Tag - africa

 
 

AFRICA

Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2014
'Gleam of hope' in strife-torn Somalia
While some African countries have made huge strides in terms of peace and security, others are still struggling to find their footing, a U.N. official who monitors development in the region said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 14, 2014
U.S. joins France in anti-terrorism fight across Sahel
On a dusty training ground in Niger, U.S. Special Forces officers teach local troops to deal with suspects who resist arrest. "Speed, aggression, surprise!" an instructor barks as two Nigeriens wrestle a U.S. adviser out of a car.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2014
ODA serves as an investment in ASEAN: white paper
The nation's official development assistance to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been an effective "investment in the future" for the 10-nation region and Japan, bolstering development and prosperity for both, according to a government paper released Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2014
Japan to hike Africa ODA offerings
Japan is vowing to increase official development assistance to Africa, especially for education and development in the sub-Saharan areas, according to the latest version of the ODA white paper.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2014
A wealthier Africa will depend on health care
One of Africa's biggest challenges to greater GDP growth and personal wealth is inadequate health care. Preventable and treatable diseases plague the population.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 29, 2013
How the West fell for the 'big lie' about South Sudan
The pursuit of separation from northern Sudan at all costs made it harder to admit certain truths about the south, such as ethnic divisions, and created the need for the 'big lie,' as one senior U.N. official calls it. 'The big lie is that there was no ethnic problem in South Sudan; there is a political problem.'
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2013
Nelson Mandela: peace at last
The Catholic Church consecrates saints with less pomp than was lavished on former South African leader Nelson Mandela during a week-long media orgy. Mandela was no saint; he was just the right man at the right time.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 22, 2013
Danish PM's 'selfie' snapshot of her credibility crisis
When Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt took a "selfie" on her smartphone on Dec. 14 — like millions of people do every day — she doubtless had little idea of the commotion that would ensue. In the photograph, taken at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the most admired political...
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013
Some Afrikaners unmoved by Mandela death
Dirk Smit's reaction to the death of Nelson Mandela, it would be fair to assume, puts him in the minority of South Africans.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013
Anti-apartheid movement recalls struggle
Key figures in the British anti-apartheid movement have spoken of their sadness at the death of Nelson Mandela, whom they described as a reluctant poster boy of a campaign that ended up focusing the world's attention on the horrors of apartheid South Africa.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013
Mandela saw massive change in Africa
Nelson Mandela was born into a continent colonized and in servitude to European powers in July 1918. Only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent. But Germany's defeat in the first world war brought about a reworking of the colonial order with its possessions in what are now Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo, Burundi...
WORLD
Dec 15, 2013
Family turmoil puts legacy at risk of being besmirched
When Nelson Mandela is finally laid to rest, it will be on the same windswept hillside in Qunu, his childhood village in South Africa's Eastern Cape, where three of his children already lie.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013
Why do African leaders ignore Mandela's democratic legacy?
Seeing the glowing eulogies for Nelson Mandela filled a Ugandan journalist with the same unsettling pride that gripped her younger soul as she listened to her high school African nationalism teacher talk about the struggle of great leaders to liberate the continent.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2013
HIV/AIDS cases rising in Mideast, North Africa
Although the Mideast and North Africa has just 2 percent of the world's HIV caseload, it is one of two regions with the fastest growing HIV/AIDS infection rate.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2013
Mandela's final step to freedom
Nelson Mandela's life had many parallels with that of Mahatma Gandhi. Above all, Mandela was an eternal optimist who believed in the possibility of improvement and progress by appealing to the better angels of our nature.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2013
A 20th-century hero and icon
Nelson Mandela's life was a testimony to the need to put aside the anger and desire for vengeance to which one may feel rightfully entitled and to embrace the very best in humanity, regardless of race.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2013
Mandela's walk from prison to reconciliation
Nelson Mandela's greatest legacy to South Africa, indeed the entire world, was to preach and practice reconciliation between former sworn enemies after putting 27 years in prison behind him.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2013
Inequality threatens Mandela legacy
Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in apartheid jails in 1990 pledging to seize South Africa's mines and banks. Four years later, his government slashed spending and courted foreign investors, paving the way for the longest period of growth in the country's history.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 7, 2013
Mandela saved nation from race war
To fully appreciate what former South African President Nelson Mandela was able to accomplish, it is necessary to harken back to the South Africa he found when he emerged from prison in 1990, and what the country was like in those critical four years between his release and his election to the presidency...
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 6, 2013
Nelson Mandela, ex-president of South Africa, dead at 95
Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa and whose heroic life and towering moral stature made him one of history's most influential statesmen, died Dec. 5, the government announced. He was 95.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals