Tag Archives: United States

Mark MacKinnon on Mikhail Saakashvili

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 »

On Subsidising Diesel Consumption

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 »

Budget of the UN Specialised Organs

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 »

This Blog Supports Barack Obama

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 »