Archive for the ‘Rwanda’ Category
Dear Harvard Kennedy School kid, just what exactly are you reading?
I caught this New Times piece about a group of Harvard kids who toured Rwanda and met with the president. One of them told the reporter, “Frankly speaking, the portrayal of Rwanda in the Western press does not equal what we have seen here, so we are very enthusiastic about becoming ambassadors and taking the [...]
Are women less corrupt then men?
Last week, I contributed a short piece to the Christian Science Monitor magazine cover story about women breaking through glass ceilings in politcs around the world. I live in Rwanda, the only country in the world where women hold more than the majority of seats in parliament. As I discussed this anomaly with people inside [...]
If you’ve got a radio, you can hear my voice
I have a short radio essay, “The Music of Language,” about the cacophony and the calm of working across a handful of languages, on National Public Radio’s World Vision Report this weekend. Check your local listings for times, or listen to it online starting at midnight, pacific time. Thanks to my favorite Dutchman, who shall [...]
“I have no idea what this means, but isn’t my pronunciation fabulous?”
Anyone who’s learned a foreign language knows that there are phases you go through. There’s that “I only know one verb in the past tense” phase, where every time your teacher asks you on Monday what you did this weekend, you say, “I slept.” There’s the “I understand your question but cannot form an answer” [...]
Is Rwanda really that bad for journalists? Actually, I don’t think so
The press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders is bound to cause a stir among Rwanda-watchers. The Paris-based group called Rwanda among the 10 worst violators of press freedom in the world, right along with North Korea, Burma and Iran. It’s also the third-worst in Africa; only Eritrea, where there basically aren’t any journalists who [...]
In Rwanda, bye bye bachelor’s degrees?
Yesterday, the Rwandan Ministry of Education announced that it may cut all scholarships for university students next year and instead funnel the money into primary education. The announcement came from the Minister of Education, Charles Muriganda, in a Kinyarwanda radio broadcast. A friend called me and told me about the broadcast, so I asked some [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [