Comments by kenopp

Clausewitz, Pericles, Shaka

I don't think this is a good idea. African countries should be incentivized to compete with each other. Giving the whole continent a single brand goes against this.

The new constitution may not be perfect, but the best thing about is that it gives all regions of Kenya a stake in the country. Previously, political competition was a zero sum game in which whoever took state house won it all. This will change with the new constitutional requirement for revenue redistribution. Locally administered property taxes may improve the legal protection of the same.

Haslett may be right that the piece adds too much to the narrative of a doomed African continent. That said, the fact of the matter is that most of the continent of Africa is woefully governed. And the blame goes beyond the leaders. Most Africans - the same ones who complain about poor governance and what not - are complicit in the vast patronage networks of corruption and informal rules that continue to stunt African economic and social development.

It might be time to give war a chance in Somalia. The Islamist insurgents appear to be too powerful for the transitional government. Let the Islamists run Mogadishu and restore some order - like the Islamic Courts Union did for a bit before Ethiopia invaded - and then negotiate with them. Everyone has a price. Foreign aid, some military assistance, among other sovereign rents may just do the trick in persuading them to go easy on "infidel" Ethiopia and tone down some of their Sharia demands, especially with regard to the rights of women.

Quoting the article...

"On one occasion, 15 armed invaders, banging on metal objects and chanting war songs, forced their way into Mr Freeth’s house, threatening to burn it to the ground, kill the two men present, rape the women and eat the three children asleep in their beds. "

Just what value does the subliminally racist last line add to this piece of reporting? This is not 1899. What are your editors doing?

It is not enough to just tell us that "more white farmers have been murdered." Doesn't your correspondence have the journalistic drive to give us at least some ball park number? Is it five or five hundred more white farmers.

And how are the regular "native" Zims doing? Don't they also deserve mention in a story about their nation? Just asking....

This sounds more like a case of scientists finding what they want to find than anything else.

Sorry to be picky, but could you go easy on the use of expressions like "white masters." How about just saying white employers or something? Such derogatory expressions do no one any good.