Scherzando Karasu Freelance Writer

Changing Botswana’s growth model and building up an export-oriented, diversified economic base relies on the presence of a strong private sector, where entrepreneurs invest and have the competitiveness to survive and expand into export markets.  But, both the structure and competitiveness of Botswana’s private sector has, to date, fallen well short: entrepreneurship has been limited in scope and concentrated on non-tradable; export share has been limited, and the survival of firms and exports has been low. Suggesting the hindrances to private sector investment relate both to the returns on investment (competitiveness) and on the relative returns in the context of alternative sources of employment and investment.  So what are some of the circumstances impacting both? Such as the incentive framework and the business environment that entrepreneurs face in Botswana?  At the core of the discourse around private sector development in Botswana is concern ove...

“We, the CEOs and business leaders of South Africa join the Government, Business and Labour initiative, and commit to doing the right thing; stand by what is right and reject what is wrong.” CEO Pledge Bell Pottinger. SAP. KPMG. McKinsey. Each has been sucked into the reputational vortex otherwise known as Jacob Zuma’s South Africa. Each has been spat out in varying states of disgrace. Bell Pottinger, a British public-relations firm, collapsed after orchestrating a racially divisive campaign against “white monopoly capital”—a clumsy ploy to distract from government corruption. SAP, a German software giant, suspended four executives and launched a probe into $7.5m in alleged bribes to secure state contracts. KPMG jettisoned eight senior partners after signing off a client’s wedding as a business expense and publishing a now-retracted report that maligned a respected finance minister. McKinsey halted work with Eskom, the state power utility, amid claims it partnered with Trillian ...

“When spiders unite, they can tie up a lion.” — Ethiopian Proverb Intra-African trade represents a lowly 13% of the continent’s overall trade. Finding the key to accelerating cross-border trade would have a transformative effect on the African economy. Africa’s 54 countries are tangled in what African Union officials deride as the “spaghetti bowl” of regional trade pacts—more than a dozen overlapping economic clubs. Integration has long been a continental aspiration. Yet Africa remains far more knitted into global commerce than into its own backyard. Some progress has been made. Import duties have fallen within many regional groupings. But a dense thicket of non-tariff barriers—contradictory regulations, paperwork, and lethargic border posts—continues to hobble the flow of goods, services, capital and people. The result is a continent that trades more easily with Europe, America or China than with itself. This failure looks especially costly now. Traditional ...

http://www.unmappedmag.com/issue-29/going-nowhere-in-kurdistan/ The admixture of emotions one feels after emerging blinking into retina-frazzling Iraqi sunlight after 48 hours spent alone in a windowless, strip-lit, shit-smeared police cell is a tough one to convey: several of the darkest nights of my soul, preceded by some of the most stressful months of my life. The sweet taste of liberty was tempered, salted and leavened by the gnawing truth that after everything that I had been through in recent months, I was still flat, stony-fucking broke. There was just no getting around that bastard. That after all of the sound and fury; after all of the 3am stress-induced panic attacks, after having had a 9mm Glock stuck in my face by ex-henchman of Uday Hussein, after having to smile obsequiously, grimacing whilst chomping on undercooked lamb’s bollocks in an attempt to ingratiate and shake down one of the most surreally menacing hoodlums this side of the Tigris for $100 large. A...