Nine and half things to thank Americans for in 2012 >>

By Stuart Crawford Bashing our transatlantic cousins has been a popular sport for as long as I can remember, whether it be for their extraordinary dress sense, extraordinary appetites, or extraordinary rendition – or perhaps all three and everything else in between. But I’ve always rather liked Americans in general terms, and thought perhaps we... Read more

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Malawi in crisis – troubled times for Scotland’s twin country in Africa >>

By John Knox MPs on the International Development Committee at Westminster have said Malawi – Scotland’s twin country in Africa – “has entered a political and economic crisis”. They have begun an inquiry into Britain’s future role in the country. All official aid to Malawi was suspended following the killing of 20 anti-government demonstrators... Read more

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Democracy of sorts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo >>

By Andrew Macdonell in South Africa On Tuesday 20 December 2011, Joseph Kabila is scheduled to take the oath for a second full term as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The huge country in Central Africa has just completed its second democratic election since the end of the civil war in 2002, a war which claimed an estimated four... Read more

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Review: Why Do We Kill? The Pathology of Murder in Baltimore >>

By Alex Wood Kelvin Sewell was Baltimore police officer for 22 years. An African-American in a predominantly (64 per cent) African-American city, he served in homicide, narcotics and internal affairs. Stephen Janis is an investigative journalist. Together they have written Why Do We Kill? The Pathology of Murder in Baltimore, available in the UK in... Read more

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Unreported horrors: male rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo >>

Moses Seruwagi Street News Service They are men who have lost all pride and self-confidence and who have been left severely traumatised by recent events. At the medical centre in Uganda where they are being treated, they talked candidly about the horrendous crimes carried out against them. “In the past, I thought that it was only females who were... Read more

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Friday song: Ooh, Gaddafi Journalistic Ethics Are Atrocious >>

The Sensational Alex Salmond Band have produced another video to accompany their popular album. Written and performed by Tommy Mackay, Fife comedian of the year, this week’s song is entitled Ooh, Gaddafi Journalistic Ethics Are Atrocious. Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day Read More →

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Dead Sirte: Gaddafi ‘shot’ after ‘don’t shoot’ plea >>

What is it with mad dictators and holes in the ground? Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was discovered in an “underground shelter” by American special forces. Now Libya’s Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi has turned up in a similar subterranean scrape. Saddam famously announced to his discoverers that he was the president of Iraq and “willing... Read more

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Mogadishu: malnutrition, makeshift camps and bulletproof vests >>

By Caroline Gluck It’s hard to blend in during a community visit when you’re wearing a heavy flak jacket. But here I was in Mogadishu, the conflict-ravaged capital of Somalia, dressed not in the hijab I had just bought in Kenya, thinking it was culturally appropriate, but strapped into a bulletproof protective vest, weighing 10 kilos or more,... Read more

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Chinese investment, the Cobra and buttocks – the Zambian elections >>

By Andrew Macdonell in South Africa Free and fair elections have been the exception rather than the rule in much of Africa, but this week’s election in Zambia offers hope that democracy may be starting to put down firm roots in this part of the world. Tomorrow – Tuesday, 20 September – Zambians go to the polls to elect a president for the fifth... Read more

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Opinion: Arab Spring – a Berlin Wall moment or missed opportunity? >>

By Alyn Smith The Arab Spring has continued unabated over the long hot summer months, and with the end of the Holy month of Ramadan it is only likely that we will see an upsurge in continued activism. Long-entrenched dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya have been toppled, and who knows where the unrest will spread to next? I grew up in the Middle... Read more

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Famine and fortitude in Dadaab: the East African refugee crisis >>

By Nicole Johnston Secretly, I was rather dreading Dadaab. For weeks I’d seen the images on TV: babies so emaciated they looked like a bundle of twigs wrapped in cloth; elderly people dying, their faces shrouded in a cloud of flies. I was bracing myself, mentally preparing to try to bear the unbearable and do the best job I could. I hadn’t reckoned... Read more

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From clinics to potholes: Dr Ian Clarke, Ugandan politician >>

By Andrew Macdonell in South Africa With the exception of David Livingstone, probably the most well-known white doctor associated with Uganda is Nicholas Garrigan, the fictional Scottish doctor in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. The Garrigan character, played by James McAvoy, was a young, naïve, but ballsy medic seduced into the corrupt court... Read more

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Unrest in Malawi amid financial instability and media suppression >>

By John Knox There are ominous signs that Malawi is fast becoming another of Africa’s failed states. Rioting and financial crisis are threatening the stability of Scotland’s partner in one of the poorest areas on earth. And to see the dreadful effects of failed states we need look no further than a thousand miles to the north, where ten million... Read more

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Oxfam campaigns against crippling world food prices >>

By Peter John Meiklem, Oxfam Scotland Few will have missed the effect of the rising price of food on their own pockets. Whether it’s the cost of whole wheat bread, steak or potatoes, most people across the country will have recently shaken their head in the supermarket, irked by the rocketing price of a once affordable favourite. In a new Oxfam Scotland... Read more

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Sunshield standoffs: why parasols are all the rage in urban China >>

By Linda Kennedy in Beijing An exchange between two parasol-holding ladies, parading in different directions on a Beijing pavement: “Yours up?” “Up yours!” But let’s start at the beginning. Last year, my first Beijing summer, I watched with amusement as June arrived and women started carrying parasols. How Edwardian. Ni hao,... Read more

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Rough and ready journalism? Sifting through Sarah Palin’s witterings >>

The Guardian is waiting with bated breath for the release of 24,000 emails by Sarah Palin, at around 6pm our time today. The paper’s excitement over the long-awaited witterings of the Tea Party’s favourite lady – an admirer of Margaret Thatcher – is astounding. Or maybe not so surprising, given the voyeuristic and nitpicking society... Read more

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Some thoughts for today from Blair, the Arch Bish and Boris >>

Tony Blair – how can we get rid of the man? – is on the warpath again. Plugging his book (which has been around but which I won’t name) in a BBC interview, he outlined “our” plans for the Middle East, explaining how “we” must ensure that the Arab Spring blossoms into Western-style democracy and religious freedom across... Read more

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South Africa’s Democratic Alliance ‘does a Salmond’ in Cape Town >>

By Andrew Macdonell in South Africa Expatriate Scots everywhere will have followed the dramatic victory of the SNP at the recent Holyrood polls with interest. And they will not have been alone. I suspect that party political strategists from every corner of the globe will have looked to learn from the success of the nationalists. Here in South Africa,... Read more

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Netanyahu ponders Obama’s vision of a new Middle East >>

President Barack Obama’s vision of a new Middle East, unveiled this week in the midst of the Arab Spring and in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden, has left Israel wondering how it is going to fit in. This was not a soundbite or a media interview – this was the president of the United States addressing the world from a pulpit in the State... Read more

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Ireland’s struggle for recovery as state visit ends 100 years of solitude >>

By John Knox Just as the Queen began the first royal tour of southern Ireland for 100 years, I left. Not out of protest, it was just a curious coincidence. I happened to be at the end of a week’s cycling holiday around the Atlantic-splashed beaches of north Donegal. I first left Ireland 50 years ago, on the cattle boat from Dublin to Glasgow. So much... Read more

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