Filed under: Nonsense
…on writing about South Africa at least.
Their April 16th article on newly elected President Jacob Zuma is just too good. I mean, really good — as in, the best article I’ve ever read about contemporary South Africa.
It’s insightful, funny, comprehensive and peppered with simple, key statistics that give a pretty good sense, I think, both of the highly controversial and highly enigmatic Mr. Zuma and of the country as a whole. Its view of South Africa as neither a perpetual “miracle”-country nor an apocalypse-approaching failed state is severely lacking in both SA and foreign media, and the careful balance it strikes between praise and criticism is rare, no matter the country.
(The reader comments attached to the Zuma article, however, are unsurprisingly belligerent and distorted, but the four comments on this related page, if you’re looking for more reading, are genuinely enlightening.)
