Archive for the ‘Elsewhere’ Category
Witchcraft: Getting better all the time
Principles of the poorest performing schools in South Africa are blaming witchcraft for their students’ lackluster marks. Apparently, the students are suspicious of each other, and the pesky ones are bewitching their classmates. I found this little tidbit via @baldaufji, but the best part was the first reader comment: now this we can’t discount as [...]
Lasers vs. pirates: The new Somali frontier
The British are going to try beating back pirates with specially-crafted laser canons. I’m not kidding. “We are using the laser as a kind of dummy sun that we can hide the vessel behind,” Roy Clarke, who works with laser-maker BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre, told Britain’s Telegraph. This got me thinking: What else should [...]
On Sudan, the view from outside Africa
All eyes are focused today on southern Sudan, where a vote begins that most expect will create Africa’s newest country — and, it turns out, probably peacefully. There’s lots of good analysis around the web on that surprise. But it’s not just the folks in southern Sudan who are voting; it’s the diaspora, too — [...]
Event: Sudan after the referendum
The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC is hosting a conversation about post-referendum Sudan on Monday, January 10. For details, check the calendar.
For what a flag?
I blogged earlier on the debate over Malawi’s flag, with a quick tone that angered two commenters. So I’m going a second round, incorporating their suggestions — and some political particulars they’ve brought to light. The Catholic Church just came out in opposition to the Malawian president’s seemingly unilateral decision to change Malawi’s flag — [...]
Malawi’s flag war
So the Catholic Church and the Malawian president are facing off over… a flag. The president recently decided to change the flag, without much consultation, according to available reports. The old flag has black, red and green horizontal bands, with a red half-sun rising from the center of the flag. The new flag has red, [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [