The Berlin International Film Festival was a product of the Cold War. The US military administration wanted to bring a touch of glamour to a West Berlin that had survived the Soviet blockade. Since then, the festival has gained a reputation for championing political, provocative movies, and has been no stranger to scandal. The Berlinale… Read More »
While the Nigerian Civil War devastated Igbo business activities across Nigeria, and precipitated a mass return of Igbo migrants to their home area, it also laid the foundation for a consolidation and rapid development of Igbo informal enterprise, which has had integrative rather than divisive social and economic consequences for Nigeria as a whole. Operating… Read More »
By Alexis Okeowo for More Intelligent Life. If you have not heard of Mexico’s native blacks, you are not alone. The story that has been passed down through generations is that their ancestors arrived on a slave boat filled with Cubans and Haitians, which sank off Mexico’s Pacific coast. The survivors hid away in fishing… Read More »
is the title of a Reuters report on Africa. Read this excerpt: The International Monetary Fund believes growth in sub-Saharan Africa will be 1 percentage point above the global average, and puts eight African countries in its top 20 fastest-expanding economies in 2010. Oil-rich Angola and Congo Republic will lead the charge with growth rates… Read More »
I was just thinking of writing a column on the new term limit imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria on bank CEOs when I saw this thoughtful Next editorial: Is the CBN too powerful? In the national confusion over our president who has vanished into thin air, a significant but little remarked event occurred… 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 »
Former American ambassador to Nigeria, Princeton Lyman, writing on today’s (ir)relevance of Nigeria. If Nigeria fails? I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I ambassador there, I have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence,… Read More »
is China. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, China overtook Germany in 2009: China took over the mantle of the world’s top merchandise exporter from Germany in 2009, according to the latest figures, aided by a global economic crisis that has taken a greater toll on other trading powers. China exported $957… Read More »
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution blogger and George Mason University economics professor, writes in New York Times of January 2: Putting aside the United States, which ranks third, the four most populous countries are China, India, Indonesia andBrazil, accounting for more than 40 percent of the world’s people. And all four have made great strides. Indonesia had solid economic growth… Read More »