Here is a deluge of tidbits to catapult you into your weekend. If you are reading this from the United States, have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Eat a hot dog and drink beer while wallowing in college football and baseball pennant races. (If you are in South Africa, have some boerewors, keep the beer, and spur the Boks to victory.)
In a provocatively titled piece at Foreign Policy magazine, “The Devil’s Excrement,” Moises Naim wonders if poor countries can avoid the resource curse. He’s better at identifying the problem than he is at coming up with answers, and more importantly, with solutions. The reality is that valuable resources can exacerbate bad governance because they provide resources to those who govern badly. But there is not really a causal link so much as there is correlation.
The African Union met this week to discuss the continent’s trouble spots. I’d feel a lot better about the AU meeting had it not been held in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya to honor the strongman’s 40th year in power and if Gaddafi had not been allowed to assert unchallenged that Israel is the source of all of Africa’s conflicts. That’s just stupid in too many ways to count. Gaddafi continues to be a malign clown whose dubious Pan-African leadership has brought virtually nothing to Africans south of the Sahara.
The South African government fired hundreds of soldiers who engaged in an ill-advised strike last week.
Electoion officials and politicians had hoped that the aftermath of the country’s elections would proceed smoothly and peacefully. On Monday I concluded that we probably all ought to buckle our seat belts in anticipation of turbulence. I’d have just as soon have been proven wrong. Alas, no such luck. Chaos reigns after Ali Bonga, whose father, Omar, ruled the country for 41 years until his death precipitated this election, was declared the winner amidst serious allegations of the fix being in.
Tracy Kidder’s new book, Strength in What Remains, which tells the story of a Burundian immigrant in America, has been getting good reviews and will almost certainly reach a far greater general audience than all of the worthwhile learned tomes that scholars like yours truly put out, which is why I am at least thankful that it is by all accounts good. Lord knows lots of crap books draw loads of attention and sell well where good books wallow in obscurity.
So far land reform in South Africa? Not so effective. Land reform in former settler colonies is completely justifiable and is absolutely necessary. But it has to be done right and it cannot be wielded (as in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe) as a political weapon.
Is Sudan on the path to civil war again? John Norris at Foreign Policy worries as much and believes that the Obama Administration needs to be aggressive in working to prevent another explosion of the seemingly perpetual North-South schism.
Just in case you need a primer on the main players in Somalia’s violence (and most of us almost surely do), IRIN has it here.
Spin the wheel and play everyone’s favorite game show, “Who’s Delaying Their Long-Awaited Election Today?” Round and round it goes, click . . . click . . . click . . . Angola! Thanks for playing. As a consolation prize for all of you Angolans, we give you: 2012!
Is Swaziland facing a future land shortage? Some fear as much. Swaziland is tiny. It is also largely rural, but the potential stress will stem from traditional land distribution customs. I always tend to think these Malthusian concerns are overblown, but in a country as tiny as Swaziland that has thus far been relatively resistant to urbanization one can see the potential for trouble.
The African National Congress is looking at the serious possibility of another internal succession struggle. In 2012 the ANC will meet in Mangaung, Bloemfontein to elect a new secretary general. Sides are already being formed between Gwede Mantashe, the party’s current secretary general, and Fikile Mbalula, a prominent and increasingly influential national executive committee member. Surely the nature of South African politics is that the country has a more vibrant political culture than any one-party-dominated country in the world and it has more dissent and legitimate disagreement than many multi-party states.
Tanzanian health officials are confident that they will be able to eradicate malaria deaths by 2015. Malaria does not get the attention of some other diseases, but it is the leading killer across broad swathes of the continent.
Finally, is it possible that this might be the greatest Springbok team of all time? And is it possible that at least part of the team’s remarkable current run can be attributed to coach Peter DeVilliers successfully scaling the learning curve? Some think so. GO BOKS!