A scene from the new HBO series, “How to Make it in America,” about a group of (mainly male) friends trying to make it in New York City (think a downscale “Entourage”). In this scene, one of the only female lead characters, Rachel, is talked out of quitting her job by her boss, after she (Rachel) had earlier met one of her friends, who is now ‘singlehandedly stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa.’
Playground Politics
February 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
From Funny or Die, the new HBO sketch comedy series.
HT: Adam Esrig
Something About Clean Water
February 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A group of celebrities (among them Jessica Biel, Lupe Fiasco and Santigold) decided to climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness about the global clean water crisis. Okay, so they’re a group of B-List celebrities, but the idea sounds good. They finished the climb last month. The idea was simple: The celebrities get media attention and in turn the fickle mainstream media talks and write about the water crisis. Right?
Except as, Leah Lamb writes at Current TV, in the videos they post online we hear a lot about the state of their bowels and knees without once mentioning water issues.
Watch for yourself.
Africa at Sundance
January 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
There’s only film this year with an Africa-related theme in the official competition at the Sundance Film Festival: director Jennifer Arnold‘s documentary film, “A Small Act.”
Then there’s a special African shorts presentation. A friend who played role in selecting the shorts told me to watch out for Wanuri Kahiu, th director of “Pumzi,” about a water war somewhere in East Africa after World War III. The other shorts are “The Tunnel” set in Zimbabwe and “Saint Louis Blues.”
But that’s it.
Update: The trailer for “Pumzi”:
“THE MZUNGU THING”
September 5, 2009 By 1 Comment
Excerpts from author Alex Halperin’s contribution in the latest issue of lit magazine, “n+1″:
The safer parts of Africa have become a workshop for high-concept philanthropy, wrapping adventurism in a veneer of charity. Young Americans bring yarn to a small Ugandan town, where they teach women to crochet hats to sell back in the States. Two British girls on a gap-year teach kids photography in Nairobi slums …
I can sympathize. It wasn’t enough to go to Africa; I had to feel important doing it. So I found a generous organization that would sponsor me to go find Africa’s untold good news, although I’d never been there. I wanted to write about social entrepreneurship, fair trade, and microfinance—this last the biggest thing in poverty reduction since Live Aid. Since I wanted to sell my stories to the mainstream American media, it would help if my central characters were white. I needed to find people like Daniel Sheridan.
As a student at Coventry University, Sheridan invented a seesaw that generates electricity. Like most ideas for saving Africa, at first it sounds miraculous: an inexhaustible source of free, clean renewable energy powered by exercising children. Several reporters did cover this irresistible story. Unfortunately, as the BBC didn’t note, Sheridan’s innovation is unworkable. The seesaws are large and expensive. Who will pay for them? Technologies like cell phones and plastic jerry cans for carrying water have eased African village life because they are cheap and don’t require installation. It’s a credit to Sheridan’s intelligence and intentions that his work deserves tough questions. But the average African village is more likely to see Bono swoop in and personally dig a latrine than have an “Energee-Saw” installed …
Betting on Africa
August 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
These celebrities want to gamble and hang out. So they say they want to save Africans.
