'The Idealist' by Nina Munk: The Review - A Comment On Africa!

In a review to Nina Munk's book ''The Idealist'' here's what someone commented in his response to this-About Somali men and Africans in general!

"Then there are those cultural attributes that it is considered impolite to raise. "Somali men are not lazy," protests Mr. Mohamed's No. 2. "We are descendants of Abraham, and if you 
descend from Abraham you don't do manual labor." "

Africa is a warm climate where tradition has women involved in agriculture, which tends to often lead to matrilineal descent -- agriculture is associated with property ownership, and which ever gender is involved in it tends to develop expertise which they pass onto progeny of the same gender, and that's why most countries with a gender segregated division of labor either had patrilineal descent or matrilineal descent, but not "gender random" descent.

Men traditionally would be hunters in areas where women specialized in agriculture, and hunting required athletic skill.

Only in the North, in cold regions, would men traditionally own property and pass it onto their sons. Because it becomes necessary to build sturdier homes with heavier materials, livestock that is hard to manage for the physically weak needs to be kept, and any food hoarded over the winter needs to be guarded from theft.

What's interesting is that such insights like that are very easy for those who understand the social world to figure out -- which is different from what it takes to be a brilliant economist with great mathematical skills. Anyone who would want to help a community in Africa would need to do what Jane Goodall did when she went to live with the chimps, and learned their behavior. That would be, in the case of Africa, to move to a community, live with them for awhile, learn their customs, respect them, and then slowly figure out what sorts of things might help them live a little better, but which would allow them to live THEIR OWN LIVES THE WAY THEY WANT TO LIVE THEM a little bit better.

These movie stars and "celebrity economists" hob nob with the super rich. I heard Africa has tons of resources that make the super rich salivate with greed. I suspect all they care about is enslaving the continent of Africa. But those Africans are not stupid, so things don't go so well for them when they try.

This is a very enjoyable book. It is well written, informative , humorous and brings to life vividly what it is really like to go on safari. Having been on many safaris in those countries the book brings me straight back into the bush - I can hear, smell and see the bush and with the photos I am on safari in my chair! A must read for those who are planning on going on safari or merely want to...........

By the way, no offense should be taken by any Africans with my reference to Chimps. Indeed, if you study Chimpanzee society, you'll see Chimpanzees have controlling male leaders and subservient females who "go along with whatever the powerful leader says", which would describe these white celebrity economists better than it would describe Africans. Who I think, along with Italians and Latinos, tend to form communities resembling the social behavior of bonobos more -- matriarchal communities with males who are networkers, but not control freaks.

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