The Economist

South Africa: It’s not just the mines

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Posted by admin 259 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

“WE THOUGHT we were having a nightmare”, said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a South African Nobel peace prize laureate and a veteran of the struggle against apartheid. But no, he cried, “it was us, in 2012, in our democracy.” His howl of rage and disbelief has echoed across South Africa. Many of its people experienced flashbacks to the horrors of an earlier time, after last month’s

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War and diplomacy in Syria: No letting up

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Posted by admin 259 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

Every bullet has its billet LAKHDAR BRAHIMI, the experienced Algerian peacemaker who recently replaced Kofi Annan as the UN’s special envoy for Syria, describes his new task as “nearly impossible”. That seems a sound judgment. Syria’s beleaguered but ruthless regime refuses to talk to its opponents until they lay down their arms. For their part, the outgunned, fractious but res

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Israel v Iran: Holding his horses for the moment

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Posted by admin 259 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

Read my lips: no attack plans BINYAMIN NETANYAHU, Israel’s prime minister, seems to have signalled that he will wait at least until after the American presidential election before deciding whether to bash Iran’s nuclear facilities. He let it be known that he expects Barack Obama, in return, to toughen his line on Iran by issuing something close to an ultimatum to the Islamic Re

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The Gulf: Those annoying democrats

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Posted by admin 259 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

SINCE the wave of Arab uprisings started last year, the theory of “Arab exceptionalism” promoted by many Western governments to justify supporting dictatorships has looked a lot weaker. There was virtually no demand for democracy in rich, pro-Western or strategically valuable Arab countries, it was once breezily argued. Now the buzz phrase is “monarchical exceptionalism”. After all, the Arab worl

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Reforming electricity in Nigeria: A bright spark is extinguished

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Posted by admin 259 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

Barth takes a bath ALTHOUGH Nigeria has almost as many inhabitants as Brazil, it produces only 5% of the electricity. Many Nigerian leaders have tried to boost the state’s power supply, but many more have become rich by obstructing it, earning fees from private generation and stealing official funds meant for new power plants. When he was elected last year, President Goodluck J

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Angola’s heir apparent: It could be a long wait

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Posted by admin 266 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

MANUEL VICENTE, now seen as the heir apparent to Angola’s long-serving president, José Eduardo dos Santos, has had almost no formal political experience. He has never been elected to any position. He got his first government job, as minister of economic development, only eight months ago. But he has been an effective head of Angola’s oil giant, Sonangol, the chief purveyor of party funds, for the

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Egypt’s foreign policy: Independent—or not?

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Posted by admin 266 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

“SIGNAL left but turn right,” was how one Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, famously described manoeuvring from the Soviet into the American camp in the 1970s. Is Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, contemplating a similar pirouette? The Muslim Brotherhood’s winning candidate inherited a country that has been closely allied to America since Mr Sadat’s day. Yet for his first

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Yemen and the United States: Don’t drone on

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Posted by admin 266 days ago (http://www.economist.com)

“PEOPLE are afraid to go to weddings because, whenever large groups of men gather, they are afraid a drone will hit them,” says a sheikh from Bayhan district in Shabwa, a haven for al-Qaeda to the south-east of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a. He says he sees or hears about one drone a week flying over his home. After a big lunch, reclining on cushions as he and his friends chew the Yemenis’ beloved qat,