The 2016 HDR is out and the news for Salone is depressing and worrying. Much can be said about the Report but I will draw attention to the latest set of statistics revolving around poverty and inequality. I have always questioned the poverty reports claiming that the country has reduced poverty considerably from 2002 to […]
15 years on
It is already 15 years since the guns fell silent officially in Salone. For some, it would seem that the past conflict is history and only the bad memories of its horrors reappear from time to time. When one scratches below the surface of our economy or reflect on the state of poverty, it is […]
On Poverty and Corruption
I was asked to add my few Leones worth of ideas to the above. I usually avoid getting into the debate for several reasons. First, some reportedly corrupt societies in recent history have displayed remarkable growth at early periods – China after Tianaman, Indonesia twenty years ago, and Salone between 2010 and 2013. The drivers […]
A silver lining?
A silver lining? Impact of Commodity Price Fall on Good Governance in Sierra Leone was just posted by the World Bank Institute’s Governance for Extractive Industries Program (GOXI) written in collaboration with Nicolas Maennling and Lisa Sachs. From 2002 to 2013, resource-rich countries in Africa enjoyed the benefits of a commodity boom, using increased revenues […]
Reminders of how our goldfish global world operates
Early lessons of 2016 A decade or so ago, under the umbrella protection of national sovereignty, a citizen can be imprisoned without trial, executed summarily, entire ethnic groups deprived of basic human rights, and the only consequences internationally would be mere condemnation and a few articles in the press. Not so nowadays. Not only can […]
From a member of the Salone Conference team
Dear family and friends, today, Friday 11th December 2015, marks ten years after a life-changing accident that I was involved in in the Mathoi-Magbosie area of northern Sierra Leone. Please read through. 11th December 2005 was a Sunday. I was Freetown-bound, looking forward to receiving assignments I had given to my students at the University […]