Just got a look at my credit report, and find myself depressed. So I am going to comment on happy Africa story:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-un.html

Here's the j-graf (the j-graf is the johnny blog equivalent of the 'nut graf' (the paragraph which explains the central idea of a news article), except it is what John decrees most interesting and comment-worthy):
"Internet access via corporate or shared networks is growing even faster than dial-up usage, expanding at a rate just slightly below the world average, [a new UN report] said. Cybercafes and other public access centers are popping up rapidly in urban areas across Africa."

I plan to blog when I go become a stringer in Africa in a few months, and it would be good to have a few people on the same continent as me who might have the capactiy to be interested in what I write. Local Tanzania politics probably will not be pulling in many hits from AndrewSullivan.com visitors. Blogging in a foreign land could be the most depressing, alienating goddamn thing in the whole world, or it could be a lifeline. Time will tell. But it's an idea to look forward to, which makes it sort of the polar opposite of my credit report.

Identity thieves should be strung up by their nethers.