1960: The Year of Africa

The NY Times has a section today about that year, when seventeen countries gained their independence. You'd have to buy the dead-tree edition to read it, as it does not seem to appear on their website.

In there was an anecdote from 1957, when Ghana became independent. Vice President Richard Nixon attended the celebration. As the story goes, Nixon clapped a black man on the shoulder and asked him what it was like to be free. The man replied: "I wouldn't know, sir. I'm from Alabama."

Also of note is a long screed from Ross Douhat about this being the age of decadence. It pretty much reads like a fancy-grade lamentation of the usual conservative claptrap. For every civilization, you'll find someone complaining that the good old days are gone, the youth are indolent, and so on and so forth. I'll bet that there is at least one surviving clay tablet from Sumer with that lament. The only good thing about Douhat's piece is that, if you get it in print, it can be fittingly used for lining a bird cage.