Jonathan Franzen in The New York Times: The simple fact of the matter is that trying to be perfectly likable is incompatible with loving relationships. Sooner or later, for example, you’re going to find yourself in a hideous, screaming fight, and you’ll hear coming out of your mouth things that you yourself don’t like at… Read More »
This is a guest post by Keith Hart (cross-posted). It is partly in response to Benson Eluma’s piece here on Achebe and Hart. You can leave your comments here or at Hart’s blog. Benson’s post refers to my previous one, Africa’s hope, which in turn took off from Chinua Achebe’s NYT oped piece. I will not… Read More »
Chinua Achebe, one of the greatest writers Nigeria has ever known, recently wrote an op-ed article titled Nigeria’s Promise, Africa’s Hope for the New York Times. The piece starts out with the injustices of colonisation and how Africans had no idea about what to do with independence after having gained it. The following two excellent… Read More »
I just started reading Sidhartha Mukherjee’s biography of cancer, The Emperor of All Maladies. I am still in the first part but I can already see that it is a very well-written and nicely-paced book. This is how a New York Times review describes it: “The Emperor of All Maladies” is a history of eureka… Read More »
1. Haiti Earthquake: Worldwide solidarity, a common humanity? 2. Paul Krugman writes, ‘Europe’s economic success should be obvious even without statistics’. Matt Welch responds. Megan MacArdle responds. Don’t forget to check out the comments. 3. Top 5 reasons why “Failed state” is a failed concept – Aid Watch 4. Is the Nigerian President a goner?… Read More »
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution blogger and George Mason University economics professor, writes in New York Times of January 2: Putting aside the United States, which ranks third, the four most populous countries are China, India, Indonesia andBrazil, accounting for more than 40 percent of the world’s people. And all four have made great strides. Indonesia had solid economic growth… Read More »