Foreign Policy Blogs

Scanning the Headlines

For the next few weeks I’ll be on the road celebrating my impending (Saturday . . . tick … tock … tick … tock) nuptials and so while I’ll be blogging as I can, it might be both light and a bit less analytical than usual. In other words, more links, less of my opinions. (I realize that for some of you this development represents nothing but improvement..)

Here are a couple of stories that caught my eye today: 

Nigeria has filed suit seeking nearly $7 billion in damages from Pfizer for the deaths of children who participated in an allegedly unauthorized and obviously risky test of meningitis drugs.  According to the story: “'the plaintiff contends that the defendant never obtained approval of the relevant regulatory agencies …, nor did the defendant seek or receive approval to conduct any clinical trial at any time before their illegal conduct,’ Nigeria said in court papers obtained by Reuters.”

This case represents an example of there being no real good guys. Forgive me if I am sceptical of Pfizer's virtue in this case. It would not surprise me in the least if a major pharmaceutical company used Africans as guinea pigs. Or at least if they used Africa as a testing ground precisely because Nigeria poses far fewer barriers in terms of regulation, standards and bureaucracy.  At the same time, I may be cynical, but I don't really entirely trust that the Nigerian case, win or lose, is geared toward bringing justice or compensation for the victims. The Mail & Guardian shares some of my suspicions that the new dispensation in Nigeria may share more than a passing similarity with past regimes in which Big Man rule, kleptocracy, and a general lack of accountability and transparency have represented the rule and not the exception. This is the classic example of  a situation where Africa observers will hope for the best but prepare for the worst.  

Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, it looks like the few foreign investors that remain in the country might see their assets seized by Mugabe's government. we can probably file this under “Not At All Surprising.”

In South Africa recent studies have shown that many black business professionals are not especially happy in their jobs. The research also dispels a whole host of racially-predicated myths about the nature of “job hopping” in the country. 

Meanwhile, in rugby news, South Africa's recent thrashings of England saw them break scads of Springbok Test Rugby records. More significantly, perhaps, the upcoming test match against global rugby minnows Samoa will see something unprecedented: when Jake White confirms his starting roster, only two of the seven backline players will be white. Observers are calling this lineup the “blackline.” This represents an enormous step forward in the transformation of the Springboks.