Just a whole lotta stories clogging my internet tabs:
Both First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have Africa trips pending in the next few days. This is great, and both trips have clear policy implications. You know what would be even better? If we started to get some sense of a coherent Obama administration engagement with Africa. Because if there is a vision, I have not figured out what it is.
Pretty pictures! (Actually, incredibly stunning pictures despite some silly generalizations about “the spirit that you find in Africa” and the like.)
Here is the FPA’s Great Decisions brief on the Horn of Africa, one of 2011’s GD topics.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni believes Somalia’s transitional government needs more time to consolidate gains before an election is held. The United Nations-supported mandate for the government is set to expire on August 20 and the UN wants to see elections as soon as possible thereafter. I’m sympathetic with Museveni’s argument. But I do think that there needs to be some sort of date set as a target. August 21 would surely be too soon, but at some point it will also be too late.
Bad news from Burkina Faso. Take it away, AP (via Yahoo News): “Burkina Faso’s government said its troops have forcefully disarmed rampaging soldiers on Friday after three days of looting and shooting in the air, the latest episode of unrest in the impoverished West African nation.”
At The New Republic Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times is the latest to weigh in on Jason Stearns’ Dancing in the Glory of Monsters on the crises in the DRC: “There is a rising stack of volumes that tackle the subject of contemporary Congo and its conflict. Jason K. Stearns’s new book may be the most indispensable.” [That said, Gettleman cannot help but engage in his usual unsustainable generalizations amidst his also typically lush writing. And really, shouldn’t anyone writing about the history of the Congo be familiar with the work of Tim Jeal, which quite clearly complicates our views of Henry Morton Stanley?]
In South Africa there is controversy over Wal-Mart’s purchase of 51% of Massmart. Of course the real question is: Will they sell borewors?
Here is another angle in the debate over the efficacy of foreign aid. And another. It seems to me, then, that rather than blanket arguments that aid does or does not work what we should be looking at is what aid does and does not work. I am not sure why this should be complicated, yet every few months someone publishes a book or article that insists on categorical assertions about “the failure” of foreign aid.
Come to find out, both sides were responsible for atrocities in the recent Cote d’Ivoire upheaval. Who would have guessed? Of course once there was upheaval, participants on both sides would be guilty of atrocities. The real question is who is most responsible for the upheaval?
Kenya has failed in its bid to stop ICC trials of those accused of fomenting post-election violence in 2007-2008. I can actually understand not wanting to open up wounds in a society that still sees its civic sector as being incredibly fragile. I do not think Kenya is guilty of simply wanting to sweep human rights violations under the carpet. After all, when the ICC is done its work, Kenya still has to govern itself. That said, it seems even worse to allow murderers and political criminals to walk free.Perhaps an ideal solution would be for the country’s Truth and Reconciliation process to succeed. But so far? Not so good.
Do colonial-era plantations offer a way forward for small-scale farmers in Mozambique?
Niger is facing a food crisis that very well could get worse.
Look out China! India is stepping up its Africa game.
South Africa plans to bid to host the Commonwealth Games, the World Games, and a whole bunch of other events, but not, for now, the Olympics.
