1. Ignoring Africa’s present or the West’s past? – Wronging Rights 2. London faces battle to stop trading shift to eurozone – Financial Times 3. Europe agrees on Greek safety net with IMF role – Reuters 4. Scouring blogs for useful information – The Economist 5. Winner of the world’s oddest book title award –… Read More »
Reuters: Nigeria’s Senate approved a 4.608 trillion naira budget proposal for 2010 on Thursday, up from an initial 4.079 trillion naira spending plan proposed by the presidency. The budget assumes an average oil price of $67 per barrel and oil production of 2.35 million barrels per day. It also pegs the exchange rate at 150 naira… Read More »
The concluding paragraph of Peter Akinlabi’s Beyond Gadaffi: Nigeria, Federalism and Other Quicksands: We can intellectualize these things all we want, but there are no more startling discoveries to be made as far as the causes of violence in northern Nigeria are concerned. Olakunle Abimbola’s getting a lot of verbal bashing (sentimental fool, people like… Read More »
My friend and sociology lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Oka Obono: Nigeria was furious. It recalled its ambassador, told Libya off, and escalated what could have passed for hot air into substance for a diplomatic war. It forgot that its own security forces had failed to maintain peace in the affected area; that they… Read More »
This is from Tatalo Alamo, writing for the Nation: Taking inspiration from the conflict tree paradigm, we can say that while the immediate cause and outward foliage of the Jos crisis is economic, ie a conflict arising from allocation of scarce resources and the distribution of political patronage, the root causes are cultural and historical.… Read More »
Part of the anxiety over China’s presence in Africa comes from the challenge they pose to traditional ideas about aid. The Chinese operate with low costs compared to Western aid projects that pay high salaries to foreign experts and put them up in fancy hotels. A 2008 Oxfam study, for example, estimated that donors to… Read More »
Africa is a different place from how it is often portrayed in the popular media. Thanks to sound economic policies in many countries over the past decade or so, Africa has been able to withstand this crisis much better than has been the case in the past. The fact that the crisis hit Africa anyway does not… Read More »
Sunday 21st March, Sidney Street LGBT Centre, off Oxford Rd David Kato, LGBTI activist from Uganda and member of SMUG http://www.sexualminoritiesuganda.org will talk about his experiences as an activist in the context of recent legislation threatening the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, the campaign in Uganda to stop the new law as well as international… Read More »
1. An impending UK bonds market crisis might be worse than the Greek debt crisis – Telegraph H/T Keith Hart 2. Haiti, two months after the earthquake – Global Voices blog review 3. Why are religious films making a come-back? – Guardian 4. Morgan Tsvangirai defends Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws – AllAfrica 5. Should Germany change… Read More »
Would ordinary Nigerians have felt Yar’Adua’s absence? Since the experience of the Nigerian state for most Nigerians is limited to demands for bribes by officials and policemen, the government and who is running it is of little consequence to them. Everything positive in their lives is achieved by themselves in spite of the ruling elite… Read More »