Grandiose Parlor

Obama talks to Allafrica. Some interesting quotes from the interesting interview:

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African Americans find new homes in South Africa, movie documentary shows. Watch trailer below, check more story on AfricanLoft.

Who is [tag]Craig Chirinda[/tag]?

Craig promotes trade and investment into the southern Africa region, so far he’s tucked in some US$4 billion in leads, financing deals, and joint ventures. He is from Zimbabwe and just in his early twenties!

Benin has some words with him on his blog via this post: http://beninmwangi.com/2007/05/05/on-craig-chirinda-what-would-you-do-with-4-billion-usd/.

Here is an excerpt of the interview:

Benin: Based upon your experiences are there any obstacles that a potential investor into Africa should be aware of before moving forward? If so, how have you handled these hurdles?

Craig: Things in Africa move a slower pace than they are used to, so they should be patient. They should make sure that they have lobbying machinery (in the form of chiefs, politicians, local business people and religious leaders), that they deploy to accelerate the pace of a transaction. If they don’t have the lobbying machinery, the transaction just won’t happen!

• The African Executive has some really good articles: Africa: The Winds of Change Must Blow and Heads of State or Chief Bandits

• Jewels in the Jungle: African History in Europe: Blacks in the Renaissance - Part 1

• Nigerian Tribune (Editorial): Sex in politics
• The Benin Epilogue Part I: Nigeria Boosting Entrepreneurship?
• Bankelele: Money Transfer within Kenya - Part II

• The Entreprenuer (Cameroon): Mobile Phone Call-Boxes Burning the Streets of Yaounde
• White African: Lessons on Community From The African Blogosphere
• Chippla’s Weblog: Whose Zimbabwe?
• Cry Beloved Zimbabwe: South Africa is a Disgrace

• AfriGadget: Bio Latrines in Kenyan Slums. See also:
• My Heart’s in Accra: From Flying Toilets to Free Methane

Celebrating Afrodeutsche (African Germans). See:

• Atlantic Review: Black History Month
• Jewels in the Jungle: Black History Month in Europe 2007: Amo’s Ghost

• Niger Watch: 5000 soccer balls for Project Play Niger 2007

• Laspapi: Nigerian New Currency Notes (Photos)

• African Path: Salif Keita- The Golden Voice of Africa

• NYT: Low-Cost Antimalaria Pill Available

• MNET: Idols West Africa

It appears gone are the days when the Oscar (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) used to be a “white-only-event”, prompting Chris Rock to tag the event as a “million white men march”.

But that was several years ago. Last night, two African American won two of the four major acting awards: Best Actor (Forest Whitaker: The Last King of Scotland, left photo) and Best supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson [American idol castoff]: Dreamgirls, top photo).

Since Denzel Washington and Halle Berry broke the racial barrier at the Oscars in 2002, more blacks have been successful at the Oscars- Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles) and Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) in 2004.

Is the movie academy finally shedding his monochromatic image?

• Benn Loxo Du Taccu: Groovy Naija

• African Shirts: Plaut and Hearing - Embattled Nigerian Vice President’s interview on World Today

• NYT: Egypt: Blogger Gets 4 Years- An Alexandria court sentenced a blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil, to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egypt’s president through his Internet writings.

• BBC: Oil worker shot dead in Nigeria

• Via TechCruch: Tree-Nation is a Barcelona-based entity that wants to plant 8 million trees in Niger, in the shape of a giant heart. Their hope is that this re-forestation campaign will help the environment and the people of the country.Tree Nation

• Meskel Square: Where have all the bloggers gone?

• African Unchained: Investing in emerging markets