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By Erin Wildermuth
6 Jan 2009
The Communications Commission of Kenya gained vast powers over Kenya's media organizations recently as President Kibaki passed the Kenya Communications Amendments Bill 2008. The organization can now control "the time, manner and content of broadcasts." Perhaps more frightening - the Internal Security and the Communication and Information Ministers also have control over media content - placing power directly in Kibaki's government. Media organizations in Kenya are outraged and have issued a joint statement demanding a commitment to freedom of the press. Various meeting have been held between the government and the media throughout the presentation of the new act, but to no avail. The Media Owners Association is now demanding that the Act be suspended before talks continue...

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Obesity in Children

By Erin Wildermuth
15 Dec 2008
Last week a report from University College London warned that the UK would have the highest obesity level in the world by 2012. The British Heart Foundation argues that the government needs to be involved...

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Does a New Administration Mean a New Course for the War on Drugs?

By Brian Kennedy
1 Dec 2008
As the administration of George W. Bush fades into the sunset and Barrack Obama’s team gears up to take over the reins, great shifts are expected in American policies. However, one area that will not see the earth shaking changes that “The One” has promised is the War on Drugs. President-Elect Obama seems to want to continue business as usual...

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South African Moral Hypocrisy

By Brian Kennedy
28 Nov 2008
A recent article in the Economist exposes the clear inconsistencies in ANC rhetoric and South African foreign policy. The Rainbow Nation has strayed from Nelson Mandela’s idealistic pronouncement that “human rights will be the light that guides our foreign affairs.” Over the last fourteen years, the nation has steadily grown closer with the world’s most brutal regimes including: Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Qaddafi’s Libya, Fidel Castro’s Cuba, the murderous regime of al-Bashir in the Sudan, as well as China and Russia’s authoritarian regimes. The most glaring South African subversion democratic interests has been its perpetuation of Robert Mugabe’s police state and the Rainbow Nation’s attempt to block the International Criminal Court prosecution of Omar al-Bashir for his genocide in Darfur...

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Tax Hikes in Britain

By Erin Wildermuth
24 Nov 2008
Alistair Darling’s new plan to fund Britain’s recession package would raise income tax on the rich by 5p – from 44p on the pound to 45p. Notably this increase will only amount to about £2bn whereas government loans may total closer to £100bn next year. Of course, the answer could be to raise taxes on the rich further. John McDonnell of the Labour Party isn’t satisfied. He would much prefer to see a tax of 50 percent. Yes, that would mean that a full half of all earnings of the rich would be transferred to the state. Let us be honest, Mr...

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February 09, 2010

Feature Article: A Green World Order

By Caroline Boin
27 Jan 2010

The international environment bureaucracy proposed by EU countries would be bad news for people and the planet

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Health

Taxed to death

By Philip Stevens
27 Jan 2010
Poor African countries should abolish their import taxes on medicines, which harm the poor the most.

Is healthcare a human right?

By Jacob Mchangama
1 Jan 2010
The idea that healthcare is a “human right” is espoused by President Obama, enshrined in international human rights treaties and national constitutions from Brazil to Belgium, and is a principle of nearly every aid agency and humanitarian NGO. But not only is it impracticable in its definition, it creates serious legal and democratic problems — and it does not improve healthcare.

Downgrading the H1N1 influenza scare

By James Chin
23 Dec 2009
Since swine flu appeared in April, the world has been bracing itself for massive outbreaks and now the WHO says a third wave may be ahead - but actual deaths are below the average for regular seasonal flu. This world-class epidemiologist puts the plague that never was into perspective - and wonders why so many health authorities suggest washing your hands as a preventive measure.

Environment

Save the poor from climate change - with growth

By Caroline Boin
8 Dec 2009
Copenhagen won’t save the poor, whatever comes out of it. Politicians should work on making their economies free and adaptable if they want to help their people withstand climate disasters. This widely-published analyst points out that the climate is now and always has been a threat to the poor: only prosperity can mitigate that, as well as eradicating the diseases of poverty and the filthy water that kill millions every year. .

Fixing Famine

By Daniel Sacks, Jasson Urbach
28 Nov 2009
Famine looms in Kenya and Ethiopia again as another World Summit on Food Security met in Rome: but the discussions are couched in terms of govenment investment instead of in terms of the government obstruction that prevents poor people making a living. The poor are perfectly capable of improving their own lot if only they were allowed to: these authors explain how Malawians and Kenyans are doing it for themselves, from their study published here recently.

Condoms won't solve climate change

By Caroline Boin
19 Nov 2009
The UN Population Fund's annual report released on 19 November blames overpopulation for climate change, saying contraception is needed to mitigate it. The problem is not weather or over-population, it's bad government policies that keep people poor and therefore unable to protect themselves. Well published analyst Caroline Boin reminds us that the Netherlands and Israel have denser populations than India...

Technology

Music, money and growth

By Franklin Cudjoe, Mark Schultz, Alec van Gelder
24 Jun 2009
African music is loved all over the world but African musicians live in poverty: the few stars record and publish abroad. These authors explain how Africans can develop that talent into commercial success as the impoverished city of Nashville did in the 1920s, becoming a musical and economic dynamo.

The real threat to European R&D

By Alec van Gelder
5 Aug 2007
It is governments, who undermine property rights and drive investment and business out of Europe, that are to blame for the falling levels and quality of European R&D, not new competition from the fast-growng countries of Asia.

Africa needs its own Green Revolution

By Douglas Southgate
25 Jul 2007
Agricultural technologies that could save millions of lives are being held back from Africans because of the opposition of environmental NGOs and other interest groups.

Trade & Development

EU protectionism rises - from shoes to steel

By Timothy Cox, Alec van Gelder
10 Jan 2010
The European Union erected 89 new trade barriers in 2009. These analysts show how the recent flip-flop on shoe tariffs on China and Vietnam exemplifies the EU's attitude to free trade.

India-EU: special interests vs. free trade

By Philip Stevens, Alec van Gelder
5 Jan 2010
India’s economic relationship with the European Union (EU) is set to blossom with a new free trade agreement (FTA). Yet obstacles remain to this recession-busting fillip for global trade, offering huge increases in productivity, prosperity and jobs.

Free trade can free Palestinians

By Adam Robert Green
22 Dec 2009
Politics makes headlines but economics feeds people: this analyst describes how a free Palestine needs free trade, in order to build the prosperity that builds stability, in a virtuous circle. But Israel and the USA are blocking the PA's WTO bid, a move that Bush supported.

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Feature Article: A Green World Order