Notes

Noted

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Sunday’s Political Pressures in West Africa

  • Senegal did not fall apart after the elections yesterday, but the presidential race is still unresolved. Unofficially, incumbent President Wade will have to square off with former PM Macky Sall (BBC News).
  • Also on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe was in Mali, admonishing them to negotiate with Tuareg rebels (Reuters).
  • Finally, Niger’s government warned its people they could be targeted if they travel to Libya. Niger is refusing to extradite Gaddafi’s son Saadi. Some of the same instability with rebels that Mali is experiencing may also be a problem for Niger. (Reuters).

New feeds I’ve started monitoring recently (only the first one of these is really “new”)

Africa and Development

International Relations

International Law

  • Erga Omnes: This is a blog by Sonia Cardenas, Director of Trinity College’s Human Rights Program. (h/t Kevin Heller at Opinio Juris).

Africa Notes

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  • Senegal is at a “critical historical juncture” today, writes Alpha Diedhiou. President Wade’s “unfortunate” (that was the U.S. Ambassador’s word for it, according to NPR this morning) decision to stand for reelection has challenged the peace of this otherwise stable and solid democracy. The poll is on Sunday.
  • “The BRICS want a BRIC Bank”. The proposal is said to originate with India. Also significant is that South Africa is part of this. It can been be seen in light of the BRICS’ desire to counter the weight of the West in the IMF and World Bank.
  • On Somalia:

Noted: African Summits, Direct democracy, and Jeremy Lin

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African Summits
I meant to write up a summary of the recent summit activity on the continent but never got around to it. Fortunately, Alex Thurston at the Sahel Blog, did it for me: “Summits around the Continent”.
More reasons not to like direct democracy
I have thought for some time that California’s proposition system is once of the worse things that happened to that state. When I lived there my general rule was to vote against all propositions because the system is plain bad. The propositions themselves are written poorly, unnecessarily tie the hands of the state legislature (making them increasingly dysfunctional), and are decided by an electorate that really has no clue what they are voting on. Representative democracy is a much better (albeit imperfect) way to make law as it enables individuals to specialize. Unfortunately, California is not the only place that has such a system…

Jeremy Lin
I’m still following the incredible arrival of Jeremy Lin into the NBA.  But some crazy stuff has been going on around him. Here SNL tackles the hypocrisy of the stereotyping surrounding Jeremy Lin.:
SNL: Linsanity (requires Flash)
– Thanks, Kathy for the link!

Fighting Somali Piracy In London

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David Leonard, writing for African Arguments, has an interesting take on the need to combat the international roots of the Somali piracy problem:

The real solution to Somali piracy lies with a partnership between NATO navies and European commercial interests. NATO needs to prevent international exploitation of Somali fishing waters while also patrolling defined maritime corridors. Higher insurance rates would induce international vessels to stay within these corridors. Ships should also employ self-protections, such as safe lock-in rooms for the crew, so that NATO patrol vessels can reach them before pirates force them to surrender. Finally, the focus should be on capturing those who plan and fund piracy, more than on the young-men who board the ships. Finding the organisers could start with tracking how piracy is financed and how ransoms are distributed. These solutions suggest that it is indeed in the financial hub of London, not just along the coasts of Puntland, that Somali piracy must be tackled.

Noted: Climate Change Edition

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Some good news:

But also some bad news, and some just not-so-great-news, on the climate front:

WES-FID: Commenting on SHOFCO

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Tomorrow (Saturday, Feb 18) Wesleyan students are hosting a Forum on International Development. And I am very excited about this event! There are a number of reasons I think this will be a great event.

  1. It celebrates some of the fantastic things our students and alumni have done. This conference really just touches the tip of the iceberg in representing the projects our students have initiated and participate in.
  2. It is an opportunity to critically reflect on these projects and experiences.
    • Students will learn from alumni that have been doing this for much longer and with great success.
    • Students will learn from outside academics and experts.

I will never forget how, in my very first year teaching at Wesleyan, I was lucky enough to have several of the students participating tomorrow present in my introductory course. Both Kennedy Odede, founder of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), and Ali Chaudry, founder of Possibilities Pakistan, were in my classes. As was one of the organizers, Kathlyn Pattillo. And the next year Rachel Levenson, another of the primary conference organizers, also took that course. And I am probably missing the names of others involved in this event. It makes me think I should teach it more often!

I have been asked to moderate a panel discussing the work of Shofco. Besides Kennedy, both Nathan Mackenzie (representing Shofco) and Connor Brannen (Wesleyan ’10; current analyst at MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) are former students of mine. Rema Hanna, a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government will round out the panel. Our panel has been tasked with helping Shofco reflect on its development as an organization, its mechanism for evaluating its work, and the involvement of the Wesleyan community in the organization. While SHOFCO has had amazing success at attracting attention and funding in a relatively short time, I suspect the biggest questions will be about how they can build a sustainable program that stays true to its development objectives. This project represents a relatively rare collaboration between an activist in the developing world (Kennedy) and activists in the developed world (the Wesleyan community and especially Jessica Posner, yet another former student). That may be a key ingredient to their current success. But what will be important to sustaining this and how, at the end of the day, will we be able to measure their success?