“Ethnic cleansing in Luoland,”

“Ethnic cleansing in Luoland”, The Economist, 9 February 2008.  

 

Peace talks get nowhere as western Kenya becomes ungovernable

AS THE road approaches Kisumu, Kenya’s third-biggest city and capital of the Luos, the country’s third-biggest but angriest ethnic group, it becomes littered with rubble and burnt vehicles. A man beats at a smouldering ambulance’s number-plate with his machete. “See,” he explains, “this belongs to the government of Kenya.” Mobs cry out for their fellow Luo, Raila Odinga, to be made president of Kenya. They plead for guns. An earnest man pushes to the front of one mob. “What we are saying is give violence a second chance.”

Gikandi, “Let Moderate Voices be Heard in this Din of Hate”

Simon Gikandi, “Let moderate voices be heard in this din of hate,” Business Daily Africa, 4 January, 2008.  

 

January 04, 2007: In regard to the current crisis in Kenya, let us start by disposing off the blame game. There is too much of that to go around: A government that has failed in its obligations to uphold democratic practices and the rule of law.

An opposition for whom nothing, except the smell of power, has appeal or makes sense. A media, whose interests are closely bound with those of the political and economic elite and, in some cases, have become willing chaperones of violence and destruction.

GOV230 Comparative Politics

PO 230 Introduction to Comparative Politics

MH 44, M-W 2:40-4:10

 

Comparison is the key to understanding and explaining politics. We will compare the explanations and analyses of capitalism advanced by Marx and Weber, the similarities and differences between Leninism and Nazism, and examine the issue of how to, or if one can, compare “holocausts”. By exploring such questions, we learn crucial techniques for analyzing politics. Furthermore, and much more in line with standard Intro Comparative courses, we will pay especial attention to examining the effects of voting systems and political institutions.