The incomparable FiveThirtyEight, which looks at politics with a particular emphasis on polling data, has increasingly taken time away from its bread and butter of American politics to look at global politics, especially election issues. Renard Sexton, 538’s international affairs columnist, has a post about Friday’s third leg of Burundi’s three-part election saga, which up […]
A paragraph in an otherwise fine post from Chris Blattman, “Africa’s Coming Disaster,” rubbed me the wrong way. In the post, Blattman argues that “the next decade could be remembered as the one derailed by the drug trade.” Ok. Fair enough. Africa’s porous borders, loads of corruption among the various people tasked with policing those […]
A belated happy birthday to Nelson Mandela. Madiba and all of South Africa celebrated his 92nd birthday on Sunday.
I don’t know what to make of the decision by the World Diamond Council, and the United Nations-backed Kimberley Process to allow Zimbabwe to export limited diamond sales from its Marange fields where the regime has been accused of gross human rights violations. On the one hand, continuation of the diamond market ban would further […]
I hope you’ll all understand that I am taking a few days to decompress, get my life back together, sort through mail, return to a semblence of a normal home life, wade through 2000 or so emails thsat I either left unopened or simply unaddressed, re-establish a writing schedule, teach my summer grad class, deal […]
Welcome to this Foreign Policy Association blog dedicated to Southern Africa. This blog is an inside perspective on latest news, discussion, analysis, and commentary in Namibia and Zimbabwe. Although Namibia and Zimbabwe are the main focus of my attention, I also expect to be posting on other countries in Southern Africa. I suspect that politics […]
More than 70 hours of plane travel later and a five-plus hour drive to get me home I’m finally back from my great World Cup adventure. I hope you’ll appreciate some scarce posting while I readjust to life back in the States and make sense of it all. But two quick points/anecdotes: First, are there […]
The World Cup is done. I am writing this the day after from the OR Tambo International Airport where my first flight is already delayed, and I am looking at the possibility of a few nights in Addis Ababa if we cannot make up the time and get me to my connecting flight, which leaves […]
(I’ve been in an internet free zone the last couple of days, so I am playing some catchup with posts. I am putting this together in the departures lounge of the OR Tambo Airport outside of Joburg where I have the following itinerary: Joburg to Addis Ababa, hour and a half to change planes; Addis […]
I am sitting at what has to be the world’s slowest internet cafe where, as a glutton for punishment, I have waited ten minutes simply to be able to log in here to write this post. Apparently the dial-up connection is not that strong on a Friday afternoon. I just got done with my special […]
Despite my plane fiasco yesterday I did successfully make my way to Pretoria and my guesthouse, which is located on the edge of the vibrant, trendy Hatfield area, which itself is adjacent to the University of Pretoria (where I’ll be giving my talk tomorrow). The guest house has a pretty nice Portuguese restaurant attached to […]
So I missed my flight to Joburg. The Durban Airport Shuttle, otherwise so reliable each time I have used it, decided to falter when I needed to get to the airport. I waited 45 minutes and three came by, all claiming not to be going to the aiport, but rather coming from the airport, an […]
It’s a lovely day in Durban. Sailboats dot the horizon of the Indian Ocean. Surfers enjoy the waves that have made the beaches right outside of my door a regular stop on the pro surfing circuits. In the permitted areas people are swimming, with more coming out each hour as the temperatures creep up to […]
I don’t think I’m an especially good relaxer. I like being near the ocean but find it unappealing and nearly impossible just to relax on the beach. many people find the idea of doing nothing completely appealing. I find it horrible. I need something to read, something to write, something to DO. It’s another day […]
The World Cup is taking two more days of rest after the semis were decided with Germany smacking around Argentina (obviously I did not see that one coming) and Spain struggling to take down Paraguay (I did foresee that, but given that I was one for four in predicting these quarterfinals games, too much congratulations […]