Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Shadow of the Wind
The discovery of a forgotten book leads to a hunt for an elusive author who may or may not still be alive...This book was a real page-turner. I couldn't put it down.
Amitav Ghosh: The Hungry Tide
The Hungry Tide is a rich, exotic saga set in Calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal. Beautifully written and believable, well-rounded characters.
Michela Wrong: In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz
Wonderfully written and an interesting portayal of the Congo and its extraordinary dictator Mobutu. The sheer level of corruption that took place under Mobutu means that in some ways this book reads as fiction rather than fact.
William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream
We're in it....
Ryszard Kapuscinski: The Emperor
Personal insights into Haile Selassie's reign from all the people closest to him...from his pillow-bearers to his spies.
« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
As scams go "Do you want to see a donkey dance?" isn't the most convincing. But that's exactly what some guy tried on us a few days ago. Needless to say we didn't want to see a donkey dance but full marks for originality. It definitely beats the usual one that people try here - do you want to come to a traditional coffee ceremony for example.
The last few days have been really odd. On the one hand we've had some friends arriving and that's been great but my mood has very much been affected by the BBC job cuts - particularly the cuts affecting my colleagues at BBC Scotland. Initially the news was scarey but scarey in a sort of void - management were talking numbers not people. Yesterday one of my friend's emailed me to tell me specific people had already lost their jobs. I'm not sure what my position is (at the moment I'm on a career break - due back at work in September).
The BBC says it's making the cuts to improve its output. I just hope this reverse logic works. It will take some time to see what the results are but from where I am sitting it's all pretty depressing.
I've just been reading Frank Gardner's (the BBC's Security Correspondent) account of the attack he and his cameraman endured in Saudi Arabia a few months ago. The cameraman Simon Cumbers was killed outright and Frank Gardner was shot several times. His description of what happened to him is incredibly moving. It was written in December. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4123145.stm
The Commission for Africa launched its final report in London and Addis yesterday. Africa Hall in the United Nations building buzzed with energy as the great and the good filed in to hear the report's main findings. Everyone from Professor Richard Pankhurst to the head of the British Council was there.
There had already been a press briefing the day before so the journalists here knew what was coming. There'd been a lot of cycnicism at the briefing...rightly people were asking about targets and accountablity and about how this report was any different from anything that had gone before.
After the official launch there was another press conference with Myles Wickstead (head of the secretariat to the commission), Ethiopia's Prime Minister and the Ghanian commissioner KY Amoako. It was all quite entertaining really. There was a power cut at the UN so it was held in the Banquet Hall where there's a lot of natural light.
Meles Zenawi sat in the middle of the bench surrounded by a whole host of very smart bodyguards who seemed to give steely looks to those who asked tricky questions. And many of the questions directed mainly at Mr Zenawi were quite tricky. The reporter from The Reporter newspaper really went for it - asking about governance in Ethiopia, the country's controversial new press law and he even asked whether Mr Zenawi had had an AIDS test.
I could have sworn that one of the bodyguards moved closer to the reporter but perhaps it was my imagination. The questions certainly seemed to generate quite a lot of surprise from the other hacks but Mr Zenawi handled it with the deft skill of an international politician brushing off the criticism and cynicism. He said he wasn't a politician that believed in personalising issues but admitted that he had been tested.
Over the past few weeks we've had my mother staying and then a friend called Sally. We took my mother up north to Lalibela and then when she'd gone we went south with Sally to do a bit of people spotting (most of Ethiopia's indigenous tribes live in southern Ethiopia).
It was all beautiful and interesting but the one experience that stood out the most was a community tourist project that we visited north of Lalibela.
There are two villages currently taking part in the project (which is run by a non-governmental organisation called TESFA Tourism in Ethiopia for Sustainable Future Alternatives) called Wojela and Meket.
We drove from Lalibela and then to a small village called Akat and then walked for four hours to Wojela...a traditional highland village. The views were amazing.
The next day we walked for about seven hours through some of the most spectacular countryside I ever seen.
Ultimately the idea is that the villagers get on with running the projects themselves and they then benefit from the tourists directly. The first thing both villages want to buy is a grain store and a motorized mill to benefit their entire communities.
At the moment there have only been a handful of visitors to Wojela and Meket but when the numbers start to go up it's bound to be a project that gets a lot of support and attention.
This is a view from the loo in Meket.
