Here are some stories that have caught my eye of late:
Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics has an excerpt from what is sure to be an explosive new book on Israel’s connections to Apartheid South Africa. I’ve written a bit about the Middle East and especially Israel, and while I don’t want to open that can of worms here (there are several fine FPA Blogs that do that!) I will say that Israel’s bolstering ofthe National Party’s regime has always been an achilles heel for a country that I fundamentally support. I am not a fan of the Israel-Apartheid analogy, but I do worry that by keeping a permanent hold on the West Bank and Gaza Israel is inevitably going to abandon its claim to being a liberal democracy.
The May 17 New Yorker published an extensive piece on efforts of developmental economics scholars at MIT to combat poverty across the developing world, including in Rwanda.
Earlier this year Mark Turner of FootballFanCast.com provides a list of the Premier League’s ten greatest African players of the last decade. I would like to see South Africa’s Benni McCarthy get props, and I’d rate Ghana’s Michael Essien ahead of Ivorian Kolo Habib Toure, but it’s a pretty solid list and shows just how many great African footballers there are and what a significant contribution they are making to what most regard as the highest level of professional football. The consensus #1 on that and just about any other list of African football stars is C’ote D’Ivoire and Chelsea star Didier Drogba, who is featured in this week’s Sports Illustrated, which also has a fantastic photograph of Angolan kids playing football in Lusaka.
