Dakar in the News

Seeing news about Africa in the papers is rare enough, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the main stories in the New York Times today was not just about Senegal, but about problems in Dakar! You can find the story here.

Some highlights (or lowlights, rather):

• Dakar will soon have a glut of five-star hotel rooms, but rising rents have pushed the city’s poor and even middle-class residents into filthy, flood-prone slums. Shortages of fuel mean daily blackouts.
• Mr. Wade, [the president], an indefatigable octogenarian who was re-elected last year for a five-year term, has in many ways staked his legacy on the rebirth of Dakar from a quaint colonial city to a major regional center, a kind of mini-Dubai for West Africa.
• A Gallup survey completed here last year found that only 29 percent of respondents said they had a job, down from 35 percent the previous year
• To his critics, Mr. Wade has sullied Senegal’s reputation and has consolidated power within his own family.

All focusing on the negative aspects of Senegal, of course, but fairly true as far as I know. On a related note to the mini-Dubai comment, people here were recently horrified to find out (well, the people I know were horrified) that Dubai World recently made a deal to develop on Gorée Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Update: Pretty much everyone I've mentioned this article has a) loved that Senegal/Africa is in American news and b) agreed with pretty much everything it says.