Comments on: How big is Africa?

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 03:24:07 +0000

It’s really tempting to suspect that Democrat or Leftist NGOs in the world profited from the banning of DDT somehow.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:42:23 +0000

F: Thanks. AIDS is a scourge in Africa, as is malaria, and I agree about DDT (see this).

By: F

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 16:20:27 +0000

Neo:

I had not seen your post on Africa. It is quite good, and many of the comments are spot on — interspersed with some that are most decidedly not.

I will add something about AIDS, since one poster devoted a long comment to it. HIV, coupled with social practices that in some groups (the Luo of Kenya, from whom Obama is 1/2 descended) encourages a man to marry his brother’s widow, has devastated much of Africa. Particularly troubling, as your commenter noted, is the way in which it selectively “hollows out” a village, taking the best educated and most mobile, who probably picked up the infection while traveling outside the village and brought it home. The social consequences are staggering and far-reaching. Uganda has made strides with educational programs, but they’re a long way from success.

One other thought: we need to make DDT available in Africa. It would significantly reduce malaria, and Rachel Carson bears responsibility for a whole lot of death on that score.

Cornflour: I’m about 95 pages into my book on Africa, written mostly for my daughters who were there with us because I have no illusions many others would read much of it. I must admit I got away from it for the past year; perhaps I can get back to it.

Neo: Alan Paton was a delightful man when I had tea with him and his wife at his house in 1981. The house was like a hobbit house with a beautiful garden attached. Regrettably, it had been years since I read Cry so we ended up talking more about contemporary politics and the need to end apartheid. I think he would share his wife’s disappointment in how things turned out. F

By: Roy

Roy — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 15:34:58 +0000

All good and interesting comments, but back to the graphic comparing the relative size of some countries and Africa. First, though interesting, it isn’t really useful comparing the relative size of a continent with individual countries. Second, the whole thing begs the question of why the worlds largest and second largest countries (in land area), Russia and Canada, were not included in the comparison. And last, I noticed that both China and India were broken up into parts one and two in order to make them fit better, yet the US was not. Where is Alaska?

By: Cornflour

Cornflour — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 14:31:18 +0000

I like to read books by “people who were there.”

As I get older, I find that I’m increasingly asking people: “why don’t you write a book?”

Now I’ve done it to you. In this at least, I’ve become shameless.

By: Jimmy J.

Jimmy J. — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 04:21:59 +0000

Enjoyed re-reading the old post on Africa and the many interesting comments. Like a banquet of opinion and insight. One of the many reasons I read your blog.

By: G6loq

G6loq — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 03:42:24 +0000

How big bad can it get in Africa? Here, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa. A book I guaranty you won't be able to finish. It is bad and nobody knows. Nothing new about all that: King Leopold's Ghost. All around pathology at the utmost ... Some like to go there to dance away.... I blame the voters ....

By: G6loq

G6loq — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 03:33:06 +0000

Knowing Africa as you do, I wonder what you think of this post of mine. Good post. The place is the pits in ways you can't imagine. It might look honkidori for a while and then all hell breaks loose out of nowhere and you lose everything. It happened to my parents. Hurried departure for the airport in the dark of night to get the first flight out back to Europe, one piece of luggage in hand. Mali, 1960. As to the Infographic map shown in this post, here a bunch of them. I find #12. Visualizing Global Population Density specially fascinating.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 03:02:05 +0000

F: You met Paton? One of my favorite books, Cry the Beloved Country. Knowing Africa as you do, I wonder what you think of this post of mine.

By: jon baker

jon baker — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 01:01:23 +0000

Go look at pics of the moon compared to the US. The diameter of the moon is roughly the width of the continental U.S. …Of course the moon is a sphere and unfolded it would be far more land than the U.S….The Dwarf planet Ceres is diameter is comparable to the width of Texas….but unfold it and its a lot more.