Published under
corruption,
economy,
Latin America on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
Haitian police led ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier out of his hotel and took him to court today without saying whether he was being charged with crimes committed under his brutal regime. His longtime companion has continued to deny that he had been arrested. A contingent of police led the former dictator known as “Baby Doc” through [...]
Published under
corporate foreign policy,
corruption on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010
Noted across international wires over the last few days has been the story of two former executives of Miami-based telecommunications company LatiNode finding themselves indicted on Monday, December 20th for paying more than $500,000 in bribes to former government officials in Honduras. A symbol of what was a systematic web of a corrupt former government’s [...]
Published under
Africa,
corruption,
Zimbabwe on Friday, December 17th, 2010
The Zimbabwean government has recently opened its long awaited one-stop shop investment centre that is expected to reduce the registration period from the current 50-plus days to only 11 in an effort to reel in foreign and domestic investment long stifled from a paralyzed joint government. Besides failing to woo investors to the country because of [...]
Published under
Africa,
corruption,
democracy,
finance,
Zimbabwe on Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Jacob Zuma has surprised many in his role as mediator between the factions that comprise the Zimbabwean government. But even he nor the SADC can stop what seems to be a cyclical pattern that occurs when progression leads to a slowed inflation rate – Mugabe views it as cause for political capital and makes bold, [...]
What do a steel company, urban development projects and golf courses all have in common? They are three of the latest targets of Hugo Chávez’s nationalization drive – and part of his plan for renewed popularity. The background is a severe shortage of decent housing: over 2m homes are needed, by some counts, in a [...]
Published under
Africa,
corruption,
democracy,
economy on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
Against all odds, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has just concluded one of the most successful presidential elections in recent African history, bringing a country which has teetered on the edge of crisis for more than a decade a step closer to implementing a democratically elected civilian government. The process has been described as “the most [...]
Published under
Africa,
corporate foreign policy,
corruption,
War,
Zimbabwe on Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
The shooting at point blank range of another farmer in the Selous district of Zimbabwe again highlights the deteriorating situation currently being faced in the rural farming areas and acts as yet another warning of severe pre-election violence ramping up and hindering the lifting of EU sanctions and returning foreign interest. This is a symptom [...]
Published under
corruption,
Venezuela on Saturday, October 9th, 2010
Hugo Chavez signed an abhorrent decree on Monday to expropriate a pillar of the Venezuelan community’s farm–supply business, promising to bring down prices of seeds and fertilizers as his government grasps further control in lieu of promising polling results for his political opposition. Chavez said Monday night that he signed the decree for the “forced acquisition” [...]
Published under
Africa,
corruption,
human rights,
political risk on Thursday, September 30th, 2010
It is quite simply paradoxical juxtaposition – a delegation from Uganda on one hand seeks a seat at the United Nations Security Council on behalf of the continent of Africa, a symbolic request unsurprisingly indicative of the bravado of the Museveni administration while on the other, the nation has prospectively failed meeting the Millennium Goals [...]
European Union supremo Herman Van Rompuy today stated the bloc was ready to take a fresh look at sanctions against Zimbabwe, pending political developments, one of which Zimbabweans speculate to be the reappointment of MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett. Speaking at an EU-South Africa summit, Van Rompuy noted Zimbabwean moves to create a new constitution as part [...]