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Brief Summary Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, offers a refreshingly unique perspective on the challenges facing Africa, even as she calls for a moral revolution among Africans themselves, who, she argues, are culturally deracinated, adrift between worlds.The troubles of Africa today are severe and wide-ranging. Yet what we see of them in the media, more often than not, are tableaux vivantes connoting poverty, dependence, and desperation. Wangari Maathai presents a different vision, informed by her three decades as an environmental activist and campaigner for democracy. She illuminates the complex and dynamic nature of the continent, and offers "hardheaded hope” and "realistic options” for change and improvement. With clarity of expression, Maathai analyzes the most egregious "bottlenecks to development in Africa,” occurring at the international, national, and individual levels–cultural upheaval and enduring poverty among them–and deftly describes what Africans can and need to do for themselves, stressing all the while responsibility and accountability.Impassioned and empathetic, The Challenge for Africa is a book of immense importance. " " ISBN:9780307390288 Author:Wangari Maathai

To identify the economic stars of the future we should abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries together. We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon. As an era of easy money and easy growth comes to a close, China in particular will cool down. Other major players including Brazil, Russia, and India face their own daunting challenges and inflated expectations. The new "breakout nations" will probably spring from the margins, even from the shadows. Ruchir Sharma, one of the world’s largest investors in emerging markets for Morgan Stanley, here identifies which are most likely to leap ahead and why. After two decades spent traveling the globe tracking the progress of developing countries, Sharma has produced a book full of surprises: why the overpriced cocktails in Rio are a sign of revival in Detroit; how the threat of the "population bomb" came to be seen as a competitive advantage; how an industrial revolution in Asia is redefining what manufacturing can do for a modern economy; and how the coming shakeout in the big emerging markets could shift the spotlight back to the West, especially American technology and German manufacturing. What emerges is a clear picture of the shifting balance of global economic power and how it plays out for emerging nations and for the West. In a captivating exploration studded with vignettes, Sharma reveals his rules on how to spot economic success stories. Breakout Nations is a rollicking education for anyone looking to understand where the future will happen. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Ruchir Sharma

When Sara and Sam fall in love, they presume Sara's white European skin and Sam's black African skin will not be of interest in 1978 Nairobi, the cosmopolitan and free-thinking capital of Kenya where they both live. They are wrong. Soon they must face painful prejudices from the outside world, as well as their own families. They also slowly realize that unexpected deep-rooted differences exist between them.Sara and her Dutch expat parents have happily settled in Kenya for a few years, but this is only the latest in a long list of countries they called home. Soon Sara's father will be transferred to a new position, and the family must move to a new country again.But things are different for Sara this time. She is 18 years old, and absolutely certain she belongs in Kenya. She plans to stay forever--especially after she falls passionately in love with Sam.After all, on the surface of it, Sara and Sam have a great deal in common. They both come from comfortable middle-class families. They attend excellent schools as academic high achievers. They balance on the cusp of adulthood, and have every reason to think their futures will be bright. But soon enough, the differences between them are too apparent to be ignored, even by them. And this is only the start of the ordeals Sam and Sara must overcome.Sara is a pampered only child. Sam is the eldest son of the first wife of a polygamous Ugandan family. Sara does not at first understand the significance of his position. It takes time for her to see how deeply his young life is influenced by the many responsibilities that rest on his shoulders.The lovers suffer from prejudices from people close to them, as well as from strangers. They are startled to discover that both sets of parents oppose their union, and believe their child should find a better partner within their own cultures.Perhaps most complicated of all is the slow realization that Sara and Sam have very different expectations of each other. Sam presumes he has certain rights as the man in the relationship. Sara does not automatically subscribe to his position of leader, or consider it her duty to follow. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Jo Alkemade