The illustrated end papers recall boys' adventure books of the early decades of the 20th C. (drawings of a map, exotic animals and a native resident). An admirer of Speke, Livingston, etc., Mr. Wood, a Brit, determines to descend the Nile River rather than ascending it. I was immediately concerned for his sanity given the disorder in the countries through which he must pass and he opens with a snapshot of his arrival in Nor, South Sudan, where Dinka and Nuer have been fighting and he pays $50 to stay the night in the wrecked South Sudan Hotel.
"There was no food at the hotel, so after some time we ventured back into the town centre--fully aware of the risk, with real trepidation. Soldiers, policemen, and hundreds of armed civilians still flocked the city's filthy streets. The market place stood empty--burnt to the ground by rebels in January--and all the banks had been looted. An ATM machine hung like an eyeball out of its socket on an outside wall. Inside, credit cards, cheque books and filed accounts were strewn across the floor. Rebels and government soldiers alike had used the bank's date stamps to plaster the walls with evidence of their pillage. The pillars around us were covered in graffiti. 'Fuck you Nuer! cried one, and 'Dinkas Defeated!' claimed another. Bor, it seemed had changed hands three or four times since the hostilities began only a few months ago. What was happening today was just another episode in an ongoing fight.
We ate a a small Ethiopian restaurant but we didn't stay long. The looks we got from fellow diners--all armed to the teeth--were enough to drive us back to the relative safety of the hotel.
In a hotel without power night seemed to come suddenly."
The plates are well chosen and the commentary apt. The author rightly credits the three locals who accompanied him one after another on his journey north--brave (foolish?), one and all.
It seems to me that Egypt is the worst country Mr. Wood passes through because of the cupidity of the officials and the abuse of the Copts. This week's issue of The Economist explains how the army of bureaucrats will get their comeuppance as they retire. Their salaries are modest and combined with hefty bonuses but their retirement pay is based on salary alone. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi plans on reducing the financial burden of the bureaucracy on the budget by not replacing those who retire.
Index.
"There was no food at the hotel, so after some time we ventured back into the town centre--fully aware of the risk, with real trepidation. Soldiers, policemen, and hundreds of armed civilians still flocked the city's filthy streets. The market place stood empty--burnt to the ground by rebels in January--and all the banks had been looted. An ATM machine hung like an eyeball out of its socket on an outside wall. Inside, credit cards, cheque books and filed accounts were strewn across the floor. Rebels and government soldiers alike had used the bank's date stamps to plaster the walls with evidence of their pillage. The pillars around us were covered in graffiti. 'Fuck you Nuer! cried one, and 'Dinkas Defeated!' claimed another. Bor, it seemed had changed hands three or four times since the hostilities began only a few months ago. What was happening today was just another episode in an ongoing fight.
We ate a a small Ethiopian restaurant but we didn't stay long. The looks we got from fellow diners--all armed to the teeth--were enough to drive us back to the relative safety of the hotel.
In a hotel without power night seemed to come suddenly."
The plates are well chosen and the commentary apt. The author rightly credits the three locals who accompanied him one after another on his journey north--brave (foolish?), one and all.
It seems to me that Egypt is the worst country Mr. Wood passes through because of the cupidity of the officials and the abuse of the Copts. This week's issue of The Economist explains how the army of bureaucrats will get their comeuppance as they retire. Their salaries are modest and combined with hefty bonuses but their retirement pay is based on salary alone. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi plans on reducing the financial burden of the bureaucracy on the budget by not replacing those who retire.
Index.
