NYT: Strains limits of good taste to say it, but Africa is suddenly "hot"

[DeepModem Mom]

Into Africa
By ALEX WILLIAMS
Published: August 13, 2006


(NYT)
Gwyneth Paltrow is part of a campaign to help African children.

....much as it may strain the limits of good taste to say it, Africa — rife with disease, famine, poverty and civil war — is suddenly “hot.”

Beginning early in the decade with a trickle of celebrity fact-finding missions to strife-torn sub-Saharan nations (Bono in Ghana, Bono everywhere) that became a torrent within the last couple of years (Clay Aiken in Uganda, Jessica Simpson in Kenya), Africa has now been embraced by the masses.

Those who work with or study Africa-related causes report that tourism in many African countries is way up, that students are increasingly choosing to study and volunteer there, and that money is pouring into Africa-centric charities — from grassroots efforts organized at churches and suburban dinner parties across the country, to larger aid organizations. Even among hipsters, clothing decorated with the image of Africa is beginning to replace last season’s Che Guevara T-shirts.

“There is new life in the movement now,” said Lisa Szarkowski, spokeswoman for Unicef USA, who noted that Africa had been suffering from donor fatigue for years before celebrities like Bono began stumping for Third World debt relief and Angelina Jolie, who recently had a child in Namibia, helped renew interest. Now, there’s “more conversation, more possibility,” she said. “There is a lot of momentum.’’

Those newly interested in the continent have been motivated by different atrocities. For some it has been the genocide in Darfur; for others, AIDS orphans. But regardless of anyone’s specific interest, most people consistently describe being attracted by what they see as a clarity — both political and moral — in Africa’s problems....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/fashion/13AFRICA.html?ref=fashion