thirdworldcitizen: Tale of "undiscovered" Africa, savannah, safari a...

thirdworldcitizen: Tale of "undiscovered" Africa, savannah, safari a...: Let me paraphrase one of the famous quotes by an individual whose name I do not recall, it goes something like this "There is not...

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Perspectives: Why has Africa grown slowly?

Paul Collier (1999) clearly stated his arguments and explanations why Continental Africa is lagging behind in terms of development and growth unlike other regions of the world. Africa’s slow growth was explained by grouping the perceived causes into two-by-two matrix separating on one hand policy and “destiny” factors and on the other external and domestic. Furthermore, he comes to his conclusion by saying that reforms, especially in areas of domestic policy dealing with service delivery needs to be intensified while finally stating that freedom will be helpful in strengthening democracy which will likely support economic reform.   Although extensive and valid explanations were given by the author, it is quite hard not to separate the author from the institution he is working for when he published the article. He was working as a director of development research with the World Bank, thus making it hard for readers to rule out institutional bias since he barely made referenc...
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Understanding limits and capacities of NGO’s as managers of conflict and legal means as a peaceful means of solving violent conflict.

Articles reviewed Chigas, D. (2007). “Capacities and Limits of NGOs as Conflict Managers,” in Crocker, Hampson, and Aall, eds. , Leashing the Dogs of War, pp. 553-582 Cede, F. (2009). The settlement of international disputes by legal means – arbitration and judicial settlement. In J. Bercovitch, V. Kremenyuk, & I. Zartman (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of conflict resolution. (pp. 358-376). London: SAGE Publications Ltd According to Diana Chigas (2007), NGO’s have emerged as important players in international intervention as the scope has significantly changed since the cold war. Conflict management has widened to include activities such as human rights education and development assistance that has seen the increase in NGO’s involvement in conflict resolution, human rights, which has shown that NGO’s can and do actually contribute to conflict management. Due to changing nature of conflict and its complexity that is emerging as now conflict is less state-centric and happen...
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Tale of "undiscovered" Africa, savannah, safari and annoying questions.

Let me paraphrase one of the famous quotes by an individual whose name I do not recall, it goes something like this "There is nothing like stupid question". Well, I do believe that a person who asks question he/she does not know an answer to is actually an inquisitive lot. On the other hand, there are questions that do not show curiosity but sheer ignorance or something closer to that.  One term that makes me think more than I actually do is "undiscovered Africa". Africa, apparently is undiscovered, a term that is overused. And Africa in this context may not necessarily refer to a continent but any country within the continent, you see its easier to say Africa than Burkina Faso or its Capital Ougadogou. I honestly cannot say what are the expectations of non-Africans when they plan to come and pay the continent a visit. However, I can say that I have had a share of interesting questions that Google has an answer to directed towards me. See, ge...
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