Such a Crazy World – Pfizer “Pays” for Dirty Nigerian Meds; as the Aussies Forgive “Their Holocaust”
It’s Monday and We Bring you a few stories from BBC;
while we work on our template.
South Africa permits for Zimbabwe
Zimbabweans can get permits to stay legally in South Africa for six months, the authorities have announced.
Some three million Zimbabweans are believed to have crossed the border to escape the economic collapse and human rights abuses at home.
The permit gives migrants the right to work and get healthcare and education.
An official said the permits would reduce the numbers claiming political asylum, which means they are not allowed to return home.
“Most Zimbabweans are not asylum-seekers, they are economic migrants. So what they want to do is to come into the country do some work and go back home and take money back,” said Home Affairs Director General of Immigration Services Jackie MacKay.
“We also believe this special dispensation will result in foreign currency going into Zimbabwe and assist in building up that country,” he said.
The economic situation in Zimbabwe seems to be showing signs of improving, since long-time opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai joined a power-sharing government in February.
Mr Mackay said the situation would be reviewed after six months.
Xenophobic attacks
The BBC’s Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says the announcement will come as a great relief to many Zimbabweans, however some believe it is too good to be true.
Zimbabweans must apply for the permit through the department of home affairs and it will be processed with the UN refugee agency, Mr Mackay said.
South African police frequently deport Zimbabweans found without the correct paperwork.
But many just return through holes in the fence along their common border.
Last year, there were widespread attacks on foreigners living in South Africa, which left at least 62 people dead and forced 100,000 from their homes.
This was partly sparked by a feeling that they were taking jobs from South Africans and getting preferential treatment for government services such as housing and sanitation.
Aborigines have a rich culture but have long been marginalised
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Australia has formally adopted the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The move reverses the policy of the previous government which voted against the declaration when it was adopted at the UN General assembly in 2007.
The Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, said it meant a new start in relations between all Australians.
The declaration stresses the right of indigenous people to their own cultures, institutions and traditions.
It also establishes standards to combat discrimination and marginalisation and eliminate human rights violations against them.
However, it is not legally binding.
Australia’s original inhabitants, the Aborigines, are believed to have numbered around a million at the time of white settlement but there are now just 470,000 out of a population of 21 million.
They are Australia’s most impoverished minority, with a lifespan 17 years shorter than the national average and disproportionately high rates of imprisonment, heart disease and infant mortality.
New era?
The government described its signing as an important symbolic step in healing past wounds.
Australia was one of four countries that voted against the declaration in 2007. The others were the US, New Zealand and Canada. Eleven countries abstained and 143 voted in favour.
The former conservative government of John Howard argued that the declaration could override existing laws and give unfair advantage to Aborigines.
“Today, Australia changes its position,” the indigenous affairs minister told a ceremony at Parliament House.
“We do this in the spirit of resetting the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and building trust,” Jenny Macklin said.
“Today we celebrate the great privilege all Australians have to live alongside the custodians of the oldest continuing cultures in human history.”
It is the latest in a series of symbolic moves from the government of Kevin Rudd, which last year issued a long-awaited apology to indigenous Australian for past injustices.
But Mr Rudd been criticised by indigenous leaders for emphasising symbolism over substance. They have accused his government of not doing more in the fields of health and education, and in particularly closing the gap in the life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
Pfizer has always maintained that the tests had been approved
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Nigeria’s Kano State and US drugs firm Pfizer have agreed to settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit out of court, lawyers for both sides say.
Pfizer has been accused of killing 11 children and injuring 181 others when an antibiotic was tested on them during a meningitis epidemic in 1996.
The company denies the claims, saying they were victims of the outbreak.
The Kano State lawyer told the BBC compensation would be paid to victims, but figures could not yet be disclosed.
Barrister Aliyu Umar said money would also be given to a local hospital.
He made the comments after a court agreed to postpone the case until 25 May, with both sides saying they have come to a settlement but have yet to work out the details.
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 They promised not to disclose the amounts involved until they sit down and negotiate how to implement the agreement  Barrister Aliyu Umar
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“I want to report that broad and principal fundamental agreement has been reached between Kano State government and Pfizer,” the drug firm’s lawyer Anthony Idigbe said.
“They promised not to disclose the amounts involved until they sit down and negotiate how to implement the agreement,” Mr Umar told the BBC’s Hausa service
“This is all what remains to do so that the victims will get some compensation,” he said.
According to Reuters news agency, Nigeria’s federal government sued for an additional $6.5bn in 2007 but sources close to the negotiations have said it is expected to withdraw its case if Kano reaches a settlement.
Judge Shehu Atiku said the next hearing in the Kano case would be held on 25 May but said there was “a strong indication that the case is about to come to an end”, Reuters reports.
In January, Nigerian families were given leave to sue Pfizer in the US over the affair.
The families say that Pfizer tested out an oral antibiotic called Trovan on some 200 ill children in hospital in Kano, without first getting the consent of their parents.
Pfizer has always maintained that the tests were carried out with the approval of the Nigerian government and that the children’s parents were fully informed.
The 1996 meningitis epidemic killed 12,000 children in Nigeria in six months.
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Tags: aboriginal people, aboriginees, africa, australia, bad drugs, kano, malpractice, murder, nigeria, pfizer, refugees, un, zimbabwe
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