No, there is at least some level of democracy. The MDC did gain many seats during the last election, as well as the position of prime minister. Furthermore, if Mugabe goes too far (for example by banning the MDC), he will loose support from South Africa. Part of the reason why democracy has not produced results in Zimbabwe is because the disillusioned section of the population has been voting with their feet, i.e. immigrating to South Africa.

Firstly, the infrastructure to measure traffic flow patterns is being created as we speak. Every smartphone with a GPS can act as a sensor.

The political will is there, largely due to the desire to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Authorities should try to disincentive drivers to drive when peaks are predicted. It may take the form of toll charges being continually adjusted or it may take the form of free parking. But even without them, a mere warning from their smartphone will lead some drivers to reschedule or reroute.

"Whether ..." sp. should be weather !

"Strikingly, the images resemble one taken by Hubble of the star Fomalhaut." Be careful in drawing conclusions from the above statement. In 'Cosmos', Carl Sagan summarizes one of the flawed arguments he came across : "Looking at Venus, what do you see? Just clouds. Not a single thing. Conclusion? Dinosaurs"

Why hire Vinnie when the locals are so much better at it ?.

The alleged supplier wasn't Nigeria, but Niger, a landlocked country to the North.

I don't disagree with everything you say.

But clearly you are wrong on this. I live in South Africa, so I know the facts. They are richer. Their live expectancy declined (due to AIDS), but that was partly due to bad timing and NOT bad government policies. Most children received enough scientific information at school during the last 15 years to make informed choices. They knew there was some risk, yet they proceeded with risky behaviour. So it's comparable to the way that Western societies dealt with smoking during the larger part of the 20th century.

South Africa is a lot different. GDP per capita is 20 times higher than in neighbouring Zimbabwe*. South Africa will continue to draw the most talented Africans to it's factories, mines and construction sites.

*: Gapminder.org is a nice tool to explore these differences.

Did his company actually loose money for the new owners in the 15 years that has passed ? If so it was the exception rather than the rule. South Africa's share market have made decent returns in real term under the ANC. And those returns look even better after converting to USD. Compared to the Dow which has been stuck at 10,000.

Yes, there is racial tension and tribal affairs. But slow and steady progress is being made: Yesterday tens of thousands of white rugby descended on the predominantly black township of Soweto to watch the Super 14 Rugby final. Afterwards many Whites partied in Black owned bars without incident.

I nominate Grand Theft Auto. It's so addictive. It causes a large percentage of teenage males to lock them selves up in their dorm rooms and basements. Like prison only cheaper.

And when they do eventually emerge, they're muscles are to weak to attack anyone.

I guess you proposed your rules in good faith, but it may turn out to be a big money maker for the legal profession. It will also raise the uncertainty for all parties involved (what if that ex-employee suddenly remembers reading about prior art and this information comes out). Legal costs and increased risk are a drain on the economy.

Rather raise the cost of filing to the point were the state can pay qualified persons to quickly assess the applications.

The restrictions of Paypal and other payment networks on African citizens are not artificial. They are market forces reacting to the failure of African governments to prosecute fraud cases properly.

It is not difficult to understand why African governments are soft on crime. For example, the much stricter US criminal justice system is now incarcerating 10% of African American males, drastically increasing the number of single African American mothers. The Economist has a detail explanation of the phenomenon.

Helping Africa has proven extremely difficult: Aid in the form of infrastructure projects have often resulted in making governments lazy. More recently, some economists have speculated that increased trade leads to higher HIV rates and subsequent decline.

It is however not all doom and gloom: Celphones have had a enormous impact, arguably more than all other inventions combined. Renewed interest in it's resource wealth, esp. from China.

And I think the process can be accelerated: Aid money going towards education and investment flows to countries with reasonably good economic policies.

The cost per Watt of the new Medupi coal fired power station will be very similar at (+-$18b for 4800MW) but it will be able to operate at that capacity 24/7.

The solar tower will sell most of it's electricity when the price is at it's highest: In summer when all the air condition units are running.