World Changers

The holiday issue of the New Yorker this year is not on a 'Winter Fiction' theme, but is instead concerned with individuals or organizations who are involved in making the world a different, and better, place. It is one of the better issues in recent memory, with a plethora of good articles.

The Ice Retreat
by Fen Montaigne
This article is ostensibly about the Adélie penguins of Antarctica, who are finding their usual habitat no longer hospitable to them, as temperatures at the bottom of the globe rise. The real core of this article lies in Montaigne's profile of Bill Fraser, an 'ecologist and penguin expert', who has been spending years studying these unique birds.

It is clear that this population is in grave danger, as the numbers of nesting pairs have dropped precipitously, and quite recently.

Hearth Surgery
by Burkhard Bilger
One and a half million people die each year from cooking, and cook-stove related injuries in the developing world. At the same time, people forced to use inefficient open-hearth wood fires are responsible for almost matching the carbon emissions of people in richer countries.

Bilger chronicles the efforts of an eccentric group of people, many of whom are connected to the Aprovecho Research Center, to construct more ideal stoves. The article chronicles many of their attempts and failures, and paints a portrait of a group of semi-obsessed hobbyists who may manage to create a great deal of positive change in the world.

The Monkey and the Fish
by Philip Gourevitch
This is a fascinating article about Greg Carr, an American who hundreds of millions of dollars in the tech industry before retiring to work in philanthropy - namely in managing the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. He spends tons of his own money in attempting to improve this region - repopulating animal species, planting seedlings, and negotiating with local leaders to improve the park, the lives of the people living around it, and the ecology of a large swath of land.

Carr is an interesting character, and Gourevitch describes both his optimism, and the monumental nature of his task. This was an excellent, well-balanced, read.

The Life After

by Philip Gourevitch

My understanding of the events commonly referred to as the Rwandan genocide that took place fifteen years ago is almost exclusively the result of Philip Gourevitch's articles that began appearing in the New Yorker following the end of those days, and the ushering in of some form of order in that small African nation.

His writing was so vivid and the events he displayed so horrifying, yet at the same time such testaments to mankind's ability to endure, that I also read his book, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families," a truly amazing piece of history and reporting.

In this article, Gourevitch has returned after an absence of many years, to Rwanda to mark the 15th anniversary of the genocide. While he has the opportunity to interview the president, Paul Kagame, he does not make politics the focus of his piece. He manages, in a small amount of space, to convey a full sense of the political and social challenges being faced in the country, as well as the remarkable success the Rwandan people have created in rebuilding.

He tracks down both victims and genocidaires that he interviewed in his previous visits, and shows that the gacaca courts (the Rwandan version of Truth and Reconciliation) have managed to please almost no one, which is in itself, the proper position for the people to be in.

He also explains the current situation with regards to rebel groups still active in DR Congo, and discusses the challenge of convincing rebels to give up their fight and return to their homeland and reintegrate into society.

It has been a while since there has been an article of such force in the New Yorker.