Crossroads of Civilization
Posted in Commerce, Health & Health Care, War, World on Feb 16th, 2012
You’ve heard of Ushahidi, the crowd sourced crisis tracking platform that was developed in Kenya at the time of the post-election violence in 2008, and that has since been used to track events like the Haiti earthquake and Snowmageddon. Well, now there’s also an LRA crisis tracker, following the actions of the Lord’s Resistance Army, [...]
Posted in Lynn Gazis-Sax, War, World on Aug 24th, 2011
Here in the US, bloggers and pundits debate whether Obama Trumps Libya Critics or not. But other countries have their own political figures to be vindicated or criticized. So, here are a few Libya stories from other parts of the world. From Germany: NATO’s Success Marks Bitter Failure for Merkel (after Germany abstained from the [...]
Posted in A Daft Scots Lass, AUTHORS, Community, Family, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Nature, World on Aug 5th, 2011
I was asked from a fellow blogger what it is really like to live in South Africa. I will tell through A Daft Scots Lass’ eyes instead of what you will hear in the media – instead of how Hollywood portrays our country; I will tell you what day-to-day life is like here in South Africa. I [...]
Posted in Lynn Gazis-Sax, Politics on Jul 6th, 2011
You may have heard about the constitutional referendum Morocco just had, in which 98% of voters approved constitutional changes that reduce the king’s powers but still leave him as head of state and chairman of the cabinet. And that referendum reminds me that, with the year half over, it’s a good time to update you [...]
Posted in Lynn Gazis-Sax, World on Jun 27th, 2011
In Chad, the good news is that child soldiers are being demobilized, and the bad news is that polio is spreading. With South Sudan preparing for independence on July 9, North and South Sudan are still negotiating on the sharing of oil revenues; the South has most of the oil, but depends on pipelines through [...]
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Health & Health Care, Lynn Gazis-Sax on May 16th, 2011
Vatican letter to bishops on dealing with clerical child abuse cases, full text here.
Posted in Lynn Gazis-Sax, Politics, World on Feb 26th, 2011
In my last post, I pulled together a bunch of information about various African governments. This is the post where I explain why I went to all that trouble, and what I got out of the exercise. Why go to all that trouble? Well, I didn’t really do it for you, Dear Reader. As you [...]
Posted in Lynn Gazis-Sax, Politics, World on Feb 26th, 2011
An election just came and went in Uganda, not much noticed by the rest of the world, given the more dramatic events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and other countries. In fact, there are rather a lot of elections happening in Africa this year, that article on activists vs. authoritarians that I linked in my last [...]
Posted in Arts, Culture, Lynn Gazis-Sax on Jan 1st, 2011
Max and Mona: Aspiring medical student must sell his impressive mourning talent to prevent his uncle, himself, and the village’s sacred goat from being killed by the mob. The movie starts out with our hero in a coffin, but is his death for real? A South African movie (if news stories talk most about Nollywood, [...]
Posted in Health & Health Care, Lynn Gazis-Sax, Nature, Politics, Sex, War, World on Dec 1st, 2010
World AIDS Day: Do Microbicides Offer Hope for HIV in Africa?
Posted in Commerce, Lynn Gazis-Sax, Technology, War, World on Sep 6th, 2010
Let’s start with Chad. The good news is that the International Crisis Group is now hopeful that easing of tensions with Sudan and the upcoming November elections offer hope for a return to peace. The bad news is that a country already plagued by widespread malnutrition is now under water. Neighboring Niger is similarly suffering [...]
Posted in Commerce, Lynn Gazis-Sax, World on Aug 4th, 2010
Uganda: Drought Tolerant Maize Trials Approved. … Uganda is among five countries that are participating in the five-year Wema project aimed at developing maize varieties that can withstand the semi-arid conditions that characterise the greatest part of Africa. Others are Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. It is a public-private partnership project led by the [...]
Posted in Commerce, Lynn Gazis-Sax, Technology, War, World on Mar 9th, 2010
The Congo Siasa blog writes about the impending withdrawal of UN peacekeeper troops: We had been expecting this, but it is nonetheless big news. None of this has anything to do with an improved security situation, obviously. While the CNDP have officially been integrated into the national army and the FDLR perhaps (a strong conditional, [...]