And Headlines (Quicklinks) Are Back!

School weapons crackdown in ZA

Kenya human rights activists head to the Hague to demand justice

Mouseveni continues to deal w fallout from the Buganda conflict violence

KwaZulu-Natal govt to pay for funerals of two girls trampled to death during a stampede at a traditional dance

A minister has dirt on former Zambian Defense Minister George Mpombo

Interesting Links

Something about summer just makes me want to read about travel. Slate provides an excellent guide, although they are unfortunately limited to contemporary works. One of my favorite travel books is How to Make Friends and Oppress People (don’t read unless you take your humor with tongue firmly in cheek), and I would unreservedly recommend anything by Mark Twain. Here is a friend’s response to Following the Equator.

Also, apparently the NY Times likes Pittsburgh.

Miscellaneous reading:

• The Monkey Cage addresses the question ‘Is the American public is realist?‘
• Freakonomics has a three-part series on philanthropy for the young and fantastically rich.
  Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
• For the rest of us, Allison Schrager also looks at the ethics of charity patronage. I recommend reading the rest her columns at More Intelligent Life as well.
• Ethan Zuckerman unpacks the debate about Darfur.
• Teaching Things Fall Apart in the Mississippi Delta.
• Recovering from our collective information overload.

Finally, some new web resources:

• Athgo: building capacity through social entrepreneurship
• Institute for Security Studies
• Great Lakes Center for Strategic Studies
• Digital Congo
• A former co-worker’s new site: Connect U.S Fund.
• Two new Africa blogs: Africa Works by G. Pascal Zachary and African Politics Portal by Codrin Arsene.

Interesting Links

• Mugabe is not the worst dictator in Africa.
• Stop Mugabe by cutting off his supply of…. paper.
• British mercenaries try to take over Guinea.
• The rise and fall of European and Arab cities.
• Advice for fixing the global food crisis.
• The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart – Bill Bishop
• A debate about evolution and the origin of life from a Muslim perspective.
• Possible good news for veterans with PTSD: give them ’shrooms.

Hot Fun in the Summertime….

I’m disrupting the usual assortment of interesting links to bring you a special holiday weekend edition, of summer time fun. Enjoy!

Miscellaneous Fun

• Annalisa Barbieri on growing up with ice cream.
• The power of “because”.
• Statistics (of baseball) in politics.
• Philanthropy in US cities. Hat tip: NonProfiteer
• The ‘11 best foods you aren’t eating.’ Personally, I can’t stand beets or anchovies (except in Caesar salad dressing), but I highly recommend all the rest.
• Male and female privileges lists. I like commenter katiet’s snark.

Places to Go

• The world’s first ‘building in motion.’
• More bridges to visit.

Movies to See

• Movies about Rwanda, and ‘rebuilding the hearts of people.’
• A buddy cop film about federalism (so says Jacob T. Levy)

Books to Read

• Dan Drezner’s vacation reading.
• 11 Questions Every Donor Asks. Hat tip: NonProfiteer
• Independence Day reading (just in case you don’t have enough already).
• Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, reviewed by siphoning off a few thoughts.
• A reader asks Tyler Cowen which books he should take to Africa. I’d accept all of his choices, but might I also suggest the List?

Ancient Roman Goddess Inspires US Sec. Def. and Quicklinks

DoD Secretary Gates (a fellow WM alum) has proposed the Minerva initiative: the funding of social scientists and other professional researchers to work on such problems as China and Iraq. It is named for the Roman goddess of wisdom and just war. I think the idea is fantastic, but I’ve also been pushing for the inclusion of anthropology in IR for years.

In that spirit of reading outside one’s knowledge base, here are some (mostly) non-Africa-related articles I enjoyed this past week.

• Virginia Postrel at the Atlantic offers a ‘new theory of the leisure class‘.
• Andrew Sullivan has a peek at the places we’ll live when the polar ice caps melt and Kevin Costner gets the last laugh. I personally think it looks a bit like a roller-coaster ride.
• siphoning off a few thoughts discusses John Worrall (2002) discussing randomized clinical trials. Some of Dani Rodrik’s thoughts on the utility of randomized studies are here.
• Ronald Bailey looks at the overlap between morality and economics at reason. 
• Global Integrity Commons has an interesting piece on how shopping habits can affect credit ratings.
• Some good advice on how to give (and receive) advice.
• Kristof advises ‘books, not bombs‘ for dealing with the growing Iraqi diaspora in a NY Times op-ed.
• Perhaps Iraq could benefit from something similar to Friends of African Village Libraries, a site

devoted to thoughts about books, reading, and libraries relevant to Africa by Michael Kevane, co-Director of Friends of African Village Libraries, a small 501(c)(3) non-profit devoted to helping village and small community libraries in Africa.

He is also apparently an economist at Santa Clara University.  The Meaningfulness of Little Things points out a post on libraries being the key to building a local economic base. 

And George Will gets the last word on Obama’s “libertarian paternalism”.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe

Recent election news: Sokwanele kept a running tab of the effects of the violence and boycotts.

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The BBC has, as almost always, a good overview of the situation.  I’ve also pulled the best stories I’ve seen covering specific aspects of the elections or violence. 

The LA Times has an excellent and completely saddening article about the ZANU-PF youths who are threatened into beating members of the opposition in order to protect their own families.  It reminds me of nothing so much as the child soldiers of West Africa. 

This general violence comes after weeks of targeting opposition leadership, either through direct assasination or by targeting family members. 

There isn’t much in this NY Times article about the UN Security Council’s unanimous declaration against the violence to recommend it in particular – besides the actual newsworthiness of the headline – but its description of Mbeki’s “mediation” as ‘maintain[ing] a strategy of quiet diplomacy’ made me laugh out loud.  So that’s what we’re calling silence these days. 

Speaking of which, another NY Times article addresses Mbeki’s failure to condemn Mugabe.  This article characterizes Mbeki’s approach as ‘walking softly, carrying no stick’.  The authors report that South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, has said that ‘”We can only say the mediation has failed if we reach a situation where Zimbabwe totally gets engulfed in a state of civil war”.’  Does this me that the opposition has to form its own army before Mbeki will admit defeat?

The article itself is thoughtful, and underscores the troubled relationship between African leaders and their constituents, as well as the almost incestuous connections between the leaders themselves. 

I almost hesitate to include this Flikr album, because of the level of violence depicted (DO NOT open during lunch).  (The link is to Andrew Sullivan; he links to the pictures, but also a piece by the Times).  This what life is like currently in Zimbabwe.  It doesn’t have to be like this!

And in case you missed it, Tsvangirai’s statement last weekend withdrawing from the elections (Hat tip: Meaningfulness of Little Things).

Although I think Tsvangirai’s actions make sense in light of… everything, this Guardian op-ed says he must convince his followers that he’s not simply playing into Mugabe’s hands. 
 

Interesting Links

The British government wants to ban qat, but apparently hasn’t done their research.

The BBC honors fallen journalists.

Matt Yglesias (reading Greg Easterbrook) warns us of the asteroid menace.

A test to figure out your political views and match you to international leaders (I’m closest to Nelson Mandela!).

Men who cry (and we love them for it). Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

Some people can live with just 100 things. I think I could do that if I was like the one woman who counts all of her shoes (30+ pairs) as a single item (not because of my shoes, but my books. Those would be hard to give up).

A short review of recent events in Zimbabwe, plus some reasons to hope.

A ‘good news’ feeder for idealists. If only.