Image via Wikipedia Mark MacKinnon knows Saakashvili quite a bit, and he can’t help but wonder what he was thinking when he attacked South Ossetia: He must have known that attacking South Ossetia would provoke a massive, and disproportionate, Russian response. He should have realized that his government might not survive such a confrontation. And… Read More »
Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome. I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen… Read More »
BBc’s Matt Frei on Senator Obama: And although Obama is really quite down to earth and millions of Americans would love to sit down with him for a drink and a chat, they might be too awestruck and hamstrung to think of anything to say, for fear of sounding crass, offensive or stupid. Policies apart,… Read More »
Ogho Okiti of BusinessDay has a nice analysis: How about another $5 billion for subsidy? Thanks to soaring crude oil prices, we are receiving significant amount of income from crude oil exports. Never mind that the government and the economy would have been in so much trouble by now, underlined by significant short fall in… Read More »
Ever wondered about the budget of the United Nations specialised organs? The figure below is from The Economist. Note that only six institutions on the list have budgets over one billion dollars. In 2002, the treasury department of the UK projected that the budget of DFID would be increased to 4.6billion pounds per year, by… Read More »
Image by jmtimages via Flickr I started paying close attention to Barack Obama when it became obvious that he was a serious contender for the Democratic Party ticket. And I liked what I saw. What is there not to like about him? A combination of intelligence, good looks, and an almost rock star-like appeal sure… Read More »