Saturday, April 30, 2011
Sudan
South Sudan is now a republic which is good news. The bad news is that there a lot that needs to be done in the country in terms of development. One of the shocking news that I got when i was doing some work is that the new republic has a total of 60 kilometers of tarred road in the whole country
Lybia
This is the country where the Arab revolution took a nasty turn with the country deteriorating into a civil war state.
Tunisia
Tunisia started the Arabian revolution.For the moment there seems to be a call for change without any clear indication as to when it would be over
Nigeria
Goodluck Jonathan won the presidential elections which for a change foreign observers declare was fair and transparent. The problem with our next door brother is that there are sectarians in the north of the country calling change in their own terms.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
मेस्सी गेट्स फ्फिया प्लयेर ऑफ़ थे इयर Award
Argentine's Lionel Messi is World's best
On Monday the 10 of January 2011 Fifa voted on who was the best soccer player in the world in the year 2010 and that honor went to Argentine's ace forward Lionel Messi. He was in contention for the award with Barcelona teammates Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. For this year going forward Europe decided to combine its ballon d'or award with the Fifa player of the year honor. So there will be no more European player of the year award. Lionel Messi is the biggest of the star players at his Barcelona team that is full of them. He won the award last year but there were some doubts going into this year's voting whether one of his team mates might beat him to the award. That is because both Iniesta and Hernandez had a better record with their world cup team Spain at the 2010 world cup. Argentina had a great run but they were eliminated in the quarterfinals in a rout by Germany.
Lionel Messi is considered to be the best player in this generation and he wants to claim a place in the all time greatest list along the likes of King Pele and fellow countryman Diego Maradona. To do that though, he would have to get a world cup victory under his name. He would get two chances to accomplish the fit. The first opportunity would come in 2014 when he would be 26 years of age and the next one would come in 2018 in Russia when if he is still good enough to make the Argentine's national team would be held when he is 30 years old. His best bet would be to try and carry his team to victory in 2014 in Brazil. The competition would be held in the South American continent and at 26 he would be at the peak of his game I think.
On Monday the 10 of January 2011 Fifa voted on who was the best soccer player in the world in the year 2010 and that honor went to Argentine's ace forward Lionel Messi. He was in contention for the award with Barcelona teammates Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. For this year going forward Europe decided to combine its ballon d'or award with the Fifa player of the year honor. So there will be no more European player of the year award. Lionel Messi is the biggest of the star players at his Barcelona team that is full of them. He won the award last year but there were some doubts going into this year's voting whether one of his team mates might beat him to the award. That is because both Iniesta and Hernandez had a better record with their world cup team Spain at the 2010 world cup. Argentina had a great run but they were eliminated in the quarterfinals in a rout by Germany.
Lionel Messi is considered to be the best player in this generation and he wants to claim a place in the all time greatest list along the likes of King Pele and fellow countryman Diego Maradona. To do that though, he would have to get a world cup victory under his name. He would get two chances to accomplish the fit. The first opportunity would come in 2014 when he would be 26 years of age and the next one would come in 2018 in Russia when if he is still good enough to make the Argentine's national team would be held when he is 30 years old. His best bet would be to try and carry his team to victory in 2014 in Brazil. The competition would be held in the South American continent and at 26 he would be at the peak of his game I think.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
आईटी इस अ फिघ्त फॉर Sirvival
The political Crisis in Ivory Coast.
Why do these leaders try to hand on to power for such a long time?
First there was Kenyan, then Zimbabwe and now the Republic of Ivory Coast.In each of these countries we are seeing former leaders that have lost elections in the polls and do not want to relinquish power. In Zimbabwe and Kenya both of the former presidents, who clearly lost elections to their opponents succeeded in hanging on by relinquishing a little bit of their power. In the case of Zimbabwe, President Mugabe who was defeated in the elections is now complaining that the power sharing deal with Morgan Tsvangirai is not working out. He should step down, he lost the presidential elections there. The current political crisis is now the one in Ivory coast, where Laurent Gbagho who had been president for ten years lost a run off election to opposition candidate Allassane Ouattarra. The UN elections committee in place in Ivory Copast says that the election which to them was fair and transparent was won by the opposition leader. He got about 54 percent of the votes compared to 46 percent for the incumbent ruler. The question to be asked now is why do these leaders hang on to power after being around for such a long time?
To me the main reason has to be the fact that true democracy is not yet established in the continent. Before the Presidential elections in Ivory coast, President Laurent Gbagho was making promises to the military that if he wins they would benefit from his stay in office. Also that if he goes down, they go down with him. Thus victory for the individual is the focal point of the elections and the welfare of the country is secondary. In a truly democratic system, leaders come into power with a clear agenda and promises are made to the population in general and not to a special branch of the society.
The presence of a powerful military is also a major factor. Military coups are still taking place in the continent and the ruler who succeeds in getting the military behind him usually gets to stay around for a while.
The African Union seems to have learn from its mistake of backing the power sharing deals in both Kenya and Zimbabwe.In the current situation they have lined up with the rest of the world in agreement that Laurent Gbagho should go.The United Nations,the Europeans Union and other regional bodies such as ECOWAS are all bent on seeing the defeated leader step down from power. He though does not want to step down because in my opinion he is afraid of payback. That is what happens in a system in which leaders go into power for their personal benefit. While in power, those people that support him benefit to the detriment of the rest of the population. For him to step down means that his backers would go through a period of economic hardship. What is tricky in this Ivorian situation is that it is an internal issue. Elections are rigged in different parts of the world and all external bodies can do is call for the defeated person to step down. In other words whether the UN,AU,or Europeans forces go in to try and get Laurent Gbagho out of Ivory Coast would depend on his hold on the country. He has the military backing and that is a key strength for him. Does the rest of the world want to see Ivory Coast go back into another civil war?.It is a complicated issue. The Nigerian government has come out and say that they would provide the incumbent president with an exile home in their country .I doubt whether he would accept such a deal . Charles Taylor stepped down as President in a deal that included a safe haven for him in Nigeria. He is now in the Hague fighting charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
History suggest that President Gbagho is going to stay and fight for power because being President of Ivory Coast has become his livelihood. He does not intent to go live anywhere else after being in charge of Ivory Coast for ten years.
Why do these leaders try to hand on to power for such a long time?
First there was Kenyan, then Zimbabwe and now the Republic of Ivory Coast.In each of these countries we are seeing former leaders that have lost elections in the polls and do not want to relinquish power. In Zimbabwe and Kenya both of the former presidents, who clearly lost elections to their opponents succeeded in hanging on by relinquishing a little bit of their power. In the case of Zimbabwe, President Mugabe who was defeated in the elections is now complaining that the power sharing deal with Morgan Tsvangirai is not working out. He should step down, he lost the presidential elections there. The current political crisis is now the one in Ivory coast, where Laurent Gbagho who had been president for ten years lost a run off election to opposition candidate Allassane Ouattarra. The UN elections committee in place in Ivory Copast says that the election which to them was fair and transparent was won by the opposition leader. He got about 54 percent of the votes compared to 46 percent for the incumbent ruler. The question to be asked now is why do these leaders hang on to power after being around for such a long time?
To me the main reason has to be the fact that true democracy is not yet established in the continent. Before the Presidential elections in Ivory coast, President Laurent Gbagho was making promises to the military that if he wins they would benefit from his stay in office. Also that if he goes down, they go down with him. Thus victory for the individual is the focal point of the elections and the welfare of the country is secondary. In a truly democratic system, leaders come into power with a clear agenda and promises are made to the population in general and not to a special branch of the society.
The presence of a powerful military is also a major factor. Military coups are still taking place in the continent and the ruler who succeeds in getting the military behind him usually gets to stay around for a while.
The African Union seems to have learn from its mistake of backing the power sharing deals in both Kenya and Zimbabwe.In the current situation they have lined up with the rest of the world in agreement that Laurent Gbagho should go.The United Nations,the Europeans Union and other regional bodies such as ECOWAS are all bent on seeing the defeated leader step down from power. He though does not want to step down because in my opinion he is afraid of payback. That is what happens in a system in which leaders go into power for their personal benefit. While in power, those people that support him benefit to the detriment of the rest of the population. For him to step down means that his backers would go through a period of economic hardship. What is tricky in this Ivorian situation is that it is an internal issue. Elections are rigged in different parts of the world and all external bodies can do is call for the defeated person to step down. In other words whether the UN,AU,or Europeans forces go in to try and get Laurent Gbagho out of Ivory Coast would depend on his hold on the country. He has the military backing and that is a key strength for him. Does the rest of the world want to see Ivory Coast go back into another civil war?.It is a complicated issue. The Nigerian government has come out and say that they would provide the incumbent president with an exile home in their country .I doubt whether he would accept such a deal . Charles Taylor stepped down as President in a deal that included a safe haven for him in Nigeria. He is now in the Hague fighting charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
History suggest that President Gbagho is going to stay and fight for power because being President of Ivory Coast has become his livelihood. He does not intent to go live anywhere else after being in charge of Ivory Coast for ten years.
Monday, July 19, 2010
हाउ जापान इस देअलिंग विथ थे इकनॉमिक Crisis
Japan has not been witnessing any major economic growth for a while now so when news come out last week that their economy shrunk by 12.70 percent for the last three quarters it took a lot of people by surprise. The nikkei is at around 7500 compare to its heyday when it hit 40000 in the late 1980s.The Japanese economy relies heavily on its export and with the global economic crisis a lot of countries are just not buying what is coming out of the Japanese factory. Their current crisis is like the worse since the second world war.From their auto industry to their electronic corporations the slowdown here is all over the place.This economy has witness a 12 percent shrink in the past two years which is amazing for an economy which is ranked second in the world.The prime minister of Japan was the first to visit President Barack Obama in the white house and both leaders vowed to avoid protectionism as a means to solve their economic problems.The Japanese economy shrank by 12.1 in the fourth quarter of the year 2008.The Japanese are taking the US approach to try and save some companies by bailing them out instead of letting the market decides who stays on in the playing field.Their bailout package was about 158trillion yen if I am not mistaking.
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