What lessons, if any, will African leaders learn from Senator Barack Obama’s stunning success? Senator Obama has inspired a diverse cross-section of Americans: Whites, Latinos, Asians, African-Americans. Will those in Africa, the source of his heritage, follow suit?

Sen. Obama’s campaign has all along been about hope, a scarce commodity in Africa where selfishness and greed are what define virtually every African leader. African leaders don’t hold town hall meetings to listen to their citizens’ concerns. They’re condescending and arrogant when it comes to dealing with ordinary people.

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The Current Discussion:Is there a growing global agenda -- that is, an agenda of issues being discussed that affects the world rather than individual countries? Or are local concerns still paramount?

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the “war on terror” has become a familiar phrase on virtually everyone’s lips. (By the way, a Google search of this phrase returns 20 million results. The search term “terror” gives you 130 million results).

The “war on terror” has touched, stabilized, and sometimes disrupted many people’s private lives (Read the Patriot Act if you’re an American; the Suppression of Terrorism Act if you’re a Ugandan; or Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act if you’re a Briton ). It has altered many countries’ foreign policies, to say the least, and how they relate with the U.S.

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World leaders’ apathy toward Zimbabwe’s crisis is disgusting.

A week before Zimbabwe’s presidential runoff, killings and beatings --- directed at supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), by President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF thugs --- continue unabated. Which makes everybody, except of course Mugabe and his thugs, wonder if this runoff will be anywhere close to a free and fair election.

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The Current Discussion: Zimbabwe's chaos has brought about unprecedented cooperation in the UN, with even China and Russia switching sides to condemn Mugabe's government. So -- what should this united UN DO to force change?

After refereeing a month-long, bloody campaign -- mainly targeting supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), of Morgan Tsvangirai -- the Zimbabwean government today holds a sham election whose sole objective is to extend the inept and despotic leadership of President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe and his bloodthirsty thugs have already elbowed out Mr. Tsvangirai from the contest through violence and police intimidation. They’ve murdered about 90 opposition supporters, according to media accounts. Thousands of others are nursing injuries in hospitals across Zimbabwe, while millions others are languishing in poverty in neighboring South Africa.

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