Final quick hits before I leave Keele in an hour or so:
President Barack Obama has the equivalent of the Midas touch for journalists: If he can be associated with an idea, a product, a movement, or whatever it is you are trying to cover, you (and in some cases your topic) have hit the jackpot. President Obama has taken to South African wines. Voila! Proof that South Africa’s wine industry is growing in international esteem! If only I could find a way to get this associated with the President . . .
In The New York Times Greg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst argue that it is time to stop the isolation of Zimbabwe, something I have been calling for since the implementation of the unity government.
Britain is returning failed asylum seekers back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those asylum seekers argue, plausibly, that they face persecution upon their return. The British government claims, far less plausibly, that those folks will be just fine.