The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

As a young girl growing up in the African nation of Botswana, Precious Ramotswe was encouraged by her father to follow her dreams, no matter what. Now in her mid-30s, Precious is doing just that — by opening her country's first and only female-owned detective agency for the benefit of those who need help the most.

The first major film/TV project to be shot entirely on location in Botswana, 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' is based on the best-selling novels by Alexander McCall Smith and co-written and executive produced by Richard Curtis and the late Anthony Minghella.

Like McCall's novels, the series chronicles the adventures of Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott), the cheerful, eminently sensible proprietor of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, located in the Kgale Hill Shopping Center on the outskirts of Gaborone. Aided by her efficient yet high-strung secretary Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose), Precious investigates a variety of cases, helping townspeople solve mysteries in their lives, from missing children to philandering husbands to con-artist scams.

Precious Ramotswe exemplifies the courageous efforts by real-life Africans to improve the quality of their lives while preserving their culture.

Though Precious brings a playful, even innocent, exuberance to her job, the "mysteries" she investigates are quite serious, and include child kidnapping, poverty, organized crime, health crises, spousal abandonment and infidelity — ongoing problems that confront many Africans (and Americans) today.

Stop giving aid to African governments

Dambisa Moyo, a woman Jeffrey Sachs calls "cruel" for her views, who has been slandered a "baby killer" and might seem hypocritical due to her receiving a scholarship that allowed her to go to Harvard from Zambia, is calling for the world to stop sending aid to Africa. Well, not Africa itself, but to the governments.

Her facts:

From her interview with Wired Magazine 17:10

Europe and the US have sent billions to aid to horrible regimes. Corrupt leaders have seen way more cash than needy citizens. Endless loans left the continent with crippling debt. And most of Africa is actually poorer today then it was a few decades ago, when aid dollars began to increase.

She calls what Bono does "glamour-aid" and says, “For me and millions of other Africans who spend a lot of time in long lines voting, we expect African leaders to offer an opinion on how they see the future of the continent,” she explains, “so it is worrying for Bono to be the ostensible face of Africa.”

She's been accused of wanting aid completely cut off in five years, but what she's recommending instead is tapering off aid to the governments in Africa as fast as possible but replace it with direct investment and trade- even with China- and accessing the capital markets, and microfinance.

Moyo on CNN

Moyo in Wired

Her book Dead Aid

On this day in 1979: Ghana adopts constitution

Start:	Sep 24, '09
Location:	Ghana

The Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa. It borders Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King,"

Ghana was inhabited in pre-colonial times by a number of ancient predominantly Akan Kingdoms, including the Akwamu on the eastern coast, the inland Ashanti Empire and various Fante and, also non Akan states like the Ga and Ewe along the coast and inland. Trade with European states flourished after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century, and the British established a crown colony, Gold Coast, in 1874.

Part of the Gold Coast, Ghana achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African nation to do so, and the name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana, which once extended throughout much of western Africa.

Scientists have traced the African American slave trade to Ghana and other western parts of the continent, meaning, a large percentage of black American ancestors were born in that region. English is the official language, though citizens also speak their tribal dialects.

Ghana is now one of the most stable democracies in all of Africa. President Obama, who recently visited the country, held it up as a role model for other African nations to emulate.

How Nelson Mandela's Legacy Hurts South Africa

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214032?from=rss
South Africans feel so indebted to Nelson Mandela that they prefer his successors to emulate him rather than to govern.