Opalo's weblog

• failed states panel

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 11:32 pm by kenopp

  FP has a live stream discussion on the issue of failed states. Catch it here Update: Texas in Africa has a post on the conflict in eastern Congo. Filed under: africa Tagged: Bukavu, drc, eastern Congo, Kigoma, Kivu, lake kivu, lubumbashi, Nkunda, north kivu, Texas in Africa, Zaire

• The DRC is 50 today

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 11:16 pm by kenopp

  The Democratic Republic of Congo is 50 years old. The last 50 years (after they killed Lumumba) have been absolutely disastrous for this vast country in the middle of the Continent; Independence merely replaced the brutality, cruelty and pillage of King Leopold’s men (King Albert II attended the independence day “festivities”) with the brutality and [...]

• Kenyan MPs raise their salaries, again

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 10:13 pm by kenopp

  Being a member of parliament in Kenya is one of the most lucrative jobs on the Continent. The men and women of the August house unanimously voted to raise their salaries to US $174, 400 a year – which puts them at par with what US congressmen make. Most of this money will not be [...]

• economic history… and some people’s lived experience

  Posted: June 30, 2010, 7:17 am by kenopp

  I am currently doing some research on the economic history of medieval Europe and came across an interesting quote from one Francesco Guicciar commenting on 16th century Spain: ... poverty is great here, and I believe it is due not so much to the quality of the country as to the nature of the Spaniards, [...]

• Raila hospitalized

  Posted: June 29, 2010, 11:50 am by kenopp

  Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been hospitalized, apparently due to fatigue. The 65 year-old Mr. Odinga has no publicly known health condition except for his eye problems that have seen him take several trips to Germany for treatment. His aides say that Mr. Odinga will be confined to bed rest for a few days. [...]

• Obiang is back in the news

  Posted: June 29, 2010, 9:19 am by kenopp

  The diminutive dictator Brig. Gen. (ret.) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of  Equatorial Guinea since 1979, is back in the news. After the UNESCO fiasco which nearly earned him the title of clown of the month of June Obiang is back again in the news, this time with an American PR agent. The Times reports [...]

• Paul Kagame: clown of the month

  Posted: June 25, 2010, 6:28 pm by kenopp

  He is credited for ending the Rwandan genocide. For some time in his presidency he was the regional darling of donors and newsroom editors, being touted as one of the new class of pliable autocrats responsible leaders that were poised to drag the Continent out of abject mediocrity. But absolute power corrupts absolutely. Events like [...]

• the political economy of food aid

  Posted: June 25, 2010, 8:42 am by kenopp

  Aid Watch has a piece on this very important subject, check it out. Other stories worth checking out this Friday include Jina Moore’s and the IRIN piece on the food situation in the Sahel. Filed under: africa Tagged: agribusiness, Burkina Faso, Central Africa Republic, Chad, food aid, IRIN News, iron triangle, Jian Moore, Jina Moore, [...]

• populism gone mad

  Posted: June 23, 2010, 10:44 pm by kenopp

  The Kenyan parliament today passed a law that empowers the finance minister to fix prices of “essential goods” in an effort to tame unscrupulous traders who exploit wananchi with arbitrary price hikes. That is the story the sponsors of the bill want us to believe. Trade Minister Amos Kimunya has criticized the bill as a [...]

• failed states index

  Posted: June 22, 2010, 10:02 pm by kenopp

  Foreign Policy, in its July/August issue has 2010′s failed states index. The Continent has 12 of the top 20 worst performers on this index, with Somalia, Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe and the DRC being in the top five respectively. Kenya is 13th on this index, performing worse than Niger, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, among other basket [...]

• the state of the kenyan education system

  Posted: June 22, 2010, 5:17 am by kenopp

  The state of the Kenyan education system is appalling. Read more here. Buried in the said report is Kenya’s shameful legacy of regional disparities in the provision of public goods, including education, security and healthcare. Peripheral and frontier areas such as Western Kenya, the Coast Provinve and the arid north seem to be particularly disfavored. [...]

• “the town seemed to exist only for sickness and death”

  Posted: June 21, 2010, 4:31 pm by kenopp

  Time has this story about the “most malarial town on earth,” Apac in Uganda. The pictures tell it all, life in Apac appears to be singularly harsh. The story also reports that malaria steals away 1.3 percentage points off Africa’s annual growth rate. It is encouraging, though, to know that the fight to eradicate malaria [...]

• legislators’ salaries

  Posted: June 21, 2010, 5:24 am by kenopp

  Annual compensation of members of parliament in US dollars: Nigeria 224,000 United States 174,000 Kenya 157,000 South Africa 66,080 Uganda 39,960 Ghana 33,120 The disparities are mind-boggling. It is a shame really that Nigerian parliamentarians should be making the kind of money they make, given the level of their per capita GDP. Ditto the Kenyans. [...]

• the world cup

  Posted: June 19, 2010, 1:02 am by kenopp

  African football is on the ropes. Of the six teams in the tournament in South Africa only Ghana has managed a victory, and even that only through a penalty kick. With Cameroon out (they crashed out today against an arguably weaker Danish team) the best African team in the tournament is Cote d’Ivoire. But the [...]

• William Easterly’s Burden

  Posted: June 18, 2010, 12:52 am by kenopp

  William Easterly continues his great crusade against the development establishment. I like his pitch for spontaneous development, but I remain skeptical of his quick dismissal of the role of the state in African development for two reasons: 1. The rest of the world has a massive head start which means that if the African entrepreneur [...]

• great idea

  Posted: June 17, 2010, 12:32 am by kenopp

  African nations have finally woken up to the threat of the ever advancing Sahara. The “great green wall of Africa” will be several kilometres wide and stretch from Senegal to Djibouti. Whoever is funding this project should condition cash transfers on need level (aridity, terrain and what not) so we can have a way of [...]

• everyone is under the law

  Posted: June 16, 2010, 7:11 pm by kenopp

  It is kind of nice to be reminded that in a democracy nobody should be above the law. The pictures of sitting members of parliament, one of them an assistant minister, arraigned in court on charges of incitement are definitely refreshing. In other news, a reminder that parts of the Continent still have the sort [...]

• nairobi blasts were grenade attacks

  Posted: June 14, 2010, 1:02 am by kenopp

  The Daily Nation reports that the blasts at a “NO” rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi were caused by grenades. This confirms Kenyans’ worst fear – that the explosions were not accidents but an organized attack on those opposed to the draft constitution. One hopes that Kenyan politicians will be sober-minded as the relevant authorities investigate [...]

• five dead in Nairobi blasts

  Posted: June 14, 2010, 3:45 am by kenopp

  Explosions hit a NO rally in Nairobi Sunday evening. The rally was attended by those opposed to the proposed constitution. The authorities have not yet released any information on whether they have leads to who might be behind the blasts. This is a worrying occurrence, given the goings on in Somalia. I hope the blasts [...]

• Links I liked

  Posted: June 8, 2010, 9:32 pm by kenopp

  A nice piece by Moussa Blimpo on Aid Watch highlights the urgent need to improve general conditions at African universities. On a related note, I totally agree with Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda’s position that Aid should be more targeted – and perhaps at times even to the middle class – if it is to make [...]

• sad sad story

  Posted: June 5, 2010, 10:55 am by kenopp

  A while back I posted something on Sierra Leone’s shocking maternal mortality stats. This week TIME magazine has this sad piece on Mamma Sessay, an 18 year old Sierra Leonean woman who died during childbirth. The images could have been a little bit more respectful (there is a little too much poorism involved for my [...]

• i like this idea…

  Posted: June 1, 2010, 8:13 am by kenopp

  Sleepless in Kenya has started this possibly 42-part series on Kenya’s many ethnic groups. Check it out here. Filed under: africa Tagged: Kenya's 42 tribes, Kenya's ethnic groups, sleepless in Kenya

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes