Book Review: Bad Lands by Tony Wheeler

Bad Lands:

A Tourist On the Axis of Evil

by Tony Wheeler

      Some countries are like people. They find themselves living on the wrong side of the tracks. In the various cities I’ve lived in throughout my life, I’ve ventured into and out of all sides of those tracks. What I’ve found is that just because people live in the rougher sides of town, that doesn’t mean they are all rough people. In fact I’ve found the opposite: sometimes living in the bad neighborhoods brings out the best in people. I’ve certainly found that the biggest assholes I’ve ever met have been people living in the nicer neighborhoods or the suburbs. I’ve had a few nasty encounters in some rural areas of America too and in fact, almost all of the crime and violence I have encountered have been in the USA. The same can be said for countries. I’ve lived in and traveled in sixty different countries and most of them were in the Global South. I imagine Tony Wheeler, author of Bad Lands: A Tourist On the Axis of Evil would have a similar view.

Tony Wheeler writes for Lonely Planet, that omnipresent series of guidebooks you used to see in the hands of almost every backpacker and hostel dweller you ever encountered on the road twenty or thirty years ago. In this book he delves into the genre of travel narrative very much in the spirit of what Lobely Planet was all about. Now anybody who prefers to stay at home with their eyes glued to their TV sets or the internet might have the impression that life outside America is both bizarre and dangerous. The truth is that such a viewpoint is about eighty percent wrong. Wheeler visits some of these forbidden zones to find out what they are like.

Something has to be said about what Wheeler means by “badlands” and how he chose his travel destinations. When George W. Bush, the second worst president in American history, made his first State of the Union Address, he identified the countries of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as being an axis of evil, state sponsors of terrorism that sought to destroy America. Actually Iran was the only one of the three countries that was legitimately a state sponsor of terrorism, but that is neither here no there for the purposes of this book. Those three countries are included in Wheeler’s itinerary. The others he includes are nations that have low regards for human rights; they include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Cuba, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. He also includes Albania because they were a severe violator of civil liberties under the lunatic regime of Enver Hoxha not too long ago in historical terms at least. I myself have traveled in Albania, as well as Myanmar and Saudi Arabia. Note that Wheeler’s selection of destinations are not the most dangerous countries in the world, just the ones that are on the West’s shitlist with the exception of Saudi Arabia, the USA’s darling on the Arabian Peninsula.

So what did Tony Wheeler find on his journey through the badlands? Lots and lots of friendly, helpful, hospitable, and often happy people who were proud to show off their countries. There were lots of visits to tourist sights too. He visits ancient minarets in Afghanistan, castles in Albania, Buddhist temples in Myanmar, classic architecture in Cuba, museums in Iraq, beautiful mosques in Iran, Roman ruins in Libya, bizarre communist monuments in North Korea, and the ancient ruins of Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia. He relies heavily on local transportation which can be a test of one’s patience when traveling in the third world. This takes him across deserts, through mountains, along seacoasts, and up rivers in shoddy vehicles with stops along the way in small villages. The only real danger he encounters, aside from horrible driving, is a riot in Kabul which he actually is not close to when it happens, although it is bad enough that he hides out in the British embassy while it goes on. Not alll of it is good though; Cuba is decrepit and he says the government treats people there like patients in a mental institution. Saudi Arabia is just a little bit dull. Otherwise you can say that his travels are like ordinary backpacking adventures that just happen to be in countries that America considers to be enemies. The descriptions of what he sees and does are good and for anybody who likes exploring life off the beaten path, this book can resonate well, bringing back memories and making you want to hit the road once again in search of unique experiences.

Being almost twenty years old, it is interesting to see what has changed since it was written. Afghanistan is now entirely governed by the Taliban. Albania has a booming economy and a growing tourist industry; Tirana may even be the next Barcelona. Myanmar has sunk into disaster after Aung San Suu Kyi proved to be a better leader while under house arrest and the Rohingya genocide continues without any interest from the outside world. Or is that genocides aren’t really genocides when they are done by post-colonial people who aren’t white? Cuba has opened up to the rest of the world, but their economy still continues to crumble. The war in Iraq is over and tourists are coming back even though it still is not a safe country. Iran is still Iran. North Korea is still North Korea. Libya has fallen into chaos after the Arab Spring, the assassination of Gaddafi, and the resulting civil war. Saudi Arabia has gone through massive social and legal changes, finally making progress while the rest of the world turns towards authoritarianism. Some countries got better, some got worse. If Tony Wheeler were going to do this again, he probably would need to include Venezuela, Russia, Belarus, Haiti, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, and China. Now that Donald Trump has been tragically elected president a second time, it may not be long before the USA becomes a badland itself.

After finishing Bad Lands, I was reminded of Plato’s famous “Allegory Of the Cave.” Today’s troglodytes are the masses of Americans and Westerners whose perceptions are trapped and distorted in their caves made of movies, TV, news, social media, and cell phone junk. Tony Wheeler is like the guy who leaves the cave and comes back to tell them what the real world is about, but they scoff and call him crazy, going back to their lives of ignorance dominated by sports and political propaganda fed to them by the ruling classes. It’s their loss. Tony Wheeler is right. The world outside the media cave is an amazing place, much more interesting than anything you will ever see on a screen. The world is there for you and everybody else. It’s endlessly fascinating. If the things you watch on your screens are more interesting than what you do in real life, then you are doing life wrong. Go out and live. 

 

Book Review

Dark Star Safari:

Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

by Paul Theroux

     Two decades ago, the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux took an overland trip through Africa, starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa. This certainly isn’t the safest or the most comfortable means of experiencing the supposed “dark continent”, but it makes for some interesting experiences and insights. Keeping in mind that Theroux’s observations are just one point of view among many, his resulting book Dark Star provides a unique look at a region of the world that holds a permanent place off the beaten path.

While Dark Star is an easy book to read, breaking it down into its individual elements is a good way to approach its merits and examine its flaws. The first element of importance is Theroux’s sense of place. Wherever he goes, the author describes what he sees and the vibe he gets from his surroundings. Starting on the tourist trail in Egypt, he heads south through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, and South Africa. You quickly get a sense of what he appreciates and what he doesn’t. He doesn’t like sites that are swarmed with tourists, nor does he like cities with their concentrations of crime and poverty. He also doesn’t like the “death traps” as he calls public transportation which are usually over-croded minivans driven at dangerous speeds on poorly maintained roads, pockmarked with hippopotamus-sized potholes. If you’ve ever traveled in a Third World country, you will know exaclt what he is talking about.

The places that Theroux does like are usually rural, especially farm lands or jungle villages. These are the places where he sees Africans at their best, meaning Africans being Africans in the absence of corrupt and filthy cities built up on the foundations of European colonialism. Some of the book’s best passages involve descriptions of the pyramids in Sudan which are rarely seen by tourists, a boat trip across Lake Victoria, another boat trip from Malawi across the Zambezi over the border into Zimbabwe, and the pristine countrysides of Zimbabwe and South Africa. All places, whether Theroux likes them or not, are described with language that is clear, simple, and direct, making it easy to visualize what he sees.

Another element that is done to near perfection is writings about the people. Theroux talks with tour guides, people on the streets and in the villages, farmers, nuns, educators, government officials, Indian businessmen, prostitutes, authors, intellectuals, and ordinary people. Just like with the places he goes, he describes these people vividly with precision so that you feel like you quickly get to know them. But not everyone is to his liking. He gets into small argument with a fanatical Rastafarian in Ethiopia, a little ornery with physically fit young men who refuse to work, government officials who demand bribes to do their jobs, and he really gives a hard time to a young American missionary woman about the psychological damage that her evangelical ministry is doing to the local people. There is also plenty of anger directed at clueless tourists as well as NGO and charity workers who he sees as being the Westerners who do the most damage to Africa.

The third element of importance is the author, Paul Theroux himself, and his thoughts and commentaries on everything he sees. Before getting into this subject, it should be mentioned that Theroux had a purpose to his journey. In the 1960s he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching in Malawi. After getting involved with a Leftist political group, he got fired then accepted a teaching position at a college in Uganda. He wanted to return and see what results, if any, his contributions to Africa grew into. What he found was a major disappointment. The charming campuses and villages where he had lived were in ruins and instead of a thriving civilization, he saw emaciated beggars, starving children, an ignorant populace, and chronically corrupt politicians. Shops that were formerly owned by Indian immigrants were abandoned and burnt to the ground, the result of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. African people wanted to buy from shops owned by Africans, but Africans never took control over the businesses after the Indians were killed or chased away. They resorted to begging, theft, petty crime, prostitution, and laziness instead of making an effort to build better villages for themselves. Due to the hopelessness of African society, the most educated citizens fled to America or Europe instead of staying in their home countries where they were most needed.

Throughout his travels in Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi, Theroux gets increasingly bitter and cynical. He wanted to see Africans thriving and they weren’t. He directs all his wrath towards the Western charities and NGOs who he says are making the local people dependent on aid rather than learning how to run their societies for themselves. Even worse, these organizations work by bribing corrupt politicians to allow them to do work there, keeping greedy and psychotic leaders in positions of power they don’t deserve. Theroux points out that rural people who have given up on the hopeless market economy and returned to subsistence farming are the happiest and healthiest Africans he encounters. Heecomes close to advocating for a type of post-capitalist agrarian anarchism.

Some readers have criticized Theroux for his pessimistic views on contemporary Africa, but he does cite studies that support what he says. He also encounters a lot of Africans in several different countries that agree with him. To make sense of his negativity, you also have to remember that traveling overland through Africa is not exactly stress free. Anybody who has been on an extended backpacking trip anywhere in the world will tell you that traveler’s fatigue is a real thing. Theroux took a longer than average trip through one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world, got shot at by Somali bandits, stuck in the middle of nowhere when his transportation broke down, and got sick with food poisoning, magnifying his traveler’s fatigue to a outsize extent. These circumstances would make you grouchy too. But even in the darkest times, Theroux never loses his appreciation for Africa, the wildlife, the landscapes, and the people who are trying to make the best of their situations. Besides, by the time he crosses the river from Malawi into Zimbabwe, his mood really lightens up.

Dark Star is an engaging travelogue that should be read both critically and with an open mind. All the while, remember that this is Paul Theroux’s singular point of view. That doesn’t make it wrong; that just means that there are other points of view to take into account that may go against what he says even if they don’t necessarily invalidate his opinions. He saw what he saw and he expresses it well. This is raw and honest travel writing and if you haven’t been tough enough to make the same kind of journey, you’re not in a good place to be judgmental of the conclusions he draws.