Robert Guest is a Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 correspondent for The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

and regularly appears on CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 and the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

. Previously, he covered Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 for seven years, based in London and Johannesburg. Before joining The Economist, he was Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, and before that he was a freelance writer based in South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

.

He is the author of The Shackled Continent, a book that tries to explain why Africa is so poor and how it could become less so. Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof

Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...

praised the book, saying: "An excellent book. Timely, provocative and written throughout with a passion for Africa and Africans." However, The Shackled Continent and its ideology also came under criticism: "Here is the authentic voice of the new-style missionary in Africa. Robert Guest is exploring the dark continent with intrepid adventures, carrying not the Bible but the Economist to assure the benighted tribesmen that they can be saved by putting their faith in free-market global capitalism, which will rid them of their local superstitions and bring them a new era of prosperity."

From July 2009 through May 2010, Robert Guest wrote the opinion column on the United States for The Economist under the pseudonym "Lexington". He then returned to London to run The Economist's business coverage.

External links

• The Economist - Journalists listing