Meles Zenawi - charismatic proponent of Authoritarian Developmentalism.Meles Zenawi is the cleverest and most engaging Prime Minister in Africa – at least when he talks to visiting outsiders. When he speaks to his fellow Ethiopians, he is severe and dogmatic. But he entertains western visitors with humour and irony, deploying a diffident, self-deprecating style which cleverly conceals an absolute determination to control his country and its destiny, free of outside interference.He was one of four African presidents to be invited to the Camp David G8 meeting last weekend. The aid donors love Meles. He is well-informed, highly numerate and focused. And he delivers. Ethiopia will get closer to the Millennium Development Goals than most African countries. The Ethiopian state has existed for centuries and it ... Continue reading →
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay meets Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe at State House in Harare on Wednesday, May 23. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, AP) “I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zimbabwe to suspend them, at least until the conduct of the elections and related reforms are clear,” she said in Harare after a five-day visit. “Sanctions should be entirely suspended for people to entirely focus on economic issues that need to be addressed,” she said. During her visit, Pillay met with President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who joined the long-ruling Mugabe in a unity government formed in 2009 to halt election-linked bloodshed that killed more than 200 of the premier’s supporters. The unity government is meant ... Continue reading →
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay meets Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe at State House in Harare on Wednesday, May 23. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, AP) “I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zimbabwe to suspend them, at least until the conduct of the elections and related reforms are clear,” she said in Harare after a five-day visit. “Sanctions should be entirely suspended for people to entirely focus on economic issues that need to be addressed,” she said. During her visit, Pillay met with President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who joined the long-ruling Mugabe in a unity government formed in 2009 to halt election-linked bloodshed that killed more than 200 of the premier’s supporters. The unity government is meant ... Continue reading →
'There is enormous need' Aid workers say they are concerned that the coming monsoon season may prove devastating for millions of people in Pakistan. Continue reading →
Courtesy of World Bank “Pudhu Vazhvu” Project, Tamil NaduWomen make brassieres in the “Intimate Fashions” factory in Guduvanchery, Tamil Nadu.S. Subhashini’s name means “she who speaks well.” However, the 25-year-old woman, who is from the Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, has not been able to hear or speak from birth.She overcame her disabilities to get a bachelor’s degree in commerce from St. Louis College for the Deaf in Chennai, a school for the speech and hearing impaired, but she could not find a job after graduating in 2007.Then in 2009 a recruiting team from Intimate Fashions, a Tamil Nadu manufacturer that makes bras for the American lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret, came to her hometown. The Intimate Fashions team hired hundreds of young women from Tiruvannamalai, ... Continue reading →
By Nita Bhalla | Yesterday at 2:52 PM | Comments ( 0 ) Village women in conservative India's southern state of Tamil Nadu are challenging age-old perceptions - which see females in traditional roles as homemakers - by taking on jobs in the regions' booming manufacturing sector, in industries producing everything from lingerie to electronics. The jobs - which are turning women as young as 18 years old into breadwinners - are not only helping lift their families out of poverty, but making their largely patriarchal communities see daughters as assets, rather than burdens for whom dowry must be paid to get them married. Intimate Fashions India Pvt Ltd, manufacturer for American lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret, employs 2,500 workers - mostly rural women - at ... Continue reading →