Opalo's weblog

• Will be blogging less regularly in the next few weeks

  Posted: September 30, 2011, 9:00 am by kenopp

  Dear readers, third year of graduate school requires that I blog less frequently over the next three weeks or so. Instead of the almost daily updates I will be bunching up the posts whenever time permits. You can also follow me on twitter at @kopalo where I regularly comment on stories on Africa and other [...]

• when dictators’ oracles fail them

  Posted: September 30, 2011, 8:32 am by kenopp

  One of the biggest problems in dictatorships is the dearth of dependable information. This problem affects both dictators and their oppressed subjects alike. The same applies to presidents in electoral regimes who surround themselves with “yes men,” the latter who are oftentimes more concerned about pleasing their patron than giving him the right information. This [...]

• Prof. Wangari Maathai passes on

  Posted: September 26, 2011, 9:17 am by kenopp

  I remember as a kid watching TV and seeing a woman who was the head of the greenbelt movement being chased around by armed policemen. All I knew was that she was fighting to protect Karura forest and freedom corner in Nairobi from land grabbers. This woman was Wangari Maathai, the first woman in eastern [...]

• The other dimension of the (origins of) Congolese Conflict

  Posted: September 25, 2011, 1:20 am by kenopp

  UPDATE: Stay updated on the run-up to the elections in the DRC here. ************************************************** In reaction to Dodd-Frank many in the blogosphere, including yours truly, have insisted that the problem in eastern Congo is not a law enforcement problem but a governance problem whose solution must come primarily from Kinshasa. Often ignored is the regional [...]

• Quick hits

  Posted: September 25, 2011, 11:29 pm by kenopp

  The world marathon record is back in Kenya, where it belongs. Zambian Economist has nice maps showing the results of the just concluded general elections. (Dada) Kim on Haba na Haba has a story on the continuing decline of Malawi into overt and brutal dictatorship. President Bingu wa Mutharika recently appointment his wife and brother [...]

• The Consequences of Dodd-Frank in the Kivus

  Posted: September 23, 2011, 6:45 pm by kenopp

  The dusty streets of Goma, North Kivu’s capital and a mining hub, illustrate Congo’s ills. Metals dealerships dominated the city’s economy until last year but are mostly padlocked now. Repair shops and bars that relied on mining business are empty. So are most public offices. Local government, financed by mining taxes, is insolvent; salaries have [...]

• Sata is Zambia’s president-elect

  Posted: September 23, 2011, 5:58 pm by kenopp

  NB: Still hoping from airport to airport and will give my reaction to the Sata victory when I finally get back to Palo Alto on Friday evening Pacific Time. Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front is the new president of Zambia. Mr. Sata beat incumbent president Banda after getting 43% of the declared results in [...]

• Zambian Election Results

  Posted: September 21, 2011, 10:59 am by kenopp

  UPDATE: Sata is leading 47% – 34% in the latest confirmed results from the electoral commission of Zambia. Most of these confirmed results are from Sata strongholds. Banda will almost definitely narrow the gap once the numbers from his base get put on the board. **************************************** Results (not yet confirmed by the electoral commission of [...]

• outcome of Zambian elections remains uncertain

  Posted: September 20, 2011, 3:51 am by kenopp

  The Zambian elections remain a toss up. So why is this so? See this earlier post for reasons why the opposition might fail to dislodge MMD from power. In addition, it is hard to tell what will happen because of PF’s campaign strategy of “don’t kubeba” (don’t tell them). Realizing that it is being outspent [...]

• more on the zambian elections

  Posted: September 18, 2011, 1:58 pm by kenopp

  Check out African Arguments for a brief backgrounder. The election remains too close to call, which means that Banda is winning. Given how stacked things are against the opposition, they can only win if they do so convincingly. If it is close (like it was in 2008 when the president won by just over 30,000 [...]

• Zambian Elections

  Posted: September 15, 2011, 4:33 pm by kenopp

  UPDATE: The conference (organized by the SADC observer mission and donors) on the upcoming elections was a non-starter, with only Neo Simutanyi (Zambia’s preeminent political scientist), giving a talk that had significance. The rest of the conference was full of NGO-ese hot air. None of the major political parties had representation at the conference, even [...]

• Bozize’s son is not into authoritarianism, seriously

  Posted: September 14, 2011, 9:49 pm by kenopp

  As we navigated a roundabout at the edge of town he turned to me and asked, “Have you been following the news?” I hadn’t heard anything since the day before. “About Ivory Coast? Gbagbo held his own inauguration today! Mais ca, c’est vraiment trop!” Bozize’s son then launched into a diatribe about the failings of [...]

• Hand Relief International

  Posted: September 13, 2011, 2:32 pm by kenopp

  Something for the humanitarian and aid communites to think about, courtesy of Hand Relief International. Among those in the know, another fact has not remained unnoticed: there is more money flowing in than used to and that, reader, is excellent news. The shit continues to be real in Nairobi, the dignified hub of any meaningful [...]

• Railroaded

  Posted: September 9, 2011, 3:14 pm by kenopp

  That railroads were political animals was the truth of The Octopus, even if the power Norris attributed to them did not necessarily always exist …. The Octopus raised questions that later critics of the Robber Baron school, dismayed by its exaggerations, largely dismissed. They threw the baby out with the bathwater. They did not spend [...]

• quick hits on Zambia and beyond

  Posted: September 9, 2011, 10:15 am by kenopp

  In case you missed it, Zambia is a middle income country – at least according to the Bank. This sort of shows in some parts of Lusaka. But Zambia is also a highly unequal and very poor country. Most people in the countryside have nothing else to do but subsistence farming and burning charcoal. The [...]

• Zambian elections

  Posted: September 8, 2011, 1:06 pm by kenopp

  The Zambian elections will be held on the 20th of this month. The main candidates are incumbent President Rupiah Banda (RB) and opposition leader Michael Sata (Sshhh, don’t kubeba). The two are running on the MMD (movement for multiparty democracy) and PF (Patriotic Front) tickets respectively. Both parties have fielded parliamentary candidates in all constituencies. [...]

• THE TAZARA (TOTAL TIME: 2 DAYS 1 HOUR 26 MINUTES)

  Posted: September 7, 2011, 8:17 am by kenopp

  Note: I will post some photos to accompany this post as soon as I get to a place with a faster internet connection. The post is from Friday, September 2nd. Over the last two days I have been on the TAZARA from Dar es Salaam to Kapiri-Mposhi. The ride lived up to my expectations, despite [...]

• in zambia for the next two and a half weeks

  Posted: September 5, 2011, 12:34 pm by kenopp

  I have not been able to blog for the last several days because of my ongoing summer trip to eastern and southern Africa. I was briefly in Dar es Salaam where I took  the TAZARA to Zambia. I have several posts on the TAZARA, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia that I will avail to my readers [...]

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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

The end of the fish cakes