Reviews of two new books about Africa in The Globe and Mail today: A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard French and Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller.
Both sound interesting but I'm more drawn to Fuller's book because I've read an excerpt from it in The New Yorker and because it is a new addition to one of my favourite genres, travel writing. The Globe review is positive, another review in the New York Times is somewhat lukewarm. However, the reviewers both shower praise on Fuller's previous outing "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight", a memoir of growing up during Zimbabwe's war for independence from white rule in the 1970s.
Related links:
Nov 27 2002 article from The Guardian "Here, posing as an American tourist, she returns to Zimbabwe to visit the valley she grew up in. "
Random House interview - includes a good list of books by African authors
Linux-Egypt, an advocacy group for Linux and open-source software in Egypt recently held an installfest / Linux festival in Cairo. One of the organizers, Alaa Abd El Fatah volunteered to answer questions about it from the Slashdot massive. The answers are a mixed bag - some nerdy stuff, some bristling at Western preconceptions and some illuminating comments about education and technology use in Egypt.
you must keep in mind that a huge number of Egyptians work abroad (the money they send is actually the second largest source of income), any technology that allows these people to call home is quickly adopted by the whole nation, in many cases these people are poor craftsmen from farming families with little to no education, don't be surprised to find the local whiz in the village passing from house to house establishing VoIP calls for the folks to see their granddaughter for the first time.
Also of interest and somewhat related, another Slashdot piece where Indian techies (in India) answer questions about outsourcing, geek culture, etc.