The Getz Files

Africa isn't quite the forgotten continent any more - if anything, it's become a most concerted continent ("concert"ed - geddit?). I find that nothing makes me a contrarian so much as Africa. If someone says its dire state is all the fault of the west, colonialism, neo-colonialism, I'm immediately forced to talk about corruption and the billions that have been wasted. Conversely, if someone says it's because of its own bad rulers, I then get into a tirade about the effects of colonialism, unfair trade rules, unfortunate reliance on monocultures. In other words, it's complicated. But Paul Theroux has written an excellent article on Africa which I tend to agree with. I particularly like the way it starts: "There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment." (To read the whole thing, you'll have to log in - you can use plastician05 as username and password.)

I find this doubly shocking because of a) my generally contrarian stance and b) the fact that I usually detest him even if he is Gordon's best-ever star-spot (actually verging on a star-fuck, I believe).