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Monday 10th of April 2017 |
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Not even 100 days into his presidency, Trump has done exactly what he attacked Hillary Clinton for contemplating. Law & Politics |
Some have described this reverse as “hypocritical.” This description is not accurate. A hypocrite says one thing while inwardly believing another. The situation with Donald Trump is much more alarming. On October 26, 2016, he surely meant what he said. It’s just that what he meant and said that day was no guide to what he would mean or say on October 27, 2016—much less April 6, 2017.
Voters and citizens can expect literally zero advance warning of what Donald Trump will do or won’t do. Campaign promises, solemn pledges—none are even slightly binding. If he can reverse himself on Syria, he can reverse himself on anything.
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Will economics prevail against politics in Africa? By ALY-KHAN SATCHU Africa |
Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation until 1 September 2013, was quoted as follows by the @Mo_IbrahimFdn at their #Ardebates:
Will economics prevail against politics in #Africa?
And I could not help thinking to myself that along with job creation that this is the biggest challenge facing Africa. The dimensions of the political economy differ across the continent, but wherever we care to turn, we can see that the political economy is exacting a very heavy price.
Take South Africa where Fitch Ratings followed S&P by downgrading it to junk status.
Fitch Ratings said: “The Cabinet reshuffle, which involved the replacement of the finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, and the deputy finance minister, Mcebisi Jonas, is likely to result in a change in the direction of economic policy. The reshuffle partly reflected efforts by the out-going finance minister to improve the governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The reshuffle is likely to undermine, if not reverse, progress in SOE governance, raising the risk that SOE debt could migrate on to the government’s balance sheet.”
The cost to South Africa Inc after the latest reshuffle at the Treasury is measurable [South African banks are now rated at ‘’Junk’’] and it’s egregious. Why? Politics.
I remember the cries of ‘’South Sudan Oyee!’’ as Juba got its independence. There was so much momentum, but look at what has happened. Everything became binary [Dinka versus Nuer] and the economy has crashed and burned. The River Nile flows through Juba, it could have been the ‘’bread-basket’’ of East Africa, but today a biblical famine stalks the land. Why? Politics.
North of our border, Ethiopia [the poster child for Sub-Saharan gross domestic product growth] has extended the State of Emergency for another four months. A State of Emergency represents a situation that is in disequilibrium. A lot of folks have invested in Ethiopia’s future but returning to equilibrium looks problematic.
This past week the president of DR Congo Joseph Kabila [sporting a virtuoso moustache] appointed Bruno Tshibala prime minister, but the political uncertainty has sent DR Congo’s GDP into a tail-spin. Congo should be an economy the size of Brazil!
Here in Kenya we are set to embark on an election. I have seen some seriously credible research that puts the estimated cost of our elections at anywhere between $2 billion-$4 billion(about Sh206.88 billion-Sh413.76 billion). That includes the presidential, gubernatorial and all other elections put together. You have to ask if Kenya Inc can afford to bear such a heavy burden.
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra. He was punished for his self-aggrandising craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity. The political economy is like that boulder.
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Congo's Kabila names opposition figure Tshibala prime minister Africa |
Tshibala was expelled from the UDPS last month after he and other prominent opposition leaders contested the designation of successors to veteran leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who died in February.
Tshisekedi's son, Felix, who replaced his father as president of the main opposition bloc, said Kabila violated the deal by not naming a candidate of the alliance's choosing.
"We continue to demand the application of the Dec. 31, 2016 accord," he told Reuters. "The nomination of Bruno Tshibala is a departure from the accord."
Tshibala will be confronted immediately with stern security and economic tests. Congo's franc currency has lost nearly half its value since last year and militia violence has worsened across the country in the wake of Kabila's decision to stay on.
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Our farm is in the eye of a terrible, murderous storm Aidan Hartley The Spectator Africa |
For weeks the farm has been in the eye of a storm, with violence swirling all around us in clouds of dust kicked up by multitudes of cattle. Last week to the west, tribal invaders burned down Kuki Gallmann’s tourist lodge overlooking the Mukutan Gorge. On Sosian ranch to the south our neighbours are bravely pushing on a month after the invaders murdered Tristan and burned down several homes. To the east on Suyian ranch, Anne’s safari lodge — the loveliest camp I ever saw in Laikipia — also lies in ashes. To the north invaders are still poaching elephant, as they are everywhere around us, spraying bullets into their legs and then hacking out the tusks. Since they wandered off with their herds before Christmas, the invaders have still not returned to our place. This might be because we were left with no grass and little water. It is dead quiet now. Walking through the bush at noon, I hear only my own breathing and footsteps, which kick up little explosions of dust. No birdsong, no wind. The landscape’s colours are those you see in the images Nasa spacecraft transmit from Mars, reddish and with stark light and shadow. There is no pasture left and the animals are dying. In the valley our fever trees stand like vandalised umbrellas, their branches collapsed on all sides from starving elephant that smash them down in their desperation for anything to suck out of the bitter, yellow bark. On my path I find a waterbuck that must have collapsed only a few minutes before, its eyes still open as it dies.
The invaders appear to have vanished, but I frequently see tracks in the dust — and sometimes figures scampering away through the bush. Beyond the farm’s perimeter fence I see vast herds of cattle, tens of thousands of them. I am anxious to know why they have not smashed down our fences again, as they did in October — and why they have not yet burned down the farmstead, the hay barn and offices. Perhaps they are just saving us until later. I question a Samburu friend about this and he says, ‘to us you are like a white bird’. I wearily ask what on earth he is talking about and after an esoteric conversation I finally deduce that he is comparing me to an Egyptian vulture. Supposedly, the Samburu avoid killing such creatures for fear of bringing curses down upon themselves.
It is all very well being seen as an untouchable vulture, but at nightfall I am reminded that in recent years this has failed to protect me from being shot at, ambushed, pelted with rocks, spears, knobkerries and abuse. And it’s also not true that the Samburu avoid killing vultures, because this once abundant creature has all but vanished from our neck of the woods. And in the dark the fun begins.
Around the farmstead itself is a high security electric fence with thousands of volts pulsing through it. I’ve seen a baboon climb over it — and I know a leopard got through it one night — but unless the wires are cut there is no way a human can breach the line without triggering loud alarms and flashing lights. The first alarm goes off at about 9 p.m. I go out with the fencing team until we find the cut wires, fix them and restore power. We have an askari defending the barn, where our last hay reserves are stored for the farm’s cattle. It’s just a matter of time before the invaders try to either steal it or burn the barn out of spite.
At midnight the alarm goes off again. Wandering along the fence line in the dark with the team, the hairs on my neck stand up. People outside the fence are watching us and I wonder what arms they carry and if they will use them. The cut is found and fixed. At 2 a.m. the alarm sounds again — and then again at 4 a.m. After all the night fears, dawn in Kenya always lifts my spirits. First I hear the sand grouse, then the bustards winging their way towards the light, then the francolins. Briefly, I fancy there’s a dew before the sun comes up and like breath lifting from a knife the idea vanishes.
After rampaging their way through half a million acres of Laikipia, some of Kenya’s best ranches and wildlife areas, the invaders’ cattle have started dying like the other animals. On a drive through the bush beyond the farm borders I cross invisible clouds of stench that are overwhelming. The starving cows first sit down and refuse to get up again. They stay there until they keel over. It’s happening to hundreds, and soon it will be thousands — and then the invasions will end and the rains will come at last.
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