The africa in the new television series "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" isn't the one we're accustomed to seeing. There are no wailing babies with swollen bellies, no violent political uprisings and nary a hemorrhagic fever to be found. Based on the popular series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, the show follows Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott), a woman living in Botswana who uses her intuition to solve mysteries. In this Africa, the closest thing to a humanitarian crisis involves a woman named Happy Bapetsi and a man who may or may not be her father-or, as the situation is known within the agency, "The Case of the Dubious Daddy.""Agency," which debuts this month on HBO, is a feel-good series set in a place we're used to feeling bad about. Granted, Botswana has a lot going for it, compared with many developing countries. The country's government is democratic and stable, and its gross domestic product is among the world's fastest-growing, thanks to its diamond wealth. However, about 25 percent of adults in Botswana are infected with HIV-the second-highest infection rate in the world. In McCall Smith's first novel in the series, from which the show's pilot is culled, there's almost no mention of the HIV epidemic, save for one coy statement from an ancillary character: "Ihave a sister who is sick with a disease that is killing everybody these days. You know what I am talking about." Even that line is nowhere to be found in the pilot. McCall Smith has long had to defend his novels on these grounds, but the television adaptation of them, along with the debate surrounding this year's best picture, "Slumdog Millionaire," reintroduces the question. Is it appropriate for an escapist fantasy to be set in a culture where so many people are suffering?
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