Today the UN is being marginalised by unilateralism. In the past it was marginalised by bipolarism and the Cold War. But things are changing, writes former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
The end is nigh … of the war, that is. An expensive escapade that was supposed to be over as soon as it began has dragged on for 10 days short of a month, terminating armed foes, civilians and journalists with equally extreme prejudice.
Four years ago they started the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by invading that country to overthrow president Laurent Kabila. Now that Rwanda and Uganda have fallen out they seem bent on keeping alive a conflict that has already cost more than two million lives.
This year’s Intergovernmental Fiscal Review is in key respects a good news story. It throws into relief the significant progress in budgeting, spending and financial management by our nine provinces, a vital agency of poverty alleviation, in the past four years.
Mohammed Hussain (49) opened the door to his apartment in the newly ”liberated” city of Basra. As his wife and children sat chatting in the kitchenette, Hussain threw open bare cupboard after bare cupboard. ”I have nothing,” he said. ”Saddam and the war took everything.”
Three years ago in East London I discovered how hard it is to be Naas Botha. Naas and I had been contracted to speak at a beachfront bar 48 hours ahead of South Africa’s Test match against Canada: the biggest thing to happen in East London since – well, since the discovery of the coelacanth.
I don’t suppose Clive Woodward feels he has to take much advice from anyone at the moment. From outside his closeknit managing-coaching-playing family, that is. Life must be pretty rosy.
Animal conservationists are excited about the potential for saving endangered species. Astounding even veterans of the fight against animal extinction, cloning technology has reproduced two endangered wild cattle bulls, each born to dairy cows last week on a farm in Iowa, United States.
The African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party are unlikely to win a clear majority on their own in next year’s general election. Both parties, against the will of many of their members, will have to start negotiating with each other
President Thabo Mbeki may soon have all government information at his fingertips at the push of a button, if a new electronic monitoring system for the president gets the go-ahead.