South Africa Books

I grew up in the USA thinking of gandhi as some mystical hero figure. Of course, the movie didn't help. After I read this book I have a different attitude. He was a lawyer turned politician from the upper middle class, as are many leaders. He dealt with all the same things that leaders of people deal with and he did all the same things the rest of them do, including compromise. This includes not pressing the issue of the racism (towards native africans) or classism of many of the Indian merchant-class who had hired him to help them in their struggle against the white government of South Africa. It paints him a bit insensitive towards the suffering that many of the lower class went through as part of his campaigns as well. So, I always like it when a book shows me unusual views of famous hyped up events and people, even if it is only to shatter my own naivite and ignorance.

I give this book an enthusiastic "thumb's up" for anyone researching the complicated origins of WW2 and seeking in-depth knowledge of the reasons behind critical decisions made by the leaders involved.
The book is not for the casual reader and does require some historical background to appreciate fully all the details provided. An excellent addition for anyone specifically studying Italy, the surrounding neighbors, and the role Germany played with each ( dating as far back as 1918 for some ). I have learned alot and look forward to reading the remainder of the series.

this is one of those rare business books written with style and thought. a must for any serious reader.

this is the second best argument I've read on globalization. the best one is Giddens's theorizing. the edge point of Giddens's theory on globalization, for example The Consequences of Modernity, is overarching reach of conception. but he ignored the economic dimension of globalization. upto recent work, Runaway World, he has focused on social and political dimension of globalization. yep. it's the legimate territory of sociology. when his theory is coupled with global village(McLuhan) or global consciousness (Roland Robertson) I think it can be powerful tool to capture the global integration of lifestyle or culture. but isn't the economic impetus the dominant feature of globalization?
on this point, I've relied on world system theory to get the overall picture. but the author pinpoints that theory blurs off the uniqueness of recent phenomenon. the distinction the author makes, of globalization and internationalization, transnationalization is insightful and provocative to me. for it can serve to depict somewhat new phenomenon. he points out the new chracteristics of global economic system like this.
A Global Market Discpline & Principle: Unlike previous international econmic situation, it must be argued that there was global market-place where Licardian international division of labor and international product-service exchange dominated the time. but now since mid 70s, there has been a global market discipline i.e., system. the its concrete content is somewhat standard: Intra-firm trade or integrated international production system, Inter-product trade, intra-product trade. but he systemizes those facts under new conception. for exaple, he use the term ?iscpline to indicate the internalization of cut-throat competition in global market into market participant? code of conduct. this could be the intersection between economic, political and social theory.

This road atlas is exceedingly good. I travelled some 8,000 Km in South Africa using a previous edition, and purchased this new one for a second long trip with my family. Distances and road ratings are accurate, as well as place names including smaller road stops.

albert nolan is a brilliant writer and thinker. his book, Jesus before Christianity is incredibly compelling. He delves deep into the truth of Jesus and his teachings. the extrapolation of the gospel to the horrors of apartheid is intensely insightful and heart-felt. the joy and hope in Albert's messages is highly infectious. i am reading his current book and will write a review of it soon. if you want to be blown away by gospel truth don't be afraid to hit these books with goal-line stance attitude. ye shall be changed....

this is a very special book that anyone with a conscience will love. south africa hopefully is on its way out of the darkness. this book was written 20 years ago. get it today.

Having had the pleasure of meeting this compassionate and passionate man, it was such a blessing to read his words describing his growing years in a crazy world. It was inspiring and though much of the content was pretty gritty, there was a lot of beauty to be found. I'd recommend this to everyone!

_The Great Rift_ by Anthony Smith is a fast-reading, somewhat breezy, sometimes chatty but interesting book providing a general overview of the geology and natural history (and a little of the human history) of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa. Written to accompany a late 1980s PBS series, I believe the book stands pretty well on its own. I originally purchased the book for its beautiful color photographs of the region's impressive geology and gorgeous wildlife. I particularly liked some of the more obscure animals photographed, as in addition to the photogenic lion, leopard, zebra, and elephant more overlooked animals were portrayed, such as the mountain nyala (found only in Ethiopia, an antelope that was the last large mammal discovered in Africa), the bleeding-heart baboon (the largest non-great ape primate), several of the endemic lake fish of the region, notably the cichlids, and numerous birds such as the white-faced tree duck, goliath heron, and black and white-casqued hornbill.

Much of the book focused on what exactly the Great Rift is (more properly known as the Afro-Arabian Rift System). It is a massive system of faults, upthrusts, slips, and volcanic terrain that stretches from Turkey, through Israel, the Red Sea, across the Ethiopian highlands south through Tanzania and into Malawi. A secondary or Western Rift is found on the borderland between Zaire and its eastern neighbors of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania. It is at its heart a depression or trough of land created by a sinking of intermediate crustal rocks between two strike-slip faults, a gap created by plate tectonics, a failed attempt of a continental plate to split apart. The rifting (or zone of crustal extension) largely occurred south to north and varies widely in width, some areas only 40 kilometers from one side to another, other areas (often on the ground harder to recognize as being part of a rift system) are up to 400 kilometers apart. Though some areas of rifting are quite impressive, such as the big escarpments north of Manyara or east of Bogoria, rift walls can be as high as half a kilometer or as small as just a few centimeters; "the Great Rift is the grand total of all such faults, huge and minute" that occurred in the last 40 million years or so.

Though rift valleys are not unique to East Africa it is unusual in the sense that it can easily be seen, as most rifting occurs under the surface of the sea (and also rifting leads to a lowering of the surface, further leading to such geological structures being found only beneath the waves).

An impressive feature of the Great Rift is its volcanoes and volcanic terrain. Most volcanoes are extinct, such as several in the Virungas in eastern Zaire. Others are "merely biding their time," dormant, such as Kilimanjaro and Longonot. Still others are active and far from quiet, such as Nyamlagira and Nyirangongo of eastern Zaire. Though the Rift is currently in a quiet volcanic period and most volcanic activity is confined to three regions (Virunga, Afar, and Lengai), evidence of volcanic activity is everywhere. Much of the Rift Valley would be well below sea level, perhaps 1000 meters below, were it not for material deposited by volcanoes (in Kenya this layer is occasionally 3000 meters deep and on the Ethiopian plateau is over 4000 meters in depth). The great game plains of the Serengeti, a Connecticut-sized national park of over 13,000 square kilometers, home to over a million wildebeest, several hundred thousand zebra, hundreds of thousands of Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, as well as elephants, rhinos, lions, cheetah, and leopards, was made possible by volcanoes. The Serengeti plains are largely ash, blown from the eastern volcanic highlands. Much of this ash formed a tuff, comprised of grains so compactly bound together that tree roots find it difficult to get deep purchase and porous enough that its high calcium content is leached to lower levels, forming a layer of calcium carbonate, another impediment to tree roots yet allowing grasses to flourish. Essentially, the Rift created the volcanoes, the volcanoes created the ash, and the grasslands are a consequence of all that ash; the tremendous East African herds are a "splendid result" of the rifting process.

Practically every lake in eastern Africa lies within some section of the rift, the two notable exceptions being the feeders of the Nile, Lake Tana, in western Ethiopia, which begins the Blue Nile, and Lake Victoria, shared by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, which starts the White Nile. Without the Rift Valley most of East Africa if not all of it would be bereft of lakes, which exist in a dizzying variety. Some shimmer with soda, intensely hostile to most plants and animals yet many of which are home to staggering numbers of two species of flamingos. Others are intermittent, wet and filled with life some years, in other years a barren plain of hardened mud. Still others are "blatantly deep," immense bodies of water like Lake Tanganyika, which is 650 kilometers long, 50 kilometers wide, in surface area 33,000 square kilometers (larger than Belgium), and 1470 meters deep. Many of these huge lakes are quite old and have huge numbers of endemic species; Lake Tanganyika has eight endemic fish genera (comprising 57% of its non-cichlid species), 98% of its cichlids are found there and nowhere else, while seven of its crab species, five of its 13 bivalve mollusks, 37 of its 60 gastropods, and 11 of its copepod are found exclusively there.

Though a fairly short book at 224 pages counting the index and devoting many pages to photographs, many topics are covered, including the threats to the region's lakes, the great potential of the Rift's geothermal energy, the unique wildlife of the Ethiopian highlands, Red Sea marine life, and accounts of some of the first scientists to explore the region, notably John Walter Gregory, known to the locals as Mpokwa or "loaded pockets."

Aquí tenemos una colección importante de declaraciones por Nelson Mandela, dirigente de la lucha en contra el sistema racista del apartheid en Sudáfrica. Incluye los textos de sus intervenciones antes tribunales del estado del apartheid, cuando el fue enjuiciado y encarcelado con cadena perpetua por su participación en la lucha.

Mandela habla de la historia de opresión y explotación en Sudáfrica y de las protestas de las masas revindicando sus derechos. Presenta la perspectiva del Congreso Nacional Africano de una nación democrático y no racial. Mandela también denuncia la violencia desatada por el gobierno apartheid, y detalla las masivas Campañas de Desafío contra las leyes apartheid, los paros nacionales y la decisión de lanzar una lucha armada.

¡Un libro de inspiración e educación política para todos nosotros hoy en día!