This was a State of the Union Address with a difference; it didn’t follow the usual format, which is to dwell on the political issues of the moment. There was no laundry list to ask for Congress’ cooperation. This was President Obama’s swan song to the people of the United States rather than an address…

One reason I enjoy visiting Africa is that I get what I call my “African shot”: despite difficulties, optimism transpires there. To me this is in sharp contrast to the gloomy attitude that many of us in Europe have developed over the last few years. In my post of last week (“Africa Rising” – Under…

This week, U.S. President, Barak Obama and the Republican candidates painted very different visions for the U.S. and the world with the former one based on hope and the other on fear.

“Do you really think Africa is going to take off?” This is a question I often get both from Africans and from people in the West. My answer: “It’s not going to happen tomorrow but I’m convinced it will happen.” At any typical introductory talk about the continent chances are that the speaker will show…