Africa

Saturday

Simon Courtauld

Cherchez la femme

The 22nd Earl of Erroll, Military Secretary in Kenya in the early part of the second world war, was described by two of his fellow peers of the realm as ‘a stoat — one of the great pouncers of all time’ and ‘a dreadful shit who really needed killing’. The 22nd Earl of Erroll, Military Secretary in Kenya in the early part of the second world war, was described by two of his fellow peers of the realm as ‘a stoat — one of the great pouncers of all time’ and ‘a dreadful shit who really needed killing’.

Saturday

David Blackburn

The relevance of politics

This morning's papers share a unifying theme: the failure of political leadership to secure a deal at Copenhagen. Now, I applaud politicians for not succombing to enormous pressure and making a series of pledges that would risk grinding the world's poor ever deeper into the dirt. For those who take a different view, it is not that politicians have failed, but that high politics is an irrelevance, a vanity. I know Coffee Housers loathe her opinions, but Polly Toynbee is at her polemical best today. She writes: 'Politics is being weighed in the balance and found wanting. The writing is on the wall. The leadership required within and between each nation is heavier lifting that the weak machinery of governmental power can manage.

Monday

Giles Foden

Sideshow on the lake

During the night of 9 February 1916, two men were sitting on opposing shores of Lake Tanganyika. The longest lake in the world, it at that time divided German East Africa from the Belgian Congo. One of the men was Herr Kapitänleutnant Gustav von Zimmer, the other was an eccentric British navy officer, Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simpson. The following morning, Zimmer would launch the Graf von Götzen, a large vessel which floats to this day on the waters of the lake. Spicer-Simson takes a starring role in my narrative non-fiction book, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth (2004).

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Debating Aids

Is it legitimate to discuss the strength of the link between HIV and Aids? It’s one of these hugely emotive subjects, with a fairly strong and vociferous lobby saying that any open discussion is deplorable and tantamount to Aids denialism. Whenever any debate hits this level, I get deeply suspicious. Which is why the below clip – from a documentary which The Spectator Events division is screening next week, called House of Numbers – aroused my interest. The film picked up awards at various American film festivals, but has since been denounced as backing Aids denialism. Yet the footage shows Luc Montagnier – who won a Nobel prize last year for his work on Aids – saying that many HIV infections can be shrugged off by a healthy immune system.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

The Good Gordon Brown

Marbury is quite right. The Prime Minister's advisers must wonder what they have to do to get this Gordon Brown appearing on your TV screen. Now, there are a few things one could say about the content of Brown's Ted Talk in Oxford but that's a post for another time. But in general, this is good stuff: fluent, passionate, witty (yes, really) and so on. Above all, freed from the tedium and trivia and trauma of life at Westminster you see a different and relaxed big-picture Gordon. It's almost enough to make one wonder what might have happened if only Gordon weren't quite so bad at politics... Anyway, this is worth your time. There's a good, if probably apocryphal, Reagan joke too.

Monday

Alex Massie

The 3% Solution & the Case for More, Not Fewer, Foreign Workers

So the Tories have announced their new international development policy. Apparently it's going to be "results-based" and fit for a "post-bureaucratic age" (this latter being, mind you, the kind of phrase coined by bureaucrats). Iain Dale likes the sound of it and so does Tory Bear. I'm sure there are plenty of good ideas lurking in the new paper, but I'm also pretty sure that there's not much sign of the Tories moving towards a truly radical approach to international development: open borders. Actually, it's not quite open borders, more a question of creating a worldwide guest-worker programme. Harvard's Lant Pritchett is perhaps the leading proponent of this sort of idea.

Wednesday

Michela Wrong

When hopes were high

Dons don’t usually appear to much advantage in fiction. For those who follow African affairs, these are not happy times. Once regarded as passé, the military coup is enjoying something of a come- back. Men formerly hailed as Renaissance leaders seem bent on being crowned presidents-for-life. From Sudan to Kenya, Somalia to Zimbabwe, carefully negotiated peace deals and coalition governments have either already foundered or quiver on the brink of collapse. So this book possesses a terrible poignancy. The years it covers — a time when black nationalists in the territories that went on to become today’s Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia campaigned to shrug off white rule — are still comparatively recent history.

Wednesday

Justin Cartwright

Zuluboy is here

South Africa’s Brave New World: The Beloved Country since Apartheid, by R. W. Johnson After the Party: Corruption and the ANC, by Andrew Feinstein I am writing this in Cape Town on the very day that Jacob Zuma is exonerated of all charges of corruption, racketeering and money-laundering — not by a judge, but by an ANC-appointed acting Director of the National Prosecuting Authority. This man defended his decision by claiming that there had been an abuse of due process when the head of the Scorpions anti-corruption unit was recorded by the National Intelligence Agency talking with ANC high-ups, including Thabo Mbeki, about the timing of Zuma’s prosecution. This abuse of process has apparently made the strong case against Zuma unwinnable.

Saturday

Anthony Daniels

Whistling in the dark | 21 March 2009

It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower, by Michela Wrong Once, when I was crossing Mali by bus, it took three days to go 100 yards. This was not because of the condition of the road, but because three sets of officials — the army, the police and the douaniers — insisted upon extracting their pound of flesh from the passengers (except for me), and would not let them go until they had duly paid up. The passengers took it all with a good-humoured resignation that both surprised and moved me. Perhaps their resignation derived from an understanding that, had the boot been upon the other foot, they would have behaved in the same way. Such a degree of self-understanding is rare in the world.

Wednesday

Michela Wrong

Killing with kindness

When I wrote a regular column on Africa for this magazine’s left-wing rival, I was always intrigued by the contrast in responses to any sceptical article on aid. ‘This reactionary bigot is clearly happy for millions of Africans to starve,’ pretty much summed up the fury of white readers at having their Oxfam direct debits questioned. ‘No, she’s right!’ replied my defenders. ‘These corrupt, thieving governments should be cut off without a penny.’ Those ones always came from Africans.

Friday

Alex Massie

Global Crisis Deepens

Uganda's ethics and integrity minister recognises that these are perilous times. Women wearing mini-skirts, he says, are a danger to public safety, responsible for all manner of traffic accidents. What's wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally." He continued arguing that, "if you find a naked person you begin to concentrate on the make-up of that person and yet you are driving." According to Foreign Policy: The BBC notes that [Mr] Buturo is seeking to rid Uganda of its many vices, and inappropriate dress is just one of the many indecent items that appear on the minister's list. Among others are theft and embezzlement of public funds, sub-standard service delivery, greed, infidelity, prostitution, and homosexuality.

Friday

Alex Massie

Appeasement Watch: Harare Edition

Michael Ledeen despairs over Condi Rice's condemnation of Robert Mugabe: This is Darfur all over again. And Iran all over again.  And Syria all over again.  Stern language, with the threat of even sterner language if the recipient doesn't behave better.It's an embarrassment.Once upon a time, we had leaders who supported freedom and did everything possible to bring down tyrants.  But not today. Today we give feel-good speeches full of politically correct slogans, wrapped in the mantle of multiculturalism and multilateralism. [Emphasis added]. When did the United States enjoy these leaders? This seems a questionable assertion to say the least, certainly in the post-WW2 era.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Zimbabwe’s Dr Benito Speaks!

Many thanks to Isaac Chotiner for pointing out the latest example of what he rightly considers to be Scoop-turned-fact. One the one hand, Zimbabwe's opposition leaders are being detained, on the other there's the confiscation of American food-aid which, rather than reach its intended target, was requisitioned to feed ZANU-PF supporters. When the Americans complained about their convoy being hijacked... Wayne Bvudzijena, spokesman for Zimbabwe’s national police, did not respond to the substance of Mr. McGee’s charge when contacted on his cellphone on Wednesday, but instead contended that there was no place named Bambazonke in Zimbabwe. “If you can go back to the honorable ambassador and verify your facts, madam,” Mr. Bvudzijena said, then hung up.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Department of Pretty Words

The Boston Globe:"Candidates Unite Against Darfur Genocide"Isn't it a bit late for that? "Today, we wish to make clear to the Sudanese government that on this moral issue of tremendous importance, there is no divide between us," the three candidates say. "We stand united and demand that the genocide and violence in Darfur be brought to an end and that the CPA be fully implemented. Even as we campaign for the presidency, we will use our standing as Senators to press for the steps needed to ensure that the United States honors, in practice and in deed, its commitment to the cause of peace and protection of Darfur's innocent citizenry. We will continue to keep a close watch on events in Sudan and speak out for its marginalized peoples.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Hillary of Harare

In one sense there's little point in writing about Hillary Clinton anymore. She's lost. Still, if there is any truth to the notion, much-favoured by Washington reporters, that you can gain a sense of character and, indeed, governing style from the way in which a candidate campaigns then, by gum, we should be glad that Hillary Clinton is not going to be the next President of the United States. Her caterwauling about the perceived injustice of not counting the Florida and Michigan primary results on account of their determination to break DNC rules, has conquered many peaks of absurdity lately. Norm draws my attention to this one:People go through the motions of an election only to have it discarded and disregarded.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Corker, Shumble, Whelper and Pigge would be proud…

Congratulations to Joe Bavier, a Reuters correspondent in the Congo. You could work years in this trade and never get to tap out an intro like this: KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. [Via, Passport, Foreign Policy's excellent blog.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Hillary and Rwanda: A Study in Cynicism

Annoyed though I am by Hillary's claim to have solved the Irish Question, it's nothing compared to her - how to put it? - revisionist claims about the Rwandan genocide. These are revolting. Hilzoy lays it all out here in a post* that's as enraging as it is sickening. The conclusion: I think it's a lot more likely that she either didn't advocate action on Rwanda at all, or did so only in passing. If so, this would have to be the definitive example of her attempt to claim responsibility for everything good that happened during her husband's presidency, while disavowing all responsibility for his mistakes. This was, in my opinion, the most shameful moment of the Clinton administration.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Today’s shocking news

Comes from poor Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's governing party has endorsed Robert Mugabe as its candidate for next year's presidential elections. The vote by delegates at the Zanu-PF conference in the capital, Harare, allows the 83-year-old president to seek a sixth term in office in March.... Mr Mugabe's selection was by open acclamation and all 10 of Zanu-PF's provincial bodies backed him. "I did not hear any dissenting voices," John Nkomo, the Zanu-PF chairman said, according to the French news agency. "It means this congress has fully and unreservedly declared Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe as the presidential candidate for next year's presidential elections." Killer quote (literally): "Every one of them matters to me. Can I let them down?