Archive for the ‘Elsewhere’ Category
This week in “Huh?”
From CNN International, in an article about a British aid worker with what appears to be remarkable if limited telepathic capability. I think. Or maybe it’s an article about Save the Children’s remarkable if limited omniscience? Unclear: The British aid worker is “well,” said Anna Ford of Save the Children in Nairobi, Kenya. “He is [...]
Einheitstag! Or, “That WWI loan consolidation really paid off…”
Today is Unification Day in Germany, aka Einheitstag, and I gotta say that I’m super-proud I remembered the word even though I haven’t lived in Germany in more than a decade. But I’m also super-proud of those dogged Germans, finally paying off their WWI debt. That’s right, today the nation of Germany knows the good [...]
American Politics 101, for anyone who can stomach it
One thing I love about living abroad are the questions and opinions about American politics. When I was here in 2008, in the leadup to the election, I was amazed by how informed my Rwandan compatriots were about our politics. I couldn’t name their defense minister, but they could talk in detail about the Iraq [...]
Outing corruption in Kenya, and African authors you want to meet
Last year, I wrote about a new book on a Kenyan whistleblower, written by a British journalist. A reader pointed me to Kenyan writer Billy Kahora, who’d also just published a book, locally, about a Kenyan whistleblower — in fact, the man who, as Kahora tells it, exposed Kenya’s biggest-ever corruption scandal. It’s also one [...]
A Kristof must-read
No one needs me to tell them to read the New York Times, but I thought Nick Kristof’s column was worthy of a shout out. Here are the parts I want to shout, starting with the one that displays a self-awareness and irony I’d love to see more of on the Times Op-Ed page… (Apologies [...]
A roundup of ideas on tweeting rape
Update: For a broader look at constructing a relationship between readers and writers when covering rape and trauma, see my January/February 2011 article in the Columbia Journalism Review (PDF here with permission). For some suggestions on meaningful consent in trauma journalism, see this post. Whether we should tweet rape is a question that seems to [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [