Analysis

Analysis

One image obscures more than a thousand words

9 March 2017 -

We have all seen these images popping up in our social media feeds: Afghanistan in the 1970’s versus Afghanistan in the 2010’s. The first image shows girls in Kabul, who could just as well have lived in Paris or Berkeley in that period, with their long hair, short skirts, smiling faces and confident regards. The more recent image, then, ...

Analysis

Peak oil 2.0: demand dries up

16 January 2017 -

With Trump’s inauguration days away, environmentalists are bracing for the worst. After eight years of Obama, with his emphasis on renewable sources, a lot has changed. Despite being surrounded by fossil fuel tycoons and climate change deniers, his successor will have arrived too late to save the oil industry. To understand why, we need look ...

Analysis

Less aid, more private capital: new colonization of developing countries?

9 December 2016 -

With dwindling budgets for development and a growing uncertainty in Europe, donors are increasingly looking to the private sector as partners for development. With the right approach, the private sector can make a positive contribution, but it also brings specific risks.

Analysis

Tanzanian farmers are facing heavy prison sentences if they continue their traditional seed exchange

7 December 2016 -

In order to receive development assistance, Tanzania has to give Western agribusiness full freedom and give enclosed protection for patented seeds. “Eighty percent of the seeds are being shared and sold in an informal system between neighbors, friends and family. The new law criminalizes the practice in Tanzania,” says Michael Farrelly of TOAM, an ...

Analysis

100 years of consciously planned division in the Middle East

14 July 2016 -

On May 16th, it was exactly one hundred years ago that a British and a French diplomat drew the borders of the contemporary Middle East and, in doing so, were responsible for many of the conflicts of the past century. Bruno de Cordier and Tom Kenis weigh the importance of Sykes-Picot.

Analysis

The big unknowns behind Brexit, UK at a crossroads

21 June 2016 -

In the run-up to the EU referendum of next Thursday in the UK, the options of leaving or staying in the European Union have featured widely in public debate and campaigners on both sides are making an effort to attract undecided voters. Although polls were favouring the Leave camp with a week to go, the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox might have shifte ...

Analysis

A Hidden War In DRC, Burundi Crisis And Great Lakes Geopolitics

10 May 2016 -

The Great Lakes region is rattled by yet another armed conflict. The fighting has stayed under the international radar, but could broaden and threathen whatever uneasy arrangements for peace or stability might be in place. Alex Ntung takes us up the High Plateaus in South Kivu and into the deep roots of recent violence there.

Analysis

‘The Greek state has nothing to gain but environmental cost from the investment’

21 April 2016 -

The Greek mining company Hellas Gold pays both the police of the Halkidiki region and private security guards to secure a large gold mine in northern Greece. That does not scare off local residents to oppose a project that they believe will ruin their environment and future.

Analysis

Greek goldrush shows that Panamapapers are tip of the iceberg

20 April 2016 -

Greece is rich, if you just add up the billions which the gold is worth in Greek soil. Yet hospitals close, TB and malaria come back, malnutrition spreads, pensions halved, wages fell by a quarter and there is no work for half of the youth. Can a Greek gold rush create jobs and get the country out of the doldrums?

Analysis

Will Brexit trigger the Africanisation of Europe?

12 April 2016 -

One reason why the UK might want to leave the EU is that the EU is an ‘untransparent, ineffective juggernaut’. However, the African experience shows that a web of smaller organisations might be even worse. Unfortunately, an African-style web is where Europe might end up after a Brexit.

Analysis

#BrusselsAttacks: 'Don’t Fall Into The Trap!’

30 March 2016 -

MO* contacted commentators in Afghanistan, India, Jordan, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Countries where the caravan of hate struck long before it came to Brussels. Their answers to our questions are quite relevant for the changes facing Belgium and Brussels.

Analysis

More People Displaced By Development Than By Natural Disasters

23 February 2016 -

People run from war, persecution, disaster and a hopeless future. But every year, around 15 million people are also forced to leave behind their homes, land and communities because they need to make way for large dams, mines, or other large-scale projects of economic development.