Will East Africa become the new India?You know internet use is rocky when pirate attacks and damaged sea cables can stop connections and only 5 in every 100 people use the internet. But with the arrival of broadband to Tanzania, there is talk of East Africa becoming the new outsourcing hot spot.
August, 2009
Harvard gets schooled by GFC
Universities across the globe are feeling the brunt of the GFC. Even Harvard is facing budget deficits of hundreds of millions of US dollars, cancelled billion dollar building projects and an unstable administration.
Twitter analysis: it’s all just babble
Twitter is mainly comprised of meaningless babble? That’s what a new Pear Analytics report on Twitter usage shows. Except, it’s the report and its methods that are meaningless babble, writes Stephen Dann.
Video of the Day: If Hawke, Keating, Howard and Rudd had been journos
Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard and Kevin Rudd all fancy themselves as better journos than the real thing, says George Megalogenis. But how would each have really fared if they’d chosen the Fourth Estate over the Third?
Grudging respect not wild popularity for Rudd
The government’s approval rating is less controlled by what Malcolm Turnbull does wrong but rather what Kevin Rudd does right. And Rudd’s got voters optimistic about the economy.
Henderson: Balibo no historical document
The film Balibo should not be represented as historical fact, as it’s criticism of Australian government and institutions is unjustified, writes Gerard Henderson.
V Australia’s 777 buy-up will bite Qantas
Qantas made an incredibly inept decision by choosing to buy a large fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and not buying Boeing 777s. With the latter optimised for long-haul flights, V Australia’s new 777 fleet will allow it to offer a very attractive alternative to Qantas and Jetstar.
Abbott no fan of change, just marriage
Tony Abbott’s conservative manifesto Battlelines fails to address a key issue — that institutions need to change with society. Change isn’t always a bad thing, writes David Hetherington.
The vote must go on
Strong voter turnout in Afghanistan is vital if the country is to achieve political stability and legitimacy, says expert Ahmed Rashid, but fears of reprisals by the Taliban could prove fatal for the country’s democratic dreams.
Millions of Afghan women will go unheard
Millions of Afghan women may be denied their chance to vote in presidential elections this week because there aren’t enough female officials to staff the women-only polling stations — and culture dictates they cannot vote in male-run stations.
A veil of secrecy over home births?
A Senate committee has acknowledged that the new changes to midwifery registration will possibly “drive home births underground”, since the government will not cover medical indemnity insurance for home births.
Can we trust pre-election polling in Afghanistan?
Polls suggest Hamid Karzai will win Afghanistan’s upcoming election, but just how accurate are they? Slate provides a primer to Afghan opinion polls.
Five things to watch out for in Afghanistan’s election
An outsider’s guide for things to keep an eye on as Afghanistan’s election unfolds, written by an international observer currently in the country to watch over the democratic process.
‘Stay or go’ won’t go away
The Royal Commission into the Black Saturday fires has recommended keeping the ‘stay or go’ bushfire policy, but its emphasis has been changed — more personal responsibility on those who choose to stay, writes The Age.
Gays under attack in Iraq
Gays are being targeted in Iraq, with increased attacks and killings on suspected gay or even effeminate men. Human Rights Watch say Iraqi police and security forces are doing little to stop the violence.
Bitter Beijing
China-Australia relations have soured as a result of Australia’s decision to grant a visa to exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer and growing frustration over the price of iron ore imports, say Greg Sheridan and Michael Sainsbury.
N. Korea offers South an olive branch and the finger
North Korea announced yesterday it will open up its borders with South Korea, allowing more tourism and reunions for families separated by the war… then followed up the conciliatory gesture by threatening a nuclear attack against the country over a military exercise.
Essential Report: Rudd vs. Howard
This week’s Essential Report has a two-party preferred of 58-42 –- a two-point drop for the ALP — and also included cracker question on how the public rate Rudd compared to Howard on a series of public policy issues. Possum Comitatus crunches the numbers.
Untangling the laws of terror
It’s rare to hear the phrase “war on terror” these days — it has been seemingly purged from the official lexicon as the superficial certainty of the Bush/Howard years gives way to darker and more ambiguous terrain.
Strike gold post-recession: buy bullions and fries
The only way for the US economy to survive is to let it work in a Darwinian ‘Survival of the Fittest’, culling non-profitable businesses. The two recession busting fittest stocks? Gold and McDonald’s.
Is your life ruled by 140 characters?
What are you doing? Do you only think in short, witty sentences? You know something is wrong when you’re crying over your Twitter addiction, writes Laurel Snyder.
What was Left after the global economic collapse?
The GFC should have been the greatest moment ever for the Left. But why hasn’t a viable political and economic alternative emerged? Did the Left miss their big chance?
Bob Ellis: Tony Abbott and me
Bob Ellis muses on Tony Abbott — the man who might be leader — and his new autobiography, Battlelines. He writes very well, but is ultimately just “one more woolly Howardite denialist.”
Interview with Balibo director Robert Connolly
Luke Buckmaster sits down with Robert Connolly, director of acclaimed new film Balibo, which recreates the events surrounding the murder of five Australian journalists in East Timor in 1975.
