Your Email:

Subject:

Message:
Entry: My Country of Flickering Lights -- Dispatches from the New South Africa Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/my_country_of_flickering_light_dispatches_from_the_new_south_africa#19961 Post contents: On the other hand, not having an ancient civilization weighing down with wrongheaded traditions means that there is a lot less of wrong stuff to forget. For example, for a long time the South had better rail service than the North. That was because the railways stock had been destroyed in the war and had to be replaced for what was new, top-of-the-line stock, while the Norht kept chugging at the old stuff they had, since it still worked. There is evidence that Africa is bypassing the system of telephone lines, with its huge infrastrucure and central handling, and going straight cellular - and that local businessmen and tradesmen are putting them to good use. Or as the Argentinian poet Jose Hernandez put it "mejor que aprender muchas cosas/es aprender cosas buenas" "Better than to lean many things/ is to learn good things" Sent at: 2008 09 07