Opalo's weblog

• Kenyan Court Orders Bashir Arrest, Sudan Expels Kenyan Ambassador

  Posted: November 28, 2011, 8:49 pm by Ken Opalo

  UPDATE: The BBC reports: Sudan ordered the expulsion of the Kenyan ambassador after a Kenyan judge issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s foreign ministry has said. Mr Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Darfur. Sudan has ordered the Kenyan ambassador to leave the [...]

• Quick hits

  Posted: November 27, 2011, 7:20 pm by Ken Opalo

  Follow the goings on in the DRC (especially this election season) over at Alex Engwete’s blog. Living under the shadow of Kony and his men in Eastern CAR. On a related note, the Ugandan army’s dirty war in the Congo and CAR. Shame on the ANC. But there is still hope for cleaner politics in [...]

• $500 million, and for what?

  Posted: November 25, 2011, 12:22 am by Ken Opalo

  Congolese go to the polls on Monday, the 28th of November. The result of the election is almost a foregone conclusion. Incumbent president Joseph Kabila looks set to win another term in office – another 5 years to continue the mismanagement of the DRC’s resources through shady mining deals. According to the Economist: Whatever the [...]

• Mining and Voting in the Congo

  Posted: November 21, 2011, 6:05 pm by Ken Opalo

  Elections in the DRC have come to be marked by a fire sale of state assets. A recent report by the UK parliament estimates that the government may have lost up to $5.5 b due to undervaluation of these state assets before sale. No prizes for guessing where part of the difference in these sales [...]

• The Catholic Church and AIDS: A Sorry Case of Denial

  Posted: November 19, 2011, 8:38 pm by Ken Opalo

  The Church’s continued ostrich approach to the catastrophe that is HIV/AIDS on the continent: Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday signed off on an African roadmap for the Roman Catholic Church that calls for good governance and denounces abuses, while labelling AIDS a mainly ethical problem. Benedict signed the apostolic exhortation called “The Pledge for Africa” [...]

• Portugal Seeks Angolan Investment

  Posted: November 16, 2011, 1:04 am by Ken Opalo

  The Portuguese once ruled an empire that included Brazil, Angola and Mozambique, among other smaller possessions. But since the loss of empire Lisbon has fared rather poorly. First it was the Brazilians who managed to economically dominate their former colonizers. The Angolans are beginning to also get in the game. Angola is one of the [...]

• donkey markets and the al-shabab

  Posted: November 15, 2011, 11:47 am by Ken Opalo

  Kenya’s invasion of al-Shabab held parts of Somalia has inadvertently elevated the demand for donkeys. Because of the rains (making the use of vehicles a nightmare) and a desire to disguise their transportation of arms, the al-Shabab have resorted to the use of donkeys. The BBC reports: In his latest series of tweets, the Kenyan [...]

• Zuma may be a one-term president

  Posted: November 7, 2011, 9:42 pm by kenopp

  Back when he dislodged Thabo Mbeki South African President Jacob Zuma promised that he would only serve one term. But having tasted the power of the presidency, he now wants a second term. His bid, however, has not been well accepted within the ANC. Although it is common knowledge that the much-married Zuma wants a [...]

• Human brutality timeline

  Posted: November 7, 2011, 8:26 am by kenopp

  The Times has a chat on the timeline of human brutality. Encouragingly, the overall picture appears to be that (compared to past periods) less people – as a percentage of the total – die from violence. Here is the Times on the top three most deadly human conflicts: The savagery of the Mongol conqueror Genghis [...]

• Effects of Conditional Vs. Unconditional Cash Transfer

  Posted: November 3, 2011, 4:20 am by kenopp

  Baird, McIntosh and Ozler have an upcoming paper in the QJE investigating the differential impacts of conditional and unconditional cash transfer in Malawi: Starting with schooling outcomes, we find that although dropout rates declined in both treatment arms, the effect in the UCT arm is 43% as large as that in the CCT arm. Evidence [...]

• Projects Without Development

  Posted: November 2, 2011, 9:06 pm by kenopp

  Guest Post by Erin Pettigrew (PhD Candidate, Stanford University)        Naked Palm Trees and Other Failed Development Projects in Senegal La Pointe des Almadies is Dakar’s wealthiest neighborhood and it teems with expat NGO workers and the palaces of government officials. Recently, the construction of an immense statue, “The African Renaissance Monument”, a 27 million [...]

• Quick hits

  Posted: November 2, 2011, 4:44 am by kenopp

  Jesus! Good intentions are not enough. (Properly regulated) Markets rule. Kenya and Eritrea appear to be on a collision course. The Horn might get a little bit hotter in the next few months. Some insights into politics and development in Nigeria. I hold the minority opinion that Nigeria might yet surprise those short selling it [...]

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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