Faithful reader,

First, let me take the opportunity to thank you for your support over the first few weeks of this project. Your comments, whether complimentary or critical, are invaluable. Even the ones that offer me viagra.

Now, however, I turn to you in dire need of further assistance. I’ve always wanted this to be a group journey - for you not just to follow me on my quest through reports, books and interviews, through theories, counter-theories and inter-economist feuds; I want you to accompany me, sharing the joys, and the burdens. Now, your first opportunity to really participate is here. Today, I launch our first official Christmas Punraising Appeal.

A stable supply of puns is vital to the successful development of a light-hearted website on a serious topic. But now, African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant is desperately short of puns. My initial personal pun resources, although meagre, proved enough to see us through the first few weeks. But now, a mere two-thirds of the way through the Africa Commission Report, my supplies are exhausted. The situation is nearly desperate.

I understand that your own pun pockets aren’t bottomless. But for just two puns a month, you could transform the life of this researcher.

I know you don’t want to throw good puns after bad, or see me develop some sort of puns dependency. As the old African saying goes,

“Give a man a pun, and he’ll joke for a day;
Teach him how to pun, and he’ll joke forever.”

That’s why I don’t just want your puns; I want your advice, your support, in developing the skills I need to supply my own pun needs in future. A pun up, not a pun out.

Please, leave a reply with your puns today. Once the Africa Commission Report is finished, we still have Sachs to finish off. Time is pressing; every day the situation becomes more dire.

Act now. Together, we can make a difference.

This has been a punraising message on behalf of African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant.

Kind Regards,

Rav Casley Gera