Also on YouTube, the comments to the new Shabazz Palaces video offered a translation of the Amharic conversation between mother and daughter on their ‘Are you… Can you… Were you? (Felt)’ track:

A month later “A special Kwanzaa present from Marcel Cartier, Akala, Nana D and Agent of Change.” We’ve said this before: everybody’s using archive material:

Blitz The Ambassador plugged “my boy Bez” on his facebook page some days ago. ‘That Stupid Song’ has Nigerian Soul:

Finally, earlier this week okayafrica posted this video of Finnish singer-songwriter Mirel Wagner. It is, indeed, exceptional:

For example, this week activists in Los Angeles have been protesting against the US Trade Representative’s secret talks with negotiators from around the world aimed at establishing the so-called Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPP ), which could eventually include every Pacific Rim nation from Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan to Australia, Canada, Mexico and Russia. Among other things, the TPP would include a radical expansion of patents that would shore up profits for Big Pharma and restrict affordable generic medicines.

It’s not only the US — next week, after protracted and largely secretive negotiations, and despite unyielding protests, the European Community and India will likely make a deal on an FTA — a so-called Free Trade Agreement. Contrary to what the name suggests, it contains provisions that would further strengthen monopoly rights for pharmaceutical companies and limit India’s capacity to prioritize patient rights over patent rights, and supply the rest of the world with cheap generic medicines.

Along the same lines, the US, Japan, Australia, Switzerland and several EU countries have already signed ACTA — the secretive  Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement — a proposed multi-lateral agreement which would establish a new international legal framework far more restrictive than currently exists under the WTO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations. Have a look at this great little video to see what it means.

The US has also been pushing many African countries to pass their own restrictive Intellectual Property legislation, again committing them to policies that are much more restrictive than what is currently permitted under TRIPS — the WTO agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights. Some of this takes the form of so-called ‘anti-counterfeit’ laws, which purport to protect consumers by outlawing fake products, but really apply heavy-handed solutions to problems best dealt with by other means (such as in the case of medicines, strengthening medicines regulatory authorities).

Now the US Department of Commerce is organizing an Africa-wide intellectual property forum in Cape Town in early April. Again, this is presented as an effort to protect starving African artists and musicians from exploitation, or to promote African growth through innovation. But the agenda is all about IP strengthening and enforcement and not about stimulating innovation. There is no discussion planned of the risks that strict IP enforcement holds for health (limited access to generic drugs), agriculture (expensive genetically-modified seed), and education (access to educational resources), among many others. Africa has far, far more to lose than to gain from stricter IP regulation and enforcement — not least because the EU, US and Japan own the vast majority of patents as this great visual shows. And if African nations want to stimulate innovation, it is highly questionable whether patents are the right way to go. Intellectual property protection has never been shown to promote economic development in developing countries.

While many have rejoiced at the recent defeat of SOPA and PIPA, these other measures pose far more threat to the interests of ordinary people around the world — and because they’re being negotiated in secret, or through laws in a range of developing countries, they’re much harder to defeat.

Civil society organisations across the continent and the globe — from MSF to Health-GAP, to the Third World Network and librarians’ groups — are alarmed and outraged at the upcoming meeting and are mobilizing against it. We should all join forces with them.

I still mourn the day I walked around to Le Grand Dakar, one of my favorite restaurants in Clinton Hill, and found it was closed. The restaurant, run and owned by Chef Pierre Thiam (check out his interesting family backstory) was a fixture in the block around Grand Ave and Lafayatte. (Pierre, incidentally, is a great supporter of the African community in the city; he started a summer street festival; he also hosted a party for Chimurenga Magazine a while back.) Recently, driving on Franklin Ave I spotted him on the street. He confirmed the bad news, but promised he’ll open a restaurant again. He just needs a space. Meanwhile, Chef Pierre remains busy (he was even on Iron Chef and published an award winning book on Senegalese food, for example). Later this month, February 28th, at a “special international feast” for the Japan Society in Manhattan, he’ll take on “the challenge of integrating Asian ingredients into 11 Senegalese dishes.” In the video, above, he talks about his “sushi style” Sombi dessert, one of the dishes he’ll do at the Japan Society benefit. And here’s the recipe for the “sushi style” Sombi dessert:

Ahlawy are not the only ultras to make up the first line of defense against police and the military–fans of the comparatively upper-class Cairene neighborhood Zamalek’s team, Al Ahly’s longtime rivals, have also defended the ongoing revolution with zeal. It is, in fact, the truce called by Zamalek after years of bitter rivalry with Ahly in the aftermath of the devastating Port Said riots this Wednesday that symbolizes much of the complexity surrounding what the international media has largely misidentified as a “football riot.”

What happened is still unclear, though this much is known: On Wednesday, after Al Masry beat Al Ahly 3-1, attackers armed with knives and clubs stormed the pitch. Whether the armed crowds were only Al Masry Ultras or not is still being debated–after all, why attack the spectators and team members of the losing squad? Several players – Egypt’s beloved philanthropist and supporter of the revolution Mohamed Aboutrika included – were injured as they rushed into their dressing rooms. (Aboutrika, shaken by the attack, has since announced his retirement from football.)

At least 73 people were killed (martyred, as many observers and mourners on Twitter, Facebook and the Egyptian blogosphere have noted), and many more injured. As those under attack–mostly Ahlawy, though this type of violence rarely leaves anyone untouched–attempted to leave, it was discovered that most of the exits were locked, and the stadium lights were shut off in the midst of the chaos.

The videos coming out of the Port Said stadium are horrendous. Such violence is not unheard of in the aftermath of football matches in Egypt (or anywhere in the world, for that matter), but it took even seasoned football announcers by complete surprise.

The Ultras in Egypt do not share the sometimes-fascist roots of their counterparts in Europe. Although politics also play an incredible role in the breakdown between fans of the various teams throughout Egypt, football had been frequently utilized by Hosni Mubarak’s regime as an attempt to distract citizens from their daily oppression, as well as stoke tensions between neighborhoods, cities, and nations. But this has not always been successful.

One of the many Ahly chants routinely heard at football matches is “Down, Down With the Junta Rule!” Last year I cited Dave Zirin in a short piece discussing Al Ahly’s political history on Africa Is A Country. Zirin’s observation that Egyptian football clubs and anti-government organizations “walked together in comfort” remains a reminder of why many Egyptians–myself, a product of four generations of Ahlawy included–do not for one moment believe this is “just” football fanaticism.

The video above displays clearly the riot-gear clad security forces doing nothing while Al Ahly’s players sprint to the relative safety of their dressing rooms. This is not the first time in the last year Egyptians have seen this happen. Recall that on 28 January of last year, many were paid and armed to attack protestors in Meydan Tahrir and other gathering areas.

Mubarak and his supporters not only used this as ‘proof’ that they were in the right, but also to allege that Egyptians were ‘not ready’ to lead themselves. This moment is clear in the minds of many at a moment when SCAF has echoed these same arguments in an attempt to retain power and maintain the Emergency Law that has been in place since 1980. SCAF now promises another ‘crackdown,’ though, as usual, it does not specify what particular entity will be targeted.

Al Ahly Ultras asserted in a public statement: “[SCAF] want to punish us and execute us for our participation in the revolution against suppression. Given this and the broader public rage directed at the military for protecting and serving only itself, we must expect that SCAF will be cracking down on the very people mourning the loss of life and continued absence of their liberty in Egypt. Indeed, the protests throughout the nation that immediately followed the riot turned into all-out battles between military police and ultras. As one interviewee warned The New York Times, “They turned the biggest fan base in the country against them.”

For more details and perspectives, please read James M. Dorsey’s articles on the Foreign Policy and Time websites, here and here, as well as Egyptian blogger Issandr El Amrani’s thoughts on the LRB blog.

* Crossposted with the Soccer Politics blog.

Listen here.

Big up @M.anifest for the new video (showcasing Accra’s transportation infrastructure), and congrats to the Black Stars for topping their group at the African Cup of Nations!

I am writing to request your help in a matter based on your scholarship on South Africa. My immigration law firm is currently representing a family of white Afrikaner farmers who are seeking asylum and withholding of removal based on allegations that they are the victims of discrimination based on their race and political affiliation. We are seeking an expert witness who could testify to the current situation in South Africa and confirm that this family would indeed suffer similar persecution if they were to return … If you or anyone you know would be able to give us an expert opinion, please let me know. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.

During the summer I was interviewed for a new film about how a group of American fans experienced the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, including the qualifying leading up to it. I think I made the cut. The trailer for the film, “Laduma” is now on Youtube and it is hitting the festival circuit (it’s showing tomorrow night in Philadelphia, at a film festival in Pennsylvania next month and I know there’s a New York City screening also lined up in the near future). You can see my man Tony Karon, who co-teaches a regular ‘Global Soccer, Global Politics’ course (Fall 2011 syllabus here) with me at The New School, in the trailer above. Other talking heads interviewed in the film include ESPN’s Bob Ley and Sports Illustrated’s soccer writer Grant Wahl. Here’s the Facebook page for updates.

AIAC contributor Anni Lyngskaer just posted this short video showcasing the rhythm of daily life in Sierra Leone, and the dancing talents of the country’s women. It’s a really nicely shot and edited clip, plus the incorporation of sounds corresponding to the action makes for an interesting audio visual experience. Great job Anni!

Small art galleries opened, and tiny performance spaces, and new bands formed across the musical spectrum. Mosques and cultural centers clutched at the derelict spaces under flyovers. Green spaces vanished, but every night the bridges would be crammed with Cairenes taking the air. We suffered a massive shortage of affordable housing, but every night you’d see a bride starring in her wedding procession in the street. Unemployment ran at 20 percent, and every evening there was singing and drumming from the cheap, bright, noisy little pleasure boats crisscrossing the river.

Trees that were not cut down refused to die. They got dustier, some of their branches grew bare, but they grew. We looked out anxiously for the giant baobab in Sheikh Marsafy Street in Zamalek, for the Indian figs on the Garden City Corniche, for what my kids called the Jurassic Park trees by the zoo. If they cut a tree down, it grew shoots. If they hammered an iron fence into its roots, the tree would lean into the iron, lean on it. If a building crowded the side of a tree, the tree grew its other side bigger, lopsided. I knew trees that couldn’t manage leaves anymore but put all they had into a once-a-year burst of pink flowers. And once I saw a tree that seemed looked after, that had just been washed: it couldn’t stop dancing.

Photo Credit: Hossam el-Hamalawy