of Modern Africa and ’20 Most Powerful Business People in African Business’.

5. Naguib Sawiris, Founder, Orascom Telecom Holding SAE

Born June 15, 1954, Egyptian businessman and politician Naguib Sawiris is reported to have a net worth of $2.5 billion. He was executive chairman of the telecommunications companies Wind Telecom and Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) before turning to politics in May 2011. Orascom Telecom Holdings has 20,000 employees and manages 11 GSM operators around the world. He is considered a nationalist and supporter of liberalism. He favored a gradual transition during the 2011 Egyptian revolution and played a mediating role between the protesters and Hosni Mubarak’s people. Although he expressed concerns about the military caretaker government he favored changes that increased democracy and stability.

6. Ronen Apteker, Founder of Internet Solutions

South African entrepreneur Ronen Apteker co-founded the country’s first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP), Internet Solutions. Established in 1993, the company provides connectivity, communications, cloud and carrier services to organisations in the public and private sector, as well as to the consumer market via its wholesale offerings. Apteker is a noted author and respected entrepreneur, with titles like Trading Spaces and Funny Business…the secrets of an accidental entrepreneur under his belt. He remains a regular contributor to South Africa’s business and financial press.

7. Mark Shuttleworth – Ubuntu

South African entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark Shuttleworth funded the development of Ubuntu, a free operating system for desktops, servers and mobile phones. He also founded Thawte in 1995 and sold the digital certificate and Internet security company to VeriSign in 1999 for R3,9 billion. In 2000 he formed HBD Venture Capital and later also established Canonical Ltd. in support of software projects. In 2002 he achieved international acclaim as the second self-funded space tourist and the first South African in space. Shuttleworth has also elevated the profile of local business leadership through the establishment of the Shuttleworth Foundation. This is a non-profit organisation that provides funding for social innovators and entrepreneurs.

8. Leo-Stan Ekeh – Zinox Technologies

Nigerian entrepreneur Leo-Stan Ekeh is the Chairman of Zinox Technologies. He is credited with supplying the core technology infrastructure for the country’s 2011 voter’s registration. This feat earned Ekeh national awards, including Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic and Life Membership of the Institute of International Affairs. He is also on record as having pioneered the first Nigerian internationally certified computer brand, Zinox Computers and has contributed extensively to desktop publishing, computer graphics and the distribution of ICT products across West Africa.

9. Hakeem Belo-Osagie – Etisalat

Hakeem Belo-Osagie’s reported net worth of $400 million earned him the 40th position on Forbes’Africa’s 40 Richest list. As Chairman of the Board of Directors of Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Ltd., trading under the Etisalat brand, Belo-Osagie has contributed towards the growth of an established, global telecommunication company. A dedicated philanthropist, he is said to be one of the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy, a Johannesburg-based institution that focuses on leadership development.

10. Stafford Masie – Thumbzup

Former Google South Africa country manager, 38-year-old Stafford Masie has been in the technology industry for many years and recently made headlines for establishing Thumbzup, a South African payment innovations company. A noted speaker and renowned entrepreneur, Masie is passionate about the development of local technology for local needs. His business grabbed the attention of the domestic market when it struck a deal with one of South Africa’s largest banks, ABSA, for the integration and distribution of the Payment Pebble, a world-first, plug-in mobile payment device. Under the agreement, ABSA will provide the Payment Pebble as a value added service to small business owners and merchants from 2013.

11. Jason Njoku – iROKO Partners

Jason Njoku is widely acknowledged for bringing Nigerian entertainment to the world, via the Net. Through iROKO Partners, Njoku has helped to raise the profile of ‘Nollywood’ and Afrobeats within the international film and performing arts industry. The company is marketed as the world’s largest online distributor of African movies and music. iROKO Partners was launched in December 2010 and according to its website, the company has built a global audience of over 6 million unique users from 178 countries.

12. Herman Chinery-Hesse – SOFTtribe

Herman is a software engineer by profession. 19 years ago he co-founded SOFTtribe limited, one of the leading software houses in West Africa. He holds a number of directorships and is an Assessor of the Commercial Court, Ghana. He has won a number of personal awards including Outstanding Ghanaian Professional from the GPA Awards (UK), as well as the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Texas State Alumni Association and Texas State University-San Marcos (USA)—the first and currently only African recipient of the award. Herman has also been a resource person and visiting speaker at the Wharton Business School, Harvard Business School, Cambridge University, the University of Ghana, and the TED Global Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, amongst others. The BBC describes Mr Chinery-Hesse as Africa’s Bill Gates. Today SOFTtribe’s clients include Unilever, Guinness Breweries Ghana Limited, Pricewaterhouse-Ghana, the British High Commission, Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority, Ghana National Petroleum Company, Zenith Bank, Cargill and a host of other government, multinational and private sector blue-chip clients. SOFTtribe’s reach includes Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.

13. Ory Okolloh – Activist, Lawyer and blogger, founder of Ushahidi

Ory Okolloh started out as an impassioned blogger who wanted to democratize information and increase transparency through her website, Mzalendo (Swahili for patriot). When disputed presidential election results led to violent unrest in her native Kenya, Okolloh helped create Ushahidi (Swahili for “Witness”), a tool that collected and mapped eyewitness reports of violence using text messages and Google Maps. A few years on, this activist has emerged as one of the most powerful tech figures in Africa, currently serving as Google’s policy manager for the continent. It is a tremendous accomplishment for a woman who started out just blowing off steam.

14. Seun Osewa – creator of Nairaland

The creator of the online community Nairaland, Nigerian researcher, programmer and webmaster Seun Osewa has made a definite impact on political and social discourse in his country of birth. Recent stats reveal that Nairaland has attracted over a million members and is amongst the top ten most visited sites in Nigeria according to Alexa.com.

15. Robert Sussman – co-founder and joint CEO, the Integr8 Group

The origins of the Integr8 Group can be traced back to the year 2000, when co-founder and joint CEO Rob Sussman saw a gap in the market for an operator who could offer unrivalled, proactive IT service and support. Since inception, the company has grown from a modest IT services operation to emerge as South Africa’s largest privately owned Managed IT Services provider. Recently it made headlines when Integr8 IT, the IT management specialist firm within the Group, was acquired by systems integrator Business Connexion for an estimated R126 million. Sussman helped establish, drive and direct what has now emerged as Africa’s largest publicly traded IT Company.

16. Emeka Okoye – Next2Us

Emeka Okoye is the CEO of Vikantti Software and CTO & co-founder of Next.2.us. The latter is a website that focuses on geosocial connectivity using various applications, including SMS and mobile phones. Okoye has over 17 years’ experience in Web, Enterprise & Mobile Software and Project Management. He graduated as a Geologist in 1990 but being passionate about software engineering, he built Nigeria’s first banking website (IBTC, 1996) and Internet Banking app (IBTC, 1997), co-founded one of Nigeria’s earliest start-ups and built the biggest Nigerian Portal (NgEx.com, 1997) and was the Project Manager/Lead Architect of Nigeria’s first major E-commerce Project in 2000 (FSB Bank, Valucard, UPS & Xerox, 2000).

17. Gbenga Sesan – Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria

Gbenga Sesan is a member of the Committee of eLeaders for Youth and ICT at the United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs. Sesan has completed executive education programs at a number of globally recognised institutions including Harvard University, Oxford University and Stanford University. According to his online profile, CNN listed him as one of the Top 10 African Tech Voices. Gbenga was Nigeria’s first IT Youth Ambassador and also held the position of Vice Chair of the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s African Technical Advisory Committee.

18. Stuart Forrest – owner and CEO of Triggerfish Animation Studios

Forrest is the owner of Triggerfish Animation Studios, an established operator within the marketing and advertising industry in South Africa. Media reports have described the venture as “Africa’s answer to Dreamworks, Disney and Pixar” and the company has produced several projects including the animated features “Zambezia” and “Khumba”. The offerings have catapulted the Studio to international acclaim, with Zambezia attracting the interest of Sony as a distributor to English-speaking territories – reportedly the first time a South African feature has secured US distribution of this level.

19. Wael Ghonim – Nabadat/ Google

Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim, is the head of marketing in the MEA region. He is also the Chairman of Nabadat, an NGO. Ghonim is credited with using Facebook as a tool to inspire the ousting of the Hosni Mubarak regime. He was also featured on Time Magazine’s list of ‘100 most in_ uential people of 2011’

20. Loy Okezie – Techloy.com

Few have made an impact on the online landscape in Nigeria as Loy Okezie has. Currently living in Lagos, Okezie started the technology news and research website Techloy.com to highlight the importance and development of Nigeria’s technology ecosystem. Since its creation, Techloy has grown to be one of Nigeria’s biggest technology websites. Started more than four years ago, Okezie now serves as Chief Editor, where he is responsible for the website’s editorial direction. His blog was voted ‘Best Technology Blog’ in Nigeria at the recently concluded Nigerian Blog Awards 2012.

http://africanleadership.co.uk/?p=852

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ARCHIVES – 1st Tanganyika Rifles Mutinie 1964

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From: Yona Maro

(Please note that we will cover the Kenya and Uganda Mutinies at a later date)

The alarm bells started to ring on the 12th January 1964: there was trouble in Zanzibar. It was a rising against the Sultan. The 2nd Scots Guards, who had made a previous visit to the island in the August of 1963 to supervise the elections, stood by to fly to the Sultan’s aid. The British Government was against intervention and the Scots Guards flew instead to Aden. The Sultan was at the mercy of the triumphant revolutionaries. The safety of the British community was in jeopardy, The Staffordshire Regiment, standing by in place of the Scots Guards, flew a company to Mombassa, where they embarked in the frigate H.M.S. Rhyll just to wait and see what happened. As it turned out the Sultan made his escape by air, to Tanganyika, thence to be transferred to the safety of the UK.

The next call for help came from President Nyerere himself. The first alarm came from Kenya on January the 20th. The men of the 1st Tanganyika Rifles, quartered near the capital Dar-es-Salaam, had risen up against their British officers, had locked them up, seized the airport, and arrested the British High Commissioner. With the mutineers holding the airport at Dar-el-Salaam, they released the British officers and NCOs from both the 1st and 2nd Battalions-some 30 from each-complete with their families and sending them to Nairobi where they arrived safely. Nyerere retained control of the government and formally made an appeal to Britain for help. It had already been decided at HQ Middle East Command at Aden that it was a task for 45 RM Commando. Hastily embarked on the carrier H.M.S. Centaur with 815 Naval Helicopter Squadron, they set sail at midnight Jan 20th and on the 24th lay off Dar-es-Salaam. At first light on the 25th, Z Company made a helicopter lift to the football field next to the mutineers’ barracks, while a gunboat put down diversionary fire to a flank.

With all weapons blazing, the Commandos rushed and seized the barrack entrance. The mutineers were then called upon to surrender. The answer was a burst of firing, to which the Commandos retaliated by demolishing the roof of the guardroom with an anti-tank rocket. It produced a sad stream of Askaris emerging with hands up. The helicopters meanwhile were completing the lift of Commandos, so that the town could be dominated and the remnant of the mutineers rounded up. Since many of the mutineers had broken out of barracks this latter task called for extensive searching. One civilian Englishman, with total disregard for his own personal safety, brought back to the guardroom one fully armed Askari festooned with ammunition and grenades. Despite his menacing attire the Askari was only too delighted to surrender to the civilian. X Company was despatched to secure the airfield and the broadcasting station, while Y Company was sent into Dar-es-Salaam. This was designed to be a two-pronged advance, with X Company’s move by helicopter. However it turned out to be a parade rather than an attack.

Vic Balsdon writes:

I have read several accounts of the suppression of the Dar es Salaam mutiny by 45 Commando but nowhere have I come across the mention of the fact that 45 took BLANK ammunition with them. The story that went around the Corps at that time was that the RSM was told that it was going to be an “exercise” and, quite understandably, assumed that the unit would only need blanks. Only later, when the unit was well under way on board HMS Centaur, did the error emerge. Lee Enfield No 4 rifles, together with the appropriate .303 ammunition (either 5 or 10 rounds per man) were hastily scrounged from the ship’s company (seamen) to prevent what might have been a monumental disaster. The passage that states that ‘the commandos went in with all guns blazing’ seems, if the rumour was true, a trifle exaggerated! The rocket that hit the roof of the Guardroom, was a practice round, not HE, and dislodged some tiles, one of which hit a mutineer on the head, killing him.

The story goes that the RSM carried the can for the @#%$! up but whether it was a misinterpretation of an order, or the wrong order from the Adjutant, was never revealed.

I can understand why the story was hushed up. We all love to rant on about our “victories” but are a little less inclined to publicise our mistakes.

Anyway, job well done, Royal, blanks or no blanks!

The cover picture of the February 1964 edition of LIFE shows a Royal Marine conducting a small group of Africans and he is clearly holding a Lee Enfield No. 4 rifle. These weapons had been replaced by the 7.62mm Self Loading Rifle (SLR) in either late 1958 or early 1959, depending on the operational committments of the various branches of the armed forces. Some branches, such as the Royal Navy, were still using the No.4 much later. Hence, 45 Commando were able to borrow some from HMS Centaur’s ship’s company to avert a near disaster and many red faces.

Our thanks to Mr Balsdon for providing this piece of the story.
If anyone has a copy of this edition and can provide us with a scan of the Tanganyika piece from the edition we would be grateful.

The Europeans, Asians and many Africans gave the Commando an unexpected tumultuous welcome as they thronged the pavements. Elements of Y Company secured Army House whilst the remainder carried out local patrols. The second-in-command of 45 was to take command of Dar-es-Salaam. Z Company was to remain at Collito Barracks and the support company was landed soon after 12 noon. The Royal Marine detachment from H.M.S. Centaur landed by lighter with the Ferret armoured cars of 16/15 Lancers. A show of force was made through the town where again they received a great welcome.

Tabora is some 400 miles west of Dar-es-Salaam and the 2nd Battalion of the Tanganyika Rifles stationed there had already mutinied, and after hearing of the events at Collito Barracks had agreed to hand in their rifles. All was quiet but this, however, was not confirmed and there was a distinct possibility that they could break out again and secure the airfield. Y and X Companies were earmarked for this task. In addition four Sea Vixens, armed with rockets, were attached to H.M.S. Centaur to provide air cover should the landing at the air strip be opposed. Personnel of Y Company, accompanied by the CO of 45 with his tactical HQ, arrived at Tabora at about five-fifteen; a flight of just over two hours. Lt-Col. Stevens remembers his arrival at Tabora as one of light comedy, despite being deeply concerned at the possibility of armed opposition. As the DC-4 came in to land, an Argosy suddenly appeared at the other end of the runway with the intention of also landing.

The Argosy won and the DC-4 hauled off to land a few moments later. The Argosy contained an Air Commodore and some men of the RAF Regiment, who had flown in from Nairobi. At six-fifteen that evening, the Beverleys arrived with the remainder of X and Y Companies. The mutineers’ barracks, being about seven miles away, the Commando’s commandeered some public works department vehicles to ferry the two Companies within two miles of the barracks. The Marines arrived at the barracks in the early hours of the morning and with great rapidity the guard room and weapons were secured. The contents of the stores and weapons of the mutineers were loaded on to the vehicles and the next stage was to arouse the sleeping battalion. This task fell to a Tanganyika Rifles officer, who with a bugler, the general assembly was sounded. The mutineers, informed that they were surrounded, fell in quietly and the ringleaders were marched off. The Tanganyika Rife mutiny was ended. Looking back on the whole operation from the start on the 25th, the operation had gone extraordinarily smoothly.

The final days were spent in consolidating positions and restoring the confidence of the population. The Royal Marine Band from H.M.S. Centaur was landed and concluded a heavy program by marching through the streets. The operation had been described as a classic and had been a resounding success. 45 RM Commando had virtually assumed military control over a country the size of Britain with a population of some six million all within 24 hours. 41 Commando flew out for Britain on Thursday the 30th January; H.M.S. Centaur had sailed for Mombassa the previous day, and 45 CDO embarked in H.M.S. Victorious to be transferred to H.M.S. Albion the Commando ship nine days later, prior to disembarkation at Aden later in February

Land and Power The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land

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From: Yona Maro

The new wave of land deals is not the new investment in agriculture that millions had been waiting for. The poorest people are being hardest hit as competition for land intensifies. Oxfam’s research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests.

Companies and governments must take urgent steps to improve land rights outcomes for people living in poverty. Power relations between investors and local communities must also change if investment is to contribute to rather than undermine the food security and livelihoods of local communities.

Link:
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp151-land-power-rights-acquisitions-220911-en.pdf

Tanzania’s Public Safety and Security: Whither the classic “fire brigade” approach?

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From: Yona Fares Maro

Hii movie inaitwa OLYMPAS HAS FALLEN ni nzuri sana inahusu mahusiano ya Korea zote mbili pia unaweza kuangalia WHITE HOUSE DOWN – hii inahusu mahusiano ya ndani ya nchi yao ya marekani .

Kwa maoni yangu movie zote mbili hazina uhusiano wa moja kwa moja na matukio ya Tanzania labda hii white house down kidogo sana .

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On Monday, August 12, 2013 8:48:48 PM UTC+3, Pauline Mengi wrote:

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

Tanzania’s Public Safety and Security: Whither the classic “fire brigade” approach?

YESTERDAY, Saturday, August 10, or was it today, Sunday, August 11, 2013? I can’t remember; been having a lot on my mind these days. Anyway, what I was trying to say is I watched this really great movie, about the White House of America – literally taken hostage, invaded and occupied by a group of a really well-trained “paramilitary” force; a.k.a. terrorists. I mean these guys are really mean “badasses”. Excuse me, I didn’t mean to use that word, but, heck, there wasn’t any other word that would best fit their description. I mean, think of the meanest, well-organized, well-trained commandos, who speak several languages, are fully-trained in martial arts, are the best sharp shooters – they never miss – and who ALSO understand how computers, computer networks and software, security systems (access control, counter measures, etc.), the whole deal, and you get the picture of what I’m trying to say. If you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest you do; it should be playing in a theatre near you. Or you could call your buddy with that high-speed Internet connection to “torrent” it for you. Well, I did “torrent” it, and my money and time was well worth it, because it was a complete surprise. I didn’t know what I was getting into, but it was well worth it. If I was watching the movie at Mlimani City’s 20th Century Cinemax, I would be holding on tight to that chair, praying that one of those bullets from those high-powered extra advanced automatic 50 caliber machine guns don’t mess up my handsome face. Haha! Just kidding. I aint handsome; just an average guy.

Ok, here’s the synopsis.
An ex-Special Forces operative and former presidential bodyguard must fight to take back the White House from terrorists who have kidnapped the Commander in Chief (i.e. President) in this high-stakes action thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua of the “Training Day” and “Shooter” legacy, and starring Gerard Butler. In the aftermath of a tragic accident involving the president, played by Aaron Eckhart and the first lady Ashley Judd, Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Butler) is handed his walking papers. Basically this means he is put out to pasture; confined to a desk job. He unwittingly – to avoid from becoming completely “crazy” due to the new emotional and psychological stress in his life – accepts a measly “security officer” at the Department of the Treasury, which is, nevertheless, a desk job. You can imagine his frustration, as his military background of being a Special Forces US Marines soldier, being used to an “action” environment, this is something he never expected in his life. He was as much of a friend to the President and the First Lady, as he was their protector. His sense of guilt, for failing to rescue the First Lady in the fatal accident that took her life, while on the way back to the White House, under such bad weather – snow everywhere, almost-zero visibility, the presidential convoy going at breakneck speeds, foryou can imagine the situation!

But Banning, just like the rest of the US Secret Service team is quite unprepared for the events that were to unfold, unsuspecting amongst them a traitor at the highest ranks within the presidential protective service force. The traitor, Fred Forbes, had sold out the country to the KUK; the North Korean paramilitary group that, literally, had almost taken the US for dead, rendering its arsenal of nuclear missiles into self-detonating bombs by deploying the “Cerbus” protocol.

Hey! Am I giving too much of the plot of this movie? We are already on the fifth paragraph and I haven’t said WHY I am giving you a “sneak peek” review of this movie. Well, I won’t go on; just go see the movie, but before you do, here is why I chose this movie for today’s Blog entry.

What’s my point?

If you want to take over a country, whether or not there are dissenting voices, you must forge alliances with, possibly, mildly disgruntled but highly placed individuals, who will prove useful to your cause. You must take it from within, and that is what exactly what “Kang” – one of the world’s most wanted terrorist mastermind – played by Rick Yune, who played his part superbly! For authenticity, the directors and producers HAD to find an Asian actor, most likely with Korean background, which Yune probably is! He HAD to be believable, and you can’t do that unless you are the “real McCoy”!

Kang carefully studied the First Family, which was key to America’s takeover. When you take over a country from its highest vertices, it becomes more effective, as all the other protective agencies must take contingency measures, which sometimes aren’t so effective and/or practical. And that’s exactly what happened in this high-octane thriller of a movie. While the story is completely fictional, it poses several questions about most countries’ safety and security.

Such questions such as “How safe or how secure are we?” begin to pop up, while watching this movie. Hey, I am someone who is a little bit more observant than the rest of my peers. For example, after the 9-11 event, I began to take note of how “unsafe and unsecure” my country, Tanzania, is. For the benefit of those in charge of our safety and security, here is some advice on what must be done NOW to deal with all the weak spots and loopholes in our country, starting with Dar es Salaam, where our president lives.

Please don’t take this the wrong way; don’t ask me how I know what I know. I just observe and analyze the situation at hand. Let’s just say that God has graced me with an above average intellect, and if I don’t responsibly use this intellect to good use, then I will be just as guilty as any terrorist that would successfully attempt to take over our country! Trust me; we are in more danger now than we were, say, 10 years ago. Why? It’s now become global common knowledge that Tanzania is abundantly endowed with resources such as precious minerals and metals; wildlife; natural gas and oil; as well as a huge land area of arable land that has remained unexplored for years! The rest of the world – and I say this with confidence – is looking at Tanzania with much envy, its’ leaders and captains of industry saying: “Here! Look at this country called Tanzania guys! It’s got the world’s riches, but its people are asleep, and its’ leaders are so corrupt, they can be bought for pennies!” I remember, a white man once said: “Tanzania is the only country where you can go with a dollar in your pocket, and become a millionaire in less than one year!” I find that statement to be quite true!

So, without much further ado, here is my advice, point by point, the theme being “The take-over of Tanzania”. But before I go on, shall I be legally held liable for “exposing” our country’s security weaknesses on the Internet? So, I believe I must end here this feature, until I get proper advice from my beautiful legal counsel. This thing has already been blown out of proportion: Leaders coming out, foaming at the mouth – these bloody criminals, spraying Sulfuric Acid on innocent people and giving us a bad name on the international arena! I spoke out about this several months ago, when the spate of attacks started happening in Zanzibar; churches being burnt, several people – including the Qadhi’s Secretary – being sprayed with acid, several people being shot, while the Parochial Leader of the Zanzibar Catholic Church, Reverend Evarist Mushi was shot and killed, not too long ago, and asked this one key question: “Why, instead of sitting on our behinds, don’t we ask about the motives of these people committing all these crimes?” I posted the question on Facebook last year, before I became greatly disappointed with this social network, as it had become a forum for vicious and malicious verbal attacks between our youth; I cancelled my account. Never been back since. No regrets! The only regret is, I wasted my precious time!

There is always a “motive”, in Latin, it’s called “modus operandi” or “M.O.” as cops like to say in movies and TV shows. It’s the “motive” of the criminal’s mind; his/her motive. People just DON’T go around committing crimes; the motive could be to gain money and/or property; revenge; jealousy; or creating the environment for a “hostile takeover” by sabotaging a nation’s safety and security mechanism, tarnishing its’ public image, at both local and international levels.

The people who burned down churches in Zanzibar; who shot and severely wounded people; who sprayed people with acid; who shot and killed religious leaders; ALL had a singular motive, which is – Make Zanzibar an unlivable country for foreign tourists and/or visitors with social agendas, such as those working in schools, health institutions, etc. The two British girls, both 18, were volunteer teachers, who had worked in Zanzibar for about a month. They had only one day left to leave before they were attacked. One could safely conclude that their attackers had investigated them from the day their feet touched the ground in Zanzibar.

These attackers were well organized; they planned everything, starting with choosing the “perfect victim(s)”; someone with a pure soul, possibly female, working in charitable organizations – such as schools, hospitals, etc. – and most definitely foreign! They succeeded, for their agenda was to make sure that Zanzibar, and consequently Mainland Tanzania, become blacklisted at the international level as being “unsafe”, so whoever may dare tread within its’ territories would do so “at own risk”. Virtually, foreigners are being told: “It’s your own grave you’re digging if you choose to go to Zanzibar…”

First, Europeans are so scared right now, they don’t want to think about Zanzibar; it’s all over social forums. Second, it will be North Americans. The US Federal Department of State, through US Embassies worldwide, publishes what it calls “Travel Advisory Statements”, for every country. This is a document that advises US citizens who wish to travel to a particular country on its’ safety and security ranking; if the statement says “travel at own risk”, US citizens would tend to translate that as being “Hell no! I aint going over there! No way!” Third will be South America, then fourth will be the Far East, and lastly, fifth, will be Australasia as well as the Pacific Islands including the Caribbean Island. The entire world – even our own neighbours – will mark us as deadly terrorists, walking around with acid canisters, ready to pour it on anyone we don’t like or we have a “beef” with! We won’t be any different from the Arabs, who have literally been branded as “Al Qaeda”. What will they brand us with? Acid Terrorists?

We have already been branded as “drug” mules; here’s a pat on the back to CCM for successfully managing to have us branded as “Acid Terrorists”! A new accolade to us all! Bravo! Heck, if I’m gonna blame someone, I must start with the ruling party CCM and its’ Government, starting, of course, with President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, right? But maybe Kikwete shouldn’t be blamed all by himself, however, he must be asked a lot of pertinent questions.

Hey Mr. President, where were you when innocent civilians, such as the infamous Musa Tesha were being attacked with acid (the Police arresting CHADEMA cadres for the crime – have you read their scathing report on the kind of abuse they had to suffer at the hands of the Police, who tortured them with electric shocks forcing them to implicate CHADEMA’s leadership with “acts of terrorism” but they said “NO! We wont!” ?); or when a Sheikh was recently attacked with acid during the few days prior to the postponed Ward Elections in Arusha? Countless of people have been attacked with acid. In Igunga, Tabora, a CHADEMA cadre from Dar es Salaam was brutally murdered and dumped in a forest; to-date, no suspect(s) have ever been called to stand in front of the courts. The police allegedly know the culprits, but for political reasons, are protecting them, because they allegedly belong to the “Green Guards” militia unit of CCM!

Heck! We all want to live as long as possible, don’t we? We’re all – well, most of us anyway – afraid of dying, especially a violent death such as being shot by a gun, or getting into other troubles. Now, think! Who in their right mind would go to a country where they are being told “Don’t say we didn’t warn you…”? Do they have a death wish?

I am rather surprised, or let me say, dismayed, at our Government leaders approach to this situation, calling it a “new and recent crime” while spates of acid attacks, brutal killings, beatings and maiming have been going on since 2009! What’s so “new” about acid attacks?

When it was our own Tanzanian brothers and sisters who succumbed to these attacks, the Government did nothing; it was nothing to worry about. Now that the situation has gone out of control, the Government suddenly “wakes up and smells the bad, sour tasting coffee”, that the matter must be immediately controlled. It’s “damage control” time, which, in most cases, is very difficult to achieve.

Right now, ever since CNN International went “global” with the Breaking News about two teenage British girls being victims of an acid attack in Zanzibar, damage had already been done. As the audience of CNN International is in the hundreds of millions, the news item was seen and heard by scores of people everywhere that CNN iInternational is viewed. The story – I am certain – must have been translated into several “key” international languages, probably even Mandarin Chinese! There is an old adage that says: “There is no news like bad news!” I don’t know who said it, but I tend to agree with them, because, indeed, these days – such as it was during the Jingoistic Journalism times of the US – bad news seems to follow people wherever they go! And it sells faster than Aunt Jemima’s Chocolate Syrup on top of a buttered hotcake, at Wendy’s! Ha ha ha! My African brothers and sisters here may/not get this pun here… Oh! Heck! I told y’all in my first post that my writing style is influenced by many factors! If you want clarification, speak up!

Conclusively, while the “Olympus Has Fallen” story IS in fact purely fiction, for me, it’s a little too close to reality. It addresses all the normal social issues we are all faced with in this globalized society; greed, revenge, hunger for power and/or money, and of course, the vulnerability of man due to the love of money, power, social status, luxury and wealth.

There are people like Fred Forbes, who are highly placed Government officials in key and sensitive jobs. They all have a price – you meet theirs, you get what you want, sometimes for almost free, and they may even throw in a couple of bonuses just for the heck of it. You gave them what you wanted, didn’t you?

During one of the scenes in the movie, Acting President who is also Speaker of the House of Representatives, who, in case neither the President nor the Vice President can actively dispense their duties, the Speaker of the House of Representatives becomes Acting President. The Acting President must be sworn in by the Supreme Court Chief Justice, and in his absence, a highly-ranked National Security or Pentagon official can “swear” him in. A notification comes in to the Pentagon Crisis Room, that a Hydra weapon has just been activated and is firing at the convoy of choppers of US Navy Seals who had been sent in to search for and rescue the President, who, at the time, was being held hostage by Kang and his KUK group of North Korean paramilitary members.

“Sir! They have just launched a Hydra weapon!” says one of the Pentagon officials in the Criris Room.

Acting President, brilliantly played by Morgan “Old Man” Freeman, responds: “What’s a Hydra?”

“It’s one of our most advanced military equipment, still in its prototype stages,” responds the man.

“And how the hell did they get it?” asks Acting President.

“Well, they have it…” responds the middle aged, chubby Pentagon ‘man in black’.

At this time, nobody in the Pentagon Crisis Room knows that Fred Forbes is the ‘mole’ within the US Secret Service, who opened doors for Kang and his group. Forbes gave all the key information and weaponry to Kang. He opened doors to allow the United States of America to be taken over by a bunch of misguided ragtag paramilitary terrorists, whose only motive was to see America crumble to its knees. They failed, however!

There could be well over one hundred such ‘moles’ within Tanzania’s safety and security organs; the Fred Forbes of Tanzania, unlike him, aren’t clearly as well trained and well versed in matters of proper security. They just aren’t prepared for such an attack; neither am I, so I must admit. In fact, 90% of Tanzanians are not.

Our Disaster Management Department at the Vice President’s Office is clearly not doing enough to counter any man-made or natural disaster that may occur. We witnessed their “effectiveness” in managing disasters, all the way from the Mv. Bukoba disaster on Lake Victoria to the Mv. Spice Islanders disaster on the Ras of Nungwi in Zanzibar, to the Mv. Skagit disaster, and most recently, the collapse of the 16-floor dangerously built skyscraper on Indira Gandhi Street in Dar es Salaam!

While they pat themselves on the back, they couldn’t come up with a clear figure of how many people were killed or survived during the collapse of the high riser; they tended to water down figures, so as to make people believe that the disaster wasn’t so drastic, while word on the street said as much as 60-70 people died, and scores more – in hundreds – are still missing! Yeah! Job well done!

I won’t say much about the Presidential Security Services of the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Services (TISS), because they seem to know it all. I dare not expose their obvious – literally common sense, not rocket science – weaknesses, for fear of being kidnapped, tortured and left for dead in Mabwepande, as Dr. Stephen Ulimboka and Mr. Absalom Kibanda were recently. Kibanda was attacked right outside his gate, as he returned home coming in late from work. It happened so fast he had no time to even call out for help. “These were professionally trained assassins, not your ordinary muggers,” Kibanda said.

Meanwhile, in a new turn of events, Commissioner of Police for the Dar es Salaam Region Special Zone, Suleiman Kova has blamed Ulimboka for being “uncooperative”. “We have called him in several times so that we may take his statement but so far he has refused, which is delaying our investigation. We can’t finish if he doesn’t cooperate with us,” said Kova.

Prior to his being sent to South Africa and upon his return, Ulimboka named one Ramadhani Ighondu, who is a State House official, working on the Presidential Security Advisory team, which is also part of TISS. Ulimboka said Ighondu and his colleagues orchestrated his kidnapping, beating, torture and being left for dead in Mabwepande. A weekly, which had been carrying and following up the story, also found conclusive evidence to implicate Ighondu, which was published, a little over a year ago. The Ulimboka Gate story is believed to have been the last straw on the Government’s back, which led to the decision to suspend the weekly – MwanaHalisi – for an indefinite period of time, citing among many other reasons, lack of cooperation (for what?) and publishing distorted information and, of course, lies!

Instead of addressing the issues at hand, which are many, such as the Police-coordinated and Police-orchestrated organized crime and wildlife poaching as well as narcotics trafficking and distribution, the Government is tackling only ONE issue – acid attacks – while, in terms of our safety and security, there are so many more! At the speed that the Government is dealing with acid attacks, it’s as if we have been invaded and we are in our Crisis Room, left with only one thing: Praying that the likes of Mike Banning to save the day! What if? I ask again? Our version of Mike Banning fails to do the job because he is not properly prepared for it, what will happen? What then?

Mr. President, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, your House is not in order; it has demonstrated that it is unprepared and poorly trained to do the job of ensuring the safety and security of the people of Tanzania and their country at large. Any terrorist – and this is a fact, take it or leave it, Mr. President – can come in and study us, as a tourist! We won’t know a thing, because we don’t have the intelligence mechanisms to scrutinize people as they carry on their daily activities, whether during the day or night.

Simple things, such as CCTV cameras mounted on traffic lights, which were proposed on the 2007 ICT Strategic Plan of the Tanzania Police Force (TPF), have yet to be implemented. High rise buildings such as the PPF Plaza on Ohio Street and Garden Avenue in downtown Dar es Salaam has, clearly, a poorly designed access control system. A person who tells the check-in personnel that he is going to such and such an office on the Sixth Floor, can easily get off any floor and, if that person doesn’t have good intentions, can easily open the exit doors on the staircase, walk to another floor and carry out his version of “justice”.

Literally, unsuspecting tenants of PPF Plaza and many other valuable buildings in Dar are NOT safe! I’m just pointing out some of the more obvious weaknesses and challenges to our public safety issues, so y’all don’t come and arrest me, to start labeling me a “terrorist”.

You are better off, Mr. President, to work with me as I clearly have observed these challenges for a long time. As I said, I can’t list ALL the weaknesses because that would put the country at risk. If I’m going to be consulted, Mr. President, I will ONLY do so in your presence and under the presence of your most trusted national security advisors; I know two of them, and I trust them all. I even had the pleasure of working with one of them a few years back, after I contacted you and you sent both men to me. One had called me earlier but I told him that his colleague had already contacted me, so he said: Good!

I am open 24-7 to assist you Mr. President, because this issue of acid attacks is too blown out of proportion. I can advise you accordingly what must be done, because I know that our country has the resources to protect itself. I am a committed patriot, which is why I am raising the issue and how best NOT to tackle it. While we are busy dealing with only one piece of the safety and security issues, others will take advantage of our preoccupation with acid attacks, and concentrate their criminal activities in areas not addressed by us.

When CNN International labels Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania as being “unsafe”, they do not do so lightly; they have clearly done their homework. They have insiders within the US safety and security systems, they have ears and eyes, and they ask the right questions to get right answers.

How many times, Mr. President, have we put our country literally at ransom, by failing to completely address the issue of corruption by Government officials, most of them being held in key positions, such as one Mr. Achacha of the Department of Immigration at the Julius Nyerere International Airport? Have you heard how he terrorizes both Tanzanians and foreigners wanting to depart the country from JNIA, citing a myriad of stupid reasons, just because he CAN deny people their right to leave the country, and, most often, because he wants to be bribed, so say people who have suffered at his hands?

We have many problems, Mr. President. It is time we addressed them all, at once, instead of taking the piecemeal and/or fire brigade approach. It won’t work.

I propose we urgently form the National Safety and Security Advisory Commission (NSSAC); there are good people who can be appointed to serve on NSSAC, such as Hon. Judge Francis Mutungi, but you already gave him another job, didn’t you? He is well placed at that office; he will do it justice.

Can we get started? Bring me a list and I will tell you who is fit to lead and sit on the Commission; that will be my first contribution. You can pay me when we get done… but an allowance will be essential for me to continue offering my services to you. If you want my email, ask my Aunt Grace in Trinidad.

Agricultural Innovation Systems A Framework for Analysing the Role of the Government

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From: Yona Maro

This report reviews recent trends in agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and discusses the impact of a wide range of policies on the creation and diffusion of innovation in the agricultural and agrifood sector. It suggests a framework for analysing the role of governments in fostering increased innovation, with a view to helping to identify practical actions that governments could take to improve productivity growth, sustainable use of resources, and resilience to future market developments in national and global agriculture and agri-food systems.

OECD, June 2013

Also available in: French

Link:
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/agricultural-innovation-systems_9789264200593-en

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The Little Data Book on Africa 2012/13

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From: Yona Maro

The Little Data Book on Africa 2012/2013 is a pocket edition of Africa Development Indicators 2012/2013. It contains some 115 key indicators on economics, human development, governance, and partnership and is intended as a quick reference for users of the Africa Development Indicators 2010 book and African Development Indicators Online.

The country tables present the latest available data for World Bank member countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, covering about 1,700 indicators from 1961 to 2011. Key themes are : • Basic indicators • Drivers of growth • Participating in growth • Capable states • Partnerships. Designed to provide all those interested in Africa with quick reference and a reliable set of data to monitor development programs and aid flows in the region, this is an invaluable pocket edition reference tool for analysts and policy makers who want a better understanding of the economic and social developments occurring in Africa.

Link:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/13195/9780821397831.pdf?sequence=1

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The Global Innovation Index 2013

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From: Yona Maro

Economic policy action is still focused on finding the right balance between reducing debt and supporting demand through stimulus spending. But questions remain: Where will future growth come from to drive the global economy? Where will future jobs come from? In this context, the importance of innovation cannot be emphasized enough. It is the policies fostering long-term output growth – especially policies that promote innovation – that can lay the foundation for future growth, improved productivity, and better jobs.

To guide polices and to help overcome divides, metrics are needed to assess innovation and policy performance. For this purpose, The Global Innovation Index 2013: The Local Dynamics of Innovation is timely and relevant. The Global Innovation Index (GII) helps to create an environment in which innovation factors are continually evaluated. It provides a key tool and a rich database of detailed metrics for 142 economies, which represent 94.9% of the world’s population and 98.7% of global GDP.
Link:
http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=gii-full-report-2013

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The Changing Faces of Citizen Action: A Mapping Study through an ‘Unruly’ Lens

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From: Yona Maro

For the activist, the academic interested in power and politics, the development practitioner and the engaged citizen, the last couple of years or so have offered a veritable treasure of moments with which to re-imagine the world, and the place of the ‘citizen’ in it, the relationships between rulers and the ruled, and the very meaning of ‘democracy’.

In this context this working paper develops an approach based on thinking at the IDS about ‘Unruly Politics’, a framework that offers new ways to understand and engage politics and political action. ‘Unruly Politics’ is a broad conceptual space rather than a descriptive or nominal category. Broadly, it is an approach that looks at politics beyond what has conventionally been defined as ‘politics’, institutionally and formally. It is simultaneously the insistence on new languages of politics, the redefinition of spaces of politics, ruptures in the aesthetic regimes of power, and the creation of imaginaries of power beyond what is already intelligible.

The paper examines new modalities of political action being generated in these contexts and argues that current approaches to citizen action, (approaches concerned either with the relationship between citizens and state apparatus, or identity related collective action) characterised by the assumptions of that politics relates to ‘interests’, or ‘representation’, fail to appreciate the potential of these emergent modalities.

The paper also asks whether the framework of ‘citizenship’ is adequate for understanding these modalities, whether ‘conscious engagement’ or explicit ideological interpretation of action is necessary to constitute it as political, how we might understand the role of ICTs in these emergences, the role of the ‘bare life’ in generating unruly political action and the usefulness of the notion of ‘Event’ in understanding the changing face of citizen action. The main paper concludes with a discussion on the cynical deployment of discourse in politics, and argues that several of the recent events might be seen as generating the possibilities of a politics that is not cynical.

Link:
http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/Wp423.pdf

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What are biofuels? What’s the problem with them?

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From: Yona Maro

Our limited resources – land and water – are being used to make biofuels for our petrol tanks when they should be used to grow much needed food in a world where one in eight people go to bed hungry every day. As wealthy countries demand ever more food for fuel, food prices soar and millions go hungry, while a global land rush means farmers are often forced off their fields in brutal land grabs to make way for more biofuels, destroying livelihoods and exacerbating poverty and hunger even further.

Oxfam is calling on governments to scrap the rules and laws that divert food from those who need it the most and put it in fuel tanks. The full impact of biofuels on both people and the planet, including food price increases, land grabs, and indirect land use change, must be accounted for. Far more climate friendly and cost effective strategies to reduce emissions from transport exist, such as setting higher efficiency standards for cars, and creating better transport systems.

Now in Europe, there is an excellent opportunity to make things right as our leaders will decide on reform of EU biofuels policy in the coming months. They must listen.

Link:
http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/campaigns/what-are-biofuels

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Renewables 2013: Global Status Report

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From: Yona Maro

Access to modern energy enables people to live better lives- providing clean heat for cooking, lighting for streets and homes, cooling and refrigeration, water pumping, as well as basic processing and communications. Yet over 1 billion people still lack access to modern energy services.

As a result of the UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy for All Initiative and the upcoming Decade of Sustainable Energy for All, achieving universal energy access has risen to the top of the international agenda. However, given that the world recently passed 400 parts per million of atmospheric CO2- potentially enough to trigger a warming of 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels – meeting growing energy needs in a climate-constrained world requires a fundamental shift in how those energy services are delivered. Renewable energy, coupled with energy efficiency measures, is central to achieving this objective.

Renewables already play a major role in the energy mix in many countries around the world. In 2012, prices for renewable energy technologies, primarily wind and solar, continued to fall, making renewables increasingly mainstream and competitive with conventional energy sources. In the absence of a level playing field, however, high penetration of renewables is still dependent on a robust policy environment.

Global investment in renewable energy decreased in 2012, but investment expanded significantly in developing countries. Global investment decreased in response to economic and policy-related uncertainties in some traditional markets, as well as to falling technology costs, which had a positive effect on capacity installations. Renewable energy is spreading to new regions and countries and becoming increasingly affordable in developing and developed countries alike.

At the same time, falling prices, combined with declining policy support in established markets, the international financial crisis, and ongoing tensions in international trade, have challenged some renewable energy industries. Subsidies to fossil fuels, which are far higher than those for renewables, remain in place and need to be phased out as quickly as possible. The emergence of shale gas brings a new dynamic to the energy market, and it remains to be seen how it will affect renewable energy deployment globally.
Link:
http://www.ren21.net/Portals/0/documents/Resources/GSR/2013/http://www.ren21.net/Portals/0/documents/Resources/GSR/2013/GSR2013_lowres.pdf_lowres.pdf

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Category Archives: Yona Fares Maro

World Bank – Civil Society Engagement Review of Fiscal Years 2010 – 12

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Land and Power The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land

Tanzania’s Public Safety and Security: Whither the classic “fire brigade” approach?

Agricultural Innovation Systems A Framework for Analysing the Role of the Government

The Little Data Book on Africa 2012/13

The Global Innovation Index 2013

The Changing Faces of Citizen Action: A Mapping Study through an ‘Unruly’ Lens

What are biofuels? What’s the problem with them?

Renewables 2013: Global Status Report