To escape politics of denial, we cannot just cling to multi-party democracy but build social consensus COMMENT | SLAVOJ ZIZEK | The wife of a drunkard is in bed with her lover when her husband unexpectedly stumbles in and climbs under the sheets. “Darling, I’m so drunk that I see six …
Read More »Can democracy survive the Polycrisis?
Saving the world from artificial intelligence, climate change, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine COMMENT | GEORGE SOROS | We are living in troubled times. Too much is happening too fast. People are confused. The Columbia University economic historian Adam Tooze has, indeed, popularised a word for it. He calls it …
Read More »AI, Democracy, and the global order
AI will substantially impact fundamental rights and freedoms, relationships, and dearly held beliefs COMMENT | MANUEL MUNIZ & SAMIR SARAN | Future historians may well mark the second half of March 2023 as the moment when the era of artificial intelligence truly began. In the space of just two weeks, the …
Read More »DGF exits Uganda
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Democracy Governance Facility-DGF has formally exited Uganda after nearly 12 years. DGF, a multi-donor Fund was established in 2011 to properly coordinate donor assistance and activities in Uganda. The Fund has seven members including Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, and the …
Read More »Media freedom and democracy
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In July 2022, BBC Africa Eye released a documentary on gang activity in northwestern Nigeria. The programme, The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara, examined the raids on villages, abductions and murders that have plagued swaths of the country. Notably, it included interviews with so-called bandits, who …
Read More »Mexican president accuses U.S. of meddling in internal affairs
Mexico city, Mexico | Xinhua | Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday accused the U.S. State Department of “interfering” in the internal affairs of other countries. “There is currently more democracy in Mexico than in the United States,” the Mexican president said at his regular daily press conference. On …
Read More »U.S. influence in Mideast declines due to biased policies
U.S. botched retreat from Afghanistan, as well as its military withdrawal from Iraq and Syria, signaled that Washington had stumbled over its Mideast policies Cairo, Egypt | Xinhua | The United States is attempting to enhance its presence in the Middle East through visits and military cooperation. However, its influence on …
Read More »Is Western democracy failing in Africa or Africa is failing western democracy?
COMMENT | Nkwazi Mhango | Western democracy has been synonymous with western countries, which glorify themselves as being ‘successful and mature democracies’, even though they’re practically not, if analysed historically and compared and contrasted to realities on the ground. I must say it from the outset, democracy wasn’t born in …
Read More »MPs pay glowing tribute to veteran Paul Ssemogerere
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament has paid tribute to the late Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, a veteran politician, praising him for his unincumbered service and advocacy for democracy in the country. Ssemogerere died on Friday 18, November 2022 aged 90 years at his home in Lubaga, a suburb of Kampala. …
Read More »The future of liberal democracy
Why efforts to export liberal democracy abroad are likely to undermine it at home – in the West THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | On September 25th, Italy held an election, which was won by the center-right coalition led by Giorgia Melon’s Brothers of Italy, a radical right-wing political …
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