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Africa And Central America Are Not For Sale
Exchange Program 2005.
Final Report
Towards
the end of 2004, eight Kenyans undertook an exchange visit to Central
America under the auspices of the Kenya Social Forum.
Organizations represented in the visit were Ujamaa Center, Chemchemi Ya
Ukweli, Youth Agenda, 5 Centuries, Kenya Community Media Network
-KCOMNET, OSIENALA and Christian Partners Development Agency. The
objective of the three-week visit in Central America was to learn about
the reality of the region and to have a frame of all the impacts that
transnational companies are causing to the communities and the
environment.
In order to continue a common
agenda between the South, in 2005 eight Central Americans undertook the
second part of the exchange visit to Kenya during October 27 - November
18th also under the auspices of the Kenyan Social
Forum. The organizations represented in the visit from the
Central American region were: CESTA-Friends of the Earth (El Salvador),
Mother Earth Movement - Member of Friends of the Earth (Honduras),
COECOCEIBA – Friends of the Earth (Costa Rica), CEIBA-FOE (Guatemala),
and Centro Humboldt (Nicaragua) member of Friends of the Earth.
The specific objectives for the second part of the exchange were to:
- Expose
Central America Social Movement actors to the East Africa reality, by
way of an exchange visit to Kenya, centering on the issues identified
in 2004 of common interest i.e. Globalization, trade and development,
advocacy, youth, regionality and social movement process.
- Evaluate the follow-up of the 2005 plan of action in order to access implementation, results and lessons learned.
- Develop
the framework and plan of action for 2006/07 for the continuation of
the East Africa - Central American exchange process and alliance
building.
- Define strategies to broaden political and
financial support for the sustainability of the East Africa - Central
America Exchange process.
- Build on the experience of global
South development workers in the MSIS program, through the placement of
a Central American South Development worker to facilitate the
preparation and implementation of the 2005 exchange.
- Strengthen
the cohesion between the MSIS program and actors to the continuation of
the linkages between East Africa and Central America.
The
visits began in Mombasa, Kenya with a courtesy call to the Mombasa
Catholic Bishop Rev Boniface Lele and a press conference. Then
the field visits followed, the main purpose of which was to provide the
participants with an overview of the Kenyan and global reality from the
point of view of communities in Kenya, how these communities organize
themselves to face their reality, to understand more how transnational
companies operate and how these corporations invade the other
side of the South.
In the end the participants had
a chance to be part of the Eastern Regional Social Forum to analyze the
East African reality and to compare this with the Central American
reality and create together common alliances and global actions to
strength the common agenda.
It
is difficult to compare the poverty levels in Central America and Kenya
but easier to identify the enemies that are destroying and taking away
the resources of the local communities. The impressions that
Central Americans had while visiting the communities were that the
Central American region having gone through the CAFTA (Free Trade
Agreement), process which the US Congress has approved and will start
operating in 2006 by opening new companies and exporting “Salvadorian
products” and importing American products to the region; will soon
experience poverty levels that will be equal if not greater than the
level of poverty as Kenya. Central America and Africa share
common problems caused by multinational companies. Some of the
problems are Mining, mega projects such as dams, unfair trade; all
these projects cause environmental impacts with grave consequences to
the communities. The population of the whole CA region is about
30 million people, which is almost the same population of Kenya. There
are mega projects in CA and one of them is the Plan Puebla Panama
(PPP). This plan starts from Chiapas in Mexico and ends in Panama
City. The main purpose of this plan is the building of a road
connection to facilitate trade exchange between the countries in the
region, electrical interconnection and telecommunication services,
tourism promotion and sustainable development, mitigation of natural
disasters. The last two purposes of the plan purport that
development of the region is a key agenda but these are only strategies
that are being used to convince people about this project. Behind
these agreements it has been discovered that companies such as
International Paper Company, Texas Connection, Ford Motor Company,
Tribasa, CAISO, Pulsar de Monterrey, GAN, ICA, and ELMBURSA are the key
leaders in this project whose benefit will essentially be profit for
them.
The main problem in Central America is
poverty, a population that needs jobs no matter what the companies pay
them. Kenya is also facing the same reality. During one of the
visits in Western Kenya to the Yala swamps, the CA actors observed the
impacts that Dominion Company is causing to an important habitat and to
the local communities. The Dominion Company is exploiting the people
and especially women that work in the field making 200 Kshs per day or
$ 2.00 a day. As in Central American countries, Kenya’s wealth is
also concentrated in foreign hands and a small local elite. It is this
inequality & social injustice that the exchange group is committed
to struggle against under the motto:
“IT IS TIME we declared that AFRICA AND CENTRAL AMERICA ARE NOT FOR SALE”
Community Experiences......
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