Jeffrey Sachs has become something of a force in international development circles over the past decade. As special advisor to the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, former director of the UN's Millennium Development Project, and a decorated economi...
By Danielle Nierenberg and Brian Halweil
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the devastating famine that hit Ethiopia in the 1980s. At that time, Bob Geldof brought together a group of well-meaning musicians to raise money to feed millions of ...
How long was the last lease you signed? Twenty pages? Ten? The last lease I signed was to sublet a room in a student digs and at five pages it was the barest of legal agreements. So it makes me a little queasy to read that national governments and pr...
I decided to write another blog on the topic to further clarify my position on a few issues and to adopt a more conciliatory tone. Too many people are worried about being wrong, they say nothing or refuse to change their position no matter how untena...
It is a constant refrain heard in South Africa that the Zulus and the "black" Africans come from the north. This "fact" is so skewed in the way in which it is used and is poorly understood by most so I wish to clarify a few points about the arrival o...
President Jacob Zuma says we have to create 500 000 jobs by year-end. As a nation of dedicated whingers, we look at that stat, sit back and say, "We can't do it". Actually if we can't do it then we need to figure out how much financial pain, we ...
There are two compelling reasons why I was thrilled to see President Jacob Zuma confirming that Dr Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus, was being given the post of deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
First and fore...
Q&A with the ID on a few front-line issues regarding their environmental resources policies (political ecology). The questionnaire -- sent to major political parties -- interrogated a number of issues ranging from agriculture and the extractive i...
Christmas – or should we say Cokemas, -- given Coca-Cola’s branding of Santa decades ago, came early this year for the natives, and none could be more pleased than this particular monkey [picks teeth]. After years of struggle, genetically enginee...
Isn't it a paradox that Africa, a continent heavily mired in "famine", regularly surpasses global agricultural exports, according to WTO, and other trade statistics?
Or that the 13 African countries superceding agricultural growth in the past five...
