Issue Winter 2013 ezine

I n March 2013, while rebels were laying waste to the Central African Republic, and Mali was a toxic mixture of Tuareg rebels, Islamic jihadists, and French and Chadian military, a questionable, starryeyed article was published in The Economist – “Africa Rising” – about the journalist’s 15,800-mile, 112- day journey across two dozen African countries on roads, he claimed, “almost all of them paved… Not once was your correspondent asked for a bribe along the way… It was rarely dangerous or difficult.” Equally ridiculous was his chart, where green countries are “democracies of varying shades” – including Mali. It made me laugh out loud. At least he didn’t count Zimbabwe