Archive for the ‘DRC’ Category
Why Enough will always get Congo “wrong” — and why we should maybe thank them for it
I’m going to go straight to it: Because advocacy is politics.
Advocacy is aspirational; it is rhetorical; and it is manipulative. And none of those things is prima facie bad (though there are better and worse ways to do them).
It seems to me we should no more expect advocates to offer a nuanced and complex [...]
The White Reporter’s Burden in Africa II: Journalists who get over it
In an effort to be productive in my criticism, here are nearly two dozen or so Western journalists I think do good work in Africa.
This all started with Phil Bronstein’s Easterly-inflected praise of the courage of Nick Kristof to admit “that there is a white man’s burden in reporting on Africa.” That’s the wrong [...]
Don’t look here for good news
Al Shabaab bombs Kampala threatens Bujumbura, which now feels like my second home. Journalists and political candidates are turning up dead in Rwanda. New fighting by the same old freaking people in eastern Congo sent 70,000 more people running. Meanwhile, Burundi apparently still can’t get its act together, and it’s dragged the East African [...]
Rwandans in Congo? “They’re all around us”
Here’s a terrific article by Michelle Faul of the Associated Press about the sort of thing that’s often rumored in quiet dinner conversation in the Great Rift Valley region. Well, we keep our voices down in my part of the valley, anyway.
It’s got all my favorite elements — land, conflict, cows — in terrifying combination.
Don’t [...]
Boozing it up in the ‘third world’?: The mix tape
Update, after I got out from under my rock
In one of the very active comments sections on the blogs that have taken this up, someone accused Nick Kristof of living under a rock. Accused is a strong word. ‘Asked if he did’ is better.
I have been the cyber equivalent of living under a [...]
Things that are worth your time
Adam Hocschild’s article from Congo, about mining, which I blogged about earlier, is online. Read it. Amazing.
“Africa to Appalachia,” Jayme Stone’s collaboration with kora player Mansa Sissoko. I’ve been listening to it on and off since it came out, but in the past few weeks, I’ve been really listening to it. It’s incredible. (So, too, [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [