Sudan is burning, millions are starving, and the world is shrugging. For years, iPINIONS has been sounding the alarm about this war; its man-made famine, its atrocities, and its cynical use of hunger as a weapon. Now The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum has finally turned her lens on this most nihilistic conflict on Earth, echoing warnings… Read more.
African politics
Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize-Winning Author and Anti-Apartheid Activist, Is Dead
I feel obliged to begin by confessing that, when it came to reading the works of white authors in Apartheid South Africa, my interest did not extend much beyond those of Athol Fugard. No doubt this is because Fugard didn’t just write provocative anti-Apartheid plays (like his pioneering Blood Knot in 1961); he also defied… Read more.
Mo Ibrahim Prize: No winner of Africa’s version of the Nobel prize…?!
One can only imagine the excitement among members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee as they discussed all of the reasons why President Barack Obama was worthy of being awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. By contrast, one can only imagine the despair among members of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (MIPAAL)… Read more.
Zimbabwe: From Africa’s Bread Basket to Basket Case and Continental Contagion
Sadly, nobody will be surprised by the word association of basket case and contagion with Africa. Moreover, I am acutely aware that bailout fatigue to save the American economy makes pleas to bail out any African economy seem foolhardy. Not to mention reports that a record number of Americans (31.5 million) now rely on food stamps.… Read more.
The Mo Ibrahim ‘igNobel Prize’: $5 Million for Not Being the Worst
African leaders are so congenitally corrupt that the only way “to remove corruption and improve governance” across the continent is to bribe them. This seems to be the perverse reasoning that inspired Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim to award a prize to the African leader deemed least corrupt. And to prove his intent to give this… Read more.




