Probe International

(May 18, 2005) Women at a two-day conference in Nairobi to launch an African women’s intiative on poverty and human rights have declared the continent’s leaders are responsible for the numerous problems facing Africa, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports.

(May 18, 2005) The direct transfer of development assistance to African "vampire states" from Western governments that "do not want to criticize black African leaders for fear of being labeled racist" are two related aspects hobbling international aid programs, a Ghanaian scholar and author charged earlier this month, the Canadian-based Embassy magazine reports.

(May 14, 2005) Africans should not blame Mr Tony Blair, the newly re-elected Prime Minister of Britain, for attempting to redress through the Commission for Africa report, decades of imbalances and injustices visited on Africans by both African rulers and their western
collaborators.

(May 11, 2005) The Bush administration’s budget request of $1.33 billion to co-fund multilateral development banks (MDBs) would advance reforms aimed at making those banks more effective, a top Treasury Department official says.

(May 9, 2005) Tony Blair hardly skipped a heartbeat as prime minister last week. A combination of sweet talk, comfortable wallets, and busy cash registers took care of that. Africa got a minuscule gain.

(May 9, 2005) As Mother’s Day, May 8, was being celebrated around the world, the majority of mothers in Africa, who make up over half of the continent’s 680 million people, received neither flowers nor cards from their doting children. In fact, the vast number does not know of the day’s existence, nor even its significance.