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Save Capitalism from Itself |
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The problems with the euro are the same problems
that the world economy used to have with gold.
Ironically, the weak economies of Europe are working
under a kind of “gold standard.”
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Poverty Politics Must Top Global Agenda |
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Poverty is not only about not having enough money.
It is also about exploitation and oppression, and
about armed conflicts and wars that make it
impossible to run a business, visit a doctor, or
send children to school. In short, poverty is about
politics, and the need to devise political solutions
to its underlying causes, which involves more than
providing money.
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Banking Small Businesses Oxygenates Growth |
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Fashionable as it is to focus on the BRIC (Brazil,
Russia, India, and China) countries as the motors of
the global economy, this new year is the year that
the world has a golden opportunity to shift its
perceptions about the role Africa can play in
driving global economic growth.
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New Building Must See New Spirit, New African Union |
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The just-begun year will mark the first 10 years of
the African Union (AU). This eventful decade has
ended with a momentous year of uprisings, popular
protests, and more than 28 elections that have
changed Africa and the world. In light of this, the
upcoming AU summit will provide an excellent
opportunity to reflect on the eventful decade.
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Sharing Towers Connects Africa Better |
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Africa is changing fast and for the better. While
huge challenges remain, there is a new sense of
optimism across the continent. There is no more
obvious sign of this change and the possibilities it
brings, than in the extraordinary way Africa has
adopted the mobile phone. The growth has been
staggering. The 16 million mobile subscribers in
Africa in 2000 have now reached over 500 million. |
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Revolutions Uprooted Prejudgment; No More Prescriptions |
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Almost a year has passed since revolution in Tunisia
and protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square toppled
ossified authoritarian regimes and ignited a much
wider and still raging storm in the Arab world. No
one can safely predict where these events will
eventually take the Arab people and nations. But,
one thing is certain: there is no turning back.
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With Euro, Urgent Crowds out Important |
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Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has rumbled on for so
long that some people are beginning to take for
granted that eurozone leaders can continue to
stumble from one non-solution to the next without
risk of cataclysm. But, if any troubled southern
European economy fails to roll over its debt in the
coming months, the resulting contagion will spread
quickly from the eurozone throughout the global
financial system, with consequences far more grave
than what followed Lehman Brothers’ collapse in
September 2008. |
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Kulubi Unveils Ignorant Business, Opportunistic State |
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Every year in the months of December and July, the
town of Kulubi, located 464km east of Addis Abeba,
celebrates a special dutiful celebration. Pilgrims
converge from all over the country and abroad, at
the famous and historical place. The pilgrims are,
however, by no means only followers of a typical
religion alone and include members of other
religions as well as virtually all national groups
of the country. |
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Is Multiculturalism Dead? |
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At the height of the Arab uprisings last spring,
many Europeans were gripped by nightmare visions of
a tsunami of migrants crashing against the
continent’s shores. The wave never hit, but its
specter fed a tenacious anti-immigrant populism that
has concealed an important new trend: migration has
largely stalled. In many countries, more immigrants
are leaving than are arriving, owing mainly to the
economic crisis that has drained jobs in the West. |
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Indecision Fuels Uncertainty |
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The dire economic situation in which most of the
rich world found itself in 2011 was not merely the
result of impersonal economic forces, but was
largely created by the policies pursued, or not
pursued, by world leaders. Indeed, the remarkable
unanimity that prevailed in the first phase of the
financial crisis that began in 2008, and which
culminated in the one trillion dollars rescue
package put together for the London G-20 meeting in
April 2009, dissipated long ago. Now, bureaucratic
infighting and misconceptions are rampant. |
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