this is a tall order. i agree only partially with you. in principle, you are right that if one is to attack a piece, you need to show its weaknesses. however, that depends on the forum. with my family, when i read the newspaper, and dislike a piece, i'll make a comment, not refute it fact by fact. in a forum like this, i think we can legitimately give a opinion without having to back it up, especially when the issue here is not facts but ideological take, or, precisely, its discourse. to take apart the discourse would be tedious, but the only way to give a proper response to your request.
i would want to signal my discontent with the broad public discourses on africa when they appear in print and are noteworthy enough to merit some kind of calling attention to them, without having to feel i need to justify my opinions each time by pointing out the details of its failings.
it may feel pretty rotten to be dismissed this way if you are the author of the piece being attacked--i felt that way when my book was criticized on this forum, but then you can defend yourself as best you can.
i'd offer another piece that merits considerable criticism in today's new york times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/world/africa/extremist-group-gains-foothold-among-kenyans.html?hp&_r=0
in this piece, it begins by focusing on how much american interests are subject to attacks by al shabab, which is described as an extremist group, i.e. a terrorist organization. the fact that kenyan troops attacked them, on somalie soil, is downplayed. the focus on americans as victims is incredibly insensitive (like saying, when there is an attack that kills 5000 africans and two american, "American Victims of Extremist Attack."
the piece was written by two journalists, and not all of it was as awful as the beginning, which i give to you here.
ken
Extremist Group Gains Foothold Among Kenyans
By NICHOLAS KULISH and JOSH KRON
Published: October 9, 2013 47 Comments
NAIROBI, Kenya — When the United States tried to capture a powerful militant in Somalia last weekend, it did not go after the leader of the Shabab extremist group, but a Kenyan national whose ties were as much in his native country as in the Horn of Africa.
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, a fundamentalist cleric, faces charges of aiding the Shabab.
Outside of Somalia itself, Kenya sends more fighters to the Shabab than does any other country, analysts say. Young Kenyan men have ridden buses to the border in large numbers for years, local Muslim leaders say, drawn by payments of up to $1,000 to cross into Somalia and fight for the group.
But ever since the Kenyan military stormed into southern Somalia two years ago, many Kenyan fighters have been coming back home, local leaders and experts say, creating a larger, increasingly sophisticated network of trained jihadists in a country where people from around the globe gather in crowded, lightly protected public places.
"The growing number of militants in Kenya," said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington, "is a serious concern — or ought to be — for both U.S. policy makers and their Kenyan counterparts."
Unlike Somalia, which has been isolated by decades of chaos, Kenya is home to thousands of American expatriates working for multinational companies, the United States Embassy, the United Nations and nonprofit groups. Beyond that, tens of thousands of American tourists come here for safaris and beach vacations every year, prompting the United States to issue a travel warning after the deadly siege on the Westgate mall in Nairobi last month because of "potential terrorist threats aimed at U.S., Western and Kenyan interests in Kenya."
To much of the world, the attack on the mall, in which Islamist radicals killed more than 60 men, women and children, underscored the growing international threat of the Shabab, a group that once seemed more focused on imposing Islamic law in Somalia than with staging major attacks across international boundaries.
But the siege has also illustrated the growing radicalism of Kenya's own neglected, disaffected Muslim population. At least one member of the small group of attackers at the Westgate mall was Kenyan, according to Kenyan officials, and several witnesses have described hearing the combatants speaking Swahili, one of Kenya's national languages, sometimes flawlessly.
Okey IheduruJust a life-long learner's inquisitiveness!Dear Ken, Mohamed, Ogugua, and Kasongo:A lot of porn-like Afro-pessimism is still being spewed out by many credible and some-not credible sources and outlets. I join you and everyone who finds such "scholarship" or "journalism" distasteful in condemning them. However, it's important for us to not engage in another kind of unacceptable scholarship, i.e., knee-jerk reaction or rejection of a narrative that doesn't fit into our view of the world. So, I would like to make a humble request. Could someone please refute the report by Daniel Robert Snow, fact qua fact, instead of the ad hominem attack on him by Tom Turner, a la Prof. Harrow.
On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 8:32 AM, Kapanga, Kasongo <kkapanga@richmond.edu> wrote:
Ken,
I do agree with Tom Turner especially for those of us who religiously follow what has been going on in the Great Lakes Region. I did not go passed one third of the report because I could sense where it was going.
Kasongo Kapanga
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mohamed Mbodj
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 11:00 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DR Congo: Cursed by its natural wealth
Ken,
I agree with T. turner, especially with the scenes where he drinks "pink champagne" and ate "Mobutu's favorite dish cooked by the dictator's former cook, served by African attendants in rags, in the middle of the abandoned palace"! Overall, very little of substance, a lot of bad taste and a huge dose of condescendence!
Mohamed Mbodj
Manhattanville College
-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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