From Syria:

From Saudi Arabia:

@sfatani : Jeddah Dusty and stormy #jeddah

From Jordan:

From Egypt, more rain was monitored in Alexandria and downtown Cairo:

Zeinobia was commenting about rain in Egypt.

@Zeinobia : raining in Mohendessin crazily I have not seen rain like this for years

@Ssirgany : It was a mix of light rain and sunshine on my way to the office (Salah Salem from Helio), but now it's cloudy & raining heavily in Dokki

@EngyG : it's raining in mohandessin sporadically, bas it is! ;)

@maggieosama : it's raining here alot in Garden City

Andrew who lives in Katameyya also confirmed rain!

@andrewheiss : Rain! This is crazy!

In Alexandria, as always, it rained heavily and small snow flakes have been observed:

@linuxawy : it was raining heavily in alex, and we got small ice too.. but it just stopped

@Sarah_ElShafie : Cloudy Some Rain No Storm…. Alexandria, Egypt:)… Looks like the sun will come up now..

Sadly Cat of Desert noted a sad event that happened due to rain in Sinai:

At Egyptian Chronicles, Zeinobia has more information on the Sinai floods. She says:

Today the weather was bad in Egypt , some areas were lucky enough to avoid heavy rains like for instance Cairo but some areas were unlucky as the heavy rains turned in to flood and this is just the start according to weather forecast.
Officially 4 citizens have been killed , hopefully I will get a better information later today.
Aswan , North Sinai and South Sinai have the bigger share in losses because of the rains that turned in to floods since the morning.

The news gets even worse:

A British tourist has died in accident in the Nile because of the heavy rains in Aswan today. I feel sorry for him along with all those who died today.
There are rumors that the Egyptian and Israeli forces on our borders searching a missing group of Israeli tourists. Already the citizens in Sinai found themselves in front of an Israeli jeep brought by the floods in the morning !!
Also I read a tweet that the Sharm El-Sheikh airport was badly damaged in the rains !!

Back in Sinai, Zeinobia says the situation is dire and help is needed:

Things in Sinai are not that great at all and it needs urgent help , I hope that the army will save the day as usual. The people in Sinai are praying that the rains do not destroy their houses and kill them.

It is worth mentioning that residents of Luxor in Upper Egypt also confirmed heavy rains - the first in two years.

A side small talk happened between Egyptian bloggers Embee and Tarek Amr, with the latter on the opposite side of everybody else, and didn't want rain to fall.

@embee : let's hope the #rain gets here SOON

@gr33ndata : Oh no, please not, I hate #rain, I hate it so much.

@embee : but #rain cleans the streets.. And the trees! How could you hate it?

@gr33ndata : Rain cleans there everywhere but not here in Egypt. Here it makes them even dirtier. #Rain

Yasser Ahmad concluded saying:

@YasserAhmad : Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain!

President Wade, pictured here at the 2002 World Economic Forum, wants to grant Haitian earthquake survivors free land in Senegal (image source: Wikipedia)

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, politicians and citizens around the world have scrambled to join the global outpouring of solidarity for Haiti, and poor countries, including many in Africa, are no exception.  Rwanda, Liberia, South Africa, Gabon, Nigeria and many others have already pleged financial aid.  However, it is the 84 year-old Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, who has been making headlines.  Wade is offering free land to any Haitian earthquake survivors who wish to “return to their origins,” according to a spokesperson.  Online, the proposal has been received with almost universal ridicule.

Although Blog Politique au Senegal has yet to comment on either Wade's offer or the earthquake, it did post this commentary by Dr. EL Hadji Malick Ndiaye [Fr] on the importance of “South-South” solidarity, published before Wade's announcement:

Il arrive des moments dans l’histoire d’un pays où les citoyens ont l’occasion de donner une leçon d’éthique à leurs élites. Il arrive des moments qui sonnent comme des opportunités pour un peuple de montrer sa grandeur morale. Nous ne pouvons pas nous complaire dans le fatalisme et la position de l’eternel assisté. A nous seuls, le Sénégal, nous ne mettrons pas fin aux souffrances du peuple haïtien. Cela ne nous dispense pas d’agir, cela n’excuse pas notre indifférence en acte. En ce moment même en Haïti des gens sont en train de crever et c’est cela réalité profonde de ce tremblement de terre. Tous les discours de solidarité sont bien dérisoires à cet instant, si on ne fait pas notre possible pour nous rendre utiles. Donnons un peu au reste du monde, car nous avons déjà beaucoup reçu du monde et nous en aurons peut-être besoin un jour. Les citoyens des grandes puissances qui se tournent aujourd’hui vers Haïti, au-delà de la simple valeur éthique de leurs actions, nous donnent une leçon de plus sur le sens de l’intérêt collectif. C’est moralement indigne de prétendre être un peuple magnifique, avec des valeurs magnifiques, un peuple prompt à fustiger les tares de l’Occident, à brandir les valeurs de solidarité religieuse, et de ne jamais lever le moindre petit doigt pour diminuer arithmétiquement la souffrance du monde.

However, offering to emigrate landless Haitians is not the kind of material solidarity many envisoned.

Serigne Diagne, who has been closely following Senegal's response to the earthquake, had this to say about the scheme (edited from the original English version):

…Dakar, which has trouble taking off and solving its many problems related to sanitation and urbanization, whose suburbs are wading in flood waters from years past, by what means can she accommodate a population or a whole country at the other end of the world?…[Without explaining where the funding will come from] Abdoulaye Wade, in a [gesture] of solidarity and pan-Africanism, proposes to depopulate Haiti, thereby forgetting that charity begins at home…

…[It must be assumed that] Abdoulaye Wade, very nostalgic [of] the 19th century, believes that Marcus Garvey is still alive, and that the “Back to Africa” movement is still valid. One day, he will eventually tell us is that[it was] the Ku Klux Klan who made the earth tremble in Haiti…each country has its own calamities. Haiti has its own, which generate a lot of compassion, and we have ours, which do as much damage as an earthquake, such as statements by a president who has trouble staying above the fray, and whose[record] is a source of controversy. The Haitian people, as was said and reiterated by the President ¨”Are entitled to the African soil”. The question remains, if they want it.

PascaleBoulerie, a reader at tak2.00221.info writes:

C'est une idée bien stupide, parce que le Sénégal souffre aussi de manque de terres cultivables, de surpopulation * et d'émigration.

Phillipe Souaille, coming on a post at the Tribune de Geneve, writes:

Cher Gorgui, j'ai le sentiment que ton président a perdu une occasion (de plus) de se taire. Je ne crois pas que les Haïtiens crèvent d'envie de se réfugier en Afrique. La solution est forcément de trouver le moyen et les moyens de les aider à prospérer chez eux. Au moins pour parvenir au même niveau de vie que celui des îles voisines, tout de même supérieur à ce qu'il est en moyenne en Afrique, Sénégal inclus.

Une telle réflexion est même carrément effarante en ce qu'elle révèle des capacités d'analyse, de proposition et de réalisation pour le moins émoussées du bonhomme. La sénilité n'est-elle pas en train de faire son oeuvre? Il est temps qu'il laisse place à la relève, s'il n'a plus d'autres solution à proposer à un peuple qui souffre que l'abandon et l'exil !

The entire Horn of Africa has been prone to dry periods over the previous decades, but this spell, which some blame on a variety of environmental issues, is particularly harsh. An estimated 100,000 cattle have died in Kenya due to lack of water, and Kenya's government estimates 10 million people face food shortages. Malnuitrution is a worry as are diseases stemming from dirty drinking water.

From Gorta, the Ireland-based Hunger organization, here is a short video discussing how one family is adapting to the conditions in the Rift Valley, one of the most effected regions.

Drought in Kenya - one family´s perseverence from Gorta TV on Vimeo.

Leaving home

The drought has forced herders to leave their homes in search of water and food for their animals. “In most cases this means vulnerable women, children and the elderly are left behind to fend for themselves in the villages,” writes Ebby Nanzala Wamatsi for the blog Women News Network. Young people can be left to tend the dry fields, but if random rains arrive, they can create the vicious cycle of providing water, but may also wash out crops, warns the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper.

Threat of violence

Problems also arise if entire families pull up stakes. With so many people leaving their traditional hunting and feeding grounds can create conflict as pastoralists venture into territories traditionally used by other groups, heightening tensions. Poaching, cattle rustling and banditry are on the rise, worrying people as attackers use ever-sophisticated weapons. An estimated 400 people died in 2009 due to violence, reported the blog Kenya Watch.

A particularly horrific massacre took place in September at a village named Kanampiu in the Rift Valley when 35 locals, including women and children, were slain by marauders.

Good morning Kenya! by Mara 1

Educational issues

Out-migration of the area also forces children out of schools, making it difficult for them to return. Education level is an important barometer for future income earning. For children attending schools in the Rift Valley, in the northern part of Kenya, a local doesn't hold out much hope. “Many children, more than 1,000 from the Baragoi area [in Samburu] have moved with their parents and they will not be going back to school soon,” said Joseph Leparua of the Samburu Community Development Support to an IRIN News reporter.

To make matters worse, the school canteen is sometimes the only place where children are guaranteed a meal, according to a CBBC story.

Rebuilding communities

Outside of the food security and personal safety issues brought on by the drought, young people also have to worry about rebuilding their communities. Faith Akiru, a woman who works in Kenya with the US-based development group Catholic Relief Services (CRS), grew up amongst the pastoralist Turkanas in a village of 1,000 in northwestern Kenya. She speaks, on the website of the CRS, of how the drought has affected her village.

Because of Kenya's long drought, animals can no longer support our daily needs, leaving my family and other Turkana villagers extremely vulnerable. We suffered drought when I was growing up, and I remember going hungry for several days. We'd go to the river to pick wild fruits and plants. These plants have a very bitter taste, so we'd camp there to boil them until the bitterness left. About once a year, we would also receive relief food.

Now drought is harder to survive because livestock raiding is increasing. People are using guns for raiding, making it harder to protect our herds. My family isn't doing so good. I send them money, but even if they can use it to get food, all the people around them are hungry. It's a bit uncomfortable for them to eat when all of the others around them are hungry, and I can't send enough to feed everyone.

She points out that as an educated woman earning an income, she feels a duty to give back to her community by helping younger girls cope with the intricacies of modern life.

I have a lot of responsibility. There is a lot for me to do back in my village. Five girls from Morulem have graduated from eighth grade and gone on to high school. I'm the only one who managed to finish, and I'm now the only girl with a college degree in the village.

I feel I'm a role model. I need to have a good job so when I go back to my village they can see how my education has changed my life. I talk to the young girls in Morulem about the importance of education and help them learn about different careers. And I tell them that just like any other human being, they can go to school and live a better life than they are now. Part of my responsibility is to also fight against early and forced marriages that lead many girls to become young mothers of children they can't support.

The video shows a faction of the FARC allegedly dedicated to growing crops to feed the armed forces, stating they do not steal food from farmers nor do they push illegal crop activity, although they say they don't condemn it. Although marijuana is mentioned as a crop they do not support, no mention is made of coca plants, which have been said [es]to provide most of the FARC's money through cocaine production[en] and trafficking.

Youtube user Zuliaporto, who according to the YouTube profile is in Sweden, uploaded not only the previous trailer for the documentary he says will be fully available in Stockholm, but also several other videos like this next one, under the name of the armed forces, where members of the FARC speak out about the use and consumption of marijuana as well as their policies, criticizing the current government and accusing it of hypocrisy in regards of the drug regulations and policies.

This next video shows a faction of the FARC armed forces in a campsite having cultural and musical activities such as folk dancing:

These videos are at odds with what the public knows about the FARC and the first hand accounts of children being forcefully recruited, kidnappings and murders. They certainly provide a different, if not necessarily welcome or trusted,  version of the story.

In Facebook, as journalist and blogger Carlos Sanabria discovered, the video is already flagged and he was unable to post it. However, he did publish it on his blog, not because he agrees with what is shown in the video, but because he believes in free speech.

Even Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe has made public his opinion about the documentary:

Ahora andan las FARC con un video que les ayudaron a hacer unos extranjeros para meterle otra mentira al mundo

The rest of his statement about the video can be found here.
Back on twitter, @Guapacho writes, quoting a statement made in the documentary:

“No vivimos de los campesinos” <— solo los masacramos y los desplazamos #peliculadelasfarc

@ElReticente writes:

No me ofende que sean las Farc, porque mejor si tenemos imagenes para ver, con más razón juzgar. Pero tan mal hecho y postizo.

The Mozambican Land Law, passed in 1997, is quite unique. Land was nationalized at independence, and the Land Law did not change this. It gives the state clear tools for managing land use. Private sector investors must seek 50 year land-use rights agreements, known as DUAT, or “Land Use and Benefit Rights”. These DUATs are not binding for the full 50 years until after an interim two year period, when investors have to prove that they use the land productively.

The case of the Procana DUAT, a massive area bordering on the cross-border Limpopo National Park, was polemic from the beginning in 2007. Communities were to be resettled from the Park area to the lands then subsequently conceded to Procana for sugarcane production. These communities needed the lands for grazing, as they survive from cattle rearing. There appeared to be no real plan to deal with the brewing conflict. Moreover, there were worries that Procana's need for water would disturb local food production. Civil society groups supported the communities in their negotiations with Park officials through a project called Lhuvuka, but there appeared to be no progress with Procana.

Massingir school photo by Ralph Pina, published under a Creative Commons license

Lhuvuka's website has an article that claims the conflicts were summed up [pt]

[…] na ausência de uma decisão firme por parte do governo face ao processo de reassentamento das comunidades vivendo no PNL; politização do processo de reassentamento das comunidades vivendo no PNL, sem respeitar todos seus direitos e interesses; uso abusivo da força por parte dos investidores, não respeitando os direitos básicos das comunidades previstos nas legislações moçambicanas por saberem que por detrás deles há sempre pelo menos um membro do governo que os protege e predominância de gestores mais virados para “yes mans” por temerem perder os cargos que actualmente ocupam.

Sugar cane photo by denn, published under a Creative Commons license

Brazilian site “Reporter Brasil”, which has a focus on the social and environmental impact of biofuels, featured an article in early December which stated [pt]

Cerca de 30 mil hectares de savana nativa deverão ser convertidos em canaviais em Massingir, a região mais seca do país africano, provocando perda de biodiversidade e consumo excessivo de água (aproximadamente 409 bilhões de litros por ano para irrigação). E 38 mil moradores do entorno do Parque Nacional do Limpopo serão obrigados a deixar suas terras.

A Constituição de Moçambique decreta que todas as terras do país são propriedade do Estado, que pode conceder autorização de uso a empresas por períodos de 50 anos. Essa concessão, no entanto, está condicionada à ausência de comunidades tradicionais no território. Pelo jeito, lá, como no Brasil, boas leis não são garantia de boas práticas.

(Reporter Brasil tips its hat to an article in Mother Jones magazine on Procana from March 2009.)

Prolific Mozambican blogger Carlos Serra featured the Procana story from the beginning in late 2007. The firm was originally half owned by multinational CAMEC, known as a mining/drilling company. CAMEC's founders were known for dealings in troubled places like South Sudan, DRC, and Zimbabwe. Serra wrote two years ago [pt]:

Mas convinha - este é um recado especial para o ministro da Agricultura, Erasmo Muhate -, também, estudar a trajectória de Phil Edmonds, chairman da CAMEC.

Serra again proved his worth as political and economic analyst when he seemed to warn in early December 2009 that the Government had turned against Procana.

Some online news stories claim that the principal investors in Procana lost confidence in the company earlier in 2009. The Government rescinded its land concession officially due its “lack of productivity” - having cleared only 800 ha of the total 30,000ha in its first two years of operation, falling way short in generating employment. As in any deal of this magnitude - originally estimated at over US $500 million - we can only assume that there were a host of political and economic considerations at play.

In his review of the Mozambican economic scenario, blogger Basílio Muhate found the Procana case an exception [Pt]

[…] as medidas de política económica levadas à cabo para fazer face as crises alimentar e financeira recentes, que incluiram subsídios aos pequenos agricultores e instalação de silos, os projectos da área de biocombustíveis iniciados em 2008 (A PROCANA foi uma excepção na medida em que pouco ou nada alcancou em relação às previsões), estão a ter impactos positivos no sector da agricultura

It is hard to detect whether the Procana case represents an interesting precedent for the management of land in the country - if the Mozambican government will scrutinize the ever-increasing number of land deals with foreign investors in the same way. Or whether the case merely represents an exception - and exceptionally bad performance on the part of foreign investment. Or both.

The author would like to make a disclaimer: she works for an international development agency that funded Lhuvuka's work, but has not worked directly with the project. She writes for Global Voices in a voluntary, personal capacity.