 Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. It's the 123rd episode of Give the people what they want. A podcast, a live show, everything you want from us. Zoe and Prashant from People's Dispatch. People'sDispatch.org. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. Really difficult news coming from Sudan. Sudan has not been able to catch a break over the last several decades. Difficult times for the people. There's stories at People's Dispatch of course for you to read. Pawan Kulkarni had a long piece that sort of led us into the politics of this conflict. Prashant, what's been happening in Sudan? Right, I mean of course the numbers are the conflict broke. We talked about it on Friday at that point. The army and the RSF, the paramilitary force had mobilized. It looked like a standoff and people were hoping that there would be some kind of a negotiation. But on Saturday, unfortunately the fighting broke out. It's been quite disastrous. Over 400 people killed, 3,500 people injured. These estimates could be conservative. Quite a lot of civilians also hurt in what is technically a clash between two security forces. But it's obviously never like that. And I think one of the more depressing aspects has been the fact that despite multiple attempts at ceasefires, many of them have collapsed. We know that two already did. A third has been called for whether it's going to succeed or not is really a question. Also this is Eid. So very important time for the people there. But whether the ceasefire will hold is a very big question because each time one was called for there was some huge amount of infighting. We do know for instance that in Khartoum about more than 70% of the hospitals have been rendered inoperable. We do know that people from Khartoum and other cities trying to flee in large numbers whenever they get a chance because they have been massive power outages, water shortages, forcing people to really scavenge for some of these resources. We do know that violence is also breaking out in Darfur, which has been an old stronghold of the RSF. So all around the country, huge amount of violence, both the army and the RSF have their international backers. So the international players also involved. There was news of some Egyptian soldiers for instance being captured by the RSF and then they were released as well. So this is definitely not just a clash between two local forces as much as more of a regional issue as well. One thing I think many media reports have pointed out is that from the side of the residents and the citizens, there's been a lot of solidarity actions. We heard reports of the fact that the neighborhood resistance committees which were in the forefront of protesting against the military junta all these years have also been in the thick of the relief work working very closely with doctors associations. We do know that doctors associations have also been very strongly involved in these protests. You know, trying to take care of the injured trying to prevent deaths from happening for instance. But all of this together come in. I think two of the larger things we need to take into account is that the pro-democracy protesters, the Sudanese left the neighborhood resistance committees. The protesters who have been we've been talking about for so many years now, they had been warning that this would happen. They had consistently been saying that both the military, the army and the rapid support forces, the military junta as we call them that these elements cannot be trusted in making a transition to civil rule. In fact, the slogan for many, many years has been no compromise with the military. You know, they had been calling for substantial reform of the security forces. They had been calling for justice for those who had committed various crimes. You're talking about the RSF now, everyone's talking about the RSF, but the RSF was the force which in June 2019 massacred people in Khartoum, massacred protesters in Khartoum, rapes, mass killings, many of them had taken place. At that point, the same Burhan who leads the country now was basically in charge. So there is a long record and of course over the years the number of people killed in protests. There is a long record of both these forces indulging in basically what are war crimes, what are human rights violations, but there was no attempt by any of these, by any of the international players to acknowledge it. What happened instead was that the international players kept saying that no, no, the army, the security forces need to sort of be part of any transition to civilian rule. And finally they have brought us here. So I think this is a very important thing to sort of note as well that the civilian forces in a very unfortunate and a very tragic way have been vindicated when they kept saying that, you know, the fact that there was no, that there was no trusting the military junta, there was no trusting the security forces. And I think even now the attempt is to sort of somehow get these forces on the table. Of course, the firing must stop. Of course, there has to be some kind of peace at some point. It does look like both sides are trying to achieve some amount of strategic advantage before negotiations begin. But I think whenever the next round of negotiations takes place, this is a really important question before all these international players who want peace in the region, that how can these forces be trusted anymore? To take care of the needs of the people of Sudan. There in fighting has led to 300, 400 deaths now, but they have been leaving a trail of deaths and destructions for years for in fact over decades right now. If you look, if you start from Darfur. So this impunity has is actually the central issue in the fighting right now, which I think a lot of people are kind of, we take it for granted that these players are part of the establishment. They need to be handled etc. But I think this is an important question that I think the whole world needs to ask right now. It's quite right. I mean, think about the fact that this is a war that's been going on for a long period of time, almost no attention paid to the human suffering here. Of course, another war taking place in Europe, the war in Ukraine, where many forces are trying to bring peace to that war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Zoe has been on a tour of Latin America. He was in Cuba. He was in other countries. What's been happening with Lavrov's tour of Latin America? And what does this have to do with the war in Ukraine? Well, it's quite an interesting tour, kind of a sanctioned country, the sanctioned country tour because besides Brazil, he did visit the several Latin American countries that suffer from US sanctions including Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela. And this was a very important visit, I think, and probably the first of its kinds in some time now. He held bilateral meetings with heads of state, with the foreign ministers of these countries in a moment where the US is seeing that their position on the war in the Ukraine is actually not hegemonic. It is actually not shared by the masses of the world. It's not shared by the global leaders and especially with Lula playing such an important role right now. I mean, he just went to China. He had really important meetings with Chinese government officials with Xi Jinping himself, signed 15 agreements. And he had some interesting things to say about the war, which is that the US, he said that the US provoked this war and that a negotiated settlement is of the highest order. And these words were immediately rejected by US officials. John Kirby said that he was parroting Chinese and Russian propaganda. Clearly they're threatened by the fact that one of the leaders of the world's largest countries and one of the most important economies in Latin America is taking a more sober look at what's happening and actually trying to promote steps towards peace. And so Lavrov visits Latin America actually really in the aftermath of this goes to Brazil, goes to Venezuela, goes to Nicaragua, goes to Cuba. And to be honest, these visits are as important for Russia to reaffirm its, its the relationships it has in these reasons as it is for the countries for whom Russia has been sort of a lifeline. These are countries that are blocked from carrying out major financial and commercial transactions with most of the world because of US sanctions. And it has been the trade with Russia that has really allowed them to continue. I mean, Venezuela and Russia have very, very close links, of course, same with Cuba. And so these are quite interesting meetings. And at the end of his tour, which he ended in Cuba, he reiterated rejection of the illegitimate blockade against Cuba. And oftentimes in these meetings, he was praising Latin American leaders for actually working towards a, as he says, a multipolar world, creating spaces and fortifying spaces like CELAC. So it's a, it's quite an interesting moment. It's clear that Russia is, is paying attention to the developments in Latin America and seeing that there are people who are interested more in the development of their economies and of their nations than actually following the US orientations on who they should trade with, who they should have relationships with. Of course, as I said, this was a tour of kind of the sanctioned countries of Latin America. So we didn't see major meetings, for example, with the more social democratic forces. We know that, for example, Bordic has been a very, very, very ardent supporter of US policy regarding the war in Ukraine and having made a lot of comments condemning Russia and, you know, supporting Ukraine's effort to continue this war. He didn't visit, of course, Chile, he didn't visit Colombia, which despite they have actually made several declarations about the war and many countries, including Colombia have refused to send ammunition. But interesting visit, we'll see how that plays out what if there are more commercial links that are going to be made, how this will impact the economies of these countries under siege both in Latin America and in Europe, because of these sanctions, but definitely, definitely an interesting visit at a time of a lot of shifts in the world. It's interesting that you mentioned Bordic and Chile, yes, making strong statements in support of the US position on this war, but not sending weapons to Ukraine. An interesting gap there perhaps. Let's move to the African continent. Very interesting development in the visit made by Paul Kagame of Rwanda to Benin, where he met with President Patrice Thalon in Cotunu. Paul Kagame, as I'm going to mention in a second, has played an interesting role on the African continent in many ways look like he was sort of taking up where the French had left off. But first, let me just share with you the comments that Mr. Kagame made in Benin. You see, he goes to Benin to promise Rwandan troops to assist the Benin government in fighting against insurgencies in the north of the country. 15th of April, Paul Kagame of Rwanda has asked about whether Africa is getting sucked into this sort of new Cold War regarding China, Russia, and so on. Very similar to what Zoe talked about in terms of Sergey Lavrov's visit to Latin America. This is what Paul Kagame said. He said, Russia or any other big power should not be a problem. These big powers have their own issues to sort out and they keep sucking in these small countries of ours. Russia has a right to be anywhere they need to be legally, just as any other country has. I mean, those who come to Africa, you will hear people complain about China, about Russia, but what about them? What right do they have to be in Africa that others don't have? Now, when I heard these statements from Paul Kagame of Rwanda, I was a little surprised to be honest with you. Why? You see, in recent years, there have been a series of military coups in the Sahel region of Africa, in Mali, in Guinea, in Burkina Faso, and these military governments, most of them run by men from the lower middle class of their societies, middle level to junior level officers and so on. They have represented or reflected popular sentiment against the French military intervention. So in all these three countries, they've removed the French. In fact, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali have been in conversations about creating a federation. So these developments have been fascinating. Meanwhile, while the French have been kicked out of the Sahel region of Africa, on behalf of the French, Paul Kagame's Rwanda has intervened in the Central African Republic directly with the advice of the French. And Paul Kagame's Rwanda has intervened in northern Mozambique to protect a French commercial asset, which is French totals drilling off the coast of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique for natural gas. So in these two instances, Paul Kagame is effectively substituting Rwandan troops for French troops to basically maintain French strategic interests in these regions. In fact, when Mr. Kagame went to Benin, I had initially thought when I watched the press conference that Mr. Kagame would say, well, we are here to take care of the insurgents and so on. Once again, carrying water in a way for the French. But things have very complicated these days. Just as Gabriel Boric of Chile on the one side says that, hey, listen, we're going to support the US position on Ukraine, but we can't send weapons. Just as they are caught in this sort of funny place, and later I'm going to talk about Japan's being caught in this funny place. So to Paul Kagame, this is not a sign of some big shift in Mr. Kagame's political thinking. He is representing the national interests of Rwanda in many ways. And also I think reflecting the mood on the ground in many African countries where the new attitude is, hey, listen, we may have our problems with Russia, with China, with others. We have our problems with all of you. All of you come and colonize our continent. I found this to be fascinating. Got to keep an eye on these new developments happening in the global South. Nobody else does it, but people's dispatch and globetrotters. You're listening to give the people what they want. Come to you every Friday on our live show, but also of course the podcast, which you can listen to at all the podcasty places. Make sure to watch that. We also look forward to our selfies of you watching our show. The reason is we're trying to build a community here. This is not just us talking into the ether. You who listen to us regularly are part of our family. So send us visuals so that we can know who you are. Send us visuals so we can know who you are. In Cuba recently, the population decided they know who their leadership is. Zoe, there was an election and so on. Take us to Cuba, please. Well, as we had spoken about before on March 26th, there was a legislative elections where the 470 members of the National Assembly were elected, which in itself is a process that actually expands to months that involves a lot of grassroots consultations, building these candidacies on the ground, a very, very extensive selection process. And this Wednesday, April 19th, Miguel Diaz-Canel was elected by this body, the National Assembly, as president who will serve another term. Similarly, it was elected the vice president, the leadership of the National Assembly. And this is essentially giving beginning to another cycle of this leadership with this new National Assembly. And it's a quite interesting moment in Cuba as we've been covering for the past several months. It's a moment of a lot of challenges, a lot of economic challenges that are quite difficult. Currently, Cuba is suffering from a major fuel crisis, major fuel shortage, which of course not only impacts the ability of cars to get gasoline, but also possibilities for transportation of goods, etc. And so once again, Miguel Diaz-Canel is facing such a challenging task. He was sworn in the first time in 2018, elected then by the National Assembly. And once again, now in 2023, he's facing a continued Titan sanctions regime in 2018 when he had been sworn in. Of course, it was a year after Donald Trump took office. And we saw the intensification of the sanctions regime against Cuba under the auspices of the Havana syndrome, of these alleged sonic attacks that were happening at the U.S. Embassy. And then, of course, the inclusion of Cuba on the state-sponsored terrorism list regarding its role in actually facilitating the peace process in Colombia. And both of these measures, which made the already suffocating blockade even worse, have not been let up by President Joe Biden, despite the fact that he was the vice president of Obama, despite the fact that both the Havana syndrome has been debunked, as well as the interpol order that Ivan Duque had put out for the delegation of the ELN at the time. Both of the justifications with the U.S. government intensifying the sanctions regime have both disappeared, yet the U.S. government continues this high pressure campaign. So Miguel Diaz-Canel is facing a situation where the country is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts that had on the Cuban economy, a severe dip in their GDP. They're recovering from successive natural disasters with separate hurricanes, the Matanzas fire. This is a situation of great strife. But at the same time, we've seen that under Miguel Diaz-Canel, and it's likely to continue, that aspirations for the revolution, such as creating this code of families, which really envisions a society where not only can people marry who they please, whether it be any sort of configuration of people, not even related by blood, et cetera, family and this new conception, but also protecting the rights of the elderly, the children, disabled people. And so at the same time that Cuba is confronting this siege really on this, this economic siege, financial siege, they're also showing a new path towards a new society. And so this involves, as I said, this new family's code, re-envisioning what it means to be a family in the 21st century, and also taking the revolution further, intensifying popular participation. The new legislative assembly represents has more women, has more black people, more young people. This is really shifting how Cuba is seeing itself, how it's being able to speak to the people, and how it's going to address the problems of the people in this difficult time. That's a very important thing. And of course Cuba, a leader in providing healthcare to the public, in fact, a leader in providing healthcare in many other parts of the world, with the doctors traveling here, there and everywhere. Prashant, People's Dispatch has a terrific partnership with the People's Health Movement. I regularly read your People's Health Dispatches. Recently, there's been stories on Zimbabwe or Nigeria. I mean, who covers healthcare like People's Health Dispatch? Really a unique project. Tell us what the reporters have been finding out. Quite an interesting set of developments in recent times. And a lot has to do. I mean, a couple of stories, three stories in fact, which are on the People's Dispatch site as well, bringing together three very different perspectives on a common issue, which is really the issue of the lack of enough healthcare workers in the world, and across the world of course, but specifically in the African continent. And this is of course not an issue restricted to Africa, because one of the reasons we actually do see the shortage of health workers is that there is a recruitment by countries in the global north who while underpaying their own health workers in their own countries, try to recruit these professionals from other parts of the globe so that sometimes they can be paid less of salaries or sometimes they can kind of meet the demand as contract workers in their own countries. So this is a problem in which the global north and the global south are very truly interlinked. And there's been a lot of discussion on this in recent times. For instance, I believe in Nigeria, there is a proposal right now which would restrict physicians from going directly after graduating from university. Similarly, at the same time, Zimbabwe is also contemplating the recent announcement has been made by minister Zimbabwe, the health minister, saying that the government is planning to criminalize in fact foreign recruitment of doctors from Zimbabwe. And this comes at a time when countries like Nigeria and Zimbabwe are facing a huge crisis. In March, I believe there was a report, an annual report, released by the WHO called the Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List. And these basically list countries, in this case 55, which have a very difficult situation in terms of the health workforce. And as you can guess, so the 55 countries 40 are in Africa and it includes both Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Now, of course, this is part of a global code of the WHO. There are countries from the global north are supposed to take a hint from this report and not try to reduce recruitment, but that has not really been happening. So, like I said, we have a two-pronged problem here on the one hand because of the policies imposed by the IMF, the World Bank, various structural institutions. Governments are not able to spend enough on health care, which means there are not enough recruitments. It is not enough infrastructure. This automatically leads to health care workers realizing that they have very limited future in their own country. For instance, I believe in Zimbabwe, the average wage of a worker is around $400 or something. And even with 100% pay hikes, they have not been able to manage because inflation has been at 229%. So there is a larger set of policy frameworks which prevent enough spending on the health care sector. This leads to health care workers leaving and going to the global north. Meanwhile, health workers in the global north are also protesting for their own rights and also not getting them. So health workers across the globe kind of suffering due to this kind of a problem. And the reports actually detail the extent of the crisis, the extent of migration that is taking place. I think right now Nigeria has the third highest number of doctors practicing in the United Kingdom. That's about 11,000 doctors. Whereas if you look at Zimbabwe as well, there's a huge number of doctors who are migrating. And interestingly, also important to note that this is not just a problem with Africa because even Eastern European countries who are in the periphery of the European Union, even they're facing this problem because professionals from former Soviet Union countries for instance where the education system is very good but whose economies are currently in distress migrating in large numbers to the core countries in the European Union. So this actually presenting a very difficult challenge before countries both in the global south and the north this is also like I said a larger macroeconomic problem as long as countries are being forced to reduce their spending to increase cut taxes on the rich to not increase salaries for instance as part of these structural adjustment policies there's no real way in which their healthcare in which education can be taken care of and this only creates a situation where there is massive what is called brain drain. So very important crisis is interesting that so many countries are facing it at the same time in something to watch out for. I think you know the pit of your story that I hope people focused on is Zimbabwe has an inflation rate of 229% the highest inflation rate in the world it's well worth pointing out because many countries are struggling with 8%, 10%, 15%, Turkey 57% but here's Zimbabwe not only 229% inflation rate Prashant as a consequence of current developments but historically because of the economic war that that country has been under for decades and why have they been under an economic war well because they decided to expropriate the colonial era farmers and transfer the farms to black farmers I mean that was their crime an extraordinary story and I very much hope people go and read all the stories from people's health dispatch a project of people's dispatch an important initiative well we've been talking a lot about Africa we've been talking a lot about the new Cold War China Russia and all of that news comes that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled to make an Africa tour before the summer group of seven meeting to be held in of all places Hiroshima my God you know think about this the place where the United States dropped the atom bomb is going to be where the G7 is going to meet and release belligerent statements about world affairs I think it's beyond irony really well Mr. Kishida is going to Africa partly because and this is the interesting piece of it I just did a story for Globetrotter which is on the people's dispatch website but I went and read the 300 page diplomatic blue book 2023 done by the Japanese government now in this document very important document because you get to see what the Japanese government is thinking in terms of their role in the world and so on well in the document they firstly say that we are at a major turning point in world affairs hard to disagree with them the confusion we're getting from Paul Kagame's statements in Benin this is certainly a turning point they're quite right about that secondly they've come out quite harshly in this document around their you know their own understanding of China's role in the region very tough statements but in the same section they say we're continuing to collaborate with China we've got all these diplomatic initiatives and so on they are again caught in the haunts of a dilemma as I reported over the course of the past year Japan has made very strong statements against Russia but continues to invest in the Sakhalin too natural gas projects in Sakhalin Island just north of Hokkaido in Japan so here you have Japan again caught in the haunts of a dilemma between on the one side going along with the group of seven countries regarding Russia but on the other hand you know they are caught between the needs the national needs for energy from Russia and investment and technology from China but the most interesting part about the diplomatic blue book for me was that they acknowledge that the countries of the global south are not falling in line with the group of seven that they're going their own way and the blue book for the first time and by the way I found this interesting because just a few months ago a Japanese Foreign Ministry official was asked at a press conference can you define what is global south and the official said well we don't have an official definition seems to me that changes in the south have made them force them to acknowledge the existence of the global south now no longer just as emerging or developing countries but as the global south and they're paying attention and in the blue book they said we have to engage more with these countries hence Fumio Kishida is going to make his visit on behalf of the G7 yet caught between the haunts of a dilemma not able to fully break with Russia what can they tell other countries now given that they continue to import large amounts of natural gas from Russia you're listening to give the people what they want we hope this is what you want to hear from you by People's Dispatch your most important news source of the day I'm Vijay from Globetrotter we'll see you next week coming back to us I hope