Jolyon Ford of Oxford Analytica: I wonder if we should perhaps think of sub-Saharan Africa as a collection not so much of jointly emerging markets, but of diverging ones. Last week I was privileged, under the umbrella of the commendable ‘Invest in Africa’ initiative, to join experienced businesspeople in London discussing endemic inaccurate negative perceptions by outsiders of… Read More »
I was looking through my computer earlier today and I discovered a review I wrote during my first weeks as a Masters in Development Studies student at Uppsala in Sweden. The first thing those guys did was to encourage us to question the whole idea of development by making us read Gilbert Rist’s The History… Read More »
Delivered at Gresham College, London. The summary: Professor Niall Ferguson offers an evolutionary approach to financial history. He questions the impeding of ‘natural selection’ by keeping the financial dinosaurs alive through the life support of monetary injections: “without creative destruction, our economic system cannot be a healthy one.” The view that financial history could be… Read More »
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 »
1. Haiti Earthquake: Worldwide solidarity, a common humanity? 2. Paul Krugman writes, ‘Europe’s economic success should be obvious even without statistics’. Matt Welch responds. Megan MacArdle responds. Don’t forget to check out the comments. 3. Top 5 reasons why “Failed state” is a failed concept – Aid Watch 4. Is the Nigerian President a goner?… Read More »
My column of this week. December 25, 2009: A Nigerian-born male, with secondary education in Togo and university education in London, said to have been radicalized during his university days in London, and to have been further radicalized in Yemen, attempted to detonate an ‘incendiary device’ that he had sown into his underwear before getting… Read More »
From The Sunday Times: The dawn prayer had begun prematurely in the cold darkness some time after 3am. Clinging to the upturned hull of the Nazar, the fishing boat that had carried the migrants out into the black waters off Tripoli, the survivors had dreamt they were floating west and, by Allah’s divine grace, had… Read More »
If you are in London: The Dis/Order of Things: Predisciplinarity After Foucault An Interdisciplinary Workshop. The afternoon will end with a keynote by Professor Simon During (Johns Hopkins): ‘Lost Objects: Magic and Mystery in the English Enlightenment’ Saturday 24 October 2009 Birkbeck College, University of London This interdisciplinary research workshop brings together postgraduates, academics from… Read More »
I have been in London for a week now, busy working… at least most of the time. I got off the train at the Victoria station yesterday evening and decided to do something touristey. I started on Victoria street and walked towards the Westminster Abbey, then to the Palace of Westminster, took some picture of… Read More »