Opalo's weblog

• quick hits

  Posted: September 30, 2010, 7:31 am by kenopp

  Below are some links that I liked: Sudan: It was never going to be easy to go separate ways. Understanding the Mozambican riots. Jammeh, the delusional Gambian president, is completely out of his mind. Easterly on Zoellick and being kicked out of the BANK. Bureaucracy gone mad, why does the UN have some of these [...]

• fixing somalia

  Posted: September 27, 2010, 1:48 pm by kenopp

  The Kenyan foreign minister has some ideas…. Kenya’s foreign minister said Saturday the millions being spent to fight pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia should be spent instead on helping the country become a functioning state. Adding that “Piracy is not born at sea. It’s born on land. And if you are able to [...]

• reality check

  Posted: September 24, 2010, 3:10 am by kenopp

  Recently I have been reminded over and over again of the fact that in the sixties South Korea, Ghana, Kenya, the Congo etc had roughly similar per capita GDP (I just started reading economic gangsters and have attended two very interesting lectures by Francis Fukuyama). Assertions of this nature are usually accompanied by accounts of [...]

• the tusker index

  Posted: September 22, 2010, 4:45 am by kenopp

  Update: CrossTalk guy (see below) has pointed out that inflation and what not has since raised these prices. The top-end joints – Intercontinental Hotel and the likes – will charge you around Kshs. 300 for a bottle of Tusker. Most Yuppie joints sell the same at Kshs. 200. The recommended retail price is Kshs. 85-90. [...]

• the mdgs

  Posted: September 21, 2010, 8:37 pm by kenopp

  Since everyone is currently talking about the MDGs and how they may or may not be achieved on time here is a nice piece from Bill Easterly. According to an Oxfam study, eliminating US cotton subsidies would “improve the welfare of over one million West African households – 10 million people – by increasing their [...]

• democracy, development and the rule of law

  Posted: September 20, 2010, 11:41 pm by kenopp

  This is the title of a class that I am a TA  (the joys of graduate school…) in this term. I am excited to be a part of the class. It is jointly taught by, in the words of Stoner-Weiss, the dean of democracy: Larry Diamond, and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss herself. Guest lectures will include presentations [...]

• kabogo, mbuvi and wanjiru win seats

  Posted: September 20, 2010, 11:28 pm by kenopp

  Former assistant minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru staved off a spirited challenge from Maina Kamanda to regain her Starehe seat in a hotly contested by-election. In other by-elections in the wider Nairobi area Kabogo of Juja beat business tycoon Thuo to win the Juja parliamentary seat while Mbuvi of Makadara beat Reuben Ndolo and immediate former [...]

• frantz fanon in the white house?

  Posted: September 17, 2010, 12:55 am by kenopp

  Interesting stuff from American Politics…. Former speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, echoed an article in Forbes magazine by the nutjob D’Souza  which claimed that Obama’s philosophy and worldview is viewed by an anti-colonial mentality inherited from his father – along with his father’s other non-stellar traits. Which sort of makes you [...]

• reading the federalist papers

  Posted: September 17, 2010, 9:58 am by kenopp

  I am ashamed that it has taken me this long to finally begin reading the Federalist Papers (having watched the latest episode of mad men I have no better study break from preparing for my qualifying exams). My favorite so far is Federalist No. 10 (who’s punchline is that we should not try to stop [...]

• africa is not a country

  Posted: September 16, 2010, 8:14 am by kenopp

  The Economist reports on a project hatched to rebrand sub-Saharan Africa. Nobody can dispute the need to revamp the image of the Continent to make it be more than just about warring Congolese, corrupt Nigerians, or starving Ethiopians. That said, I am not too excited about the idea of packaging the entire continent as one [...]

• happy democracy day!!

  Posted: September 15, 2010, 1:02 am by kenopp

  Without taking a stand on which brand of democracy should be practiced around the world (I just know that I like the things that are supposed to come with democracy like the rule of law and responsive government) I would like to wish you all a happy democracy day. Here’s a message I just got [...]

• goodluck jonathan announces his candidacy on facebook

  Posted: September 15, 2010, 8:15 pm by kenopp

  Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has announced that he shall be running for president in next year’s general election, according to a post on his facebook page. Apparently the good sir takes social media seriously: While some observers were surprised that Mr Jonathan had used Facebook to announce his candidacy, he said in July that comments [...]

• blair commission on african poverty recommends more billions in aid

  Posted: September 13, 2010, 3:01 pm by kenopp

  The Blair Commission set up to find British solutions to African poverty has recommended that the Continent get more billions in aid. There is no doubt that Africa needs all the money it can get, aid cynics’ criticisms notwithstanding. But that money, if it ever comes, should come with new ideas. Perhaps for a change [...]

• senegalese court bans using children to beg

  Posted: September 13, 2010, 1:33 pm by kenopp

  The Times reports that a court in Senegal has declared a long held practice by Marabouts of using children to beg  illegal. “The bowls are sometimes no more than old tin tomato cans; the children, some as young as 4, are often barefoot, and they spend perilous hours on the streets and sidewalks, weaving in [...]

• southern adventurism?

  Posted: September 11, 2010, 8:52 am by kenopp

  Charles Onyango-Obbo, in Africa Review, has a piece documenting the cases of infidelity in Southern Africa involving the wives of heads of state. From Swaziland to South Africa to Zambia heads of state have had to manage spouses with “restless skirts.” Mr. Onyango-Obbo argues that part of the reason is that “Southern Africa as a [...]

• debating africa’s growth prospects

  Posted: September 10, 2010, 8:34 am by kenopp

  The Economist has an interesting debate going on about Africa’s growth prospects. The consensus appears to be that structural factors – such as institutions, culture, colonial history and what not – are the main culprits in the tragic tale of African underdevelopment. I agree. Bad governance, the historical accident of colonialism which halted the natural [...]

• catch me if you can: of presidents and genocide

  Posted: September 8, 2010, 6:34 pm by kenopp

  Those who conceive of justice as an end in itself must be livid. The last several days have seen one appeasement after another of heads of state who may have or have committed heinous crimes against their people. First there was the Kenyan invitation and failure to arrest suspected genocidaire Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. Then [...]

• more from Siaya: Siaya District Hospital is a disgrace

  Posted: September 4, 2010, 1:14 am by kenopp

  If anyone knows anyone important in the ministry of health and medical services please let them know that the x-ray division at the Siaya district hospital is not even trying – especially the bespectacled guy who apparently recently went on a trip overseas (I know this because he spent like two hours total chatting with [...]

• slum politics

  Posted: September 4, 2010, 2:00 am by kenopp

  The just released results of the 2009 population census dethrones Kibera from the dubious status of Africa’s largest slum. The figures are much lower than most analysts believe. Only 170,070 people live in the slum. This compared to the oftentimes cited figure of close to a million. The total population of the immediate Nairobi area [...]

• kagame on the ropes

  Posted: September 3, 2010, 11:56 pm by kenopp

  I respect all that Paul Kagame has done for Rwanda. Under his leadership the country appears to have survived the 1994 catastrophe, emerging as the least corrupt and one of the fastest growing economies in the region. But like most autocrats, Mr. Kagame has had his dark side. A damning UN report apparently documents atrocities [...]

• food riots in mozambique

  Posted: September 3, 2010, 11:41 pm by kenopp

  The BBC reports that at least 10 people have died following food riots in a number of urban centres in Mozambique. The Southern African nation has witnessed a 20% increase in the price of bread in the last several days which precipitated the riots. Russia’s ban on wheat exports after fires burned a significant proportion [...]

• al-bashir and the ugly truth

  Posted: September 3, 2010, 7:38 pm by kenopp

  August 27th was the day Kenyans founded their second republic. Having woken up early to watch the festivities on tv I was rather surprised to see Sudan’s president Bashir ushered onto the dais by tourism minister Najib Balala. Subsequently members of parliament, the government and Kenya’s civil society started pointing fingers and expressing dismay over [...]

• Potholes potholes potholes!

  Posted: September 1, 2010, 11:58 pm by kenopp

  It is a key road that links western Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and the eastern DRC to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. But the state of the Kisumu-Busia “highway” does not exemplify its economic importance to the wider east African region.  Potholes, dangerously narrow stretches, and encroachment by vendors are some of the many things that [...]

• Drinking their savings and lives away

  Posted: September 1, 2010, 11:51 pm by kenopp

  Rural (western) Kenya has a drinking problem. I base this conclusion on three weeks of traveling in and around Siaya. From Bondo to Ugunja, Siaya town to Rabar trading centre, men start drinking from as early as ten in the morning. They call it “kustuwa kichwa” (loosely translates to jumpstarting the mind). East African Breweries [...]

• jkia has free internet!

  Posted: September 1, 2010, 11:41 pm by kenopp

  The last time I had free wireless at an airport was in Hartford, Connecticut. I am therefore absolutely delighted to be able to blog as I wait for my flight to London tonight. I am not looking forward to the long hours in pressurized steel tubes – as one of my pals calls them – [...]

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Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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

The end of the fish cakes