John Carlin, former South Africa correspondent for the London Independent attended the ANC's Polokwane conference for South Africa's Independent Newspapers. In a column in that capacity, Carlin brings up a recent article on Zuma in London's Daily Mail. Carlin properly castigates the Daily Mail's predictably retrograde tone: The Daily Mail is a vibrantly successful London newspaper that makes its money […]
Robert I. Rotberg, director of Harvard's Kennedy School Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and World Peace Foundation president, has an op-ed piece in today's Boston Globe in which he praises those world leaders who have stood up against Robert Mugabe, most notably Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel Great British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He […]
The Mail & Guardian has issued its annual end-of-year grades for South Africa's Cabinet Ministers. Find Part I here and Part II here.
After months of speculation and prognostication and forecasting about what would transpire at Polokwane, over who would win and what would result, over the state of the ANC, South Africa has now entered a new phase in its political development. Jacob Zuma's decisive victory over Thabo Mbeki, his ascension to the top post of the […]
South Africa is far from the only country in Africa focused on electoral politics. Kenya faces a huge moment in its history when its people go to the polls on December 27. Pambazuka News has some of the best coverage of the Kenyan situation, including a lengthy and impassioned analysis from the novelist Ngugi Wa […]
I ran across this article on the Motley Fool's philanthropy site. Here is the first sentence: Across the world, a profound disaster is unfolding: Over the next 10 years, 1 billion young people in developing countries will be competing for about 300 million jobs. Okay, so these are the choices: create businesses, hire people, or […]
Well, that didn't take long, did it? The African National Conference delegates who had gathered in Polokwane were barely settled back into their posh suburban homes near Cape Town and Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban, Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzberg and all points in between when the news came across the wires. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) […]
Last week, on December 16, Kyrgyzstani voters went to the polls for legislative elections. Those who have been following the politics in Kyrgyzstan this year will be unsurprised–but perhaps unhappy–to learn that the OSCE had harsh words about the election. Ferghana.ru reports on the OSCE report card, where officials are calling it a “missed opportunity”. […]
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has released the first issue of The Sentinel, a scholarly look at terrorism around the world. A pdf copy of it can be downloaded here. Of particular interest is page 14, where Gregory Johnsen- late of this site- has a rigorous look at “Securing Yemen's Co-operation in the Second […]
According to Interfax, Tajikistan's big hydropower plant in work, is delayed again. This time: no concrete deliveries. Therefore, the plant–scheduled for its ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21 or 22–is delayed until “late December or early January”. Excerpt No. 1: Power to the People Tajikistan is rich in hydro resources, however, it lacks 3 – 3.5 billion […]
It was almost anti-climactic, but as expected, Jacob Zuma is the new president of the African National Congress. Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki embrace at the Polokwane conference. (Lisa Skinner, Mail & Guardian) Zuma's 2,329 votes comfortably outpaced Thabo Mbeki's 1,505. Strap yourselves in. 2008 is going to be a hell of a year in […]
The ANC Conference in Polokwane is under way and it is quite clear that the theme of the meeting will be: division, division, division. But politics is drama, and so one of the themes emerging from Polokwane is a bit surprising: sympathy for a desultory Thabo Mbeki in light of all signs, including supernatural omens, […]
Fourteen years after its passage, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is still widely debated, with concerns over issues such as job movement, workers’ rights, and environmental protection. Laura Carlsen, Director of the Americas Policy Program in Mexico City, testified before the U.S. Congress on December 6th that NAFTA has been disastrous for small […]
China's Three Gorges on the Yangtze River With measured holiday celebrations by Americans this year, the US finds itself in a thick and thorny growing trade deficit with China. Recent reports by the US Commerce Department that overall trade deficits have declined in the past two consecutive quarters may do little to assuage Congress members, […]
Today brought the shocking and completely unexpected news that Vladimir Putin has agreed to become the Prime Minister of Russia when his term ends next year. That isn't the only news to come out of Russia today- though I know the reader may want to take a few seconds to recover from that twist- and […]