BOOKS
University of Manitoba Press, 220 pages $25
ISBN 978-0-88755-707-1 2008
www.umanitoba.ca/uofmpress
US available through Michigan State University Press
www.msupress.msu.edu
Available at: McNallyRobinson.com and Amazon.ca. Click to order.
As a journalist and film maker, Larry Krotz follows the projects of scientists, NGOs, lawyers, and peacekeepers, all motivated in some manner by the desire to “do good” in Africa. He focuses specifically on the Angolan civil war, AIDS research in Kenya, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and circumcision research in Kenya to examine the ethical and social implications of these projects and raise difficult yet critically important questions. How have we come to think the way we do about Africa and its people? What has motivated us to action, for good or ill? And, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, is there a choice between doing nothing and doing the well-intentioned but perhaps wrong thing?
What some others have said…
Bruce Guenther, Winnipeg Free Press September 7, 2008“while the actors have changed, the nature of the relationship between local Africans and western ‘outsiders’ is the same as it was in colonial days: “the assumptions behind the engagement, the inequality of the power relationship, look strikingly as they have always looked. The defining emblem now, though, is not the pith helmet but the four wheel drive vehicle, almost always white.” While the case studies presented in the book do not represent the actions and motivations of all foreign workers in Africa, the book poses necessary and uncomfortable questions.”
Gary Kenny, the United Church Observer (May 2009 ucobserver.org)“This is a thoughtful book written by someone committed to forging new and more meaningful ways of relating to the peoples of Africa.”
Alison J van Nie, Africafiles www.africafiles.org“Krotz is extremely good at raising important questions and particularly those related to his own role in these described encounters … how does the common and ubiquitous portrayal of Africa as child-like, dependent, and hopeless, interact with the desires and needs of westerners to exercise their altruistic impulses? … has the balance of power and equality since colonial times really changed?”
Faber & Faber, Boston
Of all the phenomena that have become part of life and our world in the last fifty years: nuclear power, television, computers, recreational sex, mass travel in the final analysis will be the one that will most change the world. What are the implications of so much travel? Which of them are good? Which are not so good? In the interactions between visitor and the visited, what is exchanged? Can the world sustain so much tourism?
McClelland & Stewart, Toronto
Forward by Carol Shields
Midlifeman is Larry Krotz’s term for men in their forties who’ve just realized that their old school friends are now -gasp- running things; that it’s now or never to achieve their ambitions; that middle age is almost here. These are men whose children are almost adults, whose parents are elderly and in greater need of their support than ever before, who have one or two marriages under their belts, and whose careers seem to have plateaued.
McClelland & Stewart
An examination of self government initiatives in a number of First Nations communities from New Brunswick to British Columbia.
Hurtig Publishers
Photographs by John Paskievich
An examination of the migration phenomenon of native people from reserves in Canadian cities with particular reference to Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg.
Turnstone Press, Winnipeg
“a photographer approaching his thirties who sees everything in shades of grey while those around him demand black and white. Danny Hinkle searches for a life story from Winnipeg to Florida, Montreal, Toronto and finally in the small town north of Toronto where he was raised.”
FILM and VIDEO
Searching for Hawa’s Secret National Film Board of Canada (1998)
Follows the astonishing research of a group of scientists from the University of Manitoba with sex workers in Nairobi Kenya who are immune to HIV. What can the researchers learn from these women? Where will it lead?
Rising To Dance Karante Productions (1991)
A year in the life of six young dancers at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School as they complete their dance education and hope for careers on the stages of the world.
RECENT JOURNALISM
Recent articles for Walrus magazine, including Poaching Foreign Doctors: do our development and immigration policies amount to foreign aid in reverse? and Canada’s Apartheid; residential schools and reservations can be found at Walrus’ website www.walrusmagazine.com/author/larry-krotz
Recent articles for the United Church Observer are available at www.ucobserver.org