I just read this on the Nigerian Village Square: The literary world is abuzz with the news that Achebe in 2010, on the fiftieth anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, and the fortieth anniversary of the end of the Biafran war; is working on a major opus – Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970. It will… Read More »
1. Is China a developing country? 2. Swedish think tank wants to clean up relief deliveries with a new ethical aid tool 3. Why cycling in Berlin is a dream 4. The corrupt reign of Emperor Silvio 5. Don’t cry for Wall Street 6. Towards a new world economy 7. Why some Egyptians are becoming… Read More »
Deborah Brautigam thinks so. And she should know, since she recently wrote a book on China in Africa, titled The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa. She said this in an interview with the Aid Watch blog: As a donor, China’s way has several advantages. Take the way they operate. They rarely “poach”… Read More »
1. How Mathematics might have caused the financial crisis 2. To which Gillian Tett says, Bad practice, not the discipline itself, is to blame for the financial crisis 3. Sex and the single black (American) woman 4. On Goodluck Jonathan’s Amanpour interview 5. Joe Stiglitz: An Agenda for Reforming Economic Theory 6. Zimbabwe hangman position… Read More »
If you are in London on June 14 and you are interested in textile recycling, see the announcement below. I will be making a presentation on Igbo trade networks and secondhand clothing RECYCLING TEXTILE TECHNOLOGIES A one-day workshop from 9am to 5pm, on June 14th 2010 To be held at the Pearson North Lecture Theatre,… Read More »
About politicians and courage: Courage is always missing in politicians. It is like saying basketball players aren’t normally short. It isn’t a useful attribute. To be morally courageous is to say something different, which reduces your chances of winning an election. Courage is in a funny way more common in an old-fashioned sort of enlightened… Read More »
Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former minister for finance, and currently a managing director of the World Bank: intra regional trade in Africa remains low and accounts for less than 10% of total trade . Between 1999 and 2006, for example, intra-African trade increased by an average of just 14 per cent per year, while trade… Read More »
In a beautifully written piece over at the New York Review of Books blog, Tony Judt discusses what identity means in a cosmopolitan world. H/T Aleksandra Gadzala For a further discussion/problematisation of the concept see ‘Beyond “Identity”‘, by Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper. Ungated pdf version available here.
Confusion over the names of two similar-sounding African countries may have helped boosted oil prices to near $80 a barrel this week as traders rushed to buy oil after reports of a military coup. A Reuters reporter received a flustered phone call from a hedge fund partner who had heard animated discussion in the market… Read More »
Nigeria’s debt profile at the end of last year stands at $3.97 billion, the Minister of Finance, Mansur Mukhtar said yesterday at the beginning of a two-day public hearing on the loans and debt collected by federal and state governments organised by an ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja. Mr Mukhtar said… Read More »