It might be cathartic to opine noisily about another country’s standards and practices, but there is substantial historical evidence to suggest that a country’s citizens will tend to value economic opportunity over most other issues. That axiom applies as much to the US, the UK, and Europe as it does to China. While much of the hand wringing over China has abated somewhat during the Covid-19 crisis, the fears animating Western attitudes toward that country have not disappeared, and could resurface at any moment. These tensions represent a major, vexing dilemma for the world, given China’s massive and growing economic…

Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy – Proverbs 31:9. French general and emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, said of China: There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes, he will shake the world. Napoleon lived until 1821; some 200 years ago. China as at that time was nowhere near a regional power. Indeed, the small island nation of Japan invaded, defeated, and humiliated “giant” China for several decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries in what was known as the “Century of Humiliation”. Today, the “sleeping giant” is awake;…

The Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing climate change should have taught us the importance of resilience. Unfortunately, well-intentioned efforts to improve food security in Africa are instead increasing small farmers’ dependence on global agribusinesses without raising their incomes, and making farming systems more fragile. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations World Food Programme, declaring that it wanted “to turn the eyes of the world toward the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger.” Those numbers are now greater than ever – and the dysfunctional global food system…

The Saturday, October 10, 2020 Ondo State governorship election has come and gone but the reverberations continue. That election will be the talk-of-the-town for a long time to come for its bright spots as well as for its shenanigans. The election appears to have sharpened the shape of Ondo State politics for the future. Zoning may have come to stay with the PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, and the rambunctious deputy governor and the ZLP candidate, Agboola Ajayi, unable to upturn the apple cart of the zoning formula that appears to be working beautifully well for the Sunshine State. Jegede is…