Nigeria's Niger Delta is an inflamed troublespot that does not look to have any easy solutions. Rebel groups continually sabotage the oil industry there, sometimes attacking, kidnapping, and even killing people associated with the oil industry, locals and foreigners alike. Whatever their methods, the rebels’ grievances are real. Between corruption, inefficiency, misallocation of resources, and […]
Anyone who has spent any substantial time in Africa is familiar with the importance of the informal economy. In South Africa, for example, there are the parking guards and gardeners and maids and cooks and people willing to wash your car or clean your windows. And then there are the street peddlars, especially in towns […]
I should be back to regular posting soon. My travels did not end with the return to the US, but I plan to be back at full posting volume in the next day or so. In the meantime, over at the FPA Africa Blog I have a long piece on the Zimbabwe crisis, the talks […]
Ok, I’m back in the US, settled in, and ready for regular posting again. When I was in South Africa I was able to see two very good friends who are Zimbabwean expats. One works in the business end of biotech and we were both graduate students together at Rhodes University back in 1997 (Oakdene […]
Today marks Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's 90th birthday. The great man is slowed but still robust, with his characteristic grace and wit still intact. As South Africa muddles through, the country's leaders would do well to dwell on Mandela and his meaning, not merely his undeniable symbolic power, and not even the mythology that surrounds him […]
Today marks Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's 90th birthday. The great man is slowed but still robust, with his characteristic grace and wit still intact. As South Africa muddles through, the country's leaders would do well to dwell on Mandela and his meaning, not merely his undeniable symbolic power, and not even the mythology that surrounds him […]
40+ hours, one lost piece of luggage, three movies, several television shows, two read books, several newspapers, and virtually no sleep later, I arrived back home last night. I am catching up on life and will resume posting soon. [Crossposted at the FPA Africa Blog and at dcat.]
40+ hours, one lost piece of luggage, three movies, several television shows, two read books, several newspapers, and virtually no sleep later, I arrived back home last night. I am catching up on life and will resume posting soon. [Crossposted at the FPA South Africa Blog and at dcat.]
After three weeks here in South Africa, this evening I will board a South African Airways plane bound for Washington, DC's Dulles International Airport via Dakar, Senegal. If all goes well I will land at 6:00 am eastern time tomorrow, Tuesday, at which point I’ll hope that I can get to BWI in time to […]
After three weeks here in South Africa, this evening I will board a South African Airways plane bound for Washington, DC's Dulles International Airport via Dakar, Senegal. If all goes well I will land at 6:00 am eastern time tomorrow, Tuesday, at which point I’ll hope that I can get to BWI in time to […]
I'll be the first one to admit that I tend to see most social phenomena through a political lens. Those of us who work on politics are akin to the guy with the hammer who looks at most problems and sees nothing but nails. That said, South Africans tend to be a politicized lot. Everything […]
I'll be the first one to admit that I tend to see most social phenomena through a political lens. Those of us who work on politics are akin to the guy with the hammer who looks at most problems and sees nothing but nails. That said, South Africans tend to be a politicized lot. Everything […]
My apologies for the silence here for the last week or so. Traveling in South Africa sometimes means not having the sort of internet access or opportunity to write as I might like. The last few days have taken me from Cape Town to Grahamstown and Rhodes University, one of my old homes. From there […]
My apologies for the silence here for the last week or so. Traveling in South Africa sometimes means not having the sort of internet access or opportunity to write as I might like. The last few days have taken me from Cape Town to Grahamstown and Rhodes University, one of my old homes. From there […]
To my readers in the United States: Happy 4th of July! To my readers in South Africa and anywhere else on the globe: Happy Friday! In the last dozen years I believe I have spent more American Independence Day holidays outside of the United States than within it, with most of those spent here in […]