Alex Matthews

Zimbabwe

"The government has been deeply unpopular for a long time now; dissatisfaction gave rise to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change being created in 1999. People were tired of the endemic corruption and failure to deliver that characterized Zanu-PF rule. In 2000 Mugabe lost a constitutional reform referendum which would have given him greater power. He retaliated with the invasions of white-owned farms in which special punishment was meted out to thousands of farm laborers."

"The reason why [the inflation] is so incomprehensibly large is simply because whenever the government of Zimbabwe required funds, the Central Bank of Zimbabwe was forced to print more money. This was done more and more as the economy collapsed. The economy was reliant on the agriculture sector for foreign currency but this sector has been decimated as a result of the takeover and destruction of productive white-owned farms. This has been done for some time now and has resulted in the currency being absolutely worthless."

Second Congo War of 2005-2008

"Unfortunately, often the news that is covered is based on the demand for it. Amongst many people there sadly is little interest in the fate of millions of people in the Congo. To put it bluntly, people just don’t care. Partly this is because the Congo situation is so complex and has been going on for so long, so that people have lost interest. News cycles favor simplicity and quickly lose concentration on long-burning, complex conflicts like in the Congo. Remember: this is not a case of a battle between a "good" side versus an "evil" side: rather, it is a situation in which competing factions fight for power and resources, with the civilian population caught in the middle, suffering the most. This complexity is why there has sadly been so little coverage of the conflict in the media."

Darfur

"Darfur conflict stems from the oppressive, brutal policies and actions of Sudan’s dictator Omar al-Bashir."

"The ICC’s arrest warrant for crimes against humanity sends a strong message that dictators and their ruling parties can no longer continue to foment conflict and inflict suffering on their innocent populations with impunity."

"I believe the international community also has a roll to play in facilitating dialogue and promoting conflict resolution and peacekeeping on the continent. This is a vital role that the UN needs to be supported in, both financially and politically, or it will continue to fail Africa’s people as we have seen in Rwanda’s genocide and elsewhere."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

"I think some people have indeed been a disappointed by Ban Ki Moon’s apparent weakness. It is uncertain as to who will replace him and whether the replacement will be an African. If he serves two terms as UNSG then that will still be remain in office for quite a while. So, as yet, his replacement has not really been discussed in the media."

Julius Malema

"Isn’t it astounding? That a man (Julius Malema) who incites people to murder and violence, who uses hate speech and insults senior members of his party is still around and playing a prominent political role in the ruling party, nogal?"

African National Congress

"There just hasn't been service delivery [by the ANC] required to put people out of poverty."

"Housing is a huge problem. We have literally thousands and thousands of people coming from the Western Cape into Cape Town to find jobs, and there are no houses for them. Ther [sic] has been tremendous dis-satisfaction."