This has been a terrible week for economic news. Yesterday we found out that the South African economy is growing at a sluggish 2.1%. Today we found out that consumer inflation has reached 10.4%. Independently, slow growth and high inflation would be bad, but to have both at the same time is disastrous.
Some of this [...]

Last week’s Economist included an interesting article on the new wave of thinking within diplomatic circles on the topic of forceful humanitarian intervention. With the disasters of difference machinations arising in Zimbabwe and Myanmar recently, the question has never been more pertinent.
The gist of the argument rests on the premise that, in special circumstance, forcing [...]

There’s been the typical furore generated whenever someone uses the Quran in something other than worship. This time in Japan:

CAIRO (Kyodo) A scene from an animated version of a popular Japanese comic book has sparked an outcry in the Muslim world, where some fear it could fuel a backlash not seen since European publications carried [...]

The executive branch is suffering from a collective form of delusional disorder. That is really the only conclusion I can draw stories such as this one:

‘Violence deliberatetly unleashed’
The recent wave of so-called xenophobic violence had been deliberately unleashed ahead of next year’s general election, National Intelligence Agency director-general Manala Manzini said on Thursday. He was [...]

Citing “exhaustive research done on the Internet last night”, Mbeki explained that the word ‘xenophobia’ was wildly inaccurate and was leading to a misdiagnosis of the current violence.
“We need to be less eager to believe in this thing called xenophobia,” he said. “Arachnophobia, yes. Spiders are horrible. But what is a xeno? There is no [...]

Given the obvious xenophobia in South Africa (of which the current bout of rioting is only the latest indicator), I can’t help but wonder why nobody has tried to exploit anti-immigrant sentiment in order to win votes in the political arena. I’ve long suspected that there is a gap in the current political market for [...]

A recent article by The Washington Institute highlighted the change in tactics which the US State Department has adopted in waging counterterrorism. The principle change being, finally, a refocus to fighting the information war against al Qaeda and similar terrorist organisations.
“Communication should… be used by the United States and it allies to shape perceptions, build [...]

It’s not exactly news that communism is a totalitarian ideology which is ultimately all about controlling other people’s lives. Even so, I was naively surprised to read that communists in the tripartite alliance want to introduce legislation to regulate the apperance of people’s penises.

After the Lebanese government shut down Hezbollah’s communications network last week ( or at least attempted to), the terrorist organisation has thrown the ultimate hissy fit and plunged Beirut and parts of Lebanon in general into conflict once more. While only scores have died so far, the situation could easily reignite the bloody civil war [...]

South Africa’s trade unions are still trying to protect their shrinking constituency of formal sector workers, even if it means that more workers end up unemployed or working in the informal sector where they have no legal rights at all:

The country’s labour unions have vowed to fight off a radical proposal that could drastically strip [...]

Anyone who has even a mild interest in global news would know about code pink, the anti-war cabal of nutcases who were granted a permit by the Berkley city to park and protest outside the USMC recruiting centre. Now it seems their ranks have been bolstered by the pointy-hatted masses who reside in this fair [...]