A new post on one of The Atlantic’s blogs breathily covers Bono appearing at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. to talk about Africa and foreign aid. It’s not clear why a publication like The Atlantic (or its online equivalent) is covering Bono giving a talk about Africa but the fact they covered it at all is part of […]
The Guardian’s “Poverty Matters Blog” on Friday claimed “… there is no simple answer to whether we should or should not use stars to promote good causes,” especially when it comes to development issues. Though the phenomenon has spawned a slew of derogatory words to describe the celebrity/cause mashup (“celanthropists”, “mallrtuism”, “charitainment” and “badvocacy”, and […]
The New York Times has published another of rock star Bono’s stupid “op-eds.” This time some nonsense titled “Ten for the Next Ten.” The last item on the list is the 2010 World Cup to held in South Africa next summer (actually it will be winter down there then). Anyway, Bono goes on about how […]
UPDATED: Airports in some African countries can’t keep up with entertainers (and celebrities) either visiting for big pay days (that’s the case especially for rappers and R&B stars, and Kim K), to rehabilitate their images via PR junkets, make appearances in nightclubs, or to connect with themselves. You can create a template it seems for […]
We had been studiously avoiding coverage of Madonna’s latest trip to Malawi, but such is the deliciousness of the excoriating 11-point press release put out yesterday by Joyce Banda that we couldn’t resist wading in. These two had previous — Madonna’s people had scapegoated Banda’s sister over a botched school project — and the latest […]
The Guardian’s Sunday edition, The Observer, have run the puff-piece nobody else wanted, a lengthy tête-à-tête with Jason Russell of Invisible Children infamy. “Jason Russell: Kony 2012 and the fight for truth” (illustrated by the photograph above) is a dreadful, half-assed piece of reporting that seeks to help resuscitate Russell’s broken credibility.
Whatever Jay-Z and Beyonce were expecting when they went to Nigeria in 2006, they can’t have seen this one coming.
Earlier this week on my regular social media run, I came across this status update on Facebook: “I wonder if makin [sic] death threats on these asian traders will really address anythn [sic], the commotion on radio is just misleading everyone.” Immediately, a story started forming tentacles in front of my eyes; “sinophobes!”, I exclaimed to myself. […]
For the past two weeks, most Angolans that frequent Facebook and other social media sites viewed and shared two particularly gruesome videos. One showed prison officials severely beating incarcerated men in the Comarca de Viana (Viana Jail), while the other, even more heinous, showed several men brutally beating and abusing two women who had allegedly […]
