1 How do you think Africa is doing today? Are they doing better or worse than they were 50 years ago? Are there major differences between countries or does most of the continent have the same problems? Do you think we automatically think of some countries in Africa before we think of others? What is the relationship between Africa and the West today? How does all that history play into it?

2 Class, thanks for a good conversation this week on Israel and the Middle East. We have just come out of a week where we examined the impact of WWII. One of the tragedies of that war was the Holocaust, and perhaps even more so, the way that many countries turned away from the plight of the Jews prior to the war when they could have offered asylum.
How much do you think the creation of Israel in 1948 was a reaction to an understanding of what happened to the Jews in Europe during WWII?

Your concluding thoughts?