President Barack Obama’s approval ratings continue to plummet and speculation swirls as to whether the 2012 GOP candidate has a near guaranteed ascent to the Oval Office. The economy is unlikely to substantially improve, the Democrats are expected to lose substantial seats in the upcoming congressional races and Obama may not be able convince voters to stick […]
She has promised to rule as the “mother for her people” while President Lula refers to her as the “mother of the poor”. Following the results of recent public opinion polls, connecting with Brazil’s mothers is proving vital to Ms. Rousseff’s campaign for the presidency. Last week’s Ibope and Datafolha polls showed PT presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff […]
Lost in the nightmare that has been Robert Mugabe’s “land reform” is the fact that while Zimbabwe’s reform has been a nightmare because it was geared toward rewarding or placating the so-called “war veterans” who have made up so much of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF support (and an even greater percentage of its thuggery), land reform in […]
According to an IRIN report: South Africa is unlikely to deploy soldiers in support of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), as it did “not believe” in the political direction being followed to resolve the conflict, and there was no exit strategy, an analyst said. Because it is by just about any measure the […]
The recent approval by the Government of India for caste based census has aroused concerns among political parties as well as social scientists and ethnographers. For the self-proclaimed ‘modernists’ such regressive measures are likely to heighten caste consciousness among Indians. While the pragmatists argue that data on caste can help the government to better target […]
The IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Director, Mr. Masood Ahmed, offered this public statement yesterday: “The floods which have hit Pakistan in recent weeks and brought suffering to millions of people will also pose a massive economic challenge to the people and government of Pakistan. The scale of the tragedy means that the country’s […]
Like him or not, this week’s person of the week in the SADC region goes to Robert Mugabe. On August 17, 2010 during the closing ceremony of the 30th Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Namibia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe received a standing ovation, a gathering that included Africa’s present and former heads of […]
Earlier, I posted some comments and reactions that I received on my facebook wall regrading the Mugabe article. Here are more comments regarding other articles as well. And, oh…I am also on twitter. http://twitter.com/NdumbaKamwanyah 1. Democracy without Independent Voters Article: • You are doing a good job with these analysis, we are getting educated from […]
Earlier this week, parliament voted to grant Lebanon’s Palestinian population wider employment rights. Previously, the jobs that they were aloud to do were mostly limited to manual labor, but the new legislation opens up every field that other “foreigners” are allowed to work in. This still excludes the areas of law, medicine, and engineering, which […]
For my mental health, I never watch Pakistani television, be it state run or the so-called ‘private’ channels. And if I am forced for whatever reason to put up with it for an hour or so, it is, and I am not exaggerating here, the most painful experience; an experience I find difficult to explain […]
This weeks news has run the gamut of silly, inconsequential and headscratchingly troubling. In the first instance, the BNP leader and former Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia has said that if the sitting government fails to govern with the consent and agreement of the opposition, it should step down. Apart from the vainglory of the claim, […]
Countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa are among the world’s most vulnerable to “shocks to food supplies.” “‘Of 50 nations most at risk, 36 are located in Africa,’ according to Fiona Place, an environmental analyst at British-based consultancy Maplecroft, which compiled the 163-nation food security risk index.”
Here’s a brief outline of news and views from some of the major news outlets regarding the end of the US combat mission…taken from major media both in the States and abroad.
Eusebius McKaiser, a political analyst and an associate at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Wits Centre for Ethics, has the best assessment I have seen yet of the pending Democratic Alliance-Independent Democrat merger.
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