Briefly

• Some interesting articles on Africa: Gerard Prunier on Southern Sudan, Darfur, and how they're related. Robert Kaplan on the U.S. military's new Africa command. Wangui Kanina for Reuters on the presidential race here in Kenya.
  

• As pointless as they are, rankings can be pretty fun. These lists in the Telegraph of the 100 most influential U.S. liberals and conservatives are definitely pointless, and often puzzling (Arnold Schwarzenegger is a liberal? Larry Craig is influential? We have Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman and David Brooks, but no Tom Friedman? Is Elizabeth Edwards really more influential than John?). But still a pretty fascinating collection. And speaking of rankings, a new list of the 50 most expensive cities in the world.

• This Times piece on Obama as the candidate of the foreign policy establishment is pretty interesting.
  

• I went to the Lebanese restaurant/sushi bar last night. The sushi bar - a spiffy white room with Kenyans dressed in silly "Japanese" outfits tacked on to the side of the place - seems just as out of place as one would expect.