Africa

From Malawi to the Conservative Movement

Featured image Martha Njolomole is one of the most extraordinary people I know. She grew up in Malawi, in East Africa. Her family was poor, although not particularly so by Malawian standards. Her home had neither electricity nor running water. She walked a considerable distance to and from school, and when she got home she walked a mile or two to a well for water, which she carried home in a bucket »

BLM Comes to South Africa

Featured image If you follow events in South Africa, you’ll know that the country has been spiraling down for several years now, with rampant corruption, economic decay, rising crime, frequent blackouts from a decrepit electricity grid, and so forth. The New York Times is out with a long feature that explains why the next generation of South Africans has found a scapegoat for their problems: Nelson Mandella. Mandela Goes From Hero to »

Never Apologize?

Featured image In general, political apologies are worse than useless. The Left can never be appeased, and an apology just leads to more demands, often of a financial nature. But the case of Belgium tests that principle: Why Belgium Won’t Apologize For Its Savagery In Congo: Belgium’s king has vetoed an apology for his country’s savage colonial past in central Africa, raising the ghost of his ancestor Leopold II whose reign of »

Mitt Romney could not be reached for comment

Featured image President Biden welcomed African leaders for dinner at the White House last night. The White House has posted the transcript of his remarks here. Biden’s remarks would not have been complete without this iteration of the 1619 creed: “We the People” reminds us that our countries’ greatest strength lies in just that: our people. Our people lie at the heart of the deep and profound connection that forever binds Africa »

How worrying is the new coronavirus variant?

Featured image I don’t think we know yet. But England’s chief medical officer, Prof. Chris Whitty, says we shouldn’t be too worried. (Unless otherwise indicated, his views and the others set forth below are reported by Laura Donnelly of The Telegraph.) Whitty agrees with banning travel from the African regions where the new variant is prevalent. He considers this a reasonable precaution. However, Whitty is more worried about the Delta variant, which »

U.S. falters under Biden. China and Russia notice.

Featured image Since Joe Biden took office, it’s been one bad thing after another on the domestic front. A surge in coronavirus cases and deaths (even with the vaccine), a supply chain crisis, runaway inflation, rising violent crime, etc. There have also been a series of setbacks internationally, and these are directly attributable to Biden. The debacle in Afghanistan was the worst and most important one. It pretty much settled the question, »

Is COVID-19 Racist?

Featured image We keep hearing that blacks and hispanics are disproportionate among the people contracting and succumbing to COVID-19 in the U.S., and at the moment this is taken as yet another sign of America’s “systemic racism” and perverse inequality. You’re not allowed to ask whether blacks and hispanics suffer from higher co-morbidity factors (especially being overweight), or to adjust the infection and fatality rates for age, population density, and income. Lower »

Donald Trump, the toast of Nigeria

Featured image Did you know that Donald Trump’s approval rating in Nigeria is around 60 percent? I didn’t. But that’s what the Pew Research Center found in a January survey, and according to Nigerian journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, this has been Trump’s consistent level of approval in Nigeria. Why do Nigerians like Trump? Nwaubani says it’s because they appreciate his tough talk, candor, and resilience. Nigerians also like the fact that he’s »

Crossing the border

Featured image We can turn to to the Daily Mail to learn of the large group of Africans crossing the Rio Grande to enter the United States illegally last week. The AP covered the story without the video supplied by Customs and Border Protection (below), but the bare-bones AP story seems to have escaped daily newspapers across the United States. The White House has done its part to get the story out. »

Dems spin Niger as Trump’s Benghazi, Part Two

Featured image I wrote here about the attempt of Democrats to spin the Niger ambush into President Trump’s Benghazi. Other than the fact that both events occurred in Africa and resulted in four American deaths at the hands of terrorists, there is no material resemblance between the two. The ambush of military patrols is a fact of life. The killing of a U.S. ambassador, after pleas for beefed up security were ignored, »

Dems hope to spin Niger ambush as Trump’s Benghazi

Featured image The Frederica Wilson affair may finally be waning. President Trump’s critics are reduced to noting that, at an event celebrating fallen FBI agents, the wannabe “rock star” didn’t grandstand by claiming credit for funding the building named after the heroes, as Gen. Kelly remembered. Instead, she grandstanded by claiming credit for getting the building named for them. The anti-Trumpers need to take a piece out of Kelly because he is »

Rudy Boschwitz: A Gillibrand footnote

Featured image After his two terms representing Minnesota in the Senate from late 1978 to early 1991, Rudy Boschwitz served as the first President Bush’s Emissary to Ethiopia (1991) and then was appointed by the second President Bush to serve as the United States Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva (2005). Thinking about New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s forthcoming appearance before supporters of the BDS movement against Israel (noted »

By European Standards, Macron Is Courageous

Featured image During the French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron didn’t impress me. He seemed like the mother country’s version of Justin Trudeau. But earlier this month, he scandalized proper opinion in the EU with some straight talk about Africa: At a G20 summit press conference in Hamburg on July 8, French President Emmanuel Macron answered a call for an African “Marshall Plan” from a Cote d’Ivoire journalist. Macron’s stern, clear-eyed rebuff to »

The World’s Greatest Humanitarian Crisis Arrives Just In Time

Featured image As President Trump moves to fulfill his campaign promises across a wide range of issues, the response from the left is always the same: you can’t do that. Reduce immigration and travel to the U.S.? Left-wing judges purport to enjoin it. Try to build a southern wall? Forget it. Revoke by executive order the “clean power plan” that Barack Obama imposed by executive order? Multiple lawsuits have already been filed. »

The spirit of Entebbe

Featured image Israel’s incredibly daring operation to free Jewish hostages held by murderous terrorists at the Entebbe airport in Uganda took place forty years ago today, as we celebrated the bicentennial Independence Day. It was a great day for freedom all the way around. Suffice it to say that the spirit of Israel’s Operation Thunderbolt holds much in common with our Independence Day. Almost unbelievably, Prime Minister Netanyahu–the brother of the rakishly »

Where Black Lives Actually Matter

Featured image I warned back in July that the likely overreaction to the killing of Cecil the Lion would result in lower protection for the endangered charismatic megafauna celebrated on WWF bumper stickers everywhere, and lo and behold the New York Times reports this morning on the latest unintended consequence of good intentions. Who could have seen this coming? A Hunting Ban Sap’s a Village’s Livelihood SANKUYO, Botswana — Lions have been »

Annals of inanity

Featured image Submitted for your consideration and your entertainment pleasure, the video below of President Obama instructing the president of Kenya in the matter of “gay rights.” The Hill reports: President Obama on Saturday made a personal plea for gay rights during his visit to Kenya, warning that “bad things happen” when countries discriminate against certain groups of people. “As an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of the »