COMMENT| Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko | For over sixty decades, from the Mali Empire through to the OAU Summit of May 1963 and incrementally to date, African unity has remained but a collective dream. One that has been sustained more by a recognition of its essence rather than a conviction for its …
Read More »Assange is free, but are we?
Pandemics, wars, and widespread ecological breakdown, and worse force us to ask that big question COMMENT | SLAVOJ ZIZEK | I fought for years with and for Julian Assange. But upon hearing that he has regained his freedom, my first thought was that he is returning to a world that looks – …
Read More »World remains ill-prepared for the next pandemic
But earlier this month, the 194 members of the WHO World Health Assembly passed several International Health Regulations COMMENT | MICHAEL BAKER & ALEXANDER GILLESPIE | The international community’s recent failure to conclude a global pandemic agreement leaves large gaps in our capacity to deal with the next major infectious disease …
Read More »Alliance of the ‘isolated’
The recent Putin-Kim summit has roots in an earlier 1950s alliance when Moscow and Pyongyang took on the US COMMENT | ROBERT BARNES | The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, recently spent two days in Pyongyang, meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and signing a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. Few details …
Read More »Two cheers for identity politics
Many people have less reason to identify themselves only with what the workplace affords them COMMENT | JAMES LIVINGSTON | Critics of identity politics argue that close attention to matters of race, gender, and sexuality distracts from “real” politics, by which they typically mean the struggle between labour and capital over …
Read More »Legal standards, norms for internet governance
A lack of global norms leaves Uganda’s government able to manipulate social media COMMENT | SOLOMON WINYI | Uganda is facing many of the same challenges with social media as other countries but the lack of globally accepted regulations has left a path for an authoritarian regime to stifle the public …
Read More »Kinyamatama: Newest poster child of SUSU – Steal from Ugandans, Share with Ugandans
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | The member of parliament (MP) position is so exalted and privileged that elected MPs automatically earn the title of ‘Honourable’ before proving their capacity for honour. Over the past week, Rakai District Woman MP Honorable Juliet Kinyamatama has faced a baptism of fire and brimstone owing …
Read More »The right way to regulate AI
The perceived threat of artificial intelligence seems greater compared to past technological breakthroughs COMMMENT | JOSHUA GANS | The arrival of new technologies tends to stoke widespread anxiety, most commonly about automation and displacement of human workers. The Luddites at the beginning of the industrial age are perhaps the most frequently …
Read More »Can AI foster a global consciousness?
So far, zero-sum competition between countries and communities has been an obstacle to mitigating global risks COMMENT | JAMIE METZL | Our ancestors long feared the world-ending wrath of angry gods. But it is only recently that we have developed the capacity to do ourselves in, whether from climate change, nuclear …
Read More »Services-led economic development
It’s the way forward for developing countries seeking to enhance labour-absorbing productivity COMMENT | DANI RODRIK & ROHAN SANDHU | The future of developing countries is in services. This may sound odd in view of the fact that industrialisation has been the traditional road to growth and eventual prosperity, one traveled …
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