Published under
Africa,
corruption,
democracy on Monday, March 1st, 2010
Two years after the violence that devastated Kenya, the country shuffles forward on a razor’s edge. Very soon, the International Criminal Court will decide whether to allow prosecutors to open investigations in to those believed to be responsible for mass expulsions and killings following a controversial election.
This occurs parallel to the uncoordinated political agenda we [...]
Published under
Africa,
Zimbabwe,
human rights on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Marian Tupy is a policy analyst at the CATO Institute in Washington DC with a unique interest in Zimbabwean affairs. He, along with many of our readers and indeed writers, was horrified while watching images emanating from Zimbabwe covering the cholera outbreak, and was baffled as to why it wasn’t nipped in the bud at [...]
Published under
Africa,
Zimbabwe,
corporate foreign policy,
corruption on Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Far be it for me to quash birthday fever, Mr. Mugabe.
I just find it alarming that we’re celebrating after a year of systematic destruction to your government’s infrastructure. I find it frightening that you are so jubilant this soon after knowingly passing an ‘indigenization‘ bill that would deter not only fresh investment to an already heavily-sanctioned [...]
Published under
Africa,
corporate foreign policy,
democracy on Friday, February 19th, 2010
Health and political risk are no stranger bedfellows in Nigeria than oil reserves and skiff-boat diplomacy. From the surrealism of‘missing president’ Umaru Yar’Adua, linked to the outside world via a ghostly voiced interview with the BBC, and with attendant disputes of legitimacy and sovereignty, Nigeria has seemingly chosen to solve the crisis in its own [...]
Opposition parties in Ivory Coast staged protests today as the west African country awaited the annoucement of a new government after President Laurent Gbagbo scrapped the previous one. The protests are growing in volatility as a nation awaits a government in flux.
The head of the former rebel New Forces (FN), Guillaume Soro, whom Gbagbo reappointed as [...]
Published under
Africa,
Zimbabwe on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
President Robert Mugabe today stated that he and his partners in Zimbabwe’s unity government agreed that “sanctions must go“, a day after the European Union extended its restrictions on the country.
“We are in agreement,” Mugabe told reporters after a tourism conference in Harare. “We are all agreed that the sanctions must go.”
Mugabe has long claimed [...]
Published under
Africa,
corporate foreign policy,
free speech on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama has sharply criticized an anti-gay bill in Uganda that would impose the death penalty in some cases. Other western governments and gay rights activists also have criticized the legislation. Supporters on the ground in Kampala have in turn accuses the U.S. and other western nations of interfering in Uganda’s internal affairs.
The Ugandan [...]
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych yesterday called on his opponent and longtime rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, to concede defeat in Sunday’s presidential runoff after he secured a slim victory at the polls. With more than 98 percent of the ballots counted as of Monday evening, Yanukovych had captured 48.5 percent of the vote, with Tymoshenko [...]
Published under
Africa,
democracy on Friday, February 5th, 2010
Power and the titles that accompany it are difficult to let go of, even within the ranks of established international and geopolitical communities. Mugabe has had a stranglehold on power for decades, even when it hinders progress for a Zimbabwe he claims to love. Omar Bongo rather silently ran Gabon for nearly the same amount [...]
Lifting the many sanctions burdening Zimbabwe is clearly essential for the nation’s growth. Importers would be able to re-develop their once bountiful export market, private enterprise would be promoted to flourish, the agricultural and mining sectors can regroup and work diligently without threat of corruption and communities can be given the resources to fight the [...]