FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Thursday, April 19, 2012

What I'm Reading Today: Water and African Democracy and a War about a desert?

African democracy: A glass half-full | The Economist http://econ.st/FQGL5t
Academic studies also paint a gloomy picture. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual democracy index ranks only one African country, Mauritius, as a “full” democracy, though it uses tough criteria that count countries like much-praised Botswana as “flawed” democracies. The Mo Ibrahim Index, a quantitative measure of good governance, shows a decline of 5% since 2007 in African political participation. Freedom House, an American think-tank, says the number of full “electoral democracies” among the 49 sub-Saharan countries has fallen from 24 in 2005 to 19 today.


UN says Western Sahara mission being 'undermined' - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/un-says-western-sahara-mission-being-undermined-173138160.html via @YahooNews


The United Nations stepped up complaints about Morocco's tactics in Western Sahara as the UN Security Council on Tuesday held its annual talks on efforts to end deadlock over the territory's future . . .
Diplomats said the UN report was one of the most critical in many years on events in Western Sahara, which Morocco started to annex in 1975 after Spain withdrew. The Polisario started a guerilla war and the UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991.

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