Word: botswana
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...dead economy. Schools that closed last September after teachers went on strike have reopened. Zimbabweans can now go to shops to buy basic goods that had not been available for 10 years, such as maize meal, sugar, cooking oil and salt (previously they had to be purchased in neighboring Botswana or South Africa and brought into the country). "I think they have done a lot," says economist John Robertson, "but prices must go down, and that will happen only when production improves." He adds, "Our [labor costs] are still high compared to other countries' in the region." (See pictures...
Over nine volumes of the Botswana-set No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series (there are 14 planned), author Alexander McCall Smith has written of the simple, lighthearted mysteries solved by Precious Ramotswe (often addressed as Mma - pronounced "ma" - Ramotswe). His latest, Tea Time For the Traditionally Built, trods much of the same territory. McCall Smith spoke to TIME about why all fiction doesn't need to be sad, the public's obsession with the idea of a hopeless Africa, and why "real" mystery writers are cooler than...
...difficulties, and if you write about a situation without dealing with all the difficulties that are attendant on the particular time or place you're writing about, that you're somehow not doing your job as a writer. That seems to me to be an extraordinary argument. My Botswana books are positive, and I've never really sought to deny that. They are positive. They present a very positive picture of the country. And I think that that is perfectly defensible given that there is so much written about Africa which is entirely negative...
...think that there is another approach. Botswana, after all, is a very successful country. It's a remarkable country. All these difficulties that one finds in many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa actually really don't apply so much to Botswana. Botswana is actually very peaceful. It's democratic. It never was in debt. They've been fortunate, they've had diamonds. And of course now there's a bit of difficulty with the diamond industry. So they're suffering in Botswana but not to the extent that they're suffering in many other countries in the region...
...permission, well, not entirely,” he said, before warning event host Professor Arthur I. Applbaum that he might come up in a future novel. McCall-Smith, a former professor of medical ethics at the University of Edinburgh, was born in Zimbabwe and lived for many years in Botswana. His fictional oeuvre includes “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, about the adventures of Mma Ramotswe, a female detective in Botswana, and the “Sunday Philosophy Club” series, featuring the philosopher Isabel Dalhousie, as well as serial fiction works...