AFRICA'S VENICE?!
I read an Associated Press article today in my local paper about Lagos, economic capital of Africa's most populous country and one of the continent's largest cities. The article wrote about how residents are now using the waterways of the lagoon which the city surrounds for transportation. This is a way for residents of the megapolis to avoid the city's horrific automobile congestion and street violence.

The headline in my local paper read "Nigerians flee to 'Africa's Venice.'" Lagos has a rather infamous reputation in the continent. In fact, its urban ills were so suffocating the the nation's leaders moved the capital away from Lagos to Abuja, in the center of Nigeria and the middle of nowhere. Lagos has acquired many nicknames. Hell-hole. The armpit of Africa. But this is certainly the first time I've ever heard Lagos compared to Venice!

(The article can be found, not via my local paper, at the San Francisco Examiner by clicking here.