Bodyguards for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo surely win the prize for best secret gadget: The unbreakable fighting umbrella.
And customers are clearly satisfied:
I would like to take a moment to tell you how happy I am with my new umbrella. Having been a martial artist for over 30 years I have always wished to find a umbrella that could stand the strain of being used in a true self-defense situation. Your umbrella has answered that call and more!
hat tip Wired
West Africa’s drug problem is spreading beyond the borders of Guinea-Bissau, which I wrote about a few months back. The UN has warned that her nextdoor neighbour, Guinea, is vulnerable too, although in last month’s mutiny by soldiers all the records of the country’s counter-narcotics unit were, rather suspiciously, destroyed. And in Guinea’s nextdoor neighbour, Sierra Leone, police have just arrested eight “white people with queer accents” who were attempting to smuggle 600 kilos of cocaine into Lungi airport in a plane disguised with a Red Cross logo. Sierra Leone’s clued up police spokesman has worked out from their accents that they might be South Americans. Not surprisingly in the light of the destroyed narcotics records in Guinea, a number of police and airport staff were also arrested, including the chief of airport police and the airport manager. The haul was worth 33 million Euros, and it wouldn’t take a very large share of that to persuade a few poor Sierra Leoneans to pull some strings and smooth your path into the country.
Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone are all fragile states which, like tottering companies, are vulnerable either to complete collapse or to takeover. Guinea-Bissau is in the process of being taken over by the drug cartels – the trouble is, unlike in business where being bought up can sometimes calm the waters, in the world of the resource curse takeover and complete collapse often go hand in hand.
I’m back in Pakistan where the economic picture continues to worsen, as inflation hits 21.53%.
Delve into the detail and you can see the impact of ordinary people. Food prices have risen 32% over the past year, fuel by 11% (despite government subsidies), transport by 25% and health care by 14%. Another petrol and diesel price rise is on the cards.
The new government, meanwhile, is borrowing heavily to maintain subsidies and invest in public services. In the short term, this may dampen down unrest, but it adds to inflationary pressures, and probably merely delays the inevitable economic crunch.
A further problem is the failure of food supply to expand in response to rising prices. According to Mahmood Hasan Khan, food productivity has been stagnant for a decade, with water one of many serious constraints.
Writing in the Daily Times, Rasul Bakhsh Rais sums up the prevailing mood:
The hope that the present elected leadership of the dominant party can address the many challenges facing the country is fast dissipating. There are no alternatives other than chaos, confrontation and even more chaos.
Things are not looking good…