Latest Blog Roll

Dangerous AIDS Policy. Drug patents are not the problem

Monday, December 01, 2008 

By Thompson Ayodele 

Thomson AyodeleWriting in today's Wall Street Journal today, Ayodele contends that "Twenty-five years after the disease was first discovered, AIDS continues to claim around two million lives each year. As an African, I've witnessed the suffering first-hand. My home region of sub-Saharan Africa has 12% of the world's population, but accounts for two-thirds of those infected with AIDS and 75% of all AIDS-related deaths."

While urging all not to be fixated on price of antiretroviral therapy, whose prices have drastically been reduced, Ayodele knows where exactly to lay blame on the worsening pandemic.

"The trade policies of African governments often make the AIDS problem worse. Generic drugs imported into Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are subject to a 10% tariff. The rate jumps to 40% in Sierra Leone, and to 50% in Kenya. Nigeria charges an import tariff of up to 39%."

Read the full article here

SADC Malaria Day Commemorated in KZN

Thursday, November 27, 2008

By Jasson Urbach

Jasson UrbachMalaria kills a child every thirty seconds in Africa. The majority of deaths world-wide, over a million each year, occur in children under the age of five and in pregnant women...Combining drug therapy for humans, along with effective insecticides for IRS, provides the one-two punch
necessary to break the transmission cycle and to knock out the disease.

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Gideon Gono’s Reappointment – A Monetary Policy Hurricane in the Making

Thursday, November 27, 2008

By Rejoice Ngwenya, AfricanLiberty.org Harare, Zimbabwe

Rejoice Ngwenya The future of Zimbabwe’s monetary and fiscal environment is bleak. Mugabe has set the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on a collision course with a new MDC Minister of Finance who will have to deal with a central bank governor directly under the control of an unpopular but powerful head of state.

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Could Guinea-Bissau Ever Beat out Coup D'etats

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 

By Alhassan Atta-Quayson 

Guinea-BissauLast Sunday, when millions of people on the African continent found themselves in various churches worshipping God, a group of military officers in Guinea-Bissau were also busy plotting the overthrow of President João Bernardo Vieira

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A Great Depression?

Monday, November 24, 2008

By Steve Hanke

Steve HankeThe financial crisis of 2008 has prompted many commentators to claim that we are about to enter another Great Depression. Yes, we are entering a serious slump— one that will probably last until late 2009 or early 2010. That said, the current slump is not (and will not be) comparable to the Great Depression of 1929-1933.

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Steve H. Hanke is a Professor of Applied Economics at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C