Memoirs: How different would Kenya be today had Mboya not been assassinated?
To Tom Wolf, a pollster who arrived in Kenya as a US Peace Corps Volunteer soon after independence in 1963, the current volatile political atmosphere in Kenya evokes memories of the lead up to the assassination of the astute minister for Economic Planning in founding President Jomo Kenyatta government, Tom...
Academic scientific workers experiencing chronic exhaustion
A year into the coronavirus pandemic, many in the academic scientific workforce are experiencing a state of chronic exhaustion known as burnout. Although it is not a medical condition and can occur in any workplace where there is stress, burnout is recognised by the World Health Organization as a syndrome....
US accuses Morocco of pervasive money laundering, terror financing
Morocco has been placed on a grey list for countries with pervasive money laundering or terrorist financing concerns. The remarkable designation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog, puts Morocco in the same category with Syria, Yemen and Pakistan. Morocco’s FATF designation is a significant...
New plastics law likely to have severe unintended consequences in Mauritius
The government of Mauritius have proposed bold new measures to curb plastic waste. While the intentions behind the mooted regulations are commendable, we are firmly of the view that the proposed new policies for the management of PET Plastic Waste, if implemented as per the timelines, logistics and technicalities, could...
Oil prices soar as analysts debate whether it’s a blip or start of a new supercycle
Since November 2020, oil prices have risen by 70 per cent, hitting $70 per barrel in March. A united Opec+ (comprising the 13 Opec members plus 10 other big oil exporters), fast-recovering economies, the snowstorm in Texas and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East – the recent Houthi attack...
Energy industry is going to be the bedrock of Africa’s road to recovery
African Energy producers and the governments are facing an unprecedented economic crisis caused by coronavirus, unemployment, economic recession and energy poverty and energy transition concerns. The African Energy Chamber’s Road to Recovery: How the African energy industry can reshape itself for a post-Covid comeback offers a common-sense strategy for the...
Journalists’ organisation says use of spyware compromises press freedom
In light of dozens of incidents in which journalists and those close to them have been targeted with spyware, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) hasy launched a campaign calling on governments to stop the use of spyware and to take steps to prevent states with bad press freedom records...
Species that often mate outside a bonded pair produce larger and faster seeds – research
Starting in the late 1980s, the advent of genetic analysis put the final nail in the coffin for the idea of monogamy in birds, showing that in many species, males other than the one at the nest can father some of the offspring. Sperm competition, it appeared, is a concern...
Promiscuity: Insects, birds are as fiercely protective and jealous as humans
On a spring day in 1965, 20-year-old biology student Geoff Parker found himself lying flat on his stomach in an English meadow, staring at a pat of cow dung and the frantic activities of dung flies around it. But this was far from a case of a student grudgingly accepting...
Public debt to grow by nine per cent of gross domestic product worldwide
Global government spending to combat Covid-19 and its economic fallout – $11.7 trillion just in the first six months of the pandemic according to the International Monetary Fund – means public debt will grow by nine per cent of gross domestic product on average this year worldwide. In the United...
