Ah - hark the master of the moral high ground: the chief ethical executive from Royal Dutch Shell has spoken:
Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s top marketer of biofuels, considers using food crops to make biofuels “morally inappropriate” as long as there are people in the world who are starving, an executive said on Thursday.
Shell Says [...]

The BBC’s Newsnight published an interviw with Joseph Kony (left), the leader of the so-called “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA), which is responsible for the genocide on the Acholi people of Northern Uganda. This is the first-ever interview with Kony, who is wanted by a UN court for war crimes. The BBC also posted an [...]

The picture says it all: the 2-0 loss of the Eperviers against Switzerland is no big shock to most, but nevertheless a big disappointment to many. It seems that the back-and-forth over the premiums, and the FIFA’s “play-or-else” order, left very little spunk in that team. Sadly, Togo’s first Worldcup appearance will not primarily be [...]

Finally FIFA intervened and explained to the team from Togo that they will play … or else … after the Togolese Football bosses proved to be completely incapable of resolving this embarrassing dispute.
The coach Otto Pfister appears to be sympathetic to the players’ grievances:

“I understand the players, they are being promised things but then nothing [...]

In one way Togo already lost the Worldcup. Sadly, this loss was not inflicted upon the team, and the country, in a fair sports competition in the stadium. Rather, the incompetence of the football (soccer) bosses of the Togolese Football Federation (FTF) bear full responsibility for the current, sad state of affairs.
The lack of [...]

Togo’s National Team arrived in the southern town of Wangen today, where they will be based for the duration of the 2006 World Cup:
Otto Pfister, coach of the West African side, has admitted that the debutants have a tough task of putting up a credible showing at the finals.
“We’re obviously underdogs,” said Pfister after being [...]

Last night, Laura and I had the privilege and pleasure to see Mamadou Diabate at the Art Center in Carrboro. He was the star performer in a benefit show that highlighted the Publik Kreativity Drama Krew, a community theater troupe from the Alexandra township in Johannesburg. The kids from Jo’burg were great - authentic, [...]

For many citizens of Togo, this must be a bittersweet day. On April 27, 1960, the French administered UN Trusteeship and former French colony became an independent nation. But today also marks a year and a day since the ruling party, the RPT, declared victory in the so-called “election” of April 24, 2005. This [...]

Today is Africa Malaria Day and this year the focus is on the need to provide universal access to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). ACTs are the newest hope for making serious progress toward defeating the Queen of Diseases.
African children are dying of malaria at the rate of one every 30 seconds. Take a minute to [...]

Saturday, the ruling RPT and several opposition parties elected the lawyer and opposition leader Yawovi Agboyibo to run their “national dialog” talks. This process began in May 2004 and had been interrupted in February when President Eyadema died. The goal is primarily to find ways to reform the electoral process in the West African nation, [...]

Monday we lost a cultural treasure and a generous human being: Ali Farka Touré, a son of Mali, and one of the world’s great musicians died in Bamako, Mali. He was born in Timbuktu in 1939, and worked as a docker on the river Niger and a driver for Mali’s national radio and television company, [...]

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni strong-armed his countrymen into “re-electing” him in Thursday’s election. That means that he gets more opportunities to trample all over his opposition and pour fuel into the brutal conflict with the LRA in Northern Uganda.
While the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorizing the Acholi people, the government seems to be determined [...]

One year after Togo’s dictator Gnassingbé Eyadema died, his clan is again firmly in charge of this embattled sliver of a country on the Gulf of Benin. In charge, that is, with the blessing and military aid of France, Togo’s former colonial master. For February 20, talks between the opposition and the ruling RPT are [...]

In his State of the Union address yesterday, President Bush spent a measly two minutes and 15 seconds on the lack of energy independence of this country. Literally, he spoke of this country’s “addiction” to imported oil, and he pledged to reduce that dependence in the next 15 years. He said this:”Breakthroughs on this and [...]

Shark fin sup is considered a delicacy in Asia. Shark’s fin is “regarded as a tonic food and an aphrodisiac, the Chinese believe shark’s fin strengthens the internal organs and retard aging,” explains a recipe. The sharks that supply their trademark body parts to this dish are caught using longlines. Fishermen then cut off the [...]

Big promises, lots of talk today, and some quirky publicity, for World Aids Day. Anybody care to listen to the voices of those among us living with the dreaded disease? The stories of how the stigma, the ignorance, the silence kills millions? Anybody? Black Looks shares one of those stories, Rose’s story, with us:

R: The [...]

As this year’s record-breaking hurricane season officially ends (tell that to Epsilon), the residents of the Canary Islands are picking up from the devastation caused by tropical storm Delta. Delta was the first tropical storm recorded to ever get anywhere near the Canary Islands, according to Jeff Masters. Although is was not officially classified as [...]

What an extraordinary hurricane season! I wonder if this is the first tropical storm recorded to have hit Africa?

Tropical Storm Delta slammed into Spain’s Canary Islands last night at near hurricane strength, killing at least seven people. One man died when he was blown off the roof he was trying to repair, and six African [...]

After apparently reasonably fair elections, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is about to take charge of battered Liberia as the first second female African head of state. This is a very hopeful turn of events for this war-torn, exploited country.
On the other side of the continent, Uganda’s strongman Yoweri Museveni had his main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye [...]

On October 13, the International Criminal Court (ICC) unsealed arrest warrants for five leaders of the Ugandan cult-like gang the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has for many years brutalized the civilian population of Northern Uganda, and abducted thousands of children, sometimes forcing the children to kill their own parents.
Yet, these indictments have the [...]