Sono: For a long time, we had hopes for the African Union (AU). In the framework of Nepad, the New Partnership for African Development, it was agreed that governments would have peer review mechanisms and appropriate evaluation and monitoring structures which would allow us to get rid of them. But I?m beginning to despair because I see the AU is just perpetuating the old policies of non-interference in domestic affairs. We have to review the AU. There have to be mechanisms where we say: If a government does terrible things to its own people, we must isolate it and make it fall.

Sono: The so-called development aid is really a misnomer. What does aid do for Africa? I don?t think aid is what Africa needs, to be honest with you. Aid is the last thing that Africa needs, because it is not going to change anything. It is like pouring money into a black hole. There is no sufficient government capacity to deal with aid, and most of the time it is diverted to corrupt government elements. What Africa needs is serious trade infrastructures. Just look at those countries that have been, until recently, communist, like Vietnam. Those countries have abandoned state-controlled economies. They've said: Let the people bloom like flowers, let them have their own economic activities, let them be their own entrepreneurs. That is exactly what Africa needs. Fonte.

Dhiyaa Mussawi: The Western world thinks about reaching Mars in 2015, while we are still debating the question of women driving, like some of our brothers in Saudi Arabia are doing.

Dhiyaa Mussawi: I am not trying to dress it up with pretty words. The West exists. I object to the constant hunt for the Western "demon". The West is not all black. The West has anthropology, and human sciences. Many of our sheiks, when they are sick, they go to hospitals in Britain, America, France, and so on. We can adopt the Japanese mentality. Despite the catastrophes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese benefited from the Western organizational ingenuity, from the institutions in the society, from the rule of law and so on. They adopted all these, and began to produce... This is the difference between us and them.

Bush said Florida responded successfully in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma because the state relied on the expertise of local emergency managers. He said relying on federal emergency officials can be a fatal blunder.

"Our system is a bottoms-up system," Bush said. "In the case of Louisiana it was left to the federal government to fill a void and the consequences are there for the rest of the world to see." (Via Cox& Forkum)

The new laws would give security agencies "shoot-to-kill" powers when dealing with terrorist suspects and allow them to secretly detain persons suspected of having knowledge of a planned attack for up to 14 days.

The authorities will also be able to impose tight controls on the movement of suspects without judicial review and prosecute people deemed to be inciting violence.

The legislation also proposes life imprisonment for people who fund an organisation deemed militant and would impose seven-year jail terms on people who back insurgencies where Australian troops are deployed.