Why very few poor countries will escape poverty by taking gigantic leaps into the service industry By Andrew M. Mwenda Two weeks ago, I had a disagreement with the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, at a conference in Kigali, Rwanda. Kim had argued that increasing automation and …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Africa through North Korean eyes
Why this communist state, with per capita income like ours, manufactures nuclear weapons and satellites while we can’t By Andrew M. Mwenda Last week the U.S. announced its intelligence showed North Korea was planning to test another nuclear weapon. If it does, it will be the sixth nuclear test by …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Why Museveni will rule for life
How, barring a major surprise, the current power structure in Uganda makes lifting presidential age limit inevitable By Andrew M. Mwenda Those debating the succession issue in Uganda should refer to Rome in 44BC. Rome had been a republic since 509BC when the patricians rose in revolt and deposed King …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Rethinking Africa’s development
Why our intellectual elites need to begin an entirely new conversation about our nations By Andrew M. Mwenda African intellectual elites exhibit a conceptual contradiction. When economic performance is poor they argue that the major source of the problem is bad leadership. And when they talk of leadership, our intellectual …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Trump’s war with the press
By Andrew M. Mwenda How the new US president is bursting the Washington bubble and annoying the nation’s hypocrites For many decades, American journalists have deluded themselves into the belief that they are unelected representatives of the people. They are convinced that their profession places them above politics as impartial, …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Uganda’s real oil curse
THE LAST WORD: By Andrew M. Mwenda How our overblown expectations of what oil is going to do for our country are likely to cause trouble I had always thought about the “oil curse” in terms of the “Dutch Disease” and the adverse incentives it creates that foster corruption …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Uganda’s agricultural crisis
THE LAST WORD: By Andrew M. Mwenda How politics, not the drought, explains the current famine our country is experiencing According a report by the government of Uganda last week nearly 11 million people in this country do not have enough food to eat. I have concerns with the …
Read More »THE LAST WORD: Why are Ugandans so angry?
THE LAST WORD: By Andrew M. Mwenda How economic success has tended to create more political trouble for Museveni than comfort Very many Ugandans are angry, very angry. They feel the country has lost direction. They argue that our politics is corrupted, our democracy in retreat, and elections are rigged. …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Unmasking TVO
An investigation reveals who really is behind Facebook character How do you track a character who is hell-bent on hiding their identity on the online social networking service, Facebook? That is the task several individuals and intelligence institutions in Uganda have sought to answer as they sought to unmask a …
Read More »LAST WORD: Why I love Donald Trump
THE LAST WORD: By Andrew M. Mwenda The new U.S president is a breath of fresh air into a political atmosphere polluted by liberal lies and hypocrisy Over the last two weeks, the mass media in America and the Western world has been pounding President Donald Trump for imposing a …
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