Alon Ben-Meir, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Affairs, NYU, 07/30/2015, The Huffington Post The pending order to demolish the small Palestinian village of Susiya in the southern Judean Mountains in the occupied West Bank represents the most blatant violation of human rights. The order calls for the forcible removal of several hundred Palestinians who have been living on … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2015
Dear Obama: Corruption Isn’t Just Africa’s Problem
BY HOWARD W. FRENCH, 30 JULY 2015, FOREIGN POLICY What the U.S. president didn’t say in his big Nairobi speech. For an American president celebrated by many of his listeners as a returning native son, Barack Obama’s recent speech in a Nairobi stadium was a strange way to promote what he called an Africa “on the move.” Yes, there were plenty of feel-good moments in Nairobi, … [Read more...]
Obama, on China’s Turf, Presents U.S. as a Better Partner for Africa
By PETER BAKER, 29 JULY 2015, THE NEW YORK TIMES ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Without ever quite saying so explicitly, President Obama used his four-day trip to Africa to suggest that the United States offers an alternative to China’s aggressive courtship of the continent. At a time when China has surpassed the United States as a trading partner and left its mark throughout … [Read more...]
UN paid millions to Russian aviation firm since learning of sex attack on girl
Paul Lewis in Washington, Oliver Laughhland in New York and Roger Hamilton-Martin in London, Thursday 30 July 2015, The Guardian (US) Exclusive: Documents reveal United Nations unit uncovered possible ‘culture of sexual exploitation and abuse’ after 2010 attack by UTair crew member, but permitted company to continue receiving contracts worth millions The United Nations has … [Read more...]
Hunter who killed Cecil the lion blames Zimbabwean guides
29 JUL 2015, Mail & Guardian (South Africa) James Palmer, the US dentist who shot and killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, blamed his guides on Tuesday for the death of the big cat. The US hunter who killed a Zimbabwean lion wearing a tracking collar blamed his guides on Tuesday for the death of the big cat. James Palmer, a dentist from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, said … [Read more...]
Ethiopia in fetters, but flourishing
BY KATRINA MANSON, 30 JULY 2015, Business Day (South Africa) WHILE Ethiopia was only recently ignominious for the "biblical famine" that afflicted millions in 1984, today it delivers development like no other country in Africa. The World Bank forecasts it will be the world’s fastest-growing country in the four years to 2017, at 9.6% a year. It has built 35 universities … [Read more...]
Africa’s Next Hegemon: Behind Ethiopia’s Power Plays
By Harry Verhoeven, 12 April 2015, Foreign Affairs In 1991, as the Cold War drew to an end, the only African country that had never been colonized by European imperialists was but a pale reflection of the Great Ethiopia that generations of the kingdom’s monarchs had pursued. A million people lay dead following two decades of civil war. Secessionist movements in the … [Read more...]
How Slavery’s Legacy Affects the Mental Health of Black Americans
By Alma Carten, 27 JULY 2015, The New Repbulic In July 22, in announcing the federal indictment of Charleston killer Dylann Roof, Attorney General Loretta Lynch commentedthat the expression of forgiveness offered by the victims’ families is “an incredible lesson and message for us all.” Forgiveness and grace are, indeed, hallmarks of the Black Church. Since slavery, the … [Read more...]
A RENEGADE TRAWLER, HUNTED FOR 10,000 MILES BY VIGILANTE
By IAN URBINA, 28 JULY 2015, THE NEW YORK TIMES For 110 days and across two seas and three oceans, crews stalked a fugitive fishing ship considered the world’s most notorious poacher. ABOARD THE BOB BARKER, in the South Atlantic — As the Thunder, a trawler considered the world’s most notorious fish poacher, began sliding under the sea a couple of hundred miles south of … [Read more...]
US dentist accused of killing Cecil the lion ‘upset’ as hunter becomes hunted
Jessica Glenza in New York,Ashiufa Kassam in Madrid and David Smith, Africa correspondent, Tuesday 28 July 2015, The Guardian (UK) As Zimbabwean police say he faces poaching charges, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer faces furious criticism on social media Who shot Cecil? First it was thought that a mystery Spaniard had the blood of one of Africa’s most famous lions on his … [Read more...]