Came across this illuminating chart which shows the march of freedom from colonialism, war and dictatorship in Africa. It’s based on this spreadsheet, which details the history country by country, year by year.

The blog that contains it, by Rav Casley Gera, is a font of thoughtful comment, info and links on the subject of development and aid in Africa. For now, he appears to like Bono’s friend Jeffrey Sachs rather more than I do. Unlike Sachs, I don’t accept that Hayek was wrong, and I’m more of a mind with William Easterly. His Planners vs Searchers speech (PDF) to the Asian Development Bank last year is required reading, in my humble view. Dani Rodrik has some views on Easterly, with feedback from Easterly himself. Sachs versus Easterly is a fascinating debate, well worth following. Speaking of Bono, this fellow isn’t too keen on his sanctimonious saviour image either. Go on, take the afternoon off. Read. Enjoy. I did.

If you’ve got nothing to watch on Sunday, don’t fret. There’ll be an exciting war on.

It appears Syria has been fortifying positions well inside Lebanese sovereign territory:

• Syrian Troops Penetrate 3 Kilometers into Lebanese Territories

This fellow checked with the Beirut papers and found out that it’s true, but that nobody’s taking any notice:

• Syria invades Lebanon

Then we find out that Syria is evacuating its citizens in advance of something due to happen on 15 July:

• Lebanon ‘to erupt in 1 week’

I wonder what Syria knows that the rest of us don’t? Wait…lemme guess. Israel is going to attack and oppress them!

(Hat tip:  The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler)

I speak, of course, of the Communal Cable Company Plot. If I say so myself, this is a far more catchy and descriptive name than “InfraCo” for Alec Erwin’s latest state-owned folly. Erwin is South Africa’s minister of Public Enterprises, which is one of those truly beautiful contradictions in terms.

In short, InfraCo was set up using transmission infrastructure that was supposed to become part of Neotel, which was supposed to be the sole competitor to telecoms incumbent Telkom. Paul Vecchiatto, writing on ITWeb, quotes a fellow named James Theledi, who heads up the Universal Access Ag… Wait. USASAA. No. USAASA. Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa. Theledi explains why the CCCP was established:

He says the thinking was that Neotel would not be able to leverage the infrastructure, which it should have received as part of the deal to create the second national operator, to lower costs as it would compete with Telkom to attract customers.

“There was a genuine worry that Neotel would not be able to pass on the lower prices,” he says.

Now someone is going to have to explain to me why Neotel’s prices are dependent on whether it buys access to infrastructure from a CCCP that prices access at cost, or owns the very same infrastructure itself. The latter cost cannot possibly be more than the former cost. And either way, cost does not determine Neotel’s own prices. Being a private company, it will aim for the maximum price the market will bear, in an effort to recoup its investment.

There’s a serious logic disconnect here. There may be other reasons for establishing the CCCP, such as hobbling the private sector by undercutting it using tax-funded assets, but aiding Neotel or its customers can’t possibly be among them.