Okay ... let's try this. The thing is that you will need to get a free registration to the New York Times (http://nytimes.com) if you don't have one already.

Nicholas Kristof, a Times columnist, recently went to Africa and returned with this report:

• Is there any hope for Africa? (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/opinion/20040324_AFRICA_FEATURE/index.html)

There's only a little reading; it only takes your time to watch the pictures go by and listen to Kristof speak.

The report describes conditions on the Sudan/Chad border, and also considers issues regarding crises across Africa, and also relief efforts from Africa and around the world. It's an enjoyable report inasmuch as something so depressing could be enjoyable at all, and certainly has a punch that black-and-white text lacks.

I'm unsure what angle to start with ... there's lots in there. To pick a couple at random, I find in the report affirmation of the idea that we must find a way to educate people in order to break the cycle of violence. School feeding programs have done more for attendance and education than the banning of child labor; educated women have fewer children; educated people show tremendously greater lifetime earnings. And yet, with war and poverty all around, it's hard to make the sacrifice of labor--a child earning 50 cents a day selling melted ice cream, his father saving for a better refrigerator in order to increase the family income.

But how to pull off such a feat--it's a long process that will leave many behind, and give them to the dust.

Perhaps there will come a time when enough wars are settled quickly enough that people will see a better opportunity.
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• Kristof, Nicholas. "Is there any hope for Africa?" New York Times. See http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/opinion/20040324_AFRICA_FEATURE/index.html