Lots of other stories have crossed my desk today and over the weekend. here are a few, with brief commentary as apropos:
Responding to various allegations of irregularities in the run-up to Gabon’s election, Bruno Ben Moubamba, one of 23 presidential hopefuls, is undergoing a hunger strike to demand that the election be postponed. Usually states face the most criticism when they choose to delay elections. One suspects that in this case, Gabon’s elections officials will face pretty serious scrutiny if they do not.
I’ve been listening to so much Nigerian music from the 1970s of late that visiting Lagos during that decade has become one of my top-ten time travel fantasies. At The Mail & Guardian Llloyd Gedye too is smitten with the most prominent of the collections, the Nigeria 70 series.
At The Boston Globe health professionals Michelle Holmes and Shona Dalal argue that addressing chronic diseases represents Africa’s “next health frontier.”
Is it me, or was this Thomas Friedman column in Sunday’s New York Times particularly incoherent? I get the gist of the argument: providing cell and internet service for more of Africa is good! But the presentation is pretty obtuse.
Zimbabwean prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai managed to gather more than $US 180 million in donations for his home country during a recent visit to Europe. I’d like to think that this money represents a vote of support for Tsvangirai and probably somewhat ties President Robert Mugabe’s hands with regard to dealing to Tsvangirai. But banking on Mugabe’s beneficence has tended to be a loser in recent years.
The Springboks are well on their way to winning the Tri Nations tournament in dominating fashion. They head back down under this week for return matches with the All Blacks and Wallabies.