IDN-InDepthNews

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA – Surely, Ethiopia would rather be known for something other than the cyclical hunger-producing droughts spurred in part by regular episodes of El Nino.

Ethiopia is the world’s fastest growing economy. Ethiopia has been doing very well over the last about 15 years. Millions of people have been lifted out of poverty as the economy has been growing faster than anywhere else in the world.

Some in the international community may not even remember 1984, when a drought compounded by political unrest developed into a famine that killed more than a million people.

NEW YORK | KAMPALA – The unspoiled Zika forest, located on the edge of Lake Victoria, home to birds, leopards, rabbits, pythons and other wildlife, is suddenly abuzz with curious western journalists and others eager to visit the birthplace of the mosquito which has been linked to an alarming condition among new-borns in Brazil.

“People have been calling me and saying, ‘What are you going to do with that mosquito? What are you still doing there?’” recounted a bewildered Gerald Mukisa, the caretaker and tour guide at the forest. “I tell them that I have lived here for seven years and nothing has ever happened to me.”

NEW YORK | PRETORIA – An ill wind of layoffs, company closings and unpopular labour reforms are taking a toll on South Africa’s once powerful trade union movement.

Membership in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has slumped from a peak of 2.19 million four years ago to 1.8 million, following the expulsion of its largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

NEW YORK | PRETORIA – A protracted battle over pricey upgrades to the country estate of President Jacob Zuma – charged to the national treasury – appears close to settlement.

In an about-face, President Zuma has agreed to pay back state money for some of the upgrades. The President was scheduled to appear in the week beginning February 9 before South Africa’s Constitutional Court on the issue.