Trees for Africa
16 December 2006
Imagine a timber investment bond that can help an African country resolve its growing fuel crisis, which can offset the global warming impact of your holiday flight, and which indirectly assists a fledgling eco-tourism scheme.
Africa: celebrity and salvation
22 October 2006
More than twenty years ago Bob Geldof and I shared what turned out to be a case of wishful thinking. We believed that the millions of pounds raised by Band Aid in a response to the famine that was wracking Ethiopia would go towards ensuring that never again would we look at our television screens and see emaciated figures, the consequence of famine, dying.
Spirited general who fought for the poor
26 June 2006
By Michael Holman
If wars have their unknown warriors, whose sacrifice enlightens and inspires survivors, then Susie Smith should be celebrated as an unknown general in the global battle against poverty.
For three decades Smith, who died in Oxford last week aged 55, fought for the poor - first as a foot soldier in Africa and for the last 10 years as a compassionate and inspirational counsellor at Oxfam, the international developtment agency.
Powerful personality who as PM twice failed Uganda
12 October 2005
By Michael Holman
Apollo Milton Obote, first prime minister of an independent Uganda, had a unique claim to fame. Alone among African leaders, he won back at the ballot box in 1980 the office he had lost in a coup nine years earlier to Idi Amin. Unfortunately for Uganda, both his sessions in office proved disastrous, and the country is still recovering from his malign legacy.
Good news from Africa
14 September 2005
By Michael Holman
There is good news from the continent, but it is in danger of being buried under hand-wringing anguish and well-intented largesse. The good news is the emergence, not of a new breed of polician, but a new breed of business leaders. However, as a recent World Bank report points out, when it comes to improving the business climate for local or foreign investors, African countries lag well behind all other regions.