The Austin Public Library invites you to join us for the 2008 Mayor’s Book Club. Mayor Wynn’s 2008 selection is A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. A Long Way Gone is the harrowing account of Beah’s days as a child soldier during The Austin Public Library has dozens of copies available. Please join us for a variety of exciting programs throughout April and be sure to be at City Hall Friday, April 25th to hear Ishmael Beah discuss his life and work.
Event Schedule:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/mbc08_events.htm
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I am late on this comment, but I wanted to make sure to add it. While this book is an intense and challenging choice, I am very glad to see it being made. I've felt for many years that we ignore or avoid the situation in Sierra Leone and other sites in Africa at our own risk, because it embodies warnings about a 'post-historical' future faced by a growing number of regions on the planet. Although that term seems strange, it's used to denote a place whose struggles (rampant disease; tribal or religious warfare, often fought by the youngest of conscripts) have become so intensive that any longer-term societal memory or progress there becomes almost impossible until those struggles are overcome. As a librarian, concerned about the continuity of human society, this matters deeply to me.
I have felt this way since 1994, when, as a 22 year old still trying to find my feet and my beliefs, I encountered an article in The Atlantic Monthly. Alarmingly titled, it nevertheless remains one of the most compelling works of nonfiction I've ever read.
"The Coming Anarchy", by Robert Kaplan, bears the subtitle "How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet." It suggested in 1994, while the West was still basking in the fall of the Berlin Wall, that if we wanted to understand the geopolitical risks of the 21st century, we would need to understand the state of Africa 'today'. Reading "A Long Way Gone" now, and re-reading Kaplan's piece, I am reminded of the way I felt at that time.
For those who believe in the power of compassionate action to transcend and overcome even the most dire of challenges, despair is not really an option on the table. Neither, however, is ignorance. I am thankful to have "A Long Way Gone" placed on our radars today, and thankful to have that essay from 1994 (the same time period as Beah's report) as context.
The Atlantic Monthly has made "The Coming Anarchy", one of its most pivotal and oft-cited articles, available in fulltext.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199402/anarchy
- Heath
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