Self-Organizing Man

My ferverant hope, my Christman wish if you will, is that Americans realize that Africa is not a country. It is a continent.

Bono could help with these efforts. I suspect, though, that it is easier to sell us on “Africa” rather than, say, oh, Malawi or Zaire. And while I try to not get cynical when it comes to Bono and the Red Campaign and Gwyneth Paltrow’s faking like she’s somehow in solidarity with these mythical Africans, I do. Get cynical that is.

So, as a start, I’m no longer going to refer to Africa alone. I will say things like “countries in Africa” or simply name those countries without referencing the continent. We do not, for example, reference our continent when we speak of the U.S. (”Oh those North American countries of Canada and the U.S.”). And I’m also going to correct everyone who blathers on about Africa like it’s all the same. I suspect they do this because they don’t really know the difference between Mali or South Africa or South Africa and Zaire or Angola.

Transformation occurs in specific places at specifics times with specific people. Everything else is a PR campaign.