This five-week online series, the latest of the BOLD series, will consider the many initiatives being undertaken, worldwide, to bridge the “Digital Divide”. It will aim to provide a basic conceptual framework of background information, readings and case studies derived from the personal experiences and projects of the staff, faculty and affiliates of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School.

Can the following story (Pambazuka News 102, SOUTH AFRICA: PARANOIA AND IGNORANCE FUELLING RACE DIVIDE IN RURAL AREAS
http://allafrica.com/stories/200303030232.html) really be true, or is the document in question a fabrication or forgery designed by the investigators to make the retrogressive Boers appear to be even more stupid than they really are? Or was it even a joke designed by the retrogressive Boers to fool whoever found it into believing they are really even more stupid than they appear to be? And is it only "men" who (supposedly) learnt so little about their fellow human beings?

This Discussion Paper offers a revised lecture by Reinhart Kössler, which was originally presented to a Research Forum organised by The Nordic Africa Institute jointly with the Seminar for Development Studies of Uppsala University. It deals with aspects of rebuilding societies from below firstly in a general development studies discourse on a more theoretical level, considering aspects of the current debate on globalisation. This is followed by a concrete case study from southern Namibia. It illustrates local responses by the Witbooi-Nama in Gibeon to (re-)define identity within the context of a (nation-)state in a post-apartheid society. The paper is commented upon by two discussants (Per Strand and Henning Melber).

The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa has raised questions, on the one hand, about the tension between the imperatives of justice and equality and, on the other, reconciliation. Transforming the decades' old apartheid system under conditions of a political compromise has turned out to be a formidable challenge. This paper is about the complexity of the transformation processgoing on in South Africa. Although too early for a real assessmentof the experiment, the tensions, dilemmas, contradictions, paradoxes and some of the changes have already begun to manifest themselves.

Participative Development Initiative is a Durban-based non-governmental organisation that seeks to contribute to the alleviation of poverty through promoting sustainable development and strengthening the institutional capacity of established community, institutional and corporate structures in South Africa. The organisation seeks to employ a Project Manager for the Sinethemba HIV/AIDS Project and a facilitator for a Social Crime Prevention Project. Both positions are based in Durban.

Ethical trade can be used to describe any trading relationship where social and environmental criteria are used, in addition to the purely economic, to measure performance. What impact has fair trade practice had on rural livelihoods in Uganda? What is needed to sustain such projects?

Do the parliamentary elections of May 2002 mark the end of an era in Burkina Faso? The ruling party in power since the transition towards democracy in 1991 saw its share of seats shrink. While it retains a simple majority in parliament, the ruling party will now have to share legislative power with the opposition. The authors of this report from the Centre for Democratic Governance in Burkino Faso and the The International Centre for Democratic Governance, (ICDG) at the University of Georgia (2002) maintain that the results of the elections are as extraordinary as they were unexpected.

Following the advocacy and legal victory that led to the existence of the current 30 political parties in Nigeria, it has become critically important to review the role of the media, especially the broadcast media, in the electoral process. This is imperative given the capacity of the media and, in particular, the broadcast media to influence and shape public opinion. This is according to the text of a press conference called by The Media for Democracy in Nigeria (MFD) Group And CREDO on equitable access to the broadcast media by all political parties.

The scope for corruption in the Chad-Cameroon pipeline will be evaluated jointly by l'Action Tchadienne pour l'Integrite (ATI), Transparency International's contact group in Chad, and Transparency International Cameroon (TIC), it was agreed at a meeting on 16 February 2003.

The past few years have seen remarkable consensus on and commitment to poverty reduction from governments around the world. This has resulted in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which seek to reduce global absolute poverty by 50 per cent by 2015 and to reduce other forms of human deprivation. However, even if the MDGs are achieved - and the prospect of this happening is not good - some 900 million people will have an income of less than US$1 a day in 2015. Hundreds of millions of people will have suffered losses that severely reduce their capabilities and scores of millions will have died easily preventable deaths.

We thank you for your work, and hope that we shall be encouraging one another in these difficult times. Great work and keep it going.

Hannilie Zulu
African Institute

African leaders have agreed on a framework for a peer-review mechanism aimed at tackling obstacles to growth and development on the continent. It follows a meeting on Sunday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to discuss implementation of the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad).

South Africa is playing down its efforts to get the three African countries -- Angola, Cameroon and Guinea -- sitting on the United Nations Security Council to vote against a resolution that would clear the way for the United States to launch an attack on Iraq. South African foreign affairs officials insist the country is not lobbying for the African nations represented on the Security Council to vote against the resolution. ''We are not lobbying anybody. Those countries are aware of African Union (AU) and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) resolutions against the war,'' says a spokesperson for the South African Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ronnie Mamoepa.

Two Mauritian business partners of Nyimpine Chissano, son of president Joaquin Chissano, have been accused of involvement in embezzling $20 million from the national pension fund.

At moments like now I mourn the passing of the USSR. The US feels it can do anything it wishes irrespective of public opinion. Attacking Iraq will accelerate terrorist attacks on the US.

The anti-corruption task force has seized former President Frederick Chiluba's house in Kabulonga. According to the government gazette notice issued by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Director-General judge Robert Kapembwa, the house will be forfeited to the state if it is not claimed within three months from the date of the notice's publication.

Eddison Zvobgo, the Member of Parliament for Masvingo South, this week accused the government of condoning corruption, saying it was time to hunt down those spreading the "Aids of corruption". Moving a motion in Parliament for the establishment of an anti-corruption commission, he said government departments, politicians and parastatals were riddled with corruption and it was time for the "bigger hunt to commence".

Nigeria's parliament has voted to scrap a landmark anti-corruption law and replace it with a controversial new act stripping President Olusegun Obasanjo of many of his powers to appoint financial investigators. The House of Representatives approved new rules proposed by the Senate that could render obsolete the work of an anti-corruption commission established by the president after the return of civilian rule in 1999.

The government has been forced to temporarily withdraw a crucial anti-corruption bill as a backbench rebellion which started on Wednesday continued. The government, which has a huge majority, is finding it difficult to do business in parliament because instability within the coalition is finding expression on the floor of the House.

Zimbabwe, a declared pan-Africanist nation that claims to respect and uphold all the statutes and treaties that bind the continental club of African countries, the African Union (AU), is openly flouting conventions and declarations governing human rights and freedoms, especially in relation to freedom of expression, says the Media Institute of Southern Africa.