Africa Editor at The Economist.
Also feeling my way onto the other place: @journalistjon.bsky.social
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Oct 10, 2023 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
I have been struggling to articulate the complex emotions I've been feeling since Saturday morning as a Jew, a liberal/progressive, a believer that Palestinians and Jews have a right to a homeland, to safety and dignity. A thread 1/
Firstly I still feel sick and worried. I have family and friends in Israel. Some were in communities near those that were attacked. Others have children, nephews, grandchildren who have been called up to the IDF. I have friends and colleagues exposed to danger to report 2/
Feb 2, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Two stories in the news today illustrate how Eskom in South Africa is squandering a huge opportunity to massively save costs, green its energy supply with renewables and reduce the load-shedding that is killing the economy. A short 🧵 1/
The first story says that Eskom is on track to spend about 22bn rand ($1.3bn) on diesel for its inefficient open-cycle gas turbines, which produce some 2MW of power. Meant for emergency "peaking" they have been run about 12 hours a day 2/ dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-0…
Nov 24, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
Big take in this week's Africa pages @TheEconomist on why efforts to form a cocoa cartel (COPEC, like OPEC) will not do much to help the poor. A short 🧵on why it is a bad idea 1/ economist.com/middle-east-an…@TheEconomist Currently farmers get a raw deal: "More than half of Ivorian cocoa farmers and their families subsist on less than $1.20 a day...In Ivory Coast and Ghana, which between them grow about 60% of the world’s cocoa, some 1.5m children do dangerous work in cocoa-growing areas."
