Hari, Daoud The Translator**** You may have read about Darfur, seen it on the news and even sent a check to aid in the humanitarian crisis, but you will never really grasp the situation until you open the pages of this book and read this memoir. Translating Darfur’s stories of human pain and suffering into English words reporters could understand and later share with the rest of the world was the work of Daoud Hari a local tribesman. One of the most poignant reflections in this wrenching memoir is his notation that sometimes it was just the telling of a story, the sharing of an experience and knowing that someone was recording it that brought some small measure of relief to victims who verbalized their anguish.
At once candid, graphic and yet philosophical this book reminds us that the genocide in the region continues and also helps first time readers understand some of the intricacies of the Sudan and the region..
During his travels with journalists such as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, stories of loss, painful, senseless deaths, parents forced to watch their children suffer at the end of bayonets, scores of young men dispatched with machetes (so horrifying in fact that reporters who saw the carnage had to be hospitalized from the visual trauma) Hari persisted in helping document the inhumanity. Day after day, Hari went back into the field, risking his life to tell these stories and help Darfur’s voices be heard all the way to Europe and the Americas.
Woven into the rich fabric of the book we also learn about Hari’s family, their lives prior to and during this genocide. We learn about the ravages of fear, the accumulating toll of savagery on the psyche of youngsters and adults who have seen so much terror and heartbreak. We see Hari try to make his way amidst the chaos of life in a disintegrating country where the only law is who has the bigger guns, machetes and soldiers.
We also hear Hari’s own story about his high school English, his camel, his trek to foreign lands (and a stay in an Egyptian prison when he is caught without legal work permit papers), his love of classic novels such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND and KIDNAPPED and Charles Dickens’, OLIVER TWIST. But most of all we hear his voice and his storytelling almost as if we were sitting together sharing our thoughts. conflict. Hari is a Zaghawan, a tribe that distinguishes itself with scars on the facial temple. It's easy to see that the scars to Hari run much deeper than traditional markings.
Engel, Jonathan, The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS *** tracing the roots of the illness logically and without emotion by timeline, groups affected, politics, economics and social mores that impacted the spread.
Sage, Jesse and Liora Kasten, editors
Enslaved:True Stories of Modern Slavery*** a Haitian girl sold to a US family to a woman in the Sudan, a Chinese man held in a forced labor camp and a Sudenese slave owner who became an abolitionist are among some of the stories told in this book that is at times appaling because it is so hard to realize that slavery today is such a huge moneymaking business – from forced labor to sex trade to servitude – a must read.
Dau, John Bul
God Grew Tired of Us *** One of Sudan’s “lost boy’s: shares his story of survival – a story of hope and how he came to America and brought that same hope to many others. An inspiring story that was made into a documentary film that won the Grand Jury and Audience awards at Sundance…
Epstein, Helen
The Invisible Cure: Africa, The West and The Fight Against AIDS In Africa During 2005- 40% of all those infected with HIV lived in 11 African countries (home to only 3% of the world’s population)… In Botswana, Lesotho, SA, and Swaziland roughly 1/3 of all adults were infected…a rate ten times higher than anywhere in the world outside of Africa…(pg,xii) How did this happen? How has AIDS/HIV spread so quickly – especially when sexual behavior is not so very different from elsewhere in the world – what can be done? Epstein looks at why programs have failed, which ones work (and makes a great case for circumcision in males which seems to be why Muslim west Africa has been spared the higher rate of disease)…Hard to read at times simply because this disease has devastated the African continent. A must read for anyone interested in AIDs, Africa and humanity.
Sachs, Jeffrey
The End of Poverty: The Economic Possibilities for Our Time Probably the best known writer/economist on the topic of world poverty – Sachs is a headliner on talk shows (the Oprah of economics) with his candid views about the causes of poverty and what can be done to eliminate the cycle of poverty. One of his chief fixes is to get wealthier countries to give a.7 percent of their gdp to developing nations…It always sticks in my head that he offers some “simplistic” fixes such as mosquito bed nets which in reality do work --- it doesn’t always have to be touogh economic policies…
Ghazvinian, John
Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil**1/2 This journalist profiles the possibilities, the challenges, the obstacles (warring factions, thieving dictators, warlords in boats, pitiful populations living amidst fouled waters thanks to big oil companies) of getting oil out of Africa to feed the world’s lust for black gold. It’s at once illuminating and disturbing – a commentary of one more disaster for Africa---
Nolen, Stephanie
28 Stories about AIDS In Africa *** if you want your heart to break a little at a time, read this. While in many ways it can be inspiring, it is for the most part an indictment of poverty, lack of education and a world that has turned it’s back on African nations who are dying because they lack access to healthcare. With the opportunity for the frug regimes there are some positive stories and better outcomes…
The personal stories spans the gamut from truck drivers to children to grandmothers all with the same disease and often without any hope.
Steidle, Brian, The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur**** because so much has already been written about this book (and you may have also seen the film/documentary) I'll just say that if you have not read it -- get it. It highlights Darfur's situation in a way that will stay with you - forever. How anyone like the UN and certain governments can turn their backs on this situation is beyond belief....
Collier, Paul The Bottom Billion: Why The Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It Yes, a snoozer unless you want to know the reasons why this economist thinks problems exist in “poorest” of the poor countries…and he thinks it’s not for many of the reasons we always hear… While being landlocked can’t be helped he does advocate some things that will sound familiar to Sachs groupies – but this is so dull you’ll just want to take a nap instead of taking action
Easterly, Wm.
The White Man’s Burden: Why The West’s Efforts To Aid The Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good** (he needs to read Jeffrey Sachs)
Gutman, Roy ed.
Crimes of War: What the Pulic Should Know Revised and Updated Edition 2.0 exactly what it says – crimes against humanity, from WW 2 – present including US atrocities and ones where we used the data to free war criminals. Everything is covered here from Bosnia to Rawanda – Darfur… child soldiers, mass rape, hostages, etc.
Guest, Robert
The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption & African Lives ****
McGovern, George,
The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger In Our Time**1/2 (great read re: history/solution to US and addressing world hunger)
French, Howard
A Continent for the Taking(Africa)**1/2Meredith, Martin
The Fate of Africa: A History of 50 Years of Independence ** (very dry)
Taylor, Jeffrey Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa By Truck, Bus, Boat & Camel ** not exactly a tourist trip...
Sage, Jesse and Liora Kasten editors Enslaved:True Stories of Modern Slavery*** a Haitian girl sold to a US family to a woman in the Sudan, a Chinese man held in a forced labor camp and a Sudenese slave owner who became an abolitionist are among some of the stories told in this book that is at times appaling because it is so hard to realize that slavery today is such a huge moneymaking business – from forced labor to sex trade to servitude – a must read.
Dau, John Bul God Grew Tired of Us *** One of Sudan’s “lost boy’s: shares his story of survival – a story of hope and how he came to America and brought that same hope to many others. An inspiring story that was made into a documentary film that won the Grand Jury and Audience awards at Sundance…
Epstein, Helen The Invisible Cure: Africa, The Wet and the Fight Against AIDS In Africa*** 2005- 40% of all those infected with HIV lived in 11 African countries (home to only 3% of the world’s population)… In Botswana, Lesotho, SA, and Swaziland roughly 1/3 of all adults were infected…a rate ten times higher than anywhere in the world outside of Africa…(pg,xii) How did this happen? How has AIDS?HIV spread so quickly – especially when sexual behavior is not so very different from elsewhere in the world – what can be done? Epstein looks at why programs have failed, which ones work (and makes a great case for ciurcumcision in males which seems to be why Muslim west Africa has been spared the higher rate of disease)…Horrible and enlighting. A must read for anyone interested in AIDs, Africa and humanity.
Ghazvinian, John Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil**1/2 This journalist profiles the possibilities, the challenges, the obstacles (warring factions, thieving dictators, warlords in boats, pitiful populations living amidst fouled waters thanks to big oil companies) of getting oil out of Africa to feed the world’s lust for black gold. It’s at once illuminating and disturbing – a commentary of one more disaster for Africa---
Nolen, Stephanie 28 Stories about AIDS In Africa *** if you want your heart to break a little at a time, read this. While in many ways it can be inspiring, it is for the most part an indictment of poverty, lack of education and a world that has turned it’s back on African nations who are dying because they lack access to healthcare. With the opportunity for the frug regimes there are some positive stories and better outcomes…The personal stories spans the gamut from truck drivers to children to grandmothers all with the same disease and often without any hope.
Collier, Paul The Bottom Billion: Why The Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It**Yes, a snoozer unless you want to know the reasons why this economist thinks problems exist in “poorest” of the poor countries…and he thinks it’s not for many of the reasons we always hear… While being landlocked can’t be helped he does advocate some things that will sound familiar to Sachs groupies – but this is so dull you’ll just want to take a nap instead of taking action
