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Can Nigeria step in to assume continental leadership now that South Africa has slipped from top spot
With South Africa going the way of Zimbabwe with the seizure of white farms, there those who are now dusting off old ideas about Nigeria becoming the continent's leading nation.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world.
On the face of it, Nigeria (pop 186 million) has what it takes to assume the leadership of Africa. It is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. As the world's 20th biggest economy, it overtook South Africa to become Africa's largest economy in 2014.
However, say critics, its regional power and capacity sometimes seem to be stunted by internal and external problems that challenge the substance of any such ideas.
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Ocean carrier liability risk rises as steps are taken to stem the flow of trans-Med migrants
The 611-dwt Liberian flagged NGO rescue ship Aquarius approached the shores of Italy loaded with 600 migrants, but was turned away. Italy, having elected a populist government, was now refusing the wholesale import of "refugees" from Libya.
Much to the chagrin of the NGOs Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee, whose ships had performed hundreds of such landings over two years in the Mediterranean, the practice, which had become standard operating procedure, had come to an end.
Italy’s new rightist deputy prime minister and interior minister Matteo Salvini said the country would no longer allow the ship’s passengers to land from NGO rescue ships.
Good news for some, but it also meant ocean carriers using the Mediterranean as the super-highway of the Asia-Europe trade were once again conscripted into the rescue business, obliged to respond to pleas for help under UN rules.
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Can South Africa avoid spinning into post-colonial chaos that has engulfed the continent?
There are times when driving through South Africa one might think one was roused from a snooze while travelling in a mountainous or arid region of America or China.
Not so much for the landscape, but rather the scale and modernity of its infractructure - its butter smooth black top, well-marked highways with all the features of a modern road network.
The question on which so much depends is whether South African can cling to its cloverleaf highway heaven in the face an immediate desire of blacks to take lands from white farmers on the assumption they can run farms better when overwhelming evidence points to the contrary.
While elements of the government are determined to pursue "land reform", knowing that there is no need for such measures, and if executed, a likelihood that they will do more harm than good. Yet they press on for ideological reasons that dominate the humanities of today's university campuses.
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Barcelona positions port to win big in what many hope to be an LNG bonanza
Having failed to attract Asian cargo to itself from the Northern Range, the Port of Barcelona has now set itself to become the liquified natural gas (LNG) port of tomorrow.
Barcelona has the advantage of ample availability of LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG) due to the location of Europe's first ever main regasification plant at the port, owned and run by Spain's energy giant Enagas, which owns and operates the nation's gas grid. The corporation also owns four LNG regasification terminals in the country, at Huelva, Barcelona, Cartagena and Gijon.
And with the upcoming IMO 2020 sulphur fuel regulation for ships, the Port of Barcelona believes in the profitability of establishing LNG and CNG as alternative and more sustainable fuels compared with the conventional oil-based fuels that tend to be used at sea as well as on land.
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Mediterranean & Africa
Trade Specialists |
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