Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Kenyan writer's sharp, entertaining attack on the West's view of Africa. Watch out Jeffrey Sachs. "We will never look like what CNN wants us to look like. But that's fine - we can get online now and completely bypass their nonsense"
If you know terrible things have been happening in Central Africa for the past couple of decades, not to say the past couple of centuries, but you can't get the whole story straight in your head, this piece does it for you
Gregarious, smooth-talking polyglot. Ran legitimate air freight company, ferrying food and peacekeepers into world's trouble spots. Expanded into arms. Supplied both sides in Angolan civil war. Not cruel; just utterly amoral
Perspective on Kony, the LRA, Central Africa. "Millions of people are suddenly interested in humanitarian crises in Central Africa. This is great news, but the challenge now is to translate that concern into constructive activism"
"In elevating Kony to a global celebrity, the embodiment of evil, and advocating a military solution, the campaign isn't just simplifying, it is irresponsibly naive. The 'let’s get the bad guy' script is a problem, not a solution"
Superb essay. "When does uranium count as a nuclear substance? When does it lose that status? And what does Africa have to do with it? Such issues lie at the heart of today’s global nuclear order. Or disorder, as the case may be"
When a former NBA star-turned-humanitarian and a US energy executive tried to buy gold in Kenya, they found themselves mired in Congo's dangerous world of conflict minerals – and totally outmatched
Grisly reporting on renewed massacres. But equally shocking is the section on funding. Money to pay for tribal militias comes from émigrés in US. Write a cheque for $45,000 in Seattle, buy a genocide back home in Sudan
Joseph Kony's rebel army has terrorised Uganda for two decades. It deserves to be crushed. But even if American troops kill Kony, that won't fundamentally change anything. The basic problem here is government failure
His name is Bosco Ntaganda. He owns a bar, a farm and a mansion in Goma, eastern Congo. And the ICC has a warrant out for him. So why isn't he in jail? Because his gang pretty much runs Goma. If you cross him, he kills you. Or worse
Remarkably powerful, harrowing piece of writing on a topic -- male rape -- that is largely ignored by UN, governments and aid agencies. "Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour"
Angola's economy booms, thanks to oil revenues and Chinese investment. Angolans don't much like Chinese, and vice versa, but business is business. Country still a mess after 30 years of civil war, but the Chinese can hack it
