My following book review appears in today’s Weekend Australian newspaper: Imperialism still casts a dark shadow over modern Africa. Former colonial powers France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Germany largely spend their aid dollars in nations they used to rule. Oxfam France’s Christian Reboul told The Guardian this makes sense for Paris “because the former…
Showing all posts tagged Africa
Making money from Ebola misery
My weekly Guardian column: The horror of ebola in West Africa has taken thousands of lives and spread fear around the world. This fact, coupled with ignorance and misinformation, has created the perfect storm. The risk is real, but you wouldn’t know the full picture from watching last weekend’s American 60 Minutes. Lara Logan’s report…
How an Orthodox Israeli Jewish billionaire loves to exploit Africa
This is a remarkable story, sad, tragic and outrageous, and proves that money doesn’t bring morality (via Bloomberg): Dan Gertler’s bearded face lights up as he looks out the helicopter window. Below, an installation twice the size of Monaco rises from a clearing in the central African forest, where it transforms ore mined from the…
The good mercenary life in Africa
Who said being a private security thug wasn’t profitable in the age of capitalism on crack (via South African paper The New Age)?: Thirty-five Special Forces-trained South Africans were responsible for this week’s audacious operation that spirited Muammar Gaddafi’s wife and three children from Libya to safety in Algeria. The “battle hardened Iraq veterans”, who…
Don’t worry about those blacks, really
Robert Mugabe is undoubtedly destroying Zimbabwe, but why does the West have such selective outrage when it comes to Africa? (Hint: oil.)
Chasing “our” friends
Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch in Brussels, on US-backed Chadian dictator Hissène Habré who fell from power in 1990 and is the subject of a new documentary, The Dictator Hunter: Hissène Habré was a local warlord in Chad, which is a Central African country just south of Libya. And at the…
How to run a country
Why democracy doesn’t matter when poor, African states have boundless amounts of black gold.
Station your killers elsewhere
African bloggers discuss the possibility of American military bases on the continent. (For the record, they’re universally opposed to the idea.)