(May 9, 2005) Tony Blair hardly skipped a heartbeat as prime minister last week. A combination of sweet talk, comfortable wallets, and busy cash registers took care of that. Africa got a minuscule gain.
The limits of reform: the Wolfensohn era at the World Bank
(May 9, 2005) With all the hullabaloo generated by the designation of Paul Wolfowitz as his successor, outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn’s record in leading the Bank has so far escaped serious scrutiny, claim Walden Bello and Shalmali Guttal in a new report drawn from Bello’s latest book, Dilemmas of Unmaking the American Empire.
African women carry the debt burden
(May 9, 2005) As Mother’s Day, May 8, was being celebrated around the world, the majority of mothers in Africa, who make up over half of the continent’s 680 million people, received neither flowers nor cards from their doting children. In fact, the vast number does not know of the day’s existence, nor even its significance.
Nigerians want war on graft, not words
(May 6, 2005) For many Nigerians, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s war on corruption has been a long time coming, given his promise six years ago to stamp out vice when he took office in 1999. Nothing much, they have noted, has happened, until now.
Controversial Laos dam project gets almost 1.6 billion dollars backing
(May 4, 2005) A massive hydroelectric project in Laos has secured 1.58 billion dollars in financing commitments, the country’s Nam Theun 2 Power Co. Ltd (NTPC) said in a statement.
May 2005 Campaign Letter
If there’s a silver lining to the war in Iraq, it is this: The arms merchants who supplied Saddam Hussein’s military machine will not be repaid. The foreign financiers who financed Saddam Hussein’s undemocratic regime will not be repaid. The foreign multinationals who bribed Saddam’s cronies to secure oil concessions in Iraq will lose these concessions.
War on corruption: is Obasanjo capitulating?
(May 2, 2005) This time around in Nigeria’s war on corruption, it is important to hold the government’s feet to the fire every step of the way and every hour of the day.
Let the president dance naked
(May 2, 2005) “In Nigeria’s terrible state of discounted morality, extirpating the virus of corruption will take more than stepping on people’s toes . . . The proper place to start is by going to the basics.”
May 2005 Campaign Letter
The devestation caused by the Third World`s debt is finally getting the attention it deserves.
In Nigeria, where money talks, reform is the word
(May 1, 2005) President begins to crack down on a culture of corruption; series of senior officials forced out.
Pampered MPs worked only 57 days last year: Kenya
(April 30, 2005) Endemic corruption: Kenyan MPs earn $8,000 a month, still want a raise.
Has Obasanjo’s revolution commenced?
(April 29, 2005) “The tragedy of Nigeria is our collective amnesia, which has bred a horde of cynics who are fixated on the anti-Obasanjo prism. Many Nigerians have chosen to forget where we were when Obasanjo assumed power.”
Bono: ‘Paul Martin, I’m calling you!’
(April 29, 2005) Rock-star campaigner Bono of U2 urges Canadians not to give up on their embattled prime minister just yet.
US$100 million for Nam Theun 2
(April 28, 2005) The government has signed a series of finance documents for loans and grants in excess of US$100 million for the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric project.
Belize leader vows survival, warns of debt crisis
(April 27, 2005) Belize’s prime minister has vowed to survive a wave of anti-government
strikes and riots but warned that the tiny Central American nation’s
debt crisis poses a serious threat to its economic future.


