Monthly Archives

January 2013

Jan 21 2013
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Central African Republic descends unchecked into hell

By Central African Republic, Mail & Guardian No Comments

That’s how medical charity MAi??decins Sans FrontiA?res (MSF) describes the country that briefly dominated news in South Africa earlier this year. The CAR barely qualifies as a country. The descent into hell for many of the 4.5-million people living there is going almost unnoticed. The CAR already has the second lowest life expectancy in the world ai??i?? 48 years. For years its infant mortality rate has been three times higher than the level used to define a humanitarian crisis. New figures present an even grimmer picture. This week, a group of five nonAi??governmental organisations still operating there held a press…

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Jan 04 2013
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Somalians wish to forge their own destiny

By Mail & Guardian, Somalia No Comments

Somalia is one of those places where President Jacob Zuma does not feel the need to send peaceAi??keepers; he refused an African Union request a few years ago. In any case, there are enough old South African army types working for private Ai??security firms up there to keep the South African flag flying. Political pundit Greg Mills and two United States military advisors, Peter Pham and David Kilcullen, recently wrote a short e-book, Somalia: Fixing Africaai??i??s Most Failed State. The title sounds like it should be some sort of recipe book for nation-building. It isnai??i??t. It reads like a long…

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