African Liberation Day has been numbed down to feel-good festivities and colourful clothing, but we must not forget it is a day upon which the path for liberation was declared
AU
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
On voluntary tech servitude
I’m one of the many Android users who recently installed the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) application on their phone. Big deal. Doing this as I did, however, on the day Germany and Brazil were introducing a draft resolution on the Right to Privacy in the Digital Age at the UN General Assembly, I found myself confronting […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Where is Somalia’s Marshall Plan?
On the bright side, the Nairobi Westgate mall tragedy must bring Kenyans together again and perhaps even go some distance to heal the wounds from their recent internal conflict. Conflict, in general, including the very thing that has just happened to the Kenyans at the hands of al-Shabab, has been a prolific source of underdevelopment […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Tsvangirai, it’s time to step up or step down
To anyone who has been paying close attention to developments in Zimbabwe since 2009 – after the formation of the government of national unity (GNU) – the 2013 election result was almost a forgone conclusion. Governments of national unity, as I have written elsewhere, create a false sense of security and unity in deeply polarised […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The importance of private sector growth and development in Africa
The private sector is Africa’s primary engine of growth. It generates an estimated 70 percent of Africa’s output, approximately two-thirds of its investment and 90 percent of employment on the continent. Based on these statistics supplied by the African Union (AU), the creation and development of private sector jobs is seen as one of the […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Challenges to regional integration and trade in Africa
History and the legacy of colonialism have bequeathed the African continent with a legacy of fragmentation. The African continent geographically is divided into 54 countries, 28 of which have a GDP under $10-billion. In addition, 26 countries have a population under 10-million inhabitants, and 16 nations are landlocked. This fragmentation has traditionally been a significant […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The price of no more Gaddafis? No more Mandelas
Gaddafi may have lost his final battle last night, but South Africa lost the war. As the last country to stand with the embattled “father of the nation” in spite of the West’s determination to get rid of him, South Africa’s international reputation was dragged through the mud as harshly as Gaddafi’s bloodied corpse was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The brigade for boiling and burning blacks
Just north of here, the tree of liberty is being liberally watered — not with the blood of patriots, but with the blood of blacks. And also unlike Jefferson’s dictum, it isn’t just occasionally, but has been going on for months. The vigilantes have even given themselves a name “The Brigade for Purging Slaves and […]