The Weekly N&C for August 3rd, 2009

Read this Book

(Note: I'm unavailable for lengthy project work some days this week. But thanks to the assistance of CompHyp-friend Adam Housley over at FOXNews, here's a matter of some interest to those who have been following the Kimberley Process matters regarding the Marange Diamond Field. I've not met Douglas Rogers, but given his insight and family relation to the matter, here's hoping I do meet him.)

Mr. Douglas Rogers, late of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) via South Africa and London, is a New York based journalist who has gained a superb repute as a travel and adventure writer. But when his byline shows up on some hard news reports on the Zimbabwe Cholera Outbreak (December 3rd, 2008) and then the Marange Diamond Field Massacres, that sort of draws one's attention. It turns out that the gentleman is son of the soil of Rhodesia, born in Mutare (Umtali) and... still has family there. This allows for primary-source reporting of the situation *in context*, and he doesn't miss his chance.

Here's a link to an interview he gave at FOX Business (with David Asman) on the whole matter of Marange, the Human Rights Watch report on how the ZANU-PF -run army took over the mines, and the abomination of how they did and still do run the place at gunpoint. The interview also promotes his soon-to-be available book on the experiences of his family and the people of the area... very fine timing there, sir.

The book is called The Last Resort and can be preordered at Amazon by that link, should one care to do so. It is a memoir, and by what can be seen of it in previews / reviews, a most valuable one.

His personal promotional web site is linked *here*, and includes a biography of the gentleman as well as information on his writings.

Thank you, Douglas Rogers, for telling your family's story.