NewsTrust - Africa - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - Sep. 22 (Opinion) - Warning: The people's ideas expressed here may be dangerous. For this year's list, we walked right past the usual suspects and went looking for trouble.

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ReliefWeb » Document » Weekly Roundup Sept. 12-18: LRA abducts 30 civilians in DR Congo attacks

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:12:52 -0700

reliefweb.int - Sep. 19 -

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We must stop the 'vulture funds' that feed on the world's poor

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Johann Hari - Sep. 18 (Opinion) - Would you ever march up to a destitute African who is shivering with Aids and demand he "pay back" tens of thousands of pounds he didn't borrow – with interest? I only ask because this is in effect happening, here, in British and American courts, time after time. Some of the richest people in the world are making profit margins of 500 per cent by shaking money out of the poorest people in the world – for debt they did not incur.

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Afghanistan, Iraq and the Clintons

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Worldfocus - By Martin Savidge, Gideon Rose, Carla Robbins - Aug. 14 (Interview) - Week in review: Gideon Rose of Foreign Affairs magazine and Carla Robbins of The New York Times discuss the week’s top stories: A major U.S. offensive as national elections approach in Afghanistan, a surge in suicide bombings in Iraq and Hillary Clinton's trip to Africa.

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"The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa"

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Jeremy Keenan, Amy Goodman - Aug. 06 (Interview) - He traces AFRICOM, the US military command in Africa, to a 2003 kidnapping of European tourists. The hostage taking was widely blamed on Islamic militants thought to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, but Keenan argues that the Bush administration and the Algerian government were the ones responsible.

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Hillary Clinton demands accountability for war crimes

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Aug. 05 (Opinion) - As we send murderous, crusading civilian units around the world to accompany our invading armies -- while ushering a regime of torture wherever we go -- and then announce we will only Look to the Future, Not the Past, when their crimes are exposed (despite our best efforts to keep them concealed), do we actually expect anyone to take these sermons seriously?

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Bloggers React to Obama’s Speech in Ghana

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Ndesanjo Macha - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - President Barack Obama made his first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa and delivered a speech in Accra, Ghana on July 11. The speech has drawn reactions from bloggers around Africa and abroad. Here are some discussions in the blogosphere about the message he had for Africa. For a full transcript of his speech, visit Rafiki Kenya. Chiume has a link to the Swahili version of his speech on his twitter page.

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How texting and GoogleMaps helped Kenyans survive crisis

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TED - By Erik Hersman - Apr. 23 (Speech) - At TEDU 2009, Erik Hersman presents the remarkable story of Ushahidi, a GoogleMap mashup that allowed Kenyans to report and track violence via cell phone texts following the 2008 elections, and has evolved to continue saving lives in other countries.

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Somali Pirates v Those of High Finance

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Michael Winship - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - "One of the ironies at play is that the maritime industry being victimized is itself a standard-bearer for the advantages that exist in a world beyond law and regulation," he writes, referring to a global shipping trade that has dodged the rules through the raw manipulation of flags of convenience and the law of the sea. They are, Langewiesche says, "...The very same people who for years have made a mockery of the nation-state idea. They know that whatever pirate tolls they pay will always pale in comparison with the taxes that would be imposed if global law and order ever actually prevailed." No wonder media commentators speak -- without irony -- of the pirates' "business model."

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Bail out Somalia to curb the pirates?

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Apr. 15 (Editorial) - ... without US leadership, it's unlikely that Europe or the United Nations will do more than support beefing up the international naval presence off Somalia's coast. Obama still needs to keep probing for new ways for all concerned parties to solve, or at least better contain, this thorny problem.

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The West should focus on North Africa

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Dana Moss - Apr. 07 (Opinion) - For North Africa, 2009 is a year of elections. Regrettably, these elections – this week's presidential elections in Algeria, Tunisia's presidential and legislative elections in October, and Morocco's local council elections in June – attest not to the vibrancy of democracy in the region, but rather to its lingering authoritarianism.

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Plan to Turn Africa into the Saudi Arabia of Solar Gains Traction

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

solveclimate.com - By Stacy Feldman - Mar. 23 (Opinion) - Researchers claim if construction begins in 2010, the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could supply Europe's urban consumption markets with 55,000 gigawatt hours of electricity in 10 years' time – enough to meet the needs of 35 million people. By 2050, they could power most of Europe and two-thirds of their own countries, all by using just a fraction of unused Sahara land.

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So, Where are the New Republicans?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Culture11 - By Dennis Sanders - Mar. 10 (Comment) - Ross Douthat has a good post today about Obama and the Center-Left. He notes that conservatives were happy with some of the Clintonite picks he made in the cabinet. However, as policy started coming out, those same conservatives (myself included) were not as happy.

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More Annals of Global Greed Inc.

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By New York Times Editorial - Feb. 14 (Editorial) - Halliburton and its former KBR subsidiary have agreed to pay $579 million in fines to settle criminal and regulatory charges of having bribed foreign officials to win billions in construction contracts. There may be some taxpayer comfort in the fact that this scandal was rooted in Nigeria, not Iraq, where the Halliburton megacorporation (you know, the one Dick Cheney ran before he became vice president) reaped multibillions as the Bush administration’s most favored no-bid contractor.

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Greg Laden's Blog : How much is the world spending on neglected disease research and development?

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ScienceBlogs.com - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - How much are we actually spending on the development of pharmaceutical tools to treat HIV/AIDS, TB, leichmaniasis, malaria and sleeping sickness?

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'The Worst Place'

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - Dec. 22 (Editorial) - The Congo war is killing tens of thousands of people per month and is widely believed to be the world's gravest humanitarian emergency. For that reason alone, we in the West should be doing everything possible to end it.

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To save Zimbabwe, South Africa must step up

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By John Hughes - Dec. 19 (Opinion) - Once one of the most beautiful and bountiful lands in Africa, Zimbabwe is fast becoming the worst disaster on the continent since Rwanda and Darfur.

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How can we stand by as genocide again threatens the Congo?

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Age - By Andre Renzaho - Nov. 03 (Opinion) - With the international financial situation becoming the main priority for world leaders, little attention has been given to what is unfolding in Congo. Rwanda has seized the opportunity to join Nkunda to complete unfinished business: the "ethnic cleansing" of Hutus of Rutshuru and Masisi districts.

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The downfall of Thabo Mbeki

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Sep. 22 (Editorial) - The heir to Nelson Mandela came to power nine years ago on a tidal wave of goodwill. In Thabo Mbeki, South Africa thought it had found the manager it needed to bring order to its well-intentioned disarray. Not only that. Here was the economist whose adherence to the strictures of neoliberalism would herald a decade of unprecedented economic growth. Here was a leader who could inspire a continent. Time magazine rated him as one of the world's most influential leaders. It is an astonishing and not altogether explicable fact that a man who entered office so highly regarded on the national and international stage leaves it such an isolated and friendless figure.

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Bush's enduring legacy in Africa

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - By Andrew Natsios - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - When President Bush traveled to sub-Sahara Africa in February he was greeted by large and tumultuous crowds of admirers - which mystified many of his critics, who believe that the animosity toward his administration abroad is universal. But polling data from the Pew Foundation shows something different: Approval ratings for the United States exceed 80 percent in many African countries, some with large Muslim populations. In Darfur, many families name their newborn sons George Bush. What is it that the Bush administration did differently in Africa than it did elsewhere? Certainly one factor is that Africa is not the Middle East or central Asia where America is fighting two unpopular wars and where polls show America at an all-time low in public esteem. In Sudan, the United States played a central role as peacemaker in ending a 20-year civil war between the Arab north and African south, which killed 2 million people.

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A Dangerous Neighbor

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Weekly Standard - By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bill Roggio - Aug. 06 (Opinion) - A critical factor behind Afghanistan's deteriorating state is the turn of events in Pakistan, where the Taliban and al Qaeda have found a safe haven in recent years. After the October 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan felled the Taliban, most of al Qaeda's senior leadership relocated to Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas, the remote and mountainous regions that border Afghanistan, and set about finding allies within tribal society.

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Edfu temple-egypt history

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

egyptian12.blogspot.com/ - By egyptian12.blogspot.com/ - Jul. 05 (Opinion) - Between Aswan and Luxor is located the major Ptolemaic temple of Edfu - the best preserved major temple in Egypt. The temple is dedicated to the falcon god Horus and was built over a 180-year period from 237 BC to 57 BC Most visitors to the temple arrive by cruise boat and then take a horse-drawn carriage to the temple where vendors are ready to sell you all manner of souvenirs. Inside the temple's pylons is a large courtyard. Just before the entrance to the first of two hypostyle halls is a welcoming statue of Horus. Inside the hypostyle halls are dominated by a forest of towering columns. The temple was excavated last century by Auguste Mariette. Its courtyard and surrounds were buried beneath sand and also houses built by local villagers. Deep within the temple is the sanctuary where a statue of Horus would have been cared for by priests. for more information: http://egyptian12.blogspot.com/

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Free from Nigerian Military Custody, 'Sweet Crude' Director Sandy Cioffi on Oil Politics in the Niger Delta

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Sandy Cioffi, Amy Goodman - May. 09 (Interview) - The Nigerian government, along with foreign oil companies, have reaped enormous profits over the years from the sale of oil and gas reserves, while the residents of the Niger Delta live in abject poverty. We speak to Sandy Cioffi, director of the the upcoming documentary Sweet Crude. She was recently arrested by the Nigerian military and held for a week before being released following international pressure.

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South Africa's 'Crucial Role' in Zimbabwe Crisis

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Council on Foreign Relations - By Stephanie Hanson - Apr. 11 (Opinion) - After years of economic crisis and repressive leadership under President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe looks poised for change. The opposition party contends Mugabe lost March 28 presidential elections, and delays in announcing poll results have fueled intense speculation about what is next for the beleaguered country. Andrew Meldrum, a Nieman fellow at Harvard University and former Zimbabwe correspondent for the Guardian, says the inner circle of Mugabe's party, ZANU-PF, is looking at its options.

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Democracy for Africa

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Justice Malala - Apr. 08 (Opinion) - the achievements of a handful of leaders and countries such as Mr. Mogae's Botswana are undermined by strongmen like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

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