What We’re Reading 10/23/09

Oct 23rd, 2009 11:45 AM UTC
By Robyn Mitchell

USA Today: Unity doomed apartheid. Next up: climate change (Editorial, Desmond Tutu)
In an editorial for USA Today, Archbishop Desmond Tutu emphasizes that as the decisive Copenhagen climate talks near, Africa is making itself heard on the issue of climate change. Tutu echoes the call of the African Union’s chief negotiator who said last month that Africa will not only demand fair compensation for climate damage from industrialized countries, “but would also demand that rich nations cut emissions and hold global warming to as few degrees as humanly possible.”

The Economist: One of Africa’s most successful countries sets a trend that more can follow
The Economist explores democracy in Africa, highlighting the successful democratic system in Botswana. Calling it “one of Africa’s most successful countries,” the paper outlines a number of factors that have helped democracy and government in Botswana succeed. Although “there is a long way to go before all the rest of Africa follows Botswana’s example…more Africans these days accept that being able genuinely to choose their leaders is the least bad way to freedom and prosperity. Botswana is proof of it.”

The Times: Do starving Africans a favour. Don’t feed them (Op-Ed)
The Times Africa bureau chief editorializes that despite the devastating famine in Kenya and Ethiopia, sending food and emergency relief will make things worse in the long term. Instead, aid organizations should focus on improving education, donating to charities that “ring-fence funding for education – meaning if they don’t do it, don’t give.” Writes the author, “With education Africans can and will rid themselves of the incompetent and corrupt leaders that we have kept in power through foreign aid for decades.”

TIME Magazine: Back to the Land: The New Green Revolution
TIME Magazine explores the global resurgence of farming, remarking that with fears of food shortages, a rethinking of antipoverty priorities and the crushing recession, there is a dramatic shift in world economic policy in favor of greater support for agriculture. According to TIME, farmers are receiving more aid and investment by governments and development agencies than they have in decades in a renewed global quest for food security and rural development. The G8 summit in Italy last July declared “there is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger” and pledged $20 billion for agriculture.

Reuters: Africa should protect children from AIDS: Machel
Nelson Mandela’s wife Graca Machel said Thursday that African leaders should be more serious about protecting the continent’s children from AIDS and it is time for them to change state spending priorities. At her launch of the Campaign to End Paediatric HIV/AIDS (CEPA), Machel emphasized that “No matter how small our budgets, we must do something. We will not get there (HIV reduction) with African leaders who don’t get moved by people dying.”

TAGS: What We're Reading