Notes on The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley
(My comments are in bold)
From time to time, God causes men to be born—and thou art one of them—who have a lust to go abroad at the risk of their lives and discover news—today it may be of far-off things, tomorrow of some hidden mountain, and the next day of some nearby men who have done a foolishness against the state. These souls are very few; and of these few, not more than ten are of the best.
-Kim,
I love Hartley’s opening quote. If there were ever an engraving to be mounted on the wall of my hypothetical office it would be this . Part of the path to achievement is often began just by the act of writing your goal down: to be one of the ‘ten best’ FAOs, foreign policy experts, africanists.
BEYOND THE RIVERS OF ETHIOPIA
p. 1
My father was the closest thing I knew to the immortal.
This book is largely a story about father s and the sons who remain eternally fascinated with them. My father was a Marine Corps FAO when I was young and I can remember soaking in every detail and word he spoke about his trips (or that I overheard him telling my mother) with an idol-like attentiveness.
p.9
Isaiah 18: “Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia…Go ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down.”
In the book, Aiden likens himself and other intrepid journalists to these swift messengers, but I think in many ways FAOs (especially those in Africa) could do the same—being swift messengers in diplomacy in down-trodden, oft-forgotten nations.
TAKE ME HOME TO MAMA
p. 58
Emperor Haile Selassie- medieval dictator toppled soon after BBC pictures and film shown. They came because of a message sent by Aidan’s Dad.
Poem by his Dad describing the aftermath of starvation in Ethiopia (but also sums up Africa in the 20th century Hartley comments)
The camps lie broken down on hill and plain,
Skulls, bones and horns remain,
No shouts, no songs of fighting, or of love,
But from the bare thorn tree above,
So sadly calls the mourning dove… Was this your ravaged land,
The work of God, or was it Man’s own hand?
In the book, Aiden describes how his father delivered the news of the devastation via a runner who took his hand-written message to be cabled to London. The poem that his usually stoic father wrote afterwards aptly captures the emotional connection of a man to the land. Aiden’s additional supposition that it also captures Africa’s plight in the 20th century is especially poignant as much of the death and destruction in Africa has often supposedly been conducted in the name of one God or Allah or another, but more likely these ‘Gods’ have been exploited my despotic politicians and warlords (man’s own hand).
A great book is one which refuses to leave you alone. Instead it urges you to explore further, pushing you onto other journeys, delving into wandering paths, down rivers, across continents and into other books, authors and articles . The Zanzibar Chest is a great book. Below are some of the books mentioned in TZB.
Kim by Kipling
The Story of the Gadsbys by Kipling
First Footsteps in East Africa by Sir Richard Burton
In Darkest Africa by Stanley
Through Masai Land by Joseph Thompson
A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa by Frederick Courteney Selous
The Land of Zinj by Captain Stigand
In the Heart of Africa by Duke Adolphus Frederick of Mecklenburg
A Naturalist in Lake Victoria by G.D. Hale Carpenter
Man-Eaters of Tsavo by J.H. Patterson
The Uganda Protectorate by Sir Harry Johnston
JOURNALIST PLUS PLUS CHAPTER
This chapter covers Hartley’s time in Dar es Salaam or “haven of peace.”
Buchi is Buchizya Mseteka, a stringer for Reuters. Incidentally, in June 2002 Mseteka was suspended by Reuters following revelations that he had been receiving payments from Zambian intelligence services.
http://cpj.org/2003/03/attacks-on-the-press-2002-zambia.php
http://www.leribarisk.com/keyplayer%20buchizya%20mseteka.htm
http://www.afdb.org/en/aec/participants/mseteka-buchizya/#
Buchi befriends Hartley and ensures his survival during his initial foray into journalism on Dar es Salaam when he invites Hartley to live with him. They loved to drink Tusker.
p. 85-6
-Tusker is the oldest beer brewed in East Africa. It’s named after the elephant that in 1912 killed one of the company’s founders.
-Buchi warbling in his melodic Bantu voice the tune that was on every pair of lips at the time in Africa about how “we will sing our own song.”
Hartley had the unique fortune to be living and reporting in Africa as the various countries gained their independence. Despite all of the nations gaining their independence from their colonial masters, the Cold War Era effectively muzzled the vast majorities of countries seeking to ‘sing their own song.’ The stifling after-effects linger on today as many African nations’ struggle to free themselves from aid-dependent economies, corrupt governments and mal-intentioned foreign intervention and ‘investment’.
p.115
-“Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi: Out of Africa always comes something new” –Pliny the Elder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder
A great quote which summarizes why I am so excited to be an Africa FAO. More than any other AOR, the untapped resources (and by this I mean namely the people) are limitless. If the infrastructure is able to be developed cohesively and responsibly, their power on the ‘world stage’ very well might eclipse that of nearby Middle East and East Asian powers later in the 21st century.
Not get off on too big of a tangent but I strongly believe that the FAO community (especially the young Navy FAO community) must write, must publish, must SHARE. And I don’t mean only about their experiences overseas (but definitely those) but also their experiences in learning (from an academic and intellectual point of view) about their AOR.
Writing about the experiences overseas though would be hugely useful. For instance, it’s hard to find good information about the nuts and bolts of moving overseas. How did shipping your car work? How about finding a place to live? What’s your place look like? How was the hiring process for maids, nannies, guards and guardeners? How about grocery shopping? Ideally, there would be a huge repository of information for the different countries where FAOs have been stationed.
If I was headed to Ghana for instance, I could tap into the files and papers for the past FAOs (and their spouses!) that have been stationed there. How much richer could your awareness be if you had that exposure prior to arriving in country. It would be great to click on Ghana and see an evolving list (with email/phone numbers) of past personnel assigned to that country (or at least those that consented for their information to be made available) that went back 40 or 50 years. This would be especially useful in Africa where the majority of information is unclassified.
p.116
-Victorian England in the 19th century was preoccupied with news of the abolition of the Arab slave trade. They also followed closely David Livingstone’s Lake Tanganyika meeting with H.M. Stanley after Livingstone had gone missing.
These are two stories that I’d like to read more about. As Americans we know a lot (relatively speaking) about the slave trade to the US and Britain. However, I am woefully ignorant on the history of the Arab Slave Trade. The second story regarding this meeting and Livingstone’s adventures sound intriguing.
p.123 “Africa is the place of our lost hopes and our broken dreams. But I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” -Julian Ozanne of the Financial Times
Julian was one of the author’s main buddies. Some quick googling research turned up that he married Gillian Anderson (Scully of X-files) in 2004. And that he made a film about Brett Easton Ellis (one of my favorite authors)
http://people.famouswhy.com/julian_ozanne/
p.124 “In 1989 people began to talk of Africa’s “second winds of change”—the first having been the independence from colonialism some three decades before.”
This timeline undercores the fact as to just how young most African nations are! Their development and growth is not something that can occur overnight…how was the United States doing in 1825? !
p.124-6 Good background information on Kenyan leader, President Daniel arap Moi. “Fear and hopelessness lay like a blanket of poisonous smog on Nairobi.” Compared to Nicolae Ceaus,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceauşescu
Hartley captures how this dictator literally overwhelmed and engulfed every part of life there in Nairobi.
p.127 Mentions Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement in Uganda and how the state of things continued to deteriorate with Liberian president Samuel Doe being captured by rebel Prince Johnson who tortured and executed him on film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Auma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Forces_for_the_Liberation_of_Rwanda
The Holy Spirit Movement is not to be confused with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda led by madman and murderer Joseph Kony which is not to be confused with the evil FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda). I confused them in a blog posting back in August on the mass rapes in the DRC:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/secretary-clinton-speaks-out-on-mass.html
If you want to see something disturbing check out the only known video interview that’s been done with Herr Kony: http://www.rocketboom.com/rb_06_aug_16/
“More often than not, Africans chose war rather than the ballot box to sweep away the old dictatorships.”
I would add that often enough, the United States or USSR funded that war. Case in point in the quote below.
“Ten thousand dollars and a satellite phone.” Marxist Congolese rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila response when asked what’s need to start a guerilla war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent-Désiré_Kabila
This is a very revealing portion of the novel as the murky grey area between politics and criminal behavior is discussed.
“With that box of matches, with our necklace, we shall liberate this country.” –Winne Mandela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_Madikizela-Mandela
“Necklacing” was when the ANC rebels would soak a tire in gasoline, sling it around an enemies neck and light it on fire….wow, I was not aware of this. Again, the whole history there is an area that I am woefully ignorant. But it sure doesn’t sound they were messing around.
p.128 “The appetite grows as you eat” -Milla, Cameroon Striker after they beat Columbia in the World Cup quarter finals.
Hartley writes about after this happened at the start of the 90’s there was a feeling of hope in Africa. This was of course in direct conjunction with the end of the Cold War and the ‘superpower’s proxy wars” in Africa.
p.129
South Africa’s BOSS was their equivalent of our CIA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Bureau_of_State_Security
Zanzibar Chest is a magnificent book. I met Hartley briefly when we were both reporters in Mogadishu. I was immediately struck by his force of personality and inner turmoil (I asked where he was from and he told me he was a white African). ...I grabbed his book as soon as it was published.
- Vince Crawley, U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs
p.131
Denard was particularly fond of the scent of ‘ylang-ylang’ which was a plant used to make perfume.
Hartley recounts climbing a volcano in Comoros and looking down on the island: “the beauty made me catch my breath.”
p.132
Rwanda account. ‘Kidogo’ means child soldier. After arriving at the front line in Rwanda in Oct 1990 Hartley comments “This has to be the biggest story in the world.”
p.133
“No story is worth dying for.” Jonathan Clayton to Aiden in Ethiopia, March 1991.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3765582.ece
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article752604.ece
Jonathan is Hartley’s first mentor in the journalism trade and from the links above, he is still at it.
p.134
In speaking about the rebellion to overthrow the tyrant Mengistu Haile Mariam, he said they were inspired by (among other people) Orde Wingate, a British guerilla warfare expert who led the WWII invasion against the fascists in Abyssinia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate
Some interesting sounding books on the Wingate mentioned above.
p.135
Issayas Afeworki and Meles Zenawi come out on top amongst the rebels in Ethiopia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaias_Afewerki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meles_Zenawi
“wat” is a hot chile sauce eaten with pancakes of sour “injera” bread. Injera is made out of the local “teff” grain.
p.137
Gibbon writes in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that Ethiopians had “slept a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten.”
p.137-8
In Axum Ethiopia there are said to be more churches and monasteries than anywhere else in the world.
p.139
Here Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas is recounted. This story illustrates the futility of pursuing free will and one’s own personal happiness.
p.140
Hartley recounts being curios rather than shocked at initially seeing his first dead bodies initially. However later these ‘memories made [him] weep with guilt’
“But nobody rejoices at the sight of defeated men.” Hartley comments upon seeing Mengistu’s soviet trained soldiers--now POWs (20K of them) and the Tigrayans somber disposition in victory.
p.141 Hartley laments concerning the child soldiers ‘being robbed of their own childhood.’ These soldiers also served as his bodyguard. Most of them were about 15 years old.
p.142
Operation Gideon was the airlift evacuation of 15K black African jews from Addis airport. (Tigrayan rebels held off their attack to allow it). These jews had been there since 'antiquity'.
p.144
“He was a handsome boy, maybe 15.” Harltey comments on one of his guards…wow, 15 years old...
p.145
Add to book list “Africa on a shoestring.”
p.146
Carlos Mavroleon appears on the scene as he bring Hartley along whilst he loots Mengistu’s office. Google Carlos as he has a pretty interesting life. Cameraman. Here's an interesting article on his death as well as parts of his life...it's a fascinating one! To get an idea check out this 10 minute tribute on his life.
p.150
Addis Ababa means new flower. Emperor Menelik founded the city in the 19th century so that his wife could take the hot spring waters.
p.153
Entoto is the mountain above Addis Ababa. At the top there is a round church where the service is in Ge’ez (antique language of the Ehtipian Orthodx Church). Hartley fulfulls a personal promise and goes her for a blessing.
p.160
“One day honey, one day an onion. Or some say life is like a cucumber: one day it’s in your hand, the next its up your arse.” Harltey’s father on the ups and downs of life.
p.163
Hartley’s parents gave him the name in honor of the place they had fallen in love. However, Hartley’s granddad insisted on the irish spelling.
p.164
“The sun had set on an empire.” 1967 when the last British soldiers flew away in Marine helicopters in yemen.
p.165
“Aden used to be the greatest city in the world apart from Cairo, now it’s a ghost town.” Laments Omar a local Yemeni taxi driver (post '94 civil war)
p.166
Holy Koran epitath for the ancients who in their pride ignored Allah: “And they wronged themselves, so we made them as but tales, and we tore them utterly to pieces.”
p.169
Peter Davey on Sir Geoffrey Archer (former governor of Sudan, Uganda, and Somaliland): "When I talk to him I experience the feeling one gets when one walks out of a very stuffy room full of tobacco smoke into the open air and is greeted by a heavy buffeting wind, which pushes one back a step but which exhilarates and invigorates."
p.170
Comments on Davey’s and Aiden's father's initial mission to “replace barbarism with civilization.” …”in time, their ideas would change.”
p.172
Hartley’s father’s legacy of “drawf Cavendish bananas” is mentioned in Yemen.
p.181 FEEDING THE BEAST chapter. This is a metaphor for feeding their own personal carnal desires as well as the equally morally bankrupt news cycle.
Harltey falls for Khadija, a “striking Somali…and a rich educated Francophone.”
p.184 Compares his friend Julian as the European version on his Zambian friend Buchizya.
p.185
In Djibouti, they called the local weed bhang.
p.187
In Madagascar, Hartley’s first encounters the women who will haunt him, vex him and ultimately fail him (from a relationship aspect) in the years to come. He fails to say hi to her. “I considered at trip into a war zone routine stuff but lacked the courage to say hello to a beautiful woman.”
p.189 “In Africa some tribes used to believe that a camera is a box with which to capture souls.” Hartley makes this comment while talking about Lizzie, the girl who he would eventually abandon.
p.189 “Africa is bathed in light” Hartley’s counter to Africa’s image as dark… “At evening, the light had such depth that one could observe the incredible detail of things, as if the continent was made of liquid glass.” Describing light in Madagascar.
p.190 “Seeing the world in monochrome extremes was exactly the lens through which I wanted to see the world at that time and, for me, the photographers made dying look beautiful, war seem noble, and chaos appear as monumental as a heroic statue.” Hartley in explaining the allure of Lizzie at a photographer.
p.191 The French photographer Patrick was the hero of them all…once right after he was shot in the chest, “he dipped his finger in his own wounds and painted his blood group on his forehead, for the medics when they picked him up.” Wow. This is gangster. Hartley doesn’t mention his last name but I think this is him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Chauvel Here’s one of his photos:
p.193 In 1991, Somalia was sinking into an abyss. However, this tragedy was buried in the backpages of the newspapers by the Allies’ military buildup against Saddam Hussein. “For years afterward if you dialed the national code 252 all you heard was elctronic ether, ghostly distorted voices and lonely Morse signals repeated like pleas.” What a line of prose!
p.193 Mo Amin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Amin), a Kenyan photojournalist
cautions “Never go in and meet a defeated army” on whether they should go to the Somali’s unanncounced. His life was an interesting one as you will see from his bio…to include his death in an airline hijacking. Al-Jazeera actually made a documentary (Mo and Me) about his life. You can watch the trailer for it here:http://www.a24media.com/index.php/component/content/article/90-films/730-mo-and-me?directory=867 Or if you want to watch the whole documentary, you can watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=652RtYwU-XM
(I couldn’t find a place that sold the DVD…)
p. 195 Stepping off the plane and into Mogadishu, Hartley describes being hit by the ‘smell of dust and burning bone.” Hartley is initially concerned when the Somali militia arrives at the airport yelling and screaming at them…till he realized “this was just the way Somalis spoke.” The Mogadishu airport sign had been spray painted to read “WELL COME TO THE NEW AFRICA.”
p.197 Hartley describe Somali gangs blowtorching down the statues of Somalia national heroes such as Ahmed Gran and Sayyīd Muhammad `Abd Allāh al-Hasan. Click on the names for more information on these two gents. He describes the atmosphere of destruction in Mogadishu as ‘electric’, further describing it as a “dionysian orgy of destruction.”
p.198 At checkpoints, civilians would have to describe their clan family trees: The genealogies tumbled back generation after generation to a founding ancestor. It was like a DNA helix, or a fingerprint or an encyclopedia of peace treaties…” One guy who belongs to the ‘wrong’ clan is summarily shot.
p.199 The british officers who had been stationed in Somalia had called it the “Furthest Shag of the Never-Never land.”
p.200 In the 14th century, Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta described a flourishing port where hundreds of camels were killed everyday. Even after their conversion to Islam the interior clans/nomads remained wild and superstitious.
p.200 19th century explorer Sir Richard Burton described Somalia as the “land of give me something.”
Aiden on Somali’s: “The Somalis were as tough as nails, they were as exasperating as the camels they loved, the women were beautiful, and their bloody sense of clan honor entangled them in feuds of Byzantine complexity.
Somalis called Aiden a heathen or ‘gal’
p. 201 The Somalis rejected the notion of being called black and called Bantu Africans “slaves”
Whereas arbitrary colonial boundaries had lumped disparate and unrelated tribes together elsewhere in Africa, in Somalia, it scattered a people who had one common language, culture and religion.
p.201-2 Galkacaayo: “The place where the white man ran away”. This is where Sayyīd Muhammad `Abd Allāh al-Hasan defeated colonial force (something he did for 2 decades). Sayyid’s quote: “I like war. You do not. God willing, I will take many more rifles from you, but I will not take your country. I have no forts, or cultivation, no silver or gold for you to take. I have no artificers. The country is desert and of no use. There is wood and stone and many ant heaps. But all you will get from me is war, nothing else.
p.202 1969 General Sid Barre takes power and has the Somali language set down in Roman script to replace Arabic script.
p.203 1970’s he played both sides, first siding with communist bloc and later with US. Failed in attacking his neighbors and went bankrupt in the 80’s. His regime slowly imploded.
p.204 In late 1990, he demolished whole districts from his holed position in the presidential palace with artillery.
By late 1991 ‘Somalia slipped further into war and insanity’’ The west missed the boat then because we were in the middle of the Gulf War
Jonathan and Aiden christen the Somali militia leaders “warlords”…this is where we get the term we use today!
p.205 All of the Warlords fighting for power had nicknames: Sid Barre was Big Mouth; Bililiqo was the Plunderer; Mohamed Farah Aydiid was Mister Proud. Barre fled to Nigeria in 1992 where he died.
Carlos Mavroleon on warlords fighting: “When it comes down to it, this is no different from the turf wars between the Crips and the Bloods in South Central LA. Only these fuckers have heavy artillery.”
p. 206 Advent of heavy weapons and technology catapulted Somalis from smaller clan fights with knives and spears into destrctuion.
p. 207 Militia weapon of choice was Toyoya 4x4 with a 23 mm anti aircraft gun mounted to the back.
p. 208 “But without the payment of compensation, there was no question of ending the bloodshed.” Aiden on faceless killing that occurred with advanced weapons.
p. 210 Aydiid and others kill and accelerate as many deaths as possible to get foreign AID and to offer security (and get paid for it) to those workers.
p. 211 An American surgeon comments on the amount of blood needed in Feb 1992 to treats patients: “Imagine an Olympc swimming pool, full of blood, that’s how much IV we need”
p. 215 Aiden tracks down Mogadishu stringer named Mohamoud Afrah. He has written several books, one of them called: Mogadishu: a hell on earth . Following are a few links to give a little more background on the man. I can’t find anything he’s written recently. He seems to have dropped off the internet around 2006.
http://www.banadir.com/newsman_of_the_year.shtml
http://www.mudulood.com/PageMMAfraxLinks.html
p. 219 From Afrah’s diary: War, famine and disease can cause anarchy in a country, but they cannot change what people feel. Afrah on love.
p. 220 The wars have scattered the Somalis all over the globe.
p. 222 The Somalis hated most people, but especially Bantu Africans.
p. 223 Dan Eldon appears on the scene. He’s an English photojournalist who would later die at the hands of a mob in Mogadishu. Aiden gave him his first break in 1992
p. 226 Aiden in a letter to Lizzie: “Month after month and nothing seems to change, the fighting goes on and still the Somalis celebrate in their violence. It’s as if they don’t hate each other anymore, they just like killing because it’s become a habit.”
p. 227 Aiden comments on duality of Mogadishu…with the war going on, the cultural and daily life side still exists.
In the Bakaaraha market, Aiden buys an Empress Maria Theresa silver dollar. Click on the link, it’s well worth the 2 minute diversion; this coin has a very interesting story.
p. 232 Aiden mentioned a Sierra Leone man named James Jonah who tried to broker negotiations with the warring Somali factions. Unfortunately he treated them respectfully which conferred upon them legitimacy which they didn’t deserve.
p. 233 BP-5 and UNIMIX were among the prized aid items looted by the gunmen in Mogadishu. (I had no clue what these two things were until I looked them) These warlords essentially created/accelerated a famine b/c they knew the aid it would bring.
“There’s no business like aid business” -Gutali
p. 235
Hartley mentions the divide in Somalia between the farmers and the nomads (who kept camels)…during the drought years the farmers would live off their stores…this would make their farmlands battlegrounds between the different militias
p.237 After 1984 famine Europe and US have come down with “donor fatigue”
p.238 1992 famine nicknamed (by Somalis) the Time of Swollen Feet because the peasants had to trek so far to get to the feeding centers.
The nurses in the feeding camps coined a term for many of the peasants—DBT: dead by tomorrow
p.239 Vitamin A deficiency in children brought on night blindness. Then their eyeballs would turn red and rough…then melting and wasting set in, the eyes foamed with mucus, then sagged and formed ulcers that burst into welters of pus…if they survived, their sight was scarred with blemishes like opals or moonstones on the pupils.
http://www.csiro.au/images/mediaReleases/991217dweb.jpg
marasmus gave starving children the martian-headed skeletal look
http://www.drfletcherinafrica.co.uk/marasmus4.jpg
protein-deficiency produced swollen belly effect know as kwashiorkor
http://www.asnom.org/image/510_nutrition/116_327_kwashiorkor.jpg
p.241
The only way to successfully convey the tragedy of famine was to depict the death of an individual
p.242
What aiden respected about the workers in Baidoa was that they treated every famine victim as an individual…never toss them into mass graves.
p.244
The summer of 1992, Boutros-Ghali UN SEC GEN complains that the west doesn’t care about blacks in Africa …this brings dozens of charities to Baidoa overnight…”The militias could not believe their good fortune.”
These charities were too late…most of the children under the age of 5 had already died.
p.245 UN Envoy Salhoun wrote “because of the delay, we now pay the price.” The UN sacked him for this comment.
p. 247 Somali joke: What is the part of a camel that looks like a man?
The bit that pisses backwards!
This is derived from a Somali joke that the camel was the last animal created by allah. He was so tired that he stuck the animal with the head of a giraffe and skin of a lion. As it walked away God realized he’d forgotten a penis, so he took the man’s penis and stuck it on the groin pointing the wrong way.
In his travel, these Somalis welcome him because of the age-old rules of providing hospitality to strangers…something westerners have all but lost.
p.248
July 1992 Gen Imtiaz Shaheen arrived to monitor Mogadishu cease-fire. Aydiid was pissed because this undermined his ability to plunder the humanitarian aid. So the Pakistanis couldn’t carry out t heir mission. So instead they just played cricket on their end of the airfield with the brits, and other westerners.
p. 250 Aiden describes first day of UNITAF UN Task Force for OPERATION RESTORE HOPE.
This was the only western military intervention done for strictly humanitarian reason. Consisted of “battalions for peace.” It would be interested to compare these with Beebe’s idea of ‘engagement brigades.’
p.252 “Africa Wins Again—AWA” Marine captains description of what would happen after they would deliver food, only to have it taken from the peasants by the militia once the marines left.
p.253 “At least I get to do what they taught me in the foreign service and have drinks with a room full of mass murderers.” –John Fox on a cocktail party the UN threw for the warloads in Addis. Aydiid were invited to peace conferences instead of prosecuted or killed.
p. 256 Mogadishu is called “Skinnyland” by the marines and is separated physically and emotionally from their base at the airfield. Aiden describes this early time with female USArmy soldiers on the beach in bikinis with their M-16 slung over their soldiers. This would be a key image in a movie version of the book.
p. 257 MAY 1993 UNOSOM (UNISOM) takes command from the marines. SC resoluation 814 Peacekeeping troops given Chapter VII ROE: permits them to disarm militias and police cease-fire, ‘take appropriate action” to prevent resumption of violence. It’s commanded by General Cevik Bir. Real command though was by: ADM Howe (RET) as civilian special envoy and MAJ Gen Montgomery—he compared Mogadishu to Idniana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
p. 263 “Experience is an art to be studied rather than a haphazard process.” Lord Belhaven
p. 265 As Aiden retraces his father and davey’s steps 60 years later through the deserts of Arabia he recollects another quote by Belhaven:
“We carry our deserts with us through the world…and there is none more deadly than the empty heart, when the springs of hope are left behind.”
LINKS:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/09/africa-book-recommendation-zanzibar.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/following-adm-stavridis-advice-on.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chronicles-continues.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chronicles-continue.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue_10.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continues.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue_11.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue_13.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/02/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/02/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue_17.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/02/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continue_19.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/02/zanzibar-chest-chronicles-continues.html
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