ONCE again Africa's worthiest and perhaps happiest countries are offshore, according to Mo Ibrahim's latest measure of all-round governance, which scrutinised data gathered last year. The yardsticks applied by Mr Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born telecoms magnate and philanthropist, judge countries on a mix of four main criteria: “safety and the rule of law” (looking at the murder rate and corruption, among other things); “participation and human rights” (the little matter of being able to chuck out a bad government peacefully); “sustainable economic opportunity” (including such things as fiscal management, free markets and inflation); and “human development” (in essence, education and health care). For more on the index of African governance, see article.

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