With my pen and a notebook, I was trying to take on Zimbabwe: the country in southern Africa I call home and maintain a fierce love-hate relationship with. Indeed, there was a feeling that day of writing to an aloof and self-satisfied lover, whose transgressions one has been cataloguing in silence, waiting for an opening to iron things out. But instead of finding new things to rant about, novel problems to propose solutions to, I found myself confronted by the sameness and repetitiveness that characterizes Zimbabwe’s politics.

Angola faces a serious struggle with landmines, as well as unexploded bombs, mortars, and other munitions buried and abandoned across the country’s 18 provinces, a tragic legacy of the country’s war for independence and nearly three decades of civil war that finally ended in 2002. Surviving the Peace: Angola, a film produced by our non-governmental organization (NGO) partner the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), captures the challenges facing the people of Angola and how the United States is taking action to help.

President Obama, deploring the military-led Egyptian government’s deadly crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters there, said on Thursday that the United States would pull out of scheduled joint military exercises with the Egyptian Army. “While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual while civilians are being killed in the streets,” Mr. Obama said in remarks delivered from his rented vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard.

“Art-Culture-Life”: So beckoned the humble sign. Being a fan of all three, I made my way inside. Art came first in a portico lined with rich, Dalí-esque landscapes; in the craft shop, stocked with mottled straw purses and hand-carved bowls; on restaurant walls, splashed with multihued graffiti. There was culture, yes, in the form of eclectic sounds: a D.J. spinning house music and an open-mic session showcasing poets and singers from Africa to America.

Very little coherent information is currently coming out of the parts of northern Nigeria under a state of emergency. What information is available indicates that activity and violence continue under the cover of the media silence, though it is difficult to judge its degree. In May, cell phones and satellite phones did not operate in the affected areas. Those services are only slowly being restored. Foreign media are almost entirely absent, and domestic media appear to be highly restricted. Foreign diplomats do not travel there.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the relationship between development and trade, just as the United States is stepping up new trade initiatives across the Atlantic and the Pacific. The announcement of the Trade Africa initiative during President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Africa and calls to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act next year have also put the benefits of trade with sub-Saharan Africa front and center, which holds 7 out of the fastest 10 growing economies.

It is commonly known that monetary remittances, the funds that foreigners working abroad send back to their origin countries, make up an important part of many developing nations’ economies. Less commented on, however, are social remittances, or the influence migrants exert on their home countries’ politics. One of the most important mechanisms for social remittances is the absentee ballot. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 115 countries or territories now grant voting rights to their citizens living abroad.

When successful entrepreneurs come together, the ideas that emerge are nothing short of amazing. And when those entrepreneurs are also women who have fought gender bias and other challenges, the ideas have the potential to change the face of commerce for a continent. This week, we welcomed to Washington small and medium-sized business owners from 27 countries in Africa who spent the last two weeks meeting with U.S. entrepreneurs and CEOs in places like Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Albuquerque, as part of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP).