The international advocacy group Oxfam is taking on U.S. coffee retailer Starbucks over the chain's reluctance to grant Ethiopian coffee farmers the right to control their coffee trademarks, something the company has promised to do earlier this year

Oxfam ran an ad in the Seattle Times Wednesday urging the corporate icon to give Ethiopian farmers a greater share of the retail value of their coffees. "Starbucks refuses to sign an agreement recognising Ethiopia's ownership of the trademarks of the country's coffees -- the same coffees that millions of poor farmers depend on to make a living," said the ad, which ran with a picture of an old and grey-haired African farmer.

The advertisement disputes statements made by a Starbucks senior vice president in testimony to the British on Feb. 27, in which he is quoted as saying, "We reached an agreement with [the Ethiopian] government to pursue our shared vision around the promotion of Ethiopian coffees."

In mid-February, Starbucks issued a joint release with the government of Ethiopia stating that the company would no longer stand in the country's way to obtain trademarks.

The company also pledged to double its purchases from East Africa and from Ethiopia. It promised to provide technical support and capacity building to Ethiopian farmers through a Farmer Support Centre that it will open in East Africa.

The ad runs statements from a press release the Ethiopian Embassy here distributed to the media on behalf of the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Farmers Cooperative Unions and Exporters, which it doesn't see any effort by the Seattle-based company to make good on its promise.

"When Starbucks announced that it will not block Ethiopia's initiative and also increase its volume of purchase of Ethiopian coffee, we all welcomed it, believing that it is a good first step and would open the door for negotiations with the company," said Hailu Gebre Hiwot, chairman of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association in the statement.

"But we have yet to see any efforts made by Starbucks to come to the table and discuss technical issues on the royalty free licensing agreement Ethiopia is asking it to sign."

Coffee is among the most valuable commodities in Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries, and these rights could help lift farmers and their families out of poverty.

Africa is the birthplace of coffee and produces arguably the most exotic taste profile of any coffees in the world. Starbucks purchases approximately five percent of its high-quality Arabica coffee from African countries of origin such as Ethiopia and Kenya.

Jim Donald, president and CEO, said Wednesday that the company saw a 22 percent increase in total net revenues to 7.8 billion dollars last year. The first quarter of fiscal 2007 saw a 22 percent increase in net revenues to a record 2.4 billion dollars and net earnings of 205 million dollars, an increase of 18 percent when compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2006.

Starbucks plans to open at least 2,400 new stores on a global basis in fiscal 2007 as well as 1700 stores in the United States. But the issue of how the company treats farmers has been a recurring publicity problem for Starbucks, which operates more than 13,000 retail locations in 39 countries around the world.

Activist groups like Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade and Oxfam have relentlessly prodded the company to practice fair trade, where poor farmers share in some of the hefty profits earned by Western coffee retailers.

The Oxfam appeal on Wednesday comes as the Starbucks Corporation held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle and as the Ethiopian government vowed it will continue to pursue the trademarking and licensing initiative.

"Starbucks has continued to make unsubstantiated claims that Ethiopian farmers will be better off under different marks," said Tadesse Meskela, general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia in a statement. "It seems to us that Starbucks is dodging the issue and making excuses not to take concrete steps towards recognising Ethiopia's ownership of its coffee names."

Oxfam says the company has repeatedly ignored its promises to the farmers. "Starbucks continues to break its promises to the poorest communities," said Seth Petchers, of Oxfam International's Make Trade Fair campaign.

"The company has branded itself as a friend to poor farmers. But when these farmers seek the right to own their coffee brands and compete in the global market on an even playing field, Starbucks refuses to support them," he said.

Starbucks did not return IPS calls for comment on Wednesday. However, earlier this month, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, who is on the list of the world's richest people, told Fortune magazine that "Starbucks is the quintessential people-based business... Everything we do is about humanity."

Such statements are hotly contested by the fair trade activists. "If Starbucks is seriously committed to humanity, it needs to change its position and agree to negotiate a licensing agreement with Ethiopia that respects its ownership of its unique coffee trademarks," said Petchers.

"Starbucks has retailed these Ethiopian coffees for as much as 26 dollars a pound yet most Ethiopian coffee farmers struggle to survive on one dollar a day.

after several weeks of govermant reprecions, in witch thousands of familys were evacuated from there homes, hundreds injured and impisond, youths yesterday petrol bombed Sakubva Police Station in Mutare, damaging property and dockets in the process.

No one was injured in the bombing which damaged four police bicycles, dockets, two typewriters and stationery.

The attack comes as the Zimbabwe Council of Churches yesterday issued a strong condemnation for the orgy of violence that hit Harare recently.

At Sakubva, officers manning the charge office quickly put out the fire before it caused more damage when the attack occurred at around 1am.

Police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the attack yesterday and said investigations were underway.

"The suspects cut a security fence and sprinkled some petrol using a galvanised pipe. Thereafter, they threw a petrol bomb at a three-office module block that houses Victim Friendly and the Community Relations Liaison officers.

"No one was injured in the incident but property, which includes four bicycles, two typewriters and stationery, was damaged," said Asst Comm Bvudzijena.

He said the galvanised pipe was recovered at the scene.

Asst Comm Bvudzijena said prior to the bombing, a police officer on his way to the station was confronted by a group of about 10 youths, who called him names and accused him of supporting the Government.

"The officer fired a shot in the air, scaring the youths away."

Last week, three female police officers sleeping in a house they shared at Marimba Police Station in Harare were injured, two of them seriously, after suspected MDC youths threw a petrol bomb at the quarters.

In Gweru, attackers -- also believed to be MDC youths -- petrol-bombed Nehanda Police Post in Mkoba.

Several weeks of seeming reprieve from the spate of hostage-taking by militants in the Niger-Delta suffered a major set-back yesterday, with the reported abduction of eight foreign workers from site at Agbarho, Ughelli North Local Government of Delta State. Also yesterday, a Dutch national and Chief Security Officer working with B&B, a subsidiary of Julius Berger Construction Company was kidnapped at their base in Abuloma, Rivers State while his abductors shattered doors and windows in the company with bullets.
The kidnapped men in Delta were working for, the SETRACO construction company presently undertaking the Warri-Port Harcourt expressway, the report said.
THISDAY gathered that four Indians and four Lebanese were seized by the unidentified gunmen and driven away from where they were working at Agbarho portion of the road. Nobody had claimed responsibility for the latest apparent case of hostage-taking in the region as at the time of filing this report yesterday evening.
The naval commander in Delta State , Navy Captain M. Ajibade, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Warri yesterday, saying security forces had information that some expatriate SETRACO workers had been kidnapped in the early hours of yesterday.
Ajibade noted that details of the attack and abduction were still sketchy, even as he said that the motive of the kidnapping was still mysterious.
However, THISDAY gathered from usually dependable sources that the militants operated rather swiftly and in commando-style, giving the security operatives in the area practically no room to respond adequately.
It further learnt that the militants, after seizing their targets, drove them away from the road construction site to Agbarho Waterside, that is, the creeks, where they apparently had their speed boats waiting.
The hostages were said to have been transferred into the vessels men armed to the teeth, which eventually disappeared with the captives into an unknown destination.
THISDAY also learnt that the gunmen then set ablaze the vehicle with which they had conveyed the kidnapped men to the place they birthed before vanishing into thin air.
The highway CETRACO is working, is a major project of the Federal Government of Nigeria in the Niger-Delta, described as the “ Niger-Delta Super Highway ” by some government functionaries, and is expected to link Delta, Cross River , Bayelsa and Rivers states, through Warri and Ughelli to Port-Harcourt.
Twenty-four Filipino hostages and their ship were last month released at the Warri Port to the Delta State Government after 24 days in captivity.
Governor James Ibori, while thanking President Olusegun Obasanjo for not adopting the military option to secure the release of the Filipinos, had expressed the hope then that such incidence would not occur again in Delta State.
The kidnap of the Dutch at about 7.07 am yesterday in Rivers is coming on the heels of a reported disruption of works at Daewoo camp where host community members alleged the companyrefused to engage them but chose to bring in foreigners to work even as cleaners.
An unnamed militant group had about four weeks ago threatened that they were going to shut downthe company as well as hit Mobil faclities since their interrupoted production was working against their agitation.
Confirming the kidnap, Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu said the Dutch was taken by a yet to be identified group but said efforts were on to unravel all facts sorruounding the incident.
It could be recalled that while releasing the last hostage who was an Italians, some militant groups had vowed to take more hostages as well as to change tactics by exploding more bombs in the region.
It is not however clear if the kidnap has anything to do with the alleged arrest of three boys said to be loyalists of Soboma George, the militant big wig whose arrest led to the burning of the State Criminal Investigations Department and the forceful freeing of Soboma and other detainees at the center

Most of the promises made in 2005 have gone largely
unfulfilled. Instead, poverty continues to deepen in most
African countries, and the international financial
institutions have returned to business as usual in 2006.
The clearest indication that old habits are back came at
the IMF/World Bank annual meetings, held in Singapore in
September. There, the IMF's board formally approved a
previously announced reshuffling of voting shares designed
to increase the voting power of four middle income
countries -- China, Mexico, Turkey, and South Korea. The
biggest loser was sub-Saharan Africa; its collective
voting share, already a paltry 5%, was cut in half.

yet another african country have post elections problems .... almost a tradition alredy.


01 Oct - Zambia deployed armed police in the capital Lusaka on Sunday amid rising tension after President Levy Mwanawasa overtook the early lead of his populist opponent in the country's election. Some armed members of a crack paramilitary unit patrolled the main business district while others took position at the privately-owned Post newspaper, where supporters of opposition leader Michael Sata staged a protest on Saturday. State radio said the Post newspaper had been placed under police protection. Sata challenged official results released on Saturday showing Mwanawasa surging to a dramatic lead. He warned of "severe consequences" if officials ignored his complaint The populist Sata initially looked set to trounce incumbent Mwanawasa, but the race tightened on Saturday as the president scored big wins in rural areas, drawing protests from Sata that thousands of ballots had been destroyed. Election results released by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) showed Mwanawasa had polled 510,523 of the 1,459,226 certified votes so far, from 69 of Zambia's 150 constituencies. Sata trailed him at 473,332 votes and Hakainde Hichilema of the United Democratic Alliance, a wealthy businessman popular with the middle class, had 441,400. "This represents 34.99 percent votes for Mr. Mwanawasa and the average voter turnout (in the 69 constituencies) is 70.7 percent," Ireen Mambilima of the ECZ told reporters. - Reuters