Emad Mekay
Guest Author
No image available
/ 25 April 2007

Wolfowitz strikes back

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is uncloaking new measures at the institution apparently designed to appease his critics and regain the initiative after weeks of fast retreat in the face of accusations of nepotism and an international downpour of criticism for his management style.

No image available
/ 9 April 2007

World Bank chief accused of nepotism

A controversial raise for a World Bank employee who has been romantically involved with the bank’s president, Paul Wolfowitz, was not the work of the bank’s ethics committee, as originally alleged by Wolfowitz’s office, according to the watchdog group that leaked the information.

No image available
/ 22 March 2007

Starbucks vs Ethiopian coffee farmers

The international advocacy group Oxfam is taking on United States coffee retailer Starbucks over the chain’s reluctance to grant Ethiopian coffee farmers the right to control their coffee trademarks, something the company has promised to do earlier this year. Oxfam ran an ad in the Seattle Timesrecently urging the corporate icon to give Ethiopian farmers a greater share of the retail value of their coffees.

No image available
/ 14 March 2007

IMF’s role in Africa questioned

An independent review of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) operations in Africa says the lender’s work is confused, vague, lacks transparency and suffers from a large gap between rhetoric and practice. "The fund should be clearer and more candid about what it has undertaken to do," says the report.

No image available
/ 30 November 2006

‘I thought Islam told us to do so’

Samar, a mother of four who works as a maid cleaning apartments and houses for a daily rate, was planning to circumcise her five-year-old daughter, Shaimaa, when she turns eight or nine. But an international conference in Egypt on female circumcision last week brought tidings she didn’t expect.

No image available
/ 24 November 2006

Egyptian society divided over Islamic veil

The Islamic female veil has again become a bone of contention in this country after Egypt’s long-time Culture Minister, Farouq Hosni, joined an international chorus decrying the practice, despite the growing number of Muslim women donning the attire. Hosni last week told a newspaper the veil represents a "step backward".