Here are stories that should keep you busy as you head into a November weekend. If you are reading this from the US, Europe or elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, winter is fast approaching. If you are reading from Africa or the southern hemisphere, winter seems like a distant concept. Either way, enjoy. Commentary as appropriate:

The Christian Science Monitor (via McClatchy Newspapers) has an interview with Eritrea’s elusive President Isaias Afwerki. Afwerki is widely seen as a strongman uninterested in human rights who is also centrally involved in exacerbating the crisis in neighboring Somalia. Let’s just say that the (admittedly interpolated) interview doesn’t disabuse us of any of these notions.

On the good news front, we are accustomed to seeing various global rankings of various human indexes with African states lagging way behind. It is worth noting, then, that the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Gender Gap Review is out and that South Africa (7th), Lesotho (10th), and Mozambique (26th) all rank in the top 30. By way of comparison, the United States ranks 31st. (Via Matthew Yglesias.)

Botswana is widely recognized as one of the true success stories in sub-Saharan Africa. Which is why it was reassuring to hear the country’s President, Ian Khama, speak out against Robert Mugabe’s delaying tactics and general bad faith in moving toward power sharing Zimbabwe and his call for new elections. Now, whether new elections would change Mugabe’s general approach remains to be seen, and it seems a mite optimistic to think that even elections with a clearcut anti-Mugabe outcome would force the old despot’s hand, but we can hope, can’t we?

It looks as if Nigeria is poised to become the country with the fastest growing construction rate in the world.

Could journalists please stop resorting to references to “The Dark Continent” when referring to Africa, and could I redouble that request for those who will be writing about next year’s World Cup in South Africa? Thanks.

Has anything changed in South Africa in the last 15 years? Let me give you the simple answer: Yes. Enormously. Nonetheless, you should absorb a  series of papers, “The Dinokeng Scenarios” that address South Africa’s many challenges.