From the White House to Africa

Oct 15th, 2009 1:02 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

I thought readers might be interested in this great article posted on the Weekly Standard. It’s written by Nathan Carleton, who worked in the Bush White House as a Press Assistant and then as Associate Director of Communications detailed to the National Security Council. Now, having left the White House, he’s teaching this year at a high school in Keetmanshoop, Namibia.

Nathan reflects on his time in Namibia so far, and the transition from Washington to Africa. He also writes about his impression of the continent and how greatly it differs from how it’s often presented in Western media. The whole thing is worth a read.

Excerpts below, full piece here:

My news intake has changed greatly, as I have gone from scanning news wires for hours each day as part of my job to just skimming headlines and reading a handful of major stories at the local Internet café. This less-comprehensive view of the news has made me realize how selectively–and unfairly–Africa is depicted in the Western press. Almost every story I see is about something horrible: a rape epidemic in the Congo, human rights violations in Zimbabwe, continuing violence in Darfur, or ships being hijacked off Somalia’s coast.

These stories are real and newsworthy, and I do not mean to downplay them. Yet the Africa I will remember after my year in Namibia and my travels throughout the southern part of the continent is not a place of just violence and starvation, but a land more similar to home than most Americans realize. Indeed, for every Zimbabwe or Chad that makes the news, there is a stable African nation such as Namibia, Botswana, or Zambia that ought to be heralded for its progress.

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