Libya: Stepping into a Pre-Revolution Scenario and Yet Another ‘Crisp Atmosphere’ Experience
My mission to Libya and a nervous arrival… It was December 2010 when I took an Egyptair flight from Johannesburg to Cairo and then another Egyptair flight onwards to Tripoli, the capital of Libya. I had been invited to speak at a conference, but my main reason for accepting the invitation was to meet with […]
Côte d’Ivoire/Ivory Coast: An Agricultural Success Story that is Blossoming Even More
Why no dried mangoes?… It was sometime around 2002 and I was walking with an Ivorian friend in the streets of Abidjan’s posh Cocody suburb. “So many mangoes just lying all over the road and just rotting away. Why don’t you guys do something with them?” “Do what with them?” “Beneficiate. Process them. Dried mangoes […]
Namgola: Development of Southern Angola and Northern Namibia into a Significant Economic Region
A new trade route and ‘Namgola’… I was sitting on the stoep of a home on the outskirts of Windhoek enjoying a few sundowners with a Namibian consulting engineer. Although informal, it was an important meeting. His company had recently completed a feasibility study on a south-north trade corridor that would extend from Walvis Bay, […]