NYTimes: Grandmas Grow Gold in Swaziland – Swaziland currently has the world’s highest H.I.V. infection rate, leaving many motherless children. As a result, countless grandmothers have taken in their orphaned grandchildren. Help has come in the unlikely form of Swazi Gold, “a highly potent and valuable strain of marijuana” that is sought after in South Africa. Thousands of peasants make a “meager living in the rural areas of this kingdom . . . by growing marijuana, according to relief workers, embracing it as a much-needed income boost” that allows their children to go to be fed and go to school. (Lydia Polgreen)
Slate: What Does Paul Ryan Know About Foreign Policy – By choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Romney has indicated “that foreign policy will not be a prominent . . . element of his campaign.” Had Romney wanted to challenge President Obama in the foreign policy arena, he would have chosen “a vice-presidential candidate with a strong foreign policy record.” On broader issues of foreign policy, Ryan talks of “American exceptionalism” explaining that “a central element of maintaining American leadership is the promotion of our moral principles.” Yet when it comes to specific targets and policies, he “balks, apparently, without realizing it.” (Fred Kaplan)
The Washington Times: Opinion: China’s foreign aid to Africa – At this summer’s fifth Conference of the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation, China pledged $20 billion of new aid to Africa. The “Chinese commitment is symbolic of the dramatic paradigm shift taking place in foreign aid in the past decade,” with the BRICS economies lending to countries that had previously relied upon Western states as donors. A second tier of emerging donors: South Korea, Venezuela, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are also playing a more significant role in foreign aid. (Farah Thaler)
Devex: Niger swamped by new humanitarian needs – The annual rains in Niger have left tens of thousands of people homeless and destroyed over 6,000 farms because of severe flooding. During the past week, Niger received over half of the country’s yearly rainfall within a six-hour time frame, making the humanitarian situation ever more complex. (Jenny Lei Ravelo)
