As I posted a few weeks ago, I did attend the meetings at the Symposium for Statistical Development in Africa in Botswana last week. Magnus Taylor at African Arguments sums it up nicely. There were some productive exchanges, and then there some that were not so productive…
According to the official press release from UNECA:
“Busani Ngcaweni a discussant and Deputy-Director General in the South African Presidency, likened the book to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness an Salmon Rashdie’s Satanic Verses.”
That is quite prestigious company, but I was a bit unsure whether Busani had read the book. You can judge for yourself. Statistics South Africa has put up some edited bits of the exchange, and Busani speaks here.
I tried to look for my response to Busani’s claims, but they are edited out. In any case, the moderator Patrick Molutsi did a very nice job and you can browse his response and the comments by others.