African Democracy

Today, all but one African nation holds elections, the remaining being Eritrea. However, African democracy does not always produce representative governments. The Economist Intelligence Unit's annual democracy index ranks only one African country, Mauritius, as a full democracy. Their criteria is rather tough however, even classifying the very well praised Botswana as a flawed democracies.

A quantitative measure of good governance, called the Mo Ibrahim Index, shows that there is a decline of 5% since 2007 in African political participation. According to the think tank, Freedom House, the number of full electoral democracies among the 49 sub-Saharan countries has falled from 24 in 2005 to 19 as of today.

This does not mean Africa has not come a long way. In 1990, Freedom House had listed just three African countries with multiparty political systems, universal suffrage, regular fraud-free elections, and secret ballots. Reformers also have plenty of reasons to be hopeful. Growing sophistication of opposition groups have become less of a mess, divided, undemocratic, and starved of resources.

Impressive economic growth rates in many African countries have fueled a communications explosion. Political campaigns no longer need or depend on government-owned media or the ability to travel to distant villages. They are able to reach more young voters and capture the desire for political freedoms.

Let's hope this wave of democracy and political freedoms continue to grow in Africa.

For more on this: http://www.economist.com/node/21551494?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/glasshalffull

Remembering the Young Girls of Afghanistan

This girl was abducted and held for about a year - NY TIMES

It is a practice called "baad" and it is pervasive in rural southern and eastern Afghanistan, areas that are heavily Pashtun. The practice is one that has gone on for centuries, and it is a strike against human rights. It involves the giving of a young woman, typically of a child's age, into slavery and / or forced marriage. It is used as a way to compensate for the shameful crimes of murder, theft, adultery, that are committed by the girl's elder. 

The practice is illegal under Afghan law, and many Islamic religious scholars also denounce its practice, as it is too illegal under Islamic law. The United Nations has declared the practice as a "harmful traditional practice" despite its long standing history in the area. 

The people of these areas are known to refuse the use of court systems because the first feel "the corrupt administration which openly demands money for every single case, and second, instability" says Haji Mohammed Nader Khan, who is an elder from Helmand. Further he says "in places where there are Taliban, they won't allow people to go to courts and solve their problems." 

A few weeks ago, I saw images of this practice and the affect it had on children and especially young girls in the Frontline program titled "Opium Brides". This practice involved families that would grow opium plants for smugglers with loans. At which if the government caught these small family farmers, their opium would be destroyed under an agreement between the Afghan government and foreign governments to cut down the spread of the elicit drug. At harvest time, with no crops to pay smugglers back, many of these families found themselves in dire situations, where smugglers only would allow the forgiving of debt if a child was given up. Many of these children were young girls, some no older than eight years old. Many of these girls told Frontline reporters they would rather die by suicide, than to be in a forced marriage to man several decades older than themselves. 

This was a very tragic thing to watch. It makes me think that as American troops begin to leave the area, the west may lose its focus on the region and the lasting issues these areas have. Many of the projects needed to end these human rights violations will not come by the bullet of a gun, but by the markings of a pen, with governments and organizations like UNICEF brokering deals to improve education, living conditions, and health in the region. I encourage you to read the article below from the New York Times and watch the Frontline program. Both are very touching and need to be looked at in greater light in the future. 

Sources: 

NY Times Article: "In 'Baad', Afghan Girls are Penalized For Elders' Misdeeds" 

Frontline: Opium Brides